Robin was on a new mission, she received word by Al-An that there was a very weak signal about 3800 meters away from them which is ridiculously far and a very painful drive with just her sea-truck.
“God this sucks, I was planning to find out what happened to my sister Al-An. Not about some dumb signal that’s this far!” Robin grumbled as it’s been 6 hours of her driving to that location, and she’s already having a hard time getting there without her close to groaning and finding an easy shortcut.
“Robin. This location has something I am looking for, it’s a part of my body component. And I think there is some new things you can see there as well.” Al-An spoke calmly and a bit distortedly as always, Robin sighed and kept her eyes in the open seas. If she was honest, the seas and the vastness of them really did unsettle her a lot. The eerie noises and the dark abyss right underneath her are a bit nerve wrecking.
After who knows how many more hours of silence, a sudden creature showed up out of nowhere, it looked a bit weird too, it dove under the way and landed right in front of the sea-truck which made Robin come to an abrupt halt just not to crash into this, actually pretty creature.
“That was a close one…” Robin muttered as he rubbed her eyes and looked back again at the creature, suddenly more of them showed up and began to move closer to the sea-truck, Robin on instinct moved back which caused the creatures to move forward, but only faster.
Then, all the creatures went behind the sea-truck and started to push it underneath the huge icebergs and past all the hostile and calm creatures that Robin already knew. “What the hell is happening!?” Robin shouted as she felt the sea-truck bump into something but then it was a smooth ride.
“I think they’re guiding you somewhere. Perhaps closer to the signal.” Al-An said with a small bit of joy and hope in his tone.
Robin almost screamed when she saw one of the very huge Leviathans come right into view and look at her straight, with no sort of fail to do that. The Leviathan headed straight for Robin, Robin grasped her hands together and prayed to God, that she wouldn’t die, but then, the Leviathan did a 180 degree turn and make a loud roar that vibrated the entire area that she was in, making her even more frightened than she should be.
“I think the Leviathan is not here to hurt you.” Al-An said as he was watching everything and was rather surprised at how this Leviathans behaviour is much different than the others the two had encountered, all Al-An could hear was a small grunt as Robin adjusted herself in the seat. The small creatures then pushed the sea-truck the same way the Leviathan was heading which made Robin a bit nervous if these small creatures were taking her to her death, but thankfully she was wrong.
As the small creatures guided her where the Leviathan was going, she decided to look around, and dare she say the view was just so fine so look at.
The waters atmosphere is a weird shade of yellow and blue, which when those two colours combined, make green. There was actually pretty huge fish in very large group as the swam alongside Robin and her sea-truck. They got a bit too close until a loud roar was heard in the background which made the group of fish, which ended up having multiple rows of sharp teeth, back away and disappear in the yellow abyss.
Robin sighed a breath of relief as she didn’t want her sea-truck to have so much damage inflicted on it, because then it’ll take a few dreadful hours to repair her sea-truck to be in a new shape and condition. After a few peaceful minutes of looking out and seeing brand new fishes and different creatures, the small little creatures that were pushing Robin and her sea-truck, stopped.
“Huh? Why did they stop? -” Robin asked before she stopped herself from saying anything as she was now facing a very big, gate that was attacked to a huge cliff that seemed to breach even the surface of this never-ending ocean. “Oh, seems like I have to get out and-” Robin couldn’t have finished her sentence before the same exact Leviathan that she so stupidly forgot was there before it disappeared, clenched its jaws around the sea-truck and shake it as it had to get a good grip on the sea-struck.
Robin was screaming frantically as she didn’t have the shock upgrade yet because that requires a few materials that are hard to get, so the only thing she could do was hold on for dear life as her life would probably end. Suddenly a loud shriek and unbearable noise.
Robin opened her eyes to see the large behemoth gates open as it scrapped the ground, it sounds like it hasn’t been opened for a while now. Probably years.
“Albert! Let go of the ship! There's plenty of smaller Leviathans out on the east horizon!” A random voice managed to speak through the water, Robin looked back to see the Leviathan roar in a weird, whiny way before ramming its multiple tentacle-like tail against the huge dirt and stone wall.
“Watch it, Albert! Get out of here before I do it myself!” The voice became angry, the Leviathan, to Robins very much surprise, made a small shrieking sound before it swam away out of fear, Robin looked at the water intercom for questions.
“Seems I was right about a signal. But not that what both of us were expecting, it seems like this person is very good at getting animals terrified of her. It worked for you…” Al-An stated with a calm attitude, Robin sputtered out nonsense at the neutral response Al-An came up with, well, he is an architect, he shows no sort of emotion exactly.
“Yeah… what is her deal? -" Again, Robin couldn’t even finish her sentence again as the intercom went off. “You’re not welcomed here. Come inside and I’ll make sure my little pets get you. This is your only warning to leave.” The intercom was plain and annoyed at Robin even being near her base.
“What should we do Robin? This woman has the body component we’re looking for and she won’t let us in….” Al-An said with disappointment as he really wanted to be in his old or new body again, if it means he doesn’t need to be with this, annoying and very confident woman he’s stuck with.
Robin grumbled for a second, “I have an idea, but I need you to find an easy route up, then I’ll do all the work.” Robin spoke as she quickly fixed her position, checked the depth chart and the energy that the sea-truck still had, she was surprisingly okay if it means getting a way into this woman’s base, like Marguerit. Robin heard Al-An processing the depths, analyzing the area.
“All of the places where you could go have been blocked by a strong metal that architects used when we came here. But there is a very small opening that only you can go through. But you need to have a weapon ready, it seems like this woman has animals all around her area.” Al-An said with deep concern, because if Robin dies, he dies, so he needs to try and get Robin alive as she gathers all his body components.
“Alright. Gotcha, give me the coordinates and I’ll be able to get that body component of yours.” Robin spoke as she waited patiently for Al-An to give her the coordinates on her PDA. After a few seconds Al-An had sent her the coordinates and now she was able to go. After a few minutes of very cautious around these dangerous waters, Robin found the very small entrance that Al-an told her about.
