Lucifer and Asselyum stared at each other while sitting at the ends of the table. Jimmy, Axel and Lupin sat at the side. MiK and Norman were out for another hunt for X-DROIDs. Mr James was just cleaning all the glasses. It was raining heavily outside.

It was silent and only the sound of rain filled the room. Suddenly, Jimmy got up, "What is up with you guys? What happened?" He asked.
"Gotham is here." Asselyum replied.
"Who the hell is that?"
"The strongest among the fifth oblivion."

"So what? We have Lucifer, MiK, Norman and you with us."
"You don't understand," Lucifer rested his face over his fingers, "She's missing. And I can't sense her anymore."
"Once she starts the killings, there's no stopping it. She's a silent killer, she won't create a ruckus and everyone would be dead before we know it." Asselyum said.

"So, what's the plan? Are we going to just sit around?" Jimmy asked.
"What better can you do?" Lucifer asked.
"You don't have a plan?"
"I had a plan, I always have one but now I don't. I don't know what to do." Lucifer seemed irritated.

"Aren't you our leader? You're supposed to guide us." Jimmy said.
"I can't."
"And I thought you could do everything. Treating yourself like God all the time-I decided to put up with your bullshit because I thought you'd help us!"

"I'm trying to!"
"Well then try harder!"

"Jimmy, please stop." Asselyum requested.
"No, I will not stop. He needs to listen to this--"
"To what? That I'm different-- I know that. And I know that I would never fit in with you people or in this world because I was born this way. And I'm not a God- I couldn't even beat a mere X-DROID! And now I'm useless because I can't sense her either. Got something else to say?"

Jimmy just sat back at his place quietly. He didn't expect him to blow up like that.
"Already done fighting? We're didn't get anywhere. All this did was make me realise that I'm different. Okay? I'm sorry I'm not human. And I'm sorry to be born like the disgusting breed I am. There-- I admitted it. I hope you're happy now."

"Why are you getting so sentimental? It's not that big of a deal as you're making it to be?"
"It might not be for you, but it is for me. Because I'm the one whose getting all the cold stares and pointy fingers at. I have feelings too--"

"You're literally just a robot..." Jimmy looked into his eyes. Lucifer smiled,
"I wish. How easy things would be if that were so. I would be seen as a saviour like all other ANDROIDs. I wish Ben made me too."

"Lucifer, don't." Asselyum warned him.
"Let him listen to this--He should know." He looked at Jimmy, "I am an X-DROID, from head to toe."

Jimmy looked at him as if lightening had struck him. Axel and Lupin were equally shocked.
"I get these cravings for feeding on humans too. I like the smell of blood-- Probably the reason why I kill people brutally, without batting an eye."
"Stop joking."

"He isn't." Asselyum confirmed, "He is one of the fifth oblivion. We lost Valorie to them and they lost Lucifer to us, leaving only five of them."
"They were six before?"
"Yes."

Lupin wrote something on his pad and Axel read it, "Slaine hasn't come back home since morning. It's beginning to get dark. I'm worried."
"What?" Asselyum looked at Lucifer.

Lucifer looked away, "I can't sense him either,"
"Okay. This sounds terrible." Axel said.
"We have to go find him. You said they are after him, didn't you?" Jimmy asked Asselyum.
"Yes, I did say that."

Meanwhile, Valorie and Giles stood before Gotham, "Oh Valorie, I heard you're on our side." She smiled.
"I hate Lucifer." Valorie crossed his arms, "He's too full of himself."
"I see a good friend in you. Don't worry, we will take him down together."
"Ben won't let me."
"Oh don't worry about him. He won't interfere anymore-- Won't interfere ever."

In the future, Slaine was busy reading the papers. He was still at the third volume but he felt like it had been forty because he had to Brizele every word he read-- He wasn't a Biology student so his knowledge to certain terms was limited. Brizele was the default search engine in the future, that perhaps replaced Google.

