Section Song: Distant Leaps to Circinus

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Workers around the room watched as Chase walked toward the door near his desk. After rambling on for a half hour, he finally gave in.

“Chase! Where the hell do you think you’re going?!”

“Home! I’m done! This used to be about something more, and now it’s a damned mess!” Chase, wiped his face of blood and flicked it to the ground. The blood splattered against the bright white floor and made an erratic pattern.

“You can’t just leave after it failed. You know the Cypher won’t have any of thi-”

“I said I’m done!” He threw down his large white coat, stained with blood. “There's nothing to gain from playing God. To subject them to this, only because they can see them…”

“You know damn well that what we do is not bad, it’s for the sake of every person on this planet!”

Chase began to laugh at his coworker's words.

“Haha, okay. If that’s the case. Why did we unleash everything we had back then? You and I know there was no reason or merit in doing that! Because a child mumbled it? Because he said ‘Release them’? That's bullshit! Those things are out there now, because of us!” Chase began to fume, he felt his anger bellow more with each word he spoke. “This isn’t a simple test anymore. There's more than we know going on. Playing into the hands we were dealt with isn’t the way we should handle this!”

"Chase, calm down," another coworker said, "Just try and see the truth behind it. We need you. Try and remember the 8 sightings. Why we take pride in-"

“No! I’m fucking done!” Chase turned around, furious, he swiped all the materials off his desk. “If no one wants to hear me out, then I’ll gladly take on the whole damn world if I have to!”

Chase grabbed the doorknob and threw the door wide open. He expected to get a rise out of his coworkers by showing his fury, but when he looked back one last time, his heart felt like it was stopped in time.

Their faces are blank.

He didn’t know what else to do. His entire plan was to get them to think about their actions, instead what he saw before him was the saddest thing he had ever seen.

Why do they not see? Why do their eyes show so little empathy?

A glimpse of something appeared in the corner of his eye, when he turned to look at it, it was the mirror they used for experiments. Whenever he looked into the mirror, he always turned away because he couldn’t stand to see what went on in front of it. He could always see the experiments going on whether he looked forward or backward.

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What he saw now though, was just as heartbreaking as he saw before. His eyes too were just as soulless as those who stood before him.

I see… His eyes began to feel itchy and the world started to blur. I’m just as bad as them. After all, it’s my fault they are gone. Tears fell down his face. I’m all too responsible for those poor souls. Even if they can’t see, I swear I will make them live a better li-

The back of his head felt like it was suddenly on fire, he also noticed he was no longer looking at the mirror. The last moments he could see were his coworkers walking away from him, as he fell to the ground and lost consciousness.

“Fret not my son, we will heal the wounds within you as well.”

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Chase's vision was blurred. The people he saw before, his office, the mirror, it was all gone. His arms wouldn’t budge when he tried to move them. As he came to, he quickly realized where he was.

A holding table?

His body was spread apart with his arms and legs tied down. Bare skin was exposed to the world and he could do nothing to hide.

A dark-haired man walked in front of him, he held a leather notebook in one hand and a retinoscope in another.

“Don’t be afraid. You just can’t see is all. You’ll soon be able to embrace the future that they have paved for us.”

Chase knew he would be held captive, but it was pure luck on who would take him in for evaluation.

“Harlan. Listen to me. We don’t need to do this. It doesn’t have to be this way!”

The man he named Harlan, cleaned his glasses with his white coat and rested them back on his face. He tapped his notebook with a finger.

"Oh yes, it does Chase." Harlan sighed. "Look at yourself, quite pitiful for a follower such as yourself. All the research you've done. And the experiments you managed greatly benefited us. Why do you choose to sully it now? What other way could this have possibly gone, Chase?"

"Come on Harlan, look at yourself! I'm your best friend! You don't see anything wrong with this!? You know we only did the experiments because of that girl's words. It's true we gained something very powerful, but the way we run things doesn't need to be the same as before. If you listen to-"

Chase stopped when he realized Harlan wasn’t paying him any attention. He was too preoccupied setting down a leather case that had a strange animated glow to it.

“Harlan!” screamed Chase. He knew very well what he was trying to do. “Stop it! Please! You know why I’m doing this! Why can’t you just look the other way!”

"You know I can't do that Chase," said Harlan void of any emotion. "Even if our cause is questionable, we must push further." Harlan put on darkly shaded goggles over his glasses. Other workers within the room did the same. "Even if the world is against us, we must strive to keep our secrets safe." Harlan turned around and slowly pulled out the reason for why the leather case shined so oddly. As tiny as a marble, between his fingers, he held a small black sphere. The light it irradiated was otherworldly and could not be explained in simple terms. "For when people turn their eyes to the truth, can they truly see the world beyond just our own."

"Stop. Stop. Stop!" Chase began to struggle as Harlan started to approach him. Trying to pull his arm from his shackles and twisting his torso about, he tried to find any way he could escape. It was futile, he knew it was from the very beginning. His resistance died down, his voice began to tremble as he softly said, "Stop… Please, Harlan." His friend's face didn't change in the slightest. Chase closed his eyes and tears began to stream down his cheeks.

The light from the small black sphere dyed the room in all sorts of colors as if it had a rainbow inside it. The more it was exposed though, the more the coloring became skewed. Chase felt odd, he knew closing his eyelids would do nothing, but he at least wanted to feel like he was resisting just a bit more.

Chase could still vividly see the wild colors swirl and stretch in his eyes. The rainbow-colored sea of light was magnificent if he had to put a word to it. It’s just as beautiful as when I first found it… but…

Section song: Memory Distorted

A loud screeching sound erupted from the sphere and the rainbow-colored light turned gray in an instant. The screech was of no effect to Chase, after all, it was only for a second that he could hear it clearly. A screech that sounds so distraught was like a whisper in his ear. The world that was once alive, was as ashen gray as the aftermath of a fire. The people within the room who should have been moving, including Harlan, were all frozen in place. The sphere still emitted light that projected different levels of contrast, around the room. Yet, nothing else showed any signs of life.

Chase said nothing, he couldn't say anything even if he wished to. His consciousness was still intact, but his body felt light years away. He felt like he was seeing a dream, but he knew very well, that this was the reality.

With no warning, Chase heard a sigh. Within his limited vision, he saw no one speak.

"Your kind really has no self-respect, do they," A voice of indiscernible gender said. A bright light began to descend in front of him, casting shadows haphazardly throughout the room. His vision began to fade as a wave of black covered his vision. "Let us begin, Chase."