Disclaimer: I own nothing so don't sue me.
Skynet Work Camp Year 2035
Deep within a Skynet work camp was a testing facility. A while ago Skynet had started creating a new kind of machine. But in order to make it required humans. So it gathered any humans the terminators had taken before and used them as test subjects. The first step was converting the humans….forcibly and then wait to see the results. Unfortunately for Skynet, the experiments didn't work out so well as they just went insane and died. All except for one.
Deep in the Skynet facility were several dozens of holding cells. These specific cells were used to hold the resulting test subjects who were converted into the new model terminator. And these cells were specifically designed to insure that the subjects didn't escape. Though Skynet sometimes thought maybe it wasn't necessary since nearly all the subjects just died off. Fortunately for Skynet, it kept it that way because of one individual.
Within the holding cell B35 rested a single male teen who was sitting against the back wall. This boy was Caucasian with short black hair and brown eyes. His height is up to about 5'7 and had a slightly fit body build. He wore a casual black jacket over a grey T-shirt. On his legs was a pair of grey cargo parts with black running sneakers. The one notable trait of his outfit was the red Skynet symbol on his shirt.
This boy's name is Nicolas Coleman.
Though do not be fooled by his appearance. He may look human but he had already undergone the process of being converted into the new terminator. And right now he was trying to keep myself sane while at the same time fight the programming that had been placed in him.
"Come on Nick! Fight it! Fight it!" Nicolas thought as his body shook.
The program put into him was to listen and obey Skynet. It was the one thing running through his mind and fighting it wasn't easy. It was like trying to keep your eyes open while sneezing or trying to eat a spoonful of cinnamon. When a program is put into your mind, it's like gaining some kind of new natural instinct or reflex. You simply just can't help it.
Skynet may have taken something very precious from Nicolas but he'll be damned if he was going to become its puppet.
Halkegina – Tristain Academy of Magic
The land of Halkegina was one of magic. If people of Earth ever saw it, they would believe it was more like medieval Europe. And somewhere in this world was a special school. Though up close it looked more like a fortress. The academy was made of six towers. Five of them stood around the outer part of the school connected to each other with a wall which formed a pentagon. In the center was the main tower that was nearly twice as big as the other towers. Oddly enough only four of the surrounding towers connect to the main building. One did not.
But that's not important right now. What's important is what a single class of students is doing today. Today was the day they summon their familiar. Each and every student was taking their turn to summon a creature of some sort to serve them while out in the grassy courtyard. Many were quite pleased with what they got. Others were a little….surprise to say the least. Such as the boy who just went.
His name was Guiche. He was a blonde wavy hair boy who usually walks around with a rose in his hand. Guiche wanted a beautiful familiar that would match his personality which by the way was of that of a playboy. But instead he got a giant mole which was a bit of a shock for him. But it did match his magical element which was earth.
While Guiche was studying his familiar, the next student just went. This students' name was Kirche. She was a 18 year old tan skin girl with long wavy red hair. A notable trait was her large breasts that she wasn't afraid of showing off because she always left the top buttons of her shirt open. And she just summoned a huge red fire breathing lizard.
"A Salamander." One random female student said. "Kirche summoned that?"
Of course these students weren't alone. To supervise them and their summoning, their teacher, Professor Jean Colbert, is watching them.
"You sure summoned a big one in the end, Miss Zerbst." He said.
Kirche faced Colbert. "It matches my nickname, Kirche the Ardent." She boasted.
Professor or Mr. Colbert turned to face the rest of the class. "Have we gone through everyone?"
"Not yet." Kirche spoke up. She looked around to find a certain student among the crowd. She found her off to the side. "Miss Valliere is left."
The girl Kirche was referring to was a short plain skin 17 year old girl with long wavy pink hair and eyes. Though her body was somewhat underdeveloped so she looked more like a 14 year old. Either way, it was her turn.
Louise went up and was getting ready for the summoning. However while she was doing this, she could hear the mumblings of the other students.
