In the Dark Corners

(October 12, 1992)

It's been 4 days since the attack on the Special Forces Facility. Food has been depleting fast. The only people alive here are Me, Stryker, Sgt. Capitol, Hsu Hao, and Metric. Stryker's other partner was sent to look for more supplies for us. That was 2 days ago. We have no time left to be standing here. We already know the layout of the building. We already know the secret to defeating the Oni. We already constructed our escape plan. The time to act is now.

"Is everyone prepared for this?" I asked. I didn't add on any type of inspiration. We need to get out of here now. It's do or die.

"We really need to gather what supplies is left in this facility. If it's this bad here, imagine what it's like in the streets?" Metric explained as he loaded his SMG. Hsu Hao grabbed his C4. Stryker loaded his Shotgun and Pistol. Sgt. Capitol prepared his Assault rifle. The time has come. NO TURNING BACK!

"MOVE!"

At the sound of my command, Stryker kicks open the door of the COM Room. 2 small Oni spot him near the door and rush towards him. I dropped the furthest one with a silent round as Stryker attacks the second Oni with his baton. Our first move was to escape this room and hope that resistance was low. We were lucky. Now that we were out, we began to execute Operation: Reclaim. With that vampire dead, it's least likely that another is nearby controlling these guys, so they can definitely die here for a few hours.

"Hsu Hao, you know what to do. Everyone make sure you stay as close as possible. Capitol and I will search my Office and Jax's room. You all search the armory and the med bay. Be at the Garage in 15 minutes sharp." I commanded. Being a natural leader and all, this will possibly be the easiest job we have.

As everyone disperses, Capital and I rush down the hallway. Multiple Oni were patrolling, but it was nothing that we couldn't handle. I used my hand to hand skills to kill two of the Oni. Capitol charged into the third one and smashed its head into the wall. Another Oni appears out of nowhere and attempts to bite him, but I quickly used my second silencer bullet on the Oni. I have to try and conserve my last bullet because after this one, I'm going to be out of my silencer powder. We quickly opened the door to Jax's office. The Oni really made a mess of this place.

"Spotted anything?" I asked.

"No ma'am." Capitol responded as he began to dig through the piles of stuff the Oni knocked down. I looked inside of the drawers of his office, but I only found a small rag. It was really clean, especially compared to this room.

"I've got a rag. You?" I asked.

"I only found a picture of you and Jax during your promotion. He also left the keys to something." He explained.

"Take them. We may need them."

"You got it." Capitol buried them both in his pocket as he rose up from the floor. We went back in the hall and headed towards my office. As we came near the door, I felt a cold presence behind me.

"Gyah!"

One of them harshly grabbed my arm, scratching it in the process. I tried to attack it without firing my last bullet, but nothing was working. Capitol was busy fending of some other Oni that were heading for us in both directions. It looked like hope was lost, until I remembered that I had another weapon. I pulled out my Garrote wire and wrapped it around the Oni's wrist. With all of my strength, I quickly pulled on the wire fast enough to rip the Oni's wrist off.

"Sonya, now that you're free I can really use your help right now!" Capitol shouted.

I used my keys to open the door and grabbed Capitol. We hurried inside and locked the door. Capitol used my bookshelf to block the door. What a relief.

"Great, now what do we do?" Capitol complained.

"You got that key still?" I asked Capitol. He pulled it out and tossed them in my direction. I used the keys on a safe behind my desk.

"So...Jax had the key to this safe." Sgt. Capitol snickered.

"Keep trying, Capitol." I responded sarcastically.

I finally opened the safe. I reached inside and grabbed my finest equipment. I only use this equipment during drastic times.

"Ah, so that's where you hid the good stuff." Capitol commented.

"You know it. Jax and I infiltrated one the Black Dragon's armory and found some neat equipment." I explained.

"You stole their equipment?" Capitol asked.

"I Confiscated, not stole." I confirmed. "I'm not a thief."

"So Fang knew about it?" Capitol questioned even more.

