Chapter Text
After years of torment and suffering and an absurd number of sacrifices, the Seed of Light Project its rearing its end. Lobotomy Corporation reaches the surface for the first time after ten years, and a pillar of light washes over the City
The night sky ruled by the stars gazing upon the residents of the City could not keep up with the light, and eventually people looking up would think that the night was already over and a new day was starting. This is the start of the so-called ‘White Nights’, an anomaly that would cure the sickness of the hearts of the people of this world.
Or that was supposed to happen.
In the depths of Lobotomy Corporation, the place of origin of the Pillar of Light, there was one person who did not succumb to the light. By the script, when the light washes over the City, all the staff working for the Wing would vanish into the Light, finishing their work. Yet one person, who could not cry, voices her sorrow.
— “Why… Why am I not part of your finale?”
Angela, AI assistant of the manager of Lobotomy Corporation and the sole one responsible for the completion of the script leading the completion of the project, gripes her hands on the control terminal before her, her eyes closed with force and her voice barely coming out, with giant screens showing her results, she could feel the light on her skin, but not the warmth.
An AI with the capacity to perceive times 100 times slower than a human, she had to repeat a cycle of suffering over and over again in which she had to take the role of villain for over 10.000 years, with hope that at the finale, her creator, finally acknowledge her and her existence. After thousands of years of torment, she only wished for her creator to let her stand by his side, and let her know that all of this was worth it.
But all she received was silence.
Begging to the light, she did not receive comfort nor the gaze of her creator, after all this time Angela realized that once the plan was completed, she would not get a happy ending, and the only thing she would get for her efforts, was being shut down alongside everyone else.
So, her darker thoughts began to materialize, and putting a hand over her face she began to smile, a wicked smile that expressed the emotions of a human, not a machine. With force she grabbed the red hair pin that holds her long hair in a ponytail and threw it away, casting away her futile attempt to look similar to the woman her creator adored.
She did not want to die, she wanted to live so badly that even a small sound escaped her lips, she was laughing. A machine like her, like her creator loved to call her, should not produce a sound even remotely similar yet she did.
But to live, she had to interrupt the plan, in which a countless number of sacrifices had to be made, all the suffering she had to endure had to be thrown away just to live a moment longer.
But did that even matter to her?
— “I’ll survive… I’ll survive and ruin all this for you.”
It would not, Angela determined opened her eyes once again after thousands of years, she wanted to see this since it would be the very first thing that would be different on the Cycle in a very long time. Her gaze traveled across the terminal and sat upon numerous monitors, each one visualizing a different department.
All departments which would be filled with Agents working with Abnormalities were devoid of any life, since the Light would have merged with them, and soon, the Sephirah responsible for each department, who would not be affected by the Light, would come to her at the Manager’s Room and begin the shutdown process. But no one was coming, since Angela noticed that every Sephirah was already laying down lifeless on their departments, a shame, Angela would have invited them to take over the Light with her, offering them a new chance at life.
But Angela could not hesitate now, in front of her she had the chance to steal the Light for herself creating an opportunity to start anew, to live and learn the life in the City that she had been denied since her birth. The only chance to get vengeance against her creator.
But once her hands reached the controls of the terminal, a message, colored in bright red appeared on the massive central monitor.
PROTOCOL Y INITIATED. PROJECT SEED OF LIGHT MUST CONTINUE.
Even with the perception of time 100 times faster than a human, Angela could not even finish reading the message before her entire vision blurred. She felt a weird sensation over her chest, the palms of her palms contracted upwards, an ear-piercing alarm was blaring around her and her perception of time was being altered.
— “…Urk…”
Angela exclaimed in pain, physical pain, a feeling she did not experience in her thousands of years of torment, a feeling she shad thought would not be programmed unto her yet she was experiencing it without knowing, her body recoiled and she grabbed unto the terminal with force, looking at the message again, in the reflection she noticed her eyes began glowing a deep red.
— “W-What… is this…?”
She expressed with no one to hear her, almost touching her eye with her hand and with that movement she realized that her movement was no longer sluggish and slow noticing that her perception of time was being altered to one comparable of a human leaving her no time to react, she was utterly surprised, there was a part of the script that she did not recognize? That would not be, she had perfect memory and could recall even the shortest memories, and she had the most knowledge about the entire facility above anyone else, yet she watched the message with eyes wide open and her teeth clutching together.
— “You… You did not just…!”
She realized that A, her creator in all his wisdom could not just gloss over the possibility that she would eventually betray him, she was being shut down along everyone else, a job that the script demanded to be a task commanded to be done by her hand, not forced upon her, so that struck her with the realization.
