-Faith, Love, and Forgiveness - Chapter Fifteen: Sacrifice-
Diclonius Research Institute - Forty-five minutes later
As soon as the boat reached the small dock, Lucy jumped out, using her vectors to launch herself over the electrified fence and ran straight for the facility's employee entrance.
"Nyu, wait! Where the hell are you going?!" Yuka yelled.
"Come on, we have to go after her!" Nana said.
"You three go on ahead. I'll wait here, just incase we gotta bail out of here in a hurry." Bando told them.
Mayu smiled, "Thank you, for everything." then turned and ran up the steps, following Nana and Yuka to the Institute's electric perimeter fence. With no time to look for a legitimate way in, the Sipelit tore a gap out of it wide enough for them to get through. Once the reached the facility itself, they had another problem to worry about.
"Damn it, Lucy! Why'd you have to run off like that?!"
The group looked from the employee entrance, to the main entrance, and then to fortified, secure partition entrance.
"Which one did Nyu go through?" Mayu asked.
"I got a good feeling she went in through the main entrance." Nana said. "She couldn't have gotten through the partition, and she doesn't work there, right?"
Though unconvinced, Yuka and Mayu followed her through the main entrance. The moment they stepped inside, they were immediately caught by security who, seeing Nana was clearly a Diclonius, opened fire, forcing her to both protect the three of them, and incapacitate the guards without killing any of them.
When the dust settled, the five guards were down, but not seriously injured.
"What the hell, Nana?!" Mayu yelled.
"Oops..." Nana giggled nervously. "I guess I was wrong..."
"Yeah, I'd say that's obvious!" Yuka glared
"A-Anyway... we better hurry." Nana said.
Lucy, meanwhile, was faring much better than they were. Be it luck or divine intervention, she made it to the employee entrance just in time to see one of the guards heading back inside. She waited until he pulled out his key card before making her move.
"Excuse me!"
"Ye-"
The moment he turned around, her vectors grabbed him and brutally bashed his head against the wall. She tried her best to make sure the blow wouldn't be fatal, but if it was, she'd just apologize to Kouta later (though she knew that under the circumstances, there was no way he would hold it against her). Taking advantage of the nearby dumpster, she used her vectors to drop the unconscious guard inside, and repositioned the camera aimed at the door while she was at it.
She opened the door with her newly acquired key card and slipped inside. Once she was in, the Diclonius found herself in a short hallway that apparently served as a sort of checkpoint for security. In the middle was a pair of metal detectors. At the opposite end of the hallway was a set of double-doors.
To the left was what looked like a reception window, to the right was a desk for whichever guard got stuck manning the checkpoint. Thankfully, the desk was vacant, but she could see an older man through the glass window. She backed up out of sight, trying to think of a way to get past him without drawing attention.
Getting a sudden idea, she unbuttoned all five buttons on her top until it exposed far more of her cleavage than she'd ever be ok with in any other circumstance. Taking a deep breath, she walked out into the man's line of sight and started idly looking around.
"Excuse me Miss, are you lost?"
Lucy walked up to the glass, giving the man (a guard perhaps?) the ditziest smile she could.
"Actually, yeah, I kinda am."
"What's your position here?"
"You mean, like... girl on top?"
The man laughed. "Your JOB position."
"Oh... well, I'm the new secretary they just hired."
He nodded at her. "Can I please see your ID?"
"I don't have it with me. I was already running late and didn't have time to find it."
Luckily, the man was more interested in her breasts than in doing his job.
"No problem. Where do you need to be?"
"Director Kakuzawa's office. Please don't tell him I got lost again, I am SOOOO getting fired if he finds out."
The perv printed the pink-haired girl a map of the facility.
"Ok, this is where you are now. To reach the Director's office, you'll need to go through those double-doors, then go right. Go down the hall, and take the fifth door on the left. Still with me?"
She nodded, so he kept going.
"After you go through the fifth door, you'll be in a long hallway. They'll be a checkpoint right before the end. Once you're past that, go right. If you go left, it'll take you to what used to be the containment cells."
"Used to be?" Lucy asked.
"You didn't hear? They killed the rest of the Diclonii that were kept here a few months ago. I heard through the grapevine it was so none of them could testify at some hearing they were supposed to have."
"I... I didn't know that." she answered. She wasn't sure how she felt about this development, but this wasn't the time to worry about it.
"Anyway, go right. Once you get about halfway down, it'll intersect with another hallway. Go down the new hallway and take the last door on the right. There'll be one more checkpoint, but once you get past that, the office is just ahead."
If he hadn't been scribbling on the map, Lucy would never have found it. Thanking him again, he waved her through and returned to his office.
Just as she was leaving, one of the more experienced guards was returning from his break, and noticed her walking out.
"Who was that?" he asked.
"Kakuzawa's new secretary."
"New secretary?"
"That's what she said."
"Well, did you check her ID?"
"She said she was in a hurry and couldn't find it."
"And you let her through anyway?"
