The drink is tasty, the newspapers warm and comfortable.
The subway station is quiet and peaceful. So, it's no wonder the
homeless man is surprised when the old payphone starts to ring. He is
even more surprised when he sees three people come down the stairs
into the station.
Lina looks back and nods into the booth, "You first,
Xelloss." He nods back with a slight smile and steps inside, picking
up the ringing phone. He glances back a moment at the pair then holds
it to his ear. His body starts to glow and break into pieces, slowly
disintegrating until the booth is empty and the phone falls, limply
dangling on its cord.
The homeless man's eyes grow wide, jaw falling open in
disbelief.
Valgarv stops walking into the building and slowly turns
his head, looking back down into the city streets.
Lina picks up the phone and hangs it up, then looks at
Seraya. "Lina, I want to tell you something," the smaller girl says,
pausing thoughtfully and dropping her gaze, "But I'm afraid of what it
could mean if I do." The phone rings. Lina glances at it then back to
Ser. "Everything the Oracle has told me has come true," she continues,
looking back up at Lina. "Everything but this." A subway train,
unheard by them until now, starts passing through the station.
"But what," Lina asks, voice drowning as the train roars
by. She watches Seraya in confusion as the blond seems ready to
continue, then drops her head, once again losing her confidence.
Behind Lina, the homeless man starts to take a breath to
scream, horrified by the vision of a black dragon sweeping towards him
with fang-filled jaws open. In front of Lina, Seraya steps into the
booth.
The train finishes going through, leaving a loud silence in
the station. Valgarv slowly stands, tossing aside the newspaper
blanket.
Seraya lifts the phone with a quiet sigh. Valgarv moves
closer, reaching for his gun. Seraya glances back at Lina then looks
straightforward at Valgarv as she holds the phone to her ear. In the
instant before she disappears, she presses her hand against the glass.
A gunshot rings out and shattered glass falls to the booth's floor
along with the broken pieces of the phone's headset.
Seraya gasps back to consciousness on the Dragon Slayer,
"Lina!" Xelloss pulls the plug out of her neck.
"What the hell just happened," Hawk demands, the code
dancing in front of him.
"A Dragon. You have to send me back!"
"I can't!"
Lina lifts her head from the shattered phone and looks to
her right at the Dragon Agent moving towards her. "Ms. Anderson,"
Valgarv says with a faint smirk. She looks to the stairs leaving the
station.
"Run, Lina. Run!" Seraya stares at the code. It then
shimmers and suddenly she doesn't see the redhead's image in the
Matrix screen. "What happened?"
"I don't know, I lost her," Hawk mutters with a frown,
searching.
"Hawk." The operator blinks and looks up at his leader,
who's moved to the chair beside Lina. "I'm going in."
"What?!" Was this going to become an endless cycle of
sacrificing oneself for the other? "Xelloss, you can't!" Seraya tries
to convince him to change his mind.
"Seraya, you must trust me," he says coolly, lying back in
the chair.
"But," she protests weakly, despite moving around to plug
him back in. He lifts a hand and squeezes her shoulder with a gentle
smile.
"Don't worry. We'll make it."
Lina dashes down the sidewalk, long hair flying behind her.
"Black or white," a young man asks the other end of his
cell phone. "No, just--" He blinks and turns when suddenly the phone
is missing. He glimpses Lina running away, canceling his call and
dialing on it. "What the shit?! That's my phone," he shouts, then
looks around for help, "That girl took my phone!"
Hawk shakes his head as he loads Xelloss in. A piercing
alarm interrupts his thoughts and he looks up. "Oh shit." He looks at
Seraya, who goes running up to the cockpit. The alarm they hear is the
worst, a proximity alarm. It only goes off when there are Dragon
sentinels close enough for the ship's sensors to pick them up.
Seraya climbs the ladder to the upper deck then runs down
the thin corridor, sitting in the pilot's chair and bringing up the
data that caused the alarm. Her eyes widen when she sees not one but
five of the robots flying in formation down a nearby tunnel. "How
long," Hawk asks via the intercom. She lifts the microphone,
estimating in her head.
"Ten minutes at the most." She chews her lower lip,
shivering as she gives the next order, "Charge the EMP."
"We can't use that until they're out," he responds, shocked
at the suggestion.
"I know, do it!" Xelloss said to trust him, so that's what
she's going to do.
Behind Lina, Valgarv turns after taking over the man's body
she stole the phone from and gives chase. She finishes dialing and
shouts when Hawk picks up, "Mr. Wizard! Get me the hell out of here!"
The operator sighs in relief when the call lets him find Lina once
more. Making sure her location hasn't changed much, he directs her to
the exit Xelloss is headed to.
"Got a patch on an old exit, Wabash and Lake," she hears
and nods, turning at the next intersection. She skids to a stop though
when she sees what's down the alley. People. Hundreds of them, all
milling about in a market; all potential Dragons. "Oh shit," Lina
murmurs to herself.
Her fears are answered when she sees Milgasia towering over
the crowd and shoving people out of his way. She takes off running
once more. One poor man gets too far in Milgasia's way and the Dragon
pushes him flying several feet into a nearby fruit stand.
