A/N: I am sorry for the delay, but here is chapter 4. I've done this hastily so I might edit it later. This is the start of the point where this story will divert from the original storyline. Most of the scenes in this chapter I stole from the English dubbed episode 10. This is a two part actually. Inaho's POV for next chapter will explain what's going on. I'm already working on it but I kinda have a hard time writing his personality. I'll try to keep him in character as much as I can, and that's saying something since I hate Physics.
I hope you like this chapter.
Chapter IV
She dreamed of her father's rugged but affectionate smile, of his determined promise to take her home.
Where was home, she wondered.
Her father's words described of twilit skies, where the sun did not shine too bright and hurt the skin even when it was right above her head. He spoke of unending deserts stretching as far as the eye could see and two moons, not one, patrolling the heavens like a silent warden. Someday, he'd say before giving her a kiss on the forehead and leaving her within white walls tucked in white sheets and in the care of women in white clothes, he'll take her there.
Her dreams of him had been different lately. It always started the same, her listening with rapt attention as he told her stories of a place she had never seen in great detail. Then, the scene would collapse like shards of a broken mirror. She was no longer inside her white-walled prison but in the middle of a rayless and desolate wartorn world. She stood on an asphalt skyway a few feet away from her father and other earth-bound Martians as they talked to a machine. Dark in color and gigantic in its bulk, the Martian Kataphrakt was supposed to take them home, where her father would finally be knighted for his courage and valor that was fifteen years overdue. The sight should have made her happy and excited, but it only gave her the feeling of an ominous foreboding.
She'd always see it too late, how the giant robot would lift one arm and smash it where her father and his fellow compatriots stood, reducing them to nothing more than minute particles in the air; gone like a burst of bubble in the blink of an eye. And then she'd wake up inside an unfamiliar room with her bed soaked in tears and sweat, her heart drowned in sorrow, rage, and regret. Sleep would evade her for the rest of the night, leaving her to mull reality and the desperate call for vengeance.
She had been sickly as a child because the Earth's gravity affected her differently. Her mother carried her in her womb on Martian soil with its soft fluctuating gravity, she gave birth to her in aerospace before she took her last breath in the eve of the first war, and her father held her in his arms on earth when the war ended; unable to go back to their home planet because the hypergate imploded and the Vers Empire couldn't even retrieve the Landing Castles (what more the stranded footsoldiers). It took her ten years to adapt and the rest of her life was spent in therapies and science facilities. Her only consolation and motivation to keep going was that her father was always there to help her adjust.
He was a kind and gentle soul, but being away from home broke him. He wouldn't tell her yet she could see it in his eyes. She could do nothing but clung to him for the same reason as he did to her, a connection and reminder of a place 400 million miles away; of home.
Now he was gone. Wolf Areash had wanted nothing but to go home but even after the horrible decisions he made and the awful things he'd done, he was still denied of this simple desire. He sold his soul to the devil, made himself a terrorist and murderer just to fulfill his promise to her only to die with no honor and not even a body left for her to mourn.
It was a Martian who smashed him where he stood. The Martians killed him. The Martians betrayed him, thus the Martians were vile, evil creatures that could not be trusted. All Martians were her enemies. Every day, she'd scrub her skin raw and pink just to get rid of the disgust she felt for being a part of that traitorous race.
"Why?" the handmaiden asked, voice laced with accusing anger.
Why?
It was the million dollar question.
Why?
Because Rayet hated her. She hated her with every fiber of her being.
She felt that hatred and wrath consume her, burying every last bit of rationality she had and pumping adrenaline through her veins. Her vision was clouded by menace and her limbs moved with an intense purpose of malice. She felt satisfaction as the princess's choked gasps and attempts to be free slowly weakened, and the darkness in her heart rejoiced when the Deucalion jerked with the last of the soft-spoken royal's life.
Because even for that second, she felt she had a purpose. She felt that her father did not die in vain.
"So who are you? Tell us the truth," Inaho demanded in that flat tone of his. His apathetic red eyes could have conveyed a thousand words, but they remained pressuring.
He knew. She didn't know how or since when. It could be a wild guess or a certainty in his mind, but she knew it would be useless to lie now.
"Versian. I used to be a Versian," she answered, the hold on the handgun tightening till her knuckles turned white.
