Primordial Conquest

Chapter 22: For the future.

Arbus exited the base's med bay as he sighed in relief.

"Finally."

He had been immediately brought here after the incident in the training room.

Thanks to his regeneration, all his injuries had already disappeared seconds after the attack. He couldn't tell anyone about it, so he was forced to obey the medic's advice and stay overnight for checkups.

As expected, Alexander was already waiting for him just outside the room, leaning against the wall with a bored expression etched on his face.

Arbus studied him for several moments. He chuckled slightly as he went over. "Sorry to keep you waiting. The medics still had some tests to run. They were afraid that the bot might have damaged my internal organs. It didn't, so I guess I was lucky."

Alexander immediately turned to Arbus with his signature smile on his face.

"Kept me waiting?, hardly. I was just walking around doing nothing, like usual. I was most definitely not waiting for you at all."

"But now that you're here, I am glad to see that you're alright." He said with a small laugh. "That was a rough match yesterday, huh? Even worse than mine I think." Alexander continued as they headed toward the shooting range.

"I'm just glad those bots modeled after Tarokians didn't manage to catch me. I'd be in a far worse shape than you if they did."

He winced slightly. "I suppose I should thank Instructor Kate for not letting me experience the consequences of my own decisions."

Arbus nodded.

"Yeah, you probably should. But at least you managed to beat one of them, that's quite an achievement in my opinion. That's one more than me."

Alexander's brow raised slightly.

"Oh? Were you a sheltered child or something? That's a lot different from what I was imagining. If that's the case, I suppose you didn't get into many fights."

Arbus gave a small smile. "Oh no, don't misunderstand. I did get into fights, quite a lot actually. The problem is I didn't win any of them" he said as the shooting range doors slid open.

They immediately noticed that they weren't the only trainees present.

Rin, Jet, and a few other Blue Mornans were gathered around a few spots already. Arbus could feel Rin's cold gaze on him the moment he walked in.

Alexander chuckled slightly before he gestured for the door.

"Maybe we should come back another time."

Arbus didn't respond.

Instead, he grabbed a portable gun from the row of weapons and strode toward the nearest available station.

"....I guess not," Alexander muttered as he followed closely behind.

They settled into adjacent stations, doing their best to ignore the stares from the other trainees.

The next half an hour passed in relative silence.

Alexander managed to hit his moving targets with almost perfect accuracy, which wasn't surprising to Arbus given his performance during the simulated combat sessions.

He had even managed to tag a Tarokian bot yesterday.

Arbus on the other hand, struggled quite a lot.

He had always thought that he would be good with guns, since he was quite the proficient archer. Unfortunately, he couldn't have been more wrong.

For some reason, he couldn't get used to the feeling of shooting a gun. It always felt off to him, which always caused his aim to be off. It wasn't the same feeling he got whenever he pulled back the string of his bow when hunting.

That was why he usually focused more on close-range weapons now.

Arbus studied his gun with an annoyed expression. In the last thirty minutes, he had only managed to hit 40 out of 100 targets accurately, despite a half of them being stationary.

"Tsk, how annoying."

"Who needs guns anyway? Swords are so much better."

"Hmm, if you say so" Alexander replied with an amused smirk as he shot his last target.

He checked the display device for their scores.

He had managed to hit 130 out of his 150 targets, all of them moving.

Arbus scoffed. "Tsk, show-off."

Bang!

The sudden sound made them glance over at Rin. They immediately noticed that her Art blaster had been set to stage two.

Bang! Bang!

"Oh wow, she's really good" Alexander muttered in amazement as he watched her targets moving at top speed. According to the scoreboard, she hadn't missed a single shot.

After she was finally done, she sighed before placing the blaster back on its rack in the long metal table and walking out of the room without a glance in their direction.

Jet watched her leave with an unreadable expression. Then, he turned to the two of them as he walked over with a smile.

"Arbus, I'm glad to see you're all better after that terrible accident yesterday."

Arbus turned away from him as he prepared for another round. "I'm sure you are."

"No really, I am. I wouldn't want you dying from something like that. No, that would have been too easy" Jet said as his smile faded. He turned away from them as he walked out of the room. The Blue Mornans followed behind him like shortly after.

"That was..... interesting. He really is a scary guy" Alexander murmured once they were alone.

"Too easy? What do you think he meant by that?"

Arbus shrugged dismissively.

"Who knows. He probably thinks he can torture me to death or something. Well, that's quite unfortunate for him."

"....i suppose it is. Seems like you're quite the hard guy to crack."

Arbus smiled. "You have no idea."

_______________________________

"Damn that Kate brat! She has no way of proving I did anything yet she still sent me here!" The red mornan instructor from the simulation room fumed as she organized the equipment in the storage room. She had been assigned this task for the next two months by Kate, as punishment for improper maintenance of the base's systems. That was the excuse she had given Kate for the incident that took place.

