A/N: Just a little note, I've decided on making G.O.A. contain three floors:
FIRST FLOOR: contains game rooms, shopping stores, anything recreational
SECOND FLOOR: classrooms, pro-ing hanger, control rooms, Cueval- where the pro-ing battles take place, mess hall, candidate's rooms, goddess pilots rooms, any other equipment relating to the candidates and their training, the recreation room, medical wing
THIRD FLOOR: contains teachers' rooms, the 'higher-up's' rooms, meeting rooms, etc. (students are off- limits to this floor most of the time.)
Note: The goddesses/Ingrids (located within G.I.S.) will have a docking bay located on the first floor of G.O.A.
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Partner or Lover Chapter 15: The Art of Divination (or something close to it).
The three teenagers crept through the halls of G.O.A., trying not to grab too much attention to themselves, as they made their way to the mess hall. Once they entered the hallway that led to the mess hall, the two candidates and the repairer walked past the mess hall and entered the door adjacent to aforementioned room.
Walking through the double doors, with Zero in the lead, the three of them walked one behind the other through the long corridor leading to the main kitchen on G.O.A.
Hearing Kizna gasp, Zero turned around and questioned her silently.
"Duck!" Kizna whispered sharply as she grabbed the two boys by their shirts and pulled them into an alcove in the wall.
Erts had just enough time to utter a small "huh?" before he was yanked in along with Zero and Kizna.
Just as the three teenagers managed to fit themselves in into the alcove, a member of the kitchen staff walked by, his thick, sturdy boots clicking against the clean, marble- finish surface. Luckily, the guy was carefully perusing a piece of paper in his hands and walked blindly past the three adolescents.
Kizna, breathing a sigh of relief, untangled herself from the other two and continued on her way down the hallway. The two boys scrambled up off the white, sparkling floor and ran to catch up with Kizna. They continued to tip toe down the halls until they got to the main entrance of the kitchens. Two magnificent double doors enclosed the cooking perimeter. Kizna looked around and finally spotted what she was searching for. Walking to a door on her right, Zero followed her, while Erts stared curiously at the door in front of him.
"Uh Kizna, isn't this the door we're supposed to go through?" Erts asked. All of a sudden, he felt a very strong emotion radiating from the pink haired girl: slight irritation coupled with pity.
"Of course not. If we enter through those doors, most of the kitchen staff will see us. We enter this door," Kizna said as she pointed at the door marked "STORAGE." As she walked up to the door, Kizna muttered under her breath, "Erts definitely needs to get out more often."
Taking out a small pin, she pushed it through the doorknob on the door and wiggled the pin around until she heard a small 'click'ing noise. Satisfied, she swung the door open and dragged the two boys through.
"You know," Kizna whispered, as she closed the door behind her, "the kitchen staff really should change their locks. Using old-fashioned locks from the 21st century is kind of useless around here."
Zero reached for the lights and flicked the switch up, watching as the whole room illuminated itself in a soft, yellow hue.
Kizna looked around the storage room for something good to eat. Her eyes spotted some bread and a couple of other items that were sealed in a nonperishable wrap. She reached up and let her fingers close around the items and then pulled them off the shelf. Once secure in her hands, she turned to her accompanists. "Ok, I've got the food. Let's go." The three turned on their heels with Erts in the lead. He pulled the light switch down, turning off the lights and cracked the door open so he could see if anyone was coming.
"The coast is clear," Erts said, beckoning the other two to follow him. The three of them cleared the hallway without anyone stopping them and ran back to the gym, looking back over their shoulders every now and then to see if anyone was pursuing them.
The three teenagers fell to the floor, panting. Once Kizna got her breath back, she opened the bread and a packet of butter and placed in front of them. Ripping off an end of the bread, Kizna proceeded to butter her slice and took a bite out of it. She looked back up and saw the two boys looking at her with a weird look.
"What?" she started with a mouthful. She swallowed then said, "I'm hungry. Don't look at me like that!" She ate the slice in her hand and took another piece off the baguette. "You know you guys can take some, right?" she asked, just to make sure they did not think she was stingy, and promptly ate the next piece.
Once the three of them had filled their stomachs, Zero flopped onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. "Ahh, that was a great lunch…" he muttered as he closed his eyes for a second.
Before he knew it, Zero was fast asleep on the gym ground. Kizna groaned as she looked over at the sleeping body of Zero and mentioned to Erts, "I think we'd better move him over to the stands before someone finds him lying in the middle of the gym like this."
"Right," Erts replied as the two picked him up. Kizna got his legs while Erts took hold of him under his arms. They moved him over to the stands and then Kizna stood up with a determined look in her eyes as she clapped her hands together.
Erts looked up in curiosity as Kizna enthusiastically said, "How about we practice some more fencing? Zero is asleep after all, and when he's asleep, nothing can wake him up. Believe me, I should know…" with a grin.
"Uh huh… I'm sure you know all about it!" Erts claimed in a teasing fashion.
"Oh, bugger off!" Kizna exclaimed, stamping her foot on the hard gym floor.
"Ok ok, I'm sorry."
"Fine," mumbled Kizna. "Now do you think we can practice some fencing?"
Erts smiled and finally gave in to the pleading girl's desires. "Alright, but wait for about another half an hour and then we shall get down to business." Erts said. "I have to stop by somewhere in the meantime. I shall be back at quarter to four and then we shall begin." Kizna nodded as Erts retreated back to the hallways of GOA.
As soon as Erts disappeared from Kizna's view, she glanced back at the sleeping boy next to her and suddenly had an urge to run her hands through his chocolate brown hair. Giving into temptation, she ran one hand through his messy hair. Zero stirred slightly, but did not wake. Giving a slight smile, Kizna continued to stroke a hand through his hair, soon falling into a trance like state while watching his peaceful face. She heard a faint sound of a door opening but thought nothing off it as she continued to stroke through Zero's messy hair. Kizna heard a soft chuckle behind her and immediately whipped her head around to find the source of the sound. She found Erts standing behind her, watching the two lovebirds with some amusement in his bright blue eyes.
"Oh it's just you."
"Ah! I'm hurt Kizna! I thought you would have been excited to see me again!" Erts said, with a mock look of sadness on his face, his blonde hair covering his eyes as he looked down at the floor. Kizna rolled her eyes and then got to her feet.
"All right then, let's get started," Kizna said with a clap of her hands. Erts nodded as he lifted his head and walked over to the corner of the gym where they stashed the fencing equipment.
"Ok, get you're stuff and lets warm-up."
Nodding, Kizna went inside the small storage room, grabbed a jacket, helmet, sword and glove and came back out of the room. Placing everything on the ground, she picked up the jacket and slipped into it.
"Erts, you think you can help me out for a second?" she asked, seeing as she could not zip the jacket herself since the zip was in the back. Erts came up to her, zipped her jacket up and went back to get his own equipment. Kizna then continued to get the rest of her equipment on. She next took her helmet and placed it over her head to see if it was the right size. The helmet fit perfectly over her head, so then she picked the glove off the floor and slipped her right hand into it. Then, last but not least, she picked the sword off the ground and gave it a little flick to see if it was still in good shape. They had no idea how old the equipment was, but every once in a while they found some piece of equipment that needed repairing. Just to make sure, Kizna tested out her sword and then looked over at Erts to see if he was ready. He was placing the last touches on his uniform, getting his glove on, and then picked his sword up off the wall and then walked over to the middle of the gym.
