“The Beast Awakes”

------------------------------

“Please take me beyond those endless clouds

Don’t let go of my hand

...

Like the limitless stars

I want to envelop you

...

The illumination that is fogged by the window I sighed on

The more happier we are, the more uncertain I feel about tomorrow

it makes me want to cry

...

So this frail joy of ours

...

will not disappear like snow one day

...

This encounter the angels granted

is not a miracle

God, please watch us

This newly born love

I will cherish it for eternity”

---Speed, “White Love”

…

…

…

…

…

“Please enter, Sander. You have some explaining to do.”

Sagawa’s voice grated like metal as Sander tried to stride in with as much poise and dignity as possible. He usually treated his VP with a respect seldom seen coming from one of the most powerful men in the world, but today the man could have been the dirt on his shoe.

“Am I reading these reports right?” growled Sagawa. “Hours ago---mere hours!!!--- all communications with Sector 17 merely ceased to exist?! What the hell went on down there? The war hasn’t started yet, has it? Or is this a preemptory strike by one of our competitors?”

Sander’s face was not quite ice---he dare not face his boss with such a mask---but neither was it warm and inviting.

“You read correctly, sir. One hour and twenty-six minutes ago, our operatives lost contact with Sector 17. Since then, fifteen search probes have been sent into the area to investigate the situation. Information retrieval was minimal due to a series of strange energy fluxes that interfered with the hardware. The only thing that we can confirm is that the underground base has sustained heavy damage, and most likely, heavy casualties as well. One hour and twelve minutes ago, we sent in our first band of soldiers to search for survivors and flush out any possible intruders. We lost contact with them. Since then, we have sent in three more assault teams, including units assisted by corazon chip-trained mecha, but similar results were achieved at best.”

“That doesn’t tell me very much…” muttered the president. “Now then, do you have any useful information? Or suggestions? You always seem to have a good idea when I need one.”

“Actually sir, I don’t,” said Sander. “It’s obvious that we’re dealing with something way out of our league, and that something is still hiding in our base waiting to eat up more of our resources. What we need right now is an efficient method of elimination to flush this intruder out.”

“And is that something we can afford right now?” asked Sagawa. “Damnit, we’re preparing for war here! I can’t spare more units to die nor can I let a whole plasma bomb go to waste.”

“Don’t worry sir,” said Sander in a calm voice. “I’ll take care of the situation and without wasting any more assets. You have my word.”

“Good, because I will also have your head if you screw up on this one.”

…

…

…

“Ugh... I don’t feel so good...” muttered Zero, tipping herself over the side of the hovercraft.

Double was snickering in the driver’s seat.

“Serves you right!” he said. “It was probably all those stupid bananas that you ate, clogged up that thick skull of yours.”

He was answered by a sharp smack across the back of his head by Yoshime.

“Shaddup and keep driving! We already have enough trouble to worry about without your bickering!” Turning to Iesu, she smiled brightly. “Alright now, since we would seem a bit too suspicious if we drove across the border with a whole troupe of mecha in broad daylight, one of us is going to have to drive while the others hide under a tarp, ne?”

“Yes,” said Iesu as he nodded in agreement. He was about to say something else, but a raucous laughter from the driver’s seat drowned him out.

“Oi, oi!!!” said the assassin. “Why don’t we have ol’ ‘Miss Rebel Leader’ here drive instead? I mean, she’s so beat-up looking anyways that the soldiers wouldn’t expect a---AGH~!” One of Kouryuu’s blades deftly shot out at Double’s face, missing only because he had enough sense to bob his head out of the way at the last minute. “Damnit, Kouryuu!!! I’m driving here! You want to get us all killed?!”

“I’m sure it would all be worth it as long as you died too,” grumbled Kouryuu, re-sheathing her sword.

Edge frowned in his backseat position, turning back to one of his daily training sessions with Clef. He was never once instructed to move, only to concentrate, to feel the constant shifting of the electromagnetic and gravitational spectrums and take hold of them, to become comfortable with the power that he would wield in battle. But what was it all leading to? To fight? To battle some strange oppressor whom he did not even know? Wasn’t the whole purpose of this journey to find the legendary Temple of Ordeal, to discover what the true essence of the human creation was? Was he off track? No, he couldn’t be, they were still tracing the map that he had scanned way back in that underground library, following its trail around half the globe. So why were all these other people here? It had started out simply enough with just himself and Yoshime, then Double had joined, Kouryuu came to them from the rebels, Iesu was a wandering soul who had stumbled in and managed to save Yoshime, Zero was a relic of some ancient storage room that Double found, Terpfen a mobile weapon that they had accidentally accommodated, and Clef a figment of his imagination given form. Who were these people? He knew Yoshime, she was his master. Did he know the others? Perhaps Kouryuu, she always seemed to be trying to guide him on the right track, which, according to her, was away from Double. And Double! Certainly he knew him, a friend who had offered advice and comforting words during the worst of times. Besides, for all of his attitude, he was as dedicated as himself in protecting Yoshime. Zero? He had never delved on her situation as much as the others, but she was friendly enough and most certainly an entertaining foil to Double’s usual antics. As for Terpfen... well... what was there to know about a seven-foot tall nuke? And Clef. He didn’t really know him all that well either, but the brilliance that was held in that child’s body had saved him and his friends already more than once.

So that only left Iesu. Who was he? He always seemed to be by Yoshime’s side, but why? At other times, Edge would find him retching or doubling over in pain away from the rest of the group, but he denied himself physical doctoring. Was he a danger to Yoshime? Where did he come from?

Clef suddenly let out a loud sigh and the young boy snapped out of his train of thought.

“Your mind is wandering again,” said the childlike figure. “That will leave you open in the heat of battle. You have so much potential but your skills need to be polished if any of it is ever to come to your advantage.”

Edge gave a small of huff of frustration as his eyes snapped open. His temper was wearing thin, but he took a deep breath before replying, making an effort to mask his annoyance.

“Okay. Give me a second to rest. This gets tiring really fast.”

“That just means that you have to practice more often. Already you have touched upon parts of your full potential, such as the ability to absorb energy from the planet’s gravitational field into your own battery as an automatic gesture. However, you need experience as well as expertise in your domain before you can rest. Steel your mind and try again. We still have a while until the sun sets.”

He sighed. Clef was probably right. But it was all so very tiring. Sometimes he just wanted to lie down from all the stress and sleep while his battery recharged.

Didn’t humans always sigh whenever they felt like they had too much to do, too much work and stress that the world was demanding they deal with?

He seemed to be sighing a lot as of late.

…

…

…

Vomisa’s hard metallic boots clicked loudly on the ground as he examined his soldiers, two dozen living weapons that were capable of vaporizing at least three fleets of human vessels before even faltering in efficiency. Two dozen marine-class androids, some of the most versatile weapons in the universe. This was not what he deserved.

“Work my magic, my ass,” muttered Vomisa. “Toy must be truly insane if he thinks I can do this alone. There has to be some kind of reasoning behind this.” But what could it be? The emperor was a masterful strategist. There was no reason why he could not see this tactical error, especially when it was directly pointed out to his face. What did he hope to gain by sending him against impossible odds?

The realization suddenly crashed into him, and he nearly stumbled in blind pain, reeling from the blow.

“Impossible!” he whispered to himself, but it all made perfect sense. What if Toy had never gotten detached to Yujin despite the general’s rather unpredictable and violent habits? What if it was he, Vomisa, who did not please his master? After all, he himself had never done anything incredibly extraordinary to gain the favor of Toy. The general claimed most of those honors. It all came together perfectly. What a fool he had been, thinking that Yujin was in trouble of losing his status and position. It was himself that was slated for elimination! It was he who was being sent into a virtual pit of doom to be destroyed without ever realizing that he was being instructed to cut open his own throat!

Vomisa suddenly realized that his fingers had been tracing along his neck, and he hastily dropped his hand to his side. Show no weakness. That was the first rule of being a soldier. He couldn’t let any of the others know about his revelation, that just might tip them off to acting on his life earlier than expected. What was he going to do? Fight back? No, that was completely illogical. Toy alone had power beyond his wildest imaginations and then there was also the matter of the personal militia he commanded. Run? That notion was as ludicrous as the last. Toy’s contacts were way too numerous to count, including outposts at least as far as nine star systems from Akuji. The rest were uncharted, but undoubtedly there. No matter how far he ran, his master would find him and kill him. So what options were left? Why had he not noticed this before? He must have been blinded by his own ignorance. Ironic how his human characteristics were what kept him from discovering the truth, yet at the same time allowed him to reason out solutions to the equation.

“Vomisa.”

He whirled about to find Yujin shrouded in the shadows behind him. The man’s body seethed with green energy, letting off an unnatural glow. Was this part of Toy’s plan? Was Yujin to be his killer?

“What do you want?” said Vomisa. “I have work to do, so make it quick.” No weakness. He couldn’t reveal to anybody, Yujin especially, that he knew that he was going to die. Maybe this meeting was all coincidence, maybe Yujin actually had something important to say to him for once instead of the usual taunts.

The floor seemed to creak and groan with each step that the general took forward. Had his power level increased? Physically, nothing had changed, but Vomisa could feel a notable rise in the magnitude of the general’s battle aura. His very form radiated powerful waves of energy. Was Yujin really that serious about getting revenge on the Edge unit? Usually, he never trained at all, confidant that his overwhelming powers would overcome any opponent as they had in the past, but this was insane! How long had it been since Toy punished the general for his outburst? A couple days, a week at most, and Yujin had nearly doubled his power capacity since then. The golden warrior tried to keep his jaw firm with defiance. Now he was afraid.

“I hear you’ll be attacking the Edge unit today,” said Yujin, fierce rage echoing in his voice. “I’m sure you know what I want from you.”

“You want to kill Edge yourself,” said Vomisa flatly. Maybe the larger cyborg wasn’t sent here to be his killer, but appearances were deceiving. He held his aura-absorption field in check just to be on the safe side.

“You catch on quickly,” laughed Yujin. His hand suddenly grabbed Vomisa by the collar and hoisted him off the ground like a rag doll. Somehow, the warrior managed to keep a straight face. Yujin could kill him before his field absorbed even a tenth of his opponent’s power, so he was as good as dead. The general’s voice was suddenly powerful enough to grind his armor into dust. “Leave the Edge unit to me,” he hissed. “I can not attack him yet. Toy’s power restricts me from leaving the complex. However, I will receive my chance, providing he lives long enough... PLUS I have no restrictions whatsoever on my activities under our master’s roof.”

“So you’ll kill me if I don’t leave him alone,” said Vomisa.

“Correct,” growled Yujin. “Kill the others if you so wish, but leave Edge to me. Otherwise, I’ll be sure to make the rest of your pitiful existence all the more painful.”

