Just regurgitating what I said on 1NM & Resonate: I lost all my files in 2019 and no matter what, I couldn't restore them. It's been haunting me since lmao. So i've been working on this story too. I still have to completely re-storyboard the future stories but I remember vaguely what I wanted to happen to it isn't that bad.
If everything goes as planned, there are only four chapters left of Interim before Bout starts.
I'd like to note that I've gone back to make corrections and edits to both Epoch and Interim. Notably, Sigma is now Ophiuchus. Epoch probably has the most change, especially the battle scene :)
I'd like to state that I am in no way able to truly portray Zelda's time captive by MECH the way I want, but I hope it comes across at least a little.
Chapter 8:
Ophiuchus
PART 2
One year later…?
The harsh and bright spotlights lit up the arena.
She listened as her blood pumped, her ears buzzing with static as the cheers of the MECH soldiers echoed as background noise to her. She blinked, peering at her opponent; the long blonde-haired woman was taller than her, muscles that showed her workout with a wicked and excited smirk.
There was a voice, just as distant as the cheers, that announced the fight. He called the match to begin, and Ophiuchus shot off towards the woman, bare feet slapping against the stone floor.
She hadn't been the only one that charged, her opponent, Diana—if she recalled correctly but Ophiuchus cared little about names, her sole focus on defeating her—did too.
Ophiuchus ducked the punch, throwing her own one and catching Hundred and Four's stomach.
They threw and pulled punches and kicks, even a tackle from Hundred and Four at one time but neither was willing to back down, unwilling to lose because there would be consequences if you lost.
It was every person for themselves within the arena after all.
She was just fine with that, feeling the way her lips curled up savagely, her blood pumping as she beat into Hundred and Four with her newly acquired enhanced strength.
Hundred and Four kicked her legs out and she went down but rolled in time to miss a kick aimed for her head.
She tackled Hundred and Four as she was getting to her feet, her cybernetic hand found blonde hair and with strong and forceful motion smashed Hundred and Four's head down on the concrete floor a brutal number of five times.
When Hundred and Four choked, falling practically limp underneath her, did she finally back away; rolling back and staying crouched low like a wild and feral animal.
"And the winner is Ophiuchus!"
The roar of cheers at bets won and jeers at the fallen woman.
She giggled, sitting back in a frog-like position as she licked her bloody lips.
Ophiuchus sat in silence. The room was pitch black. The only light crept in from beneath the door. It didn't reach anything.
Her face hurt and pulsed from the injuries she had received early that night.
She stared at the wall, a haze clouding her thoughts as she processed the match. She calculated and cycled through Hundred and Four's actions. Hundred and Four was skilled like all the others but she was the newest among the successfully enhanced soldiers. No doubt Hundred and Four would be of great benefit to MECH eventually.
~Still convinced that you belong to MECH?
Adan's voice echoed, strumming with a light-hearted tease.
Ophiuchus startled, eyes flickering wildly as the ghostly apparition curled its arms around her shoulders. A chill crawled up her spine. A chin rested on her head.
~Why don't you try and sleep, Ze?
"Not tired," she rasped. Her voice was loud in the soundless room, it was like she had shouted.
~Not tired? Where have I heard that before?
Adan giggled, he released her, fingers ghosting her cheek as he settled before her.
Ophiuchus knew Adan was nothing more than a hallucination. Ophiuchus knew he was just a figment of her imagination where her brain tried to…cope with what she had been through.
She didn't understand.
Adan sighed; a finger ran down the bridge of her nose. It sent goosebumps crawling along her skin.
~Will you at least lie down? Might even grace you with a song, hm?
Ophiuchus blinked. Adan sing? Now her mind really was messing with her, Adan hated singing.
The hallucination rolled his eyes.
~How rude. Just because I didn't sing in public didn't mean I hated it.
She can't control the snort that escaped. It startles her.
How strange. She'd not made such a noise in…months? It was redundant. She had no need for such action.
~Lay down Ze.
She does so, not batting an eye.
A gentle hum filled the air, a voice sang softly and with each blink, her eyes grew heavier. Yet she did not fall asleep.
~I don't understand why you've fallen in line for the bastard.
Adan whispered into the stillness.
~This isn't you, Ze. When have you ever been one to give in? When have you let others dictate your autonomy? You've become a good little puppet. Use that to your advantage, sweetheart.
Ophiuchus picked her head up at those words. Let others dictate your autonomy. Good puppet.
Disgust swelled. She blinked.
(Use that to your advantage, sweetheart.)
She blinked again, now that was a thought.
Ophiuchus smiled.