"It's Louise the Zero, man."
"What is she going to summon?"
"I'm sure she can't. It'll just be another explosion and that will be it."
That's the thing about Louise. Among her peers she is known as Louise the Zero because throughout her life she has failed to master any kind of spells. Normally a student would be able to use one of the four elements: Fire, Water, Earth, or Air. Louise hasn't been able to do any of them ever since she first attended the academy. She has had zero success thus the name Zero. But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part is that this was her last chance to get something right because if she failed even this, Louise will be kicked out of the academy.
"You said that you can summon something greater than this boy, right Louise?" Kirche remarked with gesturing her own familiar.
Louise just proudly said "Naturally."
She then began the incantation.
Back on Earth….
Nicolas was still in his cell trying to calm himself while at the same time resist Skynet. But little by little he was losing his freewill. Soon he would become an agent of Skynet.
But then something completely unexpected happened.
"I beg you."
Nicolas immediately lifts his head up and begins looking around to see where that voice came from.
"My slave, who lives somewhere in the universe."
After hearing that, Nicolas gets up from his spot and rapidly turns his head back and forth to find out where that voice was coming from. He didn't like the fact the voice just said slave.
"Oh sacred, beautiful and strong familiar spirit."
It was at this point Nicolas realized one thing: the voice was coming from inside his head.
"I desire and here I plead from my heart."
Now something weirder was happening. Right in front of Nick, a giant glowing green oval orb appears out of nowhere. Nicolas had never seen anything like it. He took a step forward when he thought of something. What if this was one of Skynet's tricks? What if Skynet made this to make him more obedient or worse destroy him for not listening. With this in mind, Nicolas took a step back.
But then the speakers along with an alarm came on. "WARNING: ABNORMAL ENERGY DETECTED. WARNING: ABNORMAL ENERGY DETECTED."
Now Nicolas knew this wasn't something of Skynet. But that still leaves the mystery to what it is. Then another thought occurred to him. What if this was it? What if this was his chance to escape? To be free of Skynet.
He knew he wouldn't have long to decide what to do since no doubt some machine was on their way now. So out of instinct, Nicolas took a deep breath and walked into the portal. The second he went through, the portal disappeared.
"ABNORMAL ENERGY CEASED. SUBJECT NICOLAS COLEMAN MISSING. DETERMINED STATUS: TERMINATED."
Halkegina – Tristain Academy of Magic
Back at the academy, Louise was finishing her incantation.
"Answer to my guidance!" Louise shouted and then she pointed her wand forward. At first nothing happen. But then….
BOOOOMMMM!
As usual for Louise an explosion happened. The whole thing kicked up a dust cloud and sent nearly all the students falling back and coughing.
"I knew this was going to happen."
"Louise the Zero can't get anything right."
"She couldn't even summon a familiar."
"The only thing she can ever summon is explosions."
Even though the students kept making jabs at her, Louise wasn't paying attention to any of it. The only thing she was focused on was the fact that once again….she failed. She had failed the summoning ritual and now she had no hope in staying in the academy. This was so heartbreaking Louise started to tear up.
Mr. Colbert was still watching the whole thing unfold. It saddened his hearts see a student so broken up. Especially since this was Louise's last chance. But as mentioned before, if she couldn't perform the summoning ritual then she couldn't stay any longer.
That's when occurred to the professor. He started to hear a bit of growling noises. Colbert looked around and quickly found the source. It was the familiars. The various creatures that the other students summoned seemed….agitated. Some of the smaller ones cowed in fear while the more bigger ones looked like they were ready to attack.
Another student had also noticed this. Her name was Tabitha. She was a 15 year old pale skin girl with short blue hair and eyes. A few notable traits were the pair of glasses she wears, the staff she carries and the book she's always reading. Right now though her attention was at her blue dragon familiar.
Like her professor she noticed how her familiar along with everyone else's was upset about something. Another thing she noticed was that they were all staring at the same thing. The rising smoke from where Louise's explosion occurred. Narrowing her eyes she began to focus to see what has the familiar so upset. That's when she started to see a short shadowy figure in the smoke. Before she can say anything, another student shouted.
