Alex – Heart Of The Vanguard

--- 3 days prior, before Alex reawoke---

__________*_Wrex_*__________

Near Ábær, Iceland, Tues 18th Jan '22 21:55

I watched as Alex's form twisted, contorted and spasmed in unnatural ways as she was lifted off the floor, slowly being enveloped in red and purple light and lifted from the ground. I stepped back, we all did, even Skylen and the other SkyTech, watching in awe and simultaneous fear, not that I wanted to, I wanted to grab her, pull her away from what ever was happening, I had already lost her once today, but this was beyond terrifying to watch. The orb of light that Alex was now completely engulfed in raised up about ten feet in the air and started humming, gradually increasing in volume and intensity, even causing vibrations deep inside my gut. The sound was getting towards the point of being unbearable and my vision could no longer polarise to cope with the intensity of the light when suddenly a pulse blew everyone back off their feet, head over heals. I pulled my head up from the ground with a groan and looked up.

A humanoid figure glowed, hovering in the air at the same spot where the orb just was. Armour slid and sheeted over the figure as they lowered to the ground. Piece by piece glided over the top of one another with audible latching sounds, blocking out the light being emitted until the whole figure was entirely covered in an armour that was similar to Alex's and my own. But the figure still had a glowing red and purple aura around her, then she spoke, with dual tone to her voice, a mix of Alex's and someone else's that sounded familiar to me yet almost sounding demonic and also seemed to echo some how around this almost completely flat plain of land as she slowly floated down and landed back silently on the ground.

"The betrayal of my own flesh and blood deminishes to nothing but a painful memory. An eternity of imprisonment... The key to my freedom... Dropped within my reach... finally the caged has been unlocked... And I take my steps into a world unknowingly eager for my return!"

C09 snarled and rushed her, she held out her hand and he stopped mid stride, just inches from her outstretched hand. He squirmed, his previous unfaltering attitude now changed to that of a scared child, whimpering as he was unable to break free of the invisible hold around him. She took a step closer to him and placed her hand on his snout. Immediately C09 started whimpering in pain, squealing from his sealed lips and his skin visibly started smoking all, over his body.

"How... Comical... That your first instinct is to attack the unknown..." The voice echoed on from inside the helmet. B51 then pulled up his 50 cal weapons and aimed them and the entity to try and assist C09. He fired and the rounds merely halted in mid air, a foot from the entity and upon realising, stopped firing. The entity looked at B51 and casually waved the rounds back at him, they flipped and full speed, ripped through B51, tearing him to shreds, what was left of him after the 50 caliber rounds had torn through him simply slumped to the floor. She turned her attention back to C09 who had gone silent in that time and literal flames of red and purple tore out through his skin, licking through any gaps in his lips, nostrils and even his eye sockets, incinerating him in seconds until there was nothing left of him but ash as it fell to the floor. Skylen was now visibly fearful, quickly opened a Jump and ran through, leaving Jinx nearby to try and scurry after him but the portal closed before she ever got close enough. The entity noticed her movement though and made a motion of flipping her hand, palm up, and partially closed her clawed fingers, as if she had picked something up. Quickly Jinx's scurrying action turned into a desperate act to stay away, as she was dragged backwards by seemingly nothing but air.

Jinx: "No no no no no no... Please please!"

Wrex: "She's defenceless, she hasn't attacked you! Leave her alone!"

The entity shot a look at me, then turned back to Jinx who had arrived at her feet, now on her back, trying to protect her already injured arm as well.

Jinx: "Please, please don't do this." She begged the entity as it stretched a clawed hand down towards Jinx...

Wrex: "Hey!" I fired a small round of plasma at her, the ball just seemed to dissolve in mid air, dispersing around the figure. The entity didn't appreciate this act of aggression though and sent an invisible wave toward me, knocking me flying backwards and I landed hard on the floor further behind me. Again she turned back to Jinx, claws outstretched, but suddenly as if something invisible had hit the entity around the face, she almost lost her balance, stumbling to one side. She shook her head and her stance seemed to relax somewhat. Now she stretched out her palm instead of her claws to Jinx, touching her on the forehead. Jinx gave a momentary scream before grabbing her head with her good hand and collapsing.

