Drip, drip, drip.
The sound of the blood dripping off her body made Kaede smile. She looked down at her blood stained hands, smearing around the red substance. It was even more pleasing to know that the blood belonged to Kakuzawa, the man responsible for so much of her pain.
"I've longed to take his life." She said. Her thoughts turned inward. "You did too, didn't you Lucy? And don't you dare deny it."
She couldn't. Lucy may have had a hard life due to human cruelty, but Kakuzawa had been responsible for most of her torment. She had sworn never to kill again, but she couldn't bring herself to feel bad for the mad man's death. In fact, she was happy he was gone. The world really was a better place without him. Human, Diclonius, it didn't matter, it was because there were people like him that others had to suffer.
"What's wrong?" Kaede asked. "Why don't you rejoice? I feel how glad you are that he's gone. Take pleasure in it. You're free now."
'Free?' Lucy muttered. 'You call this free? This isn't free. One prison was merely exchanged for another.'
Kaede sighed. "Oh my dearest Lucy. In time, you will understand. We shall wipe out all humans and populate this world with Diclonius. We will be supreme. The new queen of our own race. The mother of them all. There will be no more hiding what we are. We will be well and truly free. Both of us."
'No!' Lucy cried. 'I won't be free. I won't ever be free as long as you're here. You're keeping me prisoner. The things you want for me, for our race, I want no part of. I don't give a damn about any of it. You're no different from Kakuzawa and his deranged scientists. You're just using me to achieve your own goals.'
Kaede's eyes narrowed. "They are our goals. You just aren't strong enough to reach for them. That's why you need me. You've always needed me. That's why you created me, because you're too damn weak to do anything. I've done what you couldn't."
Lucy felt her temper snap. 'Need you? I don't need you! You've done nothing but ruin my life! If you had never come to me that festival night all those years ago, if you had never made me into a killer, I could have had a decent life! I could have grown up with Kohta and learned that there was more to humanity than cruelty! You think I need you? I don't need you! It's you who needs me! I'm the queen of the Diclonius! It's my body that holds the key to their future! Without me, you can't achieve your goals! Without me, you wouldn't even exist! I need you? No, I never needed you! I didn't need you back then, and I don't need you now!'
Kaede doubled over. She felt Lucy taking over. She was surprised by Lucy's sudden display of strength. There was something different in the way Lucy was fighting her. In the past when she had struggled for control, it was only for the body. She had accepted that Kaede was a part of her and was only trying to keep her locked away. Now she was trying to get rid of her. To erase her the same way she had created her.
"Very well, Lucy." She said. "Lets see what's stronger, instinct, or willpower."
Lucy slowly opened her eyes. It made no difference. It was so dark that she couldn't tell the difference from when her eyes were closed. It was as if she had gone blind.
She sat up worriedly. Once she did, she looked down and saw herself. She could see her body just fine. It was as if everything else had vanished and she was the only thing that existed, lost in darkness. And she was naked too; not that it bothered her, but she did wonder why.
"Where the hell am I?"
"A good question." A voice replied. "Technically we're nowhere."
Lucy turned around, Her eyes narrowing. "Why aren't I surprised to see you here?"
Kaede snickered. She looked the same as she did when she had appeared to Lucy back in the lab, her horns still devil-like, her face still bandaged, her body still coated in blood. Seeing her here, it didn't take Lucy long to figure out where they were.
"We're in my mind, aren't we?"
"Our mind." Kaede corrected. "We share the same mind. This is the back of our subconscious where I slept until the time came for me to wake up again." The bandages around her mouth shifted, indicating that she was smiling. "And I most likely would have remained asleep if you hadn't gone all noble. But I couldn't have you forsaking our destiny. That's why I had to take control. But you won't let me anymore. So now we have to put an end to this."
Lucy felt a chill run through her. Was this her confrontation with her other side? She had heard that it was possible for people with split personalities to be dominated completely by they're other half. Was that what was happening? Was this the test that would determine which one of them would truly get to live?
"Come now." said Kaede. "It's time to put an end to this senseless battle."
Her vectors shot out. Lucy eyes widened and she quickly wrapped her own vectors around herself protectively. Kaede's vectors slammed into her and Lucy went flying backwards.
Kaede charged at her, her vectors flying. Lucy rolled to the side as one of Kaede's vectors stabbed down where she was laying. She continued rolling away as Kaede's vectors proceeded to stab downward.
Finally she lashed out with her own vectors. She grabbed Kaede's, just as they came down. Keeping hold of her other half's vectors, she spun her around and threw her. Kaede used her own vectors to stop her fall, then was coming at Lucy again.
The two came together, locked in combat. They were hand to hand, vector to vector, trying to overpower the other.
"Why do you fight your destiny?" Kaede demanded. "This is why you were born. It's your fate."
"I don't believe in fate!" Lucy snapped. "We make our own destiny. And mine will no longer include you."
Kaede chuckled. "You can't beat me, Lucy. You can't fight your instincts. Soon you will be me."
"I'd rather be dead."
"That works too."
Kaede slammed her head forward. One of her long horns cut into Lucy's shoulder. With a gasp of pain, her strength diminished. Kaede overpowered her and flipped her over her shoulder. Lucy had the breath knocked out of her as she was slammed down.
