This story begins a long, long time ago, at the creation of the universes and their multiple worlds. The universe was made of non-material entities, sentient beings with no shapes. These beings craved freedom, love, and peace. Thus every time they would meet, clinking against each other like glass, they would create little particles. Those particles would take shape into crystals. Each crystal possessed a will on their own and contained immense powers, with which they could create matter and with their gravity, shaping their worlds, with their own rules. Life appeared. And Life was thriving. More crystals, more worlds, more different forms of life, each unique and beautiful.

  But, and there is always a but, nothing stays peaceful too long. A new entity appeared, a negative one, a violent one. An entity who seemed to be hungry for power. This entity would find a way into each world and take away by force the crystal's power, then migrate to another world and repeat the process. When the other entities heard of the disaster that was happening, they gathered all of their strength to imprison this evil entity. They created a dimensional prison and were able to lock their enemy inside, and lost a huge part of their powers by doing so. The entities, weakened, had to retire, each and every one of them. They were now dormant.

  This didn’t stop the remaining crystals from thriving. The existing worlds kept living, oblivious of this celestial war. Maybe thriving was a strong world, the crystals didn’t die or lose powers. But what about Life ? How about we focus on a world ?

  In a certain country, in a certain world, life wasn’t extinct but wasn’t at its prime either. Animals were no more. Flora was still there, artificially though, the earth couldn’t provide enough for nature to live without the help of Norians. The same Norians who were able to survive thanks to their technology : cleaning the air, artificial food, genetics treatment, erasing illnesses and so on. But even with this technology, the Norians were still suffering from something that could cause their extinction. The babies were all dying from a genetic defect. No scientist was able to determine why and how. They were growing inside their mother’s belly but would die during birth. No explanation, no exception. A woman : Alayna Idliome, a well renowned scientist, was developing the Unity project. The fusion between robotics and Norians. She and her team tried to integrate some robots part into the babies to help them survive their births. Unfortunately, this project was a disaster as they were not able to prevent the babies rejecting their transplant. Countless death. The government couldn’t allow the project to be used on Norians anymore and had to be stopped. Officially at least. Alayna never gave up on the project, she kept working on it, neglecting her own children, Enma and Aeri, by doing so. Enma was a joyful young woman in her 20s. Partying all the time, studying at one of the most prestigious universities ; a very outgoing girl who liked to cause troubles. A typical 20 years old if you’d ask me. As for Aeri, well she was quite the opposite of her sister, always quietly reading in a corner, never interested in social activities, also a behavior expected from a teenager going through puberty I guess. As a matter of fact, Enma and Aeri looked so typical for Alayna that she never gave a second thought to her behavior towards them. Typical people get a typical life. Alayna was above those things.

  She was searching for something that could stop the rejection of transplants. Maybe the problem was with the type of metal, or the connections between the neurons and the system, maybe the AI was evolving too fast or too slowly and the brain couldn’t handle it. Alayna was the only one truly searching for a remedy to this baby crisis, at least that was what she believed. She was so focused on her studies, too focused. And that is why she couldn’t stop Enma from taking her car keys to go to a party. Also why she wasn’t there when Aeri was trying to stop her sister and got in the car with her. Of course, she heard them fighting in the house, but it was just another typical sibling fight. It took her a few minutes to realize that something was wrong after hearing the car start. When she finally realized what happened it was too late. The car had already crashed in a wall and was on fire. She panicked, seeing the flames high in the sky. But as soon as she saw her daughters still alive in that said car, she used all of her intelligence and power to get them out and bring them down to her laboratory. Enma and Aeri were dying, most of their bodies were badly burnt, and they could barely breathe. Alayna had to think quickly. She looked at her project and decided that it was time to try her new theories on her own daughters. The whole process became quite easy once she put her mind to it. Whatever it takes to save her daughters. No one saw them for an entire month. Removing body parts and maintaining the lungs, hearts and brains wasn’t hard. But creating entire new mechanical body parts perfectly fitting and functional all alone was the hard part. During that time Alayna barely ate. She was too focused on the sole thing she never thought she had to take care of, her children. Saving other kids was her life purpose, and now she had to save her own.

  After the transplant, Alayna waited at Enma and Aeri’s bed for what seemed to be years for her. Praying to whatever gods to please help her daughters recover. And they opened their eyes. They were obviously not able to move for quite some time and had to follow some rehabilitation courses and therapy sessions in order to get their lives back. Except they couldn’t. What Alayna did was illegal. Enma and Aeri had to hide. Away from the eyes of the government but also from the eyes of common people. Who can possibly accept such monstrosity ? Alayna was arrested and sent to an unknown facility.

  Enma and Aeri were on the run now.

  And this is when the story truly starts. All the puppets are finally in place. The show can now begin. You see, there are multiple factors that will endanger the girls' lives.

  The first one being the car accident. Alayna didn’t really care about it at that time, but the wall that they hit was part of a house. And that same house burnt down with the car. People died. Obviously after some investigation, the police found out who was driving the car: Enma. Meaning Enma had to be brought out in front of justice. Aeri was considered a crucial witness, she also had to be brought out.

  The second one was the success of their implants. When the government discovered it, they decided to capture the girls. The illegal aspect of the project combined with the revolutionary discovery of this success stripped those girls from their Norian’rights. They were now nothing more than test’s subjects that needed to be brought back and studied.

