Disclaimer: I do not own Guilty Gear or its characters.
A/N: Character thoughts will be in italics
Needing to Live
Chapter 10
Losing Ground
Quiet mornings are something that most take for granted. Most people with the exception of anyone who had seen battle. To them any quiet time at all was something to be cherished. A slight breeze rustled the spring leaves in a rhythmic pattern as birds merrily sang their morning song. The sun had barely broken the silver horizon and begun to shine its golden brilliance on the still quiet world.
One house in particular or one room perhaps, was beginning to stir. The sun shone through the half open blinds leaving gashes of light throughout the room, and in this room the occupant of the bed was finally waking.
Argh, where am I and how did I get here. The last thing I remember is…Justice! That thought made Ky jerk to a sitting position, or at least he would have if not for the sharp pain he felt at attempting such a move. Letting a shallow groan escape, he gave up on the idea. By this time Ky had surmised that he was in a bed but what he didn't know was who was lying beside him. Turning his head slowly as to avoid any unnecessary pain, he tried to see who it was.
Not much light in here and my eyes aren't completely focused yet. They're sitting in a chair leaning over on the bed, and it looks like they have brown hair and a lot of it…damn. How did I end up here? I probably made her worry. I'll have a lot to explain when she wakes up.
As if on cue, Jam began to stir. Slowly she pushed herself up from the bed and rubbed her eyes. Then she turned her gaze to the "sleeping" Ky only to be met with his crystal blue eyes looking back at her.
"Good morning." Ky said managing the best smile he could.
Tears coming to her eyes were Jam's first response followed by her crying his name as she threw her arms around his neck. "Ky," she cried "I was so worried about you. When I found you, you were beat up so bad and I-I didn't know if you would live. I brought you back here b-but you wouldn't wake up and I was just so worried."
Ky could feel her warm tears on his neck and it hurt him to know that he made her cry. But that was not the only thing hurting him at the moment. "Umm Jam, I'm still hurt and you do squeeze pretty hard."
At the realization, Jam instantly jumped and pulled back away from him. "Oh," she gasped "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
"It's okay." Ky said smiling. "So exactly how long have I been out?"
"Three days." Jam said sniffing as she wiped away tears.
"I must have been hit a lot harder than I realized." Ky ran a few thoughts through his mind before speaking again. "How did I end up here?"
"I brought you here."
"You took me from the police infirmary?" Ky asked looking at her curiously.
"No, I'm not crazy. I found you and that's when I brought you here." Jam said slightly nervous because she already knew what his next question was going to be.
"You found me?" Ky said with a mix of curiosity and confusion. "How did you manage that?"
"Well, you see it's like this," Jam began "When you didn't come back here I kind of thought that you might be leaving without saying bye so I sort of went up to your office to look for you."
"Okay, and what did you do once you got there?"
"I was a little angry when I got there and without thinking I kicked the door down and demanded to know where you were at." Jam said hurriedly hoping that he might miss some part of what she said.
"…"
"But please don't be mad cause if I hadn't done that I would never have gone into your office and read the message that let me know where to find you."
Ky laughed slightly before speaking. "How can I be mad? There are not many people I know that would force their way into a police station just to find me."
"But after everything that's happened I feel like it's my fault that you got hurt. You only went there because you thought I was in trouble." Jam said sadly
"Don't worry about it. I was just doing my job." Ky regretted those words as soon as he said them. Ky saw the hurt flash in Jam's eyes after he finished talking.
"Just your job…" Jam said even more dejected than before.
"No, that's not what I meant. What I meant to say was that if it was to insure your safety, I would face criminals, demons, vampires, or even climb a wall of flames without a second thought. You're too important to me to let something bad like that happen to you."
"Ky…" Jam said affectionately. She wanted to throw her arms around him again but she remembered what happened last time so she had to restrain herself. "So you must be hungry after sleeping all that time?"
Ky's stomach growled before he could verbally respond to her question making Jam smile at the embarrassed warrior. "I guess I am a little hungry now that you mention it."
"You just stay right there and I'll be back with something in a second." Jam said as she made her way to the door. Right before she closed the door she turned back to Ky with a smile already playing at the corners of her lips. "It's not like you could go anywhere on your own right now so I don't even know why I made that last comment." With that she closed the door before Ky could respond.
Looks like she's feeling better. She's already making fun of an injured man. I'm just glad she's smiling.
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"Father is such a fool. Is it fear that drives him to seek seclusion or just lack of faith in me?" Justice said aloud. The gear leader was alone in a secluded forest plotting out what her next move would be.
Since I will receive no help from father I must build so I build my army again. When I was first released from the dimensional prison I remember Testament telling me that the humans had not destroyed the gears when they deactivated so that must mean that they locked them up somewhere. The only question now is where? If I can discover its location I can use them to construct another factory to produce my brethren, and this time we will not lose in to the humans or the Guilty Gear.