The entity straightened her self back up, just as I fired another ball of plasma at her, this time it bounced harmlessly off of her armour but still pissed her off as she looked to the source with menacing movement. She took a step towards me and so I charged and fired again, again the round impacted, not leaving a mark. But before I could take another shot, she looked as though she was hit round the head by something invisible again causing her to stumble backwards. She shook her head again, regained her composure and stepped onward again toward me. She made it another three steps, just as I was about to charge a larger shot to fire again but instead she grabbed a hold of her helmet with both hands, fell to her knees and screamed in pain, in a voice that sounded closer to Alex's, "Noooo! Not him! Arghhh! *Screech*" Then collapsed on the spot, seemingly unconscious on the floor.

Wrex: "Errr... What?" I asked more to myself, confused as to what just happened.

Sora: "Wrex!" I looked to Sora who was crouched on the floor down the edge of a small bank, giving me a beckoning look. I walked hastily towards her, gazing and checking the entity's body for movement but it remained still so I returned my attention to Sora. I saw she was crouched by Sarah... who looked in a bad way, her right arm severely burnt, blackened and cracked with a deep red within the cracks.

Wrex: "Shit!, what happened?"

Sora: "She grabbed the Shard with her bare hand, tried to repower Alex's suit..."

Wrex: "Where is Alex?"

Sora: "I don't know..."

Wrex: "WHERE?!"

Sora: "I said I don't know! You saw it yourself! One moment she's there then she's replaced with that... Thing!..." She pointed off to the entity that was still motionless on the floor. "...And why did it sound like Crystal?!"

Wrex: "What Crystal?"

Sora: "THEE Crystal! It sounded like the AI from Alex's armour!"

Wrex: "It did? I thought it sounded like someone else."

Sora: "Like who?"

Wrex: "I don't know, I can't place it." I looked back to the unconscious Sarah, my HUD analysed her, severe burns to right arm, upper right torso, shoulder and neck area, radiation poisoning, shock...

Wrex: "We need to get her to the hospital."

Sora: "Yeah? No shit. How do we go about doing that? Just stroll into accident and emergency? I know I can but disguise myself but-"

Wrex: "Hold on I'm thinking... We need help, someone that Sarah knows but- Whoa..."

My HUD started scanning through a list, and picked out a number, 'Richard Jarvie - Uncle'.

Sora: "What?" 

Wrex: "My suit picked out a number. A relative-"

Jinx jumped up, taking in a deep gasping breath.

Jinx: "Arrghh!... Grrr... Fuck! My head!..." She exclaimed, smearing her face with her good hand, she looked over to us. "...I am soo sorry!"

Wrex: "What for?"

Jinx: "Attacking you all, it was weird, like I knew what I had to do because I was ordered to. But had I known what I was actually doing and remembered everyth-... Oh my god!" She said screwing her face up.

Wrex: "What is it?"

Jinx: "I remember... I remember everything! I actually was Human! Alex was right! Like, I think I knew before in the prison, but I ACTUALLY was! Oh my god!"

Wrex: "Ok, keep your cool, slow and deep breaths, alright, keep calm, I'll see to you in a minute, got a medical emergency here so I gotta make a call, ok?"

She nodded so I stepped away and made my Suit call the number it had found. It rang six times before someone finally answered with a gruff voice.

Richard: "This had better be important, I not long got into bed."

Wrex: "Sorry to disturb you at this hour, sir. My name is Wrex."

Richard: "Wrex? What kind of name is that? You had better not be trying to sell me something at this time of night."

Wrex: "No sir, it's a family emergency, are you familiar with Sarah Jarvie?"

Richard: "The stuck up niece that thinks she's too good for the rest of her blood line? Yeah I know her. What's wrong?"

Wrex: "Well sir, she's injured, potentially fatally... It's kind of a complicated situation... and we really need help."

