by Andrew Jones
"Why did you create these machines? Was it really to help the Humans in the outside world? If so, then why did you keep all of us hidden in here without any knowledge of what was going on out there?"
"Because I wanted the machines to destroy the Humans and replace them. Why do you think machines take such interest in Human resemblances? Deep down, all of you machines want to be Humans, even myself." Drenawx grinned as he held a key card in his hand, "That's really why I killed Augur. I was jealous because he was a Human. How he was able to feel so much love for you, and all. I felt my own envy and I couldn't handle it much longer-"
As he was talking, and paying no attention to Blaze and Kryptonite, Blaze quickly stabbed her battle axe into his stomach, and let all of the machine's blood pour out of his stomach. Her face was down, but you could easily tell she had been sobbing from him mentioning the murder of Augur. Drenawx gasped, and inhaled deeply, only to not gain enough air to respond.
"Shut the hell up!" Blaze yelled as she twisted the blade of the battle axe inside Drenawx and pulled it out.
Drenawx stood there, watching as the blood poured out onto the white floor and slightly onto Blaze who had sheathed her weapon and turned away from him.
"How... Bizarre..." Drenawx spoke as he coughed up some blood. "Even after this much damage to my shell of a body... I still cannot feel any pain... I can only hear the alarms in my ears telling me that I am fading from existence..."
"I said to shut the hell up!" Blaze yelled as she pulled out her battle axe again.
She pushed Drenawx to the ground and swung down at his head multiple times. Kryptonite gasped and then sighed as he watched the bloodshed. Blaze was crying and screaming at Drenawx as she pounded his head in a little more after each swing. After she was finished, she dropped her battle axe on the machine body, seeing nothing but a big puddle of blood and machine parts flown around everywhere. She kept crying, but she took a deep breath to calm herself down.
"You know, I always thought that my life would be complete when I killed Drenawx. After all, he's done to me..." Blaze muttered as she covered her sobbing face with her hair.
"... Is it complete now?" Kryptonite asked.
Blaze began to sob again as she shook her head, thrusting her fists into the body of Drenawx, spilling his blood onto her, "Why can't I be happy again!?"
Kryptonite rushed to her and placed his paw on her shoulder, "Blaze, you can't feel emotional like this... This is what he was planning. If this happens, you'll be easily contaminated by the network and you'll be possessed... Your mission isn't over yet."
She took another deep breath as she opened her eyes, noticing the keycard he had been holding still in the grip of his hand. She reached down and grabbed it, seeing the numbers, '2269RZ - THE RESTRICTED ZONE' written on it as a label.
"Did you see a door with these numbers on it?" Blaze asked him as she showed him the keycard.
Kryptonite thought for a moment, "Yeah... I tried breaking into the room, but it had heavy security on it. This should help us get through the door."
Blaze stood up and nodded her head, as she picked up her battle axe and looked down at Kryptonite, "Take me there."
Kryptonite smiled and nodded his head as well, immediately walking out of the room and toward a set of stairs that were hidden from her sight as she entered the room with Drenawx present. She glanced where the machines were, seeing all the machines had broken down into multiple pieces like Drenawx had. Her heart sank, as she wondered if this was because of her. Until she remembered what Kryptonite said to her. Could this world be fake? If so, is the real Drenawx even dead? All the thinking she was doing was doing her nothing, so she shook her head and continued to climb the high set of stairs.
On the top of the stairs, there was a huge room that looked all decorated with flowers and religious statues, like the room with Lilith in. This room was all white, like the main part of the laboratory, but there were big gashes of red stains on the floor leading up to the big multi-colored doors. The red on the floor was obviously blood, and it was strong enough for them to smell it. Kryptonite stepped passed the bloody mess and jumped up onto the doorknob, balancing his reach to insert the keycard in its destined slot right next to the doors. As he entered the keycard, a loud robotic voice spoke to them.
"Authenticating... Buzz Buzz... Entry accepted, welcome back Master Drenawx..."
