FSE

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ New to the story? If so, please read the previous parts first! At this point, you REALLY should! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~CHAPTER 22~~~

My sword and his sword.

Those were the only two things on my mind; the only two things that mattered for the time being. The hybrid I thought was my friend had betrayed us all, and the casualties continued to pile up with every passing minute because of it. All because some smooth-talking stranger took advantage of his weakness and used it to corrupt him from within.

But I couldn't change the past; what's done was done. Regardless, I felt like I was the only one who could stop Isaac, and by God I was going to do it.

I charged into the door and broke clean through it, and immediately saw him standing at the edge of the roof watching the battle below just like Cali said he was. Considering he didn't react to the loud sound the door made, I assumed that the noise from below had covered it up for me.

With the element of surprise still intact, I used what I imagined would be the first of many speed boosts to come, and charged straight at my former friend. My sword was raised high over my head and I was determined to get the first hit in.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Isaac knew I was there all along. In one swift move, he ducked out of the way as I swung down, charged up his fist with the same cackling, blue electricity that had caused Smith and I so much suffering previously, and took a wild jab at my chest. Feral, but experienced. Instinctively, I brought my sword up just high enough to block Isaac's punch, but that was only part of my new plan. In the blink of an eye, I used my ferrokinesis to open a hole in my sword's base, making Isaac's fist pass clean through it. Before he could realize what I'd done, I used his own momentum against him and lifted my weapon, swinging it, and by extension Isaac straight up into the air and then smacked them both into the ground. He landed on his back with a loud and very satisfying thud.

Still caught up in the counter-attack rush, I shoved the tip of my blade against Isaac's throat before he could pick himself up off the ground, effectively trapping him in place for at least a moment. I couldn't see his facial expression through the shiny black helmet, but I knew he wasn't fearing for his life at all. He knew that I wanted to share a few words before the fight really began and was happy to oblige.

"It's YOU doing it, isn't it!? You're controlling the zombies with your fucking nanobots!" I shouted. "All my friends are down there fighting them, but they're really fighting YOU!"

As I suspected, he remained completely calm and collected. "I don't understand why that upsets you, Greg. All this time we've been fighting to take control of the planet back from them, and in a manner of speaking, I've done just that. Hell, if this was two weeks ago, you'd probably be saying how cool it is."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Why does it upset me? It freaking UPSETS me because you're using them to kill every one of your former ALLIES! You killed Ross, not the zombies!"

"Heh, me killing my former allies... You know, that idea used to bother me, but now it doesn't anymore." It almost sounded like he'd burst out laughing at this point. "I'm just following orders, plain and simple!"

On 'simple,' I suddenly felt a strong surge of power running through my body from the ground, and realized that Isaac had electrified one of his legs and touched one of mine with it, painfully paralyzing me in place. Taking advantage of my momentary weakness, he casually got up and grabbed me by the throat, gripping me hard enough to give himself a firm hold, but not hard enough to choke me. Instead he punched me twice in the stomach and kicked me hard in the chest, knocking me several yards away from him.

Numb and gasping for breath, I still managed to pick myself up off the ground with my sword's help. But the pain quickly subsided, much to my surprise. I figured that the more Isaac zapped me, the more resistance I built up to it afterwards. Not enough to make me immune, of course, just enough to NOT have my nerves feel like they were going to explode.

Either that or he's holding back...

He pointed at me from across the rooftop. "You know, we never did finish our fight in the HAC arena, Greg. But now... Now it's time for our rematch. And I'll be honest with you, I knew it'd come down to this eventually."

As Isaac spoke, his extended arm once again grew into the large, spiky limb he had gut-punched me with hours ago, and in his opposite hand a large sword similar to mine began to take form. Similar, but not quite congruent. While mine was shiny and symmetrical, his was faded and crooked, looking like a disproportionate zweihander that had all the weight and cutting power thrown onto one side. But despite this unorthodox design, it certainly looked sharp enough to completely wreck me.

It was appropriate, though; a twisted weapon for its twisted wielder. Simply fucking poetic...

God, Isaac... I can only imagine what's going on in that head of yours...

I could practically feel him smiling at me through his helmet with a sick, malevolent glee as I stared at him from across the roof. Regardless of repetitively saying he didn't want to kill me, I just couldn't shake the feeling that a considerable part of him was going to enjoy potentially beating me into submission.

