Perfect Sacrifice (47 page)

"I understand," said Andy, no longer sounding disappointed.  "So I guess this is goodbye for a while."  Aaron only smiled and leaned back in his chair.

"Yeah, I guess it is," he said.  "And Andy?"

"Yeah," came the quiet reply.

"You were right…about the ace knight," he said, smiling at Ray.  "She's not so bad after all.  I'll see you later, alright?"

"Okay.  Bye Aaron."

"Bye."  He reached over and shut off the communication link, knowing that Andy wouldn't tell a soul that he was still alive.  He was going to be fine.

"We better get going," suggested Ray as she jumped down from the cockpit.  "Aaron, do you need a ride into Torran?"

"Probably," he responded while slowly standing up, but he quickly gasped, clutching at his stomach.  He fell from the cockpit, hitting the sandy desert floor.  Ray quickly ran over, getting down next to the commander.  "Hey, what's wrong?" she asked, looking over him.  Abby came over and watched the way he held his stomach.  She and Brian had been quiet until now, but this was her specialty.  She was a medic after all.

"Move your hands," she instructed.  He did as he was told, and her eyes widened.  He had a cut there, spreading from one hip to the other.  He was bleeding quite heavily now.  Why hadn't they noticed before?

"Aaron," said Ray sternly, catching his attention.  "You have to hang on.  You're not dying after what we told Andy.  You have to make it to Torran, you got it?"  He only nodded, the pain reflecting in his eyes.

Ray quickly turned to her fellow knights with a request.  She wasn't sure if they were completely on board with this whole idea, but they were her only hope right now.

"Can you two take him to Torran?" she asked, her eyes pleading with them.  Neither one hesitated when nodding, their expressions as serious as her own.  They were really going to help save the life of an enemy.

"We'll take care of it," said Abby.  "My Geno was totaled, so we'll have to use Brian's."

"Can it get you there?" she asked, looking to Brian.

"It should be able to if I use the humanoid form," he said.  "It'll be safer for them if I do anyway."

"Good," said Ray with a small sigh.  "I'm counting on the two of you.  And remember, this event stays between us.  We tell everyone else that he didn't survive, got it?  As far as we know, he was killed in the blast."   They all nodded in agreement.  Abby stayed with Aaron as Brian got his Geno ready.  Aaron was starting to look pale, but he turned to face Abby, a question on his mind.

"Why?" he asked her softly, making sure Ray couldn't hear.  "Just why are you helping me…after everything I did?"

"Because we know what it's like to lose the people we care about," she whispered gently to him.  "And we know the horrible things that Ramirez does to people who betray him.  We won't let anyone suffer from that fate again.  That's why Ray has been keeping such a close eye on Leon."

"Because of Ramirez?" he questioned, his voice starting to fail him.

"Yes," she said just as softly.  "She's protecting him just like we're protecting you.  You should be grateful that Andy called out to you, or Ray may not have stopped."  Aaron allowed a smirk to cross his face.

"I'll have to…thank him later," he said, his breaths coming more unevenly than before.

Brian came over in his humanoid Geno and bent down, cupping his hands.  Abby stepped into the very large hands of the humanoid, gently dragging Aaron on with her.

"Take care of him, okay?" said Ray as she waited to see them off.

"Good luck," added Leon as he came up next to her.  Abby only nodded as Brian turned his Geno around.  With that, they were off, running across the desert towards Torran.  They would have to pray that Aaron held on long enough.  They didn't need to lose him after all they had just gone through.

"That was a pretty nice thing you did just now," said Leon with a small smirk.  He hadn't known Ray to be all that forgiving.  Perhaps she had more compassion than she let on.  However, he still didn't exactly understand why she had done it.  "I don't get it," he told her.

"What?" she asked, looking over the huge pile of scrap metal that had once been a proud and dangerous Geno.

"After all he did, and even after swearing you'd kill him, you let him go," he said, sounding confused on the matter.

"Yeah," she said, the word hanging for a while.  "Hey," she began after a moment of silence, drawing his attention.  "Can I tell you something?  Something I haven't told anyone?"

"I guess," he said, his voice showing how unsure he was.  What did she want to tell him?  Why was she trusting him with a secret anyway?

"You have to promise not to tell anyone, alright?" she told him, making sure that her secret would remain a secret.  "You can't tell your dad, Chris, Abby, Brian…you can't tell anyone.  It stays between you and me, got it?"

"Alright," he said softly, curious as to what she was going to say.  Ray hung her head before continuing in a whisper.

"Ever since he left the GRC, I've been meeting up with Andy in Torran," she said, sounding somewhat ashamed of the action.

"But," began Leon, "you're from different sides now…right?"

"Yeah," she said with a small smile.  "And the worst part is that we talk a lot about work.  We talk about Ramirez and Gordan, about the GRC, about what we're going to do and have to do.  We talk about everything.  I know that it's…illegal, but we promised to keep whatever was said strictly between us.  Andy would never break that promise, and neither would I.  A brother and sister have to look out for each other, you know?"

Leon couldn't help but notice the smallest pinch of sadness in her voice.  She was probably thinking about the times where things hadn't been so complicated, where people weren't getting killed so often.  She was probably thinking of Lee and Andy, her "brothers".  He didn't even want to begin to think about the pain.  He would die without his dad and Chris.  How had Ray managed to survive the years on her own? 

Leon was slowly starting to see the ace knight in a different light.  She wasn't what she was pretending to be at all.  She was everything, and yet she was nothing.  She had proven how strong she was, but at the same time he had seen her when she was on the verge of breaking.  She was rash and impulsive, but at the same time she always thought things through.  Which Ray was the real one?  Was she the powerful, arrogant, and vengeful ace knight, or was she the compassionate, scared, and somewhat frail Geno pilot that was standing with him?  Maybe she was both, or maybe she was neither.  Either way, he didn't care.  She was just Ray.  That was good enough for him.  He was slowly understanding why his father had said that she deserved so much respect.

"Let's go," she said after a while, walking over to her nearly bare Geno.  There wasn't much of the armor left at all.  "Looks like we'll have some explaining to do when we get back."

"Yeah," he agreed as he slowly made his way over to his own Geno.  He stopped, however, and watched as Ray slowly walked over to hers.  Her stride was so different.  It was proud, that was for sure.  However, it was unsure, as if she was just waiting for something to go wrong.  She looked a little lost, in fact.  Leon began to wonder if she had ever really known where she was going.  Life had thrown her so many curves, some better than others.  And what about that thing she did?  How had she moved his Geno?  It had been Ray, right?  He knew he hadn't done it.  Who else could have?

Leon just sighed as he walked back over to his Geno, his hands now deep in his pockets, his back slightly hunched over.  He was sick of thinking for one day.  He just wanted a nice long rest after this.  However, for some reason he couldn't stop thinking about the arrogant ace knight. 
I'll never understand her.
  With his mind made up, he got into his Geno, bringing it back to life.  It was time to go home and take a nice, long rest.  Both of them greatly deserved it.  After all, it wasn't everyday you conquered your fear.

* * * *

General Gordan sat in the main room, staring at the monitor.  He had his arms crossed, tapping his foot impatiently.  If there was one thing he hated it was waiting.  He had sent Abby and Brian out a while ago to investigate the sighting of the mysterious Geno, and they had yet to contact him about it.  He couldn't help but worry.  Exactly what had happened?  Had they found it?  Did they contact Ray?  Did they fight with it?

"Gordan?" called a familiar voice over the speakers.  He looked to the screen as Brian's face came up, a very serious expression on it.

"Brian, thank God," Gordan sighed in relief.  "What happened out there?"

"We found the Geno, sir," he began

"And?" wondered Gordan.  A smile crossed Brian's face before he answered.

"We did it," he said.  "We finished it off."  The officials in the room were all cheering, some doing so inwardly while others outwardly expression their joy.  The knights had really done it.

"How is everyone?" wondered Gordan, needing to be assured that all of his knights were okay.

"We're all fine," stated Brian, "all four of us."  Gordan quirked an eyebrow.  Four?  Who had been the forth?

"Four?" he questioned, voicing his curiosity.

"Well, when we found Ray, Leon Solaris was with her," began Brian with a slightly nervous smile.  "We ended up dragging him into the battle as well."  Gordan just sighed.  Ever since Ray had met the Solaris family, he was hearing Leon's name more and more often.  If Leon was going to participate in the battles, why not just make him a knight?  Why did he even
want
to fight with them anyway?  Didn't he understand that he could die?  Some people were so confusing.

"Gordan, we'll be there in a bit, okay?" said Brian.  "Abby and I are on our way back now."

"Alright," he said as the screen went blank.  He couldn't help but smile.  His knights were alive, and not only were they alive, they had defeated the machine that had killed so many of the others.  Maybe things were finally going to start going his way.

"Sir!" called one of the officials, a rather excited tone to his voice.  Gordan turned to him, a question playing in his eyes.

"What is it?" he asked, unsure if he wanted to know or not.  Was it more good news, or was this going to be something bad?

"It's a message," began the official, "from Trin."  Gordan quirked an eyebrow as a smile formed on the man's lips.  "One of the knights there may have survived."

CHAPTER 24

One More Threat

Ray and Leon got back to the Solaris base around dinner time, and they were sure that Dr. Solaris was fretting about them by now.  After all, they had been gone for half the day.  Any parent would be worried.  Sure enough, the second they walked through the kitchen door, he was right there, his arms crossed and a worried scowl on his face.

"Where were you?" he asked rather angrily, causing both Leon and Ray to feel slightly nervous.

"Um," began Ray, wondering just how to explain their situation.  "We kind of ran into a slight problem."  Dr. Solaris only quirked an angry eyebrow, his eyes not leaving the two young adults before him.

"What kind of problem?" he asked.

"See for yourself," said Leon, wondering if that was such a good idea.

Dr. Solaris walked past them and began to make his way into the hanger.  He nearly fell down the stairs from shock as he bestowed his eyes on the two feline Genos.  Leon's was full of dents in the armor, even some holes.  Ray's was much
much
worse.  In fact, hers didn't even
have
armor.  The glossy black armor was now gone, showing the raw gray and black skeleton of her Geno.  Some of the wires could be seen since there was no longer anything protecting them.

"What happened?" he asked, finally sounding more curious and concerned than angry.

"When we were in the desert," began Ray, "we ran into Abby and Brian.  They were…out looking for that monster Geno, the one that killed the knights."

"And?" he asked, knowing full well that that wasn't the end of the story.

"…We found it," she stated rather simply, as if having all the armor ripped off her Geno wasn't fazing her in the least.

"You…found it?" he asked, his face paling at the thought.  That Geno had taken out eight GRC knights, and Ray was acting as if the encounter had been nothing.

"We're all okay though," she said before he could ask about it or go ballistic on either herself or Leon.  "We managed to win the battle, but…needless to say I didn't get off so easy."  She gave a sheepish smile as she looked over her Geno.  "Guess I'll have to take it in tomorrow."

"I might as well too," said Leon while standing on the stairs, looking at his own.  "I probably can't fix the armor with what we have here."  Dr. Solaris glanced between the two of them, wondering if both of them were perhaps insane.  They had just faced one of the most deadly Genos on the planet, and all they were talking about was repairs.  Shouldn't they just be relieved that they were both still alive?  Why the rush to get their machines back into working order?

"Let me get this straight," he began, drawing their attention away from their Genos.  "You two were just in a serious battle with a powerful Geno that could have very well killed you both, and all you care about are how soon the repairs can be made?"