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The following is a fan-based
FICTION
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Chapter 20: First Step Beyond the Curtain
Beta-Reader: Ant0nius
~Matt's POV~
The kitchen became the setting for unneeded tension as I finally finished my bathroom routine and prepared for a quick breakfast.
The moment I stepped inside the room, I noticed that both Diana and Randal were patiently waiting to give me their utmost attention.
Which, technically, was a bad thing considering what happened yesterday.
The woman in particular seemed fairly concerned, her worry less hidden compared to her son's, and I tried my best to not call out the whole situation as I really didn't need to deal with this. At least not this early in the day.
Taking my usual seat at the table, I stared down at a small plate filled with two jam-filled sandwiches left there for me.
I blinked, taking the first one and quickly giving it a little bite.
The silence was still there, starting to intensify the uneasiness I was trying to keep away from influencing my actions.
Instead of hoping for some changes and merely keeping quiet, I sighed and glanced at both Primes.
"I'm fine," I muttered calmly. "Yesterday was… just a temporary thing."
"You were feverish," Randal retorted, his tone showing a mix of irritation at my nonchalance and concern over the entire situation. "We don't want to sound overbearing, but you seemed sick and we can't just ignore that."
"It's not much of an… problem," I admitted with a sigh. "I did have similar episodes back when I was younger, but now it just happens randomly, and not as frequently as a couple of years ago."
"What kind of 'episodes'?" Diana quietly asked, curiosity building up in the middle of that sea of worry.
"As I've said, it's nothing to be concerned about," I repeated with a little more strength behind my words. "I think it was like one of my panic attacks- but the last one was two years ago and… it wasn't that bad."
There was even more tension rising up, and I felt like my assurances were hardly getting through with my words.
I sighed. "I'm fine, I'm not lying about this, and I didn't have issues with the shift today,"
"I can shorten it up," The woman offered quickly. "There's no need for you to-"
"I've taken enough 'pauses' to try and keep up with my work," I interjected as politely as I could. "I understand your concerns, I really do, but I can't just mess things up by resting too much."
…
In the end, Diana let out a single huff. "I guess there is no stopping you about this."
"Mom?" Randal said with a surprised look, but the Cow Prime merely shook her head.
"If he thinks he can do it without having any more issues, I will give him the benefit of the doubt," She replied with a strange calm, then she looked back at me. "But if there are any problems while you're working, I will see that you're bedridden for at least two full days."
I frowned. "Then I guess I'll get… going?"
"Just be wary that I will personally exact that situation if the worst comes to happen," Diana pointed out with a degree of determination that got me quite tense.
"Sure thing, ma'am."
She let out a brief snort, hinting at some amusement.
I left the now empty plate by the sink before walking outside the home and right towards the fields.
I had long decided to skip my usual visit to town, knowing that putting too much strain now would mean taking risks I really don't need to make.
Humming quietly and enjoying the suave wind brushing on my face, I prepared for what was going to be a really slow-paced but attentive shift to make sure that everything was ready for the next shift.
My mind still had some questions about the night before, all of those correlating with the strange dream session I had experienced within my sleep.
It was… a blur of images, of faces, of people- and none of the scenes seemed to make any sense to my memory.
No distinctive traits that could actually help me make out what exactly I was looking at.
In the end, there wasn't much I could do without anything that could offer me some clues over the matter and… I was admittedly tired of dealing with the unpleasantness of my amnesia.
Maybe it was for the best that I was left clueless, as the dreams did seem quite difficult to understand, yet also important.
Without skipping a beat in my walk, and not letting my thoughts obscure my current plans for today, I decided to quickly move my attention to the first task of the day.
The mature carrots were my priority early, the vegetables having a surprisingly quick-paced growth compared to the ones I had tried to grow back home.
The fertilizer and the special substances used for these products genuinely give me some good help in speeding up numerous processes that would normally take much longer than just a couple of hours.
Three open chests were prepared by the side of the fields assigned to the specific vegetables, and I carefully proceeded to take out the products that were more than ready to be brought to the market for the next day.
