Half-Life: Revelations

Chapter 2

---

Dustin fell from the ceiling, landing silently on the ground next to Eraed. "Nice to know you both missed me." He said with a smile. "Sorry, but I needed to know if I could trust you." He looked over at Kumiko. "She likes you, thats obvious, me too, atleast, thats what I can see in her actions toward us. We need to stay together, and if you want it, I can give you help to controll those powers of yours. What do you say?"

Eraed nodded. "Just so long as you keep it down, she is sleeping." He gestured toward Kumiko. "I do need help, though."

Dustin looked at Kumiko. "Don't worry, silence is my specialty. You go get some rest as well. you need it. I am fine, so dont worry about me. I was trained to go days with no sleep, I will be fine. Now go to the other room and sleep on the couch." Dustin litteraly forced Eraed out the door.

Eraed was suspicious of Dustin, and stayed awake a long time, lying there. What made them think he could not stay up for a long time? That is how he had survived. He shrugged, and let his mind settle so that Dustin's every emotion seeped into him. He wanted to make sure he was trustworthy.

Dustin began to feel uneasy. He felt as if he where sharing himself with someone. "He is just checking" he told himself. "He needs to know me. I will tell both of them about me tomorrow"
He continues to watch Kumiko sleep. "She looks so peaceful, but its not true. It is for none of us." Silent tears began to run down his face. "Why am I here?"

Eraed felt Dustins emotions coursing through him. why are any of us here.

Wiping away his tears, Dustin got up and grabbed one end of the covers. He pulled them up and over Kumiko and left only her head showing. "Sweet dreams" He sat back down, and stared up at the ceiling.

"No, you can't, I love her" No 001 was stood in a hall way, his best friend being dragged away from him by two body guards. "Stop, you are hurting her. STOP" His anger started to take control. Black. Then, the taste of blood in his mouth, Her blood. He opened his eyes, he had her body in his lap. Blood streaming from her face. The body guards lay dead on the other side of the corridor, one holding a blood drenched crow-bar.
He sat up in the chair, a cold sweat running down his face and arms.

Eraed stood in the door way, watching him. He had to make sure, as he had felt the emotions of anger and bloodlust rise up in him. He was dreaming, just dreaming. He nodded down at Dustin, and came in the room, giving him a half smile.

Dustin looked up at him. "Sorry, I guess you felt that. Just feelings that came back to me, seeing Kumiko like that, looking really peaceful brought them back." He looked down, trying to think of something to say. "Still going with the quirky little half smile then are you. I have never seen you smile properly. Maybe I will, some day. Right?"

Eraed gave another half-smile. "Perhaps." He sat down, sighing slightly. "There is no need to explain or appologize you know. We all get them. It's a bloody past we all have lived. I just came in to tell you it's almost morning."

Dustin looked out the corner of one of the windows. "Sun-rise. I have never seen it before. It looks so nice." He looked over at Kumiko. "I suppose we should wake her in a minute."

"I would hate to do so if she is as peaceful as she looks." He said. Eraed, reached out, trying to sense her emotions.

To sleep so deeply that I shall never wake...

Kumiko stirred easily, the dream cloud beneath her slowly fading. Gold eyes flicked open instantly, spotting the others. So Dustin had returned. Sitting up she yawned; it was the first time she had slept in over a month. I don't like being watched over like a child. Kumiko paused and fingercombed her hair, blue contacts back in place. She grinned fakely, but said nothingDefenseless.

Eraed smiled down at her. "Morning. I came in to wake you. Dustin came back right after you fell alseep. I made breakfast, hope you all like pancakes."

She shrugged, "Any food is good food."

"Same here" Dustin replied. He looked at Kumiko. "Hay, I came back. Don't worry, I need to get out and clear my head. I ain't going to leave, not when i've just made my first real friends. Now come on, lets go get some pancakes." He left the room and sat down at the small table in the lounge. "So, how is everyone today, now that your all rested?"

Eraed had already set the table for three, and heaped pancakes onto their plates. "I don't have alot of syrop left, just about half a bottle." He set it down and gestured for them to dig in. "I am great by the way, it isn't often I have any company at all, let alone such fine company as yourselfs"

Dustin smiled. "You flatter us" he said whilst laughing and eating his pancakes. "So, anything anyone wants to share? After all, if we are going to be hanging around each other we may as well know each other. ehh, what do you think?"

"I agree. You both already know more about me than any other being on this planet, it's someone elses turn." Eraed said chuckling.

Kumiko said nothing, pickly dryly at her food. She turned to Dustin.

"Why don't you start?"

Eraed nodded. Where had he gone last night? He smiled over at Kumiko. "Do you not like it? I could make you something else?"