"En garde" he goaded.

I wasted no time accepting his challenge in full. Round Two had officially begun.

I speedily leapt up and swung my massive sword straight down at Isaac, hoping my fast high attack would catch him off guard, or that the force of impact would shatter his sword if he was able to block it. But much to my surprise, my adversary swiftly side-stepped to my right just as my sword hit the rooftop surface with enough force to crack the concrete. Before I could uproot my weapon, Isaac grabbed my right arm and flipped me over his shoulder, forcing me onto my back as he electrified his giant fist and prepared to punch me in the face. Fortunately for me, his reversal left his legs vulnerable, allowing me to swipe his legs with my own and knock him back now. He used his fist to break his fall as I regained my footing and took a few steps back, ready to go again.

This time, I chose a smarter approach; I dashed forwards with what appeared to be yet another head-on slash, though instead I swiftly sidestepped twice and swung my blade all the way over my shoulders, intending to use as much force as I could to penetrate Isaac's armor.

Bad move on my part though; Isaac parried my blade with his own by swiping it behind his back and scored a clean, diagonal clash across my front by continuing the parry as a fully circular swing. It wasn't deep enough to completely cut through my chest plate, but the force of the impact staggered me enough to promote a follow-up from my foe. Coming off the diagonal slash, Isaac transferred his momentum to his enlarged arm and knocked me off my feet with his shoulder, then pinned me into the ground with his sword. I felt the tip of his weapon pierce my armor and cut into me, but not deep enough to cause any significant problems.

What came next, of course, made up for it. With me still helpless and pinned to the ground, Isaac raised his huge fist, charged it with electricity, and let it surge through his body, weapon, and inevitably into me.

"HRRRRNNNNNGGGGH!!!"

Regardless of what I was thinking half a minute ago, this jolt hurt. A LOT.

Isaac chuckled with his mechanical voice. "Stings like shit, huh?" He withdrew his blade from my back after deciding I'd had enough and walked over to the opposite side of the roof, allowing himself a second to rest.

But even the lingering pain and numbness weren't enough to keep me down. However, as I slowly stood back up, I could feel a sudden warm sensation creeping down my leg, and upon looking down I could see that it was a small amount of blood from the wound on my back.

"Oh that's not all, looks like I've also drawn first blood, Greg" Isaac taunted. "Care to shed more of it today?"

I ignored his quip and pointed my sword right at his head. "If it means stopping you, then I'll shed all the blood I have to. That's a promise."

With the confidence I had in my own words somehow making me feel stronger, I ran over to Isaac and swung hard, though he easily parried my slice and made one of his own. With each of us swinging and parrying one another in a repetitive cycle, it didn't take long for us to cross blades in a temporary stalemate. I pushed hard and he pushed back with just as much strength, my gaze never leaving where I assumed his gaze was behind that damn visor.

Between a few grunts, Isaac found an opportunity to try and reason with me again. "Greg, this is stupid. We're fighting for our lives up here, but all this effort is being wasted for nothing!"

"I wouldn't call this nothing" I sneered, my rage giving me the muscle to force Isaac back a few steps. "I would call this stopping the bad guy and doing what's right! For me, HAC, and all the people I love!"

Isaac pressed his blade harder against mine, now compelling me to take a few steps back. "Then on the subject of love, here's the million-dollar question; why don't you JOIN us instead? You AND Kyla. Come join the superior side! It'll make it that much easier in the end, anyway. Because after the war is over, you and your woman can live happily ever after, and I can live happily ever after with mine. Win-win."

Realizing that this embrace of swords was going nowhere, I quickly ducked back and let Isaac make a horizontal slice against the air, but then immediately sprung back up and whacked him in the head with my sword's hilt. Disoriented, he clutched his head and took a step back, allowing me to shoulder-tackle him a little further back, giving me room to strike and score a nice horizontal slash of my own across his chest. His armor swiftly repaired itself, of course, but the bits of clustered nanites that fell to the ground were now out of the game; no contact with Isaac's body meant they were useless. A little more of this, and I'd be able to actually get some damage in...

But for the time being, I still tried snapping him out of this web of lies. "Wake UP, man! Stryker is USING you and Liz is NOT coming back! Move on! I did, it's not impossible!"