Two hours later and with the chests filled to the brim with the products, I moved to the next section of the farm.
The orchard was the very place where I had been found almost three weeks ago, where I had wounded up after that bizarre night and…
It wasn't bringing me any hints about what had happened back there.
I took a moment to sigh before starting to pick up the red apples hanging by the branches of the trees there, a smaller chest busying my left hand as I used my right one to grab the pretty fruits.
There was a state of calm that was just what I was trying to find now that I really needed to think away from the various conflicting thoughts threatening to give me some headaches.
I started to hum quietly as I distractedly filled the various smaller chests with more apples, almost blitzing through this activity without even giving too much of a thought about it.
Just as I prepared to take the last few fruits left, I paused momentarily as I felt my cell phone vibrating in my pants' pocket.
Putting down the chest, I looked down at its display by the very moment I fished it out from the pocket and brought it close to my face.
"Naerie?" I mused quietly, surprised that she would be calling so suddenly but… I guess there is some reason to contact me this early.
I pressed the 'Accept' button, but instead of the usual blank voice of the young Bear Prime I was rewarded with some giggles.
"Uh… hello?"
The giggles suddenly vanished, some silence following up before-
"Hi… Matt?"
I blinked, the quirky voice being familiar, but I lost just a moment to ponder over it."
"Geecku? Is that you?" I asked quietly, and I was rewarded with new giggles.
"Yes!" The Lizard (?) Prime answered quite loudly. "You remember Geecku!"
I cracked a smile at that. "Well, I think it would've been difficult to forget about you."
"But aren't you… amne-thingy?"
I blinked. "Amnesiac?" I guessed quietly.
"Yes, amne-thingy," She confirmed with a determined tone, a frown developing on my face. "You forget things."
"I 'forgot' things," I corrected her calmly, humming as I continued to pick more apples. "I don't just forget everything. In fact, I remember Geecku."
"And Ambar and Naerie," She added with a hum. "But what about Minnow?"
"I didn't forget about him," I assured back, my mind slightly distracted by the other task I was trying to accomplish in the meantime. "By the way, Geecku, how did you get Naerie's phone?"
"Oh? Well, I… found it on floor?" The girl tried to answer with an adorably awkward manner and I sighed with some amusement dripping from my lips.
Seriously, why would Minos have trouble with someone like her?
"Geecku, 'finders keepers' isn't meant to be taken literally," I started to explain quietly, quickly hearing a huff from the other side of the call. "You can't just take something just because you found it."
"Buuut- I bored," Geecku replied with an annoyed moan. "You sound nice, why no wanna talk?"
"I never said I don't want to talk with you," I returned with some confusion.
"But you wanna say I bad because I took Naerie's thingy," The Prime continued to sound particularly irked by this. "I just wanna talk."
"Did you try asking first?"
She huffed. "I did, but Hamster Lady says that I bad."
Hamster Lady? Was she referring to… Ambar?
"You don't sound bad, Geecku," I pointed out. "In fact, you just sound a tad bit irritated by being stuck wherever you are."
"I am!" The young woman groaned, but then she sighed. "But I know Matt is nice and he thinks Geecku no bad."
"But I hope you're still going to return Naerie her phone. I understand being bored and wanting to talk with people, but it would really be bad if you kept it even after you're done with using it," I commented with a degree of sternness, just enough to send the message across without sounding too pushy.
"I return it after talk," Geecku promised quickly. "How are you?"
That was quite the sudden switch from a topic to another. I could only guess that she was really desperate for some novelty right now.
"I'm fine, just a little tired," I replied genuinely. "How about you?"
"I happy talking with Matt!" She loudly proclaimed, and I shook my head at how silly it just sounded like. "But also sad Matt is tired."
"It's not that bad," I hummed quietly. "Work can be draining, but it's actually pleasant since it's a nice day."
"Really? Tell me, what's in the sky?" The girl inquired giddily and I stared up through the small openings between the leaves and branches of the trees around me.
"Well the sun has yet to reach the highest in the sky, there are some clouds but no hint of raining," I started to describe quietly. "There is a nice wind too."