“Christ, this is ridiculously small! I might need to even suck in my stomach and throw my weapons ahead of me..” Robin said in her mask, and she did exactly that.
Robin threw her weapons in the small hole and hurriedly sucked in her fatty parts and shimmied in the hole, she got to the other side in a few seconds of struggling. Robin exhaled as she now had to make her way up, Al-An had given her another way to make it up, but she’ll need to be quick because she has only over 200 seconds worth of oxygen.
. . .
Robin gasped for air as she was able to make it to a cave that led her to the body component, “Thank goodness I made it here in time, I would’ve surely died…” She mumbled as she quickly got out of the water, as soon as she got out of the water, three huge blue tigers with six arms stalks towards her, making her freeze in place like a prey.
Suddenly a loud vibration which felt like an earthquake to Robin, scared the creatures away into the path that Robin had to take to get to the surface of this large place… after a few dreadful minutes of getting really anxious about the eerie and very nerve-wracking noises and sudden movements. Robin finally was able to breach the surface, to find herself in a literal frozen wasteland. This is an area where Ice worms were!
Without even thinking Robin began to run like the speed of light as she feels the ground shake and crumbles a few meters away from her, making her scream and making her movements very frantic as she didn’t want to get killed by an Ice worm, suddenly she heard the same voice again.
“Carat! Stop right there!” A very loud and rough female voice called out, the huge Ice worm named Carat came to a sudden halt and so did Robin. “Vanish.” The woman said before the Ice worm launched itself through the ice, breaking it instantly and disappearing like she wanted.
“I thought I told you to stay off my land.” She spoke sharply, Robin turned around to see a woman. (Well, obviously you guys need more than that—)
The woman had black hair that stopped at her shoulders, two different color eyes, the left eye was a nice dark but subtle shade of green, and the right eye had the perfect shade of yellow, she was in a huge robot tank, that resembled something similar to a mythical creature probably that she doesn’t know about.
The harsh wasteland breeze brushed past Robin making her shiver violently as she has not yet been able to craft the cold proof suit, she heard the door hatch open, the woman came out and in a matter of seconds everything went dark for Robin, seems like she froze to death, Al-An was freaking out.
. . .
Robin woke up, she was in an… actually very large room, she looked around, her swimming gear was nearly folded beside her, the light that was shaped in a weird, orb, was lighting the room slightly as the rest was dark, Robin looked around a little longer to see the same tiger that she had encountered in the cave when she made it past the hole.
Robin got a bit nervous as she never really got the idea of what to do, slowly the sound of footsteps became hearable within her reach and slowly the door open to reveal the same woman, she eyed Robin before sighing loudly. “Tina. Please dismiss yourself from this room. Clearly Ayou is uncomfortable with you around.” The woman said, making the large six-legged tiger mewl in disappointment before getting a pat from the woman and leaving the two alone.
“How…. Who are you…...” Robin asked as she quickly sat up and eyed the woman, “First of all, you should thank me for saving your life Ayou, if it wasn’t for that old hag, I would’ve left you to be Carats meal.” The woman said sharply, after a few seconds Robin finally took the hint that the woman was waiting for her to actually say it, she quickly snapped out of her trance.
“Apologies. Thank you for saving me. I wouldn’t want to be that Ice worm's food.” Robin said as she looked down and just now noticed how soft the blanket was, maybe it was those damn snow stalkers fur. “You’re welcome.” The lady said before she set the tray down, Robin looked at it and was confused as to what it was, making the woman sigh loudly again.
“I made breakfast and lunch for you, for breakfast you have a meaty waffle with some syrup from a sweet tree, you have juice from that berry that Preston likes. And for lunch you have a spicy but sweet salad with the side of small, deep-fried batter with meat.” The woman said, Robin was amazed, this woman made a five-course meal with what she had! This is incredible! How long has she been here that she can already make the same exact foods that humans are used to eating!
Robin bowed down her head, “Thank you for the meal, may I please know your name?” Robin had to pull out the manners card for her to be able to know this woman’s name, she saved her and has done everything that she did not expect, mainly because of Marguerit.
“My name is Hélène…. Hélène T. Your PDA says you been here for 35 days, and your name is Robin Ayou, didn’t know Sammy had a sister.” Hélène said so calmly, Robin was shocked and without thinking asked, “How do you know Sam?!” A bit too loudly. Hélène gave Robin a ridiculously small smile.
“Long story. But I was here before she was. Sammy—and just like you—came to my base in hopes that she can have her secret base here to destroy Alterra, but she found me, and we had a small fight, with me winning it. After I kicked her off my base, she was persistent that I was to be her friend or co-worker. After weeks of convincing and kicking her off my base I accepted it.” Hélène paused for a brief minute before continuing.
“So, I helped Sammy in destroying Alterra and she had a brilliant idea to try and sabotage a base, I helped build the weapon and that’s when I met the old hag, Marguerit. You probably already know her; she’s been trying to get off of Altera's watch for ages. Luckily, I’m not on their watch because of my more advanced technology.” So that’s how she knew Sam, thought she’ll make up something that doesn’t match with what Robin so far knows what Sam did.
“So, Robin. What more do you want to know?” Hélène asked as she crossed her arms and waited patiently for Robin to say something.
“What happened to Sam?” Robin asked quietly, Hélène was still for a few seconds before sighing, “Although I do know. I’m not allowed to say as that is something you need to know, Sammy specifically asked for me not to tell you if something did happen to her. But for now, I can tell you that it was negligence, or not.” Hélène finished, “Anything else?” She asked again as she really needed to go and harvest her precious edible foods.
