Another Fortunate Accident
Ch. 22 – The Child That Would Be God
By Analogk37
Linna Yamazaki picked through the dark underground ruins, mindlessly clawing her armored way to the next search point. She had long since stopped thinking of the ruined city surrounding her. In her mind were thoughts of the other Knight Saber searching on the opposite side of the virtual grid they worked through. Those thoughts weren't of the warm, longing variety that had accompanied her early days of recovery; these were harsh, cold, bitter thoughts of the icy hatred the other woman had dealt from her sharp tongue and hardened fists.
Distracted, the Green Hardsuit tripped on a slab of broken concrete, throwing her balance off just enough to force the woman to stumble. Managing to catch herself before falling, Linna reward was a fresh stab of agony from her burning abdomen… the initial point of the trauma that was the accident… and also the point of attack from the woman that Linna had at one brief point in her life thought she might actually love. She bit back a grunt, trying to hide the pain that served as the ultimate reminder of her recent ordeals.
However, even through the flaring pain, questions remained in her broken heart… questions of recently discovered incidents in which she found herself still concerned about the singer's well being despite the immense walls now erected between them. Linna pushed the questions to the back of her hardened heart, dwelling instead on the unmistakable hostility that Priss still harbored in her own frigid soul.
Meanwhile, the woman, unaware of being mentally lambasted by the country girl, took a deep breath while trying to regain her calm. Her dismounted helmet off to the side, Priss fidgeted with the foreign symbol hung around her neck. Not a religious person, the singer wondered if the man who had given this trinket even believed in the message it conveyed.
Priss found herself clutching the distraction from her suffering, trying to vainly draw strength from its metal construction. Sighing deeply, she tucked the silver cross inside of her softsuit and cautiously slid back into her hardsuit, humming with electricity from the newly replaced battery. When the hardsuit constricted tightly around her torso she was forced to pause for a moment, struggling to steady her shaking hands. Gritting her teeth hard enough to hurt, the woman lowered those trembling hands to grasp her helmet while attempting to lock her fingers into her will. Finally donning the helmet, Priss checked the HUD to orient herself within the underground caverns again.
It was only then that Priss let herself think of the other woman working on the search. Her original intentions were to try and ignore Linna as much as possible and concentrate on the task at hand. Unfortunately, that had proved impossible the second she activated the com system on the hardsuit. Nene's curiosity proved to be the undoing of her plans since she had to deal with the painful reminders of Linna's E-mails to her… and deal with it she had. Accusing Sylia of 'whimping' out when Priss knew all too well exactly what she was probably going through at the time was an extremely cruel tact. However, it proved to be a most effective way to turn the conversation from things she would much rather leave dead and buried.
With her thoughts focused on the search once more, she pushed Linna along with Leon and his strange gift towards the back of her conscious as she blasted her way through a wall and into the next tunnel over.
Elsewhere deep within the gaping hole opened up in the middle of old Tokyo, electricity pulsed through the completed sections of the dragonline network, breathing a momentary light on the darkened parts of the ruined city. As the crackling ball coursed past certain sections of the crumbling debris, it was drawn into organic roots of metal sprouting from an odd shaped orb. Within that cocoon, an eerie glow strengthened from the thin strands of negativity sucked into its core. The object emanating that glow continued to patiently wait, bathing in the nursing juices being fed down from the heavens… waiting until just the right moment when it would walk the surface of the planet once more… once more free to exert its influence on the beings that created it… specifically waiting for the one being who it had been 'born' from … waiting, watching and waiting… Sylia… Sylia, it's time now… I'm ready… come and find me Sylia… I'm ready to play with you now…
But even as the being stretched out with an invisible hand while reaching for one of the Stingray's, another presence came into focus instead. As it concentrated its energies on the other contact, the being discovered the identity to be a relative… a very 'close' relative in fact…
"Mackey, I'm in position."
"Go ahead Linna."
The Knight Saber pulled the trigger, holding her breath momentarily while the device's electrical pulses echoed audibly through the concrete cave she had dug herself into. The familiar sound of rejection answered the high-pitched call. "Damn, not here either." The woman lowered the barrel of the detector as she sighed heavily, pushing back the various aches and pains suggesting her early (in her own mind) retirement for the evening. "OK, where to next Mackey?"
