Have you ever had one of those lucid dreams that seem so real they become indistinguishable from reality? Well, for a moment I did realize I was indeed dreaming, but given a minute longer into my slumber that realization slipped part way into the void.

I’m back at the Clover Club, although I’m not entirely sure what part of the infirmary this is, it’s not like I frequented it in the past enough for it to be memorable. After wandering a featureless ocean for an indeterminable amount of time, I transposed into a hospital bed. It was at that point that I realized something was amiss, that this was no ordinary dream. To a degree, I could touch, taste, and smell, though these senses were dull, and in lacking focus, they became easily dismissible.

“Silk, what am I doing here? What’s going on?” I asked the empty room, taking note of a thick bandage wrapped around my hand down the length of my wrist.

“Liger? Izumi?” I called out cautiously. Still, there was no response.

Or so I thought…

As if reacting to my voice, the wall to my right side fell away. In its place; a wide pane of glass spanning the entire length. Outside, stretching farther than my eyes could perceive were the many layers of clouds. Sitting on the edge of this whispering sea of white, a black sun, colorless and distorted, impossibly shedding light.

“What the hell is going on?” I muttered, reexamining my bandage only to find it missing. In its place, a multitude of intravenous lines of various colored fluids.

“When did…?”

A clock above my bed? A door on the left side of the room? They were not there before either…

“And you,” I turned towards a nurse who I found suddenly standing at my bedside. “That better not be a rectal thermometer you’re holding.”

Wait… why did saying that give me a rush of DeJa’Vu?

“After the incident with Vivian, we changed over to Spec-3 Multimeters. These simply go under your tongue.”

“Wait, don’t I know you from somewhere, err…?”

Even after squinting, the name-tag on the Nurse’s breast pocket bore no name.

“Can’t say we ever met beyond this instance, now open wide and let me perform my role.”

Obediently, I complied for the time being. Upon second examination of the I.V lines, I noticed the many scars I’ve accumulated throughout the years were missing save for a few deep cuts to my knuckles and superficial wounds to my wrist that had yet to heal.

“Ah, I think I understand what’s going on here. I punched that bathroom mirror and wounded up in the Clover Club’s infirmary. Vivian or that soldier guy must have carried me here, which means that this is some strange memory-dream orgy.”

“An orgy involving two participants? Even if there was three aspects, it would still be a threesome.”

In the Nurse’s place stood a young with a face similar to mine. An Oni, wearing his naku-chi markings proudly… this man must be the soldier from that ill-fated night so long ago.

“You’re Free?” I flinched.

“Such an ironic name isn’t it for someone who’s a dog of the military and a Beastkin to boot. It’s even gotten me into trouble a time or two. I can be walking through the barracks back at the M.I.N and-.”

Raising my hand cutting Free mid-sentence, I rolled my eyes towards the window completely disinterested.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s absolutely hilarious Prince Charming. Unless you have a means of leaving this place, I don’t want to hear it.”

“There is a door not but three meters to my side, and it doesn’t appear that there are any guards armed or otherwise here to stop you. I came by to personally see to your recovery.”

“I don’t see a set of Bracers of Regeneration or any health potions, so get lost. You’re the reason why I’m here in the first place.”

“H-Health potions?” Free reiterated with a dry laugh. “You’re mistaken, although I will accept responsibility for half of the blame.”

“Half?!” I scoffed.

“You gathered that we were to be wedded come the 50th Red-String Anniversary, did you not? That was the reason why you struck the mirror; the premise of you being sold to fulfill a role.”

“50th what-now? I don’t recall ever hearing that before. Is this a dream based off memory or a memory based off dream…? That doesn’t even sound right… My brain feels constipated.”

“Perhaps you merely forgotten? Does the 15th night of Oracle’s Eve ring a bell? It’s the date of our departure.”

“Nope, just nope. I’m not going anywhere with you, and I’m done playing charades!” I shouted, ripping the I.V lines from my arm before throwing my legs over the bedside.

“I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do to change the past. I doubt you’d fare any better in doing so. Fourteen days from now; we departed on a Civilian Shuttle; don’t you remember?”

The name ‘Cherub’ immediately came to mind, although it took another second to connect it with the name of the gaudy Martian shuttle that was far over-designed for its own good. I began to recall a ship that held a bunch of metal fragments in some sort of suspension field. I thought it was breathtaking at first sight, like a chandelier with all its crystals in tow.

“Ah, that expression your making tells me that you are capable of remembering!”

“When you put it like that it sounds like an insult…”

“I meant no offense. Perhaps you’d be better off remembering if someone more familiar were curating this Echo? Someone who was with you? Or maybe we should wrap things up here first?”

