Chapter 12

Dependence

The girl was there again.

Cold yellow eyes stared at her, and she felt her body tremble of its own accord.

“What do you think you’re doing?” a soft voice asked, as she felt a twitch run through her fingers.

“I’m having fun! There isn’t anything wrong with that!” She grinned, self assured, as the girl disappeared again.

But another question still lingered, unspoken, in the air.

She could feel it, creaping up her spine, grabbing at her throat.

Who do you think you are?

---

The air smelt of rain as the cloudy sky lazily passed overhead. The brittle grass roughly bowed to the dry earth as a cold gust of wind seared the hilly landscape.

The old factory was one of the few Factories that remained standing, although just barely. Half of the south wall had crumbled to dust, and all of the few windows that interrupted the uniformity of the concrete had been shattered open.

Andre stared at the blank walls of the formula room and sighed, pausing from his work to gently rub the top of Dependence’s head.

She looked up at him. “Onii-san? What’s wrong?”

He just inhaled the stale air and sighed. “Do you feel like something’s coming?”

She shook her head. “No.”

He smiled, and continued with his work, though his hands were shaking.

---

Father smiled. “Well, my daughter, I must say, you outdid yourself.”

“Thank you!” She exclaimed, grinning.

His yellow eyes gleamed behind his angular glasses as he looked down at the new arrival. “He was… quite unexpected. Where did you find him?”

“Wondering around the outskirts of the forest south of here. He was traveling with some stupid human that probably didn’t know any better.” She laughed.

“Oh really. Sad how we weren’t able to save him before, isn’t it?”

Her smile looked somewhat stressed. “Yeah.”

“You look tired, is something wrong? Absence?”

“It’s just that… I feel like something’s missing. I don’t know what or why but it feels like I left something back there. That’s stupid, isn’t it?”

“Yes, my child. It’s very stupid. Don’t bother yourself with such silly details. Forget it.”

“Okay!” She grinned.

“I’ll leave the boy in Hypothermia’s care. You can take a rest for now.”

“Thanks!!!” she laughed, skipping off.

---

“Walk faster. You’re holding us up.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re a jerk?”

“No, actually, their too busy worshiping me.”

“You have one hell of an ego.”

“At least I can walk properly.”

“Well excuse me! I’m still recovering, you know!” She shouted, aggravated beyond all bounds.

“You’d better hurry up, we’re almost there.”

“Shouldn’t you be looking for your friend?”

“He’s not my friend!” He shouted, enraged. “If he was, he wouldn’t have run off like that!”

“Touchy.” She snorted, limping along the road. “Doesn’t matter to me. I just want to find Cain as soon as possible.”

“Then you’d better start walking faster!”

“I can’t!” She shouted, about ready to explode.

Gaki walked behind the two of them, vaguely thinking that she should pipe in and defend Akuma, but she did nothing of it.

Let him cheer himself on for a while.

---

To hope for salvation.

That was too much to ask for, even for those that call themselves Angels.

But survival. He could pull that off.

He could survive. Even if he had to be reduced to doing something despicable like this, at least he wouldn’t disappear.

You’re the most selfish person ever.

There was that voice again, but for once, he didn’t want to listen to it. He shut the thought out, and entered the old Factory.

---

---

The old Factory loomed in the distance.

“That’s where she is.”

“How the heck can you be so sure? I don’t have time to waste if you’re wrong.”

“Look girl, just trust me. This is the place.”

“And why should I trust you? You were going in the completely wrong direction before!”

“There isn’t anything else for miles. If it isn’t here, we probably won’t make it in time.”

“In time for what?”

“Let’s just say that, that little kiddy you won’t shut up about, he won’t be the same.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, what if I were to say that that girl that took him once was a perfectly reasonable and sane girl?”

“I wouldn’t believe you.”

“Well it’s true.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“You will soon unless you start walking faster.” He replied coldly.

---

The factory was abuzz. Obedience ran from the machine room, hastily carrying a last minute accessory for the rebuilt machine in the Creation room.

That machine- she couldn’t help but marvel at it. It was so well built, so perfect. She almost envied it. She could almost hear the loose screws rattling around in her pathetic excuse for a brain.

Ah, but the machine!

How Father had slaved away in building it! For seven years now, he had sent them to collect parts, formulas, floor plans, and people. Especially people. They were the resource that was the hardest to find. Of course, humans turned up their noses at them the moment they found out they were Failures. Demons were far too aggressive, and the angels were dying off faster then flies. They had to find other Failures, like them, ones without a purpose, so that it would be easier to, as Father always said, ‘condition them’.

She remembered all too well what that meant.

She attached the part, expertly screwing in the tinywires and meters.

The door whooshed to a shut behind her.

Her feet clicked down the white tile of the hall, and she could vaguely make out the taped explosions and screams that echoed down the hallway.

