Off the distant city of a continuously rebuilding Gietha was another city in the Wastes that survived the Sand Sinker, which contained inns fit for both the cheap, and kings and queens alike. During the same night ever since Ardine departed for his trip to Buchasa, and with the cities attempting to restore after Kaiden and Seth's chaos, Lyn and her allies found themselves at the heart of the most regal inn in the Wastes.
Decorated with pristine richness and incalculable precision, the inn was a reflection of Kaiden's luxurious lifestyle ever since he had become the ruler of the Wastes. Atop the highest point of the inn laid the king's golden suite, an ivory and golden landscape filled to the brim with amenities that kings would lavish in.
This included an indoor pool and hot spring, nestled with generous amounts of massage oil and lavender. Scabs, who had spent the entire day lifting and commanding others to do the same, managed to secure a spot due to Lyn's celebrity status. He laid within the spring with lavender leaves rested upon his eyes. With his body remained in the spring for hours on end, his skin eventually began to prune, despite basking in its delight.
It also included a copious amount of rich fruit and wine, which Dorothy selected the former of them. Juicy grapes, strawberries, and tropical fruits from across METIS could still be pilfered by the richest of all merchants, sold to the king's regal suite to provide an area fit for those who could afford it.
Yet among all the amenities, Lyn did not partake in anything besides gazing out on the patio toward the stars. With a bowl of fruit in hand, Dorothy approached Lyn and called for her to enter the dimly lit suite, beckoning the food for her.
"I shall pass." Lyn said.
"Still stiff, are you?" Dorothy teased, placing the fruit on a nearby table. "Despite being a celebrity here, you treat it as if you're not even the slightest bit interested."
"Well, I'm really interested," Scabs's voice called across the room with his relaxed self out of the hot springs. With a towel wrapped around his small body, he began heading out with an iced treat. "The perks of being a celebrity's friend... I could live in this suite forever, but I think I'll head to sleep now. Can't wait to bask in heaven tonight! Thanks Lyn!"
Lyn watched as Alfaic hovered beside a drawer, resting atop of it. She looked back at the patio, paying little to no attention to Dorothy.
"Well, I think I'll head next door and rest as well," Dorothy said, approaching the exit with Scabs. "I'll leave you to sleep. But I think it's best you don't worry about Gietha, or Ardine, or Seth. Everything's all handled now. You deserve a break."
"Yeah, Lyn," Scabs said beside Dorothy. "You're a celebrity! You should act like it!"
Without another word, Lyn nodded, leaving Dorothy and Scabs behind to rest. She stood up from her seat and approached Alfaic on the drawer, nestling on top. His glowing aura provided a brilliant light source as Lyn turned off the light. With her eyes beginning to wane like a normal human being would, Lyn's eyebrows drooped down as she prepared to rest as well. She untied the loop between her elongated ponytail and began undressing her fusion armor in front of Alfaic.
"Whoa, whoa, HEY!" Alfaic cried, turning away. "Give me... a heads-up next time, okay?"
Lyn remained silent as she continued to dress in the clothing the suite provided.
"After all, your friend Dorothy mentioned that I was more like a man... so, if you're going to do that in front of a man, it's considered super uncomfortable," Alfaic continued before turning around. "You don't even need to-"
Silence. Alfaic silently watched as a long haired Lyn was adorned with a cute pink blouse that was met up to her waist, and black soft pajama pants that made her appear low-maintenance. The style change was a huge difference for Alfaic at the time, which could be said for every single difference ever since his fated return. Lyn picked up Alfaic and entered the king suite's bedroom, gently laying him on the nightstand beside the silky bed.
She then laid on the bed in a fetal position, resting her palms together and staring blankly in the distance. Alfaic's light shined in front of her, giving her a suitable night light to bask in.
"You've... really changed, haven't you?" Alfaic asked, breaking apart the silence.
Lyn twisted and turned, facing away from Alfaic's light as she wished to rest her eyes in the darkness. She brought up the blanket above to her nose, hiding her mouth away from him. "I do not feel that way." She blatantly stated.
"But I see it," Alfaic continued in a low voice. "You're starting to care about others, and you've been wanting to help all of those folk in the city. You're shaking people's hands, complimenting them, smiling... and you still want to lie to yourself and call yourself any different from a human?"
Seth's voice continued to ring through her ears. "I'm not a human," She clarified. "I cannot be. If I was, then what Krin has said is true."
"You never told me what he said to you," Alfaic said, hovering over her bed. "Do you... want to?"
Lyn shuffled back to face Alfaic, resting her cheek upon the cushioned pillow. She met her eyes with Alfaic's radiance before looking down upon her arms. She pressed her warm palm with her left arm, rubbing it and revealing the LYNBG52 tattoo on her shoulder still alive and well.
"If I do, will you still like me?"
Alfaic did not respond until seconds later. Lyn seemingly slow blinked while lost in thought.
"I always will, no matter what, Lyn."
Lyn began, smiling briefly at Alfaic's response. "According to him… I am of the same kind as him. Daughter of his Mother, of the same blood. And my true purpose in all this, is a pawn who has the ability to feel human emotions within a certain tether or network determined by his Mother's will. I am a part of Krin," She said before silently turning in her bed. "The thought disgusts me."
