Ok just because I already had this written I'm going to post it too, be warned it's a bit confusing but as the story goes on it'll make more sense…PLEASE REVIEW I have nothing against flames either, they will be used to keep me warm at night same goes if you have any advice on my story! –DH
I own nothing...
Catalyst
.I Memories
She hated this time of year. People always came to the temple in nearly unavoidable swarms. 'The Keeper' made her hide away so that they wouldn't see her, but she didn't mind that so much. She had been told what would happen if anyone saw her, and she didn't like that thought.
And the hyper force came as well, that made her hiding painful. When ever she saw them she longed to run out and ask the questions 'The Keeper', how she hated that title; refused to answer. He would come too, she remembered him if just barely. Her being only two at the time of his staying there with her and her family. He had always fought with her uncle, and still did so today, though he thought her to be long dead. She had never learned who he was, just that his name was Sprx-77 and he was the one who had chosen her name. Her mother had spoken highly of him in her living years, in the vague memories she held of her, though through the years she had learned that her uncle didn't share his sister's sentiments on the pilot.
It hurt like a knife to think of her mother, though she had only had her for a short time in her life. She still held the items that had been left behind for her to have. Her uncle after unending sessions of pleading had finally given in and taught her all that she needed to know about them and how to use them correctly. He had always been there for her, always been her father figure, leading her into the right direction, trying desperately to keep her from the mistakes he had made and the mistakes that he considered her mother had made as well. She loved him dearly for it all too, but he wasn't the same. She had longed for her mother to return and tell her stories of the hyper force, and for her father, she had always had wanted to know her father.
Sighing she shifted on her perch high above were the ceremony would be held, hidden away in the shadows to keep out unwanted eyes. Not even 'The Keeper' could manage to get up into the large cave that she had made her own safe haven. Only she could, for only she (and her mother while she was alive) knew were to find the hidden but not path. She liked it that way, just her for awhile no one else.
"Who are you?" …Or maybe not…
888
The moments just before the sun stained the sky were always empty of emotion for him. Reaching the end of his emotional rollercoaster ride and unable to feel anything again until weeks after the event. The days before would be spent in sorrow, then grief, soon after he would fall into the cold clutches of guilt for not being able to do anything. Once he had even attempted meditating with Antauri and Antar to try and rid himself of the feelings but he was never one who could remain still for long and eventually he had just given up on it completely.
The sun would be rising soon and then the memoriam would begin. He hated it, more then anything he had ever encountered before, why? Because it woke the sleeping dog, it reopened all the old wounds, tore open his heart and left it out for the vultures to peck at. Though this year's wasn't quite as emotionally shredding as the ones before it, thanks to the fact that he hadn't come. It was horrible thing to admit in truth and had any of his other brothers known he would most defiantly gotten a nice long speech from Antauri. But it was true, the red monkey had always managed to, without even knowing it himself; cause the torturous event to be even more painful for the mechanic. He would never tell anyone, and why should he? Why should he let it be known that he hated his own brother for being able to have what he himself could never even hope of, that he had spent every wish he had on gaining the treasure the red monkey had so carelessly thrown to the side after becoming bored . Fate was cruel and just because he was a hero did not make him an exception to that.
"Any luck?" Chiro's voice had been barren of hope as he asked his wife of nearly six years. 'Shotgun wedding.' That's what Gibson said humans called it, he thought it a strange thing to call a wedding since no one had actually brought a shotgun to the occasion but he had decided against asking at the time.
"None…any word of Sparx coming?" There was only a silence, he wasn't coming and they all knew that. He had left and wasn't going to be returning and that was final, why? They didn't know…but he did…
888
The procession was nearly there, and the small boy could now separate different persons from the mob of black. The Sun Riders had just arrived and were now speaking with his parents and the rest of the team leaving him to his own devices until the ceremony would begin. But there lied the problem for the un-entertained boy. There was really nothing of interest in the desolate landscape.
So being his father's son and unable to resist the chance to explore he was off. He had never been given the opportunity to study the area like he had been taught to do in training. The place was alien to him even though he had known it his entire life, and it was time to change that.
Currently he was scuttling carefully about the large boulders he had found near the back of the tomb. He found it odd that while they seemed completely natural there was some sort of path that they made. Leading up high into a just barely visible alcove high above where the ceremony would take place. Curiosity getting the better of him he followed it, making his way from one boulder to the next until finally he was just one ledge away. The grandeur of the hidden room, for what else could it be other then that; even from his partial angle was awe inspiring.
