16

The android dropped her gear into her locker and headed right to the lounge, where she dropped on the far couch and waited. Answering her unspoken prayers, Dream appeared in her field of view.

Dream smiled. "We're happy it went well. It's too bad Works has another opinion."

"He's sad that so many mutants were killed, so many he could have eventually saved."

Elise snorted. "It's a small sacrifice considering the Department's production... It doesn't always make beautiful people like you, Dream. Most of the things I saw in there were disgusting, if not sickening..."

Xian passed by on her way to Works' office, mumbling something to Lowlife about finding nothing in the top floors, no leaders, zilch, nada. The woman couldn't explain her failure in finding anybody. It was as if everyone had abandoned ship.

"I... I think I lost control of my mind for a moment. I attempted to shoot things I shouldn't have shot."

"You're obvious. I overheard talks going on about her. Apparently the guy in the red armor, his team found her on the way to catching up with another team. She had a collapsed lung and several broken ribs. She's alive though, thank the Lord. Her heart wasn't even scratched."

"...Jealousy I think. My mind wasn't clear back then. But I had always seen her as a show-off, someone who wasn't respectful of what had been given to her. She used her six arms for show-business rather than real work."

Elise stared at her goddess with the eyes of an innocent child. "...You're good. You have a pure and virtuous mind."

Dream shook her head. "We are not different from her. You are not different from her. We mutants are all the same. She was a mutant. We are a mutant. And you, you are a mutant applied to an android."

"You attempted to kill one of your kind." Dream continued. "We know you feel sorry, but do you realize you are in the same boat as all of us, hiding, fleeing, waiting for someone to come by and save us from opression, so that we may enjoy the world like the rest of the humans, free of that Department Twisted?"

"Yeah, but to me you're one person." Elise gave her a weak smile. "So please, could you talk about yourself to the first person? It mixes me up otherwise..."

They didn't exchange any words for several minutes. Dream stayed put and only got once to refill her coffee cup. Elise wasn't thirsty. Her stomach was full of bacteria that had to be purged away. She was sure she'd barf in the next few minutes. The expectation wasn't very thrilling. She had never experienced such a thing before and it looked very unsettling to humans when it happened...

Dream landed back on her couch and took every inch of it, stretching her arms above her head and making her little toes crack one after the other. She wore this sleeveless Asian-style robe cut on both sides starting from the hips. The fabric, edged with gold thread, was composed of intricate golden dragons on a light blue background. The neckline was deep enough for scuba-diving. The robe's color matched her skin so perfectly, it was as if she wore just the golden dragons. Elise briefly imagined the star naked, sporting a real Asian mythological dragon around her body. The robe was stylish, expensive, and in good taste, just like all the other clothes she wore. Dream had nothing else. All they had found in the limo during the operation was a suitcase containing evening dresses and nothing else - the singer was thus forced to use the same underwear for four days until Works brought some back to the Crate. It was a hot topic among the men. Did Dream use the same undies all along, or had she opted for nothing under after a day? The rescued mutants didn't even want to speak about it. Elise guessed that Devyn guy who had located the elevator was taking a break from his powers... Heh, or not! She could perfectly imagine the teenager sneaking a peek without anybody ever noticing. The perfect crime. She began to realize the importance of the Alpha-Power system.

She opened her chestplate and reached for the booklet. It hadn't been damaged, thank the gods. The pages were brand new, thick and of the highest quality. Department Twisted's brand, the Broken Eye, was stamped on the first page along with a signature as a seal of approval. Elise licked her fingers and attempted to smudge the marking, which faded only partly.

She flipped to the first page. It was a table of contents. Skimming through the booklet, she found out an Alpha-Power wasn't a gift per se, but rather a discipline, a practice in other words. An Alpha-Power was by definition (she came to learn that later) a psychic ability or ability derived from the psychic group, which can be practiced, learned, and mastered using specific techniques and exercises. In short, it was like pointing the easiest way in the jungle of psychic mastery. Elise, lucky like no one, had stumbled across one of those pointers. She came to understand that although most of the mutants they had rescued were indeed gifted, they had to maintain their mastery in some way or another, and it's only after through testing that the Department noticed recurrences in the ways the mutants used to keep current and improve. This book was most probably the work of several generations, and therefore of incomparable value.

She remembered that scene back when Shrike was alive. The first member of the Insa Types had been killed by one of the first forms of Alpha-Power. More than a hundred years later, this was the result: a final version of the key to the world's most puzzling questions. Years later, she would find the Alpha-Powers spread and grow, becoming more common, to the point that almost every soldier knew one, every mercenary, every fighter, every mother, anyone who wanted to help or attack or defend better - he just learned an Alpha-Power. The books had been made public. Ash Taylor had proclaimed it as the result of years of rigorous research: a revolutionary system, capable of turning the average human into something more than human. She had listened to his speech then. Ash hadn't said a single lie, but he hadn't spoken the whole truth.

