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September 1, 75010 BCE; Eden

She stood in the foliage of the lush green gardens that she had been tending too ever since she was told to. She had a bucket of water in her hands as she walked along the shining tiles that made up the pathways beneath the canopies. She walked amongst the rest of the humans in the garden, the other servants to the masters, the gods. She didn't pay heed to them, though. The masters did not permit socialization during work time, and so she obeyed, as all the servants did. The masters’ wills were always done. The masters were pleased, and that was what mattered.

She carried the bucket to another servant, a man whom she was always partnered with during work hours. The masters called him Adam. He was a gardener, just like her. They worked together and slept together and did the masters’ work together. Today they tended the trees and the fruits that grew upon them. The masters liked the garden to look healthy.

Adam looked at her as she approached.

“I have the water,” she told him blankly.

He took the pail from her arms and began to drizzle it around the various trees. She watched him for a while. There was nothing more for her to do until the masters told her what he next task was. She simply stood and waited. The masters were walking the perimeter of the garden, talking to one another about things she could hear but not understand. It was not her job to understand. It was not her job to hear either, but that was not something she could help.

“I hate this job…” one of them said.

“Please don't start this again, Gabriel,” said another.

“Michael, come on. You have to admit something about this project just seems… wrong.”

“It's not my job to decide what's right or wrong, little brother. That's for the king to decide and for me to uphold.”

“Oh come on! You can't tell me you don't feel just the least bit uncomfortable with this whole subspecies enslavement thing.”

“I can and I will. Even if I couldn't, what's there to feel uncomfortable about? We engineered their species to serve us and make Isu lives easier. It seems rather open and shut to me.”

“But that's just it! We made these beings, this whole species, in our image, make them just like us in every way but in their minds. Look at them, they've got no souls! We don't allow them to think for themselves even though they could if we just-”

“I'm going to stop you right there, little brother. First off, they aren't just like us. They're livestock, tools. Their lives mean nothing compared to the magnificence of the Isu race. They live to serve us, that's it.”

“But if we-”

“Which leads me to point two: they have those specialized neurotransmitters for a reason, Gabriel. They're hardwired to the Apples so that we can control them and keep them at bay. Can you imagine the chaos and destruction our planet would face if humans had freewill? They'd destroy our entire civilization. It's in their nature.”

“You don't know that. They might be just as cultured as us if we gave them a chance!”

“You two always give me a headache, I swear,” the third figure said. It earned him dirty looks from both Michael and Gabriel. “What? It's true.”

“Then by all means, give your spiel on the matter, Lucifer,” Michael said.

“Hmm? Oh, I honestly couldn't care less. I just fight the battles I'm pointed to and survey the projects I'm told to survey.”

“Then why are you here in Eden? Why don't you go deal with those things and quit pestering those of us that actually do our jobs.”

“Oh yes, because guarding livestock is such a massive task. Truly, Odin has placed his top soldier in such a grandiose position.”

“I will impale you on my sword.”

“I love you too, brother.”

“Lucifer, come on,” Gabriel said. “Look, you can stay and chat if you want, but can you please try to stay out of trouble while you're here?”

Lucifer grinned, causing his battle scars to wrinkle. “Oh but brother, that's what I do best. Why do you think I run Tartarus? People don't get prissy with me for tormenting folks there.”

“We're here to help Gadreel guard this garden. That's what Odin and Thor wanted us to do. We just want to be able to do that without hitting any bumps. We guard the walls, watch the humans, and that's it.”

“And maybe a little more than that, eh?” Lucifer punctuated the sentence by nudging Gabriel's shoulder. Gabriel wasn't amused.

“Oh come on,” Lucifer said. “We've all heard what Gadreel and his pals like to do when they have some free time with the livestock. How do you think those two over there got here?” He pointed at Adam and Eve.

“I'd rather not think about it,” Michael said sternly. “Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to finish my patrols.”

And with that, he sauntered off from the group, leaving his brothers behind.

“Do you have to be so mean to him?” Gabriel asked.

“Yep,” Lucifer responded.

“Lucifer…”

“Oh, I'm just teasing him.”

