Claimer: The four executioners belong to me, and me alone. Any use of those characters without permission will be reported immediately to the Fanfiction staff.
Sorry if I seem harsh but I just don't want anyone changing my characters as he sees fit.
A few days later at Neo-Arcadia...
Harpuia was flying, patrolling the skies above Neo-Arcadia.
He was distracted however his mind was elsewhere...
"I hope Zero says yes, it's pretty hard for only three guardians to keep all of Neo-Arcadia secured. Elpizo destroyed many of our Pantheons (The X-like Neo-Arcadian soldiers) and many of our defenses and we are pretty weak now. And Neo-Arcadia is too big for us to protect only by ourselves. Zero proved himself, he fought to protect Neo-Arcadia and the humans as he did over a century ago with X as a maverick hunter. I just hope he will accept. We really need him now... Especially when our army is so weak." The neo-Arcadian was divided into five regiments until a bit less then a year ago:
The aerial patrol and transport: This force is the air force of Neo-Arcadia an extremely effective and very powerful air force being led by the powerful Harpuia, it consists of reploids that were built and designed for aerial combat, as well as aerial vehicles such as bombers, fighters and Aerial Squadron Transports.
The infantry: A brutal force consisting of a devastating combination of Pantheons, Reploid soldiers, Assault vehicles and siege mechaniloids. Under the command of Fefnir they excel at fighting ground forces and infiltrating enemy bases and fortresses.
The marine fighters: The Neo-Arcadian navy is a capable force consisting of aqua reploids (reploids created to work and fight underwater), Submarines, water mechaniloids and under the command of the fierce Leviathan, who has no match underwater fighting.
The shadow squadron: This elite stealth unit has been disbanded due to the destruction of the guardian Phantom, who trained the reploids himself to become fully-fledged stealth warriors.
And the last was X's guard: Only the strongest, fastest, most disciplined and promising soldiers were accepted into this regiment. Hand picked by Copy X himself, trained by him and enhanced with the most powerful upgrades Neo-Arcadia has to offer. This almost unbeatable force still exists, although all of its members were frozen when Copy X was destroyed and now they are deep within the core of Neo-Arcadia, waiting for the day when they will awake from their frozen state and fight for Neo-Arcadia once again.
At the resistance...
Zero was helping transfer another energy crate to the warehouse along with Autruche.
"I still don't see why they put me in this warehouse! I am not a reploid built for this kind of work. Hibou should be doing this he likes to work..." Autruche's muttering swooped at Zero like a swarm of Melnets (The bee-like mechaniloids)
"Put a lid on it will you?" Zero said, pretty annoyed for the last fifteen minutes Zero was helping him transfer crates of energy crystals to the warehouse. They had received a shipment from an abandoned factory somewhere near the forest of Dysis and all he heard were only Autruche's complaints.
"You don't to be so aggressive..." Autruche mumbled.
Zero sighed and continued with the crate until they reached the others.
"Okay, just put this one here... and voila!" Autruche said. "Thanks for your help Zero, I don't know how much time it would have taken me without you." Autruche thanked him.
"No problem, I was happy to help." Zero lied, he had no trouble carrying the crates but Autruche was bugging him with his constant complaints.
Zero left the warehouse and ran into something, he tripped over it and fell.
When he got up he noticed he tripped over someone, not something.
It was Perroquiet.
"Ugh... my glasses!" Perroquiet exclaimed.
Zero crouched and handed him his glasses.
"Sorry for running into you like that, I didn't see you..." Zero started but was soon interrupted, "I was looking for you actually." Perroquiet said.
"Really? What did you want?" Zero asked curiously.
"I wanted to talk to you about Harpuia's offer." Perroquiet said.
"Oh..." Zero replied, thinking what can Perroquiet say that would change his mind.
"Zero, I know you are going to decline Harpuia's offer but think of the possibilities! If you will become a guardian then you will be able to stop them from attacking the resistance and buy us enough time for Ciel to complete her research and then we won't have to fight them anymore!" Perroquiet said enthusiastically.
Zero had just digested what Perroquiet had just said and realized how stupid he was. He smacked his forehead, if he was to join the guardians Ciel could finish her research uninterrupted and he would be able to protect humans as he so long ago did.
"So will you join them now?" Perroquiet asked.
"Perroquiet, you are a genius! When Ciel finishes her research then it won't matter, I won't have to protect the resistance anymore. You'll be fine because I'll make sure that Neo-Arcadia won't attack you." Zero said, finally he made his decision without any doubts. He would tell Harpuia tomorrow evening.
"Thanks!" he said and ran off to the elevator to tell Ciel.
The next they in the after noon...
A massive crowd of resistance members gathered to say farewell to Zero, including some of Elipzo's subordinates. The others seemed to have fled in shame of what their 'glorious' leader had done.
"Thank you all," Zero said, "I will make sure Neo-Arcadia won't give you any trouble. With some luck it might be best for both us and them that I will become a guardian and thus this rivalry will finally stop." A hail of cheers was heard from the massive crowd. All were chanting his name, "Zero! Zero!"
Half an hour later...
Zero had just left Ciel's quarters after saying goodbye to her, she cried and he promised her he'd visit her once she and the resistance soldiers will go back to Neo-Arcadia.
As he left he passed by Cerveau's lab and he stopped.
"I have something for you in my lab, a special device..." A voice rang in his head.
