"We're nearly through! We just have a few feet left!"
"Soldier Red Dragon, is this really necessary?"
Reddy stood stock still as he stared at the soldier who had asked him that. When the soldier in question saw the look in his eyes, he nervously nodded and walked away. Reddy shook his head and looked back at the picture clutched in his hand. The three children in the pic were smiling away at each other and the camera. They were so happy back then... we were so happy back then Reddy corrected himself. A small smile crept onto his face as he stared at his own shocked expression. Even though he was smiling in the picture, he knew he had been utterly surprised at...Her actions.
At that moment, there was a loud crash in the distance.
"We've broken through!" Another soldier called out. Reddy wiped away his smile and stuffed the photo into his pocket. He picked up his shock sword and strapped it onto his back. His general saw him and motioned him over.
"Now..." His general began when Reddy was within earshot, "Keep your com link on at all times and find this One Shot. Once you find him, dispatch him immediately. And if he's already dead, bring his body directly to me."
"Why would I do that?" Asked Reddy.
"It's no secret that you were once an ally with that man," The general explained, "I want to make sure he's dead, and your word just won't be enough," Reddy nearly protested, but nodded his head in consent anyway, "Good. Now get in there and make sure you kill him!" Reddy nodded again and sped off.
Moments later, he was crouching at the small hole in the rubble of the building wall that One Shot had been blasted through. The hole was just large enough for him to get through. He glanced at the general, who had his arms crossed and was glaring at his back, before he crawled through the hole. Once he got to the other side, he stood up and looked back at the hole. It had been carefully broken through so as not to upset the integrity of the rest of the rubble around it, but it still looked unstable. Reddy decided to ignore it for the moment and began to look for One Shot. It didn't take him that long.
The moment he turned on his suit's external lights on his shoulders, he spotted his friend slumped against the back wall. Well...he found his body at least. Reddy knew it was too late the moment he saw him. In the light from his suit, he saw that One Shot had a considerably large chunk of his body taken out of him. A pool of blood had gathered around his right side from the large gash. He had probably died moments after he was blown through the wall. Reddy sighed and reported his findings. A loud cheer had gone off in the distance, but Reddy didn't hear it. He just fell to his knees and stared at his old friend. The general soon barked at him to bring him the body, but Reddy ignored him. He didn't want his friend’s body to be massacred by his "teammates". The general grew impatient though and threatened to send in another soldier, so Reddy sighed again and got up to retrieve the body.
He dusted off his legs and was about to proceed, when he noticed something...strange. Reddy saw that there wasn't a trail of blood leading to the body, for there certainly should have been one after he had been hit like he had. He also noticed that his friend had died smiling. Reddy walked over to examine his old friend's face and saw that he was indeed smiling.
"Strange..." Reddy muttered out loud.
"What's strange soldier Red Dragon?" Asked the general in a gruff voice. Reddy silently cursed to himself for forgetting about the com link before replying.
"He's smiling..."
"And why is that a problem?"
"It's...not,"
"Then stop delaying and bring me that body!" Reddy flinched at the loud order and told him he will, but he remained motionless. Reddy knew that One Shot wouldn't have died with a smile for no good reason. No...he must have wanted to tell him something, but what? The red suited soldier took a step back and examined the body once more. His arms were splayed out while his helmet had been un-solidified and draped behind his head. There wasn't any secret messages written in blood, and he appeared to be weaponless. Reddy nearly gave up and turned away, but his suit's lights landed on a small red object in the body's left hand. Upon closer inspection, Reddy saw that it was an apple.
There was a single bite taken out of it.
Curious, Reddy bent down to pick it up. The moment he tried though, the suit his friend was wearing turned on.
"Enemy detected! Enemy detected!" It shouted, just before a green light turned on and some sort of energy shot out of it in a massive wave. The wave of energy hit Reddy, but he didn't move an inch. The hole he had climbed through wasn't so lucky. The wave smashed into it, and even though it barely affected Reddy, it caused the rubble to collapse around the hole, once more locking the room in complete darkness.
Reddy was confused at the sudden change in light, when he realized the lights on his suit had turned off. He tried to turn them on again, with no luck. He then tried to raise the general, but found his com link had gone out too. At that moment, he knew what had happened. One Shot had set his suit to give out an EMP pulse that short circuited basic devices. Reddy stood up and examined the once again collapsed wall. He then surmised that the pulse had been calibrated to be weak when it was first sent out, but to increase in power the farther it traveled. Reddy's suit had gotten the weaker blast, and its fail-safes had prevented any more damage to it and its wearer. This locked out the more powerful discharge that had collapsed the wall again.
