Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Gundam characters, they are the
copyright of Bandai and Sunrise. The old storyline is also not mine, but
everything from the end of EW and on is mine. Xiran, Six, and Certh are all
original chars and come from my very own demented imaginings. Please don't
flame me if you don't like the pairings or what happens in the story.
WARNING: later chapters are not for the faint of heart. (aka SEIGE, not
here yet)
Well, have fun reading it! Forgive me for the first chapters, the pilots aren't there until number three. Be patient! I have big plans and ambitions! MWHAHAAA!!
BLACK PHOENIX SAGA
By: Kywraith Amnesi—(Complete SO FAR in seven parts)
* means that the text should be in italics*
CHAPTER ONE: EXODUS
The alarm screamed its warning to the computer sensors, its shrieking sound instantly filling her ears until she thought that they would either break or explode. Reacting immediately, she buried a shard of metal in the throat of the alarm, silencing it quickly. But the damage was already done. The damned device had already alerted the entire facility, and now soldiers rushed down its corridors to discover and restrain her. She could hear their feet pounding the metal floor of the experimental facilities' halls. Though the sound was muffled, she could tell that they were still several rooms away, and closing the distance quickly.
"I am one cat you don't want to have cross your path," she said grimly to the empty room, as she set the last explosive.
Test Subject Six of Ten moved quickly and silently through the rooms connected to the Genesis Project, which contained the pain and suffering of so many that the air seemed thick with misery.
The firm pounding at several of the heavy metal doors began, as the soldiers realized that she had jammed all of the doors necessary to access the experimental area. Their bellows forced their way past the heavy metal as if through water; filtered and unintelligible and easily ignored.
Six of Ten wasn't worried about the soldiers because she knew they could not break through the blast doors, which had been built with heavy sheets of Gundanium. She was worried if the scientists, who had no doubt been alerted to the problem already, were intelligent enough to figure out her plan. They knew more than anyone else about what she was capable of, but even they hadn't thought she would do something like this, or they would have taken much better precautions.
She backtracked through the explosive lined rooms; most of them flickering because she had damaged the light fixtures when she had disarmed the alarms. Even in the disorienting strobe lights, she could move as fast as a darting shadow, and her dark blue feline eyes caught the bursts of light in their round orbs as she moved with unnatural speed towards the airlock.
The last room caught her attention, as it always had, but this time her feelings were sharp and bittersweet, cutting her like glass shards. It was labeled One to Ten, and the stench of death emanated from it in a solid wave, drowning out all other senses in its heavy, disgustingly sweet musk.
Six of Ten's steps faltered ever so slightly as she passed the room; her ears immersed in its dead silence, her nose full of its unbearable scent, and her eyes plunged in its dark scene.
The still snapshot would live in her mind forever: the dried blood spattering the walls, the deep sticky pools which embraced everything they touched in red, and the broken forms laying on the hard steel floor, their wasted frames engraved with crimson clawmarks.
Six of Ten clenched her fists as a gush of agony and rage filled her mind and body, licking at her self control with a dark hungry tongue, tempting her to succumb to the urge which would consume her.
KILL THEM ALL! THEY DESERVE TO DIE FOR WHAT THEY DID. DESTROY THEM!
No! No more death. Even after… She stopped, her hands trembling as she looked down at the clots of hair and skin and bone and blood jammed beneath her nails. Half remembered shrieks played faintly in the back of her brain… they weren't meant to live, it wasn't fair, but their agony had to be stopped …
A hard wall slammed up in her mind.
* You will have time for this later. Move now or you won't escape!*
Six of Ten gathered herself quickly and took off towards the airlock, to her last remaining companion. She reached the last room and loaded herself up with weapons and ammunition, in case the soldiers had blocked her path. The detonation device fitted securely in her pocket, where she could easily reach it, and as she prepared to open the airlock door she touched it. You will be the device which will carry out justice
(my revenge)
and leave this place of torment in ruins. Don't fail me now, she thought as the airlock door shuddered open, and she stepped out of its maw into the colossal war chamber, fully prepared to meet with an armed ambush. Her hands were on her guns, on a hair trigger, her muscles tight and ready for what could be waiting--
Nothing.
The area was vacant of all life, except for the towering forms of the mobile suits. Six of Ten let out a mental sigh of relief. She sealed the airlock behind her and began the rush towards her mobile suit- to freedom, her ultimate goal--
"FREEZE!"
