Trials of Beta
Chapter Nine: Crouching Ranger, Hidden Force
Beta sat with his back resting on the crate in the center of the room, his eyes locked on the door, the red lights on it blinking. His stomach growled angrily, demanding food. Beta leaned his head back, trying to ignore the pains in his mid-section. He couldn't tell how long it's been, an hour, three, a week? He couldn't tell, but it felt like he's been in here forever.
"Beta..." Came a playful female voice behind him. Turning his head slightly, Beta caught a glimpse of Lunehhy, smiling kindly at him. As he tried to focus on her though, she blurred and then vanished.
"Just a hallucination... Great... I feel so tired..." His head dipped forward, then jerked up again. "No... I can't fall asleep..."
It's been a long time since he had heard anything from the other side of the door. The last sound he had heard was a series of muffled explosions. Was Alex alive? At this point, Beta felt so depressed that he doubt the Hunter was. "God damn idiot... Why? Why didn't you let me help you?! Why....?" He cried out, a fit of tears threatening to take over him.
With a chime, the red lights on the door turned green, and Beta stared at it for a long second, trying to determine if he had imagined it or if Alex had finally come back for him at last. The door slide open, and there stood Alex in his blue armor. With a new found surge of strength he didn't know he had, Beta sprung to his feet and hugged the other man. "Alex, you're al-!" He cried out as he felt the figure sharply knee him in the groins. A fist slammed into his gut, doubling him over, and the figure landed a hard left hook on his face, knocking the Force back, breaking his nose in the process.
"Sorry Romeo, but you've got the wrong Juliet." Said the figure, a sea green haired female wearing a white and pink Ranger uniform. Snickering came from behind the lone Ranger, the high pitch voice distinctively female. Beta brought a hand to his face, trying to stem the bleeding from his nose.
"Why'd you hit me?" He asked, still reeling from the knee to his manhood.
"Why'd I clobber you? It's the standard hugging fee. Not a bad deal, if I do say so myself." She said, pushing up her glasses with her middle finger.
Huffing, Beta pushed himself up using his Shadow Rod as support, wincing in pain. Concentrating on the healing spell, Beta casted Resta upon himself, the warmth of the spell healing him and relieving the pain he was experiencing. "Get out of my way." He growled.
"EXCUSE ME?" The girl asked, her words dripping with attitude, purposely blocking the door.
Beta didn't waste time with words, bringing his weapon into a ready position and thrusting forward with lightening quickness. The Ranger jumped back, narrowly missing getting hit with Beta's Shadow Rod. "HEY asshole!" She screamed, but Beta was already plowing past her, barely noticing the other female Force behind her. This one had blue hair, and wore a blue and white robe. Their gazes meet for the briefest of instants, her sad blue eyes locking with Beta's chestnut colored eyes, then Beta broke the gaze, running to the north door, slamming his hand against the opening mechanism. The door slid open, and Beta rushed into the room, and gasped at what he saw.
The wreckage of various robots were strewn about the room, the walls and floor burnt with scorch marks. But that wasn't what he was gasping at. Lying on the floor near the door was Alex's left arm, cleanly sliced off at the shoulder. "No..." He felt a surge of sadness washing over him, but then noticed a trail of blood further ahead, leading to another door in the north-east wall. Without missing a beat, he ran to the door where he saw the trial of blood, the motion sensors detecting him and opening as he ran full speed through into the long hallway. The trail of blood moved up from the ground to the left wall, it looked like Alex had began leaning on the wall and moved forward, leaving a trail of dark crimson blood. Pushing himself harder, pumping his arms for added speed, Beta followed the trail to it's end.
The room where the trail of blood had ended was like the one where it started, large, the floor brown with some sort of odd light display playing over the ground. Lying off to one side was Alex's body, a construction bot standing over it, the tip of Alex's blue Photon Saber sticking out of its back. Even with one arm and severe bleeding, Alex somehow managed to take out another small group of the construction bots.
Moving quickly, Beta went to Alex's side, kneeling and grabbing a hold of his shoulders, ignoring the warm sticky blood that seeped from his severed left arm . "Alex! Wake up! Say something! Please!"
Slowly, weakly, the man's eyes fluttered open. Renewed with this sign of hope, Beta put his hands on Alex's chest, calling forth the Resta spell from memory, casting it repeatedly on Alex. His shoulder stopped bleeding, the wound closing as the healing light restored him. Even though Resta was a powerful healing spell, it couldn't regrow limbs.
With a sputtering cough, Alex felt the warmth come back to his body, life returning to him. "Be... Beta?" He said weakly as the Force lifted him up into his arms, cradling him. "I to... Told you to-" His sentence was cut short by Beta's lips pressing onto his, too weak to struggle against the man's embrace and loving kiss.
"Awww... How sweet! Where's my camera?" Came the obnoxious female's voice abruptly, ruining the mood.
"This is awkward." Said the other girl, resting her staff on her shoulder.
~*~*~*~*~*~
I don't know what caused me to kiss Alex then. Even now the reason is a mystery to me... Maybe it was because I thought I had lost him... We have been together for only a week, but I've grown attached to him, even more so when Lunehhy had died.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Alex leaned against the wall. There was a nervous air of unease between him and Beta. The man had just kissed him, of course he would be a bit uneasy around him. Beta was in the process of explaining what they were doing down here to the two girls. They had introduced themselves, the loud and annoying Ranger named Yuno, while the quieter Force's name was Uriko.
"And so I have to kill HK-55 and avenge Lunehhy's murder." Beta finished explaining. Yuno yawned, making a show of it, and then spoke.
"Hmmm... Sounds like fun. Sure, we'll tag along, right Uriko." It was a statement, not a question. The other Force merely nodded her head.
Beta was glad to have some more allies. If what they had encountered here was any indication of what lay ahead, they'd need all the help they could get. "Okay... As soon as Alex is rested, we'll move on... Alex...? Are you sure you don't want to go back to Pioneer 2? With that..."
"I'm positive... I may have only one arm, but I'm still useful." No way am I giving up my only chance to see Rico again...
"Hey, how exactly did you lose your arm anyhow? One of 'em bots lop it off?" Yuno posed the question.
Alex was silent, and Yuno figured he wasn't going to answer, so she turned away, fiddling with her Crush Bullet Shotgun. "I cut it off with my own Saber..." Alex said finally.