• Published 27th May 2012
  • 5,543 Views, 845 Comments

Fallout Equestria : New Roam - Delvius



The city of Roam is tortured by ambient and open hostility. Finally, a Praetorian arises to protect the city like the Legionnaires of old, and nothing will stop him. Nothing but himself, that is.

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Chapter 13 - Predator

Chapter 13
Predator
"I don't kill because it's fun or because I want to, that's for sadists. I kill because I need to, and don't think I like it any more than you do."





We had been trotting down here for maybe an hour. The surrounding area had changed from a dirt and rock cavern into industrial sewers, but there was still as much mutated algae as ever. Tom and Tod had begun a war in my head that gave me a massive headache, but thankfully I didn't have to do much aside from following Predator's lead. Myst and Skyfire kept quiet, both neither having anything to talk about, or if they did they didn't want to talk about it in Predator's presence. For the first few minutes, Doodle had gone on energetically about how excited she was, but eventually quieted down since none of us were really paying attention.

I could feel the battle going on above, the explosions so powerful they rippled all the way down here. Every so often, there would be a blast powerful enough to actually shake the sewer walls, even though we must have been a hundred feet minimum beneath the surface. The shaking coupled with the slippery green moss down here knocked all of us down at least once, except for Predator, whose balance on his hooves far surpassed our own. Predator paid the explosions no attention, and since he apparently did this a lot, neither did I.

Even my hatred for him and this plan did not change the fact that I was a pony who needed to converse. Doodle seemed to have fallen asleep on my back, so I directed my attention towards the other two. Myst was still trying to avoid me, even to the extent of trotting directly beside Predator to do so. So I settled for Skyfire as my conversational partner.

"You know Skyfire, you haven't really told me much about yourself," I said. It was true that she had told me where she came from, and that she had told me all about the Enclave and Dashites and the like, but she was my friend now. I had to get to know her more than I did.

"Well, there isn't much to tell aside from what I already told you," She said. Despite that, she obviously welcomed the sudden conversation. The silence must have been too much for her. "I told you how I got my cutie mark, and my parents really aren't of much interest. I guess you could ask about my life, but really all I did until I joined the military was going to the Enclave's academies in Neighvarro."

Well, even if all that was true, there was still one topic I was immensely curious about. "So... what was your life in the military like?" I asked slowly. I was slowly inching my way towards the topic of her squad, since they obviously meant a lot to her. Hopefully we could reach that topic without her crying or getting mad.

Thankfully, she seemed a little more open to her life in the military in general instead of her squad specifically. It was a start, at least. "Well," She said, "It was a lot more fun than my time in the academies, that's for damned sure. And that's saying a lot, considering that's where I met the ponies who would become my squad later on. The only thing I really didn't like about it was the fact that I had to keep taking orders from people."

"Why?" I asked. "What's wrong with taking orders? As long as the leader's competent and tells you to do the right thing, I don't see the problem."

She snorted, "Yeah, but most of my superiors were asses. They kept saying that all the ponies below the clouds were diseased, irradiated, murdering, raping filth that we had to be kept away from. Whenever we went to the surface, they'd order me to kill a group of wastelanders just because they were wastelanders. I hated it... but I had to do it. The only thing we ever did that interacted with the surface in a relatively friendly manner was constructing the Volunteer Corps, and even that barely does shit."

"Didn't you say you had to report back?" I asked. "Something about them either leaving this place alone or attacking it? Because I'd really rather not involve the Enclave in this conflict."

"I can stay with you for quite a while, actually. Maybe until your mission over here is complete. Besides, chances are they'd shoot me on sight for being 'contaminated'." Skyfire replied with a scowl. "The Council takes a really long time to decide on stuff, even on serious matters. Chances are that it'll take them weeks to analyze the potential threat of this place, and then maybe another week just for deciding a course of action."

"Why are you still with him?" Predator asked. "Not only has he not lead you to near death, but you can also leave whenever you wish. The promise he made binds him to stay with you, but not the other way around."

"I don't have to answer to you, 'Predator'," Skyfire retorted. "But if you must know, it's because I care about the surface, just like Goldwreath. I always did. Maybe less here than in Equestria, but I care all the same. I never bought all that bullshit about the surface being completely bad. That and, like I said, they'd shoot me on sight." She inhaled deeply, then sighed, "That's one of the reasons I loved my team. They didn't buy it either. They always tried to find a way to help the surfacers, instead of just blindly following orders."

"Really?" Predator asked slowly. "So, I take it that you would have agreed to help surfacers the moment you heard they were in trouble even if you never met the Praetorian? Even if you had never met your team of supposed idealists?" Skyfire looked at him with absolute hatred, yet despite that she glanced off to the sides in doubt. Predator smirked, "Didn't think so."

"Hold on there," I interrupted. "I'll have you know that Skyfire does indeed care about helping these people, and she would have done so even if she had never met her squad or me. Besides, why would she follow me? I'm a terrible leader." Skyfire then looked at me with astonishment, then slowly put a smile on her face.

"I don't think so," Predator responded calmly. "I don't think she truly cared about the surface, and perhaps she doesn't right now. I know for a fact that she believes you are a good leader, and I know that she believes so even if you don't. But the question is why?" He stopped trotting, and so did we. Myst didn't seem comfortable at all this talk, but she didn't want to wander off. Predator approached Skyfire slowly, making her back away until she was right beside me. I painfully brought my broken wing over her to help her stand her ground. At the touch of my feathers, she stiffened, taking in shaky breaths as Predator neared.

"To that, I believe I know the answer." Predator said, then leaned close to Skyfire. "Goldwreath here reminds you of someone, doesn't he? Someone you... tried to be better for? Someone who made you care about the surface, even when originally you didn't?" He put such emphasis on the last word that Skyfire tried to back away from under my wing, but I held her there. "Another question we can ask is HOW she cared for this person."

"What's he talking about, Skyfire?" Myst asked shyly as she got up next to my pegasus friend. "Is he trying to say that... Goldwreath reminds you of someone you loved?" Skyfire cringed beneath my wing, looking around fearfully.

Then Skyfire looked at Predator. "Shut up," She said softly.

"Ah, so he does, doesn't he?" He turned away from her to look at me, then he laughed, "Oh yes, now I understand. I think that she's trying to care for the surface only because you remind her of someone who made her care. I believe that that someone is now dead, and she's trying to replace him with you."

"Shut up!" Skyfire said, getting up from beneath my wing to push a hoof against Predator's chest. He growled at the contact, but made no attempts to push her away. "All of what you're saying isn't true! Goldwreath helps me think about the right decisions, but I can do good even if he isn't around!" She breathed in shakily, "He's a good pony as he is, and he doesn't have to be like anyone else to be!"

Predator stood there for a moment, growling softly behind his helmet. Then he smirked, "What was his name? I heard you say it a few times before..." He looked up at the ceiling in thought. Skyfire put her hoof down and backed away a few steps. "Ah, yes! It was Breezetail, I believe." He then looked behind the shaking Skyfire and at me. "Yes, I can already imagine what Breezetail was like just by looking at Goldwreath. Hmm... yes I can see what you would admire about them both."

Skyfire reared and bucked him in the helmet, but Predator's stance on the ground was so stable that Skyfire instead fell forward into the dirt. She scurried out of the muddy pool and looked at him with a terrible expression. "Don't say his name! Or Goldwreath's! You don't deserve to call them by their names! They were far better people than you!" Then she looked away and leaned against me, crying. Thank goodness Doodle was asleep during all this.

"I know they are better people than me, Skyfire. But I will speak the truth, and I will not stop simply because emotions hurt." To that Predator turned to me, then said, "And the truth is that she loved Breezetail, and she feels the same for you."

My heart stopped.

Did Skyfire really think of me like that? And her and Breezetail... I had always thought they were just friends. I had never anticipated... never gotten any hints... but I had. She had referred to her squad several times to describe me. I remembered what she said to me back in the ZSI compound. I had simply never picked up on it. Now I understood why she wanted to kill Legionnaires so badly, and why she had taken to me so quickly after her squad's death. Now I understood why she apologized to him after she killed that juggernaut; she wanted to be better for him, and for me. She wanted to be better so I would notice her. And each time I would push myself and get myself hurt, she felt it too. Now I understood why she wanted to come with me, and why she made me promise to never leave her.

"Is... is that true, Skyfire?" I asked. Beside her, Myst looked on with a stricken expression before slowly hanging her head and backing away behind us.

Skyfire cried against me for a moment, then looked up at me with eyes etched with such pain and humiliation at the premature revelation that I could feel it in my mind. Tom and Tod had stopped their arguing and seemed to be paying close attention, leaving my mind in an optimal state for receiving emotions. Again, it was kind of strange how I had come to think of my mind ever since leaving the sable; first I thought I was crazy, then I thought some foreign beings were screwing with my head, and now I felt like I could get into the minds of others.

She said shakily, "Y-yes..." She sniffed, then pulled herself away from me and sniffed hard. I tried pulling her back to hold her close, but that didn't seem so appropriate at the time. She started trotting down the tunnel forlornly, passing by Predator with just a quick glance. A little ahead of him she stopped, then looked at us.

"Let's just go on, okay?" She pleaded softly, and immediately Predator began trotting along again and passed her without so much as a turn of his head. I followed after him, too stricken and shocked to feel anger against him for what he had done to my friend. I stopped next to Skyfire, who was leaning against a moss-covered metal pipe and letting out a few more tears. Myst decided to take Doodle off of me before trotting slowly after Predator.

"Come on," I said as I nudged her softly. "We don't have to talk about it. You can keep quiet if you want." I knew I should have been talking to her about it. I had lost Lighthouse and my home, sure, but... but I had lost nothing compared to her. She had lost her family, her squad, her loved one, and her home all in one fell swoop. I was just too... too shocked to do anything.

Slowly, she pulled herself away from the pipe and trotted down the tunnel towards the other two. I trotted along beside her, deciding it best to be with her instead of leaving her to follow us slowly. Eventually, she leaned against me and whispered, "I'm so sorry."

"For what?"

"For being such a failure to the both of you." She sniffed. "For not trying hard enough to do better."

Huh. She sounded like me, what with all the 'not trying hard enough' and 'doing better' stuff. I wanted to tell her it was alright. I wanted to tell her it was my fault for starting the conversation in the first place. But a thought stopped me. And that thought was the words Skyfire herself had said a little over a weak ago, when I had broken down; 'We let him get through it. He isn’t going to get over it until he can put it all behind him'. As much as I wanted to go against those words to comfort her, I had to acknowledge the truth behind the statement.

We trotted along like that until we eventually reached the others, who had slowed their pace enough for us to catch up. After that, we trotted together down the sewers at the same pace. I don't know how much time passed like that, with her leaning against me. Predator didn't say a single word, and Myst kept looking between me and Skyfire with longing. Every ten minutes or so, she would pull out one of the candy tablets and put them in her mouth. To my surprise, Predator would do something similar; he would pull out a large syringe from his backpack and inject all the fluids into himself. Each time he did, he let out a muffled grunt of pain. Doodle was STILL asleep, amazingly. Tod and Tom had, for some reason, not resumed their fight. Instead, I could feel them buzzing around in my head busily.

'I just wanted to break the fucking silence, and instead I get this? Why can nothing ever be simple?' I asked myself over and over again.