"I envious," She admitted with a huff. "Matt is tired, but having fun."
"Well, I still need to work hard for the shifts today," I added. "And I can't pause just yet to enjoy it. Perhaps after lunch."
"But you still outside and walking around," The Prime countered with a childish tone. "And… why you working?"
I blinked. "Can you elaborate? Why am I working?"
"Yeah, why not rest? Why not having fun?" Geecku inquired swiftly. "Place seems nice, why you working?"
"I need to work because I want to help someone, Geecku," I explained with a hint of happiness. "Because she needs my help and since she helped me first, I want to return the favor."
"Oh, you care her?" She pressed on with some interest. "Actually, what are you doing?"
I frowned at this new change of topic, but I gave a slight nod to myself. "I was picking some apples."
"Mhh~ I like apples, I want some," The young woman commented. "But apples here taste yucky."
"Well, there are some that work with apples and not always keep them fully natural," I told her with a degree of understanding. Big companies generally add some substances that help fruits in avoid getting any issues like bugs munching on them, or just to preserve them better.
"I would like them bigger and tastier," She whined a little more. "But Hamster Lady say that those are fine- they not."
"I guess that it's just difficult to find producers that can offer that," I argued a little, knowing that it's indeed rare to find people that actually do sell simple apples and…
I blinked, staring at the little fruit in my hand as I pondered over the situation just brought up and then I let out a small smile.
"But I think I know how to solve this," I continued with a confident tone. "Once you're done to the call, you just need to tell Ambar that I have an idea about the apples and that I wanted to talk to her about this."
"Really?" She asked with her mood rising up brightly.
"Yep," I stated mirthfully and I could hear celebratory noises happening from the other side of the call.
I also heard the distinct noise of something crashing down on the nearby floor and flinched as I heard a loud yelp coming from the distracted Geecku.
"Whoopsie."
I snorted a little at her adorable reaction… but I couldn't help but smile even more as I was somehow reminded of a similar situation.
Blinking at the reminder, I tried to recollect what memory exactly was correlated to this and-
"I think Hamster Lady close to my hideout," The Prime muttered softly, half-whispering as she seemed distracted by the approaching footsteps.
"You were hiding?"
"...Yeah?"
I sighed. "I swear, Geecku, you can be a lively gal, but you can't just make this many messes so often," I half-chided, my mind growing a little fuzzy in the meantime. "I thought we had talked plenty of times about the fact it's not about being good or bad."
"It's no Geecku's fault if Hamster Lady is pricky and- wait what?"
I blinked again, this time my eyes widening as I felt my legs giving way and forcing me to learn on the tree behind me.
"There you are, you naughty girl~."
The phone fell by the floor, with the call ending as it reached under the cover offered by the grass.
I slowly descended, sitting down by the ground as I felt my breathing growing erratic once again, just like yesterday but… but something had indeed happened inside my head.
Some of the blurring scenes had grown clearer and I could recognize a distinct character now that I think about it.
Geecku- or someone similar to her. A little shorter- no, younger. Her hair ended by her shoulders and she was wearing some simple half-sleeved shirt and shorts. A bright smile, I- she was speaking.
But what was she speaking about?
I felt my breathing coming to a calmer rate, my heart normalizing as I carefully stood up and… my brief moment of sickness outright vanished.
Waiting for some time, I expected for something else to happen, but… nothing did and I was left with more questions than answers at what I just saw.
I picked the phone, only now noticing that the call had finally, and I went back to the other apples-filled chests with the new one.
Perhaps I really need a brief break after this one and…
How did I meet with Geecku in the past?!
~Geecku's POV~
The living room in the High Prime's mansion was mostly empty at this time of the day.
Yet right now a trio of women occupied it, each having different reasons to be talking.
Ambar was the one leading the conversation, with her tired-looking daughter, Naerie, trying to keep up, as it was quite early in the morning and a 'thief' had used her phone to call someone.
