by Parker, Jack
"Impossible," whispered Aaron as he tried to get his Geno back on its feet. "In just two passes…she took out all eight legs. I didn't even have time to get the other guns out."
Ray wasn't done, however. Just as she pulled into a stop, her Geno quickly transformed into its humanoid form, jumping into the air and spinning around. Its arm was pulled back for a punch, and as it came down on the spider's back, it thrust its fist into the machine, ripping through some of the metal. Sparks began to shoot out as she pulled her fist out, quickly jumping back into the air. Her Geno transformed once again, becoming its aerial form, soaring through the sky above the massive spider.
"Damn," cursed Aaron as he watched a few vital signs flash on his monitor. His Geno was beginning to lose power. That last hit had really damaged it internally. He still had a few guns left though. In a last ditch effort, he released every remaining gun he had, sending bullets and rockets flying everywhere. Ray read every projection, completely focused on one thing and one thing only: the need to win. She wasn't going to let anyone beat her in Geno battling. Not Ramirez and not this man.
"Ray," called out Brian as his Geno was soon seen in the sky near hers. "We have an idea."
"A sonic boom, I know," she said, watching as Leon and Abby soon joined them. "I was watching the whole battle. I know what you wanted to do. Let's try it." They dodged the rest of the bullets and soon didn't care if they were hit or not. A few more holes wouldn't hurt them too much.
"Ready?" asked Abby as they all got into position, flying side by side.
"Anytime," responded Ray as she put her hand out towards the switch.
"Now!" Abby shouted, and they all broke the sound barrier, racing towards the now stationary Geno that was running out of ammunition. They all swooped down as close as they could get to it and passed it completely, nearly skimming the top. The sonic boom that followed was enormous, the current of wind being too much for the piece of metal to take. It was flipped over, rolling once before falling to its stomach.
Aaron rubbed his head, a glare on his face as he watched the ace knight land her Geno, switching it back to the ground form. He was starting to get angry. He had taken down three knights at once, and now he was having trouble with basically just one. She had taken out his stealth transmitter, she had disabled his legs, and thanks to her, they tipped his Geno and sent it rolling. What was so different about this one knight?
"Damn you," he cursed, trying to get something to work. "I'm not done yet!" He had one last machine gun. He was focusing all his Geno's power into bringing up that one last gun, his last means of defense. He couldn't lose. He just couldn't. Ramirez would kill him if he failed. He would much rather die during the battle than face what Ramirez had in store for him.
Ray's Geno crouched down a little as two side panels flipped out, each one having a gun on it. However, they weren't the guns that had been seen before. These ones were very different. They were very sleek and silver, gleaming in the bright sun above them. They resembled laser cannons, similar in style to the one Ramirez had, only these were a bit smaller. Both of them began charging, the inside of the barrels glowing a soft pink color. Aaron's eyes widened in disbelief.
"A…a four point cannon," he said, his voice shaking. If she has two there…then where are the others hidden on that thing? He realized that she probably didn't need all four. After all, two points of a four point cannon were enough to deal with. They were far beyond his Geno's capabilities. He began desperately trying to get the machine gun up and running. If he could attack her before it finished charging, he would have a chance. She had to remain stationary while charging it.
"Ray, don't!" shouted Brian over the communication link. "Your Geno can't take it. You'll rip the armor off."
"I don't care," she stated. "It's better than letting you all die. Everything will be fine. My Geno should have enough energy left to at least walk."
"This better finish it," stated Abby. "If it doesn't…"
"It will," stated Ray, her eyes and mind solely focused on charging her cannons. "No one ever escapes a four point cannon."
Aaron almost had the machine gun ready. He was just waiting for it to lock and fire. He wasn't going to give up. He couldn't. The stakes were too high. He had to win this. He had to go back victorious. He didn't want to die yet.
"I won't lose," he stated. "I won't lose!" The machine gun locked and fired, sending a wave of bullets towards Ray.