"Ok then, you ready?" he asked looking over at Kizna through his helmet. She nodded. Walking over to stand right next to him, she got into an en-guard position, her feet at 90-degree angles, her sword up and ready.
"Ok, I want you to practice two advances, a lunge, two fast retreats and then another lunge. Um, how about ten sets of those for warm up?" he asked, also getting into an en-guard position to follow his own drill. Nodding, Kizna started her warm-up.
'Advance, advance, lunge,' she thought to herself as she went through the movements. She paused after she lunged, to check her leg position and then went back to the en- guard position. 'Fast retreat, lunge.' Kizna blasted off her back leg and lunged forward, her right arm - with sword- cutting the air in front of her as she extend her arm straight out.
"That looks good Kizna. You're a really fast learner!" Erts exclaimed as he watched Kizna's movements. After ten repetitions were finished, Kizna took her helmet off and held it in her hand.
"Wooh, that was harder than it looks…and I'm sweating like crazy, and since it's already pretty hot in this gym, it makes it worse," she exclaimed, as she wiped the sweat off her forehead with a small handkerchief that she had found in her pocket.
Erts gave a hearty laugh as he took his helmet off as well and then said, "We'll do one more drill and then we'll practice some one- on- one fencing."
"Ok," the pink haired girl replied as she slipped her head back into the mask.
"So now we'll advance one, retreat once, advance twice, retreat twice, increasing it one more time every time we advance and retreat. We'll do this around five times and then take a short break," Erts said. He put his mask on and started the exercise. Kizna watched him for a second or two and then started on it too.
'Advance, retreat… advance, advance, retreat, retreat…' Kizna did this until she was at five advances and five retreats and then stopped. She ripped off the mask and walked over to where she kept their lunch. Grabbing her water bottle off the floor, she took a long sip of water and then placed the water bottle back onto the ground. Taking the kerchief out from her back pocket, she wiped her face of sweat and then looked over at Erts to see what they were going to do next. The blonde haired boy was drinking water himself and felt someone staring him down. Turning around, he saw Kizna looking at him with questioning eyes.
"Ok, well I guess we can get onto the actual fencing," he started, as he put his water bottle back onto the ground.
Placing his helmet back over his head, Erts walked over to the middle of the gym and got into an en- guard position. Kizna followed suit as Erts lifted his left arm into the air. He quickly dropped it and they both advanced forward trying to get the first hit onto their opponent. Kizna saw Erts' sword slash down upon her, trying to hit her shoulder. Retreating quickly, she then lunged, trying to get a hit on the side of Erts' body where he had a slight opening. She felt her sword hit against his body with a slight 'twap' and she went back into her en-guard position, waiting for him to call the point.
"That was good! You finally hit me faster than I could! Excellent!" Erts exclaimed, giving her the first point. "Let's continue."
Back into their en- guard positions, they started again, both trying to get the first hit. This time, Kizna tried to attack first, trying to slash down onto Erts' head. She missed as Erts retreated back and he tried to score a point by lunging immediately afterwards but Kizna blocked his blow and then quickly retreated back. Placing enough distance between them, Kizna then quickly thought of what she could do next. She decided to play with Erts' mind a bit as she advanced and tried to make him think that she was going to attack his head. As soon as his arm lifted to block the blow to his head, Kizna then changed her path of attack and attacked his chest, hitting him straight in the middle.
"Ha! Another point isn't it!" Kizna yelled, jumping in the air, her fist shooting up in excitement. Erts laughed and nodded. "It must be beginner's luck!" Erts muttered.
Getting back into their starting positions once again, Erts lifted and dropped his hand, indicating the start of the fencing match. Advancing quickly, Kizna once again tried to score a point by hitting Erts but to no avail. Erts immediately took this chance to hit Kizna on the head.
Pouting, Kizna said, "Ok, that was your point." Erts just chuckled.
"Don't worry! You're making great progress! You'll be where I am in no time if we keep practicing like this every day." They fenced for a little longer and then decided to call it quits for the day. Taking off their suits and placing their things back into the storage room, they walked back to the stands to see Zero still fast asleep.
"Ok, well now I stink, so I'm going to go head back to my room to catch a quick shower. Um, I guess if you want, you can leave Zero here to sleep, I can come back and pick him up after my shower," the pink haired repairer said, looking at Erts to see what he would say.
"I guess so. I just hope no one will kidnap him!" Erts said giving a short laugh.
Kizna, rolling her eyes said, "I doubt it!" "Alright, in that case, I'm going to take off now," she said, walking over to the entrance of the gym. Taking a quick look back, she glanced at Erts and Zero one more time and then walked out of the gym.
Erts ran after the pink haired girl a few seconds later and yelled out, "Kizna, wait!" He then said, "I can take Zero back to his room if you want. It's close to my room anyways," shrugging.
"Really? Thanks!" Kizna said happily. She gave Erts a quick hug and practically skipped to her room.
She walked over to her room once again and entered a combination on the keypad beside the door. The keypad beeped softly as a small green light was turned on, and the door opened. She saw her other two roommates peacefully sleeping on their respective beds and she grumbled, "Wish I could take naps like you guys." But she knew it was her own fault for asking Erts to fence with her.
Grabbing some clean clothes from her drawer, she walked over to the bathroom and closed the door behind her with a small click.
When she was completely clean, she stepped out of the shower, dressed quickly and then walked out into the room once again. Her now- awake roommates, along with the repairers next door, who getting ready to go to lower floor for clothes shopping, greeted her with a smile. "Hey Kizna, do you want to come with us to get a couple of things?"
"Where are you guys going?" she asked as she dried off her ears with a spare towel.
"We're going down to the first floor for some clothes shopping," Saki said as she tied her long red hair into two ponytails.
Thinking that she had nothing better to do for the rest of the day, Kizna agreed to tag along with the rest of the hyperactive girls, minus Tsukasa and Ikhny. As the girls headed down, they met Rome along the way and invited her to come with them. They took the stairs, since it was the closest to thing to them that would get them to the first floor, and went down into the shopping arena. Most of their day was spent on buying new clothes and accessories. Every once in a while in G.O.A. they were allowed to wear what they wanted, mainly on the weekends since they had no classes; though not that often. The guys had found them about an hour and a half later, shopping their brains out, and decided to join them since they did not have anything better to do either.
Zero came up behind Kizna and hugged her from behind. Kizna rolling her eyes said, "Not here Zero," as she tried to push him away. He backed off of her a little but kept a close distance to her. He tried to get close to her once again, but she just brushed him off. Annoyed, Zero then decided to join the guys and goofed off for a bit. The guys, which included Yamagi, Roose, Clay and Zero, even ganged up on Zero and made him try on a girl's dress.
"HEY! What are you guys trying to do to me?" Zero complained, looking at the long, dark blue dress in front of him. "You are never going to get it on me," Zero stated, a smug look on his face.
