Days Of Ruin5…Never Ending

I do not own Advance Wars or any of the series…if I did I would have made the world more hellish.

The sound of grumbling and complaining was growing louder by the passing minute. Tabitha was about to force herself to wake up and beat those guys unconscious when she heard another voice join the fray. It was the voice of their leader without his mask on to muffle his words.

'Finally some peace and quiet…' She was about to drift asleep again but was interrupted by shouts. She cursed herself since having sensitive hearing was not always beneficial.

"Boss!" A deep voice called for their leader. 'Must be John…' Tabitha thought

"Leader!" An unfamiliar voice called out too. 'Another grunt to annoy me…' She rolled her eyes at the thought

"Boy!" The voice of an elderly man cut through the rest of the voices. 'Boy? …Haha this just gets more interesting by the moment!' Tabitha tried to hold back a giggle but couldn't since she wasn't expecting this voice.

After the Shopkeeper called out to the leader of the men, all the voices quickly silenced themselves out of respect for the old man, all except Tabitha's, her laughing fit grabbed the attention of the leader who went to check up on her. He was surprised to find Tabitha laughing, a tear of laughter forming at the corner of her eye.

"He called you boy!" She was laughing at the leader and didn't notice his blush of embarrassment.

"Well…he is the oldest person here! He's like our father we never had, so we might as well let him call us his sons." He was trying to get angry at her but her laughter stopped him in his tracks…cold.

"Let me change. I'll meet the group later." With her laughing stopped, she shoves him out of the tent.

"Whoa. I'll clear things up with the guys before you even get dressed." He said as he nearly fell at her surprisingly strong shove.

"Not likely if it concerns the facility." She says behind the flaps of the tent.

"Then I'll just wait here for you," He says facing the tent entrance.

He heard the rustling of clothing in front of him and the whistle of the wind running through the facility behind him.

He remembers he forgot something inside the tent so he called out to her. "Tabitha! If you see my mask beside my bed can you bring it out when you're done?"

"Sure. Is this the only mask you have?" She eyed the mask in side the tent, it only covered the face below the eyes and had black colorings all over with a slightly damaged canister that jutted out to the left of the mask. 'Why is he so attached to this mask?' the thought wandered into her mind as she gave it a final look.

"There's only one mask I have, and thanks." He said this as a wind rushed past his face toward the tent parting the flaps that divided the two people. He noticed three things…one, his favorite mask…two, a high-pitched scream…and three…what was behind those flaps.

Just before he started blushing all the color drained from his face…"M…y…g…o…d…" His voice weakly ended with his collapse on the concrete. 'Heaven and hell…such…a…fine…line…dividing…the…tw-urgh…pain…'

'No! This cant be happening!' Thought Tabitha as she immediately reacted to the increased intensity of the light behind her. "NO!"

She screamed in embarrassment while at the same time throwing the gas mask in her hand full force into the leader's stomach. She blushed furiously and put on her clothes as fast as possible. As soon as she got her clothes on she knelt down beside the crumpled unconscious form of the leader.

"What's the matte…oh my what happened here?" Said the Shopkeeper as he saw various things. His unconscious leader, the parted flaps of the tent, the kneeling girl who had mixed emotions…mostly of regret.

"Wind…" She growled fiercely at those words, putting as much malice in those four letters as possible.

"I see…"he grasped the situation by using his knowledge over the years. "John! Clear it!" the old man yelled out commands to the large man.

John heard the words of the shopkeeper and quickly ushered the men out of the nearby area. He soon headed toward the Shopkeeper after completing his task. He came to the front of the tent and was shocked at what happened to his boss. "Boss!" he yelled.

The old man calmed the giant down and also calmed the girl too. He explained to the girl that their leader was only unconscious and he explained the situation to John while Tabitha nodded and stared in awe at the near-perfect recollection of events.

