-----------
PRELUDE
-----------
1996 1:14 AM
The slap came, hard.
"This couldn't have happened---It's all your fault!" She cried, "Get out my
face, get out my life!"
With that, she turned around sobbing and walked away, into the night.
Good riddance, I thought. But it still hurts.
We'd just come down the steps from the office hall, after hearing the tragic
news about Lt. Van Flyheight.
From what I had hoped would Fiona give me a chance in her heart and also in her
life. Guess not. Instead of a
small gratitude of a simple 'thank-you-Thomas-for-being-here-for-me', I got a
good night slap. And she
blames me for the tragic loss in the Guardian Force. If she only knew how much I
tried.
Hell, she's probably already somewhere in the base, charming a ride home out
with Irvine. She could take up all
her telekinesis zoidian powers and the organoid Zeke, possess some zoid for all I
care.
First love is always the best.
============================================================================
Into The Fabric of Time
by Ravenous
IF YOU ARE SMART ENOUGH, DON'T IGNORE THIS WARNING, BECAUSE I WONT BE
RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR
FLAMES LATER:
This fiction deals with a lot glorious Thomas x Fiona bashing. Yes, both get
bashed although in a
justifiable way,
THIS one shot glamour the dark possibilities of time travel, first love and the
possible bleak future in Zi,
when
nice people turn bad. Contains some explicit languages, time-shifting, a bunch
of OC'S and a political-oriented
setting. AND NO---I'm not angry when I did this one. Morbid and Insane maybe,
but not angry _
----------------
2007 1:09 AM
It looked bad. Our primary and secondary targets were both terminated, but we
encountered heavy resistance
on the way out,
Damn. Someone up there has a sick sense of humor. Tonight's the night when all
the bitterness in my life
began. Bitterness that drove me to join the Delta Battalion. Damn.
But that was eleven years ago. I'm now Major Thomas Schubaltz, Delta Battalion,
team leader. Delta Battalion,
nicknamed 'Death Battalion' Force, the most elite military unit built after the
disintegration of the Guardian
Force.
Got to pull together. Focus. Focus. Got to get back to the extraction site. The
squad was built of some old
and new---Irvine, my republican counterpart, Dave, his lieutenant, Xanders and
not to mention the maverick
soldier Raven---should be there already.
Raven, well, his is a pretty long story. After some years, he was granted
amnesty and became a law-abiding
citizen--he then heard the tragic news about Flyheight, and with complex
reasons, he vouched himself to
willingly lend his mercenary-honed skill in DB's service. Except for his
occasional stubbornness, Raven has
proven his efficiency and trust in DB.
"Major, sir."
I turned around. The voice addressed me with familiarity in my receiver. Two
zoids stood behind me---how'd
they sneaked up on me, I don't know---piloting two dibisons but not identical to
my own. They are equipped with
ammo customized like any I'd ever seen before. I instinctively positioned to
prepare for fire.
"Easy, Major. It is us. No time to explain."
The one in front bleated up in my monitor receiver. A moment of faint moonlight
eclipsing in my zoid's visors
identified the owner of the familiar voice. Major David Reym, republican
counterpart, Delta Battalion, elite
force. A trick?
"Truth" I murmured
"...Justice." came the reply from the other guy.
"...and the DB way." finished Major Reym.
The old countersign; my squad's little secret code. It was my comrade. It could
be no other.
"Hurry," the other guy whispered.
Major Reym nudged my zoid, and the next thing I saw was a blinding flash.
-----------------
2011 12:23 AM
The other guy was one of my team members, Raven. But something was definitely
wrong. Besides wearing an
imperial uniform and the weaponry, Raven had on a lieutenant insignia. He also
has a scar that runs across the
right side of his face, marring his right eye shut.
"You're in the future, Major." said Raven. "Welcome to Delta HQ 2011."
He activated a giant screen in front of us, and Xanders directed me to a
console. News compilations of the
past ten years flashed on the screen. It sure looked convincing. The equipment
looked slightly different from
anything I'd ever seen before, too.
"Okay. Assuming I am in the future. Why am I here?"
Xanders called up a file dated few days ago.
"TERRORISTS THREATENED TO DETONATE DOOMSDAY DEVICE TO ERADICATE ALL ZOIDS."
The big bold letters filled the screen. They faded away to reveal a news anchor
woman describing how a group
of fanatics were demanding the release of their associates in prison. If they
don't, they'd threaten the
existence of zoids with this doomsday device. A really complicated doomsday
device. The technical data was in
the corner below. This device was bigger that anything in my time. The fall out
would spread throughout a
good part of the world, causing some civilian casualties.