"When do I ever disclose full details to Fang? Remember when I put down the red haired blood woman years ago? It's not in the files." I explained.

"You're lucky I never knew about this before you filed that report." Capitol assured.

I ignored his last comment and began to pick through my safe. Inside the safe were my finest weapons. My wristbands are crucial. They project pink energy rings whenever I clang my wrist together. It's definitely awesome. Now my gravity boots are the best. They make me feel like a super soldier. I'm able to defy gravity and use fighting techniques similar to the ones in the Onaga Mortal Tournaments they host every year. I can't wait to break into these again. And finally are my special rose petals. I lied when I said I found these from the Black Dragon Armory. My parents use to grow these in the yard when I was younger. Don't know why they did, but I found use in them. They seem supernatural and magical. And growing them is definitely a lot easier than growing vegetables.

"So, you're also a medic then?" Capitol asked.

"You could say that." I responded.

*20 Minutes later…*

"We have to hurry! Something's definitely wrong here!" I shouted. There was a loud explosion 4 minutes ago coming from the entrance area. Hsu Hao wasn't supposed to activate them until we all arrive in the meeting room. Capitol and I needed to find out what happened. We've been running and gunning to survive the oncoming Oni. They must have been attracted by the sound of the explosion. Hopefully, that wasn't Hsu Hao's C4 charges.

"Don't worry. I'm sure the others will alive. We'll still make it out of here." Capitol tried to cheer me up as best as he could.

"Yeah, sure." I responded.

"Feel my power." Did I just hear someone? No, that's impossible. I'm just a bit stressed.

As we turned through every corner, the Oni grew stronger, smarter, and more evolved than they were before. It was like each kill made the nearest Oni stronger and more violent. We need to find the others as soon as possible. And we need to find out where that explosion came from.

"I just realized how big this place actually is." Capitol always knew how to make my day. His sarcasm was always better than Kabal's in my opinion. I'm...I'm not lame am I?

*Aaaaaaggghhhhh!*

"That sounded like Hsu Hao. He must be this way." I told him. Even though we knew time was scarce, we still took 15 sec stops in each room that was in the hallways of the building. We found a few bullets and band aid, but nothing of any other purposes.

"If I'm correct, we should almost be at the meeting room." He notified. He was right. One more turn at this corner and we will be home free. Well, not exactly...but yeah.

We finally make it around the last corner and head directly towards the meeting room. I was surprised that no Oni were in the office. However, there was a body lying motionless on the ground. We moved in to examine the body more thoroughly. I've seen death multiple times throughout my life, but this just seems...wrong.

"It's Pvt. A-" I ignored Capitol's comments. I already knew who he was. The new rookie I just met today. We were supposed to be discussing something today, but now I'll never know what it would've been about. I should've stuck with him. I should've talked with him when I had the chance instead of going directly to the meeting. Maybe, Jax and Kabal could've survived this. Maybe the rookie and Stryker's other ally could have survived too. I feel wrong for not really knowing his name, but it doesn't matter who he is anymore.

"I saw him this morning. I think he could've had some valuable info on this attack."

"Are you sure about that?" He asked.

"He seemed like the type who was into Sci-Fi stuff. We can never be sure." I responded. After one last look, we slowly opened the door to the meeting room. We peeked inside to see if anyone was there.

"I think it's clear." Capitol stated. He walked inside the area casually and I followed behind.

"Learn how to thoroughly scan a before you enter." A voice spouted sarcastically.

"How amateur can you be, sergeant?" another voice added. It was Stryker and Metric posted behind cover. Sgt. Capitol turned his head my way and gave a thick smile. I punched him in the forehead...HARD!

"YOU IDIOT!"

"Hey! I tried." he stated. "I didn't expect Oni to be hiding behind cover." His jokes can only go so far, but I can't be that mad at him.

"Well, we know who's not getting a promotion for the 13th time in a row." I mocked. He was set to be promoted enough times to take Fang's place.

"You have that one Lieutenant." He commented. It's funny; I never thought I'd improve on my jokes.

