Professor Layton: Love In All Adversities

30. Forgive Me

Grabbing the lifeless body of his apprentice number one, Hershel felt his head explode with a mix of pain and confusion.

The tears were forming, but they wouldn't fall. They held in place, as if not allowing the Professor to be rid of their burden. As they did fall, however, Hershel felt his heart choke in his stomach, as though someone had reached inside his chest and was squeezing his heart.

It wouldn't be the first time he had felt this sensation in the last few days.

As the snivelling grew more intense, he threw himself around and up onto his feet. Suddenly, he was filled with a rage he had never quite experienced before. The rage that came from losing so much, and then losing even more when you know that you could have done something.

Hershel wasn't a violent man. Sure, he was enraged now, but he wouldn't hit Oliver. He would, however, confront the man that had brought too much pain already.

"Oliver!" He bellowed, raising his hand and pointing at the smirking man. Normally this would have been done in a more dramatic fashion, but this was no less Layton accusing someone of a foul crime. It was an almost desperate point, but now Hershel was a desperate man.

"This has gone on long enough! This isn't what should have happened! This isn't what Claire wanted!"

Oliver flinched at that and then recovered himself, eyeing the sobbing Professor with strange curiosity. He checked behind him quickly to make sure that the others weren't going to make a surprise move and then ahead to the ongoing battle between police and illusions. He was still in control.

"H-how do you know this? How could you know what my daughter wants now?! You keep talking as if you have been in contact with her, but that's not possible."

"Not quite. I have been talking with her. And now I believe I know why. It wasn't a spiritual form of herself. It was an illusion, created by the gas just like the illusions now throughout the world."

"So you mean... she has been talking to you the whole time? Where is she? Why did you go to London then?!"

Oliver's voice had become distressed and he waved his gun around carelessly.

"This Claire isn't the past version. I believe this Claire is a different one entirely. This Claire knew about all my adventures, and as I pondered this, I now come to realise how that is so. You see, this Claire was born from my head. She knows what I know. She has only ever been guiding me as a memory of the Claire I knew. Not as Claire as she is now. This Claire was the one I last saw when she was alive. And the power of this gas, I realise is rather more extraordinary than we understand." He turned to Flora and grinned. "Do you remember what we both saw just a few days ago? What had us baffled?"

"Of course..." She chirped, her face showing a smile. "It was our dream. We could actually see what was happening with Katia and the others in the mansion!"

She smiled the whole time, but the Professor could see the tears pulling through. As he thought of the lifeless body of Luke behind him, tears once more began to fall and he shivered.

"Yes..." He stated solemnly, trying dreadfully not to lose his temper. The last thing he wanted to do was scream at Oliver. To tell him how disappointed and angry he was. That would only lead down a darker path.

"It seems impossible, but what we must never forget about the Azran people is that they are truly brilliant and ingenious. They created such amazing contraptions that we might take hundreds of years to stumble upon the secrets to. One such miracle was the use of this gas. I believe the Folsense gas is of Azran origin."

"Yes..." Oliver murmured, his eyes filled with understanding. His love for archaeology and the Azran was shining through. "That would make sense. That is why it works harmoniously with the Gatherer. It must have been trapped underground for all these years. Left untamed, it caused devastating effects to those who discovered it. So what you're saying is... when properly used, the gas has greater powers than even I realised!"