Chapter 57: Who You Are Inside
"Mmmrrr…"
A young man of eastern descent opened his eyes slowly, a throbbing pain in his head growing the more of his surroundings he took in.
The sounds of light rain beat against a metal wall. It's cold. His arms, his legs, no, his entire body felt stiff as a lumber log.
But he still wore his military gear, a gift for his loyalty to Dregs…
Was he armed just to confirm his own helplessness? The chains that bound him were locked around a metal pillar, and his body was suspended a few feet off the ground.
Judging from the lack of buildings outside the windows and the high clouds, this had to be a high floor in a building.
He couldn't make out much else…just this faint startup noise, followed by an engine whirring to life.
Then, came a flash of blue light from a figure just a few feet in front of him, and his heart raced and he started kicking his legs with effortful grunts.
The tall, lanky, mechanical figure snatched his legs mid-kick and held him still, with a distorted voice, lacking in gender, talking to him from the machine's insides, "There's no use flailing. Save your energy."
"Y-You…! The metal killer!" He spoke up with a slight attempt at an American accent.
S.A.N.C.T.U.M. let go of the soldier's legs and internalized a conversation with his master, "Is there any chance this one will speak willingly?"
"Doubt it," Lunalei remarked confidently on the other end, "The other six haven't."
S.A.N.C.T.U.M. raised his right hand towards his face, and a faint glow exuded off his palm.
"All your systems are running smoothly, S.A.N.C.T.U.M. If there's anything you want to tell me now…"
"...This is still a strange feeling to get used to. As though…I, a machine, am committing blasphemy."
"Lucky for you, S.A.N.C.T.U.M., you don't have to fear the verdict of either God or the Devil."
"Then does guilt have no meaning either, master?" S.A.N.C.T.U.M. pondered in a deep, burdened tone.
"...Honestly, that doesn't feel like a question I'm qualified to answer right now. Just remember that so far, what we've done has not caused permanent harm to the target's minds."
The machine nodded, mystifying their chained victim, "It is slight relief upon my conscience, yes. Sorry for my musings, master. Let us press on."
S.A.N.C.T.U.M. extended his hand towards the victim's face and they tried to remain brave with a roar, "You Americans are deluded if you think torture will make my tongue spill! Cut my legs! Splinter my spine! I shall honor the oath I have taken!"
"Fortunately for you, I don't utilize torture," Lunalei remarked directly to the prisoner, "What you're about to experience is the evolution of intel gathering."
S.A.N.C.T.U.M.'s hand glowed as Lunalei guided him along, "Alright, remember, once you make facial contact I'll reverse the neural flow for thirty seconds."
"...Begin!" Her machine made contact and upon flipping the switch, S.A.N.C.T.U.M. became host to the prisoner's recent, scattered thoughts.
But upon recognizing the man's activities as a Dregs agent within the maelstrom of thoughts, the machine learned the proper way to go and focused in on them.
In what felt like a period of time no faster than a flicker of light, he withdrew his hand from the person's face and stood there motionless as the energy burned in his palm from the information overload.
The prisoner let out a few drops of sweat, but was otherwise registered as having a normal heartbeat and body temperature within seconds.
"...Good work, S.A.N.C.T.U.M." Lunalei said, exasperated that this crazy idea of hers was actually working, and if she could there'd be a grin of pride on her face.
The machine moved away from the prisoner, who tried to process the aftereffects of what happened, "W-What did you do to my thoughts?!"
S.A.N.C.T.U.M. glanced over his shoulder and Lunalei spoke on his behalf, "The police will arrive here shortly to take you in. You're welcome to tell them about us. But face it…"
S.A.N.C.T.U.M. pointed at the nearby window as Lunalei muttered coldly, "No one will believe you."
S.A.N.C.T.U.M. then ejected the excess energy as a propulsion blast to shatter the window, where he jumped out and took off across the city just as police cars rode up to the building.
The machine landed on a familiar rooftop, now meant to be occupied solely by his presence.
He surveyed the area until Lunalei bluntly remarked, "He's not going to show up."
