Next Chapter and I'm on a roll here! Also for one note before we begin, this part doesn't go according to the game, but it's just because I did what I would have done at that time. Anyway, can't keep you here waiting so let's begin!
Chapter 5: Colony 6's Remains
Inside the cave, we found lots of supplies, children and elders. The cave had pockets, each with enough room for refugees to live inside peacefully. It was very bare to the bone on what they had, but since the colony was attacked by the Mechon, I can see why they didn't have much. A few lanterns lit the place and even in the night, it looked like the evening. Shulk managed to find out where Sharla and Juju were, so Reyn and I came over. Sharla cleared her throat, ready to tell us the tale of what befell Colony 6.
"We had already fought off the Mechon a year ago, at the Battle of Sword Valley," Sharla began as she looked at us. "It left us a false sense of security. The Colony 6 Defense Force didn't even notice the approaching Mechon. By the time the air-raid siren sounded, a swarm of Mechon had blackened the sky. They ate people and burned our buildings. Juju and I dedicated ourselves to evacuating the children and elderly... I don't know what happened next."
I noticed that as she told the tale, there were a storm of emotions being hidden from most people, but I could tell that the emotions were present. Being in drama and doing that myself several times had its good points.
"It's just like what happened at Colony 9," Shulk muttered.
"They attacked your colony as well?!" Sharla gasped.
"Yes... It's good that you managed to evacuate so many."
"We have Otharon…the Colonel…to thank for that. Him and Gadolt."
"This Gadolt…" Reyn began before he stopped seeing the sadness in her eyes as she looked down.
"He would have been my husband by now if not for all this."
Both Shulk and Reyn looked down to the floor, and I just closed my eyes and placed both hands close to my heart.
"Cheer up, you three!" Sharla chuckled suddenly.
The three of us looked up, quite surprised at what Sharla had told us. I couldn't understand how she can still be this way after the Mechon attacked their home.
"Er…" Reyn's voice trailed off.
"We can't lose hope just yet!" Sharla continued. "I'm certain that Gadolt and the other soldiers are alive. They're still fighting. I can feel it."
Good thing you still have hope... I would have lost all joy if that were to happen to me and my family. Juju tried to say something just then, but stopped. This managed to grab our attention. We all turned to him, and he was bit shocked before continuing on with what he had to say.
"You're on your way to...Colony 6, right?" Juju asked.
"You bet!" Reyn slightly proclaimed. "We're up for some revenge. I bet we can even get your colony back!"
"And I think you're crazy on that point Reyn," I grumbled to myself.
"There you go showing off again..." Shulk trailed off at Reyn, seeing how I just sighed.
"If anyone can do it, it's you three," Juju said eagerly. "Could...um... Could you take me with you...to the colony?!"
"Juju! The people here need us!" Sharla raised her voice with a hint of authority in her voice, "How many times do I have to tell you?"
"But you heard! The Mechon attacked Colony 9! That means a load of them have left Colony 6 already! It has to!"
Sharla was taken a bit back by this, and I couldn't bear to watch two siblings fight. Whenever this happened with my cousins, I was dragged in the middle of it and it wasn't fun for me. Either way, we were going to get dragged into this, whether I liked it or not, so I quietly walked away, not leaving any sound as I did. It was a weird thing for me to walk around without making much of a sound as I did, but it did help me when I needed to be alone. Once outside, I went over to the buggy and leaned against the vehicle, taking a deep breath of the calming breeze. The forest made a good cover for the camp, and the night sky was pretty nice for the night. Star twinkled in the sky as I couldn't see anybody else coming from the forest back to the cave. Sure it was bit cold for my liking, but I still kept myself warm with my jacket and keeping my hands inside the pockets of my jacket.
"This world is so weird..." I whispered to myself. "And now it looks like-!"
My eyes widen as a flash of white light blinded me as I found myself back into a vision of some kind.
