George's feet made crunching noises as he walked on the frozen ground. He flexed and smiled at Oriana.
"Been lookin' forward to this for a long time."
Oriana waved dismissively. "Can we finish this soon? It is freezing out here."
Noah blinked. "Did you just make a joke?"
George laughed. "I like this new you. Why couldn't you be like this from the start? I might've fallen for you."
Oriana laughed. "There is only one man for me, and you do not compare."
George and Oriana walked toward each other. Oriana kept her sword at the ready. Once they were close enough Oriana swung at George. George blocked the blade with his forearm. His aura completely protected him.
George smirked at Oriana. "I don't know why you're even trying. I might as well be fighting a garbage can."
"Underestimate me at your own peril" Oriana responded.
Despite George's confidence he found himself at a loss. He had never fought a robot before. None of the tactics he was used to would be effective against her. Someone who could keep fighting no matter how badly damaged they got was a new challenge. George tried to think of what to do.
Crush her skull? No, I don't know if that'll work. Tear open her throat? Why? She doesn't need to breathe. No heart to tear out, no windpipe to crush, no spine to break, this sucks. Crush her eyes? Maybe. I guess I'll just hit her til she stops moving.
George punched at Oriana's head. Oriana turned to the side and avoided the attack. She tightened her grip on her sword and swung with all her might. There was a clanging sound. Oriana knew that something was wrong. She looked at George's arm adorned with black armor and sighed.
"You have been training"
George struck down with his other hand. Oriana jumped back and avoided it completely.
She resumed her attack. Every strike was delivered with maximum power. Even someone as naturally tough as George needed to focus on defense to stay in one piece.
George started laughing. "Damn girl, when did you learn to fight like this?"
Oriana swung at George's remaining eye. He shifted and avoided it by a hair.
"I have been studying."
She swung her sword again. George parried her attack and countered with a straight. Oriana bent backwards and George's fist sailed harmlessly over her head. The two were at a stalemate. George's destructive power was unmatched. If Oriana got hit once, she was dead. On the other hand George found himself at a loss dealing with Oriana's newfound skill. It was like she had captured the techniques of a master hunter. George was confident in his abilities, but he knew that he had far to go before he reached that level.
On the other end Oriana was finding herself at more of a disadvantage than she thought at first. Her lack of an aura was a major handicap she knew she would have to overcome to win, but George was unlike anything she had ever faced. She would rather be fighting Model 16 again. George wasn't just strong, he was fast, durable, and crafty. How could she beat someone like that?
The answer was simple, she would cheat.
She jumped back and opened up a hole on her left hand. She fired a projectile at George. He put his hands up to block expecting an explosion. Instead it burst into a cloud of dark purplish smoke. George felt a deep sense of dread. He didn't know what it was, but he knew he had to get as far away from it as possible. He jumped back several feet, only for Oriana to fire another projectile right where he landed. George inhaled some of the purple smoke.
At first he didn't notice anything different. He went on the attack but felt like his lungs were filled with barbed wire. He couldn't move as well as he could, and his vision was blurry. He fell to the ground and vomited blood.
He coughed, each breath cutting like glass. "The fuck did you do?"
Oriana didn't answer him. She only walked toward him sword in hand. George got to his feet and attacked again. Oriana's only response was to fire a projectile straight down, obscuring them both in a noxious cloud.
George was powerful indeed. But like everyone he had one major weakness. He needed to breathe. No matter how strong a person was their body needed oxygen to function. Cut off that supply and there was no helping them. To that end Oriana had commissioned the creation of poison gas grenades. She took apart the grenade launcher and integrated the parts into her own body. It was a simple matter to conceal them from prying eyes.
Looking at the weapons on Dr. Whiskey's computer it was clear why he was excommunicated. The weapons he designed were useless against Grimm. The poison gas he had developed was one such example. Grimm had no internal organs, something that prevented them from breathing would be worthless against them. He had tried to make his case by saying that this weapon was meant for human enemies, but that had only caused the higher ups in the military to exile him faster. The last thing any of them wanted was for anyone to get the idea that Atlas was plotting against the other kingdoms.
Either way, while the weapon was unethical at best, no one could deny its effectiveness. A small dosage of the gas could cause irreparable damage to anyone who inhaled it. The dosage George had taken was fatal. No matter what happened he was going to die.
