Lisa's presence alerted the brawl members and they all stopped, turning to look in her direction. She realised that she was still dressed entirely in white. The three of them were studying her intently, they could tell something was different about her.
"What did you do?" asked Ike's clone. "Join the PAP?"
Lisa was puzzled by their reaction to her, other than the fact that she was indeed wearing something different. They could see that something wasn't right, but what it was she couldn't tell.
"Your brain patterns," commented Kin. "It's occupying a very rare site of E8, the site of happiness and joy. Where did you go? What did you see?"
"I...I've seen true reality," she said, as bravely as she could. "It is not what you think it is."
Ikes and Kin didn't know what to say.
"Listen," Lisa continued. "It was Silos Max, Silos Max doesn't kill people, it sends them to true reality, can't be explained in words."
Then she continued to tell them about Azareth, the white room, the tea of forgetting, and the empty space.
After all was done, the three of them had no mood to fight. Kin and Ikes sat on the floor, discouraged and depressed.
"All these years, I've always thought we were given a special gift. Eyes of the oracle, the sight of true reality. I never realised it was such a farce," said Kin.
"The constant fight between us, we saw that it has lead to more misery and hardship, yet in the delusion of it all, we believe what we see is the absolute truth, that it was necessary. The concept of nothingness...that has never occured to us..."
Ike was just as sad, Ike's clone didn't say anything.
Lisa decided that she was the one to do the talking this time.
"Guys...you've finally realised it, that true reality is the embracement of nothingness. Over the last few years, both of you have done nothing but try to gain power over the other. You were moving further and further away from true reality."
Kin and Ikes were surprised by Lisa's sudden authorative tone.
"Understanding true reality, it's not something of maths or science, there's no E8 symmetry, no EPR, no quantum, no relativity or black holes, or whatever. True reality is nothing but our origin. The universe was written on it, we came from it."
Kin then stood up.
"Then tell me, what have we been seeing all this while? Why do we need to feel such unnecessary pain on the pretext of being able to see true reality?"
Ike looked up at Lisa, he too wanted an answer.
"Azareth told me what you saw were details. Specific details on how the world was created. You have been given a most unpleasant fate, Damien Lee has already been condemned to hell for your creation. As a result of your eyes, you have been living in unnecessary sadness."
The three of them hung their heads.
"But Ike, you chose the path of God! You found peace with yourself among the sadness! Even though you did fight with Kin. But don't you see? Don't you realise something? Ike and Kin?"
They all looked up at her again.
"Some of what you see, the sufferings and the pains, we can see it too! Not literary like you do, but we can all feel it. I went through a lot of stress as a stock broker, and that resulted in my family breaking up and my friends leaving me. When I think about it now, I realised I was experiencing the sadness and pain you see. True, I don't see extra dimensions and all, but that's not important in this pretext, isn't it?"
The guys shook their heads.
"I have forgotten God, I may go to church, but I have forgotten him. Ike, you were right, I'm a failed Christian. The path you took was more right than mine. I could have chosen to love instead of hate, to do right instead of wrong, to worship God and follow his way, even if I knew about all the sufferings and pain. But i didn't. Kin, you could have helped the world step by step, do you not realise how your actions are causing yourself pain? The eyes of darkness, which you showed, it's the reflection of your soul, wasn't it? You charged Silos Max almost instantly, it was a result of the hatred in your heart."
Kin wanted to say something, but he stopped. He knew Lisa was right, he wasn't just able to see her state of mind, but he could also feel it in his heart.
"What do you now intend to do? You have killed so many already."
Ikes and Lisa all looked at Kin, anticipating his reply, but all Kin did was wallow in despair and pity.
"SOC! Hands UP!"
The voice of Lo caught their attention. Large groups of armoured men rushed into the lab. A few MRF troopers were also among the crowd, ready for the release of sleeping gas.
"Lo!" Ike and his clone jumped.
"Hey Sirs..." said Lo jokingly. "We thought of the sacrifice Lisa made and all, and how you tried so hard to build up your army, we couldn't simply let your effort go all to waste."
"But...weren't you afraid of Silos Max?" Ike's clone asked.
"Hoho, we took care of that. Before we began the mission, I told all our men to call up their families and sever all ties with them, and during the mission, to try not to think about anyone they knew."
Ike laughed.
"That's not how Silos Max works, but I don't know how it works either. No worries though, I've already taken care of everything."
Then he looked at Lisa.
"Lisa took care of everything."
Lo looked at Lisa, then looked at Kin, who was still looking dismayed.
"What did you do?"
Lisa laughed.
"I merely taught the boys a good lesson."
By now, the SOC men were gathered around Kin, pointing their guns at him, though looking a little scared.
