"What was that all about?" Sai asked Vanai after Ray had left. She just shook her head and pulled him away from the crowd, through a door which she closed behind her. They were now in a study like room, with a large plush couch in the middle of the floor that looked recent and out of place. "I thought we were doing games." Sai pointed out. Vanai smiled at him, rather shyly, he thought. She pulled him by the hand over to the couch and sat down.
"This a game. We're going to play kiss and tell, you and I." She told him. Before Sai could react, she had pulled his head over to hers and was busy trying to consume his mouth with hers, or at least that's what it felt like. By the time Sai worked up the power to protest, she had pulled away, but not very far. "So now tell me… did you like it?" she whispered.
"Umm… yes." Sai replied. He was nervous. This was his first time alone with a girl in what felt like years. He was still tender about how Flay had totally betrayed him and his feelings for her back on the Archangel. He knew now that Flay had been insane, in a manner, but it still hurt. With that red hair, she really does remind me of Flay. He thought. Also with the intensity of her emotions. As with Flay, it's all or nothing, no in between. Sai gathered his courage and made a gamble. He leaned forward and kissed her this time. He was gentle and considerate and slow, unlike her almost painful haste. He broke the kiss off after a few moments. "Now you tell me… why did you bring me here?" he asked.
She fell back and pulled him down on top of her. Sai felt uncomfortable but since she had him in a bear hug, he couldn't move too much without causing her pain and discomfort, which he had no intention of doing. "To save your life." she replied simply.
"What?" Sai asked, startled.
"I brought you here to save your life. Also because I find you fascinating and attractive." She replied. Sai shook his head as if to clear it.
"What do you mean, save my life?" he asked. "What do you mean, find me fascinating and attractive?" was what he thought.
"Don't worry about it Sai. It was nothing. Ray would never hurt anyone I like. He wouldn't dare." She told him soothingly. Sai felt himself being drawn in and he snatched at his presence of mind like a drowning man goes for a rope.
"I'm serious, Vanai. If Ray meant me harm that also means he meant my friends harm. I need to warn them, if possible." Sai protested, trying to get up. Vanai wasn't making it easy. She kept her arms tightly around him and he lacked the proper leverage to break her hold while lying on his stomach on top of her. She complicated things by kicking her dress up around her waist and wrapping both legs around his lower body. Sai was more than acutely aware that her legs were bare all the way up to her panties.
"Don't leave me, Sai. Please don't. I haven't ever felt this way about a guy before. I want you to stay. Please tell me you'll stay." She sobbed. Sai felt his heart going out to her and his will flagging.
"I…" he started to say. Vanai brought her head forward and kissed him again, this time emulating his gentleness. She darted her tongue into his mouth and closed her eyes in bliss. Sai started to protest but was no match for her. His words turned into a moan as the world started to lose meaning and weight. His last non instinctual thought was that he hoped his friends could handle whatever was wrong.
"I fail to see the purpose of holding a game way out in this dark forest." Lacus said, looking around nervously. The trees seemed to be trying to claw the sky into shreds, reaching with dark, leafless branches to form an arch over their heads as they drove along.
"It's a game that requires a proper setting to be fun." Ray called over his shoulder from the guiding cart. "It also requires lots of space. Trust me, it'll be very rewarding."
"I hope so." Lacus relied, snuggling closer to Kira. Or as close as his armor allowed. She sighed mentally. Why did he have to choose such an annoyingly fitting costume? I can get close to him, but not to the real soft part, the hurt part of him that I know is there. His emotional armor keeps me away, and though it appears as shiny and bright as anything, I know he's still hurting inside. I wish he would wear something like Athrun did, and let me in to his heart truly. A few minutes more and they entered the clearing. A pot of some boiling liquid gave off a moist stench. Ray made sure they were all gathered around the pot.
"Now, don't mind the smell. It's just a prop and you'll soon be far enough away from it. I'll be right back; I need to do some final adjustments." Ray instructed them before slipping off into the woods. Zacharis stood watch over them, fingering his scythe.
"I wonder what the game is?" Athrun said.
"Whatever it is, I hope it does involve some distance from this pot. It smells horrid." Cagalli replied. Miriallia stared at the pot and then clutched Dearka's arm.
"I thought I saw an animal head in there." She explained.
