A Cat's Descent
"I'm Adam…who are you?"
My eyes stared up at him, unable to look away, as his smirk widened. There was something wrong here, but what it was I couldn't put a finger on it. I felt a mixture of feelings, like I used to back when I had once been a Chronos Number. There was fear, danger, pain, and the electric static of firing nerves.
The colors of the world around us shifted to darker tones as we sat there in silence. Eve shifted further away from Adam, her eyes nervous as they flitted back and forth between his.
I looked from her to him and wondered if I should be doing the same-getting away. Yet I sat there stationary, staring up into his garnet colored eyes as he stared into mine.
"Who are you?" He repeated his question as he extended his hand towards me, his fingers centimeters from my face.
"Uh-" Suddenly I didn't know what to say to him or how to answer his question. It were as if I had forgotten who I was if only for a moment.
I reached up and took his hand. He was stronger than I expected as he pulled me to my feet with the swift movement of his arm. In his other arm he held a white and gold harp, the strings shimmering in the setting sunlight.
"What are you doing here?" He asked, his question directed only at me.
"I-I don't know," I shook my head slowly, my eyes searching the place around me as if for answers.
"You…don't know?" He asked, cocking his head slightly.
"Train-are you-" But before Eve could ask her question Adam's fingers tightened around my hand and he wrenched my arm painfully to the side so that I was forced to my knees.
"You don't belong here," He said, his tone darker as his felt leaned in close to mine. "You don't deserve to be alive."
I felt as though I were swimming through some kind of liquid as the world around me shifted and blurred together like vibrant paint. I felt my breathing speed up as my chest tightened, but I couldn't get control. Adam's fingers tightened harder around my hand as I felt my knees give way and I fell back as far as my arm would let me go.
"Train!" Eve's cry was the last thing I heard as I felt Adam's hand release mine and I fell hard against the ground.
My senses rushed back to me in an instant and I rolled onto my stomach before pushing myself up into a kneeling position. But no one was there…
"Eve?" I asked as I stood, looking around warily.
The scenery was the same… The trees shone in the golden sunlight as hues of red and orange peaked over the horizon line. The tall, green grass swayed in a gentle breeze and off in the distance I could see what looked, surprisingly enough, like a heard of elephants making their way towards a group of tall trees.
"Eve?" I called-louder this time as I turned, looking in every direction. "Eve this isn't funny. Where are you?"
"Behind you…" A voice whispered close to my ear.
I whipped around, yanking Hades out of its holster to find a completely different world in front of me. A flash of brilliantly red lightning lit up the scene in front of me, casting eerie and jagged shadows across the strange place I now stood in.
My feet rested against one of many stone slabs that made up the earth beneath me, cracks and grooves defacing the crumbling surface. At least twenty feet from I stood the slabs ended only to be replaced by a dark and rocky looking beach.
The sound of crashing waves met my ears as I caught site of the water that beat against the unfriendly looking beach, the sea stained a deep red as though gallons of blood had been poured into it. It seemed as if the water never ended as I squinted through the flickering lightning, the dark water churning dangerously against the dimming horizon.
I turned slowly to take in the world around me. As far back as the ocean had been stood a forest of stark white, dead-looking trees. Their long, thin branches swung in the cold breeze of the storm, groaning and creaking as if in protest.
I turned back to the blood-red ocean, and for the first time I realized what looked like the moon hung low in the sky, seeming to skim the surface of the oceans churning waves. The breeze picked up, blowing my hair about and tugging at my short coat. I shivered as another flash of lightning illuminated the cloudless sky, but in that moment of brighter light I saw something in the distance, among the crashing waves.
Without realizing what I was doing I began to move. Step by step I slowly moved across the rough, stone slabs and onto the rocky shore. It felt as though the wind were pushing me as I moved towards the waves, my eyes adjusting as I tried to make out the shape that was hidden within the darkness.
With another flash if lightning I realized what I was looking at it. Off in the midst of the churning, red water stood a section of the castle I had been imprisoned in for so many months. The tower rose sharply out of the water, seeming to scrape the sky. The section of the roof where I had spent most of my free time jutted out from the stone façade, and there, among the rotting shingles, stood what had caught my eyes.
"Creed…" I breathed as I squinted to get a better look at him.
He stood stationary; his eyes locked on mine as pain mixed with fear took over his expression. He seemed to be trapped on the roof, though he made no attempt to escape, but I couldn't see any way he could. He wore the clothes he had donned when he had been the leader of the Apostles of the Stars, but nothing about his demeanor suggested this was his old self.
"Creed!" I yelled over the wind and thunder.
