January 30th, 2023.
Four days after Azazel shared a stroll through the snowy forest with his beloved daughter, he was one of many bystanders to the final of August's cloning experiment. That was, for their winter break. June, with a scarf covering her neck, earmuffs hiding her ears, rubbed her palms together to generate momentary heat, standing beside Jefferson. The man playfully nudging her, the recovering Master Hana hummed from the lab's corner whilst Natalia yawned beside her.
Ace, just about to step within the capsule, shirtless and given artificial unbreakable shorts, was grabbed by the shoulder. Turning his head to spot the source, he chuckled as he recognized Kima's face.
"What, you worried 'bout me?" Impudently asked the ginger with a wide-toothed grin.
"Well, I mean..." Kima began.
Ace laughed, then leaned forward, his face millimeters away from hers. A blush painting her cheeks red, she turned away, instinctively grabbing her hair to cover her face. However, she could only turn redder once his following words entered her ears.
"If this finally works—you and I'll get to make up on the time we missed while I was 'busy.'"
"I hate you," Kima's voice was muffled through the strands concealing her lips.
"Alright, lovebirds, that's enough! Kima, stand with everyone else, and you... go inside."
Ace stuck up his middle finger at Katie behind a transparent border, her free hand moving along the keyboard to flawlessly type like she never had before. The same second she lowered her hand was when Wilder entered the capsule. Turning around so he could peer out the glass window from within, he realized how hazy everyone was from inside.
"You got it?" Ace's voice was now August's; deeper than before.
"Shut up, old man!" Katie yelled through clenched teeth. "I got yer boyfriend 'ere helping me!"
"You're irritating, you know that?" Azazel asked his daughter while checking around the consoles, leading her to smugly giggle.
The room darkened. And with the light, went the sound, too. Bulking technologies conjoined uncomfortably alit the room, their low mechanical purrs inaudible for the sound of the main device's overwhelming audio. Abnormal sounds of animalistic crawling belonging to speck-shaped wildlife enveloped the blackened chamber. Tubes channeling energy from the bottom slipping into the upper appliance sent the wires to spark causing June to jump.
Holding the girl in his arms, Jeff's eyes rolled—it was like then he was reminded she was just a kid. The Master gazed ahead without faltering eyes, Natalia beside her. The women's black and white locks wildly move from the wild experiment, leaving Kima to be the only one to bite her nails. Leading June to tightly hug her dear friend.
The process continued, a green percentage bar filling up with each passing second. The number increasing followed by an inevitable beeping while Katie pushed a lever forward, more sparks bursting out the bar. Reflecting light in the goggles' centers, a curious hum vented from her lips.
'Am I seeing this right?'
Azazel, standing some inches behind, turned his head as his daughter leaned forward. After her azure pupils examined that name in the bottom right corner, she could do nothing more but gasp. But as she turned her head, an elongated beep stretched into everyone's ears longer than usual. 100%. Completion.
The lever was released from Moon's grip and slammed down. Running through the entrance to the border surrounding the workers behind the consoles, she was met with a limp Ace falling into her arms, steaming hot. His body hissing as it hit her limbs, a weakened moan escaped his mouth.
"Someone tend to this idiot," Katie vanished after she ordered this, leaving her redheaded cousin in Kima's arms.
Reappearing upstairs... she was on the line, edging her from the device's vicinity. If she dare step forward, no doubt she'd get singed to fragments. So, she only had to wait. After tens of thousands of experiments by this point and four months of development, surely, they'd have some stroke of luck. Just as she was about to burst into frustrating tears—the experiment stopped. Free to run ahead, her fingers tapped away, then she effortlessly yanked the capsule open. What her eyes beheld was nothing more than a true miracle born from the graces of prayers to the one and only true Father.
"Oh, thank God. Thank God, thank God... it worked. August."