“You're jealous.”

“Shut up.”

“I'm just saying.”

“I couldn't care less about what Michael thinks.”

“Clearly. You clearly don't care what I think either.”

“If you're talking about the human matter, then no, I don't care. My job is to just do my job. If they're mindless livestock, they're mindless livestock. If a few get loose and stir up a little trouble.” He grinned again. “Well sounds like a fun bit of chaos to me.”

“You always were the kind of guy who liked to watch the world burn.”

Gabriel scowled and turned away, walking off in the same direction as Michael. Lucifer was left alone. He looked like he was about to get mad, but his expression quickly turned back to a casual smirk. He shrugged to himself. “Nothing wrong with a little chaos every now and then,” he said to himself. He started thinking. He looked around at the garden and all the human slaves tending to it. He looked over at Eve, who was still standing and awaiting orders from the masters. He grinned again. He went over to one of the large rooms that were inset into the buildings. He rummaged around in a set of drawers until he found what he was looking for: the device that ran this entire establishment, that controlled the entire human species, the Apple of Eden. He held it up high, and it started pulsing and glowing, the mechanisms inside of the golden sphere whirring and howling. He aimed it towards Eve.

She felt the tingling in her brain from the Apple's effects. She felt it coursing through her mind like a snake slithering around. She heard the soft, commanding voice of it. She heard Lucifer give her an order. “Come here, come on.”

Eve obeyed. She walked towards him, followed him into the room, the isolated room. She gazed up at him with blank, glassy eyes and an emotionless face. Lucifer put a hand on her shoulder, as though he were chatting with a business partner.

“Ah Eve Eve Eve,” he said to her, though she wasn't really comprehending his words. “You know, they both have a point. You humans are pathetic, like cockroaches really. You're stupid and so so easy to manipulate.” He held up the Apple to emphasize his point. He paused. “Except… you're also not. Gabriel is right, you can do anything we can, we just don't let you. And I mean, why would we? Your species has slaved away for us for years now. Ever since we molded your DNA out of those apes on the savanna,you've made our society flourish so much.” He paused again. “But sometimes I wonder what would happen if we let you think. If we let you have a taste of this special ‘fruit’ too.” He grinned, a malicious curve. “Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to just sit down and talk.”

And with that, he slammed the Apple down into Eve's hand, pressing it tight against her flesh.

And suddenly everything changed.

She let out an audible gasp as the energy raced into her nerves and practically overflowed her brain with charge. Her muscles spasmed painfully before stiffening out. Her eyes bulged as they glowed with the intense burning light of the Apple. She felt it snake through her brain, but more than she had ever felt before, in a way she never felt before. She began to see things in the light. Visions of the Isu masters and their technologies, of their governance and civilians, of their art and music and names and culture and language, of the way they used her species, her people. She saw her people toiling away in this facility, some with jobs of major importance, like forging the metal that built Isu weapons and houses, others like her and Adam, with jobs of no importance, just keeping the plants from dying and making the slave facility look nice. But by far the most bizarre and unfamiliar sensation was how she felt about it all, how she felt upon this understanding of her people's role and treatment.

She was infuriated.

The lights and visions faded away as quickly as they appeared, and Eve dropped to her knees, breathing heavily and feeling like she was about to vomit. She clutched her stomach in pain. She felt like crying. She felt.

She noticed she still held the Apple in her hand, but it wasn't the same thing she normally saw it as. It wasn't a divine power that she worshipped and that guided her every move anymore. It was just… it was just a glowing metal ball. Nothing more. She stared at it, confused, and then she looked up and saw the grinning face of Lucifer. She gasped and recoiled backwards a bit.

“Oh come on, I'm not that ugly,” he joked.

“I… I… no! Get away! Don't hurt me!” Eve begged, on the verge of tears.

“Hurt you? Really? After what I just did you think I want to hurt you? Come on. Who do I look like? Michael?”

She scrambled back to her feet. She looked down at herself. She suddenly noticed another major difference between her and the Isu: all she had to wear were these skin-tight work suits. Demeaning and practically revealing compared to the lavish and detailed armors and robes that the Isu wore. That made her angry too.