He read,

"April 18, 2371, I met Dr. Nicole Frank, one of the most formidable scientists I had ever met. We worked on this project together. We studied the anatomy of the progenies we had created, it seemed less and less human as the homozygosity among the progenies increased.

They seemed more like oceanic creatures, with tiny fin like appendages at the sides on their pelvis or lack of hair and presence of scales on skin instead. Mammals like mice were laying eggs! We were equally astounded, but it didn't answer the questions we held.

Why were their life spans so small?

With further experiments I carried out, I noticed that their lifespan could be increase but only if they lived into the UV light atmosphere. But the light had severe damages and genetic mutations upon them and ourselves.

I had to spend the next decade fighting cancer while still working on the project. On January 5th, 2381, I had won the battle against cancer but not against this new challenge we hoisted. How to stop these mutations? The answer was simple-- Take them out of this UV environment. But what about their survival?

It was like UV light was both the poison and the cure. We needed a better substitute since the newly created ozone layer didn't allow any UV radiations to reach the Earth. Maybe we were doing something wrong-- Something inside me told me that there was a different way out of this, I just needed to keep searching.

That summer, on July 5th, 2391, we had a seminar at the Manhatten University of Biological and Technological advancements--My favorite subjects together. I was invited as a chief guest so I decided to take some time out of the research and visit the seminar with Nicole.

It didn't seem appealing since it was just talking about older experiments of previous centuries. But then came the research papers of Amy T. Makley, Michael D. Goodman and Timothy A. Pritts.

They studied blood samples so it immediately took up my interest and attention. Blood samples were collected from male mice and human volunteers, separated into components, and stored. At intervals, morphological and biochemical analysis was performed.

Lactate, potassium, hemoglobin, and hemolysis were determined, and cell morphology was evaluated with light microscopy. Murine packed red blood cells (pRBCs) aged more rapidly than human samples.

Murine pRBCs exhibited higher lactate levels (34.9 ± 1.3 mmol/L vs. 18.1 ± 1.0 mmol/L, mouse vs. human) and more severe acidosis as indicated by pH (6.56 ± 0.02 vs. 6.79 ± 0.04, mouse vs. human).

Murine pRBCs hemolyzed earlier (11.2 ± 3.7 g vs. 0.7 ± 0.3 g, mouse vs. human after 21 days of storage) age more rapidly than human pRBCs.

Corpuscular changes consistent with red cell storage lesions appeared earlier in murine samples compared with human stored pRBCs. Compared with human pRBCs, murine pRBCs exhibit similar but more accelerated aging processes under standard storage conditions.

I realised that mice won't work any longer. We needed human blood. But for human testing, I needed permission from the authorities.

The world government had newly established by then. I asked Nicole who the president was, it was Mr Barnes Benovolis. I put on the best suit I had and left for New York immediately.

I sent a mail to the president while I was in the airdriver and only after a few minutes, the robot texting system replied that Mr. Benovolis was enthralled to listen to the news of having me there and was eagerly waiting for my arrival.

I was heartily welcomed by his husband and two wives. I had an hour long discussion with him about my plans. I lied that it would benefit humanity, it wouldn't. Once I was finished with what I wanted, I would just burn down everything and run away. I told him it was a drug to ensure eternal youth and immortality like myself. He trusted me completely and furnished all my demands.

He provided me financial support and signed all the papers giving me powers no scientist should have. I knew he was planning to use that drug on himself and then kill me so that others won't reach it but he promised that if it were to be a success-- He would fill my pockets till he die. At this point, we were both lying to each other and we were equally selfish.

But the difference between us was that I knew what I was doing, he didn't.

That's just how humans are. So gullible and easy to play with."

It was the end of the third volume. Ben was planing something huge-- Something so secretive that he didn't mention it again in any other volumes. He probably only mentioned it in the first volume-- Which was now missing.

-To be continued

Dr Nicole Frank 
5500 Rebellion