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We reached Kiata by mid afternoon, and I ended up arguing about battle tactics with Katsu and Maaya until nightfall. I still kept it a secret I had the Twi-LIGHT disc and the disc I’d gotten Myildaypain, mainly because I wanted to know what was on them myself before they were confiscated.
The citizens of Kiata were extremely tense, I noticed idly as I walk down the streets of Kiata. The lest remnants of twilight were fading from the sky, and I had my hair tucked up under a baseball cap, and sunglasses on so I wouldn’t be recognized right off the bat, baseball cap and bat pun unintended. I saw Phyress, Celes, and Kerla on patrols but I didn’t acknowledge them because I still supposed to be the Exodus HQ, which was actually the old Twi-LIGHT building.
I bought an ice cream cone from a vendor and decided to walk through the park while I enjoyed my chocolaty treat. I was rounding a corner when I heard a voice saying,
“Are you sure this is going to work, sister?” I jumped behind a tree when I saw it was Niketa…but there was a shimmering form in front of her, mainly visible because of the reflecting moonlight.
“Yes, Niketa.” The form said exasperatedly.
“But deceiving all these people is wrong, you know that.” Niketa said, in the voice she had when we first met and when I startled her at the cathedral.
“If I do not act, than none of these fools will know there is no incarnation or reincarnation!” The form snapped.
“But that’s no completely true; there just isn’t a complete reincarnation.” Niketa argued.
“Word it however you like, it doesn’t change the fact if these humans keep going around they way they have, no matter what they do they’ll perish.”
“You know, Lena, you shouldn’t be so rude to me! If I changed my mind about letting you use my body and ruin my reputation, than you’d be powerless!”
Lena? Lena! What the hell did she just say?
“And our secret would be out, so you’d be left to deal with people you know, but don’t know you. It’s a little late for you to change your mind, Niketa.”
“It doesn’t mean I can’t. Besides…everybody hates me now, when it’s really you they should be hating! You’re being unfair to Akhy you know, after all you’re dead.”
“And once we get to Nioglow and I can contact Trenxi I won’t be dead. I can get a material body, and give yours back to you.”
“I think you just wanted to see Anan again. You never showed much interest in this before, little sister.”
“The reason I never showed much interest in Ragnarok and Skyevi was because you have all the same abilities I had, and I had other things on my mind at the time.”
“The only thing you thought about was Anan. I’m not an idiot, Lena.”
“True, but didn’t we determine you didn’t have the strength to get into Akhyia Ragnarok’s circle? I’m the one that got you here.”
“Yeah, but only because you’ve made a liability to all of them! If it Akhy wasn’t merciful and thought it was her fault a civilian got wrapped up into this, I wouldn’t be here.”
“It doesn’t matter how we got here, what matters is that we do what we’re supposed to do.”
“But…one of us has to disappear. No matter what you’re only going to hurt him more when he finds out you’re alive, sort of.”
“You mean when he finds out he’s been talking to me and not you. You said yourself you’d be the one to die.”
“Lena!” Niketa yelled shrilly, “How could you be so selfish?”
“I don’t know where you got the idea I was going to sacrifice myself. After I get a material body, you’re on your own.”
“Why? So you can live ‘happily ever after’ with Anan? Don’t think you’re going to use me like that!”
“What, you think you can reach Dalmara without me?”
“Of course I can! I don’t need you!”
“And when everybody questions your sweet disposition compared to my cold irritable personality? Nobody will believe you for a moment you are who you say you are. They’ll just think you were abducted by Trenxi and replaced with a replica. Both Akhy and Anan know his replicas have screwy personalities. You’ll be locked up at Exodus and neither of us will ever reach Dalmara.”
Niketa was silent, and the “person” before her was a silent a moment before saying,
“Besides, they’ll also learn you have the Tear of Two Souls. Nobody wants to know End of Time and Skyevi is only a small fragment of something much greater.”
“Lena…” Niketa sighed, “Why are you such a bitch?”
Lena snickered saying,
“Are you going to let me inside you again, or are you going to try to fool Akhyia and Anan? Didn’t I just say what would happen?”
“It’s no fair! You’ve been using me all our lives, when am I going to get a chance to live? But wait, you plan on taking that away from me too!”
“Nobody said life was fair. And besides, if you had a little more self-confidence maybe you’d of turned me down when I first found you.”
