Earth.
The home planet of the human race. Its main population ranged in the billions, and there was never an exact number of how many humans lived across the entire world. Every continent was either a single country on its own, or many sharing the same landmass. Some parts of the world were calm country side paradise, some were thriving cities, and others sat between the two. All of these shared a beauty of its own. Or at least….
It used to.
*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!*
Off the coast of Perth in Western Australia, the last of the Alien battleships that have been invading Earth and attacking Humankind for nearly a hundred years, exploded and erupted in flames, plummeting to the ocean surface below it, signalling that the hardest part of the war was finally over while lighting up the looming afternoon cloud cover.
The sound of the explosion thundered throughout the ruined city and bounced off any still standing buildings that were lucky to not get blown up from the war, causing the sound to linger in the air before slowly dying down to be replaced by the sounds of many Military soldiers’ cheers, celebrating their Victory after so much hard work and sacrifice.
Celebrations, however, did not last as long as the fires of the now ruined vessel floating in the ocean as many groups of soldiers were required to sweep through the streets for ‘Clean up duty’. A task well known from many pushes against the aliens where the soldiers had to basically clean up any remaining forces the enemy had hidden in the area. Most groups had at least 15 soldiers, while the specialist groups only had roughly six.
However, one group of specialists consisted of only three members. One was a master at explosives who went by the name Farley. He kept his packs full to the brim with anything that went boom and could deal heavy damage in a small area ranging from high explosive landmines, grenades and missiles. He also kept homemade Acidic Claymores on hand for missions where his group needed to clear out an area with little property damage.
The second was skilled with sniping and assault weaponry who answered to the name Dronin. When not moving from one location to the next in quick succession or shooting, he was collecting spent casings and creating handmade bullets for his Assault Rifle. Sometimes he was lucky enough to find an unspent bullet compatible for either his L96 rifle or refurbished AK-47. Other times, he would find a bullet head in decent condition and re-use them with one of his scavenged casings and some gunpowder. If he didn’t find any of either, he would pick up small pieces of rubble, fill an old casing with the powder, and hammer the mouth of the shells over the rubble, forming a ready-to-use ‘Rockhead’. Rockhead’s weren’t as efficient as the standard rounds, but they did something to the enemy at least.
The third member of the group, who went by the name Shifty, never carried weapons on her. Instead, she wore mechanical armour over her body, consisting mostly of chest plating along with leggings of thick metal plating for body protection. On her arms were two mechanical gauntlets with spinning disks and a few other things attached to them that supplied power the suit along with the boots that came with the set and a small holographic visor that when worn, didn't obstruct the users vision. An AI came with every suit to manage and control all operations, so all the user had to worry about, was using the suit, picking the targets, and moving. The power source of this particular model though was something that couldn’t really be explained in great detail since it was accidently discovered.
~On the night of the accidental discovery~
The ‘accident’, happened to be the suit being shipped to Shifty without a power pack installed into the right gauntlet, which was the main unit of the two. Because of how much it would have costed her to have the suit shipped back for a replacement, she instead tried to install her own but had failed many times.
Over a course of a few weeks, she never gave up trying to fix her suit, but every morning, she noticed her tools on the workbench were moved and the different pieces of her armour in a different position than the previous night. She always thought it was strange at first, but eventually ignored it, figuring her pet cat had entered her room during the night and made a mess.
On the final night before being shipped to her assigned base, she gave up with getting the armor working. She equipped her right gauntlet and manually locked it in place, only to stare at it for a few short minutes, thinking of all the hard work she had put into restoring it.
With a glance at her clock, she decided to have an early night. But, as she reached to unlock the device, she felt something ice cold press against her wrist under the gauntlet. After a quick yelp and jump on her bed from the shock, she went straight for the lock but paused as she heard a hum from the device.
"Could it be..." she whispered to herself as she stared at the device on her arm. She then turned and reached over to the visor that sat on her bedside table, picked it up, and slipped it over her ear. Reaching behind her ear, she pulled out a small retractable cable out of the back of the visor and connected it to the gauntlet. Surprise was how she felt the very moment the two devices were connected as her visor began to glow and the holographic display formed over eyes.
"H-how..." she stuttered, not believing what she saw next. A small box formed infront of her sight with the words 'Awaiting start-up confirmation from Operator. Speak confirmation to begin...'. With haste, she bolted for the storage crate the armour arrived in and pulled out the manual, flipping to the ‘Startup’ page. After reading the confirmation, she reached up and tapped a button on her visor and the message ‘Microphone manually enabled’ popped up in the top corner of her vision.
After reading the words again, she looked up from the manual and with a firm tone, she repeated the words from the manual.
“AC#4582-9AJ-856-U1 Project Steel Wall.”
Instantly, Shiftys view was obscured by walls of text and she felt her gauntlet twitch as the two disks in the centre of the device began to rotate clockwise around her arm, constantly increasing speed. Then the gap between the two disks began to glow a luminescent blue as more and more of her vision was clouded by the text.
A strange feeling of exhaustion overcame her body the more the system loaded itself and its AI software, but she didn’t care, as her excitement quickly overcame that feeling and kept her awake. Within a few minutes of issuing the confirmation, all the text disappeared and was replaced by multiple warnings that had something to do with disconnected hardware which made her assume it was referring to the rest of the suit. Remembering that the visor could react to eye movement for the use of a virtual cursor and thoughts for operating the interface, she looked at each box that displayed the word ‘Ok’ and using the thought of a mental left-click of a computer mouse, she cleared each one of the warning until finally coming across the entire interface.
Many bits of system information were displayed around the edge of her vision along with information about her vital signs, but then something caught her eye: The power meter, which displayed how much charge was left in the power pack, had a flashing question mark on it which repeatedly changed to ‘Pack not found’ and back again.
Shifty was pulled out of her thoughts as an artificial voice sounded in her ear followed by a Wireframe head coming into view looked at her with a virtual smile. “Hello User, I am MechSuit Unit #052AR-U Ram Class, but you may call me Blaze. I look forward to working by your side.”
Shifty stood on the spot, baffled by what she just went through. ‘Was this really happening? Did all my tinkering pay off? Was this thing really running without a power pack?’ Many questions flew through her mind, trying to understand her situation.
Finally, she shrugged those thoughts off, looked at the virtual head and smiled excitedly. It didn’t matter right now how she did it, but she got it working, and was eager to get moving. “Nice to meet you Blaze. You can call me Shifty.”
~Back to the present~
“Blaze? Why would an AI have a name already given? Let alone that?” Farley asked as he looked up from his bags, interrupting himself from his mental inventory. “Don’t you usually have to assign one yourself?”
Dronin glances at the armor before looking at Farley. “That’s usually the case…” His attention moves to Shifty who was between them. “You sure you didn’t give it that name?”
Shifty nodded before raising her right arm. “She said her name was Blaze, I went with it. I never thought it was strange till you told me that generally new users have to assign a name.”
Before Dronin could say anything, she quickly point an accusing finger at his face and said “And no! I didn’t read more of the manual past the point of start up.”
He raised both his arms up in the air quickly. “Hey, I didn’t say anything about that!”
Shifty stared at him with a suspicious look. “But you were thinking it…”
All three stopped walking for a moment as both Dronin and shifty stared at each other. Farley swore to himself that he could see imaginary sparks coursing from both of their eyes, fighting for dominance. Finally, Dronin sighed. “Fine, you got me. Yes, I was thinking it.” He replied with sarcasm. He was lying.
The sarcasm completely flew over her head as she grinned cheerfully and began happily humming to herself, resuming her walking pace, followed by the other two.
Farley rolled his eyes, laughing to himself quietly and resumed his inventory as he heard Dronin quietly mumble something under his breath and believed it was something along the lines of women being difficult and annoying.
