Capítulo 42: Chapter 39 - Status: Upgrade (III)
=====
This chapter is heavily connected to chapter 30 - Calm before the storm.
It is a major point for this chapter. I would advice you to re-read that chapter to understand what is happening.
-
Don't forget to give me a comment, reply, or power stone! They give me motivation!
Thank you!
-SR_2027.
=====
"Darling...?" Shadow slowly opened his half-closed eyes, watching as a light pink-haired girl rushed toward him, her face lit with joy. But as she got closer, her expression shifted to confusion, a frown creasing her brow.
"I've lost my memory," Shadow said, blinking calmly, without a trace of hesitation. "I don't know what happened. I just woke up here, injured. My arm was broken, but I managed to heal it."
Without missing a beat, he continued, "Is there any way for me to get my memories back?" he asked, his eyes scanning the surroundings. He glanced around, his gaze sharply looked at the metallic interior of the room, and calculated any potential way to escape.
Hearing his explanation, Zero Two's smile thinned in confusion, before she forced it back, softer than before. "Ye-No! I mean, restoring your memory could have some major side effects," she said, stumbling over her words. "The technology for that isn't perfected yet."
For an instant Zero Two almost responded truthfully, but at the final moment, she stopped. A small memory surfaced in her mind. This memory suddenly made her think of something.
<"Well... You see... Just like how we traveled to this new universe... I was once from another universe before I met you..."
"I... I don't know Zero Two... I have been trying to figure out what to do... I loved her as much as I love you right now! I just... I just don't know...">
Zero Two's smile thinned, an edge of joy creeping into her expression as if an obsession she barely understood had taken hold of her. She murmured something incoherent, her eyes locking back onto her 'Darling' with a single thought burning in her mind.
'Make him yours. Bind him to you, make sure he can never be free. Make him depend on you forever,' a voice inside her whispered, a voice that she didn't recognize as her own but one that felt like a forbidden temptation. Like a devil's whisper.
"I see," Shadow murmured, nodding thoughtfully. He released his mind waves again, reaching out to sense everything around him. He didn't know if Zero Two would let him continue, but he was ready for a confrontation if necessary. Thankfully, she didn't seem to mind.
His mind wave connected with the mind waves of Zero Two, to see if he could feel the emotions she was feeling to check on her. Fortunately and unfortunately, although he was able to connect and see the surface level of emotion from her, he wasn't able to bypass her deeper thoughts.
Thankfully just the surface thought made him relaxed mentally as he was able to 'see' that she 'loved' him.
With that in mind, he continued to spread his 'mind wave', trying to map out the whole inner structure of the place he was in.
Gradually, his mind waves swept through the entire structure, until they reached a hidden area below. Suddenly, a light flashed in his mental map, so bright it almost overwhelmed him. It was blinding, but alongside the light came a powerful, instinctive pull.
The light called to him, like bait to a starving animal. Like cheese to a rat; like honey to a bear and like sugar to ants. Shadow clutched his head, disoriented. "What was that?" he muttered, looking at Zero Two for answers.
"It's something you were working on, Darling, before you disappeared," Zero Two replied. "Oh, and by the way, your real name is Zero Three, but you told me to call you Ryo. My name is Zero Two."
"Ryo...", he repeated her words, his true name settling in. He gave her a measured nod, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Can I see it...?" His gaze locked onto hers, watching for any hint of emotion that might reveal her intentions.
"That...," Zero Two hesitated for a moment before nodding. "Please follow me. Doctor Franxx was in charge of your project. I haven't worked on it myself, so I don't know all the details."
With that, they quickly walked through the hall and finally reached an elevator.
With a wave of hand, Zero Two let the Klaxosaurs stay on that floor, as they finally descended the floor. As the elevator descended Ryo stared at his reflection from the steel wall in front of him.
His eyes wandered at his white hair and lowered down as he looked at his purple horns and eyes and finally at his blue skin. Without any extra thought, his eyes slowly looked at Zero Two's face from the reflection.
He noticed her absent-mindedness but decided to ignore it. It won't be illogical for her to feel lost after suddenly having her 'Darling' pop into existence again. Furthermore, he had been interacting with Zero Two's mind waves.
