Ember ran and ran, parkouring her way through the city after escaping what could've been the end of her career in Generil, making her way to her closest friend whom she had met sometime after they got the gig.
She passed a peculiar looking man in a black robe and white earmuffs out of her friend's work building in alyi, she thought nothing of it.
Ember went in and was greeted by too many guards, but was granted access upstairs after she showed her new badge to them, they had received Josue's announcement alright and well, the building as all of Josue's facilities and headquarters were all on maximum security that day, Ember noticed and had to ask herself why, a question she cannot answer.
Ember immediately made her way upstairs to Wei zhong, her first female friend outside of S.I.O.M.
"Wei, are you working today?" Ember yelled as she looked around but Wei was nowhere to be found.
"In here real quick, come on!" Ember hears Wei yell out, the voice leading her to a door she has never seen in her friend's office.
Ember walked into the room, after moving a heavy shelf first that was in her way.
"What is this room, lady?" Ember asked, overly curious, "Ah, is this a top secret and personal project you've been working on?" Ember noisily asked.
"It actually isn't, I'm just interested in all types of mysteries!" Wei answered her, "Is the shelf in front of the door mysterious enough, in your opinion?" Wei asked, "I would say so, yes." Ember answered.
"Amazing, so anyways, I've been up all night working on a fun weapon for a while, allow me show you it, Ember!" Wei replied excitedly.
"Uhhh, okay, alright, let's go!" Ember responded, though hesitantly.
Wei turned her head at a table near and in the room, on it was a small metallic cube, but the cube was curvy as well.
"Some voice in my head just sort of directed me in making this, I don't want to brag and explain this in full detail but just know it's explosive power is enough to take out the largest building in new york alone in one explosion." Wei informed Ember.
Ember moved away, her facial expression screamed out shocked, flabbergasted.
"Why would you keep that here then?" Ember asked, worried.
"Don't worry Ems, my skills landed me in the top 30 in all of Josue's scientists, which means I can assure you that I know what I'm doing, we're safe as long as nobody pushes the button on the top of it, so, no threat at all..." Wei warned Ember, while bragging a little bit as well.
Ember sighed in relief, but ultimately, she has her own confidence in her friend and her genius, "Nothing ever led me to believe she's a klutz yet fortunately!" Ember thought to herself.
"Anyway, what brings you here, your brothers got on your nerves or something?" Wei asked, "Mine always gets on mine with the "Oh I'm so much smarter than you, oh that Gerbajaheevin is done all wrong" and crap, they're all annoying!" Wei complained quickly.
"No, can't a friend come and see another friend just because we're friends, girlfriend?" Ember asked but Wei was cringing, "Okay and You're trying too hard, what's up?" Wei asked, she could see Ember was hiding something.
"It's nothing really, Josue gave us a day off, I just want to spend it with you though, to be honest I've never had an intelligent friend only ever my brothers, so...", Wei interrupted her, "So, where did you guys grow up anyway?" Wei asked, the most curious she's ever been about anything to do about a person.
"Wellll - It's sort of difficult to explain our past, it'll take a while and this city keeps getting weirder and weirder honestly." But before Ember could finish again, she was interrupted by Wei yelling out for her to turn around, when Ember did turn around, Wei's peculiar explosive was floating in mid air with neither of the two next to it.
Ember immediately tried to run and she grabbed Wei off the ground to get her out of danger pronto but couldn't move suddenly then a flash of light shined so blindingly.
-
Ember and Baozhai woke up inside a drab and unproductive version of their beautiful city Generil that looked like an apocalypse rolled through.
"How long were we asleep?!" Ember asked herself, refusing to believe the bomb went off and it was far more catastrophic than Baozhai calculated, refusing to believe this was their city at all then the thought of all of the lives that were lost because of her broke Alyi's genius out in a waterfall of tears.
"Oh no, no, no, please don't tell me my bomb magically went off and this was all my fault!!" Baozhai yelled out verklempt and full of anxiety, guilt, sorrow, every negative emotion a person would feel if it looked like they had murdered countless by accident.
