A Light in the Darkness

Kitty_Ironcraft 2019-04-11 19:20:12 UTC #1

Prologue

In the darkness of Aethasia, innocents are tormented by those who do not know or heed the Great Engineer. Evil has pervaded the minds and hearts of all who do not have the will to resist, and those who serve the evil would like nothing more than to plunge all who oppose them into misery. Those oppressed by the darkness silently prayed for a light, a hero who would protect them from evil and turn the darkness back. This is a tale about one such hero. He was not perfect, but the Scarlet Man never gave up on him and forged him into a shield against the evil.

He is Kitty Ironcraft, a Light in the Darkness.

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Linking problems

Before I start a role play topic

Kitty_Ironcraft 2019-04-11 23:13:54 UTC #2

Chapter 1: Fog

Darkness.

Nothingness.

The absolute absence of anything and everything.

How peaceful, I thought.

Suddenly it became brighter than the sun. The light burned even through my closed eyelids. I screamed inwardly as I threw my arms over my face and tried to hide under the covers of my cot. Underneath, in the darkness, I grudgingly opened my eyes.

I guess it's time to get up.

I got out of bed, wincing again at the burning light in my closet of a room. I changed, brushed my teeth, and went out the door. Outside, I saw many other people walking out of similar rooms, similarly unhappy at being woken at this early hour. Along with the other trainees, I began walking to the cafeteria. My feet displaced swirls of fog on the ground, I had long since gotten use to its vaguely irritating odor, as had everyone else. I learned a long time ago not to ask about why the fog was there, I just accepted it now as much as I did the air.

Getting into the breakfast line, I served myself some slightly under-cooked eggs along with some slightly over-cooked biscuits and some orange juice that was too pulpy for my tastes. I sat down at my favorite table, looking down at my food. The eggs seemed to look slightly greener today, as did some of the ham I saw. I've always wondered why there is fog purposefully placed in our food, but again, I've learned not to ask.

I look around, wondering where my friends could be.

There they are, I see them walking towards my, our table.

Rayna looked happier than usual, waving at me as she saw me, "Hi Wolfe!"

I smiled, "Hi Rayna, Zander, nice of you to join me this fine day."

My two friends seated themselves at the table, "It is a good day," Rayna continued.

I looked back and forth between Rayna and Zander several times. They were both smiling really strangely.

"What is it? What's so funny?" I asked, smiling.

"Don't you remember?" Zander asked, sharing my smile, "Today is Promotion Day!"

Promotion Day? I wondered. Then, it suddenly clicked.

"Oh yeah!" I replied back, "I completely forgot!"

How could I have forgotten? This has got to be the most important day of my life.

"Aren't you excited?" Rayna squealed.

"I am!" I replied, "I can't..."

ALL TRAINEES the loudspeaker screeched in its tinny mechanical voice MUST REPORT TO THE TRAINING HALL IN FIVE MINUTES! ALL TRAINEES MUST... I looked back at Rayna and Zander, who looked at each other.

"We should eat," Zander informed me. My friends ran off to the cafeteria line. I smiled, and then looked down at my food.

One more plate of rockslop and I'll have the life of my dreams!

ALL TRAINEES MUST REPORT TO THE TRAINING HALL IN ONE MINUTE!

"Hurry up!" Rayna shouted, "We're going to be late!"

Zander caught up with us and we all began running towards the training hall.

"I'm sorry," he shouted, "I've never had to throw up so much before!"

"Well now we might miss promotions!" Rayna shot back.

"Hey!" Zander raised his hands, "You told me that this day should be a party! I was supposed to eat a lot!"

"Within limits!" Rayna exclaimed, "You can't just eat three plates of rockslop and expect to be fine!"

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Zander admitted. He began to laugh. Soon we all were laughing because of the sheer hilariousness of the situation.

PROMOTION SESSION WILL NOW BEGIN!

We all stopped laughing and ran triple time.

We pushed through the double doors. The meeting was already in session. Instructor Anzok was presently on role call. Well, he had been until we ran in the room.

"You're late," he said in a dark voice. Darker than usual anyways... "Get in line with the other trainees!"

We complied.

I didn't like Anzok, but Fairrow picked him specifically to teach this class so I wasn't one to argue.

The roll call had finished and Anzok was beginning a boring speech about the rewards and qualifications and duties and blah blah blah...Anzok was such a bad public speaker. His voice rose and fell in volume while all the while somehow maintaining the same irritating, buzzing pitch. When he finished--not a moment too soon--he called up the first student.

"Trainee 553, come forward."

I blinked. That was me.

I walked to the middle of the room and then climbed six small stairs to reach Anzok.

He looked at me disdainfully. I tried to appear respectful. With a light sigh he finally looked down and read a scroll in his hands.

"Through rigorous training, you, Trainee 553, have successfully fulfilled the requirements set forth by Emperor Lucky. Do you swear to protect the Empire against all threats, within or without?"

"Yes," I said.

"Do you swear to enforce Lucky's will throughout Aethasia?"

"Yes."

"Very well. You are now officially a member of the Empire, with all associated duties and rewards. May you serve your post well."

He gave me a diploma and a control gauntlet. I thanked him and then turned around, failing to contain a smile.

I had finally completed my life's dream.

I was finally an autofficer.

A Light in the Darkness Discussion

Kitty_Ironcraft 2019-04-18 19:54:57 UTC #3

Chapter 2: Insubordination

I stepped onto the docks. No Man's Landing was so different than anywhere I had ever been before. I had never been anywhere but the Snowmoors all my life. Leaving the Academy Automicus was strange, it was the only home I'd ever known.

But I can't get sentimental now, I have a duty to the Empire.

I looked around me and I saw the rest of the other graduates debarking the large boat. Roughly half of the trainees had succeeded and become autofficers, as I had. To my delight, both Rayna and Zander had also passed. The three of us shared a smile before I resumed committing the town to memory. No Man's Landing wasn't much to look at; the dark clouds made the dreary town look even more run-down. I was wondered for a small moment why the Empire had assigned my group here.

Then I dropped the question; I didn't want to question the Empire.

Our group walked up the stairs past the print shop, through the town square, and into the business district. The automaton presence seemed to grow with every step. That made me smile; the 'Resistance' would fall soon. They simply didn't have the will and manpower to contend with the mechanical might of the Empire. They had resolve, but we would wear them down day by day.

Peace will return to the world of Aethasia, and I was glad to know that I would be an instrument of that peace.

We climbed the stairs of a large stone building. Bombardiers kept vigil by the door, preventing any Resistors from entering the Imperial base. Security has been increased greatly in recent years as the Resistance has become more and more brazen in their actions. I didn't worry much about it though, the Resistance would end soon.

Inside, we walked to the front desk. A young man with short black hear wearing some coggles looked up from some papers, "Yes?"

Anzok appeared to be irritated as usual, "This is the group of fresh autofficers. You should have papers for them."

It wasn't a question. The secretary took in a quick breath and began ruffling through the papers. He occasionally shot a momentary glance upward at Anzok, who was growing more impatient by the second. Eventually the papers were found and offered to Anzok, who quickly grabbed them and began to distribute the papers. I glanced at some of the papers being distributed; they were orders, room numbers, the like. Eventually the papers were distributed and the company dispersed to complete their first 'missions', everyone looked excited.

Except for me.

I looked confused.

I glanced unintelligently at my bare palms. Where is my paper?

"Autofficer Anzok?" I asked.

He looked at me with an exasperated stare, Rayna and Zander saw me and began to look worried.

"Yes Autofficer Wolfe?" Anzok replied.

"I didn't get an orders paper," I said, trying to be confident, "Was there some mistake?"

"There's no mistake," he replied, "You're coming with me."

I stifled a gasp. Had I done something wrong? Rayna and Zander looked more worried than ever, but tried to hide it.

"Okay," I replied.

Anzok abruptly walked down a hallway. It took me a moment to realize that he intended for me to follow him. I looked back before I left the room and mouthed "It'll be fine" to my two friends.

I really hoped it would.

As Anzok lead me through hallways, I tried to take on an air of confidence. I was trying to explain with my actions that I hadn't done anything wrong.

But I couldn't shake the feeling that my lifelong dream would end almost before it began.

I was led to an inner room on the basement. The fog seemed to get thicker, and the lights became dimmer. Anzok opened a massive metal door, creaking heavily in the narrow passageway. Fog poured out of the growing opening, temporarily shrouding the floor in a green mist. He motioned me inside. I swallowed, held my head high, and walked in. The door slammed shut behind me.

In front of me, working on some armor suit, was the living legend: Zaul Grimm.

I didn't know what to say.

He continued working on the suit, making some tweaks with a spanner, while I stood in front of the door. He acted as if I wasn't even there.

A minute later, I overcame my surprise and raised my voice, "Autofficer Grimm?"

He looked up, "Welcome, Autofficer Wolfe," he told me. He raised his eyebrows, "Do you remember me?"

"No sir," I replied instantly. Then, hesitantly, "Should I?"

Zaul considered this, "Take a seat."

I hovered over to the chair obviously meant for me and sat down.

Taking a deep breath, the autofficer began to speak, "What is the first thing you remember, Wolfe?"

I wasn't expecting that. Uhh..."The first thing I remember is waking up in my room. In the Academy Automicus."

"I see," Grimm replied, "Do you have any memories prior to that?"

"No sir."

He nodded, "What do you know of your history before you woke up in the Academy?"

"Only what I was told by my trainers."

He stared at me for a few moments, goggles glowing green with fog.

Oh, I'm supposed to talk.

"I became an autofficer at 13. I was one of the youngest recruits ever. I showed real talent and was a top agent of the Empire, until..."

"Until?" it was impossible to know what he was thinking.

"Until I was ambushed by the Resistance on a mission three years ago. They attacked out of nowhere and I had no way to prepare for it. I was hit on the head during the mission and I lost my memories," I swallowed, "Permanently."

I took a deep breath.

Zaul pondered my life story. "Maybe not."

My breath caught, "What?"

Zaul stood up and began to walk around the iron table in the center of the room, "Fog is a wonderful thing," he spoke, looking at a picture at the wall, "With recent advancements in fog technology, I may be able to cure many diseases, stop illnesses before they happen, prevent memory loss and..." he looked at me, "...even reverse it."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. My eyes were wide and I stood up, completely awed by the notion.

"You mean," I asked, "that I can get my memories back?"

Zaul was on the opposite side of the table now, "I believe so."

I stood blank-faced for a long minute.

I could get my memories back!

Zaul picked up the armor suit on the table and offered it to me, "Do you want to try it out?"

I looked down at the armor, it appeared to be a locomotion suit with a few modifications. I reached out and grabbed the suit and began to put it on. Zaul smiled and grabbed a remote and a notepad.

When I had finished putting the suit on, Zaul stood next to me, "Are you ready?"

"Yes."

"Good."

Zaul stepped back and pressed a button on the remote. The suit whirred and I felt small pains in my arms, legs, back, and chest, as if I were being pricked by splinters. Zaul pressed another button and panels on the suit began to glow bright green. I felt the fog flowing into my body. It felt good.

"What do you feel?" Zaul asked, now holding only the notepad and a pencil.

"I feel..." I began, but then I felt dizzy and collapsed to the ground.

The moon was full that night. I thought it was beautiful, but I didn't let that distract me. I glanced down at my hands, finishing up pulling leather gauntlets over them. It was going to be tonight. Now completely in my armor, I began walking down the street.

An autofficer greeted me, "The Resistance outpost is just ahead."

"Good!" I replied, "Lets cleanse these rabble from the Landing!"

"Yes sir," the autofficer replied.

I picked up my control gauntlet and began to walk towards the Resistance base. A whole platoon of automatons was behind me. They had no idea we were coming.

Suddenly, Resistors jumped out of the rooftops behind us, guns blazing and hammers smashing. I had lost half of my troops before we made it to cover. I pressed buttons madly on my control gauntlet, trying to get the automatons to fight. I was outnumbered and outgunned.

The battle wound down as the last automatons were turned into heaps of metal. I went out from the building, firing at Resistors. Four went down. A shot boomed past my ear. I turned around. The Resistance Commander. I charged him with my sword and he came at me with his hammer. He jumped high to smash and I rolled under him, spinning my sword 360 degrees out of my spin. The Resistor jumped out of the way of my blade. I stood and charged him again. I was close now, his hammer wasn't as effective. Eventually, I wore him out and sliced his chest. He fell to the ground. Turning around, I raised my fog pistols ready to fight the rest of the Resistors. I didn't see the leader getting back up behind me. He raised his hammer and smashed it down on my head. Darkness.

"Wolfe?" Zaul's voice was both stern and worried.

I blinked my eyes open. It was so bright, even with the dim lights.

Zaul was standing over me, "What did you see?"

I explained to him my vision.

"Hmm..." Zaul said rubbing his chin, "That seems to be your last memory before you woke up in the Academy Automicus."

Wow, I thought, I'm finally going to get my memories back!

I couldn't contain the grin that grew on my face, "Thank you so much for this."

I began taking the armor off, but Zaul put his hand on my shoulder, "Keep it, I have more."

I smiled, "Thank you again Mr. Grimm."

"Anything for an old friend."

I entered into my new room in the Imperial base. I found my stuff on the ground and I unpacked, placing things on the wall or on the floor. Within a few minutes, I was at home again.

I opened the door and my heart jumped into my throat.

Rayna was standing there, still as a statue, eyes wide.

My teeth clamped shut to stop a scream, I jumped back a few inches.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Dude!" I replied, "Don't scare me like that!"

"Wolfe, I'm serious! Where did they take you!? Where did you get that armor!?"

"It's fine!" I answered, "Anzok took me to see Zaul Grimm, who apparently is an old friend of mine. He gave me this armor, which is helping me remember my past! I remember why I lost my memory!" I began to speak louder because of my excitement, "I was an autofficer before I lost my memory, one of the youngest ever! I was raiding a Resistance outpost and we were ambushed by the Resistance. They used underhanded tactics and knocked me out with a hammer. I woke up at the Academy! I know how my life began!!!"

Rayna's eyes grew bigger and bigger as I told my story. When I finished, she struggled to speak because of surprise and joy, "You got your memories back?"

"Yes! Well, some of them. This new armor is getting me my memories back one at a time."

"Wolfe," she began to smile, "That's great!" she hugged me.

She let go and her smile was a mile wide, "We need to tell Zander!"

We searched Zander's room, but we didn't find him. A couple minutes later we found him along with the rest of the new autofficers and Anzok having a meeting.

Anzok looked at me, "Good, you're finally here. Now we can begin. Do you have a question Wolfe?"

I hate it how he does that.

"Yes sir," I answered, "I thought you had already left."

"I'm staying until you complete your first mission--which is now."

Sweet.

Anzok folded his hands behind his back, "Recent Resistance attacks have worn out our autofficers in the Business Disctrict. You are to go there, relieve them, and then continue to patrol until tomorrow morning. Any questions?"

Silence.

"Good. Autofficer Wolfe, you are in command."

I'm...what? "Yes sir."

"I'll be supervising you to make sure you..." he paused, "...do well."

Anzok looked around, "Briefing over, get ready to move out!"

The autofficers began to disperse to get ready for their first mission.

"Zander!" Rayna zigzagged through moving bodies, "Zander! Guess what!"

"What?" Zander replied.

"Wolfe's getting his memories back!"

"You're kidding!" Zander said, a huge smile on his face,

We relieved the previous groups of autofficers, who looked like they hadn't slept in days. The evening was uneventful. At around 3:00 AM, I was patrolling with my automatons next to the marketplace. I saw a shadow moving behind a crate. I pressed a button and a quartet of Pacifiers surrounded the crate. There was a group of urchins there, trying to stuff apples in the folds of their clothing. I commanded the Pacifiers to take the food and return it to the vendor.

I looked at the urchins, there were six young girls and boys, filthy and thin.

"It's against the law to steal food," I told them, "You will be punished."

I was about to enter a command to capture the urchins, but I stopped. My armor began to glow a sickly green and my fingers slowly began to move inside the gauntlet.

The Pacifiers returned to the urchins and began to assault them. Metal arms and legs rained down on the children, causing them to shield themselves with their own arms. I laughed out loud and my armor glowed blindingly green. The light cast by the fog glowing in my suit seemed to be not light at all in a way, but darkness. Sinister shadows grew away from me in every direction.

"That's enough," I said out loud as I commanded the automatons to stop with my gauntlet, "The Empire doesn't want you dead."

I heard clapping from behind me. I turned and Anzok was standing there, "Good job Wolfe." You'll make a great autofficer yet.

I smiled and commanded the automatons to bring the urchins to a temporary holding cell. To drag them if they had to.

Anzok left and I watched my troops push the urchins away. They were bruised and cut from the beating, and they were on the verge of tears.

When they had left and I was alone, I took a deep satisfied breath and stared up at the stars.

I frowned. Something was wrong.

I should be feeling happy. I just did excellently on my mission. It doesn't make sense, why do I feel so...so...

Empty.

Edit Requesting

A Light in the Darkness Discussion

Kitty_Ironcraft 2019-05-28 04:00:26 UTC #4

Chapter 3: Shadows

The sun peeked over the horizon, illuminating the bleak fog-filled town. Morning was coming at last to end the long night. I shivered in the dawn's crisp air, blinking and yawning to keep awaket.

I was standing outside of the Imperial base for what seemed to be hours, waiting to be relieved.

What is taking so long!?

I couldn't take it any more. I couldn't stand around holding my head up high knowing what I had just done to those urchins. Those children. The shame was tearing me apart.

But why!? Why was what I did so wrong!? I was supporting the Empire! I was doing what I was supposed to do. I did the right thing!

Those arguments wouldn't satisfy what I was feeling. No justification I came up with could fill the pit of desolation I felt deep in my being.

WHAT IS TAKING SO LONG!!!!!??? I almost screamed.

The door opened and Anzok walked out onto the street, followed by another group of autofficers.

Anzok walked directly to me, "Ready to finish your shift?"

You have no idea how ready, "Yes sir."

"You did a good job last night, Wolfe, better than I ever expected you to."

"Thank you sir."

"Sleep well."

I nodded, though I was almost certain that I wouldn't sleep well today.

I hastily used my gauntlet to transfer control of my automatons to another autofficer and then almost ran into the building. I didn't notice when Anzok patted me on the back.

"Wolfe! Wait!" Rayna was running after me, I was too single-minded to hear her.

"Wolfe!" she shouted again, closer this time. She grabbed my shoulder pad and spun me around. She was beaming, "Wasn't that so fun!?"

I looked at her for a brief moment, sadness in my eyes, and then turned around and began walking to my room again.

"Wolfe?" she called after me, "What's wrong?"

"I'm really tired," I was able to say, "I'm going to get some sleep."

I walked down the hallway and turned the corner, leaving Rayna alone and very confused.

Reaching my room, I shut and locked the door, turned off the lights and fell into my bed. It was perfectly dark in my room. The darkness offered me a place to hide from my guilt, and a place to think.

The first thing I noticed was that my back hurt. I forgot to take my armor off.

I got out of bed and removed the fog armor, then tucked myself back under the blankets, hoping they would comfort me.

What is wrong with me? I asked myself, I didn't even know those urchins, why should I feel sorry for them. They were breaking the law, they deserved to be arrested!

But did they deserve to be beaten? What was I thinking? Why did I assault them?

They needed to be taught a lesson! Now they'll never break the law again!

Did they need to be taught that big of a lesson? It felt like something else was controlling my mind.

Nah, it was completely my idea.

No it wasn't!

Yes it was!

Green started glowing under my covers.

What!? My armor is still on. I thought I took it off.

I started to get out of bed.

Eh, why not. It kind of feels good.

I closed my eyes and tried to get some rest.

I opened my eyes, What's wrong with me? I'm sleeping in my armor.

I got out of bed and took the armor off again and got back into bed. Against my better judgement, I put my hand on my chest to see if I was still wearing the armor.

I was.

What's the deal? Why won't the armor come off?

I turned on the lights in my bedroom, gazing down on my fog tinted armor.

I'm going to take you off.

I began taking it off, but looking down at my hands I saw they weren't moving.

Take off the armor! I ordered myself.

My hands didn't move.

What is happening? Is this a dream?

Why should I take the armor off anyways?

Was that my thought!? What's happening to me!?

Keep it on.

Take it off!

Keep it on!

Take it off!!!

Keep it on!

TAKE IT OFF!!!!!

I ripped the armor off of my body in a fit of rage, throwing it into the corner. I breathed a breath of cool, fresh air and turned off the lights and got into bed.

Now, surrounded by the shadows in my room, I was able to think clearly.

That armor must be addictive or something. I'll have to talk to Zaul about it to get it fixed.

Then I had a horrifying thought.

What if he meant for it to be addictive?

No, that's crazy, why would he make the armor like that? The Empire is good, one of its finest members wouldn't purposely make...that. Would he?

Then I thought about Anzok, and how he congratulated me for beating the children.

Is the Empire not as good as I thought?

It was a simple question, but one rife with treachery.

How could I have thought that? The Empire isn't evil...

Right?

I couldn't answer that question.

I couldn't turn my back on the Empire, I've been working for them my entire life. They wouldn't try to betray me, they've been doing nothing but taking care of me my entire life.

Satisfied with that at last, I closed my eyes and began to drift off to sleep.

I saw the urchins in my mind's eye, causing me to open my real eyes with a shudder.

I would not get any sleep today.

After about two hours of staring into the shadows, I finally started to forget this morning's appalling event, as if it never happened. I slowed my breathing and finally began to close my eyes and sleep. That is when I heard it.

Breathing. Not my own. Coming from under my bed.

Who is that?

Scraping, movement! Whoever or whatever was under my bed, it was emerging.

I turned my eyes to the room, still filled with inky blackness, Who has been hiding in my room all this time? What are they doing here?

Are they here to assassinate me?

I made ready to move at a moment's notice.

From the breathing I heard, the mysterious figure moved out from under my bed and then began to slowly stand up. I saw them, a silhouette against the blackness.

Now!

I jumped out of my bed and smashed into the intruder. They were caught completely by surprise, which was my plan. We both slammed into the wall. With lightning speed I recovered and grabbed...her?...wrists, pinning her to the floor.

She tried struggling against me but I was stronger, so she gave up.

"Let me go!" she whispered loudly.

"Who are you!?" I demanded at the same volume.

"I'm..." she hesitated.

"Yes?" I prodded.

"I'm a member of the Resistance," she declared.

So she is an assassin! I thought.

Don't jump to conclusions.

Standing, I turned on the lights, driving away the shadows and illuminating both our forms. I was mildly surprised to see that I wasn't wearing my armor.

"What are you doing here?" I asked her.

She stood as well, taking a defiant stance. She had a strong form and reddish-orange hair. Her eyes were sky-blue, but they burned with fire, "Why should I tell you?"

"Uh..." I stammered, "Because I'm an autofficer and I could call for help and you would be arrested in a minute."

She sighed, her demeanor breaking, "I guess I'm at your mercy."

I winced.

"Well," she said, "I just escaped from a cell in the basement. I'm trying to get out of here. Some autofficers were coming down the hallway and I slipped into this room and hid under the bed. Before I could get out, you came in. I tried to get out just now because I needed to leave as soon as possible so I could..." she stopped herself.

"So you could what?"

She didn't say anything, so we continued staring at each other--a battle of wills that I had no intention of losing.

"I'm not at liberty to say," she spoke, not breaking eye contact.

"Tell me, or I'll call the automatons."

"If you wanted to call for help, you would have done so already. Why haven't you?

I frowned, wondering, "I don't know."

"Do you not trust the Empire?" she asked.

I sighed. I had heard about this whole 'turning to the Resistance' thing. I wasn't going to buy it.

"I do trust the Empire!" I whispered back.

"Do you now?" she asked, a little smugly.

I looked up at the ceiling, incredibly irritated. I want to call the guards in spite of her.

When I looked back down, she was gazing at me intently, as if she was trying to read me, "You don't seem like most Imperials I've found."

"What do you mean by that?" I shot back, insulted.

Ignoring my rudeness, she continued, "You seem to care...you seem to have a heart."

"Most of us...!" I trailed off, my eyes drifting towards the fog armor laying in the corner.

She waited for my response.

I gathered my resolve, "I trust the Empire. I have followed them my entire life, they took me in even after I lost my memory," I cringed, "They told me so."

"And you believed them!?" she asked, as if I was crazy for doing so.

Yes, of course! I wanted to shout back, but I couldn't. I couldn't believe them. Not absolutely.

She smiled, "Maybe you don't trust the Empire as much as you thought."

Someone tried to open the door from the outside. Then, realizing it was locked, they began banging on the door, "Open up!" he shouted, "We're searching for escaped prisoners!"

I looked back to the Resistor standing in my room. She looked genuinely frightened. That made me angry.

"Open the door in ten seconds or we will be forced to break it down!"

"What are you going to do?" the girl whispered.

I looked back at the door purposefully.

Opening the door, I saw two fierce-looking autofficers standing in the hallway.

I yawned, "Why are you bugging me? I'm extremely tired."

"Sorry Autofficer Wolfe," they answered, "But there was a prison escape. At least three dangerous prisoners escaped. We were ordered to search all of the rooms for the escapees."

"Be my guest," I replied, yawning again and opening the door. One of the autofficers entered the room and looked around.

"No prisoners in here," I told him, putting a little bit of derision into my voice, "Can I go back to sleep now?"

The autofficer looked at me hotly before leaving my room, "All clear," he told his partner, "On to the next corridor."

I closed the door and waited for a few seconds. Then I reached under my bed and grabbed the girl's hand, helping her to her feet.

"I can't believe I just did that," I told her.

"Well, thank you," she smiled.

I smiled too.

Opening the door and stepping out into the hallway, I looking around. Seeing no one, I beckoned, "Come on!"

She followed me through the hallways of the compound. We were almost spotted more than once, but we eventually made it to the back door. Opening the door, I almost jumped out of my boots when I saw a pair of Troubleshooters. They saw me as well.

"Autofficer Wolf," the one on the left buzzed, "What are you doing out here?"

Plan B.

"I heard there was a prison break, so I'm coming out here to help look for them."

Suddenly, the girl jumped out from behind the door with a stolen dueling cane in her hand.

"Watch out! She's armed!" I shouted before she hit me on the back of the head and I fell to the ground. I heard the automatons quickly get smashed by the dueling cane.

"They're dead now," she told me.

I stood up rubbing the back of my head, "When I said 'don't hit me on the back of the head hard,' I meant hit me lightly.

"It had to look believable."

"I guess so."

She smiled and began running away from the building. She stopped and turned around when she realized I wasn't following her.

"Aren't you coming?" she asked.

"No," I said after some hesitation.

"Why not?" she asked, looking perplexed, "You helped me escape, don't you want to escape too?"

"I don't know why I helped you...It goes against everything I've been trained to do."

"Maybe I was right: you do care."

I chuckled, "I'm afraid I'm not making a very good Imperial."

She walked forward and put a hand on my arm, "You'd make a good member of the Resistance."

I smiled, shaking my head, "Not today."

She looked down, dejected. Looking back up, she asked, "Someday then?"

"Maybe."

A slight smile graced her lips, "Okay, goodbye."

"Goodbye."

Regretfully, she turned and ran off towards a building. Two other Resistors came out from behind the building and began talking to her. She looked back towards me and waved. I smiled as I closed the door.

I reported to an autofficer on duty and told him that I had gone out back to look for escapees. I then said that one had ambushed me, knocked me out, destroyed two Troubleshooters, and got away.

After that, I went back to my room and turned out the lights, and thinking about all that has happened in the past 48 hours.

I thought about my promotion, my journey, my first night, and the Resistor that I had helped escape.

I mostly thought about her.

Sighing and rubbing my eyes, I rolled over on my side and hoped I slept well.

I did.

A Light in the Darkness Discussion

Kitty_Ironcraft 2019-05-30 20:35:05 UTC #5

Chapter 4: Spark of Destiny

I woke out of a peaceful dream in my room.

Or was it a dream?

I felt the back of my neck and felt the bruise from where the Resistor had hit me in the neck.

Now that I was sure it was not a dream, I stopped and asked myself a question that was bothering me.

Why had I helped the member of the Resistance escape? The Resistance was the enemy of the Empire, why would I help them? It didn't make any sense, I had trained the last three years--my entire life--learning and training to support and serve the Empire. One of the very first things I did was help their enemy escape from prison. It made no sense at all.

What's wrong with me?

Perhaps it was the fog armor's residual effects, controlling my thoughts...but...

It seemed different. Like I had been helping the Resistance my entire life. It seemed like a memory.

The thought was preposterous, of course. I had only served the Empire the past three years, and I served the Empire even before I lost my memory.

So why does it feel so natural to help the Resistance?

I didn't know.

I decided to put the incident behind me and make sure it never happened again. I would be an autofficer, through and through--one of the best ever. I would protect the Empire from all threats and serve it to the best of my ability.

I smiled, finally satisfied.

At last getting out of bed, I had a look around. It was late afternoon in No Man's Landing, and it seemed to me that the sun shined a little more brightly this day than it had the previous.

I brought the fog armor to Zaul and told him about its disturbing side effects. He said he'd look into it.

Weeks passed, and I grew to be a very capable and respected autofficer. I helped support the Empire and even engaged in a few skirmishes with the Resistance and other threats.

Zaul got back to me about the armor and said he had fixed the problem. I began using the armor again and I recovered a few more of my memories. The armor was strong, I'm sure it saved my life more than once. It wasn't only the hardness of the armor that helped, it seemed to make me feel stronger and more powerful than when I wasn't wearing it. I assumed that it must be the fog. Zaul was right, fog was a wonderful thing. It did everything from powering the Empire's automatons to restoring my memory to making me more powerful. It really did help with everything, I wasn't sure why the Resistance was so against it.

I had been hesitant to use the armor at first, fearing that it may still be addictive, but I trusted Zaul and quickly found that the armor caused no such side effects. Also, much to my relief, there were no further incidents where I hurt anyone unnecessarily, nor any incidents in which I betrayed the Empire to the Resistance. I was the model autofficer, a soldier, a leader, and a good person.

"This is it!" I spoke to the five autofficers standing before me.

"This is what we've been working towards for the past two weeks," I continued, "We finally have an opportunity to capture a high-ranking officer of the Resistance."

We were in Evergreen Meadows, although the supposed 'green' of the meadows seemed darker due to the foreboding overcast sky above us.

"That building," I pointed towards a farm a few hundred meters away, "Is where intelligence says he is hiding out. The Resistance knows we are coming so he is likely to be guarded by some of his finest men and women. This is going to be a tough mission, so I want to see the best from all of you. Any questions?"

"No sir," Rayna answered, smiling.

"No questions here, Captain," Masson said.

"I'm ready," Zander told me.

"Good. Prepare your automatons and move out!"

We began marching on the farm, four platoons of automatons at our backs.

Eva stood in the farmhouse, watching the impending automaton force. Lowering her telescope, she looked around at her fellow Resistors, gathered to protect the Resistance officer. She had been fighting the Empire for years, and her battle experience caused her to be nominated for leading the defense.

She walked up to her second-in-command, "How many men do we have?"

"Fifteen," he replied, "Including you."

She raised her spyglass again to look at the approaching force, "I hope that's enough, there looks to be more than a hundred auto's out there, and six autofficers," she looked back to her friend, "You're sure that shipment got here in time?"

"Yes, I checked it myself. Three crates."

"Good," Eva said, thinking, "That should give us an edge if things turn ugly. Spread this order to everyone: stay quiet until I give the signal, then open fire."

"Yessir!" he left.

Eva smiled, No Imperial force is going to take this farm on my watch!

The Imperials moved ever closer.

"Be careful," I told my squad, "Stay quiet. Try to hide behind trees or crops if you can, we don't want them to know we are coming until we are right on top of them."

The cover only lasted so long. The Resistance base was strategically located, all obstacle for sight around it had been cleared. Despite that, there seemed to be no reply from the Resistors.

We moved within a hundred feet of the lone farmhouse, still no activity.

"Maybe I was wrong," I said to myself, "Maybe they don't know we're coming after all."

Suddenly, gunshots sounded from the building. Bullets, water, ice, and fire flew through the dark sky and mowed down a squad of automatons.

"Return fire!" I shouted.

I entered a command on my control gauntlet and my pacifiers and troubleshooters began firing back at the enemy. Our automaton forces suffered moderate casualties but I could see only minor injuries on the Resistance side.

After a minute of firing, Zander moved up behind me, "Wolfe!" he shouted over the sound of exploding gunpowder.

I looked back.

"We should fall back! They have cover, that puts us at a disadvantage! We're losing automatons!"

"We need to make them think that we're routed, then they will try to follow us!"

"What!?"

"Trust me, Lieutenant!" turning back to the front, "Sustain fire!"

I removed my holstered fog pistols and shot at any Resistor who moved out of cover. I hit two, but both times an ally pulled them to safety and applied some Aether to them.

Aether; it seemed to be a staple of the Resistance. Every Resistor I had seen had an Aethermeter, and they used it to power their weapons and heal their allies. I found it very annoying--because of Aether the Resistance kept getting back up, making them a much tougher adversary. Some Imperials have tried using and experimenting with this 'Aether,' but for some reason or another it strangely never worked for us. Not reliably anyways.

Presently, I hit another Resistor in the leg with my rifle. A purple glow came out from behind a barrier, healing the wound.

Ugh, that bugs me.

A sniper fired a round at me. The shell hit into my fog armor, but didn't penetrate.

