[Roc] Epilogue - Identity

[Kai]

There were several loud, clanging thudding noises, which awoke her. She groaned, blinking a few times, but found herself unable to rub her eyes, or even move at all. She was, in fact, strapped into some sort of contraption. it was almost like a dentist's chair, or a surgery table, but much more horrid seeming than either. Vaguely, she was aware that there was something strapped to her head, a helmet, or something, with pads holding it securely. The tightness of this headgear was not lost- it was just tight enough to be uncomfortable, but not enough to make her be in actual pain.

When it became clear to the others- as there were indeed others, She was not alone here- that she had awoken, lights blinked into existence all around her, blinding her and turning her world into nothing but one immense gleam of bright light.

"Ah, so you've awoken. Just in time, too," a voice spoke. The voice was like that of Luca Pavone, but not quite. "Good. then I will get to watch as you are destroyed. Oh, don't worry, we won't be getting rid of your precious disguise. No, rather, we'll be doing her a favor."

"What?" the woman asked, incredulous. "I have no disguise-"

"Shut it! You haven't fooled me, or my master. Oh no, we know exactly who you are, Aerin Tatst," that voice countered gleefully.

"Then what are you, Emperor Uesu? You make a great claim for such a small man!" The woman's vision briefly registered a hand coming within its cocoon of light, which was replaced by stars after it smacked her viciously across the face.

"Shut your mouth, wench." There was a fluttering of noise from beyond the lights, as if the man whom had smacked the woman was shaking his hands- a vestigial reaction to pain from blunt impacts.

"Not as good as the real thing, are you, faker?" the woman countered, feeling a bit of blood dripping from her lip as she grinned defiantly. She was responded to by another backhanded slap, even harder this time.
"I told you to shut your f***ing mouth, bitch. DO as I say, or I might just blow your brains out instead of going through all this trouble."

"What trouble?"

"Oh, can't you tell? You see, Master came up with a wonderful plan. Instead of killing you, we've, ah, Acquired some very special data. If you really are Ellen Katsuragi, then all you're going to do is lose the most horrible memories of your life, and continue on as if it never happened. I'd say that's plenty fair, no? But! oh, and this is my favorite part. If you are Aerin Tatst, which you of course, are, as we killed Ellen Katsuragi years ago during the invasion, then, oh, then, you will suffer the indignity of being erased, to have the body you're unlawfully pilfered regain its rightful owner, and live on. You will be gone, dead, no more, and then, oh, then, we will have nothing else in our way stopping our plans." The man monologued, cackling at the end in a maniacal, fitful sort of manner, not befitting of the one whom his physical features mimicked.

"Isn't that illegal?" The woman asked.

The man, Mr. Boss as he was called, stopped, and did a double take. "Illegal? ILLEGAL? OF COURSE IT'S ILLEGAL IDIOT! but who cares? I certainly don't! To be completely honest, I'd rather kill you, but I'm neither honest or in charge, so I get to do this instead." Mr. Boss slapped the woman, once more, for his own sick please, and then he could be heard walking away.

The woman struggled again, but found it to be no use- she could not escape. "Well, Shit. How did they figure out who I am?" she wondered, mentally preparing herself for what may soon come Let's just hope that system works... A moment later, her world turned into a burst of overwhelming pain, and heat, like the universe's worst headache, but worse, and then some. She probably screamed, but she couldn't really tell, and then the world went black once more.

 

[Kai]

Ellen Katsuragi awoke, finding herself in a pile of rubbish next to a skyscraper, in an unfamiliar city. The last thing she remembered, was going into the clinic, and getting an ST backup, on Tami. But here, wherever here was, was certainly not Tami anymore. Ellen groaned, rubbing her eyes and cracking her neck, feeling the effects of a pounding headache. Vaguely, Ellen was aware that she felt different in a few ways than she had last remembered, and for some reason, something just felt wrong, aside, of course, from finding herself in a rubbish heap.

"Where the heck am I?" She asked, to no one in particular. She jumped in surprise as a voice answered.

"You're in Kyoto, on Yamatai." the voice said.

Ellen looked about, but found no one around. "I- I'm on Yamatai?" she asked the ghostly voice.

"Yeah, We're on Yamatai" was its somewhat exasperated answer. "At least the partition worked..." it then said to itself, confusing the poor girl even further.

"Partition? What are you talking about?" Ellen asked, having come to the realization that she was apparently talking to herself, and that she had obviously gone insane.

"Partition. In your brain. Well, it was my brain for a while, and now I suppose it would be 'ours'."

"I don't quite follow."

"Okay, I can deal with that. Suffice to say that we're sharing a body for the moment- Ah, where are my manners- My name is Aerin Tatst, welcome back to the land of the living" the voice answered, identifying itself.

"What do you mean back to the land of the living?"

"It's a long story. Short version is, You died, I needed a cover story, and you looked close enough to me that I used you as a disguise. someone found out, tried to erase me by putting you back into your body, but, I was prepared for it. Now, we're sharing."

Ellen blinked a few times, processing that information, and fainted back into the pile of rubbish.

************

A few hours later, Ellen was on the move. The voice in her head, the one that called herself Aerin, had been giving her directions. With some trepidation, the young Ellen Katsuragi had been following the instructions of this woman, whom she had never met, but now suddenly had quite an 'intimate relationship' with. Still, the instructions had not proved to be wrong yet. She had gone, found a locker, which she was able to get some money out of. With this money, she was able to hire a cab, and now, as she exited the cab, she made her way into a somewhat shady shuttleport, but nobody seemed to give her any notice.

Finally, using a code that the voice told her to use, she accessed a landing bay. Much to Ellen's surprise, she found a black shuttle, of a type which she had never seen before. In fact, many of the things she had seen this day were things she had never seen before, and it was slowly dawning on the girl that it was no longer YE 31.

But now, she had come to this point, and that voice had promised to explain everything once she had gotten there. She hesitated at the doorway into the private landing bay, pondering the consequences of this move; Perhaps she should rather just stay here and try to make a life on Yamatai. But something nagged at her, tugging at her heart. There was an urge to go on, get out, explore. She wasn't stuck on a backwater planet anymore, and this shuttle before her promised a certain kind of freedom.

The decision was made, and she moved. She took a step, then another, and another. Soon, she was at the airlock. It opened for her without hesitation. she stepped inside, and the shuttle greeted her. "Welcome back, Ellen. I've missed you!"