A voice bellowed the warning. As she half-turned, she heard the metallic click of a gun prepared to fire, and the sound of boots pounding across the floor towards her.
Shit.
Several things rushed through her mind at once. Strategies, escape routes, how long she would have before they brought down the reinforcements. In an instant, the familiar ice-cold surge of emotionlessness had filled her mind. She took in the whole room in one glance, calculating her ammo amounts, her explosives and the safety of the surrounding mecha as soldiers filled the doorways, blocking her exits.
*You dare to interfere? You don't even know what you are fighting for. Soldiers, our paths have brought us to this moment but it is I who will choose whether or not you will step beyond the crossroads. My mission will not wait.
For what it is worth, I regret what I may be forced to do.*
These thoughts lasted for less than half a second. Six of Ten was ready. Thirty soldiers had entered the room to prevent her escape, and she stood alone. She gritted her teeth. You will not stop me.
Six of Ten's eyes filled with darkness.
Thirty soldiers.
*Take them out.*
Six of Ten turned in mid stride to face the oncoming soldiers, and threw an explosive into their ranks as she opened fire. She was behind a protective MD heel before they had a chance to retaliate, discarding her smoking automatics on the floor as the bomb exploded, giving her time to grasp a fresh new pair. Her mind focused solely on the battle as she moved to carry out her strategies, moving smoothly and accurately.
Dodge across to another mecha heel, fire, reload, throw an explosive, detonate.
* Destroy the enemy.*
Through the haze of combat, she dimly heard screams as she fired, but she didn't react, even when blood and gore rained down on her and spattered her face with warm crimson.
They crossed me and I destroyed them, she thought dully as she decapitated a young man with brown eyes, and blew apart the blonde soldier behind him with two shots from her energy weapon.
Death comes on swift wings to those who cross me.
Pain penetrated the red veil over her mind as a bullet slammed into her left shoulder. Mechanically she carried on, the hellish noise of screams and automatic fire drowning out the agony. A metallic, coppery taste was in her mouth as she leapt from behind an MD into the air, tossing a small metal box onto the cargo container the soldiers were using for cover. The hard click of its impact had barely sounded before the deep roar of the explosion filled the room with its heat. Six of Ten felt the warmth on her face like a slap as she landed, rolled, reloaded and sent bullets flying into the still billowing red area of the explosion, where she knew some soldiers would still be hiding, scattered and unprotected.
Just as expected, several rose and tried to make a break for new cover. She fired.
Trying not to see the sad, distorted features of one of the soldiers, she averted her blue gaze from the woman's face and focused on the navy of her uniform, which was darker in an uneven spot around her chest.
Six of Ten shook herself and narrowed her eyes, centering her attention once more on the uniforms which still moved in the war chamber. The harsh metallic chatter of her weapon filled her mind as new strategies took shape in her head, and she acted swiftly. There were still too many soldiers in the room for her to escape and she was running out of time.
Bullets impacted the mobile suit heel she stood behind and she launched an explosive outwards to provide a fire screen. By the time it had detonated in a swirl of yellow and orange she had moved and was firing again. Seconds passed with the pounding of grey shells into metal and flesh.
Dimly she considered the inexperience of the ones she fired on, that so many of them could not take her down, but quickly let it pass from her mind. They were in her way.
Abruptly Six of Ten saw the reinforcements arrive in a cloud of navy-blue. Bitterly she thought, I'm lost now, and turned to make a last assault. At the same time she saw an opening appear in the ocean of fallen soldiers and those still struggling to bring her down.
She moved for it, unleashing all of her explosives in a final desperate attempt to clear herself a path. The orange fire erupting in front of her provided cover as well as consuming all who stood directly in her way, and she reached her destination in a blur of upward movement.
Phoenix, she thought gratefully. Suddenly surrounded by familiar electronics, she extended her awareness throughout the computer sensors.
The huge hand of the mobile suit moved and drew its lightwhip, activating it with a deadly hum.
Now, Six of Ten thought, now you will feel my wrath.
Great red explosions blossomed before her eyes, filling the room with their heat and their flame and their destruction. The soldiers were lost amid the fireballs, their lives snuffed out like small candles in a high wind. She couldn't even hear their cries through the heavy metal that was Phoenix. The sizzling energy of the lightwhip uncurled and snapped at the unprotected mobile suits, as a few brave soldiers attempted to activate them. They disintegrated in the crushing force of the multiple explosions, carried out of the world on a crest of blood red flame.