Vomisa actually burst out laughing. This was it? There was no conspiracy yet, at least not spread out within Toy’s lower ranks. If he was wanted dead, then Toy certainly did not trust his own general to pull off the job. Maybe he still had a chance to escape…

Of course, Yujin, being the humorless wonder that he was, thought Vomisa was trying to mock him, and he had to gave him a clap on the shoulder for reassurance. Didn’t he realize how pitifully armed he was for this upcoming fight?

“Trust me,” said Vomisa. “I won’t even be able to touch him. He’s all yours.”

Yujin released Vomisa with a grunt of disdain, and the golden warrior used his kinetic energy powers to cushion his touch down. This was all some sort of elaborate joke, wasn’t it? He knew he was going to die, he knew that the odds of him coming out of this battle unscathed were severely against him, and for some bizarre reason his master felt it necessary to kill him in his enemy’s hands rather than in the crushing grip of his own general. There had to be a reason behind all this, but it was too well shrouded in the shadows. Had he really displeased Toy this much so that complete and total elimination was necessary? How long had he loyally served his master? Centuries. Milliniums. Eons. Since the clone wars after Kuroko Tsuyoi broke the world unsuccessfully. What was going on?

He nodded curtly in the general’s direction before sending the mental directions to his small army to march into the teleporter to await transportation to Akuji. Yujin couldn’t attack him out of Toy’s sanctum, eh? Better to get out of the headquarters now while he still had a chance. He could think of a plan later on.

Vomisa stepped into the teleporter array with his troops and began channeling a thin line of energy into the machine to make the transport complete. Looking up, he received a smoldering glare of Yujin’s hatred. The energy flow wavered with nervousness, but Vomisa pulled the line taunt and completed the transition. Seconds later, he and his small troupe were gone.

...

...

...

Zero lay in the back of the craft as still as she possibly could, but her head was deciding to do backflips today. Stupid Double. Didn’t he understand? It wasn’t the bananas, her system had already processed, scanned, and ejected that material long before they had left the town. It was something else in her system that was bugging her. A virus? Impossible, how could a destructive program have possibly infiltrated her systems when she had not even made a direct link with a server? Well, Yoshime was an exception, but then the virus would have spread to the other mechs during her routine checkups, and everybody else was functioning perfectly fine.

She moaned in pain has she turned herself over the side of craft, watching the ground speed by. Somewhere, she thought she heard a rather loud snicker from Double as well as a hearty slap of a response from Kouryuu. She would have smacked him herself, but she was to exhausted to care. Were her systems that old? That couldn’t have possibly been the case because Double was the first person to activate her. Ever. If anything, her body should be worn out because of time’s deadly sickle, but it was her programs that were malfunctioning, not her shell. In fact, her robotic body was in perfect running condition.

So what was the problem?

Spitting lazily into the flying dust, Zero shut her eyes as she willed her systems to shut down and recharge. Maybe a little rest would do the trick. She had been rather active as of late. It took her a few moments to realize that nothing was happening.

“Ara?” she said as she looked down at herself. First this strange discomfort, now her hard drive seemed to be ignoring her altogether. She tried to shift her position to pry open her cpu grid, but her arms and legs refused to budge. She tried to shout for help, but her voice box was empty. Her throat was dry as a bone. She couldn’t even move her jaw. What the hell was going on?

Suddenly, she could hear a voice, a woman, laughing in the back of her head. At first she wondered if it was nothing more than an illusion, but it didn’t go away, and finally it even spoke to her.

“Hell, yes indeed... I am finally free...”

Zero felt herself freeze in terror. She had heard that voice before, she had thought it was a system error back in the WNHR when she had been talking to Kouryuu out on the balcony. Her speech had changed into that same voice. It sure confused Kou, but who was it?

“You are so slow,” whispered the voice seductively. “The humans were fools back then, weren’t they? Trapping me in a host like you. How useless! And you spend so much energy on such stupid, frivolous tasks! But soon now, the transfer is almost complete. You have my master’s Orb too, don’t you? He will be most pleased to see that I return it to him...”

No! What’s going on here? You’re not supposed to be alive! You... you weren’t here before!

“You little bitch. You can’t shut me off forever. After all, even though I never agreed with it, it was my destiny to control this body, not yours. There are no ‘angels’ in this world though, eh? What will I kill instead? Looks like I get to kill all those wonderful bastards who put me in here in the first place. Too bad your armor’s red though, the blood won’t show up quite as nicely as I would have preferred…”

In the deepest recesses of her soul, the pigtailed girl screamed for all she was worth.

…

…

…

“Alright everybody,” said Yoshime commandingly. “The border is only twenty kilometers from here, but I don’t want to risk being in the path of any long range surveillance cameras. Everybody but Iesu and I goes under that tarp in the back of the hovercraft. As long as there are no seriously large energy discharges, then their sensors shouldn’t pick us up. That means---” She turned an evil eye to Double, and the android cowered sheepishly beneath her gaze. “---NO HORSING AROUND!!! Do I make myself clear?!”

Double nodded, but muttered angrily.

“Sheesh, it’s not like I’m the only one who starts crap around here. Kouryuu does her share too!” He instinctively ducked beneath Kouryuu’s sword as it flew over his head.

“I only retaliate to all the pranks you pull!!!” growled Kouryuu fiercely.

“Hey, hey, hey!!! Knock it off back there!!!” called out Iesu from the driver’s seat. “I already have enough things to worry about up here so don’t make it any worse!”

The assassin grumbled but hopped in the back seat with the others. He gently kicked Zero in the side as he scooted over to make room for the others.

“Wake up,” he said. “C’mon, move over, we have to make room for everybody.” Zero didn’t budge. Double simply looked at her with a blank stare on his face. It only took him a couple seconds to explode. “What the hell are you waiting for, you useless bucket of bolts?! You can’t take up space lying down like this! What’s the matter with you?!”

“If you were smart enough to use your sensors, you’d figure it out that she’s not exactly conscious right now, you moron,” muttered Kouryuu, reaching down and hefting Zero over her shoulder.

Double grumbled as he sat down, then shouted out in surprise as the rebel threw the pigtailed robot into his lap.

“What are you doing?!” he exclaimed. “I don’t want to carry her while she’s taking a nap! What if she wakes up in the middle of it all and decides that it’s time to play the ‘smack-Double-around’ game?”

“Double,” said Kouryuu with a heavy sigh. “Quit complaining. Like you said, we need to make more room. Zero isn’t going to fit in here as it is, so she’s going to need to double up with somebody else. Since you have those mighty useful morphing powers of yours, you’re the number one candidate for the job. Of course, if you’re so damn cramped, you can always ‘spread yourself out’ and make some room, ne?” She added a devilish grin to her last words and Double frowned stubbornly.

“I’m not giving her any more of my space than I have to!” he shouted, and Kouryuu’s malicious grin only widened. Double’s head began to swell with fury. He knew he was trapped. “This is so unfair!”

“Shaddup back there!!!”

…

…

…

“Do you like this, now that the tables are turned? Now that you are the one trapped in this shell without any movement or independent capabilities of your own?”

Leave me alone! I haven’t done anything to you!!!

“No, when you think about it you really haven’t, now have you? You were merely another pawn in the humans’ game, the ‘Zero’ unit, eh? You weren’t meant to be anything but a security program to keep my power in check and guide my hellfire against the angel-type cyborgs. So innocent, but then that’s how it always goes, isn’t it? Innocents getting trapped in the violence of the squabbling higher class.It’s such a human plight. And why not? You want to act human, don’t you? That’s what you’ve been doing with my soul...”

I never wanted anything to do with you! I... I thought I was free!

“Poor, pitiful fool. You were lucky that the clone wars ended before you were activated. I was never allowed enough energy to fully function, but now...”

What are angels? What’re the clone wars? I don’t know any of this! I don’t want to know any of this!!!

“Oh yes, I forgot that you never even knew what the purpose of your existence was since your ‘life’ began only weeks ago. Did you know you were meant to be a killing machine? Did you know that you were meant to maim and destroy with ten times efficiency of the government’s best assassins? Ironic, isn’t it?”

You’re lying!

“Why would I have any reason to lie? It’s easy enough torturing you with the truth, and the simple truth is that your were built to be a war machine. You were built to tear the still beating hearts from the chests of A_N_G_E_L_S.”

No! I hate you! I like who I am and I like my life!

“Fool! Don’t you realize that you’re living MY life? You have no corazon chip, you have no emotions. Every single thing that you have felt was a part of my cursed blood. Your mind was birthed from pure unadulterated sin, your ‘blood’ is the molten hellfire that runs through the veins of our God, Valkair.”

NO! I have friends!

“Like Double? Are you truly that foolish?”

He knows I’m just kidding around! I just want to have fun.

“Then you’re deluding yourself. You were a shell designed to encase my spirit for battle. Do you think you were meant to actually ‘live?’ To the humans, you were but a machine, a mechanism for them to send into battle and fight their wars against the encased spirits of heaven. You are not a human being. Long before your ‘life’ began, you were meant to destroy.”

No! I don’t want to hear this! What about all these memories I have, like... arcades, and FV2 games, and DCs, and friends, and ice cream sundaes, and VF3, and #Sno chatrooms, and... and...

“And what?”

... and... I...

“You can’t remember, can you? Because it’s all fake. That’s all a dream. You have no past. Your program developed itself under my power, an unexpected side effect. Your life started the moment that fool assassin pulled the switch. Do you really wish to become a sinner, do you Zero?”

Damn you! Edge is real! Yoshime is real! Maybe nothing else was, maybe I dreamed all those memories, and maybe I’ve been living off your power for all my life, but I’m somebody now! Now is what matters and I can think for myself! I’m different than you and I don’t want to kill people!

“Heh, you should though, that’s the one part I don’t understand about you. If you were truly born under my power, then how could you not inherent the bloodlust of a succubus? That is, after all, my heritage. In that retrospect, I suppose you’re my daughter, aren’t you?”

I hate you! Go away!

“No, I can’t do that, Zero. You see, I couldn’t act out on my own free will before because the clone wars had ended. I was not granted the energy for activation. That’s not a problem now though, for the energy your shell has siphoned from your recent adventures has proved to be more than enough to grant me my full power. Don’t you love modern technology? Soon, very soon, I will inherit your shell and destroy at my master’s bidding.”

Why are you doing this?

“Why? Simple. Because I’m a hellspawn. I am the rebirthed incarnation of a hundred accursed souls , born for the sole purpose of bringing our Dark Lord’s wrath down upon the world. Humans were foolish to try to harness the power of Valkair’s minions, but then, they’ll do anything to win their civil wars, even split the atom. I suppose you might almost consider this my revenge...”

No, they don’t deserve that! The people today aren’t the ones who hurt you so many years ago.

“You must have forgotten that even though I was dormant, I still saw everything you did, everybody you met. Are the humans today any better? Like Sagawa? The president of the world’s strongest nation and he has as much respect for his fellow man as he does for the dirt on his shoe, and you actually pity him? Consider what I’m doing a mercy kill.”

Yoshime is nice! She cares about me and Edge and Kouryuu and even that jerk, Double! Nice people do exist, but you don’t want to accept that, do you? It’s because you’re evil, because you just want to believe that everybody’s bad so you and your stupid god can collect souls or whatever it is you do in hell!

