If no one had told Ayane she was staring at a crater, she would’ve never known. The place where once a single rock from space managed to hit the ground with such a potency all life around was executed in a single second, now stood a lake filled with life. The water acted as a mirror for the sky, the stained blue was mixed with the water’s emerald green. At the center, stood a Tower, slightly leaned, slightly corroded, with cables stretching from its top, leading into wooden pylons halfway submerged into water, and from there leading through pylons down the road and back to the town. A badly built wooden bridge connected the shore to the Tower.
The Tower’s approach was rough, even without a single blow of the wind, without a movement in the water, the bridge would undulate and twist under Ayane’s feet. As she progressed, she couldn’t help but notice dozens of wooden figures, the totems she had just seen by the road, surrounding the lake’s shore, all of them, filled with names in all but the last two top sections. She paid so much attention she tripped on a vine growing between the bridge’s seams, but Uroa’s, fast as usual, caught her.
“You okay miss?” Uroa is quick to ask.
“Y-Yes. Thank you for being so good with us.” Ayane replied with some dizziness.
“That is ok, I catch peop’ here all the time.”
“Meaning you get people here often?” Dylan asked.
“The oldest Tower is quite famous ya,” Uroa said with a smile.
Her gaze went downwards into the lake’s depths. She noticed something similar to flowers growing around reefs deep underwater. Some were so huge they reminded her of walls. Maybe they were walls if once a town existed here. She wondered but decided not to ask for the burning sky and the bridge's constant comings and goings were messing with her.
They picked up the pace quite fast, and soon, after a couple of minutes they were halfway across the lake, the three gigantic Synchronization Rings that composed the Tower's upper levels vibrated so loud, that she could hear the metal clinging from here, while speckles of the dust, shining in a vibrant green as the Rings changed they properties, could be seen entering the Tower. The Sun burned her skin like she never felt, the heat of the water being boiled around her made her dizzy, and soon, she collapsed again.
“Aya, are you–” urged Kaidan.
“Yes, the heat is–I need some water,” she replied looking around for a satchel she swears she remembers putting it next to the seeds… “THE SEEDS!” she screamed in despair as she noticed it was missing from the usual place she strapped it. I should’ve used the ribbon. Oh damn, Rutgers’ll kill me if he finds out. No, he’ll make me return to that building, to be trapped in that room. Her heartbeat increased as she got ready to stand up, and soon she felt a hand over her shoulder.
“Would that be yours my lady?” A voice she didn’t recognize asked, it was strong and decisive, filled with an accent different from those of the island. When she turned, two men stood by her side. She quickly recognized Anton, but the other one, offering her a satchel of water and another filled with seeds, was a complete stranger. She dozed off for a second as the adrenaline burst fell off once she saw the seeds.
“Thank you,” she said, extending her hands and collecting the items. The man was tall, with long hair tied into a single stream by a band. He had a triangular face, with a very defined chin, dark eyes, and oriental features. His composure was incredibly solid, and his clothes reminded her of the images she saw of Martial Artists, moveable, baggy, and yet practical.
“It was no trouble for me. But where are my manners? I’m Shinzu. I’m leading an expedition team to see how the Tower’s structure fares after so many years of exposure to Pleor. I Imagine you’re all scientists too, no one would come here otherwise,” he finished, glancing at Uroa while extending his arms, pointing at the whole island. Ayane wanted to answer, but she wasn’t feeling well. Instead, she just gulped all the water down her throat.
“You can say that,” replied Kaidan, giving Anton some cold eyes. “In his company, one would think you were a… hunter.”
“I Imagined you were the ones I’ve heard from. About last night's event, I mean. Elysium-3, correct?” Shinzu summarized. “I’m quite curious about a certain flower I’ve heard about.”
“I–I can talk about it,” replied Ayane, “ if you could tell us about that aquatic animal. I didn’t know they had been infected too.”
“We have no reason to exchange this information,” Anton said defiantly.
Shinzu raised his hands in protest. “Now now, people from the Elysiums don’t leave their shell often. Let’s not give them a reason to keep it that way. We are all scientists here.” Somehow, there was a feeling of sarcasm in his words.
Dylan made a quick movement but restrained himself. Whatever he wanted to say, got cut short. Uroa stepped up. “May I suggest we move into the Tower? We can talk away from the Sun, right?”
Dylan approached Ayane to give her support, and without a single word, everyone agreed they should move forward.
The interior was just as brutal as the outside, even though the sun couldn’t reach its guts, the heat was almost unbearable, the fact the steel hadn't melted yet was a miracle. Still, the shade was nonetheless welcomed by everyone. “You alright now?” asked Dylan while letting Ayane go.