"You know, lets just back up a bit. There's no way it should matter whether we cluster around the carts or around the pot." Dearka decided. Everyone agreed. They turned around and headed back towards the carts. After only a few steps though there was a bright flash of light and a thunderous boom. A shockwave of immense proportions tossed everyone to the ground and even flipped the carts over. Athrun clearly heard shrapnel buzz by just over his head.
"What the hell!" Dearka exclaimed, fingering a bloody graze along one of his shoulders where a piece of invisibly fast metal had cut him.
"They avoided the bomb." Frost said gleefully. Everyone turned to look at him.
"Who are you? What happened?" Kira demanded.
"Frost told you he'd make you pay, Pink." Zacharis intoned.
"Zacharis? What the hell is going on?" Kira said, starting to get to his feet.
"I would have thought that would be obvious. This is an assassination." Ray said, stepping out of the trees, submachine gun in hand. Ten Blue Cosmos fanatics, similarly armed and still in costume, fanned out behind him.
"Move Pink and the girls over here." Zacharis demanded. Ray shrugged. It didn't matter. He gestured with the barrel of his gun. Slowly, the girls separated from the guys and walked over towards the Blue Cosmos people. The guys were a tense bunch, full of pent up anger and energy. Ray made sure that he was covering them himself the entire time.
"Now… for the preservation of our Blue and Pure world… I sentence Lacus Clyne and her companions to death." Ray said wickedly. His fingers tightened on the trigger as did the fingers of his ten fanatics. The clearing exploded with automatic weapons fire. Ray had to give the guys some credit. They managed to avoid the initial barrage by taking cover behind an overturned cart. Suddenly, a pistol barked and one of the fanatics dropped, a hole through his throat. Ray dropped and rolled for cover. Having the victims armed wasn't in the plan. How one of them had managed to get a pistol was beyond him. Unless… the guy dressed in a ZAFT uniform had had a gun. Could he have been an actual ZAFT soldier? If so, that was just an added bonus, in Ray's mind.
A sudden fusillade of gunfire broke out from behind Ray, from where the girls were standing while Frost mumbled to them of their horrid fates. Six of the remaining nine fanatics dropped, shot in the back of their heads. Ray looked behind him, to see the two twins in Earth Alliance uniforms had more real pistols out, barrels smoking as they laid down covering fire. They were excellent shots, killing two of the remaining three fanatics as he watched. The boy with the gun got the last one as the fanatic turned to gun down the girls. One of the girls raced toward Ray and had her gun by his head and her foot on his gun before he could react. The other pointed her gun at Zacharis, who froze. Ray wondered where Amy was. She was supposed to be covering the road out, to prevent anyone from running away.
"Right… don't move or I'll kill your friend." The girl with her gun pointing at Ray declared to Zacharis. Ray had a bad feeling come over him. The boys started walking over, still on guard.
"Go ahead. Don't bother me none. Hell, give him a gut shot for me." Zacharis replied calmly. The girl's muzzle wavered slightly in disbelief. Ray looked around wildly, just in time to see Amy slip out of the woods, a chain wound between her hands. She stole up on the rearmost of the group of guys, the one with the pistol.
"I'm serious. If you move, I'll blow his brains all over the clearing." The girl warned.
"I'm serious too. Though that's a waste of tasty brains." Zacharis said right back, making a licking his lips sound. The muzzle wavered again. Ray made his move just as Amy slipped her improvised garrote over Ysak's head. Ray dropped his submachine gun and scrabbled for his pistol inside his jacket while trying to roll away. The girl started to track him with her pistol, but then she saw Amy and what she was doing.
"YSAK!" she called, bringing her pistol up. Ray pulled his pistol out of his coat and started to raise it. There was a sudden bright flash of light and a thumping sound. It was the last sound he would ever hear. While Katie had moved to help Ysak, Chanel had covered her sister, putting a shot right into the base of Ray's skull, snuffing him out like a light. However, her shot had cost her too, for Zacharis was moving like greased lightning, slapping the gun from her hand with ease and following up with a kick to the stomach that left her collapsed on the ground. Ysak had dropped his pistol in order to use both his hands to stave off the strangling from Amy. Meanwhile, Athrun, Dearka and Kira were running over to save their girls, while Katie was running over to assist Ysak.
