Chapter 29

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE GOD EATER FRANCHISE HOWEVER I DO OWN MY OC.

Name: Cedrick Esparza

Gender: Male

Hairstyle: Style 7 (Dark Brown)

God Arc: Burning Maiden (Short Blade), Apega Blaze (Sniper Rifle), Kurogane Tower (Shield)

Blood Art: Blood Cascade II

The next day, I had been called into the Branch Director's office. Hibari had informed me that Dr. Rachel was waiting to speak with me and had been for a while. I decided to make it my first priority to see her first. I fully intended to see her anyway just so I could hear her soothing, angelic voice again as I haven't heard it in a long time.

"It's been a while, Cedrick. But to get right to business..." I was sad that Dr. Rachel decided to get straight to business. I wouldn't have minded hearing her beautiful voice ask me directly how the missions went or even made small talk. Still, the only reason she came over to the Far East Branch was to check up on Nana's condition. I can only imagine that whatever she wanted to talk to me about regarded her.

"Have you ever heard of 'God Eater Children?'" I'm afraid I am not accustom to the term but why talk about this if she wanted to talk about Nana? I shake my head from side to side. I would hate to ruin her angelic speech by speaking up to answer her, especially if it can be avoided through yes or no questions.

"God Eater Children are..." She thinks about how to explain this to me. "They're the children of God Eater parents, born with a Bias factor inside them." She informs me and I come to the realisation that I am a God Eater Child. My mother and father were God Eaters therefore it is only logical to assume that I was born with a Bias Factor inside of me as well. This makes me wonder though, if I already had a Bias Factor, why did I need to be injected with another Bias Factor when I first became a God Eater? I might have to look that up in the future. So, did Dr. Rachel only want to talk about me? Did she know that I am a God Eater Child? No, that can't be the only reason. Nana told me about how Dr. Rachel took her in after her mother died. She also said that her mother was a God Eater. Does this mean-

"Nana is a God Eater Child?" I voice my thoughts to Dr. Rachel. The sudden talking about God Eater Children was beginning to make sense now.

"Exactly. She is a God Eater Child. Her mother was a God Eater, but she was orphaned as early as she can remember. Then I took her in." She relays the same information that Nana told me, albeit, Dr. Rachel may not realise that Nana has already told me abot her mother. "She was a girl with an incredible inner strength, and stabilising her Bias Factor took many years." Wait, Nana's Bias Factor had to be stabilised? Do God Eater Children need their Bias Factor to be stabilised before becoming God Eaters? Was my Bias Factor stabilised?

"But now, I think she may have fainted because her Blood Power is beginning to awaken. I want you to support her." Here comes the reason why she wanted to speak with me. "With your power to Evoke, you can see her safely through this ordeal. Your team is as much a family as one bound by blood. Please guide her with your shared strength." With her final words, Dr. Rachel dismissed me and I set about doing today's activities. This included checking the mission schedule.

To what certainly wasn't a pleasant surprise, I found that I had a mission today with all of my Blood Unit, including Nana. Just one day after having fainted, Nana has been scheduled on a mission with us. It isn't exactly an easy mission either. The mission called "Chain Reaction" tells us of numerous smaller Aragami being led by a Chi-You. By killing the Chi-You, it should be easy to kill the smaller Aragami as their leader will have been defeated. Will Nana be able to manage?

Nana's POV

"I'm sorry to call you in just before a mission, Nana." Dr. Rachel spoke to me and sounded genuinely apologetic. Just before me and my team were about to head off for our mission, Dr. Rachel insisted we had a talk. We ended up travelling all the way back to her Laboratory on Friar with the promise that I would later be dropped off at the mission destination, the Tranquil Temple. I fidget slightly on the couch as Dr. Rachel speaks to me.

"How are you feeling?" If I was to answer honestly, it would be that I was nervous for having this talk.

"Pretty okay, I guess." I wasn't lying. I was feeling nervous but that was just about this talk, otherwise I would be fine, other than, "Well... Sometimes I get really bad headaches though. And I mean... *sigh*" Could I tell her?

