Today felt like it was a strange day. Usually, no matter how much he complained or talked, no one would react to anything he said, but today of all days two people choose to react differently.
'Maybe today is the day… I feel a change coming.' Truedream thought as he quickly licked his dry lips with his tongue. The Jim clone just looked at him without saying anything, which was infuriating Jack even more, until he eventually exploded.
"Are you going to answer me, or did you just come here to stare at my face all day?!" Truedream shouted in frustration.
"He doesn't seem to know." His cellmate explained. It's most likely that he doesn't know about what you are asking him. When I was with Graham and Jim, they made me change the memories of his clones in the facility as some type of safety measure.
"As I understand, it was a way for them to still listen to Graham even though they were clones." After these words had been spoken, the clone turned its head towards the other cell.
"Are you saying that my current memories are not mine? Is this to do with the ability he spoke off? I always thought things… felt a bit off."
Turning around, the clone went back to his position standing next to the Dalki guard, who gave him a brief stare. It was clear he wasn't pleased with the words that were spoken earlier.
Once again, some time had passed and nothing was said by anyone in their room. Everyone was minding their own business as they had been doing, but Truedream had been busy scheming a plan that might see him escape.
"All clones should have memories from the original up to the point in time they were created, right? In that case, he should have known the answer to my question before you meddled with his memories, correct?" Truedream asked. "By the way, you never told me your name."
"Malik." The man in the other cell replied. "And yes, you're correct, but there's no way for us to know when these clones were created. Some could have been created even today."
"Assuming he's still alive, Malik." Truedream pointed out. "You know, there's someone in this room that probably knows the answer to that question. Isn't that right, big guy?"
'Today was a strange day', this thought kept repeating in Truedream's head, and so far two people were acting weirdly in the room, so perhaps he could get one more person to act out and complete this strange day.
"Why don't you tell us the truth?" Turedream asked. "I mean, what harm does letting us know do? Are you scared of Graham? I thought Dalki weren't meant to have fear, always striving to the top, trying to become the strongest of their kind.
"Yet what you're doing here seems to be the opposite of that. Be honest, did you piss Graham or someone else off to have been assigned guard duty? Neither one of us has any ability that would allow us to escape this confinement, and that Jim clone should be more than enough to check up on us.
"At the same time, you have every right to be afraid of Graham. He probably sees your lives as expandable fools at best. He always talks about how he is doing everything for the continuation of the Dalki race, or to become a 'complete race', but is that really his goal?
"Someone who eats other Dalki to get stronger? In the first place, isn't he completely different from the rest of you guys? And I'm not just talking about his weird clothing fetish, but maybe he actually just wants to create a load like him?
"Have you ever thought about his actions? He never tries to fix a current Dalki, instead he is always trying to create a complete one. So what happens once he creates a complete one? Is he going to 'cure' the rest of you… or will he simply let you die off and have the new generation take over?"
Truedream had stopped speaking there, carefully observing the Dalki the entire time to watch out for some type of reaction. Alas, there was none, at least not one that he could notice.
'Perhaps he just has an excellent poker face, but this Dalki seems to be even calmer than the rest.'
A knock was heard on the outside door, and when it was opened, food was handed over to the Jim clone. It was drink and food to keep their two prisoners alive. Nothing too fancy, basic gruel to eat and normal water to drink. There was a small slot in the glass that could be opened from the captors side. The food would be placed there, on a type of tray, and then pushed forward.
First, the one to be served was Malik, but the clone's actions were also strange. When opening the gap, instead of pushing the tray through as he would usually do, the clone pushed its hands through as well. His body was positioned in a way to cover the view from the Dalki, and 'Jim' didn't say anything, just looked at Malik as he silently mouthed the words.
'I want to know the truth. Let's find out if Jim is really still alive.'
Making out what the other had said, Malik touched the clone's hands quickly and activated his power.
'I'll remove all the memories that I have altered.' Malik thought.
The interaction only took about a second and after that the tray was passed and the clone went on to the next container, as he went to pass food onto Truedream as well.
"You wanted to know how I knew about you?" Jim asked. "Your family has been monitored by the vampires for a long time, Jack Truedream."
Suddenly, Truedream's attention was caught. Today really was a strange day… but it might also become a very wonderful one.
"Yours is a power that is able to cross boundaries, more boundaries than you might imagine, and a long time ago we used one of your ancestors to transfer a certain power. They considered that power to be too dangerous, hence they had decided to get rid of your family line.
"Don't feel bad for them, though, your family was scum and always were scum. Which was why they had overlooked a certain matter. You see your ancestor had raped quite a few women during his time and before his death he had gotten one of them pregnant.
"This person hadn't told anyone about the child, which was why they had overlooked this fact, but I was interested in your power. Did you know that abilities find a way to appear in those most suited for them? Even if Truedream back then hadn't taught anyone his ability, it would go to those most suited. Yet, the Truedream ability was nowhere to be found. Maybe that was because the most suited family line was still around. It was a guess but as a vampire I had a lot of time.
"That led me to my search. A stroke of luck, you might call it, but I decided to look into that man's past and searched for the women he had… 'mistreated'. That's what led me to eventually find one of your forefathers. I told them about their dead father, and they decided to take the name once again. It was only a matter of time, of generations, until the ability would fall into that bloodline again.
"I didn't have a use for your power so much back then, but thought that maybe one day I would, and that's why I kept my eye on you."
For the first time since speaking, the three spiked Dalki moved forward.
"How do you know all of that? Answer me now!"
Truedream didn't feel disheartened to find out about his family's past. For one, that had nothing to do with him. Those crimes had been committed centuries before his own birth, so why should he care what another person did, merely because he shared a blood relation to them?
Nevertheless, Truedream saw a light in this situation. With everyone in the room, perhaps they could change the situation.
"It looks like you remember everything." Truedream smiled. "And you, what are you going to do, go running to Graham? Will that help you in any way? Instead, how about we make a deal. You heard what he said, didn't you? I have a special power, a power that can even cross boundaries, and let's say we decided to keep something secret even from Graham.
"I can give you power, my big friend. Power that would allow you to even topple Graham. Would you like to carry on living with an uncertain future… or would you prefer to create your own?" Truedream asked with an evil smirk.
*****
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