"I guess you could be of some use."
Mana unclenched her fists and the disc on her right-hand rose up and stuck to Harun's shoulder, releasing an electric jolt. Harun just flinched a bit and looked at Mana confused and shocked.
"How could you do that?" Harun asked staring at the disc and then at Mana, in shock.
"How are you not down? What are you?" shocked, Mana asked.
"Do not continue that or you might fry my circuits," Harun said, taking the disc off his shoulder, the disc flew back to Mana.
"Wait, you are not joking around. You are a robot…?"
"The queen asked Psychon to build me as her personal assistant… of kinds. So hence that clears your question I believe. Though I might have preferred you not knowing it but, something for something."
"I… kind of am quantum-ly entangled to these discs and have been a secret hero known as Sync,"* Mana gave out the information, which she didn't to her friends, in accordance to the truth-for-truth which they both had involuntarily accepted for. "I clearly gave out my secret, you need to too. So, Psycho sent you as a spy to harm the queen?"
"No, he sent me as the Queen's personal assistant and I did whatever she asked me to," Harun corrected.
"But you still are trying to kill Kara and her friends, so that is what working for Psychon means," Mana clarified, as if she were talking to a baby, which she seemingly was used to.
"As much as I have knowledge of, giving powers is not really equivalent to killing someone. It gives them a chance to be better I would say. Unless if unwilling," Harun clarified.
"Wait, but the scientists were trying to actually kill all of us. Are you trying to catch me off-guard or something?"
"What would I gain by that?" Harun asked blankly.
"You are confused. Harun, you do know there are Psycho-blades in the lab right? Or at least, were there."
"Yes, around seventy-five percentages of them were Psycho-blades. That is why the lab was safe to go I said."
"Harun… Harun, that's actually bad."
"Oh…" Harun said, turning to the lifeless walls on his side. "Why did I not realise of it before?"
"Just point me towards your core or something already," Mana sighed, approaching Harun.
***
Kara and Magpie returned to the throne room speaking to each other and found Harun and Mana together. They got full on alert and stopped at their tracks after spotting Harun and moved forward as slowly as possible, cinematically.
"My lady," Harun said and bowed to Kara.
"Mana, get away from him. Does he have a sword or something against you?" Magpie asked, putting up her fists cutely.
"No, but he is not against us, so relax," Mana said.
"Did he change you to be against us too?" Kara asked.
"I shall require killing you both since you found out," Mana said, in a typical robotic tone.
"Ok, she is normal," Magpie said letting her guard down and walked towards Mana.
"Really…? Not just that simple, come on," Kara said and followed Magpie.
"Chuck it, she is herself," Magpie said.
"Sure, I guess," Kara sighed.
"So what is Harun's story?" Magpie asked.
"Well… he is a bot," Mana said.
"What?" Kara snapped.
"And that is nearly a pun. Oh right, it's called a rhyme. But yes, nearly a pun," Harun said.
"Yes Harun. They learn so soon," Mana said, looking proud. "Unlike some."
"The question I asked…" Kara reminded.
"Oh yes, he is a robot. Psycho made him for the queen as an assistant and he was, for all these years. Since Psycho failed, his blades messed up Harun as much as they could and he was on their side nearly and accepted on bringing us to experimenting, and you know the rest I suppose," Mana said.
"Ok, did you just refer to them as blades?" Kara asked.
"I said other things too you know," Mana sighed.
"Yeah well, still, they are Psycho-blades. That is what the queen called them, you can't just change it," Kara said.
"The point over this entire thing Kara, which is more important," Magpie pointed.
"Alright, fine. So Psycho-blades… go on," Kara said, with a smirk.
"So, now I re-messed it up in some sort of way and he must be good," Mana said.
"I see what you did there," Kara and Harun said together and exchanged glances for a second, before turning back to Mana.
"The point being, he is on our side now, and we need more help. Did you get help?"
"That… we couldn't find anyone in the castle," Kara said.
"Seriously, no one but us…?" Mana asked.
"Oh my, it is my terrible doing. I did such a wrong thing," Harun said, frowning into the floor.
"Did you kill all of them?" Magpie gulped.
"No, not at all. I sent all the cadets and the remaining to the prison and locked them up. It seemed like a normal thing to me because of Psycho-blades messing up with my… core," Harun said.
"Ok, Mana, how did you re-mess him up though?" Kara asked.
"I just-"
"-something is coming," Harun said. "Can you hear it…?"
"He basically can hear very far away easily since being a robot and all that you know," Mana pointed.
"We must protect her too," Magpie said pointing at New-Gal.
"Ok, we are the only ones here. We must fight whatever is coming," Mana said.
"Let's take the positions already," Kara sighed.
"It's time to see your powers Kara," Mana said patting at Kara's shoulder and moved closer to the stretcher.
"What powers…?" Magpie asked.
