Hello... God, this story just doesn't want to get written. Third time I had to rewrite this! I won't stop until this is up because it won't leave me alone until I do. Damn plot bunnies.
Here is a 'what if' concerning X's possession. A different outcome that involves more of Rayne, and concepts from other series, so if you recogizne it, I don't own it. -
"Normal"
-"Intercom"-
A pair of young, innocent-like eyes observed a mass of bodies ambled around in a frantic manner. Red, flashing lights blinked off and on, as a demanding voice began announcing over the fortess' intercom.
-"Damnit! Somebody find him! Don't let him escape!"-
The owner of the eyes, a young male dressed in finely woven robes, lightly stepped down the hall, wondering away from the soldiers hoping to block his path to freedom. Not long, he noticed an absent of panicing soldiers in the vicinity. Had they ceased their search for him? Or had something interrupted them?
Nevermind. A distraction was a distraction, and he was not one to take a gift for granted.
He continued on his way when he caught the distinct sound of metal clashing againest metal. Boots made of metal perhaps? A second pair of footsteps could be heard alongside the other pair, almost insync with the first. He flinched, searching for an area in which he could hide from the figures obivously coming towards him. There was no way he would be found, not as long as he had him along for the ride.
His search for cover was interupted by a shout of joy.
"X!"
'X' flinched. This was not what he needed right now. Two hunters, a blond one in red, and other in navy with a strange x-shaped scar across his face dashed up from the shadows of the hall towards him. The navy one sending a questioning look at him, noting his lack of reaction towards the two.
"X?"
What would he say? He couldn't tell them, yet at the same time, they deserved to know. X was their friend! How could he even consider not telling the-
"There he is!"
Oh crap!
It was instinct that he jumped, terrified by the thought of returning to that place with his charge in hand. It angered him that he couldn't do anything but cling to the blonde haired warrior as though he was a life-line. The two hunters staring at him in disbelief, before turning their attention to the oncoming soldiers. Whatever these soldiers did to their friend to reduce him to this had hell to pay!
"Kcab og ot tnaw t'nod i" 'X' said with a quiet voice, drawing strange looks from the two in front of him. His words were unrecognizable, but soft and almost musical in tone.
"Ssenhgih rouy nruter esaelp." One of the soldiers said, the same language but lacking the soft emphasis X had suddenly gained.
"En!" (1)
The soldier tched, about to speak once more if Zero hadn't butt in, "Just stop whatever you're planning to do and get this over with." Gripping his now activated beam saber in a threatening manner with Axl loading his plasma guns to fire.
"Very well. Kcatta! Enyar ecnirp mrah ton od tub!"
And the battle began.
'X' was unable to focus on the fight, his vision blurry and his mind cloudy. Clashing metal, resonating booms from plasma weaponary and metal armor being torn apart were only heard due to their echoing nature in the halls made of steel. The sounds amplified, becoming more powerful inside his dulled mind, pounding in an angry manner as if someone was beating the sides of his skull with slugehammers.
So it was of no surpise that he ended up falling to the ground with both hands clutching his head in an attempt to dim the agonizing sounds.
'kcohsrefta..'
Due to the pain raging through his brain, 'X' was unable to register the fact he was glowing, a bright, golden light. It was subtle at first, where noone actually payed any attention to it, but than it grew in strength, nearly blinding everyone in the area.
"Encirp ym!
The blond hunter watched in horror as X's body began to disigrate into several, shining orbs of light. The orbs swirled around in an almost playful manner before rocketing off into an unknown area in the distance, his friend no longer awaiting there.
Axl gaping at the spot X disappeared from in shock. "W-w-what just happened?" His question went unaswnered for a moment.
-"YOU FOOLS!"-
A voice boomed from the intercom, the soldiers flinching in fear.
-"IF ANY OF YOU WANT TO CONTINUE LIVING, YOU WILL FIND OUT WHERE THE HELL HE WENT AND BRING HIM BACK! UNDERSTAND!"-
Zero glared at the retreating soldiers. 'Like hell I'll let them find X' So he teleported. But to where?
Suddenly, a voice crackled from the static in both hunters' intercoms, starting the two just a bit.
-"Zero? Axl?"-
The voice was female, one they couldn't distinguish as the voice began to mix with the static, presenting it with an echo-y tone.
"Who are you?" Zero demanded angerily. Axl agreeing wholeheartly.
-"My name is of no concern to you. I only wish to assist you in finding X."-
A figure was seen at the center of a large stone door, curled into a tight ball and clutching his head in an attempt to ease the pain. The horedous sounds from before were gone, only to be replaced by the soft chrippings of birds and a light, spring breeze. It wasn't nearly as bad as in the fortess, the pain subsiding, but only by a little. A small part of him wanted to go back, return to the fortess to find the hunters it knew before this whole mess began. The other one, however, had no desire to return to that place he called hell.