After a few minutes of silence (Not including the heavy thumping of metal boots on the ground), shifty turned around and looked at the two while walking backwards, occasionally glancing at her back-view camera window in the bottom corner her visor. “So what do you think was the purpose behind the attack? Since it’s not like they attacked us for no reason… Right?”
The question got the twos attention. All three of them had occasionally thought about that very question over the course of the war, but never really asked what the other two had thought.
“I had always thought they came looking for slaves to do their bidding, but since they had destroyed America’s parliamentary house, or the “White House” as they call it; along with the Pentagon; Followed by just killing everything outright. I’d say looking for slaves was out of the question.” As Farley finished his input, he looked around as he thought he heard some gunfire.
Dronin nodded. “It was a damn shame the Americans didn’t have much of a chance, let alone prepare for the attack. But then again, it was quite sudden.” He looked up at the dark cloudy sky, deep in thought as he continued. “Having their military power at full strength would have helped stop this war even before the three of us were born. Even a few heavy impact missiles would have helped take down the larger transporters our enemy had brought with them…”
“… How many Americans actually survived the first attack, military wise?” Shifty questioned as she looked at the two, but was disappointed that neither of them had an answer.
“About a third of the military population survived the first attack. However they were forced to give up their grounds and move here since most of the main grounds were already taken over by the enemy. Australia was the preferred choice of retreat as it was a safe distance away from America.” A female voice sounded from a speaker on Shiftys main gauntlet.
Dronin stared at the device. “… Okay, One: Thank you for the information, Blaze, and Two…” He shifts his sight to Shifty. “I still don’t understand why you gave it a female voice. The name ‘Blaze’ has nothing feminine about it.”
“So what if it doesn’t, it’s my AI.” Shifty sharply retorted, stopping mid step. “Why? Is that a problem?”
“Yes!” Dronin shouted as he stopped mere inches in front on her face, clearly frustrated. He cursed himself inwardly for his height, only standing a couple of inches shorter than her.
“Yeah? Why is it a problem?” She smiled evilly as she moved her face even closer to his. She knew being this close would throw him off. And throw him off it did.
Dronin opened his mouth to shoot back something, but with the close proximity between them, he lost his roll, causing him to close his mouth, take a step back and look away. “It… just is.” ‘Fuck!’ he cursed to himself.
She then giggled softly and ruffled his hair with her plated hand, making him feel like he was a child. “So, what’s your theory of the attack kid?”
He went to slap away the hand but instantly regretted it as it made contact. “I’m not a fuckin’ kid Shifty!”
“You’re sure acting like one.”
He shook his hand to rid the pain, but it didn’t help. “Am not!”
N’aw, poor baby hurt his poor wittle handy? Want momma shifty to kiss it better?” she said in a way one would talk to a child or even a baby, causing him to tip off his edge.
“I’m OLDER than you by a year!” he shouted back, close to being furious.
“So what if you’re 21 and I’m only 20? You’re still shorter than me.” She smiled sweetly, silently taunting him.
While the two continued on, Farley, who had been patient for quite some time, had enough. With a rub of his temple, he groaned. “It’s moments like these I wish I packed another box’a durries… I could really use one right about now.” With a deep breath, he reached to his side bags and ruffled through them for something.
“- AND I WILL TEAR YOUR ASS APART IF YOU CALL ME ‘KID’ ONE MORE TIME BITCH!” Dronin shouted in rage, teetering on whether to follow through with his words or not. His breaths came out as puffs of steam due to the cool twilight air flowing through the ruined city.
“Oh?” She spin around and stuck her plated rear at him, moving it from side to side in his view. She was enjoying this way too much for her own good. “You want it? Come and get it kiddo.” She followed up with a wink.
“THAT’S IT!” he screamed as he went to swing a punch at her.
“ENOUGH! BOTH OF YOU!” Bellowed out a voice to the side of them as two cracks followed right after.
“Owch!”
“Sunna’ va’ bitch!”
The two yelped as they jumped opposite to where the pain was on their bodies. They looked at their attacker to see pissed off Farley, something they rarely saw, especially having it directed at them. He held leather whips in both hands and the tips were coated with both dirt from the ground they lay rest on and a tint of red which made them realize the lingering pain on them.
Shifty winced as she looked down at her exposed midriff at a nice fresh scar was opened up on her side, cursing inwardly that her model didn’t cover up her entire body. ‘Why do men always have to make things that show midriff?’ she thought inwardly as she covered the scar and looked over at Dronin.
He was lucky his scar was on his arm, but there was no luck when it came to how long and deep the scar actually was. Remembering her Field First-aid sessions she was pulled into a few months back, she realized that their wounds were actually quite minor compared to what they could be if Farley had actually decided to attack with the intent to kill instead of suppress.
"Now if you two do not cut this out, I will personally break his sniper rifles barrel off the gun itself and shove both pieces up your asses and duct tape them in place. Both of you have gone at each other multiple times since this team was formed. Can't you two just stop this childish nonsense?" His voice came off calm, but not the friendly calm, but the killer calm that sent a chill up Dronins spine.
His sharp gaze looked directly into Shiftys eyes as she tried to hold back a snicker at the thought of the shorter team mate getting the larger object. “Just to get across who's mostly at fault here, you’ll be getting the larger of the two, and I’ll even make sure it’s loaded since you started this.”
She found it all too difficult to take him seriously as she still had one more thing to say and looked at him with a sultry gaze and smile. She even put on the tone suited to her expression. “You know, I may very well enjoy that~”
Dronin stared at the woman next to him with wide eyes. ‘Is she serious?!’ He thought to himself.
Farley, however, didn’t buy it and his stare only intensified. With a slow rise and draw back of his arm in prep for another whip, she finally got the picture and all confidence she had of getting out of this dropped instantly.
She fearfully stumbled back and shielded herself from his attack. “Okay, okay! I’m sorry, I won’t do it again, I swear! Just don’t hit me again! Please!” she begged as she clenched her eyes shut, trying to hold back her tears. Her heart raced and her suits system gave off a warning of her quickly heightened heart rate, fearing the pain she was about to experience.
Both of the two knew how deadly Farley was when someone got on his bad side. When he wasn’t trying to blow things up, he was a torturer, and would inflict immense pain to his victims, no matter how messy it got, till he was satisfied that he achieved his goal, whether it was to get information, or get a point across. They had seen the agony his torture victims went through, and prayed to any gods out there that they’d never have to go through that same treatment as it was something worth truly fearing.
Absolute Fear. Something no one wished to experience. However, Shifty was feeling exactly that. With a long pause between the three of them, Farley finally packed up his whips and moved forward to her. Her heart rate only increased as she heard the footsteps grow closer before stopping, causing her to tremble on the ground.
“Hey…” Was all that she heard from Farley. His voice carried a soft, caring tone which seemed to ease her a bit. She cracked open an eye and moved her hand away from her face, looking up at him. His expression wasn’t what she had just saw only moments ago, but one of a worried friend.
He reached out his hand to her, causing her to flinch back.
“Vanessa, it’s alright. I sorry for hurting you.”
Shiftys eyes shot open at the mention of the name… Her name… She looked up at Farley, running tears blurring her vision. “H-how… do you know that name?”
Farley squatted down in front of her and held his hand out to her again. He could tell she was hesitating to reach up to grasp it. And she had a reason to that hesitation. Seeing that side of him directed at her was sure to make her cower, it made anyone cower once it broke through their mental walls.
Finally, after what seemed like forever for them, Shifty took hold of his hand, but as she seemed to calm down, she yelped in fear as he pulled her into a tight hug. Instantly, she began to squirm wildly as her fear returned in full force, screaming begging him to let her go.
Blaze, who had silently been monitoring her users’ emotions, bodily reactions, and noticed the intention of Farleys actions, turned off all the powered joints of the suit, removing all artificial strength Shifty had, leaving her with her own strength.
Farley silently thanked Blaze for catching on, amazed how an Artificial Intelligence could pick up on the emotion of the air around them and held his friend tightly as her struggle continued on.