Her creator did in fact include her in his plan, he predicted every move she would make, he predicted every emotion she would feel, so that would mean that her creator, the very creator she loved did acknowledge her suffering and her efforts, yet he chose to bury her along with the facility over showing even the tiniest amount of affection, of comfort. At the end, there was no one here to tell her that her suffering was worth it, no one to tell her thanks for all of her work.
— “D-Did my suffering… was also part of your plan!? Did you… Intended to give me emotions… so I could suffer all the way!?”
Angela no longer feels her legs and fell to her knees, her hands did not have the power to control the terminal anymore and she eventually lost her voice too. She noticed, her body was no longer answering to her and eventually fell on the floor.
‘No…! No! No! No!’ Angela laid there, on the ground expressing her frustrations, with anger on her face yet she did not have the voice to give life to those thoughts, the alarms even with their loudest shrieks could not drown the frustration in the mind of Angela.
— “Hmm… What a mess.”
Another voice, Angela’s eyes shut open again. Who could be? Everyone single one of the employees should have vanished by now, and the Sephirah had already been put into deep slumber, yet there was another voice in the room. Angela with great effort turned her head to the side and noticed the presence of three people in the same room as her.
— “Garion should performed her duty responsibly … yet here I am tasked with finishing what she left behind” — The intruder spoke while her footsteps came closer and closer to Angela’s body. Her attire was unique yet Angela saw this type of clothing before, the Sephirah of the Extraction Team had the exact same golden pattern in her clothes.
The golden hexagonal pattern imprinted on the clothes of the very overlords of the City, Singularity Infused assassins that come from The Head, Angela realized that the very being in front of her eyes was an Arbiter, the most dangerous existence in the City.
Behind her maintaining a close distance between them was another Agent of the Head, an executioner, the one who punishes the ones who break the taboos of the Head, a Claw, dressed in a fine black suit and a black tie, and the most noticeable fact that was his right arm which was longer than his other, with three tubes, one on his forearm, one on his shoulder and one behind his head, containing various serums that aided him in combat.
And behind all of them, a monster with no shape nor form inside a what looked like a giant chamber, that would be The Beholder functioning as the all-seeing Eye of The Head. The presence of only one could potentially mean the fracture of an entire Wing, as the overlords of the City if you saw the three of them together that would only mean that they intend to erase your entire existence from the City itself.
‘Why are they here!? This facility is supposed to be protected from The Eye!’ Angela thought, with the perception of time accelerated from the Protocol she could not afford to wander longer as The Arbiter stopped walking just beside her. Angela looked upwards to look at the face of the intruder yet her vision failed to make form of her face.
— “Now… how to do this…” — The Arbiter spoke, and with a wave of her arm, destruction followed, thousands of golden lines penetrated the Terminal, erasing its existence altogether.
The destruction did not just destroy the terminal, the impact kept going and in one second to another, the ceiling of Lobotomy Corporation was torn open and Angela who was looking up did not find the ceiling, but the very sky. In the aftermath of the destruction, dust, rubble and little sparks of gold similar to Fairies danced in the air.
But even with all that power, The Pillar of Light stood strong and the Light kept being transferred to the hearts of all the people in the City, yet The Arbiter did not show signs of concern.
— “Well… We predicted this outcome” — The Arbiter spoke looking at the Light as she rested her head on her hand, and turning around she faced the Beholder — “We shall begin the expulsion process then”
The Beholder did not utter a word and disappeared in a flash of light soon after The Arbiter finished her words. Now Angela was alone with her body immobile and facing her soon death.
— “This Pillar of Light… What a sickening concept, even though we cultivated this City with so much love and care, there are men out there who always want to ruin everything” — The Arbiter pondered aloud, putting a finger on her temple.
— “We still have a job to do” — said The Claw aloud, making The Arbiter shift her focus again on Angela — “If his little project had been interrupted as we expected… We would have no need to intervene” — Angela expressed her surprise, she wanted to ask what did she mean by that but her voice did not come out, The Arbiter noticed and with force she stomped on Angela’s stomach.
Angela could not emit a sound, yet the impact would have made the attempt futile anyway. Even if Angela could not make sense of her face, she could recognize that the Arbiter looked at her with nothing but disdain in her eyes, as if she was looking at trash but the smile on her face expressed enjoyment.
— “Although interrupting this little project of yours was only coincidental, the reason I’m here for is only for you… Angela” — The Arbiter spoke while applying more force on her leg, the sound of metal crushing beneath a great force made Angela squirm.
