Chapter 23: Finding the truth
The Mayan pyramid…
Harpuia and Leviathan walked down the hall of statues, looking at the statues around them. They had to admit it wasn't as creepy when they were together.
"You think that they are telling the truth?" Leviathan asked, holding her harpoon at ready near her.
"I don't know but if they are…" Harpuia said, he also had his blades up.
"I don't think it's safe without Zero, I mean there's two of us and who knows maybe all of them are waiting for us there. Isn't it obvious that even if they spoke the truth than it's a trap?" Leviathan asked.
Harpuia didn't respond, he looked down at the two staircases and pointed at the right one.
Leviathan understood and started to descend in the right staircase and Harpuia on the left.
When they reached Camazotz's chamber they weren't surprised to see the four executioners grinning at them. And behind them, tied to a metal pole was the unconscious…
"Fefnir!" Harpuia yelled, "What have you done to him?" He asked furiously, activating his sabers.
Whirlpool and Daemon raised their eyebrows, Vulture and Bullion however stood still, and Vulture was flexing his skeletal arm.
"You might as well ask us to kill you." Daemon said and Whirlpool giggled, Bullion smiled but Vulture didn't even change his expression.
Harpuia didn't power down his sabers but he kept them up at ready.
Leviathan stood next to him and readied her harpoon, trying to catch his eye so that he could tell her what to do.
"As you wish, we were not going to attack you. But if you plan on attacking us I'm afraid that little Fefnir here is going to pay the price." Bullion said and Whirlpool raised her harpoon to Fefnir's throat.
"If you'll hurt him I will kill you!" Harpuia yelled, yet again Daemon and Whirlpool raised eyebrows and Vulture had the aura of a smirk about him but Bullion did an odd thing, he frowned.
"Harpuia, you haven't heard what we want yet. Be sensible, you don't know what we might say but you rashly make idle threats."
Harpuia stood with his sabers still at ready but didn't respond.
"What do you want?" He asked through gritted teeth.
"Now you're being more reasonable…" Bullion said, looking over at Whirlpool and Daemon who were whispering to each other, they fell silent immediately.
"I am going to give you an offer, you give us Zero and we'll give you Fefnir." Bullion said simply.
"What are you going to do to Zero if we give him to you?" Harpuia asked.
"We're going to deactivate him completely and take his systems apart. Then we'll take his frenzy chip once we make sure that the bomb mechanism is neutralized and we'll throw his body where it belongs. The scrap yard." Bullion said, not even a hint of amusement in his voice.
"No deal." Harpuia said, "If we give you Zero and you replicate the frenzy chip technology you will destroy us anyway." Harpuia said and Bullion smiled.
"You live up to your name Sage Harpuia. Yes, that is exactly what we will do. But… I think you'd find that we have more surprises up our sleeves. Vulture." He said and Vulture nodded, entered a dark area and returned with an unconscious…
"Leviathan? Who do you think you're kidding? She's right here with me." Harpuia said.
"No, the one with you is a fake one we planted at the battlefield when we first fought in Twilight Desert. We downloaded the real Leviathan's memory into her databank, we did such a good job she even thought she loved Zero. Of course she was completely clueless about who she really was." Bullion explained.
"As far as I'm concerned that's another doppelganger." Harpuia said dryly, looking at the Leviathan Vulture was holding.
"Oh we can prove that she's not a doppelganger." Bullion said and nodded at Vulture, Vulture held up her chin and opened one of her eyelids to reveal a blue eye.
"It can't be…" Harpuia said in disbelief.
"Are you willing to take the chance that this isn't the real Leviathan?" Bullion asked and motioned at Vulture with his hand. Vulture grabbed the Leviathan he was holding by the throat and pinned her against the wall, activating one side of his saber and holding it about an inch from that Leviathan's stomach.
"You're bluffing." Said Harpuia, he didn't want to risk it… He couldn't.
"Fine then, I guess that we'll just kill this Leviathan then." Bullion said and Vulture pulled back his arm, ready to pierce Leviathan's abdomen with his beam saber.
"No!" Harpuia yelled and Whirlpool and Daemon smiled, Vulture cackled maliciously and Bullion crossed his arms on his chest.
Harpuia looked at the Leviathan next to him and mouthed the weird combination of words 'One Fefnir, two leviathans, and me.' she looked at him and nodded back, she started pressing buttons on her comm.
"Calling for help won't matter." Daemon said, "It's not like there is anyone in Neo-Arcadia who can take on all four of us together."