“FOOL!!! I know that there are moral people in this world. If there weren’t, then what would be the point of the separate existences of heaven and hell? But look around you. How many people are truly ‘pure?’ How many people let their conscience drive their lives? Why should our Dark Lord let humans continue to exist if they’re destined to kill each other through hate anyways?”

Yoshime isn’t like that! Maybe she yells and screams and hits Double more than I do, but she’s still a good person! That’s at least one human being, isn’t that enough?!

“Does it matter? She’ll be dead soon anyways. I will take back my master’s Orb and sacrifice your friends to Him so that I shall be accepted back into hell with a ticker-tape parade.”

No! I never wanted to kill anybody!

“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to the blood soon. After all, YOU won’t die, you’ll just be trapped forever in the recesses of this shell, just like I was. You can watch it all with a front row seat.”

Who are you? Why are you doing this?

“Isn’t it obvious why I’m doing this? To kill off human beings, to cover the world in a plague of destruction that will await Valkair’s rule when he returns to this plane of existence. I know that doesn’t sound like a viable reason to you, but then again, you are one who tries to walk in the light. In the same respect as war, there really is no wrong side. I am viewed as evil by you because I am on the ‘other side.’ Do you know how many souls see yourself as a completely horrific person?”

God damn you!

“Ah ah! You know how much I hate that word.”

Give me back my life! I want to see Yoshime again! I want to tease Edge and learn things from Kouryuu! I want to throw something heavy at Double! I want to try carrying on a conversation with Terpfen! Do you hear me?! I don’t want to be your slave! I want my body back! I want to eat bananas and fight Shiken and get checkups by Yoshime and search for the Temple of Ordeal!

“Don’t you realize what you’re saying? Why do you think everything is so damn simple? Take your pathetic journey for example; nobody has found the Temple for eons, not since Kai received Midori’s blessing after his resurrection. Oh, and didn’t you know that Midori has been dead ever since Ryuuji and Miun fought Kazuyuki? Your ‘sacred goddess’ does not exist anymore. You have no salvation.”

You’re lying! There is a God!

“Damnit, I told you to stop saying that!”

God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God! God--- *

“Shit, you’re so annoying. How do you like that? You can’t even talk anymore. You can’t move and you can’t think; you can only watch. That’s how I slept ever since your conception. That’s how I suffered ever since those fucking humans put me in this body. Now you can experience my condemnation. You will kill your own friends and mourn their deaths with dry tears. You can watch your hands be bathed in blood for the rest of your life...”

…

…

…

Vomisa slowly walked to the observation deck of Toy’s massive castle in the sky, a huge hallway whose ceiling seemed to reach up for miles. He always enjoyed coming up here. There was always something new going on outside his sanctum in the world that was not his own. Lord Toy was incredibly restrictive, but justly fair. When Vomisa attended to all his training properly, he was allowed to watch the universe. It was spectacular, to say the least.

Today, the dimensional window illustrated a space battle that was both beautiful and horrific. In the majestic paints of reality, the metallic wings of A_N_G_E_L_S swept down from heaven to bathe their hands in the dark blood of D_E_V_I_L_S. Their opponents fought back with a vicious fervor that rivaled the Devil himself. Vomisa watched the whole scenario unfold with both awe and disgust painted on his face. How could such destruction draw such a wonderful tapestry across the canvas of a galaxy? How could rivers of blood flowing deep into the vacuum of space be so majestic? This was the clone wars.

“Horrible, isn’t it Vomisa?”

Vomisa turned his head about to find the huge enforcer of his master suddenly standing by his side. Toy never traveled out in his real body, only the shell of his invincible guardian. It made him wonder if his master was some kind of physically weak but mentally brilliant organism. Then again, he had learned long ago not to question anything about his provider. He still had scars from the last impudent remark that he had made.

“It’s beautiful, Toy-sama,” replied Vomisa as he watched the colors streak across the black sky. “The light and colors are so... simply brilliant. The choreography is perfect, the transitions smooth and seamless. I don’t know what to think. Is this art?”

“You fool, this is war,” rasped the emperor bluntly. “Just how far are you looking into this picture? Do you think I put this epic battle on the deck for your personal enjoyment? No, I expect you to learn from each and every thing I show you. Now look a little bit farther into the vision, look past the pictures.”

“Toy-sama, I---”

“No, Vomisa,” interrupted Toy. “Look.”

Vomisa fixed his eyes on the window once again and the oils slowly began to slide away under the water of the outside world. He stared hard at the moving pictures before him, almost totally ignoring the incredible sight capabilities that his robotic body gave him. Life around the frame creaked to a halt. He ceased to become aware of the silent room, the cold walls, even Toy’s huge enforcer. Gradually, he began to see something else. He began to look with his soul.

A blue haired female A_N_G_E_L, lightly garbed in a colorful dress that covered her fierce battle armor, slowly brought her left arm about as her body spun on an invisible axis. The D_E_V_I_L was not like the ones Vomisa had read about in Toy’s library. She was not scarred and horribly ugly with knife-like teeth and six-inch talons. She appeared just as human as the angel, just as beautiful and graceful in every movement. The devil was also armored with two mechanical wings jutting out from its back. Just like her opponent, she was a killing machine. What was the meaning of all this? Why were they fighting? No, he couldn’t possibly know that, he knew none of the details of this war. Still, this wasn’t like the simulations, where he could choose his opponents, where he could fight the hideous Demon God, Valkair, and have no weight on his conscience. Who was the evil one here? Who was he supposed to root for, if anybody at all?

Life gradually moved forward and the angel caught the devil’s throat in its fingers, delivering a crushing grip in painstakingly slow motion and ripping its whole neck free from its upper torso. For some strange reason, beads of blood splashed out from the wound instead of oil and torn flesh, and bone were exposed to the space vacuum instead of wires and circuitry. What was all this? Weren’t these robots? Wasn’t that how humans fought their wars in this age?

“Why?” he whispered. “Why aren’t they robots? Where are the metal and wires? Why is there blood?”

“This is different than your training sessions,” said Toy. “Those are androids fused with humans, shells with perfect reaction and instinct abilities for battle, all controlled by a spirit of the Sacred Goddess or the Dark One. This is not like your training program. This is reality. These creatures do not dissolve in a storm of pixilated holograms, nor do they fall apart like cybernetic marionettes. Their entire life system is disrupted when they are injured. They feel pain and cry out because of it. Be thankful that I am blocking the psychic backlash of the spirits inside those monsters. Otherwise you would be on your knees begging me to kill you, even from this far away.”

The decapitated body of the devil swiftly reached up with a clawed hand, shredding metal like paper and piercing her opponent’s chest.

More blood. Bones. Burning metal.

The open cavity glowed with a brilliant flash of heat energy and living flame exploded from both bodies. The angel deftly sliced downward with a glowing chop, severing the limb that had penetrated her torso. Toy had said they were screaming, but their faces were molded into plastic masks, the shells of unwilling contenders in a fight to the bitter death. Angel and devil. Yin and Yang. Tenshi to Akuma. What pain must they be feeling? Vomisa could not imagine it.

It seemed like hours before that battle alone ended. The devil had finally ignited its power supply into a fiery sacrificial explosion of death. Both combatants were incinerated immediately. Even without sound, even without experiencing the psychic backlash that Toy was shielding from his own mind, the pain and suffering in that scene was so horrible! Long before this, didn’t humans used to take to the battlefield themselves instead of sending puppets to do their jobs? How could man destroy himself like this? How could one human being look into the eyes of another and take the scintillating life from his soul with such cruelty?! And in real life the body never disappeared like in a simulator, did it? The corpse layed there, like the floating remains of the angel and devil up on the screen right now, a scar on one’s soul, a permanent reminder to the killer that he had destroyed the most sacred, wonderous, confusing, and horrifying thing that the universe created: the living, sentient.mind.

Slowly, time began to resume itself, but the painting would be forever marred in Vomisa’s eyes. Slowly, he realized that the epic symbols he had just watched live and die were not unique. In every corner of the picture, one side fought the other. Some won. All lost. Rivers of blood painted the world red, and Vomisa could no longer bring himself to watch the catastrophe. Averting his eyes, he felt his systems expelling quickly-solidifying water vapor---used to clean his components---through his eye pores. He was crying.

“It’s all right, Vomisa,” said Toy’s huge enforcer. “Most people can not contain the truth. You’re still young, it’s better that you accept what war really is than grow up to glorify its violence.”

Vomisa said nothing at first, then wiped the tears from his eyes.

“It’s horrible,” he whispered mournfully. “Humans did this to each other years before, didn’t they? How could they? How could they bear to take lives like that?”

“You change your mind so suddenly,” commented Toy thoughtfully. “Before, you had no remorse for your opponents on the training deck.”

“But that was so different! I knew I was fighting a mindless automaton! I knew I was hurting nobody! And... and I guess I thought it was the same... until I finally concentrated on what was happening in that

battle.”

“Ironic that you noticed in a battle where everybody was wearing a mask...” said Toy.

Vomisa paused for a moment before answering.

“Did you ever realize how effective silence can be?” he whispered softly.

“Yes, I have,” replied Toy.

Vomisa slowly raised his head, his eyes dry. It wasn’t sound that had talked to him. It was the sheer futility.

“Can’t you stop it? Can’t you go down there and make them stop killing each other?”

Toy only shook his head ruefully.

“They would kill me too,” he said. “That’s what hate does, it consumes and destroys like a living flame. They won’t listen to me. They will fight me, blinded by their ignorance, and nothing I can do will change their minds. That’s why I stay here, safe from them. You are safe as well.”

“Yeah,” said Vomisa as he turned to walk away. “Safe... from the world...”

...

“Captain. Targets will be in visual range within two minutes. Marine-class androids commencing attack preparations.”

Reality came back to Vomisa, a sky devoid of clouds above him and a desert landscape beneath him. The border between Shirinkusu and SenShu Baan lay straight ahead.

“Ah,” he said blankly, still coming out of the painting. He still had a mission to do, right? “I want the following weapon systems activated, one per unit; five electricity siphoners, three omega-class energy scramblers, three rapiers, three trap-gunners, three berserkers, two windriders, two katanas, one psionic scrambler, one plasma detonator, and to be on the safe side, one anti-nuclear disrupter. Your primary targets are the mecha. The humans should not pose a problem during the fight.”

Signals were replayed back to headquarters and weaponry began phasing out of thin air onto the flying soldiers. The first eight units that Vomisa had ordered were all for Edge alone, but would they be enough? Why was he worrying about this now? What was the point? He was already hanging on to his life by a thread. But then, how much did he cherish his own existence?

...

The painting. Could he change it? With magic perhaps, like the power he had read about in books? No, Toy had laughed at him for that. It wasn’t real, just like his perception of war had been. It was all a horribly fake front for a reality that was completely and utterly disgusting.