“Curating what exactly? Why do you keep avoiding the elephant in the room- which is not only the room but everything else in and outside of it!? Look at the freakin’ Sun outside the window! It’s a gaping black hole!”

As I exclaimed with my arms outstretched, Free motioned to stifle a snicker. In doing so, his body faded out entirely, replaced by a man of similar stature and build. Looking down upon me were eyes cold as stone, infinitely more fearsome than paternal scorn, the eyes of an apex predator.

“M-Master Alistair…” I gagged, lowering my hands slowly. It felt as if all the blood in my body congealed in my throat.

“There-there.” He tutted. His voice smooth as velvet did nothing in the way of calming the flight response welling within me. “Ah, what’s this?”

Suddenly, he took my battered hand into his own, comparing the discrepancy in size as he always done… making the same remark as he always did…

“Such delicate little fingers. Un-calloused and clean. Did Vivian do your nails this time? What a lovely shade of crimson…”

I never knew how to respond. It was apparent he was ignoring the cuts and the stitches as if waiting for me to admit fault or testing me in some way.

“I’m sorry.” I said in a whisper. I dare not speak any louder in fear of the repercussions… whatever they may be.

Damaged goods.

That’s what I’ve become.

I’ve seen others who’ve been scarred or bruised by unruly customers leave the Club never to be seen again. Once you’re used up, that’s the end of the line for us Beastkin. Our shelf-life is nothing like that of a human. We live fast and die young despite the efforts of our caretakers and our strength found in unity.

“Dear, you’re trembling.” Alistar stated plainly his voice becoming course like gravel as he began to run his fingers through my hair, tucking a single lock behind my ear as he did many times before.

“I’m sorry.” I apologized once more, unable to control the shaking in my breath.

“No… I should be the one apologizing. It seems a certain debt has finally caught up with me in such a way I’m no longer able to avoid it.”

Perplexed by the droll swing in his tone, I raised my head cautiously.

“I should have told you sooner, I shouldn’t have kept anything from you, Darling. Those men, those soldiers are asking the impossible from me. They are asking for my most prized possession, giving nothing in return. You do… understand…?”

No… I don’t understand. I don’t understand a fucking thing… Why am I here? Did I do something to deserve reliving this torment? My face is wet… am I… crying?

“Maybe this once, I shouldn’t ask… I have no right, but I need you to be strong. If you can do that for me, I promise I will bring you back home… where Vivian and I will be waiting.”

Just mentioning her name felt as if my veins had turned to ice. Without Vi, how am expected to survive? She always looked out for me more than the times she got me into trouble. I looked up to her for anything and everything. Every time Vivian opened her mouth, the stars and heavens above would bend until her words became true. Without her omnipotent guidance, surely, I would be culled with the rest of the chaff.

SO WHY ME!?

“Say not a word and do whatever the soldiers ask of you. Remember their faces, their ranks, their names. When all this is over, I will find you. Nothing that belongs to me can remain stolen… and those who’ve parted me with my possessions will pay dearly.”

With gentle hands, Alistar positioned me before tucking the edge of the sheets beneath the mattress… and that was the last I ever saw of the Man with Eyes of Stone. Back then, I must have held my breath until the point I fainted, but this new dark reality set before me was nothing like unconsciousness.

I could see ripples representing my Master, surrounded by a group of lab technicians. They spoke in muddled words, moving about as if one with the wind.

“Sir… I don’t understand, why go through the expense? Surely she’s replaceable?”

The words of the technicians blended together, making it impossible to discern who spoke, although I knew their words were directed towards me.

“We don’t even know if a sub-dermal Implant will hold up to what she’s likely to be subjected to. If any word gets back to the people holding the reigns on Big Pharma, we all are good as dead. Best case, we face financial ruin through endless lawsuits.”

“I do not care. My will must be so.”

Those were the words of my Master. Powerful and imposing. No one dare say anything more. Into the depths of hell, Alistar could walk the rats through fire and brimstone… and that’s exactly what they did.

In tracing a finger along the base of my neck, I felt the scar left by the surgical site of the implant. Without it, I would have been subject to many syringes filled with life-extending stabilizer serum… had there been anyone to care for me.

On the 15th and final day of Oracle’s Eve, the day the very sky ignited with fireworks so brilliant the clouds were stained with color, I stepped into the shuttle, never expecting to see Vivian or my Master ever again.

No…

No…

This isn’t right… That’s not how I remember it. Vivian was- err… The Headmaster, the School, I never went to Mars- I can’t… think.

“Then don’t!” Vivian’s voice echoed below my feet, deep within the sea of black ink. “Old wounds can’t heal if you keep diggin’ at em, ya know?”