I'm PRETTY sure he doesn't know about my love-triangle situation, so this might just get through that warped head of his...

My hit knocked some of the wind out of Isaac, but he quickly recovered and went back on the offensive. "That's not the POINT!" he shouted as we forcefully locked swords once again. "This isn't just about ME, it's about her, too! She didn't DESERVE to die, it wasn't her time! I'm trying to get OUR lives back, not just my own!"

This time, Isaac broke the sword lock by swiping at my head with his claw-arm, forcing me to raise my sword higher to protect myself. His sword slid to the ground with a loud clang, and he used the opportunity to slash twice at my legs. Fortunately for me, he only hit my shin guards, which I quickly repaired before parrying an incoming third slash. With my small opening only lasting a split second, I thrust my sword forward, connecting with Isaac's right side and shearing off a large piece of his armor. He rolled out of the way to put some distance between us and fix his exposed torso, but we both saw that I had cut him a little deeper than expected.

It wasn't a very large wound, but I had finally managed to draw second blood.

He cursed, and it proved I was one step closer to beating him.

~~~

This exchange of attacking and receiving went on for several minutes, with neither of us really getting anywhere as far as damage went. Any hit either of us scored on each other's armor was able to quickly and effectively be healed thanks to the similar applications of our abilities, and neither of our bodies were hurt badly enough to hinder our swordsmanship. A few nicks here and a few cuts there, but nothing more than that.

But the entire time, Isaac kept rambling on and on about seeing things his way and how he was justified in what he was doing. About how I of all people should be able to understand his goals. About how I should join him and Stryker, since HAC had nothing to further offer me and was 'the real bad guy in all this.'

But all I heard were the insane delusions of a broken man. I brushed him off at every single point, and it was starting to anger him.

"I'm only giving you this offer because I'm your friend, Greg. Despite what you may be thinking, I never stopped being so. Friends help friends. That's what I'm trying to do here!"

"You know what? You might as well just be one of Stryker's mind-controlled lackeys after all, since he's gotten himself so deep into your head. You're completely hopeless."

Isaac had heard enough. "Then you've given me NO OTHER CHOICE!" he shouted in the angriest, yet simultaneously saddest voice I'd ever imagined.

He dashed towards me once again, ready to swing straight down and cut me in two. Even without super speed, he closed the gap pretty damn quickly, giving me only one option of defending myself. I brought my sword up to block his oncoming hit just as I'd done before, determined to counter his mindless, rage-driven assault and end this mad skirmish once and for all.

But in doing so, a certain piece of bad news suddenly hit me like a tank. In my emotionally hostile state, I had forgotten to take mind of exactly where I was standing on this roof. I had unknowingly been backed into a ledge, unable to go any direction except for straight down.

I didn't know if it was accidental or intentional on Isaac's part, but just as I began to rationalize this, he made his move. In one fluid motion, he swung his sword into the ground and used it to vault his way over to me, charged his entire body up with a ferocious surge of power, and crashed into me feet-first, knocking me clean off the roof. My sword had dropped out of my hands from the force of the impact, though Isaac was quick to grab and throw it down with me after gracefully landing on his feet.

Time slowed down to a creep as I began to fall. A slow, cruel, horrifying creep as the realization began to sink in:

I'm... falling...?

...I...CHRIST, I'M FALLING!!!

My enemy just stood and watched, shouting "I won't kill you, Greg, but gravity just might! GOODBYE!"

OH MY GOD!!! OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD!!!

As I panicked, I realized that in actuality, a fall from three stories probably wouldn't kill me. But it would most definitely cripple me enough for the advanced zombies below to quickly finish me off. Hell, Isaac wouldn't have a problem with that; he'd claim that they were tearing me limb from limb, not him.

But that didn't ease the hurricane of negative thoughts storming in my head.

It... It's all over. I'm going to die. I'm going to die right here, right in front of this goddamn building! I never even got inside!

