Atonement

I am sorry.

You may not see this, nor will you be able to hear it but I just want to say I am sorry. The moment I met you back then was such an important part of my life, you changed me, turned me into who I am today. Sadly, the world we lived in back then is no more, and you.. you are no longer the person you were.

I stand before what was our home, this.. lab. This place was where we met, I was still a cold and heartless woman back then while you were a wimp, yes, a wimp who at first did not even want to take me in, arguing reasons of ethics and code of conducts. You were a fond follower of the ways of humanity and how others must be treated kindly and with respect, that was their right, a right you believed in.

I walked inside what remained of our laboratory. After centuries of wear and decay, It still bore the same appearance even if it was just a faint resemblance. I don't know if you even visited this place personally after you woke up, knowing that if you did, you'd remember, but you did not. You sent your Drones to this place not knowing what value it held for you. They scanned it, scrapped most of the structure for parts and barely readable data of old.

You were so immersed in your mission that you have forgotten what made you, you. I blame myself partly for what has happened to you, If I only knew that they would also reach us up there, I would've taken you somewhere else far... far... away...

There's no point in thinking of the past, we should move forward I know but I can't help but remember the peaceful days, the brighter years, the solemn nights. Remember when you brought your pet red carrot to me?

What a beautiful parrot she was, she laughs in a weird way and then look at me menacingly.

[GIF]

It was hilarious and scary at the same time, but for a second there I felt a bit of fear when looking at its eyes like it was directly looking at my deepest soul, but still, hilarious and scary at the same time, it was a shame she died along with the trillions of others during the initial outbreak of the war.

The war...

I hate it... I hate every bit of it!

We stood no chance the moment that thing escape! We should have kill it in the first place, no, wait, THEY! Are the responsible of its containment breach in the first place, we didn't know why the Beings that we were once worship do this to us and now look at what they unleashed!

Sigh...

Again, I hope one day you visit this place, even by chance, I hope you do.

I know you told me that I should not waste too much time back on our world since you need me back at that wretched magical world, such bullshit, a fucking magical world where we can access it through a fucking wormhole that some small-brained humans opened by the use of magic or whatever it's called!

I have the same reaction when we discovered Planet: Sanctuary. Unfortunately, it was destroyed by 'them' during the war.

You asked me what I was going to do here, I told you I was just going to retrieve more data.. yes.. I did not lie, I retrieved the data of prewar times but I just need to do something else before I could return. It is so that I may rest easy now instead of regretting what I could have done.

I went to your room on the highest floor, the walk was treacherous, a slight misstep and I risk plummeting to the bottom, not to my death since that would be silly. I asked my guards to wait outside and be on stand-by, at that time I just wanted to be alone.

I walked through the desolate halls and finally found your door, I gently opened it, dust fell onto my head as the door opened and I went through. Your office was a mess, dusty and nasty. I then remembered how organized you were. The drawers have been pulled open, I assume that you pulled them open in a panic during that big white beardo's appearance, you always told me about something, a 'peacekeeping' weapon you always say. A weapon that would end all wars and slingshot humanity to complete unity.

For having lost your memory, your gonna make a weapon that you created once again without remembering it.

I have to admit, you were a bit delusional back then, well.. you're still delusional now with your concept of 'Utopia' but how can I go against you? I am the only one left for you.

I then found what I was looking for, your picture.

You were so handsome, such clear and bright skin.. that beautiful lime eyes... an average built but.. sweet.. you wearing your signature lab coat haha...

Sigh...

I want to atone for my sins, even just slightly.

So for now, I will keep your picture, our past.. for myself.. until the day that you come back..

Zack.

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Night has come. The shelling has stopped indefinitely after Artemis feared that the councilwoman would deflect whatever they fired at the city back at them. The city has settled in for the night, the council has taken it upon themselves to manage whatever was left of the garrison to maintain order and supervise the defence of the city.

The councilwoman was still suspended in the air, right now she was having a staredown against the titan. The Titan was standing in front of the wall, it was frozen in place, hot steam would regularly escape its cracks and joints but it was still functional. The two were waiting for the other to make the first move, Artemis intended to keep the Titan docile as long as the councilwoman did not attack first, this was made to lower the nerve of the enemy.

Caitlyn suggested a few hours back that they should cease all hostilities for a while to lower the nerve of the enemy. In paper, it went like this, the enemy was more than likely to have been traumatized and paranoid. If the machines were to cease attacking for a while, it will not relax the enemy, rather it would make them even more unsettled.

The unknown factor was a key contributor. The fact that they did not know the next move of their enemy made them uneasy, unable to even catch a good night's rest. They waited anxiously, the mages, the knights. Even the rest of the council! It was a psychological advantage in favour of the demons of metal.

Artemis was pleased, so much so that he ordered the attack to be postponed for a couple of days more before they launch an attack. Their only problem right now was also the unknown factor, the unknown power of the Demigod that was floating in the air and facing off the Titan. The mage seemed restless.

The person barely flinched even when Artemis himself ordered an Android to snipe her. She dodged the speeding bullet with ease and deflected it to the ground, confirming Artemis' assumption that the Demigod could deflect the shells and missiles if they were to continue bombard the city.

But the question was, why didn't she deflect their attacks during the first wave of shelling? She was active back then but she merely watched as they decimated the city and everyone in it. Only when the titan showed up did she even move from where she was at during the shelling.

This could well be called "The Two Day Offensive". In a span of two days, nearly all of the crusading armies of the Senadate Theocracy were defeated and subsequently destroyed by a combined force of Androids, Mech Walkers, Tanks, Artillery pieces, and Gunship Drones. The Fighter jets that were scrambled during the offensive only served as a last-ditch force if the Gunships were somehow defeated in an engagement.