*Destroy them. They deserve it. They follow the scientists.*
Six of Ten's navy eyes roiled with darkness, their black opacity reflecting each bloody burst of light from the main ion cannon as it roared energy into the scattered ranks of soldiers. Explosions detonated around her with deep snarls that vibrated the cockpit, but there were so many that she could no longer distinguish one from the next. The reverberating noise filled her brain with whispers that were all too familiar.
They were of war.
War……?
A face suddenly appeared in front of hers, a memory flashing across her mind's eye and breaking the killing rage. It was a kind face, with light brown eyes, short blond hair, and a soft mouth which looked like a smile lay just beneath the surface, ready to rise at any moment.
Three of Ten! She thought brokenly, as her heart wrenched at the sight. She remembered his gentleness, his patience, and his appreciation for the beauty he saw everywhere, even in a place of tests and torment. She clenched her eyes shut.
Outside, the remaining soldiers on the ground saw the mobile suit slow suddenly, then stop as her awareness withdrew from the systems.
She suddenly looked down , saw the blood smeared on the cockpit, the controls, the walls…and herself. Repulsion filled her as she saw the terrible evidence of her actions. Her consciousness struggled to get as far away from herself as possible, not wanting to believe.
No this isn't me it isn't me…
Almost sobbing, she raked her claws down the curves of her body, trying desperately to rid herself of the horrible red stain. How could she have done this, after how she had changed?
Oh Three- this is what you tried to steer me from, she thought in horror, just as white cracks spider-webbed across her mind's eye with a hollow roar. Some part of her cried out in despair as she thought,
*I'm not even human. I'm a killing machine. A monster!*
Six of Ten threw her head back and fell into a swirling darkness that reached up and flung her conciousness into a black abyss. Straining with every fiber in her soul she sent herself down into it, unable to bear the burden of countless lives destroyed by her own hands. Her cries echoed far down into the depths of her own mind, shattering her like glass and carrying the shards away into a blackness she knew all too well.
*I don't want to face this-
just pull yourself together-
I don't know if I want to-
there is no choice just DO IT.
Focus, focus, focus…focus….*
Suddenly she came back together and reformed, broken but whole, as all the mingling voices condensed together to form the one of a lost little girl who had no one and nothing except battle…
*Oh Three I'm so lost without you
I miss your smile…everything about you
I'm so alone I hate being alone …alone alone ALONE
HATE IT
I'll kill them, rend them with my own two hands I'll make them pay for what they did to you-
to me
to the others.
oh three I killed them I had to- I ripped them tore them sliced them with my claws --they couldn't even defend themselves
it was a massacre—MURDERER
NO I don't want to know this !
I let you down I'm sorry, so sorry
(I hate myself )
why this pain?
Because of them its their fault- they made us.
that's just an excuse. it may have been their beginning but I carried out the deed
its my fault. Mine alone.( And I don't know if I can bear the guilt.)
now all of them are gone even you, Three--please please come back to me I can't stand this—
I'm sorry I'm so weak. I couldn't save you… from the scientists
The bastards. I'll make them pay for their crimes… I'm going to destroy this place—this hell where I have killed and cried and suffered and screamed—I'm screaming still
in this darkness
there is no one to help me
please I'm
lost
lost
lost
shrieking in this blank black space
just shrieking
there is nothing else for me….*
When she came back to herself she was drifting in the cold silence of space, just outside the facility's main airlock. Her mind was ice, utterly calm and unfeeling after the events inside the war room. The silence filled her ears like water, so that everything was strangely quiet. Even Phoenix was still around her as they gently turned in star spattered darkness. Waiting.
Suddenly the earth spun into view, like a huge blue green jewel, slowly spinning in the isolation of space. The brilliant blue oceans winked in the far light of the sun, as great expanses of lazy white cloud curled around the enormous sphere, covering the lush green of the broken continents. It seemed so peaceful, just existing there, breathing like a living being as it circulated air and water and life.
It was hard to believe such suffering came from such a seemingly perfect planet, that countless wars and battles had risen and fallen there, generating more agony than could ever be judged.
This is where humanity exists, she thought, sitting in a sullied pool of greed, murder, pain, and war…
yet surrounded by beauty. Strange, how can they possibly deserve that?
But even the earth's loveliness had begun to fade, perhaps because it was unable to live with the knowledge that such abominable creatures lived upon its surface, spreading pollution and hate.
