To Open...
"Anise, I assure you that Luke isn't a danger to anyone here, he doesn't need to return with you to the Order." Guy massaged his temples, occasionally glancing over his shoulder to his downtrodden charge. Ever since Luke revealed he was starting to receive Lorelei's memories, his behavior changed greatly.
"Yulia and Jade have collected evidence that suggests Luke is the original Project Lorelei, and if he can return with us, we can discover if it was Lorelei that was involved in the Malkuth murders." Ion felt a distinct aching in his chest as they reasoned with Guy. Separating families like this was hard, no doubt Asch had become very attached to both Luke and Guy.
"Yulia wouldn't order you to take Luke away from us… She isn't like that…" Luke slowly made his way behind Guy. He hid himself from Ion and Anise's view, effectively diverting attention from Guy to himself.
"I'll tell you anything…."
Ion and Anise were both shocked at how strange the boy was acting. He would tell them anything? What did he think they wanted to know?
"What are you going to tell them?" Guy questioned, reaching behind him and pulling Luke away from his safety. He settled the boy on his hip, but Luke's gaze was stuck on the ground.
"I'll tell them anything they want to know about Lorelei if they let me stay."
Anise audibly gasped, her hand trailing to the doll she had tied around her neck.
Ion sensed her shock, and placed his hand on her shoulder before stepping forth to confront Luke.
"Well first Luke… Can you tell me who Lorelei is?" Luke nodded solemnly, lifting his gaze from the ground to face the Impostor he bonded with before meeting his family.
"He looks like me… Exactly like me… He says he can't exist anywhere except me." Luke tucked his head onto Guy's shoulder, and the older boy leaned his cheek into the fiery mess of red hair.
Ion nodded his head, taking mental notes since he left his notepad back at the order. No doubt Anise carried one, but she was far too confused to be asking favors of. Ion understood things others didn't because of a gift from the Colonel… and he would use that gift to help Luke as much as he could.
"It sounds like he is another personality; does he ever talk to you while you are awake?" Luke shook his head, but Guy's eyes lit up.
"Sometimes he will talk through him; his eyes change colors to signify the change." Ion motioned for Guy to continue on with his own observations so that he may make a hypothesis.
"Gold. They change gold. And Luke has no memory of the events that transpire while his eyes are gold. It isn't really a separate personality, but a separate person entirely."
"Lorelei feels guilty, and he wants me to atone for his sins now." Luke's voice was flat as he spoke, even though motions were whirling within his mind. He felt sick at the memories Lorelei held, but he knew his other self felt the same way. If he wanted to atone, he had to tell them though. He had to let them know what Lorelei knew, or they would never be forgiven.
"Do you know what Lorelei is guilty of?" Guy could feel the little pinches of Luke's nails as they gripped his shirt tighter.
"Luke?" The boy was silent to both Guy and Ion calling out his name. Guy knew he could hear them, with each mention of his name, Luke would flinch.
"You wanted to know Luke… This is who we are… I am your power… I am your past… And you are redemption… The purity of the future…" The voice of Luke's other self, Lorelei, was fading rapidly, but not without consequence. Luke was fighting the merger of his two selves; his eyes were swirling green and gold in an attempt to mix.
"The Malkuth murders. Lorelei… He struck him… us… down." Guy gasped, finally realizing all the hints Luke had tried to give him.
Ion shot him a cautious glare, not to interfere with what was happening within the child.
"The murderer… I am the murderer… I… Luke was the only was to save us…" Guy pulled Luke close, but it didn't help that the internal struggle to retain Luke's personality was slowly making itself known on the outside.
"His hair is glowing Ion, that only happens during…" Anise gradually trailed off, not willing to confirm her fears.
"Tell me… What do you call yourself?" Ion retained his calm attitude, much to Guy and Anise's surprise, but Guy knew from experience that anything was possible with his strange charge.
"I want to be Luke… I want to atone for the crimes I committed, even if the memories belong to someone else… This body killed Guy's family!" The glowing of Luke's hair intensified, trailing from his roots to the tips of his hair until the entirety of his red locks was engulfed in the same gold as his eyes.
"What is going on Ion!" Anise cried out, tugging his sleeve. Ion glanced at her with a smile, before turning to face Luke once more.
"Hyperresonance, it's truly a phenomenon, isn't it? But Lorelei, aren't you pushing the seal that protects Luke's purity from Van's corruption?" Ion waited patiently while the two colors continued to mix in Luke's eyes, the seal that separated the two further degrading.
"This seal… Brings pain to purity, instead of the power of innocence… and as two halves of one being, we must be one, as Luke has accepted his past. I may endanger myself, but leaving Luke unprotected, with subconscious fears and nightmares of things he can never understand, it is a fate much crueler than that which we were born for."
