The Ether Conflict
Chapter 26: Aftermath
Inside a dark void, Miho lies on the ground facing upwards. Her body stays motionless, only her chest going up and down being any indication she is still alive. All around her nothing but darkness. Suddenly, a small yellow orb of light appears a few meters away from her, floating about 1 and a half meters above the ground.
"Open your eyes," a female voice whispers from the orb and Miho slowly opens her eyes. She looks all around her and finds nothing but pitch black darkness. Her eyes seem kinda unfocused and glazed, like she is barely registering her surroundings.
"Stand up," the female voice commands and Miho slowly gets up without questioning the voice or her own actions.
"Look at me," the voice commands and Miho turns to look directly at the orb, who changes color from yellow to gold. The moment her eyes set upon the orb, it falls to the ground and shatters. A shockwave shoots outwards from the impact point and the whole scenery of this weird world changes in an instant. The ground becomes a flower field, filled with flowers of various sizes, shapes and colors. The sky changes to an azure color, with tiny clouds littering it here and there. Birds cab be heard chirping in the background and a gentle breeze passes by, gently caressing her cheeks and hair.
The moment the shockwave passes through Miho, her eyes instantly focus, regaining their usual softness and charmingness, though they soon start showing concern and fear, as she frantically starts looking around at the unknown landscape. Taking a few deep breaths to calm herself, she starts thinking what happened before fainting. She remembers the attack on the lab, the huge blue pillar of Ether energy, stopping one of Odin's projectiles and confronting Mannheim inside the lab.
Then it was the stunt she pulled, absorbing Mannheim's pure Ether in order to "recharge" herself. Remembering the pain she fell after her intestines got crushed by Mannheim's punch, she subconsciously presses her right hand against her abdomen, the pain being still fresh on her mind. But after crashing on the ground, everything seem to be a blur. She knows she transformed and defeated Mannheim, that much she knows, but the finer details still elude her.
As she looks down on the ground, lost in her thoughts, a wolf materializes besides her, its black fur and red eyes glistening under this world's sunlight. Looking up to Miho, it sits on its butt, its tail swinging slowly from left to right and vice-versa.
"Master, are you alright?" the wolf asks with a female voice, though it doesn't open its mouth to speak.
"Hmm?" Getting pulled back to reality, or whatever the place she currently finds herself is, she looks at the wolf and smiles, "I'm fine, thank you. I was just thinking, that's all," she says, before her eyes widen in shock and realization. "Y-You c-c-can speak?!" she asks nervously, taking a step backwards. Last time she heard a wolf speaking, it didn't end very well.
"Who are you?!" she asks loudly, activating her powers and materializing two black kunai knives that crackle with red electricity.
"Please Master, be at ease. I am not your enemy; I'm merely a part of your powers that take form thanks to your subconscious. I can speak thanks to your powers growing," the wolf informs her and Miho can feel the sincerity in its voice. Deactivating her powers, she sighs in relief and looks back at the wolf.
"If you are part of my powers, how come you have free will?" Miho asks out of curiosity, remembering the few instances that the wolf would appear and disappear regardless of whether she was using her powers or not.
"That, I don't know myself. It is indeed peculiar that I, a part of your powers, would have consciousness and free will. There is also one more thing," the wolf says and stands up.
"What is it?" Miho asks, looking the wolf straight in the eyes.
Starting glowing dimly, the wolf bursts into a cloud of black smoke, which quickly shapes itself into a figure, before solidifying to a humanoid body. To be more specific, the wolf has transformed to a girl that has the same body proportions as her, ruby-red eyes and long, black hair. For some weird reason, that Miho can't explain, the girl has two black wolf ears on her head and a wolf's tail sprouting from above her butt. She wears a long-sleeved black shirt, with the sleeves being slightly longer than her arms, a red pleated skirt that goes till the middle of her thighs, and black boots.
Miho looks at her with a mixture of confusion and curiosity, raising an eyebrow at her. "Wait, you are a girl?" she blurts out, before noticing the twitching ears and swinging tail she has. "And what's with the ears and tail?"
