The door shuttered, clanging against itself as it slowly slid open by the hands of an older gentleman. He was short, Japanese, and very wise. His name was Mr. Naka. And he was the hidden hand behind the creation of the Armory of Ragol. He sought to create weapons using the photon energies of Gods and use them to rule over the people he once thought to protect. In his greed, he created weapons that were used by the HUNTERS, an organization that unknowingly contributed towards the destruction of their own civilization. Simply by using the tools of Mr. Naka, the HUNTERS of RAGOL were setting about unprecedented amounts of photon energy ablaze within the sky and earth of the planet.

Unfortunately, they weren't able to stop what they were doing in time. By the time WORKS had realized what Mr. Naka had done, their science division had already been terminated, the HUNTERS GUILD was already completely abolished and RAGOL was in ruins.

As Mr. Naka laid out the remainder of his files and folders in his scuffed office room, hidden behind a secret door in an old abandoned Mines facility just below the magma caverns of RAGOL, he remembered very vaguely something that his mother once spoke to him. Something about doing the good that needs to be done, rather than doing the good that should be done. It was prophetic in its own rite, he was sure; he was also sure that he had done exactly what his mother had taught him to do. Do the good that needed to be done. The good was the ending of his world. The good that should have been done was giving the HUNTERS and people of RAGOL the time they required to make their own fate. The jaws of the void had already taken what little of his soul was left. Would he allow it to take his guilt too? His humanity? What little of those he still had within him.

He shuffled around some files and smirked at an old family folder of him and his mother. His grandfather stood above him, hands on his shoulders; his father knelt next to him, arms around his back--they were all smiling happily together. It was a different time then and the innocence of childhood had not yet been removed forcefully from him like it had when his father and grandfather were taken from him by Dark Falz. Sinisterly enough, the dark urges he felt when he created the blueprints for Rainbow and Empress were that manifested by Dark Falz.

Crono and Lee were just scientists, they had no idea that the powers they were unleashing on the people of RAGOL, and the HUNTERS, were weapons designed with a much more sinister purpose intended.

Mr. Naka gathered his things in his office, stamped a date onto a sticky note and placed it on an old destroyed computer monitor on his main office desk. The stamp was supposed to be another reminder for him to get his last project done. He stuffed his folders into his makeshift backpack and shuffled over to the window...shattered all over the floor of his office. The view outside was once a gorgeous view of the space ship that orbited over the planet of RAGOL, now currently still smoldering at the bottom of the ocean in the Central Control Area. Dark Falz had completely annihilated Pioneer 2 and was on his way to annihilating the rest of the known galaxy.

In his solace, Mr. Naka couldn't help but begin to weep to himself. He was so sure that the spirit of his mother would speak to him now--maybe to give him the guidance he needed so desperately as a child. It would be better late than never, he thought. But there was no spirit, there was no semblance of the small child that dreamed of becoming a great leader to the people he grew up with, there was no hero standing in that small office. All that was there was a small, old and tired, Japanese man wishing he had done things a little bit differently.

The autonomy of the Mines was still somewhat going. The security drones would still patrol the hallways and corridors of the deep underground fortress but would not fire upon anything. The defense systems were downed long ago in a final attempt by the remaining HUNTERS to stop Mr. Naka's crazed schemes and reverse the damage he had done. To no avail, these HUNTERS were completely eradicated using the weapons they had caused so much chaos and destruction with themselves, knowingly of course.

Mr. Naka turned back around to face his desk, sat in his old and wrinkled leather chair, plastered with dried blood and oil. When he sat in it, the chair made a loud creaking noise that scared off the little creatures that were foraging food out of the trash tin near his door. The crushed monitor stared back at him, empty and cold; almost like a mirror reflecting his own thoughts right back at him. There was nothing left to him. It was over. He...was over. All he could continue to stare at was that little postage note; still stamped with a familiar date and the code name of his last project. Mr. Naka smiled for a brief moment, and slouched back into his office chair, slowly dozing off into a deep slumber. Maybe in his dreams he could finally get the solace he desired....

...

He never woke up from that solace. All that remained of this legacy was a tattered ruin and a postage note. A note that read something that he had hoped would change the past just enough to give the people he once cherished the autonomy they needed to reverse the wrongs he had done.... Maybe then his mother would finally speak to him.

PROJECT CONTINUANCE

DECEMBER 21, 2020