Interlude//Light (Part_2)

“So, you really have the will to take the shot?” Gabriel leaned against a bloodied wall; his body riddled with bullet holes. “I’m impressed.”

“All of this is your fault! If you had never come here, my family wouldn’t be dead!” Tears welled within Lucy’s eyes as she held a strange, gun-like device, aimed towards Gabriel.

“And I had a choice in the matter?”

“If I kill you here, everything will stop. The Atom-3 shuts down and the city goes back to normal, right?!” Lucy’s aim wavered.

“No. If I die, that will change nothing”

“LIAR!” Lucy screamed. “I know that I can fix this, this is the only way!”

“Go ahead, try.”

A bright light flashed throughout the room as Lucy pulled the trigger. When her vision returned, Lucy stared at Gabriel’s corpse, a gaping wound piercing through his right eye to the back of his head. She had done it, Orphan was dead.

Lucy dropped her weapon to the floor and stared in horror at what her hands had done. She had her doubts that the device would work, it was only experimental, after all; but all of that was gone now. Not wanting to see her victim any longer, she fled the room. Her legs carried her out of the DEED HQ building to see the shattered ceiling. Above her, the floating remains of New York City cast shadows against the midday sun.

“Lucy!” She heard Kaden cry out. “Lucy! You’re alive!” He was running towards her.

“Kaden!” Lucy reached out her hand and began to close the distance between her and her friend. “I- I did it. I fixed every-“

Lucy watched as her hand split into hundred of tiny cubes. Blood sprayed from her body it crumbled to the ground. The last image burned into her mind was that of Kaden, his expression shifting from relief to sorrow.

This is how her story ends, and that of another Lucy begins.

[ cut ]

“This is an emergency! There is an unknown entity somewhere within the facility! Send us into lockdown!” Gabriel screamed into an intercom.

“Lockdown? Doesn’t that mean-” Kaden asked before being interrupted.

“I’m going to be leaving. You two need to get to the Atom-3 as fast as possible,” Gabriel then turned to Dr. Miller as he slid on a tan blazer that was previously resting on a coat hanger. “Activate the Simulacrum Protocol.”

“But won’t that just make the problem worse?” Dr. Miller rebutted.

“If I fail, Alice is our only chance at stopping Lucy,” Gabriel explained. “We can’t let her get to the Atom-3, which means the worst thing Simulacrum will do is give us more time.”

“What’s the Simulacrum Protocol?” Kaden asked.

“Dr. Millar will explain that later.” Gabriel went to one of the workstations in the DCPm room, picked up a small gun-like contraption, and slipped it into the pocket of his coat.

“Why is Simulacrum such a safe idea now?” Dr. Miller asked.

“Because if my theory is correct, Alice is alone now.”

“Huh?” Kaden was confused.

“The DSC was able to locate a specific voice within the Atom-3, Alice. We were made aware of an interference from the 2nd DCP over the grid, multiple of them. My theory is that the previous Tamers might still be inside of the 2nd DCP, and they’ve been trying to contact Alice. Any time we directly connect, we’ve found a different Alice from the one we’ve been conversing with via the DSC, an entity we’ve been calling ALICE. That version of ALICE was trying to connect directly with Lucy earlier, during and before the 6th kaiju’s attack,” Gabriel said. “It might be the reason behind Lucy’s disappearance,” He picked up his glasses from a desk and opened the door to leave. “I’m going to find out for sure.”

“WHAT IS SIMULACRUM?!” Kaden shouted. Only to be answered by the door snapping shut.

[ cut ]

“Where are you going? What’s going on? Why are we in lockdown?” Hannah asked Gabriel over the phone as he drove through the underground tunnel.

“I’m going to the place Lucy is most likely to go,” Gabriel answered. “Lucy’s body disappeared right after the operation; I think it has something to do with ALICE.”

“You THINK?! Please tell me you have more of a reason than that to call in a full-scale emergency!”

“I need you to disable the lock on my suppressor.”

“You’re insane. I’m never doing that.”

“As your superior, I need you to disable the lock on my suppressor.”

“I SAID I’M NEVER DOING THAT!”

There was a pause for a moment.

“Fine. I’ll just break it.”

“You can’t do that! It was designed to be as indestructible as you are! I’m calling in a special forces team to extract you, there’s no way you’re getting out of the facility.”

“I’m already out of the facility,” the sun shone down upon Gabriel and his car as he exited the tunnel.