"Even you would have powers if the process was successful, my dear Magpie. And Lady Mana always did, which is how she re-messed me," Harun said.
Harun, Kara, Mana and Magpie stood beside each other just a distance ahead from the stretcher. Magpie still looked confused of what was happening but they could hear the sound getting closer and closer now. It was rustling sounds of metal clicking together in a rhythmic way.
The sound reached the doors finally and they could see it… it looked like some very small creatures flying towards them. As it neared, everyone realised that they weren't some beings but, metal pieces, many thousands of them.
Just as it reached the four, the pieces moved on sideways and then behind them… New-Gal! The metal pieces formed a structure of a lady; they could say so as it had long hairs formed from metal pieces, waving behind her. Many more metal pieces were still around her, floating in circles.
"What are you?" Kara asked taking a step ahead.
The metal lady suddenly turned towards Kara furiously, Kara just stopped at her tracks, at the lifeless glare. The lady barely touched New-Gal and New-Gal rose above into the air from her stretcher. New-Gal was covered all around, in a metal sphere and now was barely visible.
The four had no choice but to let whatever was happening, happen. The lady looked furious even when she had no actual face. The metal-sphere finally bought New-Gal to the ground and broke formation, the lady stepped forward forming armour around New-Gal, and the left out pieces joined the ones on the floor. New-Gal's eyes were still visible, she opened her eyes in a jolt and looked straight ahead.
"Cool new makeover New-Gal," Kara commented.
"My name is… Nightrale," Nightrale said.
"Your memories came back?" Magpie asked, surprised and excited.
"Not really, but I remember some things. I remember looking at fire, a lot of it, and destruction happening around me. I saw people gather around me and they said, protect Nightrale, and they hid me or something. I just can't grasp the full picture of it," Nightrale said.
"Sorry to break it to you, but Nightrale is actually a star… a star which was your home. But yes, that still is what I used to call you," Harun said.
"Wait, it can't be. Everyone from there died… wait, Spythun did mention about you though. You are… a prophecy hero*," Mana stated.
"How did they die…? Who caused that, which I saw?" Nightrale asked, looking at Harun furiously and not caring of the 'prophecy hero' part.
"Rahambose did it, years ago. The queen couldn't stop the happening, but could save you out of that place as the least," Harun said.
"Who is Rahambose again? And why would Rahambose do that?" Nightrale asked.
"A beast in the hides of a dragon, prophesied by Lady Fara who is the theorist of the dragons, but currently said to be on Earth. He destroyed Nightrale, at least the people, as none accepted to help him as much as we know. It would have been bad if they accepted but their fates seem to tell they didn't," Harun said.
"You knew everything and never told us? Her origin I mean," Kara said.
"Yes… the pupil of mine was a Psycho-blade and I never knew until recently when I bought Ms. Nightrale with me back to the castle. Seems he took her back to Nightrale and died himself probably because their adaptation after mutation is worse than of even humans. And when I bought Nightrale back here, she seemed to have forgotten everything again, just as the time the queen bought her to Pluto as an infant," Harun said.
"Then why didn't you tell us before? Did the Psycho-blades prevent you from telling us?" Mana asked.
"No… it was my own decision. Guess I didn't feel like it to tell you of my failure and make you realise that I for one can fail too," Harun said.
"Guess that is what makes you more than a robot," Kara said.
Harun gave an unknown expression. "Don't understand how but sure I guess. Thanks Lady Kara."
"Well that aside, we need to stop Rahambose," Nightrale said.
"And how exactly can you stop him now when he is stronger than the time he killed so many people by himself?" Harun asked.
"With the new gained powers," Nightrale said and the metal pieces on the floor rose up and formed a sword like structure, Nightrale grabbed it.
"Nice," impressed, Mana said.
"After all, she is a prophecy hero," Magpie pointed.
"Well, we have another problem before that," Harun stated.
"Which is…?" Mana asked.
"Psycho… he will come for us," Harun said.
"Expected answer really, but isn't he imprisoned?" Kara asked.
"Well, these metal pieces are here… those were the prison-blocks holding him back," Harun said.
"They gave her those powers knowing this would happen," Mana said through realisation.
"And you made the process sure, Lady Mana," Harun said.
"I just wanted to save my friends," Mana said lowering her head.
"We will stop him… together," Magpie said, placing her hand on Mana's shoulder.
"We must!" Mana said, looking furious and committed to her new purpose.
"We will, and count me in," Kara said.
"We better win," Nightrale scoffed.
"Preparation for battle is good and one chance for the four of you to win," Harun said.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Magpie sighed.
"Wait, where is Tacy?" Nightrale asked looking around.
***
Chapter Footnotes:-
1. Prophecy hero:- The H.O.D. is surely mentioned many times in the prophecy, but besides him, there have been other mentions of heroes to come. Many seemed to believe that they are just second-person reference to the H.O.D., but that'd mean that the H.O.D. would be having every power possible.