The Muse

The Muse - Episode Four - The Survivor of the Dark Plague

The Muse - Episode Four - The Survivor of the Dark Plague

Years ago, Clio was bitten by a strange man who was infected by the dark plague.

A mysterious guy shot the strange man and killed him. Clio cried in pain. He was bleeding. The mysterious guy took him to the hospital where his parents were. He introduced himself as Ehren. He was wearing a UG uniform.

Clio was bitten in the shoulder, in an area where cutting leads to death. Both Clio's parents were doctors, but his father was a scientist as well. His father only had theories on how to approach the dark plague. There was no cure yet.

Before anything else, Clio was losing blood. He finally fell unconscious. His parents looked devastated. Ehren felt their despair. He volunteered for blood transfusion. As soon as it was done, he left the hospital.

After few moments, Clio woke up, feeling sadder than he has ever been. He cried and cried. Doctor Heinz, Clio's father, thought of dealing with the first stage symptoms which was terrible depression. He injected him with anti-depressants.

The people infected in their area was rising again. Mishuno had to tend to her patients aside from Clio. But Clio was put on isolation, in a basement laboratory, and in a cage, chained, in case his infection gets worse.

His father gave up his patients and took care of Clio instead. He experimented different chemicals that would slow the symptoms from escalating. And it was successful. It has been a week and Clio has not turned into a glutton. But whenever the drug falls off, he would feel terrible sadness, to the point of insanity. Doctor Heinz would not give up on his son and kept curing him, experimenting different drugs from time to time.

These drugs were also tried to other patients on the first stage symptoms but their symptoms did not slow down like Clio's. They had to euthanize those patients as soon as their skin texture changed. Heinz realized Clio was different, and special. His symtoms would not rise up the first stage. He all he had to do was approach the case per symptoms.

One day, Heinz thought of reducing his drugs and resorting to mind therapy. Heinz taught him to divert his thoughts through inventing something. And so his days were filled with inventions, drugs, and on and off torturing depression. It was successful. Five years went by, Clio learned to manage his thoughts and countered the sadness by trying to be happy. He focused on his inventions and became really handy. He also listened to The Muse's songs, even became a crazy fan. Heinz knew it was already a permanent cure. He shared this experience to the Maru to help the cases of dark plague. But when he left to work for them, he never came back.

Mishuno and Clio eventually had to move to Earhart. With Clio's inventions selling off, he bought an entire hospital. This also was fated for him to meet his hero, Ehren whose UG Headquarters were located below their hospital. After some time, they met again and he was recruited to join UG.

Fastforward. After Clio left Riantheliss, he went straight to Ehren, who is now the commander of UG.

"What brings you here, boy?" Said Ehren while smiling

"You're not going to welcome me back? I was gone for three months!" Said Clio.

Ehren embraced him. "You gotta clean up the laboratory you burned." He teased. He did burn a laboratory months ago, but that's another story to tell.

"To apologize, I shall bring you a great great news!" Clio exclaimed. Ehren sat back on his throne.

"Make sure, it can make up for the damage." Ehren said.

"Okay, listen. When I was young, 14 to be exact, I met a girl. You remember this story?" Clio asked.

"Yes, who later on became the best singer whom you are so crazy about. Clio, I know already." Ehren said.

"Well you probably got it wrong because, she was reportedly missing for three days now." Clio said.

"She's missing. The great Muse is missing, that's the great news?"

"And there's this girl who calls herself Riantheliss whatsoever, she's the winner of today's annual recruitment process, the girl who went back from the hole! And she's in the infirmary right now, I checked on her, and she looked exactly the same... as... the Muse. No, it's her, my deductions are right, I can never be wrong. It's her. The muse is here! My muse is here!" Clio excitedly uttered.

"That means war with the theurgists if we keep her here." Ehren said.

"Wai-wait! No! I haven't had an autograph yet. And... and... who knows it's actually her? She's in disguise. Nobody noticed, well except for me, since I'm a genius and I stared at her photos almost all my life." Clio said.
"Did you tell her you know?" Ehren asked.

"No, ofcourse not!" Clio denied.

