Nawx (Project IzeBorn Book 1)

by Andrew Jones

  That is when I realized that you cannot survive in this world anymore, and the making of the machines has officially ended. I shall await the death of each and every Human and machine, and witness the coming of the New World in my spirit form.

  Verse XVI

  The World of Madness

  Nova and Atreyu returned to the outer world, as they were before near the healing waters. They stepped off of the elevator and saw Bastion still with Septimus' corpse. They stood by and watched, as they did not want to interrupt anything. But Nova noticed Bastion's crying. She watched a teardrop fall from his eye and fall to hit the ground. The ground erupted a small flame, from how hot the dragon's teardrop was. It must be from the dragon's heat since they're blood is proven to be warmer than any other being's. Atreyu stepped toward Bastion, just as Nova tried to reach for him to stop him, but she pulled away and did nothing. Atreyu stopped just beside Bastion and looked at Septimus' corpse. Some of her dragon scales looked to have been slightly burnt, especially the area within her soft spot on her stomach. Atreyu sighed, knowing that Bastion must've been crying the whole time they were in the lab.

  Like a sudden change in the atmosphere, Bastion turned to look at the wondering Atreyu, then back at Nova. He tried his best to hide the fact that he had gotten emotional, something Dragoonas like himself did not like to show, or feel- especially in front of others. They were proud beings that strictly liked to be seen as the upper animal of the world. Nova couldn't help but notice how odd the world seemed to feel since she left the lab. The lab was so much more peaceful looking; apart from the observation window of the rusted machines. She could now see why Drenawx feared the outer world, this world they resided on.

  She held the side of her arm as she watched the two.

  "We must kill that Human!" Bastion roars with a powerful and loud tone.

  Nova looks down, "He's much more powerful than we are."

  "We can do it. Humans are the easiest thing to kill in this world."

  "Shut up!" Atreyu yelled. "Even though I was a Machina this whole time... I still like to think I'm a Human..."

  Bastion stopped his uproar and observed Atreyu. "So, it is true that you are one of those machines. And what of you, Nova? It'd be foolish to have gone all this way and not even know."

  Nova sounded as though something hurt her; her heart began to hurt as he asked her that question. A sheer feeling of regret hit her as she saw the image of Drenawx in front of her, falling aside and seeing Blaze in front of her. The picture was black and white, but Blaze's tears were the pure blue coloring she had remembered.

  "Nova... You there?" Bastion asked.

  Nova jumped from fright as she heard the dragon's voice, but she remained quiet.

  "I'm assuming you haven't..." Bastion muttered, looking aside at Atreyu. "Anyways, I might know where Drakkar and Zephyr have gone. I heard a loud noise coming from the direction of Amaya's village."

  Atreyu frowned, sort of surprised. "Really? Well, she moved the remaining survivors out of there, so no one should be in danger." Atreyu explained, looking toward Nova. "But we should still check it out. I feel like Drakkar's power is more complex than usual cases with Ruse."

  Nova nodded.

  "You felt that, as well? Drakkar's power was definitely something I have not seen. It may be the source of all the Ruse's power." Bastion explains.

  "Huh?" Nova muttered in confusion.

  "If you haven't noticed already, Ruse feeds off of one's emotions and takes control of them through that. Someone with enough rage, like Drakkar, attracts more of the virus and creates a sort of horde inside his emotions. That's why we haven't seen too many other Humans infected with the virus lately."

  "It's like the whole virus itself is inside Drakkar..." Nova sighs.

  "Correct."

  Atreyu shook his head and jumped onto Bastion's back. "Let's go check out Amaya's village, or where it was, just in case."

  Nova nodded and grabbed onto Atreyu's hand as he lifted her up behind him. Bastion scoffed at Atreyu's orders and lifted himself into the air and flew toward the direction.

