A/N: Thanks so much for everyone who reviewed and sorry for the delay. I had this lying around for a while but I never got around to finishing this part. Certain…dramatic occurrences have prevented me from focusing all my energy and concentration on my story. Well, here it is and please review!
Looking Back
Part XI
Location: Germany
Zero grinned. "That's right, kid. None of them have hit the big two-oh yet." She replied patronizingly. "But don't let the ages fool you. They all come from long lines of powerful warriors. I've had the pleasure of meeting all of them. And take it from their High General, you don't stand a cha-."
Zero was abruptly cut off as a black beam shot out and struck her square on the chest.
On the planet Earth, set a couple of years before the Crystal Millennium, a certain blonde-haired, green-eyed angel shot up from her bed. Her bandaged hand was pressed hard against her chest as she gasped for breath. Her pupils were considerably dilated and her clothes hung on her, clutching onto her skin through the thin layer of sweat that covered every inch of her body. She gulped down a horrible lump in her throat and slowed down her breathing. She shakily ran a hand through her hair as she glanced about her. She was on a bed, warmed by her presence. Around her were white curtains that hung on steel rings and poles. It took her a few seconds to remember where she was.
She was in a hospital, a place way too far from home for her comfort. She brought her blanket-covered knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, dejectedly placing her chin on top of her knees. She had no idea how long she'd been asleep but she now just remembered why she woke up. That dream… It was so real. She subconsciously played with the silver chain adorning her right wrist and a vision involuntarily invaded her mind.
Tears dripped down her face as she sobbed quietly. She hated her advanced senses sometimes. That battle was one of them. She had heard everything.
Sounds…there were so many of them. And she heard every single last one of them
Metal clanged against metal, creating a strange melody that rang in the air
Metal ripped into flesh and screams and wicked laughter mingled together in the air, separated but together, like oil and water encased tightly in a bottle
Every sound that was made echoed into her brain. She had heard every single body and drop of blood that made contact with the floor.
It was horrible.
But there was the worst sound of all…
She lunged at her opponent, some strange creature with shiny black scales. Its mouth opened to let out an anguished roar and she was struck by the lava red insides of his mouth and the fanged-teeth that glinted at her. However, she pulled back her halberd from its stomach and watched with mild satisfaction as it fell before her. (A/N: For those who don't know what a halberd is, think back to the last old castles and knights movie you saw. Think of a spear but a little before the blade of the spear there's a blade of an axe protruding from the handle. Get? No? In that case, look it up. ^_^U)
She didn't waste a lot of time goading to herself of her triumph when another one attacked her. Swiftly, she swung her handle and the edge of the axe blade spliced into the monster's neck and it reared back in anger before falling to the ground as blood-lava seeped from the exposed cut. Out of the corner of her eye as she fought off another monster, she caught sight of Trini fighting off her own opponents. She was always surprised at how Trini managed to keep that long hair of hers especially during these past weeks, what with her choice of weapons. Right then, she was twirling her twin daggers menacingly at the monsters, grinning wickedly. Most of her hair was hidden slightly by the light-weight yet extremely sturdy armor she wore. The others wore the same armor with the insignia's of their homes. With her trained eyes, she saw her best friend racing past the monsters surrounding her, slashing her blades against the surfaces of the monsters' "skins". Lava blood dripped on the curving hilt of her daggers as she watched the severed monsters fall to the ground all together, emitting a groan from the floor. Trini caught sight of her and grinned. She grinned back until Trini's eyes suddenly widened and she screamed,
"Aya!"
Immediately, she spun around, catching one of the monsters with her weapon before it could attack her. She called out a 'Thanks' to Trini though she doubted if she could've heard her since she was suddenly busy with another monster.
God! She frustratingly thought, jamming the spear blade into another creature. They just keep on coming. It's like we've been fighting them for hours. Sweating and breathing heavily, she surprisingly realized that more than half of their soldiers were down. All that were left were some twenty-odd warriors, she and her friends being a handful of them. At the same time, she found herself circled in by a bunch of the monsters who seemed to single her out as being one of the more powerful warriors on the field. She gripped the handle on her weapon even tighter. Her weapon could only handle few people at a time and she couldn't use her powers or her agility because of her tired state. As if on cue, a dark haired young man suddenly vaulted into the air, flipping in the air towards her direction.
