The ride down seemed to go on forever. Glass panels and metal beams were speeding upwards as the light of day was replaced by darkness. Once the elevator passed the ground floor, it kept descending deep into the agency's stomach. If he had to take a guess, Lion's intuition was telling him they were on the altitude equivalent to some of the lower levels of Parascythe where only scum resided. Inhuman beastly folk called the Orgriash, criminals enhanced with cyber implants and who knows what else. The deeper one dove into the lowest parts, the worse it got. He wondered if the HQ was properly sealed off from the potential dangers that lurked within such depths.

Of course, they were. They were Z.O.O.

Arriving at the training area, Agent Eagle. Do not forget to turn on your protection, said the elevator.

"What protection?" Lion asked quickly.

"Just ignore it," Bunny replied way too casually for Lion's taste.

They entered a square hallway made of white metal. Immediately, two turrets scanned them and retracted back into the walls. Lion flinched but played it cool.

They walked for what seemed to be the longest time, stopping more than once for thick metal walls to uncover more of the hallway, simultaneously closing the ones behind them with an annoyingly loud sound of deep alarm every time it happened. There were no visible doors or windows.
Lion concluded, they either really didn't want anyone to be able to break in, or they wanted to keep whatever was in here from getting out. Either way, the security was a complete overkill.

"What do you guys keep in here, rabid orgriash tigers?" Lion joked.

"Heh..." Bunny smiled, "Worse, my man... Way worse."

Lion swallowed. He was never so deep, and never so able to disappear without a trace, with no hope in hell of anyone ever finding him.

Finally, they arrived in a more open area. A facility filled with people in white coats, buzzing about on walkways and inside glass-covered offices. Bunny must have been here a million times to be able to chew his pink gum so casually despite the circumstances. He led Lion into a large conference room with a big monitor at the end.

"Take a seat," the young agent offered, but Lion refused.

"I'm alright."

"Suit yourself," said Bunny and turned on the monitor with a small remote from the long wooden table. After browsing through the files a bit, he opened the one named 'First Sighting'. Before letting it play, he asked...

"Ever heard of Ainolonians?"

Lion's bewilderment was not easy to hide. He struggled to discern whether the young man was pulling his leg, simply sucked at comedic timing, or was taking him for a fool.

"I don't believe in Ainolonians," Lion finally replied.

"Well... you better start to," said the red-haired young man.

"Good one," Lion chuckled for a bit, even forcing into a laugh, like people do when they feel like they don't quite get the punch-line, but after noticing that Bunny is not laughing, even worse, that he is maintaining an unusually long streak of silence and a deep frown, the man asked...

"You're not serious... are you?"

"Dead serious," Bunny replied with an unusual tone. The playfulness was seemingly left somewhere above and even the way he chewed his gum was different. They were larger, longer, more deliberate motions he performed with his jaw, accompanied by bright-blue eyes locked to Lion's. In order to break the awkwardness, Lion fixed his tie, stretched his neck and shoulders, and said...

"Alright. Hit me. I'm ready."

"No, you're not. No one can be ready. But I think of all people, at least you can take it," said Bunny, finally breaking eye contact and turning away.

"You might have heard fairy tales, bedtime stories... You might have watched some movies based on ancient legends. Well... whatever we could come up with...is not as strange as the truth."

Bunny let the video roll and Lion watched. It was showing footage from multiple cameras throughout the city as well as some taken from flying vehicles. They all were showing seemingly random events, but all had one thing in common - parts of the shot were showing the moon. And after a minute or so, for just a couple of seconds, the moon disappeared and in its place was an enormous green planet, covering the whole sky. It then vanished as fast as it appeared, replaced once more by the moon and stars.

"Ainolonians are not from here. Their planet is near. We just can't see it," Bunny rewinded and paused the video with the planet showing.

Lion felt some sweat starting to form. The sheer dread of his partner's seriousness was making him terribly uncomfortable as he talked about beings from a different planet.

"...in fact...this place...our planet?" Bunny said almost sarcastically, "It's just AinoloniA's moon."

That was it. If Lion thought he could handle anything, his knees just proved him wrong. He grabbed the first seat next to him and dropped into it. His heart was racing, his breathing quick and shallow, and his eyes unable to focus. The whole room was spinning.

"Y-you're shitting me," Lion's finally said.

"I shit you not. And what's worse... we know there's a gate that leads to it... but we don't know where it's located. We've scoured the surface long and hard but came out empty-handed.
Parascythe moves in a way that, theoretically, it floated over every part of the surface during the last thousand years, and still, we cannot find a way to access the home planet.

"Home planet?" asked Lion.

"Yes. Their home. The land of origin. Aniolonians come from AinoloniA and we... we come from them."

There we go. A second wave of nausea and the blood pressure rising. Lion felt his stomach start to work, his kidneys stiffening and his vision going colorless.
He wasn't ready. He was ready for a shit ton of things, but he wasn't ready for this. To say his whole life was a lie was the understatement of the year. The city he was born in, raised in... it was circling around looking for an ancient gate? The planet he was born on was a 'moon'? How degrading. There was no way he could accept the truth. What else, humans actually turning out to be unwanted spawn of these higher beings? Forgotten slaves? Cattle?
Gimme a break!

"You're lying," Lion mumbled, "You're lying!"

"I wish I was," said Bunny, "I wish I could burst into laughter and tell you 'If only you could see your face!'...but...I understand. I get you, my old dude. It's not easy to accept even for open-minded youths like myself, let alone a relic like you. But don't worry...you'll feel much better once you talk to her."

"Her?" Lion asked with just a smudge of fear in his voice, not really wanting any more surprises.

"Yeah...her. Our very own Ainolonian."

* * *

They went down some stairs and onto another type of elevator. This seemed to be more secure than the one in the main building, made of thick black metal with a door similar to a safe, interlocking different mechanisms and letting out steam.
Lion was quiet during the whole descent, probably chewing on all the crazy things he just heard and bracing for more, whole Bunny was simply chewing his bubblegum, eyeing the old man.

The elevator stopped. High-pitched steam enveloped them before the many locks started uncoupling and the large door opened revealing a bridge. It led to a huge mechanical sphere that hung above a massive abyss. Countless cords, wires, and antennas made the blocky sphere look like a sea creature impaled by roped harpoons.

Terrifying.

Lion didn't follow Bunny over the bridge immediately. He looked up, but only saw the elevator shaft disappear into darkness. He looked down, over the handrail next... the same. A bottomless pit.
Was this... always here? He spent all of his life on Parascythe's upper levels, only ever hearing stories about what was lurking below. Aside from that one incident that got him fired, that is.

"You coming?"

"Y...yeah," Lion let go of the dented handrail.

As they approached it, the metal sphere seemed larger and larger, as if it kept escaping them. The gate of it opened.

A...garden?

Lion could not put two and two together. There was a garden with pink-leaved trees, red wooden bridges, ponds, and a temple. There was even a sky inside.
Blue sky with clouds, as far as one could see.

"Wha..." he had to work extra hard to keep his jaw closed.

"Eyes up front," Bunny warned him, but the man lost himself to wonder.

Splash.

He was in one of the ponds before he knew it.

"Goddamit..." he refused Bunny's gloved hand and first checked if his mechanical arm was functioning. It was supposedly waterproof, but Lion could swear it was shocking him at the shoulder joint every time he took a shower or a bath.

"We're gonna have to upgrade it," Bunny said.

"Nah... it's fine. It served me fine until... well until you disarmed it, first we met."

"See, we will have to upgrade it. Not only so hackers can't make a fool out of you as I did, but for various other reasons. Trust me. You'll agree once today is over."

Lion shrugged and wanted to dry his hair but noticed it wasn't wet. Funny. His suit wasn't wet either. But before he could contemplate over why that was, they reached the temple. It was spacious and lined with mirror-sheen polished wooden boards. A relaxing breeze was caressing Lion's wrinkled face. It was warm but fresh and smelled like spring.

In the middle of the temple was a slight elevation and many ceremonial decorations seemingly from the ancient lands of Toukoku.
Sitting on a pillow was a little girl, dressed in a beautiful traditional kimono. She had the longest hair Lion has ever seen, sprawling over the floor in all directions, painted white and light blue as if reflecting the sky. Sharply cut bangs hang over her yellow eyes. Her face was small but unrealistically beautiful. Her pinkish lips parted but she didn't say a word.

And yet, Lion heard her voice.

"Welcome, mon ami."

"Mon... ami?" Lion said out loud.

"That was fast," Bunny commented, "She doesn't usually call people her friends this quickly. Took me months to finally have that honor."

"Hello to you too, little rabbit," she said, "Would you care for tea?"

"I'll pass," Bunny replied shortly.

"Was that..." Lion was about to ask, but the girl answered before he had a chance...

"Correct. You can hear my thoughts if I will it, and I can read yours, plain as day. You are an open book to me like your daughter was to you when she was a child."

"Re-"

"-becca," the girl intercepted him.

"Knowing about my family is-"

"-not unlike the Z.O.O. but does the agency know how it felt to scar your daughter's face forever with but an unfortunate movement of your mechanical arm? The regret you will not live down. The regret you would not choose to abandon, even if you had the opportunity. Am I wrong?"

Lion's fist clenched. This girl dug up one of the deepest buried memories of his in mere moments. He couldn't believe it, and yet he could not deny her power.

"Timma is versed in the Aniolonian Art of the Mind," Bunny explained, "One of the seven A.A-s."

"Pardon me, little rabbit, but that is simply not correct," she looked at him disapprovingly, and then shifted her gorgeous yellow eyes back to Lion, blinking unnaturally slowly, "I am not 'versed'... I am a Master of the Mind. Unparalleled, yet unfortunate to be born with only one of the seven, but it may be exactly what forced me to make the best of it. Now... back to the question at hand," her eyes pierced Lion. The sensation was akin to... being completely naked.

"No. You're not wrong. I refuse your offer," Lion said.

"I see... Well, I'm at the very least glad that you believe I could do it. I can make all of your pain go away. All the memories weighing heavily on your old lion's heart... could simply..." she extended her tiny hand toward him across the large hall, yet touching his heart, "...go away in a blink of an eye. Any you'd want be rid of... mon ami?"

Lion closed his eyes.

There was. Of course, there was. It haunted his dreams and wake, relentlessly torturing him day after day. Endlessly.
But... which man could call himself a parent, if he chose to forget?

"My... boy..." Lion saw him through tears. Slowly walking toward him, was his deceased son. His tiny arms were swaying lifelessly and his eyes blank stare was gazing into his heart and soul. Step, by step, he was closing the distance to his still-living father.

"Come... with me... papa," his small voice left his purple lips as he lifted his pale hand.

Lion's feet were bolted to the floor. There was no moving. There was no running away. He had to dismantle the lie, see through the illusion, embrace the truth, no matter how cruel it was, and face reality.
He reached for his gun and shot his son in the chest.

The man fell to his knees. His arms hung to the floor and tears started flowing down his cheeks. He wept.

Bunny was just standing there, wordless.

"Happy now? See? I told you he would pass," Timma smiled.

"Yeah... he passed," Bunny placed his hand on Lion's shoulder, but the new recruit pushed the hand away,  got up incredibly fast and walked away, his every footstep betraying his flared temper.

Bunny let out a small sigh as he looked at Lion, then looked at Timma. The petite girl had her eyes fixed on Lion, her expression impossible to read.



Special heartfelt thanks to Lazarus for this wonderful commission by the talented Norei!
Lazarus as well as many others have made my last birthday feel truly special. I couldn't wait to release the new ZOO episode to be able to share this with you. I will share the rest of their works in the upcoming sequel to Million Sons...



This June, in just a couple of weeks, Provenance of the Offspring is coming to Tapas!
Stay tuned for more AinoloniA and check out Lazarus' A Tale of 7 Villains and a Jerboa!
(Link in the description!)