Erina wasn't sure what to expect. She could be in front of a mad scientist. She could be in front of a dogmatic cultist.

  But she sure didn't expect to splutter as Lazarus suddenly moved forward, pulling her into a tight hug.

  "You're safe," said Lazarus breathlessly, holding her tighter. "I'm so relieved. You're safe, you're safe…"

  "Can't… breathe," Erina managed to squeeze out.

  "Oh!" Lazarus unwrapped herself, still holding her by the shoulders. They held each other's gaze for a moment before a faint laugh left her. "I still can't believe it. You're alive. You're awake. You're right here in front of me. You even know who I am! What's my name?"

  "Josef Lazarus."

  Lazarus turned away squealing, giddily clapping her hands together to try and regain control. She composed herself as best she could, still beaming from ear to ear as she took Erina's hand and rushed her along. "Come this way! We have to sit down, there's so much to talk about!"

  She took her to a room that doubled as lounge and kitchen. A long couch sat with a wide television in front of it. There was an electric fireplace that looked like it hadn't been used yet. The stove oven along the counter looked dusty and unused.

  "What would you like?" chirped Lazarus. "Takoyaki? Steak? Breaded schnitzel? Haggis?"

  "Do you have apple juice?" asked Erina, sitting down on the couch.

  Lazarus kicked the laundry machine-like box next to the stove. It erupted with blinding blue light and an earsplitting noise. It was like a flashbang to the face. Dazzled, Erina took cover, but the chaos was already dying down. A glass of apple juice sat atop the machine.

  "Mana transmuter." Lazarus puffed her chest out. "Any food it's analyzed once, it can reproduce indefinitely!"

  "My ears are ringing," pointed out Erina. There were still spots in her vision too.

  "That part's a work in progress." Lazarus handed the drink to her. "Erina… You really remember me?"

  "I recognize you," said Erina. "I remember waking up in a capsule. I had a dream while I was inside. You were there." She tried the drink. The apple juice tasted like apple juice. "I don't remember a lot about the dream, but… you seem to feel exactly the same."

  "So that much worked," said Lazarus with relief. "But it sounds like you've forgotten other things… Could you tell me everything that happened?"

  Erina nodded. She described what she remembered of her dream. She described waking up in the laboratory, lost and confused. She recounted her run-in with the yakuza and how she met Akira. The fight with Goukei in the nightclub, her encounter with Asayuki, the adventure to Mount Hakusan. She retold everything to her. Lazarus was a good listener, nodding along, earnestly absorbing everything.

  "I'm glad," said Lazarus. But a faint frown crossed her face. "About this Akira person…"

  "I'm in Akira's debt," said Erina. "I don't know where I would be without her."

  "Things have been hard on you. I'm glad you've found someone to rely on, but I can't help but wonder. Is she really that trustworthy?"

  "…I hope so. I haven't had many options." Erina drank her juice. It was sweet and refreshing. "It's strange. This is the first time I remember truly meeting you, but I feel like I've known you for a long time." Green eyes met silver. "Lazarus… Can you tell me? Who are you? And… who am I?"

  "Isn't it obvious?" Lazarus reached out and gently brushed the bangs out of Erina's face. Now they could properly see each other eye to eye. "I'm your mother."

  Erina blinked. Her hair fell back into place.

  "Five thousand years," said Lazarus gently. "That's how long I've lived, if I had to put a number on it. She approached me one day. I still remember that moment clearly… I was sweating my butt off, hard at work as just another young girl on the fields. It was near the tail end of a long drought. But when she came to me, the sprouts bloomed to life wherever she stepped. The soil became fertile again. When I looked behind her, all the fields had borne fruit." Lazarus blew out a breath as she reflected on old times. "Looking back, I wouldn't be surprised if the first rain that year was her doing too. She told me she was seeking people with a certain gift—an aptitude for the supernatural. After a sight like that, how could I say anything but yes?"

  "That woman," said Erina. "Was that…?"

  "Yes," said Lazarus. "Eve."

