All rights reserved to Daisuke Ishiwatari.
Even as a man of science, Frederick could only call his eyes snapping open a miracle.
The darkness split open as the man was met with the sight of craggled and charred ground. His head was still reeling from the impact of where he had landed. He could feel his brow crease and his heart pick up as he remembered what led him to this point. His throat choked up as his head swerved back and forth between rage and confusion.
"Asuka...Why?"
His friend and superior had called him to the roof of the Gear Project facility to discuss Aria's TP infection. She'd been critical for days now and wouldn't budge on going into Cryosleep. Frederick had dropped everything and rushed up the stairs as the world blurred around him.
The two of them couldn't let it end this way. They couldn't let Aria down, Frederick knew he couldn't live without her. He threw the door open, not even bothering to close it and walked out into the cool air. The skies were black all around him. Asuka was standing near the balcony and moved to shut the door as Frederick himself moved to where his friend had been. Frederick could feel his heart slow as he looked out to the neon city below him. The subject of Aria's condition had made him frantic as usual, of course it did, his fiance was at stake. But he knew he needed to calm down, going maniac wouldn't solve anything, not now, not ever. Letting out a heavy sigh as his blood cooled, he turned around to face his friend.
His veins went scolding hot when he saw the gun in Asuka's hand.
Fredrick's mouth exploded into a barrage of frantic pleading and fearful demands of an explanation. His heart was hammering against his chest as he felt the hair of his skin stand on end. No matter what he said, Asuka kept the weapon in his firm grip. Frederick felt his body seize as his friend's finger pressed down on the trigger. The brown-haired scientist felt the nothingness take him as his friend uttered five haunting words.
"Fredrick—-you're going to die."
And after everything went black, here he was, aches pulsing across his body and having fallen off the highest point in the city and yet, still alive. Despite how much he wanted to pull himself up and race into that facility to find Asuka squeeze an answer out of his throat, the impossibility and intensity of the past few seconds kept Frederick's brain stuck on 'Why?' and 'What now?'. What would happen to Aria? What was this all about? And most urgently, how was he still alive?
Looking around the entrance to the facility and reaching upward with his left hand to rub his still-pounding head, Frederick's eyes widened as he saw the limb that responded.
What responded was a hulk of flesh resembling a forearm, its digits were as sharp as nails with his once-tanned skin now glassy smooth and simmering red with some strange form of power.
What the hell? Frederick thought as he pushed himself to his feet. Looking down, he could see that his feet were much the same as his hand, his torso seeming to follow suit. Judging by how far his feet were from him now, he had at least gotten a few inches taller. Pulling out his left arm a bit further, he could see that his limb had exploded with muscle as well as the strange red sheen. Putting two and two together, Sol could feel his seemingly-sharpened teeth clench as the haze of confusion melted away from his mind. Asuka, what the hell did you do to me?
Before Frederick could get any madder a voice cut him off. Not from the surrounding area, but from his own thoughts.
Don't worry.It growled out eagerly. Its tone was low and demonic.We'll find him.
Frederick's eyes went wide as pain overcame his skull. Some kind of other will, another conscience was searing away at his mind like fire. He could feel his brain strain as he tried to respond back. The other will began curling around his thoughts, licking away at them with its mental flame as soon as they bubbled up.
What- what are you talking about? He growled, audible huffing in his head as a sense of fog began clouding his mind, mere thought itself was getting harder .
The thing in his head, this beast let out a raspy laugh. You're so-called friend. We're going to find him, and we will bleed him dry.
Frederick barred harder on his teeth as he tried to resist. Shut up. There's no we in whatever the hell's running through that screwed up head of yours.
The beast laughed again. Frederick winced as he felt the flames reach a fever pitch. Really? Is that it? Your friend blows you away, and you simply walk it off? Don't tell me you're not angry. Don't tell me you don't want revenge!
Even if I did, it won't help anything. I've got bigger things to worry about than you! Now get out of my head!