He acted as though he hadn't heard me, his eyes never wavering and his expression still filled with pain and fear. I felt my chest tighten as another figure stepped up beside him, his white suit coat and hat all too familiar. Sven stood beside him, a similar expression on his face, and I realized in that instance what was going on.
"If you had to choose…" A voice echoed in my mind. "Could you?"
I shook my head slowly, trying to make sense of what was going on. I didn't have to choose… As far as I knew both Sven and Creed were fine…as far as I knew… I couldn't choose between them. Sven had saved my life long ago when that tanker had exploded, but Creed had taught me something about myself I had never realized was there. I had hated them both once for very different reasons, but now I couldn't find it in me to be angry towards either of them.
My fingers tightened involuntarily around the hilt of Hades, my fingers digging into the engravings to the point that it made me wince. I watched as Creed, with one last, painful look turned away, along with Sven until I could see nothing but the worn shingles of the rain-soaked roof.
Lightning flashed again and everything went silent…
"If you had to choose…" The same voice came again, only this time from behind me. "Could you?"
I turned slowly, following my eyes as they came to rest on a familiar face…one that had been visiting me more and more with each passing hour.
"Well?" He asked, his familiar smirk back as his cloak absorbed the rain as it splashed against him. "Could you?"
I stared at him-studied him. He had been haunting me for thirteen years and counting, and it seemed he wasn't ready to go away. His boots dug into the rough sand as waves washed up against the heels of my shoes. His long hair seemed untouched by the rain as it soaked mine, weighing it down along with the rest of me. His pale eyes locked onto mine as he stared down at me, making me feel like a child again.
"You chose once before," He prodded for an answer. "You can do it again."
"I only chose because you made me." I snapped, tempted to aim Hades at him.
"But you made the choice all the same," He replied softly. "You chose your own life over your parents-over being with them in the afterlife."
"I was ten years old…" I muttered. "What kind of ten-year old knows what to say in a situation like that?"
"You did." He replied, and for once the smirk was gone.
"What do you mean…?" I asked as rain ran down the side of my face and turning my neck cold.
"You chose to live." He said it as if it were plain as day and just as ordinary. "You chose to live over dying. You didn't take the easy route."
"I don't know many people who would've asked to die." I snapped back.
"But you kept on going," He explained. "Even after I put you through everything I did you still had that unbreakable need to kill me."
"Because you murdered my parents!" I shouted, taking even myself by surprise.
"They never told me your parents had a kid…" He spoke, his voice suddenly soft.
I stalled for a moment, taken aback at his sudden confession. I had never known who had sent Zagine to kill my parents, and I knew I never would. He had simply shown up one day and pulled the trigger as if it were as simple as that. But…he hadn't known they had a son…
"What that-was that why you didn't kill me?" I stuttered, my voice shaky.
"I have a personal thing against killing kids," He replied with a shrug, as if it didn't really matter. "And when you walked through that door I knew I couldn't change just for that."
"Sometimes…sometimes I wish you had killed me." I muttered, my eyes falling to the red water as it lapped against the shore beneath my feet.
"Don't you think like that," He snapped suddenly. "Don't you give up and act weak, because the moment you do someone will take advantage of that weakness and kill you!"
"Someone like you?" I growled back.
He paused, squinting slightly as he tried to get a better look at me.
"Why?" I asked, my words sounding desperate and painful. "Just tell me why!"
He studied me a moment long before turning and walking along the shore, signaling with his head for me to follow. I stood still for a moment, watching him as he walked, before following a few feet behind. There was something in the way he moved-in the way he looked at me that told me he had never told me everything.
"You know…none of this is real, right?" He spoke softly in the silence.
"I don't know what's real and what isn't anymore," I sighed as I ran my fingers through my hair. "None of this seems real-I don't even feel real."
"Because you're not," He turned and looked at me, making me come to a sudden stop only a foot from him. "None of this is, not even you."
"Why does that matter?" I asked, starting to get annoyed as I realized he was changing the subject.
"Because it means I'm not real either." He replied.
"So?" I snapped back. "You can still tell me why you did what you did. You can still tell me who made you do it."
"You don't want to know why I did what I do or who sent me," He seemed to warn me darkly. "So stop pressing the issue."
I glared at him from beneath my wet bangs, my fingers tightening again around Hades.
"That gun won't get you anywhere here," He replied. "Only you mind will get you where you need to go."
"Just shut up and tell me what I want to know." I growled.
"What you want to know is how to get out of here," He advised, as if he knew. "And the only way to do that is to outsmart this place."
