Location - Detel Facility Inner Chamber
Kael's POV
As I gained consciousness albeit with the ringing and disoriented balance, I found myself somewhere far from the cold Detel room and something more unreal.
It was a seemingly dark space with the only seemingly form of illumination was the blueish silvery ethereal light that pulsated occasionally from the strange structure that rooted itself and made it to be the centre of this space.
The ground I touched didn't feel normal, it was strong but soft and yet stable at the same time. With little understanding of what happened, I decided to let the light lead me forward to whatever mystery was hidden in that structure that was a pulsating rhythmical wave of light.
I began to walk, taking simple and slow steps, one by one while making sure that each movement was firm and secure on this strange ground. Drawn to the strange lighting at the distance, I began to slowly but surely make my way over.
Soon, I came close enough to the mysterious object that lies in this dark space.
It seemed to be a solid with a silvery blue outward appearance, but sometimes morphing between states of solid and liquid.
In its solid state, it always seemed to take the form of a plant-like shape and in its liquid form, it had viscosity thicker than water.
As I kept on looking into this strange object's machination and wonder on how it seemed so out of this world but still having a feel of belonging to this world, my vision began to blur as I felt the strength in my legs sap away as I fell hard to the strange ground, the softness of the space somewhat cushioning my fall impact.
It had been a dark space, until it shifted, flashing with iridescent colors and fragmented, incoherent scene, some scenes playing quickly with no correlation to them until it stopped, a fracture appeared in the space, as a bright blood red moon blossomed in this space, the ground turning into a world soaked with blood and despair.
On the puddle of blood in which Kael was on, there were bodies of Monnae, her head snapped back, a distance too far from what was humanly possible while blood leaking from her ears and combining with the red liquid, Lark, a huge part of his abdomen completely missing as blood kept on pouring from that hole, Kina, her limbs cut off as she struggled and screamed in pain and agony, her blood another source of the red liquid that was slowly but surely becoming larger and his father and mother standing on the blood pool, with their left hand stretched towards him as they spoke in unison
"Why did you not save us? You are a coward, son" claw marks decorated their bodies, their blood dripping unto this space his father missing half of his face, which was possibly eaten by the Xions who attacked him and his mother, her warm and motherly smile that was always there since he could remember, could not even be formed as her jaw was ripped away, her oesophagus barely connecting and holding it from falling off.
[This is your fault. All this pain, all this suffering happened and will happen because of you, Kael. You are nothing but a disaster.]
An ethereal voice that sounded more inhumane and robotic than it sounded human echoed through this dark space that had no seeming ending nor did it have a beginning.
"I'm the reason for this? For this monstrosity? Lies! This is all a lie!" I screamed as I stood up from the weirdly heavy mass of red liquid I was sitting before, which by this point, had seemingly and gradually became the ground of this space now, with the blood red moon reflecting on its surface, creating a suffocating and eerie feeling.
[You may run and you may hide. You may deny and you may deceive yourself and others but the truth is clear. This is your future and your fate, one which is cloaked in agony and blood] the voice sounded again as it echoed through the room albeit it being unnatural and impossible.
Overwhelmed by shock and fear, I vomited as my eyes scanned the monstrous future unfolding before me, a future that was all too cruel, all too despairing.
"No! I don't want this!" I screamed at a raised voice as tears began to form in my eyes. They were tears of despair and hopelessness.
With no other conscious thought, I began to run, with all my might and possible effort, I picked up my pace and began to flee from that horror, like I was trying to deceive myself from the truth, like I was trying to run away from such a twisted fate as far away as my legs could carry me, with every tread taken, the red blood like liquid seemed to weigh down on me to the point of each movement being a lot harder to perform, like I was glued to the blood.
Exhausted and tired, I landed on the blood pool with my knees for support. As I fell to the red pool and glanced at the horizon, there I found myself, correctly a younger version of myself that seemed to be wearing a medical patient robe, a sickly appearance and sunken eyes that complimented his frail body with patches of blue pigmentation that seemed to decorate such an appearance.He stood in silence, a frail reflection of my past self, his expression unreadable.
"Stand up." He said slowly and with minimal mouth movements but strangely loud enough for me to understand. "Stand up, me. I fought to survive, I fought to be, and all I have remembered doing since I have been born is fighting, so don't you dare give up after all I have done so you could be. Stand up and keep fighting, no matter how bleak it may be, for you are me and I am you and we are Kael and we are not weak and will never be weak." as he slowly approached me with the blood red liquid seemingly doing nothing to hamper his movements.
