Aurora Over a Dead World

"..." Ashlyn walks through the facilities as far as her visitor’s badge will take her, unsure how to start a conversation with any of these people.

Not to mention that some of them look dangerous to even try asking questions, so she’s spent nearly two hours wandering around, and she’s already spotted Zenith in the hallways four times.

’Th-This is so hard... if this keeps up...’ She desperately wants to earn Zenith’s trust so she can have a chance to sleep again; the chance to sleep means everything to her.

"[You’ve walked past this hallway for the twentieth time. Do you need something, girl?]" Ashlyn stops walking when she hears a voice, but sees no one.

"...?"

"[I asked if you need something.]"

"W-Who’s there?"

"[Answer my question before you ask another.]"

"...I-I need... I’m trying to talk to someone... I—"

"[I already know that. It’s obvious. You came with those other girls who are also wandering around with the same goal. That’s not what I want to know. What I want to know is if YOU need something, not what your goal here is.]"

"...I-Isn’t that the same thing?"

"[No. Your goal here is to talk to someone and learn, but that’s not what you need.]"

"..." Ashlyn bites her lip as she tries to find whoever is speaking to her.

"...I-I need my teacher’s trust... I-I did something wrong, and now I-I fear I’ve lost my opportunities..." When she says this, the voice doesn’t appear for several seconds.

"[I think I can help you with that. Keep going down this main hallway, then take three hallways to the right and open the white door with the restricted sign. Go down the stairs to sublevel -3.]"

"[The building uses negative and positive numbering. Don’t stop on level 3; stop on level -3, which is below level 3. No one’s on the way, so you have a clear path as long as you’re quiet.]" Ashlyn stays still and then looks at her badge.

"B-But I can’t go into that area—"

"[Do you want help or not?]" She spends a few seconds thinking before the voice hurries her along, so she ends up giving in. She follows the hallway until she reaches the door the voice mentioned.

When no one is looking, she opens the door, slips inside, shuts it quickly, and starts descending the stairs, her heart pounding with the fear of doing something wrong.

She keeps following the path until she sees level 3, but she ignores it as the voice instructed, and just below it there’s a level with a sign reading -3. However, she notices something else: the sign lists a series of rules.

’Do not touch anything. Do not turn on the lights. Do not open the hallway doors. Do not release the locks. Do not ignite any light source. Any technological device is shut down by the security system. Do not leave any exit or entrance door open...’ Ashlyn grows even more tense reading these rules and several others.

She takes a deep breath, and when she opens the door, she sees only a dark hallway. She enters, closing the door, and follows the hallway until she hears a voice.

"[It’s here, third door on the right. Enter it. The door code is 5792. It locks again every ten seconds, so it will close shortly after you open it and require a new code. The exit code is 3820.]" The voice informs Ashlyn, who isn’t sure if she should be doing this but still presses on for the chance to win back Zenith’s trust.

"..." When she opens the door and enters, she sees a large, cylindrical water tank. There’s a girl completely bound by chains inside the water. She’s naked, so numerous tubes attached to parts of her body are visible, embedded in her flesh while they seem to be injecting something into her.

"!!!?" Ashlyn steps back, seeing the faint, dim glow the tank emits, a blue glow and the room’s only light source.

"Th-This..." The girl in the tank has long, dark purple hair and a relatively malnourished physique, to the point where her ribs are partially visible beneath her skin, and she is very pale.

"[It’s me. I’m trapped in here... you shouldn’t have followed the safety rules... tsk...]"

"Y-You tried to trick me!?"

"[...]"

"[To a point, but I can indeed help you with what you need.]"

"Wh-Who are you? And why are you locked up?"

"[This place takes care of veterans on the surface, but from sublevel -3 down, this place holds problematic people who shouldn’t be killed but also shouldn’t be free.]"

"[In other words, it’s a mix of a hospital and a prison... or a sanatorium. It’s for holding people like me, who are too sick to live in society but too useful to be killed or discarded.]"

"I-I don’t understand..."

Ashlyn approaches the water tank. The girl in the tank doesn’t even have her eyes open, while a mask with tubes covers the lower half of her face, sealing her mouth.

’How is she talking to me? And how did she manage to communicate from so far away...’

"[I have Psyche-Bio-Spasm Medus Level 3. I doubt you know what that is, so to sum it up, it’s a ’Fear Disease.’ They’re very rare diseases. Your teacher should know what it is, and it makes no sense for her to mention it.]"

