"Hey, wake up. It's your turn to send our fat girl to the bus stop, William."
"Melissa? Melissa, I just had the weirdest dream... I dreamed I was-"
"Hey, William, we can talk about it after you take Elizabeth to the bus stop, okay?"
"Yeah, sure, after I take Elizabeth to the bus stop…"
"Daddy, what's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, Elizabeth. Daddy's just tired, that's all."
"Daddy's a liar…"
"What? No, Daddy's not lying, what? Do you want to get tickled? Come here, little lady!"
"Daddy?"
"Yeah, baby girl?"
"You, me, and Mommy, we go see Uncle when I finish school, okay?"
"Hehe, you sure? We can go without mommy."
"No, I want mommy too."
"Alrighty, little missy, you win. We'll go with Mommy to see Uncle later, yeah?"
"YES!"
"Okay, onto the bus you go. Remember to be good at school and behave, okay?"
"Okay, bye, bye daddy."
"Melissa?"
"Yes, William?"
"I miss you, Melissa."
"I know, but at least you're awake now…"
"Oh, Melissa." William hugs Melissa, "I want to kiss you, Melissa. Tell me this isn't a dream."
"Are you sure you want to kiss someone like me, William? Someone who killed hundreds, maybe thousands?" Melissa said.
"What?" William questioned his thoughts.
"William…" a familiar voice said.
William snapped out of consciousness and realized that he was holding Shinta, sitting on the side of the bed next to him, and he was just about to kiss her discreetly. Embarrassed at his actions, he immediately let go of her and cringed himself in his thoughts.
"How long have I been out?" William asked.
"For a while," Shinta said as she dusted herself off and continued working. She smirked, "Hmm hmm, you were going to kiss me… I wonder what your wife would've said to that?"
"Well, she wouldn't be happy with me making out with a drone," William said.
"Don't worry, William, you're not my type." Shinta flirted.
"And what is YOUR type, Shinta?" William questioned.
"You don't want to know, and even if you did-" Shinta continues typing, "That person wouldn't be able to satisfy my "certain" needs…"
"I thought drones wouldn't have much say in those relationships?" William challenged Shinta.
"I'd draw my imaginations to a minimum if I were you, as I'm not just any ordinary drone." Shinta rebutted William's challenge as she finished typing. "And you should be good."
"Good for what?" William asked.
"Well, you were getting corrupted by the previous predecessor who'd once owned the T-01 system, so we had to reset your systems and retrace your settings," Shinta explained. "It should stabilize you and help you more in combat situations."
"Great, thanks for the help." William thanked Shinta.
"Don't thank me…I don't deserve such praise; I'm just doing what's right." Shinta sternly reminded William. "If you're looking for Specialist Idiot, he's talking with the Queen right now."
"Ah, okay, thanks. I guess I'll head on over to see what's going on. I'll see you later, Shinta." William said as he exited the room.
I was in the throne room with Lena, the Queen, and Shinta. Jenma states she wishes to avoid confrontation with any nation if necessary, and she said that to do so, she would possibly and even need to meet the smaller countries to improve diplomatic relations to ensure their borders. I'm afraid I have to disagree as usual; even with smaller nations, diplomatic meetings can result in bad relations between larger forces.
"The diplomatic relations must be maintained and enforced, for our nation of Ravenian does not stand alone on the war to find and bring justice to the Duvhatian empire." Jenma wrote down more things in her book, "I will not allow my husband, the king of the empire, to return from his Intergalactic campaign, to see that I've failed to uphold what he had built up."
"If anything, once my lady has made up her mind, her mind is made up," Shinta stated.
William, finally finding his way to the throne room, enters.
"William! You slept for quite some time." I said to William as he slowly made his way to the group around the throne.
"Oh, believe me, the sleep was much needed," William stated as Shinta and he made brief eye contact, with Shinta smirking. "Yea…very much needed sleep."
"Well, you came at the right time, William." Lena said, "Jenma is planning to visit some of the smaller nations, but it seems their meeting place is in the Eagle's territory, and it seems somewhat of a trap, but perhaps you can persuade Jenma otherwise."
"Why don't we just all go with Jenma then?" William asked.
"Too big of a group, draw too much attention." Jenma stated, "I'll take two with me instead." Jenma said as she pointed at William and me.