"How in hell am I supposed to outsmart a place?" I snapped sarcastically.
"It's not the place you outsmart," He said as he tapped his finger against his temple. "It's yourself in this place."
I sighed as I tried to translate what he had just said to me. Somehow I had to outsmart this place…oh wait, no, not this place, but myself in this place. Give me a break…
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"The you that's standing in front of me right now isn't the real you, now is it?" He asked calmly, as if we had gone back thirteen years and he was teaching me everything all over again.
"I-I don't know." I shook my head impatiently.
"No, it's not. The real you is somewhere hooked up to a bunch of wires," He answered his question for me. "This is your mind-your mind trapped in a place called Eden. Your mind is playing one hell of a trick on you at the moment, but if you can outsmart it then maybe you can get out."
"Maybe I can get out?" I asked, laughing sardonically. "Oh, that makes me feel better!"
"You never listened to me as a kid, I guess I don't see why that should change now," He shook his head before taking a few steps backwards and looking me up and down. "But you're all grown up now, I think you can handle it yourself."
He turned and began to walk down the beach in silence, the world following his example.
"Where are you going?" I asked as I took a step towards him.
"It's your mind, kid," He said as he waved over his should without looking back. "I'll be here when you need me."
And with that…he vanished.
I stood in silence as the rush of sounds came flooding back to my ears. Thunder rumbled, the wind howled, and the far off trees creaked and groaned in complaint.
So this was my mind? This was what I had created? If that was true, then the Eden I had been in before was what Eve had created…and Adam was…who?
I shoved Hades back in its holster and crossed my arms, thinking hard as I rested my chin in my fingers. This didn't entirely make sense, but then again I hadn't expected it to. The last thing I remembered before I was put in this place was Doctor shoving a tube into me…which explained what Zagine had said about my body being somewhere else and this being in my mind…
But if this was my mind…couldn't I change whatever I wanted to? If that was true then what had happened back in Eve's version of Eden made sense. When she had gotten angry or scared the colors of the sky had changed with her emotion. If that was true there, then wasn't it the same here?
I took a step back from the water and looked up at the sky. It was raining here, I could feel it as it splashed against my face and ran down my neck…but if I didn't want it to rain anymore, couldn't I just…make it so?
Seconds later the rain came to a slow and steady halt, the only sound left from it was the dripping of water as it fell from the dead tree branches.
And if that had worked…could I change other things as well? I concentrated hard and moments later the murky, red water thinned and turned the normal, glittering blue of a normal ocean. Little by little the world around me changed as I thought hard about what Eve's Eden had looked like. If I could imagine her Eden…then wouldn't she be there too?
As the sand shone in the new sunlight and the trees began to bud I felt an electric energy running through my body. I could control this-I could beat this…Zagine had been right, real or not. Yet there was something missing…
I thought hard before turning towards the stone slabs I had been standing on when I had first come to this place…and that's when it all broke…
There, lying face down on the broken slabs of stone, were my parents. Blood pooled beneath their bodies as my mother's hand reached out towards me-shaking as it did so. I felt the scream welling up in me as the world around me shattered into a thousand pieces.
The red water of the ocean churned back to life, storm clouds quickly rolled in and drenched me with rain, and all the leaves that had once been budding fell quickly to the ground-dry and dead. I stumbled backwards in the rough sand, my hands flying up to my mouth…and I was ten again…
"Mom!" My voice cried out in its younger form. "Dad! Wake up!"
I felt tears running down my face as I let out the scream that had been bottling up inside me. I ran forward, my feet splashing I the pools of blood as I fell at my mother's side. I watched as her eyes went blank and her hand fell just out of my reach, my father in worse condition. They were gone…
"No!" I cried as I grabbed her arm, shaking her as hard as I could. "No you can't leave me!"
I flinched at the sound of a cocking gun, my body shaking as my eyes turned to follow the noise. I stared down the barrel of a gun, my hands trembling as tears welled up in my eyes. He towered over me, his red eyes boring into mine as he smirked.
"Live or die," He said as his finger cocked the gun. "It's your choice, kid."
I took in a raking breath before the tears fell down my cheeks.
"This is your mind, kid," He spoke suddenly. "You can beat it."
My eyes widened as I realized what he was saying-as I remembered. It wasn't real…none of it…it wasn't real.
I felt my body and mind go back to normal, leaving my childhood self behind. Zagine's cold, calculating eyes were replaced by shaking, insane ones. The gun was replaced by a sword, and his familiar face was replaced by another familiar one.
"Creed…" I breathed as the tip of his sword stood centimeters away from my face.
