'There it is again... this vision...' A man in his mid twenties stands in cracked and decayed armor. Bits and pieces flake away and fell to the ground with a soft thud.
"Come on, Talyn! Is this really all you've got?!" Talyn is our man in the broken armor.
"Of course... it isn't..." Talyn forces himself forward, stumbling towards a shrouded figure. The voice was distorted, and the figure hidden by shifting shadows. The only thing visible was a bloody hand clutching an odd looking sword. The blade was curved almost like a sickle, and the handle was made of some type of organic fiber; sleek and sharp, with small spikes along the shaft, like briar thorns. The handle dug into the figure's flesh. You could practically hear the skin tearing and ripping away. The figure raised his weapon towards the stumbling Talyn.
"Your weapon has been broken! Your spirit has been broken! You body has been broken! You're sick Talyn! Let me end your suffering! There isn't anyone alive who can help you!"
"I can't do that shhh ccc shhhh" The figures name distorted, fading to a soft whisper, and all that could be heard was this scratchy-staticky mess. "We're so close... to our goal..."
"Please, Talyn! I don't want to kill you. Please... please... don't make me do this..."
"I'm sorry, shhh ccc shhhh... Tis the cruel game of fate." Talyn began to trudge up towards the shadow. The only thing is, Talyn isn't in control here. 'I know this is a memory, but it's worthless to me. All I know, is my name is Talyn. Someone I was close to is fighting me, and they have a bloody hand and a weird looking sword.' Talyn felt himself drift, like he was watching the scene play out. He had no power in this situation literally and figuratively. The distorted shadow swatted a sluggish punch from Talyn before piercing his heart with his curved blade.
"There really is no convincing you. Once you set your mind to something... you always seem to destroy your body and mind to do whatever it is..." The figures face still hidden in shadows, all Talyn could see was tears dripping from it's chin. "I guess your stupid little saying is right after all. Tis the cruel game of fate." Talyn watched his body fall as a ghostly version of himself stood over his bleeding body.
'I don't get this. None of this is making sense!' Now that he got a good look at his own body, he was surprised he didn't die sooner. A large chunk of his skull was missing, and you could clearly see his brain. Or rather what was left of it. He was missing the lower half of his right arm, torn off right below the elbow. Blood weakly pulsing from the raw stump; staining the jagged edges of bone. Not to mention his legs were gashed to hell, like claws ripped through muscle and sinew, tearing it in long jagged strips. To put it simply, he looked like shit.
Talyn sighed as everything started to glow bright. 'Am I finally waking up? Or is this all just gonna repeat again? Seriously, the amount of times I've seen this, and nothing has become clearer to me. I guess I'll just have to see.' Talyn was having a rough stroke of luck it seems. His mind, body, and spirit would be broken again and again.
'Is this some type of sick game?! HEY! If you hear me, enough! This joke isn't funny anymore!' he screamed, his voice jagged and raw. He got nothing in response. Silence was all that met him, and for one brief moment, there was peace.
The vision began to play out again. Talyn screamed in agony, "I can't do this any more! Not again!" his voice fades to a whisper, "Never again..." in a quick fluid movement, he grabbed his broken blade with his spectral hand, and stabbed himself in the heart. Pain exploded, flashing white, then nothing. Blessed nothingness.
"What?!" an excited shout rang out.
Talyn's eyes shot open.
"I-I-It worked! I did it! HAHAHAHA! FINALLY!!!" A woman's voice filled his ears.
"Who...you...?" Talyn's voice broke and cracked as he attempted to speak.
"My name's Ivory darlin'! I'm the one who put you back together. I did think you were actually dead with no chance in hell of coming back, but who said you can't do the impossible?! A lot of people actually... anyway, all that matters is that your alive. Tell me, what do you remember?" a long stream of words flowed together, with barely a pause for breath.
"Talyn... I fought... someone close to me... lost... bloody hand... weird sword..." Talyn coughed, and blood spurted from his lips.
"Ah, shit! Here drink this, and then immediately drink some water." Ivory hands Talyn a weird looking vile with a dark blue liquid inside. He was skeptical, but he didn't have much of a choice. He grabbed the vile gently with his left hand, and pressed the glass to his lips. He poured the liquid into his mouth, and swallowed. It had a weird sticky texture to it, akin to honey. He then handed the vile back to Ivory who traded him for a small cup of water. Talyn did know a little about basic things. So he thankfully knew what water was. He wasted no time chugging the drink to help soothe his dry throat and mouth. "Better?"
"Much better. Thanks."
"Fantastic darlin'! Now I'm not sure if you remember, but you kinda lost bits and pieces of yourself during that fight. So me, being the amazing mechanic mastermind I am, fixed you!" She grabbed a mirror, and held it facing Talyn.
He stared at his face, just like he had in those dreams. a large metal piece took up a quarter of his dark skin, covering the area where a chunk of his head was unwillingly detached. He had different colored eyes now; one purple and one a light blue.
'So I have bootleg heterochromia now... cool.' The cybernetic quarter of his face ran down the center of his forehead to the bridge of his nose before branching out the left side of his face. He brought his left hand up, and gently caressed the metal. It was smooth, high quality. He then looked down to his right arm, and saw a cybernetic arm made of the same materials as his head. One thing he immediately noticed on the silver medal, was a charcoal colored symbol on the back of his metal hand.
'Just who are you Ivory?' He looked back up at Ivory, who just smiled at him as if she could read his thoughts. Her emerald orbs almost mocking him. Now that he got a good look at her he guessed she was in her early to mid thirties. She had orangish red hair tied up in a ponytail, and a black bandana. She wore a slightly stained, orange and white striped crop top that showed off her surprisingly toned midsection. She also had a pair of ripped blue jeans with brown boots, and a pair of black fingerless gloves. Another interesting detail Talyn noticed was a tattoo that started at her shoulder, and went down to where it stopped near her elbow.
"See something you like darlin'?" Talyn's eyes squinted before he averted his gaze to his hands.
"Who are you?"
"I'm the one who saved you."
"Why?"
"People didn't think cybernetics could bring a person back to life. I conveniently ran into your bleeding corpse on the way home one night. You should consider yourself lucky. Now, enough questions! I need to run a few tests to make sure you don't collapse to the floor and die the second you try and stand."