"Wanna bet?" Yamagi said, grinning. "Where's Hiead when you need him?" the purple haired boy asked no one in particular. Hiead had decided to stay cooped up in his room, deciding that shopping was definitely not for him. Yamagi nodded and Roose and Clay surrounded Zero.
"Wha…?" but it was too late.
"Your guard was down," Yamagi said triumphantly. Yamagi slipped the extra large size cloth over Zero's head and pulled it down so now Zero was wearing an over sized blue dress. At that exact moment, Kizna decided to show up and glanced at Zero and continued walking. A second later, she stopped and did a double take.
"Zero?" she asked as she walked up to the laughing boys. "What in the WORLD are you doing in that DRESS?" she asked, her eyes wide and face red. "Oh my god… I can't believe you did this," she said as she buried her face in her hands. Turning around, a smile gracing her face, she walked away as quickly as possible to tell the girls what she had just witnessed.
She later found Zero and the rest of the guys trying on some necklaces and other jewelry. She just lifted her eyebrow and walked away again, this time, Saki laughing merrily behind her. By the end of the day, the guys had gotten yelled at a couple of times and were chased out of the store. Kizna sighed and followed them out of the store after she had made her purchases. She was going to give Zero a piece of her mind she thought as she made her way out of the store. The first few times he had goofed off, she had thought it was funny, but then the guys started disrupting some of the other customers in the store and that was just bad manners. Pulling Zero by the ear down the hall, a few meters away from the rest of the snickering boys, while Zero screamed 'ouch' all the way down, she pushed him against the wall and then started yelling at him in whispered tones. "What did you think you were doing back there Zero? You even started bothering some of the customers in there!" she said, her face red with embarrassment.
"But it wasn't all my fault you know!" Zero whispered back, trying not to place too much attention on them. "And you have to admit it was kind of funny!"
"Fine," Kizna growled out. "I'll admit that it was funny the first few times, but later on it just got annoying. Even for the other customers," she stated as she stomped her foot on the ground. Sighing she finally said, "Just make sure it doesn't happen again, okay? And I don't want to see you in any more dresses and …"
As she droned on and on about what she did and did not want to see him in or how he should or should not act, Zero tuned her voice out and just stared at her face. 'She looks cute when she's angry,' he thought as he bent down and captured her lips in a kiss, while she was in the middle of her rant.
"Wha…" was all she got out when Zero attacked her lips with his. As he pushed further trying to get a reaction out of her, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer. Getting lost in his strong arms, Kizna closed her eyes and relished the kiss, all thoughts of him goofing off thrown out the window.
Once they pulled back, he whispered, "Fine, I promise it won't happen again," well aware that Kizna was probably wanting an answer to her last question. Kizna got a confused look on her face, but it quickly passed as she remembered what he was talking about. She just smiled, nodded, and walked back towards the rest of the girls and headed up the stairs back to her room. Luckily they weren't caught by anyone roaming the hallways and Zero had to remind himself to be more careful next time.
By the time the girls came up to their various rooms and put their newfound things away, it was close to dinnertime.
"Let's head down to the mess hall," said Tsukasa. The rest of them nodded and headed down to get some dinner. As the girls settled down at a table with their trays full of food, Kizna frowned and suddenly asked, "Do you know where the mess hall gets all this food?" The rest of the girls looked around and shrugged.
Then Rome spoke up. "I guess they get it from near by colonies. That would be the only reason that makes sense. Let's ask Clay," she then said as Clay walked up to the table with his own tray of food.
"Hey Clay, Kizna was asking, and we were all wondering as well, where does G.O.A. get all the food? I mean, they can't just keep making food like this out of thin air," Saki said laughing.
"You're right indeed. They can't make food out of thin air," he started, as he took a seat on the other side of the table, across from the line of girls. The rest of the boys were following his lead and followed him to the mess hall, all the way up to the table and sat down when they came to their respective seats. "Well, if my sources are correct, we get food from any near by colony that we encounter. Pretty much any colony in this system knows about G.O.A. and have offered to help out the candidates living on the ship since we are the future," he said, puffing out his chest.
Yamagi then took that opening and smacked Clay on the back, in a friendly way. "Don't go and get a big head Clay," he muttered with a mouth full of food. Clay just rolled his eyes, ignoring Yamagi, and pushed up his glasses.
"Like I was saying, they get food from neighboring colonies as we go around the galaxy, watching out for victim who are trying to attack the last available planet for humans to live on, Zion. Once we find a permanent way to get rid of the Victim, then people can start settling down on Zion and make it their home just like the planet Earth was…" Clay said, going into his lecture mode. His eyes glazed over as he thought back to how it must have been to live on earth and decided to go back onto a computer and research more about the earth. Saki, fork in hand, waved her arm in front of Clay's face, trying to get him out of his revive.
"Hey Clay! Snap out of it!" she barked as Clay slightly jumped at her voice.
"Sorry," he uttered sheepishly. Then he continued to dig into his food, while the rest of the gang pondered over what Clay had just revealed to them.
Yawning, Zero stood up after his meal and rubbed his eyes. "For some reason, I'm still sleepy," he said. Kizna just raised an eyebrow and shook her head.
"Boys."
"We have classes tomorrow don't we?" Ikhny asked.
"Yeah we do. So we'd better get to bed soon too," Clay said as he looked at his watch. "It's almost 8:30," he reported. After their dinner, they spent some time just chatting away, making idle talk in the mess hall for about half an hour. They then decided as a group to take a small walk around G.O.A., to walk off their dinner. By the time everyone got back to their respective rooms, it was around 9:00 and Zero headed straight to bed.
"Good night Kizna," he said as he gave her a quick kiss on her cheek.
"Aww!" he heard the girls say behind him. He turned and glared at them as Kizna laughed at his reaction.
"Just go to bed Zero," she said as she pushed him in the direction of his room. Nodding, Hiead, Clay and Zero headed over to their room and closed the door behind them.
All was peaceful, but of course, everything will seem peaceful before a storm hits. Zero found himself getting ready for bed, a yawn taking over him every once in a while. He had been goofing off all afternoon and Kizna scolded him for that later that evening, but of course he made her forgive him and forget all about his antics by giving her a long, passionate kiss that took her breath away. He grinned at that thought. 'I wish I knew that a long time ago, that way I wouldn't have gotten punched or kicked so many times before!' Zero slipped out of his uniform and wore a pajama pant over his boxers. He decided it was too hot in the room, therefore not bothering to wear a shirt. Before he climbed into bed, he muttered a 'goodnight' to Hiead and Clay and then wrapped the blanket over himself. Thoughts flowed freely in his head as the day's events fluttered by. Past battles, future goals, anything and everything went in and out of his head as he zoomed away into the inky darkness that he called sleep.
Zero found himself staring at Kizna, their noses almost touching. "We did it Kizna!" he found himself yelling. Kizna just smiled in response and gave him a light hug. All of sudden, G.O.A.'s alarms went off indicating that the Victim were attacking. Zero's eyes widened as he looked at Kizna. She nodded as they both rushed towards the pro- ing room. Kizna gave him a quick kiss on the cheek as she left to go to the control room. Zero ran into the pro- ing room and jumped into his pro-ing, watching at the hatch closed down upon him, locking him into the pro- ing. Firing off, the brown haired boy soon found himself floating in space along with his friends.