Looking around, I saw Juju running towards the buggy and getting inside with anger in his eyes. He mumbled something that I couldn't hear before he drove off. Footsteps came behind and I saw Sharla, Reyn and Shulk running before stopping.
Everything returned to normal as I heard the grass moving nearby. Juju was coming, and inferring to my vision from earlier, he was going to run off. I didn't think he noticed that I was there until he looked up once he was close enough to the buggy. When he did see me however, I freaked him out a bit before he calmed down, seeing that it was me. Juju reminded me of a younger cousin I knew back on Earth, since he would always argue with his older sister before going off. The funny thing was I was usually the one to get him to calm down the quickest, so I usually went after him once the fight was over. Sharla also reminded me of his older sister, which made me smile in my mind. Since both Sharla and Juju reminded me of my family back home, I couldn't just let him go off on his own.
"Where do you think you're going Juju?" I asked him as he got into the buggy. "You know, it's not good going alone by yourself at night. You could get killed."
"I know, but I need to go to Colony 6 right now," Juju answered back with a bit of a dark tone in his voice. "And I won't be a coward like the rest of them."
So I couldn't convince him to stay. Well, time for Plan B, regardless if Shulk and Reyn liked it or not. Though I'd also be breaking the promise I made to Dunban, but this kid was going to get himself in danger one way or another. "Sometimes," I began, "being a coward is the best option in a situation, whether you like it or not. But since I'm not going to allow you to go off by yourself, I'm coming with you."
"Wait, what?!"
"Yep, you heard me," I asserted. "I'm coming with you. Besides, even though I did promise a friend of Shulk and Reyn's that I'd watch over them, I can't allow any kid to go off alone. Plus, I think you'll need some defense as you have no weapon."
"I do have one, see?" He held up his gun in the air ad I sighed.
"Yes, but I'm still coming, and you aren't stopping me."
"...Fine, get in."
I happily pulled myself onto the buggy and got in. "Alright, drive away Juju!"
Juju nodded and started up the engine and we made our way towards Colony 6.
The drive was pretty nice as we dodged many monsters on our way to Colony 6. The grassy plains were calm as with the monsters about. Juju was very skilled at driving his buggy through the plains for a kid his age; I still wasn't ready to drive a vehicle yet. Even though Shulk had visions and stuff he could use, I trusted him to know where we were heading towards and since I had fighting experience it shouldn't be any problems while we were there. The night went by, and we managed to get to a bridge as the sun was starting to climb up into the sky. It was going pretty well...until we ran straight into a barrier, sending us towards one side of the bridge, crashing into it. The impact was rough on both of us, but I managed to hold on and keep myself from getting too beaten up.
"Ow!" Juju exclaimed in pain.
"Argh! Stupid barriers..." I mumbled before looking at Juju. "You alright?"
"Yeah...but I can't say the same for the buggy..."
"Ok, let's get out and see the damage."
Both of us exited the buggy and turned back to check the damage. To our dismay, the buggy was in terrible condition, so bad that it was stuck.
"Come on! Who put this barrier in the way?" Juju stared at the buggy before letting out a huge sigh. "Oh, now the front suspension's all twisted up!"
I turned back towards the other side of the bridge and looked back at Juju. The pathway looked clear and no Mechon or monsters were up ahead, so maybe we might get through this place without fighting Mechon. That would be unless we got closer to Colony 6.
"Look's like we're taking the long way... Though I do wonder how Shulk and Reyn are doing," I remarked. "Eh, they can take care of themselves. Now let's get going. I want to see what Colony 6 is now."
Juju nodded and we started to make our way to Colony 6. We didn't see any Mechon or anything else as we walked down the beaten path. There was still vegetation around, but no monsters were anywhere in sight. Because the Mechon were in that area, I deduced that these Mechon either killed or drove off the native monsters of that area just for themselves. He stayed close to me as I did with him. Mechon could pop up at any second, and we didn't want to get ambushed so easily by them. Juju lead the way to a rock path, and we both walked up it, looking for any signs of the Mechon. It didn't like any were nearby, but just then, the ground started to shake, catching both of us off-guard. Suddenly, Mechon tentacles things shot up from the ground before turning towards us.
