I stared at the corpse in my hands, did it speak to me? "No, I'm in your head again." She speaks, "And please let go of my corpse and bring me to Ambrosia."
'H-how? Didn't you die already?' I asked, walking towards the castle's courtyard. I dropped her on the side as I started displacing the dirt on it.
"I managed to transfer my consciousness to a copy of me in your brain." She remarked, and I have to agree. Now it is as if she's speaking inside me.
Carefully, I moved the dirt with my staff, with intentions to bury her corpse below the courtyard. They wouldn't mind. 'I'll bring the chip to Ambrosia so we can get you a body, hopefully one without defects.'
"Yeah. Swell. What are you doing anyway?" She asked, as I dragged her remains down the ditch and buried it. "Oh." I gave it some water, hopefully actual grass would grow on it. "You know you didn't have to do that."
'The dead, no matter who, need a respectful resting place.' I prayed silently. And after a while, I stood up and headed back to the car. There's lots of things to report today.
I sat in my car, staring at the dark red skies of the nature field. "Haya." I said to myself, "Can you do them a favor and fix the sky?" I heard my brain process from the inside. And within seconds, the sky turned normal, and the fields gave way to life. The machines remained, but it seems like they're inactive now.
With my hands on the wheel, I don't feel like driving. Haya seems to have understood, as she herself took control of the car and drove it slowly back to the hotel. She was too silent.
"Haya?" Apart from other thoughts, I tried to strike a conversation with her. Slouching back the car seat as it drove automatically. It was night as we left the castle's nature field.
"Yea?" She replied, I hear sounds of my brain processing as she replied, as if the audio was unmuted with her words.
"You seem quiet. Can you open the roof, I wanna see the stars." I leaned farther as if I was lying down. I rest my eyes, there was too much today.
"I'm analyzing the data we got earlier and trying to compare them with the information we got at base." She replied with the same serious cadence that she always had when working.
"I see… so you believe the Crimson King now huh?"
"That wasn't him."
"Wasn't him? It felt like him all over the place."
"Nah, check this out." My eyes were forced shut and I felt like I was transported further into myself. When I opened them, I was not in my car. I was surrounded by a mess of imagery that changed as I focused on them. They were all existing on my peripheral vision.
"Oh, woops." I heard Haya typing and eventually, everything was focused. Every image fell onto themselves in their own column. For a moment, I felt a nostalgic relief, "There, fixed!" She proclaimed.
"What the hell is this!?" I looked around the area, confused. Haya appeared behind me, carrying a feminine appearance. Though I can't discern her face as it was jumbled under digital artifacts.
"Sorry, I'm using half of your brain power to process stuff. I hope you don't mind." I just nodded in silence, she was in my brain and there was nothing I could do anyway. I just hope she doesn't fully hear my thoughts.
"I do," she responded, "But that's not important. This is," She pointed her left hand towards a screen beside her. It opened up, showing a recording of what happened earlier. A memory I'd much rather avoid, but again, she was holding my brain hostage.
She opened her first up, and moved her hand around, expanding the screen as the various images and videos moved around. There was so much information whizzing around everywhere, "What the hell am I looking at?" I questioned her.
"I compared what I saw in your recorded memories," She opens the video on her right, along with dozens of details and notes written right beside it. She's certainly been busy, "And tried to impose them over every criminal, free, dead, alive, missing, in our catalogue." She snapped the fingers of her left hand, summoning an expanding list of names. Color coded between red and green. There was significantly more red than greens.
"And who did you find?" She hums, adding more notes with every single thing she encounters. Throwing it somewhere that I'll probably never see again. She then drags her finger on a single green name and dragged it towards the center.
"This man." She expands his information throughout the screen, lying it bare in front of my eyes, his picture is just him in a mask similar to the Crimson King, "Harriet De Santa. I analyzed the vocal records and such," She looked back towards me, "Oh sorry." She raised her palm up, summoning a chair from beneath me as I sat down on it.
"Vocal records shouldn't be enough." I argued.
"Well, duh. That's because that's not the only thing in there. For instance, his mask," She zoomed into Harriet's mask, took it off, and compared it with the Crimson King, "Unique in shape, handmade, most likely. I analyzed stores all around the Galactic Federation and found nothing as similar as these."
I leaned in closer and asked, "Anything more than that?" I really just want to see where she's going with this.
"Harriet De Santa, fascinatingly, was thrown in jail for conspiracy, attempting to control various Terrium power plants in Sirius C. As well as connections with various cults all around the Federation, that sound familiar?" I leaned back, somewhat disappointed and sighed.
"Yeah… Can you compile that information and send it to command? And send me back up." She snapped her fingers and I was back into the real world. We were driving through the city, and the star filled sky was gone.
I sat up from my car seat and gripped the wheel tightly. I was disappointed of course, that the Crimson King was not only a normal man, but a failed cult leader as well.
"I won't say 'failed', more so in hibernation."
Hibernation, what is he a damn bear? But what does he know about me? He did talk to me as if I have something against him. A lesson, he only ever harmed Haya.
We reached the hotel where I manually drove the car to the usual parking spot we reserved. I exited the car, showing myself to the white, sterile basement parking lot and walked towards the elevator.
I heard the echoed footsteps of heels approaching me, I looked towards it and I saw Commander Cecil, the commander who was supposed to lead an expedition at the bottom of the mall.
I saluted her, "At ease." She said as I eased up, "Where's Kinthos?" She saw me looking down, sighed, "Ah. I see, is her chip still intact?"
"Yes ma'am." I looked at her, "Intact and well."
She smiled, "Then it's fine, follow me." She opened the elevator and went inside, I followed after her, "Kinthos, did she do well?"
"Yes Ma'am, she did really well indeed." I hear an audible 'aww' inside my head, followed by a thanks from her.
"Ah good, I heard she was a hacker. Surprising for her to be one and work as a detective, don't you think?" She questioned. I wasn't looking at her, but there was nothing else to look at in this cramped, sterile elevator other than her.
"I'm surprised too, Ma'am. But she told me about her dreams, which is probably why she joined."
"Her dreams? Do tell me more." The elevator dinged, I was on my floor. I offered her to go to the room to continue the conversation, to which she accepted.
In our room, she sat at a table opposite mine. From there I began to tell her about her dreams, and the conversation we had about it. Her face felt understanding.
"Oh." 'Oh' that was the only word she said, there was a long silence between us, not even Haya spoke about anything, she looked down, thinking. After a while, she looks back at me, into my eyes, "Agent Kinthos has dreams. Do you have dreams?"
"I do, ma'am. And I can clearly tell that I've fulfilled it already." I instantly replied as we both leaned back, relaxing on our seats. She sipped on her tea, I don't remember her having one.
"Ma'am?" I leaned in, questioning her, "Do we have a budget for any repairs?"
"What repairs?" She asked, curious as I was consulting her about it in person.
"I think my perfect memory implant is faulty, and It's causing leaps in what I remember."
"That can't be good," her face turned down, "I'll see what I can do."
"Thank you ma'am." She started to stand up, I tried to stand up and salute but she put me down immediately, as if telling me that I don't have to.
As she reached the door, she momentarily looked back at me, "Agent Pollus."
"Yes ma'am?"
"Do you feel happy with your fulfilled dreams?"
I fell into silence, reflecting as I leaned back.
"I figured as much." She opened the door and left.