Year: 771

A little more than 3 years after the Cell Game

Learn...

- Don't you think these rocks are strange?

17's question had just broken the silence inside the submersible. Ruri looked up from her screen to inspect the walls of the tunnel they had entered.

- These are not rocks but lava. Molten rock if you prefer.

- But we are under the sea!

- The ocean. And there are volcanoes under the water. When the lava escapes it immediately cools down to form these black balls. I sincerely believe that an eruption took place here and that it buried with it animals which in fact found themselves trapped in the cave.

- Do you think there is only one dragon or several?

- No idea. The whole success of this dive is based on the assumption that it is only one animal. Otherwise ...

- It may sound pretentious, but actually the success of this dive depends on the fact that you are accompanied by the most powerful cyborg living on this planet.

- And Dr. Gero's greatest living creation, right?

- I am not the creation of this old idiot. But yes. That's right, said 17 with a laugh.

The young woman smiled at him, then returned to her screen. No signal appeared on it, which meaned that her onboard radar was not registering any presence of a living being around.

- No need to focus on the radar, you know you won't see it there.

Ruri looked up to see that 17 had spoken without looking away from the road he was following. He gave off such a feeling of strength and confidence that for a brief moment she was not afraid at all. But this feeling did not last very long, and soon the anxiety returned.

- That's the problem. You were talking about the Krakens, well that's worse. They could detect us, probably thanks to the weird organ I saw behind their shells. It is certainly a sonar. Other animals have it, it is not very surprising. But I don't know of any that are able to make themselves undetectable at the same time. It's very different.

- But it doesn't matter because I'm here, and the point is for the dragon to attack us. That's the plan.

- I know the extent of your strength. But don't underestimate the danger. I know you want to face the dragon, but this is not a game.

- What makes you think I want to face him?

- Your smirk. It's the one you get when you want to... NEVERMIND ! I know that smile.

17 turned to Ruri with an amused look. She was red with embarrassment, as she was every time the subject of « making love » came up between them. He didn't understand why she was so nervous. After all, they both wanted to do it and were having a lot of pleasure together. However, Ruri was still embarrassed to talk about it. She had never yet let him turn on the light during sex, and always closed her eyes not to see him naked. Whereas him, on the contrary, liked more than all to contemplate the beauty of her body quivering under his and of which he guessed only the contours in the half-light of her room.

This shyness intrigued him more than it bothered him. It even made her more irresistible to him.

He didn't answer anything, simply saying to himself that humans were very complicated creatures. On the other hand, he could not deny that Ruri was right: he was not at all afraid of the dragon, quite the contrary. The prospect of meeting an animal that seemed so dangerous was for him the source of a very particular desire that he had a hard time explaining to the young woman.

Fighting.

Because despite everything 17 had become a fighter, for whom nothing had ever been equal to the thrill that could come from a confrontation with a worthy opponent.

Of course he had no intention of hurting the sea monster, but with by chance it would be able to be a challenge to him, and it had been ages since it had happened. So he was in a state of mind very different from Ruri's when he left the submersible once they had arrived almost at the end of the tunnel. After having made sure that they could both communicate via their transmission devices and that he had with him all the necessary material to film the animal and collect samples, he dived into the icy waters of the abyss and positioned himself at the front of the vehicle.

Activating his barrier, he deployed only part of it to form a shield while allowing himself to swim. He then moved forward at the pace of the submersible to cover the last remaining meters. Once he reached the edge of what seemed to be the entrance of a cave, some debris with a silver sheen caught his attention. By observing them more closely he easily recognized the fragments of a beacon, the last one, the one they had not succeeded in finding. They were in the right place, it was now certain, and the monster's lair was facing them.

- It's here, just let me know when you're ready, he indicated to Ruri.

17 then waited patiently for her response.

He now knew the nature and extent of the terror that was torturing the young woman. But he hesitated about what to do.

Should he be joking or serious? What was the right choice, the right attitude?

Throughout his life he had never had to worry about the feelings of another being, not even his own. Buried deep within him, his emotions had dissipated over the months of captivity and torture inflicted by Gero. 18 was powerful, almost as powerful as he was, and before their encounter with Cell neither of them had faced fear. Or at least not after the loss of their memories.

That was probably why he had had a hard time putting into words this strange feeling, this weight that kept pulling him back that he had experienced since his resurrection, and that he also had no idea what to do to help Ruri overcome it.

Long seconds passed in the heavy silence of the ocean depths, before he finally spoke the only words that came to his mind.

- My barrier will resist.

Alone in her cockpit, Ruri laughed softly.

