Previously:
Ryder is in a tight spot as he is trapped in a room with no apparent hiding place and someone is about to walk in and
find him-He doesn't know who it may be, but anyway he looks at it he is in trouble no matter what and he must find the secret
entrance to find the Gundam. meanwhile Avi and Kyo retell their desperate tale of how the four of them escaped from the Nexis'
base.
Episode Five: The Chronos Revealed
The door swung open and Ryder dove behind a sofa, he heard what sounded like two people entering the room- a thick
silence filled the room until the door shut behind them.
'This room will do.'
a man said as he locked the door which made a small mechanical click, Ryder growled angerly and balled while keeping his
breathing calm and steady, knowing that if he gave into the feeling in the pit of his stomache he surely would give himself away.
the seconds felt like hours and as each one past he could feel his heart pounding harder in his chest.
'Starting Transmission.'
a woman said to the man, Ryder narrowed his eyes slightly as he reconized this voice this time. It was that of the woman who had
shot Miho and had attacked them at the Nexis base.Ryder reached for his gun at his belt and contemplated taking the two by
surprise, however he decided to drop the idea as he knew that at least one of them would be able to shot him a few times if he
attacked them.
'Sir...The job has been done. Commander Zash and I are just about to leave the building before the Earth Militaria shows up.
No sir...Sir? Alright, one of us will pick up the hostage from Jack on the way back. Taka out.'
Ryder listened carefully to the confersation Taka had had with her obvious superior and tried to figure out what it was that they
were talking about. The job must have been the assination of the President, Ryder couldn't believe that the woman standing in the
same room was the same Taka he had known. That Taka would never have been able to live with herself if she had taken alife or
had been involved in the death of someone-but then again, war does funny things to people and he knew that she had changed
greatly since he last saw her. He recalled the days when Taka used to be a hyper young woman who found almost everything funny
and was always being 'strange', how she would have some new wild daydream adventure almost every other day. Ryder shook his
head and had to tell himself that this new Taka was the enemy and if it came down to it, he would stop her and the people she
worked for at all costs. what they were doing was wrong and was pointless all it had accomplished was fear, chaos and mass death.
He returned to listening to Taka and Zash talk amongst each other,
'So, now we're being told to pick up hostages? typical.'
Zash said with a dark synical laugh and Taka sighed, she said something that Ryder couldn't make out as she was talking in almost
a whisper. Taka pulled her hair back and turned to leave the room but promptly stopped when she felt Zash' hand on her shoulder,
she looked back at him questioningly and saw that he wasn't looking at her. Zash was intensly starring at the roof, something Taka
hadn't noticed was that the ceiling was completly covered in glass mirrors-they're purpose was unclear by looking around, but it
was probably for more then just decoration. She saw that on the other side of the room crouched behind one of the sofa's was a
boy-it was Ryder and he seemed unaware of the mirrors or the fact that he had been spotted by the two Nexis soldiers. A part of
Taka wanted to call out to warn Ryder but she knew that she couldn't, she was in a war and if Ryder got in the way then he was
concidered an enemy and he had proved so far that he was siding with the Earth forces. Zash had his gun out lightning quick and
shot the mirror panal above Ryder-who was taken by surprise as the glass rained down on him.Ryder rolled out of his hiding spot
and shot back in defense. he hadn't been aiming as all his bullets missed their marks and hit the wall or the glass panals sending
even more glass showering down onto the floor. To avoid being shot he lept to his left towards the wall with the painting and what
he prayed was the secret door. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion as Zash almost lazily raised his gun and shot once
at Ryder who crashed down on a wooden table sending it into pieces. Ryder gasped as he felt the blinding pain run through him and
for a moment he didn't understand what was going on, but then he looked at his shoulder and saw blood staining his shirt and jacket.
'shit.'
he growled fumbling around in the wooden wreckage for his gun that he had invulentarily dropped when he had been shot, it was
out of reach and he knew that he couldn't grab it even if he hadn't been injured by Zash.
