EX2: Quasar

Before Chaldea, Loop Nineteen

"...How the hell did I let that woman talk me into this?" I wondered once again as I took another step along the steep mountain path. "Go to Atlas, she says! They're all about protecting the world from destruction, she says!"

My throat was so dry. It was so freaking hot - am I even going to be able to find the entrance before I die of thirst?

…

"GaaAAAHH! Aozaki, you bitch! I really thought I had gotten through to you, but in the end you just sent me off to die again, huh!?" I finally shouted, falling into a sitting position on a boulder.

I can't move my legs. Am I seriously going to die here, just like this?

…Fuck it. I had assumed Aozaki Touko was my best chance for someone I could reason with, compared to those Burial Agency psychos and the Chinese mages. But this was the fifth time she had responded to my good intentions with cold-blooded murder. I'd have to try the Church again. Maybe if I could split Mr. Dawn from his partner…

A shadow fell over me. "You got a little bit lost, didn't you?" It's a woman's voice.

Squinting, I looked up from my seat to see a purple-eyed woman with long purple twintails smiling down at me. Her skirt and blazer combo seemed ill-suited for these desert mountains, and her pale skin made it obvious she wasn't from town, which meant-

"Atlas…?" I rasped.

"Indeed, I am from the Atlas Institute! The director sent me to pick you up once he realized that you had not found the entrance." She responded, her smile getting a little shaky by the end of her second sentence. She extends a hand to me. "Can you stand?"

"Heh… who do you think you're talking to?" A smug grin settled on my face, and with a grin I pointed my thumb towards myself. "I'm Natsuki Subaru! Not only am I clueless, I also can't feel my legs in the slightest!"

She gave a small chuckle. "Then I am Sion Eltnam Sokaris! Not only am I a genius, I also have magecraft for just this situation! [Rain of Isis]!"

S-she responded in kind to my greeting! Could this be… one of my people?

"-But actually, that was all a joke! I do not actually want you to become my slave, so you can relax." My brief time with Sion during our walk into the Titan's Pit was indeed enough to confirm: just like me, this girl was a social moron! "Enough of that, though. What actually brings you here, Subaru?"

My face fell, a serious expression replacing my previous bemused grin. "It may be hard to believe, but… unless something is done to stop it, the world will end three months from now."

"Oh, I see." She accepted my words without a hint of doubt. "In that case, you are well suited to Atlas."

I ought to have felt relief at her words. Not even my own parents believed me instantly; to have someone finally just accept what I was saying should have been a breath of fresh air. But what I felt instead was a sense of vertigo. That answer wasn't right. It was at odds with every standard of common sense to simply accept a baseless assertion like that.

That was my first glimpse of the madness at the heart of the Atlas Institute.

I don't remember what we talked about after that. Sion led me through the winding tunnels of that place, I dimly recall, and after that, I wound up-

"...So this is the script I'm working with." The man I could only assume to be the Director of Atlas said as he turned away from - a crystal ball!? Seriously!? The blond man gave a self-satisfied smirk as he closed his blood red eyes. "Wonderful. I've been curious how this particular play would end for a few centuries now."

I blinked. I had thought, when Sion came to get me, that she was acting on Aozaki having sent a message ahead or something. But now it seems like… "What… do you mean by that, Director…?" I didn't actually know his name.

"Zepia Eltnam Atlasia," he answered, and once more he opened those eyes, prompting a shudder from me. But it was what he spoke next that truly unsettled me. "-In accordance with the request of the contract holder, the self-proclaimed Sage Flugel, I'll hand it over now."

My eyes widened. Barely, through gritted teeth, I spoke in reply, "What the hell… was that guy doing here?"

He was from Earth originally. I knew that. But judging by some of the things Shaula said, the guy had to have been from relatively recent times. We just arrived at different points in the timeline, or something. And yet, Zepia said he had arrived hundreds of years ago.

He withdrew something from a fold in his cloak. A palm-sized cube - probably silver, with black and white enamel in various places upon it. Something about the geometric designs on it evoked the appearance of a face - and then, to my shock, the moment he dropped it in my hand, the 'eyes' of said face opened

It blinked, once, turning in place to look back and forth. Something about its movements seemed reminiscent of the bad CGI in a low-budget movie. Finally, turning back towards me with an expression that seemed vaguely smug, it spoke.

"Oh, you're here." It - no, her voice was familiar. "I've been waiting a pretty long time, you know." Using 'boku' instead of 'watashi' again, huh?

I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose. "I'm gonna punch that guy if we ever meet." Why the hell would he leave me something like this!? Putting aside the how, why did the voice from that world to find me in this one have to be hers?

"I won't oppose you getting angry on my behalf," she said. "He was cruel enough to abandon me here even after saying that in the best case I'd never meet you! Isn't that just-!"

"-Shut the hell up, Echidna." I finally said. "And quit it with the 'boku' thing, I'm already aware of your true nature."

"Right, you'd have to be pretty far along to meet Pandora," she replied pensively. "Oh, by the way, the name Flugel gave me was Quasar."

"Like I care, Boxdona." I shot back without mercy.

"Hm? I'm curious about that hostility of yours. Did my original screw things up somewhere along the line?" Boxdona asked.

