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The familiar priestess from my dreams, Skyevi, stood before me.
“Are you really ready to let go?”
“Of course I’m not.”
“You have many things ahead of you, should you wish to return to that world. If not, I cannot blame you. Although there are many things before you, there is also much pain. If you continue to walk this road, you may be able to save many lives but ruin your own and those you care about. It was a sacrifice I made, deciding that the destruction of a countable amount of lives was far better than the destruction of many. But, by then my heart was no longer human, but yours is. Most of the people you care about will be able to move on if you chose not to walk this road, I do not know about one, but it is certain if you decide to go onward this one shall not move on. Although, if you decide not to go on, although you may spare the one you care most for much pain, this choice could also lead this world into oblivion. End of Time is only the first weapon.”
“Why…why would I chose to die, if I had the choice to live?”
“Because not everybody is as strong as you, Akhy.” She said turning away from me. “Some people may be blinded by their human emotions to the point they would rather save the person they care most for greater pain and die sooner than later.”
“But…” I paused. “I don’t have anybody I care so much for. It seems pretty illogical too, how could dying sooner than later hurt somebody less?”
Skyevi chuckled sadly saying,
“I suppose you are younger than I thought. Tell me something; would you wish the person you care most for to have to fight other weapons simply to continue the movement you started?”
“What are you talking about with these ‘weapons’?”
“I’ll take that as you are not done yet?”
“Of course I’m not done in Gaia! But, just tell me what’s with the ‘weapons’.”
“End of Time is a weapon. That is all I can tell you just yet. I wish you luck, Akhy.”
I opened my eyes slowly, blinking a few times and taking a deep breath before muttering,
“You really took a risk backtracking for me.”
He stopped stoking my hair asking, sounding thoroughly shocked,
“Akhy?”
“You think a few little cuts would kill me?”
“You had a hole in your side! That’s more than a ‘few little cuts’.”
I looked up at him and smiled weakly, comfortable sitting on his lap with his arms around me. Our faces were hardly three inches apart but the moment was rudely destroyed when Niketa asked dryly,
“Are you two going to kiss, or what? By the way, Doomsday, for a while I was wondering if I was going to be seeing you again for a while back there. When I was bandaging you I thought for sure you were doomed. Pun intended.”
“Glad you were so concerned, Soy Sauce.” I said idly. She scowled asking,
“Soy Sauce?”
“Well, ‘Kinomyano’ sounds a helluva lot like ‘Kinoman’, which is a type of soy sauce. I always found you to be rather bitter and high in sodium, so I figured it’d be fitting.”
Cloud hid a snicker despite the situation, but Niketa only passed off like a childish nickname saying,
“Whatever.”
“What’s the status on Exodus and Twi-LIGHT?”
Cloud was silent a moment, and Niketa waited for him to say but after a few moments she said,
“Well, if he’s not going to tell you I might as well. Ten-thousand Special Agents were released from Nioglow Twi-LIGHT HQ, and they dismantled the Exodus army and the Alpha Grid. Although Nikoji and Exodus bailed, I stayed behind at the cathedral waiting for Cloudy. Needless to say, I was surprised to see you more than half-dead with him.”
When did she start calling him “Cloudy”? I thought with a mental scowl.
“And what about Rikku and Katsu? What happened to them?”
“No report, they were probably arrested though. Think they’d sell Exodus out?”
“No.” I replied. “They’d both die before they did that. I don’t know about any soldiers that went with them though.”
“Probably not a big deal though, Twi-LIGHT probably knows almost all Exodus’ secrets with whoever they have infiltrating Exodus.”
“By the way Niketa…” I paused, finally deciding to ask the question that’d been hovering in my subconscious for months, “How did you know I was Akhyia Ragnarok and that Cloud and I were part of the Special Agents?”
“A run in with my sister’s killer.” She replied without missing a beat. “He’s part of Twi-LIGHT, and told me.”
“What made him think that kind of information might concern you?”
“My sister was in your parent’s government, I knew you were part of the Special Agents but I didn’t know Cloudy was until I saw the tattoo on his arm.”
“What was your sister’s name?”
“Nami Ziroka. She got married before joining, hence why her name isn’t the same as mine. You might have met her; she was part of Alpha Grid.”
