(A/N: The contents of this chapter aren't based on any theory of mankind's origins, whether religious or scientific).
***
Bernard was taken to up another flight of stairs. He walked with Sandra while conversing about other details of the Safe Zone and getting to know her better while she did the same.
They arrived after a few minutes to a high floor. There was an elevator in the building, but it was meant for emergencies or rapid response for other Elites like Astrid.
They reached a floor that looked just like the others, the only exception being the existence of fewer rooms. The two walked down the hall and reached an open space in the middle of the entire floor.
There, they saw other new Elite Invigorated being led by helpers.
"Did you have to come and escort me?" Bernard asked.
"No, but I wanted to talk to you more before you hear what you're about to hear. You have an interesting view towards human nature and I wanted to hear more of it," she replied.
"I see."
The open space wasn't any different, or luxurious, only a few flowers in vases were added to give it a warmer feeling.
Around 20 of the recruits were gathered and we sat on the stone benches and began giving themselves words of casual greeting.
Shortly after, two people arrived. One was Astrid. The other was a girl who looked to be around 17 years of age. She had shoulder-length black hair, hazel eyes and an average height. She came in with an intense gaze, looking at everyone with a vibe that even Bernard would call weird.
She smiled with her ideal pink lips, making her cheekbones appear fuller.
"This is my daughter Emma. She is the one we call the Advocate. I'm sure you have a lot of questions that we refused to answer. Feel free to ask after she explains the details you need to know," Astrid said.
"Mom, I know how to introduce myself. Plus aren't you supposed to be a bit less formal here and wear an approachable face," Emma said with a giggle, addressing the harsh gaze her mother wore.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. The smile on her face faded and a sudden change appeared in the room.
Everyone felt an oppressive aura pressing onto them. It wasn't harsh, just bearing on their bodies and exerting its will.
Bernard and every one of the recruits had a shocked expression on their faces, but the 'veterans' like Sandra and the rest were calm, even giving a respectful short bow.
A soft breeze engulfed the room and everyone breathed in a breath of fresh air that smelled of moist ground, flowers and a hint of dust.
It was bliss. It was nature.
Emma opened her eyes to reveal an intense green hue overflowing from her irises. She smiled again, this time no longer with just passion, but a deep affection that everyone in the space felt.
A mature woman's voice escaped from her lips as she addressed the recruits.
"Welcome my children. I'm glad you're safe. My last-ditch attempt at saving everyone failed miserably, but I'm glad some of you managed to stay alive. I understand it was not easy and pieces of yourselves were lost in the process but please accept my words," she said. Her gaze was so soft you could forget that the world was on the brink of destruction.
Bernard noticed something strange.
'I noticed people of different nationalities who may not have been able to understand English, actually understanding her words. Is everyone here really proficient in English or are we hearing differently?'
A young man with chestnut thick wavy hair and an extended goatee was so shocked he almost kneeled.
"W..who are you??" he asked.
"I. I am your mother. The mother of all creatures on earth. Plants, animals and humans. The land, the seas and the skies are my body. The air you breathe is my life. I have a name of my own but since my children chose to give me a name I did not refuse it. I am Mother Earth," she said.
'WHAT NOW?' Bernard was astounded. 'Mother Earth? She what???'
"Please allow me to explain the situation we are currently facing. There's barely any time to waste. You need to be taught basic military techniques and harness your abilities afterwards," she said.
"I'm not sure what kind of enemy we are facing. When it entered my atmosphere it behaved like a living thing looking for something to feed on, a Virus of sorts. It devoured everything, at first sight, particularly focusing on life energy.
It came with such a tremendous mass that the energy alone was enough to disrupt the gravity and shake my lands.
It invaded different bodies and caused different effects, some of my children rising as abominations, others simply dying a cruel death.
To prevent mankind from facing extinction I made a split-second decision to distribute my life energy. Because of the pain, I couldn't exactly choose all that I considered perfect candidates but I granted all those I could, basic or standard Invigoration to keep them alive.
As for what you call Elite invigoration, I had a tough choice. It is a compounded and dense amount of my life energy that can bring ideas to life but with limitations and consequences. I didn't want to do it at random and risk creating more monsters among my children.
So I created small criteria that auto-selected according to what I programmed it to do. I learned that from you."
Everyone digested what they had just heard. It came as a surprise. So this phenomenon they called Invigoration was the Earth distributing its life energy to protect them? Some were deeply touched, others were sceptical but they all wanted to hear the whole explanation.
"My criteria wasn't perfect, but it allowed me to at least weed out a majority of the bad apples.
When you heard the words 'Think your happiest memories' it was to evoke you to think of your most cherished memory. Or at least what you considered your happiest memories.
Depending on what it would be, my life energy would choose whether for you to receive basic or elite invigoration.
I excluded all those whose memory was of perverse obsession and chose those that had a pure passion or a memory that showed that they were capable of not doing excessive harm for the fun of it.
From these memories would then be birthed a gift you could use in this apocalypse. To elaborate let me give an example. If someone's happiest memory was fire, then they would get a fire-based gift. I understand you call my gifts innate abilities. Quite fitting.
However, if someone's memory was burning forests or people with fire, then that person would be stuck with standard Invigoration.
That's why there are people around you who even have abilities like enhancing firearms. As long as it was pure passion devoid of ill intent, I'd allow it."
Bernard was in deep thought. He had dice. Did his one time gamble need to be made into a dice-based ability? He never really was the gambling type.
"It's unfortunate that not everyone was able to handle my life energy as I couldn't do it manually to make sure everyone would be safe. Also, not every Invigorated has pure intentions. I might have missed some bad apples as well. I apologise. It can't be helped.