"That's…" Alfaic could barely retaliate with anything based on the information that was just revealed from her.
"But why, is the question in all this," Lyn continued. "Why was I really created by their Mother? What would happen if she were to return? Why is my mission to kill the lords of METIS?" She covered her face again with tbe blanket. "What do I do now?"
"Lyn…" Alfaic begun, summoning his strength for her. "No, Lyn, that's not true. You're you. You don't need to listen to someone like him who's purpose is to try and get into your head. I just wanted to tell you that, because sometimes you forget-"
"No, Blade," Lyn interrupted. "You don't understand. I know it's true. And I can't ignore that, despite it all. I don't even know who I am. And… all I know is that I'm a machine pretending to be a human. All I exist for is one sole purpose; to be a monster, and to join with my creator again."
"I… okay," Alfaic said, clearly speaking the wrong words in the moment. "What I meant to say was that you're clearly not like Krin. You're different. You like helping people, protecting them, stopping the Rot, see? That's something that Krin would never do."
"What if I'm only doing this because I have no other purpose in my life? The lords of METIS… why even bother?"
Silence came through again, before Alfaic would speak again.
"Well, then you're crafting a new purpose," Alfaic clarified. "A new purpose with a new future for everyone to live in. You wanted to help Cethe and Damian pass on to Elaina, and you did. You wanted to help Ardine stop Kaiden and Krin from destroying the Wastes and you did. You wanted to save me from him… and you did. And even now… you're acting within the depths of your own conscience."
"But who… am I?" Lyn cried, sitting up from her nestled position. She pressed her hands against her chest, lost in absolute fear. "Even now, as we speak, I can hear voices in my head, calling for the stars to return to them. So I gaze upon them, yet I see nothing. I am a monster created to destroy… a monster."
Lyn spun around and covered herself again in her blanket. Alfaic remained still before hovering over her and laying on the bed by her side.
"We're all monsters in some way, Lyn," Alfaic confessed. "We've watched people die almost every day, and we're practically numb to it all. We've had to kill the Rot, and even some human to get by. Yet we continue to push on, finding what little hope we have in this world… and despite it all, I'm still joyed beneath it."
"You're joyed?" Lyn asked, pressing her finger over Alfaic's warm blade. "Over what?"
"Seeing you," Alfaic stated. "By being by your side, despite not having a single clue where I'm from, I'm finding my true purpose as well. And beneath it all, I'm happy I have you to travel with."
"Do you mean that?" Lyn whispered.
"Of course. Otherwise, I wouldn't be saying it."
"I'm… so happy you're back." She whispered again.
Alfaic softly grunted in return, aware of Lyn's previous humanity returning to her in the moment. With his newfound information from Krin to her, Alfaic knew that there were already signs that it was true.
"Blade," Lyn softly spoke, noticing a change in his temperature. She hastily pushed up from her laying position and placed her palm across Alfaic's blade. "You're warm." She said.
"Oh, that's just…" Alfaic began, but was unable to complete his sentence. "It's nothing."
"Are you sure?" Lyn pressed on.
"I… I, I don't know." Alfaic stuttered.
Lyn suddenly curled up into a ball, wrapping Alfaic close to her like a child would with a stuffed animal. She closed her eyes and marveled at the feeling of warmth emanating from her sword. She then suddenly remembered a dying Aema's voice, in the prisons underneath Gietha echo in her mind.
"Do you love me, Blade?" Lyn asked.
Alfaic hesitated for a moment, but watched as the question made Lyn so comfortable that she had fallen asleep. Alfaic declined to respond, but something was terribly wrong with his implication on trying to answer.
As Alfaic rested with Lyn on the same regal bed, warped dimensions of the area began to drastically change in favor of Krin's red aethereal energy rising up from the ground, blossoming into flowers and red visible particles of dust. Alfaic's body began to morph into a genderless husk of a human, much similar to how Lyn was born from the disc. All the while this unusual phenomenon was occurring, Lyn sensed no sign of it; instead, all of it was being supplanted in Alfaic's mind as a result of Krin's previous corrupted influence as he seized control of him, and it was something he could no longer ignore.
Deep down, festering within Alfaic's mind, was the parasitic consciousness of Krin imbued deep within the root of his soul, slowly rising up to take him whole. To his own consciousness, Alfaic was a lifeless vessel of a human, locking his nonexistent hand with Lyn's to beat back the voices of Mother inside him. He knew that eventually, as time passed, Krin's influence would blossom from within and overtake his frame, leaving him to vanish among all memories across the horizon. But he paid no heed to it, for his connection to Lyn had the possibility to sever it, or at least, drain it temporarily until the influence returned.
Reality set upon the suite once more, revealing Lyn fast asleep with the sword version of Alfaic, now rested to ignore the parasitic chaos among his consciousness. Rooted deep within, he knew what he wanted to say to reply to Lyn's question, but he knew the answer could never be satisfactory. None of them knew what love was, and having a false pretense of it proved to be something that could never want to be fully achieved from him.
But he knew, deep down, that there was something there. And he cherished it throughout the night and into the future of wherever they would go after.