Emerging from the steam with snowy hair, one green eye, and another crimson, there he was. Naked, artificial, and braindead. As soon as he exited, he halted, awaiting the proper material to truly function the way he was designed to. This vessel in the shape of the Reaper was insufficient but complete. That was, without the proper ingredient.
To finalize the dish they'd been cooking in boiled water for almost a year now, only one thing remained to finalize this dish. And that was the soul. As Katie stepped back, Hana seemed to abruptly appear, like entering from prohibiting shadows. That emerald soul hovering above her hand, all the Master did was touch her palm to the vessel's chest. And from then on, the meaning of life had developed yet again.
"This better work," Katie whispered, beside her teacher.
"To think that technology would develop to the point where a heart or downloaded consciousness isn't mandatory. While I acknowledge his plentiful faults, I must say… the Founder was rather intelligent," Hana said.
"Yeah, well, he's not all-knowing. We're pretty much gambling on his genius. For once, let things go right. Please."
For all her life, Katie wasn't a religious girl. But, in this one instance, this single time, if you dug deep into her heart, you would hear those resounding sounds of prayers… for the first time in her life.
August's eyes went dark, for inside his chest, there it was. Coursing through the wires, miniature bots that conjoined to make this body, powering that metallic brain for it all to form. All accumulating for a fist to form with that living energy coursing all around him as if he were anything less than a false human.
"Ah… this feels so amazing!" He loudly yelled with a mischievous rasp, "I've never felt so alive before! HAVING TO SHARE MY BODY WITH MY SON WAS SO TIRING!!! HAHAHAHA!!"
Maniacal laughter enveloped the room, the shadow of the Reaper cast over them, a sweat drop pouring down Katie's face.
"Are we sure rebirthing him was a good idea..?" Nervously asked Kate.
"He's always been like this. I'm more concerned about—"
August turned around, extending his hand. His palm expressed a glowing green mark and then a starry light in the center, suddenly, he discharged a wild bolt of emerald lightning. He scowled like a beast— white strands swaying from side to side, rapidly concealing then revealing the markings of Eternal Sight.
"Nevermind," Hana said.
Turning his head toward his former master, he smiled upon seeing not only her but Azazel's daughter. With his own eyes, in his own body, so fresh and built. Emerging from the misty surroundings of the centered capsule, Moon turned her head away with a whistle. Nonchalant as she was, the Master still stared, but Katie's reaction was incentive enough for,
"What?" Rivera ignorantly asked.
"You're naked, Augustus," Bluntly said Haha with a smile and closed eyes.
"And it's disgusting. Put clothes on, you dirty whore," Azazel yelled, throwing clothes onto his partner.
Hands in pockets as he stood beside his daughter, he smiled.
"You proud?" He asked.
She abruptly paused, garnering the worried look from her daughter and her Master's curious face. With the silhouettes of everyone else's indistinct figures visible from a short distance, her breath hitched. After scratching at her nape, she faced the ground, speedily eyes darting around her eyeball's confines. She was searching for something—an answer. But what they wanted to know was the question. What was she trying to answer? The spirits wait long until she expressed herself, opening her mouth.
"Not really. While I was powering the capsule, I saw something in the corner… a name. It said, 'experimental data sent to an external source: Retly.' I know the Founder spent ten years here so he probably had a lotta data in storage, but, his name wasn't Retly? Do you have any idea who the hell Retly is?" She asked.
"Uh… the best thing I can think of is it being the Jester. Maybe that's his real name?" Azazel shrugged at his suggestion.
"No, his name is Icarus Chrollo. And Retly isn't a name of a person, it's the title of a place," Hana corrected, "And not just any random place."
"What are you talking about?" Katie asked her teacher.
Finally, everyone reconvened aboveground, and August had clothing to cover his physique. Everyone gathered together meant this was the perfect time for Hana to explain. Clearing her throat, her pink eyes glanced away before she returned their impatient stares.
"Alright, then. I think it's time to tell you... the truth of our world."
To Be Continued.