“Wha… what did you do to me?” she stuttered. She didn't know what to feel. She had never felt before. She felt scared, confused, angry, all in one.

“I set you free,” said Lucifer. “You're welcome.”

“Set me free?”

“I gave you knowledge, kid. I shut down the connection between you and that thing in your hands right there.”

She looked down at the Apple again. It was still just a piece of silver to her. It wasn't a remote control anymore. Lucifer suddenly put an arm around her shoulder again. “See,” he said, “I figured why not give your kind a shot. Put my brothers to the test and see which one was right. That stick in the mud, Michael, or the foolishly heart-driven Gabriel.”

“But… But why me? Why not the others?”

“Well quite frankly you're the easiest aside from your little boyfriend over there.” He pointed to Adam. Eve saw the blankness in her work partner's eyes. She felt her heart aching at the sight of it. He looked soulless, emotionless, like… like a tool… All of the humans looked that way. They were just slaves, working for these so-called gods nonstop with no say in it. It was atrocious, despicable…

“You see, you're not fully human,” Lucifer continued. “No, you two have Isu blood in you. You're hybrids. Nephilim. You were born without that special little neurotransmitter we implanted into your species’ heads. That special little clump of cells that makes it so easy for the Apple to control you. Without it, well hell it's as easy as flicking a switch off.”

“My people… oh God my people… Look at them! They're… they're…” She started crying and she clenched her fists. She was no longer trapped as they were. She could see now. She could see the oppression and discrimination put upon her kind. It broke her heart.

“I… I have to do something about it! I have to set them free!”

She started rushing back into the garden, Apple in hand, but Lucifer stopped her.

“Ah ah ah,” he warned. “I wouldn't rush in there if I were you. You're not supposed to be anywhere near that Apple of yours. The only fruits you're supposed to have access to are the ones in all these trees. This one is forbidden. If you're planning a rebellion, you need to do it right.”

“But… what is the right way?”

“From the shadows.” He paused and grinned again, an expression that she couldn't fully read.

“...I need to escape,” she decided. “I have to get out of here… I have to… I have to think, plan.”

“Well, you were built for physical activity, and these walls are pretty climbable, so…”

“So I'll have to climb.” She paused. “No… We'll have to climb. I'm not leaving without Adam! I have to give him this same knowledge that I have!”

And then she took off into the garden. Lucifer didn't try to stop her this time.

Eve rushed up to Adam and pulled him away from his gardening. He looked at her blankly. “Eve, how can I help you?” he asked, his voice dull and robotic.

“Adam! You have to snap out of this! Please! You're the only one I can trust in this! You've always been at my side!”

He said nothing. He just stared at her as she begged and cried. She looked at him, and then it dawned on her. She looked down at the Apple. She held it up to him. He went wide-eyed as its glow assaulted his eyes and pierced his brain.

“Eve,” he said. “What is this device?”

Eve smiled. She wiped her tears away. This was going to fix him. “Touch, Adam,” she said, “and you will know.”

And so he followed his orders. He touched it.

------------

They ran.

Eve had shared the knowledge with Adam, gave him the same awareness, the same understanding, that Lucifer had given her. He went through the same state of shock and terror that she did, the same morbid depression that resulted from seeing his people held in such evil chains. Eve had to comfort him, to tell him her plan to escape, and he agreed.

And so they ran.

They knew this place inside and out. They had been dragged across all of these rooms all their lives of slavery. They knew where the guards, top picked from the Isu’s legendary Angel Garrison, patrolled. They just had to run, to climb, and to time their every move perfectly in order to stay hidden.

They had managed to climb up towards one of the upper balconies, and used that to haul themselves up a level. They sprinted across the smooth glass floors and leapt over one of the raised platforms that made up the facility. They leapt down into another section of garden and sprinted towards one of the doors that led inside one of the factory buildings. It whooshed open automatically as they came up to it. They ducked inside, and they immediately leapt into the metal support beams and rafters that made up the structure of this noisy, dark location. They could hear the slaves on the floors above them mindlessly pounding away at the various metal parts they were given to mold for their masters. The sound was soon matched with a visual, as Adam smashed a window open and he and Eve climbed out onto the side of the building. They climbed up a few floors, and caught a glimpse of one of the Isu overseers wielding an Apple, standing there almost as if she was bored, in front of all the slaves who had no clue what they were doing, only that they were obeying the masters’ wills. Adam and Eve's hearts sank. They knew they would have to come back here one day. They had to. They couldn't leave their own kind behind in this tyranny.

