Once in a while, I would’ve recalled that same nightmare. The one where I wandered around the dense fog that covered the streets of my neighborhood, hearing the gunshots, screams, and pleas of my neighbors before getting silenced.

But this time I’ve been faced with a new one. In this new nightmare, Ori is getting hurt. And when I try to do something about it, I’m stopped by an invisible wall. All I can do is yell and bang against this wall helplessly as Ori dies. From both nightmares there was one feeling that stayed consistent: weakness.

“GAHHHHHHHH!” I sprung awake in a cold sweat.

“AHHHHHHHHH!” and right next to me, was Ori in a seat next to the bed I was in. “What the hell is wrong with you?! You scared me half to death!”

I looked around the room and realized that I was back at Mr. Terrance’s place. I checked my body and I was bandaged from my stomach to my left arm. The arm that I used in my final punch against the warhammer CT. Just looking at it made the reality of the events that happened in zone two sink in for me. I really fought leaders of a gang. I really went up against a CT. And…I FINALLY LEARNED HOW TO CONTROL MY STEM SYSTEM!

“Ori! I can use my stem system!” I reached out and gave Ori a big hug.

“Y-yeah…you sure can…” At first she hesitated, but then returned the hug.

After that, she filled me in on the details of the ending of zone two’s coup d'etat over breakfast. After I got knocked out, Mr. Terrance came with Ms. Olivia to take care of the other two CTs and tie up all the loose ends. Lucien Shaw was made the new governor and went right to work. Flash forward a week later and here we are.

“Although, I’m a bit worried.” Ori said as she put the eggs and bacon she made on my plate. And soon as she did, I began tearing through it like a wild animal. I feel like I haven’t eaten in ages! Usually I’m the one that cooks, but she’s doing it today since I’m still pretty injured. “It just feels like instead of changing the game, all that Terrance and Olivia accomplished was shuffling the deck.”

“How so?” I said as I scraped all remains of my first serving in my mouth and motioned for more.

“It’s probably nothing. Besides, even if I did have any issues with it, as of now we’re just footsoldiers. I wouldn’t be able to object to orders that came from top brass. Not yet, at least.” Ori muttered.

I brushed off her comment since it seemed like she was talking to herself for most of it. We then finished our food, put on our uniforms, and left the house to go to Zone One’s CT Academy. As Ori and I walked to school, we got a lot of stares and whispers from people passing by. The problem was that I felt like we were getting more attention than usual. When I asked Ori, it was as if she forgot to tell me something.

“Oh yeah. Word traveled fast about what happened in zone two. The discourse around the entire topic is confusion on why a Haustorian would put their life on the line like that. But confusion isn’t hatred, so this is a step in the right direction.”

That’s just like Ori to be thinking about how everything plays into our ultimate goal.

Once we got to the academy and took our seats in the classroom, Instructor Matthews came in and began going over usual rules and protocols for CTs.

“And by the way trainees Arno and Ori, we do not need vigilantes chasing their own sense of justice in the BCT, so no more of the nonsense you pulled last week. Do I make myself clear?”

“Y-yes sir!” I sprung out of my seat to salute him and sat down just as quickly.

“Got it…” Ori was writing notes in her notebook as she responded.

Other than that, he began to go over a new concept in class: The four disasters.

The four disasters are the leaders of the most infamous terrorist organizations in the country.

“The destruction of infrastructure, the sewing of chaos, all the way to overwhelming vigilante justice. These groups are from the darkest corners of society.” Instructor Matthews stated.

The first one of the horsemen he mentioned was of the Samukami terrorist group. Their leader is Goro Samukami. They are a clan from the country of Acupos that got banished from the archipelago for inhumane experiments against other people. When they got banished, they made their way to Holia and quickly rose in the criminal underworld for their ability to make advanced robots with minimal resources.

“I remember fighting one of those robots outside of The Steamed Ham.” I whispered to Ori.

“We gotta go back sometime. The food was amazing.” Ori began to salivate just daydreaming about the restaurant.

The second one was the group Animus. Their leader is a man that goes by Deer. He wears a deer helmet and a suit at all times. His group claims that the BCT is too cruel and brutal with their punishments, so they take it upon themselves to bring about their own form of justice.

The third horsemen is Sonata of the terrorist group Vicnine. They are a religious terrorist group that interpret Taramos as a war god that has ascended to become the being Vicnine. In their eyes, Vicnine destroys everything in their path. In turn, they follow in his footsteps and cause mayhem wherever they can.

“The fourth and last is Albion ‘The Fallen One’ Walker. Former mentor of the Terror Crusher.

“MR. TERRANCE?!” I sprung out of my seat.

“Trainee Arno, if you don’t take your seat I’ll gladly take your ass to the morgue.” the instructor said.

“Sorry!” I sat right back down as our Instructor continued.

“He does not have any gang or force following him. He’s so strong, the BCT has decided to issue him as a disaster. If you come across this man and you do not have a title: run. Every CT that has crossed him was killed within minutes.”

I can’t believe that Mr. Terrance had a teacher that became a terrorist. It must put a lot of pressure on him everyday to be a better person than his master was.

“I’m telling you guys because today you’ll be requesting stematas and as soon as you get one, you’ll be responsible for any terrorist activity if there are no CTs in the area within ten minutes. I got a request form here for you guys to fill out today and when you do, simply hand it back to me. The process goes as follows: You give a description on what you want your stemata to do, and we’ll try to give you something that is the closest to that. In terms of stematas…” The instructor went on to describe the three stemata types and how they came to be.

The first of the three were external stematas. These were the first to be created when Holia discovered stem crystals. They usually come in the form of weapons, clothing, or armor. I guess that stemata that Don Matteo had could be considered external. The good thing about having an external stemata is that on average, they’re more powerful than the other two since it requires little alteration of the stem crystal. The con of having one is that they’re the easiest to have stolen.

The second types are the internal stematas, which were founded by the people of Triana. These are stematas that require the user to have surgery to install them. Stem crystals are put into stematas in various ways like grinding them or heating them into a liquid, and internal stematas usually have the most diverse ways of altering the stem crystals. As opposed to external stematas that could easily be stolen, internal stematas are harder to steal since they’re attached or installed into the user in some way. Ms. Olivia had an internal stemata now that I think about it.

And finally, there are automaton stematas. These types were founded by the people of Acupos and are the rarest. They are stematas that are put in inanimate dolls that look identical to any normal person. Once they’re put in, they walk, talk and act like humans, but have enhanced combat abilities.

“Woah. Maybe I’m an automaton stemata!” My eyes widened in horror at the thought.

“Acupos has been trying to perfect that type of stemata. They only release two a year. The thought of them spending those types of resources on a foreigner is unthinkable.” Instructor Matthews said as he continued.

“Now in terms of selecting your stematas, only the cream of the crop top CTs ever get stematas tailored to them. In fact, the same stematas have been passed around since the discovery of the stem system. So in conclusion, due to the finite amount of stematas, you may not get exactly what you want. Hell, based on what the BCT thinks you’d be best at, you may just get something entirely different.” Instructor Matthews explained while he handed each of us our sheets.