John was smiling on the inside 'That wasn't a fight…that was a beating…wow… my wife would have done that to me if I had made a mistake back then…' his smile turned into a frown at the thought of a woman half his size beating him. A smile reformed in his mind as he thought 'Well if I were to be beaten in a fight I would take either her or Boss.'

The leader was back in his bed, his breathing calm and composed. Tabitha's mind was filled with worry and fear over losing who she considers to be her only friend. She knew her strength all too well, she could take down John in a fight, albeit hard fight, so she knew the power she had in her small frame.

...

Within the mind of the unconscious leader a certain dream was taking place. In the distance was the sight of a gigantic missile falling over, smoke rising from the destroyed remains. The land closer to his sight came into focus and there stood a figure swaying as it stood. The figure was wearing black with an orange face mask. 'Whoa that must have been custom made for him, wow. As much as I like the mask of his, it seems too restraining…well he must've liked it a lot to be that determined to wear it. Wait… no! Don't die! NO!' He was impressed by the figure's tastes, but when the image of the figure focused he saw what was causing the figure to sway slightly.

He could see the fatal wounds strewn across his body. Attached to the figure were numerous black but slightly transparent lights. He was exhaling dense clouds of steam…he was in serious pain by the looks of his harsh breathing. He held a black sphere in his gloved hands and released his grip, letting the sphere slowly rise into the sky.

As this was all happening, thoughts were racing through the leader's mind 'Get help now! You can still walk!' he suddenly took an ethereal form and attempted to usher the man to safety but to no avail. His hands immediately passed through the figure he tried to save.

'Damnit even in dreams I cant save even one person!' He looked at the figure; the steam that escaped his mask seemed to lessen down with each breath.

'Damnit! DAMNIT! WHY! WH-' his anger came to a stop as he strained to hear the forced words of the figure.

"My time…it seems as my body is failing me…" The figure fell to one knee in pain.

"You …will…go…" He struggled to say this as he attempts to stand up.

"Follow the herd…" He raises a hand toward the sky, his head tilted up toward the rising sphere.

The leader is now shown a vast expanse in space…meteors following a straight path deep into space…his sight is brought back to the figure, his arm still outstretched.

The dark lights expanded around him and engulf the figure, reducing his physical body to ash. The wind picks up the ashes and throws it into the sky above.

An after image of the figure remains standing where the body was destroyed.

"I have lost. I have lost this chance." His ethereal form starts to disappear starting from the ground up.

"Live the life I have forsaken. Live and Save!" His form below his chest starts to fade and dissipate into the air.

"I have only killed and destroyed…perhaps if you follow the path I scorned…you will survive." His form below his head had already evaporated, the process still continuing relentlessly.

"These are my last words I give to you…" The figure's head has already disappeared, leaving his outstretched hand floating still pointing toward the ever-rising black orb.

"Do what I have not…save…protect…live…love…" And with those fading last words, his hand leaves the plain of existence shooting a beam of white light up toward the black sphere, giving it the energy to break free from the grasp of gravity, and enough energy to bring the sphere to the center of a vast cluster of meteors… the remaining energy builds on the outside of the sphere until it becomes a shell resembling any other meteor found in the vast expanse of space.

The leader stood on the field. He looked down to see the ashes gone. He looked around him to see the empty space in front of him, devoid of the figure's ethereal form. He looked up, and his face had tears streaking down his cheeks as he saw the legacy of the figure in the middle of the 'herd' He never knew the figure, but he felt the sadness of being powerless to help.

The leader stood there as he saw the surroundings fade into whiteness. This dream was no dream. He felt as if it was a nightmare, but he felt odd calling it a nightmare. The sadness left by the nightmare caused him to clutch his shoulders and weep. He was thinking he would die of sadness but he felt a warm flame in the distance…it was small, but it easily soothed his sadness as he approached the light. He felt the sudden urge to embrace the flame, not fearing the burns he would receive.

His world turned black as soon as he embraced the flame.

A/N And there is the connection with the AW2 story! I hope you can piece the information together!