Morning sunlight needles through the roofless building, shining straight onto the God Gier’s pretty face. Hikari watches as the android’s perfectly smooth skin practically glows under the golden rays.
She scoffs. How can something look so alive yet be so dead inside?
The God Gier begins to stir, and the process looks so natural that not for the first time Hikari has to remind herself what she is seeing is not a human but a machine.
Her blood is electricity and her heart is metal. But her soul… her soul is onee-chan's.
With a light moan, Gier 11 stretches and gets up from her corner of the room, as if despite the wind and smoke of the previous night she still somehow managed to have a pleasant rest.
“What kind of android are you that needs to sleep so often?” Hikari asks begrudgingly instead of bidding the God Gier good morning.
Gier 11 turns startled towards the only dark corner of the room, where Hikari has huddled away to keep out from the fast-approaching sunlight.
The corners of the God Gier's mouth turn down. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t think there was someone else here with me.”
It’s as if those words have a weight to them, pressing down on Hikari’s chest until she can’t breathe. “We were here since last night,” she says, praying her fear has not come true. “Don’t you remember?”
Gier 11 takes in her surroundings like she’s seeing it for the first time. Frowning, she rakes slender fingers through her golden hair, pushing them out of her eyes.
“I thought I was on my way home,” she whispers to herself. “I don’t remember anything.” She squints at Hikari. “Oh god. Was I drinking or something? Did I... did I just kidnap a little girl?!”
Hikari fights the urge to sigh or scream. Or kill someone. She feels her stomach clench, both from hunger and anger.
I could jump her right now and force her to remember everything all at once. But that would kill her.
“I... no. I was hurt.” She decides on a half-truth than a white lie. “You found me last night and looked after me here.”
God Gier 11 seems to buy that. “Oh,” she says, looking relieved. “Then…”
“I don't know about you drinking, but I'm fine now, thanks to you.”
Hikari is aware of how she must look. Not fine. Everything that could’ve been burned was. Right now, she’s nothing more than a beggar, naked under a stranger’s cloak. Although, she supposes she should be grateful that she didn't get done in by that crazy lady with the magical sword.
Gier 11 nods. “That’s good.” She spots her cloak and shirt then. One is wrapped around Hikari’s shoulders, the other on the ground where Hikari used it as a pillow. “Do you… um, need anything else? Should I get someone? Your parents?”
Looks like the System wiped clean her first encounter with me too.
Hikari looks up at the cloudless blue sky. She has probably only a few more minutes until the sun begins to grace New Earth with its obnoxious presence. She’ll need to find a better place to stay soon. A house with a proper roof, for starters.
It wouldn’t be so bad to die, she catches herself thinking before shaking the idea from her head. “My parents are long dead,” she says, already starting to feel faint. “I think I'll rest a bit more. Here, you can have your cloak back.” She goes to pull it off but Gier 11 says,
“No. Keep it.”
Hikari watches as the God Gier walks over to her shirt and pulls it over her head, tugging down the wrinkles along its edges.
“You’ve really embraced the whole living as a human thing, huh.”
Gier 11 digs into her pocket for a piece of colorful string and uses it to tie her hair into a ponytail. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing.”
I should let her go, Hikari thinks. After botching the first three God Gier’s recollection process, Hikari came to the conclusion that making a God Gier remember their past is a slow and painful process. Between their own fears and the always meddling Mother-System, the whole operation is like re-wiring a circuit-board; one wrong move and the whole thing stops working.
“Actually, I do need someone.”
Gier 11 glances towards her, one perfect eyebrow arched.
“My onee… big sister.” Hikari gazes up at the God Gier and tries to convey everything she cannot say through her eyes. I’ve waited too long. And now that I’ve started I cannot stop.
“She’s everything to me and I’ve waited for a long time to see her.” Hikari pauses to wait for a reply, but when it seems there won’t be one, she trudges on.
“I... I need you, Aiyano-neechan. I need you to remember me.”
The God Gier swallows. "I don't... I... " Her eyes dart around the crumbling building and she starts to fidget with her fingers.
She does remember. Hikari is sure of it. The truth may be hidden but it demands to be seen. She can see the silent struggle in Gier 11’s blue eyes. And when they turn on her again, Hikari doesn’t see an android but her sister.
“Your name…” Gier 11 clears her throat. “Is it Hikari?”
Hikari almost lets the cloak slip off her body. She nods, surprise making her forget how to speak. “Yea,” she manages to choke out. “That’s right.”
