Chapter 20; Loss

They all just stood there, too stunned to say anything as Simon looked at Cecilia in utter confusion. "Nice try," she said finally, "Like you'd ever get me to believe such an obvious lie." "I'm not lieing, I really don't recognize you," he said, straight faced, "Actually, I don't think I know any of you. Where am I, anyway?" "You can't be serious," Rin said, her voice starting to tremble in anger, "You mean to tell me that you've completely forgotten all about us?" When he nodded, her temper peaked for a second before she saw Cecilia's response. Without giving him any warning, she leaned in and kissed him briefly. "Please tell me you remember that," she said as she leaned away. Simon looked a little stunned and was blushing slightly. "I-uh…I'm sorry, but no," he said. At that point, Ichika and Houki had to physically restrain Rin so she didn't strangle the boy.

After they had calmed Rin somewhat, they left the room. Well, most of them. Ichika stayed behind and sat next to Simon's bed. "So, you have no memory of any of us?" he asked, just to be clear, "You can't recall anything from these past few months?" "I get…flashes. But, some of the memories are painful," Simon said, grateful the firecracker of a girl had been removed from the room, "I do remember you, I think. We rode a train together, didn't we?" "The train to the IS Academy on our first day," Ichika told him, feeling a bit better. If he could remember that, than there might be hope yet. "Yeah, I remember something like that. I was being sent to the Academy for IS training," Simon said, his face starting to light up a little, "We were on the train, talking about…something…" "Anything after that?" Simon just shook his head and looked depressed. "That girl, the blonde one. Were we…?" he asked, feeling the blush returning. "Yeah, you were. Are, I mean, you are," Ichika said, correcting himself quickly. "I'm sorry, I'm just a little tired," Simon told him, stifling a yawn. Taking the hint, Ichika left him to rest. Maybe he would regain the memories after he recovered some more.

After he fell asleep, Simon found himself in a strange place. He was standing on a beach stretching into the distance on both sides. In front of him was a massive cliff, and when he turned around there was water gently lapping on the shore with the sun setting in the distance. It was all strangely familiar to him, but he couldn't remember why. 'You survived. Good,' he heard. Turning back to the cliff, he saw a figure made from light sitting on a boulder he hadn't noticed earlier. 'Now it's time to get to work.' "Work? What kind of work?" he asked, taking a step back as the being approached him. 'Do not be afraid, Simon. I am here to help you,' it soothed as it approached him, 'You've lost your memory, correct?' When he nodded, the being continued, 'Those that you've met are responsible for this. They forced something on you, something that you did not want. In return, they took your memories.' When it was close enough to touch him, he felt a strange sense of calm. 'I am here to help you. I will help restore that which they stole.'

When it touched his shoulder, Simon felt like a curtain had been raised in his mind. Suddenly images were flashing back to him; the blonde girl, the other boy, a battle between the three of them, the short girl with the twin tails attacking him. The images started to come faster, and he couldn't hold onto them all. With a gasp, he lurched away from the being and grabbed his head. 'That's what I was worried about,' it said, sounding concerned, 'They burned a lot of your memories out when they did that.' "What? What did they do to me?" Simon asked, trying to hide the pain. Taking his head in its hands, he felt the pain subsiding as it cupped his head in its hands and brought his face up. He could almost see a pair of eyes in that light looking at him in concern. 'They forced the IS on you, made you into a pilot, without realizing what it could do to you,' it told him. For whatever reason, the tone of its voice reminded him of a mother with a hurt child. "W-who are you?" he asked, in awe of this being. 'I am the AI which dwells inside of your IS' core. And I am here to help you.'

"Tabane, what the hell happened out there?" Chifuyu demanded, looking about ready to rip someone's head off, "How could something like this even happen? I thought you said the modules were safe!" Cringing slightly at the other woman's anger, she turned her computer around so Chifuyu could see the screen. "I did, Chifu-ni, I swear. Every test came back A-Okay," she said, "I have absolutely no idea how an IS shift could wipe someone's memory like that." "Then start guessing," Chifuyu replied abruptly, sitting down opposite her friend and glaring at her. She wasn't mad with Tabane, to be honest; the girl just had the misfortune of being the closest target to vent at. In truth, Chifuyu felt the same as Tabane about this incident; responsible for it. She had given her the okay to test the module after Tabane had told her it was safe. And now Simon was lying on a cot in the medical center with the last few months of his memories gone. God only knows what this is doing to his friends she thought, her scowl deepening at the notion. They had been through too much too soon to deserve something like this.