Eventually, she broke down and erupted into tears in his arms, halting all struggles against his hold and blabbering apologies as he silently comforted her like a father comforting his crying daughter. All fear she had of him was burnt away and replaced with heartache and grief as realization hit her: she was just a plain, simple human and not some super human she felt like in the past 2 years thanks to the advantage of her suit. She never wanted to feel weak, or show fear, yet she had done just that.
Dronin could only stand where he did, tears slowly running down from his own eyes, seeing the one person who he believed was invincible against anything thrown against her, shatter in Farleys hold like fragile chinaware. He couldn’t help but feel relieved that some of those apologies were directed at him for all the frustration she had caused him.
Her wails echoed through the ruins around them, pouring her heart out into her friends shoulder as he rocked them both back and forth, giving her the comfort she desired during her time of need.
It’d been half an hour since both Shifty and Dronin calmed down enough for all three of them to continue on with their final mission. Not a peep was heard by either of them, Blaze included.
Finally, after the droning silence, Shifty closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “So…” Her voice was soft, pain still lingered in her breath, but she felt better than before as a strange calm held onto her.
"Hm?" was the only response she got from Farley, making her feel uneasy.
After a quick glance, she looked at Farley. "Where did you find it?"
"Find what?"
"My name... Where did you hear it?"
"I didn't hear it, I saw it."
Shifty gave him a confused look, prompting him silently to continue. And he did. "I was the one that processed your papers. I know everything you've written on those forms. Name, date of birth, who your father was, family reputation, where you lived and previously lived."
She lowered her head in embarrassment, but she also did so because he knew that she came from a wealthy family.
"I don't care about that."
Shifty could only blink, did she think out loud? "Care about what?" she questions cautiously, trying to confirm if he knew her other fears.
"Your family's reputation. I don't care about it."
Her suspicion was correct.
"Rich or not, it means nothing. Never did to me, and never will." He then looked at her. "You were scared that if someone discovered who you really were, your friends on the military would only like you for your riches, am I right?" He arched a brow with a smirk. Her reaction to the question was proof enough.
The reaction, was her eyes widening and a pause in her step. With a deep sigh, she nodded. "You are..."
"Care to enlighten us?" Dronin asked as him and his other group mate looked at her.
"I'd rather not, but since you both know my first name, might as well tell you." She dreaded this, but took a deep breath and began.
"Well, my real name is Vanessa Shifern, my father is the owner of the Farlane Weapons Munitions company, the main weapons manufacturer for Australia. Because of how successful his business is, his income was high and his assets sat in the billion dollar range."
The two men didn't say a word, but Dronin was a little surprised.
"Over the course of my youth, I was treated like royalty from everybody, friends, teachers, everyone. At first I liked the attention, but once I got into High School, it all started going downhill. Friends insulted me behind my back, and I once overheard some of them say that all they wanted from me was money. That didn't last long. Every teacher that knew me faked all my grades because of my status in the world. I knew I was failing classes, but they gave me the highest marks possible anyway just to earn a 'Bonus Pay' from my father. And everyone saw me as his successor for his business once he passed. He tried to teach me how is company worked, how to manage the costs, and all the other bullshit you're required to know to run a business."
Shifty motioned them both to the side of the ruined road and they all sat down next to one of the buildings as a few of the military transport trucks drove past them.
"Personally, I never wanted to follow in his footsteps. I only acted like is 'little angel' because of the fact that I was his daughter and he was nearby. But when I was out of his sight, I did my own things. After about two months of secrecy, he found me filling out the forms to join the military and tried to punish me for my secrecy. Now, he was no friendly father, so his punishments consisted of physical hits which left bruises and welts on my body."
"Explains why you fell apart when I drew back the whip back there." Farley said quietly.
Shifty looked at him grimly. "That's..... part of the reason. The rest was seeing how far you went with your enemies. You both don't hold back, but your method lasts a lot longer than dads." She curled up into an upright ball and hugged her legs. "I can handle whips, belts, chains, knifes, any tool that can inflict pain without taking off body parts or crippling me. The memories though... The pain they bring back..." She trailed off.
Farley couldn't help but feel sorry for her. Had he known she went through all that, he would have never attacked her like he did. "I'm..." He struggled to speak and looked down for a moment, then he raised his head to look at her. "I'm sorry I re-"
Farley's speech was cut off by her extended arm and a plated finger pressing against his mouth. His eyes looked at hers, and his heart ached as he saw how much pain she was in talking about this, but she gave him a ghost of a smile. "It's alright, you didn't know. I deserved it anyway."
After she was sure her words got through, she removed her finger and leaned against the building behind her. "Memories of those days are constant. I can never stop thinking about them, which is why I’ve acted as cocky as I have since I joined."
Her gaze moved to the orange-lit clouds above them. "It was to hide my pain, my sorrow.... my depression."
Dronin looked at her in disbelief. "Is this all true?"
Shifty looked over at him but didn't nod or shake her head. He had gotten his answer from the tears welling up in her eyes and the slightly rough breathing.
She then wiped the tears from her eyes. "Eventually, I had enough of him. I had enough money to move out and live on my own accord, but he held me back."
"What did you do? What made him change his mind to you leave?"
She didn't answer. Instead, she looked at her gauntlet. "Blaze? Can you bring up the Newspaper that had John Shiferns injury as its main story?"
Immediately, a holographic image of the article projected from the main gauntlet in front of the three and repeated the articles contents. "National Times Paper. Date: 23rd August, 2099. Title: Shiferns Attack. Last night at 2:08am, Mr. Shifern of Farlane Munitions was transported to Attadale Private hospital due to a leg injury after an unknown attack at his residence. Reporters later discovered that he had received a gunshot wound to his leg, dealt by one of his companies proto-type Anti-Tank rifles. Find out more on page 23."
Dronin was the first to speak. "I remember seeing that two years ago. Authorities never found who attacked him."
Then Farley spoke up. "They assumed many suspects; workers, company competitors, care staff, neighbours, people who once were close with him, ex-wives."
Shifty nodded. "Mmhm, but the thing was, it wasn't any of them."
Both Farley and Dronin looked at each other before one of them asked why she was bringing this up now.
They got no answer from her at first, and found it strange that she kept quiet for so long. Finally, she looked at them. "Because I know who shot my father, who turned him into a cripple and almost killed him."
This caused them to press on. They both leaned to her and said "Who? Who was it?"
She didn't hold back her answer. "You're looking right at them." Her tone was firm, they picked up no regret in her voice. A small smile then formed on the corner of her mouth.
They were both baffled by what they just heard. Over the last two years, neither of them even considered his daughter was the one that hurt John. To find out this information, it was unbelievable. But a small part of them actually accepted the information and believed it really happened since they had seen how she fights. Then the thought of becoming her enemy crossed their minds and made them shudder a little.
Before they could ask on any more details, her smile faded and she looked off to the side before standing up. “Can we talk about something else? I don’t want to keep this conversation going anymore.”
With the knowledge of what she had been through, both Dronin and Farley could tell it was a touchy subject. They nodded and stood, following Shifty as she began to move away from where they sat.
“So Dronin, what was your theory for the attack?” she asked.
“Huh? Oh right.” Dronin was silent for a few seconds before answering. “Resources. Perhaps they came here for Earths natural resources.”
“Yanno’” Farley interrupted. “That actually makes more sense than my theory. It’s possible that they might have exhausted their homes resources and have been stripping other planets of their resources.”
Dronin nodded. “Mmhm, and I’m sure that there is still plenty of natural ores still deep within’ the Earth’s crust. But thinking of it just makes wonder: Why Earth?”
All three of them shrugged. “Perhaps Earth was along their travel path?” Shifty suggested.
“It’s possible they are actually extracting all resources in this Solar System.” Blaze speculated.
Farley then looked at Shifty's gauntlet. “Since when did AI’s have speculations?”
The suit forced shifty to shrug. “Possibly since my coding was written that way.”
“Please don’t do that, Blaze.” Shifty looked at her gauntlet.
“Do what?”
“Force my body to move.”
“It’s your fault I have to do such actions.”
“Oh? And why is that, Blaze?” Shifty asked with an annoyed tone.
“You never installed a Virtual body for me to manipulate using the holographic projectors.”
“… Oh.”
“So unless you do so next time you’re at a computer, you’re my puppet to control and manipulate when I please.” A virtual, wireframe face came up on Shiftys visor and have her a big, cheeky, evil grin.
Both Farley and Dronin whistled and laughed as her jaw dropped. “Never in my life did I think I’d see the day where an AI could act and bite back like us.” Farley spoke, before adding “Also, she has a point.”
“Blaze 1. Shifty 0. Blaze wins the first round!” Dronin said loudly with a chuckle.
“Shut up!” Shifty screamed at them in embarrassment.
Both of the guys continued to laugh while trying to keep up with Shifty who happened to storm off from them.
After everyone calmed down, Farley paused as he looked at a point between two high-standing buildings, swearing he saw something. “Hey… Do you guys feel like you’re being watched?”
“Nope.”
“All the time.”
… Wait, what? “All the time?” Farley questioned.
An affirming sound and a nod was Shiftys answer as she raised her arms up behind her head.
“For how long?”
“About six years. It used to make me nervous all the time when I was young, now I’m just used to it.” Shifty shrugged. “That feeling is sort of my theory as to why they were here.”
“And what would that theory be?” Dronin asked slowly.
She stopped and spin on the spot casually. “That they are here because of me.”
“And we are.” A deep voice sounded around them, causing them to all jump.
Dronin then pulled out his Assault rifle and a custom clip, loading it up and pulling back the hammer in preparation for a fight. Farley pulled out his Acidic grenades and quickly looked around for the source of the voice. Shifty stood in her combat stance which had one foot in front of her and the other behind her while both arms were on either side of her body. Blaze executed her combat mode, priming both gauntlets by raising strange cylinders which expelled compressed air just behind her hand and spinning up the disks on both devices.
“Who’s there!?” Farley shouted while the others carefully listened for the voice.
A heavy laugh echoed through the ruins. “Oho, look at yourselves Humans. Trying to look all scary and dangerous.” Sarcasm then flowed through the air. “Oh~ I’m so scared, I will be killed before I even have a chance to fight back, oh what shall I do? What will I dooo~?” The laugh resounded even louder. It was obvious this guy was enjoying the moment.
“Are you with the invaders?” Shifty shouted her question. At the same time, she was feeling twitchy.
“Maybe I am? Maybe I’m not.” He continued to chuckle around them.
“What do you want?!” Dronin shouted. Blaze was slowly pinpointing the source of the voice, causing Shifty to turn to her right a little. Both of her group mates noticed and turned to the direction she was facing.
“What do I want? I don’t want anything.” The voice spoke, his tone sent cold chills down their spines. “The master on the other hand…” The voice chuckled once again before going cold. “Wants you, Neon.”
A dome of shadow formed over their general area and blocked off all outside light. The only light that gave them sight was what some of the still operational street lights gave off.
“What does he mean by ‘Neon’? Is he talking about someone? One of us?” Farley asked quietly.
Before Dronin said anything, Shifty looked at Farley. “He’s talking about me.”
“What do you mean he’s talking ab-“ Farley stopped himself as both him and Dronin saw Shiftys eyes. They were glowing. Not glowing from the visor, but actually glowing a luminescent green.
They were both mentally reminded about all the fights the three of them went through where her eyes glowed. She never fought like herself, but as a different person altogether. Her tactics were always sharp, her reaction time was insanely quick, her hits were brutal and not a hint of mercy was ever shown. When they didn’t glow, her reaction time was about average and she made mistakes occasionally
Other times when her eyes glowed when not fighting, she would just walk off to do whatever she did. Especially at night when she was working on her suit. She’d make alteration and try different things with it, but when one of them asked what she was altering or why she was doing so, she would ask them what they meant, showing signs that she had no idea what they were talking about.
“Ah, there you are.” The voice echoed. “We’ve been wondering where you disappeared to. The shadow lord has been looking to finish you off after you stepped out of nowhere a thousand years ago and stopped his forces.”
Shiftys eyes darted around, looking for something. “So he sent you to finish me off?”
"You could say that. But, unfortunately, it isn't my job to finish you off." The voice sounded clearer and a little more direct, causing everyone to look down an alleyway where they assumed the owner was.
"What is your job then?" She growled.
Suddenly, a loud, heavy thump sounded behind them, causing the ground to shake beneath them. All three turned to see a dark, towering figure standing before them in the shape of a lizard that'd been fed steroids. All that could be seen was just metal protection over the whole creature so none of them could tell what exactly it was and N30-NR4N-23 sprayed on one of its arms. "My job." It looked down at them. "Is to see how much you've grown!"
Instantly, the creature brought its right arm up, clenching its hand into fist. Like time had slowed, the only thing Dronin and Farley saw was Shifty turn to them and leapt at them, taking them both into her arms as the giant fist came down upon where they stood, sending all three of them out of the fists path.
All three of them tumbled across the ground before shifty released her grip on them, allowing them to slide to a stop. Shifty was the only one who stopped on their feet with one of her hands on the ground for balance. She breathed hard while the other two felt disoriented by what just happened. Their moment for recovery was interrupted by the sound of the lizards’ hand being drawn out of the ground it had just punched and began moving towards them.
"I was hoping you'd be crushed under my claw. But it seems I underestimated you. You're as quick as remember, Neon Guardian. Too bad you have all that extra weight to move around with instead of that little blue body you once had all those years ago." The giant rolled its shoulders, cracks sounded from the joints. Shifty could only assume there was more to come.
She gritted her teeth and bolted towards him with a raised arm to throw a punch. The attack however, failed as it collided with the creature with a resounding dong from the plating. With no delay and quick reaction, she leapt back as he had taken another swing at her. She slid back to where her team mates were sitting, the looks on their faces was all too easy to read: 'What the fuck?'
Farley thankfully regained his train of thought as the giant began to move closer to them. Shifty looked at the plate she had hit but inwardly cursed as not even a mark of some sort was left behind. "Shifty..." Farley cautiously said. She looked at him from the corner of her eye, they still glowed. "What are you?" was all he said afterwards.
"Not exactly the best time to ask me this." was all shifty could respond with before turning to grab them both, but her retreat was halted as the giant who had come much closer than she liked, reached down and grabbed her in his large hand, raised her up into the air then slammed her down into the road below them. She let off a pained scream as she was crushed under his grip.
Dronin finally snapped back to reality at the sound of her scream and horror overcame his expression as he saw Shifty being crushed. Farley pulled out one of his Acidic grenades, pulled the pin and lobbed it at the attacker. The grenade bounced off of its left leg armour before exploding. Its stomach and leg was covered by the acid that began to eat into the armour before fizzling out. The giant laughed as it's gaze moved to the two of them. Neither moved.
"Run!" shifty screamed out at them before letting out another agonizing scream as the giant pushed more of his weight on top of her. The road beneath continued to crack apart the more he pushed. Her armour groaned under the pressure and warning after warning appeared in her sight.
The giant began to laugh as he put more and more weight on top of her before his face plating exploded in front of the two. Farley tried to scramble away but stopped at he saw that Dronin had pulled out his sniper rifle. The barrel smoked as he drew back the hammer, causing the gun to spit out a spent case that he had never seen before.
"Explosive round. A prototype bullet made by Farlane Munitions." Dronin grinned as he answered Farleys question before it was even asked.
The creature moved back and covered its ‘face’ with its hands to protect it while it tried to recover, releasing shifty like Dronin had anticipated. He quickly stood up, his grin changed to a fearful expression and ran to Shifty, trying to pull her out of the small crater. Farley quickly picked himself and ran to do the same while the creature was distracted.
