Megaman ZX Advent: Relive

Disk 8: Haunted

Area X - Guardian Base
Thais' POV

It had been two weeks ever since I woke up. Aile and Vent fussed over my needs, but I threw them out of the base and bombarded them missions with the help of Fleuve. It was stressful, but not as much as the news that circulated out. Sage Mikhail was found dead inside a meeting room in Legion HQ. It was bizarre and not only that, Lord Thomas went missing. A coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not. There had been no evidences to prove otherwise. Ionis and I had been dealing with more paperworks lately. I also go out of my comfort zone to see the changes on the land. It had been quiet, too quiet for my own good. The guardian ship had long left Grey and Ashe. Right now, we were travelling again to the east. 

"Hey, Cielle. Are you going downtown again? Lumiere is not that bad of a town if you ignore the crimes roaming the city." Ionis commented. I shrugged my shoulder. Our base was currently stationed outside the city of Lumiere in Espoir. My biometal was right though. It was not that bad if you would ignore the occasional stealing, bank robbery and weird people stating that it was already the end of the world. Crazy, but who am I to judge? 

I jumped out of my seat and went to the back. Aile and Vent were asked by the president of Espoir to be a part of his special defense team in exchange for us being able to move around the city freely. It was not a bad exchange, but I did not like the way he looked at us greedily. If only I could punch the smug on his face, I would have done it without anyone holding me back. However, I was in no position to do so. Well, Aile glared at me while we were talking to that lousy excuse of a president. 

"Ionis? Want to explore the forest over to the West? My team was not able to examine the area over there yet. I would want to see if this place also has its own set of troubles with the Maverick outbreak centuries ago." I suggested. My biometal agreed that we searched it out. He was different right now, too quiet for my own good. Something was distracting him and I have no idea what it could be. He was also reticent on sharing his thoughts. 

The forest was calming to the nerves. It let me cleared my muddled thoughts of yesterday's events. The crispy leaves rustled against the wind and the sun rays beamed at the ground below us. It was comforting until we came upon a cliff. On it was a grave where a name 'Alice Foster' resided. It was dusty and leaves already littered it. This place was visibly not visited for months, or even years. The good girl that -scoff- I brushed the leaves off and removed the dust and cobwebs around it. 

"That should do it. Whoever you may be, I hope that you were finally able to rest in this wonderful place peacefully." I silently prayed. Suddenly, the necklace inside my shirt glowed. It was then that I noticed something behind the grave. There was a memory device we now call, aria. I opened it to see a data on what looked like a live metal. 

"Ionis! Ionis! Look at this." I showed him the data of the biometal in the-" Before I could continue, he lounged at the object in my hand and threw it off the cliff. My biometal was silent and I could no longer control myself.

"What the hell was that for!? I finally found something useful! What is happening to you, Io? You've been acting weird ever since I woke up." I begged for an answer but he just left without any trace. My knees buckled up at the ridicule. Glancing back at the grave of Alice Foster, I decided that I should search up her name later. For now, there was no time for me to sulk. I needed to find Ionis. Who knows what this area has in stored? I could not risk any of that.

"Ionis! Ionis! Where are you?" I checked the forest and he was not there. I returned to the city and it was starting to tire me out. Model I was not in the area. I tried to ask Fleuve if there was any sign of energy difference in the town but there was none. Whatever happened to him, it was probably connected to that Alice Foster and the aria we found in the grave.

"Where are you, Ionis?" I searched high and low for him but he was nowhere to be found. The deeper part of the forest was starting to get eerie. There was no rustling of the leaves or hopping of forest animals. It was then that I found myself tripping on a huge root. My foot twisted in an unexpected way and it hurt like hell. I tried twisting it but it was to no avail. The pain was starting to consume me that I was starting to have a hard time breathing. I tried to stand with the help of my sword and luckily, it gave me the necessary assistance I required. 

My foot was in no condition no be moved, but I had no choice or else I would be stuck here for who knows how long. There was some field reacting badly with my communicator. Taking one step was a challenge and I almost fell over if it was not for me holding on a branch on a somewhat sturdy tree. Taking another gulp of air, I took another step until I got used to the pain. I halted to a stop once I noticed an elevated area at the end of the trail I was unconsciously following. It looked like a temple but the inside was advanced. There were lasers and infrared lights waiting for me. Luckily, it was only one arrow that nicked my shoulder. It was not that bad, but I feared if there was any poison. It had been half an hour after that incident and I could tell that there was no poison in the arrow. 

"Maybe I should try to see if this area has more traps set around it." I muttered. There was about 5 more inside and I deactivated 3 of them. The other two were practically impossible because it would blow this place up. I did not have any equipment for my escape and with an injury from weeks ago and the recent, I was really pushing my luck. 

The room I entered right after deactivating the place was a control room. There was an elevator passage to my right and a barred area to my left. Who knew what that one was for? 

I investigated the room and clicked and turned a few buttons and switches around. Only a third of it were working. The infrared lights were now gone, so were a couple of lasers. The database opened and I saw the same information I found in the aria. It was not complete though considering that there was some lock on its data. 

It was about the biometal that I was not able to read. The name of the biometal was Model S - Sieve. Unlike Model I, Model S was of darkness. The attribute it had was black flames and reports said that those people that were able to test it had gone crazy at the shortest period of time. There were also times where the saved patients felt like they were haunted by the biometal. Flames would often appear in their room and even whispers of laughing male was heard. The last thing that happened to some was them seeing an apparition of a smiling insane man. I blankly stared at the data in my hands. Shaking my head, I opened the locked file. I studied hacking for a reason. Inside was more data on Model S. It was based off a warrior before Zero. I could not decipher much though. Then there was also this Alice Foster. Her name was written above the data file. She was the one who noted on the details huh? I would gladly read more. 

"Now, let's see. I just need to download it and... there! I should go and see if there was something that triggered Ionis to run away from me. He has never done that." I bit my lip in frustration before exiting the room to enter more rooms. Typical.

The last room was the underground room for those who were confined after they were experimented on to try Model S. A foul smell lingered beneath my nose and I already hated the place. I wrinkled my nose in disgust before continuing my way down the hallway. It was not the best decision I had in mind, but I was sure that if I examined this place more, I would find something useful. 

There were a couple of rooms that were either empty or too thrashed for me to even walk through. Often, I would use my scanner to check if there were any hidden objects inside. There was nothing important there except for some E-tank that I found and a couple of stashed folders containing data on fauna and flora of the country. The last door was an examination room. 

"What the hell is that?" I walked towards the center and noticed that a black haze was oozing out of the hatch. I was about to open it when a voice echoed around the room.

"Cielle! Don't you dare touch that!" He was too late. A bright flash of light covered the whole room and pain erupted from my whole body.

=END=