Remembrance
by
Kyen/Blaque Midnyte
Summary: In the past, a past erased from the history books and files, there were seven, not five, great warriors – the five goddesses, and their male consorts, the two great gods. But, when the goddesses decreed that they must abandon Zion, they also abandoned their mates when they refused to come with them, and so, fueled with vengeance, the goddesses erased them from history, but they could not erase the gods themselves….
Zero has trained and pushed himself to the limit for the past three years, and now he’s eighteen. Along with Hiead, the two have made their way to the top, but their time is slowly coming to a close, for once they reach nineteen, they are threw. Both boys, though they hate to admit it, are desperate for a break so they can become what they have trained so hard to be.
Zero whispers his wish one night to a star that glimmers far beyond the light of their sun and Zion, and ever since things have being going…different. He and Hiead are growing stronger and their dreams are filled with odd words and images that seem to guide them. And when they found out, will the be willingly to except the power offered to them and destroy the ultimate threat? Something far more powerful the VICTIM?
Chapter 1 ~ Birthday Wish
There was nothing. The world was black, and cold, and nothing. No stars shone, for they were blocked with clouds of black blood and chunks of rotting flesh. And then there were the twisted masses of iron and oil, the remains of those not strong enough to survive the attack. It was a loss, but not one great enough for the survivors to shed tears over, except for maybe their partners, but when they were brought here they were labeled expendable, and so they were. No great loss.
“What is the death count?” asked a voice over the intercom.
“Out of the ten, there are five left,” announced a cold voice. “Seems we have the cream of the crop already picked. No need to decided who now owns the top five spots.”
“No, we still must go through with that,” the intercom voice said calmly. “Now return. We need to get the repairs going.”
“What repairs?” another voice asked, flightier then the other, and it rang with a lilting tone not to be underestimated.
“Just get back here, Candidate!” snapped the voice and the link was cut. The two who had answered shared in chuckles, one darker then the other, and accelerated towards the station, unconcerned with the carnage that surrounded them.
“Nice job out there,” said a red head girl, light brown twitching cat ears atop her head. “Not very many damages either. You’ve gotten better.”
“Whatever, Kizna,” the boy said, jumping down from his PRO-ING. Zero brushed a stray hair away and shrugged off Kizna’s rather loud, and annoying, comeback. He had heard all before and it was nothing more then a fly buzzing in his ear by now.
He stretched as he walked down the hall, his silky, earth brown hair shining in the dim light, and deep blue, sometimes aqua green, colored eyes hooded as he stared lazily ahead of him, letting his feet guide him to his dorm. He had turned eighteen not three weeks ago, and he had been in the top five rankings for some time now. How long had it been? Ever since Force and the others moves out, so it was probably about two years perhaps. Over that time period he had grown, probably more feminine in looks then a guy, but he didn’t care. He could use it to his advantage. His arms rippled with undetected muscles, and his legs bunched as strong calves worked to move him down the hall. As he stretched, built abs were exposed, and his movements were the essence of grace. His skin brushed against cold metal and he shivered. He forgot he had had that earring on. He had crafted it himself, made from a piece of scrap metal, shaped into a cross and then made into a rather nice accessory – like Gareas.
He blinked as he heard footsteps coming up behind him. It was either one of the younger candidates, or it was that silver haired devil that wouldn’t bury the hatched between them. That too was like a fly buzzing in his ear – Hiead’s and his eternal rivalry. He turned his head to look back and growled softly when he saw it was indeed the silver haired wretch.
