“You must be Natalie Cahoone, right?” A female voice said to Natalie, she was walking through the hallways of Battleship Missouri and did not really pay attention to the people around her. “Uhm, yes. And you are?” She replied after having turned around to the person that was talking to her.
“I’m Claire. Claire McIntyre, I’m a huge fan of you, the way you’re flying the Guardian is just wonderful.” Natalie noticed her strong bretonian accent but did not intend on commenting on it. “Didn’t know I had any fans. Thanks, I guess.” She then watched Claire walking away. ‘I don’t want any fans...’ Natalie thought to herself and became a bit angry about it. ‘I don’t want them to talk about me...’
After some seconds she continued on her way, she had just returned from a patrol. ‘Seven dead Rogues, three dead Navy pilots. A patrol filled with death and agony, a patrol to forget...’ Natalie entered her room and sat down on her bed. “They said I don’t have to do this, they said I could simply retire. A normal life without all of this madness. But I’m still here...” She then said and lay down on the bed, her eyes were focused on the ceiling.
“But why? This question remained unanswered for so long now, and I still can’t find the answer.”
She then sighed and closed her eyes, the patrol and the constant fighting in the past hours had made her extremely tired. It did not take long before her mind slipped away.
“It’s quite difficult to search the answer for your question, isn’t it, Natalie? I’d give you a hint, but that would spoil all the fun, don’t you think so?”
“Who the hell is there?” Natalie yelled and found herself in Missouri’s hangar bays. “How did I get here?” She looked around, everything looked normal but something was strange. All the people there looked as if they were lifeless puppets that were programmed to follow a certain process.
“You brought yourself here.” The same voice said and Natalie got up from the ground, the voice was close to her position and it sounded familiar. “No, it can’t be you. You’re supposed to be gone...” Said Natalie, with a worried tone.
“But I’m here, right behind you.” Natalie turned around after that and saw a person that looked exactly like herself. “Alycia...no, this can’t be, you’re not real.” She said and walked a few metres back. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that, you never know what’s real and what’s illusion. It’s the same like believing that you can get rid of me. Remember, I’m a product of your mind. You can’t live without me, I thought you’d know that.”
“Go away, you’re not real. This is a dream.” She looked around and grabbed a gun that was lying on some crates next to her. Natalie aimed at the other person. “I swear I’ll shoot you!”
“Go ahead, Natalie. Shoot yourself. Make it easier for me.” Alycia replied with a grin.
Natalie closed her eyes and pulled the trigger, she was trapped in a nightmare and wanted to get out of it. She opened her eyes again and saw Alycia lying on the ground, the metallic floor was slowly filling itself with blood.
“That didn’t even hurt at all.” She heard Alycia’s voice again and turned around only to see the person she had shot down moments before. Natalie turned around and saw how the other body simply vanished. It was a shock for her, she realized that she was trapped in a nightmare with her worst enemy, an enemy she couldn’t defeat.
“Accept it, Natalie. Your life makes no sense without me. We went through so many things, and now you just want to get rid of me?” She slowly walked to Natalie and kept her odd grin. ‘What is this? This is not real, I must be dreaming...’ Natalie thought to herself while she watched Alycia slowly coming closer. It was impossible for her to move, she could not feel her legs.
“You aren’t dreaming. This is your reality.” Alycia said, it made sure Natalie fell on her knees and began to cry. It was just too much for her, this entire situation reminded her of the past years, years in which she was constantly suffering, both mentally and physically. “Psssssssssh, don’t cry, Natalie. I’m here for you.” Alycia said and also knelt down, she then hugged Natalie and tried to calm her down. “I’ll always be there for you. Forever. I promise you that.”
After she had said that, Natalie felt how the entire ship began to shake and all the other people in the hangar simply vanished in front of her eyes. Alycia just grinned and vanished as well after few moments. Battleship Missouri began to vanish right in front of her eyes. The ground on which she stood, the ships she saw in the hangar, everything just vanished and Natalie found herself floating in space.
It was cold and dark and she could not breathe. It was horrible for her, feeling how she was slowly dying. She closed her eyes and moments after she woke up from her nightmare and found herself back in her room aboard Battleship Missouri. She sat up on the bed and tried to understand the things she just went through.
“It was just a dream, not reality, simply an illusion. Alycia...just an illusion.” She then said and got up. ‘Now where the hell did I leave my PDA’ Natalie thought to herself and checked the place where she thought she had left it. The device was not there to her surprise, it was lying in a completely different place, and that little issue was enough reason for her to worry herself.
She then nervously checked her message and found a new one from an unknown sender.
"There is no happiness without tears, no life without death. Beware! I am going to make you cry."
Natalie silently stood there for some minutes. Reality or illusion, Natalie could not tell the difference. She knew she just woke up from a dream, but what was this? Also a dream, or was it real? She then looked at her clock. “Huh, I went to bed only five minutes ago...what the hell is this. This must be a bad joke...or just another dream, but that doesn’t make sense...”
“What if it’s real?” Natalie turned around and saw Alycia again and was obviously shocked. “But if it’s real...how can you stand here in front of me?” She then asked but did not receive an answer. “Let me show you something.” Alycia said and walked to her, Natalie did not like the feeling of this, it was something that could not be real, but somehow it felt as if it was. Alycia suddenly slapped her. “Ouch...what was that for?” Natalie said and placed her palm on the cheek that was just hit.
“The sweet taste of pain. Feels quite real, doesn’t it?” Alycia then said and slapped Natalie’s other cheek. Natalie was slowly getting angry while she watched Alycia laughing at her. After a while Natalie returned the favor and slapped Alycia, but it did not have any effect, she simply ignored it. “You already tried to shoot me and it didn’t work. But hey, I’m having my fun.”
Natalie tried to hit her again but it had the same result, Alycia only laughed at her. “Go away...you can’t exist.” She said and made some steps backwards, Alycia followed her of course and had an odd grin on her face. Natalie got slapped again, but this time it was harder and more painful and she was not given a chance to recover before Alycia grabbed her by her hair and dragged her around in the room, making it quite painful for Natalie, who begged Alycia to stop. “Hahahaha, too bad there’s no mirror in this room, you should see what a pathetic pile of flesh you are at the moment.”
She dragged Natalie to the wall and smashed her head against it and created a painful experience for her, but the scariest thing was that it really felt as if it was real and she was unable defend herself. “Whimpering like a stupid dog. Pathetic” After a while, Natalie simply passed out and Alycia let her body sink to the ground and still had the grin on her face. “Sweet dreams, my dear.”
Natalie opened her eyes and looked around, it was the same room where she fought Alycia. “Don’t tell me it actually happened...” She got up and noticed that her head was injured, she also noticed some blood in the place where Alycia smashed Natalie’s head into the wall. It was another shock for her. ‘Like an endless nightmare...’ She thought to herself for some minutes
Natalie went into the bathroom in order to take care of her wound and to make sure people will not find out about the things that happened in her room. Once she was done she left her room and looked around, it all seemed normal in the hallways of Battleship Missouri, but Natalie was suspicious and tried to look for a detail in order to find out if it was the reality or if it was a dream.