Oh... I think you mean our head.
Frederick could feel his teeth grind deep enough to hurt. He was starting to wish whatever this voice was had a body, just so he could slam his fist into their face over and over. Hell, he wouldn't stop there; He'd crush them under foot, rake his clawed feet across their flesh, smash their face into the floor til that annoying mouth of theirs geysered blood. And then he'd— Wait... was this thing....The haze and smoke in his head had gone wild.
As his rage simmered further, the pounding of feet and the front door to the facility bursting open caught his attention. As a voice called out to him and a gun cocked.
"Who-or whatever you are, hands where I can see'em!" Sol immediately looked up and froze at the sight of the gun. Two guards flanked him on the left and right. In spite of how tough the guy tried to sound, he looked like he was on the edge of a panic attack.
Still in shock, Sol failed to respond. "I said put 'em up!!" The guard voice was far more hysterical now, his finger slowly barring down on the trigger. Before Sol could put up a hand to signal for him to stop, he found himself clutching his head before falling to his knees.
Frederick could hear the guards' hysterical breath sink as his frustrations began to peak. Too much was happening for him, far too fast. His thoughts began to twist and churn, becoming darker and more manic. The confusion contorted into thoughts of how good it would be to snap that guard's neck to shut him up, wanting to find Asuka so he could pick him apart digit by digit. Nothing could stop him. He knew that now. All he would have to do is let go and turn everything to ashes. Shut up! Frederick thought as he balled his left hand into a fist and snapped it across his skull. The thoughts only sped up, becoming crueller and more bloody, his head twisting and getting more deranged.
And the scariest part was that he was beginning to like it.
Without a word or warning, Frederick exploded off the ground and into the air. The guards looked up in horror as dragon-like wings exploded from his back. He swooped down toward the guards and plowed them through the glass windows of the building. His clawed hands gashed across their clothes and found flesh as he exploded through the walls and into the lobby.
Alarms blared instantly as he could hear more footsteps coming his way, more guns being cocked.
And the thing he had become, this monster, couldn't help but smile.
Sol struggled to keep the blood in his mouth as he rocketed back from Justice's punch.
Flying back through the desolate city streets of what used to be London, the block-like blade of the Fireseal found purchase in the ground as the bounty hunter used the weapon to slow his pace as his feet managed to skid against the floor before he brought himself to a full stop.
His gut pulsing in pain and wind knocked out of his lungs, Sol hunched over his blade as he huffed in as much air as he could. A rumble from the ground in front of him made his teeth grit as he looked up.
Justice, red hair flowing in a waterfall down her back and white and blue battle armor gleaming, towered over him, her arms folded over her chest. "Something the matter, Immoral Flame?" The Command Gear asked. "Have the years exhausted you as much as they have Undersn?"
Sol bristled a bit, but bite his rage down, it wouldn't do him any good at this point, not with him being so broken and weak. The odyssey that was this tournament had been favorable for him when it kicked off, but the longer it went on, the worse it got. Taking on low-level thugs looking for glory was one thing, Ky and that waste of life Testament were another. But pain was an afterthought now, Ky was unconscious and Kliff was a fresh corpse. He couldn't let Justice leave this island; he couldn't let another apocalypse stain his hands red.
Pulling himself upright and pulling the Fireseal from the ground, Sol placed the blade over his shoulders as he gripped it with his left hand. The tan-skinned giant of man stifled a grunt and managed the wryest smile that he could. "No, but that mouth of yours will pick up the slack til I cut it off." Pulling the Fireseal off his shoulder and gripping the blade's hilt with both hands, he ignored the pulsing pain in his feet as he took off toward the Command Gear.
Only a few feet away from Justice's midsection, Sol reared his blade over his head as he leapt into the air. In response, the red-haired gear reared its black and mechanical palms back as its talons gleamed at the ready for a fresh slash. Sol relished seeing the murderous look in his opponent's eyes morph to shock as he fell just a few inches away from her and slammed the Fireseal into the ground. The force from the blow kicked up clouds of dust that hazed the Gear's view and caused it to recoil slightly.
