A swift dash is all it took to cross the split pathways between the end of the Logistics Line and the entrance to the Qliphos Space Station. The connection between the two areas was a partially shattered ladder that failed to support the previous death-bringing servant who stepped down upon it. Beneath it were an innumerable amount of armored military vehicles blockading the pathway across other logistics lines across the city, destroyed beyond belief after years of wear and tear. Cracking flames and sizzling ash arose from the large field of destruction, burning brightly and endlessly to signal the hazardous coming of disaster.
Lyn, whose face bespoke repression of her former beliefs, was exhausted of all potential hope after failing to locate Alfaic. Not only was it the fact that he was completely out of her reach, but the combination of the truth of her existence with her disjointed loneliness began to take a heavy toll on her mental ability to focus, despite her tether forcing her to ignore it all. She couldn't, however, and the lack of their presence began to go from exalted to self-drained.
Behind the section to the ladder were a number of dissected and sprawled droid carcasses that failed to defend themselves against Lyn's wrathful aura. After she slid down the broken ladder and leaped down into safety, she found herself in a sheltered location where several walls were able to keep her safe from potential threats. She scanned the surrounding area around the space station, noticing several logos splattered across the walls that labeled the exact name of it all.
"D's Space Center," it repeated, which was concerning for Lyn in the present, because she and all of her allies had believed it to be named "Qliphos Space Center." The engineering of the painted logo put more emphasis on the 'D' in its name. As the sun shone upon the nearly faded logo, Lyn looked away and brought her anxiety to a close by seating herself against the closest wall.
She assessed her ability to carry on further, believing there was no true purpose in doing so. Nestling her head against the heated wall, after the sun had permeated it with enough heat before the shade snatched against it, she firmly shut her eyes to envision the ensuing hour that would come upon her. There would be nothing but the name 'Gemma' repeating inside her cyclical mind, and the disturbing characteristic of her creation from the Rot Mother made infected her with a poisonous mentality of uselessness. Ever since at birth, after being told to eliminate the Lords of METIS by an unknown voice, she found nothing at the end of this chain to change her noble ways.
And the flash of the woman known as Astra lingered in her mind as her potential true identity, snuffed out with time.
The overbearing and suffocating thought of it all was too much for Lyn to handle. She pressed both of her hands against her head as her black ponytail dangled beside her exposed thigh. She held it close to her, examining its fine details with the eyes of worry and wonder. She then ruffled through her black bangs across her forehead, followed up with the gentle touch of her hands upon her arms and chest. She couldn't help but continue to formulate the thought of the Rot Mother's existence and specific design she brought upon her, believing that she was nothing but a construct of imagination.
Though, Ardine's words still rang clear to her; but she was having a difficult time accepting it.
After taking some time to herself to attempt to relinquish the hardships of her past, a sudden worldwide calamity took place before her very eyes. The dark and gloomy clouds began to blot itself of its light even further, despite the sun's faithful glow illuminating the twilight vista. It was only a matter of seconds before the clouds stormed copious amounts of unknown black goop from the skies, descending and splattering with all manners of unusual unknown matter from within. As Lyn stared up at the skies, she noticed the clouds thinning itself as a pale black shadow cast itself over Qliphos Space Station, darkening and hardening until almost all light faded away.
While at first appearance the jet black skies were far into the horizon, but it seemed to be closer than Lyn had expected. It seemed to have a direct cut off at the halfway point of the tower, hovering its mysterious presence overhead like a plague hailing from the heavens.
Lyn rushed toward the space station's clearing, passing through the military vehicles to examine the dark matter's presence that rained from the pitch-black skies. After she skidded her feet upon sight of a large gelatinous and bulbous black mass in front of her, she approached it with unknown caution, believing it was an otherworldly phenomena that was beyond her control.
As she approached it however, the voices of unknown people speaking over another played out through her head. Their whispers began to stockpile upon one another as their volume increased. Once she got close enough to extend her arm out to touch it, she pressed her palm against it, revealing the extremely malleable and passable material it was actually made of; it surprised Lyn how soft and gentle it was to the touch.