"Yo, Aya!" He called before landing. He had his flail in his hands, the handle in one and the spiked ball held haphazardly in the other. "DUCK!"
Her eyes widened slightly before she followed his command, having seen this attack before, suddenly dropping to the ground, lying prostrate with her weapon. With a loud battle cry, he landed by her side and let go of the spiked ball, holding onto the handle tightly.
"Hey ugly!" He snarled. "Try picking on this!" With that, he snapped up the handle, causing the chain and the ball to rise into the air sharply. Without even looking up, Aya knew that the chain would extend beyond the usual length of flail chains and then 'harden' or stay stiff like it was a part of the straight and strong handle. He suddenly brought it down to the beasts before them and swung, knocking aside several of the enemies by creating a spiked fan blade to keep the enemy from getting too close.
Even with her enhanced senses Aya couldn't count how many monsters he had brought down. A strong, warm hand picked up her arm and brought back to her feet. She looked up to find the usual bright brown eyes now dimmed with the fury of battle, but a playful grin still played his lips.
"You okay?" She nodded grimly, smiling slightly to prove it.
"Thanks Koji-" She was cut off as they were abruptly broken apart by a new wave of the creatures. These monsters trampled over the broken and battered bodies of their comrades and were now attacking her and Koji. As she fought off another monster, she spotted Trey nearby, diligently fighting off his own monsters with his katana. However, he was so into his opponent that he hadn't noticed another monster had crept up behind him. Dutifully, Aya rammed her weapon through the rocky body, emitting a screech of pain. Trey turned around surprised. At his point of view there was a monster that could've killed him with a familiar-looking blade through its body. He looked past the massive shoulder to spot his grinning friend on the other side. He grinned back and sliced off the monster's still-screaming head.
"Thanks." Trey said, smiling. She shook her head, shrugging and smiling.
"No big."
"Watch out!" They yelled at the same time and turned around simultaneously, and attacked the monsters that had crept up on them. And she was on her own again. As she fought off another monster, she thought over whom she hadn't seen yet. She now knew hat Trey, Trini, and Koji were okay. So that would've left…
As she battled, she saw him a bit away from her. The sight made her happy and slightly annoyed.
Leo was standing back-to-back with the High General Zero. Both had on their war-faces and their swords clanged against the monster around them. They weren't using just their swords, but their shields as well. Aya, herself had helped to make a few alterations on the shields, sharpening the edges so that they could also be used as weapons. Amidst her own combats, she saw their lips moving, speaking to each other. Zero was looking calmly irritated with her opponents as she spoke and Aya noticed that, at one point, Leo had put down his guard to yell at her protesting before fighting off his enemy. Aya had come closer to them now and she had heard the words 'piss me off', 'pulling rank', 'safety', 'the royals', 'protect', 'find and persuade', and then 'Aya'. She then pointed her hand at a whole horde of monsters in front of her and let out a battle cry, releasing a full force of her telekinetic powers, driving them all back. When they had fallen, she turned to Leo and screamed,
"Go!" He hesitated for a second and then took off. He spotted Aya and ran towards her, slashing her sword against the monsters in his way. He ran up to her and gripped her free hand, dragging her with him as he continued to run. She felt his grip still tightened, as if he was afraid of letting go.
"Leo!" She shouted as he slashed a monster's torso and kept on running. "What the hell is going on?"
"I don't have time to explain now." He replied, not turning back. "But we need to gather the others and hurry."
She didn't reply. Aya had recognized that cold tone in his voice long ago and didn't say anything. There was a faint glow in the front of his body, a sign that he was using his marker. He heard his mental voice to their friends, calling for them
"Guys! Locate me or Aya and follow! NOW!" Around her, she felt her friends' auras sharpening, showing that they had heard and were closing in on them. Soon, somehow, she realized that the others were behind her, Trini and Trey slashing their weapons by the monsters and Koji sometimes screaming 'DUCK!' so that his four other friends would get down as he swung his flail.
"Yo, Leo!" Koji called out. "Where the hell are we going?"
The others were also wondering the same thing. They had now left the battle field and were going towards an exit surrounded by their comrade soldiers. Zero was at the lead of them. She turned to the teens. Aya saw her glancing over them, making sure they were all there. She turned to Leo suddenly. "Hurry! We're gonna hold them off as much as we can." Turning so that she looked over at all of them, she said grimly, "Keep running and don't turn back."
