Snowfall

"Sparrow? Sparrow!" A familiar voice shouted. Her head rang with a hundred bells.

"Ugh, please... don't... shout..." Sparrow groaned. She held her head and stayed laying on the ground for another moment. She couldn't think straight, or at all really. Angel knelt beside her.

"What happened?" Angel asked softly. The bells began to clear, and she remembered.

"Ace. They took Ace," she mumbled, pushing herself up with her right arm, ignoring Angel's offer for help. Whoever it was that attacked them, he hit like a truck. He was wearing a power suit. "We need to find him." Angel pursed her lips.

"If they attacked here, your apartment isn't safe anymore. We need to tap into the street cameras and see where the kidnapper went," Angel stated, tapping her ear comm. "We have a situation on our hands. Ace has been captured right outside Sparrow's apartment. No, Sparrow looks okay. I don't know why they didn't take both of them, unless they have ulterior motives. Who knows with Mettalion. Alright, I'll do." Sparrow watched Angel's eyes. She could already see.

"Are we benched, coach?" Sparrow asked. Angel glanced at her and her arm sling.

"You are benched, but you're coming with me. Your apartment isn't safe anymore. Let's find Ace. We're the only ones nearby," Angel stated, leading a grinning Sparrow to the car.

"You're the best," Sparrow said. Angel sighed.

"I'm being so irresponsible right now."

***

"Rise and shine, last of the Metal Angels," a familiar but robotic voice said. Ace raised his head wearily as the bag covering it was removed. Transforming and fighting with almost everything had drained him, and being paralyzed was not fun. He squinted through the lamp pointed at his face to see the man in the power suit. It reminded him of the Knight he had fought before all this, but the suit was more simple and streamlined. "Tell me, Ace, do you know this face?" He lifted the helmet to reveal a young man's face. He had thick, ruffled dark hair and ocean blue eyes. Ace paled.

"Twice I've seen ghosts..." he said breathlessly. "Dan." The young man smiled.

"Yes, I am of the same line of clones as Dan. What was he like?" The clone of Dan asked sincerely, his voice like liquid gold. Ace blinked. Sonny's "evil clone" was cold and unfeeling, but this guy was entirely different. Ace was too busy processing everything to respond. "I've started picking up memories that aren't mine. I've gained my own will, my own mind. I'm not some mindless servant to Mettalion like the others. The last of the clones are turning into people like me, and soon Mettalion will silence us all if they have their way." So all the clones were slowly turning rogue now. Mettalion was more and more rapidly falling apart. What would Project Hope do once the last of Mettalion's wrongs were righted?

"He was confidant," Ace spoke up, gathering his thoughts. "He never showed fear, or let it control him. He cared deeply for us, his family. He gave everything just so we had a chance to escape Mettalion." Dan nodded.

"I hope I can live up to his memory. Forgive the kidnapping and the lamp, I needed time to block the signal feeding what I saw back to Mettalion. I should be in the clear," he apologized and explained, moving the lamp so it pointed at the ceiling instead of Ace. They were sitting in a small and very dusty room. He removed the bindings on Ace, who shifted in the uncomfortable wooden chair. The young man was in a no less old, three-legged chair. "You need to get going soon, Ace. Angela is in danger. The squad I was with found her, but their communications are currently jammed by something. They will move in on her as soon as they can. And they have a special Hunter with them to track her and kill her. You need to catch them before they catch her." Ace rose to his feet as Dan handed him his pistols.