Fan Fiction ❯ The Goddess Sagas ❯ Memory Is Like A Kaleidoscope ( Chapter 44 )

Chapter Forty-three: Memory Is Like A Kaleidoscope

Ryan still sat on the floor, over looking the dead body of his mother. He did not even know her name...

"Come on Rya, let's go....! We gotta find the others!" Mara exclaimed pulling at his arm.

"....Y...Yeah....I guess...." Ryan got to his feet. "I hope they are all right, I'll never forgive myself is Parfait is hurt again."

"Yeah....Rya....can I tell you something?"

"...Yes?"

"....I....I know you love Ruto. I know I can never replace her, and that you will always love her, but....seeing Genki and Mimi today I.....I don't want to die not telling you how much I love you. I don't think I could bare that."

"Mara...."

"Rya don't feel bad about it. You can't choose who you fall in love with, and having you as a best friend....forever, will make me happy."

"Mara, your the best friend I could ever ask for." He hugged the cat girl gently, she leaned her head on his chest, her eyes wavering slightly.

"I feel the same way about you Rya....I always will...."

*****************************************

Keith dawned a pained expression, clenching his fists. "You never said that to me....even when we had been best friends.....you never...." He looked above himself, at something which hung above a large fire place, and smiled almost crazily.

"But you will stay with me forever wont you?"

***************************************

The puzzles had vanished, as though the game had stopped and the group dashed up the steps, hurriedly to find their two missing friends. They were almost there when on the stairs a flood of monsters blocked their paths. Twisted children, monsters, lesser demons and androids, snarling at them ready to stop them from getting to Saiyoua.

"Parfait, go behind us...try and stay safe!" Mimi exclaimed, as the small demon-half nodded her head, dashing halfway down the steps watching the others. She trembled fearfully, one could not blame her for being afraid after all...they we afraid themselves, but unlike Parfait they had faced enemies whom wanted to slaughter them before.

"MAGICAL ORBS!!"

"WATERS BOMBS!!"

"ROSE PASSION!!!" The magical attack were called, but these beasts much stronger then the last were not easily destroyed and retaliated viciously. Parfait forced her self to look and screamed, hiding her face in her hands as she saw Squall rip out a junk of a Wolfos neck.

"Oh please...don't let else bad happen!" She wailed, clasping her hands together, sobbing.

********************************

"Rya....Where do you think we should go?" The cat asked. "I don't know....I have no idea about the inside of this place."

Ryan paused confused. "Didn't you say though that you escaped from hear....?"

"..........I guess I forgot what the place looked like....I was never good at rememorising things. Remember how when we were smaller you tried to help me study my spelling test and..."

"I don't remember that....."

"Sure you do! Now lets stop walking on memory lain, and find our way around."

"Walk down memory lain Ryan.....see that it brings you to a dead end."

"What? Keith where the hell are you hiding!?" Ryan screamed, looking around himself.

"See the door to your right? Go threw it, I sat up some signs telling you where to go...fallow them, it will lead you to my chambers."

"KEITH!!!!" Ryan screamed but the voice vanished.

"Ryan...."

"Mara let's do as he says....and I will pay him back for all he has done."

"Let's go."

They turned to leave, but before, Ryan turned back to take one last look at his mother and bowed his head in silent prayer. "Goodbye Mother, may the sprits of the life stream guide and watch over your soul."

********************************

"Bra..." Aria frowned, walking up to the sobbing girl. The eldest Brief was being cut by the broken glass of the picture frame, blood running to her hands as she gripped the picture in her hands.

"Your bleeding."

"I don't care!" Bra sobbed out loudly. "My little....my little brother....he's....he's dead! I....I can't go on! All my family....they are all gone!"

"......" Aria was silent as Miss.Lena approached, kneeling down next to the woman, wrapping her arms around her in an attempt to comfort her.

"Bra, I'm sad to about the news....I.....Bra, I'm sorry things turned out the way they did. But you can't give up yet, your a strong woman....with a brave soul and a kind heart."

"............." Bra continued to sob heavily, pounding her fist painfully one the floor and broken glass.

Aria closed her eyes, the horn on her head shimmering gold she spoke in a strange mixed voice. "Bra, don't cry, tears do not suit you big sis, you were the best big sis ever....I loved you and you always looked out for me....I'm sorry I couldn't come back but....someday I will come back and see you.....someday.....soon......."

Both women turned to Aria confused.

"That was...." Lena began.

"That was Genki's voice....How....what?" Bra shivered.

"Genki is in the life stream now. He says not to worry, he is all right, and that he will someday see you again." Aria informed, with a small smile.

".........The life stream?" Bra asked confused. "Aria how can you....know this....?"

The little girl continued to smile, while Lena eyes went wide in shock, a silent gasp escaped her mouth.

`Y....y.....y.....you can't be......!'

A loud knock at the door echoed threw the room and Bra weakly raised to their feet.

"I.....I find it hard to believe....but I know that was Genki's voice coming out of your mouth....I wont ask, I wont understand....maybe the others are back...." Bra left to open the door and Lena turned to Aria with a bewildered look on her face the little girl just simply put her finger to her lips with a smile, and Lena nodded and obeyed.

"Maria!?" Bra gasped in shock as Rose and her younger sister stood at the door.

"Oh Bra!! I'm so happy to see you!" Maria cried out, throwing her arms around Bra, who choked back a gasp. The other girl loosened her grip.

"Opps, sorry, I keep on forgetting that I am a machine...I did the same thing to Genki, I almost crushed the poor boys spine."

Bra bit her lip, crying again, Maria and Rose became worried.

"Sis, what's wrong?"

"What happened?" Rose spoke seriously and sharply.

"Genki...he...." Bra began weakly.

"No!" Maria yelled out in denial. "No.....I....I should of made him come back with me....I...Oh Genki........."

"........." Rose was silent. "......We....we have to be strong now. Maria, tell Bra about the substance you made."

"........?"

"Oh yes, Bra..." Maria handed the other girl a jar filled with the liquid. "I came up with this cure for Kamertion...it is enough to kill off the substance....but it's missing the component that would save those injected with it. Destroying Kamertion it's self is rather simple....but the hard part is not killing the people along with it."

"....All right....let's see....lets see what we can do...." Bra said still partly crying.

************************

Colt who had over heard everything from where he laid crippled in a bed, cried a few tears of his own.

"They fight and they die.......why, why are they fighting, they know they can't win....but still they refuse to give up....why? Why? Why is it....?"

****************************

"UHH!!!" Carrie cried as she was slammed by a tail of a lesser demon and knocked down a few flights of stairs.

"PETAL FURY!!!" Mimi called another new attack, which was a more powerful form of petal dance. It seems that gaining confidence in her abilities was enough to make her strong enough to come up with whole new line of magical attacks, or maybe she had them all along but believed she was to weak to use them.

Squall rammed his head into one of the Androids, while Lima took care of a few twisted children with her magic.

Mimi was pinned down by an android, whom squeezed his fingers into her shoulders, drawing up blood, taking pleasure in her painful cries.

"MAGICAL SPEAR!!!" Carrie shouted, an spear went through the side of Mimi's attacker allowing the girl to get out from under him.

"Thanks!" Mimi called before turning back to battle.

Parfait watched as the group continued to battle, killing and being hurt back.

`If only I could do something.....Ok....I'm just a kid....first rank.....little magic....but I'll give the little I have!'

Parfait stood far back, closeing her eyes she summoned a ball of blue magic in her hands.

"Sprit of the wind shift!" She called out, a huge magical gust of wind sent a few of the enemies staggering back off balance, in the moment of distraction Squall and Lima took care of them.

"Hey! Good job!" Carrie smiled turning to the little girl who beamed back proudly.