"Yes? You can tell me anything, Nana." Dr. Rachel was concerned for me. I feel like I could tell her anything. She has been caring for me ever since she took me in, after my mom died.

"I've been thinking about my mom a lot lately." She had been on my mind for a long time. "But when I try to remember something really specific," as if on reflex, my hands cradle my head, "like: her eyes, or her laugh, I get these really sharp pains and..."

"I see. Are you taking any medicine to help?"

"Yeah, a little." Dr. Rachel had given me tablets before to help prevent against these tyoes of headaches but they never work 100% of the time.

"Hmm... Nana, I believe this is a sign that your blood is stirring." What did Dr. Rachel mean by that?

"Stirring? Like how?" I took my hands away from my head as I looked towards her for an answer.

"It's calling out, growing as a manifestation of your will. If you suppress these emotions, your power may never wake." Dr. Rachel certainly seems to know what she is talking about. "Nana, you are a strong, brave, wonderful girl. I know you have to courage to face your past... to face yourself." My eyes widen in realisation that she may be right. I repeat her wise words,

"To face myself... Nngh!" As I repeated Dr. Rachel's words, I felt a pang of pain in my head which caused me to reflexively place my hands on my head in an attempt to prevent it.

"Nana, over here!" I could hear a voice. I know I've heard this voice before.

"Mommy!" That was my voice! A younger me but still my voice! I was shouting for my mom. The first voice must have been hers! I remember clutching onto my mother as fearsome beasts began walking towards us.

"No! We're surrounded!" My mom shouted before an image suddenly crossed my mind. It was an image of my mother, lying on the ground in front of me and she wasn't moving an inch. Her chest had stopped moving, telling me she had stopped breathing. All I could do was cry as I sat in front of her, screaming her name and hoping it was all just a bad dream.

"Mom! Mommy!"

"Ah!" I snapped back out of my trance and had to refocus on my surroundings. I remember that I am in Dr. Rachel's Laboratory.

"Nana, are you well?" I don't look at her face but the concern in her voice is plain to see.

"Yeah... I'm okay... At least, I think I am." The flashback was so sudden and it was a memory I didn't want to relive. But I did.

"Perhaps you should take it easy for a while. Worry not, I'm sure Blood can handle this mission without you." I couldn't agree to that. I can't let my problems get in the way of fighting for my team.

"No, it's okay..." I replied maybe a little too quickly, "I'll go. Just in case." I speak. Dr. Rachel seems as though she wants to protest but decides not to, thankfully.

Cedrick's POV

Having just landed on the battlefield, we are already confronted by Aragami. A total of six Aragami which includes three Ogretails, two Fallen Ogretails and the leader of the pack, a Chi-You, begin swarming towards us.

"So, any suggestions how we take these guys down?" Romeo asks in slight worry. The numbers must scare him but there is only one more Aragami than there is of us.

"Like Hibari said, take down the leader and the rest should fall." Gilbert comments as he reminds us of Hibari's words before we left for the mission.

"There's too much Aragami to focus on just the leader. Somebody will have to take on the leader whilst the others defeat the smaller Aragami." Ciel chips in with a logical argument.

"Vice Captain, can I trust you to defeat the Chi-You?" Julius, the Captain, asks me. Preferably, I would rather kill the smaller Aragami. Out of all the Aragami that I know of, the Chi-You line of Aragami is my most hated. My attacks never seem to do much damage to them, probably because I use a small sword as my melee weapon but even my bullets don't seem to do much damage.

"I don't think that's a good idea. I'm not equipped to handle the Chi-You." I had enough time to prepare for the mission but hoped that somebody else would take the responsibility to defeat it. "I could still defeat it but it may take a while." I didn't exactly refuse the Captain, I just gave my opinion.

"That's all right. I'll take care of the Chi-You. We don't know how much Aragami this one is the leader of." Thus I took his job and he took mine. I would defeat some of the smaller Aragami and keep command of the team whilst he is busy with the Chi-You. I'll have to thank him later.