She peered down the scope, eyes locked onto her target. She had no reason to know why he was on MECH's kill list. She didn't care.
Ophiuchus waited until he was perfectly lined up before shooting his dead.
Cooper fiddled with her arm, humming some crude version of a song she couldn't put a name to.
The arm zapped her, and her muscles locked up.
"Whoops," Cooper giggled, not an ounce of sorry in his voice. He does it again. Just for fun.
She was going to enjoy killing him when the time came.
Ophiuchus slinked down the abandoned back hallway. Very few ever used these halls to move about the facility.
Upside? No cameras. They had been offlined since these hallways were technically off limits to MECH underlings. Normally that would include the Solider Program too, but Ophiuchus had something up her sleeve.
Now, she just had to wait.
She honed her ears, waiting patiently and ah-ha! Footsteps.
Just the person she was waiting for.
Ninety-two always used these back alleys to move around quicker. It was the perfect place to strike.
He grows closer and closer. Adan counts the seconds down in her ear.
She lashed out from behind the corner, smashing his head into the wall and the concrete crumbled as Ninety-two slumped to the ground.
Well, that was easy, she blinked. Ophiuchus squinted in annoyance. She wanted at least a bit more action! How boring.
~Hurry along, before he wakens.
Ophiuchus helf him onto her shoulder and moved to the cupboard. There, she dumped Ninety-two and fumbled for the item she had stashed with a smile.
Battery acid. She wanted to make a statement with this kill.
Fisting his hair, pulling his head back and thus his mouth opened, Ophiuchus poured the liquid down his throat. She listened to it sizzle. Ninety-two jerked awake from the pain.
Ninety-two gurgled, eyes wide and Ophiuchus grinned. The smell was beginning to become overwhelming.
"Hello," she cooed. He gurgled, "I'd say no hard feelings but…"
She giggled, "Well, it very much is."
Ophiuchus smashed his head against the wall again, knocking him out. This way it would be a while before anyone could even possibly be alert.
With a satisfied hum, Ophiuchus hip bumped the cupboard closed. She dusted her hands, looked left and right then walked away.
One down, four to go.
They stood still and at attention. Silas stormed into the room, glaring at all five of them.
"Who did it?" He ordered. None said anything.
Ophiuchus stared straight ahead, stiff and expression blank.
"I SAID WHO DID IT!" Silas roared, "Which one of you killed Ninety-two?"
Still, no one said anything.
"Then you'll all be punished!"
Ophiuchus stood silent, watching as the other four bickered between themselves after the medics patched them up from their beatings.
"I certainly didn't do it," Hundred and One snapped in response to Ninety-five; the two men near snarling at each other.
Hundred and Four turned her gaze onto Ophiuchus, "Well, what about you, Ophiuchus? You're the only original non-MECH soldiers."
Ophiuchus blinked, head turning slowly to return the gaze. "What do I get from killing one of you? I serve only MECH."
Hundred scoffed, "You get a lot from it."
Ophiuchus tilted her head, "What about you all? Maybe whoever did it is aiming to be number one in Silas's book?"
They all turned to each other, Ophiuchus'swords setting them on edge.
The water raining from the showerhead hid the sound of Ophiuchus removing the vent cover. She slowly climbed from it and stood; she tilted her head as she manoeuvred toward the curtain hiding Hundred and Four.
She slowly walked, her movements like that of a predator stalking prey. In her hand was a screwdriver, it was clasped tightly in Ophiuchus' metal fist that the handle threatened to break.
Ophiuchus reached out for the curtain and—
The sheet was ripped back, Hundred and Four jerking in surprise, only having mere seconds to turn, eyes wide before the screwdriver was thrust into her throat, Hundred and Four gurgled and Ophiuchus shoved her against the wall, not caring about the water now raining down on her face.
Ophiuchus blinked and the smile she wore promised death. Simple as.
"Guess you were right after all," she purred and ripped the screwdriver out, pulling a chunk of her throat with it. Hundred and Four grabbed her neck in a desperate attempt to save herself but—
Well, it was pointless because Ophiuchus shoved the screwdriver into her eye socket and into her brain. Hundred and Four fell dead and Ophiuchus smiled softly as she turned and hummed a merry tune as she climbed back into the vent.
Ophiuchus meticulously polished her boots in the silence of her room. It was the only sound in her room until she heard the marching feet coming down the hallway her room was on.
She tensed, standing at attention when the door slammed open. Silas stormed in.
"Search!" he ordered his posse.
Her room was strip-searched, bed, clothes and everything overturned in search of the murder weapon.
Nothing turned up and they left. The door slammed shut behind them.
Ophiuchus smiled.
