Disclaimer: AC isn't mine.
WOW . . . I haven't updated in ages for this one. Been working of Fire Emblem: Healing Hearts. I'm really sorry for the wait. Here ya go!
Reviewers
CobaltSSRacer: Thank you. I'm glad you enjoy the fic. Please continue to read.
Dragan: BUGS? Okay, whatever, you don't have to make them perfect; improvements can be done in story.
Where'd everybody else go? TT I thought they liked the story. Oh well, I'll keep writing, maybe someone'll poke their head out and say hi!
Recap
"Ravens . . . this is Triple Cross."
Dark Heart and Thanatos froze, awaiting the next words. Neither wanted to believe. Their thoughts rang in sync.
No . . . he died . . . HE'S DEAD!
"Get out of there! Unit XEO2AOW-777, Stratos, and Unit XEO1AOW-777, Dark Heart . . . my comrades . . . the 'Eye of Heaven' is watching. GET OUT!"
Dark Heart and Thanatos both flinched. They knew what the 'eye' was, and neither wanted to face it, Human P.L.U.S. or not. The rest of the Ravens were about to ask when the answer came down.
In the form of the Silent Line's rain of satellite cannon discharges . . .
Chapter 7: Azure Rain
"MOVE IT!" Dark Heart screamed.
The ACs scattered as they boosted south, returning to the border of the Silent Line. The other MS units that had surrounded them suddenly changed their focus from capturing the intruders, to staying alive. Fireballs colored the sky as explosions ripped through the air.
The only cues to dodge came when a thin infrared beam lit the path of the laser blast that followed mere seconds after it faded. The Raven that had survived the Crest Mission to guard the Lawdas Factory had said that the beams had fallen like rain. He wasn't off the mark.
The bright blue bolts were larger than heavy tank ACs and definitely beat any AC weapon imaginable. The light that filled their screens was almost too bright to look into, every shot barely a second apart. The MS reinforcements were down to three, and they had found shelter under the remains of the factory's blast shield doors.
The five Ravens had split into three groups. Mobius flew solo, making him difficult to hit, his AC well suited for prolonged boosting. Valkyrie had joined Maiden Sword, the two AC pilots staying just far enough apart for one shot to land between them and not harm either pilot.
The two Human Plus pilots were weaving from one spot to the next; all the while trading blows whenever the opportunity occurred. The Halberd laser blade glistened with its crimson radiance.
Stratos' had brought the long, foreign object into play. It was a dark gun metal gray sword, easily the length of the Moonlight blade. Made to resemble the famed ancient Japanese swords of earth, only a single edge was sharpened. A thin glow illuminated the cutting edge as energy coursed along the length.
That energy was the only thing that had kept Dark Heart from cleaving through the blade and into the rival core. The sparks lit the cloudy sky as the two glowed in a bright light.
The two former comrades disengaged, each just barely avoiding the bright azure laser blast. They resumed their measuring each other with wide weaving in between the energy rain while facing off. As the rest retreated, Stratos and Dark began swinging at each other again.
Neither opponent swayed in their attacks, blades clashing over and over as the satellite cannon fire fell from above. One blast fell behind Stratos as he came into a blade lock with Avel's crimson sword. The dust flew into the air as chunks of earth gave way.
"So the two of us are battling like this again. You'd think we'd be over this by now."
"Far from it Avel! You always were the glorious one. Acting all noble when in realty . . . you're no different from me!"
The venom in the Thanatos's voice angered the fellow PLUS pilot.
Dark Heart's eye sensor glowed darkly as the blades disengaged. As the two parted, the thin red aiming laser of the satellite cannon pierced the air between them. The radar screen showed that the other pilots had left the invisible border of the Silent Line.
While Stratos continued to back away, Avel smiled with a crazed glint in his natural eye. Reversing his controls and jamming the piloting stick forward; he flipped his over booster switch.
From their view on the ridgeline which lay just beyond the border of the satellite cannon range, the AC pilots stared at the piloting within the bright blue rain of death.
"How are they able to do that? They've lost their minds!"