Back on the ground and not missing a beat, Sol immediately began circling his opponent's towering figure and came upon its spinal-looking tail. Leaping high in the air and over the mechanical appendage, Sol channeled a wealth of Fire Magic into his weapon as the length of the blade simmered to ignition. Gravity did the rest of the work as his body sailed down toward the tail.
Any pride Sol had in his tactic wore off as he noticed the tail stur. Justice's voice resonating voice, raised the hairs on his skin.
"Your visage may have been cloaked, Flame, but your gait is as loud and obvious as ever!"
Without warning, the tail blurred toward Sol and smashed him upward, the world blinked white for a second as he spiraled into the sky. The second it blinked back in, Sol felt his vision sway as grogginess and nausea took him. As his senses began kicking in, the feeling of something wrapped around his torso and sensation of his feet dangling immediately caught his attention.
In a snap his head met the pavement, the impact reverberating through his head as the world flashed white again. Feeling his torso be loosened and his back hit the ground, Sol could see Justice's spinal tail retract back to its master through his darkening gaze.
As Sol's body screamed at him to get up, Justice walked toward him without a care. "Countless fights to the death and five whole years apart and you're still just a lowly animal charging blindly toward death. Honestly, Flame, thinking of you as a fellow Gear drives me to wretch."
Sol propped himself with his sword as he adjusted his headband, he struggled not to flinch as his hands clutched it. It was fine, he reminded himself. Never again. Spitting blood from his mouth and whipping his sword off the ground and across his back, Sol grimaced as he narrowed his brown eyes. "Glad to hear it."
Without a beat, the jetpack on Justice's back roared to life as the blue and white Gear shot toward him. The titan lashed out with her claws, swiping down at Sol as he raised the Fireseal to parry each slash as his feet backed away. Even without making direct contact, Sol could still feel his bones ring out with pain as his blade met talon. Sweat pouring down his face and his muscles straining for longer than he'd like as he wrenched away the latest blow, Sol knew he couldn't keep this up forever. He had to figure out a way to pull ahead, but at this rate Justice would have a claw through his torso in no time. His options had all dried up, unless...
Yes...
"Go to Hell." Sol muttered under his breath as Justice's left claw sailed toward him. Blocking it with the flat of the Fireseal, Sol channeled his Magic to the blade as it caught fire, causing Justice to stagger back and let out a howl of agony.
Growling in anger, Justice jumped back a space raising her left claw to the sky, it crackled with blue electricity before the Command Gear slammed it into the ground. The surge of energy kicked up ground and dust as it plowed through the streets towards Sol. Whirling to the left and out the attack's way, Sol hissed through his teeth as he witnessed the surge of power curve toward him.
Leaping over the surge as it came for him, Sol could see Justice waving her previously charged hand toward him as the blast followed suit. Turning his head, Sol saw a decimated alleyway and took off for it, the lightning surging in his ears from behind.
Ducking and breaking through the dark corners, Sol rushed with all he could as the blast gained on him. His plan to get some cover to avoid the blast was shot as he found Justice hovering the alleyway, her hand darting toward him as the Magic followed suit. Breaking to the right, Sol forced his legs onward in spite of their protest.
Too damn burnt out. His mind hissed as he kept moving while certain voice kept gnawing on his conscience.
It seems you've finally bit off more than you can chew.
"I'd be biting a Hell of a lot more if you got your way. Shut it."
The voice was as deranged as it always was. And what would be so wrong with that? You're really just going to lie down and die here? What about the oh-so-precious humans you wish to protect?
"Yeah, I'll just let the human-killing bioweapon out to do my dirty work and hope against hope he doesn't level all of Europe behind my back. "
It would be us or Justice.