We continued on like that for hours, the only accompanying noise to our hoofsteps being Predator's continuous soft growling, the trickle of sewer water, and the distant roaring of the fighting up on the surface. I was actually rather surprised we had run into no danger yet. Either that meant my luck was turning, or the wasteland was planning something for me.

*** Magnus et Potens Roamanus ***

'BU-BU-BU-BUG!'

Predator's heavy machinegun-assault rifle hybrid flashed once more in the darkness of the pathway we had to take, about a hundred feet ahead of us. The unmistakable snarls of ghouls sounded again and again as their two dozen or so red bars winked out in pairs on my E.F.S. We were trotting down an old metro tunnel, where trains had once passed. All of them seemed like they were heading east, for some reason. Off to the sides were the remains of those old machines, wrecked and piling on top of one another. Within them I spotted the many skeletons of those once riding them.

Skyfire, Myst, Doodle and I were very tired. So tired we were lagging so severely behind him that he could have sat down and waited for five minutes, and we'd only be halfway to him. We must have been trotting non-stop for a full day at that point, with so few breaks and meals that even I, for my generally superior conditioning (at least compared to the three females in the group), was on the verge of collapse. Rather than letting us rest at the stations and tunnels which my pipbuck claimed were free of hostiles, he actually told us to move faster at those places. Thankfully, our distance from him allowed him to go ahead of us and take out any dangers we came across. Those were, if his counting was to be trusted, a hundred and seventy-two ghouls, eighteen radroaches (or cockroaches, as I prefer to call them), three radigators, and about six 'centaurpeeds'.

I had asked him what centaurpeeds were after our initial encounter with them (in the third metro station we came upon, on the evening of the first day we were down here), and he showed me the five foot long, carapace-clad, multi-limbed remains of a creature that was once a zebra. The worst part were the long, spiky tongues that came out of their mouths. Doodle expressed the most disgust, yet also the most curiosity about them. Myst snatched her away before she actually touched the thing's corpse. After that we continued along.

We panted heavily with each step we took, struggling hard to keep up with Predator. He was still wiping out the ghouls ahead of us, his machineguns's roaring drowning out the death sounds of the many ghouls it was slaughtering. We slowly made our way over to him, careful to not trip on any of the corpses (many of which looked like they had been down here for years) or any of the 50.cal casings Predator had left behind in his advance. Then the firing stopped.

Myst just barely managed to speak. "You... you think he needs help?" She asked, gasping. From her expression, she didn't feel comfortable even with the mere notion of coming to his aid.

"Nah... Crazy bastard survived stuff that would kill us several times over. He probably just stopped shooting to cool down the barrel or something..." I breathed in hard.

A few moments of the sound of a blade slicing meat later and the last of the red bars disappeared. A minute later, Predator came out of the darkness of the tunnel, his HMG's barrel smoking and glowing red.

"This isn't right," He declared. "Ghouls and mutants on the upper levels are normal, but I've cleared these tunnels several times over. There shouldn't be anything down here aside from the occasional straggler." He looked around the tunnel a bit, as if in search of something. "Either the mutants actually learned how to open armored doors and hack terminals, or someone's been letting them down here."

"Isn't the war topside just, I don't know, driving them deeper down or something?" I asked, still struggling for breath. The others came up behind me, also looking on the verge of collapse.

"No," He responded. "Mutants like these have no self-preservation instinct. Only possibilities are either people came down here and got mutated, which would be stupid of them, considering how dangerous these tunnels are, or someone brought them down here. Oh yes, speaking of radiation..." He put his backpack down and pulled out several plastic bags of the rancid substance Myst let me take when I had radiation sickness. "Take these," He said, then tossed one to each of us. He pulled out one of his syringes and jabbed himself with the needle, injecting the contents into himself.

Oh yes, these tunnels were irradiated. No surprise. The few radiation-removing supplies we had pilfered from the ZSI Roaman HQ were quickly drained in the first few minutes of entering the metro tunnels, and only Predator's seemingly endless supply of 'rad away' (that was what the rancid, orange tasting substance was called, I would later learn) kept us from dying from radiation sickness down here. My pipbuck's continuous clicking was getting pretty annoying; yes I knew there was a lot of radiation down here, couldn't it just shut up?

After we had downed those we felt much better. Not any less tired, but better. "Well," I said, "I guess it isn't really important right now. Let's just keep moving." The sooner we got out of these immensely irradiated tunnels, the better.

"It doesn't matter to YOU," He said, taking a step towards me. "If there's one thing living in the wasteland has taught me, it's that you never leave things to chance. But you're right, we should keep moving. I'd keep out your weapons if I were you, though. No telling how many more of them are down here." Then he turned and trotted at his own pace into the shadows.

The rest of us weren't so tireless, but we managed to continue. Skyfire was reluctant to accept any assistance from me to keep her from collapsing (no doubt she still felt uncomfortable around me due to the fact that I knew her little secret), but she eventually accepted after she DID collapse and couldn't get back up.

I couldn't tell how many more hours passed like that. What I did know, though was that Predator was right. There was something down here, I could sense it in my head. They kept asking me why I was so anxious to be as close to Predator as possible, and I told them the honest truth: if whatever was down here was close, then Predator was our only chance of surviving. That answer made all of them, except the ridiculously cheery and joyful Doodle, look extremely uncomfortable.

What really freaked me out, though, was that Tom was quiet. Too quiet, almost like he was scared. Tod just kept chuckling forebodingly in my head.

*** Magnus et Potens Roamanus ***

"We rest here tonight," Predator said finally, his voice... different. Out of exhaustion, I collapsed onto the slippery, soft green moss. Skyfire and Myst did the same, the two of them laying down in the far edges of the area. Doodle had collapsed from exhaustion hours before, and was now sleeping soundly on a bunch of luminous leaves that Myst laid her on. Honestly, the only one of us who showed no signs of fatigue whatsoever was Predator. Either it was the constant injection of what I thought were drugs, or he just had that much stamina.

We were in a cylindrical depression in the sewer system, where water from various locations would gather and and get sucked down into the earth where the water processing facilities were. All about us were beautifully luminous green and blue flora, ranging from translucent vines hanging down from the pipes overhead to opaque yet brightly glowing algae on the concrete tiles beneath our hooves. The water trickling in from the various entrances and pipes gave the atmosphere here a cold, moist feel that I absolutely reveled in. It felt so comfortable to the point that I actually buried my face into the moss and I felt absolutely no repulsion whatsoever. Good thing the stench of the sewers (which I had to endure) wasn't present here. Thank the Goddesses for the plants.

Instead of lying down like the rest of us, Predator instead began picking at the plants for various substances; mostly leaves and pieces of the stems, but occasionally he would pull a mushroom out of the ground. He gathered them up in a pile near a small river of sewer water, making sure they got exposure to the water.

"What are you doing?" I asked. I should have been angry at him. I should have hated him for making my relationship with Skyfire so awkward, when my relationship with Myst was already... strange. Instead, I just felt extremely curious. That surprised me.

"Brewing more mixtures," Predator replied, his tone tense. Now I recognized what was different in his voice; it was less raspy and more savage, and just an octave lower than normal. He set his backpack down, then pulled out various apparatuses that looked meant for heating and transferring substances. He pulled out a syringe and injected himself. The grunt of pain he let out seemed to indicate more pain than when he was shot back in the VTOL. "That was my last mix. I need to make more," He murmured to no one particular.

"Why? What do you need those for?" I asked. "And why is your voice different?"

He stopped squeezing the juices out of the mushroom, dropping the crushed fungus onto the ground. Then, slowly, he lifted his head to look at me. What I saw made me stare at him with terror.

Where his eyes were supposed to be there were instead two glowing blood-red orbs. The light shining out of them revealed a small area around his eye sockets, and what I saw of his skin was a surface of mottled, wrinkled, scaly and decayed flesh. His eyes pierced into me, freezing me in place as I lay there. Really, I couldn't find it in myself to move. It was like his gaze alone was paralyzing me.

"I need them because if I don't take any, then I will become something... different. A creature within me is constantly trying to claw it's way out, and only satisfying it's bloodlust or injecting myself with these deadly poisons keeps it at bay," He said quietly, his voice quivering with tension. Then he looked down at the plant materials gathered and sighed. "I don't have enough time. That last needle won't keep it away for long." He hurriedly squeezed out the juices from the materials and poured them into a large plexiglass container. Then he took the remains of the plant matter and piled them up at a corner without any vegetation. He pulled out a lighter and set them on fire, then put the plexiglass container onto a metal stand and heated it over the flame.

"That's nice... very nice," He muttered as he watched the mix of apparently poisonous juices boil. Then he fell forward and held himself up weakly on his forehooves and howled. He shook his head hard, breathing erratically.

I readied Tankbuster. "Predator? Should I be worried?" I asked as I took a few steps back. I looked at the others and found all three of them already sleeping. It really sucked that if Predator went all murderous that I'd be the only one there to face him. Then again, maybe he'd only go after me and leave my dormant friends alone.

For a moment he stayed there, scratching into the dirt and smacking his hooves into the concrete. Eventually, he calmed down. He looked at me, his glowing red eyes brighter than before and looking murderous. His eyes froze me in place. He growled, "No... no you don't have to be. For now." He got up shakily and trotted to his backpack. He pulled out a heavy metal block and laid it on the ground. Then he started pulling it apart, extending it and clicking it until it wasn't a block anymore.

In Predator's hooves was a very large sniper rifle. I knew it's model. It was an HEV anti-armor rifle, the same one my stable had, except this one was so heavily modified to the point it was collapsible. He pulled out several large magazines and loaded one into the rifle, then placed the others into his vest.

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked. What in the world was he going to do with a rifle like that in a place like this?

"Going hunting," He replied. "Like I said, either I kill something to satisfy it's bloodlust, or I take an injection. The mix isn't ready yet, so I'll have to look for something to kill. There's got to be a radigator or ghoul down here somewhere." He began trotting towards the ladder heading up and out of the depression.

"So, what do we do? You said we should rest, but we can't do that if we have to follow you," I said, feeling my eyes already starting to close on their own. My muscles were achy and shaking, and I didn't think I could have kept up with him.

"Then rest. You don't have to come with me. In fact, I think it's better if you don't. Especially if the creature within manages to get out," He said as he cleared the ladder and began trotting into the darkness of one of the sewer tunnels. "Don't worry about safety, I've got it covered," He said as he disappeared completely, his voice echoing ominously off of the walls as his form blended seamlessly into the shadows.

"Predator," I called, and he stopped and turned in the darkness, letting me see his piercing glowing eyes. The question I was about to ask next was a question I didn't really want to know the answer for, but I needed to know. After all, all this talk of a monster inside him... his unbelievable endurance, even in the face of bullets... and his disturbing knowledge of my companion's personal lives made me incredibly curious towards him instead of making me fearful and angry. "Who are you really?"

He growled softly yet threateningly as he stood in the darkness. I almost thought he would have just left, but then he said, "I think you mean 'what are you'. That's a more accurate question, as I have lost all rights to being a zebra. To that question, there is only one answer: a monster." Then he turned and left, letting his growling echo behind him as he trotted into the tunnel.

