(Author's note: I intend no copywrite infrigment by using the reference of "Iron Savior". The title belongs to the band Iron Savior. This is only used in tribute to both the band and Ishiwatare, who constatly uses metal references. This fic will be long, so prepare yourselves for this monster. Enjoy.)
A half moon loomed above the city of Paris like an unblinking eye. That same moon had watched over him during the war as he fought Gears and became a man and a commander. It gave him light during the those sleepless nights while he guarded over his men with burning eyes and an uneasy mind. Now, he rarely looked up at the sky like he used to, not when the tall buildings of the city blocked his view and the street lamps stole its brilliance.
Things were different now, but there were things that managed to hide in the shadows and escape his watch once in a while, but he never thought something like this would happen.
"Catch him!"
As Ky began to cross the opening of an alleyway, he was clipped by something moving at an incredible speed. He caught the sight of red at the corner of his eye before he was sent to the ground. When he looked up, he saw the thing that nearly plowed him over. Halfway down the block, a man in a long red coat paused only a few seconds to look back at him, then dashed into a building and out of sight.
Ky laid there a moment, blinking. The figure moved so fast, it was like his brain was on fast-forward. He stared down the block then picked himself up and jogged after the figure. Where his trail led him was to the steps of a church.
Is this man seeking sanctuary? he asked himself, then looked over his shoulder, towards the alley where he had come from, then back to the face of the doors. Something was going on. There was something in the air. A sort of bad wind.
With that whisper in his head, he stepped inside. He listened as the heavy door closed behind him, cutting off the chilly air from the outside. His ears were then filled with silence all around him. He felt alone but he knew he wasn't.
He stood there, taking in his surroundings before he stepped forward, down the aisle, while his footsteps echoed and announced his presence through the solitude of the church.
"Hello?" he called out, his voice dancing off the walls. "Is anyone here?"
No response.
"I know you're here," he said. "Are you in some sort of trouble?"
Nothing.
He walked down until he reached the steps to the altar. As he stood there, he forgot about the man in red for a moment. He remembered when he knelt before an altar and given a bride called Furaiken. Many men were there to witness the holy unity, including three high officials of the Sacred Order, who stood upon the top of the steps. He didn't see Furaiken's true beauty and power until he felt it in his hands and opened his eyes.
Suddenly:
"That's what you always say."
He turned around and started down the aisle again. "What do you mean?" He paused when he saw red, the man he was looking for. He was on his hands and knees between two pews. He was a man he couldn't miss.
The moment he was spotted, the man jerked his head up, allowing Ky to see his face. Their expressions were identical once their eyes met—but that wasn't the only thing about them that was identical. He was wearing an old Sacred Order uniform, the same style he wore during the war, except red. His hair was blonde, the same style as his. All of this wasn't just a coincidence—they looked exactly alike.
Ky looked him up and down and said, "You— Where did you come from?"
The look-alike stared into his eyes like a rabbit caught in the eyes of a wolf. He said nothing.
Ky narrowed his eyes. "Speak. Now!" He reached for the look-alike's arm, but grabbed only a fistful of fabric when he should have grabbed his arm. The instant he did so, the look-alike pulled out of his grasp and slapped his hand away. The strike stung. It felt like he hit him with something hard, not flesh.
Ky looked down on the look-alike's gloved hand but he didn't see him holding anything. But there was something odd about his hands. His fingers. They were gray and skeletal. It looked like his fingers had been stripped to the bone and dipped into melted metal. Both of them were in that condition. They were half covered by gloves.
A type of replacement appendages perhaps?
"What are you—" he began, but he was suddenly struck in the chest by the look-alike. He went flying backwards and hit his back on the side of a pew. The sound of him colliding into the wooden pew was heard throughout the church.
Pain ran down Ky's spine. It made him think for a moment he had broken something in his back. He heard something crack when he hit it. He pushed himself up with one arm and asked his poor spine to do some work. Nothing was broken, but God, it hurt.
He placed a hand upon the middle of his back and muttered, "A little warning next time, please, Lord?"
He then looked up to the look-alike who struck him, but he wasn't there. He wasn't anywhere in the church, in fact. How could he escaped that fast?
He slowly stood up and walked to the doors, holding his back as he went. He moved like an old man. How embarrassing.
When he made it out, something jumped out in front of him. Then another.
Aka's life came down to two choices: fight or flight. He chose flight. It was all he knew, all he understood. Why risk injury, or worse, when he could outrun any threat that came his way?
It began several days ago under a fiery sunset. His watched its colors before the night overcame the ruins of his grave, half-buried in scrap metal and parts. Only by the on-coming night he became aware of his consciousness—and the fact he wasn't alone. A stirring in the distance broke the dead stillness, and soon, something began to approach, walking and climbing over the scrap heaps, searching. His ears were fixed on the sound as it came closer.
"A new model?" a voice had said. "Aspiring, but flawed. I see why you are out here."
When he turned his eyes up, he saw a figure in white standing over him, holding a long sword nearly as tall as its owner. He was hypnotized by it, even when the sparking blade was raised over the figure's head. "I am your Iron Savior!"
When he once saw beauty, the blade became a fearful thing. It was brought down in a swift and deadly motion. He couldn't remember how he managed to escape the blade and scatter out of the way, but he moved just in time. The blade struck only air and the scrap he had been lying in. He moved so quickly, it stunned his attacker, leaving him standing there, bewildered while Aka found his feet for the first time.