The robotic voice spoke as the doors quickly opened, throwing Kryptonite onto the floor. Blaze looked inside to see another ray of light, like the ray of light that was present in the doorway that led them to this world.
"Are you ready for this? This could be where the Armagna Network truly lies. If you're weak, we can rest here..." Kryptonite muttered as he looked at her, getting up on his feet and grumbled.
Blaze ignored him and began walking through the doorway, entering the rays of light. She was determined to get take down this network, more determined than ever. It had suddenly become more personal than she would think. Maybe this would even give her some answers on what happened to Augur and Drakkar. Kryptonite shook his head and grumbled, automatically walking in after her, knowing he didn't have a choice whether to stay and rest or not after she walked through.
Verse XVII
The Restricted Zone
The air seemed cold in this domain. It was gray, as it seemed to have a balanced aura of light and darkness within the realm. The doorway had opened to a new sort of room that neither Blaze or Kryptonite could recognize. The ceiling hung high, with a dim bright light shining from the top. The light resembled an unseen force that sung the songs of the unborn angels of the Heavens. But in this world, the Heavens were not established to the fact that there were no protective clouds in the sky to help protect a place like the Heavens. Though, the room they were in looked like what they would picture as the Heavens. Like Drenawx's laboratory, the large room was entirely white. But everything in the room was reduced to blocks. The floors were blocks, the walls, and the moving obstacles that would move up, down and side to side to get one to another platform.
Blaze's body shook as she stood in the room, the room for some odd reason made her feel like she was close to completely freezing. Kryptonite noticed her shaking and handed her a sweater he had gotten from his pocket. It was a white and fluffy sweater, but it had been a little big on her. With no words, she slipped it on and regained the color on her face as it had been red from the cold. She noticed her breath- as she exhaled breath, her breath quickly became more visible. She tilted her head and watched as she exhaled, being somewhat amused by it, but Kryptonite pointed his paw toward the block obstacle in front of them.
"Blaze, is this a secret room in Drenawx's lab?" Kryptonite asked.
"I... I remember there being a room called The Restricted Zone, but I had never been inside." She answered.
"C'mon, if we really are in the past we have to get back to the present. Being here would disrupt the course of time if we are here too long."
Blaze frowned, "How do you know that?"
Kryptonite shook his head while he jumped on top of a block that dropped down close to him, he quickly jumped upward onto the next platform and rushed ahead. Blaze quickly followed him, as she would jump up the obstacles with ease. But once she jumped onto the platform Kryptonite was on, she noticed him looking straight at a map display. The map display showed a whole map of this mysterious Restricted Zone but it all had different and unknown coding, maybe for security measures.
Blaze glanced at each of the icons, telling Chip to copy the coding for each of the icons. She felt like these could be important for finding the source of the network, she sensed the source was close by. In fact, her body had felt weird since they entered this Restricted Zone, but she only guessed it was because the network was nearby.
"This icon is close." Blaze observed, pointing on the map, "It's just through that door down this platform too, maybe that can be where we start."
Kryptonite nodded his head, "Go ahead."
/> She started her way to the door, seeing another device on the door where she had to press her hand onto the device in order to open it. She did so slowly, as she soon saw the door opening. The room lit up as the doors opened. Everything was white again, but there was more shape to the areas of this room. There was buildings, landscape, and even people just standing around doing nothing, like they weren't even alive at all. Blaze pressed her hand onto a person's shoulder, but her hand fell right there like it was just another hallucination, but it was actually because the people model of that person was not fully developed as of yet.
"Just about everything is functional here, it's like he was making a new home for the machines," Kryptonite shouted as he was inside a building, looking at all the antiques and merchandise of the supposed shop.
"ATTENTION. THE REGULARLY SCHEDULED WEATHER GENERATOR IS ABOUT TO COMMENCE. WEATHER PATTERN: RAIN." A robotic voice was heard through the intercom throughout the city.