"Train," He said, his voice maniacal as he laughed. "I've set you free from that witch's curse. We can finally be together!"
My eyes shakily moved from his face towards the place where my parents bodies had just been, only now there lay Saya. Her kimono was soaked in blood and her gun lay several feet away from her limp body. Her eyes caught mine before they weakly fell shut, her last breath leaving her body.
"NO!" I cried, jerking towards her but stopping when the blade of Creed's Kotetsu grazed my neck.
"Oh, come now, Train," He spoke softly, gracing the blade against my rigid neck. "You know where you belong."
"This-this-" I stuttered as my eyes fell on his again, lightning flashing-making them dilate. "This isn't real."
"Of course it is, Train," He spoke softly as he leaned forward and brushed his fingers against the side of my face.
"No," I shook my head, holding back the tears that so desperately needed to come. "No it's not."
"Yes," He lowered his blade as his face came close to mine, his hands holding my chin up. "There is nothing else for us but this."
"You're wrong," I almost sobbed, every memory welling up inside of me. "You're WRONG!"
The world around us exploded as I shouted my last word. Creed vanished along with Saya's body, and all sound ceased. The red water from the ocean swirled upwards, the droplets hanging in the water as if gravity didn't exist. The one dark sky exploded with light and everything around me vanished in a blinding, white glow.
"Train…" A voice called from far away, pulling me towards them. "Train, you have to wake up."
I felt my feet settling on the glowing, white ground beneath them without making a sound. I looked around slowly, squinting in the bright light as I tried to locate the owner of the voice.
"It's time to wake up, Train," The voice came again, only this time it was accompanied by footsteps.
I stood still as they came closer, their form growing larger in the blinding light until they stood in front of me, their features so familiar it was hard to accept.
"Saya…" I whispered, smiling for the first time since I had entered Eden.
"Hello, Train," She smiled back, cocking her head to the side so her hair framed her face. "I've missed you."
"I-I miss you too." My smile faltered.
"Don't be sad," Her smile widened as she reached out and took my hand in hers. "I had everything I'd ever wanted after I met you. I finally had a friend."
I couldn't find the words I so desperately needed to say in the moment…the things I had imagined saying in case I ever saw her again. None of it would come, it had all left me.
"Oh, Train," Her smile softened as her hand left mind and rested on the side of my face. "You've changed so much since I saw you last…haven't you?"
"I listened to what you said," I tried to smile again. "But I still miss you."
"Of course you do!" She laughed, tried to make a joke. "Besides, if you didn't I'd sure be mad at you."
"What do I do?" I asked suddenly. "What am I supposed to do?"
"This is your world," She replied, her hand falling from my face and taking mine again. "You can do whatever you want."
"But I don't understand what's going on," I shook my head, trying to clear it. "Doctor said something about Adam…about me being Adam."
"You are in your own way," She replied. "You have created your own world and are the Adam of it. But because you made Eden bigger by making your own world you've made it stronger…with you and Eve here it's complete."
"But there was another Adam in Eve's version of Eden." I replied, confused.
"He existed to trick you into creating your own world," She explained. "When Doctor sent you to Eden for the purpose of becoming its Adam he had to make you feel like you didn't belong in Eve's version of it because she already had someone else there in your place. Now that this place exists and now that you're in it Eden can feed off your mental energy…"
"So that's how it works?" I asked. "It's been using Eve and I to run itself?"
"Mmhm," She nodded, smiling at the fact that I finally got it.
"So what happens to us then?"
"If you stay here Eden will drain both you and Eve of all your energy…you'll die," She said sadly. "But without you Eden can't function. It'll die, which is why you have to stop it and leave this place."
"I know, but…I don't think I'm very good at this." I replied, looking around at the glowing white world.
"You're almost there," She winked at me before letting my hand go and taking a step back, her kimono beginning to blend in with the white light. "Just a few more steps."
"Saya don't go!" I moved towards her, but no matter how many steps I took I couldn't seem to get any closer.
"It'll be alright, Train," She smiled, her form harder to see. "You've always made it, and you always will…with or without me."
"But I don't-"
"You have to," She smiled sadly, her kimono almost impossible to make out as her voice began to fade. "Just make the right choice…when you finally have to."
Seconds later she was gone-the white light enveloping her entirely. I looked around frantically, hoping to see her standing behind me like she had always done when she had been alive…but she was nowhere to be seen. I felt the pain welling up inside my chest, making my throat tighten painfully as I tried to hold back all the emotions I was feeling.
I took in a deep, shaking breath as I tried to calm myself down.