The five rushed past the whole guard that stood between the monsters and the exit way with Zero at their heels. Once they were a few feet from the guards, Zero stopped and the others continued. Aya wrenched her hand away from Leo's grip and stopped where she was, breathing heavily at the woman in front of her.
"Ze-" She had made to take a step towards the General when Zero had brandished her sword at Aya's direction. Aya looked on wide-eyed at the gleaming silver before her, shocked. She looked up at the now-black orbs. "W-what…" Was all she managed to stammer.
"Go." The one word was incredibly deafening in the hollow hallway. "RUN dammit!" Zero commanded forcibly. "You don't turn around once you've been ordered to start running, Aya. I taught you that personally." She reached up to her throat and tugged at a heavy silver chain surrounding her throat. She threw it at Aya who caught it with stunned hands. When she looked up at Zero questioningly, she grinned.
"Make sure I get that back." With that, she took back her sword and swung around to catch up with her fellow soldiers.
Aya was only half-conscious of the tears pouring down her face now. That was the last she had seen of her. They had gone into the room with the portal right after. When Aya had seen the lasers being fired, a deep pit in her stomach grew as she realized that they would've had to get through Zero and the other guards first. She couldn't bear to think of the matter any further.
It seemed almost impossible that it had happened maybe only a little over 24 hours ago.
She didn't know how long she had stayed in that position, lost from reality and swimming in her own non-thoughts. It wasn't until she felt something cold on her chest that she snapped out of her trance. Almost robotically, Aya unbuttoned the first few buttons on her blouse, exposing the skin right above her breasts. She waited for a moment and, in a few seconds, a dim light begun to seep on her skin. She watched, not in curiosity but in expectancy, as the dim light brightened lightly and began to draw an image on her chest. In a few seconds, the image of a wolf was outlined on her skin by the light. Aya sighed softly.
Looks like I woke up just in time. She absently thought. Slowly, she hesitatingly touched the now-visible marker with her index finger and the light burst out, and the light sprung above her bed area, looking out of place in the darkness of the whole room. Then, just as suddenly as the light came, it was cut off immediately. The young woman's hand flopped on top of her chest as her entire body and her legs fell flat on the bed. As her eyes closed, she heard the faint sound of heels clipping on the floor, coming her way.
"Z-ero." She breathed softly, before her eyes closed definitely and her head fell to one side.
Farah hurriedly pushed aside the curtain surrounding the girl, concerned. She was on night shift and had been looking over a couple of files when, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed some strange bright light in the girl's area. Worried, she had strode over to the site where she had been sure the light had come from and was confused when she saw no bright light and the girl was still sleeping. Farah eyed the sleeping girl and a cold shiver ran down her spin. Something strange was going on.
Aya felt light winds brushing by her body. When she and the others had first started out their training, they had come to rely on each other as best friends and had developed a very rare bond. Only the legendary soldiers of their world were said to possess such bonds and that was because the soldiers only had each other when it came to wars. Back then, hardly anyone could do anything about the threatening dangers to their world. Now, their people were more advanced and Aya and the others had been able to establish a bond strong enough to create the plane.
The plane was sort of a mental playing field for them. It was place that couldn't be found on any map. Only when Aya felt herself land on something 'solid', did she open her eyes. She sighed. She was the first one to get there. The plane was exactly what it sounded like. Think of a house, with no roof, and no walls or doors. It was a solitary platform floating in darkness, an abstract to compare to her feelings. That was another thing about the plane; it would conform to the feelings of the occupants on it. They had created the plane years ago, accidentally, actually. The five of them had been mind-speaking before they slept. When they had fallen asleep, they found that their minds had converged together, and the plane symbolized that. Now, Aya walked across the empty plane, staring at the darkness about her. She sighed dejectedly. Was she really feeling that bad lately?
"Holy crap!" Aya turned around just in time to see Koji stumble onto the plane. She watched as the messy brown head made contact with the 'floor' and winced at the sound of his explicit cursing. She giggled slightly at the groaning figure and his head snapped up in attention at the noise and his face lit up with a wide smile. "Yo Aya!" The head inclined and the body flipped him back on his feet and Aya ran to him, arms open.
