Chapter 2: Haunted Sleep, and Rude Awakenings
He tried to run, but his feet refused him. He tried to crawl, but he felt as though he was sinking in quicksand. He'd had this dream a million times in the past 10 years. It was always the same, but each time he had it, it felt as new and real as the day it happened.
It had been raining. Jubei and Jikkyo were huddled inside a cave a few kilometers away from their settlement. They had been out being typical children, exploring and getting into general mischief. Jubei, five years older than Jikkyo, had taken it upon himself to train his younger brother to fight. That day they had spent hours sparring, trading blows, but pulling their punches. Jikkyo, only being 11 at the time, didn't quite have the control and muscle development to fully take on his older brother, but he still fought with a child's ungodly amount of energy.
Their parents, Kagero and Shintaro, were hardcore pacifists. They denounced all violence, and didn't even have a single blaster pistol in their house. A voice resounded inside Angel's dream
If you had just stashed that blaster rifle you found, if you had been there, they would have survived.
The two brothers had been huddling inside the cave for about an hour, when they heard a tremendous rumbling, shaking the cave they had taken shelter in. Peering outside the mouth of the cave, Jikkyo saw the bottom of a transport coming in low over the cave. The bottom of the craft had a strange red crescent symbol emblazoned on it.
They watched the transport head off towards the east, in the direction of their settlement. Jubei pulled out his microbinoculars, and watched as the transport circled above the makeshift city, then landed just outside of it.
"Jubei," Jikkyo asked carefully, "What's going on?"
"I don't know little bro," Jubei replied, a slight hint of fear in his voice, "but we better go find out, that wasn't our supply ship." Jubei ran back into the cave and grabbed his pack, "Come on, lets get a move on, we have to get back to the city."
Lighting flashed, illuminating the vast savannah that lay between the brothers and their destination. Jubei caught a glimpse of the look on his brother's face during the flash. The relentless rain lashed down at them, turning the dirt and clay to mud, hindering their speed. Their boots made a loud *schluk* *schluk* with each stride. Terror gripped Jikkyo's heart, amplified tenfold by the fear he had seen in Jubei's eyes, the fear he heard in Jubei's voice. Thousand of scenarios ran through his mind, frightening images, of death, destruction and emptiness. No matter how hard they ran, it seemed as though they would never reach the city.
Jikkyo's legs ached, his lungs burned. He could feel his stomach urping. This sprint was draining him of everything. Black spots began to crawl into the corner of his visage, and just when he thought he would collapse from exhaustion, they two burst into the city. Jikkyo, not paying attention to anything around him, tried to charge into the middle of the settlement, but Jubei grabbed the back of his collar and lifted Jikkyo form his feet.
Pressing a single finger to his mouth, Jubei then pointed the finger at the armed guards surrounding a single house in the center of the makeshift road. Jikkyo's eyes widened as he realized that was
HIS house.
Jubei had to clamp a hand over his little brother's mouth to keep him from shouting.
"QUIET" Jubei whispered coarsely, "we need to get into the house. Let's go around back and climbup through our windows ok?"
Jubei then realized his hands were still clamped over Jikkyo's mouth. The look Jubei gave him had the desired effect
You better not make a noise Jikkyo read in his brother's fierce eyes. Jikkyo nodded, and they began to weave their way behind the other buildings.
Pausing in the small alleyways, Jubei lead them on a winding, zigzagging path. Jikkyo kept a mental count of the number of troops they saw. He was up to 15 already.
Miraculously they managed to avoid the roaming patrols, and reached the back of their house. Clambering up the system of boxes and drainpipes they had rigged up to make late night escapes, Jikkyo entered his 2nd floor room. He heard escalated voices shouting down below. A strange man sounded very angry, and he could pick out his father's deep, compassionate voice, pleading with the strange man to stop.