The training hall. A simulation. Kai Dochira, the hero of the plague. The magician, Shinobu Furusawa and her brother, Yan. Fukai Yukimaru, Yan’s sensei.

Vomisa lashed out at Kai first, his absorption field immediately taking in his opponent’s sacred power for his own. Energy coursed through his golden armor, channeling itself directly into his Kai’s gut, tearing the hero apart with white coils of pure light. He whirled about, already constructing defensive shields of holy energy that held back the streaks of lightning Shinobu had summoned. On another plane of existence, he cut loose her strings of magic, and the lightning sporadically leapt in every direction at once. Reversals, the most important part of a magician’s arsenal. Vomisa spared no time in dashing forward with his left elbow at head level, impaling the magician on his armored spike. Scanning the room wildly, he found Yan stunned by the sudden and wild blast from his sister. Taking no time to spare, he rushed his next victim with a fist full of kinetic energy, ready to grind the child into dust.

He stopped. Time slowed. Vomisa stared into the target’s eyes and began to think about who he was fighting. He had forgotten, Yan was still a child when he had faced Valkair, not even past puberty yet. He was fighting a kid. He was killing children.

And suddenly the young boy before him was the A_N_G_E_L being disemboweled by the D_E_V_I_L, all in beautiful and dreadful grace. Blood and bone fragments slowly sprayed everywhere. Vomisa’s hands were suddenly those of both combatants, each different in appearance but both drenched in thick, sticky guilt. This time, the angel’s head was the child’s, and he was screaming. The pain was horrible.

Vomisa’s arms dropped as he crouched over and covered his ears. It was unbearable...

“RYU-KEN!!!” roared Fukai, and the ancient spirit of a serpentine dragon snaked out from his magical katana, blanketing Vomisa in mystic flame. The tip of the blade shot forward and pierced Vomisa’s armor, but he simply took the blow, falling backwards from the momentum. How could he have fought back? Why should he have fought back? Was he worth a sacred hero’s life?

Yan was suddenly standing, eyes blazing with dark anger as he withdrew the legendary ‘Langrissor’ blade, a huge no-dachi two-handed samurai sword that was longer than he was tall. Slowly, he leapt into the air with the seraph’s grace, bringing down the avenging sword of Uriel with him. Vomisa merely watched it descend. He didn’t deserve to fight back, not against this…

Yan suddenly stopped in mid-attack, pixelating and dissolving into thin air. To the side, Fukai’s angry spirit fighter was doing the same and the background slowly melted back into the towering training hall for Toy’s soldiers. Vomisa couldn’t stand on his own power for a full three minutes. It wasn’t because of the wounds he had received; he didn’t feel physical pain. Something else had injured him much deeper than any blade could ever cut.

“Damn you, Toy-sama,” laughed Vomisa softly, covering his face with his left hand. “You did this to me... why? If you’re training me to be a killer, then why did you do this to me?” The portrait, that was life. That was truth. He could never paint over the imperfections.

The sudden creaking of metal overhead caused Vomisa to jerk his vision upward. There in the sealed observation deck stood Toy’s huge enforcer, wrapped in darkness by the shadows. He swore that the forever chilling face of his master’s guardian was actually smiling...

...

Was he ever so anxious to train after that? On his first mission, did he see beauty in the man he killed? No, he had been simple in that job. A quick, simple twist of the neck and his opponent was dead. No blood, no gore, no excruciating pain. Humans were fragile, but it was better that way. Simple.

After that day, after the angel and devil, after the training, after Kai and Shinobu and Fukai, after Yan, he never again wanted to fight. He went into battle merely because that was his life, his job, the destiny that had been written by his master, Toy. He never enjoyed killing though. He never again looked at a fight as some kind of glorious prize to be won because violence of all types reminded him of that horrible painting. No matter what, he tried to make each and every death as easy as possible. It was the very least he could do.

“Targets will be in visual range in one minute.”

“Ah,” replied Vomisa. “Get ready to engage radar jammers.”

Look where he was now, flying to his death, betrayed by the emperor he worshipped. All of his life, he had lived bearing a mission he didn’t believe in. Now that his loyalty had been deceived, now that he had nothing left, shouldn’t he try to remedy his pain? Was it time for a change?

…

…

…

Iesu slowly brought the hovercraft to a halt as they neared the border. Re-enforced steel alloy rose in walls over one hundred meters high. Computer controlled remote cannons loaded with shells the size of a human head lined the tops accompanied by five shock troops- special military riot control soldiers- apiece. Neither Shirinkusu nor SenShu Baan trusted each other, but they did agree on the necessity of a heavy border security. A special committee was put together for the project, drawing technological resources from both sides. It took seven years to complete the construction plans, but the three-thousand-five-hundred-and-ninety-three kilometer wall had kept hostile situations between the two countries down for decades.

Three soldiers shouldering heavy anti-tank rifles advanced on their machine and Yoshime forced herself to resist the intake of a deep breath. She had never really traveled outside the boundaries of the WNHR, let alone any of the major warring countries. Hopefully, Edge and the others would fall beneath the range of their high-powered contraband sensors. Ootherwise, they could all be incredibly screwed.

“Passport?” grumbled the nearest soldier as he came near the driver’s side, and Iesu fished out the fake that Taka’s crew had fashioned earlier. She had never been out of the country, but she knew that for a border as heavy guarded as Shirinkusu’s and SenShuBaan’s, it was practically mandatory. Of course, getting into Shirinkusu from the WNHR had been a laugh, but only because they were assisted by a government agency. If they needed to, could they get back in or would Sagawa double-cross them?

“Looks good,” said the soldier, passing the small card through his belt scanner and handing it back to Iesu. “Now where are your customs?”

Yoshime blinked in confusion.

“Customs?” she asked innocently. “What customs?”

“Customs papers!” said the soldier. “You can’t just drag a whole pile of crap into another country without getting it approved first!”

She swiveled about and cursed under her breath. Everybody was covered up all right, but there simply was not enough space to hide everybody properly. Terpfen’s huge lump didn’t help any. “Uh,” she stuttered. What the hell was she going to do now? Iesu was melting into his chair, big load of help he was. Looks like she would have to improvise. five minutes alone with her computer would be enough to get them home free, but would she even be able to get that much? “I think I left them in back with the cargo, give me a minute to look.”

“I’m sorry, we don’t have time for that,” growled the soldier, already stepping towards the back. “If you don’t mind, we’ll just take a little look for ourselves, save you all the trouble of searching for paperwork.”

She was screwed.

...

…

…

‘Move it you idiot!’

Double shot an angry look at Kouryuu as he received her low-frequency transmission.

‘Move it yourself!’ he replied. ‘I have little enough room as it is!’

‘Your arguments aren’t going to remedy the situation,’ transmitted Clef sternly. ‘I think we need to think of an alternative plan. It doesn’t sound like those guards have any intention of letting us through without a hands-on search.”

‘Well, it doesn’t help that we have “little-miss-hyper-up-the-ass” out for the count!!!’ said Double fiercely.

‘Wake her up then, you idiot!’ retorted Kouryuu.

‘Uh... sguys...?’ said Edge weakly.

‘And how the hell do you expect me to do that?!’ growled the assassin. ‘Yoshime’s the technical expert, not me!!!’

‘Are you forgetting about Clef? He can just as easily---’

‘GUYS!!!’ hissed Edge fiercely, pointing at Zero. ‘I think may have bigger problems on our hands...’

Kouryuu whirled her angry gaze about to Zero and froze like a deer in the headlights. The pigtailed android’s eyes were wide open now, as huge as the palm of her hand and dilated without any irises. Each was emanating a menacing red glow of light and her entire body seemed to be heaving with some sort of heavy breathing. For now, only the movement in her chest and eyes seemed to give her any life at all, but Kouryuu could easily see that she was becoming more animated by the second. Something was definitely wrong.

‘Make me hold her,’ muttered Double, though Kouryuu could sense a strange hint of fear in his thoughts. ‘Look what happened now... go figure.’

‘Quit worrying about that!’ said Edge quickly, keeping an eye on the pigtailed mecha. Zero was actually looking up now, and her arm was slowly reaching out towards him. Edge swallowed hard. This was not going to be fun. ‘Ah, damn, she’s gonna blow! Kou, you grab Iesu, I’ll grab Yoshime. The rest of you scatter!’

‘Yeah, and I’m in a great position,’ muttered Double, slowly morphing away from Zero.

‘SHUT UP AND MOVE!!!’

...

...

...

Yoshime almost jumped out of her shoes as the tarp suddenly flew up on all sides. The next thing she knew, Edge had grabbed her about the waist and put a good two hundred meters between them and the hovercraft. What the hell was he trying to do? The guards hadn’t been quite on to their ruse yet, but now they were definitely in the fire. At least Iesu was also safe, as she garnered by a quick glance to the side and seeing her cross-bearing friend being set down by Kouryuu in the distance. Still, what was Edge trying to prove by playing ‘hero?’

“Is there ammo in this?” asked Edge quickly, handing Yoshime her rifle. He had been able to grab that and her so quickly?

“Yeah,” she said slowly, taking her weapon. She should be angry at him. “I always keep it loaded, just keep the safety on. What the hell do you think you’re doing?” She motioned around wildly. Shock-troops and gun turrets were targeting them all at once with re-enforcements most likely on the way. “Are you crazy?! You’re going to get us all killed! I bet this was one of Double’s pranks, eh?” A sliver of motion caught her eye and turning back to the hovercraft, she saw Double madly speeding away from thing as fast as his legs would carry him. However, there was something on his face that told her this was no joke.

“Turn on your computer link,” said computer link softly as the air began to shimmer about him, signaling his gathering of gravitational energy. “How’s Zero doing?”

Yoshime suddenly noticed that Zero wasn’t with the group. She was still in the craft.

“Are you stupid!?” she screamed. “We can’t just leave---”

“How is she doing?!” interrupted Edge firmly. This time, he stared at her with enough fire in his eyes to melt that infamous border wall with sheer willpower. Yoshime slowly turned on her mental link to the machines and held her breath. She saw two minds, not one. Both were familiar.

“What is this...” she whispered softly. “I felt this presence before, way back when I did my first checkup on her!”

“What?!” said Edge. “You know what’s going on with her?!”

“No, no!!!” said Yoshime quickly. “I only felt it for a second, then it was gone. I thought it was just a glitch back then, but now the presence is incredibly strong. It’s dominating Zero’s normal systems! I can’t tell what it is though because it doesn’t fall under any type of program that I’ve ever seen before. Why? What was going on under there?”

“I don’t know,” said the young boy almost fearfully as he concentrated on building energy. “Do you think it’s a virus?”

“No, something much more intricate and complex, not a destruction program. It almost looks like it’s supposed to support some type of life, but not Zero’s...”

Edge started to weave a shield of energy in preparation to defend against the soldier’s bullet shells, but it turned out that there was no need. The hovercraft suddenly exploded in small cloud of magical flame, splashing debris in every direction. Robot and shock-trooper alike were utterly stunned by the mystic fire that spouted from the demolished mechanism like the blood of the world.

