Chapter 13: The Diverging Path
Legend
Italics shows character thoughts
Word shows Date, time, and location
-Word- Shows Noises, or actions such as sighing
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C.E. 71
Unknown Location , Time Unknown
Scion's eyes opened up slowly, light seeping into his eyes and forcing them shut. He opened them again to find himself on a soccer field in the middle of the day. A look up showed him to be in a colony. His home.
"Where…am I?" Scion asked himself as he achingly sat up and stood slowly. He wiped his brow and looked down at the ground.
"Hey, Scion, over here!" Scion looked to the source of the voice to see a team of kids calling to a much younger Scion. A fourteen year old version of himself waved as he ran unto the field and huddled together with his teammates.
The older Scion looked at the group with mass confusion on his face. He felt his forehead to make sure he wasn't having feverish hallucinations.
It's you…yourself.
Scion turned around rapidly to see another of himself. The naïve boy that didn't know the difference between the two races of men when he saw Coordinators like he did Naturals. He looked up at Scion and pointed to his teenage self again andthe present Scion turned to watch.
"Hey, can we play?" Three other boys asked. Scion recognized them as Mizuki, Shin, and Oboro, they were coordinators.
"Let you play? You are all cheaters, we can't let you play!" The teenage Scion spat at them, all of the other boys making some comment about how they were freaks.
"What do you mean cheaters! We don't cheat!" Mizuki said.
"You're a Coordinators! You cheated out on life! You just change yourselves unnaturally so you don't have to work as hard as us! Get out of here!" Scion said as he kicked a soccer ball at the three, Oboro it off course.
"No, stop!" The present Scion called to them.
Why are you stopping them? You hate them…don't you?
"What? No, I don't hate them!"
You did, you hated them more then anything else in the world. You still hate them.
"No…I was just scared of them.." Scion said as he looked down at the ground as if unsure of himself.
You hated them so much, you joined the military to fight them. To kill them.
"No, it wasn't like that! I just wanted to show them I could be just as good as them! I didn't want to kill anyone!" Scion yelled out as the scene in front of him faded out and he was thrust into space, staring at Junius Seven….just as it exploded.
Scion watched as the team that he protected launched the nuclear warheads that destroyed the colony. The same nukes that were probably put unto his own machine without his knowledge. The massacre he helped create. The disaster that sent so many young Coordinators to war and to their future deaths. More lives lost because of him.
"This…this isn't my fault! I didn't know.." Scion dropped to two knees and tried to grab a doll that floated underneath him, but his hand passed right through him.
Liar. You would have done it yourself, because you were so intent on showing them up. You wanted to kill them, you joined the military didn't you? Did you think it was just a game? That 'this' was just a game?
Scion's head shot up and stared at the vision of him as an EA mobile armor pilot. He stood in his pilot suit and looked back at the carnage before staring back at the current Scion.
You just weren't lucky enough to get the job.
"Its not true! I wouldn't have done this!"
Why not? You only seem worried about it 'after' the fact. You've always seemed to kill others so that you can survive.
"I didn't kill anyone to save myself! I never asked anyone to die for me!"
Violet did. She died because you left her behind in the EA. Because of your selfish decision to just leave everything behind. You left her alone. Just like Axle. They died because you refused to accept your failures…and ran. Violet died looking for you and Axle killed because he lost the last anchor he had with his humanity.
Again the room changed and he was staring at himself and Axle as they saw the entrance of the Doctor. He watched in horror as he saw himself shoot his best friend and himself shoot eachother He watched as Axle fell to the ground dead and he slide along the wall to the floor with a minor wound.
"I don't want to see this! Stop it!" Scion yelled as he turned from the scene and tried to run for the door only to be stopped by the image of another Axle. The room changed to black around them, leaving them both alone.
You always ran away. You hated the Coordinators so you were mean to them to hide your jealously. You went to the military to run away from any Coordinators and then you ran from us because of your shame for realizing your pitiful failures and childish jealous. You've always run away!
Axle stepped forward and gripped Scion's shirt. Axle's hard and determined face heavily contradicted the confused and unsure Scion. Suddenly Scion became defiant with a intense need to defend himself, to somehow dig himself out of a hole he had dug by his running.