This reaction was decidedly typical of him: a short, precise answer, absolutely devoid of any apparent benevolence, and cruelly rational. And yet she knew with equal certainty that 17 was really trying to reassure her. He was just unable to express it in the way she would have liked him to.

"What am I going to do with you 17..."

But he was right : he was there to protect her, and his strength was nothing like what any earthly creature could possess. No human machine could be more effective than his barrier in protecting herself from the monster's attacks. Iris' warning came back to her: despite his power, he would need her and her advice. She had to regain her self-confidence and control her anxiety to be able to support him. After all, they were a team, and he had to be able to rely on her as much as she relied on him.

She then took a final breath, and indicated that she was ready to continue.

They needed only a few seconds to enter the underwater cave. Immediately, Ruri turned around to stand against the rock wall, and in a perfectly synchronized movement, 17 positioned himself in front of her. This maneuver was not insignificant: 17 could not deploy his entire barrier if he wanted to swim. He could only protect the front of the submersible. Positioning herself as Ruri had just done prevented any attack from the rear and left the rest of the vehicle safe behind the protective façade of his shield.

The previous dive had had the merit of familiarizing 17 with the ecosystem of the great depths. He was therefore not surprised by the absence of light which limited his vision. This was no ordinary darkness such as there was on the surface, and which eventually faded after a few minutes. Here, it was an absolute blackness. Total. And in which it was almost impossible to distinguish anything.

However, the great difference in temperature between the cave and the tunnel surprised him. Here the water was much warmer, almost equal to that of the surface.

Suddenly, he felt a shudder.

A slight wave, an almost imperceptible movement of the surrounding water that only his enhanced cyborg senses could pick up.

Something very large was moving and closing in on them, the attack was imminent.

"You're just as fast as I thought," he said to himself before activating his microphone.

- Ruri, it is here.

- Yes... I know, she replied, tremors clearly audible in her voice.

- I'll take care of everything. You, go int the tunnel as soon as possible.

- Okay.

17 knew what he had to do. With a gesture, he launched Ruri's mobile lights, which illuminated the area around the submersible.

The young woman couldn't really see what happened next, because everything happened so much faster than she could have imagined. A howl erupted from the depths of the cave, reverberating off the rocky walls, so much so that she could not place its origin. The sound was powerful and seemed to come from everywhere at once.

Instinctively she closed her eyes, her fists clenched on the steering instruments, holding on to them as if her life depended on them. She felt the whole interior of the submersible vibrate, shaken in all directions by a colossal force that gave several blows in the space of a few seconds.

One.

Two.

Three.

The creature's screams grew in intensity with each attack. Filled with anger, they echoed inside the submersible, louder and louder. The intensity of the roars became so big that she no longer felt like she was inside. She was outside, surrounded by the terrible screams that went through her body, sinking down to her bones that shook as if they could break at any moment.

It seemed to her that the whole ocean was quivering with terror when, at last, the noise ceased.

Ruri could hardly breathe, she had nervous spasms that she had the greatest difficulty in stopping. Her sternum was hurting as if someone was putting all his weight on it.

Only 17's calm voice gave her the courage to open her eyes again when she heard it.

- It stopped.

In front of her, just a few inches from the submersible, was a creature that was unlike anything she had ever seen.

At first she saw only the gigantic skull of what looked like a snake, but with notable differences. Small ears towered over its bony, protruding eyebrows. They seemed to extend over almost a third of its face and protected eyes that seemed ridiculously small for the size of its head. Eyes of an immaculate white.

Its half-open jaws revealed several rows of huge, curved, sharp teeth that made her blood run cold.

The sea dragon, without a doubt.

Suddenly, the monster backed up. It displaced so much water at once that the submersible began to undulate from right to left, forcing Ruri to take control to stabilize its position. It only moved a few meters away, but that was enough for her to see its body, long and streamlined, covered with dark blue scales that the glow of the lamps made unreal. The beauty of this color made her forget for a brief moment the fear that this animal inspired to her.

It was huge.

At least 20 meters long, maybe even more.

- Ruri? Is everything okay?

When she heard 17's voice again, the young woman came back to her senses. He sounded worried, probably because of her silence.

- A little shaken, but I'm okay, she answered.

- Good. Sorry for the waves.

- No, no, it's nothing. I didn't actually see what happened.

- It was right next door and as soon as I turned on the lights it pounced on us. It threw big punches with its right paw, but I blocked him. It backed off after three hits and now it's right there. It doesn't move, it just looks at us.

- It makes sense. He probably didn't expect to encounter something that could counteract him. He just must not know what to do. But it won't last.

