Chapter 11 - Redemption

About an hour after the arrest, dozens of heavily armed soldiers are seen accompanying an unconscious Courtney, as she is immediately taken to a military base. She's then seen being taken into a massive, heavily locked gate, leading to what seems to be a built-in prison, as a wide hallway filled with cells can be seen. The gate then shuts tight, to never be opened again...

The general is then seen as he enters the military base as well, into a more modern looking building for the high ranks. Accompanied by dozens of heavily armed guards, before entering another massive, but special, heavily guarded door somewhere in the building.

The general enters a seemingly empty, but fancy looking room, which looks like some sort of meeting room, only containing a long table and lots of office chairs.

The general sits in one of them, when suddenly, a bunch of holograms of what seems to be high-ranking officials spawn on each chair, it looks to be a hologram-casted meeting,

"Ahh, General Magni, you're here!"

One of the officials say, as the general only scoffs and looks away,

"Congratulations on finally arresting such a dangerous criminal, we are already making plans on what to do with her at the moment."

They say with an enthusiastic tone as they sit there, as the general continues to act pissed off, as if he's like the angsty teen in the family dinner.

"Y'know, for the World Government, you guys aren't very serious."

The general tells the officials with an angry tone, as he fixes his seating position to a more comfortable one,

"Hohoho, of course we are... As such high-ranking officials, we want to stay respected, we also don't want our people to fear us, we want them to love us! As fear will only make them build up negativity against us, leading to a possible revolution."

The reply with calm, honest smiles, which only pisses off the general even more at how nice they always are,

"Jesus... What's the point of having such high ranks when you can't even show it off! Make the people fear you, work under you as you rule at the top of the world. Isn't that the point!? Such powerful positions, and you guys aren't even taking advantage of it!"

The general shouts at them, as the room suddenly goes silent. The mood immediately shifts as the officials switch to a more serious face,

"We do not like that attitude, general, are you disrespecting us?"

They officials tell the general with low, serious tones, an extremely sudden shift from their cheerful tones just a moment ago, as the general quickly freezes in fear,

"N-n-no, sir... I was just saying-"

The nervous general tries to speak, but gets cut off as one of the officials get up and continue scolding him,

"Unless you do not want your position to be taken away, or worse, to be executed, you are to stay silent, or to at least stop disrespecting us. And make sure to get rid of that nasty behavior before we actually go and find another person to replace you."

They say with serious, stern tones as they continue to scold the general,

"Y-y-y-yes, sir-sirs..."

The general could only stutter in fear as he hides in his chair, as all the officials quickly shift back to their usual faces,

"coughs So anyway, what's the plan, people?"

The officials all continue their meeting as usual, while the general continues to sit in his chair, sighing deeply in annoyance before quickly going back to his usual demeanor.

Meanwhile, a few hours since the Fallis City Incident, and the arrest of Courtney Magni, Gavin has been running nonstop, sad, hurt and broken after seeing all of that go down.

Eventually, he ends up in a small town nearby. He walks past a TV shop and sees the news on one of the TVs,

"With the immediate announcement of The Solar Phoenix's arrest just a few hours ago, the public is now in shock, also in rejoice as such a dangerous criminal that has terrorized the world for over 15 years, has finally been apprehended."

The new explains as Gavin watches, he then goes back to sobbing and crying severely as he runs away, not wanting to even hear anything about Courtney right now.

Eventually, Gavin arrives at a small hotel nearby. He quickly gets himself a room, as he jumps straight into the bed to continue bawling his eyes out, mourning over his girlfriend as he thinks about the events a few hours ago.

"God dammit, I'm useless..."

Gavin says to himself with a cracked, strained voice as he continues sobbing, punching the bed as he buries his face into the pillow, screaming and shouting silently as he crashes out.

"Why didn't I do anything?... Right, I'm too weak... Too f-fucking weak."

He continues to degrade and hate himself due to his disappointment in himself.

"Gavin..."

Gavin suddenly hears a dreamy voice out of nowhere, causing to snap out of his tantrum, as he immediately stops crying and gets up, wondering where that voice is coming from,

"What the... What is that? Who are you?"

Gavin asks the voice in confusion as he looks around, wondering what's going on, when the room around him suddenly changes into a familiar place, and Courtney is right beside him on the bed...

"Wha- C-Courtney...?"

Gavin says in a confused tone as Courtney sits there with a smile. Gavin quickly gets away as he's in shock, but he then looks closer, as he moves closer, before rushing over to Courtney as he then gives her a tight hug,

"There there..."

Courtney says to him in her soft, dreamy voice as she holds Gavin, caressing his head as Gavin begins to cry, holding onto her desperately,

"Courtney, I'm sorry I failed to save you..."

Gavin sobs as he buries his face into her chest, crying softly as Courtney continues to hold him in her arms,

"Shhh, it's okay, baby, don't cry..."

Courtney shushes Gavin gently as she continues lovingly caressing him, as Gavin slowly calms down,

"Remember what you promised me?"

Courtney asks Gavin, as he then looks up at her with a confused look,

"W-what?"

He asks in confusion, as Courtney only giggles at how adorable he is when confused,

"Oh, you poor thing..."

Courtney says with a chuckle as she wipes off Gavin's remaining tears from his face,

"You always said you'd protect me with all you got, and you'd save me whenever you can, right?"

She says with a smile as she continues caressing Gavin in her arms, staring into his eyes as she did,

"Y-you're right... I-I did..."

Gavin says in a low tone as he looks away,

"I'm sorry that I failed to protect you, Courtney... I'm a failure..."