"How about we pretend not to know?" Ehren suggested.

"I don't know, let's try and just be cautious. So what do we do?" Clio asked.

"Take her here. We have to know her intentions." Ehren commanded.

Clio left and went back cautiously to Riantheliss.

"Ah... Rian... I mean, Ri, just Ri. Okay, let's go." He said as his eyes are distracted, trying to avoid her eyes.

"You know. You know, right?" Ri asked.

"What?" Clio tried to pretend. They went out of the room and walked. While walking, they encountered Tanvi, Ehren's secretary and Clio's friend. He tried to cover the muse and kept the conversation short. Riantheliss realized something's off with him. So he grabbed him by the wrist to the corner. She looked at the wrist and laughed. It has the logo of the muse, suggesting his fanatism.

"Now I remember. I met you before, haven't I? Who else knows?" She asked like threat.

"Uhh.... eh...." Clio was still starstruck and wondering what to say.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound like threatening you. I'm just hoping you wouldn't blow up my cover. Right. Judging you and how you pretended you didn't know and how you covered for me, I could say that you're on my side, right?" The muse said. Clio nodded charmingly. "Good boy. I'll give you an autograph if things went smooth for me." Riantheliss added.

"... Actually, I told the commander." He smiled and winked. "Let's go."

Riantheliss felt a little nervous.

They entered the commander's room.

"Welcome, lady, and congratulations for passing the recruitment process." Ehren pretended to just got to know her.

"I know you know. Let's proceed to negotiations." She said.

"Straight and fast." Said Ehren.

"She got me." Clio said.

"First, settle down and tell us why you're here." Ehren requested. She sat down and told her history with Kingsbirth and what's going on with the dam, also Maru's plan on doubling the sacrifices.

"I'd like to seek help in resolving this... and I'm also in search of my parents... whom I never knew... at all." Riantheliss said.

"The UGs have been battling with the Maru for ages. We knew about this and were constantly aiding the lower ranks and protecting them from the Maruns. We helped contain the plague and provided assistance on those who seek. But in the past year, we have fallen shorthanded. We'll do what we can, trust on that, and prepare to engage in battle." Ehren said.

"You'll let her?" Clio doubted.

"We have to be fair. You chose us. You fight with us... there's no special treatment. We respect your new identity while hoping not to engage in conflict with the theurgists." Ehren said.

"As long as they do not know I'm here. I request your aid in protecting my identity." Riantheliss requested.

"Then let's get you a new SRAM." Clio said.

"As for finding your parents, I'm afraid we do not have the expertise to do so. We'll talk more after you settle your things. As for now, Clio shall assist you on your SRAM and lodging." Ehren said.

"Lodging?" Clio wondered.

"There's a vacant room in your penthouse. We can't let her stay with the others for safety purposes." Ehren teased him.

"As you say, Commander". Clio politely said. As they left the room, he signed to him "You're the best!".

They took an elevator to the penthouse. They went in.

"This is our penthouse. My mother and I lives here. Remember Mishuno? She's at work downstairs, at the hospital. We moved in few years ago. This is Mishuno's room, this is my room, please do not enter, and then, as for your room, there's an unused room upstairs." Clio toured her to the penthouse. They went upstairs and entered her room.

"By the way, your things?" Asked Clio.

"I came empty handed." She answered.

"Oh good. Full sponsorship, yes, as I thought. Don't fret, UG got you." He laughed.

"Thanks a lot." She said as she realized that everything was going well. It also seemed that she can get along easily with Clio.

"Pardon me but I just gotta say that, I've been a fan for many years. I always listen to your songs, whenever I'm sad or feeling happy or whatever. Just gotta say that those really helped me and I'm the happiest to encounter you personally. I'll always be at your service, Muse." Clio expressed his fondness of her. The muse, as if it's nothing new, reacted neutral.

"Also, from now on, since you'd be staying here, I hope we could be friends." Clio added.

"I'm sure you know a lot about me. Tell me about you." Riantheliss requested. "We'll have long hours working on this SRAM." She said.

And so Clio told her about his inventions and his duty on the Underground. He also talked about some members and the system of the organization... all while working on the SRAM.