'Lorelei… I don't want to disappear…' Luke found himself standing in front of his other self, pleading to end the tugging feeling at his mind.
'You will never disappear… But we live in the past and the future… In the present… there is one, one being. Let me be your power Luke, and you will be my will, I will make sure your determination is realized. You dreams… can become your reality' Luke's other self reached out his hand. It was covered in numerous cuts and burns, no doubt his own doing from secluding himself into such a desolate place
'My friends… My family… They will be safe? Your memories will never be repeated?' Luke took a step towards his other self, finally able to step past that barrier his other self had around him at all times. The white scar in under Luke's hairline began to ache in protest, the seal that had been erected by Luke's other self was nearing the end of it's short life.
'I understand now as well. Ion brings with him knowledge he didn't know he had, but Van… He hid you away, and with it he could control me. I have no will of my own, but without it, there is no power. I saved you, my own purity, and destroyed the darkness, at the cost of something important… a power Van didn't know we had.'
'No free will… Power… What am I… Lorelei?' Another step forward and Luke's inward appearance matched that on the outside, his hair was shimmering, and his eyes matched Lorelei's at the same time. Luke's other self mirrored his appearance, nodding his approval to Luke's question.
'You are what they really created in project Lorelei, not me. Luke, I thought I could protect you, but you are the only one who can save the world now… It's our duty, to save our family and friends… And it's my duty… to save you…' Luke's other self made the first move Luke had ever seen him make, closing the gap between the two.
'You desire Asch to be here? It shall be done. Accept me Luke… Even if you've forgotten… All you wish shall be done…'
The swirling in Luke's eyes stopped, before the glow died down. The hyperresonance, the symbol of Lorelei's power, still glowed brightly in Luke's hair, but his eyes had returned to green.
"Congratulations Luke. You have been reborn, but the seal has not been undone." Ion stopped his thoughts when he heard the door to Asch's tutoring room open.
"Luke is calling me… isn't he?" Asch's hair was glowing the same as Luke's, but he didn't seem as comfortable with the change as Luke was.
The Impostor wiggled out of Guy's arms, going to meet his brother at the door. Asch accepted him into his arms, and the glowing only intensified.
"You will never be a tool to me Luke, and though it hurts knowing what he made you do… You are still my brother… Stay with me… I'll keep you safe…" Asch closed his eyes, his hyperresonance dying down. Luke collapsed in his arms, but Asch remained oblivious to the other three in the room. He held his brother as close as he had the first day he arrived, stroking his hair as his glow died down.
"Ion…" Anise looked up to her Impostor, who only smiled and turned away.
"We are done here Anise, let's go." Guy and Anise both gasped in shock, but Ion could only smile.
"Wh…What do you mean? What just happened Ion!" Anise tugged the boy's sleeve, but he didn't turn to face her. Instead, he closed his eyes and recalled the exact orders he had received, that dictated the way he acted that day.
"Lorelei and Luke… They aren't two different people inside of one body. They are one person, but they way they are designed… Luke is innocence, purity and all the goodness the project originally held. Lorelei is his power, without free will he acts in response to Luke's desires. Van replaced Luke, and so Lorelei had to react to the new will, his own, by reducing what was originally Luke's mission, into Van's conquest."
"Ion… How do you know all of this?" Anise took a step back form her Impostor, but he paid no heed to her words.
"He was struck down when Lorelei couldn't bring himself to strike down Guy, releasing Lorelei from Van's grasp with his abandonment. Lorelei knew Luke was hurting from his actions, and thus, sealed himself away to save Luke the pain."
"But what about Asch? Why do they look the same?" Guy glanced nervously over his shoulder, but the two boys were still in their own world.
"I don't know of Van's intentions, I only know about Project Lorelei, and how I know… I don't know." Ion glanced back, and extended his hand for Anise to take.
"I don't know why I know, but my mission inside that envelope, it was different then yours Anise. For the first time, my mission was different." As she was in a trance, Anise slowly walked over to embrace her Impostor, disregarding the way Ion only offered his hand.
"Luke and Asch… Lorelei has connected them somehow, but I don't know. All I know is the seal separating Luke from Lorelei has broken, fonons will once again answer the call of the sacred flame."
A/N: :O :O :O
Some strange things happened here, but remember to pick out what doesn't add up! Lol, I'm practically giving away my horrid lies with every chapter, but I know it's harder to apply the concepts of a story like this when you don't have it all at once D:
P.S. My two male birds were trying to initiate mating today, they were tapping beaks and everything, but I don't have a nest box so it wouldn't have gotten far D: