04-14-2009, 06:52 PM
A soft hum filled Sophia’s ears as her helmet clicked on, sending waves of pain to her head as her brain tried to compensate for the sudden source of electronic activity. She allowed a brief glance to her comrades as their helmets did something similar; their chairs locking them in menacingly, as if what they were about to experience was a good cause for someone to want to escape. Her pupils suddenly dilated and she unknowingly clenched the arms of her chair, her eyes closing tightly as the images stemming from the helmet’s activity flashed before them.
Like stepping through the door of the ethereal, Sophia lifted a hand to block the sudden sunlight that she was not used to seeing after having sat in a darkened room. She looked around with a look of confusion pasted across her visage—this was the helmet’s doing, right? She shouldn’t have been surprised, but she was. After all, she never had access to such technology during her tenure at the temple; when she thought about it, she didn’t have access to much of anything while she was there. Shaking her head, she tried to search past the context of the situation and surveyed her surroundings.
She looked down and kicked the dirt on the path that she was apparently walking, the chirping of birds stimulating her ears. Everything about this place seemed very, very real, which made her feel uneasy. Was he trying to trick her? The sounds of peaceful nature was appealing, and if Kai—or Gregory, she supposed—kept her in this place for too long, she feared that she might begin to accept this as reality. Much more than that, however, was how familiar this place seemed. Every sight she took in, every breath she took made her feel as though she had done this all before.
“’ey!” a shout came from the expanse of road before her. Suddenly, a masked man came into view, sneering. “You’re with us, right? You’re gonna be late if you fall behind too much, and you know how badly the Mistress would take that.”
She looked down at her hands, with were clothed with unfamiliar leather. In fact, everything she wore was made of the same leather, and matched what the man was wearing, only altered slightly to reveal her more…feminine features. They were dressed oddly, and Sophia had a few guesses as to what they were actually supposed to be. The healer supposed that none of that mattered, though—she had to remember that none of this was real, and if she was going to pass this little test of Gregory’s, she had to roll with whatever came her way.
“Um…” she began. “I thought I had dropped some money back here somewhere.”
“Normally, I’d tell you to find it, but we have no time. Besides, there’s plenty of gold to be had where we’re going,” he shrugged. Sophia opened her mouth to ask, but he grabbed her forearm and dragged her forward before she got the chance. “Come on, there’s not time! Hopefully we can sneak into the group under the Mistress’ notice. Not like it’s easy to hide things from that witch.”
The pair started running; Sophia was surprised at the pure intensity with which he moved. Was he just naturally athletic, or was there fear behind his every step? Dirt kicked up behind their heels, and Sophia was getting winded until finally they stopped just short of a group of people. They all had their backs turned to the pair, listening to someone speak as they began to crowd around the person. The man nudged Sophia. “Okay, they’ve stopped for a last second preparation before we invade.”
“Invade?” Sophia raised an eyebrow.
“What?” he lowered his voice to a whisper as they snuck into the back of the crowd. “Shh, Mistress is speaking.”
“Alright, you stupid bastards,” a faded blonde-haired woman began speaking loudly. “The temple is just ahead. We’ll wait here until nightfall.”
“Um…uhh…Mistress,” a hesitant hand raised from the middle of the crowd at just about the same time the color started to drain from the healer’s face. “Um…how will we divide the loot?”
“Fucked if I know,” the woman shrugged. “As far as I’m concerned, you all can keep what you find. Naturally, though, I get a third of the zeni we find in their storage room.”
The members of the crowd began to murmur quietly amongst themselves. An irritated look appeared on the Mistress’ face. She drew a glowing dagger and slashed it in the direction of her subordinates. “What’s this? Do any of you idiots have a problem with that?”
“Mistress,” an old man with a tattooed face spoke up from behind her. “A third is an awfully big portion to take, no? I am sure the rest of us are not content with splitting up the rest of it amongst ourselves.”
“Oh, well…Zuo, I meant for another third to go to you,” an innocent tone in her voice started to show when she addressed him.
“Hmhm…yes,” he began to cackle. “Very good, then.”
The crowd no longer made any noise, but the looks on their faces remained filled with disgust. They all began to scatter about the area in different groups, all speaking with hushed voices. The masked man beside her sighed and patted her on the shoulder, motioning her towards a log off to the side. When they walked over it, he sat down on the wood and shook his head. “The work sucks, but at least the money was good. Mistress needs to watch it, though I doubt anyone is stupid enough to actually make a move against her.”
“Yeah,” she scratched her arm awkwardly. “Um…I’m…”
The man waved her off. “You must be our newest if you don’t know that we refer to ourselves by number. I was the newcomer before you came along, and I’m 68. You must be 69,” he began to chuckle, giving her the once-over. “Gotta admit, fate has a sense of humor.”
‘Wh-what? Why is that funny?” she asked, embarrassed.
“Haha, nothing, nothing. It’s probably better that you don’t know,” he laughed.
“…anyway, what kind of person is the Mistress? This is the first time I’ve met her,” Sophia mused.
“Really? She usually recruits everyone herself,” he frowned at her. “Weird. Anyway, just between you and me, she’s a total bitch. I haven’t heard her say one good thing about anything except for money, and even that is just a passing comment about its usefulness. One thing I can say about her, though, is that she’s downright effective. She has yet to lead an unsuccessful raid.”
Sophia gulped, feeling as though she wanted to vomit at the thought of another temple being robbed. It was a painful memory that she did not want to bring back up, though that was likely the maniacal game host’s purpose. 68 went on, not noticing the healer’s reaction. “Rumor has it that she actually used to be a good person.”
“…really? What changed?” Sophia glanced at the Mistress, who was turned away from them as she talked to the old man.
“If I had to choose someone that I hated more than the Mistress, it would be Zuo. He’s kind of like her advisor. He almost never leaves her side,” he shook his head. “Apparently, he was the one that turned her to this kind of profession. Don’t know how much of that is actually true, though. She doesn’t seem like the type that can be easily swayed.”
Sophia furrowed her brow as she saw Zuo whisper something to her. The Mistress’ reaction was initially negative, but eventually started to nod. Turning around, she motioned to the rest of the group. “Alright, fuck this waiting. We’re going to attack now.”
“…is that really wise?” one of the bolder bandits spoke up, who was immediately shushed by his surrounding friends. Mistress smirked and slowly started to walk up towards the man. She put a hand on his cheek as she began to speak softly.
“Have I ever let you down before?” she asked sweetly. The man straightened up with a gasp, shaking as he opened his mouth to answer.
“N-no. Of course not, Mistress!” he answered immediately. Her smirk widened before it curved downward into a sneer. Curling up her fingernails onto his skin, she raked them across his cheek, drawing a surprising amount of blood while creating a scar.
“Then shut the hell up and do what you’re told,” she turned to look at everyone else. “That goes for the rest of you, too! I know this temple. I know how unprepared they are for it.”
She glared at them one-by-one, her eyes slowly searching her underling’s faces for any sign of disapproval. She lingered on the sight of Sophia, however, making the healer grimace slightly in discomfort. A look of surprise filled the features of the Mistress, which took Sophia aback. However, instead of saying anything, she turned around and began walking. Raising an arm, she motioned for the group to follow.
Sophia begrudgingly followed, completely unwilling to participate but at the same time understanding that she had to follow whatever paths she was given. An odd anxiety filled her limbs, and the healer suddenly felt cold. There was the certain excitement that came with being a part of such a large-scale endeavor, which made her uneasy. She knew that it was a temple they were going to, and if it was anything like the attack that she had endured, she knew that what they had in store wasn’t going to be pretty.
She knew that she had to stop it, if at all possible. Forget about Gregory’s soap box.
From the trips that she took with her father to other temples, Sophia had found out that all such buildings looked relatively the same. However, the similarity it bore to the temple she grew up in was striking. That horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach grew upon this realization; she didn’t know if she could take another attack. Something compelled her to move forward, however. Whether it was ambition or avoiding getting trampled by the frenzy of bandits, she took a few steps inside the temple.
“What’s this all about?” an older-looking monk took a step forward, almost stumbling. Sophia had to squint, but she recognized him. It was Jonathon, and this was her temple. She tightened a fist and looked down and away, fighting back tears. The bandits likely would have turned on her if she made any sign of regret. Jonathon frowned as the different bandits drew their respective weapons. Mistress took a step forward from the middle of the group, garnering a surprised reaction. “Is that you…?”
“Hello again,” she smiled before she raised an arm, tearing a hole through his body with a beam of ki. Through the cries and screams, she directed her comments towards her subordinates. “Go! Wreck havoc, ya’ dumb sons of bitches.”
The Mistress immediately ran up the stairs with Zuo, leaving everyone else to the first floor. Ignoring the danger of such an act, she ran to the fallen body of Jonathon, who was somehow still alive. As she placed two hands over the rather large wound, his clouded eyes beamed with recognition. Tears flowing out of his eyes, he opened his mouth to speak, but life fell from him before any words got out.
“Haha, Mistress sure killed him dead,” the voice of 68 sounded from behind her. “Come on, there’s plenty here!”
Laughing with joy, he ran down an intersecting hallway and out of sight. Shaking her head, she sank and began to sob. Not just for Jonathon’s death, not just for the injustice that this temple had been brought, not even for the awful déjà vu she was experiencing. Upon retrospect, Sophia didn’t know why she cried. Perhaps that everything; the game, the deaths she had seen, her own emotional dilemmas—everything—was starting to catch up to her. But suddenly stopped. She felt so stupid as realization dawned on her. The only way to verify this realization, however, was just up the stairs.
Tearing through the curtain that hung in the doorway to a large room, she stumbled upon the sight of the Mistress. With Zuo looking on with a grin, she sat hovering above a dead body, blood all over her clothes as she held an equally bloody dagger in a shaking hand. She looked as though she wanted to cry, but she did nothing. She just…sat. Suddenly, she slowly started to look up at Sophia. The look of confusion that she had seen on her face earlier was now gone; replaced with nothing but emptiness. The Mistress’ eyes locked with Sophia’s for a moment before she started to speak.
“You…” she began. A sad smile crawled upon her face as she looked up at the ceiling. “I see. Is this God’s way of punishing me for my sins?”
“You’re…” Sophia choked on the words.
“Haha, yeah. You’re me,” she looked back down at the healer. “They might not have recognized you, but I do. I’d recognize the innocence in your eyes anywhere.”
Sophia looked away. “I’m not exactly…”
“Juno, right? Wasn’t that his name?” she cut her off. “That’s when it happened. That’s when He abandoned me. You know what I’m referring to, don’t you?”
“All too well,” the healer sighed. The older version of Sophia suddenly cried out in anger.
“Well, you know what? I don’t care!” she stood up and took a step forward, pointing her dagger at Sophia. “I’m not special! I’m not unique! God doesn’t care about me! Those are all things that they will try to tell you,” she motioned to the dead body below her. Sophia took a look at the face of the corpse, much against her better judgment. She looked older than what she remembered, but it was definitely the body of Kira, her best friend from the temple. As Sophia began to tear up, her anti-future continued with rage. “It’s all bullshit, Sophia! She needed to see! She needed to understand just what her God thinks of her. And I’m sure she’s not happy.”
“That’s not true!” Sophia burst out. “I’ll admit that up until now I’ve had some doubts about God’s plan, or even His existence. And to be honest, I’m still not convinced. If He really is there, then why is all of this happening to me?”
“It’s because He hates you!” Anti-Sophia shouted.
“Perhaps,” Sophia nodded. “It’s definitely a possibility. But look at yourself. Look around you. What in the world makes you think that this is a viable solution to your problems? Killing people who don’t believe what you believe is stupid; what if you are right? That would mean that there is no God, and subsequently no afterlife. There’s nothing. They’re no closer to the truth; they’re just dead.”
“Shut up! Shut—UP!” the Mistress shook her head violently.
“You know what you have to do, Mistress,” Zuo cackled in the background.
“I know, Zuo…” her voice was softened now. “I don’t care what you say, Sophia. If I’m no longer one of God’s chosen children, then so be it. I don’t even care if He’s sent you to convince me otherwise. I’ll burn the world to fucking ashes before I give in!”
The Doppelganger swung her dagger downward, the tip of the blade threatening to stab her in the neck. The whole moment seemed to slow to a crawl as she suddenly realized one very sad reality: Sophia couldn’t afford to lose her faith. This went much past her belief in God—if she could no longer believe in people, then she had nothing. She would feel without purpose, set adrift in a sea of void emotions. Her future self must have come to this realization a long time ago, and…Sophia stole a glance at Zuo right before the dagger plunged into her. Sophia’s apathy, coupled with the right urgings, could lead her down a path that she had no desire to travel.