That is long enough.

"Fall back to the field!" I ordered.

"But sir!" Withrey shouted over the din, "We can take them!"

"That's an order! Fall back!"

Withrey complied and our forces made a strategic retreat From what I could tell, we lost almost half of our force in the first assault.

Now all the Resistance has to do is follow us.

Eva smirked, the Empire was falling back.

Their commander must have been a fool if he thought he could fight us without cover. Let's see if we can take any more of them out before they escape.

"Allright," she said, "Let's follow them. I want five of you to stay here in case of a counterattack."

Ten members moved out to chase after the fleeing automatons.

"They're firing on us!" Cameron shouted, "We're not in a position to return fire!"

"Keep moving!" I shouted, "Make it to that corn field!"

Back in the field, Cameron approached me, "Now what do we do!?"

I looked him straight in the face.

He continued, "We've lost over half of our force, the Resistance is getting closer. We have to escape before they engage in close quarters!"

"We're going to stay right here," I told him, allowing a small self-satisfied smile.

He seemed worried, but didn't say anything else.

Then we waited.

Eva smiled, watching the Imperial force hide in the corn field.

We need to smoke them out, she thought, Or else they may come in for a second attack.

"Bring out the dynamite!" she ordered.

A few Resistors headed back to base and returned with three wheelbarrows full of dynamite.

I bet they didn't know that the shipment arrived here on time. They won't be expecting this.

"Good," Eva said, "Throw on my mark...NOW!"

The explosives sailed into the field, creating great balls of light and setting fire to the field.

It was complete chaos in the corn field. Fire was everywhere and a dozen automatons were destroyed by the explosions.

"WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!" Cameron screamed, panic taking him.

I wasn't listening. I knew that they had received the shipment of three crates of dynamite, and I had built my plan around that fact. They are within throwing range. Perfect!

"That's it!" Cameron said, stepping back, "I'm leaving!"

He ordered his automatons to retreat and then began to run.

"No!" I shouted after him, "We need you!"

His reply was barely heard over the firebombs, "I'm not going to waste my life and the Empire's army because you say so!"

I was disgusted, "Fine," I said, to quiet to be heard by anyone, "You can run, coward, but I need your automatons."

I entered in Cameron's override code and his automatons returned to my position, now under my direct control. I then pressed buttons rapidly, smirking because I knew the Resistance had fallen right into my trap.

They didn't know that I had Oily Mineons right under them, priming explosives.

The dynamite was still falling into the field when Eva felt rumbling underneath her.

"Hold!" she shouted, raising her arm.

The explosions stopped, but the rumbling only grew louder.

"What is this?" she asked no one in particular.

Then, the ground exploded. A pit about four feet deep formed where her troops were standing and they all fell in a heap. The wheelbarrows overturned, dropping their contents on the dirt.

Before anyone could get back up, Mineons drilled out of the ground, spraying oil on the Resistors.

"Fall back!" she shouted, thinking that she had perhaps underestimated the enemy commander.

Her troops tried climbing out of the pit, but the oil made it difficult to get traction. Eva tried climbing but slipped on the black viscous fluid and fell back to the floor of the pit. Then she noticed all of the Mineons had disappeared.

Then she noticed the arcing blasts of fire coming from the corn field that were heading straight towards the pile of dynamite.

The explosion was brilliantly bright from my position.

My plan was working perfectly; the Mineons trapped the Resistance and made sure they couldn't escape using oil. Then, I commanded my troubleshooter forces to fire at their remaining dynamite, which exploded right in the middle of the pit. The damage caused by the resulting firestorm was multiplied by the fact that the Resistance was covered in oil at the time.

Their defense is devastated.

"Move out!" I shouted.

Eva jumped out of the pit right before the explosion went off. Even at her distance, she was thrown ten feet.

Standing, she noticed that she was burning. She quickly ran to a nearby water pump and tried to extinguish the fire. Now no longer burning, on the outside at least, she removed her Aethermeter and checked it, half full.

Applying a little bit of the Aether to herself, she ran back to the pit to find the rest of what remained of her force. The explosion had knocked most of her troops out of the pit, some were still conscious. She ran up to those who were and gave them some Aether. After a few seconds, she had revived four people, who were rushing to make sure the rest of their allies were alright.

Bullets began flying through the air as she saw the Imperial counterattack emerge from the burning field

The Resistance began running back towards the farm, trying to escape from my onslaught. I saw a couple of the Resistors get hit on the way back, but a few were able to return to their base. I looked down at all of the Resistors injured in the explosion and the subsequent assault and checked on all of them. Most were unconscious, some needed medical attention. None were dead, to my relief.

"Masson!" I shouted.

"Yes sir!"

"Take your automatons and bring these men and women to a medical facility!"

"Yes sir!"

I smiled, Masson was never one to question orders.

"Rayna, Withrey! Move your forces around back, surround the barn!"

They promptly did so.

"So what's the plan, Captain?" Zander asked.

I smiled, "Misdirection. And fire."

Two combustonaughts walked up on either side of me and began burning the farmhouse with their flamethrowers.

I let the jets of flame continue for about half a minute before I ordered them to stop.

"That's not going to be enough to destroy the farm," Zander remarked.

"I know," I replied, smiling, "And I believe that the Resistance knows that also. They will expect us to be waiting out the back exit, but we'll surprise them by going in the front."

"Captain!" Rayna's voice buzzed over the communicator.

"Yes Lieutenant?" I asked, speaking into my arm.

"Withrey went in. I tried to stop him but..."

"No," I muttered under my breath, "That wasn't the plan!"

Eva and one other Resistor were the only ones to make it back to the farmhouse. They reunited with the five that stayed behind, who offered some Aether to heal their wounds.

Eva was angry, and she became only more steamed when she smelled smoke.

"They're burning the house down!" one of her comrades shouted.

"Stay calm! They're trying to smoke us out!"

"Won't we have to leave to keep from being burned alive!?"

"Not necessarily...this building is made of mostly bricks. It won't burn easily. I think that we're safe from the fire. The Empire is expecting us to run out the back entrance, right into their trap. I say we stay here and wait for them."

They didn't have to wait long, a single autofficer and two squads of automatons entered the building from the rear entrance. They engaged the Resistance.

Withrey commanded his automatons to fire on any enemy, but the auto's under his control were mostly armed with guns or cannons and were suited to long-range engagements. The Resistance used guerilla tactics and took out Withrey's force one by one, and they sustained no casualties.

"Did you hear me Captain?" Rayna's voice buzzed out of the speaker.

"I read, stand by."

I looked at Zander, "Prepare to converge on the farmhouse."

Our combined forces entered through the front door, careful to stay away from the ravenous flames.

Once we were safely inside, I ordered, "Rayna, move in, quietly."

"Ten Four!"

I looked to Zander, "Spread out, let's find the Resistance."

Me and my automatons traveled down one corridor, and Zander's group traveled down another. My group found the Resistance first. There were seven of them, all standing in a large room watching for Imperials coming from the rear entrance. Nobody was watching for me. My automatons opened fire.

Shots came from where Eva wasn't expecting: behind. Three of her fellows where hit in the first round.

"Take cover!" she shouted, and began dragging a nearby ally behind a couch. She gave some Aether to him, which revived him. Standing, she pulled out her rifle and returned fire.

It was a battle of attrition. My automaton force was no match for the seven Resistors, but every injury they sustained meant that there was that much less Aether for them to use. Soon, they would run out of Aether.

I group of Resistors jumped out from behind a sofa and slammed a bunch of my automatons into scrap.

Where's my backup!?

Rayna and Zander entered the room from two different directions with their automaton forces, reinforcing my group. The tide was turned, and I could tell that the Resistance was almost out of Aether. Two Resistors made a run for it into an adjoining room.

Zander chased after them with his autos, "They're mine!"

Another Resistor was hit, but I saw no violet flow this time.

Finally! I thought. Now we're in the endgame.

I communicated a hand signal to Rayna and our combined forces converged on the cornered Resistors. They wouldn't survive for long under our withering fire.

This wasn't turning out so well, Eva just lost a comrade and the Empire was beginning its final assault.

Not today, she thought.

Kicking a rug out, she revealed a latch. Pulling on the latch, she opened up a secret passageway.

"This way!" she shouted over the sound of gunshots. She jumped into the secret passageway, grabbed hold of the ladder and slid down into the basement.

The Resistance was retreating!

The basement is probably where they are hiding the officer.

I, Rayna, and our remaining automatons that had legs followed the Resistance down the ladder. Halfway down, I heard the click of a pistol. I immediately let go of the ladder and dropped the remaining ten feet to the basement floor. A bullet whizzed inches above my head as I fell. Wincing in pain, I felt my knees. They weren't broken, only strained.

The automatons above me were not so lucky. They were shot off the ladder and fell to the ground with a great crash, causing parts to fly everywhere. I couldn't see Rayna, so she must still have been at the top of the ladder.

I remained watchful for the four Resistors I was sharing the basement with.

Eva smiled, much of the automatons had been destroyed and only a single autofficer had made it into the basement. The Resistance might win this battle yet. "Show yourself!" she shouted, "You've lost!"

Not yet.

I unsheathed the fog blade from my back and made ready to use.

With a battle cry, I jumped out from behind my cover and brought my blade down on a Resistor. He was taken completely by surprise and was knocked to the floor, a scar running down his arm.

Turning to the remaining three Resistors, I saw that they were all training guns on me. The woman in the center, who must be the commander, said "Surrender."

"I don't think so," I replied, and charged straight towards the commander.

They opened fire, but my fog armor saved me from most of the projectiles. One bullet pierced the torso section of my suit and was stopped by my rib cage. It was agonizing, but I kept going. I ran into the Resistance commander and we tumbled on the floor, fighting. The other two Resistors weren't firing for fear of hitting their ally. We exchanged blows for a few seconds before she kicked me into the wall. Standing, she removed her hammer and jumped in the air. Milliseconds before the hammer slammed into my head, I rolled out of the way. The hammer dented the wall. I stood and collided with the commander, knocking her to the ground. Whipping out my fog blade, I held it up to the commander's neck.

"You surrender," I say.

"Don't move!" a female Resistor said. Looking back at the other two, I found they were both pointing pistols in my direction.

"This time we're aiming for your head," the other Resistor said.

I know that the Resistance didn't like killing people, "You wouldn't shoot me."

"Are you sure about that?" the first one said, with enough determination to make me shiver.

I didn't plan to kill the commander, it was only a bluff. I was afraid that the Resistors were calling me on that bluff.

Just then, Rayna dropped from the ladder and trained a gun on both Resistors, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

The two Resistors that Zander had been chasing entered from a far door and came up behind me with hammers armed. Rayna changed her aim to focus on the two newcomers. The first two Resistors aimed their weapons at Rayna.

This was not good.

The Resistance commander smiled, "Are you ready to surrender now?"

Nobody saw Zander sneak into the room behind the newcomers. He revealed himself now, striking the first two Resistors with his scimitar. Both were taken by surprise and fell to the ground. Zander raised his sword for a final blow on one of the Resistors on the ground.

"Hold!" I shouted.

Zander lowered his sword and continued to the enemy commander and the two newcomers, "Are you ready to surrender now?"

The enemy commander sighed, knowing that she had lost, "Do as they say."

The Resistors regretfully lowered their guns.

I smiled and sighed as well.

We searched the basement and found the Resistance officer. He was an older man and he surprised me with his arm cannon but ultimately he had to surrender as well. We also found his wife, who was in a steam-powered wheelchair.

I smirked. Just another day working for the Empire. Mission accomplished.

A Light in the Darkness Discussion

Kitty_Ironcraft 2019-05-30 20:35:24 UTC #6

There were no casualties that day, to my great delight. All of the Resistors were taken into custody. Cameron and Withrey received dicommendations for their actions. We returned to No Man's Landing, triumphant. My fog armor was damaged but I had learned how to repair it. It was becoming more and more an integral part of me.

A few days later...

I dodged a strike from the training sword and swung my sword in turn. Rayna parried, smiling, and attacked with another combo. We had been doing this for almost an hour simply because we enjoyed it so much.

She jumped in the air and slammed down on my blocking sword, almost knocking me to the ground.

"Okay," I said, "I need a break."

"Okay!" Rayna replied, beaming.

I sat down on the floor in the training room, Rayna sat next to me. I noticed a little bit of color in her cheeks.

"What is it?" I asked her.

She seemed a little flustered, "So, Wolfe...I was wondering..."

I had never seen her like this before.

"Well..." she stammered, "...there's this new place that opened up...and..."

I frowned.

"Food place!" she laughed nervously, "So...I was wondering if..."

"You want to go there with me."

"Well, if you don't want to then..."

"I accept," I told her happily.

"Great!" she said, "It's a date!"

I don't think I had ever seen her this happy before, "It's a date!"

Rayna stood up, brandishing her sword, "En garde!" she shouted, a twinkle in her eyes.

I stood up and raised my sword to fight, and the 'battle' began again. Some minutes, later, an Isha-class automaton entered the room.

"Someone is here to see you."

I lowered my training sword and so did Rayna. We were both sweating heavily.

"Let them in," I said.

My Isha opened the door and I smiled to see my friend.

"Zaul, good to see you again," we shook hands.

"I want to talk to Zaul privately," I said to the Isha and to Rayna.

The Isha left and Rayna stopped next to me, her hand on my arm. "So, see you Saturday?"

I smiled, "See you then!"

She smiled back, her eyes gleaming, before she left the room as well.

"So," I asked Zaul, smiling, "What brings you here to No Man's Landing. I thought you were going to some celebration in Evercity."

"I was," Zaul replied, "It's over now. Lucky asked me to meet with you on the way back to the Isle."

"So this is a business visit," I said, smile fading faintly.

"It is," Zaul said regretfully, "But I don't see why we can't be friendly about it."

"Let's get somewhere more comfortable, shall we?"

I led Zaul to a room with some chairs and sat down on one. Zaul did the same.

Zaul opened, "I've come here to tell you that Lucky is very impressed with what you've done. You and your entire team in fact. Lucky knew about the officer you captured. He is a major thorn in the side of the Empire. Or was. You did an excellent job."

I smiled, "I did the planning, but it was mostly a team effort."

Zaul nodded, "I heard that you and your two Lieutenants make an excellent team."

"Rayna and Zander are excellent Lieutenants, I wouldn't have been able to complete the mission without them."

Zaul smiled for a moment, then got back to business, "Anyways, Lucky is considering you, Rayna, and Zander for commendation. You may be granted command of a base sooner then you think. You're rising up the ranks Wolfe."

"I am happy to serve the Empire."

Zaul frowned, looking a bit worried, "Wolfe, are your memories coming back?"

"They are," I said, slightly confused. Zaul seemed worried like that a lot when he talked with me. I'm not sure why.

"Tell me about them."

I related to him some of the stories about how I've served the Empire in my past life. As he heard more and more of my memories, he began to look less worried and more cheery.

"Well, good," he said at last, "I'm glad you're getting your memories back."

He reached into his shirt and unfolded a piece of paper, "The Empire has another mission for you, so to speak," he handed me the paper, "Those Resistance members you captured a few days ago. Their trial is tomorrow. Lucky himself thinks you are ready enough to make sure the proceedings go smoothly. You are to handle security and make sure the trial goes well. Are you up for it Wolfe?"

It sounded exciting, "I'm up for it!"

"Good. You'll find everything you need to know in that document."

We both stood.

"When will you be leaving for the Isle?"

"The day after tomorrow. I want to see that that Resistance officer is put away for good."

"Okay, I should probably prepare my security force. Until we meet again," I offered my hand.

Shaking my hand, Zaul continued, "Until we meet again."

I prepared my security force and reorganized it when I found it was inefficient. There was night and then there was day, it came time for the trial. It was a rare sunny day in No Man's Landing, and a large crowd had gathered in the town square to watch the trial. I was running security from within the crowd. The trial began at three o'clock. I had already stopped two rescue attempts by that time and I was working to prevent a third group from breaking the prisoners out.

There were the fifteen Resistance members I had captured on a stand, as well as the officer and his wife.

The judge stepped forward, "Alexander Alderman, you and your allies are charged with high treason against the Empire. How do you plead?"

Alexander stood forward, "I plead that you realize what you are doing. The Empire is destroying Aethasia! Fog is controlling the minds of our children, and the automatons are causing terror in the streets! I beg you, fight against this tyranny. I plead guilty because I am proud of what the Resistance is doing, because I believe that the Empire is unjust on the people of Aethasia and I believe that it should come down. The Great Engineer should rule again!"

"Thank you," the judge interrupted.

I thought about that. It was a nice speech, I'm not sure who this 'Great Engineer' person was. I resolved to look into history about it later.

"Is there no other evidence?" the judge asked.

There was silence.

"Considering all of the evidence, I find the Defendant guilty, and I sentence the Defendant and all of his associates...to death."

That shocked me. Death!? They don't deserve death, they're just misguided! I was more deeply shocked when I realized that my position as head of security for the trial also made me the executioner.

Zaul looked at me from where he was standing. I nodded and walked towards the stand with the prisoners on it. I commanded a dozen Troubleshooters from around the courtyard to follow me. We stood all in a row before the prisoners.

I need to command my automatons to fire on the prisoners.

I can't do this.

I approached Zaul and talked to him, "I can't execute them. They don't deserve death."

"It's been mandated by law, Wolfe. You have to do it."

"But..."

"I order you to execute those people," Zaul said, temper rising.

"...Yes sir," I said hesitantly.

I raised my control gauntlet and pointed it towards the prisoners. I was about to enter in the command, but I saw the sad faces of the Resistors. Alexander went next to his wife and they embraced for the last time.

"I can't do this," I said, lowering my gauntlet. "I won't!"

"Wolfe! Do it!" Zaul commanded.

I turned on him, "No," I said very firmly, "I will not do it."

Zaul sighed, "I wish you would have done it," he reached into his shirt and removed a remote, "Because now you are going to come to regret disobeying the Empire."

Everything I knew about Zaul as a friend seemed to disappear. He pressed a button on the remote which activated the fog control in my armor. It glowed a sickly green.

What!? I thought Zaul fixed it!

"Now," Zaul said, "Execute those traitors."

"Yes sir," I said in a dark voice.

What? I didn't say that, did I?

I turned around. A few of the nearest Aethasians in the audience saw my face and recoiled.

Am I smiling!?

I raised my gauntlet and pointed it at the stand.

No.

I stopped.

"Do it!" Zaul shouted.

I struggled against the armor's control for a few seconds, but it finally overcame me and I began imputting the command. There was one more key to press.

NO!

I pressed down on the button.

NOOOOO!!!!!

I spun around and changed the targeting to Zaul's remote. The automatons opened fire on Zaul, destroying the remote. The fog in my armor stopped glowing immediately and I regained control of my body. My troubleshooters opened fire on other automatons, inciting chaos in the courtyard. Other autofficers struggled to form an effective defense. The people ran in every direction.

I continued for half a minute before Zaul had the semblance of mind to use my override code and transfer my automatons to his control gauntlet. Now without any defense, I ran, trying to hide in the crowd of people.

The Resistors I had been trying to secure the event against chose this moment to charge into the courtyard, aiming to rescue their allies on the podium, which only added to the chaos.

Lost in the tumult, nobody was able to find me. I was about to enter the business district when I stopped. I saw Rayna and Zander. They were both staring at me, unbelieving. Rayna looked horrified, Zander looked enraged.

"There he is!" Zander shouted, ordering his automatons to fire at me.

A few bullets flew into my armor, which strangely didn't seem to protect me as much as it used to. I was wounded in two locations on my torso and one location on my leg before I made it out of the courtyard. Automatons continued to chase after me, but I disappeared into the crowd again and they lost me.

I made it out of No Man's Landing, and then I ran.

I ran until my legs burned, and then I kept running. I couldn't believe what just happened. Eventually, I collapsed in the dirt. I laid there for a minute and then I stood and ripped my armor off and threw it in a pile. I looked at my wounds underneath. They looked pretty bad, but I couldn't turn back. I kept running, north. I ran and ran for another five minutes before I fell over because of exhaustion. Then I cried without shame because everything I had been working for my entire life had been ruined. And then I was silent. I opened my eyes a few minutes later, confused. I felt something strange. I didn't know what that feeling was. It felt painful, but prodding. Strange but somehow safe. I got up and continued walking. The feeling only got stronger as I continued, but I couldn't stop. I saw swirls of purple floating around in the air as I got closer into what seemed to be a lake.

Aether I thought.

I finally reached the pool. An entire lake of Aether.

Touch it, I thought I heard someone say, Touch the Aether.

I didn't want to resist the feeling. It felt so right.

I touched the pool.

I immediately became very sick and stood up, coughing. I threw up a huge amount of sickly green fog onto the shore of the lake. The fog ran into the lake and evaporated as it did so. The last thing I remembered was falling backwards into the lake of Aether, and then the world turned black.

A Light in the Darkness Discussion

Kitty_Ironcraft 2019-06-05 21:06:00 UTC #8

Chapter 5: The Call

"I bet you can't catch me!" I shouted.

Without waiting for an answer, I turned and ran out the back door. Giggling all the way, I ran up to the tree that was in the backyard. I quickly began to ascend the tree. Getting into higher branches, I looked all around me, feeling the breeze blow through the tree. The wind tickled me. I laughed, looking down at my pursuers.

"Can't catch me up here!" I laughed.

"Oh no," my mom replied, smiling, "How are we ever going to get up there."

"I guess you win," my dad smiled, "Are you going to come down from there?"

I shook my head 'no', trying to keep from laughing.

"Allright then," my mom said, "I guess we'll have to eat the honey cakes without you."

"No!" I shouted, "Wait for me! Here I come!"

I jumped out of the tree and into the waiting arms of my parents. They caught me, and we all rolled around on the grass, laughing and giggling and loving.

What is this? I thought, Are these my parents? I don't remember this. What's going on!?

Wolfe floated on his back in the Aetherswell. He was unconscious and completely submerged except for his face. A figure stepped onto a boulder, watching Wolfe in the distance. He began to walk towards him.

My eyes shot open. I looked around quickly. My parents, or whoever they were, were gone now. I was back in real life, laying on hard rock looking up at the night sky. I checked my body for the gunshot wounds, but they were completely healed over. I think the bullets were even removed.

I'm sure Aether didn't do that.

"Good morning," a voice said.

Shocked, I turned in the direction of the voice. There was a man leaning on a rock about 5 meters from me. What is he doing here? I didn't trust him. I stood up, "Who are you?" I asked warily.

"Calm down," he said, "I'm a friend," he smiled, "Sit down, you've been through a lot."

"I'll stand," I stated firmly.

"Okay, whatever you want."

"Now," I spoke sharply, "Who are you?"

"You'll find out someday," the stranger said, somehow not angered by my tone, "A better question is: Who are you?"

"Who am I?" I asked, thrown off balance by the question.

The man nodded.

"I'm...I'm...my name is Wolfe and I am..." I cringed, "I was an autofficer for the Empire.

The man nodded, his eyes showing understanding, "Fog has crept into every facet of your being, the Empire has corrupted who you really are. They've lied to you and given you a false name. If you want to truly change this world for the better, you have to cast off the lies, the hate, and the darkness. You need to find out who you truly are."

"And you know who I am!?" I shot back, "How do you know so much about me!?"

"I knew your parents," the man said, "They were good friends of mine."

My parents? I stopped in my tracks. The vision I had in the Aether pool came to the forefront of my mind. "My parents?" I asked, slowly, "Tell me about them!"

The man shook his head, "If I did everything that everyone wanted to do, then people would never be able to grow and thrive. Their spirits would stagnate and they would become lazy, and dependent on outside help. If you want to overcome your amnesia, you must remember your past without my help."

"How did you know I lost my memory!?"

The man remained silent.

"That's it. I'm leaving," I turned away and began to walk.

The man didn't follow me, but didn't walk away either, "When I rescued you from the Aetherswell, you were unconscious. You might not have seen the light ever again, but I believe you will."

I don't get it," I thought, and kept walking.

"Wolfe," the man said. I stopped.

"Never forget that the Great Engineer loves you. You may walk away from him now, but he will never leave you. If you ever want to return, he will be waiting, arms open wide. Never forget."

I turned and he was gone.

I stuck my hands into my pockets, Strange.

Then I felt something in my pockets.

Surprised, I pulled it out. There was a package in there that I didn't remember putting in there. Placing the package on the ground, I opened it up and looked inside. The first thing I removed was a note scrawled in elaborate handwriting. The second thing was a small metal device that I recognized immediately: an Aethermeter. It was full of swirling Aether, glowing purple in the early morning sky. The third object was a single nail with a red string draped around it. I looked around again for any sign of the stranger, but he had simply disappeared.

Who are you?

I read the note. It told me that I should return to No Man's Landing and head to an address somewhere on the west side of town. The note said that the address was a secret Resistance base.

Why should I go there? I scoffed, Why should I visit my enemies?

Maybe I could become their ally.

Maybe I could turn them in to the Empire to get my standing back.

Either way, I would have to go there to gain any advantage.

I stood and walked back to No Man's Landing for two minutes until I stopped.

What if the Resistance would see me as a threat? What if they are just as bad as the Empire?

I stood for several minutes thinking up an answer, but in the end I could find no reason against me going. Where else would I go? What else do I have to lose?

So I went on.

The light of the sun began to peek its way over the horizon as I set foot in the city outskirts. Security was tighter than usual, which was most likely due to my escape. However, I knew Imperial protocols so avoiding the patrols wasn't very difficult.

It actually gave me some time to think about questions I'd been handing. Most of the questions revolved around Zander. He had been my friend for more than three years, and he turned on me just like that. I don't understand why he did that.

Back in the real world, I noticed that I was getting close to the address on the letter. Finally reaching it's location; I was reasonably shocked to find that it was a pillow factory. An abandoned pillow factory no less.

I walked up to the door, which was hanging awkwardly on one hinge. I was about to knock, but then I stopped myself.

If the Resistance is my enemy, then I don't want them to have the element of surprise.

I step around the rusty old door and look inside. It was very dark but it became brighter as the morning matured. I was in a moderately sized room, and there was scarcely enough light to see all around it. I began to search the entire building. After two complete sweeps of the area, I began to wonder if the letter I had received was in fact accurate. On my third search, I decided to throw around some pillows to see if there were any trapdoors. I didn't find any secret entrances to any Resistance bases in either storeroom. I decided to sweep the area one more time before giving up. This time, in the second storeroom, I noticed a slight irregularity in the wall. It wouldn't have been noticed by a passing glance. I approached the irregularity and pushed on it. Nothing. I pushed a bit harder, still nothing. Then I tried pulling and when that didn't work I looked for a wedge to try to open it. After a few minutes, I became extremely frustrated. It must not be a secret door after all. In my frustration I kicked the wall from my sitting position. To my surprise, the panel swung inward, revealing a secret passageway.

"Hmm..." I shrugged before going in and closing the door behind me.

There was a long flight of stairs on the other side; similar to ones I had seen in hotels. However, these stairs could probably only fit two people walking abreast, and it was much darker here than in any hotel I had visited.

I walked down the staircase to the first and only door, which was two floors below where I had entered from. I opened the door a crack and peeked in. I saw people walking around and doing all sorts of things; carrying papers, training, studying pictures on the wall, etc. I could tell they were Resistors by their uniforms.

Just at that moment, I wondered how I was going to get in without being seen.

Allright, I thought, I guess now is the moment of truth.

I began to push the door open and then I heard a gun click behind me. Something cold pressed against my neck.

I froze.

"I wonder what brings you down here, Autofficer," a hostile feminine voice said.

I was caught.

She pushed me through the door, keeping her pistol trained on me. She led me through the Resistance outpost towards what seemed to be the meeting room. Everyone else stopped what they were doing and watched the display.

A handful of Resistors had been talking in the meeting room but they too stopped when they saw my approach.

"I found him coming in through the main entrance," my captor said, still behind me, "He's an autofficer."

I heard several gasps of realization and I saw many Resistors nodding as they recognized me. I had become sort of famous. Or infamous, I suppose, with the Resistance. I'm sure at least half of the Resistance knew my face and most at least recognized my name. The Great Autofficer Captain Wolfe. I saw fear in some eyes, anger in others.

It was a foolish idea to come here.

A nicely dressed Resistor in his 20s spoke up, "Thank you Raven." I assumed he was the leader of this outpost.

"You can leave him here," he continued, "He won't try anything while he's surrounded by so many of us."

"Yes sir," Raven said. She lowered her gun away from my head, turned, and walked off. I watched her walk towards a nearby wall and lean against it. She had jet-black hair and cold eyes.

"What are you doing here, Autofficer Wolfe?" the Resistor questioned.

Raven interrupted, almost talking to herself, "I'd wager he's here to attack us and take us prisoner. He's probably got an army of automatons waiting at the door."

The leader gave her a stern look.

"What?" she asked, shrugging.

"I asked him."

"I'm just stating my opin..."

"Raven..."

She glared at him and then took a breath, calming herself. "Whatever you say, Nate," she said with a mock salute.

Nate took a breath as well, turning back to me, "Well?"

I had been preparing my answer, "I received a letter that told me I should go to this address. The letter said that there was a Resistance base here...I..."

Why did I come here!? I tortured myself.

"Who gave you the letter?" Nate asked.

"I don't know," I wish I knew.

"That is very believable," Raven remarked sarcastically.

"Raven!" Nate snapped.

Raven smiled, "Do you really think we can trust him? Do you really think that there's any good in him? He's Autofficer Wolfe! He's been hunting the Resistance down for months! He's ruthless! And you think that there is a chance we can trust him!?"

Nate looked at her, his face strained.

Ruthless? I was horrified.

"I didn't think so," Raven concluded. She leaned back against the wall, seemingly contented.

Nate seemed to accept her argument. He looked at a few other Resistors, "Search him, then bring him to the guardhouse and put him in a cell.

They nodded.

I considered making a break for it, but I knew that my chances of escaping were next to none.

Right before the two Resistors grabbed me, a voice shouted from behind me, "Wait!"

I remembered that voice.

A Resistor had just ran in the room, that much was obvious because she was breathless.

She walked towards Nate, "This is the autofficer that helped me escape a few months ago!"

I remember! The girl who I helped escape on my second day!

The Resistors in the room were quite taken aback by this fact, and they began talking amongst themselves.

The girl walked towards me, "Do you still have the letter?"

"Yes."

"Can you show it to me?"

I nodded and took the letter out of my pocket and gave it to her. She read it over, "Where did you say you got this?"

"I found it in a bag in my pocket after I talked to some guy. There was also an Aethermeter and a nail."

The room went dead silent.

I looked around, "What?"

At length, the girl said, "Did the nail have a scarlet thread on it?"

"...yes?" I answered, confused. I removed the nail from the bag and showed it to her.

Everyone in the room stared at it. For ten seconds.

"It's a Scarlet Nail," the girl said, turning to Nate, smiling, "He got the note from the Scarlet Man."

As if the floodgates were opened, almost every Resistor in the room began talking furiously with one another. I stood, utterly confused.

"Who is the Scarlet Man?" I whispered to the girl above the noise.

She looked astonished but recovered quickly, "He's the leader of the Resistance. Few of us have ever caught even a glimpse of him."

"Ah," I said.

Nate seemed to have made up his mind about something, "Quiet down," he said.

The sound in the room died down.

"This is an interesting turn of events," he said, "I personally don't believe we can trust this autofficer, but if Scarlet Man trusted him enough to give him this note then we have to trust Wolfe as well."

Many of the Resistors nodded.

Nate looked in my direction, "Does the note say why you should be here?"

"No," I replied, "It just said that I should go here, it didn't say why."

"Hmm...then why are you here?"

"I don't know really. The Empire is after me because I disobeyed orders, so I don't really have anywhere else to turn."

Raven exhaled loudly at Nate, "What do you expect to do? Welcome him with open arms and let him steal all of our secrets and then report back to the Empire? I don't trust him."

"Then what do you recommend?" Nate asked.

"A test," Raven replied, "Let Wolfe prove himself to us. Then, and only then, we will know if he's trustworthy."

Many of the Resistors seemed to agree.

"Very well," Nate said, "Perhaps Wolfe can help with our problem."

"Which is?" I asked.

Nate nodded at the Resistor I had rescued from the Imperial base. She said, "Over the past few months we've been trying to pin down a certain Imperial: Dr. Fog," she looked at me.

"I've heard of him," I said.

"Okay. Anyways, Dr. Fog is a scientist and we've heard rumor that he is experimenting with Fog to make it even more dangerous. He has also been known to experiment on people. He needs to be stopped. However, he is very elusive and we haven't been able to track down his location. He is also very wily; he got us into a trap some time ago while we were following a false lead. I'd still be in prison if it weren't for you."

"Well," I said, "I believe that Dr. Fog is scheduled to be in No Man's Landing tomorrow, actually."

Nate looked startled, "How do you know that?"

"I heard it from my superior. I was supposed to make sure nothing happened to the Doctor."

"Really?" Nate said, still surprised.

"I know when he's coming in and how, what security he has, and where he will be staying."

Nate composed himself. To the crowd, he spoke, "This is what we've been waiting for. We might finally stop him and save those people," to me, "Maybe this is why the Scarlet Man sent you to us. If you help us and make this mission successful, then we'll know we can trust you. Agreed?"

"Agreed," I said.