"Hey!" A blonde curly hair girl named Montmorency called out and pointed at the dust cloud. "There's something there!"
This caught the attention of all the students and the teacher as they all looked turns the slowly fading smoke. Even Louise stopped her crying and raised her head when she heard that maybe she did summon something.
The dust continued to slowly fade away and started to reveal the figure. The figure was a teenage boy in black and gray clothing who was kneeling on one knee. His head was lowered; his arms were at his sides with his hands curled into fists and ankles touching the ground. (Classic terminator kneel position)
Nicolas opened his eyes and noticed the pose he was in. He wasn't sure why he was doing it but he guessed it had something to do with the programming. But that's when he realized something. That ever so annoying instinct. That urge to bend to Skynet's will, was gone. He also didn't feel the need to keep himself from going insane. If Nicolas could feel anything, he would feel happy.
But right now he needed to find out where he was because last time he checked fresh green grass was not an easy thing to find. So without further ado, Nicolas began to rise from his spot. Once at full height, he scanned his surroundings.
What he saw was very odd. For one, he seemed to be inside something like a stone castle like you see in those half burned picture books. And then there was the people around him. Not only was their choice in clothing weird but he can't remember the last time he had seen clothes so clean. Then there was something even weirder. Next to the kids were these very strange creatures he had never seen before. Soon after that Nicolas realized another thing, everyone including the creatures was staring at him.
From the moment Nicolas stood up there was a very long pause. No one said anything and the familiars were still on edge. That is until finally….
"HAHA!" One of the students shouted. "Louise the Zero summoned a commoner!"
Kirche then spoke up. "I never would have guessed you'd summon a commoner." She then started giggling while everyone else started grinning.
"It was just a little screw up." Louise stated in a little frustration.
"That's Louise the Zero we know." Another student said. "You never fail to meet our expectations."
It was then that all the students began to laugh at Louise's 'little screw up'.
Louise turned towards the teacher. "Mr. Colbert. Please let me summon again."
Colbert shook his head. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that."
Louise was taken back. "Why not?!"
"This is a sacred ceremony that determines a mage's life." Mr. Colbert answered. "Redoing it would be a desecration of the ceremony itself. Whether you like it or not, he has been chosen to be your familiar spirit."
Nicolas so far has just been standing there listening to what everyone was saying trying to figure out what was going on. As far as he can tell, somehow he was brought here by this little girl with pink hair.
"But I've never heard of taking a commoner as a familiar!" Louise said.
Everyone once again began to laugh at her failure.
"I'm sorry but there's no exception." Colbert said in a stern tone. "You must continue with the ceremony or you'll be expelled."
Louise didn't like this one bit. But she knew she had no choice. So she sighed and faced the boy she summoned. "What is your name?"
The boy stared for a moment with an emotionless face before answering. "Nicolas Coleman."
"Nicolas Coleman?" A student called out. "That's a dumb name."
Louise simply huffed. "You'd better be grateful. You'd normally never get this from an aristocrat."
Nicolas raised an eyebrow at the statement.
Louise proceeded to finish the ritual. "My name is Louise Francoise Lu Blanc de La Valliere."
Nicolas thought how overly complicated that name was. But thanks to being what he is now, it wasn't hard to remember.
Louise continued. "Pentagon that governs the five powers, give this person your blessing and make it my familiar spirit."
What happened next was something Nicolas was not prepared for. Louise had placed her hands on the sides of his head, leaned upward and kissed him. The kiss lasted for a brief moment before Louise backed off. Then Nicolas started to sense some kind of sensation in his left hand. He lifted his arm and saw these strange glowing markings engraving themselves onto his skin. The glowing stopped after a few seconds but the brand remained. Nicolas stared at the markings curiously.
