The Life Crystal

The Locken girl drew closer, extending her hand to reach for something, but before she could reach further, the male Locken behind warned

"Wait a moment!"

His warning drew her attention, but before she could respond, 002 grabbed her by the neck and pointed his force pistol at the male Locken, they were taken by surprise, but soon calmed down, the male's shocked expressions quickly turned calm and the female's a frown, clearly showing her disdain for her situation.

"Don't move"

His words were clear and authoritative as he pointed the force gun at the male and held the female by the neck, he was on one knee and still partially concealed.

"Please calm down.. Honoured Vangaurd, we mean no harm"

The male calmly said with both hands raised to appear as harmless as possible, he had flowing green hair and a calm, almost mocking face, he was no taller than the Locken 002 encountered at the start of his journey.

*Honoured Vanguard?

"Who are you and how did you find me?"

002 sternly questioned.

"Do not be allarmed, my name is Freith and this is my sister Freitha, we were tasked by the Life Crystal to come find and show you to him"

The Locken explained in a calm and confident manner, 002 did not understand why they taught he would want to meet this... Life Crystal.

"Explain further or die"

"oh! My apologies, by the Life Crystal, I mean the heart of Locke as the outsiders call it"

By now 002 had guessed these two had come in contact with 001, and contemplates going with them, they knew the place better than him, his map was taking unusually long to define his location, it would be best if he went with them, they know why he is there, and it seemed the heart of Locke was more than just an energy core.

002, having decided on how to proceed further, he shoved Freitha at Freith,

"Turn around and lead the way"

002 ordered, still holding them at gun point.

Frietha angrily cursed, clearly displeased with how aggressive 002 was,

"Ouch! Coward, stupid, imbecile, vulgar brute!"

Frieth frowns worriedly glancing at 002 who was seemingly unbothered, but you couldn't tell as his trusty helmet obscured his expressions, if he made some. After all the scolding and cursing from the small but fiesty girl, 002 just retorted,

" Lead the way"

Still Holding them at gunpoint. Although they didn't appear frightened by the gun, the didn't refuse and lead the way.

Hours after leaving the cave, they found themselves in a dense patch of trees north of the cave, they had walked long and far, yet the sun never seem to set, like Frietha's unseizing frowning and angry mumbling,

"How long till we get there?"

"A couple more hours, please be patient, we will shortly arrive once we pass through that swamp"

Frieth answered, pointing at a swamp ahead of them, the swamp was like any other swamp 002 had ever come across, but for some reason he felt uneasy, he constantly scrutinised their sorroundings, trying to find what made him so uneasy, Frietha who was still busy being grumpy noticed this, from down there 002 looked like a nervous cat, constantly looking from side to side at any unusual sound.

"Curiousity killed the Felux, but those who live with careful do not live at all"

Frietha loudly said, slightly glancing at 002, although she didn't say it to him directly, 002 knew she was referring to him, but what was more puzzling for 002 was why she said it in such a weird way, ignoring her he inquired again, naturally referring to Freith.

"Are you alone here?"

"If you mean our general location, then no, we are apart of a tribe"

"Incase you might be wondering why we haven't come across any of my kin..."

Before Freith could finish his sentence, Freitha cuts in and finishes it for him, but in her own way,

"It is because you are a coward Felux and we are not brave that you run away if you met our tribe".

Again with that weird speech 002 thought, glancing at Freith for confirmation,

"Something like that"

Freith answered, with a somewhat distressed expression. They continued to walk and finally arrived at the swamp, the water was still and look dirty, it looked like it could possibly be carrying many pathogens, it occasionally bubbled like a hot mass of viscous magma , 002 was skeptical, but Freith and Freitha were confident, not hesitating to step in, the further they went the higher it got, 002 stood at the edge and analised the.... body of water,

"Oh come on, you are such shrinking turtle, you are in full armour yet you are afraid to step in, you are even more than twice my height and size"

Freitha scolded, at this point she was starting to get on his nerves, yet he ignored her, rising from his kneeling position, he notices in his peripheral vision, Freith's abscense, he assumed he was swimming below the swamp. 002 backs up from the water body a bit, intending to leap over it instead of going through it, he sprinted and jumped, he jumped just enough to make it over the swamp, through his periphery he could see Freitha grinning from ear to ear, it was even more unsettling than the swamp, just as he was half way over the water body, he felt a downward force suddenly pull him to the swamp, in a split second he reacted, activating his force jets, trying to oppose the force, he was now only able to use lvl 4 neural force, but at lvl 4 forcehe couldn't fly independently yet, quickly he shot a grappler at a nearby.. tree, trying to use it as an anchor, but the force suddenly intensified and over powered his force jets, in an instant everything turned black, then white, and finally 002 found himself in a structure resemblant of a spacecraft, it had a familiar sense to it, the structure was a massive network of crystal bridges interconnecting and intersecting with each other, there were occasional pale streaks of blue, maybe white light, suddenly 002 heard a whisper, it was a familiar voice, a cold robotic voice, the whispers said,

"Your have finally arrived, young celestial"