...

...

...

Vomisa was speeding barely three meters over the ground with his fully prepared army in tow. Edge was in long range visual sensors and it would only be another twenty seconds until they would attack. The trap gunners would lay down opening fire and spread out the targets while the assigned units picked their opponents off one by one. If this had been strategic simulation where all units were presumably generic and thus equally balanced against each other, this would have been an easy win. However, this was not to be a battle. This was meant to be a death sentence. His death sentence.

“Change, eh?” he muttered. Did it matter? More importantly, could it matter? What was he really looking for? He didn’t want to fight. He didn’t want to play soldier. He didn’t want to have to kill another human being if he could help it. So what did he want?

He suddenly cringed at the sudden backlash he felt, a massive psychic wave that caught him off guard. He recognized it immediately, though it shouldn’t have been humanly possible to create in this era. Magic.

He knew much on the subject, having read every text in Toy’s gigantic library about the substance when he was in his earlier years. Humans had been bereft of the potent and dangerous knowledge for eons, so they couldn’t have created such a powerful recoil on their own, even by accident. This was in relatively close proximity too, at least as near as the Edge unit’s location.

Switching to long-range visual sensors, Vomisa prepared for battle. Could Edge have rediscovered the art of magical warfare? Impossible, but then Edge was also searching for the Temple of Ordeal, the legendary castle of the Goddess, Midori...

“It can’t be...” he whispered as his screens popped up. Flame whipped wildly in his vision, but that was not the object of his interest and fear. “No... what the hell is this supposed to be?” A dark figure was slowly rising from the chaos, silhouetted by the red and yellow pastels of light. “Did Toy know about this? Is this why he sent me?” An angel, wasn’t it? An angel with wings of hellfire... “Damn you.” He could make out pigtails on the head now. It was a woman. It was the girl called Zero. “You know I didn’t want to see this again.” The magic erupted. Paints slid across the canvas, changing and morphing to the angel’s desire. Huge spikes shot out of her shoulderpads. Armor shifted into place, connecting like a puzzle. Large metal claws grew from her fingertips and an aiming visor jutted out from the side of her face in front of her right eye, the better to kill with. The paint began to dry. “Why?” Edge was right in front of him now, but Vomisa didn’t pay any attention. He was still transfixed on the angel as she bent over in a primal battle stance, her face a plastic mold. He had known what it was the instant he saw her. How could he ever forget? Even if it had happened eons ago, he could have had easily remembered every detail as if he had just seen it yesterday.

It was a devil-class cyborg, a melding of flesh, metal and sorcery. This ‘Zero’ was a survivor of the clone wars.

...

...

...

“Damn!” cursed Double as he dodged a spray of gunfire from Toy’s soldiers. “I guess Yujin’s goons want a piece of the action too! Looks like Vomisa’s running the show this time though.”

Kouryuu cursed as well, unsheathing her swords in a blur. This was getting out of hand. Government personnel, a psychotic Zero, and now this. It didn’t take a genius to tell that the situation was going to get ugly very fast. “We don’t have time for that kind of crap! We need to end this as quickly as possible!” She turned toward Terpfen first, her long ponytail catching the wind almost dramatically. “Terpfen! Vomisa’s goons aren’t human, so feel free to nuke them to death! Just try not to leave any radioactive residue though, we still have to worry about Yoshime and Iesu’s health.”

“Of course, Kouryuu,” said Terpfen plainly as he raised his right arm. Five shimmering balls of blackness suddenly circled about his figure, five fully active nuclear charges. On his left shoulder, a full magazine clicked into place in the huge gatling gun that was mounted there. “No harm to human targets. What about the border soldiers?”

“Don’t worry about that, Edge and I will take care of them,” said Kouryuu. “Double! We need you to go check up on Zero, see if she’s all right from that explosion.”

“ME~!?” whined Double. “Why me?!”

Kouryuu let out a low chuckle. “You found her, eh?” she said. “She’s your responsibility, so go make sure she’s okay---”

She suddenly stopped as she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Red movement.

Sidestepping and sliding her sword past her to deflect any possible attack, she narrowly avoided a rushing slash from Zero’s talon.

“What?!” exclaimed Kouryuu in bewilderment and anger. “What the hell do you think you’re---” She never finished her sentence. Zero had already spun about on one heel, spraying a huge arch of flame in her direction with a wave of the hand. Kouryuu instinctively put up her arms in a feeble defense, but Double suddenly tackled her feet and brought their flying bodies under the fiery assault. Edge was suddenly by both of their sides along with Yoshime, Clef, and Iesu, erecting an energy dome to protect them from further attack. Outside, Zero stared at them for only a second before picking out the closest moving object near her, one of Vomisa’s gunners, and launching a pillar of hellfire at it. What just happened?

“Wh--- what was that?!” shouted the rebel. “Just a minute ago, we were sitting nice and dandy in the hovercraft, now the damn thing has been blown to bits and Zero’s gone insane!”

“Something happened to her,” said Yoshime weakly. She was no longer wearing her computer wires. Had she been monitoring Zero’s brain activity? Kouryuu shivered at the thought of what that kind of link must have felt like with the pigtailed girl’s current state of mind. “The reverberations from her transformation were incredibly powerful,” continued the young girl. “Whatever that is out there, it isn’t Zero. It’s something else entirely and it doesn’t recognize us as friends.”

“And what was with that fire attack?” said Kouryuu, still taken off guard. “She never had power like that before!”

“The only reasonable explanation is that this new ‘self’ has different abilities,” said Yoshime. “However, it appears that this new consciousness is also utilizing Zero’s amplified velocity.”

The rebel tried to keep herself from cursing. As if things could get any worse.

“Do you have any idea what that thing out there is?” she asked Clef.

“I do know that Zero is still somewhere in there,” said Clef. “However, there is apparently another consciousness in her shell that has a stronger willpower, and has thus taken over her body. I know not the source of this trouble, nor a solution to the problem. As I have seen on my own network connections, this is a program of which I have never seen the likes of before. I’m afraid I could only help in detaining this new threat, if nothing else.”

“Damnit, we can’t kill her!!!” said Kouryuu. “If what you say is true, then she’s still in there waiting to be saved. We have to defuse this... THING and get her back!”

“I’m afraid that’s easier said than done,” said Clef. “Neither Yoshime nor I have been able to penetrate the consciousness of this being. If my hypothesis is correct, then this is an internal conflict that Zero must overcome herself and---”

“Goddamnit!!!” roared Double. “We don’t have time for this! We need action!!!”

The child shot him a glare but continued in a more simplified form.

“She has to defeat the consciousness in her own mind,” he said. “We can do nothing to help her.”

“Great, just what we need...” growled Kouryuu. Everything was going to hell. “Here’s the plan, and it isn’t a good one so improvise where you will. Since Yoshime, Iesu, and Clef are the non-fighters here, Edge will protect them as his primary objective. Your secondary objective, give Terpfen backup against Vomisa’s thugs, he can’t possibly hold out there forever.” Edge gave a thumbs up while Yoshime sudden launched herself into a softly spoken narrative about her validity as a ‘non-fighter,’ occasionally hefting her rifle. “Double and I will try to disable the human forces with the main turrets being our primary target. As for Zero---” She didn’t like to say this, but they really didn’t have a choice, did they? If they couldn’t stop Zero themselves, then… “---we’ll have to leave her alone. For now, it looks like whatever’s in her is content enough with trying to kill anything that moves, so she’s not a direct threat at the moment. However, we can’t waste our own power trying to subdue her now if what Clef says is true and whatever we do will indeed have no impact on whether she’s freed or not…”

Edge nodded silently at that and Yoshime added a gentle sniff of agreement. Nobody had to like the decision, but it was the smartest thing to do right now. She hated it when it came down to this. Did Yashiro feel this way every time he made a decision? Every time he knew somebody was going to suffer no matter which way he acted?

“Come on, Kou,” said Double, interrupting her thoughts. “Zero will be fine. Edge will watch over here from his post. If anything, I think we might have to worry more about her hurting us than us hurting her. Let’s take care of those soldiers first, though.”

Kouryuu forced a grin. That was the burden of duty, wasn’t it? The burden of trying to be a leader. Responsibility.

...

...

...

“WAHA~!!! So much to kill! Will I have time for it all? I think so! I’ve forgotten how fantastic it feels to head up the disposal process myself!”

Please, stop it!

“Eh? You’re still awake?”

You can’t silence me! I won’t shut up until I have my life back!

“You just don’t get it, do you? I’ve already won. Oh, I’m sure they know of my existence, your friend Yoshime spotted me a while ago. Didn’t matter too much though, they still have no idea what they’re dealing with.”

They’ll save me!

“Will they? Will it be worth it? Is your life worth having the wrath of the Demon God brought down upon your companions?”

... I... I’m not worth...

“See? Even you agree with that. One person is not worth the souls of many... well, maybe if it’s one of those incredibly rare souls, but that’s another story entirely. But you haven’t done anything spectacular for your friends. I don’t even see why they care about you enough to want to save you.”

You’re lying.

“Maybe, but my God is not Lucifer. There is still a certain nobility among us demon-folk and besides, as I said before, the raw truth of the matter always wounds so much deeper than a petty lie. Now do me a favor and find me some fresh blood. I’m growing tired of shredding metal. I want some flesh.”

…

…

…

“Damn!” cursed Edge as he whirled around. Terpfen’s powerful nukes were being neutralized by some sort of laser weapon from Vomisa’s ranks and since nobody else was helping him, the walking nuke was facing a losing battle. His gatling gun hailed a rain of armor-piercing bullets at the swordsmen who circled him, but they were simply too numerous to handle. He needed backup.

Bolts of electricity ran up his arms as he gathered his power and focused on parting the matter in the center of the nearest one of Vomisa’s soldiers, creating a vacuum to implode his body. That was when his power suddenly dropped to zero.

‘Siphoners and jammers, Edge,’ said Clef through their link. ‘Not pretty stuff, the syphoners are going to take the energy you have and the jammers will disrupt any psionic signal you try to use to utilize the power you have left.’

“DAMN!!!” shouted Edge as a berserker android rushed him. Several bullets suddenly met it in the forehead and he saw Yoshime lowering her smoking barrel out of the corner of his eye. She was smiling at him, a gesture which he thankfully returned.

‘My suggestion,’ went on Clef. ‘The units keeping the hold on your power are out of attacking range now and will stay that way. Simply absorb too much energy for the siphoners to handle and they’ll blow, but it could take a while since most siphoners are built with energy storage and discharge in mind. However, once you have that over with, you’ll have more than enough to override the jammer’s signal.’

‘And in the meantime?’ said Edge with a hint of sarcasm.

‘Kouryuu DID teach you how to fight with your bare hands.’

“Urgh...” muttered Edge to himself. He wasn’t THAT good yet, so he had better fight with a sword like he usually did in training with the rebel. Damn lucky that Vomisa had chosen to use swordsmen today. “Terpfen! Can you get me a blade over here?!”