“You knew I wouldn’t turn you down though, nobody would turn down a chance to see their sister again.”
“You had every opportunity to turn me away. Now you’re simply too late. We always had the power to switch bodies, you just never tried stopping it because you never though it could come to this.”
“Who would predict their sister would be killed by her lover’s brother?”
“Nobody human, but neither of us was ever that.”
“Can’t you go take over the body of a cat or something for a little while?” Niketa asked quietly.
“I suppose. I’ll look for near-by life forms if you want some alone time.”
I slowly walked away, not daring to break out into a dead run. When I was sure I was out of ear-shot I decided to start walking inward, I’d never get far enough away so a lie was my best bet.
“Akhyia is coming.” I heard Lena say.
“What?” Niketa asked surprised, and maybe a little fearful.
“I’ll see how you can handle this.”
“Wait!” She said standing up quickly as I rounded the corner. “Come back!”
The looked over quickly to see me coming and she said,
“I was feeding some birds, I guess they got spooked.”
“Birds out at night?”
“There are kinds of carrier pigeons that fly at night.”
“Aren’t they native to southern Ragnarok though?”
“Umm, I suppose. Shouldn’t you be at Exodus? Your friends might worry about you. It’s dangerous for you to be out at night with a war going on.”
“Nobody will notice my absence for a while aside from Kairi and Cloud if he’s not doing anything. Besides, if they worried about going into dangerous situations Exodus wouldn’t ever have formed and I’d probably be a dog of the military.”
“But you’re officially part of Exodus, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, but if I was part of Ragnarok’s military I’d have to obey Trenxi.” I said idly. “Even if I did quit I had to stay in Nioglow, with Exodus I’m not treated like a pet canary in a cage.”
“I see. Don’t you think Kairi would say something though?”
“Nah, she knows if I’m on probation I won’t have any spare time to spoil her.” I said sitting down on the bench.
Niketa chuckled and sat down too saying,
“Manipulative, isn’t she?”
“A bit.”
My eyes met hers a spit second, just long enough for me to determine they were green. After a bit of small talk, I headed off my disturbance deepening.
Niketa and Lena are sisters…and somehow, Lena is controlling Niketa. So in reality, I’ve only spoken with Niketa twice. And what was the “Tear of Two Souls”? Was it some kind of divine relic, something besides a Skyevi relic? And what abilities did they have? Worst of all, I can’t tell anybody about this…especially Cloud. But what would be worse for him? To learn Lena was still alive, sort of, and that she’d been right there all along? But, if Lena does get a body of her own, she plans on letting her older sister die?
He still thinks of her…if I stopped her from getting a body of her own, somehow, it’d be incredibly selfish.
Lena’s a bitch though!
But he still loves her…
I never stopped Akiko from marrying Trenxi, so isn’t this kinda the same thing? Look where that got me…
I shook my head saying aloud,
“What the hell am I thinking? He doesn’t mean anything to me…”
If I hadn’t met him at Twi-LIGHT he could have been one of the Twi-LIGHT soldiers I was shooting at today…
I was prowling the halls of the Twi-LIGHT building under Exodus’ control that night around three AM out of boredom since I couldn’t get to sleep. I tried everything, listening to music, checking e-mail; there wasn’t a thing I didn’t try.
This Twi-LIGHT building had an interesting design, so I didn’t really know them layout very well. I found myself in a hall of small cubicles with large HD computer screens, and keyboards below them with random other control panels. I determined these were where all the security cameras’ information fed into. I turned a corner, and heard a voice down the next hall. I crept forward and determined it was Lena, erm, Niketa. The door was open and I welcomed myself to eavesdrop.
“Robert, Exodus is planning another attack on Nioglow tomorrow. They know about the Evi poisoning weapons, and are going to do an aerial raid. They plan getting directly the HQ that way, Akhyia told them these premature Special Agents go back into sleep when not in combat. They’re going to infiltrate the Twi-LIGHT building and go right into the underground to the Special Agents and kill them before they armed with the Evi poisoning cannons.”
“No problem then, we’ll simply attack the first.” Trenxi said calmly. “By the way, your body is ready, Lena.”
“So soon? Good.” She said rightly. “What about the memory download? Wasn’t the brain of my old body damaged too much to download them?”
“There isn’t anything Skyevi cannot repair. That is, aside from perhaps Akhyia.”