His mind wave instinctively confirmed that Zero Two was deeply in love with him. Furthermore, the life signs from her belly let him know that she was carrying a child, most probably 'his'.
*Ding*
The elevator finally stopped at the 'basement' with extreme smoothness. With that, the door opened and a bright corridor opened up. The walls had a similar structure to the one previously.
The walls were dark titanium colored while the edges were glowing with blue light from time to time. The only different thing was the smell. The whole place reeked of disinfection.
The only thing that made Ryo feel a bit 'weird' was that as soon as he stepped into the basement, his mind felt a buzz. A buzz so calming yet scary. But Ryo decided to ignore it, as the 'sweat' in front of him was just too good to be left alone. But the ringing continued constantly.
-Like a death knell.
They reached a circular room, where a large glass cylinder hung from the ceiling, unmoving. Ryo's sharp eyes caught a speck of blood at the base of the glass, no larger than a millimeter. His suspicion grew, but he said nothing.
They continued to another elevator that led them to a laboratory. In the center of the room was a massive tube filled with green liquid, containing a figure that looked just like Ryo, but larger, stronger, and more imposing.
In front of that tank, a man with dark blue eyes and black hair stood nearby.
"Welcome back, Sir," the man said with a dull smile. "I understand you've lost your memory, but don't worry. We might find a way to recover it. You can call me Franxx. My full name is Werner Franxx."
Ryo's eyes narrowed, not at Franxx's words, but at the intense feeling of danger that emanated from him. He gave a curt nod. "Ryo," he replied. The blood droplet and dangerous feeling he was feeling told him that the man in front of him could cause his death.
But since Zero Two didn't say anything, he was sure that the man in front of him was within her control and wouldn't harm him.
His attention then shifted back to the floating body in the tube. An instinctive desire flared inside him, urging him to possess that body at any cost. "What was the project about...? And is the project complete?" Ryo asked Zero Two.
With a humming sound, Zero Two walked to a console, typing in commands until a holographic screen appeared, displaying data. Ryo struggled to understand the language at first, but soon his mind began to piece together the information.
With enough words and images, his brain quickly processed the information and the language and pieced together the basics of the language.
With enough processing, he instantly understood. This project was for the original Ryo to transfer his own body into an even more powerful and potential body. This machine used a neuron network transfer process that could copy and paste exactly the same consciousness and memory into the new body.
As the data was processed further, two words instantly stood out, making Ryo feel excited.
'Progress: Complete'
Ryo felt an overwhelming urge to claim that body as his own. It was too powerful a prize to ignore, a way to become stronger finally. The instinctive pull just was so irresistible that he had to ignore the ringing in his mind.
'The ringing is definitely because of Franxx. I will just have to make sure that he won't have any chance to harm me in any way.', Ryo's eyes narrowed down at the feelings.
On the other hand, looking at Ryo staring at the holographic screen, Zero Two tilted her head. 'Ah, I just remembered, he doesn't know the language.', Zero Two smiled at Ryo and thought. 'Wait... This experiment can transfer one brain to another body... but what if... What if I and darling both together...'
A thought so dangerous yet electrifying popped into Zero Two's mind.
<"Well, you see, I was planning to make the dimensional hopping device to hop back into my old world, and after finally meeting my old, Darling, I would have used this device to merge your bodies~!">
Zero Two clearly remembered those words that Ryo told her. But the thought of merging with her darling was just so exciting that she almost squealed, but she thankfully gained control over her body and stopped herself from laughing out.
To not appear suspicious, Zero Two expressionlessly turned her back to Ryo and looked at the holographic screen as a smirk covered her face. She quickly fortified her mind, making sure that Ryo wouldn't be able to feel anything missing.
After some searching, she found the program she was looking for, making her press a button as two tables extended from the lab wall attached to the glass.
Zero Two's expression remained calm as she turned to face Ryo. "Darling, would you like to merge with the body right now, or do you want to do it right now?" she asked, sounding too excited for some reason to Ryo.
Ryo rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I'm ready to begin, but what about our safety? Is there a chance of anyone interrupting us during the process? How long will it take?"
