Genesis Crisis IC

Xennox Xylon
-Landing at Extraction Point

Xennox was not in good mood nor in bad mood; he was confused. 'This is so weird...' However, his face didn't show what was really going on in his thought. "Alright everyone let's move out. The scientist is out there waiting to be retrieved. Remember, the man was once a legion's researcher; we might bump into Legion while searching for him. From the mission log, he signaled S.O.S in three different location. Ensign Cash and Carrie I want you to go to south." Then Xennox looked at Lancar and Aera, "Sir, you and Aera, I want you to check south east" Xennox turned to Daemond, "Ensign Daemond, you and I are going to check south west." Xennox let out heavy breath, 'So this is what it feels like to be in the position...' Xennox tried to say warmly in his last sentence. "If the location is empty, just come back to the airship. I don't want to carry dead person."

===============================================
Bunker
-Alexander Dranos

Alex sighed, "This is not good..." He muttered, the group seemed like falling apart and it showed Alex that somebody had to step in. Jax was definitely trying to make something happen and it looked like Alex had to play the same role.

Alex went to the training area where Keynes went, Alex gulped. Keynes was tense than before and it was clear that he didn't want to be disturbed. But then Alex tightened his jaws as he knew Keynes planing skill is crucial for the Aegis to move on.

"Keynes, what should we do next?" Alex asked Keynes, he was ready to face the consequences of disturbing the man, but Alex knew somehow there was no time to sulk because of negative emotions that was created by the past relationship.

Police HQ

Arya's eyes snapped open when Lisa began to move. "Shh, stay calm," she said soothingly and helped her sit up. From the tray she took a cup of water and offered it to Lisa.

"Are you thirsty?" With her other hand she pulled the blanket close and covered Lisa with it when she tried to curl up. It wasn't exactly warm down here in the prison and not moving for a while had cooled Lisa down quite a bit.

"Try to relax. Just breathe," she said and brushed a lock of hair from her face. Arya tried to keep her own worry from her voice and face, but only moderately succeeded. Instead she tried to concentrate on the feeling of happiness, slight as it may be, that came from finally being able to hold her sister again after all these years. Granted, this meeting was no how she had pictured it, but it was better than nothing.

____________________________________________


Snow's Garage

He saw the hit coming, but he didn't move. The gun struck him and he went to his knees. If that kept her from pulling the trigger, he would gladly take the pain.

"Okay. Okay," he said when se snapped at him. Snow stood up again, slowly and stepped towards her again. "I worked closely with your father for a few years." he admitted and then wondered if that just made the situation worse.

His blue eyes looked calmly into her raging ones. Snow still wasn't afraid, despite his chances of walking out of here alive decreased with every word he said. He continued anyways.

"Paul was undercover. The job was to catch the soldiers in the act while they recovered their stash," he paused and looked away for a second as if he was ashamed of something. Shortly after he returned his gaze to her. "Too late I found out that my partner was dirty and that everything was a setup. I tried to be there in time. And I was... but I still failed. Afraid Paul would talk, my partner shot him after we apprehended most of the soldiers, leaving him there to die." Snow closed his eyes, the sadness ad guilt overwhelming him.

"My partner and all the surviving soldiers later said that it was me....It was my word against theirs and I wouldn't stand down, so they destroyed me. They discredited me and I had to... leave."

He took another step towards Lizzy and put his hands over hers on the gun. "Please believe me. I cannot begin to say how sorry I am. I promised nothing would happen to him and I failed. I will have to live with it for the rest of my life, as do you, but I know that doesn't come close to redemption..."

He took one hand and pulled on something that was around his neck. "I was there... the last minutes of his life and you know what he said to me?" Snow reached out and dangled a necklace in front of her. It had a locket on the chain. "Paul said to me... Find my little angel and tell her that I'm sorry. Tell Lizzy I love her more than anything in the world...He gave this to me and told me, it was to keep you safe. Your guardian angel..." Snow's voice was soft and husky and when he paused again, he came even closer.

The gun pressed into his chest now and he kept her finger sealed on the trigger. "But I couldn't find you. It was like you disappeared off the grid.." he shook his head in disbelief. "I am truly sorry and it still was my fault that he died. It should have been me. So shoot me if you want, I just wanted you to do it knowing the whole truth."

Landing (Daemond)

Daemond walked out from the airship into the fresh outside before him. The area around him didn't seem particularly out of the ordinary, no conflict or anything, but with the S.O.S. signals running around the place this peaceful landscape would obviously change soon enough.

"Alright let's get this done then, but why would the man send out signals?" Daemond mumbled to himself in curiosity "Any legion scientist will surely be punished and restricted by the army, they would be better off going rouge."

Still, he had a mission to do and there was little use pondering about it. He just hoped that this didn't end up hurting his squad later, and the idea of splitting up like that... it was like a horror movie or something with a mad man picking them off one by one.

At that point Daemond was done with his pondering, he simply looked towards the direction that Xennox and him would be heading, and began walking rather slowly so the leader could take the lead.

"You shouldn't try to sound warm when saying that Xennox, doesn't particular work that well." Daemond stated with a bittersweet smile, as he continued towards the certain direction.

Landing (Aera)

"I'm with they lieutenant?" Aera asked almost immediately in curiosity with her finger pointed at herself, as she acted rather baffled from command. Her cheeks a little red during the converse of words.

What a strange order; it just seemed rather weird since.. Xennox and her were the split up group from the last mission.. along with Raidon. Well, these are orders from the leader, so she wasn't about to complain.

"Alright understood, shall we go lieutenant?" Aera asked a little too politely but composed with her calmly gesturing towards the south-east, as her emotions still irked her in the wrong way when she thought of giving a command-like statment to Lancar.

Bunker

Rise's eyes flew open at the mention of her reaction to Jax and Alina.

"It's none of my concern who he talks to!" she said hastily, turning away. "I just don't trust her, and it's risky to have them too close."

There was an awkward pause as Rise realized she was partly responsible for the alienation occurring in the team with her attitude toward Jax and the Commander.

"Anyway," she said, turning back to James and drawing her knees up under her chin. "What do you think is up with Keynes and that scientist woman? It's pretty bizarre. It seems like they know each other.. or, at least, of each other."

--------------------

"Uh.. Kokonoe?" Jax asked, looking distraught as more and more people filtered out of the room. "I really don't want to butt into your business-"

"Then don't," the researcher promptly replied, sending out a puff of smoke. Jax sighed and continued doggedly.

"But we really need everyone to be on the same page, especially our 'idea people.' So if you could put whatever happened between you and Keynes behind you.."

"Nothing to put behind," she said with shrug, her eyes following the trail of smoke. "But if you want me to get him to come up a plan, I can do that."

She stood up and left the room, leaving only Jane and Jax behind.

"Well, I suppose I'll see what more I can find out," the high agent said with a smile, standing and heading off. Left alone, the Red Rider decided to see if he couldn't get Alina to shake off her self-loathing.

--------------------

Police HQ

Raidon returned to his office, trying not to overthink what he'd just done. As he entered, however, he saw Chastenay had relocated there, apparently waiting to hear that he'd done the job.

