### FIRST ARC: EXTINCTION ###
“Civilizations suffer chaotic fluctuations that can only be avoided forcing humans to follow a scheme highly superior to their shallow own desires.” Stan, First Arcana
Chapter 1
Élégia – FuturaTech’s private archives
“Got it!” Max whispered as the door to the J-700 video archive room unlocked. He opened the door wide and let Valentia enter the room first.
“How do you know what you're looking for is in this room? Max asked.
— Pretty simple, Valentia answered proudly, all FuturaTech archive sites are organised the same way. Each room covers a period of about two years and the entire collection in this specific building dates back to the year 2166.
— Should I ask how you came to learn that? Max ventured.
— I don't know, it's as if I've always known, like it came from a memory or something. But I don't have any better explanation than that to give you, sorry Max.
— You're creeping me out sometimes you know?
— Let's focus on finding that recording for now, please.”
Valentia started walking down the shelves, going month to month until she finally stopped at the one she was looking for: August.
“It must be here, Valentia declared, starting to browse the boxes.
— Well then hurry up! Max whispered. I don't want to get caught here.
— I’m doing my best! Valentia answered.
— I know! But speed up, please! Max continued anxious.
— So what? Why do you mind me taking my time? Valentia replied ironically. This building is empty at such a time of the night. There’s nobody here! Absolutely no reason to…
— No reason to worry? My god, you’re kidding me, right? Max shouted. Please tell me you’re just messing with me! At start we were just supposed to hang out. Then you randomly drag me to the FuturaTech’s restricted archive center and you make me break in. Now, after all that, you’re telling me to stay calm?
— Lower your voice, they'll hear you! Valentia whispered.
— Damn you! Was that your plan all along? I'm sure it was very satisfying to toy with me like that, you've always...
— What the hell, Max! Valentia yelled. Why do you always have to turn a small coincidence into a major drama! Seriously you...
— I'm not the one making things up to serve my goal! You're the one who approached me last year, who wanted to become friends. All those long walks and drives we took, all these moments, did they mean anything to you? Or were they just a mean to your end, that is getting me here to hack into the archives?
— Are you for real, Max? Valentia answered, astonished.
— And I've let you! I should have known better than to trust yet another stranger bumping into my life! Max continued.
— Are you really having an existential crisis? Of all times, you decided to do it now, when we're surrounded by deadly tech and bots that could kill us in the blink of an eye?
— You brought that to yourself, Val! Max answered, sure of himself. You...
— Shut up! Someone's coming! Valentia
— How convenient! Precisely when...
— Please stop! Valentia said while covering Max's mouth with her hand. Stop everything and clean up the mess we made, fast! They're coming!”
Max closed the door; Valentia quickly put all the disks back in the box and went hiding in the dark at the back of the room with Max, hoping they would not be noticed by the guards patrolling in the corridor just outside.
“Please, make them go through without stopping here! Max mumbled.
— Oh, don’t worry, I’m waiting for them!
— You’re not considering shooting them down, are you? You’ll alert the whole troop! Then what will you be doing when faced with a dozen armed and trained soldiers? Put that gun away now!
— But I’ve set the silencers on!
— Doesn’t change a thing! You do know I neither like nor fancy violence! Max said on edge.
— My dear Max, you’ll have to get used to it with me. You may fall into depression faster thank you think.
— You will not kill innocent people! Max shouted suddenly.
— No. I have something much more interesting and fun prepared for them. By the way, you are a fast learner, Valentia said ironically.
— What do you mean?
— You are becoming more and more violent. It is definitely a good thing you’re changing. You can thank me for that; it will be of great help to you in life.
— You are not…
— Shush! Don’t say a word! They’re coming…”
A guard opened the door and quickly checked the state of shelves in the room. He then went on with his tour of the floor with another guard coming from a crossing corridor a bit further.
“Did you find anyone? one of the guards asked. The network picked up people yelling in this section.
— Not a soul in sight, the other guard answered. I've checked all the rooms on this side and I did not find a single thing.
— Probably just a glitch I guess. Let's go back”
Valentia and Max were hiding in the shadows, seated in silence, waiting for the guards to take off.
