Chapter 12: Scars from Time
A large ominous figure knelt in front of two large gates. The figure seemed to be breathing deeply. Wires from where its left arm once was were dangling out emitting sparks of light. Various lights jumped from its joints. The giant moved in slow jerky motions. Its once pure white armor was now darkened to an ashen grey. The gates opposite to the giant slowly slid open, revealing a thin figured with dark red paint. It held a sniper rifle and a grenade launcher on its left hand. Slowly, the new red giant walked towards the defeated mech, "No please! Stop!" a female voice yelled with a worried tone. The damaged mech merely looked up at the newcomer, seeming to tremble with agony and pain. In only seconds, pillars of flames bursted out from its core. The mech collapsed, engulfed in flames.
A girl woke up, stirred from her nightmare. She was panting hard, sweat rolling down her pale face and neck, That machine…I dreamt about that machine again…but this time…it was like I was …worried…
"Oh…so you decided to finally wake up. How are you feeling, Sara?" A man sat on a chair that was situated next to the door across the room. He had brown eyes and black hair that reached his neck. He wore a brown long sleeved jacket.
"Ugh…I feel…fine…I think…"she said, sitting up and rubbing her eyes rigorously. Her long black hair now cascaded over her face.
"Good, I'm sure Windbreaker will be more or less than thrilled to hear about that…" the man said peeling and orange. Sara stopped rubbing her eyes and focused on the man that was sitting across the room.
"…Vanguard?" his face now seeming familiar, "Wait! If you're here…then were's Wind!" she looked around the room.
He chuckled lightly, "Don't worry, he's in the garage tuning his AC." Vanguard threw the skin of the orange in the cylindrical garbage bin near him. "I'm sure you have many questions right now…you should probably ask Windbreaker about it all." He said, picking a piece of orange and putting it in his mouth.
"...where exactly are we?" she asked. Vanguard popped a piece of the orange into his mouth.
"We're at an old garage in what used to be Bayload city. This garage use to belong to the Ark but after the fall of Bayload city, its been abandoned and labeled as a danger zone," Sara only remained silent, "Heh…Wind, told me about who you were looking for…" her eyes shifted towards Vanguard, he had gotten her attention from that one sentence, "This use to be Windbreaker's old base of operations…and Horizon's."
"…did you know Horizon?"
"Yeah…he was some pilot too. I'm sure Windbreaker knows him as well…" Sara listened carefully to what Vanguard was saying, taking in each piece of information he was providing, "Windbreaker….fought alongside with Horizon on the same day Bayload city fell…I don't know how Windbreaker survived but…anyways, I think it be best you ask Wind yourself, the garage is just down the hallway to your left." He pointed at the door.
The hallways were dark and the metal walls seemed to have rusted over the years. The young Raven walked down the corridor hearing a faint clanking sound in the distant. She followed the clanking sound, aware that there was a beam of light at the end of the corridor. She poked her head out of the corner to find a large blue mech standing by the deck. It had large oversized pincer like shoulders. Sara knew the mech to be AC Omen, Windbreaker's AC. The only thing that she noticed that was different about it was it had the new head unit ,SR3, making it look all the more deadly. Sounds of clanking could be heard coming from the AC itself. Sara crept over to the AC to find a male behind the AC, tinkering with what seemed to be its boosters. All that could be made out from the person was he was wearing a black jacket with the Raven insignia on the back with black jeans.
"…Wind?" she said tilting her head to get a better view of the person in front of her.
The man threw the wrench that he was holding aside and turned around, his black hair swiveling with his motion, "So…Jack-O sent you as reinforcements eh? He must really think highly of you…how amusing…" he wiped his hands and forehead with a cloth that lay beside him. She merely stared at him as if inspecting him, he grew irritated by her actions and had and outburst, "What! The hell are you staring at!"
Sara sighed, slouching her shoulders, "That's just like you, Wind…to be so cold…" Windbreaker suddenly found himself staring face to face with an angry female, something he never wished for. "You bastard! Did you know how worried I was! First you disappear without a trace then the Ark announces you are working with Revelation!"
Windbreaker shifted his gaze to elsewhere to avoid eye contact with the girl, Great…why did Jack-O have to send her of all people?
"And now I find you here and what do you say! One of your cold remarks!" she stood there for a moment, staring at the ground in silence. Windbreaker took a step to the side only to feel a sudden tightening around his waist.
"Gack!" struggling to breath for air, he was also attempting to escape from the force exerted on his chest, Damn...why….does it always…have to be me!
Sara held on tightly, her arms wrapped around his waist and her head laying on his chest, "I really missed you, Wind…" Windbreaker stopped wriggling as he felt his shirt getting wet. He looked down at the girl, her black her shining, whimpering sounds came from her.
He sighed a little, "Alright…okay! I get the point…please let go of me now before my shirt is soaking."
Windbreaker had to change due to the fact that he had been covered in dirt and just recently soaked with tears. They sat by the stairs, while Sara informed him of what happened at the Ark and why Jack-O sent her. "So…Wind…I have a couple questions...I didn't get to ask them back at the Ark…"
He hesitated, not wanting to go through the trouble of explaining things so much but decided that he would answer seeing as how she would pester him to the edge anyways, "And….what questions would those be?"
She hesitated for a moment trying to gather the right words to form her questions, she looked down at his arm that was wrapped in bandages and his cross shaped scar, "how did you get those scars?"
He simply raised an eyebrow at her, "Hm? These? Why do you want to know?"
"Because its not everyday that you see someone with those type of wounds…so…what happened?"
Windbreaker turned his cold gaze towards his AC, "It was...two years ago...when I was just a new Raven in the fold...all hell broke loose, all the Ravens had fought against the unknown MTs that arose, bringing destruction in their wake..."
"Those MTs...wouldn't have been the same ones that destroyed Bayload city...would they?" she asked with a concerned face.
He walked up to the foot of his AC, staring at its dark blue painting,"Yes...that was the last day of Bayload city..." his mind drifted off into one of his memories again, a memory of himself when he was just a new Raven.
Ashes of ruins lay across the field. Arms and legs that were made of metal lay on the ground, fresh black smoke still rising from the death that lay around. The air was quiet, only the sounds of whistling wind seemed to stir. In the middle of the waste lay a corpse, still wriggling, struggling for life. The was just a youth with short brown hair, blood dripping down everywhere on his face. He was soaking wet from the drizzling rain that came pouring down. He reached his hand out towards the wreckage nearby. A faint pink paint and a raded symbol that resembled that of an angel with a spear could be seen on one of the metal plates of the wreckage.
"C...Charisma...Nooooooooo!" he yelled still extending his hand out. Trickles of tears started to come out of his eyes, hardly visible through the rain. "Charisma!" the youth cried out until the energy had vanished from him. The boy lay there with his eyes wandering out into the grey clouds that seemed to have no boundaries. An object appeared in the sky, it seemed to emit a faint light blue light while getting closer at the same time. Moments later, the object now a giant landed before him accompanied by several helicopters that flew in the sky. The giant was white with several yellow glowing eyes emitting from its head. It held a long silver gun in its right hand. The godly figure kneeled down on one leg, placing its hand just infront of its torso. The front of the torso opened up, revealing a tall figure standing on the giant's hand. The man standing on the white mech's hand had short white hair, his long coat flapping in the winds. The white haired man walked towards the corpse that was sprawled there and kneeled over beside him.
"You must be tired of this miserable excuse for a life huh , Wind?" he asked in a low voice. The youth whom was laying on the ground moved his mouth to speak, but nothing came out, only a gasp for life could be heard. "Tell you what, Wind? I'll make you a deal, I help you recover so you can get back at the certain someone who caused all this...who killed your love...and you...will work for me, as an elite Raven. Come on! It won't be like before, you'll be given more priveliges.." the man cracked a grin, "However...your main purpose...will be to destroy those who get out of line...so...do we have a deal?" the bloody youth grunted, "Good! I knew you were smart, I'll have a paramedic over here right now then..." the man stood up and walked away.
"Thats how I got my scars...from surviving that battle. Thanks to Jack-O, I'm still alive...so...I owe him my life no matter what..." Windbreaker finished.
"You...lost someone...didn't you? Someone close to you..." she said walking up beside him.
"...yes..." he continued to stare at his large specialized AC.
Sara felt guilty, she had always thought Windbreaker to be a Raven who simply did not care for anything except for himself. The only reason she liked him was probably because she prefered men like him. But now, Sara knew that Windbreaker was more than some simple man. He had a dark past, and probably didn't want any more to happen, so he shuts himself off to the world. This was what ran through Sara's mind that moment. She motioned her hands towards Windbreaker's back, "Wind...I'm sorry..." she muttered. Before her hand reached him Windbreaker walked off to the stairs and beside his AC.
"Well...that's all in the past now...we can forget about it. Did you have any other questions before move on?"
