"....ugh."
Stirring awake, removing the sheets that covers his body, Tempest sits his naked figure on the side of the bed and stretches.
"What time is it..." He looks on to a wall clock and sees that it was already 9:54 AM. "...well that's unfortunate." He huffed after.
*rustle*
Looking back to the sounds of the bed sheet crumping, his eyes then fall onto a bare sleeping W, tugging the sheets while scrunching the pillow with her chest.
"...no." Tempest quickly reels back his head. "Need to put something on."
He stood from the bed and started looking around the room for his clothes. Luckily, he found them hanged inside the wardrobe. Wasting no time in dawdling, he puts on his Reunion garments and mask before holstering his short swords on his back.
Tempest then walked to the balcony of the house, to seemingly rejuvenate himself with the suburban air.
He thinks for a while, thinking of his next step.
'...I came here for a change of pace... and weirdly enough, I feel okay.' He thought. 'I guess meeting with W was a good idea after all.... *tug* .....or not.'
As he was in his thoughts, a pair of slender arms had captured his chest with the feeling of soft mounds on his back. He immediately knew that it was W, so he let her do her thing.
"You're awake." He uttered, his eyes still focused onto the view of the deserted houses.
"Mhm~" She replied as she rests her head on his upper back. "Last night was fun."
"...I guess so."
"Oho? You're awfully honest right now." She teased.
"Shut up." He ticked.
"Well at least I got to know that you enjoyed it~" She chimed. "Say, want to do it again?"
"*sigh* you... I told you that last night was a one time thing."
"But it felt good." W cooed. "They say that sex three times a day keeps the depression away."
"...now where the *profanity* did you learn that from?"
"Who knows..." She lets go of her hold on Tempest and walked her way beside him. "Anyways, thinking of meeting the rest of the gang?"
"...no, I'm heading back to Rhodes Island." He replied.
"Awww, why not see how Reunion's doing? You could learn a thing or two on what to do next you know."
"I know what to do next." He stated. "I will push on my goal for the sanctuary."
W widens her eyes, before sighing.
"Still going for that impossible dream huh." She scoffs. "You even said it yourself yesterday that your goal is corrupted. You wasted all those years for a dream that is actually damn pointless. You suffered all those hardships for nothing. Why not give up and-"
"Even so, I will still hold on to that pointless dream." He cuts her off. "...that's all I have left. And I promised Fauna that I would."
"Fauna?" The utterance of that name then jogs W's memory. "You mean the girl you ki-"
*stare*
With just one dead look from Tempest, W got the hint and shuts up. Because if she finished her sentence, she would never see the light of day again.
"I'm leaving." Tempest stated before going inside the house. "I hope you know that once I get back to Rhodes Island, we'll once again become enemies. And I'm not going to hesitate to bring you down." Tempest said as he disappears.
W leans on the balcony railing, huffing as she lays her head on top of her arm.
"When are you going to realize that you are only receding the inevitable Y/N?" She whispers. "One day you will regret everything you have done, all because of your sanctuary. Idiot."
...
..
.
After trudging through the Reunion filled path towards the outskirts of Chernobog, Tempest had finally made it back to the abandoned garage where he left his land rover.
"Alright, nobody found it at least." He comments as he uncovers the sheet covering his mobile.
Tempest then gets on his rover and revs the engine on. After putting in the activation key and inputting some codes in the digital panel, the land rover lit up its blue neon lighting signifying its completed start-up.
"Now to set the coordinates to Rhodes Island.... wait." He then noticed something odd on his display panel. "...that can't be right."
In the panel was a beeping radio frequency signal. He taps it to see what it is, and another panel appeared that showed a coordinate location and a morse code.
"CG:X67-Y59-Z235... if I'm correct, that location is from the Chernobog plaza." He utters. "And this morse code... it's a distress signal from a Rhodes Island recon squad!" He shook. "What are they doing so close to the Reunion main camp?! This is bad."
He quickly shuts down his land rover and proceeded to get off from it.
"I need to get there now!" Tempest then rushes out of the building, in a hot pursuit going towards the direction of the Chernobog plaza.
While at it, he forgot that he was wearing his Reunion garments.
...
..
.
Rushing in and out of alleyways and building rooftops, he makes haste towards the location of the distress signal. He already ran ten miles but it seems that he wasn't showing any signs of fatigue.
This makes us think that Tempest will go to hell and back just to save someone.
"Just a few more blocks."
He kept on running and running, hellbent on reaching his destination at the least possible time. But as he runs, he couldn't help but notice...
