Someone From the Past

"You don't remember me?" A beautiful voice echoed. Suspended in the void, Artemis floated aimlessly. A humanoid object made of light and an unknown energy was floating next to Artemis, its body was standing upright as they seemingly surfed the waves of the dimension.

Artemis did not reply whatever the humanoid had asked. He was unsure and dumbfounded even. Pain, which he never felt ever since he began his objective, ravaged his nerves. He wanted to scream but through unknown reasons, his mouth stayed shut and the painful experience lasted far longer than he initially expected it to.

Artemis tried to stare at the humanoid but was greeted by a blinding light, a light in which was comparable as directly staring at the sun with your naked eye. He knew that it was humanoid because the entity outlined its shape.

The entity slowly floated towards Artemis and went near his face. Its blinding light made him shut his eyes as it approached. The entity then extended its arms and touched Artemis' cheeks, gently rubbing them.

Artemis was perplexed, but he felt at ease. He's pain was soothed the moment it laid its hands on his skin. He felt blissful and was relaxed. The soaring pain disappeared faster than it appeared.

The entity's light began to diminish until it remained in a form in which Artemis would not be blinded nor would he be hurt. Artemis slowly opened his eyes when he noticed the light weaken, slowly and steadily the face of the entity was revealed to Artemis.

She had a white complexion, her lips were thin and supple, and her nose was pointy. She had a beautiful triangular face, thin eyebrows and her eyes were blue. She was right in front of Artemis and her face was just a few inches away from him. She had an extremely curved body and a busty chest but Artemis paid no attention to those.

The moment Artemis saw her, his eyes widened and his mouth went agape. What she was could only be called, a Goddess

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The woman chuckled when she noticed Artemis' shocked expression and thoughts. She then massaged his cheeks further, rubbing her fingers up and down while staring at Artemis' wide eyes.

"You're still fragile as ever," She whispered, before Artemis could even enjoy her beautiful voice, she hugged him.

She wrapped her hands around him tightly. The warmth from her hug and the wholesomeness which Artemis felt, triggered something deep within his own mind. A locked was opened and she was the key responsible.

In a flash, Artemis began to remember vivid images of days long past. Years have gone by and the world that was once is now only a fragment of memory. He then remembered her, but not entirely. She was someone from his past, he was sure she was of great utmost importance but he couldn't determine her name, neither could he determine his exact relationship with her.

His memories were fuzzy but slowly they were being fitted together. Bit by bit, he remembered her but suddenly, the memories stopped at a cliff. Artemis was annoyed and wanted to shout in anger, he thought he'd be able to remember everything, why he woke up alone, how the world came to be and who was he?

"Shhh..." She moved her right hand on Artemis' mouth, treating him as if he was a toddler, like a mother would calm her child.

"You don't have to rush, not everything can be taken by just one scoop from a spoon. Everything will come together, eventually," The woman assured Artemis, calming him down.

Artemis felt weak, fragile and meek. He felt as if he was powerless and the woman was there to protect him. He knew he was inside the AI which controlled the deviant Android. He wanted to believe all of this was an illusion, a distraction for him to lower his guard and allow whatever was controlling the AI to take over him and the Machine Network

But, his guard was already gone. If it wanted to, he would've already been ejected from the psychic connection and back into the real world. They were still floating in a void since she dimmed her light, the darkness returned and only her brightness illuminated Artemis.

Artemis had so many questions but somehow, he only uttered a question which he thought was most important although logically it was not.

"Will... you stay with me?" Artemis' voice was meek, he actually felt embarrassed when he opened his mouth and spoke.

The woman only giggled and then nodded as her answer.

Who was she exactly? Why do I feel so attached to her? Why?

Most of Artemis' questions went unanswered but one thing was clear in his mind. She was someone who could be trusted, he naively thought. Logically it was against logic entirely to trust someone who you don't have any information regarding the person's character but Artemis was somehow sure.

He decided to put aside logic for once and allow his feelings to dictate his actions since, after 1000 years, he had feelings at last.