She sighed in frustration as she stood up to leave. She was finally done for the day.

Suddenly, the door slid open with a soft hiss, startling her. She wasn't expecting anyone else to come here by this time.

"Sorry for disturbing you, do suddenly. it's just me" Alexander said with a smile as he walked into the room.

The red Mornans eyes narrowed as she got over her initial shock.

"You're not supposed to be here trainee"

Alex scratched the back of his head.

"Sorry, instructor, it seems like I got lost."

She frowned as she glanced past him to the secure door that required an administrative staffs pass key. "How did you get in?"

He shrugged.

"You must have left the door open or something."

"But since I'm here, I'd like it if we could have a little chat"

The instructor suddenly felt a sense of unease for some reason.

"Get out now, before I report this incident to the head instructors. That's a one-way ticket to failing this training, do you understand?"

Alexander's smile didn't waver as his gaze swept across the room. This was the first section of the base's storage that primarily contained weapons and ammunition.

""I just want to ask you a question about yesterday's incident in the simulation chamber" he said, his voice cold. "Was it really an accident?"

The instructor's expression hardened instantly as she gritted her teeth. "Excuse me? How dare you? What exactly are you insinuating?" Her voice rose higher with each question. "That's the last straw, trainee. Being a White Mornan doesn't give you the right to talk down to me or ask questions like that."

She moved toward Alexander, as she attempted to push past him to call for backup.

"I'm reporting you to the head instructors."

"Let me ask again."

Alexander suddenly muttered as his smile vanished.

His eyes darkened as his irises shifted to solid black, like an endless void of nothingness.

The instructor's mouth opened wide as she tried to scream, but the sound died in her throat. Her expression went blank, as her own eyes took on an unnatural dark glow, similar to his own.

"𝕎𝕒𝕤 𝕚𝕥 𝕒𝕟 𝕒𝕔𝕔𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕟𝕥?"

"...No, it was not," she answered in a monotone voice, all her resistance gone.

Alexander fell silent as he ran his hand through his raven-dark hair, contemplating his next question.

"𝕎𝕙𝕠 𝕞𝕒𝕕𝕖 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕕𝕠 𝕚𝕥? 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕨𝕙𝕪 𝕕𝕚𝕕 𝕪𝕠𝕦, 𝕒𝕟 𝕚𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕣𝕦𝕔𝕥𝕠𝕣 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕒𝕕𝕞𝕚𝕟𝕚𝕤𝕥𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕧𝕖 𝕤𝕥𝕒𝕗𝕗 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℝ𝕖𝕟𝕖𝕘𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕤, 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕡𝕝𝕪?" He asked. Each word he spoke in this state sounded unnatural.

"Jet" she replied automatically. "He put me up to this. His family owns the solar system where my family lives. He promised to reward them for my cooperation."

Alexander's expression darkened.

"𝕚𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕒𝕝𝕝 𝕚𝕥 𝕥𝕠𝕠𝕜 𝕥𝕠 𝕞𝕒𝕜𝕖 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕓𝕖𝕥𝕣𝕒𝕪 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℝ𝕖𝕟𝕖𝕘𝕒𝕕𝕖𝕤 𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕒𝕝𝕤 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕒𝕥𝕥𝕒𝕔𝕜 𝕒 𝕥𝕣𝕒𝕚𝕟𝕖𝕖 𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕔𝕒𝕣𝕖?"

She shook her head slowly.

"No, I did it because I wanted to as well. That trainee is an abomination, a disgrace to the Renegades. I saw it as a service" she continued in the same empty voice. "I wanted to get rid of the Reincarnator spawn. For the future of the Renegades. I didn't actually think he would survive the attack."

Alexander nodded slowly, a flicker of disgust crossing his features. "𝕀 𝕤𝕖𝕖."

His eyes narrowed as he returned his gaze to her. "𝕐𝕠𝕦 𝕨𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕗𝕠𝕣𝕘𝕖𝕥 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕤𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕒𝕟𝕪 𝕞𝕖𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕪 𝕠𝕗 𝕤𝕖𝕖𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕞𝕖 𝕥𝕠𝕕𝕒𝕪."

"𝕀𝕟 𝕠𝕟𝕖 𝕨𝕖𝕖𝕜, 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕨𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕚𝕘𝕟 𝕗𝕣𝕠𝕞 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕡𝕠𝕤𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟. 𝔸 𝕞𝕠𝕟𝕥𝕙 𝕒𝕗𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥, 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕨𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕚𝕥 𝕒 𝕔𝕣𝕚𝕞𝕖 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕖𝕟𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕠𝕨𝕟 𝕒𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕤𝕥."

"𝔸𝕞 𝕚 𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕣𝕤𝕥𝕠𝕠𝕕?"

"Perfectly" the instructor replied simply.

Alexander's eyes returned to normal as he turned away from her and slipped out of the storage room.