Sigh. well, here i am again. I sure that you guys did miss me did you? I would feel bad to have people waiting for me. Right?

AnyWho, here's chapter 30. The next one is the end and i am so excited! The poll was most confusing, sooo i flipped a coin and chosen the winner! So, yea, if you are good, you should have already guessed the winner. Ok, i lied. Guess which part i lied?

Big thanks goes again to Ban 3 for the awesome work he does.

Before i leave you to rush through my work(because that how i suspect all my readers do their reading; Im a snail...), I would like to give a shout-out to a very innovative but highly under-rated story by The Story Sphere. His work is quite new and i must say, it really feel that he needs some more readers. Its name? The Scientific Revolution

/s/8304204/1/ Copy paste the little set of number next to your thingy. You know, how this works.

Well, then, i shall not hold you no longer. Enjoy.

Sea of souls

Tapestry of memories

Constructors weave

"So let me get this straight. You are a being living in a another dimension connected to a crystal which is connected to Dutch's hand. He found the crystal and along the way created you. Because of what happened afterwards, you fell in love with him, or so you say, and now you are hiding out of guilt." Nora summarized, her finger creating different coloured dots to help her note down what she said. How could she create dots? Well they were not exactly in reality were they?

"Ah...that's right." Vale answered, looking forlorn.

"That's kinda stupid don't you think?" Nora announced idly as she toyed with the dots.

Teary-eyed, Vale looked up at the fragment. "You think so?"

Nora nodded. "Well, what you are doing right now would be classified as running away. That always results in failure to whatever you are doing. So yeah, kinda stupid."

Vale sniffled. "I...I thought it would be the right thing to do for h-him."

Nora gave the young entity a pat on the head. "Well now you know it's not the right thing to do, the best thing you can do to make up for it is to go back and confront it. You are his daughter, you can do it."

Vale just teared at her sentence. "B...but w-we aren't even r-related."

"That does not matter," The fragment twirled a stray lock of hair in thought. "In fact, that makes this easier for you. You have chosen the Kotozaki name therefore you have standards to live up to. First things first, do you see Dutch as a father? Or as a lover?" Nora asked, her question boring straight to the matter.

Vale shook her head as her tears fell in a shower, pattering on the vague floor. "I don't know! I really don't... I'm the worst."

The sight and words made Nora heave a deep sigh. She walked up to the crying entity and gave her a hug. "Perhaps you need to see his past to understand him better. You aren't the worst in his life."

Vale kept silent.

Nora opened a tear in the space around them and performed a sweeping gesture with a svelte hand. "It's time to really see the worst in his life."

With that statement, the tear closed around them.

Biotic lab

12 hours after initiation

Dutch panted as he lay on the stretcher. Beside him, the same doctor from before pressed a button on the lift control panel. The door closed with a whirring hiss.

"Impressive, very impressive. You have absorbed the nanobots beautifully, and with no reaction from your biological defense system. The higher-ups were right after all." The doctor mused as he looked at a data screen connected to the stretcher.

"What am I?" Dutch croaked.

The doctor grinned snidely. "The first in a hopefully fruitful project. I could go into specifics and bore you, but we really don't have much time. To make matters short and simple, you, my wonderful subject, are the world's first biological computer."

"Bullshit." Dutch wheezed. He struggled against his restraints, finally deciding to give the doctor the bird.

His counterpart laughed. "I assure you, I am not lying. The fact that you are not foaming at the mouth proves it. If you had rejected the nanobots, not only would most of the bones in your body be broken from the binding of nerves and nanobots, but your brain would be nothing more than a pile of meat as well."

"Assuming that what you say is true, where are we going then?" Dutch continued.

The doctor allowed his snide grin to again. "We are going to test the computer ability to receive information. You are going to receive a gift."

The doors opened, revealing a massive room. The room had monitors everywhere, in fact, surrounding the entirety of the room. An army of people worked the equipment in the room, tapping away at keyboards and adjusting antennae.

A harried technician approached the doctor. "It's ready but we are not sure how long the matrix can hold itself. It's best if we do it now."

