Terminal

Chapter 11

What to do, what to do.

I lay in my hammock, legs crossed, staring at the ceiling. My mind spins, running through scenarios and variables. I usually tended to overthink things, like now. A holo monitor sat on a stool nearby, with a moving red dot on it blinking every so often. I managed to attach a tracking device onto Hattori before he left. I've been waiting for them to stop, but so far the dot keeps moving across the screen. I run through the generic possibilities again. I could either join Phantoms, Power 2.0 as I kept calling it, and potentially face what happened 15 years ago again; or I could not join, continue on with my "normal" life, and never have the possibility to reunite with some people I thought were once dead. So essentially: Possibly face the same pain I never wanted to feel again, or pass up an one-time opportunity to feel the love I once knew. A faint beep emitted from the holo monitor. The dot finally stopped moving. I commit the coordinates to my memory, and then returned my gaze to the original spot I was staring at. Two days. I was planning on making my decision today, and then tomorrow would be packing if I chose to join Phantoms. Maybe I could wait until tomorrow. My mind was on the verge of shutting down, my body exhausted. I shut my eyes, the world turning black, as I entered a realm that I haven't seen for a while. I haven't had dreams often, but the ones I've had so far I've long forgotten. I could tell this one was different, one that'll stay with me for a while.

I blink, and I'm taken to a place I haven't seen in a long time. I'm in my old uniform; behind me, thousands of soldiers, ready for battle. Kamira flicks out, and I prepare to fire. The first wave of enemies hit, their halos glowing valiantly behind their back. A white and blue lance flashes by my face and I duck, the tip of it barely missing my head. I lunge forwards, sweeping the lancer's legs under, and plunge my sword into his back. Something sounds behind me, and I whirl around, throwing my sword up, parrying a sword covered in ice. Blue eyes glowed at me as I stared into them, and keeping my sword up, I shoot its foot with my pistol. Its sword slips, and I push forwards, knocking it off balance. Raising an icy cross, it aims off into the distance, firing a bright white particle. Converting my pistol into a dagger, I threw it at its neck, blood splattering near me as it teleports away, my dagger dropping to the ground. I pick my dagger up. No need to chase the cross guy, there's no chance that it could had survived that. I fire off into the back rows. Our snipers were being taken out, and ranks fell around me as I did my best to take out the enemy. It was no use. There were too many. I jump in the air, swinging around, preparing a blow, and as I land, I end up stumbling, falling to the ground. I look up, finding myself in the sky, looking down at the battle below me. My weapons gone, I stand back up, trying to move, but I was frozen in place.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" I look around me, trying to find the source of the booming voice. "You can't stop it, so let it go."

"I can't let them die out there."

"And yet you did." I try to reason.

"I don't underst-"

"Let the inevitable happen, Akira. Let the inevitable happen." Screams filled my head, screams of people I knew, and my vision falters. My perspective flashes all over, watching my fellow comrades die before me as I was helpless. I try to close my eyes, but it was no use.

"You could had stopped it all."