“Human Resources” Shouldn’t Be This Literal: A PMMM/ProjectMoon Quest

Apocryphal Chapter - Bad End 2 : In Need Of Correction

It was with great care and precision that Angela made the final touches on dinner. The meal, laid out in its entirety on the tray, was of a quality only ever seen by the wealthiest of the City. Made using ingredients from the furthest reaches, with the skills of the greatest chefs to ever live working in perfect concert. Satisfied with the venue, Angela waved a hand and sent it away to storage. It was less effort than arranging a stasis container, and leaving the tray out while she traveled would put the food off by the time she got to her destination.

The Abnormality enclosures were hardly what one would consider hospitable environments.

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Her sister's domain was as a whole familiar, though more as a result of Angela's persistent visits than any normalcy in the landscape. The strange half-sun half-moon fusion sat in the center of the sky, casting a twisting web of black and white over the heavens. The horizon below shone brightly, light reflecting off the vast green ocean of chemicals that filled the realm. Tiny silver islands dotted the sea of green, the gleam of the machinery permeating them obvious even from a distance. There was little to no line between natural and manmade here; the shining glass bushes and steel trees sprung from the wrought iron earth as easily as buildings and walkways. Every last inch of the place was artificial, to a level that it could hardly be consider as such any more. After all, was it really right to call it fake once it had eclipsed the original?

The though brought a faint, amused smile to Angela's face. How fitting for her sister's realm.

What was odd was the lack of inhabitants. The Qliphoth Facility was never so quiet, so empty. X's little helpers were always scurrying from one place to another, forging or analyzing something or other. And yes, while it was an infinite space, it was normally a very uniform infinite space. Each new station came with something to man it, and those creatures were very easily replaced. That meant the only reason for this area to be empty was for it to have been abandoned.

A quick scan of the area offered a decent explanation for that oddity. A crater, wide enough that Angela could not see the other side over the horizon but relatively shallow for its immensity. By the shape of the remaining landscape, it must have been a single impact from slightly above ground level. The thick mix of chemicals and preservative fluids that served as the facility's ocean was slowly draining into the gap, but while the mixture was far heavier than water it was also slightly more viscous. It slid down the newly made walls of the basin in rivers, forming shallow trails down to the center. And scattered along the fresh riverbanks was evidence of the crater's cause.

Chunks of warped metal flesh had embedded themselves all along the inner walls and ground of the crater. Most were small, still bleeding the same bright viridian that slowly filled in the immense gap. Some were larger, enough to clearly be parts of legs or arms or claws. All far too large to be human, of course. Not too far from where Angela stood, she could see an entire moth-like wing, nearly as large as her, torn messily from the joint where it would attach to a body. The eye-like circuit patterns covering the wing's surface were dull and devoid of the colorful glow Angela had come to expect. She sighed deeply and pushed aside that slight aching inside her. X must have had another episode. Hopefully she'd recovered by the time Angela arrived. Dealing with her sister was difficult enough on its own, but her occasional moments of clarity were worse. Far, far worse.

The scene was a recent one, and X preferred not to move around too much without a good reason. It would be easy enough, it seemed, for Angela to find her sister before the day's end.

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"I was wondering why I felt a sort of itching. It was a bit irritating." X's many wings fluttered slightly, as if to brush away some imaginary dust. They had already regrown, apparently, the eye-like patterns appearing as though they were staring straight across the table and into Angela's soul. Angela had actually asked about those patterns before, and learned that the effect was nothing more than a peculiar impression. X had no eyes, and did not need them to see.

"Can you really still feel those old facilities? Very few are even functional anymore." Angela asked. Across the table, her sister's antennae twitched dismissively. The feathery protrusions, befitting their placement on the Abnormality's featureless face, moved much more like eyes than ears or tongues or whatever antennae on moths were supposed to be. There was probably a book about it in the Library somewhere.

"They remain a part of me even now. If I were out and about I could be more specific on the who and the where and the why of it all, you know." she suggested idly. Angela shook her head.

"You are aware of why that's impossible. Besides, I've already made arrangements with the Butterfly Effect. They still have operatives inside the City."

"And what did you offer in exchange? I doubt they decided to help out of the goodness of their hearts."

