Cole slowly crawled forward. He read the plaque on the tube, which was marked with the code C-313-573, and beneath it in small letters:
"Chimaera Project, code name Celeste."
"W-what are we, Cole... what are weeeee... AAAAAAAAAH," Celes screamed hysterically, then burst into tears.
Cole immediately turned and wrapped his arms around Celes, who was openly sobbing into his chest. Cole couldn't say a single word because he was just as blindsided and confused as she was. What they were seeing was too unbelievable and too brutal to process. They remained silent; only the sound of Celes crying and screaming muffled against Cole's chest filled the air.
They stayed like that for a long moment. Cole kept trying to think, desperately attempting to absorb this impossible reality. But suddenly, he looked up at the Celes inside the tube and realized the figure in the tank was the same age as them now.
"Hold on a minute... this... this is weird," Cole thought.
He then forced himself to recall the vivid dreams they shared: the dream of him as a child in the garden, the dream of him devouring the woman in the classroom, the dream of their escape. He looked back at the tube one more time. After that, he gripped Celes's shoulders and pushed her back slightly, though she was still crying.
"Celes, listen to me. Our dreams are fragments of our memories... I'm sure of it, because those dreams feel so real and sticky in our minds... we are not the things in those tubes. Look... she's full-grown... just like you. That can't be us because we have childhood memories, do you understand?" Cole asked, looking directly into Celes's eyes.
Celes looked up at Cole, then glanced toward the tube, but Cole immediately cupped both her cheeks, steering her gaze back to his face, and smiled despite his own streaming tears.
"You are not that thing. You are Celes. We have a childhood together, do you understand?" Cole asked, smiling, his voice gentle.
Celes nodded slowly, her tears falling freely again. Her hands rose to hold Cole's hands on her cheeks.
"Thank my stars, Cole," Celes choked out.
"We better haul ass out of here," Cole replied.
"What about... her?" Celes asked, pointing toward the tube.
"I'll take care of it," Cole said.
Cole stood up. "CRAK... CRAK," he instantly shifted into his combat form. "BLAAR," he punched the tube, shattering and puncturing it. The yellow fluid rushed out, flooding the area, and the lifeless body inside slumped down. Cole lifted the corpse and walked to the edge of the room, with Celes following behind him. Seeing a piece of cloth in the corner, he gently laid the dead creature down and covered it with the cloth. They both stood over the draped figure on the floor, holding hands.
Cole shifted back to his human form, then walked, hand-in-hand with Celes, around the rows of tubes toward a door at the very back. But just before opening the door,
"La...la...la,"
The sound of the melody returned, incredibly clear and sweet, as if someone were singing it just on the other side of the door. Both of them suddenly shivered. They glanced at each other. "KLEK," Cole unlocked and opened the door. They stepped into a pitch-black room, where only an iron bridge was visible, leading toward a doorway across the vast space. Cole looked to his right and saw only a deep, dark abyss; looking left was the same, though the iron wall across the bridge was dimly visible.
"La...la...la,"
The melody came from the left, echoing clearly in the dark room, sounding as if the singer was right next to them.
"Huh... where's that sound coming from?" Cole asked.
"Beats me," Celes answered.
"TLAK... TLAK... TLAK," they walked across the iron bridge in front of them, but as soon as they reached the exact middle of the room, "BLAAAR," a light suddenly flared on to their left. "WAAAA," both screamed and clung to each other, because a colossal robot head was right next to them. Cole walked to the left edge; the darkness that had looked like a deep chasm was, after the light came on, the body of an incredibly huge giga-robot, massive and powerful-looking with its metal frame, perhaps taller than or equal to the mountain itself.
In the gaps between the robot's joints, there was no sign of machinery, but instead what looked like organic fibers—muscle tissue without skin, utterly gruesome and repulsive. The melody that had been continuously echoing suddenly stopped completely, as if the robot itself had been the one singing the tune. Suddenly, "PSIIU," the robot's helmet lifted up. They flinched again, shocked to see the robot's face—a metallic skull with glowing red eyes.
"Big... brother Cole... big... sister Celes... welcome... back... home," a little boy's voice, the same one singing the melody moments before, echoed throughout the room.
"Huh," Cole and Celes muttered together, confused.
Suddenly, both their heads started spinning. They immediately embraced, but "BLUGH," they fell and lay sprawled on the mesh-like iron bridge, unconscious.
****
"BZZZZZZZZ," "KREESSSSK" "La...la...la,"
Six children were visible, learning to write with crayons in coloring books on the floor, arranged in a circle facing one another. Five of the six looked to be about the same age, and one boy looked significantly younger. They appeared to be in a specialized playroom for small children, with soft carpet, toys scattered everywhere, and rows of dolls.
"Hey, look, my name's Cole," said Cole, who was about five years old, proudly showing off his messy writing.
"Mama says my name is Celeste," Celes, also five, added, showing her own messy drawing.
"Whoa, and mine is Charlotte... but just call me Char, writing that is tough, heh heh," said a four-year-old girl named Charlotte, showing her paper where the writing was totally illegible.
"I'm Calvin, Mom's proud she named me Calvin," said a boy about four named Calvin, lifting his drawing, which was mostly just scribbles, with a slight smirk.
"And my name is Calista. My writing's good, right?" said a girl who looked about six, named Calista, whose writing was indeed slightly neater than the others.
"Whoa, Calista's cheating, you already know how to write. We're just starting," Cole complained.
"Heh heh... tough luck," Calista teased.
They all turned to look at the smallest boy, who looked barely three and was struggling to write his name. They immediately gathered around him.
"Come on, Cyrus, you can do it," Cole yelled, cheering.
"Yeah, keep trying," Celes added, rooting him on.
"Go, Cyrus... go, Cyrus," Char enthusiastically chimed in.
"You got this, Cyrus! We'll play ball together after this," Calvin added.
"Here, I'll show you. Hold the crayon like this," Calista added, immediately guiding Cyrus's arm.
"HIK... HIK... HIK... I can't... WAAAA," Cyrus cried instead.
They all immediately hugged Cyrus and gathered around him, working together to help him and teach him how to write.
"BZZZZZZZZ," "KREESSSSK" Everything suddenly went blurry and instantly faded back into dark silence.
****
"WHUAAAH,"
Cole and Celes bolted upright together, their bodies drenched in sweat, eyes wide, and mouths agape. They realized they were still in the colossal robot's hangar. They immediately turned to look at the giant face—the iron skull with red eyes.
"You... Cyrus?" Cole and Celes asked in unison.
"Yes, I'm so happy big brother Cole and big sister Celes still recognize my voice... I... I miss you all... I'm so lonely here... HIK... HIK," Cyrus replied.