Linna waited, expecting a momentary pause while the young boy checked the map again. After giving him more than adequate time for that simple task, and a couple of pained twangs from her abdomen just from the effort of breathing, her patience finally wore thin. "Mackey? Mackey, are you there?"
Silence once again answered her communications.
"Gee…" she started to comment before stopping herself from starting a conversation with the last person in the world she wanted to talk to right now. Linna thought back to the comments from nearly an hour ago… the comments that had erased any doubt as to where the two women stood with each other now. "I don't need any help…" Priss had spat out. My help Linna understood the unsaid part of the message. Well, if she wants to be that way still, fine by me even though the country girl's heart still questioned that thought, mostly because of recently discovered events of what really happened after the incident with her and Masaki… thanks to Nene…
A faint voice pulled Linna from her own personal hell. "there."
"Mackey? Mackey, what did you say?"
"Huh… what? Linna?"
"Earth to Mackey… are you still there."
"There. That's the one."
"One what? If you're talking about the next point, I don't…" she started before the virtual map appeared on her visor, showing the target in question. "OK, I see it now. Hey, but that's way out of my way."
"That's the one," the boy repeated, his voice remaining distant.
"I don't know…" Linna began to interrupt before a short, piercing scream cut her off.
"YAAA---"
"What the hell was…"
"priss? Priss! PRISS! Her… her signal's gone!" Mackey yelled out; focus returning to his thoughts and transmitting through his terror filled words. "Priss? Priss, can you hear me?"
A tense silence filled the airwaves as the boy waited for any sign of the suddenly missing Saber. As the seconds ticked by, his heart pounded with anxious fear. With hope fading, he turned to the only person who might be able to quickly assist. "Linna? Linna, can you go see if she needs help?"
The second she heard the scream, Linna's own heart began thumping hard in her chest. But with every beat, the broken shards of bitterness tore into the common sense dictated by the situation. Finally, the word Mackey used… "help"… it again dredged up the scarring curses spoken by Priss, condemning the singer to fate… and Linna to hers as well. "She's tough. I'm sure she'll be just fine. Besides, she wouldn't want my help anyway."
Mackey hadn't been invited to the 'all girls' meeting the previous night, and as such wasn't privy to the torrent of events that had transpired. Thus the boy argued, not understanding the reasons for her unreasonable attitude. "But… but, LINNA!"
"Besides, didn't you say you had another point to check?"
"Yeah, but…"
"But nothing. That point is closer to me than where the Blue Hardsuit is right now. I'll check this one, and once I'm done, I'll see if 'IT' still needs a hand." With that, the hurt Saber switched the com channel off to stop the young Stingray's protests. She wasn't going to even let herself think about lending the other Saber a hand… the dark lump of bitterness rotting in her soul would make sure of that.
"Linna? Linna! This isn't good," he finally mumbled to himself. Mackey wasn't sure why she had done it exactly, but he knew the Green Saber had turned off her receiver. He wasn't too worried about Linna since the transponder was still functioning… his main concern at the moment was Priss. The boy had a sinking feeling of what might have had happened to her… especially since he had 'sensed' the invisible hand closing towards the unsuspecting Blue Saber. Mackey didn't know why 'she' had decided to play with Priss… only that there seemed to be some sense of familiarity for some strange reason… almost as if 'she' had 'played' with her before...
His thoughts raced as he stared at the screen. Only one course of action finally came to mind. "I've got to tell Sylia." He spun out of the chair and ran towards the bedroom that he knew she was resting in, hoping that there would still be time to help once he got there.
Priss was just on the verge of wondering what the country girl was carrying on about when the whispers floated from the back of her consciousness. As she focused, the singer thought she recognized one of the voices in her head. Mackey? she silently thought out, only to 'see' something else materialize from her tortured nightmares.
A wispy green hand shot out of the middle of nowhere to fly directly at her. She managed to scream out briefly before the hand silenced her cries as it constricted around her throat. Paralyzed, she struggled with the physical assault she appeared to be under. Her ears picked up sounds in her helmet, feeding the information into her scattered brain as it fought with control over her body functions. She could hear Mackey's pleas, but despite her struggles couldn't find the voice to respond.
