Chapter 24: 24. Cure

Erika Velle

"W-Who are you?"

Silence fills the air between them.

"Relax—I'm not your enemy."

They speak again, while taking a step forward.

Their voice sounds partially modulated—masked by some kind of audio distortion, their voice sounds unmistakably male, but she's uncertain.

The figure in black takes another step forwards.

Erika feels goosebumps running down her arms.

"Calm down. I only wish to speak with you, Dr. Velle."

As soon as they finish speaking, silence descends.

Hearing their words, she finally starts calming her racing heart.

She doesn't know why, but for some reason—she finds herself trusting their words. Slowly, her rationality begins to return, and the fog of panic begins fading away.

At least for the moment—she's not in immediate danger.

Her mind's racing with thousands of questions.

How could they get in here? Her lab should have been locked down tight—no one should be capable of entering without authorization.

What's more, how did they bypass the alarms? How could they enter undetected?

She looks back at her computer screen—which displays a live feed from her motion detectors, and cameras. There's nothing unusual happening. Everything appears normal. No movement outside her lab.

It appears they're alone.

That only creates more questions within her mind.

Feeling some of her confidence return, she's finally able to analyze the person standing before her.

They're actually smaller than she thought. She was so startled, she mistakenly viewed them as a massive figure—but they're almost a head shorter than her.

Still, that doesn't make them any less imposing.

They look like a phantom—an apparition.

In a way, she finds them looking almost... elegant. She wasn't able to make it out at first—but their clothing is adorned with symbols, and trim that is an even deeper black.

Staring at them, she feels something stir deep inside her chest.

Something familiar.

It's reminiscent of staring up into a starless sky.

Or perhaps gazing upon a dark sea during a stormy night.

All she can feel is awe.

Again, looking towards their face, she only gains more questions.

With them being so close, she's finally able to see beneath their hood.

In place of their face, there's only a matte black mask. It covers there face completely. There isn't any holes for their eyes. Seeing that, Erika immediately assumes their mask is similar to a modern combat helmet.

Except it looks nothing like that. As far as she can tell, their vision should be entirely blocked, they should have no way of seeing her...

Despite the fact they have no facial features, their face gives off an aura of absolute confidence.

A sense of serenity emanates from them.

While their presence makes her feel uneasy, it also seems to calm her own nerves.

Without warning, the figure in black raises a hand.

"It appears you've calmed down. I'd like to continue our discussion."

Their voice is smooth, yet somehow commanding.

They continue to stare at her without moving a muscle.

"I apologize for the unauthorized intrusion. I didn't want to scare you—I only wished to speak in private."

Their words are oddly gentle.

"I am sorry if my actions caused you distress."

Erika's puzzled. Why would they say such things after breaking into her lab unannounced?

She wonders how they got past the alarm sensors. Did they hack into the system or something?

They sound sincere, but considering the fact they're standing within her greatest secret—they don't need to state the underlying threat.

No matter who they are—it would be foolish to trust anyone who enters your home uninvited.

"Who are you?"

"That's quite a complicated question. Who am I?.. If you're asking for my name—you may refer to me by whatever name you desire."

Erika frowns.

If they want to remain anonymous, she'll respect that, but she needs them to answer her questions.

"Why did you come here?"

"I have a wish... An ambition I'd like to realize... I'd be grateful for your assistance, but for now—that's irrelevant. My primary reason for coming here is to free you."

She blinks, confused by his words.

Free her from what? What exactly do they mean?

For some strange reason, she feels compelled to trust them. They speaks with a quiet authority that's difficult to argue against.

Noticing her silence, they continue.

"When I look at you, I see a girl trapped within contradiction."

"You're a slave to a world—a system you despise. And although you hate that system, you refuse to abandon it. Out of necessity, you use your brilliance to further strengthen it—even though doing so causes suffering."

They pause.

"I'm simply offering a solution. I'll free you from that which binds you. What you do after, is up to you."

Erika stands rooted in place.

Her brain can't process everything they said. They spoke about her in a way she hasn't ever heard before. While they might be right, she still can't understand what they mean.

Even so, she feels like she understands them.

Generally, Erika's a somewhat brash, yet optimistic and lively person, but this conversation has left her speechless. She isn't able to muster her usual enthusiasm, nor can she think clearly enough to respond.

After a moment, she asks "And why would you offer me freedom?"

"Because I share your feelings towards the world we live in."

She pauses.

Is this guy really serious?

Don't they realize how dangerous it is to talk about these kinds of topics?

Could they possibly be crazy?

"...How could I trust you?"