“You see, Valentia started proudly, no need for unnecessary stress. They are clearly not paid enough to undergo a thorough search of each archive room. Plus, even if they were, they would not do it.
— Are you kidding me? Max shouted. I feel like I am in the middle of an action movie, sitting next to a berserk killer ready to eliminate anything in her way! You really are crazy!”
Max had gone wild so suddenly that it left Valentia so astonished she did not know what to do to avoid being spotted by the patrolling guards outside. But it was already too late: she was hearing them running towards them and trying having their radios work. She now had no more choice: she had to get rid of them before they could notify their boss. But Max would be even more mad at her if she was to do anything violent.
The two guards were getting close to the door of the archive room.
Valentia got back on her feet under a questioning look from Max wondering what she was about to do. The young women got close to the door, leaned against the wall next to it. She was then ready to jump on the guard as soon as the door would open. But it remained closed. She waited for a few seconds, but still nothing. Valentia was losing her patience when, suddenly, she heard footsteps coming closer to the door from the hallway and saw the door handle slowly lowering. The door started to open when Valentia decided to slam it open with her foot and throw a powerful punch in front of her. The first guard dodged, avoiding the hit which ended up on the second guard’s chest, propelling him violently backward against the wall, knocking him out on the spot. The first guard had pulled her gun out, aiming at Valentia, ready to shoot. Valentia started dropping to the floor to avoid getting hit while the guard fired her gun. The bullet brushed Valentia's left ear, finishing its course in the wall. As soon as she hit the floor, Valentia gave a kick towards the guard, trying to throw her off-balance, which succeeded. With the guard on the ground still aiming at her and Valentia back up on her feet again, the two opponents remained still. “Don't you dare move!” the guard yelled, while reaching for her coms. As she looked away, Valentia slowly lowered her hand toward her back to get her gun, but as she reached it, she realised with horror that it wasn’t there.
“Are you missing something, darling?” the guard said, ironically. Valentia never bare irony when it came from people she considered intellectually inferior to her – which actually accounted for nearly everyone she ever met.
“Where’s your toy? Don’t tell me you forgot it at your parents’? the guard continued.
— I don’t need anything to fight, especially not against a pathetic wimp.”
Those words produced the effect Valentia counted on: the guard was so pissed off she was going to pull the trigger. Valentia closed her eyes to concentrate. The gun fired a deadened shot. But something was odd, the guard’s pistol did not have a silencer, so sound would have echoed everywhere in the hallway. Moreover, Valentia had not felt any bullet in front of her. She opened her eyes slowly: the guard was lying on the ground in her own blood.
Valentia was terrified by what just happened. Not because of the dead guard, but because she understood why. She turned around and saw Max, holding her gun he had stolen a few moments before. Judging from the way he was looking daggers at her, he was raging mad. His eyes were dazzling with a gruesomely dark and sinister glow. Valentia had never seen her friend – or anyone else she could remember – in such rage before. She shuddered as she looked down at her feet to avoid Max’s look.
What had happened to Max? He had always been so fearful and peaceful. He would have never shouted at her the way he did, even less could he have killed another human being in such cold-blood. All that was her fault, hers and only. She had transformed him until he was not himself anymore; it was like he had been inhabited by some evil demon, if that had been possible. This guilt bore lots of weight on her. She always felt guilty for humankind’s misfortunes, ever since she was a young girl and as far back as she could remember, ever since her parents and her family disappeared. Another memory crossed her mind and made her quiver, but she put that idea aside and tried to forget it. In normal circumstances, Max would have sent her a sympathetic and gentle look, with his typical way of helping her regain confidence, reassuring her with a simple smile. He would have laid low until everything was sorted out. But this time, it was different. She could not find any of that in his look. Right now was the exact opposite. He was mysteriously cold, glum and shadowy. He scared her so much she was quaking a bit.
Valentia suddenly raised her head to give Max an impression of strength and toughness, and mainly was it to hide that new weakness and her bond for the young man she had just discovered. But Max was not standing in front of her anymore.
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