Unknown Time
Unknown Space
Unknown Location
Bright blue sky above. Dark green trees below. The wind rushing by. Her heart pounding in her ears. Magic coursing full blast through her veins; a power more addicting than any drug filling her tiny body.
The taste of chill in the air. The taste of blood on her lips.
“Where… am I?”
Her thoughts were sluggish, yet painfully alert. Explosions and gunshots rained around her evading form.
“A dogfight? Someone is… laughing. Who?”
Graceful flips and sudden changes in direction kept her pursuers at bay. She is a hummingbird among vultures. A fairy under siege.
She could fight back.
One vulture went down, its limbs torn off by a point-blank blast. Another lost its head. But the vultures weren’t pushovers. They knew how to fight as well. Soon, the hummingbird was back on the defensive. Shot after shot rang out; efforts to box her in became more successful with each further attempt.
A maniacal grin split her face.
“I’m the one laughing? Wait a minute.”
She remembered now. An old memory. Her first aerial battle, and the one that earned her the moniker ‘White Silver’.
“Norden… Here again? I know how this goes.”
Fight against insurmountable odds, show unwavering patriotism, and leave the battlefield in a manner befitting of an aerial mage who gave it their all. That’s how you survive in such a world.
She rushed to the nearby unlucky fellow. Might as well get this over with. A magic charge began sparking in her computation orb. Self-sacrifice in the name of the Empire always looked good to the Head Brass.
The ‘unlucky’ fellow turned on a dime, his rifle pointed directly at her.
“What?! This isn’t-!”
BANG
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Cloudy blue sky above. Boring gray concrete below. Feet planted on the ground. An unbearable heat between her hands with the laugh of a mad man in her ears. Magic continued to flood outward into the device in front of her.
“Isn’t it wonderful, Second Lieutenant? The God of Inventions himself has blessed this day!”
“Doctor Schugel?!” She desperately switched her gaze between the insanity-given-flesh beside her and the insanity-made-machine in her hands. “I’m here again?”
The wind picked up as the cores in the orbs reached dangerous levels of instability.
“Second Lieutenant, haven’t you also met God?” He grinned. “We simply have to pray onto God, and he will bless us in turn! How wonderful!”
That bastard Devil, wannabe deity fuck! Being X, haven’t I dealt with this shit already?!
Her thoughts were furious.
“The Type 95 is divine thanks to God’s intervention. It is a miracle of nature, four computation cores in synchronous harmony!”
“Doctor, this piece of shit belongs in a museum, not in the hands of a soldier!”
“Nonsense! Miracles shall be known on Earth thanks to my creation. All we must do is give prayer to the God above that made it possible!”
Dammit! Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK! Not AGAIN!
“Damn you, Being X.”
“The cores are reaching critical levels! They’re going to destroy the entire compound.” A terrified assistant shouted from behind a barricade.
“Fine. If only to get this over with.” She sighed and focused her attention on the orb again. “Oh God… You are truly Great and Powerful. May your wonderful blessings manifest on Earth. Praise be your glorious name!”
The Type 95 burned brighter than ever.
“What? I gave you your prayer, bastard!”
“So what?” Doctor Schugel’s voice was different now. The tone was otherworldly.
“Being X?!”
“The Heretic must be punished. Sin shall be eradicated. Farewell, Tanya.”
“Wait, that’s not-!”
BOOM
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Blue sky. Blue ocean. The Francois coastline in sight. An attack by international mage volunteers. A man possessed battling viciously against her. A fight of God vs Devil.
Wind and magic burst around her; the clouds and smoke providing cover for a split second.
“What is happening? Wasn’t I just somewhere else? Now I’m in an ambush?”
“There you are, Rusted Silver!”
A gust sweeps away the minimal coverage. A submachine gun and a trench gun face each other head on.
Suddenly, the fight is a flurry of motion. The man stabs with his bayonet, but it is kicked away. The battle moves close-range. A knife is drawn. Then, a whirl of motion.
“Errk!” The man, identified as Anson Sioux, spit blood as her knife buried itself in his gut.
“Why am I here again?” She frowned. “Haven’t I lived this moment enough?”
“Living is strong word, Devil.” The wounded Sioux seized the knife-bearing arm.
“Eh? Let go of me, bastard!”
“You die here, Rusted Silver! Even if I have to take you with me!”
“Let go!” Visha’s shot should come any second now. Where was it!? “I said let go! STOP!”
“With God’s power behind me, this is your end! For Legadonia!” His features distorted. High voltage flashes jumped between them.
“NO!”
