Chapter 14
PAIN
Gustave stumbled through the dark corridors of the satellite. Minor explosions occurring throughout the structure, lights flickering and spark flying from broken cables. Some bulkheads were dented in from debris collisions.
Why, he thought. Why hasn't Alicia started the reverse thruster sequence? Had she gotten lost? Then it occurred to him that it would be best to head there himself.
Tremors shook the steel hallways. A diagnostics panel to his side revealed that most outer bulkheads have been fractured if not destroyed. A gaping hole was seen in the blueprint... probably caused by his battle with Raven earlier. That unnatural warrior shouldn't be too far behind, if he hadn't left already. But Gustave knew that even Raven wouldn't let this thing fall onto the newly-healed Earth.
Gustave eventually came to the doorway leading to the main reactor room. Here, he could save everyone that shouldn't die needlessly.
He opened the steel door. He stood on a platform greeting a wide but steep staircase. In that great chamber rang with the machinery of rusty gears... gigantic mechanical machines that sustained the ship's most vital areas. While he was looking up into the air, he failed to notice the two figures struggling for suppression on the same platform. Then a gunshot was heard, echoing throughout the great hall.
Gustave immediately looked where the new stimuli of noise was coming from. Christov, with gun in hand, was there to meet his gaze . . . as well as Alicia, falling to the ground, blood trailing from her mouth and chest. She clattered onto the cold, hard metal ground. Her tan suit was instantly Raven near her heart.
Gustave's hands twitched a little. God help him, he was NOT giving up his only friend and ally in this world. If he was to be damned, he'd keep her from feeling it. Any who tried to take her from him could have the wandering pain that, in his mind, he'd narrowly avoided.
Gustave looked up at Christov, his gun ready, raising it to him. Battle ready. Christov was going to use that despicable weapon on him, or was expecting to at the least.
Gustave's earlier mind resurfaced, You see? You SEE?! He will cleave your soul from your flesh and leave it for the scavenging demons. He will steal your life once again! Your comrade DAMNS you! He has already killed the one closest to you. He despises you, he would kill you! Save your soul and KILL him! KILL HIM!!!
The 'voice' was screaming at him now. Beyond the semblance of words, its blood lust and anger practically vibrated in his mind. Those feelings were becoming Gustave's without him realizing it. All he could think when he looked at Christov was that he didn't deserve to live. His gun was ready. He was coming closer. He abandoned him to his fate, and now he would steal his soul! He'd kill him. Raven too, even though thoughts of revenge had been overpowered.
"Thief..."
Immortality was kinder to Gustave than it was to most. In contrast to the moaning, shuffling zombies who were slow and painfully unintelligent in past lore of the Engelhaft, he was neither. His mind, as muddled as it was, was still capable of thought. He'd certainly been as slow and clumsy as one of the undead a moment ago, but there was new strength as he approached the bare edge of madness.
In the time it took for Christov to take one step towards him, he was on his feet and rushing at him.
Christov's gun was taking a shot at Gustave long before he reached him, but it didn't matter. Minor injuries were of no concern to him. Gustave took the magnum shot full in the side and kept coming. It hurt distantly, and knocked him off balance a moment, but neither mattered. Whatever Jun did to him also gave him amazing pain tolerance. He rammed into Christov and shoved them both against the nearest wall, almost falling over the wide flight of stairs in the process. Christov's gun fell to the ground at his feet and clattered down a few steps.
One of Gustave's hands was already holding him by the shoulder of his uniform, clenching the thin fabric tight. His other pale hand shot forward and caught Christov's throat. A second later he had both hands wrapped around. His skin... It was so warm. So goddamn WARM. He still had a heart that pumped REAL blood. His mind hadn't given out on him. HE didn't hear the... the damned WALLS demanding blood. He hadn't been betrayed by everything important to him. He wasn't a bloody corpse ordained by fate!
That last thought made Gustave tighten his hands around Christov's throat. Christov immediately grabbed Gustrave's arms and tried to tear them from his throat. It was a shock to find how strong Gustave was. He pulled at his arms, gouged at his face, and even tried to apply pressure enough to fracture his wrist. Nothing had any effect. Gustave either moved to dodge it or ignored it altogether. He sneered at Christov and his pitiful attempts to break free that would have succeeded with anyone else.
"She... was MINE," he snarled. His hands tightened more.
Gustave's hands hadn't loosened a bit. Christov was trying to gouge at his face, and having no success. His tanned skin was turning an unhealthy pale shade from lack of air. Gustave's mind still roared at him to kill, and screamed for him to just break his neck and be done with it. Kill him, move on to Raven. Just break his neck and--
Gustave did just that. But instead of stopping there, Gustave slammed Christov's corpse onto the ground. He jabbed his right hand into Christov's stomach, pulling out his intestines like fishing rope. The left hand drove itself deeper to pull out the slowly beating heart. He glared at the heart... and was surprised to see that it wasn't black.