It was war againest himself and the one he swore to protect. One side would agrue that returning would only spell disaster, while the other acknowledged the problems and claimed the hunters would assist them.
The two sides were equal in strength and were unable to accomplish anything.
Damnit.
Zero stared at the enviroment in shock and awe. There was no way this should have been possible, yet it was. The area was green, the first thing the two hunters noticed, very green. Tall trees towered upward into the sky, casting light shadows on the grass floor. Mulitple stumps of very large trees rose from the ground here and there, connecting to walls that appeared to be made from tree bark. The air was cool, with a slight mystic feel to it.
Just behind the red-warrior lay a vision of white. Large tone-colored white clouds puffed here and there in a sea of blue, the clouds blocking out a view of the city just below.
"A floating island?! What are you insane!" Zero was seriously questioning this person's insanity. Axl grinning despite the rough atmosphere.
"Isn't the legend of the floating island just a myth?" the navy hunter inquired.
"Of course it is Axl!"
The female giggled in response, or at least it sounded like she did. "Oh, I can reasure you, it is very real. Go back to your base and look for the cloud formation that never seems to change. It will always be the same, both in density and size. It should be fairly easy for you to find."
It sounded crazy, yet despite everything screaming at him that she was simply loopy, Zero searched for the cloud in which she described. About a mile north away from Hunter's HQ was a large mass of clouds, moving rather slowly, mind you, but never shrinking like all the other clouds did, only moving across the sky the same as it ever was. And despite the fact clouds were merely a concentration of raindrops in the sky, he and Axl took an airship towards it.
Nothing change for quite awhile. It was when Zero concluded the woman was wrong before it appeared, arising from the sea of white in all its glory, an island.
An island, with it's own mazing forest, deep blue ocean and tall mountain ascend farther into the heavens coming into view from behind it's cover of clouds. Waterfalls tumbled downward from the ocean, descending from the sky-borne haven into the mists that surronded it.
As they ventured closer, the warrior could just barely make out the corpse of an airplane, very old by both its model and the various species of vines intangling it, laying just stray of the shoreline.
What the Hell?
Landing had been a breeze, having no interference from people or objects to prevent them from landing. The light air very refreshing with no trace of pollution anywhere. Zero narrowed his eyes in suspection, no where in the world was as clean as this island, which shouldn't even exist in the first place!
"Where-" He began
-"Head towards the sacred groove in the forest north-east of your position. Find the stone pillars and make your way towards the Temple."- came the voice of the mysterious woman. Zero's eye twitched, but was compelled to listen to her.
Finding the sacred groove was of no challenge to the reploids, the temple, on the other hand, was another story. Walls appeared out of nowhere, blocking their progress and forcing them to take another route, which more or less circled around.
Zero was progessively becoming more aggreivated, as was Axl, who in turned decided to shot the random wooden puppets that were laying around in discord.
Yballul tfos... Yks eht fo sgons
The two were going to ignore the voice had they not heard it before. The same soft and melodist voice that came from their missing friend.
Modsiw ruoy nwod ruop... Su nopu nwod
Using the voice of their friend as a guide, the two rushed passed false passageways and empty corridors that led to nowhere.
Yrc sesseddog...Eil t'nod dna evil
Evil ot htgnerts su evig... Dlrow dnarg rouy ni
They came across a series of stone pillars crumbling to dust leading up to a stone archway. The stone began to fade from view as it revealed another hallway, this one being lit from the broken windows ahead.
The hallway broke off into a much large room, a balcony overlooking an open area, stone stairs leading down into the room overgrown with plants and dirt. Two strange, stone statues were placed a little farther away from the doorway, where a certain blue reploid resided.
Eulb eht fo evol... Uryan fo evol
Modsiw fo sseddog...evol fo sseddog
As soon as the last word left his lips, 'X' tightened his grip as a pained expression corrupted his delicate features, a thin trail of tears flowing down his cheecks. It didn't take a genious to realize just how much pain he was in. Even a slight touch from Zero did nothing but send more shockwaves through his body.
"O-orez?"
His voice was quiet, almost shy in nature, as if he were unsure of how to ask something. Just as he opened his mouth to speak again, the earth began to rumble, the movement nearly knocking Zero and Axl off their feet and causing X more pain.
"Found you~" Someone spoke with childish glee, just as something crashed into the room from the left, sending dust in patches everywhere. With the plums of dust residing in the air, the two hunter reploids were unable to prevent whatever broke through from capturing X. The dust cleared and a dragon-based reploid emerge from the cloud, twisted cheerfulness in it's eyes and the blue reploid trapped within its grasp.
