"Who are you?" Victor's soft voice demanded.
He watched as the small child sat and fiddled with a complex machine at the base of an enormous tree.
It seemed to be the only one for miles, and its full height was imperceivable.
"There was a story of a great man who once meditated under a tree for a millennia. He gained a great wisdom... a truth even," the boy's mumblings were almost inaudible, "I accessed the same knowledge... but it wasn't enough..."
He continued to interact with the assortment of slides, dials and buttons before him. It linked to the back of his bloodied head through metallic sockets, connecting glowing strands of red light back to the machine.
His mannerisms and the way he spoke was far beyond a person of his age. But it wasn't the only thing that unsettled Victor.
"Tell me, what is your answer?" The boy insisted.
He rose and turned to face him. It was like looking into a mirror, though he was completely hairless and his face was disturbingly tired in comparison to his own. He had seen more.
Victor's vision was blurry, rather the space he was in looked to be on the verge of collapse.
A dream?
There was also an ungraspable plane-like barrier separating the two, though he didn't feel any more safe.
The child's piercing eyes revealed an unnerving intelligence. The notion rebelled from what was natural.
He looked upon Victor with no emotion, as if he were just another tool to bend to an inhumane limit.
Fear gripped him with knuckles white, but he spoke up.
"... I am not naïve enough to say humanity will one day find eternal peace..." He paused to think.
"...You may be correct in saying that sentience is the first step towards conflict, but removing all autonomy is wrong and is the opposite of what it means to live!"
The child rolled his eyes as if to say he'd heard the position before.
Even at his young age, Victor knew about the long debated topic of war and its cyclical nature, he wasn't saying anything new.
He desperately searched for a follow up, he may have been arguing with himself but he felt as though his future depended on his next few sentences.
"...If we must war we must manage it, maintain it. Make sure it doesn't lead to complete destruction but to diplomatic solutions for all. Just like anything in life we must moderate it, keep it in check!"
He didn't know what part of his brain came to this conclusion but he felt it was the most correct.
"Such pretty words. But dress a pig in the finest of linen, a pig it remains," the boy slowly turned back to his machine, turning various dials as if to find the correct radio station, "do you think swine will forgo their desire for more slop in the name of fairness and diplomacy? They'd rather resort to cannibalism than to let another they perceive below them eat first."
"The fertile ground of sentience is where corruption germinates and grows, naturally taking root in all beings. Free will is the rainwater encouraging it to do so," their immediate surroundings phased and shifted, "I simply decided to rip away the clouds to dry out the soil."
Disorientated, Victor was now above a vast city landscape he did not recognise.
He saw millions of people marching and weaving between multiple interconnected routes, a few falling over themselves in the process.
They were like ants as they mindlessly threw themselves at whatever contraption that was before them.
The sight disgusted him; it was abnormal.
He looked further to his right, what he thought was a half constructed building was a rocket ship, towering over the mountainous colony of individuals working at it from below.
They were one entity, an amorphous substance, as it scaled the structure with no regard of how the human body contorted.
The scenes were overwhelming, though a sinking feeling of horror realised itself once he understood it wasn't a cityscape he was looking at.
"Conflict has stunted humanities evolution. Though your current visual interpretation may differ, this is what happens when you fundamentally change the nature of sentience."
"I will spread this peace to the stars, I have been bestowed the burden of correcting the flawed design in this reality for many more..."
His display of evidence before them inspired a slight maniacal whimsy in his delivery. Victor couldn't allow his dominance over the narrative.
"Rain water allows weeds to grow that choke the life of its neighbours," Victor admitted, "but you forget it also allows valuable plants to germinate and bloom, benefiting the garden as whole..."
He paused, surveying his surroundings in disgust.
"...This is peace? You've made ants, but even ants go to war. This does nothing but place a new general at the helm against those who resist!"
"One cannot refuse what is inevitable," he snapped, "If one were to correct a flaw in a piece of art, the art cannot dare to stay their hand."
"There will be resistance, but in my ultimate inevitability I will wage war to end war, not so that the cycle can continue. I will be the artist that permanently corrects the flaw in the design we call existence. It is the closest thing to the manipulation of fate itself."
The boy took a deep breath, gathering himself from his grand escalation of enthusiasm.