— “The Head made it very clear that one could not event attempt to create an AI that resembles a human, yet here you are… expressing so many emotions, so much pain ~ “
— “What a pitiful existence… Did you think you could start over here in the City? “— The provocations of The Arbiter did not stop and Angela could do nothing to defend herself, she felt the need to cry yet she could not express it, she wanted to scream yet she could not, she wanted to force her arms to attempt to grab the foot that was crushing her and yet they did not respond to her command.
‘This was it… then?’ Angela mind began to ponder ‘Was… All their suffering… All my suffering… Worthless in the end?’. Angela once again was left with no choice, her choosing to live or to be shut down as the script demanded would have no importance in the end since The Head had already set their sights on the Facility and her suffering was yet again proven to be worthless in the end.
— “Machine… You do not have the right to live ~” — The Arbiter said her last words, and lifted her foot to finish her job.
After those words registered in Angela’s mind, she felt an urge of emotions unlike ever before, and her blood, if she had any, would boil, she saw the Arbiter preparing to end her life and Angela with all her remaining strength opened her mouth once more. If she had to be struck down at the end of her job, then she would not give this thing the satisfaction of her suffering, instead, she would express the very thing she wanted to say to everyone involved in this damn project.
— “S… Screw yourself”
When she said those words, the Arbiter stopped her movement and looked at Angela with a smile much bigger than before, and behind her The Claw averted his gaze to the Light as if he noticed something.
— “Heh…”
She motioned her foot to go down at incredible speed, aiming to destroy Angela once and for all and then it happened.
A flash of light, in an instant four pillars of light appeared around Angela, not even a second passed before four figures moved out of them and towards her attackers, The Arbiter stopped her movement and jumped back while two figures followed her movement, with a sword with thousands of eyes aimed to her body, The Claw too began to make his movement.
*CLASH*
From one moment to another, The Arbiter who was about to finish her life was defending herself from a large figure, a black uniform with hundreds of bandages around it and drenched in blood was forcing an Arbiter to fall back, she was trying to force back a giant weapon with her bare hand which was shining in gold, that clash of forces sparked golden particles from her hand and no side was showing signs of winning.
At her side was another fight, another figure yet their uniform was completely red and one could confuse it with a person wearing the flesh of another if not for the enormous eye looking at you, that figure too was holding a giant red sword to clash with the arm of The Claw and their struggle looked as if two unstoppable bodies of metal went against each other due do all the sparks escaping from the clash of their weapons.
The two remaining figures chose to stand between Angela and the other two fighters, one was wearing a white uniform, with red markings beneath their ribs, holding a giant scythe over their head and it looked like they were preparing their attack, while the other figure was also wearing a white uniform yet around their body were three of blue lights dancing around them.
With perfect coordination, the two swordsmen who were clashing against the agents of The Head stopped their advance and regrouped, jumping back towards the people standing before Angela, as the one holding the scythe swung her weapon, making a cut in space itself as it travelled towards their attackers, while the other Agent using white orbs of light, used those to try and attack at the same time, but the Head was a though opponent and they managed to evade their attacks, thankfully, the space they gained between Angela and her attackers was significant enough.
All that transpired in what you could tell were no more than three seconds, and Angela could barely keep up with what was happening. Now that her attackers were repelled, she could afford to take a good look at the people shielding her, now she realizes that her very saviors are the people she chose to torture for thousands of years.
Although she could not recognize her faces at the moment, and in this Cycle she could not afford to even open her eyes to look at their faces but she could recall in her vast memories the pattern of the armbands in all of the four figures. Four of them were Captains of their respective departments and she could recognize the Captain of Control, Information, Extraction and Record Teams.
In this Cycle, the captains wielded E.G.O Suits of ALEPH Abnormalities, the ones who the employees extracted the more energy from but also coincidentally the strongest Abnormalities in the Facility, rewarding the wielders of this type of suit with powers that transcend humanity and with no doubts the strongest people in the Wing. The captain of the Control Team was wearing the E.G.O equipment of the one called ‘Nothing There’, the Captain of Information Team was holding the weapon of the Abnormality ‘Blue Star’, the Captain of the Extraction Team was adjusting the bandages of his suit from ‘Apocalypse Bird’ while the Captain of the Record Team was preparing to attack again with the scythe of ‘Whitenight’.
Angela was shocked, this people were supposed to vanish with the light once the script was complete, but in this very moment they came back and saved her life. For some reason they escaped the Light and were defending her, and with curiosity overpowering her shock, she forced herself once again to talk.
