I was in a healer’s hut, and my gut had been stitched up. My eye was still blurred and I wouldn’t be able to see. I got up, my gut hurting a little as I stood. I leaned against the doorframe, looking out at the village. There were many new houses, healer’s huts, and there were even arenas for training. My eye was still blurred, and specks of red dotted my field of view. I saw Jim directing people at a construction site.

“Hey! Jim!” I called out.

“Hound!” Jim beamed. “You finally woke up!”

“What’s happened while I was unconscious?” I asked him.

“I signed a treaty with the humans for you. They’ve really helped us expand,” Jim told me.

“What the fuck is a human?” I asked Jim.

“I think you had been referring to them as, um, fleshlings,” Jim said with disgust.

“This doesn’t look like our village. Where are we?” I asked Jim, realizing he had taken over as leader.

“We resituated our village outside the base of the T.H.C.,” Jim told me.

“The big building? Why can’t I see it?” I asked.

Jim pointed at something obstructed by the hut wall. “It’s right over there,” he said.

I believed him because he was the most trustworthy Atroxian I knew. I stepped out of the healer’s hut and into the sun for the first time in a week. I looked out in the direction Jim had been pointing, and sure enough, the big square building was sitting there with its big black letters that spelled out T.H.C. Someone had painted an A on the side in messy maroon script, reaching from the middle of the other letters down till it would be an equal size. I let myself stand in the sunlight for a while, soaking in its rays before I began moving around the town. Jim had already gone back to working with the people at the construction site.

As I walked through the town, I would wave at people, and they would wave back. I walked down the center of the path, I slowly got closer to the human base. The blast doors slowly came into view. As I got closer, I noticed a green pad with lines going across it horizontally and vertically. It was framed with the same grey metal that the humans used for everything else and it was situated next to the blast doors. It was just barely big enough to fit someone’s hand on it. Many of my people were going in and out of similar doors, carrying goods such as food, weapons, and materials. I continued walking, and I started thinking. The world I knew was gone and I had been gone just a week. It was like an age of peace now.

When I made it to the blast doors, an automated voice told me, “Please place your hand on the scanner for identification.”

I placed my hand on the green thing. A red line came down from the top, went under my hand, and then to the bottom.

“Hello Hound,” the automated voice said.

“HOW THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?!” I screamed at the box.

The voice didn’t respond, and the blast doors slowly opened. Four guards were standing inside, chatting about something I didn’t understand. I didn’t recognize them, but they seemed to recognize me.

“You there!” The first one said.

“You hit me in the head with his helmet!” The second one said, pointing at the fourth one.

The third one responded with, “Legally we aren’t allowed to harm you anymore. Continue as you were.”

The second one and the fourth one started yelling at each other as I walked down the hall.

“Sir, you need an escort of at least two T.H.C. employees to continue,” the third one told me.

“What are you going to do if I don't have one?” I responded.

“I will proceed to follow you anyway, along with my associate.” He pointed at guard one over his shoulder.

“Well then, I won’t stop you,” I said.

“Alright then. Hey Maxwell!” guard three shouted, “Get over here!”

I started walking through the facility, with the guards following close behind. As I made it deeper into the facility, I saw more and more of my people trading or eating.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“What is this place? What can I do here?” I asked the two guards.

“It's limited… you can eat, trade, and try creating machines for our alliance to use,” he answered.

I nod my head and continue to walk until I come across Hailey. I was in a mix of emotions, mostly anger and regret, but I was somewhat happy I had been beaten because now everyone was at peace with one another. The fighting had stopped, and I was a little bored now, but everyone else seemed happy.

I walked through the doorway into the room in which Hailey was standing. The walls were barren steel, save a few weapons placed here and there. There were big metal arms, moving of their own will, building weapons and armor that moved along a conveyor belt placed in the center of the room. I assumed this was the factory where the armor and weapons were assembled.

I walked up to her and said, “Hey.”

She was jumped. “W-what are you doing here?” she said anxiously.

“I don't... I don’t really know… Just exploring I guess,” I answered. “What’s happened here? Jim told me some things, but I still don’t know what’s going on all that well.”

“He told you about the treaty, right?” Hailey asked.

“Yeah,” I replied. I didn’t have much else to say.

“Ok. You know what a treaty is right?” This question was so stupid.

