Chapter 15 "Danielle Medina: Part II"
Chapter 15
Danielle Medina
Part II
[Knapp Mitsukai - Midnight]
[Sybil Magnus - Timeless]
[Danielle Medina - Forgotten]
[Logy Oib - Silent]
[Clear Dawn - Nova]
[Zack Kyota - Void]
[Jade Wolf - Gravity]
[Johnny Shiba - Atom]
[Skylar Lawrence - Starry]
TWO WEEKS BEFORE THE MISSION IN JAPAN
“Where is the Colonel? I have the report for him,” Danielle says as she waves her folder in front of a soldier who is sitting at the lone desk next to Colonel Alvarez’s office.
“He is out on duty today. I can hand it to him when he gets back,” the soldier says as he reaches out his hand for her.
“He has been gone for the past two days. Where has he been?” Danielle is getting irritated with the Colonel’s recent actions at this point.
“Ma’am, I don’t know. He said it’s supposed to be top secret or something.” The soldier shrugs his shoulders helplessly.
“I see… Thank you.” She rolls her eyes. Just as she hands the folder to the soldier, her eyes begin to glow up in a purple glow. She says quietly, “Forget that I was ever here today.”
The soldier’s head drops down a little bit as if he has been hypnotized.
She leaves the room with the folder still in her hand. She leans her back against the wall and looks up at the ceiling. She is rubbing her forehead in frustration.
Ever since Tezuka and Ryu joined us, the Colonel has been acting weird. What the hell is he up to? For the past ten years of working with him… She places her hand on her defeated face. I want… I want so badly to think that he’s the good guy who is fighting for our country… but…
She stops himself from thinking any further, as if she refuses to admit that she has been wrong about the Colonel. For ten fucking years.
After the mission in China, Zack was the one who brought up his suspicions of the Colonel.
“I know you wouldn’t like to hear this, but Colonel Alvarez wasn’t in his office for a few days but now he’s back… at the same time as Ryu, Tezuka, and Sky got back. Don’t you find this to be… more than just a coincidence?” Zack asked softly as if he was picking his words carefully.
“Oh, please. You’re just overreacting.” Danielle laughed lightly at him.
Then, the mission in France happened. Colonel Alvarez was gone for the second time.
And now this random mission in Japan… Danielle scowls at the idea of the Colonel betraying not only her but also the entire country and the Sunny Wing Squad. She is going to confront him when he gets back.
But if he is the Locker, then… If anyone sees her, they would notice an obvious conflicted look in her eyes. Should I say something to Zack… No… there’s no reason to get the Dark Team involved for now…
After sighing at her own thoughts, she leaves for her own office and spends her day working as usual.
~*~
PRESENT
“Colonel Alvarez is back,” Danielle says into her radio. “From what Midnight and Silent described, I can confirm that he is the Locker. The one who has been killing off Earth slowly with the chains…”
“Why do you sound like you got something that you need to do?” Clear asks through the radio.
“Because if we put him down, then the war will be stopped, right?”
“But the chains… You heard what Silent said. The Locker’s death won’t stop the Earth’s destruction.”
“Once the war ends, then we can all work together to destroy the chains. The Breaker has to be somewhere out there, right… ?”
“Forgotten --”
Danielle shuts off the radio before Clear is able to say anything that can possibly change her mind. She is determined to end the war. Not even anybody from the Dark Team can stop her.
She begins to ponder about whether to include Zack or not as they have been working together for several years now.
No way. She shakes her head. He is way too loyal to the Dark Team. He would’ve said something to them… or worse, try to stop me.
She pushes the radio aside a little bit and starts typing an email on her work laptop. When she finishes it, she is about to push an Enter button to send out the email but hesitates to. Once it goes through, encrypted or not, she will have a few hours left until someone gets wind of it within an information technology team.
She takes her hair tie off, letting her hair down from her usual hair bun. She takes her finger away from the keyboard, her shoulders slumped in defeat. If she is going to do this, then there is no turning back for sure.