'What do we have here? Trying to be a hero? A little out of YOUR league.'
'A hero-hardly...Try the person who's going to Kill you!'
spat Ryder as he shakily stood to his feet, his body whining at him for putting it through so much stress while it was injured-he saw
that Zash' gun stayed level with his head as he moved and knew that Zash wouldn't miss his mark. He put one hand on the wall to
support himself before he realized that he was exactly where he wanted to be-he smirked slightly and watched Zash.
'This is a WAR-this isn't a Little Game that kids, like you, can play. There are no 'time outs' and 'safe squares'...this is Real life!'
Zash lectured Ryder who now wasn't paying attention to him but instead staring intensly at Taka. She returned the look with her dark
eyes, her face was blank and unreadable but Ryder could sense what she was feeling without her even saying anything. Zash was
annoyed that Ryder wasn't listening to him and he looked from Ryder to Taka-who frowned and narrowed her eyes into the darkest
look Ryder had ever been given.
'Once was forgettable....Twice Unforgiveable...You should have stayed out of this when you had the chance...now I have no choice,
but to make you pay for your crimes against the Nexis Union.'
Taka spoke in a dark voice and pulled out her gun as Zash glanced at her almost as if he had never seen her act like this before.
'Is that a fact...'
Ryder retorted with a snort, he no longer desired to try and talk his way out of this as he found it a waste of time and he kne that
they would just as happily shoot him dead.
'Then...The next time we Meet...I will Kill You, Taka Zetsume!'
He growled and lunged at the painting,pulling it down and hearing a hiss as a camoflauged door slid open and he stumbled in and
just as he did the door slammed shut behind him with a loud 'clunk'. On the other side of the wall he could hear both Zash' and
Taka's angry calls and their attempts to open the door, but apparently it could only be opened once before self locking forever.
'10.00 MINUTES UNTIL DETINATION! EVACUATE THROUGH THE NEAREST EXIT.'
A loud computerized voice warned-Ryder took several deep stuttering breaths as he braced himself to go through more pain as
with every step he took he would put pressure on his wound.
'9.59 MINUTES'
He staggered along the dark and oddly cold hallway, all other noise was drowned out by the computers constant warnings-after a
few steps he had to put his hand on his shoulder to put pressure on the wound and to try and stop the bleeding, though it wasn't
doing much good. He had to fight back the urges to lay down and just give into the pain and sleep, he knew he would never wake
if he did and he had too much to do before he would allow himself to die.
'8.30 MINUTES"
Ryder was growing annoyed as it seemed that the hallway would never end, though it was probably just because he was walking
slowly and each second felt like an hour. Time was slipping away, and that was time Ryder didn't have to waste on this hallway.
'5 MINUTES'
his thoughts had gone numb as he just concintrated on getting to the end of the hallway. suddenly the wall he had been using for
support gave way and he almost fell before he managed to shoot one foot out to catch himself-he was in a large room and it took
him a few seconds to process this as he looked around the room. His eyes stopped on a large object in the dead center of the
room, half covered by a large cloth.
'3 MINUTES.'
it was Metalic blue and silver, it was the Gundam Ryder had been searching for...the first of the Ronin class Gundams. It looked
almost alien in this cold bare room. Ryder admired it-inspecting every detail of it and wondered how powerful this machine was-
he knew that it had been made lovingly and that it would more then likely have just as much care taken into its weaponry.
'1.59 MINUTES'
Ryder was unimpressed that he had wasted that much time on just looking at the mech when he should be trying to get it out of the
place before both it and he were destroyed. He pulled himself onto the laying gundam and jumped into the open cockpit. He was
surprised at how basic it looked at first, but then he didn't know what he was sappoused to do at first and there were many
buttons and switches.
