Zachary woke up as a shaft of sunlight shone onto his face. He stirred, but he did not rise, as he was doing some thinking. He was remembering what had happened when the apocalypse had struck a whole year ago. It was that moment his life, and the life of everyone else in Sovereign, had changed. Everyone had been stuck inside an impenetrable wall with nothing but the ruins of the city and whatever the military would spare to survive on. But something else had happened to Zachary that day.

He had passed out from intense pain caused by the merger with the ball of light and metal, and found himself on safe ground when he regained consciousness, which defied his expectations since before he had been thirteen stories up in a burning building. As he had been pondering why, a voice spoke inside his head. [b][i]Pretty miraculous, huh?[/i][/b]

Taken by surprise, Zachary had responded aloud. "What? Where are you?"
[b][i]I am inside your head.[/i][/b] In reflection, the voice had been taunting him, flaunting what he did not know.
"What are you doing in there?"
[b][i]I am that ball of light you saw earlier, Zachary. My name is Kaa'is, and I am an Onikage.[/i][/b]
That the voice had knew his name surprised him at the time, but that was the least of his questions.
"An Onikage? They're just myths, aren't they? Old religious tales?"
[b][i]Well, for a myth who manifested itself in physical form and then got you down from the skyscraper in one piece I'm doing pretty well.[/i][/b] The voice, which named itself Kaa'is, paused before adding, [b][i]Or you could be mad, if you prefer that option, and my voice is just a delusion, as is the rest of the apocalypse.[/i][/b] That last bit was said to spite him, and Zachary knew it.

Zachary had looked around at the desolation surrounding him. The disaster had passed and all that remained was the aftermath, which was not a pretty sight, and the giant tear in space, which was a slightly prettier sight. Kaa'is spoke again. [b][i]Are we going to stand here moping all day or are we actually going to do something? Come on, let's go![/i][/b] And so they had gone, and found a way to pick a living in this wasteland.

Zachary returned to the present and surveyed his lair. He had set up base in the basement of some crumbled building, which gave him both space and secrecy as the basement was large and the entrance was covered. This secrecy had been essential as in order to help him survive and also to maintain his sanity he did engineering down here. Furnishing the dark rooms, aside from his mattress, were a few crates, a makeshift workshop, a clock and a hand-drawn calendar. Left behind by the disaster were many cores and it only needed someone who knew where to look to find them, so he had been able to build machines to suit his needs. For self-defence he carried around two devices- a wind cannon and a kinetic shield, both of which had been simple enough to make. Kaa'is, forever the voice of mischief and evil in his mind, had wanted him to use a more lethal weapon, but Zachary had refused. Kaa'is would pester him about it whenever he had a chance, but the realistically a weapon which launched your enemies over 10 meters away is pretty effective at making sure you don't get pestered.

The tools he had at hand were crude, but Kaa'is had granted him... powers. He could... read machines at a touch. The pictures he received had been sketchy at first, but over time they became more and more useful, allowing him to detect problems in machines before he even tested them. Kaa'is had told him that this ability relied on him knowing how the machine, or at least the components of the machine, worked, and as Zachary knew a lot about machines this made that ability very potent. Through Kaa'is he could also move metal objects, although this ability is much more difficult to use.

[b][i]Time for your morning training, Zachary,[/i][/b] Kaa'is said. He sighed, looked towards a metal wrench lying on the ground, and projected their energies towards it. After exerting a considerable amount of effort, the wrench slowly rose from the ground then flew towards him. Zachary caught it, and Kaa'is commended him. [b][i]Our strength is growing. Soon none shall be able to stand in our path. You won't have to fear bandits, or scrounge for food. You shall be able to get all that you need. Who knows, you might even be able to break out of this cage. You want to get home, don't you?[/i][/b] Zachary normally tried to ignore Kaa'is and his talk of power, for it made him uncomfortable, but at times the Onikage could be very persuasive in his way.

Zachary went over to a crate and grabbed some of his rations to eat for breakfast. They were the rations the military gave out to the survivors here, and he was running low. While slowly munching on the food and sipping at the bottled water, he inspected his calendar. He had got one in order to keep track of time. The thought of losing track of the weeks was maddening, so he had acquired a calendar to prevent this. When the year had ended, there were no new calendars available, so he had made his own. He checked the calendar's entry for today, and it was labelled 'food'. "Today the army's handing out supplies," Zachary said. They did so at regular intervals, which was why he had been able to mark it on the calendar. [b][i]Good. You know what to do,[/i][/b] Kaa'is replied. Zachary nodded, and after he had finished eating he grabbed his gear and left, making sure the entrance was left looking like a pile of debris.