Chapter 13: A Battle of Two Experiments

It was quite some time that Effie and I were taken by Mikhail and his soldier Twelve, and I was still asleep in that same warm dream... the material of whatever I was sleeping inside of felt somehow familiar to me, much like the sleeping pod I used to sleep in when I was in the lab. I suddenly began to hear a familiar voice.

"Illia... Illia, wake up." I woke up, and saw Effie was standing outside the room I was in. I suddenly realized I was back in the lab... and I was in a sleeping pod once again. I stepped out, still feeling a bit drowsy.

"Effie, thank goodness you're here too... But where are Yang and Yun?"

"I think they're still in Paris, but they might be on their way here."

"They better be... I don't want to be in this cold dark prison any longer..." I said, shivering in fear. Effie tightly embraced me.

"Me neither Illia, it was already hard enough the first time we were here..." she remembered our first night, the same night before they mutated me.

"Sister?" A voice came from outside the room. We turned and saw that it was the same girl from the vision I had seen before... the same one with the pink dress and turquoise pigtails.

"Irina?" Effie gazed back at her, and suddenly began to smile. The two began to hug each other, as if they had just reunited with each other. I couldn't help but to smile.

"Effie, I'm so glad you're here..." Irina tearfully said, "I thought I'd never be able to see you again..."

"Same here, sis. But it'll be okay now, Illia and I will protect you." she reassured. Irina looked up at me, and seemed happy.

"I remember you Illia, you're the one my sister saved a few years ago... and the same companion she met here."

"Yes that's right." I said, blushing. "I did meet her here, and then again, I did make a vow to always protect her."

"I knew you would... but now we'll need you more than ever." she returned to her tearful state. "Illia, your brother, my companion... he's been fully brainwashed by Gill. You must beat him and Twelve if you want him back to normal..."

"I intend on doing just that... but I'll have to jog his memories..." I said softly.

"Irina! It's time... time for Necro to face his demise!" I heard Mikhail scream out from far away.

"This way... I'm counting on you, Illia. You're our only hope..." she lead us out to the main lab, the same place where I was experimented on. Mikhail was standing in front of the tree sap powered machine, with Twelve in the arena.

"Welcome to your judgement Necro. Master Gill has asked me to do this for you a long time ago... since we heard of your recent escape."

"Why... why are you doing this?" I asked him in terror, "Why do you want to do this to me... and why are you calling me Necro? Don't you remember who I am..."

"I'd love to listen to some more of the past Necro, but unfortunately our battle's not till later." he walked away to the sidelines. "Twelve, take care of him!"

Twelve had an army of his clones with him, all eyeing me down with those scary red eyes.

"Enough! Show me your true self!" I shouted out in anger. The clones went away, revealing him to me.

"It's all clear to me now... You and my brother were sent by Gill... to put me back here! I'll make that I'll send what's left of you in a package I'll send back to Gill!" I was prepared for what this battle was going to bring, even if I was doing it out of desperation.

"Round 1: Fight!"

The beginning of the battle was even more intense than any of my previous battles, as Twelve and I exchanged multiple blows at each other. I could clearly see that this was going to be a tough battle.

"Rising Cobra!" I swiftly kicked him in the head, knocking him on the ground. I took a few steps back in order to avoid a counterattack from him. Mikhail looked angry.

"Come on Twelve! You can't expect to please your "father" if you fight like that!" he shouted at him. Twelve was despondent for a second, but then he began attacking me with his arms. I tried hard to dodge them, but it hit me with its spike attack.

"Ow! Damn... that really hurt." The pain from the spikes was unbearable, but I managed to endure it to the best of my ability. I wasn't gonna let some experiment get in the way of getting my brother back to his senses.

"You think that's going to stop me!? Well, think again!" I charged my electricity to a high level.

"Blast!" I shocked him rapidly, sending him flying backward. I had to take a moment to breathe, as I was trying hard not to let my own rage get the best of me. I turned to see Twelve trying to get up as Mikhail was angrily glaring at me.

"Why the hell are you so persistant Necro!? Can't you accept the fact that you belong in this prison!?" he yelled out, "You're lucky Gill asked me to bring you back here alive, because if it were my way, you'd be either dead, or barely breathing!" I was shocked at what I was hearing out of him... this didn't sound like the Mikhail that I knew and cared about.

