Step 5: Encounter the Gemini
Rei silently made her way to sit on her bed, step by slow and small step, and her dizziness getting the better of her. As she lay one hand on her pillow, the world seemed to be spinning at a hundred miles per hour, with no way of stopping, no red stop button to push on a ride when you were getting too dizzy. Her limbs grew weak, and she fell upon her bed, face up, and breathing hard. Suddenly, she began to cry. Her body racked with sobs, she opened her eyes and allowed the clear crystal tears slide down her pale cheek. The dark blue eyes she looked at the world through clouded in confusion, as her hand automatically lifted to her face to wipe the tears away. Why was she crying? She wasn't sad. From within her mind, something answered.
You're not crying, I am.
Who are you?
I am the Gemini.
What is a Gemini? No answer came, and she continued to wait. The tears stopped flowing, the sobs muffling themselves. An expression of pure disappointment crossed Rei's face because of the despondent voice inside her head. Was she going crazy? Voices don't talk to you from inside your head! Rei covered her ears with her hands and shook it violently. She reassured herself quietly. "I'm not hearing anything, I'm not hearing anything, I can't hear anything…." She said, mouthing the words but no voice came out. By the time she had said the last word, she would have been shouting, if she had a voice, and her eyes were closed shut tightly. Though they weren't seen, her clouded eyes drew back in fear and in total bewilderment. In her mind, she asked herself a question that sprang up when the voice in her head had told her its identity.
Are you me?
Yes.
Than I am the Gemini?
Not alone.
Who else? Again no answer came, as Rei waited, expecting an answer. At last, the voice replied.
Ran is the Gemini.
My brother?
My brother as well.
Rei remained silent and thought of this idea.
What is a Gemini?
A vital key.
To what?
To…to the resurrection of the digiworld.
What is a digiworld?
I can say no more.
Rei opened her eyes…no more? She hesitated before sitting up, wrinkling her school uniform dress. And before she knew it, her face flushed with a new sense to cry, though she fought back as hard as she could, not permitting the tears to escape.
Let me cry.
No. I don't want to cry.
You aren't crying, I am.
But you said you were me.
…Yes and no. We are one, and yet what we feel are different at times. Do you understand?
No. Explain it to me.
I cannot.
What is your name?
I am the Gemini.
That is what you are, but that isn't your name. I am human, but my name isn't human.
You aren't human.
What?
The Gemini aren't human.
Then what am I?
I cannot tell.
When Rei opened her eyes, what she saw wasn't the familiar settings of her bedroom. There weren't any beds, or doors, or anything normal. What she saw was a place covered by dense trees, deserts, and tall mountains. The sky was dark and clouded, the place looked dark and dreary. Nothing sounded, nothing moved. Nothing breathed. The place was dead and alone. From inside her chest, Rei felt a sense of sorrow bite at her heart. She fell to her knees, her hands over her heart, eyes closed. A bead of sweat rolled down her face, and fell onto the dead floor. Instead of absorbing the liquid, the tiny puddle stayed in front of her eyes; still and unmoving like the land it had falling upon. She looked up and got to her feet, struggling. A black cape fell upon her shoulders. She turned her head, only to find that it too was covered in a black hood. A cape? A hood? Where did she get this from? She raised her hands to her face, only to find that it too had been covered in night-black gloves that went up to her elbows.
Slowly, she walked over to a small puddle, and looked down. The water didn't move, not even when she stepped on the ground near it. Confused, she bent down and dipped her hand in it. To her surprise, the finger went right through into the water, causing no ripples whatsoever. "What?" she said. Her eyes widened, and her hand stopped in midair. She froze for a second, before looking down at the water. She raised a gloved hand and put it on her mouth. She talked. She spoke. She had a voice? "I have a voice. I can speak. My voice… it sounds like my mother's. Just like Ran's sounds like father's voice. She looked into the puddle one more time.
She looked like her mother. She had never bothered looking before, not closely. She had her mother's deep blue eyes, and the similar smile. She smiled to herself. Just like mother. And Ran was just like father…or at least what she remembered of him. But something was different. Something…wasn't right…wasn't human. What differed between her eyes and her mother's eyes, was the warmth. True, they looked the same, but if you looked closely, there showed no emotion within. Nothing was in her eyes. Nothing at all. She touched her face. From beneath her fingers, her flesh suddenly turned into a patch of metal and the white in her eyes colored in a light tint of blue.
