Sorry about the super long wait, I had the story on hiatus because I've been pretty busy juggling school, my Youtube channel (which is Midnight4000 if you're wondering), lots of drawing, a new series I'm reading, my new dog and plus I totally forgot about this story for a while xD I also just wanna say thanks to everyone who is reading and loves this story :D I really didn't think it would get popular with a lot of people! Anywho, let's get to the story;
Hal, Kilowag and Razer search frantically for Aya, until Razer's ring gets coordinates. The team wearily races to the coordinates, only to find their worst fears come true. The Anti-Monitor lives!
Hal narrowed his eyes, clenching his fists tightly. "H-How is that even possible!" he said with fear as he stared at the enemy they had only just defeated.
Razer stepped back, almost falling down. "How did it survive, Aya killed it!" The Red Lantern suddenly blinked. *Aya!* He almost forgot the fact that they were looking for the A.I. Razer looked around, then spotted Aya to his far left. She seemed to have her back flat against the wall she hid behind and a blank look on her face as she stared into nothingness. "Ay-" Razer began to yell before Kilowag slapped his hand over the Lanterns mouth. "Sh!" he snapped softly.
Razer tore away from the Bolavaxian, then looked up at Hal who was staring at the Anti-Monitor head that was in front of them. "Why isn't it reacting to us being here?" He whispered, narrowing his eyes. Razer clenched his fists. "Maybe it's in sleep mode or something, who cares!" he hissed, then pointed over to where Aya was. "What matters is that we found Aya and that we need to leave!"
The human Green Lantern crossed his arms, rubbing his chin slightly. He then nodded softly, "Razer's right, we need to get Aya back to the ship, then we can figure out what to do with...this.." he uttered, gesturing to the Giant Anti-Monitor head behind them.
Razer sighed in relief, then began to silently slink over to Aya when Hal grabbed his arm. "Razer...It be best if I went to get Aya.." he said and without waiting for a reply, Hal lifted his feet off the ground and, quickly and quietly, he hovered over to Aya, glancing up every occasion at the Anti-Monitor as beads of sweat dripped off his face from pure fear and worry.
When he was barely a few inches away from the A.I., Hal called softly to her. "Aya!" He hissed softly. Aya looked up at the Green Lantern who now stood in front of her.
However, when she did look up, Hal seemed to notice a flicker of fear in her eyes, but he shook his head and began to speak. "Aya we need to leave. Now!" he ordered softly yet sternly. The A.I. stared at Hal as if the Lantern spoke a different language. When she did finally speak, her response had nothing in common with what Hal had said. "Hal..I am...sorry.." she mumbled.
Hal blinked confusedly. "Wha-" he then shook his head, his voice serious when he spoke. "Aya we need to get back to the ship!" He hissed and without waiting for Aya to speak he grabbed her arm and half dragged, half lead her back to Razer and Kilowag only to then realize that there was no where they could go to escape. Razer narrowed his eyes, ignored the tight pain in his shoulder. Instead he stared at Ayas unfocused eyes, it was as if nothing around her was actually happening.
Razer was snapped out of his thoughts when Kilowag growled impatiently. "Now how are we going to get out of here!?" He said, crossing his arms. Hal looked around frantically, for an exit when Aya suddenly looked up, seeming to snap back to reality. "I know a way." She said softly. Hal blinked and looked over at the A.I. and after a moment's hesitation he replied, "Lead the way." He murmured.
Aya dipped her head softly and looked silently around the corner at the Anti-Monitor. "The Anti-Monitor is offline at the moment. I believe it is gaining back energy from its recent...destruction." She said softly, looking back at the lanterns. "I do not believe that it will notice us while powered down but there is a 50% chance that it will so-" The A.I was interrupted by Hal who chipped in. "So we still need to be silent." He said. Aya looked over at Hal, slightly annoyed but still nodded. "Affirmative."
Aya looked around the corner once more, then motioned for the lanterns to follow as she quickly darted back to where she was found by Hal. As soon as they were behind another wall, the A.I led her team out through the same place she came in from.
After a few moments of walking, the team of four soon reached the end of the escape route and began to silently soar back to the ship, Hal now leading the way. As they were flying, Razer glanced over to his right at Aya who was blankly staring forward.
The Red Lantern sighed softly, looking down. Suddenly, he seemed to notice that Aya was beginning to lag behind. The A.I soon came to a full stop, holding her head in her hands. Razer stopped flying, concern in his eyes. "Aya. What's wrong?" he asked, flying over to her.
Aya gritted her teeth as if pain had flooded through her. "I…..s-system failure…..mal-malfunction.." At this point the other two lanterns stopped flying and were watching confusedly. "Aya?" Hal said, flying toward Aya and pushing Razer aside. "Aya, what's happening?" he asked, clear worry in his voice.
"Reboot.." Aya muttered, slowly opening her eyes and looking up. A gasp sounded from all three lanterns as they stared at Aya. Her eyes were not their usual blue.