I thought about that for a moment as I stood there among the luminous plants and only slightly irradiated water. What the hell did he mean by that? I agreed with him, he really was a monster. But... while he barely had any emotion when he said those words, I could almost detect an extreme sense of self-hate within him. And what could he possibly have done that would strip him of his rights to being a zebra? If it was something worse than what I saw of him so far, then it must have been truly terrible.

I trotted away and lay down next to my saddlebags. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't sleep anymore. There was so much to think about... my relationship with my companions, Doodle, Predator, the war, what I would do about the Legion... There was so much I had to do and to think about that I wanted to scream. When I first thought of all this, I thought I just had to go to the Forum and convince the Legate to stop. Now... now I wasn't sure if I had to kill every single Legionnaire just to get to him. I didn't want to, but I would do it if I had to. The city as a whole was more important than just one group.

I should have been talking to her. Skyfire needed me now more than ever. She had never asked anything of me, and I still owed her. Now was the time I should have talked to her about... everything. My apparent likeness to Breezetail and the sincerity of her desire to help me on my quest, especially. In contrast, the awkwardness between me and Myst seemed negligible.

Instead, I decided to selfishly distract myself from my obligations. Veltrio's memory orbs would suffice. I fished one of them out along with the memory viewing headgear. "Okay, Veltrio, let's see what else happened to you," I murmured, then slipped the orb into the depression.

Well, I was used to this feeling at this point, anyway.

ooooOOOOoooo

The atmosphere in here was similar to the atmosphere back in Tekasho's memory, in the APC. Just like there, the air in here was tense. It was dark except for only the faintest glimmer of metal, and I could hear the regulated breathing of perhaps a dozen others in here with me. The vehicle we were in was rocking slightly and a lot less wildly than in Tekasho's memory, so I assumed the ground this vehicle was driving over was significantly smoother.

My host, Veltrio, was wearing his operative gear, if the gasmask helmet on my head and the heavy vest pressing down on me and the jingling of guns and grenades were any indication. Despite the weight of it all and how uncomfortable it looked like from the outside (if Specter gear was any indication), it was actually rather comfy and the vest and synthetic mesh themselves didn't feel like it would restrict my movement so much. Really, the only thing that made me feel even remotely uncomfortable was the sweat and moisture in my host's helmet, condensing on the glass of my visor and making view of the outside blurry and crystalline.

A light flashed to life from the seat opposite of me, hurting my eyes for a moment until they adjusted to the white beam. The light bounced off the metal surface of the vehicle's interior behind me, partially illuminating the dark figures of other operatives within the vehicle with me as they turned their heads to the sudden light source. Through their visors, I could see that they were sweating nervously.

"Alright," The operative illuminating the interior said in a scratchy, reverberating voice; the voice that his helmet assigned to him. "We're almost at the Forum. The Praetorian Guard have the entire area locked down and are keeping the citizens away. The Caesar's safe, along with the legates. Everyone ready?"

"Yes sir," Every operative in the vehicle said in unison. Then the vehicle stopped abruptly, eliciting surprised and anxious gasps from everyone, including my host. The doors of the vehicle swung open on their own, and the bright yellow light and warmth of midday flooded into the vehicle, rendering the initial headlamp light from the operative's helmet invisible. Fresh, cool air blasted out the tense and stuffy climate within the vehicle, and the breaths my host took in after were far cooler and pleasing on the nose. The bright warm colors of Roam's structures and flags and paint and logos stood in stark contrast to the dull metallic grey and uniform black of the vehicle we were in. I could see the foot of the mountain the Forum stood on, and I could see the large marble-laced pathway heading up. The scene as a whole looked and felt like paradise, at least according to how I viewed perfection.

Then my host looked over the gathered crowd of clamoring and worried zebras, all standing and leaning against a concrete barricade behind which stood a line of serious-faced, brightly dressed, armored zebras armed with tall energy lances along their backs and energy gladiuses and metal shields in their forehooves. The crowd didn't seem to be rioting, instead it seemed like they were simply very worried about what was happening. And considering the dozen or so heavily armed VTOLs I saw fly by above us and hover up the mountain, whatever it was was very serious. The tension coming from that scene alone flooded into my host with much more force than the previous tension.

The operative who had flashed the light got up and out of the vehicle. Just like Madran's, his helmet had similar grayish plumes on it arching back to front. On his chest was the veteran operative logo that I had seen on Veltrio in Tekasho's memory. He turned to face us, still looking on at the scene with worry and anxiety. "Alright operatives, get to your positions. Let's breach the underground maintenance facility and take out those infiltrators. Who knows what they're doing down there." Considering how he spoke to us as though we were his subordinates, I assumed that this was before Veltrio himself became a veteran operative.

The veteran drew himself up, then said in a tone much more authoritative, "Operatives, formation!" All of us got out at that, and our number was revealed to be nine; one squad leader and eight subordinates: a contubernium.

The noise of all the activity became louder with each step we took as we trotted down the street in formation towards the Forum. There were as many military vehicles parked around here as there were civilian, although it felt like this was a natural, everyday thing rather than a restriction only to this event, whatever it was. My host took in the towering majestic structure of the Forum on it's mountain, which was blooming with beautiful green grass and flowers along it's slopes and trees on it's steep sides. Seeing it now, in all it's pre-apocalyptic beauty, made me want Veltrio to keep staring at it.

But he had seen it many times before, and as such it's beauty for him was lessened. What he seemed to be paying attention to as he trotted along with the others were the numerous gathered VTOLs patrolling above the mountain and the Praetorians keeping the crowd at bay. He looked to the side, and I saw another team of operatives emerge from another street in between two skyscrapers.

We reached the crowd, but instead of having to push our way through the people instead moved to the sides to make a straight path for us all the way to the guard line. They bowed their heads respectfully and gave us soft smiles as we trotted by, and they did the same for the second team right behind us.

As the veteran operative leading our squad reached the Praetorians, the nearest guard stepped forward, and we stopped uniformly. Our squad leader stepped forward as well, and at the exact same moment they both touched a forehoof to their own chests and said, "Ave."

They nodded to one another, then the Praetorian turned and trotted up the wide staircase leading up. Every single guard on the two sides of the gap he left all took one step to their respective side with such uniformity and discipline that they must have practiced doing this for recreation or something. With the gap wide enough for us to trot through, we ascended the pristine, purely white marble staircase after him. After the second team had entered the gap behind us, the guards then stepped back in to close it.

Instead of admiring the beauty and strange serenity of the gardens and statues to the side of the marble stairs, Veltrio and the other operatives instead showed more signs of anxiety than they did back in the vehicle or during the trot here. I couldn't imagine what was possibly causing all this anxiety and tension. Really, take away the steel-clad Legionnaires rappelling down ropes from the overhead aircraft by the dozens, the aircraft themselves, and the giant Praetorian mechs patrolling up and down the stairs, and the Forum would have looked like a freaking five-star hotel. A very heavily defended hotel, as the Praetorians I saw patrolling around with the mechs seemed to be patrolling out of routine instead out of whatever security measures the situation called for.

"The situation is bad," The Praetorian said all of a sudden, yet in a manner fully anticipated by the veteran. For us non-veteran operatives, though, the sudden declaration caused our already twitchy and nervous bodies quite a stir. "I'm sure the ZIB already told you what's going on, so I will simply get to it. The Equestrian spec ops teams down in maintenance number at around two dozen, and they've been down there since early this morning. How they got in is a mystery, but we have confirmed that they have cleared out the entire place of our personnel. The area is populated by nothing but hostiles."

"Weapons free, then," The veteran surmised. "Go in, take 'em out, disarm the balefire bomb, take any survivors hostage and interrogate them for answers, then done." He sounded rather confident; he was a veteran after all, surely he had gone through several situations like this.

And a balefire bomb? So that's what all this was about. This must have been the incident Zaita had told me about. Strangely, instead of worrying me, that revelation relaxed me. I knew for a fact that the detonation attempt had not been successful; the Forum was, after all, the main base of operations of the Legion, and if my dreams were any indication the Forum as it was now was completely unscathed saved for the ravages of two-hundred years without maintenance. I didn't worry about the Forum, now I worried about the Equestrian teams down there. I may have given my loyalties to Roam in all I have done, but I was an Equestrian at heart. I guess you could say I was a little worried for my fellow ponies.

"Perhaps," The Praetorian said softly. "The Caesar would prefer, though, that as few people as possible are informed of the true circumstances of this event. The public simply believe that there was a major accident with one of the maintenance teams and that we have to clean it up."

About halfway up the first flight of stairs we trotted off and onto a dirt path leading into one of the gardens. A felt a little peeved at Veltrio's gasmask helmet, trapping the stench of his sweat in and keeping the aroma of the flowers out. Eventually we reached an arched doorway built partway into a tunnel that dug into the mountain side. Another two Praetorians stood guard on each side of the door. While Veltrio's squad took positions outside of this door, the Praetorian left us and lead the other team off to another entrance.

"Bonam fortuna," He said as he trotted away and lead the other team to their position.

When Veltrio's squad had finished setting up the explosives on the door (it was locked, and just like Balaclava said, trying to punch it down wouldn't work), they waited. A while later, their was a single beep from each of our helmets, and my host looked down at a small text on the lower left corner of his visor: 'Network link activated', it said.

"Alright," The veteran started, "Remember your training and stick together. If we have to split up, we split up in groups. Watch your corners and keep your hooves on the trigger. We can NOT fail this, gentlecolts. The fate of the Nation depends on this." My host gulped nervously but nodded, then closed his eyes and took in a hot, feverish breath. I may not have felt it, but I was sure the nervousness was absolutely killing my host.

"Activate Network HUDs," The veteran ordered, then pressed the button the Specters pressed to darken their visors. However, whereas when the Specters did it their visors simply turned dark and opaque or translucent, the visor of the veteran operative had a slight ebony glow to it in addition to darkening.

My host and the others did the same, and at once my vision through the glass became darker. Information streams flashed up in red on the left side, which showed such information as 'Entities within ten meters: eleven', while the right side showed it's information in blue text and instead said things like 'Shadow Corps. newsletter: Software updates for HUD now available to all non-recruit operatives'. A golden, gear-shaped targeting reticle rotated continuously in the center of the visor, and whenever the reticle would move over one of the other operatives it would turn blue. The helmet also now gave off this soft, ever present electronic hum, and the hum would go louder whenever Veltrio moved his head. When he did turn his head, small pieces of information would pop up next to objects. For example, when Veltrio glanced at the garden behind him, one of the rocks was highlighted in gold and something along the lines of 'Potential threat percentage in accordance to environmental scans: 3%'.

But as interesting as all that was, my attention was immediately grabbed by one disturbing detail: the high pitched signal. It was broadcasting into the helmet through it's own audio devices. As I recalled, it was present even back then during the war. I was quite uncomfortable at being in a memory where I got exposure to the signal, considering it's nature, and I was also worried as to how Veltrio would react. Instead of trying to get rid of it, however, Veltrio seemed to relax because of it. I could... feel it broadcasting from the other helmets, and the operatives looked quite relaxed now as well, even the veteran. I could feel the signal... screwing with Veltrio's head, or at least I hoped it was his head. The more my host listened to it, the less nervous and more confident he became. I could feel his muscles getting stronger, his heart beating faster, his blood pumping harder. It felt like what Tom had done to save me and my friends back in the ZSI HQ, except these operatives took it in as though they had been expecting it.