"Zero!" the brown haired boy heard, as the voice reverberated through his pro-ing. "Zero, it's Erts. Follow me!" he said as the goddess flew past him, almost blowing him away. Zero, his mind slowly catching up to him, took control of the jets on the back of the pro-ing and blasted away, following right behind Erts. He took a quick glance around and was happy to see his friends following him.
"Hey lover boy!" Hiead called out. Zero turned around and looked at Hiead.
"What?" he asked, his tone clipped and annoyed.
"You ready? I have a little challenge for you," Hiead started to say. "The person to kill the most victim will get to be a slave to the other for a whole week."
"That's it? A whole week?" Zero asked, slightly suspicious that there may be more to this deal than Hiead was letting on.
Hiead just raised his eyebrows. "Fine, a month. How's that?"
Zero smirked and said, "You're going to regret that!" as he blasted away into the battle ahead, trying to kill any Victim that was in reaching distance.
"Zero!" he heard Kizna scream.
"What? What is it?" he asked, slightly concerned at the tone she had used to call him. He pulled his sword out of an unsuspecting Victim and grinned in triumph.
"Behind you!"
Zero turned around as quickly as possible but it wasn't quick enough. The victim lifted its tail and swiped down at Zero, slashing his chest. Zero screamed in pain, but as soon as the pain had come, it vanished. "Thanks," he panted out.
Turning, he saw a pro-ing getting slashed in half by a cunning Victim and he bowed his head for a second to pay respect to his dead comrade. Then he continued fighting on.
The battle raged on for quite some time. "Zero, you have to slow down. If you continue like this, you're going to use up all you reserve energy and you can die if you are stuck out there without any energy to do anything!" Kizna exclaimed as the face of Zero popped up onto her screen. She had been monitoring his heartbeat and how much effort he was putting, and at the rate he was going, he wasn't going to last very long.
"But I can't loose to Hiead!" he growled as he took out his gun and fired at another couple of Victim. Realizing that it was the last of his shots, he threw away his gun and took out his sword once again and fired off.
"Zero!" Kizna screamed helplessly. All of a sudden, Zero heard a loud crash behind him and as he turned, he caught sight of a type of Victim he had yet to encounter.
'This must be the mother of them all,' he thought as he waited to see what it would do. To his horror, it headed straight to G.O.A. Zero raced towards the space station, trying to beat the Victim there, but unfortunately he was not fast enough. He tried calling Hiead or Erts, anyone for that matter, but he was too low in energy and the systems inside the pro –ing were failing him.
"No…." Zero muttered as he watched the Victim attack, head first, the side of G.O.A. where the control room was located. "Kizna!" Zero screamed as he once again, powered up his jets and raced towards the station. He found himself slowing down a couple seconds later and to his horror, he discovered that his jets were now failing. "DAMN IT!" the blue-eyed boy screamed as he banged his fists into the control panel of the pro-ing.
All of a sudden, his pro-ing shut down for some unknown reason, and now he was a sitting duck in middle of space. He could only watch as the new type of Victim continued to crash into the side of G.O.A. where his beloved was located and none of the goddesses came to their rescue. He heard a scream come from far away, as it was very faint, and realized it was the repairers in the control room screaming for their lives. Zero tried once again to start his pro- ing, but to no avail.
"KIZNA!" he screamed out, as the blue-eyed boy started to break down as he watched G.O.A. crumble right under his nose.
As he fell into the darkness, Zero felt a soft hand touch his shoulder. 'Am I dead?' Zero thought for a moment. That thought soon passed as another hand started to shake his body violently. Zero let out a howl of frustration and punched the person who was bothering him. Zero tightly closed his eyes to prevent any tears to flow out. Feeling something cold touch his face, he opened his eyes immediately to see what it was. He found himself staring into someone's hand.
Confused, Zero looked around and found himself lying in bed with an anxious Hiead and concerned Clay watching over him. "What?" he asked.
"You were screaming like there was no tomorrow," Hiead stated matter- of – factly.
"Huh?" Zero asked, but as soon as he uttered those words, his dream came back to him in a rush, the goddesses, and the victim, the screaming… "Oh god… Kizna!" Zero tried to scramble out of bed as fast as he could, but Hiead's strong hands clamped down on his shoulders and prevented him from moving.
"What are you doing? Get off me!" Zero screamed.
"Calm down," Hiead said, his red eyes staring deep into Zero's blue ones. "It was just a dream."
Zero blinked and finally took in his surroundings. He finally realized that his blanket was drenched in sweat, his chest and hands were covered with a light sheet of sweat and his pants were sticking to his legs. "What happened?" he finally asked, calming down.
Sighing, Clay took this time to explain to Zero their version of the story. "Well, we heard you say good night, and then you got into bed. Both of us followed your example and tried to get some sleep, but five minutes later, you started screaming and muttering in you're sleep. We thought it was just some kiddy nightmare like a ghost chasing after you or something and decide to ignore it. After all, you did stop screaming a couple seconds later. But soon, like, I'd say, ten minutes later, you started screaming for Kizna, Hiead, actually, pretty much anyone that we know. You even screamed for Azuma! Then you started yelling at the top of your lungs and you were trashing about and it was then that Hiead and I decided to hold you down and make sure you calmed down before you hurt yourself. You were screaming Kizna's name like there was no tomorrow and then you started to sob…. That must have been some nightmare…" Clay concluded with a sad smile on his face. "Are you ok now?"
Zero nodded numbly. "It sure felt real," he muttered. "I don't really feel like talking about it right now though."
Hiead and Clay nodded, understanding that Zero needed his space. Zero got up and decided to take a walk around G.O.A. to clear his mind before returning back to bed. He pressed the button on the sidewall to open the door and immediately found himself face to face with his pink haired repairer.
"Zero…" she uttered, slightly shocked. Zero, eyes wide, grabbed her shoulders and hugged her, bringing her as close to him as possible.
"Zero?" Kizna asked questioningly. "I heard someone screaming from over here and was worried that it might be you or something. Are… Are you alright?" The pink haired girl touched his cheek with her left hand, her thumb brushing over his cheekbone in a slow manner. "You okay?" she asked once again, looking straight into his baby blue eyes for an answer. She knew it was his screaming that she heard; she could make it out from anywhere. When he did not reply, she looked over her boyfriend's shoulder and looked questioningly at Hiead and Clay.
"He's ok," Clay uttered reassuringly. Kizna nodded.
Reaching down, she took Zero's hand into hers and slowly pulled him out of the room. 'That must have been some nightmare to shake him up like this,' Kizna thought as she sadly looked over at him. Zero was silently walking besides her, staring at the floor. "Come on," she said as she pulled him down the hall. "I'll bring him back in a little while," Kizna hollered back to his roommates.
Nodding, Hiead closed the room door once again. "I think she'll be the only one to help him get through that. I think this is the first time I've seen him so shaken up," Hiead said out loud. He was a little shaken up himself at seeing Zero so sullen and quiet.