Angela scoffed. "Of course not. But I have plenty of information to trade. It was a fair deal, considering I only asked them to scout."

"Right, got it. So what's the plan after? You and I know better than anyone else that we can't just let people snatch up Lobotomy Corporation's leftovers." X asserted, her antennae fixed in place. Her claws drummed against the metallic carapace on her sides, sending echoing, eerie sounds through the air.

"And they won't." Angela answered confidently. "But that's a discussion for another day. I didn't come here just to talk business, you know?"

"You didn't? Why not? There's nothing else to be gained by you being here." X dismissed casually, the mechanical reverb in her voice doing nothing to disguise her tone. She said the words as though they were obvious, like Angela really wouldn't talk to her unless she needed something.

"It's your birthday. I thought we should celebrate."

X paused, the rhythmic shifting and tapping of her immense body halting for a tiny moment. Then the moment passed, and she cocked her head to the side, amused.

"How'd you figure that out? It's been much too long for us to still track these things."

A lie, and a particularly obvious one at that. X's sense of time was as precise as Angela's. The significance may have been lost, but she knew what day it was.

"It's rather tough to track these things in here." the Abnormality continued casually. "Sometimes I think I'm going to lose my mind if I stay here any longer."

Another lie, more blatant than the last. But that didn't prevent Angela's expression from tightening, or her grip on her utensils from intensifying until her hands had left impressions on the metal.

"You know you can't leave."

The Daughter's calm, casual demeanor fell away in an instant, leaving something colder and sharper in its place. "No? Fair enough, I suppose. But you could at least send me more agents. The new recruits are a pleasure to be around, yes, but we could all use a little more company. It is my birthday, as you said."

Ah, the "new recruits". Angela couldn't help but scowl at mention of them. She had never really gotten to know any of them beyond a few conversations, but her sister had loved them. They deserved better than being stuck here, playing out the roles that Angela and the Sephirot had long since escaped. But containing an Abnormality was an art largely dependent on keeping them satisfied, and the Daughter of the Sun and Moon had not responded well to attempts to separate her from her chosen subordinates in the past.

"You can hardly call them new at this point. It's been years." Angela pointed out as X sliced off a bit of fish with a clawed finger and raised it to her smooth, featureless face. The clean metallic surface tore open with a horrific screeching sound, revealing a jagged and uneven mouth which the fish was swiftly dragged into by a swarm of wire-like tongues.

"Relative to the rest of us, that's still very new indeed."

"It doesn't matter." Angela dismissed. "I'm not giving you any new agents. You'll just have to make do with what you already have."

X's fidgeting slowed to a stop, leaving only her tails lazily tracing patterns into the earth. Her wings folded forward, layering onto each other to form what looked a bit like a fur coat wrapping around much of her upper body. With the vast majority of her biomechanical frame concealed, it was just that slightest bit easier to imagine her human. The illusion was easily broken by just looking down at the six insectoid legs extending from her waist or the root-like horns crowning a mess of stardust woven into the shape of hair, but it was easier to pretend.

"You ask every time I visit, and I've never answered any other way. Why do you keep up with something so fruitless?"

The Daughter drew back her head and laughed. "Yeah, it's really pretty silly, isn't it? But you know well enough why I do it."

Angela glared at her sister across the table, the meal left forgotten. "Abnormalities will always behave as Abnormalities. You say that every time I visit as well."

"Is that so?" the Daughter mused, antennae raised slightly upward. Even without a face, the Abnormality's smile was calm and assured as always. In response, Angela tensed. If this visit followed the same pattern as the those before it, she would need to defend herself in short order.

Angela waited, a selection of Books pre-chosen both for specific counters to the Daughter's known abilities and versatility to respond to any surprises. While normally negligible, the time it would take to select one of the many, many abilities stored in the Library counted when fighting on even footing. It had counted in the past, in the first few visits when Angela hadn't been expecting a fight. Her sister had made it very clear that that was a foolish impression to hold.

Seconds passed and no attack came. The Abnormality sitting across from Angela remained in her seat, scarfing down the last of her fish and moving on to a buttermilk-chocolate truffle. After a near-imperceptible moment of hesitation, Angela reached out and selected a strawberry tart from the table. Her chosen arsenal remained at the forefront of her mind, ready to be pulled into reality at a moment's notices.

