46 Usagi Days / Finale, Pt 1

- 46.1 -

When Ruby Hanasaki came to, she found herself in a different room, a different bed. Alarms blaring all around her. Orange beacon lights spinning, strobing.

She had to shut her eyes. Not only because of the noise and flashing lights—but the blinding, pulsing headache that threatened to split her head apart.

She didn't feel drugged anymore. But the headache, the alarms, the lights—it was too much. She had to get out of here.

With great effort she tore the wires and tubes out of her, and stumbled out of bed. She had on a loose, thin medical gown. Her bare feet on the cold floor.

Still alone, as before. She shuffled toward the door of the empty room, and stumbled into the empty hallway beyond.

- 46.2 -

The klaxon's strident wail was even louder in the hallway. The pulsing lights, even brighter, more relentless. The combination was an assault on her senses. If it didn't stop she was going to lose her mind.

… What was going on? Some emergency. Evacuation? Something bad was happening in Ithaca.

The dreamlike haze that had surrounded her before was gone. This was real. This was happening.

"… Shut up!"

She covered her both ears with her hands, slammed her eyes shut.

"… SHUT … UP!"

A white light began to flood her mind, filling the darkness behind her eyelids, growing in intensity, along with the pounding inside her head, until her skull felt as though it were on fire, and then everything went white, and then—

POW!

A sharp, blinding, searing sensation shot through her whole body. Crackling sounds, like electronics short-circuiting, traveled down the hallway. The beacon lights exploded, bursting one by one in a shower of glass.

She opened her eyes again.

The alarms had stopped. The lights, too.

… At least in this hallway. She could still hear them, far off, in other parts of the facility.

She made her way down the hallway, leaning against the wall for support.

- 46.3 -

Ruby kept moving. She didn't know where she was going. All she could do was put one foot in front of the other.

Her headache was getting worse. Ever since … whatever had happened back there, with the alarms and lights, she had trouble thinking. More than before. She would lapse in and out of consciousness, ending up in a new hallway, somewhere she didn't remember walking to. The world pulsing in and out of focus.

She was on auto-pilot. In disconnected, sporadic moments of lucidity, she was aware of turning corners, walking down yet another identical hallway. All while fresh alarms blared, new lights flashed. The passage of time lost all meaning.

Eventually, one such moment of awareness found her in yet another hallway—at the far end of which stood, each one armed with a pulse rifle, a trio of R.A.B.B.I.T. wardens.

- 46.4 -

Ruby froze.

The three of them were looking right at her. Their fingers on the triggers of their pulse rifles. Those expressionless mouths, eyes hidden behind their helmets.

The one in the middle touched the side of his helmet, and muttered something into his radio, as though confirming orders. She was too far away to hear what he said—the alarms would've drowned out his voice anyway—but she was certain it spelled bad news for her.

All three raised their pulse rifles, aimed directly at her. Ruby shut her eyes, raised her arms up in protective (if completely futile) gesture, bracing herself for the impact of energy blasts that would surely tear her entire body apart. She imagined the warden's finger on the trigger, squeezing—

And then everything went white again. The same, searing hot pain, flooding every nerve in her skull. Just like what happened with the alarms.

When she regained awareness, she was standing at the end of the hallway. Her entire body ached. Her head throbbed even worse.

She turned around.

Three, unconscious wardens, sprawled out across the floor at her feet. Unmoving. … Dead? She wasn't sure. She didn't want to check.

… Had she done that?

She looked away from them. She opened the door at the end of the hallway.

Then she went on.

- 46.5 -

Ruby continued on auto-pilot. She was dimly aware she was moving through the facility. Endless hallways. More alarms. More flashing beacons.

"(… Ruby?)"

Her stare was fixed straight ahead of her. The same, sterile metal walls.

"(Ruby!)"

No end. More alarms. No end. More lights.

"(… What's wrong with her? She just walked past us …)"

No end in sight. All she could do was walk …

"(It's like she can't hear us … She's completely out of it. Ruby … Ruby!)"

No end. No end. No—

Ruby felt a hand on her shoulder. She immediately fell out of her trance, and whipped her head around.

Ivy. Violet. Lucy.

