Chapter 4: Rivin's Legend

Chapter 4

'What? You have more of these?' I instinctively back away with my chair away a bit. The last few times with these spikes hadn't been good. The memory spike is literally a little spike, though the point is not as sharp as it looks, really. It is the size of a pencil, with the normal rubber end replaced with a little cube shaped button. The thing is black in colour, just like many of the other things the Raix made.
'Yes. You passed your 15th birthday last week, but I hadn't had to time to give it to you. Here,' He takes the spike and pushes it on the table to me. 'Use it. I think you'll like it.'
I stare at the spike blankly. If Daniel thinks I'll like it, I probably will, but what if I don't? I'll get the same experience and vision the last time. With all the pain and destruction and death, I don't think I can take it again.
'I know what you are thinking, Rivin. You're thinking about how this would turn out, and I can promise you, nothing of the sort like last time will happen again.'
'Wow. Are you linked to my brain as well? Can't I have some privacy around here?'
'No, I can't be linked to your brain. I've studied your speech and action patterns long enough to accurately guess an answer. I know you more than you think.'
I hesitated for a moment, before quickly snatching up the memory spike. The cold metal feeling I remembered so well long ago returned.
'Who's this from? The Raino? My people?'
'You'll see.'
I hold the spike like a jog stick, and put my left thumb onto the cube. The spike didn't move. Is it broken? I proved myself wrong as a second no longer, the cube began spinning around. It's my cue to lift away my thumb and touch the spike. I quickly transfer the spike to my right hand, and stuck my left index finger on the tip quickly.
The world suddenly started swirling. I'm expecting this, so I had a level of mental preparation for this. Then comes the.....
The swirling is immediately accompanied by a deafening bang. I covered my ears quickly as the swirling intensified. I see the dining table in front of me disappearing for a moment, before I started swirling myself. I can't see it, but I can feel it happening. My internal organs seem like they are being twisted in a very weird manner.
Everything darkened. Nothing. I was only aware of nothingness for a second before I got blinded by an immediate white flash.
When I opened my eyes again, I was somewhere else. I recognized this place immediately. Raixien. The air was special to my home planet. The feeling was familiar.
Where I was exactly, I'm not sure. I'm standing in the middle of what seems like a park. There's no one there with me. The trees loom above me. The trees here on Raixien is magnificent. Instead of green leaves, we have a perpetual state of yellow leaves. The grass beneath me sways a little, and the wind feels cool on my skin. Like I said, Raixien is fantastic. I can't wait for the day I finally return home and restore it to its former glory.
The only thing wrong here is that, there seems to be nothing else. Trees seems to go on and on and on, I can't see any trace of civilization here. Where the hell am I?
'Hello' I whirl around and see a man standing there, where he wasn't a few seconds ago. What kind of memory is this?
The man is in his mid-30s, though I could never tell with the Raix. I was fairly certain he was Raix, after all, he has the distinctive features of one, like the black hair and the glowing white eyes. Our eyes literally glow so we can see better in the dark, though it can be a bit annoying at times because I don't have enough control over it to shut it down completely. I have to drink a special brew made of some leaves to dull it down to a normal person.
The man's features are warm. His chiselled face is smooth and tan. I could say the same for his body, and his hair is swept to his right, in a little mess, like he just woke up and didn't have the time to mess with his hair.
'This is your father.' He said matter-of-factly. This man, is my father. I don't feel any resemblance to him or anything.
'Let's start over again,' he sighed, 'Hello, Rivin. I am your father. Today is the 4th day of the Losac-Raix war.'
Right now, I believe he is my father. I can start to feel how we are alike. Call it an intuition, I just can tell he is my father. 'But, right now, I don't have the time. I must get back to my people.' The trees shake violently. The grass starts tearing up, revealing the rich brown soil under it. A loud scream pierces through the air, and followed by a thud. I can hear something exploding in the distance, as more screams tear around me. Where are we?
'But, son, hear this.' He balances himself as another rock with golden shards sticking out crashes next to us, revealing the broken glass ceiling above, the glass still intact around the breach starts to gleam, then turns black. The park, which is what I assumed it is, starts to darken. My father looks up, then back to the rock.