“I know of a Nami Ziroka, but I don’t recall her looking anything like you.”
She shrugged saying,
“Different mothers.”
For some reason I got the feeling this was just a well-rehearsed lie, even though I didn’t know if Nami Ziroka had a sister or not, but mainly because Niketa kept a straight face the entire time. Niketa always kinda gave me the creeps, she didn’t at first, but when we left the morning after breaking out of Twi-LIGHT Niketa acted like a different person. I never really had put much thought to it, but than it hit me; the Niketa we’d meet at first had green eyes, but the person sitting across from me had blue eyes. I opened my mouth to say something that scowled my self thinking,
You idiot! Where the hell is your mind? I’m just going to ask, “Hey, Niketa, any reason your eyes have changed color?” Besides, she probably wears contacts or something. People don’t have their eye color change any other way.
…Right?
…It’s still at Twi-LIGHT, with Trenxi and Akiko.
“Kairi is Akiko’s and Trenxi’s daughter.” I said to nobody in particular.
“I’m not entirely surprised.” Cloud said after a moment of silence. “I heard you talking in your sleep about how they looked similar back in Mazar.”
“So that’s the little brat’s secret.” Niketa said, completely uninterested. “Well,” She said standing up, “I’m going to bed. Before you think I’m being selfish by not giving a real bed to Akhy because she’s injured the cot, I have back there isn’t any more comfortable than the benches. Goodnight, we’ll discuss what we want to do in the morning.”
“She probably does have a real bed back there.” I said as she closed the door.
“Probably.” Cloud admitted.
“Why do you put up with her, anyway? She drives me nuts.”
“No good reason.” He replied, even though I didn’t let him get away with an incomplete answer.
“So what’s the bad reason? Something aside from trying to have proper gentlemen-like etiquette?”
“Nothing important.”
“What? I’m interested now.” He was silent and I got tired of waiting and sighed saying, “If you say she reminds you of Lena, I’m officially condemning you to having terrible taste in women.”
He smiled a little admitting,
“Not really anything aside from her forwardness and eyes.”
“You’re condemned.” I said idly, making him chuckle.
“You’re pretty forward yourself, in a different way.”
“Don’t even start, I already dubbed you condemned. You don’t need to support the notion any.” I said hiding a smile of my own. I started getting drowsy, the pain in my side a dull ache. The other smaller cuts were almost healed now that I’d been conscious a while. The large one though, probably would be healing until morning. It was twilight when we reached Nioglow, and 10ish when we got to the cathedral the first time…I didn’t know how long we’d been in Twi-LIGHT HQ, and no conception of how long I’d been out but I hoped it wasn’t three AM or so, because a little more sleep would be very nice…
“Cloud…” I muttered half-asleep, “Thanks.”
“For what?”
“Just for being here.”
It was around ten o’clock when I woke up, since although Cloud and Niketa had woken up earlier, Cloud let me sleep in. Even though it was a clear disadvantage when it came to escaping Nioglow, I did feel better. All the small cuts were healed, no scars remained, and the three-inch wide seven-inch wide (according to Niketa) wound on my right side was half healed.
“Are you sure you’re healthy enough to get going so early?” Cloud asked skeptically. “The Exodus agents boarded the windows, and they haven’t sent any Twi-LIGHT patrols since last night.”
“Exactly.” I said standing up hesitantly before putting weight on my right side. “If we head out now, than the chances are we‘ll be able to escape. We’ll be on foot so it’s best we get going before the afternoon patrols are sent out.”
Only the very top of the stained glass windows weren’t boarded up, and from there sun filtered in. Niketa, although she’d emerged was leaning against the far wall where the carving were. She looked peaceful, and oddly innocent. I smiled evilly and clapped my hands together suddenly calling,
“Niketa!” She jumped, green eyes registering surprise as she asked,
“What? What’s going on?”
Her eyes flitted around the room for a fraction of a second and even though she didn’t say it her lips were parted in a ‘who…’ way.
“Who…?” She whispered than blinked, and her eyes were blue again as she said sharply,
“What was that for, Doomsday?”
