The night was quiet, almost to quiet. A girl stood alone in the middle of an open field. The breeze blew her raven hair around her shoulders and made her shiver. She knew this feeling. The silence before the storm. Battle. On the horizon she could see the orange glow of flames. Gunfire. Screams human screams. The sounds grew louder and she realized that those weren't human screams. They sounded almost. . . mechanical. What kind of machine could be big enough to make a sound that loud? A huge explosion shook the ground and she took an involuntary step back.

Crack!

She turned quickly, but nothing was there. No . . . something was there. She couldn’t see it, but she could feel it. Moving. Closer. . .closer. It was very close, but where? She closed her eyes and concentrated. Where is it? What is it? High above her head a glowing green light appeared. For a moment it hung there, silently suspended in mid air. Then, suddenly, it arced down. She opened her eyes and glanced up just in time to see it’s decent. She tried to jump out of the way, but it moved to fast for her. She shielded her face with her hands and screamed.

She waited for the pain, but it never came. Slowly she opened her eyes and realized that she wasn’t hurt. She turned her head and saw a twisted hunk of metal lying in pieces on the ground. “What is this?” She thought to herself. She walked around the wreckage and saw a man lying in a puddle of blood. She ran to him and felt for a pulse. There was none.

‘Where am I?’ She thought to herself. She looked down at the broken man lying before her. It was then that she noticed that his machine was carrying a gun, and it was pointed exactly where she had been standing. “This man was trying to kill me,” she thought to herself, “but why?” She stepped away from the wreckage and back towards the orange horizon.

“If he was trying to kill me, then the arc saved me.” She looked around to see if she could find it, but it was nowhere to be seen. She knew it was close by, protecting her perhaps, she could still feel it. “Thank you” she called out into the darkness. She got no answer, but she didn’t really expect one.

“That battle is getting to close; I need to get out of here.” She looked around but all she saw was emptiness. She turned her back on the orange glow and began to walk the other way when she saw something shiny on the ground. She looked around and slowly made her way to the object. She knelt and picked it up. It was a cross. She turned it over in her hands and on the back the word ‘Shinigami” was engraved .God of Death. “Why would someone write god of death on the back of a cross?” She kept the cross in her hands and continues walking. She kept going for what felt like an eternity. “When will this end?” She thought to herself.

It was back, but this time it wasn’t alone. There was another being with it this time. No, not one, four. She turned around but there was still nothing to be seen. “Who’s there?” she called out, “show yourselves.” She waited but nothing happened. She was about to keep walking when the green arc appeared again. “You,” she said “you saved me. Thank you,” She looked into the sky, trying to locate where the light could be coming from, but she couldn’t.

“Fine.” she said angrily, “If your not willing to show yourself then I-” she stopped mid sentence. Five large machines stood in front of her. She looked up at them, amazed.

Suddenly a male voice rang through the air. “Keep the cross, your gonna need it more than I do.”

She turned to face the gray machine. “Wait, what’s your name?” She called out.

“Shinigami”