Disclaimer: I don't own AT, but I really wish I was a writer for the show
Chapter 37: You Don't Know Me
Lucian was lead along way by Hunson Abadeer to the location of MO Co., which was located for out into the Bad Lands. When they finally arrived, Hunson who was being carried like a ragdoll by Lucian the whole journey through, immediately felt Lucians hand tighten around his throat once again.
"This is supposed to be the most technologically advanced place in OOO?" Lucian questioned in anger as he looked upon the poor condition the prewar factory was in and starting to feel he had been misled this whole time by Hunson.
"I-It is," Hunson choked out.
"How so," he further questioned as he loosened his grip on Hunson throat to allow him to speak fluently.
Taking in several huge gulps of air, he answered.
"It does look abandoned and outdated on the outside," Hunson answered to the Factory's poor outward condition. "But deep underground this place is where you will see that it's just as I said promised you it would be like."
"We shall see," he said as he walked to the entrance of the factory with Hunson still by the throat.
"Let me go Lucian," yelled Hunson at continuing to be dragged along by Lucian. "You said I could leave if I showed you to where you wanted to go."
"I said I would let you go if you took me to the most advanced place in OOO," Lucian corrected. "But so far your end of the bargain hasn't been reached," Lucian returned in response to the poor run down condition the place was in.
"Lucian, I promise you it is. You just need to venture deeper into this place to see so for yourself."
"Then you wouldn't mind accompanying me to this place. After all, it would really be a major disappointment if you lied to me," Lucian warned.
At that, Hunson made no comment towards, rather it just become silent between the two of them as Lucian walked to the entrance of Mo Co., accompanied only by the sound of his footsteps and the roaring of the wind.
When the two of them finally reached the entrance to the place, they were greeted by none other than the cellphone looking DMO.
"Halt," ordered the little robot, who was answered in turn by getting blasted into the wall by Lucian. As DMO slid down the wall, the little robot immediately called for the SMOs to deal with the intruders as Lucian was running through the factory to find the heart of this place.
"Do you know where the control room to this place is" Lucian asking Hunson for answers.
"No," was his answer, which Lucian was displeased to hear. He was about to drop Hunson and continue on through this place without him since he saw no further use for him, that was until the 90s PCs looking SMOs came running up with their laser guns and started firing at Lucian.
"GAAHHH," Hunson screamed out in searing agony as his flesh burned from Lucian mercilessly using him as a meat shield against the continuous oncoming barrage of laser blasts and Lucian showed no signs of sympathy at using Hunson in such a way. Instead he continued to use Hunson's body as a shield as he pushed forward towards the SMOs.
Once he was within reach of them, Lucian immediately summoned his sword in his free hand and sliced in half the ones on his right side while he swung Hunson like a club that sent the ones on his left crashing against the walls. Quickly he surged forward to slice through the ones in front of him before he just as quickly turned around to deflect the laser blasts from the ones behind him right back at their attackers.
Yet just as Lucian successfully dealt with the first group of SMOs, several doors opened around the place to let loose multiple waves of SMOs. The sheer numbers of them caused Lucian to be driven back as he continued to defend himself by using Hunson as a shield while he sliced apart any that came within melee range. Lucian knew he could easily deal with these machines if he used his TK powers to blast them apart and block their entrances, but chose not to use them because of the fact that using them to such an extent would lead to great damage to the factory as well, which would have defeated his whole purpose for why he came here in the first place.
Thus, he could do nothing else but be constantly driven back. He was driven back until he was pushed back to the ultra-trams. Quickly he jumped on to one of the trams and took off.
"Get him," ordered DMO to the assembled SMOs, who quickly obeyed as they each boarded their own trams in hot pursuit. Looking behind him, Lucian saw the SMOs gaining on him as another tram full of them came at him from the front on the tracks above him.
