Chapter 13 The Link
"Nydem! Where are you? I cant see you, but I can feel you..." Feel you in my being, "I know your there..." Dash broke down into a heap and sobbed. Then he felt a slender hand gently touch his shoulder. He lifted his head and there she was.
"I'm right here Daniel," she bent down and embraced him as he sobbed into her shoulder, "its alright..."
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Xero sat up in bed, again blinded by the light streaming in from the open window. He stood out of bed, stretched, and headed for his morning shower. He looked back at bed before closing the bathroom door, Blaze was already gone.
After his shower he walked downstairs and turned on the computer to check for any messages. As soon as the computer came online, a message came up, "an arena challenge!?"
Xero's blood pressure went up, "this is my first one, oh crap, a one-on-one. No help for me." He read the challenge but there was no record of who sent the challenge. His eyes widened, "Tomorrow?! Damnit, I don't even know if Revolution is repaired yet?"
Blaze walked up behind him, put her arms around his shoulders, and kissed him on the cheek. "What are you reading?"
"and arena challenge." He responded dully
She showed some fake enthusiasm, "from who?"
"it doesn't say." He didn't much appreciate her lack of enthusiasm. "when Morrow had his match you got all excited, what happened to that? You seem bored."
She sighed, "its seven-thirty, its too damn early to be excited about anything."
That explains everything... Xero thought to himself, not feeling any better about the whole thing.
Blaze stood up straight, "I wonder what Morrow and Angel are doing today?"
Xero moaned inside remembering Angel... then he laughed.
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Xero was inside a repaired Revolution on the platform being raised up into the desert arena. The platform stopped rising and Xero found himself on the southern wall of a large desolate place with giant pillars of sand and rock raising up from random places in the area. To this moment Xero still had no idea who he was supposed to fight.
The arena announcement system came online, the loud voice booming through the arena and the packed stadium that lined the arena behind shielded walls. "the Battle is about to begin, on the southern end we have Xero, a mere few weeks of being a raven and he has already drawn great attention to himself."
Cheers erupted from the stands, Xero's pride swelled a few notched. Why not, he had only been a raven a few weeks now and already he had the crowds roaring. "maybe, not 'roaring'..." he thought to himself.
The announcer came on again, "and on the northern end, we have an old favorite. Thats right, he's back, we have Echo back in the Arena." The roars that ensued after this anouncment made Xero's crowd an afterthought. After a full three minutes of constant abuse by the crowd the announcer came back online to start the match.
3...
2...
1...
Go.
Xero assumed that there were only countdowns for one-on-one matches as he couldn't recall one for Morrows match a few days back.
The com came online, "Xero..." the voice sounded familiar. "this is your test, this is your key, this is the door to the link. Pass the test and you get the key. Fail the test, and everything goes back to normal. You Must defeat me, if you fail, then all is lost..." the voice on the other line inhaled slowly, "if you fail, then all hope is lost..."
What?
The com broke with that and Xero saw a large blue plasma blast eurupt from the opposite side of the desert.
"Revolution, magnify image." The on screen image magnified five times to give Xero a large picture of the overboosting AC he 'had' to defeat.
Black Rose... the name popped into his head when he saw it.
It was the AC he saw a few days after becoming a Raven, the Black AC that he saw in the hanger. The black AC that put its hand on his shoulder when it was leaving the garage. It had the same equipment as before, two thirty percent ammo additions and two large weapons attached to the outsides of each fore-arm.
Xero pulled up his shotguns and started firing at the AC as it came closer, but the blasts had no effect on it. It came within striking distance and giant red plasma blades exploded out of the ends of the weapons on the AC's fore-arms. It spun around and brought both blades up and through Revolution's shotguns, slicing each in half.
Holy Shit! Xero dropped the remains of his shotguns and extended both of his blades. He brought one blade up and thrust the other forward.
Too slow.
Black Rose had already shifted to the side and was now standing to Xero's left and swinging both of his blades downward. One blade connected with Xero's left-hand blade and it went right through the opposing blade. The other of the blades connected with Xero's left elbow joint and cut like a hot knife through warm butter. The left arm twitching as it fell to the ground.
Revolution boosted back but Black Rose was already there and swung both blades downward again, severing Xero's back units. Xero lost his balance and fell forward to the ground. He landed hard on his face and rolled over in time to see the Black AC land with its legs to either side of Revolution's core and both Blades pointed downward toward the cockpit.
Xero flipped open a com channel, "who the hell are you!?" Xero's blood was pumping three times faster than normal, his face was red, his knuckles were white. Fear and fury mixing inside him.
"I'm a better friend than you might think, Justin."
"what? Your about to kill the wrong damn person! Who the hell is Justin?!"
"you are. That's your name."
Xero was confused, pissed, and scared now. His eyes beginning to swell with tears. "who are you..." he pleaded.
"its Matt. I'm trying to help you..." he said softly through the com.
Matthew... something inside Xero snapped and his eyes shot wide open as Revolution shot to its feet even faster. Xero blinked and found Revolution standing upright, holding Black Rose up in the air by its neck in one hand. The feet were a good three or four meters off the ground. Black Rose's hands were griping Revolutions arm, trying in vein to wrench it free.
"so, Matt, do I pass your little 'test' now? Huh?! Are you done playing with my life yet? What have you been doing to me and how do you know what my name is!?" the fury that was mixing with his other emotions was now clearly winning the battle.
Matthew laughed into the com, "yes Xero, you pass, with flying colors."
Xero pulled back so that Black Rose's head was inches from Revolution's, "I want answers..." was all that Xero said before he threw Black Rose a quarter way across the arena and through a pillar.
There was silence, until Black Rose stood and the com came up again. "agreed..."
Black Rose fell to one knee and bowed its head, the sign of defeat.
There was silence for another three seconds until the crowds erupted into cheers and applause.
"Xero, meet me in the nest tonight at six. Ill be there, and ill answer all your questions."
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At six o'clock Xero was standing just inside the door of the nest. He insisted that he come alone, even though Blaze said she would never speak to him again. He spotted Matt in a corner booth with someone else. He walked over and stood at the end of the table. Matt stood and greeted him with a firm handshake and introduction of the man he was sitting with.
"good to see you well Xero, this is a very good friend of mine. I believe you have met him before..."
the man stood and offered his hand, "call me Tyre. I believe you wanted to meet me?"
Xero raised an eyebrow, "yeah." He inhaled and took a seat. "I'm glad that we are getting more than one thing done here, but I have questions, and I was promised answers."
Matt sat back, "yes you were. Now, a first question would be helpful and then we could go from there..."
Tyre got up, "ill let you two have your little question session first. Ill be back when your done."
"fair enough. How do you know my name?"
"well, thats easy enough. I knew your parents. They told me when you were born." Matt sat forward again and folded his hands on the table.
"whats bothering you?"
"I am about to do something, about to give you something, that I may never forgive myself for."
"oh shit..."
"I am not the one, or rather, the ones, to tell you about your past. You need to hear it from the ones that were there from the beginning."
"the begin-" Xero started, but was interrupted by Matt.
"you only asked me one simple question so far and I'm sure you have more, many more. I'm afraid that I wont be able to answer all your questions, even though you just sat down not five minutes ago. I already think that you should go and meet them. And if they find you ready, then maybe you will take them home with you."
"what the hell are you talking about?"
Matt turned around and called to Tyre. He walked back over and stood next to the table. He looked down at Matt. Matthew looked him in the eyes and nodded, Tyre returned the guesture and then looked at Xero.
Matt looked back to Xero, "I give you your key."
Tyre stepped forward and extended his hand, "My name is John, nice to finally meet you Justin."