Sol grimaced at the 'us' in that sentence. But no matter how much he denied it in the first few years, he knew it was true. He was the rampaging Gear that had leveled the Gear Project building. He was the one who had turned guard after guard from flesh and blood to steam and ash, torn staff and patrons limb from limb. He'd lived with those sins for hundreds of years now. He'd be damned to Hell's darkest pits if he willingly did something that piled more bodies on his conscience.
I told you the first time, go to Hell.
The monstrous voice let out a resigned growl. You won't be saying that when that bitch has you choking on your own blood. And with that the voice faded from his head.
Sol broke around a corner to the left and came upon a dead-end. Looking to the roof and rallying all the strength his lower body could muster, Sol crouched and launched into the air, clearing the building and landing onto solid ground again, with a crunch in his knees.
Letting out a slight grimace, Sol darted his head, spotting three brick and mortar buildings, each of them lined with pipes that clung to the buildings as they snaked up to the rooftop, one to his right, one to his left and another facing him. Counting the building that he had just hurtled over, he was all but boxed in.
Having lived and suffered for so long, Sol hardly had space in his head for things like luck or fate or, as Ky would call this, an act of God, but this had to be one of the three.
These weren't just ordinary buildings, these were old Spritas plants. Spritas, like everything else from the introduction of Magic, was supposed to revolutionize the world's way of life. People had theorized for years that it could prove to be a grand source of energy, greater than just the raw Magic that pumped through the everyday appliance; but it had all come crashing down when the overloading of a plant in Austria had devastated a city block. Gripped by fear, the public had raced to shut any further projects down, only to be blocked by the arrival of the Crusades and Justice's legion of controlled Gears.
From what Sol'd heard, he knew that the technique for managing this kind of energy took a level of skill that boggled the mind, with whole years being considered the bottom line of training. Despite that, the technique itself was simple, you just had to pour in your personal magic and weave the energy around from there as you kept pouring. Knowing when you were pouring enough or too much was where the problem started.
But that problem turned to Sol's solution as Justice blasted through the building the bounty hunter had vaulted over, her red eyes narrowed. "I tire of this game of Chicken, Flame of Corruption."
Sol gripped the Fireseal with both of his hands and kept it in front of his face. He'd need to make this look good. If the Crusades had taught him anything, Justice was far from stupid. If he was up to something, she would know. To pull this off, he'd need three explosions to cover his way to each factory, and to clip Justice's jet boosters. Pulling the Fireseal over his head and channeling his power into it, Sol grinned as Justice crouched at the ready as her claws gleamed.
As his sword ignited above him, Sol grinned. "You spent five years caged up in another dimension. Figured you'd be happy about a good workout."
"The only joy I'll find in this moment is you broken and battered along with the wretched humans beyond these walls." Justice said.
Sol made a hum of amusement. "Then I guess you're dying one sad death."
Pulling the Fireseal down and whipping the blade out to the right, Sol watched as a wave of Fire Magic half as high as the buildings around them erupted from his blade and sailed toward Justice.
Using the flames as cover, Sol immediately leaped back to the building behind him and placed his left hand on one of the pipes, pouring Magic into it just as Justice found herself engulfed by the flames. The Gear fell to her knees as the blaze licked away at the metal of her armor.
Her massive hands shaking in agony as Sol was just about finished pouring in his strength, Justice brought her black palms together as the force of a thunderclap rang throughout the air and extinguished the flames licking her. Disengaging from the pipe just in time for the flames to block Justice's vision no more, Sol could feel his knees attempt to buckle against the force of the blast.
No time for that. He hissed mentally as he placed the length of the Fireseal horizontally across his back. Got to keep this shit up.
Racing into Justice's attack range, the now-incensed Command Gear lashed out with her right talon as Sol absorbed the blow with the Fireseal's flat edge. Growling, Justice crackled blue lightning around her palms again before slashing out wildly with them. Sol managed to parry away the first three strike with his blade before ultimately starting to duck and dodge through the increasing speed of the onslaught to conserve his fading strength.
