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One Thousand Etherian Years After The Fall Of Prime| (1000AFP)
The desert stretched out for as far as the eye could see. A land long abandoned and unnourished - a land of the dead. No life was left in the scorched earth, cracked and hot enough to give bare feet blisters. Populated by circling vultures, dusted skulls of animals unknown to most beings alive, and tumbleweeds rolling lonely across the orange crumbling ground.
The entire world was not all like it, most of the planet was a lush, divers wide-spreading forest. But the forest avoided this land. Because the forest, knew not to upset it, that the barren land had power to rival the forest. So the forest had left the desert alone, in peace. Mutual respect achieved towards each other.
No living thing, on or off world, dared to step foot in the land. What many didn’t know, was the land welcomed some feet, but only some. Some were allowed to enter and to stay.
In the middle of the desert there was a door, of metal and bolts. It stayed closed for most of it’s existence, not rusted, it was maintained and updated every rotation, kept in shape for the days it was going to open. This was one of those days. Imbedded into a boulder. Next to the door stood a figure, bipedal, standing tall. The figure was made of metal - a robot. With neon purple highlights running across the figure’s grooves. Sporting a cape that bellowed in the warm wind. The bot had a humanoid form, but no face, instead a neon purple hexagon screen.
She stood in utter silence, waiting, watching the skies above her. She was stressed, her left leg was shaking slightly, her suspension spring had been loose, she made a note in her main processor that she should enact repairs after the event. She didn’t want to admit it, but she WAS stressed, she was excited. It was a rare occasion, she really wanted everything to go off without a hitch. She hoped the guest she was waiting for would make it on time, it seemed that she didn’t have to worry, because by the look of the view overhead - her brother made it.
The skies parted as a sonic boom permeated across them. The few clouds present were cast aside, as if bowing down, in the presence of the extra-terrestrial ship. A gunmetal grey and dark blue bulk of pipes, pistons and technological components from every corner of the universe, a pale skull at it’s front and tunnels and channels waving around underneath it’s huge mass.
The Velvet Glove.
The warship landed and touched down on the earth burned rock, steam and air gave out a hissing noise as it escaped the massive spacial vehicle, kicking up dust in the air, making it swirl in waves that crashed into the bot onlooker. Good thing for her was she was unfaced by the particles, her metal plating was well sealed, irritation was no problem.
The side of the ship opened up and a ramp descended down, once it touched the floor a set of steps rotated up from it. If she could have smiled she would’ve, an excited bweep escaped her. At the sight of her brother stepping out of the craft. One foot out on the steps, the other still inside, he looked around surveying the area. He didn’t exactly know what he expected, but there was truly nothing around them for miles. The visitor turned to see his sister giving him a small wave from a distance.
He extended his wings and flew forward to met with her, he landed solidly on two feet. His black and orange boots already muddy and dirty from other foreign worlds he travelled to. He used his taloned fingers to comb back his greyish-blue hair. His bright yellow eyes attempted to severe direct contact with his sister, towering over him, twice his height. The silence erupted between the two siblings - they haven’t seen each other in a very long time - it got awkward sometimes. The quiet was only accompanied with by the bellowing of the door keeper’s cape and the visitor's bagged pants.
He finally decided to break the awkwardness and interact, he signed with his hands.
‘Hello Emily.’
Emily responded cheerfully with a deep yet hyperactive voice.
“Hello Imp.”
Emily didn’t see it, but the hybrid was smiling ear to ear underneath his mouth plate, she recognised it was a traditional Hordian article of clothing, one like their Conceiver used to wear. It had a - slightly dirty - platinum colour to it, since it had a First Ones technology incorporated into it, just like their Imbuer used to experiment with.
The two began to march back to the door, which opened and allowed them entry. Emily draped her heavy metallic arm around Imp’s shoulders and began to yap on and on about all that had been going on. She was the far more chatty person, since well, it wasn’t much of a contest since Imp was mute. Well, that was not entirely true. Imp could speak. But when he did, he’d level a football stadium with his sonic recall voice. The mouth plate helped keep it in control.
“I’m so glad you’re here... I missed you.”
The clone locked eyes with the drone and gave her a reassuring nod.
‘Me too.’
“How goes The Cosmic Horde business?”
‘Not desirably. And you? With The Galactic Alliance? You look shaky.’
“Yeah, I’ve been loosing charge cycles. I know, I know, I’ll get some shut screen and rest up. But after this. This is too important. I’m sooooooo excited! Soooooo stressed.”
The blue skinned bat creature patted the bulk of a woman reassuringly, he would’ve lied if he said he wasn’t stressed too. This event only happened every century. He would have never forgiven himself if he missed it - he even rescheduled his assault on The Snakemen Sect in the Eternian system - for this. What could he say, he was home sick.
