A Few Moments Ago

Yuna was sitting in a wooden chair, eating her breakfast. She was in the LIA’s cafe, a cozy little place that was near the back corner of the building. It was nearly empty. Besides her were just two other people minding their own business as they sipped on cups and ate their meals.

But what Yuna was focused on was not her food but rather the commotion that was happening in a room directly across from where she was sitting. She wiped her mouth with her napkin, not taking her eyes off of the scene, and stood from her seat. As she walked over to the room, she waved to the waiter that was cleaning off her table. Then she made her way to the room with its glass walls and door that was normally closed but today was wide open for everyone to see what was happening inside.

“How are their vital signs right now?” a technician called out, directing her words to a man staring at a monitor. “Anything oddities?”

“Nothing that I can see,” the man replied. “Can you access their brain activity? It might help.”

“Brain activity is normal,” another voice announced. “I can’t see anything here.”

Yuna tapped on the shoulder of the closest person to her, a male elf, and the man looked up at her.

“What happened?” she asked. 

“We’re doing an EMI right now on the new prisoner,” the man explained, returning his attention back to his screen. “A problem just arrived. We’re trying to figure out what happened and how to fix it right now.”

“What’s the problem?” 

“Ask Judy over there. She’s managing this EMI today.”

The man pointed to a female beastkin, a fox from the looks of her ears and tail. She was pacing around as she scanned the monitors of the technicians, questioning them and muttering to herself. Yuna walked up to her and she turned her head, noticing her approach.

“Oh, Yuna. How may I help you?” Judy asked. “I’m a bit busy right now, though, so I don’t know if I have the time.”

“I just wanted to know what’s happening here,” Yuna replied with a small smile. “I can tell you’re busy.”

“There has just been a bit of an unforeseen complication,” she explained. “The prisoner has been a bit tougher than expected. We should have this under control soon.”

“What’s the complication? That’s what I really want to know.”

“We’ve lost contact with both the captain and the prisoner,” Judy said, her eyes grim. “I don’t know how that happened or what caused it. But it’s not that big of a problem so don’t worry about.”

“Don’t try to sugarcoat it, Judy,” a woman broke in. “Yuna, this has happened only one other time in the last couple hundred times we did an EMI. That time was because of equipment failure. This time, we don’t know.”

“They’re still under?” Yuna asked. 

“Yup,” the women technician nodded as she typed away at her keyboard. “They also still seem to be communicating with each other. I can detect spikes in brain activity here and there. But the captain’s communication link with us has been tampered with on his end. There’s something blocking it that’s preventing us from sending or receiving messages.”

“Liz, she didn’t need to know that,” Judy sighed. She shook her head and focused her attention to Yuna. “But now you get the general idea of it. Nothing major like the link failing or someone’s mind collapsing.”

“I think outside interference of an EMI link is a pretty big problem,” Yuna commented. 

“I mean, there’s worse that can happen,” Judy said, her voice defeated. “Not that you’re wrong. This is fairly worrying.”

“It ain’t outside interference, Yuna,” a man piped up. “There’s no way it is since it’s a link between two people. Cap’s over there in the iso chamber.” The man pointed his thumb toward a metal door. “And the prisoner is stuck inside the link room. We’re just monitoring the link here. The only actual link we have with them is with the cap.”

“So it’s not possible for someone outside to touch it?”

“I mean, I’m not sayin that it ain’t possible but the chances of that is pretty damn low,” the man shrugged. “Our equipment would be able to detect that as well. So it’s probably because of something either the prisoner did or cap did.”

“Wait, you suspect that one of the two directly interfered with the link?” Judy interrupted. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“Because I just thought about it right now?” the man replied. “I don’t really have any evidence for this so I ain’t just goin to give ya some random ideas.”

“Then why are you telling Yuna this?”

“Because she won’t bite my head off if I’m wrong.”

“Oh, come on now. I don’t bite people’s heads off,” Judy pouted. “At most I just smack them really hard.”

“Whatever you say, Judy.”

“JUDY!” a voice yelled out.

“Could you lower your voice? I’m not deaf,” Judy said. “What is it?”

“The EMI link just severed,” the technician said, lowering his voice a bit. “And not by any of us. The captain should be waking up soon.”

“Tommy, get a reading on the captain’s mind and could you get me a report on what happened?” Judy said to the male technician she was speaking to a few moments ago. “Someone get the captain out of the iso room.”

“Got it, Judy,” Tommy said, cracking his knuckles. “Yuna, you wanna stay here or are do you have what you wanted?”

“I’ll stay. I still don’t completely understand what’s happening,” she replied.

The metal door that was the entrance to the iso chamber slid open and a person rushed inside. Yuna peeked inside and saw the person removing a helmet from the captain’s head. The captain opened his eyes and let loose a gasp. He tried to stand from his seat and nearly collapsed, grabbing the arm of the recliner he was just sitting in to catch himself. 

“Sir, are you okay?” the person asked. 