The Blue-stocking blade tried not to panic like Baozhai, she had tried to actually calm down her best friend and ease her from panicking. She deeply refused to believe Baozhai was capable of creating a weapon with this level of destructive force and was stupid enough to knowingly keep it in the city she loved.
"Listen Bao, I had a mentor named Dain back at my old military program who had taught us everything regarding the difference between various forms of destruction, we're standing in war ravaged lands." Ember told her to calm her down but was still confused herself, "Although, I doubt this was something he had in mind at the time, but it can still work." Ember babbled to herself.
"Who is Dain?" Wei asked as she was wiping the tears from her eyes.
Ember observed her surroundings, observed her surroundings for signs of the two sides that made this battlefield, thoroughly observed all she could in one sitting, she then contemplated as best she ever had, possibly ever could, being her first time putting her knowledge to use.
She returned to Baozhai, and told her about her theory afterwards.
She found Bao scavenging for supplies in one of the nearest buildings that was still fairly intact.
Ember sighed, "What are you doing, Bao?" She asked curiously, "Sorry, scavenging and creating are the first things that always finds me when I'm lost, I didn't know what else to do while you were gone." Wei answered as she sat on her butt as she looked woebegone.
"Whatever, Anyway, I think I have a theory about our situation and what happened here!" Said Ember as excitedly as she could in hopes of cheering Baozhai's spirit up.
"YOU DO? TELL ME!" Bao yelled out even happier than Ember, with some relief in her tone as well while the feeling of guilt and sorrow lingered.
"A battlefield has a certain atmosphere to it that stays around permanently, for most people in this world the atmosphere of a genuine battlefield is hard to feel and recognize." Ember informed Bao, "Okay, so you can feel this atmosphere then…?" Bao asked with a confused tone, "I'm not a murderer of thousands??" She asked with the same tone but even more relieved like an anvil of guilt was lifted off her back by Lyle Aluin.
Ember's face was like one of uncertainty, but she was personally certain with what she knew about Bao, that the wastelands they found themselves in wasn't Alyi's explosive genius' doing.
"It's dim, there wasn't much of a fight here and instead it was out-and-out domination, but Let's just get a move on, I'll tell you my thoughts on the way to safety, I'm getting a bad feeling here." Ember replied with worry in her mind, it was too one-sided for the entire city to be as empty as it seemed to be, she was feeling uneasy.
Before they could go anywhere, 40 men entered the building where they were and surrounded them with guns she's never seen before in her life.
"This is one of the only buildings that's gone unsearched and nothing, but instead we found two unidentified females, one does resemble the female Aluin though, sir!" Said the commander, the most heavily armored enemy in front of the rest that was looking to be Ember and Bao's certain doom, "How should we proceed?" He asked as if he was a soldier.
Angry mumbling sounded off the commander, the commander tried to hide his fear and nervousness of whoever was speaking to him, "Sir, I know it's impossible and she was killed at the beginning of the takeover but it's definitely her and she's youthful somehow!" The commander informed his boss.
"I left my armor at the apartment, which is likely destroyed now and there's too much to fight off, their armor looks like Josue's brand, it'd be like trying to break a pipe with a wooden stick, this cannot be how it ends!" Ember said to herself in her thoughts as she held her hands up and saw Bao being surprisingly calm.
"Roger!" The commander yelled out "The hoes are coming back to base with us!" He ordered his men around him "The boss would love to see you again, Ember Aluin." The commander said before chuckling maniacally.
"NO!" Everyone heard from out of nowhere before the entirety of the building they were inside of was filled to the brim with familiar storm sky grey smoke, causing everyone to cough and it split up the men but Ember and Baozhai felt strange.
The few enemies who surrounded Ember and Baozhai the closest turned around and started facing all directions back to back formation, making a large circle around the two, trying their best to remain vigilant while facing uncertainty because of the smoke that surrounded them. They felt weaker and cold chills but stood strong.
Panic and fear started when their guns went up into the air, one after one began to fall as sounds of a sniper went off, other men seemingly was getting hit by something that was invisible, then a man wearing worn and torn armor that was Josue branded even with the same shade of purple, came flying from out of the smoke and was knocking the men out too, chaos was happening all around the two defenders. It made Ember feel like an ignorant bystander as they had zero clue of the context.
