Guardian(Part IV): Revelation

Chapter 2: Connor

I heard gunshots everywhere outside of our truck after it was flipped over. Dad and Morgan were both unconscious, so I laid healing hands on them for their injuries. I wasn't sure whether to drag them out of the vehicle with all of the fighting outside, though. It would be too obvious to the rebels, and we would be seen instantly. Still, we couldn't stay in the wrecked vehicle. I grabbed both Dad and Morgan, and warped into an alley two streets from the site of the explosion. I then formed an aura dome over us to offer protection from the rebels in case they found us. I shook Dad by the shoulder, and his eyes shot open before doing the same for Morgan.

"What happened?" asked Dad.

"Our truck was flipped over," I answered. "By a Shadow or a Tuatha, probably."

"With the rebels?" Morgan whispered. "I'll call for transport out of here."

Right as Morgan touched her earpiece, I began to hear gunshots outside the dome, and saw plasma rounds rapidly crashing against it.

"Oh, no," I grumbled. I could see a dozen rebel soldiers on the other side of my aura dome, all endlessly firing at it from their assault rifles in order to break it. Once they all stopped firing, I thought I would be clear to warp away, but I heard the sound of a vehicle's engine coming towards us. An armored truck came up the street, with a gunner that was pointing a machine gun turret right at us. It began to fire its plasma rounds at my aura dome, along with the other rebels. My aura dome began to go from white to blue. It was weakening. There was no choice, now. I formed my greatsword-shaped aura blade and rushed out from cover.

"Guardian!" one of the rebels cried. They all focused their fire on me, with their plasma rounds shattering against my aura shields as I swung my sword at every one of them. Even as they fired as quickly as they could, I still cut through them like paper. These ones didn't wear armor, or have protective shields around them. Once the footsoldiers were dead, I turned my attention to armored vehicle, as the machine gun pointed towards me and began to fire. A few rounds hit my aura shield before I raised a ward in front of myself to protect against more. The rounds from the machine gun fired endlessly at my ward, and I warped behind the vehicle before hurling the entire thing into the air with an aura blast directed upward. It landed on its roof, crushing the gunner. I could see the driver from behind the windshield crawling towards the door of the vehicle. He was still alive, and surely knew what was going on. I punched through the glass of the windshield, shattering it, and grabbed the rebel driver by the collar of his shirt before pulling him through and throwing him to the ground. He was coughing blood and bleeding from a wound in his leg. I was half-tempted to heal him, but he just tried to kill my father and sister. He would get no mercy from me.

"Why are you attacking Valedon?" I demanded.

"To free it," the rebel coughed. "From men like your father!"

"Yeah, sure," I denied. I stabbed my greatsword into his chest, killing him.

"Connor!" Morgan screamed. I rushed back to the alley where she was with Dad, but Dad wasn't there. Morgan was, but she was sitting against the wall, bleeding from a large gash in her abdomen.

"It's Sierra," she winced. "She took Dad."

I stepped forward to heal her, but she raised her hand up, and I stopped.

"Go after her," she hissed. "I'll be fine."

"You'll die," I denied.

"Not as quickly as Dad will!" Morgan argued. "Now, go!"

Suddenly, the ground trembled. I felt a tremor earlier, but didn't know what it was. I thought it was some sort of monster's, but the only aura of darkness I felt was from whatever Tuatha flipped over our armored truck, but now I sensed another one. A Shadow's. It was Sierra!

"Stay here," I warned, then I rushed down the street, following this Shadow's aura of darkness. The entire time, I couldn't see Sierra, and I only felt her dark aura fading as the distance between us grew. I couldn't catch up with her, even while she was carrying Dad. The ground suddenly trembled again, more intensely than before, and I heard a roar through the air, not from a monster, though. That's not what I had to focus on, though. Sierra must have been carrying Dad all the way to the other side of the city, far past the furthest distance I could warp to. I had to catch up to her somehow. I took a few more steps forward, charging an aura blast in my feet with each step, and on the last step, I threw myself through the air with a powerful aura blast. I didn't catch up to Sierra, but she was close enough to where I could warp in front of her, now, and I did, past the fighting between the rebels and Regulars. I landed in front of her as she ran through the street, with Dad unconscious over her shoulder.

"Let him go!" I shouted.

Sierra had a confused look on her face for a moment, but a grin replaced it. She knew who I was.

"I'm seeing a family resemblance," she hissed.

"What do you want with my father!?" I demanded.

"For now, protection," Sierra answered. "But later, well..."

I charged at her as fast as I could, but the ground shook one more time, and something landed between me and Sierra. A cloud of dust covered the street, and I began to feel Sierra's aura of darkness receding. She was running. I began to run after her, but I ran into something, hard enough to be thrown onto my back in the street. The dust had cleared, and I could see what stood between me and Dad, now. A War Machine! A two-legged 821 model, like the one Eris told me about. Morgan had told me the rebels had access to such weapons, but I hardly believed it. Even though Sierra was running off with Dad, this LWM was a bigger threat than the entire army of rebels attacking Valedon, and they would undoubtedly use it to kill more people. I had to destroy it. I rushed towards one of its legs with my greatsword to cut away its armor, but it jumped into the air, leaping backward before I could hit it. Its machine guns began to fire my way, and I raised a ward to keep the fired rounds from hitting me. They eventually stopped firing, and I charged towards it, but I saw the flaps of its head open, and its energy cannon began to charge, set to the frost enchantment. It fired, and I warped sideways to avoid it, and kept rushing towards the War Machine's legs. I swung my greatsword right at its left leg, chipping a large piece of its armor off before it jumped into the air again, going further down the street, and away from me. Its machine guns began to fire again, but I rushed towards the LWM anyway, as fast as I could. The machine began to step forward, and it raised its foot one more time before I could swing my aura blade at it. The machine didn't move it forward, though. The War Machine's foot stopped as it hovered over my head. I formed an aura dome around myself as the foot lowered to stomp on me. I used all of my strength to keep it over me, but the dome shattered with the force of the War Machine's foot. I was knocked off my feet, and the War Machine staggered backward, running into a house behind it. Its machine guns pointed towards me again, but then they suddenly pointed behind me and fired. I began to feel a familiar aura of light rushing my way. I turned around, and saw Ser Gabriel flying through the air with a pair of lightwings from his armor, right towards the LWM attacking me. He slammed right into the War Machine's head with his lightshield in front of him, flipping it all the way onto its side. He then stepped off of its wreck and stepped towards me.

"Connor, that Shadow is taking your father to the eastern gates of the city," Ser Gabriel warned. "I healed your sister and told her this as well. Go after him."

"Will you be alright?" I asked.

Suddenly, the ground shook, and we looked to the LWM's wreckage, to see that it was beginning to slowly stand back up.

"I'll handle this," Ser Gabriel promised. "Go."