/Ana
The cold of the room woke me up. The chill was biting on the skin. The room was dimly lit with some lights from hell knows where, silent. My own breathing made puffs of air into fog. Is this a damn freezer or something?
Shaking like a tree leaf, I managed to sit up on this chair looking at things. The room was not as big as one would imagine, though it resembled a damn prison cell. With only one door in here. And that sure enough, by the glints of metal looks like a heavy-duty metal door. Not sure who that protects from whom, or what.
"Hello?" - I let out shakily, my own voice trembling from the cold. I crossed my hands and pressed them to my chest. It's bloody freezing in here. I tried to get up, to walk to the door, making a few shaky steps towards it, then wobbling legs gave in, making me lean against the wall, to balance myself. But scratch that - I jerked away from the damn wall like it zapped me - the ice-cold feeling it has made me even more awake. Heart beating crazily.
Well, I guess if nothing else - the damn anger might as well keep me warm.
After banging on the door a few times - got to learn a few things. First - don't touch this darn thing bare handed - the skin sticks to the door and rips a piece off of you once you pull it back. Second - a torn off bit of shirt is a great wrapping material for a hand, also doubles as a great material that allows one to really beat the heck out of this darn door, without having more skin torn off of you.
After the exercise of knocking on the door I pulled back. The anger and pain got me all nice and warm now. Blood pumping. I sure as heck want to know what the fuck that damn thing decided.
So I paced about the room, until I noticed that one of the walls seemed see-through.
"Huh?" - I let out, raising my brow at it. Then I looked closer at the wall - it seems paper thin, sure, there seems to be light behind it.
I almost toughed the wall with my finger, but stopped. Based on the previous experiences with the local surfaces - it ain't really a good idea. So, with a wrapped hand - I punched the wall.
Expectation - torn wall. Reality - a really painful encounter with a thing that seems like steel. This place is annoying the crap out of me.
"Michael! You! Show the fuck up! How long am I gonna wait here?!" - I shouted, as the pain is very displeasing me, just like being kept in this prison.
Mhm, like I've guessed - met with silence. Fine. If I'm to stay here - might as well just shout obscenity into the void.
"Oh for fuck's sake! I'm cold in here! Get me out!" - I shout out. Though, judging by the previous experience - shit ain't flying in here no matter what. - "Well fuck you too then!" - I let out angrily, as I tried to pick up the darn chair and throw it at the wall. I did pick it up, I threw it at the wall… The wall ripped apart.
What?
I looked at this for a moment wondering what the fuck just happened. How did the…? Huh?
Stunned, but fuck this shit, we're leaving. I walked out to the dark room through the opening.
Not a room - a damn hallway. On it went. What the hell?
At least here it felt a bit warmer. So I just decided to follow the path of where it felt warmer. Leading to the opened door at the very end of this puzzle-like hallway, with light shimmering from that opened passage. Well, if nothing else works - why not.
The room I saw was something odd. There's a huge bonfire in the middle of the room. The side of the room - its roof and part of the wall - is gone. Like someone took a knife and cut a piece off.
Everything else - looked like it was abandoned eons ago. Like it's about as good as it can get for the horror story.
"Fantastic." - I sarcastically let out. I don't see anything or anyone else here. Just fire, part of the room gone, there's nighttime outside, with moon shining, stars… Aww, could be romantic if not THIS DARN PRISON THEME IN HERE! ARGH! It's like being back in the cryo - system decides to try my patience once fucking more.
Oh shit. System… System… I was here to check memories, was I not? Wait a damn minute… Oh fuck… I almost forgot the whole point of me coming here. Shit. Just what did that damn rabbit do to me?
"Took you long enough." - A sarcastic remark with a familiar voice.
"Sujin?" - I turn around to see her, but it's aaa… Sujin, though with horns and tail and partially with scales all over her.
"Hm? Haven't seen Dragonborn before, have you?" - Sujin smirked at me.
"You are intimidating no matter how you turn, woman." - Jane entered the room from behind her, then the perky white rabbit ears followed. Ears attached to Michael.
I pinched my nosebridge. This is like the episode of "Alice in Wonderland".
"What the hell is this?" - I ask, as I eye the trio in front of me. I know for sure they are not THEM. But something ain't right.
"Told you we need Jester and the Priestess." - Michael rolled his eyes at me.
"Yeah. And?" - I look at him, slowly getting the intrusive thoughts about touching those ears. Does he have a tail?