Shinta looked uncomfortable about the idea. She was about to say something when Jenma silenced her with the fan.
"Shinta, I'm ordering you to stand down and watch over the capital while I'm away," Jenma ordered.
"But my lady the king-" Shinta tried to explain.
"Shinta, I know him better than any of us here, trust me. If something goes wrong, remember the Ravenian Imperial Army will be here within a moment's notice. Pray the enemy is THAT stupid." Jenma said as she sipped her cup of juice, "I'm sure Aitian (Ai-Sheian) will be fine with my decisions."
Bowing her head in defeat, Shina replied, "Yes, milady."
Turning towards William and me, Shinta gave both of us a grave stare, to which she eventually walked towards me and handed me what looked like a ball with nothing but a single button on it.
"What's this?" I asked Shinta.
"This is only for emergency use only, okay? Ensure you're holding the Queen's hand when you use it when you guys are in a dangerous situation." Shinta explained.
"Mm, I guess…" I replied.
"Don't "I guess" me, people might die…" Shinta corrected me as she hugged the Queen and whispered something in Jenma's ear.
To which Jenma smiled warmly to comfort Shinta and returned the hug, "I know, but to unite a nation, one must learn to trust in others, not from our home. Shinta remember that…"
We departed discreetly to avoid confrontation and spies that might leak information of the Queens' whereabouts as we left the Ravenian Empire capital, and we traveled out by teleporter and soon on foot. We wore commoner and merchant garbs to hide our true intentions. William would be spray-painted differently to conceal his identity and look like a civilian drone. We traveled for what seemed to be hours before a group of caravan traders heading to the Eagle territory, where we were heading, gave us a lift.
The merchants and traders had no intention of the war. They were making a living. At least, that's what the driver of our wagon had told me. That was before Jenma discovered their trade cart full of drone scrap parts and even titania parts separately from the drone scraps. Hearing other people and their sides of the stories of this ongoing war was always fascinating.
Eventually, we reached our destination, the Eagle City of Memophis, my hometown and possibly William's residence. Sad as fate would have it, this was also where the meeting occurred. The merchants dropped us off at the bazaar, which was bustling with traffic, and vendors who auctioned off scrap parts of drones and even Titania models, some being as fake spray-painted T model numbers.
We were traveling around the bazaar when Jenma picked up a fake T-model 09 body part. "Funny, isn't it?" Jenma said in a severe tone. "These poor things are found here today when it doesn't belong here." Jenma put the fake body part back, and William and I couldn't help but wonder how big the underground black market drone trading had gotten.
As we looked around the bazaar more, it got busier and busier, and as the day went by, suddenly something peaked William's eyes. Something matched him by default, and with settings, he ran to the stall to pick it up. We both followed, only to see him holding a weapon frame stamped in metal engraving T-01.
"Oh…god…it's-it's a part of this system," William said as he caressed the part.
"Are you sure?" I questioned. "It could be a fake."
"Well, let's ask. We don't want to look like thieves." Jenma stated as she looked around the stall. "Hello? Is there anyone here that can assist us? We want to buy this."
A burly man taller than Jenma and I appeared from beyond the stall after hearing Jenma ask for assistance with the part that William was holding. "Hey, don't touch that drone, you'll get it dirty! It's not a toy."
"Sorry, sir," Jenma apologized as she urged William to put down the part while talking to the merchant, "We were passing by travelers, and it seems this part interested us and our drone here. Would you be so kind as to help us make a deal for it?"
The merchant snatched the part away as William put it down. He dusted off the piece as if William got it dirty, and then he clarified himself. "I'm not a merchant. I'm more like an ARMS trader. I deal with weaponry and frames and such, I transport parts that are no longer needed at the front, and I deal with it and auction it here to the highest bidder. And by the way, the name is Farhad."
William was going to start speaking when I dragged him aside and told him to keep still and quiet, as right now, he was supposed to be a dumb civilian drone and not supposed to have a crap load of intelligence. Not knowing any better, William suddenly nodded in response and kept still.
"How much?" Jenma asked.
"50k." Farhad said proudly.
"No deal." Jenma declined. "Could always get another drone for that much. Come on, you two." As the three of us began walking away from the stall, Farhad couldn't help but lower his demand.
"40k!" Farhad shouted.