The rock has golden shards sticking out of it. The rock is black, like many of the other things here, or it could just be the environment that's messing up my eyesight. My father looks panicked for a moment, and immediately stiffens up. He swipes away his glowing white jacket and swiftly positions his hands over his waist. As his hands hover past his waist, a little handle, with delicate carvings on it appeared.
The handle is small, and curved at the ends. It's white in colour, and I could recognize a few Raix symbols on it. My father holds it with his right hand, and he brandishes the handle like a weapon. It looks unusual since it looks like just a little stick that you couldn't harm a squirrel with, but I was proven wrong quickly.
When he finishes his motion brandishing the handle forward, a blade shoots out from one end. It happened so fast, I barely heard the chink sound. The blade is a pure silver, and the blade perfectly reflects my father, even in the dark. It's about 3ft long, and the metal is razor-sharped.
My father immediately jumps in the air, and I'm surprised at how high he can actually jump. The air around him starts shimmering. With a little resonance, he disappears and appears even higher. I understand now. He's a teleporting Raix. That explains how he got here so quick when I was sure nobody was here.
He's around 10ft in the air now, and he holds his blade down in a thrusting motion, towards the golden rock. He starts falling, and his eyes are determined, ready to fight anytime, anywhere, even if this is his last chance to talk to his son.
He didn't even grunt when he plunges his sword deep into the rock. But it was too late. The golden shards start glowing, and the rock explodes into a thousand flurry pieces. My father lands on the grass behind, and he makes a little pained sound.
Where the rock once was, stands 2 Losac sword bearers. I've never seen a Losac before without their Armor on, but now, I finally see what's under the golden, twisted Armor of theirs.
The Losac closely resembles the humans and the Raix, with their obvious human-like features, except not quite there yet. They have a face, 2 hands and legs, sure, but not really anything else. Their elbows and knee joints have piercing golden crystals coming out. They are wearing a chest piece and under that, a cloak made with a very familiar fabric, with yellow stripes on them, forming their Losac symbol on their chest. I've seen enough Losac ships in these memories that I can dread seeing the symbol every time. Their faces are normal enough, except that they have glowing yellow eyes. Their eyes are yellow crystals, and their hair is black, just like ours.
The 2 Losac are kneeling where the rock exploded, and waited for the smoke to disperse around them. When they do, they stand in full height. They aren't especially tall or anything, but they look menacing enough for a human to feel threatened just by their presence. They open their hands, and crystal yellow rocks started swirling in their hands. The crystals spin around and around until they form a handle that looks exactly the same as the one my father has, save the different carvings and the material of the handle. Where the Raix sword looks smooth to the touch, the Losac variant is jagged on the end, and the crystal handle looks really hot to touch. Do they even feel it? I'm not holding the handle, yet I feel the heat radiating from it.
They brandish the sword, and 2 blades shoot out again. Like the handle, the blade is glowing yellow, and I wonder what it is made of.
They look at my father, who is beginning to stand up and get into a defensive stance, his right leg positioned in front, stabilizing his balance to better fight.
The Losac remain expressionless, as my father charge them, his blade ready in a forward thrusting motion. When he reaches the first Losac, who has his blade ready in a defensive move, my father teleports behind and stabs forward, but the Losac expected it. When the resonance sound started coming, the Losac turns around and sidestepped, deflecting my fathers' blow. The other Losac steps forward and makes a quick slashing motion, but my father teleported above him and plunged his blade into the Losac.
The second Losac must've been feeling over confident, because he made no attempt to dodge it. My father, stabs down with his blade, and it goes straight through his back. The Losac make a cracking sound, and he shattered into little golden pieces. The first Losac seemed surprised for a second, then reverted back to his blank emotion. The Losac made a fist with his left hand, and the broken glass shards on the floor started swirling. Demented yellow crystals start forming on it, and the glass starts sticking together. Not waiting to see what the Losac is trying to do, my father teleports in a zigzag motion, and tries to confuse the Losac. The Losac paid no attention to my father, and continued with his creation, which I can clearly see now. He's making a little round shield surrounding him, and when the yellow crystals start solidifying and glowing, too late does my father realize what he's doing. He teleports straight into the crystal shield, and my father gets blasted back once again, and I cry out in fear, but this time, he doesn't land on the floor. Right as he's about to hit the floor, he teleports behind the Losac again, and lands upright. His blade starts darkening, and he slashes the crystal shield away. The Losac wasn't paying attention and the shield broke. The Losac turned around just in time to see my father's blade coming horizontally, taking his head off cleanly. Where the stump should be, there was only a golden crystal as the neck bone, before he broke apart into shards again.
