The Man with the Violet Eyes

"The way I see it," he spoke softly as he held up three fingers, "...is that there are three sides."

The sheer weight of his presence bolted me to the platform. I couldn't move. I tried to put my hands together to call my body double, but they were frozen in place.

"Vex, the Director and those fools who want to revive the past," he held up a single finger, "They're idiots, but even worse, idealists who look to reinvent the invented. I told him to let it go, I told him. But he couldn't. Look at where it got him,"

Suddenly, Experience III came rushing from above. I saw him fold his hands together to manifest. One of the neon green beams from the side of the building dashed towards the man but he held out his hand, reflecting it downward before it reached him. It dissipated to the ground as he teleported in front of Experience III, grabbed him by the collar and threw him into the building.

He wiped off his jacket and straightened his suit before he spoke again. "Please don't interrupt. I will let you speak when it's your turn," he glared at the three of us as he floated in the air. 

The way the light from the yellow sky reflected against him; there was something to him. He felt above and far out of reach, but isolated.

"Two," he held out two fingers, "the ones that are indifferent or mindless. The ones who don't remember or submit. I can't blame them; I don't blame them. You can't blame something that doesn't exist. Aylis and Franz, I was never like them. They have no will to fight," the man sighed, 

"Sometimes, oppression is inevitable. I get it."

He glided down from the sky and landed on the platform in front of us. He sat down over the edge while he looked overtop the skyline of Nolan. "Three," he held out three fingers,

"There are those, it's rare, but there are those who resist. Who fight. Those that have memory but chose to fight. I can respect them. I knew when I saw you, you wanted to fight. Even though you couldn't. But that's not why you interested me."

Daiya and Mira struggled against the platform but to no avail. What was this power? It felt crushing and heavy, dense with longing and emptiness. It felt...relatable. I knew what this felt like. To be alone.

"I suppose there is a fourth side, the one I stand on. Truth. It would be inaccurate to say I care nothing about the past. After all, it's what informs our reality and subsequent future. I never submitted to Nolan, I left on my own. The Director, he recreates relics of the past," he pointed to the Eiffel Tower, "...hoping to make something new. Cities with no end. What he wants, is an escape. You can't recreate humans."

He got up and stood looking over the platform with his back turned. I felt my body become lighter. I could move my arms and hands, my fingers started to wiggle. The three of us got up to face him while the crater of the building he threw Experience III into remained silent. 

Daiya stepped forward to rush him, but I put my arm in front to stop her. He was entirely too strong. Even if the four of us fought him all at once...

A visible pulse vibrated from the distance of space between us that looked like waves of energy that emanated off his body. Mira must've felt the same way, because they flashed me a look of concern. Something told me not to approach him.

"The lack of knowledge is the basis of ignorance," he said with his back turned, "Those were the first words I had ever heard the Director speak. I woke up in a white room with a hole in the back of my head," the man clasped his hands together.

All of a sudden, we were in a white room. There was one steel door that held it together. 4 kids sat lined against a wall with their heads attached to it; it was them. The man with the violet eyes, and Dr. Vex, Franz, Aylis. I could see their resemblance. It was them, but as children. They didn't see us, but I could feel my skin and see them. I was still alive but was inside an image projection of a memory of his. Why show me this?

A man in an all-white suit opened the door quietly and shut it behind him. He walked over to the each one of them and detached their heads from the wall, revealing the holes in the back of their skulls. He rubbed their faces, stared into their eyes, pulled on their skin. All the while holding a notebook and writing inside of it. Ironically, it looked identical to the one Dr. Vex gave me. 

"The lack of knowledge is the basis of ignorance," he said, "The lack of knowledge is the basis of ignorance," he repeated.

He walked over to the first child in line. "Can you repeat what I said?"

"The lack of knowledge is the basis of ignorance," she repeated. The girl resembled Aylis. "What does that mean?"

The man began to write something in his notebook but paused. He smiled. "Can remember, shows signs of intelligent thought. Light capabilities are active." 

When the man looked up from his writing, the last three boys sitting on the wall stared at him with curious eyes. It was Dr. Vex, Franz and the man with violet eyes. 

He walked over to the three of them and crouched in front of them, "Did the three of you understand and remember what I just said?"

They all nodded in agreement.

The man stood back up and wrote something else in his notebook, "4 show signs of full memory, with intelligent thought. 9 earlier were responsive, functional memory, no intelligent thought. 7 died post-op." he held his tool for writing on his chin. "This makes neuron operational surgery a 95% success rate. I wonder why we begin at 8 years old..." 

"They have light capabilities, respond to stimuli, can hypothesize... maybe it's time." the man wrote as he glanced back and forth at the children.

The man walked over to the door and opened it, letting in three people in white hazard masks with transparent bags guiding 20 children in a single file line. They placed them along the wall, sat them down and socked their heads inside of the slots.

"30 days. That's when I'll return. If I'm not back, the ones that are unresponsive, put them in the bags. We can reuse their brain matter. Take the responsive ones below ground and place them in the factory." 

 "These four..." he pointed to the four children sitting by themselves on the wall, "...are coming with me."

***