Meanwhile, Kizna took Zero and led him towards the recreation room. Once inside, she took a seat beside him as he plopped himself next to the big oak tree that was towards the center of the room.
"Zero," she said softly as she placed a soft hand on his shoulder. Eyes wide, he turned around and stared at her.
Turning back around to stare out the window once again, he softly muttered, "it was horrible Kizna… I was so scared when I lost you…" Kizna's eyes widened slightly as she realized what had Zero so shaken up. "I called for help, but…" Kizna watched as the boy in front of her placed his head in his hands. She rubbed his back, trying to ease the pain. Then, all of a sudden, shocking himself, as well as her, Zero pulled her into a fierce hug and then slowly said, "no one came… but I'll never let that happen again." Backing away from her slightly, he repeated his promise once again. "You hear me? I'm never going to let you go!" he whispered fiercely as he slammed his lips onto hers in a fiery kiss, full of passion and wanting.
Kizna's eyes that were fully open with shock, slowly closed as she savored the kiss. She felt his tongue prodding against her lower lip as she slowly opened her mouth to let him in. He pulled away a minute later, gasping for breath. He then moved in and started to attack her open neck. His lips finally found her pressure point as he let his tongue flicker out and lick the soft skin there. The brown haired boy felt Kizna shiver under his lips and grinned. Teasing her for another minute or so, he went back to her lips and continued kissing her. He felt her place her hands on his chest and soon felt himself falling backwards onto the soft green grass. Wrapping his hands around the waist of the girl in front of him, he fell in such a way so that she would not get hurt. He went down with a soft 'oof,' all thoughts of his nightmare gone for the night as he cuddled next to the pink haired girl. As they continued to kiss and caress each other into the night, the darkness slowly took over them as they fell into a peaceful slumber side by side.
By the time the sun came up and shone through the glass of the recreation room, Kizna had one arm splayed over Zero's chest and one of her legs between his in a very compromising position. Should she have moved the slightest bit, Zero would have woken up in one of the seven hells. Zero on the other hand had spread out over the ground, laying flat on his back. One of his arms was wrapped protectively around Kizna while the other arm was somewhere out there.
Zero yawned and cracked his eyes open slightly. A slight pressure between his legs woke him up, but he had the nicest sleep that he had in a couple of months. He moved down a little, preparing to get up, when he felt the pressure between his legs increase. Frowning, he looked down to see his legs wrapped around a thin, slender leg. As he followed the leg up, he found his girlfriend wrapped around him, her soft, pink hair tickling his neck as she moved slightly. He winced slightly as she moved her leg and her knee pressed up against him. He moved backwards slightly, as much as his body would allow since his arm was stuck under her body, and slowly removed her leg, trying not to wake her up. Moaning slightly, Kizna turned over to lay on her other side, taking Zero's arm with her.
"Ah!" he screamed out softly as he was pulled along with her. He now found himself with his face right beside her neck; both of his arms wrapped around the girl's waist, his body spooned in alongside hers.
As it was too tempting to pass up, Zero lightly blew on her neck and waited for her reaction. He was pleasantly surprised to find her mutter something incorrigible and then squirm a little. Grinning, he tried that again and she repeated her actions. Daring to do it again, he blew on her neck again, this time not anticipating her reaction, got hit in the head as her hand took flight as she tried to brush off whatever was blowing on her neck. Deciding to stop, he found a new way to wake her up.
"Kizna," he whispered in a husky tone into her cat like ear. Her ears twitched in response and she turned towards him slightly, but did not show any indication of waking up. He tried again. "Kizna…" he uttered, in a slightly whiny tone this time. She only twitched her ears, brushing up against his nose, and continued to sleep. He watched her face for another minute or so and saw her lips forming a slight pout. Smiling, he removed his free arm from her waist and traced her light pink lips. They were as soft and as tantalizing as ever as he leaned down and kissed the side of her mouth. Not satisfying his desires, he leaned down a little further, catching her lips in a sweet kiss. He let his tongue roam out of his mouth to lick hers. He could still taste some remnants of the lip balm she had put on the day before.
He heard his girlfriend moan slightly and he slowly opened his eyes again. He found himself getting lost, once again, in her brownish red eyes. Pulling back slightly, he found Kizna's slightly confused gaze on him.
"What?" he muttered, rubbing the back of his head. He supported his upper body on his elbow. "It was too tempting!" he confessed, rolling off of her. Realizing that his arm was under her, Kizna lifted her body slightly, allowing him to remove his hand. Kizna rolled over to face him and gave him a peck on the cheek.
"You know, you're really cute when you want to be," she said giggling.
"Har har…" he replied giving her a playful glare. He then suddenly became quiet as the previous night's events rolled through his head.
"You ok?" Kizna asked once again, when she saw his face go behind a mask once again.
Swallowing, he squeezed Kizna's arm in a reassuring manner and then replied, "Yea, I think I will be. Don't worry; I won't let it affect me. Plus, I don't think I'll have another nightmare again. Don't worry," he repeated, not quite sure if it was for himself or for the pink haired girl in front of him.
Hugging him lightly, Kizna got up off the floor and started walking towards the exit. Running up behind her, Zero grabbed her from behind and wrapped his arms around her once again and whispered a 'thanks' in her ear before letting her go out the door. She smiled but did not turn around as she continued to walk to her room. Zero left a minute after her, checking if the halls were clear. He remembered Clay's warning of the 'people above' finding out about them. Apparently repairer and candidate could not have any other relationship other than platonic. They thought it would get in the way and could be detrimental to the candidates if the repairer and the candidate had… not so friendly feelings between them. Zero sighed and walked back to his room when he saw no one was in the halls.
'What time is it anyways?' he thought to himself. He left his watch in his room so he had no clue. He heard faint footsteps behind him, meaning that the person was not so close to him, but was going to approach him pretty soon. Panicking because he did not want to be asked thousands of questions, Zero started to run down the halls, heading straight to his room. He made it in a couple minutes and typed in a couple numbers into the keypad next to the door. Slamming a finger into the enter button, the door slid open and he raced in, pressing another button to close the door.
Zero leaned on the doorframe for a minute, panting softly. He looked around the darkened room at his two sleeping roommates and felt a yawn taking over him. Sighing, he thought to himself, 'I guess I need more sleep than I thought I did… plus I didn't have such a good night.' He walked over to his bed and glanced at the indigo clock on his nightstand. It read 5:30 AM. Deciding that it was too early and that he would not have anything to do until 8, he slipped under the covers and tried to get some sleep before classes started that day.
When he heard his alarm clock go off, he pulled his arm out from underneath the blanket and slammed down onto the tiny clock. Rolling over onto his side, he heard his other two roommates get out of bed. 'Lucky them, they got enough sleep last night,' Zero thought with a hint of annoyance. Sighing, he cracked an eye open and watched as Hiead stripped down to his boxers, grab his clothes for the day and walked over to the shower. 'I did not need to see that,' Zero thought, a grimace upon his soft features. As soon as Hiead came out, Clay went in after him. There was enough rustling going on in the room that Zero finally realized that he would not get anymore sleep that morning. Sitting up in bed, he stared groggily at Hiead and watched him get dressed.