Giving the man an irritated glare, the guard went looking for this... "Secretary", and it didn't take long to find her.
Lucy had almost made it to the checkpoint when she heard the guard yelling for her to stop.
She turned around and immediately noticed he had his hand on his gun. Thinking quickly, she smiled and waited for him to approach.
"If you're about to ask me to go on a date with you, I already have a boyfriend." she winked.
"Ma'am, what's your official position?"
"Well, I like missionary the most, but doggystyle is my second favorite." she replied, trying her best to flirt with him and hopefully diffuse suspicion.
"What is your position HERE?"
"Oh! Well, I'm the new secretary." Lucy smiled.
"Why don't you have your ID with you?"
"I was late and couldn't find it in time. I'm sorry, I'm still getting the hang of this place."
"You're not supposed to be inside this facility without it. What's your employee number?"
"I don't know it yet. I just started working here, can't you help a girl out?" she asked with the closest thing to a flirty smile she could muster.
"If you don't have your ID, you're going to be detained until we verify who you are, so come with me." he ordered. Taking her by the upper arm, he walked her to the checkpoint at the end of the hallway.
"Damn! Where'd you meet her?" one of the guards manning the metal detector asked.
"She's the new secretary, but doesn't have her ID. Is your BioMet with you?"
The second guard produced what looked like a larger than normal tablet and handed it over. Lucy looked down both sides of the hall. If this thing did what she was afraid it did, this was not going to be pretty.
"Ma'am, I need you to place your hand here, palm down, and don't remove it until I tell you."
Lucy shook her head. "Boys, I don't have time for this right now. You're gonna get me fired!"
"Place your hand here, palm down." he repeated, a little harsher this time. Seeing no other option, she complied.
"Don't remove it until I tell you."
The Diclonius Queen slowly readied her vectors, looking at the thin, flat-screen monitor on the wall that displayed the result..
"Ok, go ahead." the guard told her.
She removed her hand just as a "Record Found" pop-up appeared.
"See? Like I said, I don't have tim-"
Her picture suddenly appeared on screen, along with her name, cage number, and the word DICLONIUS in huge, flashing red letters.
"Oh, shit!"
Before she could stop him, he hit the alarm and pulled his gun. The first guard grabbed the phone and started screaming for help.
"We're under attack!"
"Looks like we'll have to do this the hard way." she sighed.
Diclonius Research Institute - Director Kakuzawa's office - Fifteen minutes ago
When Kouta woke up, the first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was the Director sitting on an absurdly large desk, barely one meter away from him.
"Comfy?"
Kouta tried to get up, but discovered he was restrained to the chair he was sitting on.
"Who the hell are you? Where am I?"
"I'm Director Kakuzawa. Welcome to the Diclonius Research Institute."
"Kakuzawa? Does that mean..." Kouta asked hesitantly.
"Correct." the older man replied. "Professor Kakuzawa was my son, Kouta Kurosawa. He was murdered by someone I think you're familiar with..."
"You mean Nyu, don't you?" he said hesitantly.
Getting off the desk, Kakuzawa approached the young man, towering over him with his arms crossed. "We called her "Lucy", but I'm aware she was also known by that name. From what I understand, that name was given to her infantile personality."
The Director looked down at Kouta with an unnerving grin on his face. "I suppose you might be wondering why you're here. I'll get right to the point, Mr. Kurosawa. You're here because you're the first person to find my son's body."
Kouta felt a very uncomfortable knot form in his stomach. "I-I don't know what you're talking about."
The moment he finished speaking, Kakuzawa plowed his fist right into his face. Kouta, caught off-guard, didn't even see it coming.
"Don't play stupid with me, boy... you were there when his body was found."
"No, I wasn-"
Another punch slammed into Kouta's face, this one landing near his left eye. Kouta groaned, his vision blurring for moment. Kakuzawa waited for him to recover before he continued with his interrogation.
"I KNOW you were there. Look, Mr. Kurosawa, we can do this the easy way or the hard way, but one way or another, you're going to tell me what I want to know."
"I told you, I wasn't there!"
"Wrong answer!"
This time, Kakuzawa hit Kouta directly in the nose. While the blow didn't break it, it still gave him a nasty nosebleed that, while short-lived, bled heavily.
"I have a witness that saw you there. I know you saw his body because I know who you were there with. Deny it all you want, but you're only making things worse for yourself."
"For the last time, I wa-"
"Mr. Kurosawa, please...!" an unseen female said.
It took him a moment to recognize the voice. "Miss Arakawa?"
Reluctantly, the girl approached from behind and stepped into his field of vision, her head bowed in shame and regret.
"What are you doing here?" Kouta asked in confusion.
"Isn't it obvious? She sold you out to save her own ass, didn't you, Plaything?" Kakuzawa smirked.
Arakawa started crying, weakly nodding her head.
"Why?" Kouta asked in disbelief.
The scientist removed her broken glasses long enough wipe her eyes.
