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I was walking quickly, even though if it weren’t for the fact Cloud was still bleeding I’d of been running. I was getting a growing bad feeling, and it wasn’t just paranoia for a change.
I was starting to see the sky a little, although it was only patches of light here and there. The trees were thinning out around us, but the mist only seemed to increase. I heard a gunshot ring out not too far behind us. I looked back and waited to see if I’d hear anything else. There was nothing, it was too loud for it to have come from outside the mountain.
“Let’s hope it was Rei firing the shot.” I said and started walking onward again. I’d looked a ton of times to see if I had cell towers, but although the sun was visible for the most part, the storms blocked reception.
After about ten minutes more of walking, I saw a light breaking not too far ahead.
“Let’s go.” I said breaking out in a dead run. The last time I’d ran this fast was when I was trying to get Kairi out of the burning condo. I drew my katana mid-way and as we exited the forest, I saw Maaya, Niketa, Celes, and Phyress waiting for us. There was a large hill that stretched before us, they sat at the base.
“Where’s Rei?”
Maaya looked up surprised asking,
“She isn’t with you?” She spotted Cloud trailing behind me and I could tell she was surprised, although she tried to hide it.
I bent down and opened my backpack and reloaded the missing shot in my pistol saying,
“I’m going back for her.”
“You can’t!” Maaya said jumping up in alarm. “It’s too dangerous; we don’t know where the Twi-LIGHT soldiers are.”
I looked them over, and saw blood-stained bandages covering a wound, most likely a gun shot, on Celes’ left arm and a similar wound on Phyress’ left leg. There were also a few holes around Celes’ heart where the material of her shirt was ripped and her bullet-proof vest shown. They’d probably been ambushed by soldiers or a soldier with a machine gun since there were also ban-aids around the main wound. Maaya had a cut on her arm in which s he held a cloth to, even though Niketa wasn’t injured.
I scowled rooting around in the backpack and I pulled out the bullet proof vest I’d been given, though chose not to wear because they were so darn itchy at the seems. Cloud looked away as I pulled off my shirt, fixed the vest into place and pulled my shirt back on and pulled the leather jacket to hide the vest over it and zipped my backpack up saying,
“If you think a few Twi-LIGHT soldiers are going to stop me from saving my friend, I’m afraid you’ve got another thing coming.”
Maaya ran forward and grabbed my arm saying,
“You can’t go off alone like that anymore! You singed a contract with Exodus saying you wouldn’t go off anywhere when you had a mission to fulfill!”
“On the sixth paragraph on the seventeenth page, it also said that if the drastic measures can be taken to avoid fatalities. If we leave Rei behind, that’s as good as murder.”
“But what about Kairi?” Maaya asked desperately trying to change my mind. “You’re her roll model, she only listens to you.”
“I thought of Kairi.” I replied, “There’s nothing I can do about that. She’s only a little kid, once she’s back with her grandparents she’ll forget all about me.”
“That’s not true.” Maaya retorted.
I pulled my arm out of her grip saying,
“True or not, not going to save a friend for a person I hardly know is as good as letting fear stop me.”
“I’m going too.” Cloud said the same moment as Niketa.
I double took at Niketa, who stood asking,
“Is my hearing going, or did you just say you wanted to come too? Cloud is understandable, but you’re only a civilian. Statically, you shouldn’t even be here.”
She crossed her arms saying,
“I can fire a pistol, so why can’t I come?”
“Because,” I said a bit irritated, “You’re usually complaining waking up too early and not being able to shower, why on earth do you want to come?”
“I want to know more about this forest.” She replied simple pulling out her pistol from the inner pocket of her jacket. Maaya and Phyress looked surprised that she was armed. Cloud and I knew, and I suppose Celes saw the outline of it somewhere along the lines or saw her reaching for it. Little things like that would get by Maaya and Phyress.
“I’m going alone.” I said crossing my arms. “I’m the only uninjured able fighter here.”
Niketa scowled saying,
“Jeez, just because I’m a normal person you don’t think I’m capable of taking care of myself? Besides, Anan and you have the advantage since neither of you are completely human anymore.”