Despite the fact that Geecku should've really been feeling worried about the mischievous tone adopted by the 'Hamster lady', the adorable Lizard Prime was still contemplating about the last bits of the conversation she just had with the human she now considered quite curious to think about.
Matt Newcastle.
Unfamiliar name, yet his appearance and voice had both felt so interesting and nostalgic.
Odd, but not completely surprising for humans to look like others… and yet her mind had stirred the more she had delved in that discussion, about certain elements that had just clicked so well within her memories.
A tingle, a reminder about something familiar, then another… and again.
The strange sensation had persisted through the friendly chatting with the nice man, and while she felt the answer was on the tip of her tongue, she just couldn't say it.
His manners were quite polite but he had also shown some understanding of her unique way of talking, almost trying his best to not outright annoy her with his good words.
He was nice, yet also restrained.
He was lacking something within his attitude, she was well aware about this very something actually missing off from his words.
A certain undertone that just seemed like a must as it was familiar, as it was just needed.
And yet the Prime couldn't just understand what it was, even now that Ambar was trying and failing to continue with her 'stern chiding' because of the lack of prompt from her daughter to go along what seemed to be a funny skit about punishing her.
Geecku would've been more than happy to bring support to the idea, just for the sake of seeing what amusing thoughts the Bear Prime had wanted to make out of this very situation.
Yet her mind was still sticking by that very last sentence that brought up the entirety of the interaction, the general warmth that had come out of it.
There were only a handful of people that could bring out this degree of nostalgia on par with what she was feeling right now.
Ambar was one of them, then there was Minnow, Gracey, Carmie, and Howlie…. And maybe the rest of the Crests too.
It's been a while since Geecku had seen what had happened to Kate, but the High Prime had more than once mentioned that she was enjoying some pleasant retirement to her ancestral home.
And Xeánica had disappeared completely from her radar by the very moment she just decided to settle with working in a restaurant located by a seaside town.
Everyone had their happy lives, the only sad lady being the no-longer short Queen.
The woman had grown quick to annoy, too difficult to properly tease and… it's been years since Geecku had the chance of having the barest interaction with her.
A disappointing thought that was motivated by the passing of someone she hadn't pondered about for so long.
She could still remember her 'buddy'. Because her buddy was her buddy.
The logic was simple, and impossible to just forget after so much time had been spent together with him.
Her buddy had been there to keep her company, to offer support when needed, but also helped her grow accustomed with the novelty of the real world around herself.
She could remember the limited perception she had about humanity, about the tribes and the annoying attempt of some to hunt her down.
Even after so many centuries had passed, Geecku can proudly say that she was the apex predator despite the presence of bigger and tougher individuals within her own race.
The discovery of so much more had helped her sharpen up her mind, her tactics, and understanding of freedom as a possible path to live her own life without any limitations.
Yet her buddy had been there to disprove her about this early on, to make her see that there was still a need to have somewhere she could easily fall to.
A limit, a safety belt… and for a time he had served in that role, willingly so.
Differently from other friends of her which the Lizard Prime had never stopped to think as viable mates, the young man that had gained her trust through hard-work and understanding ended up being seen as something more but also less.
He became her buddy, her pal, her best friend and… then he wasn't there anymore.
She couldn't remember exactly what happened back then, but something had happened to see a victory emptied by its greatest purpose.
Happiness.
Sure, the war had concluded for them all, and there was no threat trying to kill them all… but the cost had still stung deeply in her mind.
Discovering that her first homeplanet had been destroyed early on had left her unnerved, but when Earth had to be sacrificed, Geecku found a feeling of dread growing from both her heart and Crest.
Life perished, and while Neo-Earth quickly became her new home, she would never forget the price.
Nothing can just replace a loss, not even a replica.
But she can live with the pain and strive to attain another height of her existence.
She had to be happy, just like her buddy had wanted her to be forever and beyond. He had asked her to smile against the sorrow, not to mock the pain, but to lessen it altogether.
Sometimes smiling worked, and so did freedom… but Geecku couldn't lie that some of that pain still made her frown sadly.
It had happened so suddenly and so deviously.
