Station Square. The once primary human colony on the planet Mobius.
Its population was ever changing, groups of humans and mobians leave the world, other humans or species replace them. It was a tourist area and one of the first things people see when they first come to Mobius, mostly because they come to Mobius for none other than Twinkle Park.
The colony was created well over two hundred years ago by a woman named Elizabeth Gel who managed to befriend the local population of mobians.
Thanks to the location's importance to the world, her descendent was now made ambassador to Human-Mobian relations on the planet, telling visitors the rules, what to say and not to say and handle any dispute that might arise between the species to avoid the conflict escalating out of control.
That person was right now on one of her few days off, heading to the outskirts of Station Square into it's suburbs after getting her groceries and having just got off the train, walking her way home.
She had been made full time ambassador about eight months ago when she turned 18. Her father was in charge before her and had wanted to retire from the position. Sadly a couple of months after she got into the job as part time two years ago, he passed on. She was able to look after herself though and kept the job going, taking what training she needed and allowed her dad's close friends to help her out at times, until she turned 18 and had proved she can handle the matters that come and go.
The only thing she's known for is her slight leaning towards humans over the mobians when it comes to debates. This was due to her past relations with mobians, especially when one became close friends with her only sister and led to her leaving the planet dragging him along. She refused to go near Mobotropolis unless she absolutely must, the current confirmed capital of Mobius.
She was relieved when she saw her home in the distance, the only white painted house in the midst of the multi coloured ones in her street 'New Haven'. It's never changed over the years she's grown up in it. At the end of the road was the beautiful green hills and forests where her and her sister used to go and play, their blue picket fence to their decent sized front garden, the brown wooden door…it made her feel calm just by look alone.
She placed the brown bags down with various meats and vegetables in and unlocked the door with her keys.
Her place was like all the others on this road. Two floors, a garage attached on the side that held her dad's old car, a living room, dining room, toilets up and down, three bedrooms and a kitchen. Out the back was another garden, small brown shed her dad used to use, and a washing line that had her clothing hanging up, gently flowing with the breeze that had come on this clear warm day.
Her kitchen was metallic looking with a dark grey finish, the floor a marble black. Her living room had a red carpet, brown furniture and pictures of her and her family…one picture stood out that was on top of their fake electric fireplace their dad had installed a few years ago, which showed an image of a fire and made the same warmth, but with no smoke and a click of a switch, turned off.
In that one picture was her, a girl with brown hair, blue shirt and grey trousers, and the ripped off remains revealed a little corner of a red mobian.
She placed her groceries in her dining room, which had a large light brown round dining table. Nearby it was a cabinet that had a tea set, small plates and fancy glasses her father collected over time.
The girl had brown hair in a short hairstyle with dark brown eyes, fair skin, a curvaceous body with a rather decent sized bosom. She's wears a white tank top with red singlets with a cross mark design at the center of her tank top, a blue denim skirt with three buttons at the center and a pair of dark brown boots.
She sat down near the bags, looking a little tired. "Geez, I swear with that Rufus jerk in charge everyone is acting more miserable. I've never had so many people just ignore or grunt when I say hello to them…Maybe I should check the news later. See if anything's happened recently."
She got herself up and walked into the living room, noticing on her dull red phone there was a few audio messages, as the small screen attached to it was flashing a '3' to remind her. She decided to press play on it whilst heading back for her groceries and taking them to the kitchen to start unpacking.
The phone's machine female voice started. "Three new messages. Message one:"
A female, happy go lucky sounding voice was heard. "Hey, it's Maria from the office! Got some great news for you! The problem we had with the printer got fixed up! Problem now is…it's gonna cost a bomb. I'll send the bill to the council as always, but they might expect us to pay a share of it since, ya know, WE overloaded the machine. See ya!"
"Message two:"
It was a young male now. "Hey it's Leon Zon. Still having problems with my visa to get back into the F-Zero course for Green Planet. I have no idea why it isn't working. They said I needed to contact you again due to technical difficulties. Sorry about this. Bye for now."
The girl sighed as she was packing away the meat she had bought to place it in the freezer. That poor guy always had trouble with this.
"Message Three:"
A more serious sounding male now spoke. "It's Blue."
Elie stopped what she was doing and walked over to the doorway between her living room and kitchen, looking at the phone as the message continued.
"I dealt with those punks who tried to raid your office a few weeks back. One dead, the rest locked up. I had to shoot one as he attempted to resist. It made the rest fall in line. The cops are busy dealing with that right now. I'm heading back to my apartment in Station Square. If you want to grab a drink with me again sometime I'd love to. It was fun. Hit me up soon."
She sighed. He was her on-and-off boyfriend of sorts. They've known eachother for about a year and a half now since he came to Mobius to find work as a mercenary. She fancied him, he just taken down a group of bandits who tried to hide out in Station Square and from there she allowed him to take up residence for a small fee each month.
They entered a relationship for a few weeks, it fell apart with his lack of attendance to their dates. Then they went into one again, then he just stops going out, and it keeps repeating. Currently they weren't a couple again, but she knew the moment they go for a drink she'll wind up either bringing him home or her heading to his place for a night of fun, and by morning she'll call him boyfriend and him calling her girlfriend, a few days pass, and it'll be back to square one.
She smiled. She had to admit, those night outs are really fun though. Maybe she should call him tonight. No work tomorrow so who cares what happens? She walked back into the kitchen and continued unpacking when she heard the doorbell go off.
Looking annoyed she made her way over. "I swear if it's a tradesman I'm gonna slam it right on his face…"
She opened the door. "Listen whatever your selling I'm not—"
She stopped.
Standing there was Chad Oswald, to his left Samus Aran with her helmet off and to his right Jak with his friend Daxter on his shoulder.
Her face turned dark. "You."
"Heyyyy Elie? So…long time no see huh?"
"Anna has a sister and neither you or her felt it was necessary to INFORM us?"
"I thought you guys would try her dad's house number!"
"Her dad died two years ago! Didn't she tell you!?"
"She said about visiting her family next year once things settled back down due to long it's been! I thought you guys would at least try the phone to contact someone should there be any relatives left!"
"No!"
Chad was standing in the labs, with Dr Wily sitting down, Dr Light facepalming at this news, Dr Hikari looking stunned and Keira frowning at Chad.
She spoke next. "Chad they ask for all of your family details, my DAD who lives here had to tell them about his sage status and all the other sages that lived on our world! What part of that did you or Anna not understand?"
"Look things got tense between us and Elie okay? Anna's dad didn't mind us but Elie wasn't so approving of how Anna was and blamed me for it."
"And now we need to send you to Mobius to contact her, and convince her to come and join us?" Dr Light still hadn't moved.
"Pretty much what Zuo Ci wants yes. It'll be like trying to get blood from a stone mind you."
"Why's that?" Dr Wily asked him.
"Anna had never bothered calling her family as soon as we left Mobius. Last I heard from her that was still the case before Earth V's little civil crisis."
Dr Light finally look over at him. "You came and joined us over 4 years ago."
"Yyyyeeeaahhh."
Dr Wily looked over to Hikari, then at Thomas. "Well. We might as well make the most of this venture. Chad I'm sending a group with you."
"Sending me with a team, why?"
