Chapter 13 - Sea of Venus(5) - Garden Of The Fallen

“Now approaching zone eight of district A level one. Please stand clear of the car doors. Thank you.”

Young tapped the boy who was leaning on him, “Hey, you good?”

“Awuh uhh… Huh?”

Young felt his hand instinctively pat the boy’s head as the boy sniffed his nose, “Are you sure you’re fine?”

“Uh... Yeah?”

A loud ding rang through the cabin and most of the people stood up. Young tilted his head towards the door, “Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“The temple.”

As they walked onto the metal walkway, the boy noticed groups of people walking up and down a flight of stairs located behind a security terminal. Young glanced at a panel, “Looks like we got our temporary identification.”

The boy stared at Young, “How did we get on the train without identification?”

Young laughed, “You can exit into a lower security zone without identification at any time but you need clearance to get back in.”

“What if someone sneaks in?”

“Eh. Never thought of that before. Sixty second scans would prevent that though. “

“Sixty second whats?”

Young smiled, “You don’t need to know right now. Let’s enjoy visiting the temple for today.”

They walked through the security terminal with their identification panels and were cleared to walk up the stairs. Young turned to the boy as they walked up, “I still haven’t caught your name yet. What is it?”

“I don’t know.”

Young thought for a little, “How about Xavier like the hero in charge of the border.”

“That guy?”

Young stared at the boy, “You know him? Maybe not then. Hm… What about Zero since your identification number is all 0s.”

“It is?”

Young pointed at one of the many numbers on the panel, “Yup, someone in the military specifically reserved this identification number specifically for you.”

“Ok.”

“You like Zero?”

“It’s fine.”

Young rolled his eyes, “Stop being so indecisive. When you got an opinion you gotta speak it.”

The boy shrugged, “I don’t really have an opinion though. A name is just a name right?”

Young sighed. Under his breath he muttered, “Lack of culture my ass. More like lack of basic brain functions.”

“What?”

“You’re Zero from now on okay?”

“Okay.”

Young and the boy were reaching the top of the stairs when Young asked, “Could it be you’re just bad at names? What’s my name.”

“Young.”

“Oh. “

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Young breathed in and under his breath muttered, “I swear I’m going to @%&@ this little &$%&. &#$%&@$%@!@$#”

At the surface there was a large open area. Behind the entrance to the subway was a large statue of a mostly naked woman peering into a jar. The boy pointed at the statue, “What’s that person doing?”

Young looked up, “That’s a statue not a per- “

“Duh. What’re they doing?”

“Opening a jar?”

Zero stared at Young, “Yeah. And?”

“It’s a statue of Pandora.”

“Yeah I at least know that much. Why is it here?”

“It’s a warning for those visiting the temple.”

“Why?”

Young tilted his head towards a gathering of people to their left, “There’s many reasons. You’ll see soon enough.”

In the large area, some people in dark robes walked around with androids following them. Zero looked at one of the robots and saw hundreds of little green dots looking back at him from the moving silent shadow of metal. Zero staggered in surprise and Young caught him, “Watch out there.”

“What is that?”

“Shh, you’ll see more at the temple.”

Zero looked to the other side of where they were walking and saw the group of people bowing to a raised stone with something on it. Zero started raising his arm to point when Young grabbed his hand, “Don’t.”

“Sorry.”

“You’re curious?”

“Yes.”

Zero was a little glum from being caught trying to point at something yet again. Young set a panel to magnify and position it in front of them.

Young pointed at the raised stone, “Their offering sacrifices to ouroboros.”

“The emp- mmmmph.”

“Stop. Ouroboros. Nothing else and nobody else.”

“But if they’re not the same then what is Ouroboros?”

Young shrugged, “I don’t have the same belief as them, so I’ll never understand.”

“Why can’t I say the facts?”

Young glared at him, “Zero, look at me. No. Look here. Does it matter if you’re right?”

Zero scoffed, “Yes? If I’m not right I’m wrong!”

“Are you?”

“Fine. Then what is so wrong about me telling them the truth.”

Young smirked, “Tell me, do you care what they do?”

“Not really.”

“So then why stop them? Are they doing anything to you?”

“No. However, couldn’t a Xeno do the same thing to us?”

Young stared at Zero, “What?”

“If one alien decided to extinguish a star. Would anyone care?”

“Obviously they would care.”

The boy pointed up to the sky, “But there’s thousands if not millions of stars in the sky and at every moment one of them flickers out. Do you care?”

Young sighed, “What are you getting at.”

“At what points should we care about what others do?”

Young shrugged, “Go ask the philosophy teacher in the academy.”

Five large marble arches with grand steps leading up to them came into view as the two approached the temple. Large landing crafts took off and landed on the empty space in front of the temple. Black hooded figures with androids of varying shapes and sizes came and went from the central arch while others walked in through the other arches.

Young pointed at the middle arch, “I got permission for us to enter the main temple. You ready?”

“Sure.”

They both started climbing the steps and took a small break at the top for Zero to rest his legs. A hooded figure walked out, “Hello. I will be your guide.”

Young waved, “Hey! How you doing Larry.”

The shadowy figure stared at Young with two glowing green dots, “What message did you have for me.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s written all over your face.”

“Is it?”

“The sensors are flashing Young. Better tell me soon.”

“Uncle wants you to call.”

“That’s it?”

“Yup.”

Larry sighed, “Could have just told me the first time.”

“Geez, loosen up.”

Zero pointed at Young, “I don’t see anything on his face though.”

Both Young and Larry burst out laughing. Larry slapped Young on the back, “Who’s this funny guy?”

“Ah! He’s the one I sent you in the message.”

“Oh! Well let’s go in.”

The three of them walked into the darkness of the arch.

“Hey Larry! Can you get the hose over here?”

Larry stared at the old man who was digging in the dirt of a massive garden with his bare hands. A rope like appendage shot out of the front of the cloak and grabbed the hose off the ground. Larry sighed as he dropped the hose into the old man’s hands, “You should really use less energy”

“Thanks. I see two unfamiliar faces!”

“We have visitors. How are the others?”

The old man smiled, “Oh, they are as usual. Most of them are unusually busy in these times though.”

Larry turned around, “This is the main component of the temple.”

The three of them finally walked out into the open from the corridor to reveal a massive room with trees and plants sprouting in various places. Young smiled, “Can you explain to Zero what this place is for?”

Larry nodded, “As you know, the temples are in charge of upholding order.”

Zero nodded as he looked around in wonder at the various kinds of fruits trees and plants in the garden. Larry continued, “Military officials retire to the temples to become enforcers. The gardens produce extremely pure ether for them to work.”

“Purity of ether?”

Larry realized, “Ah! Most of these officials are synthetics with their remaining biological organs transplanted into their new bodies.”

“Synths?”

“When someone takes too much impure ether, it corrupts their sentience and slowly turns them into a madman. That’s why these enforcers only consume the purest of psychic energy.”

“But aren’t they already partially corrupted from ether in the past?”

Larry nodded, “On Earth, there is a facility where large quantities of pure ether are passed through psychics to clean out their ether.”

“Why can’t they do it?”

The old man smiled at Zero, “Most of us don’t want to give up.”

“Give what up?”

The old man tapped the back of his neck, “Control.”