A moment her buddy had joined the fight and helped them to win against the Emperor, and then he wasn't there anymore.
…
She blinked the moment her eyes started to burn a little, something soft slowly trailing down her cheeks.
It's been a while since she had outright cried for this, and perhaps she just needed to let out a little bit of her own self-disappointment.
Her musings were abruptly interrupted as she felt a mountain of soft fur fall upon her, and then lift her up.
"Geecku, is something wrong?" Ambar's tone sported an amount of worry rarely found nowadays, and her mind finally cleared out all the thoughts concerning her past, making her return to the present.
Even Naerie had looked particularly attentive of the situation, staring both at her mother and the fellow Crest as both kept the embrace for a while.
"N-Nothing wrong," Geecku ultimately muttered. "Just thinking."
The hug lessened momentarily. "Are you sure? Perhaps I was too forceful or-"
"Oh- not you. I think about… past," The girl interjected swiftly. "But nothing bad. I'm fine."
…
"Are you sure?" The Bear Prime said while giving her a tighter hug, just enough to drown the young woman in her embrace. "I'm not really mad about the vase."
"Really?" The girl asked promptly. "I'm free?"
… "You really are fine, aren't you?" Ambar inquired back with a hint of suspicion.
"Gecku said only think about past, but now think about present and… the hug is nice," The Lizard Prime giggled while snuggling in that warmth, causing the Crest of Wisdom to sigh in relief at that mood swing.
"... For a moment, I was really worried," She admitted before huffing at the cheeky girl. "Still, you have to tell me why you took Naerie's phone, and who you called."
Geecku pondered about this, debating about the scenario of having to explain to Ambar about her doubts related to the strange emotion she had in regard of Matt Newcastle.
Would it be a good thing to do? Was it going to help?
After all, the man had that amne-thingy that messed up with his memories. What a dreadful thing, to be forced to forget about your own past.
In the end, she hummed. "I wanted to talk to someone new and… I made a friend."
The Crest of Wisdom appeared a little surprise at the last bit. "Oh? A friend? What's his name?"
"It's not Shin, right?" Naerie blurted out almost immediately, causing both to look at the younger Bear Prime.
"Who is Shin?" Geecku tried to ask, but the fellow Crest interjected before her daughter had to deal with some awkward situation.
"You still have to tell me who's your new friend, sweetie," The woman reminded with an amused tone. "I hope this isn't a secret or-"
"It's Matt," The Lizard Prime admitted quickly, a bright smile on his face. "He is nice, kind and he wanted to talk to you about giving me better apples."
…
Maybe she had been too sudden? Maybe there was one of those 'innuendos' among her lines?
Geecku's mind couldn't just understand what exactly happened in that split-second.
For a moment Ambar looked incredibly curious, almost fascinated by the mystery, and then the Bear Prime had given her a wide-eyed look as she tried to digest the answer provided.
Blue eyes met with golden-colored ones, and the Crest of Life felt like something big was going on inside the woman's head.
"That's… interesting," Ambar eventually muttered. "But I guess that he has to be quite nice to make this impression."
"Yes, I wanna talk more him," The girl replied with a happy tone. "He said he knows how give us fresh apples that aren't yucky, he said he want to talk to you."
"About the apples?" The Crest of Wisdom sounded fairly tense once again about the matter, intensifying the suspicions of the observant Geecku.
It was rare for Ambar to behave this tensely, especially with how laid-back her personality was while dealing with a fair share of important duties as the High Prime.
Geecku herself wasn't fully aware of the extent of her role, the limitations and the overall difficulty of the task, but considering that she was temporarily doing the Queen's work, it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine this to be quite the difficult situation for her.
So why was she nervous about talking about Matt Newcastle? Why was it… problematic for Geecku to be fascinated by him?
"Yes and… is something wrong?"
The question seemed to finally snap the woman out of that strange attitude and into an uneasy smile.
It was different from the usual smile. It lacked confidence, and it lacked the calm that the Bear Prime's own grins and smirks had.
Something was aloof, and the Lizard Prime knew it was all about the human.