BAROOM
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The stars above. The sound barrier shattering. Rockets thrumming underneath and around her.
“The V1’s- they’re breaking apart!”
BLAST
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Desert sands. Dry winds. A voice screaming over the comms.
“The Free Republic is destroying everything! They tricked us!”
A regiment of Francois mages. Heavy anti-air fire and artillery.
“RETREAT- ACKK”
“MAJOR!”
CRACK
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Cold again. A church burning around her.
“Devil...” Mary Sioux burned with hatred and godly magic. Her hand shot up. “DIE!”
FLASH
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Sometime Past Midnight, 19XX
Degurechaff Villa
Outskirts of Berun, Empire
“Fuck!”
Tanya startled awake. The night was cool, yet the sheets felt far too hot. Her eyes darted around the room. The darkness was not helping alleviate the tension in her blood. A bevy of negative emotions assaulted her as she sat up in bed.
“What the hell…” She covered her face with a hand. “This shit again? The fearsome Heretic brought low by dreams. Being X must be laughing on his ivory pedestal right now. No, he’s not that petty. Not anymore at least. The human mind can really kick its own ass sometimes, huh?”
She let out a resentful huff.
“This fear, these raw emotions I’m feeling. How irrational. How terrible. This overwhelming feeling… isn’t it all so ugly? So abhorrent? And yet, it’s all mine, despite everything? Stars above, isn’t it mine? This suffering is awful. It’s breathtaking. How can I feel this way, so strongly?”
“Tanya?” A sleepy voice calls out beside her. “What’s wrong my love?”
“Visha…” The Argent’s breath hitches.
Her lover is up in an instant, arms wrapping around Tanya in a comforting embrace.
“Nightmares again?” She rubs Tanya’s back soothingly and murmurs in her ear. “I love you, my star. My darling silver. Please, tell me. What’s wrong?”
The Argent took a shuddering breath.
“The nightmares just keep coming. I feel like I’m breaking apart.” She says, looking away. “Sometimes, it’s a dangerous mission where we don’t come back. Sometimes, its memories of the past that are distorted past recognition. I’m being torn apart; it feels as though if I rest for even a second, I’ll shatter into too many pieces to fix. This remaining fear, this underlying anger. Visha, it feels like the war never left me at all. Is it going to be this way for the rest of my life? Barely making it, holding myself together with everything I have. Is this life just suffering?”
A moment passes in silence.
“Perhaps. I don’t really believe that though.” Visha tilts her lover’s head back. Their gazes meet. “We’re here together, after all. We survived, Tanya. Maybe life is full of suffering, and maybe we’ll never truly leave war behind. But we’re here now, aren’t we? Even if you fall apart, I’ll be there to pick up the pieces.”
“Even though I’m a coward? Even though I’m broken?” Tanya asked in a whisper.
Visha sighed. “Don’t say that. Never say that. You’re the bravest person I know, Tanya. You’ve bore the weight of the Empire more than anyone else. Despite the ache in your bones, and the tiredness in your soul, you keep going. No matter how tired you get, you go further. What can you call that, other than brave? It’s part of why I love you so dearly.”
“You know it’s rotten work loving me. I’m a mess.”
“Even so, I’ll love you as the Moon loves the Tides. Alive together in united harmony. The only place I want to be is with you, whether it be for a second or an eternity. It’ll never be rotten work. Not to me.”
They stare at each other then, gazes heated.
Tanya breaks the silence, “Visha, I love you too. More than you could know.”
“Then tell me, my dear silver.” The embrace tightens.
They share a kiss.
“I love you with a fire hotter than Hell’s own. My heart aches for you. It is a blazing pyre of passion, and I am Joan of Arc being consumed by the flames. Nothing makes me feel the way you do.”
Another kiss, this one softer.
“Then isn’t that enough, love?” Visha gently pulls her wife back under the covers. “No matter what happens, we’ll have each other. We deserve our rest, Tanya. Isn’t that enough?”
“As long as you’re here, it’ll always be enough.”
“Good. Sleep now, darling. Let your Visha fight off any demons of the past in your stead. Allow yourself to be soft for now.”
“Visha,” Tanya yawned, nearly asleep again. “One more kiss?”
“Of course.”
The night was calm. The cool winds of spring, or perhaps autumn, blew outside. Inside a villa on the outskirts of Berun, two mages found sleep once more. The world may be a heartless place. War and waste exist in excess, and inefficient deities rule the universe. By all means, suffering of all kinds would be commonplace in such an existence.
In the arms of a lover, maybe it wasn’t so bad.