Return of the Angels

Sympathizing? She thought. Since when was that a possibility for her? Yeah of course she had changed quite a bit since she performed the disappearing act. Yeah okay, she had been sympathizing with him. But boy, oh boy, Raven really didn't recognize her did he? Okay, okay, give or take she understood that not only had her attitude changed but her appearance… hell yeah that was definitely different. But there was definitely no change in her eye colour. Weren't they the biggest give away of her, or had it been her hair the whole time? She rolled her eyes and watched his retreating form. Either she had truly become somebody else, or Raven just no longer remembered her entirely. Maybe she had become different in other people's eyes. She wouldn't know, she wasn't as close to her friends that she knew before.

They all thought she was dead.

She heard the speaker static and she jumped into her cockpit.

"Talk to me, May!" She code named her friend.

"Not to rush you or anything… but enemies on our radars over here… Proceed into battle or avoid contact until you arrive?"

"Proceed into battle. Hold your ground and do your best to wait out the assaults until you have a clear shot to attack them." She confirmed.

"Yes sir!" May replied and then she clicked off.

Her dark eyes roamed over the horizon that he disappeared into. She'd have to come back to that boy when she had the time to. She strapped herself in and the cockpit closed off. She grabbed the controls and turned her zoid around to chase down the trail that she had formerly proceeded down with her friends. She couldn't help but look out over the horizon again and she shook her head. She really didn't have the time to think about him. Yeah they met after three years, but she didn't have the time to think about him. Her mission was different and it didn't involve her former acquaintances in the matter. Her friends were another matter after all.

She found her friends holding group against a large number of enemies. She wouldn't accept that of course. Pressing some buttons she turned her zoid invisible, but not on anyone's radars. It was time to play with their heads. She jumped over the tops of her friend's zoids that had formed a shield line that was definitely standing its ground against the numerous enemies. The sky zoids were holding back against the sky zoids that were part of the enemy battalion. Pressing buttons, she brought out two blades from the front legs of her zoid, and picked up speed. Of course they had tried to dodge nothing that actually showed on their screens, but they were still attacked by a blade that was invisible to their eyes but not to their radars.

Oh she loved playing this game with them.

But she was finished earlier than she had planned. What a bummer, she was having fun. She sighed to herself and watched as the enemy zoids behind her exploded. One slash and that's all it took? She couldn't believe how easy it really was for her. She found herself holding in her laughter that was building up in her chest. She released it in a hot breath of air and turned her zoid around to face them before she focused to the sky. Of course she exposed herself out of her comfort barrier. With that shield that turned her invisible, she felt absolutely safe that nothing could stop her. Could Storm do it up there? The loud explosions and the falling parts of zoids that she didn't recognize fell to the ground. Yup, Storm definitely could do it.

Speaking of which, she hovered her sky zoid in front of her and through the louder speakers she laughed and hollered happily.

"Did you see that? Celine, tell me you saw that?"

"I saw it!"

"Did I do well? What did I score?"

"An eight…" Celine replied.

"Seven…" May stated.

"Five… I didn't see it. The explosion was nice though."

"Ray, you're just blind to the cool stuff." Rain, aka Storm, stated tapping on the board with her fingers.

"I'm not; you just don't do it in front of me."

If there was one thing that Celine had definitely realized is that since Storm had joined them, Ray had found someone to argue with. He had come out of his shell, was argumentative and pretty much was being normal now. But he was still dangerous because he still was silent. Storm has fun with him. She likes teasing him, he likes receiving those teases but he also likes doing them back to her. Celine was suspicious on what was going on between them. He was supposedly nearing his thirties, but that would be wrong. That's how his attitude has made others think of him as. He's nearing the middle of his twenties, so if he went out with Storm a seventeen year-old, would she agree because of their age difference? Maybe, there was six years difference, not really much at all.

"Could they get any more romantic towards each other?" May stated as she walked her zoid over to Celine.

"Young love, leave them be." Celine chuckled.

"Speak of love…" May was insistent; Celine could hear it in her voice. "When are you going to search on your one?"

Celine, although was not shocked to hear her ask, was taken aback. "Interested much?"

"So completely loveless much…?" She countered.

"Oh, come on, don't start this with me, May. I'm seventeen, not some mid-twenties woman who must find someone to get laid." She rolled her eyes at her hot pink haired friend.

"You heard what you were told back at those ruins. You must search for the one who is your true love."

"Oh yeah…? How the hell am I supposed to identify it's him?"

