If you wish, you may skip this, my girlfriend thinks it is very cute and sad, but, it is primarily a bridge between two sections. If you are ok with skipping ahead, (not much of relevance happens here,) go ahead.


7 years ago…

I sat down on a bench, watching the two love-struck idiots hugging and kissing about half a mile down the road from me, and smiled. I was so much faster than my father and making this happen. I was, after all, the love bug.

"Quasar." A stern voice behind me startled me from my daze.

My head made a 180 degree spin to see my 'uncle' James, along with the rest of the THEA brigade.

"Hey James, what's going on?" I smiled, looking at them.

They didn't seem themselves.

James wasn't ogling at Anna, how dumb can a robot be? Lance wasn't trying to woo Lily, what a weirdo. Anna wasn't humming, what a strange hobby. Lily wasn't moving at blurring speeds, did someone slip her a sedative? Xenophon didn't have a crazed look in its eyes, they're green? And Gannon was out of his ship, I forgot he was orange…

They all looked rather… sad.

"Quasar," James said a bit more lightly, "you'd better come with us."

"Why?" I asked in my teenaged voice, I was always a child to this group, no matter the experience.

Why wasn't my father with them? Oh yeah, he was screwing that whorish piece of flesh he called Julie, or rather letting her fall deeper in love with him, like that would get anywhere.

"Ok…" I sighed, glumly coming along, adding to their mood.

I stepped aboard the Resonance and took my seat in my father's would-be chair, and held onto the handhold. Everyone boarded, and we took off into space. Then, a few moments later, the ship lurched forwards, and everything was covered in light.

"Where are we now?" I wondered aloud.

"Follow us; we've been invited to see something." James said coldly, as if acting on protocol again.

Boy, this is strange… I hopped out, along with everyone, and began to walk along a golden path. The path was bizarre, it was almost cloudlike in appearance, and made my mind realize that I was in the presence of the Mythic Ones. I'd never seen one before… other than maybe my own mother… my real mother… not that slutty piece of flesh known as Julie. How did my father ever fall for her?

The seven of us walked through a variety of pathways and corridors, all leading to the middle of a chamber. Above and around us, millions of rows of chairs, or thrones, rather, stretched into the ever darkening abyss that was the ceiling. We all sat down on a bench just out of the way from the center, where something was chained to a pillar-like structure.

It was my father.

"Dad?" My voice trembled. I was scared for being here, I didn't know how I knew how to be scared, being made of metal, but I was. I was scared for my father too, the very thought that his face would be in the middle of the Grand Council shocked me.

"XT-421, you are hereby accused of directly interfering with the death of a daughter of the planet Earth, lying within the realm of-"

"Why is my father here?" I demanded to James in a harsh whisper.

"Listen and learn…" His voice was hardly audible.

"-one of the best Mythic Ones, and one of the oldest, in existence. You attempted to resurrect Julie Elizabeth Bell, did you not?" The voice boomed.

"Julie…" He cried out weakly. His armor was battered and dented and his arms, wings, and legs were bound behind him.

"How do you please? Guilty, or not guilty."

"Heavens! Leave him alone! He is not in the mental state to be dealt with right now!" A golden, yet puny, figure demanded with her small voice.

"Celeste, shut up." A lesser offered, not wanting to hear her voice plead for XT again.

"Orderum, he just lost his soulmate! Any one of you would do the same thing!" Celeste roared.

"Celeste!" The booming voice hushed the rising commotion within the chamber, "You were not supposed to make him in the first place! You were supposed to keep him under control! Along with his associates, over there."

Thousands of sets of eyes suddenly had their gaze upon my figure, and I felt like melting.

"We've not done a thing wrong! Is helping your people attain a better life wrong at all?" Anna stood and glared at them.

"You help covertly, not making yourselves seen as much, but XT-421 does his helping openly more than 98 percent of the time! ANY interference is not to be tolerated; we should have you all shut down."

Shut down? That wasn't good…

"NO!" Celeste cried, falling to her knees from her chair.

"All in favor of shutting down the infamous THEA, say aye." The judge figure offered.

"Aye."