Cloud didn’t notice, because he was hiding a smirk, even though my evil smile was gone at my surprise. Her voice also sounded a little higher when she first woke up. I reacted automatically and hid my surprise, giving her a smug look saying,
“I knew you’d jump.”
“Glad you’re feeling better, Doomsday.” She said coldly.
I’d have to try that again; just to make sure I hadn’t imagined the eye color and voice pitch change. There was no way she was wearing contacts if I wasn’t hallucinating, and I was almost positive I wasn’t when she’d said “who…?” What could that mean?
“Are you ready to go?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Well, since you were snoozing so peacefully I gathered you weren’t exactly to escape should Twi-LIGHT soldiers try breaking in.”
She scowled and stood up saying,
“If you’re ready, than let’s go.”
We exited through the back door, me first. I glanced around and gave Cloud and Niketa a thumbs up to signal the coast was clear. We ran through the clearing into the shadows of the buildings, but something was wrong…it only took a second to realize was it was, there were no bodies. There was plenty of blood, it was smattered everywhere.
“Damn.” I said as we ran through the back roads and behind buildings. There was much fence climbing, and I could feel my wound re-open, but it only an inch thick now and three inches long so it wasn’t high on my priorities at that time. I wasn’t that much of a bloody mess though; none of my clothes were torn either. With didn’t make much sense, because how my legs had been cut but my pants weren’t torn anywhere would have been impossible if it weren’t for the fact I’d been attacked by a divine being. Although there were blood stains on the sleeves of my shirt, the side was blood-less because of my body armor.
“What’s wrong now?” Niketa asked irritably, for had a cut in her dress when it got caught on a chain link fence and there was a small tear in the front.
“Didn’t you notice? There aren’t any bodies.”
“So? Twi-LIGHT cleaned them up, what’s the big deal?”
“If you recall Twi-LIGHT’s specialty is re-starting the hearts and brains of the recently killed, and screwing with their genetic structure and mutating them with Skyevi cells, right?”
“Another words,” Cloud cut in, “They’re going to use all their dead soldiers, and the dead soldiers of Exodus and the Alpha Grid to increase their army?”
“Yeah.” I said sourly, “So every battle Exodus loses makes Twi-LIGHT more arrogant, and stronger.”
“Are you saying the reason their army is so damn big is because they’re all zombies?” Niketa said loudly.
“Shut up!” I hissed, “And, yes, there’s a 50% chance we’re fighting the undead when we fight Special Agents.”
“And you two?” She asked accusatorily. “Are either of you zombies and mutants?”
I gave her a disturbed looked saying,
“No. Duh.”
We were almost out of Nioglow when we found a platoon of snoozing soldiers. I loaded my gun whispering,
“There are five of them. They’re all Special Agents, you’ve got to shot them through the heard and forehead before they’ll die, let’s make this quick, alright? And Cloud, don’t miss this time.”
Niketa used her own pistol, but Cloud and I both had Exodus-provided ones. I took aim, firing two shots. The others jumped to attention, but Cloud and Niketa both took out two easily. I got the second to last, and Niketa got the last for Cloud has missed.
“Let’s hurry, there are probably more soldier near by that heard that.”
I glanced around; we had miles of grassy plains before us, or a short run into the forest.
“If we stay close to the edge, only close enough not to be seen, than we should be able to get over a few hills and walk in the open until we reach Kiata, Exodus probably retreated to there.”
Going through the forest was on the unpleasant side, but not too bad aside ducking braches, bushes, and making a little too much noise in the brush, we got away fairly easily. After a half hour of this, we walked in the open. Niketa was complaining in fifteen minutes, about how she was stiff, hungry, and was getting cuts on her ankles and arms. I was ready to yell at her, but my cell phone rang saving me. I hadn’t wanted to use it, because Twi-LIGHT could pinpoint out location with the radio waves, but since it was Maaya’s call I guessed an Exodus search party wasn’t far away. I flipped open my phone saying,
“Konnichiwa Maaya, what’s going on down in Kiata?”
“Akhy! Thank goodness you’re safe! We monitored your movements with the tracker in your phone a while to make sure you weren’t a prisoner. I sent Phyress and a few other Exodus soldiers in a platoon to find you. Are you being followed?”
