Chapter Ten: Orihalcon and the Bio-Mech

…

Sephira could feel the warmth seeping through the thick tightly applied bandaged around her waist, and with another grunt of pain she pressed her palm against it, glaring at the damp crimson that tainted her recently washed skin.

"You shouldn't move, Miss Sephira," the nurse in the room pressed gently and somewhat fearfully. "That might make the condition…"

"Worse, I know," she snapped in a numb voice. She was well aware of her condition—more so than that insane clone of a demon had assumed—yet she was unnerved at the sensation of frenzy of floors beneath her feet, and her tired muscles ached to swing her sword in well practiced strides and postures.

"How much time before the space trade begins?" she asked as she shifted on her seat on the bed.

"Ten tomorrow morning," was the response, "that is about sixteen hours from now."

"That's enough time…" she trailed off, leaning forward slightly, shifting her weight to her feet as she steadied herself to stand. Her appointed nurse caught the action and she crossed the room to press down on Sephira's shoulder while coaxing her to rest.

"Enough," her sharp voice cut through the room that became laden with silence. "You and I know only too well that my wound will not heal. What is the point of this treatment from that aspect?"

She stood and sauntered over to her closet, swinging it open and laying affectionate eyes on the stationary sheathed sword. She held it, embracing its weight.

"I fear that this is our last battle together," she whispered, "before you are given to another Arks to fight alongside."

Her black coat slipped onto her frail form easily, and as her eyes were laden with new emotion, she walked to the door. "Prepare yourself, Heartnet."

…

You can look at this like a break in and break out, Sven had told them, we aren't looking for a fight, but if it's inevitable, make it a short one.

Trevaunne didn't have to be told thrice, since his father had already implied that with shorter flashier phrases and he already had the dull concept in his mind. Nonetheless, the words pushed him more than his intuition could.

We can start to find Eve by the number of lackeys, though that in itself might lead us astray, therefore normal searching will have to do until one of us find her.

The young Heartnet kicked open another door into a dead end room and dashed down the continuation of the hallway once he heard footsteps storming in close behind him.

Naturally she's bound to be heavily guarded, or possibly she'll be our opponent. We have to try to knock her unconscious before making off with her.

"And if that doesn't work?" Train had asked carefully, and Sven almost glared at him, but sighed understandingly.

"Then we'll have to improvise when we get to our situation," he'd answered.

Trev-chan didn't like the deflated tone that Volfeid had used in the latter statement, and from Train's expression he could tell that his father felt the same way. Yet there was also a flash of trust, and Trevaunne had to depend on that.

He cursed and slammed himself against a wall when he saw a group of men at the end of a perpendicular hall to the route he was taking, and he assumed that they were there to prevent traffic. Regardless of that, did they really have to bring that type of weapon here?

It's a whole tank, damn it! Trevaunne thought frantically, this isn't a bloody war!

An obvious exaggeration, it was only three bazookas, a crate of bombs and several machine guns strapped onto a vehicle that was slim enough to race through the hallways with ease; an equivalent to a tank.

Trevaunne hissed out another curse as he peeped around the corner.

"Holy—!"

He winced when Sven's exclamation rang through this earphone. "They've got equipment to start a war out there!"

"I take it that you've seen their preparation to go to Iraq," Trevaunne remarked as he scanned the sidelines for Sven. He found him at a glimpse, pressed against a wall out of view from the alert group of armored men his hat was a sharp white beside the creamy subtly of the walls.

"How are we going to get past them without blowing us up into oblivion?" Sven thought to himself.

"Run before you get blown into oblivion," Train's voice retorted.

"What?"

"At the end of the hall from the perspective I'm looking at, there's a staircase. If we get up there before the ammunition blows…"

Sven cursed and Trevaunne stifled laughter.

"I'm going to take out the bazookas first," Train said, and they heard Hades click. "After that, Trev-chan knock those guns out of their hands, Sven catch them into a net to buy us some time. Ready?"

"Yeah."

"Yes."

Bang!

Of course, it only sounded like one shot, but the armored men were all surprised when their most intimidating weapon became rendered useless.

A series of shots afterward sent the men ready for action into a panic once their firearms escaped from their grip in a flash, and out of the nowhere the majority of them were balled up into a thin mesh net. A blur of white passed; Sven, Trevaunne dashed afterwards, and Train leaped over the Jeep parked in the middle of the way, shot once and the vehicle went up in a burst of flames.

Sven jumped out of his skin when he heard the explosion. Halfway up the steps, he glared down at Train, "You never mentioned that you'd do that!"

Train grinned. "I improvised. Let's go!"

The second level was beginning to get lousy with armored men, most likely shocked from the loudest explosion thus far, and the trio was delayed by persistent fighters. Trevaunne kicked in another room while reloading his revolver, and he deflected a bullet once his father and his partner dashed past.

"This floor is more annoying than the first," Train muttered. He slammed the double doors at the end of the hall wide open and found himself in a large room; more like a dancer's hall for grand balls suit—polished black floors matching the pillars that went up fifty to sixty feet above, and somewhere around that height, they saw ways for the third floor.

Staring upwards, Sven was about to speak but was shocked to silence once Train and his son shot simultaneously, once again making it sound like one bullets, but two clangs in their near distance told him otherwise, and that there was fourth person in the room.

Sephira stood with her sword held close and her eyes closed, the edge of her blade smoking slightly from the momentum of kinetic hitting potential. Her eyes opened and Train flinched; there was something different about I this time, a hostility more intricate and level that he was sure he could rival, yet at the same time not so sure…

Trevaunne intercepted the thrust attack headed his way and gritted against the woman's strength. "I'll be her opponent," he said to the watching Train and Sven. His eyes flickered to them momentarily: "Go!"

They sprinted off and disappeared behind the opposing double doors.

"That was quite noble of you," Sephira said lowly to the slightly struggling Trevaunne. "But they won't find Eve by simply searching blindly."

Trevaunne scoffed. "Well it's not like you actually gave us a map," he retorted.

Sephira leaped back, flashing the blade of her sword down, "Eve is on the fourth level at the end of the hall, within the Operating Room."

Trevaunne frowned with half horror. He'd heard of an adventure Train had experienced in a setting by that name, a weird imaginary environment set up by a person named Doctor.

"W-why are you telling me this?" He said almost breathlessly; an unfamiliar fear had knocked the air out of him.

She took a fencing position. "When and if you defeat me, you're free to take your comrades to rescue the Little Princess."

Trevaunne braced himself. "And supposing—just hypothetically—that I lose?" he asked experimentally.

Her sword flashed again. "Then you won't live to utter a word."

Hades twirled in his left hand. To the death, eh? He thought grimly, Damn.

He decided to fire first, and was not surprised when she danced her way out of danger and towards him. Orihalcon hit pure alloy and the sounds echoed through the hollow insides of the chamber. Trevaunne threw her attack off and crouched beneath a smooth arc of an attack, swinging his leg around while at his low position.

She stepped back and her blade came down… he caught it above his head, the golden barrel rivaling her force.

"You've been practicing," she commented.

"I don't intend to lose to you again," he responded and threw off her attack, shooting the blade to give him space and time to jump back before the cutlass swung forward again. He spun his revolver in his left hand but suddenly switched to his right, cattish amber eyes remaining on Sephira.

She frowned slightly. "I noticed that you always use railgun with your right hand," she said.

He shook his head. "Not this time."

She inclined her head in thought, Even without his railgun I can still get damage from a single hit. Since my body won't heal anymore, I cannot take that risk. Yet at the same time, I do not know what surprises he may have for me.

After the brief pause they both dashed forward. Arcs filled with power and lit with sparks of rubbing metal, and the silence of the hall was constantly shattered. A black blade struck the ground once Trevaunne had swung his way around its course, and placed a shoe on the blade as he pointed Hades to her head.

Reflex made her duck forward, and few blonde strands were sacrificed in the process. Her beloved cutlass swung from beneath his temporary hold and he blocked a lethal blow to his side with the revolver, losing his footing and the momentum sent him skidding across the hall's floor.

Still grounded, he deflected a piercing attack aimed for his throat, and the floor cracked and splintered where the attack had curved off course.

"Sephira, aren't you a Bio-mech?" he asked quietly, "Couldn't you have simply morphed your skin to steel to defend against my bullet?"

"I am not so weak as to depend on those abilities alone!" she drew her sword and tried the kill again. This time she drew blood, but from his shoulder as he moved last minute, the barrel of Hades pointed at her hands gripping the hilt of her cutlass. He didn't hesitate as he fired.

She screamed out and fell back, staring at her sword swinging away from her. She paused, a cold gun pointed against her forehead.

Trevaunne blew out a sigh of half relief, those his eyes were disbelieving. "You didn't fight to your full potential."

"Not as much as I could have, I must admit, no," she responded with a grim chuckle, closing her eyes as she accepted her defeat. Her hand gripped her wounded palm. "That railgun of yours took a heavier toll than many imagined."

His eyebrow rose. "Meaning?"

She looked up at him, "When I was shot by your railgun in our first battle, my wounds never healed; my nano-machines were rendered useless. After a while, they regained energy but began working against me. Now it's eating me alive, and that perverted doctor is enjoying my demise."

"Doctor? A literal doctor or…the man from the Apostles of the Stars?"

She smirked at him, "You know your history."

"Or rather my bedtime stories," he corrected, "but… explain. What is Doctor doing here?" he paused, "Does he have Eve?"

Sephira sighed. "Doctor designed me using his reformatting of the N.S. serum. I was to be the ultimate Bio-Mech, a being that could even withstand railgun." She gritted her teeth and hissed, "I turned out to be the opposite."

"But what about Eve?" Trevaunne asked, his hand trembling with frustration, "what's going to happen to her?"

She almost glared as she growled: "Dissect her."

Trevaunne froze and pressed Hades further into her bangs. Anger glazed his eyes, "And you…"

"It has nothing to do with me," she corrected him. "My orders were to kill her. Whether she's dissected before or after doesn't matter, she's to be killed in the end." She watched the gun waver. "And shoot if you wish. My life's limited anyway."

She blinked in surprised when the gun dropped and was sheathed. Trevaunne walked away, steeling himself to remain still. "I've never killed before. I'm a sweeper, after all."

She stared after him, then smiled to herself. "Of course; I had forgotten that they exist in this time…"

…

Author's Note: A world without sweepers. Train's world anyway; can you imagine that?

I apologize that this chapter took so long. I began it four times but each time it didn't feel right, and when it did, the electricity went out for the whole day due to these frequent thunderstorms that we're having, so I apologize!

And I'm not sure if Iraq exists in their world: Japan and the Grand Canyon do, so what's one place more or less? Actually, in the later chapters of Black Cat there was a map showing the "Other Continent" and the places where all the action happens… it didn't look like the world we know and love.

Where's Japan in that?