I passed by a window. Only two stories to go...

I should've gone back to my friends, but I just HAD to seek answers and revenge instead! I was wrong. I was DEAD wrong. They needed me... SHE needed me...

I passed by another window and saw my own petrified reflection for a split second.

I should've gone back to Kyla...

Ten feet from the ground...

Kyla...

Five feet.

KYLA!

But suddenly, just when I had braced myself for impact, I felt someone grab me from the side and jerk the both of us right into the opposite direction. For another, even more terrifyingly confusing second I had no idea which way was down and which way was up, but before I could begin to panic further, I found myself already back on the roof with a pair of arms wrapped around me.

A pair of slender, feminine arms...

A familiar voice whispered in my ear: "Don't worry stud, I gotcha!"

I looked up, and saw spotted grey fur, blue hair, and blue eyes. It was Kyla! It was like she heard my thoughts and came to my rescue! And on my left, I saw that Francis was also here and had caught my sword for me! Scaling this building must've been simple for them because of their abilities.

And they looked READY for a fight. This wasn't over for us yet!

But wait a minute... I thought I was going down... And what would've been my last thought was of... her?

What does that--- No. No, I can't think about that right now...

All three of us had landed back onto the roof at the same time, only a few steps away from a completely unsuspecting Isaac. Francis seized the opportunity and blasted him with a powerful ice wave, though our foe was quick enough to slice it in half and avoid taking the hit. But Francis was counting on that. As Isaac's sword hit the ground, Francis used his speed to dash up to his former ally and struck him square in the face with my blade, shattering parts of his nanobot helmet and knocking him all the way to the opposite edge of the roof. If there wasn't a wall for him to crash into, he would've fallen off and met the fate that would've been mine.

As soon as my heart stopped pounding fast enough to explode out of my chest, I was able to think clearly and focused on the fact that Kyla had just saved my life.

"KYLA! You saved me!"

She kissed me deeply and embraced my worn body as she never had before. "Yeah... I couldn't save Ross, but I know he'd want me to stop moping and save the man I love... You. I know you've said this before, but now it's my turn: as long as I'm here, you are also invincible."

Now instead of exploding, my heart completely melted at her words; nothing could've been more poetic than giving me my own words of encouragement in such a dark time. But I only responded by slowly pushing her away from me, which made me feel awful for having to end such a tender moment. It was only because the fact remained that there was still a fight going on, giving us no time to be tender with each other. Luckily, judging from her expression Kyla understood my actions and helped me get to my feet.

"Did you ever think you'd be the one saving me?" I asked her sarcastically, just to show her that I was still myself even in the face of danger. "Because of all the things I taught you days ago, 'what to do when I'm falling off a building' wasn't included."

She smiled and brushed a strand of hair from her eye. "Not really, to be honest. But it sure worked out pretty damn well! Maybe I should save your life more often, Mister Man."

"Save it for later you two, we've still got a fight on our hands up here" Francis interjected while curiously observing Isaac from a distance. "So who's your friend with the circuit board armor?" He handed my weapon back to me, which I gladly accepted. After making sure it was undamaged, I also turned my attention to the enemy slouched against the far-side wall as he started to stir. Despite taking a powerful blow to the head, Isaac still had plenty of fight in him.

"Well, he was my friend..."

"Oh cry me a river, Ossland!" Isaac loudly retorted while climbing back to his feet. "I'm still positive you would've done EVERYTHING I did if it was YOU in my position!" Thanks to the large chunks of his helmet that were missing, we could hear his own voice mixed in with the mechanical-sounding backdrop. Eerily, it somehow it made him sound much more menacing than the digital voice did alone. "You'll never admit it, but I saw it in your eyes back in that interrogation room; you WOULD trade everything away for love! You are NO different from me!"

Francis and Kyla both did a double-take, probably realizing that my enemy's voice sounded a little too familiar.

"Greg... Is that---" Kyla started.

