Chapter 3

Mary felt the outfit that Circe had given her. Initially it was too big for her in the chest and rear, but then the other woman pressed a button. Suddenly, it fit perfectly. However, Mary didn’t like the fact that the suit would process her waste. Circe apparently didn’t bathe except for every three days. The outfit kept her clean enough somehow.

That wasn’t her greatest worry as she observed her brother in one of those robots covered in clay. Mary would be trained to fight in a machine man as well. However, Circe was keeping her close in her strange flying boat.

“Just relax. He is just learning his trade with Juan,” said the woman who was relaxing on what appeared to be a bench. She looked at a small rectangle device that she seemed to touch.

Bill still wearing his clothes looked depressed.

“I should be down there with Jesse,” he mumbled.

Circe laughed as she put down her device and picked up a drink. Her mocha skin only shown on her face. “Bill, it’s Bill. You have a more important task before you. We must travel to a Mayan temple. The Aztec don’t have a connection to our true ally, and it is important that you know that, Bill. You have a grand destiny.” Circe sounded glum.

“Why am I here then?” asked Mary in her purple hued body suit.

“Oh, that’s simple,” said Circe.

“I don’t trust you with Juan and Joe.” Said the so-called witch with contempt.

Mary looked a bit confused. “Who’s Joe?”

Circe laughed. “That’s not important right now, but he is a pervert. And I may be a witch by the standards of men, but I am going to protect another woman.”

At that point, Mary pointed towards the small village that the machine men walked towards as jaguar warriors approached with obsidian tipped spears. Mary wondered why schools didn’t teach about how brutal the Aztecs were.

Men ran into the village shouting. If any tried to stop them, they were killed without mercy. At other times, the Jaguar Warriors worked with the machine men controlled by her brother Jesse, Juan who Mary hated, and the third machine was piloted by some guy named Joe.

The machine men would often just trap villagers. Often especially with Joe and Juan controlling the machines, they took huge nets picking up women and children. Circe explained to Mary in these brutal days that slaves were important. And for a lot of them, they would be taken back to Tenochtitlan to be sacrificed to Aztec gods. Circe didn’t really care.

“They are not your kin,” said Circe.

Now in a control room, Mary looked at the woman who was rerouting her floating vehicle. “Who said that I care if they are my kin?”

Circe laughed in her red trimmed bodysuit. “My favorite lover that I tease every couple of centuries use to say all human deserve respect. Personally, what does it matter? Our peoples are dead.”

“But I thought you kept mentioning that Bill is close,” said Mary.

Circe laughed. “He is descended of a different caste of Atlanteans which is astounding that I found him honestly, and I am glad that he was found since it will make our true ally happier.”

Circe continued. “Bill’s ancestors were pretty close to my caste, but he isn’t as free as mine were before our fall. Nor are his people that cover my former continent are close to my caste. I am all that is left of my caste, but who we are about to meet was the part of the most powerful caste that his ancestors served even as vassals.”

Bill had fallen asleep, and Mary was grateful for that. “So, Atlantis was in Africa?”

Circe laughed. “You call where it was the Sahara. Murua had their continent in the northern Pacific as you called it. Atlantis destroyed that continent using tech that we had acquired from the Lizards. There is nothing left of them whereas the waters that surrounded Atlantis are gone- that’s why it is now the Sahara thanks to the weapon that Murau had. Their lords survived whereas the homeland got obliterated with withering technology. Their people wandered the Earth after whereas all that is left of Atlantis are our lower castes which have been deluded to forget their origins and spread into peoples that they were never supposed to mix with.”

Suddenly the straight-haired mocha skinned woman looked at Mary. “Even with your blood ties to the Murau, you have the blood of the unaligned.”

“The unaligned?” asked Mary.

Circe laughed. “There were always more people than just Atlantis or the Murau, and the destruction of both Empires flooded the world. A prophet among the Murau was correct, but there were always more survivals than most realize.”

Mary realized that there was always more to the lessons than got taught in school.

Jesse was having the time of his life as he controlled the machine. The control system of the robot amazed the teenager. “This is better than Space Invaders,” he shouted.

“It is indeed better than that pitiful control system,” said Juan over the radio.

It was the other pilot that chimed in. “Space Invaders? Who care about that old knob game? I was developing a better control system for Amiga.”

Jesse asked a simple question. “What’s a girlfriend?”

The man laughed about the question. “I told them that the name would confuse Spanish speakers, but no one ever cares about Joe Jasper Jason’s concerns.”

Juan shouted back. “No one cares, Joe.”

And then he said in a more even tone. “I want the kid to demonstrate the smash move on that hut. Do it just how we practice, Jesse.”

Jesse saw the robot that Juan control point at a hut that the Jaguar Warriors were having problems. Arrows seemed to come out of the hut. The eyes of the robot show several Jaguar Warriors riddled with arrows.

Jesse strolled over to the hut, and then he rose the arms and brought them down strong on the square hut of wood. And with a crash of the fists, it collapsed easily.

And before he could analyze the results, Juan came on the radio. “You did good, bro. Come on, we need to go back to prepare for the next march.”

But as Jesse turned around the machine, he didn’t notice in between what had been a hut now merely contained a slurry of blood and bone, and quickly the warriors of the Aztecs marched in to seize anyone left in the village.

Mary got off the metallic flying boat as guards from the Mayan Temple came and made an honor guard for the three. Bill still wore his clothes, but they looked worn considering how they had traveled through time and that liquid.