"I simply copied your body, that's why you identify me as a girl. About the ears and tail, I thought that since your subconscious gave me the form of a wolf, I should retain at least some of these characteristics," she says with a neutral expression and Miho can feel sweat forming on her forehead. "Worry not about it though. Because of your current power level, I can't take this humanoid form outside of your mindscape...for now," she finishes, raising a thumbs-up at her with the same neutral expression.
"This doesn't make it sound any better," Miho says with an awkward smile, before a question pops in her mind. "If you retain some of your wolf characteristics, does that mean you're still behaving as one?" Miho creates a tennis ball and throws it at her, and the humanoid wolf just watches the tennis ball forming an arc in the air, then rolling and stopping in front of her. Raising her head, she looks at Miho with an annoyed expression, her tail swinging slowly from left to right.
"Master, I am a wolf, not a dog," she says, feeling her pride has been hurt by this simple action.
"Oops, my bad," Miho giggles awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck. "And please, call me Miho. Master sounds a bit weird."
"As you wish Master," the wolf says, bowing a little.
Wanting to get her mind of these embarrassing actions that are making her blush, she asks the wolf a question. "That reminds me, where exactly are we?"
"We are in your mindscape, Master," the wolf answers.
"Mindscape? You mean something like a dreamworld?" she asks and the wolf nods. "Interesting."
Without a warning, the dreamworld starts developing huge cracks everywhere, a bright white light seeping out of them.
"It seems you are regaining consciousness," the wolf says as the cracks keep getting larger and the light brighter.
"Than one last thing," Miho asks quickly. "How should I call you? Since you obviously have feelings and free will, you are a person."
Pondering for a bit, the wolf turns to face Miho, her tail swinging frantically left and right. "I'd love if you would call me Kuro, Master," she says with a smile.
"OK, Kuro," are the last words Miho mouths, before everything gets white and then pitch black.
Slowly waking up, Miho groans slightly and fidgets a little. She doesn't open her eyes, not because she can't, but because she doesn't want. Her whole body hurts like hell, especially her abdomen. From what she can feel, she is lying on a comfy bed and a sheet is covering her body till her neck. If what she remembers is right and not just a really weird dream, she should be at a hospital.
I am amazed I just didn't die outright with what I did, she thinks to herself, remembering the stunt she pulled against Mannheim. Why would I do something so reckless?
She feels so exhausted she starts drifting back to sleep, though her mind refuses to go back to slumber, and the whispers she can hear doesn't make it any easier. Opening her eyes slowly, she waits for her vision to focus. She can see a white ceiling and the lighting level of the room isn't too bright, so she deducts it must be evening. Rising slowly, the whispers stop and silence ensues across the room. As she suspected, she is inside a hospital room, though she did not expect to have one only to herself. Looking around, she spots some very familiar faces looking directly at her. The leader of each Ooarai's Senshadou teams is present, along with the girls from her team and the Student Council.
"It seems our sleeping beauty has woken up," Anzu says lazily, lying on one of the couches the room has and eating a chip of dried sweet potato.
"Commander!" everyone exclaims, and near instantly crowd the bed in which she lies. Miho flinches a bit from the volume of the voices.
"The commander is fine!" Azusa exclaims and hugs Miho, unwittingly pressuring Miho on her abdomen. Despite the stabbing pain she feels, she hugs Azusa back. Seeing Miho awake, Yukari barely manages to restrain herself from jumping to hug Miho and maybe cause her more injuries.
"Welcome back commander," Erwin says with her usual cocky smile, tipping her peaked hat slightly.
"We are glad to see you again commander," Sodoko says, snapping a salute.
"You are a tough one commander," Satoko says with a grin.
"What you did was like it came straight out of a videogame," Nekota says with a smile, readjusting her glasses a bit.
"You certainly have guts, commander!" Noriko exclaims and lifts a fist in the air. Miho grimaces at the word guts, since she had to crush her own in order to win her fight against Mannheim.
