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Chapter 118. Interlude 4
🕑 Added 2025-07-15 15:28:38 +0000 UTCA month after the apocalypse came to Earth, Thea found herself walking next to the half robot man. His second eye became inorganic eventually, and she discovered his whole skeleton became metallic also, even though his skin in some parts seemed normal. Apparently he had a constitution stat since he was a rare ranked tank soon to be epic, but said stat was not basic like all her stats.
She wondered what that information meant, his constitution stat not being basic?
For example she had the perception stat as her first hidden stat, but all her stats were the normal ones given by the system.
Meeting him in the hallway, one of Thea’s fears had been realised. He was performing as well as her, if not better. She was the chosen of Earth. A generic male named John Colt couldn't, wasn't supposed to, be as good as her.
They walked through the well lit hallways, ignoring the many nondescript office doors on either sides. It was hard to notice they were underground, what with all the light coming from the tiny lights embedded into the ceiling. When they came to the end of the shiny silvery road, to the last door down hallway B32, Thea knocked politely.
She looked to her companion to see if the man was ready, but he was still smiling smugly at her as he had been since they first met on their way here.
She fought the urge to snap something at him just then. They would soon be joined by other people.She was just thinking about her when the door opened to reveal Barbara Kingsley.
Her aunt looked overworked and there were bags under her eyes and her hair was all a jumble and her black power suit was visibly stained.
Thea felt the weight of the new suit her grandmother had handed her as she'd instructed her to come here.
“Your competition is not going away girl,” that scary woman had said. “I thought my words to you before were perfectly clear.”
Thea did not have the heart to so much as respond. It was her fault anyway. She knew she was failing the woman, but what could she do? Only her best, that was what. And if that wasn't enough, then she just did not know anymore.
“Ahh, Mr John Colt. Dear niece, you're here, so it must be time, isn't it?”
The whirling of gears and the sound of metal working, so audible in her aunt's office, distorted some of her words. Still, she was speaking rather quietly, docilely by her standards.
Thea tensed, knowing something was up even besides their purpose for coming here.
The metal working kept interrupting her thoughts. She knew who else had an office and a workshop close to her aunt. How her aunt did administrative work in this kind of setting, she would never know. Or maybe this was the reason the woman looked like she hadn't slept in days?
Barbara gestured for them to be seated. They had computer-like devices in this underground laboratory, and the oversized things worked, unlike many other places in the world where people had no hints of technology. Barbara's desk looked so unlike the woman herself. Organised in a kind of neurotic fashion, the only thing out of place were what looked like noise cancellation ear plugs. Perhaps she had been warned she would be getting visitors and had decided to pull out the plugs.
So this then was how she continued to work even with all the noise.
She ignored her guests for about five minutes, fiddling with her computer all the while. The sounds of metal work started to die down. Then there was another knock from the main door in the hall.
Without looking up, Barbara said, “will you get that for me, Mr John.”
The robot man went to protest, but she forestalled him.
“You need to give us the room. The prophet will want to run maintenance on you anyway.”
“But we came here to attend the first world congress, didn't we?” the robot man still managed to resist being under her authority.
“You are undercutting the family's authority.” Her grandmother’s words to Thea before she came down to this office. Now she could see it with her eyes.
“Yes,” Barbara replied to the annoying man, although her tone barely changed.
That had Thea tensing all over again.
Her voice sounded even more half dead than she looked. “But the node is in the prophet's office anyway. That is where we are supposed to meet. Please leave my office at once.”
Her voice was monotonous throughout, even though she was probably seething internally. The robot man opened his mouth to try to resist more, but Barbara raised her head and stared him down. The man's teeth clicked metallically as he snapped his mouth shut. He scowled fiercely as he left the room.
Not a minute later, her cousin Reyna popped her head into the room. She couldn't remember when she'd last seen the siren, as people had taken to calling her recently. Reyna was only a profession holder, but she was more influencial than some class holders. She was an inspirational figure to most, allowing those who could not fight to keep hoping and dreaming. Especially those whose souls had not yet acclimated to the Essence, those who were yet unawakened, who had no class or profession despite being the right age.
“Reyna,” Thea said with a slight bob of the head.
“Oh hi, Thea,” Reyna said. “It's been a month already, huh? I take it the first summit is here. What are you going to request of the system, I wonder.”
