Wretched Fates Revealed

Sapphire strobes had overtaken cyan pulses. Yuki’s Manu-Crystal was now rebound in Miu’s magical protection- forever unshackled from its mass produced origins. In the aftermath of their hack, his body had slightly transformed. Small, smoothed blue crystal implants now lined his fingertips. Veins of deep blue energy ran from his fingers, up his arms, and into his central processing unit within his head.

Neither knew how it happened, but neither had time to marvel. They had to move, just in case there was some manner of security log tracking rogue units. Thus, by the time night had fallen on Japan, Miu and Yuki were standing at the edge of a portal that would take them from Hokkaido and down to Honshu’s Chubu region. They knew that they were going to a nondescript facility at the edge of Mount Kita, but they had no knowledge of what to expect.

Miu had divined new weaponry for Yuki. In place of manmade shells and magazines, eternal flames and unending void would erupt from the weightless barrels that were now latched to Yuki’s back, where they waited to be unleashed. Protective glyphs slid along both of their bodies as Miu summoned her staff and inhaled.

“Ready?” she asked.

Yuki glanced through the portal and saw the open sky waiting on the other side. He prayed to nothing that there would be some manner of answer on the other side.

“Ready,” he replied.

They leapt through the spiral vortex and were gone without a sound.

Neither had a parachute. They knew Miu would break their fall. Their target was far below, massive and simplistic. To anyone observing, it seemed like nothing more than a colossal warehouse. Its only hint of importance was the small contingency of armored vehicles and weaponry stationed along the perimeter.

Targeting sensors within Yuki’s vision system immediately identified them and locked their locations.

“Miu! Down below!” Yuki shouted over the gusting wind of their freefall.

“I see them! I’ll go to my left! You go right!”

Without another word, both split and began their assault. Barrels glowed red with gathering fury. Neon glyphs appeared below Miu.

Down on the surface, the soldiers and guards had no indication that their death was coming. If any had looked directly above them, they wouldn’t have been able to see the two bodies careening towards them from thousands of meters high. Nor would they have seen the summoned beams that were gathering. By the time anyone caught sight of the glowing red that was screaming down onto them, it was too late.

Hundreds of enchanted rays struck the ground with roars like a pack of wolves with bees in their mouths. Chunks of metal and artillery were hurled into flesh as vibrant flame consumed them all. Every person there was dead before either Miu or Yuki had landed.

For the briefest of moments, Yuki wrestled with realizing that none of this scared him or made him feel remorse. As the screams echoed around him and the light of the fires reflected across his armored body, all he could think of was getting inside and finding himself. Anyone who stood in the way of that was nothing more than a target. Quantum processing and traumatized emotions reduced his guilt to a few instances, then it was gone.

Miu was already moving towards the building. She knew the military and the Arcans would be here soon. Her barriers were already forming. White and blue lines cut from the heavens, glowing with symbols and form as they tore across the mountainside. Their path encircled the entire building until it was cut off from the rest of the world. No one would be able to touch them while they found Yuki.

Alarm sirens began to sound from inside.

“Miu!” Yuki called as he rushed to join her.

Miu’s hands rose and another portal appeared.

“Rip away these walls. Shatter any locks that block us. Give us our entrance.”

The portal began to glow, telling them they had a destination. Neither could hesitate but both of them felt a rush of nerves and fear as they ran forward. Whatever was on the other side of this portal would be their answer as to what happened to-

“Yuki?!” Miu screamed out as she came to a stop in their destination.

Yuki almost bumped into her as he arrived and began to look around. What greeted him was macabre and sterile.

Screams caught in Yuki’s throat as his voicebox stuttered in confused terror.

Before them were hundreds of rows of medical-style incubator beds. Cold, minimalist white bracing and clean glass were lined with true, pure crystal Shard implants. Small white glyphs spun over each container as streams of light flowed from the beds and into connected computer terminals that stood nearby. Code cascaded along the digital screens, summarizing memories and rating the quality of things like Unit Psyche and Manu-Crystal Integrity.

