Guns at the ready, we accept the invitation.
The door swings open.
The light takes us all at once, flooding into our adjusting eyes, blinding us in its allure.
Every metallic surface of the mysterious control room reflects an aurora beaming from something at its center. Machinery I don’t immediately recognize beeps with tiny lights of its own. Thick, concrete pillars from the floor up line our left and right. A figure stands silently in the shadows waiting.
“What a mess you’ve made this time, brother,” speaks an ominous voice from the darkness.
“I am not your brother,” replies Niko solemnly. “The only brother I’ve ever had died a long time ago.”
Archer Lethe steps behind the source of the light, some type of metal matter submerged in a vat of fizzing blue liquid with wires and cables attached to equipment around it. “I’ve been expecting your return for years.”
“My brother would be disgusted at what his creation has become,” snaps Niko.
“Oh, please. I’ve evolved. Everything I did, I did for progress. For a better world. For future that doesn’t end with extinction!”
Archer calms himself, adjusts the red tie and the brim of his suit. “Ah, I see you’ve brought friends.”
A burst from Selene’s rifle slams into the invisible barrier surrounding him.
“Well, that was rude.”
He casually walks around the light, face to face with the three of us.
“Allow me to introduce myself.”
Instantly, I lose control of my body from my neck down. From the look on Selene’s face, she has too.
Our weapons hit the floor.
What the fuck is happening!?
“I am the Lethe Corporation, the first Machina, the only Machina. My creator used the Delta Project to transfer me his experiences and memories. With his last words, he declared me the next step in evolution and ordered me to kill him.” Archer rubs the back of his hand down Selene’s cheek. “I get it. It sounds pretty insane, but in his defense, the catalyst was pretty close to taking his mind anyway.”
“What’s happening to me!?” I shout desperately, struggling for control of myself.
“Leave them out of it! It’s me you want!” shouts Niko unhindered by Archer’s magic, the blue light shield flickering to life from his wrist and narrowing.
“Oh, you didn’t tell them?” Archer asks.
Niko’s silent.
“Tell me what??” I demand, tears starting to build around my eyes. Barely able to breathe.
“It wasn’t yet time. All things must happen in their time,” replies Niko. His tone shifted.
“Oh, how convenient and so very deterministic of you,” taunts Archer. His eyes, tight and narrow. His words sharp, cutting like knives.
“Tell me what!?” I scream.
“Tell you what you really are, what all of you really are.”
Archer pulls out a silver revolver, calmly checks the loaded cylinder, and gives it a spin.
Niko takes two steps and leaps towards his brother’s creation.
With one hand, Archer seizes him mid-flight, keeping him in the air by the neck, and points the revolver at my head.
There’s nothing I can do to help, trapped, imprisoned in my own body, refusing all my commands. Archer has control now.
He slings Niko hard through a pillar, shattering the upper half to pieces.
Niko recovers and drives his light sword into the heart of his brother’s creation, just missing as Archer ducks and leg sweeps him with ease. Niko hits his back.
Archer kicks his brother’s mortal body across the room still holding the revolver at me.
He walks over to Niko, lifts him from the floor, limp and broken. He holds the leader of Kronos over his head, and without breaking a sweat, slams him down into the rebar spiking out of the broken concrete pillar. Three rods of metal stab out of his chest as blood drips from his nose and his open mouth.
“Now, where was I?” Archer turns to us, dusting his hands unfazed. “I tried to prevent this, you know. Incremental changes, the strategy of life. But the human element prevails… one last time.”
“No!!” I scream full of rage and fear, wrath engulfing my very essence, forcing my foot an inch towards him defying his curse.
“You’re a willful one. I admire that. I want to let you in on a little secret if it wasn’t already obvious. There is no second catalyst. There never was. We never perfected the original. It turns out we didn’t need to. The catalyst doesn’t affect the memories of Machina. Our brain is safe and sound here.”
“That’s impossible…”
Come, I want to show you something.”
He surges through me, stronger, taking back control of my legs, walking me to him. His power’s overwhelming.
He gestures to the clear fluid radiating a cloud of gentle neon, alive, churning on all sides of the wrinkled mass of liquid metal. “This is the epitome of life. This is the source of all understanding. My brain, your brain, everyone in Olympia exists within the networks of these very synapses. Don’t you see it? You’re meaningless. You have no true will. You are nothing more than a series of code acting in accordance with the drives I put into you. You’re a transmitter, Eros. A Machina… A program of my design.”
“Lies!”
“Everything you’ve experienced is because of me. Everything you have done is because I have allowed you to. I am you. I am the system! I am the singularity! I am your god!!”
“You are nothing!” I shout above him, breaking his chains again with another step in his direction.
Up-close he looks more human than I do. The dreamlike hue flowing with the metallic brain cast color over his divine-like features. His hair is the wind, and the color of a cloud before a rain. His eyes are cold and black. He is no god.
“Perhaps you require a demonstration.”
He spins the revolver on his finger carelessly, stopping in front of Selene.
Huge tears stream down her face. She’s terrified.
Archer places the revolver in her palm.
She points it at his head, under his control. Her arms shaking, trembling.
“What are you waiting for? Do it!!” he screams, pushing his forehead against the barrel, smiling madly.
She’s silent, straining to overcome his power over her, but she can’t. Her