"How old are you? How long have you been here for?” Robin asked as this time she asked two questions. Hélène chuckled, “My just like Sam said, your swing both sides do ya?” Robin flushed red at this, it is true, she liked both genders but damn did her sister have to say that to Hélène. “I’m 26 and I’ve been here for as long as…… 17 years. Although I do like to call this planet home sometimes.”
Robin was speechless, she was only here for 35 days! She and Marguerit have been here for a while, but 17 years is a lot! And that’s coming from her! She’s stubborn and wastes time when she needs to get all these resources too.
“How….” Robin mumbled at her disbelief, she almost died at least 6 times in just 35 days! How is she not dead? Marguerit is a simple explanation because animals fear her and she has that cool prawn suit, but what about Hélène? Hélène smiled gently at Robin. “It was not easy; I can tell you that.” She spoke softly. “I think you’re having enough human interactions; we’ll continue this when you’re done with everything.”
Hélène said before she turned around and closed the door, Robin sweared she thought that Hélène hesitated to close the door, it seemed she wanted to keep the conversation going but didn’t want too.
“I like that woman. She has been through this for 17 years and has matured, you have not Robin. She would’ve made a better hostess.” Al-An said calmly, Robin got a tick mark by this, “What the hell do you mean, ‘better hostess’?! Seems like you don’t know how to appreciate things!” Robin snapped at the architect.
“Apologies Robin, I do appreciate your willingness to be my host. But the woman has skills, her body is trained for harsh situations your body is not used to. Please don’t think I’m ungrateful for your help.” Al-An said in a regretful and sad tone, although the volume was the same, Al-Alan was sorry that Robin thought he was unhappy and unpleasant with her.
Robin sighed, “Well, I can’t really help it either, Hélène knows how to cook, tame the biggest creatures out there! A Leviathan? And an Ice worm? What else does Hélène have under her command?” Robin asked as she herself is not good with animals, even back in earth the animals hated her with a passion.
“She also seemed to have tamed those three hybrid blue tigers, they’re very pretty to look at, and those small creatures in the beginning. They seemed to have brought you here for a reason. Not for you to be the Leviathans meal.” Al-Sam pointed out again, Robin hummed as she reached over where the nightstand was and reached for the huge meaty waffles Hélène made.
. . .
“That was a good meal I have ever had in 35 days. I love her cooking. She matches the skills of my own mother!” Robin mumbled as she rubbed her cheek in admiration of the woman’s skills to cook something so good! Hélène is truly amazing!
“Your emotion on the woman is changing to what we architect call admiration and respect, but not only that but love. “Al-An said with a hint of excitement, this immediately made Robin as red as a tomato, well shaming the colour of a tomato.
“I would like it if you don’t also comment on my feelings Al-An!” Robin yelled at the architect who seemed to be having an oh so good time. “I just met Hélène. I cannot already develop feelings for her. Where not in a romantic movie Al-An.”
“Oh, is that why you always hate romantic movies? Because they’re not real-life situations and because they are not really good or produce the same enthusiasm as actions or horror movies.” Al-An said, Robin grumbled.
. . .
Robin slowly got up and walked towards the door that was blocking her and Hélène as Al-An put it, she slowly opened it to reveal a really large room with multiple counters, and cabinets that she guessed held food, this place looked way neater than Marguerit's place where it was surrounded by trash and dirty dishes, everything was clean and tidy as she unexpectedly thought.
Robin looked to see two of the three blue six armed tigers roaming around with a fuzzy looking ball, they all suddenly looked at her and made a weird sound which startled Robin, Robin was about to back into her room but saw Hélène appear from behind another hallway and looked at her peacefully.
“Good to see you’re well Robin, Tina, Toki, why don’t you get Tom and start courting the Sea-Monkeys into gathering?” Hélène asked, Robin watched astonished as the two blue tigers named Tina and Toki run off into another room and just left the two of them.
“So, I haven’t had a visitor here in ages so, why not show you around my base?” Hélène asked harmlessly as she was quite bored and thought that Robin was too, Robin nodded and Hélène smiled and walked into another door which gracefully opened to her, Robin followed hot on her toes.
“The room you were in was one of my guest rooms whenever Sammy or the old hag would visit. Which is connected to the kitchen, where I feed just about every sea animal that comes into my sanctuary.” Hélène paused, they entered a new room which was holding the exact same thing that Hélène was in when the two first meet, properly, a weird lizard but it was a robot was charging and the arms connected to it were repairing a few minor damage’s by probably an accident.
“Past this room I have the sanctuary of those little Pinnicarid’s.” She said with joy, Robin looked a bit confused until Hélène opened the door to reveal a much bigger room than she was in, “Wow…” Robin mumbled as she looked around the beautiful place; the walls were thick ice with small little moss and rocks in, there was a huge breakthrough in the ice just in the very far side of the place on the right hand side, on the left hand side there was a huge burrow with small heaters that Robin guessed held the eggs as she saw small straws of coral and other soft materials made for a nest of a Pinnicarids.
There were small toys in the room and large beds that looked like they were made out of wool which already had a bunch of Pinnicarids already sleeping, until they saw Hélène and they got excited and started making loud noises.
Hélène got down on her knees and petted the Pinnicarids heads with such gentleness it caused more to come, even the baby Pinnicarids came running out of their nests and heat just to get to her, Robin saw a couple around her doing weird stances and landing their body weight on her foot, “Oh, don’t mind them. They’re just trying to show off and make you runaway.” Hélène spoke calmly as she checks the Pinnicarids for any sort of injuries, Robin nodded and tried to pet them, which one did accept it but the others ran off immediately and went to Hélène who gave them a small sigh. “Welp, enough of my little Pinnicarids sanctuary. I have more where that came from.” Hélène said as she quickly distracted at Pinnicarids with a large toy and rushed the two out.