Why do they always return to war? Will it never stop?
The earth slid from her view, replaced by the blank space taken up by the cloaked and silent experimental facility. Six of Ten regarded it with cold contempt. It was a huge mechanical monstrosity that no one would ever see, even as it hovered near earth, but she knew its metal hallways and corridors like no one else would.
Except Arcon.
Six of Ten's dark eyes hardened. The mobile suit activated around her, powering its space thrusters, weapons and invisibility cloak . Although she knew she couldn't bring down the facility by herself, and that the time she had to escape undetected was dwindling, she toyed with the idea of making an all out assault.
Then she pulled out the explosive detonator. Once more she cast her eyes to the space where she knew the facility floated, seeing only the bright white stars that existed on the other side of it.
You can't hide from me, she thought flatly.
Six of Ten maneuvered Phoenix about so that she could monitor the effects of the explosives, thinking how she wished Three of Ten was here to witness the fulfillment of the first step of the plan. She set her fingers over the detonator switch.
This will be the beginning of the end.
For a moment his face was before hers. She shut her eyes tightly, then flashed them open again, their blue depths stirring with purpose. Then her face closed, becoming a soldier's hard mask as her gaze darkened and became deadly cold.
Six of Ten raised the detonator.
"Burn."
She unleashed the demon.
Inside the experimental part of the facility, the small activator lights on each explosive blinked once and turned red, as chemicals mixed and energies fused together to bring forth the crushing explosion.
The initial sound was like a dead impact on the air, like the sound of a brick hitting a pillow, but the incredible force of it rippled the metallic grey walls with a muted rumbling that amplified until it was a bellowing roar. The invisible force of the shockwave ripped the panels of metal like paper in a storm, tossing them back as the explosives gave birth. The panels tattered and tore in an instant as red fire rushed down the halls and overtook them, their colour rising from blue grey to a blistering yellow that twisted their fragments into distorted shapes. The demon filled the halls and rooms and corridors of the facility in its bright blazing flame, changing the very colour of the air into red-orange as its rage scalded the hard metal halls. The computers, files, and testing equipment were consumed and digested in a matter of seconds, the silvery solids shattering then dripping grey rain to the scorched floor. Nothing was spared as the fireball expanded to fill all the rooms in the experimental area, but its hunger was insatiable. The red fire pushed at the exits to the area with all the strength it could muster, seeking to consume the entire facility. The barriers of grey Gundanium sagged as the demon hurled itself against them but would not give, even as it threw its full force against them, roaring in fury.
Six of Ten saw sudden bursts of red mushroom outwards from a seemingly blank area in space, bright light flashing across the eternal night with a faraway roar like a thundercloud. The angry red glow spread like veins from an invisible heart, branching off into linear lines. She could suddenly see a part of the spacecraft outlined in faint crimson as the explosion ripped its insides out with claws of flame.
Six of Ten calmly calculated by the size of the blasts that all of the explosives had gone off.
She felt strangely hollow as the explosion did its work, destroying all that she could ever call home, but there was nothing else. Six of Ten thought, how odd that my time of triumph should come when I am utterly barren.
Then she shrugged mentally, thinking, victory is overrated, and turned away from the death of her birthplace .
As the demon's flame extinguished at her back she launched into the earth's orbit, her mobile suit still cloaked from radar. The soft drifting clouds filled her vision with whiteness as Phoenix flew closer and closer to the great sphere, until the glow of atmosphere penetration tinted them red. The insistent pressure of the mobile suit's forward movement forced her back into her seat with a soothing hand, and she let herself relax, contemplating the events ahead.
Then it hit her that a part of her life had turned over like a monstrous page, and that she was no longer chained to the facility, which had claimed all sixteen years of her life. The earth was where she would begin the second chapter of her existence, but it could not be said whether the second would be better than the first. Then again, anything could be better than living like a lab rat.
I will be reborn like the phoenix…
The fire of entering the atmosphere flared up, the harsh tongues fluttering like wind-blown grass in a bloody sunset. The light flashed upon her face and faintly pressed it with heat, as fire filled the view from the mobile suit's cockpit. Six of Ten thought longingly,
Yes burn me, scorch me, make me whole again….
and closed her eyes as Black Phoenix streaked like a shooting star towards the planet.