She laughed happily as he embraced her with one of his bear hugs. She and Koji were the younger ones of the group and they had, therefore, become closer with each other over time. They had a sibling-love relationship and understood each other very well a lot of time; like now. Koji glanced about into the space surrounding the plane. He quirked an eyebrow at the darkness then turned to the girl who avoided his look. He brought his hands to her face and forced her to look at him. "You alright, kid?" Aya gave a sarcastic snort and shook her head, now brandishing watery eyes, determined not to cry. Koji sighed sympathetically and ruffled her hair. "Hey, c'mon. It's gonna be alright, okay? We'll be home in no time and we'll make sure those bastards pay for what they did to our homes, you hear me?"
Koji gave out a very infectious smile that Aya couldn't help but imitate. "Yeah," She murmured. "I hear you."
At that moment, the darkness that had plagued the plane since she had been the only one to set foot on it faded away to reveal soft white-blue hues of clouds, making it so that the platform was floating on air. Aya smiled at the change of the visual atmosphere. She squeezed Koji's hand.
"Thanks, Koji." He smiled and planted a kiss on her forehead.
"No big, surrogate little sister." The two shared a laugh until they felt a new presence behind them. They turned around just in time to see the blinding white light drop by until Leo's form stepped through to the surface of the plane. There was tinge of anger sown in the amber eyes as they sought out the duo.
Leo took one look at Koji and Aya, standing way too close for his liking, their hands clasped together, a rare, true smile on her angelic features, and he couldn't help but glare. Aya looked somewhat panicky and wary of the anger swelling in his eyes and she was sure that Koji saw it too. However, at that point, she really really wanted to slaughter her 'big brother'. Koji grinned widely at the sight of Leo, seemingly oblivious to his death glare. But Aya knew better. Koji knew Leo. Koji knew how Leo would react. She plastered on a fake grin and dug her nails into his palm.
I am going to kill you. She sent out to him telepathically. To her chagrin, he grinned back at her.
You'll thank me for this. With that, he snaked his arm around her waist and faced Leo.
"Hey man!" He called as Leo neared them. "How's it going?"
Leo smiled grimly, his eyes still darting back and forth between the two. "Not fun. It's hard to keep track of my target since her fans swarm in every direction she goes. You?"
Koji shuffled uneasily under his friend's gaze and then said too-casually, "Ah, you know. Same old, same old."
Leo raised an eyebrow. "'Same old'?" He repeated. "Please elaborate, Koji."
Koji winced at the powerful demand and Aya was surprised to see sweat on his face. He sighed, giving up, and then rubbed his temples. "She caught me."
Leo and Aya's eyes bulged out from their sockets. "What?"
"Koji, tell me you are joking." Aya demanded, slightly stepping away from him.
"Oh, he'd better be joking." Leo growled, fists clenched. "Koji what the hell were you thinking?"
"Ease up, bro." Koji hurriedly said, backing away slightly, sweat dropping. "It wasn't completely my fault. I ended up in a forest and I didn't know if anyone else was in it. I sensed some energy usage and I found her. I put my guard down just for a while and she caught me."
Leo growled in frustration and rubbed his temples. This wasn't good. He sighed. "Oh well. What's done is done. We'll discuss it in a minute.' He glanced about the floating platform. "Now where the hell is Trey and Trini?"
As if on cue, there was another bright light and two figures stepped onto the surface of the plane. Both had dark, curly hair. They were wearing the civilian clothing of the people on this planet and the girl had once more placed her hair on a high ponytail. The male threw his head back lazily and eyed Leo mockingly. "You growled, sir?"
Leo and Koji smiled at the greeting before all the males on the plane suddenly covered their ears.
"Trini!"
"Aya!"
"Damn." Koji muttered, grimacing as he picked on his ear, half-watching the two girls embrace each other giddily.
"So…" Trey turned to the other two. "How've you guys been doing?"
About an hour later, the five of them had discussed their progress. None had approached their targets even though they had already caught up to them. It really didn't help that none of them had a place to stay at yet. Aya was on the hospital bed, Leo was on top of his target's hotel, Trini and Trey were stationed on top of a building by their target's home, and Koji was haphazardly balanced on a tree branch in the woods.
"But they were right." Koji was saying. "They're extremely powerful. My target's power level is way up there and I think that they knew we're on their planet."
