by T5 and The Eurostar
Naecken entered the van, and Eurostar scowled. "Don't you knock? What are you doing in this van? Yours is the one with mermaid painting." He lost his train of thought when he realized something. "Say, Naecken? You once helped us build a temporary headquarters... remember that?"
The black devil turned and looked at him with an expressionless face. "No... I do remember a monster, though." He sat down and started to lose himself in contemplation.
"Great!" exclaimed Marv Velo. "He's a vegetable. A rather strong and dangerous looking vegetable, but still... a vegetable."
"Shhhh." Eurostar sat down on one knee in front of Naecken and grabbed his hands. "Please, Naecken. You have to remember. It would help us immeasurably if you could recall some small part of what you did."
Naecken showed signs of strain on his face. And he replied with a heart-splintering wail, "I can't remember! Who am I?" He stood up and suddenly ran out the door into the dark, wet night.
Edulcore Cicciotto:
"Oh merda!" I exclaim in Italian, after Naecken has gone away into the night. "That's really what we need now. A demon running loose in the city. M'xy, Velo, I'll follow him. Look for us if we are not back in an hour!"
I leave the van, running in the direction that Naecken took. I run at superspeed, but there is no trace of the composite being. But is he still a composite being? Before the fight with the black dragon in Chicago, he kept speaking with different voices. Now the voices, the feminine angelic one, the human, the demonic and the others are gone. He always used to have the answers to my questions, but now he is little more than a child. M'xy said that when they had both been inside the dragon, Naecken told him that he had to sacrifice himself to defeat the beast, but also that where before there were five, now there would be six. Are the former beings still inside Naecken, unreachable but alive, or are they gone for real?
Finally, I find the big, black demon sitting on one of the docks on the harbor. One time, a lifetime ago, I had a boat here. But those days are long gone. "Naecken. Hi. What are you doing here?"
"Thinking," says the tall being.
"Thinking about what?" I ask, sitting next to him.
"The past. But I can't go back before the battle at the Zoo. I found myself near M'xy, confused and dizzy."
"The word Quadinc doesn't ring a bell?" I say, remembering a name Naecken spoke about those days.
"Quad... ink? I can't say I ever heard it before... but, no, I don't know what it is."
"Well, if it doesn't sound completely new, there must be some memories of before still in your brain."
He looks at me. "Really, Edulcore?"
"I can't see any other explanation. The struggle you went through to defeat the monster has been a shock for you. There was a human part, an Earth boy among the various beings that formed you, and for him the battle should have been unsustainable. So, I think, he simply shut down, and the other four beings went along him. So, your brain is like on automatic pilot, now. No memories, no thoughts. We need to reach the part of your brain where the old consciences are sleeping, to bring them back."
"And you can do that, Eurostar?"
"Sorry, Naecken, I can't. I don't even know where to start. You need a psychiatrist, and a good one."
"You're a good friend, Swift Foot," Naecken says to me, while we walk back to the trailers. The rain started to subside, giving the air a nice fresh feel to it.
The police questioned a stewardess about the terrorist incident aboard flight 665 from the United States.
"I keep telling you, we didn't see what happened. There they were with guns in one moment, then beaten up and tied down with other people's ties and our life jacket straps," she blubbered.
The well-dressed man sighed and walked out of the room. He took his mobile phone and said, "Voice Code 4, activate scrambler." A beep later, he said, "We have a lead, sir. Yes... I will... Same follow-up procedure as last time? Okay. Yes, I begin tomorrow."