Jupiter felt her heart still.
The chime that indicated that the Lift was reaching their destination rung, a classical piece of music that Seraphi had enjoyed. Picking up wrappers and empty bottles to erase evidence of their presence, both she and Grey cleaned up. Slowly, as she stood up, Grey reached out with their hand, the bag of snacks and drinks on their opposite shoulder. Balancing expertly on the crutch, Jupiter accepted Grey's cool, dry hand. Their hand was enormous, but Grey cradled her fingertips carefully and not awkwardly. They waited, and Jupiter wondered what Balem had changed on the Planetary Core. The system was meant to act as a memory storage facility on any given Harvesting Planet. It also acted as an automated, central hub for all activities and duties of the Planet, and would automatically update anything in the Keepers Halls across the globe.
"Will there be a memory of us on the Planetary Lift?" Asked Grey, eyes on the doors.
Jupiter shook her head.
"No. The master audio override was made so Seraphi could move discreetly through any of her assets, and as an ultimate failsafe."
"That… That is dangerously advantageous."
Jupiter didn't like many aspects of Seraphi Abrasax. But she could not deny her previous self had been excellent at the things she had done. Both wondrous and horrific, Seraphi had never done anything without all of herself poured into it. The only thing she had ever completely failed at was to dismantle the Regen-X system.
"It can't just be said. It has to be me… She programmed her signature vocal patterns into it. Even a recording would fail to use the override. She was nothing if not methodical."
Grey squeezed her hand, gently. The doors of the Planetary Lift opened, and Jupiter Jones saw the core of the Earth for the first time with her own eyes. It was a fantastical sight.
Straight out of the earliest dreams of her life, the last that Seraphi had lived.
The upper force field of the Planetary Core was good, solid technology. The molten rock of the Earth's outer core pressed against it, a deadly, beautiful display that bathed everything of the facility in a volcanic, red hot glow. Swirls of currents of the outermost part of the planet's core flowed like liquid, white, red, and orange ebbing and flowing like an ocean. The floor was much the same, clear super protected material that Jupiter could not remember the name for, and force field in combination from the inner core of the planet itself. Molten iron, she thought, with other miscellaneous elements. The facility itself was relatively simple, not as complex as the Moon or Jupiter Refinery. It was just a massive, sprawling computer system that was sprawled across the inner core in a circular Dome like structure that was probably just the circumference of the planet's inner core, which in human terms to Jupiter's mind was roughly seven hundred or so miles squared.
And as Jupiter looked at it, she realized that Balem had once again done his damnedest to strip away what Seraphi had been attempting.
"No," she whispered, horrified. The machine that Seraphi had designed herself, the Mind of the Planet had been ripped apart.
The highest end of technology of the century of Seraphi's death had been destroyed. The central components- the most basic of hardware that the Harvesting Planet would require to function were functioning, but barely. She felt tears in her eyes, and let them fall.
"This was Lord Balem's first phase of reversing the Great Experiment," said Grey, calmly. No sadness in their high voice, but it was gently said.
Jupiter shuddered.
"So he ripped it all out. Part of the system she tried so hard- Her greatest work. And he threw it away!" she shrieked, the anger at the Balem was incredible.
She had felt indifference at him from the little bit she knew of him. He was not really anything to her, even with the memories of Seraphi in her head. Maybe fear of what he would do when he realized she existed. Maybe pity for the less than stellar parenting that Seraphi had been capable of.
But this. This went beyond what she thought him capable of against Seraphi, even after he had killed her.
"I love you, Mother," whispered Balem, brokenly, the memory was like shot through her mind, Seraphi looked up to see her little Prince's young, devastated face at her. She could not even manage a gurgle in response. Black edged at her vision. "I love you, Mother. I love you."
You don't love anything, Balem, was her own furious thought, as she pushed away from the memory. You spat in the face of your Mother. Jupiter sobbed again, dropping to her knees. Grey dropped with her, still holding her hand.
"He could not remove the most important part," they told her, softly.
Jupiter nodded, still crying.
"No. That was the beauty of the planet itself, naturally apart of the planet itself. He would have had to terraform the Earth completely for him to remove it- But the Mind was necessary to monitor the progress of it. I have no idea if it has worked at all now. Not without- Not without testing it with a living subject. I'll do it myself."
Grey gave an angry trill.
"Animals. Test it on animals- Test it on me-"
"YOU ARE NOT AN ANIMAL!"
Grey bared their sharp teeth.
"You will not be using it on yourself. You are too young."
Jupiter shook her head.
"You won't die as my experiment. That's Seraphi's way. Not mine."
"An animal. Some old thing. Just not yourself, Jupiter Jones."
Jupiter frowned.
"I am not sure if that is any better… Maybe some plant life? Or we could try experiments on the microscopic level. I can't bear the thought of anything highly sentient being used."
"Cell samples from Humans and Keepers alike, then," conceded Grey, frowning at her.
Jupiter shook her head, carefully wiping away tears.
"That'll come later anyway. I need to check on what else Balem did to the Earth after Seraphi died. There's no telling what measure he put in to seal away the Heart. We have a lot of work to do before I inherit the Earth and the other holdings that Seraphi left me."
Grey gave a mournful trill.
"It was not a pretty thing, the aftermath of Seraphi's death. If the destruction of the Mind has hurt you, Jupiter Jones, then the other measures that Lord Balem implemented will hurt more."
Jupiter looked into Grey's large, dark eyes. They held hundreds of years of pain, she knew. The fact that the Keeper was old enough to remember Seraphi, told her that they had witnessed all of the repercussions, all of the horror that Jupiter was just beginning to really understand that Balem had done to the Earth. All from the teachings of the person, she had been. Seraphi has put even more stains on my soul than I realized. Jupiter sighed.
"First things first. I promised you freedom, Grey. Let's make L-0182 disappear."