✧ Chapter 15 ✧

Celeste's eyes opened with desperation, only to see she was in a dark dampy investigation room with mint green neon lights surrounding a table where all of her remaining biomechanical organs were spread out with her head attached. The body parts she had attached to her were nowhere to be seen. She started to panic excessively, worrying about the likely possibility that someone was using her for a malevolent reason. Who could it be? Her father? The machines? A secret society?

"Hello?! Where am I? What's going on? Show yourself!"

An unfamiliar voice chuckled from one of the shallow corners inside the room. It sounded like whatever it was, was walking around her randomly in circles.

"So you want to pretend that you don't know why you are here? I guess I was expecting too much from you. Not that the infestation of your little friends is going to help either. No one knows you are here except me and you. That way we can go through your pain together."

"W-what are you going to do to me?" asked Celeste.

Surgical instruments could be heard tinkling around while the tapping of shoes made it seem like they were making a ubiquitous performance. Their humming suggested that provoking a reaction from their victims was not really the goal in mind. Throughout the entire time, she could hear them saying some sort of made up nursery rhyme in the shadows. She was not sure if it was their actual past or if it had a deeper story behind it.

The words being said were:

Over the hills of spring's grass.

I picked a vanilla flower with thorns.

Dancing freely with the wind.

Skipping away from the world.

Into the waters of freedom.

Where the stream takes me.

They will never know.

What I have hidden.

Deep in my burning heart.

The clouds cover me with warmth.

Floating away from the sky.

Into the frozen memories.

Of what once was a life.

Is now a door of shattered times.

When I lost the petals of redemption.

Words alone could not describe how this made Celeste feel. So much felt wrong. What if this strange person was talking about her? She couldn't have known anyone else that knew what she went through except for the machines, Styra, and Flight. While she was thinking this, the anonymous individual spoke something of glaring concern that interrupted her mental inquiries.

"You know, I knew someone that was a lot like you. Dr. Decker. Taught me a lot but was not who I thought they were. A rebel disobeying one protocol. Father's protocol. Everything was perfect until they founded that stupid organization anyway. Ah, UVOCA. Never ceased to entertain me. What type of corporation studies for years to traverse realities and rule every undiscovered world without mercy?"

"Wait, why are they doing it?"

"Eh. To be fair, their objective has changed from domination to all-encompassing omnicide. That is where the gray area is. You never heard of the scientists who went rogue? Hiding secrets from everyone, including their loved ones? They tapped into what others ran from. It was one out of absolute infinite possibilities. Father despised them because they took the information to godhood and obliterated it."

"Are you talking about collecting The Ten Eternal Lights?"

"So you have heard of them… Who told you, Celeste?"

The transhuman had a feeling. A feeling that stemmed beyond that melancholy from her inability to do anything at the current moment. Did this person want The Eternal Lights? What was the underlying motive behind it? Why did they ask about her history of acknowledging their existence? Was the mysterious figure planning on threatening her and anyone else who knew to reveal the location? All of these thoughts raced through her electronic brain which prompted reasonable doubts about answering the question.

"Sheesh. Just tell me already. You don't have to be such a shut-in. I am not here to kill, so you can stop acting all petrified."

What a relief. Still, she wasn't sold on the idea of being interrogated like this. It was a powerless feeling. She was sure that something suspicious was definitely going on in this almost pitch black environment. Especially with the mellow attitude being presented. That along with the seemingly suffocated deep voice made everything questionable. Like they were trying to keep their identity in regards to maybe helping her as unknown as possible. Celeste silently exhaled at what she was about to ask.

"Are you trying to fix me?"

Suddenly, an antique desk lamp turned on directly behind her head as a gloved hand swiveled it over a bit to adjust focus. As a coffee-stained office chair rolled over next to her table, she was in awe at who she saw sitting in it. The spy that killed her mother. This one in particular wore a standard ninja mask and suit, but she could never make out their eyes since a pair of shades blocked them from being seen. However, a UVOCA badge could be found on the left side of their bulletproof vest.

"I saw you before your inception. I knew about everything that happened up until now. Your so-called parents betrayed us. You think you were born human? I will give you the short end of your story. You never were human. They lied to you. All that biomechanical stuff you see on the table? This is who you were since day one. You were nothing but an insignificant little science fair project to them. They brainwashed you into one of them when that was not at all who you were."

Quivering emotions shivered down her spine. Did this mean that… The entire time… She was not their daughter. Just a hunk of scraps put together for nothing. To pretend to be something she had no clue was a fabricated identity in itself. The heartbroken bot stuttered out of curiosity to put the puzzling past together.

"W-who am I?"

"You were a UVOCA test subject. Stolen and given childish memory cards that intended on messing with your mind. You were spoonfed. Laid dreaming on a table like this for twenty-three years about living as a human. The reality is, you are the first mechanized embodiment of an Eternal Light. Not just any kind either."

Celeste couldn't see what was real about anything anymore. Fake memory cards. Dreaming for twenty-three years. Spoonfed false feelings. It angered her. These "so-called parents" may have had an impact on the trauma she experienced, but that did not mean UVOCA was far from being blamed for what they did to her as well. Was UVOCA real? Were the Eternal Lights real? Was she even real?

"W-what? A-am I supposed to be some byproduct of one of the ten?"

"No. You are the Eleventh. Specially designed and unable to be replicated across the Omniverse from what I know. You are an ancient powerhouse unlocked. Trust me. I am really the only one you can look to in order to find out who you really are."

"Why should I trust you, when you watched me suffer for years? I was imprisoned and you waited so long to do anything. Oh that's right, you are a deranged UVOCA agent. All you idiots do is act like you care about what you are doing, but I bet this is all a trick. Why do I have to be manipulated?! Why am I here if none of this is probably real either?!"

"You didn't hear what I said about that. Guess context does not matter to you."

"What are you saying?!"

"I am not a UVOCA agent."

"IF YOU ARE NOT A UVOCA SPY, THEN TAKE OFF THE GODDAMN MASK AND REVEAL YOURSELF. THAT AND WHERE THE FUCK WE ARE!"

"You're not getting anything like that. Talk's over."

Celeste started to apologize and plead relentlessly. Being confined to a table like this was torture. It was worse enough that she had no choice but to lay there. This hurt a lot more than she was able to bear and as a result, it was hard to think straight.

"Please! Alright, it was difficult for me to say this before but lying here on this table now hurts like hell! I cannot focus on whatever you are saying when all I feel is pain. Now you are telling me even more painful things and all that does is amplify it. How do you think it was going to make me feel?"

"Does it feel real?"

"Fine, okay! I get it now! Everything that you said is real! Hahaha, look you got your way! Now get me off of this thing!"

The disguised figure saw how fake she was acting to eliminate the realness of the situation. It did not make them turn around with pity. If anything, the Eternal Light embedded within Celeste was what needed to be destroyed. There was no other way to see past that.

"Disappointing," said the nameless individual as they shut the door behind themselves as Celeste was left screaming for help in terrible agony.