Memories that aren't ending even when it's over

Now look at me forgetting you
With your eyes wide open
Don't ever forget me

Don't ever erase me

She sat with her head leaning against her knee near the balcony of their bedroom. Long fuchsia hair was ever flowing down her back in soft waves. Her pale skin glowed in the light as she turned to look at him. A smile seemed to be carved into her face. The corners of her eyes crinkled in amusement. There was still a fluster on her face from what he said to her.

Her laughter was like the tinkering of bells, echoing in his mind.

He sat right next to her with a small smile.

At least, that was what he remembered.

Before they both changed.

Before he was torn away from her.

Before the invasion of strangers.

Before the storm.

In a cliché sense, it seemed only like yesterday. The days got longer and darker. No one took any mind to it as it was a daily occurrence for the past couple of decades. The sun dimmed, and the seasons became one. Winter. The warmth disappeared.

He remembered every day- rainy, sometimes hailing, beating down on passersby in the streets. The rain was normal. They did not mind at the very least. They thought the rain was beautiful. More glorious than sunshine.

The strangers. They didn't come from behind the grey clouds. They were created in white rooms with no windows and artificial lighting. Any other details were unknown to the public- what they were meant to do, how they were made, why they were made. The strangers took over everything.

And him and her. They were not who they used to be.

On that day, the weather was a light drizzle. Cool air hit his face as he sat near a propped window. He was waiting for his beloved to make her way back from coffee with a friend.

Half an hour of gazing out the window was when the sound of rough knocking reverberated through the home. He opened the door to see her beautiful face marred with furious claw marks, beads of blood lined along the injuries. She struggled against the strangers' tight grip on her shoulders. With panicked eyes and tear tracks, she jerked around to reach for him.

He did as well before he was grabbed and paralyzed. He felt numbness all over his body. His vision was blurred before dimming to darkness, faintly hearing his love frantically calling his name.

He opened his eyes, a hazy vision of machines and white walls surrounded him. The moment his eyes cleared was when he discovered he was standing within a metal ring. A pole with sensors kept him up from behind. He could not feel or move his body, only his head. He was merely clothed in a loose gown held together with strings in the back. It was discomforting that he could not feel anything other than his dark blue hair- tangled and covering his eyes- and his parched throat.

When he looked down to see how the rest of his body was faring, the initial shock was replaced with fear. His right leg had become something silver and mechanical- not human. It was identical to a stranger's leg- a metal plate, curved to look like his shin and joined with another larger plate by thin white wires for joints. He turned his head from side to side, frantically searching for an escape, anything or anyone who could help. There was nobody in sight.

A strangled scream caught in his throat. He could no longer speak.

His vision blurred with tears of frustration as he willed his body to move as freely as it did before.

The dull pain in back of his head came back. The scene faded out.

And that was where he was. He was left in his dreams of his beloved. He went back to the time he saw her sitting near their balcony. And her smile. Her rosy cheeks. Her laughter. That was what he remembered.

Time seemed to have flown by much slower than the last time. It felt like years before he awoke the second time. But it had only been months. And he knew that it has been months.

He was lying on his back, a hard surface pressed against it. When he sat up, he found that the surface was an operating table. Nobody was in sight once again.

As far as he can tell, his memory was still in tact. He was aware of his situation as well. The strangers took away everything that made him human, only using most of his physical features as a vessel for manipulation purposes. They were making him their killing machine, an unstoppable force who would eliminate the rest of the human race. That was why he felt a different air in him. Calm and untroubled by the scenery he saw. Almost an eerie sort of calm- the complete opposite from his wild eyed state all those months ago.

It was literally a surge of electricity that ran through him. But they were not done yet- the strangers were nearly finished with the last phase, Killing Intent. All they had to do was erase his memories of life- of her.

Then he would have no problem terminating humanity. They did not take it from him yet. He still had her. And he knew where she was.

Swinging his pale white legs off the side of the table, he told his mind to move toward the only door with color, or lack of color. The dark grey door in front of him.

Pushing the door open, he saw that the room was more confined than the last one. There was less space for free movement. And everything was a blinding shade of white. Machines were lined up against the wall with cords of different sizes that eventually led up to the the machine in the center.

That was where he saw her, standing at the center with cords hooked and wound around her body. Almost breathtaking. She was unconscious, eyes closed and her head lolled to the side. Her hair was clearly cut from the struggle- it now ended near her shoulders in choppy layers.

The computer next to her read 'Rendering 95%' shown on a digital clock that flashed red. The words next to the clock would have stopped his heart if he still had one. She was on the last phase. It was near finished with erasing her memory.

He moved quickly to reverse the process. One hand worked in a blur to reprogram the machine while the other cradled her head, her fine hair brushing his fingers. Once he lifted his fingers off of the screen, he held her face in both hands.

Shifting to rest his head on her shoulder, he waited for her to wake up. His senses heightened due to his transformation. The closer he was to her, the easier it was for him to feel the slightest movement when she woke up. It was almost as if she was breathing, even though he knew it was only the hum of the machine.

As soon as his fingers grazed her waist, he felt her eyelashes fluttering. He moved to face her, her eyes filled with curiosity. Colors flood around her eyes as her memories return to her. A tear escaped her eye as she closed both of them. She leaned against him to keep her from falling as he sighed in relief and held her closer to him.

They held on to each other.

After some time, they both heard heavy thuds outside the door. The door pounding started. It reminded him of that time, months back, when the strangers got ahold of her. Déjà vu.

She was still unstable and he moved too slow, still unfamiliar with his new abilities. Strangers burst in and tore them apart. At that point, his thread of sanity broke. He went hysterical and struggled against the ones who held him far from her.

The strangers paid no mind to him as they pulled out a device with needles at the end and stuck it to the side of her neck. Her eyes flashed white before her writhing arms dropped to her sides.

An unspoken language passed the strangers as they read what was calculated on the needle device.

He stared hopelessly at them before whipping his head back to her. Her hand was reaching for him, signaling her revival. When he finally threw off the strangers' grip, he grasped her hand, lacing his fingers with hers. They ran far from the rooms infested with strangers and stopped in front of another operating room.

He looked around and saw nobody. The same operating machine and cords filled the room instead. They looked at each other, an understanding sparked in their eyes. It was only a matter of time before the strangers would find them. But they knew they could not run from the strangers. They could not be sacrificed to them either. They both knew it.

Squeezing her hand, he began changing the machine's procedures. It was dangerous. He could not see her again but it had to be done. And maybe they would find each other in another life. One where they were free to be together. To be able to love each other again.

By the time he finished, he heard the faint thudding behind the door again. It was far enough for what they both had to do. He pulled her to walk alongside him toward the empty operating table. They both fit comfortably as they sat next to each other on top of it. Lowering their heads to completely lay down, he felt her holding onto his hand tightly. Her eyes were intently looking into his with a teary expression before the machine automatically began disassembling their bodies.

She smiled her beautiful smile at him.

He smiled back.

An hour passed.

All that was found were the scraps of their metallic bodies constructed into a silver heart. They were gone, or rather intertwined. Together at last.

note: hello c: so, this was a Sci-fi project-turned-fanfic. Super fun. And kinda random. Major AU. Amuto FTW.