Whipping around and activating his defensive turtle shield, Sydra looks at the person standing behind him. The man was wearing clothes that were still on fire, and most of his skin was burned to a crisp. Holding up his hands in surrender, the man looks at Sydra with an interested gaze.
"Hold on, I'm not here to fight you, and you probably don't recognize me because of the burns covering my body," The man says as Sydra looks at him warily, but with a hint of confusion. "It's me, Ned,"
"Ned, you mean your the guy I just killed down in the secret base, but how are you still alive then?" Sandra asks, looking at the man claiming to be Ned. Although the man looked like he was badly burned, and shouldn't even be able to move, he did resemble Ned.
"That's right, I have the power of infinite lives. Instead of my soul leaving my body after I die, it returns a few minutes later, and begins healing my body back to what it was the last time it was in the best shape," Ned explains, showing Sydra the burns healing quickly on his arms.
'No wonder I didn't receive his aura when I killed him, he wasn't actually dead,' Sydra thinks as he holds up his hand and points the shield at Ned. Activating the gem in the center of the shield, Sydra releases the fire aura towards Ned, burning his body into ash. "Let's see you recover from that,"
Making sure that Ned is gone this time, Sydra watches the pile of ash with an intense gaze. The ash stays still for a few seconds before it starts moving as if a small whirlwind was affecting it. As the whirlwind of ash grew in height, Sydra notices a pair of skeleton feet appearing at the bottom, attached to legs and then a torso. While the skeleton is still being made, muscles and skin begin forming over it.
Once the body is finished, Ned looks at Sydra with an annoyed look on his face. "Please don't do that again, it does hurt you know," Ned says as he steps out of the whirlwind and looks down at himself, "Great, now I don't have any clothes,"
Pulling a blanket out of his Arbor Sanctum, Sydra tosses it to Ned, who catches it and wraps it around his body. Looking at him, Sydra notices that Ned's body seems to be completely free of any and all blemishes. 'I guess he must have died in the fire, but not completely burned to ash earlier. That is probably the reason he was healing from burns,'.
"So what is the reason you found me, instead of escaping while I thought you were still dead?" Sydra asks.
Looking around the city, Ned points toward a small building with a few tables outside it. On top of the tables were plates covered in dust, and Kantoko was frozen in the position of having a meal.
"Do you mind if we sit down before we talk, my power uses a lot of my stamina," Ned says. Nodding his head, Sydra walks over to one of the empty tables and pulls out a chair to sit in. Sitting down opposite from him, Ned looks towards Sydra with a tired expression.
"I guess you must really want me dead, to kill me twice like that," Ned says.
"You were doing experiments on children, is there any reason you should live?" Sydra asks, pulling the book he got from the office out and placing it on the table. "I found this in the office, and I want to know how to open it,"
Jumping up from his chair, Ned looks at the book with a startled look. "Why do you have the book of evolution with you? I thought it would have burned in the fire," He says, hesitantly reaching out his hand towards the book. Before he could touch it, Sydra pulls the book off the table and holder it up in the air.
"What is it, and how do I open it?" Sydra asks again, with a more serious tone this time. Detecting the dangerous aura building around Sydra, Ned quickly sits down and begins to explain what he knows.
"That book is called The Evolutions Guide, and it used to belong to a woman I knew. The power within the book allows people to evolve at an abnormal rate, becoming more powerful, and reaching greater heights. However, to gain that power, they have to sacrifice the thing most dear to them," Ned says, looking at the book in Sydra's hands. "To open the book and gain its power, you must first complete the sacrifice, then place a drop of your blood on the gem,"
"I see, so why didn't you do it? The book was in your office," Sydra asks, looking at the book in disgust. 'To gain power, people will do anything. Even betraying their closest ones,'
"The thing I hold most dear is more important than the power that book can give me, so I never used it," Ned says, his face lost in memories.
"But your willing to sacrifice others for gain?" Sydra asks, snapping Ned out of his thoughts. Looking ashamed, Ned lowers his head towards the table.
"I know how you must feel, and why you want to kill me, but my experiments are to save my daughter. She has a disease, and if I can just finish my experiment, I'll be able to save her," Ned says, tears dripping from his face.
Slamming his hand into the table, Sydra stands up and grabs the front of the blanket Ned is wearing. "You have done this for your daughter?! You killed countless creatures and were even willing to do experiments on children, but since it was for your daughter it is okay?"
"No, I knew it wasn't okay, and I know I deserve death for what I have done, but I would do anything for my daughter," Ned says as Sydra drops him back in his chair.
"Tell me, what disease does your daughter have that requires you to rewrite her DNA with that of animals?" Sydra asks, sitting back in his chair and calming himself down.
"She has Energy Loss, where her body is constantly losing the energy it needs to work. As she gets older her body requires more energy, and she is getting to the point where it can't keep up. I planned to give her the DNA of a Volcanic Polimo, which generates more energy than the sun," Ned explains.
"Hmm, I understand now what is going on, but you still used children in your experiments, and you planned to let them die," Sydra says, looking at Ned with uncertainty. "How far are you on your project?"
"I'm... not sure, to be honest. But I believe I am close," Ned says, looking back at the burning building. "However, all my research was burned, and without it, I'll be set back,"
'What research is he talking about? I only found this book in the office,' Sydra thinks, glancing down at the book on the table. "Is it possible to do your research without experimenting and killing animals and children?"
"It should be, but that will make it take longer," Ned says, "Why do you ask?"
"I will allow you to save your daughter, but you will have to follow my guidelines from now on," Sydra says, reaching his hand out and grabbing Ned's. After sending him into his Arbor Sanctum, Sydra goes in as well. The area Sydra sent Ned was far below his palace, and there were no doors or windows.
"Where are we?" Ned asks, looking around the bare white room, that only has lights on the ceiling. The room was long, and there was plenty of open space to put tables and experiment equipment.
"This is the room where you will be working from now on. I will bring you equipment, and the items you need to finish your work, as well as other living materialsl" Sydra says as he summons a mattress and some other items he picked up along the way.
After dropping off the stuff, Sydra had Ned write up a list of items he would need to continue his work. Taking the list with him, Sydra left Ned to check in on the children and creatures. Appearing in the dining hall of his palace, Sydra saw Haley sitting at the table.
"I see your finally awake again, how do you feel?" Sydra asks as he looks around for the others.
"I'm fine now, but what I'm curious about is this place, and how I got here. Lorey told me a little bit when I woke up, but she was more worried about the children," Haley says as she finishes eating lunch and starts putting the dishes away.
"Ah, well this place is..." Before Sydra could finish explaining the island, Lorey ran into the kitchen with a smile on her face.
"One of the children woke up," Lorey says before seeing Sydra, "Good, your here too, come with me,"