"I'm sorry... I didn't want to, but I had no choice. Please, just tell him the truth and he'll let you go..." she said, turning to the Director. "Isn't that right?"
Kakuzawa nodded in confirmation. "Tell me what you know, and you may leave. There's no need for this to be unpleasant."
"There's nothing to tell!" Kouta replied in irritation. "I needed to see him, Miss Arakawa took me to the basement lab, and we saw his body. That's all I know!"
"I see..." the Director finally said. "Tell me, when did you last have contact with Lucy?"
Knowing that the Institute believed Lucy and Nana were dead, Kouta told him he hadn't seen her since the night Kurama died.
"Did she tell you anything regarding my son's murder?" he asked.
Kouta shook his head. "No, she didn't."
"Nothing at all?"
"Not a word."
"Then how did you know she killed my son?" Kakuzawa asked.
"Miss Arakawa told me, ''This is how they kill.'' so I figured it must have been Nyu."
Kakuzawa closed his eyes, steepling his fingers as he pondered his situation. If he was indeed telling the truth, then he was of no consequence, and having Arakawa locate him had been a complete waste of time.
'Well, maybe not a COMPLETE waste...' he thought with a sickening grin. If nothing else, it had at least provided him a great deal of perverted entertainment. If he had known the boy knew nothing worthwhile, he could have denied the mousey scientist's pleas to leave the institute, and simply continued to use her as his fuck-toy until she finally broke and took her own life.
"I upheld my part of the deal. Please... just let me leave." Arakawa begged.
"What are you talking about? What deal?" Kouta asked.
Kakuzawa laughed, giving the woman a sleezy grin. "The boy wants to know about our little arrangement. Should we enlighten him?"
"N-No!" Arakawa protested.
Ignoring her, the older man proceeded to tell Kouta in explicit detail about all the degrading things he did to the purple-haired scientist while she was trying to find him.
"I violated every orifice she has, and trust me, boy... she didn't enjoy any of it. When I didn't feel like doing it myself, I gave her to my men and watched them do it for me. You should've seen it... I had no idea she could scream so loud! They fucked her so hard, she needed her pussy and asshole stitched up!"
As he went on, Arakawa turned away, shut her eyes, and covered her ears, crying so badly it eclipsed any anger or contempt he felt over her handing him over to save herself.
"You're a sick fuck, you know that?" Kouta asked in disgust.
Laughing, the Director opened a desk drawer and pulled out a small key.
"You..." he said, looking at Arakawa, "Go pack up. You have five minutes, then I'm changing my mind." The scientist at first couldn't believe he was actually keeping his word, but there would be no complaints from her.
In reality, she and Kouta had simply outlived their usefulness. He was just a kid that could be easily scared into keeping quiet, and she had a bomb implanted that he could detonate if she ever became a problem in the future.
Directing his attention to the battered and bruised Kouta, he walked over to uncuff the boy.
Suddenly, alarms started going off, and the Institute began going into lockdown.
"What the hell's going on?!" Arakawa asked.
A loud beeping started coming from the phone on the desk. Kakuzawa pressed a flashing red button and demanded to know what was happening.
"The facility's being raided! We're under attack!"
The Director just sighed in irritation. "Who is it this time? Local police? PSIA?"
At first, there was no response. Then, the three of them heard gunshots in the background.
"Shoot her! Keep firing!"
"Answer me! Who's doing this?!" he yelled.
"It's Lucy! Lucy's here!"
Kakuzawa looked at her and Kouta, clearly shaken by the news.
"That... That's preposterous! Lucy's dead! I've seen the footage myself!"
Over the gunfire, the three of them heard the guard pleading for help. He had just enough time to give his location before the line went dead. Without a word, the older man turned to a huge flat-screen monitor mounted on the wall. Taking a small remote out of one of his pockets, he cycled through camera feeds until he found the guards location.
"It can't be! That's impossible!"
Kouta looked up at the screen. There were bodies everywhere, but there was no way to tell if they were dead or merely incapacitated. Either way, there was no mistaking who the girl with pink hair wás.
For a few moments, Kakuzawa stared at it in total disbelief. He had seen the bodycam videos from the men who killed her, and they clearly showed Lucy being shot repeatedly and falling to the ground in a bloody heap. One of the men even checked for a pulse and found nothing, so how the hell could she possibly be alive?
"Oh, God... That's the girl from your house!" Arakawa said.
Kouta was so wrapped up in watching the screen, he didn't even realize Kakuzawa had pulled out a gun until he started getting hit with it. Enraged about being lied to, the Director hit him repeatedly, pistol-whipping the younger man so brutally, Arakawa thought she was going to faint, vomit, or both.
"Stop it!" she yelled In horror.
Kakuzawa looked over at her with an icy glare. "If I were you, I'd leave while you still can."
"Please! You're going to kill him!"