"Well for starters you'll clearly struggle trying to bridge this communication gap with Elie, so a couple of others being around may help improve your relations. We also could do with getting some supplies from Mobius. The planet is known for its strong wood, refined stones and wool. We could use some for the base to advance our expansion. You see Dr Richard has a few new ideas beyond a swimming pool and we would like to get them implemented."
Keira looked at Dr Wily. "We could use the resources to make this place a little more colourful too ya know."
"No need." Dr Light answered with.
"I agree with Thomas." Wily also said. "And I think you should go Keira to make sure we get a good deal on the supplies, see what you get out of the warehouses of the traders. Let them know who we are and such."
Keira sighed. "Fine, I'll go."
Chad then asked "So who's gonna come with me? Ruth?"
"No no. She's still getting used to things. I'll call around and see who wants to go for a small trip to Mobius to either help Keira or you. Don't worry, I'll limit it to a small group."
It was a small group thankfully. Keira had gone to the coastal supply houses of Station Square with Guan Yu, Terra and Charlie, whilst Jak, Sonic and Samus went with Chad.
Sonic quickly bailed as they got to the suburbs, his last words as he was ready to run at full speed were the fact green hill zone was calling to him, clearly knowing things with Elie would be difficult. Chad couldn't blame him.
Now Chad was sitting on one of the couches, with Samus and Jak besides him. A small table in front of them and the ticking of the hanging wooden clock on the wall next to the doorway leading out of the house.
Elie had let them in, begrudgingly. She told them to sit down and had gone to the kitchen to finish unpacking her food before putting the kettle on and brewing a pot of mobius green tea. She didn't care if any of them actually like it or not, and they didn't feel they were in a position to refuse the offer.
Jak had to ask Chad about it. "So what's, uh, this tea gonna be like?"
"If you like human green tea it should be fine. It's got a rosemary'ish taste to it. The leaves are loose in the drink so don't mind the floating specks you'll see."
Daxter wasn't so impressed with that as he started to wander around the living room. "Whatever happened to offering cold drinks? Why the heck does it have to be fricken' tea huh?"
Jak tried to relax a little. "So Chad, what's with this girl and you? She seems irritated."
Chad sighed, looking over at Jak, whilst Daxter was continuing his checking out of the living room. "Well I kinda inspired her sis to look to go off world. Elie wanted her to stay grounded and focus on the colony. Their family are one of the first to come to this world and have a position of being those who represent the human factor in mobian society…hence Elie here is now the ambassador for human mobian relations since her father passed away two years back."
"And Anna?"
"…Was meant to do it, mostly become Elie's deputy ambassador till she heard about Dr Light from me, the Hero base and things went from there."
Samus figured it out now. "Oh…does she know about—"
Chad quickly cut her off. "No. The docs didn't even know Anna had a sister. I did but, well. My priorities were a little off."
Soon the homeowner returned to the living room and brought in the tea set. Each person bar Daxter, who was busy climbing up on the fake fireplace, had a cup each, Jak and Samus thanking Elie whilst Chad just stared down at his drink whilst the other two took a sip of their drinks.
Daxter had gotten to the damaged photo. "Eesh, who didn't you like that you took them off the picture of you and Anna here?"
Elie stared at Chad.
Jak looked to his pal. "Get down here for the moment Daxter." He turned to Elie. "Sorry, he often snoops around when his not suppose to."
"Hm." Was all she answered with as Daxter jumped down and walked over to the tea set, noticing a plate of chocolate chip cookies at one end of the tray.
"Hel-lo sweet treats. Don't mind if I do." He grabbed one and started nibbling it as the silence soon crept back in.
Then, she spoke to Chad. "So…why now?"
Elie was staring Chad down whilst she held the cup of tea…there was a certain clinking sound in the room as Jak and Samus noticed that Chad's hand was shaking a little as he was trying to hold the cup and saucer. He really wasn't sure how to approach this.
"Well, Elie. I have some news for you and, I needed to come and check on you." Chad started to explain.
"Oh, check on me. I see. You've come to check on me, but my sis can't be bothered?" She was glaring a little now. "I never heard from her the moment she left here. I've tried calling her over the years but can she be bothered? No."
"Well, there's a reason for that."
"A reason for not bothering and sending her boyfriend, some bounty hunter, a rat—"
"HEY!" Daxter stopped nibbling on the cookie he had.
"—And a Dumauris who looks like he needs a shave and a hair cut!"
Dumauris was what Jaks species was called in the SF, meaning 'Long Ear', for obvious reasons. Jak felt a little attacked there. "Um…good tea by the way. Nice house." And lightly sipped on his drink.
Chad sighed and lowered his drink, placing it on the table. "Elie there is a very good reason. Please just listen to me okay?"
Elie clearly was still unhappy, but allowed him to speak.
"The fact is…Anna…Anna Hael is…" Chad knew the word he wanted to say, but it was hard. The concern of how Elie would react was quite evident in his mind.
"What? Pregnant? Married to you? Wounded?" Elie was ticking off what words it could be. "Lost? Kidnapped?"
"…Dead."
Elie dropped her cup, it's contents soaking into the carpet and making Daxter jump back a little in surprise as Elie was staring straight at Chad, dumbstruck. "D, dead? Anna is, dead?"
She got up off the chair that was opposite to where the others were sitting, and walked over to the fake fireplace, staring at the picture of her and Anna.
Samus got up now, taking a few steps towards her. "It's true Elie. Anna was taken from us…We're so sorry."
Jak then spoke to the girl. "Elie…If you want a moment, we'll wait outside or—"
"How." Elie didn't look at any of them, but her voice was cracking a little, showing she was hurting emotionally. "How did she die?"
Both Jak and Samus looked to Chad, whilst Daxter tried as quietly as possible to just eat his cookie, trying to avoid the awkward situation.
Chad slowly stood up, facing Elie. "She, she was killed. Murdered. By a villain, a monster that had planned for her to die. I was there."
"…And you didn't stop it Chad? You didn't stop them from killing Anna?"
Chad didn't want to think about it, yet there it was, replaying in his head, that moment he was with Anna in the base then a moment later, she was gone. "Richard did so before I could act. Richard killed her. I was unable to Elie. I, I wish I could've but…he got her."
"And where is the murderer now?"
"In our base. Locked away. We're trying to figure out a way to kill him proper."
Daxter stopped eating for a moment. "That bastard was our pal once, now look what he did."
Elie caught that, one of her hands clenched into a fist, shaking ever so slightly. "Your pal? He was a member of that damned hero base?"
Chad glared a little at Daxter, as did Jak whilst the Ottsel shrugged innocently with the biscuit in his mouth, before Chad focused back on Elie. "Yeah…He was."
"…So I was right. I warned her that place was dangerous. That something would go wrong." Elie gave a small, bitter laugh. "'Chad will keep me safe Elie, stop worrying about what could happen off this rock.' Yet now look at what's happened Anna…Look at what going there did to you…"
Chad didn't dare say anything now, he could tell this was becoming hopeless to convince her to come with them, especially when she said that.
They waited whilst Elie was heard sniffling, trying to not cry. "Did, did you at least try to stop him?"