"Everyone, I'm so happy you are okay," she smiles back at them. Noticing that there are some girls that are missing, she turns to face Anzu. "Where are the others?"
"They are exploring the base," Anzu says, grabbing another chip from the bag of chips she is holding, and points it at her. "I have to say, you have a really nice workplace."
"Y-Yeah...i guess," she smiles awkwardly, not very comfortable with telling the rest what job she really does. "S-So, for how long have I been unconscious?"
"About a day," Hana informs her.
"We were really worried you know! One moment you are fighting that guy and the next you both vanish inside a hole in the ceiling!" Saori says.
"Sorry to make you worry Saori," Miho smiles back at her and then a question pops in her mind. "If I was out for a whole day, where did all of you stay?" Miho asks Anzu and the others.
"A guy called "Director" offered to accommodate us here for a while, until we sort out where we will be living," Anzu says. "He seems to be a very nice person." Although Anzu says these words with a smile, she can tell that Anzu has more she wants to tell about him, but now it's not the appropriate time.
*Knock* *knock*
Hearing a knocking sound, everyone turns to look at the room's door. "Come in," Miho says and the door opens to reveal a boy with blond hair and blue eyes.
"Pardon my intrusion," he says, when he notices the room is full of people. "Should I come later?"
"No, it's fine," Miho shakes her head. "Please come in Tyler." As Tyler steps inside, everyone's eyes fall on him. Saori is already sweating bullets, her senses telling her to grab Tyler and get out of here as fast as she can.
Looking at the girls in front of him, Tyler takes a guess as to who they are. "You must be the rest of Ooarai's Senshadou team," he says with a smile. "My name is Davis Tyler, it is nice to meet you," he says and then turns to Miho. "Annabelle sent me to apologize on her behalf for the little rerouting she did during our mission."
"Its okay, don't worry about it. How are the rest?"
"Reiji is dealing with the reports and Annabelle is looking over Odysseus and waits when she will wake up," Tyler answers her. "How have you been. We heard you had quite the fight with an enemy user."
"I am fine now, though I didn't walk out of the fight unscathed," Miho says, gesturing at her bruised arms. "How is Odysseus? She had to fight 2 users at the same time if I am not wrong."
"She won, though she got a small concussion in her head as a trophy," he chuckles a little. "As for the 2 Ether users...let's just say Odysseus made a mess with them," he says in a grim tone and the girls, who had been following the conversation shiver involuntarily.
"I-I see," Miho stutters, knowing that Odysseus is capable of doing a lot of questionable things.
"Anyway, since I'm here, mind if I steal Saori for a little bit," he says out of the blue and everyone looks at him curiously. Saori can sense where this is going, feeling that it will end with her getting very embarrassed so she slowly moves towards the door.
"Excuse me Mr. Davis, but how do you know Saori and the commander?" Azusa asks with a curious tone.
"Our teams got assigned together in a couple of missions and we became friends in the end," he answers honestly. "As for Saori, we are-"
"Friends!"Saori says quickly and grabs Tyler's hand. "We are friends! So, what did you want to talk to me for?" she says with an awkward smile while slowly dragging him out of the room.
"Actually, he is her boyfriend," Mako says absent-mindedly and everyone's eyes widen as they turn to face Saori, whose cheeks are crimson from embarrassment. Silence permeates in the air for a few seconds.
"What?!" everyone yells and Azusa instantly bolts out of the room to go and inform the rest of her team, with Saori behind her in hot pursuit and still dragging Tyler with surprising ease.
"Didn't mean to do that," Mako says slowly and everyone giggles.
"Girls, do you mind if you leave us alone with Miho for a little while?" Anzu tells to the rest of the girls with a serious tone. "I need to discuss some things with her."
Hearing the tone of her voice, the girls bid farewell to Miho and wish her to become well soon, before exiting. As the door closes, the only people remaining inside are Miho and the student council.
"Before we begin, do you mind if I ask you a couple questions, president?" Miho asks, her mind being plagued by several questions that need to be answered.