Blaze gasped as she ran into the shop with Kryptonite, hearing generated sounds of thunder shocks and rain, soon seeing drips of rain fall out from the ceiling. She peered her head out and looked above the city, only to see heavy black clouds where the rain and thunder had generated from.
"They even generated clouds? What was Drenawx doing?" Kryptonite asked as he sat in one of the chairs and watched the rain.
Blaze lent back against the doorway, staring into the rain, "It's beautiful though... The rain. It's only so rare to see it rain like this in the outside world... Or our world..."
Kryptonite scoffed, "No. This isn't real. He's made a mockery of the real world!"
"Yes, but what if we wanted this? Even if it isn't real, it might have been better than reality."
Kryptonite sighed, and just kept quiet. He watched Blaze, as she just watched the rain drop. She seemed at peace for once, always having something on here mind that would upset or stress her out. But she was quiet and had a very calm look on her face. Kryptonite remembered way back when his old partner would do the same. He would just sit and watch the rain drop for hours, maybe even all night. It really made you wonder how beautiful the world is- or what it could be. The drops of the rain as it falls to the ground was the sound of serenity- there was nothing else but the thunder, which helped bring depth to the sounds of serenity.
He laid back on his seat, knowing for sure that they weren't able to proceed until the rain had stopped, so he closed his eyes and decided to get some rest while he had the opportunity. Blaze wondered though, why was there a hidden city in the laboratory? Was Drenawx really trying to create a safe and hidden world for the machines to reside? Or was he trying to keep them contained in this city and control their lives?
The rain immediately stopped, leaving the area to glitter in the wetness it left on the city's material. There were little puddles on the ground, as Blaze would tap her foot in the puddle to create a little splash. She looked over at Kryptonite who was fast asleep. She smiled, her hand had reached toward him and started petting the top of his head. He shuffled in his sleep, mumbling some nonsense as he usually did, so Blaze decided to let him sleep while she explored further into the city. It wasn't all too big, but once the city had developed some color, it would really start to stand out. She glanced at the resting teddy bear as she reached her hand into his pocket. Her eyes narrowed as she reached deep inside, deeper than she thought she'd have to. And as she felt all these strange objects from inside, her facial reactions would change depending on how disgusted or intrigued she was by the feeling. She decided to grab the closest item she could find, as she saw the shuffling of Kryptonite which made her feel paranoid over what he would think of her going into his pockets.
Blaze pulled on her arm and found some sort of box in her hand. She looked down at it and saw the word, 'crayons', which had sticks of an assortment of colors. She opened the box and grabbed a green crayon out, observing it carefully. But as she did so, she saw a green coloring on her hand, which sort of frightened her. However, she quickly realized what it was for- she quickly rushed outside and sat on the ground, taking a strip of the colorless grass and began brushing the sharp tip of the crayon by the tip, seeing a green line appear magically on the colorless grass. She gasped, it must've been some sort of device used to give color to the world- or to make life beautiful.
She continued on as Kryptonite slept, coloring the entire city until each and every white mark was colored to what she had thought the old world would have looked like. She used all the colors, as well, until the crayons became dull. But she managed to do it. The city looked like a page out of one of Drenawx's books in his library. She remembered reading another book on the best cities in Izequin, specifically being interested in Heartland. Heartland, known for its rich meadows that were full of life and rural farming areas, the cities weren't all too big. The pictures of the city of Heartland reminded her of this city.
Beautiful as the city had become, the color failed to give proper life to the simulation. It was still nothing like the outside world, maybe she just had gotten used to the corruption in her everyday life. She looked down at the last crayon in the box, seeing a black crayon, but she slowly just softened her grip, letting the box drop on the ground.
The sound awoke Kryptonite- he jumped off his seat and called out for Blaze, noticing that everything had looked like it was drawn on. He quickly rushed outside and saw Blaze sitting on the green grass, hugging her legs and hiding her face in them. He slowly approached her, knowing she'd be able to sense his presence.