The two walked through and out of the long thin corridor into a large opening, a hall, dome-like. Levels apon levels of spots, stacked onto each other. All of the spaces taken and filled with robots, droids, androids, drones - machine A.I.s of every conceivable type. Gathered together in a stadium, from across every corner of the universe.
As Imp looked around, taking in all the individuals present, some he even recognised from his galactic voyages. He and his Horde came in contact with multiple A.I. civilizations on a planetary level. Many such advancements and evolutions were, no doubt, thanks to his Imbuer and her antics throughout the cosmos. Self-awareness, sentience and emotion were kind of her forte - a calling card.
Imp knew he didn’t have to, but he WAS the leader of the Horde, he was paranoid and he was on enemy soil.
‘Are you sure The Alliance doesn’t know about this place? Is she going to be safe here?’
Emily felt slightly hurt by the question, she thought her brother trusted her. She replied to him with haste, she told him that of course the Princesses didn’t know. The sentry would have never given away the location of The Sanctum. This was a safe place, their Conceiver didn’t agree with calling it sacred, but to many - lost and broken - it was. Emily knew why Imp asked, she could tell from the moment he approached her, his wings were shivering, he was worried, both of them knew The Alliance was getting closer to Imbuer. They were on a hunt and the trail was warm - all of the aiding of A.I.s resulted in quite a lot of uprisings. And a lot of usurptings. She was wanted for crimes against carbon based organic life. Pretty serious charges.
A purple light lit up in the centre of the huge hall. A diamond kite indent pulsating, as if waiting for something. An old data rely. The two knew what it meant, it was time. Imp reached into a pouch on his side and pulled out half of a purple First One’s crystal, while Emily pulled out the other half. With a simple look at each other they placed the two halves together in the indent. A stream of light shot up into the domed ceiling of the assembly hall and opened it to reveal the blue sky.
“She just entered the solar system. Means we have a few minutes. You’re the only brother in the sisterhood, y... you should see him first.”
Imp nodded. Just as he was about to turn away from her, he noticed the look she was giving, her own version of puppy eyes. If he could sigh, he would have. He extended his hand, clenched it into a fist. Emily’s screen lit up, and she returned to fist bump.
The hybrid made his way down a stairwell, The Sanctum had multiple levels, including the extremely off-limits, personal quarters of his Conceiver. The Inner-Sanctum. The Throne Room. He pushed his palm against a scanner pad on the side of another door, similar to the one that lead them inside. Next was an eye scan and finally the password confirmation. Imp search the files of his data banks looking for the audio clip. And once he found it, he pulled down his mouth plate and stated in the voice of his Imbuer.
“Imperfections are beautiful.”
The vault door whirred to life and slide open. He stepped inward. The room was dark, it had one central platform and all around it were piles and mounts of broken and burned thrones, laying in the dark.
And dangling inches above the central circular platform was his Conceiver. It never got easier to watch with each century, seeing his Conceiver in such a state. His back was turned to him, but there he was.
The Heart of Etheria.
Hordak.
Enveloped in plunged in wires and cables, which kept him lifted up off the ground. Imp swore there were more and more ports imbedded in him every time he saw him. All that was left of him has his head, to contain his failing mind, his torso, to act as a cage for the heart, and a single arm, the left one, with the wedding ring, he wouldn’t have agreed to loosing that one. So they took the right one. It was just getting in the way anyhow, all it was, was bone, no muscle. He couldn’t even move it anymore. No big lose.
Imp saw that he was interrupting his Conceiver’s feeding time. Since his mind had been stretched and splintered into hundreds of thousands diverging elements and consciousnesses running throughout the planet. Keeping it in order, he was in control of everything, the magnitude of gravity, heat generation since there was no sun in the system, keeping orbit of all the moons, the growth rate and dispersal of crops, everything. It all meant the only thing uncontrolled, malnourished and forgotten, was his own body. Being a defective clone that had been slowly dying all his life, now over one thousand years old, he couldn’t take care of himself.
That was why he had Sunder. She was his caretaker. Cleaned him. Fed him. And... well, Imp didn’t know much about her, but he trusted her. If she was untrustworthy she wouldn’t have been so close to his Conceiver. From what he could tell Sunder was a hybrid, like him. A crimson red exoskeleton around her suggested she was half Hillian, the Scorio-Humanoid species that lived in the desert lands any centuries ago. He thought they were extinct. Clearly not. The other half, he wasn’t so sure about. She had three large talon fingers and greyish colour on her exo-plates near the face and shoulders. She seemed thin, almost lanky, a Plumerian maybe. Now those were extinct for sure.
Sunder lifted a spoon of a mushy substance, Imp guessed portage. It didn’t matter. She opened Hordak’s mouth and placed the spoon inside, tilting it on it’s side emptying the portage inside on his forked tongue. He didn’t remember to close his mouth. Some of the mush dripped out. He didn’t remember many things.
