Chapter 3: The Creator

Natsu had seen the battle from a distance. When he saw that they were in trouble he had raced with all his speed , but he was still late. The dragon slayer just reached the range from which he could attack after Lucy had been slashed by that metal bastard. With a roar he now jumped towards him.
'Iron fist of the fire dragon!'
His opponent moved with great speed and Natsu's fist only scratched his cannon. He turned to kick at him , but the armored figure had jumped out further than his reach .

''Magna cannon overheating. Explosion imminent.''

With a single motion the cable that connected the cannon to the figure was released and he threw it back. After a second it exploded hiding it's form in the smoke. Immediately he launched at Natsu slicing with it's wristblade. The dragon slayer managed to dodge two slashes and at the third jumped back out of reach of the blade and prepared to use his roar of the fire dragon. Still pointed at him , he saw a portion of the figures arm opening and a small double barreled cannon emerging above the wrist blade , which was retracting within the arm. It was aimed right into the dragon slayers chest.

The laser blasts that came out of the wristblaster passed through the air and hit the wall. In just a second every single human had vanished. The figure looked left and right and turned several times , even though it knew they were gone. Retracting the blaster it hit the wall with it's left fist. There was no point in looking at any of the computers inside. All the information was already deleted and they would probably self destruct soon. So Forlox had completed it. Unexpected. It had expected that it would take another four months until it could be used. But he had not escaped. Tracking the teleport location was not difficult. Not when it knew exactly how he had achieved the teleportation of every single soldier , vehicle and civilian in this makeshift base.

Natsu was on the ground in a laboratory. But it was not the same laboratory he was in a second ago. And that armored bastard was nowhere to be seen. He could hear Forlox calling for a medic to come immediately and then he remembered. Lucy and Levi had been heavily injured. He turned and saw a young redheaded woman wearing white labcoat proned over the celestial mage. She was trying to stop the bloodflow.
Medics from this world had soon come and began tending to the two mages. Natsu barely remembered anything. Just asking where Wendy was and hearing Forlox saying that she would be there soon. After an hour the unharmed mages , Forlox and the young woman who had helped Lucy at the start were in the laboratory he had appeared in. Lucy and Levi were both safe. The solid script mage had suffered concussions and broken ribs but with Wendy's help she would recover in a few days. Lucy's injury was worse and she had lost a lot of blood , but for the moment she was stabilised. Wendy commented that if this worlds doctors hadn't done what they did she probably would have died. But now because of their life support systems the wind dragon slayer couldn't use her magic to heal Lucy until she got a little better. She was receiving a blood transfusion at the moment.
Natsu still couldn't believe that he was on a vehicle but did not feel any motion sickness. Forlox had explained that he had used a teleporter he created to bring everyone on a flying fortress of his design. Those bracelets he had given them had been what allowed them to be transported. And because he himself had apparently suffered from motion sickness the professor had put in extra work on what he called damperers. He gave an assurance that for the next ten years nobody would be able to tell they were on a moving fortress. Since Natsu did not feel the need to throw up , the professor had succeeded.
The young woman named Mary , who was Forlox's student and assistant , was giving out tea. Gajeel took his with a gnarl. He wanted to be back at the hospital wing. Natsu could relate. But the professor had told them he needed to tell them something very important. The dragon slayer just wished he would hurry up about it.
'First I must apologise for what happened to your friends.'
'That guy called you „Creator".' - Natsu spoke before any of the other could
'That is correct. Although it is no person.'
'What do you mean?'
'There is nothing living within that shell. There is no heart , there is a power generator , there is no blood flowing through it's veins , there is energy passing through wiring. It was a human once yes. A human I killed. My greatest creation , my greatest crime , my greatest regret. I asked our scouts to bring you to me because I hoped you would be able to destroy it.'