Hiead had battled along side Zero since they had gotten into G.O.A. and it annoyed the heck out of the both of them. Over the three years they had been at G.O.A. Hiead too, had changed somewhat, though, sadly, the attitude was not part of these changes. The most astounding change had to be his hair. For the goddess’s sake, how could the sanitary division allow it to grow so long? It trailed very near his rear end, held back by a simple band, bangs nearly that long framing his face. His chiseled face had smoothed out and become softly pointed and rounded all at once, matching the silkiness of his hair. Like him, his muscles did not show, but Zero caught the slight flexing of them as he walked, his arms pumping back and forth slowly at a leisurely pace, which annoyed Zero as well. Hiead suddenly caught his aqua eyes with his own bloody red ones, glaring at his competition. A shiver went down Zero’s back and he turned sharply around, continuing down the hall.
Without a word to one another they entered their dorm, where Clay, Roose, and Yamagi were already undressing and getting ready for bed. Clay looked up as the two candidates walked in and raised his hand in greeting, though it was aimed mostly at Zero, for he knew Hiead didn’t give a care.
“Nice job out there today, Zero,” Clay said as the boy drew up to his bed and roughly tugged out his night pants and shirt. “And you too, Hiead. Quite a team you make.” Clay immediately regretted the comment as he was meant by dark stares from both of them as the thought of them working as a team sank in.
Zero shook his head and that crooked grin returned and the same shine sparkled once more in his eyes, “Thanks Clay. You did well, too. I’ve never seen you take so many VICTIM down without wetting your pants.”
“Hey!” Clay cried indignantly. Zero, Roose, and Yamagi laughed as the blood rose to Clay’s cheeks. With a growl Clay grabbed his pillow and hurled it at Zero.
Zero chuckled and flopped onto his bed as the pillow sailed by. Hiead caught it and flung it back in annoyance onto Clay’s bed before stripping of his shirt and pants and replacing them with his pajamas. Zero shrugged and followed his competitor’s example. As he pulled his shirt over his head, and thought hit him.
“Hey Roose, when do you turn seventeen?” he asked. Roose was the youngest of them, but little did that seem to daunt the young man. Where at first he had been overweight, he had gone too skinny and not overly strong, to a well-built young man with a gently attitude.
Roose thought for a moment, “Three days I think. I’ve lost count.”
It was true. Many of them had just started counting themselves one year older when the beginning of a new year rolled around. It had become virtually unimportant the exact date WHEN they turned a year older, since the instructors didn’t seem to, but some of them still remembered their birthdays, though not many. Zero felt kind of bad for Roose when it came to that. Roose would be left alone with a whole new group of people when the new year rolled around again. Then they would nineteen, at least in their minds, and would have to leave. They wouldn’t be asked to leave until they’re real birthdays, of course, but just the same.
Throwing back the covers, Zero flopped down in his bed, staring up at the ceiling. When he finally drifted off into sleep, it was with thoughts of all the things that had happened in the past three years.
*~*~*
“This is an honest waste of my time,” Hiead announced to Ikhny, and thus to his instructor.
A simulated VICTIM came at him from the side. Hiead easily twisted away and sliced through it with his sword. A light on his monitor flashed and he swung around, firing his gun, the dark blood of the VICTIM spurting out as he shot it down. With a grunt he waited for the simulation to end.
“Very nice, eighty-seven,” Azuma told him as he walked out. “Now, eighty-eight, you’re up.”
Zero eagerly got into the simulator and waited. Water slowly filled the chamber and darkness followed it. He let his body float in the liquid, let his eyes adjust to the images appearing before him. Zion, that was always there, he could see the simulated G.O.A. behind him out of the corner of his eye, and then there were the specks that were slowly growing larger – VICTIM.
“Five VICTIM,” Kizna announced. “They’re heading towards you on your left and right, two and three.”
“Put up the target screen,” Zero demanded. It came up and he sent a mental order for it to lock onto the two coming up on his left. The PRO-ING computer did as told and he took aim. With an almost cheerful grin, Zero fire off six rounds at the oncoming VICTIM.
His grin widened when he saw the bodies halt and become limp, their dark blood blotting out the stars. “Zero! Behind you! The other three VICTIM are nearly upon you!”