"And that…doesn't bother you." He said.
"...Right now all that matters is that he's alive. I owe him…and Violet…that much," Lunalei let out a sigh, "Let's review the memory data we've collected so far."
"Yes. Perhaps this'll be enough to determine a connection."
"I hope so, we've been lucky to find this many stray Dregs soldiers in the city as is." Though in the back of her mind, she wondered if that was intended…
But that was impossible. The enemy couldn't have known she was capable of doing this now.
The data appeared in fragments, and Lunalei steeled her resolve. This wasn't like browsing through the internet. She couldn't just narrow down what she was after via keywords.
She'd have to try and weave through the fragments and find a connecting tissue on her own.
And doing this meant S.A.N.C.T.U.M. would have to be still for a bit, otherwise it'd run the risk of his energy use interfering with the program.
There was a lot of confusion amongst the grunts about what they were planning to do about the "metal killer" after they lost two of their strongest warriors.
Someone seemed to be organizing plans, but they remained out of sight.
One thing she noticed in the foreground of these memories were plans of the city and some of its buildings.
There was no zooming in when it came to the human perception, she'd have to operate on a guess on what the building names were.
"S.A.N.C.T.U.M., I need you to run a few names through for me…" After Lunalei projected her thoughts to her best of memory, her partner did the heavy work.
Lunalei put the memory hunt on hold to examine the buildings, and found a common thread between them, "...These places are either slated to be abandoned, or have been already…"
"Meaning?" S.A.N.C.T.U.M. remarked with sincere curiosity.
"..." Lunalei wanted to give herself a slap on the head, "Meaning I've been so focused on the enemy's movements that I didn't take the time to determine a pattern."
"Ugh…! It's so obvious now. Of course they'd target abandoned places to hide the supply crate."
"But correct me if I'm wrong, didn't Mark say that very crate was in the museum the day it burned down?"
"Yeah, that's the only thing that's not adding up. Maybe this modus operandi was a recent switch BECAUSE of what happened there."
"Then, is this still worth pursuing?"
"Absolutely. In fact, if I had to bank on any of their options being where they're holed up next…it's the abandoned parking lot connected to the old train station."
"And if I'm wrong, it's early in the night. We can search elsewhere."
"Whatever the case. Get into Swordmaster Mode, S.A.N.C.T.U.M." Upon her command, he nodded and shifted forms, then flew through the quiet city night sky towards their destination.
A rundown parking lot with a few old cars left to rust and break down stood in front of them on the ground level, but Lunalei cast doubt at initial appearances.
"Hold on…" She double-checked her data on this place, "Bingo. There's a couple underground floors here."
"Be prepared for anything…" She gave as a final warning, hoping that'd be enough to get his thoughts off of wandering.
He advanced into the building and it wasn't long before they noticed there was no way to enter the underground area.
"Hm, way to confirm our suspicions," Lunalei noted, but was glad to wreck the house a little bit, "Time to break in, and clean up whatever we find."
"As you wish, master." S.A.N.C.T.U.M. slashed at the ground to break through, and after falling down two floors they crashed in the middle of a plume of rock and dust.
He drew his swords but the fact of the matter was that there was no immediate gunfire on them.
He kept one sword raised regardless and pushed out of the dust cloud, confirming that there were indeed Dregs soldiers stationed in this building.
"Master, they aren't attacking." He remarked.
"I can see that," She replied with a slight bite, "Hmmm…Let me run a scan."
In the meantime, she noticed that there was a stack of ammo crates in the back of the area, along with the main supply crate they've been hunting for so damn long.
S.A.N.C.T.U.M. advanced, but pivoted their upper body in all directions.
"Not reading anything abnormal in the air. This isn't an optical illusion." As odd as it would be for that to affect a robot, after the last few encounters, she couldn't take that risk.
"Then they're real soldiers? But they're practically…zombies."
"I don't think that's what we're dealing with. Flash some lights on their bodies, S.A.N.C.T.U.M." Upon doing that, it showed that the soldiers had discolored skin but no signs of decay.