It's amazing, I thought, going from working for the Empire to working with the Resistance in one day. I wasn't completely sure if I even wanted to help the Resistance, but if I was right about the Empire, then it was my enemy. And as the old saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I was helping the Resistance for no other reason than to hide out from the Empire.

Surprisingly, something inside me felt...almost at home with the Resistance. Despite that, I sorely hoped I wasn't making a serious mistake.

A Light in the Darkness Discussion

Kitty_Ironcraft 2019-07-02 18:48:44 UTC #9

Chapter 6: Righting the Wrongs

We talked and planned the attack for several hours before Nate and a few other high-ranking officers went into a private office to confer amongst themselves.

I was left standing by myself in the meeting room, quite sure that I would never be able to work for the Empire again. My face was probably stamped onto every other building by now, and even if I returned repentant, they would never forgive me for disobeying orders. Or for sharing top-secret information with the Resistance. If the Empire ever caught me, I'd have a life sentence. Or worse.

I shivered, and then I noticed the Resistor who had stood up for me. I also realized that I didn't know her name, not when I rescued her and not when she rescued me. I resolved to ask her. She had been watching me, but now she was crossing the room towards me. She stopped about five feet away, looking as if she were about to say something but didn't know exactly what to say.

I took a deep breath and waited for her to speak. When she finally did, it was a question, "What was He like?"

I frowned. The question took me completely off guard, "Who?"

She raised an eyebrow, "Him."

I squinted, still having no idea what she meant.

She seemed to understand my confusion. "The Scarlet Man," she explained, "What was he like?"

"Why do you call the Scarlet Man 'He' or 'Him'?"

She thought about it for a second, "Because it honors him, I guess."

"But it doesn't make any sense...take this for an example: 'A man was walking down a street, and then he saw him.' Did the Scarlet Man see the person, or did the person see the Scarlet Man. We don't know."

She stared at me blankly. She obviously hadn't heard anything like that before.

I looked at the far wall, sighing to myself. It doesn't matter that much, why do I have to care so much about little things like that?

I tried getting back to her question, "Have you ever seen him?"

"Who?"

"Very funny."

She flashed a brief smile, "Me, personally? No. I've never seen the Scarlet Man, but I really want to. A few of my friends have seen him and they said that he was the most wonderful person in Aethasia. I figure if I can't see him, I still want to learn as much about him as possible. So, what was he like?"

I could tell she was incredibly dedicated to the Scarlet Man. It made me glad to see such devotion. I tried to answer her question, "Well, I don't remember much about him, but there was something special about his eyes, and he smiled a lot--"

She grabbed me by the shoulders and stared into my eyes. Her frenzied look radiated amazement, "You saw him!?"

I was confused, "...Yes?"

"But you saw his face!"

"Yes?"

"He always wears a scarlet cloak and hood! No one has ever seen his face!" She lowered her arms and began to pace rapidly before turning back towards me, "What did he look like!? What was his hair color!? Eye color!? Was he clean-shaven? Did he have a beard!?"

I was about to answer, but I suddenly found that I remembered very little about the Scarlet Man besides what I had already told her. I hadn't paid much attention in the moment and couldn't remember anything else.

"Well!?" she prodded.

"I'm sorry...I don't remember anything else."

Her gaze fell to the floor, I could tell she was crestfallen.

I felt bad about what I had said. I willed myself to remember anything else about the Scarlet Man, but I came up empty.

She looked back up at me, with a grim smile, "That sounds like him."

The Resistance leaders began filing back into the room; apparently they had made a decision.

The girl began stepping away from me, "Well, thanks for trying."

I struggled against myself, "Wait!"

She turned back towards me, "Yes?"

"I never caught your name."

She smiled, "Auriel."

I smiled and nodded, and Auriel walked away.

Nate prepared to speak, "We have decided that this opportunity is to great to pass up. We will send a small group of Resistors into the Imperial compound to capture Dr. Fog and bring him to justice. Since Auriel, Orville, and Tess have been trying to capture Fog for all these months, they will be included on the mission. Since Wolfe knows the layout and security of the base, he will accompany the group as well. Raven has requested she be part of the attack as well, and I granted her request."

I turned my eyes towards Raven, who was glaring at me.

Nate continued, "Raven will serve as the leader of the group, and she will make sure everything runs smoothly."

Great.

"I believe any more than five will attract too much attention, but there will be more Resistors hidden around No Man's Landing if the main group will need support. Any questions?"

Nobody responded to Nate's question.

"Excellent. I suggest that you all arm yourselves, prepare yourselves, and go to bed early tonight. We are all going to have a difficult day tomorrow. May the Great Engineer be with us!"

And with that, the meeting seemed to be dismissed. Resistors began talking with each other and traveling in every direction. I decided to take Nate's advice and head to the armory. I browsed the weapons and located a longsword in good condition. I also found a pair of flintlock pistols. After finally equipping myself, I began to head towards the sleeping quarters. As I opened the doors of the armory, I was startled when I saw Raven standing outside, waiting for me. She grabbed me, spun me to the side, and pushed me against the doorframe.

Her furious eyes were colder than the Snowmoors, "Nate may think he can trust you, but I can see you for who you really are. You're an Autofficer, and you will always have fog in your heart. I'll be watching you. Don't try anything, or I'll make sure you'll regret it."

She let me go and walked away.

I stood in the doorway, angry and hurt. She's never going to trust me.

Nobody probably ever would.

I woke up early the next day and met up with my team Auriel's group of three (whom had escaped from the prison a few months prior) consisted of Orville and Tess. They all seemed to be a friendly lot. Orville was the security expert. I was told that he could open any door. Tess was the warrior and fog containment specialist. Auriel was the leader. She wasn't the best leader I had ever seen, strategically that is, but I had never seen a leader so connected with their troops before. She genuinely cared about Orville and Tess, and knew them well enough to guess what they wanted to do. As a leader, what Auriel lacked in strategy, she gained twofold in coordination and morale. She seemed to be a good leader out of love. She even seemed to care for Raven, and me!

I had never seen that before.

We left the base at seven o'clock. In addition to our group of five, there were almost a dozen Resistors hiding out in the streets around the target. We almost had made it to the rear entrance. Peeking around the corner of a drab building, I found it. The rear entrance was guarded by two Troubleshooters.

I looked back at Auriel, smiling, "Wasn't it just a few months ago we were trying to break out of this place?"

She grinned, "Yeah, that's ironic."

Raven whispered, "Keep quiet! We don't want the automatons to hear us and report us."

My mouth clamped shut. Raven evidently did not have the same gift of leadership as Auriel did.

We waited for the automatons to leave, and they would. On the next street over, a Resistor in disguise walked next to an Imperial propaganda machine.

"The Isle off the coast of this town is a highly important fog mine, and one of the most important sources of fog rock in the land. Something for the citizens of No Man's Landing to be proud of. And to think, it used to be a pointless nature reserve."

Without warning, the Resistor whipped out a Tesla Hammer and smashed the machine to bits.

"HALT!" one of the Troubleshooters commanded, "DESTROYING IMPERIAL PROPERTY IS AGAINST THE LAW!"

The Resistor smiled, "Then come and get me!" then he ran off. The Troubleshooters followed. My group waited until the automatons were some distance away, and then we dashed to the door.

I tried the latch, "It's locked."

Orville approached the door, a sly smile on his lips, "Not for long."

He reached into a pouch and fumbled for a few seconds. He removed a red bottle.

"Solvent?" I asked, confused.

"Mmm Hmmm," Orville began pouring the solvent around the door frame.

Still confused, I replied, "I thought solvent was a cleaning agent."

"Did you know that solvent was the main ingredient in dynamite?"

"I do," I said, watching Orville spreading the fluid, "But I've always wondered why."

"Well," Orville said, not ever drawing his focus away from his work, "This isn't pure solvent. It's a little mixture that I came up with that's mostly solvent."

"OK..." I said. I was getting the be quiet! eyes from Raven.

Orville finished, replaced the solvent bottle, and removed a matchbox. He struck a match and put the flame against the greased doorframe. The solvent began glowing orange, and the glow began spreading throughout the solvent in both directions.

Orville blew out the match and turned to us, "We should take a step back."

We did, and the orange glow continued down both sides of the door. When the glow collided at the bottom, there was a flash of light and a small pop. Then, the entire door fell outward. Tess, Auriel, and Orville caught the door, moved it to the side, and laid it gently on the ground.

"Well," Orville wryly whispered to Raven, "I guess my plan did work."

Raven glowered for a second, "Allright! Onto part two!"

I readied myself. There were three autofficers stationed at points around the compound. They were commanding all of the automaton patrols within the building. If we could discreetly knock the autofficers out and take their control gauntlets, then we would be able to move to the high security area underground without notice. Raven had insisted that I stay with her, so we made our way to the rendezvous point in the basement. Auriel, Orville, and Tess moved in different directions to take out our assigned autofficers.

I traveled through corridors and hallways. Left, Right, Left, Right, Right, Left.

This was all so familiar. Wasn't I just here just a few days ago? How times have changed.

Raven walked behind me, supposedly making sure that I didn't try anything.

Then we heard something. Clanking, whirring. Automatons were coming from ahead of us.

I looked all around; the closest door was a few feet in front of me and to my left. I dashed into it. Raven wasn't as close to that door and had to backtrack a few steps and enter into a different door. A group of three automatons walked down the hallway. There were three Pacifiers, one of them an officer.

"Wolfe!" Raven whispered harshly, "Stay there!"

"SOUND DETECTED!" The Pacifier Officer announced, "MOVING TO INVESTIGATE!"

Great! Now what are we going to do!?

I know what room Raven ducked into. It was a maintenance closet. She would have nowhere to hide. My room was a meeting room, and there was an exit on the opposite side.

I grimaced and walked over to a fragile wood chair. I lifted my boot and slammed it on the chair. It collapsed, sending splinters flying around the room.

"NEW SOUND DETECTED!"

I didn't wait for them to barge into the room. I sprinted to the other side, slipped through the door and closed it. I put my ear up to the door.

The sound was slightly muffled.

"REPORT! CHAIR HAS COLLAPSED IN MEETING ROOM B!"

Dumb robots.

"MOVING BACK TO FIRST NOISE!"

I kicked the door.

"NEW SOUND DETECTED! MOVING TO INVESTIGATE!"

"You're welcome Raven," I said to myself, before I shot down the hallway I was in. I ran into the first doorway I saw, and then I slipped into a closet. I heard the sound of metal feet marching towards me, and then away from me.

Then there was silence.

I stepped out of the closet and started leaving the door and heading towards the Rendezvous point when I heard something. It was a soft noise, coming from an adjacent room.

It was crying.

That's when I remembered what this room was.

Rayna's room.

The door to her bedroom was slightly ajar, so I put an eye to the crack. She was sitting on her bed, looking terrible. She must have been crying all night. I wondered why, but then I knew the answer.

Today was Sunday. I had promised to go out on a date with Rayna last night.

I could imagine it all. She would have waited for me, for hours. She would have come back here past midnight, heartbroken. She collapsed on her bed, crying all night.

A tear rolled down my cheek.

I can't be distracted by this right now. I have to do my mission!

I turned and began to silently walk away. I noticed her notebook sitting open on the desk. I stopped and began to read it.

Tuesday - I'm going to ask him tomorrow. I know I've been putting this off for too long. I need to get over my fears and ask Wolfe out on a date. I'll ask to train with him and while we're training I'll ask him. Here's hoping it works.

Wednesday - I can't believe it! He accepted! I'm so filled with joy, I don't know how to explain it! The date's set for Saturday. I don't know if I've been more excited in my entire life! I hope I'll be able to tell Wolfe how I really feel about him. How I don't just want to be his partner as an Autofficer--

I stopped reading abruptly. This was an invasion of privacy. But I couldn't stop. Not now.

--but in all of his life as well. I can't wait until Saturday!

I shook my head; I had no idea, Rayna.

Thursday - Today was terrible. Wolfe disobeyed an Imperial order and now he's on the run. Zander is hunting him down. Everything...all of my hopes and dreams were destroyed in one day. Why did you have to do it Wolfe? Why did you have to ruin your life, and mine?

Tears welled in my eyes.

Friday - I can't believe that Wolfe would abandon the Empire. I can't believe that he would abandon me. I'm going to wait at the diner for Wolfe to show up. He will show up. He has to.

There was no entry for Saturday.

I bit my lip. Another tear tracked down my face.

I grabbed Rayna's pen and began writing. If I had been thinking, I would never have done it. It very well could jeopardize the mission. But, then again, this needed to be said. Rayna needed to know.

I'm sorry Rayna. I don't know why I did it. I just knew that what I was doing, what the Empire was doing was wrong. I don't know if I made the right choice...I guess there's no turning back now. I'm sorry...

I hesitated.

...I love you too. Goodbye. -Wolfe.

I put the notebook down and took one more glance in Rayna's direction before running out of the room.

There were no more automatons on my way to the Rendezvous point. I was almost there when a knife pressed against my back.

"Wolfe!?" Raven whispered.

"Yes."

"Where have you been!?" she hissed.

"Distracting the automatons from finding you."

She lowered the blade and I turned around to face her.

"You were gone for an awfully long time," she whispered, "You could have done a lot of other things. You could have betrayed us to the Empire--"

"I'm not a traitor!" I whispered harshly.

"Says the person who betrayed the Empire just a few days ago. Maybe you are trying to earn back their favor."

"I betrayed the Empire once, they would never accept me again, no matter what I did. You don't think I'm dumb enough to believe that I would ever be accepted back into the Empire?" my eyes moistened, "Because they'd kill me before they ever let me back."

She searched me with her eyes, "That remains to be seen."

Arrrgg! Why does she have to be so difficult!

New footsteps sounded. It was Tess, carrying a control gauntlet. Our argument was over. Soon, Auriel and eventually Orville arrived as well. All three were holding stolen control gauntlets.

Auriel smirked, "Orville, you made it! I thought that you had finally met your match."

"Hey!" Orville replied with mock pain, "Just because I'm not trained in weapons like you are doesn't mean I can't fight," he removed a purple bottle, "That autofficer is going to be catching some z's."

Auriel flashed a smile, Orville smiled as well.

"Let's get this door open," Raven said.

Orville gave his control gauntlet to me and began working on the door.

Auriel held up her gauntlet like it was an alien device, "Uh, Wolfe? How do you use this?"

I explained how to use certain basic functions, such as stand down and open fire. Orville finished up with the door and we moved inside the high security area.

"Hey Wolfe," Raven whispered, "Give me the gauntlet."

I looked down at the control gauntlet over my arm, "Why?" Then I realized the answer. She doesn't trust me with it.

"Raven, please," Auriel interjected, "He knows how to use it, he should use it."

"I don't trust an autofficer with a control gauntlet," Raven stated.

"Well you have to trust him with it. You can have mine if you want."

Raven let out an angry sigh, "Keep it."

Tess opened the next door and found a platoon of Automatons on the other side. She jumped back.

"INTRUDERS DETECTED!"

I raised my gauntlet, whispering, "Stand down!"

Auriel and Tess seemed to get my hint and they ordered the automatons to stand down.

The automatons lowered their weapons, "OUR APOLOGIES, AUTOFFICERS!"

"Yeah right," Raven muttered.

We walked through the room of autos unharmed. We arrived at the far door.

"Fog is right behind this door," I said.

"Good," Raven replied, "Let's capture him and finish our mission."

Tess tried the door, "It's not locked."

"Probably doesn't need to be," Auriel offered.

"Let's do this," Raven said, pushing the door open. It was dark inside.

That's strange.

Auriel shrugged, "Maybe he's not awake yet."

We all knew how unlikely that was.

"I found the lights," Tess remarked.

The switch flipped and the entire underground laboratory glowed white in the radiance of the incandescent bulbs.

Only, there was no laboratory.

There was nothing in the room at all.

"Where is he!?" Raven demanded.

"He should be right here!" I answered.

A new voice echoed from behind us, "But he's not."

My heart froze for a second. I know that voice.

I turned around, "Zaul."

Zaul was standing in the midst of the automatons, which were training their guns on my team. Anzok stood at his left and Zander stood at his right.

"Welcome home Wolfe," Zaul purred, his voice sounding almost robotic.

I raised my gauntlet and ordered the automatons to point their weapons at the autofficers, but no response came from the automatons.

Auriel and Tess raised their gauntlets as well, but nothing happened.

I scowled, "Override codes." I threw my control gauntlet to the ground.

Zaul smiled, "You thought you were so smart; running to the enemies and attempting to gain face with them. You thought this plan could actually work," he absentmindedly patted a pocket on his vest. An envelope protruded out of the pocket, "I knew that Doctor Fog was coming here, and I knew you knew. And I guessed that you would leak that intel to the Resistance so that they could give you asylum from the Empire. I spoke with autofficers Anzok and Zander, and they concurred with my findings: someone would come here to try to kidnap the doctor. We took the necessary precautions and laid the perfect trap."

Anzok appeared to be happy and proud. Zander stared daggers in me. I hardly recognized him.

Zaul continued, "No matter whether you claim to fight for the Empire or against it, you will always help us in the end.

Raven reached for her communicator.

"Don't try that," Zaul said, waving his hand, "We've already captured all of your support on the ground. You are alone."

My entire team was visibly shaken. What hope was there now?

"But Wolfe," Zaul said, "There is hope for you."

I raised my eyebrow.

"You obviously were in contact with a Resistance base, which means you know its location. Tell me the position of the Resistance base and I promise that you will be accepted back into the Empire. You could be a Sergeant and your record could be cleared. Do you have anything to say, Wolfe?"

I looked around at everyone. Zaul's face was unreadable. Anzok's was questioning. Zander seemed doubtful. Raven stared angrily at me, silently demanding I say nothing. Tess watched the automatons defiantly. Orville seemed afraid. Auriel looked directly at me, wondering what I would do.

I stepped forward, "I do have something to say."

Raven jumped forward, "No!"

"Silence!" Zaul shouted. Automaton weapons cocked and aimed at Raven.

Raven stepped back. She stared at me with contempt, "Traitor!" she spat.

Zaul looked at me, "What do you have to say Wolfe?"

I glanced around the room, finally locating the power cord, "Duck!"

In the blink of an eye, I unholstered a flintlock pistol with my right hand and aimed it directly at Zaul. He dropped to the floor and I smiled. I now had a clear line of sight to the power cord. I fired and the bullet smashed into the cord, sending sparks flying and causing the lights in the room to flicker. In the same motion, I spun around into the laboratory and shut off the lights. The entire confrontation was shrouded in blackness.

I whispered to the other Resistors, "RUN!!!"

Anzok shouted, "Open fire!"

The room was momentarily illuminated and deafening gunshots reached my ears. Something hit into my chest but I kept going. I rammed into Zaul, who was still on the ground, and we both rolled in the darkness, throwing punches. I threw Zaul into the floor and reached into his pocket. I couldn't see, but I felt the envelope there. I snatched it out and ran in the general direction of the door. I ran in the dark for half a minute before I crashed into a door. I felt around the door for the latch and opened it. There was a gun barrel pointed at my face.

"Oh," Tess said, lowering her rifle, "It's you."

All four Resistors were standing outside the door.

"We didn't think you'd make it," Auriel said.

Raven hesitantly added, "That was a good move."

"Well?" Orville asked, "Can I blow the door now?"

I noticed sticks of dynamite strapped in the four corners of the door. I quickly stepped away from the door.

"Do it!" Raven said.

The door collapsed in an explosion. Rubble and detritus rained from the ceiling. A shockwave ran through the building that knocked all of us to the ground.

When the dust settled, Orville smiled, "That should slow them down."

I stood, looking at the pile of earth and metal where the door used to be, "Lets keep going!"

We ran to the surface, encountering a few isolated automatons on the way, but they were no match for our combined prowess. We finally reached fresh air, but we continued running for a couple of minutes so that we lost ourselves in the streets of No Man's Landing. We all hid in an alley, panting from the exertion and stress.

Auriel beamed, "We made it!"

She hugged Tess, then Orville, then Raven. And then me.

She stepped back, aghast, "Wolfe, you're bleeding!"

I looked down at my tunic, it was soaked with blood.

I had been shot.

Suddenly I felt dizzy. The world around me wobbled back and forth. Black spots appeared in my vision. The ground rushed toward me.

"Wolfe!"

Auriel stood next to Raven in the meeting room of the Resistance base. Raven held the communicator to her ear, "Hello? Does anyone read me?"

It seemed so quiet, Auriel thought.

There were always at least a handful of Resistors around here, chatting, training, joking, planning...but now...

Raven threw the communicator, "Yaaaaaaaaghhhhhh!" It clanked as it bounced away.

Raven turned to look at Auriel. She looks angry.

"It's no use," Raven said, "Zaul wasn't lying. They captured...everyone."

Auriel felt as if she had taken a physical blow. What are we going to do now?

The door to the infirmary opened and Orville stepped out and stretched.

"How's Wolfe?" Auriel pressed.

"I think he's stabilized," Orville said, seeming tired, "Tess is watching him just in case."

Maybe Aether would help! Auriel thought, and she checked her Aethermeter.

Empty. Just like the last four times she checked. She had already used all of it on Wolfe.

The main entrance door slammed open. Raven had her pistols trained in a second. Raven lowered the pistols, "Nate?"

Nate ran to the small group, "Raven! Orville! Auriel! Thank the Great Engineer you're alive and not captured!

Auriel smiled.

Raven holstered her pistols and looked at the communicator, "What happened to you and everyone else? Why couldn't we contact you?"

Nate shook his head, "The Empire was expecting us. They had three airships and they surprised us. My transmitter was destroyed and everyone was captured. I was the only one that escaped. Is there anyone else here?"

Auriel chimed in, "Tess and Wolfe are in the infirmary, Wolfe was injured."

"I don't suppose you were able to apprehend Dr. Fog?"

"No," Auriel answered. She gave the summary of the mission.

Nate sat down heavily on a chair. He sighed, "Then the mission was a failure and we lost most of our people." He looked up, "What do we do now?"

Tess ran into the room, "He's awake!"

I wasn't dead...I don't think being dead would hurt so much. I couldn't move and couldn't open my eyes. I tried to piece together what had just happened. I remembered all at once and sat up, my eyes wide. I winced, even in the dim light of...wherever I was. I noticed shapes standing around me. People. They came more into focus.

I saw Auriel, Tess, Orville, Raven, and...Nate?

"Where am I?" I moaned.

"Don't worry," Auriel said, putting her arm on my shoulder, "You're safe."

I took a deep breath and settled back down, "What happened?"

"The Empire was expecting us," Auriel said, "Everyone on the surface was captured, except Nate. You fell unconscious and we had to drag you back here. By the time we got you here, you were almost dead...the wound was pretty bad. But, we stabilized you and now you're going to be all right."

I took another deep breath and closed my eyes. I opened my eyes and reached into my shirt. I took out the envelope and dropped it on the bed.

Auriel picked it up and opened it quizzically.

"I stole this from Zaul while we were making our escape," I explained.

Auriel skimmed it, her eyes growing huge; "This is a letter from Dr. Fog to Zaul!"

"May I?" Nate asked, presenting his hand.

Auriel handed the letter to Nate and he read:

"Overseer Grimm, I would like to thank you for your exemplary effort in keeping me and my research safe from the Resistance. In gratitude, I would like to invite you to my secret laboratory in Greenshade Caverns so you may see how my experimentation is going along. Due to the threats on my freedom, I will most likely stay here until things cool down, but if you would come and review my work, you could inform Lucky of my breakthroughs. I sincerely hope you accept,
-Dr. Fog"

Nate lowered the letter in his numb hands.

"Greenshade Caverns!" Tess shouted, "On the Isle! We have never known where Fog's primary laboratory was, and now we do!"

"We need to go right away," Auriel agreed, "Before Zaul realizes we have the letter."

"But can we take the laboratory on our own?" Orville questioned, "There's only six of us."

Nate shook his head, "I don't think this is an opportunity we can pass up. I agree with Auriel."

Raven spoke up, "But what if Zaul planted the letter specifically for us to find it? What if this is another trap?"

Nobody spoke for a long time.

"I don't think we have a choice," I said, "If we don't attack now, Fog could slip through our fingers once again. We can't pass this up," I got out of bed and stood up, "The pain is going away, I'm feeling better already."

Tess smiled, "That's Aether for you."

Nate paced around, "Well, the votes are four to two in favor of going," he stopped and looked at me, "You said 'we,' when you referred to us."

I frowned, "I guess I did."

Nate nodded, "Auriel told me about your brave feats. We will do this mission, but we must do one thing first."

I stood in the center of the meeting room. Other Resistors stood around me, and Nate stood right in front of me.

"I, Nathaniel, give to you, Wolfe, this badge and uniform. Serve the Great Engineer and the Scarlet Man with all of your heart and soul and spirit. Welcome to the Resistance."

Rayna read the latest entry in her notebook for the third time. She laid the notebook gently on the bed, new tears wetting her eyes. She heard a knock on the door.

"Come in!"

Zaul entered the room. Rayna stood up immediately, "Overseer Grimm!" she saluted.

"At ease," Zaul said.

She sat down on her bed, closing the notebook, "Is there any word on Wolfe?"

"He was here, this morning."

"Really?"

Zaul nodded, "He was working with the Resistance, trying to kidnap Doctor Fog."

"I can't believe that. Wolfe would never work with the Resistance."

Zaul waved his hand, as if dispersing the disbelief, "Numerous automatons recorded his presence. There is no shortage of evidence."

Rayna looked down, "...Why? Why would he do such a thing."

"I saw him, Rayna," Zaul said.

She looked up.

"He looked...different. Almost like he wasn't in control. Almost as if...the Resistance was controlling him."

She shook her head, "That doesn't sound like Wolfe...how would they be controlling him?" she seemed worried.

"Many ways," Zaul explained, "Threats, mind-controlling drugs, I've heard that Aether can control your mind and strip you of your memories."

She took in a sharp breath, "Then, is there any hope for Wolfe?" she rubbed her notebook.

"I believe so...but I'll need your help."

Rayna stood, her notebook in her hands and her gaze set on Zaul, "Tell me what I need to do."

Edit Requesting

A Light in the Darkness Discussion

Kitty_Ironcraft 2019-07-20 14:10:55 UTC #10

Chapter 7: The Assault on Greenshade

I sat with my family, eating honey cakes.

My mom, my dad, and my two brothers enjoyed a delicious lunch in the bright sun of the day. We told stories, laughed, played games. We had more genuine happiness than anyone I had ever seen.

A harsh knock sounded at the door.

My parents looked at me and my brothers, "Go into the secret compartment!" my mom ordered us.

We ran to the back of the house and pushed on the hidden tile on the wall. It swung open and the three of us ran into it. In the small space, we waited. And listened.

"Hello?" our dad.

"Hello," a male voice replied.

"Come in!" my mom invited.

"I'm sorry, but I can't stay long."

"What is it?" my mom asked, sounding worried.

"The Empire is on to us. An automaton patrol came to my house last night and kidnapped my family. Our scouts are also showing that the Imperial base is being reinforced with more troops. I don't think we will be able to get in anymore, not with the forces we have."

I was able to distinguish his voice now; this was one of my parents' friends from somewhere else in town. I also realized that his children were some of my friends, and the thought of them being in Imperial prison rattled me.

"I'm sorry about your family," my dad said.

The man gave a sad laugh, "They're probably being held in the same facility we are trying to break into. This gives us double the incentive to take it, but half the ability to. I don't know what the Scarlet Man is doing in all of this."

My dad: "We need to have faith that he hasn't abandoned us, even in times like these."

"You're right...it's just difficult, you know? Losing your wife and children. I feel so helpless! I can't do anything to save them.

My mom: "I know, I'd feel the same way if I lost any of my children."

"...I just don't know what the Resistance is going to do now."

I thought of my friends, and how they are now imprisoned. I thought of my family, and how sad they seemed to be. I knew what I had to do.

I opened the latch and I walked back to the main room. When my parents saw me, they were surprised, but I spoke first.

"I'll help you! I'll help fight and I'll get your family back!"

It looked funny coming from a 13-year old, I'm sure. But my age also emphasized my determination.

My mom seemed worried, "But...do you know what this means?"

My dad added, "Son, you could be captured or worse. Are you ready to sacrifice your own life?"

I hesitated, for a moment, "Even if it means sacrificing myself, I'll do it for my friends. I'll fight with you, and we will save them and stop the Empire!"

My parents looked at each other, my dad reached into his pocket, "That's the spirit of the Great Engineer within you. Take this," he handed me something.

I took it, "A Resistance Badge?"

My dad nodded, "If you're going to help us, then you truly are one of us. Welcome to the Resistance."

I pinned the badge to my shirt and smiled, "When do we begin?"

I woke up with the gentle rocking of the waves. I opened my eyes and looked around the bunkroom onboard the ship. I had found it difficult to sleep last night. It wasn't because of the waves, I didn't get seasick...but I wasn't really sure what it was. I roll out of my bunk and walk to the door. It creaks open and I step out into a hallway of the Resistance ship. I climb some stairs and open a final door to the main deck. The sea breeze was cold, but alive. The sun had begun to rise, painting the sky and clouds pink and orange. I walked to the edge of the deck and looked out over the water. I looked out over the horizon. The water and sky met and created a line that surrounded the ship. Everywhere I looked, I saw the same horizon. I was alone here, on this ship. With my comrades.

My friends?

That was one of the things that had been hindering my sleep. I looked down and massaged my Resistance badge.

Why am I working with the Resistance?

I had asked myself that same question a few days before. Asylum from the Empire. Revenge. Fear.

They were not good reasons, so I asked myself again:

Why am I here?

The sea breeze blew on my face, as if trying to comfort me. It didn't help very much.

I am the kind of person who needs to have a reason for things. I need to know why. I never wanted to take things at face value. If I was crafting an Animus Servo and it wasn't working, and then suddenly it was, I would be tempted to take it apart to see what changed. If someone told a joke, I would laugh if it was funny, not just because somebody else laughed. That's why it bothered me so much that I was now part of the Resistance. It seemed like there was no reason for it at all. It needed to make sense! It...

I snapped my fingers. Fog, I thought. That's why I joined the Resistance. The Empire seems to support Fog and I'm quite sure that it's evil. Besides, the treatment I saw the Empire give to prisoners, to troublemakers...it's not right...

But that's not a reason for joining the Resistance. That's a reason for leaving the Empire.

But the Resistance fights against the Empire. If I want to make Aethasia a better place, I need to be a part of the Resistance. I need to free the entire world from fog.

And myself. That's why I joined.

I took a deep breath for a mystery finally solved.

But something else nagged deep in my mind. I felt that there was another reason I joined the Resistance. Maybe several reasons. I knew I wouldn't rest well until I figured out every reason. I don't want to do things on accident. If I really wanted to be a part of the Resistance, then I would be a part of it for the right reasons.

And I would give it every part of my heart.

But for now, I stood on the deck of the ship, smelled the sea, listened to the waves lapping on the hull, watching the horizon...I was at peace.

Peace concealing worry and confusion.

But finally free from fog.

A voice startled me, "Enjoying the view?"

Auriel.

"Yeah," I said.

She walked and stood by the railing with me.

"The horizon's pretty beautiful," I commented.

She nodded, "Mmm hmmm."

We watched the sea together.

"That outfit doesn't look so bad on you either."

I glanced down, noticing for the first time my Resistance gear. Red...Scarlet cloth. Long leggings and arms. Minimal armor. Space devoted for engineering work. A Beret.

I didn't really have time to look at it since I had put it on last night. I guess we were too busy planning our next move.

"It does look pretty good on me," I agreed, "...but I don't really see the point."

She frowned, looking at me.

"I mean..." I searched for the right words, "If we go parading ourselves as Resistors, the Empire will know who we are. It will make it easier for them to spot us and capture us. It doesn't really offer much protection...I think some other armored suit would be better."

And there I went, criticizing fashion choices. Me and my opinions.

After a while, she replied, "That's true, but it also lets other Resistors know that we're friends. And...it's kind of a symbol of hope as well."

I bit my tongue. I was about to say The Empire can make clothing that looks like ours. We can't trust people just because of their clothing.

Again, I needed a reason.

I suddenly realized how easy it is to say something mean or inconsiderate to others.

"I see," I told her. I really didn't see, but I was trying to respect her opinions. For some reason, since I had left the Empire I was being more...considerate. More mindful of other people's feelings.

Maybe it's because I'm finally free of fog, I thought.

I fingered my Aethermeter, Or maybe there's some other reason.

I picked up the small metal gadget in my hand. Aether swirled around inside of it.

I looked up at Auriel, "I'm not exactly sure how to use this."

"Oh," she removed her Aethermeter. It was nearly empty, "Usually, I try to think about..." she laughed, "I don't know...I guess I just think about...about how much the Scarlet Man loves Aethasia," she closed her eyes. The Aethermeter slid open, rapidly and silently. It grew larger and seemed to glow violet. A few swirls of Aether flowed out of it and orbited Auriel, "I also think about how his love makes me want to help others," she opened her eyes, "That's what I feel Aether really is: Love. Truth. The power to do good." The swirls of violet twirled back into the Aethermeter and it latched shut, "Maybe it'll work the same way for you."

Wow. She really does have a way with words.

I stared at the Aethermeter in my palm, "I don't know what love is..."

I suddenly remembered the dream I had last night. My entire family, being happy together. Loving one another.

But was that really me? Is that even my family? I don't recognize them, I just feel that they are. I wished that there was proof that they were my family, but I could come up with nothing but the feeling.