Zero turned sharply and drew his sword, accelerating upwards. The VICTIM seemed surprised by the move and halted, contemplating how to best go after him. Zero didn’t give them a choice. He turned sharply, falling rapidly, sword before him. He skewered on and roughly threw it to the side to come back up again. The VICTIM scattered and he choose one to annihilate. Pushing his PRO-ING faster he sliced deeply into the VICTIM’S midsection, blood pouring like some great waterfall.
His target screen beeped and he swung around. The last of the VICTIM had decided to be a coward and was making towards Zion. Zero made a disgusted noise and lifted his gun and fired a single shot. The VICTIM halted and slowly, its blood became a cloud to block out the stars.
“Complete!” he called.
The water drained from the simulator and Zero came out. Azuma nodded to him, telling him silently he had done well, “Right. You all are done for the day!”
Zero left the room with the four other boys, but he did not follow them to the cafeteria. Instead, he turned town the first hall and made his way down it till he came a door. He pressed in a word and it opened, revealing a sparsely clad room with a few benches, a fern or two in a pot, and a side of it cut out and filled with glass, so Zion could be seen, and all that surrounded it.
Zero walked into the room, aqua eyes absorbing the magnificent scene that could be seen through the glass. He looked down upon Zion, the final star. He mused as to how all the other glimmering little dots behind it seemed to be as courtiers were to a king, and Zion was the king. And yet…what a poor ruler it was. That last star to survive the onslaught of VICTIM was portrayed as nothing more then a ball of mud that had to be protected for no other reason that it was the last of its kind.
Zero lay his head against the glass and shivered and cold washed over him. He looked down on Zion again and wondered if there was anybody on it. And if so, what was life like there? If there was life, was it worth protecting? He had been taught all humanity had come to the colonies, but…was that true? Cause if not, then wouldn’t Zion look dirtier in some way? As if in ruins?
As he stared down at Zion, something suddenly flashed in his mind. A memory…a very old memory. He saw a pastry before him, candles stuck into it, and then they were out. He heard a voice, his voice, speaking, making a wish. Yes, that was it. A birthday wish. He had forgotten that little tradition on birthdays. Strange how such random things popped up when they weren’t even relative to your train of thought, eh? To bad there weren’t any pastries (if you counted that hard as rock roll he got in the cafeteria), and no candles either. That would be interesting.
He blinked and reared his head back a little from the window, his forehead suddenly aching as the warmer air of G.O.A assaulted it. There it was again. A streak of light across space. He pressed his face to the glass again, ignoring the needle pricks of pain that came from the sudden cold and watched as more streaked across the sky. He saw something else, within his mind. He was staring at the sky and the same lights were streaking across it. His voice rang again…another wish. Wishing on a shooting star. He had forgotten that as well.
He watched as they continued to fall and shrugged. Eh? Why not? “I wish to become a Goddess Pilot, before I turn nineteen,” he whispered.
As he said the words aloud he was suddenly hit with the realization he didn’t have long. Only seven months, and though the chances of him becoming one were high, he was feeling guilty, knowing he might just have condemned one of the pilots to death because of it. He had just admitted something he didn’t want to as well. He had admitted that he was not becoming what he strived to become. The thing he had been dragged away from his home for. He wouldn’t be fulfilling the promise he had made his mother either. He had promised he would become all he could, a Goddess Pilot, and he was still a candidate, under the rather abusive care of Azuma and still locked in battle with Hiead. What a life. What a way to fulfill a promise.
With a sigh he retreated from the window and out the door. Looking down the hall he turned sharply and made a mad dash for the cafeteria. Who knew how long he had wasted staring at Zion in the room when he could have been stuffing is face with the mush that those awful ladies served. Who let those mole infested ladies onto G.O.A. anyway? Why didn’t sanitation throw them out already?
Playing with those thoughts he hurtled towards the cafeteria, unaware that the shower of stars still continued beyond the walls of G.O.A.
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