"Dammit," he cursed at the unfavorable situation, which was made worse as the SMOs started firing at him again. In defense, Lucian threw Hunson at the ones behind him. Knocking them off their tram and sending them falling to their doom. Luckily, Hunson managed to avoid falling off as well as he quickly grabbed hold of one of the seats, catching himself. Yet that reprieve was short lived as he looked in front of himself to see Lucian swing his sword at the incoming laser blasts from the SMOs on the tram above and accidentally cause one of the deflected blasts to hit one of the wheels on the tram above them. Causing the tram to derail itself and fall onto the tracks below, breaking through them and causing the trams Lucian and Hunson were on to fall right with them.
As they were in free fall, their trams broke through several floors before finally coming to complete landing. Coughing up the dust created from the debris of the destroyed floors, Hunson fell out of his tram flat on his face while Lucian walked out slightly dazed but alright. Looking to his left, he saw the SMOs that were on the tram above him had been crushed by their tram. Smiling at the annoyance having been dealt with, he left Hunson behind as he walked forward alone to venture deeper into this place and find what he was looking for.
"Creator," said DMO. "I have a whole platoon of SMOs ready to take out the intruder on your orders. Just say the word and we will deal with him."
"No DMO," said Moe. "You have seen what this man is capable of, taking him head on is not within our power. He's too strong for us to defeat directly."
"Then what would you have us do?"
"Wait DMO, wait for the perfect time to strike and hope for the best," he answered in a somber tone.
"Creator?" DMO said in confusion as he watched Moe drag himself over to his recently returned special MO and put a special chip inside of it before closing the MO back up.
"You should feel all better now that the repairs are done BMO and as an added bonus. I added something special inside of you that I need you to deliver to Finn."
"BMO will happily deliver what you have entrusted to me."
"I know you will," he nodded smiling at his special MO. You could even bet he would have shed a few tears had he still had the biological parts necessary to perform such a simple yet meaningful task.
"Remember, what you have is a very important chip that you must not let fall into the wrong hands, this chip can help turn the entire tide of the war. Remember that BMO.
"BMO will."
"Good, now go. Get out of here before he arrives," he ordered as he pushed the little robot to emphasize the importance of BMO needing to leave. Heeding his creator's orders, BMO left as fast as he possible. Looking up to all the other MOs that lived in the tubular city area of MO Co., Moe gave each of them the option as well to leave this place like did BMO. Instead, they all chose to stay with their creator and see things through with him until the very end, no matter what the outcome would be.
As Lucian walked down the silent echoing halls accompanied by nothing more than the constant sound of his own footsteps, he began to notice a couple of things. One was that things looked far better kept here than in the rest of this run down looking place. In fact, it looked lived in and like someone attended its halls regularly. Another noticeable feature was that things looked as Hunson said… Advanced. Seeing that things looked so advanced here caused a happy smile to from across Lucians face as proceeded on.
Strangely for some unknown reason, he didn't encounter any more security bots as he walked through the deepest part of the factory. Which meant he either dealt with them all, something he highly doubted or the one in charge of this place was letting him through unchallenged. Why this was in regards to the latter possibility was an even further unknown. Whatever the reasoning behind this though, it wouldn't matter much as he then came face to face with the one who built this place.
"Moseph Mastro Giovanni," Lucian said in a tone mixed with surprise, disgust, and a tad bit of respect as he looked upon the man being carried around by the large MMO.
"It's been awhile since anybody called me by my full name. It's been even longer since I met a human other than Finn."
"I bet it has."
"Yes, but you're not here to talk about that. You're here to take control of my factory and use it to produce weapons of war," Moe stated, jumping straight to the point.
"You are correct Mr. Giovanni. I am here for that," Lucian confirmed as all the SMOs in the area pointed their laser guns at him, but they did not fire just yet.
Looking away from Lucian for just a few seconds, Moe let out a pained sigh at the confirmation before returning his attention to him.
"Before what we both know is going to inevitably happen next, how about you give me the decency of answering me a few questions."
"Of course, I would gladly answer any questions you have for me out of respect for one such as you. Even though much of that respect has faded do to some of the disagreeable things you have done in your existence."
"Then tell me Lucian, what kind of person do you see yourself as?"