Justice had come to the edge of the forest by this time and was on the outskirts of a rather large town. But the size of the town was not what Justice took notice of; it was the size of the IPF office that Justice instantly locked on. They're bound to have some valuable information in there. I guess I should go say hello.
Justice extended her claws as she made her way towards the town. She sighed slightly as she prepared for the symphony of cries that she had come to enjoy so much. Just as Justice entered the town a young child came out of a house and stopped when he saw Justice. Suddenly a huge smile spread over his face as he stared at the gear.
"Wow, it's a real robot!" the child exclaimed.
Justice looked uncaringly at the boy. She really didn't care much for killing when they were not afraid or at least fighting back. Something about seeing the look of horror on people's faces brought her a twisted sense of pleasure. Just then an older man came out of the same house the child had come out of.
"What are you so excited about?" The old man questioned. The young boy looked back at his old man and pointed. The old man's gaze followed the child's finger and Justice got what she had been waiting for. A look of terror spread across the man's face as he realized what he was looking at. "T-T-That's a gear! The worst one!" Without another word the man grabbed the child and ran back inside the house.
If not for the armor she wore, the sinister smile on Justice's face would have been clear to see. Now that is what I like to see. Utter terror and maddening fear! What good will hiding in their homes do?
Justice shot two explosives up into the sir and watched as they slowly came down upon the house. On impact the house erupted into a ball of flames. Ecstasy! It's good to be back.
At the IPF office people had already began coming in hysterically begging for help. All talked of a monster that was rampaging through the town. "Have squads three and six begin evacuating the civilians. Squads two and four come with me and squad one to investigate what's out there." Said the commanding officer.
Before he could issue another command an explosion rocked the office. "Whatever is out there is headed this way." The commander said. He quickly glanced over his shoulder and saw that his three squads had fallen in line behind him. "Prepare yourself men. This lobby could very be our battle ground."
Every man steeled himself for the coming battle. Everyone of them unsure as to what or who they were facing. Seconds passed like hours as they waited for their enemy or commander's orders. The tension in the air was almost suffocating. Suddenly an explosion sent the double doors of the office flying through their ranks causing men to dodge to either side.
When the smoke cleared, silhouetted against the light of the setting sun and raging fires was Justice. "Knock…knock." She said mockingly. As the commanding officer looked wide eyed at the sight he didn't know what shocked him more: the sight of Justice alive or the amount of destruction he could see behind Justice.
One gear is capable of all this? He had heard the reports that Justice was back but to actually see it with his own eyes….The last report had put Justice at being almost two hundred miles away and that had only been a few days ago, but here stood the monster that should have only existed in nightmares.
The commander steeled his nerves and faced Justice. He was the leader of these men and he could not falter in front of them. "Men," he began, "I want all proficient in magic to the front. Everyone else fall back. Our best chance to win is with magic. Any not adept…have just been relieved of duty. You are not obligated to stay. It would be best if you tried to save yourselves."
"But sir…"
"There's nothing you can do to help! The best thing you can do for us is to remember what we stood for." The commander never looked back as the shuffle of feet started. Soldiers moving to the front line and others were retreating from what some believed to be a winless battle.
When all the movement had stopped the commander looked at the few men that remained with him. "It has been an honor to serve with you men." He said as he readied his blade.
"Humans with your sentimentality and heroics." Justice laughed. "What makes you think that I won't just go kill them once I'm finished with you?"
"Because we won't let you!"
Justice laughed at their response. "You know, I might not kill you all. I might some of you around for entertain." Justice began extending her claws as she finished. "So…shall we begin?"
Every officer let loose with their spells at once sending them flying towards Justice. The magic collided with an explosion and smoke filled the area. "Did we kill it?" One soldier asked. He got his answer when a red beam of energy pierced his chest. The remaining police looked up from where the beam came as his body dropped to the ground.
Justice was hovering in the air imitating a yawn. "You will have to do better than that if you want to survive longer than a few seconds." Justice dashed straight into the midst of them with claws at the ready. The sudden movement caught the men off guard which Justice took full advantage of. Justice stabbed her claws into the chest of the officer on her right killing him instantly.
Another officer came bearing down with an overhead slash but before he could finish his attack, Justice drew her claws from the dead officer and threw his blood in the eyes of her attacker. The man barely had time to try and clear his vision before the same claws pierce his throat and came out the back of his neck. Justice looked over her shoulder just in time to see an officer release a fire spell towards her. Justice spun and used the body on her claws as a shield while throwing a blade of pure energy from her hand in the opposite direction splitting two more in half.