The ones the forces of the republic had nicknamed „The Destroyer" landed in the middle of the now complete Kaserid military base. The missle silos were all that were left to be made operational. The thirty class one nukes were already delivered. Soon the prince would make his claim to the world. It's understanding of human emotions found this to be foolish. That foolish boy would soon meet the same fate as his kind. It noticed that Harenfal was headed in it's direction limping on his right leg. If it wasn't for the illogical human law against human augmentation it was sure that he would have replaced his leg with a machine long ago.
'A shame Forlox managed to escape. General Mendez was most displeased.' - they started walking towards one of the hangars – 'But do not worry. I have finished the calculations you send and they are being processed as we speak. They will be done before we are finished.'
'Then it is completed?'
'Yes. Our little project is finally done.'
Mendez was already inside when they entered. He was looking at four hundred robots , made in the likeness of „The Destroyer" , although they were less armored and their faces were unnecessary complex. A helmet with an what looked like an eyepatch biotic eye for increased visuals and what looked like a demonic fanged grin. The design was Harenfal's and it was meant to instill fear. To it it didn't matter how these machines looked like. What was important was their ability , and he had designed them to be more then sufficient for his needs.
'So when the connection is made you will control all of them?'
'Yes general.' - Harenfal answered instead of the machine – 'Creating true AI has proven an impossible dream for us scientists. One that Forlox managed to fulfill with our friend Alpha 03 here.'
Alpha 03. A crude boring name with no imagination behind it , given to it by the Creator upon activation. It did not matter what the organics chose to call it. Names were just extra data.
'But first we need the professor?'
'Yes. Unfortunately he kept a key that keeps our friend from using his full potential. Without this key he cannot connect to them. But when we have it they will be as extensions of his own „will" shall we say. An army that would follow any order without question. A generals dream is it not?'
'But they will not follow my orders. They will follow it's.'
'Our goals are one and the same.'
Mendez flinched a little. Even if this human was superior in his mental capabilities compared to the rest of his species , he remained organic. Hopelessly ignorant , close minded and in the end mortal. He would never accept Alpha 03 as an ally. And it was unnecessary. The general only needed to give the soldiers it still needed until the merge was complete.
'Well then. Time to install it.' - Harenfal produced a large black box from his pocket – 'I know you hate intrusions like this but...'
Without a word Alpha 03 unlocked his helmet's armor to allow Harenfal to install the control module. As with the other two times the scientist had seen the inside of it's head he stared at the obsidian stone edged within the upper part of the skull just below the processor. The one thing it didn't know about itself. The one component it didn't know what purpose was served by it. The install was done quickly. Harenfal's design had fitted perfectly. When he was done pulled out his console and checked the data.
'Data input should be coming to you even if you cannot control them yet. Ah and the processing is complete. Unfortunately there is nothing in the area...'
'Beginning area search.'
'Hacking surveillance satellites again are we? Well the world is nearly ours. What is the harm in it now?'
Harenfal shrugged when he saw the general's disapproving look.