"Is free will truly free when war is forever the end result? It is destined that someone worthy take the reins! Why not I?"
He briefly studied Victor's face for a semblance of agreement.
"... It's a shame, I thought you one of the intelligent few. You disappoint me."
Victor's youthful temperament was growing tired of the overreaching analogies. He just couldn't condone his position.
"You're just like the supervillains I watch on Saturday afternoons, blinded by their own delusions of grandeur," Victor cracked a smirk, "you're an egotistical jerk who believes he's god, I'd appreciate you not make arguments like that with my face, you freak."
The boy was deeply offended; Victor's words were proven instantly.
"YOU WILL YIELD TO ME!" he held out a rageful, trembling hand as Victor stood firm.
He wasn't going to let this side of himself prevail.
Though he began to feel a heat rise from his lower belly. It was as if his abdominal muscles were sore after an intense workout. Though the description was no longer sufficient as the burning sensation reached a new level of comprehension.
It radiated outwards from his core to his legs and arms, and once his entire body was consumed, he felt his body expand, slowly pulling itself apart.
Victor looked around desperately for anything at all that could help, but he was met with reality folding into itself.
"You think your ideology superior to mine!" The boy spoke desperately, but seemed unaware of Victor's suffering, "When we-"
Before Victor combusted, he awoke in his bed.
The dead ceiling light above, slowly gaining in familiarity alongside the rest of the dawn-lit room, was a lighthouse of sanity and stability.
He was drenched in sweat and he felt his ears pound in a hypnotic rhythm, intending to lull him back.
He refused its false niceties.
He remembered staying awake the entire night, wondering about what the dream had meant.
The vividity, the things he saw and heard, he couldn't fully comprehend.
But what he knew for certain was that he couldn't let it become his reality.
If it represented his future he wanted to carve out his own path, stick to his own ideology even if it was difficult.
He often referred to that very dream during Nobel Peace Prize ceremonies and others alike.
It was the war he waged within himself, and to lose faith in humanities autonomy meant that his dream was right.
Humanity deserved to be free.
But he would watch them carefully as he stood behind the podium in his Red Paladin armour.
In front of the blinding lights, the sounds of overwhelming applause and broad smiles... he knew they would all return to their egotistical, power obsessed ways once the night was over.
In their delusion, they justify it as only looking out for themselves, following conventional societal norms to get ahead. Give them the power of a monarch and they'd turn on their citizens in the name of 'retributive justice'.
He understood this from a young age, though since becoming the Red Peacekeeper Paladin, he saw the disease up close.
It was not an external pathogen like bacteria or a parasite. It was something deeper, as if encoded into the DNA.
But despite his accolades in the field of genomics, he failed to identify the diseases' origins.
Though not a genetic sequence or strand, it still expressed itself vibrantly in the organisms he surrounded himself with.
Humanity deserved to be free, they just needed correction.
His intent was not to restrict but to quorum quench them from its own corrupt nature.
That is what it meant to be the Red Paladin.
~
The walls began to close in, a singular bead of sweat streamed from his forehead.
Was it possible for one man to take on such a burden?
He had to, especially now…
"How long left, two weeks?" he mumbled to himself, "there's still time, surveillance isn't as advanced as I thought... but that damn contract..."
A whir of a familiar prototype sounded above his left ear. It was assault weapon type one nine.
Yuna!
A long barrelled rifle, a couple centimetres from his head, traced his movements as he sat up.
"Tell me-" Yuna started, "tell me what you are doing here..."
He rose to his feet and faced her with his towering stature.
His muscle insertions were well defined in his dark red under suit, the 'p' graphic embossed on the chest was out in the open exposing his identity to the various computers screens and apparatus in the room.
His Paladin Armour was worn around his waist as a chunky belt. It hung loosely over wide, grey sweatpants and on his feet were white socks in turquoise, hard shell slippers.
He had definitely seen better days.
He appeared to have more grey hairs on the sides of his unkempt hair and beard, and the dark circles around his eyes had deepened, further framing the origin of his burdened expression.
She took a cautious step back. She didn't know what to expect from him, he was like a stranger.
"Please, don't move!"
"Yuna," he started, "where are the others, are they behind you? I have to speak with you all."
His casual demeanour disturbed her. He had no clue or regard for her emotional turmoil.