"R.C!" shouted Abby as she watched the bullets race towards her friend. Ray only smirked as her cannons fired. Everything seemed to stop in that one moment, as if the cannons had drained the sound out of everything. The machine gun bullets were quickly absorbed in the white hot light as it flew towards the immobile spider Geno. Both beams smacked into it, ripping apart metal and circuits. It melded some of the armor together, the heat being so intense. Luckily for Aaron, she hadn't aimed at the cockpit. That didn't stop the heat though, and in no way did it mean that he was safe.
In only a matter of seconds, the beams died out. The light had been so intense that Ray's Geno had been nothing more than a shadow against it. However, they now saw just what the assault had done. The armor was falling off of her Geno's body, the main frame being very visible in the light of the sun. One of the glass eyes had been blown out, the pieces spread out in the sands.
The cockpit slowly opened after her Geno fell to its stomach, and she quickly jumped out. She ran to the fallen spider that no longer looked like what it had been. It was now just a smoking pile of metal and wires. However, the cockpit was still intact. She had made sure of that. She wanted to kill this man personally. She would get back at him for what he had done, for the lives he had taken, for the people he had made suffer.
She jumped onto the cockpit, the cover already loose from the onslaught of white light. She reached to her backpack and pulled out a gun, her finger already on the trigger. Abby and Brian, along with Leon, were getting out of their Genos, running towards her. They weren't telling her to stop. They probably wanted this just as badly as she did.
She threw open the cockpit cover and looked down into the face of a young man, his eyes closed, his auburn hair shading them from the sun. She quickly began to wonder if he was still alive, but the rise and fall of his chest was evidence that he was. She quickly lifted the gun and aimed for his head, but something stopped her.
"Aaron?" called a concerned voice over this man's communication link. "Aaron, are you alright? Please answer me. Aaron? Aaron?"
Ray's hand began to shake as she held the pistol, still aiming it at Aaron's head. This one man had caused her so much pain in just a few days. He had taken eight innocent lives, eight of her dearest friends. He didn't deserve to live…did he?
"Andy…" she whispered, still hearing his voice as he called out to someone who couldn't hear him. Could she really do it after hearing his voice filled with so much concern? Could she take someone that the fifteen year old cared so much about?
"Do it," came a deep voice, drawing her eyes to the man her gun was pointed at. "Just do it. Kill me." Ray's hand stopped shaking, her finger tightening on the trigger. Andy was still calling out to Aaron, and by now the others had gotten there, standing around the cockpit. None of them were saying anything. They weren't encouraging her, but they weren't stopping her either. What was she supposed to do in this situation?
"Ray?" questioned Abby in confusion. Hadn't this been the whole reason they were fighting? Hadn't Ray vowed that he wouldn't leave alive? Why was she hesitating?
"Just kill me," said Aaron again, his hazel eyes lacking emotion. "It's better than going back to the base…than facing Ramirez." Ray's hand began shaking again. She quickly clenched her pistol tightly, and Aaron flinched, but she lowered it not long after.
Everyone stared at her, confused. What was she doing? Andy's voice filtered in so clearly in the silence, and Ray began feeling worse and worse about what she had nearly done.
"You…you know Andy, right?" she asked rather s
oftly, drawing a startled look from Aaron.
"Yes, but…" he began, but he stopped when he saw Ray smile. It was an ironic one, but it was a smile nonetheless.
"Then I can't do it," she told him. "I can't kill you. It would be like…killing his brother." Everyone but Aaron now understood why she wasn't pulling the trigger.
"What?" he questioned, still seeming confused.
"Andy…lost his parents a long time ago…as did I," she explained. "We're a lot alike really. I lost my brother eleven years ago, and I can still remember how much it hurt. I'm not about to put Andy through any more pain than he's already been through. He's like my little brother, you could say. I've always watched out for him, and I always will. Killing you won't help him any."
Aaron just stared at Ray, utterly and completely confused. This was the girl Ramirez hated? This was the person he had been told he was supposed to kill? She was so different from what the general had said. She was strong, cunning, and she had compassion. She was about to let him go after all he had put her through. However, he lowered his head when he realized it wouldn't do any good. He couldn't go back to the base after failing.