Her eyes snapped open.
Like stepping through the door of the ethereal, Sophia lifted a hand to block the sudden sunlight that she was not used to seeing after having sat in a darkened room. She looked around with a look of confusion pasted across her visage—this was the helmet’s doing, right? She shouldn’t have been surprised, but she was. After all, she never had access to such technology during her tenure at the temple; when she thought about it, she didn’t have access to much of anything while she was there. Shaking her head, she tried to search past the context of the situation and surveyed her surroundings.
She looked down and kicked the dirt on the path that she was apparently walking, the chirping of birds stimulating her ears. Everything about this place seemed very, very real, which made her feel uneasy. Was he trying to trick her? The sounds of peaceful nature was appealing, and if Kai—or Gregory, she supposed—kept her in this place for too long, she feared that she might begin to accept this as reality. Much more than that, however, was how familiar this place seemed. Every sight she took in, every breath she took made her feel as though she had done this all before.
“’ey!” a shout came from the expanse of road before her. Suddenly, a masked man came into view, sneering. “You’re with us, right? You’re gonna be late if you fall behind too much, and you know how badly the Mistress would take that.”
She looked down at her hands, with were clothed with unfamiliar leather. In fact, everything she wore was made of the same leather, and matched what the man was wearing, only altered slightly to reveal her more…feminine features. They were dressed oddly, and Sophia had a few guesses as to what they were actually supposed to be. The healer supposed that none of that mattered, though—she had to remember that none of this was real, and if she was going to pass this little test of Gregory’s, she had to roll with whatever came her way.
“Um…” she began. “I thought I had dropped some money back here somewhere.”
“Normally, I’d tell you to find it, but we have no time. Besides, there’s plenty of gold to be had where we’re going,” he shrugged. Sophia opened her mouth to ask, but he grabbed her forearm and dragged her forward before she got the chance. “Come on, there’s not time! Hopefully we can sneak into the group under the Mistress’ notice. Not like it’s easy to hide things from that witch.”
The pair started running; Sophia was surprised at the pure intensity with which he moved. Was he just naturally athletic, or was there fear behind his every step? Dirt kicked up behind their heels, and Sophia was getting winded until finally they stopped just short of a group of people. They all had their backs turned to the pair, listening to someone speak as they began to crowd around the person. The man nudged Sophia. “Okay, they’ve stopped for a last second preparation before we invade.”
“Invade?” Sophia raised an eyebrow.
“What?” he lowered his voice to a whisper as they snuck into the back of the crowd. “Shh, Mistress is speaking.”
“Alright, you stupid bastards,” a faded blonde-haired woman began speaking loudly. “The temple is just ahead. We’ll wait here until nightfall.”
“Um…uhh…Mistress,” a hesitant hand raised from the middle of the crowd at just about the same time the color started to drain from the healer’s face. “Um…how will we divide the loot?”
“Fucked if I know,” the woman shrugged. “As far as I’m concerned, you all can keep what you find. Naturally, though, I get a third of the zeni we find in their storage room.”
The members of the crowd began to murmur quietly amongst themselves. An irritated look appeared on the Mistress’ face. She drew a glowing dagger and slashed it in the direction of her subordinates. “What’s this? Do any of you idiots have a problem with that?”
“Mistress,” an old man with a tattooed face spoke up from behind her. “A third is an awfully big portion to take, no? I am sure the rest of us are not content with splitting up the rest of it amongst ourselves.”
“Oh, well…Zuo, I meant for another third to go to you,” an innocent tone in her voice started to show when she addressed him.
“Hmhm…yes,” he began to cackle. “Very good, then.”
The crowd no longer made any noise, but the looks on their faces remained filled with disgust. They all began to scatter about the area in different groups, all speaking with hushed voices. The masked man beside her sighed and patted her on the shoulder, motioning her towards a log off to the side. When they walked over it, he sat down on the wood and shook his head. “The work sucks, but at least the money was good. Mistress needs to watch it, though I doubt anyone is stupid enough to actually make a move against her.”
