I carry Raphael alongside Deus as we follow the glowing butterfly, as it matches our pace.
Deus tries to break the silence, but can't find the words to say.
For both of us, it's like a door has been unlocked in our minds.
We walk in silence as we practically drag a catatonic Raphael. Butterfly hobbling along beyond us. It takes us around 2 corners, one on the right and one on the left until we come to a T-junction with a doorway in between choices.
The butterfly floats forward and vanishes right in the middle of all three decisions.
"We're not splitting up." I start. "Let's take a break until Raphael comes back to us and take the doorway."
Deus nods in agreement, still unsure of how to begin a sentence.
We sit Raphael down on the driest (or least damp) area of flooring and sit down ourselves on both sides of him.
"I don't know how to explain it," Deus begins as he holds his hand out in front of himself and summons an already-lit cigarette, "but I thought I quit last year." He amuses, taking a long drag.
He coughs.
"That cough explains everything." I amuse.
He laughs, holding out his free hand in front of me as he summons a glass bottle, alongside clear water inside of it.
"I got a feeling you might need some water, Shiro." He insists, as if he'd been meaning to say this for a long time. "I just… I can't believe they took your name. They really took everything from us." He blubbers through tears that stream down his face like running faucets.
"I remember a lot more than my name too." I continue. "I think I remember everything."
Raphael twitches in his comatose state and mutters my name over and over. Deus and I cease whatever conversation should have gone on to let him ramble.
Yet, somehow, rambling was the medicine.
Raphael's eyes spring to colour as his previously limp head jerks up to hit the wall hard.
But just hard enough to activate him.
The gears that turn to power Raphael start turning, and his stands up in an almost robotic manner.
He stands in place for a moment, reaches into his pocket, and pulls out the device that was initially perceived as a weapon earlier in our excursion.
He places it to the right side of his head and presses a button on the side of it.
A magnificent pink bolt of electricity shoots through his head.
A slight current runs along the back of my neck as I begin to panic, until I realise Raphael remains standing. He shifts forward slightly, and then perks up.
"Okay, what did I miss?" He says as if waking up from a long nap.
That's a good question though, what did he technically miss? His hand touched mine and somehow gave me my own memories back.
Deus takes the stage.
"Look, man," he begins, "is there anything you've been hiding from us? Like, this whole time?" he says as he makes a gesture that could only be understood as 'this whole time'.
"I actually want to talk to you about that." Raphael responds, taking a seat in between us. "It appears I've gotten my memories back. The name Lorelei had somehow opened many doors in my mind. Probably all of them."
In his words, he remembers everything.
"From since the end of April, we were a strike team of thirteen," Raphael monologues, "orchestrated by the Government to carry out missions due to our special abilities. We don't know how they put us all in one place, but we were made to accept our circumstances. Shiro, you were the secret weapon: your manipulation powers work on a cellular level. You can create a sword capable of containing a black hole. You can do damn near anything you wanted, so they made you a puppet and put you on a leash."
"Did they?" I recall, thinking back to the tapes I saw of myself with said team.
"Well, I did. They told me to, said you were dangerous if kept untamed so I found a way to keep you subservient, whilst also maintaining yourself." He rambles with some sort of apologetic tone. "However, someone was behind them, who was behind us."
"Talk like a normal person, man!" Deus snaps, clearly unable to understand everything at once.
"He's saying someone else was pulling the strings." I confirm. "He's talking about Lorelei."
"Indeed." Raphael affirms. "It starts two months ago, in the first week of April. A certain Lorelei network was set up around London. A cascade of quasi-operational security cameras that track strange behaviours. The camera feed always went to-"
"Your compound." I continue.
"Absolutely." He agrees. "I was scouted almost immediately, and told the compound would be mine, but I understand now that they wanted to use my brains alongside her network to get the job done faster." He rambles in constant realisation. "I turned a month-long job into something around two weeks."
"Do you remember everyone you found?" I ask.
"Only the ones you do." His tone low and serious. "I've come to the realisation that somehow, our memories are linked. You touched me and remembered your name. That's definitely not how that power works."
He's right. Locke's power allowed you to see someone's past upon skin contact, and amazingly pauses time for up to three minutes depending on your training. So regaining my own memories upon touching him would mean…
"Your memories, Shiro, were somehow locked within me." He continues. "So if I didn't know said memories were locked within myself, I could have never accessed them. As if someone put them in a folder inside a folder inside a folder inside a folder that I have no reason to open."
"Which would explain why they came back to me upon touching your hand while you were unconscious." I say in desperate attempt to understand.