Rei's eyes widened. I am metal. Pure and slick metal. No heart, no mind…and no spirit. Just computer chips and stored information was there. "I'm made of metal…I am not a human, just like the Gemini said. Metal…"
Step 6: The Gifts of the Gemini
Ran flopped himself on the bed, sprawling out and sighing. One more day of boring, ordinary life. One more day of darkness, he thought, touching his eyes. He sighed once more and let his arms fall on the bed, relaxing. Oh well, you don't get everything you want in life. Not when you're human. His fists suddenly clenched and pounded on the bed. Ran lifted his head and turned to his hands. They were moving all by themselves. What was happening? His hands seemed to get angry by themselves, without his bidding. They were his hands, after all. Ran's head started to hurt. In a manner of a few seconds, it was throbbing with unimaginable pain he had never experienced before. He clutched his head and started to roll on his bed, blind eyes closed and teeth clenched. His body suddenly grew limp…and he stopped breathing, as if he was dead. Ran felt this happen, but somehow, he felt like he was still living.
What's happening?
Nothing's happening.
Who's that?
I am you. I am the Gemini, the vital key to resurrecting the digiworld.
Digiwhat?
The digiworld. A place.
Did you do that to my head, and my hands?
Yes.
How did you do that?
Because I was angry.
Yeah, but can't you do that to your own hands?
I did.
My hands aren't your hands.
Yes, they are. Your body is mine. I am you. Yet at times, I may feel things you can't feel.
How strange. Is this just a dream?
No. It's real.
How long have you been me?
Ever since you were born.
Then how come you choose now to talk to me.
I always have. You just haven't listened.
And then why am I listening now?
I don't know, that was your choice, not mine.
Oh.
You aren't human.
I'm not? You're kidding me, right?
No. The Gemini aren't human.
Aren't? There are more of you?
Yes.
Who else?
My sister.
Who's your sister?
Your sister.
Ran remained silent. "My sister was a Gemini…whatever that meant. Wait a minute, wasn't there a constellation in the sky that was called the Gemini, and it meant twins? Well…we are twins…but how are we keys? Wait a minute…I'm getting confused. If he was me…then his sister is my sister. That makes sense. Backtrack! How was he me anyway? I'm me! Only me! Who was this voice in my head? Am I going crazy?" he whispered.
No.
Though Ran couldn't see, a sudden brightness replaced his world of darkness, and he became dizzy. The light didn't recede, and Ran fell short of breath. He had been standing, but now, his body flopped on to the bed like a broken doll. Exactly like a broken doll. Not breathing, or moving.
When Ran regained consciousness, he didn't open his eyes. He felt ground under him. Hard and rocky ground, though it felt strangely cold. When he finally sat up, he opened his eyes, and what he saw amazed him, literally. Since when could he see in the first place? Now things were starting to scare him. He covered his eyes, and uncovered them, just to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. He wasn't. Everything was real. Ran found himself in the middle of what looked like a gray and broken down ghost town. In front of him, was a old building, a sign reading "Diner" hanging down. Nobody was inside. In fact, nobody was anywhere near him, from what he saw. He stepped up the stairs and into the building, for once not having to feel his way in. He looked down and found a dusty old drinking glass cup at his feet. He kneeled down and picked it up. It was just like a fantasy…he could see.
Holding the cup in his hand, he stepped back outside and looked around. Was this what the world was really like? Was this the world his friends and family really lived in? If this was what he was missing out on…he would rather be blind. The place was dark and gray and dreary, not what he had imagined from the sounds he heard. He imagined sunny days and blue skies, white clouds and smiling faces. I wonder what my sister looks like…
Holding the cup up, he took part of his cloak…wait a minute, where'd he get a cloak, he thought. He shrugged off the idea and rubbed the black cloak on the glass, rubbing the dust from it until it shined like it was new. He looked at his reflection. Dark blue eyes, and dark blue hair…blue. The color of coldness. Looking deeper into the reflection of his eyes, he noticed something. No emotion. No feeling. Like it was dead. His breathing quickened, to the extent that it was painful. He dropped the glass, and saw it shatter on the floor, immediately turning gray like it had been before he picked it up. He put his hands on his neck, and felt as if he was choking. He dropped to his knees and bent way over, his hair and bangs falling down from his head.
As fast as the attack had come, it went away, leaving the thirteen-year-old boy gasping for air on his knees. When his chest stopped heaving, he looked down at the many pieces of the broken glass, staring at his dulled reflection. There was a band across his head…a black band with a sign in the middle. Two birds were circling around in the sign, one white and one black. Each of their eyes were the color of the other, meaning the white had black eyes and the black had white eyes. Surely, it was strange. Suddenly, the flesh around his eyes and the flesh that was his cheek turned silver and shiny…metal. Pure metal. The white in his eyes colored in with a sky blue color.
His body was covered with a collared shirt, gray, black and dark gray in color. A band was tied around his waist and his shirt, and his black shoes went up to his knees, covering part of the dark gray pants he wore. Black gloves covered his hands, and a black cloak and hood covered his body and head. Raising his hands, he pulled down the hood, to reveal the dark blue hair he had inherited from his father. He looked at the shattered glass at himself. Is this what father looked like? Metal and cold?
