Alpha and Omega - Jackal's Story
Chapter 13
In collaboration with Subzero Dragon. Visit their profile to see the other side of this story. Important events that aren't mentioned here take part in the other side of the story.
With the events of my dinner with Robin buried in my mind now, Alisa and I continue walking at a rather fast pace towards our helicopter. Well, I say walk but what I really mean is that I am being dragged to the helicopter by Alisa all the while hearing about how she has hunted all around the Den for me, including how she visited my room several times but nobody was in there.
"How can you track Aragami if you can't even track me?" I joke with her in an attempt to lighten the mood she caused. I continue looking ahead as I speak, though with a smile on my face, and I see the same helicopter that I remarked about before I found Robin still sitting there. This time though, the helicopter's blades are not spinning. I begin to wonder whether the helicopter is out of fuel but a sharp slap to the back of my head stops me from thinking.
"Ow!"
"Shut up, Jackal." I turn towards Alisa as she commands this of me and see a small, victorious smile on her face. I take my punishment and don't comment on it; she must have been searching for a while and it seems she's finally let out her frustration. I suppose that smack was probably deserved but it still hurt like hell. Alisa let's go of my arm once we get to the helicopter's doors and I lift my hand to the back of my head, rubbing it slightly. Whilst the slap probably won't leave a mark, it felt as though my brain had rattled around inside of my skull upon impact. Alisa slides the helicopter's doors open and enters. I, too, enter the helicopter and meet our third, and seemingly final, team mate for this mission. I doubt he noticed that the two of us had entered the helicopter. He seems content to sleep the day away. Something that I wouldn't mind doing either.
"Kota! Get up! He's here!" As if Alisa's sudden rise in voice wasn't enough to wake him up, Alisa settles for punching him in his back. I recoil at the power she hits him with and regret the fact that I thought her slap hurt. Her punch makes Kota spring awake and shout something about not turning off the television before he becomes aware of the situation. Alisa has since decided to take a seat beside him and I sit across from them.
"Oh, hey Jackal. You're a bit late." It almost sounds like he is patronising me. If I hadn't talked to him before then I would have definitely thought he was patronising me.
"He was gallivanting with Robin." Alisa comments for me, still clearly annoyed that she had to find me for this mission.
"Galli- what's its?" I smile at Kota's clueless expression as he looks between Alisa and I, the former being less amused than I.
"Ignore what she said, Kota. It wasn't true anyway."
"So what were you two doing then?" She looks to me with an annoyed, yet intrigued look on her face. She was genuinely curious as to what Robin and I were doing but was she annoyed that it wasn't what she thought it was? Or maybe she is just confused. "Because I clearly interrupted something." She continues, folding her arms and impatiently tapping her fingers on her arm.
"Two?" Kota repeats before turning to me. "Who were you with?" He enquires with a puzzled expression. Having heard the helicopter lift off sometime ago, I decided to have a little fun with the two of them . It will be a while before we reach wherever we are going anyway.
"I suppose the real question is, which 'who' would you like to know about?" I spouted the first thing I could think of to deter them from their question. After having said that though, I realise that I had completely forgotten that Alisa thought she was interrupting something between Robin and I. I had tried to play it off as if Alisa could have been interrupting something between the people I had talked to earlier today but she wasn't there for those conversations so she doesn't know I had them. Then again, she didn't specifically say that she was talking about Robin.
"wait, what? I'm confused." I grin as Kota expresses his confusion but it falls as I see Alisa's expression.
"Are you stupid?" Yep, she had clearly caught on about the loophole in my question. "The 'who' I was there to see, obviously. Are you telling me you were gallivanting with other people as well." She wasn't exactly a very happy person right now. In fact, if I were to look closer, I'm pretty sure her skin would be boiling with anger. This tells me that a wrong answer may very well make me be on the receiving end of a powerful punch. Even being a God Eater, I doubt I could stand a punch like hers. She had punched Kota clearly out of annoyance, how powerful would she hit me if I were lie? I swallow hard, it's a risk I don't want to take.
"You mean with Robin?" Was the only way I could answer her question.
"No, with Director Sakaki, of course I mean with Robin!" Alisa's voice had becomes much louder and I must admit that an angry Alisa is a scary Alisa. She was probably seconds away from getting out of her seat and punching me in the face, I don't care hoe fast I will heal because I am a God Eater, I don't want her to punch me!