… help… please… help… Mackey… Nene… Sylia… somebody… anybody… Priss vainly attempted to move, to speak, to do anything but just stand there, her body frozen in place by the petrifying green ice trapping her.
Then a reply to her unspoken pleas… the betrayer's voice… and the damning words that spilled out of the speakers of her helmet and into her blacked soul once more… "She's tough. I'm sure she'll be just fine."
Rage exploded out of her heart, the invisible grip evaporating from around her body, freeing the Blue Saber from the virtual hold… but at the same time fraying the strands of sanity from her mind as a greenish mist permeated through the empty space within her soul. I'll kill her… I'll kill the bitch. Leave me for dead! She'll pay for that… she'll pay… she'll pay… I'll kill… kill her… kill… no… not kill… suffer… yeah, suffer… b…b…b… break a f…few bones… yeah… th… then… then I'll kill her… yeah… bitch… kill the bitch… kill… The Blue Demon honed in on the other Knight Sabers signal, unaware that her own transponder wasn't functioning along with a few other systems… overloaded from an energy spike transmitted from the nearby dragonline network…
Mackey burst into the bedroom shouting at the top of his lungs. "SYLIA! SYLIA, it's her! She's alive! And Priss is in trouble! And Linna's not answering either!"
The startled woman only half asleep immediately sat up at the first cry of her name. "Wha… wait… slow down Mackey! What's… wrong… with…" Her voice trailed off as her eyes came into focus, her room dimly lit by an eerie green glow. It wasn't so much the color that worried Sylia as the source… "Mackey… Mackey, what's going on?"
The boy realized his sister was staring at him for some particular reason, which prompted his face to shift downwards. His eyes widened with fear at discovering the source of the unnatural light in the room to be his very body…"Oh no.."
"Are… are you… Okay?"
"I… I think… It's her. She… she's calling me…" he answered, just as the glow died off from his body.
Sylia stared at the 'boy', resisting the urge to rub her eyes to make sure she wasn't just seeing things. Suddenly, a few pieces of what Mackey had been clamoring about clicked into place. "She? You mean…"
"And she attacked Priss."
"Oh God…. Is… is she…"
"I don't know. I lost contact with her as soon as it happened. Linna's not responding anymore either."
"What! Was she attacked too?"
"I don't think so."
Sylia's mind spun as she tried to comprehend the situation. Deciding to plan on the way, she ripped the covers off of her legs. "I've got to hurry," she said to herself. Sylia jumped out of bed, now fully alert, and ran past Mackey towards the door.
The boy tried following her before Sylia whirled around and held out a shaking hand to his chest.
"No, you've got to stay here. She… she's already starting to affect…"
"But we'll need everybody…"
"I SAID NO DAMNIT!" Her burning eyes bored through Mackey with a ferocity he had never seen before, driving a stark fear throughout his body. Sylia recognized his fear, disarming her stance momentarily. "I'm sorry, but it's too risky. You'll have to stay here… I just don't want anything to happen to you. Do you understand?"
"I understand," he answered meekly, doing his best to put on a good show for her.
"OK then. I've got to hurry."
As Mackey watched Sylia run out the door, he resolved not to let her get too big of a head start before following anyway…
Just one minute before…
Before heading into work for the evening shift, Nene decided to check on Sylia to make sure of what time to continue the search in the morning. Thus, she was on her way up from the pit when the phone rang in her pocket, just as the elevator stopped on the floor she wanted to get off of. She pulled the bright yellow phone out of her recently donned ADP uniform, smiling once again at the ultra-cute replacement she had found for her recently destroyed one.
"Hello?"
"Hi Nene, its Leon," the male voice on the other end answered.
"Oh, hi Leon-poo," the ADP dispatcher answered surprised, wondering why he would be calling her now. She quickly decided to draw out the ruse long enough to come up with a good way to end the conversation. "How are you feeling now? Hope that boomer didn't do any permanent damage the other day."
"No, nothing worse than I've had before. Say, um, have you seen Priss, um, recently?"
"See her?" she questioned evasively, realizing ending the call wouldn't be as easy as she hoped. "Actually, no I haven't seen her," Nene continued as she walked slowly towards Sylia's room.
"Well, have you heard from her then?"
