Naomi pushed herself up, the shock and adrenaline coursing through her body numbing the pain she knew should be there. Her eyes darted back and forth. Where was her sister? Sarah and Tasha were beside her now, calling to her. Naomi heard nothing but her own heartbeat. She looked back towards the thinning wall of smoke. "No" she muttered. She took a step towards the smoke. "God no please." She tore off her plasma core, the thing was useless now. Not even realizing it, she was now sprinting back towards the smoke, flinging her helmet to the ground. She heard muffled voices calling out around her. She didn't stop. What had happened? She could barely remember a thing from the fight she just endured. Just gunfire, fighting, blood... She slowly came to a stop just before the smoke. Blood... Hands shaking, she raised them and studied her palms. Blood... Her blood? No... The memory came crashing down, hitting her like a truck.
Mia had been stuck. She was caught under debris from a fallen building. Naomi had tried to help her, dig her out. She had almost gotten her free when she heard a groan come from the sky. The ship was starting to fall. Panic had set in and Naomi became frantic, firing her weapon where her sisters leg was stuck, attempting to blast it loose. "Go" the memory of her sisters calm voice filling her mind. Naomi looked at her, seeing her own wild and scared green eyes. Mia took her helmet off. "Go please." Her eyes glistened with tears. Her voice was confident. "Mia no. No, I can't leave you. Please I can-" Naomi remembered looking into her sisters eyes. She was smiling. A warm smile that made Naomi feel like everything would be okay. "I love you" her sister raised her weapon and fired a bolt... The realization of what happened made Naomi lose her balance. She fell to the ground, paralyzed in anger, sadness, grief, and shock. Mia had fired a bolt into Naomi's plasma core causing it to malfunction and fire her out of the path of the falling ship.
Sarah and Tasha had caught up to her now, helping her stand. "We have to find her" Naomi choked out "you know as well as I do-" Tasha started to say. Sarah shot her a glare. Tasha raised her hands in defense. "Let's go find her." Sarah said with her eyes closed and head dipped. The trio entered the darkness.
They had been searching for about ten minutes now to no avail, the smoke making it difficult to traverse the shredded landscape, and making air reconnaissance impossible. Naomi could not lose her sister. She was her world. From childhood, to flight school, to the EDF... To the death of their father... Naomi filled with grief at the memory. He had died a peaceful death in their home in Scotland. On his death bed he had given Naomi and Mia their families ancestral paired axes. Naomi's ax had the word "Never" inscribed into the shaft. Mia's had the word "Without" inscribed. "You remember this, girls." He had said "you will never be without each other." Naomi snapped from the memory, leaning on a bent sign post for balance. The taste of salt water filled her mouth, vomit welling in her throat. She bent over heaving, letting out the contents of her stomach. Raising her head, she stared forward, subconsciously tracing her finger down the handle of the ax on her hip. She sat down, her back to a crumbling wall, pulling her knees to her chest. "I couldn't save her. Why couldn't I save her?" She didn't even recognize her own voice. She laid her head back, staring to the sky as if waiting for an answer. All she could see was smoke. It cleared just for a second, letting the smallest amount of sunlight in. She could have swore she saw a glint of light in the rubble across the street. She squinted, stood, and started toward the pile of concrete and rebar. She had to climb, which wasn't easy as the shock and adrenaline was wearing off. She could feel the pain slowly returning. She had made it up about two storys worth of rubble and it flattened out. This was where she thought she saw the light. The smoke was clearer up here letting her see better. Sarah and Tasha were already up here. They turned to meet Naomi's gaze with sad faces. Something was wrong. "You don't have to see this" Sarah said quietly. No. It couldn't be. "Let me see" Naomi demanded. Tasha lightly pushed her back when she approached. "Let me see God dammit!" She shoved her way through her friends with tears flooding down her face. She looked at the floor.
It was a Wing Divers plasma core. The name 'Nishimura' was inscribed on the back. Underneath that, etched into the metal, a picture of two little girls running with their arms outstretched, pretending to fly. An ax lay next to it, the word "Without" inscribed on the shaft.
Lines of blood seeped down the pack, dripping to the floor. Naomi stared at the inscriptions. She felt the icy grip of despair closing around her very soul, her breathing becoming faster and faster. She felt her control of her body slipping. She dropped the plasma core, and with an inhuman scream, she roared at the sky, her vision turning red. Her sister was gone. And there wasn't a single thing she could do about it. She fell to her knees clenching her fists. The aliens had taken everything from her. Another glint of light in the sky caught her eye. She squinted, trying to make out what almost looked like a floating... Naomi's eyes turned to fire. An intense rage unlike anything else she had ever felt before took hold of her. Without a word she grabbed her sisters plasma core and ax, then fired into the sky. She would avenge her sister. She drew the other ax as she flew. She was going to cut this motherfuckers head off.