Melissa and Éclair watched on in silence. Both of them were concerned for their own love interests, but they couldn't help feeling sympathy for each other. Shade and the others took careful note of the two fighting. Stratos was more of a power oriented AC, swinging with strokes that could cleave heavy cores to shreds. Dark Heart was wielding the long laser blade with the finesse of a fencer.
"Thanatos . . . you always were trying to be the best in everything . . . but this is too far! Stop it Thanatos, for the love of God!"
Éclair feared for both of the pilots. Losing either one would devastate the Cortex and be the ruin of either her or Melissa. The sight of the two of them dancing with blades alight while weaving in and out to the rhythm of death raining down from above was frighteningly mesmerizing.
As the two machines parted again, the signs of another cannon burst shot between them. Melissa gasped in fear as Dark Heart's boosters opened and began their short charge.
"Avel! NO!"
The engines whined and screamed over the din of ravaging cannon shots and propelled the AC toward Stratos. In the same instant, the energy blast fell on the target area. The AC shined brilliantly as the energy scorched the earth. The shriek of energy and metal clashed the chaotic sky. Explosions and the sharp, agonized scream of Melissa carried across the smoke and dust filled winds.
The shot left a smoking crater in the earth. The plume of blackened clouds filled the sky as the acrid scent of burnt paint and melting metal met their noses. Thanatos' voice was filled with malice over the comm. unit.
"Damn you Avel! Why does God favor you!"
"What's he talking about?"
Valkyrie's question echoed everyone's thoughts. Melissa hardly registered them as she crumpled to her knees on the small parapet outside the cockpit.
"Because I am different from you Thanatos. Because I am different."
Melissa's breathe froze, slowly, she raised her eyes to the incredible sight of Dark Heart, fully intact. The crimson energy blade from the Halberd emitter glowed triumphantly over his head held vertical. The strange weapon Stratos had was now in Dark Heart's right hand, held out blade tip facing a downed Thanatos. The legs of the heavier machine were sliced off at the knee joints. The sword arm of the core was also missing, lying discarded beside Dark Heart's feet.
Lowering the laser blade and cutting it off, Avel turned and walked away from the defeated plus pilot.
"Thanatos, you may have received credit for opening the surface, but it wasn't just you who made it that far. I too made it to the surface on that mission."
"Nonsense! You and I were not there staring at the sunlight, it was me! You're still like me! Desiring power and prestige!"
The core turned suddenly and thrust the sword into the head unit of the Raven. The others stood stunned with the new revelation.
"If I had desired power and prestige Thanatos, then I would have killed you and taken the credit myself! I sacrificed my favorite core, the Zodiac in order to make sure you managed to complete that mission. You never could have taken on Apocalypse in your AC back then. I barely did, but it cost me more than my core."
Avel's left hand drifted to his synthetic eye, the other to his fake leg. He remembered that day very well. The eye glowed amber in accordance to his anger.
The heavy weight AC he had faced down was another plus pilot. The long range energy firing sniper rifle could punch straight through a core and keep going. One hit to the cockpit would kill the pilot instantly. That hadn't worried him as much as the vertical missile launchers and heavy pike it was also equipped with.
The fight had taken fifteen minutes of battle and half of the room they were in to the scrap heap. He had taken two direct hits from the sniper unit and one of the missiles shred through the armor. The second shot from the rifle had nearly torn a hole into the cockpit. Debris from the sparking monitors slashed through his eye. The pike had driven through his cockpit and taken off his leg, it could have been a lot worse if the aim had been just a foot higher.
The only thing that had saved him was the napalm rocket shoulder units, which he had unloaded when Apocalypse began to move away. The shots made consecutive hits to the cockpit and melted the armor plating away until one landed inside the machine, melting the pilot instantly. The spike had been left inside his core and had been the only thing staunching his bleeding. To this day he believed it was the only reason he didn't bleed to death.
A bright light from above shined down on the two wrecked cores that day. Raising the viewing sensors of the crippled Zodiac, he saw the one thing that everyone desired but never could attain.
The sun.
"Some things you can't regain in this world, I was fortunate to live through that cybernetic hell we called the Controller."
"Damn you Avel, damn it to hell!"
"Thanatos . . ."