"Nope, sorry buddy, I might as well pay for another drone at that rate," I said in Jenma's place.
"30k!" Farhad shouted.
"Sorry, still too high. If anything, we're just simple travelers who don't have much to offer. I'd rather take the 30k and get a luxury hotel if anything." I continued.
"Fine, what's a price you'd be willing to negotiate for this piece of metal?" Farhad asked.
Jenma and I looked at William and wondered what part or frame this belonged to him. For all we knew, it could be a cheap fake part with a stamped T-01 to trick us. William said that his system somehow had recognized the part as part of it. We were about to leave when one of Farhad's merchants came out of the building behind his stall to reconfirm with him while mentioning some payment. Farhad said he'd have the money soon for the guy to back off.
"Who was that?" Jenma asked Farhad.
"Argh, don't worry about him. He's just a brother who's always trying to get more than he can chew." Farhad replied while taking the part and cleaning it. "Ah, who am I kidding? Just take it and get out of here before they return and get you guys, too." Farhad hands the part to me after cleaning it.
As we took the part and were about to head our way, Jenma stopped and returned to grab Farhad by the hand and hand him something.
"I told you to get the heck-" Farhad snapped before Jenma whispered something to him as he calmed down and looked at the item in his hand. "HEY, I-I can't take this!!"
"Come on, let's go, idiots!" Jenma said as she caught up to William and me.
As Farhad was going to chase the three of us, he eventually gave up halfway, wondering what he would do with the item Jenma had given him, which revealed it to be a Titania ingot.
As we ran away from the busy streets of the bazaar, William attached the new part to his memory core, which fit perfectly and didn't do much of anything. All three of us were dazzled and didn't want to try to pry more information. For now, we need to get to the meeting spot. I navigated us to my place since I recognized the surrounding area more than William. I wanted to check up on my fiancé to see if she was still okay.
We made our way around the alleyways and to the more suburban area, to which I led them to our home. I was nervous. I've been away from home for perhaps a few months and haven't seen my fiancé since I left. We went to the front entrance as nighttime began to fall. The streets were quiet, and the neighbor's dog was barking as usual. I felt a sense of dread as I swallowed my saliva and knocked on the door. The door swung open, and my fiancé Julie opened it slightly to see who would come to visit her at this time of night.
"Fat? Is that you?" Julie asked.
"Yes…it's me, Julie," I replied. We were about to hug when Julie noticed William and Jenma behind me.
"Who are they?" Julie asked. "And who is she?" Julie questioned while pointing at Jenma.
Jenma and William were going to introduce themselves before I interrupted the conversation, leading them into our home. Inside, William observed my military gear scattered around, and Jenma stared at our collection of pictures and belongings. While they were busy doing so, Julie pulled me into the kitchen to discuss current events.
"Where were you? I thought you were dead. The Eagle military peoples came, and they said that your base where you were stationed was taken over and that nobody survived." Julie explained.
"So that's what they told you…" I said in deep remorse.
"Well, what's important is that you're here so…" Julie searched for words but was too reluctant to see I was alive and well before her. "Would you care to explain who your friends are to me?"
I could type everything up until this point, but in all great fairness, I told her everything that had happened to William, who Jenma is, what occurred to me, and how we ended up here. I even went as far as to tell Julie about the Eagle's nation and how they despise William for being a drone. I even told her about using William's memory to make him become who he is. I was going to tell Julie more before William interrupted our conversation.
"Sorry for interrupting the both of you. Can I have a moment, Specialist?" William asked.
"Sure," I replied as Julie quickly ran out of the kitchen to the master bedroom to begin packing her belongings.
"Sorry, once again, Specialist. I wondered if we could visit my wife and daughter since we're in the neighborhood anyway." William proposed.
"I don't see any harm in doing so, but let's ask Jenma. She's the one who'll decide if we'd go or not." I replied.
We headed to the living room to find Jenma closing the curtains and peeking out the peephole in the door to see who was knocking.
"This is Eagles Police! Open the door!"
"Friends of yours?" Jenma asked me sarcastically.
"Hell no," I replied as I looked in the peephole after Jenma moved away from the door.
Julie came into the room with suitcases while out of breath, "Okay, I think I got almost everything."
Jenma, William, and I looked at the suitcase packed with clothes and various things, from clothes to blankets to pillows, picture frames, and snacks.