“Our next stop is the Whales. A Leviathan class type, docile and calm and not at all aggressive like that large shrimp.” Robin was amazed, “You have a herd of them?” She asked, “Well, you could say that, I discovered a new species of whales here beside those Glow Whales.” She said with excitement, “I would like you to meet the Stone Whales.” She said as they walked into a slightly hot room, Robin fanned herself as a backup, somehow, this damn huge iceberg of a place was connected with a huge lava biome.
(Stone Whales Definition-
Stone Whales are huge Leviathan class types of whales, much like the Glow Whale, they’re docile but they’ll become aggressive if you’re near their children or the Lava as it is one of their many food sources. They’re about 40 meters long and they’re completely black to match the atmosphere of an underground Lava Cave or in the Lava Biome.
They know how to defend themselves and they build huge burrows by digging up the rock-hard ground with their mouths and eating it; one of the Stone Whales main meals is rock, or any type of ore that they can digest. They're stomachs have a very high level of acidity that is extremely hot like Lava, their tongue is a deep orange and red color, and they sometimes use the rocks for extra layer of protection.)
“What the….” Robin said very confusing as she thought the ice would melt significantly because of how hot it must be on the other side, “Well, I can tell you about them. The Stone Whales are not at all grey whales, instead they’re black and have large rocks sort of formations attached to them.
The Whales instead of eating kelp and fish, they eat large chunks of ore or even some of the Lava if they want to, I’m providing them all sorts of things if they can help me collect ore. It’s a win-win.” She said proudly of herself.
“How long did it take you?” Robin asked curiously, “Surprisingly it only took me to get their trust in like…. 10 months... honesty worth it as they help me with the electricity running around and with my resources on certain rare or not items, copper for me is probably the easiest to get thanks to them. And I reward them with protection, food and a proper shelter not that far from here for them to rest and lay their eggs, which are also protected by my own Leviathan. Albert.” Hélène said, “That’s our next stop.” She said before she exited the large doors that left those black beautiful lava whales behind a huge glass separating the two.
Robin looked back and waved goodbye thinking that it wouldn’t matter but she saw one of the largest of the Stone Whales, turn slightly over on its side and wave back before continuing to do what it wanted, “Next is of course that damn Leviathan that scared the shit out of you.” Hélène grumbled, “Even though I raised him when I found him as a juvenile, he’s a little shit. Respect for me is there, he just needs to stop messing around my base.” She finished; Robin spoke.
“This is more like your house rather than base.” She commented, Hélène scoffed. “Just what Sammy said.” She muttered before they arrived at a large door with a code.
The door took a while to open before it did, the door reveal a nicely decorated and fairly warm atmosphere with an incredibly large opening in the center of it, it was filled with a fine blue and yellowed coloured water that slowly was rumbling as the same Leviathan that gave Al-An and her a deadly scare, surfaced, Robin instantly became a nervous wreck at seeing the large Leviathan appear with a much smaller body in its mouth, Robin heard Hélène grumble.
“Albert. You seriously caught another baby shrimp and want me to carve out its beak.” It was like magic because the Leviathan dropped the body and waited patiently for Hélène to do exactly that. “Excuse me Robin, if you want, you can explore while I give Albert his food.” She said with a small eye smile. Robin nodded and left Hélène be.
Robin explored, she came across several different types of rooms, she entered a huge greenhouse that has probably the warmest air temperature in it, there were huge tree’s, lantern trees and fruit trees and those purple berries that Marg’s dog likes.
Then she came across a huge Laboratory with chemicals, iron, lithium and lead ores around and a chart having said ores in specific categories of dangerous in mixing one another. There even was a whole chart of a more advanced or newly updated Periodic Table with chemicals and those Ion cubes included in them, seems like she mixed them up with some more, earth like chemicals.
Then she came across way too many sanctuaries, for those pengilins, rock punchers, and way too much of animal’s she hadn't yet scanned with her trusty scanner, that’s when she heard some distant yelling.
“I thought you told me it was just me and you left after those damn fucking alterran’s left this place for dead!” A rough voice called out, it belonged to Hélène, “Well when was the last time I've even seen your dumb face? It's been well over a month.” Another rougher voice called out. Both of them were familiar to her as she did hear them before. She heard a groan from the first voice.
“God Damnit. Hag. You have that damn PDA to help! You could’ve used it to let me know! Or are you just too old and sickly to pick it up and for it to show you something useful?” She heard another scoff. “Like I could even talk to you when your thousands of meters away on some damn tablet.” Once again, she heard a frustrated sigh.
“Look. What can I do now? If she finds out more than she needs on my behalf, what can I do? Kill her? I can’t, because if I do, I will also end up killing an Architect. I can’t have to do that again; it was way too much to handle the first time Marg....” The voice calmed itself down, Marg? What was she doing here? But the most worrying thing is that Hélène somehow knew that she had an Architect in her. How did she know that?
She heard a caring sigh from said Marg. “Look. Kiddo, I'm sure she won’t find out anything more about you, she is busy trying to find out what happened to her sister. And if you say what I hope not to be true, then you have a bigger problem as you had some relations and still do with those damn aliens. You need to either face your demons or be a coward.” Marg said, Robin was floored.
“Maybe you’re right, maybe you aren’t. I won't find that out until I actually come to face my own fucking demons, Marg. What happened to me cannot happen again. And you surely would help me to prevent that from ever happening.” Robin was filled with so many emotions, confusion, anger, happiness and it was a pretty big mess.
“Okay. So, are you going to deal with her?” Marg asked, Hélène sighed. “Welp, the reason why you’re here is to go and take her back to her base. She wasn’t supposed to even be in the vicinity of my technology. That damn Architect must have blown my cover because of the technology I own. Could you do that please Hag?” Hélène asked, her voice was quiet and low. Almost submissive type?
“God. Kiddo, you only ever contact me when you need me to do something.” Robin heard Hélène scoff and small shuffles were heard. “I know, but you do too, it’s not like I’m the only one that should be blamed at." She paused. "But seriously, I’ll go and knock Ayou out and hand her over to you, Albert has already moved her sea-truck back to where he has tracked the last scent of it.” Hélène paused, the silence was loud between the two, “Fine…And I’ll give you and Preston a proper cleanup of your base. And more seeds for those fruits he likes, okay?”