"What do you want me to do?" I asked. "Help you hit them?"
"No," Xanders replied gravely. "Too late---You--you of 2011---led the DB on a
strike. You haven't been
heard from in 36 hours."
'We need to hit the source," he continued. "The one who perfected the device."
"Okay," I asked again. "Who is he?"
"Not he."
A new file appeared. The photo struck me. The caption read: Fiona. Fiona Alissi
Linnette. My first love.
"Then why this time business?"
"Because the last time we can pinpoint her is.."
---------------
1996 1:06 AM
"...my first love. Is she really going to blow up the world? Tell me what she's
like in fifteen years."
Raven frowned and shrugged his shoulders.
"We don't know much. She's smart and ruthless; as deceiving as she appears to be
frail and pretty."
"Guess people DO change much in fifteen years." I replied. "Look at you, you're
a lieutenant. And to think
before you're one of the most notorious way back in my time."
Raven didn't reply. He stared at the needle pistol in his hand. It was a small,
lightweight weapon that shredded a
hard plastic block into projectiles that wreaked holy havoc on unarmored flesh.
A silent deadly weapon.
---------------
1996 1:13 AM
I watched myself walk those steps, walking arm-in-waist consoling Fiona Alissi
Linnette. The night erupted as
soon as we reached the last step.
"Y---you bastard!" she cried.
The slap.
"This couldn't have happened---It's all your fault!" She cried, "Get out of my
face! Get out my life!"
I watched my seemingly stoic, bitter expression.
Raven raised his needle pistol.
"No!" I screamed. "You can't!!!"
I grabbed his wrist. The deadly spray flew above Fiona's head. Her scream
pierced the cold night.
----------------
1996 1: 13 AM
Raven stared at the needle pistol in his hand.
A bright light flash behind us. We all turned to see a new figure, weapons
ready. Xanders breathed a sigh of
relief when he recognized the new time traveler: the one I knew as Republican
Major David Reym.
"Do it," he said coldly. "Ice the bitch."
I noticed a limp, and a lot of dried red blood on his dark combat uniform.
Major David Reym had been with me in the strike fifteen years later. It was a
complete failure. The elite force
had become separated, and picked off one by one. Lt. Xanders and Raven had
attempted to follow, and paid for
it. he had escaped to the base, read the base log, and followed us into the
past.
He handed me a print out. I read it. The butcher's bill: "Delta Battalion, Elite
force, Republic side, Sgt, James
Krotiz KIA, Imperial Side Sgt. Jefferson Nohl KIA. Republic side, Lt. Xanders
Roylin KIA, Imperial side, Lt. Raven
**Cheng KIA (**note- I had to think of a name! I got it from some reference..)"
KIA. Killed in action. Killed because of one Fiona Alissi Linnette. The
repetition of the word struck home. I felt
a pang of guilt when I saw that only Irvine and I were not listed dead. We were
listed missing.
I watched myself walk down those steps, walking arm-in-waist consoling Fiona
Alissi Linette. The two of us
stopped midway. Fiona gasped.
Major Reym had his machine pistol raised, and his finger applied pressure on the
trigger
---------------
1996 1:13 AM
Major Reym had his machine pistol raised, waiting for the Thomas Schubaltz of this
time to emerge with a frail blonde
in an orange dress.
Another flash of light. The newcomer placed his hand on Reym's weapon and forced
it down. Bile went up his
throat when I recognized the newcomer. What were once an arm and a leg were now
lifeless bionic
replacements. Half of his face was encased in metal. A clearly electronic eye
stared at me from that half. It
was one of my most trusted comrade, Irvine.
"DON'T DO IT!!" he shouted
He and I had been separated from the elite force in that final strike. We made
it. But, not without cost. That
cost was clearly seen.
Irvine and I had pursuit the terrorists faction halfway around the world. He
had spent months in a coma in a
distant nation. A year after his recovery---or reconstruction, as he put it--, I
had settled down and we parted
ways. He followed us back in time only after seeing the log at the abandoned
Delta HQ
"It has to be done," I said, heart hardened. "Major Reym is right. The whole
squad---dead. Look at you!
You're not even completely human anymore! All this can be averted---for the
life of one..."
I couldn't bring myself to say the word: Bitch.
"A bitch," said Irvine. "A bitch that you have always loved."
I stared at him, shocked.
"You settled down a year after I recovered. You married her."
---------------
1996 1:13 AM
"Don't do it!" shouted Irvine
"Please don't," added another voice, older, wearier than Irvine.