"What would you have me do! Huh? I lost everything that I worked for in my life to them! You hated them too!" Scion yelled until the reality of what he said hit him. Axle gritted his teeth and threw Scion to the ground.
I didn't run though, I knew my feelings and did what I thought was right. You still hate them, you are just running away from those feelings. Pretending to be something you aren't! You are running from who you really are by trying to fight for them and Naturals! You're just fraud!
Scion stared at Axle and shook his head slowly, not wanting to believe what was obvious now. The fires of hate in his heart that he had hidden so well by pretending to be so high and mighty. The jealously of not being better…the best. The feelings that were buried in the debris of Junius Seven but never put out smoldered back into existence.
Scion looked down at the ground as the black room shifted again and now he was in the air above Doctor Takashi's facility where Revolution was created.
"Scion! This is Takashi. Dodge the shot, I got a plan."
"You sure!"
"Very."
"NO!" Scion yelled at himself as he watched Revolution move aside, trusting that Takashi did indeed have a plan. He tried to run to his machine and somehow make this end differently. But no matter how hard or fast he ran he could never catch up with that machine. He was forced to watch it all over again. The second great trauma of his life.
Scion looked at the ground and then Axle who stared at Scion without any remorse. Scion stood and ran to grab Axle by the collar. He pulled him close to his face and yelled at Axle so loud that he spit in his former friends face.
"HOW COULD YOU UNDERSTAND? YOU WHO DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING TO LOSE!" Scion's right cheek was slammed with a fist that sent him to his rear.
Scion looked back up to see that Axle was gone and the good doctor in his place. The white trench coat man stood with his hands in his pockets and a sad expression gracing his face.
You've fallen Scion. I had hoped you would grow up.
"I'm did Doctor! I'm doing what you wanted!" Scion said as he placed a hand on his cheek. He sat on his rear unable to right himself with the constantly changing images and scenes around him.
Fool! My dream is not just an end to this war, its an end to the conflict! You'll have to go to the root of the source!
The doctor walked up to Scion and pointed directly at Scion's heart with an outstretched finger and glared angrily.
How can you change anything when you can't accept yourself. My dream was not a world of people that only 'acted' like they cared. I want a world where they honestly, truly, care.
"I'm trying. But, I've done so much bad! Everyone I try to help I end up losing!" Scion stood on shaky feet. He put both hands on the doctors shoulders. "What do I need to do?" The doctor sighed and shook his head.
Its time you grew up Scion. Stop living in the past and make your own choices and make your own road. Time to face up to everything you've done, acknowledge it, accept it, and then move on.
"I don't know how. I try to protect people as much as I can but I always mess it up."
You fear failure so much, just like when you failed that poor girl Flay, you are so utterly scared that all your efforts will be in vain, but it is in this failure that you've learned how precious life is.
The scene changed yet again to Scion as he slammed the Strike towards the Archangel, right before he himself was rocked by the explosions of his own funnels, sending him away but possibly saving the Strike.
He watched his from inside his pilot seat, as if he was reliving it again. Inside he smiled, knowing that maybe he had truly grown up a little on the inside and done some good. A single tear streamed down his face.
Just like in Science, you must fail to eventually make the experiment work.
"Yeah, no more promises. Just the oath to do what I can and nothing more." Scion said as his machines plummeted to the earth and then...
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February 3, C.E. 71
Orb Union, Secret Location, 12:00 P.M
"Ugh…This is intolerable." Shigen Hatake said to himself as he lounged back on the couch. The man had been restless ever since his little adventure in space had brought him pilot the strange machine, Clarity, and found in himself a strange desire to pilot again.
From the time of that incident to now Shigen had been used repeatedly to test the MS and complete the OS for natural use. When asked how he could pilot the machine so easily he laughed and simple stated that he set it up as if he was going to pilot it himself. It was a habit of his to get in the mind of the pilot when designing an OS for use.
Even so, Erica Simmons seemed to be very wary of letting Shigen get anywhere near the Clarity for some reason. Not only that but he noticed some other oddities as well. One, there was a strange number of transmissions to the Junk Guild and some dealings with a Mercenary Band. Then there was the strange retrieval of the Gold Frame, which had been thought to be lost.