"Very clever my friend, but why?" Asked Reddy out loud now that he knew the general couldn't hear him anymore, "Trapping your foes when they came to retrieve your body is fine, but I can still get out. This is a pointless trap...unless..." Reddy turned back to the body of his friend to discover a faint light emanating from the neck of the suit, "you wanted to tell me something without being heard..." He leaned closer and saw that the light was illuminating his friend's face as well as a small button. Reddy recognized it as the message relay that was used to record private messages found on the hacked com link channels. It was also used, to a lesser extent, to record a soldier's last words to the living. Reddy swallowed back his nervousness and pressed the button. At first, nothing happened, but a low static was soon heard. One Shot's voice came soon afterwards.
"Hello Reddy," Said the staticky voice of One Shot, "Or should I call you 'Red Dragon'? I've heard that you're going by your actual code name in the red army now," Reddy stumbled back from the blatant message to him. The voice sounded older than he remembered, but slow and tired at the same time. Hearing his voice, even a recorded one, sent shivers down Reddy's spine.
"I honestly have no idea if you're alone, if you're listening to this with some of your new buddies, if you have any, or if you're even listening to this at all. Still though, I have to say this, before I leave you forever," Reddy didn't know how to react to this at all, so he just kept quiet and listened.
"I know you probably still blame me for Her death. You might even still hold a grudge against me for dating Her. I'm sorry for having to remind you of that. I'm also sorry for having to remind you of how She, Ringer, had died," Reddy shuddered from hearing her name. He hadn't thought of her in years, but he still couldn't stop the occasional memory from coming. He hated when that happened. Reddy sighed and continued to listen.
"You may recall that General Fudge and Ringer had been escaping from the army of mechs. I swear to you, I tried with all of my might to keep them from being killed, but, as you know, this effort was in vain. One of the mechs blew up and...well, you know the rest..." The recording paused for a moment, which gave Reddy enough time to reflect on that day and the events that transpired afterwards. He remembered that day well. Almost too well. He also remembered how he had lashed out at One Shot for not saving her when he could not. Reddy had left the squad and the blue army moments later, and he regretted that decision ever since. After he had realized what he had done, he knew he couldn't go back. After all, he was a deserter now, an enemy of the army. For weeks he had gone around the ruins of the city, looking for a way to get back, but the red army got him first. They recruited him on the spot, and since then, he started to kill the ones he once thought of as allies. The recording said something about storing energy to his suit before continuing.
"Recently...I...well I met this girl..." Reddy perked up at that and leaned in closer so he could hear better, "I...I know what you're probably thinking. I mean there are a lot of girls in the army, but this one was...different. I can't really explain why, but trust me when I say that she's different. I...told her about Ringer you see...about how she died...but she seemed to understand. In fact, she told me something that I never thought of before...and it actually makes sense when you think about it. She told me that Ringer...might have intentionally blown up that bot," Reddy jerked back from this new theory. He stared at his friend, not really knowing what to think, but anger soon came over him. Reddy wondered why One Shot would make such an accusation. Why would he even think that Ringer had...deliberately killed herself. Why? Why would she even-
"She did it save you and I. She saved our lives that day," Reddy's anger drained away from this thought, "Please Reddy...this isn't just some theory of mine to make me feel better. It's the truth. It's the honest to god truth," One Shot stopped talking and said something about placing a trigger in his left hand, but Reddy didn't hear this. He just heard the same words repeated over and over in his mind. She saved our lives that day... Reddy didn't know what to say to that. It sounded simple, too simple, to be the truth, but it made sense. It made complete and total sense.
"I don't know why I believe this to be true, but I do know for a fact that Ringer held considered us to be the only reason for her to continue to fight. Without us, she wouldn't have been able to fight anymore. Please...Reddy...you must believe me that upon that day, she died to keep us alive, like I'm dying now..." At that moment, One Shot started to cough and wheeze. Reddy nearly jumped up to aid his friend, but then he remembered that he was already gone...
One Shot coughed some more before continuing in a quieter voice, "I'm a dead man Reddy...I'm already dead in your eyes now, but that doesn't change the fact you're still alive. That girl I spoke to earlier released me from the heavy burden of Ringer's death, and now I release you from yours. She herself had lost some...friends of hers...but she continued on for their sake. Before we left each other, she gave me this apple in my hand. I've taken a bite out of it, and it is the sweetest thing I have ever had the pleasure of tasting," One Shot coughed some more at this. He didn't stop for a while this time, and it seemed that each cough got quieter and quieter...
...uuungh...sorry...Reddy I'm just...so...sorry...reroute power to EMP and send out increasing charge when triggered... Acknowledged...Reddy...I hope my little plan works...forgive me my friend... Reddy somehow knew he wasn't talking about the coughing fit he just had. He also knew that the message was nearly over. Reddy stood up and stared at his friend's illuminated face, but the power he had stored in the suit was now on its last dregs. The small light slowly began to dim. One Shot kept on repeating the same words over and over again until they finally stopped altogether. Reddy thought the message was over, but to his surprise, One Shot spoke up one last time.