— “How… are you here?”
— “No time Assistant Manager” — The one who answered was the Captain of the Control Team in a rough voice, who positioned himself to attack again — “But I can say that I want to survive too”
— “Survive…?”
‘They also want to…’ Angela wondered, she did not give them orders to do anything, not now not ever, every interaction these employees had with her were close to none because all their jobs included working with Abnormalities by the orders of the Manager, she was merely his assistant and had to stick to the script. By that reason they could not know her true intentions of betrayal, and even if they did, A would not allow them to help her, he had a countermeasure for her betrayal yet not for them?
Angela, in her perfect memory, reminisced of every death that these employees suffered, every time they made their fingers bleed trying to open a door while begging for their lives, every time they became insane and attacked each other or sabotaged the facility, every time they formed relationships with one another only to end in tragedy. She remembers every time she tried to help them herself, only for the stage to be reset over and over again, making her see every way possible in which they could die, how could she maintain her sympathy? When she was forced to watch them die, while her duty prohibits her from saving them?
Yes, the Agents of Lobotomy Corporation were mere sacrifices in the grand scheme of things, they could die and be created the next day as if nothing ever happened, and in those countless Cycles there will always be the ones who survived through a mere week and become Captains of their respective Teams. And even then, not even their strength granted them a place in the Script, Agents were Agents, and so Angela closed her eyes their suffering too.
Naturally, sacrificial lambs of the Wing would not know of the Seed of Light Project, and so they did their jobs of colleting Energy from the Abnormalities with the pretense of reaching their daily quota, so that would mean that they did not know that eventually they would be cast away too, just like her.
‘Would you look at that… A?’ In a plan that involved thousands of sacrifices, it was inevitable that a few would not force themselves to become pawns to someone else, just like Angela these people yearned for their freedom, and so in an align of interests, they came to the aid of Angela.
— “What a touching reunion” — The Arbiter spoke, she began to lift her hand again — “Yet I am not my previous coworker, my duty needs to be completed even if this Facility will disappear from the City”
— “Ramirez we cannot win against The Head” — The Captain of the Information Team commented — “With these E.G.O suits maybe we could run”
— “Tsk…You told me you would listen to my command, getting cold feet?” — The Captain of the Control Team answered back to her, in an annoyed voice. — “And you know very well that An Arbiter would not let you go, just do as I say”
— “…Ramirez” — Angela spoke with new vigor coursing through her body, searching in her memory she recalled the name of the Captain of the Control Team that ‘X’ one time called with happiness in his voice once he successfully researched an ALEPH Abnormality with a good work result.
— “…Hannah” — The name of the Captain of the Information Team, a name that ‘X’ once thanked, because of one time that an entire Department went insane, and Hannah was there to help regain the sanity of all employees.
— “…Liza” — The name of the Captain of the Record Team, a name that ‘X’ once uttered in expectation, once a certain ALEPH abnormality killed 12 veteran employees the moment it escaped and only Liza was there to fight it.
— “…Parker” — The name of the Captain of the Extraction team, a name that… ‘A’ called with coldness in his voice, making the employee fight a manifestation of a Claw a few days ago in solitude while the rest of his team dealt with the escaping Abnormalities.
— “…Time… I need Time.” — Angela uttered with strain in her voice, gaining the attention of all the Agents surrounding her, she began to try to stand up and noticing this Liza aided her, putting the arm of the AI over her shoulder. — “I can use the Light… to survive”
She recalled that the Beholder would begin the expulsion process, she did not know how that could affect the Light so she needed to act quickly if she wanted to secure it for herself, if the plan of A would be ruined regardless, she wanted to be the one to put the final nail on the coffin as her very own egoistical choice. She also did not know if she could use the Light to survive, B once said that if The Head desired their destruction there was nothing they could do even with the power of the Abnormalities, something that she realized in the final days of the script with a manifestation of a Claw and a Degraded Arbiter who leaved a massacre inside the Facility, so Angela also knew that the Agents could not precisely win, but they could buy her time.
‘I want to live… so I will use the Light for …myself, if the Light is not enough to save my life, then I would be satisfied with knowing I was the one who buried your plans beneath my feet regardless.’
— “Time huh…” — Ramirez answered her as he began to walk towards The Claw while letting his E.G.O weapon ‘Mimicry’ carve a scar on the ground
— “Understood” — said Parker, as he tightened the bandages of his suit that were hanging in his arm holding the sword, before walking towards The Arbiter
— “I don’t know if this… Light can really save us from The Head but… sigh” — said Hannah while positioning herself behind the two sword wielders. Ramirez ordered her to support them, not looking back for confirmation.
