Disclaimer: I do not own Guilty gear or its associated characters.
Chapter VII: Watching Over Me
Nothing made much sense anymore he decided. It was difficult to get a fix on just how long he spent sitting in the darkness with the gears in his head whizzing so loud. The clockwork-man doubted it was more than a day but it felt like an eternity. Since the creeping dark in his mind had called out his true name they rarely ceased their mocking chants.
So numbed was the automaton that when the heavy metal door swung open it startled him. Dizzy was back, but she had brought two others with her. The two brunettes lagged behind as the half Gear approached the strange fabrication in front of them. Glowing eyes followed their approach, wary of the two newest visitors.
May and April, the droid recognized. His mind ticked away various archived facts, analyzing possible threats posed and possible weaknesses. As the clockwork-man ticked off the variables, however, it became increasingly clear just how helpless he really was. Regardless, he continued in his machinations, if only to stave off the growing fear in the back of his mind.
"Hey," the half Gear casually greeted him. "How are you?"
"Optimal. Despite my limited functionality I am more than capable of caring for myself." Although Dizzy was understanding of the android's abrasive response her friends were not. He noted an odd expression wash over their faces as the android finished his response. It meant nothing to him.
"These are my friends-"
"April and May," the automaton interrupted, having already known everything he cared to know about the two girls. May glared at the cold response. "Both members of the infamous, Jellyfish Pirates. Although neither pose any real threat, May's Japanese heritage is worthy of note."
The droid continued his musings, listing a variety of facts archived within his person. As the list grew longer, May's patience grew shorter. Her face flushed bright red as the automaton off handedly dismissed her in all the young pirate's faculties.
"Actually," Dizzy interrupted, noting May's growing fury and the droid's uncaring indifference. "We came by to tell you something." The half Gear waited for a response but when none was forth coming she continued.
The droid only half listened to the things Dizzy said. Apparently they thought it was within their power to repair him, having retrieved and studied the arm that the villagers had so crudely removed from his body. As Dizzy spoke the automaton couldn't help but shake his head in disbelief.
The arrogance of these pale creatures was astounding. To think that they presumed their weak, fleshy forms capable of the precision and complexity required in his construction was laughable at best. Never the less, he found himself unable to deny the Gear's charity and nodded in agreement.
The actual process of his reconstruction evaded the construct's attention. From time to time the young brown-haired mechanic would come to take measurements or check some odd fitting or crude adaptation that would haphazardly fit over some existing component.
The clockwork-man ignored her for the most part. She seemed like such a quaint creature to him. Why should he care about the idle meanderings of a puny human? The human condition was one that would forever vex him. The automaton couldn't help but look down on the pitiful creatures. They were imperfect, flawed in everyway, weak from their fleshy forms to their fragile minds.
Even as the clockwork-man listed humanity's multitude of short-coming something else began to weigh heavily on him. Every sense in his robotic mind, every figure and calculation point to mankind's terrible flaws and yet they had been able to reduce him to such a pitiful state. There had to be something he wasn't taking into account. That was the only explanation. If not, everything he knew was wrong.
Weeks passed in relative obscurity, locked away in the bland storage room of the Mayship. The automaton's only visitor was the brunette mechanic. He had begun to think Dizzy had forgotten him though she was always in his thoughts. Then one day she returned.
As always her two closest friends were with her, one the droid had become accustomed to and one who never ceased to irritate him. Dizzy knelt at his side and looked him over. "How are you?"
The clockwork-man didn't respond, not at first. An odd sensation washed over him at the half Gear's words. How was he? She hadn't bothered to visit, shunning him for weeks and she wanted to know how he was?
A boiling feeling filled the automaton's chest. Was he angry? No, he decided, Anger was too strong of a word; perhaps frustration or mild irritation was more accurate. The spring-steel man would have preferred anger; it was a simple feeling, base in all its faculties. Frustration was a boiling sensation that couldn't be quelled. It didn't warrant the extreme actions of rage but left a gnawing sensation in the pit of his stomach that the droid was unable to satisfy. He couldn't understand what would inspire such an odd feeling in him. It seemed so logical and yet all of his robotic intuitions knew it wasn't so.
Unfortunately for him, the construct was completely incapable of expressing this sudden irritation. "Optimal," was his only response. He considered Dizzy; no other person had the ability incite such terrible feelings in the droid.
He turned away, no longer able to bear the sight of her. Instead the construct turned his attention to April, who had been his sole visitor for the last several weeks. The brunette was busying herself arranging the three prosthetic limbs. It dimly occurred to the clockwork-man that these must be the replacement appendages she had been working on.
It didn't take long for the brunette to install the prosthetics. April worked with skill and precision, rewiring, ratcheting and working the stiff metal limbs together. As she slid the last joint into place and wiped the mechanical grease from her small hands April sighed heavily.