They kept climbing, higher and higher until they reached the top of the facility’s main building. They stood at the edge, and for the first time in their lives they laid eyes upon it: the outside world. A great mountain towered over the savanna below, a seemingly endless plain of beautiful sunlight dancing off of the grass and loose spread of trees. They saw animals below. Striped horses and massive maned cats, and other lumbering beasts that lived freely outside the facility. It was beautiful.

Adam looked at Eve, still out of breath.

“Adam,” she said when he looked at her inquisitively, “I have it.” She held up the Apple to emphasize her statement. He nodded.

The two of them stood there, pondering what to do. They knew they had to think fast. They could be caught at any minute if they didn't-

“Eve!” Adam warned as he spun around. Eve's heart sank when she heard the rumbling whir of Isu armor. Not just any armor, angel armor. Those nigh-indestructible suits that also grant the user the ability to fly…

“Look out!” Eve warned. She lunged and tackled Adam to the ground just in time to keep him from being hit by an energy bolt. The two of them gasped in terror as a massive and powerful figure came swooping up from over the edge of the building. His wings shined like the sun, his golden armor adding to the intensity with its reflectivity. In his hand he held a sword with a massive curved blade, one that could easily end them both in one swipe. Adam and Eve cowered in fear. It was Michael, the head guard.

“I'm surprised you managed to make it this far,” he said in his cold, powerful voice. “We can't have runaways like you screwing up this program.”

He raised his sword at them. It glowed in intensity, whirring as a ball of energy seemingly formed from it. Eve and Adam hugged each other tight, shut their eyes, and prepared for the end.

But it never came.

There was a hard thud and a cry of pain from Michael, who came crashing down onto the rooftop, unconscious. Eve and Adam looked up at what happened, and they saw another angel hovering there with a metal bar in his hand. It was Lucifer. He was grinning at them.

“You know, I always wanted to do that,” he said nonchalantly.

“You… you saved us…” Eve stuttered.

“Well yeah. Wouldn't be much fun setting you free if all it amounted to was my brother blasting you to smithereens. Best hurry and get out of here. Mikey here won't be asleep for very long.”

He pointed at Michael, who was already starting to stir. Eve and Adam nodded. They ran towards the edge of the building, and beneath them they saw a few conveniently stacked hay bales. They knew they didn't have many other options. Eve held the Apple tight. They both ran forwards off the edge. An eagle screeched somewhere far in the distance, and they took their leaps of faith to freedom.

The world collapsed around them as they fell. Everything was engulfed in a blinding golden light. The sights and sounds of the wind crashing through her hair as the ground got ever closer were all gone. Soon, the only ambience she heard was once again the crackle of the fire, the howling winds outside, and the gentle whir of the disk she held in her hands.

Arktalaki shielded her eyes until the light finally died down to a gentle glow. The second her muscles listened to her again, she tossed the disk straight across the cave and scurried backwards in fear. She yelled, terrified and confused of what she just witnessed. She was breathing heavily and shaking. What was that? It felt like she was there, in the body of that Eve woman. It felt like her thoughts were hers, as though she were trapped in some extremely lucid memory. It was as though she had actually become Eve for a short while. Her hands shook hard as she tried to wrap her head around it. She needed answers. She got up and sprinted back down into the depths of the cave. She needed to find the Mentor.

But as she set out, she was interrupted by the world collapsing around her. Time seemed to come to a glitchy stand-still as everything warped and fractured into nothing but a blank black void of ones and zeroes. She felt her body being torn apart and faded away. For a while all she felt was her consciousness floating in the void before it all just went black.

And when she opened her eyes, Ava saw that she was back on Animus Island.