And she is not going to put anybody in danger. Not even her own team of the strongest soldiers.
She gets up from her office desk and walks over to a bookshelf. She puts her arm between thick textbooks until she is able to get a black box.
She opens the box, which reveals a simple handgun. It’s time to end this.
~*~
“Come in,” Colonel Alvarez says, his eyes still glued to his computer monitor after hearing knocks on his door.
As soon as the door opens, he begins to realize that he hasn’t heard his assistant yet. He looks up to find Danielle quietly closing the door only to spot his assistant with his head down on his own desk. “What did you do to him?”
“I just made him forget that I was ever here…” Danielle says as she fully shuts the door. “For probably the tenth time so far.”
“What are you doing, First Lieutenant Medina?”
“It’s been you. This entire time.” She turns to him with her hands behind.
“What are you talking about?” The Colonel cannot help but display a tiny smirk on his face.
“The Locker. The one who started the war in the first place. Deceived every one of us. Killed and took countless amounts of souls. All for your own sake… to create the chains.”
Leon runs his hand through his grey hair as he chuckles lightly. “What do you mean? Do you know what will happen once you attack me? Won’t they suspect you as a traitor?”
“That’s fine.”
That annoying smirk on his old and wrinkled face fades away.
“As long as it ends the war. I don’t care if I end up in prison.” Danielle takes out her handgun and then points it at her long-time comrade. “I trusted you. How dare you take advantage of that?!”
Leon calmly leans back into his large chair and begins to shake his head in disappointment. “Oh, Medina, Medina… Back then when you were hired by the defense department. Do you know why I chose you… just a barely newbie compared to everyone else who was more qualified and fit for your position?”
Because of my power. Danielle remains glaring at him, not even putting down her weapon yet.
Leon gets up from his chair, as if he is not in any danger of getting shot. “You know, it’s really shameful that we’re going to lose that rare forgetting power of yours. You would have done great things for the country.”
“Shut up!” She yells, tightening his grip on her handgun. “You founded this squad so we could investigate who started the war. How… What… Did you seriously think you would’ve fooled --”
“Double God? The Breaker? Or… Universe Warrior?”
Danielle flinches at the mention of Universe Warrior.
“I knew he would come here. I knew his younger brother would be in this squad. That’s exactly why I locked this planet. Here’s the deal… if you don’t want to die right now, all you need to do is to tell me the location of either the Heart or the Universe Warrior.”
“Y-you…!” Danielle’s rage begins to fill up her trembling body. Does he not realize that I’m about to shoot him whenever I can? Why is he… asking such stupid questions that could get himself killed?
“Alright, maybe this will change your mind…”
The First Lieutenant raises an eyebrow.
Leon continues, “Whatever happens in this room… Tezuka and Skylar… I’ll make sure that they’re dead as well… once they’re in Japan. Unless you agree to put away your weapon and work with me, I have my own team in Japan, awaiting my order to kill. As for Ryu, we will find him eventually.”
He knew this would happen… But how? Is it because of the Time Traveller? And… Danielle has not taken her eyes off the Colonel yet. Is he even aware that he is about to die as well?
“You have a choice. Shoot and die… or work with me and live,” Leon says as he opens his arms.
“Are you even seeing what kind of situation we are in right now?” Danielle snaps. “I know you have the powers of lightning, hawk, and chains. But you’re not immune to bullets.”
“You’re right.” Leon smirks. “Go ahead and kill me. If you dare to. Remember there will be consequences for you afterwards.”
Just as he makes a step, Danielle quickly pulls the trigger of her handgun. Within a split second, she realizes that at the moment the flying bullet hits an invisible barrier in front of Leon only to get reflected back to her.
She quickly jumps to her left side but the flying bullet manages to glaze her right upper arm. Is… Is that a reflect energy?! How long has it been up?
Suddenly, a set of chains wrap around her body fast. It then pulls her soul right out of her body. Easily.
Leon’s smirk never goes away while the whole thing is unfolding in front of his eyes. His right open palm is pointing at her with the chains hanging out while his left hand is in his pocket.
