Episode 3: Looking back…

Oz was tossing and turning in his bed. It was the dream again. Nearly every night he relieved that day. It was the same nightmare, always, same moment, same ending, bad. He did it he, he thought to himself, he killed her. It was always the same, he helped her too late, he failed her. He remembered it all. It was all back when he was still a part of the Wild Cards. It all happened during a run-in with one of their many rivals. But here, now, your rivals didn't just carry guns and throw gang signs, casters, incantations, dark magic. The stakes were way higher than anyone could ever really guess. The end result for failure still held true: you fail, you die. But now, there were a lot more ways to fail. You have to watch out for your partner, and yourself. Sometimes you have to make that split second decision. You have the option of saving your friend knowing you'll die in the process; or you can take the bigger gamble with greater rewards, save yourself, and bank on being quick enough to save your friend too. Oz made that bet once, and lost.

That was the moment he relived over and over in his dreams, his nightmares. Choices. That's what life all boils down to. Make good ones, make bad ones, don't make any at all, no matter what there's consequences.

He had been preoccupied with one of the lackeys. He was strong, and his spells were more than enough to make it hard for Oz to get a clear shot. He saw himself loading the #4 shell into one of his three-shot casters, then filling the other two slots of his cylinder with a #5 and a #7. He jumped out of his cover and took the shot as he fell. He saw the black sphere of energy fly out towards its victim. Then he saw it stop right in front of him and proceed to consume him into nothingness, after which he saw the small black hole disappear. But not before he saw a bolt of it's dark energy hit him and drain some of his manna, his life force. Oz had managed to fight through the pain and turn to see how Rose was doing. Rose Sanchez was Oz's love, mi amor he called her, "my love." He saw her holding her own against Vasin. She had her own caster, and was taking shots as quick as she could, but Vasin was blocking them as quick as she could shoot them. Oz was still sluggish from the #4, but was on his way to help Rose finish him off, then it happened. He saw her drop her next shell. That gave Vasin more that enough time to kill her. A black bolt of lightning shot out of his hand and surged a through Rose. Oz was able to see her stand straight up and arch her back, screaming in pain the all the while. Her whole body went limp as she fell to the ground, her caster falling next to her.

"ROOOOSSSSSEEEE!" Oz screamed at the top of his lungs. Even more adrenaline flooded his blood stream and he ran faster towards Rose, forgetting the weakness that plagued him only a second earlier. Vasin turned towards the direction of the yell, and proceeded to put his hand out to do the same to him that he just did to Rose. Oz saw this and lifted both of his casters up and pulled the triggers. The power of a #5 and a #8 hit Vasin with full force. The #5 cancelled out his magic and the #8 incinerated him. Enraged, Oz nearly forgot about Rose, he caught her face in the corner of his eye. He quickly holstered his casters and ran towards Rose's body lying on the ground. He fell to his knees right next to her and lifted her head. Oz checked for a pulse, he found it, but it was exceptionally weak. He saw her eyes begin to open little by little until they were wide open and looking into his. Oz didn't say anything, he wasn't sure what to say, he simply stared at her and began to smile. Rose smiled in return, then her smile began fading, and, her eyes closed again, this time she wasn't going to be opening them ever again, and Oz knew it. Rage and despair filled his heart, and all Oz could do was sit there and the let the hot tears flow down his cheeks and clench his teeth in rage.

The dream ended, Oz woke up…

Oz's eyes opened wide and he sat straight up, "Ahhhh!" he was panting and found himself in a cold sweat. Ryoko was sleeping peacefully until she heard Oz shout.

"Hmmm?" Ryoko sleepily sat up and looked over at Oz. "What's up?" she yawned. She thought it wasn't anything important until she saw Oz's expression, and she knew something was wrong. "What's wrong?" Ryoko was concerned now, Oz was in a sweat and panting, something was definitely wrong.

"Ryoko." Oz looked over at her, "mi amor." He leaned in and kissed her, then got up and started getting dressed.