Two down, three to go.
Ophiuchus threw Hundred over her shoulder. He was back on his feet and charging. They engaged in a fistfight once more.
Things were undeniably tense now that two of the enhanced had been murdered with ease.
There was no video evidence. No murder weapon. No clues of any sort.
Silas was growing progressively angrier.
Only so few survived the enhancement procedure after all. The serum created from Ophiuchus's blood fused with so little.
Who should she go for next?
~Now this is just a chance handed to us on a silver platter.
Adan ghosted around her shoulders.
Ophiuchus eyed her partner.
A mission to take out a small group of people. People Ophiuchus knew.
Mia, Edan, Logan.
Silas thought her…ready, to take them out.
Ophiuchus was thankful Aria was not there. She didn't know what she would have done.
Yet, as Hundred and One arrogantly goes straight in, Ophiuchus waited, chin on her palm as she watched her old team do the dirty work.
She lined her scope up, aiming for Logan, finger at the ready. Hundred and One engaged him.
It would be just a slip of a finger, Hundred and One being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Ophiuchus smiled and fired.
The bullet grazed Logan who went down but it hit Hundred and One in the chest, in the heart. Down Hundred and One went.
Ophiuchus stood, standing on the building roof as Mia and Eden moved to Logan's side. Eden's head turned in her direction. She met his shocked gaze.
"Zelda?"
Logan and Mia turned.
Ophiuchus rushed off, easily losing Edan and Mia who tried to run after her. It was simple to lose them in the darkness.
Three down, two more and then finally, Cooper.
(Silas wasn't impressed, but what use was an idiot to him anyway.)
Ophiuchus was running out of time. Cooper had plans for another attempt at Silas's insistence.
Silas, who was currently away from the base on some form of mission he had no need the enhanced for.
Perfect.
~The best time to strike
Adan cooed, his dark grin matching hers.
Oh yes, it certainly was.
But the question: subtle or just a head-on attack?
Choices, choices.
That choice is made for her when during one of her strolls, Ophiuchus crosses paths with Ninety-five.
Well, there's her answer, she supposed.
She waits until they are shoulder to shoulder, about to pass when she lashes out, hand grabbing the back of his neck and spinning, shoving Ninety-five into the wall, face first.
"Bitch!" he snarls, pushing himself away from the crumbling concrete. He doesn't hesitate to engage her in a fight.
Ophiuchus laughed, "This is going to be fun."
She crushes his throat but not before he gets some good hits on her. It was a good fight.
But the fight draws the attention of MECH underlings, and she takes some discarded weapons of those she kills and shoots her way through the base, leaving behind a trail of blood and bodies in her wake.
Hundred stood in her way.
"You," he growls.
"Me!" she gleefully agrees with a laugh, "It's been fun, but I want out."
She raised the gun, but it was empty. Ophiuchus shrugged and discarded it.
A swipe, a kick, a punch and blood was spilt. In the end, her determination for freedom won her the fight. She left him with a caved-in chest.
Ophiuchus finds another gun before she storms the lab, firing a bullet into Cooper's leg. He screamed and went down.
She laughed, stepping up to him.
"I should've known," he grinned, "I told Silas you were too much of a wildcard to trust, even after all the supposed…conditioning."
Ophiuchus smiled, stomping on his leg. He grunted, groaning as the pressure she put on his knee made it pop.
"I was planning to take my time killing you. Maybe open you up a bit like you liked to do to me but I honestly can not be bothered," Ophiuchus rolled her eyes, "I've already put too much effect into killing the others that I just don't give a shit anymore."
Cooper giggled, screaming when Ophiuchus put a bullet into his other leg.
~Let's get that information.
"Good idea," she mumbled and approached Cooper's computer. She yanked it out from beneath the desk and picked it up, throwing it across the room.
Cooper shrieked, "No, no, no!"
Ophiuchus skipped after the computer and sieved through the parts to find the important pieces. She plucked them up with a smile. Pocketing it all, Ophiuchus turned back to Cooper and shot him in the head. He stared dead head, gaze empty.
With a yawn, Ophiuchus left the lab again, knowing exactly where she needed to go to arm the base to self-destruct. MECH had this thing about exploding old bases. This time it was useful. Any stray underlings were shot down.
~Let's ditch this place!
Adan eagerly led the way for Ophiuchus who set the bombs to go off in half an hour. Plenty of time to find a car and put distance between them.
She sat in the truck, hands trembling as she set them on the steering wheel.
This was the last hurdle to freedom, she belatedly realised.
~I think you're more than ready. You've waited too long. Go.
Ophiuchus shoved the car into drive and shot out at full speed.