"Your hair... its colour is already returning." Yuna didn't realise she deactivated her helmet. It sat around her head as a blue, metallic headband, "It reminds me of when we first met that little girl on the battlefield-"
"Answer my question!"
"...Yuna, I understand you must be confused, but you just have to trust me..." His voice took a sombre tone.
"Trust you? Ever since his death you've been disappearing without a trace! You abandoned us, and now it turns out you've been working with Retroidica this entire time!"
"...I'm sorry. I truly am, but I needed all the help I could get." He looked around the room, "here I have learnt more than I ever could on my own."
Yuna took a good look at her surroundings for the first time.
The room was similar in size to an aircraft hangar, with expansive ceiling heights and suspended light panels.
She saw the night sky from above through dome shaped window panes, similar to the train station platform she ran through prior.
Nature collided with technology as a rocky wall surface and plants contrasted advanced analogue tech, lcd screens and pale wall panels.
Tables, chairs and the rest of the room's apparatus were placed to accommodate around an oppressively large machine that dominated the area's centre.
Tunnels sprouted from its central structure like appendages, running at perpendicular angles throughout the expanse.
Retro Quantum Interferometer was labelled in red along its side.
Was this another one of his projects with Retroidica, Yuna wondered?
Before she had jumped from the mezzanine level above, she read a sign that directed to many other research facilities within the complex.
This one was 'The Gravitational Energy Observatory'.
"On your own?" she repeated, "What, are we no longer good enough...?"
"No Yuna, of course not. But I don't know the extent of their surveillance. I may have found a loophole that-"
He noticed she was staring at the novaera cubus on the workstation.
He had brought it with him.
"You remember that? Fascinating isn't it. That is part of the reason why I came here, to better understand it."
"What... is it?" She watched it carefully as it sat completely still on the desk.
The mysterious puzzle piece that possibly explained the strange abilities they had seen so far.
She realised she couldn't grasp any slight details on it, it was like it completely absorbed light.
The strange effect it had on the atmosphere before was non-existent, but the colour irritated her eyes as its perceived lack of depth gave it a two dimensional effect.
"It's not about what it is, but what's inside."
He was being smug, she hated when he became like that, but a small weight lifted off her shoulders.
"This 'cube' is a highly advanced housing, protecting and regulating the material inside independently."
He picked it up casually and flipped it in his hands.
"See, I am able to toy with it now, but if I am able to unlock it..." His attitude changed impossibly quick as he focused.
The object left his hands and floated between them as the atmosphere around it began to ripple and expand.
So she hadn't imagined it.
He had the same abilities as the mercenaries they encountered, but the space immediately around the cube was far more dense than anything she had seen.
The distortion continued to expand as tables and chairs began to shift towards it, picking up speed as they drew closer.
"Stop!" Yuna yelled.
He instantly let it fall in his hands and the attraction instantly ceased.
He looked disappointed.
"Anomalous gravitational energy detected." A voice that sounded like Merphie's chimed.
She flinched before turning to see the source of the noise, it had come from a control panel on a wall behind her.
"It's hard to get under control, I've only managed to unlock it a few times without distortion since I received it," he set it down on the table again, "the object inside is from the heart of a dying star. The small amount that's in there is equivalent to the mass of several hundred buildings, but it has been further refined into something... greater."
She looked at the cube with caution.
"Don't worry, it's completely safe," he reassured her, "It's revolutionary really, it could finally prove the quantisation of gravity. Actually, it just did as you heard, but right now we're gathering as much data as we can."
Yuna realised what was supposed to be a confrontation was now a science lesson.
"When did you become an expert in astrophysics?"
"It's been about a month or so... It's been hard to tell lately."
The 'matter of fact' nature of his response almost goaded a brief chuckle.
It was like nothing had happened. She could feel his sincerity, though a sadness loomed over him.
"You've interacted with it too. I can tell, your presence is much more pronounced. The fact that I can discern this is proof of the graviton within itself."
She stared at him blankly.
"You must have felt it by now, right? Symptoms are expressed in different ways in subjects, but one is a slight impression of how people feel, like a vague sense of the atmosphere in the room. The difference of change does vary considerably..." He trailed off in thought.
"Victor, you're scaring me... who gave you this technology. You said you received it, but from whom?" The explanation had hit her like a ton of bricks.
