"Wait, it stopped!" Gadge exclaimed, squinting his eyes. He couldn't believe what just happened.
The descending metal partitions stopped going down for some unknown reason. One moment it was accelerating downwards, the next moment, it abruptly halted. Red and Blond didn't hesitate anymore. They dove towards the gap between the metal partitions and the ground akin to a swimmer starting his lap. They then squirmed their way through since there were only a foot and a half tall of a gap.
Gadge fell on his rear-end, sighing in relief. "They made it... they made it." Gadge kept on repeating himself as his eyes moistened. Just like everybody else, he didn't know what he'd do if Red and Blond got removed from the group.
"Red!" Curl jumped for joy as she gave him a hug before he could even stand up. He was covered in blood, grime, and soil but Curl didn't mind. She just quietly hugged him without saying anything else.
Red, on the other hand, wanted to push her away just like he did every time she tried to hug him. But before he could do so, he felt warm liquid dripping on his chest. Curl was crying.
That's when Red realized that he wasn't wearing anything! He remembered tearing his clothes to wrap around Scar's wound.
"Um, Curl... " Red awkwardly called out, as Curl buried her face on his chest. He could feel her breathing and it sent shivers down his spine. "Um... you can let go now."
Curl finally realized what was going on and she let go, wiping her tears with her hands. "Next time don't rush out like that. And what's wrong with you and Blond? Did you hit your head on a rock or something?"
"She's back." Freckles commented.
"Yeah, that's Curl's personality alright." Gadge agreed.
Meanwhile, it was Cat who rushed on Blond's side, helping him up after he squirmed his way through just like what Red did. "A... are you okay?" Cat bashfully asked, dusting Blond off with a piece of cloth.
"Yeah, thanks. Phew~" Blond sighed in relief. He could feel his lungs bursting after that long sprint. Still, he didn't want to show his weak side so he tried breathing normally.
"We'll tell you everything later." Red responded to Curl's explanation, patting her on the head in the process. "Anyways, can you check up on Scar, Freckles? I wrapped him as well as I could. That's all I could do."
"Yeah, you wrapped him really tightly, alright. Don't worry. Scar's a really tough nut to crack." Freckles said. "Let's head inside and prepare some dinner. Then we can sort things out one by one."
"Welcome back." Gadge greeted.
.....
Meanwhile,
The once pristine white walls of the Asterisk suddenly turned into a shade of red as alarms and emergency lights blared. Block owners and personnel alike were scampering everywhere, getting ready just in case an evacuation was issued.
A bombing.
Jarxen, Julia, and Fujimoto, immediately headed to the control center of the Asterisk, and just like what they expected, it was bombed to bits. Smoke and leaking gas filled the control center when they arrived. They were ready to capture the bomber since the control center didn't have any exits. Adding to that, the entire corridor leading to it was a dead end so there's no way the perpetrator could escape.
"Stay here," Jarxen advised at Julia and Fujimoto, cracking his knuckles and heading inside the Control center.
Aside from the blazing red lights and the occasional leakage of gas, there was nothing inside the Control center. "Impossible," Jarxen muttered to himself, checking the nooks and crannies of the room, but all that attracted his attention was a huge gaping hole on one side, as well as equipment that was blown to bits.
"Jarxen! Is everything okay?!" Julia asked in a concerned tone.
"Yeah, stay... " Jarxen suddenly stopped speaking.
On the corner of his eye, something moved. Jarxen scanned the place once again, this time focusing if there was something amiss. That's when he noticed it.
A pair of bright blue lights flashed in front of him, Jarxen raised his guard as a figure landed a hit on his arms. Jarxen was confident in his defense but he was still sent skidding backward as the punch hit him. He coughed and spat blood. After sensing that he didn't have any injuries, he charged at the figure and punched it back. He was able to hit the figure squarely on the face but it didn't even move from its spot.
*Clang!*
A resounding clang echoed as Jarxen hit something metallic. "An Outclass Humanoid? What's it doing here?" Jarxen asked himself.
Without missing a beat, Jarxen jumped sideways, steadying himself with his arms and springing upward. He then arrived on top of the Outclass humanoid, locking his legs on its neck and jerking a sudden twist. In just two seconds, Jarxen snapped the Outclass humanoid's neck. Causing it to plop down on the ground without even realizing what's going on.
"Humans... not enemies... humans riva... " The Outclass played a pre-recorded audio before it died down. The bright blue light on its eyes dimmed, marking its demise.
"Jarxen! What happened?"
"An Outclass." Jarxen sat down beside it as he tried to catch his breath. "It was saying something about humans not being its enemies."
"Are you hallucinating? Wait... a malfunctioned Outclass humanoid? How's that possible?" Fujimoto asked,
"Yeah, and bombing the Control Center to boot. What's going on." Jarxen wondered. For a few seconds, he thought that the Resistance was behind it, but after thinking about it some more, he knew that that was simply impossible since the Resistance didn't have the advanced technology to hack the Asterisk, let alone hack a single Outclass humanoid. With all that aside, Jarxen finally thought of a plausible conclusion.
"There's a traitor... a traitor in the midst of the Corporation." Jarxen spoke up, looking at Fujimoto and Julia. Both of them also thought of the same thing.
"Yeah, and what's worse. It could be one of the board of directors. This is getting out of hand." Julia muttered.
"I know. We better be careful." Fujimoto said. "Someone might suspect us so let's report this to Head Cipher straight away."
"Let's go."
.....
Humanoid Section, southwestermost part of the Inside
"WAIT! CAN YOU REPEAT WHAT YOU JUST SAID?!" Gadge exclaimed, his eyes widened as he stared at both Red and Blond.
"We remember the past." Red and Blond simultaneously answered.
A series of gasps echoed in the building. The rest of the group didn't know what to ask first so they just remained sitting there, speechless. They've been waiting for this kind of revelation to occur but now that it's here, they didn't know how to react.
"So, your real name's Veerius Genesys and Blond's name is Julius Ventio?" Curl was the first one to speak up, breaking the silence that dawned on them.
"Yeah."
"Yeah."
"And Scar's Berserker?"
"That's his previous nickname, yes," Red confirmed.
"Wait, this is all too sudden. I don't know what to say." Freckles gripped her head, expecting a headache to come but it didn't. "If you knew each others' names, then, have you met each other in the past? How did you meet in the past?" Freckles asked.
"WAIT!!!" Gadge shouted. "This is not going to work. How about we just leave Red and Blond with the explanation and stop asking questions. I also want to know if all of us ever had the chance to interact in the past. I'm dying to know!"
Blond glanced at Red and urged him to say his story. "Go on, leader. It's your time to tell us."
Red cleared his throat and started. "This is going to sound surprising but... yes we've interacted with each other in the past. Well, more like we met each other in the past and worked together."
"When we first regained our consciousness in the Dome, we met Jarxen, right? Remember that time when he started explaining? We didn't even cut him off. What's more, we didn't even panic. It's as if we resigned ourselves to our current situation without a single complaint. Didn't you find that weird? If we were normal, then we would've gone into a fit of rage and tried to escape the place."
"I found that weird too. It's like my body just accepted what was happening like it was normal." Freckles agreed. "At first I thought something was wrong with my mind, but seeing all of you with the same reaction, I decided to brush it off."
"That's because our subconscious knew about our past." Red continued. "The reason why it seemed like we accepted our fate is that... this is..."
The intensity in the room increased as Red dragged his words on. They leaned in towards Red, hoping to catch what he was about to say next.
"... this is not our first year in the Asterisk." Red finally said it. "In fact, we've been here for three years and this is the third time we got brainwashed."