The veteran said aloud, "Ah, Lord Decarius and Lord Autherius' gift is wonderful, is it not?" At that, my host smiled and nodded in agreement along with the others. If I could have, I would have shook my head in blatant disagreement. I wouldn't have cared how badly they would have beat me up, I did NOT like this one bit.

The two Praetorians here didn't share their love of the signal, and neither did I. Instead, they looked pained. They brought their hooves up to their heads and massaged them. They looked to one another as if wondering whether the other felt it, then looked to us with an expression deeply troubled and partially shocked. They tried putting back on their stoic and serious expressions as they stood guard where they were, but I could tell they were still disturbed. I felt myself scowl at them, as though them not liking the signal upset Veltrio greatly. What really worried me was when the visor, which was locked onto them, turned red.

Now we took up position to breach. The veteran would go in first, followed by side-by-side pairs of the eight of us. First one pair, then Veltrio and his partner, then the other two pairs behind us. We brought out assault rifles of rather strange make; rather than the typical everyday rifle, these started out as pistol-sized handles, which then automatically extended forward and back to make the barrel and body, as well as the buttstock. When that was done, we pulled out magazines and loaded them into the rifles. That made me wonder whether the HEV rifle Predator used was self-modified, or whether it was made by the company who made these guns.

Then there was a beep from a device on the veteran's shoulder, and at once the door blew in. We charged into the smoke, the Praetorians moving to cover the door as we entered the long hallway with a flickering light. The HUD's left side gave off all sorts of combat and danger related information as we stepped onto the metal floor, and my central HUD outlined every single object in gold. The blue section disappeared, replaced instead by what looked like an E.F.S, except each bar had what seemed like a danger level indicator. Seeing as the only bars visible were friendlies, their threat level was at zero.

The first thing I saw that should not have been here was the dead body of a zebra mare wearing a maintenance outfit lying limply in a pool of her own blood next to a large pipe. We trotted past her briskly and without so much as a glance. We kept focused on the path ahead of us, storming through any steam out of a leaking pipe without any hesitation. Bullet casings riddled the floor. Eventually we came upon a three-way intersection, going off left, right, and forward. On the path forward were even more dead zebras, this time Praetorians who looked as though they had been killed while trying to retreat.

Without a word, the veteran and the first pair in front of us went forward. As if it were part of a script, my host, his partner, and one of those from the pair behind us went left, and the last three went right.

I could feel my host's body was ready for battle. Not just physically, but mentally. He and his comrades showed no sign of fear or anxiety as we charged down the hall as quietly as ghosts. It was scary to think what the signals could do to our bodies; turning us into unstoppable forces. There was blood along the floor, though it looked as though the bodies from which it had come from had been dragged away somewhere.

Then their was a faint pulse in the hum, similar to when a hovering vehicle, like Zaita, speeds up. A white outlined bar filled with blue appeared at the bottom of the middle, but the blue slowly began depleting.

The others became clear as glass almost instantly, and the only sign of them I could see now was their faint distortions in the air. My HUD highlighted them in gold, and that allowed me to see where they were in front of me as we neared a room. We could see a group of three or so dead bodies piled up at the end.

We all stopped instantly, right outside the doorway. There were five red bars in there, danger level seven each. They were spread about: two to our left, three to our right, the last two to the far right.

Despite our cloaks, we didn't enter. Instead, we each nodded to one another and brought our hooves up in front of our invisible helmets. The signal became more tense as we did that, like a bowstring being pulled back far, readying the arrow for a powerful shot. The reticles highlighted our limbs in a strange green. Then we jerked our hooves down, and at once the signal became so strong in my helmet and from the helmets of each of my comrades that it actually hurt me. Yes, it hurt me. It wasn't Veltrio's mind that was in pain, it was mine.

'Ah, refreshing!' Said Tod. 'What a lovely way to recover from that unpleasant encounter!' Yes, that was one of the reasons I knew it was I who was being affected, and not just Veltrio.

'No...' Tom protested weakly. 'It's not... refreshing...' I agreed with him completely.

What really disturbed me was what happened next. Sickly, sinister green light erupted from our visors, and I saw the brightly glowing green eyes of the operatives with me. My own vision was tinged only partially green, but I could see tendrils of green flying about in the corners of my vision. Every single text on the screen was replaced by a series of glyphs. Not zebra glyphs, these looked... unnatural and evil. Almost alien.

And now my host felt strong beyond compare. His heart was beating slowly but heavily, and his blood burned like fire in his veins as the signal flooded into his helmet with such strength it became almost deafening. His focus to details became so clear that I could actually see an ant crawling quietly on the wall behind the operative in front of me. My muscles felt like they could tear through metal with a simple push, and every breath I took was thick. To my host, all this was wonderful. To me, it was horrible and disgusting.

He felt absolutely unstoppable.

This was wrong. This didn't feel like anything... explainable. No drug could do this that I was aware of, and no cybernetic enhancement could possibly have been so advanced as to do all this. Perhaps Veltrio took it in naturally; he must have done this before, but I hated this sensation. This strength and power felt unholy, and every fiber of my being that was not Tod thoroughly despised this occurrence. If I could have, I would have forced myself out of the orb.

We de-cloaked and charged in, me in the center and the other two on my sides. At once, we were opened up on by the seven ponies in here; four unicorns and three earth ponies, each wearing an advanced looking blend of stealth armor and combat armor. Their dual weapons on their battle saddles dealt damage through our suits, and several high-caliber rounds sank into our flesh. Sparks flew up as some of the smaller bullets ricocheted off of our helmets and the meal surfaces about us.

But I felt nothing. No pain, no fear, no weakness. There was nothing but the signal in all of my senses; I could see it, feel it, hear it. I didn't even feel the impacts, nor even the feeling of muscle being torn into.

We opened fire on them as we moved in with deliberate slowness, the green light shining through our visors like lamps and the signal broadcasting from us like a terrible screech. I didn't even hear my rifle as it fired. We were a terrible force, like troopers of terror and intimidation. With my enhanced vision I could see the immense pain and fear etched in each of their faces as they tried to fight us: living, walking incarnations of the terrible signal. I saw their faces widen in horror as they saw that all that they did to us had no effect.

Just like with Predator and the Legionnaires, these ponies never stood a chance.

A mere minute later they were all dead. One of the unicorns had, in a desperate bid to survive, driven a knife straight through my host's neck with her magic. Without hesitation, Veltrio pulled that out of him. I didn't feel them, but from the sight of my allies' wounds healing, I was sure mine were, as well.

"These degenerates should have known better than to stand against the unstoppable," My host said in a horrifyingly evil and demonic voice; one that would have made bones crawl out of my body if they could have.

"These, my fellow Risen, are the type of people that the New World will have no place for. Only the strong, those who have accepted this gift, will thrive and ascend to the next realm of existence," Said another as we continued trotting to the other side of the room, to another doorway.

"Have you found the bomb?" I heard the veteran ask through our helmet's comm systems.

"Not yet, sir," Veltrio responded, his voice still unnatural. "We just ran into a group of degenerates. We're moving in again."

"Alright. Try to keep yourselves disciplined, my brethren; I understand the gift's benefits are great, but our Lords would like us to practice discipline in it's practice. If you can, try to get through this without using it," The veteran replied in a serious tone.

"Very well... sir," One of the operatives responded, then he sighed. We looked to each other and, as one, once more performed the same gesture that had activated the signal's power. Slowly but steadily, the normal elements of the HUD faded back in and our bodies returned to normal. Our visors darkened again as the green light from our eyes faded. It was then that we each became painfully aware of out recently healed wounds.

One of them groaned as he massaged his stomach, "Hopefully this fragile form will be improved upon when Lord Decarius makes us true soldiers of change." What the hell did he mean by that? What, were they going to intentionally mutate themselves? I seriously hoped not.

We once more charged down the halls, quickly and quietly. More bodies were found; all of them zebras. Whoever had attacked this place must have hit hard and fast and in the process took no casualties themselves. I remembered that Zaita had said that these ponies were snuck in by traitors, so I wondered what happened to those zebras. I felt an odd mixture of desire for their deaths (For betraying Roam) and desire for their survival (For helping Equestria, my home).

After a long descent down a flight of stairs, we eventually exited the narrow and dimly lit hallways and found ourselves on a catwalk over a wide chamber with dozens of large generators, all purring softly. There were narrow spaces in between the generators, and in those spaces there was the occasional dead zebra lying down near a box of tools. Just like the hallways, the floor beneath us was riddled with bullet holes and casings.

Our HUDs started getting distorted. Static screeched in our helmets, and it felt as though we had entered a field of potentially fatal energy. Our zebra E.F.S went crazy and started spinning around madly.

We jumped over the railings and landed quietly on the ground below with a roll. "Balefire bomb located, sir," One of my fellow operatives said as we got up. "In generator room five. Exact location unknown, we'll start searching."

All that came back in response was a broken "-gain? Gen-... four or five? What?"

After a few failed and slightly noisy attempts to get the point clear, we decided it best to let them figure it out. We split up and began searching in between the generators and machinery. One of them had protested to splitting up, but my host and the other operative had swept aside those concerns.

My host briskly trotted down an isle with dozens of generators on one side and a metal wall on another. The catwalk loomed overhead, groaning softly as though there was a weight shifting on it. Veltrio paid it no attention and continued turning corners in search of the bomb.

Then there was a distant and faint pop, followed a strangled yell. That got my host's attention, and soon he charged into the maze of generators in search of the source of the commotion. His worried breathing slightly fogged the glass visor, which now looked more distorted than ever.

He found it. One of the operatives was lying down near an open toolbox, a screwdriver stabbing into his visor and right into one of his eyes. More fluids than just blood oozed out of his head as my host inched slowly forward, cautious for any traps.

Upon closer inspection, my host found out that some kind of improvised tool gun had been crafted into the toolbox. A sensor module had been utilized to detect motion, and this operative had had the misfortune of not only activating the module, but also of looking into the toolbox itself. I could see what may gave gotten his curiosity; within the toolbox was a wire coiling out and into one of the generators. He must have thought it was linked to the bomb.

Just as my host was about to get up and continue moving, there was a shattering of glass from somewhere and the sounds of a scuffle. My host hurriedly got up and galloped for it. A few seconds after, the sounds stopped. That only drove my host faster.

He turned a corner, and there he saw it: a fairly small orb of disorienting colors, with shapes within that seemed to be in constant motion. It was clamped in between two miniature power generators, upheld in a magnetic field being generated by an improvised electrical field. On the ground nearby was the dead body of my remaining ally, a set of knives piercing into his neck and out the other side. The glass window above the strange orb was shattered; perhaps whoever the killer was had emerged from there.

More cautiously than ever before, he walked forward slowly. He kept glancing to the sides, at the different corridors and isles from which whoever this killer was could emerge from. As my host neared it, his HUD disappeared altogether, and a pressure built up in his ears. He was nervous again, if the moist and hot breaths he was taking in were any indication.

'So that's a balefire bomb,' I thought. I had thought balefire bombs would look... bigger.

Veltrio kneeled down and began inspecting the setup, tracing the various wires to their destination. The majority of them were dummies, meant to confuse anyone who would have tried to disarm the bomb by removing it from it's power source. Eventually he found the correct wires: a pair of plain black wires linked to one of the largest power generators. Not at all like the blue and red ones I had seen in movies and comics.