- Now I see it. He won't be able to surprise me anymore. What do you think of him?

- What?

- Tell me everything you think you know about him, and then slowly back away to safety.

- But ... I know nothing about this animal. No one has ever been near it, you know as much as I do, you've read my book...

17 then turned to her, an incredibly sweet smile on his face.

- Your eyes see things that no one else sees. And you have opened mine to the beauties of this world. Watch it and tell me. Because are the only person in the world in whom I have absolute confidence in her judgment.

Ruri was speechless, stunned.

In one sentence he had just swept away all her doubts and apprehensions. 17 was not a liar, and above all, she knew that he was incapable of uttering words he did not believe in just to please her. He was too ignorant of human emotions to do something like that. On the contrary, he was completely sincere when he spoke, even if it meant being hurtful at times. But in this case, his frankness had just given Ruri the keys to overcome her fear.

"He trusts me..."

This thought never left her, and Ruri suddenly became silent again.

17 could see by the look on her face that she was finally back : she was focused. Reassured, he was able to face the dragon again, still motionless, and waited, until the submersible slowly began to move, backing up towards the tunnel.

He followed the movement, facing the monster that began to shake frantically.

- Its legs are powerful, with huge claws. And look at its teeth, they are not made for filtering plankton. This is not an animal from the abyss. It has been buried and stuck here. Him, or his ancestors, I don't know. But it is not adapted to the local fauna. It is even incredible that such an animal could have survived in this place. It must only feed on the corpses of animals that wash up here. It must be starving, so whatever you do, it will not let a prey escape, it will attack relentlessly. With his strength he should not expect any resistance, he will face you. Its eyes are white, it has probably become blind from standing there. But it definitely has a radar. If you want to hide from him, put yourself in places with relief, that will make his detection system ineffective. Beware of his tail, I don't know if it's prehensile. I mean, if it can catch you.

- Anything else? asked 17, happy to see "his" Ruri again, this human whose ability to speak was as infinite as his energy.

- Don't you think its throat has suddenly become luminous?

It was then that 17 noticed a glow coming from the animal's neck. He saw it bend slightly, as if it was about to ...

- Move back ! he immediately shouted to Ruri, at the exact moment when a huge white ball shot out in their direction.

The projectile hit the shield and shattered, ejecting flashes of light that went in all directions, some of which managed to graze the submersible. In the water, 17 received several of them, which, although deflected, had managed to find their way behind his barrier. A shudder ran through his body, a shock that he knew perfectly well because he had experienced it himself many times.

Electricity.

Every fiber of his body immediately recalled the memory of the hours spent on Gero's operating table and the endless electroshock sessions he had undergone to remove his memory or finalize the implementation of his electronic components.

His thoughts immediately turned to Ruri, however.

- Is everything all right? he asked, as he saw the dragon retreat again.

- WOW ! Did you see what it did?

- Yes I did.

- It is able to project electricity! Other animals know how to generate it like eels, but a projection like this one, it's incredible! It's awesome! It's SO COOL!

Ruri seemed to be back to her old self, excited as on the first day, more excited by a discovery than worried about the power of the dragon.

17 was not smiling at all.

- I asked you if you were okay, he said.

- Yes, the submersible was hit but I didn't get anything. Afterwards, I have a whole bunch of lights flashing in the cockpit, there must be some damage but nothing serious at first glance.

- He's even more dangerous to you than I thought. Back off again and take cover, okay? he said, his tone suddenly very serious.

Ruri complied, but the change in 17's voice had not escaped her. Once she had entered the tunnel, she spoke again, this time more worried:

- Here, I don't risk anything. I'll keep you in sight thanks to the camera that follows you and I'll see if there are repairs to be done.

- Okay. I'll take care of him.

- 17 ?

- Yes?

- And you, are you okay? I mean, the electricity didn't hurt you?

- No, I'm used to it. Gero used it on us a lot, so I don't mind it at all.

Hearing him speak like this worried Ruri deeply. The idea that confronting the dragon might remind him of the most painful moments of his past made her fear that he would lose control again, as he had done with the krakens.

- 17 ?

- Yes?

- It's not its fault you know, it's... it's a predator, it's just acting out its nature.

But to Ruri's great relief, when 17 turned around she saw in his eyes that he was not in the same emotional state as the last time. He was certainly concentrated, but he did not have that expression of anger and pain that had hurt her so much.

He smiled at her, gave the front of the submersible a light tap, and replied as he walked away:

- I know. Just wait for me here.