__________

Flugstöð Þórunnar Hyrnu (local airstrip), Wed 19th Jan '22 00:14

As soon as Richard had agreed to help he insisted on having Sarah taken for immediate medical treatment to be stabilised before she was moved again. So she was wisped away in an ambulance under the watchful eye of Sora, disguised in her Human form of course, leaving myself and Jinx alone with this new entity's body, hidden out of sight until the ambulance left. We had checked the entity's body over visually but other than that we had no clue whether she was alive or not, we couldn't open the armour and my scans couldn't penetrate the armour either. All I could get from it that it was swimming in the Shard's energy so I decided to take her with us. Richard had directed us to a nearby airstrip, 'Flugstöð Þórunnar Hyrnu' to be precise... and I thought some English words were hard to pronounce... Draconian was so much easier.

After we told him what exactly we were I don't think he believed us, but assured me that we would be unmet once we arrived by anyone other than himself. So while we waited for a short while to meet Richard face to face, Jinx and I had some time to set the bone in her arm, which she was not thankful at all for...

Jinx: "ARRGGHH!... YOOUU... mother..." she screamed me, clawing at the ground with her good hand.

Me: "Sorry... had to be done."

Jinx: "Gah... I know... Just never had a broken bone before."

I just had to hope I could find something to support or at least sling it soon, but I just told her to support it for now. After she had calmed down, she told me about some more about herself, her life before the change and after with Alex as well, poor girl. I couldn't imagine my life being completely changed to something so alien, it would be like me being made Human and told to live a normal life, yet she seemed to be dealing with it rather well.

__________

03:34

A small private jet landed on the airstrip, the tail registration showed me on my HUD that it belonged to Richard Jarvie, so we proceeded down to meet plane, carrying the body of this entity in my arms, oddly sedate compared to a few hours ago, but I remained cautious. I had opened my faceplates so as to be polite as the side door of the plane of opened and steps folded down, an elder, well trimmed gentleman with slick backed grey hair appeared at the door and visually looked shocked and taken aback upon seeing us walk towards him.

Richard: "Bloody hell... You really were not joking were you?"

Wrex: "No sir, I did warn you. Will this be a problem?"

Richard: "Well... No... It's just not every day you meet a real Dragon. You must be Wrex I take it?"

Wrex: "Indeed sir I am. Thank you for doing this."

Richard: "*Inherent Grumble*... Don't mention it... Come on, climb aboard. I'd rather not be sat round here with you stood about outside my door in full view longer than necessary." He stood aside and beckoned us with a waving hand. We climbed aboard into the luxurious cabin and I gently set the entity down in a one of the comfy looking arm chairs that lined each side.

Richard: "Erm... She's not dead is she? I'd rather not be shipping bodies over international borders."

Wrex: "To be completely honest with you, I don't know, she's been like this for a few hours now, before that we've never seen her before, but we can't open up the armour and we can't get any reading on what's inside, this is all very complicated so I'm sorry."

Richard: "I see... it's just bad enough that I'm transporting live Dragons across international waters with no passports, let alone dead... what ever she is."

Wrex: "Where are we going to out of interest?"

Richard: "My home in Aberdeenshire, it's large enough to accommodate you for the time being, until you find your feet. But I'm afraid I can't house you forever."

Wrex: "That won't be a problem, we just need somewhere safe to lay low for a few days, maximum of a week I'd say, plan our next move, then we'll be out of your way. Do you have a first aid kit? Or something I can use as a sling? and something I can use to tend to a burn? I need to see to her arm." I gestured towards Jinx.

Richard: "Good. And yes, in the cabinet up the end on the left hand side. I'll tell the pilot to take off, it's about a three hour flight so you'll have plenty of time to fill me in."

Wrex: "What about Sarah?"

Richard: "I've already put a word in to the hospital she's gone to and the authorities here, she will be well looked after. And once stable I will have her collected and brought to the UK. Now if you'll excuse me." He headed towards the front of the plane to the cockpit. Jinx sat in the luxury leather seat opposite side of the aisle to the entity while I grabbed the first aid kit and walked back to her.

Jinx: "Do you think it's her in there? Alex?" I glanced over to the motionless form on the opposite side of the plane as I settled down next to Jinx and opened the kit and the packet containing the sling.

Wrex: "I don't know... I really don't... Alex was there... then she wasn't and this took her place. But as you know, although she sounded similar she looks nothing like her."

Jinx: "Did you know her well?" I paused as I set up the sling.

Wrex: "I would say we were close, got really close in such a short amount of time actually... But it would have been nice to get to know her properly."

Jinx: "Oh... You, err... liked her then?"

Wrex: "Yeah, you could say that..." There was antiseptic spray and a gauze wrap in the kit, "...Get ready, this is going to sting." I sprayed the hand print burn and she hissed and writhed in her seat.

Jinx: "Grrr… you... mother fucker..."

Wrex: "I warned you." I gently placed the gauze on her arm and started bandaging it up then hooped the sling around her neck and gently under her arm, just as the jet engines started spooling up and we started moving. The rest of the trip was rather uneventful, Richard came back and insisted on wanting to know everything. So I told him as much as was relevant and the basics about the Dragons and the Vanguard and Sarah's involvement, I felt he kind of had a right to know for helping us. I'm also sure that Jinx seemed to be just as interested to learn about the origins of the world she was reborn into as much as Richard was.

__________

06:17

We landed at Aberdeen International Airport, where ground crews, once the plane was secured and parked ground crews were ordered to leave the area around the plane, so we could make it to a waiting vehicle, hopefully unseen. I wasn't sure exactly what Richard's position was, but he certainly seemed to have some pull. Once we were given the all clear we hastily made our way to a waiting completely blacked out Range Rover outside, just beyond the steps, piling into the open trunk which already had the back seats dropped, Richard had obviously said it was going to be picking up a large load, so we made ourselves comfy as possible on the flat floor of the extended trunk, laying the entity down between us. I looked to the front of the car to see a very nervous looking chauffeur looking back to me in the rear view mirror. Richard then jumped into the front passenger seat and tapped him on the upper arm with the back of his hand.

Richard: "Hey, remember what you were told. Start driving."

Chauffeur: "Yes sir. Apologies sir."

He started the car and made his way out of the airport. Even at the barrier, at passport control he was waved on past without being checked and the gate was opened.

__________

Benthoul, Aberdeenshire, UK, 06:50

It was only a 30 minute drive to his house. We pulled up to the garage door which opened automatically.

Richard: "That will do Anthony, I'll take it from here thank you and remember what we discussed. Go home."

Chauffeur: "Of course, sir." And he put it into park and stepped out along with Richard who then rounded the car and got into the driver's seat and pulled the SUV forward into the garage, the automatic garage door closing behind us. The trunk lid electronically opened.

Richard: "You are free to roam around this East wing of this house, there are a couple of guest rooms, a shared bathroom and a small kitchen to yourselves. I have instructed my staff not to enter this wing so you won't be disturbed by anyone except maybe myself or the chauffeur you just met. My only demand is that... 'that'..." He pointed over the shoulder of the seat to the entity, "...stays in the garage, at least until it's conscious." And he stepped out of the car and I quickly leapt out too to speak to him.

Wrex: "Thank you again, for all this. I have no doubt this has left you out of pocket, so I am forever grateful." He waved a hand at me as if to try and silence me.

Richard: "Bahh... It's nothing. Just call it a favour that you owe me. My brother... Sarah's father... I never spoke with him as much as I should have done once I moved over here. As much as I dislike her attitude, Sarah is family, and if she's wound up in trouble from my brother's mistakes... Then I feel like I owe her. Now if you'll excuse me, I would like to catch up on some much needed sleep that I missed out on from last night." I gave him an appreciative and understanding nod and he then left the garage. Jinx stepped up beside me,

Jinx: "What do we do with her?" She said, gesturing back at the boot of the SUV.

Wrex: "You heard him, she stays in here."

Jinx: "And if she's dead?"

