Chapter 5: Eyes Open
Everything was dark as far as Anael can remember, and from time to time, faces would pop inside her mind and she'd remember their names. She'd remember the things that the doctor said, a woman named Diana, that she's progressing much faster than anyone. Progressing faster in what? She'd ask herself whenever her brain was awake, alive. She'd ask herself that question again and again and again until she loses consciousness again. There would be flashed of places, of faces, of names inside her head until she would be conscious again.
That's right, she thought to herself. I volunteered for something. A project. What project? It felt like forever, or maybe it was forever, being in darkness, with nothing to see, nothing to touch. Like a void where only she was conscious. There are many things she can't remember, or maybe she has nothing to remember, but she never forgot her name. Anael Price. Anael Price. She knew it was her name, there was this sense of comfort in there so she'd repeat it again and again until it felt tiring.
What was happening? Where am I? She's conscious, at least that's what she knows, but why can't she feel anything? She was like a spirit, floating infinitely in darkness.
Then light.
It was blinding, she almost wished that it would go away. And little by little, she felt things. She felt attached to something. Something cold, something unmoving, but something that was incredibly familiar. A body. Her body. Suddenly, breathing felt like the hardest thing in the world. Somewhere in her chest, something was about to combust. Inhale. Inhale. Inhale. Exhale. It was painful. What was happening? What was happening? She was panicking, but panicking about what?
"Breath... breath..." a familiar voice said. A woman. She quickly registered her voice again. Diana.
From darkness, to blur, to faces. Her eyes were open again. When was the last time she opened her eyes? It felt like the heaviest thing in the world, one of the hardest things she did. Looming over her was the beautiful face of a woman. Beautiful but cold. Stern. Someone that looked merciless, despite what's happening with her body. Seeing her face brought a surge of memories. Anael inside a cocoon, Diana talking to her, saying things she couldn't understand. And the memory brought the worst headache of the century. Century? What century? What year is it?
The woman, Diana, said something that wasn't directed for her. "Doctor Tanner," then a blur of words.
Tanner. Just a name was enough to remember who the guy is. The man that started the project that she's in. The ambitious man that did everything for something. What's that something? Anael asked herself. Another piece of memory surged through her. She was talking with the man, with his lackluster eyes and hardened face, asking if everything would work out about this specific project.
Suddenly, the lights surrounded her, and little by little, she saw details. The lights came from the whole room—no, a room wouldn't be enough—a lab. The place looked like a lab. With all machines surrounding her, a holographic panel, and the glass walls around her. She knew this place, this was the place where she and Diana last talked, where everything went dark for her. She looked downwards, and that's where she saw her own body. Nothing changed except at the small part of her stomach. There, was a small piece of metal, like a knife that's been vutbin half and was left there unintentionally. But there was something about it, it was glowing blue, just around its edges.
Her eyes wandered at where she was lying. Just like the memory that played inside her head a million times, she was lying inside a cramped space with a silvery-white color and a dozen of buttons beside it. It was last she noticed that she was encased inside the cocoon where she's lying. In front of her was a thin glass partition from the outside.
"Bring her out," a commanding and emotionless voice said. "Let's give her some fresh air," it added.
Just as the voice from somewhere said, the woman, Diana, loomed over where Anael was lying. Diana's arms reached out for something, and in a flash, the thin glass retracted themselves from the coffin—as Anael now addressed it—and cold air instantly filled her lungs. The air smelled of artificial, and she has no idea what that means. It smelled of new metal and machines.
Another second, and Diana's face came in front of her. "Anael," Diana called. "The last phase is complete. It was successful."
Anael tried to find her voice, and when she did, she croaked, "Phase?"
A flicker of emotion showed on Diana's face: uncertainty. Before saying anything, Diana craned her back towards something that Anael can't see and turned to look at her again. "Can you remember anything?"
What should she say? Should she say, "Yes, but only a little." Or, "Yes, but actually no." She can tell that Diana was anxious about something. But what's that something? Anael decided to ignore it and nodded weakly at Diana. This seemed to relieve the doctor, and she even managed a small smile. Or was it a smile? It was cold and thin.
"Superb," Diana said, and then retracted herself from Anael's eyes.
Suddenly, she felt like she's being lifted up, and she realized that the cocoon where she was lying was getting her out. In no time, she's completely outside of the cocoon, bare and exposed. She tried to lift herself up, to dig up her elbows on the hard matter beneath her as a stand, but she can't. She was too weak, like a newborn baby. The thought disturbed her.