"Ask away," Anzu replies, standing up from the couch, approaching Miho's bed slowly. Her bag of chips has long been emptied, so Anzu crushes the bag with her hands and disposes it at a nearby bin. Both Yuzu and Momo stand at the edges of the couch, which is located opposite from the bed in which Miho lies.
"Do the girls know about the Ether? And about my...job?" she asks slowly, her voice quivering ever so slightly.
"Yes, they do," Anzu pauses a bit, before continuing. "You don't need to worry, they know of your circumstances. Also...we had our fare share of extinguishing lives too," he informs Miho. "And you don't need to call me president any more, just Anzu is okay." Anzu manages to crack a grin at Miho. "You did save us three times after all."
"O-Ok. Second question. How did Mannheim manage to capture you? We were in Kyoto for the interview when the earthquakes struck, and we only found the carrier by chance, about 5 and a half months after the earthquakes ended?" Miho says, not sure when they did find their school carrier.
"About a week or 2 after the earthquakes, we decided to beach the carrier, since we were running low on fuel and supplies. After unloading the tanks on the beach below, to use them to scout the surrounding area, the Institute's forces attacked us out of nowhere. Long story short, some of the girls retaliated and it created a snowball effect within the teams, resulting in the deaths of some of the enemy forces. In the end, they managed to subdue us by immobilizing the tanks and capturing the carrier." Anzu sighs bitterly at the memories of the failed defense, putting her face in the open palm of her left hand and shaking her head slowly in frustration. "In the end, we failed as the student council. The occupants of the carrier were divided on groups, based on age and some where sent out of the country, while others remained in Japan, in some of the Institute's bases. Since Mannheim was looking for you, though, we managed to make a deal to make sure the occupants would remain safe."
"I-I...see," Miho says slowly, furious at herself for not being able to help her friends. Maybe if she was there, she could convince Mannheim to take her and leave her friends alone, since they wouldn't pose a threat to his plans.
"What about Yukari's parents? Are they still here?" she asks quickly.
"If I remember correctly, they were sent abroad, either in China, or down in Australia, where the Institute's presence is strong," Anzu says, a difficult expression etched on her face. "Now, before we start discussing anything serious, I need to inform you of something." Anzu coughs a couple times to clear her throat. "When some of Blackout's forces entered the lab, they found two girls from our school that had willingly undergone Serum experiments and successfully developed powers. Their classification is Class-C, which means they were injected with mesium-level Serums. In retrospect, you are Class-S, meaning your Serum was a high-level one."
"And since they are Ether users, they were assigned to the Ether Force," Miho guesses and Anzu nods back.
"They were asked if they wanted to join and when they heard you lead that department, they immediately accepted," Anzu grins. "It seems that you are still popular, even after two years of a chaotic apocalypse." Miho slightly blushes at Anzu's remark. "Yuzu will give you their files to see. These are the originals from the Institute, so the information they contain is legit."
Yuzu walks next to Miho and hands her two manila folders, marked with red letters at the exterior that say "CONFIDENTIAL". After handing them, Yuzu returns back to where she was standing and Anzu resumes talking. "They told me that the girls have to go through Infantry training first, so they aren't available for the time being." Anzu then turns to face both Momo and Yuzu. "What we discuss from this point, was never mentioned," Anzu says with a serious expression and both Momo and Yuzu nod. "Tell me Miho, during the experiments, did you know a girl named Sakura?"
The question catches Miho totally off guard, as several seconds pass before her brain can form a coherent sentence. "S-Sakura? I-I knew a girl named Sakura, but how do you know about her?" she stutters, looking at Anzu with slight apprehension.
"Her full name was Sakura Kadotani," Anzu says. At this, Miho widens her eyes as much as she can and gasps at the revelation that has hit her like a bag of bricks. "She was my sister, which went missing 13 years ago. She was pared with you during the experiments and was referred to as Subject 22." She gazes intently at Miho's eyes, her usually lazy attitude nowhere to be found, replaced by a serious expression. "You were the last one to have contact with her, before the project was terminated. I need to know what happened to her."
