This will be a fanfiction of Infinite Stratos, an AU containing many differences

OC Main Character and, in a way, a new series altogether.

Expect quite a few things.

Infinite Stratos: Skies of Arcio

The Infinite Stratos….

The machine created by Tabane Shinonono, creating it mainly for more slightly selfish reasons, mainly to protect those whom she cared for, such as her close friends, and her loved ones.

In no way, could she have seen what was coming …

Nobody could have seen what was coming …

Prologue: Change of Fate

The meteorite, obsidian black against the cold vacuum of space, sped to Earth trailing a cloud of dark black dust and debris in its wake, and it then started to fall through the atmosphere, however, it was no regular meteorite, as it suddenly started to turn, guided by an unknown and powerful force, and ahead of it, a smaller meteor glowing a soft white surged to the same destination, guided by a force in itself.

Both soon entered orbit, and headed straight for an Island nation.


A boy slowly stirred, and looked around.

He found himself chained to a steel girder, and he saw armed men guarding him, armed with pistols, assault rifles, even grenade launchers.

He wondered at that time, why he had been taken, what reason could there have been for it, then it dawned on him …

… 'its probably about them.'

The boy remembered who his sisters were, what they did, and where they were, well one of them participated, the other, his twin sister, watched his older sister fight.

That had to be it, they were holding him hostage so she would drop out of the Mondo Grosso, the IS championship.

He then wondered about the IS itself, and compared it to the awesome mechas and machines he saw in anime, comparing the two, and came off feeling rather sad.

The IS was a living breathing mecha, one that could do the things that other mecha could do in those anime, it could fight, it could save people, it was amazing …

… and yet, it only saw usage in sports and intimidating other countries.

It was nothing like the machines he thought of, it had only one point where it was used for a heroic act, which was when it saved Japan from over a thousand missiles, and that was it, the White Knight Incident was the only time it saved anyone (if only he knew).

Now it was not used for anything worthwhile, the only thing it was used for was as a tool of sportsmanship, and that was as pretty much all it did now, nothing else.

The boy really wondered, he wondered when something would happen, not a single time incident, but a major event, something that would truly show the world how truly great the IS was, even with the flaw, that it could truly be the savior of all things.

He had picked the worst (or maybe best) time to think that, for at that moment …


The meteorite tumbled through the atmosphere, slowly blazing a trail as it entered the atmosphere, starting to show signs of atmospheric burn.

The smaller fragment however, surged ahead, and burned into the atmosphere, traveling at a speed of mach 8 plus, but then, it started to slow.

It shot into the atmosphere, over a city and shot straight down.

Right into a warehouse …

BTOOOOOMMMMM

The warehouse was annihilated, the structure torn apart, and everything for ten city blocks was utterly gone or in ruins …

… and as for a specific area.


The boy, he felt only pain, everything hurt, he could no longer see the right way, all he did see were the lights orange and yellow dancing in his vision.

'…'

He felt something, a sort of pulse in his mind, as though something had been there, something he had not known about, but he felt something, something was there.

'Pl…se'

Words came to him, forming a thought in his head, and he tried to figure out what it was, what were the words.

'..elp m..'

The words slowly came, but were still unusual to him as they formed in his mind, words that were not his own, even though he knew he was in no better shape.

'I …ver here, over here'

He felt a sort of pulse in his mind, one that seemed to be ushering him to somewhere, and it grow in his mind, until it became a painful throb, one that started to hurt, and greatly.

Finally, with one last painful pulse, he was jolted back to consciousness.

An instantly, a wave of sheer agony hit …

He could not even scream because of how injured he was, he could hardly see, realizing only one of his eyes was still good though still blurry and had a red hue, and looked at himself.

It was worst than he thought …

His lower torso, from the hips down, was gone, completely gone, only leaving his bleeding and bloody entrails hanging out, much of his upper body including his face was badly burnt, in fact he wondered why he was still not dead.