"...Not even light made them react, huh?" Lunalei fed into her curiosity and guided her creation closer with a warning, "Keep one sword out. I need you to make contact."
He reached out for the closest figure and tried to turn them on the shoulder. They were all too compliant, but then continued to walk forward with an ammo crate in hand.
S.A.N.C.T.U.M. got out of their way and tried to reach out for another figure, this time applying enough pressure to halt their movements.
Still no response.
"...This worries me. Are we sure they're still alive?"
"They are…s-somehow." This was where her lack of interest in biology damned her a bit. This was more…her father's business.
"We need to examine as much of the body as we can, starting with the face."
While he got into position, kneeling down before the body, she decided to run another scan, "Temperature, brain waves, all of it's reading…normal?"
"...Wait a minute. The heartbeat, listen in."
She raised the volume on that until S.A.N.C.T.U.M. commented, "A scratching sound?"
"Hmmm…" Her creation went eye level with the soldier's face, the eyes themselves having a silver-blue fog.
"These are the only two abnormalities so far, and I don't know what to make of it. They ARE still functioning like they're alive and healthy. But it's like…their bodies are being commanded."
"Then not zombies so much as puppets, or dolls…Or…" S.A.N.C.T.U.M. paused for an uncomfortably long time, placing a hand on his chest.
As much as Lunalei wanted to grab the crate and get out of here, this scenario put a wrench in those plans. There could be something much, much worse at play.
"...If their brains are still active, then we can try the reverse neural link to fish for memories."
S.A.N.C.T.U.M. remained unresponsive.
"Do you need a moment?" Lunalei said, forcing him to stand.
"...I am terribly sorry, Master."
"It bothers me too. "are you sure" So don't…"
Lunalei had her sights linger on the other side of the parking lot.
A tangled mess of roots with a few rusted bells dangling off them floated in the darkness.
"...Worry?" She muttered with a chill in her body.
A chill? But…how could that…
"Master?" S.A.N.C.T.U.M.'s voices distorted into a slower, deeper pitch, and by the time the word had passed, that tangled mess of roots was gone.
"...Let's begin the procedure." She remarked, keeping herself level-headed.
"R-Right…" S.A.N.C.T.U.M. prepared his palm and rested it against the soldiers' face. Still, they didn't react.
"Alright, I'm starting it up."
The process went underway and once it was over, S.A.N.C.T.U.M. stood up and let the man pass.
"Let me know if you find anything, master." He remarked in a perturbed tone.
After a few moments with no response, "...Master?"
"It's alright, S.A.N.C.T.U.M., I'm here. It's just going to take me a while to process this data. Stay on patrol in the meantime." Lunalei began browsing through the memory fragments, but as she did thin and tangled black roots began to surround the images.
"Hmmm…" She focused solely on the images, as her body continued to feel cold.
"This isn't right…Is there an error in the pod?"
"Hold on, S.A.N.C.T.U.M., I'm going to disconnect for one minute to check the temperature balancer." She broke the link before waiting out his response and then opened the pod, proceeding to the backside of the machine.
There were very thin roots crawling out of the gaps in the metal floor which she brushed aside with her foot before bending down near the vent, checking on a gauge beside it.
"No, everything's checking out here…Hmmm…"
Her lips felt a little parched, so she went to the nearby sink to get a cup of water.
She filled it up and drank it down in one gulp.
The blood going down her throat was just the refresher she needed.
When she turned around though, the pod had vanished into thin air.
She dropped the glass atop the ever-growing floor of black roots and ran to the pod's location.
She patted her hands against empty air until realizing that all her surroundings were now pitch-black, and filled with a haunting cold.
Her heartbeat quickened and she pulled out her secondary communicator, "S.A.N.C.T.U.M.! Something is happening at my location! Hurry back, stat! I repeat! Hurry! Back!"
What responded was scratchy, labored breathing, followed by pin-sized threads of black, metallic matter unraveling from the mouthpiece, and latching onto the side of her mouth.
"A-Ah…!"
"it taste…good…?"
She was forced around to start into a tangled mass of black roots, with a single yellow eye throbbing in the middle.
"The BLOOD of your JUSTICE?!"
"AAAAAH!" Lunalei awoke to a cold, gut-wrenching scream in the comfort of her bed.
She focused on her window, seeing the sun shining red on this warm and foggy morning.
"...T-That was just a bad dream…"
She then reached for her glasses, only to realize they were already on her face.
She patted her cheeks and looked down. Her eyes shifted between visualizing her night clothes and her regular clothes.
She once again tried to pull out her communicator and shout, "S.A.N.C.T.U.M.! It's a trap! S-Someone has managed to infiltrate the pod!"
"Who is S.A.N.C.T.U.M.?" Her father's voice spoke out as a faint echo, as he slowly manifested into existence through the foggy room, sitting atop a chair.
Lunalei dropped the communicator, which faded into mist, and found her mind failing to listen to logic, "D-D-Dad…?"
"Master?! Master?!"
S.A.N.C.T.U.M. stood alone, seeing constant "Error" messages in his field of vision mentioning that the neural link is suffering feedback problems.
As is by his very design, he immediately locked onto the coordinates of her pod and prepared to take flight.
"Hold on…" He whispered in concern.
The moment he launched towards the hole, a hulking white figure blitzed him out of the sky and smashed him against the floor.
"Ghh…!"
Three boney claw-like appendages protruded out and pinned him down around the neck, with the fourth scratching against the bottom of his chin.
Hunched over him was a bone-made beast with large, hollowed eye sockets and a skull painted in various spots. The back of the skull was slightly triangular.
It was taller than him, but lankier, with a torso shaped like an alien exoskeleton and limbs that looked like exposed human muscles.
With three-toed feet, elongated like a raptor's, there was truly nothing about this beast that seemed human. Even what little there was, seemed to exist solely to mock the design.
This was the "White Devil" that plagued Mark's nightmares, and foiled his master's efforts time and time again.
And now, caught alone, with no guidance to speak of, the machine found his circuits experiencing a newly fabricated emotion.
Yes, this is what the human mind would quantify as: "Fear".
His programming forced him to fight back and push the Devil's grip off so slightly, "L-Let me go!"
"Where is the 'hero' now, you guideless machine?" The Devil spoke, and again, brought confusion upon the complex mix of emotions the machine felt.
"Y-You're speaking in…binary?" He uttered.
"I warned them to stop playing games. They earned their fate." The Devil said, seeming to ignore the machine's plights.
S.A.N.C.T.U.M. pressed against his enemy's force again to no avail, "What did you do to my master?!"
The Devil then reacted properly, "You're lucky, machine. Godless as you are, you will leave this world unburdened by those concerns."
S.A.N.C.T.U.M. stabbed his sword into the beast's right shoulder, only for the blade to bounce off.
The Devil extended more bone spikes from its arms and legs to pin the machine down, "Mind, body, soul. You stand in the presence of the unbreakable, machine."
"Now…" The Devil applied pressure all across S.A.N.C.T.U.M.'s body, breaching the bottom of his chin first, "Let us find your breaking point."
What could he do but succumb? Before, he was confident in the guidance of his master. Now, he didn't even hear her whisper.
For the first time in his life, S.A.N.C.T.U.M. expressed a thought, an instinct firing inside his engine.
And with only one desire, programmed into his very fibers, he would execute it forthright.
"I refuse!" He shouted, switching to Pursuit Mode and immediately compressing the gravity boosters towards his back, shattering a deep crater into the concrete and shoving the Devil off.
He then rammed him into the ceiling until over his head, upon which he compressed the boosters into his elbows and punched the Devil back into the ground.
But he simply landed on his feet, hunched on all fours.
S.A.N.C.T.U.M. landed and drew his swords, only to pause with a gasp, "...No, I will not entertain you now, beast."
He tried to make another exit, only for a spear of bone to extend across his flight path, and then grow to form an anchor which hooked him in and dragged him down to the Devil's level.
The Devil grabbed him by the waist and jumped, hurtling his heavy body around with the ease of a gymnast before slamming S.A.N.C.T.U.M. into the ground.