"Well, what do you choose?" Bullion interrupted, "Do you choose to spare both Leviathans and thus ensuring that the real one lives and also getting Fefnir back or will you let one of the Leviathans die and live with a terrible guilty feeling since you'll never know if you killed the real one and you'll also lose Fefnir." Bullion said in a single breath.
"What will it matter? You'll still kill us." He said and Bullion replied,
"We promise that if you turn in Zero we won't raise a finger on you guardians."
"How do I know that this Fefnir is not just another copy?" Harpuia asked, feeling it can't possibly get any worse.
"Aw he's so cute when he's confused!" Whirlpool said and smiled an evil sweet smile.
Vulture laughed at that and Daemon chuckled; only Bullion remained silent.
"What is your decision?" He asked.
"Well, my decision is this: Operator, now." Harpuia said and disappeared in a flash along with the two Leviathans and Fefnir.
"What?" Vulture said as the Leviathan he was holding disappeared.
"They're smarter than I thought, I underestimated them…" Bullion said, he didn't seem mad but concerned.
"Bullion, what will the master say?" Whirlpool said, looking apprehensively at where Harpuia was.
"Don't worry, I'll take full responsibility for this." Bullion said, "Let's go…" The four transferred away.
At Neo-Arcadia's core…The four were in Harpuia's office; a large rectangular room with a desk at the far end of it, next to it was a file cabinet. A large space with sofas was near the door for any type of appointments with various governmental agents.
"I don't believe we made it…" Harpuia sighed a sigh of relief; he looked over at the now conscious two Leviathans and Fefnir.
"How will we know who is the real one?" Fefnir asked, looking at the two.
"We can take a sample of their reploid DNA, the real Leviathan should have X's DNA inside of her." Harpuia explained, "Hubershnicdt, take them to the infirmary." He ordered and Hub rushed to comply.
"So… What happened while I was away?" Fefnir asked.
"We thought you were dead, seeing as a copy of yours was on a transport as the aerial fleet exploded." Fefnir coughed and hit his head a couple of times as if to make sure he heard correctly, "What?" He asked.
"That's right, the entire aerial fleet was destroyed. All we have now is the few reploids who are capable of flying. And that's not much." Harpuia looked over at him.
"And Zero? Where is he?" Fefnir asked.
"In the infirmary, the executioners hit him badly last time they fought." Harpuia said.
"Go there and ask the real Leviathan, she'll tell you everything we found out so far."
Fefnir looked at Harpuia for a second and asked, "You told me you threatened the executioners at first, why?" Fefnir asked, that didn't sound like Harpuia. Harpuia always listened first.
"I acted, I made them underestimate me and that's why we were able to escape. They didn't think I was smart enough to pull something like this. Now go and talk to Leviathan." Harpuia said and motioned Fefnir to leave with his hand.
He stood in his office and gazed out of his large window at the sky, knowing that the executioners' revenge will be terrible.
At the executioners' stronghold…"I take full responsibility my master, I underestimated them." Bullion said, wincing as the master stood up from the metal throne he was sitting on.
The master stepped down, he wore a silvery-white cloak with golden trimmings and a hood so no part of him was visible except for two yellow orbs in the darkness of the hood.
"So you say they have both Leviathan and the copy, as well as Fefnir…" The master repeated agonizingly slowly.
"Yes master…" Bullion lowered his head in shame.
"Do not worry Bullion. I had planned for that occasion, remember what I asked you to do yesterday?" The master asked, his deep voice echoing from the walls.
"Yes," Bullion replied, wondering how that had to do with anything. Yesterday the master gave him Vulture and Whirlpool pages and asked them to read from them. As odd as that sounded, they didn't complain and did as he asked.
"It's time for a more direct approach. Bullion and Daemon go to Neo-Arcadia and burn it. I want to smell the city burn, kill every human or reploid who is standing in your way. Including the guardians, destroy as many things as you can in an hour and then return here. Whirlpool, I want you to destroy the aquatic base the Neo-Arcadians use for water control and purification for drinking. Vulture, you stay here. Your present is ready." The master said and went up to his throne again.
"Go." He said and instantly three of the executioners disappeared in a white flash.
"Come Vulture, I hope you will enjoy this gift I bestow upon you. As you know, Bullion was first in line for such a thing but I felt you deserved it, seeing that you lost your arm." The master said and led Vulture to another room.
"Enter the capsule Vulture." The master gestured at one of eight capsules, which was connected to another capsule that inside of it was floating another Vulture with a full arm.
"Thank you master." Vulture said and stepped into the capsule.