Description
September 1, 75010 BCE; Eden

She stood in the foliage of the lush green gardens that she had been tending too ever since she was told to. She had a bucket of water in her hands as she walked along the shining tiles that made up the pathways beneath the canopies. She walked amongst the rest of the humans in the garden, the other servants to the masters, the gods. She didn't pay heed to them, though. The masters did not permit socialization during work time, and so she obeyed, as all the servants did. The masters’ wills were always done. The masters were pleased, and that was what mattered.

She carried the bucket to another servant, a man whom she was always partnered with during work hours. The masters called him Adam. He was a gardener, just like her. They worked together and slept together and did the masters’ work together. Today they tended the trees and the fruits that grew upon them. The masters liked the garden to look healthy.

Adam looked at her as she approached.

“I have the water,” she told him blankly.

He took the pail from her arms and began to drizzle it around the various trees. She watched him for a while. There was nothing more for her to do until the masters told her what he next task was. She simply stood and waited. The masters were walking the perimeter of the garden, talking to one another about things she could hear but not understand. It was not her job to understand. It was not her job to hear either, but that was not something she could help.

“I hate this job…” one of them said.

“Please don't start this again, Gabriel,” said another.

“Michael, come on. You have to admit something about this project just seems… wrong.”

“It's not my job to decide what's right or wrong, little brother. That's for the king to decide and for me to uphold.”

“Oh come on! You can't tell me you don't feel just the least bit uncomfortable with this whole subspecies enslavement thing.”

“I can and I will. Even if I couldn't, what's there to feel uncomfortable about? We engineered their species to serve us and make Isu lives easier. It seems rather open and shut to me.”

“But that's just it! We made these beings, this whole species, in our image, make them just like us in every way but in their minds. Look at them, they've got no souls! We don't allow them to think for themselves even though they could if we just-”

“I'm going to stop you right there, little brother. First off, they aren't just like us. They're livestock, tools. Their lives mean nothing compared to the magnificence of the Isu race. They live to serve us, that's it.”

“But if we-”

“Which leads me to point two: they have those specialized neurotransmitters for a reason, Gabriel. They're hardwired to the Apples so that we can control them and keep them at bay. Can you imagine the chaos and destruction our planet would face if humans had freewill? They'd destroy our entire civilization. It's in their nature.”

“You don't know that. They might be just as cultured as us if we gave them a chance!”

“You two always give me a headache, I swear,” the third figure said. It earned him dirty looks from both Michael and Gabriel. “What? It's true.”

“Then by all means, give your spiel on the matter, Lucifer,” Michael said.

“Hmm? Oh, I honestly couldn't care less. I just fight the battles I'm pointed to and survey the projects I'm told to survey.”

“Then why are you here in Eden? Why don't you go deal with those things and quit pestering those of us that actually do our jobs.”

“Oh yes, because guarding livestock is such a massive task. Truly, Odin has placed his top soldier in such a grandiose position.”

“I will impale you on my sword.”

“I love you too, brother.”

“Lucifer, come on,” Gabriel said. “Look, you can stay and chat if you want, but can you please try to stay out of trouble while you're here?”

Lucifer grinned, causing his battle scars to wrinkle. “Oh but brother, that's what I do best. Why do you think I run Tartarus? People don't get prissy with me for tormenting folks there.”

“We're here to help Gadreel guard this garden. That's what Odin and Thor wanted us to do. We just want to be able to do that without hitting any bumps. We guard the walls, watch the humans, and that's it.”

“And maybe a little more than that, eh?” Lucifer punctuated the sentence by nudging Gabriel's shoulder. Gabriel wasn't amused.

“Oh come on,” Lucifer said. “We've all heard what Gadreel and his pals like to do when they have some free time with the livestock. How do you think those two over there got here?” He pointed at Adam and Eve.

“I'd rather not think about it,” Michael said sternly. “Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to finish my patrols.”

And with that, he sauntered off from the group, leaving his brothers behind.

“Do you have to be so mean to him?” Gabriel asked.

“Yep,” Lucifer responded.

“Lucifer…”

“Oh, I'm just teasing him.”

