- AU -

Madzistrale looked gloomily at the puny wall separating her and Frank from the chaotic mass on the streets. They had spent the last fifteen minutes in silence as Frank used the frequency sweeper to catch what Madzistrale was certain that was the very human origin behind the invasion broadcast.

Still, catching the culprit was only the first step. The most important one relied on the population itself; and judging from what Madzistrale had heard across the wall ever since that man's shout... That could easily count as a lost cause.

She turned away from the desperate noise and looked over Frank's shoulder.

"Please tell me you're getting close."

Frank shrugged.

"They won't allow the frequency to be caught easily; not to mention there's a ton of frequencies going around!"

"I know, I know..." she sighed, raising herself upon the sale desk.

Frank looked up at her expression and smiled sadly.

"He'll be back."

She lowered her eyes.

"I'm not that worried. I'm just..."

"Worried?" he joked.

"Useless. Gab and he are the brains. I'm just..."

"Kind and compassionate, and worrying," Frank finished kindly. "Even brainiacs need that."

She smiled weakly, then both startled as a loud crash resonated in the far back of the store.

"What the...?" Frank asked.

Her heart pounding, Madzistrale silently positioned herself as a shield to Frank. Snapping both her arms to the sides, her handgun and her Yousha sword appeared in her grips. The following silence was terrifying, but even more so the uncoordinated steps that resonated.

"That hurt, but I'm glad I didn't crash on top of you," Tom's voice rang out.

"Tom!" Madzistrale smiled as he walked from behind an alley; she ran to hug him, but stopped halfway as her eyes fell on the second figure that Tom was dragging. Her dark eyes turned into a cold fire.

"I thought you'd like to interrogate him yourself," Tom smirked, roughly sitting Abraham down on a chair and tying his arms back.

Abraham stared them off challengingly, and smiled at Frank.

"Whatever you're doing, it won't work."

Madzistrale stopped with a glare Frank's retort, and she approached Abraham, her heart beating fast, her breath rising faster and faster as her blood was boiling. When Tom crossed her, she took her elbow, and forcefully bringing him close, she whispered:

"Project Cyan Ray."

Tom looked at her with understanding, and nodded. He then squatted by Frank's side, and whispered something much longer than Madzistrale's three words. Frank looked at him with surprise, but nodded, and Tom rose to lean against the desk, his eyes fixed on his sister.

"What have you done to the citizens?" Madzistrale seethed at Abraham.

He smiled nonchalantly.

"Nothing. We've merely given them the freedom to make their wish come true. Are you that surprised, or that foolish, at the result?"

"You've riled them up; you're lying on what's happening. There isn't really an invasion, is there?"

"Maybe, maybe not."

"Who's your boss?"

Abraham laughed.

"You can do better. You know I won't tell."

Madzistrale clenched her jaw and tightened her fists. Every cells in her body told her to knock a few of his teeth out.

"Fine. What do you truly plan to accomplish?"

"I told you at your fake interview: evolution."

"This isn't evolution, this is genocide!"

"Not if humanity follows your naive belief. They are responsible for every action they are, and will be, committing. But you already know what human nature will choose. And it isn't your rainbow and unicorn belief."

"If you're that confident, mind if I stop the invasion and tell them about another way?" she challenged, her ears pumping with her raging blood.

"If you can find the frequency, sure. But will they listen? After all, their wishes have been fulfilled, that's what you're insisting upon looking away from."

"Murdering each other? That's the wish you've implanted?"

Abraham laughed.

"What are you expecting? Humanity is riddled with the desire to trample their weakest counterpart; every single religion, belief system, secret society: all about how to subjugate lesser beings."

"No one showed them another way, because every time someone tries, someone like you poison the well," Madzistrale spat.

Abraham looked at her annoyingly.

"You're nothing more than a little girl who needs seriously to experience real life. You've been sheltered into a goodie goodie bubble of fantasy, without one ounce of brain to see past your illusions..."

A smack resonated loudly across the empty store. Tom and Frank looked in stunned shock, their jaws dropped, at the rapidly growing red spot on Abraham's left cheek.

Abraham slowly rose back his head to stare defiantly into Madzistrale's eyes, burning like coals; he snickered derisively.

"I like your interpretation of peace."

Madzistrale's eyes sparked with fury. Her left arm swung abnormally fast, and the palm contacted with Abraham's right cheek with such unrestrained strength that the sound resounded even louder, and was followed with Abraham falling with the chair unto the concrete floor.

"Mad, don't!!" Tom yelled, throwing himself behind her and wrapping her arms in his.

She shook as angry tears began to well; Tom led her away, rubbing her hands to diminish the sting. He looked deep into her teary eyes, and he touched her forehead with his.

"Don't fall in his trap."

"I don't know what to do against him!" she began to cry.

"Then don't target him. Talk to those who matters; talk to the population."

"But how?! They're not listening, they all believe his damn lies! I can't do it by myself. Even if this isn’t my world, I can’t just let them drive each other to genocide because of one stupid lie... yet nothing I will say will..."