They four of them stood for a while, not sure what to say.

Ivy spoke first. "Ruby … We thought you left."

… Left? Ruby gripped her head in pain. "H-how—How long ago was that? That night … on the funicular?"

"Like … a month ago."

Ruby didn't say anything.

Violet: "Ruby, where have you been? Are you okay? What did they … do to you?"

Ruby didn't know how to respond. Truth was, she didn't know either.

Ivy, concerned: "You look … thin."

Ruby: "Yeah, they didn't have any … Dr Fizzy-Pops in my IV drip."

Nobody laughed.

Ruby, her vision still blurry, tried to take in the sight of them.

Violet was lugging around a pulse rifle, barely able to hold it up. Ivy was holding Lucy's hand—the latter looking weak, barely able to stand. All three had some amount of blood on their clothes. (How much of it was their own …?)

Violet: "We … We did what we had to, to survive. The wardens—they're killing everyone, Rubes. All the innocent people who lived in Ithaca. Slaughtering them."

Ruby: "Why are they … Why are they doing this?"

Ivy answered, her voice trembling. "An Orc, Ruby. Ithaca had an Orc captured here, below us, all this time. He escaped. He's out in the atrium. Ripping apart everything—everyone—he sees. The Last Orc on Ear—" She caught herself, when she remembered who she was talking to.

Ruby: "Orc …? Louie …? No. No, that was—that wasn't real. That was the drugs."

Violet and Ivy shared a concerned look.

"Anyway," Violet continued. "We're trying to get to the control room." She held up an access card. Also stained with blood.

Ruby: "Why …? What's there?"

Before anyone could answer, a voice called out to them.

"FREEZE!"

- 46.6 -

A group of wardens had rounded the corner, and were now pointing their pulse rifles at them.

The apparent leader, who had shouted, held up a fist, signaling the others to put down their rifles. "No energy bursts. That's too easy of a death for these troublemakers. They deserve something …"—unsheathing his knife—"… slower. These ones are mine. Got it!?" Then he began to approach the Usagis.

Ivy and Violet got into position to fire the pulse rifle, which was apparently so heavy it took both of them to operate. They aimed it at the approaching warden, squeezed the trigger, and—

Nothing. Empty.

The warden let out a triumphant, "Ha!"

It was Ruby's turn now. She stepped forward, and placed her fingers on her temple. She stretched out her other hand, and focused on the approaching warden, trembling with mental effort.

Ivy, confused: "… Um, Rubes? What are you doing?"

Ruby: "I can … make things happen … I just …"

But the whiteness never came. Whatever power had saved her during the earlier encounter—it wasn't coming.

The warden was within striking distance now. He pulled his arm back, preparing to stab, and then thrust it toward Ruby, who shielded herself with her arms, instinctively—

- 46.7 -

—but she didn't feel anything. No blade cutting into her. No pain.

Ruby opened her eyes, lowered her arms.

"… Lucy."

There she was, standing in between the warden and Ruby. She had grabbed ahold of the warden's hand.

Warden: "What the …"

Lucy snarled. An animalistic, feral sound. Her mouth opened, bit into the warden's hand. Chomp. The girls watched in horror as Lucy tore into the warden. She was a wild animal, devouring its prey.

The other wardens in his group began to panic. They raised their pulse rifles and fired at Lucy, who was now running toward them on all fours, dodging the energy blasts with ease, her eyes manic and wild, her mouth twisted in a terrible snarl.

Ruby immediately flashed back to what she'd seen in Firgrove.

The wardens never stood a chance. Lucy tore through them all, in mere seconds. Ruby, Ivy and Violet all turned away at the grisly scene. Even so, they couldn't block out the sounds of the warden's screams. Of Lucy's savagery.

When it was over, Lucy stood up. She returned to the Usagis, covered in fresh blood. Her hands, her eyes, her skin … The transformation had begun. What the Professor had warned them about—the ultimate fate of the luck modules—was starting.

Lucy was becoming the monster in Firgrove Village.

It was about that point that Ruby's legs began to give out. Ivy and Violet rushed to support her.

Ruby's vision faded, and the world went dark once more.