The girl was shocked at his quick reply but decided to move on, she was in thought for a moment. She thought back to the battle she recently had two days ago with Enigma, only two questions popped up in her mind, "The battle with Enigma...he said you were a...NBP...what the hell is an NBP! And what was Enigma doing there!"
"Tell her, Wind!" steps could be heard coming from the stairs. Vanguard had entered at that moment, "Tell her what we are...and what we're facing...she's already too involved in this so it won't hurt anything." Vanguard was different, his face was hardened and serious as opposed to his usual slack attitude with a smile personality.
"We!" she was surprised by Vanguard's entrance and even more so from his statement.
Windbreaker turned to her with a fixed cold gaze. His dark eyes now more prominent than Sara had ever seen, "NBPs...stands for Naturally Born Pluses."
Her eyes widened at what he said, "Pluses! As in...artificially enhanced! But...I thought that was prohibited!"
"It is...however...both me, Vanguard, Jack-O and Engima were naturally born. We were not made in labs, consider the term half-breed if you may. Our parents were pluses who gave birth to use before they died..." Windbreaker placed his hands in his pocket. "NBPs have enhanced abilities compared to normal people. They have a better reaction time and see things from a different perspective, speed and angle from normal people which makes them perfect strategists."
Sara was silent for the moment. She did not know what to make of all the information she had just heard, couldn't register that her companion had such a deep secret, "...so...if Enigma is also an NBP...why is he fighting against you?"
Vanguard immediately cut in, stepping front of Windbreaker and waving his hand in the air with a gesture that indicated he needed to get into to Omen. Windbreaker nodded and walked away to the deck that hooked onto his AC. "On the day when those flying MTs were activated, visions started flooding our mind...indicating of the future...or just one possibility of the future." He was silent for a moment. Windbreaker stood motionless with his back turned facing the inside of his AC's cockpit. It was clear the cold Raven was listening to every word that Vanguard was saying, as if making sure of something. Vanguard continued, "It indicated that all civilization would be destroyed...if we keep on this path of prying into the lost technology...the forbidden technology..."
Sara tried to stead herself from what she was hearing. It seemed too sudden to be hearing anything of this sort. "How...terrible..."
Vanguard nodded, "Indeed, and we don't want this future either...however...not all NBPs share the same perspective...Enigma sees this as a sign of punishment from god to all of humanity for prying...so he created Revelation as a means to boast his offensive."
"So...your saying...he's insane?" she tilted her head a bit.
Vanguard chuckled, "Yes, I guess that's a possibility..."
"Hey! We don't have much time left, we have to leave, the mission should be starting now!" Windbreaker yelled leaning against the railing.
"Oh right! I completely forgot about the mission..." Vanguard scratched the back of his head. He turned to Sara, "Well...better suit up...we're going out right now, hope your prepared."
Something then struck Sara, "Wait! What about Shade and Carom! They were with me an-" Vanguard cut her off.
"Relax, we sent them back to Ark to report our current status to Jack-O, it seems they also encountered those new MTs that you fought, their ACs were badly damaged and we had no more supplies after repairing yours so we sent them back."
"What were those MTs by the way? I've never seen them before and the ECM they used was off the charts!"
"Oh, those would be called KNIGHTs, they use high ECM particles which was probably the mist you saw out there. They're Revelations latest MTs. Their built from the forbidden technology but are pretty harmless if you know how to take care of them...anyways, it would be wise to get going. Our mission starts in five minutes, " he said looking at his wrist watch. Sara nodded and ran off, seeing her AC in the hangar behind Omen's. She noticed Windbreaker had already gotten into Omen and made haste.
There was a moment where everything on the moniters flashed open, revealing multiple moniters and displays on the AC and its surroundings. Omen could be seen in her front moniter, "Come to think of it...I've never really analyzed Wind's AC...I wonder what parts he uses..." out of curiosity, she targeted the dark blue AC and pressed some buttons on the keyboard beside her, the mech's computer started speaking in its female monotonist voice.
"UNIT IDENTIFIED AS OMEN. REGISTERED AS ALLY. ANALYZING TARGET..." there was a moment before the computer reviewed the results of Omen's assembly. The list was odd enought to surprise Sara, Wind...what the hell is this!
"UNABLE TO ANALYZE TARGET. AC ASSEMBLY NOT CORRESPONDING TO REGISTERED PARTS IN ARK. HIGH ENERGY RESPONSE DETECTED WITHIN UNIT...INSUFFICIENT DATA."