The chaos went on for a total of 10 minutes until everything settled down, the assailants were lying on the floor dead or unconscious by their saviors.
"Uhhhh..." Bao sounded as she felt paralyzed from shock, "That was..." Ember didn't know what to think about what just went down.
Suddenly as she refused to move but kept her bastard sword strong, two of their hero's group hugged her unexpectedly. Ember shoved the 2 masked figures off then hopped back, still lost and dazed about the important details they're missing.
"Is that really YOU, Ember??" The tall one asked who she shoved away, Ember recognized that voice of his and his height, he unmasked himself as she recognized his powers, unsummoning the exact gun the soldiers had equipped, to be one of her very own brothers but much, much older.
It was Artus Aluin,her goofy and immature younger brother that she shoved off of her unknowingly. She couldn't believe it at first because he was looking around his early forties, he was bald with a beard growing in and an ear missing when he removed his helmet. She didn't hesitate or wait a single moment, upon realizing he was alive, she hugged him immediately back even stronger, "Wait, how and where's Lyle?!" She Immediately asked soon after the hugs.
"How's any of this possible? How are you alive? How are you so young? Holy peepers, Bao's alive too?!" Artus asked so many questions with a tone filled with astonishment faster than she remembers he could, so many people present couldn't answer, couldn't believe what they saw, including herself for another reason than their own.
Everyone else unmasked themselves at the realization of the two being alive and young, they were Artus, older Livia, and another few that neither recognized as well unmasked. One almost as tall as Artus and another that wasn't quite, both that greeted them like they were close. They seemed a bit older than Artus and Livia.
Another rebel dropped from above landing after a flip that was extra she recognized.
"We're safe and sound for now, I couldn't sense any more of his soldiers in the area than these ones." The Rebel informed Artus before turning around and seeing Ember young and alive. She knew it was Lyle from the way he didn't say a word, he pulled her closer and hugged her like they have 18 years to catch up on.
Ember and Bao felt weirded out seeing everyone, including Lyle and Artus staring at them like they'd just seen phantoms.
"We have to get going, one of them already called for reinforcements, Ember's name was mentioned too, he'll send 40 or 80 more men to secure her if he has to, let's go!" Said the final figure who never unmasked himself with an ancient Khopesh.
Artus hugged her and was looking even more ridiculously stunned and brotherly than usual as they walked to their "Rebel base" as one of her saviors she was unfamiliar with put it, she was sure these weren't her same brothers.
Everyone returned to another old and abandoned building far from their spawn but it was far worse, it was also getting reclaimed by the earth but it was the best they could do for now. They had a low budget digital map of the city on a screen.
"Why were those other guys repeating BxL!" Bao yelled furiously and genuinely frustrated with how dumb she felt at their teasing.
"You and Lyle dated briefly sometime after we first arrived but you don't remember…?" Artus answered then asked Baozhai as she sounded sincerely ignorant to him. Bao looked at Lyle but he was in the front and was quiet.
"OKAY, Nevermind that!" Ember yelled out irritatedly, "I WANT TO KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON HERE!" Ember finished with the same irked tone.
"Ages ago Josue defeated this dude that called himself a hero but then his "prized" protogè as he calls himself took revenge after he figured out he murdered him, he seized the cities, murdered all of Josue's men and some of his resources while he was still weak from the previous battle with his teacher for control of the world, he killed Josue while he was in his coma, we're the last of Josue's troops." Artus informed Ember, with not a single ounce of humor in his tone.
"He killed everyone else?!" Ember asked with a hopeless tone, "Aleph died in the first year with a bulk of the troops at his side in a tricky attack that failed horrifically and left the city ravaged." He replied first "Conyrol was used as an example for the rest of us in the second year." He continued with a dire tone "Alyssa almost killed him but he had a trick up his sleeve or something...she was incredible." The older Sanguine Sharpshooter filled her in further "Fitz rallied the other nations to fight beside us in the third year when our troops were running low but now he has an army." Her little brother finished with a tear running down his eye.