Father was speaking.

Why they kept us alive was really very simple.

First reason- experimentation, to see what ‘went wrong’ in our formulas

Second reason- correct and proper demons were very difficult and expensive to make. Far too expensive to have them blowing up on simple land mines…

His voice trailed off as the walked down the hallway.

Absence must have gotten lucky on her last mission.

I wonder who…

Obedience hurriedly walked through the empty hallway, trying to shake the loose thought from her mind.

A few paces down, she stopped dead in her tracks.

Someone was there.

---

They were there.

The crumbling Southern wall proved an easy access point, as they golden-eyes really weren’t expecting intruders. The girl slipped inside the moment they got there, but Gaki held Akuma back.

“Do we have a plan? Akuma?”

“It wouldn’t make any difference if we did. We’ll probably be outnumbered at least two to one.”

“Isn’t that why we need a plan?!”

“If anything we can at least destroy that machine. Then, at least they won’t win. Maybe they’ll have a good laugh about it afterwards, talk in perfect sing-song harmony about what they learned. About how,after ridding the world of evil, disillusioned folk like me, they realize that world really is better off without us anyway, and they sigh in contentment as the tainted seed of angels, demons, and everything in between is wiped clean of this earth. Just like good and proper heroes, aren’t they?! ”

Gaki looked up at him, confused. “But that’s the exact opposite of what they’re trying to do!”

“Who cares! I don’t!!!” he jerked his head away.

“But you do, Akuma!!! I can tell!” She knew that she shouldn’t be saying things like this, but she was so confused. He wanted her to speak up for herself, didn’t he?!

And besides… she was worried about him.

Almost at once, she found her voice soft. “You don’t… really want them to lose, do you Akuma?”

“I HAVE TO!” He shouted, face red. “If I’m to succeed, I have to hate them with every ounce of my being! Everything they do, everything they say, I have to see it all crash down upon them! I gave up my title of an angel, took on the name of a demon! I had never planned on doing that. But that’s what happened, and I have to see it through to the end! I am not about to let this all be for nothing!”

“A-Akuma!”

“At least I’m not just some angel. I’m different from the rest of them. They- their nothing more then machines.”

She flushed. “Well, excuse me! If you hate machines so much, then why did you bother picking me up?”

He turned, an empty smile on his face. “Who can say? Out of spite, I guess.”

The words hit her hard, but he paid her shock no mind. “You don’t have to follow me if you don’t want to. But I know you will.” He went on ahead, never once turning back.

She looked after him, at a complete loss for what to do.

He was… so troublesome! If he were to just give her a strait answer or order, then she wouldn’t have to deal with feeling so confused and helpless.

She held her head in her hands as she felt the heat of her processor reach an unhealthy amount.

She shook her head, and continued into the building.

---

Akuma looked back at her.

“You see. I told you that you’d follow me.”

She flushed, but shook the feeling out. “Where’s Valerie?”

“Who?”

“The redheaded girl that came with us!”

“Oh, right.”

“Well, where is she?”

“She must have gone on ahead of us. She did seem to be in a pretty big hurry.” He shrugged.

“You think?”

“Well, regardless, we should try to find our way around this place. Do you have a map or something in your data?”

“Why would I?” she asked, face beginning to flush again.

---

Valerie walked alone through the white tiled hallway, the sickly feeling that she had been trying to hold back slowly starting to creep up her heart.

In the end, you weren’t really able to fool anyone, were you?

She clutched her chest, throat feeling unbelievably dry.

She wasn’t entirely sure what the thought meant, but she knew it was true.

What are you talking about? Of course you know what it means!

You’re nothing more then a selfish human, trying desperately to find some sort of meaning or moral in a place where there really is none. If you had been born a few generations earlier, you would have fit right in with the crowds of angry protesters meaninglessly yelling for the better treatment of creations.

Her mind was a jumble, comparing unrelated things.

She walked on, trying to ignore the yelling in her head.

Then she heard it. There were noises coming from one of the nearby rooms.

A tiny, quick scratch of a pencil against paper, followed by a blaze of fingers typing a code.

She narrowed her eyes, and opened the door.

The red-head scientist on the inside was surprised, to say the least.

---

Andre just looked at her, wide eyed. “Valerie?” he whispered, confused.

She narrowed her eyes. “What are you doing here?”

“I work here. They’re pretty much the only job around for a genetic engineer.” He shrugged “But what are you doing here?”

“I came to retrieve somebody.” She whispered, voice low.

“What are you- Wait you don’t mean that retarded Failure, do you?”

“He’s not retarded.” She hissed, vehement. “Now where is he?”

“Why do you care?”

“That’s none of you’re business!” she shouted, face flushing.

