Description: Restless dreams for one Sakura Kasugano - herald of bad nights to come? Or just a warning in the back of her mind of a forgotten and gotten rid-of evil?
Sleep comes easy.
Eyes close, the body shuts down, and minds busy themselves with sorting through experiences old and new. Dreams are just part of that, fragments of memories and emotions placed into order, taken apart and representations of things that the body has experienced and remembered. Things that sometimes... we might wish to forget.
Things like Thailand, the opressive heat cut down by air conditioning, the heavy beat of metal on metal from being so far underground. The circular room of the Dolls, the locale where some of Sakura's time was spent, a second 'home' for where and when she existed as a Shadaloo agent. Empty save for her, for when her mind 'sees' this dream...
Sakura remembers this place well. Too well, considering the painful memory-purging experience with Rose and the many weeks that have taken place since that time. But there are many memories that will haunt Kasugano for the rest of her life... and this simple room is one of them.
It wasn't really 'her' memory though. This chamber was built for thirteen. Sakura was number fourteen -- she never really had a place of her own, so much as a place carved out and adapted for her use. She didn't spend a whole lot of time here, either -- her drive was such that she insisted upon a rigorous schedule of constant training and deployment to the field. Her 'place', as it was, was very simple... a potted plant sufficing as her only mark of 'humanity'. All others were burnt.
Save for the headband she insisted upon wearing. When she becomes aware of this situation, she reaches up to her head, pulling the headband into view before her. Kasugano should not be here now. She's better -- she can recognize that there's no intrusive programming to quell her frustration, to eliminate the pain boiling up in her mind and replace it with steely control.
She's confused, dammit. Her fist tenses, clamping that headband tightly as she grinds her teeth. 'What am I doing here?' she thinks to herself... and abruptly marches for the door. There's nothing else to see here, she knows all of the details by heart. It's time to get out, now.
Leaving so soon? Trying to escape bad memories, to get away from the pain and frustration that Shadaloo brings to mind? It's not going to be that easy, today. Not when things are not quite what they seem. It may be hard to tell that things aren't 'real' just yet, but that changes as the door is opened. Pulled open, what would normally be the corridor to the lift, and freedom..
Is a surprise.
In the way, instead of an exit, is a sheet of glass, a display case. Inside the case, Sakura's uniform from her time there. The light is caught on the case enough so that her reflection looks to be wearing the outfit - real enough to /feel/ thoses heavy bracers on her wrists. She remembers those, doesn't she? Remember being part of something better, something /evil/?
From somewhere, a raspy, dark chuckle can be heard.
... Creeeeepy! Kasugano's so shocked by the sight of herself in uniform that she actually looks down at herself -- only now realizing she was =really= dressed in her pink pajamas. Her arms do get heavier, though it's at least as much from the shock as from the memory of how heavy those gauntlets were. She remembers, alright... and it's not a pleasant memory.
Be that as it may, this is the only exit from the room that doesn't involve crawling through ductwork. Which could be fun, just... egh. Grimacing, she presses her hands against the glass, testing it to see if there's any way it can be, perhaps, slid aside without breaking it...
The glass is moveable, the outfit and case slowly sliding to the side - but another surprise lays in store. There isn't an actual corridor behind this, oh no. Instead, as the glass is slid aside, the area opens up into... the Doll Room.
Wait.
Didn't she just leave the Doll Room? On either side, it seems the same - the Doll Room, the uniform - though there is at least one difference between the two rooms. This time, in the center of the room, is something else out of place. Vega's throne. It's empty at the moment, just ... there.
And.. are these rooms getting smaller? Maybe just an inch or two..
Kasugano -thought- she'd just left that room, but apparently she's just entered it again. "This is getting ridiculous..." she mumbles to herself, scratching her cheek. She looks back, confirms that, yes, the Doll Chambers are on both sides of the hallway, with only that one throne different.
"Tsu-kun would probably love trying to figure out this game..." she mumbles further, striding into the room. If an obstacle is there, her only objective is to get it out of the way. She's not gonna try anything crazy like -sitting- at a time like this, after all! The Taiyo graduate just puts her shoulder to the throne and tries to move it out of the way, totally heedless of the room shrinking...
