Chapter 40: Logbook #033 - The Secret
"Hey NZ! NZ! Are we going to do it now?" A blondie of a lass calls out to her elder that she was close with from afar after poking her head out of the bunker door's entrance.
As the male turns back to her, he smiles a little and nods twice with a small hand wave.
"Sure, whenever you and Miss Id'dreek feel like it." He said as he held onto his NZ75 handgun tightly on his other free hand.
"Why are you looking so tense and holding that gun, NZ?" The lass asks in a rather squeaky tone, giving off both a little curiosity in a sudden feeble manner.
"Nothing, Mary...Its's nothing. Just trying to calm meself a bit." He replies as he then sighs audibly and holsters his gun, his tense body slowly limped off and he regained the calm posture he was used with.
"Are you worried about me and the others, NZ?" Mary asks back as she slowly walks up the stairs before standing beside NZ who was staring at a broken shard of a store's glass panel across him.
"Quite a bit, yes. As I the bastion of this small community have to do his job to take care and watch over my comrades." NZ replies as he snickers a slight sound of displeasure as if he was ticked off by something.
Mary steps in front of him before staring him straight into his eyes. Though visibly a few inches shorter than him, she managed herself to watch eye to eye.
"..." As she kept her silence she stared deeply into NZ's eyes before muttering a spell that Id'dreek taught her yesterday. Using an alternate version of her reality-warping, she stopped time and uses her aura manipulation to try to enter NZ's mind.
"No, you can't!" Id'dreek shouts as she comes out of her crystal, blocking off Mary from NZ.
"Huh!?" Mary surprised, she takes a step back before making a surprised look. "Why can't I? I just want to know why he is upset."
"I know you feel bad for your master but, this is bad. You cannot just enter people's minds and read their thoughts, sometimes it could a secret or some sort of lie they had to make up." Id'dreek replies.
"Remember, the rules in my power. The first rule, don't take negative advantages."
Mary realises what she has done, she stopped herself from generating more aura before shaking her head. "Damn, I forgot that. I'm an idiot sometimes." After absorbing her aura, she then continues time as Id'dreek disappears immediately.
Whispering into Mary's head, Id'dreek explains that now is not the time to be forgetful.
"Why are you staring at me for?" NZ asks before rubbing the rough blonde hairs of Mary. "Curious gal, are you that eager to hear what am I thinking?"
Mary puffs her cheeks before nodding slowly. "Yes, if you don't mind sharing. It could help ease your mind."
"Well then...Alright. Just for you." He sighs as he blinks for a few seconds.
"I am just wondering what will happen once you change time and reverse everyone back and not only that but implement new timelines. I mean who will I grow up to be, yes, we may have memories of our current self but will we have the same jobs and/or even life choices? Will my darling ever be born and how will your mother and children exist without cloning tools. Also about you, I found something about you. It was a little frightening but I didn't want you to know about it till a proper time and place. I am worried about when should I tell you, now or after you do the job. I don't want to disturb your mind yet I don't want to make you feel bad for me." He explains as she rubs the back of his head as he grinds his sharp teeth.
"What should I do!?" He shouts to the sky as Sae-Yong and Shin-ae summons out of their crystal and sits on a broken tar walkway.
"What you should do is have a chill-out," Sae-Yong replies as she shakes her head with embarrassment.
"What she says..." Mary add on. "Maybe, NZ is just getting stressed more from the coming of age, I suppose. But yeah, what you explained makes some sense. Also about me? Whatever it is. Keep it. You can tell me after I am done if I am still near you. "
Shin-ae shakes her head as she pulls out a small book from her hands as she read it. It was a spellbook which was made by her old friend Carniva who was always unknowingly mentioned but never shown. "Here the thing Miss Mary. You won't exist when you renew the world."
"Shin-ae, why?!" NZ and Sae-Yong shout at her in anger.
"Why not? She needs to know the truth!" As Shin-ae wore her pair of reading glasses, she flips through a few pages quickly.
"What do you mean, don't exist?" Mary asks as she made a shocked face. Not fully capable of understanding what Shin-ae meant, she still felt flabbergasted to hear such a word. "You are telling me, I will die if I do the spell?"
"No, no. That's not it." Shin-ae mutters before standing up and shoving the book towards Mary's face. "You will exist but not in dimension. In simple terms, you will be in a place no normal human nor guardian can exist. Basically, you may or may not have a conscience and will be alone for eternity."
"What..." Mary sighs out as she held her head in confinement.
"Did you have to tell the truth, Shin-ae. Oh, praise the Wolfmother." Sae-Yong annoyed scolds her younger sister. "Already, Mary is busy trying to do her job and NZ is worried that everyone is coming here and this is what you do, make more stress?"
"But, I had to. It's not nice to keep something a secret! If she didn't know, she would have lied to her and Id'dreek." Shin-ae replies.
