Andy, Efof- And now, the Crescendo! Part 2

Who: Andy, Efof
Where: Andy's subconscious
<SNIP>
Efof shook his head and looked up at the odd… crowd of people that had
suddenly appeared. "Who are these people Andy? Do you know them or
something… is that a Mollopod?!"
The GELF pulled a face that made it even uglier than before. "Ah,
you'd think so… since he killed all of us!"
<END SNIP>
The cleaner stopped completely and stared at the people in front of
him. His eyes seemed to fall out of focus for a moment as they raked
over the group. A part of him couldn't believe. The other parts knew
that it was true. In one way or another, he'd sent them all to meet
their makers.
Efof's four arms gave the ground a mighty shove, immediately landing
him back into the standing position. "Andy! Who are these people?" The
Ffionian asked again. "It can't- … He's lying, right?!" The lack of
response was beginning to scare the blue being, grabbing Andy by his
arms and shoulders.
"Talk to me, dammit!!" Emotions of fear and betrayal slowly began to
rise up in Efof's throat.
The shit-faced GELF's face contorted angrily at once again. "I'm a
female- FEMALE!!" She declared for the n'th time in her short span of
being.
At the table the red-dressed 11 year old hopped off her chair,
discarding the cards on the table. A sudden hoot of indignation came
from the Mollopod as he beheld that she did indeed have a four…-a.
She walked promptly up to the two dream travellers. After a few
seconds of waiting they suddenly noticed the quiet girl in front of
them. At Efof's slightly reddened face and Andy's numb stare she gave
the two a curt smile in return.
"Giday Andy." She greeted in a remarkably high-pitched voice, at least
for a girl with an Australian accent.
"…Who is SHE?" Efof underlined dangerously. "And how did SHE get
HERE?" The Ffionian added; fully prepared to go from holding the
cleaner's shoulders to holding his neck- violently.
The cleaner's mouth gabbed up and down wordlessly, unable to come up
with an explanation for the unknown but yet strongly familiar young
girl. "I-…Efof I don't know this girl. I swear! I mean… I think I don't!"
"Oh for- get out of my way!" Efof growled, throwing the cleaner aside
in disgust. The Ffionian felt dirty just by being in this man's mind
at the moment.
The multi-limbed man leaned over, quickly wiping the angry look off
his face. "So…what's your name little girl?" Efof asked sweetly, with
a face to match. Andy lifted his head. "Red, you've got to believe me
here! I'd never do something like this!" The cleaner said in
desperation, perhaps trying to convince the alien as much as himself.
"Oh just be quiet, we'll speak about this later!" Efof shot back,
breaking his kindly face for just a fraction of a second.
Apparently the 'little girl' didn't much like being spoken down to.
"Even if I knew, you'd think that I'd tell an ugly drongo like you?
You look like papa Smurf and Goro's love child!" The sudden snarky
tone in the girl's voice suddenly became profoundly familiar to the
Ffionian. "Hey! I'm just trying to- wait, you don't know your own name?!"
The little girl rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Erg, look, would
you actually take your friend's word above that of a shit-headed
alien. You know before you start jumping to your conclusions?"
"Oh not this again," The GELF groaned in frustration. "Look! He killed
us, THAT'S why were here!!"
"I thought-a that the bambino said-a that it was because the human
felt guilty about us dying?" The Mollopod joined in the shouting
content all the while subtly trying to look at the Skutter's hand.
"Oh yeah, yeah, I'm sure he felt REALLY guilty when he blasted me out
of existence!" The GELF yelled back at the slug.
"Who are you…? I feel like I know you…" Andy asked the girl before he
pulled himself up from the technically non-existent ground. The
red-dressed girl crocked an eyebrow. "Didn't I just tell you? I don't
know who I am." "Stupid girl has memory loss!" The GELF stated
haughtily. "Everyone else here knows who they are, especially THAT
guy." A small shiver went through the room's occupants at the even the
euphemism of the man-in-question's name.
"It's not the same!" The little girl continued. "You all remember who
you are because ANDY remembers YOU!" "Somehow I feel like I could have
snuck a Russian reversal joke right here." Efof thought out loud,
staring critically at the young girl. "Anyway; this doesn't matter
right now! Andy, I know that you're confused. You've been sucked into
your own sub-consciousness because of the trauma what you've under
gone in such a short space of time. When you were put into a coma it
was just a straw that broke the camel's back. He's using that alien's
mind to keep you here like a stop gap, or else you would have just
woken up normally, and much too quickly for HIS purposes. Listen, you
are in great danger! If you going to even have a hope about waking up
ever again you're going to alleviate some of that emotional trauma. To
do that, you're going to have to forgive yourself about what happened
to us!"
"…Did that little girl just say 'Alleviate'…?" Efof asked Andy
incredulously. "Be glad." Andy replied cautiously "My last few dreams
included flying vampire cows that sounded like Dick van Dyke. Needless
to say it wasn't pretty."
"Andy! Listen to me!!" The young girl pleaded, indefinitely more
polite with the cleaner. "What happened to them wasn't your fault!"
(An indignant hoot of outrage came from the GELF and the
Mario-wannabe) "-Even if it was, you've got to let it go! You should
know better than anyone about how important it is to forget your past
and move on!"
