10/26/16

Hey! What's up? So...I wanted to wait until I could apply a cover to this story since it isn't Kruse focused and now I can, that there is Jaynix. In a perfect world her hair would be far redder but what can you do?

Started playing X again with Jaynix (VA Kira Buckland because I've been a fan of hers for YEARS) and it's been nothing but fun rediscovering Mira. Feel free to friend my NNID Eienias, that'd be sweet. Right now I'm heading to Noctilum to reclaim a piece of the Lifehold. No problems will arise whatsoever.

Anyway this here is Jaynix's 1st time at the lead of a story so can't wait for you all to delve into her mind. Trust me it is a wild place to be in.

ACT I - Mask

Broken

It was late in the afternoon when Jaynix and Irina returned to New LA after dealing with a few missions out in Oblivia. Two weeks have passed since Jaynix was woken from her slumber and since then she's thrown herself into her BLADE work with relentless fervor. Always ready and willing to go out into Mira and do her part.

Many of the veteran BLADEs applauded her go-getter attitude and many more were impressed by her skills in battle. Once it was known she served under General Kumon, things became much clearer to the rest of the BLADEs, her unit was known for their successes and accomplishments. For Jaynix it was her military life, fighting and determination that constituted her life and it showed every day she went out into Mira.

However as the pair walked through the Industrial District, Irina gave Jaynix a cautionary look. Something about this whole situation, Jaynix's constant drive to fight and work. It was all far too familiar and the similarities didn't sit too well with Irina.

Even so when they were on missions together, Irina made sure to push the thoughts to the back of her mind. Give Jaynix the room to make her own decisions and act in her own way. Yet after two weeks of seeing the same behavior from Jaynix she decided it was high time she said something.

"J."

Hearing her nickname she turned to Irina "Yeah, what's up? Y'know you've been pretty damn quiet this whole trip back to NLA, it's a little unusual."

"Yeah. I know. Mind if I ask you something."

Jaynix shook her head "Not at all, shoot."

"Do you have more missions to do today?"

Jaynix laughed "Odd question. Of course I do! I think I've set the record for most missions in one day, only to break it the next…and the next. I'm on a roll!"

Irina crossed her arms "Have you taken a break yet?"

"Break? C'mon Irina, you know me. Break isn't in my vocabulary!"

Jaynix started laughing only to notice that Irina wasn't, in fact she didn't look happy. At all.

"Irina? What's wrong?"

Taking a deep breath Irina began "J, have you spent any of these last two weeks here, in New LA?"

Jaynix raised an eyebrow "Yeah sure, I-"

"Time that wasn't spent eating, or sleeping."

Jaynix scoffed "Of course! I had that whole tour of NLA, remember?"

Irina nodded "Yeah, which was the first day you got here. How about since then?"

"Well I have to pick up these assignments somehow! I talk to people and…

Jaynix trailed off before starting again "Irina, what's this all about? Am I doing something wrong?"

Irina shook her head "No it's just. You have to know that there is more to life than fighting, J. You-"

Jaynix narrowed her eyes and cut her off "You think I don't know that? You think-"

Irina held up her hands "Easy. J. Easy."

Jaynix then realized that she was a lot closer to Irina and that her hands were clenched into fists. Not to mention a dull, but burning anger.

Taking a step back she spoke "Sorry."

She faced Irina as the woman spoke "J. I'm just worried about you. You're working yourself way too hard. All I want is for you to take it easy, alright? Take the rest of the day off. No more missions."

Jaynix remained silent for a few moments before asking "What should I do?"

Irina gestured around "Anything just please. Promise me you'll stay in NLA for the rest of the day."

Jaynix sighed. She wanted to fight this, argue with Irina. Scream, yell and demand that she mind her own business. But the two have spent a lot of time together these last two weeks. Irina was her best and closest friend and she reminded Jaynix so much of-

Shaking her head Jaynix looked at Irina "Y'know. If I didn't like you so much I'd tell you to go fuck yourself."

"In which case I'm glad we're friends."

A smile came to Jaynix's face "Me too…alright. Alright I'll do it. Rest of the day, here. I promise."

"Thank you."

"So, want to go get a bite to eat?"

Irina shook her head "Nah, I've got somewhere else to be."