"Hey, aren't you supposed to be resting right now?"
"Nene! Just answer the question. I… I'm just worried about her…"
"WHY would you be so worried mister!" she asked accusingly.
"It's something she told me she was doing tonight… something she was searching for… I thought you might have heard something about it, that's all."
Nene's brain stopped functioning as the ruse she thought she was working under evaporated from the light of his words. Questions popped in the girls head… questions she found herself afraid to ask.
Those questions distracted her just enough so that she was caught totally off guard by the robed woman bursting through the door in front of her, knocking her smallish frame against the wall and down to the ground with a thud.
"Oww! Hey, Sylia! What's going on?" she called out to the back of the woman now running down the hall. Sylia appeared to ignore her as she rounded the corner and was gone from sight. "You could stop long enough to see if I'm OK, you know!"
"It's Priss, she's in trouble and Linna's not answering either!" Mackey yelled as he stuck out a hand to help his blond friend up.
Despite being momentarily surprised by his sudden appearance, Nene quickly digested the words as she took his hand and hauled herself upright again. "Priss? Linna? Oh man… and Sylia?"
"I think she's going for her hardsuit."
"This can't be good. C'mon then, we've got to hurry."
Mackey didn't bother to bring up the fact that Sylia had ordered him to stay, nor did he mention any of the reasons why… reasons he didn't exactly understand himself just yet.
The two ran off in Sylia's wake towards the pit, unaware of the phone sitting on the ground… its small speaker broken in the fall… silencing the cries of the man on the other end for someone to pick it up… screaming for someone to tell him what happened to Priss. After a few more moments of fruitless effort, Leon cut the connection, deciding to take matters into his own hands…
What if something really happened to her? No, no I'm sure she's fine. Probably slipped on something… anyway, she wouldn't want my help even if I was the last person on Earth…
Linna's internal arguments stopped as she realized she had reached the next target. The Green Saber aimed the detector and pulled the trigger… the response wasn't the one she was expecting. She blinked hard and stared at the visual readout for a moment before excitedly activating her com channel.
"Oh my God, I think… I think I've found it! Mackey! Mackey. Go get Sylia. I think I've found it!"
The voice that answered on the other end of the channel wasn't the one she was expecting either. "Linna? Linna, where are you?" Sylia's anxious question barked out.
"Sylia? I'm right here," the country girl answered, displaying her location on the virtual map they had been working on. "What do you want me to do?"
"I'm in my hardsuit and headed out now. Have you heard from Priss?"
In her hardsuit? "N… No, I've had my com channel turned off for a few minutes," she admitted sheepishly.
"Linna! Why on Earth would you…" Sylia started angrily before an equally angry voice cut off her rant.
"She's a big girl Sylia! Priss made it quite clear she didn't want my help."
"Damnit Linna, now's not the time to act like…"
"I don't care Sylia! The only reason I came back to Tokyo was to help you find this Galatea thing. Well, I've found it now so will you…"
Linna's emotional tirade halted at the sound of maniacal laughter bouncing off the walls around her. Haunting words that followed echoed inside of the underground cavern and would echo inside her mind for a long time afterwards as well…
"Yes, but now I've found you BITCH!"
"Wha… Priss?" An explosion from above that distinctly sounded like a knucklebomb blast shattered the relative calm. The blast caused the ceiling to collapse on top of the green hardsuit knocking it flat to the ground, the massive weight pinching down tight on her entire body.
"LINNA! What was that?" Nene's panicked voice just now coming on line screamed out over the com channel.
"Unnh… can't… move… " she struggled to answer even as the hardsuit began to respond to her desperate attempts to break through the crumbling ruins. The metal and concrete creaked and groaned as the power enhanced suit methodically started to rise from its burial spot… until Linna's assailant took advantage of her precarious situation...
"I don't think so Miss Superhero…"
A crashing thud against the back of the hardsuit slammed Linna's chest back into the rubble below. Ripples of fire coursed through her spine from the unnatural force of being bent backwards nearly in half. After a few moments, her vision slowly seemed to clear but darkness still covered her eyes. The sound of the hardsuit locks springing open finally alerted her that the blow had shattered her battery. The momentary relief of freedom was immediately replaced with a sickening sensation of helplessness as the pile shifted above the hardsuit, rumbling over and holding the halves together. Trapped… power gone… helpless… hopeless… then, more laughter… insane, mad laughter… not moving, just staring, watching, gloating, laughing… through the darkness of the suit's helmet, the laughter breeding the claustrophobic fear choking bravery into submission.