He reached behind him and reached for some wire cutters strapped to his hip. As his hoof touched the tool, there was an ever faint crack of glass behind him; one that I don't think I or my host would have heard had it not been for his enhanced senses.

He turned and saw a fairly lanky blue unicorn stallion with a red-streaked blue mane staring at him, a knife floating next to him in a faint blue aura of magic. His cutie mark was obscured by his armor, which was stained in the blood of the two operatives he had killed and those he had killed before that.

Although initially looking shocked, the stallion then jumped forward and flung the knife at my host with his magic. In the process, he magically levitated all the shards of glass scattered along the floor and floated them around him like a tornado.

Veltrio responded immediately, jumping to the side and ripping the knife from the magical field out of brute strength just as the blade stabbed at where I had once been. The unicorn landed in front of me, and my host raised his hoof to bring the knife down. The pony looked up with wide eyes as I brought it down.

Just then the stallion quickly reared and bucked me in the chest, sending me sprawling onto my back and sending the knife out of my grip. I got up immediately and charged him, only to have the glass shards flung into my visor and held there, essentially blinding me. My host thrashed and kicked and backpedalled as he tried rubbing the glass shards off.

When I finally got the shards off, I took in the sight of the stallion's rear legs, already positioned to kick me in the face. Once more I was sent sprawling onto my back, though this time I recovered far quicker and got into a fighting stance on my rear legs; a Fallen Caesar stance, if I remembered it correctly from when Balaclava had to fight hoof-to-hoof.

"So," Veltrio said, "You are the one who killed off my brethren. I will enjoy tearing off your hide with a hot blade and putting you on a cross."

The unicorn took a step to the side, and so did my host. Soon we began circling each other; him on all fours, and me on my rear legs with my forehooves positioned in front of me.

"I didn't want to kill them," The unicorn admitted in a voice somehow relaxed and yet tired at the same time. "Come on, I just want the war to end. Lots of people have died already, dude. This war isn't getting us anywhere."

"Hah!" My host barked in insult. "The war will not end, boy. It must continue so that all the unworthy will be wiped off the face of the earth, while the strong remain to thrive." I breathed in haughtily and continued, "All those who have died died because they were unworthy."

"More insane fucking zebra logic..." The unicorn grumbled. "What the hell are you talkin' about, dude? Can't there be peace? Do we have to use WMD's just to end this madness?"

"There can be no peace!" My host yelled and jumped forward savagely, catching the unicorn off-guard and tackling him. Soon we were rolling around on the ground, and continued like that until my host kicked him hard into one of the generators. My host ranted, "Your people, you degenerates, are unworthy of the New World! Your culture, your bodies, your government, your very beings are inferior and useless! We zebras are the rightful masters of the world! Only your kind's treachery ended Roam's rule over the world that we had so long ago!" Then I trudged forward and raised his hoof over the stumbling pony. I felt the signal grow strong in my helmet.

The unicorn looked up for only a split second before scrambling away. Good thing he did, as the punch my host performed absolutely destroyed the generator, in addition to heavily cracking the floor.

The pony scrambled up on his hind legs, then entered into a position similar to Fallen Caesar style. My host turned to him and laughed, then briskly walked towards him. "You're fucking crazy!" The unicorn said. "What the hell are you talking about? All of this crazy zebra mumbo jumbo crap..."

At 'crazy zebra mumbo jumbo crap', my host howled in rage and charged him with all the speed he could muster. And considering his heightened physical prowess, that was a lot.

The unicorn let loose one of his hooves, aiming for my helmet. I blocked it with one of my forelegs, which then bent so horrifically inwards I was sure my host could never use it again.

But from my leg came the sound of metal. Really, as the pony drew his hoof back, hissing in pain, he stared in disbelief at my host's leg as it slowly but steadily reformed into it's original shape. "Hahaha," My host laughed, to the stallion's horror. "Your people believe they have accomplished so much with your 'Project Steelpony'. Perhaps you have, but we are masters of cybernetics as well!" Then I reared and bucked him in the chest, breaking his chest plate and splintering it.

'His leg's made of metal?!' I yelled in my head. All throughout the memory, his legs felt natural; you'd think that a metallic limb would feel different from everything else, but either my host had gotten so used to it that it felt natural, or their technology was just so advanced as to actually integrate so seamlessly with his biological parts.

Then I remembered Autherius' memory where Veltrio had been shown to have had a cyber limb. I guess this memory took place after that one.

The unicorn smashed into the glass window; although his head and the majority of his body smacked into the metal above that. He slid down and fell onto the floor, and there he lay for a few seconds. Then he started crawling weakly towards the bomb, holding one hoof to his chest as he gasped for air.

"So very predictable," Veltrio said, then walked up to the unicorn and kicked him in the face. "You should have known better than to attack the heart of our nation." Then I picked up the limp pony by the collar of his vest and flung him easily into one of the generators. He managed to crawl a few feet back towards me, when he collapsed onto the floor.

After that my host made short work of disarming the bomb. After he had disabled it's power supply, he left the still glowing orb where it was. With the bomb no longer interfering my host managed to contact the others; they had taken casualties as well, though they managed to disarm the other bombs. Yes, as it turned out, there were more than one. A fact that my host had to confirm again and again before he finally stopped asking.

I trotted to the barely conscious pony, who was using any remaining strength he had to glare at me. "Now, I suppose I'll have to kill you, just as I intended. It's a shame I don't have any fire to heat my knife over, but I suppose I'll have to manage." I sighed and pulled out a combat knife, one of my many, from a waist pocket.

The unicorn tried to back away, eyes wide in fear, before Veltrio stepped on his chest and pressed him hard against the floor with my leg. He gasped painfully as I put all of my weight on his ruined chest. Amidst all that, he managed to put on a weak smile. My host leaned closer, as though making sure he was seeing things correctly. "Ah, you smile at death? Good, good. Accepting your weakness is one way of serving us."

The unicorn barely managed to spit out, "No... I'm not smiling at my death." His smile became wider. "I'm smiling... at yours." Then he pulled out a yellow-green glowing apple shaped grenade and stuffed it into Veltrio's vest. The slack from when I had leaned down made enough room for the grenade to enter.

My eyes went wide. I furiously punched the pony in the face and flung him away, then proceeded to frantically unstrap my vest. All the while my host was breathing in, for the first time I had seen, out of fear.

I had just gotten the last strap and was about to take the vest off when the plasma grenade exploded. It didn't hurt actually, thank the Goddesses. I think all of my nerves were either burned or liquefied at the first touch of the plasma. Really, all that I could make of the experience was that I heard a really loud explosion, which didn't sound like a conventional explosive at all, and that I saw the green plasma singe my visor black.

I sloshed to the ground, and I had the misfortune to actually see my very much liquefied bones collapse like melted metal into my nonexistent ribcage, where my organs had turned to green goo. My rear legs still had some flesh on them though, as well as portions of my forelegs. If this wasn't the explosion Tekasho had spoken off that had apparently nearly killed my host (An explosion which had apparently resulted in getting a cybernetic limb), then I don't know what it could have been.

My vision darkened quickly, but I wasn't dead yet. Yes, I felt death was right around the corner, but it seemed like I was dying much slower than normal. No doubt because of the signal and whatever it did to Veltrio's body.

Eventually, my host closed his eyes completely. With his weakening sense of hearing, he heard the sounds of hoofsteps on the catwalks and about him. I felt the signal broadcasting from their helmets. It felt so comfortable, so warm...

"No... no, no!" I heard someone scream, them there was a dull thump over and over again, each coupled by a pained grunt from the unicorn.

They tried to get my melted body off the floor. But it was pointless. My body was dead; I had no heart, nor organs. I had the feeling that the only reason I could still sense was because my host's brain was being kept alive by the signal.

But even that couldn't stop the inevitable. They shook my helmet and called for me to hold on. They said something about a shaman of some sort coming over. My host tried to fight, he really did. But there was nothing of him left. Not even lungs to breathe or vocal cords to speak. Just a head, protected from liquefaction by chance and a helmet. His mouth worked slowly, but nothing came out.

And then there was a sensation of resignation in my head. And then, just like that, he died.

But even as all sense of life faded, I still heard the distant echo of the signal.

ooooOOOOoooo

I peeled my eyes open tiredly. As it turned out, my body had actually tried to fall asleep while I was in the orb. Well, as far as I was concerned, we hadn't been attacked, so I suppose I could have given myself a little time for rest.

So, Veltrio had actually died? That was... interesting. If that were the case, then how had he been alive in Tekasho's memory? What, had they constructed a whole new body for him? That seemed the most likely, considering how cybernetic he looked in his brother's memory. And what the hell was 'Project Steelpony'?

The first thing that really hit me was the smell. There was this wholesome, meaty, smoky aroma in the air, like cooked meat over a fire. I took the helmet off and looked around. There, near the edge of the depression, right against the wall, was a giant radigator, or what I saw as a radigator, pierced with a thin metal pipe and cooked to a crisp over a fire. It's head was gone; blasted to pieces before having it's remains cut off. Predator had used his rifle. I wondered if using an anti-armor rifle was really necessary.

Myst, Skyfire, and Doodle were huddled near it, the former using a stick to munch off of a piece she had cut for herself. Skyfire didn't seem to be joining in on the eating as the other two were; come to think of it, I had never seen her eat meat ever since I first met her. Maybe she was a vegetarian just like me?

With a soft groan, I pulled myself up and trotted over to them. Doodle smiled at my approach and got up to offer me a bite, but I refused, gently, for two reasons: I wasn't hungry, and I was a vegetarian. I was honestly a little repulsed that Myst was eating meat, but then again she did what she had to survive. Speaking of her, her only major reaction was giving me a faint smile before turning away. It was at that point that I noticed Predator's apparatuses were gone and that the ashes of the plant matter he had used were scattered about.

"Hey," I said softly as I sat down next to Skyfire, who was staring into the flame dancing around in front of her.

"Hey," She responded blankly, as though she was deeply thinking about something. Myst coughed and got up, then slowly trotted away.

"Come on, Doodle. Let's leave them alone for a bit. They need some privacy," Myst said as she trotted off. Doodle looked between me and her, then hesitantly went close to the patiently waiting Myst, who was looking between me and Skyfire with a rather sullen expression. After Doodle reached her, they began trotting around the far edges of the depression, taking apparent interest in the plants.

'And I thought she said she couldn't talk to foals,' I thought.

I turned my attention back to Skyfire. "Do you... want to talk about it?" I didn't. I honestly didn't. I liked it better when I just thought of us as friends, just like I had thought of Myst. Now things were weird between all three of us, and I had Predator to thank for the great majority of that awkwardness. Honestly, I was surprised that I didn't want to kill him more now than I did before.

She hung her head and sighed, "Yes... and no." She looked at me with shameful eyes, then closed them and looked back to the fire. "I don't know what I want right now. Three weeks ago, I left with my squad with the simple objective of finding out what was going on. Then when they died I just wanted to kill every fucking Legionnaire. Then when I joined up with you, I wanted to... to..."

"Get me to notice you, like he did?" I asked softly, and she hung her head even lower.

