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Webber's POV
Please, just bring us to where we want to be, we silently begged as we closed our burning eyes, hoping to fall asleep without being plagued by nightmares. The day before, the Guardian had told us everything; from the proud civilization he protected his own fall to the darkness. He had then claimed that the Ancients were nothing but legends, even though we had been there before. Please... take us to the Ancients!
No matter what, though, we still kept hearing the noises of the nighttime around us, and the faint chill kept biting at our skin. Don't make this worse than it already is...
"Beast!"
"Villain!"
"Monster!"
Still, sleep did not come. Eventually, however, something round and hard hit us painfully in the back. Eyes open in an instant, we jumped back and stared at the stone, then at where it came from. Everything was pitch black and blurry, and we couldn't make out anything. Then, another object, sharper than the last, hit us in the cheek.
"Hey! What was that for?" I snarled.
"Throw it in the pit!"
"Cook it alive!"
"Stone it to death!"
"Feed it to our Guardian!"
Guardian? Blinking, everything slowly came into focus. We were surrounded on all sides by enraged and... terrified...? people. Several of them were armed with stones. Another one hit us in the foot, and we flipped around to confront them, but they backed away several paces. What do they think we did?
Then it hit us.
This must be a memory. We felt sadness well up inside us. The day I tried to come back to my family. The day I nearly died. The day I became we. The day that the next time we opened our eyes, we had Wilson and WX waking up next to me.
WX... The very name brought us more pain than the stones that were being thrown at us.
Wait... did they say, 'Guardian'?
Waiting warily for the next stone, we saw the crowd part to reveal two golden creatures. Okay, Ancients. Just what we wanted, but not what we expected. We saw them before, but this time, we were not struck by awe, but fear and anger. We leaped forward to confront them. "What did we do?" I demanded.
Several people in the crowd stepped back to make room for the creatures, and they stared at us for many moments. The first one pointed a shaky finger at me. "That thing," he rasped. "Is an enemy. Kill it."
The second one, however, put his hand on the first one's and slowly brought it down. "Wait," he told him. "That is for our Guardian to decide."
"What did we do?" I repeated.
They slowly turned to look at us, then at each other. Simultaneously, they let out a strange trill-sounding noise, almost like a bird call, then stepped back. Everyone was silent.
Then, a loud thump was heard.
Then another.
I cringed, shrinking back away from the noise, then the crowd parted again. The Ancient Guardian... I thought darkly, staring at the beast. He looked like he did when it was talking to us. Smaller and tan, an almost friendly gleam in his eyes. Then his gaze landed on us, and darkened.
Shaking his great head, he nodded off the crowd with a simple motion and stepped closer to us, nudging us gently with his horn. "Spider?" He asked after several moments. "What are you doing here?"
"We should be asking you the same thing," I shot back.
Shaking his head furiously, his gentle gaze slowly turned more menacing. "What did you think you could gain by visiting this place?" he demanded. "If your looking for your sister, don't bother. Why do you think you're here? She's dead, and they think you killed her."
Despite the fact it felt like our heart was being tugged out of our chest, this was old news. "Thanks, we know that already," I snarled.
He growled. "If your looking for your friend, you're out of luck there too."
"Because of you!" I flashed, taking a step towards the rhino. "Do you have any idea how we felt? How it felt to have your best friend die in front of you?"
"Robots cannot die," he murmured quietly.
"Close to it! And then, you not only ask for forgiveness when you have done nothing but make our life worse, but say that we are doomed to rot forever on the Nightmare Throne!"
Suddenly, the Guardian started to look his age, shaking his head again, but slower this time. "It was not I who spoke of the captor of the Throne. Every captor, from the first to Maxwell, their fate was written since the beginning of time." His eyes flashed with grief at the mention of Maxwell. "Do you know I was the creature that Maxwell summoned? We were almost like," he seemed to choke on his own words. "friends. But, because of what the Ancients foretold, I had to betray him, and drag him into the dreadful place. You must feel lucky at least you were brought with your friends."
"What about Nick? We understand Wilson and-" I broke off. "him... since we pretty much had to rely on them for survival. But what about Nick? What did your precious Ancients foretell about him?"
"You don't know?" He seemed surprised.
"Do we look like we do?"
"Nick is something... very special. A machine of war originally, but reformed by his own goodness at heart. He is something called, 'The Power Keeper'."
"What's the Power Keeper?"
"Several Power Keepers have been alive, but the space in between them is so spacious, it is almost impossible to find one. You are lucky to not only know one, but be friends with him."
We snorted impatiently. "What is it?"
"That question, I cannot answer, for not even I can truly comprehend the true form of the Power Keeper. That blade he has it a part of the chain. His eyes are the window to his soul."
"The Soulless Automaton," I whispered, finally realizing just what the title meant.
"Indeed. But tell me, if you didn't come here for your sister or your friend, and I highly doubt you came here to learn about something you are not, then why are you here?"
"Isn't it obvious? We want to know what we're supposed to do."
"Demanding much? Come now, if I told you everything, what else would there be? The human mind craves for knowledge, but having it all gives it nothing to work for. I can't make you stupid, now can I?"
Finally letting our anger to get the best of us, we grabbed the closest rock and slashed it across his cheek. He didn't fight back, but instead, stared forlornly at the drizzle of blood that trickled from the scratch. "I suppose I deserve that," he murmured. "But that isn't changing my answer. Get it yourself. I can't help you, even if I wanted to." He sighed. "That's my curse. To have all this knowledge, but unable to share it with anyone." He closed his eyes for many moments before lifting his horn slightly and letting out a bird like noise, bringing the two golden creatures hurrying back to bow before its feet.
"Yes, my Guardian?" They asked simultaneously.
"Tell the village," he rasped. "That he is innocent and should be honored as a hero. He has gone against everything he had to try and save the two children."
Their eyes flashing, the bowed even lower. "As you wish."
"And before you go, I must give name to this creature." He slowly turned to look at us. "From this day forward, you will be known as Webber, The Indigestible."