"How very interesting," the elderly commander mused, watching the private video feed from the police chief's desk. "I never expected you to be so.. acommodating."

Raidon stiffened, realizing that he had placed himself in a very precarious situation. This was exactly why he had been taught never to put his neck out for anyone. Fortunately, he had a legitimate reason for allowing Arya's request; after all, he would not allow himself to be so tender-hearted for anyone.

"By allowing them to be together, I've provided the opportunity for the girl to convince her sister in a way we couldn't - by request. Surely now that she knows her fate, she'll plead for her life."

Chastenay chuckled as he stood and crossed to the door.

"You think of everything, don't you, Raidon?" he said smoothly. "It doesn't matter, however. Those fugitives are all going to die. Plain and simple."

"But why?" Raidon asked. It wasn't a challenge; simply a matter of curiosity.

"The people have to be made to think we're accomplishing things in our war against Legion," Chastenay replied, turning to look at him. "We give them these traitors, they give us praise."

Smirking wickedly, the commander turned and strode from the room, leaving Raidon to stare after him.

--------------------

Extraction Point

"Don't forget me," Sasha said through the com, and Lancar could just imagine that playful smirk on her face. "I'll make sure to keep you all updated."

Lancar nodded to Xennox and the others, prepared to set out.

"All right, keep in touch," he said as he turned with Aera and headed southeast. He could see the twins silently head off on their own toward the south, slinking cautiously away.

"Yes, let's go," the lieutenant said to Aera, taking the lead. Hopefully, between his eyesight and her hearing, they wouldn't need to worry about ambushes.

"You all right? You've been pretty quiet since we left the Barracks," Lancar whispered, looking concerned. "Well, I guess I'm a fine one to talk about that."

He gave an ironic chuckle, peering ahead of them and waiting for any scan results from Sasha.

Bunker

"Don't you think you're fooling yourself a little bit there?" he asked in a light tone and smiled at her. "Even if we can't trust her, I saw her a few times and I can assure you, the well-being of the people in Kaddath is more important to her than any of the other Commanders."

James shrugged and waved it off and leaned back, staring up into the sky. "No, I'm pretty sure they know each other. And something happened between them, something very personal. I have no idea what it is, but whatever it was…they both got hurt. Did you see the anger? No one gets that angry without a personal reason, especially not for such a long time."

He suddenly grinned at her. "I won't be asking either of them about it though. They'd probably rip my head off, well maybe Keynes would. That researcher, she'd probably use one of her little inventions."

Heading to S.O.S Signal
-Cash & Carrie

The south of the extraction point was filled with trees with long vines, it looked quite obvious that the anyone who was going to run for his or her life would make himself home in that area.

As Cash and Carrie went towards the area, suddenly their radio made annoying white noise, then there was a shout of human being which was hard to identified what it said. If they were alert enough, they would see the bolts of lighting heading towards them.

The vines were being hindrance to using weapons, and it also created some cover for their enemy. Then there was again, a shout of another human being and icy blasts heading towards their way.

===================================================================
Heading to S.O.S Signal
-Lancar and Aera

The trees were thick and tall, and it did not leave so much place for a strong foothold. There was feeling something or someone was watching them closely.

The radio started to making buzzing nose; if Sasha said anything, it was hard for them to make out what it was.

Aera, who had sensitive hearing could hear the something coming closer. Was the target coming towards them or was it something else?

Then before it could reach them, the movement stopped. There was a sound of releasing of string. Someone just fired an arrow at them.

===================================================================

Xennox Xylon
-Heading to S.O.S Signal

As Daemond and Xennox went to the location, Daemond continue to wonder about some of the suspicions to himself. Xennox, same as Daemond, was wondering some of the suspicions about the current mission as well. Then again, Xennox stopped thinking about it as he knew if he doubt the mission now, there would be no end. The lifeless eyes stared sharply at where they were going, then Daemond mentioned about what Xennox said earlier. "This is my first time being in the position of command, I was not so sure what I was doing back there."

As Daemond and Xennox went further into their location, the tall grass field greeted them. Xennox let out his small dagger underneath his sleeve to spring out, and started chopping the tall grass in front of him. "Let's hope this researcher is worth retrieving..." Xennox commented as he move forward.

As soon as he just made few steps into the tall grass field, loud white noise was heard from his radio. Xennox quickly muttered as quiet as possible. "Overlimit, Tracker of Shadows" The shadows started to signal him where his opponent was coming from, "Ensign Daemond, get ready, we got company." said Xennox. Then he quickly draw his sword, "Initiating Range Mode" and he fired his arrow at closest incoming target the moment it was ready to use. Then as if he made a mistake, Xennox quickly shouted. "Ensign Daemond! targets closing in fast, be careful!" Then a long sword suddenly appeared from the tall grass, ready to take the life of its master's enemy. It swung for Daemond's head.

Snow's Garage

She should have backed away from him. Every muscle in Elizabeth's body was straining to push him backwards and fire the gun, but her mind was alert, listening to his story. When he reached for her hand, Elizabeth's finger pulled a little more on the trigger, but still not enough to fire it. Actually, it was a wonder that she didn't when he held up a locket, offering it to her. Despite all of her training, that locket drew her entire attention, even more so than her revenge.

Her free hand snatched it from him, and she looked down at it. "You've never opened it, have you?" She whispered as she thumbed the clip on the side. "If you had, you would have known... All this time I was hiding who I was, but you had this from the start."

The picture inside the locket was the same as it had been all those years ago when Elizabeth last saw it. There was a woman with tired eyes holding a small child in her arms. The background had been edited out, but Elizabeth knew that photo was taken in a hospital bed, only minutes before her mother had died.

It was like looking into a mirror now though. Her facial features were exactly the same as her mothers had been. The only difference was Elizabeth's blonde hair, a harsh contrast to her mother's raven black. Something twisted within her, and she knew if she didn't pull the trigger now, she wouldn't have the chance later. Her brain clearly made that connection, but her finger wouldn't move. Why? The pain in her chest had suddenly become overwhelming. This is how she'd felt when she'd lost her father, lost someone she loved... Love? No... NO. Just... no.

Tears threatened to escape from her eyes, and Elizabeth suddenly twisted forward, ramming her shoulder into Snow's chest to push him over. Him being so close was making her feel really claustrophobic, and she had to get away. Her eyes darted around, looking for an escape, and they came to rest on the bike. Without thinking, she shoved the gun back into its holster and sat on the bike, cranking it with one foot and pushing off with the other. The engine roared, but she gave it more gas anyway, practically ripping out of the garage and down the street.

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Police HQ

"Not thirsty..." Lisa managed to respond weakly as Arya pulled the blanket around her. Was this real or a dream? Did it really matter?

Giving into her heart's desires, Lisa turned and dove into her sister, pulling the blanket around the both of them. "I'm so sorry..." Was all she managed to say before the sobs took over, but she held onto Arya like she was afraid the other girl might disappear.

