[JOURNAL] Kyrea Sakashi ( KaiRoseWolf )

[NinjVet]

The dissappearance....  

[NinjVet]

This wasn’t the first time she had been here.

The walls of the underground temple trembled and shook, rocks careening from the dark, high reaches of the ceiling which could not be seen in the dim, nigh non-existent light. Another missile landed close by, throwing the pilot back against the narrow hallway’s wall. The floor surged beneath her, her head slamming back against the rock-hard surface. A thick liquid flowed from the wall- no, her head- down over her left eye, skewing what little vision she had in these depths. The blood pasted over the runes of the wall behind her, and dust and rocks fell from above, covering her in a thin film of debris.

It was like a bad dream repeating itself.

Kai coughed, choking hard on blood and dirt alike, and rocked herself forward, desperate to stand, to move, to do anything but stay there. The Imperial forces had followed her for miles, and Edge had led her- not for the first time- to this dark, mysterious, and hellish reserve as a place to hide. There was something deeply, devilishly significant about the underground temple, hidden so well and for so very long. The wicked organoid that had, for some godforsaken reason, chosen to be her partner was constantly driving her back to this place in the unknown region. But for now, right at that instant, the reason ‘why’ just simply was not her foremost thought.

Getting to her feet, she saw out of the corner of her blurred vision the dark draconic form of Edge, glowing dimly in a whitish-blue hue against the pitch black of the corridor’s depths in his runic designs. It was as if he himself matched the markings on the wall- as if he was a part of this place. Badly torn forearms pushed her forward against those walls, forcing her sore, weakened legs to move in his direction. She had hidden Jager miles back, and had run, trying to lose the Imperial soldiers in the confusion of the switch. The plan had failed. Now, after five miles of running and fighting to dodge laser canon blasts which would surely spell the end of her life, her body screamed to give out. Everything was dim- dimmer than it should be even in the failing light. Her ears were ringing sharply after the last missile strike had been so close. She squinted, and Edge vanished suddenly in a downpour of dust as part of a wall collapsed.

An eruption of light blinded her completely as an Imperial Zoid broke through part of the ceiling, the Zaber Fang’s shed-sized metallic foot landing only a few meters from her. Turning on a heel with a sudden burst of self-preservation, Kai bolted in the other direction. But the hallway only seemed to get longer.. and longer.. and longer. She tripped, chin smacking hard against the smooth rocky surface of the floor, and all the air from her lungs whooshing out in a gust. Sliced fingertips fought for ground to pull her up and forward, but they seemed to find no purchase. They slid, bled, and gave way, trembling from the effort. Edge’s dangerous, whirling blue eye was a few inches from her face as the sounds of fighting began to fade. Even the laser lights of the energy beams which struck overhead seemed to have no sound. They exploded in a shower of white against the black walls in the silence of a black and white movie. As the light vanished, all light vanished. Open eyes felt shut, finger tips lost feeling. The tremors of the old temple dissolved and were lost.  

[NinjVet]

She breathed, but felt no air.

She breathed, and she felt a breeze.

She breathed, and waited.

And waited.

A bird sang.

There was laughter.

A child giggled and ran past, the rustling of grass tickled her ear. Cool, moist grass pressed against her legs, the back of her head, her neck, her arms. The movement of the child tossed some of her bangs across her face.

“Rose, get up! You’re missing the game!”

There was no pain, no stink of laser-charred flesh or wetness of blood against her skin and hair.

“Come on, Rose! Hurry up!” The voice was fading, the laughter moving farther off. She had to follow it. The compulsion pushed her, and her eyes flickered open. Vision that seemed blurred of sleep and not battle cleared slowly. A man sat beside her, grinning foolishly, looking ahead at the child. Kai sat up, pushing what should be sore arms behind her to prop herself up. Nothing hurt.

“It’s about time you got up.” The grinning man shook his head at her, his deep green eyes smiling as much as his mouth with their tiny wrinkles at their edges, detailing his age. “I thought you were going to miss dinner too.” His hair was brown, almost the same hue as her own, but flecked with heavy patches of silvery grey. He stood and stretched, gave her an affectionate wink, and then jogged off after the young boy who fled with a small hand-crafted Pteras toy, laughing even louder.