"Why would you care about that? It's your fault he's here to begin with, isn't it?" the Director asked mockingly. The bespectacled girl fell silent. This was the chance she had been praying for for months. All she had to do now was walk away. Lucy was probably only here for Kouta anyway, so this would be an excellent time to get the fuck out of here.
'If I leave now, he's going to die... but if I don't, I might not get another chance...'
Torn between saving herself and being a decent human being for once, she suddenly noticed the remote Kakuzawa used for the monitor was the one that could detonate her bomb. When he turned his attention back to Kouta, the scientist took the opportunity to grab it before the Director could stop her.
"Leave him alone! If you don't, I... I'll trigger the bomb!"
She knew how absurd such a threat was, but was hoping he'd back down if he thought there was a legitimate chance of him dying too. He looked at her dismissively, then raised his gun and pointed it at Kouta's head.
"I-I'm serious! Let him go, or... or I'll blow us all up!"
"No, you won't."
"Yes, I will!"
Kakuzawa turned towards her and produced an almost identical remote, holding it up with a smile. Arakawa looked down at the one she grabbed, finally noticing the the Anitachi brand name on it.
"Oh, shit..." she whispered.
"Nice try... Plaything." he told her just before turning his gun on her and pulling the trigger. The bullet tore through her torso and exited her back. Kouta watched as the young scientist hit the ground, living just long enough to give Kouta a tearful apology before dying right next to him.
Turning his gun back to the young man, he was already starting to pull the trigger again when he was interrupted by one of the lab personnel who had been close by when the alarm went off, and had decided that investigating the sudden gunshot was a better idea than retreating to the lab to wait out the alarm.
"Sir, are you alrig- Oh... umm... I'm sorry, I-I didn't know you were busy." he stammered.
The scientist turned to leave but Kakuzawa ordered him to stay.
"Umm... was there something you needed?"
"Yes. Drag that heap of garbage away from my desk." Despite Kouta's angry insults and rants, the Director ignored him and told the man to just drag the body over to the far corner. After he was finished, Kakuzawa asked if he had access to his labs supply of AVMI.
"The Anti-Vector Muscular Inhibitor? No, Sir... That requires Level Four or higher clearance."
Without a word, he threw the scientist his personal override keycard. "I want you to go and prepare a syringe with double the standard dosage, and hurry it up!"
The scientist ran off to the lab, leaving the two men alone in the office.
"Well, it seems there's a use for you after all." Kakuzawa grinned.
"And what would that be?" Kouta asked after spitting out a mouthful of blood on the floor.
"Bait."
Five minutes later
Running as fast as possible, Lucy turned the corner and was greeted by several armed guards blocking her path. She stopped dead in her tracks as all six of them took aim at her.
"I don't want to kill any of you, but I will if you don't let me through." she coldly threatened, visibly materializing her vectors to prove she meant business.
"We're not scared of you, bitch!"
Undeterred by her threat, the guards all opened fire at the same time.
"Have it your way..."
Meanwhile, Nana, Mayu, and Yuka were frantically trying to catch up to Lucy, but having no luck doing so. The Institute's maze-like hallways certainly weren't helping matters either, and the three of them were having a hard time simply not getting lost.
"Hey!" Mayu exclaimed, "This room has your name on the door!"
Nana walked over and took a peek. Sure enough, it was the room she had spent most of her life chained up in.
"This was my room... if you want to call it that." she replied with a mix of sadness and anger in her voice.
"They must have cleaned it out already."
"No. It's the same as it's always been." Nana replied.
"Where's your bed?" Yuka asked.
Nana pointed over at a pair of shackles attached to the wall. Even from outside of the room, the bloodstains could clearly be seen. Apparently, they didn't even bother cleaning up any of her bodily fluids, blood or otherwise.
Mayu's eyes widened in disbelief. "Are you saying you had to sleep chained to the wall?!" Nana nodded, looking down in shame.
"What about a toilet?" Yuka asked. The Sipelit just shook her head.
"No..." Yuka gasped. "They didn't even give you a bucket? You mean, you had to sleep AND go to the bathroom chained to the same spot?"
Mayu stared at the dried blood and waste, tears of indignation filling her eyes.
"We all did, except Lucy and that little girl. They had it even worse..." Nana said. Before they had time to continue their conversation, they heard the roar of gunfire, followed by horrific screaming coming from one of the corridors.
"Well, I guess we just found out where Lucy went..." Nana said with a sigh.
She was saddened that Lucy seemed to have resorted to killing again, but knew she couldn't hold it against her. She wasn't here by choice, she was here because the one she loved more than anything in the world had been forcibly abducted and brought here. As far as Nana was concerned, any life-ending she did while trying to save Kouta was regrettable, but justified.
"Um... don't be surprised if Lucy killed them." she told Yuka and Mayu. Truth be told, neither of them could blame the Diclonius for her actions. If the roles were reversed, they'd have no qualms about doing the exact same thing.
Running towards the noise, Nana was mentally preparing herself for the slaughterhouse the older Diclonius had surely turned the hallway up ahead into. When they reached the source of the screaming, they were left speechless at what Lucy had done to the guards.