"…I tried to avenge her Elie. He took her without warning and I tried my best with everything I had. But he's beyond my power. The doctors at the base, Dr Light and Dr Wily, are looking into ways to kill him…but it'll take time. We imprisoned him so it wouldn't happen to anyone else."
Elie gulped. "I, I need time alone. I'm going to go out, have a walk around. I'll be back soon…if there's anything else, we'll talk then." She turned and started to walk to the front door.
"Elie?" Chad called out to her.
"Don't. Chad. Just, leave me alone for now." She opened the door and slammed it behind her as she went.
Chad was about to follow after her but Samus grabbed his shoulder. "Give her time to grieve. We can ask her to join us when she gets back. If she didn't want to talk to us, she would've ordered us out of here."
"She might ask for a body." Jak wondered. "Or even how long it's been since she died."
Chad sighed. "We just gotta be ready for those questions."
On the coastal side of Station Square, it had dozens of warehouses past Twinkle Park, with stacks upon stacks of steel cargo containers, designed to be collected by both transport ships and water vessels alike.
Guan Yu was currently looking out at the sea at the edge of one of the landing pads for transport ships. Keira had taken Terra and Charlie with her to confirm what supplies they could get for the Hero Base.
The clear sky and the sun shining down made it quite pleasant for the tall warrior of Shu. He was gently stroking his long beard with one hand, thinking about home, whilst holding his crescent blade in the other, resting the blunt end of it on the ground.
He closed his eyes. He wondered how Liu Shan was faring now. His decision to turn his back on the Hero Base faction was a disappointing one, but he still worried for his oath brothers' child. A part of him regretted stepping down and allowing the boy to take over, but he feared if he refused to allow the boy control of the kingdom that rightfully belonged to him, it would dishonour him and his family forever.
He then started to wonder when he should pay his homeworld a visit, maybe buy some gifts from Mobius to take to Liu Shan…
"Hey! Hey tall guy!"
Guan Yu opened his eyes. That was directed at him and he could hear footsteps coming towards him. He slowly turned to where he heard the voice.
The person in the black long coat, with red spiky hair and sharp green eyes had reached Guan Yu panting a little and placing his hands on his knees to catch his breath. "Hey, there fella. Name's Axel how're ya doing?" the person named Axel gave him a little smile before focusing on getting his breathing back to normal.
"I am well thank you." Guan Yu was curious on this new person. "What is it you want?"
"You're the only fella out here right now. Phew, okay…" Axel stood up straight now, feeling himself calm down. "Just needed to ask a question."
"Ask away."
"You haven't seen anyone with medium brown hair? Deep blue eyes? Wears a coat like mine and may or may not be looking like his just constantly fazed out? Name's Daxch?"
Guan Yu shook his head. "I must apologize but I have not met anyone matching that description."
"Aw nuts." Axel rubbed the back of hair for a moment before placing his hands on his hips. "Shoot, where the hell could he have run off to? I hope he didn't get into Twinkle Park somehow. Might cause a hell of a scene if someone pushes him."
"Is he a danger to others?" Guan Yu asked.
"Well I'm supposed to be watching him but lately his been sneaking away from me. He a little nuts and carries a nasty weapon on him. I don't want him to make a scene like we're not supposed to…"
"Axel!" A young boy had called out to the redhead from behind him and Guan Yu.
Running up to them were two new people. A young girl with short black hair and blue eyes whilst the slightly older boy, late teens by the looks of it, had blonde hair and blue eyes. Both wore the same coat as Axel.
"Roxas. Xion. Any luck?"
The girl named Xion shook her head. "Nothing good. Roxas just spotted Daxch heading towards that dome building." She motioned over at Twinkle Park.
Axel frowned and rubbed his forehead for a moment. "Of course, why would he avoid the crowded places…"
Guan Yu then got their attention. "If this person is dangerous and you require assistance to find them, I am willing to help you."
Axel looked at him, then at his two companions, before clicking his fingers. "Hey. I got an idea!" He quickly looked back at Guan Yu. "You got any cash to get into Twinkle Park?"
"I have a large amount of funds."
"Great! Listen—" He turned back to Xion and Roxas. "-You two go with this guy and get inside Twinkle Park. Look around carefully, try to spot Daxch before he sees you. We don't need him summoning heartless and causing chaos. I'll keep an eye outside and make sure he isn't in Station Square somewhere."
Roxas quickly talked. "And if he is? You'll be on your own against him!"
"Relax Roxas. I can take him. If it gets hard I'll signal you with our com-links alright?" He smiled at the boy, before looking at Guan Yu again. "Thanks for this Guan Yu. I'll pay you back sometime!" With that, Axel ran off.
Guan Yu looked at the two people with him now. "We should hurry on if we intend to capture the one you wish to stop."
Roxas nodded, and led the way, with Xion and Guan Yu following after him.
Several minutes later, Keira, Terra and Charlie returned to the landing pad.
"…Huh. I thought he said he would be here. Did he head home without us?" Terra turned to Charlie and Keira, who looked a little annoyed.
"Typical. Can't wait for one bloody hour…" Keira started to complain to them as they stood there trying to figure out where their partner could've ran off to.
Chad had gone upstairs within Elie's home. Jak, Samus and Daxter remained in the living room, Daxter sleeping on one of the chairs whilst the other two were talking about how to approach Elie from here about coming to the base.
Chad moved past what was once Elie's room and stopped at the door leading to Anna's…his memory was blurry, but he recalled walking in here with Anna, with her telling him to keep quiet to avoid waking her sister and dad up.
He opened the blue wooden door…inside the room had been decorated from Anna's pink wallpaper and carpet, white linen on her bed and several toys on the shelves. That had been taken down…the bed was present but had a beige set of bedding on it, in place of the drawers and cupboard Anna had, there was now a computer desk complete with a black covered computer system and desk chair.
He could vaguely recall why she wanted him to come into her room. She wanted to show him pictures of other worlds…She kept saying how beautiful each one looked.
Chad slowly walked into the room.
He could just picture where he and her sat on the bed, youngsters who were looking at the pictures in the light of a torch she had taken from downstairs, too scared to put her lamp on or bedroom light as it might be noticed by her family.
She was concerned with having a boy in the house, especially a mobian who didn't fully understand humans, only having just recently learnt to transform into one.
…he looked at his hands as the images of the young him and Anna faded.
No.
He wasn't mobian. That wasn't true. Yet…he recalled being unable to transform at first, he had to learn like other mobians did. Yet, surely something should've given it away he wasn't that. That he was a Hu-Navi.
He tried to recall any incidents on this world that might've hinted to it, but his memories were blurry, flickering. They were hard to recall.
'Anna used to love living here, didn't she?' His conscience spoke to him.
"…Yeah. Loved it until I said about Dr Light." Chad sighed. "I'm wishing I never said anything."
'Don't. She wanted to leave and fly to the stars. She didn't want to end up like her sister, Amy or several others of yours and Sonics friends. She didn't want to be grounded at the time when the offer came up.'
Chad sat down on the bed. "She used to always say how large the universe was, how many galaxies and people there were out there. She said about having a calling to it all."
'That was a few weeks before we left to the Hero Base. We joked that it sounded a little concerning at the time.'
"…I remember the shouting and yelling between her and Elie. I was sitting right here at the time."
