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A View from Above


WhereFMF

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PART 1

 

A blast of air propels me upwards.

I catch the briefest glimpse of my comrades below. One is melting into the ground as rapidly as I am being thrown skywards. One is imprisoned in a cage of electricity. Three appear to be completely overwhelmed and on the verge, be it by metal, sonics, or black holes.

Then I smash through the stone ceiling of the chamber, and the glimpse ends.

The respite I am offered is as brief as the previous, for my out of control powers throw me through another ceiling. And another. And yet another. I count six ceilings in all before I burst out of the mountain and continue to soar skyward. Rahi of the air scatter as I surge past them.

My shell is badly damaged, but I am still functional—for, not being alive, I cannot truly die. But I am defeated.

So this is how defeat feels.

I dwell on that fact for a full thirty minutes before I think to do something that might slow my ascent. I cannot control the power spewing from my shields. But with some effort, I manipulate my body so that I am facing upwards instead of downwards. Of course, propels me sideways for a time, but this is insignificant in the face of self-preservation.

By the time I have slowed myself to a stop (with the exception of my sideways movement), there is too little air around to propel me.

My first thought is to make an effort to go back and take my revenge on those "heroes". But this is impossible. In my damaged state, I doubt I would survive the fall.

It would appear that this is my fate. To live out my days, aimlessly orbiting...where am I, exactly?

I am entirely mechanical, and devoid of emotion, but somehow I hear a small voice in my head whisper to me two words. Aqua Magna.

 

Until now, I have had one goal, freedom for our leaders. But what is the use of carrying on that goal now? Thus, my next thought is to observe. To make my own existence.

Below me, there is mostly water as far as the eye can see. Slowly drifting away from me is the island that has been my life until this moment. These things I already knew.

But look in the distance, many thousands of miles south of that island. There is another, shaped like a crescent.

Is this a stroke of good luck? Perhaps one day my orbit will take me near one of these two, and I can begin my descent. But I am safe up here.


PART 2

Approximately 24 hours later, a small voice comes into my head. "Comrade, can you hear me?" It is a good voice to hear.

"Yes," I respond simply.

"Where are you?" asks our team's leader.

"I am in orbit around this planet. I believe it is called Aqua Magna."

"Explain where you received this knowledge."

"A voice in...my head...told me." I realize the lunacy of the words before they leave my mouth. "I cannot return."

"Alive but clearly defective," it says. "Brother of Plasma, can you hear me?"

If there is a response to the query, it is not broadcast to me.

"So we live," our leader says at last. "One imprisoned in electricity, one in solid stone, and one in space."

"What of the others?" I ask. But I know the answer to this, and my two teammates' silence is reflective.

"Can either of you escape?"

The third voice joins the conversation at last. "I am trapped approximately two hundred feet underground, encased in plasma that has not yet fully cooled. My shell is in great danger of rupture. Our leader is trapped by electricity on all sides and by stone above and below. He cannot move without damaging himself to the point of disintegration."

"But if we can somehow free ourselves, we will continue our mission. Our adversaries will feel the wrath of the swarms once more."

"I no longer desire to free the swarms." I enjoy being unpredictable, but that statement surprises even me.

Surprise? Am I, a perfect creation of protodermis and logic, developing emotion?

Memories of a past life, in which I spent my days working with others like me in the jungles, creep slowly into my mind. In a matter of minutes, I live out that whole life, which ends when I fall into a pool of silver liquid. After that comes eons of dreams, and finally, the events of only a week ago.

Once I was a villager. Once I was valued. But now I am floating aimlessly in space, in this hideous body, condemned as a villain by all those below.

My reminiscence is not cut off abruptly, but severed gently, when my former leader interjects. "Clearly, you are defective beyond repair. Out."

The islands have fallen from view. I turn to see what is ahead.


PART 3

Almost a year passed. I kept track of the days with my brain's time functions, for although I had regained emotion I was still a soul in the shell of a computer.

The voice in my head came back only twice more. Aqua Magna was not a planet, but a moon, a moon with its surface covered in water. It shared this status with Bota Magna, a jungle moon. They orbited a planet known as Bara Magna, a vast desert.

One orbit of Aqua Magna required a week. Bara Magna I saw every orbit, but Bota Magna was usually hidden from my view. I dubbed the days when I saw it "Bota Days". They were my little entertainment.

I saw many things from up there.

I saw a volcanic eruption on the southern island, the one shaped like a crescent. It spewed ash and soot far up into the atmosphere, though not nearly to my level. Perhaps some great tragedy was caused by that volcano, or perhaps one was averted. I cannot say.

I saw that there were faint outlines below the surface of the great ocean, which formed a mechanoid shape with two arms, two legs, and a head right below the island where I had started my journey.

I saw the stars, the great expanse of the universe, and wondered if there was other life with whom I might make contact. And if so, could they repair me? Accept me? Would they be friendly at all?

Ten months in, I received a transmission from my former leader: "The heroes who defeated us have freed the swarms, and the swarms have freed me. Together, they and I conquer the island at last."

When I next saw the two islands, the northern island was barren. I received no further transmissions from my teammates.

One week later, I witnessed a spectacular sight. The southern island quivered, and sank beneath the waves down to some unknown fate. But that would never have prepared me for what happened about a week later. I thank the stars that I was on the correct side of the planet that day.

PART 4

Powerful waves thrash across the moon of Aqua Magna. A vast mechanical arm lifts itself from the water. Then another. Two legs bend their knees and draw their feet closer to the body of the robot. This makes creaking noises so loud that I could hear them from my position.

The robot's arms lift its torso and head from the water, shattering the northern island and my former comrades into pieces. Finally, it stands. Its head extends beyond the atmosphere. It is an awe-inspiring sight to behold, and even more so in that I am the only one to behold it.

But then—a more unusual sight. The robot arches its back, fists held in front of it, and ejects a tiny object from from an opening on its chest.

The robot raises its hands and lifts off from the planet. It clips the object as it flies, sending it hurtling toward me.

If I do not catch it, it will fall to the surface of Aqua Magna and I will never know what it was. So I put my limbs to work—I have scarcely moved in all these months, and it is rather difficult. The force from catching it sends me tumbling through space.

I examine it. It is a mask, much like the ones I used to wear, except golden.

Suddenly, the mask speaks to me in the same voice that told me the planets' names:

Bara Magna.

"Do you wish to go there?" I ask it.

Bara Magna, it repeats.

Destiny.

Destiny. That was an important word in my past life. I thought I had fulfilled it when I transformed into a Bohrok, but my subsequent transformation back has left me...empty. Unfulfilled.

Is this mask's destiny on Bara Magna? If so, it is my duty—another important work—to bring it there.

I muster all my strength, and with a grunt (soundless in space) I hurl the mask toward the desert planet. It glows bright as a comet until it falls out of sight, to crash on the planet for a fate unknown.

It sends me one last thought, which echoes in the emptiness: I will return.

About a month later, Aqua Magna's orbit is disturbed, and my orbit with it. I fall to the waters below, knowing somehow that this is meant to be.

Once I was a villain. Once I existed only to destroy. But know I have redeemed myself, and done something great.

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