"Good as new," she declared, sounding rather pleased with herself. The clockwork-man waited for a moment, as if afraid that these new limbs would fail to respond to his commands. The new joints whirred noisily as he carefully lifted himself off the ground.
They were skeletal and crude, but relatively effective. These replacement parts had neither the metallic luster nor the sleek design of their originals. The dull material was slightly off color with his original scheme, giving the new limbs a slightly yellowed, aged look.
It would take some time for the new prosthetics to integrate with his existing systems but he was surprised at the rugged efficiency of April's work. In time his regenerative systems would fuse with the limbs, giving him more precise control over the makeshift parts. Despite the resounding success of the brunette's latest endeavor the clockwork-man felt only further irritated.
She had succeeded where he himself had failed. Uncertainty boiled within him. This seemed to be becoming a growing trend. Maybe he had been wrong humans all along. As the clockwork-man turned back to his hosts he could only wonder, what had that man done to him?
Ky didn't have time for this, he was going to miss his flight. He smiled politely at the two young ladies who had approached him and excused himself. They had recognized him over his glass of tea as the stoic warrior was waiting for his flight to come in. Ky had been startled at first when the young women had approached him.
Star-struck by the former knight, the two girls had engaged him in lengthy conversation. The blond Frenchman had failed to notice as time whizzed by. He was lucky that their idle chatter hadn't drawn too much attention to himself. A crowd would have seriously hampered Ky's mad rush to make his flight. The Frenchman supposed it was inevitable that someone was bound to recognize him but tried not to think too much about it as he dodged in and out of the crowd, staggering towards the flight gate.
He made it just in time. Ky squeezed into the sparse plane, making his way through the small cabin. Despite the relatively confined space around him the plane itself was rather empty looking. The blond had heard that before the Holy Wars air travel had been an especially popular method of transportation. People whose work required them to cover great distances in a manner of hours had made frequent use of the lumbering steel peregrines.
Unfortunately as the Crusade's dragged on for a century there had been less need for airplanes and more need for the precious metals they contained. In addition, the fuels needed to run the small fleet of aircraft was exceedingly hard to come by during the war. As such most were grounded, decommissioned and scrapped.
With the end of the Holy Wars, however, there had been a small resurgence in air travel. Unfortunately the horrific destruction wrought upon mankind and its resources by Justice's attacks had made the world a much larger place. Though many airports were crushed under waves of Gears during the war it was the need for reconstruction, the scarcity of working craft and the unsafe condition of the skies that grounded most aircraft.
The few aero planes that had survived the Wars were ancient technology, still running on the fossil fuels of a society which had long since been swept away by the coming of the Gears.
In addition people were more worried about rebuilding what was left of their shattered lives and restoring order to the crumbling empire of humanity than flying across the globe. Why travel ten thousand miles away when your people are starving and your nations lie in ruin?
Crews like the Jellyfish Pirates only emphasized the need for normal people to stay firmly grounded. The skies were home to the cutthroats and rouges of the new world order. Many who had once been Holy Knights during the Crusades had put their blades to piracy when the Order was disbanded.
This made travel by plane an extremely dangerous and expensive affair. Only the wealthiest and most important people could rationalize the steep risks of air travel. The costs simply weren't justifiable to normal citizens.
Ky's gaze wandered as he gazed out the window into the wide expanse of blue and white before him. Things seemed to be coming together, he decided. It wouldn't be long before he landed and hopefully was able to meet with the girl he'd been tracking since he left the IPF.
He still felt like there were some loose ends left undone but, being unable to pinpoint where the discrepancies lay he shook off the feeling. Things were uncomplicated. Soon he'd be with her and the few things that were left undone would, undoubtedly, be resolved. For the first time since the end of the Holy Wars Ky felt at peace. He knew where he was going and, although there was much left to do, once he was with her Ky was sure everything would sort its self out.
Author's Note: It's been awhile since the last update but here it is, the fabled chapter seven. Hopefully I'll be able to wrap our saga up in the next couple chapters. Rest assured I've been working long and hard on this chapter, almost straight from the last time I updated, taking a little time for side projects. I recently added a single chapter fic about Chipp Zanuff called This is Absolution and I've been working hard on a Ky x Dizzy fic, Walk.
I really doing the single chapter story I've decided. Be on the look out for some more of those. They don't have the long term dedication and over arching themes that make longer fics so tough. They're a nice break from the norm. I was thinking of doing one on Sol Badguy next but being my favorite GG character I don't think I can do him justice. Feel free to send me any ideas you might have, I'd be interested in seeing where they take me. You can find me at http://guiltywriters. with several other GG specific writers.
In any event expect things to go rapidly downhill from here on out. The pieces have been set in motion and the fickle hand of fate is about to take its course.
Hopefully I'll be able to continue to update. I had a burst of creative energy today, probably the stress of finals. Its more likely that the next update will be delayed for awhile.
In any event, the title of this chapter, Watching Over Me is a song by the band Iced Earth off their album Something Wicked This Way Comes.