"Who, who will lie to them?" Sae-Yong questions in a rather aggressive tone as she stamps her wooden sandals hard onto the pavement making a loud clanking sound.
"Shin-ae, Behave!" Shimaya possesses NZ and shouts angrily to her daughter as she moves his body and points a warning gesture to her. "Let your sister do her job. You are supposed to just make sure NZ and Mary will be safe."
"Fine, mother..." Sae-Yong sighs as she relaxes by giving herself a few huffs and puffs of air. "Ok, who is it?"
"The General of Continuum-Now and the New Elders. They planned this from the beginning. They kept the secret from Mary and just went with the of she will just somehow exist in the new timeline. " Shin-ae replies. "In time paradoxes, sometimes some glitches can happen and causes a user to somehow disappear from existence, there could be a chance where a person will never exist and somehow no one will ever have memories of that person."
"You are telling me, that if I do the new time. Everyone here may forget me and a few would never exist until time deems it?" Mary asks as she slowly understood what is happening.
"Yeah, that's what she means." NZ and Sae-Yong reply to her simultaneously in a rather sad and worried tone. "That's why we wanted to shut that off and make something a little easier to understand."
"If you remember the medic friend Chau-min you met a few days ago in her village, well her guardian sneaked off with the Necronomicon that one of the new elders was using. As the two deciphered it, they then notice some faults and miscommunications in the writing that was proceeded with."
NZ then replies. "And then she proceeded to share to me and my guardians. They kept it hidden from the others as much as possible as Sherrinford is still ill and mute while Shanina may have gone a little of a nutcase due to her long time hermit life."
"Don't even try to include the New Elders, I don't even know how they were appointed as leaders. They are so childish and are rather rude to the older Elders and God itself." Shimaya speaks out as she possesses NZ one last time.
"You got to be kidding me." Mary grunts as she takes in all the absorption of the conversation and makes out for it. "They did that. Holy crap."
"So, what now? What's our plan?" Shin-ae asked as she then makes out a four panelled shield that had light-bending properties to make them "invisible" as she notices General Shanina walk up the stairs. "Stay quiet..."
Turning around, they noticed that Shanina was standing as she looks left and right and sighs to herself.
"Where did they go?" She asks herself as she inspects the floor. "Hmm..."
Walking around, she then wanders nook and cranny to find Mary and NZ. All the while, the four were hidden in their barricade of sorts from being seen.
Mary manipulating the barrier with her powers, she adds a soundproofing barrier on it so they could continue their conversation and also includes a walk-through, just in case Shanina somehow stumbles near them, basically making the small barrier an invisible pocket dimension.
"Alright, let's continue where we stopped," Mary calls out to them after finishing her manipulation. "I am quite surprised they could lie to me like that. They think I am a kid or something, why didn't they just tell me with a straight face."
"They probably didn't want to stress you over since you are still a young adult and perhaps also because they wanted to maybe use you as a lab rat of sorts. Their way of professionalism, I suppose." NZ replies as he rubs Mary's back.
"I see...I guess that makes some sense, hehe..." Giggling softly in a rather nervous way, she then takes the book Shin-ae was reading and takes a look at the few pictures and writings it had.
It was filled to the bream with old archaic symbols and strange letters that could be deciphered if one could read other languages than their own through the support of magical ability.
"What is written here? I can't understand what is written here." Mary scratches her head as she hands back the book to Shin-ae who gladly took it back quickly. "It's like made out of scratches and mad man ramblings."
"Because it basically is." Shin-ae and NZ reply to her before looking at each other.
"Jinx..." Shin-ae shouts out in a teasing manner as she points to him. "Hah, gotcha!"
"Ahh, too slow." NZ sighs out before smiling. Turning back to Mary, she notices her make an angry face before grunting.
"Come on, be serious for a bit," Mary replies. "What now?"
"What now? well, the inevitable I suppose." Sae-Yong replies as she crosses her arms and pouts. "We can't do anything but to help on what you want to accomplish."
"Do you want to stay this way, in the boring wastelands of blood and sweat with maniacs and monsters or do you want democratic reasoning with a quiet peaceful life in a noisy environment."
Giving Mary two decisions, Sae-Yong allowed Mary to take her long decision to make out an answer. As they waited, they then noticed Shanina walk back into the bunker before closing in the entrance door. Still leaving the secret lever inside the shop accessible.
"I want everyone to be happy and back to normal life but I too want to have a normal life with my family, if I do the spell, I will then basically thanks to the existence of my mother, my siblings, NZ's loving partner and the many children and young adults here. I want to see you guys again." Mary explains as she looks at them seriously with a sad look and tone.
"I want to stay here with you guys. I don't want to lose the people I love just for the sakes of reliving the world back to its original. It doesn't matter whether there are maniacs, idiots or even a lack of population and resources. What matters is that everyone is happy the way they are and continue rebuilding society from the ground up. Look here, this place still has some resources and people are scavenging and selling out things, we can use this as a base. "
Pointing to the many shops and buildings that lay about here and there, Mary was right. There were still quite an amount of things left to fulfil and make use of instead of wasting them away.