"...but I'll give it a try," I finished.

"Great!" Auriel said.

I closed my eyes and concentrated hard. I tried to think about my family in the dream, and how they loved.

And how I seemed to love.

I opened my eyes, the Aethermeter rested in my palm, closed.

I grimaced.

"Try again," Auriel prodded kindly.

I closed my eyes and tried even harder to remember the love. I tried to think of every good thing I had ever done. I opened my eyes, no Aether swirls.

I was becoming dejected.

"Give it one more try," Auriel said.

I clenched my fists and closed my eyes. Memories flashed through my mind. The Academy Automicus, the Urchins, saving Auriel from the Imperial complex despite what it might have meant for my career, sparing the Resistors, Rayna.

"It's no use," I scowled, "I don't feel any--"

"Wolfe, look!"

I opened my eyes, two sparks of Aether danced around each other in the air in front of me.

I was astounded, "I'm doing that?"

"Yes!"

I thought and the Aether twirled around, spinning slowly above my head, "I don't believe it."

The Aether found its way back to my meter and the device slid shut.

"You're beginning to learn how to love," Auriel said, happy.

"Who said I didn't know how to love before?" I asked, irritated.

"Uh..." Auriel began.

I interrupted, "That's one thing that I really hate about the Resistance. They all assume that everyone in the Empire is evil! Sure, a few of them are, but most people just join because they think it's the only way. They don't understand! But people like, like Raven, they don't understand! They think that the world is black and white. If you are in the Resistance you're good and if you're in the Empire you're evil. Well, I'm sick of it! I know some Imperials that know how to love a lot more than some Resistors. When you were imprisoned in No Man's Landing, I rescued, you, and I was an Imperial! We're not all evil, and I'm tired of people saying that we are!"

"...Oh," Auriel replied, hurt, "...Then, I guess I'll leave you alone."

She looked away from me and walked below decks as fast as possible.

Auriel, wait! I wanted to call after her, but I knew it wouldn't do any good.

I turned back and looked at the sea again.

And I began looking for a reason why I had just done that.

What's wrong with me!? I shouted internally. What possessed me to lash out like that!?

After a moment, I realized it was because of my friends in the Empire. Masson was a good man, and Rayna.

Rayna.

Where could I begin?

She was my friend since I woke up from a coma in the Snowmoors. Over the past three years, she grew to be much more than a friend to me...

I couldn't take her honor and the honor of other good people in the Empire to be insulted!

But that wasn't the only reason.

For if one person spends enough time living in fog, it becomes a part of them. It is then incredibly difficult to remove. I may no longer be wearing the fog armor; I may no longer be working for the Empire, but...

It seemed that I wasn't as free from fog as I thought.

A Light in the Darkness Discussion

Kitty_Ironcraft 2019-07-20 14:11:15 UTC #11

I looked up at last and I saw a cloud of green on the western horizon. A small island interrupted the horizon.

The Isle.

I spread word throughout the ship and we made preparations to go ashore. We pulled up to the dock and disembarked. Auriel didn't look me in the eye.

I winced. Because of my actions, I lost a friend. Probably forever.

It's okay...I'll survive.

We moved through the Isle, avoiding automatons patrolling around and fighting those we couldn't. We kept a low profile.

The six of us arrived at the entrance to Greenshade Caverns.

"Well that's great," Raven said, sarcastically.

We were stopped at the fog gate.

"How are we going to get through that?" Tess asked.

Nate thought for a moment, "Orville, see if you can get this gate down."

Orville hesitated, "Uh...I can try."

He got down on his knees and began fiddling with the fog gate.

I looked behind the wall of fog and saw a beach off in the distance, somewhere else on the Isle.

"Ugh," Raven said, "I wish they could get the Great Engines fixed."

Tess and Nate nodded in agreement.

Orville stood up, "I can't do anything to the fog gate, there's just too much fog."

Tess was worried, "Then how are we going to get to Greenshade?"

I spoke up, "There's a beach over there. We could just land our ship there; we could actually just swim over there. I believe that beach leads directly to Greenshade Caverns and there isn't a fog gate."

"That sounds like a good idea," Nate said, "Let's do it."

"...Yeah," Raven murmured thoughtfully.

We backtracked to the ship, gleaming gold in the rising sun. We took off and sailed to the other beach and landed there. We quickly dispatched the pair of Combustonauts and entered Greenshade Caverns through the back entrance.

The fog began to grow thicker and darker. Our Aethermeters began activating on their own.

"What?" I asked, withdrawing the device.

Aether began flowing out in a ring and creating a sphere around me. Similar effects were happening to my comrades.

"The Aether is protecting us from the fog," Nate explained, "Whenever the fog becomes too thick, we become surrounded by Aether, like a shield. No fog can get past."

The Aether barrier was so thin, it was very nearly invisible. However, it was noticeable because of the ring of fresh air around all of us. The fog was stopped and that created holes in the fog wherever we were.

Interesting.

Nate finished, "However, the contact with the fog will drain our Aether reserves, however slowly. Let's finish this mission before that happens."

I nodded and we ran through the caverns. We only found minimal automaton resistance, typically Mineons and Oscillators. We began splitting up into groups of two so we could search the caverns more efficiently for Dr. Fog's laboratory.

Tess and I searched the north side of the caverns, finding nothing. We met back up at a rendezvous point near the center of Greenshade about a half an hour after we landed on the shore.

Raven and Orville were already waiting there, with good news.

"We found it!" Raven said, "Dr. Fog's lab is in the far east of Greenshade."

"Great!" Tess said.

We waited for Nate and Auriel. Minutes passed. They were late. We were starting to get worried.

"Where are they?" Raven asked, suddenly.

"...I don't know," Orville replied.

We waited a few more minutes.

Raven checked her Aethermeter, "We can't stand around here forever. We need to do something."

"What do you think we should do?" Orville asked.

"We should finish the mission."

Tess looked at Raven, shocked, "But what if they need our help?"

"For all we know, they could be down there already."

"For all we know, they could be captured."

Raven let out a breath.

Orville asked, "What do you think we should do?"

"Well," Raven answered, "I doubt we can take over the lab and capture Dr. Fog with only two of us, and leaving one of us behind to wait for them is pretty much out of the question. So, we have to stay together...We have three options really, stay here, search for Nate and Auriel, or we can go on our own. My vote is for the third option."

"But what if they are waiting for us?" Tess asked.

Raven looked at her, "Every second we wait is another second the Empire has to stop us. If we stay, we've lost."

Tess said, "I think we should look for them."

Orville said, "I trust them, I think they'll be here any minute now."

Raven looked at me, "I guess you're the deciding vote."

I noticed that Raven seemed more at ease around me since I joined the Resistance. That was beside the point; what should we do? Either they're captured, they're coming, or they're already there. I found the third option highly unlikely, but then again they may have found a second entrance.

Wait...

"I hear someone coming!" I whispered.

Voices, traveling down the tunnel towards us. Indistinct, I couldn't tell who they were or what they were saying. We readied our weapons.

We waited.

Two figures turned the corner, I holstered my pistols when I saw Auriel and Nate walking down the tunnel towards us.

"Told you," Orville said.

Raven walked over to them, "Where were you? You're late!"

She sounded harsh, but I knew that she was genuinely worried.

Nate replied, "We had some trouble with automatons, but we're alright.

"Okay," Raven said, "Lets get going, we found the entrance."

We were led to the secret entrance...which turned out to be a rock.

"What's this?" I asked.

Orville smiled and pushed a nearby stalagmite. It moved over a little bit and the rock opened. Apparently, it wasn't a rock, but an automatic door disguised as a rock.

"Wow," Tess remarked.

Raven said, "Orville insisted on testing the walls for metal. Looks like it paid off."

We climbed through the...rock...single file and we found a long flight of steps that continued off into the darkness. We climbed down the stairs for a few minutes. From my reasoning, we were hundreds of feet underground and probably under the ocean. We finally reached a lighted area at the bottom of the steps. There was a fork in the tunnel up ahead. A sign showed directions to different locations in the mine. The sign was color-coded for different locations, and luminous panels on the ground showed directions.

Nate approached the sign. He read, "Laboratory - Green," He looked on the ground, "It appears that the right fork is the 'right' way to go."

The others smiled and followed Nate down the right passageway. I stepped up to the sign and read some of the other locations, "Meeting room, fog mine, prison...prison!?"

Why would there be a prison in a laboratory? Unless...

My blood ran cold.

Experimentation. Human experimentation.

The Doctor needs test subjects to perfect his new fog formula. The only test subjects would be unwilling.

I read the sign again, finding which color the prison was.

Red!

I looked on the ground.

The red line traveled in the direction of the left fork.

I bit my lip and looked down the right fork, where everyone else had gone. I couldn't see them. I looked back to the left fork. I can't just leave the prisoners there! I looked back to the right, and then to the left.

"I'm sorry," I said to no one in particular, and I darted down the left fork.

Auriel walked down the dark, fog-ridden tunnel. They had been following the green line to the laboratory for five minutes, trying to stay as quiet as possible. They hadn't found any automatons on the way there, which was strange.

Maybe Dr. Fog runs this place differently, Auriel thought.

She had a lot on her mind. She had been talking with Nate in the tunnels. Talking about Wolfe. She hadn't forgotten his outburst on the ship, and it really bothered her.

Maybe Wolfe wasn't as good a person as I thought he was.

Maybe he's right; we are too hard on the Imperials. No, that's not true...

Was Wolfe feeling the afteraffects of working for the Empire? Would he return to the Empire!?

She needed someone to talk to, and Nate had been the perfect person. He explained that nobody was perfect, and that Wolfe would have a hard time working with the Resistance after spending so much time with the Empire. If he had lost his memory like he said he did, he had worked for the Empire since his very first memory. It would have been difficult to go from that to working with the Resistance. Nate said that the Scarlet Man would continue to work in Wolfe's life.

She hoped so.

Presently, she saw a light in the tunnel ahead. A dark, green light.

We're here.

"Stay quiet," Nate said, his voice barely a whisper.

They moved in utter silence through the past few feet. They entered into a huge open room, with scaffolding running around, other side tunnels, and a large metal wall at the back. The center of the room was a massive pit of glowing fog. The fog must have been superheated, because it was in a liquid form. The fog almost looked yellow because of the glow. There was no other light in the room, and the green-yellow liquid cast dark shadows on the high ceilings. In the center of the fog lake there was a stone island roughly 20 meters wide. A huge amount of technical equipment was located at the center of the island. It was fog research technology. A smaller man with black hair and wearing a lab coat and a fog mask walked over to the fog lake and scooped up some of the lime-green fluid with a metal ladle. He walked back to the central machine and measured the fog into a bowl, and the machine sucked the fog down and made a rumbling sound.

Auriel had seen him once before, "There he is," she whispered, "There's Doctor Fog."

There were two other figures standing nearby, Autofficers almost certainly. There was a man and a woman. Fog approached the Autofficers and spoke, though the sound didn't reach this far away. The male Autofficer nodded and turned around, leaving the center island. The woman followed close behind. The man took off his fog mask, revealing an angry face and a thick black beard. The man went down a side corridor and the woman began patrolling the room. It was then that Auriel noticed all of the automatons around the room. Pacifiers, Troubleshooters, Technomites, Bombardiers, Oscillators, Mineons, an Excavator, Fogonauts... There must have been dozens of them, watching for intruders.

Nate turned around, "Alright, here's the plan: Auriel, Tess, and Orville, you are going after Dr. Fog to capture him and destroy that horrible...thing he's created. Wolfe and Raven will climb the catwalks and provide cover for you. I'll stay here and make sure no more automatons or Autofficers surprise us. Any questions?"

Auriel looked around, suddenly fearful, "Where's Wolfe?"

Everyone looked around, but couldn't find him.

"I...I don't know," Nate said, "He was right behind us, wasn't he?"

"Do we go back?" Tess asked.

"INTRUDERS!" the female autofficer shouted.

Every head in the room, flesh or metal, looked at the small group of Resistors.

Raven squinted, "Nope, we're out of time.

I dashed through caverns, following the red line. At last, the line ended at a barred door flanked by two Pacifiers.

"HALT! YOU DO NOT HAVE PROPER AUTHO--"

The automaton's torso exploded as I fired my pistols directly at its animus servo. The second machine was decapitated by my blade a second later.

I tried the door. Strangely, it was not locked. I charged inside.

A gold-haired man was there, and he had his rifle aimed directly at me. He fired. I dropped to the floor. The bullet flew so close above my head that I could feel the heat radiating from it as it passed by. I turned my fall into a roll, readying my sword as I moved. I came out of the roll three feet in front of the man and I sliced his rifle in half before he could fire another shot.

He ran backwards, shouting, "Guards!" I noticed the control gauntlet on his arm.

The Autofficer got out of the way as a quartet of Troubleshooters marched past him, straight towards me.

I dropped my sword on the ground and had enough time to unholster my pistols before a wall of bullets forced me to the ground. I landed hard on my chest, but I didn't let that distract me. I fired a round from each pistol into the front two automatons in line. Both fell to the hard rock, sparking. I crawled forward rapidly as the ground behind me exploded with shells.

I was in between the two automatons. Grunting, I pushed one against a cell door. Spinning, I charged at the second one and slammed it against a wall.

I put my foot on its chest and grabbed its leg, I wonder how well the Fogworks constructed these tin cans.

I pulled and the leg came off with some difficulty. Not very well it would seem.

Down one limb, the automaton struggled to stay upright. I smashed it in the head with the leg, causing the machine to go silent. I quickly spun around again, smashing the auto I had pushed into the cell door. Parts flew as the final automaton crashed to the floor.

I completed a ninety-degree turn just in time to see a hammer falling towards my face. I brought the automaton leg up to parry. The hammer deflected off the leg, smashing it into pieces in the process.

The Autofficer raised the hammer again for another strike. I rammed him with my full body weight, sending both of us rolling on the dirty floor. The impact loosened his grasp and the hammer dropped to the floor. We threw punches as we rolled. I hit him a couple times in the chest and then ripped the control gauntlet off his arm. I was way off balance, and he countered by throwing an uppercut that smashed me in the chin. My head rang and I laid on the ground moaning. I tasted blood.

Rising to my knees, I looked for the Autofficer. He had regained his hammer and was now standing right next to me, "Don't try anything," he warned.

I noticed a Troubleshooter getting up behind him. Great. Apparently I had shot it in a non-critical area.

"Hand over the gauntlet, insurgent!" apparently he had noticed my Resistance gear.

The Troubleshooter moved into a position with a direct line of fire to me. It charged its fire attack. It doesn't seem like the Autofficer notices it. I can use this!

"Okay," I answered slyly. I tossed the gauntlet into the air. The Autofficer fumbled with his hammer as he reached for the gauntlet. I rolled between his legs and stood, the automaton tracking me. I now stood between the Troubleshooter and the Autofficer.

The automaton fired.

A ball of flames arced through the air, aimed at my torso. I sidestepped it and the fireball hit the Autofficer. He screamed as he flew from the impact, dropping both the hammer and the gauntlet into the air. The hammer spun, end over end. I caught it and spun around three hundred and sixty degrees. The hammer collided with the automaton, smashing it to pieces. I quickly ran to the Autofficer on the ground and quickly punched him straight in the face. He was out cold.

I stood to my full height and looked around, half expecting more machines to come out of the darkness and attack, but nothing happened. I recovered my sword and reloaded my pistols, and then I searched the Autofficer.

Keys! Found them!

"Hey!" a male prisoner whispered loudly, "Everybody! Wake up! Someone's breaking us out!"

I opened the first creaking cell door and looked inside. There was a single man within. He was probably in his thirties, but he didn't look it. He was laying in the floor, crumpled in a fetal position, muttering something unintelligible. His hair was becoming thin, his clothes were rags, and his skin was deathly pale. Almost green.

"What's Fog done to you?" I asked, not expecting him to answer at all.

"Watch out!" the male prisoner in the opposite cell shouted.

Two giant arms encircled my neck from behind. I tried pushing the hands away from me but they were too strong. Whoever this guy was, he was squeezing harder and harder on my windpipe, and I was quickly running out of oxygen.

For Auriel, time seemed to slow to a crawl as she watched all of the automatons in the room aim their weapons at her. Raven jumped towards the ladder and began to climb. Her friends got their weapons ready. Dr. Fog quickly began to press buttons on the machine.

Projectiles of all kinds fired, sending time back to normal speed. Auriel, Nate, Tess, and Orville all jumped in random directions, trying to protect themselves from the onslaught. After a few seconds, Auriel ran, readied her water rifle and fired when she could. She tried to get a bearing on her allies...they were all attacking the automatons as well. No one seemed to be injured, a relief. A blessing. Auriel frowned as she remembered Raven. She wasn't on the ground, so where was she?

A shot came from above, a bombardier's head exploded.

She made it to the catwalks! That's good.

Something hit her leg. She looked down and saw a Mineon hacking away at it with its miniature pickaxe, wondering why she wasn't getting oily.

She kicked it and shot it with the water rifle. The Mineon flipped backwards, dodging the water blast.

What? Oh right.

Auriel drew her flame sword and ran it through the automaton. The internal gears melted and the Mineon let out a low buzzing sound as the small machine collapsed to the ground.

Auriel looked around, trying to find Nate. She found him and slowly began making her way towards him, destroying a trio of automatons on the way.

She finally arrived, "Nate!" she shouted over the din.

Nate ducked under a cannonball and looked, "Auriel! I was just looking for you!"

Auriel shot at a Troubleshooter in the distance, "Where's Tess and Orville!?"

"They're moving after Dr. Fog, but they need cover!"

Auriel looked towards the central island and saw Orville and Tess just outside the molten fog lake, pinned down by a dozen automatons on all sides. They hid behind a collapsed Excavator as they exchanged fire with the machines.

"I copy that!" Auriel said, and she charged straight into the hottest part of the fight. She bobbed and weaved through bullets and fireballs and knives, eventually making it a short distance from the Excavator. Rolling, she activated her flamethrower and burned enemies in every direction. A few automatons seemed unfazed. Some were surprised and collapsed into the lake as they tried to extinguish themselves. They sunk below the surface as their plating melted and they went offline. Orville and Tess peeked at Auriel from their makeshift cover.

"Go!" Auriel shouted.

The duo made a run for it towards Dr. Fog, who had just removed a vial from the machine and started to run. Auriel watched as Orville and Tess stopped at the fog machine and then split up, Orville going after Fog and Tess working on destroying the machine.

A familiar buzzing sound made Auriel duck under spinning mining equipment, An Oscillator!

She quickly switched to her Ice Hammer and smashed the drilling machine at its base. She always wondered why Oscillators didn't fall over, because they didn't have legs or wheels or tracks or anything but a drill bit to stand on. But, that bit kept spinning and kept the automaton upright as if it were a giant top of death. Auriel smashed it again with the hammer, denting its internal casing and causing it to malfunction. The sparking machine spun around crazily, weapons buzzing in circles as the machine went out of control. It seemed to be running in circles, and Auriel had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit by a trowel. The Oscillator continued spinning and smashed into a group of Pacifiers and Mineons, knocking them over. The Oscillator kept going until it ran right into the lake and fell in, quickly disappearing under the cracked yellow-green surface.

Auriel looked around, checking for more enemies, and thanking the Great Engineer that a stray bullet hadn't hit her.

She noticed that the protective Aether sphere around her looked smaller than it used to. She checked her Aethermeter.

No!

She was running on empty. She didn't have enough time to fill it completely before they had left to go on this mission. Now she was going to pay for it.

She found Nate and began running towards him, "Nate! NATE! Help! My Aethermeter's...!"

The transparent wall around her cracked and shattered. Fog swept in towards her. She held her breath.

The fog burned. Her skin was on fire, she could hardly see through the green mist that had gathered in her eyes. The sheer pain from the surprise exposure caused her to fall on her knees in agony. She forced herself to crawl in the direction where she thought Nate was.

For this was no normal fog. It was fog that had been experimented on repeatedly to increase its power. The fog was relentless. Auriel screamed, causing her to lose her stored oxygen. She crawled onward for several more seconds before her body forced her to take a breath.

It was the worst thing she had ever smelled. And tasted. And felt. And...heard.

There is no hope, a dark voice echoed in her mind, You are alone!

Auriel's arms and legs gave out, drained of resolve. The side of her head hit into the dirty rock, "No," she whispered, "Scarlet Man, please help me!"

Black spots filled my vision, the arms encircling my neck squeezed ever harder. This guy could probably beat the Crusher in a squeezing competition.

I struggled for breath. With all my might, I pushed backwards, knocking my assailant against the far cell. But his grip never loosened and I felt myself slipping into unconsciousness.

No! I shouted to myself, willing myself to stay awake, to stay fighting.

Suddenly, the arms dropped away and I fell to the floor gasping. My head was throbbing like a Crocodial was chewing it. I looked back at my assailant and found he was an Autofficer with a thick black beard. The man who was in the cell behind him was strangling him, but the Autofficer broke out of it, pulling my rescuer into the bars. A gong-like sound occurred and the prisoner staggered backwards, holding his head.

I reached for my holstered pistols but the Autofficer was quicker than I thought. He grabbed me again and crushed me under his arms. We were chest-to-chest and my arms were pinned down at my pistol holsters. The Autofficer's large muscular arms might as well have been steel. It felt like my vertebrae was snapping in half.

Bending my wrist, I pulled my right pistol out of its holster. He squeezed more tightly, crushing the air from my lungs. I aimed my pistol. The loss of air almost caused me to drop it. I hung on to it.

I fired.

The autofficer staggered back, holding his hand over his lower thigh, where I had shot him. I walked up to him and backhanded him with my pistol, sending him to the floor in a state of semiconsciousness.

I dropped the pistol to the stone and fell to the ground, gasping for air. My head ached, my back ached, my ribs ached.

But I was alive.

I returned to the first cell and picked up the keys I had dropped. Returning to the main hallway, I looked at the two autofficers lying on the ground, half expecting them to get back up. I opened the cell door of the man who had helped me.

He was sitting on his cot, dazed, with his hands on his forehead. I could see the makings of a nasty bruise.

I put my hand on his shoulder, "Are you okay?"

He looked up, "Y...Yes...I...I think so."

I offered my hand, he took it and I pulled him up, "What's your name?"

"Ken."

"Can you help me move these Autofficers into a cell?"

"Yeah."

I thought it best not to tell Ken my name. He would probably get the wrong idea.

We moved the second Autofficer into Ken's cell and we locked the door. Then we moved the sickly prisoner out of his cell and put the first Autofficer into that cell and locked the door. I noticed the second Autofficer and his gunshot wound.

He'll live, I thought.

Probably.

But I can’t leave him even a chance of death, it would be my fault if he died. Even if he didn’t die and was maimed in some way…that would be my fault.

I rolled my eyes, This is a stupid idea.

I unlocked his cell door and walked in, making sure he was unconscious. I removed my Aethermeter and focused. A few swirls of Aether floated out and into the Autofficer's leg. Now satisfied that I had done everything I could of to protect his life, I closed and locked the door again.

Ken was looking at the other prisoner, "He's been like this for days."

I used Aether on him with some difficulty and it seemed to revitalize him. Then I looked at the remaining forty or so cells and began to unlock them. Most of them had people in them, but none were very full. There were some people that looked like they had been experimented severely on, so I spared them some Aether. Ken followed close behind, helping with the prisoners. I was nearing the last cells. I unlocked the door and saw half a dozen young children.

I had seen them before.

I was shocked by a startling realization, They're the urchins that I assaulted and captured on my first night!

I shook my head slowly, No, it can't be... But it was. They were filthier than they used to be. More starved, ragged, desperate. Some of them looked sick.

They recognized me as well and they all were frightened. They backed up against the far wall and hugged each other closely, crying. I'm sure they would have been screaming if they could have.

I stepped backwards out of the cell as if I had been struck a physical blow. Ken walked past me, I stopped him.

"Here," I said, passing him the keys, "You get the rest of the cells."

Ken nodded and took the keys. He walked into the urchins' cell, but I didn't see that. I had shot off down the corridor towards the entrance, not running, but walking at a maniacal pace. I dodged the multitude of prisoners laying or sitting on the ground, hardly even noticing them. I opened the main prison door and slipped outside. Now I was finally where no one could see me. I fell on my knees and dropped my head in my hands. I began to sob.

What have I done to those children!? What is so wrong with me!? They've been sitting here for weeks, being imprisoned, experimented on, malnourished...and who knows what else?

Why? Why!? WHY!!!???

What have I done.

I sobbed quietly for several minutes.

A Light in the Darkness Discussion

Kitty_Ironcraft 2019-07-20 14:12:13 UTC #12

The door opened and I stood and wiped my face. It was Ken.

"I got everyone," he said.

"Good. Have the stronger people carry those who can't walk. Follow this red line to some stairs. When you reach the top, keep going through the tunnels until you reach the beach. There's a ship there. Get on board and wait for us. If we don't show up after some time, or if the Empire finds you, get out of there."

"Okay...where are you going?"

I found the green line on the floor, "I'm going to help my friends."

Another automaton was right in the center of the crosshairs.

Raven pulled the trigger and the Pacifier Officer's head exploded.

She lowered the Flintlock Sniper and tried to read the situation.

Raven looked for her friends by the vacancies they left in the fog. She saw Tess working on destroying the fog machine. Orville was chasing after Dr. Fog, who had just sealed himself behind a blast door. Orville seemed to be trying to break through the door with some explosives, because he was setting a bomb or something. Nate was on the ground attacking automatons.

Odd. She couldn't see Auriel.

"Where is she?" Raven asked, frowning.

Then she found her.

Auriel was laying face down on the fog, her protective Aether shield gone. She wasn't moving.

The fog's probably choking her. She needs to get out of it.

Raven looked for the nearest ally. It was Nate, but he didn't seem to see Auriel.

"NATE!" Raven shouted, waving her hand, "NATE!" But nothing could be heard at that distance over the gunshots.

Raven lowered her hand angrily, How am I going to get you to notice her?

Then she had an idea.

She raised her Flintlock Sniper and targeted Nate, and then targeted a rock a foot from his head. She fired.

She watched Nate jump from the surprise shot, and then he looked in her direction. She waved and then pointed at Auriel. Nate seemed to frown and then he looked where Raven had pointed. He gasped when he saw Auriel and then he began to move closer.

Great, that's taken care of. Now, what next?

Taking in the entire situation again, Raven saw the female Autofficer climbing a ladder to the catwalks. No, she just reached the top. The Autofficer saw Raven and pointed the control gauntlet at her. Raven ducked as bullets whizzed out from behind her. She spun, finding four Pacifiers standing a dozen feet from her.

She charged, whipping out her knives. She jumped over the first automaton, slicing a main power cord with a flick of her wrist. The other three were sparking piles of debris within seconds. Raven turned back in time to see the Autofficer holding a sword that was bearing down on her. She crossed her knives and the blade was stopped by the crook of the knives. Raven pushed with both arms, throwing the Autofficer off balance. Raven kicked, sweeping the Autofficer off her legs and onto the ground. Raven activated her Defensive Vambrace and slammed it into the Autofficer, but she wasn't there. The Autofficer rolled back to her feet and attacked with the sword again. Raven stepped to the side to avoid the first strike, ducked to avoid the second, and parried the third with a knife. She punched the Autofficer with the DDV and she was electrocuted. Stumbling backwards, she dropped the sword. Raven ran forward again and rammed the vambrace into the Autofficer's torso. The Imperial agent dropped to the ground, caught in spasms.

"Stay down," Raven ordered, before she looked at the battlefield again. Nate was making his way towards Auriel, but he was pinned down by automatons. A quick sniper round blasted through a Troubleshooter's head and into another's torso. Both collapsed to the ground in pieces. Nate advanced.

Good.

Tess seemed to be laying explosives as well, probably ones with a temperature high enough to instantly incinerate the fog.

Good.

Orville was staring down the barrel of a Fogonaut.

Not good.

Raven charged through the catwalks, closer to Orville's location. She looked over the edge and saw an Oscillator below her.

Jumping down, Raven landed on the Oscillator hard. The machine tried to find her and dislodge her, but it couldn't hit her. Raven jumped down and simultaneously smashed the Oscillator with her Gyro Hammer, sending it spinning through the air. The auto landed on its head. The drill bit spun and it's weapons twirled, but it couldn't get back up.

"Try to right yourself now," Raven said to the helpless machine. She ran to Orville.

She equipped her knives and yelled a battle cry, Orville and the Fogonaut looked at her. She jumped over a wave of fog fire and grabbed the Fogonaut's neck. She spun around it and landed on it's back. From there, she sliced cords causing fog and oil to leak off of the automaton. It tried to shake her off, so she stabbed a knife into its head to keep balance. When she was finally done slicing the automaton's back, she jumped over its head and dragged the knife down with her as she fell. The front of the automaton was sliced down the middle.

Raven waited for a few seconds. The automaton buzzed and raised its weapon. She spun around with her knives and cut twin gashes in the machine's midsection.

It fell backwards to the ground, a pile of scrap.

She took a deep breath and turned around to look at Orville, who was watching with awe.

At length, Raven said, "What? You waiting for some witty statement? Get that door open!...I'll cover you."

The fog cleared from Auriel's mind.

"Auriel!?"

"Wha...?" she opened her eyes.

Nate was standing over her. They were both protected by his Aether shield.

"Auriel! Thank the Scarlet Man you're alright!"

He helped her up, "Yeah..." she muttered, "What..."

A bright explosion came from the center of the fog island. Auriel and Nate shielded their eyes. All around, automaton circuits began whining because their optical circuits were overloaded. When Auriel opened her eyes, everything, seemed exceptionally dark for a few seconds until her eyes readjusted.

"What was that?" she asked.

Tess's voice: "That was me. I blew all the fog in that lake. The only research the Doctor has left was in that vial he took with him.

Right.

"What progress are we making on that?" Nate asked.

"Orville's trying to blow the door," Tess explained.

Another explosion verified this statement.

"Good! He's in," Nate commented.

A report sounded and Nate fell.

"Nate!" Auriel shouted, looking at the gunshot wound in Nate's chest.

She and Tess looked around, seeing the dozen or so automatons still remaining.

They both aimed their weapons, ready to fight to the end.

An alarm sounded, "SELF DESTRUCT INITIATED! SELF DESTRUCT INITIATED!"

Explosions sounded above and below. The ground shook and dust rained from the ceiling. Tess shouted, "I guess Fog was prepared for this!"

"Take cover!" Auriel shouted as rocks began raining from the ceiling.

"Self destruct?" Orville asked, "Just great."

Raven saw a massive rock falling from the ceiling directly towards them, "MOVE!" she pushed him out of the doorway and jumped into it. The rock landed, smashing the ground to rubble. The collapse continued.

"Are you okay!?" Raven shouted.

"Yeah!" Orville said. After a little bit: "I can't get to you!"

Raven looked down the dark corridor, "I'm going after Fog on my own!"

"But--!"

"No buts! I'll find another way out!"

"Raven!" he shouted.

But she had already left.

After the collapse ended, Auriel tried to take inventory of herself. She was alive, and still in one piece, but quite dusty. She stood up within the Aether bubble.

"Nate?"

He grunted.

"Tess?...Tess!?"

"Over here!" Tess shouted weakly.

Auriel turned and saw her friend lying on the ground and covered by rubble.

Tess grimaced, blood ran down her face, "A rock landed on my leg, I think it's broken."

Auriel wished she could help Nate, or Tess, but she needed Aether to help Nate and she needed Aether to reach Tess. She felt very helpless.

"Auriel," Nate murmered.

She kneeled down, "Yes?

"Auriel," he coughed, "Take my Aethermeter. Get out of here."

"No! Not without you!"

"You have to! It's the--"

"Be quiet!"

"Auriel...you know I'm--"

"No! Be quiet!"

Nate took the hint and there was no sound at all in the chamber for several seconds. No automatons must have survived the collapse, or they would have been making noise, but...

There it was again!

A grinding sound, coming from underneath.

"What is that?" Nate asked.

It grew louder, "I don't know..." Auriel thought out loud.

Rock exploded nearby, sending showers of rock outward. An Excavator burrowed out from under the ground, its massive drill bit grinding rock to dust and its tracks moving it ever forward.

No, not an Excavator. A Mega Drill!

Auriel removed her Ice Hammer, not knowing what it would really do. A Mega Drill was a massive automaton with a devastating spinning attack, a thick hide, and personal shielding. She figured that the three of them would be able to defeat it if they were all at full strength, but with Nate bleeding out and Tess trapped under a rock...she didn't have a chance.

"Auriel!" Nate said, "Take my Aethermeter! Get out of here!"

She looked down at him, then over at Tess, then at the Mega Drill. She took in a sharp breath when the Mega Drill changed course.

It had spotted them.

I reached the end of the green line and saw a horrid sight. There was rubble everywhere, but two things that I did see were Auriel and a Mega Drill.

I charged with my pistols, opening fire at the machine, but the bullets hardly seemed to make a dent in it. It calculated my danger level and engaged me instead. It was remarkably fast for such a big machine. I was barely able to jump to the side to avoid its eleven-foot long drill. It spun and I jumped back, then I charged, shooting more holes in it. It seemed to be winding up for a spin so I hit the dirt. The drill spun above me four times, just barely missing me. I stood up and jumped on top of the machine, shooting more rounds into its top casing and hoping to damage something. I blasted a hole in the back, revealing delicate computer parts.

Excellent!

