“I call dibs on the tub next, and the maids,” Cyclone whispered to me as we headed down the halls for the throne room.

That’s between you and the others, Cyc, I thought, glancing in his direction.

Prime.IronHide:// So not fair. You know how long I’ve been pining for a carwash with cute attendants.

Prime.Sentinel:// You know dang well that tubby would never fit you.

Prime.Rom:// You need to be repaired first anyway little brother.

Prime.IronHide:// [╥_╥]

I chuckled to myself, earning a curious, yet suspicious, look from Lena.

“The um.. The others are arguing about who gets an oil soak next,” I said, pointing to my head.

“Your mind is unwell. You are aware of your situation, yes?” Lena remarked, giving me a raised eyebrow.

“Probably,” I agreed.

Prince Milliardo was waiting at the grand door to the throne room, looking slightly nervous. When he spotted me, he closed the distance on his own.

“Much better. You look far more respectable now. Okay, so you’re going to go in with me. Walk behind and to the left. Do not speak. At all. Kneel when I kneel and just stare at the floor, don't get up unless I say so. Seriously Prime. Don’t say a word.”

You’d think I had a history of mouthing off to authority or brazenly putting my foot in my mouth or something. I tapped my faceplate and gave him a thumbs up. He didn’t look convinced but gave me a strained and lopsided grin in return, mirroring my gesture.

“Your highness, he’s ready,” a massive red gorilla with goat horns said, opening one of the doors.

“Right. Yes. In we go, Prime.”

I followed behind as instructed. I was to Milliardo’s left, while Lena was to his right. We passed through the massive doors into the throne room. They call it a “room” but it’s more of a “hall”. You could probably play a game of baseball in it without having to worry about taking out any of the windows. To the left and right were crowds of nobles from all sorts of species. Some looked benign, others looked terrifying.

We walked up a bright red carpet, stopping about 30 meters from a set of stairs that led up to the actual throne. Upon the throne sat a man clad in jet black armor. Like Milliardo, his skin was blood red, he had long, pointed ears, and waist length white hair. One hand rested on his thigh, while the other rested on the hilt of a massive and wicked looking sword. This man was every bit the Demon Lord from head to toe. To his left were several women of various species, mostly veiled. On his right was a rather pasty looking human, that I wasn’t entirely certain wasn’t an undead.

I followed along with the Prince, as instructed, and knelt when he knelt. I stared downward as requested, waiting for the Emperor to say something. The minutes stretched and no one said anything. I was about to look up when I heard shuffling steps from the top of the staircase and the rustling of robes as someone descended.

I risked a glance and saw the undead looking guy pull out a scroll and clear his throat.

“Milliardo Peacecraft Du Fangwell,” the undead began.

I noticed the lack of title given.

“You are accused of high treason, regicide, and attempting a coup.”

I snapped my head up to look and saw a look of shock on the faces of Milliardo and Lena. Guards moved in and put spear heads to the throats of all three of us.

“What—” Milliardo tried, though stopped when prodded by the spear.

“You are responsible for the death of Princess Relena Peacecraft Du Fangwell, second daughter of his imperial majesty Emperor Neugdae Du Fangwell,” the undead continued. “You are charged with replacing the Princess with an Automata replicant, conspiring with rebel forces, and manufacturing weapons of war with the intent to overthrow the empire.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Lena shouted, though she checked herself when the spear was further pushed against Milliardo.

The undead guy put away the scroll and pulled out a wooden box. He hobbled closer and stood directly behind Lena, then opened up the box. I couldn’t see what was inside, but sickly tendrils of black and purple energy escaped from it and waved around.

“Your majesty, this precious artifact nullifies illusion magic. The truth shall be revealed!” he called out, looking back up the stairs at the Emperor.

The magic tendrils snaked around before gravitating towards Lena. I attempted a [Pause()] mentally, without saying the function out loud but it didn’t work. The gross looking energy latched onto her and began to actively suck the illusion spell right off of her. In a matter of moments, her Automata form was plain for everyone to see.

The crowd of nobles gasped and whispered, pointing fingers and saying stupid things like they knew something was up and I never trusted him, she was such a sweet girl, she didn’t deserve that.

“It’s not like that! I’m still Princess Relena! Father, I’m still me inside!” Lena tried, but her cry fell on deaf ears.

She tried standing up but went back down when the spear on Milliardo drew a bit of blood.

“What further proof could you require?” the undead guy asked, looking around at the nobles. “This other one is in reality a summoned hero that has been formatted into a devastating weapon, designed for the express purpose of regicide! His majesty declares you guilty on all charges. You are to be executed immediately and your Automata slaves will be cast into the furnace. We’ve already rounded up all his co-conspirators from the engineering academy that helped him to forge these weapons. They too will be executed; cast into the flames of judgement.”