Kai breathed, absolutely disoriented. She looked out over the field, shining brightly in the spring’s sun-warmed afternoon. Groves of trees dotted the land as it dipped and wove off into the distance which rose upwards gently in faded purple mountains. Few clouds rode the early evening's breeze, thinned to see-through layers by chilly upper atmosphere currents. As she looked harder, and further, the most significant aspect of the view was the creatures who frequented the serene valley. Zoids, pilot-less zoids, roamed and flew before her. The young boy and man who chased each other pleasantly seemed to not even notice the unreality of the scene.

What advanced technology.. what civilization.. could possibly establish this?

A zoid roared off in the distance, a flock of birds- bigger and thicker than she'd ever seen before- driven up into the empty sky by the sound. The flock zigged and zagged, creating patterns of indescribable proportions which flickered to and fro gaily.

Kai's attention was pulled down to herself. As she became more self-aware, less disembodied, everything felt lighter and different. Upon her was not her pilot gear, but a gentle green and purple sundress, which flowed just past her knees to her tanned shins. No scars inhabited her arms or her hands, which felt up to her head and found her brown hair teased and curled, all settled into a half-bun adorned with a couple of flowers.

Abruptly disgusted, she jumped to her feet with arms spread wide as if afraid to touch any part of her dressed-up self, knowing- nay, hoping- that this was a dream.

"Time for supper!" A distinctly female voice called from somewhere behind her. She spun, surprised to see a tiny house no more than fifty feet behind her. The woman who had called was older, though she still looked genuinely happy. Grey streaks caressed her long hair which folded and tumbled nearly down to her waist, pinned over one ear with a few brightly colored wild flowers. "C'mon sweetie." She added, looking gently, what seemed lovingly, at Kai. "I made your favorite."

This couldn't, in any possible way, be real. But everything felt real, even a tiny burr that she managed to step on while turning to go into the house. For now, for safety, she'd go with this, and these people who seemed by their demeanor towards her be her parents. Which was, of course, utterly impossible.

That evening passed in near luxury. To Kai, apparently known to these people as Rose, who had lived a life of such difficulty for the past 11 years, this was almost intolerable. The kindness, the love, the sheer infiltration of personal space and lack of loneliness. It was everything she had come to forget and, in consequence, despise. Even later that night, the man came in to hug her goodnight and kiss her forehead, which she felt she had no choice to accept with a set jaw and furrowed, furious brow. He'd asked her if she felt alright, since she wasn't acting normal. Of course she felt fine- and to her, she was perfectly normal. But to this family, she was their refined and beloved daughter.

Whose life was this?  

[NinjVet]

That night, and so many nights there after, she dreamt restlessly. Nightmares rushed through her thoughts of the Empire and Republic warring, of her true parents' deaths, of her last moments in the life she knew best. She saw a glowing blue eye, then woke, screaming. Covered in sweat and panting, she came into consciousness disoriented every morning.

Every day went by with impossible ease, though anxiety twitched at every aspect of her laid-back days. The technology of this world- perhaps it was not Zi at all- was incredible. Far more advanced than what she had ever seen in her life thus far. Skyscrapers bit at the sky, she found one day when the family had taken a trip to the inner city. The buildings soared above them, their windows glittering magnificently in the sun that seemed to rarely not show. She could find no way to ask any of the people of her 'family' what was going on, or what year it was, or where she was exactly. Everything seemed delicately in balance. Even this world's energy seemed to come from a universal source- impossible.

The anxiety was building. Her nights went by with less and less sleep, until she took to walking down to a far forest grove in the mountain valley in which she now lived. The lack of sleep was beginning to get to her- months had gone by, maybe even a year. Shadows developed beneath the eyes that seemed to not truly be her own, and the smiles she had begun to force upon herself began to falter and fail, leaving the mother, father and brother she never knew concerned for her at an almost constant rate

The air was cool one particular night. It had been a year of this game. This lie. She knew it now, based on that rotation of the seasons. The spring had just set in, and the field glowed as it had the first day she had arrived. She had begun to believe it herself, all of it- that perhaps all those memories of piloting zoids and being a part of an army that didn't even exist in this world- was just a dream in itself. Maybe this was her life. No matter how many dreams she had, or how she attempted to wake herself from this all-too-perfect life, she couldn’t wake. It was chilly as she stepped into the even cooler underbrush of the grove. Every night, she had to get away. Something nagged at her, and it was getting stronger. The night's wind rustled the leaves of the overhead trees, scattering the light shed by the two moons- the same moons she knew all too well.  

