Paradox: The Last Day - Seymour's Story

by Rachel Charman

  “… Wait.. A stopped heart…?”

  Without a word to Trace, she runs out to the main room and hurriedly kicks through the boxes lying on the ground until she finds the box labeled “1”, rips through its contents, and pulls out a small metal syringe case with a *#463: SCI-77X42 VENOM injector (non-lethal dosage)* seal inscribed on its surface. She opens it, and pulls out a small, thumb-sized syringe with an impossibly long covered tip, which is filled with a milky white liquid. She laughs with strangled relief, hurries back into the side-room, and without hesitation, pulls up Seymour’s blood-stained shirt, shoves the syringe tip deep into the middle of his chest, and pushes the plunger down, emptying the VENOM straight into his heart. After a few seconds of stillness, Elena pulls the syringe out from Seymour’s heart, seizes a small emerald container from her back pocket, twists the lid open, and hurriedly applies the gelatinous Seraph Tears to his blackened stab wounds, and the bullet holes on his leg, which all begin to heal slowly. Breathing heavily in fear, she steps away from him nervously as Trace runs over to her, grabs her by the wrist, and shouts angrily –

  “What the hell did you just do?!”

  Elena looks into his face with a tearful, relieved smile, and whispers shakily –

  “I-I think.. I saved his life.”

  Trace glares at her with livid confusion, when the sound of hard, choked coughing emanates from behind his back. Trace whirls around, and looks on with a relieved, disbelieving smile, as Seymour weakly rolls over onto his side, and wearily inspects the ebony wounds on his hands as they slowly heal on their own, leaving behind purplish scars upon his flesh.

  “Oh man.. Don’t scare me like that again, kid!”

  As he sits up against the wall, rubbing his head painfully, Seymour blearily looks to Elena, who is no longer cheery, but is now glaring in tearful rage.

  “… Why?! Why do you keep doing this to me?! Why do you make me worry?!”

  “Whoa, hey, calm yourself, blondie. It’s not like he does it on purpose!”

  Seymour looks groggily from Elena to Trace, his mind sluggishly trying to catch up to the present as he says vaguely –

  “… Wait.. What am I doing to you?”

  “You almost died again!”

  “… I did?”

  “Uhh, you don’t remember?”

  “Remember what?”

  “Y-you had some kind of seizure, then you puked up blood and died for about a minute!”

  He looks down at the half-dried, reddish-black stain on the concrete between his feet, and says dimly –

  “… Oh.”

  “Right. ‘Oh’. Great reaction.”

  Seymour shakes his head slowly back and forth, trying to focus his vision properly. He can feel his heart beating hard and fast against his chest, but he still feels on the cusp of death. He rubs his chest uncomfortably, and looks up at Elena with a small, grateful smile which disappears as soon as he sees the morbid look on her stark face.

  “… Elena, I didn’t know about the venom until after you left.. I wasn’t trying to hide it from you…”

  “S-Seymour..”

  Elena sits down across from Seymour, her face set and serious as she declares passionately –

  “I just want you to think about the people who care about you before you go doing anything reckless and stupid like before.. That’s all I ask..”

  “… Y-yeah, I will..”

  Trace claps his hands together loudly to break the tension, and pronounces forcibly –

  “Heh, alright, now that the lovers are all patched up, why don’t you tell me why you took so long gettin’ back, blondie?”

  Elena shifts her sight from Seymour to Trace, gets back to her feet, and declares nervously –

  “Well.. that’s the thing, guys..The reason I took so long.. It wasn’t my fault.”

  “What do ya mean?”

  “… Something happened to Gordon and Sakura while we were in Santuc..

  We got the Seraph Tears by causing a big car accident along the freeway in Liberty District, and waited until the medivacs showed up so we could steal some from them.”

  “Damn, why didn’t I think of that? Ah well.. So, what happened then?”

  Taking a deep breath, Elena sweeps her hair back distractedly as she begins to explain in a shaky voice –

  “Well, causing the accident and getting the Tears.. Doing all that only took about an hour once we got back to Santuc.. What took so long was that General Solari showed up at the scene. He recognized us, and ordered his soldiers to use this weird kind of weapon on us. It didn’t fire bullets, but it emitted this extremely high-pitched noise. It hurt my ears bad, but it didn’t affect me like Gordon and Sakura. They started, like.. screaming and thrashing around, then suddenly just stopped moving. They were taken into custody by the PRIME.. I managed to escape from them, but they followed me, and I’ve had to run all the way back here with them on my asses… I would’ve fought back, but that weapon thing disabled my MFI, I think.. It’s stopped working, but thankfully, I was able to get a vehicle in Trajit and drive the rest of the way… But I have no idea where the PRIME took Gordon and Sakura..”