"Aye."

"Aye."

And many more 'aye's were heard. In seconds, all in favor were counted, and the count rested at a 62 percent majority, enough to end us. I looked at my family, XT, James, Anna, and they all looked calm, except XT, who was blankly staring into space, and uttering the name Julie over and over again.

"The Council has decided to take the lives of all members of THEA." A dark shadow appeared at the end of the stage at which I was to die. In its hand, a long staff with a large sickle at the end of it loomed out of the dark mist that surrounded its face.

"WAIT!" Celeste screamed, not wanting all of her work to end like this, "Just wait…"

The shadow stopped, the people's talking stopped, I think my circuits even stopped.

"May I please offer a proposal, to spare their lives?" She begged on her knees to these men and women and things of legacy.

"Do as you wish…"

"If they solemnly swear never to be seen by the members of your realms again, may they live?"

"If they cease their actions entirely, they'll live." Another voice thundered from above, the seats above were always saved for the bigger, more important beings.

"XT-421 cannot and will not stop his so-called mission. He must die with the rest of them!" Another voice shouted.

The judge deliberated, and offered a suggestion.

"We shall kill XT-421, and spare the rest, if, and ONLY if, they refrain from being seen again in any realm other than the Omega or their home realms. All in favor of this proposal, say aye."

They were tallied, and it was almost anonymous. "Then it is settled, THEA, you are henceforth banished from the sight of any mythic outside of the Omega Realm and your home realm of Rinoco, and must never interfere with the fates of creatures outside those realms. If you are found guilty of breaking this generous treaty, that individual shall be executed immediately, am I understood?"

"Yes sir…" We answered as one.

"Good. You may now commence with the execution."

Didn't he just say we'd live?

I wasn't thinking clearly as the shadow approached my father, sickle-staff in hand. The sickle was raised, above my vegetable father, and came down with a clean, swipe, cutting through his body.

My dad wailed in agony as he eyes shot to life. I could actually see the soul leaving him as the sickle came down again.

Out of him, the body of an elfish creature came out.

"What's this? Celeste? Who is this figure?"

"I am a creation… of Xavier the Truthfinder, and… Celeste. I am the subconsciousness of XT-421." The being explained.

I gasped, as did the rest of THEA, My dad had a soul? He wasn't just thinking metal?

"It is fine… kill me. I did what I did for Xavier, and Xavier has let the connection die between us. He is waiting for Julie… I am useless now." It said.

The shadow looked confused, hesitating with the sickle, but soon brought it down on the creature, making parts of the transparent flesh vanish entirely, the being screamed its last scream before its head came off.

Then, the sickle-bearing shadow approached the shell of my father, built by the devil of his realm. Two more shadows appear, each holding different weapons, with one, a hammer, and the other, a pair of pliers.

The three set out on my father, who was now thrashing about, and began to bash, beat, and break, him.

Swinging and gashing and hacking about, the creature that was my father shrieked in animalistic horror. It was a slaughterhouse.

Finally, when a strange blue ball was introduced into the weaponry, XT stopped moving. The ball absorbed all of the energy, back-up and all, and halted everything going on inside of him. I could see it, I could feel it. My father was gone.

No longer did I receive any goofy messages from him, no longer did I angrily ignore them, no longer did he rave about how wonderful Julie was, nothing.

He was dead. I watched him die!

No, my father can't be dead… no way… no way… he's still there… this is all some prank, right? Besides, I'm not even a part of THEA, that statement doesn't mean anything to me! I'm the love bug!

I stood up, and fled immediately.

"Quasar!" James shouted behind me, chasing me down.

"He's not dead! He's faking!" I declared, rushing off, I was going to do something rash to make my father stop his sick joke. I was going to get a boyfriend!


Present day


That was 7 years ago, and now, and I hate myself for what I did. The Mythic ones couldn't try me, as I wasn't a part of THEA, but they let me off with a warning.

Now I trudge through the ashes of my mother's world, unseen and doing nothing but looking for anything of my mother's worth value to save as a keepsake, there is nothing, however. Another nuclear blast wiped it all away.

