Colin's posts

"Very well." Azazel responded.

Then, before her eyes, she watched him destroy the binders in infernal flames, the paper and material turning to nothing more than literal ashes, which dissipated into the air as though they were nothing.

He then did the same to the hard-drive, but it seemed to just melt into a puddle of plastic and electronics, before evaporating into the air.

"Done." he told her.

"His research is destroyed. All of it." he said further.

Lindsay retreated to the door and was let out, leaving her alone. She was alone again for close to 10 minutes, before the door was opened again, and Azazel walked in, carrying 5 large binders, and an external hard-drive.

"I know the story." he said.

"He assured me this was everything." he told her. "And he proved that this hard-drive had all the digital backups as well." he went on.

"Take a look through them to see for yourself." he continued.

"Once you're satisfied, I'll destroy them in front of your eyes." he then told her.

"He figured this was the best way to prove that they're destroyed." he said further. "Also, geez, you put the fear of something in him." he continued. "I've seen souls condemned to eternal torment that look less frightened."

This caused Lindsay to collapse to his ass, shocked, panicked, and scared.

"Ah!" he exclaimed.

"Kiah, please!" he protested.

"I'm sorry!" he exclaimed further.

"I'm sorry! I'll destroy them! The notes! I promise!" he told her.

"I'll do it! Just... I'll do it!" he repeated, actually cowering now.

Which reminded her of just how much of a coward he could be before he started to go insane.

"..." Lindsay was silent for a moment.

"Ahhh..." he stammered.

"Kiah... I..." he stuttered further, before shaking his head slightly.

"Right, that makes... no sense." he told her. "You're saying this research will drive me to insanity, practically, you as well, and it will condemn the world?" he then asked.

"How?" he asked.

"How could such a thing happen?"

"Destroy it!?" Lindsay exclaimed.

"Wait, what!? Why!?" he asked her.

"I've worked so hard on it so far, and I feel like I'm on the verge of a breakthrough! A major one! I know it!" he said further.

"And have the cousin I know and love back?" he then asked.

"Are you saying you're in here, incarcerated, and treated as a threat, JUST because you want the files destroyed?" he asked further.

"Why!?" he demanded.

"What's so wrong with what I'm doing?" he went on, before something hit him.

"...and how do you know about this in the first place...?"

Hal just sighed, and shook his head.

"We'll be watching." he said.

"No funny business." he warned her, before leaving the room.

A few seconds later, Lindsay walked in, looking meek as ever (in her opinion), and buff as all hell.

He looked at her confusedly and concernedly, as the door shut behind him.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Why are...? Yeah, just... the hell's happening?" he asked her.

No sooner had she uttered that phrase, did she feel something.

Something familiar.

She felt her cousin's mana. Or, rather, how it used to be. L's was different, more chaotic, but it was still familiar. And she was feeling it right now.

Lindsay was here.

The door then opened, and Hal stepped through it.

"We have found him and brought him here." he told her.

He then rested a hand on her shoulder.

It wasn't a pinning motion. It wasn't even tight. It was just there.

"But it's yours." he told her.

"It's your property. Your thoughts. Your history." he continued.

"Just take a peek, at least." he went on.

"See what you've learned after all this time. See what you've found out can be done, what can't be done, and your plans for the future." he said further.

"There's brilliant work in there." he told her.

"Brilliant work from the brilliant mind of a brilliant woman."

They were walking for about 10 minutes, ascending some staircases along the way, until they reached a steel door. He opened it and if she expected to see horrors in there... she was wrong.

Yes, she saw some blood spatters and stains, which were disturbing, but... it looked like a lab. With the beakers and tubes, and liquids and compounds a lab would have. And plenty of them. Both variety AND quantity.

She also saw a large binder at one of the desks. One that was FULL of papers.

"There it is." he said.

"Your acquired knowledge in one binder." he told her.

"Take a look."

"...." he was silent for a moment.

"Your lab." he said.

"Where your beakers and tubes and chemicals and compounds are." he told her.

"Where your NOTES are." he continued.

"Where you keep the sum total of the knowledge you've obtained throughout your entire life." he went on.

"Your lab." he repeated.

L was silent again for a moment, before nodding.

"Come on." he said, as he approached her.

"Let's go to your lab." he told her, the feline stepping away and gnawing at the catch it had made.

"I want to show you something." he went on.

"Something that you should really see." he told her, his tone serious.

"Initial shock is just that. Initial." L replied.

"It has adapted. It is thriving now." he told her, as the creature walked over towards Kiah and rubbed up against her leg.

"See? It's perfectly happy." he said further.

"This is how we advance." he told her.

"This is how we learn. We experiment. We learn. We apply that knowledge. We move things forward." he continued.

"We become visionaries, and make it REALITY!" he insisted, the feline creature emitting a purr-like sound from its throat.

"I gained KNOWLEDGE!" L declared excitedly.

"I learned about POTENTIAL!" he went on.

It was then that they heard something... and Kiah looked over and saw a feline in the corner of the room. However, while it looked like a regular cat, she could see that its eyes were glowing a faint green, and that its back legs almost resembled that of a small kangaroo, coiled back and ready to spring.

She then saw a mouse on the other side of the room, which the cat located within seconds, and then leaped from where it was, crashing down on the vermin with precision and weird grace.

"Ah!" L said.

"One of our rousing successes." he commented.

"The cat is a better hunter than it ever was before. It can see better than it ever could, and can pounce from great distances, without any detriment."

"...that's true." Ilias responded.

---

L had removed limbs and replaced them with other things, such as tendrils or paws or claws. And that was just the start. He'd done things that many would consider to be the work of a sociopath and a mad scientist, but the scariest part was that he was succeeding.

These people were still alive, and though they were horrors, they would have died without L working on them. Whenever he finished with one, he sent them back out into the world with maniacal laughter.

He then looked over towards Kiah, and grinned, as the last one was sent away... with barely functional wings crammed into their shoulders.

"See?" he asked her.

"Isn't it marvelous!?" he exclaimed.