"Oh God… oh god… help… somebody help… please… please help…" Linna weakly croaked out through the unrelenting coffin of debris above her… the desperate words falling onto deaf ears of a woman driven past the point of sanity not only by a tentative love scorned, but by the playful whims of a mere child…
Sylia's crying pleas transmitted through the com channels with a panicked frenzy. "Linna? Linna, answer me! Linna!"
"I thought I heard Priss' voice," Nene threw in as she ran up to Sylia's hardsuit next to the launch tubes. "What the Hell's happening out there!"
"Nene! I thought you were gone already."
"What? You don't remember knocking me over?"
Sylia was about to ask when she noticed Mackey running up behind Nene. "I thought I told you to stay upstairs!"
Mackey stopped in his tracks as the imposing White Saber took a step in his direction, visor closed tightly on the helmet. "I… I just want to help," he argued once again, voice cracking under the intimidating pose from his 'sister'.
"It's too dangerous right now."
"Sylia's right," Nene agreed, although unaware as to the exact reasons of her leader's stance, "He can stay here and monitor us from the pit though, right?" she questioned.
Sylia paused for just a second. "Alright, but let me know if anything… happens," she finished quickly, hiding the true words she wanted to speak since she remembered she was in Nene's company.
Nene was too distracted to notice the awkward tone in Sylia's voice, instead focusing on the task of finding the other two Knight Sabers. "I've got a fix on Linna's last known location. I'm heading out now," she announced, running for the launch tube.
"I'm right behind you Nene," Sylia replied as she turned back towards Mackey and whispered to him. "Since you're here, do you remember where the microwave cannon is?"
"Y… yes," he answered meekly.
"Good. Go get it quickly. I have a feeling this will all be over shortly."
"R… right." Mackey spun around and headed out the door.
Sylia walked over to the launch controls, taking a deep breath to calm herself… and to transmit that calm to the other remaining Knight Saber. "Ready Nene?"
"Ready," the young Saber answered, displaying a certain confidence that Sylia couldn't help but notice.
"Go!" The red hardsuit shot off into the night just as Mackey ran into the pit, hauling the huge cannon over his shoulder.
"Thanks Mackey," the White Saber said genuinely as she effortlessly lifted up the device and walked over to the launch tube.
A minute later, she was airborne, flying off on what would hopefully be the final mission in the legacy of the Knight Sabers if everything went according to plan…
Linna lay trapped in her armored binds, unable to move a muscle. The strength of the metallic construction prevented the weight of the pile above from crushing her… but that only seemed to be prolonging her suffering. Senses deprived of all other stimulus due to the dead power supply; she was forced to listen to her tormentor continuing to rant on.
"You want me to kill her… kill her now… No? Play with her? Yeah, like she played with me… bitch… lying bitch… Ha! Liar… mousy country girl… should've know better… a girl… just playing with me… yeah, she did… bitch… Die? Heh, heh… she'll die… just like a boomer… die like all the others… like Kat… No! not that… not him… don't bring him up again! Who? Play with who? Why? why… why did she… why did she write me… why… why did she say that… Linna… Linna… I… I'm sorry Linna… I never meant to… where… where's Linna… Linna… bitch… yeah, the bitch… kill her! Kill her… kill… ha, ha… she's gonna die… h. h. ha, ha, ha she's gonna die… die… die… ha h h h ha, ha, ha…"
The laughter finally faded away, an unnerving silence falling over Linna's ears. Thankful at first for the insane woman to finally leave, her mind quickly changed as different fears began running rampant through her mind….
