Chapter 27: 27. Welcome To The Black Parade

__________*_Wrex_*__________

WC2R, London, UK, Tues 11 Jan '22 20:34

Sarah: "...and I know where she is."

Wrex: "Where?" I demanded.

Sarah: "In an R and D lab... Five floors up."

Sora: "But the radiation source is on sublevel 3 you say?"

Sarah: "Correct."

Sora: "We need to get to the Shard."

Wrex: "More importantly we need to save Alex. Has her armour come back online yet?" I directed at Sarah. She looked at the screen on her gauntlet again and slowly shook her head 

Sarah: "No... And I'm willing to bet she's probably running out of time, if she hasn't alr-"

Wrex: "Don't finish that sentence..."

Sora: "I thought she had nearly a whole day?"

Sarah: "Not this time, thanks to the friendly people of your home world, she was out of her armour for almost 20 hours and hasn't had enough time to recover since then, so her time will be significantly reduced."

Wrex: "What?! How long?! And why didn't you say this before?!"

Sarah: "I don't know exactly and because we didn't know where she was and I didn't want you to panic."

Wrex: "Grrr... Well I'm not wasting any more time then. I'm heading up to level 15 if anyone wants to join me." I turned and headed towards the stairwell, turning my head slightly to see Sarah run and scoot to walking behind me, but Sora was stood in the same spot. I just about saw her mouth the words 'Fuck it' while looking up at the ceiling before running to join us as we entered the stairwell and started heading up the stairs.

Sora: "You know this is treason Wrex?"

Wrex: "What is?"

Sora: "A Vanguard is sworn to protect the Throne, the Shard and the Heart of the Vanguard. To disregard any of the above in exchange for a lesser cause is an act of treason." I stopped on the mid point between to flights of stairs and spun round, stepping past Sarah and pinning Sora by her neck against the wall.

Wrex: "You need to think about these three things carefully first: One, Do NOT ever refer to Alex as 'lesser reason' again, two, We don't know who else is left in the building so if you sound off again and give us away I will make sure you'll never be able to give us away again and finally, three, I'm not Vanguard anymore, so I don't give a fuck about the throne or any of that shit!" She clawed and pulled at the armour on my arm and even tried kicking at me with her feet while wheezing.

Sarah: "Wrex?... Wrex put her down, you're choking her."

Wrex: "Kind of the intention, she keeps pissing me off."

Sarah: "You know she's royalty right?"

Wrex: "What?" My eyes widened and I shot a look to Sarah and just about caught Sora's eyes glow red and purple and then her hands, she drew right hand away made a batting motion and I was thrown off of her into the opposite wall with a *Boom*, creating a crater in the concrete with my armoured mass. I pulled myself from the hole at the same time that Sora picked herself up from the floor, coughing and spluttering, massaging her neck, the glows of red and purple now fadded away.

Sora: "Are we done here?" She said gasped as she got up and walked past a rather scared looking Sarah who had pinned herself against the wall. I turned to Sarah who had slowly unstuck herself from the wall as Sora made her way up the stairs.

Wrex: "She's royalty?! How do you know?"

Sarah: "Alex's helmet footage. That's Princess Sora, daughter of Queen Arisu." I looked up the stairs following Sora as she went out of sight around the corner of the next flight.

'Well shit, if I wasn't in trouble before, I was now. Certainly explains a lot about her, the lack of armour, stubborn attitude and her natural attunement to the Shard and the Heart. But why hasn't she turned me in? And what was she doing here herself? Surely royalty wouldn't be allowed to travel to Earth, especially not alone.'

Which meant that I had to be on my guard now even more so than before around her, the Vanguard could be following her every move and waiting for a moment to catch me. I was distracted from my trail of thought by two pulsing dots on my motion tracker that had appeared as we rounded the stairs behind Sora. So I made a hissing noise to Sora, holding Sarah behind me defensively with one hand. Sora turned and looked to me disapprovingly from the stair case above us over the hand rail, apparently unaware of what I was about to warn her. I showed two fingers, followed by a walking gesture with my fingers then pointed in the direction in front of her as to where they were closing in from. Her eyes widened as she understood what I meant then spun around at the sound of the door opening and snarled before disappearing out of view shortly followed by a ruckus. I darted up the stairs to meet her trying to fend off two Dragons, I tackled the first into the nearby wall, already rendering him unconscious. The second that was rolling around with Sora, jaws snapping away at her as she tried to fight it off. I grabbed it by a wing and yanked the savage creature off of her and punched it in the face as it flew past me crashing through the door labelled '14', crashing through some more office furniture. It whined as it pulled itself off the floor, complaining about its injured snout before looking back up at me and snarled. It started charging at me but I raised my arm, charged the plasma jet and fired before he got close enough. The body fried and exploded before it even got a chance to scream, bits of scaly flesh, body parts and blood spraying around the area with gentle thuds and splatters.