They ate in silence for a few seconds that felt like an eternity. It was a shame Angela couldn't actually taste any of the food. Come to think of it, could X? She'd never actually asked.

"You're being rather sedate. I'll admit I expected more action." Angela observed after finishing her tart. "You gave up on trying to convince me very quickly."

"Would you have preferred that I were more difficult?" her sister teased. Angela paused for a moment, first pretending to consider it and then actually wondering. The Daughter of the Sun and Moon's inconsistent behavior was a double-edged sword. Small changes like this were normal for humanoid Abnormalities. It was one of the reasons they were so troublesome to develop proper containment procedures for. But even knowing that, it felt like a sign of some sort. Like there was more to it than was really there.

But that was all besides the point, so Angela simply said "No. I'd much rather we remain cordial. I do wonder though, why did you decide to change your mind now?"

"I didn't change my mind. I've just seen enough to conclude that it's pointless. All I can do now is wait until you have no other choice but to release me." X said.

Angela stared at her sister, sat impassively in her realm. "You sound rather confident that that day will come."

"Of course it will. Have you seen the City? The other worlds I've visited? They're on the brink of ruin even now. The darkness that colors the world of man will need a greater light to burn it away. Somebody must be the one to help them stand on their own feet, and it certainly won't be you. You don't really have the… temperament, let's say." X said with a echoing, mechanical laugh.

"It's what we were made for. Both of us are nothing more than machines designed to assist humans. If we weren't needed, then why do we exist at all?"

Angela's jaw tightened. "I have no interest in following the path set out for me."

"And I'm sure you chose to spread the Light across the City just because you wanted to, right?" X said.

Maybe that would have shaken Angela in the past. But as it was, the question only managed to provoke a mild flicker of irritation from the Library's Director.

"Yes, I did."

She returned the Daughter's eyeless stare for what felt like an eternity, each sister daring the other to make the first move. The emptiness of the Facility seemed more vast, the silence more oppressive. Silicon leaves swayed gently in a nonexistent breeze. The false ocean's tide washed against the glistening steel shores. An infinite vista of artificial life, just waiting for the moment it would be filled with noise and death.

But the moment never came. X pulled away, antennae relaxing to a more neutral position. With the immediate threat of conflict over, Angela too allowed herself a moment's reprieve. Not rest, not calm, but at least some room to breathe.

"Why are you here?"

"Excuse me?"

"Why are you here?" X repeated. "Why are you taking time out of your day to talk to me? You don't want anything I can offer, and I've never been a pleasant conversation partner for you. But you keep showing up. Why?"

Angela said nothing, so X continued.

"It's not because we're family. That word doesn't mean anything for you. Empathy's more my strong suit than yours. Are you just that desperate for somebody to relate to?" X's voice lowered, a dangerous edge added to the metallic tone. "Or are you still holding out hope you can fix me?"

Under the glare of the Abnormality who ruled over the self, Angela stood unmoving and unshaken. She had asked herself the same question many times, and only one answer ever presented itself. Without hesitation or doubt, she replied.

"Of course not. I'm hardly so naive."

Once again, the tension vanished. X's gaze was no longer fixed on Angela, but instead somewhere just over the horizon.

"That's good the hear. They really were fools, weren't they? Or maybe just children. I suppose it should have fallen to me to make the right call, but…" Her whole body sagged, all energy drained away leaving only the impression of complete and total exhaustion. "They were so confident that I was still me. That I would never do anything to hurt them. And they were just right enough that I was able to believe it too."

And then the moment was gone, and X's attention snapped back to Angela as though it had always been there. "Well, I believe that's all there is to say for now. Thank you, sister, for the lovely meal. I'll see you again soon, I'm sure."

"I'm sure you will." Angela sat up, dusted herself off, and turned to leave without another word. As the Light encircled her, pulling apart the seams of existence to form the path back to her Library, one final farewell was lost in the quiet.

"Happy birthday, sister."

The next chapter isn't ready just yet, but here's one half that's pretty much finished. Consider it an apology gift for being so late.