The transition from the sterile, rhythmic beeping of the White Ark's medical bay to the fractured landscape of Agnes Arbequs's mind was like stepping through a pane of jagged glass. Zaki, Maki, and Aurora felt a sickening lurch of vertigo before their feet touched a floor made of polished, obsidian-like marble.
They weren't in a dream; they were in a gallery of trauma.
"Stay close," Aurora whispered, her voice echoing as if they were in a vast cathedral. "The deeper we go, the more the Mind Space will try to reject us. This is her 'Core Memory' layer."
Around them, the darkness began to bleed into color, forming a vivid, haunting scene. They were standing in a grand, cold ballroom. A younger Agnes, perhaps only ten years old, was practicing a royal dance. Her movements were stiff, her face a mask of practiced perfection. An instructor stood over her, tapping a cane against the floor with a rhythmic, bone-chilling thud.
"Posture, Princess! A daughter of Saturn does not tilt her head!" the instructor barked.
The scene flickered like a dying film reel. They saw Agnes being drilled in etiquette, linguistics, and political history. She was a doll being painted into a role she never asked for. Then, the scenery shifted to a sunlit garden—a rare sight on a space colony. A boy with soft brown hair and a kind smile stood beside her, holding her hand.
"Who is that?" Zaki asked, looking at the boy. He felt a strange pang of sympathy seeing the genuine smile on Agnes's young face—the only real smile they had ever seen from her.
"That is Prince William Solva," Aurora explained, her eyes glowing with the data she was absorbing from the environment. "The heir to the Jupiter Colony. He was her fiancé. Their union was supposed to be the bridge between the two most powerful houses in the stars."
But the warmth was snatched away. The sky above the dream-garden turned blood-red. The scene dissolved into a cold, metallic throne room. King Stevan Arbequs sat high above his daughter, his eyes like frozen stones.
"You refuse?" the King's voice boomed, shaking the very foundations of the Mind Space.
"Father, the Solva family wants peace!" the memory-Agnes cried out, kneeling on the cold floor. "William doesn't want war with Earth! If I marry him, we can stop this madness!"
SLAP.
The sound echoed like a gunshot. The King had descended from his throne, his hand still raised. "You are not a girl, Agnes. You are a weapon of the Arbequs bloodline. If the Solva family will not bow, they will be crushed. And you will be the one to do it."
Zaki clenched his fists so hard his knuckles turned white. He wanted to reach out and strike the phantom King, but his hand passed right through the memory.
"Look," Aurora pointed toward a heavy steel door that manifested in the darkness. "This is where the 'Princess' died and the 'Pilot' was born."
They followed the memory into a horrific laboratory. Agnes was strapped into a prototype cockpit simulation. Neural needles were being fed into the back of her suit. Scientists in white coats monitored screens filled with brainwave patterns. This wasn't training; it was psychological reconstruction.
"Increase the feedback loop," the King's voice commanded from the shadows. "Delete the hesitation. Erase the attachment to the Solva boy. She must only know the mission."
The trio watched in horror as Agnes screamed, her mind being forcibly rewired to pilot the Arancia Gundam. The "training" was a relentless cycle of simulated combat and sensory overload. Maki covered her ears, her face pale.
"I'm going to throw up," Maki sobbed. "How could he do this to his own daughter? It's... it's sick!"
Aurora stumbled, her knees buckling. "The weight of her pain... it's too much. Zaki, Maki, we have to find her core before the system resets."
The memories shattered into black dust. They were standing in a void now. There was no ballroom, no garden, no laboratory. Only a single, dim spotlight hitting the center of the darkness. There, sitting on the floor with her knees pulled to her chest, was Agnes. She had her face buried in her arms, her long blue hair spilling over her shoulders like a shroud.
Maki didn't wait. She ran toward her. "Agnes! We're here! You can come out now!"
"Stop!" Aurora yelled.
A wall of thick, oily black smoke erupted around Agnes. It was a physical manifestation of her negative energy—the "Ego Shield" she had built to keep the world out. As Maki reached the perimeter, the black aura lashed out like fire. Maki's phantom form began to singe, her skin flickering as if she were being burned by invisible acid.
"Maki, get back!" Zaki shouted, reaching for his sister.
Aurora caught Zaki's arm, her expression grim. "No, Zaki. Let her. If we force our way in with power, her mind will shatter. Only a heart that is willing to share the pain can break through that wall."
Maki hissed in pain, the black energy crawling up her arms, eating away at her spirit. It hurt—a deep, soul-searing heat that told her she wasn't wanted. But Maki looked at the shivering girl in the center of the dark and saw herself. She saw a girl who just wanted to be loved.
"I'm not leaving you, Agnes!" Maki cried out, her voice cracking.
She pushed through the final layer of the black aura, her body glowing with a soft white light that fought back the shadows. She threw herself forward and wrapped her arms around Agnes in a tight, desperate hug.
"It's okay," Maki whispered into Agnes's ear, ignoring the burning sensation on her skin. "You don't have to be a weapon anymore. You don't have to be perfect. I'll be your friend. We'll protect you together. I promise... I'll stay by your side."
The shivering stopped. Agnes slowly lifted her head. Her eyes, which had been dull and lifeless, began to reflect Maki's light. A single tear tracked down her cheek, and as it hit the floor, the black aura vanished in a flash of brilliant gold.
The void turned into a warm, white expanse. Agnes looked at Maki, her lips trembling. "Why...? Why would you burn for me?"
"Because nobody should be alone in the dark," Maki smiled through her own tears.
Zaki walked forward then, kneeling beside them. He placed a gentle, steady hand on Agnes's shoulder. "We're your friends now, Agnes. The war with your father... you don't have to fight it alone."
Agnes let out a broken sob and leaned into Maki's chest, weeping with a catharsis that had been building for fifteen years. The Mind Space began to dissolve, but this time, it wasn't violent. It felt like waking up from a long, cold winter into the first day of spring.
In the real world, inside the medical wing of the White Ark, the monitors suddenly spiked.
Agnes's eyes snapped open. She took a sharp, gasping breath, her fingers twitching against the sheets. Zaki, Maki, and Aurora all exhaled at once, slumped over as they disconnected from the Mind Space interface.
Maki was the first to move. Despite her immense mental exhaustion, she lunged forward and grabbed Agnes's hand, holding it tight.
"Agnes? Can you hear me?" Maki asked, her voice thick with emotion.
Agnes turned her head slowly. Her gaze landed on Maki, then Zaki, then the unfamiliar room. She looked down at their joined hands and back at Maki's face. The recognition was there—the memory of the girl who had hugged her in the darkness.
"You..." Agnes whispered, her voice hoarse from disuse.
Maki couldn't hold it back anymore. She burst into tears, leaning her forehead against the edge of the bed while still clutching Agnes's hand. "Thank god... thank god you're back. I was so scared we'd lose you."
Zaki stood behind his sister, his hand on her back, looking at Agnes with a nod of respect. He didn't say anything, but the look in his eyes told Agnes everything she needed to know: she was safe.
Aurora stood by the door, watching the scene with a tired but satisfied smile. She knew the road ahead for Agnes would be long—healing a broken soul took more than one trip into the mind—but for the first time since the Arancia Gundam was built, the Princess of Saturn was finally free.
To be continued...