Sora: "Jesus Christ... I've never actually seen that used on someone before... You know Alex had that pointed at you once right?"

Wrex: "To be fair, I didn't know it would do that much... Damage... But yeah.... Fuuckk... Come on, we need to get to her, one more floor." We carried on to the next floor, making myself take point due to my armour and the motion tracker giving me the advantage. I opened the door from the stairwell into a hallway on floor 15, checking both ways before giving the all clear.

Wrex: "Where are we looking Sarah?"

Sarah: "Lab 8, head right down the hall and it should be on our left hand si- ARGH!" *BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR* I shoved Sarah back into the stairwell as many rounds pinged of my armour and faced our attacker. At the end of the hall, I don't know where he came from, but a Dragon walked towards me slowly on all fours. He wore an odd headset that also covered his ears, but also had attached goggles as well, it seemed to be that wherever he looked, a machine gun mounted on each should would follow his line of sight. *BRRRRRRRRRRRRR* he fired another volley at me after seeing that the first wave had no effect. I raised my arm at him and charged my jet, releasing the shot... The SkyTech never knew what hit him, he had no time and nowhere to go in this corridor. Once again, the plasma round impacted, exploding the body to pieces, scattering what was left around and down the corridor. I checked the hall up and down again before giving the all clear again. Sarah and Sora steadily made their way out down the hall towards me as I started searching for Lab 8. I didn't have to go far, only a few doors down, I pushed it but it was locked. The other two caught up and Sarah immediately ran up to the control pad to the side of the door and started tapping on her gauntlet screen. After a few seconds the pad gave an affirmative beep and the door clonked, so I pushed again and this time it opened. I looked down, there she was...

The lab had three steps that lead down into it and there was Alex laid collapsed on them facing up them towards the door with no armour at all. Judging from the wires hanging out of the remains of the control pad this side of the door frame, she had been trying to break herself free.

Wrex: "Alex?..." I called as I leaned down beside her, opening my faceplates. Her eyes slowly opened and focussed on me. "...Heyyy, you're alright, we're here now."

Alex: "*Wheeze* you might be too- *Cough cough**wheeze* -late." Sarah leant down grabbed Alex's wrist.

Wrex: "Don't you dare say that, you're still here aren't you? Don't you give up now."

Sarah: "Her pulse... Very weak and irregular." Sora leapt over us and started pulling boxes and things off of the shelves.

Sora: "She just needs her armour, where the is it?!" Alex's hand slid over to mine on the floor and placed it on top, I quickly flipped my hand to grasp hers instead.

Wrex: "It's ok, we just need to get you back in your armour, everything will be ok."

Alex: "Fii- *cough cough cough**wheeze* Five..." She strained out, letting go of my hand and weakly pointed with all the effort she could muster at the sign on the door showing 'Research and Development: Lab 8' my eyes widened and my jaw dropped as I realised what she was referring to.

Wrex: "Lab 5! Her armour is in lab 5!" I quickly and as gently as I could, picked her up and Sora leapt over and helped on the other side of her. Sarah ran on ahead back down the hall and started working on the locked door as we carried Alex towards her. She unlocked it just as we got there and barged our way in. Sure enough, there it was. The helmet, neck and back pieces were all connected and suspended in the air over a workbench in the center of the room from cables and wires with the other pieces of armour all scattered over the bench below it. We made our way down the three steps toward the table, lifting Alex's limp form up onto it.

Sora: "Alex?, Alex open the interface." 

But she didn't respond, Sarah came rushing down next to her and reached over her back.