[NinjVet]

“You aren’t Rose, are you?”

The voice made her jump, whirling around to face the ‘enemy,’ with a hand out defensively as if ready to fight- a reaction ‘Rose’ would never have had.

“No, you aren’t.” The father grinned, the smile rising to his deep green eyes, wrinkling at their corners. It was a smile that could almost make the real Kai smile. “I’ve been wondering, ever since last spring. After that nap, you never seemed happy again. It was as if you had a nightmare and it changed everything about you.” He paused, looking up at the moons she had just been looking at. For now, she watched him intently, though her stance eased and she stood lightly angled from him.

“I’d seen Rose go into trances before. It’s not all that uncommon for some Zoidians.”

Zoidians? Did he mean.. the ancient Zoidians?

“Who are you? Who are you, really?”

“My name is Kai. Kyrea Sakashi, First Lieutenant of the Helic Republic forces.” It seemed strange to identify herself. It felt wrong. The truth felt like a liee. She was Rose. Who was this Kai who lived within her dreams? Who was this Kai whose violent past and present sent her nightmares that woke her screaming?

“The Helic Republic?”

“Yes. The opposing force of the Guylos Empire. There’s a war that’s been going on…”

“No, no not here.” He smiled again, and sat back on a tree so old and gnarled it bent backwards before it rose towards the sky, making a resting place just low enough to make a comfortable place to sit. “There’s no war here. We focus entirely on technologies and peace. Rose told me to tell her something if she ever spoke of a war. I always thought it was the oddest request..”

“Rose knew this would happen?” Kai interrupted, tone edging on annoyance.

“No, not exactly. Rose had certain.. abilities, like some Zoidians have. Psychic abilities. Every once in awhile she’d see things, or dream things, and wake up muttering ideas and sayings that seemed completely incoherent. But she was pretty straightforward about that one about a war.”

“Why did you wait so long to tell me this?” The frustration was growing, and clenching her teeth and letting words slip through was all she could do not to snap.

“I had to be sure. Sometimes, you seemed like Rose, though you were probably just putting on a show. But I could see it when I first noticed you wandering off at night.”

“What is it? What did she want you to tell me?”

“Let me think. I can’t quite recall all the details…” It was part of this age to be peaceful, but the calm only constituted rage within the disembodied pilot. Eventually, he continued. “I think, she said the world would split into two halves in bloodshed, which I’m assuming is the war you came from. But the two halves would come together for a common purpose after some climax of some sort, and be continually upset in the future by others. ” He hesitated, as if there was more, but he couldn’t remember. He shook his head and tried to continue. “She said that the politics are not the only thing you should be concerned with. There is some darker force that you haven’t seen yet- but you will.”

“What darker force? A person, a rebellion?”

“She couldn’t describe it. It was a powerful, dark force. That’s all she would say about it, but she seemed terrified when she tried to think back on it. She said you would have a key to understanding it.”

“A key?”

“Yes. The organoid. It knows..…”

“It knows? It knows what?’

Silence.

“What does it know? What about the organoid?”

When the silence continued, her voice rose in frantic need. Something about that message was dire- sincerely, genuinely dire. This was worse than the war. She was yelling, but she was yelling at blackness. Her sight was gone. She could hear nothing. The father was gone, the grove, the moons, the damp coolness of the underbrush. Her senses were washed blank.

A sensation of falling flipped her stomach, and her whole body wracked hard against a solid metallic surface. Pain dug its claws deep within every inch of her body. She screamed, and as the air rushed into her lungs it felt like they hadn’t been used in days, months, a year..

Her limbs were immobilized by something solid. Thick cords were wound around her arms, legs, and torso, but they were loosening. A thin line of white light appeared, then spread, opening to the outside.

There was no more field, and in its place were craggy, broken stones spread out over dusty, forsaken ground. Ivy had won over the temple’s outer entrance- a testament to time’s passage. The thick cords released her slowly, laying her, coughing and writhing in pain on the debris-laden ground. As she looked up, her vision only slightly hazy, Edge’s pointed, vicious black face stared back. A low rumbling growl seemed almost to roll on in a concerned undertone.

If so much time had passed, why were all these wounds as fresh as they were the day she got them?

She had been held in stasis within the organoid, preserving her body. Had she been in a coma? That was one hell of a dream if so.