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Bunker

Keynes looked up from the weight bench when Alex spoke, giving the boy a smile that didn't quite touch his eyes. "We... should keep working on our weight training until things settle down a little." He responded in a gruff tone and waved towards another bench, where Alex was welcome to join him.

"There's too much tension in the ranks for us to start another mission. So, r and r is what we need. For muscle-heads like me, that means hitting the gym." Finally satisfied with the amount of weight on the bench, Keynes laid back on it and lifted the bar into the air before slowly letting it sink to his chest and then pushing it back up again. "Things like this have a tendency to work themselves out. You just have to be patient with them."

Bunker

Jax walked with quiet steps to the door of the former Terra Firma Commander, feeling an uncomfortable squirming in his stomach. Honestly, he preferred to let his fists do the talking, so this kind of thing was way out of his league. But still, he couldn't just let it go.

Knocking gently on the door, Jax entered Alina's room, scratching his neck uncomfortably.

"Look, the truth is, I'm not very good at talking with things like this.." the Red Rider admitted, taking a seat hesitantly beside her on the bed. "So.. I figure I'll just listen instead."

Yes, better to let her vent out what she needed to than try to lecture her and give more unsolicited advice.

--------------------

Rise felt a little annoyed at James' response to her attack on Alina's credibility.

"Maybe I just don't like her.." she muttered, hugging her legs. Fortunately, James went back to the topic of Keynes and Kokonoe, which was of more interest to her. She had to laugh a little at his joke, even if it went against her mood.

"I still wish I knew what it was. I mean, Keynes has never mentioned anything like it," she replied. "I guess it's bound to come up sooner or later though."

Running a hand through her long pigtails, the brunette gazed out into the sky, watching the clouds drift.

"You ever wonder what you'd be doing right now if we hadn't left?" Rise asked suddenly, not looking at James.

--------------------

Kokonoe stood outside the room of the gym, annoyed to hear that Alex was in the room with Keynes. She certainly wasn't going to do this with someone else around; she didn't want to do it at all to begin with.

"Waiting for something?" Jane asked, walking up to her. The researcher scoffed and turned away, heading back to her room. Jane watched her go before slipping into the room, watching as Keynes lifted the weights up and down.

"And here I thought you were just showing off," she remarked, smiling coquettishly in response to his remarks about rest and relaxation. She turned to look at Alex as she moved across the other weight bench and sat gracefully upon it.

"Do you mind giving us a moment?" the agent asked graciously. Once Alex had left the room, Jane turned back to look at Keynes.

"I could probably find out on my own," she said smoothly, "but I'd rather hear it from you. Care to tell me what your issue with Kokonoe Velda is?"

--------------------

Heading to S.O.S Signal

As Cash and Carrie made their way south of the extraction point, they found themselves among trees with long vines, a good area for someone to hide. Carrie remarked as much to her brother.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious," he remarked, rolling his eyes. He brought up his hand to the com to radio Sasha and ask for a scan ahead, not wanting to run into any enemies they couldn't see. However, the com simply gave a painful whining static that made both twins curse. Suddenly, there came a shout nearby; definitely human.

"Think that's our guy?" Cash asked, peering ahead.

"I doubt it's that simple-" she began, but suddenly heard Cash bark out a warning. Both ducked as bolts of lightning sizzled overhead, crashing into nearby trees. Cash immediately let loose a volley of knives, but with all the trees and vines in the way, it was hard to tell if any of them made it to a target.

"This isn't good," his sister murmured, clutching her axes. There wasn't enough room to let her swing them properly on the chain either.

Promptly, ice crystals from a Bufu spell tore through the brush and raced toward them. The twins separated - Cash to the left and Carrie the right - and dove through the dense overhanging vines, heading in the direction of the spells.

Bunker

"Then you should ask Keynes. He likes you better than me. I'm sure he won't rip your pretty head off," James responded lightly and still smiled.

That smile faded pretty quick when she asked what he would be doing now if he had decided against leaving. In all honesty he had tried to avoid thinking about it ever since Kokonoe brought up what she had left behind. It shouldn't matter anymore that everything he had built was in ruins. In the end material values meant nothing compared to the bonds and friendships he gained, right?

"Well I think I'd either be sitting in a comfortable office trying to write an algorithm, designed to track down a certain group of fugitives and making loads of money in the process. Or I'd be going through the physical army training, crawling through mud and getting pushed around because they decided I would need to become an army officer," James finally said and couldn't keep a slightly bitter tone from his voice.

"I admit in all honesty, despite everything I gave up, I'd rather be here. Even if that means I have to put up with Will's attitude, Keynes' chain-smoking, Jane's secrecy, Alex's hot-headedness, Jax's need for physical training and the Commander's self-loathing," James said lightly, trying to distract a little bit from the seriousness of the topic. "Oh and did I mention Kokonoe's cynicism?" He had his grin back, but was serious again when he looked at her.

"What do you think you'd be doing?"

____________________________________________

Police HQ

Arya just had time to put the cup away before Lisa turned around and buried her face on Arya's shoulder. Gently she pulled her closer and held her while she cried. "It's okay, baby girl. Come here, it is okay to cry," she whispered and stroked her hair.

It felt good to hold her close and Arya remembered how she had longed for this moment, the moment she would close her sister in her arms again.

"You have been through so much. So much pain and suffering that I never wanted you to experience," she said quietly and calmly held her sister, waiting for the sobs to subside. There were tears welling up in Arya's eyes as well, but she held them back.

_____________________________________________

Snow's Garage

"No, I never opened it," he said softly. He could clearly see the emotion in her face, she was struggling…breaking.

Suddenly he realized he was worried about her. He caught himself feeling more for her than he ever imagined. For some reason she had managed to strip away all the barricades he put up over the years, making him willing to take a bullet for her if that's what it took to make her okay.

He was so used to being a rude bastard that he almost forgot what it felt like to care for someone. In all these years he kept pushing the people away that tried to come close, but now…it felt like he didn't ever want to let her go, instead he wanted to pull her even closer.

Lost in his own thoughts and emotions as he watched the range of feelings on her face, he was surprised when she pushed him away instead of shooting him. A part of his mind still had expected her to fire that gun. Instead she turned around, jumped on the bike and raced out of the garage.

Snow stood there for a few seconds, puzzled. Then he moved, running after her. "Lizzy! Elizabeth, wait!" when he reached the end of the street, he stopped, panting. She was already out of sight and clearly out of earshot.

"Damnit!" he screamed and smashed his fist into the wall. Frustrated he walked back to his garage. He would be damned if he lost her again. If there was a was a way to contact her, he would find it.

S.O.S. Towards the south-east (Aera)

"Something has been on my mind, but it can wait till after the mission." Aera replied in a quiet voice with a warm smile on her face, as she looked towards Lancar's direction.  

Though the pleasant exchange was cut short, as Aera's foot collided with something on the ground that felt like a tree with her stumbling on her feet for a few seconds until she regained balance.

"Seems like there's a lot of big roots here." Aera whispered in annoyance, as her head perked up at the sound of footsteps in the distance that grew closer and closer by the second, leaving an ominous feeling in her mind.

