(a/n): Hello! Again! I promised myself there won't be a lot of waits, so here I am again!!!!!! I am glad you all are enjoying my story. This means so much to me because that means that I have done my job of entertaining you. Thank you all so much. Well this fic is continuing, there are a few chapters left but don't look blue. The last chapters will be the longest and the best so far. I will do my best to satisfy you all.
Before we get on with the story I would love to thank my lovely reviewers.
FUN: Oh Thank you SO much!!!!!! I am really happy you are enjoying yourself. Well a few chapters will be like that and the final match will be a good one. It's a good thing you look forward to it because it takes place at a very nice map. ^_^ Well enjoy.
COUGH: I don't know what to say but thank you. I'm glad it was worth it and I hope I won't let you wait so long again. You are already thinking about the end??? The chapters are going to be great throughout what is left of the book to read. And about a sequel…hm. I'm still thinking about that. So cross your fingers!! But while you are doing so, enjoy.
Slash The Ironman: You are really good at voicing my feelings!! I didn't like Cathode either. It seemed to me as if she was stalking me all the time. So I used her to get me some frags. Hehehe. Well what more can I say??? Enjoy? Lol. Now, who was saying about sounding like a broken record??? LOL.
amaris: Welcome back!!! I so glad you are enjoying my story. Don't worry more will be up soon. I'm sure you'll like it!
Xavier: Why hello and thank you for your review. I am pleased you enjoyed my matches, that means I did a job well done. I'm glad you like the storyline because it took me quite a long time to make it up. I started to right this book 4 years after I started to play Unreal Tournament. Thank you once again and I hope you keep reading!
shrtys-sk8er: Thank you!! I'm really glad you think the action is getting faster. Guessing I'm succeeding. Well I'm doing my best. Well this chapter will be a little slow in action but still I'm working on it. Thanks for your compliments!
I've got to say it one final time.
ENJOY!!!
Chapter24: Raging Wars Part II
Trinity did her best to avoid Dessloch. She couldn't bear to see him again before she wins this cursed tournament. She knew he didn't want her to enter the final matches but she couldn't forget about her main goal. She had come to this tournament for a purpose. She must fulfill that purpose and no one will stop her.
Seeing Dessloch would have made it worse. The last time they talked, Dess almost prevented her from entering the last matches. He is good at getting what he wants and she doesn't blame him. She doesn't want to see him because she didn't want to see that look on his face, that look where it is written across his face that he doesn't want to lose her.
Trish sighed as she sat down on the bench outside of the Liandri building. It was midnight and the moon was full. She took a deep breath, thinking over of what to do, what to expect and how to deal with it. Not much really, she expects to win and she will win by not giving up and doing her best. Zack has taught her too well to lose, she won't lose, she can't lose. This is her destiny, her path, her choice.
Wind blew past her covered face and her long, beautiful hair spilled over her shoulders as she took a deep long breath. She closed her eyes and rested, waiting for the tournament to be announced. She knew she was going to participate in the match and she will give it her best shot. No one will forget this year's tournament. She will leave the audience in astonishment that this year won't even have words to describe it.
Yes. Trinity thought. It will all be over soon. Don't worry, father. I will have you avenged. I will set things right. This year's tournament will be its last, I promise you father. Finally you will be able to rest in peace. Let it be a week of redemption for those who have fallen in the tournament. Trinity opened her eyes and smiled. "I will make you proud, father."
"I'm sure you will make him proud." A deep voice behind her said. Trish grinned and turned to look at her old friend. "Yeah, thanks to you, Zack. I don't know how to repay you." Zack came over to her and took her by her shoulders, making her get up.
"I know how you could." He said and smiled. Trinity looked confused when he said that. "You do?" She asked, hesitating. Zack only nodded and pulled her closer and hugged her. "You can repay me by surviving, Tanichka." He said in a soft voice.
Trish pulled back playfully and looked at him. "I'm not THAT little anymore for you to call me that." Zack laughed as he hugged her again. "Oh, Tanya, I don't want to lose you. Do you know how dangerous this is?" Trish only nodded as she squeezed his shoulders. "You know I have to do this. I must do this." Tears welded up in her eyes again as she thought of what might happen if she won't win.
"I know you must do this." Zack pulled back and held her at the length of his arm. "But that isn't the question." He looked into his eyes which showed a lot of worry. "Will you be okay? The tournament's outcome might change your life drastically. I don't want you to change. You already have changed." Zack's voice faltered when he said the last words.
