Chapter 25: Alliance

Although Zel can never admit to anybody else's face, sometimes he does wish his prosthetic arms are of the organic kind from time to time. Especially this time when he wished the thermal and sensitivity settings are more detailed than it currently is.

After the broadcast, all of the bearers all sort of scattered away back into their rooms, and Zel was just about to do some modifications in his bedroom to his combat prosthetic when Elmyra knocked on the door.

'Can I come in?' She asked, before stepping in without waiting for an answer. Zel smiled a little and moved out of the way before closing the door behind her.

'What are you working on?' Elmyra asked, as she kicked off her shoes into the corner of the room and hopped onto Zel's bed as he returned back to his work desk and opened up the compartments to his red combat ready prosthetic.

'I can't shake the feeling that Zero is planning something shady.' Zel said straight away, as the two of them are among those that are affected by the actions of Zero and by extension Absolute Being the most. That's one of the things that they shared, and it is partially what brought them closer together as they spend more time with each other, 'I have to do something...'

'But I thought you already added all of the weapons and gears you had onto that arm?' Elmyra asked, as she lightly activated her artifact and brought the arm to her as she hugged onto it.

'Hey!' Zel was just about to place his finger on it before it went poof and disappeared right under his nose. He turned around, and Elmyra laid there with her white shirt unbuttoned and his right arm held against her body.

'Well?' Elmyra asked with a taunting smile, 'if you want to keep working, you'd better come here.'

He dropped off the black general purpose prosthetic at the table and leaped towards Elmyra onto the bed, almost crushing her on landing. Her face is full of excitement as she waved her finger once more and the arm automatically popped into place on Zel's shoulder girdle.

'Should I be worried that you know the biomechanics of my shoulder attachment so well?' Zel's eyebrows are raised as he remembered to how awkward the first few times putting on his prosthetic arms are, but he supposes that's the power of the artifacts.

'Well, depends on what you are going to do with that arm.' Elmyra winked towards him as she wrapped her arm around Zel, 'I need to destress.'

'Yeah...me too. The arm can wait.'

And that's how Zel ended up in this position, and his brain temporarily went to how he didn't think to improve the sensitivity settings of his red combat arm as it gently touches around Elmyra's black. Her black short hair reflected the gentle blue lights of his bedroom as she sat on top of Zel. She moved back and forth, and Zel moved in sync with her every movement.

Then, she leaned in and they shared a kiss as he held her tightly while her had her hands around Zel's chin.

This is a rare moment of peace and warmth for the two broken people, and after everything that has happen and before everything that will happen, they needed some time with each other.

Zel's heart is beating so loud that he almost couldn't hear some of Elmyra's whispers as she ran her fingers down Zel's chest.

'Elmie.....' Zel said lightly as they rolled around once more with Zel on top.

'Z.....' Elmyra responded with a chuckle as their unification reached the climax.

'...So...do you feel destressed?' As Zel rolled to Elmyra side and threw his clothing onto the ground, Elmyra went ahead and placed her hand over Zel's chest while waving her finger to get the think blanket to cover the both of them.

'A little bit...for now.'

'...' Zel nodded, not knowing whether Elmyra saw his response. Her smell is magical, and it smelled like a warm summer sun, or perhaps that's just the feeling of another body against his. He detached his red arm half way through the love making, and Elmyra waved her finger to get it to return to one of the hangers on the wall. Now, he is simply holding Elmyra in his left side.

'Your heart...' Elmyra whispered and ran her nose along Zel's neck, causing him to tremble lightly.

'So loud.' Zel said, now a little embarrassed, 'I haven't got to ask you...are you okay?'

'I am fine.....' Almost an instinctual response from her, and even Zel can tell the lack of weight in her words, 'why?'

'The last time we had any dealings with Zero and the Absolute Being, they nearly...' Zel said, turning his head to look at Elmyra who had her eyes closed. A gentle orange light is now turned on by Zel and he turned to face her, 'I can't imagine what you are feeling right now...'

'I am feeling...' Elmyra said, but her mouth froze right before the last words are going to come out. She wanted to say everything is okay, but those words are like the rocks burried in the deepest part of the ocean, always surrounded by pressure and never seeing the light of day. Her fear is still there, and the trauma on both her body and mind is still there.

'I am...' Elmyra tried again, but once more the words are stuck behind her throat. She wanted to let the others know that she is okay, that she is strong and can be relied on, but she isn't a good enough lier yet. Not to herself, and certainly not to Zel.

She continued to struggle, and her beautiful eyes became a little teary. Zel didn't need his prosthetic eye to see that, and he held her even closer.

'It's okay, Elmyra.' He said seriouosly, 'I am here for you, we are all here for you.'

'Because of me....Rydel....you....' Elmyra said through cracked voice as she buried her head in Zel's arm.