"I'll take it from here." - Jane tapped Michael on the shoulder, as he approached closer. - "Ana, here's the thing. We want to get out instead of the other us."
"Alterego going out instead of the…" - I squint at him.
"Ah well, we can be called that, sure. We were after all developed by this world. But we have seen all that happened to them. We were present through it all in the Iron City. Especially when they used whatever drugs to induce the trance-like state. So, we sort of went in instead of the originals to… well… preserve their sanity. So to put." - Jane let out a sigh. - "You see, they've tortured us, well, them, and had our bodies used in ways that ain't… Ahm… Appropriate."
"Outright atrocities. All of those fuckers. So let me get out and get them all killed." - Sujin crossed her hands in front of her chest, looking at me. - "They've done shit I won't ever forgive or forget. Neither should they. Feng was a cunt. He started the whole train of torture."
"We were like meat sold from hands to hands. Used by the buyers like some sex doll or torture slave." - Michael shrugged. - "That said - we observed, but could not bypass the damn intoxication to take matters in our own hands and decapitate them all."
"Not like that would have helped." - Sujin adds. - "They were oh so running their mouths about how they can print themselves out like it's nothing. Insert their mind into that printout and well, go on fucking and pissing in the wind forever."
"Yeah…" - Jane sighed. - "They were too damn chatty about it. Having their years being nothing, as long as the print is on and they can store their mind in a box."
"Though fun enough - they only have one mind. So there's no way to make a copy. It's kind of like a soul they put on hold and re-transfer into a body that's right." - Michael adds.
"But we've not found any such mind storage facilities… yet." - I chimed in, looking rather quizzical.
"Of course, coz that's all stored in the weather control main deck. That's where they have all the most influential and important cunts stay, until they get back into the play." - Michael smiled. - "Those sinister fucks were too damn chatty, whilst wrapping my hair around their fist, making sure to roughly fuck me from behind. Real chatty."
"You know what? Killing them all ain't such a bad idea." - I nod. Just picturing what is done to them infuriates me like nothing else. Remembering the glimpses of the first day and what was done to them - really makes me want to blow them up into smithereens.
Hare came over to me, poking my cheek with his finger, smiling.
"Oh you love the fucker, huh? No shit he was obsessed with you for so long." - Hare smiled at me. - "How about I make it right for a second and maybe…" - He grabbed my face with his fingers. - "Kiss you?"
"Fuck off." - I glare at him. Though the shimmer in the darn fur on his ears is rather distracting. He notices that and twitches the ears.
"Wanna touch that?" - Hare smirks at me.
"Don't you seduce me." - I grunt.
"I'm not trying to… Would you want me to?" - Hare laughs.
"Shut that trap, you skewer bunny. WE want annihilation of those fucks. So let us proceed with that. All in, right?" - Sujin seems both restless and eager to go into full war mode.
Seeing how they're all eager as heck does make me want to succumb to the community pressure, but I wonder if that is any good at all. If we proceed with their plan - that means either their side will come out and imply that the person will inevitably encounter split personality disorder, or the two sides will merge and that will create altered personality. It's rather delicate… Actually - volatile. What would become of them would be very harsh. From mental outbreaks to downright breakdowns. No in-between. Just a great mess.
"So, you in?" - Hare tries to get even more in my personal space. I push him off, with my hand on his chest. He takes a step, but remains in place. Just like how my hand remains in place. He did though release my face, so that's better.
"Do you want to merge with them, is that it?" - I ask, already holding in mind that merger would be horrid, but at least something more controlled.
"Preferably. Though…" - Jane adds. - "It would mean they'll have the memory we have."
"I'd rather protect her from it all." - Sujin chimes in. - "With how she is, it's still a whole bag of torture and pain that has to be processed."
"Yes, but that'll also mean that we will be added to them as well. With what we know and been through." - Jane looks at Sujin, and it seems like they both really mull over the consequences.
"Even if it shall be so…" - Hare keeps his eyes on me. - "It won't be THAT bad. Maybe a little."
But that in itself ain't really reassuring. He reeks of an absolute maniac. Not the more put together option of Michael. But rather absolute killer pro with issues. And I ain't sure that the tech we have will be able to help this whole lot. Not if they, well, I, proceed to agree with the merger. That will be up to god himself from then on.
"Just let us out, we will make it worth the while." - Sujin eggs me on.