Trish's lower lip trembled as she looked at him. She already has changed. Of course she has. Ever since she met Xan, Matrix, and Dess she has changed. She is not that same Tanya anymore. No, she is not Tanya at all. She is Trinity. A tear went down her cheek and into her mask. Tanya Menace has died, along with her father.
Trish looked to the floor, ashamed at such defeat, ashamed at such failure. She had no words, she had no defense, no lead, Zack was completely right. She opened her mouth to let out a cry of distress but nothing came out as tears rolled down her mask.
"Tanya?" Zack looked at her as she threw her arms around him, crying into his shoulder. "Shh. It's alright. It's alright." He whispered, caressing her hair. "You shouldn't be sad about it. You should be happy, Tanya. You have gone this far." He pulled back and smiled. Tanya wiped her tears and nodded. "Right." She whispered the word which still broke. "Might as well finish this, eh?" He asked her and held her close. "Just to me a fave, alright. Don't die on me. So many people need you. They need you, so much that they are willing to die for you."
Tanya smiled and hugged him. "Thanks, bro." She said and watched him. "You haven't called me that in years." He cupped her face and smiled. "Your welcomed, sis." This time he wiped her tears away with his thumb and took off her glasses to look into her eyes.
"Just when you're out there." He said softly. "Don't forget who you are, in here—" He pointed at her heart. "—and here." He kissed her on her forehead. "Most importantly, don't die down there, Tanichka. Dessloch needs you, I need you, even Boris needs you." She smiled. "We all need you." He said and hugged her again. "Now—" He pulled back. "—go out there, and kick their asses so hard that they wouldn't be able to sit on them for decades. Don't forget to put a signature footprint as well. As for Xan, blow his pieces to smithereens for me. Extra crispy, please." She laughed at his choice of words and kissed him on the check.
"Don't worry, it'll be extra hot, too." She smiled as she watched Zack put on the glasses for her. "Do your worse, Tanichka." He said. She nodded and walked away into the Liandri building.
Trinity felt so much better when she came up to the lift hallway. What will she do without Zack? "Thank you." She whispered under her breath and smiled when the announcer has started.
Trinity appeared on one of the three high towers of the Morpheus Galaxyscraper superstructure. The towers stood high in the Earth's thin, high, atmosphere, well far away from the core, making gravity extreme light. This fight will be difficult to manage, while not only the bots are against her but, also, the environment is hard to adapt to.
But Trinity had no time to waste at a crucial map as this. Trinity ran down the ramp to her left, hoping to find a good weapon to riddle her opponents with. Following the short passage to an open area with an opening leading towards the blackness of space and the other two towers.
Seeing a mech glide through the thin gravity from this tower to the next, Trinity loaded her Enforcer and fired away. Bang, bang, bang, bang. Trinity closed her eyes at time she pressed the trigger and the bullets rammed into his back, breaking his circuits. "First Blood!" The announcer has pronounced and only then Trinity let his body fall freely into the endless space.
Trish smiled and ran to her left to pick up the Ripper and she was ready to butcher some heads off their necks. Trinity jumped out and felt how gravity really is light here. She glided through the short distance and onto another tower, joining with a fight between the two mechs, and one of them happened to be Cathode.
The second mech, suddenly, turned towards Trish as both of them started to go after her. Trish shot out an explosive disk straight into Tensor, pushing him off the edge and into space. Cathode was left and Trinity was just cut by the last blade Tensor fired off.
Trinity turned and ran up the ramp, ignoring the Shockrifle on the deck and pushed herself from her feet into the air as she jumped on a higher platform and picked up the invisibility. Cathode came running along as she picked up the Shockrifle herself and looked around, trying to find her.
Trinity aimed and fired another explosive disk which made Cathode scatter to pieces. Her limbs splattered across the deck with machine oil painting the walls. Trinity jumped down into the pool of Cathode's death and looked for a bandage to stop the bleeding from her arm. Trinity ran down the ramp and saw a female mech strafing from left to right as she fired off at another. Trinity aimed and fired one spinning blade which has ran through the mechs neck. The female stopped firing as she tumbled to the floor and her head rolled off the tower leaving malfunctioning circuit behind.
Trinity quickly rolled towards the Sniper rifle the female was holding and ran up the ramp as she was disturbed by someone shooting blades straight at her. Trinity felt the blood loss in her arm as her heart beat faster. She had to do something quick.