"Yeah," She said quietly. "You just remind me so much about him. You care about people, you take the fire for us, and you even think like him... though, he did have a greater sense of humor." She chuckled mirthlessly, then saw that I wasn't laughing, then shut up. "Sorry, I just... I just thought I could replace him, you know?"

"How did you come to like him, anyway? Or did you two like each other?" I prodded. Based on what Predator has said, I was able to determine that she at least liked him, but I couldn't say if he reciprocated.

She didn't answer for a moment, staring sadly into the into the flame. She looked incredibly lost and pitiful, not out of her physical state, but emotionally. I could see regret and longing in her expression. Despite all of this, though, I could at least take a little comfort in the fact that I was now truly trying to help her with her problems. I had kept telling myself I would talk to her, but I never got around to it until now. It was too bad I couldn't prevent all this awkwardness, though.

"I don't know," She murmured softly. "We started out as friends, really. Back then my life was so... so boring. Day after day of Enclave routines and propaganda; of them telling us how superior we were to the surface and how those who lived below would always be scum. I was sick of it, and so were the rest of my squad. Breezetail didn't just hate it, he actually tried to do something about it. After being promoted to captain, he tried to create a specialized force entirely dedicated to helping the surface."

"Was that his last wish, the one I heard you talk about in the fissure?" I asked, and she nodded.

"Yeah. It was being processed last time we heard of it; and that's saying something, considering how much the Enclave hates the surface. Maybe the official it had been directed to was also sick of all the Enclave bullshit," She said matter-of-factly, which was a rather nice change of tone from her generally depressed demeanor.

"So... you think he liked you back?" I asked again, careful not to sound too curious; I may have been the pony of her desires right now, but that didn't mean she couldn't get annoyed. And considering Skyfire's history of getting annoyed at personal questions, that was fairly likely.

"Maybe," She responded quietly. "He liked all of us. We were like a family to him, always cheering him on when his efforts to talk some sense into the other pegasi didn't seem to work. So really, I wouldn't know if he had a particular liking for me." She sighed quietly, "And I guess now I'll never find out."

Then, slowly, she turned to look at me. There was this look on her face; a look desperate yet hopeful, like a starved dog knowing it's next meal was only a few moments away, and was waiting for it patiently. "Do you... do you like me?" She asked quietly, eyes staring up at me and shining in the light of the fire.

I didn't know what to say. Surely, I liked her as a friend, but... but this was all too sudden. I had known her for just a little over two weeks, after all. And sadly for her, I honestly didn't feel that way about her. At least... I thought I didn't. I knew what I was about to say was going to hurt her all the more, and I knew that I owed her, but... but this was a matter of the heart. I knew absolutely nothing about romance, and it would be absolutely stupid to get into one.

Yes, a subconscious part of me told me to accept. I couldn't tell if it was Tod or Tom, or maybe just a normal part of my brain. Yes, I did feel a little lonely out here, and even back in the stable. Yes, I did want to be loved; but it wasn't me she loved, it was him. I didn't want to be used like that.

I didn't like what I was about to do, but it had to be said.

I gulped and nearly choked on my own words, but I got them out. It was a lot harder to say than I thought. "I'm sorry Skyfire, but... no, I don't. Not that way." There, I said it.

Skyfire looked at me with wide, glistening eyes. She trembled all throughout her body as though she was cold. She was taking in shaky, deep breaths. I looked at her sadly, wishing I could have taken back my words, or maybe even have accepted, for her sake. Myst and Doodle were watching us from afar, the former looking... conflicted; like there was a part of her that was happy about all this while the rest of her felt sad, and the latter tugging at Myst's sleeves and asking what was going on.

"But... but but..." She stammered, getting up and raising a forehoof towards me. Then she looked at the ground shamefully and lowered her hoof. I gulped and grit my teeth, trying to keep my own guilt in. "No... no, I... I shouldn't try to force it. I can't force you," She said in a horrible, fragile, weak voice; not at all like her typical bombastic and cocky tone. She looked at me with those miserable eyes and said softly, "I... I'm so... I... don't know what to say..." She took in a shaky breath.

Hard and painful for me as it was, I managed to speak up. "I'm sorry, Skyfire. I wish I did, for your sake, but... I just don't." I turned away, not wanting to talk about this any more. I had gone into this without much emotion, but now that I saw her like this... desperate and pleading... it just hurt to keep talking.

"Goldwreath, wait!" She called, and I stopped and looked over my shoulder at her. She was raising her forehoof at me again, as if begging me to stay. Then, once more, she lowered her head shamefully and let her hoof drop limply. "No, um... nothing. I... I don't even know why I called after you." Then she said with a broken laugh, "It's okay, I'm okay! Just go! Go and..." Then her expression turned even more miserable than ever before. She said with such a tone of loss and hopelessness that it nearly broke my heart as well, "... and leave me alone."

I nearly broke down right there. She definitely did, deflating completely and sobbing quietly to herself where she was. The other two approaching her slowly was what I saw before I turned my head and trotted away down a tunnel. I wasn't leaving them; this tunnel was the one we had come in through. I just needed to be left alone for a bit. The sounds of her broken-hearted crying and the other two's failed attempts to comfort her, and Doodle's pleas for me to come back, were too much for me.

All the while, each step I took became harder and harder as the weight of what I had done came fully upon me. I had just broken her heart. I did my best to keep my tears in and to just suck it up... I really did... but even soldiers need to cry.

After a minute of letting out some of the guilt, standing where I was, I sat down hard and whispered to myself, "What have I done..." Then I shook my head and slammed my forehooves into the ground, hoping to expel any remaining emotion.

Just when I really didn't want to hear him, Predator's voice said from the darkness of a side tunnel, "Emotions. Never did do anyone any good. That's why I keep mine in check, lest I compromise my otherwise unbiased judgement."

Slowly, I turned and looked in the direction his voice came from. The only part of him I saw (for there were no glowing plants in that tunnel, though I swear there were some when we first came down through that way) were his glowing, red, orb-like eyes. The rest of his body was shrouded in shadow, but I could tell he was sitting down. Unless, of course, the side tunnel sloped downwards, in which case he could have been standing up.

"You heard all that?" I asked with a sniff, clearing away my own tears. It wasn't really the most important question to ask, but I wasn't thinking clearly.

"Yes," He replied simply. "And I must say, I am pleased to see that you have learned something from our previous encounters," He said, then there was the sound of a blade being withdrawn from it's scabbard and being sharpened with a rock. He bowed his head to look at the blade (which I couldn't see), causing me to lose sight of his eyes.

Predator was a lot of things to me over the course of my adventure. At this point, I considered him a distraction from... everything going on with my life. I should have hated him, but, once again, I found that the anger and hate I had for him was... a lot less than I thought. But hey, Myst and Skyfire distracted themselves, why couldn't I?

Feigning annoyance, I looked straight at him (or where he was supposed to be) and asked, "Really? And what the hell would that be?"

"Not letting yourself be manipulated," He said calmly as he sharpened a blade I couldn't see. "That much at least you've learned, though you did let Madran get her way with you without so much as a formal protest. Still, you managed to reject Skyfire on an emotional basis, and so that success overshadows your preparatory failure earlier."

Damn me and my curiosity. "And why would rejecting Skyfire be a success? I just broke her heart back there!"

He looked up at me, revealing his red eyes once more. "You're lucky it was only hers that was broken. Had you accepted, no doubt if your strange mentality of 'owing them' had prevailed, you would have been lead on and on on an insincere relationship which may have eventually broken both your hearts. One heart, I think, is better than two."

Damn it, he was right. I may not have known much about relationships, but if there was one thing I knew it's that one-sided relationships didn't work out. He may have been a damned murderer, but damn did he know a lot about lots of things.

"So, what? Are you glad I didn't get into that relationship? If so, why?" I asked, the annoyance now very much genuine. His knowledge of this topic was... unsettling. And annoying, of course.

"Relationships are complicated, boy. But I won't get into the specifics. To answer your questions, and I intend to hidden meaning in the answers whatsoever: yes, I am glad you did not get into that relationship, and for the second, I am glad simply because you managed to gather enough wits to reject her." Wow. That was... blunt.

"And how would you know, huh? I don't think you're getting any of this from experience; anyone who loved you must have been stupid as fuck."

"No, they weren't stupid. They were good people, good people who made the mistake of trusting me." He sighed. "Still, I am speaking from experience, though not the kind of experience you are talking about. My experience is much more family oriented than stallion to mare experience. Still, it is experience nevertheless, and therefore I believe you should take my advice on this matter."

"What?!" I screamed. "You expect me to take relationship advice from you? No-fucking-way! I'd rather ask Myst or Doodle, hell, even Zaita, before you, you bastard!" Seriously, Predator expected me to listen to HIM when it came to my friends? That's where I draw the damned line!

Despite my screaming, he actually seemed rather indifferent to my decision, as signified by his, "Alright then." Then there was the sound of him sheathing his blade. A moment later, there was the noise of paper being unfolded. "Hmm...", He murmured, "'Pyromaniac: Inferno Edition'. Well, I haven't read this yet, so..." Then he cleared his throat and looked down at the pages of the book, which were illuminated just enough to be seen by his glowing red eyes.

I spent a few moments just standing there, watching him. I was so curious about him. Only a little angry, despite my desire to be more so. Really, I just couldn't bring myself to hate him as much as I should have. Perhaps it was what he did back in the transport for that Legionnaire, or maybe even saving Doomtune (Again, apparently). Whatever it was, I just couldn't hate him for being completely and totally evil, as I had brought myself up to believe. I guess it was just that the sparks of good he had shown had broken the otherwise completely dark image I had of him, and my screwed up head just couldn't keep up.

It was also at this point that I noticed a startling similarity between the two of us: we were both very much straight to the point. Whereas Myst and Skyfire, and perhaps Doodle and Zaita, had been keeping secrets and feelings from me (and perhaps still were), Predator had no such restrictions. Really, in my time with him I've discerned that you can ask him a question with a normally very complicated answer, and he'd just get straight to the point and give his honest opinion. No dancing around it, no hiding from it, no deception, no unnecessary words. Just the answer.

I guess that was the first bridge that established the two of us together. While I of course took a person's emotions and desires into account before answering, and he didn't; we were both blunt all the same. He was definitely more so, but still. It was strange, but it was kind of nice to know someone whom I could turn to for an honest, unbiased answer when everyone else's emotions clouded their judgement.

Now, turning back to the present, I found myself in a rather awkward situation. Even the fact that Predator was one of the last people you'd want to talk to couldn't keep my desire for conversation at bay.

"So," I started lamely, "Why are you all the way over here? Why don't you stay with the rest of us?" I know it was strange; I should have been glad he wasn't staying with us, considering what I had learned about him and what he had done to Skyfire and his... 'beast' problem, but their was just so much truth in all his statements that the logical part of me just couldn't help but agree with him on them. Perhaps that was another reason I wasn't as repulsed of him as I should have been.

Either that or Tod was screwing up my brain so badly I wasn't thinking straight. Ah well, I'd just have to hope that Tom was dealing with him.

"Why should I?" He asked simply and without any emotion whatsoever as he flipped a page. "I'm not welcome there. Skyfire doesn't show it much, but she absolutely loathes me for revealing her secret prematurely. I'll give you one thing, though: some of her hatred for me truly is out of what I've done, so perhaps there was some sincerity in her 'caring about the surface' statement." Well, that was good to know. At least she wasn't completely pretending to care just to get close to me, like I had feared.