"Here, hold onto this, Julie," I said while handing her the ball-shaped item Shinta had given me.
"Oou, what does this button do?" Julie said as she received it and pressed the big red button on the item.
Before we could say anything, Julie was warped out of the room in a black hole and was teleported elsewhere. After realizing what happened to Julie, there was no time to think. The police were now trying to open the door aggressively, so we got out through the back door. As we exited my home, I couldn't help but think where Julie had teleported.
We walked down countless alleyways as William guided us after Jenma agreed to Williams' request to visit his wife Melissa before we found somewhere to sleep for the night. At this point, William was worried and a bit nervous as he still couldn't find his wedding ring.
"H-how do I look, Specialist?" William nervously asked me.
"You look good, William," I replied, trying not to laugh.
"You idiots," Jenma stated as she quickly took off one of her ribbons on her hair to tie into a bow onto William's neck. "There, that should do it."
William looked at the ribbon knot and thought of how pretty it was. Its otherworldly color made it stand out on William. Perhaps it's a bit TOO outstanding. We arrived at William's house, but I insisted that Jenma and I wait outside for William since it'd be rude to intrude into his home while he and his wife had a "talk." William agreed and went to knock on the front door of his house. After a few knocks, a woman in her late 30s dressed in denim opens the door.
"Hi, uhh, can I help you drone?" William's wife asked, puzzled by the drone's actions.
"Melissa, it's me…William." William answered with sadness in his voice.
Melissa stared at the drone and questioned what it had just said. If anything, she seemed more puzzled than relieved to see William.
"Where's my little girl, Elizabeth?" William questioned.
"Oh, William…you're not my William." Melissa tears at this point, "If you were truly my William…You'd remember that our little girl didn't survive the bus stop incident where there was an attack that day."
"Melissa…" William questioned once again.
"Please just let me be. I've already lost my husband and my daughter years ago. If this is any prank, please, may God have mercy on your soul." Melissa said as she closed the door on William.
William was shocked. He didn't know what to say. He was William. Was he not?
On the other side of the door, Melissa is crying while holding a picture frame of William in his uniform with Melissa on their wedding day. She softly whispers, "I'm sorry, William."
William left the front porch and came down to see Jenma and me waiting for him at the end of the street. He was in such a sad remark that his bow that Jenma had tied for him was now sideways, and he kept trying to wipe away the "fake" tears on his metallic cheeks.
"So, how did it go?" I asked, not knowing the outcome.
William responded by grabbing me by the neck and pushing me against the wall while holding his other arm out, ready to punch me.
"WHY DID YOU DO IT?" William asked, "WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME, SPECIALIST?"
"I-I," I gasped for air, "I did…it to…save you, William."
You can see it as I replied to his question. Williams' metallic eyebrows raised one while still angry and yet confused. Then we both heard a click. Jenma had somehow gotten in between us and was holding a dagger wedged onto William's lower torso, with her holding the grip and the blade out but not puncturing any layers yet.
"Drop him...do not push me, William," Jenma said scornfully.
William slowly, yet gently lowered me onto the ground as he shook his head in disbelief. Jenma drops her dagger and sheathes it discreetly underneath her skirt. As the three of us collected ourselves, William and I shared a headbutt to let him know that he wasn't alone in his remorse and for him to remember why we were going to this meeting in the first place. It was to ensure that nobody else would end up being like William. As we proceeded to the nearest hotel to call it a night, unbeknownst to us, behind the scope of a rail sniper gun, the scope had Jenma in its sights.
As we walked to the hotel, William and I couldn't help but notice how it was relatively unusually quiet. Perhaps a little TOO quiet to our liking. As I was going to comment on the subtle nature of the time of the event, suddenly, a shot sounded, and William raised a barrier with his lasers. Still, not fast enough to block the bullet's path as it went through the shield, it scored a direct hit onto William, causing him to take the brunt of the impact. The aim was true as William fell onto the ground, lifeless. I had already taken a prone position when the shot rang out, and I regained the momentum to check Jenma to see her kneeling.
"Sniper! You okay Jenma?" I asked her while trying to locate the shooter's position.
Jenma didn't reply. Instead, you can see somewhat hexagonal barriers around her. I crawled over to William's lifeless body to stare at him and wipe away the debris from his metallic face.