The doctor nodded. "Very well, prepare the transmission."

A pair of burly guards wheeled out the stretcher, it's occupant too tired to even move. Guiding the wheeled bed to the center of the room, they grunted at the exertion before leaving hurriedly.

The doctor sidled over to Dutch, smiling at the pair of defiant eyes staring back to him. He placed his hand over Dutch eyes, forcing his eye lids shut. "My good sir, you do not need to see the next part. But know this, we are about to grant you keys of unimaginable power. Your sacrifices will not be in vain."

Silence clouded the air. An atmosphere of anticipation hung heavy around the room.

"Do it."

Memory end

Nora hissed in anger as she looked at the last images of the memory. "So that's how they gave him that. Bastards."

Vale looked at the angry fragment. "Why?"

Nora sighed before reaching out with her hand. A series of numbers appeared around her hand, constantly changing and spiraling around.

"These numbers were imprinted into Dutch's memory. I don't know what they are but I do know that that are related to what Dutch himself calls the keys to the destruction of society. You may have heard him say that a couple of times." Nora said as she waved away the number, which dissipated as though fog caught in the morning sun.

Vale nodded, remembering that Dutch had actually said those very words a couple of hours ago. Something in her words made her ask. "You don't know what's in his memories?"

Nora nodded. "Regretfully, no. I am but a guardian, not privy to what I am watching over. Well, it seems that this was how they gave him the keys. Transmission directly into his brain. The side effects were... regrettable." Her mouth twisted as if saying those words brought back a particularly painful memory.

She opened another tear. "Come, let me show you. This one is my own memory. It should offer a better perspective."

Nora's memory

7 days later

Nora slapped a man in the face, the sound reverberated around the narrow passage.

"We don't care what he looks like, we just want to see him now!" She shouted at the guard.

The guard turned his head back impassively and glared at the girl. "Miss, all I am told is that I am not to allow anyone in. He looks bad and the doctor believes it will do you no good to see his state." He stuck out his hand to push the girl away, defiant.

Another hand reached out from behind the girl and grabbed the guard's hand. It proceeded to squeeze the hand, the guard let out a cry of pain as his hand was crushed to the point where the crunch of bone on bone filled the air between himself and the femme before him.

"Painful, ain't it? Good to know that our 'gifts' work against you people. Now let the lady get what she wants, she can be quite forceful, even without me." Aden let his grim warning hang between them as he twisted the guard's hand, smiling darkly. The guard collapsed as his shoulders followed the direction of his hand.

"Those gifts are the results of years of research. The one you are currently using to apply pressure to the guard is the product of a serum that allows you to have a denser muscle structure. In layman's terms, you are stronger without looking stronger. Now please, release the man. Working hands are worth more to us." The doctor from before appeared behind them. Vale realized he was right, Aden's former almost bulky frame had been replaced with a smooth, almost lanky build.

Aden held on for a few more seconds before releasing the guard. The man gasped as he pulled his hand back, groaning from the pain.

The doctor simply stepped around him as he headed to the door the guard was standing in front of. As he unlocked the electronic lock of the door, he turned to the two teenagers staring at him. "If you so wish to see your compatriot, follow me. I warn you though, you will be shocked."

The duo ignored the warning. Without a word, they entered the open door, eager and afraid at the same time over what they would find.

Inside, lying comatose in a cramped, threadbare bed, Dutch slept.

"Dutch!" Nora exclaimed as she bolted to his side. The sleeping boy made no reaction to the noise around him. Fearfully, Nora touched his hand. Again, she received no reaction from him.

"What happened?" She whispered as Aden watched over them like a hawk, his eyes trained on the one that was to blame for Dutch's condition. His hand balled up in a fist as he awaited the answer.

"His mind had trouble coping with the magnitude of serums that we administered to him. As of this current moment, he is in a state of brain-death. He does not respond to any kind of stimulation. He is nothing more than a breathing machine, all traces of intelligence have been destroyed." The doctor's mocking smirk once again crept across his features.