"They took away your charismatic attitude, I sensed no sort of.... Artusness… in all of that!" Ember asked, sincerely confused, "War matures you, and we've been fighting it for a while, there's no time for stupidity these days." Artus replied almost sounding exactly like Lyle and nothing like himself that she knew.
Ember and Bao looked at one another in disbelief, "AND YOU LYLE, you're so much more grim than usual." Ember yelled aloud, confused.
Lyle looked at her, "You've been dead for over a dozen years, we've been fighting as a rebellion for over a dozen years, the genuine people we were meant to protect have been oppressed for over a dozen more, I'm not grim, I'm the same as Artus, it's time to be serious." Lyle started with his usual classic calmness, with a dash of anger in his quiet tone.
"How did I… die?" Ember asked as if she didn't want to know but her investigative nature got the best of her.
Suddenly, Ember heard a female's voice behind her belonging to whom she loathed, "We've missed you so much, Ember, how are you back alive though?" And when Ember turned around to realize it was aged up Livia burr, in her armor but it was torn up and ragged. Everyone else wore a different suit. Fury possessed Ember in that split moment, the fury one feels that compels them to risk everything.
"Ewww, it was you that hugged me earlier, it was likely YOU who killed me too, you slimy witch, I'll knock you over like a bowling pin, piece of garbage!" Ember was quick on the attack as always, but it seemed like Livia was swifter than ever, she dodged Ember's punch and tripped her putting the Blue-stocking blade on the floor, Ember fell flat on her face.
"I know precisely what time she's from…" Livia stated as she let her guard down "Stubborn and resentful, the idea of personal growth with age is the last idea you believed was real." Livia finished as she walked up closer to Ember.
Artus jumped in between, attempting to break up any confrontation nearing, "Please Artus, Let me DESTROY that airhead!" Ember asked Artus, with a sincere tone, Artus became serious over the years, he realized Livia was right and noticed the two always communicated better when they fought, he moved to let the two communicate in their own way.
"Ember, this is not an appropriate time to rehash the past, let's not do this. I forget this isn't a thirty year old you." Livia in a surprising turn of events didn't want to fight.
"Oh, look who dropped her childish ways too and mature, I think now's a wonderful time!" Ember responded as taunt to her. Livia looked at Lyle and Artus, then she shrugged, her mind made up. She used quotation marks for matured since she didn't believe she'd ever grow up.
"We've already done this dance, it ended with us making up and becoming best friends." Said Livia, the Capital Covert Champion, removed the torn and terribly conditioned armor besides her gauntlets that stood in great quality she had equipped before she nodded Ember's way and squared up looking unprepared.
Ember was quick on the dash, to rush her, using her speed teamed with her infamous agility to taunt her older rival, it looked like she was showing off to everyone else.
Livia just stood idly by, watching her as she hopped around the place with swiftness that paled in comparison to what she can do in the future to everyone. Her plan was to be harder to predict.
"I guess you somehow figured me throwing you on your butt as luck, somehow...?" Livia responded as she chuckled after that display.
"Is this lucky?" Ember yelled when she went for an uppercut, Livia dodged quicker than she expected her to, while using her knee to knock Ember off balance, she stumbled back. Livia laughed after she heard it.
Ember regained her balance "Is that all you got?" Ember yelled louder while rushing her again, Ember went for a roundhouse kick, spinning backhand, then a double legged drop kick, none of them touched Livia. Ember rolled backwards to create some space. Ember thought it was time to summon her bastard sword.
Livia seized the moment and caught Ember into a deadly headlock, the kind learned from their old home. As Ember struggled to escape, her consecutive elbows into her side barely phased Livia at all.
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Lyle yelled as loud as he could to disrupt the two, to Ember, this was a rare time he raised his voice with any negative emotion.
"You two's fighting is very unavailing and dumb. I expect that from you, Young Ember, but Older Livia, you're better than that now." Lyle finished resembling how their Mentor Dain sounded in her ears.
Ember cringed, she couldn't speak or think about anything but how ridiculous his words were though "You expect that from me?!?!" Ember yelled like she was feeling betrayed, it was a bolt out of the blue, her tone told everything she was feeling when she heard him say that to her.