With another swipe, the last Ogretail within my eyesight has been defeated. Now I am stuck with either helping Julius who has since made the Aragami retreat and decided to follow it, or follow my other team members to defeat the smaller Aragami.

"Incoming!" I look up to see a person in a familiar set of clothing falling from a height of 15 metres in the air. "Nana reporting for duty, sir!" She gives a salute before awaiting my orders.

"It's good to see you're here, Nana." I speak to her and earn a smile in response. The roar of a few Aragami quickly reminds me of our situation. "Nana, follow this pathway" I gesture with my hand to the right of me, "and meet up with the others. There should be some smaller Aragami to take care of if you are feeling up to it."

"Right!" She gives me a determined smirk before running off in that direction. I guess now that they have some cover, I can give Julius a hand. I set off along the opposite way that Nana did. That was the way that I had seen Julius running in before when he had made the Aragami retreat.

It was a good job I decided to give Julius some back up. Other than the Chi-You, there were two Fallen Ogretails near his location. I ran towards them instantly.
"Back up has arrived!" I announce my arrival. I remember what happened the last time that I didn't announce my arrival. Ciel had shot me with a bullet, thankfully it was a bullet that could detect friend from foe. I'm not sure if Julius had the same type of bullets but I didn't want to risk my body to find out.

"Thank you." He speaks and resumes his main job of taking out the Chi-You. I, on the other hand, take the two Fallen Ogretails off of his hit list.

The first Fallen Ogretail falls after a few hits but the remaining one is more durable. I had, without a doubt, hit this beast more times than I had hit more difficult Aragami and it still wouldn't fall. After two more swipes, it began to run away. At the same time, so did the Chi-You that Julius was fighting.

"That's twice it has tried to get away from you." I comment as we run alongside each other, following the beasts that had tried to evade us, and thus death.

"You're welcome to take on the next one. Let's see how many times it runs away from you." That sounds like a challenge to me. I'll have to take him up on it.

We continue following the Aragami until they make a stop in the same place as the rest of the team. Thankfully, there hadn't seemed to be any injuries as the four of them, Gilbert, Romeo, Nana and Ciel, are all teaming up against the one Ogretail in the area. Gilbert splits off from this main group as soon as he sees the Chi-You in the area. Julius also runs to the Chi-You as he looks to finish what he started. I look to do the same thing and shoot the Fallen Ogretail a few times. When it falls down defeated, I ask myself why I never thought about shooting it when it tried to escape if it only needed a few shots to kill it. Regardless, with three people all ready killing the remaining Ogretail, I assist the other two in killing the Chi-You.

"Blood Alpha calling in. Target eliminated." Julius speaks into his earpiece. It had been a few more minutes since I shot the Fallen Ogretail. The other Ogretail fell quickly and then it was six of us against the one Chi-You. With a final roar, it fell to the ground where Julius extracted its core.

"Confirmed. Target eliminated." Hibari speaks in a congratulatory voice but it suddenly changes to a negative voice which gives us bad information. "No. This is... All nearby Aragami have altered course! They're coming straight for you! Six, seven... No, almost a dozen massive ones in the group! They're shadowed by aa while legion of little ones!" That was definitely bad news.

"And now our escape route has been blockaded... We'll just have to cut our way through!" No sooner does he say this that a small herd of ten Ogretails come to our area. Thus begins a very long, exhausting battle.

"There are far too many engaged." Julius speaks up after a while of fighting.

"Multiple Aragami are rerouting to your location! I'm moving the 1st Unit to support. Just hold out a little longer." Hibari informs us. At least we're getting some support through this.

"Begin a staggered retreat. This battle is lost. Disperse if you must, just get back to the Far East." Captain Julius demands in a hastily commanding voice.

Nana's POV

"Maybe you should fall back, Nana! Didn't Dr. Rachel tell you to take it easy?" Romeo suggets to me. I appreciate his concern but I want to keep fighting for all of my friends.