“You're jealous.”

“Shut up.”

“I'm just saying.”

“I couldn't care less about what Michael thinks.”

“Clearly. You clearly don't care what I think either.”

“If you're talking about the human matter, then no, I don't care. My job is to just do my job. If they're mindless livestock, they're mindless livestock. If a few get loose and stir up a little trouble.” He grinned again. “Well sounds like a fun bit of chaos to me.”

“You always were the kind of guy who liked to watch the world burn.”

Gabriel scowled and turned away, walking off in the same direction as Michael. Lucifer was left alone. He looked like he was about to get mad, but his expression quickly turned back to a casual smirk. He shrugged to himself. “Nothing wrong with a little chaos every now and then,” he said to himself. He started thinking. He looked around at the garden and all the human slaves tending to it. He looked over at Eve, who was still standing and awaiting orders from the masters. He grinned again. He went over to one of the large rooms that were inset into the buildings. He rummaged around in a set of drawers until he found what he was looking for: the device that ran this entire establishment, that controlled the entire human species, the Apple of Eden. He held it up high, and it started pulsing and glowing, the mechanisms inside of the golden sphere whirring and howling. He aimed it towards Eve.

She felt the tingling in her brain from the Apple's effects. She felt it coursing through her mind like a snake slithering around. She heard the soft, commanding voice of it. She heard Lucifer give her an order. “Come here, come on.”

Eve obeyed. She walked towards him, followed him into the room, the isolated room. She gazed up at him with blank, glassy eyes and an emotionless face. Lucifer put a hand on her shoulder, as though he were chatting with a business partner.

“Ah Eve Eve Eve,” he said to her, though she wasn't really comprehending his words. “You know, they both have a point. You humans are pathetic, like cockroaches really. You're stupid and so so easy to manipulate.” He held up the Apple to emphasize his point. He paused. “Except… you're also not. Gabriel is right, you can do anything we can, we just don't let you. And I mean, why would we? Your species has slaved away for us for years now. Ever since we molded your DNA out of those apes on the savanna,you've made our society flourish so much.” He paused again. “But sometimes I wonder what would happen if we let you think. If we let you have a taste of this special ‘fruit’ too.” He grinned, a malicious curve. “Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to just sit down and talk.”

And with that, he slammed the Apple down into Eve's hand, pressing it tight against her flesh.

And suddenly everything changed.

She let out an audible gasp as the energy raced into her nerves and practically overflowed her brain with charge. Her muscles spasmed painfully before stiffening out. Her eyes bulged as they glowed with the intense burning light of the Apple. She felt it snake through her brain, but more than she had ever felt before, in a way she never felt before. She began to see things in the light. Visions of the Isu masters and their technologies, of their governance and civilians, of their art and music and names and culture and language, of the way they used her species, her people. She saw her people toiling away in this facility, some with jobs of major importance, like forging the metal that built Isu weapons and houses, others like her and Adam, with jobs of no importance, just keeping the plants from dying and making the slave facility look nice. But by far the most bizarre and unfamiliar sensation was how she felt about it all, how she felt upon this understanding of her people's role and treatment.

She was infuriated.

The lights and visions faded away as quickly as they appeared, and Eve dropped to her knees, breathing heavily and feeling like she was about to vomit. She clutched her stomach in pain. She felt like crying. She felt.

She noticed she still held the Apple in her hand, but it wasn't the same thing she normally saw it as. It wasn't a divine power that she worshipped and that guided her every move anymore. It was just… it was just a glowing metal ball. Nothing more. She stared at it, confused, and then she looked up and saw the grinning face of Lucifer. She gasped and recoiled backwards a bit.

“Oh come on, I'm not that ugly,” he joked.

“I… I… no! Get away! Don't hurt me!” Eve begged, on the verge of tears.

“Hurt you? Really? After what I just did you think I want to hurt you? Come on. Who do I look like? Michael?”

She scrambled back to her feet. She looked down at herself. She suddenly noticed another major difference between her and the Isu: all she had to wear were these skin-tight work suits. Demeaning and practically revealing compared to the lavish and detailed armors and robes that the Isu wore. That made her angry too.