"Well, my best guess is that it had something to do with his neural lace," Tabane said as she turned the screen back around, "It's possible that there was some kind of feed-back through it during the shift." "How is that even possible? I thought the IS shifts affected the machine, not the pilot." "Normally, yes. But normally the pilots aren't physically plugged into them," Tabane explained, "It's possible that when his IS went through its shift that it read Simon as an actual part of the machine. It would have then proceeded to try and upgrade him, as well." "Oh God…" Chifuyu said as the full implications of that sunk in. They may have just allowed his machine to cause irreversible damage to his brain and nervous system. "Is there any way we can reverse it?" she asked, "Recover what he lost?" "I…can't say, Chifu-ni," Tabane replied, hanging her head, "It's entirely possible that they are…gone." She had never felt this defeated before, ever. Not when her first attempt at making a core resulted in an explosion, not when her sister had started to grow distant, not even when Maylin had arrived and torpedoed a good portion of her well-laid plans. But, for whatever reason, this hit her on a primal level; she had given something the green light, and it had just done more damage to that boy than all of his previous battles combined.

"Okay," Chifuyu said, determined to at least appear to be in control, "I want you to go over everything you recorded again, as well as the logs from his IS. Check the other module again, completely." Tabane just nodded, since she was already doing what Chifuyu had asked. There has to be an explanation for this she thought as she went over the records. She knew the programming of her cores inside and out; every variant, every possible outcome (well, almost every variant, though why two boys could use them was still something she had yet to figure out). She had also gone over the schematics of Simon's original IS several times, so she was aware of virtually every aspect of its design. She had moved the new one to a private bay and was subjecting it to every diagnostic method she could come up with, most of them standard, but a few she had designed herself. They would find something to help solve this problem. They had to.

Wandering around the Academy grounds, Rin wondered where the heck Cecilia had gone off to. She had excused herself with some half-assed reason before just walking off by herself, looking absolutely awful. Of course, there was nothing anyone could say or do to help her feel better about this situation, and privately Rin was cursing anything and everything she could think of that had led to this. The hell was that idiot thinking, agreeing to that test? Rin wondered again as she walked towards the park. It was around 3 o'clock, so most people would be in their afternoon classes. As such, the park was fairly deserted. Looking around the park, she spotted a patch of yellow on the far end of the park. Making a beeline for it, she came across Cecilia sitting on one of the benches, clutching herself with her head down. She could tell that Cecilia was struggling not to cry, which only served to make Rin feel worse.

"You okay, Cecilia?" she asked as she came up behind her friend. Cecilia just sat there in silence for a while, not looking up as Rin circled the bench and sat next to her. They just sat there in silence for a while, and Rin started to wonder if Cecilia would speak at all. If she chose to remain silent, Rin would understand. The girl had endured more in a few weeks than anyone should ever go through in their entire life. "It's not fair," she said finally, looking at the Chinese girl. The hurt in her eyes was almost enough to bring Rin to tears herself as she continued. "Why?" she asked, "Every time we actually start to connect, something happens. Why us? What did he do to deserve this? What did I do to deserve this?" "I don't know Cecilia," Rin told her, "But I don't think you deserve it. Neither does he."

"So, are you just fed up with him?" Rin asked her finally. "I-I'm not sure I know…" "Come on, Cecilia, it's not that hard!" Rin said, deciding on a good use for her own frustration, "After everything he's put you through, why don't you just dump his sorry ass? I know that I would." "I…" she began. It was an interesting question, especially coming from Rin. She had always been a kind of sister to Simon. He had even told her as much, but for her to suggest that she… "I can't, Rin," she said finally, feeling something inside her cry out against it, "When I said that I love him, I meant it. I can't just walk away from it now." "So, what are you going to do, then?" Rin demanded as she got up and faced Cecilia, glad that she had finally gotten through to her. Looking back at her friend in determination, she responded, "I won't give up, that's what."