Leaping back from the latest strike, Sol channeled energy into the Fireseal as he whipped the blade down diagonally, launching a slash of fire toward Justice. Looking not to be burned once more, the Command Gear surged her body with electricity and focused it into her hands as she brought them inward toward her chest; between her palms a dark blue ball of pure energy surged. The orb shot off toward its fiery opponent and made contact; the resulting explosion was almost blinding as Sol rushed under the cover of dark smoke to the factory on the right.
Deciding to get to the Spritas as well as cover, Sol used his time in the smog to scale the second factory with its pipes, charging the Spritas within all the while until he'd made it to the roof where he knelt down in exhaustion while he grasped the pipes to finish the charge. His arms were still aching from attack after attack. Even holding the Fireseal was starting to become more difficult.
Tough it out. He reminded himself. He had to, he couldn't let the Gear in the back of his mind or the one below him get their way.
His feelings of fatigue shot into adrenaline as a thin beam of electric blue shot through the dust and toward him. Sol dodged yet grimaced as he felt the beam find purchase in a single hair on his head.
With the charging done and his target found, Sol got to his feet and, with a running start, leaped over to the center building he had previously charged. Focusing on the area the beam had come from, Sol could see Justice's massive shoulder through the dust. Leaping from the building and into the clouds toward the area, the bounty hunter landed on the hulk of metal with a resounding thud.
Turning her adjacent eye with a startled look, the Command Gear barely had the time to swipe her right hand out to strike him before he narrowly ducked under it and somersaulted off her appendage. While barreling toward the ground, the bounty hunter reared back the Fireseal to the right, brought its flames to life, and cleaved outward at Justice's back. The flaming slash that resulted sank into Justice's jet boosters as before the Command Gear's back erupted in flames, bringing her to heel as she let out a cry of agony.
Sol's back hit the ground hard as the back of his headband rang against the ground and his skull.
Rolling over and propping himself up with his sword, Sol could see Justice through the smoke to his left, balling her left palm into a shaking fist as an entire century of rage boiled through her.
Rage at the humans that had kept her race as war machines, rage against the Hell those same humans had brought her during the Crusades.
Sol barely got to his feet as he saw her fist spark and heard the sole of his left foot crack. The bounty hunter hissed at the noise and sharp pain. He couldn't keep pushing for too long, meaning that this next bout had to be the last. As Justice rose to her full height, Sol barely had time to register the electrically-charged fist snapping toward him. Swinging his blade out to intercept the latest blow, Sol gritted his teeth and dug his heels into the floor as his sword deadlocked with the Command Gear's charged blow. Heat and sparks surged from the point of their clash.
Above him he could see Justice leering down at him as he began panting from the strain. "Something the matter, Flame? Has that worthless human shell you hide in reached its limits?"
Feeling his arms scream at him to get out of this deadlock, Sol did the best thing he could, and laughed.
Justice's leering turned into a scowl. "You find something in your imminent death amusing?"
Sol smirked. "Really? 'Worthless human shell'? The same worthless human shell that you haven't slain yet? The same 'worthless human shell' held by Kliff Undersn and the countless Holy Knights that slaughtered your Gears on mass? Give me a break. If anything here's worthless, it's you Gears. You can't follow simple orders, you slaughter people by the thousands. When all's said and done here, and tear your head off, that's all people will look back at your race and see: failures."
His smirk opened into a grin as Justice seethed.
The Gear growled in anger as she raised her free talon and charged it until the appendage surged with so much lightning that it was almost blinding. As she reared back from Sol and his blade to strike down with a chop, the bounty hunter swung his weight to his right foot and leapt back from the blast only for his faux grin to melt to shock as the lightning surged across the ground. Soon, the glow and energy from Justice's strike intensified until it erupted outward into a column of lightning that enveloped Sol and all he saw.