“I said I didn’t want fatalities, and sometimes situations call for those who aren’t human.”
“So you’re saying humans can’t stand up against humans.” Niketa said stubbornly, “You sound like a child, if humans can’t stand up against each other, how do underdogs win wars?”
“That’s completely irreverent, if we had more trained fighters than it’d be different. Having good aim is all well and good, but you’ve also got to be able to fight after you run out of ammo.”
“So you’re saying you’re better than me.”
“In combat.”
“Only because you rejected the world and didn’t want to face reality since you though it was too hard. You decided to hide away and have the only person you had to worry about is yourself. The fact that you always do things alone just shows you’re afraid to let anybody close to you, or even help you since you don’t want to abandon the selfish way of thinking you’ve gotten and that you’re too afraid to change.”
I held back a string of curses as I said,
“Look, I’m not afraid! I just do things alone because it’s easier not to have to worry about other people.”
“You just proved my point; you don’t trust anybody because you’re too selfish to look past your own problems.”
“If I was so selfish, why would I go around saving little kids and following orders from people younger than me? If I was so selfish, wouldn’t I just leave Ragnarok to hide where nobody would know me?”
“No, because the only reason you saved Kairi was because you wouldn’t be able to get past the guilt in your own conscious. And you only agreed to come along so you’d get a change to get close to Trenxi and kill the last person you know that can make you face your fears. By always being alone, you’re only running away from the people who want your help that know the false front you put up to look strong. You’re always playing the hero, but you’re really the biggest coward among us. You’ve never had to make a life and death decision that would effect you, have you?”
“Of course I have!” I snapped, “If I didn’t make life and death decisions than I’d of been killed by Twi-LIGHT soldiers years ago!”
“Killing Twi-LIGHT soldiers don’t affect your consciousness.”
“Alright then, why would I go trying to save Kairi when I was shot at by Exodus soldiers?”
“Only because you didn’t want look like a coward, you wanted to look like valiant hero. You’d rather be shot full of holes than face somebody who worries about you after making a bad decision and screwing up.”
“Just leave me the hell alone!” I yelled giving no heed to my temper, I was thoroughly pissed now. “My life is none of your damn business, nobody in their right mind would give a shit about my reasons to fight, and they’ll only get it wrong! I work alone because the only thing I have to live for is revenge! I don’t have anybody!” I snapped running down the path my mind set on finding Rei and killing as many Twi-LIGHT soldiers as I could.
“Coward!” I hear Niketa call out as I ran.
They don’t understand they’ve all got lives and people who care about them. They couldn’t even imagine having nobody. All my family is dead; all I ever did was protect my sister. I never tried to have a person in my life that would make me want to live because I never had the time to waste on that. I was brainwashed all my life that trusting people was only suicide. Once I can kill Trenxi, they won’t be any other reason for me to live.
I stopped to catch my breath after a few minutes of full-throttle running, and realized how desolate I felt and how childish I did sound. I sighed saying,
“Is the real reason I run away because I am afraid?”
I’d never dissected my feelings; I just cast aside anything troublesome and tried to focus on something else. I stood up and walked onward, completely unhopeful.
Suddenly, I felt a small and hard impact on my back, exactly where my heart was that threw we to the ground
What idiot fires at the thickest part of a bullet-proof jacket?
I didn’t move for a second, even though I once quick movement I jumped to my feet gun pointed to fire. Kazuki stood before me, smoking pistol in his hand.
“I lead Rei the others, Cloud’s looking for you now. You’ve got work to do, Akhy. It’s time you went to Neivila to claim your sword.”
I blinked and wanted to retort something rude, but he was gone. Oddly, I felt calm now. I felt so angry and stressed the entire tip, although now I felt completely calm. I pulled off my leather jacket, and saw there wasn’t even a scuff on the material. I looked at the bullet-proof jacket and my shirt, neither was marred. I pulled them all back on, confused and disturbed.
I can’t be going crazy; I was thrown to the ground with a bullet aimed at my heart…no way in hell I could be hallucinating, right?