"Why do you assume you have the illusion of choice, machine? This is the fate of all those who stand in the way of Dregs' justice, MY justice…!"
S.A.N.C.T.U.M managed to push him off before his pressure proved too much, and then upon the beast leaping back he pointed his sword at him limply.
"Hrrr…Justice is not something I understand. I follow only my master's definition…"
"As I've come to see though, 'justice' can be defined by every person in their own way. Perhaps yours is superior. I am in no position to judge."
He locked his feet into place and turned up his engine, "I was created for the purpose of protecting my master from threats! So I will get past you to save her!"
The Devil rose and wiggled his boney fingers, "Her…you say."
"Oh…no…" Uttered S.A.N.C.T.U.M.
"Then that explains Claire's actions that day…" The Devil then hunched over and protruded spikes from its shoulders.
S.A.N.C.T.U.M charged at his enemy in hopes of staggering them long enough to make a breakthrough.
The Devil launched his spikes into the ceiling and one tug of its body brought it down on top of the machine.
S.A.N.C.T.U.M attempted to use his boosters to propel dust and debris as a shroud, only for the Devil to stab a bone spear into his chest that forced him against the wall.
The Devil lunged forward like a breaching shark and pounded the machine's chest with thick, jagged protrusions.
He then stood back and hit him with slow, heavy blows that further broke down the wall behind him.
He then lurched back and created a one story tall cleaver out of the bones in both hands.
S.A.N.C.T.U.M wondered what his master would do in this situation for him.
"Of course!"
He used his auditory receptors to stimulate the sounds of her taking a deep breath to calm herself, and focused on the incoming blade.
He swung his swords out to the right and boosted forward, grinding down the boney blade with all the force his joints could handle.
As he heard a snap from his body, he breached the edge of the blade to try and cut through the Devil.
But he fell short, in a disastrous way.
Bones rose from the beast's feet and stabbed him all over his body. Though he couldn't not experience pain, watching his body continue to fail him against his foe was disappointing nonetheless.
And the Devil did not stop swinging his blade until it hit the machine's back, and he spun him around and around through the walls.
Once he tired of this game he thinned his sword down to a pole and clocked the machine in the neck, jerking on the wires between there and his head.
The Devil turned and fused the fingers on one hand into a claw that grabbed S.A.N.C.T.U.M. by the waist the minute he rose, and rammed him against what remained of the ceiling and floor.
He then pulled him in closer and slowly dragged his spear-tipped hand across his face. Alas, he was unable to scratch it.
"Time is running out," The Devil taunted without a shred of emotion, "Will she go first…or you?"
S.A.N.C.T.U.M. ran the calculations through his systems…whichever of them still functioned under duress.
Verdict: He cannot win
One second…all he needed was one second to escape, and this Devil couldn't even grant him that.
He understood there was something called "Determination" that gave heroes a second wind to overcome impossible odds.
…But he was a machine. With all the limitations that entailed.
"M-Master I'm…s-sorry…"
…
Lunalei stared into her father's eyes and for a second, doubted that she was seeing him.
"W-Why am I here?" She muttered, her voice carrying an echo.
Reasoning flickered in her mind for a moment, "S.A.N.C.T.U.M.?! Where is he?!"
Her dad hung his head in shame, "Still talking like that after all these years…Haaa…"
Lunalei's pupils shrank and she got out of bed immediately.
Her dad turned the other way, exhausted as he whispered, "I tried to raise you right. And I always thought…it was my failure as a parent that made you this way."
"...D-Dad, what do you mean?" Lunalei reached her hand out slowly.
"But I was wrong," He spoke independently of her plea, his voice becoming hollow and detached from any reason to care, "You…were born wrong."
Lunalei's heart sank and she jumped forward, grabbing her father's hand, "Dad, no! I-I…you would NEVER say that…!"
His touch was like solid ice, his eyes lacking in either color or light.
He faced her, nevertheless, and shook his head, "Who…are you?"
Lunalei grit her teeth as the door to her room was kicked down by two police officers wearing full masks, "Lunalei Whiter. You're under arrest for countless charges of reckless child endangerment, manslaughter, and property damages."
