Chapter 51: Fifty Years of Solitude

After finishing their hugs and satisfying their longing, all five sat in a circle on the floor, just like when they were kids in the playroom or in their bedroom. A silence fell over them as everyone remained quiet; besides still being caught up in their emotions, they also felt awkward about how to start a conversation with Celes after not seeing each other for so long, staring down at the floor even as they held hands. A few moments later, Clyde turned to look at Celes beside him,

"Celes, are you... not hungry?" Clyde asked, breaking the silence.

Clyde looked at the status hologram screen still floating open above Celes’s head. Unlike himself, Casca, Corie, and Craig, who had looked thin at first due to hunger when they woke up, Celes looked normal, neither thin nor heavy and her age was the same as all of theirs, listed on the hologram display earlier as fifteen years old. Celes turned to Clyde and smiled, squeezing his hand tightly,

"No... while I was trapped here, I was sustained by Chimaera Z-X, so I’m fine... but my stamina does fluctuate because I sometimes have to use this robot’s systems to reach you," Celes answered.

"Did you also just wake up from the simulation, Sister?" Casca asked.

Celes turned to Casca and went quiet for a moment, her brow furrowing and her eyes narrowing before she opened her mouth,

"I was never in the simulation... for the past 50 years... I’ve been inside Chimaera Z-X, sleeping... I only woke up 10 years ago," Celes said softly, looking sad.

"W-what? Wait a minute, Sister... 50 years, and you woke up 10 years ago?" Corie asked, shocked.

"Ah, right, of course you wouldn’t know. When we escaped back then, and ultimately stopped the war between the giants and humans on the surface, that happened 50 years ago. That’s what I watched from the broadcast recordings in the cockpit when I woke up 10 years ago," Celes answered.

Hearing Celes’s words, the faces of Clyde, Casca, Corie, and Craig completely transformed. They stared at Celes, who looked down while twirling her long silver hair around her finger. Craig then turned to Clyde,

"Brother... after we were separated in the forest back then... do you remember what happened? The last memory I got from my dream was fighting human soldiers... suddenly I heard a painful song, and then I didn’t remember anything. When I woke up again... I was in the tunnel meeting you, Casca, and Corie," Craig asked.

"I don’t remember either. The last thing I remember from the dream... I was flying, holding Casca and Corie... after that, pitch black, I don’t remember a thing," Clyde replied, lost in thought.

"Same here... I don’t remember either. In the dream, I only remember us flying... across the ocean, and after that everything went dark," Casca added.

"I’m the same as Casca... my memory stopped right there too, and when I woke up, I was lying on a table looking at Brother Clyde and Casca," Corie added.

"I’m sorry... I wasn’t capable of sending full memories about all of us to you... I could only give fragments of memories through dreams, because if I gave everything... my energy would be drained, and Chimaera Z-X and I could die. Besides... after I got trapped here... I didn’t remember anything either until 10 years ago when I started searching for you," Celes piped up.

Clyde, Casca, Craig, and Corie turned to look at Celes, who kept her head down. Clyde, sitting beside Celes, immediately wrapped his arm around her since Celes looked sad with her hands clenched into fists. They all fell quiet again, bringing a heavy silence back over the cockpit. But not long after, suddenly, gurgle, everyone turned to look at Corie, who was holding her stomach, her face suddenly turning red.

"Oops... sorry... guess I’m hungry, hehe," Corie said.

"Honestly... hold on, I’ll get it for you," Casca replied.

Casca stood up and walked over to her bag, taking out a food container that still had red stains inside a plastic bag. She opened it and handed a piece of meat to Corie, who immediately devoured it greedily. She then handed a piece of meat to Clyde and Craig before taking one for herself.

"Sister Celes, do you want some? I still have plenty," Casca offered.

"No thanks, I’m not hungry. You used up energy on your journey here, so you guys eat," Celes replied with a smile.

"So... Sister Celes was here for 50 years... trapped... all alone. Then how did you send the song and speak to us?" Craig asked.