After crushing the heart in his hands, the blood spewed like a full sponge, and he wondered what color his heart was.
KILL THEM KILL THEM KILL THEM KILL THEM!!! The crushing command roared orders in Gustave's head and demanded that he follow.
He seized his head in both hands, shaking it from side to side. That 'voice' wouldn't leave. It was getting stronger. The subtlety and silky words from earlier were gone. Now it ordered and he was to listen and obey.
Death on one side, damnation on the other. Gustave did all he could do with them pressing from both sides. The wound on his side slowly healing.
It took him a slow while to suppress the voice enough for him to get up from the pool of blood. He couldn't get rid of him, he knew that. Getting along would be the hard part from now on.
Gustave got up, and slowly made his way over to Alicia. He was shocked; she was still breathing! He crouched down to her, raising her head up on his left hand, his right probing the wound. The entry should've killed... it was dead on her heart. Alicia's right had raised to touch Gustave's blood-splattered face.
A strained, tired and forced voice met Gustave's ears, "...My...liege-"
"No! Don't talk..." Gustave was nearly chocking out the words, a calm and sympathetic expression on his face. "We'll make it out of here... I'll take us far away. We'll go to our beloved north star, together, where are clan belongs."
Alicia's eyes began to close, "Yes... to Polaris. Let's go to her..." a plea broke out, "Gustave...?"
"Alicia?"
"I'm... so sorry... All I wanted was to be with my Gustave. To be useful... I . . ." sighed Alicia as her eyes glazed over. Her breathing slowed, then stopped.
Tears, tears that never have before reached Gustave's eyes peaked through. A pain, elusive, touched his heart like ice. The burning sensation... it was altogether new and unwanted. He sobbed, "My dear, dear Alicia... We'll go there. Away from this pain..."
Raven was at the bottom of the staircase, pistol raised. There he was, an easy target, but... perhaps there's more to him than originally thought. He lowered his pistol, and put it back in it's sling. "Gustave..."
Gustave raised his eyes. Raven, as distant as he was, could still see that he had blood everywhere on him. His iris' were golden, the rest of the eyes bloodshot. His face a pale white with sickly blue veins near his eyes. His dark green hair soaked with Raven.
Gustave raised, with Alicia in his arms, and turned his back to Raven. He walked to the closest wall, and set her corpse gently against it. So cold... he turned back to Raven, "So . . . it appears that you definitely want me dead. I welcome it now, but cannot embrace it."
Raven then noticed the gunshot wound in Gustave's side. He continued, "One last farce before we part ways, then?" he asked as he drew a curved piece of metal from his side, previously concealed. A katana?
Raven looked to his side, saw a loose pipe, and pried it with ease. He looked up to Gustave, "Fine by me. But what about your mission?"
"Feh," sighed Gustave, "I've never had the intention of repeating the Great Destruction. My other self did, however."
"Well... it appears that you want out of this misery of yours?"
"What would you know. You've never loved. You've only killed."
Raven took a step forward, "Consider yourself my last."
"Don't waste your life . . . just go." said Gustave as he walked back, towards the door.
"Is that your answer? Ha! Some great warrior you are. You prey on the weaknesses of others... leaving now would mean that I've won, and you were defeated by someone weaker than yourself. That must mean that the rest of the Engelhaft must've been REALLY weak."
That definitely made Gustave feel something. How dare this... this mercenary insult his clan?! He wouldn't stand for it...
Gustave lunged off of the staircase, and due to the lack of sufficient gravity, he literally flew down at Raven. Raven put his guard up, but was knocked back by Gustave's sheer force.
Raven darts at Gustave, but he dodges. He sideswipes as a second hit, but Gustave counters with his katana as he lunges for Raven's neck with his fist. His hand connects.
Raven stumbles back, gasping for air. He's amazed at Gustave' skill, although most of his battles thus far has left him weary. Gustave has a surprised expression on his face, glaring at the what should be fatal neck wound.
Raven attacks again from the air, barely missing Gustave' face. He swipes the sharp edge of the pipe on Gustave' suit, grazing his flesh significantly. Raven tries again, only to be blocked by the katana. Gustave uppercuts him, then slams down on his right shoulder, immediately kicking him in the gut moments after. Raven flies a few feet back, directly in the center of the bottom platform.
"Now..." Gustave begins, "Let's see how strong an abomination like you really are."
Gustave' image begins to blur, soon creating an afterimage effect encircling around Raven. He's caught off guard, disoriented and confused, not knowing how to attack. Raven pulls out his pistol, and shoots at an image, only to hit air. The images vanish, and immediately Raven feels three slashes in his torseau. He looks down to see the blood spill on the steel floor.
Gusatave appears in front of Raven, apparently disoriented himself. Perhaps he meant it to be a finishing move, Rave thought to himself.
