Reborn Heart of Steel

To settle my friends’ debate, I was compelled to pay more attention to The Raven. For a second his gaze intensified, there was something more profound in his eyes that I had never noticed before. All the emotions are realistic and put together in a very realistic way fear, hope and desperation. In the course of this argument, I remarked immediately, and with no reservation, “You’re scared. ” Some of them are: ‘You don’t seem to be in control of this transformation, do you?’ The Raven looked into my eyes and for the first time I saw the mask he had been portraying slip. “No,” he admitted softly. The process… It’s speeding up. I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up. These repercussions crashed on me physically as if a baseball bat struck me in the midriff. He wasn’t just giving us an opportunity to prevent the world from dying. He was begging us to save him. “So what’s the plan?” I had to ask as I was thinking of a number of possibilities and threats that we could be facing. The Raven appeared to collect himself, as if the fire had been damped in him and the embers smothered. ‘We must go to my more personal laboratory,’ he said, ‘There are tools and devices that I can use in order to trace the primary consciousness of the Architect…” And then he looked at Alessandro, ‘I do not know if you are capable of this, but we will be joined by another companion. ‘ As much as I can remember the format: ‘I think I know a way to safely disconnect you from the network. ‘ Alessandro’s eyes widened. “You can do that?” The Raven nodded. “Yes I do. But time is of essence. The longer the Architect is around, it grows even more powerful. ” I turned to my friends and saw the same apprehensive looks of uncertainty as well as expectancy on their faces as I had on me. This was a rather risky decision, putting faith in The Raven, knowing fully well the trouble he had put as Though we would. But then what options do we have? “Okay then,” I said, deciding for all of them. “Okay, do it, but if you are fooling me a. .” He raised his hand to stop me. “I know. ” The Architect said, “And for what you’re worth these days, I assure you that I have been telling you the truth. ” As we started preparing to depart, shouting towards each other, picking up whatever food and water sources we could see from the wreckage that surrounded me, I started to get a bad feeling. We were entering uncharted territory here; we chose to support a man who was gradually turning into a being that was inhuman. Frankly, I never really paid much attention to The Raven, but the other day I did something that gave me a cold feeling. I could see a blue light that was steadily becoming more prominent in his pupils. We had only a few hours in our hands to carry out the whole process. Not for us to save the world, yet to save The Raven from becoming a machine completely. As we set off towards Blackwood’s lab, a new question burned in my mind: Supposing we did manage to locate what the Architect considered as the primary consciousness of the entire sequence, then was it the key to saving humanity? Or are we inaugurating the last phase of its becoming extinct? I realized that I had never been so unsure of the distinction between human and machine that once crossed could never be. The visit to the Raven’s laboratory was a rather bizarre one, since the group felt that the city had turned into a whole new world. Once familiar streets had become alien terrain covered with debris and the corpses of the drones and occasionally a human who was still not fully awake from the Architect’s conditioning. The Raven directed our group into the cars in complete hush; everyone was quite anxious. He moved so…slimly and nimbly and smoothly, a traitor to his humanity, which was something that couldn’t be said of most people I met. The wires beneath the skin echoed every thump, and every tap a constant reminder of how much time was left till he became a monster. “How much further?” Chase inquired in quite an unfriendly tone and, with tiredness, remarked in his voice. Looking right, The Raven pointed at the rather unusual metallic structure that seemed to be undamaged by the events taking place in the rest of the Necropolis. “We’re here. ” As I got closer, I again felt a shiver run down my spine. Chase must have thought I reacted to his presence or the door made me shiver because he gave the minutest of smiles. “Electromagnetic field,” he explained. “It sealed off the lab from the Architect’s network. ” Something which, for the best, turned out to be useful. The lobby was completely empty, we were able to make as much noise as we wanted because no one was around. Blackwood took us to an elevator, he then swiped something in the scanner. Finally, there was silence for a while, and then I noted some confusion in his eyes. Then came the sound of the painful pain and finally the doors opened with a small jingle. “Your systems still recognize when you are driving, Alessandro pointed out. “That’s. .. Surprising. ” The Raven’s expression was unreadable. “Indeed. ” The laboratory itself was like something out of a sci-fi movie with all manner of equipment which I simply could not comprehend adorning the walls. What drew my attention though was the large screen that occupied the better part of the wall behind which was a throbbing, moving three, dimensional map of the city. While part of Zoe wanted to continue running and get as far away from the cave as possible, another side of her, always eager to learn, could not resist asking, “What is that?” ‘A map of the Architect’s network in real time,’ Blackwood answered and walked to the control board. ‘Or what’s left of it after your counter-code. ‘ We looked on as he spun and scrolled across the screen, pulled it out to give us a view of the entire nation, continent, and globe. Lines which ran across the globe were red, and they glowed with intensity. “My God,” Morris breathed. “It’s everywhere. ” The Raven nodded grimly. “Yes. But look here. ” He clicked on a point in the middle. There was a bright flash of light, and it emanated waves in that place which went through the intricate structure. “This is where elementary consciousness is concealed,” he said.

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