The Mistakes of The Past
Chapter Nine: Nel's Misty Past
Fayt and Sophia ran outside after hearing all the commotion. They opened the door see Mist standing with a katana in his hand and Maria standing only a few feet away from him.
"What's going on?"
Before anyone answered him, Mist winced again as the blood dripped from his left arm, and it began to collect on the ground. The gunshot wound was worse then he had originally thought. He dropped to his knees and tried to stop the bleeding. Maria ran to his side and leaned over.
"Mist! Are you alright?"
Mist said under his voice. "I should have killed him…" his vision began to get blurry from his loss of blood. The pain he was experiencing was extremely surprising to him. He didn't think such a little shot would affect him so much. Nonetheless, the sight of his blood on the ground caused him to fall over and lose consciousness.
"Mist! Mist! Get a hold of yourself!"
Maria tried to jar Mist awake to no avail. Fayt and Sophia ran over.
"Maria, how did this happen?"
"Long story. Let's bring him to the inventor guild; we need to help him right away."
"Alright."
Fayt carried Mist on his back and took him inside the inventor's guild. The girl who was there before agreed to help them. They lay down Mist on a bed that was in the next room.
"Could you take care of him for us?"
The girl smiled.
"Leave it to me! He helped us out with that bandit! Don't you worry!"
Maria smiled. "Let's go back to the hotel, Nel is pro—" when she mentioned Nel's name Maria stopped to think of what just happened. She slapped Mist and seemed furious at him; she was acting strange the whole time.
"Maria, is something wrong?" Fayt asked.
Maria came back to her senses. "Oh, nothing, I just kind of wandered off. Anyway, Nel's probably waiting for us."
They nodded. As they were about to leave the room, Maria turned to take another look at the sleeping Mist and then closed the door behind her. They began to walk to the hotel, as they were walking Fayt turned to Maria, who was walking with her head down.
"Maria, what happened?"
Maria looked up at Fayt. "Well, when we went into the guild, there was someone trying to steal the Parcelus Table. Somehow, Mist and the robber got into a fight outside. At first, the robber was just using his sword, and Mist was evading his onslaught with almost no effort."
"How did he get wounded?"
"That's the thing. Before that, he seemed to summon a katana into his hand. He was completely unarmed before, but suddenly he had that long katana. That's when the robber shot him."
"What happened to the robber?"
"Well, after he was shot, he began his attack. He knocked him down a few times and then he was going to in for the kill. When Nel—"
Before they had even noticed it, they were standing in front of the hotel. Sophia interrupted them.
"Hey guys, we're back at the hotel. Let's go inside. They're probably waiting for us."
They nodded. Fayt was pretty sure he had heard Nel's name before Maria stopped talking. "Nel? What did she have to do with anything?" They walked inside to see everyone sitting around a table. Clair stood up.
"Ah, nice to see you guys have finally arrived. Please sit down."
They filled the remaining seats in the room. Nel was at the head of the table, while Clair and Mirage took the seats closest to her. Adray took his seat beside Clair. Fayt, Maria and Sophia took the three seats beside Mirage and Albel stood against the wall. Nel was sitting quietly in her seat with her eyes closed and arms crossed. She then, opened her eyes and stood up.
"As you all know, we experienced a strange shockwave here on Elicoor II. But, this planet wasn't the only one affected. Neighboring planets seemed to have felt similar shockwaves, which helps us come to the conclusion that this was a widespread problem in space. It seemed to be an aftershock of a large explosion, the cause of which is unknown. But, the aftershock was a little too large, which meant the original blast must have been enormous. We need to get to the bottom of this situation."
They all sat and thought about what Nel had just said. "An enormous explosion? Enough to send ripples through an entire solar system? What could have possibly been the cause of that?" As Nel finished talking, she noticed that Mist was not in the room. She didn't want to get distracted at this time, so she shook her head, and asked:
"Are there any questions?"
Fayt replied. "What exactly are we going to do?"
"Well, we pinpointed were we think the original explosion might have come from. We're not sure of the danger involved, so we're taking time to figure details like that out."
"Alright, we do we start?" Fayt asked.