Smiling at her in triumph, Rin thought, these two are so transparent. The two girls left the park feeling better than they had all day. Cecilia had already decided on her own course of action, and Rin was determined to back her no matter what. After all, her pseudo-brother may be an idiot at times, but there's no way a simple memory wipe was going to erase what was between them. She was sure of that.

Simon spent the next day under observation, since the doctors wanted to see if it was just temporary memory loss due to shock. All the while, the AI worked to restore his memory, or at least parts of it. At its advice, he didn't reveal that he was remembering certain events, since according to it everyone at this Academy was involved in this to one degree or another. 'Best if you trust no one,' it had told him. The AI had slowly been piecing fragments of his memories together in an effort to further alienate him from the students and staff, and it was working flawlessly. The following evening he was released and returned to the room he shared with Ichika, skeptical of everything and everyone he came across. When he finally got there, Ichika was sitting on his bed and reading through some of his homework from the day.

"Hey, Simon," he said, "Feeling any better?" "Yeah, sure," was all he got for a reply. After all, according to the AI, this boy was only there to keep an eye on him. They weren't friends. The next few days were tense, to say the least. The AI had elected to restore his memories regarding his technical knowledge, so catching up with his homework wasn't too hard. While he questioned why it was even necessary to do it, it was best to keep up appearances. Through it all, he drifted away from his friends, believing them to be the cause of his memory loss. Even though Cecilia still tried to maintain some kind of relationship with the boy, he would always find some kind of half-assed excuse to get away. Why is that girl trying so damned hard he wondered. If they were only here to conduct tests, then why the hell does she appear to care so much about me? 'It's all an act, Simon. Pay it no mind,' the AI said. It was becoming more talkative as the days past and had reached the point where they could discuss things without him having to be asleep.

And then one day, Simon just up and disappeared. When he wasn't in class, everyone just thought that he was still recovering and had decided to sleep in. However, when Ichika went to check the room, it was empty. A search of the campus, done by his friends discreetly, revealed that he had taken the train back to the mainland earlier that morning. "What the hell does that boy think he's doing?" Chifuyu asked after she found out. Cecilia, Rin and Ichika had been called to her office, while Tabane had already been there. They all looked worried about what might be happening. What troubled Tabane the most was what she had discovered, and his actions over the past few days. "Well, Chifu-ni, I think I might know why," she said, stepping forward.

At a gesture from her, Tabane continued, "I ran a complete check on all of the systems in Simon's IS, and I found an anomaly with the core housing. There was a small memory card installed in it, containing an execution file and enough storage for a fairly sophisticated program." "What does that even mean?" Rin asked, her frustration evident. She didn't have the patience for this, not now, Damnit. "It means that those IS placed a trap inside his IS core, designed to activate under certain conditions," Tabane responded, "Like…an IS shift." They all let that sink in a moment before Chifuyu leaned forward and put her head in her hands. "So, the short version is they laid a trap and we walked right into it," she surmised as she tried very hard not to explode in outrage. How many times are these things going to keep playing us she thought as she got herself back under control.

"Any idea what was supposed to be activated?" "Well, I can't be completely sure, since part of the execution file was a command to delete the original code," she said, "But, I can guess what it was based off the records in his IS." "Please, tell me," Cecilia begged, taking one of Tabane's hands, "What is happening to my Simon? What did they do?" For a brief moment, Tabane considered not telling her. After all, this would only add to her worries. However, after looking at how hurt the girl was, she couldn't bring herself to do it. "I don't know exactly what kind of program it was," she said, "I only know that it was rather large and that it uploaded itself to the 'host memory.'" It took them a few seconds to try and figure out what that meant. Finally, it was Ichika, of all people, who figured it out first. "You mean it uploaded itself into Simon's head?" he asked, causing the two girls to gasp. It didn't help matters when Tabane nodded.