They both grimaced as they saw the condition of Shiftys body and armor that’d looked like she’d just came out of a crusher. Farley pulled out some high-explosive grenades and lobbed them at the creature who was still trying to regain focus to distract it while his teammate dragged shifty into one of the ruins for cover.
When both was out of sight, he bolted into the same building before he could be seen. As he entered the building, he was struck hard to the heart from the sight in front of him. Shiftys midriff was scraped, scratched, and bleeding while the suit looked to be on the verge of falling apart, but it surprisingly still operated judging by the disks on both gauntlets spinning. Dronin was tearing his bag apart, looking for any first aid supplies through the tears clouding his vision.
Farley knelt down next to her and lightly slid a hand across her cheek. He started tearing up a little as she winced and groaned from his touch. This was the first time he, No, both had seen her in this condition. Every fight they went through, Shifty was always the ‘Tank’ of the group, taking most of the hits and attention from the other two, and always came out unscathed. To see her reduced from the ‘Tank’ to the mess she was, it was too much.
Shifty cracked open her eyes, but surprisingly, one of them still had their glow. Farley could see that both her irises were separate colors, one was her natural hazel, while the other was green. Tears welled in her eyes as she croaked. “H-hey… why the tears?” She smiled, but it was obvious she was intense pain.
Dronin fell apart, her voice had sent him over the edge and he cried into his bags. Farley was close, but he still held on. “…idiot.” was all he could say as he clamped his eyes shut.
“You asked what I was, right?” she asked in a pained whisper.
Farley could only nod.
“Well…” She coughed, some blood splattered from her mouth.
“No. Don’t talk... Please.” His body shook while Dronin regained himself and pulled out some bandages and a healing salve. Thank you science!
She groaned as she raised an arm up to his face, cupping his cheek in her plated hand. “I need… need to tell you…. B-both of you.”
How she kept her smile, neither of the two knew. “I’m not really of this world.”
Dronin opened the salves bottle and dipped a bandage in it before trying to wrap it around her midriff. His actions were slower than he should have been when he heard what she said. Farley looked down at her in disbelief, he knew she was spouting nonsense, most did when they were as close as she was to death, or even closer.
She continued. “You know h… how my eyes glow?”
They nodded.
“When they glow, that’s when my spirit is in full control.”
They still looked at her the same way and began to beg her to stop talking.
She let out a sigh and another bloody cough. They begged her to stop, but she only kept going. “Shifty… Vanessa… That’s only my identity of this world. She was a part of my soul, fragmented to hide this side of me from possible danger like the lug out there. We’ve only just merged back together, and I have complete control, but my fighting capability is severely limited.”
They then stopped begging and continued to listen. She could see what they wanted now from their eyes.
“My original home was a land called Equestria, on a planet much like this one. We never knew what it was called, so we ended up calling it Terra. Before I was… killed on that world by one of my best friends going mad, we had a war, again, much like this one. It lasted for a number of years but not as long as what it has here, but the scales were always balanced as to which side was winning.”
They could now tell she wasn’t making any of this up. There was no hints of a lie or sarcasm in her voice, and there was no possible way she was thinking this up on the spot, so they both listened more.
“Once I had joined in on the battle, I went up in ranks quicker than the others and the scales tilted in our favor every fight I fought in. Eventually, we made it to the last of their bases and finished them off. Eventually,” She coughed again and painfully tried to reach for a cloth, but had the bloody mess around her mouth wiped away by Dronin.
“Eventually, I was faced with the hardest battle of that lifetime, and I was brought to deaths boney appendages multiple times. That was, until I was shot through the heart.”
Both were confused by what she meant. “What do you mean ‘until you were shot through the heart’?”
She just smiled even more, trying her best to ignore the pain in her body. “In my old world, there was such a thing as magic, and only two of the four races of my species could use it. I was born from the more powerful of the two, but came out differently. I was a Hybrid.” She turned her head to Dronin. “A special one.”
They all froze as they felt the ground shake in a pattern like footsteps, and they all knew exactly what was causing them. It didn’t stop the next question from escaping Farleys mouth. “What are you trying to say?”
She gave a quiet, pained laugh. “My body couldn’t hold the amount of magic I could use since that race can only use a tiny bit of magic for flight control, so a spell was put on my soul to act as a limiter so I don’t kill myself. Those who cast the spell succeeded, but didn’t know that if the holder of that spell is put on deaths row from a killing blow, the spell temporarily breaks. And the results… well…”
The vibrations grew heavier. “Where did you go Neon? Why hide from me? Too weak to face me in front of those two hairless aberrations you call ‘friends’?” The attacker laughed heavily.
She sighed, then looked at the two of them. “I don’t want to do this, and I know I have a lot to explain, but there is no more time. He will find us eventually.”
“Then we run. Get away from here.” Farley said with determination.
“We can’t.”
“Why not?”
Shifty closes her eyes. “That dome over us. Anything that touches it will die.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I have seen many die from touching it back home. My real home.” She strained a frustrated whisper but started coughing again.
“Come out, come out, wherever you hide. I’m sure the Shadow Lord won’t mind if I do kill you in the end for being as weak as you are. After all, he does want you dead. And I do want to rip that tiny pink thing that shot at my face. Although you didn’t do any damage to it, I must reward you for your efforts with a slow, painful death.” The sounds of a solid explosion was heard from a building not too far away, followed by a crumble of what was assumed to be the wall of said building.
Dronin stood up and picked up his gun. “We’ll kill HIM then.”
“It’s impossible, Dronin.” Shifty looked at him with eyes pleading him to stop. “Not even his own soldiers’ guns work against that armor. I know what will though, but in order for me to do that, I need you to do something to me that you’ll regret.”
They both looked at her.
“I need you… to shoot me with your rifle.”
Nothing was said, but they did stare at her. Dronin shook his head. “No.”
“Dronin…”
“No…” he repeated, but his body shuddered at the thought.
“Dronin, you have to do this.”
“I… I c-cant. I won’t.”
“I need you to do this!”
“Why?” His tone was now cold.
“Just do it… Please.”
“NO!” he shouted.
A low laugh echoed through the buildings. “So… You’re over here?” Another explosion and crumble was heard, much closer than the last. “Shout again, human, guide me to where you are!” He laughed more.
Shifty then turned her head to Farley.
“Don’t even ask, because it isn’t happening, Shifty. I can’t.” His voice was soft, his gave off more pain than Dronins.
“Please… It has to be done.” She pleaded.
Farley stayed silent.
“You need to understand: If you don’t do it, I’ll be in a lot of pain…. This pain. It won’t go away, ever. I can’t die unless I get shot a second time.”
He turned his head to the side, still showing that he wouldn’t do it. A crimson glow caught his gaze, along with Dronins. They both looked at the rubble nearby where the glow raised into the air and then flew right at Farley. By instinct, he raise his hand up to shield himself but was never hit. Instead, something was forced into his hand.
Farley looked at his hand and stared in shock as he noticed a small pistol was in his grip, still shrouded by the glow. He looked around the room to look for anything else strange.
“F-Farley.” Dronin said in a scared tone.
He looked at Dronin who was looking at Shifty. Following his gaze, he saw that her hand had the same glow. Shifty smiled and nodded as he looked at her. “This is the best I can do. You need to do this Farley. You need to break the spell.”
The gun was telekinetically guided to her breastplate which gave off a hiss, followed by the plate splitting apart in the middle, exposing a fraction of her bare chest to him. The gun was then pulled to it, the tip pressing against her.
“Shifty… please… don’t.” Farley pleaded. His eyes were bloodshot, he was scared, teardrops rolling down his cheeks.
“Why? Why can’t you do it?” she asked. “Why can’t you pull the trigger, despite me telling you I can’t die from the first hit?”