“Akhy!” I heard Cloud calling out.
I got to me feet calling back,
“Didn’t take you long.”
“Ragnarok!” Rei yelled coming into view from the fog first and crushed me in a hug saying, “You idiot! What the hell were you thinking? Why didn’t you just go on without me?”
Cloud followed, looking as impassive and enigmatic as ever.
“I was fine, although I’m not going to be if you keep trying to crush my lungs. I’m afraid bullet-proof vests don’t work against bone-crushing hugs.”
She let go scowling at me as she said,
“C’mon let’s go, it must be living hell out there by now. We have to get that sword ASAP, before more Twi-LIGHT soldiers get in.”
“Sounds good.” I said with a nod as we started back. Cloud didn’t saw anything, although Rei scowled at him saying,
“Come on, heartless let’s go.”
We reached the others shortly, Niketa staring at me coldly and inquisitively. I ignored her as I said,
“We’re basically at Neivila now, we’ll start heading up the mountain after we get through Neivila. After we secure the sword, we’ll take a different path than the one we took up, since there are numerous staircases on the mountain. We’ll have to go through the forest again, even though the mist is already fading.”
“What about Twi-LIGHT?” Maaya asked worriedly. “It’ll take us a few days to get out of here taking the underground pass.”
“Exodus’ battle jets, they can withstand a force five hurricane and then some, right?”
“Yes…” She paused.
“We might get reception with the cell phones when we’re on the top of Neivila itself, if so than we have to try getting out of here by air. Chances are the pass is full of Twi-LIGHT soldiers waiting for us to take it. Trenxi will make sure we won’t be able to get by.”
“How many soldiers do you think will be there?”
“A nice hundred or more. It’s all pending on how Exodus is holding up.”
She nodded we started up the hill. It wasn’t long before I saw the tip of Neivila. I stopped suddenly and looked back.
“What’s wrong?” Maaya asked looking as concerned as ever.
I saw a rustling in the bushes and muttered,
“We’re surrounded…”
“What?” Maaya asked grabbing my arm to get my attention. “What to you mean? Surely Twi-LIGHT couldn’t of sent so many soldiers that-”
The first line of soldiers emerged and started firing.
“Run! Follow me!” I yelled pulling out my own conventional pistol and scrambling up the hill. The others followed, and we tumbled across the top. I hardly stopped a second to see the Sacred City of Neivila.
It was all ruins, all white stone. There wasn’t any moss or other growth on the stone, although the ruins were in tall piles in some places. It’d be easy to lose the Twi-LIGHT soldiers in a labyrinth of white stone ruins. The city stretched for a good few miles, so it’d be slow going. The others followed as I ran, ducking around the rubble.
I looked back and saw the wall Twi-LIGHT soldiers coming over the hill, firing openly. Most of the bullets missed, since the remaining stone walls and arches protected us for the most part. But, of course, there were bullet that hit. I felt on hit me in the back of my left thigh, and when I put weight on it collapsed out from under me. M pistol skidded away from me, and I groped for it and got it first. I cursed, and scrambled to my feet quickly. I nearly fell again, even though Cloud steadied me asking,
“Are you alright?”
“I’m fine.” I said and started running again, feeling the warm blood trickle down my leg. The others were ahead of us, Rei had taken charge. I hoped over the ruins of a pillar and down a different path than the others. I stopped realizing the soldiers were still firing at the others. I pulled out the stunner and fired two bright red-ish maroon shots into the air, getting the attention of the soldiers. Half started firing at us, and I instantly started running again firing shots into the air randomly without stopping.
“You’re doing it again.” Cloud said a bit reprimanding, “You’re doing another stupid and suicidal thing.”
“Yeah, but you can’t say I’m being a loner. I haven’t tried losing you yet. And besides, we can take a few shots before shriveling up.”
“Charming notion.”
We ducked behind two still standing walls to catch our breathes. I glanced back and heard the Twi-LIGHT soldiers stopped firing. The were now panning out to hunt us down like rats in a maze. I sat down beside Cloud saying quietly,
“We’d better hurry; they’ll be here in ten minutes or more.”