"…Yeah, because look where letting go has gotten me." Andy replied,
precluding his rant. "I'm stuck on a ship in the middle of nowhere
that gets attacked more often than the Enterprise, the Millennium
Falcon and Tony Blair's reputation all rolled into one. I'm surrounded
by wack-jobs and sycophants on all sides. One of their main scientists
is a bi-polar blonde hasn't a clue about current terminology, not to
mention that his sister is psychotic, their 'best' Ambassador is a
blue-blooded bastard who can't even look after his own child, their
security team includes a red-headed midget and robot whose barely
higher than your kneecaps yet carries a gun that he'd even make the
terminator think he's compensating! Oh yeah, and there's a four-armed,
blue skinned alien, whose full name sounds like profanity. So yeah- I
think I'm a little sick of walking blindly forward."
"Feel good now that you've got that off your chest?" The Ffionian
asked, having been slightly hypnotised by the cleaner's bouncing
tonsils. Andy blinked then nodded evenly. "Yes actually, thanks for
asking."
"Good grief Andy, get over you damn self-pity already! You were always
like this, even back then!" The girl snapped in frustration. "You
NEVER moved on from the orphanage! You couldn't even on from the
reason why you became an orphan!" For obvious reasons, this really set
the cleaner off. "What do you mean 'never moved on'?! How dare you,
you little brat! I did what I could with what I had. You know NOTHING
about what I went through!!"
"Andy calm down, she's just a little girl!" Efof said, holding up his
hands in a kind of 'steady on' poise.
"Oh that's right Andy, you never moved on. You lived like a pauper not
because you had to, but because your own mind hated you so much that
you thought you didn't desire better." She walked slowly up to the
cleaner slowly. Each step caused the man to unconsciously step back.
"The whole reason you agreed with that wack-job to get yourself frozen
wasn't because you wanted the money. It was because you expected to
die and thought that maybe you could help someone out in doing so."
"…Andy?" Efof breathed, at the moment he felt like an external gazer
in the current events. Not truly belonging. "Is that true…?"
"…" Andy pursed his mouth; a melancholy expression blanketed his face.
Efof got his answer.
"Andy…listen to me…please?" The little girl's hands lifted up to grab
the cleaner's. Andy gave a sleepy dipping nod. "Let us go."
A fluttering of cards echoed through the room. Efof's head turned, the
three where gone. The only thing that marked their passage was the
playing cards that now glided through the air like feathers.
Like a crack of thunder a sound echoed in the distance; a high-pitched
racket, like a scream that slowly drew closer and closer.
Efof turned back to the cleaner yet the girl still stood there with
him. The two stared into each other's eyes, both searching for something.
The girl sighed. "I thought so…you can never let me go until you
remember who I am." "I don't think that we have time for this!" Efof
yelled over at the two. "The crazy Andy is coming back, and he's pissed!"
She turned over to the oncoming noise with a look of grim
determination. "He realised what happened. Don't worry; I don't think
he'll try this again. Andy he's here for the same reason that I am so
until you remember us both you'll never be able to truly stop him."
Efof slowly began to back-pedal away; unease was scribed across his
face in big bold letters. "We don't have time for the therapy session!
Andy we've got to wake up now!"
The orphan shook himself slightly as though he just woke up out of a
day dream. "Wait a minute… you hated dresses… you hated them so
much…that's why you weren't friends with any of girls… that's why you
where friends with me."
The girl suddenly beamed as her clothing faded into black then
reappeared as a white polo shirt and brown cargo pants. "That's right
Andy… you remembered. Now… wake up… and remember that while it's good
remembering your ghosts, it's even better to keep looking forward!"
Soon the world began to dissolve around the three. The white room
twisted and churned in-between multiple hues. Suddenly with a howl of
wind the once white room resembled a shaken up toy-box.
Around Efof flew random objects like a tornado gale, parts of Andy's
orphanage- still ablaze- rushed past his head and collided with deadly
force into a Ffionian fishing Yuat.
The girl looked up at Andy with a proud smirk; she opened her mouth
for one final word to exchange between them. "Remember Andy, I-"
But before she could even draw her next breath a figure moved in the
corner of Andy's eye. Like a swooping falcon, a man wearing a Jamaican
beanie and a pink dress collided into the girl with a sickening
crunch. Then the once bright room turned completely black.
Andy's eyes snapped open. "NO!!"
The middle age doctor next to bedded cleaner the jerked back, letting
out a terrified yell before colliding soundly with the ground. The
nurses rushed over to him, pulling him up by his arms.
The man gave an annoyed huff, glasses strewn over his face. "Well
then… I guess he doesn't want his next of kin notified."
~~~
Who: Andy, Efof
Where: Medical deck, express lift
When: Three hours later
The duo stared up at the numbers on the crux of the lift numbly.
Neither had said a word since their ordeal. They'd both shared an
ordeal, one that both knew that Andy had a very real chance of not
making it out as luckily as he did. With a stern lecture from the
doctor about fighting kung-fu hobos, he gave both a quick jab to arm
with a couple of med hypos and sent them on their way.
The Cleaner looked over at the alien with an un-easy expression on his
face. The Ffionian had seen some of his most intimate and closely
guarded secrets. Yet he didn't exactly feel violated. It was… weird…
it felt nice but yet un-easy. He couldn't find anything to say to him
but then again perhaps he didn't need to.
The lift stopped and the door huffed open, revealing to them the empty
corridor that lay beyond. Holly's announcement of the deck went
unheard in the deafening silence. A moment of hesitation and the blue
skinned alien walked forward and out into the empty hall.
The multi-limbed alien turned back and looked directly into Andy's
eyes. "Andy…if you ever want to talk." Efof stated softly.
The cleaner nodded emotionlessly as the doors began to pull themselves
back to together.
With a slight lurch the express-lift was sent shuttling on its way.
Andy couldn't help it. He smiled.