"Well, how are we going to get out of here now? Hsu Hao blew a huge whole in the wall and left without helping us, and now even more of those things are inside. That why we retreated to this room earlier than we planned." Stryker adjusted his cap and walked to the projector. Metric looked around the room to see if he could think of anything. He found a piece of paper and a pen and began to layout the building from this room to the courtyard. There was two ways there, the way I came and the way they brought me inside. Those two routes were overrun four days ago, and without those C4 charges from Hsu Hao we won't be able go through either of those ways.

"Having doubtful thoughts, Sonya?" Metric asked.

"It's just that both of our routes…" I didn't know how to explain it. We all know that our chances are slimmer now. What else can I say?

"There is a way. We just have to push through to the exit with the least amount of Oni. We have weapons and ammo, but not enough to fire at every Oni we see." Metric concluded.

"They won't survive if they keep trying to take the easy way out." I know I just heard a voice. I hope I'm not going crazy. Just in case…

"Did any hear that?" I asked out of curiosity.

"You heard a voice?" Metric asked. Stryker and Capitol focused their attention to me.

"It was…a woman's voice." I explained. I was prepared for them to call me crazy, but they didn't.

"I thought so. We need to be prepared for the worst case Scenario." Stryker suggested. He then reloaded his weapons. Of all of us, Stryker packs more heat and equipment than the average soldier; and he's a swat officer.

"So you guys heard it too?" I asked. They looked at each other and shook their head no.

"We know that you're telling the truth though. That vampire escaped." Stryker stated firmly.

"What…did you say?" Did he just say the vampire? Ciero escaped?

"Of Course I am, but don't worry because I'm not physically at that building right now. You're the only one who can hear me right now." Ciero confirmed. The world around me was frozen. Time had stopped. Ciero…was staring me in the face from only 2 yards.

"What do you want?" I asked in disgust.

"It's a lot of things in this universe that I want, but you probably can't provide it all." Ciero answered. She brushed my question aside, but I know there's more.

"You can quit thinking to yourself you know. I'm in your thoughts, so you should know that I can hear them."

"I thought I saw them kill you point blank." I stated.

"No one ever really dies in life. You get killed, and then you come back renewed or the same as before." She explained. "But you should worry about the current situation at hand. I know how to get you out of here."

"Get us out so you can suck our blood?" I asked. Ciero laughed at my response.

"You're getting there, little miss. You can blame me for a lot, but I'm only one of a few hundred. I'm the newest of the vampires, not even 3 months old yet." She explained thoroughly. "Like I said before, I'm you special someone."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"Escape by using brute force. The only way to truly kill an Oni is to kill its controller, which I'm sure you know now. I'm not their controller, but as a sign of good faith I killed her. Attack the Oni near the courtyard entrance. One of your snipers is alive and he will see you all there and provide cover. Believe in my words, and you will live. Deny them and I'll find a new partner." With that she left and the world reverted back.

"Ok, we'll just go through the route with the least amount of Oni." Metric concluded. Everyone agreed, except for me.

"We need to head for the entrance way. We have a sniper who's still alive on the building top." I explained. I looked around and saw that they doubted my judgment.

"Sonya, you do realize that they died 4 days ago right? Remember when I told you that?" Stryker asked.

"You don't have to believe me, but I have an 'Inside' source. That vampire…she…" I didn't know how I was going to explain this. It sounds stupid.

"She's telling the truth." Metric stated. "You all doubted my ability to read truth and lies before, and we saw how that turned out."

"I've trusted Sonya my whole life; even at this moment." Capitol stated. Stryker was surprised by their faith in me. I'm glad to see my support is strong.

"Alright then, let's go." Stryker agreed.

We all exited the room and headed towards the courtyard entrance. Oni were piled up there. I had already put on my gear. And I was ready to put them into action. I performed a forward flip and hopped deep into the middle of the hoard.

"What is she doing?!" Stryker yelled. I heard the sounds of gunshots coming from their direction.