"And then Myst. She also doesn't show it much, but she loathes me as well. Seeing as it's her only true motivation to despise me, she hates me completely because of what she knows I have done, and that alone. Although... now that I think about it, she also hates me a little more now because I hurt her 'best friend's' feelings," He continued. "I don't know what's with Doodle, though. Honestly, she's more difficult to discern than the three of you combined." Ouch. Were we really that simple?

He sighed and looked up at me from his book. "And then you. You don't show it much as well, and maybe you don't feel it much either, if your facial patterns are any indication, but you also hate me. In your case, you hate me for all of the reasons stated, in addition to showing you how weak you are at stopping threats from victimizing others. Like when you blame yourself for being too weak to stop me when I burned all those zebras and ponies, for example."

Okay, NOW I felt a little angry. While I would later on appreciate his straight-forwardness, at the moment I had no like for it at all. And I definitely didn't like him reminding me of my failures to save people, especially that night when he shot down that transport. "What is with you, huh? From the way you speak, it's almost like you choose your words in order to get people to hate you. Why the hell is that?"

"No, I don't provoke people to hate me, Praetorian. It's just that my words bring with it one fundamental truth: the truth hurts. If they get angry or upset at my choice of words, which I choose in order to display the truth clearly, then there's nothing I can do about that. They get upset, and often the truth lands on the dirt, unheeded and unconsidered." He shook his head as his eyes looked at the ground.

"Then... word things differently." I offered, and he looked up at me and raised an eyebrow (or, at least, that's what I thought caused one of his eyes to look a little bigger than the other). I elaborated, "You know... make the truth more appealing. Whereas you would say 'they're all dead', I would say 'I'm sure there are survivors, let's look for them'. You know, encourage them. Try to make the situation seem better than it is. Give them hope." Surely he could do THAT at least, right?

"That is a form of deception, Praetorian. Not only is offering unlikely possibilities a form of lie, but it also raises their hopes up only to break them later on." He got up and trotted slowly to the edge of the shadows, just where the light began to seep into his tunnel. "I am many kinds of monster and I perform many evils, but their is one thing I will never, ever be again: a deceiver. Deception on my part has caused truly great destruction, and if I could do it, I'd reverse the effects of what I've done," He said in a rather uncharacteristic tone of guilt; one that sounded... strange, coming from a guy who killed and slaughtered without remorse, at least.

"Aw, come on, it couldn't have been that bad. Not unless you caused the apocalypse or something!" I laughed, hoping to break some of the immense tension piling up because of our conversation.

He didn't laugh, not even chuckle. Instead, he growled softly and continuously as he stared at me. Still, it wasn't a growl of threat but of... well, if felt like a growl of reminiscence. The atmosphere suddenly became very dark and tense; indeed, all the sources of light seemed to become even dimmer than before. He stood still as stone in the darkness, keeping his glowing red eyes on mine. They kept me in place; I actually couldn't find it in myself to move, not even a little. That really freaked me out.

Then he turned with a snarl and trotted back into the darkness, and I could move again. "Go back to your friends. Tell them we're leaving soon. I must prepare a few things before I get back to you." He sounded deadly serious, as though me prodding into the topic of his apparently super serious deception had activated a very angry and very grumpy side of him.

"Predator? What's going on?" I asked, feeling as though I had crossed a line that even Predator, for all his emotionlessness, took very seriously.

"Nothing. Just leave. We must catch up with the assault as they move across the surface," He said, then sighed, "There are things I must contemplate upon." He growled as he turned his head around to look at me. Then his eyes disappeared; I guess he could control whether or not they glowed. A moment later, the sounds of his hooves went away as he went further into the tunnel.

So there I stood, looking down into the darkness of a tunnel. Back down the way I came, it sounded like the other two had managed to calm Skyfire down a notch. Still, that didn't make it any easier to go back to them.

Difficult as it was, I turned around and trotted back to them. All the while, I couldn't help but think about all Predator had said. I couldn't stop thinking about him in general at this point; not only did he pique my curiosity immensely, but he also seemed to be hiding something. Something that I really needed to know. I guess even he could have a secret.

And I intended to find out just what it was.

*** Magnus et Potens Roamanus ***

We had been trotting along down here for about a full day, heading north east. Predator had cut off any remaining meat from the radigator and wrapped them tight in some cloth rags he had in his pack (a pack which, I must say, seemed to have everything anyone could POSSIBLY need). We passed through whole metro stations and must have covered dozens of miles over that time, only taking the occasional break for Predator to go hunting again (or to brew more mixtures, I thought). Most of the time he'd come back about an hour later, though once he was gone for a startlingly long amount of time. We would later learn that he had tried to go back up to the surface to assess the assault. He had abandoned that effort when he found out that the tunnel was caved in by hundreds of tons of rock.

The sounds of the war going on above became fainter as we descended further into the earth, although there was still the occasional blast strong enough to reach us all the way down here. I wondered how the assault was going.

Just as expected, Skyfire had been trying to avoid me. Myst and Doodle occasionally tried to get her to talk, but in general she just wanted to be alone; even to the point of falling far behind us. Doodle was the only one with any true success in the endeavor, as her filly-aged vocal cords provided the perfect pitch to annoy even the most seasoned soldier into conversation (in fact, Predator had told her to shut up. She just stuck her tongue out at him, gaining a startled growl. She continued talking, leaving Predator to growl all he wanted). For the majority of the way to where we currently were, the two of them chatted amiably until Doodle brought up the topic of Skyfire's squad. The pegasus fell silent at that, and any attempts by Doodle to get her back into the conversation afterwards had no effect. Myst and I told her it was okay, and that we too had made the same mistake before.

After that she had asked Myst and I what was wrong with Skyfire. We weren't able to answer her; surely a filly of all types of people wouldn't understand the emotional background. Unfortunately, our efforts to stay away from the topic were rendered pointless when Predator simply told her what had happened, plain and clear. The three of us expressed our annoyance and anger at him (especially Skyfire, who nearly picked up a rock and hit him with it. Thankfully, we stopped her before she did.), but he didn't care. Honestly, Doodle's only reaction was a long, oblivious 'Oooohhh...'. After that she stopped questioning us about it and trotted along happily.

We were in a generator chamber now, where power for the electrical facilities was produced (in fact most of the generators were still working, providing electricity to the lights. Which was good, as the sewer systems managed to stop the leaking water that caused the growth of luminous plants in unlikely areas). Behind us was a catwalk overlooking said generators and leading back the way we came, and off to our sides were doors that Predator said 'we should be uninvolved with'.

In front of us was a large metal door, recently polished and cleaned, from the look of it. Off to it's sides were a dozen bullet-ridden corpses; a change from the abundant dusty skeletons we had seen along the numerous sewer tunnels and occasional metro track we had passed. The corpses were those of ghouls, unless they had been here for a really long time. Which, according to Predator's sense of smell, wasn't likely.

"This isn't right," Predator declared once again as he looked the large steel door over. "This gate was rusted to the point it couldn't even be closed. It was always open, for as long as I can remember. So why is it closed and locked?"

"Maybe someone down here got it back into working condition?" I offered. Predator may have known the underground pretty well, but even he couldn't remember every single door and pathway down here. More than once had we found ourselves at a crossroads, and Predator had to think for a few minutes to remember which was the correct path. In fact, in had happened so frequently in the past few hours that Predator himself was getting annoyed. And trust me, he's not the kind of person you want to annoy, no matter how uncaring he may seem at times.

He groaned as he covered his face with a hoof, "Maybe. Legion's been trying to gradually repair the underground. Wouldn't be surprised if they had sealed this section off so their Legionnair's could work safely." He got closer to the door and pressed the side of his helmet against it. "Oh yes, it's definitely them. I can hear them working... and... I can hear treads. They must have armor down here." He sighed as he pulled away, then looked over the entire area. His eyes landed on a side door on the generator floor, which was ominously concealed by a dark mist. "We'll have to take an alternate route."

"Why?" Skyfire finally spoke. Her question was quiet but it had plenty of anger in it. Still, I welcomed it more than when she was quiet. It just didn't feel right. "Considering what I've seen of you, I'm pretty sure you can break the door down. Why don't we just break in and kill them all?" Right after her question her expression turned from one of anger to one of realization. She looked at me, then hung her head.

I shook my head. Even now, she still wanted vengeance. I wondered how long it would last and what it would take to take that desire away. I didn't think any attempts at diplomacy with the Legion would succeed if she kept on going on like that.

Predator's disapproval was far more practical and less emotional in nature, but it at least coincided with the logical portion of my own disapproval. "Because," He said, "If any of them survive then they will inform the Legionnaires at the dam of our approach. I have been doing my best thus far to avoid contact with any groups down here, hostile or otherwise. Why do you think I've been taking us through the deeper and less frequented tunnels?" He began trotting back towards the catwalk, where the stairs down were. "I'd hate to have all those efforts go to waste because of your uncontrolled desire for vengeance."

She growled at him and was in the process of charging when I stopped her. I frowned at her so sharply and with such disappointment (yet with a touch of sympathy. I knew she was just stressed, and to flood her with disapproval now would only worsen her situation.) that she backed away shamefully, hanging her head as she got behind the other two. She remained that way as we trotted across the catwalk after Predator.

We found him staring at the door, growling softly, his eyes glowing. All about him was an ominous black smoke, or at least what looked like black smoke, that seemed to be crawling in from a small air vent above the door. The smoke was swirling about him and getting denser with each second. When we were about to descend the final set of steps to reach the ground floor, he stopped us.

"Don't move," He said seriously. Then he put his backpack down and began rummaging through it.

"What's wrong, mister Predator?" Doodle asked with a fascination only a foal could have about weird and dangerous things.

"Black Cloud," He said in a very grave tone.

"What the hell's 'Black Cloud'?" Skyfire asked before I did. Honestly, as long as she wasn't going all 'revenge' against Legionnaires and would at least try to control herself and her emotions, I was fine.

"Zebra terror weapon back in the war. Part of the Cloud series of zebra super weapons. Smells and looks like smoke. It consists of microscopic black spores that, when inhaled, grow exponentially in the lungs. Then they each explode with enough combined force to match a grenade, sending spikes blasting off in all directions," Predator responded. He turned and looked at the four of us. From the surprised gasps I heard from the three of them, I discerned it must have been their first time to see Predator's glowing eyes. "Your earth pony friend here can tell you more." Then he turned back to his bag.

I turned to Myst, who, along with the other two, looked a little stricken by the sight of Predator's eyes. I know I should have been concerned with their safety; especially Doodle's, considering I had let her come with me. And I know that I should have been thinking about this 'Black Cloud', but, not for the first time, my curiosity got the better of me. Except this time it was about my companions rather than about the pre-apocalyptic phenomena.

"Myst, what's he talking about?" Really? Myst? How could she possibly know? Oh... wait... right, the time she went down here. Could this be the poisonous air she had told us about?

She eeped and looked about for a bit, startled and shaken and even more uncomfortable than before. Then she looked at our three curious and slightly frightened expressions and sighed. "I don't really want to talk about it..." She shot a glare at Predator, who paid it no attention, then continued, "...but I guess you should know."