END
Oh man…I look back on this chapter and it hurts me. I hate my earlier stuff. But eh, I've gotta move on to bigger and better things like the stuff ahead. This chapter sure was fun to write though! I thought it might be an interesting way to introduce Six's character. Don't be confused when the story takes a new turn in the next chap though…
Well, have fun reading it! Forgive me for the first chapters, the pilots aren't there until number three. Be patient! I have big plans and ambitions! MWHAHAAA!!
BLACK PHOENIX SAGA
By: Kywraith Amnesi—(Complete SO FAR in seven parts)
* means that the text should be in italics*
CHAPTER ONE: EXODUS
The alarm screamed its warning to the computer sensors, its shrieking sound instantly filling her ears until she thought that they would either break or explode. Reacting immediately, she buried a shard of metal in the throat of the alarm, silencing it quickly. But the damage was already done. The damned device had already alerted the entire facility, and now soldiers rushed down its corridors to discover and restrain her. She could hear their feet pounding the metal floor of the experimental facilities' halls. Though the sound was muffled, she could tell that they were still several rooms away, and closing the distance quickly.
"I am one cat you don't want to have cross your path," she said grimly to the empty room, as she set the last explosive.
Test Subject Six of Ten moved quickly and silently through the rooms connected to the Genesis Project, which contained the pain and suffering of so many that the air seemed thick with misery.
The firm pounding at several of the heavy metal doors began, as the soldiers realized that she had jammed all of the doors necessary to access the experimental area. Their bellows forced their way past the heavy metal as if through water; filtered and unintelligible and easily ignored.
Six of Ten wasn't worried about the soldiers because she knew they could not break through the blast doors, which had been built with heavy sheets of Gundanium. She was worried if the scientists, who had no doubt been alerted to the problem already, were intelligent enough to figure out her plan. They knew more than anyone else about what she was capable of, but even they hadn't thought she would do something like this, or they would have taken much better precautions.
She backtracked through the explosive lined rooms; most of them flickering because she had damaged the light fixtures when she had disarmed the alarms. Even in the disorienting strobe lights, she could move as fast as a darting shadow, and her dark blue feline eyes caught the bursts of light in their round orbs as she moved with unnatural speed towards the airlock.
The last room caught her attention, as it always had, but this time her feelings were sharp and bittersweet, cutting her like glass shards. It was labeled One to Ten, and the stench of death emanated from it in a solid wave, drowning out all other senses in its heavy, disgustingly sweet musk.
Six of Ten's steps faltered ever so slightly as she passed the room; her ears immersed in its dead silence, her nose full of its unbearable scent, and her eyes plunged in its dark scene.
The still snapshot would live in her mind forever: the dried blood spattering the walls, the deep sticky pools which embraced everything they touched in red, and the broken forms laying on the hard steel floor, their wasted frames engraved with crimson clawmarks.
Six of Ten clenched her fists as a gush of agony and rage filled her mind and body, licking at her self control with a dark hungry tongue, tempting her to succumb to the urge which would consume her.
KILL THEM ALL! THEY DESERVE TO DIE FOR WHAT THEY DID. DESTROY THEM!
No! No more death. Even after… She stopped, her hands trembling as she looked down at the clots of hair and skin and bone and blood jammed beneath her nails. Half remembered shrieks played faintly in the back of her brain… they weren't meant to live, it wasn't fair, but their agony had to be stopped …
A hard wall slammed up in her mind.
* You will have time for this later. Move now or you won't escape!*
Six of Ten gathered herself quickly and took off towards the airlock, to her last remaining companion. She reached the last room and loaded herself up with weapons and ammunition, in case the soldiers had blocked her path. The detonation device fitted securely in her pocket, where she could easily reach it, and as she prepared to open the airlock door she touched it. You will be the device which will carry out justice
(my revenge)
and leave this place of torment in ruins. Don't fail me now, she thought as the airlock door shuddered open, and she stepped out of its maw into the colossal war chamber, fully prepared to meet with an armed ambush. Her hands were on her guns, on a hair trigger, her muscles tight and ready for what could be waiting--
Nothing.
The area was vacant of all life, except for the towering forms of the mobile suits. Six of Ten let out a mental sigh of relief. She sealed the airlock behind her and began the rush towards her mobile suit- to freedom, her ultimate goal--
"FREEZE!"
A voice bellowed the warning. As she half-turned, she heard the metallic click of a gun prepared to fire, and the sound of boots pounding across the floor towards her.
Shit.
