Humanitas

Neon had slipped back into the room after she believed that no one else would be in Larnos's room. She spotted the veteran sound asleep, the dull light created by various devices gave him an air of mystery.

She remembered briefly seeing that creature from the simulation but she was rendered inoperable when it attacked. That thing was not part of the database on raptures. As she pondered on the origins of the rapture and the one they saw on the surface when they first met Larnos a rustling was heard.

Larnos muttered something in his sleep. His brow furrowed as his heart rate began to skyrocket. He muttered again and beads of sweat began to form and trickle down his face. She inched closer, confused as to what was happening.

" Dimitri, " she heard him mutter. " Can you fight? "

' Is he dreaming or reliving a memory? ' She thought as she watched the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest.

Her sensors began picking up intense brain activity coming from the sleeping human. Having never encountered anything like this she sat there in a mix of curiosity and shock as Larnos began to thrash around. It began to grow in intensity before suddenly coming to an abrupt stop.

Neon tried to inch closer but uncertainty held her back. She stretched out her hand in attempt to try and comfort him as he weakly muttered the same thing over and over again; " Belay order. "

His left hand rose weakly, clawing at something that wasn't there. Neon gently held the outstretched hand which clasped tightly in return. Larnos began to mutter incoherently as he squeezed tighter. For a human his grip was incredibly strong but not enough to cause any harm to a nikke.

The duo sat in relative silence for a while before Larnos's heart rate began to slow. An hour would pass before Larnos fully calmed down and returned to a peaceful state. His grip had relaxed and soon fell out of her hand and onto his chest. She looked at it and caught a glimpse of a scar underneath his clothes. She looked at her skin, it was fair and without any blemishes.

Nikke were designed to mimic humanity as much as possible but there was never any male nikke nor did any of the nikke she knew have scars. Heck most of the commanders she had come in contact with didn't have scars as they usually stayed behind cover and directed the operation from there.

She wondered how Larnos would act as a commander. From what she had seen so far she knew he would be at the front, fighting with his comrades until the end. Perhaps that was what he did two centuries ago because there have been studies of humans being habitual creatures and tending to repeat certain actions over and over again.

But that also draws another question. Why does Larnos only have the rank of a Captain? By logic he would have been a commander long ago but it seemed commanders of the past barely fought on the battlefield and she was sure Larnos was not a fan of sitting by and letting others fight when he was capable of joining them.

She sat there for a while as she watched him sleep. She had come here with a purpose but upon seeing the human cling to something that may have existed long ago and hearing him whisper things from what most likely a dream she opted to let him sleep.

She gently got up and made her way out of the room. Across from the door stood her teammates. Rapi had a displeased expression, akin to a mother finding her child in the act of committing an action they should not have done. Anis was unusually stoic, her cheerful expression replaced by an unreadable expression.

" We need to talk, " Neon spoke before leading the group away to a much secluded place.

Neon led them through corridor after corridor, passing by fellow nikke squads and a few human personnel with some hugging the walls as they passed by. There were a number of unspoken rules within the Ark, three to be exact but that was not the important thing right now.

" So," Rapi spoke as Neon led them back to their room. " What did you want to talk about? "

Neon opened her mouth to speak but stopped at the last second. She felt unsure if it was the right thing to ask, especially since they are not that. A hand rested gently on her shoulder, Rapi wore a comforting look and subtly gestured for her to continue.

" Did you see them? " She asked, looking at a random object she decided to take interest in.

" See what? " Anis spoke up as she laid in one of 'bag beans' as she called them. " His scars? "

Neon's eyes immediately darted to the nonchalant blonde brunette then to the red head who nodded. She felt slightly better if that meant anything.

" Do you think humans keep them on purpose? " She inquired.

" I think it's similar to how we pick our style of clothing, " Anis replied.

" That is a valid point but I was thinking it was there to remind them of what caused it, " Rapi added.

Anis gave a hum in response. Neon pondered about it for a moment before giving her thoughts on the subject;

" I was thinking maybe they couldn't get rid of them. "

Her comrades nodded at this as well. Unlike Nikkes that could have their synthetic skin fully replaced, humans weren't so lucky. She asked the others if they had seen any commander that had a scar and as she suspected, the answer was a negative.

" Most of the commanders are quite young and usually do not have actual combat experience, " Neon noted.

" Not to mention the fact that they think they are better than us Nikkes, " Anis added. " Then they go die doing some stupid act of 'heroism' then easily get replaced by another one. "

That was painfully true. The commanders were mostly graduates from the various military academies that believed real world battle would be similar to the various simulations they had gone through only to be met with the crushing realization that it was nowhere near close as they had thought.

" Think 'Relic' can be a commander? " Anis asked. " I mean he can hold his own for someone from two hundred years ago. "

Neon and Rapi thought about it. For a time displaced human, especially from the era when the loss of human lives was now rising, he was able to cut down swathes of raptures that by logic should be more evolved than the ones he would have been facing in his original time.

" Honestly," Rapi spoke. " That could be plausible if he had enough preparation. "

" I mean look at what he did to the hoard at the airstrip," Anis pointed out.

" But what about the mental toll of all that? " Neon inquired.

" Mental toll? " Anis shot the bespectacled blonde a quizzical look.

" She is right you know? " Rapi chimed. " We nikkes, for all intents and purposes can undergo a mind wipe if things get out of hand but humans? "

The trio pondered if humans could undergo a mind wipe similar to a nikke without any major setbacks. No tests have been done on this because there was no need. Many humans in the Ark will live their entire lives having never step foot outside the sub-terrain domed city.

Larnos was different in more ways than one and they knew it. Neon immediately recalled the fight from the simulation and asked her colleagues as she was taken out quite early into the fight.

" That thing was not from the database, " Rapi stated calmly but the subtle undertone of intrigue was detectable in her voice.

" No kidding. That thing took me and Neon out within seconds. " Anis sat up in her seat. " And it spoke just like the one from the surface. You think they are related in some way? Like the first rapture being some kind of descendant to the one from the simulation. "

Rapi, after a moment of deliberation shook her head. " I don't think they are related even if they are capable of speech which it seems no other rapture that we know of can do. "

" But it kept referring to a certain night when it and Larnos fought, " Rapi pointed out. " It kept adapting to his tactics which raptures usually don't exhibit. "

" But how exactly did it get into the simulation? " Neon pondered. " Aren't the raptures generated from a program? "

" Seeing as it only targeted Larnos, " Rapi pointed out. " It wouldn't be far fetched if it came from him. Something akin to mental projection. "

" Mental projection? You're telling me he somehow mentally projected a rapture from his memories that did not only kick our asses but managed to inflict wounds that were fatal enough to put him in a hospital bed." Anis pointed out.

" But does it mean that the real thing is out there on the surface? " Neon asked.

A silence fell upon the room as each Nikke pondered what would happen if they were ever to encounter that particular rapture in real life. How would other nikke squadrons react to encountering a rapture as cunning and dangerous as Nyxarus?