Wait… Hélène is trying to get rid of her, she doesn’t want her to be here, and she doesn’t want to plan on killing her and Al-An, which she somehow knew of.
“It is alarming to me on how a human specimen could identify me in your organic component. She has some relations with my people too, she could help us build me a new body.” Al-An said, completely ignoring the fact that Hélène even said about her killing them if they found out too much. “I’m not sure if you heard Al-An. But she wants to kill us! Apparently, Marg and her know each other… what can we do? Let it happen or try to be stupid?” Robin asked as she was panicking, Hélène was kind and gentle, she wouldn’t do something insane as this to Robin.
Al-An spoke, his voice so ever flat and unfazed.
“I suggest we could try to show her we mean no harm. If we show her that we’re weak and harmless, she will lower her guard and then we can find out the technology she has been using, because it has more relations to my people’s technology.” Robin grumbled as she crossed her arms, she supposed that was a good idea, but on how Hélène seemed so scared on Robin exploring more than she should, her life could be at risk, maybe the best option for her would be to just let Hélène knock her out and maybe don’t try and find her later.
And that’s exactly what happened, despite Al-An telling Robin to reconsider about her choice, Robin has decided to just let Hélène live her life in secrecy.
Robin ended up with a small concussion after Hélène had knocked her out and she was now in her base, surrounded by Sea Monkeys and was now alone with Al-An.
After a few days of not seeing Hélène nor Marguerit for that matter, she explored and was saddened whenever she saw those weird animals she saw in that huge base.
She felt like it was the right thing to do though, and for good reasons too, she has found more about her sister’s death, Outpost Zero and found a cool looking portal, she found more alien technology for Al-An, although he was quiet sometime.
And she found Phil Robotics Centre where her sister used to work at too, overall, it was a pretty good streak. But for some reason, she felt… sad? Lonely? She doesn’t know but she ended feeling a bit depressed.
So, she went back to Marguerit's base and that’s where she is at now. Robin almost hesitated to open the door, but she told herself that it was the right thing to do. Robin grabbed the handle of the door, “Marg! I have to ask you a question.” Robin bursted in into Marguerit's base as she was now incredibly pissed.
“Christ!” Marguerit yelled out as Preston yelped as the sudden outburst from both women and now was gone, “What the hell got into you Alterra. Busting into my damn sea base like you own it...” Marguerit grumbled something else under her breath.
But Robin didn’t have time. She wanted answers, “What are the coordinates to Hélène.” It was more of a demand rather than question, to which Marguerit scoffed at Robin. “Who the hell is Hélèna?” Marguerit purposefully said the name wrong which pissed off Robin even more.
“You know who I’m talking about Marg. What are the coordinates to her.” Marg lazily looked up and shook her head. “I have no clue who or what you’re talking about.” Marg looked back into her PDA, she was typing fast on it, she looked like she was talking to someone. Robin groaned frustrated at Marg's stubbornness to just give her the coordinates to Hélène’s base.
That weird alien technology which was a beacon for her is now gone and Al-An can’t even find it without himself getting worked up and then quit because he’s upset at himself.
Marg shrugged, “Alterra, Look, I don’t know nothing about what you mean.” Robin finally snapped. “Uh—yes, I do! You know Hélène! You’ve been at her base after I found her, and you were the one who took me back to my base after she knocked me out! Stop lying and tell me what the coordinates are!” Marg was still, silent, and the silence after that comment was unbearable for anyone.
Marg let out a small, stifled laugh, “Alright Alterra, if I tell you were. Will you this time…” Marg paused for her to think, Robin was a little relaxed as she finally got Marguerit to say the truth, well, sort of.
“I want you to go, and forget about whatever we just said. Said you found her on accident, again. Do not bring me down. I’m already a bit too much in debt towards her. Doing something as reckless as this could seriously put not only me, but you in danger of what she could do. Don’t make yourself worry about her side of the story. Keep out of her business and she’ll be comfortable with you.” That tone, straight, flat and so serious Robin was invested in every second of her speaking.
Al-An himself cheered as he was now excited. After receiving the coordinates of Hélène’s large base. Robin began to repair her sea-truck and prepare for her long journey. After a few hours of that, Robin was ready, Al-An was also ready to say hello to the women and pled for her to show him the technology of his people which is totally what they discussed while making their way there.
After a few more hours of traveling, they finally saw the same Leviathan type class eating a smaller Leviathan, she forgot, but that Leviathan that somehow Hélène had tamed looked more like those ancient Sea Dragons and when Robin brought it up to Al-An, she was only responded with an uncomfortable silence from him.
So, once again, that Leviathan roared loudly and swam straight for Robin.
Robin prepared for herself for the impact, but it never came. Robin slowly opened her eyes to see a very beautiful women in a tech swimsuit who had stopped the Leviathan from proceeding to attack by sitting on its head. Which was highly weird for Robin.
The women looked at Robin and had a nervous but mad look on her face, Robin nervously waved and smiled at her, recognizing that it was Hélène. Hélène rolled her eyes and the Leviathan turned around and swam straight to the iceberg land thingy that was Hélène’s Sea base.
Robin quickly followed suit, but the Leviathan smacked one of its many tentacle tails and almost caused her to crash, but thankfully she recovered from it and hurried back. The Leviathan went into deeper territory where Hélène was standing(?) still in the water, floating in front of the door of where they first made their interaction, she then approached the small scanner it has, and the huge doors opened with small squeaky scraps on the sea floor.
The Leviathan roared and disappeared, and Hélène entered in the door, she looked back to see Robin patiently waiting for Hélène to allow her to enter, which took a few seconds of self-fought before Hélène slouched a bit and nodded, Robin had a huge smile on as she quickly followed Hélène.