"Doesn't matter Ember, we put the past besides us at 20 right before Lyle and I become a couple again." Livia informed her with a softer tone than she's used to with her rival "It's better for us and our work if we do and that's why I begin the patching, I take accountability, let it happen when you get back. Yeah?" Livia insisted further much to Ember's disgust by everything she's heard from her.
"We suspect you were launched into the future, you somehow time traveled and this is your future, which means you come from when we first arrived in Generil making you far more childish than your..." Lyle struggled to see if it was past or present. Ember's facial expression informed them of her reaction even though she was speechless.
"No way... NO WAY THIS IS THE FUTURE!" Bao yelled out with utter dismay, "This bleak and grim future isn't what's in store for our home, no!" She finished with dismay still intact "I'm not a theoretical physicist, I focus on research and development for gadgets and armor Josue and his team assigns us. I'm barely intelligent enough to create a continental tier explosive let alone time travel!" Baozhai butted in as she was breaking down. Ember gave her a stare filled with knives before she chuckled it off.
"That was just a theory, Mei." Lyle replied with a slight grin. Baozhai recognized what he called her as a cute and endearing nickname that she's always wanted to be called by her future husband.
"There might be a time machine back in Alyi from a criminal we busted to get you back to the past." Artus told the team, Ember had seen the look on everyone's faces when he told that information.
"What's the point when stopping this guy that's going to attack us is hopeless?" Ember asked with a dispirited tone "Hopeless is when you stop fighting." Livia replied with a stern tone. Ember and Livia heard Lyle groan from pain, compelling them to look back where she saw Artus patting Lyle's back as the Sangfroid Paragon held his head like he caught a headache.
"I wrote a journal I'll go find that details everything since year 1 you could use to prevent all of this." An unfamiliar member with a ravaged hood, torn up medieval-like armored tunic and unique crossbow butted in with before taking off "Just hug me!" He finished sounding like he needed it before affectionately doing it. She let him even though she didn't like being touched, she got the sense they would become very close.
"Remember the major problem we have with Alyi?" Asked another unfamiliar member with a shotgun and Katana that Ember and Bao didn't know in the slightest.
"What's he talking about?" Ember asked, confused, "What's the issue with Alyi?" Ember finished.
"Wellll, Alyi is the new Generil, it's where the bulk of all of his men are stationed even more so than Seyort and here now, his new city of operations after he succeeded in taking over the triplet cities." Artus answered her as calmly as she remembered Lyle's voice could go.
Out of the blue, the remaining members of the Gen-Oath were on high alert, hearing the windows around them break, one of them in the back was knocked out by GAS, while the others in the center got in a circle to cover all angles.
Lyle realized it was knockout gas closing in and everyone didn't have their helmets on, he was able to vanish it all and clear the air, another shock for Ember, she had never seen her brother use that ability before besides with smoke.
Artus and Ember activated their invincibility, summoned their SMG and Sabers, Kacey and Lyle prepared themselves to fight, Livia disappeared and went who knows where after she went invisible, and the others around prepared themselves as well.
"There's an army out there, handsome!" Livia told Lyle "There's an army out there!" Livia screamed urgently at everyone else as they scattered to grab on their gear.
"Since we're pinned down, we have no choice but to go out and fight, as Conyrol would have said, when there's nowhere to run, you've got to enthusiastically run towards what's blocking your path than lay down and die!!" Lyle ordered everyone "We've survived this once, we can fight together through another one!!" Lyle rallied the troops.
"You guys have??" Ember asked with an impressed tone "Well, more like one or two with slightly less men but the general fact of impossible odds, yeah." Artus answered as he summoned a Gatling gun that was the exact tech of the opposing army outside.
"I agree with Lyle, there's no other way out of this..." Artus replied with certainty.
Lyle's face changed like he was hopeless then it shifted to slight anger, the smoke from before was rising off of Lyle's upper and lower body, he and Artus placed on their helmets.
"FOR THE THREE CITIES!!" Cried another Gen-Oath member, Ember didn't recognize "FOR THE LEGACY OF JOSUE!" Everyone else cried out like this was going to be their final battle and hour of duty.