Ysak was having a hard time of it. This girl was much taller than him, which gave her the advantage of being able to lift him off the ground and deny him leverage. She was also at least as strong as he was. She didn't seem to feel any of the blows he gave her with his feet. Ysak saw Katie running towards him, pistol raised, just as the world started to go dark. Suddenly Ysak was falling, feeling like someone had just slapped him on the cheek. He sucked in great gasps of life giving air. He touched his cheek and felt a trickle of blood. Katie had grazed him with her shot, trying to hit Amy. However, she had only grazed Amy as well, and she didn't get a second shot, as Amy dropped the chain and kicked the gun out of Katie's hands with a single fluid move.
Across the clearing, Cagalli, Lacus and Miriallia had fallen back from Frost as soon as the firing started. They started to move forward when Chanel was kicked, but when Frost pulled a large caliber magnum revolver from inside his robe, they fell back again. "Good bye." Frost said happily, aiming at Athrun. Cagalli dived for Chanel's dropped pistol and brought it up in a flurry of shots, none coming close, but still enough to distract Frost long enough for Athrun to close and kick him squarely between the legs. Frost gave a slight grunt while Athrun winced in pain. Frost started to aim again, this time point blank, but then Dearka slammed a gun into the side of his head with a roundhouse swing. Frost staggered to the side, dropping both gun and scythe. However, he remained standing. Kira stormed past him, grabbing Lacus and Cagalli by their arms and pulling them off into the forest, with Miriallia close behind. Athrun and Dearka split up, coming at Frost from two different angles. Dearka reversed his grip on the gun and pointed it at Frost. Without hesitation he pulled the trigger.
Zacharis dropped and rolled, coming up with his scythe. Dearka tried to hose the bullets into the bastard, but Zacharis was monstrously fast, always staying a few steps ahead of Dearka's point of aim, until he disappeared into the forest after Kira and the girls. Athrun and Dearka looked at each other in surprise. They checked Ysak's situation. He and Katie were holding Amy off, but neither side was going anywhere. "You go. Cagalli has military training. I trust her. And you." Athrun decided, heading towards Ysak. Dearka paused only to reload before crashing into the brush after Zacharis.
-----------------------------------------
"I'm scared, Kira." Lacus said, as he pulled her through the dank forest. Kira checked behind them. Nobody was following them.
"You aren't the only one." Miriallia said, panting for breath. "I never thought Blue Cosmos would come after us like this."
"The whole party must have been a set up. We're hardly dressed for this sort of thing." Cagalli noted.
"What was with that guy with the scythe? Zacharis, you called him." Miriallia asked Kira.
"He's from my math class at school. He always creeped me out a little, but I couldn't figure why. Now I think I know." Kira responded. "Remember the Calamity, the Forbidden and the Raider? Their pilots didn't give a damn about each other and even attacked each other in combat, though they were on the same side. Zacharis's attitude reminds me of them."
"He's probably mentally unbalanced and highly aggressive, is that what you're saying?" Cagalli summed up.
"I'm a bit more than unbalanced, babe." Zacharis said, dropping down next to them from the treetop. "I'm pure fucking madness incarnate." He explained, whipping the hard wood of the scythe handle into Kira's stomach, causing all the air to woosh out of him. Kira gasped and started to fall but managed to get a hold of the tree trunk and so remained upright. Cagalli pointed her borrowed pistol at Zacharis from three feet away.
"Damn you!" she cried and pulled the trigger. The bullet punched through Zacharis's shoulder in a spray of blood. He didn't even wince. Before Cagalli could do more than stare, he had disarmed her and tossed the gun off into the woods. He grabbed her around the throat and pulled her close.
"You're right. Damn me." he said in an ugly tone. He started to squeeze. Cagalli clawed at his arm, to no effect. She reached for her plastic swords and rammed one into his stomach and the other into his jaw, still to no effect. The world began growing dim.
"Put her down!" Kira raged, his eyes gone into the vacancy of his Berserker mode. Kira slammed his plastic sword down onto Zacharis's wounded shoulder, finally eliciting a grunt of pain. Frost dropped Cagalli and turned, his eyes blazing with hate. He swung his scythe with both hands. Kira only barely dodged, his sword cut in half, his armor gashed and his flesh cut deeply. An inch the wrong way and he'd have been eviscerated. However, some luck was with Kira, because Zacharis's scythe struck a tree and embedded itself firmly into its trunk. "Run, Lacus! Get out of here! I'll be fine!" Kira ordered.
"You'll be dead." Frost howled, throwing himself on the slimmer boy. For a while, the struggle was even. Kira had amazing abilities in his berserk mode, but Zacharis was a trained fighter, wheras Kira relied on natural talent alone. Eventually, Zacharis began to win by brute strength alone.
