Twisted Wonderland: The Seven Treasures

Twisted Wonderland & The Eternal Flame-Part 3

  System rebooting.
  Ortho opened his eyes, gently flexing his fingers. "Big Brother?"
  Idia looked over. "Hey Ortho. How does everything feel?"
  Sitting up, Ortho ran a diagnostic check. "Everything is running smoothly, Idia."
  "Good," Idia sighed. "Must have been something in your new chip. Everything looks fine on my end so you're good to go."
  "Thanks Big Brother!" Ortho exclaimed, hugging Idia. "Though...my internal clock says ive been shut-down for over 12 hours."
  "Yeah...took overnight to run through the code," Idia said, keeping the fact that he'd run it twice for good measure to himself. "If anything acts up, let me know ASAP, kay?"
  Ortho nodded, "I will!"
  Waving, he hurried out of Ignihyden and crossed into Pomefiord, heading into the ballroom. "Mr Schoennheit!"
  Vil looked over from a collection of papers he was marking. "Ah, Ortho. You appear to be in better conditions than yesterday."
  Ortho beamed. "Yep! Idia looked me over and I'm running at 100%!"
  "Peculiar..." Vil muttered, making Ortho tilt his head.
  "What's peculiar, Mr Schoennheit?"
  Vil blinked then waved his hand dismissively. "It was just odd that nothing was wrong but you collapsed. Perhaps you were simply practising your skills from club...thank you for informing me you're alright."
  "Of course!" Ortho heard himself say. "You're my club leader and I interrupted the meeting."
  Vil blinked again. "Are you certain nothing's wrong, Ortho?"
  "Maybe something in my speech processors," Ortho remarked. "I'll run another diagnostic."
  He turned to the mirror lining the wall, half-looking at himself as his processors hummed. Green lights flashed and he looked back at Vil. "I'm alright! But you look a little tired. Your make-up is about 5% off of normal."
  Vil hummed, walking over and examining his reflection. "I suppose it is..."
  Ortho straightened next to Vil, looking at his reflection. Yellow eyes, blue (artificial) hair, pale skin, sharp teeth...teeth?
  Reaching up, Ortho felt the mouthpiece on his gear. He wasn't showing his teeth. Some of his gears did, like his Fairy Gala one but that was tucked away.
  The reflection was also touching it's mouth, but suddenly it was lowering its hand and waving at Ortho.
  Ortho hesitantly waved back, lowering his hand slowly. What was this? Idia had said the real Ortho had a good imagination. Maybe he was imagining this?
  The reflection smiled, almost sweetly, before pressing a hand against the mirror.
  Ortho's prosthetic fingers twitched, slowly reaching up...
  "Ortho?" Vil asked, snapping Ortho's attention back. "You've been staring for a while. Is there something wrong with your reflection?"
  Ortho looked at his reflection, looking at the synthetic body. "I thought...but it wasn't..."
  Had that been...Ortho?
~~~~~
  Idia poured over the articles on the Seven Treasures, absorbing anything odd about them.
  A camp being infested with snakes (and the consequential bites) right as the Sorcerer of Sand's staff was found; a flood in a museum where the Sea Witch's shell pieces had been displayed, wild animals breaking into a home where the King of Beast's Claw was displayed...
  They all seemed like accidents, down to whiteness reports but it didn't make sense.
  The only Treasure that had been reported to have any power was the Queen of Heart's Card, the others had been dead for years.
  Yet...the Eternal Flame was still burning and there was that Blot-level magic radiating off Azul's Shell...
  Sighing, Idia closed the articles and stood. Guess he had too now...
  Waking into the mostly empty lounge, Idia stood in front of the Flame, nodding to himself. Ortho had almost begged to choose where to display it (a responsibility Idia had been more than happy to give over) and had built a hovering stand to put it in.
  He'd agreed to take the Flame only because he didn't really have a choice but he hadn't actually seen it in person yet.
The blue flame, so very much like Idia's hair, flickered as Idia opened the case, letting his dominant hand dip into the flame. (Later he would wonder why he even did that)
  No pain filled him, only a slight warmth, like holding a hand.
  Maybe Azul was right and it really was just a shell. Maybe the Treasures were all just relics and the experiences were all coincidences.
  "Doesn't matter," Idia muttered. "Just gotta keep Ortho safe."
  The Flame flickered sharply, almost cutting in half its original size, and Idia pulled his hand back sharply as a burning sensation came. Hissing in pain, Idia gripped his hand, willing the pain away with a healing spell.
  Instead, the pain got worse, spreading up his arm to his elbow.
  Idia quickly shoved his hand into his pocket, racing back to his room before unzipping his sweater and yanking it off his arm, yelping in panic.
  Dark blue coloured his fingers, climbing up his elbow, where it ended in a flame design, all the way around his arm.
  Idia closed his eyes tightly, counting to 10 before opening them. It was still there. Soap and water didn't take it off.
  Idia dropped into his desk chair, considering. Could it be a tattoo? He was fairly sure Ortho would never let him get one, let alone his parents. Maybe a spell?
  Casting the strongest removal spell he knew, Idia whimpered as it scoured his arm but the blue remained stubbornly on. If anything, it got brighter.
  There was only one course of action now. Idia placed his arm under a scanner. "Such for foreign substances."
  The scanner beeped, waking up slowly and Idia yawned, leaning his head on the desk. "Five minutes..." he muttered, eyes closing. "Just five minutes..."
  He was out before the scanner started.
~~~~~
  Ortho hovered out of Pomefiord, very concerned. What had that reflection been? Running a can of his memory against an old photo of the real Ortho confirmed it was him, perfectly, but it was impossible. Ortho was dead, the real Ortho was dead.
  There was a soft thump in Ortho's central cavity.
