I, Propitiator: "Chapter 10"

Chapter 10

May the sweet fragrance of love carry you on the winds, may it give you a blessed assurance that you have worth and may it revive that hope you thought was lost.

Captain Lee shouted at Ensign Kasana, “Go to red alert! We’re under attack!”

The ship blared with an obnoxiously loud siren declaring the level of distress the ship was in. The Prime I walked out of his room into the control room. He inquired, “Where were we hit?”

Captain Lee quickly responded, “2^nd deck, starboard… What did you have in mind, sir?”

However, by the time the captain had finished his inquiry, the Prime I had already taken the tunnels to the place where the ship was vulnerable.

After sending a transmission explaining what had happened back to the A.R.S. Zoelight, Itxaro teleported the commander’s body back onto the A.R.S. Lightning. However, as he arrived, she also heard a strange noise. Searching for the source, she found it in his mouth… 3…2… With barely any time to react Itxaro instinctively covered herself in hopes to survive the explosion.

Oliver sat at a coffee shop, sipping his hot green and white tea. The soothing texture of the medicinal liquid coated his parched throat. As he sat there, an attractive girl walked in, her hair was long and dark, yet as he watched her, it became clear she was more than just a pretty face. A child on the street nearby had fallen and this girl he knew not of ran after the child, rescuing him from the oncoming traffic. Then, as she walked back into the shop, Oliver recognized the emblem on her coat. This girl was the princess of this place.

She took a seat by the window, staring out over the land. With a caring eye, she watched over all that walked along, whether they took a broken path or a blessed one. Then her father entered the shop as well. The king, in all his splendor, approached Oliver and sunk to one knee to talk with Oliver privately. In a soft, yet commanding voice, he said, “Knight Oliver, protect my daughter.”

Before Oliver could respond, two gunmen entered the shop. They shot the king first, and then as they continued to shoot at others, Oliver broke the window, dodged a bullet and pulled the princess out of the shop with him. As they pursued, firing randomly, Oliver and the princess sped away in a car.

Zurui laughed manically as he walked through the A.R.S. Zoelight. His new battle suit was working as expected, no it was working better than what was expected, and Zurui enjoyed every moment of it. Then he saw his target, the Prime I. Zurui fired a bolt of energy straight for the Prime I, yet at the energy neared the Prime I, it merely dissipated from the shear will of the Prime I. Then Zurui rushed him and knocked the Prime I into the wall, from there the Prime I lifted his hand and Zurui soon hit his head on the ceiling. Then Zurui fired a wall of energy while running at the Prime I so that when the energy dissipated, Zurui was at the throat of the Prime I. However, the Prime I merely smiled, saying, “Even in your weakest times, I will be there.”

Suddenly, the Prime I vanished from the A.R.S. Zoelight and was by Itxaro’s side, as she clung desperately to life. The Prime I now spoke with a voice that pierced to the bone, yet healed from that very depth, saying to Itxaro, “You will recover.”

Then because of his words, something incredible happened, her wounds began to close up, the burns were healing, and she was coming back from the edge of death. She opened her eyes and looked at him, wondering how an I had managed to harness that much of their inner power. With him leading the resistance, how could they lose?

Oliver took the princess to a small but well-kept diner on the other side of the city, away from those insane gunmen. Then as she took her seat, Oliver placed an ornate wreath of lavender lilies centered by a single red rose on her head. The rose was like a ruby on her crest; it further illuminated her shining countenance and complimented her violet dress. From every possible angle, the two of them appeared dazzling together. Then a friend of Oliver ran in to the diner and whispered something in his ear. Oliver nodded and gestured for the princess to come with him. As soon as she rose, Oliver turned to lead her out and away from the impending danger, but she stabbed him in the back with a knife.

Zurui stood there, alone in the hallway, wondering what had just happened. Why was the Prime I considered so strong? How was Zurui not able to kill him… Ok, so he could dissolve raw energy blasts by his own will, which was in it of itself a form of energy. But that didn’t mean that Zurui still didn’t have the physical advantage over this stupid I. Oh and since when did an I use the word I in their language? This baffled Zurui all the more… Was it all an illusion? Enraged, Zurui fired an array of shots punching holes into the ship’s corridors then teleported back to his ship… Now he had to track down that infuriating I.

Oliver pulled the dagger out of his back and fell to his knees. Blood ran all over the floor and stained the hem of her dress. The princess shed a single tear, as if she had wished she hadn’t stabbed him. Oliver gasped for air as he murmured, “You can still achieve victory.”

The princess knelt down, getting more blood on her dress. Taking a lily from her garland, she dipped it in the blood that was all over the floor. In an instant, the lily turned into a crimson rose, in a greater beauty than the rose on her crown. Then she touched the crimson rose to the wound on Oliver’s back. The flower vanished as the wound healed, then the wreath on her head grew more vibrant and plentiful than it had been when Oliver placed it on her head.

The Prime I helped Itxaro to her feet and from there she attempted to get the engines back online. She managed to get the engines online in about half an hour’s time. Then as she started the ship up, Decion emerged from the cave. The Prime I moved to the window and commanded, “Stand down.”

And with those very words, the light in Decion’s eyes faded out as the machine stopped fighting. They left the frozen rock and headed back for the A.R.S. Zoelight.

The princess helped Oliver to his feet and they walked out of the diner, holding hands, enjoying every moment of it… Then Oliver awoke from his dream. For a few moments he simply laid there in bed, wondering what had just happened, then he arose and came to my room, we talked for a few hours discussing what had happened, until Mason barged into my room. With much agitation he stated, “Commander, we’ve received a transmission, from the A.R.S. Zoelight. It’s urgent.”

We then all ran over to the control room. Oliver read the details of the transmission with an alarmed face. Upon learning of the distress of the resistance’s flagship and having been ordered to rendezvous with the A.R.S. Lightning instead, he commanded me to increase the speed at which we were heading for the new coordinates. Then he sent a transmission to the Prime I:

::: This is Commander Avner of the A.R.S. Victory. We are en route to your new location. We have hastened our pace in lieu of the danger of the current situation. If you have any further orders, we are ready to carry them out. :::

From there, we sat in great anticipation of a response of some kind, hoping that they had already taken care of the situation.

Kakios and Vidya furiously worked on the next rendition of Decion upon receiving the transmissions from Zurui. The results looked decent enough, but it still needed a lot of improvement, especially given that Itxaro almost got away without the Prime I’s help. Building a Decion that could take on the Prime I would be nearly impossible, but one efficient enough to kill his men before he arrived… Now there was an idea. Perhaps maybe even a Decion that would know to run from the Prime I to avoid being shut down or destroyed. Wouldn’t that be something? Decion wreaking havoc on the resistance and eluding the Prime I. It was such a marvelous dream, they just had to try. Even if it couldn’t be done, something close to that which could be built quickly would suffice. Just make multiple of them. Simple as that and the resistance would crumble. Kakios thought how wonderful it would be to not have to work for Zurui… If the resistance was dead, he wouldn’t have to. All the more reason to finish this stupid android and get it battle tested some more. With a fresh push of motivation, he ran off to get more supplies for Decion 2.0.