“T.E.N.A.N.T.”

Author’s Notes: Gackt = friend, Ren = a not so bad guy as you all thought, and Masa = …who???

Gackt lay motionless on the cot. Why…Why did they kill…why you…why did you let them… The man rubbed his already red eyes. His vision was blurring. What…tears?…Yes, tears…You shed them…too…when thought…I wasn’t watching…I always watch…why did you cry?…sad?…scared?…they hurt you too much?… He curled up on his side, shivering. So cold…You weren’t cold…Warm…so warm with you…but you…gone…blood…hurt… He whimpered. So cold…alone…all alone…alone with them…with him…hates me…his eyes…angry…why?…did I…hurt…him?…why?…

He heard the door slide open and the click of boots in the darkness. The door slid shut. Rolling over, he looked at the new comer. With a muted cry, he jumped back, pressing his body against the wall against his bed, desperately trying to hide in the dark.

Ren stood before him.

Him…nonono…not him…not alone…not with him…hurt me…wants to…hurt… destroy…kill…no…bad…not him…bad…bad…Tenshi!…Tenshi will help!

The redhead walked forward. The other pressed himself into the shadows. Hide. Must hide. Hide and…wait for Tenshi. Yes, Tenshi will come…Save me…

“Please don’t be scared…” the soldier stretched forward a hand, reaching out to the Automaton.

No! Run! Can’t! Trapped! Tenshi! Help! Save! Run! Bad! Alone! No!

“I want to help…”

Hide! He buried his face in the folds of his nightclothes. Can’t see. Can’t be seen. He started to cry. Tenshi…

Calloused fingers brushed over his cheek.

Caught! No! Dead! But then…there was a sound…he knew it…but from where? Looking up, he saw the other’s eyes were closed. There were…silver lines on his cheeks. Tears?

“Please…let me help…like you helped my sister…like you helped me…” The other took Gackt’s face in his hands before wrapping his arms about the android’s shoulders. “I’m so sorry…I’m so sorry…” he began to chant, softly, into the other’s neck.

Sorry? Sad? What? Why? Sad…like me…? Gackt’s arms came up to return the embrace. Yes…like me.

*****

“The base that your visitor possibly originated from has been raided and all personnel have been taken as prisoners of war.” The major was crisp, concise, each word articulated to the point of shattering. His dark eyes were unyielding as they looked upon Fujimura, who stood at attention across the room from him. “Take your unit and head in. Gather as much information as you can. Take your android as well.”

The officer saluted and spun on his heel, leaving the conference room.

*****

Caked in grime and sweat from the heat the black uniforms evoked, it was almost nirvana just taking the fucking thing off. It had been about a week since they arrived and even so, many of them were too busy hacking the database and cracking the system or standing guard to really relax.

Masa just happened to be one of the lucky ones off duty at the moment.

The cool spray of water pounded down on the back of his neck and spine, loosening the tense muscles hiding under pale skin. Rivulets flowed down his chest and the backs of his legs. Letting his forehead fall against the tiled wall of the shower, he sighed. My head…hurts…so much…so tired…

“Where’d you get those?”

The voice startled the youth from his reverie. Whirling, he found himself face-to-face with Ren, who was just about in as much a state of undress as he himself was. “Get what?”

“Those scars…on your back.”

Looking over his shoulder by instinct, Masa knew he didn’t have to see what it was the other referred to. Those scars…remnants of blistering and bleeding and burning…remnants of the inferno which swallowed his father, his brothers…Masa shuttered as he gathered his things and wrapped himself in a towel. “There was a fire…during one of the TS raids. Lots of people died…”

Ren seemed to wilt at the sudden melancholy news. “Gomen nasai…I didn’t know…”

“It’s alright…” the younger man knelt to gather his things. Walking away, he called over his shoulder, “I’ll see you…”

*****

Cha looked up at the sound of his name being called from across the courtyard. You was jogging towards him, a look of concern plastered across his face. Standing, the blond officer walked away from the group to meet his second-in-command. “What is it?”

“I was hacking through the databases on this fort and discovered something that may interest you. It involves our guest,” he explained in the typical to-the-point manner for which the Automaton was infamous.

“Really?”

You nodded. “Bring Ren, and meet me in the officer’s lounge in five minutes.” And with that, the android departed.

*****

“So what’s this all about?”

“I brought up the records of the staff who served here.”

“Any particular reason why you did that?”

The Automaton blinked, confused. “…It’s systematic data-gathering.”

Cha sighed, disappointed with the response, but continued, asking, “What did you find?”

You, turning back to the glowing monitor, typed and clicked rapidly, efficiently, until a picture appeared on the screen. It appeared to be a faded photograph of a company of sorts, of uniformed men with bars across their chests. Sitting back in the seat, he inquired to the others, “See anyone familiar?”

“There.” Ren touched a finger to the monitor, temporarily obscuring a very recognizable Gackt from view. The same short hair, the same angled features, the same piercing eyes…in Tenant Sovereign uniform.

You asked, “Anyone else…?”

Scanning the lines of faces in the photograph, Fujimura gasped. “Masa?” You nodded. “You, when was this taken?”

“Thirty-one years ago.”

“Nani?” Ren stared, wide-eyed, at the android. “That’s impossible. Masa’s only twenty-three. There’s no way the dates are right…”

“But they are, ne?” murmured their commander. With a deep-set concern in his eyes, he questioned further. “Who are these two people, You?”

“Gackt is Gackt. To a point.”

“To a point?”

“I’ll get to that later. The other is a man named ‘Matsumoto.’”