Danielle turns her head towards her lifeless body on the floor with a frightened look on her face.
“You lose.” The Locker says ominously.
They are the last two words before Danielle gets pulled all the way into the sky.
~*~
Zack is staring at his computer monitor in disbelief. What he is looking is a new email message in his inbox:
From: 1st Lt. Danielle Medina
To:
CC:
Subject Line: [Auto-Message] [Encrypted] GOODBYE.
My comrades,
It’s been such wonderful working with all of you. As you see, you’re probably wondering why I’m saying goodbye in the subject line. It’s because when you’re reading this message, I’m already dead.
When I first joined this squad, my only one mission was to investigate who or what started the Nuclear War that tore apart our country. I truly hoped that if we could find the source, then we would end the war and have peace or be friends with other countries. But it was no longer the case. For decades, the countries in our world lost trust in each other.
The person who was puppetting every one of us. Every one of our foes. Every one of our allies. It’s Colonel Leon Alvarez. He is the traitor who founded this squad only so he could force us to fight and kill each other. The only things he wanted were…
Power. Destruction. Revenge.
If I failed to kill him, then it’s up to you to stop him. If it is not possible, then run. One day… The Breaker will stop him and end the war.
I’m so disappointed that I won’t be there to see world peace in my lifetime… But thank you all for the memories. Thank you for protecting and serving our country. I will miss you so much.
It… It’s over… Zack knows it. But somewhere deep in his heart, he is in denial… that she’s completely gone. He places his palm on his face for a couple of minutes.
When he first started working with Danielle back then, one of the first things that she told him in private was that the exact moment her heart stopped, an email message would be automatically sent out to everyone in the Sunny Wing Squad. That means it will be chaotic pretty soon.
But first… I gotta get the hell out of here… Zack hastily gets up. He grabs a handheld transceiver and turns it on at the same time. “5-U, 1-53.”
Not even a second has passed when he hears a few people running through the hallway just outside his own office and yelling frantically like:
“Colonel Alvarez is still in his office, right?”
“Where is First Lieutenant Medina?!”
“Is she with the traitor…?!”
“What happened?”
Time to go! Zack hurriedly opens the door just in time to see Leon sending chains to capture every soldier’s soul. Shit! Is he seriously going to kill everyone in this building?
“Switch!” He is not in the hallway anymore. In an instant, he is in a staircase close to the exit door. He has switched with a fire extinguisher. Thankfully, he remembered most of the objects in the building since he had been working at this place for years.
As soon as he gets out of the office building, he says into his transceiver, “5-U! Did you get my message?”
“On my way!” comes Clear’s voice, to Zack’s relief. “Is Forgotten with you?”
“N-no…” He almost chokes up but takes a moment to calm down. He can see that his own hand is shaking. Fear? Adrenaline? Or both? “She… The Locker got to her first. He… He took everyone’s souls, I think.”
“That son of a bitch…”
About fifteen minutes of running as far as possible away from the office building, Zack finally spots a familiar small helicopter hovering close to the ground.
“Are you ok? Are you hurt?” Clear asks worriedly as the helicopter quickly takes off into the sky.
“I’m fine. If it wasn’t for Danielle’s email, I would never have known that the Locker was coming after all of us.”
“I know. We got all the files and reports from her as soon as she died. Knapp sent me to get everyone… so we’re safe and far away from the Locker,” The female navigator hands a smart tablet to Zack. “We’re heading for Japan to pick up Ryu, Tezuka, and Sky. We have a few hours to regroup.”
“...Even the General is dead?” Zack asks in surprise after reading one of the reports.
“Who?”
“Tezuka’s father. Starke Kejinto,” Zack says as he shakes his head. “He worked with us before. Two or three times. He did ask us how Tezuka was doing… so I think it was just his excuse to get some information about his son from us.”
“...Dammit… How many more people will the Locker go so far to kill?” Clear asks angrily.
Zack glances back at the tablet to go through the files. He honestly doesn’t want to know.