"Thanks!"

The battle continued, but now, Parfait did her best to help instead of just crying in the corner for it to stop. Though her wind magic was not all that strong....it still felt better doing something then nothing.

***********************************************

Ryan and Mara followed the signs which Keith had sat up. The hallways were dark rusty mazes, and they would have gotten lost, but the read arrow painted on the walls kept them in track. However they weren't sure if these signs were a blessing or a mockery.

The felt as though they had been walking for hours, hearts beating in their chests though they knew they weren't walking all the long. Their footsteps echoed on the grating around them, the repetitive sound was almost transfixing. The sound of footsteps and their hearts beating. Step, beating, Step, beating, Step, beating, Step, beating.

They neared the end of the maze, on the wall written in a sickening trail of blood were the words, in Keith's hand writing.

All those looking for the truth about themselves, step in side

`Truth about ourselves.....' Ryan repeated in his head.

"Rya...." Mara sounded like she wanted to tell him something.

"Yes?"

"....Rya....um....no....it's nothing...." She shook her head.

"Mara do you want to stay out hear....after what Keith did to you, I wouldn't blame you...actually I would prefer if you kept yourself safe..."

"No...I'm coming with you....dangerous or not....I am not going to let you face this by yourself."

".....Ok, thank you, Mara. Let's go."

***********************************

The door opened with a squeak and they stepped inside, instantly Ryan's eyes wide, his mouth opening in shock, terror and disbelief gripping at his heart, freezing his very soul.

"Wha...what is this?"

Mara's body hung over the fire place on a mantel, like a trophy an hunter would suspend on his wall of an moose or deer he slaughtered. Her body was stripped of her clothes, and her legs up to her waste had been cut off, her arms hand been nailed to the red mantel, and she gazed at him threw empty eyes, empty dead eyes.

In horror and shock he turned to the Mara whom stood beside him, she dropped to her knees, eyes dancing with tears, eyes gone even wider in disbelief then his. She was shaking all over.

"What? What? What.....Who....this can't be....who is this!?" She demanded angrily.

"Why...it's Mara." Came Keith's mocking voice from the coroner of the room and he stepped into the light, smirking.

"How...how can that be....I am Mara."

"No. You....you are nothing but a clone. A clone I made of the real Mara, with all her feelings, her brain, her personality and her memories. A cloned so will made, you did not even know. The real Mara killed herself a long time ago....killed herself because of you Ryan! You killed the girl who once was my best friend...after taking her away from me all those years...."

"..............." Ryan was trembling all over, his mind could not believe everything he was hearing. It was....just to.....unimaginable....unbelievable....just to shocking.

"If I was nothing but I mere clone, why did you hurt me? Why did you try and kill me!?" Mara sobbed pounding her fists on the floor.

"I first made you, so I could tap into your mind and spy on the group. But as I said you had everything of Mara inside of you....and how you forgave Ryan...how you still loved him even after he gave his heart to another, how you still stood faithfully by his side....how you still hated me! I couldn't stand it....I wanted to hurt you! I wanted to kill you....I made another clone of you, wanting to make her loyal to me, but...she only cared about me, because I programmed it into her mind and you killed her. You...You have all the real Mara's thoughts...but you aren't her...and I can't stand looking at you...you copy." Keith looked up longingly at the real Mara's body. "But now....even if you want to or not....you hear with me....forever...."

"Keith...you've gone...crazy..." Ryan said slowly.

"Who are you to talk about being crazy!?" Keith snarled. "I know very well who I am, what I am, and what my destiny is! What about you!? Do you know who you are? Do you have any memories what so ever Ryan? Any past...or...were they all made up?"

"................"

"Rya...don't listen to him! You know your past....I told you....you and your sister were found by Miss.Lena, you were sick when you first came to school and memory lost affected you a little bit."

"Tell him the truth Mara! End this stupid lie you kept telling for the last six years! TELL HIM!!"