'...this sudden temperature drop.' He sweats a bit from the realization.
Tempest knew what it meant.
'No, saving the recon squad is top priority.'
He had other things to do, so he swats it off.
Eventually, he finally made it to the location of the distress signal. He stood atop a building and looked on below the plaza from a safe vantage point.
"*sigh* Now this ain't my lucky day for sure."
On the ground, he saw dozens of Reunion soldiers standing on guard. The numbers were merely over fifty, with each class of soldier numbering more than ten.
"I hope the recon squad is still alive." He murmurs.
As he continues scouting the enemies below, his eyes then focused on to one person who was at the front of the entire force.
"Tch. Great, it's that annoying scoundrel."
Seeing that short figure with a specialized cane of sorts, and with those liberi feathers. It was clear that what he saw was none other than one of the people that greatly annoys him.
Mephisto.
"How long are you going to keep hiding, Rhodes Island insects?!" He threatens as he shouts around him. "Aww, still don't feel like coming out? Don't think I didn't see your reinforcements coming."
'It's highly unlikely that it's me, so there is already a rescue squad with them. That's reassuring.' Tempest said to himself. 'So they must be in this vicinity, I gotta find find them before they do.'
"Well, whatever. I have something to show you. I'm sure you'll like it." Mephisto's threatening voice then turned back into his normal one. "Looking back now... We were originally planning to take over Chernobog from the very beginning. To be honest, we all thought it was impossible. How can a ragtag group of infected be able to take over a nomadic city? Implausible, right? Until, our hero paved the way for us."
He then stood upon a pile of rubble as he stretches his arms out.
"Vortex, you may not know him, but he is the main factor that brought us to where we are today!!!" Mephisto cheered. "We waited for so, so long... and finally our time has come... The moment when we take our revenge against Ursus! Against those who persecuted us infected!"
'...I can't listen to any more of his ramblings.' Tempest shrugged his head.
But before he could disappear to find the recon squad.
"You there, set that nearby effigy on fire! Let there be light!" Mephisto singaled.
"Yessir!"
And with a spark of a burner, the nearby building with a noticeable black mark on it ignited with a large blaze. The heat seared through the marks in only a few seconds as the entire effigy was now lit up.
"...christ, they really done it now."
Looking from a sign's rafters, he grips his fist as his eyes look towards the burning symbol of Reunion at the facade of a building. A burning animosity was developing in his jade orbs, not to those Reunion lackeys below.
But to himself. His anger was directed to himself. For Tempest was the one who paved the way to Chernobog's fall.
Looking at the fruits of his past was very dreadful for him. He hated his past self, why did he have to inspire Reunion? Why did he instill them with the opportunity of taking over Chernobog? What drove his past self to such lengths?
Well, that story is for another time.
"..." Tempest was silent as he disappeared into the background without a trace in the wind.
...
..
.
"How long do you intend to keep hiding, my dear rabbit of Chernobog? I saw your little rabble sneaking around earlier, so I thought you might've been up to something. But turns out, you're here to enjoy the show... how boring."
Mepthisto knew where they are, and they knew that he knew where they were. And since there was nothing left to hide, the entire Rhodes Island rescue squad had revealed themselves from their hiding spots within the rubbles and buildings.
They step forth. Each operator in their gear, all cautious from the enemy in front of them.
The few noticeable figures from Rhodes Island were Amiya, Meteorite, Frostleaf, Jessica, and even the doctor herself, Dr. Fumi.
Amiya and Dr. Fumi were part of the rescue squad, while the three were the recon squad that was in need of saving. And it was already clear that something went wrong with the recon squad's operation, therefore resulting into the bout with Mephisto and his lackeys.
So now, the rescue squad was tasked into saving them. Although that was not their only objective.
"Looks like you brought an entire party with you?" Mepthisto cooed.
"Did you do all this?" Amiya questioned, with present anger and hate in her eyes.
"Of course~" Replied a toying Mephisto. "Without using some terror tactics, how else were we supposed to minimize the losses? Make an example out of these ten percent... and the other ninety percent fall into line." He points to the corpses of the Chernobog citizens around them. "This, you see, can be considered the best way of saving lives."
For a moment, Amiya's eyes glimpsed with a dark shade of red and black. Only for it to disappear the next second.
"...Dr. Fumi..." She looked behind her to a stunned Fumi. "I am not the same person I was back then... Even though you might not remember..."