"In fact, you being here make my job easier. The higher ups consider your friend's current condition a liability to the program. They have asked fo me to rectify this issue as soon as possible. Since he's your fellow, I am asking if you have any objections." The doctor continued as he picked up a syringe on the table next to him.

"No. Never. He is in there." Nora growled, murder emblazoned upon her face. The doctor sighed.

"He is nothing more than a shell. Why should we prolong his torture?"

Aden chuckled. "A shell? You don't know him that well do you? Dutch here once faked sleeping extremely well so that he could listen in on conversations between other people. I'm sure right now, he is simply waiting for us to shake him."

The doctor shook his head. "It does not matter. If he is not functioning, he is a liability to the program. He will be rectified, with or without your assent."

A small dart gun appeared from under his sleeve. A subtle "Whit! Whit!" cut through the air, both of the active teenagers collapsed bonelessly onto the floor, the poison working its effects on their bodies and knocking out their nervous systems.

"Really now, youth these days." The doctor quipped as he made his way to the bed and its occupant. As he passed Nora's immobile body, he could not resist and lightly brushed his hand against her chest.

A pair of sneering eyes met defiant ones.

"Oh yes, quite delightful indeed. A pity I will make you forget it all." He said, unaware of the person now standing behind him.

A hand, built just as streamlined as Aden, grabbed the back of his head.

"I did say there would be hell to pay." Dutch said as he rammed the doctor into the wall. The white coated man gasped as he struck the concrete, the syringe dropping, but remaining whole.

"You were really faking all along?" The doctor swore.

Dutch smiled. "I just woke up. So tell me, nutcase, left hand or right?"

The doctor said nothing. Instead, he grabbed the syringe next to him, and threw it at Dutch as hard as he could.

Dutch saw the projectile approach him in slow motion, as if some sort of movie. He saw himself grab the syringe and not trusting himself to redirect the object in his hand quickly, spun around while flipping it and sent it back where it came from.

The needle embedded itself in the doctor's neck. Crying out in animalistic fear, he desperately tried to claw off the syringe as the lethal chemicals pumped into his neck. It was to no avail as he suddenly seized up and stopped moving.

A pair of guards rushed in. Dutch grinned as he put his hands up.

"Just a medical accident." He remarked snidely.

Memory end

Vale blinked.

"I thought you said the side effects were regrettable?" She said, puzzled. Dutch seemed fine to her.

Nora sighed. "Perhaps you were given the wrong impression. This was after all the end of the wait. He was in this state for a week. A whole week of asking and not knowing what had happened to your friend. Imagine that."

Vale nodded slowly. She could understand where Nora's sentiment was coming from. She had not experienced what Nora had described but she could at least wrap her head around the idea and know the implications.

"It's good that you understand. Because all this made the man that we...no sorry, you love." Nora said as she stumbled over her words.

Vale turned to her, agape with surprise as Nora pulled out another tear to engulf them.

2 years later

Stalingrad

River Voga

"It is a pleasure to do business with you." Nora said as she threw the last of the pieces of paper into the fire, the flames consuming them within seconds.

The informant nodded before leaving. A heave from Aden sent a weight over the edge as the floating platform around them started to sink, the pile of ashes still quietly smoldering, smoke curling up and giving the lights of the city behind them a hazy look.

The trio walked off the platform onto dry land as the platform started to sink faster. A hiss of escaping air made clear how fast the water was entering the platform.

The three watched the platform sink into the water before turning around and heading back to the car they had parked nearby.

"I can't believe they actually believed us." Dutch said as he entered the side seat.

Nora pulled off the wig she wore and shook out her brunette hair. "A young pretty heiress in Russia with two young bodyguards that looked like they are infuriated with her asking for certain documents to be burned for a price? Actually believable in these parts."

"Not to mention that you grew older faster thanks to our 'gifts'. Seriously, for a 15 year old, you look 18 to 19 man." Aden said as he started the car. The engine rumbled as he worked the vehicle, driving out of the dock and into the city streets.

Nora grinned. "I look legal. And I look this way for the next 5 years. So you two boys have a lot of time to work with me in this look."