Al-An was even excited. It only took a few minutes when Hélène was impatiently waiting for Robin to get the fuck out of the sea-truck. As soon as Robin got out of the sea-truck and was about to speak, Hélène spoke.
“What are you doing here? I thought that would as be busy with your sister.” That was true, half, Robin has accomplished a lot actually, finding Outpost Zero on accident, more artifacts from Al-An and even discovering where Sam used to work, all she needed was the recourses and she’ll be done into finding out more about what happened to Sam. Robin ended up telling her accomplishments to Hélène who calmly and actually, intently listened to what Robin had to say, after Robin was done, Hélène spoke.
“That still doesn’t give you a reason to see me…...Why are you really here Robin?” Robin sighed, “I just felt like it…. Well, it took me like two hours this time to find you.” Robin said sheepishly, Hélène grumbled. She wasn't buying it, but she was busy, something was messing with her technology and base equipment that she owns. She needed to figure out what is happening to it. And her damn pets too.
“Alright. You can do whatever you want as last time. I have to go get Carat. He’s in a bit of trouble for trying to destroy the Stone Whale habitat. On accident the damn thing claims.” Hélène mumbled as she now left Robin all alone, back into her large kitchen, Robin looked around and fumbled a bit with the now empty coffee mug that she ended up drinking quickly.
She was bored. Extremely bored. What could she do now? Hélène was out doing her own things now, and she clearly wasn’t happy seeing Robin finding her again.
Robin decided to go and find Hélène again, she got a good feeling of the base and the rooms. Robin got up and went to go and search.
Robin came by a special designed door, it had a gold frame surrounding it and was made out of a wood like material, it was a double door, there were huge sculptures on the door, it had a robust built, a large maw with razor sharp teeth it looked… ancient, like a creature that should be on this thing, but isn’t…
“That is what I like to call, Tyrannosaurus Rex.” Robin was startled at the sudden voice beside her that she didn’t notice Hélène right beside her. Hélène let out an amused chuckle at Robin’s easily she startles.
“Would you like to know more of them?” She politely asked, her expression was soft, no longer tense and uncomfortable with Robin finding her again, Robin nodded, eager to see what else she has in her base.
Hélène moved to the door and pushed the two large doors open, revealing a whole museum of skeletons and fossilized bones. Robin was amazed, this looked like the body parts of Al-An that she was almost done. She just needed to find his organs and then they were fine. She had to also remember that Hélène knew about Al-An being in her body, so she had to be careful with what she says.
Hélène moved ahead of her, eager to show her about her collections of old, ancient beings. Robin looked up to see a huge skeletal creature, they looked to be 35feet tall, 40 feet wide, a big maw it has with huge teeth, this thing looked to be built for battle, and what little arms it had, it looked like a scavenger because of the little arms it had, a large tail and legs that are meant to show that this thing was a slow runner. Perhaps even a walker.
Hélène spoke, “This is, the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Before I came here... a lot of people think this robust and large creature was one of the biggest predators in existence, but, there have been some speculations from recent studies that the Tyrannosaurus has most likely a scavenger.” She paused.
“For having one of the strongest bite forces in recorded history, over 12,800 pounds, this dinosaur was a slow runner, you can tell by that because of the next skeleton beside it.” She pointed to a much smaller skeleton beside the large one, it had bigger arms than the Tyrannosaur and had a much larger femur than the fibula. A noticeable sharp claw at its foot and seemed to have feathers, what odd creatures they were.
“That there, is a Velociraptor. Incredibly fast, they hunt in packs and were said to be able to communicate with each other, locate and hunt in packs for better success for food, brains the size of their bodies, they are intelligent creatures.” She finished as she turned back to the large skeleton.
“The Tyrannosaurus has a bigger femur than fibula, and that means that they were slow runners. If they do ever happen to trip, they would have likely died, without being able to catch themselves due to their small arms, it would have shattered their ribs, broke their necks or had a collapsed lung, all ways that could lead to a shorter lifespan.” Robin was impressed at the studying she has done with these creatures. Hélène sighed softly as she looked at the skeleton with saddened eyes.
“These ancient beings are commonly mis-known. Tyrannosaurus most likely had feathers around its large body and would only be social with one or two others of its own species. Only a few have been given false information, but that is rarely now. Thankfully, we know a lot of others.” She finished, she felt like a professor, teaching about history, man did she feel like she would be a good teacher.
“Now then, let’s hurry along, there are plenty of more of them to see, especially one I think you might want to see.” Hélène said with innocence which didn’t settle Robin, she’s down just about for anything right now.
The two walked around Hélène’s large museum filled with fossilized skeletons. Each of them having a small paragraph of her explaining them, which didn’t bore Robin, in fact, she was invested despite this not being much of her favourite topic as a kid. Finally, they came across a huge one, one even bigger than the Tyrannosaur.
“Ah, this one is one of my favourites. It’s called, the Giganotosaurus. Even bigger than the Tyrannosaur, better for hunting, travel in only packs of twos, but did not have a strong bite force like the Tyrannosaur, this one was a brute, able to hunt down whatever it wanted, but it had limited options as there was a cousin to its kind. The Mapusaurus. A competitor for land, food and water. They had many battles fighting over things.” Finally, the two were out of the fossilized skeletons and came across an almost hidden room.
The door was a bit smaller than the first one they passed, it was almost invisible due to the fact that it matched the wall and the floor, as if trying to disguise itself to not appear to be a door. This is sketchy.
“Now, this one I think you’ll need to see. It has everything you are looking for.” She mumbled, hesitation and worried-ness evident in her tone and posture, she slowly walked up to the door, she hesitated to open it before she took in a deep breath and pushed the doors open. Robin covered her eyes as a bright light escaped and blinded her, then she got used to it and walked in.
Robin was floored, damn straight she was, and for good reasons too, she was speechless as she saw a whole body of an architect.