Within every bed was a human body.

“What is this?!” Miu screamed.

A humming drone hung in the air, like teeth grinding or forks scraping plates. Yuki couldn’t shake it from his mind as he looked at the nearest bed.

Feeding tubes and medical cabling ran to each body. Whoever this frail elderly person was, they were being kept alive, even as they spasmed and flinched and the glyph ignited. Muscles seized, then relaxed, and a new wave of light was pulled from their container. It passed through the glyph and new text appeared on the screen.

MEMORY CACHE RESET. COMBAT UNIT READY.

MANU-CRYSTAL INTEGRITY RATING: 61.76%.

PASS.

UNIT PYSCHE STABILITY RATING: 19.44%.

PASS.

ALPHA PROTOCOL CONTINUED.

DIRECTIVE: SPREAD LAMENTATIONS.

He had seen this code before. He had felt it.

Something was very wrong.

“Yuki… These are ArcanTech machines…” Miu whispered as she pointed at the logo etched on the side of the bed.

The droning was getting louder. The alarms were screeching. Somethingwasverywrong.

“Miu, I d-d-don’t like this place…” Yuki choked.

Teases of a coming revelation pulled at Yuki’s circuits and soul until he felt he might collapse on himself. Suddenly he didn’t want to be here. <<heneverwantedtobehere>> Glitches shook his frame more than before as dread coated his entire essence.

“Yuki?” Miu asked.

Yuki didn’t respond. Tremors were rattling his body. That company. They were the ones who were supposed to give him the ArcanTech implant that would help him walk. Without proving it, Yuki could feel that this was connected. In his foolish, childish wish to help, he may have agreed to this somehow. He may have condemned himself to this torment without realizing it.

“I… I… I… I-I just wanted to help. Oh gods. Oh gods. I think this is-is m-my-my fault…” Yuki gasped.

“What?” Miu asked.

But Yuki still did not respond. All of his body was now twitching and bending over itself as weighted legs lurched forward towards an unknown but familiar destination. Dozens of beds drifted by as the snapping automaton moved towards its target.

“My fault. This is my fault…” was all Yuki could repeat as it moved forward.

By now the droning and sirens were deafening. Miu wanted to leave this place. Something was very wrong.

Then Yuki’s voicebox released a sound unlike anything Miu had ever heard. Digital ripping blended over a scream as thousands of lives collided against one another. Metal fingers froze in open strain as their connected wrists writhed in agony.

If there was a truth in the universe, it was that mankind was never meant to actually see itself in third person. Photos and videos were one thing, but to observe oneself from a separated vantage point was a curse that would break any mind. And now Yuki was there, standing over his mutilated human body.

Miu rushed to him and saw. Her scream was as instant and uncontrolled as his. Shocked terror and grief ripped through her stomach and throat, threatening to send her to the ground. Scars and patchwork surgery lines covered his face and every visible chunk of skin. His head was shaved, with a strange crown of crystal placed over his skull. His right eye was gone, as was part of his cheek. Both legs were amputated above the knee. His left hand was gone as well. Pale, veined skin covered atrophied limbs. This was what was left.

Yuki spun around and covered the area where his human ears would have been.

“Make the sirens stop! Make it stop! Make it stop! MAKEITSTOP!! I doooooooooon’t like this!! I DON’T WANT THIS! I DIDN’T WANT THIS!!”

Sirens screamed like tornadoes as the entirety of the facility was bathed red in alarm light. More digital screams began as every terminal began to ping concerns. Dials spun. Text cascaded. Glyphs spiraled into instability. All the while Yuki continued to scream as his mind collapsed.

Desperation told Miu that this was intentional. The facility was being sabotaged. They knew the two of them were there. This was their final solution to extinguish the project and remove their evidence. Everybody in here was about to die.

“No!!” Miu shouted as she rose and lifted her hands.