Add that to the fact that the Uzumi Athha's daughter had disappeared recently, then you have a very odd number of missing people, reappearing machines, and odd dealings in Orb. Frankly, Shigen didn't like it at all. He felt like this Union was no longer the place it had been when he moved here as a child.
Nonetheless he was happy about his current assignment. He was going to be given the Clarity on loan for a mission and training, though it was rumored that Erica was highly against it. The mission is to just scout for signs of ZAFT or EA influences in the neutral Equatorial Union and if so, to stop them before they take root...quietly of course.
He was going to traveling with a small group of people, disguised as members of the Junk guild, who are selling parts as they move further north to the Eurasian Federation Border where they would return to Orb and report any findings.
The reason for Shigen's current foul mood was that him and his crew of five could not figure out why the Orb Union would even be interested in this. The only person that would know would be the fifth person who refused to say anything at all about what he was told. And why use Clarity? What did the Union think would be out there anyway? Would would cause them to think they would need something like a prototype to deal with?
Later that day they moved out for their mission. Shigen was again allowed to see Clarity and it didn't take him long to put himself into the cockpit of that machine and ready himself for whatever little bumps in the road they would have. And frankly, he was kind of excited.
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Unknown Location , Time Unknown
"HUH?" Scion stammered as he abruptly sat up from a very strange dream. He stared at his lap as the sweat on his forehead trickled down his face and into his lap. He breathed heavily from the sudden ending of his dreaming. He sighed to himself and rubbed his forehead and looked about himself. He as in a small bed with a curtain drawn around him.
"Oh, you are awake?" A elderly female voice sounded out.
"Yeah…" Scion said, not feeling well enough to question about his surroundings.
"The Doctor was sure you would die, said that no one short of a Coordinator could survive a fall like that."
"Yeah...well...here I am."
"That's what I said. I had no doubt in you at all. After all, you are my son." The curtain was drawn back slowly and to Scion's immense surprise his mother stood before him, in a kind of rustic nurse outfit. Her hair was held back in a tight bun and had grayed quite a bit from when he last saw her a little more then a year ago. She came and sat down on the edge of the bed beside her son and looked at him closely before feeling his forehead.
"No fever, you've been sleeping for two and a half days straight, sweating, talking in your sleep, and crying. I worried about you." She started.
Scion shook his head slowly and looked up at his mother then rubbed his eyes and shook his head once more before looking at his mother long and hard.
"Mother…what…what are you doing here?" Scion asked dumbfounded.
"A year ago I was told that my son, my only son, had died.." She began her answer, "I don't know how long I stayed in my depression but after I came out of it I knew that I had to leave the colonies and the war. But when I reached Earth and saw the devastation caused by the War I felt that I had to help in some way, just like my brave boy who wanted to fight for his beliefs. So, I joined a small humanitarian group and have been helping the wounded innocents and soldiers ever since."
Scion looked down into his lap with a small hint of guilt nagging at him. He knew that he should have said something to him mother…anything. He wanted to tell her he was trying to protect her but he knew that was a lie, that he was just running away from his shame and the task of telling him mother what her son had committed.
He was a coward.
"I'm sorry mother." Scion croaked before his mouth shut on him.
"You should be. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the mobile suit that fell out of the sky was piloted by my son! My son that was supposed to be dead!" She stood up and got a cup of water for herself and then one for Scion before sitting back on the bed, setting Scion's cup on a dresser next to the bed. "So do you mind explaining this to me?"
Scion looked away from his mother, not able to look the women in the eyes, shame welling up inside of him. Despite his want not to run or hide he couldn't help but want to do it one more time. Just once more for this special occasion. His hands turned into fists and his gritted his teeth.
"Mother…I'm not your sweet little boy anymore. This war…so much has happened. So very much." Scion began sheepishly, looking down at his sheets as the few tears that escaped him fell unto the sheets below, despite his best efforts to hide them.
"There is nothing that would make me ever think any less of you. You are my child, I will always love you." His mother curtly answered, oblivious of the magnitude of what Scion was talking about. Blind to the atrocities that had been committed in the in the war by Scion's hands or very close to them.