"I...I can't see anything..." He continued, "I think...I think this is the end for me...Reddy...Thank you. Thank you for coming to me when I needed a friend all those years ago...Ringer...she told me that...she told me that it was you who had the idea of speaking to me then...so I thank you with all of my dying heart..." For a moment, he didn't say anything more, but a slow gasp soon emanated from the suit's speakers. "Is that...no...It can't really be...oh...I get it...I guess my time is finally up...isn't it? Ringer?...
The breathing stopped soon afterwards. There was simple static on the machine for a while until a loud rumbling was heard. A voice called out moments later saying that they were nearly through. The suit picked up the foreign voice and terminated the message. The small light finally turned off, sending the entire room in complete darkness. Reddy's own suit picked up the dark room and turned on its shoulder lights so Reddy could once again stare at his friend's face. He didn't even know that the suit had recharged. Despite this, he just stood there and stared at his friend. He wasn't sure what he just heard, but he knew for certain that his friend wouldn't be pulling his leg like that.
Reddy stared at his friend's content smile, happy that he had gotten to say his final farewells, even though he wasn't even sure that the person they were meant for would even receive them. The apple still lay in One Shot's hand. Reddy bent down and picked it up. As he stood back up, he turned on his com link.
"-ed Dragon! Do you read me? What happened in there?!"
"One Shot had set his suit to release an EMP pulse to trap any who disturbed his body," Explained Reddy, "I'm fine. What's the status out there?"
"We're trying to dig you out now," Replied the general, "Is the body secure?"
"One Shot's body is fine sir...Sir?"
"That's good. Hang on there and wait for us to dig you out,"
"Sir? What-"
"We should be able to reach you in about fifteen minutes,"
"What do you plan to do with his body...sir?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, what will happen to his body once you get it?"
"...well, nothing."
"You mean you're just going to leave him?"
"He's dead isn't he? Who cares if we leave him. Wait there and keep the body safe. Over and out," The com link's static echoed in the dark room. Reddy looked back at One Shot's body and sighed. He stuffed his free hand into his pocket, only to find the picture within it. He pulled this out and held it up to the lights on his shoulders.
"How happy we used to be..." Muttered Reddy. He stared at the picture and thought of Ringer. If she were here right now, she would be balling her eyes out. Then, when she heard about how her lover would be treated, she’d march right up to the general and demand that they give him a proper burial. Reddy chuckled at the image, then thought, why not?
He figured that he would most likely get suspended if he did that, or worse, but the thought of how Ringer would have reacted stayed in his mind. Why not? Reddy thought again. He shown the shoulder lights around the room and found that there was a door to the right. He replaced the photo and stored the apple inside the same pocket and walked over to his friend.
"I'm sorry for deserting you," He said out loud, "But that's going to change. Now," Reddy bent down and picked up the body of his friend and went over to the door. He kicked it open and went into a wide hallway. Setting down the body, he went over to another room and found a large shelf inside it. It took some doing, but he eventually managed to get the shelf into the hallway. As an afterthought, he tossed the photo into the first room and yelled. "I quit!" into the com link, just before he blocked the door. He shut off the com link and picked up One Shot once more.
He knew this was probably stupid. He knew that he might not survive that long outside either of the armies, but he had been fighting for so long, he almost forgot how to smile. This wasn't going to happen. Reddy soon found another room with a bed and a window in it. It was here that he lay down his friend. He positioned him so that he was laying down as if he were asleep. As another afterthought, he took out a small green gem on a necklace and draped it around his own neck. The gem was in the shape of a heart.
Looking down at the heart shaped gem, Reddy smiled a genuine smile. He hadn't smiled like that in years. There was shouting in the distance, but Reddy ignored this and just stood there. When the shouting got louder though, he turned around and piled up the broken furniture in front of the door. He then walked over to the window and climbed out of the building. Reddy stared through the window one last time before turning around and running away. The gem banged against his chest with each step he took. He didn't know where he was going, but he didn't really care either. He just had to get out of there. Fast.
Eventually, he got hungry and took out the apple. He looked at the single bite in it and noticed something black in it. Reddy stopped running and stared at the tiny black capsule that was now in his fingers.
It was a seed. A tiny, black apple seed.
Amazed, Reddy placed it into his pocket. Once I get to a safe enough area, thought Reddy, maybe I can start an apple farm... Reddy grinned as he took his first bite out of the apple, being careful to not bite into any of the precious seeds.
It tasted delicious.