Jaynix remained silent as Irina put a hand on her shoulder "You should also use this time to make some new friends."

After a few moments, Jaynix cracked a smile "Okay mom."

The pair shared a laugh before Irina said her goodbyes and walked away.

Crossing her arms, Jaynix let out a long breath and began walking. Closing her eyes she began repeating her mantra. Whenever she found herself on her own she did this and as long as she remained calm and focused on her words she never bumped into anything. Posts, corners, people, it was all easy to avoid as long as the spell wasn't broken.

"Come on Kruse!"

Jaynix opened her eyes and turned to see Kruse talking with another BLADE.

"It's been too long since we had a pint. Or 20. C'mon man don't leave me hanging!"

"I'd love to Frye, but Elma and I-"

"Yeah, yeah your sweetheart, your precious Xeno angel, I know Kruse. You never shut up about her!"

Kruse apologized as Frye continued "Look man, I don't have a girl of my own but I can say that I get it, I do…at the same time though you have other pals you need to party with. Like me for instance!"

"I know Frye. And I promise the next time I come to the Industrial District, I'll look you up and we can hang like the good old days. I swear."

Frye crossed his arms as Jaynix approached "Hey short stuff, what's up?"

"Jaynix how many times do I have to say. I'm not that much shorter than you!"

"Sorry, couldn't hear you down there."

Kruse shook his head but before he could speak Frye cut in.

"Ah! So you're the Jaynix I've heard everyone goin' on about. The deadly wrathful woman that makes Tyrants quiver when she comes a-knockin' bout time we met."

Jaynix smiled "Well that's a fuckin' thing to be known as now isn't it. And you are?"

"Frye Christoph, the Killer Ostrich. I have a pretty good rep of my own, sure you've heard of me."

"Here and there."

As Frye smirked, Kruse spoke up.

"So Jaynix, I imagine you're heading out soon on another string of assignments.

She turned her to Kruse and shook her head "No."

"No?"

Kruse realized how surprised he sounded and apologized only for Jaynix to shake her head.

"It's fine, I'm married to my job in a lot of ways…maybe a little obsessed. Regardless, Irina made me promise to take it easy for the rest of the day. Can't very well ignore a request from her now can I?"

"Well, if you have nowhere else to be, would you like to party with me tonight, Jaynix?"

She looked to Frye, thinking for a moment before smiling "Sounds like a hell of an idea."

Frye smirked "Alright then! Kruse, you can take off now, I got me a new drinking buddy! Hell, maybe this one can actually keep up with me when we start poundin' em back!"

Kruse shook his head "Alright. If you're fine, I have to go. See you back at the barracks, Jaynix."

She nodded to him before looking back at Frye "Alright Killer Ostrich, let's get this shit started."

"My kind of woman!"

A few hours later, Jaynix and Frye exited the diner, arms around each other they were both laughing hysterically and woozy.

"That guy…he fucking flew! How strong are you woman!?"

"Strong enough! But that guy was a little bitch!"

Releasing each other, Frye took that chance to knock his drink back. After which he let out a content sigh before looking to his drinking buddy "Hell of a time Jaynix. Hell of a time."

She smiled and nodded "Yeah, definitely. Frye, I doubt you knew how much I needed this, thanks."

Frye gave her a toothy grin.

"No problem and next time you better drag Kruse's sorry ass over here! Dude needs to get his party on!"

"You got it! Until next time Ostrich!"

"I'm always here!"

Frye continued laughing as Jaynix walked away. She looked up to the moon high above noting that it was far later than she thought. Regardless she had no desire to return to the barracks, there was nothing waiting for her there but another sleepless night and-

Shaking her head she whispered "No. Ride the high, stay high. You just had several dozen drinks and took part in a fucking bar brawl, focus on that shit alright? Don't let your mind wander. Not now. Not ever."

Taking a deep breath she continued walking and started whistling to herself. Irina was right of course, she didn't spent a lot of time in New LA. She's sure she's been in the Industrial District before but everything looked so unfamiliar to her.

No better time than now to get acquainted with what New LA actually looked like. Of course given the lateness of the hour there were hardly any people about and whoever was still on the streets was absorbed in their work or heading home, so no one really noticed her which was just as well.