Her dad then shoved her to the ground and scoffed, "Simply, Lunalei, officers…This is…no child of mine."
Lunalei scrambled to her feet and the cops cuffed her as she tried to reach out for her dad, thorns protruding into her wrists.
"Come quietly, MuRDerEr."
"DAD!" Lunalei screamed as tears flew from her eyes, and she was dragged out of her room.
The next thing she knew, she was being pulled out of her house in front of a line-up of family members.
Her mother was wearing all black and holding onto a framed picture as her dad tried to comfort her, but she brushed him off and screamed, "You said everything would be ok! B-But now I'm losing another…!"
"A-Another?" Lunalei tried to look at the picture but all she saw was a face that was smeared clean off surrounded by brown hair.
"S-S-Stella?" Fighting against the steady, agonizing pull of the officers she shouted, "What happened to Stella?!"
"What happened to Stella?! What happened to Stella?!" Came Zelene's voice in a shrill, mocking tone, "NOW the little BRAT cares about her 'sister'!"
Zelene scowled so tight, "You said you would find her…You said you would solve all the problems!"
"But you're no hero…" She murmured, stretching her arm out towards the horizon.
Lunalei watched as multiple cities were set on fire in the distance, military helicopters flying in just to die to a machine rampaging through the sky and ground without mercy.
Lunalei received a pat on the back and looked over her shoulder to see her senpai smiling.
Lunalei's gut twisted and churned, "N-No, not you too…"
"Hey, I gave you a second chance!" Her senpai said in a perfectly peppy tone, "But you screwed it up! Not me!"
She then shoved her down the path towards the police car, "Take her away, officers!"
The last twist of the knife was Xander cowering behind Zelene's legs and crying in fear.
She dragged her feet through the rest of the trip, where the officers threw her not into the car, but a small rat cage.
Then they put said cage in the car, where she grabbed the prickly, black rooted netting and started shaking, "This isn't right! I did nothing wrong! W-Why won't anyone listen to me?!"
Her voice was so small, she…was so small.
The officers went into the front and buckled up, where the driver finally took off their mask to reveal…
Hamazaki, his face now that of a burning specter with a hole still punctured through his skull.
"Hell…was made for you and I."
The car went speeding at thousands of miles per hour straight off the planet's surface and towards a planet made of pure hellfire.
Lunalei felt cold all over, as the meshing of the cage advanced inward, that yellow eye growing in the center to stare her down.
"Ah…ah…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
"embrace the nightmare…"
…
S.A.N.C.T.U.M. felt the fibers in his waist fracturing as the Devil's pressure continued to grow, rivaling even the strongest hydraulic presses.
Strength, brutality, mercilessness. And on top of all that: Patience.
The Devil had every element needed to dismantle him like he was a newly made toy on the test field.
And he had doubts that even if his master was by his side, they would have stood a chance of winning.
The Devil then took a momentary pause and looked at the ground, where dozens of unpinned grenades rolled up around him.
S.A.N.C.T.U.M. looked at the back of the parking lot and saw Mark had knocked down one of the soldiers and plundered his crate for these grenades.
Frantically and desperately taking the pins off with his teeth and throwing them, Mark paused just long enough to shout, "GET OUT OF HERE AND SAVE YOUR MASTER!"
"You…!" The Devil growled in disbelief.
The grenades exploded all over the Devil, and though they did no damage to him the floor crumbling set him off-balance enough for S.A.N.C.T.U.M. to free himself and start flying around the beast.
The Devil spread his bones like a web to suspend himself on the edge of the crater, but Mark simply kept throwing more grenades to break away at the ground.
S.A.N.C.T.U.M. passed him to utter in relief "Thank you…" before flying away to safety.
Mark trembled and raised another grenade at his enemy, a mix of rage and loss in his eyes.
A bone shot through the grenade and pinned it to the wall before it could explode, and then the Devil stood before him in the blink of an eye.
Towering like he rose out of fire, the beast looked at him, his emotions unknown.
