Disclaimer: See chapter one

Chap. 11

Pow!

Charles reeled back from the angry blow of Koemai. The others got in between him and restrained him while he struggled against them.

"Koemai!" Diana cried as she held his arm. "Calm down!"

"Hell no! You left him behind?!" he roared to Charles.

Charles rubbed his cheek, "Koemai calm down and listen. He told us to leave him. Just listen. We where on our way out when we encountered another Raven. Cain told us to leave him behind so that he could handle it." He then repeated, "He wanted us to leave."

Koemai growled a little more before he stopped struggling against the others, "That...does sound like him...I guess."

The Ravens now relaxed, seeing that their comrade had calmed down. Silence overcame them for a while and then Elijah decided to speak.

"What now?"

"What do you mean?" Baron asked.

Elijah turned and gave him a strange look, "What do I mean? Don't we go back for him or something?"

"Go back? There? That's insane."

Elijah fumed, "Are you saying we should leave him behind? I won't do that!"

"You want us to go back to that facility after the attack we launched?" Charles reasoned.  "Their security would be at its maximum now. We wouldn't even get close."

Elijah clenched his fist, "Fine then. I'll go myself."

The others blinked in shock and surprise while Charles shot at him. "Listen to yourself. You're not thinking straight. Going in after him is suicide." He stopped for a moment and lowered his voice. "Besides, even by some insane miracle you do make it in, there's no guarantee that he's there or if he's even alive."

"What?!"

"Elijah. As much as I hate to admit it, he's right." spoke Ellie. "Cain is a Raven. He knew the risks."

Elijah's face grew hot with frustration, "Are you saying we should just...give up on him?"

Diana shook her head, "No. Cain can take care of himself. If anyone can get out of there, he can."

Elijah looked at them all. Baron was looking away, Diana, Ellie, and Koemai were all looking down and Charles simply looked at him. He knew they were right, but right now he didn't care. But despite this, it was still suicide. It was the only thought that kept him from jumping into Havoc and flying off. And...it may have been possible that... Not wanting to think about it, Elijah walked away and left the others behind.

***********

Nightfall...

Elijah lay in his room with his eyes staring straight toward the ceiling. He hadn't blinked or moved for a whole half an hour. After finishing counting the tiles on the ceiling, Elijah sat up and sighed quietly. He then roused himself to his feet and picked up his jumpsuit uniform. He held it for a while and then proceeded to fit in on himself. Later, he emerged from his apartment room and activated the starting systems of his AC. The lights shone around it and various hissing sounds could be heard. Elijah quickly moved up the ladder and to his machine, but as soon as he reached the top, another figure stood in his path.

"I'd figured you'd try something like this kid."

Elijah frowned and brushed past Koemai, "Don't try to stop me."

Elijah began opening the cockpit, but Koemai turned around to him.

"Elijah..."

Click...

Suddenly in a blur of motion, Elijah had whipped out a gun from his back and pointed it right at Koemai's head. Koemai was surprised.

"A gun?"

"I pilot a thousand ton weapon." Elijah explained dangerously as he cocked the trigger. "This...is minimal."

Koemai seemed to frown for a second and then he began to turn around, "Well, let's get going."

Elijah blinked, "Huh?"

Seeing the brief distraction, Koemai quickly raised his arm to show...his own gun. Now both Ravens were both at gunpoint with each other.

"I'm not going to leave him behind there either. But if you want to do this, you follow my lead and do what I say." He moved the gun away.

"You may just come out alive."

Elijah growled, but realized that Koemai wasn't going to let him go with this. What did it matter anyway? They both had the same mission so there shouldn't be a problem.

"Fine."

*********

Two hours later...

The two ACs, Havoc and Bloodhand, stalked over the wasteland terrain toward the facility they head attacked the day before. Because it wasn't an official mission, they didn't have the luxury of a carrier to drop them off and pick them up. So they had to fly over the entire terrain on booster power. During this time, Koemai explained the plan.

"Scouting?"

"It's the best thing to do." Koemai continued. "If we are to find out if he escaped or not, we have to investigate, not attack."

Elijah snorted and Koemai smiled, "Yeah I know. It's boring as hell. Unfortunately, its the only way. If we're lucky, we won't be spotted."

The two machines finally reached the outer perimeter of the facility. Using the head radar system, they scan the area as far as they could. From what it showed, the damage that had been caused by their attack was nearly repaired and there were now active patrols. After a few minutes of scanning, they found nothing that would indicate that Glaive had escaped or otherwise.

"This may take awhile." Koemai muttered. "Let's split up and circle around. But remember; do no go any closer than..."

Suddenly, a white energy beam shone in the distance. The two Ravens saw it come straight at them and dodged to the side. The beam hit and shattered the ground they were once standing on. The facility lit up with activity all at once.

"So much for that idea."

Bullets flew at them as well, causing them to dodge further. Elijah noticed the strength of the gun. 'These are way too weak to be fired from there. Wait.'

Elijah switched the radar functions to include stealth and he spotted what he figured out.

"Bloodhand..."

Koemai responded before he could finish, "Yeah I know. Stealth MTs."

Bloodhand raised his machine gun along with Havoc and they both fired them manically at the invisible enemies. Because of Havoc's stealth radar, Elijah scored me shots and destroyed more MTs than Koemai. However, Koemai wasn't completely helpless since he knew that they could be seen when they fire. Against the two Ravens, the MT's didn't stand a chance even with the linear cannons backing them up. Soon they were destroyed and the linear cannons stopped.

