Should Have Let Me Die

I wanted to hear Haruna's story, but I needed to check everyone on the ship. I noticed immediately who was missing, and it gave me chills to think what that meant. 

I had taken one of the black spikes out of Kyla's feet and the old man, Gerald was missing. That could only mean that he was the one that had planted them in everyone.

That was a worrisome thought, and that made me start to panic, I started to look over the group, but I found Trinity's sandy orc form.

That was a relief, I was going to assume that Talon would have tried to force Trinity into one of the sentient suits Dave had shown me. This was all going to hell in a handbasket, but I would just have to roll with the punches, as Dave would say.

Everyone was told to sit down, and I dialed up once everyone was settled, letting Eva take over. While Eva removed a small black spike from almost every person on the ship, I thought about what my next move would be. 

I was going to have to figure out what the plan was going to be, but I was also worried about what Talon would be doing with the mini-mechs. There were far too many things that were up in the air right now, and I wanted to have a better hold on the current situation.

'Eva, I need you to get me some kind of blueprints for a plane of some sort that I can use to get everyone home quickly. While you get that ready, I am going to get some much needed information about Firesti.'

'Yes, I will look for some kind of ship that can take off without a running start. I will be recording everything that you hear from Haruna if you need to play any of it back later,' Eva explained to me.

'Thank you.' 

I turned my focus back to the gathered group, and let time catch back up. It was time to explain what I knew so far, and what we were going to be doing about it.

"Alright, now that is over I will explain to you what I have found," I said, opening up my hand to show a couple of the deactivated spikes to everyone.

"Where did you get those from?" Violet asked me to come up and take one of them out of my hand, and examine it.

"They came from the bottoms of your feet, that's why I just got everyone to sit down on the ground. These were placed by the Game Master, and now he has the robot that Titania and Haruna were working on. I think that this island expedition has been all on a big farce, so I am heading back to the mainland with all of you to Dreams," I explained to everyone.

"Are you just going to give up on the islands then?" Jenna asked, stepping forward. "They may have been used to distract you, but I truly believe that what is here is important. Take us back, but then you need to come back and finish what you started!"

"I agree with her, and you," Titania said, walking over to stand beside Jenna. "You are going to need every advantage you can get now. After Haruna and I will explain the project we had been working on. Then we can decide what to do from there, but I think you will need the power you are going to get from completing this."

"Let's talk over lunch, there is no point in keeping this a secret anymore. The cat is already out of the bag, so we might as well speak about it openly. I am getting Eva to do some research on an aircraft to get us back home," I explained to everyone, and people started to move around.

Kyra came over to me and pulled me off to the side with Kyla in her arms. I took our little girl from her in one arm and then wrapped my other one around her.

"I know that you say that it wasn't my fault or any of ours, but that doesn't change you getting hurt. We now also have a buck of missing killer robots and a ship that doesn't fly. I also haven't helped you at all this entire time, and I knew that I was doing it, and it felt like I wanted to make you mad at me, but you're always so patient with us all," Krya said, cuddling into my chest.

I watched the people rushing around to get the tables, and chairs set up. Kyla was laying her head on my shoulder, cuddling into my neck.

I took a deep breath in and then let it out. I might get some headaches from these women, but I knew every one of them personally. I had spent time with them all, and when Kyra started to act strange consistently, I knew there was something wrong.

I just could have never imagined that it was this bad, but maybe that was part of the problem. I wasn't thinking broad enough for this game's scope. 

I wasn't here just to relax and sightsee, I was here to win the game and get on to the next one. Talon had used my love and patience with the girls to distract me from the goal.

"I love you all, and I have known you all longer than anyone has ever known anyone, but I was still able to be tricked so easily. I just hope that you can all see why I need you to stay at home and wait for me to finish. This wasn't even Reginold, this was done by the game, and it holds no qualms about how it will win the game," I explained.

"Yes, I get it, we need to stay back so you can get done sooner, but you will still need us in the next world! Sure, we can't help you with the fighting, and I proved that we just end up being more trouble than help in the end," Kyra said, taking her own deep breath.

The table was set, and Nika and Dalmia were bringing out plates of sliced meats and crackers. We must have run out of cheese, but that was just another reason to get everyone back. 

Might not be a very good reason, but a lot was going on right now, and I like the idea of blaming cheese better than the alternative. I walked with the girls and sat down at the table with everyone else.

I made sure to sit next to Titania and Haruna. I wanted to hear what they had to say, and I wanted to make sure that I got everything, and asked the right questions.

"So, before you start with your story, Titania I would like you to explain what you have been working on, and what kind of a threat to the ones that Talon got from us pose," I said to the girls after eating for a little bit.

"I had started to work on miniature versions over the Dragon Armor, but without having someone like Eva there to pilot it, they wouldn't work. We couldn't fit a person in the suits because we needed to have moving parts inside."

"That makes sense, it was nearly impossible to get the big guy even moving without Nina's help. So then what does Haruna have to do with this? She was talking away right away when I got back, and then I didn't see her. What happened there as well? Or do you not know?" I asked, firing out questions too fast, but Haruna spoke up.

"The little old man Gerald led me to a room and said that was mine, then left me without saying another word. I went into the room, but when I turned around I was talking to Titania in her lab with Gerald about whether or not I could help their project," Haruna explained.

"That makes sense why you were always trying to keep me away there most of the time. I don't even want to think about the trickery that went into all of this. Is there anything we can do about them? Can you shut them down, Haruna?" I asked, but she shook her head.

"They are living just like you and me, but they are like Eva. Trapped inside of the bodies that I created, being controlled by those spikes," Titania said with regret, shaking her head in frustration.

"Eva is working on that problem right now, but at the end of the day, I will have to disable most of them all by hand to prevent them from killing them. They should be considered just the same as Eva, they are all A.I. and in my books, they and we are pretty much the same. So, we treat rescuing them just as important as any other. This isn't their fault," I said, feeling my anger starting to brim.

This was just one more thing to add to the ever-growing list of reasons why I was about to go shit-kick Talon.