Overlap ~ The Other Side

Chapter 012: Unbreakable Bonds

Chapter Theme Music: Clouds of Sapphire ~ Sid Acharya

<06/02/149,565 {Avion 148} - 09:00 | Corral Position, Genosis, Altiri Sector Space>
<Karnak to ACS414 Date Equivalent: 06/02/2009>

Even though few months had passed, my withering stretched the time longer, as I ceased caring about anything else in our world. Despite every attempt made from my sisters to try and cheer me up, nothing they said helped anything. I don't know why this one kid matters to me so much. Maybe it's because I've seen the same cycle of time affect someone so pure, destroying them from the inside so many times, where Reed's ensured destruction was the final crack I could take.

I held back as much as I could invoking the clairvoyance to check up on him, only doing so occasionally to see if his situation has improved or worsened. As expected, elements in his life were only getting worse, Reed becoming less in tune with himself, more isolated than ever before. Each time I learned what I already knew, it drove me deeper into the darkness none could pull me out of.

I told myself nobody cared about anything human or Altiri. The very purpose of our learning operation, for most Altiri would eventually lead to somebody worth purging in the first place, but if I can't save one single soul from crushing sadness, if I can't even try, what then is our purpose here? Did our discovery of alien beings mean nothing to anybody else? Was the entire purpose of all this merely a means to ease boredom through entertainment? Whatever the answers in life are, I'll never find them like this.

Just was well, I cannot force my sisters to assist me in sending a purge. The cost really is immense for anyone involved, and I promised them the freedom to vote and choose if ever the situation came up. I still thought I would have majority support; how wrong I was!

I never set out to manipulate anybody, my tears genuine, my heartbreak too real to belong in an act. I think, merely out of sympathy if nothing else, Talor and Junko eventually changed their minds about what felt right in the mess I had made. Talor was with me right now, huddled beside me, holding me tight while talking in random sprits about all the things she learned about the human world. I cherished every second of her words and company, and loved that she would dare to take my side even though nobody else would. It made me feel a little better, despite knowing that three Altiri would never be enough to pull off a purge.

Hurma of course wasn't happy about Talor's large heart, and she even proposed disbanding the entire aggressor group of Cy-Stars over this. I told her she could do whatever she felt like doing, and I knew Hurma was not bluffing about the threat. Our passive opposition only made our entire mental network all the more hostile, though I've given up fighting them long ago.

I would have sank even deeper into nothingness had Talor not been beside me, talking about everything. "Even though everything has wound up like this, I'm glad I got to see the human world, to study so many unique people and their lives."

"I'm not okay with this though," I implored. "What's the point of always being a passive observer, unable to interfere, unable to change a single thing when it matters so much?"

"I wish I had known earlier, that you wanted to enact a purge on somebody whenever you found the person you thought you would connect with most."

I held my tongue before Talor, wondering why she didn't know the truth in my heart already. I couldn't see the harm in revealing everything to her, as she is one of very few I now trust. "So have I... I never planned on using a purge; it was the furthest thought from my mind for the longest time."