'Yup. Elie said about it being too dangerous, their father getting weaker and they needed to be here. It ended when her father said it was alright. Anna had to choose her path in life. Elie slammed her bedroom door about as loud as she did with that front door today.'
"We saw him a lot right? What was his name again?"
'…'
Chad couldn't think of it. Nor could he recall their mothers name…nor his own family now he thought about it.
He paused.
It was the first time he thought about his family since forever. Chaos saying he was his dad made him think briefly, but Roll took over that concern.
Now he was here, trying to think about it.
The only one he knew for certain was his cousin Dave Hayami. He never mentioned Chaos and often just came to check on Chad. There was no one beyond that. "…Holy crap I need to find my family tree and try to figure that out soon. At least if anything it might help denounce what Chaos said."
He heard the front door open. Elie was probably back now. Time to face the music that she'll just tell him where to stuff it the moment he mentions leaving.
He walked out of the room and headed downstairs, walking into the living room.
To indeed find Elie there, but also a face he hadn't seen for some time. A man in his 40's wearing rounded glasses, had short light brown hair, a brown jacket with a white fleece shirt, black jeans and brown leather shoes.
Chad had known this man for some time when he was on Mobius. After meeting Anna, there was Sabek, the man before him, who told him about the villains who lived on this world and often gave Chad advice as well as Sonic suggestions on how to tackle them. He was especially helpful when it came to dealing with Chaos.
"Ah, Chad." The man named Sabek walked over and shook his hand. "It's been a while hasn't it?"
Chad looked quite surprised. "It, it has been yeah. What are you doing here though? Why are you with Elie?"
"Yes well uh—" Sabek seemed to think for a moment. "There's been a major concern lately about you. Prophesised. You see I had expected you to come to our world a lot sooner but it seemed like the problem, the uh, date it was due in my dreams passed by. So I left it alone, thought nothing more of it, assumed all was well…except last night I saw the dream again. The end of it showed Elie's house so I made my way over by the train and bumped into this young crying girl here—" motioning at Elie "—Had a little talk and found out you were indeed at her house so…yeah."
"Wait wait wait. Prophesised? Is it about him being of Primus descent because that was already revealed." Samus walked over to Sabek.
"No. That, was already shown to me and I was aware of it but that was part of the previous dreams. This one was more about something I've known about for a long time. Something more worrying." Sabek focused on Chad. "…Something very evil, is lurking inside you."
Chad stared at Sabek for a moment, before shaking his head, taking the information in. "Hold it, another evil thing? Sabek I just removed a dark soul out of me." Sabek raised his eyebrow for a moment. "It's a Navi thing long story. Anyway I just purged some violent dark self out of me just recently, what could possibly be left?"
"You know I normally don't come to you unless it's something that can be devastating to everyone. The vision showed it escaping out of your body and showed me what it did before…the destruction it caused. Thousands upon thousands dead. That is what is inside of you."
Chad looked a little annoyed. "Sabek please—"
"We need to make sure it's contained."
"Sabek I just dealt with Angelus I don't need another reveal that there's a darker evil inside of me okay?"
Sabek's face paled, as he leaned a little closer to Chad, grabbing his shoulder. "…What did you call that dark self?"
"A-Angelus. Why?"
"…Oh no. It can't have. You didn't…" Sabek let go of Chad's shoulder and moved away, talking to himself for a while. "Let me think. In the dream he awakens inside you, gets out, then the dream shows the destruction of the last time, then it shows the darkened night sky and the busy market streets of…Station Square. Before it showed Elie's house." He slowly turned to face Chad and the others. "It'll be at Station Square."
"What? What will be?" Elie was worried now.
"Angelus, the vampire, the destroyer."
Twinkle Park was busy, filled with all kinds of people from across a range of ages. Happily enjoying themselves, living their lives to it's fullest and enjoying their time within the place that night time never ends in.
It's a little jarring for Guan Yu. His never seen it before and never expected the amount it cost to get him and the two people he had inside here. But he could see why people would pay for it.
But of course, he wasn't here for the rides. He kept a stern eye out for the one named Daxch. There was no luck with him though. No one bar the two he was with wore their coats. Everyone where wore bright or colourful clothing.
They had encountered heartless though. In the more obscure areas of the park, the back-stage areas and the depths of the pleasure castle. Small minor ones, they either ran away and disappeared or Guan Yu and his two allies managed to take them down before people were alerted to their presence.
He soon spotted Roxas and Xion once again, over in the food court and made his way over.
Both of them appeared disappointed. Roxas heard talking. "I can't believe he would run away from us. We wanted to be his friend and make him realize it's not all doom and gloom in the position we're trapped in."
Xion nodded. "Maybe he was tired of Xemnas ordering him around. He did seem very harsh on him lately…"
Xion soon spotted Guan Yu was coming over. "Oh! Any luck?"
"I'm sorry. The one we're after remains elusive."
Roxas gave off a defeated sigh. "Well, it's clear he isn't here. He just left breadcrumbs with those heartless. We've been wasting too much time. Thanks for your help Guan Yu, but I think we will need to part ways soon enough."
A voice spoke up from the side of a shut stall in this place. A woman's voice. "You're close to one that you want."
All three looked over, with Guan Yu holding his weapon at the ready, something other folks noticed and made sure to steer clear from.
The woman stepped out, wearing a black coat like Roxas and Xion but with the hood up. "He's hiding around in station square itself though. You need to chase after him. Look to emerald beach."
Roxas stood ready, as a Keyblade weapon appeared in his hand. "You're not one of us!"
"No, I am not. If you don't hurry, you may lose your quarry. Go." The woman pointed over to the exit in the distance.
Roxas wasn't going to leave yet though. "Xion, let Axel know what's going on and go outside! Guan Yu please go with her! I'm not leaving untill I find out who she is!"
The woman chuckled a little. "That is a poor idea. You sure you want to do this?"
Xion understood and was quickly leaving, whilst Guan Yu followed her. "I'm positive. Tell me who you are!"
The woman sighed, shaking her head slowly. "I'm the worst thing you'd want to face today, Roxas. Please, don't make me do this."
"We can't have impersonators like you around!"
"Impersonator…maybe I am. Maybe I'm not who I honestly believe I am anymore." She lowered her hood, showing herself to be Lucy, looking sad, as her vectors began to appear around her. "But that's all the more reason this nightmare will come to end. If he meets you now and breaks their hold you'll delay my desires!"
Axel meanwhile, had already arrived at emerald coast. He was taking a slow walk across the sandy beach, looking over at the piers, the small islands nearby. The sun was beginning to make its descent down to the horizon. "Huh…if I were a project gone crackers, where would I go and wonder around?"
His com-link triggered. "Axel this is Xion! Daxch might be at emerald coast! We just got a tip from an unknown stranger! Roxas is confronting her!"
Axel grabbed the device out of his pocket. "Confronting her? Whoa why's he doing that?"
"She's wearing the exact same coat as ours!"
"What? First Xigbar encounters a guy who has our coat, now Roxas finds a chick with one too. Did Xemnas release them as a fashion item or something without us knowing?"
"I don't know but right now we're heading to the coast, are you there?"
"Already having a look. It's beautiful at the very least, might have to book ourselves a little day off here."