"Kira!" Lacus cried, afraid. Miriallia was tending to Cagalli, who was having a bit of difficulty breathing.
"Run… Lacus." Kira ground out.
"Yes… run… run away, Pink. The chase is fun. But I'll get you, Pink. Frost will skin you alive and then rape you into madness. He'll share his life with you. Run, Pink! Pink, Pink, Pink, PINK!" Frost foamed. He snapped his head forward and bit down on Kira's right shoulder, just where the shoulder met the neck. He began chewing and grinding his teeth back and forth. Kira screamed, trying to push his attacker away.
"I'm not leaving you Kira!" Lacus cried, tears running from her eyes. She tried to pull Frost off Kira, but was backhanded away with a casual swipe.
"Wait your turn, Pink. Frost is almost done."
Miriallia left off tending Cagalli and started frantically searching for the pistol Frost had thrown away. Before she could get very far though, Kira suddenly went limp. Frost raised his bloody jaws and smiled evilly. He slowly got to his feet, pulling Kira up by his hair. With casual brutality, Frost slammed Kira's head into a tree trunk and then dropped him, letting the Ultimate Coordinator slump bonelessly to the ground. Lacus gasped in fright. "K-K-Kira?" she asked.
"Pink should worry about herself. He won't be saving you." Frost informed her, putting a foot onto Kira's back and grinding him into the soft forest loam. Miriallia had finally located the pistol. Her hands shaking with terror and anger, she pointed it at Frost. She fired, but Frost just twitched his head out of the way. Miriallia kept pulling the trigger, but every bullet missed, some by bad aim, but others because Frost simply seemed to let them slip by him, moving a few inches at a time. Cagalli couldn't believe what she was seeing. Zacharis Frost was dodging bullets, right in front of her eyes. That wasn't possible, but he was still managing to do it. Sure, Miriallia's aim wasn't very good, because all of her shots were limb hits at best, but it was still frightening to watch. Within seconds, the clip was empty. Miriallia kept squeezing the trigger out of startled reflex as Frost advanced on her. He reached out, blindingly fast, and gripped her hand. "You're not as pretty as Pink, but Frost will be happy to demonstrate his intentions for Pink on you. Sometimes the anticipation of seeing it done to others heightens the experience." Zacharis declared. He squeezed until her wrist bones grated and she dropped the pistol.
"No… no." Mirillia sobbed as Frost pulled her closer. He ripped her flight jacket off with a simple tug and then used his leg to trip her, dumping her to the ground at his feet so she was lying on her back. He stepped on her ankle to hold her in place, using one hand to slowly peel off her clothing while the other produced a wicked carving knife from inside his robes. His blood, which still trickled from his shoulder wound, splattered onto her bare face and midriff, as he stripped her down to her underwear. He laid the knife up against her lips as he reached for her bra.
"Shhh… save your breath. You'll need it in a few moments." He advised her, starting to drag the knife down to make the first cut. Mir was weeping in terrified hysteria now, too scared to even move.
BANG! A loud noise broke the silence of the woods. BANG, BANG, BANG! Three more shots rung out. Four small red rimmed holes appeared on Frost's stomach. He staggered forward and almost fell, before turning to face Dearka, who was standing a few feet behind him, submachine gun smoking. Dearka's face was twisted in a mask of rage, his eyes vacant in a berserker rage. He clicked the firing lever to full automatic mode.
"Die, you monster." Dearka snarled, pulling the trigger from less than twenty feet away. Bullets spat out in a stream of fire two feet long. Frost seemed to blur. When the submachine gun ran out of bullets, Frost was still standing, though he had more than twenty graze wounds and two more holes, one in each arm. "How the fuck did you…" Dearka gasped. He got no farther before the carving knife hit him in the right side of the chest, penetrating between the ribs and tearing his lung open. Dearka collapsed, blood foaming on his chest, Zacharis pounced over to him and withdrew his knife with a vicious twist.
Blood pouring down his chest from his multiple gunshot wounds, Frost still stood as upright as he had at the beginning of the day. "Hehehehhehehe…. HAHAHAHAHA!" he crowed, laughing wildly, brandishing his blood coated knife at the sky. "NOW… Pink… where were we?" he asked, advancing on Lacus, who could do no more than crouch and stare like a frightened rabbit at the devil who advanced slowly towards her, the blood of a friend dripping from his mouth.