'No...' Zel said, shaking his head before kissing gently on Elmyra's forehead, 'none of this is your fault, and you know it too. I wasn't strong enough to be there for you when Lady Lily was there, but I will be there this time.'

'You are strong, Elmyra, and all of us know that.' Zel said, looking directly into Elmyra's eyes, 'I can never be so arrogant to say that I will be the one to protect you. I will instead be there for you, to support you and to help you, just like what we did on Olympus 2.'

'I am the shadow that makes your light shine even brighter...' Zel said, these romantic words coming out of nowhere and even he is a little shocked by it.

Hearing that, Elmyra looked up at him surprised. Then, she smiled through the tears and kissed Zel in the cheek.

'So...' Elmyra asked, now her heart beating so loud that even Zel can feel it through the layers of flesh and artifact in his torso area, 'can you be my boyfriend...officially?'

'Don't say it as if somethings are going to bad.' Zel said with a giant grin on his face while looking at the metallic ceiling as his heart beat slow creeps to match hers, 'say it as if it's going to be great.'

Elmyra nodded hard and Zel turned to face her once more.

'Of course.' Zel said, kissing her on the forehead, '....on that note...do you want more?'

It's fair to say that neither get too much sleep that night, as usually Elmyra is only popping by occasionally for some chats or some 'destressing'. This is the first time that Elmyra is there throughout the night, and neither person is too used to sleeping with another person's body next to them. However, this is going to be the norm for a long while.

Thankfully, their trip towards Olympus prime is still half a day away, meaning they should be able to catch up on some sleep in the morning.

'Cellica! Morning!' When Rydel came out bright and early in the morning looking fresh and energetic, he saw Cellica already there practicing some sort of movements in the main room overlooking the distant planet of Olympus Prime.

'Morning.' Cellica responded with a smile as she continued onto the next pose, her enhanced body both possessing enough strength, control and coordination to easily nail down the most difficult of poses as she transitioned her weight onto the tip of her toes.

Then, she lets out a long breath and turned towards Rydel. That's when Rydel realized that she has had her eyes activated all this time.

'Your eyes...' Pointing out the obvious, Rydel wondered if she actually got any rest or was she looking for the signs of communications from Absolute Being all night.

'I have only activated it for this morning.' Cellica said, instantly understanding what Rydel's talking about, 'Absolute Being know I can see any artifact activities with my eyes, so if they are trying to send me any signals...'

Then, Cellica froze as she turned her head towards Olympus Prime.

Seriously? Are we in a novel or something? Cellica thought, as she blinked a few times and focuses on the message given out. Similarly to before, it was Lady Lily that she saw, and she fluently wrote down a series of numbers with her artifacts, each number designating a district on the planet. The sequence was ran once, and the artifact activity disappeared yet again.

'Tch.....Lock down.' Cellica said, as the pseudo-artifacts of Lock Down are what's preventing her from seeing those from Absolute Being all the time. Due to their pseudo-nature, the energy signature it gives off is much smaller and much harder to see despite Cellica's besst efforts.

'Did they just send out the message?' Rydel asked.

'A time and a place.' Cellica said, going back onto her full feet and looking at Rydel with her normal jaded colored eyes, 'it's time to get ready.'

Absolute Being didn't intend to give the bearers a lot of time, and the planet doesn't have much time either. They immediately fine tuned the ship's trajectory and headed directly towards the destination, with mere hours standing between them meeting their direct opponents all these time.

This will be the first time that the bearers and Absolute Being have joined together in any sort of activities. Though people on either parties would have been rather nervous at the pretense of meeting those that they have fought multiple times before, all of the bearers know and trust each other's abilities. When push comes to shove, the bearers just have more artifact users, and more of them with defensive oriented abilities that will allow them to get out as a group.

Rydel can very easily toss a whole group of people away, Valerie can lock down any ranged and close quarter attacks, Torelamri's Zone of Slow can slow down enemy attacks and Zone of Fast can also be a quick get away, Cellica's eyes provide unparalleled vision and intelligence, and that's not counting Zel and Elmyra's artifacts. Alrith is unsurprisingly the one that's the most nervous, but she still insisted to move with the group, citing how she helped during Life Springer's game in the offensive, which is undeniable.

'Lady Lily said we will simply be meeting to discuss strategies to save the planet, and there will not be anything else.' As all of the groups gathered up and fully equipped themselves with jackets, shields, some light weapons underneath baggy comfortable clothing, Cellica and Ol began the final briefing as the ship is now entering the upper atmosphere of Olympus Prime, leaving behind layers of empty orbital rings.

'The plan would be to hear their plans in person.' Cellica continued as Ol pulled up a map of the open meeting place, 'this is also a time for both of us to examine each other's forces, which should form the backbone of the plan.'