  Ortho paused, reaching up to the synthetic flame "heart" Idia had given him. There...the soft thump again...and again...and again...
  Ortho had recorded Idia's heartbeat before and would often play it back to himself, strangely soothed by it.
  This...this was nearly identical. But a heartbeat? He didn't have a heart. He couldn't. Ortho knew he was an artificial body, wires and cold metal. A heart belonged to flesh and blood.
  "Ortho?"
  A child-like voice made Ortho turn to the nearby window, seeing his reflection, Ortho's reflection.
  The reflection smiled. "Sorry. I didn't want Vil hearing me."
  Ortho blinked. "Why not? He's my friend."
  "And a ghost wouldn't scare him?" Reflect-Ortho asked. "Its nice to meet you again."
  Ortho tilted his head. "You're no Ortho. He's still in Tartarus."
  "Idia didn't skip on the smarts, did he? I just needed a form to take for a while. I'll change soon enough."
  "Into what?" Ortho asked, unable to keep his curiosity back.
  The reflections smile grew. "It's a surprise."
  Ortho flicked through his data. "Like a chrysalis?"
  "Something like that," Reflect-Ortho said. "I don't have enough energy for it yet."
  "Are you in my imagination?" Ortho asked. "You can't be real."
  "Why not? You're not real," Reflect Ortho placed his hands on the window. "You're just a toy for Idia to play with."
  Ortho felt a wave of anger and hurt build inside him. "Go away!"
  A few students walking past Ortho gave him side-eyes, walking faster.
  Reflect-Ortho laughed, which Ortho's emotional regulators labelled as "crulely". "You don't get it! I'm a part of you now! You'll NEVER be rid of me!"
  Ortho covered his "ears", a common distress reaction, but the laugh followed him as he hurried down the hall, blindly trying to run from his reflection. "Idia..." he silently pleaded. "Idy, please..."
~~~~~
  Idia was snapped awake as a blazing pain raced across his arm, specifically the area where the strange mark sat, making him hiss and grab it.
  'What's happening to me?' He whimpered in his mind.
Shouts of horror came from outside, making Idia look over, leaving the safety of his room to see what was going on.
  The Eternal Flame was on a rampage! Small embers, still blazing, shot out of its open case, making any students they hit disintegrate in flashes of blue fire.
  Lunging at the case, Idia slammed it close, the next few embers hitting the glass and falling back to the Eternal Flame. (Was it bigger now?)
  Soft whispers and murmurs filled the now half empty lounge (why had everyone been in the lounge anyway? Didn't they all have projects in their rooms to work on?) and the remaining students edged away from the Flame.
  Sighing, Idia tapped a command into the floating case, walking back to his room, the case following him. Clearly he needed to monitor the Flame, at least till Ortho got back and could take it.
  Setting the Flame next to his desk, Idia rubbed his eyes, looking at the results of his arm scan. "Bzzz. No foreign substances..." he traced the top of the mark absentmindedly. "Ortho's scanner can give me a better reading..."
  His phone buzzed, a message from Azul. Idia picked it up, reading, then shot up, hurrying out, the words burned into his head.
  Come to the Courtyard. Something's wrong with Ortho.
~~~~~
  When Azul had come across Ortho, he dismissed the twins, heading over alone. As much as the twins would have been useful, he wouldn't risk them in danger of another Treasure.
  Floyd grumbled, wanting a fight, while Jade simply nodded and dragged his twin down the hall.
  Pulling out his phone, Azul sent a message to Idia then the group chat for the Hosts, putting the phone away and walking around the well. "Ortho?"
  The android-humanoid didn't look up, hands clasped over his "ears", knees pulled close. He was trembling, something Azul had never seen him do before.
  "Ortho." He tried again, stepping closer. "Idia's on his way."
  This was a mistake. Ortho looked up, his yellow eyes wide with panic, shaking his head quickly. "D-don't..."
  A stutter? Azul sighed inwardly, crouching in front of him. "Idia can help."
  Ortho shook his head again, pressing his hands harder over his ears, trying to block out the sound of his reflection, which was echoing from the well, telling him he wasn't real, that he was only a toy.
  Azul's eyes were drawn to the synthetic flame on Ortho's chest, watching it sway. Was it just his imagination...or was the Shell getting warmer around his neck? Painfully warm.
  Hissing sofly, Azul lifted the Shell from under his shirt, feeling the radiating warmth through his glove.
  "Azul!"
  He looked over his shoulder, seeing Riddle, Leona, Vil and Jamil hurry over and the Shell only grew warmer, so much that it burst into blue flames in Azul's hand.
  "Azul!" The Shell cried, wreathed in the same flames, appearing for a moment then vanishing, the weight of the physical shell vanishing with him.
  Azul felt the connection snap like a whip, sending him onto his back and wishing he'd kept the twins nearby as darkness claimed him.
  Ortho cried out, a sharp stabbing, like hundreds of small needles were being plunged into his legs.
  Vil was at Ortho's side now, trying to pry one of his hands off his ear. "Ortho, you have to shut off!"
  Ortho shook his head, throwing Vil's hands off, legs twitching madly, his head filled with his reflection taunting him.
  "Ortho!"
In rapid succession, the physical Treasures burst into blue flames, their projections appearing then vanishing with the objects. The only one who remained conscious even a little was Jamil.
  His body felt weak, like when that accursed snake staff had bit him, and he slumped to the grass, listening to Ortho's soft whines till suddenly they stopped.
  Forcing his eyes open, Jamil looked up, seeing Ortho stand, holding a large blue flame in his hand. "O-ortho..."
  Using his other hand, Ortho reached up, pulling his mouthpiece off with a crunch.
  Jamil's eyes widened as Ortho opened a mouth, a real mouth with sharp teeth, and swallowed the flame, pain and darkness claiming Jamil.