Almost as if on cue, Isaac let the remaining parts of his helmet recede into the suit for the third time today. He didn't see any reason to keep his identity a secret anymore.

"ISAAC!?" Francis and Kyla said at nearly the same time.

He grinned from ear to ear, relishing in my friend's reactions. "Surprised? Greg here certainly was."

Francis actually didn't look so troubled by this, but that's just the way he was; practical. Isaac was now simply another OGD enemy for him to beat into a pulp, plain and simple. All my ally chose to do for the time being was to stare coldly and save his breath.

Kyla, however, looked just as mortified as I assume I did back when I first saw the face behind the electronic armor. It took me a moment, but I remembered reading in Kyla's diary that she and Isaac had already met before, to discuss me of all things.

"What the HELL do you think you're doing, Isaac?" she shouted. "I thought you were on OUR side!"

"Regardless, this certainly explains where he's been for the last two weeks" Francis added nonchalantly. But then: "So, where are the other two Deltas, Deneia? 'They out doing OGD's dirty work, too? Huh? 'They just as fucked up as you are?"

...Ugh... Very poor choice of words, old friend.

But instead of snapping like I thought he would, Isaac somehow abstained from attacking Francis, though I could tell by his flaring nostrils and twitching eye that he really wanted to cut my friend in two. But if he did, Kyla and I would be able to counter-attack swiftly and effectively, ridding him of any chance to gain his 'reward.' Isaac was clearly angry and steadily going insane, but he wasn't stupid.

"They're not here" he finally said after a long silence. He calmly walked over to where his blade was stabbed into the ground and uprooted it with one pull, giving it a quick look-over just as I had done. "They're dead... And NOT by my hand, if you were wondering. But that's all you're getting out of me, HAC troopers. Unlike our ferrokinetic friend Greg, I don't owe either of you an explanation."

"Oh, let me guess," Francis replied. "You made some kind of deal with OGD in exchange for your life, right?"

"Well, you're halfway right... Isaac's apparently under the delusion that Stryker will bring Liz back to life if he switches sides" I answered. "That's basically it; he's traded EVERYTHING away for a lie. Our ally has become Darth Deneia."

"It's not a delusion, it's a PROMISE!" Isaac yelled with a renewed burning anger brought on by my little quip. "Stop treating this like it's a FUCKING JOKE!!!"

"It IS a fucking joke, you idiot!" I responded just as loudly. "It's the biggest joke someone's EVER played on you!"

It seemed that Kyla had heard enough. I didn't blame her, since I never liked raising my voice to anyone, and I was pretty sure she didn't like it either. "Well it doesn't matter; the fact is there's three of us and only ONE of you!" she challenged. "You don't stand a chance!"

Isaac snickered at my cryokinetic girlfriend's taunt. "You know, you're right, Theta Twelve. Three on one does sound a little unfair, so allow me to even out the playing field!" At Isaac's words, four of the huge, thuggish zombies from below climbed up the side of the building opposite to us, and gathered around their master in a circular formation. Isaac charged the tip of his sword with electricity and lightly stabbed the zombies in the back of their necks one by one, making them violently roar and convulse. But after only a few seconds, the four of them stood upright and began to discharge cackling blue energy, accompanied by louder, more thunderous roaring and glowing blue eyes.

With those FUCKING nanites of his, Isaac had just turned four advanced zombies from very dangerous to extremely dangerous.

"YOUR fight is with ME, Greg. Your buddies suddenly have more than enough on their hands to deal with."

While Francis looked ready to test these behemoths' might, a wide-eyed Kyla stood nervously, probably wishing she could take back her taunt.

"Uh, guys? I'm gonna need your help with---"

Isaac pointed his sword forwards. "Sic 'em."

At his command, the four brutes ferociously roared and charged at my friends, two towards Francis and two towards Kyla. I stood in place, unsure of how to react or what to do, but Isaac made my decision for me fairly quickly. As my friends braced themselves for a fight, my enemy engaged me once again, ready to do more damage.

He swung hard, I blocked. I swung harder, he blocked.

I nearly cut off his arm, he nearly severed my leg.

And every five seconds, it seemed one of us was subconsciously repairing their armor or their sword to ensure a lengthy battle.

This deadly dance of blades was NOT over yet...