No. Now they were Black with small, white pupils. "Aya…" Kilowag muttered under his breath, his eyes wide. "R-Reboot…" Aya uttered, her voice trailing off as her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she began to quickly fall fast to the ground. "Aya!" Razer yelled, quickly flying down after the A.I.
Razer knew he wasn't going to be able to catch so he did the only thing he could think of. The Red Lantern used his ring to catch Aya in a large, red bubble. Quickly and steadily, Razer brought Aya over to him and once the bubble was in front of him, the Red Lantern reached in and grabbed Aya, cradling her in his arms.
He stared at her, with wide eyes. "A-Aya.." he muttered softly. Razer was broken out of his thoughts by Hal and Kilowag who were soon right next to him. "Hey Red! Snap out of it!" Kilowag urged, shaking Razer's shoulders softly.
Hal narrowed his eyes slightly. "We need to get Aya back to the ship, give her to me." he ordered. This comment seemed to spark anger inside of Razer, well more anger than what he usually felt. "Why?!" He hissed at Hal, red flames forming around him and flowing from his eyes. "Because you still don't trust me with her?!" He snarled, tightening his grip on Aya.
Hal was slightly stunned, but he didn't give in. "Last time you talked to her she almost killed you! You must have done something to provoke her!" he growled. At this point the red flames around Razer grew larger and his eyes were completely red. Hal blinked and before he could react, he felt something hit his face hard, causing him to spin backwards.
Razer had punched him in the face with all the strength he could muster, causing Hal's nose to literally break and blood drip out of it. Hal pressed his hands to his nose as he stared, with a stunned look, at Razer. Kilowag grabbed Razer's shoulder to prevent him from attacking Hal. "Kid, calm down." Kilowag said in a stern voice.
The Red Lantern looked up at Kilowag, the flames around him dimming and his eyes going back to normal. He then moved his shoulder away from Kilowag, gave Hal one more threatening glare, and took off toward the ship. Hal watched Razer fly off, then shook his head softly, remembering his broken nose. It was a small wound so it was easy to fix. Hal used his ring to heal it, which took at least a minute.
Hal was about to fly after Razer and back to the ship when Kilowag stopped him in his tracks, his arms crossed. The human looked at him with a confused look. "What?" He asked dumbfoundedly. Kilowag rolled his eyes softly. "You need to give em' a break." he said, his arms still crossed. "Why should I?" Hal protested, placing his fists on his sides. "So far he's been awful to Aya! Have you not noticed?" he said.
Kilowag sighed softly, shaking his head in slight annoyance. "And it's obvious he feels awful about it." The Bolavaxian grumbled. "Hal, you can't be so tough on him just because of a few mistakes he made. I can tell he wants to fix them but he can't if you are rude to him over everything." Kilowag said.
Hal stared at him and was opened his mouth to protest, but quickly shut his mouth as Kilowag scowled at him. "Fine…" Hal sighed softly. "I guess I have been a little too hard on him, but he still shouldn't of done that." he grumbled. Kilowag shrugged softly. "Eh, close enough." he said with a slight smirk. "Lets get back to the ship." He said softly as the two began to fly back to the ship.
Meanwhile, Razer had reached the Interceptor and laid Aya on one of the medical beds. The Young Lanther stared at Aya for a moment before feeling rage burn in his chest once more. Without warning he smashed his fist in to the wall slightly cracking it. "Ugh!" he snarled. "Out of all teams I had to be on this one with Hal!" he hissed, stomping around the room in anger.
"He thinks that just because he is so called 'leader' of this 'team' that he can order me around! Well guess what? I'm a Red Lantern, not a pathetic Green Lantern!" he grumbled and continued to angrily stomp around and hissed angry things under his breath. He failed to notice that Aya was slowly awakening. The A.I. sat up, blinking her eyes open. "System reboot complete. Now online." She said in her robotic voice. Razer blinked slightly and turned around. "Aya?" he asked, hoping that she hadn't seen him in his fit of rage.
"Razer?" Aya said, turning her head to him. Razer hesitated, then began. "Aya I-" He was cut off by Aya who had gotten up and was sitting in her seat near the window, typing into the console. "I do not wish to start a conversation at this moment." she said, not even looking at him when she spoke.
Razer blinked, then narrowed his eyes slightly. "But I just want to say that I-" Aya cut him off once more. "I have stated that I wish not to speak, have I not?" she asked, not even a hint of any emotion in her voice. Razer clenched his fists, walked over to her, gripped the tip of her chair and spun her around to face him. "Why have you been avoiding me?!" he asked in annoyance. "I just want to talk to you and you just ignore me! Why?" he hissed.
Aya looked up at him blankly and stood up. "Because, as you've stated before. I am merely a machine. I am not capable of any emotion. I am an A.I. that cannot feel pain, sadness, fear, anger, joy or love. I am a machine and you are and organism and I can never love you and I never will." She said and before he could reply, she walked past him and out of the room. Aya felt nothing any more, no pain, no anger and especially no love. Now, she was truly a machine.