Scion's tears began to fall steadily faster as he gripped the sheets and looked up at his strict but loving mother, the one that had pushed him to excel at everything but never neglected him, only pushed him. The person who he looked up too so much he could not stand the thought of failing her. And he had failed her.
"But…ah, god mother." Scion said with a unsteady breath. "I've done so much bad!"
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February 2, C.E. 71 (One Day Ago)
Inside the Clyne Residence, 2:00 P.M.
Siegel Clyne sat at his desk typing away at his personal computer when he pulled away to take a small break. He looked at the few scattered articles that he had brought in to see what the media was saying about the war between ZAFT and the EA. It was always a good idea to know what the public would think.
As he scanned over the room he stopped on a picture of Lacus in her youth, six years of age to be exact. How alike she seemed in that picture to the present version of herself who continues to astound him with her sometimes child like nativity.
He picked the picture up and studied it for a moment before the smile on his face fell to a slight frown. He turned his seat to make sure that the door behind him was closed before opening the picture frame that held Lacus's picture and slowly removed it, placing it on the desk. He then studied the picture that was hidden behind it. The picture that he had not looked on since that day.
The picture contained Siegel, Lacus age four, and one other man. They stood in front of the Clyne estate on a beautiful spring day. It had been Lacus's birthday that day and Siegel stood holding the bike that Lacus had just gotten from the man in the picture who was bending over to accept a hug from the ecstatic girl. The picture was captured by pure chance but Siegel kept it because of that reason. It had been the last time he saw that man before that fateful day.
As he looked it over he heard the door behind him open and Siegel abruptly slammed the picture frame down on the desk before he turned to the door that had opened slightly.
"….Haro?" A blue Haro spoke as it showed itself to the relieved Clyne. He made a hand motion to shoo the thing away and it sadly complied. Siegel turned around in his chair and sighed deeply. He rubbed his temple and tried to calm his paranoia.
"Father, are you alright? I heard a banging noise?" Lacus suddenly peeped up beside her father, slipping in through the opened door. Siegel jumped in his seat and took a deep breath.
"Oh, yes, I just dropped something. You shouldn't sneak up on people like that, Lacus."
"I'm sorry father, I didn't mean to startle you. Oh, why is this frame face down?" Lacus questioned as she reached for the picture. Siegel tried to intercept his daughter but found quickly found that his daughters hand was much quicker.
"Who is this, father? I don't recall knowing him." Lacus asked as she set the picture down.
"…He stopped coming here a long time ago, Lacus. He was an old friend of mine, you wouldn't remember him. I'm in the middle of something, Lacus, I'll be done in a few moments." Siegel answered.
"Oh, I see. Well then, I'll leave you to your work." Lacus smiled and waved before leaving the room with her blue Haro following behind.
Siegel took up the picture again. He remembered to the last time he had ever met that man. He put the frame down and slipped Lacus's picture back into the frame, covering the strange picture.
"Oh...I'm am so sorry. So very sorry…I wish you could have seen him…Kiyo."
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February 3, C.E. 71
Eurasian Federation, Health Camp, 12:00 P.M
"Currently we are stationed in the central part of the Eurasian Federation. We've been here for a few weeks helping refugees who have fled here by supplying food, shelter, and medical assistance. You were lucky we were close enough to get to you before the military did…you're even luckier to have lived that fall." The director of the humanitarian group named Health said as he pointed to a small map of the world.
"Could you tell where the other mobile suits, and the ship fell?" A composed Scion asked. He spent a few hours composing himself before his mother sent him off to speak with the director.
"We can only guess with the technology we have. We can assume that the two farthest from the ship and the mobile suit you collided with will end up somewhere near Spain. As for the mobile suit, the explosion that occurred sent it plummeting in a southern direction, the ship followed after it. We can only guess but we can bet that they landed somewhere in Nigeria, which is ZAFT territory."
Scion cursed under his breath and waited as the man brought up a small map of the Africa Community. He pointed to a large section of the map.
"These area's are states that have banded together into a rebel group called the Desert Dawn, a small bunch of commoners who are trying to fight against their oppressors. We were there a short while ago and through a few contacts, and thank your mother for this since I owed her the favor, we found out that for one reason or another we believe that this Archangel is fighting with the Desert Dawn against the Desert Tiger. I assume you know who he is?"
