"I loved you..." He spoke to the fragile looking body that stood before him. Her beauty seared all around him. Penetrating his very being. While the world itself visibly could not be seen. Her face was black, void. As she moved her body shook. The very essense of unreality. Espi couldnt stop himself from speaking. "I destroyed everything i had after losing you..." His words filled with pain, sorrow. Something many in this life wouldnt even know he had...emotion. "I cant find happyness..." The womanly figure shifted violently. Her hand reached out slowly. Fingers black and blue. Her voice came through like that of a banshee. "What you once loved. No longer loves you in return...and never will." Her face still black, empty like that of the abyss. She continued to speak. "You are a machine. You have never felt what it means to love. And never will..." Espi fell to his knees. Arms sprawled on either side of him. His head slowly lifted to stare back into the abyss of her face. As he spoke his words were seered with dread. "I want out of this life..." The woman turned her back to him..."You make who you are...no one but you controls your destiny."
Espi awoke in his cot. The darkness of the room laid heavily with the stench of steel. His body had been sweating. Cold chills rang through his spine. But he felt..."different." He slowly arose to his feet and walked over to what looked like a wooden dresser with an attached mirror. He rested his palms upon its wooden canvas and stared at himself in the mirror. His eyes did not glow the mechanical green hue they once did. His feet tingled. His palms also followed. His eyes began to water. He slowly lifted his right hand to his cheek. Touching the skin softly with his fingertips. "Human..." his voice box felt as if it was never used before. A new tone had emerged. One that did not sound mechanical at all. But that of a deep human voice. "You are what you make yourself to be..." Her voice echoed in the room. He turned his neck quickly to its words. His voice rang out like that of a cry. "Why do you taunt me so?" A swift cold breeze filled the air and down Espi's spine. For out of the darkness did her body appear directly behind him. Her face draped with long black hair. Covering up the black abyss that is her face. Her hands jerked with violent momentum to Espi's face. Turning it forcefully making him see himself in the mirror once more. "Because you will never be human...Machine."
Reeverb heard his screams and ran into his chambers on board the Red Dream ship. Grasping Espi by his shoulders he shook him until his eyes opened to the desert real. "Espi, Wake up! I heard you screaming!" His green eyes filled with tears as he stared up at Reeverb. As Espi spoke did a half mechanical half human voice come forth. "I remember....I remember...."
(To Be Continued...)