Revelations

✧₊⁺

A strong wind blew across the plains, our ruined wagon lying in pieces nearby. Blackheart, the Crow faced us down from just a few steps away.

“Wait… What?” Yuna couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “But why?”

“Becaaause your very existence makes me ill! You, woman, and the child too!” Blackheart pointed her index finger at Yuna and Shizuka respectively, biting her lip. “I want you all to die! Quickly, slowly and painfully, it matters not how it happens. Just as long as you are promptly deleted so that I can suffer you no longer. And that goes for ALL Eternals.”

“When we were just minding our own business, and you attacked us out of the blue. We would’ve just passed by otherwise, and been out of your hair.” I glared at the woman. “So where do you get off on trying to—!?“

“—I believe I was the one talking, poppet. Take a lap.”

With just a wave of her hand, a bolt of purple lightning hit me in the chest, sending me tumbling backward a couple of feet.

“Jiro-bo!” Yuna called out.

“Whoops, clumsy me!” Blackheart put her hand up to her lips.

“Are you alright, Jiro?” Archie floated to my side. “You were very nearly vaporized.”

“Thanks… I didn’t realize.” I gritted my teeth, having just enough energy for a sarcastic retort.

I tried not to let the pain show, but I was lucky not to be reduced to ones and zeros right then and there. In which case I could never hope to make it back to Yuna and Shizuka before Blackheart carried out her threats. However I got the feeling that the woman let up on her attack a bit compared to the last one.

“Call for help if you can, Archie… Anyone that’ll listen.” I whispered.

To make matters worse, we were virtually in the middle of nowhere. But I had to try something, anything short of stalling in vain for a miracle.

“Roger that.”

“You should take care not to speak behind one’s back, Jiro. It’s bad manners.” Blackheart smirked. “And I know some rather… interesting things about you that might complicate your relationship with these two fine ladies, in any case.”

Huh?

Though I could not see her eyes, I assumed they shone with a look of pity as she tilted her head. It took everything I had not to fire back, but it wasn’t just me that I had to worry about.

“I’m sure you’ve realized by now that while I can’t kill a Hunter, the next bolt could be aimed at the child or the wench, and there’s nothing you could do to stop me. Their continued, albeit temporary, existence is proof of my boundless magnanimity! No thanks necessary.” The woman placed a hand on her chest, grinning in self-satisfaction. “Oh, and by the way, what’s your name, sweet pea?”

“Only… momma calls me that!” Shizuka, legs shaking from fear, stood her ground as she was addressed directly by the madwoman.

“Well, aren’t you a feisty one?” Blackheart belly laughed.

“Shizuka, sweetie, get behind me.” Yuna stood in front of her daughter.

“So that’s her name, is it? You know, Shizuka-chan, I’ve always wanted a child of my own. But I never could... My life’s work was far too demanding, and my pathetic excuse for a husband dragged his feet at every opportunity.” Blackheart tapped her chin thoughtfully. “But perhaps instead of killing you, I’ll keep you around as a sort of… understudy. Or a pet! Though I despise you wholeheartedly, I quite like your moxie.”

“Leave my daughter out of this, please.”

“I don’t believe I asked your opinion, wench,” Blackheart replied curtly. “So how about it, Shizuka-chan? Want to be my pet?”

For one so young, Shizuka didn’t so much as cry as one might expect her to. Instead, she clutched the pant leg of her mother tighter, glaring in the direction of Blackheart without uttering another word.

“Ah, kids these days...” Blackheart sighed, shrugging. “No respect for their elders. It would be shortsighted of me to judge her too harshly, however. That would be blatantly disregarding the fact that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Oh, but this wasn’t supposed to turn into a lecture about parenting, silly me. Now where was I going with this…”

This lady sure does love the sound of her own voice, but I’ll gladly let her keep on monologuing until Archie can locate some backup.

“You had a husband, does that mean you had a life outside this place once, that you’re an Eternal too?” I asked. “If that’s the case then why harbor such hatred towards someone in the same position you’re in?”

“Tch. As dense as ever, I see.” Blackheart clicked her tongue, clearly annoyed by something I said. “Let’s just say I possess many Eternal-like qualities with a few key differences, and leave it at that.”

“Being needlessly cryptic doesn’t make you more interesting, you know that?”

“And that cocksure attitude of yours doesn’t disguise the fact that you’re weak, and badly outmatched in wit.” She snapped back, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “And as for why I loathe the other two, it’s because I—along with your precious Songbird—are the only two beings in this wretched world who know the truth. About Project Memoria’s true purpose, and what the Eternals really are. Here’s a hint: it isn’t people.”

