Night 66: Forest

[sixth_attack]

[From here.]

It was an odd thing really. Sechs had been so used to walking through those rigid hallways for the past few weeks that this trek through wide-open space felt almost foreign to him. No walls, doors, stairs or tiled floors... Just a wet, open field with grass, rocks and the occasional shrub. It was like he had returned to a very old memory, one of traveling for miles on foot through deserts and canyons back at his homeworld. He didn't think he would ever get rusty at this sort of thing! This nighttime walk was reminding him of just how much he missed all that freedom of travel before. Now if it hadn't been raining so damn much...

Ascending the peak of a sloping hill, Sechs paused and scanned the area to make sure they were going in the right direction. The rain was coming down so thick that he had to wipe his drenched hair away from his eyes to see properly. From there he could barely make out the pitch black wall of trees near the base of the hill. Sechs gave out a mixed sigh of relief and trepidation. They had made it to the forest, and so far it wasn't looking one bit welcoming...

"We made it..." he panted, "Now we just gotta find where those leaves come from and whatever water source is nearby..." He stopped and looked to Link, "I don't think there's any paths we can take there. You uh, you good at navigating through forests?" he asked, looking somewhat abashed that he had to ask that question in the first place. "They're uh, not too common back where I come from..."

Comments

[his_legacy]

[No worries!]

The whole while they stood in silence, Link's grip on his light and knife did not falter. He had no true way of knowing if he gazed upon friend or foe. The specter honestly reminded him more of the friendly denizens of the Twilight Realm than it did of any enemy.

As far as Link was concerned, there was only one way to find out what this creature would do. He moved with Sechs, standing a hair ahead of his sick friend purely out of instinct. All of the Hylian's senses seemed to be in overdrive. The rain pattering against the treetops. The flow of the river's water. The glare of the figure's white mask in the light of his torch.

He was tense and ready for whatever it would do.

[damned_monsters]

The apparition's gloved hand turned, palm facing the canopy of trees overhead. Then, as if by some sort of sorcery, a stem containing several leaves and a single yellow flower appeared in the figure's grasp. The cheery blossom was a stark contrast to its surroundings, and the grim-looking creature that held it. If a patient shined their flashlight onto it, the flower would be more than easy to see.

Then, extending its arm, the stranger seemed to offer it to the approaching men.

[sixth_attack]

As much as Sechs wanted to approach the silent stranger by himself, he couldn't help but feel a little less tense as Link closely followed him to the edge of the river. Sechs may have barely known the blond youth so far, but already he was thankful to have him as an ally tonight. No matter what happens now, he wasn't going to be alone through it.

Despite the overwhelming shivering and aching he was suffering, Sechs remained attentive towards the cloaked figure, keeping his yellow eyes fixed on its shadowy outline. Everything going on around him felt amplified by the silent stillness emanating from the stranger. He could feel his blood flowing faster throughout his veins, his nerves painfully tingled with anticipation. With his position being much closer to the figure, now was the time for it to strike out -- or help.

When it finally moved, its actions were once again slow and gentle, but what it revealed in its upturned hand surprised Sechs more than an attack from behind.

...A flower?

Sechs blinked, nonplussed by this unexpected offering. To the Replica, flowers were an odd rarity back at the Scrapyard. The climate there was too dry and the soil too barren to support anything but the hardiest of weeds. Finding a flower poking out amongst all the junk there was almost unheard of. Plants like that weren't seen as anything useful in the harsh factory life of metal and violence. Yet for some citizens of the Scrapyard, a flower made just as a good as a gift as a diamond ring...

Was that what this yellow flower was supposed to be? A gift? It was so strange to see a bright, delicate plant in the hands of such a dark and grim creature. It was so much like how a flower would be seen back at the Scrapyard, a rare miracle surviving in an unforgiving world of steel and cruelty. Perhaps the stranger was truly benevolent behind that bird-like mask?

Locking his flashlight and focus on the flower, Sechs tucked his axe away and took a careful step forward, submerging his boot into the icy water. Each step Sechs took got him closer to the figure and its gift, but it was also putting him in grave risk. The last thing he needed was to slip into the water, knowing full well that such a freezing hazard was sure to trigger the M-U drug into taking full control of his body. Yet if this flower was the cure to Landel's virus, then he had to take that risk, not just for himself but for Aigis and everyone else as well.