And despite the imposing threat he was, Mark…didn't feel the chill of death down his spine.
The beast, for all the anger he was warranted, simply let out a frustrated growl and turned the other way.
"I'm not here to spill innocent blood. Go on, officer. You have only bought those two a little extra time."
Confused, Mark swung his clenched fist and shouted, "HEY!"
The Devil paused.
"Innocent blood…? You killed my wife!"
The Devil looked over his shoulder, "And you want answers."
Mark clenched his teeth, feeling as though the beast was mocking him.
"...Why can't you just be satisfied with what you still have?"
All this time he waited for this confrontation, and in the end…he didn't know what he expected, but it was NOT this.
"J-Just…why can't you tell me?" Mark pleaded.
The Devil turned the other way, "Tell the machine's master…that I will be waiting for them here."
"...No more running then, huh?" Mark swung his fist down by his hip and turned for the way out with a scowl, "Fine…WE will be back. And I will get answers from you!"
He left the area, and the Devil shook his head, "I guess it can no longer be helped…"
Speeding through the air at blistering speeds, S.A.N.C.T.U.M. dove into the hidden facility his master was holed up in and saw that the pod was still active.
"Master!" He shouted, connecting his five fingers to the outlet on the right side.
"Emergency override initiated! Emergency override initiated!"
Once the pod was opened enough, S.A.N.C.T.U.M. reached in and pulled his master out of her seat.
Her eyes, at the time vacant, suddenly rapidly blinked as she let out a gasp of air.
After surveying her surroundings she screamed at the top of her lungs, "Put me down, PUT ME DOWN!"
S.A.N.C.T.U.M. complied, and immediately Lunalei stumbled against the side of the pod and collapsed onto her knees gasping for air.
"W-What the hell….w-what the hell…" Her body was shaking off the cold, abnormal feeling little by little, whispers plaguing her mind.
"you'll be back…happy sleep…!"
"SHUT UP!" Lunalei punched the side of the pod and bruised her hand.
"Master…!" S.A.N.C.T.U.M. shouted in concern.
She turned with a feral glare and then after their eyes locked, she pitifully bit her lower lip and stood up, holding onto her right arm.
"...I-I…don't know what to say…" She muttered.
"...We were both made fools tonight," The machine remarked, "The Devil was there…and he nearly destroyed me…"
Lunalei took a brief look at the damages done to him and scowled, "G-Great…"
"FUCK!" She roared.
After a few steps she remarked, "It wasn't just him…there had to be another person with powers there…t-they sent me into a nightmare. A nightmare so…so real…"
"B-But it couldn't be I…why would I…" Lunalei grabbed her arms and trembled.
"Master, besides those puppeteered soldiers and the Devil…there was no one else there."
"We haven't FOUND them yet, that's all!" Lunalei proclaimed, "And when I do…Ghhh…how DARE they mess with my head like that!"
"..." She laid her hand on the side of the pod and stood up with a deep breath, "...We need to come up with a plan for next time."
"There's…one last thing I should note, master."
"What." Lunalei responded bluntly.
"...It was…Mark, who gave me the opening to escape."
"..." Lunalei then let out a very loud sigh and reached into her pocket to pull out her phone and dial the communicator he should still have on hand.
Once the ringing stopped she remarked, "Hey, are you still alive?"
"W-What…? Oh. S-So…S.A.N.C.T.U.M. got to you in time. That's a relief…"
Lunalei furrowed her brows and sighed, "Yeah, barely. Anyways, that's all I needed to confirm. Later."
"Wait…!"
She cut him off and put the phone away, "I'm exhausted. S.A.N.C.T.U.M., return to your station and await repairs. I need to get some rest before I formulate our next move…"
"Master?" S.A.N.C.T.U.M. whispered.
"Huh?" Lunalei looked back one more time.
"I was…scared for you."
"...I'm…sorry you had to worry about me. I won't let it happen again," Lunalei got through that as best she could, and then waved her hand up and headed for the teleporter, "Seriously, take it easy."
The two parted ways, and though the night was still young, the nightmare had only just begun…
Next Time: What The Mind Perceives