"Guan Yu told his friends to come and meet us there too!"
"Oh? Well if they're so willing to lend a hand, why not? I'll wait for you guys." He put the com-link away, folded his arms and calmly waited.
Then he thought of something. "Huh…maybe I should've asked who exactly is coming to help? I can assume it wouldn't be any of handful of people here already. I mean unless Guan Yu only knows girls in skin tight bikini's and that ugly looking walrus woman sitting over there—"
"A NOBODY!"
Axel quickly looked over to the entrance of the beach. First spotting Keira, then Charlie…and the now wielding-his-keyblade Terra, looking angry as all hell. Axel leaned over a little looking concerned at what was coming at him. "Ohhh this is not what I wanted to deal with today."
As long as Terra got close enough he launched himself into the air, aiming his weapon to come straight down on Axel, who quickly formed out of two rings of fire over his hands his chakrams to block the Keyblade. "So some of you still exist huh!?" Axel commented as he pushed Terra away who just came at him again, forcing the redhead to swing his twin weapons at every strike to deflect them away. "I thought Shinra bombed you guys into nothingness!"
"You are a pest in our territory like the heartless! We'll always be there to make sure you don't damage any of worlds! Including this one!" Terra jumped back, aimed his Keyblade and fired off several sharp cylinders of ice that Axel just about managed to dodge. By this time people on the beach were running for it.
"Always be there? There's only a handful left around that location that aren't working for us! Sora, Riku, Yen Sid, Mickey and Kairi! There I just named them! Where did you guys hide off to!?" Axel was spinning his chakrams and fired back several wheels of fire, which Terra easily managed to avoid.
"Sonic boom!"
Axel had to lean RIGHT back as the yellow spinning energy circle flew past where his head was a moment ago. The moment he was upright again he met the bottom of the green boot of Charlie right in his face, sending him back in the air and rolling in the sand for a moment before getting back up on his feet, weapons ready. "Well now, and who's this unlucky companion of yours?!"
"The name's Charlie Nash! If you don't want to be defeated I suggest you leave!"
"That's cute. And where are you from exactly?" Axel had to avoid attacks from both Terra and Charlie, before using his chakrams to push Terra back and managed to cut Charlie across the chest, the latter landing on his butt for a moment, holding his wounded chest before standing up.
Axel held his weapons ready, watching them both…before a small collection of green orbs floated towards Charlie and went inside his body, causing him to momentarily glow green before his wound healed up.
He soon noticed little specks of green energy coming from Keira, who had her hands raised towards Charlie. Keira's father, Samos on their world was known as a sage of what they had as a magical element known as eco. Green eco was able to heal, provide fuel and repair technology, extracted from the Lifestream as they came to find out once they left their world behind. Keira, being his daughter had some small ability to extract it from a world's lifestream to use, as she just did with Charlie. "We're from the Hero Base!"
"The Hero Base…oh WOW that ragtag bunch of losers licking the backside of the ol' Shinra Federation? Is that who you're hanging out with these guys Keyblader?"
"The name's Terra!" Terra rushed at him again and found his weapon just missing Axel's chest, as the nobody sidestepped and swung down his chakrams, both knocked aside by Terra quick reaction timing. But quickly halted any further actions though as Xion was heard calling out. "AXEL!"
It made them all look, as the girl was quickly approaching alongside Guan Yu.
"Guan Yu!?" Terra was shocked at who was beside the girl.
"You know him?" Axel still held his weapons ready but was surprised none the less…till it clicked in his head. "He's a member of that base crew as well?"
"Terra stand down! Axel is in ally in need to assistance to capture someone dangerous!" Guan Yu explained as he arrived at the scene of the fight.
"This is a Nobody Guan Yu! Same as the girl next to you! They're in enemy from where I come from!" Terra pointed his Keyblade to Axel, who stepped back to avoid getting accidently hit.
"Enemy or not they are not a threat at this moment. Please." Guan Yu stepped over to Terra and Axel, going between them. "I have encountered Heartless within Twinkle Park. It is something this person they wish to retrieve is using. I know the Heartless as a common enemy to all of us, I'm I correct?"
Terra looked annoyed as he lowered his Keyblade. "Don't let their human looks fool you. Them and the Heartless have more in common then you think…but seeing as Axel isn't striking you down from behind at this moment with your back turned, he must want to maintain this little truce."
"I have higher priorities than you fella, believe me. Guan Yu's been helping us, so you know what they say 'any friend of yours is a friend of mine'." Axel said behind the tall Earth V warrior's back.
Keira looked over to Xion for a moment as the girl went over to Axel, before she focused on Guan Yu. "So what's going on exactly? We got called to help out."
"We're chasing after one that wears a coat like them named Daxch." Guan Yu explained. "We had gone to Twinkle Park, but a person within that place told us Daxch could be at emerald beach."
"Well this is the place, but due to what was just going on I think we vacated it." Charlie glanced around the location, before looking over at one spot. "Found him." He pointed over to one of the piers and there was a person standing at the end of it, black coat, hood up, looking out at the sea.
"Well damn, looks like he came out to hear the commotion!" Axel got past Guan Yu and went towards the pier with Xion, whilst the others followed them.
As the two nobodies started to walk on the pier, the person at the end of it started to talk, in a dull, emotionless voice. "No. This isn't my home. I don't belong here. Do I?"
Axel and Xion slowed their pace as they got closer and closer, whilst Guan Yu and the others now kept their distance. "Heeyyy Daxch. What got into you?"
"Axel." The hooded figure looked behind him. "I was hoping this was it. This was my belonging. It is not."
"Well none of us have a real place of belonging anymore besides The World That Never Was. I know it's not much but hey, free room and board right?"
"You told me you had a place of belonging. People from there exist out here."
"Barrel and Grievous." Axel shook his head a little. "Boy I wished I never opened my mouth about that. That was who I was before this Daxch. It's not who I am now."
"What about Xion? Did she have a place before this?"
Xion slowly looked down to the wooden flooring, sadness filling her face as Axel spoke again "Let's not go there. Now how about you come with us and we go home?"
"…mm." The one named Daxch turned around and stepped towards them. "Fine." He then looked past Axel and Xion who was feeling a little better that topic she didn't like was averted. He was focused right on Charlie, who was certain he could feel the guy staring him down. "You."
"Huh?" Charlie raised his eyebrow a little.
"Charlie Nash. I know you."
"You do?"
"You were about to perish against the army of beasts. You tried to chase me before the battle. You said a name…I cannot recall it."
Charlie was now confused. "Um, I have no idea what in the hell you're talking about. Sorry."
"Pity. Where is Roxas?"
Axel suddenly remembered. "Oh hell! That woman he met!" He grabbed his com-link "Roxas! We got Daxch!"
There was no answer. That alarmed Xion straight away. "He must be still in Twinkle Park!" With that, she was off, running and pushing past Terra and Keira as she headed away from the beach back to the entrance of the amusement park.
"XION WAIT! Ah jeez! I can't leave Daxch!" Axel wanted to go after her, but if the one under his care wanders off…
Guan Yu was already after Xion, with Charlie and Keira following him. Terra was watching the two nobodies carefully.