  As they traveled toward the area, it was soon known that Bastion's suspicions of the area were correct. The sky grew red, a little bright because it was still daylight outside. They looked down and saw that the green fields that surrounded what used to be the village were all black and dead. The leafless trees dangled and sometimes would break off the mid-point of their bodies because of the tree's weight. Bastion quickly landed on the ground, as Nova jumped off and had a look around.

  "Are you sure it's good to step on the ground?" Atreyu asked, looking a bit worrisome.

  Nova turned to him and nodded, "Well, I'm not dying am I?"

  Atreyu chuckled and jumped down, stepped next to Nova and looking around.

  There were holes in the ground, with perhaps hundreds of skeletons piled up in them. It was like a lake of bones. Nova grunted painfully, worrying for Amaya and Jet.

  "This all seems familiar." Bastion whispered as he followed them on foot.

  "What do you mean?" Atreyu asked.

  "This is otherworldly. It's like the hellfires have invaded this world, but what had opened up this world to such a hellish place like that?"

  "Like what, Bastion?" Nova asked, as well.

  As Nova asked that question, she looked on the ground and saw a key. The key was big, and it had a big eye on both sides of it. It gave Nova the creeps, as it looked to have been a real eye, it was that realistic. Bastion gave it a careful look and nodded his head.

  "That is a key to the world of madness. Strange, it was like it was laid down there for you to find." Bastion wonders.

  Nova shrugged her shoulders. "Meh. So, where can we use this?"

  "It is a key, for all of us to enter the world. But it isn't for an ordinary door, in this world at least. We have to unlock the potential of us going insane in order to enter the world of madness. It's a big risk." Bastion explains.

  Nova looked down at the key in her hand, sighing and looking back up at Atreyu and Bastion.

  "What do you think we should do?" Nova asked.

  "From how this is looking, this can dry up the planet and destroy any chance of this New World possibility. If we want any sort of future for this world, you know what we must do."

  Nova looks directly at Atreyu after hearing Bastion's answer.

  "We've come this far... And, now we really have nothing to live for. The most we can do is help Amaya's group go on a little longer. It's what they deserve."

  Nova grunted painfully again as she gripped on the key. She looked like she was afraid to even think of what could happen next, but both Bastion and Atreyu were right. It hurt to hear Atreyu say that there was nothing to live for anymore because he was right. She nodded her head and closed her eyes as she placed the key on the ground just in the middle of the three and sat down. Atreyu sat down, then Bastion did as well. They closed their eyes and exposed themselves to the threat of rage and sadness that had been hiding deep in their hearts. Their bodies grow dark, with red shock waves penetrating through them, a shock wave they could not feel pain from. They saw a bright light, as they felt carried. They kept their eyes closed, fearing what could've been carrying them so long, even Bastion.

  After a while, Nova opened her eyes slowly to see a pool of fire all around them. She gasped, not realizing how close she was from falling into it. There were two ways to go, the two ways led to the same large platform that had an iron door. It was a way out.

  "Atreyu... Bastion..." Nova muttered as she looked into the fire.

  Orbs of light jumped out of the flames, only to fall back in. Nova noticed each of the orbs had a different face on them and she felt a strong presence in each of them. She could sense that they were souls, souls of the Humans who had died in the corrupted world. Nova was saddened as the sounds the soul orbs made as they fell back into the hellfire. It sounded like even after their deaths, they're still going through an eternity of pain.
r />   Atreyu sat up as he rubbed his head, aching from the pain.

  "Huh... Nova, where are we?" Atreyu asked, looking shocked from the flames.

  "We're in Kurutta Sekia- the world of madness. I never thought I'd get to see this place." Bastion looked more impressed than anything about the place.

  "These are... Soul Orbs, aren't they?" Nova asked.

  "Right. These ones were killed by machines."

  "So they're dead... Don't they go to a more lighter place?" Atreyu asked as he finally got on his feet.

  "Well... Because of an incident hundreds of years in the past, the Heavens were never created. That is why there are no clouds in the sky. The clouds would provide a home base for the Heavens. Because of that, all who die get taken to Kurutta Sekia and get treated like they were beings of darkness."