Slowly he lifted himself up into the alcove careful not to make a sound lest there be a none-to-friendly creature inside, another lesson picked up in training. Once inside he scanned the area quickly for any signs of immediate danger and upon finding none he further explored the place. In the corner there was a mattress with some sheets and pillows leaned up against the wall, nearby was a fold out table and chair that held large old tombs that undoubtedly hadn't been touched in years. A dead pit with the blackened remains of the kindle used last was just to his left, a small figure was perched in the shadows looking down to where everyone else was, the rough rock had somehow had been penetrated for pictures to hang from…wait…
"Who are you?"
888
He stared up at the picture set in a place of honor in the center of the tomb. The others had no clue he was there as of yet and in reality he didn't care if they ever knew. He had always come even if he was late or if he left early, he had after all his limits of being able to stay. Not because of what the others thought though, but because of him. They had never been on good terms…ever…especially after what had happened. Only the two of them knew what had truly happened that day, and they blamed each (as well as themselves) other for it. He blamed him for not being able to saveher. And He in turn hated him for putting them all in the bad position in the first place.
He set a metallic hand on one of the many stone pillars that led up to the great stone and metal grave marker they had made. A sigh left his lips as he felt the cold rock below his palm; he hated how they had made it. No light save for the ones cast off by the dim unfeeling torches and it was cold, she had hated the cold.
Near by her grave was another, one that only he and the Keeper honored, for it was only they who knew about it. There was no procession for this grave, no great memoriam, why honor what no one realizes exists? He had helped make that little grave, in more ways then one, and yet no one knew. Not one person outside the Keeper knew of the tale of the one that lies beneath an unmarked grave; that had been what had driven him away from his brothers.
He could here the others coming, it was time to leave, to watch from afar as they all kept going on without knowing what had been.
888
He had always had relied on his science to understand things that were just out of his grasp. It kept him safe in a sense, when everything was wrong with the world that surrounded him, when things he couldn't understand would become unavoidable he would lock himself in his lab and study them. He could almost always figure it out sometimes sooner sometimes later, but he found out none the less. He had always relied on it to keep him safe, even long before he had become cybernetic, it had always been there for him to lean on, and would always be there for him to do so until the day that he died.
But in times like these, his science could do nothing for him. The laws and equations that wrapped around him like a warm blanket became cold and unfeeling. Science, he had learned over the years since it had happened; could do nothing for him against his own guilt and sorrow. Though now more then ever did he bury himself into it hoping that if he was surrounded by enough of it that all else would fade away. He knew it wouldn't, it was against the very thing he hid in, but he still tried.
He had always learned knew things every day from the various fields that he had been studying from, but he had learned from her that he could not understand and predict the happenings of life the way he could do so with his experiments. It was her final gift to him he supposed, an unintentional gift but one he had prized beyond all others for the fact of what it meant.
He had learned much after she had gone, no not learned, realized. They had all known in the back of their minds, always felt it in their hearts. She in truth was to the team, what science was to him, a protector. More so then she should ever should have had to be, instead going out obtaining what she wanted; she held back and toiled away on them. They in return only gave the guardian angel she had become for them selfish cries for more. It was only after, that he had realized…that they had realized what she had sacrificed for them to go on in their ignorant bliss.
He sighed as the Sun Riders spoke…his science he would abandon forever if only she was with them again for a day.
888
Black clad mourners seeped into the tomb in a slow sad march. A line of those with flowers and gifts flowed in front of the steps leading up to the marker. But none would further pass. It was an unspoken law to do so. The steps would remain bare of feet, and not a single petal was to fall upon their bone white grandeur. It seemed to them that the place was too pure to be sullied by those whose fault it was that the One Lost had been lost.
Antar had never seen the place from such a remarkable view. It was so different then scurrying around careless feet on the ground. He realized why his knew friend hide away in the alcove instead of participating in the ceremony.
She had been wary of him at first, apparently recognizing him as the son of the leader of the hyper force, but had calmed when he had promised not to tell any one about her. They had played a few games for awhile before either one of them had actually bothered to tell each other names, hers was Isabelle, but she had warned that he was only to call her Izzie.