“Do I look okay, officer?” the captain replied. He rubbed his face and wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Help me up would you please?”

The person grabbed the captain’s arm and helped pull him up. Then with the captain leaning heavily on the person, they stumbled out of the room. 

“Oh, Yuna. You’re here,” the captain said as he caught sight of her standing at the doorway. “Watching the process, I see. I’ll be right back. You can stay here in the meantime.”

“I understand,” Yuna replied. She watched as the man that went into to help the captain begin staggering out of the technician room.

“I think the cap was kicked out, Judy,” Tommy said. Yuna turned her head to look at him, his eyes staring intently at a screen in front of him. “Now that the block is gone, I can see the records of what happened.”

“Who kicked him out of the link?” Judy asked, leaning over his shoulder to take a closer look at the screen.

“I can’t really tell but from what I see, the cap was tryin to get out initially for a bit. Then over here he stopped and I think was talkin with the prisoner. Then he was kicked out.”

“Did the prisoner do that then?”

“He seems to be the only one that could have possibly done it, but I sure as hell would like to know how.”

“I can check on him if you would like?” Yuna offered. “I am a field officer after all.”

“Um, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that that I can think of,” Judy said. “You can go check on the prisoner if you want. Tell us you find something weird. I’ll be here looking through the link records.”

“I’ll do my best,” Yuna said, giving her a slight nod. 

She walked to the door opposite to the one that was the entrance to isolation room where the captain was. The door slid open as she approached and she found Yuki sitting on a metal chair, a helmet on his head. His arms were restrained with bracelets that were around his wrists and attached to a table in front of him. His fingers were tapping against the table, creating an unfamiliar rhythm. 

Yuna pressed a button on the back of the helmet and it unlocked, the sound of air being released reaching her ears. Then she gently pulled the helmet off of Yuki and set it down on the table. She watched as his eyes fluttered open and slowly focused on her.

“Yuna?” Yuki said, his voice soft. “Nice to see you here.”

“Are you okay?” Yuna whispered. “I heard there was a problem.”

“I know. I think I caused that problem,” Yuki replied. He looked down at his hands that were being restrained. “So what are you doing here?”

“I’m supposed to be asking what happened but I don’t think you’ll tell anyone anyway,” she said. She glanced around before continuing. “What I really want to do is tell you something.”

“That is?”

Yuna reached into her pocket and pressed down on a small device she had in it. 

“This conversation is being masked right now but only for a small while, so I’m going to have to say this quick,” she rushed. “I’m going to unlock your cuffs but you can’t do anything yet. They’re going to move you later and when they do, you can surprise them. There is a side entrance to this place all the way to the left of the building. I’ll have it unlocked and you can run through there.”

“I see,” Yuki said. “I’m glad.”

“What do you mean your glad?” Yuna said, pulling her hand out of her pocket. “Did you understand what I was saying?”

“Of course I did, Yuna. I’m glad that you’ve made a decision. But, can I ask why? Why you’re doing this?”

“It’s just. I, um.” She looked away from Yuki. “I just couldn’t ignore it. You were the first person that I could ever call a friend. And those days that we spent together along with Erica and Akira and the rest were probably the best ones I’ve ever had.”

“I see.”

“That night, at the lake. I can still see it so perfectly. The mirror like water. The sparkling stars. The warmth,” she continued, her voice starting to crack. “That warmth as I sat next to you.”

She swallowed and stared up at the ceiling. She took a deep breath as the memories of the day not that long ago ran through her mind. If she didn’t do what she had to do now, then those days would be gone forever. She would only have the memories, memories that would fade in time until they were only imprints.

“And I don’t want to lose that,” she whispered.

“And I don’t either,” Yuki said. His voice was calm. Yuna looked back down at him. “Yuna, I understand. And I want to thank you. Thank you for trusting me and believing in me. I don’t want to betray that trust.”

“Then—”

“But you seem to be missing a vital part.”

“What do you mean?”

“You. How would you get out of this? I don’t want to see you trapped here. How will you get out?”

“I can’t, Yuki,” Yuna replied with a sad smile. “I can’t run. They’ll find me no matter where I am.”

“Then let them find you,” Yuki said. “Let them find you because as long as you’re with me, I can protect you.”

“I don’t know if you can. Yuki, they can see almost everything. I would know.”

“I know that, Yuna. But you’ve put so much trust in me already. I just need a little more. What do you want?”

She bit her lip and stared at the floor. That question again. The question that Yuki had asked her before. But now she could think of an answer.

“I want to stay with you.”

“Then do you want my help?”

“Yes,” Yuna said, her voice quiet. “Please.”

“That’s all I need.”

The room went dark as the lights went out. Yuna heard panic erupt from the technicians inside the neighboring room. Then the sound of metal clanging against the floor caught her attention and she saw the dim outline of Yuki standing up from his seat.

“Come with me,” Yuki said. 

A hand reached out to her. And she took it, her fingers interlacing with his.