"What the heck?" Elijah asked. Koemai was equally confused, but he knew that something bad was going to happen.

"Watch yourself, kid."

Then it showed up. An object emerged from the distance and came right toward them. As it closed in, marking of white appeared on it and for a moment, the two thought they had found Glaive.

"Alright. Mission a..."

The object came closer still and it was clearly not Glaive or even and AC. Given the design, it was definitely an MT, but unlike any MT Koemai had seen.

"Hey!" Elijah exclaimed. "That the same MT I fought before."

Koemai frowned and shot toward the MT in attack, "Stay back. I got this."

"Koemai, be careful."

Koemai didn't respond and set the machine gun to fire. The white machine flew up out of the line of fire and launched two missiles. Bloodhand swooped off to the side, but the missiles hit him. But they weren't too damaging.

"Hey, I just paid for this paintjob."

Bloodhand lowered his machine gun and unlocked his back chain gun. Due to the Op-Intensify optional part that was active within, Bloodhand was still able to move as the chain gun fired powerful rounds of ammo. The MT took the damage, but wasn't slowed for a second. Instead, it raised its arm and fired a concussive grenade blast. The blast nearly hit Bloodhand and caused him to skid across the ground. Another grenade flashed forth and again Bloodhand dodged it. But the blast hit his gun and it exploded into bits.

"Hang on!" Elijah called.

"Stay back! I'll handle this!" Looking back at the MT, he discarded his broken machine gun. "So you like using grenades, huh?" The chain gun folded and a long grenade launcher on the opposite shoulder. Bloodhand flew up into the air as the MT landed on the ground and targeted up at him.

"Then you'll love this!"

Bloodhand fired a powerful grenade round. The MT fired at the same time and the two fiery blasts exploded brightly. When the light cleared, Bloodhand was gone from the sky. With his targets destroyed, the MT turned its attention to Havoc who readied his machine guns. However a sudden whirling sound was soon heard and the MT turned around.

"Here I come!"

Then with a cry, Bloodhand's OB boosters flare to life and the dark machine sped toward the MT. The MT settled to the ground and unfolded his arm cannon. Energy sparkled and suddenly fired.

"Bloodhand, look out!"

Koemai grinned within the mecha and suddenly he cut the OB and used his normal boosters to propel him into the air, causing the energy blasts to screech underneath him harmlessly. The momentum of the OB was still causing him to fly forward and soon enough, Bloodhand was about to collide with the MT. But the left arm reared back and a thick looking orange blade emerged. The blade shot forward and it sliced off most of the MT's left side. Bloodhand skidded on the ground as the damaged machine sparked and struggled to turn. But Koemai didn't give it the chance as she turned as well and locked his grenade launcher on the target.

"Give my regards to the reaper...in hell!!!!!"

BOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!

The grenade fired once again and exploded on the damaged MT, blowing it up totally. Havoc flew next to his dark partner.

"You okay?"

"Yeah." Looking in the distance though, he could see the numerous objects approaching them. More MTs.

"But this mission is over. Let's get out of here."

Elijah blinked in surprise and began to yell, "But we haven't..."

"And we never will now." Koemai shot back, cutting him off. He hated to leave now. He still had to find his comrade. But he knew that at this rate, they would get nothing done but their own destruction. 'Cain...Be alive.'

"Let's go."

********

Early morning...

Koemai walked through the garage and toward Elijah's room. The door was partially opened so Koemai let himself in. There, Elijah stood motionlessly by the window.

"You okay?"

"What do you think?" Elijah growled back.

Koemai waved it off, "Yeah, yeah. Stupid question."

He stood by the window, opposite of Elijah and simply watched and waited for the younger Raven to begin talking.

"Do you think...?" Elijah whispered, unable to finish.

Koemai picked up where he left off though, "That he's alive? Sure. He may be a stiff blockhead, but he knows how to survive."

Elijah gave a short laugh, "I will survive."

"Hm?"

"He always says that. I just thought that it was just some stupid catch-phrase or something. But I guess he is strong enough." His eyes lowered, "I just wish I could...see his strength."

Koemai nodded and was about to say something else when a sudden vibration and noise caught their attention.

"Huh? What the..."

The two of them exited the room and looked out toward the hanger. There, walking in at the far end was...

"It's Glaive!"

Or at least what was left of it. The white machine was completely totaled. Various points of armor were ripped up all over and sparks shot out in numerous areas. The white paint was now a dull grey, spotted by even darker mark that looked like burns. The right arm was missing while the left was heavily damaged, leaving a near skeleton metal arm which still held the moonlight. It was a miracle that it walked in and managed to dock without falling to pieces. As it docked, the two Ravens rushed over and up the docking port toward the cockpit. As they did, Koemai saw the damage. Though some of it seemed to have been caused by explosive weaponry, the majority of the damage was serrated slices and cuts. 'An energy blade. But what blade makes marks like this?'

Meanwhile, Elijah had made it to the cockpit and he used the outside emergency handle to open it. Peering in, Elijah gasped and backed out. Just them, Koemai caught up with him.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

Elijah merely pointed inside and Koemai looked in as well. A gasp escaped his lips as well.

"Oh sh%^!"

Cain was just as beaten as his machine, if not more. Koemai couldn't see the extent of the damage, but Cain had numerous slashes on his face and body. Blood was seeping out everywhere and had masked his face in crimson. Yet Cain managed to flicker a single eye open just to show that he was still alive. Koemai quickly backed out and turned to Elijah.

"Get the paramedics here now!"