Outside of the Dream
By: Starlight-x
Chapter 7: Area 24
He didn't take time to react, he simply jumped. As he fell Rain reached out, straining to catch hold of Machika's plummeting body. He grabbed for her, missed, reached again. This time he managed to catch hold of her limp hand. He pulled her close, cradling her in his arms as he concentrated on the rapidly approaching ground. This landing was going to hurt.
It did. Rain felt the impact all the way up his legs, could feel the bones break. He staggered forward a couple steps before collapsing. It was cold. Snow. He struggled to his feet, ignoring the pain. He had to keep moving.
"Hey look, it's snowing Machika. This is your first time to see snow, huh? What do you think of it?" Rain held the limp form of the girl closer. You can't die, I won't let you. Please don't leave me alone. I don't want to be alone. "Come on Machika, wake up and look."
He fell. It was so cold and the pain overwhelming. He was going to black out. Rain reached for Machika, She was so white and still, blood still seeping from her wound. He had to keep her warm. He pulled her close, trying to cover her with his body as much as he could, struggling against the blackness that was seeping across his vision. We're gonna get covered by the snow, no one will be able to find us, just you and me out here together forever. He lost track of everything then as his consciousness finally slipped away.
It was a dream, Yuca was shaking him roughly, trying to wake him up. "Come on Methuselah." Rain frowned. When had Yuca ever called him Methuselah?
"Hey Methuselah, you alive?"
Come to think of it, something was wrong with Yuca's voice, maybe he had a cold.
"Well, I guess I'll just have to start my experiments before he wakes up."
Rain's eyes flew open and he sat up.
"He wakes!"
Rain looked over to see a familiar face grinning at him. "Doctor."
"You know, you are one heavy dude. I don't think I'll try dragging you around again any time soon." The doctor gave a sigh and fished for a cigarette.
"Machika! How is she?"
"The little lady's pretty banged up, but I patched her up and I think she'll be just fine. Unfortunately she doesn't heal as quickly as you do." The doctor shot a meaningful glance at Rain's legs.
"Where is she?"
The doctor jerked a thumb. "Right over there."
Rain turned his head and saw her. Machika was laying on a makeshift bed, covered warmly with coats and blankets. He knelt down next to her, gently smoothing back her hair. "She's warm."
"She's a tad feverish." The doctor agreed. He took a drag from his cigarette. "It might be because she was laying in the snow for a while before I found you or it could be a reaction to the gunshot wound. Possibly both."
"Oh." Rain stood and looked around him. He blinked once and then stood very still.
"Thought you might recognize the place." The doctor shifted slightly. "Calvaria's headed here. I thought I should make a little salvage trip before they actually got here."
Rain turned around, ignoring him. Memories from long ago filled his mind. Pain, blood and betrayal mixed with memories of a girl with slender legs and long black hair. Freya.
She was still there, staring into the distance, her dark eyes forever unblinking. An unchanging girl captured in a prison of glittering ice. The only mar to her beauty was the blood that stained her chest and splattered patterns on her face. Rain stood staring up at her. Freya. This was where it all began. He placed the violin down gently at the foot of the ice pillar. Here, I brought it back to you. I couldn't play it as well as you could, no matter how hard I tried.
He stared up at her lost in memory until a familiar voice called him back to the present.
"Rain, there you are. I thought you might've left me again."
Turning his head Rain saw Machika standing behind him.
"Hey, you shouldn't be out of bed."
"I'm fine," Machika grinned impishly at him. "Guess you'll get to meet Yuca soon huh? I'll be here for you."
Rain tuned her out, striding forward and wrapping her in a firm hug, being careful about her shoulder, feeling her warmth, her pulse, her breath. She was alive.
"Rain, what's wrong?" Machika's small hands patted his back awkwardly.
Rain held her close a little longer before pushing back and eyeing her flushed face. "You should be in bed, you have a fever." A unfamiliar feeling welled up inside him seeing the bandages that covered various portions of her body. What was it? Guilt?
"I'm fine." Machika waved her right arm in enthusiastic circles. "I can still keep moving."
He couldn't stand watching her, seeing her like this. He could feel Freya's dead gaze burn into the his back, silently accusing him. "I'm sorry, it's my fault you're hurt."
"It's not your fault."
Rain balled his fists, listening as her soft voice acquitted him from any wrongdoing. There was a pause.
"Hey Rain, that girl, is she the one your violin belongs to?"
Freya… Rain closed his eyes. I don't want to remember, please, don't come back.
"Why won't you talk to me?" Machika's voice held frustration and pain. "Let me carry half your burden. Didn't you say we would go together? Didn't you promise that? You'll let me stay with you, won't you? "
Had he? He'd held out his hand and her blood had stained him, just like Freya's did. If she stayed with him she would end up like Freya had.
"Rain, you're an ass."
Rain turned at that unexpected comment. Machika lay crumpled on the ground. Carefully he picked her up and carried her back to her bed, watching as the doctor fussed over her and scolded her lightly. He couldn't stay with her, he couldn't let her be hurt anymore. Crouching next to her he offered a small smile. "I'll be in the next room if you need anything. Just call me, okay?"
"Rain,"
She stopped him at the door.
"Sleep next to me please."
He risked a glance over his shoulder, turning away quickly. "I don't want to catch a cold."
A tug on his coat, her hand gripping tightly, not letting him leave. "Please."
That small word mixed with the tears in her eyes decided him. Rain slid into the makeshift bed next to the small girl, facing away from her. He could feel her hand fist in the back of his coat.
She began speaking, recounting a story from her past. He listened to the words, hearing the silent plea behind them. Don't leave me. Words that echoed silently within his heart.
"It hurts being with you, because Rain you remind me of sadness."