Then I noticed that the Mega Drill was charging its spin. Without thinking, I dropped my pistols and grabbed my sword, stabbing it into the computer bank. I got an experience in inertia as the automaton spun me around for what seemed like minutes. Finally dizzy and confused, I lost my grip on the sword and flew backwards onto a pile of rocks. I stood back up, stumbling. If anything, the Mega Drill only looked angrier.

"I can't hurt this thing!" I shouted.

Auriel hit it with two blasts of her Water Rifle, the Mega Drill changed targeting priority to her.

"Wolfe!" she shouted, tossing her Ice Hammer to me. I grabbed it and charged the machine.

The world wobbled around me, but I stayed on course and smashed the drill with Auriel's hammer, knocking it away from attacking Auriel. The wetness only furthered the damage. I continued the attack by striking the Mega Drill on several parts of its chassis. It was fast, but not as fast as me. After a minute, it spun and knocked away my hammer. The force knocked me on my back. The Mega Drill faced me and dropped its weapon into the ground. I scrambled backwards as the Mega Drill charged me, grinding up the ground just inches from my feet. Auriel fired more water at the beast of a machine, but it kept going. I rolled backwards back onto my feet and jumped onto the Mega Drill again. I saw my sword still embedded in its circuitry. I grabbed onto it and held on. The Drill tried to knock me off by spinning, but I held on harder this time and it couldn't dislodge me. I pulled the sword out and stabbed it into the machine repeatedly. I saw that it was beginning to smoke. Auriel fired more water and I continued slicing. Then, with the sword in both of my hands, I began hacking at the machine's head. It was slowing down. Eventually, I cleaved the head straight off and it tumbled to join the rubble. The automaton rumbled for a few seconds and then collapsed.

I waited for a few seconds, and then I stood on the machine and walked down to Auriel on the drill bit.

She smiled, "That was epic,"

"Yeah it was," I admitted.

"What was?" Tess asked, "I can't see anything from over here.

"Oh!" Auriel said, remembering, "Nate and Tess are injured. I'm out of Aether so I can't move on my own.

"Okay--"

Footsteps.

I pointed my sword in their direction quickly. Auriel raised her rifle.

"What did I miss?" it was Orville. He saw the Mega Drill, "Oh."

We filled him in on the situation.

"Okay," he said.

"Where's Raven?" Auriel asked.

"She went after Fog."

"Alone!?"

"Yep."

Auriel sighed, "...Let's stay on the task at hand. We can't follow her?"

Orville shook his head.

"'Okay then, let's get back to the ship."

I carried Nate, Orville carried Tess, and Auriel stayed inside Orville's Aether shield. We began the slow journey back to the ship, hoping that Raven was okay.

Raven ran through the cavern, there was barely enough light to see by. She was pretty sure that she was gaining on Fog, however.

She finally did, when he was trying to open a door, "Don't move!"

He froze.

She had her pistols aimed on him and she walked forward.

Three Technomites dropped from the ceiling, Raven fired at them. They continued jumping around her and she continued shooting them, but they kept repairing each other. Raven found it quite annoying. She finally grew tired of hitting them with her pistols and switched to her DDV. Slamming it into the ground sent a trio of lightning bolts arcing out to meet the automatons, knocking them backward. She went after the first one, hitting it repeatedly with the gauntlet until it fell over, fried. She did the same thing to the second machine. The third one had repaired itself and was charging her. She kicked it to the ground and pulled out her Flintlock Sniper. She aimed directly at the little automaton's head.

"Dodge this," she said, before blowing its head off.

Looking up at Fog, she saw him slipping through the door. She chased after him and found herself on a secluded beach on the back of the Isle. There was a small dock and a yacht. Fog was running for the yacht.

"Stop!" she shouted, readying her pistols again.

Fog froze again, raising his hands.

"Turn around."

He did, and she saw his face up close for the first time. He had midnight hair and a small frame, with pronounced features and dark eyes. He was also smiling.

"What?" Raven asked.

Something hit her from behind and knocked her to the sand. An electrical shock passed through her, causing muscle spasms. She turned around and looked behind her.

A Lasher.

The automaton commander stood at double her height, with an electric whip fused to each arm. It leaned over her menacingly.

"Finish her," Fog said, and he ran to his yacht.

The Lasher charged its whip and brought it down on Raven, who rolled to the side, just barely dodging the brunt of the electric blast. She stood back up and ran backwards to the yacht, opening fire on the Lasher with her pistols.

It was fast. Scary fast.

Most of the bullets hit into a wall of rock instead of their intended target.

The Lasher was gaining on her.

She couldn't let it get within melee range!

Raven changed her strategy and ran directly towards Fog, who was on the dock now. She made it to the dock soon after. On the yacht, Fog unholstered a revolver and fired it at Raven, who ducked and avoided the bullets. Fog wasn't a very good shot.

But shooting her wasn't his intention.

After the six shots ran out, Raven stood up and pointed her pistols at him. Before she could properly aim, an electric whip shot out from behind, shocking her and knocking her legs out from under her. The Lasher hit her again on the ground, bringing her to the brink of conciousness. One more shock was likely to kill her or at least knock her out.

No. I won't let you!

Raven grabbed the next whip as it came down, the shock of the electricity clamping her hands onto the metal. The current was very strong, but Raven was able to pull herself towards the Lasher using the whip. She kicked it knocking it backwards. The automaton attacked wildly, but Raven completed a flip in the air, twirling to avoid the electric whips. When she landed, she had brought her hammer to bear.

She smashed it into the Lasher, knocking it off the dock and into the sea. The electricity from the whips went into the water and electrocuted the Lasher, slowly frying it as it sank below the surface.

"Take that," Raven said.

She turned her head to see Fog escaping on his yacht.

"No you don't!"

She ran to the edge of the dock and jumped in the water, swimming after the yacht. She reached the ladder and climbed on board. She searched the ship and found Fog at the helm, sailing away. She cocked her pistol and aimed it at him. He nearly jumped out of his boots, reaching for a hidden weapon.

"Don't even try it," Raven said.

We made it back to the ship and met up with Ken and the rest of the prisoners. Then we set sail and headed back to No Man's Landing. With Aether, we were able to heal Nate's injury and Tess's leg wasn't broken like she thought; only fractured.

Nate said, "The mission was a failure. We didn't get Fog, and we lost Raven."

We all knew it was true. Then we saw a ship coming in from the other side of the Isle.

"What's that?" Ken asked.

It was a small Imperial ship. Looking through the telescope, Auriel saw Raven, and Doctor Fog.

Her ship sailed right next to ours. Raven was seriously burned, probably an electrical burn. She spoke, "Hey Wolfe! What took you?" She saw the prisoners, "Hm...So, who knew Fog had a yacht?"

We sailed back to No Man's Landing, our mission successful.

Imperial airships arrived at the Isle. Zaul stepped off onto the beach. Automaton scouts had already reported what he feared: Doctor Fog, and all of his work, was gone.

Wolfe, Zaul thought, He took the letter and used it to find Fog. He has been a thorn in our side. And now the great Doctor Fog has been captured by the Resistance.

Zaul tried not to beat himself up about it. If he had just kept the letter in his room instead of on his person, then...

But now Doctor Fog was gone.

Zaul took a deep breath, The Resistance may have won today, but soon they will be crushed. We may have lost Fog, but his research is an acceptable loss. Soon. Very soon, the Resistance will crumble.

Zaul smiled.

A Light in the Darkness Discussion

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Kitty_Ironcraft 2019-09-02 21:24:03 UTC #13

Chapter 8: Imperfect

We sailed back to No Man's Landing victoriously, but the victory was bittersweet.

I spent a large part of the voyage trying to avoid the urchins and Auriel, and it hurt my heart whenever I saw one of them.

Many questions had arisen during the mission that needed to be answered. The first question is this:

How can I let fog control me so much? I hurt Auriel, I hurt these urchins...Why?...I should be stronger than this! I should be able to have the self-control to prevent myself from doing evil to innocent people. Why don't I? Why am I not able to protect people from myself?

My only answer to that question was: I'm too weak...I'm not perfect enough.

And I was ashamed, because I wasn't good enough.

Such were the thoughts I had when I was alone. I was not alone all of the time. I talked with Orville, Tess, Raven, Nate, and Ken, as well as a few of the other prisoners. Apparently, most of the prisoners were captured Resistors, which pleased Nate especially. After Nate explained that his Resistance base in No Man's Landing had ran out of Resistors after the foiled attack, all of the Resistance prisoners agreed to replace the lost Resistors until we could get them back.

When we arrived at No Man's Landing, the other prisoners were returned to their rightful homes.

Except for the urchins of course, who did not have homes. Fortunately, one of the other prisoners volunteered to adopt the urchins, which made them jump for joy. I had never seen them so happy.

I'm sure they wouldn't have been so happy if they had seen me watching.

Back at the Resistance base, there were voices belonging to the new Resistors I rescued. It made the whole place less dreary than it had been last time I was there.

For a week I worked there with the Resistance, helping them against the Empire once or twice, but mostly learning.

I learned about the beginning of Aethasia. How the Great Engineer created it using Aether and then invited people to come and enjoy it. There was a Great Aether system centered in Evercity that supplied Aether to the entire world. It was powered by a powerful device called...the Aetherlight. Things were beautiful. Then Lucky (who was actually one of the Great Engineers apprentices) began experimenting with the Aether. He eventually created a substance that was the opposite of Aether: fog. Lucky gave the fog to the people, promising them power if they betrayed the Great Engineer, and they did. But instead of fighting for control, the Great Engineer simply took the Aetherlight and disappeared. Now that the Great Engineer was gone, Lucky took over and created the Empire, and the people realized that they weren't getting what he promised them. But it was too late. With the Great Engines down, fog swept throughout Aethasia and made everyone forget.

But a Resistance was beginning. Led by this mysterious 'Scarlet Man,' there was a real chance for returning Aethasia back to its Golden Age.

I hoped so.

Now knowing what the Resistance was fighting for, I was more ready than ever to stop the Empire and defeat the Usurper, and to bring true peace to the land.

I woke up in my bed at the Resistance base, seven days after the mission to Greenshade. I removed my Aethermeter and gazed at it. I was admiring the magenta-colored runic symbols on the top left side of the device that signified it had been upgraded with Dreamweaver tech. In the past week, I had also upgraded my Aethermeter to hold a Map of Aethasia, which would allow me to interface with Aethersteps (fast travel devices).

I quickly got out of bed and got ready to work for the Resistance another day. I showed up for the weekly morning meeting where Nate talked about the Scarlet Man and the Great Engineer. I felt safe, because I was among friends.

At the end of the meeting, Nate gave us our first assignment of the day. We were to comb No Man's Landing to spread word of the Resistance! Tear down posters, fight auto's, blow up propaganda machines, etcetera. I was excited to be making such a difference in Aethasia. It was similar to my feeling while working for the Empire, but it felt more whole this time because I knew that the Resistance was doing the right thing.

Finally, Nate told us to get ready to go. The roughly twenty Resistors in the base below the abandoned pillow factory began getting to work. (We were working on finding all of the Resistors that had been captured during our failed attack on No Man's Landing more than a week before, but so far we've had no luck.) As we organized into two groups, I talked with many of the Resistors I had become friends with over the past week. They all smiled when they saw me, even Raven...and Auriel.

I built up the courage to apologize to her for what I said on the boat. She seemed to take it very well and she acted as if it never happened. I was grateful for that, but I still knew it would have been better if I had never made that mistake in the first place.

Besides that, I also had a growing friendship with Orville. We usually sat at the same table for meals and we talked about many things.

I stopped suddenly as I realized that I wasn't preparing for the mission. Time to get to work!

The Resistance group I was in marched east towards the business district. Two Resistors were assigned to posters, two were assigned to trash, two for propaganda machines, and the remaining four watched for Imperials.

"Hey Wolfe!" Orville shouted over to me.

I looked away from the alleyways towards Orville's voice, "Yeah?"

"Check out this propaganda machine!" he smiled, "It's saying something that I've never heard before," he paused, as if thinking for a moment, "That's definitely strange, right?"

I walked over to check it out.

"All Imperial citizens! Are rebels causing trouble in your neighborhood? Do not worry! Buy a certified Imperial Alert Beacon! Activate it and a patrol of automatons led by one of our fine autofficers will come to your area to assist you! They are now available for the low price of ten sovereigns! Buy one today!"

"So...the Empire is using these machines for advertisement now?" I looked at Orville frowning.

"Yep," he said, checking a timer on his arm. He looked up at me urgently, "Uh, you should take two steps back."

I did so and a few seconds later the machine erupted in an orange fireball.

I looked at him flatly, "I almost blew up."

"Mm-hmm," Orville said, walking away, "Almost."

I glared at him for a few moments and then we both cracked up.

After I finished laughing, I remembered my job, "I better keep watching for auto's."

We continued sweeping the business district. Roughly half an hour later, an incident occurred.

Ken ripped down a poster from a wall.

"Hey!" the older man who must have been the owner of the house shouted, "You can't do that!"

Ken looked at him through the window, not at all sure what to say.

"You can't just walk around and destroy my property! I paid money for that poster and worked to put it up! It's getting so a man can't feel safe in his own house!"

"Uh..." Ken stammered. He was a nice young man but he wasn't experienced in dealing with people.

"Who do you think you are?" the angry citizen interrupted.

A woman in our group walked up and stuck an Alexander Wants You! sign on his wall, "We're the Resistance."

"You're..." the man stopped talking, suddenly looking very frightened, as he realized who we were. He quickly shut the window.

"Loyalists..." the woman muttered, continuing on.

I didn't think much of it until a few minutes later.

Three Resistors were talking to a young man in a fog green shirt, "You really shouldn't work for the Empire," a woman said.

"I'm--" the man began.

"And another thing," another Resistor said, "Fog isn't really good like the Empire makes it out to be. It corrupts your mind and causes you to forget everything that's important."

"I--" the man started.

"You're going to lose. We have the Great Engineer on our side and he'll help us make the Empire fall."

"But--"

"Tell that to Lucky next time you see him," the Resistors walked away.

I saw all of that, and I noticed the Loyalist they were talking seemed to be...

Crying?

This confused me deeply enough to make me walk over to him. I wondered what was wrong until I saw a scarlet Resistance badge pinned to his bright green shirt.

He looked up, eyes red, voice flooded in bitterness, "What...what do you want!?"

I was very hurt by his face and by what the Resistance had unknowingly done to one of their own men.

I put my arm on his shoulder, "I'm sorry," and then I went with the rest of the Resistance.

For the remainder of the mission, I thought about what happened with Ken and then with the green-clothed Resistor. I couldn't stop thinking about it.

In the final stage of the mission (which was around mid-afternoon) we were in Urchin's Grotto, passing out food. I wondered for a moment if we had bought or stolen that food.

"Wolfe?" I shook myself out of introspection. Tess was standing in front of me.

"Yes?"

"What's wrong? You look troubled."

I wondered if she was observant or if I was transparent, and I decided on the former.

I hesitated, "Well..."

"Excuse me!" a muffled urchin's voice said from within a tin shack, "It's really cold in here...could ya help me out?"

I saw his blue eyes looking out of a small hole. I walked over and gave him a piece of coal I happened to have.

The child grabbed it quickly, "Thanks! I can make a small fire with this!"

"You're welcome," I replied, wondering dejectedly why there were so many urchins in this town.

"Well?" Tess asked, shaking me out of my deep thought once again, "What's bothering you?"

She was persistent.

I sighed, "It's just...a few hours ago some Resistors were talking to a guy in a bright green shirt."

Tess nodded, "I remember."

I doubt anyone could have forgotten that shirt, "Anyways, the Resistors were talking to him about how terrible the Empire was and that he should join the Resistance. When we left, I saw him crying."

Tess's eyes showed the same confusion mine had.

"I walked up to him and noticed that he was wearing a Resistance badge."

Tess took in a sharp breath, "He what?...Wasn't he?...He was in the Resistance?"

I shrugged, "I don't know, but why else would he be wearing the badge?"

She covered her mouth with her hand and was silent for a time. When she spoke, she seemed to be on the verge of tears, "I didn't know...we didn't know...I thought...since he was wearing a green shirt, he was...you know...in the Empire. But..."

"But he wasn't," I huffed.

We got back to passing out food.

I spoke again a minute later, "Just because he wore green doesn't mean he's evil. Green does not mean fog, and even if it did, should we just attack people like that?"

"I don't know," Tess answered.

I was asking her as much as I was asking the entire Resistance.

"I don't know either," I replied, and then we finished up.

Back at the Resistance base, both groups came back from their patrols, reporting no incidents.

Nate talked to the crowd of excited Resistors, "You've all done a good job today."

Have we!? I wanted to shoot back, Have we done good today!? Because that's not what I see! I see that we have destroyed private property and verbally attacked a man because of his wardrobe choice! How can you consider that to be a job well done!?

I remained silent, but I seethed over what we had done. What I had been a part of.

"...We have one more mission to do today," Nate said, right after I remembered that I was supposed to be listening to the briefing, "We are to go into Evergreen Meadows and protest the use of fog in irrigation. If they do not accept that, then we will use dynamite to destroy the pipes and replace them with water pipes."

I heard shouts of approval, but I was lost in my own thoughts.

I knew the man who used fog, not personally, but I had seen him before. Bucky was his name...Bucky's Roundup Ranch. I also knew that he was adamant about using fog, so truthfully, this mission was to destroy his property and force him to use pure water.

"Well, if there are no questions, then lets get ready to go," Nate continued, "Be sure to bring dynamite."

A few minutes later, they were all ready to go, but I was brooding over what Nate said.

It made me thing of other things the Resistance had done. How people like Raven treated me when they didn't trust me...how our Resistance group infiltrating Greenshade had gone ahead while I read the map and left me behind.

I don't understand why I'm being a part of this!...I need to do something.

We went outside and began walking south towards Evergreen Meadows.

"Hey Wolfe!" Auriel shouted when she saw me.

I ignored her and walked straight towards Nate. He was about to say something but I interrupted, "I'm not going."

He frowned, "What do you mean?"

"I mean I'm not going!" My anger finally began to boil over, "I'm not taking any part in this!"

Everyone had stopped talking and began staring at me. I wasn't finished yet.

I spoke louder, "I've been in the Resistance for more than a week and I've seen a lot of good things. But I've also seen a lot of evil things. I've seen how you treat everyone else, how you used to treat me...it's not right! It's not right to destroy people's property just because they're 'Imperials.' Where is the love that the Great Engineer had!? If we just destroy everything that isn't part of the Resistance, how are we any better than the Empire!?" I stopped.

No one answered.

"That's what I thought," I said quietly.

My hand hovered to my Resistance badge, "You may think that you are the only good people in the world, but you're imperfect! Just like everyone else! You should not just destroy everything evil you see, because Imperials are the Great Engineer's people too." I unpinned the badge and held it in my hand. I looked at it, thinking about the parents in my dreams, "I'm not going to be any part of what you're doing anymore."

I threw the badge to the pavement, and as it struck it seemed to echo in the silence.

Without another word, I turned and walked away.

Kitty_Ironcraft 2019-09-11 23:58:05 UTC #14

Chapter 9: Never Forsaken

Auriel stared in disbelief and horror as Wolfe walked away. Her gaze darted to the discarded Resistance badge, and then back. She wanted to say something...anything! Wolfe! Come back! Don't go! But she was too shocked to do anything but stand still.

Raven watched Wolfe turn around a corner and disappear. She appeared to be sad. Sighing, Raven closed her eyes. When she opened them, they were filled with disdain, "Come on, let's go," she turned away and began walking in the direction of Evergreen Meadows.

Nate nodded. A faraway and sad look was in his eyes, but he went and followed Raven.

Most of the rest of the Resistors there followed Nate. Ken stayed a few seconds longer.

Presently, only Tess, Orville, and Auriel remained.

Nate turned back. He spoke with a heaviness of heart, "We need to respect Wolfe's wishes. He wanted to leave the Resistance, and he did. There's nothing we can change about that."

Orville shook his head, but then he turned around and went towards Nate. He looked like he was holding back tears, and his heart was clearly broken.

Tess wasn't holding back her tears. Two wet trails streaked down her face. She said something inaudible and then backed away towards the group.

Which left only Auriel still standing, too shocked to move.

Nate waited half a minute before speaking again, "Auriel, he's gone."

She looked down at the badge again. No...

"Maybe the Scarlet Man will call him back again one day, but there isn't anything we can do for him now."

She looked up at him, tears forming in her eyes, "I can't believe that!"

"Auriel..."

She looked back at the badge and there was quiet again.

Raven's angry voice broke the silence, "Can't you see Auriel? He was never really one of us!"

Auriel looked at Raven, wondering why she had that tone of voice. Raven seemed to be exuding cold hatred. Auriel knew her enough to guess the reason: she felt betrayed by Wolfe.

Should I feel betrayed?

"Once an Imperial, always an Imperial," Raven finished bitterly.

Auriel looked off in the direction Wolfe had gone. They're right. I should let him go...

She suddenly had an idea. She spun around and looked at Nate, "What if I am the person that brings Wolfe back to the Great Engineer!?"

Nate said nothing, contemplating that idea.

Auriel began moving away from the group, "I'm going after him."

"Auriel!" Nate shouted with anger in his voice.

Auriel stopped; she had never heard Nate angry before.

Nate continued more calmly, "...Auriel, don't do this."

"I need to," she said, defiantly.

"Does that mean you're defecting too?" Raven asked pointedly.

"Raven!" Nate said, shocked.

Before Raven could say anything else, Auriel answered, "No, I'm not defecting. I'm trying to save him."

Nate opened his mouth to say something but Auriel continued, "I know it probably won't do any good, but I have to try...Just once. If he won't come back, then..."

Then it would be over.

"...then I won't try to make him," she thought for a moment, "He's just making a rash decision! If I brought him back, then maybe he wouldn't..." she trailed off, looking down. After a moment, she continued, her voice nearly a whisper, "I don't want him to be separated from the Great Engineer. I don't want that for anyone.

Looking up again, she said, "If one of you were angry at the Great Engineer and left the Resistance, wouldn't you want someone to come after you and bring you back?"

Nate was silenced once again. Looking at Auriel in the eye, he said sadly, "Go after him, if that is what you wish."

She started walking after Wolfe again, looking back at Nate. "I'm coming back!" she shouted over the gathering distance. Then, she turned and ran down an alley.

Auriel's mind was filled with hopes. She hoped that the rest of the Resistance didn't hate her now. She hoped that Nate and Raven were wrong about Wolfe not coming back. She hoped most of all that he would come back, because she didn't want anyone to suffer alone in the fog. Finally, she hoped she would be able to find Wolfe, because it was very easy to disappear in the streets of No Man's Landing.

Fortunately, he hadn't gone far. She spotted him out of the corner of her eye.

Thank you Scarlet Man!

She turned and ran after him, "Wolfe! Wolfe, wait!"

He stopped and turned around, looking both angry and confused, "Auriel?"

She paused to catch her breath, "Wolfe...you can't leave! You can't go back to the Empire!"

"I'm not going back to the Empire," Wolfe stated.

Oh..."Then...why did you leave the Resistance?"

Wolfe seemed irritated, "I left the Resistance because I didn't like how they operated. I know that you're all good people with good intentions; I just don't like your methods. I'm still going to fight the Empire, but I'm going to do it on my own terms."

Auriel digested this, "So, you're going to be alone?"

"Yes," Wolfe said, walking away, "And you can't do anything to change my mind."

She watched him walk away, No! I can't let him go! I have to say something!

She said the first thing that came to her mind, "Wolfe! Whatever you do, the Great Engineer will never forsake you!"

He stopped abruptly and spun around slowly. He looked at Auriel, squinting, as if trying to remember something. Then he gasped and took a step back. His eyes rolled back and he collapsed.

"Wolfe!" Auriel shouted. She looked over her shoulder, drawing her flame sword, but she didn't see anyone. Sheathing the weapon, she ran over to Wolfe's unconscious form.

She shook him, "Wolfe! Wolfe!"

I looked out beyond the borders of our town. This view was always very peaceful to me. I could see for miles and miles, but the most prominent feature that I could see was the Fogworks, sending up plumes of sickly green haze.

"Hello son," my father surprised me, "I thought I'd find you here."

Our backyard had a very nice view, but it was a pity that the Great Turning City had stopped turning at just the point where the ugliest thing in Aethasia was right out my bedroom window.

"You know me," I replied, sighing and looking down at the ground hundreds of feet below. Our house had been built on the golden city's walls.

"What are you thinking about?" my father asked, "Are you worried about the mission tonight?"

I was very worried. When I had shown my boldness this morning in deciding to work for the Resistance and save my friends, I hadn't thought about how dangerous it might be. "Yes, I am worried, and angry."

"At what?"

I gestured at the Fogworks in the distance, "I'm angry that there is so much evil in Aethasia. I don't really...I don't really feel like the Great Engineer is watching over us. I know he is, but sometimes there just seems to be so much evil in the world. How are we supposed to change all of that evil? How can we challenge the darkness?"

My father smiled, "I wonder about that a lot too. It seems like the Great Engineer really has abandoned us...but we have to believe that he's always there. We need to know that whatever we do, the Great Engineer will never forsake us." He hugged me.

I hugged him back.

"Now, let's get ready."

"Okay," I said, staring once more at the beautiful view that was Aethasia.

"Wolfe!"

I opened my eyes. Auriel was kneeling over me, looking frantic.

"Auriel?"

When she saw me awake, she stood up and took a deep breath, looking towards the sky.

"What happened?" I asked, getting up.

"I...well...I thought...but..." she hugged me, "I'm so glad you're not dead!"

My face was a study in confusion, "Auriel," I said, stepping back, "What happened? I remember..."

I did remember something.

"Well," Auriel said, running a hand through her hair, "I was talking to you and then you just fell over. I thought you could tell me what happened."

I reflected for a moment, "I had a memory..." I told her, unsure.

Then with absolute certainly, I exclaimed, "I know where my home is! I remember! I lived in Evercity with my family! My family! I need to go there!"

I began running east.

"Wait!" Auriel said. I stopped.

She looked back and then looked down, "I'm coming with you. And there is a faster way of travel than running."

I was intrigued.

Auriel and Wolfe went to Lukas's Workshop and used the Map of Aethasia tech and the Aetherstep to transport to Evercity. From then on, they began combing the city for Wolfe's home.

Auriel wondered why she was going with him, but she knew the answer: this was the best hope for bringing Wolfe back to the Resistance. Besides...she thought it was what the Scarlet Man would have done.

After walking around the city for an hour, Auriel began to worry that they would never find Wolfe's home. But Wolfe commented, "Wait, I remember this place!" and off he went."

She chased after him through the city until they finally arrived at an abandoned house on top of the city wall.

Wolfe stood at the border between the road and the lawn. He didn't even appear to be breathing.

"This is it," he said.

"Home."

Kitty_Ironcraft 2019-09-24 01:45:18 UTC #15

Chapter 10: Ironcraft

Auriel looked at the mailbox, "Ironcraft," she read, looking at me, "Is that your last name?"

I frowned, shaking my head, "It sounds familiar, but it's not my last name...I've actually never really had a last name."

Auriel's eyes widened in surprise.

Shrugging, I continued, "I'm not even sure if Wolfe is my real name. I just remember coming to after the Resistance knocked me out and gave me amnesia. The Empire told me my name was Wolfe."

Auriel looked down, seeming a little bit skeptical and angry.

"What?" I asked.

She hesitated, "It's nothing."

I squinted, "Okay..." I began walking towards the front door, which had a Do Not Enter sign posted on it.

Opening it, Auriel and I walked in. As I saw the interior, more and more memories seemed to appear as if in a mist, just out of reach.

"I remember this..." I trailed off.

We continued walking through the dark rooms of the house...the entire place was ransacked! Everything was gone and it looked like there were bullet holes, scratches, and burn marks in the wall. Whatever memory I possessed of this place, I did not remember it ever being so empty here. We continued out the back door and then I saw the tree from my memories, except that it was toppled over, scarred, and burned. Despite all odds, the tree still seemed to be alive.

When Auriel saw the tree, she remarked, "This place has been completely destroyed. Who would do this? The Empire?" she was aghast.

"I don't know," I said, walking towards the toppled tree.

There was something special about that tree...I wasn't sure what it was. Stretching out my hand, I brushed my skin against the bark. The mists in my mind began to clear.

"I remember this tree," I said, "It's..." my eyes shot open.

The moon was full that night. I thought it was beautiful, but I didn't let that distract me. I glanced down at my hands, finishing up pulling leather gauntlets over them. It was going to be tonight. Now completely in my armor, I began walking down the street.

My dad approached me, "Are you ready?"

I nodded, "Yes...I think so."

"All right," he said, "The Imperial base is just ahead.

We walked together. I met up with my mom, my parents' friend, and a whole bunch of other Resistors. We began to march on the Imperial base. Hopefully, they had no idea we were coming.

Suddenly, gunfire began blazing from automatons in hidden positions. Aether glowed and weapons fired in retaliation, but it was still becoming a massacre. We were able to make it to cover, but we lost three Resistors on the way. We were extremely outnumbered and outgunned.

The automatons kept coming, and we kept up our rain of fire, but even I knew that we would never survive. I looked around at the Resistors and saw the fear in their eyes. I saw my friends in my mind's eye, and I knew what I had to do.

"Mom! Dad!" I shouted over the sound of explosions. I ran towards them, dodging a fireball.

"What is it!?" my dad yelled back.

"I'm going to charge out and distract their fire! Then you go and--"

"No!" my mom interjected, "You wouldn't ever make it!"

"If I don't do this, none of us are going to make it! The Imperial base is right behind that line of automatons. If you can just get in there, you can rescue the prisoners!"

An explosion sent chunks of wood spraying through our conversation.

"I'm doing it!" I shouted, "Mom, dad, I love you!"

I shot out into the fray, hearing my parents shout, "We love--" an explosion obscured the rest.

I charged, firing my pistols at automatons. Four collapsed into smoking piles of rubble. A barrage of fire came my way, but I dropped to the ground and rolled to avoid it. Standing up, I saw the head autofficer watching me. I drew my dueling cane and charged him. When I was very close, he quickly drew a large hammer and attempted to smash me with it. I rolled under the strike, spinning my cane 360 degrees out of the roll. The autofficer jumped away. Standing, I charged him again. His hammer was heavy and slowed him down somewhat, and he couldn't use it efficiently at close range. I moved right up close to him, standing a head shorter. He tried to grapple with me and I dropped my cane. I pushed him away, rolled, picking up my dueling cane. Standing, I smashed him on the side of the head, knocking him to the ground, apparently unconscious. I turned around, trying to see the rest of the Resistors. I saw their feet as they ran into the Imperial complex.

Yes! I thought. I saved them and all of the prisoners!

Behind me the autofficer stood, picked up his hammer, and smashed the back of my head. I fell down to the ground, quickly slipping into unconsciousness.

"You fight well, Resistor...very well. If you had been a part of the Empire, then you would have been a great help to Lucky's army...Hmm...perhaps we could still have some use for you..."

Darkness.

My eyes shot open and Auriel helped me to my feet.

After I remained silent for a few seconds, Auriel asked excitedly, "What is it!?"

"I remember..." I blinked a few times, all of my memories clicking together in my head, "I had this memory before, the first time I put on my fog armor, but this time it was different! I wasn't in the Empire, I was in the Resistance! I lost my memory fighting to save my friends! That autofficer must have brought me to the Academy Automicus to train me to be an autofficer...and his voice...I knew who he was..."

I tried to focus on the memory. Suddenly it dawned on me.

"Autofficer Anzok. He's the one that I fought that day. He's the one that took away my memories."

Auriel remained silent for a few seconds, trying to be supportive, "Do you remember anything else?"

"...No."

That was disappointing. I thought I would figure out who I was. I only figured out why I was.

I sighed, and then started when I had an idea. I ran off to the overlook at the back of the house.

Stopping, I waited for Auriel to catch up.

"This was my favorite place. I love this view," I said, gesturing across Aethasia.

Auriel seemed awestruck by it.

I smiled, walking over to the (long since dead) garden a few steps away. Kneeling, I started digging in the southeast corner. More of the dirt fell onto the metal wall of the city as I got deeper. Half a foot down, I hit something: an iron box that was three feet long and half a foot square. Auriel walked over as I removed it from the ground. The box's lid said, "Ironcraft."

Auriel looked like she wanted to say something, but she remained silent. To answer her unasked question, I explained, "My parents and I always used to hide things here." I opened the box and saw a scroll-like piece of paper, rolled up and tied with a string. There was something else under a black fabric.

I unrolled the paper and read it aloud, "We hoped you would find this. We would like you to know that we were able to rescue the prisoners because of your sacrifice. We hope you're okay. We miss you. The Empire is on to us and we think that they are about to break into our house. So, we and your brothers are getting ready to move. We're putting this here because we want you to have what's in the box. A stranger in a red cloak came the night you were born and gave this to us. He said to give it to you as soon as you were old enough. You probably are now. Take it, and let the Great Engineer protect you. We love you, our little Kitty Cat. Mom and Dad," I lowered the paper to my knees, "Kitty..." I muttered to myself.

Auriel kneeled next to me, "...Kitty...Ironcraft. That sounds like a nice name."

"It does. Kitty Ironcraft, I like it," I said, smiling.

She smiled back for a few seconds, "So, what did the Scarlet Man tell your parents to give you?"