"Well, that would explain the memory loss," Chifuyu said as the others tried to come to grips with what they had just learned. "How in the hell are we supposed to fight something like that?!" Rin asked, part outrage and part shock. "If you can get him back here, I may be able to remove the program," Tabane told them, trying to give them some kind of hope. "And his memories?" Cecilia asked, "Will that restore them?" "Possibly, but…" She didn't even need to finish, they could all fill in the rest there. It was entirely possible that the memories were gone for good. God only knows what that program was doing to the boy's mind. "Where is he, Tabane? You can find him, I take it," Chifuyu asked, sensing the impatience to do something from the kids. "Yes, I can," she replied, "And you wouldn't believe where he went."

Standing on the beach, Simon tried to recall what he could of the last time he had spent here. This was where his class had gone on a short, school-funded vacation. He remembered being rather happy about it, to be getting away from classes for a while. At least, he was back then, when he hadn't known what they were doing to him. 'There's no need to dwell on it, Simon,' the AI told him, 'You see the truth of it now.' "So, when is this 'friend' of yours going to arrive?" he asked aloud. Normally, he wouldn't have thought to actually speaking with it, but there was no one else on this stretch of the beach. 'Soon. She knows where we are. There's no need to worry.' Sighing, Simon sat down and waited while wondering just what kind of friend this person was. She knew the AI in his core, although how they had met was beyond him. Probably something else I lost when they took my memories he reasoned with a scowl.

After half an hour of looking out over the water, he heard several people landing behind him. Didn't even hear the IS arrive he thought as he got up and turned around. Instead of the friend that the AI had described, he saw that it was several of the people that claimed to be his friends; Cecilia, Rin, Ichika and Houki to be specific. "Simon, what are you doing out here?" Cecilia asked as she approached him. "Come any closer, and we'll both regret it," Simon said in a steel tone. It was enough to bring her up short, to bring everyone up short. "What's gotten into you, idiot?" Rin demanded. This can't be the same boy. "What's gotten into me?" he mocked, "I've finally seen the truth. You clearly didn't plan on my core interfering, but it showed me just how much you've been lieing to me all this time." "That's what it told you? Seriously?" she asked, astonished, "That thing isn't from your IS core. It was planted by that bitch of a machine that got Maylin killed. It's using you." "You'd like me to believe that, wouldn't you?"

As they continued to argue, Cecilia realized something. Whatever that program had done, it had succeeded in poisoning Simon against them completely. Whether it was just manipulating his memories or creating false ones, it had convinced him they were enemies. Trying to argue with reason wouldn't work, not now. It's time to try something more powerful she thought as she took another step forward. Without warning, Simon summoned his own IS. "I'm telling you now, stay back." "Simon, do you remember when you came to see me after Maylin died?" she asked, ignoring the threat, "Do you remember the promise you made me?" 'Ignore the girl, Simon,' the AI told him, 'She's just trying to mess with your mind.' And yet, despite the warning, Simon tried to figure out just what she meant. What promise could I have possibly made to her? Before he could even try and remember, a familiar voice interrupted.

"I figured someone would follow him. I didn't plan on four of you." Looking up, they saw the Fairy had arrived. And just like that, it all clicked for Cecilia. That machine, more than the others, had shown it was capable of under-handed tricks and mind games. Of course it would be responsible for this. "I'm sorry, humans, but that boy belongs with us now," it said as it landed between them. For whatever reason, the Fairy had elected to bring only one javelin with it, probably out of arrogance. Turning to Simon, it extended its free hand and said, "It's time to go, Simon." Without even thinking, he reached forward to take its hand. And why not? This was the person that his AI trusted, someone that would be able to restore his memories. Before he could, however, Rin smashed into the Fairy's back and sent it across the beach. "If you think I'm letting you do that again, bitch, think again!" she said as she summoned one of her swords and charged it again. Ichika and Houki moved to back her up, but Simon was immediately in their way. The disks on his arms began to spin as he said, "I will only tell you this once; back away."

