"That's interesting..." A sensual voice parted the amethyst color lips of a woman. Amethyst color hair started to sway as a woman was hovering around a laboratory. Several cybernetic screens were in front of her, and her dainty fingers were nimbly running over them. "Interesting? Your robot got destroyed! You said it could handle them!" A rowdy voice came forth. It was from General Smith.
General Smith was standing inside the small laboratory. Several things were notable. Capsules with hearts floating in them had various dim colors emitting from them and were softly pulsating. It looked as if the hearts were dying. Aside from that, there were unique plants in another area of the laboratory. A large computer screen and a console had been in the far back, and a few worktables could be seen here and there with papers littered over them.
In another part of the laboratory, there was the robot. It was inside of a capsule with several large wires that looked like tubes attached to it. There was no sign of life from the robot either, suggesting it that had been shut down. The woman scoffed at the General. "I never said it was. I told you it was still in the testing phase. You were the one who forced it out of our hands and used it." The woman replied.
The General grit his teeth and balled his fist. "You said it was to be ready within two months, and yet you delivered an unfinished product, Francine!" The General exclaimed. The woman stopped and shifted her attention towards the General. The glow in her eyes started to give off a vivid aura. "You didn't listen to a word I said. I told you it would need to go through testing. Just because it's built doesn't mean it's ready to be deployed. Now I have to clean up after your mess. Why do you think the Sin Squad hasn't attacked them yet?" The woman's voice shifted from playful to serious.
The General could see several types of machinery coming out of the walls. Even a turret had deployed from the ceiling. They hadn't tried to attack yet, but it was suggested that the General not raise his tone of voice anymore. "I am not one of your men, General. I am a Warlord who has the same position as you. Just because I am not active on the battlefield doesn't mean I am weak. You will do well to remember that the next time you decide to raise your voice at me." Francine stated firmly.
The General shook his head and left the room, storming off. The door automatically slid open once it detected someone was leaving, and once they were gone, it closed. The glow in Francine's eyes dimmed down, and the machines started to return into the walls, looking as if they had never come out. Even the turret went back into the ceiling. "Foolish man. The only reason I agreed to help you is that I want the man's Seed. A man who isn't from this world but has the same amount of power as us. Clearly, his Seed is mutated." Francine sighed heavily and returned to work. She was going through ways to upgrade the robot, find ways to deploy martial arts into it, and employ various knowledge of Seed Power into the robot.
Even if she said what she did, she didn't think anyone would be able to harm the robot to the extent they did. So when it teleported into her lab, she instantly went to work on it and found out it had been beaten pretty badly as if some kind of beast got to it. That said, she didn't have much hope for the robot to achieve the task the General put it to. The only reason she knew about the task was because of the camera she installed onto it. Currently, Francine was going over the footage. She was at the part where Don had dodged the beam but stopped it since General Smith had barged into her lab to complain.
She resumed the footage and continued to watch but stopped it once she caught the words Don had said. Her brow rose with a confused expression. "Parents? Is this kid suggesting I'm his mother?" Francine muttered those words aloud, and once she did, she felt a sharp pain in her head. She winced in pain and dropped to the ground on her knees. The cybernetic screens started to buzz in and out since her concentration was off. Although, she continued to look at Don. The footage kept going, and the more she watched, the more she wondered.
The reason being that a large part of her memory was missing. All she could remember was waking up on a hospital bed and didn't even who she was or what she did for a living. She felt sick, though, and her body looked sickly. With the help of doctors and others, she restored her body to a healthy state which was the look it had today. Apparently, she had a knack for research and testing theories. She was good with machines and knew how to use them. She had woken to her Seed Power without even knowing, which allowed her to control machinery, know the ins and outs and use it as she pleased.
She never cared to know who or what she was. The only reason she knew her name was due to her ID that was in her pocket at the time that people found and brought her in. They placed everything she had in a plastic bag. It had a large sum of money and drugs. She didn't care for the drugs but kept the money and her ID. Eventually, she had moved on with her new life and did what she wanted.
