Sorry if this seems late, Finals and Papers are going to kill me. Enjoy.
The next few weeks passed by like dust on the wind. I spent most of my time training, working harder than I had before, and I noticed a difference almost immediately. It was strange at first, because Rood spent most of his time taking care of Sal, but after a week her 'purge' had been completed and she was back with us in both body and spirit. The few moments I wasn't working or sleeping, I spent going over the plan Rood had drawn up while I was training. It wasn't really all that complicated, but that's because it was impossibly stupid. I couldn't see any way for it to work, but he remained adamant about its success.
"It'll work. Trust me." He said one day as I brought up yet another fault in his plan.
The thing was, I didn't really have any reason to do so. I'd never thought about it before, but I had no real reason to trust either of them, but something drove me to do so. Call it fate, or destiny, but I knew that I needed to be here right now. So I decided to trust him.
"Fine. But when you die, don't come complaining to me." I said testily. He only smiled at my lame attempt at a joke before returning to his work.
That was another thing I thought about. What exactly took up so much of his time that he was always busy? I constantly peeked over his shoulder to see his tablet, but I couldn't understand any of the information on the screen, and not for lack of trying. I even asked Sal about it a few times while we were sparring.
"Well, he does quite a bit on there, you have to be more specific." She said as she brought her left fist into my chest again, knocking the wind out of me and landing me firmly on my back.
After I caught my breath, I spoke again. "I don't really know how to describe it. It makes no sense to me, it's mostly complicated words and numbers that don't make any sense. I was hoping you'd be able to clue me in." I stood up, ready for round thirty-eight.
She was quiet for a moment. "He really is a genius, you know. He even figured out how to keep me in control. However, if there's one thing I know about him, he can't stop working on something once it's caught his eye. If you can't understand it, then it's probably something to do with our history. Every scrap of information he can find is on that tablet, and he's constantly trying to come up with an alternative to this plan of his. If he can figure out a way to break us free of the OD, then he would happily do that instead." She paused. "Did I ever tell you why I'm here?"
I shook my head, lowering my guard as I did so.
"Well, don't ever tell him that I said this, but I really do look up to him. Did you know, he was supposed to be the leader of the Space Pirates? After the whole Ridley fiasco a while back, some of the surviving scraps of the Space Pirates managed to create a batch of humanoid creatures, each with the mental and physical prowess of Ridley himself. Rood was the firstborn of that lot, and he was taken away from his flock and raised in isolation to help him mature at a faster rate. While he was in this isolation, he realized two things. The first thing was simple enough. 'I am a living creature'. Just a thought, something we often take for granted. The second thing was more important to his development. 'I don't want to hurt other living creatures'."
Suddenly, the door to the training hall opened, and Rood walked in. "Sorry to interrupt my life story, but Sal, I need you for a minute."
"What's up?"
"We have a situation with the rats." Although his face remained pleasant, his tone was grim.
Sal's whole demeanor shifted instantly. "What happened?" She practically screamed the question, already running for the door. As she blew past Rood, he turned back to me.
"Resa, we only have a few more days left before we kick this off. I made a few modifications to your Power Suit, you might want to check it out and familiarize yourself with it."
"What about the rats?" I asked, both confused and curious.
"Oh, that? Nothing. I just didn't need Sal telling my whole story for me. Maybe I'll tell you myself sometime, but for right now, I just can't." He grinned. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go make my peace before Sal kills me." He turned and left, the door sliding shut behind him.
I found my Power Suit suspended in a tube of viscous green liquid, which I quickly drained. When I opened the tube, I immediately noticed a major difference in its design. Where before, Federation logo had been emblazoned across the chest area, there was now a single symbol, one I'd seen many times over the years. It was an image of the Screw Attack, one of the most powerful weapons in the known universe, which made the wielder almost impervious while also providing nearly unstoppable offensive power. The symbolism wasn't lost on me, but something about it bothered me. This was Mother's weapon. Hers was the only one in the universe; she had never thought to duplicate it as well, or if she had, she had decided against it. I didn't really want to bear any sort of resemblance to her, so I decided to ask Rood to remove it.
I set aside my thoughts for a moment and began to equip it, a process which took mere seconds. I stood in behind the familiar armor, and began to walk forwards as though I was going to walk right through it. A faint light appeared in the joints as it recognized my step pattern and came to life. The back of the suit clicked and whirred, until there was an opening large enough for me to step into. As soon as I was all the way inside, it snapped shut, and I felt my spirits lighten as I heard the familiar hiss of the air systems coming to life.
It had been a while, but I was back in the one place in the universe I had spent the most time.
I was home.
That's when all Hell broke loose.
Tune in next time, for the next exciting episode of... you know.
CM out.