"Sir, someone is here, cover me so I can pinpoint their location." Aera whispered, as she listened to her surroundings closing her eyes for focus, as the timid sound of a bowstring being stretched in the proximity could be heard.

Aera's eyes opening with panic, as she quickly jumped towards the trunk of one of the large tress for cover that she was able to predict its location due to the root she had tripped on earlier.

"Someone fired an arrow!  It sounds like it's past the tree in front of us, so cover me while I prepare a spell." Aera demanded with her quickly pulling out her shield in front of her face, as she started reading it like a book until she lowered her shield and swung her sword in front of her.

"Mahama!" Aera stated in a fierce tone, as she aimed for the section of the trees where the enemy would be with a supposed blinding light landing at that location.

S.O.S towards the south-west (Daemond)

"It's good to hear from ya Sasha." Daemond stated in a quiet voice through the com, as he silently listened to what Xennox had to say with a serious expression.

It was hard to hear a lot with Xennox slashing the grass in front of Daemond, but it seems it didn't matter, as Xennox was on the alert in a matter of seconds with him already firing at the enemy with his strange attack.

"No time then." Daemond briefly thought to himself, as he pulled out his 2-handed sword when the sound of footsteps in the long grass could be heard in the distance.  Someone was coming, and Daemond prepared his sword to swing at the enemy, as he held it in front of him him, the blade pointed towards his foe in a vertical manner.

"That's an attack?" Daemond thought to himself in an annoyed tone, as he swung the weight of his 2-handed sword at the enemy's head.  The blade was swung at the same side that the enemy was swinging the blade since Daemond was left handed, so his attack would slam right into the flimsy one handed weapon the enemy had.

Bunker
-Alexander Dranos

Alex left the training hall as he was asked by Jane, "Alright I will be up in my room" said Alex and left the training hall.

Alex sighed as he continuously walked away from the training hall. "What should I do next?" He muttered himself, then once again he sighed.

In the end, Alex went to his room. He dropped to the floor and started his push ups. Keynes was right in one thing, there was nothing like good exercise to get rid of unnessary thoughts.

"I have to become stronger... Not for the sake of myself to get out from the self pity, but for the people who needs help" Alex said it to himself.

Snow's Bike

Lizzy blinked away the tears in her eyes as she shifted the bike into a higher gear and shot down another street. She was well over the speed limit she'd told Snow about only a few minutes before, but it didn't matter. Going faster was all that could clear her head right now. If she slowed down, she'd have to think. About what she'd done, about what she'd realized, and about what she'd just thrown away...

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Police HQ

Lisa sniffed, trying to keep the tears at bay, but it was no use. At least she wasn't shaking anymore. "I'm getting tears and snot all over your shirt..." She said, somewhere between amusement and disgust.

In an attempt to pull herself together again, Lisa pulled away from her sister, holding onto her shoulders at arm's length so she could see her up close. "It wasn't your fault sis. Nothing was your fault. If anyone is to blame here, it's me. I always was the bratty one." She tried to smile, but Lisa wasn't sure how it came out. Maybe impending execution of you and your loved ones had that effect on people.

"This isn't how I'd planned for this to go..." Lisa said weakly.

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Bunker

Keynes continued to lift the weights after Alex had left. His eyes didn't travel in Jane's direction, but it was clear from the frown on his face that he'd heard her question. After almost a full minute of silence, and several more reps, he dropped the weights back onto the bench and sat up slowly.

"If you're asking what I have against her personally, the answer is nothing that isn't my fault in the first place." There was a sadness in his eyes that he'd rarely allowed to show there, the kind that never really went away, no matter how well you covered it up. "But if you're asking about my history with her... Well, there's not enough alcohol this side of Caltha for me to tell you that story."

He finally looked in her direction, locking his eyes with hers. "You might be able to find out about it on your own, but it won't serve any of your purposes. Some things are better left dead and in the past." Without another word, he got up, throwing the bench towel over his shoulder and headed towards the shower room.

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Alina, who hadn't been expecting anyone, just looked at Jax in complete confusion as he sat down next to her on the bed. His words were clear enough, but instead of saying anything, she turned away from him. Her shoulders were shaking, almost like she was crying, but after a second or two, she was unable to keep covering up the sound of her muffled laughter. After that, she laid backwards on the bed, giggling until her sides hurt.

"This is golden..." She finally managed to say between sharp breaths. "Mr. I'm gonna save you whether you like it or not is telling me he's bad with words and he's going to listen."

Alina seemed to have gotten a better control of her laughter now, and she sat back up, looking in his direction. "If you'd been a little more willing to listen to me before when I told you to leave me behind, maybe I'd believe you. As it is, you saved my life when I had no intention of being saved. For that, I'll have you take responsibility." She turned in the bed so that she could lay back against the headboard. "You want me to stop complaining about not dying? Sure. Death is overrated anyway, but it doesn't change the fact that I'm here instead of at my home, with people that I still haven't determined aren't my enemies. Honestly, I don't know who to trust anymore. So, unless you give me a damn good reason to trust any of you, I'm assuming everyone is out to get me."

Bunker
 
Rise laughed at James' joke before rolling her eyes.
 
"I guess you don't know Keynes very well. He'll chew anyone's head off if you give him the opportunity," she said in an affectionate way. It was obvious that she looked up to him, despite anything she said to the contrary.
 
Rise frowned as James talked about what he would be doing at the moment, had things turned out different. She'd almost forgotten that he'd been involved with the Army before this whole mess.
 
"I really don't know," she responded when he asked her. "Honestly, I haven't had much of a family, so despite all the craziness, I finally feel like I'm part of a family with all of you. I don't want to lose that."
 
--------------------
 
Jane was surprised to see just how much his and Kokonoe's past had affected Keynes, though judging by Kokonoe's reactions it had to be pretty bad. As he headed off to the showers though, Jane couldn't let his misunderstanding go.
 
"I have no purpose to gain by finding out," she said, following him to the shower room and leaning against the wall. "I just thought it might help you to talk about it. Whatever it is, it's going to make things very difficult for all of us."
 
--------------------
 
Jax blanched at her laughter. He hadn't been expecting that at all.
 
"That was kind of the heat of the moment.." he murmured, though it didn't seem like she was listening. Honestly, what a stubborn woman! She just seemed determined to go against anything he said.
 
A good reason..
 
"I like you," he said quietly, looking at her. "Isn't that enough?"
 
The Red Rider sighed and turned away, examining the hands he folded and unfolded on his lap.
 
"You're a good person, someone who's always tried to look out for the people of Kaddath. So are we. There's no reason we shouldn't work together."
 
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the familiar blue ribbon, which he gently rubbed the pad of his thumb across as he gazed at it.
 
"This belonged to my little sister Miki. It was all she had left after we were orphaned. I had to watch her die in my arms because Legion used her as a host for Majin. And I had to bury her with my own hands because the Army is more concerned with protecting its power than helping its people," Jax said softly, standing up from the bed. It was obvious that the commander refused to understand them, and Jax was never one to try to change people who didn't want to be changed.
 
"I want to understand you, but I can't," he told her, turning to look her in the eyes. "As long as you fele we're your enemies, then everyone else will feel you're an enemy as well. Someone has to take the first step, Red."
 
Jax moved over to the door and opened it, pausing in the doorway.
 
"Sorry for bothering you," he murmured before stepping out.
 
--------------------
 
Army Squad
 
Lancar's brow furrowed at Aera's response; it was unusual for her to have her mind on things other than the mission at hand. But there wasn't much time to consider this, as they quickly came under attack.

"Right," the lieutenant said promptly, covering Aera at her request. Suddenly, an arrow was whizzing through the air toward them. Lancar shouted a warning, but it seemed his ensign had heard it before he had seen it and dived behind a tree.

"On it," he responded as she requested cover once more, his whip-sword on hand for any attacks.

Bunker

"Nope, I don't know him. I didn't know any of you very well before I stumbled into everything," James replied and ran his hand through his hair.

He sat up and turned around to face her when she spoke again. "I'm sorry to hear that," he said, genuinely surprised and moved. From her attitude and cheerfulness he had always somehow pictured her in a loving family. "I haven't talked to my family in a long time. I do have a sister you know…so I didn't just make that up," he trailed off, wondering if she even remembered that comment from the beginning of their journey.

"You're right though," he said and looked at her honestly. "I don't want to lose that either. It's nice for a change to have friends and people that care about you…It's worth fighting for, right?"

___________________________________________

Police HQ

Arya shrugged. A dirty shirt was the least of her worries right now. Normally it would bother her much more, because she took pride in her appearance, but pride, she realized, was something she could not really afford to have right now.

"Don't take all this on yourself, sweetie," she replied and softly wiped the tears from Lisa's face. "We are both in over our heads and neither of us could have predicted this outcome." She smiled back at Lisa's broken smile and pulled her close again. It felt good just to have someone to hold on to and she did not want Lisa to see the tears in her own eyes.

After a few minutes she cleared her throat. "So…you are able to use wind magic…," she broke off unsure on how to continue. "And you are quite good at it. As inappropriate as it may sound, it does make me proud," she said, choosing her words carefully. Unsure about how Lisa would feel about that she brought this up, she played with a lock of her hair and stared at the opposite wall.

___________________________________________

Snow's Garage

Instead of going back to his garage, Snow walked towards the race track. He stopped by the store and grabbed a few more packs of cigarettes and then went looking for his mechanic.

"I need a new ride," he said to him. This wasn't the first time Snow asked for a new bike. A few months ago, he had crashed his old bike on the track, crushing it completely.

"What did you do with the old one? Crash it again?" the mechanic asked and walked with Snow to the freight elevator. "None of your damn business," Snow growled, clearly not in the mood to explain. The mechanic shrugged and they headed down into an underground parking lot and the mechanic showed Snow a black motorcycle. "Will this one do?" he asked. "Not brand new, but I took care of her myself. Everything is fixed up and if you work on her some more, she can be as good as your old one."

"This'll do," Snow muttered and grabbed the keys. Without waiting for the mechanic he pushed the motorcycle towards the elevator. Once upstairs he left as quickly as possible and sped away from the track.

After driving around aimlessly for an hour or two, he stopped when it started raining. There was no way he would find her like this. She could be anywhere by now.

Eventually he was so drenched that it was senseless to keep looking. Snow walked back into his garage and dropped his wet jacket and shirt on the ground. Lighting a cigarette he pulled a bottle of whiskey from one of the cupboards in between the tools.

Instead of looking for a glass he took long sip from the bottle. The alcohol burned in his throat and he dropped on the couch. He pulled on his cigarette and blew grey smoke in the air. Why did he allow her to mess with him so much? He still couldn't shake off her expression from earlier, the moment she saw that locket and everything clicked into place in her mind. It hurt to think about what pain he must have caused when he opened all those old wounds.

Snow couldn't handle it, it was too much. Suddenly he just wanted to forget and lifted the bottle to his lips again.

Heading to S.O.S Signal Location
-Cash&Carrie

The Twins quickly rushed towards the location where spells were fired from, one to the right and one to the left. As they reached what they thought the location of their attackers, they were in for another surprise. There was no one.

However, this time they could hear the human voices clearly. "Mabufu!", "Mazio!"
Each of the spell clearly indicating that the twins foe were in the position where they could see them. The spells headed towards the twins from the above.

=================================================================

Heading to S.O.S Signal Location
-Aera&Lancar

"Argh! My eyes!" There was a shout as the pillar of light erupted from the ground. Then there were sounds of released strings; it was clear that not just an arrow was fired, but arrows were fired at them.

However, it looked like the blinding light was able to catch not just one foe, but more, as the two arrows came from the direction were the blinding light erupted. Thankfully, the shooters were blind by the light and the arrows missed Aera and Lancar greatly, it only told Lancar and Aera where the shooters were.

The problem was the arrows weren't fired just in front of them, but from their sides as well. Two from the right and two from the left. The giant roots of the trees made it hard for Lancar and especially for Aera to move out. The thick trees looked like they could provide some protection, but the marksmanship of this hunters were not to be underestimated. The arrows that fired from the sides, just barely missed their targets.
======================================================================
Xennox Xylon
-Heading to S.O.S Signal

The swords clashed each other, but the weight of Daemond's weapon gave him the advantage to push his opponent to the side, Xennox quickly fired an arrow where Daemond's opponent made his fall, the black arrow went through the tall grass and finished its job. "There are still five of them out there." said Xennox, then suddenly tall grass was cut right in front of Xennox. The Legion face became pale as he saw his mistake, coldly Xennox let another dagger sprang out from under his sleeve; it flew out and straight away pierced its exposed opposition. "Now we got four." Said Xennox. "My overlimit will be over any seconds now, we got to finish them quick. Two are in front of you and two are in front of me. Can you handle it?" Xennox asked Daemond.

Xennox straight away fired another arrow. however, it looked like the tall grass saved his opposition as his overlimit still indicated four moving opponents. "Darn it" Xennox cursed, quickly he muttered, "Initiating Melee mode." Xennox ready his sword to meet his incoming opponent.

The tall grass, even though it looked like it only provided Xennox and Daemond a discomfort, whenever their opposition made their move, it helped Xennox and Daemond to guess where their opponents were.

Police HQ

Lisa allowed her sister to pull her close once more, and she wrapped her arms around Arya as best she could. Her fingers still didn't want to work quite right, and her arms felt incredibly heavy. "We'll figure something out sis. We have to." She spoke into Arya's shoulder, where her head was resting.

After the contact was over, Arya commented on Lisa's magic, and she couldn't help but groan. "I'd totally forgotten about that... Using it back there means that they'll know I have it now. I was hoping to hang onto it as a possibly escape plan, but it looks like that won't work anymore." She started to lay back onto the bed but realized Arya was right in her path. Not sure how her sister would react to extra physical contact, Lisa made a little extra effort to keep from landing in Arya's lap as she laid back.