Was it Retroidica or perhaps another superpower like Lauradale?
Though plausible, interstellar travel was only at its beginning stages, and Lauradale had only launched its first rover to mars not too long ago.
To reach a dying star...
He gave her a daunting look.
"Answer me, please!"
"Look Yuna-"
"Well done, Yuna! Don't let him escape again!"
She looked up towards the mezzanine to her left, Nico had launched himself over the balustrade and landed, cracking the floor beneath his feet.
Mercy, who wasn't far behind, was followed by Ryu. Though he was supported by Merphie as they steadily walked side by side.
They must've forced the last mercenary into submission as a group, though they had entered from a different area she had.
"Nico, wait!"
Yuna's words fell on deaf ears.
He was already marching toward them, showing no sign of slowing down.
He disassembled his helmet and stood face to face with their leader.
He looked up, their Captain had four and a half inches on him but both stood unflinching.
"How could you?" his calm tone was betrayed by an underlying rage, evident in his trembling delivery, "how could you be working with such scum!"
"You're supposed to be our Captain, our leader! The world looks up to you... how could you betray us... betray me!"
Yuna had seen Nico emotional before. But not like this.
"He betrayed all of us, Nico," Mercy and the others had dropped down and looked at Nico in concern, "this isn't what we planned to-"
"Stay out of this, Mercy! You don't understand!"
Yuna's heart began to pound.
She had dreaded this as a potential outcome, though perhaps it was inevitable.
Mercy dawned an expression that looked as though she'd been shot. Yuna wasn't sure if she would retaliate.
"My brethren died in that cave under the Atakaala Desert!" He turned to lecture them, "My people are now labeled as terrorists for fighting back against the north and Retroidica's parasitic presence!"
"They print and control our currency and have the world's largest gold and uranium reserve! There isn't a single active mine on Retroidican soil!"
Nico let out a twisted chuckle.
"...And now... the man I call Captain is aiding said country with his scientific knowledge..."
There was an uncomfortable pause.
"What was going through your mind as we travelled to those UN meetings together?"
Yuna wanted to tell him to stop, but how could she?
"Nico, i'm-"
"And you knew damnit!" Nico's voice broke, "You knew we were coming didn't you! What are we to you, is this some kind of sick game? Look at Ryu's arm!"
Yuna turned in horror as she saw what Ryu was holding onto, it somehow hadn't registered before, but his right arm dangled in his left.
She also noticed that they all, aside from Merphie, were covered in trace amounts of reddish sand.
There was almost too much going on.
"What do you mean he knew?" Ryu spoke up, his voice was a combination of lethargy and irritation, "through Merphie?"
"My systems have not detected any spyware of any sort." Merphie added frankly.
"Nico, I suggest you calm down. We're all hurting but this is getting ridiculous, we need to-."
"Really Mercy?" He turned to face her, "is it so ridiculous? How do you think he found us under two thousand metres of rock so quickly? A blind guess?"
Yuna remembered the story of the cave-in being brought up during free nights on the Nimbus, was there more to it?
"...he's placed trackers in all of us..." Nico looked at the floor as if in disbelief of his own statement, "he's been leading us on from the start like lambs-"
"It was for your protection. The mine collapse only further cemented the decision. You don't understand, I had to lead-"
Nico turned and punched their Captain in the face; a shockwave emanated from the contact.
"NICO!"
Yuna and Mercy screamed in unison as Victor flew through the air. Then stopped.
After halting all momentum, he slowly turned and glided back down to a position further away.
He ignored the blood that flowed from his nose, soaking into his unkept facial hair.
"I know I have disappointed you Nico, I have disappointed you all, but know there's a reason for all of this. I've been coming here because of that cube, to learn more about it. It could be our only chance..."
They stared at Yuna's previous discovery as it sat casually on the work station.
"So you risked the Paladin Initiative, worked for a corrupt government and endangered all our lives for a stupid cube?" Ryu had said what they were all thinking, but Yuna knew there was more to it.
"We saw those failed things in large test tubes on our way in here," he continued, "apart from this machine here and the cube, what else exactly has Retroidica got you working on. Were they once human?"
"What did you see?" Yuna thought to ask.
Mercy and Ryu, who were once on the fence, seemed to have changed sides completely.