"Are you so taken up with me that you can't peel your eyes away from my body?" Hiead asked, smirking. "I'm flattered, but it's kind of creeping me out."
Zero glared in response and said, "I just got up… give me a break!" He then turned away from Hiead and stared out the window. All he could see was pitch-black darkness, a few stars sprinkled here and there over the darkened sky. Hiead just laughed in response.
"Let's get going," Clay said as he re-entered the room, a towel wrapped around his waist and another one hanging off his shoulders. "Zero, you'd better take a shower quickly; classes start in about fifteen minutes," Clay reminded the brown haired boy as he glanced at his clock.
"Oh shit!" Zero exclaimed, bounding out of bed. Grabbing his uniform off the ground, he pulled out a clean pair of boxers from one of the drawers in his chest and ran towards the bathroom door. Slamming the door behind him, he stripped down and clambered into the shower stall as fast as he could. Luckily the water was still warm since Clay had just come out, so Zero did not have to wait for the water to heat up. Vigorously rubbing himself free of sweat and dirt from yesterday, the dream from last night slowly replayed in his head.
'It's not true,' he kept reminding himself. 'Calm down!' Washing all the soap off his body, he rinsed his hair quickly and then turned the water off. Getting out of the shower quickly, he dried off his body, slipped into the new pair of boxers he had brought with him, and then wrapped the towel around his waist. Grabbing the rest of his clothes that had fallen onto the ground in his rush to take a shower, he walked out of the bathroom and dumped them into the laundry shoot located in a corner of the room, on the wall. He then ran back to his bed and slipped into his uniform and finally turned to face Hiead and Clay.
"Ok, let's go! We have five minutes left!" he yelled as he dashed to the door. He pushed on the button that opens the door and as soon as the door opened he ran out, jogging in place while waiting for the other two to come out the door. "Hurry up you two!" Zero ordered.
"And he was the slow one ten minutes ago," mumbled Clay. Hiead just shook his head and followed the other two out the door.
"I'll race you two to the classroom," Zero challenged as he took off.
"How can it be fair if he gets a head start?" Clay whined, but nevertheless, went running after Zero and Hiead when he saw that Hiead had deserted him. They passed Roose and Yamagi on the way down and Clay stopped to talk to him. Meanwhile, Hiead did not want to loose to the chocolate haired boy so he pushed himself to catch up to his rival.
"Got ya," Hiead panted out as he caught up with Zero, easily running side by side with him. But of course there was a slight difference as Hiead was panting very slightly and Zero's breathing was completely normal. Hiead noticed this and pushed it to the back of his mind to delve on later.
As the two boys ran into the classroom, Kizna shot Zero a worried look, but he just shrugged it off with a smile and walked up to her. "Hey," he whispered as he gave her a quick kiss on the forehead, making sure no one caught them in the act.
Smiling slightly, she faced towards the front of the classroom when she heard Azuma walk in. "Take your seats people," he barked as he went to the computer in the corner. Pressing a small button on the keyboard, a big monitor came down in front of the classroom for the students to look at. Typing a few quick commands into the computer, a big image of the various victim that were found came up on the screen.
Zero, quickly scanning the monitor, sighed quietly as there was no trace of the victim he saw in his dream. "Now, here are the different types of victim. By the end of the week, each and every one of you should know the various victim, how they look when spotted from far away and what are their weaknesses and how you can manipulate them." Azuma then continued on to explain each of the different types of victim discovered so far and the kinds of attacks that the goddesses found advantageous over the various types of victim. By the time Azuma had finished talking about the victim, half the class was over. He closed that screen and brought up a new one. This new screen contained pictures of the five goddesses and their pilots. "Ok, so we are going to continue analyzing each of the goddesses and their pilots, faults and strengths, both. Now, can anyone tell me what are some faults that were found with Ernn Laties?" Azuma questioned. Clay raised his hand tentatively, and then quickly put his hand down again.
Saki leaned over and questioned that action. "Well, I'm not quite sure with the Ernn Laties. And plus I'm not quiet sure what kinds of problems he wants us to describe, mechanical problems, goddess interaction problems, pilot problems?" Clay went on rambling. He was mainly nervous of being wrong and getting yelled at by Azuma.
"No one? Well then, let me explain," Azuma yelled out. He went through the goddesses again, hitting on the major points briefly. "I expect you all to know this information by next class. I was lenient on you guys today," he mentioned, fixing each one of them with a glare. He closed the program with the goddess information on it and then shut down the computer. "Class dismissed." Azuma pulled out a cigarette out of his back pocket and stuck it in his mouth, and then continued to walk out of the classroom, mumbling something about incompetent students under his breath.
The rest of the class filed out of the room and decided to go their separate ways. Clay said he wanted to go visit the computer lab and library first thing before he did anything else. Hiead decided to go with him, but as the two left, Hiead glanced back quickly at Ikhny to see if she was ok. Apparently she had decided to hang out with Tsukasa, both of them heading back to their rooms to get some quiet time to themselves, and maybe pick up a good book to read along the way.
Wreka, Saki and Yamagi decided that it would be fun to spy on people around G.O.A. and get some real gossip that was going around on the ship. Roose was unfortunately dragged along with them. That left Zero and Kizna to do their bidding. They decided to…
"Hey, do you want to head down and see the goddesses?" Zero asked with a pleading looking his eyes.
Giving in, Kizna finally said, "Ok, we'll go." But then she remembered that the G.I.S. was off limits to any of the candidates. Only official members of the staff and the goddess pilots were allowed in.
"We'll just take a quick peek," Zero said grinning. He gave her a quick peck on the cheek and grabbed her hand, pulling her along various corridors until they got to the staircase. They took the stairs down, of course there was an entrance to where the goddesses were on the second floor, but they decided that if they wanted to sneak in, the first floor entrance was better.
After about ten minutes, Zero and Kizna found themselves running back down the first floor hallways, up the stairs and down into an empty classroom because someone saw them sneaking down around the G.I.S. base. Panting hard, and out of breath, both teenagers took two seats and waited for their breathing to catch up to them.
"Whew… that was fun!" Zero exclaimed, laughing. Kizna joined in too.
"Yea, but luckily we weren't caught by them… They just saw us. And if I remember correctly, that must have been Gareas and Leena," Kizna said, her hand under her chin, elbow resting upon the desk table.
Zero's eyes widened and he muttered something unnecessary under his breath as he remembered it was Gareas' Ingrid that he fell into when he went to look at the goddesses for the very first time.
"What?" Kizna asked, looking slightly confused.
"It was Gareas' goddess that I fell into and Leena and he had to fish me out of there… but I fell you, it was an awesome feeling to be inside a goddess…" Zero said as he went back into his memories. Kizna smiled, happy for him.
"He controls the Eeva Leena right? The most powerful offense goddess," Kizna said, as she tried to remember what else Azuma taught them on the goddesses. Nodding just to please Kizna, Zero scooted his desk a little closer to Kizna and took in the scent of her hair.
"It smells nice," he muttered under his breath, but of course Kizna's cat- like ears picked that comment up.
"What does?" she asked.
"Your hair," he replied as his hand caressed her ear. Kizna felt her eyes close as she relished his touch. She leaned into his touch and soon felt him place kisses on her face and neck.
