WebNovels

Chapter 13 - Chapter 13. Reunion and seventy year time jump

"Um... excuse me, big brother Cole... big sister Celes, please move aside a little," Cyrus requested.

Before Cole and Celes could even reply, "TEEET... TEET... TEET," an alarm blared. "JGLEG," "GRRRRK," and the bridge suddenly split apart.

"Cole!" Celes shrieked, reaching a hand out to Cole as she was separated.

"Celes!" Cole roared, extending his arm toward the separated Celes.

"GRAAAAAAAK," "JGLEG," the gigantic, blackish-gray, and clearly formidable robot body ascended, its chest stopping precisely between Cole and Celes. "PSSH," white steam hissed from its chest, and a door on the robot's torso opened. The lower edge of the door immediately formed a connecting ramp for the separated bridge.

Cole and Celes peered inside, their eyes widening instantly. The robot's interior looked strangely anatomical, like the inside of a body, full of flesh and muscle fibers. In the center lay a youth who looked to be the same age as Cole and Celes, but frighteningly emaciated—like a skeleton—covered in numerous vein-like cables clinging to him.

"Um... hi, hehe," greeted the youth, who was, in fact, Cyrus.

"Cyrus? How the hell are you inside the robot like this?" Cole asked, confused.

"Please, get me out first. I'm trapped in here... please cut the veins attached to me... or do you have any food so I can let myself go? I'm starving... I haven't eaten in almost five years," Cyrus pleaded.

"Huh... five years? Hold on a second," Celes said, yanking open her backpack.

Celes pulled out a pouch of raw, pressed meat, ripped it open, and stepped into the cockpit to feed Cyrus. Cyrus ate so voraciously he nearly choked. Celes quickly grabbed a second pouch, opened it, and continued feeding Cyrus with the second serving of meat. Once he finished devouring it,

"Okay, big sister, step back now," Cyrus instructed.

Celes backed out of the cockpit. Cyrus closed his eyes, and suddenly his arm shifted to a green color and was composed of woven swamp-plant roots, resembling a swamp monster's limb. His skin turned a pale blackish-gray, and when he opened his eyes, they were red. Vine-like tendrils shot out from his hand and connected to the 'veins' wrapped around his body.

"CTAS," the cables abruptly snapped free, and Cyrus's body, which had been suspended by the connections, dropped to the ground.

"Fiuuuuh... finally free," Cyrus sighed with relief.

Cyrus then walked out and hopped onto the bridge where Cole stood. Cole immediately hugged Cyrus, who hugged him back. It turned out Cyrus was only chest-high to Cole, and even Celes, standing behind, was still taller than him. Cole then turned and hugged Celes, who was behind him.

"Um... you're still short, just like before, huh," Cole remarked.

"Yeah, you're definitely the smallest among all of us," Celes added.

"Hehe... yeah, I'm so happy to see you two again. I'm truly relieved, because all this time I thought I was the only one left alive and trapped," Cyrus said.

"Psiuuu," the cockpit sealed shut again, and the bridge slid back together. Cole and Celes looked up at the robot's face, whose eyes were no longer glowing. They then sat down on the floor together.

"Why did you end up trapped inside that giant robot, Cyrus?" Cole asked.

Cyrus paused for a moment. He drank from a water bottle Celes had given him, then lowered his head.

"Big brother Cole and big sister Celes, do you remember when we last saw each other?" Cyrus asked.

"Sorry... I don't remember, because I don't remember anything about myself at all," Cole admitted.

"I'm the same. I remember Cole and now I remember you, but everything else is still hazy," Celes added.

"Okay, I'll tell you. The last time we saw each other was when we were all running away together from the orphanage upstairs. The reason was we found out big sister Calista was going to be moved to another facility; they lied to us by saying she was going to be adopted," Cyrus explained.

Cole and Celes remained silent. They did remember who Calista and the others were, but they didn't remember the event itself.

"Before you came here... did you see the big crater out front? I can see the outside of the facility because I could monitor the area while I was inside the robot," Cyrus mentioned.

"Yeah, we both saw it. The massive crater, like a meteor impact, that's now become a forest," Cole replied.

"That crater... that was the work of the six of us, big brother," Cyrus stated.

"W... what?" Celes asked, startled.

Cole and Celes immediately fell silent again, trying to process what Cyrus had just said, but Cyrus continued his story.

"Back then, after we made that crater using our powers, we ran away separately. I was with big sister Calista, big brother Calvin was with big sister Charlotte, and big brother Cole was with big sister Celes. We promised we'd meet again someday and regroup... but I got caught even though big sister Calista managed to escape. Then I was brought here, and after that, I don't remember anything until I woke up inside the robot five years ago," Cyrus said.

"Celes and I were caught, too," Cole stated.

Cyrus immediately looked over at Cole, his face showing genuine shock—he truly didn't know what happened to the others.

"Is that true?" Cyrus asked.

"It is. I don't remember, but last night Celes and I had the same dream: we were running in the forest... and then, just as we were about to fight back, there was a singing sound that made us weak and knocked us out... after that, I don't remember anything and woke up in an empty house three years ago in a city near here," Cole answered.

"He's right, Cyrus, the same happened to me. I woke up a year and a half ago and suddenly I was in the Draugr capital... I came to the city where Cole was and met him, and then we came here together... though I had already come here once before by myself," Celes stated.

"So that's how it is... that means you don't know the fate of big sister Calista, big brother Calvin, or big sister Charlotte either," Cyrus mumbled, looking down.

"I don't know... but what's clear is that now I remember them—the six of us were raised together upstairs," Cole said.

"Right, I remember now too," Celes added.

"To be honest, I don't really remember how things were back then. I only remember through dreams... like the one just now about us learning to write together and running away. All my dreams were recorded inside the robot because I was fused with it for five years, or maybe more. I've been constantly replaying those recordings and watching the outside world so I'd know if anyone was coming, all without being able to leave or do anything," Cyrus said, glancing at the giant robot standing silently as if guarding them.

"No way it was more. You couldn't have been in that robot for more than five years. If you look at the timeline, the time from when we ran away until I woke up was about five years, because in that dream, I remember Celes and I were ten years old, and when I woke up, my student ID said I was fifteen. So if it's 2025 now and I'm eighteen, then we ran away in 2016," Cole argued.

"Huh," Cyrus immediately turned to stare at Cole with a bewildered, questioning look. Cole was taken aback by Cyrus's intense gaze.

"What is it?" Cole asked.

"Big brother, our escape happened about seventy years ago... I know because I've been watching all the footage inside that robot for the last five years, and when I checked the current year, 2025, I figured out our escape happened about seventy years ago, in 1954... exactly twenty years after the Draugr took over the world," Cyrus revealed.

"JLEGER," Cole and Celes's heads felt like they'd been struck by lightning. Their mouths dropped open, and their minds went completely blank. They turned to stare at each other, utterly lost.

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