"I tried..." Blaze whispered while she kept her face in her legs, hugging her legs tighter.
Kryptonite tilted his head, "Huh?"
"I tried to create a beautiful world, but even if a world looks beautiful, it cannot if the people who inhabit the world are corrupted."
Kryptonite looked down as he sat next to her. He observed the area, seeing the impressive mix of colors as they would blend in quite nicely. It reminded him of his own village, the Teddy Bear Village before it had been destroyed. He didn't think of that heartbreaking scene negatively, though- he might have lost everything, but he wouldn't have met his last partner, and Blaze if it did not happen.
"You do have quite the artistic skills, I'll admit." Kryptonite chuckled, spotting the box of crayons just in front of them.
Blaze chuckled, just before a loud sound went off in the room. A projection of Lilith appeared in front of them. She opened her eyes and looked calmly at them; her body constantly showed static, leaving Blaze to only guess that her connection to this room was weakened.
"This room... What have you done to our creation?" Lilith spoke in an extremely soft and emotionless voice.
She sounded so innocent like she couldn't be an antagonist. But Kryptonite could sense her as a direct threat, even though she appeared to have been just a calmly girl. She was a lot like Blaze the first time he met her, but Blaze was more aggressive when she showed her true self.
"Creation?" Blaze asked as she stood up, seeing on the corner of her eye that Kryptonite was standing up as well.
"Don't think you'll go into battle, Blaze. I'm only a projection set off in another room."
Blaze shook her fists in anger, "Tell me where you are, Lilith!"
Lilith stood there and watched them for a small moment before speaking, "Blaze, I sense a change in your personality. Has it been that your venture into the outside world has altered who you truly are? I can remember, located in my memory chip 991-003-9931 that you promised not to change yourself once you finally realize what the world consists of."
Blaze grunted, "What are you talking about!?"
"Your desire for knowledge of this world consumed you. It was like your desire for knowledge suddenly changed to a desire for sadness..." Lilith explained, "I've been watching you, Blaze, over watching your acts in order to find a way for you to come to me, instead of me coming to you. You simply followed the path that would grow your inner sadness."
"My inner sadness?" Blaze grunted, go
ing a bit speechless before she grunted again and pulled out her battle axe in order to slash the projection of Lilith. But as she hit the projection, the projection pixelated and disappeared, appearing behind her once again, "What do you want from me!?"
Lilith kept that calm look on her face, "We want the same thing, Blaze. To create a perfect world. I see that your desire for that has grown just from giving this simulated world color, giving it beauty. Why don't you join me? I'll help you, Blaze, just like the old days."
Kryptonite shook his head, "No, Blaze! Remember what her network has done to the Machine Village? She's lying to you!"
"If you come to a conclusion, I'll be in the room on top of the high flight of stairs. Just, make the right choice, Blaze. Make up for what you've done to the fallen machines."
Lilith spoke as she closed her eyes, making her projection pixelate and disappear once again. Blaze quickly stabbed the ground where Lilith's projection was standing at, stabbing it nonstop. She finally stopped when she had no energy, falling to the ground and hiding her face behind her hair.
"Kryptonite, what did she mean...?" Blaze asked, panting heavily.
"The room on top of the high flight of stairs... That's where she's at, we can end this, Blaze!" Kryptonite shouted as he went and tried to pull her up by her arm, failing to do so.
Blaze took her arm away from him as she stood up, "What's the point? It's basically too late. The world is in ruin. If I were to help make this into a perfect world, think of the impact..."
Kryptonite frowned and shook his head, "No. You've been wanting to stop this network since we met. You want revenge for the machines Drenawx neglected. You did no wrong. You can help them find peace right here, right now. This is what you've been dreaming of, Blaze. Think of this impact!"
Blaze looked down as she listened to Kryptonite. He grumbled as he watched her, seeing a door materialize at the other side of the room.