“Wha… what did you do to me?” she stuttered. She didn't know what to feel. She had never felt before. She felt scared, confused, angry, all in one.

“I set you free,” said Lucifer. “You're welcome.”

“Set me free?”

“I gave you knowledge, kid. I shut down the connection between you and that thing in your hands right there.”

She looked down at the Apple again. It was still just a piece of silver to her. It wasn't a remote control anymore. Lucifer suddenly put an arm around her shoulder again. “See,” he said, “I figured why not give your kind a shot. Put my brothers to the test and see which one was right. That stick in the mud, Michael, or the foolishly heart-driven Gabriel.”

“But… But why me? Why not the others?”

“Well quite frankly you're the easiest aside from your little boyfriend over there.” He pointed to Adam. Eve saw the blankness in her work partner's eyes. She felt her heart aching at the sight of it. He looked soulless, emotionless, like… like a tool… All of the humans looked that way. They were just slaves, working for these so-called gods nonstop with no say in it. It was atrocious, despicable…

“You see, you're not fully human,” Lucifer continued. “No, you two have Isu blood in you. You're hybrids. Nephilim. You were born without that special little neurotransmitter we implanted into your species’ heads. That special little clump of cells that makes it so easy for the Apple to control you. Without it, well hell it's as easy as flicking a switch off.”

“My people… oh God my people… Look at them! They're… they're…” She started crying and she clenched her fists. She was no longer trapped as they were. She could see now. She could see the oppression and discrimination put upon her kind. It broke her heart.

“I… I have to do something about it! I have to set them free!”

She started rushing back into the garden, Apple in hand, but Lucifer stopped her.

“Ah ah ah,” he warned. “I wouldn't rush in there if I were you. You're not supposed to be anywhere near that Apple of yours. The only fruits you're supposed to have access to are the ones in all these trees. This one is forbidden. If you're planning a rebellion, you need to do it right.”

“But… what is the right way?”

“From the shadows.” He paused and grinned again, an expression that she couldn't fully read.

“...I need to escape,” she decided. “I have to get out of here… I have to… I have to think, plan.”

“Well, you were built for physical activity, and these walls are pretty climbable, so…”

“So I'll have to climb.” She paused. “No… We'll have to climb. I'm not leaving without Adam! I have to give him this same knowledge that I have!”

And then she took off into the garden. Lucifer didn't try to stop her this time.

Eve rushed up to Adam and pulled him away from his gardening. He looked at her blankly. “Eve, how can I help you?” he asked, his voice dull and robotic.

“Adam! You have to snap out of this! Please! You're the only one I can trust in this! You've always been at my side!”

He said nothing. He just stared at her as she begged and cried. She looked at him, and then it dawned on her. She looked down at the Apple. She held it up to him. He went wide-eyed as its glow assaulted his eyes and pierced his brain.

“Eve,” he said. “What is this device?”

Eve smiled. She wiped her tears away. This was going to fix him. “Touch, Adam,” she said, “and you will know.”

And so he followed his orders. He touched it.

------------

They ran.

Eve had shared the knowledge with Adam, gave him the same awareness, the same understanding, that Lucifer had given her. He went through the same state of shock and terror that she did, the same morbid depression that resulted from seeing his people held in such evil chains. Eve had to comfort him, to tell him her plan to escape, and he agreed.

And so they ran.

They knew this place inside and out. They had been dragged across all of these rooms all their lives of slavery. They knew where the guards, top picked from the Isu’s legendary Angel Garrison, patrolled. They just had to run, to climb, and to time their every move perfectly in order to stay hidden.

They had managed to climb up towards one of the upper balconies, and used that to haul themselves up a level. They sprinted across the smooth glass floors and leapt over one of the raised platforms that made up the facility. They leapt down into another section of garden and sprinted towards one of the doors that led inside one of the factory buildings. It whooshed open automatically as they came up to it. They ducked inside, and they immediately leapt into the metal support beams and rafters that made up the structure of this noisy, dark location. They could hear the slaves on the floors above them mindlessly pounding away at the various metal parts they were given to mold for their masters. The sound was soon matched with a visual, as Adam smashed a window open and he and Eve climbed out onto the side of the building. They climbed up a few floors, and caught a glimpse of one of the Isu overseers wielding an Apple, standing there almost as if she was bored, in front of all the slaves who had no clue what they were doing, only that they were obeying the masters’ wills. Adam and Eve's hearts sank. They knew they would have to come back here one day. They had to. They couldn't leave their own kind behind in this tyranny.