"The transfer process will take about ten minutes," Zero Two replied, momentarily thoughtful. "There's no life signal within the radius of ten kilometers of this place, except for the Klaxosaur Queen in the lab down the hall."
'Klaxosaur Queen? So that's what our species are? Klaxosaur? Or are we something like Klaxosaur God? I will have to investigate later.' Ryo nodded and then turned his attention to Franxx. "Can we do this alone?"
Zero Two's eyes lit up. "Yes!" she exclaimed, her voice too bright, too eager. "Franxx, could you keep an eye on the Klaxosaur Queen for us?"
Franxx nodded dullly and walked out of the lab, his footsteps echoing in the silence. As soon as he left, the suffocating tension Ryo had felt seemed to ease, yet that strange buzzing in his mind only grew louder, like a warning bell he couldn't silence.
Ryo's instincts told him something was wrong, but he couldn't piece it all together. His mind wave instantly surveyed the surroundings, and aside from Zero Two's happiness, he didn't find anything suspicious.
Although the emotions he felt from Zero Two were reduced, he was sure that she never wished him any real 'harm' or else his instincts would have told him about it.
"Let's get started," Ryo said, determined to get rid of the ringing in his head. If he could merge with that body, he was sure the disorienting feeling would vanish. With that, he walked up to the medical bed and positioned himself.
'Zero Two is already stronger than me. She can control these creatures better than me. She could simply overpower me if she wanted to do anything bad to me. She won't need to play any games with me to gain something. It will just be time-consuming.'
'But I can take this opportunity. No, I have to. I feel no danger from Zero Two, my instincts are screaming to me that a form of danger is rushing toward me pretty quickly... I need to milk the opportunity as quickly as possible.'
Looking at Ryo, who was looking back at her expressionlessly, her fingers that were on the holographic screen paused for a second, before activating the transfer process, activating the neural transfer protocol.
The machine hummed to life, its soft whirring filling the room. As soon as Zero Two pressed the button, the metallic headpiece slowly covered Ryo's head as several metallic instruments started to begin their work.
Slowly Ryo's eyes felt heavy as another tool that can help extract memories approached his head and started to extract his consciousness. Looking at the process that had already been processed, Zero Two whispered, "Darling... I wish it never came to us...", Her throat felt dry for what she was about to do.
Zero Two's fingers lingered on the console, and she hesitated for just a heartbeat too long. Looking at Ryo's sleeping face, she felt a strong urge to stop. One side of her consciousness screamed to not do it, and the other urged her to do it.
Then, with a sudden determination, she activated a hidden command that wasn't listed on the main interface. The screen flashed, displaying new data; a neural synchronization protocol.
[Project: Body Merge Activated.]
With that, she watched as the medical bench by Ryo's side suddenly extended.
With determination, Zero Two slowly caressed her belly to feel the life source, the gift left to her. Her children. Two forms of life signs responded back to her; making her smile sadly as she transformed the fetus into a form of two eggs.
With that, she slowly walked to the bench, slept on it, and watched as the metallic headpiece covered her eyes.
Before going to sleep, she slowly looked at Ryo and whispered. "Darling. Please forgive me, but this won't be harmful to any of us. 'We' will be strong. We will join in together. Not just your body, but your mind and soul, merging with mine."
"We'll be inseparable, bound to each other forever. No matter what happens, you'll never leave me again.", A sad smile covered her face. Her innocence was long gone. She silently remembered Ryo's last words before he left.
<"I am giving you a final chance. Run away from me. Complete your task, and I might consider sparing your life and get back at you like you.", Walking to the other end of the lab, Ryo sternly continued, "Never talk to anyone, not even me... regarding this experiment. Or else I will never talk back to you.">
Zero Two never understood why she was doing that, but could only blame Ryo for forcing her into doing something she never wanted to do. Going against her own lover.
'I wish everything was so much simpler... We living our life peacefully, as a couple, looking after our children...', With such thoughts, Zero Two's eyes also started to get heavier as she closed her eyes, and she went into a peaceful slumber.
===
[2575]
Don't forget to give me a comment, reply, or power stone! They give me motivation!
Thank you!
-SR_2027.
=====
— Novo capítulo em breve — Escreva uma avaliação
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder