Heavy footsteps resonate through the cold, dark and damp tunnel. It seemed more like a man-made cave than anything as there was no light shining or plants growing. Also the walls were incredibly smooth being carved in a almost perfect cylinder. Nothing about this place seemed natural.
Alix breathed heavily as she listed through the tunnel like a zombie barely able to stand. Her headache lessened with the passing of time but it was still there and she was still in pain. She had been pulling herself through this tunnel for a while now showing no signs of stopping.
'I'm going to save them.' Alix had been repeating this in her head during her entire journey down this tunnel. These simple words served as her motivation to continue her trek despite the pain and exhaustion. Despite not knowing if she's even going to the right place and without any knowledge about what she was about to face.
A perfectly underinformed confrontation was about to take place.
Alix let out a frustrated sigh. 'As if my day wasn't annoying enough already. Let's just throw more crap on top of that!' Alix cursed in her mind, another thing that helped her stay motivated.
After what felt like a marathon Alix saw a dim light in the distance.
'So, I've arrived.' Alix quickened her pace glad to finally be at the end of this tunnel. She made it to source of the light, which turned out to be a Lumi Crystal hanging beside a metal door.
'This is definitely it.' She assured herself. She looked around for someway to get a look inside before just barging in but there was nothing that could be used. Alix shrugged a bit and kicked open the door. The door bent from the power of her kick and slammed against the wall sending out a loud, metallic bang echoing through the space.
Alix was never the type to use stealth.
She straightened herself as much as possible and marched into the room with determination in her eyes. She surveyed the room for any sign of Francis or her captives. Her face scrunched at the state of the room.
The room was filled with fungi. Many different types all over the room. Alix slowly walked further into the extremely humid room. It felt like she had walked into a sauna except there was no way that this place would seem relaxing to anyone. Also, though the room seemed messy, everything seemed to be organized by labels with calendar's detailing how long they'd been growing.
'A room of mushrooms. Definitely the sort of thing that I'd expect from a shut-in alchemist.' Alix looked to the end of the room, spotting a second door. 'This one was nothing. On to the next.' She rushed over to the door only stopping just before the door to kick open this one like she did the first.
As the door flew open, standing on the other side was a masked figure clad in a reddish leather and holding a flask with some sort of viscous, orange gas. "You're just in time!" The person said as they threw the flask at Alix's face. She covered her face to stop the glass from entering her eyes but, clearly that was the least of her worries as the gas was released when the flask shattered.
Alix went to cover her mouth and nose to stop the gas but she had been too late. The gas entered her system and made her feel even worse than before. She held her throat and started to cough. Her throat felt like it was closing but, it also burned. What the hell had she been hit with?!
The figure, to which Alix was now assuming was Francis, grabbed Alix by the hair and looked her in the eyes. "I think I can find a use for you in my experiments?" She said slightly muffled due to the gas mask. "I mean, we alchemists always need test subjects!" Francis then pulled something from her side and smacked Alix in the head with it, knocking her unconscious for the second time today.
...
Alix awakes to her head aching more than before. She opens her eyes but her vision was too blurry to be able to see where she was. She went to wipe her eyes and found her hands to be bound together by chains. She sighed and felt the area around her for any clues on where she may be. There was the metal floor then the cold metal bars and of course the metal ceiling that was so low she couldn't stand if she tried.
'I'm in a cage.' Alix concluded. She blinked her eyes trying to restore some level of vision but it didn't seem to be working. 'Could this be due to that gas from earlier? Or something else?' Alix continued trying to understand her current situation. She honestly felt like she had made a horrible mistake rushing in here so recklessly. Maybe she shouldn't have followed what may have been the exact path of Mo's captor?
"Oh, look everyone! My first test subject has awakened!" Alix heard Francis's cheerful voice announce. "How are you doing, Subject 001?"
"I have no time for your worthless games! Where are Mo and Nuka?" Alix yelled while clinging to the bars in what she thought was Francis's direction but she was not yelling at Francis.
"Maybe try yelling your questions to me instead of at that poor fella over there?" Francis walked over to Alix and grabbed her by the face. "One second." Alix tried to fight but didn't have the space to move away. Francis forced open Alix's eyes and dripped some sort of eye drops into them and pushed her back into the cage.
Alix winced as she slammed into the back of the cage. She blinked rapidly as her eyes slowly cleared and her vision became restored. She quickly scanned her surroundings with her eyes locking onto Francis still suited up.
"Is that better?" Alix's face started to twitch as her rage started to once again build up.
"Where are Mo and Nuka?" Francis let out a an "annoyed" sigh.
"Look at you. Only worried about that fish and the bird in this situation. Don't you think you're making the rest of these guys feel left out?" Francis swept her arms to the sides as she spoke.
"What?" Alix asked confused then finally let her eyes actually take in the rest of the room letting her finally realize where she was. The cage that Alix was in was not the only cage in this room.
Cages hanging from chains on the high ceiling. Cages lined up and stacked on top of each other along the opposite wall. Large cages, small cages and cages made to hold sea creatures by using some sort of clear material instead of steel.
A room filled with cages, but that wasn't all. Alix's eyes went fully round as she saw that within each of these cages sat a different monster in various stages of injured and afraid. Though she couldn't help but notice that she still hadn't seen Mo or Nuka. Or that firebird from the vision.
She'd never expected something like this to be in the lighthouse. "What's wrong? Did you think that your monsters were the only ones that I was looking into?" Francis dramatically tilted her head to the side and grabbed her chin. "I'm an alchemist. Why would I only be focused on your monsters? Though, I do have to admit that what you brought to me is the breakthrough that I've been waiting for."
Alix sat voiceless in her cage. She let her blank gaze fall back to Francis, holding back the tears in her eyes. Francis saw the girl's distraught face and let out a surprised gasp then placed her hand onto her own chest.
"Oh no. Do you feel bad for them? I didn't think that you'd be this empathetic to a bunch of worthless, mindless monsters that would tear you into shreds within the second that I let them go. Oh then this may really ruffle your feathers, if you get my pun." Francis stepped to the side revealing that she had been blocking Alix's sightline of a large cage far on the other side of the room.
Alix peered past the woman and her already wide eyes tried to widen further. It was the cage that was holding the firebird within it. The bird in question was laying on the ground with both of it's wings splayed out to the side, its eyes were tired and red. It looked like just as much of a mess as Alix probably did right now.
"What did you do?" Alix unconsciously asked. Francis grunted proudly.
"I just got what I was promised from our friend! She promised to help me in my experiments by giving me her feathers so I took them." Alix looked back at Francis with disbelief.
"Our friend?"
"Yeah, you know, classic story of girl meets bird. They make a pact to help each other out with the bird giving the girl her feathers to use in alchemy and the girl only occasionally asking for refills as needed. That is until she finds out that the bird was hiding a secret from her!" Alix's face tightened at the similarities in this story to a certain other one she'd heard.
"You did this to Nuka too?" Francis stopped her story and turned to Alix.
"Too? Wait a minute, is the bird not the one you call Nuka? Because that would be one hell of a revelation!"
"Her name is Nuka! Now where is she and did you do the same thing you did to that firebird to her?!" Alix tried to leap at Francis but the bars were to narrow to let her get through. Francis stared at Alix for a moment then to the firebird when a thought suddenly dawned on her.
"You don't know do you?"
"Know what?!" Alix growled.
"Ha. Hehehehehehe! Hahahahahahaha!! AHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Francis started to cackle. "Oh dear, gods you really are so dense! I mean, what else could I expect from a kid dumb enough to walk into my lab alone to get her pet fish back?" Alix could only watch enraged as Francis quickly moved to the firebird's cell.
She pulled out a syringe and dug it into one of the bird's splayed wings and started to extract something out of it. The bird didn't even try to fight back, it just shrunk slightly from the pain. At least, Alix thought that the pain made it, metaphorically, shrink but it continued to actually shrink.
The bird became smaller and smaller at a visual pace. Alix didn't understand what was happening nor did she get why it seemed like Francis wanted for her to see it. As it shrank, orange feathers with flecks of green on the ends began to reappear on its body. Its beak, that was once sharp and long became smaller and slightly more rounded at point. It's large, mauling talons shrank back to their original size.
Now, Alix had probably been surprised more times today than she had been during her entire life. Which is why it is so important to note that right now, she was more surprised than she had ever been in her life.
The reason?
None other than the fact the firebird, this large hulking monster that has been haunting Alix's dreams with its cries of pain and diming flames. That monster, had shrunk down to the size of an adult hawk. That large monster...
...was none other than Nuka.
"N-Nuka?"
"Oh, so that is her? I mean, I had a feeling that it was her. I also didn't expect that cute little bird to have such a wild transformation when I discovered her all those years ago. Though, with how you were talking about her, I thought that you knew everything about her?" Nuka met eyes with Alix across the room while Alix sat stunned.
In that moment, as If Alix needed anymore confirmation, Nuka's faint, silver heartstring stretched out from Alix's chest and connected to the bird in the very same way that it connected Alix to every one of her companions.
"Haaah." Francis let out a relieving breath. "That was a good laugh. Now, I've got to get to work on your other friend. Uuuuhh...Po was it?"
"Mo? What are yo-"
"Ah yes, Mo. Anyway, I'll be back after the gas is gone to wake you up." Francis walked up the stairs that surrounded Nuka's cage and disappeared to the next floor.
"What gas?" Alix questioned when at that moment she felt a familiar feeling. Her throat began to close and burn. She coughed and wheezed trying to intake any air that she could but it was to little help. Alix grabbed her neck and fell over struggling for air though she wasn't the only one. Monsters in several of the other cages were in a similar state as Alix.
One thing that did catch the girl's eye was that Nuka didn't seem affected by the gas. Alix met Nuka's eyes while she began losing consciousness for the third time today. Nuka looked at the girl with eyes filled with remorse, pain, and despair.
'I'm sorry, Allie. It wasn't supposed to be like this." Nuka's apology was the last thing that Alix heard before the world returned to darkness and she passed out once again.