A little girl gapes, as her mom isn't her mom anymore.
Valgarv drops the human's shopping bag and draws his weapon, firing
after Lina. She ducks out of the way, watermelons taking the hit for
her and splattering wetly. She comes to a stop when Filia, also
pointing a gun at her, blocks the exit she was heading for.
Bullets ricochet off walls and dumpsters as Lina dashes
into a smaller alley. She rounds a corner and skids to a halt, looking
around frantically at the dead-end. She then lifts the phone to her
ear, "Uh, help," she cries, looking back where the sounds of three
approaching Dragons echoes. "Need a little help!"
"Door!" She looks to her left, and then kicks at the door.
It breaks apart and lets her enter the building just as Valgarv
catches up, emptying more shots in the redhead's direction.
She runs frantically up the stairs, glancing back over her
shoulder as the Agents pursue. Her feet slip slightly as she runs as
fast as she can down the maze-like hallway and holds the phone to her
ear. "The door on your left!" Lina puts on the brakes when Milgasia
steps into sight and fires. She jumps against the door on her right.
"No your other left!"
More bullets fly as Valgarv fires from the other direction.
Lina uses her shoulder and slams through the door. An elderly woman
looks up in shock from her knitting at the rude girl. Lina continues
through the apartment to the kitchen where another old lady looks up
from her cooking, chef's knife in her hand. Lina glances at her as she
hears "back door" through the phone then starts for it.
A loud thud makes her spin and see the knife embedded in
the doorframe, Valgarv standing in the lady's place. Lina runs through
the door and starts down the fire escape stairs, jumping over the
railing. Her arms pinwheel as she falls to the trash heap below, then
quickly jumps back to her feet, running down the alley. Milgasia lands
after her and follows.
When Lina comes out of the alley she keeps going straight,
a hotel her target. It's the same hotel where Seraya fled from the
same Dragons chasing Lina now. She disappears into the alley beside
the hotel, Milgasia hot on her heels. Valgarv watches them go, then
looks up at the hotel.
"The fire escape at the end of the alley, room 303," Hawk
gives as his last instructions and Lina tosses the phone aside,
jumping up on a section of fence underneath the fire escape's ladder
and climbing up. Behind her, Milgasia continues the chase, Filia
arriving in the alley from the opposite direction.
Milgasia hits the wall and aims upward, firing at Lina as
she continues to climb. Filia does the same, having a better shot but
their target is too small and too fast. Bullets ping off metal with
each miss. Lina busts through the door leading into the third floor.
The alarms get worse all over the Dragon Slayer. "Here they
come," Hawk mumbles as he looks up towards the ceiling.
Outside, the five dragon machines zoom towards the Dragon
Slayer, helplessly still. As they approach, their weapon arms extend
out, all aimed at the human ship. Each lands with a heavy clang and
opens its mouth, a thin laser beam shooting out and starting to burn
through the ship's outer hull.
Lina runs through the hallways, Milgasia right behind her.
She looks to her left, seeing room 306 and to her right, seeing room
305. She hears the ringing and steers to break through the next door
on her left. Before she can, the phone in room 303 cuts off mid-ring
just before a familiar purple-haired man is thrown through the door,
hitting the opposite wall.
"Xelloss," Lina cries in alarm, not only in seeing him
being thrown, which only a Dragon could do, but also in seeing him at
all. Her leader is dressed again in his mage outfit he wore for Lina's
combat training, though his cape is looking a bit tattered already.
She crouches beside Xelloss, checking him then looks up into room 303.
The phone is there, but rather obvious is the cut wire to the headset.
All around her the walls start to melt and fade away,
leaving Lina and Xelloss in the middle of a black void. "So," a
familiar voice echoes from the darkness, "This is it. The second and
final stand of the humans against the Dragons, is it not?" Valgarv
shimmers into view in front of the two humans, grinning cruelly.
"After all these years I suppose you've forgotten what it's like to
fight a Dragon. Let me refresh your memories!"
The human form of Valgarv starts to distort as he laughs,
body growing taller and larger. Wings sprout from his blackening body
and before Lina and Xel's eyes, Valgarv has changed to his true RSI. A
very large and very lethal black Ancient Dragon. "Come on then, little
humans! If you want to fight so bad, now is your chance!"
Lina grits her teeth as she looks up at the large shape,
then back at Xelloss. "If we can knock him unconscious quickly, we can
probably get out of this place before those other two Dragons are able
to enter."
"Stay away from me, Lina; a Dragon's strength is in its raw
power, not its speed. Multiple targets are best," Xelloss advises
grimly and jumps to his feet, gripping his staff tightly.
"What... is that?" Hawk had followed Lina all the way up to
meeting with Xelloss. He was just noticing the severed hard line when
the code changed in a way he's never seen it before. It came to a
halt, frozen in Matrix time, something he didn't think was possible.
The green of the code seems to melt away, leaving the characters
looking hollow and dead.
Lina, still in her black shirt and pants, and Xelloss in
his magical outfit, look up at the Dragon for a moment before dashing
away from each other and around. Valgarv roars and follows Lina,
swinging a powerful forearm at her. She ducks low and rolls to her
back, firing several fireballs into his face. The magic leaves several
burns but he hardly seems to notice, raising his hand to crush the
puny human.