Suddenly time began to slow down, as if going frame by frame, each frame in tune with his heartbeat. He opened the door
*thump* *thump*. He went to the stairs
*thump* *thump*. He moved down step by step
*thump* *thump*. Just when he turned the corner and the sound and light of blasters went off like a supernova in his mind, the corner after which the bodies of his parents should have been lying, he woke up.
Drenched in a cold sweat, he realized R-5 was beeping crazily at him. Lunging for his IR-5s, Angel drew them from their holsters, and whirled around as a twig snapped in the darkness.
"R-5, activate glo-lamps NOW" Angel commanded. Bright fluorescent light spilled out over the savannah, illuminating the form of a woman walking towards him, broken twig in her hand. Jikkyo allowed a small gasp to escape his lungs when she came fully into the light.
"Christine?" Angel muttered aloud. He meant the question to be to himself, but she heard it.
"Jikkyo Nimiichi," She said, casually strolling closer to him. "You've got a lot of nerve coming back here. 2 years and NOT A WORD?" Her emerald eyes seemed to blaze as she fired the words at him.
"The last time I saw you," she continued, "you were taking off in THAT thing. I waited so long for you to return, but you never did&. until now." By the time she finished her sentence she was arms length away from him, where she stopped. Looking down at the ground she waited for him to say something.
"Christie...I...I had to go. Jubei was dead, my parents were dead, there was nothing left for me here."
"OH SO NOW I'M NOTHING???!!" she shouted, head lifting, her sparkling green eyes blazing with the fires of her anger.
"You know that's not what I meant," Angel replied. He had hoped she had made it off this miserable rock, he had been dreading this since he made up his mind to come back on his leave. The anger faded from her eyes as he looked into them, and instead was replaced by sadness. Tears started to well up in her eyes, making them sparkle that much more. Her long flowing brown hair, mussed by the wind, smelled of berries and spices. The same intoxicating scent that he remembered.
It seemed like a lifetime ago, but seeing her cry chipped a piece of the stone away from Angel's heart. He reached out with his right hand, and brushed away the tear that was rolling down her cheek.
"Christie, I...I...I'm s-sorry." Angel stammered, flustered by the emotions welling up inside him, "I never meant to hurt you...I never would...but you know I had to go. Jubei was the only family I had left, and I had to pick up where he left off, searching for mom and dad's killers."
Christine sniffed, and looked into Jikkyo's eyes. "But you left without even saying goodbye..."
"I know, but I'm back, for the week anyway. I was...umm...hoping you'd be here.' Jikkyo stammered. It didn't take a Jedi to know that he was lying.
"You never were a good liar." Christine said, "You were an 'Angel' remember?" She laughed softly, a sound that chipped another piece of stone off of his heart. She took another step forward.
"Where are you going after the week?" she asked.
"I can't tell you that." Angel replied. Noticing that she took anther step closer.
Suddenly, she was in his arms, softly sobbing into his chest. She had her arms wrapped tightly around his waist, as if she were putting him in a Wookie death hug. Not quite remembering how to react, he slowly wrapped his arms around her.
They stood there for a few minutes, Angel not daring to speak until her sobs diminished and she looked back up at him.
Drawing away from him, she said, "I need to get back. Come to town tomorrow, everyone will want to see you. Heck, most of them still see you as that Angel. Especially me." With that she turned her back and faded into the night.
Determining that there was no way he would be able to sleep tonight, Angel started a small fire and brewed a fresh pot of caf. He was going to need it...
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Senior Sergeant Jikkyo "Fallen Angel" Nimiichi
Assistant Squad Leader (ASL): RAIDERS SQUAD
AS-3/ASL/SSGT Fallen Angel/3SQD
/1PLT/1COMP/1BAT/1RGT/VEA
/VE
[LoR] [RoM] [BoA]
"Me? I always tell the truth...even when I lie. So SAY GOODNIGHT to the badguy. It's the last time you'll ever see him. Watch out there's a bad guy comin through." Tony Montana