"Antar!" The two blinked in unison at the sound of a mother's worry far below them. Isabelle peaked over the side down to where the searching woman was, her heart clenching as the worried look in her eyes brought a far lost memory back to her.
'Promise me you'll never do that again Isa! Promise me!' Shook her head to ride herself of the look on her mother's face after she had found the toddler near the edge of a cliff after she had wandered off against her family's wishes.
"Uh oh, looks like I hav'ta go Izzie." She nodded in return and brought him to the back of the cave where the shadows hid the wall. Pressing a device he had hardly seen in the darkness portable lights that had been mounted onto the ceiling lit up allowing him to see the stares that led down, lights soon switched on in the stairwell as well.
"If you take this it'll lead down to a secret opening at the bottom faster and no one will see you." He smiled at her.
"Thanks Izzie, I'll see you later!" He dashed down the steps giving her a farewell wave as he went.
"See you later Antar, and don't tell!" She heard the final shout of 'I won't' before he disappeared from her view. Turning back to the large opening of the alcove she smiled slightly to herself. Her uncle would most likely never be told, but she took joy from the fact that she had made her first friend.
888
Watching from hi above from the dais he stood upon he could see the entire temple. As he had hoped young Isabelle was out of sight away from those who could take her away. It was to him that she had entrusted her young daughter, a duty he took with the highest honor, and he had grown to care for the child like his own.
He admitted he was a bit selfish by not allowing her contact with those outside their own little nation, but it was dangerous for her out there, and he didn't just mean the usual things. Her parents being who they are made her an immediate threat to all the evil that slept around them, more so then even young Antar. Then there was the hyper force as well they would do no physical harm to her, but their constant talk of her mother would undoubtedly hurt her severely. And besides all that he was doing well with raising her.
He schooled her in science, math, language, universal history, and many other subjects as well, and what he couldn't teach her with out help he had his dear departed father summoned from the afterlife and help him teach her. Though admittedly that always ended badly seeing as Isabelle never seemed to get enough of seeing her grandfather, but never the less he was handling it all fine.
Hearing the cry of a small girl he snapped his attention to the direction of the sound, for some reason expecting to see someone attacking his young niece, instead he only saw a woman comforting her crying daughter who had apparently tripped and skimmed her knee.
Returning to his previous position he sighed. He had been on edge for months, always expecting some great evil to come swooping in and try to obtain the young one that he hid away. He knew that his thoughts were unrealistic, that for the past seven years no one had attacked and that there would most likely never be one, and if there was it would never be successful. But his instincts told him other wise, and if the choice had to be made he'd choose instincts every time. Something was coming for Isabelle and it when it arrived he could only hope his teachings were as good as he thought them to be.
888
Beings upon beings of all different species and age waited for the begging of the ceremony. The small desert planet that they all now stood on had once been unknown by the entire universe save a few. But that had all changed seven years ago, on the day that the universe nearly fell to the darkness had it not been for the strength of a lone child of light. A single warrior that stood alone against an entire empire…and won.
Nearly a decade ago it started, when one day it came upon a person the realization that the control needed to contain the power that flowed so freely with in her, was not there…
888
She stared out into the distance from her spot on the robot. It was nearly two years since the snow beast had attacked and forced her to release her untamable temper onto the sheltered world. She knew it was a mistake the moment she had awoken from her defused state. Years ago she had nearly destroyed her home from that power because she had gotten a little angry. And yet here she was again years after that she had nearly destroyed the very place she wished to protect for the same reason.
When she had been created, the very first thing she had ever been taught, was not how to speak, not how to walk, not the difference between right and wrong, it was how to contain the burning power within her that begged to be used. Her earliest memories had been of her father and other robed figures teaching her on that little desert planet, unsure of herself of giving up that strength that inner flame provided. But they had told her over and over that she needed to in order to protect, to live with out fear of destroying all she knew. So she had done so, tucked away her pain, sorrow, fear, all her emotions good and bad. But then one day an emotion that she had not anticipated leaked out fueling the fire she had attempted to dampen.