Not a single body piece rotting away, organs on display in small containers with something that is liquids in them, a small lab table beside it, huge like tendrils holding the body up and keeping it well-preserved with cold mist escaping the small air vents. It’s arms where there, it had four like legs under it, like a horse, a centaur, its body had huge electronics of equipment that wasn’t familiar to Robin, but to Al-An.
Robin paled as she saw tubes with different substances and saw a lot of red ones, that could only mean blood. Robin turned to Hélène, wanting a damn explanation as to what she is seeing right now in front of her.
Hélène seemed more than happy to just explain to her.
“Before…. You came. And before I meet the Hag. I was found by an Architect.” She mumbled lowly, Robin was a bit far from her, but she was able to hear her.
“Albert at the time, was a juvenile and was doing his own things to protect me from the Architect. But the Architect then hurt Albert, they had ripped off a tail from him and Albert was bleeding out, so I had to go and help him and they saw me.” She furrowed her brows deeply.
“That’s when they held me, I guess as a hostage and said that I would help for them to understand exactly how this planet functions and for something that can cure a deadly virus. To which I didn’t know existed in the first place. And they wanted me to find it. But I didn’t know where or how to find it.” She moved to a nearby chair and sat herself down, she crossed a leg over and stared at the white marble with heated yet scared eyes.
“The Architects would then hurt Albert whenever I failed to find something that could help, and I did my very best to prevent that from happening. So, one day, I decided to sabotage the entire place, I corrupted their data, stole their technology and took one of their bodies which were sleeping at the time....And now, here we are....” She ended her story, that was all to it, a lot of misunderstandings and anger she has to them, but she can’t bring herself to hate Robin for housing one.
These Architects are pieces of shits, they want to get what they want, she couldn’t probably understand that there was some sort of communication between them before the Architect transferred himself in Robin’s mind.
“You do know there is still the Virus out there. Hélène.” Al-An voice echoed, filled with bitter yet glad he found the one he was supposed to look for besides the cure for the virus. Hélène chuckled dryly, irritated at the Architect.
“Hello there. Architect.” She stood up, looking at Robin with hatred, but that was meant for Al-An, she had to remind herself of that. Venom was tasteful on her tongue and in the air. The look that she gave him was pure hatred and wrath for Al-An.
“You and some others of the damn horses were supposed to find me, but you Architects had bigger problems.” Robin was confused as to what Hélène meant, Al-An forcibly answered for her.
“The architects had to try and find the cure for the virus, and because she had sabotaged our server with others, that sent a signal to unwanted attention, the people from Alterra, your sisters' job.” Hélène hummed.
“And with the Architects having to handle two things at once, which both had great deal of consequences if have been ignored. They took the one that was a bigger problem. So, they left me alone, which gave me time to study and build my base.” Al-An produced a static grumble, his isn’t very good at expressing his hatred or feelings in general, but he does know for a fact that he does not like this woman. Not one bit.
“She was the reason why I had to find other options for the cure of the virus.” Hélène spoked. “Which led for you to find a species of Leviathans to help cure it, which had also tied with to what Albert was. But the problem was; I took him with me.” Robin was starting to piece the things together, slowly though.
Al-An was frustrated and annoyed at Hélène, Robin can feel it, taste it practically. With him now recognizing who exactly Hélène was, after being transferred into Robin’s brain and housing in it with some lost memory but still have that feeling, he was confident to say this woman was the cause of all of this.
“You were the one who caused this. The outbreak had gotten out of my hands and with my people having been killed by it and evacuate for their safety, I had to manage all of this by myself.” Hélène rolled her eyes.
“And how is that turning out for you, Architect? You really have some nerve to blame this entire virus outbreak on me, when it should have been placed on your people for thinking it was a good idea to try and force a Leviathan—A mother of all things—and force her to produce something to get your cure. You used her as a test subject!” She said almost hysterically as she smiled and her eye twitch.
“Your household subject, that thing you have named, Albert, was the closest thing of the Leviathans that there was that was the same species as the Empress.” Hélène narrowed her eyes.
“And abusing him would have surely worked back then. Forcing him to give you the cure, whatever it was. You are sick. Sick in the head. And sick in your body. I’m glad you are just now a voice; I would have to put a bullet through your head and have you as a trophy.” Robin was very concerned, confused and worried for her well-being, these two were at each other’s throats. And she was in the middle of it unfortunately.
“You have left us no other option.”
“So, you had to force me to find the cure and beat Albert if I hadn’t?”
“You were being stubborn. We had to use another alternate and Albert at the time was the only option.”
“You architects are mental. Hurting an animal. The one you needed of all animals.”
“Yes, we did realize our mistake after you have sabotaged our entire network and had got some more unwanted attention from humans. We gave you an exception as you were supposed to help us in finding the cure.”
“And, it’s still out there, and you’re in Robin’s head. How ironic.”
“I can take it that you are mocking and ridiculing the state that I have resorted to because of your mistake.”
“Of course, I am, Christ, what else am I doing? Complimenting about your great skills of accomplishments?”
“You-”
“SHUT UP!”
Al-An and Hélène were startled and surprised with the sudden voice interrupting them, Hélène turned to look at Robin, although she already was, she wasn’t looking directly at her.
“Look! I know I sorta don’t have the right to just tell you guys to get along—after what architects put you through Hélène—but c’mon!” She said irritatedly, she was tired of being in the middle of this.
“Look—I need to get Al-An out of me, and the only way to do that is by getting his body fully scanned and you have a full body, with organs and tissues that can work! We need your help, and I would like to have your permission to scan this architect's body for Al-An to have one and leave this planet.” Hélène didn’t speak, her eyes narrowed with anticipation and thought. Robin was getting nervous under her stare.
Finally, after seconds of receiving one of the dirtiest looks she has besides from her sister, Hélène blinked slowly, she stood up and walk towards the door.