"I'm not sorry I used it though... I just couldn't lay there and watch that without..." Her voice trailed off and she turned her eyes towards the hall so Arya wouldn't see the haunted look in them. She'd stopped the man there, but she'd been unwilling to prevent the physical torture. All it would have taken was the location of her friends... What kind of sister did that make her?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bunker

Keynes was pulling his shirt off over his head when Jane came into the room behind him. So, he didn't realize she was there until she spoke. With a sigh, he tossed the shirt onto a chair against the wall and turned back towards her. "If it would help me to talk about it, I probably wouldn't be avoiding the subject so heavily, now would I?" He asked gruffly.

"Now I'm gonna go take a shower. If you're so serious about keeping up this discussion, you're welcome to follow me." He quipped, allowing his grin to return for the first time since before breakfast. "I don't mind having a bare all session with you, but I won't be answering any questions." Keynes gave her a wink and then stepped out of the locker room and into the shower hall.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alina raised an eyebrow at Jax's comment, but she made no move either towards or away from him. "Is that a confession? You save a girl and you think she's supposed to fall for you or something?" She asked sarcastically.

Before awkwardness could set in, she let out a long sigh and waved her hand towards him, as if dismissing her own question. "Not that I don't appreciate your praise, but you and I can both see where looking out for everyone but me has gotten me. At least for the short term, I need to remedy that." She smiled at him, but it was laced with sadness. To be honest, she would have had much worse company than the people here. Every day under Chastenay's thumb had been hell, but at least then, she'd known who she was. Now? She couldn't say the same.

Her eyes followed the ribbon that Jax took out, and she felt her heart clench as he relayed his story. This man had already lost so much, maybe more than she had, but he'd found a way to keep going, a reason to keep going. That was what she was missing, what she needed to find, some kind of reason for not dying at the airfield. The problem was, she didn't know that one existed...

"I'm sorry..." She whispered as he got up to leave. Jax had mentioned finding someone when they'd parted ways the first time. Now, she knew who, and that he'd been unable to save her. "I'm not sure that even I understand myself anymore..."

The forest (Aera)

The mahama spell was a success, and this was Aera's chance to capture one of the perpetrators for questioning... that was until four arrows flew right next to Aera with one impaling into the large tree right next to Aera's head, as she was hunched their with her eyes widening.

"Sir, can you deal with the blinded enemies?  I'll handle one of the other groups since I don't need to see them" Aera stated with determination, as she quickly dashed towards the sound the archer's voice came with her body lowered to the ground, moving in a quick and agile manner, as she worked her way towards the mysterious archers.

The sound of movement could be heard, as the archers tried to relocate to keep themselves hidden, but unfortunately for them they were in plain sight for Aera and her ears.

One of the poor suspecting archer's caught sight of Aera, as she quickly drew her blade and slit the man's throat with a fierce lunge before he had a chance to react with the other one quickly spinning around on his feet and preparing himself in a battle position.

But Aera had already ignited her blade with magic, as the light erupted from the blade blinding the member with Aera slamming the hilt of her blade into the man's head causing him to fall to the ground stunned.

"Don't move!  Unless you want to live to see tomorrow!" Aera demanded, as she grabbed the man's arms and slammed her elbow in his back to make sure he wouldn't move at all.

At that point, Aera specifically position herself to the left side of a large tree, so the archer's on the right side wouldn't be able to fire at her during this encounter.  For now, she would wait to see how Lancar did before she made any more actions.

The tall grass (Daemond)

The man was blown away with Xennox finishing him off, just as Daemond thought with him smirking slightly at how weak of a block the man had.  Though, he couldn't let his guard down yet, as he quickly held his sword in his left hand, as a magic circle formed.

"I've got you covered." Daemond replied with a nod, as he punched the magic circle with his right hand "Marakukaja!"

Quickly, a magical invsible shield formed around the two, as Daemond dashed towards the enemies with him making an over dramatic swing on the right side of the right enemy so the enemy on the left side couldn't attack along with him.

The enemy took this as an immediate opening, as he went to finish off Daemond with a slash, but his attack quickly bounced off due to the kaja spell, as Daemond slashed the poor man right in the gut with his bleeding corpse flying into the man behind him, knocking the poor soul on the ground.

With a quick dash and grunt, Daemond in front of the knocked over solider in a second, as he took the tip of his sword and stabbed it through the corpse of his ally into the man himself, damaging a vital organ, as the man passed out from shock.. soon to die from blood loss.

"You okay over there Xennox?" Daemond called out, as he turned towards Xennox with his sword in a defensive position to make sure the ensign was alright.

Bunker

Rise smiled and nodded in response to James' words as she looked up into the sky.

"There's more than that though," she said quietly. "It's a little embarrassing, but.. I want to live in a world where people can have fun. I want to be able to sing to crowds and make them smile."

She blushed a little and looked at him shyly.

"Does that sound stupid?" she asked, biting her lip.

--------------------

Jane watched Keynes undressing, her expression unwavering. Was she just good at covering her emotions, or was she simply desensitized to things like this.

"If you feel that way.." she sighed, letting the subject drop. Keynes headed off into the showers, leaving a suggestive offer behind.

"I don't think your ego needs further stroking," the agent commented teasing, leaving with a small wink.

--------------------

Jax headed to the weight room after leaving Alina's. He and Keynes appeared to be of a similar mind when it came to relieving stress. Soon the room was filled with the grunting of exertion and the clanking of weights.

"Look, I have to work with you if we want to stop the Army, but outside that capacity, you're dead to me," Kokonoe said, barging into the room. Jax looked up in surprise, and for a horribly awkward moment, the researcher just stared at him. Then, she slowly put her hand up to her face and sighed weakly.

"I certainly misjudged my timing.." she muttered to herself. Jax scratched his head, unsure what to say, when suddenly he felt an attack coming on from his synth seraph. Clutching his head dizzily, he sat down on the weight bench and hurriedly took out one of his protein bars. Kokonoe watched as he ate it hurriedly, sitting very still while waiting for the squirming creature inside to settle down. Once his color returned, the Red Rider turned to see Kokonoe still watching him closely.

"What was that all about?" she asked, looking curious in a very academic way. Jax's first instinct was to gloss over the whole ordeal, but this was a brilliant researcher. She might know some way to handle it.

"Well, it's like this.."

--------------------

Army Squad

The twins, having moved in from opposite sides, emerged into the clearing with weapons raised, but no one to attack.

"The hell?" Cash murmured, looking about. Suddenly they heard the sound of spells being cast.

"Above!" Carrie warned, causing both twins to dive back as ice crystals and lightning bolts scorched the earth.

"What is going on here?" the male twin murmured, looking up in the direction of the spells. "Hey, Sasha, what's the deal?"

Unfortunately, the only reply was static.

--------------------

Aera's spell worked well to tilt the odds in the favor of the Army soldiers once more. Lancar didn't respomd to the ensign's request; he merely sprinted off in the direction of her Mahama spell. The men were still blinded and reelling, and with a few flashes of his whip sword they were down.