She was still hugging him tightly. They remained silent for what could be minutes or even hours. They were enjoying every single moment of the experience.

"You haven't asked for my name though" She raised her head against Artemis and seemingly pouted. She looked cute as Artemis thought.

"Well… you don't have to ask, I am Caitlyn and I am special to you as you are special to me" She added. Caitlyn, so that was her name. She neither had a middle nor a last name and Artemis just agreed without asking further questions or speaking another word.

"It's time for us to wake up, make sure to release the Android from his prison," She said as she removed her loving embrace and floated away from Artemis. Caitlyn and Artemis hovered a few meters from one another in the void, only Caitlyn was smiling though. Artemis' face was still dumbstruck.

"Though..." She had a worried expression on her face as she poked her right cheek.

"You may not release me when you wake up. I still have to determine if you'd even do what I say,"

Artemis also looked confused and it was printed all over his face.

Caitlyn then smiled at Artemis and gave him a thumbs up.

"I trust you,"

Artemis' body began to fade to dust. He stared helplessly as Caitlyn waved at him.

He then regained consciousness and fell onto the metal floor.

He's body wasn't really cohesive and his reflexes were lacking in cohesion. His time in the psychic link must've lasted for hours for him to gain the side-effects of prolonged exposure to it.

He was back to 'normal' he felt nothing. No pain, emotion or humanity at all, he was back to his normal self. But, he had an urge to connect the deviant Android to the mainframe.

That's illogical and stupid, he thought.

He had nothing to support his promise to release the Deviant. He was conflicted and again, uncomfortable. The urge to fulfill what she asked for began to grow by the minute. He finally succumbed to the feeling and ran down the tower and towards the underground facility.

Escorted by EA-1 and EA-2, he dashed towards the main entrance of the underground facility and went down his personal elevator. After dashing through endless halls, he finally reached the deviant's chamber which was heavily guarded, the supercomputer was about to fry the deviant's AI core in an attempt to save Artemis when the computer failed to remove him during the psychic link. Artemis managed to call it off.

He entered the deviant's chamber and ordered EA-1 and EA-2 to remove the attachments and wires on the Android. The two Elite Androids immediately complied and removed each attachment and wire from the deviant slowly. The wires and other paraphernalia fell to the ground making a few soft sounds.

Artemis walked towards the Android and faced it. Its head was down, seemingly looking at the ground and was near death.

Artemis sighed.

"It's against logic... but... just this once," Resisting his will to resist. He extended his arms to the Android's head and opened it. Air rushed out of the Android in the form of steam and rose to the ceiling. The Android's head was full of wirings and advanced technology. In the middle was a small port, Artemis took out his finger and plugged it in the port.

"Activate,"

A surge of energy rushed towards Artemis' finger and into the Android. Artemis himself felt a shock of energy burst inside him, the Android shook as terabytes of data between Artemis and the Android were exchanged at near instantaneous speeds.

In the digital space, Caitlyn was speeding her way to activating the rest of her coding within the network, where her code came from and how she came to be, remained a mystery, the fact was she was here was all Artemis needed to know.

Her code once activated would give her the ability to command and interact directly with each Android and all similar powers to Artemis. She was assuming second-hand control of the entire network and Artemis only began to realize.

Before he could remove his finger and severe his connection with the Android, it was already finished. The deviant Alpha Android then powered down, its mini reactor shut down without fail and the entire chamber was silent.

Artemis removed his finger from the Android which sat motionless in front of him. He stood there for ten minutes, waiting for something to happen. EA-1 and EA-2 and the other Androids were also silent, not moving a single inch. Artemis was expecting a greeting or an attack, it could only go two ways; he doomed himself or he made himself a valuable ally. It was a 50/50 margin in Artemis' calculations and he wasn't optimistic in the least.

Five more minutes passed and the silence was broken, a robotic voice seemingly coming from all the Androids behind him resembled Caitlyn's speech though it was unintelligible. Artemis turned towards the twelve Androids behind him and was ready to fight his own minions.

"It took me a abit of time to activate all my codes," All the Androids said in unison.