Her breath hitched when he saw two, new faces. But she recognized the other one. Lackluster, but smiling. It was the face of Doctor Neill Tanner, Anael remembered. She would never forget his face for that long. He was looking at Anael like she was another new-found specimen that he should study. The other face of a man was the opposite of Tanner. If Tanner looked so dull, the other man looked cheerful and very interested. Anael decided that she didn't see the man before, but Tanner addressed him as Vincent.
"Go get the vials," Tanner said to Vincent.
For a moment, Vincent looked like he was about to argue, but then he nodded. "The vials it is." and then he disappeared.
Tanner adjusted his glasses and squinted his eyes. "Do you remember me, subject three?"
Subject three? But she nodded.
Something flashed in Tanner's eyes, but she didn't know what it is. Later, the man called Vincent gingerly handed something to Tanner. It was a small capsule, filled with red and orange liquid. Tanner took it and sighed like an old man too for work.
"This will help you to recover," Tanner told Anael. "Everything turned out unexpected."
What did? Anael wanted to ask, but then she lost her voice again. She studied Tanner's face. Nothing special, she thought. Tanner looked like those typical stressed-looking middle-aged men, but something was remarkable. It was the suppressed glint in his eyes like he was waiting for something. Suppressed anticipation. Or at least for Anael. He must have looked beautiful in his younger years, but the worry lines in his face too obvious, like he spent his whole life frowning at something. Which maybe, he actually did.
"I understand what you feel right now," Tanner said, leaning downwards at Anael until she could smell the faint, sour breath of Tanner. "But for now, let your body willingly take this."
He didn't say anything more than that and immediately injected something at Anael's side. When did he get the syringe? Was Anael's thoughts. She couldn't feel any pain from the three-inched syringe, but she felt its contents surging at her majiy veins like a warm flood. She winced, not from pain, but from the unfamiliar feeling.
Suddenly, her breathing hastened, her heart beating faster than before. Her chest felt like it's about to explode, and she couldn't control her body. She realized she was shaking. She felt like she's about to combust. What did Tanner do to her?
Meanwhile, Tanner looked bored. He took a look at his silver watch and said, "Any second now..."
She bolted right up. Involuntarily.
The pain she felt moments ago turned into unnatural energy. Her brain was throbbing while her eyes cleared. Now, everything was in high-definition, and even if she believed it or not, she felt like she can lift a whole bus—if they still existed. The weakness she felt the moment she woke up disappeared like it didn't happen.
She looked at Tanner with confusion. With all the words that are going inside her head, all the questions, all she could say was, "What?"
Tanner smiled thinly at her, his lackluster eyes slightly amused. "There you are," Tanner said. "It's been a while, subject three."
Behind Tanner were two figures wearing a white coat. It was Diana, who looked like she just saw someone being revived, and the other one, Vincent, who clearly looked disappointed. Disappointed about what? Anael didn't try to guess. She thought that whatever Tanner gave her was going to relieve her memories, but it didn't. She was still confused, bits of information and words suing inside her head. At least she knew what she signed up for, but it wasn't enough.
"I'm surprised," Vincent said, clearly not surprised. "I thought that would kill her."
Tanner looked at Vincent over his shoulder, scowling, but he didn't say anything. Tanner looked at Anael again, looking proud now. Whatever he's proud of, Anael had no idea, but she got the feeling that she should know.
"How do you feel?" Tanner asked like it was just a normal day at Arcane. Arcane?
"Odd." Anael managed to answer, shrugging and eyeing the two behind Tanner. She looked at her hands, turning up her palm. Something was wrong with her, no, something has changed. Her body shouldn't feel that cold, her heart shouldn't beat so fast. She shouldn't be so... clear. "But... I... I can't remember some things."
That ripped the faint smile on Tanner's face. He looked serious now, much serious than Anael first saw him. She was afraid that he'll chant a spell and curse her. Behind him, Vincent and Diana mimicked Tanner's expression. At least Anael thought that they should be serious. She just lost most of her memory.
Scratching his chin, Tanner said, "We'll do something about that." He put a hand on Anael's bare shoulder. "But for now, let's get you ready."
Just as when Tanner said that three figured bursts inside the lab, wearing blue uniforms and their faces hidden by masks. And then they brought Anael away.
Her quarter—as one of the workers the blue uniform said—was good enough for one person. A bed that was placed inside a something that looked like the cocoon where she found herself awake a few hours ago, a pair of sleek and white table and chair and some kind of a plant that was standing at the corner of her room. Now and then, holographic images emerged from the middle of her room whenever Anael say something out loud. Like Arcane, and projects. A holographic image of Arcane would show itself inside the room, highlighting everything about it.