"Nothing important," Ambar answered quickly and then sighed. "Still, he mentioned something about delicious apples? I guess I should give him a call. How about you talk with Naerie while I'm at it?"
There was no room to talk about this development as the Bear Prime swiftly rushed out of the living room, probably to contact the human about the fruits he had promised her about, leaving her daughter alone with Geecku.
But the Bear Prime had nothing to worry about, especially with the Crest of Life.
Despite the young woman's attachment to her mother and other Crests, Geecku had long established some minor limits about tempting 'fate itself' by going after the children of her fellow guardians.
It just gave her a strange feeling, an unpleasant one, to even try her hand at any conquest effort.
So, instead of flirting about with the blank-looking girl, the Lizard Prime finally decided it was about time to get some answers about the pressing questions born from that silly interaction with Ambar.
"Naerie," The woman started with a quiet tone, drawing the Bear Prime's attention on her. "Ambar is lying, why?"
…
"What?" Naerie replied with a confused hint in her voice.
"She says Matt is 'nothing important', but he is important," Geecku answered with a truthful tone. "He is nice, quite caring… but why he important?"
"Mother wasn't referring to Matt while saying 'Not important'," The girl rebuked quickly, far too quickly. "The paperwork has been quite draining and-"
"Paper is bleh, but she gives it to others," The Lizard Prime pressed on with some insistence. "And I know you lying… like Ambar."
"It's complicated-"
"Then make it simple?" Geecku exerted even more pressure, knowing that there was a defined limit of patience within the individual she was speaking to. Naerie was patient, but she wasn't endless and she would crumble with enough pressure on her mind.
"Someone told Geecku that 'everything can be summarized in twenty words', so why is difficult?"
"I don't have an exact answer," Naerie admitted quietly, her eyes closing as she tried her best to not look at her interlocutor. "But it has to do with the Gods."
The Gods? It's been so long since the deities had moved their hand over their blessed new world.
And for a human? Now that was quite the odd predicament… enough to warrant even more queries about the matter.
"Nothing else?"
"Mom..." The girl looked away, clearly unnerved by the pressure. "She knows him somehow, same for Minos."
...What?
Sure, they both knew him from the call. But was she referring to before?
But there was no way that someone this important would've been missed by Geecku.
Someone she had failed to take notice about? Impossible, she was well-aware of everyone around herself.
So… why was Matt Newcastle not only helped by the Gods, but also a close acquaintance to Minnow and Ambar?
It just wasn't making sense, there was no reason for all of this to be possible… if not for-
'I swear, Geecku, you can be a lively gal, but you can't just make this many messes so often.'
/"You're quite the lively gal, you know that, buddy?"\
Her jaws dropped, and her eyes widened in realization as the pieces started to match up flawlessly within her mind.
Matt Newcastle, he was- but then- how!?
How is it possible?
They told her he had died, that he was no more.
And yet it was all making sense to her. He was him, he was her buddy.
Her shock silently persisted up until Ambar finally returned from her conversation with the human about the apples.
The Bear Prime looked relieved and somewhat calmer compared to how she had looked back when she had left that room.
But then the red-haired woman spared a glance at Geecku, and she paused in her approach as she noticed quite the worrying sign within the fellow Crest's face.
There was no smile, there was no happy expression. There was a frown that was directed sternly at her.
"Matt Newcastle… He is Geecku's buddy, isn't he?!"
AN
Geecku makes a colossal discovery, Matt is making some steps towards this and I'm already itching at starting writing the prequel.
You forgot that 'Ambar got mauled by cute Geecku' in that little summary of yours.
...I'm dreading to ask but, are you alright?
I'm peachy.
...Then why are you glaring at me like that?
Because I'm thinking that Summer is in two months from now, and Paraiso will be 'fun'.
...And now you're smiling- wait, are you mad because of-
Shhh, let it happen.
No- I refuse to-
Too late~!
REVIEW Q&A! (With Lady Ambar~!)
Astrogamer:
Certain doors are best kept close.
So that I can come in without knocking!
...Yeah, sure.