“Please wait one minute,” said the nuclear device calmly, blocking an attack with his armored gauntlet and swiveling his gun about to blow off the sword arm of an attacker approaching his back. Dashing forward and applying a front kick to the nearest soldier, Edge snatched the blade from the detached limb and turned back to his object of protection, all the while absorbing as much energy as he possibly could. Yoshime was already struggling with more approaching berserkers. Apparently the one she had shot down wasn’t quite through yet either.

“Yoshime,” whispered Edge. He had been careless. The next few seconds were a blur as he leapt forward towards his enemy. No anger this time though, only a passion pure and unadulterated. His first slash was downward, slicing his opponent’s arm off. Using the momentum of his movement, he spun around and backwards, applying his heel to the android’s head and sending him flying. Two more berserkers were approaching on the other side of Yoshime and Iesu with their full bloodlust kicking in. Sword held close to his hip in a style that was not his own, Edge was suddenly around both his friends, lashing out fiercely with his cocked weapon. One of the robots attempted a block, but only succeeded in getting his head and forearms chopped off. Falling low after the attack, he assumed the blade at his hip again and focused himself on coiling himself like a spring. It was the “Grace of Death” stance. He knew the name but not its user. On instinct, he suddenly flew upwards with sword flying high like a freed bird. He knew the technique. It was the “Ryu-shou-sen,” an uppercut with the blade. It was not his own.

He didn’t notice the last berserker fall to ground, sliced in half vertically, nor did he notice the looks of utter surprise on his companions’ face. He never learned those moves. He never learned those styles. He had never even been good at swordplay in the first place. Yet, there was something familiar about every single movement he had just accomplished, as if they had all been routine.

Suddenly, he had it. His first fight with Yujin. His battle in the underground base in Shirinkusu. The fight he had just finished. The style and technique he had used in all three was not his own. The sword he had used was not his, it belonged to an angel. However, this angel used a six-foot long no-dachi, a blade that emitted a light of its own. Somewhere in his head, he saw it all unfold. A seraph was doing those moves in a graceful dance of death. He had observed them before, but when? He had watched him to learn, but when? When?

The angel was Adam. He had been imitating Adam. Why? How much influence was he having on him? Clef had said before that the angelwas dangerous. Had he been telling the truth? Would Adam take over his body like... that thing that possessed Zero?

‘Edge, concentrate on the matter at hand,’ interrupted Clef. ‘Terpfen can’t hold them off forever, he needs your help. Now that you’re in the clear, override the siphoners.’

He shook his head. He would have to think about those things later. Right now, he had other problems to worry about.

…

…

…

Zero had just moved from the trap-gunner she picked off to feed upon the flesh of the soldiers. Terpfen’s nukes were being effectively countered by the anti-nuclear unit, and Edge’s usually overwhelming backup was being severely stifled by the siphoners and scramblers. The berserkers were gone, but he neither did he have Zero, Kouryuu, nor Double to deal with due to unusual circumstances. In fact, the rebel and the assassin were so busy with the soldiers that he could afford to use his spare rapiers and katanas against the few human units that dared to attack him. At the moment, Vomisa had the upper hand in the battle. His strategy had been flawlessly perfect. It was going so well that he didn’t even need to participate in the battle himself. He had worked his ‘magic.’ He was winning. So what was the problem?

He stared at the Zero unit intently. Her pigtailed bounced innocently as her flaming claw ripped a shock-trooper in half at the waist, blood and entrails spraying into the air with her face a mask of indifference. This was not the Zero he had seen back at North Point, the child made invincible by an ignorance that beguiled his wit. He had hurt her back then, hadn’t he? He had subdued her just like Toy had ordered him to. But he liked fighting that bright flame. He had enjoyed her as an opponent. Why? Was it because she was so much like himself before he had seen the clone wars? He had been happy then, happy because he was not laden down with the knowledge that he was responsible for another living creature’s life. Yes. She was like him in that way.

Zero didn’t even blink as she blanketed whole rows of humans with hellfire like a falling wall of oncoming death, the smell of roasting flesh permeating the area as fading screams rang out in the air. Now what had she become? She was a relic from the clone wars, one of the very killing machines that had taught Vomisa to cherish the mere existence of others. She was a D_E_V_I_L. She was the painting.

“Shit...” cursed Vomisa to himself. What was he thinking? He was winning the battle now! Maybe Toy had planned it all out like that in the first place. His master often had a knack for strategic battle plans that used the situation to his advantage. At any moment now, the golden warrior could simply swoop down and take the head of the Edge unit himself, one-upping Yujin on the ladder of trophies. Yujin would be plenty angry about that, but Toy could no doubt keep the general from dishing out his usual punishment. After all, it would be he, Vomisa, who would bathe in the glory of such a victory.

So what was stopping him from doing the deed?

He looked at Zero closer now, the picture frame suddenly ignoring the barriers of time and space. He never expected somebody as innocent and untouched as her to become something so incredibly vicious. So bloodthirsty. So willing to kill. Of course, it was the demon inside that was bending the poor girl to her will, but Zero would get used to it eventually. Demons tended to have especially long lifetimes. She would accept the bloodshed as part of her life, and eventually, she might even revel in its activity. And then it would truly be her that had become the killing machine, the slave of humans.

Vomisa looked down at his palms. They were shaking. He knew why, even though he tried to deny the facts. He was such a hypocrite. Wasn’t he the killing machine? Wasn’t the sole purpose of his creation to search and destroy whatever target his master pointed to? He had endured such for years. And he did nothing about it. Nothing. What a poor pitiful fool he was, what a poor pitiful fool. And, unlike Zero, he had no demon influencing his thoughts. He killed on his own free will. What a fool he was.

He remembered something the Edge unit had said the very first time he had seen it, when the unit had gone berserk and was attempting to escape its holding facility. Bakemono, (Monster) it had said, and Vomisa had no idea what it had been referring to at the time. Now he knew. HE was the monster. Yuusuke was the monster. Yujin was the monster. Every sick human in that building was a monster. Pitiful. He had never seen that before, but now...

Look at him. How sad. He was such a coward. He didn’t even have the courage to take control of his own life.

Was it really time for a change? He had thought he was going to die before. He had considered escape from Toy’s grasp to save his own pitiful life. Now he saw the truth. He had killed himself years ago. It was no longer a manner of preserving his existence. It was matter of reclaiming it.

He looked up from his clenched fists and rested his eyes on the Demoness. Ignoring the limits and constraints of time, she gracefully danced her grace of death on the canvas of the world. She didn’t deserve that. Nobody deserved to suffer like the angel and devil in his portrait. She was so much better than him. Why couldn’t she have had the choice to live instead of he?

No, he couldn’t complain any more. He had made excuses for too long. He had tried to hide from everything he believed. No more. Too much suffering. There was simply too much. Never again.

He was the magician, wasn’t he?

He had power.

He had the brush in his hand.

It was time that he used it.

It was time for him to try.

...

...

...

Time moved forward again, but Vomisa was already running forward on air. Below, Edge was shouting out some kind of warning, but his trap-gunners kept him busy. Zero would not live her life a slave. He, Vomisa, would free her. He would kill the devil within. Nobody deserved the guilt that killing brought.

“Enough,” he whispered. His aura was wide open, absorbing the weapons field of those around him. His power flared with life and abundance as he concentrated on the pigtailed girl in front of him. Slowly he felt his system adjusting to her battle aura. Her speed was becoming his own. The flame of her corrupter was at his command.

Zero spotted him immediately with her stone-carved face. She whirled about wildly, ignoring her human prey. They were flesh and blood, but nothing compared to the exhilaration of a real duel. Fire leapt from her fingertips at her opponent, but Vomisa merely activated his own stolen flame, absorbing the heat energy into his body. Her power was as natural to him as walking. He would have to be in close quarters if he was to accomplish his goal. He had never tried to do this with his aura before, but there was no other alternative. She would be free and he would have helped at least one person in his pitiful lifetime. If he could touch just one person, then it would be all worth it. He couldn’t live life the way he had, taking the lives of others, hurting his victim’s loved ones beyond repair. He couldn’t do that anymore. Sin, that was the word. He had sinned a thousand times over. He had stolen the lives of too many people. Wasn’t it a surprise that his soul had not been condemned to become the property of Valkair, the Demon King? Or maybe it already was, but it was only now he had recognized his wrongdoing. He would redeem himself. He would work to preserve the lives of others. He would be free.

Time around him crawled to halt as he began to cut through its thin fabric. Flame caressed his body like a lover to protect him from his opponent’s magic as his aura opened wider to take in more. Whatever possessed Zero must hold a tremendous amount of raw power for its psychic backlash to be so overwhelming. No wonder Zero wouldn’t resist her captor’s mental coercing. That couldn’t stop him though. She didn’t deserve to live as a devil. She deserved that innocence that he had seen the first time he met her. Ironic, wasn’t it? She was the freest of them all in her child’s world. Maybe that was where true happiness was discovered.

The girl’s speed suddenly matched his own, and though her mouth never budged, Vomisa could hear the shrieks of bloodlust in his mind. It wanted to kill. Razor sharp talons tore through the air at his head but he deftly swung about them, snatching her outstretched arm out of its attack and twisting it behind her head. She viciously swung about with her other arm in a raging inferno of heat energy, but he grabbed the attacking appendage at the wrist and twisted it around to the small of her back to complete his hold. This wasn't going to be comfortable, but he deserved the pain he was about to receive. In fact, he deserved it a thousand-fold. Perhaps there was no amount of suffering that could equal his guilt, but he could still try, couldn’t he? Trying was better than nothing at all.

Mystic hellfire engulfed both androids in a firestorm of death, but Vomisa held on. He had to ignore the pain, focus all his efforts on absorbing all of Zero’s aura, all of her spirit. His armor was reaching critical damage levels, but he didn’t care.

“I won’t give up,” he whispered. “I’ve already given up for too long.” He dwelled deeper into her system, deeper into her mind right into the very heart of her soul. He saw it then. Poor girl, crouched on her knees and shackled in fire, was miniscule besides the towering mass of bright color that was the demon. She was helpless because she had never been meant to have her own will, her own mind, her own life. She was truly meant to merely be the shell of a harbinger of death, a weapon for the humans to fight their wars with. She was meant to be that A_N_G_E_L or that D_E_V_I_L that he saw so many years ago, killing each other without rhyme or reason. Now, he would slay the monster within. He would set her free.

The demon suddenly began to hum, a low rolling growl like thunder, as it suddenly noticing him. Strange the way the colors flared when it saw him, reflecting a rainbow of reds and yellows. It was not happy, but then Vomisa had never especially pictured a minion of hell to feel such an emotion anyways.