Both of her male companions kept silent. Nora laughed at the reactions to her statement.

"Awww, don't be so gentleman. If I really want you to do me, I would have jumped you in base. Both of you are way more delectable and lovely at home." She continued.

Now both males tried their best to look outside the window and ignore the female teenager sprouting statements that they certainly did not need to hear at this time.

"Dutch, black car, two car lengths. See that?" Aden said as he glanced at the rearview mirror.

"Got it." Dutch said as his eyes focused in on the vehicle.

"That has been following us since we moved out of the dock."

Dutch tried to catch a glimpse of the occupants. "Blacked out windows. Whoever is inside doesn't want any one seeing in."

Aden nodded as he drove the vehicle through the city. A police officer waved them through once he saw the sticker on their windshield, ignoring the underage drivers in it. "Do you think they brought Nora's story and want her supposed money? Or they are actually on to us and know we are covering tracks for Command?"

Dutch reached under his car seat and pulled out a CX4 carbine. "Either way, they are following us. Watch for any surprises. Just because we bribed the police doesn't mean we got a free pass here." The young soldier allowed the clack of the magazine slotting into the rifle pistol grip to reinforce his warning. He looked under the seat for the other components he stashed in there.

Nora pouted. "Oi, I'm not an invisible princess here. Stop thinking for yourselves."

Dutch chuckled as he attached a C79 optical sight on his carbine. The car bounced as a wheel caught in a pothole. "And what do you wish, princess?"

Nora returned the cheeky remark with a light slap to the back of the head. "Lose them. We stop to fight and they will be over us like an army of ants. That's how they work."

That was when the engine exploded.

...

Initiating operator revival

...

Dutch woke up in the wreck of the car.

Looking around him, he figured that he was out for only a couple of seconds. The distant sound of Russian being spoken, reminded him of where he was.

And it was getting closer.

Dutch turned around to check his companions. Both of them seem to be fine, the only injuries they had being gashes on their skin, nothing worse. Exhaust fumes and smoke gave the air in the twisted metal cage an acrid quality.

He turned to look in front. The engine block was a wreck, a pile of mangled metal that belonged in a scrapyard. The car and inertia had seemingly colluded in wrapping the doomed vehicle around a pole. Russian text blocked the entire front of the windscreen.

It was at this point that a gun appeared in his face through the broken window.

Dutch turned to see a man, holding an AK47, gesturing for him to get out. "Out out." He said in heavily accented English.

Dutch complied. With a sigh, he tried to open the door but the handle broke off in his hand. Looking at the detached handle, Dutch face-palmed. Now how was he going to get out?

With a shrug, he pointed at the useless door blocking his way. The man blinked.

"Out." He said again, not caring that the door was stuck.

Dutch nodded. He signaled the man to step back. Taking his rifle out of Dutch's face, the man stepped back, awaiting his captive's unceremonious exit from the vehicle.

Dutch reached down and grabbed his carbine. Looking up, he noted that the man was waiting for him casually, his rifle slung over his back. Apparently he assumed that Dutch had nothing to attack him with in his trapped position.

'Amateur.' Dutch snorted before bringing up his carbine.

The Russian man eyes widened as he realized his mistake too late.

Bark!

The pistol sized bullet was small compared to the man's rifle sized rounds in his AK. But the bullet was still powerful enough to penetrate his skull and destroy his brain.

The man dropped like a bag of bricks. The shot did not go unnoticed by his compatriots and a flurry of shots rattled out as they sprayed the car with bullets. Luckily, Nora had specifically chosen this car for it's armored sides and none got through.

Dutch reached under his seat and grabbed the helmet stashed there. As he put it on,he glanced to his partners. Both were still fine. Smiling thankfully, he grabbed the edge of the broken window of the side seat door and heaved himself through.

That brought another fusillade as the attackers fired their rifles at him again. While rounds pinged around him, Dutch got himself off the ground and ran to cover at the front of the car.

He peeked over the stop sign. His attackers were arrayed in front of him by their own vehicle, firing away at their target vehicle. A lucky bullet managed to strike the top of his helmet and Dutch fell back.