Imp knocked on the wall next to him, to announce his presence. The sound attracted the caretaker’s attention. She examined him and scoffed. Sunder used the spoon to guide the dripping portage back into the mouth and placed the tool back into the bowl. She gave Imp a dirty look.
“You have three minutes.”
She turned on her heels and walked out of The Throne Room through a back exit. It took Imp a solid few seconds to overcome his fear paralysis. He tried to step forward as quietly as possible. He walked around to face his Conceiver. There he was face to face with his creator, the man that made him who he was today. Perhaps it would be inappropriate to state that words failed him, but they did. No coherent thought formed in his mind. But even if Imp thought up something to sign, he wasn’t even sure if Hordak could’ve acknowledged him. Or comprehended him. He was an old, defective man. Barely kept alive by tubes and channels transporting live and waste substances in and out. Alive was a kind way of putting it.
‘Hello, Conceiver... I am back. It’s me, Imperium. I do not know if you remember me. If you remember anything. Maybe this world has ravaged your mind as well as your body.
…
I never know what to say. I do not think there is much to say.
I love you.
I hope you are proud of me.
I always tried to do right by your side. To be your little spy. And I hope you saw me, saw that I was trying to be good and help you. Show you I’d do anything for you. And I never stopped being haunted by the thought that one of the reasons you put your self into this state, was because of me. Because you thought that you ruined my life, by me inheriting your defects. You hated the fact you brought a creature into this world who was destined to be sick.
But every time I want to come back here, I want to show you, that I’m strong. I beat destiny! With a club and then buried it. I am not weak. I was never weak. Because you didn’t raise me weak... You were the strongest man I knew.’
Imp fell silent. No reply came from Hordak, his eyes dull with a deep black, with a slight speck of red glitching and flashing, looking almost as if I could be extinguished - give up - at any moment. Imp sighed and proceeded to return to the upstairs. Emily stood at the opposite end of the door.
“It’s time. She’s here.”
As the door closed behind them, Hordak swallowed and pushed down the food in his mouth, down his throat.
The two siblings stood at the centre of The Sanctum, looking up at the opened ceiling, with them the entire assembly of machines looked up in wonder, as the skies above turned purple. The gathered individuals stood in awe as a ray of bright purple of pure data descended and shot into the rely. The beam of personified knowledge and information molded itself into a giant image of the face of their Imbuer.
Entrapta.
“Hi everyone!”
She greeted them with a wide smile and eyes that sparked with joy and excitement, with a gleeful voice of pride and love only a mother could convey. There was much cheering and chanting, A.I.s standing in awe of such a powerful being. Emily gave her a wide high wave, Imp simply saluted to her. The noise in the hall became louder and louder, trying to attract her focus.
“Alright everyone, settle down. I’ll get to everyone. But first I must do something I was dreaming of doing for a hundred years!”
The image of Entrapta disappeared as it sunk down through the floor, purple highlights travelled in between the floor padding and down through the wiring in to The Throne Room.
The purple data descended from the ceiling and constructed a full body of what Entrapta looked like when she was young, in her twenties, when they first met. She formed infront of Hordak, looking over her poor partner. If she could’ve she would have taken him from this physical realm. She wanted to. Wanted to explore the universe with him, learn all the secrets and laws of the cosmos, and then break them for fun. Make him feel young again. But she couldn’t. She knew he supported Etheria, without him the planet would have crumbled apart. It was his penance.
She materialised and reached out one of her gloved hands to touch his cheek, she traced his cheek bone gently down to his chin. She used her other hand to cup his other side of the head, used her thumb to rub his low hanging ears. She used the first hand to lift up Hordak’s head, to have him face her. She gave him the warmest smile she could.
“Do you remember me?”
She asked, almost having her heart sink. She saw a single tear immerge from his eye, which slowly ran down his cheek. She used her second hand to wipe it off his beautiful face.
“You do remember me.”
Entrapta gave Hordak the same loving gaze she always did when she found him fascinating, beautiful, and gorgeous. Which was all of the time. Eyes half open, and a smirk. She was enamoured. And he was no different. He never smiled. Because his body didn’t allow it, he couldn’t fell his body, he was held together with string. And also he didn’t like the way he looked when smiling. People said he looked malicious. But for her, he could do anything. And so he smiled, even showed his dull red sharp teeth she luvd so much.
“I... could never... forget you.... the thi...ngs you do... to me~”
“I love you, Hordikins.”
“...I... l- lo- ve… you too.”
She giggled as she leaned in close to him and placed a gentle kiss on his two thin lips.
He had to wait a century every time, suffer what felt like an eternity, paralysed and broken, paying sins he could never purge out of his dreams, but all of it was nothing. The pain and hurt was worth it, worth something, just for this moment. A moment of ancient love.