"They may be a bit primitive," Aya mused aloud. "But they do have pretty adequate power levels and their sensitivity to strangers must be sharp by now so it would only be natural for them to spot us."
Trini nodded solemnly. "Our area is their place of origin. Trey and I performed a radar energy check spell. Apparently, there are three of them in our vicinity, one of them being our target and another, smaller signal for the baby. Also, we found faint energy traces of two others; it seems that they're out of the city."
"Things are even more annoyingly complicated since all of them are in separate countries." Trey added exasperatingly. He growled and threw his hands up in the air. "Wonderful."
"Ease up, bro." Koji stepped in. "It's cool. We'll work out something."
"But how?" Leo put in calmly. "We have yet to interfere in their lives and ask for their help and we still don't know if they'll agree to help us out."
"They have to." Aya said desperately. "They just have to. You guys heard the stories. They were legends. They have hearts of gold. Of course they'll help us."
"Don't be so optimistic, Aya." Leo countered grimly. "They are legends but remember they're humans, too. They're humans that have suffered a lot in the past years because of their duties. They've had to give up dreams and plans because of their jobs to protect the world. And now, at this present time, they've entered a time of peace. For the past years they've been able to live peacefully, hardly ever using their powers. And they like it." He glanced around at his comrades. They had all looked away from his burning gaze. None of the others had taken into consideration to the feelings of the warriors they were sent to retrieve. All they wanted was to go home. Leo sighed and continued. "To top it all off, their apparent leader now has a child." He brushed back his hair tiredly. "Do you really think they're going to go on this so readily with us?"
They all became suspended in silence for a moment. None of them had given much thought at all about what to do after they sought out their targets. They just figured that they find them and coerce them to help out. Beyond that, it was just a blur.
Koji let out a sigh and brushed back his chestnut-colored hair. "God, we're screwed."
Trini slapped him upside the head. "Way to show your team spirit."
"The way I see it," Trey began, "We've got to tell them what's going on. No wait, hold on!" He said, countering the protesting outbursts from his friends "Look, we'll tell them our situation. We all know the rules and the consequences so we all know we can't tell them everything. But we have to let in enough to show them that we need their help."
"But what if they're still not willing to help us out?" Aya asked quietly. Trey glanced at her quickly and then looked over at his best friend. Leo was looking at Aya, his amber eyes empty if not for a tiny spark way in the back of his soul.
"Then we threaten them with exposure of their true identities to the world," Was the stoic and startling reply of their leader. Leo abruptly turned his back to his friends, once more assuming his position as their commander, far from his occupation as their friend.
They all glanced at him quickly, realizing he wasn't kidding. Aya cautiously took a step towards the white-haired teen.
"Leo." She began. "Perhaps we don't have to go that far. You said it yourself, we know the consequences of-"
"Stop being such an idiot, Aya." Leo replied harshly, his back still turned to her. The others snapped their heads in their direction, shocked. His tone was a little too vehement than it should be, especially for Aya. He continued on in his severe manner. "Not everything turns out wonderfully and it's about time you learned to accept it. You said you wanted to get home, well this is one of these things we have to deal with if we want to go home."
Silent tears poured down from Aya's face. A flash of memory crossed her mind of their kiss before she crossed the portal. And she had foolishly thought that maybe he could change from his cool and aloof self. She clenched her fist angrily, nails digging into her palm. Yes, she truly was a fool.
"I have to go now." She muttered loudly enough for all of them to hear. "I'll report back later."
She closed her emerald eyes, her mental body fading as it receded back to her body on the physical plane. As she left, she hard Trini's faint calling of her name and made a mental note to apologize for her sudden abruptness later.
As she shuddered awake back to the coldness of the bed in the hospital room, Koji, Trini, and Trey all pondered how idiotic their leader could be, and Leo mentally berated himself for not comforting her when she needed it.
Small wonder as to why she was so attached to Koji.
~*chickay*~
Oh…drama. Hehe. Me like! Well, a little inside of what's going on in the minds of our strangers and what was going on before they came to the present time. I think the next chapter I'm going to write will be the last one for Looking Back and then we're on to Foreign Nature. Look into my stories to see fi I've posted anything new. Okay, I'm gonna go now. Love ya, BUH-BYE!
P.S. REVIEW…………… please?