"Trust is a funny thing. To some people, it means having faith in someone else. For others, it means believing in the goodness of human nature. I don't want you to trust me. Simply put: Watch. See if I prove myself worthy of your belief."

"Prove yourself..." Erika mutters under her breath. She ponders what they just said. In order for her to truly believe in someone, they have to earn that trust through action.

Watching them will reveal much about them. She can judge their character based on their actions. But she's not sure whether she trusts them or not. Right now, she's unable to decide.

However, despite the uncertainty swirling within her mind, she knows one thing for certain.

She can't afford to let her guard down.

She can't risk letting her emotions cloud her judgment.

"Calm down, I already stated: I'm not your enemy."

As if they could read her mind, they yet again try to assuage her worries. It's as if they knew she was struggling with doubts.

"I'm the only one who knows of this place's existence. I assure you, no one else knows, nor will I tell anyone."

Erika nods slowly.

"...Thank you."

It's the only reply she can muster.

"I will return here tomorrow. I'm aware of how busy you are, so I'll arrive at 9 P.M. See you then."

The second she hears their words, they've already turned around, walking towards the exit.

As they're about to leave her sight, Erika realizes she forgot to ask one important question.

"Wait! H-How did you get in here? How'd you get past my security?!" Just like that, she's back into her lively, curious self.

All she hears in response is a barely audible laugh.

It sounded heavily distorted—but she's certain they just laughed at her.

"What an infuriating person..." She mutters under her breath.

With them now out of her sight, she looks towards her computer, and holograms. She watches their movements closely. Her cameras aren't working for some reason.

"Strange... I'll need get them fixed soon if they're returning."

With her motion detectors, she's able to view them slowly making their way through the cave... But as soon as they're outside, they instantly disappear.

She's unable to contain her gasp.

***

Fate Reylin

She was a bit... different than I thought she'd be... That may be my fault though. My plan is to create an organization comprised of those who wish for change, with my leadership being absolute. In order to avoid future problems, I wanted to establish a power dynamic between us without threatening, or saying anything to startle her.

I may have gone a too far in doing this.

I wanted her to acknowledge my ability—I didn't want to completely terrify her.

But I suppose that won't help matters either.

My goal is to convince her to join me willingly—not force her, or scare her into obedience.

Perhaps I should have chosen another method altogether...?

Regardless—now that I have her attention, I must proceed carefully.

Her sister is what binds her. So long as her sister is cured, she'll no longer need to follow orders. The moment her sister recovers, she'll be freed from her bonds. From that point forward, all she needs to do is follow my lead. Once I've convinced her to cooperate, it'll be time to move onto the next phase.

Regarding the cure—it was easy to locate with my sixth sense, but I didn't want to just steal it like a common thief. So, I've done everything I can to obtain it through other means.

It's far more protected than I first believed.

I knew it was incredibly classified, but I thought I could use my identity as leverage to obtain it through some of my mother's acquaintances, but none of them even know of its existence.

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To be honest, that made me curious. My mother is one of the most important figures in New Eden, and she's connected to countless powerful people—yet no one I talked to knew of such a cure.

With that knowledge, I did my own investigating.

There's two main factors preventing every child from being improved through genetic alteration: money, and side effects. For the elite of New Eden—money clearly isn't an issue. But the side effects are. They want their children to have every advantage possible, but they're scared of repercussions.

But, if a cure existed for almost every condition caused from gene altering—there'd be no risk for them. Monopolizing such a cure would guarantee their children's safety while allowing them to become stronger.

Knowing that such a thing exists, and they're preventing it from helping millions... It sickens me.

I wonder if they realize how many lives they're denying? They probably do—yet the don't care.

Upon discovering that—I no longer have any doubts about simply taking it for myself. The reason I asked to meet her tomorrow is simple—I still need to obtain the cure.

That's what I'm in the middle of doing. I've monitored the location that produces the cure for the last week or so, and they move shipments of the cure once every two weeks. Right now, I'm hovering above one of their shipments. I'm unsure of my exact height, but I have to be close to the stratosphere. The clouds completely obscure my view of the ground. I'm relying entirely on my sixth sense.

Without my power, I'd be unable to even breathe this high into the atmosphere. The amount of oxygen is far too little—I'm trying to gather oxygen using my power in order to breathe, but it's not easy. It's unbelievably difficult. I won't be able to stay at this altitude for long. My barrier helps to insulate me from the cold, but it hasn't been perfected.

At least I won't need to stay here long.

I've only been here a few minutes, and I'm already shivering.