She cleared her throat. "Well, when I came here to the city... I wasn't exactly alone. I met a few zebras along the way, and Kira was actually one of them. Her family and I had the common goal of finding some place safe to settle down." She paused, looking up at us as if uncertain how to continue. Skyfire gestured her to proceed, and she did. "Well, even though the Legion or the Specters or most of the groups today weren't even around yet, the city was still a war zone. We didn't know any better, so we decided to go underground to avoid the fighting. Then when we were looking for a way down here... you know, the the ground cracked and we fell in. That's all to it." She sighed in relief and averted her gaze hurriedly.

"Go on," Predator said, not turning away from the pile of stuff he was pulling out of his oversized backpack. "Tell them what happened next."

That was too much for her. "Why do you want me to tell him?!" She screamed. "How do you know so much about me? About Skyfire? And considering what you've done, how dare you even speak to us like we're friends! You should just keep your mouth shut and continue just fucking guiding us! Then, when we're out of these fucking tunnels, we can just leave you the fuck behind!" She panted heavily as she looked at him so murderously I honestly thought she was going to attack him. The three of us looked at her in shock, Skyfire most especially. Doodle actually just looked at her weirdly, like she thought Myst had gone crazy.

Predator really didn't seem to care about her sudden outburst, though. "Ah, there it is. It's good that your letting your emotions out, it's one way of keeping them under control." He cleared his throat and stood up on his hindlegs, dark silhouettes hanging down from his forelegs as he approached us, his eyes still glowing.

He said, "For your first question, I believe you should tell him because we'll actually be going INTO the cloud. For the second and third, I keep tabs on over six hundred different individuals, using assets like facial expression, body language, social anxiety, etcetera to determine their potential threat. Let's me know if any of them need to die." He emerged from the darkness, and in his hooves I saw several Specter helmets, hanging down from a bundle of rope. He began ascending the stairs. "Then for your last two statements, I know I have no right to speak to you as casually as I do. I have not earned trust from any of you, on the contrary I have earned hate. But I am a practical zeb-... perso-..." He paused for a while, seeming to think of the correct word. "...being, and so I will not let either your emotions nor my emotions get in the way of my goal. And that goal is currently helping the four of you get out of here alive."

Remember when I said he was blunt? Well, that was a good example.

Myst continued to glare at him as he held out the bundle. Doodle eagerly took one of the helmets and placed them on, only to find out it was several sizes too big and a little heavy for her to wear without staggering. Skyfire helped her tighten the neck seal so it would fit before tossing her onto her back. Doodle cheered happily as she mumbled something about 'adventure'. Skyfire then reluctantly got two more helmets; one for me and one for herself. She looked at me curiously as I took one of them from her. I spared her only a quick glance before taking off my own helmet and putting on the Specter helmet. I had experienced wearing this sort of helmet in Veltrio's memory, but the very sensation of putting it on myself gave me uncomfortable thoughts of the signal suddenly appearing out of nowhere.

It wasn't necessary. Tod giggled in my head, and immediately my headache came back. There was a faint ring in my ears as I felt something move inside my head. Tom only managed to say something along the lines of 'come back here you piece of shit!' before his voice disappeared.

My breathing was now regulated by the gasmask built into the helmet, as was the breathing of Skyfire and Doodle. The sense of having the helmet enclosing my head made me a little claustrophobic, but I got over it. The other two both looked rather strange wearing those helmets, but I knew the gasmask was necessary. I definitely didn't want to breathe in something that could make me explode.

Myst was still eyeing the gasmask helmet hatefully, determined to appear as indignant towards him as possible. I would have done the same if I were in her position, I really would have, considering what he had done in the past and how much I would have hated him, but... but I just couldn't. I really just couldn't.

That went on for a few more moments, until Skyfire trotted up to her and nudged her gently. "Myst," She said, her voice muffled. "Just take it. I know you don't like him, neither do I." Then Skyfire looked at him with what I supposed was a glare, but then sighed. "If Goldwreath trusts him enough to let him lead us around down here, then we should trust him as well." Doodle nodded her head quickly while on Skyfire's back.

Myst looked at her with a startled expression, then looked between her, Predator, and me with a look of confusion. "You trust him?" She asked me. "And Skyfire... what about what he did to you? What about him revealing your secret before you wanted to?" Then she turned to Doodle. "And, Doodle, why aren't you scared of him? In fact, why don't you seem to mind him at all?"

Doodle raised a hoof in the air and took in a deep breath to answer, but I spoke first (a fact that she expressed great disappointment in).

"I don't trust him, Myst. I can't, not after what he did." I paused for a while, wondering if my next choice of words would make sense. "But I can give him a second chance. I gave you one when we first met. And I gave Skyfire one after she killed that Legionnaire. Besides, hating him isn't going to do anything. It's just going to make me unfocused." Yes, now I understood. I did hate him. It was just that my desire to give him a second chance was keeping that hate in storage.

"Oh, trust me Myst, I REALLY hate him. But..." Skyfire said. Then she looked at me, and her eyes through the visor were... hopeful. "Well, let's just say I'll try to give him a second chance as well. Let's see if he'll try to do better." I raised my eyebrow at her. She must have seen it through my visor, because she immediately looked away. I turned to Predator, wondering what his response would be.

Predator looked at her for a long moment. "You're just agreeing with him on this in order to increase your miniscule chances of getting him to accept you, aren't you?" I looked to her again and put on a quizzical look behind my mask.

I heard Skyfire grit her teeth through her helmet. "No..." She drawled. "I just honestly want to give you a second chance." She sounded uncertain, and then her gaze landed on me from behind her visor. She looked away quickly. "Well... maybe a little..."

I sighed. This was definitely a problem that I needed to resolve with her.

"Ha!" Predator barked. "You have no idea how many times I've heard 'do better' and 'I'll give you a second chance' and 'I can put aside my hate, for now' over the course of my existence." Then his eyes suddenly looked more... tired. Not out of physical exhaustion, but out of some kind of repressed emotional problem. Then he said in a much softer tone, "It's gotten to the point that almost everything I think about are the instances where I absolutely failed to live up to those expectations." He hung his head, casting the glow of his eyes onto the hard floor. The atmosphere in the room suddenly became very dark and tense, just like when I had spoken to him last time. The other three seemed to feel it too, thank Luna. I was getting kind of fed up of being the only one to notice certain things (such as when I found out I was the only one who could hear the signals at the strengths Zaita had been emitting them).

"Mister Predator, what's wrong?" Doodle asked, much to Predator's surprise.

"Huh? Oh, nothing. Nothing at all..." He responded. But there was something, obviously. His response made it as clear to me as it is to you. "Just... some memories. Nothing to worry about." He looked rather forlorn, standing there on the edge of the darkness, just close enough to the light that some of the reflecting beams illuminated his dark form.

Then he looked back up at Myst, and dimmed down his red eyes. "Just take it, Myst. The sooner we get out of here, the sooner you can leave me behind, if that is truly what you want." He held out the helmet further into the light, partially exposing his dark, leather-clad leg.

Myst looked at it uncomfortably for a second, then to the three of us. Doodle was so eager she was jumping about on her hooves. Skyfire nodded at her. I gestured her to take it. And so, with a defeated sigh, she hesitantly took it from him and put it on. Predator immediately stepped back into the darkness. A moment later there was the sound if the door sliding down, and at once the Black Cloud became thicker.

"Hurry up," He called. "I'll need to demolish this door. We can't let the cloud keep seeping out through here. I'll start setting up the explosives."

Then we trotted into the thick of the cloud, all of us anxious to see if the gasmasks worked. They did, if the lack of the smell of smoke was any indication. With that, we trotted underneath the doorway. The cloud was so thick I really couldn't see anything further than a foot from me. We just barely managed to make out Predator's dark form on the side, sticking a slab of grey onto the wall.

We had not gotten far down the tunnel when the explosives went off. The blast blew away some of the cloud, allowing us to see each other for a while. Doodle didn't seem very eager any more, clinging onto Skyfire's back tightly. Myst used the momentary cleanliness of air to take off the helmet and pop one of the white tablets into her mouth before putting it back on. Then the cloud quickly came back, concealing all of us once again.

The only thing I saw were Predator's brightly glowing red eyes, the light coming from them piercing through the cloud like lasers. He approached us slowly, his hoofsteps echoed by the tight space of the tunnel and made clear by the lack of any other noise in the entire area. "Well, we should be safe as long as we're in the cloud. Anything that breathes and has lungs won't survive here. As long as you don't breathe in any of the cloud, you're good." He trotted to each of us individually, taking out glowsticks and sticking them in our clothing. I saw an orange glowstick, indicating Skyfire. Above her was a pink glowstick for Doodle. Then a green one lit up, showing Myst's position.

Lastly he came to me, holding a red glwostick in his hooves. He tucked it into my vest. I appreciated it; not only because now we could see each other, but because red was my favorite color.

He turned away and began trotting through the cloud. "Come on. One more day and we'll be there. I suggest you keep your weapons ready."

I sighed. One more day, huh? How long had we been down here, anyway? According to my pipbuck, we were down here for around three days, but it felt so much longer than that. The assault must have reached the dam at that point. I didn't worry about being late; we weren't supposed to join the assault, if you remember. We were simply supposed to infiltrate the dam and disable some of the defenses.

I turned to the other glowsticks. "Come on, let's go." Then we followed after him, relying on the sight of his almost lamp-like eyes to identify where he was. I pulled out my trusty shotgun and and loosened my gladius from it's sheath. Skyfire's rifles lit up with energy. From Myst's direction came the sound of a lever being pulled back, and a little later a metal casing struck the ground.

After a while, Predator called out, "Myst, you still haven't continued. I suggest you do, so that you may remove the anxiety I know you are hiding behind that mask and so that your friends may be better informed about the Black Cloud. Besides, that anxiety may be detrimental in case we do actually come across anything down here." Yes, despite everything, he remembered that Myst did in fact not continue in telling us what had happened. He was always good on remembering details like that, just like Myst was.

"Oh, damn it..." Myst muttered. Then her greenish glow stick approached me. "Fine. I guess you really do need to know..." Skyfire and Doodle's orange and pink glowsticks approached us, as if they too were curious. "Oh, yeah. Um, you two should know too, I guess..." Ah, shy and anxious Myst, how I have missed you! Honestly, she had changed quite a lot in the time she was with me. It was good to know that some of her old self was still down there.

She cleared her throat, and began explaining.

It would have been a really good time for Tom or Tod to have spoken in my head. There was this sense of tension in the air... like we were being watched. It was good that I was listening to Myst, otherwise the sensation would have made me paranoid. I didn't know if the others felt it, though. I was sure Predator felt it; he was, after all, the one who felt that way first.

I really would have liked it if Tom could have warned me about what would happen next. I didn't know why he was so quiet, while Tod was scurrying about inside my head. I just had to trust him; surely, if he had to disappear and leave me alone with the enigma that was Tod, he would have told me. As it was, that strange sensation of awareness was the only thing I had.

And whoever these beings were, they felt immensely powerful in my head.







Footnote: Level Up
New perk gained: Tunnel Trotter -- You're long time spent underground have made your senses more acute and has tested your endurance. In low-light circumstances, you gain plus +1 perception. You also gain plus +1 endurance.