Chapter 17 "Zack Kyota: Part II"

Chapter 17
Zack Kyota
Part II

[Knapp Mitsukai - Midnight]
[Logy Oib - Silent]
[Clear Dawn - Nova]
[Zack Kyota - Void]
[Jade Wolf - Gravity]
[Johnny Shiba - Atom]
[Skylar Lawrence - Starry]
[Ryu Mitsukai - Shadow]
[Tezuka Kejinto - Storm]

First Danielle and Sybil died. Then, Ryu nearly went blind because he was so angry at Double God for allowing their deaths that he used almost all of the power of aquila to seek him out.

And the Locker is still alive and hiding somewhere. Without any access to the United States Army’s computer system, it is nearly impossible to find him.

But thankfully there’s Clear… She managed to find the location of one of the Big Five’s bases in Bolivia, so the entire Dark Team, or rather, 5-U, has been called to the conference room. If it wasn’t for the reports and files that they received from Danielle shortly after she died, they would probably never find him.

Knapp’s head has clearly been in disarray. Lack of sleep, depression, stress, and having an infant and a toddler is really affecting him. He drops his head on the table.

“How about I lead this mission?” Zack offers, as he feels really sorry for the supposedly powerful and strong-headed leader of the Dark Team.

“No, no. I’m fine,” Knapp says tiredly as he gets up from the table. He takes a look at his smart tablet in his hand. “Alright, so Clear found the base that Big Five is actively using in Bolivia. “We will send two teams over there. The first team will be… um…” He starts stuttering as he is trying to get his thoughts together. “Uh, Tezuka, Jade, no, I mean… That can’t be right…”

“Seriously, why don’t you just take Zack’s offer and let him lead this mission?” Tezuka asks in impatience and annoyance, crossing his arms across his chest.

Knapp sighs as he buries his face into one of his hands. He cannot deny that he’s a mess right now. He almost did not recognize himself when he looked in the mirror this morning. The fire in his eyes is completely gone. Heavy bags under his eyes. He can hardly smile at all.

“They’re right. You’re not focusing at all,” Ryu says. The rest of the Dark Team mumbles, agreeing with both Ryu and Tezuka.

“Very well.” Knapp hesitantly hands the smart tablet to Zack. “Thank you, but I’ll stay here and listen.”

~*~

Knapp has been kicked out of the meeting room by both Clear and Zack who tell him to relax and focus on his kids. Just before the mission in Bolivia started.

“Ow!” He yelps as he bumps his head into a door frame but he manages not to drop Ketsu. 

He has been walking forth and back, desperately trying to get Ketsu to stop crying. He tried feeding, changing his diaper, burping, and even swadling him. But nothing has worked so far.

“Please, please…” Knapp pleads as he kneels down to the floor. He pulls Ketsu to his chest. “Just stop crying…”

I can’t do anything right at all. I should have told Danielle to come back to us. If she did, she would’ve still been alive. It’s my fault that Sybil died. I should have seen the signs but she kept saying she was fine. I should have…!

He opens his eyes to find Ketsu finally asleep in his arms. He smiles weakly. Thank Hikyou-sama.

“Hey, is everything ok?” Rosa asks after she slightly opens the door. She is Ryu’s girlfriend. They met in France a couple of years ago during one of Ryu’s missions. “Do you need help?”

“Y-yeah, please. I need to get some sleep,” Knapp says as he carefully hands Ketsu to Rosa. “Thank you. I really appreciate everything that you, Akane, and others did for me.”

“Oh, it’s no problem,” Rosa says cheerfully. “Go and get some sleep.”

~*~

Knapp ends up not being able to sleep at all. He keeps rolling over in his bed. He just cannot help but think about the mission in Bolivia. And most of all, He misses Sybil. Her gentle voice. Her warm hands. 

The bed feels too big. He needs… someone to sleep with. Just cuddling and nothing more. He starts to wonder if Logy is back from the mission and is still alive, then perhaps he can ask him if he wants to cuddle --

What the actual fuck? Knapp covers his face with his palm with a sound of light slapping. Why am I thinking about Logy at a time like that?

He hastily gets up from the bed and puts on his random shirt. He needs some serious distraction.

~*~

HEART OF THE FIFTH UNIVERSE

Knapp keeps his head on the top of his bent knees while he is hugging his legs to his chest tightly. He is sitting in the middle of a room that is painted with countless of white and black colors.

His tears have already run dry, but he does not feel like getting up at all. Instead, he is staring at the floor with a blank look in his dark eyes.

She died. Double God never gave any shit about her. All he cared about was the soul of the so-called Dark Angel being reincarnated.

That boy baby… isn’t… Knapp stomps his fist on the floor angrily. He remembers that Kawaii and Hikyou-sama were almost never on good terms. Is it because Kawaii made Knapp become the Universe Warrior… is it because of Hikyou-sama… is it the reason why Hikyou-sama chose Knapp’s own son to be reincarnated as Dark Angel… out of all people in this universe?

“What are you doing here?”

Knapp flinches at the sudden voice for a second. He shrugs his shoulders, “I honestly don’t know.”

“That idiot…” Kawaii grumbles. “He was supposed to close the portal.”

Is he talking about Double God? Knapp is about to ask out loud but decides against it. He realizes that Kawaii is not physically here at all. Basically his voice is coming from everywhere - even every corner. 

The form of the Fifth Universe is literally disappearing bit by bit. How long will it be before the entire universe gets annihilated? Why did he choose Knapp to be the Universe Warrior if this was going to be the end?

“Why did you choose me?”

“What do you mean?”

“Me… as the Universe Warrior.”

“I never chose you. You simply showed up out of nowhere.”

Knapp winces at Kawaii’s blunt words. Oh right, he was somehow sent to the future and was chosen by the future version of Kawaii. Now he will never know… not at least until… 

Oh wait, what year was that? Didn’t Kawaii from the future mention that Earth was no longer the same planet it used to be?

“Knapp… about the Dark Angel’s soul…” Kawaii hesitates, making Knapp raise his eyebrow in curiosity. 

“What about it?”

“It was my idea.”

Knapp hastily gets up from the floor. “What? What the hell do you mean?”

“I… I t-thought you wanted to… I mean…”

“He thought saving your baby would make you happy.” Hikyou calmly strolls by, leaving a few feathers behind.

Knapp looks away from Double God. He seems to be in deep thoughts but after a couple of minutes, he covers his face with his hand as he says, “It doesn’t mean anything if you can’t bring back Sybil.”

“...I’m sorry.”

“That was nothing he could do,” Hikyou says. “He did not mean to disregard Sybil but he still wanted to help you.”

“But you can, Hikyou-sama. You delayed Tezuka and Ryu’s deaths. Why didn’t you save Danielle and Sybil?!”

“That was what I was trying to tell Kawaii.” Hikyou gives a sigh. “But… I agreed with him that it was time to get a new Dark Angel. We don’t know how long the Earth will hold out… especially after I… I’m gone. With the new Dark Angel, he should be alive to keep Kawaii alive a little longer--”

“Shut up. Please… just stop talking.” Knapp covers his ears, shutting his dark brown eyes. “You’re making excuses. You don’t… You both don’t know how I’m feeling right now. Please… after everything we did… for you. Danielle was helping you out even before I became the Universe Warrior. Is this how you’re repaying us?”

Hikyou frowns but does not say another word. Neither does Kawaii.

“I.. I’ve been holding on to a very thin thread ever since Sybil died… I think if it snaps, then I will have a mental breakdown anytime soon…” Another set of new tears starts to come out of Knapp’s eyes. “And my heart will probably explode soon. I thought coming here would calm me down and help me to be distracted because staying in my room I used to share with Sybil was suffocating me, but you… you proved me wrong.”

He hastily leaves without giving Hikyou and Kawaii any chance to say something.

~*~

“Knapp, here you are!” Clear exclaims in panic as soon as Knapp comes through the entrance. “Hurry, come with me!”

As soon as they reach the bridge of the spaceship, Knapp can see that Zack is still on the radio. 

“What’s happening?” The Universe Warrior asks.

“Rin attacked the team except Logy and Jade, but they barely beat her. She… She said some really interesting things. Want to hear it?” Zack asks as he begins the recording.

“We merely fired a missile. It was the United States who declared war on the Asian countries in the first place. This proved that our leader has been right all along. Humans have been fighting each other for nothing… for the past thousands of years! They fight over petty things. Politics, religions, money, power, and hell, even food! What we need is to cleanse the world… by destroying humanity completely. With that way, we can rebuild a brand new world!”

“...What?” Knapp asks in surprise. “What the hell did she mean by a brand new world? Wasn’t…”

“We believe that Leon was manipulating his own allies. They believed that they would earn the right to live in ‘a brand new world.’” Zack answers.

“An hour later, Sky contacted us and said that Tezuka was hit and that Leon introduced himself as the leader of Big Five… and then… it went silent,” Clear says nervously. 

“What about Ryu?” Knapp asks.

“We tried to call him multiple times but his link seems to be completely cut off.”

“Shit! What the hell is happening? I… I can’t even do anything! Why…” Knapp takes a look at his own hand. Why am I so powerless?”

“No, you are not powerless,” Zack says. “Hell, you’re better at fighting than I am! You have us - the Dark Team… and the ones out there in the field will be ok! Clear is doing her best to reconnect them.”

“Got it!” Clear yells in excitement, as she grabs the handheld transmitter.  “5-U, are you there? Is everything ok?”

“It’s Atom h-here,” this time it is Johnny who is speaking. Instead of his usual laid-back tone, he sounds exhausted and a little shaky. “Silent found Leon’s location, so Gravity used his power to knock out everyone in the area. Storm and I went inside and found him, but… Shadow…”

“What happened?” Knapp asks nervously. He does not really like the way Johnny mentions Ryu.

“Shadow shot Leon. I swear, it was a perfect shot. But it reflected back and h-hit Shadow in the stomach. And then that Time Traveller showed up, and we got distracted by her… Storm suddenly got shot as well. And then, I had to blow up the entire building. I-I’m so sorry. I panicked.”

Ryu and Tezuka both got shot? Is that all? Knapp shakes his head. “Are they alive? What about others?”

“Yes - Starry was healing Shadow, who is in stable condition. He’s trying to heal Storm right now but… when I blew up the building, he had some kind of black barrier… I think that’s what saved him.”

“Is that Midnight? Should he be even talking to us?” Jade suddenly chirps in. “I mean, his girlfriend --”

“I’m fine,” Knapp says in annoyance. “What about Silent? Is he ok?”

“He is…” Johnny pauses briefly. “He is ok. Just minor injuries from the explosion. He was protecting Gravity with his own body. Never knew that his body was that tough.”

“I see..” Knapp mumbles, feeling a spark of jealousy in his chest but Logy was trying to help out, right?

“Glad to hear that nobody is dead!” Clear says almost jokingly. “We are coming to get you now!”

~*~

ONE AND HALF YEARS LATER

Ever since Tezuka and Ryu got the new powers of darkness and light, the entire Dark Team had been training like crazy. 

Of course, Leon disappeared once again. Clear had been cracking every computer system that she thought Leon could be related to with any information.

Kawaii’s presence has been shrinking and shrinking. Knapp tried to visit him a few times but the portal was closed, and he did not have any power to reopen it.

Katja and Ketsu have been growing to be healthy toddlers. With the Dark Team around, they are probably the strongest toddlers in the entire world because they played with them everyday. Sometimes they underestimated them because if one of the toddlers landed a hit on them, it hurt like hell.

“More, more!” Ketsu yells while using both his voice and sign language as he jumps up and down. Within a split second, he easily catches a blue ball.

“Wow, you’re really good!” Logy rolls his arm a little bit. He did throw it pretty hard and did not expect to pull muscle in his arm. 

“Yaaay! Throw, throw!”

Logy swiftly moves to the side so Ketsu misses him with the fast ball, which ends up crashing into the wall.

The deaf warrior slowly turns his head towards the wall to find a new hole. The ball is not even hard like a baseball, but… W-what a power! He sweatdrops nervously.

Ketsu laughs loudly as he points at the wall. “Hole!”

~*~

Soon, their playtime is over because Knapp has to get Logy while Ketsu and Katja are napping with Akane and Rosa watching over them.

It turns out that Clear has finally found Leon. He has been using a different name, Aaron Foley, one of the U.S. Generals. Clear has been narrowing down the names ever since Leon was ‘declared’ to be dead - killed in action.

Just after more than a year of Sybil’s death, Knapp has been looking much better and improving his mentality. He’s almost back to himself.

He is leading this mission this time. Clear has already hacked into the security cameras at the White House, so Knapp is sending two teams to Washington D.C., where Aaron is supposed to meet with the President of the United States. 

~*~

WASHINGTON D.C.

“We’re in the Silver House,” Jade whispers into his smart watch, referring to the White House. He and Logy are dressed up in nice black suits with sunglasses.

“My eyes are on you right now, Gravity,” Clear says.

Logy nods his head after reading Jade’s mind from what Clear said. He begins to close his eyes, just listening to every word from every person in the White House. All he needs is the name.

“I found him. He is in the oval office with the President,” He says in sign language to Jade after about fifteen minutes. They start walking pretty fast towards Aaron’s location.

Suddenly, they are stopped by a certain person who turns around the corner. The oval office is just a few feet away.

Hakai…! Logy reads Jade’s thoughts.

“What are you doing here?” Hakai asks. “Even a secret agent like yourself is not authorized to be here.”

“We apologize, sir. We must have taken the wrong way. We’re turning back,” Jade says, making sure to send his words into Logy’s head. Run now!

Logy does as soon as he retrieves Jade’s thoughts. As fast as he can before Hakai even thinks of using his power of exploding.

“Gravity times 10!” Jade yells both in haste and panic, stopping Hakai from lifting his hand to create an exploding orb.

Every person within the range has been pinned to the floor. No matter how hard they try, they can not lift a finger off the floor at all.

Except Logy, who manages to force himself to take a painful step. F-fuck, J-Jade doesn’t realize that I’m in his range. I wonder if he underestimated his own power or if he is too panicked…  I have to get out of here…! While he is still holding him down.

He briefly glances at the security camera at the top corner. He is silently hoping that Clear and Knapp are watching them and should be sending the message to Jade through his bluetooth ear plug anytime soon.

Suddenly, a small number of lightning bolts go through the hallway but they narrowly miss Logy. He turns back only to find that Jade has been knocked out.

Leon is standing outside the oval office, giving Logy a piercing stare. He remembers him perfectly. “You…!” He quickly points his palm at the deaf warrior, shooting chains out of it.

Thankful for his high speed due to being a Fantasian, Logy easily dodges every chain. 

“Hmm? The way you move… So that’s why my chains didn’t take your soul back then,” Leon smirks in realization. “You’re not from Earth… right?”

Logy scowls.

“It’s required to take a soul that was born in their home world to create chains. And your dear friend is the Universe Warrior… obviously I couldn’t take his soul either. This makes so much sense,” Leon places his hands together on his back. He lifts himself just a few inches above the floor. “However, it’s not your luck today. Hakai… Do it.”

Hakai is still on one of his knees when he creates a bright orb hovering above his hand.

Jade! Logy runs as fast as he can towards Jade.

Hakai grins widely as he quickly closes it into his fist. The orb inside his fist suddenly expands and expands.

~*~

“Gravity? Are you there?” Clear yells into the radio only to receive loud feedback. 

“Is everybody ok?! What happened?” Knapp asks.

They can hear Zack panting heavily as he responds, “We got caught up into… Gravity’s ability by accident. What’s going on…?”

“He got caught by Leon, but Silent managed to get away. We need to start now! Before Leon gets away! We have to capture him no matter what!”

No answer at all. Nothing. Not even a single sound.

“Damn…!” Knapp curses.

“What should we do?” Clear asks worriedly. “Should we go and get them --”

“Daddy, daddy!” Katja suddenly bursts into the communication room. She throws herself into Knapp’s embrace.

“What is it?” Knapp asks. He has never heard Katja’s shaky tone before. “What’s wrong?”

“Moon is falling!”

~*~

The moon did really fall. Jikan has been correct about the Fall of the Moon all along… except Earth was not destroyed.

Ryu and Tezuka somehow successfully summoned Double God by giving him the power of light and darkness. Hikyou had briefly appeared only to kick the Moon back to where it should be.

Even though Earth was saved, in return, they suffered a couple of great losses.

Zack was killed when he switched himself with Jade just in time Leon fired his pistol. 

Hikyou is gone. He has used up all of his remaining power during the Fall of the Moon.