"I’m... the Flatwood monster... that’s my ability, boosted by Chimaera Z-X’s energy so I could reach you guys even if it came through patchy," Celes answered.

"Ah... right. Reading from those classified research files earlier, we’re humans born from a giant’s womb... half cryptid creatures and so much more... we’re monsters," Craig said.

"Hah... earlier you said you didn’t want to call us monsters, what’s up with you, Brother?" Corie protested.

"Well... what else can we do? Reality is reality, like it or not, we have to swallow it and accept it," Craig retorted.

"You’re right, Brother Craig, like it or not we have to accept it... but since we’re back together and since we’re all the same... I don’t care whether we’re human or not," Casca said.

"Right. Besides, we were born, which means we still qualify as living beings of human kind, not artificial clones without brains or personalities... like what we saw earlier," Clyde added.

"Over the last ten years... I studied us from here. I walked around using Chimaera Z-X’s vision to inspect this entire facility... I also knew there were several clone duplicates of us up ahead... because they wanted to mass-produce us for war... and... I was the last one to be cloned... that’s why we ran away back then," Celes said, hugging herself and rubbing her arms as a shiver ran through her body.

Clyde shifted closer to Celes, who instantly hugged Clyde’s arm and rested her head on his shoulder. Once Celes calmed down again, she whistled a specific section of the melody, and suddenly a holographic screen popped open. What Celes had said was true; Chimaera Z-X’s head could be heard moving, turning as the screen displayed the interior of the facility, showing a first-person perspective walking out the door, into the research lab, back to the storage room of ruined and shattered pods, all the way back to the lobby.

After that, the camera proceeded into the door on the right side of the lobby, opposite the door the camera had exited from. Upon entering, the camera seemed to walk down a corridor lined with metal walls on both sides and lit by fluorescent light, passing through the closed door at the very end to reveal a room that looked like a bridge, followed by a strategic battle room, a briefing room, and a firing range.

There was also a training room for psychic powers, filled with strange chairs resembling electric execution chairs with head caps and restraints, yet looking as comfortable as massage chairs. Beside it sat an ORB research and development room, as well as a magic training room. Heading up to the mezzanine, a command office, an archive room, and what appeared to be an inactive server or digital room came into view. Clyde turned to Celes,

"So for the last 10 years, you’ve been looking around all the rooms in this facility?" Clyde asked.

"Yeah... I entered that library-like archive room many times, but unfortunately we can’t take the files and records there since we can only view them through the screen, and I couldn’t go there myself because I was trapped," Celes answered.

"How about we go there now, after eating, of course?" Corie suggested.

"Yeah... I also want to know what this facility actually is... and what that GDAB organization is... I’m curious," Casca added.

"Okay... finish eating quickly, and then we’ll look around this facility... but where are we going after that? Utopia? Or back to the safe haven?" Craig asked.

"It seems we should head to Utopia first since it’s closer, then take the train to the safe haven," Clyde answered.

"Hmm... I see, but what about Chimaera Z-X? Can this robot fly?" Corie asked.

"Ah... I was just about to ask that, but you beat me to it. That’s what happens with twins," Casca added.

Hearing Corie’s question hanging in the air, Clyde, Celes, and Craig pondered, looking around at the cockpit, which remained active as it throbbed with many lights turned on. They had no idea what to do with a robot that massive and clearly couldn’t just abandon it, on top of not knowing how to pilot it even though they had used it to escape in the past.

"Whatever, let’s think about it later. The important thing is that right after this, we investigate the rooms in this facility first. I’m more curious about that," Craig said.

"Yeah... you’re right. While trapped, I’ve been curious to find out what actually happened to the world, why and for what purpose we were designed and born, and who our parents actually are," Celes replied.

"Regarding the simulation as well, hopefully there are clues about that here... let’s finish our food quickly now, then get out of the cockpit and start investigating this facility," Clyde said.

"Okay," Craig, Casca, and Corie replied in unison, immediately scarfing down their food.