“Better now, but you should take care of yourself too. This is new for all of us,” she replied.
“Well, at least this might be something my brother might enjoy.”
“Is the top floor secure?” asked Shinzu to Uroa. The tower wasn’t in a very good shape, not only was it leaning, but water from the lake was also leaking in. Cables, stairs, filters, steel, all mangled and intertwined into a forest of nonsensical design. With the Rings moving and vibrating outside, it was a wonder the whole structure had not collapsed yet.
“Yes,” replied Uroa. “The moving bridge is far wors1 than the leaning Tower.”
Shinzu and Anton took the first set of steps upwards. Shinzu stopped for a second and turned around. “Are none of you following?” he asked the group.
“We will,” replied Kaidan, “we just gonna wait a couple of seconds for her to recover her breath.”
“You shouldn’t worry about me, we can go,” Ayane replied.
“No, no, no miss,” said Uroa, preventing Ayane from moving. “You should re't a little.”
“But I–”
“Do it for my kid. We can’t have yo' exhausted if the boy decide' to come tonight, can we?” Uroa said, winking at her.
“Are you a fertility doctor by any chance?” Shinzu raised his eyebrow.
“No, I was a Minsho Priestesses,” she replied flustered.
“Interesting,” Shinzu replied, straining his eyes. “I shall wait for you all upstairs.”
Ayane sprang into action. She was feeling her body overheating, but she didn’t care. Somehow, she felt challenged. As they moved up, the harder it got as the leaning got steeper and steeper. Still, Shinzu's moves were fluid, as if the floor was just a simple flat ground, his hands always on his back, his upper body straight. “I’m sorry for the 'tate of the Tower,” said Uroa, “we don’t have people around that can take care of it.”
“Even the previous scientists?” Anton asked. “They surely must have engineers with great interest in this place.”
“Interested… ya’. But no one really helps. The’ look around and go. I feel like a te't subject.” Ayane expected to hear a response from the two scientists, but they completely ignored the man's plea.
A couple of steps later everyone was passing through the filters section. The common hue of cyan illuminated the air and resonated with all the dust around. This time, not mixed into the steel, just laying on top of it. As they passed through, their bodies were illuminated, and Ayane couldn’t help but notice that Uroa’s tattoos were all designed following the location the dust accumulated over his body. “How often are the filters changed?” Shinzu asked as he inspected the green dust coming from the outside and changed the color from its usual dark blue to magenta.
The diffusion effect, she thought, green dust is at a state the Rings can control where it goes, but it cuts stuff easily… the base for every Tower huh?
“As often as I can” replied Uroa. “They aren’t as simple as changing the ones in a car’s engine.”
Passing the filters, they were finally at the top, where a giant steel reactor, connected to multiple pipes leading from the filter below and above, towards a cylindrical, enormous container. The vibrations of the Ring around the Tower were stronger here. “Amazing setup,” said Kaidan. “I wonder how the Towers that followed improved it.” “Can you do anything here?” He followed while facing Ayane.
Tired from the climb, she conjured the energy to reply. “The only soil around here is at the lake’s shore. It’s not close to the Tower, but it is a start.”
“Sorry” started Uroa, “I wanted to ask before, but… how do yo' plan on saving us?”
Ayane got flustered with the question. Saving? That is… and then, she noticed that all the eyes in the room were lying on her. She took a seed from her satchel and stared at it, but what she saw wasn’t the seed in front of her, but the one most important to her, smiling as he explained how the seed worked. She opened her mount, wanting to utter the same words, but she closed, took a deep breath, gathered as much as she could remember, and then, professed her story. “You see, the petals of the flowers that’ll spring from those seeds can retain the dust, not unlike our bodies, but unlike us, they can dispose of it, using the sunlight and nighttime to break the components and dispersing them as simple minerals.”
She looked around her just to notice Shinzu staring at nothingness while Anton maneuvered the large Cylinder at the center, even still, he was also paying attention to her. They expected more, and so, she gave them more. “Of course, just like us, they also have a Threshold of how much they can gather at once before they die, so we need locations where the air has been filtered long enough, such as around the Main Towers.”
Uroa looked a little confused with the explanation. Maybe some word she used was unknown to him?
“I thought the Tower' did that,” said Uroa. “The filter thing.”
Before Ayane could reply, Shinzu intervened. “The Tower's function is only to collect, not to destroy. The material from which the meteor was made is such that we could not figure out how to destroy it without waiting for its half-life to do it. That is until now apparently. I’m very curious about how this process occurs.”