Between stabilising my atmospheric conditions, creating Safe Zones and distributing my energy for billions, I couldn't create outrageously strong abilities for you instead so that it could be like your famous movies."
Bernard was worried. So far he hadn't heard anything that proposed hope at all. He had to ask his burning question.
"I'm... umm ....I'm sorry to interrupt but from what you said..the odds are against us. Is there any hope at all to walk out of this alive?" he asked, nervous that he might piss off...Mother.
Contrary to his thoughts, he only received a soft gaze and an answer.
"Indeed there's hope my son. Before this living energy could burrow itself into the earth and extract all my life energy, I managed to crystallize all of it and give it to my children in Safe Zone 1, the largest Safe Zone, to protect it.
You see, I am capable of expelling this enemy if I used the vast majority of the energy and created a dome with the same properties as the Ozone but stronger. However, I'll need time. I don't have enough strength at the moment and I'm amassing a lot of energy to pull it off successfully.
If I do it now, that life energy may as well be extracted by this Virus, leading to our deaths. This girl is also a fail-safe. If I die before using the energy for our plan, she can do it in my stead. The virus will probably launch an all-out attack on that energy and all of you in the process, much fiercer than it is now. That's why I need you to defend it and yourselves."
"If you die?" a woman from the recruits asked with a shocked expression.
"Yes, my dear. My consciousness can die. If enough of me is polluted by that thing then I'll most surely meet my end. I am not inhabiting this girl, she is my advocate. The one whom you need for the finesse. I just communicate through her occasionally," she answered.
"Why?!" suddenly the man with the wavy hair yelled, clenching his fists and grinding his teeth as he glared at Emma/not Emma.
"My five-year-old daughter died because you didn't respond fast enough! She was innocent! She didn't deserve such a cruel death! Why would let her die?! Couldn't you tell that a disaster was befalling us?
Your incompetence caused all this suffering! Have you any idea how many people I watched suffer and die in front of me?! You dare you to call yourself a mother yet you can barely see the pain within us! Screw you! You did it to save your ass! Admit it! Now we have to fight while you're lazing around somewhere?! To hell with that!" he said, huffing and pointing accusingly at Emma.
The rage in his voice and the contents of his words made the atmosphere so heavy and silent that one could hear a pin drop on the floor.
The soft gaze on Emma's face vanished as she gazed at the man.
"First of all, Nicholas. I haven't forced anyone to fight. Even if you have an innate ability, you're free to go the residential area and take no part in this fight," she said and then her eyes turned fierce with a forlorn look.
"How dare I call myself a mother? I remember being born, young and ignorant. My very being gave birth to animals and plants that lived on instinct to survive. The lands prospered and nature was abundant. Then the first men walked on earth. They were capable of thinking and making decisions which I marvelled at because it was new to me.
They were curious at first, making strange contraptions and as they multiplied, they shared ideas and lived in harmony.
Then curiosity turned into ambition, and ambition into greed. Before I knew it, there was conflict everywhere. It started with the fist, then the spear, then the gun. At every age, a young me witnessed my children murder each other and she cried herself to sleep, with no one to comfort her.
Wars broke out. For land, for religion, for power, for women. You slit each other's throats in the name of 'justice' while I could see the greed and lust in your eyes.
Have you any idea how much blood runs in my lands? How many children I have to mourn for? I knew every single one of them and loved them despite their dispositions. I watched them all when they were born with innocence and watched how you turn yourselves into monsters.
There's not a single body that died that I didn't claim to cherish the memory of who had lived in it. In desperation to see you stop fighting among yourselves, I caused myself great pain to create what you call natural disasters to make you unite against a common goal.
But you refused. Selfishness! Even plagues could do nothing! I thought the few who were sacrificed in my attempts would be worth it as even if I didn't they'd die from you anyway, but it didn't work," she said, her voice getting higher and tears fogging up her eyes.
"That's why I taught myself to harness my life energy and accumulate it for years in preparation for the day when you finally brought me to ruin.
You can't even preserve your home. My body has been in constant ache for millennia because you still need someone to tell you that Fire burns! It hurts! My rivers and seas you pollute and kill my adorable fish! You hunt my animals in reckless abandon, instead of taking what you need and preserving my species!
As if the emotional pain of watching you kill yourselves wasn't enough, you subject me to watch and feel your brutality!
I was finally ready to give up. In the worst case, you guys would leave me to go plunder another planet anyway. I intended to use my accumulated energy to replenish myself for a new start and correct my mistakes. But here we are. That same energy I wanted to use to heal myself is being used on you ungrateful delinquents! You even destroyed the one thing that bought me time enough to save you and now you look at me and call me selfish and incompetent?!
You're a hypocrite! You've never recycled a day in your life or even planted a tree and you dare call me undeserving?! You're every bit as toxic and destructive as the nukes you keep in your basements to kill yourselves!"
After her outburst, Emma's cheeks were riddled with tears, her eyes red from the pain.
"I'm keeping a steady mindset and a calm disposition to reassure and protect you but you mistake it for ignorance."
She wanted to go on but looking at Nicholas' ashamed and pained expression her eyes widened as if as she felt she had made a mistake.
She ran up to him and touched his cheeks, her face showing the kind of care only a mother could express.
"I'm sorry my son. I directed all my pain at you. You didn't deserve that. I was pained too when Lara died. I loved her so much. She didn't deserve death. Forgive me, I failed. I care for you more than you will ever know," Emma hugged Nicholas tightly.
Nicholas himself wanted to distance himself but felt a tremendous energy washing away his rage and discomfort, he hugged Emma back, tears rolling down his cheeks and he wept after a long time. What he bottled up for months came gushing out.
Everyone remained silent. Bernard shed a tear, others kept looking at the floor. The memory of their loved ones is as clear as day.