"Correct-a-mundo!" He expresses, shooting finger guns at me. "Which could only be activated by invoking the name of Lorelei…" His voice shudders at the sound of the name.
"We need to press on." I insist as I stand up. "The others were captured and we need to find them."
Raphael and Deus nod in agreement.
"Hey, uh… Shiro," Raphael says as he puts his glove back on and holds it out for me to help him up. "What's your dream? What do you want out of all of this?"
I smile. "I want a world where tomorrow is guaranteed. I want everyone to have the ability to move on, no matter what."
Deus gets up on his own, nodding.
We make for the doorway in between the junction.
Luckily, we all maintained our torches. Deus does the honours and transmutes them to produce pure sunlight. Raphael raises his hand to speak up about the dangers of staring straight at it, and Deus shuts him off by producing three pairs of the most stylish sunglasses he could manifest. Raphael ceases his habit of making Deus look stupid.
The doorway is open with no door or hinges, as if it was built to be explored. It appeared to be a short hallway until it began descending.
Stairs.
If the station itself wasn't deep enough, being just below the surface, that means this will take us a lot further.
I assume.
The stairs go down in a spiral - a popular fashion for a villains lair - for what felt like fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes turned into half an hour. Half an hour turned into regular breaks sitting on the stairs. Every now and then, Deus will create something fragile and drop it off the railings to see how far this thing goes, but we never hear a sound or confirmation that it breaks.
"Deus." Raphael starts. "I need you to make me some chalk."
Deus doesn't question anything, he does what he's told.
He does it tenfold.
Deus summons a box of chalk, all white sticks, and places it in Raphael's hand, to which he takes a stick out and draws a crude picture of a dog.
"Let's keep going." He says, as his chalk never leaves the wall.
We maintain a steady pace down the stairs. The sound of Raphael's chalk scraping across brick and mortar is irritating, but we grit our teeth as we've come too far now.
After two minutes of additional walking, Raphael stops.
Deus and I stop shortly after.
Raphael points at the dusty line of chalk he's been drawing. To our surprise, the line of chalk has overlapped. The dog is there too.
Raphael turns around and commits to his experiment, walking up the stairs now, drawing in the same fashion as before, but higher and more distinct.
One minute passes.
Two minutes pass.
Raphael appears behind us.
"That means it doesn't matter where we go, we're stuck here." I say as my defeated self emerges.
"Not entirely." Raphael says, grabbing my shirt and holding me close. Too close.
He takes me to the railing.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Deus exclaims.
"Finding a way out." Raphael says as he throws both of us off the railing and into the unexplored darkness below.
…
…
I'm alive.
We're alive.
"Deus!" I call. "Come down! It's safe!"
I hear no response.
Moments later, a thud is heard behind me. A second thud shortly after that.
A second thud?
I look towards the noise and find Deus picking himself up and dusting himself off. I look around to find Raphael, the man responsible for giving me more near-death experiences than birthdays. He isn't here. Deus and I take out our torches and shine them in every cardinal direction.
He isn't here.
Suddenly, a spotlight shines down on another doorway, which opens up on command, as if a system is in place. I take the initiative to slowly make my way towards it.
I check my person to check if the sword is still on me, when it manifests in my hand as if a part of my being. I grip it tightly in my hand and proceed with Deus trailing shortly behind me.
He taps my shoulder and signals to the glasses I should be wearing which he already has on. I put them on upon realising. Even though we don't need our torches on due to the spotlight, it's still not the worst idea to keep the glasses equipped.
As we pass through the spotlight, a shiver comes across the both of us. We both consider whether it's a better idea to stay and look for Raphael, but we both come to realise the room we're in - being overall the size of the diameter of the staircase - held no such way of looking harder.
The newfound doorway appears almost brand new, simply worn and torn through time passing through it. We pass through, and upon entry, half of the room illuminates.
A magnificently sized room, at least half the size of a football pitch, constructed entirely of machinery and steel. Miscellaneous devices whir and beep around us. Monitors showing pulses, diagrams, numbers, surveillance footage. Due to the sheer magnitude of the room, we can't see everything, but we can see the four stasis chambers stand in the centre of the room.
Large transparent glass vats with an eerie fluorescent green liquid that bubbles from the base.
What else is inside?
Our teammates.
William, Ariel, Violet and Maryanne float inside attached to some fort of machine helping them breathe.
A fifth chamber rises in between them, housing the same substance, but this time complimented by Raphael slowly losing consciousness inside, as the machine takes over breathing for him.
I ready myself to destroy the tanks and free my friends.
Deus takes a step back.
Another spotlight comes down far ahead of us, illuminating at least a portion of the second half of the room, revealing a chair and a figure sitting in said chair.