"You may not want me alive... but it's not going to make me give up this fight!" I immediately grabbed Twelve, and as unexpected, I slammed myself into him. He began to flinch and cry out in pain. He was clearly near the point of being knocked out.

"Now to put you out of your misery... Magno Storm!" I electrocuted him with a harsh current of electricity, and within seconds, Twelve was knocked out. I heard Irina and Effie cheering from my side of the lab, while Mikhail was shouting at Twelve in anger.

"Damn it Twelve! You weren't supposed to let Necro win! You better not fail me on the next round, or I'll have to take care of things myself!" I was anxious for the next round to begin, as I was recharging my electricity, since I would be able to face my brother after this match was over.

"Round 2: Fight!"

It became even more intense as Twelve kept whipping me with his tentacle like arms, but each time I kept blocking him out. It was clear that the only thing on my mind was facing my brother and getting him back to normal...

"Flying Viper!" I leaped and smacked him down with my hands. But then I felt something coil tightly around my waist, and I looked to see that Twelve had me in a stranglehold position. After a few seconds I was thrown forward... and I landed hard on the ground.

I got back up, but not without the sharp pain in my back and chest... "Oh god... this... hurts... I don't think I can go on any..." But as soon as I made eye contact with Twelve, my eyes began turning red along with my vision. The pain began to desenegrate as the rage burned inside of me.

"You..." I seethed at him, "You... YOU PATHETIC SCUM! You may have gotten me stooped down to your level... but now... I'M GOING TO DO WHAT I SHOULD'VE DONE TO YOU A WHILE AGO!" I could feel the electricity rapidly flowing through my body at critical levels.

"MAGNO STORM!" I began to shock Twelve at an alarmingly critical rate, almost enough to instantly kill a single human being. I could almost hear him screaming in pain... but at the same time, I didn't want him alive. I pinned him down, and continued to course my electricity through his body.

"Necro! stop this at once!" screamed my brother in anger, "You weren't created to do this sort of thing!"

"NO! I'M NOT GOING TO STOP... NOT UNTIL THIS THING IS AS GOOD AS DEAD!" I shouted back, with a firece rage in my voice.

"Effie... what's happening to Illia? Why... Why is he doing this?" Irina said in a scared voice.

"I don't know... but I think he's fallen into a deep rage. I've seen him this way before... but I have gotten him to stop." Effie explained to her.

As I continued to shock Twelve, I began to remember that incident that happened earlier when I first entered the tournament... and in my mind, I saw that scared look on Effie's face when I shocked Yun like that. I suddenly snapped out of it and let go of him. By then he was barely alive, and I was breathing hard.

"Well that felt great... I haven't done anything like that in a long time." I said, in a now relaxed tone. I was suprised that Effie didn't get scared through it all.

"Yeah... and you did it for a good reason." Effie said to me with a smile. "He shouldn't have messed with you like that."

"You're right... but now I've got to face... Mikhail..." A slight feeling of anxiety had struck me. Effie took my hand and we exchanged a quick kiss.

"It's alright Illia... you'll do fine. Just try to make him remember all the good times you both had... well, before this happened." Effie said, in a soft voice. Her voice had always soothed me, especially in a hard situation such as this...

Mikhail then glared at us and said, "Don't think you'll last long in our fight, Necro. I'll make sure you're taken care of... and stuck here forever!" he looked to Irina, who was hiding behind Effie. "Let's go Irina, we've got a long day ahead of us..." Irina hurried along, as if to not anger him.

"I hate that I have to do this Effie... but his nonsense just has to end." I said, as they went away to wherever their sleeping chambers were.

"Yes, it has to end sometime. But at least my sister was never brainwashed like this..."

"Thank god for that... but now we better get to sleep, I've got a bad feeling that this next fight's going to be very emotional for me..."

"All right. I just hope that you'll be okay during the next match..."

"Don't worry, I'll be fine..." I reassured her with a smile. "I won't stop until he's back to normal for our sake, and Irina's."

"I know you'll do great, Illia. I just know it." Effie said opimistically.

We headed back to our same sleeping chamber, as the sun finally went down. I couldn't help but to be nervous... it was that very moment that I never wanted to go through, but had to. As my thoughts about my wish and my childhood memories began to surge through my brain, I knew that this was going to be one of the hardest battles that I would ever have to fight... and one of the most emotional ones as well.