“Yeah.” He said still panting.
“If we can contact Exodus and get a helicopter through the dome to get us outta here I’ll win the bet.” I said motioning to the sky, “Its dusk on the ninth day.”
“You’re still thinking of that stupid bet?”
I smiled saying,
“It’d be a pain in the ass to clean a sword like yours; no matter what nasty polish is used on mine it’s quick since it’s a nice little katana. It’s impossible to stretch out katana-cleaning for more than an hour even if you clean the scabbard too.”
“You’re really relaxed now, talk to some happy spirits when you were alone?” He asked with a slight smile.
“Something like that.” I replied…why did getting shot in the back (maybe) by the ghost of my best friend’s brother make me relax? “Hey, it’s poltergeists that are spirits that can manipulate the things around them and even appear solid for a little while, right?”
“Poltergeists?” He asked surprised by my question, “Yeah, supposedly. Is that what you ran into?”
“Maybe.” I replied, “I saw shot to the ground even though Maaya’s older brother disappeared after saying I had to go to Neivila Mountain and there wasn’t even a dent in my bullet-proof jacket.”
“That calmed you down? There’s something wrong with that. And I though you were seeing Nikoji’s younger brother, not older.”
“I did see Ryuu first, but I saw Kazuki the second and third time.”
“Kazuki as in the old leader of Exodus?”
“Duh.” I replied dryly.
“I thought you only met him a couple of times.”
“I did, not even in combat. In fantasy it’s spirits you were close to that appear before you, and aside from saving Ryuu’s ass a couple of times I didn’t really know him. I never even fought alongside or spared against Kazuki, Rei did though.”
“So who do you think you should have seen?” He asked standing.
“Well, if the old fantasy novels held any fact to ‘em I should of seen my sister or parents. They’re the only people that ever meant anything to me that are dead.”
“That’s it?”
“Who else would there be?” I asked standing up. “Best we hurry though, if not Twi-LIGHT soldiers will catch up. Although for the most part once you’re caught their guns are only foofaraw.”
“Foofaraw? What the hell is that?”
“Flashy ornaments, another words they just wave around their guns for authority, although the chances are they won’t kill you if Trenxi wants you for something.”
“I’ll be sure to remember that one…if I ever find a use for it.”
“If we live though this, we ought to.”
“Mmm, let’s go.”
We were sneaking through and around the ruins hanging low the whole time, trying not to be spotted. There was a staggeringly large amount of Twi-LIGHT soldiers on our asses, at least three hundred. I didn’t know where Rei, Maaya, and the others were, even though I knew we’d have to get to the side of the mountain if we wanted a chance of climbing up one of the stair cases without being seen and shot in a few seconds. The others were probably ahead of us, if they hadn’t also stopped.
We reached the first staircase aside from the one in the direct front, and I saw how the stair cases wrapped around the mountain.
“Damn.” I cursed quietly. The mountain was huge; it’d take us at least a twenty-four hour day to get to the top that was without Twi-LIGHT. There was no way to get up there without being shot during daylight hours. It was twilight…but it’d take more than one night of walking with no stops to reach the top. Unless we got high enough the soldiers wouldn’t be able to see us, we were screwed.
“Shit!” I heard a Twi-LIGHT soldier curse dangerously close. “My gun won’t fire. I’m the only one who still had working one once we got into this cursed city too…”
“Relax; we’ll be able to get the Exodus party no problem with or without firearms.”
“But there are Exodus commandos with them! And Akhyia Ragnarok! She’s like a ten-foot demon that eats nails for breakfast in combat! And, and, Exodus would of made sure she had the Evi poison sample 98-1 gave her neutralized.”
“A nail-eating ten-foot demon? Dude, you gotta watch less horror flicks. She obviously ain’t that bright if she though 98-1 was the real Anan Nimbostratus.”
“Still!” The one, who had spoken first, apparently the more apprehensive one, squeaked. “Even if their personalities are really different, 98-1 could have fooled if it were only for a little wile, like it was.”
“You’re such chicken shit, come on.”