'Should?' Zel pointed towards that particular word used by Cellica.

'It's not like I have Lady Lily's PI numbers on dial.....' Cellica said, looking back at Zel, 'unless you have a special lead?'

Most people in the group already knew about Lady Lily and Zel's night of strange passion way back before she decided to turn around and cut him open, and all of a sudden all of the eyes are focused on him. Zel almost felt his heart stop when Elmyra turned stiff in his arms and looked at him.

'No, no...I don't.' Zel said with hands raised up high before he turned to comfort Elmyra, 'for real...Cellica's joking...'

'It should make perfect sense that any action that required the movement of an entire planet is at the very least an artifact-level feat that will require the use of certain artifacts, which should form one of the reasons that Absolute Being wanted our help. We save the planet, and they get the press.' Cellica said, her tone returning to normal.

'I have reservations about the whole ordeal with public opinion gained by Senator Zender, or Zero, but...' Ol said, 'those concerns will have to come after saving the planet, or we are no different from Brakagi, or Absolute Being.'

'I agree.' Cellica continued, 'this is precisely why we will hear them out. They will obviously make the case for us to work together, but if we find that what they have suggested is what we could have done, then we will just go ahead and do it.'

'I have a question.' Alrith raised her hand like a kid, and Cellica nodded towards her, 'why can't we just figure something out?'

'...' Yeah, this makes perfect sense. The bearers have the most number of artifact users out of any other group, so why can't they figure something out like they have done before on Olympus 2?

'There are a few key hurdles that we cannot overcome.' Finally, Ol was the one to take the question, 'First, the position of Senator Zender in the senate as well as in Infinity gives him credibility and legitimacy that we simply cannot match, so if we just come out and do whatever we please, not only will the planet not be take our actions seriously, any slightest mistakes on our end could spell the end for us.'

'Secondly, Rydel can attest to this that the support network owned and ran by both Infinity and Absolute Being can make sure the plans are as close to being perfect as they can get, while we don't really have resources nearly to that extent.'

'Thirdly, building on the last point...I am a soldier, and we have an operative, a couple engineers, a biologist, a thief, a mechanic and whoever Valerie is. We just don't have the brains to simulate what needs to be done as quickly as Absolute Being.'

'Ouch.'

'Remember, we are merely there to hear their pitch.' Ol said, 'I don't want anyone that's trigger happy around here. All of us will be there, and Zel, Valerie and Torelamri will be in charge of any trigger happy ones on their ends. Cellica will be keeping a look out throughout the entire time, and Rydel and I can do the talking. Sounds good?'

The location that Absolute Being have chosen was towards the outskirts of the clusters of residential areas in the southern hemisphere of Olympus Prime. Those areas are known to be settled by the rich with estates that sometimes span thousands of acres. Absolute Being specifically reserved a large open land for the two to be meeting up with nothing but a simple table set up and endless grass all around it on top of a small slope.

They obviously remember all of the history between the two groups, so Ol actually respects Zero for making an effort to persuade the bearers that there are no alterior motives around there. As the bearers closes in on the coordinates offered by Lady Lily, further instructions are transmitted onto their ship as they gently touched down on a pad made of artificial turf that looked exactly like the real grass just outside of it.

'How are you feeling?' Zel asked, grabbing tightly onto Elmyra hand and feeling the warm coming from her palm.

Elmyra didn't say anything, instead she gently squeezes Zel's hand.

'Ready?' As the resolution of things on the ground become clearer and clearer, Rydel turend his head and looked towards Valerie, who gives him a wink. She is never afraid of any situations, and he knew that she will have this one under control too.

With a gentle thump, the ship finally touches down.

'I see them.; Cellica said through the communications channel, 'All four of the artifact users are there, no visual on absolutely anybody else.'

'Let's go then.' Ol instructed, as the bearers all stood up and headed towards the top of the hill where the upper echelon's of Absolute Being has been waiting.

The artificial grass was soft and soggy, but the real grass and the soft soil beneath it felt springy and elastic. As the bearers continued to march forward, Ol and Rydel took the lead in front while the rest formed into a small group right behind them.

'This feels oddly familiar, isn't it?' Rydel said with a smile, as he thought back to their conversation after the first stint of training just prior to Rydel heading back towards the Galactic IST, 'could you have imagined all of us here walking to meet that mysterious organization that you are so worried about?'

'I never thought all of this will happen.' Ol said, his eyes looking directly towards the top of the hill, as the shadow of the four from absolute being stood, 'things have truly gone crazy since then.'

'And it will go even crazier if we don't step in and act.'

'Welcome! Bearers!' Far out in the distance, Zero said with arms outreached to the side and a confident grin on his face, 'thank you for answering my call. Now, my fellow artifact users....LET'S TALK.'