He says, continuing to be disappointed in himself that he failed to do this promised task,

"Oh, baby... Don't be so down, it's okay."

Courtney sighs as she tries to cheer Gavin up, redirecting his gaze back to hers as she smiles at him,

"You were always so cheerful, I loved that about you, you kept saying you were strong, and you wanted to get stronger..."

She explains with a chuckle,

"You were so adorable!"

She says with a big smile, giggling, as Gavin looks up at her, his eyes shining with a sense of motivation, as he continues to enjoy the false presence of Courtney, feeling her warmth in his arms, as the love of his life tries to cheer him back up.

"Listen, Gavin, you might say you aren't... but you are strong, but just because you are strong doesn't mean you can always protect me..."

Courtney explains as she continues to caress Gavin as she holds him close,

"B-but-"

Gavin tries to speak against her, but Courtney only shushes him,

"Shhhh... Just don't worry for now, alright? There's always next time for everything... And besides, I'm completely fine, see?"

She says with a smile as she quickly heals her injury in the memory, before quickly acting playful

"Y-yeah, you're right..."

Gavin says with a sigh, as he looks down once again, still disappointed in himself, as Courtney sighs as well, before pulling him in for another tight little hug, causing Gavin to tear up once again,

"Listen, Gavin... You may not always be able to protect me, but I know that you'll always find a way to save me, like you did all those times... when we first met."

Courtney tells Gavin one more time, as Gavin suddenly feels her start to fade away,

"C-Courtney..."

Gavin says, as he begins to cry again, as Courtney continues to slowly fade out,

"No! Courtney, don't go yet! Courtney!"

Gavin calls out for Courtney once more, as she only smiles at him lovingly,

"I'm sorry, my love..."

Courtney could only reply with a heartbroken face. A tear runs down her eye, when Gavin suddenly pulls her in for one more hug,

"I love you, Courtney... So, so much..."

Gavin says to Courtney as he cries, pulling her into him and holding her in his arms desperately, burying his face into her chest as he sobs, as Courtney holds him close as well, smiling as she kisses his neck softly,

"I love you too, Gavin, more than you'll ever know..."

Courtney says back, as the two separate, before moving in closer once more for one last kiss, as the mirage slowly fades away...

Gavin then wakes up, as he quickly sits up to see that he's back in the hotel room, he looks around to find where Courtney went, as he then sighs in disappointment once again as he remembers that she's not here anymore.

"No..."

Gavin says as he gets up from the bed, taking a deep breath as he puts on a serious, motivated face of determination as he goes over into the bathroom, splashing his face with water before resting on the sink as he then stares at himself in the mirror,

"This isn't what she'd want me to do..."

Gavin says as he grips his hands on the sink, gritting his teeth as he once again thinks about what happened in the events that occurred a few hours ago. He thinks about how Courtney was captured, and he was unable to do anything...

"I'm... I'm gonna get stronger for you... I promise that, Courtney... And when I do, I'll break you out of there and we'll live happily ever after!"

Gavin declares, as he gets off the bed, turns on the hotel room's TV and checks the news. He then sees that there still doesn't seem to be any news about Courtney for now.

He then runs outside, as he begins his training arc... His redemption arc, to go and prepare himself, so he could soon, finally rescue his one true love... To rescue Courtney!

Meanwhile, in the military base where Courtney is kept, she is seen in a dark room in the depths of the base, where other dangerous criminals and prisoners are being kept.

She's currently chained up using "power restriction chains", which are chains made up of a rare material called Arcanyte, which is an extremely strong and durable metal that has a unique attribute, to cancel any sort of superhuman or supernatural ability, basically power-cancellation.

Courtney is then seen waking up, as she looks around, wondering where she is,

"What the... Where the hell am I?"

Courtney says to herself as she continues looking around.

She then sees that she's been shackled and chained up. She tries to break free and move around but fails miserably, as she only exhausts herself instead.

She can tell from the chains and from the recent events that she has been captured and is currently being imprisoned by the military, obviously. She continues trying to look around for a way to escape, when suddenly, a loud crash can be heard through the long, dark hall, seeming to come from a metal gate opening and closing shut, as heavy footsteps can be heard walking towards her cell. Courtney starts to panic as she tries to struggle and break free once again, but once again fails.

Eventually, the footsteps stop, as a man stands in front of her cell door, the cool door opens as the man walks in, Courtney looks up to see that it is indeed who she imagined it to be, the lava general.

He stands there, laughing and mocking the girl as she stays there, chained up and helpless,

"Heh, look at you, running away from home... And now this! A criminal... Even better reason for me to kill you now, and I will."

The general says with an evil laugh, as he then grabs her face, squeezing it by her cheeks, before letting go aggressively, he then circles around her as he quickly begins to check her out,

"Y'know, Courtney, I've missed you... You were gone for so long, I was so long, and here you are, back in my custody... Hehehe... Get it? It's a family joke, c'mon!"

The general says with a playful, arrogant attitude as he jokes around, laughing, while Courtney only sits there with disgust and annoyance,

"Shut the fuck up"

Courtney says straight to the point with an angry tone, as the general growls, gritting his teeth angrily at her attitude,

"How DARE you speak to me that way!"

He yells as he turns his fist into lava, before stamping it against her back, causing her to scream in pain as the general only laughs, enjoying the sight of her pain and misery,

"Hehehe... You did this to yourself, girl, I'm gonna have so much fun with you..."

The lava general says as he licks his lips out of bloodlust, ready to let out all of his pent up anger for her over the years to her, all at once, as the scene fades out from Courtney's cell, the sounds of heavy hits, and screams of pain being the last sounds to be heard...