Unreality

22. Integration

Although the memories manifesting before him were those of halcyon days, Virgil's countenance was anything but peaceful.

Rather, a sense of chaos and turmoil now emanated from him, and it wasn't long before — in spite of the scenery around them consisting of Zenobia still — he called out to the one responsible for those images.

'How about you get to the point, Victor?!' he demanded loudly. 'I already know all this and I know how it ends!'

'You do?' Victor's jaunty voice echoed through the air once more. 'Well go ahead and spoil it for us then.'

Virgil breathed in heavily, clearly irritated by his brother's persistence.

'What are you hoping to accomplish?' he asked the omnipresent cyborg, as he attempted to keep his anger in check. 'You think you're going to make me accept you — or whatever the hell it is you want from me — by showing me everything you took from me?'

Victor's tuneless laughter was heard for a few moments, causing Umbra to look around anxiously, feeling as if the sound came from everywhere at once.

'See, that's where's you're wrong, brother — I didn't take anything that you hadn't already lost... and, more importantly, I only did what you asked.'

'...What the hell are you talking about?' seethed Virgil, finding it difficult to ignore even what he thought to be cheap provocations by his brother.

'Let's not spoil the surprise, shall we? I wanna see your face at the end... when the truth shatters your illusion. When your fantasy crumbles... and reality settles in.'

Virgil's dark eyes grew all the more fed up and disgusted with the brother he could hear but not see, while Umbra couldn't help but feel a cold chill run up her spine due to the foreboding feel of Victor's words, but before either of them could verbally express such feelings, the cyborg's jaunty voice made itself heard once more.

'Now, how 'bout we flash forward to when I came into play? 'Cause in case you don't remember, I didn't approach you as soon as I found out you were livin' there. No, you see, first I took the time to... ascertain the nature of those you were living among, and,' he snickered briefly before concluding, 'well, let's just say that they didn't disappoint... as you will soon see.'

And so, time started moving again, as the memories continued to play out before Virgil and Umbra.

The war had finally ended.

Zenobia rejoiced — their efforts had not been in vain, and the town would not be brought down again.

And so, now almost half a year since he had started living there, renting the room on the second floor of the Fields family house, Virgil made a decision — he was going to build a house for himself, on top of the hill overlooking the town.

When he announced this to the Fields themselves, he was met with everything from sadness to goodwill and concern. But he was quick to assure them that, while he wanted to have a place for himself — with the space and privacy he required —, he was not going to disappear from their lives, and would continue to see and visit them, especially Serendipity, of course.

And so it was — after a few weeks of intense work, he managed to erect a small house for himself on top of the hill adjacent to Zenobia. There was no other residence nearby and there was a grove separating him from the rest of the town, but they were still only a meager couple of minutes away.