Lena snickered saying,
“Will you have to do any downloading of memories from Niketa when I’m in control to get what I’ve done with her?”
“Only a brief harmonization before complete transfer will be necessary to do that. It’ll be quite nice to have you back completely, Lena. Once you’re resurrected it won’t be any problem getting Nimbostratus under my command again. Of course, things might be tense between Zeev and him, but nothing a little memory altering can’t change.”
“You plan on doing the same thing you did to Akiko to Anan?”
“Yes, it worked wonderfully on her and sooner we do it to Anan the better. The closer they are, the harder it will be to completely obliterate his memory of her. It took years to alter Akiko, and there’s always the risk she might remember her sister, so time is of the essences, we can’t have his mind shattered for years, and we need him ASAP.”
“About Akiko, since she had her mind in unconnected fragments for so long she’s unstable, right? How long does she have?”
“Approximately five years before her mind has to be reconstructed a second time, but Akhyia upsets her. Akiko was always sentimental, although fighting Akhy might unsettle Anan once his memories are reconstructed but his mind is far more stable.”
“What about Zeev? Could he complicate things?”
“As long as Zeev keeps in line, and doesn’t attack Akhy, than memories of Zeev won’t have any mental connection to Akhy in his mind. Zeev makes him think of you, and our puppet will behave accordingly once you’re fully resurrected.”
“Just tell me something, are you going to all this trouble merely to hurt Akhyia?”
“Why would you be concerned with that?” He asked skeptically.
I could hear her smirk as she said,
“Although I have no problem with being resurrected and getting Anan with no strings attached, I’m just curious if you’re doing this to alter the fate involving Skyevi or if you’re merely tormenting Akhyia now.”
“It’s a bit of both, I suppose. Akhy’s will can be so strong that everybody she cares can be torn away from her and she’ll still go on. I was surprised that her will was strong enough to that she lived through mutations knowing her sister was as good as dead, but with Anan turned against her and Rei killed, we shouldn’t have any problems.”
“Skyevi lost everybody she cared about time and time again, what makes you so sure Akhy won’t stand strong like she did?”
“A mere incarnation can never top the real Skyevi.”
“If you’re sure.” Lena said idly. “So, can I head over to Nioglow now?”
“Sure, you can rendezvous with the army I’m sending to attack Kiata. Don’t let Exodus know what’s going on to notice your disappearance, I don’t want them to be very prepared or have the citizens in underground shelters. The most citizens we can get the better.”
“Understood. Signing off.”
I cursed, wishing I’d left earlier but I was glad I didn’t.
And my mother thought my habit and skill of eavesdropping was only going to get me in trouble.
I crept off, only walking faster when I was sure I wouldn’t be heard. I slid opened the door to the stairwell silently, and slid in careful about closing it. I only broke into a run after I’d gotten down a few flights and reached an elevator on the other side of the building in minutes. After nearly thirty seconds of waiting for the elevator, and realizing it was coming down from the one-hundredth floor and I was on the first floor, I took the stairs and reached the thirty-seventh floor in hardly five minutes. I banged on Maaya’s door yelling,
“Maaya! Wake up!”
The door opened instantly, Maaya appearing if anything sleep deprived.
“Twi-LIGHT is arranging an attack now; you have to get the army read and the citizens into the underground shelters below Kiata city!”
“What?” She asked sharply.
“I’ll go with a few platoons of Exodus soldiers and start evacuating citizens, Trenxi said he wanted to abduct them for mutation.”
“How did you learn this?” Maaya asked running to her computer and typing in the commands.
“Lena.” I replied. “I heard her talking to Trenxi in the communications lab where the security camera video’s feed.”
“Lena?” Maaya asked sharply. “You don’t mean Lena Mashima, do you?”
“I don’t know, she’s Niketa Kinomyano’s sister.”
“Niketa has a sister?”
“Sort of, but they have the same body since Lena was killed.”
Maaya gave me a strange look asking,
“Is that why Niketa’s eyes change color?”
“Yes---wait, how did you know that?”
“I spoke with her once in Neivila and her eyes were green. Normally they’re blue, and her eyes are green in her government information. Contacts that change eye color are common these days I didn’t think much of it.”
“How was Lena Mashima killed?”
“She was murdered at a refugee camp. By a Twi-LIGHT soldier, Zeev Rozarera.”
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