Sarah: "There's a manual override." She ran her fingers along two opposed edges of the diamond implant on her back and the device flicked open. Myself and Sora quickly heaved Alex up under the back piece which clicked in place. She hung in the air motionless, hands, feet and tail dragging across the table and her head hung dangling, so I tried to support it slightly under her jaw.

Sora: "That should be enough, that's all she needed last time."

Sarah: "The fucking thing still hasn't rebooted after Skylen knocked it out!..." She screamed looking at her gauntlet and quickly tapping the screen, "... Keep putting more on her, I'm trying to force it to reboot." We did so, lifting more and more armour onto her, each piece automatically latching to the last as Sarah furiously tapped away.

Sarah: "There! It's on!" We all looked up at Alex, but she still remained motionless.

Sora: "What's going on?" She asked sounding worried as we put the last few pieces on her, Sarah looked deeply into the screen on her gauntlet and I walked round in front of Alex's now helmeted head, her face exposed and emotionless. I held my snout close to hers... a glimmer of hope!

Wrex: "She's alive!, I can feel her breathing!" I looked to Sarah who was crying, not through happiness, she was genuinely upset.

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Sarah: "That's not her *sniff* Crystal is commencing CPR measures, *sniff* triggering impulses to her heart and diaphragm muscles to try and bring her back *sob* she died about two minutes ago according to Crystal." My jaw dropped as I looked back to Alex's lifeless form, I grabbed the sides of her helmet. There was a smash on the door of the opposite end of the room, but my head blocked it out.

Wrex: "No no no no no, now you listen to me, don't you do this to me, don't you dare fucking do this to me! Don't you leave me! Come back! Fucking come back to me, Alex! I know you can hear me!..." The door was being smashed more and more, now being deformed out of shape. "...Alex! I love you for fuck sake!, don't do this to me! Please!"

Sora: "We got to go." She said through her own sobs, trying to keep herself composed, as she pulled on my shoulder. I threw her off me.

Wrex: "She's not dead yet! I don't believe it!"

Sora: "Wrex... She's gone!, I don't want to believe it either, but we've got SkyTech about to bust through that door, we've got to go!"

Wrex: "I'm not leaving her here!"

Sora: "The armours too hooked up and it will take another five minutes to get her back out of the armour, we don't have time!"

Sarah showed me her gauntlet, it was still showing 'CPR measures initiated' but also besides that, 'Self Destruct Sequence Initiate: Yes / Cancel'

Wrex: "You want to blow her up?!"

Sarah: "Of course I fucking don't! But do you want to leave her body here intact for the SkyTech to do god knows what with? I know that if I was in her place, I'd rather not be left to that fate!..." I looked back at Alex's still motionless from hanging draped over the workbench, tears now forcing their way out of my eyes, the first time in a long time that I've cried over anything, hundreds of years even, I looked back to Sarah. "...Send her out with a bang, maybe even take some of those fuckers with her." She presented me the gauntlet again, obviously wanting me to make the decision and press the button. I took one last quick glance at Alex before turning back to the gauntlet. My hand moved towards it, my armour clawed finger hesitated between the two options before finally falling forward onto 'Yes'. 

Crystal: "Mark 3 self destruct sequence initiated. Commencing five minute silent countdown. There will be no further audio warnings." The voice announced from Alex's armour. I had to say, she sounded familiar, but I couldn't care less right now. I stepped back in front of Alex, kissed her snout.

Wrex: "I'm sorry." I whispered to her.

Sora: "Come on, they're almost through." She said standing at the door we came in through. They hastily made our way out of the room, but I took my time and had one last long look at Alex before closing the door behind me and Sarah sealed it shut.

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21:22

'I was so close... SOO close to getting her back... Just for me to lose her at the final hurdle. I really wanted to take her body away with me, to give her a decent and respectable send off at the very least. But Sarah was right, at least initiating the self destruct would stop anyone doing any harm or injustice to her. I hated to even think about it though, I felt so guilty. I had agreed with the others that we weren't to talk about it anymore and that we would finish the job that we came here to do, then we could mourn later. Little did they know that I had already decided to make myself scarce after we get back. Alex was the first person in a long time that I had felt any sort of connection with... To lose her so soon... I can't keep going through this sort of heartache of losing loved ones.'

