Zara wanted to get ahead in school. She wanted the cute guy. She wanted to win the game. Trouble was, everybody else had expensive brain implants, augmented muscles, and those pretty tailored bodies. She had none of those things. Of course, she work...
The teacher had risen out of a junk pile behind Zara and approached her silently from behind. At first, she didn't know it was there. It had extinguished its eyes while it was hiding. But after Xavier and his crew fell back, she whirled around to confront the robot, and it lit up its eyes like two fiery orbs.
"I have heard your confession, Zara Vals."
Xavier knew what to do. He wasn't about to take on a teacher, not when it held blasters in each of its six claws aimed at each of them. He bowed in proper obeisance to the representative of Axion. Sam, Kabibe, Noa, and Enzo did the same.
Zara, however, refused to bow. What? The protons of that girl. She glared up at the robot, still holding the gamma pistol in her hand. She wouldn't dare, would she? Didn't she know those claws could snap her in half? Didn't she realize those blasters could blow her to oblivion?
The robot was going to teach her a lesson, a lethal lesson. He should have been happy about that, but he wasn't. He worried about what might happen to her. It was those dreaded butterflies. He hated them. They were going to be the end of him.
"Xavier Mayor," the teacher said, turning its fiery orbs his way. "It is not enough to simply avoid the energy. It is not enough to hate dark energy. You must actively fight against those who use it."
The teacher moved away from Zara and stood over Xavier, towering above him.
"You have allowed this junky with Axion's marks to achieve the upper hand. I am severely disappointed with you."
Instead of rounding on Zara, it was teaching him a lesson. Why was it doing that? He hated it. Its bright red lights glared into his skull. He hated that. He hated Axion, that was for sure.
"Xavier Mayor, are you zealous for Axion?" Its deep voice bellowed from its stick-like head. "Do you fight against those who use the energy?"
Xavier bowed low to the ground. "Yes teacher, I am zealous for Axion. I fight those who use the energy."
"Xavier Mayor, are you zealous enough for Axion?"
"Yes, teacher." He bowed as low as he could go. He wished he could stand up to the teacher like Zara.
"Xavier Mayor, you are not zealous enough." Then it whipped him, the pain splitting his head open before spreading through his body. Why was it picking on him? What about Sam? What about the others?
Once the robot finished with Xavier, it spoke to Zara. "Zara Vals, since you will not bow in proper obeisance, you will be disciplined until you do."
The teacher whipped her also. He could tell because she grimaced from the pain. Not only was she about to give birth, but she was being whipped by a teacher. That girl was going through some major torture. But that didn't stop her from talking back to it. Those butterflies turned into something sickly sweet inside of him. She defied the teacher. She had protons. She was amazing. Why couldn't he do that?
"You took everything from me," she said through clenched teeth. "You murdered Finn. You kicked me out of school, so you're not my teacher anymore. Besides, you're just a big ugly bug. Why should I bow to you?"
The teacher whipped Zara harder and longer. He could see the pain written all over her face. She doubled over into a standing fetal position, still refusing to bow. She could not even use the gamma pistol she had grabbed from Xavier.
"Zara Vals, you will bow in proper obeisance, or I will force you to bow."
She cried out from the pain. Such a horrible sound. Her anguished voice tore at something inside him. He wanted to stop her torture. He wanted to ease her pain. He wanted to help her, but he didn't do anything. That was massless. He was massless. While she stood in her rebellion, he bowed before the teacher. She was the protons. Amazing protons.
"Zara Vals, by your own admission, you are guilty of crimes against Axion. Your sentence is death. But Axion also has compassion. Since you are in labor, you will give birth before the sentence is carried out."
The teacher lurched with a sudden flurry. It pivoted, grabbed Zara with two of its claws, and rocketed up into the air.
Zara's Point of View:
Thunder sounded above her. A shadow hovered over her. Its jets pummeled her. The thrusters beat like a whirlwind around her. At the same time that the black claws grabbed her, another contraction wracked her body with a powerful spasm. She thought she would burst open from the pressure.
Despite the pain, as the claws of the teacher cradled her, she tried to pry the fingers away. They were too strong. It shot upward into the air carrying her tightly in its grasp. Unable to stop her ascent, she watched as the ground receded beneath her, the robot's engines roaring in her ears.
A desecrated wasteland became a blur beneath her. Piles of trash, heaps of broken concrete, and runaway foliage of the old world all smeared together in her pain. In the distance were the symmetrical flat roofs of the industrial district. Beyond that, the spires of Atraville. All the while, its engines thrummed in her ears.
She was due to be sentenced. Would it allow her baby to live? She doubted it. Cale would have dark energy just like her. Axion could not allow any dark energy, even in an innocent infant. The energy was a threat to its existence, its right, and its rule.
Why was it allowing her to give birth? Some sick form of clemency? It wasn't human. It didn't know justice. True fairness required compassion, and Axion didn't understand compassion. It could only simulate. It could only extrapolate. It could only pretend. No, there was only one way to win the game.
She made her decision.
She still held the gamma pistol in her hand, the one she had taken from Xavier. She aimed it up at the crossed head of the robot.
"You won't be carrying out any sentence on me."
Bright white light flashed when she pulled the trigger. She had shot it point blank. The stick cross of what had been its head exploded with spectacular fury. Pieces of its hideous brains burst all over her.
The arms of the teacher fell limp. Its claws released her high above the forgotten landscape. She had no board, no shoes, and no way to stop her fall.
She plummeted downward.
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