But the figure in white wasn't alone. There were others, all wearing white, too, except for one, who wore red as well. They appeared like a cunning pack of wolves, their eyes glowing a bright amber.
"Surround him! Surround him!"
He did get away that night and the hunt bled into the streets of Paris. This time, they came uncomfortably close this night's encounter. And to make it worse, the group had a new member and he looked just like him.
Something hit Aka and sent him tumbling across the ground until a wall caught him. He landed in a seated position with his legs extended out in front of him like a doll.
At the corner of his eye, he saw a figure standing in the alley with him. Aka studied this one carefully, watching how steady and erect he stood. It was by these simple features it was the member of the group he feared worst out of all of them. It was the one who called himself the Iron Savior. The leader. The master.
The leader began to move towards him. His walk was smooth and human-like. He was the only one within the group who moved like that. The others seemed more like animals. They crawled and crouched down on their haunches like dogs.
The leader stepped up to him and placed a hand on his hip, pivoting it a bit. His green fingers stuck out of his gloves, contrasting them against the white of his outfit.
He leaned forward as his empty, artificial eyes stared down on him. "There, that will stop you for now. Stay still. All of this will end if you stay still. Haven't you been listening to anything I have been saying to you? No, of course not. You have been denying your Savior from the beginning!" He reached down and grabbed Aka by the collar and pulled him to his feet. "I am growing tired of chasing you. You are going to stay here until I call upon one of my units so they may break your legs first."
Aka struggled until he was able to break free of his grip, nearly ripping his collar, and backed away. "Stop it. If you are so tired of me, why don't you back down? Leave me be and that will be it. You won't be seeing me again, I assure you."
The leader shook his head. "Your hard drive," the leader said. "I sensed it the night I found you. We can all sense it. We don't need to scan for your frequency to find you. It's like a stench! Do my words not register in your processor? Your hard drive is diseased! It's why I raise my blade to you. . .as your Savior!"
His sword aimed for the sky.
"Another one?"
Ky Kiske stared at the two beings standing front of him, half hunched like zombies. They made him wonder if he wasn't seeing double after his collision with the pew. They were both exactly alike. More impersonators, but this time, these two had the coloring of their uniforms accurate—white and blue. His colors. Again, his looks.
What was going on here?
These two, although, weren't like the first impersonator. There was something odd about them. They were ugly. They were—
Ky looked closely at their faces, past the curtain of blonde hair he saw they weren't men at all. Their faces were green and shined in the moonlight. Their eyes, large and squared (lenses, actually) glowed a haunting amber and reflected against the surface of their green and featureless faces. They had no noses, lips or any sort of human features, just the shape of crude mockings.
Ky's lip twitched at the sight of them. "What is this? Mechanical men impersonating me?"
He watched the one on the right twitch its head, then speak in a hallow, steely voice: "This is none of your concern. None of what you saw here is none of your concern."
"Is that so? Hmm?" Ky said and crossed his arms over his chest. As he looked at the two creatures, he began to wish he had brought Furaiken with him. What was keeping them from attacking him? He knew they weren't peaceful just by looking at the replicas they were holding— replicas of Furaiken. "You both look like me, and the other—"
"We will handle that one," it said. "There is no need to worry about that one. You will never be able to keep up with him anyway. Let us catch up to him." The robot nudged the other beside it and began to turn.
"Wait! Who are you? What are you?"
The two paused a moment, then turned their heads to him. They stared at him, as if they were about to continue, but they did not plan on doing so. They suddenly took off. He blinked and watched them bolt down the block, their backs to him.
"Hey!" Ky gave chase, despite the pain in his back and their speed. It was going to be a struggle to keep them in his sights. He didn't have to run as long and as fast as he expected, though. He halted at the opening of the alley where he saw the group of robots, including two more. But what was happening in the alley twisted Ky's expectation. There were four robots attacking the look-alike like a gang of hoodlums, swarming him in numbers while he was on the ground, trying to protect himself. There was another dressed in red with his back to him, but he knew he wasn't like the first imposter.
He watched the look-alike kick one of them off, sending it flying. He kicked and thrashed, struggling to get up while the others pinned him down. One was stepping on him.
"Stop!" Ky shouted. He wasn't sure what made him open his mouth, but it was too late to take it back. The group froze and turned their heads to him. Their large yellow eyes were predatory.
The alley went silent with the group looking amongst themselves. The look-alike even stopped struggling and stared at him while he laid on his side. His eyes were caught in the shine of the moonlight as he looked at Ky. Those eyes seemed to say: Help me.
He isn't human, Ky reminded himself.
The others suddenly scattered like dogs and took to the rooftops with amazing agility until they were out of sight. He kept his eyes up for a while, waiting to see any lingering traces, but they didn't showed themselves again.
He walked further into the alley and up to him and placed his hands on his hips while he looked down on him. He wasn't sure why he hadn't fled like the others, but it was good he was staying put, on his behalf.
"You're a robot aren't you?" he said, frowning. Ky watched as the look-alike lowered his head until he could no longer see his face. "You have a lot of explaining to do. And if you attack me again, I will not hesitate to kill you. Do you understand me?"
The look-alike kept silent.