I slowly pulled the black fabric away, revealing a scabbard for a long knife. Picking up the scabbard, I unsheathed the knife. The blade was beautiful, gunmetal gray with orange markings, and it was almost big enough to be a sword. I glanced up at Auriel, who seemed a bit confused by the gift.

I shrugged, put down the knife, and tied the scabbard to my waist. If it really was the Scarlet Man (who else would it be?) I should probably wear it. After I finished, I picked up the blade and held it in the air, liking the way it felt in my hand. This is a good blade.

Edit Requesting

Kitty_Ironcraft 2019-09-24 01:46:37 UTC #16

I heard voices and sheathed the blade, "What's that?"

"It's coming from across the street," Auriel pointed.

We tiptoed closer and hid behind a wall of my house. Peeking around the wall, I saw one of the neighbors talking to an autofficer and pointing at my house. I saw one of those new 'alert beacons' in his left hand. Inching out even further, I got a look at the autofficer.

It was Zander, and he was being flanked by two Lashers.

"Thank you, citizen," Zander said, sounding dark and menacing, "The Empire will reward you for your loyalty."

I went back behind the wall. I whispered to Auriel, "The Empire knows we're here."

At that moment, an Imperial airship began to rise over my lookout. So far, only the balloon was visible, but whoever was on board would see us in seconds.

"Follow me!" I whispered, running to the backdoor of the house.

Auriel followed me inside and I shut the door, quietly. We both looked out a window and saw that the airship had risen completely above 'ground level' and was now sending spotlight beams throughout my yard. The airship was filled with automatons that were beginning to unload. We turned away from the window and walked to the front of the house. Right before I opened the front door, I saw Zander and the Lashers crossing the road toward us.

"We're trapped!" Auriel whispered.

Suddenly, I remembered the secret compartment built into the wall at the back of the house.

"Come on!" I whispered, half-dragging Auriel to the back of the house.

We made it to the room and then I pushed on the tile, which swung open. Getting down on my hands and knees, I crawled in, "I hope the Empire doesn't know that this is here."

Auriel blinked away her surprise and followed me in. She closed the door behind her and then we waited in the dark. We began to hear heavy footsteps, whirring, clanking.

Zander's dark voice echoed in, "He should be here! Spread out and search the houses to the west."

The footsteps faded away. After a couple of minutes, I motioned for Auriel to open the door. She peeked outside, gave a thumbs-up, and then we crawled out of the compartment. I closed the door and then we moved ever so quietly to the front of the house. Turning a corner, we saw Zander in the kitchen. We reversed direction and moved behind a wall, right before he looked our way. I don't think he saw us. Turning around, we took another route to the front door, not encountering any resistance.

That's kind of funny. It would be nice if we encountered some Resistance right now. Stop making jokes, Wo...Kitty.

I turned the front door, praying that it wouldn't creak as it opened. When it was just barely open enough, we sidestepped through the door and then shut it quietly. We half-crawled, half-ran-as-fast-as-we-could to the street. Next, we looked around. Zander was in the house--south, a bunch of automatons were combing buildings to the west (the owners of said houses were not very happy). The airship seemed to be flying east, spotlights shining, so the only way to go seemed north. Auriel and I moved quietly that way, gaining speed the further we got from my house. Eventually, we were in a full run. I looked back, one last time to see my house.

I saw Zander standing in the middle of the road aiming a sniper pistol at us. He fired.

I jumped into Auriel as a bullet screamed by where I would have been. We rolled on the metal sidewalk painfully. We stood and ran down a side road as more gunshots sounded behind us.

Stupid! I chided, I should have known Zander was more observant than that! He was just pretending not to see us so we would let our guard down!

Auriel and I continued running closer to the center of Evercity. We weren't even close to the center when we made it to the market. A few odd people were running every which way, trying to get back to their homes...probably because of the gunshots. I looked back again: Zander and the Lashers were right on our tail! Auriel skidded to a stop when she saw the airship flying over the marketplace. It had circled around and it now was hovering a short distance away.

"SURRENDER, OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE!" a loudspeaker announced. A cannonball exploded on the ground some distance away from us to prove its point.

I looked back, Zander was almost on top of us. In front, the airship was landing and unloading dozens of automatons: Troubleshooters mostly, populated with some officers. There were also Technomites.

"Come on!" Auriel said, pulling on my arm. I looked where she was pointing and saw an alley. We dashed into it, narrowly avoiding a cannonball and another round from Zander's pistol. The alley was about eight feet wide and twice as high. The Lashers followed us in, combat mode engaged.

Zander ordered the Lashers to follow Wolfe and the Resistor. Then, he ordered the rest of the Automaton force, minus the Technomites, to cut them off. Then Zander boarded the airship and commanded it to fly high and keep watch on where they were heading. Eventually, the ship made it to a high altitude and Zander spotted them. He smiled and jumped off the airship. A few seconds later, he spread out his arms and engaged his flight suit. He glided down and landed on a metal walkway. The wings folded themselves back into his armor. He looked over the edge into the alley, and saw Wolfe and the Resistor run by.

Perfect!

Kitty kept glancing back, "Where's Zander!? He's not behind us!"

Auriel looked up and then shouted, "Look out!"

Zander landed on Kitty, who was almost able to twirl out of the way of Zander's scimitar. The both tumbled to the ground. Kitty stood up, holding a cut on his arm. Zander advanced, swinging his blade at Kitty's head. He ducked and rolled backwards, still holding his arm. Auriel ran behind Zander, igniting her flame sword. Zander raised his sword behind his head and stopped the flaming weapon in midswing. He spun around, and twisted Auriel's sword out of her hand, then kicked her. She sprawled on the ground. Kitty had unsheathed both blades and was charging Zander. The autofficer spun to look at Kitty, raising his sword horizontally to block both of Kitty's blades.

Zander's easy one-handed grip on his sword belied his livid expression, "Hello, traitor!"

Zander pushed back and initiated a furious sword combo on Kitty. With both blades, Kitty was able to parry all of the attacks, but Zander's assault pushed him backwards. Zander's final strike was a double-handed smash bearing down on Kitty's head.

Kitty turned his weapons horizontally and blocked Zander's Scimitar with both blades. He executed a spin-kick, knocking Zander off his feet.

"Kitty!" Auriel shouted.

He looked in her direction and saw her ducking under a Lasher's tendril.

Zander smiled and rolled to his feet, Kitty was already running.

"Switch!" he yelled.

Auriel ran towards Zander while Kitty jumped and slashed at the nearest Lasher. His sword glanced off, but the knife cut deep, slicing through circuits. It was a lot sharper than it looked. However, the Lasher didn't seem to be fazed at all, and it continued attacking. Kitty rapidly dodged, spun, and ducked, avoiding all four electrified whips. He struck at the first Lasher again, cutting into it with both blades. Green-tinted smoke began to pour out of the wound. But while he was attacking the one Lasher, the other one came up behind him, swinging a whip. Kitty instinctively raised his knife to block. The whip twirled itself around the knife, sending an electrical current through the metal and into Kitty's hand. His muscles locked in place as his body was flooded with electricity. The first Lasher picked him up with its whips and threw him against a wall.

Meanwhile, Auriel continued attacking Zander with her fire sword, but he blocked each attack by moving his sword to deflect. Auriel finally hit with her full force and their blades crossed. They were face to face, pushing against each other.

Zander smiled evilly, "It looks like 'Kitty' over there is--"

Auriel punched him in the face. Zander staggered backwards, overcome with surprise and hate. Auriel then spun towards Kitty, fire cane in hand. She jumped high into the air, twirling her sword and creating an arc of flames that slammed into the ground between Kitty and the Lashers. She landed behind the more damaged machine and ran her sword through it. It rumbled out a low beep before its lights went out and became lifeless. Kitty rose and picked up his swords, and together the two of them jumped around the Lasher, slashing at its armor without getting hit by the flailing arms. The Lasher calculated that its chances weren't good, so it began to inch backward.

"Technomites!" Auriel shouted.

Behind the Lasher, back the way they had come, half a dozen Technomites appeared around the bend. They noticed the badly damaged Lasher coming towards them and they activated their repair mode.

"Make sure they don't get to the Lasher!" Kitty said, stopping.

Hearing something, he turned around just in time to see Zander's blade flying towards him again. He parried the blade with the knife and attacked with his sword. Zander jumped back, and had to continue moving to avoid Kitty's twin-bladed flurry.

Meanwhile, Auriel readied her Starter Pistols and fired blasts of energy at the oncoming Technomites. However, the little machines were quick and Auriel was only able to destroy two of them. The rest met up with the Lasher and began making a quick repair to it.

She continued firing and was able to destroy another Technomite, but the repairs on the Lasher were happening quickly.

Too quickly.

Kitty continued striking at Zander, who was able to constantly parry his attacks. Eventually, Zander began to run and Kitty chased after him. The autofficer jumped towards one of the walls of the alley, kicked off of it, and launched himself into his opponent. Zander's foot collided with Kitty's chest, taking his breath away and knocking him to the ground, gasping.

Before Kitty could get back up, Zander's sword was at his neck. The autofficer smiled, "Well, Kitty, it looks like the Empire wins in the end." Zander's face bent into a snarl, "I thought you would have known that, but I guess I was wrong." Zander quickly raised his sword, and held it in both hands, tip pointing down over Kitty, "It's time to die, traitor!"

Twin blasts of plasma smashed into Zander's chest armor, knocking him against the wall. Auriel ran up to Kitty and holstered her Starter Pistols.

She helped Kitty up, "The Lasher's coming."

Kitty saw the machine charging at them again, fully repaired. He saw Zander getting back up, angrier than ever. He knew that they wouldn't be able to fight both Zander and the Lasher, especially with the Technomites chiming in for repairs.

So they both took off running down the alleyway again. The Technomites stopped at Zander and repaired his armor.

After a short while of running, Auriel noticed Kitty's burns and the cut on his arm, "Wait!"

They stopped and she sent a stream of Aether into him, clearing away his wounds and refreshing him.

"Thanks," he said. The thought of using Aether to heal his wounds had never crossed his mind.

Zander, the Lasher, and the Technomites charged around a corner.

"Oh come on!" Auriel shouted, and they ran again.

After a few more minutes of running, both of them were getting tired and gasping for breath in the fog-stained air. The automatons seemed to have no such trouble, even Zander seemed machine-like in his resistance to exhaustion. The Empire was slowly gaining ground in this chase, in which they ran halfway through the city until they were nearing the northwest end. Coming around another turn onto a main road, Auriel and Kitty stopped dead. A platoon of Troubleshooters blocked the road.

"HALT AND PLEASE STAND BY FOR INCARCERATION!" the Troubleshooter Officer ordered.

The two humans defied this order, spun on their heels, and ran back into the alley. A few of the Troubleshooters opened fire, but they weren't exactly accurate.

They stopped again when they saw Zander's group closing in.

"They've trapped us again!" Kitty said scornfully.

"Look!" Auriel shouted, running towards a panel on the wall, no, a hatch!

Kitty ran over and helped Auriel open the hatch, and they both ran in and closed the hatch after them.

It was perfectly black. Auriel ignited her flame sword, which showed their faces and a small amount of the surrounding room.

"What is this place?" she asked.

"I'm not sure," Kitty replied, "I assume this is part of some kind of maintenance system that used to be worked back when the city turned. Now that the city doesn't turn any more, I guess nobody uses these tunnels anymore. They probably encompass the entire city.

The door started opening from the other side, so they stopped discussing why the tunnel was, simply happy because it was. They ran through the maintenance tunnels, led by the light of Auriel's sword. They ran for a few minutes until they felt they were safe. They sat down heavily, panting. It was kind of dusty down here, but there didn't seem to be too much fog.

Auriel deactivated her sword. Everything was black again, "Do you think we lost them?"

"Yeah," Kitty replied.

"How are we going to get out of here?"

He hadn't thought that they might be lost, "I'm sure there are a lot of exits to this place, we'll find one eventually," he said, trying to sound confident.

He heard a small tap, "Did you hear that?" he whispered.

"Hear what?"

Next came the slightly louder sound of metal sliding on metal. Auriel and Kitty stood up, and Auriel activated her sword. In the darkness, they saw Zander with his sword. The autofficer was wearing some night-vision goggles and had followed them by the light Auriel made with her sword.

"You didn't think you could escape me that easily, did you?" Zander said.

"You call that 'easy'?" Auriel replied, exasperated.

Zander advanced on them. Kitty and Auriel fought side by side, covering each other when they were unguarded. Zander was not able to break through their defense. Despite that, he showed no signs of relenting. Zander suddenly switched all of his focus to Kitty, with two lightning-fast swings he was able to knock him to the ground. This left him open to attack by Auriel, who promptly struck him with her flame sword. The weapon began to sizzle through his armor, but not nearly as fast as she thought it would. With his left hand, he launched an uppercut at Auriel. It hit her straight in the chest, knocking the breath out of her lungs and forcing her to drop her sword. It clattered to the ground and deactivated, leaving them all in darkness, except for Zander.

Kitty knew this, and he wasn't about to let Zander keep that advantage. He ran straight towards where he thought Zander was, not sure if he would be impaled on Zander's sword. The two men collided and fell to the ground, struggling. Kitty maneuvered himself over Zander and tried to grab his goggles, but Zander pushed his hands away and kicked Kitty away. Getting back to his feet, Kitty unsheathed his swords and charged again, slicing in the darkness. His main sword was intercepted by Zander's block, but his long knife reached its intended target. Kitty sliced Zander's goggles in half vertically. Zander cried out in pain. Somewhere, Auriel found and reactivated her sword, casting light on Zander holding his hand over his face. Zander screamed a battle cry, spinning his sword around wildly. Kitty was able to jump backwards before the sword struck him. At this moment, the trio of Technomites bounded into the room. Kitty helped Auriel up and ran away from the quartet of Imperials into the next room, which had a door. They swung the door shut and locked it. Zander wouldn't be able to open this door.

Zander's muffled voice shouted orders to the automatons. A trio of bright flames appeared in three locations on the door. The Technomites were cutting through it with their welding torches.

"Are you okay?" Auriel asked.

"I'm fine," Kitty said, I'm more worried about you."

She was holding her chest where Zander had sucker-punched her, "I'll be fine...We need to get out of here before they get that door open.

Kitty nodded and ran off down the tunnel.

Auriel followed, "Wait!" she said.

Kitty stopped, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Auriel pointed with her left hand, "Look."

A large ladder was built into the wall and led upwards to a previously unseen vertical tunnel.

"It might be our best chance," Auriel explained, folding her arms.

"Okay," Kitty said, approaching the ladder. He began climbing up.

Auriel followed.

"Are you sure you can make it up?" Kitty asked, stopping.

"Yes," she replied sharply, clearly trying to keep the pain from her voice, "I can make it."

"Okay," Kitty said again, climbing up again, "You're sure?"

"Yes!"

Kitty thought for a moment. They were probably 15 feet above the ground now, "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For not trusting you."

It was Auriel's turn to remain silent for a time, "Kitty, I--"

"I reached the top, there's a hatch in the ceiling."

"What?" Auriel asked, shaking ahead. They were about three stories off the ground now.

"I'm trying to open it," he grunted.

"Kitty...I don't...I didn't mean to be harsh. It was just...I'm the one that should be sorry."

Kitty continued trying to turn the wheel of the hatch for a few seconds, making some progress, "We both should be sorry." He added quietly, "We're all imperfect."

Below, a large crash sounded. The Technomites had made it through the door. Kitty and Auriel made no sound except for the creaking of the hatch as it began to open more quickly.

"Got it," Kitty whispered, pushing the hatch up. Bright daylight flowed down the shaft, blinding Kitty and Auriel for a moment. He climbed up and made it to the top. They were on top of a spire on the northwestern wall of the city. The wind was strong here and he held onto the golden tower for support. There appeared to be no other way down. Dead end, he thought.

Auriel reached up for him to grab her hand. He reached down to grab it.

A gunshot.

Auriel's face showed no expression. Zander stood at the bottom of the shaft, aiming his smoking pistol at Auriel. She fell.

"NO!" Kitty shouted.

He reached down and grabbed her hand. The force of the stop caused Kitty to fall into the shaft as well. He grabbed the top rung of the ladder with his left hand, straining to support both his and Auriel's weight with one limb. Auriel shrieked through her clenched teeth. Kitty grimaced.

They hung thirty feet above the floor.

Zander smiled wickedly and began climbing the ladder. Kitty planted his feet on a lower rung. They weren't going down, but he didn't see how they were going to go up with him only having three limbs available to climb and carrying a lot more weight. He pulled up on the ladder, his left arm screaming in protest. Auriel's hand began to slip. Zander had made it halfway up the ladder. Kitty's teeth gritted in determination, and he pulled even harder. His left arm made it up to the top, and he suddenly found that there was nothing for his hand to hold onto. Auriel's weight behind him caused Kitty to begin to fall backwards. He quickly drew his knife with his left hand and stabbed it into the metal at the top of the ladder. The blade went in a few inches and Kitty held onto it for all he was worth. The interrupted fall shifted Auriel's hand further out of his. He was only holding onto her fingers now. She shook out of her shock and grabbed his arm with her other hand. He pulled on the embedded sword and pushed with his legs at the same time. Now, half of his body was out of the chasm. He removed the knife from the metal and pounded it in again at a better location. The progress he was making suddenly halted. He checked back in the hole, Zander was pulling on Auriel's leg, warranting another cry of pain from her. She kicked Zander in the face, but the Autofficer held on, still smiling maniacally, a scar running across his face through the bridge of his nose. She kicked again, and Kitty heard Zander grunt. He let go of Auriel's leg and Kitty continued pulling them up. He was now fully out of the hole and, kneeling, was pulling Auriel out. Zander climbed higher and jerked on her leg, pulling her out of Kitty's hand. He grabbed her arm with his left hand and continued pulling her up, his arm just about ready to give. Auriel planted her free foot on Zander's face and jumped, pushing Zander back down the ladder and forcing him to give up his grip. Kitty held her hands with both of his and pulled her all the way up. She stood on the ledge, falling to the ground, blood staining the back of her shirt. Kitty let go of her hands and jumped down into the hole, smashing Zander with both of his legs as he fell. Zander was knocked off the ladder and began to plummet down the shaft. He grabbed onto the ladder again about 10 feet from the bottom. Kitty grasped onto a rung of the ladder with his hand again and pulled himself up. Reaching the top, he sat on the metal and closed the hatch.

All was silent, except for Auriel's soft sobbing.

I kneeled down beside her, "Auriel?"

Her eyes were shut and tears streaked down her face. She couldn't speak because of the pain, so she nodded. I was at a loss of what to do next until I remembered my Aethermeter. I concentrated intensely, and activated it. The healing light flowed through her shirt and into her back wound. The bleeding began to stop and the pain started to go away; I could tell by how her face relaxed somewhat.

She opened her eyes and tried to smile. "Thank you."

"...Of course," I smiled back to encourage her.

She wiped her face on her sleeves to dry the tears.

The wind swirled around us on the high tower for a few seconds before I heard the sound of an engine.

The Imperial airship appeared from the south, belching out fog.

Zander had climbed back up the ladder and was opening the hatch, which I promptly stood on.

Auriel saw the airship and sighed, looking suddenly weary and resigned.

"This isn't over yet," I said with a fire in my eyes.

She shook her head, "What are we going to do? We can't go back, we can't go forward..." she trailed off.

The airship moved to within a couple feet of our position. The remaining automatons on board aimed cannons at us.

A Pacifier Officer spoke, "WE HAVE RECIEVED A COMMUNICATION FROM AUTOFFICER ZANDER TO DELIVER TO YOU! STOP STANDING ON THE HATCH WITHIN TEN SECONDS OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE! TEN!...NINE!..."

Auriel stood up with me.

"SEVEN!...SIX!..."

I had a terrible idea, "Auriel, do you trust me!?"

"FIVE!...FOUR!..."

"What do you..." she thought for a moment.

"THREE!...TWO!..."

"I trust you."

"ONE!..."

"Jump!" I ran towards the ledge and leaped over the distance between us and the airship. I landed on the deck, rolling and unholstering my pistols. Auriel followed me and we both stood on the deck of the airship. We were back-to-back, aiming our four weapons at all of the automatons.

The Pacifier stopped talking because we had complied with its request. By the time it realized what was happening, I had blown its head off with a pistol.

The rest of the machines struggled to get a clear shot at us, but we opened fire and destroyed four more automatons within a couple seconds. The final automaton on board aimed and let off a shot at me, which I dodged. Auriel launched a salvo of energy into its chassis, knocking it of the airship.

Or rather, our airship.

I holstered my weapons and ran to the helm, steering the ship away from Evercity.

"Kitty!" Auriel said.

I spun around. There was a sudden hissing sound coming from above.

"It's Zander!" she said.

My former Lieutenant swung down to the main deck of the ship, his sword in his hand. Auriel and I trained our pistols on him.

"Don't try anything, Zander!" I warned.

"I don't take orders from you anymore!" Zander shouted. He charged straight towards me. Auriel and I began shooting, but he dodged all of the shots and moved to within melee range. He shouldn't be that fast! He swiped his sword at me and I ran backwards a few steps until I realized I had reached the back of the airship. I teetered over the edge. Zander raised his sword for a final blow. Auriel opened fire with her Starter Pistols. The blasts hit Zander in the back, knocking him off balance. The blade missed me and I ran away from the edge of the ship. What is the deal with him and his indestructible armor!? Zander chased after me. I threw my pistols on the ground and unsheathed my swords. Turning around I blocked his attack with my blades. Then I countered with a hurricane of strikes that pushed Zander back a step. He sidestepped a strike, which knocked me off balance again. I looked just in time to see his scimitar screaming towards me. A flash of fire came from above, Auriel's sword knocked Zander's out of the way and into the deckboards. The ship started to shudder and lose altitude, Zander must have punctured the balloon! I jumped into him, sending us both rolling on the ground. All weapons were forgotten; we punched and kicked until we finally rolled to the edge of the ship. Zander was on top of me and pushed me down. I looked behind me to see land hundreds of feet below and getting closer. Zander punched me in the face three times and then proceeded to choke me with his hands. I tried pushing his hands away, but they were like iron clasps choking away my oxygen. How can this be!? I've always been at least as strong as he was! He reached to his left and grabbed his sword which had slid to the back of the vessel. I used the distraction to spin him around. I was now on top of him. Zander held his sword in both hands, but I grabbed his hands and began pushing the sword toward him. It was an intense struggle, but with a final burst of strength, the blade rested on his throat.

"Surrender!" I shouted, "Now!"

He stopped struggling, but his eyes continued to stare daggers into me.

Nobody said anything for a few tense seconds.

"Why did you leave?" Zander said, voice full of rancor.

"I couldn't stand what the Empire was doing anymore," I declared, "How they treated their prisoners, what they tried to make me do...Why did you betray me!? I thought we were friends!"

My eyes had trailed to his armor. I recognized it!

It was fog armor. Not the one I used to have, but fog armor nonetheless.

Zander wore his wicked grin, "I think you already know."

It was the fog armor the whole time. He had been wearing it since the day I left the Empire. That was what was making him so treacherous, violent, crazy, strong, fast, and resistant to my attacks. It all made sense now.

Zander continued, "You thought you were the only one who had fog armor, but you were only the first...after Zaul celebrated on his success with you, he made a new set for me, and then for others as well!"

I contemplated this slowly.

Before I knew it, Zander wrenched the sword from me and kicked me away. I landed on my back and jumped to my feet in a second. Auriel stood beside me, sword ready. She handed me my knife and we both watched Zander carefully, our swords poised, ready for anything.

He shot a glance at the empty air behind him and then turned back to us and smiled, the scar across his face now painfully obvious, "I think I'll be leaving you now--it looks like you have your own problems to deal with. Wolfe, or Kitty, or whatever you call yourself now, know this: I will find you, I will catch you," his face became a scowl, "And I'll make you wish you'd never been born."

Zander took a step backwards off the edge of the ship and fell. Auriel and I ran to look over the edge and we saw him floating away in his glide suit. Apparently his fog armor was upgraded with that? I wondered.

"Do you notice that he's gliding, but he's going up?" Auriel asked.

I looked toward the ground, "He's not going up! We're going down!"

One minute later, the airship crashed into the ground.

Edit Requesting

Kitty_Ironcraft 2019-09-24 01:47:03 UTC #17

They were able to survive the crash with only a few cuts and bruises--nothing that Aether couldn't fix. Removing the bullet from Auriel's back was painful, but not relatively difficult. Another dose of Aether and the bullet wound was nothing more than a quickly fading scar. They had crashed in the foothills of the Old Mount where it was quite hilly. The setting sun made the hills seem black and barren. They were walking southwest towards No Man's Landing. They had been talking, but there was silence for a long time.

At last Kitty spoke, "Thank you, Auriel. I never would have been able to recover my past without you."

She swiveled her head to see him looking her in the eyes, "You're welcome. I'm glad to have helped you Kitty," she smiled.

He smiled and looked back at the path. Auriel looked at him for a while longer, wondering how she should say what she wanted to say.

"Kitty?"

He looked at her.

"Now that you have your memories...or, I guess you don't yet..." she took a deep breath, "Now that you know who you were, are you going to join the Resistance again?"

He frowned, "No."

She stopped, "Why not?" she was very confused.

He stopped too, "Why should I? What changed? I'm still not happy with how the Resistance works."

"But," she started, "I thought that if you knew who you were then you would return to the Scarlet Man."

Kitty was about to say something but she continued, "I thought that if you saw how I, a Resistor, helped you get your memories back, then maybe you would think we are good people again..."

Kitty answered slowly, "I know that the Empire is evil. I know that the Resistance is good, but I can't work with them. I can't agree with them. But, I will always continue to work for the Scarlet Man."

"How can you work for the Scarlet Man and not be in the Resistance?" she asked.

Kitty turned away, sadly shaking his head, "I don't know how to explain it to you, Auriel...for what it's worth, I'm glad I was a part of the Resistance. If I hadn't, then I doubt I ever would have known about the Great Engineer and the Scarlet Man. You made that possible, so thank you."

He turned back to her. She didn't know what to say to that. She only looked down, staring at the dark hills with tears forming in her eyes. I don't want you to lose sight of the Great Engineer, Kitty! I don't want you to be away from the Resistance.

He put his arm on her shoulder. She looked up. He said, "I can't go with you anymore. I hope you...I hope you find whatever you're looking for. I hope you really get to know the Great Engineer. Goodbye, Auriel."

He turned and walked away, for the second time that day.

She watched him go until he disappeared over a hill, turning around and waving before he left. Auriel looked back towards No Man's Landing, and then towards Kitty.

She sighed, I promised Nate that I would come back if Kitty didn't return to the Resistance. I should go.

She began walking towards No Man's Landing, alone.

When she had taken a dozen steps, she spun around and quickly walked towards Kitty, I may not convince him to come with me, but there is something that I need to tell him first.

She walked over the top of the hill, about to say Kitty but she bit her tongue when she saw a platoon of Automatons. She dropped to the dirt and watched. Kitty was there, lying face down on the ground. In addition to the Automatons, there were two Imperials: Zaul and Zander. Zander was kneeling next to Kitty, "I told you I'd catch you."

A Lasher with its electric mode deactivated picked up Kitty's unconscious body and they all began to follow Zaul to the southeast.

Auriel watched it all, "Kitty," she whispered. She only looked back at No Man's Landing twice, and then she began to follow the Automatons.

Kitty_Ironcraft 2019-11-23 15:13:27 UTC #18

Chapter 11: The Ebony Spire

I blinked and opened my eyes. What? What happened? Where am I?

"Nice to see you awake, Wolfe," Zaul was sitting behind a table, "Or should I call you Kitty?"

I was shocked to suddenly see him, and I struggled and tried to stand. I quickly found that all of my limbs had been strapped to a nearly vertical table. I looked around. I was in a dark, high-chambered room made out of black stone. One door was behind Zaul and to his right, and there was one window on the opposite side. It was open, and I could see the sky and a few stars.

So it's late evening...or early morning.

The back of my head hurt, in addition to the sore spots all over my body. Strangely, my back felt very cold, as if it was touching something metal.

"It's Kitty," I replied defiantly, shaking my head, "How did I get here!? Where am I!?"

"Welcome to the Ebony Spire, Mr. Ironcraft. This is where you will be spending your next few days...or perhaps hours," he added thoughtfully, "As for how you got here, don't you remember? Ah, yes...you were probably just walking along and then the next thing you knew, you were here. It's probably very confusing. Long story short, Zander hunted you down and knocked you out. He wanted to kill you, but I told him not to."

"Why is that?" I asked angrily.

"Because: you're more valuable to the Empire alive."

I was going to ask why, but I didn't need to. This is an interrogation. "I'm not telling you anything."

"That's what they always say," Zaul reached under the table and withdrew a moderate-sized remote that had a dial and a green button, "I know you, Kitty. I know how strong your will is, and therefore I know it is pointless to try to convince you to tell me the truth. Fortunately, I have technology on my side. This device is the newest in interrogation tech. It remotely signals the fog injector attached to your back," he held up the remote, "It has ten settings. According to my calculations, the first setting will inject just enough fog into you to make you more willing to communicate. At the fourth setting, the fog will begin to cause you physical pain. The seventh setting will cause enough pain to knock you out. Setting nine will be very traumatic for your body. I do not know what that will do to you, but it may cause permanent damage to your mind. Do you want to guess what happens at setting ten?"

I remained silent.

Zaul smiled, "I think that we'll only need to go up to setting...five, before you tell me what I want to know."

"And what is that?" I inquired.

He leaned forward, "Where is the Resistance base where your friends are hiding out in?"

I only stared back at him. I did not want any more fog in my body. I definitely didn't want any 'permanent damage to my mind,' but I would not tell him anything.

"Very well," Zaul said. He turned the dial to one and pressed the green button, "So it begins."

Auriel had followed the troop of automatons south for what seemed like hours before they arrived at a fortress. It was about a mile south of Silver Stream Lake. The first thing Auriel saw was a single dark spire pointing into the evening sky. As she moved closer, she found high black walls surrounding the spire. The walls were large enough to contain several other smaller buildings that she wouldn't be able to see over the walls. The automatons, led by Zaul and Zander, walked in the main gate and it clanked shut behind them.

That was half an hour ago. Auriel was sitting behind a solitary tree, occasionally peeking behind it and looking at the fortress. Kitty's in there! I have to get him out! But how? I can't climb those walls!

She continued sitting on a root, trying to think of a plan. Maybe there's another door somewhere else where no one else is watching! Oh wait...

Troubleshooters stood high on the walls, watching silently for intruders.

They'd see me. There goes another plan. Wait a minute! It's almost night, and then I'll be able to sneak around and find the back door!

She waited for night to fall.

Zaul deactivated the fog injector and turned the dial up one notch to six. He seemed momentarily irritated, "You are being more resilient than I expected you would be."

My head hung down, and I was breathing heavily. A respite from the pain! I didn't know how much longer I would last! Ugh... I blinked my eyes open and green spots flashed across my vision. The fog was beginning to make me dizzy.

Zaul put the remote down on the table, "Kitty...you were my friend for a long time, and it hurts me to see you in so much pain. Why not just give up the information? You'll save yourself a lot of pain and interrogation. If you talked, I would petition the Emperor to let you back in to the Empire. Please, don't do this to yourself."

Of course! I thought, Anything!

I looked at him, "It's--" I clamped my mouth shut. That fog! I thought hatefully, It's getting to me!

"I can see you're still hesitant," Zaul noted, looking concerned, "What is stopping you? The Resistance? Why do you want to protect them?"

"They're fighting for what's right!" I said decisively.

But deep down, I wondered the same thing. Why am I helping the Resistance? After all, they don't accept me!

That doesn't matter! They trusted me and I'm not going to betray them to the Empire!

They walked away from me! I am justified to betray them.

No, no NO!

"I'm not telling you anything Zaul!"

The overseer sighed, "Kitty, you're being a fool! Why fight for the Resistance? They're like a weed, spreading throughout the Empire, but this!" he gestured all around, "Fog, Kitty! Fog will completely destroy the Resistance! Don't you want to be on the winning side!? Stand with the Empire!"

He's right. The Resistance is--"NO! I will not betray my friends!"

Zaul picked up the remote, "Don't make me do this."

No! Not again! I won't be able to take it!

I have to stay strong! I can't--"I'll talk! No! I won't, ever!"

I closed my eyes, Just surrender! You can't win! Give in to the fog! - NO! I won't! - It is inevitable! - I will not sacrifice my friends! - They don't care about me! They abandoned me! - I will be better than them! I will be better than the Empire! - I can never beat the Empire. I'll do it...

I saw Auriel in my mind's eye. I shook free from the fog and realized that if I gave up the Resistance's location then it would mean imprisonment or worse for her. I couldn't do that to her, not after what she has done for me.

My mind was set, "Do your worst, Zaul! I will never surrender!"

Zaul frowned and a dark pain shot through my body. I bit my tongue to keep from screaming. I focused all of my strength, "I WILL NEVER SURRENDER!"

The pain spiked and my body went limp as I slipped into a peaceful unconsciousness.

Now! Auriel thought. It had finally become dark enough for her to sneak up to the wall.

She took a few steps toward the wall. Spotlights appeared all along the wall, illuminating circles of white on the ground. The sudden appearance of the greenish-white beams startled Auriel. She ran back behind the tree. A spotlight focused its beam on the tree for a second before trailing elsewhere. After a tense minute, in which the spotlight hit the tree twice more, she finally was able to convince herself that she wasn't spotted. The spotlights seemed to encircle the entire complex in a search pattern.