“Vivian, I don’t understand anything at all. What happened on the 15th night? Why did Alistar throw me away? Is it because… I’m damaged?”

“On the 15th night, one of many outcomes came to pass! You graduated from pauper to princess! Well, maybe not that very instant, there were still a few weeks between the night you left and the Red Strings Anniversary, not that it really matters because you're here now!”

“I don’t even know what the Anniversary is!? Please-!”

Re-materializing in an instant, I found myself back in the infirmary, inside the same room, with the same clock whose hands had yet to move and the same glass window holding back the viscous black Sun bleeding into the white horizon.

“You don’t remember my promise I made to you the minute you woke up from surgery?” Vivian asked, hovering in mid-air, just outside the large pane of glass separating me from the abyssal plane outside. “I’d tie the knot and make you my Red String!”

“I don’t…” I stammered, searching the floor for an answer.

“Okay, maybe I was riding on you being half-conscious and pumped full of the good stuff,” Vivian snickered, moving her hand impossibly through the glass as if it did not exist. “The Red String Promise is a bond stronger than the glue that binds friends, family, even the force of 10,000 suns! It is the unity of two hearts, two souls!”

As Vivian took my wrist, she urged me forward as if to request the impossible, as if to walk me through the wall of solid glass.

“The Red Strings are the ultimate act of defiance! Against God, against the Devil- Heaven or Hell, we resist the future so that our souls will remain forever united!”

With my heels dug in against the narrow window frame, fear took control of my hand, resisting the glass as if were made of an exceedingly thick liquid.

“Vi…”

I always thought of her as a Sister and something more. In truth; I really feared her sometimes more than Alistar. Vi speaks of gods and devils when what is standing here before me encompasses both. To some extent; she was my God and my Master, her will often overruled what Alistar imposed on me, and that is why I can admit; she had been my entire reason to live.

A chaotic force that canceled out my own turbulence.

My light.

My direction.

All the love in the world I’d ever need.

If I wanted any star in the sky, she could have plucked it, and shaped it into the very apple of my desire. Now, I’m just chasing her ghost, so what have I got to lose if I step beyond the boundary and fall into oblivion?

Thread by thread, fiber by fiber, the muscles in my body began to relax until Vivian could pull me through to the other side. Against the expectation of falling, Vivian’s embrace held me firm as we began to drift towards the abyssal Sun.

That is until they came into existence.

Two mechanical Titans not of this world. Their height, reaching far into the stratus above, their ankles reaching the clouds below. Had I known any better, I would have claimed them to be deities, but that position had been already claimed by the one who bound her Red String of Fate to me.

“Adjunct 001, you are operating outside of normal operating parameters. Your session time expired 165 hours ago. Standby for processing and digestion.” The Titans spoke in unison.

“I can’t leave my Lil Frill just yet! She’s got a long road to recovery, so I expanded the parameters to meet my patient’s needs. Adjunct 001 will remain in operation indefinitely until I've diagnosed, and cured whatever ails my patient!”

Smirking, Vivian turned towards me as we drew dangerously near the ominous beings.

“Patient Zero – Illness; a broken heart and shattered memories! Status; Critical!” She cheered, almost robotically.

“Elevating Authority Routine: Adjunct 001, you are operating outside of-.”

“Yah~yah, operating outside of parameters~! For my Frill, I’d rewrite the whole damn Operating System. I’ve got a big task ahead of me, Adjunct 002 and 003! I’ll be borrowing your computational power now! Standby for mandatory override! The needs of our patient rule above all else- other than my Else!”

With her left palm outstretched, an alluring shaft of light fractured the two behemoths into waves of particles and light that washed over us in an instant until it became overwhelming. Ones and Zeros raced past my vision until a burning sensation erupted deep in my nasal passages.

“BWAH!?” I screamed, leaning upon my elbows from a sprawled-out position amid a pile of blankets.

“Keep your voice down.” A man’s voice rumbled nearby.

Squeaking; “Liger, is that you?” I fitfully rubbed my eyes until I shed the remaining bits of sand accumulated in my slumber. “Ugh, everything is blurry, I can’t see.”

“I employed less-than-lethal force as a means of restraining you.”

Oh yes, that is most definitely Liger. By the way he prattled on about the technical specifications of the fish-paste glued to my eyelids, I knew it couldn’t possibly have been anyone else.

“Liger, is Izumi…?”

“She has regained a stable condition.”

“And… how is her mental health?”

Even if Izumi’s baby had been a still-birth, I’m sure its passing played heavily on her conscious. Now that I’ve regained a hazy image of my surrounding, the interior of the PEDS tent rippling overhead brought me back to when I initially found it; the contents scattered about, telling a tale of Izumi's desperation to feed her dying child.