Miho audibly gulps, her hands starting to tremble and her forehead sweating. As she opens her mouth to speak, she knows. The truth...is going to be painful for both Anzu...and herself.
Opening her eyes slowly, Odysseus finds herself lying on something soft, gazing at a gray sky, the sun being absent for some reason. Yet, despite this absence, Odysseus can see clearly everything around her, though the colors seem to be dull and lifeless. Sitting up, she notices the ground is covered by fluffy and white snow, with the occasional leafless tree standing here and there. Looking around her, she spots two huge landmasses in the distance, floating in the air like floating islands that have come out straight out of a fairy tail. Huge black chains connect these floating landmasses with the place she is and since they are at the same height, she assumes she is on a floating island too.
"Where the fuck am I?" she asks loudly, standing up and surveying her surroundings a little bit better.
"Pipe down bitch, I'm trying to sleep here," a voice identical to Odysseus' says, and Odysseus instantly turns to face the one who spoke.
"Listen buddy, I am in-" Odysseus says before pausing, her brain stopping any cognitive function and for a good reason. Next to her, on the snowy ground lay not one, but two exact copies of her, sleeping like there is nothing wrong with this whole situation.
"What is going on?" Odysseus blurts out, her mind finally having processed what she is seeing in front of her.
"I told you to shut up!" one of the copies growls in frustration, sitting up and looking at Odysseus. Several seconds pass, before the copy raises both eyebrows at Odysseus and asks. "Who the fuck are you and why you look like me."
"That's what I'd like to know to," Odysseus answers back with confusion written all over her face.
"Both of you, please be silent for a second," the last copy says at them, already standing up and thinking of an explanation for their current predicament. After several minutes of silence and several awkward glances between Odysseus and the first copy, the second copy finally speaks. "I think I know why we all look alike," she says slowly with a serious expression.
"You mean it?!" Odysseus says excitedly.
"About fucking time," the first copy grumbles, finally standing up and dusting off any snow that might have been stuck on her clothes.
"We are all Odysseus," the second copy says and both Odysseus and the first copy look at her with a blank face.
"If I had a table in front of me, I'd flip it," the first copy says with an emotionless tone. "But sadly, I don't."
"We kinda figured that out," Odysseus says, smiling awkwardly at the second copy. "What we want to know, is the reason for it."
"You see, our mind is broken enough so that based on the external stimuli, we will behave differently. Normally, we are behaving all cheerful and childishly, like you," she points at Odysseus, who listens to the second copy's lecture with great interest. "When things start to get taxing, mentally, we start behaving like me, being quiet and calculating." This time, she points at herself. "And when things go beyond a certain limit, we literally lose any scraps of sanity we have-"
"And go all creepy slasher mode like her," Odysseus says and points at the first copy.
"Hey, I'm not a creepy slasher!" the first copy angrily shakes a fist at Odysseus, before laughing like a deranged individual on a killing spree.
"Suuure. I am calling you crazy Odysseus from now on!" Odysseus says excitedly.
"Then I'm calling you childish Odysseus!" crazy Odysseus says angrily, pinching and pulling Odysseus cheeks.
"Muu, I prefer playful," Odysseus pouts in a cute way, which causes crazy Odysseus to get even angrier at her...self, I guess.
"And I'll be smart Odysseus. Anyway. As you can tell, we are the same person, but because of our mind's fragmented nature," she points at some large, black cracks in the sky and then at the chained landmasses, "we represent one of the three behavioral patterns we may adopt, depending on our current mental state," she finishes and both crazy and playful Odysseus look at her in understanding.
"So what you say is that we are currently inside our mindscape, which reflects our mental stability," playful Odysseus says slowly.
"Which means, since our mind is mentally unstable and fragmented, so is our mental projection," crazy Odysseus thinks aloud and smart Odysseus nods. "It's like playing house, with only one kid doing every role at the same time."
