No matter how much Devlin tries to remember, the memories were like a poorly edited video.
Important bits cut off and randomly stitched scenes together. Leaving the viewers unable to understand what's happening.
He's like a viewer to such a video. However, he can't click off it. He couldn't find the raw footage, so he had to rely on the currently edited scenes.
One of those scenes he could view was of a store that he accidentally stumbled across during a mission, where they were currently walking there.
As they walked towards the place, Zita found some metal pole to stabilise her arm with a torn piece of her jacket sleeve.
They soon reached the store, and unlike the other buildings, it wasn't lit up. The store only had one window, but that was covered with curtains, too.
"So, you know a friend here?" Zita asked, glancing around at the buildings beside it. This store looked so small and short in comparison.
He shrugged and walked towards the door. He knocked on it in a pattern and slowly stepped away with his arms bent and hands up in the air. Zita followed with her right hand up.
Soon, the door clicked and slid opened, revealing an empty hallway. Devlin walked in with no hesitation, but Zita slowly dragged her feet inside.
"Hurry up.." Devlin's voice echoed, Zita picked up her pace.
When she stepped through the door, it slid closed. Causing the whole room to be dark. Devlin stood there calmly, while Zita kept nervously glancing around.
"We have no system, so you don't have to try hacking into nonexistent stuff." Devlin started talking, "We are here to see a day refuge, and get her arm fixed, I've also got something I wanna talk to you about. After that, we will be out of here."
After saying that, for a few moments, there's only a deafening silence ringing in their ears.
The whole hallway suddenly lit up with blue lines across the walls, and on the right wall, the blue lines turned white and slid down.
What lies behind the wall is three elevators, big enough to fit four people.
"Let's go." Devlin whispered, walking towards the middle one.
Zita followed behind, and when she entered, the wall slid up again.
"Prepare yourself." Devlin whispered.
"What do-." Before she could finish, the elevator dropped down, causing her to scream at the top of her lungs while Devlin smiled at the familiar.
They finally reached down, and Zita collapsed down on the floor.
"You-"
Zita raised her arm, "That was awesome! Again!"
'I puked on my first time..' He felt chills down his spine seeing her so excited by it.
The elevator door slowly slid open and revealed a wide laboratory. All kinds of machines filled the room, neatly placed along the walls.
"Woah.." Zita blurted out as she strolled and looked at the various machines.
Devlin stood there at the elevator, seeming lost in thoughts.
Zita turned back and saw his head lowered, "Um, Li?"
Being in the place again, memories of this place replayed like he was here once again. Those bits he couldn't remember seem to slowly clear up in his mind.
/"Stop thinking about that! He died doing what he wanted, and don't tell me his values was trash!" /
He felt tears slowly slip down his cheeks.
/"Please, Devlin. Survive. Don't look back, I will make it out. Just, don't look back."/
"Who are you?" He heard that same voice again, but this time it wasn't a memory.
He stepped out of the elevator and turned to his left.
There stood a young boy taller than him, having a headphone covering his ears as it lay on his neck. He couldn't be seen properly due to the lighting, but Devlin already knew what he looked like.
"I've been asked that twice today already." He muttered to himself. He coughed and asked, "Can I talk to you in private?"
As he said that, he glanced at Zita, who shrugged and went to look at the other machines.
"Mm." He nodded and walked to the wall that opened up when he got close.
Zita saw that, and her eyes widened. "Woah!" She said and ran to a wall, only to crash into it, "Oof!"
Devlin, who was about to enter the wall, burst out laughing when he saw that. Zita flipped him with her finger, and he smirked, walking through the wall.
When he passed through the wall, he calmly stood there with his hands by his side despite being pointed by two big machines with a sharp tip.
"You're not scared." Standing in the light, stood a boy with white hair and aqua eyes that seemed to shine in the light, "Interesting.."
"Hey, Felix." He smiled, looking at his old friend still wearing the same old grey sports jacket and shorts despite him being so young, his hands in the pocket calmly staring at Devlin, "Same old look huh?" Felix's brows frowned deeply, hearing that.
Standing outside, Zita pinched her chin while looking at the weird machine in front of her.
The machine is sitting on a hovering table. It's shaped like a ball but with strange lines covering all around it.
The lines glowed blue, and when she went nearer to it, she could hear a slow kind of beating like a heartbeat.
'Is this an artificial heart?' She thought, not daring to touch it and just observed it from afar.
She went on to look at the other machines there.
Most of the machines looked incomplete, but whether they are able to function is a different question.
Soon, she reached the end of the hallway. What stood there was a tall rectangular shape with two handles at the end.
'What's that?' She thought, looking at it.
A sharp pain abruptly shot through her head. She collapsed on her knees and held her head.