"R-Right. O-Of course you do." I was getting nervous now. This is the first time in a long time that I have actually feared something this much. This is even scarier than when I was re-introduced to the battle field before the mission to exterminate the Garuda. I wonder if it was ever killed, I did wake up in the hospital without any memory of what happened after I fell from the sky after all.
"Alisa," Kota's soothing voice reminds me that we're not alone. Turning to him, I notice he has placed a hand on Alisa's shoulder. "You're scaring him. Does it really matter what they were up to? He's here now isn't he?" Kota, as of this moment, you are my guardian angel.
"But" Alisa seems to want to protest but glancing between the calm face of Kota and the petrified, sweaty face of me she takes a few deep breaths before sitting back in her seat. It is only now that I wipe my head and realise just how much I was sweating.
The three of us continued the ride in near silence. Kota, every once in a while finding the atmosphere weird, had begun trying to make small talk to alleviate the awkwardness surrounding us. It would work for a few utterances then the awkwardness would resume.
"We're here." The pilot shouts from his seat. I look outside and notice that we are slowly descending. I am very thankful for this seeing as how jumping from this height would probably kill me if I landed the wrong way. It's a good job that the pilot isn't overestimating our God Eater abilities.
"So, what are we hunting?" I ask nervously, the tension around us could be cut with a knife so I also decided to try slicing it. Hopefully the tension will be cut up enough that we can't feel it anymore.
"According to Hibari," It seems as though when we are talking about a mission, Alisa can place all of her grudges on the sidelines as she informs me with her commander voice. "There have been reports of a small herd of Sekhmets wandering around in the Sunken Grid. There are three of us so we'll each take one out."
"Hey, wait." I stop their little plan. "I haven't fought a Sekhmet before. How can I handle taking one on by myself?" I was getting nervous again but I was also fearing for my life. Kota and Alisa both know I'm not one to plan my attacks ahead very often so suddenly being forced to do that is like forcing me to go head to head with the Tsuchinoko.
"Is the legendary God Eater who killed a Garuda afraid of a simple Sekhmet?" Alisa comments mockingly but it does give me the knowledge of what happened to the mentioned Aragami. I wonder how I killed it.
"You know the effects of what happened the first time I faced the Garuda, should you really be mocking me for that?" I rhetorically ask her with the most serious face I could muster. Looking back on what happened, it was clear to see that my personality had suddenly changed and it wasn't for the better. My response seems to make Alisa stay silent. I'm not sure if she is thinking of a counter argument or if she just accepts that she lost that round.
"Come on, you can do it, Jackal."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Kota, but it takes more than just words to convince a person." I put a palm to my head. Words are merely that. Words. I couldn't use that against an Aragami could I? No, it's just a way that we, humans, communicate. Kota said that he had confidence in me with such conviction so it pains me to say that but I was right. I guess words do hold some kind of power if I feel as though I have pained Kota but it wouldn't have the same effect on an Aragami. I hear the helicopter doors opening and see Alisa standing as if she was about to jump with her God Arc in hand.
"Stop being a wimp, Jackal." Is all she says before jumping out. I'm surprised that she would suddenly say that. I turn to Kota who had also moved towards the door. He shares with me a sad smile that suggests that he agrees with Alisa.
"Your God Arc is behind you. See you after the mission." With that, he jumps. Did the two God Eaters accompanying me on this mission just call me a wimp? I'll show them!
I continue walking around the Sunken Grid, having just through the abandoned power plant when Hibari's voice appears from my earpiece.
"Jackal, there is a Sekhmet located 20 metres to your right. Approach with caution." I silently thank Hibari for the warning and begin skulking as I turn around the corner, giving me full access to see a Sekhmet not too far away. As I creep closer to it, I try to scan it for any features that I could unbind may help me to kill it. It appears to have a humanoid figure with large Chi-You-like wings. It also possesses some kind of yellow, ancient headgear that is easily identifiable compared to its black and red body colouration.
"So, it looks like a Chi-You, maybe it has the same weaknesses." I talk to myself, only after realising my mistake of talking out loud and my eyes widen in shock. The Aragami in statement turns in my direction. I had lost the element of surprise. In fact, it surprises m by extending a hand in a 'bring it on' fashion.
I prepare my God Arc as I wait to see what the Aragami will do. It hunches over itself as if it were bracing for an attack. Had I not already seen this position executed by a similar Aragami I may have attacked it right there. Instead, I watch its movement; waiting for the right time to deploy my shield. As it releases a single ball of fire into the air with an outstretched arm, I deploy my shield and jump back slightly. This is because I anticipate that the Sekhmet may make a charge for my whilst I am under the cover of my shield. Therefore it will need to cover more ground to get to me before the fireball hits. Speaking of, it dissipates upon contact with my Arc. Bringing it to my side, I see that the monster is already charging another attack at me with its hunched form. If I can somehow get behind the monster then I can avoid whatever attack it may be doing.