Upon hearing the question, Lucian paused for a moment gave a observational look towards Moe. "Why ask such a question such as that Mr. Giovanni," he asked in turn.
"I ask this because of all the things you have done once you set foot on OOO. The way you set out killing so many of its people and the homes you have destroyed. Cause I know that no ordinary person would do such a thing."
"Hmm, maybe," he said as he cocked his head to the right. "But what one considers himself too be isn't as important as what others see that person as being. After all, even cowards can lead an army to slaughter their enemies and raze their homes no matter what they see themselves as. But only a special type individual can make it to where just the mention of his or her own name will strike fear or respect into those that hear and speak their name."
"So tell me Mr. Giovanni, what kind of person do you see me as. What is your perception of me and what do you think I see myself as."
Moe glared at Lucian at first before he answered, not liking this turnaround of the conversation that Lucian had done. Moe had begun this conversation to learn more about Lucian and to better understand just what kind of person he was, not to have himself go about becoming the one answering questions. It seemed though, that the only way to learn more about Lucian was to answer his questions first before he answered any of his own.
What answer Moe was going to give though was another matter entirely. He debated giving the real harsh truth to Lucian and possibly incurring his wrath or a more pleasant sounding one even if it was a thinly veiled lie in the end. Yet Lucian struck Moe as a man who hated getting lied too, especially about something like this. He felt that Lucian would easily be able to see past his lies and take it as an insult to his intelligence should he choose to lie to Lucian. So because of that, he chose the former of the two.
"I see someone who considers himself as being above OOOs people."
Lucian simply nodded his head to that one.
"You think them all beneath you and because of that you feel neither shame nor remorse to the lives you take and the homes you destroy."
Lucian simply nodded to that as well.
"I see you are determined to achieve your goals and will go to great length if not any length in order to achieve your goals.
Another one that Lucian nodded his head too.
"Yet despite all those previously mentioned qualities, I see that you are someone who is afraid of them."
At that Lucian did not respond.
"A major part of the reason you do all this is because you fear the great potential that they have, just like humanity"
At that Lucian did not respond once again.
"As is common, you fear that which is different from you and want to kill them all because of it."
At that Lucian gave a small glare towards Moe before he continued.
"And above all else, you're just another power mad human who seeks to conquer this world for your own gain and to establish yourself as a God amongst your own people."
"Wrong Mr. Giovanni," Lucian said with a low venomous tone of voice. "While I can accept your previous misguided answers, I will not accept that last one."
"Now the truth…"
"Silence," Lucian ordered in a voice reminiscent of the Lich's, but still being Lucians own voice. And at that, everything and everyone in the room went quite, even the beeping sound of the machines.
"No one will ever be allowed to refer to me as being less than Human. And yes, I even include the gods as being less than Human. Because while the gods are indeed strong beings beyond mortal comprehension, they like the rest lack humanities greatest features."
"Ambition, imagination, and the inevitable end to life."
"Because those that obtain power which can be considered godlike with no foreseeable end to life one day, lose ambition because they now believe they have nothing further to achieve in a life without end. They lose imagination because they now believe they don't need to rely on wit and quick thinking to solve their problems. They now believe that they can solve everything through raw power alone because of their titanic arrogance."
"So because of what is lost in trade for raw power, they are in actuality weaker than mankind despite the mis held believe that they are the stronger ones."
"So no Moseph Mastro Giovanni, I do not seek to become a god nor do I seek to be known as one by anybody else. I will now and forever be human. Nothing more and nothing less."
After that Lucian paused in his speech to let out a small fit of chuckling laughter before continuing with what he was saying.
"I must say though, I'm sure the irony of explaining this is lost to you," he said in regards to what Moe had become.
"You who are less than man," he pointed in utter accusation towards Moe. "You who has forsaken his humanity in exchange for prolonging his life by replacing that which made him human with machines. With the only thing left that calls back to your former self is the skin you now wear to help cover the inhumanity that lies beneath it all."
"You are a disgrace to humanity and your continued existence further disgraces us."
Right after saying that, Lucian vanished too reappear a second later right behind Moe with his right blade stuck right through his robotic heart.
