She ran.
The sound of screaming cyborgs and pulsing electric whips cracked like thunder in her ears. Her bare feet skidded across the transparent throne room floor, and her breath was ragged as blue flashes of light danced across her vision.
"No!" She screamed, as her voice splintered the smoke-choked air.
Before her was Mechan Aiden her father, who was on his knees, spine arched as the voltage from the whip tore through his flesh again. His arms strained against the iron cuffs binding him to the throne's shattered remains. Blood pooled beneath him, mixing with sparks and oil.
Beside her was her mother, Queen Moira, who cried out in anguish, "Zora, run!"
But Zora couldn't run. She couldn't leave her family behind.
Her trembling hands reached forward with desperation. Just as she took a step forward, a rough metallic arm, laced with crimson veins of artificial muscle snatched her back. His grip around her waist was too strong to fight no matter how much she kicked, clawed and screamed.
From the shadows stepped a tall, hulky man with a jagged metal crown fused to his scalp. His name is Horam and his eyes were locked onto hers, glowing with amber and synthetic rage.
"So young and soft," he says as he brushes his fingers over her cheeks." You were meant to be mine, little dove. I would've made you sing for days. Your cries would've been music," He says stepping forward.
Zora's heart pounded like a war drum." Let me go! You monster!"
He leans in brushing a gloved finger along her cheek." Your mother sealed your fate the day she refused to kneel and now, I shall take what belongs to me."
Suddenly, Queen Moira roars with her chest heaving," I invoke a challenge to the death, in my husband's name!"
Gasps echoed across the chamber, and Mechan guards froze mid-lash. Tradition bound them...
Mechans honoured the right to duel.
The battle was short but brutal. Queen Moira was at a disadvantage due to her injuries. Sparks flew as her arm blades clashed with Horam's mechanical gauntlets... But she was only buying time.
Amidst the chaos, Zora felt a thin needle jab into her neck, paralysis spreading through her veins. The top Mechan, hooded and silent, whispered, "Forgive me, Your Highness, you must sleep."
"N... No, I can still fight..." Her body sagged.
As the potion overtook her, Zora's last sight was her father being impaled on a rusted pole and her mother screaming, as she was dragged away towards Horam.
Zora's lips parted in a silent cry.
"Mother...I will find you and I will get vengeance for our family, for father, for you..."
Darkness fills her mind.
Zora jolts and her body is convulsed.
With her eyes wide and her chest heaving, Zora sat upright on a narrow glass pod. Condensation clung to the curved surface above her. Alarms beeped loudly in the background and screens beeped all around her.
She was alive... and awake, but something wasn't right.
Her arms felt heavy, unfamiliar, as though they were made of literal metals. Her legs twitched as if connected to something more than just nerves and muscle. Her breath fogged the inside of the cryo pod, and it slowly slid open with a hiss.
The ceiling above was metallic and lined with dim yellow lights. The pipes hissed as the lights flickered.
"Zora?" Came a deep synthetic voice.
She turned slowly as a tall figure stepped forward from the shadows. His face was partially masked revealing only his left cheek, which had rotating gears where his cheek used to be. His eyes, one Human and one a glowing lens, studied her with awe and intrigue.
"You're awake… seven years early."
She blinked as she tried to focus, and her voice was dry; she could only let out a whisper.
"Where… where am I?"
"You are in the Reggen Bunker, he replied. You have been asleep since the fall, and I am Vektar, your family's Top Mechan. I have been restoring you, piece by piece.'
Zora's fingers curled, and she looked down. Her forearm was made of silver matte and it hummed quietly. Her heart thundered in her chest.
"Where are my parents?" she croaked.
An unusual silence filled the room.
Her eyes narrowed. "Answer me."
Vektar's mechanical fingers tightened. "Your father is gone and your mother's fate remains uncertain. She was last seen being dragged into the eastern chamber and no one's heard of her since."
Zora closed her eyes, trying to hold back a pool of tears from gushing out.
"So the dream hadn't been just a dream, it was a memory.
She steadied her breath. "And Horam?"
"The throne is his and he rules now. He has rewired the kingdom into a den of horrors. Unfortunately, Songrin is no longer what you remember."
"He will pay, all of them will pay." She says with a sharp tone.
She stepped out of the pod with her bare feet pressing against the cold metal floor. The light caught the scar that ran across her shoulders to her ribs.
"Seven years," she whispered. "Then we have
a lot of catching up to do."