The old man pulled out the shiny object he had found that morning, all those years ago. Take a look. He tossed it to the leader of the robot unit. He downloaded it into his memory. Opening up the section that had been most recently accessed, the leader saw one of Frederick's biggest regrets.
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…
She had thought about it, and realized that there was no use in wasting more time. She was 31, and maybe according to human years, that was too old for him; But in Elf years, she was still considered very young. He was 20. She had noticed him the moment he came in as an intern, and now he was an assistant researcher. She had seen the way the other female assistant researchers in the lab looked at him. He was so smart, and handsome, who wouldn't fall for him?
She made her way over to Frederick's lab. She had access to all the regular labs. She was nervous. This was the first time she had feelings like this for someone. What if he rejected her.
She did not know she would never have the chance to tell him how she felt.
When she walked in she saw instead of Frederick, three men. "What are you doing?" she was perturbed that someone would dare to come and mess with Frederick's research.
"Are you the assistant researcher of this lab?" The man who we know to be the leader asked.
"Who are you?" She was suspicious. She did not like this one bit. These men were not researchers. It was obvious.
"Are you," the man's demeanor screamed of impatience, "or are you not the assistant researcher who worked on this experiment? They had blocked her exit. They knew Elves did not lie unless it was dire. They had not placed her in a dire situation ...yet.
"I am," she lied. Because the men had acted this way, she knew they were not here with good intentions. She felt protective of Frederick.
"Ugh…" She heard from behind the table. She took 2 steps forward to look, then stood still in shock.
"What have you done to Special Researcher Hill?"
He was holding his stomach. It was obvious he had been roughed up.
"You wanted to protect your precious assistant Mister Hill," said one of the other 3 men nonchalantly. "Too bad she just gave herself up. See… we knew we would find out. Even if you did erase all the evidence."
Rina started to back up as the leader came stalking in her direction. "This project should have been in the restricted section of the lab," His voice was deep with a slight aristocratic air. What class he was could not be gleaned just from his actions and voice.
"All this mess," he looked pointedly at one of the men, "just because SOMEone couldn't make sure the correct lab was listed."
The man looked down guiltily.
Frederick should have never been assigned this project! Realization hit Rina like a ton of bricks. What's worse, even special researcher Hill was not aware until now. She cast him a look, and decided then and there she would do this to protect Frederick. If she did not...They would continue to search until they found Frederick. These men were obviously up to no good. She couldn't let them find him.
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…
Hill and Rina were left alone in a room. They were locked in. Rina checked to make sure there were no listening devices, and then nodded to Special Researcher Hill. He had looked like he wanted to speak.
"I noticed something was wrong before it was time for the final results." He looked so defeated. "I didn't let Ff- ...you come." He was about to say Frederick, but did not fully trust that there were truly no devices.
Rina understood this, and went along with it immediately. "You didn't know before this?"
"I have so many projects on at a time," He sighed. "... You... always did so well, I could mostly leave you alone. Everything on the experimental liquid idea had come from the top. I did not realize that due to a mistake made on their part that I could be putting others in danger." He looked up at Rina apologetically. "I'm sorry, You are in this too deeply now. Can you continue?"
She knew what he was asking. Could she continue to lie about being the Assistant on this project? She didn't need any time to think about it. She had fallen in love with Frederick, and did not want whatever fate she was going to face, fall onto him.
"I've fallen in love with a certain assistant here in the lab," She began. "When this is over, I'm going to tell him."
He laughed. "I certainly hope so!" He looked sad all of a sudden. "I don't think I will be forgiven for this. You don't know what was in that final test."
"What was it?" Concern laced her voice. Whatever it was, was very heavy for this man. She could see the weight of it on him like it was a physical thing .
"Genocide," his voice gruff with guilt. "I really didn't know. No-one who doesn't have a certain security clearance knows. That's why this research was supposed to be conducted in the restricted section. The lightning balls are alive. They are lightning sprites. The way we extract them hurts them, and then we kill them."
"They're going to kill us then," she stated knowingly. Tomorrow was the banquet. "Tomorrow…"
"I'll have to introduce you as the assistant researcher on this project. I'm glad none of my other assistants will be implicated in this. There are some who are… exceptionally talented. Genius level."
Rina smiled sadly thinking about Frederick's genius level intellect. "Okay. I understand."
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…
The next day, they were separated, and primped to look very nice. They had to go to the banquet. "He told you what he saw in the final test?" The leader said more than asked, they had indeed been listening. She glared at him.
He signaled one of the men to come forward. The man was holding a small box. He opened it to show her what was in it. Inside, lying peacefully as if sleeping, was a tiny person no bigger than a finger.
"A lightning sprite." She said solemnly.
"So he did tell you." He chuckled. "We made the right decision then."
The banquet came and went in a flash, she was so nervous. But she had also gotten her wish. She had longed to see Frederick. He was dressed so different from normal. It made him even more handsome than before. She wished she was not being kept at such a close watch. She just wanted to talk to him. Maybe tell him how she felt, or why she was taking the credit for his research. But they were indeed watching her too closely for her to tell Frederick anything.
The man she was in love with probably saw her as a leech right now. She had recorded her memories. No-one knew she had this ability. Only royals had this ability. She was royalty from a distant land, but there had never been any reason to tell this to anyone. After the banquet, when she had gotten out of the car. She secretly threw out her memories.
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…
Part of the reason I regret so much, is that I had also had a crush on her. Most people did. Even for an elf, her gratefulness was unparalleled.
Lightning sprites now inhabited each member of the robot unit. These little sprites had no way of protecting themselves. Prior to all of these races living here, the lightning ball storms still happened. Only, there were no buildings then. The lightning would strike the metal underground, then the charge would get absorbed by the earth. When this happened naturally, the sprite would come out of the metal on its own. Then the sprite could live on for a few more years.
But now… Now all these races had arrived, and built, and the lightning could no longer strike the ground. He told them how he had done some experiments later on. He figured out the sprites were injured if moved to a rod, but if left in the original item they struck, they would be healthy. Either way in just a day or two, the sprite would emerge. But neutralizing the charge ahead of time the way they had always done it… killed the sprite.
Frederick regretted his part in this genocide. What had he created all those years ago?
"Because the type of machine you hit is a robot," Old Frederick spoke, "your lifeform has integrated into the machine. You have become immortal. As long as the machine is well taken care of… You will live on."