~~~

Once the two of us had become engaged in a sword lock once again, I took the opportunity to quickly check out what was going on around us. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that Francis had already killed one of the electrified thugs with numerous stalagmite impalements, and was helping Kyla handle her own attackers. One of hers was undamaged, but the other was missing an arm and had large frostbite burns all across its chest. The fourth one, however, was nowhere in sight. Regardless, my friends looked like they had the situation under control, but it didn't stop me from trying all the harder to defeat Isaac faster so I could help them.

But suddenly, the damaged, one-armed zombie dropped its pursuit of Kyla and ran over to ME instead. Isaac gave a slight smirk, confirming that he was responsible for the brute's abrupt change in behavior. I had to drop the sword lock and stop the charger, but my brief shift of focus would be all Isaac had needed to finish me off.

Instead, Francis noticed what was going on in the nick of time and used a speed boost to tackle the charger out of my way, while Kyla finished off one of the two undamaged brutes they were previously handling. One-on-one, she would be fine as long as she kept dodging wild, electrified jabs and taking every possible shot.

But with that small crisis averted, a new one began as Isaac took advantage of my misdirection by socking me in the stomach with his normal arm, and then grabbing me by the throat with his claw arm.

"Juuust enough to make you pass out" he taunted as he lifted me above the ground and began to squeeze.

This wasn't good. Thanks to Isaac's death-grip, I wasn't able to bring my sword up and chop off his arm to free myself; my increasing lack of air made it impossible. Because I instead found myself involuntarily banging on his giant fist with my weapon's hilt in a vain attempt to make him drop me. I was panicking, and instinct had taken over at the worst possible time.

From where we were, we could see Francis had made his way over to one of the corners of the rooftop, still engaged in a fierce battle with the zombie. The thug managed to punch him hard in the head with its rotten, electrified fist, but before it could follow up with another one, Francis saw his opening and made his move. He grabbed its arm and twisted it behind its back, and used this sudden shift in weight to kick the zombie off the roof to the ground below. Even above the numerous sounds in the background, we all heard the loud thud its body made.

Unfortunately, the hits Francis took were strong enough that it forced him to momentarily stop and recuperate. He fell to his knees and panted heavily.

"I'm all right, just keep fighting!" he shouted.

With his firm grip on my neck still intact, Isaac took a second to make sure my teammate wasn't getting up any time soon, and then turned his attention back to me as his fist clenched tighter and tighter. I was close to passing out, and he could see it in my eyes.

What he didn't see was Kyla sprinting towards him from behind and readying a VERY sizeable ice blast. The final brutish zombie had already been vanquished by her sudden increase in ferocity upon seeing me slowly being choked.

"LET GO OF MY GREG! HAAA!!!"

She fired the frozen blast right at our enemy with an ironic fiery passion. Unfortunately, Kyla's caught-up-in-the-moment battle-cry had cost her the element of surprise, enabling Isaac to toss me aside and spin around just in time to block her freezing attack with his sword. But it wasn't a total loss, because the blast disarmed Isaac and froze his sword to the ground at an angle, giving me time to pick myself up and for Kyla to launch herself back a safe distance. She knew that even unarmed, my former friend would be more than a match for her at close range.

He saw that his frozen weapon was just out of his reach, and hastily went to pull it out like King Arthur. However, much to our enemy's surprise, the hilt of the sword broke right off in his hand, leaving the rest of it entrapped within the ice.

Wait a minute... The ice messes with his nanobot equipment?

...Oh, this is PERFECT!

Without pausing to catch my breath, I shouted to Kyla. "Let him HAVE it, the cold is his weakness! You've got the advantage!"

The cryokinetic didn't need any further initiative; she saw the broken hilt in Isaac's hand and had already jumped to the same conclusion as I did.

"All right, let's do it, Greg!"

We both ran back up to Isaac from opposite sides and prepared to unleash everything we had on him; one final wintery blast to disable him and one final clean slice to finish him off.

But for the last time, our foe had managed to out-think us. With all his strength, Isaac slammed his sword's broken hilt right back into the body, shattering both the encasing ice and the weapon itself, creating a giant electrical shockwave. Most of the shrapnel and ice shards hit all three of us, though our armor rendered it powerless. But the shockwave hit only myself and Kyla, knocking us both back to the edge of the roof and entrapping us in what was literally the most intense pain we'd experienced since our transformation into hybrids over a year ago. All of Isaac's other electrical attacks I endured today didn't even come close to this one.

I saw Kyla's limp form several feet away from me, moaning and twitching, but thankfully still alive.

"Ky... Kyla... Are you okay?" I rasped. She moaned more in response, but was otherwise unable to answer me properly.

The now weaponless Isaac slowly walked over to the two of us, reveling in his assumed victory. "Just think Greg; this ALL could've been avoided if you had just LISTENED to me earlier! I wouldn't have to be doing this to either of you! I wouldn't HAVE to be slowly killing my FRIEND!"