Rayet almost laughed at the pitiful picture she presented right then, wrapped in nothing but a towel but attempting to look threatening while holding a stolen pistol. She even scared the Lieutenant and the Warrant Officer right out of the room. She reveled in that and seeped all the courage she could from the thought of holding a real weapon of death.
"I don't... why are you doing this?" the newly revived princess asked weakly, still sat leaning on the shower stall where Rayet killed her. Or supposed to have killed her if not for Inaho and the Captain's interference.
"The incident from Shinawara, the man who tried to assassinate you was my father, a Martian spy living here on Earth. He was promised a reward of a noble title if he finished the job," she paused, a bitter smile appearing on her lips which immediately turned into an angered snarl. "But after following his orders, he was squashed like a bug, just to silence him! You could never trust a Martian! Martians are all the enemies!" she declared, tears pricking her eyes and her voice cracked with emotion.
No one spoke; no one dared after that gruesome revelation. Either in sympathy for the treason on the princess's behalf, or the loss Rayet had gone through.
"I can't ever go back to being a Martian, but I'm not a Terran either," she added almost solemnly.
Rayet stretched the arm holding the Captain's pistol angrily, as if pointing. "But you! Even after you revealed who you are, they accepted you despite of what and who you are. You made a place for yourself among them! I thought we were on the same side, but they..." she trailed off.
Her chest hurt with so much emotion, everything she bottled since she found out that the princess was alive. Her father failed, and even in his death, the princess danced on his grave every minute she kept her life. It was her supposed death which brought the war that killed thousands, millions of Terran lives. Rayet thought that as much as it was her father's fault, it was also the princess's. The Terrans should've hated her, loathed her, but instead they babied and pampered her like she did nothing wrong.
"This is all your fault!" Rayet voiced, heavy with contempt. "My father died because you came here. The war started because you came here. We were betrayed because you came here. Now I'm alone, because you came here!
"Because you came here! Because you came here! Because you came here!" Rayet exclaimed, growing more and more hysterical with every word. "How can these people not hate you after everything you've done to us!?"
Tears sprung from her eyes. There, she said it. Yet, her broken heart did not feel any less shattered.
"I am so sorry," she heard a voice say, almost inaudible.
She glanced at the shower stall and saw the princess shakily stand, only to falter and stumble. Luckily, Inaho stood behind her and caught her shoulders. The girl pushed away from him and valiantly faced the gun, unflinchingly staring into Rayet's eyes. Rayet gripped the gun and pointed it at her head, but she couldn't muster the strength to pull the trigger.
"You are right. I brought nothing but misery to everyone. I was a fool; self-centered and vain. I thought I could bring peace..." her voice wavered and her eyes turned downcast, a tear trailing down her cheek. "I thought I could bring it about myself, but I was only acting like a spoiled child with a new toy," the princess took a few steps closer, not seeming afraid of the gun directed at her head. She looked at Rayet's eyes, glazed and as heartbroken as she was, or maybe even more.
As the girl came closer, Rayet's resolve slowly uncoiled. She took a step back when Asseylum stood less than a meter away from her, looking less sure.
"I am responsible for your family's tragedy. I dare not ask for your forgiveness," the princess said, bowing. Rayet became conflicted, and grew even more so when the Versian royalty fell on her knees; sobbing, apologetic, and miserable. "But I must say, I am so very sorry."
Why?
She did not even know that she had involuntarily asked that accursed question aloud. "Why are you apologizing? Why are you acting like this? Don't you realize that my father tried to kill you? And that I'm just trying to as well?! How pathetic are you!?"
The princess sobbed, and Rayet felt like breaking down herself too. Her hand shook violently before she stilled it and pulled the trigger three times, but none of them grazed the princess's skin and flesh. All the same, she heard Inaho's sister cock her own gun at her direction from the hallway. She wished the woman fired. Maybe death would be better reprieve than all the torment she'd gone through for the past week.
"What am I even doing here?" Rayet asked, more to herself than anyone else. "Oh, well. It's too late," she added. Much to the surprise of everyone, she shifted the gun from Asseylum's head to her own. "I guess this is goodbye."
