towerofanimus | No real escape

Entry tags:

No real escape

Characters: Elian Zigmarl and Ryuho Ryu
Setting: Room 1-12
Format: Prose
Summary: Elian has to help out a friend from his world. It's not going to be easy.
Warnings: Death talk, emotional breakdowns, and seismic upthrusts and a lot of other things that might not make a lot of sense.

With the arrival of Ryuho came the complicated matter of taking care of his leader. He had to choose his words carefully considering now that he had no memories. Elian made his way through the halls from his current location at the infirmary, to his friend's room. There really wasn't much that he could do other than to help Ryuho understand what was going on.

The navigation came easy to him, since he worked on these floors. It was a menial job but it had its benefits. The trek through the halls allowed him time to think. It was important to make sure that Ryuho knew precisely what was happening and he left very little to chance. It was a gamble he chose not to take by leaving his friend to face his issues alone.

The otherwise stoic boy didn't show any happiness on his face through his walk. It was as if it was business as usual with the same impassive expression. All those years of discipline and training made him socially invisible and rarely has he gone out of his way to explain anything other than to those that needed to know.

This was one such incident. His small hand reached up to knock on the door upon his approach to room 1-12.

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[He nodded his head.]]

Yes.

[His shoulders shook on the inhale from the remnants of his pent up jealousy. He used his sleeves to wipe his eyes.]

I'm so sorry you've been alone here. Let me do whatever I can.

[He was still so lost and confused, but try as he might, he couldn't make the memories come, no matter how many times he repeated the names in his mind.]

[He inhaled deeply and nodded his head. Elian has been fighting ominous feeling of loneliness for a long time. He was practically raised alone even though he was close to the commander. It didn't matter now. He wasn't alone anymore.]

It's okay. I'm sorry that I attacked you. I thought...I thought I was helping, but I was wrong.

It's fine. I think it did help a little, at least I could feel a bit of my power. I just don't have the memories to form it.

[He remained sitting near him, offering what comfort he could.]

[Elian drew his knees toward his chest and wrapped his arms around his legs. His small body curled next to Ryuho's. At the sound of those encouraging words, he looked over his shoulder toward him with hope.]

I don't know about your childhood to offer that kind of help. Unkei and Kigetsuki tried to control your mind once under my father's orders but the mission failed. At the time, I was struck down so I didn't see everything that happened. Urizane filled me in on what happened.

When did that happen?

[Ryuho asked, since it sounded like something that was recent, but he didn't remember it any more than anything else.]

I believe it was a day or two after you were found by Scheris and Urizane at the mining town. Kigetsuki used his Tokunatsu against you along with Unkei's Mad Sprict.

[Even to Elian, everything was jumbled up. He placed his chin on his knees in thought.]

The mining town... I just got to that place. There was an alter user in charge and I fought him off.

Dread Red. He had Delay Octopus. I've known about him but he really didn't do anything at the time worth noting. Not until he started killing people through extortion that I had to tip off the closest unit. That was when they found you.

"Can we be from different times?" He asked, because he was fairly certain that hadn't happened yet.

"Affirmative." Elian said with a nod. "I come from the future if only by a week."

"Then if the administration here is telling the truth about choosing us to survive our worlds, they either knew that our world would be destroyed, or they can travel in time. But it's strange, because I wasn't missing from your time, was I?"

The whole thing was so confusing.

"We had to evacuate before I could track anyone. Your power signatures and bio-signs changed when you had gone into the Other Side. It took several months to find a signature remotely close to yours. Dread Red was the tip-off." Elian took a little time to think about what Ryuho had said.

"I would assume that the Administration can do more than just travel in time. It is also possible that you were here before me and in stasis before they decided to release you." He was more than likely over-thinking things a bit, but he didn't dismiss any possibility whatsoever.

"I have also met others here from different worlds and timelines that have met their doubles. I have seen doubles myself."

"I'm not entirely sure what you mean by the 'other side'. What exactly happened?" He assumed it had something to do with the upheaval though.

"But if I was in stasis, how would I have been in your memories? Unless they made a duplicate somehow."