Nobody else noticed it but Mr. Colbert found this very odd. Normally when a familiar gets their runes, it's supposed to be an intense burning sensation. But when Nicolas got his, he barely reacted to it. Then he noticed the markings themselves.
"Excuse me, Mr. Coleman" Colbert stepped forward and got Nicolas's attention. "May I see your runes?"
Nicolas saw no reason to say no. "Sure." He held out his left hand for the professor to see.
Mr. Colbert examined the markings very carefully. "These look very familiar." The professor thought. Then his eyes widen. "It can't be. This is….I need to do research to confirm."
"Excuse me." Nicolas said which brought Colbert out of his thoughts. "But can you tell me where I am?"
"Oh yes." Colbert cleared his throat. "You're in Halkegina and this is the Tristain Academy of Magic."
Nicolas raised an eyebrow. "Halkegina? Magic?" He thought. From what he knew and what Skynet uploaded into him, there was no such place called Halkegina. And magic was nothing more than a concept of one's imagination. Something that was never real to begin with and anyone who claims they can do magic is simply using gimmicks and illusions.
He took another glance at the markings on his hand. "And what are these runes?"
"Well those are runes to indicate that you are a familiar." The professor answered.
"And what is a familiar?" Nicolas asked.
"A familiar is a being who is summoned to serve and protect the one who summoned them." Colbert replied.
Nicolas then glanced at Louise and pointed. "I assume that this little girl was the one who….summoned me here?"
Louise was offended at being called a little girl. "Watch your tongue commoner! My name is Louise Françoise le Blanc de La Vallière!" She proudly stated. "Know your place!"
Nicolas didn't give any kind of reaction. He just waited for Professor Colbert to answer his previous question.
"Um…uh….yes. Miss Vallière was the one who summoned you." Colbert finally answered.
If Nicolas could feel anything, he would probably feel enraged at the notion that now he's become a slave to this little girl. But he figured that to understand his situation more, he'll just have to go with the flow for now.
With that, Nicolas simply said "I see."
With no more questions being asked, Mr. Colbert turned to face the class. "Okay that is all for today. You're all dismissed."
All the students began to disperse with their familiars by their side.
"Let's go familiar." Louise ordered as she walked away.
"My name is Nicolas." Nick emotionlessly said before following suite.
As everyone was leaving, Colbert continued to eye Nicolas. He noticed a few odd things about him. First, there was the way he was positioned when he arrived. It was almost like he was expecting to come here. Then there was the way all the other familiars acted in his presence. What was it about him that got them all upset? Another thing was his clothing. They seemed unusual even for a commoner. Also that red triangle symbol on his chest, what did it mean? Next was the fact he didn't react at all when he got his runes which is supposed to burn. And last but not least was the fact that Nicolas seemed rather calm about the whole thing. Most people would be flabbergasted to be taken and forced to serve a noble. Especially one as prideful as Louise.
Something definitely wasn't right about Nicolas but for now Colbert decided to do research on the runes.
Louise's room
After a few minutes of walking Nicolas and Louise reached the room they'll be staying in.
Closing the door behind him, Nicolas surveyed the room itself. It was a very old fashion luxury design. Practically all the furniture was made of wood. The dresser, the book cabinet with glass doors, the bed and the table with chairs in the middle of the room. It was definitely old style but then again compared the ruin cities of Earth; this was a 5 star hotel. Nicolas found it kind of funny how he knew what a 5 star hotel was. He assumed it must have been Skynet's doing.
Nicolas was brought out of his thoughts when a pile of clothes was thrown into his face. Apparently without him realizing it, Louise had changed out of her clothes.
"Make yourself useful familiar and go wash those." Louise ordered.
Nicolas looked down at the clothes in his arms. "These clothes hardly seem dirty so why do they need to be washed?"
Louise was already frustrated with the fact that she got a commoner as her familiar. But now she was more upset with the fact that said commoner was now questioning her.
"Just do as I say familiar!" Louise once again ordered.
"My name is Nicolas." Coleman responded.