My father pants, and he shakes the sword backwards. This time, the blade retracts and he looks at me in the eye. I wonder how he's recording this. His eyes are warming, and he starts speaking.
'When I stand in amidst the wind, with the Losacs coming in from all directions,' He pauses and stares outside the window, which shows the burning cities of Raixien, and the behemoths rising up on the sky, firing thousands and thousands of glowing rocks down unto the Raix.
'I think of what I'm fighting for, in this losing war we're fighting. The friends who fell, and the loved ones who wept. I don't understand why we have to fight even. But in the end, I know why I fight. It's for you, my son, hidden among the stars.'
'You are why I will never surrender. Let them try their best. But remember, we love you.' My father says the last sentence with a longing tone, then the world starts to shake and swirl. I'm leaving this memory. I look at my father again, trying to remember his face, trying to remember his face that I will never see again. The world darkened and the same loud bang rang in my ears, and suddenly, I'm back at home, sitting at the dinner table. Daniel is looking at me with a sympathetic look, even though he couldn't actually feel anything, that all he can do is mimic a feeling, an emotion, without feeling what it's really like.
I don't know what to think. In that short period of time I have spent with my father, I feel like I've learned so much about my parents who I don't even remember that much. I feel like I've known them my entire life. I suddenly remember the times when he bought me to the same park I was in, the times when my mother cradled me in her eyes, singing me a Raixien lullaby. What was it called? Beautiful sky. Yes, that was it. Beautiful sky.
'How does the reset button work on Raixien?'
Daniel genuinely looks surprised that that is my first question, though he answers it all the same.
'Every 15 years, the Raix can enter the gate to the core, and they reset the planet. By reset, it means that you can restart life, starting from the most basic living organism in the water. From a single drop of water, oceans can form. From a little seed, forests can flourish. You get the point.'
'But the Raix will not be restored?'
'No. In time, they will, but they will not be the same as the last generation. The Raino will be different, and an entire different set of Raix will be born.'
'Then what have the Raix been resetting for the past few million years?'
'The reset only happens where the Raix commands it to, and since the Raino handles these resets, they only reset places which has been heavily polluted or damaged. Life flourishes in those places, and the Raix can do it all over again for a near eternity. The Raix are long-living, so the Raino only changes every' Daniel calculates for a moment. '1000 years.'
Wow. We lived long, but a 1000 years and more? It's a wonder we can stay sane after all these time.
'So I can't see my parents anymore?' I look down glumly, staring at the spike now on the table.
'I'm sorry, but no. You can't. I have no more known memory spikes in my chassis. But what you can do, is restart all life there. You can do it again. You can help the Raix rise up again.'
'Did you ever see that memory? I'm guessing not, because clearly, you think I can take down the Losac army, their unwavering leader and their battalions or warships? No. In that memory, my father struggled to fight against 2 Losac warriors. What makes you think I can take down an entire army?'
'First of, those 2 Losac were high generals. They could manipulate crystals to their will, and that gives them an upper edge, since there were 2 of them. Second of, you're not just a Raix, nor are you alone out here. You combined with your others will be powerful enough to take their leader down, along with his army.'
'Who's their leader?'
'I do not know. I was built on the 3rd day of the attack, and the knowledge and history they could implement in me was limited.'
I don't know what to think. I always thought that I could do what I was sent here to do. But seeing my father, the Losac and the amount of destruction the Losac can do, I wasn't so sure anymore. What can I do against that force?