"Where are you going?" Ryoko wasn't sure to make of the whole thing. He had never called her that before. Not that she didn't like it, she wouldn't mind hearing it more often in fact, but something was disturbing him, and she had no idea what.

"Necessisito hacer algo, I gotta do something." Oz put on his holsters and belts and walked out of the bedroom. Ryoko simply sat there and let him go, she wasn't sure where he was going, but she had a feeling it was something he needed to do, so she left it at that.

The Viajero Bandido had its own runway and multiple decks. It also had enough hangar room for his jet and Ryoko's craft with more room to boot. It had a mechanics section in the lowest deck along with storage rooms. Oz got into the cockpit of his x-71 jet craft. The jet was originally an experimental spacecraft fighter that was going to be junked by the private company that had designed it. When Oz offered to pay them for it there weren't against the idea. Oz and taken it and had it modified and improved. The whole thing cost him a small fortune, but he felt it was well worth it. It was undoubtedly one of the most maneuverable crafts out there, and certainly one of the fastest. It had three very powerful engines complete with thrust vectors and coordination thrusters. It is just as maneuverable in air as it is in space, and deadly in any situation. Its control system was also unique to any other jet. With most jets using joysticks and throttle sticks, the x-71 had a set up closer to a car and a motorcycle combined. With brake and throttle foot pedals it was in one way like a car; and with its joystick looking more like the handlebars of a motorcycle, it was certainly something you didn't see often.

The canopy closed and began pressurizing for the vacuum of space. Oz activated the thrusters accordingly by punching in the necessary commands on the keypad located in the center of the handlebars. He could hear the elevator taking the jet up to the runway deck for take off, this was usually no difficult task, since this particular part of the ship didn't have artificial gravity. Oz reached the runway deck and looked out at the field of stars. He set the tint on the windows and then released the clamps holding down jet. Oz pressed down the throttle and the engines boomed to life, shooting the jet off of the 500 ft. long runway. Oz headed for the nearest jump gate. The gates were the in essence holes in space that let any ship jump from one planet to the next in a matter of days. What may have taken lifetimes to reach in the past now only took days, hours, minutes or seconds, depending on distance of course. Oz punched in the coordinates of the planet he wished to reach and sent the signal the gate computer, after an electronic transaction for the jump(since after all the gates were glorified toll roads) Oz was on his way to planet Aurora.

Aurora…

He stood there at the foot of her grave and read the tombstone:

Rose Sanchez

2150-2170

R.I.P

He set down roses and stared for a little while. "I'll never forget you Rose, but it's time for me to move on." He said resolutely. He looked at the grave and remembered her and all the memories they had together. "Via con Dios, good bye." Oz turned and walked away, it was time to get back to the ship.

When Oz returned to the ship he simply sat in the observation deck and looked out upon the sea of stars and nebulas. He didn't notice when Ryoko walked in to join him.

"So what's wrong, you never answered my question." She stood by him waiting for an answer.

"Nothing."

"Liar." Oz said nothing to that, so Ryoko took it to be a good guess. "What is it?"

"Bad memories." Oz said nothing more than that.

"Well why don't you tell me about it?" Ryoko was beginning to get frustrated, mainly because she was feeling helpless at the fact that she couldn't do anything to help him unless he opened up.

"No."

Ryoko was becoming more frustrated now. "Why do you act like that?" Ryoko put her hands on her hips in exasperation.

Oz turned his head and looked at her. "You know you're the same way."

Ryoko had no response that. It was true, she was like that, but she was hoping he wouldn't use that. She sighed and sat down next to him, resting her head on her knees. "Yeah I guess so."

They both sat there and stared at the stars, saying nothing to each other. After a while they both happened to turn their heads towards each other. They looked into each others eyes and couldn't help but smile at one another.

"The past is only good for learning from and forgetting, here and now is what's important." Oz said with renewed life in his voice.

Ryoko looked at him and smiled, "Right"

"All I have are my love, my dreams, and you." Oz said as he leaned in to kiss Ryoko, "and I won't let those go no matter what."

The past is gone but not forgotten…

To be continued…