“She suffered an acute traumatic experience. She has not spoken a word to me since I exhumed the afterbirth.”

As I rolled my eyes towards Liger’s mechanical crassness, I tested the strength of my wrist I found fashioned to yet another crude splint, braced on either side by two scrap metal planks.

“I’ve treated your injuries, pardon the intrusion, but I took the liberty to wash your clothes… what was left of them. They are drying on a clothesline at the moment, so I dressed you in one of the gowns supplied by the PEDS Unit.”

“Thanks…” I sighed as a dull pain radiated through my radius and ulna the moment I motioned to part the tent flap.

Outside, the Sun’s rays pierced the overcast in small ponds all over the city, save for directly overhead. Immediately, I was hit by how humid the air had become despite it snowing the previous night.

“Hey Liger, how long have I been out?” I grumbled, continuing to rub the traces of blinding agent from my eyelids until Liger’s hunched body became clear.

“Five hours, thirty minutes, forty-one seconds.” He replied, focusing intently on the gutted remains of a radio transceiver sprawled out at his feet. “You should stay inside the tent. Catching a cold without adequate hospice may very well be a death sentence.”

After retrieving a foil blanket to wrap around my body, I returned to Liger’s side.

“Hey Liger, I got a question… but you gotta promise you won’t laugh.”

Although he never took his eyes off his task at hand, I could sense the curiosity in his hesitation.

“Look, I wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed when it came to academics, alright? I never went to elementary or middle school… not the conventional sort at least. But, uh… What does ‘Adjunct’ mean?”

Under the guise of a forced sneeze, I could have sworn I heard Liger snicker for the first time.

“Do you want the dictionary definition, or would you like an explanation of the dream you had last night?”

Liger’s response sent a jolt through my spine.

“W-what do you know about that? D-did I say anything funny in my sleep?”

By continuing the reassembly of the radio device, it was clear Liger was giving me the cold shoulder, but after a few drawn-out seconds later, he finally replied; “Did the thief learn it could not catch a star, lest she be burned?”

“What the heck is that suppose to mean!?”

“The medicine you swiped from me; Diketrophine, it is not only for the treatment of physical injuries, half of the tablet is enriched with nanites encoded with a psychotherapist routine. The Adjunct is the mediator between your id and ego.”

“The what and the what?”

“Think of it as a virtual instance, although it is more of a controlled dream. Free from the constrains of reality, the Adjunct will work to diagnose your mental state and provide treatment until it is deemed unnecessary.”

“No-no-no…” I tutted irritably. “I don’t think you understand, Liger, that was a bleedn’ nightmare! – And there was more than one Adjunct, hell, there was three of them, and one of them resembled my d--...”

Suddenly, Liger planted his heavy hand on my crown before guiding my eyeline over to Izumi who had been sitting on the edge of the rooftop, her hair swaying in the breeze.

“If your friend overhears you speaking of the adverse effects you brought upon yourself, it may cause much-unneeded anxiety. You were only supposed to consume one as I directed. Even then, the medicine is highly experimental. Now, if you find something to occupy yourself with, I would appreciate it. I must repair this radio and alert my platoon that this rescue succeeded and there is no longer cause for alarm.”

Between his fingers, the device Liger mentioned as a ‘GOOJF Card’ steadily flashed green.

“Your 'issue' will clear up on its own as your body vacates waste. Perhaps if my Squadmates decide to show up, Ensign Bask might offer you a remedy to aid the process along.”

“What? You mean laxatives? Err- wait, why did you put it like that? ‘Decide to show up’? You said that as if it's a bad thing.”

“It is. This GOOJF device was intended for my personal use, so they will assume it is I who called for assistance. Their mission is far more imperative than my wellbeing… and… there is another reason, something I must discover on my own before I rendezvous with my team.”

“Well, for what it’s worth, I am sorry… I didn’t think that little piece of plastic would throw a wrench in your plans. Oh and, I know I said it before, but again; thank you.”

As I aimed for a peck on his cheek, my groggy train of thought decided it would be best to give the iron-man a jab to the shoulder with my injured wrist instead.

“Gah-damn that hurt! Hey Liger, do you think I could have another one of those Diketro-pills!”

“No.” He countered instantly, pointing forward towards Izumi with a glower demanding that I leave. Equally just as fast, I made for a quick five-finger discount on his utility belt only to receive a sharp smack to my rear. During the commotion, Izumi scooted herself around in time to witness my demise.

Hello~ darkness~ my~ old~ friend~

With my eyes puckered into their sockets, I let out an inhuman squeal akin to a rabid dog as my fractured tailbone throbbed uncontrollably.