Relapse Prevent Trigger Intent

For several days, Alex tried to figure out what Grey meant by 'City Beyond the Setting Sun', but he couldn't come up with a suitable answer. The Rising Sun was Tokyo, and he guessed the Setting Sun was a city on the West Coast of the United States, but there was no City Beyond. There were oil rigs out there, boats… islands. But the islands offered no protection. They were stuck out in the fury of the waves, and with X patrolling the skies…

Alex had turned the watch off after that contact with Brandon, and returned to the ship. X didn't seem at all disappointed that he failed in taking out the Resistance, but the excuse that he couldn't find them probably helped. But after Brandon clued him into what X might possibly be up to with using him, and keeping him in the dark with what the old man knew, it was hard telling what was going on anymore. There was no way of knowing what X knew and didn't know. The ice suddenly became much thinner.

Alex had to figure that X knew everything; every move his Council would make. He knew that Alex had met the Resistance, and didn't do anything about it. X knew of the watch, and its hiding spot in Blur's boot. The device may be off, but it was the fact it was there… and that X could pick up on any technology around him. How soon before the thin ice cracked?

Pacing his quarters, Alex watched the passing sky, contemplating the puzzle at hand. He needed off the ship and once again turn on the watch, to see if there was something waiting for him to read, or see, or if someone was trying to contact him. And that he still couldn't figure out City Beyond the Setting Sun. He didn't dare search for it on the ships computers, and he was certain that not only could X see what he was searching, but that it was a place that the Resistance made up, after he disappeared. But he should know it! But Brandon wouldn't have been so cryptic about it if he was supposed to know what it was and where.

Dropping to the couch, he kicked his feet onto the coffee table, thinking back to every Event he had done in the past, where Brandon had been present, where they had a similar memories of, and where they had determined that it was 'Beyond the Setting Sun.' He kept thinking about a Game in Hawaii, where he had watched the sun rise and set into the ocean every day until they left. Many of those times he had sat in silence with his team, all of them just taking time to be together.

Maybe he was thinking about it all wrong. Maybe the 'City beyond the Setting Sun' was really a place that the sun didn't reach most of the year… The Night Games in Alaska several years ago came to mind, where they were in perpetual night for the whole week they were there. Where had they been? It had been near the Canada border, very close to the north pole. A mini-report Fidget did said they stood on nearly 20 feet of ice, with water below, so they technically weren't even on land. What was the area, though? There had been a city near-by… but that could have been several miles, and they would have still called it close because they got there by way of helicopters and Big Air… thinking of the plane reminded him of everything he had been through with them, from the beginning. The first contact from Simon Grey, to now… and all the lives lost in between.

Shaking his head, Alex got to his feet, pacing back and forth around his quarters.

Would Simon hide in an abandon Games stadium? Would he burrow into the ice? Too dangerous… he would probably be at the town… City, it was the City beyond the setting sun.

A memory returned with much gusto, sending him reeling.

"Welcome to Prudhoe Bay." The sign read, as they landed just outside the small city. It wasn't large by any standards, but sizable enough to house all the athletes comfortably during their stay in the dark north. Bright lights were lit everywhere, making the streets and most buildings as bright as if sun-lit. It felt welcoming, and the people were overly friendly.

"Alex… this place gives me the creeps!" Fidget complained, sticking close to his side while Grinder and Rikki followed. "And not to mention it's freaking cold here!"

"Then you should have put on a jacket." Rikki scolded.

The short red-head looked back at him from under her hat, scarf, and Alex's spare winter jacket, which was warmer than her own and much bigger, and she also wore her own jacket underneath. "I'm wearing two, hello!"

Grinder chuckled, shaking his head.

Alex pushed open the door to the hotel where they were all staying. They kicked the snow from their boots and walked in to the warm lobby, where a huge fire was burning in the hearth. Several other athletes and their crew were milling about, talking and relaxing. The game wasn't until tomorrow, around 4pm, since there was no sun to judge day or night here. Alex had changed his watch to adjust for the time difference.

"Hey, Alex!"

He looked up to Jimmy Woo and Brandon Caine waving him over. He waved back and joined them. "What's up?"

"Plotting to kick your butt in tomorrow's race is what's up." Jimmy commented, grinning and handing him a mug. "Cider; bottomless cups on the house." He waited for Alex to take a drink before continuing. "They call this place the City Beyond the Setting Sun, since the sun hardly ever reaches here, except for a month during the summer---"

Alex blinked as the memory was cut short from the chime of the door. He grabbed the head-wrap and quickly covered his face before answering. Least now he knew where to go.

Asazi was just outside his door, and pushed him back in let the door slide closed behind them. She locked it before looking at him. "Take that ridiculous thing off, Alex, no need to hide."

He didn't move. "What's going on?"

"Dorian is going crazy. Said something about the reactors malfunctioning, and he is going crazy trying to fix them. Tried shooting at X to keep him away from helping. Tempest is in the med-bay, after being shot by the machines energy gun… something is wrong. Dorian is normally a very docile cyborg…"

"How is Colin?" Alex felt concern, but he was looking at the opportunity to get off the ship more than anything.

"all right, he was doing turbine maintenance at the time." Asazi replied, crossing her arms nervously.

Alex grabbed his helmet from the coffee table, and pulled the head-wrap off and put the helmet on it its place. The visor lit up with a status screen on the suit once all the connectors were hooked up, and it showed a waiting message from X. It simply stated that he needed to get to the reactors, now. He pushed past Asazi, leaving his tool belt behind and racing down the hall for the lift. It carried him to the next level, where the hall was smoking. Something was clearly going wrong. Dashing through the smoke, he heard X yelling, and the door to Engineering was open for the emergency. He rushed in, seeing X.

"What the—X!"

The black-clad leader looked to the athlete. "Stop him, I don't care how!"

Blur looked to the reactors, seeing Dorian in what must be his real form: arms and legs were split in half, moving independently, while crawling spider-like over the whole thing. There was an energy cannon forming from his back, holding a charge. He raced forward, using some of the supports for the reactors to boost himself up. The canon followed him, letting loose a few blasts that he barely avoided.

Moving in close, he easily got the cyborgs attention, and leapt away just as the being fired again. He jumped in close again, hoping to pull Dorian away from the reactor and to where they couldn't do any damage. The robot pushed off just as he grabbed on, moving with such speed that Blur had hardly any time to react to miss being pounded into the metal wall above the door. He landed on the ground as Dorian hit the wall on all eight limps. The serene face turned, and then jumped at him again. Blur jumped back, ducking and rolling across the floor to once more avoid the limbs. He remained crouched, watching the machine as it pulled spikes from the floor; spikes that would have gutted him open.

With ungodly speed, Dorian charged, catching and pressing Blur to the side of the reactor, the spikes dangerously close to his face. He was lifted off the ground several inches, which let him get his legs up and wedge them between the cyborg and himself. With one strong push, he shoved the mech back, landing on the ground and once more dodging to the side. The energy cannon followed him and fired.

"Now Blur!" X shouted, priming his own energy weapon.

Blur changed direction, and dashed at Dorian, grabbing one of his arms and flipping over. The arm effectively came off, which he shoved into the back-mounted cannon. That slowed the machine down, but it also returned its attention to Blur, and charged once more.

Without a chance to touch the ground to get away, Dorian's arm slammed into him, throwing him hard against the wall, the helmet snapping off as the athlete slid to the ground, unmoving.

Green light, followed by a high-pitched whine came from X, his own weapon firing and ripping a hole straight through Dorian's power core. The husk of machine went limp, falling to the ground. That was the last thing Alex heard.

A/N: After this chapter goes up, there might be a long delay before the next one appears, as my muse is playing tricks with this one and my ability to write it all at once... But it will get up, because I want to know what happens at the end just as much as the rest of you.