"Stand up for this is not where you belong, future me." A great pulling force seemed to propel me out of the space as it began to rack and fracture while collapsing on itself with the boy that seemed to be the younger me walking forward to the seemingly endless abyss and void with no fear or hesitation in his eyes but a defiant will that seemed to be able to defy fate itself.
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MEISHA POV
In the ruins of old buildings that seemed to have once touched the heavens but with those stories now left behind as they succumb to the fracture of time.
Among the ruins and pile of rubble, two young girls, dark and light skinned, worn, and scarred as they huddled together in silent resilience.
"Wake up, M. We have to hunt and get ready to move," a girl called out to the other one which was coddling up against the walls, hands and feet clumped together as a way to keep warm and comfortable.
After being addressed, the child stirred for a bit before turning to the direction where the voice originated from. "Huh? Big sis? What happened?" Meisha questioned as she quickly got up from her bed while she kept a safe distance from the other girl who woke her up.
"What are you doing,M? We weren't able to catch anything yesterday so we had to rely on rats. We should hunt earlier so that the chances to get what we want is much higher. I don't have time to deal with your morning tantrums" the other girl, who looked older, commented as she kept on arranging her tools and hunting equipment.
'What? Where am I? I remember…I remember. What do I remember?' Meisha thought internally as she stared at the sky where the same blueish silvery ethereal light pulsated occasionally.
As Meisha stared at the light, something seemed to have changed within her. "I need to hunt with big sis..Hunt with big sis," she said softly, her eyes decadent and unaware like she was stuck in a trance.
"Coming,M? We need to hurry up," the girl stated to be a big sis called out to Meisha which sapped her out of her daydreaming.
Picking up her bags that had now been filled with materials used for hunting, strapping a handmade bow fitted from wood and some stones, survival skills they learnt in their old base, well before they left.
"Yeah, I'm coming, Nat." Meisha said as she walked out to meet her sister, their torn and ragged clothes swaying with the breeze as they walked away from the pile of ruins of the building from the Old world.
Some Few Minutes Later
"What was that about, M? It seemed like your movements and what you planned to do are not in sync, like you're a stranger in your own body," Natasha questioned as she looked at her younger sister, worried about her strange condition.
"I'm not sure, sis. I felt like I should be able to do that but when I tried, I failed miserably, like back then during the hunt. I'm sorry that I almost let the hunt get away due to my recklessness,"
Meisha apologized, her head hung low like a puppy waiting for a scolding after it did something wrong. Natasha tapped her head as she laughed
"HAHA. It's fine. You're still a child and even the best of us make mistakes too, after all, it's what makes us humans. So you don't need to worry about that." Natasha comforted Meisha who hung her head down after the mistake she caused during the hunt.
Meisha had owned up to her mistake, although contrary to the response she had expected, her sister, Natasha laughed out loudly like she had just heard a joke.
"That isn't funny, sis. Besides, can you keep your voice down?!" Meisha said, her voice filled with wariness and tension.
"Don't worry, M. Trust the person with more experience. We're safe for now Anyways, leaving that, I just thought about something really funny. The technique you were trying to use during hunting, is it the technique I was practising and creating for self defence? I thought you didn't want to learn it and that it was stupid looking. 'You look goofy, sis. It doesn't look that strong at all. How can you possibly kill Xions, humans or at least wild animals with your fists? That's so lame!' Your words, not mine but guess who's using them now!"
Natasha boasted as she tucked her neck, her chin raised up high in victory. Her pride leaking out through her every words.
"It isn't your technique, sis. I was working on this myself. I definitely didn't use your technique!" Meisha said confronting her sister's opinion with great disagreement.
Stepping close, Natasha placed her face near Meisha's ears as she murmured "I didn't know that my sister admired me so much. I am so touched" Natasha said as she jokingly wiped a tear from her face as she laughed and continued to lead their walk back to their makeshift camp.
'She definitely won't let this go for a long time, adding to the fact that I still failed when I tried to use her technique after all' Meisha pondered in her mind as she took a slower pace, a way for her to escape her sister's mocking and torment.
"We should start moving, M. We need to reach the next base quickly" Natasha commented as they walked, accompanied with the silence of the forest and the rhythmic sounds of the birds chirping and wild animals, giving a vibrant and alive feel to the forest.
"There is no need to rush, Nat," Meisha said as she glanced at Natasha who had now turned to look at her.
"What do you mean by that? You still remember right, M? There is a chance that we could find our parents in this base" Natasha commented as she looked towards Meisha with a confused look on her face, wondering why she was not in a hurry to meet with her parents, something that should be natural.
'It's because I lied, Nat.'