"Wait!" Lisa tried to intercede for him. "He was being misled, give him a chance!"
"No, Lisa," said Kin. "It was the path I chose, I shall take full responsibility."
He gave a nod to Ike, who returned the acknowledgement.
"He's going to jail, my jail," he said. He then took out a pair of specially designed handcuffs, which can't be described in words, and placed it neatly on Kin's wrist.
Lisa tried to say something, but Ike raised his hand, telling her that there was no point.
"You've already taught both of us a great lesson," he said. "Now let us do the right thing."
With that, he left the lab, taking Kin with him.
It has been 2 years since that day.
Lisa was now working as a guidance counsellor, dealing with all sorts of different cases. After her harrowing experience that day, she indeed saw new light in her life and decided to take the right path. Now, she's helping others do the same thing. A general philosophy she adopted, to achieve happiness, we must embrace nothing. It was quite a radical strategy for a counsellor, and it wasn't very well received at first, but people eventually saw the light. She felt glad, for it was a pleasant feeling when someone has benefitted from your actions, much better than hounding over money when she was a stock broker. She made new friends, since she had forgotten all her old relationships anyway, and helped them in anyway she could.
The only thing is, she hadn't seen Ike or Kin since that day.
"Hey Miss!"
The voice was oddly familiar, Lisa looked up to see a familiar figure dressed in t-shirt and jeans, walking in a duck manner and looked a little sloppy. The only thing was, his eyes, they were normal.
"You are..."
"Don't remember me already? It's me! Ike!"
"Ike! But your eyes..."
"Kin and I decided to remove them, it was pretty easy, since Damien Lee's paper was sitting around the internet. All we needed to do was reverse the process. Ah yes, Kin's out of jail, he's now working as a freelance artist. I'm now a social worker, working in Dover Park hospice. I tell you, the people there simply love to have me, for I could always tell them exactly what happens after they die."
Lisa smiled, the visit was surprising, but she was nevertheless happy to see Ike again.
"So what happened after that day?"
"I took Kin back to the sealed dimension, you know the one with the mansion? I locked him up in a specially designed cellar, and everyday, I would read to him the bible, the Koran, as well as buddhist scriptures. Eventually, he screamed, 'PLEASE! Just STOP IT! YOu're making me go NUTS!' Ok, so I did. Then I read to him Tang poems and Confucius' teachings."
Lisa laughed.
"You really know how to mentally torture someone."
"Haha! Well, he really couldn't take it anymore, so I stopped. He then promised to lead a good life and never to try to destroy the world again. As proof, he opted to remove the eyes. So we did it together, we were twin brothers after all."
Lisa's smile grew. She was very glad to hear that the story had a happy ending.
"But you're something else aren't you?" said Ike. "You're the only one who have seen true reality! I mean, you're a very special person. I wish I could see true reality too."
"True reality is all around you," said Lisa. "Find it by practicing what you believe."
Ike nodded.
"I will, well, Kin's just about finishing his job, he should be arriving anytime soon."
At that moment, the door flew open again. It was Kin, smart looking and all smiles. He was holding a small painting that he had made specially for that day.
"Hi Lisa!" he said cheerfully. "Look at this painting of mine, it depicts what Ike and I've been seeing with the eyes of the oracle."
Lisa took a good hard look at the painting, but all she could see was a mess of colours.
"You saw a mess of colours?"
Kin smiled and shook his head.
"It was funny, after Ike and I removed the eyes, we completely forgot what we had seen. This is all I remembered of it. But it does reflect a point doesn't it, you can't describe it in words."
They all had a good laugh, and Lisa invited them to dinner that night.
But was there someone missing?
There is, isn't there?
In another place...
"Tell me, Ike," said Azareth. "What additional ingredients do you think we should add in this tea?"
"I told you, I'm only his clone, and if you add anymore ingredients in this tea, no spirit is going to drink it."
Azareth laughed.
"Don't you think we should give this place a makeover?" said Ike's clone. "White is pure and all, but some colour wouldn't be bad."
There was silence for a while, of course Ike's clone didn't mean that, he was just bored.
"So what do you want to do? We can't drink tea forever, there'll be no more left in hell!"
Azareth took out a chess board.
"No, tell you what, let's play scrabble."
Ike clapped his hands and out came a scrabble board. Azareth didn't say anything, but instead started to form the first word.
"We need to return to Earth some day, huh?" said Ike.
"I don't," said Azareth. I've already attained enlightenment 500 years ago. You just came here because you didn't want to live with another Ike."
Ike's clone took a look at the calendar, 80 years till the death of Ike.
'I sincerely hope I like scrabble,' he muttered to himself.
THE END
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