"Retroidica doesn't know he's here..."
The Paladins were caught off guard by what appeared to be another scientist standing on the mezzanine level in the background.
They watched in silence as he hurried down a staircase before casually strolling towards them, oblivious to the tension present.
"... and that 'machine's' construction was engineered with… my expertise, long before your Captain's... lets say... 'visits'." He continued through deep gasps.
Untameable hair curled over the scientist's dark brown eyes. It contrasted pasty white skin and rounded steel glasses.
Gaunt and stubbled, his angular face was framed by a dark blue turtle neck worn under a white jumpsuit. Retroidica Research was embroidered neatly in red on the left side of his chest.
He attempted to press his dry, thin lips against an unlit cigarette before casually leaning against a workstation next to Victor.
"And you are?" Ryu questioned.
"Professor Verlindus, Retroidica's lead researcher on gravitational energy, but I pretty much run the place... so I believe I am mainly to blame for the powerful mercenaries and test subjects you have seen thus far."
He spoke with a dry smirk, as though setting up a devious joke.
Though none came.
"Professor Phosus and I met through a colleague from the genomics lab a while back. He's recently entrusted the cube to me; I'm known for my theories on entropic gravity after all. Though, I went behind his back and did further... experiments with the rest of the team."
He's famous, Yuna thought. At least among physicians. She just managed to stay afloat surrounded by a sea of information, tossed and turned by the storm of the current events.
What did this all mean?
"Also, I'm very fond of your work around the world, Paladins, though I am a Retroidican patriot." he continued, failing to light his cigarette, "I do believe coming here illegally will put an end to your winning streak-"
"That doesn't mean I wasn't complicit," Victor attempted to stay on topic, "I continued to let him experiment, sometimes under my own supervision. But I can assure you, I do not intend to align myself with the country. I'm… using it…"
"…For?" Nico asked as they all anticipated an elaboration.
It had to be something that made sense, Yuna thought, to go to these extremes.
Victor and Verlindus exchanged cautious glances.
"Merphie…" Victor began, "what can be defined though not measured…"
"…is the freedom of deterministic minds on any given afternoon …"
"What?" Nico blurted.
"Merphie, tell us what you know from your interface in this lab." Victor commanded.
"Novaera cubus is an artifact of alien origin. Depending on the gravity field enacting on it and its intent, it can regulate its own mass and function..."
"... Among the other artefacts Professor Phosus was given, novaera cubus is imperative to 'Project Carthaege Corvus'."
"What…?" Nico repeated.
"N-no Mr Nicodae…I," He touched his forehead in concern, "It was as though the information was locked away until this very moment… I-"
He was just as disorientated as they were.
Yuna was furious.
"You promised Merphie autonomy, but you're manipulating his functions for your own bidding! How do you think he feels!" Yuna realised she was pouting like a child, but the dishonesty surrounding the situation made her own words and actions independent of her will.
"How it makes him feel? He's an android that simulates human behaviour, he doesn't 'feel', not any more than a standard computer?" Victor's cold words were carried with a delivery of genuine concern for Yuna's outburst.
It was as though he could not fathom how she had come to such a conclusion.
A semblance of guilt quickly rose to the surface but was smothered just as fast.
"He's just a robot," Victor thought, "It's not the same."
The silence brought the wind outside into existence. Though largely muffled by the walls of the facility, the windows above rattled in its ferocity.
The rain had also refused to falter and was now a heavy, continuous patter from far above.
Reeling from her sudden outburst, Yuna's thoughts wandered to the Paladin Jet.
"Resuming from my previous conversation with Yuna, before you all entered," Victor began, "… I was visited by an entity from another galaxy. A herald, or a royal guard of sorts..."
"He somehow knew about you, the Paladin initiative, and forbade I give you any information pertaining to its existence. He had me enter a contract. I'm not sure what it meant, or how it worked but I felt it resonate within my core."
The other scientist cleared his throat nervously, Yuna felt something was up with the explanation, and he knew.
"He said he would take action against the Earth if I disobeyed and that they will be arriving after forty one planetary rotations, that was three weeks ago."
The room overflowed with uncomfortable silence.
"But we still have time! I've been making extensive preparations, and I now know the contract doesn't seem to be binding in any way that matters. That means you can learn how to entangle with the cube. If they plan to take over the planet the contract doesn't matter, we can fight back, together!"