"Wh-what is that thing?!" Juju stammered in fear.
Before either of us could reply, the two of the tentacles shoot out at us. I moved Juju out-of-the-way of one of them, but the other one grabbed me, pulling me up into the air dangling. I was defenseless now as Juju panicked, seeing it ready to strike at us. Another one grabbed him as well, and we both screamed as loud as we could. The Mechon came up from the ground, and terror gripped us both. It started to wave us around and I felt that this is how I was going to die by being devoured by a machine. Suddenly, my headache came back and it was worse; everything was getting darker as my consciousness was fading away. My eyes closed as the last thing I saw were more tentacles ready to devour us both.
My killer headache woke me up, but not where I thought I'd wake up. The place where I woke up wasn't where I fell unconscious. There was no Mechon, no rocky platform and certainly no danger that I could see. I woke up by the sound of rumbling, and apparently looking down at the ground, my bracelet was reacting to something. Trying to get my headache to lower down, I gazed up to see Shulk staring right at me.
"Neetz, you're awake!" Shulk exclaimed helping me stand straight. "We thought you were gone, along with Juju here."
It seemed like we were in some like of elevator lift thing going out from someplace I didn't recognize. Just how long was I out? I couldn't linger on those questions for the moment as the rumbling continued, like a huge earthquake of some kind.
"Shulk… Care to lower your voice down a bit?" I asked as I grabbed my sword–which just transformed into the weird-looking one–as the rumbling continued. "Besides, I think someone's going to be back for a fight."
"Your sword!"
"Can we focus on the huge Mechon over there?!" Sharla asked, pointing her rifle at it. It was a faced Mechon with a bronze face and a hammer, but not the Mechon Shulk and Reyn were hunting for. Oddly, its Mechon armor was corroded with green liquid and aura, and the blue electricity showed signs of malfunction.
"Not him again!" Reyn exclaimed in frustration.
"A friend of yours, Reyn?" I asked.
"No, just a faced Mechon named Xord that would not give up," Sharla replied. "He's the one who kidnapped both you and Juju."
"I see… Now I think it's time to get revenge!"
"Neetz, I want you to guard Otharon and Juju from Xord," Shulk averred, looking over at me. "We'll handle Xord."
"But I deserve to kick this Mechon's butt for what it did to Juju and me!"
"Neetz, we need you to guard them, alright?" Sharla asked, looking back at me. "Besides, I don't think you're in the best condition to fight."
"So be it..."
Both Otharon and Juju backed up as well. I got in front of them, ready to guard and attack when needed to. I didn't fight that much despite how I wanted to get revenge upon it, but then again, I still had that major headache that would not go away. Staying by Otharon and Juju, I kept sniping from far away to protect them. Xord kept swinging the hammer in long swings, trying to get us. Shulk, Reyn and Sharla activated a chain attack as I kept back. Soon enough, it looked like he was done, but he dragged himself across the platform ready to strike the three. Luckily, Sharla had her rifle ready and blasted off the arm holding the weapon. It then began to mumble to itself as I also approached it on Shulk's side.
"Got to hand to you, boy..." Xord spoke to Shulk between pant-like sounds. "You beat me without even releasing the true power of the Monado."
"True power?" I asked, looking at Xord.
"And you…Outsider… You've only scratched the surface of your power..."
"Outsider?" Shulk asked, before shaking his head and pointing the Monado at Xord. "What do you know about the Monado?"
"Sorry, boy... I can't tell you that... You'll have to find out the truth on your own. Same with you, Outsider."
"The truth?"
"When I became what I am now...that's when my eyes were opened. Was a good ride while it lasted..."