"She didn't kill them..." Nana said in surprise. Lucy had clearly brutalized the shit out of them, but they were all alive.
The Sipelit smiled brightly. "You never cease to amaze me, Lucy."
"Where did the girl with pink hair go?" Yuka asked one of the downed men. From the looks of it, he might have a broken leg or two, but he wasn't in danger of actually dying.
"Directors office..." he said.
"Thank you." Yuka replied before the three of them ran off.
While the others desperately tried to catch up to her, Lucy headed directly for Kakuzawa's office. A second group of guards had been waiting for her near the entrance to the corridor connected to the Director's office. Unlike the first bunch, these seemed a little less willing to blindly charge her head on.
When she first approached, they all took aim, but held fire. Lucy gave them the same chance she gave the first group of guards, and this time, words alone were enough to persuade the men to simply stay out of her way and allow her to pass. Whatever the Institute was paying them clearly wasn't enough to justify dying at the hands of the blood-spattered Diclonius.
"Where is Kakuzawa's office?"
"Right that way, ma'am. Turn the right-hand corner and it's at the end of the hallway." the oldest looking guard answered.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome, ma'am."
The guards parted and allowed Lucy to walk past them without protest.
"Well, I don't know about you fellows, but this seems like a good time to turn in my two weeks notice." the older guard ("Tanabae" according to the name on his badge) said.
"We're not even going to TRY to stop her?!" one of the younger guards asked, incredulous that his fellow guardsmen weren't even going to attempt to stop what was clearly a threat not only to them, but to the Institute they were supposed to be protecting.
"No. We. Are. Not!" the oldest guard replied. "That's Lucy! She'd tear us apart in five seconds flat!"
He had been present when Lucy escaped from the Institute all those years ago, and had no desire to join the ranks of those who died trying to stop her.
In fact...
"Wait!" he called to the Diclonius while he ran up to her. Lucy turned around as the old guard approached.
"Here, you'll probably be needing this. It'll unlock the Director's office." he explained as he gave it to her.
She nodded, and the guard bowed slightly before heading back to the other guards. As she walked away, Lucy could not help but feel some measure of gratitude for the older man. The first squad had essentially forced her to take violent actions to get them out of her way. She might not have killed them, but they'd still be hospitalized for days, if not weeks.
The second group basically surrendered without a fight. The oldest of them, remembering clearly what the Diclonius had done to them all those years ago, and being unable to reach the first group of guards via radio, wisely concluded that this was not a fight that they could even remotely hope to win, and backed down in the hope that Lucy would spare his men if they didn't try to stop her.
Of course, he might have felt differently if he'd known she didn't actually kill the first squad, nor did she actually intend to kill them, but hindsight is 20/20 as the saying goes.
She unlocked the office door and cautiously opened it. On the other side of the large room, Kakuzawa sat waiting at his absurdly oversized desk. In front of him was Kouta, handcuffed to a chair with his mouth taped shut.
"Kouta!" she yelled. He seemed to be ok, but had obviously been roughed up a bit.
"Nhhyuu! Shhyyy bckkk!" he tried to yell, but was too muffled. As soon as she had stepped inside, a scientist grabbed her by the hair and jammed a syringe in her neck. She cried out in shock and anger, and slashed him with her vectors, violently severing her attacker's entire hand just above the wrist. He screamed and fell to the floor, clutching what remained of his arm.
Giving the disfigured man a look of contempt, she hurried over to check on Kouta. Kakuzawa smiled as she approached him. "Well... hello there, Lucy. I'm so pleased to know you're still with us."
"Kouta! Are you alright?!" she asked, ignoring the Director and ripping the tape off his mouth.
"I'm ok... probably don't look so good right now, but I'll be fine." he answered, trying to smile in an effort to calm her down.
"Showing concern for humans? Oh, Lucy... it seems you've been away far too long."
The Diclonius straightened up, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Now that Kouta was safe, there was only one thing left to do...
"I'm sorry, Kouta... please forgive me for this."
Lucy turned to the Director and seized his head with all four of her vectors. Before she could give him the death he fully and completely deserved, she doubled-over and collapsed to the floor, her vectors retracting against her will.
"What the hell did you do to her?!" Kouta yelled.
"Don't be alarmed, it's only temporary... not that you'll live long enough to see it wear off."
Lucy tried to stand, but dropped to her knees, her body and vectors both seemingly unable to cooperate.
The Director got up, walked around his desk and stood over Lucy, smirking as he pulled out a handgun.
Then, to Kouta and the pink-haired girl's surprise, he shot the wounded scientist, putting a bullet right through the helpless man's head.
"Another two seconds, and I'd have definitely been killed. You almost had me, Lucy."
She tried to get up again, but fell right back to her knees. Her head was pounding, her vision was blurry, and her body felt like it was make out of concrete.
The Director sighed, taking a seat on his desk. "I don't know how you managed to survive, but I can't tell you how delighted I am that you did. Now, you can finally fulfill your destiny."