Uroa continued to be confused by the talk, so Ayane decided to cut it short. “It’s simple, we go around the world planting them where the Main Towers are. Once this is done, they will slowly grow and reproduce as they clear the atmosphere bit by bit. The simple Energy Towers can’t do the trick though, they don’t clean as much.”
“Ah, I get it now!” he said happily. “Will my son see empty skie' then?”
“Maybe in this region,” she replied, “my husband said it would take 15 years to clear the area next to a Tower, and over a hundred for the whole world. But then again, this place is dense with dust compared to any of the other Towers...”
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Uroa seemed disappointed, so Kaidan decided to intervene and lift him up. “We don’t need to clean the whole sky in a fell swoop. All we need is to have very little of it, so we don’t accumulate dust over the Threshold. If your son lives somewhere like this, he might be able to become a full adult.” And with that, Uroa’s eyes shifted from disappointment to happiness.
“Might I add some… corrections?” Begun Shinzu. “No, I MUST add corrections.” Ayane was caught by surprise by the emphases he gave for his words. “You kept calling it 'dust' when the proper chemical term is Pleor. Dust is too simplistic and gives people the wrong thought. The idea that this is there and makes it unnoticeable, just like dust. We shall prevent that misconception, Pleor isn’t a simple thing, and and it can’t become a simple word lost inside the common sense.”
Everyone felt confused by the sudden lecture. “I–” began Ayane.
“Another mistake of yours was to notice our friend couldn’t grasp the concept you talked about, even with simple words, and diluted it beyond a kid’s explanation. We shall strive for a scientific society, not to dumb down people. If he can’t get it, books should be provided but words should not be minced.” The air suddenly stifled all around the room and the sound of wind passing through the cracks became noticeable. “Let me give you all a demonstration of proper education.”
Anton approached Shinzu carrying a small amount of dust inside a round container, similar to a vial.
“Behold," continued Shinzu, pointing at the open Cylinder. The inside contained an amount of dust that Ayane had never seen. Anton gave Shinzu the vial. “This my friend is what the Towers do. They collect, some convert it into energy for our towns and cities, but they cannot destroy it. Every transformation it suffers, it returns to its former state by merging with something else, it is almost as if it negates the thermodynamics laws. Let me show you”.
The bracelet in Shinzu's arms suddenly emitted a glow, followed by a vibration. The small vial began to glow. Seven Rings were attached to it. Slowly, the dust changed color as each ring vibrated and then suddenly stopped its motion on a single rhythm, the interlocking. The colors passed through all spectrums, even the green Ayane saw outside, and, as the seventh one was about to interlock, the dust almost shining in bright red, Shinzu threw it away, to a far corner of the room.
And the Seventh Ring Interlocked, the air around the room heated and the vial exploded, bursting flames all around.It wasn’t a really big explosion, but enough to shake everyone out of their composure. When they looked at where the explosion happened, the flask was no more, the floor was damaged, but the dust was still there, as if nothing had happened, while a faint light emanated from it, hues returning from red to purple. “You see, they liberate so much energy, still there they remain as if nothing at all had happened. Yet, you claim your flower breaks them down…”
Ayane didn’t know how to react to what was happening, the man was terrifying her. “Don’t worry, I don’t think any of you understand how it works. A Minsho Priestess or the military guys can’t be the ones responsible for such a breakthrough. It begs me disbelief that people entrusted with such a mission are… lacking, to put it mildly.”
“What is wrong with you dude? Acting all high and mighty,” protested Dylan frustrated. “You know nothing about us or why we were chosen.”
“You’re right, my husband was the one who created them, and I have little to no knowledge of it all. But 'we' are trying. Elysium-3 is trying something despite the… horrible state we live in.” Ayane busted in protest, her voice louder and louder. “You all must think we were protected in there, but all I saw was a prison, a cage, a trap. Last night was the first time I’ve ever seen the night sky, the famous electrical storms. My husband never got the chance to see it” she kept saying, “so many died trying to be here. Years ago we had people trying to escape, they broke the portside shell door and flooded the place, they drowned themselves and killed many others. To this day we can’t close the glass dome without feeling the cold that comes from the flooded section we couldn’t recover… you might know a lot about the world and its scientific terms, but you know nothing about us, the people that live in it.”
Ayane felt the burst of energy going away and the heat coming back. She was about to faint when Dylan grabbed her once again. Shinzu appeared to be ready to make a move and aid them, but Kaidan stepped in between them. “The snake," asked Kaidan. “Your end of the bargain.”