"I'll clear a path!" I look towards Captain Julius as he says this, "Nana, you're up first. Make a run for it on your own. Don't worry we'll catch up." I refused to believe what he was telling me. I looked towards the Vice Captain who only nodded in response. He agreed with Captain Julius.

"R-Run...? On my... I can't go alone!" I remember what my mother said to me as she was close to death,

"Nana... I need you to run. You have to go alone. It'll be okay. I... I promise." I snap back out of my trance. All I could think about was my mother and how she had fought off the Aragami by herself. She died fighting. What if the same thing happened to my team mates? I escape and they die? I don't want that.

"M-Mommy?" I whimper out before another memory crosses my mind. It was straight after my mother had breathed her last breath. I was crying over her dead body. The Ogretails around us having been killed by my mother before she was taken as well. I felt a hand on my shoulder and somebody talking to me before the ground shook plenty of times. I look up briefly to see more monsters around me. I could only continue crying. I could hear one of the monsters coming a lot closer to me. The ground shook as it walked in my direction. I look up to see that somebody had defeated the beast with one swipe of their God Arc. The same person ran to me, placing a hand on my shoulder but my tears would not stop.

"You'll be okay. Don't worry." He speaks reassuringly but the monster behind him didn't seem to be thinking the same thing as it aimed its gun at us. I'm not sure what happened after that but my next flashback shows all of the monsters having been defeated. Unfortunately, the God Eaters had also been defeated. I was the only one still alive and could only keep crying as more people died in front of me. I may not have known them but I felt responsible for their deaths.

"So, it was you who summoned them..." I remember hearing a voice and looking up to see a woman dressed in black and in a wheelchair. A person I know now to be Dr. Rachel. Those were the only words I could remember before reality kicked in again.

Cedrick's POV

I noticed that Nana seemed to be having another breakdown.

"I didn't mean to. It's my fault the Aragami found us... My fault that Mommy... Mom!" Nana crumbles to the ground and cries, almost shouting to the hevens that she was upset.

"What is that? *gasp* A Bias Field disruption!" Hibari speaks but I didn't really care. I had already rushed to Nana's side.

"An intense Bias Field pulse has been fired at Blood Alpha! More Aragami incoming!" Hibari informs us, by this time I already have a hand on her shoulder. Trying to get the horrible sound she is making to stop. It is always bad to hear somebody cry, it seems even worse to see a girl cry.

"Her Blood Power... It's spiralling out of control!" Now that Julius mentions it, I do see a reddish glow surrounding the area.

"1st Unit to Blood Special Forces! Come in, Blood! We've cleared a path! Are you guys still alive in there?!" Kota's voice comes through our earpieces.

"Come on, Nana. Let's get you back." I spoke to her and wormed her arm around my neck, making sure to lean her against me.

"Of course we're alive! It's Nana! She's...!" Romeo trails off as he looks at us.

"I've just sent over the escape route, do you think you can make it?" That was Erina's voice.

"Yes, it's possible. Thanks for the help. Vice Captain," Julius looks over to me and I already know what to do. "take Nana and fall back immediately! Go, now!" Nana is in no condition to carry her God Arc. We're just going to have to hope that it can be recovered. I lift Nana to her feet and lead us down the path we were directed in. I carry my Arc in my left hand in case an Aragami gets too close. A few metres down the path, I am forced to swipe at a few Ogretails that I think have gotten too close.

"I'll take care of that, my good sir!" Emil comments before rushing to make sure that the Aragami won't pester us.

As we approach the Outer Ghetto, Nana is really weighing down on me. It's hard to carry her on my side and my God Arc using my left hand. I'll have to ditch my Arc. I drop my God Arc and use my now free left arm to pick Nana up and run back to the Den. When I get there, I meet Dr. Sakaki who tells me to immediately put her in the spare room attached to his laboratory. I do as he asks as he unlocks the door to the spare room before taking a brief look around the room. The walls are adorned with colourful child-like drawings but that is enough ogling. I need to get my Arc and help my team out!