For so long she had been forced to be barren of all real emotion, then that day came when Mandarin had pushed her so hard, she had felt for the first time in her life she had felt everything. The fact that that one emotion had nearly destroyed her didn't matter, the fact that she had nearly killed her leader didn't truly register in her mind, as she burned all she could feel was the emotions she had so long banished into the darkness of her soul. And she liked it, she liked losing her tightly held control, she had been empty of feeling for so long the sudden rush of everything she had been taught against knowing was intoxicating. Emotion had become her drug, her high, one which could not only kill her, but everyone she held close around her, but damnit she didn't care! She wanted more, she wanted to feel more!
So she fought more, gave herself a short temper, made sure she made it easy for the red monkey to get to her. She never allowed her self the euphoric feel of true loss of control, she had not lost her senses enough to allow herself to fall completely, but she still gave in to her desire to feel the anger, she knew no other emotion to feel nor a way to feel them.
But her raging fire of lust for emotion had died down to nothing more then smoldering embers when she had finally realized what she was doing on that cold ice bitten day. The day she had nearly imploded on herself and threatened to take down the entire solar system with her. She knew then that she needed to regain her control, to reclaim her hold over the power within her. It was time to return to the ones who had originally taught her to hide away her emotions.
888
She knew he would have been one to not take her leaving well, no matter how long it would be. Especially so since what had happened between them. He was more protective of her then he would he have normally been had it not happened, part of their basic instincts she supposed or perhaps it was just the way he was. Whatever the reason she knew that she was most likely not leaving with out him by her side.
"I have to go…if I don't I could end up hurting some one…" 'I could hurt you…' He stared at her for along while after she had spoken, she had already gotten the approval of the rest of the team, she didn't really need his permission to go, but she still wanted it….
He finally sighed and looked down at the floor. "Fine, but only as long as I go with you." He had expected an argument on the subject, had expected to have to fight her on it until she finally hit him or he had successfully managed to convince her to let him come. Instead she only smiled, a true smile, not one of the fake ones he had for years so desperately tried to replace.
"Who did you think was going to fly me there?" She knew him better then anyone in the universe. And she knew the rest of the team just as well. The flight to the training planet was dangerous and required and expert pilot, as well as long, so why have him travel none stop for uncountable amount of months when he could just as easily stay and train with her. She had every member of the team wrapped around her little finger in one way or another, but none more so then him…
888
They had been flying for near two months. The team had decided it best if they took a ship larger then his small fist rocket and easier to pilot then her bulky foot crusher so that the long trip wouldn't be too unbearable. It held two sleeping quarters, though most new they'd only need one, a fully equipped med. Bay, just in case, and of course the small kitchen and control room.
The trip had been going fine for awhile, but then she had gotten sick, he opted to take her back to the robot but she had nixed the idea, saying that they were closer to the training planet then their own.
Then one morning she had disappeared. After some difficulty and some panic on his part he had located her in the med. Bay. Upon seeing him she had looked worried, seemingly afraid of him, that wasn't right. Ever instinct in his body told him that he was to protect her from any harm that might come, but at the same time he seemed to be the harm. He walked over to her quickly in order to find out what was wrong. She directed her eyes away from his as he sat down next to her on the bed provided. "What's wrong?" She wrung her hands nervously and opened and shut her mouth a few times in attempts to speak, then finally giving up and sighing in defeat. She turned her head silently her eyes demanding his before handing him a printout from one of the scanners; she let a look of pure determination slide onto her face. He looked down at the paper as he took it, a feeling of pure dread rising up in his stomach, what was it? Should he have taken her back to the robot even though she insisted she was fine? Was she fine?
He carefully unfolded it and looked it over. His head snapped up to see hers looking away still obviously scared by what his reaction might be. He jumped off of the bed, quickly grabbed her and spun around and around until they fell with her safely on top of him both of them laughing like two idiots.
"And you made me think something was wrong?! Shame on you, Nova! Scaring me half to death for the most fantastic thing in the universe!" He pulled her tighter to him carefully placing his hands on her stomach and nuzzled his face into her neck smiling idiotically all the while.
888
"Isabelle." She blinked at his voice suddenly penetrating the quiet control room. They were a mere two weeks away from the planet she had been training on all those years ago.
"What?"
"Isabelle, I always liked that name for a girl…" He gave her a sideways glance as he maneuvered past a comet. She smiled in understanding before setting a hand on her stomach, just a little plump now, just barely visible to those who weren't looking for it.
"Isabelle…" she tested the name let it roll around in her head for a moment before continuing. "I like it…"