"Quasar." A voice sounded behind me. I cringed; no one was supposed to know I was here.

Behind me, I saw, was my biological creator, Celeste.

"Celeste… what are you doing here?"

"Keeping an eye on my daughter, is that a crime?" Her voice soothed me.

"No…" I muttered.

"What are you doing here?" Celeste had been stripped of most of her power in the past few years, preventing her from being much greater than I was, or my father, my late father.

"Searching. Julie was a great person, and I want something non-electronic to remember her by…"

"Ah, I might know of something… Follow me."

So I followed her, wandering almost aimlessly across the ashes of the house that once belonged to my parents.

"Celeste…" I started; something had been bugging me for 7 years.

"Yes Quasar?" The golden, yet dimmed, character chirped.

"XT had a person, a soul, inside him, didn't he?"

"Yes, he did. That was the key to creating him, and James too, and Anna, Lance, Lily, Gannon, and Xenophon."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"You never would've understood. The very concept of having another being inside of a practically lifeless robotic shell would drive you all insane."

"So… there is another soul… controlling me?"

"No. Not you. But James and XT and THEA, yes. They all have their heroes helping them." Celeste didn't look at me as she answered. She just floated onwards through the rubble.

"Wait, why not me? Shouldn't I be Xavier's daughter?" I asked, hopping over another piece of debris.

"No. You are not. You are XT's daughter, and XT was a robot. You are… different, as you can already tell. You see, XT battled his whole life with the concept of trying to truly imitate and create emotions within himself, and he was a good copycat, letting Xavier help him with that. But you, you actually feel emotions, don't you?"

"Yeah… like right now, I'm depressed beyond comprehension."

"Exactly. You were made to do that, you are not just a robot Quasar, you're something more inside. You have a soul of your own."

"A soul of my own?" I asked mindlessly, that didn't make sense, I was just a robot! We robots don't have souls…

"It is time for me to go…" She calmly stated. "The memento is around here somewhere, I'm sure of it. Good luck Quasar, and leave when you can, this is a dangerous place, for you and for anything you might find." With that, she smiled, and vanished upwards.

I sighed, watching her go, and continued my search. In front of me, a small half a hut lie, and the door was already smashed in. No one was around, I knew it. On planet earth, on this side of New York, there was one being alone, and that was me. Only about 2 percent of the human race actually existed still, most of it, the bulk of America, was wiped out in nuclear explosions.

I ventured forth into the hut, and peered around. Nothing was to be found. As I dejectedly turned around, I noticed a bookcase covering the smallest lip of a hole in the ground. Nothing better to do… besides, there might be something down there. I hopped down into the hole, which descended a good 50 feet.

Then, within that hole, I was amazed. I knew this hut was once my parent's. They had a small hut, and it was spread widely from the most recent bomb, all operated from a robotic launching system. In that hole, in front of me, a door stood, fully intact, and high tech. Like, something my dad would've built, but in a style that was unlike my father's.

On the side of it, the handwriting of a 20 year old human girl, "Julie's: Keep Out!"

My stepmother knew how to build Sci-fi doors, which operated like doors from Rinoco. Surely she had to have had XT's help, but it appeared to have no trace of XT on it. I approached the door and attempted to open it properly. A keypad shot out, asking for a password. I decided it was time to put my hacking skills to the test on this door.

I placed a finger over a wire, and watched the files flow into my green eyes.

"First digit… F."

"Second digit… L."

FL, great, I had no idea how long this was going to be, but I could tell it was some secret of Julie's.

"Next digit… I."

FLI? What?

T-S-C-E-L-I-A were the preceding digits.

I stood in horror as I entered that password.

FLITSCELIA. That was my middle name that I had rejected long ago. My stepmother used it as the password to guard all of her secret belongings.

I fell to my knees as the door sputtered open, wishing desperately that I had tear ducts.

I stood to my feet and slowly entered the near ancient room. There was a small bed in the corner, comfily fitting for two, a picture on the wall of me, my dad, and Julie, yellowed out with old age, and a TV, plugged into a small outlet that also led to something else in the room other than a lamp.