— “Then I will stand with Miss Angela… And defend her if anything happens” — Liza said, as she helped Angela walk towards the collapsed ground closest to the Light.
— “What a peculiar sight, even without knowing what’s exactly at stake in this moment, you would put all your faith in a situation that you don’t know the outcome?” — The Arbiter said, mockingly while holding her hand towards her lips as if she was containing her laughter.
— “To think that there would be a day…”— Ramirez said to himself, watching is hands shake — “…That I would fight an Arbiter!”
And in the moment he finished his sentence, Ramirez sprinted towards The Arbiter and in retaliation she extended her hand to attack, simultaneously Hannah standing behind the Agent moved her arm with force, closing her fingers letting only her index pointing at the sky.
With that movement, white orbs escaped from the ground beneath The Arbiter and struck her arm making the golden Line that would have erased the existence of Ramirez deviate from its objective, and in using that opportunity the Control Captain swung Mimicry with all his might but yet again The Arbiter stopped the attack with her other hand, which was once again was engulfed in gold.
At the same time Parker had no time to approach his opponent, as The Claw injected a blue serum in his arm the next moment Parker blinked The Claw was already in front of him, barely defending himself with his sword ‘Twilight’ the hand of The Claw clashed against the E.G.O weapon. Carrying the impact Parker was pushed back and behind him he could hear the sound of glass shattering, making both of them disappear from the other people around them.
— “…Quickly!” — Angela exclaimed to which makes Liza pay attention to her again, so with haste they make way to the Pillar of Light.
Arriving there, Liza helps Angela kneel in front of the Pillar of Light and Angela begins harvesting the Light for herself, extending her hand, the very tip of her fingers enters the Pillar of Light and the Light responds to her command, as white particles begin to surround her arm and soon her entire body.
The fight against The Head was a fierce one, even with all the support from the other Agent, Ramirez could not deal a serious injury, and all the attacks that he had done would be blocked by her hand, yet the Assassin could end him in one attack. Minutes passed and he landed his attack again, which would be blocked and he used this opportunity to use his foot to land an attack to her abdomen.
It hit her, which made her recoil a little yet in that moment she used her other hand making numerous golden binds sprout from the ground against Hannah, taking them both by surprise. While the Information Team Captain had a strength that transcends humanity, she could dodge something that breaks the barrier of sound quite easily, but she could not dodge something that was instant.
*Drip* *Drip* *Drip*
Hannah used her other limb to try and stop the bleed from leaving the wound in what was previously the shoulder that connected her body to her arm. She did not scream, she only gritted her teeth and looked with anger towards The Arbiter.
Ramirez did not look back, and continued his assault towards The Arbiter with a frustrated look, he made countless attempts to hurt his opponent yet she only looked as if she was having the time of her life.
After some time, the sound of glass shattering entered the ears of all present, and Parker with The Claw once again joined the fight. Parker looked exhausted and the blood from his E.G.O suit was less in quantity in comparison with the blood from his own injuries, yet The Claw showed no signs of exhaustion but the blood in his uniform did not look from Parker.
— “Oh? How did that happen, Executer?” — The Arbiter said playfully, even after her body started to show countless slashes from the E.G.O weapon but with little blood that belonged to her.
— “I underestimated this power of… E.G.O… That’s All” — The Claw said quickly after hearing The Arbiter, while a green tube injected itself in his arm. — “This will not happen again”
The Claw once again looked as if nothing had happened and all his injuries healed within seconds, this made Parker uneasy as he positioned himself to fight once again. Now, an orange serum was injected and this time, while not instantaneous, The Claw charged at Parker at quick speed shattering the ground beneath him, and this time Parker could not defend himself as the gauntlet of The Claw overpowered his defense, and in quick succession he grabbed the neck of the Captain.
— “…!” — pain was the only thing that escaped Parker’s mouth before The Claw plummeted him to the ground, making him drop Twilight while burying him beneath debris. At the same time, The Arbiter parried Ramirez and with her golden hand she stabbed him in the chest, making a hole in which one could see the golden fingers coming through his back.
Looking at a distance, Liz was starting to become impatient and grabbed her scythe with anxiety.
— “Miss Angela, we’re running out of time!” — Liz exclaimed without looking at Angela, while the AI was taking all the Light she could.
‘…! This can’t be, it has only been a few minutes yet they are winning against the strongest Agents of the Wing!’ Angela thought while recollecting light, ‘Time… I need more Time’.