“Matsumoto? Never heard of him.”

“I thought as much. He was practically wiped clean from the Sovereign’s databanks, save for this picture and a few left over files.”

“I’m sure you were able to con the mainframe into giving you more data…”

“You know me too well, Commander.”

“What were you able to find?”

“There was a program for the Tenant Sovereign which encompassed the development of androids. Later, as a side-project, it assimilated the study of genetic mutation as well as the possibility of cloning and regeneration.”

“Regeneration?” Ren asked, “As in…bringing something dead back to life.”

You nodded before continuing, “Matsumoto was the Head of Operations. He was brilliant. Ever-so-slightly mad, but…brilliant. He was a prisoner here; he was forced into his work, forced to yield any breakthroughs to the Sovereign.”

“Perhaps that’s why he went mad…” the redhead murmured.

“Everyone knows the story of the Automaton program --”

“Not the entire story,” You countered.

“What’s the entire story then, if you’re so sure no one knows it.”

“There was a man…who could pass as a woman. His name was Mana and he was the Resistance’s greatest asset. He would double as a prostitute to get into the Tenant compounds and during the shift in personnel, would gather everything he could from the database, and escape before dawn. But one time…his plan backfired. He was cornered and captured and tortured and God knows what else.

“When Matsumoto heard about the entire ordeal, he took Mana in as his apprentice. Protected him…gave him the information that he needed for the Resistance. That’s how all of our information on Automatons came to us – in Tenant Sovereign packaging.”

“But that doesn’t explain Gackt.”

“Gackt – or ‘Camui’ as the officers referred to him – was also brilliant and slightly mad. He was the Sovereign’s best strategist. He won minds over with his words and won the rest over through force. He was widely regarded as a heartless killer.”

“Not heartless…” Ren’s gaze turned inward as he faded from the conversation, mulling things over in his own head.

Cha pressed for more. “What about Matsumoto?”

“Matsumoto and Camui were partners in crime; they were inseparable. And together they were invincible. Rarely were they ever seen alone.”

“…They were lovers, weren’t they?”

“Yes, they were. Camui even had a pet name for Matsumoto – ‘Tenshi.’ And he was Camui’s angel – his angel of life and death.”

“How so?”

“About eight years after this picture was taken, Camui was assassinated. Apparently he was either blackmailed or caught betraying the Sovereign…perhaps both. The database wrote it off as a routine ‘elimination’ and that Camui was a traitor to the cause. In any case, soon afterward, Matsumoto ignored all his work but that for the regeneration project. He threw himself into it. And he discovered a way – a way to bring back what was once thought to be lost forever. He brought back Camui. Albeit the creature had the knowledge and understanding of a toddler.

“This was a problem. Though the body was regenerated to the age at the time of death, the mind had degenerated severely. But no matter. With the power he held within his machines and bare hands, Matsumoto was a god.”

“So what happened?”

“The Sovereign saw this new power and wanted to use it and the regenerated Camui to its own end. If the advances of both genetic engineering and regeneration were combined, the Sovereign would be practically invincible. However, Matsumoto refused to acquiesce the information required to operate the system.”

“What happened to him?”

“He was ‘eliminated.’” The Automaton paused for a moment before continuing. “His dying words to his apprentice were to save the project and save Camui from the fate the Sovereign had in store for them. Twenty years later, Mana was killed much in the same way his predecessor had been. However, Camui, by this time, was mentally advanced enough to know the meaning of good and bad and along with it, murder. He slew the soldiers who killed his caretaker and fled into the woods.”

“Where we found him.” You nodded. “But…what happened to the cloning project?”

“Ah…up until Camui’s assassination, Matsumoto focused all his attention on that project. He didn’t have the heart to test on human subjects, so tested on himself. This was much against the wishes of his lover, but none the less, Matsumoto continued his work. Many of the initial trials were failures from the beginning. But then…he was successful. He created a living, breathing replica of himself. He named the first Adam.

“The child was a fast learner, almost terrifyingly intelligent. Matsumoto recorded in his logs that the child performed miraculous feats of intellect. It worried him immensely.

“He performed two more trials and each ended in different results. The second child, who he named Michael, was as intelligent as his predecessor if not more so. Only…it was more infantile, more childlike. It played. It laughed. It cried.”

“What of the third?”

“The third…he stated in his logs that the third would be viewed by the Sovereign as well as by many of the scientific minds of the time as a failure. It…didn’t think like the others. It wasn’t quick with numbers or science. It stumbled when it spoke. It was quiet, reserved, nearly catatonic at times. And yet…Matsumoto favored this child above the others and named it Gabriel.

“Through his research and trials, Matsumoto proved that although a creature may be an exact replica of another, it still had an identity, it still had a soul, which was unique to itself alone.”

“It’s almost unbelievable…” Ren murmured, still in shock. “What happened to them…?”

You paused for a moment. He seemed to be coming to terms with bitter specifics. “When Matsumoto was assassinated, everything in the lab was destroyed. Vials were smashed, books burned, formulas erased…The canisters holding five in-progress children were shattered, killing them all. They were all in varying stages of development, from embryo to nine months. Adam and Michael were captured and beaten to death. Gabriel…It is recorded that Gabriel died in the fire which enveloped the lab. But, despite what the records say, it is believed that he escaped into the woods.”

“How old was he…?”

“Then? About three years. Matsumoto was never really clear on dates and times.”

“And now?”

“Around twenty-three.”

The three officers exchanged glances.

“He would probably have burns, ne? From the fire?” Ren asked, hesitant.

“It is to be expected.”