Elise immediately closed it and stored it back behind her chest plate. "My part of the booty."

More people passed by. This time, it was Whistler escorting a relieved Masahito. She overheard the news: Alexanne had regained consciousness and had been carried to a local hospital. However, she couldn't recall how she had been beaten this way.

Dream glanced at the android with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. "Looks like you got away with it."

"Yeah, but all the bad inside me is gone now... I don't know how I got those ideas in the first place. Normally, I wouldn't have been thinking into attacking my own teammate, but this time, I did. It was as if something sitting on my left shoulder was whispering into my ear and telling me to strike her down. Even Shrike was okay with it?"

"Yeah. I saw her in my dream. She told me to beat up the mutant. I was supposed to teach her a lesson... but I don't remember my words. I don't know if I have told her the lesson in the first place. Maybe I attacked her on a whim, without a word, snap like that. I just went nuts and began punching and kicking and shooting things as fast as I could. Have you ever felt this way, Dream?"

"You'll experience this one day. It'll be really painful, but you'll learn a lot. It'll be worth it, believe you me."

She leaned back on the couch and stretched her legs to their full length, putting her feet on the armrest of the couch Dream was lying on.

#40

The human brain is still not fully understood. Things happen in it, and no one knows what it's called. We know biology - cells, hormones, blood, nerves - but we don't know how biology originates. We don't know how the human brain processes all the information. We don't know what drives the body.

I have a brain, and even I can't understand it. Blood flows into my organs without me thinking about it. The infection in me keeps itself alive and working without asking for my opinion. Though I couldn't understand the brain given to me, I learned to accept and like the fact that I shared my body with a Reli parasite, which was in fact part of me now. The Reli inside me obeyed to all my orders and commands. The legs moved as if they were all mine. I was the Reli inside me. There was no soul to command a Reli body. It was all mine and it was all me.

I don't understand how my legs move. I know muscles and bones, but I don't know the command. I don't know what the brain says to tell the legs to move. Is it a string of characters like I use, or is it another language? Maybe the human brain communicates not only through letters but also through numbers, symbols, shapes, colors and sounds. Maybe my legs moved because my brain sent the picture of a telephone to them, and those legs understood it as "move."

Though I have the knowledge of a century, I still find myself ignorant to so many things.

Though the mutant was so beautiful as to be loved by men and women alike, the android realized she could never even reach the goddess in her.

There was no goddess at all. Dream, happily drinking her coffee, was one more gear in the earth's machine. She wasn't particularly bright or able. She was just a signer who was a natural at show-business, and who pleased the crowd through beautiful songs and voices. That couldn't be denied. But outside of the job, Dream turned into an ordinary woman, with an average education and a weak grasp on things due to her long stay with the Department and its doctrine. Elise could've done this entire scenario inside her head. Dream had just acted as an exteriorization of that scenario - a catalyst. But in all, Dream hadn't helped much. Elise had done most of the thinking and the work. Dream was no psychologist or crusader. She just spoke what she thought the nation thought. She could have been anybody, it would have done the same effect. Dream, sensation singer and gifted with the teamwork of thirteen souls, was finally another name in the census of the nation. Thirteen souls who suggested, voted and then acted.

The android passed her hands into her hair and left them in place atop her skull. Her opinion of everybody had flipped upside-down in just a few seconds. What she thought they were, she now saw them as the polar opposite. She didn't want to admit she was wrong... but she was. The entire adventure had felt like walking through a sandstorm where she was given clues after every few paces, and where the sand, passing by, showed details but hid others, and then a second later, it was a different shape and arrangement, so much that it all appeared as pure static to her mind. She felt uneasy at her new opinions, but it made everything clearer. She now walked through a flat plain with no clouds and unlimited visibility. There was nothing to bother her judgment.

The sand had given wings to Dream. Now, the wings revealed themselves to be those of the dragons on her robe. They were the only wings to be seen, and they were already fixed to a noble creature.

"Oh, yes! Well... I don't know. Six in so much time isn't a lot... But maybe they just extended the pleasure until the very end."

Silence reigned for a few minutes. A few men passed by, on their way to Works' office. The empty coffee cup tipped over and gently rolled off the side of the table.

"Can I... buy a few of your dresses? They look really beautiful and I don't know where else I could get these."

The signer shrugged. "Help yourself to the suitcase in my room. I have more clothes than I can imagine. My bank account is still active; I can renew my wardrobe anytime."

Elise hesitated. No, it wouldn't feel the same anymore. She looked at Dream and sighed. "I grew out of it..."