Though not nearly as armored as her team, Ember wasn't going to sit back nearby watching her team fight and possibly die "no!" Ember said in her mind. The remaining Gen-Oath members walked outside to be greeted by an army of 500 prepared and ruthless men, surrounding them from all angles, steadfast and dead set about squashing the last of the rebellion for their grieving new lord.
"This is going to be a team of 10 eccentrics vs an army of hundreds of normies, this is one problematic equation." Said another member with a hood she didn't recognize who clearly belonged to the Gen-Oath, but felt like she'd get along with anyway.
Like before, at least hundreds of the men were disarmed because of their firearms flying up into the gravity-less sky, that's when the battle began and she witnessed her brothers and the rest slaughtering the enemies including Artus, leaping higher than she had ever seen from him blasting groups below.
Everyone went charging in, except for a few who weren't exactly made for one on one combat, leaving no room for one on multiple enemies.
The fighters were fighting hard, showing these assailants why they were considered the second most elite in Josue's staff.
Within an hour of this confrontation, the 7 that were fighting head on, took out 300 before they were weakened by exhaustion then taken out one by one and Ember had to watch it all.
Ember instead had to watch her team die while fighting back, to her this wasn't any better though. Her great speed allowed her to dodge almost everything fired at her from an eccentric but the others while strong weren't as fast except for Artus, Lyle and Livia. Watching from his comfortable throne, Generil's greatest antagonist sent more to ensure the Gen-Oath's failure was guaranteed.
A beam blasted down on Artus from a UFO like helicopter, freezing him in place whilst he was fighting off and killing groups of enemies, the men closest continued to hit him, but because of his abilities lasting far longer now, he wasn't getting damaged.
The antagonist's men took him away through stasis that reminded her of another bully she knew.
The plane flew past Lyle, who looked up while fighting a large group the same as his brother, but the plane caught his attention, knowing what was done to prisoners, Lyle's pent up frustration and anger about the entire situation finally bursted out in a way Ember didn't know was possible for him.
Lyle's hair was beautified by the clean shade of white it had turned. Lyle's hair turned ghostly white, as the smoke that resonated around him flowed unbelievably more intensely, he teleported in front of the helicopter that was yards and yards ahead of him and bashed it down to the ground, successfully freeing Artus from capture. However, whatever Lyle had in mind didn't stop there. The violence and smoke that fogged up the battlefield.
Their unpromising circumstances that built up with his resentment of Nathaniel failing them resulted in this becoming permanent and his mind declining. He killed hundreds of men after saving Artus, including those he valued because he was clouded by this sense of violence combined with his need for survival he's been pushing down he's had in him since he was born that overwhelmed his will to protect them later on, and he was worried only about himself.
"That's out of his character!!" Ember exclaimed as loud as she could as she beheld the carnage that betided.
When the confrontation was over.
Ember fell to her knees on a battlefield that was engendered because of someone's vengeance.
The greatest antagonist made his way over with the very little he had left, Then greeted Ember and Wei, though, heavily shocked by how they were alive and youthful. The greatest antagonist, he walked up to her and Baozhai, who were sobbing on the battlefield because of everything that happened.
He was surprisingly sympathetic, his genuine expression he wore on his face said it as well to Baozhai. He did something to Alyi's genius to where she couldn't move, not even her mouth or eyes.
"Do you want to know why this all started in the first place?" The greatest antagonist asked Ember "Why, you filthy disgusting bastard?" The Blue-stocking Blade cried out.
"Because that vile man shattered my family and from what I've heard of you, I just did what you would have done if it was reversed!" The greatest antagonist told her. Ember's eyes lit up because she couldn't deny that fact but she had no clue of who he was talking about at all.
Winding up an eccentric cane with a scarlet handle and a weird symbol, he prepared to finish the job, Ember was aware but had no care anymore. Ember woke up and found herself on the floor, back in Baozhai's laboratory.
She had foggy memories of the nightmare when she woke up then asked Baozhai if she did as well, Alyi's explosive genius informed her that only she was asleep and that a machine she was assigned to figure out went off suddenly that knocked her out but she couldn't wake her up, she knew it was safe and she would wake up healthier.
Ember felt like something was off.