"Zero…" she mumbled quietly. They continued torturing each other like this until a bell sounded, alerting them that a class would come in. Sighing, both the teenagers got up and walked out of the classroom, slightly annoyed at the interruption.
As the day went on, the two teens found various different places to hide or just to hang out. They met up with the rest of the gang for dinner and then went to bed after their meals.
Zero was kind of scared to sleep that night, scared that he might have another dream like the one he had the previous night. But he was lucky not to have any such dreams. But unfortunately, he was not so lucky the next night.
Zero thrashed and rolled in his sleep two days after his last disturbed sleep, sweat dripping off his brow. "Ughhh," he moaned out.
He looked over at Kizna, his eyes filled with love and passion. He heard footsteps approaching. Eyes wide, he grabbed Kizna's hand and dragged her down another hall. "Zero, what's going on?" she asked him, demanding that he stop.
"Azuma is following us. That's what's going on," he whispered forcefully. It finally dawned on Kizna why he was running in the other direction. Nodding, she grabbed his hand again, and gave it a small squeeze.
"Listen, I know a place where we can hide. I've never been there before, but I've heard rumors that it's the best place on this ship… only if I could remember exactly where it was…" Kizna mumbled, holding her chin with the palm of her hand.
"Let's get out of here," Zero promptly said, dragging her towards a near by room.
"Oh! I remember where it is!" Kizna shouted out as she pulled Zero in another direction.
"Kizna!" Zero whined as he was pulled along into a new hall that he had never seen.
"Hum,… where can it be?" Kizna questioned, to no one in particular. "What's this?" she asked, stopping at a funny looking door. It looked like their room doors, the ones that slid open with a push of a button. Seeing a keypad on the side of this new door, she pushed a small red button located at the bottom of the keypad and the monstrous double doors opened with a loud creaking noise. The double doors groaned and clicked loudly as it opened up, sliding into the walls connected to it.
Frowning, Kizna bent forward, sniffing the air inside the new room they found. "It smells ok," Kizna said tentatively. Zero froze, looking at the contraption in front of him.
"Zero? What's wrong?" Kizna asked, looking at the man standing next to her. His eyes were wide as he continued to stare straight at the wall, his mouth slightly open, and his hands in the shape of a fist. "Are you ok?" the repairer asked as she gently shook his shoulder.
Zero was brought out of his revive and turned to Kizna. He shook his head and smiled as Kizna said "come on!" and dragged him into the small room they found.
Kizna looked around, eyes wide, and ears up, taking in everything in sight. "Hey look, more buttons!" Kizna said. Then she remembered something. "If I remember correctly, the rumor that I heard was about a room located on the second floor." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a button marked with the number "2" and pushed it. As soon as she did, the room came to life, humming and shaking. Kizna, scared at the noise since any sound became amplified through her cat like ears, she jumped and grabbed Zero and a sort of strangled hug.
"Kizna… you're choking me," Zero gasped out. Releasing her hold slightly, she felt the 'room' moving upward.
"Zero, where are we going?" she asked shakily.
"I'm not sure, but I feel like I've been in this kind of situation before," he muttered, deep in thought. The room came to an abrupt stop and both Kizna and Zero were thrown back. The doors of the room once again slid open, groaning and creaking until it stopped moving. Cautiously stepping out of the 'room' they had found, Zero and Kizna gripped their hands together, tightly, almost at the point of stopping the flow of blood into their hands.
As they walked down the hall, they saw rooms on either side of the hall, even when they turned onto the next hallway, there were more rooms to greet them. Taking their time, they slowly made their way deeper and deeper into the maze. They finally stopped when they saw a door, ancient carvings covering the door from top to bottom, yet it had the look of a modern day door because it had a keypad lock on the side of the door.
"Amazing," Kizna said with a gasp as she took in the sight of the door. As Zero stared at the door, he felt some sort of message enter his brain as he kept his eyes trailed on the door. His hand went automatically to the keypad on the sidewall and typed in the code to open the door. He had no clue how it came to him, but all he knew was that somehow he had gotten this knowledge and should not let it go to waste. "7-7-5-4-2-6-0" he muttered under his breath as he typed in the access code. His fingers then trailed down the pad and pressed the 'Enter' button. As soon as his finger put a little pressure on that key, the light at the top of the keypad went green and with a loud grinding noise, the doors slowly began to open.
A little bit of dust and smoke could be seen entering the hallway where Kizna and Zero stood. They just assumed that the door had not been opened for a while. When the doors were completely open, the couple slowly stepped inside and looked around.
"What's so great about this?" Zero asked with his hands on his hips as he surveyed the room. "It has such great doors, yet this whole room is empty… totally empty."
"You're right. Hum…" Kizna knew something was not right here. Zero could see it on her face.
"What? What is it?" he asked, a curious look taking over his face.
"Well, you made a great point. Why would there be such a special looking door on the second floor, where most of the staff lives- I assume- yet the room is empty? It makes no sense," she said, looking around for any clues that would give her an idea of what this place was about.
As the pink haired girl looked around for a second time, she took a couple of steps forward to get a clear view of the wall in front of her. "Zero, look." Kizna pointed to the wall in front of her with one of her gloved hands. As the two made their way over to the opposite wall, the door behind them closed with a resounding 'bang.' Kizna jumped slightly but kept walking towards the wall. When they got there, they saw a couple of sheets of paper stuck onto the wall, encased in a protective plastic covering and the covering was mounted onto the wall.
"Zero, what does it say? Can you read it?" Kizna asked, looking slightly confused by the new writing that she had never encountered before.
"I feel like I've encountered it before, like I know what it says. And plus, I remember Clay showing me clips of these types of writing before," Zero mumbled under his breath as he continued to examine the writing in front of him. "If I'm right, I think the first one says ' 1: Mansion,' the second one says '2: Amusement Park,' the third one, '3: Coral Reefs.' What are they?" Zero asked, turning to his cat-eared friend. Kizna shrugged in reply.
All of a sudden, a blaring noise filtered through the big double doors that they had entered before. Since the room was so big and magnanimous, the sound echoed and bounced off the walls making the sound all the more louder. Kizna's cat like ears lay flat on the top of her head, her hands on top of them. Zero covered his own ears with his hands and crouched down onto the floor, and then saw Kizna doing the same thing.
"What's going on?" Zero screamed over the loud noises.
"I'm thinking it's a Victim attack!" Kizna yelled back. When Zero got wind of what she said, his eyes widened and he rushed towards the door, pressing the button next to the door to get it to open up once again. He started banging on the door once he realized the button stopped working.
"OPEN UP! SOMEONE HELP US!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. There was a small window on one of the other walls and he saw the goddesses fly by. "DAMN IT! Open up!" Zero screeched as he kicked the door with his foot. He immediately regretted doing that as he gripped his foot with his hands trying to make the throbbing stop.