So she did. She jumped off the tower and onto the next, shorter tower. She rolled when her feet touched the ground and picked up the heavy rocket launcher as she strapped the Sniper rifle behind her back. She jumped onto the higher platform, this time finding a redeemer.
Suddenly Trinity smiled and dropped her rocket launcher carefully as she replaced it with the big gun. "Hello, Cathode. Here's a gift from me to you." She taunted as she crouched, made sure she had her ground and fired the big gun. The rocket went straight for the building Trinity escaped from where Cathode was running around with the Ripper. She was completely fried into millions of pieces that have splattered through the middle deck, not even leaving any burning debris.
"Killing Spree!" The announcer boomed and Trinity smiled. She disposed of the weapon and picked up the rocket launcher. Now, where could that medkit be? Trinity thought when she jumped down to the lower level and looked behind the ramp and there they were, her lifesavers.
Trinity took one box and quickly ran down the ramp inside the structure as the shootout became more intense. She quickly opened it up as she ran and put the big strap on her shoulder with millions of tiny needles that included microbes to help her heal.
When she felt the needles bite her skin she took off the strap, leaving behind a rash, red skin. Trinity grabbed the launcher and jumped out from the opening, already aiming for her next target, Divisor. Beeb. Trinity fired her launcher with a homing missile and with a blink of an eye; Divisor was nothing more but scrap metal.
Trinity didn't stop in her tracks; this was a map where you can never stop unless you wanted to be riddled with the unknown. She had to keep running if she wanted to stay alive. A moving target is harder to hit than a stationary one. Zack's words rang in her head from the past when she has trained for this.
Up top was Cathode, blazing her opponent with the Shockrifle but was blown to oily bits and pieces with a good rocket. "I'm on fire!" It was Tensor again and he came here to kill her. Trinity couldn't fire at him when he was in mid air with her rocket launcher, so she started to load them up. One…Two…Three… Tensor fired a rocket and hit the ground near Trinity and she was pushed away but she didn't lose her footing. Four… Tensor landed and Trinity fired of the oblivion into him and into midair once again.
Completely unsatisfied with herself, Tensor was still alive and he had enough ammunition to bombard her with. Surprisingly, Tensor landed on her shoulders and Trinity realized, firing off a missile was suicide. "I hate you." He whispered as she heard him load up his missiles. Trinity quickly dropped her rocket launcher, swapped her Sniper rifle from her back and fired a cut clean hole in his head. "Yeah, I hate you too." She said as he dropped to the deck with his fully loaded weapon.
Trinity jumped from the rooftop onto another tower, when she spotted another medkit. She needs one badly; the explosion nearly took her apart into separate limbs. She landed and crouched near one. She opened it, laying her weapon aside and took out a hypodermic needle. She strapped a rubber band around her bicep and pumped up her muscle and her veins were seen. Taking off the cap from the needle with her mouth, Trinity injected herself with the healing device and spit out the disposal cap into space, followed by the needle.
Finally ready to go on, Trinity felt a boost of energy when she ran up the ramp onto the top deck where the minigun was stored. Trish dropped the rocket launcher and picked up the minigun and spotted armor on top of this platform. She jumped up and equipped it.
When hearing the footsteps on the bottom floor Trinity didn't doubt one bit she had company. She aimed down to find Function, stumbling in her way that has showed she has been shot. Without mercy, Trinity pulled the trigger when her crosshair went over Function's head and turned her circuit chip into dancing wires as she dropped to her death.
A bullet went right past her face into a pole. She aimed with her Sniper at the shooter, who was hiding between the columns of the lower tower. Trinity gritted her teeth and strapped the Sniper behind her shoulder once more. She jumped down to the deck of that tower and pummeled Cathode into the wall of the column, leaving her bolted to it.
Trinity heard fire on the bottom floor and turned to join the party. She watched Tensor running away from an unknown shooter and she finished the job herself, ramming him with bullets and pushing him off into the space. "Sucker." She said as she smiled when the announcer has pronounced her on Rampage.
She ran down to meet with the shooter who happened to be Cathode once again. She seemed to be running away from someone as well, but that didn't concern Trish. She fired at Cathode; opening up her ribcage from such strong fire and Cathode was no more but a doom's shadow.