She almost pulled the trigger just as Asseylum exclaimed 'NO!' but the next thing she knew, she had her cheek pressed on the metal floor of the shower room. Inaho bent her right arm behind her and the pistol was ripped away from her grasp.
How?
"Why did you do that for?" Rayet asked, shocked.
"The gun can't fire when you slide the barrel like that," he answered calmly, almost mockingly actually, still clutching her arm and restraining her down.
"No! I meant-"
Inaho let her go and stood up. "Honestly, I could care less if you're a Martian or a Terran. Regardless of race, we have the same enemy right now and, more importantly, you fought on our side," he said.
Rayet looked at him incredulously, the same look he's receiving from everyone around them including the princess and her handmaiden. "You'll trust me? Just like that?"
"Maybe. And concerning the matter of are we allies or not, well," he paused, offering her the pistol back, grip first. He tilted his head to the side, "that's up to you."
"Ok," she said after a minute of consideration. Rayet hesitantly grabbed the offered gun and Inaho pulled her to her feet. She stared at his eyes, searching for anything that could give away his thoughts. She found no cracks, still she gave him a small smile. "You might regret this."
He did not answer. Rayet did not expect any.
She gracefully accepted her punishment. Getting confined in the brig was so much better than the bland white walls of her glorified prison in the facilities. The solitude and darkness of her room gave her a moment to think, and thankfully, dreams of her father did not visit her.
Time passed vaguely for Rayet inside the brig. She knew she was confined in it for only a night, so it came a surprise when she got an unexpected visitor with an unexpected offer.
She was lying still on the thinly cushioned mattress of her bed with her arms crossed below her head when the metal door slid open at an odd hour. Her meals came first thing in the morning, mid noon, and after dusk so it couldn't be her food, unless they decided to give her an early lunch, which was unlikely. Rayet lazily peered an eye open, and then raised a brow as Inaho Kaizuka stepped in.
Rayet waited as a minute ticked. When the boy seemed to be waiting for her to acknowledge him, she sighed and sat up. "What do you want?" she asked testily, pulling the hood of her jacket down.
He just stared unnervingly at her, his red eyes almost delving into her soul. He did not give off any intention of hostile nature, merely curious. Rayet wasn't sure though; with Inaho, it was nearly impossible to tell what went on inside that twisted head of his.
"The person who killed your father, do you know who he is?" he asked monotonously, like a robot. He might as well be. This was the guy who did not even become flustered while applying CPR to a naked girl, after all.
So an interrogation, and a direct one at that.
"No," she answered, "but the princess might. That first Kataphrakt you destroyed, it was the one that killed him. Only knights own Kataphrakts, you know. I'm sure the princess had an idea to whom that Kataphrakt belonged."
"I see," he mumbled. "How do you feel now, Rayet?"
Rayet looked down, contemplating. She was sure he wasn't asking about her physical condition, or if she'd already calmed down. He want to know where she stood; the answer to the unspoken question he asked back inside the girl's shower room.
"I think, I think I still want to fight in the war. The knights betrayed my father, Inaho," she said, her brows knotted and her jaws squared. "But more than that, I also want to fight in the war because it's wrong. It doesn't matter anymore what sparked the war, only that it needed to be stopped. Choosing which side I want to take part, I want to fight with you and the rest of the Terrans... even with the Princess. As long as it would end the war and teach those bastard knights a lesson, I want to fight."
Inaho smiled. It was small, but it was a smile nonetheless. Rayet did not know whether she should feel relieved or terrified because somehow, she could almost see the gears in his head shifting from the glint of his ruddy eyes.
"I understand," he said. "Then," he opened the door of her cell wider, stepping aside in a gesture of invitation to come with, "I want you to meet someone. Same with him, the UFE offers you a chance to make a difference."
Rayet raised a brow. She was confused and surprised, but was not dumb enough to let an opportunity go by. Questions scratched her tongue and a fear gripped her heart. IF she stepped out of that door, she knew she's venturing into the unknown. With nothing but blind faith to hold onto, would it be worth it to risk being stabbed in the back a second time?
She steeled her conviction and took a deep, shaky breath. Her eyes meeting Inaho's red ones, she decided that, yes. She had nothing more to lose, and with two worlds out of that door, she had everything to gain.
Thanks for reading. Please review! Peace out!
