Archcore: Echoes of Ion

[15] - [Raven Rising]

Fives had come before Proxima as he had been summoned to her. Seeing him, Proxima smiled, but he gave no reaction or expression, "Will you not kneel? Fives?" She asked.

"Not to someone like you, Proxima. Now what do you want from me?"

"So harsh." Proxima chuckled a bit.

"You've grown used to the Raven, yes? Its repairs are complete and it's ready for use. I want to see how well you handle yourself in it."

"What would you have me do?"

Turning on her tablet, Proxima scrolled through it for a few moments before passing it to Fives, "Earth?" Fives asked, "Why would I test the Dreadnought there?"

"Because the Seventh Star resides on Earth."

Turning off the tablet, Fives walked towards Proxima who silently watched as he came closer. Dropping the tablet on the table, he never once broke his gaze on Proxima, and Proxima only stared back at Fives' unblinking eyes, "Seventh Star, why?"

"The SS were contracted by me to attack the Vanaheim station. However they were supposed to wait until we had left. Because of them, I lost a few good people and Wallace most of all. I, the president of APEX, brought them to that location, paid them to attack it. A rather serious crime."

"If it came to light that I had a hand in that attack, the other three companies would turn against us. That would be trouble for all of us. You are going to go to Earth and kill every member of the Seventh Star. We have Daryl and Deira here, I believe Seventh Star has outlived their usefulness."

Fives thought it over for a minute before he chuckled as a grin formed on his face, "You want me to kill? Then just point the way. I'll do the rest."

-[Vanadis]-

Azuma stood before Petra, who looked at him with a mixed look of shock and disbelief. Azuma just gave her a small smile, "H-hey there, Petra."

Petra was quiet for a moment, eventually her expression began to break as tears started forming in her eyes.

"Azuma!"

Petra ran to Azuma, he fully expected her to hit or yell at him, instead she buried her face into him as she cried into his clothes. Eventually, a few others noticed and surrounded Azuma, many surprised to see him after so much time had gone by.

Meanwhile, Eld and Noir looked at the sight from a window in the Institute's second floor.

"Azuma falls from space and into Mars. Two weeks later and he's back from the dead. Quite a surprise, don't you think? Noir?" Noir didn't say anything as she looked at Azuma in silence, meanwhile Eld walked closer to Noir, as he came within arms length of her, he gently ran one of his hands through her hair, finally getting a reaction from Noir. Pulling back, she slowly swatted his hand away, making Eld smile with amusement.

"It's fun to see your reaction."

Among those people around Azuma was Freyja. Seeing him, she smiled and walked towards him. Azuma had taken notice of Freyja as she came closer, "So you're the one that pilots the Raven, right?" She asked.

"I... I did..."

Azuma slowly leaned back as Freyja came even closer to Azuma, so close he could hear her breathing and he could smell her. Leaning closer, Freyja lightly licked the side of his face, causing Azuma to take several steps back in surprise as Freyja laughed a bit before she turned away, "I like your taste, Azuma. It's different."

Meanwhile, Ricardo and Carla had met with Erin.

"Has there been any new developments with Cyclase?" Erin asked.