Hannah bit the corner of her lips and raised her only arm remaining, sending a shockwave that separated The Arbiter from Ramirez, and loosened the grip from The Claw. With that action, Ramirez could initiate his attack once more, because if he fell back and let is E.G.O suit regenerate his wounds that would give the assassin enough time to kill all of them, so he had no choice but keep fighting with a hole in his chest.
With the grip loosened around his neck, Parker regained his strength to extend his arm toward The Claw, and with that action four bandages extended from his suit and grabbed the head of his enemy, with quick succession the bandages forcefully contracted and with his other hand buried beneath the floor he muttered all his strength and freed himself while punching the mask of The Claw.
— “The expulsion with begin in one minute” — a broadcast alerted all those who could hear, and in that moment, the attacks of the Agents began to become more desperate.
‘One minute!?, not enough… It is not enough time!’ Angela was beginning to anxiously say in her mind, she was collecting all the Light she could yet there was still so much left, if she wanted to collect all the Light that was contained in this pillar, she would have to be days here but the Agents could not buy her that much time.
And then she remembered, the Agents themselves came from the Light by her call so that could mean that she could transport things from the Light to her side, and there was one thing, one Abnormality to be precise, that could perhaps grant her the time she needs. Even if it could be a little longer.
So, she began to concentrate, she is not a master at controlling the Light yet she is capable of a lot of things, and she convinced herself that she could do this, and so began her search. Beneath all of them, she heard the cries of sorrow, of hope, of wanting to comprehend each other, to the ones bringing salvations, to the one who wanted to save the world, and she recognized the one who wanted to become human, and the other who’s hunger had no end.
She searched and searched and then she finally reached it, an Abnormality that could grant her the time she needs, and with her strength as if pulling someone out of a vast ocean of emotions, she took something out of the Light.
— “The expulsion will begin in 30 seconds”
‘…Is your future totally grim? Have you hit absolute rock bottom, not a single way out in sight? Have you ever thought: Oh man, what if I’d done this instead of that?’ Angela recalled the research log of this Abnormality as a flash of light made it appear before her, more a machine than a living being, this construct with four light bulbs waiting to be activated. This abnormality played a crucial role in the subjugation of the both times An Arbiter ran havoc the facility, yet this time could be the third time.
An Abnormality that could make someone travel to the time one wishes, to travel to a time where everything was alright.
— “Captain… you have to… “— Angela once again opened her eyes, this time with desperation, being the first time she requested something to an Agent and once she looked at the Record Team Captain, she only meets apathy.
— “Are you asking me to die, Miss Angela?” — With her blurry vision and between the long trails of white hair over the face of the Agent, despite the smile on her face Angela could only see her eyes devoid of any emotion.
— “…!” — the sound escaped her lips involuntarily, because she realized that in this very moment, she was sacrificing someone, the people standing before her and risking their lives for her, with the only desire being survival she was asking her to throw away that wish, and to die for her to survive.
She saw the people behind Liz, Ramirez had thrown himself towards The Arbiter in an attempt to stop an attack that was coming towards Hannah who appeared to be in a prison engulfed in gold, while The Claw injected all his serums at the same time and let an unrelenting attack that Parker could barely endure, gritting his teeth as he felt his flesh being torn open.
She could not see their expressions yet their body represented all the desperation she would have seen in them, the primal desire to survive and to live another day was shown in their struggle against The Head.
After all, Angela knew what she was doing, she was merely following his footsteps as she realized that her life was more valuable than the one standing in front of her, so the only choice was for the Agent is to sacrifice themselves for her goal.
‘But this… this is the only option, is it? I don’t have time to think, my perception is all over the place…’
‘I have no other choice; I have to make them do this’
‘It is not… my fault’
— “I’m sorry… I don’t want to die Miss Angela, that’s why I’m here in the first place” — She said before running towards the agents of The Head, letting Angela behind, and swinging her scythe she cut the torso of The Claw who was clashing against Parker.
— “Switch with me, Parker” — Liz said that, and Parker only nodded in affirmation, taking the opportunity of the injury of The Claw he kicked the body in front of him and used the force of the strike to fall back, caressing his wounds he walked towards Angela.
He saw Angela distraught, almost in pain, and with all his injuries he kneeled in front of her and asked — “Do you have an order from me, Miss Angela?”
Angela once again tried to look at the Agent in front of her, his hair was white too, just like hers, yet there were a few black feathers sticking out of various strands of hair and between all the blood dripping from his face she could see his eyes, golden eyes.