The room was dimly lit and smelled like a corpse, but it was rather homey. A DVD player was on and in pause on the TV, a girl in a blue robe sat in this very room on the bed on the screen.

I slowly pressed play, watching the rest of the movie.

"July 16, 2014, 3:47 AM. I don't know how it happened, or how he didn't notice, but I managed…" Julie, the girl in the film, plopped down on the bed, "to give birth to that child without him noticing."

"WHAT?!" I shrieked.

"Never before have I had sexual intercourse with a live being, it was always XT. I came close, and have been raped before, but that was long ago, anyways… In these past few nights, XT is not with me… I was on some form of anesthesia… when it happened, but, I had a Caesarian Section done on me, and out he came. Someone, or something, helped me, and helped me build this shelter for him, but… I don't know… I don't care at this point."

The screen buzzed and then suddenly Julie reappeared.

"July 21, 2014, 5:19 PM. Something bad is happening. XT's gone, the sky is red, news reports all over the world are telling me the end is near… I don't want to die… I don't want him to die either… someone out there… save me… XT… where are you?"

"What was my dad doing? He wasn't at the trial yet…"

I pressed play again, and watched Julie's panic grow as a nuclear explosion shook the bunker.

"What the fuck is that?! Oh dear God… help me… I've got to get him out of here… he's merely five days old, and I am trying to give him a future…"

"July 22, 2014, 1:01 AM. He's asleep now, asleep for while… the radiation must've gotten to me or something, I think I'm dying. I went out to go get food from the house, and a bomb strike hit half the house, knocking it down, I was hardly alive enough to come back here. I can't watch over him for much longer… I've placed him in a stasis tube, letting him live on in suspended animation for a long while… he'll last a good hundred years as long as the power doesn't cut off… if only I could've told XT about our son… To anyone who may catch this tape, please, take my son, raise him, tell him who I am. XT, I hope it is you, so you can show our son how amazing his father is… I love you XT… and if not, I hope dearly it is my beloved stepdaughter Quasar… watch over your brother… he is very special to me and XT, even though your father never saw him… the boy's name is Inori. It is, I think, Japanese for prayer, which is certainly a fitting name in a given situation like this… please, someone, anyone, take my son, raise him, let him grow into a strong young man… anyone… please… ohh… I need to sit down…"

White noise was all that was left of the DVD.

I looked back at the outlet in the wall, a big cord came out and led to the other corner, where, suspended in green liquid, was my little brother, purely made of flesh, hardly lit up in the light.

I walked up to the tube, and slowly watched my brother, hang in the liquid, bobbing up and down with infinitesimal movement. I followed his closed eyes, gazing on the bed, and saw a lump in the covers.

Horrified, I walked to the bed, and gently pulled the covers off. A blue gown covered a frail skeleton. It was my stepmother Julie.

Her voice echoed in my head from there, "watch over your brother…" "he is very special to me and XT." I fell to my knees again, wishing I was human enough to cry.

"It's all your fault Julie. I hate you. Why did you have to die? What did you have to die?! WHY CAN I NOT CRY FOR YOU!?!?! I LOVE YOU MOM!" I looked down at my body and became angry. Why couldn't I cry? I wasn't human.

"Why am I not human? I have this metal skin and armor on, that's why! I'll rip it all off!" I yelled, yanking at my breastplate, and tearing it off, revealing wiring and gears, pounding and clanking as I absorbed energy from my Arcanium heart. I ripped off my dress afterwards, it was red, metal, and skintight, not human like at all! I tore off my feet, humans didn't have triple spiked toes. And then, finally, I pulled down on my hat, my brain, the very processor of my existence, I tried to yank it down, over my head in a final attempt to kill myself. I heard the bending of metal, and that fueled me to pull harder.

Suddenly, a green glow overcame me, my circuits were overloading, and I passed out on the floor, crying some kind of blue liquid from my eyes.

I woke up, and my head felt very funny.

"Am I dead?" I asked, no one answered.

I held my head, and noticed my hat was curved down, a lot. I looked at my hands, and they seemed smoother, much smoother, non-jagged claws like they used to be, probably from being sanded down on ripping my armor off. I looked down next, and good heavens everything became freaky.