The infamous Raven perked at the new voice. Melissa looked back at her cockpit to see Éclair at the communications controls. The woman looked like she was about to crack. Dark Heart merely stood over the defeated core, waiting for her to finish talking before saying his last few words to the one time partner.
"Echidna? I don't understand why you are here helping this . . ."
"Shut up Thanatos!"
The woman's loud outburst shocked everyone present. From inside his cockpit, Mobius and Shade were chuckling. Behind him in the personal space he had built into his AC for over night missions, Shade shook his head. The A-1 ranked Raven closed down his comm. line as the younger pilot began throwing verbal insults and lectures at the plus pilot.
"Y'see why I don't involve myself with women?"
"Yeah, they're too emotional, and occasionally too violent even for us. By the way, when did you add this space in the AC?"
"Over night missions, needed the sleeping space. Long time ago, don't need it but why not?"
"Well, it's good that you had this, I owe you one. Drinks are on me."
The two plus pilots gaped; Thanatos couldn't believe the words coming from Éclair's lips. She'd always been relatively shy around him, never really speaking much. A certain feeling of guilt and shame crept into his heart as her words were true.
"You're right Éclair."
Avel tensed when the energy readings from Stratos spiked. The AC shuddered before the hatch opened behind the head unit and Thanatos climbed out. Waving his arms at the dark mech, his voice rang clear over the exterior intercom.
"Hey, you going to pick me up, or leave me here while Stratos self detonates?"
Avel flinched as all the other cores took a step back. Melissa and Éclair were frozen in place. Extending his hand, Thanatos climbed into the palm of the core and braced himself on the thumb as Dark Heart pulled away from the smoking wreck.
"Let's go."
Melissa needed no further warning as she climbed back into the pilot's seat and reactivated her controls. The small flock of Ravens left the area as the left behind core erupted in a crimson fireball, leaving a charred black stain on the hardened wasteland.
As the AC units retreated into the distance, Relena, Duo, Heero, and two others stared into the harsh horizon.
"This isn't good Heero."
"Damn it man, that guy's totally merciless, and he's on Shinigami's to do list!"
"Don't say that Duo Maxwell, those people were self trained professionals, the cream of the crop by the damage they've caused. The Gundams aren't enough."
Everyone turned at the man, his long hair and stern expression as he looked over the damaged areas of the base said everything was true. Three of the five Gundams severely damaged, more than any mobile doll or suit ever did to them during the entire war had just been dealt in one battle.
"True, they can't take as much punishment as the Gundams by what Heavy Arms did, but they can dish it back on equal or harsher terms. The fact that these pilots are experts and veterans doesn't help us either."
"The one who questioned me said that they'd been here before us. What do you think that means?"
Duo shook his head as he gently sat on the roof, his ribs were killing him, but he'd definitely had suffered worse in the past.
"My guess is that they've been here all their lives and we're the intruders, not them."
Heero squinted as he realized what that implied and he didn't like were it was going.
"That means they know all of the surrounding area and its geography. That also means they know what this area is since the Maguanac (sp?) Core was nearly annihilated save for the usual five that are always with Quatre. The other two were doing maintenance down below when the others came out. What was that laser barrage?"
"Comm techs who managed to intercept a few of the messages between units said that they called this area 'Silent Line'. We've done research and all the attempts made to settle in this area have been utter failures because of the laser barrage falling on the explorers as soon as they crossed 'the line' as they put it, thus everything falls silent."
Everyone looked back up to the skies; a new feeling of dread entered everyone. The thought that such a deadly thing existed right above them wasn't helping their already shaken views of their military ability.
"So why hasn't that thing attacked us?"
"That's a good question, but I'd rather not test it."
Hoo, okay, how does everyone like this one?
Up Next: Chapter 8 Trouble in Cortex
The Fallen Angels aren't in for the best welcome home from Cortex and Raven's Ark, but it could be worse . . . or is it? Tensions run high as news of the Gundams and Silent Line's newest MTs drive most Ravens to the brink, with many gunning to take out anyone, especially the Fallen Ones; and just what is the connection between Thanatos and Avelesti? Who was the third Raven contact?
Read on fellow readers, read on.