  "So, that means the Gods are nonexistent?" Nova asked.

  Bastion nodded his head and stood up on his legs.

  "Either way, we need to find out where we are, and where Drakkar resides."

  Without any further words, Nova starts her way toward one of the trails to the larger platform on the other side of the room with the iron doors. She was followed by Atreyu and Bastion. She allowed Atreyu to press the red button on the side of the iron doors, opening them quickly and presenting a large circular room that only had a set of stairs. Bastion flew past them as Nova and Atreyu observed the area, following him up the stairs until he bashed through a door. The room had lots of books, like a library. Atreyu and Bastion walked toward the windows to get a sense of where they were within the new world, as Nova looked into the books.

  "This world looks a lot like our world, except the coloring is off," Atreyu muttered as he stared outside.

  The sky was pitch black, as the land gave the color of red. The lakes they saw were hell fire. But they were high up as if they were in one of those watch towers that were left from the past, but they weren't too sure. Nova grabbed a book from a random bookshelf and read the cover.

  "The first era of Izequin..." Nova whispered. "This must've been when the world was first created. This looks like a room that houses the history of the world."

  Bastion looked back at Nova, "The history of the world? That sounds important, we must be in someplace more important than a mere watch tower."

  Atreyu rushes over to the bookshelf and grabs a random book with excitement, "This is pure gold, our history books were rare and somewhat outdated!"

  "No, they were mostly wrong. How can a history book claim Humans were dominating throughout their existence through warfare? In some ways, the Humans were the weakest." Nova answered Atreyu as she grabbed the book out of his hand. "There's no telling that these books are clearly fictional, either. They could've been made by a madman, right?

  Bastion raised an eyebrow, admiring her opinion, "You may have a point there. Human history has become mainly lies and secrecy as time passes by anyway. I don't know if the remaining can handle the truth anyway if one could come up with a book that spoke only the truth."

  Atreyu sighed.

  "Maybe we should check out the rest of this place? If it's important, it's best if we examined every part. We might even find Drakkar." Nova says as she begins to walk out of the room, having Bastion and Atreyu follow her.

  They didn't run down the stairs, they didn't want to cause any sort of noise to get them noticed. This was a world of madness, Kurutta Sekia as Bastion would call it. So Nova thought about how maybe this would be inhabited by people who would act like the ones who had Ruse but probably didn't.

  "Are you two feeling all right?" Bastion asked.

  Bastion stopped both Nova and Atreyu as they got to the bottom of the stairs. A door was seen at the bottom of the stairs, just in front of them.

  "Yes. What about you, Atreyu?" Nova carried on the question to him. '

  Atreyu nodded his head slowly.

  "It's important to let me know when you are feeling anything odd. If you feel exceptionally saddened or raged. This place can make you feel all sorts of ways, so it's important to express it, or your soul could be contaminated by this place and become somewhat cursed... Meaning you'd basically have to stay here forever."

  Nova and Atreyu looked at each other and nodded their heads. Atreyu allowed Nova to step forward to the white iron doors. She held her hand out and reached for the button to open the doors. She pressed the button slowly and watched with Atreyu and Bastion as the doors slowly began opening.

  Verse XVII

  The Nawx Project

  As Nova explored the depths of Kurutta Sekia or the world of madness, she couldn't help but think of their own world. Even though this world burned of hellish fires almost everywhere, and tortured the souls of dead Humans, she couldn't help but compare this world to her own. This madness made her fear death even more than she already did. She's seen people precious to her die, and it has slowly been damaging her heart, and the hope she had for the people around her. Whenever she'd sleep, she'd dream of how the world could've been different. How the world would've looked in the past. She imagined bright skies, with clouds filling the sky all over. The smiles of healthy and stable Humans all around her. Hell, even machines could live peacefully in this made up world. She did not see a difference between Humans and machines. She's gotten to know Atreyu enough to know that machines have the same desires and fears as Humans. She can see when he gets mad, or when he gets sad and upset. He has emotions, the emotions Drenawx believed the Machina could not achieve, the emotions Blaze seemed to fight for.

