Chapter Two: The Darkness Within

"I bet you're wondering how this place was constructed. Am I right?" Fumio questioned, holding his arms out proudly.
"Let me guess. You built this place yourself?" I answered, giving my best guess.
"I could say yes, but I'd be taking more credit than I truly deserve. Before all of this came about, a small group of people had planned to build the Arcadia you stand in today." He said, placing his arms back at his sides.
"Who were these people exactly? What do you know about them?" I said as my head tilted in slight interest.
"More than anyone else. After all, I'm the only one of them left." Fumio revealed as he turned away from me.
"What do you mean?" My eyes opened wide when I heard his words. "What do you mean you're the only one left?"
"Exactly as I said. I'm the only one of us that's still living and breathing. We knew that the grim reaper would soon rise from his domain and unleash his wrath upon every soul on this earth.
We then decided that a haven would be created. A new world if you will. Hidden beneath the sea of blood that floats above our heads.
Construction began immediately as we weren't sure how long we would have.
We had to finish before a holocaust of the entire planet took place after all." He explained to me, a serious look on his face.
"If this Arcadia was made in order to protect the civilization, then how come there isn't anyone else living here?"
My eyes darted around the entire room, scanning for anyone else in the room. Nothing.
"Because I didn't want to be bothered with saving people who would be of no use." He shut his eyes and walked over to the edge of the circle.
"What do you mean of no use to us!? Are you saying that you didn't save anyone else because you didn't think they could help?
You didn't even save my parents! They might just be alive right now if you showed yourself earlier!"
My anger was suddenly at it's limit. The feeling from before had returned. The burning on my skin.
"This power I feel... it's the same as before!" Fumio thought to himself as he turned around. "Well, well, well, look who's back."
He stared at me in pure happiness, his eyes glowing brightly. "I finally get a chance to truly analyze you!"
A swirling black and blue aura enveloped me as I stood there in front of him, my jet black hair in a frenzy.
My once brown eyes had turned scarlet red. My white jacket began to blow.
"Looks like I got lucky. I finally get to see you up close! I can feel your power from even this far away!" He said, still excited.
"You like what you see!?" I growled at him.
"More than you could ever kn--"
He tried to answer, but I cut him off. "Good!" My hands clenched into fists.
"Something tells me that you're not in the mood for talking." He said, teasing me.
"What was your first clue!?" My eyes shot open wide as I charged toward Fumio.
"I'll take that as a yes!" Fumio shouted, his voice echoing throughout the room.
"Looks like you've decided to be an easy target!" I yelled, seeing as how he hadn't moved.
I swung at him with my right arm, but he dodged to the left. I quickly curved my arm and aimed it at him.
"If you're going to fight me, at least put some thought into your actions. You missed--"
He performed a backflip to avoid my punch, but the aura around my arm took the form of a claw and sliced him across his face.
"What the..." He knelt down and held his hand to the three bleeding cuts that lay on the right of his face.
"Looks like that aura of yours actually has a purpose.
Hehe, and here I thought it was just there to express how much power you have. Glad I was wrong."
He wiped the blood off of his cuts and rose up again.
"You truly are interesting Taisho. Show me more." His mouth curved into a smile as he spoke.
I said nothing as my head tilted to the ground. My body felt as if  I was in the middle of a raging inferno.
My mind was almost blank at this point, only one thought going through my head. Killing.
"What's wrong? Are we done playing already?" Fumio wondered, snapping me out of my state of silence.
In that same moment, the aura receded back into my body and my eyes closed. I stood there, my head still down.
"I'll take that as a yes. All better now?" He walked towards me, looking satisfied with what he saw.
He placed his hand on my shoulder, as if to thank me.
As he did this, a chill was sent down his spine. "Nice try." He thought.
Knowing what was about to happen, Fumio leaped backwards, as far as a single jump could take him.
Instantly, I released the stored energy and my aura returned, even larger than before.
Ribbons of darkness streched out from the dark shell around me. My head rose up quickly, a psychotic smile on my face.
"Well you did ask for more didn't you!?" I wailed as I threw my hand forward. A straight beam of darkness shot out from my hand.
"Thanks for granting my wish!" He shouted, avoiding the blast.
Fumio landed back on the platform, the smile wiped clean off his face. He looked at me and noticed that the ground I stood on was cracking open.
"I'm getting more and more information with each passing second. Sadly, my fun has to end here.
If I let him stay out of control like this who knows what he could do. Or even become." He accepted, realizing what he needed to do.
"Let's wrap this up!"  Fumio's hand began to shine a transparent blue.
"Keep a close eye on me." He pointed to his own eye, insulting my intelligence.
In the blink of an eye, he had disappeared, leaving nothing behind him.
I turned my head behind me and there he was, his glowing hand rested on my back.
Without any pain at all, he thrust his hand through my back and back out through my chest.
There was no blood, no hole in my back or my chest. There was nothing at all.
I felt nothing in my body anymore, not even the beating of my own heart.
My eyes were gray and empty.
I fell to the floor, lifeless.
He looked down at my souless body and the bittersweet situation he had created.
"I really wish I didn't have to do that, but it was my only option.