"This is my world…" I repeated what both Zagine and Saya had told me. "I can make it what I want…"
I closed my eyes against the blinding, white light, concentrating hard on what I knew I had to do.
"This is my world…" I said it again, willing myself to believe it. "I need to find Eve…I need to leave…"
Imagines flashed through my mind like a never-ending film that refused to stop. My parents lying dead on the ground, Zagine pointing his gun in my face, Saya's blood on Creed's sword, Echidna pulling the trigger as she pressed her gun against Sven's head…the first man I ever kill…the last words Saya ever said to me…
Horrible, mind numbing images flashing through my mind refusing to stop. I muttered to myself as I tried my harder to ignore them-to block them out. They were trying to stop me from leaving, but I had to ignore it, I had to beat it.
"This is my world…" I almost yelled over all the noise of the memories in my head. "I can make it what I want…and I need to leave."
The memories only flew by faster, pausing at particularly horrible scenes. The sound was so loud it was deafening. Zagine lay before me bleeding…my mother reached out to me in her last minute of life…Saya lay limp in my arms…
"LET ME GO!" I screamed as loudly as I could.
The images in my head came a screeching halt before disappearing altogether. The world went silent again before shattered into a thousand pieces. I opened my eyes to see the white cracking and breaking away to reveal darkness beyond it… As the light faded I could barely make out something just beyond the darkness…someone standing there smiling, before she vanished into nothing.
I woke with a surge of oxygen in my lungs as I took a deep breath. I opened my eyes to the lab around me, the dim lights blinking as they monitored my vitals. The tube was still connected to my neck, and just beyond me stood the giant test tube that Eve was floating in.
Other than the incessant beeping of what I assumed was both mine and Eve's heart monitors the room lay in complete silence. I knew where I was, but the problem was…where was everyone else?
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Hey readers! So this is the latest chapter of my fanfic, and I hope you enjoyed! It's a little acid trippy, I know, but it's not like the ending of the anime wasn't too lol. I tried to go more in depth with Eden and made it more personal for both Eve and Train. I'm sorry Eve wasn't in this chapter much, not to mention Creed, Sven, or anyone else that wasn't Train, Zagine, or Saya. They'll be in the next chapter for sure, I swear (especially Creed)!
I've been in the mood to write this fanfic lately for a couple of reasons. I got the complete series of Black Cat for my birthday (the 12th) and I've been re-watching it so that's gotten me in the mood. I've also just gotten into that writing, mood, which is good even if I don't really have time to do it.
Things from here out get a bit insane with my schedule. I graduate on the 4th of May so I have to finish everything up before then…eek! But I can do it! I'm really hoping to write more in this story, because a) writing is a great de-stressor for me, and b) I WANT TO DAMMIT!
The story gets complicated from here on. I know exactly what's going to happen, which is a first for me. It's a big plot that involves Train making a VERY big decision that involves Creed. What is it? I'M NOT TELLING so XP! X3 You'll like I think, and if you don't like it, no worries because it'll be rectified in the sequel to this!
I hope the thing with Eden and Adam makes sense, if not here's the down low. Doctor initially had Eve in Eden so Eden itself could feed off her nano-machines, energy, etc. but it just wasn't enough. With Eve only in Eden the machine was running at half capacity (if even that), so he needed another. His perfect target would've been Train or Creed (which he'll explain later), but he figured Train would be best because of his personal drive to save Eve (emotional energy for Eden). So once Train was in Eden with Eve, Eden could feed off both of them and run at a much higher capacity. Given time Doctor probably would've put Creed in Eden as well. Doctor initially told Train he had to be Eden's Adam, and he was kind of right. When Train arrived in Eden (mentally) he arrived in Eve's version of it. In Eden you create your own version. Well, that was fine and all, but if Train were to use his mental energy and create a completely different version of Eden for just himself that would create even MORE energy for Eden to run off of. So, Eden, being the creature/machine thing it is, created a version of Adam in Eve's world. This made Train's existence in Eve's world (to Eve's mind) pointless so she basically kicked him out through Adam without realizing it. So therefore Train makes his own version of Eden, creating even more mental energy for Eden to run off of. The horrible memories are all creating by Train's mind of course, because what do you think about when you're totally alone with yourself? Bad memories generally…so there you have it. If that didn't confuse you then good job! Lol Cause I'm confused…haha. X 3
ANYWHO! I plan to update soon so stick with me everyone! The story is coming to a close in just a few chapters (and I REALLY mean it this time)! Well, see you all soon and THANK YOU FOR YOUR AWESOME REVIEWS!
-Train X3