“What does she mean, momma?” Shizuka looked at Yuna with a concerned look. “Are we… different?”

“Don’t listen to her, Shizu. She’s just trying to scare us.”

“Oh, but I assure you I’m not. Project Memoria operates with several key assumptions, the most important of which is that a person’s memories, their entire being, are extracted and placed into their digital avatar to continue living out their days as if nothing happened,” Blackheart explained, raising one hand to represent an Eternal. “But have you ever really thought about whether that’s even possible? To “extract” a person in their entirety.”

Whether it’s possible… huh? I suppose I’ve had my own fair share of doubts, but nothing concrete.

“Wait, but…” This time it was Yuna who couldn’t hide her concern. “That’s what the microchip was for. They told me it would scan our brainwaves to recreate—”

“To re-create, yes. I’ll circle back to that.” Blackheart cut in. “It was quite early in testing when the founder of Project Memoria, Ueda Akito discovered something. That no matter how many people could be re-created within the Digiscape, that’s all they were. Recreations.”

“What are you talking about?” I scoffed.

“Unlike Hunters who remain tethered to their brains through the atrium, Eternals are nothing more than the downloaded personalities of volunteers, given form. A second self, lacking something distinctly present in the original. Something that science couldn’t replicate, or devote proper study to. Do you know what that was?”

It dawned on me as I remembered something my ex-wife had hypothesized about at length. While I failed to pay attention the first time she said the word, it was the concept that flummoxed her throughout her entire career.

“The soul…” It was Archie that completed my thought.

“Precisely.” Blackheart smiled. “A digital afterlife, or at least in the way they promised it, was never possible without understanding that concept. What you two really are is a simulacrum, a copy meant only to squeeze money out of those who cared for you in life. That’s why I can’t stand you, and why you must cease to exist.”

Shizuka’s eyes welled up with tears as she looked to her mother for guidance.

“It can’t be…” Yuna's own eyes widened in horror. “You mean that when we passed, we really…?”

This can’t go on. If it does, they’ll lose something else precious besides just their lives.

“You… don’t know that!” I finally chimed in, pulling out my revolvers and pointing them at Blackheart. “I don't know if this bullshit you’re spewing is true, but even so…”

I was content to let her yammer on before, but after seeing Yuna and Shizuka’s faces warped in despair, I could no longer bear it. Not only that, I had a duty to protect them. From physical threats, yes, but also from the darkness that had begun to set in. I couldn’t allow myself to break another promise.

“They’re people to me, and I don’t care what you have to say about it.”

“Jiro-bo?” Yuna looked touched.

“But I do know! That little girl will never grow up. She’ll have the mind of a child until they shut the lab down for good. Do you call that mercy!?” Blackheart swung her arm out to the side, the other hand over her heart. “This place, it’s abhorrent. So that’s why… I created the bugs, the corruption, all of it. To help guide Memoria to its natural conclusion!”

“You… what?”

“So no matter how many of my pets you slay, it matters little. In time you’ll see, Jiro, the only light to be found in this world is at the end.” A huge vortex of black butterflies swirled around us as Blackheart floated to the center. “Now, mother and daughter, I grant you both true mercy.”

She clapped her hands together and a ball of purple energy began to form, sucking in pieces of the ruined wagon like a small black hole. I, too, felt like I was being drawn in.

I ran over and shielded Yuna and Shizuka with my body, desperately trying to weigh them down. I struggled against the gravitational pull, but my weight wasn’t enough.

“It’s no… use.”

Just as I felt my boots sliding underneath me, Archie flew against the force, using his tractor beam to grab hold of us in a brutal game of tug-of-war.

This is bad, we can’t hold out much longer like this.

Suddenly a bright blue light cut through the darkness encroaching on us, and I heard a voice.

“I will not allow you to harm them.”

“Autumn!!” Blackheart hissed. “You can’t hide away in your ivory tower forever. In your heart of hearts, you know I’m right! You just don’t have the conviction to do what needs to be done.”

“Right, wrong. Fate is the decider of such things. Where there is life there is possibility, this I’ve always believed. Just as you do deep down. After all, we’re both her.”

Her?

“You can’t gaslight me, you hypocrite! And this isn’t over, I’m coming for you next… And I’ll have my armies with me, you just wait and see!”

“………….”

There was a final flash and everything went white.