“You can scan whatever the hell you want. As soon as you do. Leave me alone. I rather not have an architect in my home. Not after what happened.” She mumbled as she opened the door and disappeared. Robin watched in concern for her. But she had other issues to deal with.
Robin pulled out her scanner and scanned the body, collected the blueprints for its construction and material it needs for function, and moved onto the organs, scanned it and moved onto the brain and tissues.
Finally, Robin had an exact replica of what an architect looks like, she heard Al-An hum in satisfaction.
But she didn’t feel satisfied with how things had gone.
“Very well, Robin, now, we need to go and build my body after you have gathered all the materials needed. Then, you won’t have to deal with me anymore.” Al-An said with an awfully lot of peace and tranquility. Robin didn’t say a word as she exited the room and was headed to her sea-truck.
She passed by Hélène, they made eye contact, but Hélène was the first one to break it. She didn’t want to even look at Robin, she was upset, deeply upset. Robin mentally winced at the situation and horrible memories that she had brought to Hélène, she didn’t mean to, she didn’t.
Finally, Robin was in her sea-truck, she was alone, her thoughts were loud, she still couldn’t believe what she heard from Hélène and how the architects had treated her, a human, weaker and not able to defend herself, she was taken advantage of. Robin couldn’t image the freedom and relief she felt when she escaped.
“Al-An…...” Robin spoke, it seemed that Al-An didn’t want to talk, but that was not up to him to decide. She wants to know more.
“Yes, Robin?” Al-An’s voice was heard by Robin, because now she’s in her sea-truck and in the dangerous deep, blue water, she doesn’t have to worry about Hélène looking at her strangely.
“How many of the things she said were true.” She asked suddenly, and out of nowhere too. Robin could taste Al-An blinking—if he even had eyes to begin with—rapidly before he spoke.
“You cannot believe everything she says.” He said calmly in response. Robin narrowed her eyes, dissatisfaction evident in those eyes of hers.
“You are avoiding the question, Al-An. How many of the things she said were true.” Again, Al-An hesitated to answer, he seemed to not want Robin to know the whole truth of the situation.
“Robin, you are in no place to get into business that was long ago. And especially between us and Hélène.” Al-An was sharp with his words, he meant for Robin to back off and stay away from this topic, but of course, Robin is stubborn. She learnt that from her sister, Sam.
“After everything I had heard from how you treated her, and with you not wanting to say what had happened. I think I can say that what she said is true. Everything.” Robin was angry, she felt horrible for Hélène having horrible memories of architects and what they did to her, while Alterra and she herself had hoped for Architects to be everything except for heartless and cruel beings, they were more advanced than humans, had things they wanted, no one was out of place, a perfect society. Too perfect.
Al-An spoke, obviously upset and annoyed that Robin couldn’t just be quiet, those things were in the past, there is no need to bring it up when Hélène has clearly rebuild and is fine with herself. It shouldn’t matter now.
“You can believe whatever you want on what she said about her treatment. I am not here to further on endanger my people any further from exposing the truth.”
“Why do you just avoid the question? How badly have you treated her?”
“We did not treat her inhumanely.”
“Then how did you treat her?”
“Robin. You should not meddle in our business. You do not know the full story.”
“Then stop avoiding the question and tell me the full story if you think that everything, she said was a lie. Tell me the truth.”
Al-An was dead quiet. Robin let out a frustrated groan, annoyed and angry at Al-An for being this stubborn and weird in just telling the truth, why does he want to take this thing to his damn grave?
“We found Hélène when she was just 10. She had befriended that Leviathan that she named. Albert.” He finally started, Robin was a bit stunned at him finally speaking, and what she hoped to be the truth.
“Hélène didn’t quite have a home when we had found her and the state she was living in, she lived right beside the water to be close to Albert. So, we offered her a home, we didn’t want to see a child suffer out in the cold as she wasn’t getting much warmth either.” So far not bad, but it could get bad any second now.
“Hélène lived with us for only a few months, she was comfortable with us and so was Albert. But then we had to deal with something important. Us, architects, were having to deal with the virus, Kharaa. We had to find ways and materials on how to do so, and we had all sadly come to the conclusion to use Hélène. As a test subject and see what cure we could make for the Kharaa.” And there it is, the horrible news.
“Only for a year we did tests on Hélène, and when she refused to provide us her body to be tested, we had attacked Albert as punishment for her lack of cooperation.” Robin felt sick, just how many tests did they do on her? And just how many times had she refused and had regretting-ly let Albert be punished? Oh God she doesn’t want to know, some things are better kept in secrecy.
“When she was just 13, she had then decided enough was enough. And she sabotaged our entire network, disrupting, misguiding, confusing, mistrusting and even making some of us go insane by the way she had disturbed our entire network.” Robin was concern for Hélène, but she was confused, how did Hélène find something to sabotage something advance and an architect's entire network system.
But that would have to be asked another time.
“She escaped, stealing our knowledge of the Kharaa, taking Albert with her, stealing our technology and one of the architects' sleeping bodies, which now you have seen is well known as dead.” Oh god, they just scanned a dead body, she knows that they had seen part of Al-An’s fallen architects' skeleton, but it was a skeleton, not alive—of course—but seeing a dead body of what an architect was, is not a pretty sight.
“That is how our network knows Hélène. And we do not want her.” Robin was confused.
“What do you mean by that?” Al-An didn’t say anything, his voice was gone.
“Our network wants Hélène eradicated.”
Robin froze, so much so she stopped moving the sea-truck as they were just floating in the water. Robin’s eyes were wide. The Architects want Hélène dead.
“Do you support them?” She asked, close to lose her shit if Al-An’s answer was ‘yes.’
“Whatever says goes, Robin. So, yes, I do support them in wanting her gone.”
Robin grabbed the steering wheel, she gritted her teeth and looked downwards. She felt anger bubbling up.
Did Hélène know about Architects wanting her dead?