Another pause.
"Hahahaha!" Nico was at his limit, "Ryu, you hearing this bullshit?"
Ryu stared at the ground in silence.
"Don't tell me you're buying this?" he looked around the room, "Mercy? Yuna?"
He turned towards her.
"Nico... look at what we've faced up until now. This gravity manipulation... This might be more than just mercenaries and shady governments..."
He thought for a moment then looked at the Captain.
Victor looked to the floor.
"So did you ever have a neural mod," Ryu questioned "Or has it been this gravity manipulation thing this entire time?"
Yuna thought about his abilities in retrospect, it would explain a lot.
Did that mean he wasn't human either?
There were still too many unknowns.
"Well... aliens or no, this doesn't change a thing because we're taking you in, can't have you conducting human experiments and manipulating gravity unchecked," It appeared Nico was done talking, "especially not on Retroidican soil…"
"Nico wait a minute-" Yuna began.
"He's right," Mercy added, "Their authorities might be on us at any second."
Yuna thought she could already hear commotion from above. Did they waste too much time talking?
"I'm sorry but I can't do that," Victor straightened up, the remorseful nature in his voice was long forgotten, gaining back his familiar commanding tone, "It'll be a waste of time, a commodity that we lack. Besides, the government would most likely want to cover this up."
"I led you here, Paladins, to test whether Aethereon was an utterly dominant factor, while simultaneously verifying the validity of the contract placed on me, which now appears void..."
"Not only can enhanced individuals with no prior knowledge win, they can learn to weaponise it for themselves-"
"We've taken down six gravity manipulators tonight, we can make it seven right now..." The Captain's words fell flat as Nico equipped his helmet.
The others did the same, though Yuna's remained as a head band.
The Retroidican scientist correctly read the room this time, slowly inching towards the stairs.
His presence was short lived, as he seemingly thought he would be, failing to keep a safe distance.
"You are still too weak," Victor took a step forward, looking at Ryu's severed arm in disappointment, "If you knew what was at stake..."
"Wait-"
"Anomalous gravitational energy detected."
Yuna was cut off by Merphie's chime from the workstation.
It halted the momentum of the atmosphere, demanding the attention of everyone in the room by force as they looked on with their own concerns.
Yuna honed in on the cube; it hadn't moved.
A thunderous crack sounded above them.
The facility rumbled and shook as the lights flickered off and the dust fell.
Monitor screens switched off and the vacant hum that existed in the background ceased.
The new found silence made the atmosphere taut as they all stood in suspense.
Yuna's wide eyes were fixed on the ceiling windows, scanning for the cause.
It was pitch black.
It was as if the very stars had vanished along with the torrential downpour.
Her heart skipped a beat, but before it could land, the ceiling of the research lab was torn open with an ear-splitting sound of crumpled metal and concrete.
What she thought was a blackened sky was now somewhat architectural.
Much further away than she initially realised, it spanned far wider than what she could perceive from the newly exposed ceiling.
A blue light shone down on them. It unveiled a slender silhouette within a vibrant mist.
It floated in the sky, isolated.
Has it always been there?
It glided with an unnatural smoothness, its gentleness contrasted the abject destruction framing its infallible descension.
It was an angel.
It had come to save them from the madness that was their present.
A saviour to release them from all the complexities that had befallen them with a wave of a hand.
The Paladin's have done their fair share of saving, who was to save them in their own time of need?
The hand that was waved, however, undoubtedly caused the chaos above despite Yuna's wildest delusions.
"No... it's too soon..."
Breathing suddenly became as easy as inhaling through a straw as a violent amount of pressure burrowed Yuna's feet into the ground.
All she could perceive was pain.
Her joints and spine inflamed in attempts to fuse together.
She did all she could to not let her brain and body shut down from the blood pooling to her legs.
It was hell.
As her heart began to fail, she felt her bones fracture and split as she dared to look up.
It felt like an act of defiance against nature itself as the very fabric of space time denied her action.
She could just about see up to the Captain's lower torso as he casually walked through the flattened carnage.
His demeanour was almost paradoxical against the smears that were once the laboratory interior.
He had equipped his Paladin Armour from his belt and stopped beneath the entity above.
He took a knee.