However, she had come to find out that someone else had the same last name as her—the Warlord and Overseer of Creation, James Douglas. The man had arrived at the same time she did. In fact, they arrived together. James didn't know who he was or what he did before coming here either. He had plenty of drugs on him but no money. After recovering, the man told them he didn't want it and to do as they pleased with it. Instead, he found this itch to build. It didn't matter what; he just wanted to build. His Seed Power had awakened, and he began creating a house for himself. Inside the house, he made the basement which decent below sea level, to make various things.
He was approached by a group of people in black suits and asked to work for them. They offered him a large sum of money and told him all he had to do was help them build a fortress. James didn't mind. He got to do what he wanted and even got paid for it; the only condition was that the fortress is made around his house. He explained that there were things he could not move from there, and they agreed.
They had extended this offer to Francine, which was how the two of them met. They worked together to build the fortress and its defensive and security system. The fortress they built would be known as The New World Government HQ, North America Branch. Since they were working together, they had come to enjoy each other's company and found they had a few things in common.
They looked into some things and found that they woke up on the same day and were said to have appeared in this world on the same day. That they weren't originally from this world. It wasn't a problem because they didn't care who or what they were in the past. They didn't care to search for it. Besides, they felt like it couldn't have been a good thing anyway. This is what led them to find out that they were actually married.
Both of them had a ring similar to one another, and it looked like a wedding ring, but they didn't know who it belonged to. So, after looking into it, they found out that they were once married. They decided not to rekindle the old flame, though, and just to remain colleagues. They didn't tell anyone else about this either. So it stayed between them, but now that Francine saw what she saw. She began to wonder if Don was related to her or James.
The more she wondered, the more pain she went through, and eventually, she got a figment of a memory. It wasn't much, but it was her in a hospital room holding a baby. The voices were mudded, but they seemed familiar. One was her own, and the other seemed to resemble James' voice. They were talking about something. The word name and child came up. Eventually, many different names were thrown around until one was landed on Donathan. After that, the pain became too much, and Francine passed out. The cybernetic screens fizzled out, and the lab went into a low-powered state since the lights dimmed down.
Back to John and Rose, John had asked Rose if she knew anything about the robot or the two names. Rose had felt like she was let down, that maybe John was going to bring something else up, but decided to answer John's question. "Not really. I never really knew much about the other Warlords. Rumors were that Francine and James were a couple, and they had come from another planet, but no one truly knew. As for the robots thing, sure. Research and Development and Creation have been working on things like that for years. They have created cannons that could fit on space ships and battleships. They even have a satellite cannon up in space that can be used to take out an entire city if need be. So, yeah, them making a robot like that isn't too far-fetched." Rose stated.
"However, the part about them being Don's parents. I'm not sure. I never talked with them. So, I couldn't tell you. Even if they were, why would it matter? It's clear that Don hates his parents. In the end, he would just kill them if he ever saw them." Rose answered.
"It doesn't matter if they are or aren't Don's parents. I just want to know who our enemy is, but Don..." John closed his eyes as he began to speak. "He's changing. I've caught glimpses of it before we came here. Whenever that bastard Richard tried to do something to April, or some other thugs tried to approach April, Don had this air around him. It felt inhumane. I always got this feeling that something bad was going to happen. Which was why we tried to calm him down, but as of late, that air has become stagnate. It hasn't gone anywhere..." John continued.
"Only those of us who have been around Don for a long time know about it. We fear that Don may not be able to return to his normal self. He may end up just killing people back on Earth..." John finished.
"Sounds like he is returning to his normal days as a hitman. Well, from my point of view. It's not necessarily a bad thing. So, I don't see the problem." Rose replied, and John shook his head since she wasn't getting it.
"That's because you don't know what Don was like before all of this. Don was a chill guy. He was laid back and just did what he wanted. Sure, he had his moments of aggression, but he never acted on them in sheer violence. If he had to fight, he would, but he wouldn't be the one to initiate it. I feel that the Don now would kill someone without hesitation or question. Just like how he did with Mark." John explained.
