Optional Music to Accompany the Chapter:
Final Symphony
https://youtu.be/wiFSWxZ0CP8
Chapter 29: Return's Greeting
Early Evening - Early Summer : Year 0 | Month 1 : Arlington, Virginia | East Coast United States
World: Earth | Rank: 6 | Population: ~1,893,120,000
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*Hmmmmmm* With a gentle magnetic hum akin to the purr of a motor, lights flickered by the small windows of the transport's cabin, flashing light over a metal-covered windshield, a deactivated control panel, and the well dressed man fervently writing into a leather folder across from me.
From his initial declaration to deal with me personally, only a few minutes had passed. With the soldiers gathering the other 'suspects' in the back of the soldiers transport vehicle, the man before me brought Bella and I into a separate cabin at the front for what appeared to be a disguised interrogation ahead of our arrival at the 'ISO' that appeared to manage mercenary affairs.
-I didn't expect us to travel there beneath the city though...- Looking out the heavily tinted window, I could hardly see anything other than an array of dim lights that looked like reflections from the inside of a box of mirrors.
But it wasn't magic or some simple illusion.
Referencing the image my energy was projecting in my mind, the space seemed to cover the entire city with only a few absolutely hulking stone columns spaced way too far apart to be intended to support the weight of the city. -Those must be beneath the railguns...- But that implied the rest of the city was simply floating. -Interesting... I wonder how they did it here...-
Watching as not just the transport we were in, but the countless others zipped around seemingly without order or lane, I had to question if they were following rails at all, but it only lasted a moment.
Finally stopping his writing for a moment, the stern eyes of the man across from me drifted up to me before twisting with skepticism. "You don't seem to surprised by Earth's technology. Are you familiar?"
Looking back, seeing the ink of his pen fade into invisibility hardly a second after its writing, I shrugged. "I've been to a few worlds with similar technology to this. It's been a while, but magnetic vehicles aren't new to me."
His writing resumed in a blink. "I see."
Despite being an interrogation, the way he initiated conversations or posed questions made me feel like I was speaking to a therapist. His tone was soft, and the questions felt casual and unprompted, but as if to dig into the intent of every word I spoke, regardless of my response, his pen spun across the paper.
It seemed more like a roundabout examination or diagnosis.
But none of the questions ever raised any alarms, so I stayed comfortable. -Maybe he's just trying to gauge if I'm a threat or not...- Stroking Bella's head in the stretch of silence that followed every question, I gently rubbed around her ears while letting my eyes drift back out the window.
The purpose of each of his probes were obvious, some trying to grasp my level, others, experience. But despite his secrecy being rather suspicious, I wasn't convinced there was a deeper purpose besides getting a general idea of who I was.
"Do you remember the names of any of those technologically advanced worlds you visited? If there are any we know, you could get some special benefits." Sometimes he'd even weasel in rewards as if to try and get my lips to slip.
But not only were a majority of his questions pretty basic, my lips were never that loose. "I can't remember their names anymore. Its been a while."
He nodded as his pen resumed its dance across the paper.
Hearing the patterned rhythm of his strokes, I pulled my eyes back to him after a moment.
Until that point, I never bothered asking a question first, half out of caution, half because I didn't think he'd have an answer.. but the more my mind ran, the more questions clouded my thoughts.
And eventually, that curiosity I had unknowingly unbound started eating at me.
To the point I asked a meaningless question. "Are you perhaps a swordsman?"
Sparked by the flow of his pen strokes, I asked a question that's sole purpose was to satisfy a meaningless curiosity.
He was, understandably, taken aback. "I haven't swung a sword in many years, but there was a time." His eyes sharpened with suspicion as they snapped to me.
But I was too caught in thought to care. "The flow of your pen gave it away." -He must've been pretty decent too... I wonder why he stopped...-
But the moment I finally recognized what I was doing, I flinched. -What the hell has gotten into me..?-
After having reserved every idle thought I ever had for a greater purpose, be it escaping the system or simply surviving, it felt.. wrong to question something so meaningless...
"You speak like you were a swordsman yourself."
But the binds that held my curiosity back all that time had already been severed, and there was no closing the flood gates after they had opened. "I dabbled in it a few times."
Seeing him go back to writing, I leaned back and laid my head on the cushioned rest, hoping to reign my thoughts back in with a heavy breath.
But while it changed the direction of my mind, it never slowed.
Eventually resuming his interrogation, the ride was rather quickly wrapped up. After a gentle nudge forward from the vehicle beginning to slow down, we eased to a steady halt before a gate opened in the ceiling, and we were lifted into it. *Wmmmm*
"It seems like we will be parting ways here in a moment." *Clang-Woom* Gently jolting as we waited for another gate to open, he extended his hand. "I apologize for not introducing myself earlier. My name is Smith."
-Smith, huh... I wonder if that's his real name...- *Pat* "Evren."
I shook his hand only intended to be polite, but the hair on his arms stood so fast it was like the temperature in the cabin had dropped a hundred degrees in an instant.
But despite his hair standing like an alerted dog, he held his composure together until we finally came to a stop, and the door swung open with a ripple of fog and a wash of cold. *Tss-wooosh*
"Hooh..." His breath was heavy and labored—taking a moment to close his eyes and compose himself before stepping out.
The space was blindingly-white, with the walls, ceiling, and floor entirely sealed with a matte-white metal only interrupted by lights, mechanical apparatuses, or weapons.