The throne isn't going anywhere - even though it doesn't seem to be set into the ground, it certainly seems to not be movable. That doesn't mean it shouldn't be tried. The fact that it's there, instead of its normal place in the Throne Chamber should mean something. Maybe Vega had decided that he needed a good place for some Doll Worship? After expending some effort, looking back up at the throne will see something.. interesting. On the other side of the throne, pushing back as Sakura pushes forwards, a figure in red and black, Shadaloo uniform burned and broken, scars and the aura of death around him.
Vega.
For a second only - then gone. After all, he's just toying with her now, taunting her with his presence, and then gone again. That brief image is certainy something , though - not the strong figure he was once - no, this was a supposed beaten and defeated Vega - from the battle on the rock, from the last time anyone saw him. But that evil grin hadn't left his face. And again, that chuckle rolls through the chamber.
Kasugano frowns -- she's strong enough to at least =budge= the dang throne, isn't she? Even if she got nothing else out of her time with Shadaloo, she'd =have= to get stronger, right? Irritably, she looks up from her work... just in time to see the burned, but otherwise familiar figure pushing back on the other side.
Just long enough to show himself to the young woman before disappearing.
Gritting her teeth, she pulls back from the throne, folding her arms before her and standing a fair distance away. It's quite obvious now that she's trapped, after all... and being forced into situations she has no control over are irritating to her!
Narrowing her eyes at the place where Vega last stood, Kasugano states, controlled but not calmly: "Okay, I'm done jumping through hoops for you. Spit it out, already."
Not the most... respectful tone she's given Vega, that's for sure.
Respect has to be earned. Or forced. Vega will deal with the impertenence, eventually. For now, it's obvious he can't shake the girl with these parlor tricks and bad memories. So instead, he'll appear for her. From the doorway, he steps in. He bends down to make it through the door - to face Sakura. This Vega isn't the same as the one she just saw, oh no. This one is much different. For the start.. when did Vega become ten feet tall? Monstrous in size, he looms in the room, seeming to swallow it whole.
"I have a mission for you - but I believe that you need to be reminded about what you gave up."
Sakura's mouth gapes open widely in surprise -- she just saw the little wraith of a man just now, but not -this- Vega. Maybe he wouldn't look so huge if the room weren't getting smaller by degrees, but that's still nothing compared to the fact that the man's twice as tall as she. Her fists curl up, her face turns from surprise to anger, her stance from fear to readiness.
"What I -gave up?- I gave up killing innocent people, I gave up making my friends and family -hate- me... I gave up -pretending- that my life with you was what I really wanted!" Narrowing her eyes, she shakes her head. "I won't accept it!"
"Perhaps I did not make it plain. You're going to complete this mission, because all I need is information - and I'll rake it out of your brain with my bare hands if I have to." Even though Vega knows what this is, he's still wary - after all, here he's only as strong as Sakura thinks he is, or as strong as he can implement his will on the girl. He offers only a look of strength, though - he can't let her know such. And he /does/ need her memories, her time the last few months certain to give him places to start looking for what he truly needs.
"Let's look inside that head of yours, Sakura - let's see where you've been." With that, a ball of psi flows through his hand, the size of a five gallon jug - and he hurls it towards the fighting girl. Time to change the scenery... but where will they end up?
"Oh, I got your meaning just fine! You =will= have to!" Defiant, Sakura's only been more emboldened by recent events in the Jinchuu tournament, incidents where she's proven herself to be just as powerful without Vega's Psycho Power as she was with it. It's all in attitude, all in the power of her mind -- much like this very dream world. And she knows that she can do anything she can set her mind to... such as pull her hands back, narrow her focus, and thrust her hands forward, a blindingly-bright blue fireball erupting from her hands and surging out towards Vega's, annihilating it in a flash of light.
Kasugano grins confidently... but in the back of her mind, she realizes her plan of action was =exactly what was expected=. Which is why she has a sudden sharp pain in the back of her head, one powerful enough to send her flying to the floor of the Doll Chambers, in no small amount of pain.