  A long silence follows Elena’s story; Trace paces the chamber back and forth, scratching his chin thoughtfully, while Seymour watches Elena as raptly as he can in his enervated state.

  “Whew.. That’s rough, blondie.. What’d you make of this, kid?”

  All eyes turn to Seymour, but he doesn’t respond right away. He seems to be having trouble keeping Elena’s story in his head, though after a short while, he exclaims slowly –

  “… That weapon you talked about must be a portable EMP launcher. It disrupts and disables electronic equipment. If I’m right, it might’ve disabled the DAmIn-8 nanomachines inside Sakura and Data’s brains with a powerful electromagnetic pulse. Yours wouldn’t have been affected, since they’re already disabled..”

  “I have no idea what you’re talkin’ about, kid. And you shouldn’t be talkin’ anyway!

  You need rest!”

  “I’m fine, Trace. I’ll need to have a look at your MFI, but we have to go back to Santuc and rescue Sakura and Gordon first, before Solari kills them.”

  “Right.”

  Elena helps Seymour to his feet, but he has immense difficulty staying on them, and grips Elena’s shoulder tightly, trying not to black out from pain. The two of them make for the stairs, but Trace furiously blocks the way, his arms resolutely spread wide.

  “No, I forbid you to go back to Santuc as you are now! Let me and the girl go play hero!”

  “I said I’m fine!”

  “He’s right, Trace! We need to go, right now! Solari won’t hesitate to murder them, and make a big spectacle of it. He might’ve already…”

  “… Alright, fine.. If nobody’s going to listen to me..”

  Elena hitches Seymour back up on her shoulder a little higher, and the two of them push past Trace and ascend the charred stairs unsteadily. Seymour looks back at Trace, who stands with his arms crossed agitatedly, and says softly –

  “I understand your concern, Trace. But really, I’ll be okay. Don’t worry.

  As long as the VENOM still works, I can buy myself some time.”

  “… It’s hearing you say that that makes me worry more..”

  … Hey, kid.. Kid, wake up!”

  Sakura opens her eyes with difficulty, her head pounding painfully, to find a young, bespectacled man with short, slightly spiked brown hair staring at her, with worry etched into every line on his handsome face. She sits up abruptly, but he pushes her back against the cold steel wall gently with his one hand.

  “Calm down, kid.”

  “… Who are you?!”

  “I was about to ask you the same thing.”

  “… A-are you my enemy?!”

  “That’s yet to be seen.. But if you need an indication of my, uh, non-enemy-ness, then I’ll tell you my name first. My name is Gordon. But call me Data.”

  Sakura eyes Dat
a apprehensively through the darkness, and after a few moments, she says warily –

  “Well, Data.. I’m Sergeant Sakura Yuki of the eXo PRIME Armed Forces.”

  “The PRIME?! Oh shit.. How the hell did I end up here with you?”

  “… Don’t ask me. The last thing I remember is.. talking to Commander Moreau.”

  Data looks up at Sakura in surprise, though his expression is lost in the darkness.

  “Moreau? What’s his first name?”

  “… Seymour.”

  “Oh… Hm.. Yeah, actually, same with me.”

  “Huh?”

  “The last thing I remember is talking to him too. There was a person in a mask.. and another person.. a girl.. She looked a lot like you.”

  “… That’s weird.”

  Through the veil of shadows, as the walls vibrate loudly, Data just manages to make out Sakura’s figure, and it is quite small, surprising him even further.

  “You say you’re a Sergeant?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Uh.. Aren’t you a little young?”

  “The PRIME promotes based on skill, not age. Besides, the Commander was twelve when he made Lieutenant..”

  “Hm.. Well anyway, do you know where we are?”

  “How would I know?”

  “Well, let’s find out.”