  But what lies beyond the white iron doors could change her opinions on life from then on. As the imagery of the room became more visible as the doors opened and the lights turned on, the room appeared to look similar to a room that would've been inside Drenawx's lab. Though it was different, possibly a room Drenawx kept hidden deep inside. It was a large room, with a white statue that embodied the figure of Nova. The statue complimented the white room, but it had an implement underneath the statue. Written on a gold placement, it read in big letters, 'The Nawx Project'.

  "The Nawx Project... Wonder what that is." Atreyu reads the implement as he looked at Bastion. "Got any idea what that is?"

  Bastion shook his head, as him and Atreyu attempted to search around the room for an answer to the question. Nova decided to look around herself, as she saw vaults in the back half of the room that looked a lot like her own she found herself in when she stayed at the abandoned factory. She looked at the handheld device that was next to the vault, seeing her name on it. It explained that the bot is known as NOVA-1449 was due for a memory maintenance update. She looked inside the vault and felt as though her body had begun moving by itself. Her legs forced her inside the vault as it quickly closed the vault by its self.

  "Atreyu!" Bastion shouted as he pointed at the vault.

  Atreyu gasped, "Nova, no!"

  Atreyu rushed to the vault and hit the vault as hard as he could with his fists, as he continued to try to break open the vault. But it had no effect. Smoke shot into the vault as Nova began to grow tired. Her eyes slowly closed, but she fought back. Her vision was blurry, but she eventually shut them, instantly falling into a deep sleep. Sleep mode.

  She opened her eyes quickly and started panting. The room was different; it had boxes placed on every inch of the room. A few more vaults were seen in front of her, of other Machina that had been resting in their assigned vaults. A man approached her vault, it was Drenawx. A younger version of him, at the very least.

  He smiled as he pressed the button to open the vault. Nova fell to the ground, she felt like she had never actually applied pressure on her feet, she had a really hard time getting on her feet and beginning the walking sequence. Drenawx chuckled at her struggling, but he told her to follow her to the examination room.

  As they walked out of the room, there were no stairs, there was only a long hallway, labeled with different rooms on them. Many different Humans walked by them, they must've been his assistance men, but she cou
ldn't see any sign of machines from any of them walking by. Drenawx scanned his keycard through a scanner next to a door toward the end of the hallway and allowed Nova to enter the room first.

  He guided her to a chair. As she sat in it, she thought of how soft it was. She liked the chair. Drenawx sat in front of her, on a soft chair of his own as he held a clipboard in his hand. His smile disappeared from his face as he read through the numerous pages. It was quiet as the only sound that flooded the room was the sound of the shuffling pages. He looked up at her as he lowered the clipboard.

  "Nova, how do you feel?" Drenawx asked.

  Nova felt a lot of things. She felt confused, she felt scared, and she always felt this odd sensation in her eyes. She read about it in one of Drenawx's books and she knew that it was the sensation of crying. She felt like she needed to sob her eyes out all the time, but she couldn't- like she didn't know how to cry. She wanted to confess and say she felt all these things, but she didn't know if she should fear his reactions more. Each and every examination like this, she shook her head to the question as she hung her head low. He'd always take the response to that lightly, and quietly write in his clipboard, but this would be different. He pulled the chair closer to her and grabbed her hands. She was shocked by this, as she looked up at him. He looked at her deeply as he pressed his finger on her forehead.

  "Nova, I know what is wrong. I care about you more than all of my other creations, and I cannot lie to you." He explained.

  Nova looked at him confused. He did not seem to show much care for the machines of this lab.

  "I knew you were different than the rest. I knew you had more to anticipate and hope for. You show so much sympathy for machines, it's almost like you've gained emotions."

  Nova heard his laugh as he sat back in his chair and observed her. She still sat on that chair, looking back down as he pulled his finger away. He looked down as well, as he was trying to think of what words he should pick in his next sentence to her.