The same image of the rectangle machine showed up, but this time, the machine had wires spread out, and a white plasma like gate in between the gap of the machine.
There's a young man standing near it with a grin. The young man had a headphone set on his neck as blood flowed down his ears. He seemed to be saying something with much enthusiasm, but no words could be heard.
Then a sharp piercing sound reverberated in her eyes, and towards the end, she could make out a sentence, "We did it!"
Her closed eyes opened wide as she looked at the machine in front of her.
"What the hell was that?" She breathed in, feeling her heart racing, "A memory? My past? But I don't recall being here before.."
She slapped her face and took a deep breath, and exhaled.
"We did it..did what? Did this?" she glanced up at the machine that seemed rather incomplete now, "Was that from the future?"
She walked towards it and held her arm out. She hesitated for a moment before touching the machine. It felt cold in her hands, like any steel would in this air-conditioned room.
She closed her eyes and tried to reimagine what she saw, but to no avail. A sigh escaped from her mouth as she opened her eyes again.
'I remembered there were wires coming out of this, but not clear on where or how many..' she walked around the machine, seeing no holes on the smooth surface, "Hm."
"What if.. this world had been destroyed before, and we are just reliving it.." She muttered out, trying to get her thoughts together, "It would make sense, wouldn't it?"
Her eyes widened as she hit the metal, "Does that mean Li is from the future, but got his future memories?"
She frowned, "Why am I worrying so much about the future when I don't even know my past."
Meanwhile, back in the room. Felix is walking around the room with Devlin just standing there.
"It shouldn't be possible.." Felix rubbed between his eyes with his gloved hand, "You can't just go back in time without any consequences."
"Is memory lost one of them? There's holes in my memories." Devlin chimed in.
"No, if that's the consequence, you would have your whole memory gone." He dismissed Devlin's theory as he started walking back and forth, "Do you remember what the machine looked like?"
Devlin concentrated and tried recalling, his eyes lit up as he replied, "I remembered having to hold on to two handles of a machine. I don't remember other details, but that the handle absorbed my power."
Felix steps slowed down as he sighed, "I will think about it later. Your friend needs help, right?" Devlin nodded.
Felix opened up his system and went to the camera application, "Hm." He saw Zita walking around the machine, "Let's go before she breaks something."
He took the lead and went towards Zita, "Hey! Don't touch that!"
"What are you trying to build here?" Zita asked, "It's rather strange.."
"I'm trying to make a new kind of energy for more power, not that you would understand." He pulled up the headband of his headphone, "Follow me if you want to get your arm fixed."
"Are you a biomedical engineer?" She asked, causing him to raise a brow.
"I'm surprised you know what that means. Enough talk, let's go." He turned and walked into one of the walls, causing Zita to smirk at Devlin with a proud expression.
He rolled his eyes, watching her walk to the wall Felix went through, but she couldn't walk past and instead hit the wall.
Devlin burst out laughing and held his stomach as Zita rubbed her nose. He went on to look at the other machines displayed.
"What the hell?!" She touched the wall, only to feel something solid, "Oi what the heck?"
She punched the wall, only to feel pain.
She was about to punch again, but Felix stuck his head out. She stopped in time, but Felix was quick to retract back.
This time, his left arm stuck out first, and his hand gestured to move away with the waving. Zita moved away with a small smile at his actions.
After waiting a couple of seconds, Felix walked out with his finger pinching his chin, "Strange. You have no form of life energy." It sounded more of a statement than a question.
Zita didn't seem to have any reaction to his statement and just stood there staring at Felix.
"Who are you?" Felix's hand clutched a little, causing Zita to feel danger around her, "Are you a spy from the wasteland?"
"I don't know." Zita lowered her head, "I might really be from the wasteland, but I really don't remember my childhood."
"Childhood? How old are you?" His hand clutched a little more, and cracking sounds could be heard over their head.
"You're just gonna kill me if you don't hear the answer you want, ain't ya?" She clutched her fist, "But I've already answered you. I. Don't. Know." She grinds her teeth and shuts her eyes tight.
/"Please, help me find my memory.."/
Felix used his left hand and covered part of his forehead, feeling a stinging pain from the front part of his head. A glitchy image could be seen through his left eye as he closed it and saw it a little clearer.
/"The world rejected us, let's return the favour."/
His right arm unintentionally opened up, causing the plasma defence system to retreat back.
/"A human sacrifice is needed."/
The image showed a mask, and the mask looked similar to the one Zero wore before.
A plain white coloured mask with two bolts of lightning spread across the eyes horizontally.
It looked like he was holding the mask and passing it to someone else.
/"A new persona is needed to usher in a new era."/