".......Mara....what is he talking about?"

".........I........Ryan......the real Ryan.....died six years ago." Mara looked down at the floor guiltily.

Ryan felt his heart stop beating in his chest...everything else but himself, Mara and Keith faded form his mind.

"....What....?"

Mara forced herself to look straight into his eyes, tears rolling down her cheeks, and in those eyes he saw nothing but truthfulness. "The real Ryan died six years ago...when he was eleven years old."

"What are you talking about!? I'm not dead...I'm....I'm standing right hear!"

"She said, Ryan died six years ago....your aren't Ryan, you are just an impostor....just like she is just an impostor of the real Mara. Your just an acting Ryan." Keith mocked.

"........It's not true......"

"It is true." Mara said seriously. "Ryan....he died six years ago at....the school dance."

FLASH

People were dancing and having fun, including an younger Mara whom was trying to persuade an boy with spiky red hair and green eyes to dance with her.

"Oh! Rya Come on! Dance with me!"

"Ummm...." The boy looked shy.

"Oh please." Mara smiled cutely.

Ryan blushed. "O...Ok...Mara."

She giggled, pulling him onto the dance floor, the little boy danced clumsily at first but got the hang of it, after she took the lead. She laughed out loud, she was having so much fun. A younger child with red hair and green eyes, an demon half like Ryan came running up to them after a little while.

"I want to dance to!" She exclaimed

"Hey, Parfait." Mara greeted. "Sure you can!"

Mara and Ryan took Parfait's hands as they danced together, laughing happily.

The dance was far from ending but Ryan was getting tired, he had just gotten over a cold and was still a little sick from it.

"Ok, Ryan! But the next slow song you have to promise to dance with me again!"

"All right Mara!" Ryan smiled happily and watched as the Cat girl and his little sister continued to dance and have fun.

Mara and Parfait looked around for Ryan, it had been over an hour since he went to take a little rest.

"Mar...where is Ryan." Parfait asked worriedly.

"I...I don't know....he's not in the dance room....lets look outside....maybe he went to his room to lay down?"

Both girls looked startled as an huge commotion was going on near the entrance to the training center. They saw Keith leaned up against the wall, clothes ripped, and skin bloody with scratches, but besides that no wound to serious, he was gazeing at the crowd with an frightened face. Both girl rushed over to see what was going on but when they broke threw the rather nosily crowd they both screamed out in horror, tears instantly began to run down their face.

Ryan was laying on the floor, tore and slashed....he was very much dead. Even they, never seeing a dead body before knew that. Mara turned towards Keith, shivering with rage. `He....he had to be responsible....he always hated Ryan....he must of....lured him into the training center....he must have been responsible....he could even had been the one who done it.' all he feelings for her once time friend vanished and she stomped over to Keith sending a slap across his face.

"KEITH, HOW COULD YOU!? I TOLD YOU NOT TO FORCE HIM INTO THE TRAINING CENTER, I KNOW YOU DIDN'T LIKE HIM BUT I DIDN'T THINK YOU WOULD GO AS FAR AS KILLING HIM!!"

"But Mara..." Keith began to protest.

She did want to lesson to his words...they were like a poison to her. "I HATE YOU!!" She turned away from Keith no longer able to bare looking into his eyes. His cold blue eyes.

She looked up at Miss.Lena whom scooped Ryan up in her arms, tears shining in her eyes.

"Miss.Lena....is he...well he be ok...? Is there a chance to save him...is he....is dead..." Mara quietly asked, tears running down his face, Parfait beside her was sobbing uncontrollable.

"Don't let my brother die!!"

The teacher's face turned kind of funny, and she forced a weak smile. ""Don't worry, he'll be fine." She lied. " I'm just going to go heal him up, all right. It may take awhile but he will be back."

"Really!?" Mara and the Parfait exclaimed together.