Several things rushed through her mind at once. Strategies, escape routes, how long she would have before they brought down the reinforcements. In an instant, the familiar ice-cold surge of emotionlessness had filled her mind. She took in the whole room in one glance, calculating her ammo amounts, her explosives and the safety of the surrounding mecha as soldiers filled the doorways, blocking her exits.
*You dare to interfere? You don't even know what you are fighting for. Soldiers, our paths have brought us to this moment but it is I who will choose whether or not you will step beyond the crossroads. My mission will not wait.
For what it is worth, I regret what I may be forced to do.*
These thoughts lasted for less than half a second. Six of Ten was ready. Thirty soldiers had entered the room to prevent her escape, and she stood alone. She gritted her teeth. You will not stop me.
Six of Ten's eyes filled with darkness.
Thirty soldiers.
*Take them out.*
Six of Ten turned in mid stride to face the oncoming soldiers, and threw an explosive into their ranks as she opened fire. She was behind a protective MD heel before they had a chance to retaliate, discarding her smoking automatics on the floor as the bomb exploded, giving her time to grasp a fresh new pair. Her mind focused solely on the battle as she moved to carry out her strategies, moving smoothly and accurately.
Dodge across to another mecha heel, fire, reload, throw an explosive, detonate.
* Destroy the enemy.*
Through the haze of combat, she dimly heard screams as she fired, but she didn't react, even when blood and gore rained down on her and spattered her face with warm crimson.
They crossed me and I destroyed them, she thought dully as she decapitated a young man with brown eyes, and blew apart the blonde soldier behind him with two shots from her energy weapon.
Death comes on swift wings to those who cross me.
Pain penetrated the red veil over her mind as a bullet slammed into her left shoulder. Mechanically she carried on, the hellish noise of screams and automatic fire drowning out the agony. A metallic, coppery taste was in her mouth as she leapt from behind an MD into the air, tossing a small metal box onto the cargo container the soldiers were using for cover. The hard click of its impact had barely sounded before the deep roar of the explosion filled the room with its heat. Six of Ten felt the warmth on her face like a slap as she landed, rolled, reloaded and sent bullets flying into the still billowing red area of the explosion, where she knew some soldiers would still be hiding, scattered and unprotected.
Just as expected, several rose and tried to make a break for new cover. She fired.
Trying not to see the sad, distorted features of one of the soldiers, she averted her blue gaze from the woman's face and focused on the navy of her uniform, which was darker in an uneven spot around her chest.
Six of Ten shook herself and narrowed her eyes, centering her attention once more on the uniforms which still moved in the war chamber. The harsh metallic chatter of her weapon filled her mind as new strategies took shape in her head, and she acted swiftly. There were still too many soldiers in the room for her to escape and she was running out of time.
Bullets impacted the mobile suit heel she stood behind and she launched an explosive outwards to provide a fire screen. By the time it had detonated in a swirl of yellow and orange she had moved and was firing again. Seconds passed with the pounding of grey shells into metal and flesh.
Dimly she considered the inexperience of the ones she fired on, that so many of them could not take her down, but quickly let it pass from her mind. They were in her way.
Abruptly Six of Ten saw the reinforcements arrive in a cloud of navy-blue. Bitterly she thought, I'm lost now, and turned to make a last assault. At the same time she saw an opening appear in the ocean of fallen soldiers and those still struggling to bring her down.
She moved for it, unleashing all of her explosives in a final desperate attempt to clear herself a path. The orange fire erupting in front of her provided cover as well as consuming all who stood directly in her way, and she reached her destination in a blur of upward movement.
Phoenix, she thought gratefully. Suddenly surrounded by familiar electronics, she extended her awareness throughout the computer sensors.
The huge hand of the mobile suit moved and drew its lightwhip, activating it with a deadly hum.
Now, Six of Ten thought, now you will feel my wrath.
Great red explosions blossomed before her eyes, filling the room with their heat and their flame and their destruction. The soldiers were lost amid the fireballs, their lives snuffed out like small candles in a high wind. She couldn't even hear their cries through the heavy metal that was Phoenix. The sizzling energy of the lightwhip uncurled and snapped at the unprotected mobile suits, as a few brave soldiers attempted to activate them. They disintegrated in the crushing force of the multiple explosions, carried out of the world on a crest of blood red flame.