Somebody has to find me… they just have to… but… my battery's dead… can… can Sylia still find me? What if they don't… what if… what if no one ever finds me…
The only sounds audible were her own terrified breaths, becoming more and more shallow with every passing second… the seconds turning into minutes… minutes multiplying into eternity…
Finally, armored footsteps echoed from somewhere around. Hope intermixed with fear of Priss coming back once more…. then… Nene's panicked voice…
"Linna? Is that you?" she asked as she saw a part of the green hardsuit protruding from the pile of rubble. "LINNA! Oh my God… what happened? Are you OK?" She began to easily clear away the debris with her powered suit. Once the damage became visible on the back of Linna's hardsuit, Nene gasped audibly. "God, what… what did this? Linna? Linna speak to me, please!"
With most of the debris cleared, Linna's arms began to move telling Nene all she wanted to know right away.
"Thank God your alive! Hold on, I'll have you up in a second." Clearing the ruined battery away, the Red Saber replaced it with a fresh one.
Electricity surged through the Green Hardsuit, but it only served to amplify Linna's trembling body. Armored arms shook as the terrified woman scampered to her hands and knees but then crouched down against the wall.
"Linna… what… what happened to you?" Nene whispered out as she slowly approached the quaking girl shaking in the shadows before her.
"What happened? What happened! PRISS happened!" she shot out, her head swiveling back and forth as she scanned for any sign of the demon lurking in the shadows around her.
"Priss? I though… I heard a voice… but…" The cowering person before her drew the compassion out from Nene's heart. She reached down and embraced Linna for a few moments, trying to sooth her as best she could. "I don't think she's around here right now. My scanners aren't picking up anything. It… It's going to be OK now Linna."
"Th… thank's Nene," she stammered, calm slowly returning to her shaken nerves.
"Hey, where's Sylia?" Nene realized, spinning her head around before checking on the scans. "She was right behind me with that device in hand… wait, I've got her signal… it's down there…"
"Maybe Priss…" Linna cautioned.
"Sylia? Sylia can you hear me? Damn, too much interference that way for some reason. I'm losing her signal. Come on, let's make sure she's OK."
"Wait, that's… that's the direction of that thing…"
"What?"
"I found it. I found Galatea… she's down that way."
"Oh no… COME ON, we've got to hurry. Sylia could be in trouble!"
Nene ran off down the corridor with Linna close behind, keeping a nervous eye out for any sign of her attacker. They rounded a corner to find a long hallway illuminated with electrical pulsing glows. Linna followed Nene into something that looked to be the mouth of Hell itself…
Nene was the first to spot the White Saber off to one side of the room, the large device held on her shoulder aimed at the large egg shaped object hanging off to the side. Four 'probes' attached to the object with wires running back to the device that appeared to be some sort of weapon by the stance their leader was taking.
"Sylia, What are…" Nene's unfinished question was stopped by the entrance of someone else in another passageway to the room….
"Go ahead Sylia, finish what you started," a pale faced man wearing a very expensive suit encouraged.
Sylia glanced once in his direction, then turned and fired the canon into the egg shaped cocoon. The entire room lit up in crackles of blue light from the intensity of the blast. Nene noticed the smell of burnt metal strong enough to flow through the hardsuit filters. After a few coursing seconds, the blast finally stopped…
"It's over," Sylia announced, accomplishment intermixed with sadness in her voice.
"Not quite," the male observer corrected.
With a burst of energy from within, the cocoon began to flow and melt… a green wave shimmering throughout the entire room as it started to dissolve.
"What the Hell's happening?" Linna's confused voice cried out just as her armored arms froze in place. "Again? Oh… oh god… Nene… Sylia… what's going on… I… can't… move…"
"I can't either!" Nene shouted out equally panicked.
The floor turned to putty at their feet, then another crying voice joined in the fray.
"Priss!" Linna announced with a loathing voice just as the Blue Saber staggered in the room, hands tearing at her helmet.
Nene's voice filled the chamber next "MACKEY!"
The young boy walked up to the melting cocoon, his whole body glowing that same maddening color. He approached the metal flow in a zombie like state ignoring everyone else… Nene included. Before him, the liquid metal curtains parted. What looked to be a small child wearing nothing else but that same color appeared in the unnatural opening. She smiled and stared directly into the young boy approaching. Then, just as his arm rose to touch her, he simply collapsed in a heap.
"MACKEY! NO!" Nene cried out from her helpless state in the frozen hardsuit.
The man in the gray suit walked up to the young girl and held out his hand. She smiled at him, nodding some kind of acknowledgement, and then took his hand with her own glowing one.