'His name is Rien.' Daniel said out of a sudden. What? 'Your father is named Rien. I met him once, on the 4th day of the attack. I was carrying you to the mountain to be send you to Earth, which the Raix have knowledge of for quite some time.'
'What can I say, I was not created to judge nor to define a person, but from what I can learn and see, your father was a very brave man. You were given to me by your mother. We were at your parents' house, far away from the mountain in which we sent you off. Both your parents were there. Getting to your house was easy enough. It was getting away that was hard.'
'It might be better if you were showed what happened on that day.' Daniel took the memory spike, and touched the cube. The cube started spinning, and he looked at me. I knew what to day. I raised my hand and he gently touched my arm with the tip. I went through the swirly process again, which I was getting used to, and I'm back on Raixien.
I'm in a house. I looked around. I suppose I am in the living room, where there is a big flat screen TV on one side of the wall, and a black 5-man couch on the other. I walk around and everything seems so......familiar. Something suddenly clicked, and I understood why this looks so familiar. It's an exact replica of the house I'm currently living in. Even the floor patterns are the same. Did Daniel purposely made it like this?
The different thing is the feel. Like I said, the air on Raixien is very much different, and it feels very free in here. And the sounds of wailing reaches my ears again. I've heard too much today. A second later, a man kicked open the front door, and barged right in.
It's Daniel, 13 years ago. Being a robot, he looks exactly the same as he did now. He walked right through me and into the kitchen. I tail him and sees a knife jut out of the corner. Daniel immediately leans backwards and grabs the knife away from the bearer. We both turn the corner at the same time, and see a woman in her mid-30s, same as my father, cradling a baby in her arms. Her hair is a flowy black, and her soft face is a contrast to my fathers'.
This must be my mother. And the baby she is cradling must've been me.
'Thank god you're here, D4N.'
Daniel nods. Here, he's still called by his serial number. He reaches into his pocket and pull out a little handle, just like the blade I've seen used by my father. He throws it to my mother, who catches it out of the air in an instant. She looks at it and a suddenly, it's a pistol. The pistol looks old fashioned, except it's made of some kind of black metal. The shape is sleek, and the handle is curved. The pistol is simple on the outside, but looks can be deceiving. I suppose it doesn't require a reload or ammo, since we love energy blasts.
My mother holds me with one hand, and the pistol with another. They both quickly run out of the house, but is interrupted by a dozen of Losac.
My mother didn't wait for them to shoot. She raised the gun and quickly shot 4 of them in quick succession, before the Losac got their rifles up and started blasting at her. Daniel lunged to the right, while my mother went left, getting behind a broken car for cover. She stays there while Daniel quietly sneaks behind the Losac, who are intensely focused on blasting the car, and every shot that lands on the car, little yellow crystals started spreading. Daniel stands behind the remaining 7 Losac, and looks at them from left to right, as if thinking which one he should rip apart first.
Daniel chose to start in the middle. He jumps and clocks the Losac in the back of his head, and he breaks apart instantly. The Losac notices what's happening, and they focused their fire on Daniel instead, who is now jumping and dashing around like a madman.
Daniel ducks under a blaster fire from the Losac, which accidently hit his own friend, who crumpled quickly. Daniel follows up with an uppercut and a gut punch, which makes the Losac double over. He quickly grabs the Losac blaster rifle and shoots him in the chest. 3 down, 4 to go. 3 of them quickly yells, and I turn in time to see my mother standing up with her pistol, now whirring with energy, signifying the pistol charging up for a stronger shot.
Daniel finishes the last one off by backhanding him with the gun. The Losacs' skull cracked and fell to the floor in pieces. The miniature battle was over in a minute. I was standing there, mouth wide. I never seen anyone move like that. Daniel was a literal devil in battle. He doesn't even looked fazed as he waved his hand to the distant mountain, being bombarded by dozens of glowing rocks. My mother nodded, then left her cover to join Daniel. They looked at the mountain again, then back to the town.
The town is in flames, and for some reason, I'm getting the same feel as the place I'm in. The sky is an even bloodier red than my last vision.
'Come on, Cora. We can't save everyone, even with your Rengars.'
My mother, Cora, looks crestfallen. She looks wistfully at the town and the screams, before turning back to Daniel.