The place was like the inside of a vault made to be easier to enter than exit. -Geez...- It reminded me of a kill chamber... A place to isolate and neutralize something...
But with the vast crowd of hazmats, soldiers, and scientists clearing the vehicle, it seemed like they didn't intend to use it.
Finally standing to follow Smith out, I had Bella climb onto my back again, only to overhear something before I reached the heavy metal door.
"Why did you have the lights off? And why was it so hot in there? Were you trying to cook yourself?" It was the half-digital, energized voice of a woman speaking to Smith.
A woman whose head snapped to me the instant I showed myself.
She was completely encapsulated in armor, with a brightly lit visor blocking me from seeing her eyes.
But nevertheless, her glare pierced it like it wasn't there until Smith somewhat weakly whispered, "She's likely not a threat, but she's strong enough to gut this entire facility..." He paused as he looked back, likely to see if I could hear. "Make sure you're on her good side... Just in case..."
Finally straightening himself with some force, he tried to ease his heavy breathing a bit before turning around completely one last time.
"Madam Evren, this kind lady will lead you from here. If you have any questions or concerns, please voice them to her." After giving the armored person beside him a motion, he put his hand on his chest and gave a shallow, but very formal bow rivalling what I'd expect from a noble. "We likely won't see each other again, but I hope I made a favorable impression regardless."
Waiting for me to pull my attention back to the woman beside him, he held the bow a moment longer before finally standing and taking his leave.
But he wasn't more than two steps away before the woman gave a cheery, two finger salute. "Hiya!" The plates on her helmet almost instantly peeled back to reveal the face of a woman in her thirties with a large burn scar on her jaw and neck. "My name is Kara! A knight of the Church of Michael." Stepping forward without any semblance of manners or formality, she motioned me along. "You're a foreigner, right? Where you from?"
She was unbelievably upfront—jarringly so. "Ah..." But oddly enough, her lack of respect made nostalgia surface for a moment. "I'm technically not a foreigner, but its been so long I may as well be." I responded with a smile and a gentle wave.
But as if I missed something, Smith instantly stopped in his tracks and everyone's heads twisted to us. "Is that so?" From the soldiers to those wearing lab coats or hazmat suits, everyone had their attention on us. "It must have been quite a while then!"
It made the atmosphere twist.
But I had no intention of living a lie. "Hah..." Knowing showing tension would just worsen things, I scoffed. "It certainly has."
Earth was the place I was going to aim to stay for the rest of my life. I needed to be honest.
-But...- Suddenly feeling my gaze darken as it moved over the crowd, reigns wrapped around my uncontained mind. -I need to be careful who I spill it to...-
By then, I wasn't sure how Earth would take the knowledge of my existence, but regardless of that, standing out too much before I understood the state and culture of Earth was a major concern. -Maybe I just hint at it and let the government dig for it...-
Seeing a scientist stagger forward, I eased my expression at the flip of a switch.
"M-Miss! Do you remember what year you were 'initiated'?"
I shrugged. "I don't recall exactly." A masked lie. "What year is it now?"
"The year 2579, ma'am."
"Hm..." It lined up exactly with the timer my system showed before the wipe. -To think that timer really wasn't translating my perception of time into a unit I knew...- "Haah... I wonder how old that makes me."
It was an honest question, but truthfully, I only said it aloud to try and get everyone to resume what they were doing.
But that question gave me more trouble than I could have ever imagined. Not because it led to them finding out the truth.. but because it didn't.
"She doesn't exist in any database we have..." Overhearing chatter outside the interrogation room I was brought to for more blunt questioning on my name, affiliation, class, and origin, it felt like gravity multiplied.
In that facility, they had a database of nearly every human on Earth dating back to the year 2168. Of course, that wasn't enough to find me, but it went back far beyond what was believed to be the maximum lifespan of a human. "Unless she stumbled across the fountain of youth, she's lying. She has no ancestry either..."
Thinking it'd help resolve things, I gave them a piece of my hair, but it only made things worse.
"She's well over level 1000, has no documented lineage, and is a pure-bred human..." Every time they left the room, they were more baffled than when they first entered.
So at the end of the road, only seeing things spiralling in a bad direction, I gave a nudge. "Do you guys have any documentation from before the System became more prevalent on Earth?"
The two interrogators, a stiff woman and a baffled older man both glanced at each other in a moment of pause before simply staring at me, and questioning if I was serious.
I was almost certain they wouldn't. -Five hundred years is too long...- Especially considering the cataclysms they had experienced in that time. -After so much of the population was culled.. there's no way they have anything still...-
But after two days of silence, and being moved to a lower-security room coated in skyglass, I received a knock—not from the interrogators, but from a human surrounded by soldiers.
"Miss Lestir." He was young man—thin, and certainly not a fighter. "My name is Alrek Occoro, a regional manager of the ISO." He was smiling, but his heart was racing, and breathing was tight.
-He's really anxious...- But it didn't seem to be aimed at me...
"I'd like to have a private word with you, if you'd allow it."
I nodded as I looked back toward the soldiers, expecting them to step out.
But instead, they walked all the way to the wall opposite of the door, and the anxious boy motioned me up. "This place isn't suitable, I apologize." Seeing him glance up into the corners over the bed I was leaning against, exactly where two cameras were, he tightened. "Please.. come with me."
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