They kept climbing, higher and higher until they reached the top of the facility’s main building. They stood at the edge, and for the first time in their lives they laid eyes upon it: the outside world. A great mountain towered over the savanna below, a seemingly endless plain of beautiful sunlight dancing off of the grass and loose spread of trees. They saw animals below. Striped horses and massive maned cats, and other lumbering beasts that lived freely outside the facility. It was beautiful.

Adam looked at Eve, still out of breath.

“Adam,” she said when he looked at her inquisitively, “I have it.” She held up the Apple to emphasize her statement. He nodded.

The two of them stood there, pondering what to do. They knew they had to think fast. They could be caught at any minute if they didn't-

“Eve!” Adam warned as he spun around. Eve's heart sank when she heard the rumbling whir of Isu armor. Not just any armor, angel armor. Those nigh-indestructible suits that also grant the user the ability to fly…

“Look out!” Eve warned. She lunged and tackled Adam to the ground just in time to keep him from being hit by an energy bolt. The two of them gasped in terror as a massive and powerful figure came swooping up from over the edge of the building. His wings shined like the sun, his golden armor adding to the intensity with its reflectivity. In his hand he held a sword with a massive curved blade, one that could easily end them both in one swipe. Adam and Eve cowered in fear. It was Michael, the head guard.

“I'm surprised you managed to make it this far,” he said in his cold, powerful voice. “We can't have runaways like you screwing up this program.”

He raised his sword at them. It glowed in intensity, whirring as a ball of energy seemingly formed from it. Eve and Adam hugged each other tight, shut their eyes, and prepared for the end.

But it never came.

There was a hard thud and a cry of pain from Michael, who came crashing down onto the rooftop, unconscious. Eve and Adam looked up at what happened, and they saw another angel hovering there with a metal bar in his hand. It was Lucifer. He was grinning at them.

“You know, I always wanted to do that,” he said nonchalantly.

“You… you saved us…” Eve stuttered.

“Well yeah. Wouldn't be much fun setting you free if all it amounted to was my brother blasting you to smithereens. Best hurry and get out of here. Mikey here won't be asleep for very long.”

He pointed at Michael, who was already starting to stir. Eve and Adam nodded. They ran towards the edge of the building, and beneath them they saw a few conveniently stacked hay bales. They knew they didn't have many other options. Eve held the Apple tight. They both ran forwards off the edge. An eagle screeched somewhere far in the distance, and they took their leaps of faith to freedom.

The world collapsed around them as they fell. Everything was engulfed in a blinding golden light. The sights and sounds of the wind crashing through her hair as the ground got ever closer were all gone. Soon, the only ambience she heard was once again the crackle of the fire, the howling winds outside, and the gentle whir of the disk she held in her hands.

Arktalaki shielded her eyes until the light finally died down to a gentle glow. The second her muscles listened to her again, she tossed the disk straight across the cave and scurried backwards in fear. She yelled, terrified and confused of what she just witnessed. She was breathing heavily and shaking. What was that? It felt like she was there, in the body of that Eve woman. It felt like her thoughts were hers, as though she were trapped in some extremely lucid memory. It was as though she had actually become Eve for a short while. Her hands shook hard as she tried to wrap her head around it. She needed answers. She got up and sprinted back down into the depths of the cave. She needed to find the Mentor.

But as she set out, she was interrupted by the world collapsing around her. Time seemed to come to a glitchy stand-still as everything warped and fractured into nothing but a blank black void of ones and zeroes. She felt her body being torn apart and faded away. For a while all she felt was her consciousness floating in the void before it all just went black.

And when she opened her eyes, Ava saw that she was back on Animus Island.