Someone from among the guards stepped forward with what looked like a control collar and snapped it around the neck of Lena. The collar instantly started sucking the mana out of her. I grabbed the spear at my neck and yanked, pulling the guard off balance. Standing up, I spun on the spot and flung the hapless guard holding the other end into the one watching Milliardo. In a fluid movement, I shifted my left arm to blade mode and pointed it at the undead guy while shifting my right arm to cannon mode and pointing it at the Emperor.

“Take it off of her. Now,” I growled.

“See?” the pasty dude said, amused. “A weapon.”

Lena looked up at me, with pleading eyes. “Stand down Prime... Please... We’ll figure something out.”

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As I watched, the last of her mana was pulled out and her optics dimmed before she collapsed in a heap.

“It’s okay Prime... It’ll be okay, right now, you’re playing right into their narrative,” Milliardo tried to reassure me.

I lowered my arms and converted them back to hand mode. I glanced up at the Emperor but he looked completely impassive. The collar guy from before, produced another collar and put it around my neck. I could feel the mana draining from me, but my current mana reserves were a bit north of the 10K mark. In fact, the rate that it was draining me was less than the amount I was replenishing.

The thing made a ding sound and started to smoke. I pulled it off and it crumbled in my hand. I handed the remains back to the shocked and confused guard. The pasty dude also looked confused.

“Why isn’t it dropping? It should be out of power,” the undead demanded.

“I don’t understand, your excellency... These collars can absorb up to 1000 mana... it’s overloaded.”

The pasty guy’s mouth twitched at the corners and he fumbled with something under his robe, but I couldn’t see what.

“You really screwed up this time, huh Prime?” a voice called from up by the throne.

I looked up the stairs to see Elita, lounging against the Emperor’s throne, playing with his hair.

“Elita?” I asked, shocked.

Something hit me in the back and I felt several blades push their way through my armor plating and out the front. I looked down to see five long and thin claw-like blades. Pain radiated from my chest.

“Master Prime, did you really think it would all work out somehow, just because you wanted it to? You could never stand against the empire you silly little toy,” a familiar voice whispered over my shoulder.

The sound of a heart beating was getting louder and louder, deafening me and pushing all other sounds to the background. I craned my head around to see Shiro smiling at me. The heartbeat was getting slower, and more labored. Was I dieing for real this time?

“Ha ha ha!” Milliardo laughed, standing up right. “You fool! You’re nothing but a machine! A tool to be used as we see fit! Know your place!”

Lena sat up and pulled the collar off of her. “Thanks for the new body and taking care of the dragon and all that, but we really don’t need you anymore. You’re too much of a liability for the empire. With the threat gone, YOU are now the biggest threat to the empire and must be dealt with,” she said with a sneer.

I felt like I was being crushed with each thunderous crash of that heartbeat. Shiro leaned in close and whispered in Jhaix’s voice.

“We were so close. Endless war means endless profit. Plus, we were able to get these nations of monsters to destroy each other without risking a single, precious, human life. Win-wins all around. This is but a minor setback. All you’ve accomplished is to delay things a bit.”

The blades retracted and I hit the floor like a stone. The heartbeat stopped and everything went to black.

...Death event detected from primary source

...System reboot and installation of backup data

...Loading personality matrix: Prime.mainframe

...Searching for data source account [XXXXXX]

...Data source already in use

...Searching for alternative source matching required parameters

...Alternative data source found

...Alternative data source insufficient

...Searching for supplemental data source

...Supplemental data source found

...Merging data sources

...Patching backup data and installing

...Booting PRIME2

I came online to find myself in the dark. A closet? No wait, it was a casket of sorts. Everything felt strange. Where was I? I pushed against whatever was in front of me and forced open a heavy steel door. Things crashed and fell over and I stepped out to find myself in a workshop of some kind. The place was a mess. Projects lay half done, tools were left out, designs were left on the floor.

A strange metal creature was also propped up near a work table, or maybe it was a sculpture of some sort. I saw an exit and headed for it but was stopped when I saw a polished sheet of metal hanging on the wall. In the reflection, I saw a being of metal or possibly in armor. It looked a bit like a human, a knight perhaps? One eye was glowing purple while the other glowed blue. Other parts of it were glowing as well and the whole thing felt very... tacky.

I looked down at my armored hands, turning them over and examining them. I looked back up at the reflection and carefully moved one way and then the other.

The door opened and I jumped back. A metal being stepped in, looking just as surprised as I was.

“Oy, Prime! Everything okay mate? That’s you in there, right? If you’ve come online in that then things went pear shaped right quick, yeah?”

“Prime?” I asked, confused.

