It's a few hours from my third operation :O

But I had to post this to at least tell you guys that I'm still working on the story, it might just take months to finish but I will, I promise. On the other hand, my brother has started to write (continue) another story of mine, Guardian Hunter. He's also the sole writer (under my guidance) of the Glee: Generations. In the worst case scenario, I'll have to leave it up to him to finish this story as well.

But let's not wish for that to happen, okay? ;)

"Nora, where are you at the research paper we've been working on?" Augustine asked as she entered our room. In all honesty, I haven't touched those stack of paper since the start of the week-long vacation the university had after Christmas. She tapped on her foot and her arms were crossed when I finally let my eyes wander from the computer screen to her.

"You haven't started equalizing the formulas, have you?"

"Well… I was going to"

"For Christ's sake, Nora! This thesis is due next month and were still nowhere near making a working prototype!" she stalked towards the folders on my bed and grabbed a few before turning on her heels and walked back towards the door. "Please, Nora, we need this to pass the course, after this, you can do whatever you want with your life, but for now, please just comply to finishing the project"

"Yeah, yeah. I promise… just let me finish this little thing I've been working on" I say turning back to my computer. A few seconds later, I hear our door slam. Augustine's probably off to the library again to do more research on the quote—first mecha to attain Conduit capabilities—end quote.

The idea of a machine to combat the deadly Conduits involved in the Middle East crisis was coined between us when we were busy coming up with a thesis that would involve Augustine's fascination with them and my love for mechanized humanoids. Finishing my program code, I looked over the window to see Augustine sitting by the large Oak tree in the middle of the dormitory campus. I should probably apologize for not doing my part and lazing off. Just as I was about to leave the room to talk to her, I see her erect a large chunk of concrete from the sidewalk and molded it into a table and a chair. At first I thought I was in a dream, that the vacation had just begun and that this was some weird dream to kick me into making my part but then I realized why she was so fascinated with Conduits so much, it was because she is one.

I stood there for a moment letting that truth sink in. It was a good thing there wasn't anyone near to see her. Then again, it was Augustine, I'm pretty sure, she'd check twice everywhere before using her powers out in the open like that. For years now, I've always known Augustine as the girl who doesn't take risks without having calculated the best possible outcome, in other words, she's a smart girl. I would say I'm like her but her tenacity and perseverance are two things I could never have.

I decided it was best to confront her about her secret later when she came back. For now, I would have to finish my part of the research before we could actually begin with a prototype. I looked at the folders she left me… it was all math… damn it, Augustine.

It was around 6:30 when she came back. She told me she was tired and wanted to sleep and that the campus was starting to get crowded with the latest wave of students returning from their vacations. She notices me staring at her and asked me what it was about.

"Nothing, it's just… you're a Conduit?"

The shock registered in her eyes and she bolted for the door and checked if it was locked shut and no one was in the halls. "How did— What? No, I'm not"

"Come on, Augustine, you're panicking, you're a Conduit and now I understand why you're so obsess—

She dashed towards me and covered my mouth. "Please, Nora, not another word"

She slowly took her hand off and… "But why hide that you're a Condu—

"Nora!" Her hand's back covering my mouth.

"Shhh!"

I take her hand off my mouth. "Okay, okay" I say in a hushed voice.

Night fell quietly over the campus. Augustine hasn't spoken about her past but I was grateful to her for telling me about herself, about her power, about who she is. I feel like we're really becoming closer than ever. She sits quietly on her bed and I lay on mine looking at the schematics for the first prototype. It looks… funny but I can't really say that it won't improve. Now that I know why she so fired up on making Mecha 9, I'm all fired up too to make it true.

"Augustine" I say. "We'll make it work, right?"

"I hope so. We should get some sleep, because we'll need to be fresh and energized for tomorrow"

"Why?"

"Idiot, we'll take our first step in finalizing our work, our first test run!"

"Oh"

"Good night"

"You too, Augustine. Good night"

"Now, our very first experiment was rather filled with problems; the capacitors were short-circuiting, the energy output somehow drains too much, the computer systems keep giving us the error sign, signals were being misinterpreted by the prototype." I look around and I see Xing finally let her guard down and drank her tea. Lee and Emily were holding hands, I can't fathom the anxiety and fear these three are going through. Augustine never wanted to create such chaos, but she got lost half-way following that dream.

"What happened next?" asked Lee.

"To tell you the truth, us happened"

Emily looked confused for a moment before realizing what I said. Xing was blushing and drank her tea too fast giving herself a burn on her tongue.

"Me and Augustine, we lived with each other as friends, but that didn't last, we soon developed a thing for each other and for a long time, we were together. That is, until she left one day leaving a note that simply said she couldn't take it anymore. For a long time I thought I was the reason, that she couldn't stomach us anymore. I was messed up for a long time, then I came to realized, when she built the D.U.P, that she couldn't handle the amount of pressure normal people were putting on Conduits, she was slowly breaking down on the inside and I couldn't even notice it"

"I gave her the blueprint as a sign of peace, that I never wanted anything to do with her when she came knocking on my door and asked me to join her as her technology consultant"

"So… that's the story" says Lee.

"Well, not all of it, but the gist, yes" I nodded.

"Augustine isn't the evil person here, she's not the antagonist, she's just lost and fearful of what the future would become if powerful Conduits like Lehm would walk freely, so ask yourselves, is it really a good idea for such a Conduit to exist? I know it's wrong to kill but its also wrong to let a war machine to keep on walking"

"Then why save him?" asked Emily.

"Because, if you ever got the idea to stand up to Augustine, you're going to need all the firepower you'll need, and in terms of power, Lehm's got every single Conduit to beat"