"You are correct. Though if that theory is correct, we should be able to share thoughts," smart Odysseus suggests and playful Odysseus starts jumping up and down.
"Oh, oh, I'll think of something and you'll tell me what I thought," she says with a sly smile, before thinking of something. Near instantaneously, both crazy and smart Odysseus' faces become crimson red from embarrassment.
"H-H-Have you no shame?!" crazy Odysseus yells at playful Odysseus, who only grins in response. "Y-You pervert!"
"S-She is right, you know. Doing something like that to someone," smart Odysseus adds, hugging her body rightly and shivering a bit.
"Oh come on, I'm sure Annabelle would love it~" she says seductively, a lewd grin appearing on her face. "Also, if we are the same person, wouldn't we have the same desires?"
"Unfortunately no. It has to do with our fragmented mind. Each time we change behavior, our desires and goals change too," smart Odysseus answers playful Odysseus' question.
"Hey, I have a question for both of you," crazy Odysseus says and both smart and playful Odysseus turn to face her. "Has anyone wondered why our mindscape has this shape? There are three landmasses that float over an abyss, they are covered in snow with leafless trees and there are weird cylinder-like objects sticking out of the ground," she gestures at the white cylinders that are barely visible.
"It is because this mindscape is influenced from your mental state and memories," a female voice answers and all three Odysseus turn to face the originator of the voice.
Approaching slowly is a female figure that has the same body proportions as them, wears an icy-blue tunic and a dark blue miniskirt. She also wears a white pantyhose and black boots. On top of the tunic, she wears a hooded cloak of the same color, the hood covering her head and trying to contain her long white hair that spill out of it from the left side and cascade till her abdomen. Her violet eyes scan each and every one of the three girls, though they seem like they contain no life inside them. In her right hand rests a white scythe, the blade somehow glistening despite the surroundings' dull colors.
"Who are you?" crazy Odysseus asks, taking a step forwards.
She must be the Reaper that accompany us when we activate our powers, smart Odysseus thinks when she sees the scythe and the other two get her thought instantly.
This way of talking is fun! playful Odysseus thinks and the other two get her thought.
"I am a part of your power, given form and free will through your subconscious," the Reaper says with her emotionless voice. "I have this humanoid body, for which I used your own body proportions, because your power has increased."
"Does this mean you can take this form on the physical world too?" smart Odysseus asks.
"Unfortunately no. Your power isn't enough for such level of manipulation," the Reaper informs.
"So much for a level-up," playful Odysseus murmurs in annoyance.
"Regarding this mindscape, what can you tell us?" crazy Odysseus asks.
"The three landmasses that are chained together, represent what remains of your sanity. The abyss in which they float, is your mind that has already been lost due to traumatic events," she informs them and the three girls look at each other with concerned expressions. "There are also more landmasses, closer to the abyss."
"More?" playful Odysseus asks and the Reaper nods.
"These, are memories that your mind has repressed, because they threatened to completely destroy your mind and your sanity."
"Can we somehow recover them?" smart Odysseus asks with a serious expression.
"I can use my power to forcefully make them resurface, but the shock of so many memories surfacing at once, could lead to the complete destruction of the three main landmasses...and the last scraps of sanity you hold," she warns the girls.
"Screw this! If our fucking battle with that bastard and his puppets was any indication, we could probably blow the whole base to nothing, if we go insane again!" crazy Odysseus yells to the other two.
"How ironic. The crazy one doesn't want to go insane," playful Odysseus laughs, earning an embarrassed expression from her.
"D-Don't get me wrong, I couldn't care less for the people in there, but it would most likely kill Annabelle."
"Can't argue with that."
"I say we take the risk," smart Odysseus says to the other two. "As you said, if we turn insane, we risk of blowing up everything in the base, but if we don't resurface the memories now, we risk resurfacing them during battle and potentially hurting our friends and allies."
"Fine!" crazy Odysseus sighs in defeat, throwing both arms in the air. "If anything goes wrong, I'm blaming you for it," she says then facepalms at the absurdity of her comment, since she will be blaming herself technically.