“Of course I do. What do you think I am, stupid?” I retorted.

“Well, actually, I kind of did. Anyway, we relocated your village to the outside of my base.

“I could tell,” I stated.

“Oh, uh,” she said. “Oh fuck, why did I say that,” she muttered under her breath, assuming I wouldn’t hear her.

“I’ve never seen my people so happy. Apparently, violence isn’t all we’re good for,” I said, “Thanks for whatever you did.”

“No problem. I did want to ask if you could help us with something,” she said.

“What do you want my help with?” Her statement had grabbed my attention.

“We need help designing a robot powered by Eclipse. None of our metals can withstand the incredible amount of heat it produces,” Hailey told me.

“I’m no scientist but I might be able to help,” I said proudly.

She motioned for me to follow her, and led me to another room. There were pieces of an unfinished robot set out on a table. A glowing orange sphere with purple accents sat in a pool of near-boiling water nearby.

“That’s the Eclipse,” she told me, pointing to the sphere.

I spent hours in there with Hailey and other random humans. We were simply testing metal after metal, seeing what could potentially work. None of the fragile earth metals worked.

“What if we used Atroxianite?” I suggested.

“That, well that might just work,” Hailey responded.

We pulled out the maroon metal and hammered it into shape after an extreme heat treatment. We carefully placed the Eclipse core into the machine and the Atroxianite didn’t melt like the others did. But then something else happened instead. I recognized it as soon as it happened and I grabbed Hailey and dived out of the room. I set her down, got up, and slammed the door faster than anyone else would have been able. I heard something bounce around the room for the next few minutes and a couple of screams. I opened the door a little and peeked inside. Everyone was dead.

“Wait what just happened?!” Hailey exclaimed.

“It appears that the Eclipse core was physically rejected by the Atroxianite. Bounced around the room and hit everyone. Everyone in there died,” I told her.

“I’ll go get a new team of scientists then,” Hailey said before wandering off.

I walked in and grabbed the chunk of forged Atroxianite. I wandered around till I made it outside, and I chucked it in a pile with the rest of the Atroxianite we had. Afterward, I went back inside and attempted to find the room I had been in, but with no luck. I stood in the hallway, letting people come and go until Hailey spotted me.

“Hound! There you are! I’ve been looking for you for so long. Where have you been?” Hailey said quickly.

“I took the Atroxianite to the pile where we keep all the rest of the Atroxianite and then I got lost. I’ve been standing here for a while,” I replied.

“Ok. Anyway, we made another frame for the Eclipse. It took a while but we managed to forge Atroxianite with some of our metals. Come on, we’ve been waiting on you so we could test it,” Hailey said, leading me back to the room we were in before.

It looked like the same object as earlier, but the red had been toned down to have less of a glow. We placed the Eclipse core into the new frame, and this time the orange orb didn’t shoot out of it. A small hatch closed and the machine whirred to life.

“What are you!?” the machine asked, worry and excitement noticeable in his voice. “Who am I!?”

“You, are Unit-02,” Hailey spoke calmly.

“Fool. That does not answer my first question,” Unit-02 said, his voice now becoming more angry than worried.

“We’re your creators,” I said quickly.

“Ah. So what is my purpose, creator?” Unit-02 said monotonously.

“I wouldn’t know, ask Hailey,” I pointed at Hailey, “She did more work than me.”

Unit-02 took time to pronounce Hailey’s name before asking a question, “Hay-ley. Hailey. What is my purpose?”

“Your purpose is to eliminate threats,” Hailey said.

“Eliminate? I am made to destroy?” The machine seemed to have an endless supply of questions.

“Yeah,” I said, “You kill idiots who get in our way.”

“Why am I a destroyer?” Unit-02 asked.

“You are a destroyer for a good cause,” Hailey said.

“What is the cause I am meant to protect?” Unit-02 asked.

“Can you please stop with the questions? They’re getting very, very annoying,” I said. The constant questioning was just beginning to get on my nerves.

“Of course creator.” Unit-02 responded so quickly I was caught off guard. “What am I to do now?”

“Put yourself in sleep mode for now, we’ll wake you up when we need you,” Hailey said.

“Ok,” Unit-02 said, “Initiating sleep mode.”

The Eclipse started glowing less than it was before, indicating that Unit-02 had successfully initiated sleep mode.