"Aera, are you all right?" he called, looking around. He could see that she was pinned down by a group of archers on her right, but had no means of reaching them. The lieutenant couldn't get much closer either without risking being targeted. Getting as near as he could manage, Lancar hid behind a tree for cover while he conjured, right hand raised in front of his face and index and middle finger pointed upward. He needed a powerful spell.. Bufula wouldn't be enough.

"Mabufudyne!" he yelled, diving out from behind the tree and swing his hand down. A magic circle appeared in the air above the archers, raining down huge icicle spears on them. With a terrible crash like breaking glass, the archers were crushed by the icicles or impaled by the shattered fragments.

"Aera?" Lancar called, looking around for her.

Police HQ

Arya realized that Lisa must still be tired from being drugged, so she moved around a little so the girl could rest her head in her lap while Arya could still lean against the wall. She pulled the blanket over Lisa and kept playing with her hair.

"I am glad you used it," was all Arya said, her voice quiet. She stared off into the distance. It took all her self-control to suppress the memory from earlier that wanted to rise to the surface again.

It was quite in the prison block while neither of the sisters talked. However, the silence was almost worse than what they were talking about. Arya suddenly bent over, he mouth close to Lisa's ear and her hair falling over her face, obscuring her face from the cameras.

"Promise me, when you do get a chance, you will try to escape," she whispered quietly in her sisters ear. "I am sorry I cannot be there to protect you, but I do not want to leave you here, knowing you have surrendered to whatever fate awaits you."

Arya straightened up again and bit her lip, looking guilty. Maybe Raidon was right, maybe she really had turned into a criminal. Above all, as a Lieutenant of the army, she should be trying to convince her sister to turn her friends in, but she just…could not. Well, it is too late now, she thought and avoided to look up into the cameras.

____________________________________________


Bunker

"I didn't think it sounded stupid the first time you told me about it," he said smiling warmly. "What makes you think that changed?"

James looked at her slightly blushed face, radiating with, well it almost looked like excitement about having something passionate she wanted to do after all this was over and he could feel his own cheeks blush the longer he stared into her wide and bright eyes. She was so beautiful. It took a lot of effort, but he forced himself to turn his head away and looked the other way. If he had stared at her just a few seconds longer, she would have known how he felt, he was certain about that.

"I still think it's something you'd be good at," he murmured, feeling slightly embarrassed, that somehow he could never keep his feelings in check when he was around her, despite everything.

Bunker
-Alexander Dranos

'Dad! Do you think I can join the army?' The boy looked at his father with high hopes, the man smiled warmly at the boy; his large hand messed boy's hair aggressively. 'Of course, you can, Alex. I'm sure you will be one fine soldier.' The boy named Alex smiled innocently, 'Really!? You think I can?' The man gave Alex a thumbs up, 'Well if you become one, I will count on you to protect the people of Kaddath' The boy nodded with ambitions, 'Yeah, you can count on me, dad! I will be the most powerful person in Kaddath! Bad guys! Watch out! Here comes the Alexander Dranos!'

Alex top was starting to drench with sweat as he counted, "two hundred, two hundred and one..." Alex mouth could taste little bit of bitterness as the past memories of his dead parents came to him all of the sudden, and his old dream.

Alex continued with his supposed to be mindless exercise; soon he changed from push ups into the position to start sit ups. Starting to count from, "One."
===============================================================

Heading to S.O.S Signal Location
-Aera&Lancar

Lancar's powerful spell managed to finish the three archers who were positioning themselves to strike Aera who pinned down one of their man.

As those men fall to the ground, Lancar realized the radio was back online as he could hear calling from Sasha.

The man who was pinned down by Aera chuckled, "I got nothing to say to you army bi***, why don't you just kill me?"

===============================================================
Heading to S.O.S Signal Location
-Cash&Carrie

The foes were not giving any break for the twins, as soon as they were in one location. The shout of spells were heard and from the above, spells rushed towards where they were. The opponent had clear upper hand in this game.

The opponents targeted the twins as if they knew where they were, the only time spell didn't try to kill them was when they run.

=================================================================
Xennox Xylon
-Heading to S.O.S Signal Location

The tall grass gave Xennox easy picture of where his opponents were, without hesitation, Xennox closed his eyes and let his right fist slams to his left hand palm. Then the second later his eyes were open, facing his black magic circle. Xennox right hand quickly grabbed something from the mid air and soon that very hand gestured as if he was crushing whatever that was inside his hand. "Mamudoon" Xennox said it coldly. Then there was sound of screams of two people, one male and female. The large black tendrils stained with blood came out from the tall grass to greet Xennox lifeless eyes which was soon drifted towards where Daemond was. "Yes, I am alright."

Xennox soon opened his radio channel again, the annoying sound was gone. "Sasha, can you hear me? What's going on with other locations?" Xennox sound cold but there was still sound of urgency in his voice. 'Aera' thought Xennox, 'Please be okay,'

The forest (Aera)

"I'm over here sir, I got one alive." Aera called out, as she supposedly ignored the man's remark when she dug into the man's back with her elbow with a little bit of extra weight.  Though, the man was certainly feisty, and if it wasn't for the fact that Aera had stunned him and got him in a strong hold, he would of certainly broke free.

She wasn't good at torture though.  So many Lancar being a lieutenant would have a better idea how to get this man to talk, but for now she would just hold him here until she got a word of advice from her lieutenant.

"Really?  So you're just willing to die for the man who hired you, and give up everything?  Does your life mean so little?" Aera stated with an annoyed expression, as she really hated how little this man cared about his life.  He was working for a rouge scientist that was foolish enough to give up so much and for what?  Nothing!

Tall Grass (Daemond)

"Let's go Xennox, now that we killed some of the troops the target will have time to prepare if we don't hurry up." Daemond stated, as he grabbed onto Xennox's shoulder to tell him to hurry up with the exchange.

When he walked up to Xennox he also couldn't help but notice the body of gruesomely murdered by some sort of dark spell he knows nothing about.  His face went pale for a brief moment at the sight of the grass stained with crimson blood, but he quickly shook it off, as he remembered what he was asking Xennox in the first place.

Though, for some reason the ensign seemed a lot more concered about his comrades rather then the mission.  The expression was written all over his face, and this wouldn't do for the mission not at all.

"Don't worry about them, man." Daemond quickly said to him, as he started to walk in the direction of the S.O.S. "They're trained soilders, just like you... worrying about them will only make the mission harder."

Bunker

"Spoken like someone that will go without." Keynes quipped back as he closed the door behind him to take his shower.

After soaking for a few minutes and scrubbing off the sweat, Keynes turned off the water and stood there for a few minutes, letting himself air dry. What was she doing here after all this time? Was it to spite him?

With a sigh, he grabbed his towel and dried off before slipping into a fresh change of clothes. Maybe he'd be better off resigning to his room, where he could be alone with his thoughts... Well, that was what he'd been thinking before he stepped into the weight room to see Kokonoe probing Jax's abdomen with her fingers.