*Destroy them. They deserve it. They follow the scientists.*
Six of Ten's navy eyes roiled with darkness, their black opacity reflecting each bloody burst of light from the main ion cannon as it roared energy into the scattered ranks of soldiers. Explosions detonated around her with deep snarls that vibrated the cockpit, but there were so many that she could no longer distinguish one from the next. The reverberating noise filled her brain with whispers that were all too familiar.
They were of war.
War……?
A face suddenly appeared in front of hers, a memory flashing across her mind's eye and breaking the killing rage. It was a kind face, with light brown eyes, short blond hair, and a soft mouth which looked like a smile lay just beneath the surface, ready to rise at any moment.
Three of Ten! She thought brokenly, as her heart wrenched at the sight. She remembered his gentleness, his patience, and his appreciation for the beauty he saw everywhere, even in a place of tests and torment. She clenched her eyes shut.
Outside, the remaining soldiers on the ground saw the mobile suit slow suddenly, then stop as her awareness withdrew from the systems.
She suddenly looked down , saw the blood smeared on the cockpit, the controls, the walls…and herself. Repulsion filled her as she saw the terrible evidence of her actions. Her consciousness struggled to get as far away from herself as possible, not wanting to believe.
No this isn't me it isn't me…
Almost sobbing, she raked her claws down the curves of her body, trying desperately to rid herself of the horrible red stain. How could she have done this, after how she had changed?
Oh Three- this is what you tried to steer me from, she thought in horror, just as white cracks spider-webbed across her mind's eye with a hollow roar. Some part of her cried out in despair as she thought,
*I'm not even human. I'm a killing machine. A monster!*
Six of Ten threw her head back and fell into a swirling darkness that reached up and flung her conciousness into a black abyss. Straining with every fiber in her soul she sent herself down into it, unable to bear the burden of countless lives destroyed by her own hands. Her cries echoed far down into the depths of her own mind, shattering her like glass and carrying the shards away into a blackness she knew all too well.
*I don't want to face this-
just pull yourself together-
I don't know if I want to-
there is no choice just DO IT.
Focus, focus, focus…focus….*
Suddenly she came back together and reformed, broken but whole, as all the mingling voices condensed together to form the one of a lost little girl who had no one and nothing except battle…
*Oh Three I'm so lost without you
I miss your smile…everything about you
I'm so alone I hate being alone …alone alone ALONE
HATE IT
I'll kill them, rend them with my own two hands I'll make them pay for what they did to you-
to me
to the others.
oh three I killed them I had to- I ripped them tore them sliced them with my claws --they couldn't even defend themselves
it was a massacre—MURDERER
NO I don't want to know this !
I let you down I'm sorry, so sorry
(I hate myself )
why this pain?
Because of them its their fault- they made us.
that's just an excuse. it may have been their beginning but I carried out the deed
its my fault. Mine alone.( And I don't know if I can bear the guilt.)
now all of them are gone even you, Three--please please come back to me I can't stand this—
I'm sorry I'm so weak. I couldn't save you… from the scientists
The bastards. I'll make them pay for their crimes… I'm going to destroy this place—this hell where I have killed and cried and suffered and screamed—I'm screaming still
in this darkness
there is no one to help me
please I'm
lost
lost
lost
shrieking in this blank black space
just shrieking
there is nothing else for me….*
When she came back to herself she was drifting in the cold silence of space, just outside the facility's main airlock. Her mind was ice, utterly calm and unfeeling after the events inside the war room. The silence filled her ears like water, so that everything was strangely quiet. Even Phoenix was still around her as they gently turned in star spattered darkness. Waiting.
Suddenly the earth spun into view, like a huge blue green jewel, slowly spinning in the isolation of space. The brilliant blue oceans winked in the far light of the sun, as great expanses of lazy white cloud curled around the enormous sphere, covering the lush green of the broken continents. It seemed so peaceful, just existing there, breathing like a living being as it circulated air and water and life.
It was hard to believe such suffering came from such a seemingly perfect planet, that countless wars and battles had risen and fallen there, generating more agony than could ever be judged.
This is where humanity exists, she thought, sitting in a sullied pool of greed, murder, pain, and war…
yet surrounded by beauty. Strange, how can they possibly deserve that?
But even the earth's loveliness had begun to fade, perhaps because it was unable to live with the knowledge that such abominable creatures lived upon its surface, spreading pollution and hate.
Why do they always return to war? Will it never stop?