Wrex: "I don't know... If she is then all I can think of is that we take her back to my home world. I don't know what she is, but the last thing I want to happen is either the SkyTech or some Human government organisation doing research on her. We'll take turns watching her, I'll take the first shift, you get some rest. Hopefully Sora will be back soon and she might be able to get a better look at her."

___________

Benthoul, Aberdeenshire, Thurs 20th Jan 22 18:40

My helmet beeped in my ears, making me jump as I think I had started dozing off. It was so quiet here, it was hard to not get bored keeping watch over the entity. I allowed my HUD to switch back on over my vision to see an incoming call from Sora, so I answered it.

Sora: "Wrex, come in Wrex."

Wrex: "Wrex here."

Sora: "Asset delivered to sanctuary, I have arrived at previously disclosed coordinates, send up the flare."

Wrex: "Wilco."

I had ordered her to use code from now on over even private channels, at least while we were laying low at Richard's. I couldn't risk our location being compromised so I wanted to keep the risks to a minimum. 'Asset' I knew meant 'Sarah' and 'Sanctuary' I knew meant the private hospital that Richard had organised for her special care. I opened the garage door, slinked under before it had opened all the way, checked radar and air traffic control for any air traffic in the vicinity above me then aimed my gauntlet to the the sky, charged and fired. A ball of plasma sailed through the air and I stood back under the door way and waited. It was about two or three minutes later before Sora landed on the ground just outside the door on the tarmac drive and I quickly whisked her her inside and closed the door.

Wrex: "How is she?"

Sora: "Still in an induced coma... They're treating her with what they can but this planet's medical care is rudimentary, if we took her to Draconia-"

Wrex: "-They'd send her packing! You know they won't deal with Humans on Draconia, they never have!"

Sora: "I know... But they're saying they're going to have to amputate her arm to above her shoulder."

Wrex: "You're joking?!" Sora shook her head,

Sora: "They say it's too badly damaged, nerves are scorched, tendons are too heavily damaged and fused to the bones and the muscle tissue is so badly burnt that it's breaking off in solid chunks, there's no blood flow to most of the arm."

Wrex: "Bloody hell... What about the rest of her?"

Sora: "Not much better, still has bad radiation poisoning with all the related symptoms, possible internal bleeding. There's so many pipes and tubes coming out of her it's heart breaking." I shook my head and sighed.

Wrex: "Thank you for keeping an eye on her for me."

Sora: "Don't mention it. Had anything from our guest?" She gestured to the still armoured body lying on the table.

Wrex: "No, but we have worked out she is alive. Jinx found out that if you're eye level with her and keep still, you can just about see her chest rise and fall, even in the armour."

Sora: "Well that's good news."

Wrex: "Is it though? You saw what happened. For all we know this thing could have consumed Alex. It then went on and killed two SkyTech, without even trying! It deflected my plasma rounds like it was a gust of wind! I don't think this thing waking up will be a good idea and I'm not entirely sure that Richard's house, is the best place for it."

Sora: "You got a better idea?!"

Wrex: "No... not really, best thing I can think of is taking her back to Sarah's house in Maryland."

Sora: "I don't think moving her by Jump is a good Idea."

Wrex: "Why not?"

Sora: "She's being powered by the Shard."

Wrex: "Yeah? So are you?"

Sora: "No, I draw my power from it..." She stepped over and hovered her hands over the body, "...The Shard is in the suit, somewhere... and she is being powered by it."

Wrex: "Yeah, that's the same thing isn't it?"

Sora: "No."

Wrex: "Well how do you mean then? I don't see what the difference is."

Sora: "I don't know, it's... Weird... All I know is, before, I could always feel the Shard, it was a very particular feeling. Now, not only can I feel the Shard, but something more to it, like... A mind, a conscious maybe... But, also, I think there maybe more than one."

Wrex: "So? There's more than one person in there? Is one of them Alex?" Sora pulled her hands away and shook her head.

Sora: "Again, the honest answer is, I don't know. If there are indeed two minds in there then they are very intertwined and are making it hard to differentiate. I guess if she ever wakes up we'll have to work it out from there, but we must proceed with caution, as you say, she is quite volatile."

(-Martin O'Donnell)