He cleared his throat uncomfortably and shifted in the direction of the door. "Isn't he a bit young for you?" Keynes muttered as he stepped out of the room.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Police HQ

Between the continued drowsiness caused by the drugs they'd given her and Arya's gentle probing of her hair, Lisa had almost fallen back asleep when her sister leaned over to whisper to her. Maybe it would have been better to fake sleep at this point, but instead, Lisa shook her head. "Escaping was never an option." She whispered. "This guy in charge of the prison, Raidon, he's a hard ass. The only reason he's not killed either of us yet is because I have something he wants, and apparently, even that has a short lifetime."

Lisa paused for a moment, as if trying to decide whether or not to finish her thought. "I know this may sound selfish, but I didn't come here to save you. I'm not so naive as to believe that was possible. The reason I turned myself in was because this was my fault, and if you were going to suffer for it, you weren't going to do so alone. This is my penance..."

Bunker

Kokonoe nodded thoughtfully after Jax summarized the implantation of the synth seraph for her. Despite the unpleasant nature of the whole procedure, she couldn't help but be fascinated that magic could be artificially implanted into humans.

"Well, I should be able to do something to help," she said, fishing in her lab coat for some instruments. Jax blinked in surprise.

"Really? You can do something about the synth seraph?" he inquired, watching as she pulled out what looked like some kind of stethoscope.

"Well, not the Majin itself. But maybe something to keep the side effect from bothering you," the researcher corrected, listening to his heartbeat. It almost appeared as there were two beating just about in time with each other. Pursing her lips, she placed her hand to the Red Rider's chest, feeling unusual heat over the area.

"Isn't he a bit young for you?"

Jax watched as the cantankerous but well-meaning researcher transformed before his eyes into a lifeless doll, her emotions vanishing behind tightly-guarded defenses. Unconsciously, her hand on his chest constricted, the nails digging into his skin.

"Uh.. thanks, Kokonoe," the Red Rider said, getting to his feet as she retracted her hand and stood, her back to the obviously unwelcome intruder. "I'll see you around."

Kokonoe waited until the sound of his boots disappeared up the hall before bringing herself to speak.

"I don't have any choice but to cooperate with you if I want to take the Army down," she said flatly, turning to stare at Keynes with cold, dead eyes. "But outside that capacity, you're nothing but a dead memory."

--------------------

"Now you're just buttering me up," Rise giggled, poking James in the arm. "Hey, maybe if you're lucky, I'll get you a front-row seat to one of my performances."

They were quiet for a few moments, and Rise's more upbeat attitude sagged as she gave a small sigh.

"I don't like it, but it seems like we're going to need to work together with those two," she said, accepting defeat. "Do you think we should.. I dunno.. do something to welcome them?"

Rise turned to look at James, wondering what his opinion would be on the matter.

--------------------

Army Squad

The twins were spitting mad by this point. They'd never faced an opponent they couldn't stab, impale, or slice seventeen different ways directly upon encountering it. Of course, that didn't mean they couldn't bring the enemy to them.

Both dodged aside once more, spells crashing into the ground and brush around them. Cash pulled out of a dive and immediately began conjuring his spell.

"Balzac!" he called, sending out a flash of red light. The casters - wherever they were - had to be watching them. In that case, they would see the light and be put under a berserk state, forcing them to charge toward their foes in a blind fury. Then the twins could easily cut them down in the open.

--------------------

Lancar hurried over to Aera and found her holding down a prisoner. Perhaps they'd be able to get some kind of information out of him. However, the man soon made it clear that he'd refuse to impart any information to them.

"Aera," the lieutenant cautioned firmly, indicating that he'd like to take the lead here. He'd seen types like this before; they talked big, but that was only because they didn't expect the "good guys" to really do anything as merciless as slaughter them.

"Very well," Lancar said pragmatically, adjusting his glasses. "If you won't divulge any information, then we have no further use for you."

With that, he swung his sword back and stabbed it toward the man's head - fully intending to move away at the last moment. Of course, the prisoner didn't need to know that.

Bunker

"Would I ever do that?" he asked back with a disarming smile. "I'll be awaiting that invitation though," he added with a wink.

Geez, James get a handle on things, she probably thinks you're an idiot now, he thought and sat up in a more comfortable position, crossing his legs.

When he heard Rise's proposal about doing something to welcome their newest additions, he blinked in surprise. A little laugh escaped his lips before he turned it into a cough.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think that is really a good idea given the circumstances. We're on the run from the army and we have an upset Commander with us and a frustrated Researcher and you want to throw them a welcome party?" he shook his head, his expression turning serious. "Somehow I don't think they would appreciate it, as well-meaning as it is."

____________________________________________

Police HQ

"…but I didn't come here to save you."

Arya went quiet for a while after Lisa finished talking. She felt confused and what Lisa said stung a little more than she wanted to admit. She understood well that Lisa did not want to give up her friends, but a part of her had at least hoped she was here because she wanted to help her sister.

"You should have just stayed away then," she replied. "I did this for you, to prevent you from getting hurt and you come here because you deserve it?" she shook her head. "No one deserves this, not for anything."

Did that mean she herself was naive for believing that they could be saved? Well if you have one system to firmly believe in and it fails you, it is still hard to let go. Did she let that feed her illusion that everything was going to be okay because there had been options?

"I do not really think he is bad," she finally said. "Raidon is just doing his job. That sometimes entitles things no one can be proud of, however they have to be done by somebody."

She paused for a few seconds before continuing. "I don't believe he is the bad guy here. I mean he did let me in here, didn't he?"

Bunker

Keynes stood silently while the former Red Rider made his escape from the awkward situation, and he even managed not to show any emotion when Kokonoe spoke. Her words were laced with venom, and he couldn't exactly blame her for that. In his mind, he deserved every bit of it.

"I don't deserve to be anything more than a dead memory." Keynes said as he walked past her and towards the door. He had to leave before his composure was lost. "It'll be a pleasure working with you again though."

Damn it all. He'd been hoping to clear his head, but now it was even more muddled than before. Maybe that's just how life was though... Not only could you not get what you wanted, but sometimes, you couldn't get what you needed either.

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Police HQ

Nothing could have stopped the tears that formed in Lisa's eyes and rolled down her cheeks as she laid there with Arya looking down at her. The emotions reflected in her sister's eyes were exactly what she had expected, but it still hurt more than she had ever imagined. Pain, sorrow, denial, betrayal... Maybe now, her sister would love her a little less, and Lisa couldn't blame her for that.

"You're right. No one deserves this, and especially not you. Do you think I didn't know? Do you think I'm not aware of everything you've done for me sis? Of how many times you ruined your own life in hopes of making mine better?" Lisa turned away now, unable to look into those eyes any longer. "You deserve so much better than this."

"How can you defend him?" She asked after a moment. "He jailed you because of something you had no control over, tortured you for it even. He stood by and did nothing while you were violated, and now, you're defending him even after he's ordered your exec---" Lisa couldn't finish the word around the lump in her throat. It wasn't fair. She'd known from the start what crimes she was committing, but Arya didn't deserve to suffer for them too.