"No." He thought, "I trust Harpuia, he won't do that." And walked away.
At twilight desert...
Harpuia, Fefnir and Leviathan were standing in the dunes watching the sunset.
"Isn't it beautiful?" Asked Leviathan, enchanted by the view of the sun setting behind the sea of dunes.
"Yes..." Harpuia said, also charmed by the sight.
"We don't get to see these moments much anymore..." Leviathan said sorrowfully.
"We're just too busy to do stupid stuff like this." Fefnir said, his arms crossed on his chest.
"Well when is Zero coming anyway? I can't wait forever!" he complained.
"He should be here within the hour." Said Harpuia.
"Ahem..." a small cough drew their attention.
They looked back at the source and immediately three reploids jumped in front of them, landing in their battle poses.
Each of them was standing in front of a guardian they measured each other up.
Harpuia's adversary was an aerial reploid he had never seen before:
The reploid's armor was solid black, Harpuia thought that he might be meant for night fighting, that would leave him at a disadvantage due to his bright color.
His helmet had a golden V embedded and had a helmet which covered the head completely, with two wide slits for eyes. The eyes that stared at him were emerald green like his but cold.
The torso was decorated with another golden V and on the back were attached two jetpack rockets in the design of large wings.
The greaves were very similar to Harpuia's own, only a v-shaped armor there.
The boots were spiked, should he receive a kick from them he would probably be heavily injured.
He held in his hand what seemed like a double-edged beam saber. But it wasn't powered yet.
Leviathan's adversary was also female, with Sapphire blue eyes, her dark blue armor made her resemble a shark:
Her helmet was decorated with a fin, so was her back.
Her face were very handsome and for an embarrassing moment Leviathan thought that she was prettier then herself. But then reminded herself that she might be an enemy. The female reploid smiled a dark smile and clenched her fist on the great harpoon in her hand.
Her torso supported her breasts, which were bigger than Leviathan's and had a carved gem embedded below them.
Her greaves were just like Leviathan's v-shaped.
She wore regular boots. Decorated with several gems and pearls.
Fefnir's adversary was even bigger and more muscled than he was:
A large gem on the forehead of his helmet,
His massive armor was sure to give him great protection.
One of his hands was a ball of spikes, and the other was gauntleted.
His torso was wide and thick, providing better armor than Fefnir's.
His greaves were v-shaped as well. The same man probably designed the three.
His boots were large and the sole was jagged a kick from him would probably smash a metal wall.
Fefnir's only advantage was probably his speed, since the reploid wore so much armor he would probably be very slow.
Behind the three stood a reploid clad in golden armor.
The armor blinded them as it reflected the glow of the sun so they couldn't get a good look at it.
"Guardians. We have been expecting you. Meet my three associates: Vulture," he gestured at Harpuia's counterpart, "Whirlpool," he gestured at Leviathan's counterpart, "And last but really not least Daemon. We are the four executioners. Have fun." And with those words he vanished, leaving the six alone.
Vulture powered his saber, Whirlpool twirled her harpoon and pointed it at Leviathan and Daemon's spike ball landed in a thud on the sand and a chain was running from the hand socket to it.
Three quarters of an hour later...
Zero had just transferred to the coordinates that Harpuia told him to transfer and a horrific sight was in front of him:
The dunes were covered with red fluids and several internal parts were scattered around the area.
A trail of red fluid led to a dune, upon the dune Zero saw another terrifying sight.
Leviathan, impaled through her chest on a harpoon of sort that was stuck in the ground, red fluids still running from the wound and from her mouth, she was still alive.
Zero ran over to her and crouched near her pierced body.
"Leviathan... What happened?" he asked.
"They..." she coughed, "Too strong... Harpuia and Fefnir..." and she lost her consciousness.
"No!" Zero said, but Leviathan was still alive, maybe there's still time.
"Transfer from coordinates..." Zero delivered Leviathan's coordinates and she transferred away.
The trail of blood continued and Zero followed it pas the dune, where he saw the shattered form of Fefnir's legs.
He ran further and found Fefnir's torso, he went mad and kept talking to himself as if not noticing Zero was there.
"Fefnir? Fefnir!" Zero yelled, but in vain as Fefnir just kept talking to himself incomprehensibly.
"Operator another one at..." Zero said Fefnir's coordinates and he too disappeared in a flash of light.
The trail of blood got thicker, and stopped at the foothills of a massive dune, on top of it was Harpuia, still standing but his arm was missing and slash marks were all over his armor, he was probably left for dead like the others but managed to get up.
"Harpuia!" Zero yelled and ran up to him, to support him.
"I'm fine..." he grimaced and coughed some red fluid.
"Are Leviathan and Fefnir...?" he asked.
"I don't know, I transferred them to the base... what happened here?"
"Executioners... They were so strong, so strong it was unbelievable." Harpuia said, his voice distant.
"Transfer us operator!" Zero yelled into his comm. And they were transferred back to base, where two reploids carried Harpuia into the maintenance bay.
"This is horrible!" Ciel cried on Zero's shoulder.
"Who... who could have done that, especially to the three of them...?" she sobbed.
"I don't know, I guess we'll have to wait and find out..."
Meanwhile at another place...
"We have dispatched of them." Vulture said to the golden clad reploid.
"Excellent form!" he said, "You can use the facilities today because you have done such a good job!"
"Thank you." Vulture Whirlpool and Daemon said in unison and left.
To be continued...