With a smirk, Kaede kicked Lucy in the side while she was down. "Does it hurt, Lucy?" She chuckled. "Don't worry, the pain is all in your mind. And I mean that literally."
She reached down with her vectors and began strangling Lucy. Lucy's hands began clawing at the invisible ones around her neck, struggling to get air into her lungs.
"Shush now." Kaede told her quietly. "It'll be over soon. Then things can progress the way they were meant to. I'll see to our race's future." Her grin widened. "And I'll take care of Kohta as well. This time he will be mine. I must admit, I was jealous of the passion you two shared that night. Now it will be my turn."
Anger flashed in Lucy's eyes. Her vectors shot up to slice Kaede in two, but her darker half suddenly leapt away, narrowly missing being cut in two.
"Close call." Kaede remarked.
Her vectors shot out and she grabbed hold of Lucy's vectors by the wrists. She transferred two of them to her other vectors, leaving two more for her to use, and Lucy unable to defend herself.
Kaede stood over Lucy as she struggled to get free, but Kaede's grip was too strong. Suddenly Kaede's foot came stomping down on Lucy's chest. She gasped in pain from the force, having the wind knocked out of her.
Kaede stomped down again, her eyes flashing angrily. "You've got a lot of nerve!" She shouted stomping down again. "You try and kill me after everything I've done for you. If it weren't for me, you'd still be that heartbroken crybaby at the festival all those years ago."Stomp! "You'd still be on the run from the authorities." Stomp! "You'd be a weak nobody that still gets pushed around." Stomp! "You'd still be a damn lab-rat in Kakuzawa's facilities." Stomp! "It's only because of me you found any sort of happiness." Stomp! "And you say you don't need me!" Stomp! "How dare you!" Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!
She finally let up. Lucy coughed and gasped for breath, her chest aching terribly. Kaede stared down at her, watching her suffer. "I've tried to make you happy, Lucy. But you continue to fight me, and you suffer for it. So now I will do the only thing I can do. I'll end your suffering. You'll never be hurt again." Her two free vectors came up, reading to put an end to her other half. "Goodbye, sister."
She stabbed downward with her vectors. But they never touched Lucy. Four more vectors suddenly wrapped around Kaede's, pulling them back. Then a pair of arms wrapped around Kaede from behind, pulling her away from Lucy.
Caught in a body-lock, Kaede looked over her shoulder to see what was going on. "You!"
Nyu glared back at Kaede, keeping a firm grasp on Kaede, using her own vectors to hold back Kaede's. With eyes full of fury, the child-like Diclonius looked down at Lucy. "Get her!"
Lucy blinked a few times, trying to clear her vision. She looked up and saw Kaede struggling to break away from Nyu. As Nyu's words slowly registered to her, Lucy realized that Kaede was open for an attack.
"Unhand me, you damn whore!" Kaede shouted.
She slammed her head back into Nyu's face. Nyu wailed loudly and her grip loosened. It was enough for Kaede to pull one of her vectors free.
Nyu's eyes widened in shock and pain as the vector that Kaede pulled free stabbed her through the chest.
"Bitch." Kaede seethed, pulling free from Nyu's hold.
She turned back to Lucy, and her head was sliced clean off her shoulders by one of Lucy's vectors. The world spun as Kaede's dismembered head flew through the air and landed several feet away. Her only visible eye stared at her two counterparts and her decapitated body in shock and disbelief. Then her head seemed to melt into a puddle and faded away in the darkness. Her body followed suit, melting down and then fading away into nothingness.
Gasping in pain, Lucy forced herself to sit up. She turned to Nyu, seeing her lying on the ground with a large hole in her chest. She crawled over to her childish personality and grasped her hand. Nyu's eyes opened and she looked at Lucy.
"Nyu… did good…?" she asked.
Lucy gave a forced smile. "Yes, Nyu did very good."
Tears formed in Nyu's eyes. "Nyu… go bye-bye… Say bye-bye… to Kohta… for Nyu…"
Lucy nodded. "Yes, I will."
She smiled that innocent child-like smile, even as tears poured down her cheeks and her eyes slowly closed. "Nyu…"
Then, just like Kaede, her body seemed to melt and fade away. Lucy was left alone in the darkness. With a groan, she rolled onto her back and looked up into the black nothingness that was her subconscious. She felt herself drifting away…
When Lucy opened her eyes, she was once again on the bridge, surrounded by the bodies of the people Kaede had murdered.
Kaede! Lucy placed her hand on her forehead. She couldn't believe it, Kaede was gone. Her presence had vanished completely. It was different from when she was merely in control and Kaede was 'sleeping', Kaede was no longer there at all. And neither, she realized, was Nyu. Both the dark murderous personality and the innocent childish personality were completely gone.
Lucy placed her hand over her heart as she realized what had happened. She was once again alone in her body. Somehow her mind had healed itself of the two personalities it had created. She was once more all Lucy.
The sound of a gun being cocked brought her out of her revelation. There was someone behind her. And whoever it was had a gun aimed directly at her back.
"Don't move, bitch." The person said. "I've got you now."