Although the dark matter blob was not enticing in any shape or form, Lyn couldn't help but linger in order to examine the contents of it closer with her eyes. As she moved her face closer to the matter, her head eventually sunk through inside of it, rapturing her body with an unknown feeling of warmth.
Once inside of it, everything had changed. She was no longer in the midst of the Qliphos Space Station, the location she had came from. She was in what seemed to be a fictionalized version of it, sprawling with lifelike high grass and a colorful assortment of pastel colored flowers tickling her knees. Her fazed vision was reminiscent of a lucid dream-like state, where transcending dizziness was bereft of all manner of logic. Upon immediate entrance, she was shocked to realize that she was in possession of an older brown haired woman with white eyes, standing at the clearing of the grass plains with her presumed family beckoning toward her to join for a picnic feast. After realizing this drastic change, Lyn pushed herself out of the alternate dimension, crawling on the ground upon realizing that she had returned to the present day in Qliphos Space Station.
The entire idea of her entering the alternate dimensions was an unexplainable fever dream to her. She clutched her chest and pushed herself up, visiting the other larger dark matter blobs to examine it even further. She discovered that with each subsequent dark matter blob she visited, she was in possession of either an unknown Qliphosian man, woman, or even child. She concluded that the past memories of the Qliphosians who had frequented the establishment before it was even a military base, had amalgamated into a gelatinous cloud of negativity pooled by the Rot's direct influence. Memories of the fallen had entered Lyn's mind, allowing her to view how peaceful these times were.
However, all of the memories were at different time frames in an extended era; only one woman had viewed the space center as the same pastel flower field, while other men, women, and children viewed it differently. From an apocalyptic and decrepit wasteland, to an archaic museum and establishment circumvented for artistic purposes, there was no limit to what the other memories had relished what the infamous location was in the past.
Giving a light chuckle to the brevity of human life, Lyn realized that viewing the memories of those long lost made her seem not as lonely as before.
But she wasn't alone.
From the top of an iron-colored skyscraper building that collapsed in a domino-like effect, the GLAIV Droid suspended itself on the top, deigning death down below to all trespassers who dare enter the core of the capital. After securing its razor sharp spear with its right claw, the GLAIV leaped from the top toward Lyn's general position, giving her ample time to notice it and dodge with a swift backflip.
Lyn skidded through the ground to recover her fall, lifting her head and glaring intensely at the GLAIV with her teeth clenched in rage. The GLAIV stylistically spun its spear and roared at the top of its lungs with a mechanical filtered voice, simulating a polar bear's intense roar. The roar called more dark matter blobs to plop in the large arena around them.
"Were you waiting for me?" Lyn spat, ejecting her new droid battle saw attached to her wrist. "Where did you come from!?"
The GLAIV leaped in the air and slammed down upon Lyn, who held up her sawblade to block down upon it. The heavy force, along with an electromagnetic barrier surrounding the GLAIV discharged, sending Lyn into the ground with an astonishing amount of force. With the slow speed of the GLAIV's large arms slamming down with full force, Lyn hopped out of the attack and ascended the droid's arms, latching onto the side of its nape.
She began beating down the reddened muscular chest plate by hammering it with her sawblade, trying to dent through it enough to pierce through. But it was all ineffective.
The GLAIV snatched Lyn's leg and held her up in front of itself, dangling her in midair. After bringing her closer to its face, Lyn lashed her sawblade out, striking the golden optical briefly to blind it. After retracting to recover its vision, the GLAIV spun around and tossed Lyn at full force through one of the dark matter blobs nestled across the arena.
Upon entry, Lyn possessed control of a middle aged man wearing a soldier uniform, armed with a sniper rifle deemed unfit for close quarters combat. The desolate streets around her were brimming with ash and fire; all too familiar for a fatal conflict between nations. A tear through the dimension revealed the GLAIV entering from the outside, having possessed the appearance of an angry and disruptive general of the Qliphos military.
Lyn primed the sniper back and fired a piercing bullet, only for the general to slap the barrel aside so that she missed. He snatched Lyn's neck and tossed her out of the dark matter blob, reverting back to reality.