Scion nodded again and stood as he was told to approach the world map again, this time the man drew a line from Nigeria to the Red Sea then to Orb.
"Making it to Alaska for any ship without any help would be insane. So, its my bet that they will break through to the East, over the Ocean, and then maybe to Orb Union. Can't say for sure if Orb is there destination but they will defiantly head East and to the Red Sea where ZAFT influence will be thin since they don't take land thoughtlessly and the ocean is hard to patrol. So if you want to intercept them you'll have to make your way south to the Neutral Equatorial Union where you will hopefully find them as they pass through it, and if not then head to Orb. From there you hope you find your friends. Of course this is all assuming they survive their battles with the Desert Tiger." The man smacked the table and went to grab a cigar, lighting it as soon as he obtained it.
"..Great. Okay, we I have a route now, what about my machine?" Scion asked.
"We have a few Coordinators who used to be engineers who repaired most of the surface damage but we don't have the same alloy that you have on the rest of the machine, plus, those Funnels of yours…. We don't have a damn clue how to help you with those. You'll have to go with what we have to offer and be damn thankful. We are a group against the war, and helping you really ticks me off. If your mother wasn't such a good nurse we'd throw you out to the dogs."
Scion grunted as he studied the map again, he had a long way to go and had to hope against hope that the Archangel could hold out until he got to them. His crew men were on that ship and they were the only ones that knew how to repair Revolution to its full strength. His current combat ability was shot to shit thanks to his little plummet through the atmosphere and leaving it that way was not an option.Infact it was damn lucky that they picked up a peice of solar paneling from that mobile that feld Heliopolis, his crew copied it and made solar function for him machine just before the battle with the 8th Fleet. If he didn't have that his machine wouldn't have any power right now.
From what Scion could gather he must have subconsiously piloted the machine down to Earth, using the thrusters to somewhat break the fall he had into a swallow lake, which further broke his fall. Scion concluded that it must have been the lake that cooled his machine down quickly enough for him to be retrieved and treated as swiftly as he was.
He spent the remainder of the day getting his thoughts together before packing up and heading to his mobile suit, deciding that time was nothing something he had a lot of. As he reached it he found his mother at the foot of his machine. She smiled at him as she held a wrapped present in her hands.
"I knew you'd be leaving today so I hurried around and was able to get you this. Open it." Scion's mother, who knew that her son would be leaving as soon as he possibly could and was not going to simply let him leave without something resembling a mother's love.
On top of that she was concerned about her son's outburst earlier about committing bad. He sobbed for ten minutes before regaining himself and she just didn't know enough to console him. So she just hoped that the present that her son was currently unwrapping would be a sign of encouragement for him.
The package unwrapped and the box opened revealed an azure and white helmet, mimicking the paint design of Revolution. It appeared to be a refurbished helmet that an EA soldier might have lost. The cushion on the inside was completely redone and the visor fixed up a little as well. Scion looked at his mother who looked back into the box, prompting to Scion to look again and find a pilots suit that had been re-colored and spiffed up as well.
"I had your measures taken while you slept and had them ready for you when you left. Somehow I had a feeling you would be leaving as soon as you woke up." She told Scion who looked it over oddly, not really sure what to say about it. He just smiled and slid his hands around the helmet, finding a small batch of scratches on the back of the helmet that must have been too hard to be fixed. Scion smiled and told his mother he would change in the cock-pit of his machine.
"Thanks mother. What are you going to do now?" Scion asked as he came out of the cock-pit again in the slightly loose fitting suit, his helmet tucked underneath his right arm.
"I've decided I'll wait for you in Orb, I'll go there by civilian means so I won't be hassled like you will. I'll probably beat you to Orb as well. Once there I hope we can spend a day or two together. This mother wants to know what her son has been up too and see what forces you to leave so soon."
Scion scratched the back of his head and nodded as he put the helmet on. He tried the visor and found it to work well. He nodded and once again entered his machine. He waved to his mother and then closed himself inside the heart of his war machine.