As Xion and the others drew close to the entrance, they noticed that a crowd had gathered around it, all focused on one spot. She was trying to get through, asking people to excuse her but the humans and mobians seemed more focused on whatever it was than her.
Till Guan Yu started to demand to be let through, gently pushing people aside to give himself and Xion enough space to move through the crowd until they reached the front and saw.
Several of the mobian attendees for the park were surrounding Roxas, who was slumped up against the wall, battered and bleeding, cuts to his coat soaked in blood, he was clearly out of it as one of the mobians were trying to talk to him whilst others were contacting people.
"Roxas!" Xion ran over to him. "Roxas what happened! What did she do to you!? Roxas!"
The mobian who was closest to him was about to ask her to step back when Guan Yu came over and bent down to Xion. "You must be calm, they are no doubt calling for assistance for him."
"A, are you friends of his?" The female mobian fox girl noticed Xion and Roxas had the same clothing.
"Yes we are. What happened here?" Guan Yu asked whilst Xion was trying to get Roxas to wake up.
"We're not sure. People are saying they saw him and a woman in the food court, they vanished…several minutes later, his found out here. We assumed it's teleportation and they had a fight out here but no one saw them and he was first seen like this."
Guan Yu looked over to Roxas and Xion, before moving closer and gently picking up Roxas. "We'll take him from here. Get him back to our base."
"Your base?"
"We're from the Hero Base Faction. We have medical facilities for this. Excuse us. Xion." Guan Yu started to get back through the crowd who were focused on them, before the attendants started trying to get them to disperse.
"We're not part of your base Guan Yu." Xion worriedly reminded him as they met up with Charlie and Keira waiting at the back of the crowd.
"Let us return to Axel and pass this boy to him. He is their friend." The two nodded and went ahead, whilst Guan Yu walked beside Xion. "I have no intention of taking him there unless you and Axel wish to. I hope you have your own medical equipment back home."
Xion nodded. "Of course we have, but then why did you take him?"
"Because I remember Axel saying you're not suppose to make a scene. I am merely ensuring that is the case."
"…Thank you."
Soon they met with Terra, Axel and Daxch as they were leaving the emerald beach. Guan Yu handed Roxas over to Axel, whilst Terra still remained wary.
Axel looked a little relieved. "Phew, his still alive at least…" He looked to Guan Yu. "I suppose you want that money back we wasted huh?"
Guan Yu shook his head and waved his hand in dismissal. "There is no need. You have found who you were looking for. That alone is payment enough to see I have aided."
"Yeah. Well, suppose we should get him back. Xion? Call in a doorway." Axel looked at her as she got on the com-link.
Soon enough behind the nobodies, a purple door shaped vortex appeared, with Daxch walking through first, followed by Axel who simply said "See ya." Before doing so, then Xion was about to, but stopped for a moment as she looked at Guan Yu.
"You like helping others, don't you?"
Guan Yu nodded, whilst stroking his beard a little, smiling at her. "It is the way that myself and my oath brothers have always been. Though they are gone, I will uphold their wish to support others no matter what the trouble is, be it great or small."
"You've lost them huh…Isn't it hard to keep going?"
"I know one day, we shall be reunited. Till then I will make sure we are never forgotten."
Xion smiled at that. "That's, a nice way of looking at things…Thank you again Guan Yu." With that she left them and the purple door faded away.
"…That Daxch guy worries me." Charlie said to them. "Especially when he was focused with me."
"It was rather odd. Maybe someone's impersonating you?" Keira suggested to him.
"Why though?"
"Dunno. Could've been a Navi pretending to be you, parallel universe you, you from a different timeline…anything is possible. Let's be thankful we didn't have to keep being violent…Terra." She looked at him.
"You don't know them like I do. I'll explain when we're back at the base."
Chad, Jak, Daxter, Samus, Elie and Sabek were slowly walking around the market stalls and shops of Station Square, in the midst of the city. The sky was a mixture of purple, red and golden as the sun was slowly setting, with a small mixture of clouds.
The place was filled with Mobians of various species as well as humans. Buying selling trinkets and items that were interesting to them.
This was not the case for these six…well, one of them was clearly looking at all the little objects and shiny ornaments for sale. Jak seemed to make them stop at times to have a look. "You know, I think this would be perfect to send to Ashelin."
Daxter groaned out, rolling his eyes as he was on Jak's shoulder "Come on man! This is the same thing as the last one! I told you that unless you think she wants a silver spinning spiky ball on a fancy glass stand, don't bother! Sheesh!"
They were waiting for the night time to come around, and were trying to waste time by looking around and blending in.
Samus was keeping close to Chad, with people especially avoiding her due to her armor looking a little intimidating and she could see a few were trying to figure out if they knew her from somewhere or not. "So Chad…wanna grab something for that sweet lady you're keeping an eye on?"
Chad snapped out of his daze. He had been thinking about the kind've questions that Elie might ask. "Hm what?"
"Ruth. Don't you want to get her something?"
"Well, suppose I could…wait 'sweet lady'?"
Samus chuckled a little. "Took your time on that."
"What's with you and pairing me with her? Last night you made Ridley send that light over to set the mood, now this."
Samus shrugged as she looked on into the crowd they were going by. "Why not? It's amusing to see you look a little flustered after all this time. I've just seen you look dead inside and showing it this whole time till you walked into the bar."
"Well please don't. I'm just helping her get comfortable in the base as instructed by Dr Wily and Light…still a small gift won't hurt I suppose." Chad started looking at the shop windows.
"At least it'll make her feel like someone cares in that place. Make her feel welcome…why not that?" Samus pointed into one of the shop windows, stopping Chad for the moment whilst the others walked on by.
It was a small silver rose, with a red gem in the middle of the flower segment, the stem being wielded onto a silver stand.
"…That'll send the wrong signal."
Samus frowned at him. "No it won't Chad. She'll love it and simply thank you. That's all. Just get it for her and just hint to the fact that this is what friends can do for one another. She'll know your position in this then and as a learning Navi it'll teach her a good quality."
"…Wow." Chad looked at her. "You sound awfully sensible right now."
"I'm sober."
"Oh." Chad looked back at the rose. 8,000 gil. The corner of his lip curved upwards. "You know what…that'll do. I'll get her that."
Soon Chad and Samus caught up with their group, with Chad carrying a small blue gift wrapped box that had a red ribbon.
They continued their venture around until Sabek stopped them at a café that Chad recognized. "Hey, that's the Speedy Hippo."
As Sabek led them into the lovely atmosphere and towards a spare table Daxter looked at Chad. "Is it any good?"
"Oh yeah, Me, Sonic, Tails, Amy and Mighty used to hang around in this place. It was here Mighty introduced me to Sabek. Don't touch their massive mean chili dogs though. Those things go in you and out of you just as fast. Sonic can attest to that."
Whilst Jak, Daxter, Sabek and Samus settled down at a table, Elie did not. She watched them, then focused on Chad, before motioning him to follow her, which he did, heading back out of the café and into a quiet corner of the street.
Chad knew what was coming.
Elie turned to face him. "When should I expect her body? Or does she already have a grave?"
Chad took a moment to try and say this in the best way possible. "Anna…What was left was almost…there were just tiny fragments Elie, I'm sorry. We can't bury her. Dr Wily has placed a grave mark for her near his fortress, along with all the others who died that were members of our base."