We say nothing. Deus remains a step back. We stand like this for a single minute until I make my way to the closest tank containing Maryanne.
I ready my sword.
Laughter erupts from the spotlight.
Laughter that sounds initially like one person, and then diverges into two people laughing at the same time.
I squint my eyes and focus on the laughter that remains obnoxiously too far from me.
It's almost skeletal-like structure, it's flowing red tattered dress…
Rioca is not dead.
"Go on. Break it! See what happens." She taunts. "Show me that magnificent power of yours!"
I lower my blade. I know better than to answer to taunts.
She ascends from her chair, almost floating, and proceeds to stride towards us. I back up as much as I can until Deus and I are reunited once more.
"No splitting up, okay?" I tell him, watching him put away his torch.
"I should be telling you, mister rush-in-without-a-plan." He jokes, as he summons a handgun into his dagger-less hand.
"I thought you sucked at aiming." I ask.
"That's what this is for." He retorts as he summons a red-dot sight and attaches it. He grips the gun in both hands. He aims and shoots twice, missing one shot, but hitting her in the shoulder with the second. Rioca continues laughing as her strides get longer and her arrival comes quicker.
It isn't until she reaches the chambers that she disappears from our sights. Deus and I stand back to back, watching all corners of the room.
Rioca appears as if made of smoke in front of Deus and slaps the gun from his hand. She tuts twice.
"Only two of you now." She says, a certain malice reverberating through her tone. "Now it's a fair fight." She continues, as she lunges to strike Deus, but I'm somehow faster. My sword reaches behind me and blocks her famous bladed tendril.
Deus swivels behind me and takes a certain amount of cover as he starts to summon a sigil on the ground, almost mimicking William's inside the tower.
What he wasn't aware of at the time, however, was that upon him being connected to both myself and Raphael, had boosted his capabilities in ways he never knew possible.
Raphael's intelligence flowed through him, as did my power to manipulate granting him the ultimate power of creation.
Deus summons perfect copies of myself.
Each equipped with sword and shield, down the components of the blades themselves.
This is the extent of his abilities.
From previously unable to manifest life, to creating a black hole, and now human life.
Deus collapses on the ground as a swarm of thirty clones rush towards Rioca.
Rioca does her best impression of a whirlwind and spins around as if imitating a ballerina. Tendrils soar through the air, mixing with the blood of my brethren to create a murky maroon tornado amidst them.
I immediately turn to the chambers, but to my surprise, my friends and family aren't inside.
I focus my attention on Rioca as she massacres tens of me at once.
Like it's a sport to her.
I start to run. My run turns to a sprint as my clones somehow catch on to my plan.
One clone readies his knees as he clasps his hands together to throw me up. Two more join him.
Upon collision, I am thrust upon the sky.
Gravity means nothing anymore.
I soar through the air as if granted wings. I continue to soar higher and higher until she's in sight.
Higher. Higher.
Until she's below me.
I throw my sword point black through her skull. The blade pieces through, cementing it into her ribcage and upper-pelvis.
A scream is heard.
Two screams are heard.
A desperate howl for life.
The tornado breaks, and fifteen bodies fall alongside hers.
She's down, but for how long?
I rush back to a still-collapsed Deus.
"You doing good, man?" I ask.
His eyes twitch but he remains conscious.
"I'm doing alright, nephew." He sighs. "Just a bit tired." As he picks himself.
He takes a look around, and eventually lays his focus on the vats.
"Where'd our guys go?" He asks, now looking around.
They're gone.
I wasn't paying enough attention to see where they'd have gone but I know they're not where they were.
The clones that Deus summoned dissolve into dust that appears to blow away into the wind, but actually flows back into Deus. Upon this, Deus's strength seems to return bit by bit.
As if filling a pool full of water.
Amongst the sound of dust flying around us, a gurgling sound starts to swirl from the direction of Rioca Antonella, and within two pages, she reconstitutes herself.
As if by instinct, my sword is returned to my hand.
A feeling of safety fills me as I clutch it.
Until a feeling dread overcomes me once more.
"Now now, gentlemen," she begins as she steadies her posture as if learning to walk all over again, "do you even care how long it takes to come back like this?!" she says as her tone goes from teacherly to stern adult.
I ready my weapon.
Madam Antonella allows herself to go crazy.
As if a blood and flesh tornado wasn't crazy enough.
Handfuls of tendrils spiral around her arms in wild knots and tangles until they solidify to create two obnoxiously long 48ft swords that writhe and leak pure concentrated evil.