A loud scream took his attention away from the pain and onto the person screaming. He turned around and saw that the glass over on the other window had started to crack because a victim had crashed into it. He ran over to Kizna as soon as another Victim rammed into the side of G.O.A., right where the window happened to be. Kizna was lucky enough not to get his by any of the glass pieces that flew into the room, but Zero was not as lucky as his girlfriend. A medium sized glass shard was embedded into his calf as he ran past the window to get to Kizna. Unfortunately, that brought the brown haired boy down to the ground immediately and Kizna started running towards him when she saw him clutching his leg in pain.
"Kizna! Stay away!" Zero yelled as he glanced towards the window again, this time seeing another victim approaching. "Kizna! NO!" he hollered out, but to no avail. She was about two feet away when the victim decided to join together and attack G.O.A., sending Kizna flying across towards the other wall. She was clearly distraught by this time and was not thinking straight, therefore ending up hitting the opposite wall with a sickening thud. Zero watched painfully as his girlfriend slowly slid down the wall, her arms and legs in awkward and very uncomfortable positions. His eyes widened, realizing what this could mean. "No,.. it can't be…" he whispered to himself as he forced himself to get off the ground and limped slowly towards her unmoving body. He swallowed before going up to her and lifting her head. He saw a big trail of blood on the side of her head, her skull cracked slightly. Her shoulder was dislocated and ankles twisted.
Zero felt the big ship rocked once more as the victim attacked once again. Kizna was thrown back onto the wall, yet there was no cry of pain from her. "Kizna?" Zero asked as he cradled her body in his arms. "KIZNA…!" Zero yelled into the starry skies, a look of murder taking over his eyes as he glanced at the Victim that was waiting for him outside the window.
A panting Zero sat up in bed screaming "KIZNA!" at the top of his lungs. Taking slow, deep breaths, he looked around the darkened room. Rubbing his eyes, he glanced around one more time. 'It was a dream?' he asked, blinking a few times. Apparently he had woken up his other two roommates- Hiead and Clay- seeing as they were sitting up in bed too.
"Zero, if you're going to have nightmares, can you keep the screaming down a bit?" Hiead asked with a tint of sarcasm noted in his voice.
Zero just kept quiet, completely shocked at his dream. "Why am I dreaming of such things?" he asked the darkness. "It felt so real…"
Clay walked over to Zero's bed and patted his back. "Don't let it get to you Zero. I'm sure you are more worried about the Victim hurting Kizna, that's what your subconscious is trying to warn you about," Clay said as he squinted into the darkness, his glasses still on the night stand.
"You must be right," Zero said, trying to give himself an excuse about his nightmares. He decided to go back to sleep, trying to forget about his unsettling dream.
The next day, after classes, Kizna walked down the halls looking for Zero. Zero had wandered off after class with Hiead, arguing heatedly about something. As she turned the corner, she heard two girls walking down the hall gossiping about something.
"Hey, did you hear about what's on the third floor?" the first girl asked.
"No, what about it? All I know is that the teachers and staffs' rooms are up there. Maybe a few meeting rooms, but besides that, I don't think there is anything else up there," the second girl replied.
"Well, I heard they have this really special room on the third floor, it's like the second floor rec. room but this is twice as large and apparently it has this special feel to it… I didn't hear much about it, but it sounds very mysterious… I'd like to check it out sometime," the first girl said, a glazed over look in her eyes.
"Hum… That does sound interesting," Kizna thought as she continued to locate Zero. "Zero!" she yelled out as she finally found him sitting with Hiead in the mess hall.
"I've finally found you!" she exclaimed. "I've been looking all over for you."
"Why?"
"Well, I've just heard this rumor about a room on the third floor… do you want to check it out?" she asked, not really having a particular reason to look for him until now.
"Uh, sure I guess, since I have nothing better to do," he replied. "Hiead, do you want to come along?"
"Uh, no thanks… I'll leave you love birds alone then. I have something else I need to take care off," he said as he excused himself.
"Well, then, what are we waiting for?" Zero said. "Lead the way!"
"Ok. Well, from what I've heard, the room is on the third floor, so we can go take the stairs up…" Kizna said, walking over to a secluded part of G.O.A. The nearest stairs from the mess hall were located there, and not many people took these stairs. On the way to the stairwell, she noticed a door that she had never seen before.
"What's this?" she asked, stopping at a funny looking door. It looked like their room doors, the ones that slid open with a push of a button. Seeing a keypad on the side of this new door, she pushed a small red button located at the bottom of the keypad and the monstrous double doors opened with a loud creaking noise. The double doors groaned and clicked loudly as it opened up, sliding into the walls connected to it.
Frowning, Kizna bent forward, sniffing the air inside the new room they found. "It smells ok," Kizna said tentatively. Zero froze, looking at the contraption in front of him.
"Zero? What's wrong?" Kizna asked, looking at the man standing next to her. His eyes were wide as he continued to stare straight at the wall, his mouth slightly open, and his hands in the shape of a fist. "Are you ok?" the repairer asked as she gently shook his shoulder.
Zero was brought out of his revive and turned to Kizna. He shook his head and smiled as Kizna said "come on!" and dragged him into the small room they found.
Kizna looked around, eyes wide, and ears up, taking in everything in sight. "Hey look, more buttons!" Kizna said. Then she remembered something. "If I remember correctly, the rumor that I heard was about a room located on the second floor." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a button marked with the number "2" and pushed it. As soon as she did, the room came to life, humming and shaking. Kizna, scared at the noise since any sound became amplified through her cat like ears, she jumped and grabbed Zero and a sort of strangled hug.
"Kizna… you're choking me," Zero gasped out. Releasing her hold slightly, she felt the 'room' moving upward.
"Zero, where are we going?" she asked shakily.
A wave of deja vu swept over Zero. Zero's eyes widened as he realized the same scenario that took place in his dreams were now replayed in real time. Grabbing Kizna by the shoulders, he fiercely said "we cannot go up there!"
"What's wrong?" Kizna stuttered out, getting a little scared by the look in Zero's eyes. "Zero, you're starting to scare me…"
"Listen, we cannot, under any circumstances go up there!" he whispered.
"Zero? I'm sure it's fine… it's near the teacher's rooms, it can't be that horrible," Kizna said, trying to go up to the third floor, but Zero was blocking her way.
"Kizna, I can't let you do this, you don't understand!" Zero said fiercely.
"Well then, explain it to me Zero!" Kizna said loudly. At that moment, the elevator decided to shake violently, sending them both over to the other side, hitting the frame of the elevator with a thud.
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A/N:
I think I'll leave the story off over here…A little cliffhanger to keep you guys reading! J I hope I haven't let all of my readers down by taking such a long time to update. I'm really sorry for the delay but I had a really bad case of writers block, didn't get any time over the summer to write, and I'm now in college, and the work is crazy. I finally found some time and some ideas so I took some time off this past week to write another chapter.
Hopefully this will keep you guys satisfied until my next chapter comes out… I'm hoping it will be out in less than a month? I guess, start looking for it towards the middle of December, but I'm not promising anything because I'll have finals in the middle of December. But after the second week, I should have time to write cause I'll have about a month off for winter break.
I would like to thank all the people who reviewed the last chapter, I don't think I'll list all the names out this time but hopefully I haven't lost all my readers by not updating in such a long time.
Please review if possible; I would like to get some feedback after writing after such a long time!
-IcBlueDmoness