57 Chapter 57

Loyd stepped forward. The towering mass of the Prime Sentient was still, as its massive head came down to meet him. The creature didn't know why Loyd had requested a peaceful meeting but it was ready in case this was a trap. Its army lay in wait just below the surface of the ice.

"You're much larger than I thought you would be," Loyd declared.

"And you are much different from me," the Prime Sentient returned.

"So why don't we get this over with? You want information and I want you dead. I'll let that planet seed you deployed go but you are going to die here and now."

The Prime Sentient lowered its head even closer to Loyd. "Threaten me?! You fool!"

"No, I think you're the fool here. You could've easily expelled three-quarters of your biomass into the atmosphere and then you could've ridden the solar wind to your next feeding ground. Instead, you stick with the idea that the Original used on a high gravity planet." Loyd smiled. "I want to get all the information out of you I can and you want the same from me. Why not dive with each other and have this be a fight between just the two of us?"

The Prime Sentient reared back at Loyd's proposition. Never before had prey asked to be dominated. "I will win!"

"Sara bring the duel jack here."

Sara walked forward carrying a set of neural jacks that would hook into the nervous system of both Loyd and the Prime Sentient. She handed Loyd his connector and held the other end aloft for the Prime Sentient.

"If we could do this any other way, then we would. Don't think this means we're going to become allies because you won't be alive by the end of this," Sara muttered just loud enough for the Prime Sentient to hear.

Loyd connected the jack to his brain stem and waited for the Prime Sentient to connect to it as well.

The Prime Sentient watched Loyd carefully and attached its end of the probe to its nervous system.

The two waited for a moment as Sara flipped the switch before falling into each other's minds.

Loyd could practically see the information flowing throughout him. The Prime Sentient knew how to use machines just fine, it simply refused to use what it believed was unusable. Loyd had unknowingly followed the footsteps of the Original almost exactly. His use of the crystals felt sickening after reliving the destruction of an entire solar system that he had previously known as a peaceful home.

Loyd caught himself from falling into the pit the Prime Sentient was trying to pull him down and laughed. "Good try but it didn't quite work. Now it's time for you to die. I've written all of your memories into my DNA. I'll comb through them during the flight up north."

The Prime Sentient stirred slightly and Loyd could feel pain and suffering coming from within it. "Your life hurts. Why does it hurt? This is new. I don't like it. End this suffering! Stop the pain!"

Fire leaped across the skin of the Prime Sentient as its body started metabolizing faster and faster. The ocean around it started to boil within seconds and it's cries of pain shattered the ice fields for miles.

*You're being rather cruel you know.* Sara declared.

*This isn't me.* Loyd announced. *It's burning itself. My will was stronger and those false memories I created worked.*

The ice fields started to drift away from the Prime Sentient as Loyd made his way back to the rest of his group with Sara.

xX after the Prime sentient died Xx

"How long do you think it'll burn for?" Argenti asked.

"Let's just say I expect the last of the Earth's oxygen to be used up before it finishes. Earth is now a dead world with scattered bodies strewn across it. The only life left is held up in a bunker with dwindling supplies and a starving populace. Its saviors are the very people who just killed it. And now we need to destroy those of us who have fallen to madness," Loyd orated.

No one present cheered as the last echoes of the Prime Sentient faded and the atmosphere grew more poisonous by the second. The mood of the group was filled with sadness and anger.

"We leave to kill Griffon and Tiny in two hours. Make sure everything is ready by then!" Madeline ordered.

The group shuffled off, the tension lessening as they started preparing for the death of the traitors.

"Once we're done with Griffon and Tiny, we need to go back and purge Mars. The atmosphere there is too thin to rely on, not to mention the fact that the dust is highly poisonous. And it's highly likely that most of the domes have collapsed. The outer rim forces seem pretty nice and are willing to view us as humans still while any Martians that see us are going to want us dead," Loyd noted, kicking his feet back as he considered his options.

"You seem more focused on the Mars invasion than taking out Griffon and Tiny. Are you sure they'll be that easy to deal with?" Madeline asked. "Griffon's probably already quadrupled in size and started off towards that underground chamber filled with amniotic fluid we found while outrunning that massive swarmling."