I couldn't risk him destroying the only safe place left on this earth. I'll get you up and running soon Taisho, don't you worry about that. Dead or not."
As he said this, streams of darkness were released from my body.
"Hehe, maybe I can use this to solve the little problem we have." He held his hand out once again.
The tenebrous ribbons were then sucked into his palm.
"Alright then. Let's get back to the lab." He slung me over his shoulder with no effort at all and zestfully walked toward the elevator.
The trip up the elevator was brief, as well as the walk through the hallways. It seemed as if I never left the spot where I fell to the ground.
We arrived at the lab and he laid me down on the table. He then strapped my arms and legs down, the strings of darkness still flowing out of my body.
"First things first, let's drop off this energy." He held his hand out to what appeared to be some sort of incubator.
My energy was released from his hand and found it's way into the incubator. It wrapped together ever so slowly, eventually forming a sphere.
"There. Now to put it through the conversion process." He then moved over to a keyboard and began to type.
On the monitor above him, the name, "Apollo" appeared.
"All right. Let's get this done." He announced, pressing down on the "execute" key.
The sphere that was sealed in the incubator began to rotate clockwise, slowly coming apart as it spun.
It unraveled like a ball of yarn. The color of the energy started to change. The strands turned golden, shimmering  within the incubator.
"Looks like it works. Fumio, you've done it again. Alright, now for the best is part." He happily sauntered over to a wall to the left of the monitor.
He placed hand on the wall and a ripple spread out across the entirety of it. "Open. Project Hakumei."
The wall slowly split open, mist being released from it. Once it had cleared, another room seperate from the lab was revealed. 
"There you are. You're finally being put to use." He said as he walked in.
It was a voluminous room with four spires shooting out of the floor. They were covered with what appeared to be an ancient language.
The writing began to glow a bright yellow and the light shone throughout the room.
"Guardian, shatter." Fumio commanded as he snapped his fingers, a barrier around the pillars was uncloaked and it cracked like glass.
"Just like an egg shell. Hehe." He joked, a smile on his face. He casually strolled toward the sheild.
Meanwhile, as I lay on the table, something rather strange was going on in my mind.
Despite being unconcious,I was able to hear. I heard everything he had said these past few minutes.
Even though I was quite a few feet away from where he was located, I could hear everything he was saying.
No matter how hard I tried, I still wasn't able to move. Even without control of my body, my hearing was still working perfectly fine.
I remember him saying that he was going to reanimate me. Whether I was dead or not. Thankfully I'm still alive.
Based on everything he said, it seemed as though he treats his creations as if they were kids. Kids no older than three or four who were unable to defend themselves.
He did have this "Project Hakumei" sealed within a barrier that only he could open. Like a fenced playground.
His voice sounded like he was ecstatic, yet content with himself at the same time.
He was filled to the brim with the pride of a lion and it didn't seem like the pride was going to die out any time soon.
To think that just a few people could build a place like this. A place with technology far beyond that of the surface world.
On top of that, Fumio's abilities in combat were like nothing I had ever seen before.
Come to think of it, I still don't know what's going on with me. I barely even knew what I was doing the entire time that my energy was controlling me.
Hopefully I'll be able to find some sort of answer to all of this...
"You're all fired up and ready to go!" Fumio's joyful tone of voice halted my thoughts.
The energy contained in the incubator was no longer present. He slowly pushed the ball of light into my chest.
In that moment, it was as if my body was split in half. Light and darkness eating away at each other.
My eyes shot open. I ripped the straps of the table off and rose up. Once again, that burning feeling had shown itself.
"Ahh!" My eyes changed from the regular brown to gold and red. Gold in the left, red in the right.
My chest had a hole the size of a ball in the middle. One you could easily hold in your hand.
Streams of light and darkness were released, scattering around the lab.
All this happened in only thirty seconds. The pain made it feel like an eternity. Like I was going to be torn right in half.
"Now for the last piece!" Fumio jammed a circular metal plate into the hole in my chest, sealing it completely.
The overwhelming power in my body was then contained. My eyes turned back to normal. I fell to my hands and knees, gasping for air.
"What did you do!?" I yelled, reaching up to Fumio's neck. My hand quickly fell back down to the floor.
"I completed you. As of now, you are nothing like you were before. I guess you could call yourself my newest creation.
Taisho, you've evolved beyond any mere human. I wish I could say more, but sadly, that would ruin the surprise.
I'll leave you to discover your new strength as time goes on. Now rise." He grabbed my hand and lifted me up, keeping me steady on my feet.
"I will say this however, that power of yours should be under control now. How much of it you use is now up to the limits of your body.
You won't have to worry about dying anymore. That I can promise." He looked at me, disclosing the information he could.
He guided me back to the room I woke up in and rested me down in the bed.
"Just sleep on all this. We'll give you a test run tomorrow."
He walked out of the room and headed back to the lab. "He truly has no idea what he is now..." He thought.
I shut my eyes tight, breathing heavily.
After about five minutes, I had fallen asleep.
The metal plate in my chest glowed faintly, a golden "A" appearing on the front.
It died out a few seconds later, leaving the room pitch black.