Disclaimer: I don't own Zone of the Enders (ZOE). Konami does. I wish I did, it's a good game, albeit short. But the Metal Gear Solid 2 (MGS2) demo was a good addition. Anyway, enough rambling, time to get this fic on.
"Damn!" Leo exclaimed, his Frame rocking from yet another barrage of Phalanx in his direction. He held on tight to the Orbital Frame as he made a mad rush for the space station on Mars, but the amount of other Frames guarding it made it very difficult to cut through.
"Damnit...if I had Jehuty...this wouldn't be a problem..." the boy cursed, gripping the controls of the Frame tightly in his hands, anger over taking all his emotions. His mind set was towards the station, and he would not stop until he died to finish his mission.
Suddenly, a Frame appeared right before him in an attempt to stop his charge. Leo paid no heed, just igniting the Halberd on his Frame and impaling the attacker even before the other Frame had a chance to react. Just as quickly, Leo through the Frame off the shaft like laser weapon and continued on, boosters to full power.
Leo kneeled down beside Celvice's bed, watching her peaceful form sleep in the infirmary. The young boy smiled a bit, still mad at himself for letting that happen to her in the first place.
Slowly, the boy wrapped his hands around her hand, careful and slowly as not to awaken her from her slumber. He was surprised when Celvice's hand responded, tighting her grip around his two hands.
"Leo..." she whispered between her lips. She turned her head towards Leo's direction, her eyes opening slowly, a smile on her face. Leo nearly fell back in surprise.
"Um...I'm sorry for waking you up..." Leo apologised, bowing his head and looking away from the young female. Celvice rolled onto her side, tilting Leo's head back up towards her with her other hand.
"It's alright Leo," she whispered into his ear, giggling a bit and falling back down onto the bed. She sighed lightly, closing her eyes again.
"Are you alright?" the ex-Frame Runner asked, drawing closer to the wounded girl on the bed. His previous look of apology was replaced by a visage of concern.
"I'm feeling better then before..." Celvice answered softly, touching her wounded side. She winced in a bit of pain from the touch, quickly pulling her hand away. Leo jumped when she hurt herself, watching with much concern. She turned her head towards his direction once more, smiling lightly. "It hurt much more yesterday..."
"Celvice..." Leo spoke softly, once again looking away from the wounded girl. He shook his head in disappointment.
"Leo...?" Celvice questioned, beginning to ponder why Leo actually came.
"I'm sorry I couldn't protect you..." Leo answered after much hesitation, still looking away. He removed of his hands from Celvice's and returned it to his side, wiping a tear away from his face. Celvice's smile faded, leaning over towards him, even if it hurt her. She didn't care, she just didn't want Leo to feel depressed or angry at himself. She touched his shoulder, though Leo didn't responded to the action.
"It's alright, Leo," she spoke, wrapping her arm around his neck and hugging the Jehuty pilot lightly. Leo sniffled, placing one of his hands on her arm and pulled her a bit closer.
"Get out of my way!!" Leo screamed out, chopping through another Frame like it was nothing. Warning lights flared around the cockpit of his Frame, warning him about overheating and system failures throughout, but the Frame Runner didn't care. He needed to get to that station, he needed to...or else he would fail again...
"Elena, how are the repairs?" Leo asked the older, female engineer. He stepped up beside her, still unused to the low gravity of the hanger that housed Jehuty. The ex-Frame Runner bounced up and down a few times to get used to the gravity provided for the hanger.
"We're a bit ahead of schedule, surprising," Elena reported, not looking up from the computer screen she was current stationed at. "But with the amount of damaged sustained to Jehuty in the first place..."
"It won't really matter, will it?" Leo asked, remembering how helpless he was against his battle with Anubis. He glanced at the screen Elena worked. The screen showed a picture of Jehuty, with glowing red sections throughout its body parts, indicating damaged areas. By the looks of it, there was still a lot of red on Jehuty. A thought then occurred to Leo. "Can ADA still run the mission if she's still damaged like that?"
"She could, but the chances of failure would be greater," Elena answered, glancing over to Leo. "Why do you ask?"
"Um...it's nothing..." the boy lied, wishing ADA wouldn't go. He didn't want to see her die, even if she was an 'emotionless machine'. Leo was contemplating if he could stop Jehuty's attack on the Mars base, but he knew that was selfish of him. He sighed lightly, glancing out at the floating Jehuty, constantly under repair of the mechanical arms and tools, never halting through the last 24 hours, since the starting of the task to repair the Frame.
The soft touch of Elena's fingers was placed on his shoulder, surprising the boy. He glanced back at the engineer who worked on Jehuty. She had a frown on her face, also staring out the window towards Jehuty.
"Elena...?" Leo asked, wondering what was bothering the engineer.