“You haven’t been traveling with that guy, have you?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I have. Now if you-”

“Valerie, that isn’t good! You know those things are emotionally unstable!”

“Gee, I wonder why that is?” she whispered, voice dripping of sarcasm.

He narrowed his eyes.

---

Dependence stared at Father, incapable of understanding what he had just asked of her.

“What?”

“It shouldn’t be too hard. Just do it.”

Her bottom lip began to tremble. “I can’t…”

“What are you talking about, Dependence? Of course you can! Just a simple jab through the heart, and that’s all that it takes.”

“But why?” She pleaded, hands tightening on the cold grip of the knife.

“You don’t need to know why.” He hissed, eyes narrowed into little slits. “I designed your formula. I am your creator! I was just expecting a little more gratitude from you, that’s all. Now get it done.”

She looked like she was about to protest- but suddenly her eyes glazed over and she nodded.

“I understand.”

---

“They aren’t human, Valerie.”

“So what?!” She shouted, face flushed. “Who do you think made them like that?”

“It’s their nature.”

“Says who?!”

He slammed his hand on the desk. “Says everybody, Valerie! What the heck is wrong with you?!”

“I think they can change, if you let them.” She wasn’t really sure where the statement came from, but now it was said.

His squinted his eyes quizzically, mouth forming a small ‘o’.

“Change? Are you crazy, Valerie? Are you really so egotistical as to believe that you, a mere human could actually create a living soul?!”

He shook his head. “The belief of what they are, what they have to do, that’s all they have. It keeps them alive, but not much else.”

The door opened a creak. A single yellow eye gazed in. “Onii-san?” there came a hoarse whisper.

“Ah, there you are!” His voice instantly changed, and he suddenly became much more approachable. “What did he want?”

She clutched something behind her back. “Nothing.” She directed her gaze to the floor.

“What about her then?” Valerie hissed, eyes burning fire.

“Her? What can I say, she needs me. They can’t live on their own, you see. They don’t have the capacities for that. They’d either go crazy or die of starvation. She-” he patted her on the head “She needs a soul to latch on to, and I just happen to be it.”

Dependence looked as though she couldn’t hear him, mismatched eyes glazed and empty as she silently mouthed the orders Father had given her.

“How can you think like that?” Valerie whispered, voice low. “What do you expect them to act like after being told things like that all their life?”

“If they were really as independent as you seem to think, Valerie, then they would have proved me wrong long ago.”

Dependence was shaking, Father’s words echoing within her. She knew what she had to do, and she knew that she had to do it now.

I haven’t done anything wrong, have I Father?

So why are you punishing me like this?

Her eyes widened and she suddenly threw herself at Andre, and for a moment, it was as though they were fixated in some sort of twisted embrace.

Then his eyes shot wide as a gush of crimson seeped from the blade and trickled down her shaking hands, running down her wrists and arms and slowly dripping off of her elbows.

Dependence stared at the blood on her arms and the blood that had splattered her face with a sort of detached surprise, as though she wasn’t entirely sure what had just happened.

“I don’t understand Father, what am I supposed to do now?”

She clutched the handle, and seemed to half-glide away from him.

“What have you done?” There was a whisper from the other side of the room.

She turned, confused.

“Who are you?”

The girl didn’t answer, just stared at her as though she had done something very wrong.

Dependence held the knife, cradling it tight, even as the blade cut the inside of her arm.

She smiled.

“I was everything that you wanted me to be, wasn’t I, Father? This is what you wanted me to be like isn’t it?!”

She drew a deep shaking breath.

“So what am I supposed to be now, huh? Who do you want me to follow now? Father?” her soft voice was ragged, trembling, even as her body stood erect, unmoving as steel.

She turned, dead eyes looking at Andre’s body.

“Him still?”

She inhaled.

“Do you want me to follow him still? Is that what I’m supposed to do? Father?”

A girls voice was yelling something, but she didn’t hear the words.

She was too far gone already.

Crimson red rained upon the tile.

---

Obedience burst through the door.

“Father! Look!”

He turned, eyes irritable. “Can’t you see that I’m busy?”

There was a muffled cry from behind him.

“Sir, you know that I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t extremely important!”

He sighed, nodding. “Okay, I guess that’s enough conditioning for today. Hypothermia!”

“Yes sir?”

“Watch over him.”

“Yes sir.”

---

There was the sound of a single pair of feet slowly walking through the entrance of the Factory.

Father’s head suddenly turned, and for once, his yellow eyes registered complete and total surprise.

Then, suddenly, he covered it, and he smiled, crooked and cocky, and spoke in a voice calm, cold, and calculated.

“Well, it appears that we have a visitor?”

There was silence.

---

---

End of chapter 12

Preview:

Chapter 13:

Whether for orders or for purpose,

For Fate or Destiny-

We will follow

The lead.

Command