At the Neo-Arcadian infirmary…Zero sat up, he woke up suddenly as if out of a bad dream.
"Oh sweetie, you got up already? The doctor said it was going to take at least a couple of days more… I guess you really have more inside of you than we thought." Belle talked but Zero barely listened, there was a mosquito in front of him that seriously disturbed him.
Belle noticed the mosquito and said, "Oh I'll take care of that dear." She smacked the mosquito but as soon as he landed on Zero's feet he took off again.
"Stubborn are we?" She asked and took out a bug spray from a nearby closet.
"This ought to take care of little o' him." She said and sprayed the mosquito.
The mosquito crashed on Zero's ankle but flew up again.
"What's this now?" Belle asked, looking at the mosquito.
She smashed him between her spread palms but the mosquito kept flying.
"What is this, some kind of mutant?" She asked angrily.
She took out a match and lit it, "Now you're going to die." She said angrily and torched the mosquito. The mosquito refused to die and started flying around the room and almost burned Belle's hair.
"Why I never!" She exclaimed and quickly opened a window; she fanned the mosquito away and quickly threw a handkerchief at him so he fell down with it.
"Now that was one persistent bug!" She said, looking back at Zero, she suddenly wrinkled her nose.
"I smell something burnt…" She said and impossibly enough the mosquito was buzzing near Zero again.
"I'm seeing it and I still can't believe it." Zero said, following the bug with his eyes.
Belle seemed very alarmed; she ran to the back of the room and brought a mosquito disposer (a small bug-like mechaniloid who eats mosquitoes).
"Now why didn't I think of this earlier?" She asked, following the mechaniloid as he gave chase to the mosquito.
Zero simply hit the mechaniloid with his hand, "Leave it alone, you hurt it enough already." He said, and the mosquito sat on his shoulder.
"If you say so." Belle said and caught the mechaniloid in her hand.
She walked away to the far side of the room and talked to another patient there.
Zero looked around when suddenly he heard an eerie whisper of the voice of Bullion.
"Why are you resisting?" The whisper asked, Zero looked around him, knowing that Bullion cannot be here undetected.
Then he heard Vulture's voice, "It is useless to fight back…" And then Whirlpool's "Join us, you'll prove valuable…" And then their voices said intermittently "Join us Zero…" "Join us…" " Come on Zero join us…" "Humans are pathetic Zero, they don't care about you, join us…" "Humans don't care if you live or die as long as they can sleep all day and do nothing, join us Zero…" "They think that a good reploid is a dead reploid, join our cause Zero…"
"Stop it!" Zero said, clapping his hands to his ears. "I will not listen!" He said, but the voices persisted.
"Join us Zero…" "Join us…" "You know we're right Zero…"
"NO!" Zero screamed and alerted the entire infirmary.
"What is it Zero?" Belle asked, but Zero couldn't hear her. He was going mad… No he couldn't be… Not now, please… he has to protect the humans.
"Leave me alone! Get out of my head, please…" He said, holding his head and shaking it feverishly like he could just knock the voices out of it.
Belle turned around and yelled something that Zero couldn't hear, he didn't care he only wanted to get the executioners out of his head.
"No! I won't, I will never!" Zero yelled again as the voices continued.
"Kill them Zero… You know you have to... They don't care about you, they don't care about anyone but themselves…" The other patients looked at him, a few moments afterwards Fefnir and two Leviathans entered the room.
Two Leviathans… Now he knew he lost his sanity.
"NO!" He let out a long scream and knocked them all aside, "Leave me alone!" He yelled and started running down the corridor, he reached a staircase and descended to ground level on foot, his hands clapped on his ears still.
He burst through the front door, knocking over a bunch of soldiers.
He ran and ran without stopping, he had to flee… He was dangerous… unstable… Who knew what this would do to him, if he went mad than anyone around him would be endangered. No, he couldn't let it happen he will have to get away.
"Why are you running Zero?" The voices asked chorally, "You can't run from your destiny Zero… You must join us…"
"No! Never. I will never harm humans… NEVER!" He yelled as he sprinted through the streets of Neo-Arcadia, knocking over civilians in his mad run for freedom.
He knew what he had to do… He had to go, to get as far away from Neo-Arcadia as he could, he couldn't risk staying with them if he was going mad.
"Goodbye guardians…" He said miserably, as he ran through the front gate to Neo-Arcadia, running into the devastated city. Guards at the gate him yelled at him but he was long gone before they could do anything to stop him.
He had to get away, to protect the others… from himself.
To be continued…