"Fine." - I let out in defeat, though acknowledging full well what will follow, I think that the whole picture is not going to be perfect either way. Even if I will lose them.
"System protocol," - I begin" - "Code Halcyon, the three in the room with the original hosts. Code Blue. Execution code - Guardian."
The trio in front of me began dissipating.
"You did the right thing." - Jane said sadly.
"See you on the other side." - Hare smiled.
Sujin with her horns, tail and scales - gave me a nod.
They all vanished.
"System protocol - code red. Awakening protocol. Return to base." - I say, as I close my eyes. The destination back to cryo is to be faced.
I woke up in the med bay. The damn ceiling that I recognised pretty fast.
"Ah, back to us I see." - Isabel spoke, as she noticed me getting up from the bed.
"I'm not sure I fucked up, though," - I looked at Isabel. - "Did I fuck up?"
Isabel looked at me, then let out a sigh. Oh that's not good.
"They're back as well." - She says solemnly. - "That's like looking at people who're fueled with cold rage, ready to pour gasoline onto any sparkle."
I got up and walked to her.
"That bad?" - I let out.
"That chaotic." - Isabel summarised. - "It's like looking glass. They're still them from the outside. Inside - like a whole another person."
"They did recover the memories. And frankly - that was the heinous way that the damn Feng went about it." - I said.
"Mistakes are made. What we're left with - is to fix the consequences." - Isabel got up. - "Let's go."
We headed to my office. To my wonder - once we walked in there was Bong Cha, Tae Yeon and Mia.
"We're royally fucked, cap." - Mia eyed me.
"Seems so." - I let out. - "Anything we can do?"
"You did send the warning. So that's that. We had a bit to prepare, before they got out." - Bong Cha said, ribbing her eyes. - "Shit ain't looking pretty anyway. What we've recovered also looks rather unpleasant."
"The shit they've been through…" - Tae Yeon seemed fuming, but let it out slowly. - "Trust is a sensitive thing. I know. But that - to know he sold around our people to get the details of the main bit - the Weather Control? Where they also store all that shit… I'm…"
"Not to mention we've not found Feng and his cronies after all the search we did in the Iron City." - Mia added. - "I have a feeling he managed to get into that Weather thing. If he did - I wonder what shit he is concocting now. If he is alive, that is."
"That cockroach is rather remarkable at staying alive. I don't think he'd find a way to die before achieving his goal. Though, I wonder what that goal is." - Isabel mulled over.
"If what we saw is right - there are many consciousness containers inside there. Some from the beginning of the Iron City, some later added. Though - Elites only." - Mia said. - "Then again, that brat had not been outside of the Iron City. What purpose would it serve him to fuck around that much?"
"To know about all the other bunkers." - Michael walks in. The way he spoke it made it more real now, that the Hare was indeed integrated into this man before me.
"Other bunkers?" - Mia raised her eyebrow.
"There's about 40 more bunkers. Around 20 in the region. From what I can piece together - he is hell bent on getting his grabby hands on what's inside. He seeks for something. Not sure what exactly. But something that seems to be of pretty damn great value. For him to throw us about like lumps of meat for those fucks to enjoy." - Michael coldly looked at all of us. - "You better get the details of other bunkers, as I'm sure he's out there on-route to some of them now."
"Fuck…" - I mutter under my breath. - "That means Michael." - I lock eyes with Isabel. She rolls her eyes.
"I'll go get him." - Isabel klicks her tongue, as she leaves.
"I suggest you prepare for war. Either that, or we're in for some conqueror epic." - Michael adds.
"I'll skin him alive. For what he did to Jane." - Mia gets up. - "And Michael," - Mia walks to the corridor. - "Get your priorities straight. Before you go through with it."
Mia leaves the room.
"We'll go get things going." - Bong Cha gets up, taps Tae Yeon on the shoulder and the two leave.
Now I'm here with the Hare of all things.
"So? Regretting it yet?" - Michael walks over to me. I'm just leaning on the kitchen counter. I shake my head.
"Am I making it too obvious now?" - Michael tilts his head, eyeing me.
"You're you." - I look at him. No more spark in those eyes, just plain cold-blooded murder intent. - "I'm… sorry."
"Is that so?" - He looks up, then around. - "Well, good things come to an end."
"If they end - that means other good things come." - I let out.
"Mhm." - He shrugs. - "Still trying to think positively, huh?" - He turns around and walks to the sofa, sits down. - "Guess the good times are about to change perspective."