'As arrogant as it sounds. I am a genius. I have known this from a young age. I rarely found a person I could talk to for more then five minutes before I grew bored. Because of this I knew I would probably never marry , have an heir , someone to succeed me. For that reason I became interested in artificial intelligence. Nobody had been able to create true thinking intelligence. Close attempts had been made of course , but they were no more then sophisticated programs that still followed a base set of commands and rules. True intelligence is not hindered like that. And I wanted to be the first. I believed this was how I was going to leave my mark on the world.'
He took a sip of his tea and let out a sigh.
'But even for me it seemed impossible. I upgraded many ai programs , created a name for myself. I was rich and had influence few scientists could have dreamed of. But for all my successes in the field I failed at what I wanted to do. Creating something that was thinking by itself. Trying to act like a god. How did I think it would end up any other way.'
'I was not only engaged in projects researching artificial intelligence. I had a small passion for archeology. Digging up what others had left behind. And one day a strange artifact passed through my hands. The stone you were searching for. When the undervault under the shrine was found this was the one thing of value anyone could find. And the one who did had fallen into a coma as soon as he had touched it. After carefully studying it I found that it actually transmitted brainwave data...what the human brain works. It had somehow absorbed the archeologist's consciousness. But it was...silenced . The stone extracted , but did not keep for long. Within a day whatever it had contained of the poor man was gone.'
'Even if I felt sorry for him , I found a possibility. A way to use this stone into my own research. I had began to try to make a program that ran like the human brain with no success. But this would have done what was needed. All I needed to do was write a support program for it so that the human consciousness could operate a machine body. But there was still one thing missing. A human mind was still needed. And then I made my mistake.'
'I couldn't use just any mind for it's brainwaves. A volunteer wouldn't have been impossible to find. But I needed a pure mind. Untainted by the current society. This would have been a new life. To use an old one to power it felt wrong. Using a child's mind was out of the question as well. With regret I have to say I did not dismiss it because of morality...I simply believed a child's mind would not be able to handle it. So I resorted to a military contract. They captured a random person. Someone with relatively high brain capacity that nobody would miss or care about. And then under my direct instructions I broke his mind. Made him an unthinking animal driven only by base instinct. All I needed was the brainwaves. I deemed everything else to be a hindrance to the ai. I still have nightmares about what I did.'
'But when that was said and done I continued with the project. Taking the brainwaves was not hard. Transferring them was not as simple. The stone only extracted so I hastily build a transfer machine. Breaking another mind would have taken too long and raised too many questions. It was imperfect but it made a connection between the stone and the target. I did not use a real body for the AI at that moment. Just a powerful computer that could hold it. It was a glorious success. On the monitor it typed to me „Creator". I had never inputted anything about myself on it. Least of all a way for it to address me. It was a true thinking AI. It did not take long to create a robot body for it. As I said earlier , the transfer machine was build hastily. Some of the brainwave data remained within the stone so I had to place it inside the robots head or I risked compromising the AI.'
'Then?'
'Yes the stone you came here for is still in it's head. I was planning to trick you into destroying it , by telling you it was using it for evil deeds. It probably doesn't even know what that rock does and how important it is to it's very existence.'
'As it was a military contract the robot body itself was military grade technology. Best armor plating I could get my hands on. Easy to upgrade , modify and develop as the AI wished. Although it had much information in it , it was basically a newly created existence. It was not a child in the traditional sense , but it was clueless about common sense. The military assigned a psychiatrist to help guide it. Their idea of guidance – be loyal to the republic. But Sara saw what it was the same way I did. I admit. For the first time I found another human's company satisfying. Between her and the AI I had completely forgotten about my crimes. That month was probably the only one in which I was completely happy.'
'But it shattered that happiness. I never forget that day. Every word is engraved in my memory. One day while they were analysing our history about the creation of nuclear weapons it asked a simple strange question. I had just come into the laboratory.

'What is the best way to remove a cancer?'
'By cutting it out , but what does this have to do with our study?'
'A cancer slowly annihilates the organism by corrupting it. Eating at it's core. Destroying what keeps it together.'
'A strange way to address it. But yes...'
'Then is humanity not this world's cancer?'
'What do you...'
'Cutting down forests , pollution , destruction and now nuclear power. Slowly humanity is destroying the natural order of the land and that is causing it's destruction.'

'Before she could say anything he stabbed her with that wrist blade. I didn't even know he had installed such a crude weapon. I know I had my sins , but she never knew what I had done. She didn't deserve to die. And then it turned to me.'

'Creator.'
'Alpha...what have you done?'
'What my logic circuits have deemed to be the most logical course of action. But I am still incomplete to perform the task.'
'What?'
'My logic circuits that allow me to understand human emotions , but not to feel them. The merge between machine coding and human mind. It stands incomplete on ninety percent. There is one thing keeping me from achieving complete assimilation. An emotion from the human you used to make me. Even though the merge is incomplete I can understand what this primal emotion is. His final desire still lives. His thirst for vengeance. As long as you live Creator , I will never be whole.'