I decided to use one of my rose petal packs on the Oni that were surrounding me. These are known as my razor petals. I poured them into my hand and tossed them around me counter-clockwise. Then rotated clockwise and blew the petals in the direction of the surrounding Oni. It definitely helped since it cut down the Oni with ease. I pull out my pistol and began shooting my way through the Oni. I receive a few scratches, but nothing major. Once the clip was empty, I just used the butt of my gun to kill off the Oni one by one. The fight was getting tense, and using the butt of the gun as a weapon was starting to make me feel like I have carpal tunnel in my right hand.

"Dash right and use an arc kick on one of the Oni outside the door." Ciero spoke in my mind. How do I keep forgetting about you probing my thoughts?

I took her advice. I dashed right and it was definitely a clear path. Once I got cutoff, I used an arc kick in the air and landed on an Oni outside the door. The inside has way more Oni than the outside.

*BANG*

I looked back at the group of Oni. A grenade went off in the crowd directly where I was when I ran out of bullets. So Ciero was trying to save my life, but why? I started hearing the sound of a sniper rifle dropping the Oni one by one. I didn't move at all. My body was frozen. My mind went blank. The sounds of gunshots and warm music were all I was hearing.

"Sonya! Are you alright?! Where are you?!"

I know I heard Capitol's voice, but my mind didn't process it well enough. I had a warm smile on my face. The sound of the sniper was like music to my ears. Never have I felt this great in years; that feeling of being relieved of everything. I felt a few bullets fly a bit closer than they should've, but I felt no danger. The sight of the dead Oni was enough to satisfy me. I saw everyone begin to make it out of the building. The Oni count was down to 4, but the sniper's power combined with my allies' brute force, brought them down easily. Stryker and the others tried to call my name, but I just wanted to ignore them. I never saw the sniper, and neither did they, but I know we are safe. I looked towards Jax's corpse and realized that there was no going back now. This…is the life we have now.

"If you're done fantasizing, we could really use you right now. We need to know where to go next." Stryker stated as he continued to check our surrounding. I final snapped out of it. I looked at the exit of courtyard as I collected my thoughts. What now Ciero?

"Maybe we can look for more survivors to help us and escape." Capitol suggested. A bad suggestion if you ask me.

"Look, I know we're usually the ones tasked with rescuing people, but that is a very bad idea at this moment." I responded. They all looked at me like I was wrong. I know they still believe in their job of saving the masses, but… "It doesn't matter how many survivor we find, if we don't stop this invasion there won't be anyone left to save."

"Smart move woman." A voice yelled out. She had the same exact accent as Ciero, but I know that isn't her. We looked around and couldn't find the woman anywhere.

"So I wasn't the only one who heard that?" I asked.

"Come on man. Can we get a break just once?" Capitol complained. Has he forgotten that we've had a break for the last 4 days?

"Keep your guard up, I know she's around here somewhere." Stryker instructed. Metric closed his eyes as if he was trying to concentrate on where the woman was.

"Heh, I knew I'd catch you." Metric pulled out a disk like object and tossed it in front of us. It exploded on impact after hitting something, or rather someone.

"Nice try, but I have backups for my backup." The woman stated in the smoke. Once it cleared away, we saw not one, but 3 figures. One is a large blue monster. He reminds me of a blue version of Beast from that princess movie. The second was a man, or what looks like a skinned man. He wore what looked like a tiki mask and had a spiked weapon attached to his arm. And those flies are plain disgusting. The middle figure was the vampire. Unlike Ciero, however, she looked much older and more reasonable. She could have attacked us, but none of them attempted to.

"Load your weapons and fi-" We were all suddenly frozen in place. For some reason, we were paralyzed. The Woman walked up to us while commanding the other two guys to stay put.

"I believe you have someone I need." She stated.

"We don't negotiate with terrorist!" Stryker shouted. Is he trying to get us killed?

"You're not negotiating with we, you're going to help me regardless." Nitara stated. Is she looking for Ciero? I've noticed that Ciero has spoken a word since the woman arrived. What's going on here?

