● Satellite
Exact Location: Clinical Section of the Sweepers Organization.
Willow lay on a bed, breathing audibly with a tube connected from a device to her neck, chest, and wrist. She had her eyes fixed on the window, but her mind was lost in space. She continued staring that way until the door to the room she was in slid open.
She turned to see the teal green-eyed man, Liam with flowers in his hand. He wore black trousers and a T-shirt with a red jacket over the shirt and a small smile that she found more pretty than the flowers lingered on his lips.
"You're awake," he started. "I was hoping to meet you still asleep so I could watch you sleep, not in a weird way… although now that I think about it it's weird anyway you look at it."
The brunette smiled softly. "I could pretend to be asleep if you want."
"It's okay, I'll get it next time." He walked in and dropped the flower on a desk that was set next to Willow's bed. "How are you feeling?"
"Disappointed at myself? Embarrassed? And a lot more."
"You are still blaming yourself for what happened inside the Forbidden Zone?"
She pouted and turned back to the window she was staring at before Liamzs arrival. "Who wouldn't blame me? I was sent from the Hydrospace division as a 'Specialist' to lead your division but instead, I made a disaster."
"Come on Willow, none of us would have predicted what happened. Plus on the bright side, we did manage to finally, for the very first time… kill a Creature."
Willow hissed and rolled her eyes. "The task was to capture it alive, but we only got its head. And the credit is going to Owen, I did nothing other than cause the death of many Sweepers."
The teal green-eyed man pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed in the realization that nothing he said would change her mind.
"That's it," Liam put his hands up before sitting on an empty seat next to her bed. "I've tried my best to make things better but you're just impossible."
Willow shot him a smile. "Honestly, I do not care what anyone says though--- whether they think I'm a terrible Sweeper, or they say the job was a total failure, I don't care."
"Then why are you so hard on yourself?"
"I believe I should have done better… I believe things shouldn't have gotten as bad as they did, and I'm disappointed and mad at myself, but I'm glad at least some of us made it back alive."
The teal green-eyed man shook his head. "Daniel sent every Sweeper into the Forbidden Zone-- they are going to plant as many Luminaire sticks as possible to keep the Creatures at bay until JERICHO can complete their research on the head."
"What about Zara? And Thomas?" She probed.
"Zara is still unconscious and Thomas is being kept at the Protection Wall along with Owen and some other Sweepers. Holes were found in their suit."
Willow shut her eyes and sighed. She opened them and looked up at Liam. "What about you?"
"Me? Well, I'm holding up just fine..."
"Come on, Liams… you know that I'm asking about what happened at the Inner Core. I want to know how you are still alive after taking off your mask, and how you were able to make that creature retreat."
Liam scratched the back of his head and exhaled. "It must have come as a shock to you." He looked up to see her staring at him with her brows raised.
"Very well, I did promise to tell you everything…"
Before the light brown-haired man could add anything to his words, the door to the room they were in slid open, and in walked a light-skinned dark-haired man. He had thick eyebrows and a stubble mustache.
He wore a red suit and had a multicolored tie on. The man smiled as his eyes scanned between Aria and the teal-green-eyed man.
The brunette's brows moved closer. "What are you doing here?" She queried.
"I came the moment I heard what happened, are you okay?"
"Who's he?" Liam questioned.
Willow opened her mouth to speak but the dark-haired man beat her to it. "You must be Liam, Aria has told me so much about you. I'm Hydar Zeen, Aria's husband."
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● Hydrospace
Exact Location: JERICHO
Nyx stood in the middle of a lab staring unconsciously at a large screen with her hand inside the pocket of her white lab coat. The room was filled with lab equipment and a few other experts carrying out their jobs.
"Miss Jericho, Daniel is here to see you." The pink-haired lady snapped out of her trance and turned to her assistant. "Where is he?"
"He is waiting at your office."
She took off her lab coat, leaving only a one-sleeved dirty-white dress that stopped at her knee. She passed the coat to her assistant before walking out of the room. She stepped into her office to see Daniel going through her collection of novels that were hung on a large shelf.
"I see you've found my collection."
The bald-haired man held his hand behind his back and veered around. "I didn't know you read novels."
"I like to read them in my free time, is that a bad thing?"
The head of the Sweepers organization shook his head no. "Not at all. I also enjoy reading books, and I see you've kept the best ones." He turned back to the shelf.
Nyx smiled and took a few steps closer to the orange-eyed man, watching his mouth open and close as he spoke. "You've got plenty of good books: 'Fall of the Horizon', 'Storm 01', especially 'Chaos War'… interesting."
"You can take anyone you want, I've already read every one of the books up there," she revealed.
The orange-haired man turned to her. "That's impressive, but I didn't fly all the way to Hydrospace to read books… I'd like to know what you've discovered about the Creature."
She opened her mouth to speak but stopped and tucked back a stray hair. "I'm starving right now, and in the mood for some meat," she paused and chuckled. "So how about I tell you everything over a sweet plate of medium rare steak, which you will be paying for by the way."
"I don't eat at a restaurant."
The pink-haired lady raised her brows. "What does that mean?"
"I don't eat any food that I have no idea how it was made."
The owner of JERICHO ran her hand through her hair and groaned. "You're like the end of each chapter of the books on my shelf… always a new and big reveal."
He slipped his hands into his pocket. "I'll take that as a compliment."
Nyx sighed. "It's fine. I'll eat and you'll just sit and watch me." She turned and started towards the exit.
A few moments later, the two found their way into a luxurious PrizeGal restaurant and were led to a VIP seat that turned out to already have been reserved by Nyx.
"You're still paying though," she said while picking up the eating utensils. She slowly cut out a piece of the meat and took it to her mouth as if putting on a show for the orange-eyed man.
"Mmm, this is wonderful, you really should try it."
"I'm good." She rolled her eyes and continued eating.
Daniel folded his hand and inhaled deeply as he watched Nyx raise her glass to her mouth. "So you don't eat at a restaurant, you don't order food…"
"No, as long as I don't know how it was made, I won't eat."
"So you cook?" She said with her mouth full. "Does this mean you don't take snacks? I mean, you have no idea how it was made?"
"Why don't you finish your food then we'll talk about your findings on the Creatures."
"I'm just trying to get to know more about my work partner."
Daniel stood up and fixed his suit. "Excuse me."
Nyx wiped her mouth with a napkin and sighed. "He's so unbelievable."
A few moments later, the waiter cleared their table and Daniel returned to his seat. "So?"
"Right, the Creatures… how do I put this?" She drawled before speaking. "Well, we are fucked."
The orange-haired lady furrowed. "What do you mean."
"First off, your Sweepers only brought a head, and that made things more difficult, but my people are experts and we managed to get a few things from the head," she paused for a moment. "You've read my article that both humans and Grey Lander have the same brain with different regions, and similar body structure?"
"Yes, I have."
"Right… well the creature's brain only has three regions."
"What?"
"Yes, they only possess the parietal lobe that allows spatial awareness and sensory information processing, the occipital lobe for visual processing, and a different part that seems to be a separate brain on its own."
Daniel leaned forward unconsciously as he took in the information Nyx fed to him. "This organ heightens the other parts a hundredfold and that's why they can see through the heavy mist, feel our attacks… say before they are even made."
"Not only that, this organ periodically rewrites everything in the brain, changing and also increasing or decreasing the Creature's abilities based on the situation it is in."
"Can't you find out what this organ is?"
Nyx shook her head no. "We are still working on it," she said. "But the strangest part of all this is that despite the head being severed from the body, the organ was still carrying on its function."
....