As I approach the Sekhmet, a flurry of fireballs are launched in my direction. I barely have time to side step the first one before deploying my shield which gives the same effect as the earlier fireball launched. When the flurry of fireballs is let up, I peak over my shield to see the Aragami creating an even larger ball of fire; one that my shield will not be able to fully protect me from. Before the Sekhmet can launch the attack, I clamber onto a raised platform and grin inwardly. So far, this beast has been acting exactly like a Chi-You and these fireball attacks can only move low to the ground the so this Aragami will have the same restrictions.
At least, that is what I thought. I never expected that this larger fireball was capable of lifting through the air like a heat-seeking missile. So when it comes within 2 metres of me, I barely manage to cover my head and torso with my shield. Unlike the others, this fireball remains in place for a few seconds as it slowly burns away my trousers with an intense heat. By the time the gaseous ball has dissipated, parts of my trousers have been completely burned away and the skin underneath has slightly reddened.
"I'm not looking forward to what this will feel like later." Right now I couldn't feel the pain because of the adrenaline rushing through my veins. I can't say that I will be saying the same thing later though. The burns don't look too bad. They'll probably heal up in a day.
"I can't stay on the defensive." I speak my thoughts and notice that the Sekhmet has now joined me on this platform. I make sure that I have the Sekhmet's attention by deploying my shield and wait for its reaction. Mockingly, the Sekhmet once again repeats the 'bring it on' gesture. Little does it know of the literal trap I am setting for it as I reach into my pocket with my free hand and drop the trap behind me.
"A cunning plan." I whisper to myself as I keep my shield deployed. Seeing as how I didn't fall for the Sekhmet's trick, it has resorted to firing off a single ball of fire into the air again.
"That's old news!" I shout to the Aragami, brushing off the attack, "What else do you have?" I hope to bait the Sekhmet and it took it. The Aragami came running towards me. I had expected it to glide towards me, which would have made this a lot easier, but as it approaches me, I see that there is a build up of flames around its leg. I jump off of the platform and the leg skims my shield before the beast falls into my paralysis trap and succumbs to it. Immediately, I rush back onto the platform and target the hands of the beast, seeing as how they are capable of producing those fireballs, maybe they will stop by destroying the source. With numerous, powerful slashes, I manage to break the beast's hands just as the Aragami breaks out of my trap. Now, I know this is incredibly risky, but I try throwing a paralysis trap at the Sekhmet with the hopes of paralysing it again. There is a 50% chance that it will succeed and therefore a 50% chance it will fail. It did the latter.
"Fu-" The aragami had once again crouched over so I had no time to complete my outraged burst as I prepared my shield once more. This time though, there were no fireballs. I once again switch back to my scythe as I notice this and charge towards it. Little did I realise just how damaging that would be. I had fallen into its trap.
As I ran closer to the beast, a huge wall of wind pulsated around it before they were pushed in my direction. With no expectation of this happening, I was forced to face the brunt of the attack as it threw me through the air and I collide with the wall of the abandoned power plant with a huge clunk. The pain shoots through my back as I force myself to stand up and move away from the defective power plant and just in time too. Had I been a few seconds later, then I would now be under at least one ton of reinforced steel that had fallen from such a height that would kill anything that was underneath be it man or Aragami. I had managed to avoid a painful death and headed back the way I was blown from.
As I reach the platform again, I see that the Aragami is off in a corner close to the platform, eating what looks to be an Ogretail that I hadn't noticed before. I get back on top of it and creep towards the Aragami, this time wary of speaking my thoughts aloud. I switch to Gun Form before I can get too close otherwise the Aragami would hear and I would have failed a stealth mission for the second time in less than ten minutes. I manage to get to a five metre distance between the Sekhmet and I before I decide to open fire a range of Freeze bullets. Two of the bullets hit the Sekhmet's legs, two hit each wing and one hits it directly in the back and it hunches over, looking defeated. With a smile on my face for defeating my first Sekhmet and proceed towards it, ready to extract the core.
"The Sekhmet is activating!" Hibari's sudden shout through my earpiece is enough to halt me in my tracks and retreat to higher ground. If this beast is anything like the Chi-You, it will glide a lot more when it is activating. I thank Hibari quietly before observing the situation. It is only a few seconds later before the beast rises in an unprecedented pace and jumps onto the platform with me. I move back and deploy my shield as I anticipate what is to happen.