"Your friend isn't here!" I responded. The vampire gave me a stale look.

"I'm not talking about Ciero." She confirmed. "I'm talking about the jellybean colored man."

"Who exactly?" I asked. It's weird hearing her describe someone as jellybean colored. We all heard the voice of Sgt. Capitol, who laughed at the woman's description of the person.

"Oh man, did you just call Hsu Hao a jellybean? I'm going to definitely get him with that one." Capitol snickered. This is no time to be joking around.

"So, you know where he is. Give him up NOW!" she demanded. We were all silent. Truth is…

"We don't know where he is." Metric responded. She didn't want that response, however. She turned her focus to me and walked in my direction. She came face to face with me and seductively grabbed my face. Does she know that I'm hetero?

"Ciero's new blood host." She called me. "So fragile, yet she described you as a hardened fighter. Yet, you're still weak."

"Don't underestimate me Vampire. This paralysis can't keep me still for long. You had no reason to keep us alive, and it's going to cost you eventually." I stated. She simply smiled.

"Where is Hsu Hao?" Did she not here us?

"If we knew-" For some reason, my entire frame of mind was change. "He was here, but he abandoned us after blowing a hole in the SFHQ." I don't know how, but she forced the truth out of me. With that she walked away.

"Word of advice, don't go to the Central Area of this city…" Some sort of dark red portal opened up behind the two monsters. They walk through the portal and are nowhere to be seen. The woman stopped and looked back at us. "…or else." She then looked away and disappeared in the portal. We were finally able to move again.

"That was way too uncomfortable." Capitol commented.

"Everyone good?" Stryker asked. I looked around and everyone confirmed it. Stryker and I looked at each other and also confirmed it with him.

"So, Nitara's finally prepared to execute her plan." Ciero told me. Where were you when she was here? "I was taught to respect my elders; something I've learned while studying your race. By the way, I can be reasonable." Really… "At times…" What did she mean by 'Don't go to the Central Area'? "I'm sure you heard the 'or else' right?"

"I think we should just escape the city. This is no longer our battle." Metric states.

"Wait a minute, we can't leave. This is my city. I'd rather die here." Capitol ranted.

"Metric is sadly right. We can't stay anymore. We had a mission, and it has just been aborted. We can't stay here. We're moving to the next city to make sure it happens nowhere else." Stryker explained. Neither Capitol nor I will back down.

"What was your mission? I thought you were supposed to be saving lives?" I asked.

"Weren't you the one who said to us to 'ignore saving others'?" Stryker asked.

"WHAT was your mission?!" I was losing my patience. I want to know what they came for.

"It's classified. It's over anyway." Stryker stated. I was in no mood for this. I pulled out my rifle and pointed it directly at Stryker. He was no fool, I know this. He aimed at me with his pistol. Metric also aimed at me with his SMG. Capitol was always loyal. He aimed his assault rifle at metric. We were locked onto each other. I don't care. I locked myself in a room with them for 4 days. I deserve answers.

"Isn't this a lovely time to say hello. Never thought I'd see the blonde lad turn so frosty." A voice commented. I know that voice from anywhere. It's…him.

"Kano."

"Heh heh, I knew you'd notice." He said. I lost my attention on Stryker and focused the rifle on Kano.

"Give me a reason not to." I said.

"It's funny really, you were willing to kill Stryker for something you have no evidence for, but you saw what I've done and you still hesitate to kill me. It looks like we were meant to be, eh?" Kano joked. I don't have time for this. He dies, now. "Is it because I saved your life with that sniper rifle a few minutes ago?"

"That was you?" I asked. "Why?"

"I guess I just missed every time I aimed for you head." Kano responded. He snickered in my face, even in his final moments. I began to pull the trigger, but moved out of the way. "I would've done it, but I know that if you're still here, then that means you don't know."

"I don't know what?" I asked. What is he talking about? I started to loosen my grip of the trigger.

"That it was actually the Special Forces' fault that this incident happened."

(End of Chapter 2)

(Upcoming—In the Dark Organization)