Groaning more from the pain of falling back than the actual hit, Dutch pressed himself against the engine.

He had a carbine firing pistol sized bullets with a scope. His attackers had numbers and the firepower to back them up. AK bullets were man stoppers and he definitely wouldn't want to get hit by them.

Dutch grinned. He really pitied those attackers.

Nora moaned as she woke up.

She blinked, looking around groggily. What had happened?

Oh yeah, the engine exploded.

Opening her side door and stumbling out, she leaned against the car, her brunette hair clinging to her bloody face. She took out a pocket mirror from her jacket and checked her appearance.

She was a mess. Scrunching her face in disgust, she tried to clean what little she could.

"Your face looks fine. You been in and out of a while." Aden teased as he peered under the car.

"Where's Dutch?" She asked.

"Gathering information."

Nora registered the sound of shots being fired and screaming. Reaching back into the car, she grabbed the Makarov pistol inside and made her way to the sound of the shots.

When she got there, she saw a sight that she never expected. Dutch stood over a man, holding his carbine and smiling like it was a normal occurrence. The man leaned against a car, blood flowing from numerous wounds. Nora noted with a hint of pride that all the dead bodies had a single headshot to the head.

Now that was accuracy.

"Come on, it's not so difficult. Just say the name." Dutch said cheerfully as if they were having some sort of friendly chat.

The man cursed in Russian.

Dutch sighed. He jerked his carbine down and fired two shots into the man's leg. The man cried out in pain as he grasped his latest wound.

"Again?" Dutch asked.

The man spoke, crying from the pain that Dutch put him through. Dutch smiled and put a bullet in his head.

Nora watched the whole scene with disgust. Torture, while easy to conduct, was repulsive to her. Hiding her feelings, she spoke instead. "So what did he say?"

Dutch looked up and smiled wider when he saw who it was. "A lot of things. I must say, I'm pretty impressed by his endurance. He actually lasted through one magazine."

"So it was fun?" Nora continued, letting a little of her feeling on the matter leak out in her words.

Dutch sighed. "It's the best I can come up with under such short notice. You know that I won't use it unless I have to. It's unreliable."

"So what did the Russian say?" Aden asked as he approached them.

"Good, at least both of you are up. To make things easier to understand, I'll be frank. Command has screwed us over. They sent these criminal amateurs to take you out and retrieve me." Dutch announced as he leaned against the car.

Aden nodded. "That would explain the stuff I found under the engine. The charge that wrecked the engine was of the precise kind. Any more and we wouldn't be here anymore. Hardly within the level of street level criminals."

Nora narrowed her eyes. "And why would they do that? We have been giving them results for a at least one and a half years already. Why suddenly destroy a successfully performing team all of a sudden?"

Dutch shrugged. "Someone cleaning house? What ever this is, something is definitely going on back at base. Question is, what are we going to do about it?"

"We go back in. Without command, most of our resources are worthless. We need to get back there." Nora announced, her eyes daring anyone to object.

Dutch got off the vehicle. "And how would we do that?"

Lear jet 45

Over [redacted]

Project Youkai training facility

"I can't believe we actually looted a Lear jet. Are you sure we aren't gonna have a really pissed transnational super businessman after us?" Dutch said as he reassembled his carbine.

Nora chuckled as she flicked up several switches. She was piloting the jet since she was the only one with training in aviation. "The business man you are talking about has a collection of over 16 jets. This is one of them held for storage. I highly doubt he will notice it for a long time."

"Right. So we are fine on that end. Now someone explain to me why we have a ton of explosively explosive Semtex as deadweight on the plane? Or why are are over 30000 thousand feet instead of flying low and avoiding defensive radar?" Dutch continued as he skirted around the block of said explosive. An ominous beeping made clear how dangerous the block was.

Aden laughed as he put on his parachute. "It was sitting in storage and I needed to dispose of it before it went boom. She said bring it along. And for the second, I have no idea."

"If it goes boom, I'm finding you from the grave." Came Dutch's deadpan reply.