'Ok.' They started going into the woods. As soon as I try following them in the vision, my world swirled and darkened again.
I'm at the base of the mountain. The last I saw of this mountain, it was a hundred miles away or so. Did I do a memory time jump?
I see mother and Daniel coming out of the woods behind me.
Mother is scratched up, and she has a cut on her cheek. Where the open wound should be, glowing white light replaced it. What kind of Rengar is that? A healing one, I think.
Daniel looks unharmed, then again, robots and their metal plating. Daniel look at the tall mountain, and onto the path that runs in circles around the mountain, eventually leading up to the peak.
'Let's go.'
'No wait, I see Rien!' Mother points excitingly at a shadowed figure running swift and silent in the dark. As the figure approaches my mother and Daniel, I could see it is my father, just like my mother said in the memory.
My parents hugged each other briefly, and my father addresses Daniel with a slight tip of his head.
'You're my sons' Coror?'
'Yes, I am. Come on, we have lost time. We have to make it up there quick.'
My father looked nervously behind him. Through the woods, I can make out several glowing figures, flying at us fast.
'The Aeri Losac are coming. Come.'
My father took the lead, and started up the long paved stone path up the mountain. Then, he is followed by mother and finally Daniel.
All 3 of them broke into a jog, and they started to ascent at a really high speed. They never stopped for air or to eat, and I can hear rocks or crystals shattering behind me, though I don't stop to look what's on my parents' tail. Being a visitor to this memory, I can hover and move anywhere I want, however fast I want. But I stuck with my parents the entire time.
I don't know how long it took for my parents to scale the mountain. 4 hours or so, I think. Around 2 hours in, they meet 2 scores of Losac who are also happening to be climbing the mountain. I was surprised at how much energy my parents had left in them, as they both started to draw up so much energy, I could feel it as a visitor.
My father eyes started glowing black, a colour I have never seen before. I positioned myself in front of my father as I stared into his eyes. I realize a second too late that his eyes are literally absorbing the light around it, making it seem like his eyes are glowing black, though I know that not to be possible.
My mother went the complete opposite. Her eyes started glowing whiter than the normal Raix eyes, shining so bright the Losac yelled out to cover themselves, as my mother lashed out with something so quick that incinerated the Losacs. They broke apart before I could hear or see anything, since I was also covering my eyes.
When I turned back to my father, I literally couldn't see anything. It was darkness everywhere. Side effect of my mothers' light, maybe? My vision starts returning and I see golden shards everywhere.
These Losac either didn't put up much of a fight, or my parents were just that powerful. I started to question why my father struggled so much to fight the 2 Losac generals, and why he can decimate these scores of Losac in seconds. A question I might never get the answer to.
Even Daniel looks impressed for a robot. They continue up the mountain before I see it. The gate. I've heard of it from Daniel, that this is the place where the Raino do the reset. The gate is circular, and it's made out of slabs of stone, forming a pattern on the gate. I hover around the mountain, and check the surroundings. Only 1 way up and 1 way down.
My parents both took the charge, and stood on both sides of the gate. They put their hands on the gate and commanded it to open, and the gate responded. They stood back as the gate starts shuddering, and a moment later, I couldn't see through the gate anymore. It was a gigantic doorway to another place. The core, I presume. I tried to peer through the gate, but couldn't see much. The gate is fuzzy, and all I could make out is grey stones and walls, and 6 figures I presumed as the Raino.
Somewhere along the run, my mother has transferred me into Daniels hand. He looks at baby me, then back to my parents. My father and mother looked at me one last time as I realised what they were trying to do.
I watched as a legion of armoured Losac climb up the final step to the mountain. My parents stood firm, and didn't even flinch. Even in the face of death, they stood strong.
Daniel looked back at the legion of Losac, then leaped through the gate. The gate shimmered as he crossed, like it was resisting him, then finally let him in. The gate closed immediately after that, the barrier closing in on itself.
The last sight I have of my parents are them standing with their swords brandished, daring any Losac to come forth and take down the Raino.
My world immediately darkened one last time, and starts shaking violently, before I'm thrusted back into the real world.