As I predicted, it does glide towards me and I try to make myself as small as possible behind my shield to avoid being burned by the searing flames that envelops its body as it glides. It hits my shield dead on and forces me back several metres.
"Looks like I'll have to wait it out." I joke with myself as I see the beast gliding towards me once again and pushes me back to a familiar position. As the beast gets ready to glide again, I set another trap and place it behind me. This time, when the Aragami glides, I jump up from the ground with my shield still deployed and am launched several metres away from where the Aragami falls into my trap. A Bind trap. It will no longer be able to use that gliding attack as well as its fire kick attack. I jump back onto the platform and use a stun grenade, making sure to cover my eyes in the process. That's when I take the dance to the next level. I hit every part of its body in its confusion and manage to break its arm bonds in the process. I take the time to notice how every hit of my Arc seems to make the Aragami pant more and more. It was only a matter of time before I won.
When the Sekhmet shake off its confusion, I continue slashing at it, thinking that I could get the win right here. Even if it launched an attack, I would see it coming, right? With the gliding attack as well as the fire leg attack being bound the only attack it can use is the fireballs, right? So when the Aragami hunches over again, I am more than happy to continue standing where I am and deploy my shield. Little did I expect that I would be thrown several metres into the air with a flying uppercut and be given a rough landing on the floor. The Sekhmet towers over me before it jumps down from the platform. I take this as my chance to get up and start slashing a few more times and feel myself becoming a bit jittery in case it decided to uppercut me again. Don't get me wrong, I am still in a better fighting condition than this Sekhmet is but I don't like the surprise of being launched into the air. Thankfully though, it never comes to being launched in the air as I bring down my scythe on the Aragami's head, unbinding its head and allowing for another slash to kill it. I quickly extract the core before something else will happen to it. Who knows, it may have been trying to deceive me again.
"Nice job, Jackal. That is them all taken care of." Hibari informs me in a pleased voice.
"Good job, Jackal." I hear Alisa congratulate me and turn in the direction I heard their voice from. I notice that Kota is accompanying her on a raised platform not too much of a distance away.
"Wait, were you watching?" It would only make sense, right? There was no more Sekhmets to be defeated after I killed that one so they must have had the time to sit and watch me from that raised platform.
"Yeah, we would have helped but it looked like you had it covered." Kota chips in with a thumbs up gesture. I sigh unbelievably.
"You two are the worst team mates." I comment on their lack of team work with me and earn a few giggles. I didn't even mean it as a joke but at least I got a positive response from them both. It appears as though the earlier tension between Alisa and I has disappeared so that is something to be thankful for. I'm not going to bring up the topic again in case the same thing happened again.
The ride back home is a much more pleasant one than the ride before the mission. The three of us were talking as if the earlier events never happened but they still linger on my mind. I didn't think that Alisa could get that angry before. I will need to apologise at some point but right now, I think the apology can wait. Especially since I do have the night shift to take care of so I had better get some sleep while I can.
I headed back to my room where I see the empty plates on the trays from my dinner with Robin. I wonder what got her so upset. Either way, I still think I should give her some time. I doubt that she would be perfect after a couple of hours. I'll talk to her again tomorrow at some point. I stack the trays up on top of each other and walk back to the cafeteria with them in hand. I don't need to be as sneaky this time seeing as how I can just say that these trays belong to a couple of the higher ups, so I walk normally to the cafeteria where I deposit these onto an empty table. The cafeteria staff will clean this up. It is their job after all. After this, I head back to my room.
Entering my room for the second time in a few minutes, I prepare myself for bed. I change out of my clothes and into a set of pyjamas. I look to the clock situated on my bedside table. It reads as 17:50. I should be able to get about three hours of sleep before I need to get ready for the night shift so I settle down into my bed and try to find a comfortable position, close my eyes, and wait for the impending misery of waking up early. After all, I do like my sleep so having to wake up only a few hours after going to sleep isn't going to make me the nicest of people to be around.
To my surprise, when I do wake up I feel energised. It may be because I had already been asleep for a large part of today considering I woke up at 08:45 this morning and I went to sleep for another three hours. Then again, my body probably considers this as a nap and will probably be very sleep again during my night shift. Well, I had better prepare for it. I change out of my pyjamas and back into the clothes I was wearing earlier on today before realising how damaged my trousers actually were during the fight with the Sekhmet. Therefore, I decide to put on a new pair of trousers before leaving my bedroom, locked, and moving to the mission counter where I will report for duty as the God Eater on night shift. I imagine that this is what Karel has been doing after all.