And yet when she looked at him she didn't see the grim resignation of someone who knew their fate. She saw his eyes shining with a determination she had never seen before. He moved faster than she anticipated. She dodged his attack at the last possible second, but not before half of her face was taken off by his fist. One of her eyes was destroyed, and her vision was severely limited.
George laughed and spit blood. "You think you can beat me by farting in my face? I thought you knew me better than that."
George's aura surged. Perhaps it was because he knew his life was nearing its end. He was drawing upon all of the power he had left.
Oriana couldn't stop smiling. This is what she wanted. A true fight to the death against a seemingly impossible enemy. She started to laugh. She couldn't remember the last time she had this much fun.
"Yes, this is what I wanted all along. Come, I will end your life shortly."
George smiled. He focused his aura around his fist. He ran at Oriana. His body felt like it was made of lead. His eye slowly lost its vision. He didn't understand the feelings running through his mind. He was going to die, that much was certain. But he was going to go down swinging. A part of him was happy that he was going to see his friends again. Although he never said such things to anyone else, he was lonely, and he was tired of wandering through life without a purpose.
Oh well, knew this was coming. Can't think of any other way this was gonna end. God, it hurts.
Oriana looked at the readings George gave off. The fight was already over.
George's fist flew towards Oriana. Before it connected George stopped. The aura around his fist had dispersed. He couldn't focus. The gas had done too much damage. He couldn't fight anymore.
Oriana could have just waited, but she didn't want to give him even the smallest chance. She swung her sword and severed George's right arm. Blood spurted from the stump as his arm fell to the ground with a soft thud. George's eye was drawn to it. While George was distracted Oriana cut off his left arm as well. Oriana delivered one last attack and drove her sword right through George's heart.
Oriana jerked the blade out and watched George fall onto his back. She stood over him, her sword held high. She was going to cut off his head for good measure when something made her pause.
It was the way he smiled at the end, like it was the happiest he had ever been in his life. In this moment she felt like she finally understood him. They were more alike than either of them knew. The both of them were just looking for the right place to die. They were weapons, and all weapons broke in the end. George wanted to go while he was still sharp. He didn't want to rust and rot like so many around him. Oriana was glad to grant his wish.
"You were strong, but strength alone is not enough to defeat me."
She turned and faced Noah. He looked as cool and collected as always.
"Impressive. I didn't think you could pull it off."
Oriana sighed. "You are cold, inhuman even."
Noah laughed. "Look who's talking. Besides, isn't that what they wanted me for? Now that I think about it, Reid was probably the only one of us who was actually human. You and George are just weapons. You're like a gun, you just get pointed at an enemy and they die."
Oriana smirked. "Oh, how astute. But I wonder, if Reid is human, and George and I are weapons, then what does that make you?"
"You should know that by now. I'm nothing. I'm nobody. I'm a fabrication, a lie, a pale imitation of a human being."
Noah's aura flared. The readings he was giving off were unlike any he had before. Oriana couldn't help but be a little curious. Something had happened to Noah, something drastic.
Noah laughed even harder. He laughed through the unimaginable pain he was in. he laughed as his bones shattered and his muscles tore.
"And because I'm nothing that means that I can become anything."
The ground beneath Noah broke apart. There was a powerful gust of wind, and Oriana's right arm was gone.
Oriana couldn't understand. Noah shouldn't have been able to move like that. However in the back of her mind she couldn't even be sure of that. Like he said, nothing about him was certain. Maybe he'd been hiding his real strength for this moment.
Oriana grabbed her arm and wrenched the sword from her grip. She turned to face Noah, and was in awe.
Noah looked the same for the most part, except for the two extra arms he had sprouted. His arms were thick and muscular, and there was a sword in each hand. His smile was wide, the blood flowing from his mouth staining his teeth.
Oriana would be terrified if she were capable. "I do not even want to know what lead you to this."
Noah attacked again. His swords were a whirlwind of destruction. Oriana parried each one with her sword, but couldn't avoid them all. One of Noah's swords passed through her stomach. The blade narrowly avoided her spine. Oriana countered and cut off one of Noah's arms with one swing. Noah laughed and instantly regrew his missing arm. The missing sword manifested in a cluster of golden light.