Despite being almost fully paralyzed in agony from the shockwave, I managed to look Isaac in the eye and choke out an appropriate response:

"We're... not... dead yet. And you... are NOT my friend..."

But no sooner had those words left my mouth that the inevitable happened: Isaac finally snapped. I saw it in his eyes, he totally and completely snapped. The twitching, the fidgeting, it was all there. He didn't even have the rationale to answer me clearly, since he was reduced to an angry rasping. But then he shifted his gaze to Kyla on the ground near me as she slowly started to pick herself up, and his wicked grin came right back.

Right as I realized something bad was about to happen, he dropped the biggest bomb of all:

"Then maybe I'll MAKE you see things my way! I'll personally kill the one YOU love and give you a REASON to join OGD! THE SAME REASON I HAD!"

Oh no.

He grabbed my discarded sword from off the ground and charged at Kyla, ready to ram my weapon right through her head.

Oh GOD no.

He laughed as he ran. He laughed like a madman.

M-Move, Greg! God dammit, move! MOVE! MOOOOOVE!!! HE'S GONNA KILL HER! HE'S GONNA KILL HER!!!

But all I could muster was an agonizingly slow crawl along the rooftop. I had taken the worst of Isaac's electrical shockwave, and as a result my body was in no condition to utilize my super speed. Kyla was literally five feet away from me, and I couldn't make it over to her in time. I didn't even know how I could've done anything to stop Isaac's attack; all I knew was that I just HAD to make it over to her!

But I couldn't.

I can't save her... I CAN'T SAVE KYLA!

All I could do was scream. Scream, and realize that despite all my strength and all my resolve, I was being forced to experience what Isaac had gone through with Liz and the brainwashed Cali after all. The horrific scenario he proposed came rushing back all at once and the facts hit me hard:

His reality had become my reality.

He had won, and Kyla was going to pay the price.

"KYYYLAAAAAAAA!!!"

Paralyzed from fear and still from the electrical attack, my second true love snapped her eyes shut, clenched her teeth, and braced herself for death. I did just the same. It was all I could do.

There was a horrible sound; a sound that I was very familiar with after having this job for so long, but had now begun to loathe after these past week's events. It was the sickening sound of metal penetrating flesh. The sound of my own weapon being used to kill Kyla.

Then came the inevitable cry of pain. But much to my surprise, it wasn't the one I was expecting. Against my better judgment, I opened my eyes and was greeted with a gruesome scene completely different than what I thought.

From all the way across the roof, Francis had used his super speed and leapt in front of the fear-paralyzed Kyla, intercepting the full attack head-on.

And Isaac had stabbed him clean through the stomach.

The tip of my stolen blade had missed Kyla by only a few inches, and it had skewered Francis instead; straight through the Omega armor, front and back.

...Fra...Francis...!?

My friend's eyes slowly panned downwards and his mouth snapped open as he saw the huge sword's guards bumping against his cracked chest plate. His hands were pressed against the sides of the blade and were dripping with blood, showing that his attempt at catching the sword in his palms had failed. All he could do was stand in shock until the realization of what just happened really hit him.

He blinked. Twice. A small trickle of blood began to leak from his mouth.

"Uuuh... Ugh...! HRRRK!"

Isaac looked confused on the other hand, but nevertheless satisfied with what he had just done. "Huh. Not exactly who I was aiming for, but I think I've gotten my point across." He unceremoniously kicked Francis above his solar plexus to knock him down and free his new weapon, then swung it to the side to shake some of the blood off of it. "That's enough damage for right now, anyway. My arm needs a break and my suit definitely needs more 'bots and a recharge. But I'm keeping the sword if you don't mind, Greg."

He just... sounded so... casual. Like... Like he didn't just mortally wound one of my teammates! One of my REAL friends!

He definitely saw the look of horror and disgust on my face, but still remained completely unfazed. "I know you'll come for me eventually, Greg" Isaac continued, "so I'll be waiting for you inside the base. Assuming, of course, you guys can actually get inside. Because I don't know about you three, heh, you two... But I can still hear a huge-ass battle going on down there. And judging from the sounds of it, HAC isn't doing so well. Seems like the 'zombs are doing just fine without me pulling their strings."

Like a ninja, Isaac leapt backwards off the side of the roof, re-forming his helmet and slowly turning completely invisible as he rose higher and higher. A layer of nanites must've also rapidly covered my sword, because I couldn't see it anymore either.