"What are your intentions?" Artemis asked as he bent his knees and readied himself for an attack. The Androids giggled and if Artemis had his human self-intact, he would've cringed hard.

"I merely ascended from the ranks so I could be equivalent with you," The Androids answered. Artemis felt a bit more relieved but was still skeptical, he felt that everything that has happened so far was against logic and reason and was thus conflicted.

"Zack, I am here to help you, just as you helped me in the past..."

Zack.

His real name was Zack.

Artemis was obviously puzzled by the development and the mere mention of Zack opened another lock within his mind.

Another barrage of memories from the past that were locked deep within his mind came to light, assaulting him in his head.

A vivid memory surfaced.

A coat.

An office

An old guy.

A Black man.

A bulky bald Russian dude.

Caitlyn.

The memories were chaotic and were restless but they weren't whole. At last, the last memory which surfaced.

Artemis was standing on a building and was gazing on the city around him. Gunfire and explosions raged around him as jets zoomed in the sky.

And then a black creature crawled from the edge of Artemis' vision and seemingly ate him.

Though, vivid it was. It presented more questions than answers.

"Exposing you to key elements of your past life seems to be what triggered your memories, Zack. Do you now remember me? Even if it's just a little,"

Artemis was frozen for a minute before he replied.

"You were with me, in the past," Artemis answered.

"Seems like you haven't caught up with everything, you need to take everything in bites, everything will be revealed ev-"

"Eventually," Artemis came back to his senses and partially accepted Caitlyn as her ally. His memories were what dictated him now but won't do so forever. He still lacked his humanity, but for some reason, he was human whenever he interacted with her.

"It's weird talking to you when you've assumed control of my Androids. I'd ask for you to get yourself your own personal vessel in which you would stay in, or else I'm pulling your plug," Artemis warned, he just felt weird talking to her through their Androids. Well, the Androids were now 'theirs' and no longer just 'his'.

"Well, I suppo-"

"Do it right now, I need to focus my attention on my current plans," Artemis told Caitlyn coldly.

"Fine!" The Androids said Caitlyn's last words through them while pouting and step on one foot on the floor hard at the same time, which it was very weird. Then the Androids returned back to normal, the Androids were confused and looked at each other for a bit before returning to their usual stance.

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Artemis was standing in his room. A six by six feet screen lay on the middle of his room and was projecting a map of the entire Senadate Theocracy. Carefully, he swiped through the map by moving his hand over the holographic image. It had been five hours since Caitlyn left and the star of the continent of Fordalt finally went down and the shimmering lights of the two moons which were together in the night sky shined in half.

He's windows were closed and covered with titanium plates to prevent any sniper attacks and the like. Though the chances were non-existent, you could never be too prepared for the unlikely outcome.

Three knocks sounded on Artemis' door, it was probably Caitlyn. No Android had the understanding of etiquette or mannerism unless specifically told so and Artemis never told his Androids to be well-mannered.

He didn't know how to reply exactly and just hoped that whoever or whatever was behind his door would just come in.

The door slowly opened.

"You know, you're supposed to say, 'come in' right?" A beautiful woman that resembled what Artemis saw during his time in the psychic link came inside. Caitlyn was as beautiful as she was back at the link. She was wearing a prewar woman's military uniform which resembled Artemis' own personal uniform.

But, a question rang in Artemis' mind.

"How did you get that body?"

"Oh," Caitlyn stopped for a second.

"You had some frozen bodies stored at Wing B right? One body of a woman there was still functional, well she was still alive so I had two Androids take her body and defrosted her and took replaced her nervous system with our very own artificial nervous system with direct link to the machine network. Similar to yours,"

Artemis felt a bit of humanity returned to him when he saw Caitlyn again and that small bit of humanity tingled when he heard what Caitlyn did.

"That still doesn't answer the question. How did you turn it into... that?"

"I used prewar technology to form alterations to the body. You know that right?"

Unbeknownst to Caitlyn, Artemis and the Machine Empire so far have been unable to reverse-engineer most of the prewar technology left on Earth and thus far have only made a few milestones and configured most of the technology they have so far to support the Network and billions of Androids and Drones.