Thea also looked questioningly at her aunt. Ideally, they'd want something that could improve the lives of everyone on Earth, but the priority still was to take control of the planet. Thea was not in administration, so she wondered what kind of services would enable the government to do that kind of thing.
“This was decided years ago,” Barbara Kingsley said nonchalantly, still typing on her computer. “We need to keep track of the power levels of the planet, so it was always going to be the ladder system. We need to know in case any unforeseen elements try to disrupt the balance.”
The balance of the strongest organisations that were going to be allowed a piece of the pie, Thea understood without being told more. The Earth had changed. Governments had been razed to the ground. New forms of governance were rising from the ashes in only a month, and things could still change any time.
It was such a short time for everything to change. Especially since they were going to live much longer than before. Thanks, in part, to the Essence essentially pushing their lifespans to the hundreds and eventually to the thousands of years.
For immortals, shouldn't life be a little slower than it was right now? The apocalypse had them in a nonstop panic mode, putting out fires, trying to save everyone, trying to experiment and learn the system.
Barbara soon looked up from her computer, and Thea had Reyna gasp at the sight of her mother's gaunt face. The woman only held out her hand for Thea to hand over her new suit. She put the clothes on a hook behind her desk and leaned back in her chair. She took a deep breath as if preparing for some kind of long race.
“Rafael is dead,” she announced, and a shock of silence met the declaration.
For about a minute and a half, no one said anything.
“W-what,” Reyna Kingsley was the first to react.
Thea stared toward her just in time to see the other woman stumble and almost fall, but instead collide with the door.
“I tried everything,” Barbara Kingsley said. “I asked all his schoolmates. I asked Mr. Anderson, that one police guy, and the last time they'd seen him was almost five months ago now. I've checked all the temporary settlements we've set up thus far. I just…I can't find him.”
“Did you try checking the house in Crosshill?” Thea asked. “It was pretty isolated.”
“Of course I did,” Barbara Kingsley almost shouted. “Of course I tried that. I made sure the transports sent to Crosshill all knew to check that house as thoroughly as possible. Nothing. And what did mother tell me the other day? There was a prophecy about it.”
“What?!” Thea asked.
She realised she was not reacting to the news as much as Reyna. Her insides were so calm they were suffocating. It was quiet. It was hard for her to even think.
A tear streamed down Barbara Kingsley's cheek.
“I don't even know why I'm still working here. I decided to work with the prophet for my family's sake, but now…my little boy.”
And she released such a heartrending, ugly sob.
And somehow Thea could put a few words to her feelings. She had stayed with Rafael for four of the roughest years any child his age should go through. She'd watched the boy struggle with his lack of family.
She'd watched him work harder than anyone else to make her and her mother proud. Because they were the only family he had left at the time. And they had also abandoned him not long after. In their defense, they had believed they would only be separated for a year. They thought he'd be able to endure a year, strong mentality he had. And he had money too.
Somehow, the thought of him dying out of nowhere was never even considered. What was the point of saving seventy-five percent of the planet but still losing a part of their family. And he was the youngest one too.
Somehow, they ended up in a hurdle of three pairs of intertwined limbs. They needed each other's support in that moment.
Their sorrow was starting to abate, to become less audible when someone knocked on the door. Either the prophet or Thea's biggest competitor.
Barbara extricated herself from the pile up. She rubbed at her eyes and took a breath. Reyna got up and walked to the door. She looked back at her mother to say something, but she shook her head sadly and continued out of the room. Supposedly to go and inform her father.
Thea knew how close those two had become in the aftermath of Barbara's disappearance all those years before the integration.
Rafael had suffered for his age, for his inability to grasp what was going on, for his inability to help. He had been left behind. He had died. It was difficult to wrap her brain around, but it was true. It had happened.
Barbara Kingsley took a breath, and then another, and another, and between two random breaths her facial expression became blank again, and then she was wiping the tears, still heaving heavy breaths. She closed her eyes once and opened them again.
One could still tell she'd been crying, but it would be hard. Only her swollen red eyes remained and that could be attributed to her overworking herself over the past few weeks. And got a make-up box from her desk before Thea could even consider it. There was even some eye medicine of some kind.
These were not droppers but rather a topical solution Barbara applied to her bottom eyelids. And even as Thea watched, the woman transformed into the prim and proper and well kempt face of the illuminati, the organisation most likely to rule the new world.
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