The city seemed abandoned. “Where are all the people?” asked Mary.

Circe laughed. “When our ally woke up, he caused a disaster here. Most of the time when one of his nodes wakes up, the worst is a thunderstorm breaking out, but when he woke up the last time, he unleashed a storm of microwave that destroyed the people. That was several centuries ago. The outer villages survived, but the main city didn’t survive. It worked out for my goals here.”

The cold way that Circe had expressed that disregard to human so causally unnerved Mary. The Mayan guards seemed to worship Circe as she moved. They seemed to ignore Bill and Mary.

Using a special device from a belt, Circe pressed a button, and stones parted on the side of the pyramids. Circe led the group through the door as the warriors dropped to their knees. “They think that is Tezcatlipoca who is one of the gods of this region associated with the dead. The Greeks called him Chronos, and that is closer to his real name, but he has acquired many names over the past millennium.”

As they passed the entrance, it started to become less masonry and more circuitry. Mary saw what looked like damage. “So Chronos is just some computer?”

Circe laughed. “He is much more than just some computer.”

The trio walked down a corridor which opened into a grand arena. It appeared that some sort of sport was supposed to be there, and that was when a head appeared in between projectors. It appeared like what the heads on the robots had been made to appear like. And unlike the outside where the heat of the noon day sun, it felt cool down here like some sort of air conditioning existed.

Words in a strange language were exchanged with Circe and giant head, and finally the giant green glowing head spoke to Mary and Bill. “Welcome Bill and Mary. I am the last Archon of Atlantis. You can refer to me as Chronos. My mind isn’t what it once was, but both of you have been granted a great boon by meeting with me. Especially you Bill are incredibly important to the tasks that I will offer you. You have a great destiny before you”

Then the head disappeared displaying the great city of Atlantis that had once existed. Towers of stone with vehicles that appeared to be flying metal boats appeared. Humans of multiple races appeared and seemed to be laughing in a city of made of multiple circles with great canals. In the innermost circle, there appeared to be twelve men with mocha skin either with long straight hair or bald but with trimmed beards. “Behold the council of Archons at Atlan. The capital city of the great Empire of Atlantis was the envy of the world after the great war of the heavens, and the Archons had found a way to unite humanity, but the . . .”

The voice trailed off as image of the men in silver armor appeared trampling the outer section of the city. “The men of Murau came and disrupted the plan which had guaranteed the success of humanity against the threats of ignorance and folly. Despite threatening them with destruction, the men of Murau attacked through their colonies such as the lands that you call Greece and others after the destruction of their homeland in the Pacific.”

The arena displayed a beam hitting the Earth from the Moon which destroyed what Mary assumed to be the homeland of the Murau. However above Atlantis appeared to be many great space ships that launched attack on Atlantis with similar effects to disrupt the waters around Atlantis burning them away.

And a final blast caused weather patterns around the world to be disrupted. Floods occurred around the world. Water flooded the Earth, and then the head reappeared after the other displays.

“What would have brought order to the chaotic Earth only ensured that I, Chronos, survived. And since then, I have tried to rebuild the Earth, but pettiness and disruptions occurred.”

The head showed a picture of a man with silvery hair. “And Circe somehow caused this Murau man to survive. You may have heard of him by several names including Prometheus or Merlin.”

Bill seemed impressed with what he was hearing. “So, Jesse is right that it was the white man that destroyed the world.”

However, Mary felt like that this was not totally all the truth, but she didn’t express any descent as the propaganda continued.

And then the giant head looked straight at Bill and seemed to float towards Bill. The head smiled. “And you have been chosen young Bill as my prophet.” Looking at Circe, the head that appeared to be twenty feet tall talked to her. “And I want you to be careful when you bring him into my chamber.”

Circe nodded. The head smiled, and he disappeared.

“Just sit back and relax, Mary. This may take a while.”

Sitting in the great chamber in what Mary assumed figured was some sort of sport’s arena. Mary felt tired, and it felt good to just be cool even if the bodysuit seemed to regulate her body well.

She had not slept since last night either, and it felt good to shut her eyes.

“It appears that she had fallen into a slumber. Go away for several hours, and she falls asleep,” said a familiar voice to Mary.

Opening her eyes, Bill was no longer wearing clothes that appeared to be damp. Instead, he appeared wearing clothing like her bodysuit, but instead, he was wearing a silvery thick coat along with a silvery jumpsuit. It also appeared where once there had been a loveable, outspoken, but dull teenager now had eyes that seemed to focus and judge everyone. There was a glare like the giant floating head.

Mary gasped.

“Ah Mary, you seem to be taken back by the arrival of my new erudite disposition.”

Mary nodded. “You never seemed concerned with anything academic, Bill. I even had to tutor you last year just to get you to pass your classes.”

Bill chuckled. “I am now awakened by Chronos. On how, the shadow of the Murau has ruined the world that we come from, and now, I understand how much is needed of me, and where the pieces must fall.”

Mary did not like the look that Bill gave her. It appeared to be someone that was calculating things. Then Circe came from behind her.

“Time to go now, dear.”

Mary didn’t know what Chronos was, but whatever the last Archon of Atlantis was, he was something not entirely human now. Mary wondered what had happened to Ashton. She hoped that he was okay.

As Mary was ushered out of the vast chamber, the girl saw Bill pulled out something akin to a small rectangle, and the giant head appeared again. There no longer seemed to be any intelligence there. Instead, he seemed listless.

“I am Chronos of Atlantis,” the giant head said. And then the message repeated and repeated without changing.