"We'll head to Aquios tomorrow to meet with Cliff. We'll start tomorrow."
They all nodded.
"Now, please get some rest. We have a lot of work to do tomorrow." Clair said. Sophia got up and stretched her arms. "Fayt, are you tired?" Fayt looked at her. "I'm actually alright, if you need to get some rest, go ahead Sophia. I'll catch up." Sophia smiled and went up the stairs. Fayt stretched out in his seat and closed his eyes to think.
Clair, Albel, Adray and Mirage went up to their rooms. Nel took a deep sigh and began to head outside. Maria noticed Nel and followed her. It was dark out and the moon was high in the sky, Nel began to walk towards the doors of Greeton. She stopped and looked at them.
"Rei…" she said. Maria wondered what she was talking about. Nel heard footsteps behind her. In self defense, she began to unsheathe her dagger, she quickly turned around.
"Oh? Maria, it's you….you surprised me."
"I'm sorry. It's just that, I have a few things to ask you."
"It is about me?"
"Yes, is that alright?
"It's fine. But, first, where is that boy who came with you here?"
"You mean Mist?"
"His name is Mist?"
"That's right."
"Where is he now?"
"He's resting at the Inventor's Guild."
Meanwhile…
Mist began to open his eyes. As his vision became clearer he saw a young girl standing beside him she was squeezing out some water out of a towel and into a bucket. She turned to him.
"Oh…you're finally awake. I was a little worried there…"
She put the damp towel on his forehead. Mist was feeling a warm sensation inside of him that he had never felt before. He tried to sit up, but the pain in his arm was sharp and shivered in pain. The girl held him still.
"Don't get up. You need your rest. I'm Welch Vineyard. I have to thank you for what you did."
Mist examined the girl who was holding him by her arms. She had long ponytails that slid down on his face as she was leaning over. She was pretty.
"It's alright, really." Mist replied.
"Please, just take it easy. I'll let you get up tomorrow."
"Sorry for the trouble." Welch shook her head. "Don't worry." She said. She left the room. Mist looked at his arm to see it bandaged and wrapped. She was kindhearted girl he thought. Suddenly, various images and memories began to run through Mist's head at a blinding pace. He held his forehead; he couldn't understand why he was having these visions.
"What the?"
Nel and Maria…
"I see. So…what is it you want to ask?"
"I want to know what you have to with Mist."
"It was just that…Mist looked like an old friend from Greeton. His name was Rei. He was a great friend and he was a great swordsman. We were really close; he was at least 4 or 5 years old then me at the time. 5 years ago, he left for an experiment on another planet. He never told me the details, but as you might have figured, he never came back. When I saw Mist…I—I just…remembered him."
"I see. Do you think Mist is the same person?"
"I want to believe he is, but I have no actual proof."
Maria turned around.
"Thanks, Nel, it must have been hard for you to tell me this."
"No, it's alright; I've been strange ever since you arrived. It was bound to happen."
They smiled at each other and Maria began to head back to the hotel.
"Get some rest, Nel." Nel nodded and Maria disappeared in the darkness of the Elicoorian night.
Mist had finally fallen asleep. He was having a strange dream. He tossed and turned in his bed as there were flames on a home in his dreams. A young red haired girl was calling out to him and he ran to her. He mumbled in his sleep.
"I-I'm coming..."
The next morning…
Mist woke up in a heap of sweat. Welch knocked and came inside.
"How are you feeling, this morning?"
"I'm alright. Thanks."
Welch smiled.
"That's good. Oh…yeah, someone has come by to see you."
The door opened to find our Elicoorian solider in the doorway. It was Nel. Mist looked up at her and his eyes opened wide. Nel walked inside the room.
"Good morning, Mist."
Mist was still short on words as he examined Nel closely. He finally began to form words.
"N-nel…?"
Nel stood shocked at the sound of her name.
"D-did you just say my name?"
End Chapter 9
Author's Note: I pumped this Chapter out faster than I thought, I seem to be neglecting my other fiction. Oh well. Since this was written in such a short period, I might come back and edit it, but this is it for now. Hope to hear from you! Thanks.
AlterGenesis-X