Still with that same expression on her face, Miss.Lena nodded. "Really."

FLASH

"An year later....you showed up." Mara continued. " A boy with blonde hair, blue eyes, with fangs, pointy ears and a tail. They said you were Ryan, and you acted like him....We both knew deep inside that...there was no way you could be....but we wanted to believe that you were. We wanted to believe that Ryan had really came back...that he was really alive again, that he did not die that night. We wanted to believe it so much that....that we buried the truth into our Subconscious and lived the lie...."

"....But I can remember...looking at stars with you...I remember reading stories to Parfait....I remember...I remember things...." Ryan protested not wanting to believe what he was hearing.

"Memory Is Like A Kaleidoscope." Keith began. "It can twist and change by views, perspectives and lies. Your only memories are things that you have been told about your past. Mara or Parfait would tell you something and your mind would instantly make up the memory. It's like...if someone were to tell you right now, when you were seven Ryan, you went to Mara's birthday party, and got sick eating to much cake. You wanted to believe so much you had a past, you would make up that memory inside of your head, it never really happened, but you wanted to believe it did. In your mind is nothing but false memories, an fictional play written in your mind. But your story has finished Ryan...I've wrote `The End' underneath your fictional tale...it's truth left now. I broke the Kaleidoscope, that way it wont twist and make pretty pictures as memories to fool you anymore. Feel the burning pain of the truth."

"............" Ryan fell to his knees. "Then....what am I....if I am not Ryan....then who....what am I....?"

"Rya..." Mara crawled over to him.

"No...don't call me that." Ryan said sharply. "I'm not Ryan....do I even have a name?"

"......" Mara bit her lip.

"You have no identity...you have no persona....you are nothing." Keith mocked.

"KEITH, SHUT UP!" Mara hissed, turning towards him with tears in her eyes. Tears of anger for Keith and pity for her friend. Keith backed up, approaching a large machine.

"Now, the clone has done it's job, there is no need for you anymore, Mara."

"....What?" The cat girl's face went pale as Keith pushed a button on the machine. The girl screamed, tears falling down her face as her body glowed white

"RYA!!!" She cried, trying to reach out to him but disappeared into thin air.

"......Mara....." Ryan replied shaken. "...No..."

"That was not Mara, just like your not Ryan."

"........" Ryan gripped the sword at his side, and blindly ran forward, attacking Keith, who easily sent a punch to his face, sending him crashing back to the ground, where he laid still and unmoving. Keith looked down at him, coldly and cruelly, face expressionless.

"If....If I am not Ryan....then tell me....whom am I?"

Keith smiled heartlessly. "You are nothing more then a clone, Ryan. A life form, built piece by piece, inch by inch out of Kamertion. Kamertion taken from me and my mother. Like me you are part of the goddess, but unlike me you are a puppet made of Kamertion, an creature easily controlled...dispite the fact Key's Kamertion flows more strongly in you, you still belong to Saiyoua....you are just a piece of living, breathing Kamertion. Goddess cells with a body and a brain brought to life by Magention stolen from the Real Ryan and other children's dead corpses."

".................."

"A brain that I can easily control, a brain Saiyoua can easily control, you are just a puppet waiting for your strings to be pulled. I'll say, `kill your friends', and you'll say `all right master.' it's as simple as that."

"..................."

"Keith. Leave him be now, I wish to fight him." Taromecika's voice echoed from all over the room. "You can do what you want with him later, I wish to deal with him now."

"All right, Father. He's no fun like this anyway. He's pathetic, laying their like a broken toy." Keith leaned over, close whispering in to his ear. "How does it feel to be broken inside? How does it feel to be under me...to be the weaker?"

Ryan did not answer, he just laid on the floor, unmoving, eyes wide with shock, he was hardly even breathing. Everything around him, except for Keith's bitter words was a blur.

`......Who am I.......? Nothing but living breathing....Kamertion.............nothing but an animated clone.......'