Leon dropped down through a familiar hole in the concrete below. "She's got to be close to here, damnit! She's got to be…" Studying the blank screen of the tracker he held in his hand, frustration began to get the better of him. He gripped the handle furiously trying to squeeze Priss' location out of it. "I know that damn cross was working when I gave it to her. Maybe… maybe I'm just not close enough yet."
He twisted his head either way down the passage he was in. Finally deciding on one direction over the other, Leon ran down the path trying to follow his footsteps from a few weeks ago when he tracked the boomer eating monster with Daily… and hoping that Priss wasn't too far from that lab…
Cries in the darkness of the aftermath haunted the dark chamber with despair. Nene's sobbing voice, calling out to the unconscious Mackey… Priss' mental groans of agony… Sylia's pleading voice calling to it… to her… to Galetea… then her new guardian boasted loudly over the suffering sounds…
"Thank you so very much ladies for assisting me in this endeavor. I'm sure the citizens in Tokyo will now be forever in your debt… or perhaps it shall in fact turn out to be the other way around I'm afraid."
With that, the man left with his prize in hand, walking out of the hellish womb as his entourage joined him in the hallway leading to the surface.
"S… Sylia… Sylia, wh… what do we do now?" Getting no direct answer, Linna could sense the fog over her leader's voice… Sylia's thoughts scrambled as evidenced by her distant and rambling voice… calling that name over and over. Still unable to move, she tried to get through the only other Saber she wanted to talk to at the moment. "Nene… Nene, can you hear me?" Linna cried out. "Nene… c'mon… snap out of it… we've got to do something…"
Linna's words finally managed to break through the dark veil drawn over Nene's mind. "L…Linna… yeah… got to… help them… somehow…"
"I still can't move. Can you think of any way to get out of these suits?"
"Wait, the battery latch. There should be an emergency battery disconnect in your left hand."
"I… I feel something…"
"Hang on, let me try first." The young Saber hit the awkward switch and felt the locks pop, but the suit remained closed. "I think the outer shell's still fused… gonna… have… to… push… THERE!" she announced as the two halves of her suit cracked apart. The young woman tumbled out of her hardsuit and onto the rippling floor. Pulling off her helmet and tossing it to one side, she looked up at the unmoving male form lying at the epicenter of destruction just a few meters away.
Meanwhile, Linna continued to struggle with her own hardsuit. "Nene, I can't find that switch… Nene… Nene…"
Everything else blurred for the young Saber as she slowly, methodically walked up to his body… her mind fearing the worst based on the complete lack of movement from his still form.Keeling down next to him, she gently stroked his cheek with a trembling hand. His skin felt cold, lifeless. Her eyes watered badly, blurring his white shirt with the dark ground. "mackey…" Nene circled her arms around his neck and pulled him into her lap, bending over and kissing his forehead as tears rained onto his face. "Mackey… why… what happened…" But as she folded over, burying her face into his neck, she felt something strange… something unnaturally out of place. The shaking stopped as curiosity screamed out from the back of her head.
Through her hands she could feel a vibration of sorts with a certain hum about it. Her skin tingled with bits of static electricity as clues began to fall into place. Her mind sensed it, her body knew it, but her soul wouldn't admit what she had discovered. Slowly, she lifted her head up to look into Mackey's eyes, and from that blank stare she could see the verification of her fears… the near microscopic details that her experience with the ADP and computers in general told her… the unmistakable signs of artificial construction. …the secret… A discovery a few minutes too late, Nene thought. "But… but, it was… he was… is… he said… he loved me…"
In that momentary pause, a decision was made in her soul. In all her life, Nene Romanova had never given so much of her heart and trust to anyone else. Now she knew Mackey's secret and thought back over the short time she had known him. She instantly understood the reasons for his hiding this truth from her. As she looked down onto the rigid body in her arms, she couldn't help but forgive him. Her heart trusted in their love… and that was good enough for Nene.
"Mackey… Mackey, I… I don't care if you're not human… I… I still love you… Mackey… Mackey, can you hear me? Mackey? Mackey, please… wake up… please… mackey… Mackey!" Doubt swelled within as the young woman hugged onto him tightly, unsure how to help a being that she now realized she knew so little about.