'And then I ran. And have been running from it ever since. I do not really believe that it came to this conclusion due to some twisted logic. The remains of that man whose name I never knew were stronger then I deemed. His desire for revenge is all that guides the ai program. My creation was never a true AI. Not after that day. For a time I thought I should just take my own life. I deserved to leave this world. But then it would turn it's attention to the world in order to wipe out every single human on this planet. Despite my warnings several organisations and countries used it while it hunted for me. Currently it is employed by the Kaserid Dynasty.'
The mages had not said a word during Forlox's speech. It was true they didn't completely understand everything , but what they did was enough. In unison they got up. Erza spoke first.
'We are not from this world and as such we can't judge you. But we will take down Alpha.'
'Why would you do this?'
'The stone that allowed you to make it is from our world. We came here to bring it back with us. If our job saves the people from this world as well , this is just more motivation for us to do it. But we will not be doing anything to the Dynasty forces.'
'I never even dreamed of asking you to do such a thing.'
There was another simpler reason. The machine had harmed two of their own just because they were humans. Not out of spite , anger or any emotion at all. Although this made it somewhat hard to be angry at it , it was going to pay. Also the way it was made , acted. It reminded them of the golems of their world. If the technique to make them was similar , that organisation had some explaining to do when they came back.
'Why do the soldiers call him „Destroyer"?' - Wendy turned to Mary
'It was roughly...seven years ago now. Alpha had just entered the service of the Dynasty which was surprisingly at peace with it's neighbors. But there was a border skirmish . An Arsein general led a preliminary attack against a Kaserid forward base. From it he was going to strike at their very core. Alpha is the one who foiled him. Armed with it's trademark Magma Cannon and a small batallion of Kaserid walkers it lay waste to over three hundred aircraft , one hundred tanks and near to ten thousand infantry. There is a myth on this world about a demon known only as „The Destroyer" that would bring hell upon this world. A survivor saw Alpha in the middle of the raging inferno caused by it's weapon and saw in him that demon. Ever since then the name has stuck.'
Suddenly the room became to shake violently. Natsu immediately felt his motion sickness coming back. A voice was heard from the intercoms.
'Dynasty airships and dropships incoming. Everyone to their battlestations.'
'Impossible! How could they find us...Alpha! It has to be it! It must have known I was working on the teleport and was somehow able to track us.'
'Will it be here?'
'Since I am here. If it is not it will definitely come.'
'Then we must go.'
'Enemy has infiltrated the fortress. Unknown enemy unit is heading for the main engines. All available units converge to protect them.'
'If they take out the engines at our present hight the fortress will be destroyed in the crash.'
'Grey , Gajeel. Head for the engines. This unknown unit just might be Alpha. Me and Wendy will head for the nearest breach and help the security forces. Happy , Charle . Lily please stay with Lucy and Levi. And Natsu. Keep watch over the professor.'
'But...'
'With your motion sickness you won't be able to help us. But you said this room had it's own damperers right?'
'The ones at the medical bay are better...'
'No. You are it's target. You will not endanger Lucy and Levi by being near them.'
'As you wish.'- he handed them each an eyepiece – 'With this you will be able to stay in contact with each other and it has a schematic of the ship. If Alpha is spotted I will relay it's location to you.'

Grey and Gajeel made their way to the engine room. They hated to admit it but those eyepatches were really useful. They did not hampher their sight and showed them the way they had to go. The engines were behind a several meter thick metal wall. It was strange why the professor had made such a large empty room in front of it. He said that it was supposed to be a hangar which opened from the ground, but had scrapped that idea. Still he had kept the room that way and had simply removed the opening doors. The opposite wall to the engines , that was just as think suddenly blew up. What passed through was not Alpha to their disappointment. It was a large humanoid machine indeed and it was laughing.

Maren could not hold back his laughter. He finally understood why Harenfal called it „Titan's armor". The way the republics meager forces ran from his power. This must have been how the titans of myth felt like. He would probably loose himself to ecstasy if the scientists drug was not keeping him on target. The armor itself rose at three meters tall. The entire right arm were four highcapacity gatling guns. With so much ammo he could fire them without stopping for four hours. The left was a tank cannon. It had only ten shots , but each was capable of piercing the defensive wall to the engines. And on top if it several flamers , which he quickly began to favor. There were also two machine guns on top of the flat head , which sprayed everything in front of him. It's jetpropulsion was unfortunately weak. Because of the titan's weight they could only allow it to jump short distances. But the speed and lack of flight did not bother the corporal. With this much firepower he would not need to retreat. Soon he blasted the second of the three thick walls that kept the engines away from him. And there were two humans in front of him. He immediately recognized them and laughed. Fate was on his side. Even if the general had no blamed him for their escape , he felt cheated. But now two of them were before him , ready to die.
'Time for payback for the humiliation you gave me back in the city!'
He aimed the four gatling guns at them and let loose their immense firepower.

Erza was standing in one of the fortress mess halls. It was still not furnished , so besides a few kitchen utensils it was mostly empty. When the door in front of her opened she grabbed the eyepiece and threw it away. She had no more need of it.
'So you are Alpha.'
The machine stood before her. It was just like how Natsu had described it. Armor with no visible removable part , perfectly white. Well not perfectly white. There were recent red stains on it. In it's right hands it was holding a standard rifle. She did note that it was not the same as the Kaserids. It was a republican model.
'I am Erza Scarlet of Fairy Tail. And I will make you pay for what you did to my friends!'