"Alan was a good Frame Runner...and a good person..." Elena started, diving into the life of her love. Slowly, unconsciously, her grip on Leo's shoulder grew tighter. "He always looked out for others, trying his best to help them." Leo listened to her story, looking back out towards Jehuty. "He was so sweet and nice..." she spoke, trailing of as her voice dwindled. However, Leo caught the last three words of her sentence: "...just like you..."
Leo raised his arm and place his hand over Elena's hand on his shoulder, touching her softly and lightly.
"Elena..." Leo started, not turning to face her. Slowly, he pulled Elena's hand away from his shoulder. "You speak of Alan being a great guy...which I believe...he's good at what he does, and while is a self-less person."
"However, I can not compare to him..." he continued, now turning to face Elena. "I don't know how...but I can pilot Jehuty...maybe it's my instinct to survive...or maybe it is something else I don't know that is within me, but I do know for a fact that I do not have any skill at piloting a Frame..."
"Even if I did, I still can not compare..." the boy continued, stepping towards the door of the compartment. "I am a very selfish person...I didn't want to bring Jehuty to the Atlantis, I wanted to run...to hide...to not do anything for anyone...I was out to save myself...and only myself..." Elena was about to protest, but Leo didn't allow her to, opening the exit of the room and about to step out.
"I'm nothing like Alan..."
"Leo, get back here!" Rock's voice shouted through the communication link tapped to Leo's Frame. The boy, in turn, grunted slightly in pain as another random attack in the fray of combat ricocheted off his armour. His attention was quickly thrown back into one of the largest combats out in the field as he tossed a few Geyser pods out into the battle, hopefully getting some of the pursuers off his case.
The Geyser pods did something Leo never saw before. Instead of spraying out a random single laser beam from the tip, instead, it fired lasers from all the tips of the diamond shape, albeit, the beams were shorter, designed more towards Zero-G situations. Leo had no time to admire the laser show, though, as he continued a mad dash towards the Mars station.
"Leo, calm down, you're going to jeopardize the mission," Elena spoke, replacing Rock's harsh voice her calm, calculated one. Leo didn't ignore this one, even if it was from Elena.
"I don't care!" he screamed out, blasting through another Orbital Frame. "I have to save her…I have to…"
"Leo, don't be foolish!" Rock exclaimed, taking over once more. "You're just going to get yourself killed, as well as her!" However, despite that warning, Leo paid no heed as he pressed on towards his destination.
The Atlantis rocked as weapons of various magnitudes and sizes impacted into its haul. Leo held firm against the railing, keeping himself down as the rocking mad any non-secure object float up in the zero-G environment.
"Leo, you can't go!" Elena screamed out from the door frame of the hanger, hanging onto the side of the wall as she watched Leo leap off the railing and towards a random Orbital Frame stationed within. "It's too dangerous to go out there now!"
"I have to save Celvice!" Leo shouted back, turning around with the zero-G to face back towards Elena as he floated towards his Frame of choice. "I'm not going to let some Frame Runner take her away!" Elena sighed, knowing what that meant. They just dropped off Jehuty, being in the middle of the attack doing so. In the process, and much to the surprise of everyone on the Atlantis, they were attacked directly by an Orbital Frame…a Frame known as Anubis.
Leo was in a ballistic rage when he heard that Anubis took Celvice with little resistance. The boy was determined to get her back, and even if it meant his life, he didn't care.
"I let her down once…I won't let her down again…" Leo whispered, falling into the seat of the Frame and strapping in. Even if he wasn't a good Frame Runner, he still had to try, for Celvice's sake. Elena only watched helplessly as Leo departed from the hangar.
"And so begins the Lion Strike…" she spoke softly, heading back in and towards the command section of the large cargo ship, wondering what Rock's reaction would be.
Leo felt the blast impact against the back of his frame. He surged forward from the impact, nearly hitting the control panel. He silently thanked the harnesses that strapped him in before examining the damage.
"No motor control…no propulsion…no weapons…no communications…I'm a sitting duck…" he whispered, closing his eyes in disappointment of his own lack of skill. More shots bounced of the armour, slowly nibbling away at the Frame's last line of defence: its structural integrity. "Guess it is all over…I'm sorry…Celvice…"
He pressed the eject button on the Frame, blasting the cockpit outwards into space. That would by him a little time to reflect on himself, and his nature. He could hear the shots of energy whizzing past his cockpit, the attacks slowly getting more accurate.
"Celvice…I'm sorry…" Leo repeated, awaiting his final moment without a word more.
Completed: 11/09/01
Author's Note:
If you noticed the completion date between chapter 2 and 3, you may notice a large gap. My quality may not be as good as the other two chapters...sorry...