She chuckled quietly. "You sound like some kind of fantasy movie villain. Just what destiny am I supposed to be fulfilling?"
He looked at her with an expression of deranged pride.
"Killing off humanity, of course!" he told her smugly. "That's what you were BORN for... was it not?"
Hearing this, neither Kouta nor Lucy could help but remember her claiming that exact thing on the night his memories returned.
"It might have been at one time..." she said quietly, "...but that time has passed."
"You cannot deny your instincts, Lucy. Deep down, you know Diclonii are the rightful rulers of this world."
The Diclonius glared at him as took a step towards her. "Just think about this for a moment; Don't you want a world where you never have to suffer at the hands of ignorant humans? A world where you can walk about freely without having to worry about being victimized just because you're a Diclonius?" he asked.
He smiled at her, sounding more like a politician than the lunatic he actually was. "Don't you want a world where you can truly belong?"
She fell silent, and Kakuzawa's grin grew wider. "See? You know that's exactly what you want, you're just unwilling to come right out and say it. "
"You're wrong."
The Director looked at her in confusion. "I beg your pardon...?"
"I don't want your perfect little world... I have somewhere I truly belong right here in this one."
"Oh? And where would that be?" he asked.
"With her family, that's where!"
Kakuzawa looked up to see Yuka, Mayu, and Nana walking into his office. He didn't recognize the two humans, but he certainly recognized Nana.
"Sipelit Seven?! How are you still alive?!"
"Papa saved me after I fell off the bridge." she replied. "He wasn't a heartless monster like you are."
The three of them advanced on the Director, but stopped when he pulled out his gun.
"Shoot all you want, you know my vectors can deflect bullets." Nana challenged. The man just laughed and pointed it at Lucy. "Maybe YOU can, but the same can't be said for her."
"What did you do to her?!" Nana asked.
"She's been given a sedative that inhibits her muscles and stops her from using her vectors. She can't even stand up, much less try to run. Take another step, and I'll shoot them both."
Unsure of what to do, Nana obeyed and stayed put.
Lucy tried to get to her feet, but her body wasn't responding. It took a great deal of effort just to raise her head.
"So, Kurama saved you, did he? Hmph... I guess I shouldn't be surprised. That man always was weak and spineless." Kakuzawa remarked.
"Weak and spineless"? Mayu asked.
The Director nodded his head. "He had no problem with dispatching Diclonii newborns if they were someone elses, but when his own daughter was born a Diclonius, he just couldn't bring himself to do it. So, he locked her inside one of the vaults instead."
"Are... Are you talking about Mariko?" Lucy asked.
"Correct. Mariko Kurama, or Sipelit Thirty-Five, was his biological daughter... the result of being infected by Sipelit Six just before she died."
"He locked up his own daughter here?" Yuka asked.
"He begged me to spare her life, and in exchange for it, he followed every order given, no questions asked... at least not until you came along." he said, obviously referring to Nana.
"Me?"
"Thanks to you, Lucy escaped being recaptured. Not only did you fail your mission, you lost any usefulness you might have had after you went and got yourself mutilated."
Lucy bowed her head, turning away in shame and regret.
"I told him to get rid of you, but that fool disobeyed me and helped you escape instead. That man always did have a soft spot for trash like you and that other girl."
"Other girl?" Yuka asked.
"The one Kurama tried to save the night we took Lucy into custody."
"Aiko..." the older Diclonius quietly spoke up.
"That was her name? Well, it doesn't really matter now."
"He... He really did try to save her?" Lucy asked.
Kakuzawa nodded. "He shouldn't have even bothered. Once you surrendered to the Institute, he should have just disposed of her, but he insisted on trying to save her anyway. Not that it made a difference in the end. By the time they operated, it was too late."
Lucy tried once again to get up, but her legs buckled and she fell to the floor. Mayu tried to run and help her, but the Director fired a warning shot at the girl's feet.
"I would stay put if I were you. I'm not giving you any more warnings."
Mayu backed up a little bit, and Kakuzawa lowered his gun. "That's better. Do as you're told and you might get out of here alive."
"They have nothing to do with this. Please... just let them go." Lucy pleaded.
The Director just laughed. "The Diclonius Queen Lucy begging for humans to be spared? Oh, how far you have fallen. Tell me, what did they do to cause such a departure from your true self?"
Lucy said nothing, and redoubled her efforts to get up. Upon seeing this, the Director scowled and walked over to her.
"When I regain control of my vectors, I'm going to kill you." she promised.
Kakuzawa scoffed, putting his foot on her back and forcing her to the floor. "By the time you do, you'll be back in your restraints, and this time, my idiot son won't be there to free you."
"Get your foot off her, assho-"
Before Kouta finished his sentence, Kakuzawa slammed his gun into the boy's head, opening a cut on his scalp that was largely superficial, but bled heavily.