Farley shook more and clamped his eyes shut as she pressed on. “I’ve had this happen many times. It hurts, yes, but only for a second. Then the pain is gone and I’m fine.” She painfully reached up and grabbed his shoulders. “Trust me, I won’t die, I promise! You’re not killing me! I need you to do this so I can save you! Both of you!”
Farley said nothing, but shook more.
“Why is it so hard for you to do it?”
Finally, Shifty got her answer. “Because I love you Vanessa!”
She was immediately taken back by his confession while Dronin sat there dumbstruck.
“You make things difficult, you can be stubborn, loud, hardheaded, a real pain to be around. You never really listen to others suggestions, you don’t listen to reason, and you charge into the fray head first.”
Shifty felt a pang in her heart, stunned by his words. He kept going.
“But, I’ve seen you do amazing things, things I never would have even thought of, gotten us out of very sticky situations, know what to say and when to say it. You don’t look at the cons of an ally, only the pros. You fill the position that we lack. You keep the group going when we’re on our knees and wallowing in the dark. You give us the motivation we need… and you give me hope for a better tomorrow.”
Shifty was beginning to understand why he couldn’t do it.
“I have admired you from the first day I saw you fight. I have enjoyed the time we spent when there wasn’t a battle. The moments where embarrassment was the only thing we felt after something happened between us. You even surprised me at one point too.”
Both Dronin and Shifty remained silent.
“I lied when I said I didn’t care about your family history. I once thought you were going to be some stuck up rich bitch that didn’t care about anything other than herself, but I was giving you a chance anyway. What I saw though when I was assigned to this group, was not what I expected, a woman who always put her friends before herself. Not caring about what was happening to her, so long as her friends weren’t in the brunt of it. I’ve never worked with someone like that before.”
He clenched his free hand while her eyes formed tears. “To see you, someone from a rich background who could have had anything she wanted in the world, stand up for us, protect us and go out of your way for the sake of others… it’s not something to be seen every day. And I fell in love with you because of not only that, but the fact that you proved my first thoughts wrong and showed me a better person.”
He leans forward and rests his head on her shoulder, trying to hold back the tears. “I cannot, in my right mind, shoot you and think of it as another thing to happen. How would I live with myself with the memory of myself shooting the one I love without it bothering me?”
“Farley…” she whispered as she painfully wrapped her arms around him, making sure the disks on her gauntlets don’t come in contact with him. He then removed his head from her shoulder and looked her in the eyes. “Chris…. My name is Chris.”
Shifty smiled. “You remind me so much of him. He cared nothing about titles, statuses or political standings. He almost said exactly what you just did a thousand years ago. When I died and my spirit moved to the next world, I swore I would be celibate till I ended the war completely. Hearing you say that…” She trailed off for a moment as her cheeks felt a little warmer. “It makes me want to change my mind…” Chris smiled.
“Aww. Isn’t that sad? Too bad you won’t live much longer to follow through WITH THAT!” The giant said before the wall behind them blew open, Dronin was unfortunately hit by the debris and was crushed underneath it as it was blown away by the plated fist that was once swinging at them not too long ago. “Surprise!” He yelled excitedly, ready to finish what he was sent to do.
Tears rolled from Shiftys eyes and a genuine smile formed on her face, she didn’t want to hurt him, but she had to. “I’m sorry Chris…” she whispered to him before painfully leaning up to him and laying a kiss on his lips. Her eyes shut, placing the deed that would do her in.
Chris’ reaction was exactly what she expected. Shock went through his body, causing him to tense, which led to his hands jolting, and causing the finger resting on the trigger to twitch, releasing the hammer only to have it hit the base of the loaded round, the powder inside igniting and shooting the bullet right through her chest with a loud bang.
Chris’s eyes widened in fear realizing what just happened as her body began to grow limp under him, a few final tears rolled from her eyes before their kiss broke. The glow around the gun and her hand faded till it was no more and her body drew out its final breath.
‘I’m sorry Chris…’ was all he heard repeat through his head. He shook wildly and held her body in his arms, calling to her through the agony his heart felt
Dronin managed to stay alive long enough to move some of the rubble from his view, only to witness the shot. “N-no… please… No… it… can’t be…” was all he could say from under the rubble before his life slipped from him.
The attacker looked a little stunned by what he just saw, and then smiled under his mask. “Ah, so I neither myself or the Shadow Lord had anything to worry about..” Chuckled resonated from his throat. “I shall let you live, for now. Your time will come though, I guarantee. Take this delay as my thank you for finishing something myself and my Employer have wanted to do for so long.” He said before straightening up and walking out of the building heavily. She was dead, he was no longer needed on this world.
“Please…” Chris croaked. “Come back… please…”
The suit began to power down, the glow from her visor and gauntlets fading to nothing.
“No… please… Vanessa.” He whispered.
The soft hum of the suit faded into silence, the only sounds around them was Chris’ mourning and the heavy thuds outside of the building. Natural light began to shine through as the dark dome that had covered the area, faded away. There was a break in the cloud line and the full moon shined down over them.
“We need you… I need you… You promised…” His voice faded away as the pain became unbearable on his heart, silent whimpers came from him.
‘Lyrin…’
Light sobs echoed through what looked like a dark room, the pain and suffering evident to the owner. Curled up tightly into a ball, eyes shut and tears streaming from their eyes, they only wished the pain would stop, the confusion to disappear, and the memories of strange worlds unknown to them which tore them apart emotionally ever since they passed out after hearing a heavy voice from the ruins of the city.
‘…essa…’ A distant voice called out from the darkness.
The voice was soft, but it grabbed Vanessa’s attention. She slowly opened her eyes and uncurled herself, pushing herself up with her arms. “H-hello?” she called out into the darkness.
‘Vanessa…’ The voice seemed a little louder. Vanessa could hear the worry in the voice.
“Who’s there?” She asked loudly. Her heart thumped, it felt like it was going to explode from her chest as the fear only kept rising.
‘Calm yourself, dear.’ The voice said before a sphere of light formed in front of her. Just seeing it calmed her slightly for some reason, and made her feel warm on the inside.
She looked upon the sphere and then looked around her in search for the voice. “Who are you?”
‘I am you…’ the voice sounded again, but seemed more like it came from the sphere.
She looked back at the sphere curiously before flinching back as it spread itself out, changing its shape to that of a human body of light. ‘Or, to be more precise, the rest of you.’
“I…” she started. “I don’t understand. What do you mean by ‘the rest of me’?”
The being of light talk a few steps forward to her. She wanted to move away from it, but her body wouldn’t allow it. The being then knelt down in front of her and extended its arm and hand forwards her face.
‘You have had moments where you feel like something is amiss with you, am I correct?’ it asked as its hand rested against her cheek. The feeling of relief flooded her body, the fear she had only a few seconds ago, disappearing. She only nodded in response and pressed her cheek against the hand willingly, no longer wanting to retreat from it. It soothed her, it calmed her, and she felt at peace. She didn’t want to lose this feeling of serenity. Ever.
Unfortunately, the being did pull its hand back. She wanted to reach out and pull it back, but her arms wouldn’t move. So she looked at it with a begging look which seemed to be ignored.
‘I do not wish to hurt you with what I am about to say, but it must be done. You must hear what I am about to tell you, just like many others have before you, and it will explain why you have felt like that.’
Vanessa could tell it didn’t want to say what it wanted, but she remained silent in respect.
‘You are not who you know yourself as. It’s a mask you have taken on since birth. I know this because I have been with you since then.’
The words almost hit her in full force. She wanted to talk, to say something back to deny it, but her mouth wouldn’t move to form words, nor would her voice sound when she tried.
‘I know you do not believe me. I know you wish to say something against what I have just told you, but please, listen to what I have to say.’
The only option she had was to remain quiet and nod.
The being seemed to inhale deeply for a moment before it began talking, looking to one side.
‘For a thousand years, I have been moving from one world to another, one body to another, one life to another in search for a way to get back home after being painfully torn from it by a ruler gone insane.’