"It's that damned curiosity of yours that's the problem! What you did to Beatrice-!" I started to say.

"-I don't know who that is, sorry." She cut me off. "I don't actually have most of the original's memories, after all. I'm just a pseudo-personality created based on Flugel's impressions of the Witch Echidna."

"That's pretty damn convenient for you, isn't it!?" I shouted.

The sound of clapping finally drew my attention away from the box. "Amusing! Very amusing!" Zepia said, grinning. "But I do have an apocalypse to avert, so as pleasant as this has been, I must ask you to leave my office."

"-Right! Three months from now-!" I start to say.

"The one I am working to avert kicks in two weeks from now," He said simply. "You are not unique, I'm afraid. There is only one alchemist in Atlas not presently working to avert some sort of disaster - that's why I could send her to get you."

…

At my despondent face, he let out a small chuckle. "Well, I won't leave you completely high and dry. Go find Sion, Natsuki Subaru. Tell her I asked for her to help you. It's time that daughter of mine started putting in some hours."

My memories past that point are scattered. Sion taught me a few things, but I can't really recall most of them. I learned Quasar was a replica of one of Atlas's Superweapons, Logos React. A sort of magical supercomputer, used to simulate possible outcomes in the real world. She guessed that it was similar in principle to Echidna's [Book of Wisdom], but as she'd never actually seen the thing she couldn't say for certain. Of course, as a replica she was inferior to the original - but she still offered some assistance.

"There's a person called the Kaleidoscope at the Clock Tower, capable of accessing Parallel worlds. If you want to get back to Lugunica, maybe we should try talking to him? I admit, I'm pretty curious about it myself… But considering the time you've already spent here I doubt you'll be able to become prominent enough for us to meet with him before [Apocalypse Conflagration] kicks in," She offered at some point in the second month.

"Oi, bring that up sooner, dammit!" I complained.

"I would have, but you'd have just abandoned me, right?" She answered. "You only really started trusting me in the past two weeks."

"Like hell I trust you," I retorted. But in the end, she was right in a way. I guess Natsuki Subaru just isn't the type to hate those he has regular exposure to.

"In any case, I do have a tentative plan," Quasar said. "To avert the disaster, I mean. It'll be risky, though."

"I'm the type of guy who works best with risky plans. What have you got?" I said.

"We steal [RESTITVTOR ORBIS]. Or rather, the axe [Fleur de Lys]. [Apocalypse Conflagration] goes against any kind of common sense; with that superweapon active, it should be forestalled indefinitely." She replied. "Of course, it's dangerous. You'll definitely have to die a few times. But you can just use the extra time to learn more about alchemy, right?"

Against my better judgment, I agreed with her plan.

Needless to say, I died horribly. It's easy to enter Atlas, but leaving is all but impossible. Leaving with a superweapon in tow? I was slaughtered before I had the chance to blink.

-And then I found myself floating outside my body. Unable to speak. Unable to do anything but observe as my bloodied body slowly dried.

"What will you do now, I wonder?" Quasar asked - and in that moment, I felt all my hatred for Echidna return. I should have known better than to trust her. I should have known better, but I walked into it anyway.

Silence followed that for a long time. I couldn't do anything. I simply floated there, unable to return. Later, I would realize that Atlas's defenses had made it impossible for me to Return by Death - it was only after the incineration of humanity that they failed and I was able to return once more.

But for the time being, all I knew was despair. Had Satella abandoned me? It was Quasar's fault. It was all her fault, for talking me into this. Slowly, something about 'me' began to corrode.

She finally spoke again at some point.

"Ah… why does love always fade?"

French Singularity, Loop Twenty-Four

Francois Prelati

"That was some dream, huh?" I mutter, yawning. The dream cycle sure is great! "But, you know, that woman was pretty shallow."

Love doesn't fade. Love goes on forever and ever. Because love, real love, is to enjoy the way your love changes you, and the way you change your love.

"That's why, Subaru… just you wait." I'll show you the true depths of my love. All the way to the very bottom of hell.

Loop Twenty-Seven

It can't end here. No way, no way, no way! I haven't even begun yet!

Subaru catches my knife with his whip, and the next moment, his fist meets my face. My eye bursts and something ruptures in my brain - but there! He reinforced! He reinforced, right!?

The [Curse of the Evil Eye] I stole via Bael finds its mark as I laugh, teetering on the edge of the Pequod's railing - now I just need to - just need to-!

Wait, am I falling?

Am I really going to die like this? That's just right, if I had to lose! It'll be grisly, wonderfully violent and horrible!

My limbs are broken as the fogbound tentacles grasp and crush them.

You can't have killed many people, Natsuki Subaru. You're not the type. So scar this murder into your psyche! Come on, you hate me, right? So burn this into your heart!

This is love! This is the change I will make upon you!

…Hey, where is he?

My stomach bursts as my organs are squeezed out into the fog.

Where are you, Subaru? Shouldn't you be looking down at me? Come on, this is the death you caused, don't you want to see it!?

My ribs shatter and my lungs are crushed.

Don't you hate me? Don't you know I love you?

My head is torn off my shoulders, and I can't even scream anymore.

…Why won't you look at me?

Fog fills my vision, and then-

Nothing.