"…Did she die slowly?"
"No. I think it was sudden. One moment she was there then, it was over. Chaos and Richard were there. I rushed Chaos and killed him, tried to take out Richard for killing Anna but…"
Elie looked angry, as tears were coming back. "You weren't strong enough."
"No. I wasn't. As I said before I threw everything I had. It wasn't enough." Chad looked pained at looking back on that fight. "I thought I killed him, but despite it, he was laughing, crippled on the floor."
"You were supposed to keep her safe."
"I did Elie. I did everything I could. We even fell in love, letting me get closer to her and I thought I could always protect her."
Elie gave a small bitter chuckle. "So you really did become her boyfriend…"
"And I failed. I took down Unicron, I fought off Darkmega, but I can't beat her murderer!" Chad felt a pain swelling inside…of both guilt, and loss. "I keep checking on him, keep hoping the docs find a way to kill him but so far it's not possible and it hurts! I keep facing the killer only to remember I lost her to him!"
Elie had noticed, and it made her listen to him as he turned away from her, frustration evident in his body language.
"Now I'm being made to go around and save others when all I wanted for so long is to play the waiting game till the docs find a solution! I'm out of that base, and every once in a while a little voice in my damn head is reminding me HE is still in there! Anna's killer is still there!"
"…Why did you come here?" Elie now asked him.
Chad looked at her. "…Because you're in danger. I have a deity who gives me updates on what is coming next. Told me about Unicron. Now he said about a prophecy to do with you. He wants me to take you to the base to be safe."
"Safe?! In the same place as my sisters' killer is going to be?!"
"I don't like the idea either but so far the deity hasn't failed me!"
"He didn't tell you Anna was going to die though did he!"
"He couldn't have known Elie! What happened there was something out of his control!" Chad quickly glanced behind Elie. "Sabek?"
Elie spun around and indeed, Sabek was standing there, looking surprised Chad spotted him. "Oh, I just overheard about a prophecy related to Elie and listened in. I was hoping to get a few more clues to guess if I'm right on which one you're talking about."
"You know of one?" Chad was surprised.
"Well one connected to her family. I thought more to Anna than Elie but I might've guessed wrong. See there is one that connects to her family, one that could bring back an evil that matches the age of Unicron."
"Well if I took down Unicron I can take this one too. Hit me." Chad walked over to stand beside Elie…who clearly wasn't comfortable with him at the moment.
"This one might be a little more concerning due to his magical powers. What Elie must carry though is something known as the Mark of Scath. Now I saw Anna with the mark in the visions years ago, on the back of her left hand. When she appeared distressed or angered it flared up…" Sabek looked down at Elie's hand.
And on the back of her left hand was a twisted, faint red glowing 'S', which she slowly lifted up to look at, stunned. "That's…That's never been there before."
"Most likely. But I think Anna's death may have just passed the mark of the beings awakening from her to her nearest blood relation. Come on, let's head in the café whilst waiting for the night. I'll explain about the being. Trigon."
He headed back inside, with Chad beginning to follow, before he heard Elie say "We still need to finish talking Chad."
"What do you want me to say Elie? I said I'm sorry. I'm hurt over her death and I couldn't do anything."
"…How long did you take you to come to me and say she's dead Chad. How long did it take you to remember she had a sister in her life once?"
Chad turned to face her, giving a deep sigh, before getting ready for the worst, closing his eyes. "It's been three months Elie. Anna lost her life three months ago—"
Slap.
He knew something like that was gonna happen. He heard Elie take a few steps towards him the moment he said three months.
"You honestly expect me to come with you to that godforsaken place? Where they wait this long to tell somebody that their sister is DEAD!?"
Chad turned his head back to her whilst his right cheek was feeling sore. "That was because of a failure to inform the docs about you."
"BOTH OF YOU!?"
"Elie if I even knew she didn't tell them I—"
"Don't! Don't bother! I'm done with you! Forget this! I'm heading home!" Elie turned and headed away from the café. "Fuck the hand mark! Fuck Angelus! I'm done with being near you Chad Oswald!"
"ELIE COME BACK!" Chad wanted to go after her. "YOU MIGHT BE IN DANGER!...ELIE!"
She didn't even look back, soon enough she vanished into the crowd of people, a majority that had stopped to look at Chad…as he was crying, looking down at himself, clenching his fists. "I'm so sorry! I tried! I honestly tried…I can't protect Anna but I have to do something right!" He started to chase after her now. "Elie! I can't let you go alone! Please come back!"
For the next ten minutes, Chads pleas to her fell on deaf ears as she got back to the train station and just got on the next one heading to her home. As she sat on the train she got her phone out.
Chad meanwhile got to the train station, and noticed she wasn't there. He wanted to Chaos Control after the train but a voice in his mind spoke to him. 'Give her space and some time Chad! Maybe Sabek can talk to her better than we can!'
"But I can't let Elie—"
'Just talk with Sabek. Find out about whatever is going on that's gonna drag her into it and let him know Elie has backed out. Focus Chad. We have an old friend to deal with. Our dark soul, finally given form.'
"…You're right." Chad mumbled to himself before heading back out of the station. "And if I let him get away it's only going to make things worse."
Richard was in his prison, eyes closed, allowing the drift of time to go on without disturbing it. There was no need. This was all a waiting a game for him now.
He heard the door outside open. He was predicting Chad was going to talk to him. He probably felt their little encounter the previous night wasn't enough. The way he said about Roll though, Richard had wondered why Chad was much more alert about her. Had his mind wipe failed? He'd be disappointed if that were the case…then again when she was timid at times and fell quite lovingly into his arms before his mind was permanently warped last time. Maybe having Roll back wouldn't be so bad to mess around with Chad with.
He heard the click of the speaker and was ready.
"We need to talk."
Richard felt quite surprised. Didn't want to show it in his voice or anything though. "Oh? My light self? What do you want to talk about? I thought you hated my guts?"
"I do. Believe me I do. But I have a few questions to ask."
Richard chuckled. "A few questions. You would never run to me with questions because you know Dark souls can lie and deceive people to cause confusion and fear…So something must've happened to make you turn to me, something drastic in your life and you would swallow your fear and anger of me."
"…Maybe something has."
"Let me think about it." Richard's claws started to move, as if trying to feel around the room. "Chad was deeply concerned with Roll the last time we met. You came in then as well and clearly didn't like how he was. But Roll is a lifeless corpse with her future being stuck permanently on a medical bed till the end of time."
"Maybe it isn't anymore." Dr Richard answered him.
"…And if you're here…ohhhh, I see what's happened. That's really interesting. Tell me, does she remember or does she just hold her name? Hu-Navi's always keep the name."
"She doesn't remember. She has the name."
Richard nodded slowly. "Ruth Bullen…How sweet. Our 'sister' is back."
"MY sister."
"Adopted. By Albert no less from the reject lab. You were all due for termination and they took pity on you. She was a tag along."
"He loved her as much as me."
"More like he was more attached to her then he was to you, like you were when it came to sweet little Ruth. You always stood by her side…You even started to develop stronger feelings beyond being adopted, but they settled once she died didn't they? She's still the world to you, and now she's back, with no memories…and no doubt you're worried about…Chad." Richard looked up towards the camera, smirking. "Chad Oswald."