The GLAIV exited the dark matter blob, switching back to its colossal and intimidating height as it encroachingly walked towards Lyn. After it slammed down on its spear, Lyn dashed forward underneath its widely spread legs, slicing through a thin layer of wiring attached to its left leg. At it stumbled down momentarily, Lyn propelled herself rapidly in midair with multiple spins, gaining momentum to slice down a loosened jet black metal plate on the back of its shoulder.
Lyn landed safely, but was unaware of the GLAIV spinning around with its spear at maximum speed. She shoved her hands out and tried to block the attack, but ended up getting shoved through another dark matter blob. This time, she was more aware of the contingency to come, but she was possessing the role of a young boy with frail arms and legs. After looking up at the blinding bright sky, the child was greeted with a running father, charging at Lyn and knocking him immediately out of the immediately out of the blob with no hesitation.
After slipping out, Lyn seized a sonic grenade from her hip that she collected after bypassing the logistics line of hostile droids. She tossed it directly at the dark matter blob, hoping to time it at the exact time the GLAIV would exit. But unfortunately, the GLAIV anticipated it, exiting the blob from top with a large leap. It skyrocketed down upon Lyn's position with its powerful legs, sending a forceful shockwave against Lyn on the road.
Lyn was suspended in midair for a brief period, unable to move from the force of the blow. Just as she was about to regain momentum and recover in time, the GLAIV activated a laser-guidance targeting system in its left shoulder that hovered a red reticle over Lyn's torso. Before she touched the ground, the laser bullet blasted Lyn into oblivion, sending her spiraling toward the walls where she previously rested. Her back slammed against them as she collapsed on the ground, clutching her chest where a massive hole showed its terrifying work if it were not for her defensive futuristic armor supporting her body.
She barely had time to react. When the explosion settled down with the road's ash and debris spiking above ground, the GLAIV recharged its guidance system immediately, hailing laser after laser in rapid succession. Lyn clutched her wound and sprinted as fast as she could, dodging the first five initial shots. She hid behind a low barrier that could barely shelter the top of her head, unsheathing her sawblade with her right hand as her left held her wound.
Lyn timed it perfectly. The final shot was an anticipated calculation that Lyn made, using the brimming sound of a whirring bullet to make her next move. She jumped out of the barrier, rotating her torso with her sawblade held firmly underneath her left armpit. The laser hot red and white flash of light almost blinded her orchid eyes, revealing her intensified need for vengeance after her first defeat.
The flash of light was nothing but a haze to the GLAIV when Lyn lashed her sawblade out. With a firm slash outward, Lyn deflected the red laser bullet toward the GLAIV droid, aiming directly at its reddened muscular chest piece. Without any time to react, the flaring hot bullet pierced through the muscle fibers, blasting a hole directly in its chest. Electricity burst out of its chassis, leaving it temporarily weakened to attacks.
Lyn charged at the opportunity with her sawblade, slicing down upon its weak point. But the GLAIV droid tried its best to anticipate the strike, blocking with the frail part of its glaive. Lyn instead severed the droid's weapon in half and followed up with a piercing stab charged with red electricity from the intense heat and power from the laser deflection.
The GLAIV flung back against the might of Lyn's stab, tumbling it toward the military vehicles that were setup against the perimeter. As it stood up from its weakened position, it glanced at its severed glaive with its optics before retreating toward another shattered skyscraper building out of sight.
Yet before Lyn had any ample time to rest, she caught wind of the GLAIV from faraway, priming its guidance system for another laser hailing. The reticle snapped onto Lyn's toros, once more, prompting her to ready herself to deflect them; although she had less confidence in doing so as the distance between them made it much more difficult to time the deflection.
However, the roaring sound of a high velocity bullet sounded the end of the battle. A golden twinkle soared through the skies at lightning speed, striking the GLAIV's targeting system with pinpoint accuracy. The force of the bullet severed the entire weapon, permanently destroying its laser firing abilities. The GLAIV then retreated for good.