I pulled out my paralysis gun and snuck forward. I tossed him my backpack saying,
“Hold this.”
Cloud didn’t stop me; he knew what I had in mind.
“Stay here.” I lipped. Hopefully he could read lips a little.
“I heard them on the other side of an arching wall, half in ruins; I jumped out from behind the wall firing two shows. They were silent, for I’d clicked the silence into place, before firing. They both froze, falling backward with what seemed like an unusually quiet thud. I pulled out my katana and disposed of them quickly.
Cloud had been watching and I said,
“Don’t cha hate how quick blood makes swords rust?” I took my backpack and pulled out a blood-stained shirt (the one I’d been wearing when “98-1” tried to kill me when following orders) and cleaned the blood of my sword. I shoved it backpack and replaced my katana in its scabbard. I pulled stood up and pulled my backpack on saying,
“It’s almost dark, we might as find a place to hang until dark. We’ll start up Neivila then, we can’t look for the others since we’re liable to run into some Twi-LIGHT soldiers and get killed. We need to wait until it’s completely dark though. The moon should be a sliver now.”
He nodded saying,
“Sounds good.” We found a small roof-less but still standing hut with three and a half walls. The wall pointing toward the mountain was the half-destroyed one, so Twi-LIGHT wouldn’t spot us if the posted a look-out of the large hill.
I was tapping my foot in a way it was even annoying me, waiting for it to get dark. The moon still hadn’t risen, although the sun was gone form view. Although, moonrise wouldn’t be for another hour since the sun had only ducked down below the tall mountains surrounding us.
Cloud sighed saying,
“You’re getting really annoying with that.”
“I can’t help it. Once I start to think I get restless.”
“Another hour and a half until we can set out, right?”
“Yeah.” I replied. I sat down next to him and pulled my laptop out of my backpack saying, “I wonder if I have internet reception…”
“Broadband by satellite, right? You’ll never connect.”
He was right, and I closed it and replaced it in its bullet-proof case feelings dissatisfied even though I expected it. I shoved it back in the abyss-pack saying,
“It was worth a try.”
“I suppose.” He replied idly. I felt his arm settle around my shoulders and he pulled me against him.
“Excuse you.” I growled.
“What?” He asked innocently, “It’s getting cold and you’re cold-blooded.”
“Very funny.” I said dryly, although I didn’t move. “And just because I have cold hands doesn’t mean I’m cold-blooded.”
“Would you prefer cold-hearted?”
“Maybe.” I grumbled resting my head against his shoulder. “And it isn’t that cold.”
“You’re like a cat, you know? Growling all the way but putting up no fight if you like something. Always making it look like it’s your choice.” He said calmly.
I didn’t reply, even though I did enjoy the situation though I’d never admit it.
Sora sat down with a sigh at the edge of the valley. She was tired after walking through the underground cavern, and eager to tell the villagers the news of the shrine of Michi. This wasn’t the usual Sora though, for she looked hardly older than fourteen. She seemed to smile a lot easier too, she was even thinking of a boy a year older than her. She smiled and shook her head. She picked up her bow and quiver of arrows, and started walking toward Neivila. She stopped suddenly and looked up at the sky saying in a voice that did sound like the normal Sora’s,
“The clouds are afraid…to face the wrath of the sun today. They don’t want to protect those below today.” She sounded like a fourteen year old as she added, “I wonder what scared them.”
A young girl in a pale purple kimono came running forward to the young priestess calling out,
“Priestess! Priestess, Shion’s sick, she won’t wake up!”
“Shion?” Sora asked placing her hand on the five-year-olds’ head, “You mean your new-born sister?”
She nodded helplessly and clung to Sora’s white tunic.
“Take me to her, I’ll be able to take care of her.
“Sky!” Called a familiar male voice. He sounded a little older than Sora, and her heart jumped as he jogged over the hill. She smiled saying,
“Hey! We’ll talk later, okay? I have to take care of Mena’s sister.”
He stood in front of her and tried slowing her down, although she wasn’t easily deterred. She kept walking, getting a little cross with him. He looked like a more alive and younger version of Trenxi…
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