He took this opportunity to shoot off what was left of his pistol. Gustave says nothing as the bullets go right through. Gustave collapses on his knees.
"Feh, what a worthless fanatic. You're all alike," remarks Raven. He is surprised, however, by Gustave getting up on his feet, glaring at him.
"...You... underestimate the human will to succeed..." says Gustave. He raises his katana into an old-style lunging pose, "...The end has not yet been written, and the title of the strongest has not yet been bestowed."
Raven's eyes widen as Gustave darts with unparalleled speed. In an instant, Raven feels tremendous pain coming from his left shoulder. Gustave's eyes are two inches away from Raven's. Raven is filled with fear, fear not felt in quite some time... fear of death.
Gustave pulls the sword out swiftly and backs away. Raven stumbles back as he covers the sword wound with his right hand, dropping the pipe. The left drops the pistol onto the ground as well. "Why... why in the?.." he inquired.
"For your own good. Killing a defeated opponent is not honoring life, or that which gave it. You have lost to the Engelhaft... now go," pleaded Gustave.
Raven retreated past Gustave down the hall from which he came. He stopped, however, and turned back to Gustave. A great tremor hit, and the gears within the chamber started to break and fall. The ceiling started to crack and fall apart as well. Large vibrations kept Raven from standing firmly without leaning against a wall. Gustave turned to meet Raven's eyes, "A wolf will always be a wolf, a killer will always be a killer, a savior will always be a savior, and a raven will always be a raven... Isn't that right, Raven Cross of the Dalriadan?" stated gustave.
Raven slowly nodded his head understandingly as he turned and ran. He could remember the way. This wretched day was welcome to fly from his memory soon, but he remembered the way to the docks and that one passage to freedom. He didn't want to think about Gustave or his fate, not here and not now. He could mourn for Gustave, a great warrior, later. Dead and lost was dead and lost. If his insistence on evading told him anything, it was that Gustave wanted to be left alone. It was one thing to know he was a monster, but it was that much harder to acknowledge that he was quite possibly SANE in his choice to remain here like this.
God, what was Gustave thinking?.. Couldn't stop, couldn't think. Only run. Raven had never retreated in his life, not unless ordered by the highest of commanding clients. No matter how many times he willed himself to go back and take up a weapon against the Kisaragi CEO with his good arm, he couldn't stop. Not now. Not when he was so close.
There was the sound of laughter behind, but the sound was swallowed up in the din of the tremors and the endless crash of falling steel and the screams of frying computers in the distance. His burdens were piling higher and higher; all of his family dead, Gustave left alive, his commanding syndicate likely dead from the CSA, so many atrocities witnessed in one day...
He was a warrior, trained to know and deal with death, and he was perhaps heading towards the worst burden a warrior could bear; retreat, abandonment of duty, simply to be the only survivor.
The end. The beginning. Beginning of the end. Dear God, which was it....? Somehow, despite the sacrifice Gustave might be making for him even now, perhaps it was an act of selfishness to force the duty of survival on him.
***
As Raven began to walk his AC towards the edge of the satellite, he felt the ship below him shake violently. "What now?!" Raven looked around quickly, then it occurred to him, looking up, "Thanks to that bastard I'm pretty high off the planet. I don't know if even an AC can handle that plummet... Well, I don't have the time to think about this. I have to go now. I won't let it end this way."
Raven boosted up into the atmosphere, and turned himself to meet the orbital plane. He was already going the correct reentry inclination, and he instantly saw the flames burst over his AC. With a loud blast of power the intense energy blast on the AC's back erupted. Raven grunted as the G forces pushed him up against his back as he tried to slow down. "Dammit! This is it! Now, maximum output!"
Raven reached over and quickly pushed a lever at his side forward. Amazingly, the AC slowed down after atmosphere reentry, an in a sudden burst of power the AC plummeted in a controlled manner. Raven coughed up blood as his body shook violently from the tremendous force. Dangerous, he thought. The maximum output is suicidal.
The AC spun around violently in the air being not so aerodynamic, switching directions suddenly every few seconds, all the while Raven tried to remain conscious. He quickly tried to balance the AC, but as he did this it switched directions and began to fly downward at a 90 degree angle.
Raven leaned forward, "What? It's… them." He saw his allies' ACs standing there on the ground looking up at him. He shook his head as he tried to regain his composure. "Pull up, dammit!"
He managed to balance the AC a bit, and they went hurdling forward and towards the ground. "Can I make it?! It's now or never!" Raven cried as he pulled up at the last second so as not to hit the ground head on. The AC hit the ground and went sliding forward violently. Raven grunted as the AC stumbled forward, rolling and spinning.
"Did I... Did I make it?.. Did Gustave... make it...?" asked Raven as his head rested on his seat as he lost consciousness. His allies were the only ones that saw an explosion from space, the satellite detonating in a brilliant white flare.