Lyn turned her head behind her, catching a glimpse of Ardine prone on top of a shipment crate with Claire beside him. Her left hand hovered over Ardine's rifle, presumedly empowering his weapon to fire the golden bullet. When the coast was clear, Claire descended the shipment crates, rushing toward Lyn with her arms ready to embrace.
"Lyn!" She called, rushing in for a sweet hug. Lyn's height was almost double Claire's, prompting her to arch forward to hold her tight. "We got you!"
"Are you okay?" Lyn asked, holding her tight. She didn't feel an inch of her previous loneliness after losing her train of thought of the past.
Claire held herself back and looked at Lyn, eyes locked like twinkling white sparkles. "I'm okay, I'm okay," She repeated. "I was so worried about you. I thought you were lost, and-"
"I'm fine, Claire," Lyn said, patting her brown head. "You and Ardine saved me from what would have been a disaster."
As Ardine descended the shipment crates, he held in his urge to run haywire with his feelings after seeing Lyn. But after seeing both her and Claire look at him moving sluggishly through the streets, he gave up in his shrouded demeanor and wanted to be upfront with it. The final four steps he took as he approached them were filled to the brim with strong discomfort.
Lyn released Claire and moved toward Ardine with a sorrowful, yet blank expression. Claire watched from behind, giving the two space.
"Made it here in one piece, I see," Ardine said, holstering his rifle behind his back. "Good to see you still kicking, I - uh..."
Claire pressed her lips together and gave Ardine a deathly stare.
"Sorry about earlier," Ardine said, eyes locked with Lyn's. "I should have considered your pain and worries, not my own. You've saved me so many times I can count. And I have a debt to repay you for that."
Lyn remained quiet and extended her right hand toward Ardine's. Reminiscent of one of the first human acts she had ever acquired as a new ability, she reached out for a heartwarming handshake as an act of forgiveness. She gave a gentle smile as the two mutually came to a silent agreement of an equal wrongdoing.
Claire moved between them with her hands cupped behind her waist. With a rocking posture swaying from side to side, her bright personality began to show in remarks to their forgiven status. "So... you can be kind from time to time," She jested to Ardine, smirking at her like a fiendish imp. "Not bad, old man."
But the main focus on her mind was unaddressed. "Where's Blade?" Lyn asked.
Ardine and Claire both looked past Lyn her opposite direction. They seemingly stared at an invisible subject behind her, prompting Lyn to sway and turn back.
Alfaic, in sword form, was hovering a close distance away from Lyn. Upon contact, Lyn's eyes began to glimmer.
There was much she wanted to say. Some bad, some good. But she missed him. Dearly.
Her mouth remained slightly agape as she hesitated to approach him closely. However, with the amount of time she had spent overthinking about his true identity, she chose not to make it a detriment for the rest of the others and herself included.
"Blade-" Lyn begun, but Alfaic quickly cut her off.
"I… I'd like to talk about this later, okay?" Alfaic strictly stated. "I just... need time to think of what to say, and-"
"Then let me at least say this." Lyn begun, eyes shifted toward the intensity of her passionate heart.
A hole in her heart. Just like the hole where Cethe used to be; only the void felt permanently impacted. There was nothing else that she wanted than to rebuild and fill the hole. So she took the opportunity to, believing that her next uttered words would either be the catalyst, or its ultimate demise.
"If I were to lose you, I would surely lose myself." Lyn confessed.
"I need… time." Alfaic replied, despite Lyn's own words reigning free.
His answer was beyond satisfactory for Lyn, but she knew that she had broken a large part of his resolve. Instead of interjecting, she picked up on his cue and accepted it naturally. "Okay," She said, nodding in understanding. "I'll... give you time." She exhaled.
With the four now reunited together, they huddled together and gazed at the entrance to the Qliphos Space Station. The mottled darkened skies amalgamated from the past memories of deceased Qliphosian victims began to gradually fade with time, revealing the sunshine brimming from beneath the shadows. As the flames of the fallen droids crackled around their position, the four knew that an inevitable calamity would soon occur as they stepped inside.
Yet they had to be ready.