“You- You can’t do this. You can’t leave me alone again!”

“I’m sorry.” Gabriel hung up.

[ cut ]

Hannah heard the beep of her call ending before she threw her phone to the ground. “What a moron,” she said. “I’m not going to lose you this time.”

Hannah pulled an intercom out of her pocket and switched it into emergency mode. “I need a drone sent to tamer 7’s apartment, we’re about to watch some real sh*t go down.”

[ cut ]

Kaden and his father entered the Atom-3’s chamber, Dr. Miller holding a small data drive in his hand. He walked up to the computer and plugged it in.

The computer spoke.

>what are you doing?

“Giving you hands and feet,” Dr. Miller answered. “You’d better use them well.”

>will I be alive?

“I don’t know, but-“ Dr. Miller was cut off by a panel opening on the computer showing a camera feed, with two figures standing on the roof of Lucy’s apartment building.

“Is that… Lucy?” Kaden asked.

[ cut ]

Gabriel stood atop the roof of Lucy’s apartment. Waiting for him was the girl he met so long ago. She was still wearing the hospital gown she was given before the operation. Gabriel distinctly saw the red glow of her crimson eyes; they were as clear as day.

“It seems I’m just in time, Lucy,” he said, looking at her directly. “I was worried you might be waiting somewhere else.”

Lucy stood up, facing him. She reached out her hand. Gabriel felt a mighty force attempt to split apart his body, but he pushed past it with ease. “It’s going to take a little more than that to stop me,” he said.

“What are you doing here?” Lucy’s gaze was cold. “What did you do to me?”

“I made a mistake. You aren’t yourself right now, if you come quietly, we can fix this,” Gabriel explained.

“Why didn’t killing you put an end to this?” Lucy asked.

Gabriel was stunned for a moment. “So that’s why you are. I’m glad we get to meet again, Miss Turner,” Gabriel closed his right eye as he regained his composure. “I was wondering what exactly ALICE did to you.”

“Every single time I try to fix this, someone gets in the way. It’s either you or Kaden,” Lucy said. “I’ve tried killing you both, it always ends the same.”

“Maybe you’re just dwelling too much on what could have been instead of looking towards the future?”

“Don’t get philosophical with me! I know what you’re here to do. I’ve seen you do it how many times?”

“I think this would be number 1,098 if I’m correct.”

“Wait, how do you know about any of this?! You’re just Gabriel.”

“The suppressor made by DEED was only a prototype, it was never guaranteed to work,” Gabriel explained. “Most importantly, why do you think Alice still retains memories of who she was after being assimilated into the Atom-3?”

“You’re kidding me. All of this time you’ve been watching? You saw me mutilate and destroy your body almost a thousand times and you think you can pick a fight with me alone?!” Lucy looked almost smug for a moment.

“How exactly was it that you killed me last time?”

“Using-“ Lucy stopped as Gabriel pulled the gun-like device out of his pocket.

“So, you recognize this, good,” he held it up to the choker around his neck.

[ cut ]

“What the hell is he doing?!” Kaden asked as he intently watched the camera feed from the monitor.

“I think I know why he told us about soul memory now,” Dr. Miller said. “Gabriel is going to destroy the suppressor that keeps Orphan’s influence at bay.”

“Why would he do that?!”

“Because he trusts Orphan.”

“He what?!”

[ cut ]

“Orphan, I know you can hear me, just as I heard you,” Gabriel said to himself. “I heed thee, answer my call. I ask for your power to stop the hands of time from turning back once more. You do not yearn for the destruction of this world, which inches closer with each and every passing breath. Please let the madness end.”

Gabriel pulled the trigger as the collar that once held Orphan at bay shattered and fell to the ground.

[ cut ]

Hannah watched from her tablet as the suppressor broke apart. A bright red flickering within his right eye caught her gaze, though his left remained a stalwart blue.

“Heterochromia?”

[ cut ]

A diagram of his body appeared on the lens of Gabriel’s glasses, with a large, illuminated mass moving from within his chest to his left arm. Gabriel smirked smugly as he tossed his coat to the side, now more visibly revealing a long, black glove covering his left arm.

“Gabriel! You can’t do that! We don’t know if it’s reversible!” He heard Hannah’s voice coming from the miniature speaker inside of his glasses. “I don’t know what you’re planning but using the KF system is only a recipe for disaster for you.”

Gabriel slid off his glasses and rested them in his front pocket.