Continuing on her way Jaynix felt a small semblance of a smile beginning to form on her face. As she rounded a corner it immediately vanished and her whistling cut off. Before her stood a Construction Skell. The machine was unmoving but Jaynix still felt her mind and her body screaming for her to do one specific thing: run.

"It's fine…" she whispered.

"It's fine…" she repeated, her voice breaking.

The Skell then came to life and began moving towards her, a hand reaching out. In a frenzied rush she took several panicked steps back, tripping over herself and falling to the ground on her back. Eyes wide she focused on the machine before her as it drew closer. She desperately tried to breathe to calm herself but only succeeded in letting out loud, painful wheezing. Her chest grew tight as her body cried out for air.

She tried to move only to realize her legs locked up. In panic she used her hands to pull herself across the street and away from the Skell. The whole time she dragged herself away she kept begging for the sounds to stop, begging for the pain to go away, neither did, they only grew worse.

Finally sitting across the road, her eyes were still locked on it, at least until everything began to haze over and become incredibly fuzzy. At that moment she felt something hot on her face. Bringing her hands to her face, she found exactly what she expected, tears. Her face was stained with them, furiously she tried to wipe them all away only for more tears to fall.

Looking through the blurriness she saw that the Skell was just standing there, unmoving. It had never taken a single step.

Seeing this, Jaynix realized what had just happened. Hugging her knees, she rested her forehead on them and broke out into a painful inconsolable cry. In between her sobs and the constant flow of her tears she could only imagine how pathetic she looked to anyone who might see her right now. This empty shell of a person.

In the midst of her cries she tried to assure herself that she was strong, that nothing was wrong with her but she knew she was just lying to herself. She hated being this weak. She hated being broken.

As hard as she tried she couldn't stop the tears until-

"Hey."

Hearing that, she froze up.

"Hey, are you alright?"

Jaynix refused to look up, taking a deep breath she tried to speak, barely managing to choke out.

"I'm fine."

However the way she sounded made it incredibly clear that she was anything but.

The person near her began to speak. "I…"

After a few moments they tried again "I don't think that's true. Can you stand?"

"Just leave me alone."

Jaynix fully expected and hoped that whoever this person is, they'd leave her alone to wallow in her own misery. However from the corner of her eye she could see that they were now sitting next to her.

"Hey, I…I'm not too good at this but you should know that everything is okay. I promise."

Jaynix scoffed "You don't know that."

"I do. I've seen how bad things can get but we always persevere. I'm not…I can't pretend to know what brought you to this point. I'll probably never know but…but…"

"You're not very good at this are you?"

The other person sighed "No. But…I just…you can get through this."

"…you don't even know me."

"No. But I'd like to believe you can. I mean…what would the alternative be?"

After a few moments the person stood and began walking away before stopping "What's your name?"

Jaynix said nothing, the other person sighed before speaking.

"Well, my name is Alexa. I really don't have anything that I can say to fix…whatever this is but…I do hope you feel better tomorrow…and I'm sorry for intruding on your business, I promise I'm not always like this."

After being met with silence, Alexa decided there was nothing more to be said and continued on her way.

Jaynix isn't sure how long she sat there, but her body was completely locked up, even if she wanted to, she was unable to move. Finally she peeked up and looked through her bangs to see that the Skell was gone. Was it even there in the first place?

Letting out a long breath she felt her body loosen itself up. Now able to move again she began to stand only to stumble and fall against a chain link fence. Her limbs still ached and now her head was pounding. She was a mess.

Letting a few minutes pass she collected herself before starting to move, testing out her legs, making sure they were no longer sore. Once she was confident she began to walk only to stop and look in the direction that the other woman, Alexa, had walked off. Her eyes then scanned around the Industrial District noting that it was completely bare and silent.

Turning she stomped toward a nearby wall and began furiously kicking it before clenching her fists and punching it while letting out frustrated and anguished cries. Finally she slammed her fist against it so hard she felt it reverberate up her arm.

Stumbling away from the wall she cursed at herself. Cursed at herself for being weak. Cursed at herself for being broken. And cursed at herself for being so stupid and not thinking before stepping foot into the fucking Industrial District.

Shaking her head she whispered.

"Never again."

With that she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before reciting her mantra. Feeling some semblance of false confidence return to her she began her walk to the Administrative District.