"Yes, I may sound selfish that I don't want to use my powers to remake a new world but instead of remaking, why not just continue where we started in this world? How about just living your last days from the flora and fauna I will produce around the globe and reverse the destruction. Yes, males still won't exist but it's better that way, right? Reproduction takes a long time and growing them is another pain. It's better this way."
"She has a point," Sae-Yong adds in as she chins herself with her fingers. "Yes, it sounds crazy but she's kind of correct. Instead of remaking a new world. Why not just living in the current one and just make it better."
"It's better to think crazy than insane," NZ replies as he then pats Mary's head gently. "Glad I see you all grown up to a fine woman, my little sister."
"Huh? Sister!" Mary exasperated, made a surprised face as she glances at the others. "I am your sister?!"
"Well, I always wanted to tell you about that but never really got the chance." NZ sat down on the walkway after walking a few steps. Patting the floor, he gestures Mary to take a seat. "Maybe, now would be the time."
Mary sighing and a little stressed out with all the crazy things happening in one day, she then found the opportunity to relax as she sat next to him and pouts. "Yeah...?"
"Well, it all happened a few years ago during the end of the Bio-Mother," NZ explains as a flashback hits upon Mary's mind as her eyes reflected his gestures and movement.
"You are the child of Erina Walter also known as USP. Your mother...but we never told you is that you are a clone of my sister's genes. Some genes were altered but you still kept her personality and overall hip attitude that you are so familiar with."
"My sister donated her genes to make up you, your siblings and a few others with the help of self-sacrifice. Yes, unfortunately, she's no more. But in my heart and your mother, you are the closest thing to her. Because you were the first clone, the not fully altered one."
Crossing her arms, Mary then escapes out of the visual flashbacks as she then thinks of a reply. "Woah. That's quite surprising. That's something new to know. I feel bad for your sister's pass but this, I never knew. Not even in the tapes."
"That's the thing. I never really used the tape recorder much outside of operations. Hence I barely had recordings of her tricks, her lovely smile and her silly antics. The only one I had was during Christmas. I cherished that one because it was the one where I introduced these two to her. It was the loveliest memory I could have of her, I will always miss that reddish smile she gave out." As ae finished explaining, NZ then looks on the ground a little concerned.
"That is why I was a little tensed earlier. I was thinking when should I tell the truth about you and how you came to be. I am sure your first thought once that maybe I and your mother made you or something but unfortunately, that wasn't the case." He made a small tease as he then turns his head up as he felt a hug by his few sides."
Mary, Shin-ae and Sae-Yong simultaneously hugged him as they tried to cheer him up. They smiled to themselves as they gave their way of motivation towards him.
"Well, at least I got to know the truth, hah! I always knew I wasn't your secret love child." In her curious nature, she too had a soft and teasing side that felt very symbiotic with her teacher, NZ. "Didn't expect to be a clone of your sister though."
"Cheer up Shõ, there is always a time for everything. Now's the time for a change. We shall make it, hear me bud?!" Sae-Yong shrieks into his ears as she cheered with a fist up at the sky.
Shine wagged her tail as she hugs NZ from behind, placing her chin on NZ's head, she smirks while pressing herself onto him. "Jee, you are like a child sometimes. Smile, Will just like what the two said."
As he was creeped out with love from all of his directions, he then inhales deeply as he grins with a smile. "Alright then! We shall do this."
As NZ stood up, the two poofs into smoke, entering into their crystals as Mary followed his actions. "Let's wait for the others and then, we rebel..."
"Hey hey, not like that old man. We aren't becoming maniacs here, we just want to negotiate a change in plans. After all, Miss Chau-min and her people are on our sides, yes?" Mary asks.
"Yep, after all. She was the one who contacted me earlier and I was sharing details of it with Doctor Faltina. She too is on our side. Shanina well, not yet until we have more people to overpower her. She's hard to crack." NZ exclaims with his nutty attitude.
Waltzing into the shop across them, NZ then enters through a secret compartment before pulling down the lever.
As the lever was pulled, the entrance of the bunker was slowly unveiled once more. As the sound of opening grab some curious eyes, Shanina opens the door and looks through it.
"Oh, your back. Great, where's NZ?"
"Pulling down the lever, he will be back soon. I presume." Mary replies with a smile.
"Ahh nice. The lady you met a few days ago, Chau-min, remember her?" Shanina asks Mary as she looked up at her.
"Yeah, what is it?" Mary replies as she looked down at Shanina.
"She will be coming here in a few hours to help us and also they will bring along your family and the rest of Will's people," Shanina explains. "Is that fine?"
"Yep." Mary smiles once more as she stood proudly. "Never better."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone