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Chapter 5 - Chapter 5

As if time had stopped, Free's eyes couldn't believe what he was seeing. 

Below Gideon's feet was Gristle; his neck twisted at an odd angle. 

He couldn't hear anything--- the rampant charge led by Maria, her blood-curdling roar, the sounds of combat beginning to form in the bowels of the Tombstone as Gideon and Lucy scrambled to their DW.

But ignoring all of this, his eyes instead trailed over to one person--- Bayonsik. 

She was standing before a large, humanoid-like machine that had thousands of wires connected to its body. It looked like it was sleeping the way it had curled itself up in the pit of the room; a baby in a crib. 

Nothing came out of Free's mouth. There was no anger, there was no fury--- there was only a choking rattle of loss; the loss of his Grandfather had cut him loose like a puppet.

"FREE!" Maria screamed as she punched him square in the nose. 

Free felt a rush of stinging heat on his face; he was back. 

Waking from his dream-like state, Free was nearly catapulted out of his chair from the force of their DW bashing into Gideon's. If it weren't for Maria waking him in time, he would've gone flying.

"DAMN YOU BASTARD!!" Maria's voice was raw from her rage, pure vitriol oozed out of her breath as she cursed Gideon in the rival cockpit. 

He said nothing, other than him scowling from the impact; he showed no other emotion other than flat apathy. 

Lucy on the other hand was different--- she refused to look them in the eye; her face was buried in her side of the cockpit.

"Hmph, I suppose this was his trump card? Calling in the wild dog and his grandson? Gideon, do your job." Bayonsik commanded as she began to work on a terminal nearby. 

"SHUT UP LIZARD SHIT!" Maria howled, but Bayonsik paid her no mind.

Gideon hearing the command began to flip switches from within his cockpit. Then, from his DW's underbelly, a large hook flew. 

Due to the point-blank distance, the hook pierced and dug into the hull of Free and Maria's DW. Free knew that it had just pierced the DW's engine; they were going to lose power within seconds. 

"FUCK!" Maria cried as she frantically tried to pull out of the hook's grasp, but it was no use--- the DW's joystick had no more traction to it; the engine was dead.

Gideon pulled hard backward, pulling Free and Maria's DW forward crashing to the ground. 

Maria adeptly leaps out of the cockpit, breaking her fall with a tactical roll. But Free crashed downward with the DW. 

"Give up, Maria. I've always been the better pilot, this was inevitable." Gideon jeered. 

But Maria hadn't given up just yet, she instead began to make a straight beeline toward Bayonsik. 

Before Gideon could react, Maria's sheer speed caused her to catch up to Bayonsik within seconds. 

"You're DEAD!" Maria cursed at Bayonsik as she leaped into the air, ready to tackle her. 

But, what happened next was a blur to Free's eyes. Suddenly, it was Maria who was on the ground; Bayonsik now had her in a standing armlock. 

"AGHHHHH!!!" Maria screamed, Bayonsik was about to break her arm backward. 

"H-How!?" Free didn't understand what was happening. How did Maria get pinned to the ground, by Bayonsik of all people? She was half her size, and nowhere nearly as muscular as either her or Gideon. 

But there she was now, in complete control of the situation standing atop the giant that was Maria.

"Quiet down, wild dog." Bayonsik flatly spoke down to Maria as she further bent her arm.

Maria in her exasperation was no longer speaking coherently, she instead had begun screaming and howling in desperate fury. But no matter how hard she tried to squirm out of the armlock, Bayonsik didn't budge. 

"STOP!!!" Free tried to stop it, but before he could even crawl out of the cockpit--- another sickening snap rang out. 

"AAAA---..." Bayonsik had broken Maria's arm; her eyes rolled back into her head as she went limp from the shock of pain. 

 Bayonsik let go of Maria's arm and kicked her head; she didn't react.

"She's unconscious- hmmm..."

"Gideon, kill the boy; he's too much of a liability to leave alive. But, once you're done, come carry the wild dog out; she has another purpose ahead of her now." Bayonsik commanded.

Gideon wordlessly followed her command and piloted his DW over to where Free was. Raising one of his DW's legs, he pressed it against Free's cockpit; he had begun crushing Free from the outside. Free could feel the weight of the DW press down against him, his body was going to be flattened by its weight; his death was going to be slow and painful.

Having stayed quiet so far this entire time, Lucy finally spoke up.

"Gideon! This is too cruel, just get out and kill him!" Lucy cried.

Gideon scoffed, but obliged. He stopped crushing Free's cockpit and instead leaped out of the DW; landing before him below. 

Free looked up at Gideon and tried searching for remorse behind his eyes. But all he saw were those of a cold-blooded killer. Gideon reached out toward Free and dragged him out of the crushed hull of the DW. 

Free was then strung up into the air by Gideon, held up by the neck; he felt Gideon's hand begin to squeeze. 

"Rest easy kid, it was never personal," Gideon muttered as he tightened his grip. 

Free felt helpless, and cursed what little of his life that he's lived so far. All those years studying to become an EOD, all to die to a traitor on his first Tombstone dive.

And if he had just charged right in instead of following Crawler Crew protocol; Gristle would still be alive. 

These regrets bubbled up to the surface of Free's mind as he felt his throat being crushed. What could he do now? This was the end. 

"B-Before you kill me, answer me this." Free spoke, choking through what little air he could muster from Gideon's grip. 

Gideon cocked an eyebrow in curiosity. 

"Did. You. Kill. My. Father?" Free gasped in short breaths as he was about to fall unconscious from the lack of air reaching his lungs. 

Gideon was slightly taken aback hearing Free ask him that but immediately recovered his composure. This entire time he hadn't displayed any emotion other than mild apathy. But now he was grinning wickedly from ear to ear. 

"What if I did?" Gideon sneered.

Gideon then felt cold metal touch the lower end of his jaw. He looked down, it was a strange yet vaguely familiar hunk of iron that he had once seen before from a man he once knew, and Free was pointing the end of its barrel straight into his chin. He hadn't noticed Free unholstering it from his toolbelt.

Before Gideon could react, a bullet shot out of its barrel. 

Free fell to the ground gasping for air as Gideon let him go--- his lower jaw had been blown off of his face. The air was mixed with the smell of gunpowder and blood as Gideon's delayed reaction to what had happened began to catch up to him. 

"Eughhhff!?" Gideon tried to speak, but with him now having no lower jaw. All he could do now was gargle his mangled tongue in his daze as he reeled from the impact of the gunshot on the ground.

"NOOOOO!!!!" Lucy screamed from inside the cockpit. 

"What did you do, child!?" Bayonsik looked back from her work on the terminal, surprised over what had just happened to Gideon. 

"Four... left..." Free scrambled up to his feet, and aimed the revolver at Bayonsik now. She didn't react to him doing so and instead stepped forward, shielding the terminal behind her.

Free was about to pull the trigger at her, but, a shrill, deafening roar echoed throughout the chamber; interrupting him as its force nearly made him fall over.

The four of them looked around, darting their eyes around the darkness of the chamber; there was something here now, alerted from the gunshot. 

"You fool! You've damned the future of Humanity!" Bayonsik cursed at Free. 

Before Free could react, Lucy suddenly scooped Gideon up with a swift pivot of the DW; catching and landing him in the now empty auxiliary cockpit. She then piloted the DW over to where Bayonsik was and lowered the DW down allowing Bayonsik to board it. 

Bayonsik easily lifted Maria's limp body and dumped her into the auxiliary cockpit along with the delirious Gideon. Free aimed his revolver once again at them, but Lucy looked at him and shook her head. 

"If you shoot, you'll kill Maria," Lucy said. 

"You already know what that roar belongs to, Free. Run if you can." Lucy piloted the DW and began to run back out to the exit; Free kept his sights aimed at them as they passed him. 

But he didn't shoot, he knew she was right; Maria would die if he did. 

Free fell to his knees as he let them go, he hadn't noticed that he had been bleeding from his nose this entire time after being struck earlier by Maria; his shirt was stained red with his blood. 

The shrill roar rang out louder this time, it was closing in. 

Free couldn't run, the DW had been destroyed and he was exhausted; all of the adrenaline that had been coursing through him earlier had now been fully spent. All he could muster now was weakly aiming his revolver out into the darkness, waiting for what he knew was coming.

A Basilisk; the monster that had claimed the Tombstone its home.