"Whatever, I just want to get out of here," playful Odysseus comments.
"As you wish, Master," the Reaper says, before raising her scythe in the air. Everything starts shaking and the three Odysseus grab their heads as an unbearable pain stabs through them.
"I forgot to mention that this is a very painful process," the Reaper says with a neutral expression, unfazed by her master's suffering. Smaller floating islands start rising from below the main landmasses and when they reach about a hundred meters higher than them, black chains shoot at the landmasses and Lodge themselves in the ground, throwing huge chunks of it everywhere. As playful Odysseus tries to look around with her blurry vision, she sees that each floating island has a different "biome" of shorts in it. One has a destroyed army base in a snowy plain, another has a big underground arena of sorts, filled with different stasis cells and machinery and another has a flaming building that looks like an orphanage.
As she falls to the ground, she feels like her head is going to be ripped in half and her brain will just explode outwards. Her vision starts blackening and she spots the Reaper saying something, though she can't hear her voice, since her head is pounding like crazy. Closing her eyes, she loses consciousness for just a moment, which is enough for her to regain consciousness in the real world.
Snapping her eyes wide open, Odysseus immediately sits up on the bed and holds her bandaged head as tightly as she can, feeling it will explode at any given moment. "Fuck, it hurts so much!" she cries out loudly, squeezing shut her already filled with tears of agonizing pain eyes, and the tears flow on her cheeks and finally fall on the sheet that is covering her body.
"Odysseus, what is wrong?!" Annabelle asks quickly in concern, standing up from the chair she was sitting and dashing at the side of Odysseus.
"It hurts! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!" she continues to cry, her fingers pressing the top of her head harder and harder. In fact she presses so hard that her fingernails start digging in the flesh and blood starts running out of the self-inflicted cuts. Seeing this, Annabelle grabs both of Odysseus' hands and tries to pry them off of her head.
"Reiji, go get a nurse now!" she yells at Reiji, who is already rushing out of the room, mere minutes after having arrived to see how his commander is.
"Make it stop!" Odysseus shouts at the top of her lungs, the pain starting to overload her brain. Using sheer strength alone, she manages to grab Annabelle's forearms and squeezes them as hard as she can. Annabelle can feel her blood flow to her arms being stopped and a warm liquid running on them, but her mind focuses on calming Odysseus.
"Odysseus, tell me what is wrong?!" she shouts, but Odysseus keeps screaming from the pain.
"It hurts, it hurts so much! Someone make it stop!" she keeps screaming, unaware of Annabelle.
"God dammit Elpida, tell me what is wrong!" she shouts at the top of her lungs, which seems to grab Odysseus' attention, because she turns to face Annabelle and snaps her eyes wide open, which causes Annabelle to freeze in place when she looks at them. They are quivering not from pain, but from fear and terror.
"I remember...Annabelle," she whispers in an equally quivering voice, looking directly at Annabelle's eyes. "I remember everything." Her grip on Annabelle's arms start weakening as the pain slowly subsides and Annabelle can feel the warmth of blood circulating on her hands once more. "The horrors I have seen." Her hands start trembling and she covers her face with her palms. "The horrors that I have committed." Fearing she might start screaming again, Annabelle gently pulls her in a tight embrace, placing her head in her chest.
"Shh, everything is fine now," she whispers in a soothing voice, gently caressing Odysseus' blonde hair. "You are safe here. No one will hurt you."
"T-The things I have seen...a-and done, oh God," Odysseus stutters and hugs Annabelle tightly. "I remember everything." Odysseus starts trembling, so Annabelle pulls her even closer to her body.
"Everything will be fine Elpida. You did nothing wrong," Annabelle reassures her with a smile, trying to withhold her own tears of sadness from running out of her eyes.
"Hey, I brought a nurse," Reiji says quickly, entering the room with a nurse and immediately closing the door behind him. "There are a lot of people outside who want to know what's happening. Her screams could be heard from the end of the hallway," he informs Annabelle and then notices two huge hand-shaped bruises covered with blood on her forearms. "What happened to your arms?"