Gripping the Fireseal the best that he could, Sol was blasted back into a wall from the factory he had charged from the force the blast generated. An explosion rocked out as the smoke and scattered ground layered the fighting area. Pulling off the wall and shakily onto his feet, Sol stumbled through the forest of smoke to make it to the left part of the facility. Placing his left hand to the pipes as the other held his blade, he began pouring magic into it as he could hear something, or someone stir within the devastation.
"Now then, Flame," Justice said lightly as the smoke finally began to clear, revealing her in a shallow yet wide crater. "How many of your wondrous humans could withstand that?"
Letting off the pipe and whipping the Fireseal to block an incoming fist, Sol let out a guttural cry as the force from contact rippled through his arm crushed down on his bones, breaking them.
The bounty hunter's right arm went limp as he fell to his right knee, the Fireseal's prop being the only thing keeping him hitting the ground entirely. Justice loomed over him with her talons at the ready, charged with energy."Any final remarks from your mouth before I tear it from your lips?" The Command Gear snarked as Sol heaved. He was too tired, he couldn't run, could barely even breathe between the seething pain and the horror of death looming over him. With his back against the wall and the Spritas about to blow there was practically nothing he could do to keep from getting caught in the blast.
Then being impractical would just have to do.
Channeling his power into the Fireseal one last time, Sol gritted his teeth as he forced more and more flame into the tip of blade before the ground beneath him and Justice erupted into flames and smog. Arm shaking as he held his blade for dear life, Sol blasted off into the air as Justice was consumed from the toe to head by flame, screaming in bitter hatred. Sol relished that hate she had in her eyes fading to shock as the factories began lighting up around her as the orange light of the Spritas engulfed her shrinking visage along with the rest of Sol's vision.
Sol's eyes cracked open as he felt air flowing into his lungs. The visage of a desolate and gray London coming into view as he rolled himself off his back and onto all fours as he searched around. Absorbing the fact that he'd made it out alive, his focus quickly shifted to listening out for anything unusual. His adrenaline surged and his eyes shot open as he felt nothing reach his ears.
No explosions, no screams of terror, or massive stomps that a century of Horrors in the war against the Gears had prepared him for. Pulling himself to his feet and biting back the pain in his left foot, Sol looked down to the Fireseal at his right and picked the blade off the ground, placing it over into its sheath on his left hip. Despite the years of untold suffering for him and the rest of humanity, despite his brain and its beaten in cynicism, screaming at him to not get his hopes up, the scientist turned bounty hunter could feel a wild, unbelieving smile cross his face.
A surge of electricity crawled across his body, snapping him out of his fantasy and back into the unending pain.
Crashing down in front of him was Justice, her blue and white body seared black by Sol's flame and unchecked levels of Spritas, her red eyes where as incensed as when he'd last seen her.
Without even so much as a taunt, she drove her right fist into his stomach, electricity surged off of it and around Sol's body as his back hit the ground. She didn't stop, her titanic fist slammed into his torso over and over as dust kicked up and a crater formed in the ground.
Sol's world flashed in and out of white as blow after blow connected, granting even more shocking pain to his torso. His body slowly but surely began to ease into the pain as any will to fight back was beaten and shocked out of him. Despite it all, his mind screamed at him that he couldn't let it end, couldn't let the world end because of his own powerlessness.
He needed power. And he knew where he could find it.
Justice clasped her hand above her head as she readied another hammer blow. Sol barely managed to have his left arm twitch to life and reach for his headband. He'd hate it, he knew he would but he'd hate himself even more if he did nothing.
"Your final words, Flame?" Justice asked lightly.
Sol's hand found purchase on the band as he moved to tear it. His lips could only twitch out the words.
"Damn you. To Hell and back." Unknowest to Justice, they weren't directed at her, but a familiar voice inside Sol's head. The bounty hunter could his head blur with rage as the beast rasped out its delight.
I knew you'd come around eventually!