Tom put a hand on her mouth, and wiped away her tears. Bringing her even closer, he held her tightly against him, feeling her heaving.

“Make them stop and try to think by themselves. I know you can do it. And maybe that’s all they need: a voice of reason to make them see how stupid their actions are." His voice dropped to a barely audible whisper, even to her. "They're listening to everything going on here. Frank hijacked a mic to the frequency emitter. While searching for the invasion's, he's sending out at every channel what is being said."

He pulled back and smiled softly at her, his brown eyes cheerful.

"So don't compete him about being tough. Be our dream. May it be for one soul out there."

Madzistrale breathed deeply, then sniffed and rubbed her eyes. She nodded faintly before turning away from the store, staring instead at the wall from which behind the riot could still be heard. Tom turned to Abraham, and with a huff and puff, straightened the chair. For good measures, he slapped Abraham's back of head.

"Let's try this again," Tom softly said. "What's the true motive? What can possibly be so threatening to you if you claim humanity will always choose war? Why try and control them? Allow them instead to experience firsthand what their beliefs will bring about. Let them experience life in space, how their philosophy will hold up. Why bother with such an elaborate manipulation?"

Abraham smirked.

"As if we'd let a cancer spread."

"Oh, so you're still on that. The whole 'Humanity is a cancer' bullshit?" You would justify genocide for that obvious lie?"

Abraham hissed.

"You're both an idiot not to see it. Our species is an infestation that will become a threat to not just the planet, but to future civilizations. The message from the Shiakar Prince? It's not a lie. Whether it be in one hour or in one hundred years, we are a cancer in need of extermination. Gaea has underwent five global cleansing for her own cancerous and overambitious organisms. It's time we grow a spine and do it ourselves instead of cowardly sickening our planet and forced upon her this responsibility. Humanity is a cancer. When will you stop blinding yourself to this truth?"

Madzistrale chuckled softly, still looking at the wall.

"You sound like a loop. Have you considered that humanity got this way because everyone told everyone else they were cancer? Fire only create more fire. Hate begets hate. One day, someone has to take a stand and try to do the opposite of what we've always done.

>> We've done wars for countless millenias. Has it led to anything good? No. Then why not try something different, even if we try over and over again? Wouldn't that result in the world we all dream of?"

Abraham made a mocking laugh.

"When have you seen your neighbour doing something for the good of humanity? Aren't everyone surrounding you nothing more than lazy? Living their day as if their lives amount to nothing else than working, eating and sleeping? You really stand on the side of preservation of a flawed system?"

"I'm afraid no matter how flawed we are, I do not condone at all the excuse of using that flaw and create another bloody war. We're much better than that, and I'll always stand on the side of hope, compassion and peace."

"Thousands of years have passed, and humanity never chose hope, compassion, and peace. Not a single country or empire chose it, even less a community. That foolish dream of yours, that fabled 'other path', is a complete lie," Abraham countered.

Madzistrale smiled sadly.

"Here's why I disagree with you on that. One day, one community has to show the world another way IS possible. I'll do my utmost to prove it to even two person. Then those two will proceed to prove it each to two more each. And on and on. That's how another way can finally fight.

>> Violence will always fight violence, and be excused for it. But violence starts looking stupid when it fight peace. What possible excuse does it have? And peace doesn't mean being a weak force. It can become a strong force. Peace can resist violence without becoming violence.

>> Only when people start seeing that will humanity finally end that absurd game of war going on for millennium. But someone has to start believing in it and making it a reality. I'll stand 100 percent on peace's side. Because I don't believe even 0.1 percent in violence's side."

Madzistrale walked closer to the machines, in a futile move to make herself be clearly heard by the outside world.

“So listen to me, you idiotic imbeciles. Would you just stop, please? The lives beside you are not obstacles, threats: they’re humans just like you, with lives as worse as you, with desires of greatness as much as you! They are countless possibilities, countless spirits in search of a way to make this world better. An utopia obtained through compassion and kindness, not through blood and tears! Why 500 millions bitter and ashamed people, when it could be billions looking at the same dream, making the same dream come true?

» For just a moment, stop! Stop, look around you, pray for the way. What can you lose? Just try to see what truly lay beyond the lies that you’ve been fed all along!”

A sudden silence greeted her words. Puzzled, the siblings and Frank strained to hear the transmission of the invasion, the crowd fighting, but nothing could be heard except creakings and sounds of buildings' structures recuperating.

"What happened?" Frank asked, worried.

The siblings glimpsed at Abraham, and were secretly glad to see him worryingly frown.

Then the transmission resumed; but instead, a male Brittanian voice spoke, his words almost mechanically delivered:

"You may find myself and the origin of the transmission at 545 Columbus Avenue, fifth story, third office."

Abraham swore heavily, and the siblings looked ay each other in awe.

"That was the android!" Madzistrale said, surprised.

Tom turned to Frank.

"Keep an eye on Abraham, and the transmission; we'll be back as soon as possible."

"Good luck!" Frank wished them, glancing nervously at Abraham.

Tom and Madzistrale climbed into their silver car, and started it up.