"But no more," he finished as he withdrew the blade from Moe's lifeless body. Lucian didn't let the assembled robots recover from witnessing their creators sudden death as he charged his two blades with TK and threw both of them upwards. Where they tore through every MO and floor board during their upwards in this Tubular City. And after throwing his blades, he immediately sent out multiple blasts of TK at the robots gathered on the ground, not caring about the damage he caused to the machinery in this area of the factory. The rest of the robots he simply dealt with as he called back his blades and either sliced the helpless machines apart one by one or destroyed the rest with TK based attacks.
In all, it only took Lucian several moments to destroy every robot in the room, which afterwards. He didn't say a single word as he looked down at the lifeless body of Moe and then around the destroyed room. Where a terrifying triumphant grin formed across Lucians face.
Fionna walked through the forest of OOO kicking away any rocks and any other such objects that she happened to cross paths with. All the while as she grumbled to herself about how much she hated everything that happened to her since Phoebe came back into Finns life. She continued at this until she came to an area where she started hearing weak cries for help. Snapping out of her trance, she decided to follow the pleas for help, which lead her to a flickering weak Fire Elemental slumped up against a tree.
"He-help me," he pleaded weakly, looking like he was about to become extinguished at any moment.
Bending down, she quickly asked how she could help him. At that point though, he had become too weak to answer and instead closed his eyes as his head slumped downwards. Fionna at first thought he was dead until she looked to see a steady but small rise and fall of his chest. Telling her that he was still alive, but not for long if something wasn't done fast.
Thinking quickly, she looked around for anything that could save this Fire Elementals life, but nothing looked to be useful. She dared not even try and take him to somewhere where he could get help out of the fear that it could end up killing him in the process. Her first attempt at trying to save him was by gathering anything flammable and putting them to his body, hoping that it would ignite and that he could absorb the newly created flames. Unfortunately his flames were too weak at that point to set anything on fire.
She then thought of a way to improvise on her plan by using the old camp fire technique to starting a fire. Using a quickly gathered pile of sticks and leafs she created from breaking some branches off the tree above them, Fionna then used two of the sticks to set the pile aflame. Where she quickly put the fading Fire Elemental into and watched as his body absorbed all the flames in seconds.
After it was done, she put her hand onto his chest to feel that his breathing had returned to a normal healthy pace. Letting out a sigh of relief, she slumped down onto the ground and began staring up into the sky. Fionna wasn't staring at anything in particular, just trying to find some sort of distraction to get her mind off of her dark unpleasant thoughts. Unfortunately for her, there was nothing in the sky to distract her whatsoever, causing her to turn back to the Fire Elemental and once again hoping to find a temporary distraction in him.
That wasn't going to happen though as he still laid unconscious and didn't look to be waking up anytime soon. Seeing nothing else and not willing to return to where her father and everyone else was just yet, she closed her eyes and began to fall asleep. Hoping to find some peace in the dream world.
Yet as she lay dreaming, she was besieged by nothing more than the stuff of nightmares for her. Finn being stolen from her by Phoebe, all the pain that she felt from it afterwards. The dark thoughts she had about getting revenge and so much more. She kept repeating this horrible process until she felt herself getting shaken awake by someone.
"Nhnn…what," she croaked out groggily from getting suddenly woken up. Her first image upon waking up was the face of the Fire Elemental she saved being right above her.
"Finally you're awake," he said happily.
It only took Fionna a few seconds to process that she was being held by the Fire Elemental from when he was shaking her, which led to the comedic route of her smacking him away.
"Ouch," he let out in pain at getting smacked across the face all of a sudden. "What did you do that for?" he asked as he rubbed his right cheek.
"If anyone should be asking the questions around here, it should be me. Like what were you doing forcibly waking me up like that?"
"I was just waking you up because you were having a really bad dream. You were even crying in your sleep because it was so bad."
Putting her hands up to her face, she found that she had indeed been crying as she soon felt tried up tears there. Quickly she wiped them away, not wanting such stains to be on her face.