Later, she learned that she's inside NEXUS Labs, and she learned that Neill Tanner was the head of it. She learned that the city, Arcane, was destroyed and a place—the Den—as the realistic holograms called it—was the only one that kept the people safe. A sanctuary, the hologram said. The only thing that kept humankind non-extinct. But she didn't need the hologram to know what caused it. Somehow, she knew the beasts and pests that started the apocalypse, like it's been marked inside her brain forever.
Anael sat on her bed, thinking about everything that happened, searching and digging for pieces of information inside her brain. Randomly, faces and other memories popped inside her mind, which just made her confusion grow worse. She knew that thinking about it would do no good, and so she just reminded herself that Tanner would do something about it. She didn't trust Tanner or any of them, but she had no choice.
One of the workers told her to wait in her quarters and someone will come for her. Who was that someone? Anael didn't know, and for some reason, she didn't want to know. Everything was confusing her, and waiting for someone that can be anyone didn't help.
She kept glancing at the glass doors, waiting for that someone. Outside her room was an empty, illuminated place that was much larger than the laboratory where she came from. She can see the other room that's empty, and she suspected that she was the only one who's there. The thought gave her an unsettling feeling. Somehow, she knew that she shouldn't be the only one.
Her thoughts came to a stop when the glass partition slid open. There, Vincent—as Tanner called him—was staring with a smile on his face. He looks friendly enough, but that was the thing that made Anael feel unsettled. No one was supposed to be friendly if there are creatures outside the walls that can make humankind an extinct or when you're in the middle of an apocalypse. Friendly doesn't go along with the world now.
He entered Anael's room, his palms hold up. "Hey," He said. That weirded Anael out. Now, the smile on his face was reached with a grin. "Mind if I sit?"
Anael didn't even say anything, but the man plopped himself like a kid on the free chair. Fixing his tangled coat on his waist, Vincent said. "How are you feeling? Are you already remembering things?"
Anael hesitated. Of course, she was remembering things, but not enough. "I'm confused. Why did I—"
"Lose your memories?" Vincent finished for her. For once, the smile on Vincent's face vanished. "I can't answer that. Only Tanner can. A side-effect, perhaps. Or your body didn't adjust that great as we expected or seen. It's a countless possibility."
Not answering and answering at the same time, Anael thought. It means he knows something. This made her more cautious about Vincent. Friendly, answering-in circles scientist wasn't Anael's type of people. Something tells her that she shouldn't feel that way. She trusted Tanner, before all of this.
"How can I get them back?" Anael asked.
This brought back the smile on Vincent's lips. "There are many ways," He said, sitting in his seat. There was a hint of mystery in his tone. "But there is enough time to worry about it. I assume you at least know your purpose now? You might be nothing in your last life, but everything changed the moment we took you out of the capsule."
Of course, Anael thought. Signing up for something completely outrageous but a possible thing like getting a core of something living and monstrous inside your body and inheriting its unnatural force was something no normal person can just forget completely. That's Anael was in. She forgot some of the details, of how the project has gone but somehow she knew she should do. A powerful feeling that was telling her she wasn't supposed to mope around and think about her missing memories. A powerful tug in her limbs, telling her that she should be out there, doing what she was supposed to do.
"Yes." Anael murmured simply.
Vincent grinned. "Excellent," he said, now getting up from his seat. "Tanner gave you another day to ready yourself. A day will be enough for—"
"Hold on," Anael interrupted. "Where are the others?"
Anael wasn't sure of the thing she asked herself because she really doesn't remember other people that were with her, but something as telling her that she shouldn't be alone ever since her mind cleared up. A sense of loneliness hit her then, a hollow feeling that she's familiar with.
Vincent's grin turned into a thin smile, his eyes squinting at Anael like he's trying not to lose his shit. "So, you do remember." He said, staring her down. "Don't worry, subject three. Shiina Mashiro and Ygnil Lee is here. You just don't see them for they're in their own quarters. Unlike you, who had the strength to take Werlyd's blood for you to recover quickly, they're still unconscious. I assume that it would take a week for them to recover."
She had nothing to do but nod her head despite her questions. What Weryld's blood? Who were Shiina Mashiro and Ygnil Lee? We're they the only one? She wondered how she would react and what she would say if her past self was talking to Vincent now. Maybe a sarcastic remark, or a hateful glare. She had a feeling that those were the looks she used to give people.
Vincent, on the other hand, was grinning at her again. Anael was baffled with a sudden change in Vincent. Mysterious to cheerful to ominous and too cheerful again. He's the kind of man who's prone to change. Untrustworthy. Although, trust wasn't really a thing that should be practiced in Arcane. At least that's what Anael thought.
"Very well," Vincent said. "Someone will come here and get you ready. Tell you the facilities you should use here for your short stay. Remember, subject three, after a day, you'll get out of here and live your new life. I do hope that you won't chicken out."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone