The Whisperer

Disclaimer:"…"

--

Chapter 23

"So the mission is to kill him right?"

"Yeah."

"Why do we need so many guys?"

"Because we have other problems as well."

"Oh. Well then…"

"Would you two shut up…our job is to kill him and go…Schneider is tired of waiting and that Gauron guy is being pain in the ass. Now shut up we're not far."

Everyone was silent as they continued their flight. About 8 arm-slaves sat in the drop hangar of the large aircraft.

--

-Hotel suite-

He woke to a warm feeling. When he opened his eyes her face was right in front of his. He noticed she was wrapped in his arms. He could feel the warmth of her skin pressed against him. When he remembered their state of dress while sleeping he turned red instantly. He was about to sneak out of bed but her grip on him strengthened the second he tried to move. Instead he moved closer and kissed her forehead. She smiled in her sleep and snuggled closer. He swallowed when her breast squished against his chest her bra not really doing much to lower the feeling. He looked at the clock behind her it was only 4:13 am meaning his natural sleeping habits had not been disturbed as usual when he slept with her. His small motion of lifting his head did not go unnoticed. He watched as her eyes cracked slightly open.

She took a deep breath as she slowly slipped into consciousness. She could smell his natural musk as she awoke. She opened her eyes a little more to look at him. She wasn't surprised to see him awake. She lightly kissed his lips before resting back down.

"What time is it?"

"It is 0415 hours."

"Speak Japanese Sousuke I'm too sleepy for military…"

"Forgive me it is 4:15 in the morning."

"Let's go back to sleep."

"Roger." He kissed her once more before resting again.

He woke up to a delicious smell. He could not feel Kaname's body as he did before. He grabbed his gun and leapt out of bed. He moved through the suite as quietly as possible. He followed the smell all the way to the kitchen. He quickly placed his gun in the back of his pants when he saw Kaname was working in the kitchen she had put on a regular t-shirt. He wondered why she didn't just use room service. He decided to continue his stealthy approach. He could see she was making bacon, and eggs, and something made with bead he could not identify. Either she went out to purchase the ingredients or it was already in the fridge. He grabbed her waist and placed one hand over her mouth. She jumped and tried to break free. She relaxed when she felt his lips on her neck. He removed his hand from her mouth. When he relaxed his grip she turned and smacked him with the frying pan.

"That hurt Kaname…" He rubbed his head as he lifted himself off the floor.

"Good! You scared the hell out of me. You're lucky that frying pan wasn't in use. What were you thinking? Hmmphf!"

"Uh. I merely wished to surprise you. I seemed to have succeeded with great consequence."

"Sorry." She kissed the spot where she struck him then reached around to his back. Before he realized she had pulled his gun.

"Looks like someone was being paranoid this morning."

"I was merely worried when I did not find you in bed beside me."

She smiled and gave him another kiss. "Here you go. It's time for breakfast. I didn't have much some people were leaving today, and offered it to me when they saw me in the hall." She noticed him flinch. "Don't worry it is safe, and it's cooked thoroughly anyway so it should be safe."

"I will try it first just in case." Sousuke looked over at the food.

"We'll eat in the bedroom. You get some drinks I'll turn on the T.V." He nodded as she turned towards the room. When he examined the fridge they had nothing in there except the rest of the eggs, bacon, a gallon of milk and a few other things that Kaname had probably left in there. He found partially used loaf of bread atop the fridge. He searched the whole area, and found nothing. He stood in the middle of the kitchen area for ten seconds before he got an idea. He grabbed a shirt and silently snuck out the door of the suite.

She took big whiff of the food in her lap. She was really hungry but that did not compare to her joy right now. She doubted anything short of something done by Sousuke could ruin her spirits. She listened to see if Sousuke was on his way. By the sound of things he wasn't in the room.

"Where the hell did he go now?" Just as she was about to get up she heard the door open and close. The door to the bedroom was mostly closed so she could not see who it was. She calmed down realizing Sousuke would have locked the door if he was there or not.

"Sousuke." She called out to the living area but no one answered. She began to feel a little worried. She lifted her plate off her lap and placed it on the small bed table next to her.

"Kaname orange juice is not a problem correct?" She heard him call from the kitchen. She was instantly relieved. She was ready to kill him for being such a pain in the ass.

"Sure." Almost immediately after as if he had not waited for her answer he walked in.

He walked over to his side of the bed and handed her the glass. She handed him his plate then grabbed the remote. "Kaname what is this?" He held up the bread like substance he couldn't identify before. Kaname giggled a bit. His clueless-ness could be cute at times.

"It's French toast Sousuke. I thought maybe it would be good to have some. Try it its good." She watched as he slowly placed a piece of the bread in his mouth. When he swallowed it he took another piece. "So you like it, eh."

"It is not unpleasant." He said through a mouthful of food. Kaname glared at him.

"It's rude to talk with your mouth open especially in front of a girl. Also I told you do you like it or not?" Sousuke swallowed the piece holding his lock on her. "Affirmative."

She smiled then began eating hers. As they ate she flipped through channels searching for something to watch. When they stopped on the news a story about the incident with the mob, and what is expected to happen came on. He grabbed the remote, and changed the channel. Though Kaname may not be able to understand the language she would probably want him to tell her about it, or she would see images of what took place on the screen. He remembered the destruction he had left in the alley. He stopped on a channel getting anime from Japan. It was in Japanese but was being subtitled for French viewers.

When they finished eating Sousuke offered to clean all the dishes. He poured himself another small glass of orange juice before he washed his glass.

When he returned to the bedroom Kaname was in a rested position while she watched the TV. He silently lied on the bed. He said nothing when Kaname moved over and rested on him. She was still watching TV but the contact was appreciated. He placed one arm around her. They would be leaving soon. A helicopter would be on its way and they would be on the Tuatha de Danaan then back in Japan in no time for now they would rest.

They watched a variety of anime as they waited. Two hours had passed when Sousuke's phone rang. After checking that it was Kurz he answered it.

"Sagara speaking."

"Hey buddy got some bad news where are you?"

"At a hotel with Kaname."

"We have a problem. We already sent your Arm-slave Al decided he wanted to go on his own. We're already on the way."

"What's the situation?"

"A bunch of baddies are coming your way buddy. We don't know why but there are enough of them to mean business."

Sousuke looked towards Kaname. "What about Kaname?"

"She'll be picked up. Just look for the copter it should be almost there we'll be behind it by two minutes."

"Roger. I'll see you later."

"See ya…hey you're going to fill me in on the details later right?"

Sousuke hung up the phone immediately. He pressed a small button on his phone. After a brief moment a quick beep was heard before someone answered.

"Yes sir."

"Al you now have my coordinates correct."

"Yes sir, currently tracing your cell-phone beacon."

"Good. I'll be on the roof."

"Roger." He hung up the phone then turned to Kaname.

"Come on we have a problem. Gather your things we're going to wait on the roof."

Kaname jumped out of the bed.

"Wait, what's wrong?"

"It appears a large amount of enemies are heading this way. Their intentions are unknown but it is dangerous here."

Kaname said nothing more but nodded. They went around collecting their things. Sousuke pulled something out of his jacket and handed it to her. Something fell out with it. Kaname looked down then picked up the small blue object.

"Sousuke."

"I have kept it with me all the time. Here you should keep these." Sousuke handed her the case holding the pictures. Kaname took the case, and stared at the dolphin keychain once more before handing it back. She smiled then placed the pictures in a small bag she would carry with her. They finished gathering their things, and getting dressed. Sousuke checked everything before exiting the room. He locked the door and left the key on the table next to it. He had no doubt one of the staff members would pick it up and figure out they left. Sousuke looked around as he led her to the stairs leading to the roof. It was a dark day the clouds engulfed the sky blocking a lot of sunlight. A very light drizzle was occurring as well. Kaname held Sousuke's hand as they waited for their rides. If Al came on his own he would most likely arrive sooner then the others. The damage he had taken before may slow him down some though. Almost simultaneously he could hear the hum of the helicopter, and the light sound of Al's flight engines. They were still a good distance away. He doubted anyone else would notice them. Kaname obviously hadn't caught the sound yet because she was still searching the skies.

"They are almost here. They are approaching from that direction. I believe Al is escorting a transport helicopter."

After about two more minutes they could feel the wind blowing from the helicopter's blades.

"Hello Sagara. We're here to pick up Miss Chidori. We'll escort her back to the Tuatha de Danaan." Kaname gave Sousuke a kiss before he lifted her into the helicopter. He looked at a small flying camera with Mithril's logo as it flew up. He guessed it must be a new type of automatic camera to record the fights.

Just as the helicopter took off Al materialized out of no where right behind Sousuke. They said nothing as Sousuke entered the arm-slave. He slipped his limbs into their proper controls then took a deep breath as the lines of light ran across signifying he had control.

"Good morning sir."

"Hello Al. How is everything working?"

"Everything can run at an optimum of 90"

"Do we know anything about the situation?"

"Negative, all anyone knows is that a large unit of enemies is coming this way. Mithril units have already arrived and taken position." As he rose to stand a large explosion rang out about 20 blocks from their location. They turned and instantly leapt in the direction.

What they saw when they arrived was not a very good sight. Mithril had already begun battle with the enemies. They had the Urzu team fighting against a force of at least 15 enemy arm-slaves. Sousuke pulled a shotgun off of his arm-slave's gun holster.

He leapt down and fired at some of the enemies.

"Hey Sousuke what's up?" Kurz called in as fought with his opponent.

"What's going on here Kurz?" A Javelin type lunged at the black AS. He pulled out his knife and blocked the sharp hand blade.

"We don't know. These guys just popped out of nowhere and wanted to wreak havoc on this place." Just as he finished his sentence a Venom type 2 carrying a blade jumped at him. Machine gun fire halted the enemies attack.

"Be careful Weber! If you die I'm gonna kick your ass." Melissa Arx-9 jumped to the side as bullets flew towards her. "Shit there's a lot of them."

"Now's no time to chit-chat." Clouzot scolded them as he dodged strikes from enemy arm-slaves. Sousuke fired off another shot as a raptor came down on him but missed. He used the lambda driver to knock the raptor off.

"Shit this is a pain! Little help over here!" Spake was busy trying to hold off three enemies.

"Got it!" Lilliane's AS destroyed one of the enemies causing the other two to move away.

"I got the first kill, you better catch up!" She leapt into combat against another opponent.

"Oh you want to play huh!" Kurz shot an arm off an enemy arm-slave.

"Hey this isn't a game." Melissa placed a charge on her enemy as she kicked it away. "Activate!" The enemy AS's chest blew open and the arm-slave fell.

Sousuke fired at other opponents but each of his shots was blocked. When he stepped back he almost crushed a car with a family in it. "Damn." He tripped to avoid killing the family. His enemy took advantage of that and leapt towards him. The raptor came down on him with an axe. He fired a round from his shotgun into the chest destroying the machine he threw it into the river.

"Al we need to clear civilians."

"Roger."

--

Kaname worried as she watched the fading scene. Almost immediately after they left an explosion happened. She saw Sousuke go off to fight, then more shots were fired. She had never seen so many AS fight at once. Except when they rescued but that was a clear area. She hoped casualties wouldn't happen but she knew it was inevitable so she could only hope for low numbers. She wore a headset to listen to what the pilots had to say.

"Miss Chidori. We'll be arriving at the Danaan in 1 hour. We're going to speed up quite a bit. Believe it or not though this isn't a plane it's a new type of copter capable some a lot of speed. So buckle up."

Kaname did buckle up almost immediately afterward she felt the force of the speeding copter. She tried to get as much a view of the battle as possible.

"Sousuke please be careful." She looked down at the bracelet on her wrist. The lapis lazuli is a beautiful and rare jewel. It was used in the past by painters as a color. It was impossible to recreate then artificially so many of the stones were crushed and used limiting the number existing today. They are more uncommon then actually rare. She was glad he had given it to her. She didn't tell him but she truly appreciated that he kept the dolphin with him.

She looked out the window. She noticed something strange in the sky approaching where they had left. "What's that?"

--

-?- (what Kaname just saw)

"What are they crazy fighting in the middle of a city like that?" A woman's voice asked as they approached.

"Remember they're a bunch of mercenaries, and those ass-holes remember." A man answered this time. "Ok everyone get ready."

Any one who looked towards the sky would have seen the formation of flying arm-slaves. They were not flying like Sousuke's arm slave. They held a balance and fighting priority even in the air. They did not shift body positions or anything. As if flying was natural to the AS. "We're all ready." Another female voice spoke this time.

"You think the boss would mind. I remember he said something about the Valkeries getting defeated by one arm-slave. It's just a rumor but I heard Mac was not pleased."

"The boss can talk with Mac, focus on this. Oh and try not to die."

"Hold on he was upset right?"

"Yeah one of them was his sister."

"I hear he wants to kill the guy who did it. He apparently met him but didn't have the chance. He's holding up pretty well but he's hurting he has to be."

"Really wow that sucks."

"Get ready." The AS formation began to lower altitude as they approached the battlefield.

--

"Sir unidentified arm-slaves approaching from the north." The black arm-slave turned to look in the direction. He could clearly see the formation. "Zoom in Al."

The screen blinked as the image enhanced to almost in front of them.

"Sir we have not fought those types of arm-slaves before."

"Correct. We will need to be careful." He stuck out his hand as a lambda driver wave launched towards him.

"Al how many enemies have been destroyed?"

"Three."

"We need to…" Three arm-slaves aimed a single lambda driver wave towards Melissa.

"Sis why are you standing there its coming?" Kurz called out as he focused on using his lambda driver against his opponent. "Jeez these guys are serious using the lambda driver so much."

"If I move then a lot of people get wasted." Her eye flashed as the light reflected off her screen. The large wave created by three enemies crashed into her. It shocked everyone when she was still standing there as the wave crashed into her. "Now!"

From a single finger a wave flew. The middle of the three enemies launching the blast was blown apart.

"Amazing." Clouzot watched the scene but turned to his opponent to take advantage of the shock. Unfortunately the enemy saw him coming and blocked the knife.

"Damn." Clouzot used the lambda driver knocking the opponent backwards. He quickly recovered blocking Clouzot's second attack.

"Heh, I've got two guys to play with." Kurz was busy firing dodging lambda driver attacks from two venom type 2's.

"Here I come." Urzu 9's AS leapt at one of the chasing arm-slaves. Lilliane cursed when she was blocked. Kurz took advantage and fired off a shot destroying the enemy under her. "Hey watch it!"

Spake's AS was busy taking care of two more opponent's near the river.

Suddenly one blew up, and Spake's AS took damage. "What the Fuck was that?"

The four flying arm-slaves landed. Spake leapt to the side as another shot was fired at him. "More bad guys."

"I don't know they destroyed one of the enemies."

"But they attacked me twice."

"This is the TDD-1. They are unidentified. If they seem hostile you have permission to engage. Be careful though. We are sending more arm-slave support." Tessa's voice came in over the ARX systems.

"Thank you captain but unless they have lambda driver they'll be useless." Clouzot replied as he slammed a Venom-2 into the air. He chopped the air with his hand. In a second the enemy was in half before blowing up.

Just as he did another wave was launched from one of the new arm-slaves. He slapped his hand in the direction of the wave causing both to disappear in a splash. The other three each jumped after a different opponent. Two went after origin enemies, the other went after Sousuke.

"You the one who destroyed the arm-slaves at the platform?" A young man's voice came from the AS.

"Affirmative but I do not understand what that has to do with anything."

"I'm here for revenge."

"Understood."

Both AS lunged towards each other. The balls of light in their hands became one large one as they impacted. They pushed as best they could with the swirling ball of energy.-

Sousuke started overcoming his opponent.

"Stop!" Mac's voice came over the links of the Mithril and the newly arrived opponents arm-slaves. The one who had been going at it with Sousuke leapt back. The two from before destroyed the origin machines before stopping. The enemies took advantage of the ceasefire and attacked.

"Listen you are allies for now, I am speaking to the members of Mithril, and S.O.W.. Destroy the enemy arm-slaves then I will explain everything."

"So we have back-up." Lilliane said as she prepared to engage more enemies.

"Is he part of Mithril." Sousuke's opponent pointed his finger at him.

"Negative."

"Good." He attacked Sousuke head on.

"Hold on you two…Now let's take care of these guys." Melissa called to them. Sousuke who had stood waiting for the attack just stood there as the S.O.W. arm-slave approached him. He didn't even flinch when the fist stopped right in front of him. The AS then span on its toe as it went around Sousuke and destroyed the AS about to hit his back.

"Bastard!" He cursed at Sousuke as he went after another opponent. The Urzu team each just took out one enemy as he turned to the enemy. The last few remaining enemy arm-slaves turned to run but the S.O.W. arm-slaves took them out quickly.

"Ok Vice-Captain explain." Melissa barked at him. She did not like the idea that he knew both sides.

"I will explain when you return. Captain is it alright if they dock with us."

Tessa paused a moment. She thought of the possibility of traitors or enemies on the ship. She looked at Mac's face. It was serious and completely honest. She instantly trusted his intentions once she caught his eyes. "Yes. You may enter the sub. Follow the Urzu team once we are done checking the area. Teams have been dispatched to clear up the incident."

Sousuke was about to follow when a signal came on his link.

"Yo Sousuke its Travis. Long time no see. No time for chit-chat though there are 2 enemies on the southern side. You should take care of them."

"But how do you…"

"I'll explain later. Take them out before they do something we'll regret."

"Roger. Urzu team there are two enemies remaining I am going to take care of them now."

"We'll come too. Give us 5 minutes if you take care of them by then oh well."

Sousuke made his way across the city to the coordinates on his screen. Melissa, and Kurz were helping escort the S.O.W. pilots to the transport copters. They would need to send another one to pick up extras anyway so they could spare leaving the two Urzu team members behind for a minute or two.

Sousuke arrived at the designated area in about 5 minutes. It was barren spot. Nothing but downed building and old roads. When he looked around no one. Suddenly the hairs on his neck stood up. He dodged to the side as a beam of light flew at him. When he turned around his eyes widened. 10 more new types(not like the ones from S.O.W) were in front of him. 5 were hovering and 5 were standing on the ground or crouched on a building.

"Those are Raziel types. But… shit this is a trap."

"Once again you're perceptive. You couldn't call it a mistake…too bad it's too late." Travis's voice came over the link.

"I'm sorry to not have spoken to you sooner Sagara but you have become a nuisance." Another voice spoke this time.

"Schneider…"

"Hello old friend. Now is a test of power. You of course remember the Raziel types. A great advancement in arm-slaves. Of course you already new that. Sadly you are their test dummy and we have no time to talk."

"…"

"Attack!" Schneider's voice was heard in all the Raziel cockpits. Instantly they all leapt towards him. Sousuke jumped up when they rushed. The one's that were hovering flew towards him. He brought his arm up to block the attack but he was pushed through a destroyed building. He fell inside and it fell all over him. He pushed the rubble off him. More of them were already leaping down towards him.

"Sousuke what's the hell is going on?" Melissa's voice came over his link.

"Mao. Stay away this is dangerous!" He rolled to the side as a light fist destroyed where he was lying. The camera he had seen earlier had caught images and was sending them to the TDD-1. He grunted when more light crashed into him.

--

-Tuatha de Danaan-

She stared in disbelief at the screen. She was allowed on the bridge despite her civilian status. Kaname felt her chest tighten as she watched Sousuke's AS take the hits from the enemy arm-slaves. Tessa's reaction was similar though not so bad. She had been able to relieve herself of some of her feeling for him. That did not keep her form twiddling her hair, and flinching every time he was hit. Tears were starting to form in her eyes. Sadly the rest of the ally arm-slaves were already returning to the Danaan. She looked over to Kaname who was almost frozen as she watched the screen. As if she sensed her Kaname turned to Tessa. Tessa flinched when she did and looked back towards the screen. "Melissa, Kurz hurry to help Sousuke…please." Tessa's voice cracked.

"We're going as fast as we can!" Melissa and Kurz were rushing as fast as possible. Their hearts were drums in their chest. Even Mardukas was sweating as he watched the screen. His knuckles had turned white as he clenched his fist.

"Sousuke please be okay…you promised." Kaname whispered it to herself.

--

-Battle-

He put up a light shield as they enemies crashed into him. They were working together perfectly making sure he had no chance to counter attack. He flipped, and rolled and jumped and performed every maneuver you could think of but he could not get an opening. His AS was also performing sluggishly because of the limited repair. The parts he had used he had left there months ago.

"Sir this is not good at this rate…"

"I know AL."

He grunted when he blocked another flash of light but felt a hit anyway. The area was becoming a pile of rubble.

"Hold on Sousuke we're almost there." Kurz voice came over the link. Sousuke did not hear him as he looked around. He had been officially trapped from all directions. They were around hi and even hovering above him. Besides they had created a lambda driver cage.

"Al contact the TDD-1."

"Roger."

Beep!

"This is the Tuatha de Danaan. Sousuke is that you?" Tessa's voice was still cracked as she spoke to him.

"Yes…Is Kaname there?"

"I'm here. Sousuke what's wrong."

"I'm sorry."

Kaname felt her heart sink. She knew what he emant but had to ask anyway.

"For what Sousuke?"

"I will not be returning to Tokyo with you."

"Yes you will mister!" Kaname didn't sound fearful but angry. "You have to…"

Her voice was sad and low when she said that. "…you promised."

"I'm sorry. I believe you can see what is happening on screen."

"Mm hm…" Before he could say anything else the arm-slaves all launched towards him.

"SOUSUKE!" There were multiple waves of light then an explosion. Kaname sank to the floor as she watched the scene. Mac was about to walk over to her when Mardukas stopped him. "Leave her be…for now." He did not sound cold like he usually did. A hint of emotion had entered his voice. Mac flinched when he heard a loud thud.

Kaname slammed her fist against the floor. Tears crawled along her face and legs. She was crying more now then she had ever before in her life.

"Baka…you always, always do this. Why can't you let someone else fight for once?"

She clenched her hands to her chest as she wept. She remembered her gift and pulled it up to look at it. The blue had seemed to dull now. She remembered that she had pictures. She had put them in her pocket when she loaded on the helicopter. She pulled them out and looked at the pictures. She took her time with each photo. When they were with the Bonta-kun he looked uncomfortable. Then the photographer took another picture while he was holding her he looked happy there. Then when they looked at each other he took another without them knowing. She stopped on the one of them kissing. She ran a finger across the picture. Suddenly she realized that she must have been making a scene and did not want the attention or sympathetic looks. Everyone looked towards the door as she exited.

Kaname stood with her back against the door. She looked at the pictures again.

"Why…why does this always happen? You just had to do that didn't you? Right after you said you love me."

--

I'm going to be chased for a short bad chapter that took three days again.