God Gier 11 walks over to one of the empty windows facing the northern mountains. Sunlight wraps around her golden hair like a soft halo. “This might sound strange,” she says softly, her long fingers circling against her temples, “but I think I dreamt that we were on a ship. I think it was ship, but it must’ve been a gigantic one because it could hold buildings and even a school on its deck.”
She hesitates and looks out at the sunrise.
Hikari waits, holding her breath.
“I saw you in a room overlooking that school. I was next to you. And all around us were these machines, humming and whirling, and there were… doctors and scientists…” Gier 11 turns around abruptly. “Sorry, that all probably sounded insane to you! I don’t know what came over me. It must've all been just a silly dream, huh.”
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“But my name,” Hikari urges. “You remember my name.”
The God Gier’s eyes are dark with uncertainty. “Yes, but I don’t remember you telling it to me.”
It’s been too long since Hikari last had a beating heart, but at that moment she can almost remember what it used to sound like. She imagines a jackhammer inside her chest, tearing her apart with its pounding.
“I didn’t,” she whispers, her voice hitching. “None of that was a dream. Those were memories, Ai-nee. Memories of when we were still together, before you became a God Gier.”
Gier 11’s eyes grow wide. "You know what I am?"
Hikari bites her lip so hard it hurts. “Yes. You’re Aiyano Chinen. My onee-chan. The one I've been waiting for all this time.” Something wet slides down her cheeks then, and it takes a moment for her to realize what they are.
I don’t remember the last time I cried.
Hikari swallows the lump in her throat. "I've... waited... for so long..."
Her voice fails her then. She finds herself staring mutely at the android standing at the other side of the room, torn between wanting to spring up and fall into her sister’s embrace, and keeping her distance to protect her sister’s brain.
Gentle footsteps follow the God Gier over. Hikari feels herself being enveloped by the android’s strong, cold arms, and it takes only a second before she returns the hug.
Her skin is softer, she notes as she breathes in the sweet, metallic smell of electricity and sunlight. Her chest is smaller. And her heart is so still. But I love her all the same.
“I don’t know how to say this…” Hikari feels her sister’s voice vibrating through the God Gier’s metallic chest. “But I feel like there might’ve been a misunderstanding.” The God Gier starts to pull away but Hikari holds on.
Not yet. Let me stay like this for a bit longer.
“I am Reaper-type God Gier MK II, Unit 11 of the Soteria Batallion. The other name I have is Elevena Windborne. I don’t know who Aiyano is.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it,” Hikari answers, burrowing deeper into Gier 11’s chest. “Don’t worry Ai-nee, just stay with me and you’ll remember everything. We’ll take it slow. I’ll take you to places you might recognize and then it’ll start coming back to you.” She pulls away to take hold of Gier 11’s hands.
“We can go back to the ruins of Haven. I can show you where I killed the head scientists guilty of making you like this. And then we can visit the graveyard of the fleet. There’s not much left but you can still see the skeleton of a couple of ships. Then after that we can…”
“Hang on. What did you just say?” Gier 11 slips her hands out of Hikari’s. “You… what do you know about Haven?”
Hikari feels the world go cold. Anger uncoils inside her belly, poisoning her thoughts and her next words.
“Is that all you care about? That stupid protocol and your precious human meat bags?”
The God Gier frowns. Even her frown is beautiful. Two perfect creases forming above her straight nose. "I’ll ask again. What do you know about Haven?"
Hikari’s stomach feels like it’s about to be sucked into a black hole. Her fingers and toes have started to go numb. She estimates she has about twenty minutes before the bloodlust overcomes her senses, if the sunlight doesn’t kill her first.
“I don’t just know about it,” she says slowly, “I was the one who burnt it all down.”
Gier 11 is on her feet, backing away. “You’re lying.”
Hikari gets up too, using the wall behind her for support. “I’m not, God Gier 11. If you knew what they did to people like you, you would’ve done worse.”
The fear in the God Gier’s eyes almost makes her look human.
“You’re the traitor,” she gasps, drawing her steel sword. “But you’re not a God Gier. What are you?”
Exhaustion and starvation are tittering Hikari closer to the verge of insanity, making it hard to think. She stares at the thin blade in Gier 11’s hand, sunlight streaming off its edge. Above their heads, the sky is turning from blue to white.
Not yet. Hikari eyes the empty room and curses when she remembers what happened to her umbrella. Sunlight spears into the house, spilling from the windows and unfinished roof all around. Hikari jumps back from a slice of burning light, growling.
The God Gier reaches out a hand, almost on instinct. "You okay?"
Hikari wants to laugh.
Even seeing me as a potential enemy, she still cares.
Outside, horse hooves begin to click to the sound of squeaking cart wheels. Men yell to each other, tools ring. The cacophony of civilization.
“We'll continue this later,” Hikari tells the God Gier. “First I need to take back what’s mine. And probably drink some blood while I’m at it.” She means the last bit as a throwaway joke, but from the God Gier’s shocked expression she knows she made a mistake.
“Are you going to hurt people?” The sword is back up again and pointed at her. “I cannot let you harm humans, no matter who you are.”
“I won’t kill them,” Hikari says, pulling up the hood of Gier 11’s cloak low over her head. “Unless they resist, of course.” The cloak is much too long, pooling around her feet like melted wax, but Hikari doesn’t want to tear it to make it shorter.
It’s my onee-chan's, is the foolish thought that keeps ringing in her head. And I need to give it back to her.
She turns towards the nearest wall. With a burst of speed she leaps up onto one of the wooden beams stretching across the top of the building, gasping as the sunlight envelopes her.
I should’ve burned this city to the ground when I had the chance.
Without looking behind her to check if the God Gier is following, Hikari hops along the beam and onto the roof of the next building, gripping the rough wooden tiles with her toes. Then, quickly building up momentum, she continues a string of hops across the rooftops.
As she jumps from rooftop to rooftop, a soft tapping behind her tells Hikari that the God Gier is following close behind. She cannot sense the android’s presence as the machine has neither heartbeat nor lifeforce, but she can feel the undeniable presence of Aiyano inside that being of metal and electricity.
I’ll get her back. But first, I'm thirsty.
The city stirs with the break of dawn. Hikari slows slightly to keep a curious eye on the activity below. She zips past a column of grey smoke rising from the blacksmith’s chimney, her nose stinging from the smell of fire. She hears broomsticks sweeping against tiles as she leaps over the general goods store. And when they reach the taverns, that is when she starts to hear the gossip.
“…They’re setting up…”
“…Looks like lashing polls to me…”
Something seems to be happening in the square today. Something significant, by the number of people all saying the same things.
“…wonder who it is…”
“…explosion in the northern sector last night…”
Hikari wants to stop and hear more, but with the sun now climbing sharply in the blue sky, she feels ready to boil. Her eyes sting and her scalp burns. The cloak does a decent job at covering her, but without her UV-blocking umbrella, Hikari fears she will not last much longer.
Picking up pace, she shoots across the city in a blur, bounding across entire sections of streets and buildings until she reaches the heart of the city.
Finally, her destination looms into view. With a final jump she flies through the air, getting a good look at the city from the perspective of a bird before landing gracefully at the end of a short stone bridge.
Seconds later, a sharp clack behind her signals the arrival of the God Gier.
“Hikari, wait,” she hears the android ask. “Are you really going to suck people’s blood?”
“It sounds gross if you say it like that,” Hikari points out. She starts briskly making her way across the bridge, cursing the over-enthusiastic summer sun with each step. She hears the God Gier’s boots clicking not far behind.
“Hikari…”
I've waited two thousand years to hear that name again. But it sounds all wrong.
At the other end of the bridge, the Kesrockian Knight’s headquarters dominate on its vast patch of flat green land. Its grey stone walls dwarf the trees around it, and unlike the library tower, every inch of this building is well kept and clean. Iron spikes rise from every corner of the rectangular castle and hung along each wall are the city’s banners, four animals encircled in a ring of golden leaves.
Hikari clears the bridge and approaches the gate. Two heavily armed knights are standing guard at each pillar of the massive archway, and a glance past them reveals four more stationed at the top of the stairway leading into the shoe-box castle.
“Halt!” one of the guards by the gate yell when they see Hikari. “This is the Kesrockian Knight’s headquarters! State your name and business!”
With a swipe of her hand, Hikari sends the knight sailing into the river moat around them. A great splash cuts off his startled yell.
“I’m here to look in your lost and found,” Hikari tells the other knight, who flees into the castle screaming. Hikari watches him go, lumbering up the long flight of stairs in his heavy plate armor. She can barely contain the smile on her face as she dashes after him, claws raised and ready to shred through steel and flesh.