In a flutter of his legs he returned to the cave, and Ruri could only see him on the small screen of her dashboard.

As Ruri had said, the dragon had not gone away. For the first time, 17 was really alone against an animal that she herself did not know and for which she had not been able to define with him the strategy to adopt.

Long seconds passed during which both remained face to face.

17 remembered everything he had seen since his meeting with Ruri, both humans and animals. From each of them he had learned something that enriched him. From each success, he had learned. From each mistake, he had learned. Observing, understanding, and acting accordingly, it was finally time for him to put this knowledge into practice.

Then he analyzed the situation with the greatest attention.

Everything in the monster's attitude indicated that it was ready to attack. Its gigantic body was shaking and its mouth was half-open, ready to bite. It was hungry, which explained the haste with which it pounced on anyone who entered its territory.

For him, 17 was ultimately only a prey, and this idea displeased him as much as it excited him. Because he never wanted to be a prey again. From that moment on, he was determined to be the only master of his destiny.

"Where she is, that's where I want to be".

This thought never left him.

Ruri had given him a goal, things to accomplish and above all a place to go: to her side.

"A prey, hum ... " he thought again, while materializing in front of him the images of the various monsters he had encountered.

The smilodon and the giant snake had attacked him, because they had only one goal, to devour him. And this is precisely why they were so dangerous: the predatory posture determined their behavior and led them to attack, even seeking to attack Ruri who was for them an easier target. But the giant deer had not reacted in the same way at all. On the contrary, its approach had been much simpler and safer.

"To him, I was not a prey. I was ..."

Suddenly, in an instant, 17 threw himself on the sea dragon and seized one of its teeth, which he tore out before backing up just as quickly to position himself as far from the tunnel as possible. The monster let out a terrible roar and cramped up. It twisted in pain, hitting the rocky walls of the cave which cracked under the violence of the blows. Then it opened its mouth and rushed at 17.

- That's it, big boy ! I am not your prey, I am your opponent ! he shouted by dodging and dragging the dragon even further.

Then a real fight started in the deepest part of the cave. The dragon kept on trying to bite 17, giving him powerful blows with its paws or throwing balls charged with electricity in his direction without interruption. He was really mad with rage. Activating and deactivating his barrier, 17 blocked each attack, when he didn't dodge them to force the monster to move. His tactic was simple: exhaust it, using his infinite energy, immobilize it and collect the samples that Ruri needed while focusing the monster's attention on him, and him only.

Not wanting to hurt the animal, he counterattacked, giving just enough blows to keep it angry.

On the other hand, this confrontation amused him madly. This creature was without equal with all those he had met, far from all that he had been able to imagine. Of a speed and a colossal force, it gave him the opportunity to deploy all the extent of his own power. The fact of being limited in his movements by the fact of being under water made the exercise even more stimulating for him, and without losing sight of his objective, 17 did not sulk his pleasure in this duel which lasted now for many minutes.

Despite its size, the monster's endurance was indeed incredibly great. However, little by little, it was beginning to show the first signs of weakening. Its strikes became more imprecise and spaced out, as if it was trying to recover between each one.

17 realized this, and remembered another lesson from Ruri: when cornered, even the most harmless animal could become very dangerous. To get out of this untenable situation, the dragon had no choice but to launch a final attack. He was therefore ready to counter it.

And indeed, the monster began to swim in circles, hitting even harder the walls of the cave which threatened to collapse at any moment, before folding its body to the maximum, then leaping straight ahead. The elastic force that he had built up increased his speed tenfold, but it was still insufficient to put 17 in difficulty. Taking both ends of its mouth in both hands, it swung slightly to topple the monster to the ground.

- Oh no, big boy, no one is going to swallow me a second time! exclaimed 17 before taking advantage of the dragon's stunned and tired state to take some blood and scales from him.

He needed only a few seconds for this, during which the gigantic animal hardly moved, as if it had resigned itself to its defeat.

Suddenly, just as 17 thought he would soon be finished with the sample collection, the monster began to tremble again. It had remained motionless until then, but now it seemed to be using all its remaining strength in a last attempt to get up.

Its throat became luminous again.

Only the speed of 17 allowed him to react before the catastrophe occurred.

As if the action was happening in slow motion in front of him, he saw the animal throw a ball of electricity, but not in his direction. On the contrary. The dragon had just aimed at something to its right.

And when 17 turned his head to see what was there, his blood felt like it had literally frozen in his veins. He wanted to scream, but no sound came out of his mouth.

A fear of a different kind came over him when he saw with fright who was now within immediate range of the monster's attack.

Ruri.