Lying on the floor, Avon watched the battle unfold. When the mech focused on attacking Avon, it gave the time necessary for the commanders to launch attacks on it. The commanders' weapons were just as destructive as the mech was. The mech was being overpowered because of the lapse of milliseconds that Avon had caused.
Soon parts of it began to fall down, slowly the resistance it was providing weakened. The commanders didn't lose any chance and attacked mercilessly.
Finally, the mech was held down by four commanders and one remaining commander fired aiming at its head, then the entire mech was ripped into two parts and each of those obliterated as a huge plasma cannon tore through its structure.
All this while, Avon just watched, his thoughts were dying, he couldn't understand anything. He was just watching. Soon the commanders rushed towards him, carefully handling his body, they fed his something, and forced it down his throat.
Then he felt some warmth coming from inside and some of the pain subsiding. He slowly came back to his senses.
Once he was awake properly his entire body ached again, "argh!" He screamed in agony, it felt like his body was torn apart.
"Just hold on for a little while, come on, you will be alright, just hold on"
"Stay conscious, don't sleep, don't close your eyes!"
The commanders were telling him to stay conscious and he was trying but it was difficult. His body ached all over and he could sense, how comfortable it would be if he just closed his eyes and left everything behind. He could feel the darkness calling him, tempting him to give in to the eternal comfort.
He was just about to close his eyes when he was suddenly brought into brightness, it was enough to break his sleepy drift. He felt the pain coming back again and his consciousness was returning.
His vision became blurry all of a sudden, he couldn't see anything and his hearing had long diminished.
He felt his body being lowered and then a liquid came in contact with his body, he was being downed in something and he couldn't do anything to stop it.
To his surprise, his pain started disappearing and his injuries began to heal. He was being healed!
The process was slow but it was working. Then he felt something solid catch his right arm and *crack* it fixed his dislocated arm's position. The pain almost made him scream. Then one by one the solid material began fixing all the dislocated bones in his body.
The liquid continued healing him and after what seemed like an eternity he felt all the pain disappear all together.
Slowly the liquid he was submerged in drained away. He heard a *hiss* sound and slowly opened his eyes. A panel before was retracting and a few people came dressed in white lab coats and helped him out.
After sometime Avon was seated on a bed, drinking some warm water and wearing comfortable clothes.
The doctors told him that they had used the healing capsule to help him. He was at verge of dying as they described it. Every spacecraft had a few healing capsules in case of emergency and he was immediately put in one on Ferona. After a day he was healed. His body was as good as new.
He was told that someone would come to pick him up and wait till then. He didn't understand why someone would come to pick him up but decided to wait and find out. Soon the blonde commander had arrived. She entered and spoke with the doctors and approached Avon,
"I am Astrine, your commander as you must remember, come with me"
Avon followed her, they sat inside a vehicle that hovered and were transported right before a huge building. She got down and signalled him to walk in. Inside, it was very busy, many people were hustling away. Avon and Astrine walked further in and entered an elevator.
"Knight's office"
Astrine declared the floor they were heading to and the elevator began rising. Avon got nervous. Why was he being taken there now...
Soon the door opened and it lead to a large chamber, inside all of the remaining commanders could be seen. His gut tightened and his posture stiffened.
He walked in slowly. Then he felt a hand on his shoulder and Astrine said,
"Relax, no need to be nervous"
He nodded but his body didn't relax just like that.
There was one more man present in there, he was very tall and burly. He had muscular body and seemed like a giant. He took had blonde hair and had a scar over his right eye. His skin looked very rough too.
'He must be the knight'
Avon thought.
Everyone was looking at Avon and he didn't know what to do, he thought of greeting everyone first but the knight walked upto him.
"Cadet Avon, I have heard of the exceptional contribution you made while putting your life on the line. The commanders spoke highly of you and so did the elites. You have won everyone's respect here including mine."
The man spoke in a harsh and deep voice.
Avon was about express his gratitude but the knight spoke again.
"Now I heard that you have visited the planet to have a meeting with me. You have earned it and so tell me how I may help you"
Avon spoke,
"Sir, firstly, I am honoured to be able to meet you. I just did what I could to help everyone. Indeed like you said, I wanted to meet you. I was hoping we could speak privately..."
This wish surprised the commanders because he was indirectly telling them to leave. No one dares to say that ever.
"The commanders are trustworthy, you may speak freely"
Avon hesitated slightly then spoke,
"The flower that blooms in thought give what"
The knight and the commanders were confused, why was he asking some riddle to the knight?
With a confused look the knight asked,
"What is this, are asking me a riddle? Is it some kind of secret code? I already told you to speak freely in presence of the commanders"
His tone was a bit fearsome.
Seeing the knight's reaction Avon was shocked, his eyes widened. He asked the question as a formality but now that the knight hadn't answered him he didn't know what to do.
His unrest was noticed by everyone present. Looking at the suspicion in their eyes he calmed himself and this time asked a different question.
"Is purple the most evil color of all?"
The knight's reaction was different. He had a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
Confidently he answered,
"It is the strongest of all, my son! You must have faced a lot of trouble, come now tell what help you need"
He put his arm around Avon and suddenly became friendly with Avon.
'He is a HERETIC! He thinks I'm one too...what happened here, if the knight himself has become a heretic then how am I supposed to get the piece! But first I must get out of here, if finds out I'm not a heretic but still knew the code then he might kill me'
The fear was showing on Avon's face, the commanders were confused at ambiguous questions asked by Avon except Astrine. She was looking at both Avon and the knight with suspicion.
Avon, without any abrupt moves, distanced himself from the knight and said,
"Respected sir, may I be permitted to come here again tomorrow. There is something I wanted to show you but since I was directly brought here from the hospital I don't have it one me. May I bring it tomorrow?"
"Sure,son, anything you want. Go and rest for now, you sure had a troublesome day."
Then Avon quickly walked towards the elevator after bowing and all the commanders followed him. This made him more anxious, what if they were a part of heretics too?
He stood in the elevator quietly when one of the commanders said "Ground floor" and it began descending.
One of the commanders, a man spoke,
"Cadet Avon, I am the commander whom you helped yesterday. Let me express my gratitude."
"Oh no sir...I barely did anything...I couldn't even see it move..I am sure without my help you would still have defeated it"
"We would have defeated it but I might also have died. The protector erred when he targeted just one of us, the remaining would obviously have sufficient time to return and attack even harder.But whether I would survive its attack on me, no one can tell. Because of you, I got to survive with no injuries so I must express my gratitude."
Avon didn't know that his action held such significance.
"It is my honour to be of your help" he answered respectfully.
All this time he could see that commander Astrine was staring at him, looking at him suspiciously.
They exit the elevator and Avon the commanders all went their own way except Astrine, who still looked at him in a strange manner and said,
"Tell me where you want to go, I will drop you."
Avon didn't want to spend another second with these people. If the highest authority was corrupted he didn't how many it already affected.
"It's fine ma'am, I will take my leave here"
Saying so he fled. He found the public transport station and took a pod. First he went to the spacecraft and took the medallion and next he went to Aveline's house. He didn't have the key so he just hoped that she was in there.
All this time he was sweating buckets and his mind was running wild.
How will He obtain the medallion piece now?