Guardian(Part IV): Revelation

Chapter 45: The Fox

The training course for us on Safe Haven was the same as it had always been. When the Third Great War first began, we would run, jump, and clash swords to test our skills and agility here. For old times' sake, the Mayfly begged that I ran it with her again, and I did, with the rule that as soon as one of us lost our aura shield, they lost. The Mayfly was evenly matched with me. We could both run just as fast as each other, jump as high as each other, and fight as well as each other. I took down her aura shield a few times, and she took down mine the same amount of times. We chased each other through the training course, running along the walls as fast as our cybernetics would allow us, and jumping across the bars protruding from the walls, not staying grounded for even a second before we jumped again. We dueled one more time before Master Avanka interrupted us.

"Fox!" she called. "Mayfly!"

We stopped our duel and rushed all the way back to the start of the course, where Master Avanka was waiting for us. Once we were there, we bowed before her, then saw that she was with two others. They were the ones that we saved from Fort Arclight, but they looked drastically different. Their injuries had healed, their skin was pale, and their eyes were like a snake's. They were like us.

"Riley?" the Mayfly gasped.

"That's not my name anymore," Riley corrected. "It was never my name."

"Fox, Mayfly," said Master Avanka, and she gestured to Riley, then the brown-haired girl and said, "This is the Badger, and the Raven. I understand they were in the ruins of Fort Arclight, at the mercy of a manticore. They're new recruits for the Chardanish Special Forces, and will be trained as such. First, however, the Research and Development platform has something for all of you."

"Really?" I asked.

"Follow me," Master Avanka ordered. We followed her to Safe Haven's RnD platform, but on the way, a question for the Badger and the Raven came to mind. They were both soldiers of Trident before we brought them to Safe Haven, and I wanted to make sure that they weren't joining the Special Forces solely because we saved them. Then again, I didn't want to seem ungrateful to them for joining the fight against Baroz. Instead, I caught up with Master Avanka to ask her about them.

"Master, did they tell you why they were joining us?" I wondered.

"Well, they were soldiers of Trident," Master Avanka informed. "But not because they wanted to be."

"They were forced to fight against the Regulars?" I asked.

"Exactly," Master Avanka confirmed. "They changed their names to ones that they didn't have before, to tell them that they belonged to Trident."

"Good gods," I cursed. "I didn't think they would do that."

"Well, the Badger and Raven joined us because I explained to them that there was a bigger threat to their country than both Trident and the Regulars," Master Avanka continued. "And they agreed. They were already mutated, and they agreed to be cybernetically enhanced and trained with aura-sensitivity."

"Well, they already know how to be soldiers," I reminded. "And you taught us how to be warriors."

"Well, I won't be the one training them," said Master Avanka. "You will."

"I'm... sorry?" I stuttered.

"You and the Mayfly," Master Avanka added. "I will have no part in it. You know how to fight. Pass on what you've learned."

"Yes, Master," I complied. "I won't let you down."

"Fox," Master Avanka sighed. "You've never let me down, and I doubt you ever will."

I was both terrified and excited to train the two new recruits. I didn't know how to train others, but I did know how to fight monsters, and now, I knew how to fight War Machines. It couldn't have been that difficult to tell others what I'd been told. Time would tell. Wilson was at the entrance to the weapons facility of the RnD platform to welcome us inside.

"Ah, the new recruits!" he said. "Welcome. Now, if you will follow me, I have a surprise for all of you."

Wilson led the four of us to a table with a rack for a sword on it, and the outline of one of our ninjatos around the rack.

"Fox," he said. "May I see your sword?"

I drew my sword and handed it to him, and he placed it on the sword rack. Wilson then went to a control panel on the side of the table and pressed a button, lowering my sword through the table on its rack before a piece of metal covered the hole. I began to hear the sounds of metal clanking and a welder sparking against metal. I wondered what was being done to my blade, but I at least knew that it was being improved upon, not undone. I began to feel excitement over the anticipation of how. Once the noises in the table stopped, my sword came up through the table again. At first, it looked the same, but then I saw what looked like a trigger just below the guard, on the same side as the sword's cutting edge. I picked it up to look at the improvements more closely. On the bottom of the guard itself was a dial with tiny crystals of storm, frost, and flame malakyte, and on the other side of the bottom of the guard was a switch for three settings. One was labeled "wave", another was labeled "spikes", and the third was labeled "none".

"What did you do with it?" I wondered.

"Two new abilities have been added," Wilson enlightened. "Now, Badger, Raven, if you would come with me..."

The Badger and Raven followed Wilson with excitement, while Master Avanka left the room, leaving me alone with the Mayfly.

"So," the Mayfly said. "Master Avanka tells me that we're training them, not her."

"It seems to be that way, yes," I confirmed. "But we can do it."

"How?" the Mayfly wondered. "How would we train them to fight demons and War Machines?"

"We could train them separately," I suggested. "I'll train the Badger, and you handle the Raven, maybe?"

"His name's 'Riley'," the Mayfly reminded.

"Actually, it isn't," I corrected. "Trident gave him that name, basically as a way of saying 'you're ours, now'."

The Mayfly turned away from me in disgust, but not towards me. She leaned against the table and crossed her arms.

"To think I actually fought for them," she sighed.

"Under Tereza's control," I reminded. "But that wasn't your fault."

"Still, how much damage did she do through me?" the Mayfly wondered. "Thank the gods Wilson put a firewall in my head. You should have him do that with you, too."

"Well, we think what happened is you were captured at Watervalley," I began. "Knocked out, and connected to the AI pod that I destroyed. After that, Tereza was pretty much able to have you do whatever she wanted you to do."

"That's horrible," the Mayfly whispered. "But I almost killed you, Fox."

"Well, Tereza's dead," I reminded. "She won't hurt anyone again, and she won't make you hurt anyone again. She was just a puppet, though."

"I know," the Mayfly agreed. "Baroz needs to die."

"And in the end, it'll either be us, or one of those two recruits who does it," I promised. "Especially if what Princess Meridia said was true."

"Restoration," the Mayfly sighed. "To think that it was actually possible."

We both smiled at each other, and I knew what would happen over the next few months. We wouldn't stop until Baroz was dead. We wouldn't stop until Zenartha was what it used to be.