Correction: she's been sent careening down to the deck of the Suiryuu, the dull metal deck beneath her, a crystal blue sky above, Thailand, and Southtown for that matter, nowhere in sight. The ocean blue extends as far as the eye can see in all directions, but here on the main deck... there is naught else but the other agents of Jinchuu, frozen in time. Arika and Zach are here... reading books, otherwise oblivious to Sakura and whatever else may be unfolding before them. Hakuya is here, stopped just short of the threshold to the lower decks. Kenji is likewise chilling on a lounge chair, reading a book. But no one notices the pink-pajamaed security chief as she pushes upright, rubbing the back of her head. "What the..."
"So /this/ is where you've been, and who you know."
Vega is still standing there, never fear. He stalks about the deck, his feet echoing dully on the metal of the ship. Each person is looked at, studied - but the tension in his shoulders and the frown on his face hint that whatever or whoever he is looking for is not here. Narrowed white eyes look back towards where Sakura is, and then he turns on his heel, towards the girl.
"Perhaps you haven't realized this yet.. You've already been the perfect plant for what I needed - and you're still under my control." He barks out a laugh, his voice growing deeper, darker as an psi-fueled image of Rose forms near him, then fades out. "... Or did you think that /she/ could undo what I've done?"
Kasugano leaps back to her feet, hands subconsciously curled about her in defense. It was bad before, being in her pajamas in a tiny room with Vega. She hasn't made up her mind whether being in her pajamas aboard a ship in front of everyone else is =worse= or not, especially since Vega is still present... but it's certainly more embarassing and certainly stressful in a =different= sense.
"Y-yeah... these people respect me as a person..." Sakura gulps, uncurling her arms and readying her defenses should a psi-ball come rocketing her way again. Lowering her eyes only slightly, she adds, "They give me instructions and I follow them because I =want= to. You? ... I'm not under your control any more." Shaking her head as Rose disappears, she continues, "I'm thinking freely, I'm doing what I want to do. You're a =ghost!= I watched you die..."
And yet, no one else seems to notice, as they go on about their own business. Despite their ignorance of her situation, she insists, with mild trepidation, "And I stand for something... here..."
"But without you here, they keep going - you're not missed, not needed, not /really/. But you've given me everything I needed from you - a perfect little soldier." He keeps saying this, Vega's grin wide as he watches people come and go, with Sakura and himself in the center. "A perfect little soldier for /everyone/, it seems."
When she tries to lash out at him with words, he waits impassively, letting them break on the shore of his bored indifference, a howling wind that signifies next to nothing. "I'm quite alive, Sakura. I've been biding my time, waiting to see who I can still trust. Who will remain with me when I step into the light again." He leans forwards. "... Like you, my good... little.. soldier."
Not missed, not needed, not =really=. For an egotistical person like Sakura who thrives on compliments... this kind of hurts. But Sakura still isn't fully lucid yet... despite the change of locale, and the reality-defying constructs, Kasugano is still fully believing this subconscious world.
And Vega is frustrating her -- very much so.
"I am not your soldier!" shouts Sakura, stamping her bare foot on the deck. "I'm my own person, with my own thoughts, and my own...."
But there are sometimes words alone will not suffice. Kasugano sees that broad, impeccably-white grin with the matching eyes, and so much anger wells up within her. She's not awake, she cannot benefit from wisdom or reason. Unchanneled, unchecked rage lashes out, and Kasugano's fist flies forward at Vega's grinning maw. "Hraaaaaaagh!"
Good enough - Vega's gotten what he wanted. It's not what he needed, but it's a start. Alpha is not here, not on this ship, as far as he's seen in her memories that he's gotten from her. He's shaken her, pushed her to anger, to lashing out with blind emotion, which feeds him greatly. As her fist comes up and around, Vega's body goes blanks, dissappaearing in a fade of purple and blue energy, psychic aura belying thee possible impact.
And with that, she's left alone - and quite probably, will wake up any second. Will she remember this? Possibly - but dreams are elusive things. Will she share it? Possibly - but dreams are private things. Those answers are hers and hers alone.
Log created on 14:32:26 10/14/2007 by Vega, and last modified on 17:29:05 10/31/2007.