He then saw a crater, and saw within a large object, something that was obviously not a meteorite, or at least not like the ones he read about.

It looked like a some sort of crystal-metal with the distinct lance like shape, and it appeared to be what he could best describe as 'white obsidian', as it looked like the material in question except it was white …

… and it seemed to be calling to him.

And he went …

… over a long and very agonizing while.

He finally reached it, after what felt like hours.

The rock had been only six meters from him, but the injuries he had sustained had made it feel like much farther, plus the fact that the ground was hot from its impact.

Then he felt as consciousness left him, feeling the so much was gone, and trying to hold onto to what few precious memories still remained, and he collapsed against the rock, and passed out …

… just as a part of the 'white obsidian' became liquid in the section he was against, and the his body was swallowed in, completely absorbed into the structure.


The meteorites rock-like surface soon came apart around it, torn away as it burned … revealing a dark black-obsidian like material beneath, but that was the least of it.

The thing was turning itself, changing its course under its own mysterious power, and in an instant, the thing shot down, heading in the direction of the smaller 'meteor'.

However, one thing was certain about it …

… it was most certainly NOT a meteor.


"…"

"…"

"..H-huh"

H- wait, was it a he, it could not really remember, but it remembered it had a name, it was, ah-um. Icha- no Icho, not tha- ah Ichika, that was it, but it did not answer the earlier question, the name could be used for both men and women, so, what was it.

"Alive"

Yes, it knew it was, it knew it was al- WAIT, who said that.

"Here, behind"

Ichika turned around, and saw it …

… it was beyond his capability to understand.

It was a core of white crystal/metal, almost translucent, and glowing with a beautiful ivory light, three crystal rings were around it, each in a pair, with two rings fused together, meaning it was really six rings, and the things pulsed with an energy that could not be fathomed.

"You, alive, name Ichika, male used to be"

So I am a guy, I se- wait used to be, what are yo-, oh, that's why.

He, no It, looked at itself, and saw most of itself was gone, cracks running through it, most of it was gone, the lower part of itself was completely gone, the upper part of itself was filled with cracks and rents and missing its left arm, the right arm no better, in fact it was only looking out of its one remaining eye.

"What is going to happen then," Ichika (referring to itself as it unnerved it) said, "will I die."

"Yes," the unknown entity said, "both you and I, we will die, we are falling apart, you will disappear first, this one will disappear soon after."

"Hmm, I see, but the thing is, I don't want to die, not yet at least," Ichika spoke, "I want to get the chance to prove myself to my sisters, to show that I am strong and that I can protect them as they have protected me."

"Siblings important to you, understanding of this I am, yet if it is your only goal, then it is a hollow thing, to live only for the few and not the many," the entity, spoke to Ichika, "to live for the few is to turn away from the many, to ignore the pains and hurt of the many in order to focus on the few, to leave yourself unknowing of the pain the world has in order to continue to keep a façade of ignorance that will leave you blind to what truly is and isn't."

The wisdom that it spoke struck a chord deep within Ichika, he knew the entity was right, until he got kidnapped, he thought that a bully in school was the worst thing to experience, but since he had been taken, he knew he was wrong, and it had now occurred to him, that if people could do something like this, then what worse could they do.

"You know a lot, could you tell me how much worse humanity can be," he asked the entity.

"Worse, more worse than can be imagined," it intoned, "humans are entities of chaos, actions driven mostly by emotion, by their joy, anger, sorrow, happiness, ignorance, rage, anger, deceit and more, humans contain the capability of being worse than the monsters that they speak of in their myth's …

yet the opposite is true to, humans also struggle against such things, fight against the darkness, in order to see and grasp the light, humans capable of both terrible evil and the greatest good."

Ichika, understood it, Ichika knew it was not lying, Ichika knew this for a fact, "then that is what I will be," Ichika intoned, "I want to become someone strong, someone who can truly fight for the many, someone who can try to help and save many, not just my sisters, but for everyone who will need it, I will fight for them and aid them," Ichika stopped, and calmed when a realization hit him, "but not as I am, as you said, I am dying , so I can't do it, not as I am."

