Chapter 8: New data
▪︎ A force to be equal to change in momentum per change in time ▪︎
Inside a different room, Zita is lying on a floating bed with her left shoulder bandaged.
Various machines around her, the machines are all just simple ones that read her heat rate and breathing.
The room was empty and dark, as she was placed there after the surgery.
Outside in the hallway, Devlin was arguing with Felix.
"If you knew she's different, why would you take the risk and leave her alone like that!?" Devlin yelled, spreading his arm out and glaring at Felix.
Felix, who had his headset on, spoke through gritted teeth, "It's already happened. It won't happen again. There's no point for you to keep arguing."
However, his words didn't stop Devlin as he kept going on and on about his mistakes.
"Just shut up already!" Felix snapped, "Don't you think I already know all those?!"
"Good! Then feel the guilt!" Devlin left the laboratory, taking the stairs to go to the surface.
The path up was long, causing Devlin to take a break every so often. He sat on the steps, catching his breath as he stared at the grey wall.
A thought came to mind when it became clear from anger, 'Why was I so aggregated?'
He took a deep breath and rubbed the side of his head, and then he heard his stomach rumbling.
"I hadn't eaten anything?" He didn't know when was the last time young Devlin ate before he took over this body, mumbling, "Right, after getting chased by the monster. They brought me in and gave me some things to eat.."
He rubbed his stomach, feeling the hunger coming on now.
"I'm sighing way too much in this life." He joked to himself, "Maybe it would've been better not to come back. What do I do now? Zero might not be in Blizwall. Should I go there?"
He sat up straight, stretching his arms.
"Maybe I can somehow get my memories back if I go there? Since I've basically spent half my life there.. or should I forget it like I've told myself."
He held out his arm and looked at his small hands, an image overlapped with it. The hands he had looked at for so long.
A hand covered with scars and bits of metal around the right hand, and his left he had a glove on.
Devlin took out the glove the soldier lend him, "Maybe I should go back Cerevauz."
His grip on the glove tightened, "First thing, get a system.."
He slowly stood up and slowly went back down.
When Devlin reached the laboratory, he went to find Felix. He found him in the recovery room where Zita was staying, sitting on a chair next to her bed. Devlin decided not to disturb him till she woke up since he looked so distressed too
Walking out, he walked back to the same machine he had already seen many times.
The artificial heart.
'If powers weren't discovered, how far would technology have come?' He thought, knowing people becoming soldiers for wars was much more common than people becoming scientists or engineers.
When genes were unlocked, many kinds of powers were slowly discovered. Leading to fights and wars. Many great intelligent figures were killed during the battle because they couldn't protect themselves.
"People grew too reliant on technology, and when those figures died. The technology era died with them." Devlin repeated what he had heard countless times from different elders, "If Felix weren't around, I would've died then and there."
He touched his heart, feeling the beat he hadn't felt in a long time. Before it was always, clink clink clink.
Devlin sighed, "Who knew? Maybe we could've gone further in space, too?" He said to himself, "What a pity."
His voice grew deeper towards the end, causing himself to become alert. Through the metal reflection, he saw one of his eye glowing red
"Speaking to yourself? Devlin?" His mouth moved on his own, causing him to feel a chill down his spine.
"W-who are you?" This time, he could hear his own voice.
The other voice laughed deeply, "I've always been everywhere. It's just you were too busy to notice. I-." Before it could finish, Devlin quickly ran away into the recovery room.
"Devlin," Felix called, seeing him catching his breath, "Are you alright?"
When Devlin looked up at Felix, the red eye was gone, "Can you install a system for me?"
He decided to ask what he originally wanted, feeling bad for bulging in this way.
Felix nodded, causing him to feel relief his request wasn't rejected.
They went into the medical room where the surgery was done.
"Do you have any chips implanted in your brain?" Felix asked as he pulled out part of the wall and swapped the air.
"Not this early on." He shook his head.
"Let's check in case, if someone is implanted with two systems," Felix said as he pulled his arm apart and swapped it at Devlin, "It can mess up with their memories when faced with a large amount of energy."
"What do I do?" Devlin asked, staring at Felix, who was swapping left and right.
"Stay still." He said and swapped up and clenched his fist.
Blue light from behind Felix shot towards Devlin.
In Felix's view, data started pouring in the system as a hologram of Devlin was created beside him.
Devlin just stood there basking in the light, not knowing what Felix was seeing.
When the scan finished, Felix zoomed in on the brain part and said, "It seems like there's already a chip implanted in you. I can just transfer a new system to you to use."
No response was given as Devlin tried to process what he heard, 'Why was there a chip already implanted in me?'
"After installing the chip, you will be able to see whatever memories were stored in it." Felix continued after seeing Devlin's silence, "Would you like that?"
Devlin gulped hearing that, "I can see, whatever I remembered?"
Felix glanced up from his system, "That's the point. It will be how you remembered those memories." He saw Devlin looking rather dazed and interrupted his thoughts, "I'm going to transfer the system, are you ready?"
Devlin gazed at Felix, nodding while closing his eyes.
Felix pressed the enter button, transferring a preset of the system into the chip in Devlin's brain.
[ Connecting … ]
Devlin heard the voice in his head, which caused him to open his eyes. Because there shouldn't be a voice.
Beside the system, there's someone standing, the person had one red eye glowing staring at him with a smirk, as it looked like a devil standing there.
[ System loading ]
This time, there wasn't any sound and just words on display.
A red panel was displayed before him, causing him to frown.
What colour your system gets is all different and still a mystery. There's rumours about how the colours represent your personality, or perhaps fate.
'It was purple in colour, and now it's just red?' He stared at the red demon silently staring at him.
[ Hello… traitor ]
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