"We haven't been able to reverse-engineer most of it, almost every blueprint and design was lost,"

"Oh, well then, I can be of great help!" Caitlyn said, smiling.

Caitlyn walked towards the holographic map and her happy expression was immediately switched with a colder and menacing look. Her beautiful face seemingly transitioning from a fresh apple to a rotten one.

"You plan on displacing this entire nation?" Caitlyn asked as she hovered her hands over the map and scanned it.

"Yes, we are already commencing preparations and thanks to much of the information obtained from our infiltrations, everything is expected to go smoothly regardless of any resistance. The Pope is no more and nobody as powerful as him would be able to stand in our way," Artemis said, his voice was now devoid of any emotion. He was only focused on his plan.

"Alright, explain things to me," Caitlyn asked, she then stared at Artemis and Artemis proceeded to explain as he swiped through the hologram.

"Simple. The Operation is divided into four segments: Infiltration, Plunder, Bombardment and Sweep. Infiltration has already been conducted and we're now preparing for Plunder. We won't be using our Androids, we neither have enough time to transport half a million Androids through the wormhole and instead would drop tens of thousands of genetically-modified cyborgs from the skies, the number of the human cyborgs will rapidly increase due to our army invading other towns, villages, and cities, taking natives away by force and making our own citizens, and recruit some battle-experience men to be our own soldiers, while not very powerful as our Android Soldiers, they are still useful and some of their power is nearly equivalent to our Androids. The natives with fighting experience have also been modified to follow our orders without question since we inserted a specifically modified gene which responds to our psychic commands. Our now own human army will then invading the landscape and the cities taking natives for our own and gave chaos to this nation. Bombardment will come after 50 percent of the Theocracy has been plunged into chaos. Thousands of bombers will be launched from the base and will spread themselves equally across the country and drop payload after payload randomly on their dozens of military outpost around the lands. This will cause the further collapse of the Senadate Theocracy and fear will take hold of the people and order will mostly be abandoned. Afterwards, Sweep is when our Androids move in and take care of stragglers and fortify our position in the country,"

Caitlyn was silent for a while and thought deeply before she gave her opinion.

"How are you sure the fighting-capable human with superhuman abilities similar to our Androids or M1-capable humans or mages, or Demigods as you refer to them as, won't go down without a fight?"

"The modified human soldiers themselves are self-explanatory, inspect them if you will," Artemis answered.

"What about other states? There is no doubt information will reach the other neighboring countries once the operation starts,"

"I have done careful examination of all documents retrieved during the Infiltration missions. Along those documents were documents profiling and explaining the geopolitical nature of the Eastern Region but had vague information about the other countries in the Eastern Region and also in the Great Isthmus, west from the Eastern Region and we are currently on. The Kingdom of Atira to the West and the Herldorion Kingdom to the farthest West are caught in constant wars and have been designated as 'heretics' by the Theocracy. The Dioz kingdom to the very south of the Theocracy is facing an internal crisis concerning succession and is in the brink of civil war while the northern and eastern nation states of the Eastern Region are for some reason, neutral and care-free"

"Judging by the map, even if they did, they won't be able to send any troops to the Senadate Theocracy in time due to the vast distance between each state? Even if they did, they'd most likely be taken care of by Bombardment. From the looks of this... you plan on displacing millions of people and create a refugee crisis?"

"Correct, you catch up quick,"

"Technically, I am smarter than you,"

"They also possessed numerous Magic Items, capable of manipulating the laws we've known, especially controlling space and time, we can use those Items to power up most of the prewar technology for the time-being, and keep the Wormhole ongoing."

"I did also plan on using them to power up vast facilities, specifically research AI to find a way to transfer this world's Gaia to Earth's"

"Once I reverse-engineer the prewar computers, we will progress immensely"

"Anymore questions?"

Caitlyn shrugged her shoulders and smiled.

"I got the same objective as you do, let's make this happen,"

The two of them stared at each other as they proceeded to discuss other matters.

Operation Thunderstorm is nigh.