That didn’t sound right. It didn’t feel right. Vague and hard to grasp images entered my mind. Betrayal. Laughter. Murder.

“Prime...” I tried again. “No... that’s not right... I am a dragon, and you will address me as such. You will refer to me as Dezarus!”

Amidst the inky darkness, I heard the sound of a scuffle. There was a fight going on. Suddenly, I heard the meaty sound of metal punching through a body and scraping against bone.

“You... your highness...” came a gurgling voice.

My optics came back online, or maybe they always were and something had been blocking them? I was on my knees and slumped on the ground. There was no Elita by the throne and no Shiro behind me. Lena was still offline with that collar around her neck, and the pasty dude had a sword stabbed through him. The handle, of which, was firmly in the grip of Prince Milliardo.

“I believe you mean your majesty.” Milliardo said, through gritted teeth.

He released the sword and let the undeadish guy hit the floor. I looked up at the Emperor to find that he had slumped forward and fallen out of his throne. Healers rushed past Milliardo and up the steps, to the screams of the women that had been flanking his majesty.

One of them came running back down and took a knee in front of Milliardo as I broke the collar off of Lena.

“Your highness— I mean, your majesty.”

“My father? What did you see?”

“A corpse, your majesty. From the looks of things, he’s been dead for quite some time.”

Milliardo just nodded as if he’d been expecting that report.

“Councillor Quintess was using [Corpse Puppet] on my father for who knows how long... We may never know how long ago the Emperor was murdered. Master Artificer, take my sister somewhere safe. It would seem that I have a lot of work to attend to,” he said without looking back at me, though I could see tears trickling down his cheeks.

“Your majesty,” I replied, picking up Lena as best I could and hurrying out of the throne room.

As I looked around, some of the nobles had drawn their swords while others looked confused and scared. When the doors closed, I heard shouts and screaming as well as the clash of blades. Cyclone took Lena from me and we headed out of the castle. Not a single guard stopped us or gave us more than a passing glance, while a lot of people were suddenly getting very busy and running all over the place.

Once we were outside, Cyclone transformed into motorcycle mode and I carefully positioned Lena on my lap as we headed through the city. She would be weak, but her systems would be recovered enough to reboot soon.

We headed to the AutoForge and made our way down to the lower level. As I’d feared, the place looked like it had been ransacked. Desks were torn open and overturned, papers had been flung all over, materials had been spilled or dumped. I couldn’t find the Professor or a single student on any of the levels. I even checked the hangar area and down by the river where we saw the cave wraiths.

The only evidence of the students I’d found was a large, blue, blood splatter near one of the work stations. I had no idea who it might have belonged to though.

My chest was killing me. I felt like I was on fire. Wait. Was something on fire inside of me? I rummaged around the desks until I found the tools I was looking for and removed my chest plating. Thick, black smoke poured out of my chest cavity. Amidst my internal framework was some sort of device I didn’t recognize; the area around it charred.

I pulled it out and looked it over. It was vaguely shaped like a small arrow head with legs, though it was also charred black.

“[Inspect && Appraisal].”

Result: Cursed Idol

When activated, the Cursed Idol will trigger a psychic attack that convinces the victim that they have been betrayed and killed. Once the mind accepts death, the body follows. The Cursed Idol will then erupt in flame after the curse runs its course.

How did that vile little thing get in there? Ah. Right. The FSUs and their thorough, and intimate, cleaning job. Sigh. Apparently magic resistance didn’t extend to psychic attacks.

“Prime?” a soft voice called.

Lena had come back online, but looked dazed. I ran over to her and hugged her tightly.

“Prime? What happened?” she asked, confused, looking around at the state of the place.

“I’m so sorry Lena. Your father is dead... and your country might now be headed for civil war.”

She collapsed and just started shaking uncontrollably, putting her face in her hands. I gently stroked her hair until her shaking settled down. Instead of getting up, she curled up and rested her head against my chest and powered down. I kept stroking her hair for a while. I guessed that for an Automata, powering down was a bit like closing yourself in your room when you wanted to be alone.

I thought about what to do next. I couldn’t power up my proxies if I wanted to build my mana reserves back up to anything useful. I couldn’t use my armors for the same reason. I didn’t have the power to use GodBomber to travel, not that it was in any shape to travel anyway.

I didn’t know what would happen to the government of this country, though I had to trust that Milliardo would sort it out. In the meantime, I would do my best to keep Lena safe; especially now that her cover had been exposed to the full court. Getting out of the city might be the best bet. Then what?

I bent over and touched my faceplate to the top of her head, dimming my optics.

“I’ll keep you safe, no matter what,” I promised, slightly shaking in a way I couldn’t quite control.

Prime will be back in Book 4: Automata Superior, thanks for reading!