Before they could answer his challenge, Cecilia stepped in front of them. "You two go help Rin," she said, "I will take care of this." "Cecilia, you sure?" Houki asked. "He hasn't answered my question yet." Taking the hint, Houki and Ichika took off and went to help Rin. Even with only one of its main weapons, the laser bits made the Fairy a formidable opponent. Locking eyes with the boy, Cecilia brought her rifle up before her. While not aiming directly at Simon, it was close enough to be a clear warning. "Simon, please don't make me do this," she begged, hoping to get through to him. In response, Simon took up his fighting stance, his gaze unwavering. "You brought this upon yourself, woman," he told her before he charged. Before he had moved more than a foot, Cecilia had brought her rifle up and shot him straight in the chest, knocking him off balance. Dodging to the right, she lined up another shot as he brought his left arm up to block the blast. Right before she pulled the trigger, an energy field deployed from his former blade port on that arm, blocking the shot completely. When Cecilia got a clear look at the field, she saw that it was crackling with energy.

She didn't have much time to admire it before Simon came at her again, his right hand crackling with energy now. Launching a pair of laser bits to buy time, she took flight as he was forced to deal with the bits. He had deployed two energy fields now, one on each wrist. They were also effortlessly deflecting the shots. Taking flight himself, Simon began to gather power in his right hand while he continued to dodge Cecilia's bits. Meanwhile, Cecilia herself was still trying to get through to the boy. "You still haven't given me your answer, Simon!" she said, "What was it that you promised me?" "Why the hell does it even matter?" he shot back, "All you people have been doing is lieing and using me. Why should I give a damn about any promises I made to you?" "Is that what you think? That everything we said and did was a lie?" As an answer, he lifted his hand and discharged the energy. They were both expecting an energy bolt, but what they got was a lightning bolt that crossed the gap faster than Cecilia could react. It hit her full in the chest and dropped her shields by 25%, and it also hurt like hell.

Ignoring the pain, she lined up her sights and started to return fire while launching her other two laser bits. Finally getting fed up with the excessive dodging, Simon unfolded his wings and loosed his own fangs. What was surprising about this was that the amount of fangs stored in his wings had doubled; the sky was now filled with a dozen plasma-wielding bits. Charging up another pair of bolts, he prepared to take this annoying girl out, once and for all. And yet, despite what the AI was advising he was trying to figure out just what the hell she was talking about. For reasons he couldn't explain, her mention of a promise was unsettling to him on a deep level. 'I said to ignore her, Felix,' the AI said, 'She's lying.' But how do I know that? Why can't I remember? Firing off the electricity in his hands, he hit two of her bits dead on, turning them into puffs of smoke. Triggering an Ignition burst, he rocketed through the smoke cloud and collided with Cecilia. Taking a firm grip with his left hand, he spun up the disk on that arm and discharged the electricity into her suit.

Thankfully, her shields dispelled most of the incoming attack, but her arm was starting to grow numb. Her shields were also dropping at a rapid rate. Rather than trying to break the grip, she swung herself around so that Simon's back was to the ground. She then accelerated straight down while taking a firm grip on his IS. When they impacted, she was shaken free and landed a few feet away with her rifle up and her remaining bits aimed at the crater. Simon's own bits formed a lethal wall of plasma around him as he tried to pick himself back up. However, he was becoming increasingly distracted, and Cecilia could plainly see it. "I know you, Simon," she said, giving it one last shot, "I know who you are, how you act. This isn't you. Please, come back to us, come back to me. I love you." Those last words, more than anything, struck a chord deep in him, and Simon found himself turning inward to that imaginary world where he talked with the AI. "What does she mean?" he asked it, feeling the familiar pain again. Any time he tried to remember something new on his own, it resulted in near skull-splitting pain.

'She's lying, you fool. Stop believing her,' it told him, sounding like it was losing patience. "Why don't I remember making her a promise?" he continued, ignoring the command, "She just said 'I love you.' Why would she lie about that?" Stalking forward, the AI took a firm grip on his shoulders. 'Listen to me; she is an enemy. They are all enemies. They took your memories from you and chained you down. Do not trust them.' "Simon, please!" Looking up at the pain in the voice, he returned to the real world to see that he had collapsed to his knees and was clutching his head. Also that Cecilia was looking at him in concern, and now what he recognized as love. Who do I trust?

The enemies' hand has been shown as they make a play to secure Simon, again. Will Cecilia reach him in time, or will he turn on them? What will become of the other upgrade module? And will I ever stop toying with you guys over this love story? Till the next chapter, and as always, feel free to post a review.