Xelloss jumps onto Valgarv's back, staff across his throat.
The large creature growls in anger and tries to shake the human male
off. While he's distracted, Lina scrambles to her feet and
concentrates before sending a piercing arrow of ice energy at
Valgarv's underbelly.
With a wet thud it punctures and Val groans in pain. The
Dragon then whips his head around painfully fast, Xelloss flying off
into the darkness and disappearing from view. Yellow eyes rise and
glare daggers at the redhead standing defiantly before them. "I'm
going to," a low voice says through grunts of pain, "enjoy watching
you die, Ms. Anderson."
The dark red blood that was dripping from the wound fades
and the icicle melts away. Lina doesn't have time to notice as she
dives to her left under the Dragon's left clawed hand. Valgarv
anticipates this and sweeps up with his right, gripping Lina tightly
around the shoulders and neck.
She kicks uselessly, trying to squirm free when her eyes
bulge as the Dragon's large fist hits her front hard. The wind knocked
out of her, she can only hang there as Valgarv punches her a second,
then a third, then a fourth time. Each hit causes Lina to cough up
blood, red droplets splattering against the Dragon's scaly hide.
Seraya winces as Lina coughs, blood dribbling down the
redhead's chin. Guessing at what must be going on, she tears the
bottom of her shirt into a small rag, "Jesus, he's killing her." She
uses the rag to wipe Lina's face clean, looking up at the woman's
readings and trying to ignore the smell of melting metal that's filled
the ship.
Lina pants weakly for breath, dazed when Valgarv lifts her
to his face. "Little virus thinks it can hurt me, does it? Who's
hurting now, Ms. Anderson?" Suddenly there's a loud crack and
Valgarv's head pitches forward, grip loosening and Lina drops to the
bottom of the black void.
Xelloss lands beside her, fire enveloping his staff fading
out, a slight splinter the only evidence that it had just been used as
a club. "We need to hurry," he says quickly, helping Lina back to her
feet as Valgarv shakes his head. "I will hold him down, and you shove
a spell down his throat, Lina." She nods, quickly regaining her breath
after getting out of the Dragon's grip.
"You stupid insect," Valgarv shouts as he rears up on his
hind legs, seemingly twice as tall all of a sudden. "You worthless
battery! Virus!" He roars and a large ball of white-hot energy fires
down at his opponents. Lina and Xelloss jump out of its way, the
energy exploding and licking at both humans' backs. Deep burns cause
them to stumble a moment but their focus is strong enough to keep them
on their feet.
A buzzer goes off inside the Dragon Slayer, screens showing
a hull breach warning. The clangs and crashes from overhead get
louder. Hawk looks up from his frozen screens. "They're inside."
Seraya glances up from beside Lina's chair, and then looks at both
Xelloss and the redhead.
"Hurry," she whispers.
As if hearing the blond through her real ears, Lina shouts,
"Xelloss!" He nods and jumps up when Valgarv readies a second ball to
fire at them. The purple-haired man gets his staff around the Dragon's
neck once more and pulls back with all his might, Valgarv choking from
his sudden blocked throat.
Lina jumps up in front of them and time starts to slow for
her. She lifts her arms, sparks falling from her fingertips. The
Dragon's mouth is wide open and won't close in time to stop her from
executing Xel's plan. She closes her eyes after aiming and wills into
existence a spike of fire larger than her own body. It starts flying
towards the vulnerable flesh of Valgarv's throat.
In such a focused state, however, Lina fails to notice what
Valgarv is doing. When she opens her eyes and sees Xelloss flipping
over the Dragon's head, being held in front of the incoming spell by
two clawed hands, she realizes why she had such a clear shot.
"XELLOSS!!"
It's too late. The spell explodes against the man's chest
and he flies back from the impact, leaving a smoking trail back into
the darkness. Lina stares after him, wide-eyed, back on the ground
once more. She doesn't see Valgarv reaching for her until he has his
claws on her once more. She struggles half-heartedly, the vision of
Xelloss being used as a shield against her magic draining the fight
from her.
The black Dragon's other set of claws start to stretch with
a frightening sound of bone being unsheathed from skin. "You hear
that, Ms. Anderson," Valgarv rumbles. "That is the sound of
inevitability. It is the sound of your death." The yellow eyes glow
with anger and triumph. "Goodbye, Ms. Anderson."
Seraya looks over at Xelloss when an alarm goes off. His
vital readings have dropped below safety thresholds and the computer
advises immediate removal from the Matrix. As she's watching however,
another alarm going off makes her blood freeze.
Lina's wide eyes stare upward at Valgarv from the ground.
He's pinned her to the dark floor. All five of his claws shine with
her blood from where he stabbed her. He smirks when Lina gurgles out
one last breath, then stops.
"It can't be," Hawk whispers to himself. "She's the One,
she has to be." She can't be dead. "Lina..."
"Lina?" Seraya's voice wavers, as the monitor remains flat
lined. "No," she chokes out in a whisper.
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