“Not after all this!! I found Yuki again! We found him!!! Please! Stop!! JUST LEAVE US ALONE!!!” Miu begged the universe.

But the universe was indifferent. Everything was wrong. The gods had fallen silent, leaving humanity to its own destructive devices. Prayers were nothing more than whispers on a breeze. No one was coming to save them or help them.

canyoufeeltheinfernogrowing?

Yuki’s human body began to convulse as more alerts howled. All of the bodies began to shake as life support systems went offline. There were only seconds left at this rate. If Yuki truly died, his automaton would likely die as well. Miu would be absolutely alone. She had no more grieving left to give. This would break her. She had to stop this.

Stop.

STOP!

That would be her solution. There was a realm where time didn’t move. There was no past. No future. Only now. If she could harness that, maybe she could encase them in a cocoon of forevermore while they figured out a solution. Within The Aether, they would have time, while the outside world would not even know that a millisecond had passed.

But she was no medical professional. If it was up to her to tend to these bodies, she would surely kill them all by accident. She needed help. She needed-

canyoufeeltheinfernogrowing?

“Ohhhhh,” Miu sighed as her lone idea arrived.

That would have to wait. First, she had to make them safe. Her barriers kept the attacks at bay, but they were powerless against power being turned off. The Aether was her only option.

“Wretched souls of stone! Cursed to live and die alone! Realm of time unknown!!”

Miu’s entire body locked as she pulled The Aether from oblivion. Time began to slow. The sirens’ screams turned to steady horns. Fire crackled and ruptured from her eye as her screams built from strain. Beside her, Yuki’s mind began to calm. Miu’s suffering was enough to pull him back from the void.

The walls began to bend as reality was overtaken by infinite present. Yuki slowly stood on shaking legs as he watched Miu ripping this malevolent darkness into existence before blending it with her own blue fury.

“Miu?” Yuki whispered.

“I CAN SAVE US! I CAN SAVE YOU!! I. HAVE. TO. SAVE. YOU!!!” Miu screamed as her knees buckled.

But then Yuki was there once more. His hands steadied as he stopped her from falling. Crystalized metallic fingers steadied shaking human arms. Miu realized Yuki was helping her and breathed in.

“Use my energy too! I can take it!” Yuki said.

Miu nodded and closed her eyes. Seams of reality unwound as The Aether began to form in full force.

“Shield us from their clocks!! A LIFETIME IN A MOMENT!!! AETHER CONSUME US!!!”

Everything went silent, then the explosion happened. Darkness exploded upwards and spiraled around them, consuming the building in nothingness. The Aether had arrived. Within its sphere of silence, time had frozen completely, save for Miu and Yuki.

There was no moment to celebrate. Miu had another task she had to finish.

“Yuki, I need you to find an address for me…” she sighed.

Far away, in a simple residential neighborhood, a young man was sitting down for dinner with his wife. The smallest bump was visible on her belly as she sat on the floor and pulled her hair braid over her shoulder. His jaw was lined with a strange technical device that glowed with tiny crystal inserts.

“Itadakimasu,” they both said as they clasped their hands together.

Then a portal erupted beside them, and a wild, pink-haired young woman leapt out, followed by a two meter tall automaton. The pregnant wife let out a scream of terror as the young man grabbed the nearest kitchen knife for defense. But then he recognized their invaders.

“Miu?! Holy shit! What the hell are you doing in my apartment?!” the young man shouted.

Miu gasped in exhaustion. The automaton glitched and looked at the young man that it once knew.

“Taki… I need your help… both of you…” Miu begged as she looked at her former bully and his wife.

“You’re a nurse, right?” Miu asked the woman.

“...Yes?...” the woman muttered as she looked at the terrifying visitors.

Yuki stepped fully into the light as spasms shook his headpiece.

“Taki… It’s m-m-m-meeeee… Yuki… It’s good to see you… I am am am dying. Pleeeeease help usssssss…” Yuki asked.