"Fifteenth basement level, Greg!" he shouted. "We'll be waiting!"

His haunting words echoed through the air as he vanished from sight. All that remained afterwards were the ambient shouts and moans from the battle going on below us.

He's weakened... I should follow him! I should end him right now! I can do it!

But...

Instead, I crawled over to Francis as he lay bleeding and propped his head up, though I was so devastated I could barely even look my friend in the eye. Kyla followed suit once she was able to move.

"Francis... Oh my God..."

Blood... So much blood everywhere... I couldn't actually see the wound in his stomach thanks to the armor, but I knew I wouldn't want to anyway. I'd probably be able to see the ground thanks to the hole in his gut.

He... He's not gonna make it...

I was mortified. Mortified, frightened, and so much more. I always knew it was a possibility that Francis or Harry could die in the battlefield, but I always found comfort in how extremely unlikely that was. Against those stupid zombies, the three of us were damn near invincible. No, scratch that; we WERE invincible! But this... After all the rules changed on us only two weeks ago, I hadn't even begun to think about something like this. I wasn't ready! I wasn't ready to lose another person that I cared about!

It's... just... like... Z-Day... All over again.

But I had to face the reality: Isaac had just effectively killed Francis. I had spent this entire battle trying to snap my friend out of whatever twisted idea Stryker put into his head, but this... This just proved that he's beyond saving.

Unlike myself, however, Kyla was mortified and enraged, at both the situation and at Francis himself for doing what he did. "You idiot! Why did you do that!? WHY!?" She shouted with tears in her eyes at our comrade as he lay bleeding out, unable or unwilling to take into account that he had just saved her from certain death.

"Forget WHY, we've gotta get him a medic! Somebody, anybody! I'm not letting him die because of me!" I shouted back.

"How the HELL are we even gonna DO that!?" Kyla countered. "We're on the freaking ROOF, and if we move him even a little, he'll bleed out more!"

"I know, I KNOW! I'm just trying to---"

Francis suddenly started coughing up more blood, effectively silencing my and Kyla's shouting match. "It's okay... guys. I did it because... It was the right thing to do. I did it once... in Afghanistan to save my friend... I'll do it again now... So don't bother with me, I'm... finished." He turned his attention to me. "But now... Now it looks like you're the team leader again, Greg. No... You're THE leader now, since I was the last one standing..."

My eyes burned and my throat tightened. "Francis, please don't---"

He reached up and grabbed my shoulder with the last of his strength, smearing blood all over my spaulder. "Greg... Listen to me. Do for me what Kyla did for Ross... Don't mope, fight. WIN. Win for all of us..."

Weaker still, he smiled and turned to Kyla, who clearly wasn't as angry as much as sad anymore, but nevertheless continued to sob. "You too, kiddo... Don't let this have... been for nothing. You're stronger than a lot of us... Whether you know it or not... Stronger than me, anyway. 'Better you live than I do..."

Now holding back a torrent of tears myself, I took Francis' hand off my shoulder and held it tight while Kyla took his other hand in hers. "I promise, Francis. I promise to keep going and see this to the end. WE promise, right, Kyla?"

She forced a smile and clutched Francis's hand even tighter. "Yeah. We p-promise to keep f-fighting. For each other and e-everyone else!"

Francis sighed happily, but had to briefly pause to cough up more blood. His words were more like choked breaths at this point and it was killing us more than it was killing him. "You know... I'm sorry I... never really... said it out loud, but... I always had a... good feeling about you two. Even after... Even after Cali came back. You two are just... Just...... Uuungh!"

"FRANCIS!!!"

"FRANCIIIIIIS!!!"

But he didn't hear us. My teammate had already quietly fallen back and closed his eyes...

~~~

~~

~

The answer is NO; I am NOT saying ANYTHING about that ending. Not until the next chapter, anyway.

But on a side note, I'm sure that you, Phage, enjoyed both the promised Nightmare kick AND the fact that Greg was "falling towards the sky" for a brief moment :)

And everyone, if you didn't check out LITA Origins: Isaac, please do so! It's been out for a while, if anyone was thinking this was my first post in two months.

But for this one, as always: rate, comment, and subscribe!