"William, William, stay with me! I'm going to get you help." I reassured him.
"I-I think they got m-me Sp-specialist-" William stuttered as he powered off.
I looked at the damage done. It's no good. The shot had hit his power core and fried his power supply unit on his back. With no other choice, I carried William and slowly Jenma to a nearby alley to get some cover from the shooter.
"Take him back to the capital, idiot. Our techs should be able to fix him," Jenma explained while covering herself with one of her hands.
"No, we came here together. We'll leave together!" I said as I tried to lift the T-01 drone and Jenma together, to no avail. "Fuck you guys are heavy."
"Go…Take your friend and get out of here." Jenma said.
"Jenma…I can't leave you here. Shinta will-"
"Go, idiot." Jenma reclarify, "I'll be fine here."
"Jenma, you-" I examined Jenma more carefully this time.
Jenma sat in a precarious position, exposing her undergarment beneath her skirt, but she had her dagger out and was also holding onto the area where she got hit. On her hand that was holding the side of her stomach, you can see blood dripping at a slow rate. The hexagons around her now rotate, but only at a fixed rate. Jenma was breathing more panicked as I noticed one of the hexagons had a crack with a hole. It looked kind of like that of a glass window that had a stone thrown at it.
"I told you, idiot, save your friend, return to the capital, and let Shinta and them know." Jenma reminded me once more.
"To hell with it!" I said as I moved towards William's body before a few more shots came about, barely missing me.
I quickly moved to Williams' body and unscrewed the memory core with the part attached. I worked while still under fire, barely missing me. Suddenly, I got hit in the shoulder as a bullet ricocheted off the T-01 drone's body and struck me as I worked to quickly twist off the memory core of William with the attachment. I threw the attachment into my pants' cargo pocket as I crawled to where Jenma was.
"Idiot, you got hit, didn't you?" Jenma asked.
"It's just a scratch." I replied, "Come on, we got to get out of here; apparently, they don't like you coming to meet people in such a shady place anyway."
I quickly helped Jenma up, and we helped each other lean on one another to make our getaway. The shooting didn't stop until we got to the bazaar area of the city, which was bustling with life even though it was nighttime. Someone had collected the T-01 body that was left behind. Once we got to the bazaar, the hunting had stopped, and both of us were wounded. At this point, we were trying to get out of the city using a vehicle, but that plan would be foiled as the Eagle police showed up at the bazaar, too.
"They're everywhere…" Jenma said, overwhelmed.
"We got to keep trying," I said as I helped her move to another area to sit her down.
"Let me see your wound," I asked Jenma.
"No…just leave me be. You can still escape. At least the Ravenian Imperial Army will wipe out the Eagles." Jenma stated.
"As much as I'd agree with your army, I think your husband, as you mentioned to Shinta, will respect MY decision this time," I replied as I tore off my upper jacket and made a makeshift bandage around Jenma's wound.
As I got done, the police officers were looking from stall to stall, looking for us. We hid from stall to stall. As we began getting close to the gate, somebody snatched us into a booth that had now been converted into a wagon.
"Shhhh…" Farhad shushed us as he whispered, "Man, I don't know what you two did along with your drone friend, but it seems you guys caught the entire police force out here."
As we waited for the cops to pass by the caravan wagon, Farhad closed the shop and began heading out of town towards the gate. The police stopped him for a search, to which he complied because he hid Jenma and me in a compartment in the wagon that was hard for any metallic detectors or even a living person to find or detect. As they finished the search, Farhad drove the wagon out of town.
"Where to lady?" Farhad asked.
"To Ravenian…" Jenma said weakly.
I inspected Jenma once again. Her wound was now beginning to get worse if not properly treated. Jenma's blood had seeped through the jacket bandage and made its way out of the dressing.
"Here, here..." Jenma commanded Farhad.
We stopped at what looked like a canyon with a vast valley only 15 minutes away from the city. Farhad dropped us off and bid us farewell. He left as Jenma waited until Farhad was gone, to which she kicked one of the stones to reveal a suction tunnel beside the stone, which somehow teleported us through its path underneath the canyon to the Ravenian Capital.
"You want to know what it's like to contribute to a nation? Well, now is your chance…" Jenma said in a prideful, weak voice as she gripped her wound.