"We will know in 3...2...1." Nora said as she looked at the clock on the pilot seat.

Boom!

The plane shook as shrapnel tore into the body. Instantly, most of the lights on the cockpit turned red and a myriad of alarms warbled. Dutch looked at where a shard of shrapnel had pierced through the body and out the outer side. Wind howled as air started to exit through the riddled skin.

"Well well, we are alive. Now to get there. Let's do this!." Nora yelled before depressing the control stick and increasing the speed. The plane started to dip and the engines whined as power was pushed to the max.

"Nora! What the hell is your crazy ass plan!" Dutch shouted as he steadied himself against the block of Semtex.

Nora simply laughed manically. "Yahahahahaha! Grab your chute!"

Left without a proper answer, Dutch complied with the order. He grabbed the parachute next to him and put it on, not an easy feat when you factor in the conditions he was in. Lastly, he grabbed his helmet and put it on.

Bang!

The plane shook again as another explosion seared the air outside.

"What the hell are they shooting us with?" Aden yelled.

"Proximity based missiles!" Nora shouted back as she shut down most of the systems on the jet.

A shrieking of metal made all three look behind them. A part of the metal skin had caught in the powerful wind force rushing by and ripped itself out. Now the howl of wind overpowered all other sounds as the jet continued along its journey, constantly picking up speed as it descended.

A slap to the hand made Dutch turn back. Nora signaled furiously with her hand, telling him to get to the breach and get ready.

'Ready for what?' Dutch thought as he complied. There really wasn't really any time to argue right now.

Along the way, he grabbed Aden and brought the both of them to the hole in the airplane. It was a fight to hold on as the powerful winds buffeted the two of them.

Holding on with all his might, Dutch peeked out. He could see land and water below him. In the distance, a familiar hill surrounded by forests rushed by.

'We are almost there. Just a bit longer!' He thought as the plane got closer and closer to the ground.

Then a grab knocked him out of balance. He turned in surprise as Nora, wearing her own parachute, flung out her two male companions and proceeded to follow them.

Falling through the air, the trio watched as the lear jet got closer and closer to the base, smoke rising from the facility.

Just as the jet was about to dash itself against the ground, Aden pressed a detonator.

Kaboom!

The ton of explosives exploded with a massive roar. Even from where they fell, the shockwave pushed them back. The air burst ripped through the outer defenses of the base, destroying the outer wall and opening a clear path to the interior of the base.

"That's our way in." Nora said over the helmet radio before pulling her chute. Her partners followed the same and three white semicircles blossomed in the blue sky.

And not a moment too soon. Because they had jumped at a really low altitude.

Wham!

"Oh for crying out loud!"

Nora laughed at the cry.

"Oh, man if you saw his expression after that, you wouldn't be able to keep a smile off your face for a day. It was so hilarious!" She kept laughing.

Vale shared in the humor before remembering something Nora had said.

"You love him?"

Nora immediately stopped laughing. Her face dropped all her humor and adopted a motherly look. "I love them both. Both Dutch and Aden, I loved and still love them. But I knew that I could not hold him back for my own reasons. That would be a selfish love. So I made myself, to watch over him and as a way to know that at least a part of me would be with him, even if he did not know it."

"Ah, I see." Vale answered, looking forlorn again. Even just from her words, she could see Nora's true feelings and it made her feel second-rate. Against such selfless love, what was hers to compare?

"This time, however, it's your turn. My time has passed, yours is just beginning." Nora said, smiling kindly.

Vale looked up in surprise as Nora stepped forward and gave her a hug.

"Things have changed. He now has someone whom he bonds with far more than anyone else he has ever met. Now that you seen part of his past, you can understand him better. I can help you, if you want. How about it?" The brunette memory fragment spoke, tears starting to flow down.

Vale found tears tracing the smooth curves of her own cheeks as she returned the hug, old and new love both crying together.

The hunter killer searched for it's prey.

Protocol had to be followed. If the entity was malfunctioning, it had to be erased. No exceptions

Silently, it proceeded to its next target, looking, hunting