Razer was stunned, frozen in the spot he stood in and still staring down at Aya's chair. He felt his eyes water slightly as he grit his teeth and clenched his fists. This was all his fault. Aya was like this because of him. Hal was right, this was all his fault. The Red Lantern felt a warm tear fall down his cheek and before he knew it, he was crying.
Only a few moments later did Hal and Kilowag walk in and notice Razer just..standing there. "Red?" Kilowag asked, walking over to the Red Lantern. Razer quickly wiped the tears from his face, but kept his head low. "What.." he hissed softly, slightly looking behind him. Kilowag hesitated, exchanging a glance with Hal. "You okay kid?" he asked.
Razer looked away and muttered. "I'm fine...what do you want?" he asked, trying to change the subject. Kilowag decided to not continue and changed the subject. "Hal here wants to tell ya something." he said, nudging Hal slightly. "Oh, yeah." The human said and stepped forward, rubbing the back of his next. "Listen Razer, I'm sorry I've been so hard on you lately. Its just what's recently been happening with Aya and the Anti-Monitor. There's just been a lot of-"
Razer cut him off as he spun around, his head low as he walked away. "I don't care." he uttered. Hal blinked, and watched him leave. He didn't know what to say as Razer just walked to the other side of the room and sat in his chair by the console.
Hal and Kilowag exchanged glances. "Uh, okay then." Hal said in confusion. He was about to keep going with the subject until Aya walked into the room. With a small sigh, Hal clasped his hands together and said. "Good, so now that we are all in the same room, we can talk about what to do with the Anti-Monitor."
Aya sat in her chair, her eyes still blank as she listened to Hal and Kilowag talking about what to do. However, all she heard were her own thoughts and then suddenly, a loud voice boomed in her head. She leaned forward, grasping he rhea din her hands as it spoke. 'Your time is up! Come to me now!' Aya groaned softly, causing the others to stop what they were doing and look over at her.
Hal jumped out of his seat and and bound over to her. He rested his hand on her shoulder and asked worriedly. "Aya, are you okay?" The A.I. blinked, staring at her feet. "Yes." She replied stiffly, slowly lifting her head. "And I now know what must be done." she said, getting to her feet, her eyes narrowed.
Hal stepped back a bit. "Great, just explain what the plan is and we can all-" Hal was cut off as Aya quickly thrust her hand on his chest, pushing him hard backwards until he stumbled over his own feet and fell on his back. "However, none of you are coming." Aya stated. Before an of them could react, Aya shot a beam of green light from her hand, enclosing them in a large green bubble.
The A.I. then lifted them off the ground and walked into the other room. She then shoved all three of them into the small cell that they had on the Interceptor. After she put them in there, she immediately locked them in there, then walked to the power containment area and did the same thing she did the last time she battle the Anti-Monitor.
Soon enough the power went out, yet the cell stayed locked. "What the?" Hal said in confusion. "How is this-" Aya answered Hal's question when she walked back over to the lanterns. "Since I am also this ship, I still have full control over it. I am keeping all of you locked in there until I am done." She said, her body glowing with all of the energy from the Interceptor inside of her.
Hal stared at her, then began to bang his fists against the impenetrable cell door. "Aya don't do this! If you think this will-" Hal was cut off as electricity flowed through him from the door. He screeched and was thrust back, hitting the wall behind him. Aya stood there, staring at him, A hologram of a smaller console coming from her hand. She had pressed a button to momentarily shock him.
"Will what? Save you?" Aya hissed softly. "If you must know I care for none of your lives. I just do not want any of you in my way." At that, Aya spun around and hovered over to the exit and opened the door when another voice spoke. "Aya! Don't do this alone! We need you! I need you! What if you fail? We can't lose one of our teammates...and I can't lose you.." The voice belonged to Razer.
Aya hesitated, silence filling the entire ship. Finally, she spoke. "I will not fail. But why would you care if I do Razer, after all I am merely a machine. I am incapable of feeling anything." she said, still hovering over the open exit. "I care nothing for you all. I am a robot and you are a filthy organism that only brings pain to the ones closest to them." she said and that was it.
Aya then flew out of the ship and was off to face the Anti-Monitor. Razer sank to his knees, his arms feeling limp. He pressed his forehead to the cell door and grit his teeth. If Aya died, it would be his fault and there was nothing he could do about it.
Aya flew over to where she knew the Anti-Monitor was and was going to take the first way she used to find it until a large hole opened up beneath her. She narrowed her eyes and slowly hovered down to the bottom. After walking out of the large hole she was in, the walls slammed in behind her. Aya ignored that and walked around the corner to face the Anti-Monitor who was now online. "Ah, the one called Aya." He spoke. "Finally, we meet."
~End of Chapter 8
Huehue, leaving ya'll with a cliffhanger :3
Hope you enjoyed this chapter and if you did then leave a favorite and a review :D
I will do my best to update these faster but I have a life as well .3. Well I think I do at least