In Memoriam - An Unus Annus Fanfiction

03.12. - 12/03 - Mark Turns Ethan Into Mummy To Prepare Him For The Great Beyond

»I see.« Marvin nodded, his chin resting on his thumb and his hand curled to half of a fist.
»So you two,« he pointed at Unus and Annus, »Are, or rather were, subconscious parts of the personalities of Mark Fishbach and Ethan Nestor?«

Annus nodded, to which he responded gleefully, »The world sure is small! I myself work together with one of their friends, Seán. Really cool guy.« He reached out to a beaker and tipped it with his finger, making it stand on one side of its base.

»I'm sure you have a lot of questions. Go ahead. I'm positive that I can answer quite a few of them.«

Unus leaned forward on the chair Marvin hat pulled from somewhere. If looks could kill, the green haired magician would have turned to a pile of ash by now.
»Why exactly do people have to run a gauntlet of Sphinx riddles to get to you?«

»Every riddle can be solved,« Marvin responded, dramatically waving his hand through the air.
»But it is the very nature of people that they quickly give up on things that prove annoying or tiresome. I didn't think anyone would sit through the whole thing.«

He let the chair fall back on all fours and looked directly at his guests.
»I'm curious. Why did you do it? Why haven't you given up after realizing it repeats itself over and over?«

Before Unus could respond with spite and the need to smash your face in, Annus spoke up.
»We... didn't exactly have a choice. There was no other way.«

Marvin raised an eyebrow. »Now you're making me curious. Would you mind telling me your story?«

Annus shook his head. He thought about where to start for a moment, deciding for the very beginning. He told the magician, who seemed strangely unbothered by everything that was going on, how he woke up in a pitch black room with no memories.

A shiver ran down his spine when he spoke about how he saved Unus from Blank and how they encountered Dark soon after. The absentminded look on Marvin's face was broken by the mention of Dark's name, but only for a split second.

Annus continued, telling him about the safe room they found and about the torture they went through to get here. It felt like ages ago when they watched Mark and Ethan through the old computer.

After he was finished telling their story, Marvin nodded reverently. »That's interesting. I've never encountered a case like yours.«

He stood up and walked up the stairs that separated the oriel on which the telescope was placed from the rest of the room and picked up a book from a nearby table.

It was a simple, leather bound tome, filled with handwritten notes and scraps of paper.
Without turning around, he began to explain. »This whole place is strange, anyway. It's a - hold on - It's a machine, but it has generated all off... this.« He gestured vaguely around the room.

»So we're in some kind of virtual reality?« Unus questioned.
»Not quite, my sharply dressed friend. A virtual reality is exactly that - virtual. But this one is much closer to all the other actual realities out there.«

»There's more than one?« Annus asked in a surprised tone.
»Of course,« Marvin said, as if it was a fact everybody knew. »The physical world is only one of many. There's the Dreamscape, for example, or the Astral Plane. Call them realities, planes, worlds, whatever you will. It's all the same.«

»And this one is a simulation?«
»Yes and no. It's artificial, but it crossed the point of being purely virtual. Right now, it's real, but moldable. Basically like the Dreamscape. I don't know who designed it, but they were a genius.«

At this point, Marvin had found what he was looking for and had returned to his seat.
»Somehow Dark and that other guy must have gained access. Here, look at this.«

He held the piece of paper up in front of them. It vaguely looked like a map, but the lines themselves where moving on the paper, constantly shifting.
»We're here right now,« he said, tapping one of the few rooms that stood still. »There a certain save rooms in this world. This is one such room, as was the one you described earlier. I can send you there, if you want.«

Annus looked at him in surprise, a glimmer of hope shimmering through his voice. »You could do that?«

Marvin nodded. »It's a little complicated though, so I usually don't do it. You cannot influence the save rooms, so you have to play by their rules.«

Annus let his eyes wander around the room, wondering what kind of rules he meant. The room looked like an antique study. And with antique he meant actually antique, not 18th - century - England antique. Given the golden decorations, the scrolls in the bookshelves and the hieroglyphs on the walls, he had to think of ancient Egypt.

As if he had read his mind, Marvin spoke up. »As you can see, this room is indeed Egyptian-themed. Wanna guess the travel method of it?«

»Mummifying us?« Unus asked snarkily. By the looks of it, he still wasn't over the whole riddle situation.«

Marvins eyes sparkled. »Exactly! How did you know?«
»Whoa, whoa hold on. You're not going to mummify us. No way.«
Annus agreed, mentally preparing for a fight.

Marvin let out a hearty laugh. »Of course not! It only has to look like it.«

He walked over to a worryingly altar-like slab of stone. It was painted all over with depictions of animal-headed gods and goddesses.
»You only have to lay down and relax while I wrap you in.«

»I'll do it,« Unus said, with sudden determination in his voice.«
»Are you sure? I can go first if you want.«
»It's fine. I think we can trust him.«

Unus got up onto the stone slab and sat there in upright position, his legs stretched out. He gave Marvin, who was already holding long bandages, a nod.
The magician looked a little too exited for Annus's taste, but Unus seemed to trust him. He watched as the man with the green hair carefully wrapped the bandages around his friends chest and made his way down.

Soon, only Unus's head was sticking out of the bandaged body. »You'll only need to hold your breath for a few seconds,« Marvin said in a calm tone.

As soon as he was fully wrapped in, Unus's body dissapeared from underneath the bandages. They collapsed into themselves, leaving only a Unus - like shape behind.

Marvin pulled them off the table with a dramatic »Ta-dah!«

Annus got onto the altar while Marvin rolled the bandages up with both arms.
He took something out of his pocket and headed it to Annus. It was a golden scarab, roughly the size of his palm. »Here. You'll be able to contact me with this.«

»Why are you helping us?« Annus aksed. For a second, Marvins face looked like it was made of stone.
»Let's just say I have an unsettled score with Dark.«

As his head got carefully wrapped in, Annus closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and tried to relax.

A cold gust of wind hit him. He opened his eyes and tried to get up. The bandages were gone, but the world around him was pitch black.

»Unus?« He carefully asked into the darkness.