The need was not brought up and so the fighter jets flew comfortably above the cloud of smoke and ash. Although, there was an instance in which a fighter jet flew low to incite fear among the routing northern army.

Artemis was lying on the grass as he stared into the night sky. Well, there were no stars but clouds of ash and smoke, the usual.

His Elite Androids were standing beside him, silent and alert. Johnathan and Michael were personally requested by Artemis to give him a bit of peace before they continued their discussions, the drones gladly followed his will.

Artemis was not thinking of anything. He only wanted to rest his mind after a tedious brain exercise that was the 'two-day offensive'. Though the strain of micromanaging tens of thousands of Drones and Androids was not that big of a deal, someone like Artemis still felt the need to rest although there was really no need for him to do so. In other words, he just wanted to act like any other human being after a long day of work.

Come home, get greeted by his family and just have a fun time, sadly he had no family, nor was he familiar with the concept of fun times. He was still half a machine and half a human person. He closed his eyes as he tried to feel the grass behind him. The grass was crunchy, hard and dying. He actually missed the time he was lying down on some fresh grass while staring at the blue clear sky before the war with the Theocracy, before this petty crusade.

Crusade.

Artemis heard of the word when an Android was reportedly ambushed by a group of A-rank elite groups who proclaimed them as demons, 'Metal Demons' who would soon be crushed by the 'Warriors of the Blue Goddess' under the crusade of righteousness. it was confusing, yet an intriguing thing to say to someone who did not believe in such a goddess.

Artemis could not deny that there were these 'Deities' that had power beyond his comprehension. Well, beyond his comprehension is too far of a stretch and more of an over-exaggeration of the enemy. He still remembered the time he fought Valentine and the Papal Scripture.

The person he fought against at that time that spoke in a weird manner was undoubtedly was being controlled by someone else at a safe distance. The words the entity uttered, Artemis fondly remembered and to this day he serves as his only warning against the unknown nature of power in this world.

The continent besides the Eastern Region was known as Fordalt, if you were to ask what the name of the world was, they'd answer Fordalt. It made sense since Artemis gained knowledge from one of the humans memories, according to their memories, there are other continent so far besides Fordalt. But after the Second Great War or after the Forgotten Era, the other great continents similar to Fordalt were all but a wasteland similar to earth 1000 years ago.

They called it the Abandoned Lands.

Nobody exactly really knows whats that time back then but it destroys all knowledge and scripts about the past. Whatever that war they faced back then, he just got the feeling the war also connects to the war in his world, but he has no proof, so he shrugged it off anyway as that topic was irrelevant.

For the past centuries, they exiled death sentenced criminals to those dead continents as punishments, leaving them dead from hunger, hydration or died by aggressive monsters in there and died by other exiled criminals.

Which they now renamed as the Exiled Lands.

However, there is another information from the other humans memories, there was also another large land, about the size as Australia back on Earth, which is known as Isle Sorma, unlike the monsters from the Exiled Lands, they seem to be less aggressive but that doesn't mean they are not dangerous, and whats surprising him was that nearly all of their appearance are similar to the prehistoric creatures from Earth 65 milliom years ago, better known as Dinosaurs.

Artemis knew of dinosaurs because Caitlyn thought him the creatures. He was intrigued that such beasts once roamed the earth millions of years ago only to be eliminated by a rogue asteroid that Jupiter failed to catch. Caitlyn thought Artemis about dinosaurs in the hopes that Artemis would be more attracted to the beauty of nature, it actually succeeded and failed at the same time.

It succeeded in making Artemis became fond and respectful of nature but also gave him the idea of mutating certain animal specimens in the hopes of rebirthing the creatures of old even if there were slight differences.

However, in this world, dinosaurs exist out there but he only spotted Raptor like creatures from the Theocracy instead other dinosaurs out there but the natives calls it Land Dragons as it is looks like a dragon with no wings and run fast on lands. However, he also studied another dinosaur similar to a triceratops and an ankylosaurus according to a few adventurer's memories, that dinosaur he read was very powerful that made him impress. The dinosaur he was currently thinking was the same monster that he send Valentine and Liz to retrieve its Monster Core for his other project his currently make.

Speaking about dinosaurs, Artemis basically wanted domesticated dinosaurs that he could weaponize, imagine a flying pterodactyl carrying a Tyrannosaurus Rex holding a minigun. Not only will it look ridiculous but also downright be terrifying for the humans unlucky enough to be targeted by it!

A pterodactyl carrying a Tyrannosaurus Rex also carrying a minigun is stupid and will never happen but something similar to the creatures mentioned might soon walk the plains of Fordalt if Artemis were to have his way. He had many plans, plans that were stupid and plans that were ingenious.

While Artemis imagined the future of his experiments, Johnathan spoke.

"Commander, The Demigod is engaging the Titan!"

At once, Artemis stood from the ground and walked towards the spot they could watch from.

"Commander! Permission to launch the offensive!"

"Not yet," Artemis wanted to see if the titan would win against a Demigod, it was important because of the mage were to defeat the titan, it would be a major setback to the siege.

The trio climbed up the hill, from afar the watched.

The flying mage had summoned a powerful whirlwind that surrounded her while the titan has activated its weaponry. The weapons all over its weapon systems were locked and loaded, it was time for the battle!

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References: Science/Magic & Jurassic Park

Science/Magic:

-Exiled Lands

Jurassic Park:

-Isle Sorma