By the time Sechs was nearing the stranger's hovering form, he was already waist-deep in the river. At that point Sechs' shivering had turned into uncontrollable trembling from the chilling water and rain that was dowsing him from head to foot, yet he kept his eyes locked on the stranger's gift without relent. Wading across the water felt like an eternal task for the Replica until he finally got close enough to reach for the cloaked figure's offering. Fighting to keep himself planted on the spot against the river's current, Sechs slowly raised his quivering hands up and grasped the flower by its delicate stem, trying to do so as carefully as any former battle android once made of metal could. His hands were so cold he could barely feel the flower's leaves brush against his fingers; he feared he would drop it into the river. Yet after a few anxious seconds of nervous fumbling, Sechs managed to safely receive the flower from the stranger's gloved hand.

Lowering his arms to keep the plant close to his chest, Sechs stared down at the strange gift for a moment, taking in its comforting colors. He then gazed up to the stark-white mask above him, almost at a total loss for words except for one question: "What... What should I do with this...?"

[his_legacy]

Link stared with perplexity as the apparition conjured the flower. It didn't appear to be anything special... Yellow was never a color of a healing substance in Hyrule.

He was starting to come to the conclusion, though, that nothing here was like Hyrule.

The Hylian followed Sechs into the water, easily ignoring the freezing current. There was something not normal about the river, but he couldn't tell what it was in the poor lighting. Link watched silently, knife still in hand, as Sechs took the delicate flower from the seemingly benevolent creature.

"...Do you speak?" he asked, his head cocked curiously to the side and his ears twitching.

[damned_monsters]

Although the robed figure was certainly close enough to hear both questions, the mask's hollow eyes continued to stare at them. Slowly, though, the stranger mimicked Link's tilted head, and faced Sechs more fully.

Then, with a slight turn of a gloved hand, a ghostly, green butterfly fluttered near the flower that was cradled near Sechs' chest. Interestingly, the color and shape wasn't unlike the picture someone had painted in the X-Ray room. As soon as the butterfly gently settled on one of the yellow petals, however, its wings disintegrated like old parchment caught in a flame, until the bug had vanished.

That, apparently, was its answer.

[sixth_attack]

[I'm extremely sorry for my lateness! =( Notifs failed me and RL got real tough. orz]

Sechs flinched from the sudden appearance of the butterfly, nearly losing his balance from his combative instinct's knee-jerk reaction to uncanny illusions. He already had enough bad experiences with dangerous hallucinations from his fight with Whophon and his current battle with the M-U drug! Yet something about the insect's gentle landing upon the flower kept the Replica from striking out. Sechs just noticed the butterfly's resemblance to the clue's oil painting before it suddenly burst into a twisted flame upon the flower's petal. Now Sechs really twitched from the image before him! He took a shocked step back and held the flower away from his chest. Was this how the masked apparition was going to attack them? By setting them on fire?!

Yet the flame came and went just as quickly as one that had been sparked and snuffed out through a lighter in a single second. No harm had been done and the yellow flower remained untouched and almost serene in Sechs' hands. What just happened...?

Cautiously bringing the flower back to his chest, Sechs stared down at the plant with wide eyes and furrowed brows. What did that strange display mean? How was it supposed to help him with this virus? It all made little sense to him, so much so that the gears inside Sechs' head sluggishly clanked away like a rusty piece of junk! He couldn't bear to ask Link about it and the masked stranger obviously wasn't going to talk. Sechs gritted his teeth. Damnit! Why did he have to be so dumb?! Everyone else like Alita could easily figure this out! He might as well be just as stupid as that bug that burned up on that flower...!

Wait... A bug? Like the kind of bug that makes you sick? The one shown in that first clue about getting one out of your stomach by surgery? Did that mean the flower in his possession could burn up the bug that was inside his system right now...?

"I... I think I know what I have to do..." he muttered.

Sechs' train of thought seemed to be disturbing the drug inside his spine, as it gave his back a painful wrench before hissing in his ear. "Don't even think about it!" it snarled inside Sechs' mind, "You eat that flower and it's just going to make you look stupid! It's not going to do a DAMN thing for you except make you sicker! Remember what happened with the 'medicine' the military left for you that one night...?"

The Replica hesitated. The flower in his hands was rapidly becoming shrouded by the drug's inky mirages, yet somehow its glow managed to remain bright against the shadows coiling around its stem. Maybe the drug was right... He had no idea who or what this masked stranger's true intentions were. What if it was just a trap set by his enemies? But something inside Sechs' heart felt little suspicion towards the flower's warm light. Something just felt right about the cloaked creature's gift. It was then that Sechs made his decision. If the virus was to be cured then the flower had to get inside his stomach where the bug resided, and if the drug was reacting so defensively about it then Sechs knew just what to do...

He ate the flower. Ignoring the drug's illusions and curses, Sechs chomped down on the plant, ripping the head off the stem and chewing it down as quickly as he could. For such a brutish meat-lover like Sechs, he didn't think he would ever eat anything vegetable-related with such voracity like this! As he eagerly gulped the flower down, he could only wait and hope that he had done the right thing...

Anxious minutes dragged by with no apparent changes for the Replica to sense. Was it working? The parasite inside Sechs' consciousness was still insulting and threatening him, but his attention eventually moved to his exposed fingers. With his flashlight focused on his gloved hand, Sechs watched in disbelief as the red rash on his skin began to slowly but surely fade. Finally, a joyous smile emerged upon the android's lips as he pulled off his glove to get a better look at the receding rash.

"L-look!" Sechs exclaimed, barely able to repress a chuckle as he showed his hand to Link, "It's... It's working!"

[his_legacy]

[Don't worry about it!]

The confusion on Link's face melted into a smile as he watched the green butterfly singe and curl until it was nothing but ash. It was only obvious that it was the same creature residing in the sick patients' stomachs.

"Yes, we just-" Link cut himself off, a sudden tightness coming over his chest as Sechs devoured the flower whole. Why would he gobble the whole thing down?! He panicked for a moment, looking back to the apparition. Sechs' affirmation that the cure worked registered with Link. He knew it was good that his friend was cured, but...

"Do you have more?" he asked the cloaked creature. If Sechs had just swallowed whole their only cure that could have easily been divided into pieces, those dozens of other sick people...

[damned_monsters]

As the masked figure stared at them, the trees shook from the wind and rain. Perhaps it was the patients' imaginations, but the noise seemed to billow and blow into words. One full stem cures one person...

And, as such, the creature didn't produce anymore plants, save for a transparent apparition of a small bouquet of the same flowers from before. Then, the image shifted and morphed until countless glowing butterflies escaped from its gloved hands. Forming an iridescent trail, the phantom bugs made a perfect arc straight back toward Landel's Institute.

If Sechs and Link hoped to find more of the same herb, they would apparently have to seek them elsewhere.

[sixth_attack]

Sechs gulped, perplexed by the whispering words that barely met his ears. He looked down at what was left of the chewed up stem and held it tightly in his hand. Link's question echoed his own; they were going to need a lot more of those flowers...

It was then that another hologram-like display came forth from the masked stranger, this time in the form of a whole bouquet of flowers! Sechs' grin widened with triumphant excitement. There must have been enough to cure everyone at the institute! Aigis and everyone else were going to be ok! He eagerly reached out for the cluster of glowing flowers, but his hand met nothing as the plants suddenly burst into more butterflies. Sechs' grin faded as he watched the delicate insects flutter off into the distance.

"Wuh?!"

For a moment, Sechs felt a surge of anger erupt inside his heart and he gave a reproachful frown at the emotionless mask before him. What the hell did that illusion mean? That there were no more flowers left? Why didn't it say so before? How could that cloaked creature tease them like this?! And what was up with those stupid butterflies anyways? Where the hell were they flying off to...

Sechs just about shot off an angry retort at the stranger when that last thought got him to glare back at the retreating butterflies. They weren't flying off in random directions, but a concentrated flock with one destination in mind: the institute. But why there out of all places? Were they looking for more of the flowers to land on...?

Like a firecracker going off inside his head, Sechs' inner revelation brought a new spark of determination in his eyes, erasing the frustration that marred his face and bringing back his toothy grin of gratitude. Where was the one place at the institute where you could find flowers? The green house! That had to be what the masked creature meant!

"HAH! C'mon Link!" Sechs exclaimed as he turned around and noisily waded through the water towards the river edge. "There's more back at the institute! There's gotta be enough for your roommate and everyone else!"

Crashing and splashing until he was free from the river's freezing embrace, the quivering Replica shook off as much water as he could and stuffed the stem into his drenched pocket. The chilling ache throughout his body barely reached Sechs' mind, he was too enthralled with this personal victory to care. He was feeling the most energy he had ever experienced since before he got sick! Nothing could ruin his combative bliss, not even a bad case of hypothermia!

Barely waiting for Link to catch up, Sechs almost made a dash back into the forest when he remembered one last important thing. He skidded to a stop and turned to face the hovering mask. "Thanks, whoever the hell you are!" he called to the nameless healer. He was then off like a shot back towards the institute. He knew what to do now.

[his_legacy]

Link watched the apparition, perplexed for only a brief moment. It had nothing else to give them. That was what he had been afraid of all along. He jumped as it created another illusion- those butterflies flying off in the general direction of the Institute.

Then Sechs had taken off. Pausing briefly to give a nod and a word of thanks to the strange river creature, he trudged awkwardly through the river after him.

"What did you have in mind?" Link honestly had no idea.

And there couldn't be too much time left, that night.