Seeing that the body on her claws was on fire Justice tossed it towards a group of three charging officers. Two of the officers stopped while one jumped the body of his comrade and used an earth spell in midair. The ground around Justice rose up in jagged spikes meant to impale her but she was too fast. In an instant Justice had launched herself into the air and grabbed the soldier who had just attacked her. In one quick motion she had threw him into the same jagged spikes that had been meant for her.
Justice laughed evilly as the man live slowly faded away. Two officers launched water spells at Justice only to have them swatted away as f they were nothing. "We have to combine our efforts!" One of the men shouted. "Surround it!"
Justice slowly descended to the floor as the remaining men formed a circle around her. Justice could see all the men gathering their magic for one final attack. "So there are ten of you left." Justice said as she scanned the room. "Die!" Was the last thing most of them heard as Justice spun in a circle blasting them with the beam of red energy. The blast tore through their bodies as if they were made of paper stealing away any hopes and dreams they may have had.
"That wasn't much fun but what can I expect from humans?" Justice said aloud. Justice was about to leave when a blast of lightning hit her in the back. Justice's anger went from nonexistent to boiling in a matter of seconds. "I thought I killed you already?!" Justice said turning around. Justice was not met with the imagine she expected to see. The commanding officer of the outpost had been the one to blast her and not officer she had already faced.
Upon seeing this, Justice anger faded away. "A lightning user are you?" Justice said moving towards him. "And here I was thinking there was only one."
"I trained with Captain Kiske and he helped me develop my magic. You may have defeated us Justice but you will not win!"
"Why, because your precious captain and the rest of the pitiful police will defeat me? Well here's a little secret you probably don't know yet. I've already killed Ky Kiske!"
The officer could not hide the shock on his face. The captain is dead? It can't be! "Stop lying to
me you monster!" The officer tried to swing his blade down on Justice but before he was even halfway through the motion, Justice had cut his hand off. The man screamed in pain as he sank to his knees clutching his wrist as his blood spilled to the floor.
"Why would I do something as useless as lying?" Justice said while scanning the room. "Things of that nature are a human trait that gears have no use for. Now it seems that you are the last one left so you can't die on me…yet. I need you to tell me where the deactivated gears are being held." Justice leaned down close to hear the man answer.
The man looked up at Justice and the look on his face changed from shock to contempt. Without warning he spit in Justice's face. "I'd rather die than help you with anything." Justice slowly wiped the saliva from her face as she stood back up to her full height.
"How human of you." Justice said coldly. "But I know how to change your mind." Without another word Justice exited the building leaving him alone in pain. Moments later Justice returned carrying a baby in her arms. The officer heard the child's cries even before Justice returned, but he couldn't believe that even Justice would go this far.
Justice crouched down right in front of him with the child in her arms. "Beautiful child isn't she? I came across her in one of the early houses I destroyed. She would have died along with her family but I realized it would be beneficial to keep her alive in case something like this happened." Justice began cradling the baby in one arm as she used her other to extend her claws towards the child's chest. "Now where did you say those gears were?"
The officer looked from Justice to the child in her arms. Justice should tell he was struggling with what to do so she decided to encourage him some. "Did I tell you that I am very impatient?" Justice said as her claws moved closer to the child's chest.
"Wait! Please don't kill her! She's an innocent child!"
"Then you had better tell me where the gears are."
"I'll tell…but you have to swear not to hurt the child."
"You have my word."
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He saw the smoke long before he saw the fire. He just didn't know what was burning or had been burning. The crimson bounty hunter had not been going this direction until he had saw a bunch of police cruisers passing over head. It had sparked his curiosity mainly because one of the ships had passed close enough for him to see inside and he had seen civilians being transported. Now he had found where they had to be coming from.
What the hell happened here? It's a fucking massacre. Sol walked slowly through the town surveying the damage and destruction. He stopped when he came to what was left of the IPF office. Stepping over the rubble he made his way through the entrance to see if there was anyone still alive. Once inside he saw all the officers who had lost their lives that day.
There's no chance of anyone being left alive after something like this. Sol was turning to leave when he heard the cries of a baby. "What the hell?" Sol said as he turned around. Sol approached one of the lifeless officers as the cries became louder. The man had his hand cut off as well as being stabbed through the chest but lying next to him was a baby wrapped in a blanket.
Sol stared in shock at first trying to make sure what he was seeing was real. When he finally decided he wasn't hallucinating, he picked the baby up in his arms. He closed his eyes a second trying to remember where the closest town was he could take the child to.
I really have to find the kid now. He probably has info on what's going on. I don't like the looks of this one bit. Reminds me of something from the war. Got to keep my ears open now cause whatever did this...wasn't human.
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A/N: Well here you guys go. I really liked this chapter. I've had a lot of writing inspiration lately so maybe I'll update faster this time around. R&R.