"When you became like this? What do you mean?!" I demanded him until the remains of Xord's jet engine spewed out, causing us to back away. Xord started to slowly push himself away to the edge of the elevator.
"Time's up, pipsqueaks. I'm gone!" Xord uttered.
"Xord!" Shulk yelled.
My eyes widened as Xord threw himself down the shaft. Even though Shulk was confused on the Monado, I couldn't believe that the Mechon called me an Outsider. Did the Mechon know that I wasn't from Bionis? That I wasn't a Homs, but a human? What did it mean I haven't even begun to use my full power? The thoughts didn't leave my mind as I wanted to, but then the group is going to be asking who the Outsider is...and then I will have to tell them.
"Get back!" Reyn ordered us, pulling me and Shulk away from the edge.
The shockwave from Xord's explosion brought me back to reality as the lift started to work again and not too soon, as the explosion was chasing after us. Once we got to the outside, all of us ran as fast as we could. I helped Otharon run as Reyn carried Juju over his shoulder. The explosion finally came and sent us all falling into the ground as the rain poured down on us. I really hated that when I had no umbrella or was inside to keep myself warm, but this felt...refreshing somehow. It felt like justice had been served and these were tears of joy for some odd reason. We all turned back and saw the large smoke coming out. Sharla was with Reyn as he placed Juju against a stone wall.
"We smashed that bronze idiot," Reyn looked up to Sharla. "Now the people of Colony 6 can rest in peace."
"Yeah," Sharla answered back, smiling a bit.
I didn't pay attention to the rest of what the group was talking about. My mind was wrapped about Xord calling me an Outsider. It was too soon to come to conclusions, but if they knew something about why I'm here or what's this bracelet's all about, I needed to get answered from them. The thought of them all making the connection crushed my heart because if Shulk and the others truly knew, what would happen then? I couldn't bear to tell them, or at least not until I had answers.
"Neetz... Are you ok?" Juju asked me, bringing me back to reality.
I looked down at him and saw the pain in Juju's eyes. I reflected how I failed to protect him, but it still reminded me on how that one cousin of mine would always look at me like that, never taking his eyes off of mine when I was upset. Taking a deep breath, I knelt down to his level, trying to control my emotions.
"Juju, I'm sorry for not keeping you safe," I frowned, saying that before looking up at him smiling, "but you're a brave young child, much more than what I was when I was your age. Don't ever lose that bravery, but don't be too reckless with it either, alright?"
"Yes! I won't get reckless, Neetz!"
"Neetz, are you alright?" Reyn asked as I stood up. "You really had us worried back there."
"I… I'm fine," I replied as calmly as I could. "Sorry for worrying you guys."
"Don't do that again, alright?!" Shulk asked worriedly.
"Of course, but I'm still wondering... You're after the Mechon with the Metal Face, right? I'm kind of curious as to why he didn't show up here. But then again, Xord was here as well."
"But one thing struck me as odd... He called one of us an Outsider, but...we're all either from Colony 6 or Colony 9 right?" Sharla asked, looking at all of us. "Doesn't that mean one of us is hiding something?"
"Well, if that's true, the only person that would be considered an Outsider is-!"
"Hope I'm not interrupting!" a metallic voice echoed from behind us.
My eyes widened in fear as I stepped back, seeing the one called Metal Face, as Shulk quickly nicknamed, fly up and onto the grassy road. His huge Mechon body terrified me as I couldn't pull my face away from his red eyes. His stitched-like mouth and taunting jaw reminded me of creepy robots. The long, metal blade fingers kept my mind flashing images of everybody here dying from those blades. The cannon upon its head were enormous and upon its abdomen was the engine allowing him to fly. The vision of Metal Face back in Colony 9 stopped my heart, as now I saw how Metal Face's blade claws were soaked in blood… Fiora's blood? My mind refused to believe it, but Shulk and Reyn did. And when it looked at me, there was only one thing to say, and he said it.
"Well, look who we have here... The Outsider!" Metal Face announced.