He held her hands while she wept the tears he couldn't. Each of her sobs sent a sharp pain through him, reviving his heart a little more with each throb.
It was there, holding her hands and hiding his face behind his hair that he began to tell her the story that had begun six hundred years ago. Growing up an orphan, days filled with sunlight and laughter. Freya and Yuca. His family, his home. How it all broke to pieces, his betrayal by one closer to him than a brother. The only part he didn't consciously tell her was of the blossoming first love he'd experienced. But even that was woven through the words that spilled from his lips.
The story took several days to tell. Machika listened silently as he spoke, never interrupting or asking for more explanation then he gave.
When he finally finished he felt an almost cathartic relief, as if he'd come from a long overdue confessional. He smiled at the thought of Machika as his priest, granting him absolution.
The feeling of relief didn't last long. He could feel Yuca's presence in the back of his mind drawing ever nearer as the day to his rebirth came closer.
Kill me Rain. If you want humanity to survive then you will have to kill me again and again. Unless of course you decide you would rather just destroy everything and die with me.
"Rain? Hey, are you okay?"
Rain forced a cheerful expression as he turned to face Machika. "Good morning!"
She seemed a little taken aback by his enthusiastic greeting. "Uh, good morning."
He eyed her outfit. The coat was one he'd never seen her wear before and he mentioned the fact.
"Um, yeah, the captain put it in the bag for me. He was really nice. Oh, and his wife was too although she did scare me at first."
Her right boot was undone, she was still a child in some ways. Rain hid a smile as he knelt to fix it. "You got to make sure you fasten these right. Otherwise you'll catch a cold again and act all spoiled and weak…" He was babbling, but somehow he couldn't stop himself. If he did there would be silence and he would have to think again about everything he had told her, everything he'd tried so hard to forget.
Her hand came to rest on the top of his head and Rain froze. He peeked up at her, a cheerful expression still on his face.
"You don't have to smile all the time, not around me." She dropped to her knees in front of him, leaning against his chest. "It's been hard and painful hasn't it?"
Her words released tears he didn't know he had anymore. Tears dredged up from six hundred year old wounds. He met Machika's gaze. "Yeah."
He felt her thin arms wind around his waist and grip him tightly and he concentrated on that feeling, letting the tears fall silently.
"YAAHH!! I give up."
The shout startled both of them and they turned to see the doctor with a struggling blonde held in a headlock.
"Hey, look I caught an angel." The doctor grinned cheerfully at them.
Rain scrubbed at his face, wiping away any trace of tears left while Machika pointed at the captive accusingly. "You're…"
"Eury Evans." He lifted a hand in greeting.
"Oh, you mean you're not an angel?" The doctor managed to interject some disappointment into his voice as he looked at his captive.
"No." Eury brushed himself off with a slightly dignified air after the doctor released him.
"What are you doing here?"
"You mean here where you are? Or here in this cold, god-forsaken remains of biological laboratory?"
"Here at the laboratory." The doctor said calmly. "I know how you came to this floor, I watched you come out of the garbage shoot after all."
"Oh." Eury sighed. "Well, it's really simple actually."
"Wait, might as well be comfortable well we listen." The doctor interrupted him. He led the way back to the area were they'd set up camp and the group settled around the small fire. Rain took a seat next to Eury and watched as the young man helped himself to stew that was simmering over the flames.
"Well," Eury began again around spoonfuls of food. "Calvaria's goals are really simple. They want to control the arms market, which is why we're here. We're looking for biological weapons, or angels." He snuck a glance at Rain. "This place's a goldmine of them. If we can mass produce them countries fighting wars will pay billions to purchase them. I mean, after all that's what they were originally created for."
"Stop that!" Machika stood up, her blue eyes flashing. "Rain isn't like that. You guys better get out of here."
Rain watched her, surprised by her actions once again. She was defending him, even though Eury's words hadn't wounded him in the slightest, she was offended for him.
"Geez." Eury set his bowl down and stared at her in amazement, then a light seemed to dawn in his eyes. "Oh, I get it. You're in love with him aren't you?"
In love? With me? Rain looked at Machika in astonishment. Her face was lit up bright red and her mouth dropped open. She caught Rain's gaze and her face brightened even more in embarrassment.
"Die you stupid idiot." She slugged Eury in the face and fled, disappearing down one of the corridors that connected the room they were in.
Rain watched her leave, rising to follow her.
"Methuselah?"
He turned, glanced back at the doctor.
"Why do you let that girl follow you?" There wasn't a trace of humor in the doctor's eyes as he spoke. "I don't know how you and Yuca are connected together, but I do know that if you let that girl tag along anymore she'll end up like that girl in the ice." His gaze seemed to bore into Rain as he continued. "Isn't it time to end this pretense of being human?"
"Pretense of being human?" Rain felt a surge of frustration. His hands curled into fist involuntarily. All the years of his existence seemed to surge through his memory. How dare this man dismiss the majority of his life as a mere act. "What do you know?" He covered his face with one hand, surprised at the rush of anger that filled him.
It's Machika. With her I feel more alive, more human than I've felt for a while. Why? Tears? I thought I was done crying.
Rain turned away from both the doctor and Eury. He dragged a box over by one of the remaining support pillars and sat down. Something stirred in his consciousness, like a distant heartbeat coming rapidly nearer. He could feel it beating, throbbing, growing stronger. Yuca. I won't let you destroy this world. I won't let you hurt her. I'll protect it this time. I'll protect Machika from you…
Miles away a woman shrieked in agony as her stomach was ripped apart by the rebirth of the being know as Yuca Collabell.
Rain? Are you there?
Rain stiffened, hands folded tightly together. I'm waiting, come find me and we'll finish this finally.
Yuca….