  Data approaches the double steel doors at the end of their confines, and tries to pull them open. However, they are locked tight from the outside. Sakura watches him raptly, but gets distracted when she feels something warm and wet dripping from her nose. Wiping her face discreetly, she finds the liquid to be blood, and feels her chest constrict in fear. She hastily tries to stem the flow of blood, but it shows no signs of stopping. Wondering if her nosebleed is the cause of her lightheadedness, she tries to recall what she has been doing up until this point, but it remains a tangled blur. However, one particular memory seems to burn in her harried mind: the sight of a gigantic pillar of blindingly bright white light, and a surge of intense heat. While Data slams his shoulder against the doors, trying to break out of wherever they pair are imprisoned, the room around them suddenly shakes violently, and the sound of screeching tires permeates the air around them from outside of their confines.

  “Well now, I think it’s safe to say that we’re in a vehicle.”

  “But where are we going?”

  “I don’t know. But we won’t find out just sitting around. We need to break out..”

  “And if we can’t?”

  “.. I’d rather not know.”

  As soon as the words leave his mouth, the vehicle carrying them screeches to a halt. Two soldiers approach the APC from the outside, pull open the back doors, enter the darkened vehicle, and drag both Data and Sakura out into the open. Looking up, Data spots a massive building extending high into the clouds of pollution encircling the area. The soldier, with a derisive laugh, smacks Data in the back of the neck, knocking the glasses off his face. The soldier then forcefully blindfolds the now vision-impaired Gordon and Sakura, submerging them in darkness as Data hears the distinct sound of guns being loaded.

  ~Old Dystas: Oskan District~

  Seymour, Elena, and Trace speed through the charred, melted ruins of what was once the city of Dystas in the car Elena stole upon her return to the hideout, with Seymour at the wheel, Trace in the passenger seat, and Elena in the back seat. As rain pummels the scorched land below from the blanket of steely grey clouds above, Elena closes her eyes in thought, and leans forward in her seat towards Trace.

  “… So, uh, tell me again, Trace.. Why are you coming with us?”

  “Huh? Well, because, I wanna help you guys. Duh.”

  “Yeah but.. Aren’t you kinda old for this stuff?”

  “Whoa whoa, stop right there, blondie. I’m not that old. I’m seventy-eight.”

  “Uhh… That’s pretty old, actually.”

  Trace glares at Elena angrily over his shoulder, and shouts indignantly –

  “Hey, listen, girlie! I can kick ass at any age! And besides, I’ve been doing shit like this since way before you were even thought of!”

  “Okay, okay, I get it. I just hope you’re right..”

  “Hmph.. Kids..”

  Elena leans back into her seat with a weary sigh, and looks over to Seymour, who is staring ahead absently through the thick sheets of rain pounding the windshield. He hasn’t said a word since the three of them started driving, and is still pale and shaky. She leans toward him and says –

  “… Seymour?”

  “… What?”

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “But you don’t look-”

  “I said I’m fine.”

  Elena nods skeptically, and sinks back into her seat as they drive out of the pounding rain, and into the looming shadows of the Dystas transit tunnel. After a few minutes of driving undisturbed through the dark, empty tunnel, the car suddenly starts veering to the left - straight into the tunnel wall. Trace cries out, and yanks the wheel sharply to the right, pulling the car away from the wall of the tunnel a moment before it would have smashed into it. Gasping with a mixture of fright, fury, and relief, he looks to Seymour, his eyes alight with vehemence.

  “What the hell is wrong with you, kid?! You tryin’ to kill us?! Leave that to the PRIME!”

  “… Uh, Seymour?”

  Seymour is still staring straight forward, completely unaware that his hands are no longer on the wheel, or that either of his companions is talking to him. Trace furiously punches him in the shoulder, and Seymour shakes his head in surprise.

  “Hey kid, I’m talkin’ to you!”

  “… You were..?”

  “What the hell is wrong with you?!”

  “.. I’m still poisoned, remember?”

  “Then why the fuck did you wanna drive?”

  When Seymour fails to respond, Trace grits his teeth furiously, and bellows –

  “See?! I knew you coming with us was a bad idea! You should’ve stayed at the hideout, and we should’ve just gotten the antivenom ourselves!”

  “… Well, whether you like it or not, I’m coming with you, Trace. And until we can get to the antivenom, I suppose I’ll just have to hold out..”

  “No, that’s too risky! I’m not gonna let you die on me again, kid!”

  “He’s right, Seymour. VENOM doesn’t last forever.. If the effects wear off before we can find the antivenom, you’ll-”

  “Don’t say it, blondie! Let’s just double-time it to Santuc. Uh, but.. Where exactly are we goin’?”

  “Oh.. I’m not sure.. I didn’t hear where the PRIME took them, but ah, wait, his tracer will tell us.”

  Elena leans forward, and grabs the tracer from Seymour’s belt loop.

  She activates the screen, and finds only one signature on it: her own signature. However, two other dots flicker indistinctly near the very edge of the screen, both emanating from a building in the very center of Liberty District. When she shows the scan to Trace, he gasps in alarm.

  “Ah shit.. They took ‘em there?”

  “Where is there?”

  “That’s the eXo PRIME’s military headquarters! How the hell do you not know that?! It’s the most heavily guarded facility in the entire world.. Everything within a five-mile radius of that place is strictly PRIME. Gettin’ in there alive would take a fuckin’ miracle..”

  Seymour takes his tracer from Trace, and studies the screen for a moment, the red light reflecting brightly in his colorless eyes, until finally, he declares quietly –

  “… We’ll get in there. Sakura and Gordon need our help, no matter what danger is in our way..”

  “Heroic words, kid. But hold up now, you’re sick.. You can’t go bargin’ into the most fortified fortress in the known world in your condition. Hell, you can barely drive a car. We have to find you some help, and quick.”

  “And that’s where we’ll find it. I know for a fact that Serpiente del Pecado antivenom is kept at
every PRIME facility. Not only that, but the contraband manifest I read at DIV. 1 said they took my CMCI units to the military headquarters’ contraband vault.. So then.. We’ll bust in, get the antivenom and the isolators, rescue Sakura and Gordon, find the radio wave amplifier so we can locate Sam and Adrian, then escape.

  If we stick to that plan, everything should be fine.”

  “Oh yeah, that’s a pretty good plan, except you’re forgetting the part where you can barely stand, and there are hundreds of PRIME soldiers there, ready to blow your head off at the first chance they get.”

  “Just.. trust me, Trace. Now, let’s go.”

  “Yeah, but I’m drivin’! I ain’t lettin’ you behind the wheel again!”

  “Fine, fine. Let’s just get out of here, before the Seekers find us in their territory.. The last thing we need is to be caught by those idiots…”

  Confused by Seymour’s remark, Trace opens his door and steps out into the tunnel, scanning for any Seekers of Peace, but the whole tunnel appears to be deserted.

  “I’m not seein’ many Seekers.. I wonder where they all are?”

  “Who cares, Trace? Just start driving! And Seymour, you just use this time to rest, okay? Don’t worry about anything until we get to Liberty.”

  “Alright... But don’t worry, Elena.. I’ll be fine.”

  “Yeah.. I’ve heard that before..”

  With Trace now in the driver’s seat, the trio continues to speed swiftly through the darkened tunnel, past the Seeker’s giant collapsed barricade, and out into the streets of Trajit beneath the massive, towering TerraDome.

  ~Santuc TerraDome: eXo PRIME Military Headquarters (Liberty)~

  Shackled to a chair, and unable to move or see, Data tries to wriggle his arm free from the handcuff tight around his wrist, but to no avail. The sound of approaching footsteps echoes ominously around him, as somebody grabs him suddenly by the shoulders, and tears his blindfold off. Blinking in the abrupt flood of bright, blinding light, Data finds himself in an opulent, spacious office room, with a vast row of spotless windows which take up the entire back wall and look out on the district of Santuc stretched out below through a haze of greenish-orange smog. He appears to be alone in the office, and, looking to his left, spots a large digital clock mounted to the wall, and made of solid silver. It displays in great crimson figures: “3:29:47 PM, Wednesday, August 21, 2245” above the PRIME’s motto, which is deeply engraved into the silver. While he stares intently at the clock, his vision blurred, since he is not wearing his glasses, he suddenly feels a hand on his shoulder again, and looks over his shoulder to find General Solari smiling at him with a mixture of amusement and hatred. He sits down in his high-backed leather chair behind his long, ornate wooden desk with a smug, satisfied smirk spread across his arrogant face. He puts his hands behind his head leisurely, and stares at Data inquisitively, who doesn’t return his gaze; instead, he looks upon Solari’s unnecessarily long desk with amusement.