"A... disease? You’re locked up here because of a disease?"

"[More precisely, a fear parasite. A small creature that lodged itself in my brain and changed many things in my mind. It gave me a secondary power, the power of long-range telepathy, but in exchange, it turned me into a ’semi-monster,’ a human with the same instincts and desires as monsters.]"

"[In other words, I really want to destroy humanity. An uncontrollable desire. But, of course, at my core, I’m still me, so I can communicate rationally like a person.]"

"[Therefore, I’m an important research subject for the government, but I’m also too great a threat.]"

"...I’ve never heard of such a parasite before..."

"[Of course not. It’s very rare. I just had bad luck. Anyway, I’m not even awake. The water in this tank prevents me from truly waking up.]"

"I-I think I’d better leave. I-I shouldn’t be here seeing this..."

"[Why? Are you scared? Don’t worry. Do you know why it isn’t hard for you to get down here? It’s because you can’t get me out of here without breaking some of the rules. But the security system itself forces the rules to be followed after ten seconds if it detects something wrong.]"

"[Of course, if you’re scared, you can leave. But don’t you want to hear me out? I can help you with your teacher. Trust, right? You just want her trust... so how about a trade?]"

"A-A trade?... What kind of trade?"

"[Do you see those vials on the table? They contain residue of the parasite from my brain. By now, it’s so deteriorated that it’s about to be discarded. I want you to drink it.]"

"Y-You want to infect me!?"

"[Don’t worry, you won’t be infected. All that will happen is a psychic link between us. It should also boost your powers. I noticed they’re mental type, since you heard me quite easily.]"

"...I-I won’t do it. D-Do you think I’m an idiot?"

"[A little, but you seem pretty desperate for your teacher’s approval. This would be our little secret. I help you and you help me. Doesn’t that sound good?]"

"And how would that even h-help you?"

"[Simple. I’d have someone on the outside who can still hear me. The facility emits a type of energy wave that prevents people like me from communicating telepathically or with mental powers to anyone outside the facility.]"

"And how d-do you expect me to believe this is safe and th-that I won’t be infected!?"

"[The very fact they leave the weak residue here makes it clear you can’t get infected from just this, right?! You think they’d leave something so dangerous within reach of any intruder? This is garbage in their eyes, nothing more.]"

"[If I wanted to infect you, I’d tell you to open the tank and try to drink its water. Besides, the samples that can actually infect someone aren’t kept here. This place is just for care and keeping us alive. Any serious research is done in secret military installations, not in a hospital.]"

"[You watch too much television if you think they’d let something that dangerous be tested in a hospital that takes care of veterans.]"

"I-If that’s the case, why are you here?"

"[Because I’m a patient, obviously. It’s not my fault I’m infected. Besides, it’s not as easy to escape here as it seems. This isn’t a normal hospital full of normal people; it’s a place where everyone has powers.]"

"[If I tried to cause chaos here, my problem wouldn’t be the doctors and nurses; it would be the hundreds of veterans, full of issues, who could kill me for causing trouble. There’s no better place to lock me up than one full of people who can kill me.]"

’Then why... does she answer everything so quickly... too perfectly... I-I don’t understand. Is she really telling the truth? Why does she always seem to know what to say...’ Ashlyn is confused. She doesn’t understand what the point of her breaking the rules is then. If she breaks the rules of the place, wouldn’t that allow this girl to escape the tank and the hospital without being killed? What’s the point of her breaking the rules?

"[Are you going to accept or not?]" Ashlyn looks at the tank and then at the vials on the table, thinking about whether it’s worth risking it for a chance to earn Zenith’s trust when nothing proves that this girl in the tank will actually help.

’She seems to be right... why would they leave something capable of infecting someone with a dangerous parasite easily accessible... but there also seem to be some inconsistencies in what she wants...’ Ashlyn takes a few steps back. She thinks hard about leaving, but then she remembers everything.

How badly she wants to sleep. How she ended up in trouble with Zenith by using her powers on her. How much she wants Zenith’s trust so she can finally have a real chance to sleep.

"I-I think we have a deal... I-I’ll drink it... b-but you’d better keep your end of the bargain!! Or I’ll make you go through some very bad moments inside your own mind!" She threatens, trying to keep up a facade of courage.

"[Perfect. Ah, and just so you know, my name is Mycena. Pleased to meet you, girl, and let’s have a great partnership.]"

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