  Erina listened with rapt attention.

  "She taught me how to use magic and introduced me to the sciences of the time. The tomes and scripture only the richest and wealthiest could consume—she found them for me. Alchemy and rituals became my bread and butter. Day in and day out, I studied and researched. I learned everything I could. Soon, we were far beyond even that." Lazarus' eyes were staring off into the distance, looking into a distant memory. "She spoke to me about changing the world, guiding it to a better tomorrow. We would be the ones to advance ahead of humanity—master the workings of the universe a hundred, five hundred years ahead of anyone else. We'd unlock the secrets of time and space, and use them to nurture the brightest future we could offer the world."

  "What happened?" Erina said quietly.

  Lazarus smiled dryly. "We did. For a long, long time, we did just that."

  "But," said Erina. "There were wars." She didn't need to be an expert in history to know that. "There was always violence."

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  "And injustice," agreed Lazarus. "That was the problem. We couldn't do better. Despite everything, that was the ideal outcome—an imperfect world for imperfect people. So Eve… she set her sights even higher. If guiding the world from behind the curtain of the Reverse wasn't enough… if the past condemned us from reaching happiness, why not get rid of it? Why not get rid of everything and start with a clean slate?"

  Lazarus raised a hand and brushed it through her white hair. The pale blue streaks flowed through her fingers.

  "Four vessels," she said. "Two turned against her. The final battle took place at the site of the ritual grounds, deep in the heart of the laboratory—in the gap between Surface and Reverse, between beginning and end, where space and time failed. Eve died there, our dream unfulfilled."

  "The heart of the laboratory?"

  "Yes, at the very bottom. Where my work began, years and years ago. That's where we chose to build Eden's Gate—the place where passage would complete the power we sought."

  "I never saw anything like that. My unit was the lowest point in the laboratory."

  "The primordial mana? No, it goes deeper. The old laboratory—the sector washed away and drowned in the past."

  Erina mulled that over. "And what about you? What happened to you during that fight?"

  Lazarus got up. She paced slowly across the room, to the far end and back past the couch to the other end. "I went back on my word," she said quietly. "I left her to meet her end alone. I escaped, and lived." She went to the mana transmuter, her hand over it—and then she drew it back, thinking better of getting a drink from it. "The dream must go on. Someone must continue our work; that's what I thought at the time."

  Erina slowly got to her feet as well.

  "I collected all of my findings." Lazarus continued to pace back and forth. "I salvaged everything I could, and I set out to achieve the ultimate in science: the creation of human life."

  "That was…?"

  "Yes." Lazarus looked at her daughter with pride. "It's you. Emisane Erina."

  Erina furrowed her brow. "Then. You want me to—"

  "No. I don't want you to do anything."

  She blinked.

  "A continuation of our legacy," said Lazarus. "One that could receive my knowledge and be at my side as I carried on down the path she left me. That's what I had in mind when I started. But when I saw you for the first time…" A soft, subdued laugh escaped her. "You started as a cluster of cells. I couldn't even see you from inside the incubator. It was one thing to read the monitors. After I installed the drive, I saw your heartbeat register. When you developed, I monitored your brain waves. But when I moved you to a capsule and saw you with my own eyes for the first time… I realized I couldn't do it."

  "What do you mean?"

  "I don't need you to carry the burden I did for so long," said Lazarus softly. "Those millennia of endless struggle that ended in failure—I could never wish that upon my child." She offered her a slight smile. "That was what I understood at that moment. You weren't a breakthrough in science anymore. You weren't a project anymore. You were my child. I woke you up, and I raised you as my own."

  Erina's shoulders relaxed. Oh. So that was what happened.

  "…But they didn't see it that way," said Lazarus ruefully. "Darius and Julian. They found their way to me again."

  Erina thought back to the state of the old laboratory—a broken wreck, decayed and battered.

  "I'm sorry," said Lazarus. "So long as you were with me, you could never leave the laboratory. I couldn't even give you a peaceful life. All I could do was put you to sleep and run yet again."

  "That's not true," said Erina. "You did what you could for me. I… I may not remember everything, but I remember how I felt." Earnest green eyes looked up at her. "I think I was happy."

  "…I wanted to come back for you," said Lazarus. "But the Association kept a close eye on the area. Maybe I was wrong, but I thought you would be happier asleep. Until the day I could return and wake you up to a better world on my own terms…"

  Silence fell over them, broken only by the ambient hum of machinery. Lazarus shifted her weight and then walked over, crouching down slightly as she placed her hands on Erina's shoulders.

  "Erina," she said gently. "I've missed you so much. We still have a lot to talk about. I want to go through the lab with you. We can see all the things you remember and help you learn anything new. We can continue our research together. We have so many meals together and evenings to catch up on. I'm glad you've found a place with Akira, but please—won't you consider staying here with me?"

  Erina opened her mouth slightly. Lazarus nodded gently, silver eyes full of hope.

  This was the opportunity she was looking for. This warm laboratory felt like home to her. She wanted to stay here. She wanted to be with Lazarus—the one fragment of her fuzzy dream she could recall. She wanted to delve into her studies here and learn as much as she could. That would be all she needed to be happy. Her peaceful, idyllic life was right here in front of her.

  So why did it feel so difficult to say yes?

  Lazarus' face fell. Without even saying a word, she could already see the answer.

  "I'm sorry," whispered Erina.

  "Please think about it," said Lazarus. "The Association… If they find out who you are, they'll hunt you down. Nowhere will be safe. I can't go with you—not so long as they know who I am—but I can protect you here."

  "I know," she said. "But even so, I want to go. I still owe Akira as well. I still have questions that I can't find the answers to here. I want to learn more…" Erina looked up and met her eye. "And when I do, I'll come back. You should come with me."

  "I can't. I'm a wanted woman. They'll come after us as soon as they catch wind that I'm with you."

  "I can clear your name—"

  "Don't!" Lazarus shook her slightly without meaning to. "You mustn't. I beg you, don't defy them. You can't even risk a chance of angering Darius. It will be the end of you."

  "…Okay. I understand." Erina nodded slowly. "Even so… I want to go."

  Lazarus looked long and hard into her eyes—vibrant green and stark silver. Erina's gaze didn't waver. Outwardly calm, but full of passion and curiosity on the inside. Lazarus knew how to see into her daughter better than anyone, and she understood.

  "Nothing I say can convince you, can it?" Lazarus resigned herself to it and let go. "Will you at least stay the night?"

  "I appreciate it," said Erina gently, "but no, thank you. There's something I need to do." She offered her a tiny smile. "When I come back, we'll have a lot of time to catch up properly."

  Lazarus nodded. Erina could see her blinking back her tears.

  Lazarus walked her through the halls, to the first door she set foot through. "This room will send you back to the Surface," she said. "And before you go… I have one more thing for you."

  She reached into her pocket and drew out a small object. It was a thin, light hairpiece in the shape of a butterfly, melding equal parts between silver and light green as it neared the edges of its wings. It flapped its wings once with a mechanical whirr and then stretched them flat, becoming still once more.

  Lazarus crouched down in front of Erina and touched her face. Her hand felt warm even through the glove. Lazarus smiled gently as she brushed Erina's long bangs aside and pinned them behind her ear with the butterfly clip.

  "Like I thought," murmured Lazarus. "You really do look wonderful when I can see all of your face."

  Erina blinked and then looked around with her left eye unobstructed. She touched the clip lightly. A faint wave of green light pulsed over its surface.

  "Call it a late birthday gift," said Lazarus. "I hope it serves you well."

  "Thank you." Erina felt a tiny smile form. "I'll take good care of it."

  She paused, standing on the threshold of the laboratory. As soon as the door closed, she would return to the Surface. Lazarus stood there, watching until the very moment she left.

  Erina smiled slightly. "I'm going out now… Mom."

  "Okay," Lazarus said softly. "Come home soon."

  She took one last lingering look at her daughter, and then closed the door.