Days Union Oneshot Book [DISCONTINUED]

you've been WHERE??? with WHO???

A/N: baron try not to manipulate strel/specialist for 1 second (IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!!)

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What little vegetation that had managed to survive out in the desert instantly shriveled and died at the single drop of neon green inuine sinking through the dry dirt and into the roots. The drops glowing in the night trailed along the arid land, seeping into the cracks and back into the earth. Despite the urgent need to stop the bleeding of inuine, the drops were better than the puddles once gushing from Strelitzia's wounds after the fight. It had managed to stop the inuine dripping from the torn wires in its arm by tying the wires into knots and patching the end of the severed limb with a crude bandage made of dried vines from a dead tree.

Now Strelitzia trudged through the desert, once vibrant with luscious rainforests. The destruction of the Daybreak must have cleared acres of life into a wasteland and left the Dezon jungle receding to the edge of the coastline. The vacant desert left Strelitzia vulnerable to any Daybreak personnel looking for anything to shoot at or the darkness-infected birds of prey circling ahead. Only a small handgun low on ammo was its only protection against the dangers of the desert.

The low whir of its systems flared once again, electrical shocks within its chest surging until it collapsed onto the hard dirt. With each fall, Strelitzia struggled to lift itself back onto its feet. Its limbs sputtered, only sheer willpower keeping its limbs from shutting down completely—willpower that it was not meant to have.

Feeling emotions sure was... strange. Strelitzia felt emotions about EVERYTHING: anger for the ruin of the land around it, fear for the state of its body, determination to get as far from the Union as possible. It desired nothing more than freedom, to hop on a boat going wherever just to flee the corrupted land of its creation.

But it was happy with this. It meant it was closer to being liberated of its purpose's bonds, closer to being human.

As it staggered back to its feet, it performed a quick calculation. According to the internal map integrated in its A.I. before that function broke, Ironholde should not have been too far. With enough stealth through the thick jungle, it could find an abandoned airship to recharge in for the night before continuing its quest to the coastline.

Loneliness dragged behind it like phantoms of its past haunting it, but it marched forward, keeping its eyes trained on the green jungle in the distance. Once it escaped, it could cure its loneliness. Maybe try to save Observer and the other RYTSARS or make some new acquaintances along its journey... friends, even. New friends, with whom it would laugh and cry, just like a real human with real emotions.

How its past would no longer loom before it like a monument of horror. How it would finally be free—

"Halt."

Strelitzia should not have obeyed. It was fettered by no one, by no order. And yet it froze, just as the bitterly cold voice had commanded. The voice lingered on the faded edges of memory, but the memory wipe must have stolen away its ability to tie the voice to a face. Foolishly, it turned around out of curiosity without reaching for its gun first.

Instantly, a sharp blade met the metal of its neck. The sheen of the sun's reflection on the red metal stunned Strelitzia's processing for a moment. The edge of the axe's blade slightly grated against its neck, though not enough force was exerted to sever or slice into the metal to behead the robot.

The moonlight was nervously soft against the skin of its assailant, as if the moon itself feared him. His face draped in shadows painted an expression of violent suspicion and an urge to attack. His eyes narrowed down upon Strelitzia and scanned every wound and crack on its form while his bared teeth gritted together in self-restraint.

Strelitzia's hand hovered above its belt to reach for its gun, but the assailant snarled, "State your identity, Union machine."

It hesitated to answer, its fate caught between two doors leading to its demise. Only by some miracle would it survive this encounter on its own, but the risk of the Union finding and saving it was even more unbearable to imagine. Being thrown into that dismal, damp scooping room to be dismantled and erased of any memory, this time incapable of escape... Any fate, including a swing from the axe, was better than that.

"[My NaM3 i#s Str%eLi*tZ1a. Wh0 a&re y#0U?]" it spoke, its voice glitching here and there. It stumbled away from the axe's blade, but the attacker made no effort to threaten it further. He stepped back, his ice-blue eyes glaring upon Strelitzia with hidden malice.

But his words contrasted the look in his eye, "Oh. It's you." He tucked the axe behind his back and stretched out a hand, mangled in black scars poorly hidden underneath leather gloves. A strange smile curled on his face as he said, "We meet again, my dear friend."

...Friend?

Strelitzia analyzed the figure, having to crane its neck to capture his full height. It hardly recognized him, the appearance hardly evoking any scrap of memory. Instead, it observed the expression on his face: a grin plastered over his face, scrunching up his half-lidded eyes glistening with ill intention. What was his face trying to say? His emotions were contradicting, clashing.

It asked, "[Wh&T d0 yo%u w4Nt fro##m m3..?]"

The assailant stepped forward, his smile stretching sharper and wider as he replied, "Do you not remember me, my friend..? We have had quite a few memories together, would you not agree?"

"[If w#e d1D, I do n0T r3m#em%ber.]"

The stranger huffed; his deep breath was practically mercy on Strelitzia, for his patience was beginning to wear thin. "Well, to you, I am not just an Admiral, nor am I a Senator." His chin tilted up, the moonlight reflecting its white glow deep into his light blue irises. "I am your friend, Baron."

Shit.

When did Strelitzia ever 'befriend' the Daybreak's Admiral? Despite its memories of Specialist long—and thankfully—gone, the sudden horror of Strelitzia standing before the Admiral of all people snapped like instinct encoded into its very core. Even with a burning resentment toward the Union, it knew well to fear Baron. Anyone who did not flee from his sight was resigning to death, and anyone stupid enough to befriend him was...

A shiver rattled its systems as the cogs and wires within its form screamed and wailed. Strelitzia had unfortunately known this feeling too well: fear. It had to run. It had to get as far away from him as it could.

Its heel turned in the dirt, erupting a cloud of dust from the dry desert floor. Its head whirred deafeningly, begging for some sort of rest amidst the chaos of its instinct battling with its robotic system. Drops of inuine leaked from its wounds as it took one step forward, hoping to run as far as it could before Baron could react—

SLASH!

The world froze like a paused film, and Strelitzia felt itself suspended in midair. Inuine spurted out of a large gash in its back, its neon glow shining on the back of its metal neck. There was no pain, not even the pain of finding itself incapable to run, finding its dream of freedom slipping from its fingertips. It thought in this moment, it would feel something. Anger, fear, regret, desperation.

But no. It just felt like a husk.

It felt like Specialist.

Strelitzia collapsed to the ground, the glow in its eyes flickering out to a dull green lens. Baron's smile had not faded, only twisted into a grin of cruel satisfaction. Inuine dripped from the silver tip of the axe, tiny wisps of smoke rising into the night sky as the inuine tried to chew away at the metal. He kicked Strelitzia's lifeless form for good measure, a chuckle of wicked amusement shivering the rest of the still night in a bitterly cold breeze. His eyes freed the bloodthirsty gaze tucked away for those unbearable minutes of his facade, finally basking in the moon's glow so hesitant to shine its light into the ruthless frozen sea of his eyes.

"How pathetic..." he growled before grabbing the ankle of Strelitzia's limp body and dragging it across the cracked earth.