"I'm sorry, but no matter what you say, I can't go back," he told her. "I can't stay at the base anymore. If Ramirez finds out that I lost, he'll kill me himself. Either way, I'll end up dying. It's either by your hands or by Ramirez's. I'd prefer it to be yours."
"I already said I wouldn't," she told him, shoving the pistol back into her backpack.
"But I…" he began.
"Just fake it," suggested Leon, drawing Aaron's attention. "You can fake your death. Make it look like you died. If you disappear, Ramirez will assume you were murdered, and he won't come after you."
"That's actually not a bad idea," complimented Ray as she turned her attention back to Aaron. "There you go. Perfect solution."
"That won't help Andy though," he stated.
"Then tell him," she said, hitting the communication button. "Tell him what you're doing. He'll understand."
"Aaron?" questioned Andy again. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah," he sighed, running a hand through his auburn hair. "I'm alright."
"That's great! Wait till I tell…" he began, but Aaron quickly cut him off.
"No!" he shouted, being a little louder than he had meant to. "Is anyone there with you right now?"
"Well, no…" he said, sounding a little startled at Aaron's outburst.
"Good," he told the boy. "Listen up. I'm not coming back to the base."
"Why?" Andy asked softly, sounding very disappointed with the commander.
"If I go back, Ramirez will kill me," he stated, almost shivering at the thought. "I can't go back, so listen, okay? As far as you know, I was killed in battle. That's what I want you to tell people. I'll probably end up going to Torran, just so you know. You can come and visit me, alright? But you have to promise you won't tell anyone at the base that I'm still alive. If Ramirez finds out, he'll hunt me down."
"I understand," said Andy, no longer sounding disappointed. "So I guess this is goodbye for a while." Aaron only smiled and leaned back in his chair.
"Yeah, I guess it is," he said. "And Andy?"
"Yeah," came the quiet reply.
"You were right…about the ace knight," he said, smiling at Ray. "She's not so bad after all. I'll see you later, alright?"
"Okay. Bye Aaron."
"Bye." He reached over and shut off the communication link, knowing that Andy wouldn't tell a soul that he was still alive. He was going to be fine.
"We better get going," suggested Ray as she jumped down from the cockpit. "Aaron, do you need a ride into Torran?"
"Probably," he responded while slowly standing up, but he quickly gasped, clutching at his stomach. He fell from the cockpit, hitting the sandy desert floor. Ray quickly ran over, getting down next to the commander. "Hey, what's wrong?" she asked, looking over him. Abby came over and watched the way he held his stomach. She and Brian had been quiet until now, but this was her specialty. She was a medic after all.
"Move your hands," she instructed. He did as he was told, and her eyes widened. He had a cut there, spreading from one hip to the other. He was bleeding quite heavily now. Why hadn't they noticed before?
"Aaron," said Ray sternly, catching his attention. "You have to hang on. You're not dying after what we told Andy. You have to make it to Torran, you got it?" He only nodded, the pain reflecting in his eyes.
Ray quickly turned to her fellow knights with a request. She wasn't sure if they were completely on board with this whole idea, but they were her only hope right now.
"Can you two take him to Torran?" she asked, her eyes pleading with them. Neither one hesitated when nodding, their expressions as serious as her own. They were really going to help save the life of an enemy.
"We'll take care of it," said Abby. "My Geno was totaled, so we'll have to use Brian's."
"Can it get you there?" she asked, looking to Brian.
"It should be able to if I use the humanoid form," he said. "It'll be safer for them if I do anyway."
"Good," said Ray with a small sigh. "I'm counting on the two of you. And remember, this event stays between us. We tell everyone else that he didn't survive, got it? As far as we know, he was killed in the blast." They all nodded in agreement. Abby stayed with Aaron as Brian got his Geno ready. Aaron was starting to look pale, but he turned to face Abby, a question on his mind.
"Why?" he asked her softly, making sure Ray couldn't hear. "Just why are you helping me…after everything I did?"