Oriana was concerned about the readings Noah was giving off. The way his aura kept increasing defied all logic. But more concerning was his heart rate. It was like he was on the verge of an attack. No, no one's heart could withstand such a strain.
Oriana pushed those thoughts out of her mind. This was a fight, concern for the enemy would get her killed. She attacked again. Noah was fast, but he was simply flailing at random. She could easily avoid his attacks. She cut off all four of Noah's arms and slashed him across his chest, destroying his heart and lungs. Noah didn't fall, he simply stood.
Oriana shook the blood off of her blade and walked away. This wasn't nearly as difficult as she thought it would be. She was about to call home when something made her pause. Noah's aura didn't fade. In fact it kept increasing. That wasn't possible. He was dead. And yet when she turned back around she wasn't able to avoid the attack that took off her remaining arm.
Noah screamed like a feral beast.
"Not good enough. You think I didn't plan for that? I can make anything, why wouldn't I make another heart? In fact, why stop at just one?"
Instead of making more arms he had sprouted dozens of thin, fleshy tendrils. Despite their size they were powerful. One whipped at Oriana. She dodged, and the ground split where Noah had struck.
Oriana called forth her floating weapons. The beams burned through the flailing tentacles, but they grew back faster than she could destroy them. It took everything Oriana had to avoid them. Evasion was all she could do, she had lost the ability to fight back.
She started to laugh. She laughed at the blood stained ground strewn with limbs, she laughed at the person who had thrown away their humanity in a bid to cling to life, and she laughed at the audacity of the situation she had found herself in.
Noah laughed along with her. He didn't even really know why he was fighting so hard. He knew none of this mattered in the end. His life was merely a forgery. By the time he had started to become his own person it was already over. Yet it was the one thing that was truly and irrevocably his, and he was determined to hold on to it.
Noah fired his tendrils at Oriana. Each one shook the ground when they impacted. Oriana burned through them, but couldn't keep up with the onslaught. A cluster of them curved around the beams and sped toward her head. In the next second they would pierce her head and destroy her brain.
But then they stopped a hair short. Noah's aura readings bottomed out. He fell to the ground and vomited blood.
"Guess that's what I get for trying something I wasn't used to. Oh well, at least I had fun."
Noah's heart stopped beating.
Oriana wasn't the kind of person to look a gift horse in the mouth. A victory was a victory no matter how it came about. She walked up to Noah's body. A sense of curiosity came over her. She recalled that Noah's appearance was a byproduct of his semblance. In that case would his aura fade upon death, or would it remain?
Balls of golden light dispersed from Noah's corpse. His body had changed, but not in the way Oriana had expected.
Noah's face was completely featureless, his hands had no fingerprints, and he didn't appear to have any hair. Most puzzling off all was that his skin was pitch black. Even his clothes were black. He was like a walking shadow.
Oriana blinked. She didn't know what she was expecting, but it wasn't this.
"An enigma to the very end."
Her ear started buzzing. "What is it?"
Her father answered. "Is it done?"
"Yes, I have successfully completed my mission. I will return to the base as soon as possible. I'd like to request some assistance."
"Assistance for what?"
"To help me bury them. They fought valiantly, they at least deserve that much."
"If you say so. I'll send out a couple guys I trust. They should be there in about an hour."
Oriana ended the call and sat down. In time she saw another ship land nearby. Two soldiers stepped out and surveyed the scene.
One of the soldiers gasped in horror. "What the hell happened here?"
Oriana shrugged. "I got into a fight."
She directed them to a spot where they could fashion a makeshift grave. The two soldiers dug into the hardened ground until they made a hole deep enough to store the bodies. Noah and George were placed inside and had dirt piled on top of them until they were sealed beneath the ground. Oriana stood over them.
"Goodbye boys. It was fun, for a time."
She followed the soldiers back to their ship. As soon as it took off she closed her eyes and waited to return home.
AN: I had this in mind for a long time. Even before there was a Team NGRO I knew that this was how their story was going to end. It might sound strange that I knew that I was going to kill them off before I even knew their names, but that's the kind of story I tend to gravitate toward. I enjoy writing things that resonate with me personally, and those tend to be violent and angry stories about horrible people.
In any case, we're nearing the end of this story. If you've stuck with it for this long then I thank you. I hope you stick around to see what I have in store in the future.
See you next time