"Thanks," she said.
"And thank you for helping me," he said in return. "I own you so much for saving my life. Is there any other way I can thank you besides saving you from a bad dream," he chuckled at the last bit, which Fionna laughed at a bit as well.
"Sure, you can start by telling me who you are."
"Of course. I am the Phoebus, older brother to Phoebe. The current ruler of the Fire Kingdom."
"Wait a minute," Fionna said, catching that last part mentioned. "Current ruler of the Fire Kingdom you said. As in the female Fire Elemental known as Flame Princess."
"Yes her, but most people don't call her that anymore since she became ruler of the kingdom."
"I think I've heard enough," interrupted Fionna as she began to walk away. Not wanting to deal with a family member of the one she had come to despise and the drama that would come from being associated with him.
"Hold on a second," he shouted as he came running up to her.
Seeing that he was following her, Fionna started running away from him.
"Why are you leaving me alone out here all of a sudden?" he yelled as he chased after her, causing Fionna to increase her speed in an attempt to get away. "Slow down," he continued as he increased his own running speed as well.
"Just leave me alone," Fionna responded.
"I don't understand what I did to anger you?"
"It's none of your business," she shouted as she went max speed and left him trailing behind her. At first she thought she got away from him, until a wisp of fire came surging in behind her that instantly transformed back into Phoebus upon catching up to her as he tackled her to the ground. Sending them both rolling for a few seconds thanks to the sudden stop and rolling right into a tree.
"Uhhhh," they both groaned out from the rough stop. Once Fionna recovered, she glared at the Fire Elemental for tackling her like that, which he returned full force for her trying to suddenly ditch him like that.
"I am going to ask again. What did I do to make you run away from me all of a sudden?"
"Nothing, I just don't want to deal with you Flame Prince," she said addressing him by title rather than name.
"Why?" he asked bewildered.
"Why not ask your sister when you see her," she responded in anger.
"Well I would if I could," he shot back getting up.
"Well why can't you," she too getting up.
"Because I don't where I am and I don't know where she is."
"Well if I take you to her will leave me alone."
"Deal," he agreed. "Take me to her and I won't bother with you anymore."
"Fine by me," she said as she put out her hand for him to take. Which he did as they soon teleported back to the Candy Kingdom.
Sorry for the long update and its short length. Just been busy in life and worrying about certain things while dealing with other things. So I made this chapter saying that its better than nothing even though it was short and much didn't really happen this chapter. I'll try and pick things back up in the future, but I don't know when that will be. I'm really not in the greatest of positions in life right now. Sorry everyone.
Amilovewhittheco: Indeed.
Attackme: It sure was, I wish I updated sooner.
gamelover41592: Great to hear.
Ventus Uzumaki: Nice, glad to hear that. Nope, final battle is far away.
dfinkel70: Same, it is sad the things that happened to him, but it doesn't excuse the things he has done.
trystrike: Yeah, but it's too soon for his death. It will happen for sure, I promise you. She sure does and she isn't helping herself by continuing to keep secrets. Yes we do, quite a few. Great to hear from you again. Hope to hear from you more.
felipe666: Very true, but it's a long way before we get to the last stand.
Fiery Crusader: Oh no man, you're not looking too far into it. How else can you explain Phoebe hearing Finn talk like he did in his dream which CO controlled? It has to be him behind this, doubt we will ever find out why she heard him talk like that though. Don't worry man, I love long reviews. You can write as big a review as you want. And yeah, the war continues with everything you just said.
OMAC001: Sorry, but it did take long. Glad to hear you love my story. Hope you enjoyed this chapter as well.
Legionary Prime: Thanks, yeah. He totally deserved it, but I still have use for him for now. Plot armor saves the day for that bastard. At least Finn and Phoebe had a good time.
Rolirit: Nice you liked that combo. Well, yeah the motivation loss is not good. I hope it comes back soon, but a lot is keeping it down sadly. Thanks for th support and understanding.
Well I hope you still enjoyed this chapter despite it short length. Like always, please review and tell me what you thought. Reviews help tremendously.