"Because we know what it's like to lose the people we care about," she whispered gently to him. "And we know the horrible things that Ramirez does to people who betray him. We won't let anyone suffer from that fate again. That's why Ray has been keeping such a close eye on Leon."
"Because of Ramirez?" he questioned, his voice starting to fail him.
"Yes," she said just as softly. "She's protecting him just like we're protecting you. You should be grateful that Andy called out to you, or Ray may not have stopped." Aaron allowed a smirk to cross his face.
"I'll have to…thank him later," he said, his breaths coming more unevenly than before.
Brian came over in his humanoid Geno and bent down, cupping his hands. Abby stepped into the very large hands of the humanoid, gently dragging Aaron on with her.
"Take care of him, okay?" said Ray as she waited to see them off.
"Good luck," added Leon as he came up next to her. Abby only nodded as Brian turned his Geno around. With that, they were off, running across the desert towards Torran. They would have to pray that Aaron held on long enough. They didn't need to lose him after all they had just gone through.
"That was a pretty nice thing you did just now," said Leon with a small smirk. He hadn't known Ray to be all that forgiving. Perhaps she had more compassion than she let on. However, he still didn't exactly understand why she had done it. "I don't get it," he told her.
"What?" she asked, looking over the huge pile of scrap metal that had once been a proud and dangerous Geno.
"After all he did, and even after swearing you'd kill him, you let him go," he said, sounding confused on the matter.
"Yeah," she said, the word hanging for a while. "Hey," she began after a moment of silence, drawing his attention. "Can I tell you something? Something I haven't told anyone?"
"I guess," he said, his voice showing how unsure he was. What did she want to tell him? Why was she trusting him with a secret anyway?
"You have to promise not to tell anyone, alright?" she told him, making sure that her secret would remain a secret. "You can't tell your dad, Chris, Abby, Brian…you can't tell anyone. It stays between you and me, got it?"
"Alright," he said softly, curious as to what she was going to say. Ray hung her head before continuing in a whisper.
"Ever since he left the GRC, I've been meeting up with Andy in Torran," she said, sounding somewhat ashamed of the action.
"
But," began Leon, "you're from different sides now…right?"
"Yeah," she said with a small smile. "And the worst part is that we talk a lot about work. We talk about Ramirez and Gordan, about the GRC, about what we're going to do and have to do. We talk about everything. I know that it's…illegal, but we promised to keep whatever was said strictly between us. Andy would never break that promise, and neither would I. A brother and sister have to look out for each other, you know?"
Leon couldn't help but notice the smallest pinch of sadness in her voice. She was probably thinking about the times where things hadn't been so complicated, where people weren't getting killed so often. She was probably thinking of Lee and Andy, her "brothers". He didn't even want to begin to think about the pain. He would die without his dad and Chris. How had Ray managed to survive the years on her own?
Leon was slowly starting to see the ace knight in a different light. She wasn't what she was pretending to be at all. She was everything, and yet she was nothing. She had proven how strong she was, but at the same time he had seen her when she was on the verge of breaking. She was rash and impulsive, but at the same time she always thought things through. Which Ray was the real one? Was she the powerful, arrogant, and vengeful ace knight, or was she the compassionate, scared, and somewhat frail Geno pilot that was standing with him? Maybe she was both, or maybe she was neither. Either way, he didn't care. She was just Ray. That was good enough for him. He was slowly understanding why his father had said that she deserved so much respect.
"Let's go," she said after a while, walking over to her nearly bare Geno. There wasn't much of the armor left at all. "Looks like we'll have some explaining to do when we get back."
"Yeah," he agreed as he slowly made his way over to his own Geno. He stopped, however, and watched as Ray slowly walked over to hers. Her stride was so different. It was proud, that was for sure. However, it was unsure, as if she was just waiting for something to go wrong. She looked a little lost, in fact. Leon began to wonder if she had ever really known where she was going. Life had thrown her so many curves, some better than others. And what about that thing she did? How had she moved his Geno? It had been Ray, right? He knew he hadn't done it. Who else could have?