Images began to form in front of her, many showing a world single world she recognized from those alien memories. One of the images had many creatures, much like what she has seen on earth, fighting against a field of multicolored horses which took on many shapes and sizes. Some looked large and masculine, while others were small and… feminine?
Some had wings and were occupying the skies, either fighting against those in the air, or diving to the ground. There were some that had horns and stayed at the back, glows covering their horns. While others had neither Horn nor Wings and were covered in armor wielding many weapons from swords, to spears, to even crossbows which were mounted on their armor. Every one of these horses had an image on their backside which she found strange.
Another image she looked at was a table of a map surrounded by more of these horses which she thought looked like high ranking soldiers planning for an attack. One of them happen to catch her attention: One of the winged horses which she assumed was female, had Persian Blue fur with a golden feather on both wings, appearing as though she was issuing orders. This horse didn’t have an image on its backside like the others did.
‘One of the main races of my world are what you see in front of you. And I must bring this up: They are not horses, but Ponies.’ The being said.
She thought it was a joke. ‘Ponies? That can’t be true, they are just animals…’ She thought to herself.
It never moved its head. ‘We are nothing like what you know of from this world.’
Her reaction to the beings words was a look of confusion. Almost immediately, before she could think of something, it spoke again.
‘Yes, I did just reply to your thoughts. I hear everything you think. But that is not important. There isn’t as much time as I’d like to explain, so just listen to me, please?’ It asked kindly.
After a few seconds of thought, Vanessa nodded.
‘Thank you.’ It said, making Vanessa feel more warmth inside her.
‘I was born as a Pegasus, one of the winged ones. Naturally, only a Unicorn, the horned ponies or an Alicorn who has both wings and a horn, can use magic, but when the doctors of that time checked me to make sure whether I was healthy or not, they discovered that I was generating higher levels of magic, more than what a Pegasus can use.’
An image of many unicorns in white coats surrounding a table appeared in front of her. In the middle of the table was a bunch of blankets and a small blue, Pegasus foal with those two same golden feathers within them. Each of the unicorns horns were covered by different colored auras and beads of sweat on their furred faces.
‘They were afraid that if this unnatural condition was to be left untreated, I would not last long as the overload of magic would kill me. So they cast a spell on me that would create a shield around my soul: the source of my magic, and filter how much was generated. The spell worked, but there were a few side effects to it that they never knew of.’
A new image appeared in front of her with a much older looking version of that foal, taking a shot of what looked like a bullet through their chest. She winced as she saw her eyes: They were wide, the irises and pupils close to the size of pins, and at the bottom eyelids were tears. She could imagine the pain she’d experience if she was in their position, but the imaginary pain felt all too real.
‘One of the side effects were that if I was to take on a blow that would otherwise kill me, the spell would temporarily shatter and my magic would flow at its full force. The result of this causes my body to change into something that could handle the amount of magic. Blows that would usually cause someone or somepony to die from loss of blood or extensive pain wouldn’t kill me, and instead, I would be forced to live through pain that would never fade completely until I am hit by that killing blow.’
Vanessa couldn’t help but shudder at the thought of living through everlasting pain. The image then changed: The Pegasus was levitating in the air, its expression told her it was screaming in agony inside the Column of light that erupted from the ground beneath them. Anything that was in close proximity to it looked like it was being blown away by a shockwave.
‘With my magic erupting from me in full force, I would take on a new form, but that form wouldn’t have the benefit that my normal body did. This meant that if I was to take a second killing blow, there would be nothing to save me, and I will properly die…’ the beings voice trailed off for a moment as it lifted its hand up to where its lips would be and held it there for a moment as if it was holding back its emotions.
Not long afterwards, the image changed to one where there stood two ponies in clear view and a few armored ones in the background, pointing their spears at them. One was a taller pony with a horn and wings with dark sapphire fur. Their horn was lit by a cobalt aura and pointed at the smaller pony who she assumed was the same pony she had seen in the other images. The Pegasus however, was covered by flames, being burned alive by the taller one which Vanessa guessed was the ruler the being mentioned before.
‘The other side effect was that if I were to die, my spirit would not move on into an afterlife as the humans call it. Instead, it is forced from the world into the abyss and must find a new body to live in. If I could explain why this was, I would, but time is not in our favor at this very moment.’
She wondered what the being meant by ‘Time is not in our favor’, but the mental question forming in her mind was immediately answered.
‘At this very moment, I am in control of your body; our body, currently fighting against an old foe from all those years ago. They have grown strong, and I cannot fight them for long in this human body you have grown accustomed to for the past twenty years.’
“Will we win?” she muttered to herself, but was overcome by surprise as she found her voice again.
The being finally turned its head to her. ‘Only when you truly accept who you really are. I cannot match his strength without you, which is why I am speaking to you at this very moment. I have had to do this many times before, but this is the only time where we don’t have that long to get to an understanding before it is too late.’
The beings words echoed through Vanessa’s mind before she nodded again. “Then please, continue.”
The image that was once in front of her fades from sight. ‘Every rebirth I have gone through, my soul would be at a constant battle with the body. I could never understand why for a number of failed rebirths, or ‘miscarriages’ as the already living would call it. It wasn’t until I tried fusing a smaller part of my soul to my new body that I found a way to live again for as long as I could. So during every transition from one life to another, I would split a small part of my soul and fuse it to the new body. That fragment would live through whatever life was given to them until they are into their adult years when both mind and body have matured. Luckily, every world I have lived in, its races have lifespans of under 150 years, but I have never lived past the age of 30 in any of them save for my original life due to worldwide conflicts, wars, or fights for dominance.’
She gave it a questionable look as if something was missing. “Fights for dominance?”
The being nodded. ‘While some worlds had technology, greatly advanced or only just beginning, others are still in primitive stages.’
“Oh.” Was her only response.
‘Prim worlds taught me how to survive better in many different circumstances, things that have kept you alive up to this point, while the Tech worlds have taught me how to craft and utilize many things. It’s because of what I have learnt from the Tech worlds that allowed me to modify that suit you bought two years ago to operate off my passive magic use, and allow us to do many other things. Flight was one of the things I was able to modify the suit to achieve in case it was needed.’
“I always did wonder why the suit looked different from the original diagram when it finally activated.” At least she now knows (Or hoped) that part of what she did helped with the finished product, but that thought was squished.
‘By the way, speaking of suits: Don’t touch the internal hardware or software ever again without me aiding you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to rewire, move, reconnect and reprogram everything after you fiddled with it.’
‘Well fuck you too, Lyrin.’ She thought to herself before something in that thought made her freeze… Well, two things. First was remembering the fact that the being could hear her thoughts, and second was the last word she thought in that sentence.
The being seemed to ignore the first part, but that final word caught her attention. ‘It seems you’re beginning to understand who you really are.’
It- No, she was right: thoughts, memories, feelings and experiences that once felt alien to her were now growing familiar, she was understood who she was. She knew who she was, and the openly accepted it.
Suddenly, her mind was filled with what has happened between her passing out and her core taking over her body up to the point where the wall behind her was blown open, followed by the word ‘surprise’ being yelled out.
She looked as Chris’ face as the dark room around her warped into her bodies surroundings and the glowing figure faded out of sight. Her soul was whole once again, and she knew what had to be done. It pained her to think of it, especially with his confession, but she needed to push it aside. She felt a tear roll down her cheek and gave him a genuine smile.
“I’m sorry Chris…” she whispered to him before painfully leaning up to him and laying a kiss on his lips. There was a pause in time where she felt like she was floating on a cloud once again before a sharp pain shot right through her chest.
It hurt, it burned, and she felt like she was slipping away. Memories of her first love flashed in her mind, Chris really did remind her of him. Maybe it was him, just with a different face, she wasn’t sure, but she didn’t care. She kept her lips pressed against his for as long as she could before her body went unbearably numb.
