Mortality

Chapter 16: Revolution

Latanya smiles. "Of course, forgive me."

"We should be arriving in Paradise within the hour, so you should take this time to prepare yourselves. And Tyrell, you are more than welcome to see Edith and CLive off and await their return at the harbor. I hope you do not mind, but there will be a heavy traffic of automated cargo ships coming to and from the Citadel due to the war. I'm sure it will cause no trouble though," she says.

Cree nods slowly. "Yeah... no problem," he mutters and lays back, glancing over at the silver box stacked with the others that contains the mini-fridge bomb.

"No problem at all..."

By the time they arrive in Paradise, some thunder can be heard rumbling from the direction of Unity City, and the wind threatens to pick up.

Latanya gets out then opens the rear doors first to let Cree out. He gives her a full glance of suspicion before stepping off to the side of the truck. She goes around and helps out Edith next, who gives her a subtle determined nod that she returns.

Finally, she offers her hand to help CLive down from the side door. He glares at her and takes her hand. She smiles and helps him step down, blocked from Edith and Cree's view by the truck.

CLive gets out, but she doesn't let go of his hand and he frowns at her. "What do you want?" he asks and takes a deep breath, the pain in his EPC worsening the closer he gets to the Citadel.

Latanya glances around and sighs. "You hold resentment for Alain. I cannot blame you for this, considering past events he caused in your life. But I need to be sure you understand his reason for his actions," she says quietly.

"I understand plenty. He's the only SRL who can actually be called a 'machine' without it being an offensive racial slur. He doesn't care about anything but himself and his impossible goal of 'progressing humanity forward'," CLive says.

Latanya looks at him curiously. "What makes you think his goal is impossible?" she asks. He huffs and glares at her.

"His idea of a 'perfect world' is having everybody and everything live forever, never fatigue, and never worry about emotions causing problems. He doesn't want to make a better humanity, he wants to replace humans with what he believes are synthetic gods. He thinks he's immortal, but he's not. That's why his goal can't be achieved, because if, in the end, he gets his way; humanity won't be progressed forward, they will be gone," he explains.

"I see why you believe that, but that is not what Alain is after. His 'perfect world' is a united one. A world free of its divide. I hope you may come to realize that one day and learn to set aside your bitterness for your brother. Because as much as you hate him now, I know that you still call him 'brother' because you wanted him to be that for you. You saw him as a hero before everything became clear. No matter how things turned out in the end, from the very beginning of your lives, he was always right there with you. You were created, born into cruelty. But of all the people who hurt you, Alain was the one who never did. Because of this, you felt safe with him. Your optimism made him seem like family to you."

CLive looks down and his shoulders tense. "How... how would you know? You don't know anything about me."

Latanya nods. "Correct. I do not know you. Not personally, anyway. But I do know Alain. He tells me stories from before he was Sovereign. I noticed that every one of them had one thing in common. Do you know what?" she asks.

He says nothing and keeps his eyes on the ground. She smiles and places her free hand on his shoulder while the other still holds his. "They all involve you, CLive. For better or worse," she says. He grumbles and looks at her again with narrowed eyes.