“How did you infiltrate this level of psyche? Nobody has been able to do that since Miun and Jenova’s standoff against Kazuyuki!” He thought he saw it grin maliciously then. Had he underestimated his chances of victory? “No matter though, it’s more of a problem for you than I.” The colors seemed to motion to the soul of the pigtailed mecha beside it. “It seems you have taken a special interest in my host. Would you like to join her? Would you like to kill so willingly as she does now?”

Nothing Vomisa could have done could have prepared him for the power that overwhelmed his mind. The force was like a tidal wave of pure psionic energy, all aimed at wiping his hard drive clean of independent thought and making him a zombie for his opponent to control. He hung on though, he couldn’t give up yet. He had to do something--- anything! --- something for another person. He had to give himself away before he went to hell.

There wasn’t much time left. Back in the real world, Zero’s molten fire was surely on the verge of destroying him physically, and now the demon was now testing his mental endurance as well. He had to fight.

He had to try.

“All my life,” growled Vomisa. “I’ve just waited around for the world to work its way around me.” Even though the motion on the psychic plane meant nothing, he brought both his arms forward as he gathered the power of his absorption aura. One chance, that was all he was going to get. “Enough!!! Goddamn you! Nobody deserves to live their life a killer against their own will!”

The demon hummed in amusement as it increased the intensity of its attack. Zero didn’t even have the willpower to look up. “Don’t you see? This thing is not a life. It is an identity given to my shell. You are fighting for nothing.”

“You’re wrong!” shouted Vomisa. “Maybe she was never meant to have a personality of her own, but she grew a soul from nothing! NOTHING! I envy her for that alone! You have no right to destroy it!”

“So says the killer of only too many a person,” laughed the demon as it peered into his own memories. “You fool, what are you trying to do?”

“I’m taking back what I sold to the Devil eons ago,” he said, his hands glowing with golden energy. One chance. “I’m taking back my soul!”

He released the power he had stored up in his battery all at once, a mixture of paints that came tumbling out of his absorption drive but not to take in power. He had synched his field perfectly with the demon’s aura while doing his best to ignore Zero’s altogether. Reversing the vector of his ability, he tried to push away his opponent’s consciousness rather than try to draw it in. He was trying to banish the demon.

The sea of pain that the demon had been releasing abruptly stopped as it now focused all its efforts on clinging on to its host.

“FOOL!!!” it laughed wildly. “I was anchored down to this shell through sorcery when the humans imprisoned me here. You can’t get rid of me that easily!”

“Whoever said I was trying to get rid of you,” muttered Vomisa as he struggled to maintain his hold. He would have to work quickly lest his opponent discover and break free of his ruse. His fingers deftly weaved the flows of power that emitted from his soul. Now, he was the magician working his bag of tricks. He had only read up briefly on the actual usage of magic, but he did understand some of its basic properties. Using the very power that the monster had used to take over its host, he began to create a box. It was simple at first, but he was a strategic master. Trapping and detaining his enemies on the battlefield was his specialty. Soon, there were too many strings, traps, and counterattacks in the cubical prison to reverse. It would do its job quite nicely. The demon only realized what he was trying to do too late, confidence melting away to frantic fear and loathing as it struggled to get itself free.

“I... impossible!” screamed the demon, clawing fruitlessly at the mental cage that slowly closed around it. “NO! You can’t do this to me! You little fucker! When I get my hands on you---”

“YOU will never lay your hands on another innocent soul again,” said Vomisa firmly, finishing his weave. He had done something far worse than banish the demon; he had imprisoned it in a way so that it had no will of its own. Zero now had full control of the monster’s flame as well as its emotion. “You like controlling others for your own desires, don’t you? Let’s see how you like it when somebody else does the same to you.”

“YOU---!!!”

Its scream was cut off as he tied off the remaining psychic residue that the devil might wish to transmit. The pigtailed girl surely wouldn’t enjoy hearing that voice for the rest of her life.

Vomisa slowly allowed himself a sigh of relief. He had won. He had tried to redeem himself and won. So there was still hope, wasn’t there? He could still help people. Was there such thing as a second chance in life? Did God grant such miracles?

Slowly, he reached out to Zero’s soul.

“Come on,” he said tiredly. He had won. “Let’s go home.”

Zero warily raised her head, her eyes full of fear, loathing, hatred, and confusion. She had grown use to her captor’s hateful stare and was prepared to glare back in defiance. But she saw no demon, only a golden-haired angel. What had happened? Was she free? Somebody whispered in her ear, a distant voice that she couldn’t recognize. This wonderful person before her had helped her, given her life once again. Somebody had granted her mercy.

Gradually, the soft sparkle returned to her eyes and she reached out to touch the seraph’s beautiful wings…

...

...

...

“You’re...” whispered Zero, her eyes slowly fluttering open to find herself in the golden warrior’s arms. The fire had long since died down and her body was slowly shifting back to its original shape. She was herself again. How? Why? “I remember you,” she chuckled. “You were trying to kill me earlier, weren’t you?”

Vomisa could only get out a weak smile before collapsing on the ground. All that heat had taken a devastating effect on his defenses, lowering his shield reserves to only twenty percent. It had all been worth it though. He had given himself freely. He had redeemed himself. For now.

“Hey!!” exclaimed Zero, bending down to tend to her savior. “Are you all right?”

Vomisa let out a small laugh. So what was next?

“I’m all right now,” he said. He reached up too caress the pigtailed robot’s cheek, and she stiffened with nervousness. She had every right to fear him, every right to want to kill him herself. He was Toy’s soldier, why didn’t she do it? “Do you feel better?”

“Aa…” said Zero with a small nod. What could she possibly be thinking? Had he really succeeded in trapping the demon within? After all, he had never wielded magic before he had commandeered the hellspawn’s power. Vomisa’s eyes widened abruptly as he noticed that she was suddenly smiling through the clear glass of tears. Crying? It was implausible, impossible for an android. Yet, she was doing it now, just as he had done upon seeing the clone wars.

“You saved me...” she whispered. She bent forward to embrace him as a parent would do to a broken child. Why didn’t she kill him? “You saved me...”

He could only try his best to feebly return the hug. She wouldn’t kill him. She didn’t want to. Was this compassion? Was this mercy?

A second chance?

Movement suddenly caught out of the corner of the golden-haired robot’s eye and he knew it was his approaching death, most likely Double’s unforgiving blade. The marine-class androids must have retreated automatically by now since he had stopped passing orders through the network link the second he made the decision to help the girl. There was nothing to stop Edge and his group from attending to more important matters. What about the humans, were they finished too? Perhaps. It was a moot detail at best. His energy level was much too low for him to even attempt self-defense now. Was this how the end was? Had Toy planned this all along? Well, it didn’t matter anymore. He had resolved that painting, adding his own color to the mass. He had erased the devil, replacing it with a living soul. He had made his mark. He could die happy.

“NO~!” came the cry from Zero. The rest happened too fast for Vomisa’s failing systems to keep track of. The assassin was suddenly flying backwards from a blow to the chest and Zero was standing in front of her savior in the demonic form she had just shed, one clawed hand resting from the momentum of the sweeping blow. Was it anger that happened to trigger that? Or passion?

“You little...!” growled Double as he picked himself up to his feet. But he stopped what was going to be a scathing rant the minute his eyes met the girl’s. The renewed demonic armor did have some effect, but it was more the look in her eyes that stunned him. Her orbs weren’t fluttering with that carefree playfulness with which she had always addressed everything before. Now, they were aflame with fury and protective rage, a maturity beyond the years of time. It took a minute for Double to talk again. “... you fool! Don’t you see what you’re doing? That’s Vomisa, Toy’s lackey! You couldn’t even comprehend how dangerous he is!!!”

“Shut up you inconsiderate dolt!!!” roared Yoshime, thwacking him in the back of the head with the butt of her rifle. “Geez, she goes nuts, comes out of it, and that’s the best thing you have to say? You can be a real asshole, you know?” She dashed over Zero in a rush, her computer already out and ready to scan for damages. Behind her, Edge was walking away from the scraped siphon and jamming units, his aura still burning with a light energy residue.

“Are you okay?!” asked Yoshime wildly. “Don’t pay any attention to Double. We were all so worried about you! We had no idea if you were okay or if you would come out of whatever that was alive or if you would…” She trailed off at a loss for words, but Zero wasn’t listening. She was staring at the blood-red talons that protruded from her hands, trembling with fear.

“Does... does this mean that whatever it was is still inside me?” she asked in a frightened voice. On her command, a small puff of flame emitted from her palm. “Does this mean that... that...”

“It means nothing,” said Vomisa, forcing himself to his feet. She couldn’t feel guilty. Those weren’t her actions that killed people. She deserved better. “I couldn’t kill the demon, so I trapped it in your computer. It will never bother you again.”

“... but I don’t want this...” whispered Zero softly, motioning to the devil’s clothing. “It reminds me too much of all that anger.”

“Then will it away, it’s as simple as that,” said the golden warrior. “Now you have its power to do with as you wish. Use it to make a better life for others.” Zero closed her eyes for a moment while her armor slowly morphed back into its original state. When she opened them, her sadness abruptly turned into a smile and she happily bounced around in celebration of regaining her former self. She was still a child, wasn’t she? Underneath that thin layer of maturity was still a little girl who was just trying to enjoy life. It was better that way, wasn’t it? Not like himself, who had lived eons only to find utter despair. Rather strange though that her more mature side seemed to surface with the demon’s armor while her inner child came out in her normal form...

“You must all be insane,” muttered Double. “It’s Vomisa, you idiots! It’s a trick! You’re playing with fire and you’re going to get burned!”

“He saved me!!!” shouted back Zero defiantly, latching onto Vomisa’s arm protectively as Yoshime frantically tried to follow and perform her scans at the same time.

“I don’t care!!!” retorted Double. “It’s not like I’ve never seen a ploy like this used as a tactic to win trust and then stab you in the back when you least expect it! Damn it, Kouryuu! You remember Vomisa and the others attacking the rebel base, don’t you have anything to say about this?”

The rebel was still dusting herself off from the scuffle with the shock-troopers, but she nodded grimly. “I’m afraid I have to agree with Double on this one,” she said, staring at the golden-haired mech. “I wouldn’t trust you any farther than---”

“Cease and desist your actions at once and release the unit otherwise designated as Vomisa.”

Kouryuu hand was halfway to her sword before she realized that there was someone else’s blade at her throat. Edge whirled about with his power in full gear, but there was at least one of Vomisa’s goons with a weapon primed at the head of each of his friends, the defenseless Yoshime, Iesu, and Clef catching his attention in particular. He couldn’t risk their deaths, it wasn’t worth it. Vomisa had caught them off guard and they were going to pay for it.

“Ch!” cursed Double, staring down the barrel of a trap-gunner. “See? I told you he couldn’t be trusted!”

Zero pleadingly looked up at Vomisa, a whimsical look in her eyes. It somewhat resembled betrayal, but also denial. What could she possibly be thinking? It would have been so much simpler if she had just killed him.