“Please…” She heard him whisper to her, he was growing distant “Come back… please…”
“No… please… Vanessa.” She heard again, the voice a lot further away.
“We need you… I need you… You promised…” The voice was faint, it was difficult to hear him, and then everything went silent.
‘Lyrin…’ The voice of a soul, she heard it.
Just as the giant looked down at the ground and a rune circle formed around him to send him back to where he came, something in the air made him feel uncomfortable and halted him. He turned to see the two humans, the male holding the female. One lover mourning the passing of another, something his own race had experience many times before being overruled by the Shadow Lord. He was not happy to see this sight, but he watched anyway. “I’m sorry, young ones.” He said quietly as he looked at them.
Then, something from the back of his mind struck his mind that he should have remembered. “Rakehj!” He loudly cursed as his limbs were instantly restrained by magical chains protruding from the road under him before he could move. With a quick glance at his shackles, he looked back at the two, only to have an uneasy feeling fill his stomach.
Chris cracked open his eyes to see what the shout was about but froze as he noticed something around both himself and Vanessa’s body. Multiple circles had formed around them with strange writing in the outer ring. They glowed as a breeze flowed through the ruins.
Chris quickly jumped back out of the circles as small wisps of light rose up from the circle and bent towards Shiftys body. He wanted to run, he wanted to grab her body and pull her out of whatever was covering her body, but he also wanted to see what would happen. Then he heard what sounded like a whisper in the wind.
‘I told you, I can’t die from the first hit…’
He let out a loud gasp as Shiftys lifeless body began to levitate upright over the ground, slowly rising up as her body began to glow from the strange aura blanketing her body. He wanted to close his eyes as her body brightened, but all he could do was watch in astonishment as a crimson rings of light formed at her base and slowly slid over her body.
What passed through that ring changed as it continued its path up the body, armor being repaired instantly, legs thickening at the base and the ends becoming round, boots shaping to fit the new shape, blue fur replacing the scarred skin of her midriff with two blue luminescent lines down each side of her body, armor around the arms and shoulders disappearing and being replaced by fur and luminescent lines flowing down to the now larger gauntlets as they spun to life, wings spread out from her shoulder blades and stretched out to their full span, fur growing on her face as a small muzzle grew out of her face, her ears changed to those horse or pony would have but more rounded and what looked like a horn protruded from her forehead.
Her hair grew thicker at the front, longer at the back and the color change to both her furs color on one split and a darker blue on the other. A separate ring appeared around where her tailbone would be and floated away from the body; what was once air was now a tail sporting the same colors as her hair.
Both of the rings disappeared and the glow that covered her body faded away into the dark. The strange circles that were once around her also disappeared as she dropped to the ground on her hands and… feet?
Both wings tucked up tightly against her back as she slowly stood up and took a deep breath before opening her eyes. Chris just looked at them in a daze, they were larger than the human eye and her irises sported the same green that they used to glow with. They looked down at him and returned the gaze before a smile formed on her face.
“V-Vanessa?” She nodded as her visor returned, she then took a few steps forward, went down on one knee and nuzzled her cheek against his. He was stunned by the soft feeling brushing against his face and froze again as she whispered into his ear. “Cleared any doubts you had after my little explanation, Chris?”
Without given time to pull away, she was immediately pulled into his arms, being held tightly against him, she returned the gesture willingly. “I hate you for doing that.” He mumbled into her. “But I’m so glad you’re alright now.”
“I know, and I’m sorry.” She said softly, squeezing him tighter. “But it had to be done. If I’d done it myself, the spells break would have been denied and I would have actually died.”
Chris cut her off. “Have you tried before?”
This halted her and tried to recall ever doing it. “...No. I haven't, and I’m not willing to try. But I do know that at the hoofs of another, I would be reborn as this for a short time before changing back.”
He pulled back and she loosened her embrace around him. He looked at her with a questionable look. “Hoofs?”
She giggled and nodded. “My race are ponies. Nothing like the ones you have here on Earth though. We’re sentient beings and are one of the larger populated races of Terra.” She smiled at him. Again, there was no hint of a lie.
“So… I’m in love with a pony?” That knowledge didn’t really sit well with him.
“In a general term, yes. In a technical term, No.”
“What’s the difference?” He asked.
“In this body, I’m only half pony, other half… I don’t know.”
They were interrupted by an angered roar from behind them which happened to be the shackled alien that was sent to kill her.
“I don’t wish to intrude on your little reunion, but we do have a battle to finish I believe?” the Suit suggested. Blaze didn’t sound as mechanical as before, she actually sounded like an actual living being.
“Hold on, Blaze.” Chris said, he then looks up at her. “So, if Shifty or Vanessa wasn’t your real name, what should I call you?”
She looked back at him questionably while reaching out a hand. “What do you mean? You said my name after I was shot.”
“I did?” He questioned as he took the hand and was pulled to his feet. “I don’t remember saying your real name. Or any name other than your… human name?” He was glad she was still standing at 5’2, allowing him to still stand higher than her at 5’10.
She just rolled her eyes and smiled. “Lyrin. That’s my name.”
Chris nodded and then looked the roaring attacker. “So, how do we take him out?”
“Not we, I.”
He looked at her. “What do you mean?” he said sharply. “You make me shoot you, you make me spill my heart over you, make me watch you turn into this.” He gestured at her body. “And now you won’t let me fight?”
“Please Chris, understand that for the last thousand years, I have been preparing this. This is the only life I’ve been able to put what I have learnt through my travels to good use. This suits operation is one of them.”
Chris blinked at her. “How?”
Lyrin smiled. “It operates off my own magic.” Right on cue, her horn flared with the crimson glow of her magic while at the same time, the disks on both gauntlets spun up more. Then as the glow faded, they returned to their normal rotational speed.
“Huh…” was all that came from Chris.
“I promise.” She leaned up to him and placed another kiss on his lips. “I’ll take care of him and get revenge for Dronin. Then maybe, we can go on a date to celebrate the end of all this.” She gave him a wink before turning towards the attacker, one of her wings stretched out and brushed a pinion feather against his face before tucking it back against her and making her way over, leaving a stunned, blushing Chris behind. He didn’t care if she was part animal, he still loved her, and the thumping of his heart proved that.
As she approached, the magical shackles shattered and the attackers’ limbs were no longer suppressed. He didn’t move, but she assumed he was looking at her. “I should have known that shot wouldn’t kill you.” He said in a low voice.
“Then you should also know that you won’t stand a chance on leaving this place alive.” Her voice held the icy tone of a killer. “For killing one of my friends, you’ve just indirectly told me not to show mercy.” Her horn flared and her gauntlets powered up.
“Threatening my home is inviting me to not even consider holding back.” She began to walk faster as the cylinders let out another hiss of compressed air before the tops rotated. ‘Impact Amplifiers Armed’ flashed in her vision as she clenched her fists.
“Killing my old lover, Blazing Trails.” The line struck Chris. ‘He was killed?’ he asked himself.
“And threatening to kill my current.” She began to run at the alien as it just laughed at her.
“Is making your down Death Wish!” she yelled as she drew back a fist. The disks began to spark and an electrical hum resounded through the air before she threw her fist forward into the armor.
The sound gunshot filled the air as her fist made contact with her targets armor. The cylinders released compressed air which made it sound like a gunshot, and a device within caused the force of her punch to increase dramatically. The result of the impact was an alien who could have weighed a good few tons with dented chest armor where she hit, flying through wall after wall of ruined buildings.
The hand she used steamed from the amount of friction between the impact, and the sight of a flying enemy baffled Chris. Lyrin only stayed where she stood, watching the creature break through many walls before it came to a stop.
Suddenly, a loud roar echoed through the ruins followed by thunderous footsteps running towards them. She didn’t flinch or turn to retreat, since she was expecting this. Instead, her only actions were a grin growing on her face, shifting into her fighting pose, and muttering to herself as her attacker charged towards her.
“Oh, I love this game!”