Yuka and Mayu gasped, Lucy started a renewed, but futile struggle to get up. Nana stepped forward with tears in her eyes, yelling for Kakuzawa to stop.
Turning to the Sipelit, he raised his gun and fired. The purple-haired girl dropped instantly to the floor and didn't move. At first, Lucy and Kouta both were sure the young girl was dead.
Mayu ran to her fallen friend, ignoring Kakuzawa's warning as she dropped down to her knees beside her.
"Nana? Nana! Please! Please wake up, Nana!"
After several seconds, the purple-haired girl opened her eyes. Overjoyed, Mayu cradled the younger Diclonius and cried.
"I thought I'd lost you..."
"I'm alright... it just grazed me, that's all." Nana replied.
Whether intentional or not, much like the gunshot she received from Bando, the wound bled freely, but caused no serious injury... a "glorified scratch" as it was sometimes called.
"Please... just let them go. I'll stay here willingly... I won't try to escape ever again... please." Lucy begged. Kakuzawa took his foot off her back, staring at her with undisguised disapproval clearly written on his face.
"Why, Lucy? Tell me why you would offer yourself in the place of worthless humans. It makes no sense!"
"They've done nothing wrong. Please... there's no reason to hurt them."
The Director shook his head in disbelief. Cold-blooded murder was the Diclonius's defining attribute, so hearing her plead for the lives of others was about as inconceivable as it got.
"Are they really that important to you?"
"Yes... they are." Lucy answered honestly.
"Why?"
"Because..." Lucy tried to get up, but once again failed. "Because they're the only family I've ever had... they don't deserve to die over someone like me."
The Directly angrily kicked the helpless Diclonius in the side. Kouta struggled furiously to get free, but wasn't able to succeed.
"So... they don't deserve to die, but the security forces that tried to stop you do? Hypocritical much, Lucy?"
"She didn't kill them." Yuka said. Incredibly, this revelation seemed to piss Kakuzawa off.
"NONE of them?" he asked.
"She beat them up pretty bad, but they'll all survive." Mayu added. Kakuzawa turned to Lucy in disbelief.
"I can't believe you've been so... corrupted!"
Kakuzawa scowled and kicked her again, looking around in disgust at the other residents of Kaeda House. Then, he turned his attention to Kouta.
"What about him? In your rush to rescue him, you ran head-first into an obvious trap. Why? Who is he to you?"
Lucy struggled to get up, finally mustering the strength to move from lying face down on the floor, to being on her hands and knees.
"He's my boyfriend... and I love him." she quietly said.
Director Kakuzawa raised an eyebrow at her reply, and shifted his attention to Kouta.
"Is this true?"
He nodded, his face bloody and bruised. "Yes... and I love her, too."
Kakuzawa appeared to be contemplating something, looking back and forth between Kouta and Lucy. Then, his expression changed and he pressed the muzzle of his gun against the boys head. Lucy's eyes widened in fear as she tearfully pleaded with the Director not to hurt him.
"Please... I said I'll stay here willingly. I won't try to escape, and I won't hurt anyone. Please... just let them go..."
"Don't give in to that bastard! There's no way I could acc-" Kouta tried to say before being cut off by Kakuzawa's fist slamming into his face. Nana took a step towards him, but backed off as he raised his gun at Kouta and Lucy.
Yuka watched the situation unfold with tears of absolute rage in her eyes. If it were possible, she'd kill him herself without hesitation or remorse.
"Please... just let them go."
"If I do, wouldn't that end your little fairy-tale romance with him?" he asked the Diclonius condescendingly.
"Yes... but I can live with that if it means they'll be alright." Lucy quietly answered as her tears fell to the carpet. "If he dies, life will lose all of it's meaning. So please... don't hurt them."
Kakuzawa smiled sadistically at Lucy. "So... you're willing to return to confinement here if I let him, the two girls, and the Sipelit leave?"
"Yes..."
After a few moments, the Director nodded his head. "Very well, I accept." he replied. Picking up the phone on his desk, he dialed an extension and told whoever it was that picked it up to come to his office with the remaining security force.
Lucy bowed her head and started quietly sobbing, broken-heartedly begging Kouta not to hate her. She knew her decision was going to destroy their chance of having a life together, but this was her only way to keep him safe. She silently said goodbye not just to him, but to the others, and to the beautiful life that had brought her so much joy and happiness.
"Lucy, no! Please! Don't give in!" Nana begged as she herself started crying. "You belong with Kouta! You belong with US! Please don't do this!"
Hearing this just made the pink-haired girl sob harder.
"I'm so sorry... I... I have to." the older Diclonius whispered.
Kakuzawa hung up the phone. "Welcome home, Lucy..." he said with a cruel smirk.
Less than a minute later, the same group of men that had all but surrendered without a fight rushed in.
"Sir, is... everything ok?" the oldest guard asked, taking a look at the scene before him: Lucy crying on her hands and knees, a beaten-looking young man cuffed to a chair, all three of the girls they'd just seen a few minutes ago huddled together, and what looked like the body of a woman drug over against the far wall. Finally, he noticed the mutilated body of one of the lab technicians on the floor to his right.