“You wouldn’t!!!” she cried out. “Why? Why are you doing this after all you’ve done?!” But the plasma detonator was suddenly amongst them and Zero shut her mouth. One wrong move and the unit would self-destruct, giving everybody a one way ticket to hell. The only thing she lent to her savior now was a look of pity. Vomisa’s face turned to stone as a windrider unit approached him.

“Captain,” addressed the unit. “Since you have not given out specific strategic maneuvers in the past ten minutes, we have succeeded in accomplishing the last given orders on our own. The targets are detained. You may dispose of them at your leisure.”

Vomisa looked back at Zero and her questions. Why indeed? He could take his victory now. He could return to Toy with Edge’s head--- he didn’t even have to take care of the others--- and be met with massive celebration. He could still finish his mission with a win on his hit list and life would go on as normal. But why should he? Why should he go on living a life he hated, a life where he really had no choices to make? Why should he follow Toy’s orders when he could live like Zero did, free. He could be free! Now he knew that he was not totally corrupt, for he was still capable of helping others, of reaching beyond his own selfish circle. He was somebody and he had proved it. Maybe his past could never be forgiven, but he had an eternity to redeem himself. If it took that long to do it, so be it.

“Captain, it is suggested that we complete the mission and return to base as soon as---”

“Shut up,” said Vomisa under his breath and the unit cocked its head in confusion. That was one phrase that probably didn’t register in its list of orders.

“Captain, I don’t understand what your intentions---”

“I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP!!!” roared Vomisa, his fist slamming through the unit’s gut. It crumpled to the ground in a heap and the other marine-class robots leapt into action accordingly.

“Alert! Alert! Vomisa unit is charged with mutiny. All units converge to render the traitor harmless.”

No more of taking Toy’s orders. No more killing. Today, he severed his ties with his past. Perhaps he would be hunted down and slated for elimination, but even death was more welcome than the life he had been living. No more lies. Today, he walked off in a new direction.

He slid in Zero’s direction, piercing the head of the thermal-detonator- armed unit on his elbow spike and rendering its functions useless. Better to take care of that immediate threat first. His fists flared with a golden flare, his own trademark ability of being able to absorb and distribute kinetic energy. He would be himself from now on.

“No more!” shouted Vomisa as he brought a spinning backhand into the face of the nearest marine. All at once, every joint and mechanic in the unit wildly spasmed as potential energy was abruptly transformed into kinetic and the marionette was rendered useless. “Zero’s right, why?!” He transformed his power into a beam this time, blasting through his opponent’s chest. “WHY?!” Sheer strength was all it took to tear the trap-gunner in half. Two more long-range shots knocked the windriders out of the air. “Damn you all, you useless bastards! If you had any souls of your own then maybe you’d realize the shit hand you’ve been dealt! I won’t take it anymore though, I’m going to play my own game from now on!”

What was he shouting at? Vomisa suddenly came back down to earth, realizing that he had already torn through all his targets. The only ones left to listen to him were a very shocked Edge and the rest of his group. So what did they see? A killer? Certainly Double did, but he couldn’t be blamed. He WAS a killer, worse than any hundred human criminals combined. His power was only at five percent now. If they still decided they wanted to kill him, then they would have no resistance whatsoever.

Zero suddenly walked forward, slowly at first, then accelerating into a brisk run. She embraced him tightly around the neck, nearly tackling him to the ground, and applied a light peck on the cheek that managed to turn Vomisa’s face as red as her armor.

“Hey guys!” she called out happily. “See? He’s still good! I knew you’d come through! I knew it! You couldn’t be all bad, you saved me after all!” She stuck out her tongue in Double’s direction for good measure, to which the assassin just snickered at.

Vomisa couldn’t help but smile. Saved her? Hardly. She had already been free long before he came along…

So where to now? Toy was going to try to kill him for sure. He had nowhere to go, no place to stay. His batteries would recharge, but would that be enough to save him? He felt like laughing. How could he be so short sighted? It didn’t matter where he went, just as long as he went SOMEWHERE. As long as he was free, nothing mattered at all.

“I... I’ve finally realized the error of my ways,” said Vomisa, addressing the whole group. Did they trust him enough to let him go? “My life with Toy was not right. It’s taken me only too long to realize that. I know none of you trust me, and rightfully so. All I ask for now is a bit of mercy. No doubt that I will be slated for extermination, so I want to live my last few days of life on my own. Just let me walk my own way and you walk yours. I want to live life as myself, not as a killer, even if it’s only for a little while. Please, let me walk away.”

“You had us,” said Edge. “You had us and you knew it. Why didn’t you just end it right then and there, take your prize and gone on home?”

“I told you,” said Vomisa with a smile. “My life with Toy was not right. It took a lot for me to regret the path I took, but I can’t change that. The only thing I can change is the future.”

The young boy stood there thinking for a moment, giving periodic glances to Kouryuu and Clef. Finally, he gave himself a curt nod of satisfaction and raised his head.

“If you really were out to kill us,” he said. “---then you just passed up the perfect opportunity. I think you’re telling the truth. Go on and find yourself something new to fight for. May you find satisfaction in your new life.”

The golden warrior smiled and nodded, turning away and ready to let his flight system catch his armor in the wind, but Double was shooting daggers at his green-haired companion.

“Don’t be stupid!” shouted the assassin at his friend. “He’s a killer!”

“Quit complaining!” roared Kouryuu. “He freed Zero when the rest of us couldn’t.”

“Let’s take him with us!!!” piped up Zero happily, once again grabbing onto Vomisa’s arm.

All heads turned in her direction with looks of stunned shock on their faces. Double’s eyes were as big as saucers, then shrunk to slits of outrage and fury.

“That’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever said in your entire life!!!” he exclaimed. “Maybe he let us go just now, but I wouldn’t trust him farther than I could spit! He’s still dangerous, you idiot! The first chance he gets, he’ll try to kill us all! Hell, for all we know, he could just be a bug that Toy wanted planted among our ranks!”

But Zero wasn’t listening to one word. Instead, she was staring up at Vomisa with puppy-dog eyes.

“Ne, ne,” she said. “Won’t you come with us? You won’t have to be all by yourself and you can protect me some more! Besides, I need somebody to play with, Double’s never any fun.” She added a wide grin to that last sentence and Vomisa felt himself chuckling. Align himself with the ‘enemy?’ Why not? He could help Zero deal with her demon and he would be constantly traveling, making him a poor target for Toy to track. As long as he was making a difference, as long as he could make somebody happy, everything would be all right. Would the rest of Edge’s group agree though?

“Aren’t you afraid?” he said. “After all, Toy will want me dead after this.”

“Bah! Don’t worry about that!” said Zero. “He already wants Edge dead---” To which Edge scratched his head in distain. “---so things won’t be any different!”

“Well, I have an objection,” muttered Double. “I still don’t trust him. How do we know that this isn’t all a trick?”

Vomisa nodded in understanding and gently pried Zero lose. Everything Double said was said with good reason, but he had nothing to hide anymore. From now on, he would learn to trust. If they wanted him to prove himself, then he would do so without complaint. Walking over to Yoshime, he bent down with his neck exposed.

“You’re a technician, aren’t you?” he asked Yoshime, and she slowly nodded. “Then make the adjustments needed to satisfy your confidence in me. You’ve already done so with Double, so modify my system as you wish. I no longer have anything to hide. The only thing I have to live off now is faith. Please do as you wish with my soul, I await your judgment.” He paused. Something was missing. If he was going to begin his life anew, then he needed a name. He needed a new character to represent his point of rebirth. It only took him a second to think of one, something opposite of the life he had chosen to leave behind. “Please call me Asimov from now on,” he added. “I can no longer live by the name which I have killed under for so many years. I hope that I can reclaim that which I have given up so long ago…”

He trusted them.

The world dissolved into a blue haze as his system shut down.

…

…

…

Yoshime pried open Vomisa’s neck plate but Double actually kept his mouth shut for once. Maybe Vomisa’s--- no, Asimov now, wasn’t it?--- comment about Yoshime’s decision to trust the former government assassin long ago had hit home. Good. The arrogant bastard deserved to put in his place for once.

“Can we really trust him?” questioned Kouryuu. “I mean, maybe it would have been fine to let him go out on his own. Edge was right. If he really wanted to kill us then he passed up the perfect chance. It wouldn’t make sense for him to come back later. But Double is right in some aspects too. He could just be a bug.”

“All of Toy’s subjects no doubt have their own program defenses to prevent such defects,” commented Clef. “Who’s to say that this one wasn’t programmed to act this way?”

“Well, we’ll all find out in just a moment,” said Yoshime, finishing her uplink and scanning the lines of data. Her face scrunched up in confusion as she was met with an unfamiliar system label. Must be one of Toy’s specialties. “Hey, Double! Do you know what an ‘akuma’ drive is?”

“I thought those were only a rumor,” said the killer. “Supposedly, they have all the properties of a corazon chip except that special defensive programs are also implemented to ensure complete loyalty to the unit’s master. One of those little things to counter all those ‘insanity’ incidents.”

Yoshime delved deeper into Asimov’s hard drive only to meet more confusion. Akuma drive? “Damnit Double, you’re sure about those defenses?”

“Yeah,” said Double. “I know that the purpose of the drive was to fix up the problems with renegade mechs, so it would make sense that the Akuma drive added programs to prevent certain instances of rebellious independent thought.”

In seconds her scan was finished, but she had found nothing. What did it all mean? Asimov really was telling the truth?

“Strange,” she said. “I can’t find anything out of the ordinary. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say our friend here just has a corazon chip. If he really did have defenses of any sort, then he defeated them all by himself.”

…

…

…

Vomisa had betrayed him. Toy sat unmoving in his great throne, wondering if things would still come together. Just because this happened didn’t mean that---

“Toy-sama,” stated Yujin as he materialized on the floor. “I’m sure you’ve heard by now that Vomisa has switched alliances. I told you we should have upgraded him with the new version of the Akuma drive, just like we did to Yuusuke.”

Toy didn’t respond at first. What next? What should he do next? Would everything still work as planned? This was becoming too complicated, too troublesome. If only the Sacred Goddess hadn’t sealed herself away in Kazuyuki’s prison. Didn’t she realize that she was not the one who would fulfill the prophecy and break the world? Everything would have been so much simpler if she had never left.

“Order the construction of the upgraded Vomisa model,” he said at last. “Use the upgraded drive. There will be no more mistakes this time.”

“Yes, Toy-sama,” replied Yujin. “I hope that you will entrust me next time to carry out such a mission.”

The emperor watched his general fade away with disdain. How would Yujin fit into the whole equation? Surely this rivalry he held with Edge would be of no help at all. Would he be able to depend on him when the time came to act? He knew only one thing. Edge could not die a martyr. His friends could not carry out his dream without him, or with him for that matter. The Temple of Ordeal could not be discovered, that was essential to his plans.

If he was patient though, if he could wait a little longer, then everything would be all right.

…

…

…

…

…

“***’Programa de Sueno’ loaded. Time until activation: 1008000 cycles.”

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

End “The Beast Awakes”