"Then, together as one we can," the entity said to him.

"How can we do that," Ichika asked the entity.

"We are fading, fragmenting and falling apart, alone we will perish, but together we can live, we can survive," the entity said.

"So, if we merge, and become a single thing, we will live, and if we don't we both die a slow agonizing death," Ichika said.

"Correct"

"Hah, I guess neither of us has a choice do we, let's go through with it, besides, there are now cracks in my arm that weren't there before," Ichika spoke, showing now cracks spreading up his near incorporeal arm.

"Must say this, if we merge, we will be saved, however, we will share a single existence, an entity that is of your kind and my own, a hybrid of sorts, also the merge will not be perfect, there will be a change to if this happens, are you prepared for any consequences that may come from this merge, for even myself has no knowledge of the outcome," the Entity spoke in a serious tone.

Ichika only needed to think for a moment before it made a decision, "I am ready, let it begin," Ichika intoned.

"WAIT"

Ichika was taken aback by the outburst, the crystal structure twisting itself frantically, before it slowed once again, "Wh-what happened, why you just yelled that out."

"It comes, it was following, I led it here, darkness, a dark being of unfathomable power, a being that is not of this world, one of many that comes to this world with no other thought than destruction, driven to madness by their very power, left blind and in forced anger by what has happened to them, something no other should have to suffer."

Ichika listened as it spoke in its monotone tone, a voice that was neither masculine nor feminine, but the seriousness of the voice was as clear as day, but Ichika knew that time was running out for the two to merge.

"Let us merge first so that we may live, we can handle the problem once we are away from Deaths door," Ichika spoke quickly.

"Agreed, Beginning now."

It began … and it hurt, the two being brought together, the crystal fusing itself into Ichika, and Ichika being fused to the crystal, the two becoming a single new being altogether, the pulses of the Entity and the heartbeat of Ichika beat loudly as the two merged, the beating and pulsing becoming quicker and more louder …

… then the two overlapped, and became the beat of a single heart, just as Ichika and the entity became one, the forms of the two melting into one another, and as the form became a sphere of white light, the light soon began to take on a form, and soon the form began to take a defined shape.

It was human for the most part … but it was not completely human, nor was it the form of Ichika's original body.

Things really can change in an instant.


Slowly consciousness came, at first it was all a blur, but then it became more apparent.

The one who was now awake realized two things …

… the first being that it was in someplace dark …

… the second was that the place was filled with a liquid it could breath in.

It did not panic, but it could not properly feel where it was, or who it was.

Then it noticed a light, and heard noise coming from a point next to it, and it reached out to that point, and it touched a soft and squishy material, and beneath it felt something hard, like some sort of shell.

It clawed away at it; doing everything it could to tear away the strange material …

… then a crack appeared as it dug against the shell, and it dug harder against it, the cracks getting greater and more visible, until finally the cracks that formed weakened the shell, and …

CRACK, BWOOOOSSSHHHH

The liquid rushed out, taking it out.

The new life was thrust out into the world, the light blinding its eyes.

As it slowly got used to the light, the memories returned.

'That's right, I merged with that thing and now I am alive somehow,' Ichika looked around slowly, and then started to move a bit …

… it was hard, everything was stiff and sore, and it hurt to get up, and then Ichika got seized by a sudden head pain.

Ichika realized the hair was now longer and felt how soft it was and that it had a silk feel to it, and after pulling a small strand, was shocked to find that it was no longer black, rather it was a white-silver color, and had a shine to it.

Ichika then felt what had happened …

'There was a change, a very big change,' Ichika thought, realizing the full extent of the change.

"I-chika"

A voice, a voice Ichika was very familiar with, came from right behind, and Ichika turned up to see …

"Ch-Chifuyu-nee," Ichika said in a soft yet firm voice …

her soft yet firm voice.

Hope the readers like this story, took me a long while to think of it at all.