"Oh no you don't!" Axl eclaimed, just as the reploid was preparing to escape with X in tow. A barricard of bullets rained down on the dragon with a range of sword strikes slashing the beast's arms.
'Rayne!'
X's voice echoed inside his mind, demanding to free themselves and fight, and for once, Rayne agreed wholeheartedly.
'Ereh od nac i gniht eno si ereht.'
The pain that plagued the two so fiercly suddenly subsided, as if it never existed, and the two were finally able to think clearly after so long.
With no more distractions, escaping the reploid's gasp was a sinch. One concentracted explosion later, and Rayne was balancing on the railing of the balcony, viewing the battlefield. The dragon scarcely had a moment to go ballistic over the stump where his hand once was, when Rayne attacked.
He threw his hand up in the air, electrifing beams of enegry crackled around it as gathered into his outstretched palm. An orb of glowing light formed as rings of mana shot up from the ground into the sphere.
"Gnikahs dlrow! (2)
Rayne slammed down the sphere into the earth, lightning sparking from the the impact before the sphere rocketed forward, swerving in motion with a trail of destruction following it.
Dragon (His name for now -sweatdrop-) had enough time to curse before the sphere of mana crashed into him, destorying his armor, and completly obiterating him. His screams rebounding off the walls just as this core system was destroyed.
Axl and Zero stood in shock of the raw power blasting through that reploid's as if it were a blade to paper. Bits of the machine were still in existance, however sparking insanly and beyond repair.
If he were human and had sweatglands, Axl would have a sweatdrop rolling down his face, "Well." He began, "I can see why those guys are after him." Zero shook out his stupor, then whacking Axl across the head for stating the now patent reasons.
Rayne nervously tugged on the edges of his sleeves, a slight flush of pink dusting his cheeks. So he was a little modest, sue me! X was seriously questioning Rayne embarrassment from preforming such a powerful attack. Turns out the mage was the shy, quiet type, who knew?
"ello?" Rayne suddenly noticed Axl waving in front of his face. He blinked as Axl reasked his question again, "How are the trees living without any implants?"
Rayna could see Zero had the same question.
"Sdog eht fo yrautcnas a si siht. Yore fo Ssesddog Nedlog Eerht eht yb noitcetorp detnarg neeb dlrow eht dnoura srehto ynam dna aera siht." He explained, or tried explaining, as his language had yet to have been translated if Axl and Zero's confused expressions were anything to go by.
"Oh crap forgot, freaky language gap." Axl sighed.
"Yrros m'i"
"Never mind that." Zero cut in, "Next thing to do is figure out how to seperate these two from each other." Rayne nodded, opting to observe the area he found himself in, hoping that, in some way, he could recall how to reverse the spell used for the possession.
Wait...
Oh how stupid of him. How could he have forgotten!
"Orez!"
Zero, by now, learned that Orez was Rayne's version of his name, turned towards the mage-possessed reploid, giving him his fullest attention. He'd need it, if he ever hoped to translate Rayne's strange tonge.
"Wonk lliw Sivam! Yrarbil reh ni derots noitamrofni emos evah thgim ehs neht, ton fi!"
Zero glanced at Axl, he was just as confused as he was.
"Hag! Cnys egaugnal eht esoohc ot dah i, piks ot slleps eht lla of!"
He might not have been able to understand him, but Zero could detect the berating tone a mile away.
He sighed, "Don't beat yourself up for it alright." Rayne stared at it for a moment, before nodding.
-"You found him I presume?"-
Axl jumped as the woman's voiced spoke out from their intercom. Zero ignored him in favor of question the woman on the other side.
"And why do you care?"
Rayne glanced around, presumable searching for the mysterious voice until X explained to him the function of using radio waves. It surprised him just how far the humans advanced since magic had all but faded from existance. Radio waves, intercoms, reploids, for God's sake! Magic vanishing from the world had done nothing to hinder the progress of human development.
Listening to Zero and the woman's conversation, he got a sense of Deja-vu. He heard the woman's voice from somewhere, but where?
His eyes widened as he finally remembered, "Sivam!" he exclaimed happily, to the shock of Zero and Axl.
End! As this chapter is too long already and I have no idea how to continue with it! Besides that, I really want to post this now. So I'll upload the next part whenever! Hope you enjoyed this and please leave a review!
(1) En is actually in another language. On was the option but that seemed to obivous to me how to read this language. Cookies for anyone who figures it out!
(2) What can I say, that is one kickass move. XD
Random Challenge! There are several mentions of things from other series! Try and guess which ones show up in this fanfic!