The Way of the Future: Age of Machines(Completed)

Who Are You?

"When I was screaming and cursing you? Is that what you mean of me 'asking'?"

Artemis mocked.

"Yes, quite like that,"

The entity replied smoothly.

"Then why, why should I follow you? Why am I burdened with responsibilities I never asked for?"

Artemis threw his first question.

"You're a human, did you have a choice when you were born?"

Artemis was silent.

"No,"

Artemis replied after a minute.

"Then that answers your question, what's the next?"

The entity seemed to be playing with Artemis' curiosity.

Artemis was not pleased with the answer nor was he laughing at the entity's obvious motive.

"No, answer me, what's the purpose of this all?"

The vague humanoid entity stopped walking and turned towards Artemis.

"To fulfill your deepest desire,"

The entity answered and they continued their walk.

Along the way, Artemis noticed that the light beneath them was shining brighter but faint nonetheless.

"What's that light at the bottom?"

Artemis decided to let his curiosity do the talking.

"That's you, or what's left of the real you that you try so hard to forget, to wall off,"

Artemis was blank. He was hit with guilt, his decision to forget his true self manifested into a waterfall of unwanted emotions. Emotions that almost drowned him.

"What's my deepest desire?"

The figure grabbed Artemis by the shoulders and they both sat on the hard beneath.

"For you to understand it, you must first learn a bit of your past,"

Artemis stared at the entity in confusion.

"So, you're just gonna reveal my past? What kind of bullshit is that?"

Artemis was angry, he thought of everything as stupid and that the entity he was talking to clearly did not know what he wanted nor did it care about what he wanted. But he was wrong.

"If I were to reveal to you the full scope of your past, you will die,"

Artemis wanted to retort, wanted to debate this ill idea, assumption, this ill theory of him dying. But the entity revealed something he wished he never saw.

Suddenly, the void in front of him disappeared and a brief scene manifested itself. It felt as if Artemis was there, and then he saw it, those few seconds of horror.