"No, he arrived there roughly three days ago and has already integrated himself into the birthing pod. It wouldn't surprise me if he'd had his genes modified before the general found him. Heck, I'm not sure he was actually a dude. He may have been a hermaphrodite but had his female organs damaged or removed when he was younger. That might partially explain his mental degradation as well as how easily he connected to the birthing pod," Reinhold muttered.

Linda followed behind them still terrified from the past week's events.

"Perfect, then he won't be much of a threat to us if he's that unstable," Loyd declared.

"How do you mean?" Argenti asked.

"Well, we all know that the Prime Sentient can control the swarm remotely, and consuming any of the swarmlings we killed could've allowed it to take us over. Griffon knew this better than any of us and I detected an anomaly while inside that thing's head. That anomaly was probably Griffon which means he couldn't overpower the Prime Sentient remotely and since the connection was still live, means that he was most likely taken over. So, he's probably just sitting there dead now that I think about it a little more."

"Then, I'll go check on him now that I know where you're all at," Reinhold declared before flying off.

Linda turned to watch her husband fly away and decided to stay in the south.

"Looks like you're not doing so hot, Mom. Maybe you should get your body back from the barge. Then you should take a long nap until you feel like working some more," Loyd said.

"I just watched everyone I cared about be ripped apart by my adopted son. Of course, I'm not doing well! I'm just not sure what to think now that I've found all of you are still alive," Linda stated.

"Figures that Dad would cope with this stuff better than you. He actually figured out the whole ghost thing before I did," Loyd said changing the subject.

"What do you mean he's the one who figured it out?" Argenti asked.

"Shortly after getting his hands on the scan of me, he disappeared into the lab and when he came out, he had me scan him. He had a ghost hovering over him just like mine but it seemed weaker. And then the next thing I knew the rest of you had the same artificial ghost but even weaker looking than his. Then he went and got himself incinerated when that laser battery exploded and used up one of his two spare lives," Loyd said.

"So, we had one spare life each?" Madeline asked.

"Yep, meanwhile I don't have any spare lives unless I can fight off the ghost that's stuck itself to me and I don't think I'll be able to beat it again," Loyd shrugged.

"You beat it once already, Loyd?" Reinhold asked. "And you were right, Griffon's remains have already almost completely disintegrated."

Loyd eye's widened. "You gave him a ghost too!"

The sky above them began to tear apart as a massive ghost fell through. It plunged directly for Loyd, shrieking as it engulfed him. The ghost of the Prime Sentient held Loyd in the air and stared at him.

"Any thought processes this thing had is gone! You should all run before it tries going after you too!" Loyd screamed as his ribs cracked.

The ghost's shifting mass formed into a mouth that started laughing in Griffon's voice. ���You're the one who ruined everything! You gave me so much false pain! You'll die slowly!"

"Not if I have any say in it," Loyd wheezed.

A loud snap seemed to quiet every other noise as Loyd's body fell limp.

xX in the mirror (on the other plane) Xx

Loyd opened his eyes and stared into the fiery pits of the dark ghost that had attached itself to him. It had already pinned him down to a massive black slate that seemed to stretch to infinity in every direction. Loyd pulled against his restraints and broke free almost instantly.

"Only one born for every era can break those shackles," the ghost declared.

"So? I already knew I was weird," Loyd joked, keeping his eye on the ghost.

"One born of the flesh of the Creators of Machines and the Consumer of All will adopt the crystal and defeat the Archons. Once he has arrived at halfway to the end of his quest, he will sacrifice himself to an enemy he just defeated so others may survive. Or so the prophecy goes."

"Prophecy? Seriously? You put enough numbers into a machine and it can calculate anything. Give someone the abilities of a computer and the rough history of their world and they can compute the future. If you are the creators of everything you should know that even the most random variable can be explained with numbers and math! So, screw off with your prophecy and let me save my people, jackass!" Loyd screamed.

His feet pushed off the massive black slate and shot him at the ghost.

"Very well."

Loyd watched as the ghost flew towards him emitting massive amounts of energy as it engulfed him just like the Prime Sentient had, accept this time it didn't burn. His skin grew clearer as the ghost fully merged with him and forced him back to earth. His left hand bore a gauntlet that had melded with his skin and bones, and his chest felt like a star had exploded from within him as he blacked out to the shrieks of a dying ghost.