“Only by a flibbertigibbet.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing, no we’re not being followed.”
“Is Niketa with you? She stayed behind.”
“I said a flibbertigibbet, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did. We’ll be there in ten minutes, stay where you are.”
“Gotcha. Signing off.”
We meet up with Exodus and were in the back of a modified moving van, with seats on either side. The back wasn’t attached to the front cab.
“After Twi-LIGHT released the Special Agents, the Alpha Grid was ahead so they were obliterated, but only a thousand Exodus soldiers were killed, the death total was two thousand five hundred and thirty four. We went in with fifth thousand soldiers, so that’s not too bad. We’ve got twelve thousand eight hundred seventy nine causalities, but thirty thousand Ragnarokain soldier enlisted in Exodus’ military! All the soldier that went to Nioglow is resting, aren’t going to fight until next week.
“Maaya and Katsu are already making battle plans to attack Nioglow again, they figure one hundred thousand soldiers should be able to best ten thousand Special Agents. All these stats were only active an hour ago; we’ve got Ragnarokain military soldiers enlisting all the time. We also-”
“Wait, that doesn’t add up.” I cut in, “Didn’t Trenxi make me the stronger Special Agent? Surely he couldn’t already have mastered soldiers stronger, when I was only a prototype.”
“Well, there weren’t any survivors so we don’t know exactly how the Special Agents were fighting, but Kerla did see something that looked like a flash of white light when the Special Agents were released. Vorn was killed, but Kerla escaped the cathedral sight with only a shot through her left arm.”
“Phyress, did Exodus recover any dead bodies?” I asked.
“One.” Phyress replied.
“Did this person have Evi poisoning?”
“Yeah…she’s in really bad shape too, Exodus doesn’t have a record of a worse case of Evi poisoning in ten years.”
“Twi-LIGHT was developing some kind of control over Evi poisoning, I know they learned how to refine Skyevi energy so it didn’t give the people it was injected into Evi poisoning, but they also were trying to make weapons with it six years ago.”
“Is there any way they could give so many soldiers an Evi poisoning that’d kill them on the spot?” Phyress asked, her eyes darkening.
“This is the organization that learned how to resurrect a human body and mutate it into a combatant. Anything involving technology and Skyevi is possible for Twi-LIGHT. If they were messing with Evi poisoning weapons back then, than there’s a damn good chance they’ve got it so well mastered they’re using weapons that kill on the spot. I couldn’t see how Special Agents could kill so effectively any other way.”
“But if you’re wrong and Maaya and Katsu changed their strategy, it could be suicide. Besides…how could we fight Evi poisoning? There isn’t even a guaranteed cure…”
“I don’t know. But it’d make sense, wouldn’t it?”
As I finished my sentence I heard a shower of bullets hit the moving van, and I jumped up and unlocked the two foot by two foot hatch in the center of the moving van’s back and hung on with my left hand, and pulling out my pistol with my right. I hoisted myself up, seeing four attackers on motorcycle after us. I fired twice, taking out two and the one fell, motorcycle skidding right toward us.
“Swerve to the right!” I yelled at the driver.
“Gotcha!” She said and obeyed. She swerved so hard and swiftly, I tumbled through the hatch in the roof landing on Cloud.
“If I said ‘thanks for dropping by’ would you condemn me to making bad puns too?”
“I think you already did.” I said standing up.
The moving van suddenly lurched to the right, and I nearly lost my balance again as Phyress said,
“They hit the back right wheel; we’re riding on the rim.”
“Damn…” I cursed, jumping up again and hanging on to the edge of the hatch. I ducked a stream of machine gun bullets as I kneeled on the top, holding on to the back edge of the hatch for balance. The driver was impressive, although I was having a helluva time staying on top she swerved out of the way for most of the bullets. I fired one shot in a moment of going straight, taking out the second to last assassin.
I ducked more bullets, leaning too hard to the right, and nearly tumbling off. I grabbed on to the edge of the roof, the ground speeding by five feet under me. I swallowed, and pulled myself up left handed and took out the last assassin. When we eased to a stop and I hear Phyress calling Exodus to send another ride, I dropped through the hatch saying,
“Check mate.”
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