"It's obvious. You'll be missing him."

"I miss my friends, and a few of them are male." She heard as her friend took a breath to say something but silence greeted her ears. "Thank you!" She nearly sang happily.

"For what…?" May asked confused.

"Just for proving that I was right." She was smiling big time. She couldn't help it; she had got one over on her friend.

So as she hummed happily to herself, May was shaking her head and rolling her eyes with a smile on her face, and the other two were happily arguing with each other for the fun of it. Time was ticking by, but suddenly her humming stopped and she turned from absolute happiness to sadness within a second. Her past with her friends and acquaintances had returned to her in a blast of sadness. The departure had been mind meddling. She loved everyone, she didn't want to part, but she risked it for the sake of her friends. Well it doesn't matter. Soon she might be reunited with them again. But Raven… he's changed, turned colder and become more aggressive.

Van, what did you do to Raven to turn him like this?

She slapped her cheeks to make sure she snapped out of it.

Oh shut up about that guy, seriously. I'll handle that issue later. Right now, focus, focus and focus. Reunite with Van and the others at the base of the Guardian Force.

Oh crap, but what'll they think when I return? They think I'm dead. This is going to be a terrible reunion, or maybe not. But we'll see when it comes to that point. Think, Celine, think. How could you break the news to them without petrifying them, making them angry or any other emotion that would make it hard for them to believe it's you? It's going to be a little difficult for a while, but I'm sure that they'll be able to handle and believe me. I have no reason to lie to them…

Celine sighed. This was going to a difficult thing after all.

"Earth calling Celine, you there…?"

"You mean Zi calling me? Learn geography…"

May laughed. "Oh, I have an idea… I'll learn it if you find yourself that boyfriend you're supposed to find!"

Shoot! Celine thought. She got her. May laughed at her sudden silence. Damn it, the moment you give an opening she takes, and she gets it damn good. She had no comment to that so she remained silent. Even the calling of her name multiple times wouldn't bring her to speak, even if she was getting annoyed. Suddenly her radar was blaring and she was instantly tapping away, bringing up the zoids that had entered their line of detection. Once all the zoids that were coming towards them were on screen, her eyes went wide. Her fingers begun to shake and her voice was trapped inside of her throat.

Arriving in a short time, Celine and her group was surrounded by the other zoids. May had issued the command instead of Celine and surrounded her with their own zoids blocking the line of sight to their commander, Celine. The sky zoids circled above, but there hadn't been the command to attack, only Celine would issue that command, and without her in working order, there was no hope for them to attack. All they would have to do is defend until she snaps out of it. Risky as it was, they believed in only their commander's voice of command. There was no one else that was allowed to take her rule unless the second in command decided it was necessary to step up for the time being. Storm was their second in command.

"Who's in charge here?" A voice spoke over the speakers and Celine just entered even deeper into her thoughts.

"With us, you're voice of authority does not affect us. So no matter how much you demand, we're not telling you anything." May called out, defiance in her tone. She wanted to act against them, to do something to show them that this group was capable of being more than a nuisance to them. But she would not act without the permission or order from Celine.

"Let me tell you something, we don't care how you act, we demand to speak to the one in charge and we demand the response now." Another male demanded. One much older than the first, but still Celine remained within her thoughts. The pain was increasing this time. She hadn't expected this to be happening so early. It couldn't be happening. This was totally off cue, this was too quick. If things were going like this, the one that was creating their lives was doing this much too quickly.

Her fingers shook against the controls. This couldn't be happening. Please say something; please say that this isn't happening. Not now, not of all times.

"Demanding will get you nowhere, I've told you before, it doesn't affect us." May shouted.

Was this really happening?

May was getting angrier and angrier, but Celine didn't want her to. Not to these people. Anyone else, but not these!

She needed to speak up but her voice still caught in her throat. She knew it would come like this. She had always known that things would never become so easy, especially not when she needed it to be easy for her. All the times it would come like this, becoming more difficult on her. What next? She'd be forced away from her friends even harder this time? Would she not be able to get back with them? Or was she not supposed to get back together with them? Was this her punishment for sacrificing herself for them in the first place? Maybe it was… of course she wouldn't know her fate on Planet Zi. But she needed to speak up, May was getting angrier, and the more she turns angry, the more the rest of the group would want to attack them. She couldn't allow that. She really couldn't.

She sighed mentally and then forced herself to pick herself together and face the ones in front.

"I'm the one in charge here." She spoke through the speakers, startling her group and the people that surrounding them.