The earth slid from her view, replaced by the blank space taken up by the cloaked and silent experimental facility. Six of Ten regarded it with cold contempt. It was a huge mechanical monstrosity that no one would ever see, even as it hovered near earth, but she knew its metal hallways and corridors like no one else would.
Except Arcon.
Six of Ten's dark eyes hardened. The mobile suit activated around her, powering its space thrusters, weapons and invisibility cloak . Although she knew she couldn't bring down the facility by herself, and that the time she had to escape undetected was dwindling, she toyed with the idea of making an all out assault.
Then she pulled out the explosive detonator. Once more she cast her eyes to the space where she knew the facility floated, seeing only the bright white stars that existed on the other side of it.
You can't hide from me, she thought flatly.
Six of Ten maneuvered Phoenix about so that she could monitor the effects of the explosives, thinking how she wished Three of Ten was here to witness the fulfillment of the first step of the plan. She set her fingers over the detonator switch.
This will be the beginning of the end.
For a moment his face was before hers. She shut her eyes tightly, then flashed them open again, their blue depths stirring with purpose. Then her face closed, becoming a soldier's hard mask as her gaze darkened and became deadly cold.
Six of Ten raised the detonator.
"Burn."
She unleashed the demon.
Inside the experimental part of the facility, the small activator lights on each explosive blinked once and turned red, as chemicals mixed and energies fused together to bring forth the crushing explosion.
The initial sound was like a dead impact on the air, like the sound of a brick hitting a pillow, but the incredible force of it rippled the metallic grey walls with a muted rumbling that amplified until it was a bellowing roar. The invisible force of the shockwave ripped the panels of metal like paper in a storm, tossing them back as the explosives gave birth. The panels tattered and tore in an instant as red fire rushed down the halls and overtook them, their colour rising from blue grey to a blistering yellow that twisted their fragments into distorted shapes. The demon filled the halls and rooms and corridors of the facility in its bright blazing flame, changing the very colour of the air into red-orange as its rage scalded the hard metal halls. The computers, files, and testing equipment were consumed and digested in a matter of seconds, the silvery solids shattering then dripping grey rain to the scorched floor. Nothing was spared as the fireball expanded to fill all the rooms in the experimental area, but its hunger was insatiable. The red fire pushed at the exits to the area with all the strength it could muster, seeking to consume the entire facility. The barriers of grey Gundanium sagged as the demon hurled itself against them but would not give, even as it threw its full force against them, roaring in fury.
Six of Ten saw sudden bursts of red mushroom outwards from a seemingly blank area in space, bright light flashing across the eternal night with a faraway roar like a thundercloud. The angry red glow spread like veins from an invisible heart, branching off into linear lines. She could suddenly see a part of the spacecraft outlined in faint crimson as the explosion ripped its insides out with claws of flame.
Six of Ten calmly calculated by the size of the blasts that all of the explosives had gone off.
She felt strangely hollow as the explosion did its work, destroying all that she could ever call home, but there was nothing else. Six of Ten thought, how odd that my time of triumph should come when I am utterly barren.
Then she shrugged mentally, thinking, victory is overrated, and turned away from the death of her birthplace .
As the demon's flame extinguished at her back she launched into the earth's orbit, her mobile suit still cloaked from radar. The soft drifting clouds filled her vision with whiteness as Phoenix flew closer and closer to the great sphere, until the glow of atmosphere penetration tinted them red. The insistent pressure of the mobile suit's forward movement forced her back into her seat with a soothing hand, and she let herself relax, contemplating the events ahead.
Then it hit her that a part of her life had turned over like a monstrous page, and that she was no longer chained to the facility, which had claimed all sixteen years of her life. The earth was where she would begin the second chapter of her existence, but it could not be said whether the second would be better than the first. Then again, anything could be better than living like a lab rat.
I will be reborn like the phoenix…
The fire of entering the atmosphere flared up, the harsh tongues fluttering like wind-blown grass in a bloody sunset. The light flashed upon her face and faintly pressed it with heat, as fire filled the view from the mobile suit's cockpit. Six of Ten thought longingly,
Yes burn me, scorch me, make me whole again….
and closed her eyes as Black Phoenix streaked like a shooting star towards the planet.
END
Oh man…I look back on this chapter and it hurts me. I hate my earlier stuff. But eh, I've gotta move on to bigger and better things like the stuff ahead. This chapter sure was fun to write though! I thought it might be an interesting way to introduce Six's character. Don't be confused when the story takes a new turn in the next chap though…