"Great," Auriel whispered.

She began to look for a pattern in the searchlight beams, and she eventually found one. She found an opening in which she could go through to get to the wall.

Three...two...one...go! She ran, avoiding the spotlight beams by inches. Her hands slapped against the dark stone. She made it!

Auriel walked along the curvature of the wall to the front gate. She tried pulling and pushing on the door, but it was locked from the other side. Two spotlight beams danced nearby. Now that she knew the front gate didn't work, she began traveling counterclockwise around the base. After what seemed like half an hour, she finally found a door. She tried to open it, but found it was locked. She sighed, looking out in the distance. A spotlight fell on a tree. The same tree that she had been hiding behind.

She was confused, but then realization struck her, So I guess there's only one way in.

The main gate clanked and Auriel ran to the side. The doors swung outward and Autofficer with a flashlight walked out. He aimed the light all around, searching for her. Swinging the light in her direction, Auriel dropped to the ground. The beam illuminated the wall above her and then the Autofficer checked the wall on the other side. Struck with a sudden idea, Auriel crawled towards the open gate. She stood up behind it, and looked behind the edge of the door.

The Autofficer was looking the other way.

She tiptoed around the door and walked into the compound. Inside the wall, she saw the main spire and a few other small buildings around it. A few automatons were walking around one of the buildings, so Auriel ran in the opposite direction towards one of the smaller buildings. As she ran, she noticed the ground was paved with large, flat rocks. Reaching the building, Auriel found a door and slipped inside of it. Peeking out, she saw the Autofficer with the flashlight reenter the base. He ordered the door shut and then he started walking towards the spire. Auriel shut the door. It was almost completely dark in the room. Auriel activated her flame sword and looked around the building she was in. It was filled with crates that were labeled with various automaton names. Obviously a storage building. She found a back door and was soon under the stars again.

I wonder where Kitty's being held, she wondered, looking at the various buildings, and the spire, I suppose I better start looking. Don't worry Kitty, I'll get you out of here.

I blinked my eyes open. Looking around, I saw I was in the same location, except that instead of Zaul sitting in the chair, it was Anzok, holding a hammer on his lap.

"Hello Wolfe. How are you feeling?"

"Terrible, thanks," I replied sarcastically.

Anzok frowned, opening his mouth.

"I'm not telling you anything," I interrupted, "So don't even start."

The Autofficer seethed, staying silent for a moment. Standing quickly, he spoke, "Do you know what you did to me?" he walked in front of me.

"No."

"I suppose you wouldn't, you don't remember then," Anzok smiled, "Brace yourself, Wolfe, you're going to learn your history. You didn't lose your memory fighting the Resistance, you were fighting with the Resistance!"

My face showed no expression.

Anzok scowled, "Aren't you surprised?"

"No, I knew."

"You knew!? How...!" Anzok stuttered. Sighing, he regained his composure, "Well, that makes things easier. If you remember, then you should know what you did to me. I, a great Autofficer, beaten by a child. Do you know what that has done to me? I hate you for that Wolfe!" he was silent for a moment, "I suppose I shouldn't be so harsh; that embarrassment made me who I am today. What you did has caused me to train to become one of the most dangerous autofficers in Aethasia, so thank you, Wolfe. But still, there is my pride to deal with." He pressed a button and the locks on my arms and legs opened. I staggered to my feet. The world spun. Anzok picked up a Dueling Cane from under the desk and he threw it at me. I missed the weapon and it clanked into my table and landed at my feet.

"Pick it up," Anzok said, "Pick it up and fight me! Then we'll see who is truly better!" Anzok spun his hammer around a few times, "In case you don't recognize it," he gloated, "this is the same hammer that took your memory three years ago!"

I looked down at the dueling cane, the world spinning around me in a green mist. I was in no condition to fight, "I won't do it."

"But you must!" Anzok said, his hammer dropping a few inches, "You have to!"

I folded my arms, "Why should I?"

Anzok looked towards the door, walking a few paces towards me. He lowered his voice, "If you win, I will allow you to escape."

"I don't believe you," I replied, flatly.

Anzok clenched his left fist, "...I see. But Wolfe...what other choice do you have? Simply stay here and be interrogated, tortured, until you betray your friends?"

"Even if you were telling the truth, I wouldn't do it. Firstly, you said 'if I win', which is unlikely because I'm pumped up with fog. Secondly, Zaul would never agree with this and I would never be able to escape anyways."

Anzok looked around, whispering, "What if I told you that I was planning to defect to the Resistance?"

My eyes widened in disbelief, and then I considered his offer. Then, I saw the flaw in his bluff, "Then why do you want me to fight you?"

"Uh..."

I scowled, "You aren't defecting, you just want to ease your pride! I will not fight you," I kicked the Dueling Cane away, "And my name is Kitty!"

Anzok watched the weapon clatter a few feet along the floor. For a moment, his built up rage took the best of him.

"You!" he said, reaching for me. He stopped himself and withdrew his hand, growling under his breath. Anzok turned and paced to the open window and looked out of it, apparently trying to deal with his frustration.

I looked at his back until my eyes strayed to the solitary door. It was slightly ajar.

Here's my chance!

I moved as silently as I could, holding my hand to my forehead to stop a sudden headache. As I walked, I passed within arm's reach of the Dueling Cane on the ground. I halted and looked down at the weapon, glanced at Anzok (who was still looking out the window), and then slowly reached down and picked up the weapon. I made no sound.

Continuing, I inched closer and closer to the door. At last, I made it and slipped outside. I found myself in a relatively empty stone room with opening on the far left side.

In the other room, Anzok turned around and saw me slip through the door, "Hey!" he shouted after me. I slammed the door. Running towards the opening, I found a downward staircase. I hesitated a moment, wondering if I was above ground or below ground.

It doesn't matter! I thought urgently, It's the only other way to go!

I began running down the staircase. The hallway curved slowly to the left, making a spiral staircase down and down. I heard a crash behind me and the sound of wood splintering, and footsteps began pounding down the stairs after me. I continued running down the long stairway, trying to focus on each step to prevent myself from stumbling. After a minute of running, the staircase ended with a door on the right side. I turned the knob and pulled the door open, running out into the open air.

I was clearly above ground. Way above ground. I was at the midpoint of a giant black spire, didn't Zaul say something about a spire? Why did I forget that? I was at the midpoint of the spire. Below, the spire was much wider, almost like a cylinder, but that cylinder shape's top was where I was now standing. Another spire with a smaller circumference was built on top of the cylinder, and it pointed into the sky. That was where I used to be. Fifteen feet of stonework extended out in every direction from the higher spire I had just exited. Beyond the stones was only midnight air, and a hundred feet below that--the ground. The waxing moon showed the surrounding countryside and gave me a good enough light to run by.

I began walking to the right on the stone pathway encircling the center of the spire, finding no doorway or stairway until I was halfway around. A door was cut into the rock. Isn't that the same door I just came from? I shrugged, Only one way to find out.

I ran toward the door, nearly jumping when I saw Anzok charging around the other end of the spire like a missile. I reached the door first and pulled on the handle.

"It's locked," Anzok said, stopping a few feet away from me, confirming what I had just figured out. I noticed a key dangling around his neck.

"You aren't getting out, Wolfe," Anzok finished.

I twirled the Dueling Cane, "We'll see about that."

I charged him, holding the cane with both hands over my right shoulder, looking ready to strike to the left. Right before I got to him, I spun to surprise him and strike to the left. He either anticipated the move or was a lot faster than he looked. Anzok jumped back and dashed forward again, swinging his hammer towards my chest. I raised the cane to parry the hammer, but the heavier weapon smashed into my cane, knocking it high into the air. My peripheral vision caught it falling off the edge of the spire. Within a second, Anzok swiped the hammer at my legs, knocking me to the ground. For his final blow, he raised the hammer high into the air and swung it downward at my head. He was too fast for me to do anything.

The hammer rocketed downward, and my body shook in a last, futile effort to dodge the blow. I tried not to scream and just barely failed. The hammer stopped abruptly an inch in front of my eyes. My heart raced as I watched the immobile weapon.

After a few seconds, Anzok laughed and withdrew the hammer, "It looks like you fought me after all, Kitty. And I won." He took a satisfied breath, "You have no idea how good that makes me feel." He raised his a communicator up to his lips, "You can come out now."

The door was unlocked and opened, and a squad of automatons walked out of it. They dragged me to my feet and led me back up to my cell. The cell door was smashed, probably by Anzok's hammer, but a repair automaton was already repairing it. Within a minute, the cold machines had strapped me to the table again and left.

I felt like a fool. Anzok had tricked me into fighting him and I fell for it. I let out a growl of hatred toward the Empire, and then hung my head.

A few minutes later, the door opened and Zander entered the room. He was dark, pale, the scar still across his face, and all but his head and hands were covered in fog armor.

Was Anzok wearing fog armor? I forgot to check. I don't think he was.

I didn't have time to remember. I had another Autofficer to deal with.

"Hello Kitty," Zander said. It sounded cheerful but I knew him enough to hear the immeasurable rage in his undertone. He walked right in front of me.

"What do you want?" I asked him grimly, "Zaul wanted to interrogate me. Anzok wanted to repair his bruised pride. Why are you here?"

"Justice," he replied, and then punched me hard in the face.

After three hours, five buildings, and three narrowly evaded automaton patrols, Auriel still hadn't found any sign of Kitty. From her hiding place behind another storage building, she stared up at the dark spire illuminated by the moon. She began to feel a growing anxiety that she would never be able to find Kitty. She shivered in the nighttime cold.

They're probably holding him in that tower, but that's more heavily guarded, she sighed, I don't know how I thought I could have found him...What's that?

A speck glinted in the moonlight that quickly accelerated to the ground, bouncing and clanking as it smashed into the stone.

Auriel squinted.

Checking around for automatons, she dashed towards the object. She had not yet been so far in the open, nor had she been so close to the tower. Reaching the object, she found that it was a bent and twisted piece of metal.

She picked up, raising her eyebrow, A...A...Dueling Cane? She looked up, Where did that come from?

Suddenly, realization dawned on her. Kitty's up there! And he's trying to escape! She looked at the one yet unexplored smaller building, No use searching there anymore. Turning back to the spire, she wondered how she was going to get inside.

And back out again, she realized.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a marching automaton patrol, coming around the spire to investigate the noise from the cane's impact.

Auriel spun away, cane in hand. Moments later, she ran back and gently placed the cane on the ground. Running again, she made it to the wall of the spire. It seemed unnaturally cold, but it was probably the frosty air. She stepped around the spire until she was only barely in view of the cane. She watched a Pacifier Officer approach with a small troop of other Pacifiers.

One Pacifier looked down at the weapon, "SOURCE OF DISTURBANCE DETECTED!"

A second machine said, "WHY IS IT HERE!?"

A third noted, "THERE MAY BE A RESISTOR AROUND!"

Auriel inched backwards a step.

"NEGATIVE!" the officer announced, "THIS WEAPON WAS DROPPED IN A DUEL BETWEEN AN ESCAPING PRISONER AND AUTOFFICER ANZOK! WE HAVE ORDERS TO RETRIEVE THE WEAPON AND SEND IT TO RECYCLING!"

The third Pacifier buffered for a few seconds, "AFFIRMATIVE!"

Another machine, with a great effort, leaned down and reached for the weapon with its single arm. It couldn't reach. Extending its bayonet, the automaton worked to pick up the weapon. The knife clanked against the cane. The Pacifier struggled in vain for a few seconds before rising to its full height.

"LIMBS ARE INADEQUATE!"

"WORK IN TANDEM!" the officer ordered.

Two Pacifiers worked together to pick up the dented cane with their bayonets. They began marching around the spire back the way they came. The cane slipped out of one of the bayonets and clattered to the ground again.

"ERROR!" the Pacifier exclaimed.

The officer stopped and turned around, its eyes flashing, "CALCULATING! ... USE LOCOMOTIVE DEVICES!"

"AFFIRMATIVE!"

The automatons continued on again, kicking the Dueling Cane along as they walked. Auriel stared after them in stunned silence. When they had gone some distance, she began to walk around the spire. If she were going to get to Kitty, she'd have to get inside the monstrous building, which meant she'd have to find the front door. Eventually, she reached it and found it unguarded. She thought she remembered it was guarded, but quickly realized that the guards were on recycling duty. Looking for the automatons, she found them walking towards a smaller building. The automaton that had been kicking the cane tripped over it and collapsed to the ground. It was presently trying and failing to right itself.

Again, she stared at the machines in confusion, unsure whether to feel disappointed or to laugh. Shrugging, she turned her back on the automatons and went up three short steps to the entrance of the tower. She tried pushing the twin black doors, and then she pulled. They swung open. Inside, the dim green light reflected of the black walls in such a way as to create a feeling of darkness and shadow. She hesitated and took a deep breath before crossing the threshold.

The interrogation room was silent. Zander had left a few minutes ago, when Zaul ordered him to. I was covered in cuts and bruises. As I tried to deal with the pain, I thought about Zander and what the fog armor was doing to him. Did I betray him and the Empire? I couldn't answer that. I also wondered what terrible torture they would put me through next.

I didn't have to wait long. The door opened and someone stepped in. I was momentarily distracted by the faint green glimmer in the fog armor they were wearing, but when I saw their face, a new bruise formed on my heart. My mouth hung open, I wanted to scream and yet I couldn't say anything at all.

At last I whispered, "No...not you too."

Rayna closed the door, smiling at me with a dark look in her eyes. "It's nice to see you again, Kitty," she crooned.

This was worse than any torture I had been given. I would have gladly lost to Anzok hundreds of times, I would have sat for days under the influence of Zaul's interrogation machine, I would have been beat within an inch of my life by Zander, if that would have been able to prevent this moment. It crushed my soul to see her like this, because it wasn't who she was. She was a good person, and it was completely and utterly evil to corrupt such a person.

"Rayna! You need to take the armor off! It's corrupting you!"

The fog glowed stronger, "You would like that, wouldn't you?" she didn't even sound like herself, "If I take this off, then you think I'll fall over to your side. The thing is, my will is stronger than yours," she smiled, "Perhaps."

"The fog is making you become someone you're not! You need to take it off! I'm begging you!"

She walked closer to me, "I like that, but getting back to the point, perhaps the fog is making me into the person I was meant to be," she massaged my bruised arm, "Kitty, I wish you would be the person that I loved."

I looked into her eyes and wondered what I saw in them.

She looked down, "If you would just return to me, then everything would be perfect again." She leaned close, the fog light spiked, "Who cares about the Resistance, or the Empire for that matter? You're the only thing that's important to me."

I glanced between her sincere, smiling face and the fog armor, casting shadows on the room, still unsure of what to say.

"Just prove that you still love me," Rayna continued, "Prove that you haven't completely gone away from me."

"How am I supposed to do that?" I asked, somewhat skeptically.

Her armor pulsed, "Tell me where the Resistance base is."

I frowned, deep in an internal struggle, "I'm sorry, I can't."

She stood back abruptly, the fog dimming greatly, "Why not?"

"Because the Rayna I know wouldn't enjoy this. You aren't yourself. As long as you want to use fog, you can't be with me." Rayna glared at me. "And if I did this," I continued, "I would betray a lot of good people."

"Good people!?" she raised her voice, the fog rising in power once again, "You think the Resistors are your friends!?" she then spoke softly, "I thought I was your friend. I thought you loved me like you said in my notebook, but I guess I was wrong," she ended with a scornful note.

I looked her in the eyes, "I did love you, I do love you. But I can't live with this evil you're allowing to happen."

Her face softened and for a moment she looked like the Rayna I knew. Then, the armor glowed as strong as it ever had and her face became bitter again, "What evil am I allowing to happen!? The only evil I see is what you're doing to me, Wolfe! You're a traitor, and it breaks my heart!" she said, tears forming in her eyes.

"You don't see the evil!?" I replied, "Don't you see the harmful effects of fog!? Do you know what fog armor made me do!? I beat and arrested starving children for stealing bread! Those children were sent to the deepest part of the Isle, where they were experimented on against their wills! When I was in the Resistance, I rescued those children, and found families for them so they wouldn't have to starve anymore!" As I continued speaking, Rayna's armor continued to glow brighter and brighter, until it was nearly blinding. "That's the evil I see in fog! I see Anzok, who doesn't care for anyone but himself! I see Zander, who used to be my friend, but turned on me as soon as I fought for what is right. That is not love, and anything that has fog in it cannot truly love! It leaves nothing but destruction and pain wherever it goes! That's the evil I see! So, NO! I will not stand for fog! I will not stand for the Empire! I will not stand for Lucky! I will not stand for this evil!" I quieted down and sighed, "I will not stand for this. Will you?"

Rayna stood, filled with so much hatred that she couldn't speak. She growled and then walked out of the room and slammed the door.

I wept.

A Light in the Darkness Discussion

Kitty_Ironcraft 2019-11-23 15:14:19 UTC #19

Rayna leaned on the door, closing her eyes as tears began to form. She wiped them away.

Zaul was sitting in a chair, "Did you make any progress?"

She tried to keep the sadness out of her voice, "No."

Zaul continued looking at her. She couldn't guess what he was looking at; his green goggles blocked her view.

"What?" she asked.

"Your armor," the overseer commented, "It is glowing very brightly. The armor never glowed so strongly on any other subject, except for Wolfe. That means you are trying to fight it. You need to stop that."

"Why shouldn't I fight it?" she replied, a bit more angrily than she meant to.

Zaul seemed to frown. He stood, "You need to trust the armor. He's trying to get under your skin and steer you away from the Empire. Don't let that happen. I don't want you to make the same mistake Wolfe did."

Rayna wiped away another tear, "I...I understand," the armor dimmed greatly.

"That's better. You've been through a lot, you should have some rest."

"Yes sir," she said, feeling better already. Why? she wondered. As she walked away, she stopped and turned back, "Sir?"

"Yes, Rayna, and you can call me Zaul if you want."

Rayna nodded, "I agreed to do this because you said that we would be helping Wolfe. Are we?"

He cocked his head to one side, "Yes, we are. We're bringing him back to the Empire...Why are you crying?"

"Uh," she said, wiping her face with her hands, "I don't know," she lied, "Maybe it's a side effect of trying to fight the armor."

Zaul continued his unnerving glare, "Hm..."

"Well, si...Zaul," she said, "It just feels like..."

After a long pause, Zaul asked, "It feels like what?"

It feels like he isn't the one that needs saving, its us! she thought, but she couldn't say that, "It's nothing," she said, "I'm going to rest now."

"Okay," Zaul said, turning and sitting down in his chair again. He began working with some fog device or another.

Rayna slowly walked down the stairs, all worrying thoughts beginning to slip away, except for one nagging thought in the back of her head. The fog-resisting thought continued to grow in her mind.

Wolfe's right. Everything he said was right. Fog only creates destruction. And it's not right what we're doing to Wo...to Kitty. I need to do something about this.

And with that, she began to form a plan.

Auriel skulked through the dark tower, looking for any signs of Kitty. Then she remembered that the Dueling Cane fell from a high height, so she began looking for stairs leading up. The spire had a thicker automaton force than outside, but so far she had been able to avoid them. Finally, she found a stairway and traveled up three floors, where the stairway ended. She was nowhere near the top, so it seemed like she would need to find a stairway that reached the top. She continued to search the fourth floor.

Peeking around a corner, she saw no automatons. Auriel ran down the hallway, stopping when she heard the dreaded sound of marching feet coming from ahead of her. Spinning on her heels, she ran back the way she came. Ducking back around the corner, she saw a second squad of automatons coming around a turn the way she had came. She was surrounded. Auriel looked around frantically and found one door on the opposite side of the hallway. Praying she wouldn't be seen, Auriel dashed to the door, turned the knob, and slipped inside. She left the door open a crack to peep outside. Besides the limited light from the crack, it was completely and utterly dark in the room she entered. The automaton patrols marched by. She seemed so far to be undetected. After she couldn't hear the machines anymore, Auriel began to slip out of the door.

Strong arms encircled her neck and covered her mouth, silencing a short scream.

"What do we have here?" a gruff masculine voice said, "A Resistor sneaking into the Ebony Spire?"

Kitty's tears eventually dried, but his heart was still sorrowful about Rayna. He hated that he had to give up so much to do the right thing. Losing Zaul, Zander, and now Rayna...he didn't know how much more of this he could take. He hated all of the evil in the world. But he hated most of all what the evil did to the innocent. If there was any one thing he could change in the world, that would be it.

There is so much darkness in the world, and so many good, innocent people aren't able to find the light through all of the shadow. Kitty clenched his fists, That's what I'm going to fix! That is the problem that needs solving. If some person in the world isn't given a chance to know the light...if they can't see what's good through all of the darkness...then I will be a light to the world, so that the world will be given a choice to find and follow the true Light.

He despaired, But I don't know how that's ever going to happen now. I'm being interrogated. They're probably going to get what they want in the end and all of this will be for not. It seems so hopeless!

Kitty looked up at the ceiling. He whispered, "Please...please help me get out of here so that I can give Aethasia the choice to know you. Some people don't even know that you exist. I have trouble believing it half the time. People like Rayna, they don't have a chance to know you. I want to give them that chance." He fell silent for a long time, wondering if the Great Engineer could even hear him. Finally, he said, "Help me to spread your light through the world." Then he fell silent again.

On the edge of hearing, a sound came from in front of him. The sound of metal upon metal. The doorknob slowly turned, and the door creaked open. Rayna stepped quietly into the room.

"Kitty!" she whispered, the fog in her voice absent.

She was wearing a long brown cloak, and she crossed the room silently towards him.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

He frowned, equal parts resentful, confused, and sorrowful.

"It's okay!" she said, "I took off my fog armor and I'm getting out of the Empire as soon as I can. The first thing I'm going to do is break you out of here." she smiled.

Kitty remained confused at first, but then a spark of hope set fire to his heart, filling him with joy. Hardly breathing, he said, "Thank you."

"What?" she asked, not hearing him.

"Thank you for doing this, Rayna" he said to her, tears of joy in his eyes, "Thank you for taking off your armor. Thank you for saving me."

She smirked, "I should be thanking you. You saved me."

They shared a smile for a few moments, old friends once again.

"Let's get you out of here," Rayna said, holding up a remote. She pressed a button and released the locks holding Kitty to the table, and steadied him when he almost fell. She supported him and helped him walk. Together, they walked towards the door.

"What's with the cloak?" Kitty asked.

"It's a disguise," she said, "I figured some of the autofficers might get suspicious if they saw me without my fog armor."

They walked out the door and found two Troubleshooters. Well...they had been Troubleshooters, but now they were piles of scrap on the ground. Zaul lay face-forward on the ground, a nasty bruise on the back of his head.

"Nice job," Kitty said, admiring the Troubleshooters. Noticing Zaul, he became worried, "Is he okay?"

"He'll be fine," Rayna nodded, "But he'll have a nasty headache when he wakes up."

Rayna walked helped Kitty over to a table. The cloud of hopelessness over him seemed to be melting away, and new strength flowed through his body, and he was able to walk by himself the last few steps. "What's this?" he asked, looking at the table.

"I stopped at the armory first," Rayna explained, "I got your weapons back, but...I wasn't able to get your Aethermeter. They were conducting experiments on it, so I would have been caught if I had tried to get it."

"That's all right," Kitty said, equipping himself with his swords and pistols, "Let's get out of here."

They ran down the spiral stairway onto the platform where Kitty had fought Anzok, entered into the far door, and then traveled down another long spiral staircase. Finally, they reached the exit of the stairway and were now inside the main complex. Rayna led him through hallways and down stairways.

And then the alarm sounded.

"What!?" Kitty asked, confused.

"They must have found you're missing!" Rayna theorized, becoming more apprehensive, "We need to get out of the spire before they find us!"

At that moment, a squad of automatons marched around the corner.

"SOURCE OF DISTURBANCE LOCATED!" the Pacifier Officer said.

Kitty twirled his blades and Rayna aimed her pistols.

The alarm sounded through the building and the autofficer holding Auriel hesitated, frowning.

A moment was all she needed. Auriel kicked backwards at the autofficer, loosening his grip and causing him to fall backwards with a grunt. Auriel spun around and threw a fist at his face. He stumbled back, barely conscious. Shaking off the hit and scowling, the autofficer jumping at Auriel and grabbed her arms. She threw her knee into his gut, knocking him away again. Auriel backhanded him with her left hand, sending him sprawling to the floor unconscious. She rubbed her right wrist, and then pulled the autofficer through the doorway and shut the door.

Auriel regarded the alarm, and decided that it meant Kitty was escaping. No point getting to the top now, she thought, Kitty's probably trying to get to the entrance! She retraced her steps, running back to ground level. Closer to the main entrance, she found the remains of automatons throughout two hallways. Leaving the main entrance, Auriel saw two figures running towards the gate: Kitty and a cloaked figure. She decided against calling out to them because she didn't know if there were Imperials nearby. Instead, she looked around for automatons, and finding none, she ran after Kitty, who had just finished slipping through the gate.

Kitty leaned against the gate. He never thought he was going to escape that place. He noticed the stars were becoming dimmer and the sky was becoming a dark shade of blue. Morning was arriving.

"Come on!" Rayna said urgently, "Let's get away from here!"

Kitty followed her and they continued running past a tree and then into a valley between two small hills.

Rayna took in a deep breath of air and let it out slowly, "We made it!"

"Yes, we did," Kitty replied, smiling, "Thank you."

"So...Where do we go now?" she asked, "If I'm going to join the Resistance, we should probably head to a Resistance base. Do you know where one is?"

"Yeah," Kitty answered, "There's one in No Man's--" he stopped.

"...What is it?" Rayna asked, confused.

Kitty frowned, "Something doesn't feel right...as if, there is fog nearby."

"Maybe it's from the fog injector on your back," Rayna suggested.

"Maybe..." Kitty said suspiciously, eying Rayna's clothing closely, "Why are you still wearing that cloak?"

"Well..." she said, "It is pretty cold out here still."

"It's not that cold...can you take off your cloak?"

"Why?" Rayna asked, a bit defensively.

"Can you just do it? Please?"

"No! Why should I?"

Kitty frowned and reached for the cloak.

"Hey!" Rayna objected, but it was too late.

Kitty had drawn away the cloak and revealed the fog armor underneath. He dropped the cloak, "No..."

Rayna scowled, her eyes cold and dark. She aimed a pistol with her right hand and removed the fog remote with her left hand, the dial set to level four. "I'm sorry, Kitty," her voice was sad.

An energy blast came from behind Kitty and shot the remote out of Rayna's hand. Kitty spun around and thought he could see Auriel through the shadows, aiming her pistols.

Rayna spoke into her wrist communicator, "Move in! Move in!"

She withdrew another pistol and aimed it at Kitty, "Don't fire or I'll shoot him!"

Auriel made no reply.

Kitty jumped into Rayna and they both fell to the ground. After a short struggle on the ground, Rayna hit Kitty with an uppercut that knocked him backwards. He stood up and Rayna spun and kicked him in the stomach. He collapsed, wheezing. Rayna reached down for her guns, but was halted when a fire cane was ignited across her neck.

Auriel stood, holding the weapon, "Go!"

Rayna ran back towards the Spire.

Auriel turned off her blade and helped Kitty up, "You okay?"

He watched Rayna disappear into the shadows, "I'm fine," He sighed. Looking at Auriel, he added, "You came? I thought you were heading back to the base."

"I was, but then I saw you needed help. I couldn't leave you with the Empire, alone."

Kitty smiled, "Thank you for coming back for me."

Auriel returned the smile, "You're welcome."

A cannonball exploded into a nearby hill. Kitty and Auriel jumped away from the sound.

"That's very sweet," Anzok's mocking voice came. He, along with Zander, Rayna, and two other autofficers, stood on top of a high hill, flanked by a few automatons including a Bombardier.

"Run!" Auriel said.

"That won't do you any good," Anzok cautioned, "You're surrounded by automatons. Your only choice is to surrender."

Kitty turned to Auriel and sighed, "Well, it seems like the only thing you've done is given another prisoner to the Empire.

Auriel grabbed his arm, "Don't give up hope! It's still dark--we can escape because they can't see us."

He caught her eyes, sparkles in the growing dawn, "Give me your sword."

She handed it to him, looking confused.

He whispered, "Close your eyes."

They both closed their eyes and then Kitty activated the blade and swung it over their head. He quickly turned the blade off and handed it back to Auriel, "Now open your eyes and run."

They ran west.

"What was the point of that?" Auriel asked.

"Our eyes are used to the dark. Theirs' aren't. That should help us escape."

Auriel smiled, "Okay..."

"Find them!" Anzok shouted.

Gunshots began firing wildly through the darkness, but the two escapees continued through the wilderness. The gunshots seemed to be getting closer and closer, and footsteps could be heard in pursuit of them. They jumped past a group of assorted automatons and then continued running.

A voice said, "Cease fire!"

The sound of gunshots died away. The sky was beginning to glow pink with the coming of the sun. Kitty jumped behind a rock and then waited for Auriel to follow. When she didn't come, he looked around frantically and then peeked over the rock. Auriel had been caught by an autofficer. Kitty recognized him as Masson, wearing faintly glimmering fog armor.

"Auriel!" Kitty shouted.

"Kitty, run!" Auriel shouted before Masson covered her mouth.

Kitty sat down against the boulder. No! I won't leave her! He unholstered his pistols.

Jumping out from behind the rock, he aimed the pistols at Masson, "Let her go!"

Masson had a pistol aimed against Auriel's head. "No can do, sir." More automatons and autofficers began rising behind a smaller hill, aiming their weapons at Kitty. Anzok crested the hill, leisurely holding his hammer, "Surrender, Wolfe, and nobody gets hurt."

Kitty felt like he was on fire. He glanced at Anzok, Zander, Rayna, the automatons, Masson, and finally Auriel. Her eyes were pleading, Get out of here, Kitty. Please.

Kitty looked at her sadly, and then ducked behind the rock. Using it for cover, he ran away and disappeared over a hill, and was gone.

Auriel was stripped of her weapons and brought back to the Ebony spire. Zaul was standing at the front gate; he had just washed the black makeup off the back of his head.

"How did the ambush work?" he asked, "Did you capture Kitty?"

"No," Anzok said, "But we caught this Resister, Auriel." Anzok explained the chase to Zaul and then glanced at Auriel, "What do you want done with her?"

"We'll keep her," Zaul answered, "Perhaps she can tell us information that Kitty would not. Masson, bring her to the interrogation room."

"Yes sir," Masson said, and he began bringing Auriel towards the gate.

"Who captured her?" Zaul asked.

"It was Masson," Anzok answered.

"You're doing a great service to the Empire, Masson."

"I'm just following orders, sir," Masson said.

"Following orders very well," Zaul told him, "You could quickly be rising up the ranks of the Empire."

Masson smiled, not so anyone would notice, "Thank you sir," he continued walking with Auriel.

Zaul regretted that he had not been part of the ambush. He probably would have helped; they might even have captured Kitty. If they had the girl, then they could have threatened her and forced Kitty to turn himself in, but the past is the past. And besides, Rayna's plan needed to look legitimate if they were going to get any information out of Kitty.

Which reminded him, "Rayna, did Kitty say anything about the Resistance base?"

She looked down, saying nothing.

"Rayna?" Zaul pressed.

"No sir," she replied, "...he said it was in No Man's Landing, but we had already guessed as much."

"I see," Zaul nodded, "Don't be too hard on yourself."

"Yes sir."

"Cameron?" Zaul asked.

The young autofficer saluted, his new fog armor shining in the new dawn, "Yes sir!?"

"Withrey hasn't reported in yet. He was supposed to be patrolling in the Spire. Look for him."

"Uh, yes sir!" Cameron ran after Masson and Auriel.

Zaul took a deep breath of the fresh morning air. He considered Rayna's plan a general success. It was only a matter of time. The fall of the Resistance was drawing closer every day.

Kitty ran.

He tripped on a rock and collapsed. Pushing himself back up, he ran again. To his right, the sun began to peek over the horizon, but it was still hard to see the ground through the tears. He continued to run, stumbling over bushes and other obstacles. He didn't know where he was running, he just ran. It felt like his whole body was on fire, and his legs burned, but he kept running. Running madly.

He didn't realize he had collapsed until he felt a strange coldness in his left hand. Lifting his face out of the sand, he saw his hand in cold water. Kitty was at Silver Stream Lake. The sun turned the sky into a blazing orange on the eastern horizon.

He turned his head to the west and collapsed to the sand again. His eyes were closed, but tears traveled down his face and made wet stains in the sand.

At last he spoke, his hoarse, anguished voice only a whisper, "Auriel...I'm sorry."

He opened his eyes and stared aimlessly, resting his head on his arm, "Why did she have to come back?" he whimpered, "Why did she get captured? WHY COULDN'T I SAVE HER!?" he shouted. Jumping to his feet, Kitty's face was wrought in fury.

Then he fell to his knees, overcome with sadness, "Why did she have to do it...if she had just stayed away then I would still be captured, instead of her...She's a better person than me, she doesn't deserve this! Look at all the terrible things I have done! Why am I free and Auriel is being tortured by the Empire!? WHY?" he stood again, looking west, anguished.

Maybe she was ready to save me even if it meant imprisonment and torture, because she was a better person than me.