'1.05 MINUTES'
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath in,
'c'mon you don't want to be destroyed before you had a chance to fight.'
he thought as he let his senses guide him and uncharacteristically put all his faith in chance...he switched a switch and waited, the
Gundam didn't respond and he cursed loudly, he knew it was too late to excape the hidden lab without the gundam. Just then all
the power flickered on and Ryder gave a small cheer.
'.32 SECONDS'
It was do or die time now-with the cockpit automactically closing Ryder grabbed two levers and pushed them foreward at the same
time the Gundam began to stand up with a loud groan from its joints.
'.15 SECONDS'
'I knew you didn't want it to end yet.'
he smirked as he found it amusing that he was talking to the gundam, but no one could hear him and he would never tell them that he
had talked to the machine.
'TEN...NINE...EIGHT....SEVEN....SIX....FIVE....FOUR....THREE...TWO...ONE...'
There was complete silence just as then the convention center and surrounding area was engulfed by a brilliant yellow and red light
just before it was detroyed by a huge explosion. Chunks of building and earth were blown all over the place, leaving fires to run
rampant throughout the ruines, giving off large bellowing clouds of smoke. It was a matter of moments before the Earth Militaria
had figured out what had happened and began to drench the area with large amounts of water. In all the chaos no one noticed two
glowing white orbs glaring down at the workers like some smoke warrior protecting its minions. the orbs disappeared into the dark
smoke just as quickly as they had appeared and no one would know just how close they had been to a Gundam......
Kyo sighed as he followed a limpig and barefoot Miho down the hospital staircase since there hadn't been power to the
building since the war started. Miho was still weak and in pain from her wound, but she refused to stay in bed when both Ryder and
Avi were running around probably getting themselves into trouble. Kyo had protested about them leaving the hospital room as it was
the safest place for them and she was far from well enough to be walking around, but Miho wouldn't have any of it.
'I think we're almost on the ground level!'
Miho declared, checking the number on the steal door as she passed the small landing and went down another flight of stairs.
'aw, c'mon at least put your shoes on, miho.'
'can't...no time...'
she replied, the stolen hospital robes tied around her for extra warmth-Miho looked like she had just escaped from an insane
asylum as she was walking with a limp and her hair was wildly tossed about making her look out of her mind.Kyo grinned as he
thought of what would happen if they ran across anyone while Miho looked like this, it would be most amusing he decided.
keeping a close eye on her would also make him look like he was a warden trying to bring the patient back, but he knew that the
real reason was that if he let Miho out on her own she would get into trouble in one way or another.
'I win! I win!'
Miho giggled loudly as she dashed out of the stairwell and towards the front doors, slowing only to look back and see that Kyo
was still at the top of the last landing.
'c'mon Kyo-hurry up!'
'Miho...'
Kyo sighed, he skipped the last five steps and began to stride across the lobby as Miho danced out of the building and onto the
street with no regard to her own safety whatsoever. Miho stopped to wait for kyo, she slipped her hand into the robe to make sure
that she hadn't lost the bottle of pain killers, she had a feeling that they would come into use, if there was any left after she was
finished with them.She spun around faster then she should of as she had heard someone coming up behind her and she thought
it was Kyo, she had her mouth open as she was about to say something, but stopped as she heard a strange voice shouting at her.
Kyo came skidding out of the hospital and raced towards miho followed by a man in a military uniform and large rifle followed him
in hot persuit.
'wha?'
Miho was confused as to what was happening and why Kyo was being chased by a man who literally came out of no where.Kyo
grabbed her by the elbow and began to force her to run, she was still confused and Kyo wasn't giving her any answers as to what
was happening. they were heading towards a cluster of half destroyed buildings in hopes to lose the man in the maze like mess, but
when an explosion erupted in front of them they both came to a skidding hault and Miho let out a small whimper of pain. Kyo turned
sharply to face the soldier who had the rifle aimed at them and was still yelling at them.
'Kyo, what happened?'
miho whispered but Kyo didn't reply, he kept his focuse on the soldier.
'You are both in violation of code 92JB743-Suspection of tampering with Medical supplies.'
the soldier yelled, his face red from both anger and from running after the two.
'But we...haven't done anything...'
tried to tell the soldier, but he wouldn't hear it, he raised his rifle in her direction and told her to shut up. this angered Miho greatly
and she hoped that the soldier, even though he was an Earth Force soldier, would get what was coming to him. couldn't he see that
neither of them had done any such thing-Miho glanced at Kyo, for just an instant she wondered if he had done something, he had
taken more time then it should have to walk across the lobby. She then mentally slapped herself and glared at the man infront of them
it was his fault that she was having all these strange thoughts go through her mind.
'You both are to come with me. You can explain yourselves to the General and maybe he will be more lenient then I would if I were
in his place.'
Miho nodded bitterly, but she wanted to know why he thought they had done anything like tamper with supplies, Kyo slowly
followed as the two were being directed as to where to go. Miho hoped that the General was a more reasonable man and that he
would understand that they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time and that it was all a big mistake. Kyo was silent and looked
oddly worried about something, but miho didn't want to ask as then the soldier would inquire about other things-things he needn't
know. Miho wasn't all that worried about what would happen to them as she was sure that everything would be righted, however,
she was concerned of what would happen if the soldier or anyone else noticed that she had an awful wound. And if anyone took a
look at it they would see that it was a bullet wound and that would lead to more questions, and if they were to find out that she and
kyo had been to the Nexis base, they would be in deep trouble or used as pawns to tell the Earth soldiers where the base was.Miho
decided to plot a reasonable and believable story behind the wound if anyone was to ask, it was better to be prepared then to be
caught off guard and look more suspecious. while she walked she slipped her right hand into her pants pocket and wrapped her
fingers around the bullet that had been extracted from her-it was her new good luck charm and she planned to put it on a necklace
when she got the chance. The three had been walking for ten minutes when the ground began to shake violently-it was a strong
Earthquake, but they didn't get such things in this part of the world. the soldier wasted no time in radioing the rest of his platoon,
'What's going on over there? come in captain!'
all that came back was static, the soldier played around with the radio for a few minutes longer but still got no reply. not too far from
them they could hear shouts of pain and gunfire, the soldier threw the useless walkie talkie down and ran in the direction of the shouts
with no care of what was causing the other men to fire their guns. The man yelled something just before he was engulfed by a giant
wall of fire, both Miho and Kyo jumped in surprise as they watched the soldier wither in severe pain and try to escape the flames.
The air was full of the stench of burning flesh-Kyo and Miho gagged on the thick smell before covering their faces and watched,
both frozen in horror at the gruetique scene infront of them.
'What's going on!?'
Kyo coughed looking over at a shrugging Miho, she didn't understand it either, it seemed almost like some sort of nightmare.
the ground began to shake again and a tunnel of fire came barreling towards them, they had nowhere to go or to hide from the
deadly flames. Miho wrapped her fingers tighter around the bullet in her pocket and closed her eyes, feeling the heat melt some of
the plastic on the hospital robes. The roar of the flames as the rushed foreward drowned everything out-Miho knew that in a few
short seconds both her and Kyo would just be charred bodies just like the solider moments before. She hadn't thought this was the
way or the place she would die, but she wasn't about to deny it, if she had to die , then she would accept that .
'Our Death's won't be in vain....'
She thought as she felt a shadow from the flames pass by her and she waited for the burning to follow....
Next Episode
Avi is over head while on her search for Ryder, when she searches her soul she finds that she has more hatred towards the
Nexis Union then she even had known. while on her way, she is confronted by a Nexis Soldier and she is not about to let the
oppertunity pass her by...will kyo and Miho survive the mysterious fire attack and where had it come from? And where's Ryder?
Everyone has a problem of their own, and it all seems to have started right after Ryder left them in the hospital....
Episode Six: Foreshadow of "Misery"