Now it was time to check out the other shooter. Trinity wasn't scared anymore, she was a professional now, she feels it. She got up to the top again and looked down beyond the edge and watched Divisor going for the ramp. Trinity fired off, turning her skull to open surgery as she fell hitting the floor and spraying it with oil.
Trinity smiled and dropped her empty minigun and took her Sniper rifle. She glided through space onto another building where Function and Cathode were shooting at each other, creating crossfire. Trinity's plan was to decimate them both before they killed each other. She took aim in the mid air and put a bullet hole in Function's head as Cathode took a run for the top.
Trinity landed and ran up the ramp after Cathode, meeting her up top with a rocket launcher in Cathode's hands. Trinity fired one shot and hit the launcher which hurled from Cathode's hands and than fired one good shot at her temple, making her head fly into space as her body fell to the floor.
One last frag left and Trinity would be free from this match, but she had to find someone to kill. But she knew, her enemies would always come to her. Trinity dropped her minigun, crouched and rolled towards, Cathode's launcher at the edge and fired one good homing missile at Tensor who came up behind her. "Trinity is dominating!" The announcer has said which followed up by announcing her the winner.
Trinity dropped her guns and wiped of the sweat, oil, and her own blood from her forehead. She raised her hands in the air and filled the arena with her screaming voice, "Let's rock!"
Trinity appeared back in the stadium with the crowds roaring with cheers. "Trinity, Trinity, Trinity." The chattering of her name has shattered the walls of the stadium and Trinity finally felt like she is completing her dream more and more. Soon it will be time. Trinity thought as she bowed in front of the stage that made them louder.
"Hahaha. Let her celebrate her victory as long as she wants. Soon, she won't be able to even celebrate her defeat. Hahahaha." Xan laughed when he shot down the screen that has shown him the whole match. "I know her weakness. What about you, Kira? Do you know what I'm thinking about?" Kira smiled when he acknowledged to her. "Depends if it's as cruel as her fighting style." She purred back and Xan started to laugh again.
"She won't last a second on my battlefield. It will finally be complete again." Xan started to laugh his emotionless, devilish laugh.
Trinity walked down the hallways of the blue bunker. It was the middle of the night. Everybody was sleeping and Trinity didn't dare to enter her team's large dormitory yet. If she would enter and they will all wait for her, they will ask her so many questions that she won't have time to answer them. She didn't want them to ask her any at all.
She doesn't want to hurt her team, but yet it is cruel how she barely talks them. What if they are angry with her? Feeling like she has been using them? Either way she didn't want to alert them. She didn't want to hurt them because she knows what it feels like.
She came around the hallway, slowly, taking her time like she had plenty. She did for the rest of the night. The next match starts tomorrow first thing in the morning and she needed to get rest if she wanted to do good. After that, she would be announced as a winner and fight Xan. She will be ready she must be ready. That day will be the day remembered and studied in history. She will make her father proud as she promised and no one will get in her way.
She slowly came up to the door which led her to the new dorm of her team and slowly turned the knob. She peeked in and saw no one in the living room in the darkness where only the moon shone. She slowly tiptoed to her left where a door led to her room and opened it.
She slipped in unnoticed and took off her mask and glasses as she dropped on her bed and took a long breath out. How near the fight between her and Xan is. She was excited and yet terrified. She had mixed emotions as she felt hatred towards him. But one thing has changed through these weeks. She is not afraid of the man that has killed her father, anymore. She is ready, she felt as if she is reborn. She is a new person now, and she will prove it to him.
She decided to rest and slipped off her suit from her skin and put on her nightgown. She sat on her bed, brushing her long hair as she watched the moon alone in the night. She closed her eyes as she felt so new. She put the brush on her nightstand and went to sleep. She fell to her own mind's dreams.
Dessloch carefully watched her enter her bedroom and he fell on his own bed, covering his eyes and breathing out slowly. What should he do? He must do something if he won't do anything than he would blame himself all his life. He wouldn't be able to live if he won't help her.
He must warn her somehow, but she won't believe him. She would refuse to listen to him because she doesn't like talking about the future. He has no choice but to do this. He can't do anything else. All he knows is that he must do something. "I'm sorry Trish." He whispered to himself and exited the dormitory.
(a/n): Yes, I know this chapter was shorter than you all expected but it had a lot of ideas. Can you use the hints in the story to see what will happen next? Do you know what will happen? If you go back and see how the characters interact with Trish, you could probably guess. Sorry for such a short chapter, but don't worry, this fic is not over YET!!