We had made our way to sublevel 3, myself taking point again incase we met trouble, not that we had met any resistance at all on the way, most of the building was evacuated obviously. The doorway to the sublevel 3 was locked and a female automated voice spoke from a console to the right side of the door as I tried to open it.

"Authorised access only, please present appropriate identification."

Sarah walked up to the console and started to hack it and within about 10 seconds the door opened.

Sarah: "Radiation strength is increasing, we are nearing the source." I could hear a loud hum now so we made our way down the hall in the direction of the sound, when my motion tracker pinged and we heard voices talking. I held my hand to stop the others behind me and gestured them to wait here. As I dropped to all fours and slinked down the wall to the doorway where the voices originated.

Man one: "Final stabilisation attempt?"

Man two: "Unsuccessful."

Man three: "Ok, I'm calling it. Sound the final evac order, every body out, make your way to the evac choppers."

The dots on my motion tracker moved towards the doorway and me. I stood up and rounded the corner, punching a scientist dead in the face and he fell unconscious to the floor. The other two scientists behind stepped back, holding their hands in the air.

I looked between them to see a small circular table sized device, it glowed white and hummed loudly. I pointed an arm to each of them.

Wrex: "What is that?"

Scientist 1: "It's-It's-It's a plasma c-core." He said fearfully.

Wrex: "That's the source of the radiation? They don't emit radiation normally, what's wrong with it?"

Scientist 2: "It's running away."

Wrex: "What do you mean 'running away'?"

Scientist 1: "A-All the coils are engaged, creating too much p-power to c-contain."

Wrex: "Well shut it down!"

Scientist 2: "We can't. It's self sustaining and all the safety overrides have been disabled for some reason."

Scientist 1: "We've been trying for the last few hours to stabilise it again by deactivating coils, but the capacitors are overloading and their integrity is decaying too rapidly."

Wrex: "So will it die out eventually?..." The scientists looked at one another, "...well? Will it?"

Scientist 1: "The energy this thing puts out... we underestimated how much, but it can only store so much before-"

Scientist 2: "-Before it explodes on a nuclear level." My eyes widened, we were standing next to a nuclear bomb essentially!

'Sarah! Sarah designed these things, she might know how to turn it off!', that's when I heard her Scream...

Sarah: "WREX!"

I spun around back into the hall to see Skylen fighting with Sora, purple and red energies flowing around them as they bounced around the hall and a few SkyTech manhandling Sarah away, who was desperately trying to break herself free.

Sora took a heavy swing to the face and she bounced off the wall, crumpling on the floor in a heap, trying to shake her head clear as Skylen walked away. A Jump opened ahead of him and the SkyTech that were wrestling with Sarah stepped through.

Wrex: "NOOOO!" I sprinted down the corridor towards them as Skylen looked back and menacingly smiled as he stepped through the Jump. Sora picked herself up as I got along side her and also started running. We both leapt into the Jump, just as it started closing. I looked behind as I heard an explosion, the elevator doors had exploded outwards and a black and red armoured figure slid out from the wreckage... And that was all I saw as the mist enveloped me and I was yanked away into the Jump.

Wrex: "Alex?!" Was I imagining her?

Sora: "Wrex, get your head in the game!" I looked behind as Sora gestured ahead to Sarah, Skylen and the others.

Wrex: "Take my hand." She did and I fired my plasma jets furthest from her so as not to burn her, just for a brief moment, just enough to bring us up to the rest of the pack, I threw Sora ahead towards Sarah as I tackled Skylen who was apparently unaware of our presence until now. We wrestled, throwing punches here and there. He then reached for the weapon on his back but I smacked his arm back down denying him access but he countered by kicking me away... The world screamed and screeched around me as I fell through the red and purple cloud walls of the Jump arriving spinning and falling through the air at such a great speed my armour was creaking, I felt as though I was going to throw up, 'Mach 10.5' displayed and flashed in red as I passed out...

__________

Alarm bells rang bringing me out of my unconscious state. My HUD flashed 'IMPACT IMMINENT' and my vision showed me hurtling towards a body of water. I quickly spread my wings and fired my plasma jets toward the water... It had slowed me down, but not enough. I smashed hard into the water bouncing along the surface a few times before sinking beneath it.

(-My Chemical Romance)

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