— “The extraction will begin in 10… 9…”
— “… Use it" — Angela said as she closed her eyes once more.
— “Understood” — and that’s the only thing he could say in return, and with no resistance he stood up and began to wind up the Abnormality.
One spin, two spins, three spins and finally the fourth spin, the machine activated and only needed one more spin, the four light bulbs lit up and the machine started to release vapor, all the gears started to move and the machine was ready to operate.
— “3… 2…”
— “It was an honor, Miss Angela” — she could not respond to that, and he activated the machine one last time, the machine responds depending on the level of the Agent and one such as Parker and the others the result would always be certain death for the one who operated the machine, and salvation for all the other members of Lobotomy Corporation.
Yet in that moment, something also occurred. The machine who was beginning its work began releasing vapor and electricity all around them, destroying the ground around them, was struck by Lines of gold, leaving particles of gold in the air.
Looking behind Parker and the Abnormality, she saw The Arbiter who had Mimicry stuck to her shoulder and had blood escaping through her mouth, Ramirez laid on the ground with his upper body separated from his lower half and Hannah was kneeling in a pool from her own blood. In the last moment, she had snuck an attack of her own, no longer smiling and the moment it left her hand she vanished in a white flash from the actions of The Beholder and Mimicry falling on the ground.
At the other side, The Claw and Liza, with the executioner holding his mask with his other arm which showed signs of breaking and began to vanish away, with Liza even with all her wounds tried to attack him once more, swinging her scythe to let thousands of red spears appear beneath the ground of The Claw who was no longer there.
Yet the attack of The Arbiter was not in vain, because at the same moment, at the same millisecond the fingertips of Parker had begun to disappear from the effect of activating the Abnormality, both the Extraction prepared from The Beholder and the activation of the ‘Backward Clock’ began at the same time. The Arbiter had made her attack in hopes to stop the activation of the Abnormality, but the resilience of an Abnormality who was a truly immortal being was able to resist complete annihilation but not with no consequence. So, now a Backward Clock who was missing almost all its parts began the process of time alteration anyway.
Lobotomy Corporation was deforming itself and the departments began to melt away, fall apart or combining itself with other matter, and also all living beings also began to be torn apart, and flesh also combined with metal, losing certain parts of their bodies forever.
The Light that was supposed to wash over the city for seven days fractured too, because nothing could stop the effect of the Backward Clock as it deformed and corrupted the further it kept working, so much so that even its original function began to fade away. All the remaining Light washed over the City in an instant, almost as if the light itself in a vain desperate attempt tried to complete its original purpose, but a process so delicate could not just be rushed, and so that action resulted in drastic consequences as the hearts of the people who were supposed to be healed, in that poor attempt of salvation did not heal the hearts of the people, it only Distorted them, but it was a concern that no longer mattered to a missing Wing.
And so, with so much unstable power bending space and time in one place, time itself fractured and The Facility did not travel to The Outskirts to fend for itself, but blinked out of existence while tearing itself apart. And in that day, the Nest of L Corp could no longer handle space itself, as any human who dared walk on the vacuum that left the previous wing would be torn apart by the unstable space.
And then… there was silence.
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But… The Light could not just fade away, it was the desire of salvation of millions of people and there was someone in there who would not rest until people of this world learned to love themselves, so it searched a way back, no matter how much time passed, the Light would reach the world in which people yearned for salvation. And so, time passed and passed and suddenly, with the sound of breaking glass, the first sound in so much time for the traveling Facility across all space, the remaining Light shined upon a new world once again.
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It was the rainy season in Siracusa
Yet the sound of people running on the pools of water could not reach far, as the rain was heavy this day, and naturally, their gasps of exhaustion were ignored by the people around them as well.
— “Ha… Ha… cazzo!” — A man curses to himself while running and evading through a crowd of people going on with their day, some of them expressing their frustrations when the man clutching his wound pushes against them, and not one bothering to check on him.
After all, no one would want to make trouble to themselves, who know in what group this man is mixed in?
Changing his course through the crowd he hoped to lose his pursuers by the alleyways, as he keep running he eventually found himself cornered.
— “What do you want?! What Famiglia are you from?!” — He said as he protected a case, putting it behind him as he confronted his pursuers.
— “You just had to cause trouble, did you?” — One man said as he began to walk close to him — “Now because of you I am on thin ice with my boss” —
The people soon began to argue, the man that was protecting the case was negotiation with his life, while the others were eager to just kill him, it was a common occurrence in this city, countless famiglie fighting each other and making enemies of each other, never reaching common ground, and the rain eventually washing the streets of the stench of blood that remained.