Leon turned the corner and stopped, staring down into the blank detector once again. Suddenly a green light flickered in front of him as two shapes slithered past at the end of the long corridor. Just as he was about to investigate a ping from the hand held gadget brought his attention down to the screen. "There… just up ahead." With that, the big man scampered down the passageway and towards the woman he was so distraught over.
In Linna's limited field of vision, she could see the blue hardsuit writhing on the liquid metal floor. Even within Priss' obvious pain, the hurt woman inwardly smiled, still bitterly resentful of the insane actions of her former teammate.
Returning her focus on getting out of the hardsuit, she finally found the latch that Nene had mentioned and popped the locks. The suit wouldn't open immediately so Linna attempted to force it open. With a metallic clank, the armor cracked like a clamshell, sending a tearing sensation gutting inside of her, reinjuring her wounded midsection. Linna doubled over onto the rippling floor, clutching her burning abdomen while facing Priss' own twitching armor. Listening to her moans as distant fear collapsed on her soul, she was almost happy at her suffering as it mirrored her own agonized pain.
Linna turned her head and saw Sylia motionless on the ground. Instinctively, she crawled over to help her leader out. The weary woman struggled for a few minutes but finally managed to pull Sylia from the hardsuit. After removing the helmet from her head, Linna looked into her glassy eyes, Sylia's whispering lips quivering one word, over and over… "Galatea… Galatea…"
Her heart reached out to her fallen leader as the depth of her own personal failure began to rear its dark and ugly head to the relatively innocent country girl. She held Sylia's suffering soul close to the heart while listening as Nene's own sobs finally quieted down in the distance. After a while even Priss' tortured voice died away, draping the room in an eerie silence.
Finally, Nene's composure returned enough for rational thought to come forth once more. "We've got to help them."
Linna did the math in her head… three down… two to help… one has to stay behind. She looked at Priss' still form… "She's not going anywhere," her blackened heart stabbed out.
Linna and Nene struggled for a few minutes but finally began to carry Mackey and Sylia out until the shorter Saber's question momentarily stopped their retreat. "What about Priss?"
Linna didn't so much as glance back in her fallen teammates direction as she answered. "We're leaving her here."
A burst of clarity opened Sylia's mind for just a moment as a mental picture revealed itself through Galatea's brief contact with her. "Priss… we can't… wasn't her fault…"
"What the Hell do you mean 'wasn't her fault'!" Linna shot out, nearly dropping the slumping woman to the ground in her rage.
"Galatea… controlling her… invaded her mind… wasn't her…"
Looking back at the blue hardsuit… thinking back… recalling the laughter… insane, mad, uncontrollable laughter… It… it all… makes… sense… "Oh no…"
Linna did drop Sylia to the floor as she hurried over to the blue hardsuit and crawled onto the its back. Clawing at the battery, her bloody fingers finally dislodged the useless power source. With a grunt she lifted on the back of the blue armor, its creaking joints finally giving way. "Hang on Priss, just… just hang on." She slid the shaky body out and lifted her helmet off.
Horrified over-dilated brown eyes stared up into the dark ceiling as Linna rolled her body onto her lap, sweat drenched softsuit clinging to her hands. Whatever lingering resentment remaining in Linna's heart dissolved in that instant, dissipating with the knowledge of why everything had happened. "It wasn't you Priss, I… I know now. It wasn't you…" Linna tried to sooth her friend as she trembled in her arms, unresponsive to the woman helping her.
Then, another voice… "Priss? Priss, are you in there? Priss!" Yelled a big man that Linna didn't recognize even though Nene called him by name.
"Leon?"
The burly ADP officer ignored the blond haired woman and ran directly up to Priss, glaring at Linna with more than just recognition in his eyes. Wordless accusations burrowed from those eyes and into the country girl holding the fallen woman in her arms. With a huff, he reached down and nearly ripped Priss from Linna's cradling lap, lifting her up and carrying her off into the tunnels without another word.
"Wait, please! Priss? Priss! priss… i… i'm sorry… priss… i… i didn't know…" Linna's unanswered cries echoed back into the chamber of evil surrounding her, its hollow sound a mirror for the wrenching feelings tearing at her heart.
To be continued…