"Indeed it is, Captain Tanabae. Take Lucy back into custody." he ordered. "She's surrendering herself so her "family" can go free... aren't you?" he asked cruelly.
Timidly, two of the guards raised their guns and slowly walked towards the Diclonius.
"Don't worry, her vectors are disabled. She's been sedated, so you might have to drag her."
Mayu and Yuka started crying, watching as the two guards lowered their weapons as they approached. One of the guards knelt down beside her, quietly asking if she could walk on her own. When the sobbing girl shook her head no, Tanabae told one of the men to fetch a gurney from medical.
Giving Kakuzawa a look of clear disgust, he motioned to the other residents of Kaeda House, asking if they should go ahead and take them to the roof while waiting for the helicopter to arrive. Looking from him, to Kouta, then the others, then finally to Lucy, Kakuzawa smiled at Tanabae and shook his head no.
"Actually, I want you to shoot them. Start with that one." he pointed to Kouta.
There was a collective gasp from the others as well as the guards.
"Excuse me...?" Tanabae asked in disbelief.
"You heard me. Kill the boy first, then the other three. That's an order."
Lucy looked up in horror. "What are you doing?! You said they'd be spared! We made a deal!" she cried.
"Lucy, you're a slave... and masters don't make deals with slaves." he told her with gleeful malice in his eyes. "Besides, I said they could leave, but I never said they could leave ALIVE."
The guards reluctantly aimed at Kouta. With a sadistic grin, Kakuzawa ordered them to shoot.
Several seconds passed. Then...
"No."
The guards aiming at Kouta first lowered, then dropped their guns to the carpeted floor.
"I beg your pardon?" Kakuzawa asked in surprise.
"We said "no". We're sorry, Director... but we're guards, not murderers." one of them said.
Tanabae, immensely proud his men reached this decision on their own, nodded his head in agreement and smiled briefly at the guards.
"Forgive our disobedience, Sir... but we will not murder civilians."
Kakuzawa raised his gun at the old guard, threatening to shoot him if he didn't order his men to shoot Kouta. The guard responded by stepping away from the others so they wouldn't get hit by stray bullets. "Fire if you wish, but my answer isn't changing."
It was the bravest act the other guards had ever seen, and one by one, they all dropped their weapons.
The Director sighed. For a moment, it looked like he was going to relent and keep his word. Instead, he just muttered, "Must I do everything myself?" and took aim at Kouta.
Lucy, helpless to stop him, shut her eyes and screamed.
Then, there was a noise that sounded like rushing wind, and time seemed to stop.
For a split second, you could almost see confusion in Kakuzawa's eyes, then his body and head fell to the floor with a soft thud. Lucy and Kouta looked at each other in shock, both of them splattered with the Director's blood.
"What the...?! Was that... you?" Kouta asked. Lucy, just as shocked as he was, replied that it wasn't.
All eyes turned to Nana. The Sipelit was covered in blood, eyes wide in horror as she looked down at the decapitated body of Director Kakuzawa.
"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry! I didn't want to, but..." she broke down in tears before she could get the rest of her sentence out.
The guards backed away from Nana. When a couple of then slowly reached for their guns, Tanabae ordered them to stop.
"She did what she had to. She won't harm anybody else."
Mayu ran to hug the distraught young Diclonius, trying her best to calm her down.
"It's not your fault, Nana..." she told her.
"I just killed someone, Mayu! How is it NOT my fault?!" Nana cried hysterically.
"Kouta would have DIED if you hadn't done that!" Yuka said.
For a few seconds, nothing but the sound of Nana's distraught crying was heard. Finally, Yuka asked her to help free Kouta.
While the Sipelit used her vectors to break Kouta's handcuffs, Mayu and Yuka helped the older Diclonius to her feet, but ended up having to support her to keep her from falling.
"We need to get Kouta to a hospital!"
He just shook his head dismissively. "I'm fine, Yuka... I don't need to-"
"Yes, you do..." Lucy interrupted him. "Please, Kouta..."
Seeing her tears broke his stubborn resolve, and he gave in to her pleas.
Tanabae reached for his radio and told the pilot there had been a change of plans. "We've got an injured man that needs medical care. Return to Helipad A and await further instructions."
As he was signing out, the man he sent to retrieve the gurney returned, and the oldest guard and one of his men helped Lucy get on. At first, she protested that Kouta she be on it instead, but ceased her arguing when Kouta pointed out he could walk on his own, but she couldn't.
As they were loading her into the helicopter, the Diclonius looked up at Tanabae and quietly thanked him. He gave her a small nod, then moved aside so Kouta could get in. As they took off, she reached for his hand just as he reached for hers.
"I love you..." he said with a gentle squeeze. Lucy smiled and squeezed back.
"I love you too, Kouta..."
Moments later, she passed out.