“Yeah,” she scratched her arm awkwardly. “Um…I’m…”
The man waved her off. “You must be our newest if you don’t know that we refer to ourselves by number. I was the newcomer before you came along, and I’m 68. You must be 69,” he began to chuckle, giving her the once-over. “Gotta admit, fate has a sense of humor.”
‘Wh-what? Why is that funny?” she asked, embarrassed.
“Haha, nothing, nothing. It’s probably better that you don’t know,” he laughed.
“…anyway, what kind of person is the Mistress? This is the first time I’ve met her,” Sophia mused.
“Really? She usually recruits everyone herself,” he frowned at her. “Weird. Anyway, just between you and me, she’s a total bitch. I haven’t heard her say one good thing about anything except for money, and even that is just a passing comment about its usefulness. One thing I can say about her, though, is that she’s downright effective. She has yet to lead an unsuccessful raid.”
Sophia gulped, feeling as though she wanted to vomit at the thought of another temple being robbed. It was a painful memory that she did not want to bring back up, though that was likely the maniacal game host’s purpose. 68 went on, not noticing the healer’s reaction. “Rumor has it that she actually used to be a good person.”
“…really? What changed?” Sophia glanced at the Mistress, who was turned away from them as she talked to the old man.
“If I had to choose someone that I hated more than the Mistress, it would be Zuo. He’s kind of like her advisor. He almost never leaves her side,” he shook his head. “Apparently, he was the one that turned her to this kind of profession. Don’t know how much of that is actually true, though. She doesn’t seem like the type that can be easily swayed.”
Sophia furrowed her brow as she saw Zuo whisper something to her. The Mistress’ reaction was initially negative, but eventually started to nod. Turning around, she motioned to the rest of the group. “Alright, fuck this waiting. We’re going to attack now.”
“…is that really wise?” one of the bolder bandits spoke up, who was immediately shushed by his surrounding friends. Mistress smirked and slowly started to walk up towards the man. She put a hand on his cheek as she began to speak softly.
“Have I ever let you down before?” she asked sweetly. The man straightened up with a gasp, shaking as he opened his mouth to answer.
“N-no. Of course not, Mistress!” he answered immediately. Her smirk widened before it curved downward into a sneer. Curling up her fingernails onto his skin, she raked them across his cheek, drawing a surprising amount of blood while creating a scar.
“Then shut the hell up and do what you’re told,” she turned to look at everyone else. “That goes for the rest of you, too! I know this temple. I know how unprepared they are for it.”
She glared at them one-by-one, her eyes slowly searching her underling’s faces for any sign of disapproval. She lingered on the sight of Sophia, however, making the healer grimace slightly in discomfort. A look of surprise filled the features of the Mistress, which took Sophia aback. However, instead of saying anything, she turned around and began walking. Raising an arm, she motioned for the group to follow.
Sophia begrudgingly followed, completely unwilling to participate but at the same time understanding that she had to follow whatever paths she was given. An odd anxiety filled her limbs, and the healer suddenly felt cold. There was the certain excitement that came with being a part of such a large-scale endeavor, which made her uneasy. She knew that it was a temple they were going to, and if it was anything like the attack that she had endured, she knew that what they had in store wasn’t going to be pretty.
She knew that she had to stop it, if at all possible. Forget about Gregory’s soap box.
From the trips that she took with her father to other temples, Sophia had found out that all such buildings looked relatively the same. However, the similarity it bore to the temple she grew up in was striking. That horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach grew upon this realization; she didn’t know if she could take another attack. Something compelled her to move forward, however. Whether it was ambition or avoiding getting trampled by the frenzy of bandits, she took a few steps inside the temple.
“What’s this all about?” an older-looking monk took a step forward, almost stumbling. Sophia had to squint, but she recognized him. It was Jonathon, and this was her temple. She tightened a fist and looked down and away, fighting back tears. The bandits likely would have turned on her if she made any sign of regret. Jonathon frowned as the different bandits drew their respective weapons. Mistress took a step forward from the middle of the group, garnering a surprised reaction. “Is that you…?”
“Hello again,” she smiled before she raised an arm, tearing a hole through his body with a beam of ki. Through the cries and screams, she directed her comments towards her subordinates. “Go! Wreck havoc, ya’ dumb sons of bitches.”