"You know him quite well. I want to ask you about him. Gramps has a…positive view about the boy."
Richard chuckled. "I could tell you the worst lies possible to make you despise him if you want."
"I expect you to be honest."
"…" Richard looked around at the walls. "Well, a little honest information won't hurt I guess. But why exactly? There are all kinds of people in this dump that could tell you their stories about his actions around here."
"Because I've been looking up the conversations between you and him. Gramps and Light may have tried to block access but I have my ways. Right now I've turned off the recording for this as I don't need the old man knowing. Now let's get this over with before I feel sick with talking with you. I noted that during your conversations, whenever hourglasses come up Chad gets defensive. The more recent talks you had you even mentioned a choice Chad made."
"I'll spoil it for you now. Chad killed his girlfriend Anna for our sister."
"…" Dr Richard was heard sighing. "A lie?"
"Truth. He let her die for someone he didn't love…makes you wonder if he'll do it again to the next person who gets close to him to form a relationship."
"Has he always been reckless?"
"From day one. You barely missed him. If you snapped out of your depressive funk before I got injected you would've met him…and trust me, you wouldn't have liked him either."
"A lie?"
"The truth again light me. You suck at guessing. He was always rushing into things and displaying this level of confidence that only those of the Primus bloodline can really pull off and have a high chance of success."
"…He is looking after Ruth. Her guardian. You know that position?"
"Well enough. If that's the case, then you don't have to worry whatsoever light me. Chad will take good care of her, protect her, not place her life in any danger and certainly wouldn't form a relationship with her, winning her heart and loyalty only to betray it later on like he did with Anna and leave her cold, alone and dead."
"...Was that a lie?"
Richard gave a little sigh as he was grinning. "Oh damn, you caught me this time."
"I'm done for now." Suddenly the metal hoses came out the walls, and in a second, the whole room was engulfed in flames. "Liars get punished. I'll see you around." Dr Richard was last heard saying before Richard just managed to hear the clicking from the camera followed by the doors opening and closing.
"I'll still be here, light me…" Richard said to himself as his skin slowly started to burn off. He was used to the pain and heat. He knew in about five minutes this little flame shower will end.
Dr Richard made his way back to the main room and headed to the labs. There waiting for him was Nyu, who had chosen the blue shirt in the end. She was busy fiddling with a Rubik's cube Dr Richard left her as he went to talk to his dark self. "Hey Nyu. Any luck?"
"Nyu nyu!" She smiled, showing him that within several twists and turns of the cube…she finished it.
"Well aren't you a bright spark?" Dr Richard was quite surprised. "Wait, did you finish it earlier and waited for me to get back and show off?"
"Nyu." Nyu nodded.
"Figures. Gonna have to get you something much more advanced while I'm busy…maybe even get you to help me out Nyu…Shame letters just look like gibberish to you right now or else I might be able to use a typer to let you talk normally." He walked over to the computer and sat down, with Nyu walking over and watching him.
"Nyu." She pointed at the screen, to the corner of it which showed a flashing letter.
Dr Richard clicked on it and found it to be a video message from Dr Robotnik, who looked agitated.
"Of course the time I need to talk with you Albert and Thomas you're otherwise engaged! I could use the com-links…bah forget it, the area is closed off anyway so you can get back to me on this. Anyways, Thomas, Albert. I request that you send Chad Oswald or a few of your members to Unicron's head once again. Despite the brief report that Chad scared off Sephiroth and Chaos, as well as slaying something called a 'Phantom', there appears to be something left behind that has been just as effective at killing our reacquiring team who went inside the head."
Dr Robotnik made a black screen appear now, with 'Visual damage' flashing once in a while on the screen as he talked again. "We have the audio recording of the captain, but the visors failed to capture anything due to unknown interference. We also have an image that I'll show shortly from the only survivor."
Then the audio started to play, with a male voice talking.
"This is captain Allayer beginning the recording for reclamation of site 'Unicron'. Due to unknown issues I am unable to transmit visual images, audio only. Eye pathways show greater damage than what they were before the interference of Sephiroth. Claw marks noted as well as fire damage. Proceeding to brain control room to asses the damage to decide if it is still a safe location for further extraction and research."
There was a voice behind the captain. "Sir this place is really giving me the creeps."
"Relax solider. It' s daytime, the sunlight's coming in and there's only us around. It's okay. Now, as I was. Brain control room has received much more damage than previous. Markings of high levels of heat damage in one location, further smaller claw marks on the ground, a new hole in the ceiling, created by something smashing through it from within I'm guessing by its shape."
That other voice spoke again. "Hello?"
"What's the matter trooper?"
"I just…I swear I just saw someone move near the walls."
Another voice spoke, a woman. "Yep me too."
And another voice, another man. "I'm so glad I got my brown jumpsuit on today."
The captain spoke again. "Easy does it people. Split. Five of you go and check out the sight you think you saw it, flashlights on. Everyone else slowly spread out and watch for movement."
There were mumblings and footsteps, before things went quiet. "Thank Blind Io. Now as I was saying, in regard to the new damage the brain control room still seems viable and safe enough for—what was that?" The captain was heard breathing a little faster now as static started interfering with the recording. "Wait…I know something just moved right beside me—who the hell are yo-"
The audio log ended, with a loud high pitched, horrible inhumane woman's scream.
It made Nyu quickly move back in fear, whilst Dr Richard certainly wasn't ready for it jumping a little in the chair and muttering loudly "Fucking hell!"
The screen showed Dr Robotnik again. "We can confirm that last voice didn't match anyone we sent. The image I'm about to show is the only one the survivor was willing to take before fleeing out of Unicron's head."
It was a blurry image, caught in the moment. It showed clearly that the SF troopers who had entered the brain control room…had exploded inside out. Their entire front of their armor had burst open with their organs loosely hanging out and about in the room, pools of blood formed around them. Just barely able to be made out, it was clear one other trooper was firing his rifle at something off screen.
Soon Robotnik was back again. "The survivor is currently in the Midgar hospital. Can't get anything out of him, all he keeps repeating is about how 'it grabbed my heart. It showed me my heart. I have to get away I have to leave before she kills me too.' Sounds little too dramatic to me, but whatever the case it's clearly something Chad missed. I want it cleaned out before I have to explain to Rufus why we can't continue messing around with Unicron's head! ...Oh and if it's sorted in three days I'll throw in a little cash to keep you guys quiet. You know the drill." With that the video message ended.
Dr Richard looked at Nyu, who looked a little paler now. "Well, looks like Chad's pissed someone off."
"N-Nyu."
"You said it Nyu." Dr Richard got up out the chair, ready to go and tell his gramps in the hospital room before the sun sets and the old man retires to his room. "Well, whatever it was you actually wanted to say anyway." He left the labs.
Notes:
1. In this Universe, Axel is Lea's actual name…so no Lea here. He's always been Axel, thus the same for everyone else in the Organization XIII team.
2. Roxas and Sora are entirely seperate beings.
3. Elie Hael is a character who belongs to Chad much like her sister does…except she's normally Keene for her last name, this time it's Hael, so hush.
4. Nyu.
- dragonridley