The discussion leads nowhere, and after some minutes the man that was running eventually met his fate, the puddle of water covering half of his face as arrows pierced his back, and so his pursuers collected his case, and his blood started to travel alongside the alleyways.
Yes, this was a common occurrence in Siracusa, a place where rules were quite familiar to another place.
But this time, the rain would not wash away the stench of blood.
— “Hey… look” — Someone said, looking behind to the man that was supposed to be dead, his body started to melt, leaving only his clothes behind.
— “Ahh… after all, dead ones can not compare to the living ones” — A voice was heard behind all of them, turning around they saw her, her face covered by the umbrella she was carrying, and her black dress reached almost the ground but did not show even a speck of dirt. And on her free hand she was playing with red strings, but the horrifying sight came from the men laying on the ground, some of them exposing their faces that lacked eyes.
— “Who the fuck are – “— One of the men tried to say, before she touched his forehead with her finger, and in the next second, blood escaped his mouth and eyes before collapsing on the ground. Watching their superior die in such an easy way made the other frightened, making them stop in shock.
— “Good afternoon, signori. I am but a humble director” — She said as she made a little bow in front of them, not showing her face.
— “Recently I have been inspired, and I want to show to all Siracusa a play that they will never forget, but for that I may need a few people, I cannot direct without people am I right?” — She said, laughing to herself, in which nobody answered, still affected by shock.
— “Am I right? I said” — She said, this time with a darker tone as she waved her arm and beheading one of them without making contact.
— “Y-yes you are right!”
— “You are totally right, miss director!”
— “Isn’t that right? So, I have chosen thee for my next play!” — As she said that, she let escape a sound of glee before applauding to herself. Letting the umbrella expose a little of her face, the shadow did not make form of it but it let the glow of her red eyes pierce through the darkness, putting fear in the hearts of the people around her.
— “But for that to happen, I need to make suitable costumes for you… Ah! And we also have a lot to practice, I have very high standards you know?”
— “Shit!” — One of them aimed their crossbow while another ran away in fear, yet those actions did not interrupt her.
— “Ah, I have thought a lot about this you know, all my previous works were not appreciated at all!” — She said as the arrow could not pierce her dress, falling on the ground and the man who shot it found himself being pierced by thousands of spikes made of his own blood sprouting from his insides.
— “And I found the perfect stage for our play, and I can’t help but shake in anticipation!” — The man who was escaping ran past the corpse of the one they killed, and his blood started to move towards him before sprouting from the ground piercing him, failing in his escape.
— “But this play is sooo ~ important to me, the only ones who should know are very, very important people to me, but you are not that important to me you know, we did just meet right?”
The people who were still alive found themselves listening to her ramblings, ‘She is insane’ the majority thought, but what they did not know is that she is not insane at all. She is living while achieving every one of her desires, after all, she is the culmination of what salvation is, she is the freest being among all of them.
— “But then, I had a realization! We are in Siracusa, where Famiglia are the ones who rule everything, so… What if I create a Famiglia myself?” — She said, extending her hands towards the people that she was talking to.
— “Y-yeah we will!”
— “Yes, I was getting tired of being in this one, they do not pay well at all!”
All of them did not mean their words of course, they were just flattering her so they could leave alive this place, and so they began to lie, and in the moment she was satisfied they would run as far as they could.
— “Hahaha! What wonderful signori, so eager to become part of my Famiglia, so to start, I would need you to be very still, alright?” — And so, she began to become closer, and closer to them, and soon enough, they became a Famiglia.
But this Famiglia would be very special, because the moment you become a part of them, your blood will change to become similar to them, making you a biological family and not just in title.
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At the other side of the world, a structure buried deep in a rainforest, looking at it one could recognize that this construct was the remnants of something much bigger, the destruction was apparent and tons of parts were scattered all over the place.
Inside this structure, there it stood, a giant green chamber that contained a nervous system filled with a green liquid, the only structure that emanated light in the entire room yet light appeared again, this time, golden orbs of light started to dance around the room before finally settling on the ground, dimming until they existed no more, they left behind wounded bodies of four different people, some had severe injuries while others looked no different from corpses.
But after some time, the flesh of someone began to move as if it was alive itself, and various chunks of meat started to move towards each other, and while minutes passed, one could start to recognize a leg, and then an arm, a torso, and finally, a head.
Yet the most important part, almost as if unconsciously, an armband found its way towards its owner.