Heh. Using my power at this height—it reminds me of the Sword of Damocles.

A sword hanging over head, waiting to descend.

Only, my power isn't a mere blade.

This time, I'm descending upon a target—the cure.

Within moments, the transport begins moving—slowly, but surely. I can feel the containers within, all containing vials of the genetic cure.

Each container contains hundreds of vials.

I start by grabbing a container, and slamming it into the walls of the transport. The vials crash against the metal floor—they shatter, spilling the contents everywhere. During the chaos, I envelope a few vials in my power. As I float them through the air, I open the mechanical locks on the container, and the transport.

And with that, the door to freedom opens.

Unfortunately, I have to slowly bring the vials to me. I'm tempted to just move them at maximum speed, just so I can leave this cold place, but the speed, combined with pressure, and temperature change could destroy the vials.

So, I take it slow. I manage to maintain a steady pace, but internally, I'm screaming at myself to hurry up. Frost is beginning to build up on my barrier, and my clothing. Shit, I really need to improve my barrier. I flex my psychic muscle—that immediately disperses the frost, but it doesn't help with the cold whatsoever.

After what feels like an eternity, I finally have the vials in front of me. They look different than I expected. I can't technically see with my sixth sense, so I couldn't tell what color they were. They're a surprisingly beautiful shade of blue—almost turquoise.

I'm able to hold them in my hand, and secure them with my power. Now that they're safe, I'm able to move at a higher speed. Since I'm directly above New Eden, I have to be careful to not break the sound barrier while moving. That'd be really bad.

As soon as I'm far enough out into the ocean, I can finally descend. While floating directly above the waves, I stop for a few seconds, reminiscing on how far I've already come—and how far I still need to go. I'm able fly high above the cloud using only my psychokinesis. It's been just over a year since I first gained this power, and I never imagined I could control something like this.

Flying is exhilarating—but it also makes me feel the solitude that accompanies this power. There's nothing around me but water and sky.

I've always felt alone—even before gaining my powers. I used to think there was someone watching over me—someone protecting me when I was growing up. After my mother, and Rise effectively left, I realized I was wrong—no one cared about me. No one ever watched over me.

I shake off these thoughts. Thinking of them brings back pointless memories.

Now, I must focus.

I let out a sigh, and dive deep beneath the waves. To avoid detection, I descend below two thousand meters. My barrier protects me from the pressure, and I can see with my sixth sense. But I'm surrounded by total darkness. Even though I'm able to sense the surroundings, it's still difficult to navigate through the pitch black abyss.

At least, when this is over, I'll hopefully gain an important piece...

***

Erika Velle

Currently, Erika sits in her lab, staring at a large monitor. A blank expression adorns her beautiful face.

For several hours now, she has sat silently, lost in thought.

The last twenty four hours have been surreal for her—she hasn't slept much at all, and yet she remains awake, and alert. In fact, she's never felt this tired before. On top of her work at the Anithrel Institute, she's had to rework her lab's entire security apparatus. She was forced to install new systems—all of which she personally designed herself.

She's still at a loss. She'd never had her technology fail her like yesterday. She prides herself on ensuring everything she creates is kept to a rigorous, perfectionist standard. When something goes awry, she wants to find the root cause of the problem quickly, so that she can fix it immediately.

However, after examining every aspect of her system, she can't seem to determine why it failed. Everything seems fine. Her computers are functioning properly, her servers appear undamaged.

In addition, she's checked all of her backups multiple times, and confirmed that everything appears intact.

Even with all of that, she can't understand what happened.

It's frustrating.

And scary.

Not only was that person capable of finding her lab, but they waltzed in undetected. How? Why didn't they kill her, threaten her, expose her lab, or take her research?

What did they want from her?

Did they just stumble across her lab, or was it part of a larger plot?

She shakes her head.

No matter how hard she thinks—she comes up empty handed. That person's words did not match their actions in the slightest.

They didn't take anything, they didn't threaten her—so, what exactly did they want from her? And what was that nonsensical speech about her, and giving her freedom?

Why did they bother telling her anything at all?

How does one even respond to such nonsense?

"Hm..."

They said they'd return here at nine... That's in three minutes. She glances down, checking the time, then looks back at a hologram. Are they going to show themselves again? She's scared at the prospect of meeting them again, but in a way, she's looking forward to it. Her curiosity, and anticipation grows with every minute.

Then at exactly 21:00:00, her cameras shut off, and her computer suddenly indicates a presence directly in front of her lab's entrance. Instantly, her heart races, and she grabs her pistol from behind her chair.

She stares intently at her computer, waiting for movement.

Nothing happens for several seconds.

Her breath becomes ragged, and her palms begin to sweat. They defeated her security again.

They were able to arrive right outside her door without being detected.

What will happen next?

Part of her wants to leave her door locked shut...

But if she does that, there's no telling what their reaction will be.

Maybe they'll simply walk away.

Or maybe... They'll enter anyway.

Either option terrifies her.

Ultimately, they already know about her lab's location, there's no point in avoiding them. She takes a few seconds to build up her resolve, and steel her nerves.

When she's ready, she steps towards the door, but when she's just a couple meters away, she stops. She hesitates. Is it really okay for her to confront them?

If they attack, she'll have no choice but to fight back. If she fails, she dies—and her life ends.

But if she succeeds, what then?

She stands motionless, debating whether or not to make a move.

Suddenly, she hears a muffled clang. At first, she has no idea where the sound came from. It takes her a couple seconds, but she registers it as the door's lock disengaging.

Instinctively, she pulls out her gun, and aims it at the door. For some reason, she feels compelled to shoot whoever enters—her instincts scream at her to fire at them. However, she decides against it. Slowly, the door slides open, revealing the same figure from yesterday.

Still wearing the hooded long coat, and mask, they hold their hands up, and wait patiently.

There's silence between them for a moment, until they speak. "You done yet?"

Erika swallows nervously.

"I don't know how many times this needs to be repeated—I'm not your enemy."

Silence lingers once more.

Apprehensively, Erika slowly lowers her gun. At the same time, the figure reaches towards a pocket adorning their belt. Again, Erika raises her gun, but they don't stop their movement. Seeing how unconcerned they are with her gun, she relaxes slightly. Then, she sees what they pull out.

Within their gloved hands, she clearly sees two vials labeled 'G-C-1'.

Instantly, she recognizes the three characters. The supposed cure she read about was called Genetic Cure 1: G-C-1.

She's immediately snapped out of her stupor, she watches as both vials arc through the air. They tossed them at her!

"Wait!"

She lunges forwards, attempting to grab them before they hit the ground. She drops her pistol during her lunge, but she's barely able to catch both vials before they shatter. Shaken by the incident, she quickly regains her composure. While still on the ground, she gently caresses the small vials. To her, they look like the most precious objects on Earth.

With trembling fingers, she stares into the beautiful blue liquid. The sight is mesmerizing. When she first read about G-C-1, she thought it was a hopeless conspiracy. All along, she assumed it would be impossible to create such a thing, but here it is, lying in her hands. This is proof that people actually exist who are capable of creating miracles.

A miracle.

That word sends shivers down her spine.

Miracles aren't real.

They're too good to be true.

Something that incredible can't possibly exist.

Right?

"A-Are they real?"

She asks, desperate for confirmation.

"Yes. You're free to analyze them as you wish. One is for your sister, as for the other... You're free to use it as you wish—you can destroy it, give it to someone, or try to replicate it—it's up to you."

Their voice sounds almost robotic, detached, and emotionless. Still, somehow, it manages to convey kindness.

Erika blinks rapidly. She's unable to believe what she's hearing. She knows she should be excited, thrilled beyond belief, but instead, she feels numb. As if she doesn't quite understand what's happening.

Confusion fills her mind.

She tries to process their words, but it's difficult.

All she knows is that she has the potential to save her sister—a possibility she's been dreaming of since the day she found out. But now, she's unsure of how to react—what do I say? Should I thank them? Or demand answers?

Instead, she says nothing.

After a few moments of awkward silence, the masked figure speaks again. "I hope you realize this isn't a trick. You don't owe me anything, consider them a gift."

"Thank you," she replies, uncertainly. She's still processing everything he told her.

"However, I would like to speak with you, and if possible—gain your cooperation. For now though, save your sister. I'll return tomorrow at the same time."

"Tomorrow?"

"Yes, I believe there are things we need to discuss."

Erika nods.

Without another word, the figure leaves.

Once they disappear from view, Erika carefully gets back onto her feet.

She picks up her fallen pistol, and walks over to her desk. There, she retrieves a set of gloves and goggles, and puts them on. Next, she opens a drawer, and removes several tools from inside. Lastly, she places a pair of headphones around her neck, and plugs them into her ears.

She suddenly shows a beautiful smile. Without warning, her usual energy has returned. Her eyes sparkle brightly, her liveliness returning, and her lips curl upwards ever so slightly. With renewed vigor, she heads over to her workbench.

"Aino! Let's begin analysis!"

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