Motherly Guidance

“First Khaaos and Dias, now Synchros and Geon… and all within just a few days too...”  She smiled. “…it would seem that Fate has been very kind to us in this round.”  Archetype commented to herself as she went about trying to quell the chaos inside of Crydus and Jais as their souls now struggled to come to grips with the fact that they were indeed sharing their Ethereal existence with the guardian entities.  “We can only hope that things continue to go this smoothly for us in this, our final battle.”  She continued, allowing both Crydus and Jais to only catch the end of her sentence as she completed the process and allowed the two to fall unconscious.

With her link to Roun severed, and the gathering of channelers having provided her with her own Astral and Ethereal energy, making her a truly independent entity for the first time in over a millennium, Archetype allowed the Ethereal energy to flow through her form.  Thanks to Monolith’s template, she had suffered none of the adverse effects that were now plaguing young Roun, and as such, she could now exhibit her abilities to the full, limited only by the astral energy at her command.

For this reason, her presence at the Rogue Fortress, Desert Storm, now proved to be rather unnerving for Harry Benet, who was charged with the task of monitoring her and protecting the occupants of the base from any harm that could arise as a result of her presence. 

Kyasho had reassured Harry that it was unlikely that her presence would prove to result in a threat, but he still wished for Harry to monitor her and ensure, not only that she was who she appeared to be, but that he motives were as pure as Shin Itami had made them out to be.

As the leader of the elite squad K-Four, dealing with high level threats was as common as any of his other day to day chores, however, if the information which he had received about this Archetype character was correct, she would be on an entire different level were she to ally herself against them.  Being the ‘first’ of their race, it was said that Archetype’s soul was bestowed with all of the potential that would be later expressed by any of her descendants.  This gave her the innate ability to ‘devise’ any technique which any channeler alive has already or will eventually execute.

This made it impossible to plan for a confrontation with her as it was simply impossible for he, or anyone else, to create contingencies for every single possibility that existed.  This was only further compounded by the presence of this guardian entity of hers, the psychic wraith referred to as Monolith.  Unlike Archetype’s description, Monolith’s left a lot more to the imagination.  From the data provided by Shin Itami, the entity which had come to be known as Monolith was simply a soul from Archetype’s line.  However, this soul was considered to be the most powerful soul to have ever emerged from their line, even more powerful than Archetype herself.  Harry found this to be curious however, as he pondered just how something could be more powerful than an entity with no limitations.

Had it not been for the scans that he had been able to collect from Ryuu while he unleashed the entity and the Astral data provided by Shin Itami on the entity, Harry would probably have been left to wonder indefinitely.  Fortunately, this was not the case.  Harry smirked now as he thought about it, realising just how simple it had been.  As he analysed the data, and cross referenced it with other data which he had collected through the Rogue Special Forces, he began to realise that this Monolith bore a striking resemblance to a channeler that existed in their time… the only true difference between their energy signatures was that this Monolith seemed to be far more developed.  As it dawned on him, Harry realised that this ‘Monolith’ was not necessarily the strongest channeler to have every lived before, but more accurately, he was the strongest channeler that would ever exist from Archetype’s line. 

Realising this, Harry now went over the data, cross referencing it with another interesting data source, one that caught Archetype’s attention as she made her way into his Control Room.  At first, her energy signature seemed familiar, giving him no reason to be startled until his military instilled paranoia forced him to realise that he simply could not put a name or face to this oddly familiar energy.  Spinning and powering up his form, Harry could feel as every packet of energy rushed through his form, a feeling similar to that of an adrenaline rush in users.  His action only caused the woman to laugh however.

“Going over Roun’s personal journals… I believe that’s considered invasion of privacy in this time…”  Archetype sounded, not even bothering to power up her ethereal form as she continued towards Harry.

“How did you get in here?  There are biometric and ethereal sensors that should prohibit foreign channelers from being able to enter this place.”  Harry replied now, still unnerved by the whole thing.

“I am the archetype Harry, I’m sure that my form meets the requirements for any tests that you or anyone else might be inclined to subject it to.”  She replied, causing a chill to run down Harry’s spine at the implications of what she had just said.  “Now I believe it’s my turn to ask the questions, what are you doing with Roun’s journal?”  She inquired again.

“That’s none of your business.”  Harry replied, annoyed now by the woman’s audacity.  “Leave this room now.”

“Monolith’s data?”  She now commented out loud, looking over the screens around the room as they displayed the raw unprocessed data which Harry was privy to.  “That’s quite intuitive.”  She laughed now, connecting the dots and causing Harry to raise an eyebrow.

“You know what this means?”  He inquired, astounded at her technical knowledge.  “You’ve never encountered this kind of technology before on your own, and this stuff is surely over Roun’s head, how then can you even understand what this means… unless you’re toying with me?”  Harry’s eyes narrowed now, causing Archetype to sigh, before she walked past him, moving towards the master console and keying in a few simple commands.

“I’ll leave you to your work Harry, I’m sorry to have disturbed you.”  Was all she would say as she left, leaving Desert Storm’s mainframe to process her last requests.

Harry would ensure that she was completely gone before he turned back to his work, looking up at the central screen to see the calculations come to completion.  The results would confirm his suspicious, revealing the true identity of this ‘Monolith’.