Shinzu glanced at Anton, who then replied. “It seems like the Elysiums enjoy the act of playing God. The snake is a creation from Elysium-2.”
“You mean they purposely made a water creature infected?” Kaidan questioned in disgust.
“The reasons are their own. All I can say is that my team was tasked with capturing it and provided all we needed to execute it.”
“You mean the crossbow and the weird orb of light from last night,” Kaidan continued the interrogation.
“Correct, and some extras….”
“And where is the rest of your team?”
“We like to travel lightly,” replied Shinzu, ‘ still, have you not seen the huge boat by the harbor?"
“A scientist, a hunter wannabe, and a kid for field operations? Quite the lacking team like us uh?” Kaidan poked.
“You –” Anton rushed.
“Let it go, Anton,” said Shinzu. “They couldn’t provide us with an explanation regarding the flowers beyond the surface one, we don’t need to explain ourselves beyond.”
Ayane watched the squabble trying to keep her thoughts together, but the outside world was merciless for one who had never truly touched the sunlight. As her eyes moved around the room, she noticed Uroa’s lost in thought, staring at the inside of the giant Cylinder.
“You, ok?” Dylan asked Uroa.
And with those words, Ayane passed out.
–—
“Feeling Better?” asked Kaidan, shouting from atop the workshop’s roof. The night had fallen, and so had the eternal dust taken upon its purple dress of electrical splendors and dressed the night sky.
“Way better” she replied looking upwards. Suddenly, the head of a little kid snuck from the rooftop, staring down at her, and then another, and then another. One of the kids waved and screamed at her. She didn’t need to understand the language, they wanted her to come up. “But my dress–”
“Just come up” shouted Dylan from up above. “Even bro is here!”
“Thomas with kids?” She said with a smile.
“Can’t miss that right?” followed Kaidan.
She mustered up some energy and began to run around the workshop in search of the way up, but instead of a ladder, she found an improvised set of stairs made from all sorts of metals, boxes and savage pieces piled atop of one another.
Anton was leaning on the wall nearby, they exchanged a glance that made her remember the Tower climb, but her focus returned to the stairs and what she had to do. She hesitated for a second, and looked up, noticing the kids were watching her. She let a quick smile cover her face and started to make her way up. The dress entangled in every single thing it could and made her climb a hard and agonizing process, but at every step of the way she heard the laughs of the kids, and their eyes gazing, cheering as she made her way up. Her hands were getting dirtier by the minute. She even felt as if she had gotten a cut at her leg at some point, but she kept on climbing.
The vista at the top was beyond what she expected. Sitting atop the rooftop stood Kaidan with kids all around him; He, dressed in his uniform, let the kids and Sean try to communicate through the Communicator on his wrist. Right next to him, stood Dylan with blueprints all over the terrace’s floor mimicking with his hands at the kids to show his ideas without words, as little girls, making necklaces of flowers watched Thomas who kept pushing two boys away who were blocking their noses, he hasn’t taken a shower after all, while Liam stares at him, lost in thought.
For a second then, a miracle happened. A brief opening in the electrical stormy sky showed up and the moonlight decided to pass through and greet the ocean, the reflection creating an elongated pattern on the waves.
“Sean, look at it” shouted Kaidan, moving his Communicator.
“The Moon!! Oh my God, Oh my God, oh my God!” screamed the boy from the visor, with bright eyes. The boy took a deep breath, controlling his excitement, but it didn’t seem to work, as his next set of words followed in a breathless and rapid succession. “I read they had a base on the Moon! You better put a piece of the Moon on the book, so I’ll have to visit it!”
The surrounding kids were locked in a trance, trying to figure out what the boy on the little Communicator was so excited about.
“Calm down, little astronaut,” said Kaidan with a smile, “that would take far more work than I can possibly offer.”
“Don’t be a bummer! If you’re a hero, you can do it.”
“Alright, no promises, but I’ll try.”
The warm breeze passed by Ayane as everyone watched the Moon and the sea dance together. As usual, she found herself sitting by the window, watching the tree grow with a man by her side, but she quickly came back to the scene in front of her. The world there was merciless as the Sun’s heat proved, but also random, she couldn’t foresee the sounds of how things would turn.
They stood there, the four of them, Liam, the kids, and the Exocore underneath them with Unalu’s boat far in the distance, and she couldn’t help but notice Anton sitting there, looking at the world with the same eyes she had as she watched from the window.
Lina shouted something from the door far away. “Food!” screamed one of the kids to them.
“Of course, they can say food,” laughed Dylan away. And into the orphanage they proceeded, jumping from the rooftop as if the ground was close by.
Kaidan stopped by Ayane, who seemed lost in the moment. The overload of sensations was still a new thing for her, no, for all of them. The insects flew around her, the crackling of the fire burning in torches and inside houses whose electricity couldn’t reach or the smell of food being prepared all around her. And were those crickets she could hear? She didn’t know exactly, but she’d heard of them, from the one she loved.
“Wouldn’t it be great if the colony could always be in range?” Kaidan said. “It would be like we’d never left.”
“You sound like Thomas now,” Ayane followed, looking around to notice Thomas left the rooftop and was now sitting outside the orphanage.
“I can’t speak for you,” she continued, preparing her descent, “but all I said at the Tower was true, for me at least.”
“My son is there so I can't help…” started Kaidan, but he quickly stopped.
She knew why it was true, after all, she had no one left in there had she? Sean was there, sure. And some other people she grew with and cared for. But the one she loved was gone, yet his dream still lived on. Their dream still lived on. Here, outside. She felt the breeze lift her hair and she teased it with her fingers. The braids were not there.
–—
Uroa sat next to Unalu’s, helping the boy rebuild the boat. Uroa moved his hands, using Rings attached to strings on his fingers to manipulate dust, shining in deep green, floating in the air, following his movements, and cutting material with ease.
“Why are you upset?” asked Unalu in his language.
“Those two researchers, they seem strange. I don’t feel at ease around them.”
“They are going home tomorrow, right? I don’t see their boat around. With something that big, why bother going out in the night with mine? Crazy people,” Unalu said.
“They called me and my people idiots too. As if I didn’t know what the Difusion Effect or what the Rings do. My people…” Uroa was very upset.
“Look, when we are done here, we should take the kids to visit the other islands, maybe staying far away will help your son live longer,” Unalu said.
“Leave our birthplace? Our home?” The Rings Uroa was using stopped working. “Broken again…” Uroa said. “Can you–“ When Uroa looked at Unalu, he was staring into the distance, towards the orphanage… no, towards the bakery and fishery. “Man, just tell her.”
“She knows,” Unalu said quickly.
“Does she? Then why haven't we seen any babies yet?”
“Things aren’t that fast!”
“They have to!” he said firmly. “We don’t have much time in this world my friend. Don’t waste yours by not doing things.”
“I’m doing something, building this,” said Unalu, pointing at the boat they were in.
“Klonoa will not make you have babies, and without people, we will…”
“You and your baby stuff,” replied Unalu. “you don’t get it. Maybe she doesn’t like me or maybe…”
“Maybe, maybe, maybe. You don’t know, do you? Just do me a favor and ask her so we can get the maybe out of the way.” Uroa said, trying to fix the Rings, as he noticed one of the strings had snapped. Without at least three Rings, the system couldn’t work properly to attain the green hue state. “I think that is a sign the day is over,” he told Unalu. “One less day in my life.”
Unalu stared at him in sadness. What could he say? To know when you’re about to die is one of the worst feelings he could ever conceive, and he could do nothing to help his friend but watch.
–—
It wasn’t just a table, but a banquet they prepared, with a huge selection of drinks and food from the sea they had. “Sorry Kay, for this afternoon,” said Ayane.
“For passing out? Me and Dylan were almost there with you.”
“No. for not planting the flower and wasting my time shouting at people. I promise it won’t happen again.”
A glass suddenly shattered. Ayane quickly looked to notice Lina had dropped her drink.
“Sorry,” said Anton, “my head is in the clouds.”
“Is ok” Lina said smiling. “I’ll – “
“No, let me get it for you. You shouldn’t walk much at his stage.” With that Anton left in a rush.
“You know," Kaidan began, grabbing Ayane’s attention back, “You shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.”
A noise rang from far away, humming. the closer it got.
In seconds, the lights were out.
“It’s normal,” said Lina with calm…
Electricity began to flow in everyone’s body. Sparks flew where the dust had accumulated. The kids were contorting on the ground, screaming in pain. Kaidan and Dylan were trying to help them but couldn’t control themselves. Ayane looked at Lina, even in the dark she could see her face was terrified, but her body was feeling nothing. Not a single spark.
That was when she remembered the snake in the boat, the crossbow hitting it, the dust electrifying. Her gaze locked onto the broken glass Lina had just dropped, but before she could utter a word, her body was consumed by electricity, trailing from the dust concentrated on her left arm and moving across, towards other nodes, a few on her back, some around her waist area, and once it was felt on her leg, she quickly tumbled to the ground. And there, for the second time that day, she passed out.
The final word she heard as the kid screamed in agony was from Liam’s mouth… “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”