Louise didn't like how Nick kept talking back and pointed at him. "You are nothing more than a dog! I'm going to go to sleep. Have those clothes clean by morning." With that she put out the light and tucked herself into bed.
Nicolas looked down at the clothes. Apparently now he was supposed to wash them but he wasn't sure he could without accidentally tearing them. But then he remember how on the way to the room, he spotted some maids moving about. Nicolas thought perhaps one of them can assist him. Plus it would also help in getting the opportunity to explore. So with a plan in mind, He left the room to search for a maid.
Academy Hallways
For about ten minutes, Nicolas has been wandering the dimly lit hallways without finding anyone. The only upside was that every step he took, he was getting a better mental map of the area.
When he came around a corner, Nicolas found two students talking to each other. One student was a teen boy with short wavy blonde hair and blue eyes. He was holding a rose in his right hand and his blouse was somewhat open which was revealing his chest. The boy seemed to be flirting with the other student who was a long straight hair brunette girl and by the looks of it she was practically drooling over the boy.
He could hear the saying things like 'I'll never lie to you' and 'You're the only girl for me.' Nicolas was able to easily tell that guy was lying and deduce that he was a womanizer. Nick didn't need Skynet's intel to predict that the boy's endeavors will end badly.
Seeing that it was none of his business Nicolas continued on to find someone to help with the clothes he was carrying.
A few more minutes had passed and there was still no one. But then Nicolas came to a stop in front of a doorway that led outside to the courtyard. The reason he stopped was because something had caught his eye in the night sky. What Nicolas saw definitely confirmed that he was no longer on Earth because last time he checked Earth only had one moon, not two. Not only that but the moons were in different colors. One was blue while the other was red.
Even though Nicolas can still remember what it was like to feel, he has no idea how he would feel right now. The downside was that he was no longer home on Earth. But the positive side was that he no longer has to worry about Skynet or the war. Without the ability to feel emotion, he really had no idea what to make of his situation.
"Uh excuse me." Said a voice.
Nicolas looks to the side at the source of the voice. The source being a girl with short black hair and blue eyes dressed in a black and white maid uniform.
"I can't help but notice the clothes in your arms." The girl said.
Nicolas looked down on the clothing he was carrying.
"I'm guessing those are for wash, yes?" The girl asked.
Nicolas replied. "Yes they are. I was hoping to find someone who can wash these properly since I believe I'm not suited for the task."
The girl put up a smile. "Oh well then hand them to me. I can wash them Mr….."
"Coleman." Nick finished. "Nicolas Coleman."
"It's nice to meet Nicolas." The girl bowed in respect. "My name is Siesta." She introduced herself.
Siesta then eyed Nicolas from head to toe. "You wouldn't happen to be the familiar Louise summoned are you?"
"Yes, I am." Nicolas answered. "If you don't mind, can you wash these clothes and have them ready for Louise by morning?"
"Oh there's no need to ask. It's my job anyway." Siesta then grabbed the clothes out of Nicolas's arms. "I should've expected Louise to do something like this. I'll have the clothes ready by morning."
Nicolas nodded his head. "Thank you for your assistance. Have a nice night." From the memories of his old self, he thought it was only common courtesy to say that. Now that the task of cleaning is now in the hands of another, Nicolas began to walk away.
Now his objective right now was to gather intelligence. If this place is an academy then it's bound to have a library and that is where Nick was heading.
While Nicolas was leaving, Siesta was eyeing him from behind with a pitied look. "He seems a bit emotionless. I wonder what could have happen to him to make him like that. But at least he was nice and polite." She thought. Siesta then turned away and went to wash the clothes.
Academy Library
While everyone in the school was sleeping, within the restricted section of the library Professor Colbert was reading through some old books. He was looking for anything that would resemble the runes on Nicolas's hand. After a while, he finally found what he was looking for.
"Here it is." Colbert muttered. He started reading a bit about the runes. What he found startled him. "I-It can't be. There has to be a mistake. I must inform the principle of this."
Thank you for reading and please review.