Deus readies a second sigil, but in the moment one begins to appear beneath us, a blinding light appears behind Rioca. It starts small, and then grows to a brilliant ball of light that fills the entire room.
When the light subsides slightly, we are awakened to find Rioca surrounded by William, Ariel, Maryanne, and Violet.
"Miss me?" Says a voice from behind.
It's Raphael.
"Of course you missed me, look at this bloodbath that happened the moment you were left alone."
I don't acknowledge him.
"H-how about me?" Whispers a voice from behind him.
She appears transparent at first, and then reveals herself to be Abigail Walker.
So that's how it happened, huh.
Abigail Walker was with us the whole time.
From the planning of the mission, to the tragedies we experienced here in Sole Station.
She must have trailed behind us for the whole walk here, keeping herself invisible, and using her power of intangibility, removed the guys from the vats.
I'm really just glad she's unharmed.
"I did miss you." I admit as my eyes avert hers. "Sorry I didn't tell you about the mission."
Her face perks up as if she just remembered something important.
She walks sternly towards me and slaps me hard in the face. She then jumps at me as her arms wrap around me.
I wrap mine around her in response.
"Don't do it again." She orders.
"Yes ma'am." I say through my pleased smile.
Our attention turns back to Rioca and her new adversaries as they stand waiting for Rioca to make the first move.
I grip my sword tighter, and Rioca's eyes shift immediately to me.
She sees this as the first move.
Her heel digs into the ground and launches her in my direction.
She's so fast, I don't know if defending myself will do anything.
She approaches as the speed of a cannonball, and upon impact, she phases straight through me.
I realise Abigail is still holding onto me.
"Abi, you have to run!!!" I command.
"If I run, you'll die!!!" She argues.
Rioca regains her composure as Violet imitates Rioca's launch and collides her flaming fist with our enemy's almost-perfect face.
She's taken by surprise, but stands her ground in moments. Another bright light is seen from directly above her, as William begins to chant.
Rioca attempts to get away but Violet punches her in the gut, leaving her clutching her stomach. Maryanne follows suit as she leaps with pure superhuman strength and guillotine kicks her into the ground, leaving a crater in the pure steel flooring. Maryanne and Violet quickly jump back to Raphael, Abigail, Deus and I, as a holy beam of pure white light engulfs Rioca.
William approaches the team with Ariel.
"That's what happens when you mess with the Holy Knights of Darkness." Violet narrates.
"Ain't that the fuckin' truth." Maryanne entertains as they both high five.
"Still think magic is stupid?" William teases.
"I literally never even said that once." I retort.
"Don't celebrate too quickly, guys." Deus exclaims as Rioca reconstitutes herself once more.
"How the hell does she do that?!" Ariel complains.
"It's the second time so far." I inform him.
"So what? Is she some sort of cat or something?" Violet queries. "'Cause I'll kill it seven more times." As she punches her open palm, rekindling it as she rushes in to deliver a punch - at what could have only been perceived to be light speed - to her face, colliding to set the crater beneath them ablaze, and continues to punch her again as hard and fast as she can.
The flames that engulf her hand begin to encase her entire body as she continues punching for as long as she can, and is somehow hit back harder tenfold, throwing her into the wall on the other side of the room behind us. Ariel runs to her aid.
"Oh my GOD!!! Can you just LISTEN?!" Rioca screams as she crawls out of the now 6ft-deep crater. Her clothes are even more tattered, now sporting a fancy singed effect on the ends of her sleeves and what used to be the frills of her dress.
"I say we just keep hitting her." Maryanne comments.
"And you think that's gonna stop me?!" Rioca combats, as her hair which was previously laid down in long curls began to rise bringing along with it the rest of her body until she is levitating 4ft off the ground.
She readies her two swords once more as she prepares to unleash something we attempted to never see.
She slams her swords vertically into the ground, sending waves of tendrils sprouting up like flowers throughout the terrain.
We're safe inside the sigil which remains underneath us, but…
Violet. Ariel.
My focus quickly moves to the opposite side of us, as we behold our comrades being carried to us by Zidane sporting a pair of large bat wings as he reunites the whole team inside the sigil.
Violet is twitching, but very much still alive. Ariel is taken aback. Zidane pats himself down upon descent.
"Yo." He says, saluting me.
Abi slaps him on the arm, and smiles graciously at the safety of our allies.
"Fashionably late as usual." Raphael chimes.
"There was a cat stuck in a tree." Zidane teases, quickly being followed by the sound of thunder.
"Will you QUIT with the banter?!" Rioca screams, hair inflamed in dark black shadows.
"Rioca. No, Lorelei." Zidane begins. "You and me have to talk."