Not expecting to go first Dustin raised the corner of his lip. "Yeah, er, ok. Well, as you know, my name was No 001. I was the first experiment of my type. I am still a hybrid like your-selves however I was in the Apocolypse project. The Apocolypse Project, AP for short, was where hybrids like you two where injected with the DNA of other anumals. Like cats for agility, or rabbits for hearing. I was the first test, and they got carried away, I am human, but with DNA strands of spiders, pumas and of dogs. So I have reactions that border precognition, alot of agility and a keen sence of smell. They trained me to be a killer, an assassin. However, they did not expect me to show emotion. They tried to teach me to ignore it, and to put it to the back of my head." He pause hoping that they would understand the next bit.
"My first mission was a success, the assassination of the former president of the UN. My second, was a failure. I felt guilt, that i had taken away a mans life, robbed him of his memories, robbed his children of his love. I couldn't go through with my second kill. So, they punished me. They took my best friend, and had her killed. I tried to help, I murdered the two guards who where hired to do it, but not before they killed her." An image flashed infront of his eyes. He began to weep again. "I loved her, not like a sibling, but as a husband does his wife." He was wiping away his tears now, but with each wipe more fell. "Sorry. Now, what about you two?"

Eraed, had to fight back tears that were not his own. "I am so sorry, I understand." He nodded, his voice choked as if he had been the one talking. He damned himself and his stupid powers. He shook his head to try and clear the pain. "I-I was born in Canada, and I don't remember what happened to me, I was adopted by a couple, and so in that way I have a sister. I left home, because-" Eraed shook his head again. "I just did, and I have found myself here, living off my wits, and any odd jobs I can get." He then turned to Kumiko, waiting.

While the other two had shed tears, she sat there emotionless and hated it. She had forgotten what empathy was and could not cry. She hadn't for years. For Kumiko the room suddenly became a tiny box, trapping her... like the cell...

Watching the others, listening to their tales she felt compelled to speak even if it was against her will. She knew she could not tell her "siblings" all, even if she wanted to. It was locked up too deep.

Taking a deep breath she sighed. "My name is SU226, the barcode I was given the day myself and 299 others were created. We all had white hair and gold eyes from the mutated DNA, blue blood coursing through our veins. Saiba-Ukiyo, the Cyber-Lifes, were the Necromancers's greatest experiment and what were supposed to be their last. They expected greatness from us, but even they were not prepared.

"I was born stronger then ten men, with inhuman speed. I can leap so high one might imagine I can fly. You see, althought Dustin is human, I never was.

"The first thing they tested me with was with flaming metal, used to brand the others and I." She paused, unwrapping one of her forearms. Printed across in ghastly letters was "SU-226". She covered it just as quickly.

"Starting with 220 of the SU's they had taught us to absorb the properities of the first thing that met our flesh. For me, it was fire, the power I possess that has...killed many. Difficult to control...

"But after 8 years of tortuous experiementation the government finally jumped in. They ordered us to be destroyed...."

She hesitated, blocking off the flashbacks that haunted her. "....I was one of them."

"You miss understand me. I am not human eighter. I am not human. Although I look it, I am a clone, and I only have a copy of a human DNA. Hence, why i can do this." He held out his hand, and after a second a blue flame appeared in the centre of his palm. "It can be used for anything" He stood up and walked over to a draw. He removed a sharp knife and sat back down. "Watch." He plunged the knife into his hand, wincing at the small amout of pain it caused. It did not bleed. "Ok" he then placed the blue flame onto the cut, it flared then died. He showed them his hand and there was no cut. "You see, I also have bio-machanical features"

"True," she had shifted a great deal away from the flame, "But, your al least of the living...I'm not so sure about myself...

"During the massacre...I was...dying. It was when I discovered I could stop time, if only for a moment.

Even for a moment that would scar my mind until the day of my death.

I froze the moment I died you see? I..wish I hadn't."

Kumiko crossed her arms and stared hard at the floor knowing she would say no more on the subject. Her will was against it.

"Your dead?" Eraed, said uncertainly. "That's impossible, I can read your emotions, I can not read the emotions of the dead, or those close to it, it's much to faint, yours are louder than anyone I have ever met." He said without thinking, forgetting he would probably embarress her.

She glared upwards and shook her head. "30 years ago they thought it was impossible to clone a human being. Now look where we are."

Kumiko sighed irriatable, "I don't know if I am dead or not ok? I just know that there have been times where I should have parished and did not. I tried to kill myself and couldn't. I hung on that noose for an entire night and felt nothing."

"Your not." Eraed said with finality. "And of course you can not die, neither can I. Not from suffication anyway. What about being manufactured do you not get?" He asked. "Sorry, I just...your irritability kind of tranfered into me." He shook his head, taking another bite of pancake. "I'm sorry for your pain." He said, looking at her empathetically.

---

Half-Life