"Nothing, Odysseus was just a little clingy," she sighs, still hugging her. "At least she calmed down," she says, looking at Odysseus who is silently crying.
"So, what happened?" Reiji asks, as the nurse goes to check Odysseus' self-inflicted wounds and Annabelle's arms.
"She started screaming about remembering everything and things she had seen and done," Annabelle says with a sad expression and Reiji looks at her with an alarmed expression.
"It's like last time," he says slowly and Annabelle nods.
"Yeah. At least this time there wasn't any bloodshed." Hearing this, the nurse tenses up, though she continues checking the injuries Odysseus has.
"What am I going to do with you?" Annabelle says with a sad expression, gazing at Odysseus who seems to have gone back to sleep, though she still clings on Annabelle like a scared child.
Inside the Director's office, he, Teruo and Misako are all looking at a tablet. Its screen is full of text that scrolls at a moderately slow speed and all three of them look intently at it.
"How could they come in possession of this information?" Misako asks slowly, looking at the scrolling text with a serious expression.
"It doesn't matter how they obtained them," Teruo says with a booming voice. "What matters is that they have in their possession sensitive data that could ruin Blackout's plans."
"Ah, yes, Blackout. The PMC that provided Black Lotus with children," a man with short blond hair and blue eyes, says. He wears a brown shirt, gray pants and a white lab coat.
"Who are you?! Guards!" Misako shouts and the soldiers that guard the Director's office enter, their weapons already raised. The man lazily flicks his right wrist and both guards fall to the ground unconscious. Misako instantly tenses at this and even Teruo looks alarmed.
"Where are my manners? I'm Dr. Edward Mannheim, lead scientist of the Starfall project. Though I'm sure you already know about me," he smirks at the three people in front of him.
"What do you want Mannheim?" the Director asks with a neutral expression.
"Just checking out the base," he says, looking all around the room. "I have to say, your equipment is a lot less advanced than the Institute's, but I suppose it will have to suffice for now." Taking a small piece of paper from one of his lab coat's pockets, he puts it in the Director's desk. "This will be the equipment I'll need for the lab in the Ether Force's base."
"How do you know about that?!" Misako says loudly. "This is classified information!"
"I know a lot of things I shouldn't know, Miss Ariyoshi Misako." With this, Mannheim vanishes into thin air, before Misako can even ask him how he knows her name.
"Misako, notify the medical personnel to come and pick the unconscious soldiers," the Director says and Misako complies.
"Do you know Mannheim?" Teruo asks the Director.
"I had seen him once, when I met the board of directors of Black Lotus," he says. "But it matters not now. Have you found the soldiers that viewed this information?"
"Unfortunately no. Despite the bombardment from Odin, they seem to have escaped the city," Teruo reports.
"I see," the Director responds. Ejecting a small SD card from the tablet, the scrolling text vanishes. "We might have to speed up our plans." Crashing the small SD card with his right hand, he throws the shattered card at a bin under his desk.
"Should I get in contact with our contacts in America?" Teruo asks.
"Yes. Tell them to expect a package in one month."
"Wouldn't it be a waste though? Both of them are really powerful."
We might not be able to control them. And sacrifices have to be made, if we want to unite Japan. We'll try the diplomatic route first. If this doesn't work, we will resort to Plan B," the Director says and Teruo nods in response.
A/N: Finally, the chapter has been completed and there are another bunch of questions that need to be answered. Anyway, you might have to wait for a little bit till the story progresses, since I want to rewrite chapters 6 through 15. The OC submission thing for the Ether Lords will be open till then, so if you have any ideas, or are bored and don't know what to do, send one. Anyway, as always, suggestions, questions, corrections, reviews or PMs are greatly appreciated. Also, English isn't my native tongue, so expect some grammatical errors here and there. If you found the story interesting and had a great time, favorite and follow. Have a nice day/night and until the next chapter, stay safe!