The Revolution quickly passed beyond the sight of Scion's mother, Mari Kazuma, wished her son a farewell and wiped a few tears, that she had hid until now, from her eyes and turned back to do her duties until she was able to get transportation to the Orb Union. She just hoped that the her thoughts would go with him and that those new clothes would grant him some pertection. She also prayed that Scion would find that light he once had as a child.
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February 3, C.E. 71
Equatorial Union, On Route to Eurasian Federation Border, 12:00 P.M
"Hey, guys. Listen to this." A staff member said to her small crew who quickly huddled around, minus the driving of their small trailer that housed Clarity and a few spare Junk parts to sell if they needed something to show they were 'Junk' dealers.
All free units are to report to Shiraz. I repeat, target is moving south and all free units are too report as quickly as possible. This is not a drill, target is moving south and must be intercepted before crossing the border. This is not a drill.
The four man group, Shigen included, all looked at one another with a confused look. Thanks to Orb's advanced technology it had been easy to eavesdrop on the Eurasian broadcasts. They had been listening for any signs of movement that seemed out of place and now that they found something it seem obscure.
"Target, eh? Think it has anything to do with that 'Falling Star with Burning Wings' the locals have been talking about?" The female radio operator asked.
"I don't know, but its moving towards the border and they don't want it to get there. If they want it that bad the pursuit may spill over into this country. We had been request permission to cross the border into the Euro Federation." Shigen said looking to the commander for approval.
"There is no need to radio the Union for permission. We will proceed directly to Shiraz, Iran, and find out what this 'target' is." He answered.
"What? That would be breaking their treaty. Just like Orb, they have a strict policy about trespassing! What if they find us and then the EA attack us with that excuse!"
"Hayate, you are here to pilot that machine. You aren't here to argue with me. You are to do your job and your job is to shoot down hostilities and protect this crew. Do not contradict me again!" He cut the air with his hand before demanding that everyone return to their stations.
Shigen walked up to the commander and whispered, "What's going on? First, we are given a rather vague mission and then say we don't need the councils consent to enter another their country outside of the original plan? You know something that we don't and I want to know what."
The commander chuckled softly, "This is war, Hayate. Don't expect to know everything and don't pursue what you are not told. You will end up dead like that. Return to your post, soldier." He remarked before returning to his station, the passenger seat beside the driver.
Shigen stared at the ground before quietly making his exit. He kicked the wall as soon as he was in the trailer with the 'machine'. He cursed too, now knowing that something was definitely amiss about this entire thing.
"Damn it, how much more is Orb going to get involved in national affairs? Didn't we learn anything from Heliopolis!" He kicked the wall again and then sat in a small seat to let his anger boil to a simmer. After a moment he took a large breath and a long sigh.
"Ever since Heliopolis things just haven't been the same. It must be really getting to me if I'm getting this angry so quickly. Too many council members are doing things on their own accord now..." He looked up at the machine that was in front of him, the machine that had been thought to be the only fruits of the project in Heliopolis before the Gold Frame showed up.
"And its because of you things….why the hell did we create such cursed machines?" Shigen cursed under his breath and kicked the air as he slunk down in his seat and walked around in his mind. His only comforts was that maybe this 'Falling Star' would be the target and maybe that star would be able to grant his wish and give him some answers to the chaos that had sprung up around him.
He was pretty sure he was too young for this kind of drama.
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Author's Notes: Sorry about the long coming update, I got seriously sidetracked with my trip to Texas, its hot there too. But anyway, this reminds me of one of those chapters in SEED where they backtrack a bit, even though there isn't any backtracking. One of my goals for this chapter was too give you a look into what was running amok in Scion's mind, give you a look into what is going beneath the soldier on the outside. Hopefully you can get an understanding of some of his actions. Of there there is the Siegel mystery as well.
I was also hoping that you all hadn't forgotten about Shigen here, well if you have then its okay since he wasn't big when he appeared.
But alright, I don't really think there is anything more to mention about this except that this chapter has Scion with an ill repaired machine because of the absence of his crew and materials. It made me realize how strange it was the crews of the Archangel, or any of the main warships always had enough materials to repair the ship and the Strike, makes you wonder what would have happened if the crew died, probably the death of the entire ship. XP
Anyway, hopefully I got the bugs out. I'm on the rush again and hopefully the next update will come sooner then this one took.
-Arc.