Rose thought about it for a moment. What John was saying was true, Don could have even killed her back when they first met, but he didn't. Yet there was a time where he killed several other men and chased down Richard. After that, it just spiraled downward from there. Rose began to wonder, if Don came across someone they didn't know would he end up killing them?
In short, yes. She recalled what he did to Mark. Sure he had given him a chance, but at the end of the day, he killed him without hesitation. Even April told him to do it. Which got her to think about something. What if April asked Don to kill someone? Would he do it? The thought alone caused her to shiver. Just thinking about the lives of others in the hands of April made her shake. It wasn't that she didn't trust April, but the way she was now, she could easily decide the fate of someone in the group.
"Perhaps you are right." Rose agreed with John. "But, what can we do? It's not like we can stop him. The only one who is even capable of getting through to him is April." Rose remarked, and John nodded. "Actually, I think we can. As long as we manage to convenience both Don and April to not kill people willingly, it might help him change back into who he once was." John explained.
Rose thought about it but didn't need to think much. She felt like that wouldn't work. Maybe in the past, it would have, but things took a major turn with the death of John's Mother. Don wasn't going to give people a chance to betray them or turn on them. Don was going to deal with the problems then and there. "John, that may have worked before, but not now. Don is insistent on keeping us safe." Rose stated.
"Even if that means becoming a villain, he will do whatever just to make sure we all get to go home. Plus, Natalie only has about one more month. Pretty soon, she will be gone. That means we won't have a doctor, so I can assume that she is preparing for her leave." Rose explained.
John had been too focused on his revenge to actually notice just how much time had passed. Sure, two months had passed, but he didn't actually realize just how long that was until Rose brought it up. The only reason his focus shifted to Don was because of the thing that happened. Even if he was soo stuck on revenge, he still cared about his friends, including Don.
"I see... Then what do you think we should do?" John asked. He actually found it odd to ask Rose about something like this. He was surprised he even asked her. Rose thought about it for a moment, but she could only come up with one thing. "We'll just have to watch over him. Stand by his side. In the end, we all know what Don is and what he is doing. That is all we can do." Rose replied. John sighed softly, "Perhaps." He replied. He couldn't see any other way.
"Well, thanks anyway. I think we should keep this between us for now." John said and was about to leave, but Rose stopped him. She had taken his wrist. "Is something wrong?" John asked and turned to look towards her. Rose had her gaze cast downward. "I wanted to ask you something while you are here." Rose's heart was beating rapidly. Her face was red, and she didn't want to look up at John to show him her expression. She was shy.
"Okay?" John replied. "Is...Is there anyone... that you like?" Rose inquired. John's brow rose. He had been trying to get Rose to like him, and now she was asking this question. John wasn't dense. He figured that he had succeeded in doing what he wanted, yet there was some kind of pain inside of him. Something he didn't like. It felt disgusting.
"You don't have to answer if you don't want to! I was just curious!" Rose exclaimed. Her tone of voice became high due to how embarrassed she was. The reason she was feeling like this was because of John. During the two months, they spent a lot of time together. Rose asked John about emotions and feelings and what was what. She had become to engage in more emotion with herself than she had ever done during the years she spent with The World Government. In a way, she was now more in touch with her emotions.
"Actually..." John would turn around and wrap an arm around Rose's waist to pull her into him. "There is." He said with a soft smile, and Rose quickly looked up at him. She didn't want to know what to say or do. She could see John was leaning in and about to kiss her, and in the end, she closed her eyes and accepted it.
They kissed one another in that watchtower with the heavy rainfalls all around them. John opened his eyes for a moment to see Rose had hers closed. He used his free hand to reach into his back pocket and pull out a pocket knife, he would angle the knife to the back of Rose's neck and be prepared to jam the knife into her neck, but Rose broke the kiss and looked at him with the most beautiful smile he had ever seen her posses.
"Thank you, Johnny," Rose spoke softly.