"Back then..." The aegirian doctor squinted her head, trying desperately to remember her lost memories. "...I'm sorry, the only thing I feel and recall was.... you were fragile..."
"Yes... back then, I was timid, fragile, and easily scared... I couldn't move forward without you... or Tempest in that manner... I might even look the same way right now." She huffed. "But the difference is, I've now seen more than enough tragedies. I don't want to see something like this happen ever again... but just as Tempest said, nothing will change unless I face reality!"
She then remembered a certain memory.
It was her, looking two years younger. Sitting on the concrete floor of a desolate place with destroyed furniture everywhere. She was looking up to a person she knew all too well. Tempest.
"Amiya, you need to remind yourself of this."
Tempest spoke.
"We can't afford to retreat... We have to continue to fight on!"
With a steeled resolve, she faces forward, ready to fight against Mephisto's army. Her squad had also got the gist of what Amiya was doing, so they ready their weapons and guards. All prepared to fight.
"So you have finally resolved to fight us?" The Reunion force surrounded Mepthisto as they ready on to attack as well. "Men! It's time to cull the herd of the infestation! Kill them all!" With his war cry, they rush forward to attack.
"Everyone! Steel up! Remember your formations and attack executions!" Dr. Fumi rallied. "On my mark, we attack in three!"
In response, the Rhodes Island operators got into their positions, with the defenders putting up their shields in the very front.
"One..."
The snipers had their sights already on the oncoming heads to shoot, and the casters were readying their arts as well.
"Two..."
The rest of the squads were now awaiting the signal to attack, bracing themselves for the inevitable.
"Three!"
*slice*
Suddenly, a Reunion vanguard's head went flying.
"W-What the-*slice*" The one next to the vanguard couldn't finish his sentence as his head also separates from his body.
*slice*
In succession, more heads started being decapitated.
*slice*
Then another head.
*slice*
Another one.
*slice*
This odd happening went on noticed by everyone in the battle area. Mepthisto and his army was in stupor as they see a whizzing fade cut the heads of his soldiers every second.
"W-What in the heck is happening?!" Mepthisto yelled as he continually sees heads dropping to the floor in a gory fashion as the blood from the severed heads and bodies gush onto the floor in an oozing stream.
Rhodes Island on the other hand was also looking onto the occurrence with peculiarity.
"Am I seeing things right now?" Meteorite shook her head.
"If I'm correct, someone is cutting their heads off. But how?" Frostleaf added.
"I think I'm gonna faint again..." Jessica was shaking, luckily Amiya was there to tend to her.
"Doktah, what do we do?"
"Whatever is happening to them, we can't let that put us off." Dr. Fumi handled the situation. "But we do know is that it's only targeting our enemy's heads. It could've gone for ours earlier but it didn't, so we do what we got to do. And that is to use that anomaly to our advantage and push their forces away!"
With that sorted out, Rhodes Island shook off their uncertainties and charged forth towards the unsettled Reunion forces as they battle it out.
...
..
.
In another place in the Chernobog square, was a Reunion squad on standby. But for this particular squad, they all wore white. And that pertains to their specialty, which was prevalent to the frozen area where they were at.
The streets were covered in frost, the cars were stuck in place frozen, and the temperature was dangerously low. Yet, they were unfazed about it. It was like they were used to it.
Sitting on a frozen pile of rubber was a certain woman we all know. Those white cautus ears, that scare above her nose, her ragged cloak, it was none other than the Yeti squad's leader.
"It seems that Mephisto's men are battling the enemies, sister." A white-cloaked figure who stood near her spoke. "Should we head in as planned?"
"...*cough* yes..." She was looking onto her hand as she replied.
"Then I will call on the other guys from their stations before we go" He said, and also noticed something. "...thinking about your beloved childhood friend?"
"Nonsense."
"Please, I've known you for years. You always look to your hand and mention his name before we fight."
"He's right you know, you do that every single time for years now." Another cloaked person added.
"...am I really that obvious?"
"Yes you are sister." The two replied in unison.
"....well enough of that, let's *cough* go." She stood up and proceed to walk towards the direction where the sound of a battle resonated through the desolate streets of Chernobog.
"Sister, will you tell us about him and you? About what you did together and how much he meant to you?"
"...maybe. I'll tell you about him soon I guess, but for now, we have a battle to *cough* attend to."
▌│█║▌║▌║ To be continued... ║▌║▌║█│▌
A/N: You know who she is, and you know what's coming. Also next chapter coming out in 2-4 days since this one was short and not that good.