Emperioum Origins, Trivean's Story

The Nine

Trivean's POV

I was in a dark room, looking around, seeing the eerie red glow of Westbork, as if he was the holograms.

"Hello Trivean," said Westbork.

"Doctor Westbork," I said, addressing him. "So... I'm dead."

"Not yet," said Westbork. "You're dying, but you're not dead yet."

"Well, I'm going to be, if I'm talking to ghosts then..." I said.

"No, you see, there is still hope for you. But please, allow a dead man a few words. I did a lot of bad things in my life... A few to you as well that I deeply regret," said Westbork. "I will start at the beginning. When I first arrived on your planet, yes, I was working on a translator... But I was looking for someone gifted in machines like me, someone violent, someone that can handle what I made. I got lucky when you wandered in. Well, I thought lucky, but it was meant to happen."

"W-What?"

"Apparently, there's greater forces at work here, much greater. Which is another thing I need to repent for. When you were twenty you were getting dreams where you talked to a man named Geb. At first, I thought it was just a weird series of dreams, until he told you some secrets of mine. I... I started to wipe your memory of him, I was scared of you finding out about me."

"You did what?"

"I was wrong, I am sorry. He's here right now if you..." Two large blue eyes opened suddenly behind Westbork, looking at us.

"N-Nope, no, I'm good," I said. "But, what secret?"

"That... That I was working with the king to analyze your Lupvin techniques to make an army of robots," said Westbork.

"WHAT?!" I exclaimed. "You were just using me to invade my planet?"

"NO! No. I'd never do that to you. No, the king is worried about instability and the possibility of a coup in the kingdom. He wants to keep the kingdom together."

"I... I..."

"That's what got corrupted in my final message to you. To tell you of that. And to warn you of CLAW. I was going to go back for two reasons, to end this nightmare I have hid for so long, to bring justice to all of those that were killed by the murderous concoction made by some immortality seeking intern made. And to make the cure to cure myself."

"Cure?"

"Yes, I figured out the chemical formula to cure myself. But it needed to be mixed with a sample of the original gas."

"But..."

"Spark is already working on it with the AI, currently in their new bodies."

"So, it worked?"

"Yes. I've been watching over you on your journey."

"So, the intern, the one that released the gas... They became CLAW, right?"

"Yes, she mapped her mind into a neural network and uploaded herself to online systems. I was able to try and contain her from getting out... You saw what happened."

"I..." Three loud rings from a bell rang out and Westbork's eyes closed with a heavy sigh, then refocused on me.

"Triv, I know that you are a good person, and you made me a good person in the end. You don't abandon things or people unless you have to, you look for the good in people, and you brought it out in me. I know you can be... evil, but you hold yourself back enough to not allow for it to take you over. But be warned, the evil in you is like a pet, it needs to be let out and walked every so often. You can't be purely good; you need to balance it. I leave the Nine in your care, let them help you."