The wires were still able to be heard, but, they didn't appear. My skin was smooth everywhere down my chest now, the Arcanium heart was moved and not sticking out. I looked down one more, and place a smoother hand over my breast, yeah, I had a breast now, two of them. I poked it gently, and watched the skin bounced with lively fashion. I looked down further, and noticed human organs beneath me, the only possible and logical solution to this was that I evolved due to my state of emotional instability.

And I had toes. Even though I still had spiky shoulders, I had toes now, five of them on each foot. I looked like a naked human girl, with pointy ears, that is.

I looked into a mirror on the side of the room, and noticed one further detail. My eye panels were gone, and in their place, two lively eyes with bright green pupils, that, and my shoulder spikes and earrings were all blue now, saddened, like myself.

I had become human like.

I pondered this fact for a little bit. Would I still be able to transform? I seemed to forget how to do that. It used to be second nature, but now, that entire ability appeared to no longer exist within me. My arms, still a bit mechanical, undoubtedly could still do something abnormal, but, other than that, I had just stripped myself of my abilities.

That was fine by me… I wanted to get rid of them to raise my little brother, Inori.

I approached the stasis tube again, and pressed a few buttons on the bottom of the tank, mentally able to know how to operate the machine still. The green liquid fell slowly, and the tube opened with my little brother laying on his side, still a baby not more than 6 days old.

I picked him up and looked at him. I would've held great contempt for this child had Julie still been alive, as it was a fleshie, and I've always hated fleshies. But, I myself was one now. And I didn't care what my brother was, I was going to love and care for him like he was both my own child, and my little brother.

Quietly, the room was filled with a new noise, the sound of a crying baby. I pulled Inori close to my chest and hugged him tightly, but not to cause pain.

"Shush… Everything's going to be ok Inori… sister's here…" I couldn't tell if he wanted to be fed, or wanted to be with his mother, but, I was going to help him either way.

C'mon! I know I can feed this child… I mentally declared, sitting down on the bed, leaving room for Julie's body. I let Inori press his face over my new mammary gland, and waited. I had no idea what I was doing, but I was determined to help this baby grow, and I knew mothers did something like this.

Inori tried to get something from me, and I think I gave it to him, but I can't be sure. I felt like something was leaving my skin at that point, but I didn't care, as long as Inori was fed properly. Then, suddenly, this massive wave of some feeling came over me. I held the baby close and felt a motherly bond coming over me. Then, suddenly, I cried. Water came out of my eyes, and I half smiled.

The moment Inori was done, I pulled him off me, and realized something again.

I looked, and partially was, a naked human girl. I needed clothes.

I looked around, and only one piece of clothing could be found, Julie's death robe. Gently, I set Inori down, and began to slide Julie's rotted body out of it, with a good rinse, it wouldn't smell, and besides, the deep blue coloring matched my spikes. Besides, with this dress, Inori might remember his wonderful caring mother, for those five days he was with her.

The skeleton was still intact as I slid the dress onto myself; it fit well, and covered all, so I wouldn't need anything else.

I picked Inori up and began to walk out of the small tomb, sealing it as I went. If I still got all my energy from sunlight and Arcanium, then I wouldn't need anything if I walked outside, and in Inori fed through me, however that worked, then we wouldn't need anything.

But we did need a way off of this planet…

"It isn't a safe place here… for you, and for whatever you may find…"

I climbed up a ladder, leading up to the hut, and found myself under the bookshelf again. I heaved it aside with one hand, and sat down on the burned bed with Inori.

"Inori, you're a very special baby." I said in a childish voice, trying to make him smile, it wasn't hard. His happiness translated onto me, and I hugged him a bit tighter than I should have. "We're two of a kind I guess… children of XT-421… I love you Inori, I'm never going to let anything happen to you as long as I live." I kissed his head and hugged him close, resting my back on the bed for a long period of time, perhaps I was going to sleep. Either way, Inori cuddled up to my chest and fell asleep atop me. We slept like that for hours as brother and sister.