"Hey, Hibari." I greet her with a smile but it falls from my face as soon as I remember today's earlier events. "Oh, and sorry about earlier. I don't know what came over me." I had apologised and thankfully, with Hibari being the type of person that she is, she dismisses my earlier behaviour as a typical early morning response.
"So what brings you here?" She asks me curiously. I'm guessing that Karel never told Hibari about me replacing his night shift. Then again, he is stuck in the infirmary, he wouldn't have been able to move from it to tell her. I wonder if anybody else visited him. Wouldn't they be able to tell Hibari about his current condition?
"I'm replacing Karel for the night shift for the next few days. He's been injured and won't be able to do it."
"Oh, yeah. I remember that. I didn't think he would ask you to do it though, considering your *ahem* history with him." Hibari adds nervously. She must have been informed about our previous quarrels.
"Yeah, well, I was kinds his only visitor today." I speak sheepishly, rubbing the back of my head with my hand.
"I'm even more surprised that you'd visit him." As if to say how surprised she was, she blinks wide eyed at me. I could feel that the atmosphere was quickly becoming one that we'd rather avoid. I'm sure that Hibari could feel it too.
"So... Um... The night shift?" I attempt to formulate a question but get caught up in the nervous atmosphere. Thankfully though, I don't need to repeat my question as Hibari gets the gist of what I was trying to say.
"Oh, yeah, you will need to head speak to Licca about the night shift. She will give you something that should help you out." She dismisses me with a confident wave and I reply with a wave of my own before deciding to meet Licca.
I find Licca in the God Arc Storage Area working on somebody's Arc. It takes a few seconds to realise that it is my Arc and I look to where my Arc should be to find it not there.
"Hi, Licca." I greet her and walk over to the desk she is working on. I wonder what she is doing to my Arc.
"Hey, Jackal." She looks up from her work and greets me with a hand on her hip. I notice that she appears to have grease marks just below her eyes as she does so. I wonder how long she has been working for and if she is aware of them. I, sheepishly, use my hand to gesture to the marks by scratching the area on my face that the marks are on hers. It takes her a few seconds to realise what I am doing before she rubs her face with her arm, only managing to smudge the grease marks further. I manage to stifle a laugh at this as she continues speaking to me with these marks on her face. I hadn't realised it before but it is a pretty cute feature how oblivious she is to them.
"Here for the night shift?" She asks me to my surprise. Clearly she must have been informed that I would be doing the night shift if she had to ask me for confirmation.
"Yeah, Karel told you?" I give her a smile to hide my confused expression.
"One of the medical staff told me." She looks down at my Arc again and continues working on it as she speaks. "I didn't think that Karel would ask you to replace him though. He doesn't exactly get on well with new recruits." As much as I would like to point out to Licca that Robin and I have been here for a while and are therefore no longer new recruits, I decide to keep my mouth shut to prevent any arguments that may ensue.
"So, how long will you be with my Arc?" I needed to ask her. I would need my Arc to help me with the night shift, after all.
"I should be done in about 30 minutes. Adding a few things to your Arc to help you out with the night shift." She explains and I feel a sort of bubbling feeling in my stomach. I was excited and grateful that she would help me out during the night shift.
"I wouldn't get too excited mind you. They are only things like a super super super powerful torch that can let you see things from over 50 metres away as well as a much smaller quadratic grid that allows you to detect if there are any Aragami in the area." Despite her attempts to play it down, I could still feel the bubbly feeling in my stomach but that didn't help me to understand what she was saying.
"I understand exactly half of that sentence." I hate to admit it but I had no idea what she was talking about. What the hell is a quadratic grid?
"You know the device that Hibari uses to detect for Aragami?" I nod as Licca stops her work to explain it to me. "It is essentially, a smaller, less powerful version of that." She looks back to my Arc as she resumes working on it. "It should be able to let you detect Aragami within a 50 metre radius of the Anti-Aragami Wall."
"That sounds pretty cool." I speak with a small smile.
"Yeah it is right? Very cool." She speaks with much more passion in her voice than I did which make me think that she is perfect for this line of career.
30 minutes of small talk about machinery and daily life later, I am all set for the night shift. Licca had also given me some kind of night vision goggles as well so I should be able to navigate fairly easily while I'm out there. I leave the Den and head to the Outer Wall.