We all turned to face yet another new comer. He, too, was wearing a combat
uniform but it wasn't a dark
combat job like ours. He had no visible weapons, save the weary green eyes that
looked at us from behind a
black mask.
Raven raised his needle pistol. I put my hand on his wrist, and firmly took it
away from him.
"Truth.." I intoned.
"Justice, and the DB way," the figure finished.
He pulled off the mask and revealed a face of about forty, or so, with a lot of
dull blonde hair, but his face has a
small red marking under the left eye. He was me.
He/I had lived a relatively quiet life with his/my bride. In 2023, he/I returned
to the abandoned Delta HQ to
exorcise a few old ghosts. He/I too, saw the still-functioning log there.
"You know the price if she lives," I said to him/myself.
"If you kill her, her daughter will die," he/I replied firmly.
I was speechless.
"Two days before I left, she went on her first day in the school, the Academy." he/I
continued.
I watched myself walk down those steps, walking arm-in-waist, consoling Fiona
Alissi Linnette.
---------------
1996 1:13 AM
Raven raised his needle pistol. I put my hand on his wrist, and firmly took it
away from him.
"Truth..." I intoned
I heard what sounded like a metallic footstep. An energy bolt tore into the back
of the Thomas Schubaltz of 2023's skull.
Another bolt vaporized Major Reyms's chest. the rest tried to return fire, but
even their battled honed
reflexes failed to save them. The future versions of my comrades lay dead at my
feet.
The assailant stepped out of the night. I stood there, waiting for my inevitable
death. No more bolts came. I felt
I knew why.
The clearly female figure was clad in what looked like night black armor that
fit her like a glove. She carried a
long rifle like device, the one I assumed that eliminated my comrades so
quickly. Somehow, I had the courage
to speak.
"What your name, daughter?"
The figure removed its helmet. Longish raven spiky hair fell neatly into place,
accenting her beautiful face and
mysterious cherry eyes. Quite like Fiona's. But her dark, spiky hair---I know it
did not came from my side of
the family.
She gave me her name. Quite apt what Fiona will give--in memory of Van. If he's
only still alive.
Oh my god.
"I had to eliminate this meddling fools." she began with a devilish smile. "They
were going to stop me from
putting the device mother perfected to good use. Why settle for anything less,
when the world is your oyster
and a blood of an ancient zoidian fused to your veins?"
"You father, were a very good teacher. I learned a lot from you, but deception
was best learned from mother."
She continued, "Why did you think she put up with you all these years? Seek
revenge that is, in the name of
my father's grave. My real father, my BIOLOGICAL father. You are just a tool."
She continued, not wavering her icy stare. "But she did still love you, you
know. At least, I think she did as
she tried to resuscitate you, as you both writhed from the poison I gave you
both. Death in each other's
embrace. How poetic---how sickeningly poetic..."
"No!"
"Yes, I killed you. That's why I won't have to do it now. Not to you, the you
before I was born. Come, father.
Let me return you to your proper time." She gestured towards the needle pistol.
"You don't expect that toy
to harm me, do you?"
She raised the rifle.
I watched myself walk down those steps, walking arm-in-waist consoling Fiona.
Seeing the dark-armored lady
with the gun, Fiona screamed, and the me of 1996 embraced her tightly.
I raised the needle pistol
A heart beat later, the rifle turned.
A heart beat later, the plastic shreds tore into Lt. Thomas Schubaltz and Fiona
Alissi Linette.
A heart beat later, my arm vaporized.
A heart beat later, the couple fell to the ground, still locked in embrace.
I gazed at the bitter expression on Van's daughter's face. Because of me, we
both never existed.
We faded into the fabric of time.
-----------
EPILOGUE
-----------
2096 6:02 PM- A new century
Bit Cloud stood from his kneeling position at his great-grandfather's grave. His
tanned and blonde features
were set against the sunset in the horizon.
Smiling, he looked around to see his waiting comrades. Brad and Leena, resting
by in a nearby patch of grass,
watching tumbleweeds roll by. He softly chuckled when he noticed the bored look at their
faces, and called them as he
walked back to his cargo truck. On the way he thought about what the future held
for each man. He thought
about what each occupant of the cemetery could have brought the future. He
thought---
He passed an old gravestone of a man, an officer named Thomas. Lt. Thomas Schubaltz.
He finished his thought. we will never know.
|-THE END -|
muse 01: disturbing
muse 02: confusing
muse 03: you are insane.
ravenous: thank you ^-^