I used to believe that we'd die together. Now I know that is a delusion.
...Because this time, I was too late to be there for you, my sweet. And I'll be damned if I rest before I find the bastard that did this! They better start praying, for only a deity can save them from my wrath now. Pray they can run faster than the Raven can catch them...It's time to play Hide and Hunt!
-H
I look down at the dead body before me. I don't say anything; neither does Rho. I just stand in stoic silence.
It's her.
My mind knows it's her. My soul, too. Every fibre of my body knows. My whole being acknowledges it is definitely her lying before me and not someone else. I just don't believe it. Not the whole her being dead thing; I mean, I thought I'd be angry. I'm not. I just feel...empty. Then the cruel irony hits me, and that's when I finally feel. The emotions roll over me like a torrent of water; like a tsunami crashing on the shore, and I'm at its mercy. I'm powerless to stop it. That's when I truly get angry. I hate being rendered helpless and weak like this. I crouch down; touch her breastplate reverently with a single hand. I bow my head low.
"I'm sorry, Tex." I whisper quietly to her dead form. The irony of her dying in the very place I last saw her...where it started all those years ago... "Every time I needed you, you were there for me. And the one time you needed me...I was too late to save you. But I promise, I will avenge you."
I let my hand trace shapes over Tex's armoured corpse as I remembered how I came to be back at Avalanche myself. It had all started with the computer coming back to life at the old base I had made my home the past few years. Some alert about a Recovery Beacon or something. Usually, I didn't give a damn about such things. But I figured that surely many beacons must have gone off during my time at the base, so why was the computer only working now? That's when I thought that this was important, and I guess I was right, wasn't I?
A sharp pain in my fingers jolted me from my reverie and I looked down at that hand that was on Tex's armour. I had reached the smashed visor of the helmet, and almost sliced my fingers open when touching a part of the broken edge. Such a sorry sight...I curled my fingers, carefully gripping the cracked part of the helmet and I removed it. In the corner of my eye, I saw the mass of red hair tumble out but I didn't look at her face. I couldn't bring myself to. I held Tex's helmet in two hands, idly twisting and turning it. That's when I heard it. An inhuman growl off the side of the cliff dead ahead of me.
I rose quickly, Tex's helmet still in my hand, and I looked around for the source of the sound. I wandered over to the cliffside, just the growl sounded again. It sounded like it was coming from the bottom of the cliff. Spotting a way down, I carefully took it. I didn't bother drawing my shotgun. Whatever it was, it sounded wounded.
Soon enough, I made it down to the bottom of the cliff, which basically turned out to be a glacier. There were a few static ice floes and I hopped from one to another. That was when I spotted a soldier clad in white armour laying on an ice floe, not moving. As I got closer, however, I could see the brown shoulder pads of his armour, and I recognised who he was.
Agent Maine. Or rather, The Meta.
I padded up silently towards him, like a lion stalking his prey. He was pinned in place by an icicle that had speared through his arm. Judging by the amount of blood congealed at the base of it where the wound was, I guessed he had been there a few hours. He wasn't going anywhere.
"Well, well. Been a long time, hasn't it?" I jeered. "Meta. Or should I call you Maine? After all, Meta means to change, does it not? A turning point. Personally, I don't think that suits you. You haven't changed at all, Meta. You're still Maine to me."
Maine tried to raise his head to look at me. He struggled for a bit, but soon got there. When he did, he let out what sounded like a choked gasp of surprise.
"Oh, I'm glad to see you recognise me after all this time. Even with my different helmet and whatnot." I continued in the same tone. "I suspect you know why I'm here."
I saw him shake his head slightly. Underneath my helmet, I frowned.
"You don't? Well, let me clue you in!" Angrily, I chucked Tex's old helmet by his side where he could see it.
Maine turned his head sideways to stare at the fallen object. He seemed fixated on it for a while, before he turned back to stare at me. I heard him make a series of choked growls.
"Grrrral...grrrrckssss..." He was struggling. He tried in vain to shift, but I planted a foot on his chest and pointed a now drawn arm blade at his visor.
"Oh yes, you bastard. You thought you'd get away with killing my best friend?" I roared at him. "By destroying everything I know? Because of you, I have practically nothing, Maine! Nothing! I should just torture you by letting you die slowly into oblivion. But you know what? That's no fun at all!"
"Grrrrrlse..." Maine let out a grunt. It was hard to tell, but he seemed to be begging me for mercy. For me to help him. I nearly laughed.
"Any last words before I complete my revenge?" I joked cruelly, before bringing my blade to bear on him. I saw him cringe below me.
But I stopped just short, retracting the blade back into my armour. Maine turned his head to face me in clear confusion. Under my helmet, I was smiling.
"Hmph. Speaking of revenge..." I pulled my helmet off and dropped it on the ground. I pointed to my eye patch. "You remember this? That was you, that was." I spotted his Brute Shot nearby, and gleefully went to go retrieve it before resuming my previous position. "You remember what I believe in, Maine?"
Again, I saw him shake his head.
"Well then, allow me to demonstrate. My belief goes thus: A tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye...!"
I plunged the blade of the brute shot through his visor, right where his left eye should have been. Maine responded by letting out a tortured howl of pain. I pulled it back out quickly, and he clutched at his injury with his left hand. Blood oozed between his fingers.
"...A soul for a soul, a friend for a friend, and a life for aLIFE!" I drove the blade straight through Maine's armour and into his heart. He choked once, let out a final breath, and then he was no more.
It was over. Everything was over. My revenge was complete.
I pulled the blade of the Brute Shot from Maine's lifeless husk, embedding it into the ice next to me. I then proceeded to roll his heavy body into water, doing so with relative ease. I watched him sink before I put my own helmet back on, re-holstered my shotgun on my left thigh, and swung Maine's Brute Shot on my back to keep as a trophy, a memento of this day. As I made to leave, I picked up Tex's helmet. There was something I needed to do before leaving.
I needed to bury Tex's body.
My first job was to carry Tex's body inside the abandoned base. That part was easy enough thanks to my strength and my knowledge of the base layout. This place really hadn't changed much since I...we were last here. I found a largish room, what I presumed to be a medical area or an operating room and I set Tex's body on the human sized table at its centre, along with her helmet. I then began a long search for any container that could act as a coffin, and a shovel. This, I decided, was going to be done properly.
I soon found exactly what I was looking for: an ice shovel and decommissioned cryogenics container. The latter of the two I dragged and hauled up onto a nearby table, while I rested the shovel on a wall near the exit of the room. I then proceeded to lay Tex's body in the container before standing motionless, staring at her for a long time. In my peripheral vision, my old comrade's helmet lay where I had left it, and a ray of inspiration struck through my darkened mind.
The chilly, snow ridden wind lashed at my face as I stood practically to attention over the grave I had just laid Tex's body to rest in. My helmet was held low in my hands, mirroring the way military men of the past would remove their hats and hold them low to show respect for a fallen soldier. After a few moments, I bent over the shallow ice grave, placed my helmet and shotgun on Tex's breastplate and sealed the coffin from the world forever. After I finished covering the hole with snow, I hurled the ice shovel off the glacial cliff into the frigid waters below and my single emerald eye examined my work.
"I'm sorry for being late, Tex. But I'm here now, and nothing will ever see us apart again."
I gently picked up a new, black coloured Scout helmet that lay by my feet. To an outsider, it would just look like any ordinary helmet. But that was far from the truth; in reality, the helmet was once the one Tex herself wore, fixed up and remodelled by my own hand. I slipped the helmet on. Henceforth, I was a new person. I was Huntingdon no longer. From this day forth, those who wished to stand in my way would now know me as The Lone Raven...
"Rho, set a course on my map's helmet for Valhalla." My new filtered, masculine voice emerged from my helmet. I began to walk away from Avalanche back to where I had left my Ghost on the Outskirts.
"As you wish." My A.I. unit replied, and I saw the map and a route coming up on my display.
No. Not just me. Tex as well. Everyone would knowusas The Lone Raven. Through me, her legacy would continue on. Tex and Hunt. Together unstoppable. Together immortal. Together The Lone Raven.
The best comrade and friend I could ever ask for.