  The third and last one was the remnants of the evil entity, demons. Those demons were born from the multiple crystals possessed by the evil entity. They didn’t obey it but their negative innate energy made them deeply cruel and vicious. Those demons would feed on the living beings of each world. And some of them were now after the dormant entities inside Enma and Aeri, the hostesses of two sleeping entities. They weren’t aware of it but that made them targets. That is also why they were able to survive the transplants.

  Alayna, Enma and Aeri were underground, in the secret laboratory where all the illegal researchers were done. Someone was at their door. An agent from the government and police officers. One of the police officers knocked at the door.

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  “Enma Idliome ? Police. You are the prime suspect of a murder case. Open the door now!”

  Hearing that, Enma panicked.

  “A murder case ? You didn’t tell me that someone died because of me !” whispered the terrified young woman to her mother.

  “I wasn’t aware of that honey. I was too busy saving you two”

  “What are we gonna do ? I already look like a trash can and now I’m gonna go to jail!”

  “What about me ? I was in the car too !” said Aeri.

  “Who cares about you ?!” screamed Enma at her sister’s face “You weren’t driving, I basically forced you into that car ! You’re a nobody, your grades are bad and you’ve got no friends! I, on the other hand, had a bright future. I was loved and people looked up to me !”

  “Both of you shut up” ordered Alayna. “Now is not the time to let anxiety get the best of you. You stay down here while I handle the police. Don’t move, don’t scream. Understood ?”

  Both girls nodded. Alayna went upstairs.

  While walking towards the door, Alayna tried to nervously rearrange her hair, telling herself to calm down. She took one deep breath, closed her eyes, and opened the door, a bright smile on her face.

  “Hello officers, can I help you ?”

  “We are looking for Enma, is she here ?”

  “Huh… I haven’t seen her since she stole my car last month with her sister. Why ? Did they cause trouble ?”

  “No one told you what happened ma'am ? It’s been on the news for quite some time now.” asks the officer looking quite confused.

  “Sorry, I’m a scientist you know, I’m more into my research than into the real world. That’s unfortunately why I couldn’t stop my daughters. What happened ?” Alayna tried to look worried.

  “Your daughters have been into a car accident. There was a fire. Your car burned down as well as the house they hit. The owner of the house died in the fire. We were looking for Enma as she was spotted by the cameras in the car, but if you tell me that both of your daughters were inside and disappeared. I guess we can’t find them here. Would you mind letting us take a look at their bedrooms ?”

  “No, of course not. Please come in.” The mother said more anxiously, “Do you need something like a glass of water ?”

  “You could answer some of our questions, if you don’t mind.” said the officer, showing the couch with one hand.

  “Absolutely” said Alayna with a big smile on her face, while pouring herself a glass of water. She looked at the other policemen.”Their rooms are upstairs, the doors on the left.” Alayna sat down on the couch and took a sip of water before being ready for the interrogation.

  “When was the last time you saw your daughters ?”

  “I think a week before they stole my car. I’m very busy with work and Enma is used to taking care of Aeri.”

  “Did they say anything that looked suspicious ? Were they anxious ? Acting different ?”

  “Not at all. They were perfectly normal. I think we talked about…” She was having a hard time remembering what they talked about. What do they usually talk about anyway ? “I… I am so sorry. I can’t remember. It was such a long time ago, and I’m so taken with my research.”

  The officer looked at the government agent, surprised.

  “What was your relationship with your daughters alike ? Any conflict ?”

  “No ! We were very cordial. Like everyone else.” Exclaimed Alayna, visibly shocked by the question. “I talk to them like I talk to you.”

  “So you’re not very close ?”

  “I mean, we are as close as someone can be with their children I guess.”

  “I see.” The officer was obviously confused by those answers. “Do they have any friends that we can contact ?”

  “Hum probably yes ! I’ve never seen any of them but I’m sure they have some.” Alayna was more and more distraught by the questions. She obviously didn’t know much about Enma and Aeri.

  The officer nodded. He didn’t know what to do with this woman. The government agent took the lead.

  “You said that you haven’t seen them for around a month. What were you doing during this month ?”

  This question took Alayna by surprise. Of course they would ask that. She was shaken. “I was working… From home. I was too worried for my girls. I wanted to be here when they came back.”

  “Does your superior know about this ?”

  “Yes… Yes! They know.”

  “And what is it that you're working on ?”

  “It’s confidential sir. I can’t answer that question.”

  “Yes, confidential. And do you have anything you need to work at your house ?”

  “Yes sir. But I don’t see how that is any of your concern.” Alayna was more and more annoyed by those questions.

  “I’m sorry” said the agent while laughing. “It’s just, if it’s confidential, it must be quite important. Since you’re a scientist. So why would you be allowed to bring your work to your house ?”

  “If you’re worried about the dangerosity of our project, I can assure you that it is close to none. I think I answered all of your questions. It’s probably time for you to leave.” Alayna stood up, looked firmly at them and led them towards the door.

  “We are sorry for overstepping ma’am.” Said the officer. The other policemen were walking out. One of them was shooking his head. “Since we haven’t found anything I guess that will be all. We will contact you when we’ve found them.”

  “As for us, I guess we will meet sooner than you expect. See you around” said the agent.

  Alayna looked at them leaving. She closed the door and layed down on her couch.

  “This was tiring.”

  She drank her glass of water. Closed her eyes for a bit, and fell asleep.