Explaining different worlds was going into a territory that would require a lot of math to figure out and his head was already hurting from all of this. He shook his head. "It's not important. I was only musing."

Addressing the issue about the Other Side took precedence. "You and Kazuma engaged in battle. The hatred that the two of you felt for one another was intense enough to cause the Second Uprising. It was then that both of you had vanished for several months...eight, I believe."

"I think we must have come back before that, at least I was wander the Lost Ground for awhile."

His hair hadn't grown out though, and he didn't remember cutting it.

"I wasn't able to find you until the Native Alter that had captured you set off my sensors. That's how we managed to find you. Mujo wanted you captured along with Kazuma." He drew his knees in tighter. He could never compare to the power those two possessed by a long shot.

"When we found you, it was as if you returned without any change at all other than your loss of memories. It was...it was hard not knowing what happened to you that made us worry. We weren't sure if you were alive or dead. My father told us to keep looking and we did."

"Who is Mujo?" Ryuho asked, avoid the question of Kazuma for now. It alarmed him how angry he got just from the mention of that name, the same way he had when Kanami had asked him.

"I must have caused a lot of worry for all of you, I'm sorry."

"It's okay. Your presence here helps." Elian wanted to curl in around himself just then at the thought of explaining this man. Not only was he one of the forerunners of the Alter project, he cloned his brothers and himself for the sake of opening the door which failed miserably due to Elian's lack of emotional response and Martin's lack of paternal instinct. He remembered the torture as clear as if it happened yesterday.

"He pushed to have the bill passed that Alter users to be classified as non-humans for the sake of his gain. He's a bad man. If he hadn't come..." Elian became very quiet as if there was a block within his own mind. The psychic backlash he suffered from Mujo still hurt to remember.

"I'm glad that I could at least do something." Ryuho frowned, really wishing that he could remember. Mujo sounded like an enemy, but at least Elian said that he would do something with him in the futre, and stop him.

But what had that accomplished if the world was gone?

"Kanami..." He said suddenly, remembering that little girl from the mining town, the one he had protected. She would be dead now if the two of them were the last from their world.

Elian's head shot straight up and fear was present in his eyes. He didn't know what happened to her or his brothers since Mujo's defeat. He looked to Ryuho with that same fear that he felt when he thought he was about to die.

Even if those letters were true, Ryuho had a better chance to survive than Elian did and he carried the hope of their kind which was more than what Elian could say for himself. He wasn't tall, or even remotely genetically superior. Pragmatically, Elian wasn't anywhere near Ryuho's caliber when it comes to how the survival of a race were to come about.

He sighed and slumped his shoulders in resignation to that stinging fact. Still, he had to respond. "I cannot say. My brothers...I don't know their fate either."

"They may still be alive, since you didn't know I was alive." There was always that chance, although what were the odds that they had saved everyone?

It was depressing to consider. It would mean that Kanami and the villagers, and even the old lady he had rescued were all dead.

It was hard to think about. If he let it go, that would only mean that he failed them. Ever since his arrival, Elian wasn't sure how to save them. This wasn't his primary objective. He was a watcher, first and foremost. It wasn't that he didn't care. He cared a great deal. He wasn't a hero like the others. His value on life was mostly seen as an objective than a reason.

The part that hurt the most was that he couldn't stop it. He didn't have the power to stop it. Ryuho did and so did Kazuma. He looked to Ryuho with a thoughtful expression. Thinking about all the times he watched and understood what was going on, he needed to hear that everything was going to be okay. Deep down, he knew that Ryuho was right. It was proving it that was going to be difficult.

"Yes. Perhaps it is an illusion to keep us from discovering a way home. Then that would mean that we are held against our will. The question remains, for what purpose?"

"It may be, but if thaty is thecase, I don't know what the purpose would be. Are we the only alter users here?"

Perhaps they were studying different powers. If they were all alter users, he might suspect the mainland, but here it didn't seem likely.

"Yes." Elian responds. "Everyone else that has powers here were either taught how to use them or they manifested later in life and had to be trained to control them. They were born with them, but they are not like us where our abilities showed immediately after birth."

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