“So then, Orphan, do you finally wish to raise a weapon toward me?” Lucy asked mockingly. “It seems as though your precious body has given up control to you once again.”

“Oh no, I’m still here,” Gabriel said. “You mistake a parasite for a potential ally.”

“Why you!”

“I’m surprised that after all of these loops you still don’t know what the KF system does if it's used by a kaiju instead of a human,” Gabriel took off his glove, revealing a mechanical, crimson arm underneath. “There was a tamer 0, he just wasn’t able to control the kaiju. Since they’re comprised of data, he could just transfer that data from the target kaiju to himself. I’ve refrained from doing that for the most part, but I was left no choice when it came to the 5th kaiju, since you were currently out of commission. That certainly isn’t fortunate for you now, is it?”

“Fine then, come at me,” Lucy harnessed her will to create a blade of information and grasped it with her hand. “This shouldn’t last long.”

Gabriel’s arm unfolded to reveal a blade of gleaming white metal. He stepped back and braced himself for Lucy’s first strike. The impact tore up the floor of the apartment rooftop, but Gabriel was able to block with his weapon.

“My turn,” Gabriel deflected his opponent’s blade to the side and slashed across her stomach.

Lucy reeled back in pain. “Why does that work?”

“A blade of data can strike an entity of data, and you’re not any more human than I am right now,” Gabriel explained.

[ cut ]

“I don’t understand any of this, what happened to Lucy?” Kaden asked.

“From what Gabriel is saying, it sounds like Lucy’s memories of the past have been restored. What past they’re speaking of I don’t quite understand, but it’s clear to me that Lucy is going to try to destroy the Egg of Orphan.” Dr. Miller answered.

“What’s that weapon Gabriel had?”

“It’s an experimental weapon designed to kill a kaiju. I don’t know why he isn’t using it to kill Lucy though.”

[ cut ]

“I guess I just have to dodge your blade then,” Lucy remarked before taking another lunge at Gabriel. This time he dodged to the side and made another strike, but Lucy caught his blade. She caught a better glance at him as their blades clashed. Gabriel’s legs looked slightly deformed, and he had sprouted a tail to go along with his metallic arm. “So that’s how you’re getting so much speed then, that’s pretty annoying,” she went in for another strike before being parried once more. “I wonder how long it’ll be before the 5th kaiju eats up the rest of your body.”

“Long enough that I’ll have time to deal with you,” Gabriel retracted his blade before kicking Lucy as another sword sprouted from his leg. As Lucy dodged backwards, Gabriel retracted the blade and placed his foot on the ground.

“I suppose I’ll just have to improvise and adapt,” Lucy held out her hand as it transformed into that of the 2nd kaiju, complete with its data cannon. She fired off a blast of energy that Gabriel tried to dodge, but it still severed his left arm. “What’s the real difference between you and I and the kaiju we fight anymore?”

“Do you believe in the human soul?” Gabriel stood before Lucy as she charged up another shot. “Humans have an incredible power within us, something we don’t understand in the slightest. If it weren’t for that power, we would all be dead by now in one way or another. If you know that power, you’d understand that whoever opposes us will never be able to claim victory.”

“You’ve died so many times, yet you still think your soul remains in your body?”

“The 2nd DCP has been preserving yours, the Egg of Orphan could be doing the same.”

“Nice theory, let’s see you prove it.”

Lucy felt a wave of dread wash over her. The KF system was being activated, she learned to detect it a long time ago. Who was using the KF system now? Was it Gabriel? What was he trying to do? Was he going to destroy her like he did to the 5th kaiju?

“I guess you win this time,” Lucy climbed up the guardrail behind her. “Good luck finding someone else who can stop me,” Lucy jumped off of the building and to the city below.

After losing sight of Lucy, Gabriel slid back on his glasses. “Dr. Miller, what’s the status on the Simulacrum?”

“Almost finished,” Dr. Miller answered from over the intercom. “It should only be a few more-“

Dr. Miller was cut off by a blinding light filling the Atom-3’s chamber. Within the light, Kaden saw a figure form. He didn’t recognize who that figure was, but she reminded him of Lucy.

“It looks like it worked,” Dr. Miller said. “Now we just hope Gabriel was right about her helping us.”

“Who is she?” Kaden asked. The newly-created body fell to the ground unclothed; it was a girl with light-brown hair who looked to be in her mid-teens.

“Her name is Alice Turner,” Dr. Miller said. “She’s Lucy’s sister.”

[ cut ]