But it had to be a dream. There was no possible way. But that statement lingered in her mind, and her ice-blue eyes stared deeply back at the overly protective mechanical creature. Her mind reeled. Her eyes narrowed towards the organoid, and she lifted herself slowly up on a palm, breathing in the familiarity of this time and place gingerly past dust-filled lungs.

“….What is it? What is it that you know?”  

[NinjVet]

Clues....  

[NinjVet]

She found herself falling. This wasn’t an entirely unusual feeling, especially since it again was a mental process and not a physical one. She knew that she was seated in the cockpit of Jager, and she knew that she was currently facing off with the most terrifying enemy she had ever imagined. But as Edge’s glowing runes coursed over her skin and pulsed with ancient powers she could never comprehend, she felt her mind lifting away from her physical body and plummeting into the deep blackness that felt more like Edge than any dismal place or insanity.

This had happened once before. When she opened herself fully to the ancient organoid’s power, he overtook her and she often lost grasp of the physical realm. She was inside of him now. Or, they were all inside of each other- Jager, Edge and herself, but Edge’s presence was overpowering. In the real world, this was obvious by the runes which streaked over her skin and over Jager’s armor. She knew Edge was unique, she always had, but sometimes she was still caught off-guard by simply how unique he really was- compared to the Dr. Fox created organoids of the current day.

It was utterly unsettling, and Kai believed it always would be no matter how many times she would experience it. The falling ended suddenly with no actual crash. Rather, she simply floated in the midst of Edge’s consciousness. The battle raged on, and she knew that she was participating in some way since Jager was moving, Edge was responding, and their combined voice spoke across the comlink,
“I don’t want to fight! What do you want with Nick? Let her go.. we’ll leave..”

She heard herself speak, in a perfectly normal- if distressed- voice. And she wondered how her consciousness had been split so. This was the safer way, regardless. Edge was keeping her from that fog-induced insanity that spiraled her back into her own personal horrific memories. But now she felt disoriented, lost in the endless blackness of Edge’s consciousness has he protected her own.

More strange, however, was what developed from the blackness. There were the remnants, or perhaps mirror reflections, of the black fog which swirled at the outer perimeter of what might be the end to the expanse of darkness. From that fog, images eventually became decipherable. A box with a lock on it sat on what could be determined to be the floor. The box was some sort of rust-covered metal and was inscribed with the same markings that Edge had, and the same markings that were on the temple he kept taking her back to. She knew there was something important there- something that Edge himself couldn’t even remember what it was.

Her bodiless consciousness moved towards the box, drawn to it by curiosity and the compulsion that told she was supposed to. She opened her mouth to speak, as if to ask Edge what this was for, but no voice came out of the mouth that wasn’t there, and she again felt that helplessness that disembodiment produced. Initially recoiling from nearing the deep blackness of the black fog that seemed to be present even in Edge’s own mind, she pushed herself forward, ‘kneeling’ down near the box.

The details of the markings on the box caught her by surprise at first. From a distance, they resembled the dragon organoid’s markings. Up close, something far different was apparent. Four markings which seemed to resemble creatures with wings surrounded a circle, unified by one of the winged creatures having its wings out-stretched over the other three. Each had some appendage touching the single ‘core’ circle which glowed brighter than all the rest of the markings.

Kai reached out to touch the box, but she could touch nothing with no arm to reach and no hand to feel. Numbers materialized. At first they were jumbled, then rearranged themselves to dance before her.

24 7 3 18 31

She read them, and as she pulled each number into her own consciousness, the box began to shake and crack, a fracture line appearing across the surface. The fracture began from the tiny symbolic core and fanned out between each of the tiny winged creatures, separating them from each other. The lid suddenly flipped open.

Anxiety and anticipating gripped her. Whatever was in that box was important. She wanted to see it, she needed to see it. It held some sort of answer. But as she tried to come closer to the box, to peer in over its edge, the box disintegrated, and nothing was left in its place.

Kai was wrenched from her place of disembodied consciousness back into her body, which was now crammed inside the tiny internal compartment of Edge’s chest cavity. Wires and cords surrounding her, holding her in place, tightening to the point of bruises across her already injured body. Pain rushed into her from every angle as her mind reconnected fully with her body without the protective barrier of Edge’s consciousness. Stifling a scream, she tucked her head down into her chest, focusing on those numbers, on the box, on the symbols.

More puzzles. More questions.

.....And not a single answer.