The Mistress immediately ran up the stairs with Zuo, leaving everyone else to the first floor. Ignoring the danger of such an act, she ran to the fallen body of Jonathon, who was somehow still alive. As she placed two hands over the rather large wound, his clouded eyes beamed with recognition. Tears flowing out of his eyes, he opened his mouth to speak, but life fell from him before any words got out.
“Haha, Mistress sure killed him dead,” the voice of 68 sounded from behind her. “Come on, there’s plenty here!”
Laughing with joy, he ran down an intersecting hallway and out of sight. Shaking her head, she sank and began to sob. Not just for Jonathon’s death, not just for the injustice that this temple had been brought, not even for the awful déjà vu she was experiencing. Upon retrospect, Sophia didn’t know why she cried. Perhaps that everything; the game, the deaths she had seen, her own emotional dilemmas—everything—was starting to catch up to her. But suddenly stopped. She felt so stupid as realization dawned on her. The only way to verify this realization, however, was just up the stairs.
Tearing through the curtain that hung in the doorway to a large room, she stumbled upon the sight of the Mistress. With Zuo looking on with a grin, she sat hovering above a dead body, blood all over her clothes as she held an equally bloody dagger in a shaking hand. She looked as though she wanted to cry, but she did nothing. She just…sat. Suddenly, she slowly started to look up at Sophia. The look of confusion that she had seen on her face earlier was now gone; replaced with nothing but emptiness. The Mistress’ eyes locked with Sophia’s for a moment before she started to speak.
“You…” she began. A sad smile crawled upon her face as she looked up at the ceiling. “I see. Is this God’s way of punishing me for my sins?”
“You’re…” Sophia choked on the words.
“Haha, yeah. You’re me,” she looked back down at the healer. “They might not have recognized you, but I do. I’d recognize the innocence in your eyes anywhere.”
Sophia looked away. “I’m not exactly…”
“Juno, right? Wasn’t that his name?” she cut her off. “That’s when it happened. That’s when He abandoned me. You know what I’m referring to, don’t you?”
“All too well,” the healer sighed. The older version of Sophia suddenly cried out in anger.
“Well, you know what? I don’t care!” she stood up and took a step forward, pointing her dagger at Sophia. “I’m not special! I’m not unique! God doesn’t care about me! Those are all things that they will try to tell you,” she motioned to the dead body below her. Sophia took a look at the face of the corpse, much against her better judgment. She looked older than what she remembered, but it was definitely the body of Kira, her best friend from the temple. As Sophia began to tear up, her anti-future continued with rage. “It’s all bullshit, Sophia! She needed to see! She needed to understand just what her God thinks of her. And I’m sure she’s not happy.”
“That’s not true!” Sophia burst out. “I’ll admit that up until now I’ve had some doubts about God’s plan, or even His existence. And to be honest, I’m still not convinced. If He really is there, then why is all of this happening to me?”
“It’s because He hates you!” Anti-Sophia shouted.
“Perhaps,” Sophia nodded. “It’s definitely a possibility. But look at yourself. Look around you. What in the world makes you think that this is a viable solution to your problems? Killing people who don’t believe what you believe is stupid; what if you are right? That would mean that there is no God, and subsequently no afterlife. There’s nothing. They’re no closer to the truth; they’re just dead.”
“Shut up! Shut—UP!” the Mistress shook her head violently.
“You know what you have to do, Mistress,” Zuo cackled in the background.
“I know, Zuo…” her voice was softened now. “I don’t care what you say, Sophia. If I’m no longer one of God’s chosen children, then so be it. I don’t even care if He’s sent you to convince me otherwise. I’ll burn the world to fucking ashes before I give in!”
The Doppelganger swung her dagger downward, the tip of the blade threatening to stab her in the neck. The whole moment seemed to slow to a crawl as she suddenly realized one very sad reality: Sophia couldn’t afford to lose her faith. This went much past her belief in God—if she could no longer believe in people, then she had nothing. She would feel without purpose, set adrift in a sea of void emotions. Her future self must have come to this realization a long time ago, and…Sophia stole a glance at Zuo right before the dagger plunged into her. Sophia’s apathy, coupled with the right urgings, could lead her down a path that she had no desire to travel.
Her eyes snapped open.