He began to shake his head furiously, "No no NO! None of this makes any sense! Why did she sacrifice herself!? How can this happen to good people!? Why is there so much evil in the world!? How am I supposed to fight this much darkness!? WHERE ARE YOU!!!???" he screamed.

Silence.

A few moments later, a soft but strong voice came from behind him, "I'm right here."

Kitty spun around. It was hard to see the newcomer because his head seemed to be crowned with the rising sun. Looking closer, he realized who it was.

Before him stood the Scarlet Man.

A Light in the Darkness Discussion

Kitty_Ironcraft 2019-12-16 03:26:04 UTC #20

Chapter 12: Dawn

This time, the Scarlet Man was wearing a red cloak. He was hooded, and every part of his body was covered with some fabric or another. He could see through purple-tinted goggles built into his outfit. I couldn't tell what expression was behind the mask.

I stood, still as stone, having no idea what to say. He waited patiently as I grasped for words. Unmoving, we watched each other for about a minute.

At last, I looked down, my voice flooded with sadness and tinted with anger, "I wish you would have come earlier," I turned around and sat down.

"I have always been with you Kitty. I'm glad that you have discovered the lies of the darkness and are fighting against them."

"Auriel's gone," I said bitterly, still not looking at him, "She's captured by the Empire. I couldn't do anything to stop it. I didn't do anything, but I should have!"

"You did all that you could," his gentle voice replied, "You always do your best."

He was right, but I didn't want to feel comforted. A few seconds later, I asked, "Why is there so much darkness in Aethasia? Why doesn't the Great Engineer come back and make everything right?" A tear slipped down my face.

"If the Great Engineer were to come back and destroy all of the fog, then so many people would also be destroyed. Because fog is in everyone, Kitty. That's why I started the Resistance. They resist the fog, and show others its darkness. That is what every Resistor is: a light. A light may find a lost soul straying in darkness, and lead that soul back to the Great Engineer. When He returns, then there will be many people that have chosen to destroy the fog in themselves and to commit themselves to the light."

I stood and spun to face the Scarlet Man. He was standing an arm's length away. "How am I supposed to be a light!? How can anyone be a light in such a darkness!? It's too much! I can't do it!" Another tear. "Why did the Great Engineer leave in the first place!? If he would of just stayed, then he could have prevented all of this from happening! The Empire! Lucky! Fog! Why did He leave!?"

"Aethasia didn't want him," the Scarlet Man said with sadness, "They rejected the Great Engineer. If he had stayed, he would not have been loving or honoring the people. By leaving, he gave each of them the chance to choose him, even though they could no longer find him. If you knew for certain that the Great Engineer existed, then it would take no effort to believe that he existed. You would just follow him blindly because you knew it was the right thing to do. That is not what the Great Engineer wants. He wants you to accept his love: Aether. If you aren't sure if he is real, then you can choose to believe. That choice is very important to him."

I lowered my eyes, anger fading away and leaving a wave of sorrow, "I still don't know what I can do. The darkness is too powerful...I can't fight it...I don't see any hope." I slowly walked away a few steps.

"You are the hope for Aethasia," he said, "You and everyone else who fights against the evil. And if you have no hope for yourself, then you can come to the Great Engineer and he will give you hope. He will always be here with you, even in the blackest night."

I shook my head slowly, wanting most of all to find some abandoned cave and seal myself within it for all eternity. "Why does the Great Engineer want me?" I cried, turning back to look at the Scarlet Man. "Until two weeks ago, I had been working for the Empire my entire life. I have fought and captured dozens of good people. I tortured children, my best friends in the world hate me, and Auriel--"

I shut my eyes, unable to speak. The Scarlet Man waited.

"...I let her go. I couldn't do anything to save her." Tears cascaded down my cheeks. "Why does the Great Engineer want me!? I'm a terrible person! I have too much darkness inside of me..." I fell to the sand, wrapped in robes of despair. "I'm not good enough," I whispered.

A few seconds passed, "No one is," the Scarlet Man said, approaching me and again stopping an arm's length away, "One day, that will be made right," he said and then was silent.

I looked up in confusion wondering what he meant.

Finally, he continued, his voice strangely mournful, "If you want to bring light to the world, come to me. I will clear the fog away from your heart and make you whiter than snow. I will help you fight the darkness. Will you come to me?"

He offered his hand. I stared at it.

I wanted to bring light to the world, but I knew how impossibly hard it was going to be, and how much of a sacrifice I would be making. I can't do it! I'm not good enough! There is too much darkness inside of me...I have no hope left. But what if I am able to give hope to someone else? That is a most precious gift. A lot of people will never find the light without me. But how can I do this?

It seemed an impossible choice. Should I surrender to the world or should I strive to make a difference? Will the Scarlet Man actually be able to help me? Will I be able to help anyone? Could I make a difference?

It came down to this. I believe the Great Engineer is real. I believe he can help me bring light to the world. I don't want anyone to suffer alone in the darkness. But can I choose this life?

I wondered what was right, what I should do, what I could do, and what I had to do.

Finally, I opened my eyes, I know what I have to do.

I looked up at the Scarlet Man, and I grabbed his hand.

I sat on the ground. The Scarlet Man was behind me, working to remove the fog injector from my back. It wasn't an easy process. Fortunately, the hands that were working on me were very skilled. The Scarlet Man seemed to be making good progress after only a few minutes.

"So," I broke the silence, "Uh..." I awkwardly didn't know what to say.

"Yes?" the Scarlet Man asked, still working.

I remembered Auriel's question, "Do you have a beard?"

He almost seemed to chuckle, "A lot of people think I do."

Silence again.

I looked back at him, "Who are you?"

He stopped for a second and caught my eyes, "Who do you think that I am?"

I looked ahead again, thinking. He went back to work. I spoke, "You're the leader of the Resistance, but that's about all I know of you. You're pretty mysterious."

"Hold still," he said.

A sharp pain splashed through my back, I sucked in a breath through my teeth. I was left with an odd sense of longing, but the feeling soon dissipated. It was replaced by a feeling of warmth and contentment. I looked back and saw the Scarlet Man applying some Aether to my back. In a few moments, I felt as good as new.

"Thank you," I said.

He nodded.

"What do we do next? How can you help me save Auriel?"

He looked at me, seeming to wonder about something. "You need to train," he replied, withdrawing my swords from his cloak and throwing them to me. I caught the blades and then watched as the Scarlet Man drew his own sword.

It was a beautiful blade; very long and with a golden hue. The blade's twin, razor sharp edges sparkled in the sun. He placed both hands on the grip and held the sword vertically in front of him. I thought I heard him whisper, but I couldn't tell what he said.

I wasn't sure whether to feel exited, honored, awed, or terrified.

"Don't worry," he said jovially, "I'll slow down for you."

I nodded, a smile forming on my face as I raised my swords.

"Attack," he said.

I swung my swords at him and he parried at such a speed that I was knocked to my back.

His sword was at my throat, "Again."

I was pretty sure it was getting to be noon now, although it was hard to tell because of the cloudbank that had moved in. My arms--and my back--were beginning to get sore.

"Again," the Scarlet Man said.

Sighing angrily, I got up off the ground and walked a few paces to recover my swords from where they had become embedded in the sand.

Brandishing them again, I looked wearily at the Scarlet Man, "Isn't it about time for lunch?"

"No. Attack me again."

"But we've been fighting for hours," I complained.

"You want to be a light for the world?" he asked calmly, "This is how you do it."

I sighed, irate. I prepared to attack again.

Charging suddenly, I engaged using a furious combo. I was becoming faster, and the Scarlet Man took a step back.

Finally!

I used my advantage and continued pressing him back. I advanced too quickly and left myself open--a quick swipe with his blade knocked my weapons to the ground.

"Again."

I took an angry breath, reaching for my weapons. I grabbed them and quickly swiped at his legs. He anticipated the move and parried. I spun and attacked again, quicker than ever, forcing him back again. I sliced, hacked, spun, stabbed, and sliced again, bringing him almost to the water's edge. He looked back at the water.

I smiled, Here's my chance!

I executed a massive swing towards his midsection. Looking forward again, he jumped backwards, flipping through the air. I frowned. Why would he jump into the water? The Scarlet Man kicked the surface of the water, and instead of submerging like they should have, his boots collided with the water. The water reacted as if it were land! He kicked off the water, twisting through the air to land behind me. He spun and kicked my feet out from under me. I fell into the lake. Unfortunately for me, the lake decided to accept me into its depths and I found myself in a few inches of cold water.

I was incredulous. How did he do that? Some kind of Engineer tech that allows him to stand on water?

"Again."

I climbed to my feet. I was soaked. "Why?" anger touched my voice.

He said nothing.

I growled, muttering. "Again again again."

I jumped at him, swinging my swords wildly over my head. He spun to the side and my swords sailed through empty air into the sand. His sword was to my neck.

"Again," his voice remained strangely calm.

I attacked again, making angry swings that he easily ducked under or parried. One swing that he dodged spun me around and caused me to lose balance. He kicked me in the back and was on the ground.

I rose quickly, striking upwards, but his sword smashed into my blade. The force ran down my left arm and knocked me to my back.

"You're angry."

"Of course I am!" I shot back, "We've been fighting for hours and I'm sore and wet and have learned nothing!"

He offered his hand to help me up, but I pushed it away and got up on my own. I attacked again and found myself on the ground. I was seething.

"Is that why you are angry?" he asked.

"Why else would I be angry!?" I answered performing a handspring to get back to my feet, "We aren't training! I don't know what we're doing this for! I thought you would help me save Auriel, but all you're doing is embarrassing me!"

I sliced and my blades locked with his in a resounding clang.

"I am not training your skills," he replied, "I'm training your heart."

"Stop speaking in riddles!" I shouted, pushing him back, "Teach me something!" I advanced with furious slices.

"Why are you angry?" the Scarlet Man asked, blocking a slice, his voice stern.

"Why am I angry!?" I shouted, standing a few feet away from him, "I'm wet!" I attacked, "I'm tired!" he blocked, "I'm sore!" he countered and I deflected, "I'm not learning anything from you!!!" I slammed my swords against his, throwing him back a few feet. I charged, attacking again, "I'm angry because I'm so helpless! I couldn't save Auriel!" I struck and the Scarlet Man barely blocked it, moving backwards, "I couldn't save Rayna!" I jumped and kicked, catching him in the chest, "I can't remember my parents! The Empire hates me! The Resistance hates me! My best friends hate me!" I spun around several times, rapidly hitting his block with my blades. I finished my attack and then caught his sword between my own swords. I twirled the sword out of his hand and continued attacking him, mad with anger and sadness. He dodged, but I was driving him towards a short wall of sheer rock. "I let fog control me! I have done terrible things to good people! The urchins! Auriel! How can I fight the darkness in the world if I can't fight the darkness in myself!? Huh!?" We were almost to the wall. I slammed my swords down and he jumped to the side, landing on his back. Crawling backwards, he dodged strike after strike of my sword in the ground. "The darkness is too strong! I can't fight it! Nobody can!!!" I jumped, raising my swords to stab downward in a final blow. Right before it connected, I found myself on my back with the Scarlet Man standing above me, my own blades crossed over my neck. I realized that I had just seen how fast he really was.

I felt hot tears running down my face.

"Why are you angry?" the Scarlet Man asked, his voice never changing.

Anger began to give way to sorrow, "I wasn't strong enough. I couldn't save her. The darkness is too powerful! It's too big! The world is too evil, and no one can do anything about it! ...I can't be...a light."

"But you can be, Kitty. You can be, and you are!" he lowered the blades and placed them in the sand next to me. He continued, "You're a light whenever you love the the people of this world, because you are pointing them back towards the Great Engineer! If you are afraid of the world, don't fear, because the Great Engineer is always with you. If you hate the world, don't let that stop you from loving the people; the Great Engineer will give you strength. And if you despair because of all the darkness: remember that the Great Engineer will return someday, and know that he has given everyone the ability to resist the darkness. You can't fight the darkness, not on your own...but the Great Engineer is with you, and with him, all things are possible."

I stood up and looked away. I looked back and saw the Scarlet Man standing before me, offering his hand.

I now realized that the first time I took his hand, I did it for the wrong reasons. I wanted to use the Scarlet Man to help me save Auriel, instead of letting him use me. I had been very selfish. I also realized what he meant by 'training my heart'. The whole training session had the purpose of allowing me to realize why I was angry, and how I was selfish, and how the Great Engineer would be with me anyways. And always.

So I stood before him, his outstretched hand before me. A breeze blew in from the lake and the mountain, giving fresh air. The clouds above blew away, allowing the sun to peek through.

This was the most important moment of my life.

"Who are you?" the Scarlet Man asked.

"I don't know..." I replied mournfully.

"Who are you!?" he asked again.

I closed my eyes and stood there for a long time. Who was I? Who will I try to become?

I chose.

Opening my eyes, I faced the Scarlet Man. "I am Kitty Ironcraft, a Light in the Darkness!" I took his hand.

With a surprising, and yet gentile strength, he embraced me. It seemed like he had been waiting for this moment since the beginning of time. He shook, and I wasn't sure if he was laughing or crying tears of joy. His arms filled me with warmth, and I had never felt such love.

A Light in the Darkness Discussion

Kitty_Ironcraft 2019-12-28 20:28:14 UTC #21

Chapter 13: Resistance

It was mid afternoon. The clouds that had built up over the morning were mostly gone now. The sunlight was warm and birds were playing in the lake. The Scarlet Man and I were eating lunch on the beach.

Well, I was at least. His face was still shrouded in his Aether-colored mask.

I lowered a sandwich from my mouth and swallowed, my face solemn for the first time in hours. However, it was a joyful solemnity. "Thank you for doing this," I said, "Thank you for saving me."

I imagine he smiled, "There are few things that make me happier than a grateful heart."

I smiled too. 'We' finished lunch, and then the Scarlet Man walked up to a hill and asked me to follow. I did. As we walked, I glanced at the lake. Its water was silver and gold, softly splashing upon the shore when the wind blew. I smiled when I looked at the lake; I will always cherish the time I spent there, playing in the sun.

"Kitty" The Scarlet Man had stopped. He was looking south. His voice was serious.

I stood next to him and gazed the same direction, wondering why but not doubting him.

"I have a mission for you," he said, still looking toward the horizon.

I realized what was south. The Ebony Spire. I nodded.

"The Empire is keeping people in darkness. You know of Lucky's most recent scheme--fog armor is preventing the Great Engineer's people from seeing the light. They need someone to set them free. That person is you."

My first thought was Why me? Why am I good enough? but I decided to trust the Scarlet Man.

"You must stop the fog armor from ensnaring even more people. Destroy all of the armor, and destroy the blueprints--they should be on Zaul's person or in his room. Also, as you know, Auriel is trapped there. That is a great injustice, which you need to make right. There may be other souls you can save as well..."

As he was talking, I looked downward with resignation. A tear began to form in my eyes. I didn't want to go. Now that I know you, I don't ever want to leave you.

His head turned toward me, "I will always be with you."

I looked up.

He continued, "As long as you are bringing the Engineer's love to the world, I am in your heart. And when you can't fight the darkness on your own, I will be there to help you. I will never forget about you, Kitty." He wiped my tear away.

I smiled, and was suddenly filled with such a sense of awe at his majesty. There was no better person in the world. I hugged him.

A few seconds later, I stepped back, "I'm ready."

"Go and save Aethasia, one heartbeat at a time."

I nodded, and turned to walk south, ready to change the world.

After a few steps, I looked back, "Can I do this on my own? Can any person do this on their own, even a servant of the Great Engineer?"

"Do you know anyone who could help you?" he asked.

I thought for a moment, "The Resistance...but would they help me?"

After a moment: "That's up to them, but I think it is right to hold out hope that they will."

"I was thinking the same thing," I agreed. After a few moments, I added, "Goodbye."

"Until we meet again," his gentle, joyful voice replied.

I smiled, turned, and traveled west--to No Man's Landing.

Zaul entered the room and closed the door behind him.

"Any progress?" Anzok asked, sitting on a chair.

"Not yet," Zaul said, "She's almost as strong as Kitty--I haven't been able to break her yet."

Anzok frowned, "Why don't you just use a fog injector, like the one you used on Wolfe?"

Zaul squinted, "Don't you mean Kitty?"

"Yeah, sure. Whatever he calls himself now," Anzok remained silent, stirring a cup of steaming tea. He took a sip of it, "Isn't 'Kitty' a dumb name? If he was going to rename himself, why wouldn't he choose a cooler name? Wolfe was a better name than Kitty," he took another sip.

Zaul let out an irritated sigh. He calmed himself, and then spoke, "To answer your question: No. I cannot use a fog injector on Auriel like I used on Kitty. They are a new technology, and we only had one."

Anzok seemed about ready to say something, but he hesitated. Finally, he said, "Oh," and sipped the tea again.

Zaul sat down and poured himself some tea. He stared at it for a minute, lost in thought.

"Are you going to drink that?" Anzok asked.

"I just had a thought," Zaul said after a pause, "The fog injector isn't the only method we have of influencing others."

Anzok put his empty cup down on the table, "What do you mean?"

Zaul stood up, "I will be back in a few minutes," he declared, walking towards the stairway. He talked to himself, "I think we have a spare down in one of the storage buildings...it should have roughly the right size and specifications."

"You have a spare what?" Anzok asked, confused and a little bit angry about being left out of the loop.

Zaul turned back, smiling darkly, "You'll see."

Kitty walked through the alleys of No Man's Landing, heading for the Resistance base. He had been trying to remain stealthy, but that didn't stop him from being attacked by a small automaton patrol. After destroying them, he continued on his way and finally arrived at the abandoned pillow factory. Walking through the doorway, he found the secret panel on the wall. He pushed it open and walked inside, closing it behind him. He walked down the dark stairway and arrived at the final doorway to the Resistance base. He opened the door and walked inside. As usual, there were Resistors milling about, doing a multitude of things. One of them stopped when she saw him.

It was Tess. She watched Kitty for a moment and then said in a soft voice, "Wolfe."

The pair of Resistors she had been talking to asked her what she meant, but then they looked and saw Kitty as well. They were silent. Soon the entire base caught on, and there wasn't a sound to be heard.

The first person to speak was Orville, his voice hopeful and excited, "He's back!"

At once, the rest of the Resistors became excited and crowded around Kitty. They had a lot of questions for him. Kitty explained that he had found out who he really was: a Resistor, and that he had been brainwashed by the Empire, and that his name was Kitty now. Everyone seemed to be gleeful.

Almost everyone.

Nate had finished searching the crowd, and in a strong voice he asked, "Where is Auriel?"

Everyone stopped asking questions to Kitty, and they began looking through the crowd, trying to find her.

"That's why I'm here," Kitty said, "She has been captured by the Empire."

Assorted gasps from the crowd.

He continued, "Auriel is being held in an Imperial fortress south of Silver Stream Lake--it's called the Ebony Spire. I need your help to rescue her."

The Resistors as a whole seemed to nod in agreement and they almost began getting ready.

"Stop!" came a calm, cold voice. Raven.

She stepped through the crowd and stood next to Kitty, saying, "And we're supposed to believe you?" Her eyes poured out hate.

Not this again.

"We can trust him, Raven," Nate said, looking at her and frowning, "Don't you remember what he has done for us?"

Her reply was bitter, "I remember that he quit the Resistance. Auriel went with him, and now she has been captured by the Empire. A coincidence? I don't think so." The other members of the Resistance seemed to nod in agreement.

Kitty didn't believe this was happening. He had almost forgotten what Raven was like. He didn't like it. "The Scarlet Man gave me this mission!" he said. The Resistors stopped, struck silent yet again.

"I bet he did," Raven said sarcastically, "Do you have any proof?"

Kitty tried very hard not to become angry, "No."

"Hm," Raven said, looking to Nate.

Nate looked around at all of the Resistors under his command, then at Kitty, and finally back at Raven, "We should trust him. We can't leave Auriel...we can't take the chance of not believing that Wolfe--my apologies--that Kitty is telling the truth, if he is." The crowd seemed to agree.

"Should we take the chance if he's lying?" Raven shot back, "If he's lying, he could be leading us into a trap. Instead of one Resistance prisoner, they would have two dozen. We can't risk it."

The crowd seemed to disagree, and Nate was deep in thought. Finally, he said, "Raven is right. We can't take the chance."

"What?" Orville shouted, "Why not? I trust Kitty!"

"I understand that," Nate explained, "But as your leader, I am charged with keeping all of you safe. And as a Resistor, I am fighting to eventually defeat the Empire. With Kitty's credibility being so ambiguous, we can't risk it. We can't take the chance of trading all of your freedom for one person's freedom, even if it is a friend. I won't allow the mission. I'm sorry."

Nate seemed apologetic, Raven glared defiantly at Kitty, Orville stared at Nate in disbelief, and the rest of the Resistors seemed to be looking at the ground, sadly nodding. Kitty looked at them all. He was confused, angry, and hurt. How can these people who claim to serve the Great Engineer be so heartless? Finally, he felt understanding. Nate's decision made sense, but it was based too much off of distrust and not enough on love.

Finally, Kitty said, "Very well. I understand. But this won't stop me from going through with it," he was solemn, "I'm going to save Auriel, with or without you."

"No!" Orville shouted, "You'll never make it on your own! I'm coming with you!"

"You can't!" Nate said, "It's not safe, I won't allow it."

"But...!"

"Orville," Nate kept his stern, fathering voice. Orville looked down, dejected and angry.

Kitty didn't know what to say, so he walked away. Opening the door, he left the base. Just before the door slid shut, he heard Tess's quiet voice.

"Goodbye Kitty."

He shut the door.

Climbing the stairs, Kitty made it back to the main floor of the abandoned pillow factory. He looked around at the haphazard, mountainous piles of pillows. He wished that someone would have joined him, and was sad that no one had. Still, he forced himself to be resolute. The Scarlet Man told him to do this; he had to trust Him, even if nobody helped him. He took a deep breath and headed for the main entrance. After a few steps, he heard the trapdoor open behind him.

He stopped, frowning, and turned around, "Orville?"

"Guess again," Raven said, scowling.

Kitty's face was grim, "What do you want?"

"I want to keep the Resistance safe...from you."

He shook his head, "I'm not a threat to you."

"So you say, but I don't believe you. I don't know what you did to Auriel, but--"

"I didn't do anything to her!" Kitty said, his anger starting to break through, "I was captured by the Empire, and she saved me, getting caught in the process!"

"You're lying!" Raven shouted.

Kitty turned away, got control of himself, and then turned back to her, "I don't need you to believe me, I'm going now."

He walked away.

"Did you tell the Empire about our base!?" she shouted.

"No," he replied, still walking away.

"I don't believe you!"

Didn't think so.

"But just in case you're telling the truth about this, I'll make sure you never do!"

Kitty stopped wondering what she meant. Suddenly worried, he spun around to find Raven running toward him with her knives ready to attack. She yelled a battle cry. Startled, Kitty reached for his own weapons, diving out of Raven's way. The blades found empty air. Kitty rolled to his feet, brandishing his swords in time to block Raven's next attack. She advanced furiously, much faster and much more powerfully than Kitty expected.

He took a few steps back as he spoke, "Why are you doing this!?"

"You're an autofficer!" Raven shouted, slashing down with her knives, "You're working for the Empire! You're evil! I won't let you hurt my friends any longer!"

She threw a kick that connected and sent him sprawling on the floor. She raised her knives to strike, but Kitty rolled out of the way. The blades clanged against the stone floor.

Kitty wanted to convince her, but he knew that she was single-minded and obstinate about the issue, and would never budge. He would have to fight for his life.

Raven's flurry of blades was quickly pushing him back against a wall. Kitty jumped against the wall and used it to spring over Raven's head. He landed behind her and brought his sword to the back of her neck.

"I don't want to fight you!" he tried to explain.

"Yeah right!" Raven said.

She spun around and knocked his sword away with her knives, advancing on him again. He found it was difficult to parry all of her blows, because they were fast and hard to deflect because of the small size of the knives. Both knives fell upon him, but he raised his sword and blocked them both. He kicked Raven, knocking her back. Now, he advanced on her. She had difficulty parrying his blades, and he gained ground quickly. They were reaching a stack of pillows, and Raven quickly disengaged and ran to the top of the pile, trying to receive the advantage of high ground.

Kitty stayed on the floor, still not wanting to fight. "Look at what you're doing!" he implored, "This isn't the type of person the Great Engineer wants you to be!"

"DO NOT SPEAK OF THE GREAT ENGINEER!" she yelled with indignation, and then jumped off the pile, spinning through the air with her blades like a hurricane of steel.

Kitty barely had time to block. The force of the strike knocked the sword out of his right hand. Holding the long knife with both hands, he tried to parry both of Raven's flashing blades. Raven smiled as she easily twisted the blade out of Kitty's hands. Now weaponless, Kitty only had one option. He ran. Raven ran after him, screaming in hate. He tripped over a smaller stack of pillows and fell heavily to the floor. Raven brought her blades down again, and he didn't have time to move. Almost reflexively, he grabbed a pillow with his right hand and held it up. The knives embedded themselves in the pillow and Raven glowered at it. Kitty threw it to the side, knives and all, knocking Raven off balance. Kitty climbed back to his feet and found Raven advancing on him again. He took a chance. Jumping into her, he knocked both of them to the ground. He was on top of her, holding her wrists down to keep her from attacking. Raven tried pushing him back, but he was stronger and kept her down. He began to twist the weapons out of her hands. She was in an inopportune position and couldn't do anything to fight back. She let out a small cry of pain as Kitty succeeded in making her let go of the knives. Raven glared at him with a vengeance. She freed one of her hands and threw a fist at his face. He rolled to the side, hand to his nose. Raven grabbed her knives and stabbed down on him again. Kitty rolled to his feet, and Raven rose to her full height as well, eying him with fury. He had made another escape, but he wasn't sure how much longer he could hold this up. She charged again. Kitty ran into a large stack of pillows, climbing barely fast enough to avoid the knife strikes. At the top of the stack, the pillows began to shift and the entire stack came crashing down. Both combatants found themselves half-buried in pillows. Kitty was the first to free himself, and he continued running. Raven was in close pursuit. Kitty spied his blades on the ground. He rolled, rearming himself as he did. Rising, he spun around and raised his blades in time to block Raven's knives. All four weapons were locked together as Kitty and Raven tried to push each other back.

"...I don't...want to fight you!" Kitty struggled, "But I'm not going to let you get in the way of my rescuing Auriel!"

He pushed her away, attacking with new vigor and resolve. He spun and sliced, attacking almost faster than Raven could parry. She found herself in a quick retreat. A blade got past her defenses, slicing her left arm. Raven stifled a scream and dropped one of the knives. Within seconds, Kitty disarmed her other blade. He threw his shoulder into her, sending her to the ground, breathless. His sword was to her neck.

She scowled, wincing as she held her arm, "Do it!" she said, "Finish me! I know you want to!"

"I'm not going to kill you," Kitty said.

She closed her eyes, whispering a few last words.

"Don't you believe me!?" Kitty asked, "I don't want to kill you!" He shook his head slowly, breathing out, "I am a servant of the Great Engineer; I will not take your life."

He removed the sword from her neck and sheathed both his blades. He walked away.

Raven opened her eyes. Kitty was gone. She didn't believe it: he hadn't killed her.

She stood up slowly, in a daze. "I don't understand." Her voice was sad and confused. "Why didn't he do it?"

She fell to her knees, "I don't understand," she repeated, "How come I, a Resistor would have killed him, but he, an autofficer, an imperial!...spared my life?" She couldn't understand. "Aren't we the good guys!? How can the Resistance treat others so harshly!? Shouldn't we be more like the Great Engineer!? Help me! I don't know what to do!"

She collapsed into a stack of pillows, crying into her arm. It seemed like the entire foundation of her beliefs had changed.

She remained there for a long time.

Kitty had left No Man's Landing roughly half an hour before. The sun was low on the horizon--night was fast approaching. He crested a hill and saw his target; the Ebony Spire pointed into the sky, it's black stonework defying the light. He didn't want to go back there, but he knew he had to--to bring light to the world, and to save Auriel.

I don't know how I can do it. How can one person conquer an entire fortress?

He set his jaw, With the power of the Great Engineer.

He began to walk toward it. Footsteps sounded behind him and he stopped cold. Slowly, he turned, reaching towards his sword.

"Kitty!"

He let go of the hilt, Orville.

His friend appeared over the hill, running towards him. Ken and Tess were with him.

The three Resistors caught up to Kitty, breathing heavily. "We're coming with you!" Orville exclaimed.

Kitty was confused, "Nate let you go?"

"Not exactly," Orville answered, "I couldn't let you go to the Imperial fortress on your own. I asked Tess about it and she agreed, and Ken overheard us and wanted to come too. We snuck out the back door and ran all the way here."

"How did you know where I was going?" Kitty inquired.

Tess said, "I remembered you saying where the base was."

Kitty nodded, but was still grim, "Why do you trust me when nobody else did? Nate and Raven thought I was working for the Empire," he squinted, "Why don't you?"

"Because you're my friend," Orville said, smiling, "I trust you."

Ken said, "I think that the person who saved me from the Isle is not an Imperial."

"I believe you," Tess said.

"And since we believe you're telling the truth, we can't let Auriel suffer in that tower," Orville finished.

Kitty smiled. This is how I can take the Spire. These friends are a gift from the Great Engineer.

"Thank you," Kitty said, putting his arm on Orville's shoulder, "Thank all of you for standing by me. I promise I won't let you down."

The four friends shared a smile, and then they turned to the east.

"Is that it?" Tess asked, staring at the tower in the distance.

"Yes, it is," Kitty said, "And it is probably filled with Imperials. But, with the power of the Great Engineer, we will prevail."

Together, their small band marched into the gathering darkness.

Rayna stood on the Ebony Spire's middle level, staring over the edge at the main gate. She watched it open as another platoon of automatons filed in.

Zander walked to her side, "I was wondering where you were."

Rayna made no reply; she kept watching the automatons massing below. Zander looked at her in confusion, and then glanced down at the base of the tower. "After Kitty escaped, Zaul feared he would bring the Resistance down on us in force. So Zaul requested reinforcements to help protect the Spire," he massaged his scar.

Rayna still said nothing; she stared toward the west at the setting sun.

Zander turned to her, "What's wrong?"

She continued staring, as if she hadn't heard him. After a few seconds she quickly turned away and said, "Nothing."

"Nothing?" Zander asked, frowning, "...where are you going?"

"I'm checking on the prisoner," she said, hastily slipping away through the door and leaving Zander alone in the night.

Quickly she stepped up the stairs to where Auriel was being held on the top level. Finally arriving, she saw Zaul closing the door as he and Anzok sat down at the table.

"How is the interrogation going in there?" Rayna asked.

"We're making good progress," Zaul said, "We had one more suit of fog armor and it seemed to fit Auriel quite nicely. She has so far been able to resist it, but we can tell it's wearing her down. I expect we'll learn everything we need to know before morning."

"That's good" Rayna said, looking down. She then threw a glance at the two senior autofficers, "You two have been interrogating her for a long time. You should take a break. Don't worry," she added, noticing a glance between Zaul and Anzok, "I'll keep watch on her."

"That's very good of you," Anzok said, "Who knows when Wo--I mean Kitty will come back sometime, probably. I should be well rested in case of an attack. Good idea," he smiled and headed for the stairs.

"I agree," Zaul said, eying Rayna suspiciously, "There will be some automatons waiting just downstairs, if you need them."

"Okay," Rayna nodded.

Zaul nodded and then walked after Anzok. Rayna was left alone in the room, deep in thought. After a few minutes, she walked to the door and opened it. Auriel was strapped to the table, encased in a suit of bright green fog armor. Her face was pale and she was shaking. Rayna walked closer to her. She noticed that Auriel was whispering words, almost indecipherably. She was asking a 'Great Engineer' for help. Rayna didn't understand what Auriel meant by that. Glancing at Auriel's fog armor, she turned her eyes to her own. Her armor flickered green in the darkness. She looked back at Auriel, a tear forming in her eye. "I'm..." Rayna quickly turned away and almost ran towards the door. Soon back in the antechamber of the interrogation room, Rayna collapsed into the chair. She wiped away a few tears.

One thought raced through her mind. I betrayed him. I betrayed him. I betrayed him.

How could I do that to my friend? she asked herself, How can I keep working for the Empire?

Her armor began to shimmer more brightly, but she ignored the disparaging thoughts that were not her own.

We were torturing him, and now we are torturing this girl. For what? Why is this so important?

The armor's light grew stronger, trying to repress her thoughts.

And why is fog being used as a torture device? I thought that fog was the most important, most good thing in Aethasia. That's what I've always been told. Unless...

The fog armor flashed, glowing brightly. Rayna groaned, holding her head.

That is a lie! Fog is a glorious material that is making Aethasia a better place.

"Then why is it being used for such evil?" Rayna asked defiantly, gritting her teeth.

It is not being used for evil. My mind is becoming confused.

"No!" Rayna countered herself, "I'm not confused! This is wrong! What I did to Kitty is wrong!"

Kitty betrayed me!

"No! I betrayed him! How could I be so blind!?"

You are being blind now!

"I can't do this anymore! I will not fight for the Empire!" she began taking off the armor.

No!

No!

Rayna fell to the table, whimpering. Slowly, the tears began to stop. Rayna rose, and a green glint was in her eyes.

She smiled, "For the glory of the Empire."

A Light in the Darkness Discussion

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