Disclaimer: Me no own, you no own, we all no own, except those few lucky lucky lucky lucky people. *sigh*

Life Beyond Life

Chapter 8

By: Yuy Ren

Noise. It was everywhere. The Siren. No signs of stopping. Banging against his eardrums. IT HURTS! Jayce sat up with a jolt. Asleep, he had fallen asleep. When? He looked around and took in his surroundings. He was at the hangar. People were running about, a few were getting into the Tauruses, ready to fight. He spotted Ms. Noin among them. He looked up. The Epyon was gone.

Quickly, he got up on his feet and ran about, dodging running people here and there. None of them were students. They seemed like soldiers. Were they the rebel Treize Faction that were rumoured to be hiding at the Sanc? So it was not a lie, they were really here, and they were willing to defend the Kingdom.

****

The night before

Heero got up and looked as if ready to leave. He walked away from behind Jayce. He stopped. Looked at him. “Hey kid, don’t think about fighting tomorrow. Don’t dig your own grave.”

Jayce laughed bitterly. “My grave? I have a grave. Back on L2, that’s where my grave is. With the rest of my family.” Jayce stopped looking at the computer screen of Taurus blueprints and looked over his shoulder to face Heero. “And I didn’t even dig that grave. You know who did? Romefeller.” The word came out of his mouth with bitterness, as if reluctant to form on his lips. “They took it all, everything I ever owned, loved, cherished. So you see, I’m not digging my own grave, I’m living up to the image of a revengeful ghost.”

Heero stared at him blankly. He never knew this side of the boy. He had always thought Jayce was one of those pushover children with no backbone, but things seem to be different now. Heero concluded that rage performed funny illusions on all people.

He sighed “Romefeller was not responsible for your family’s demise.”

Jayce’s eyes widened.

Heero continued with his usual monotonous voice. “Have you heard of Oz? The distinction is trivial now, but it still exists. Oz caused the death of your family. In fact, it was only ONE person in Oz that caused it.”

Jayce was both confused and amazed. “OZ?”

Heero slumped his shoulders slightly as he realized that he would be giving a history lesson. “Romefeller depended on Oz to develop Mobile Dolls. However that went against Treize’s ideals. After Treize resigned from his position and was held captive, the Treize Faction split in two. They were both loyal to Treize, but one group was manipulated with ideas that were not Treize’s ideals.” Heero paused for a few seconds to allow Jayce some time for digestion. “Tuberoff took charge of Oz and the manipulated half of the Treize faction and started mass producing mobile dolls. Even though Oz IS part of the Romefeller foundation. They have a mind of their own. Or rather, Tuberoff has a mind of his own.”

Jayce jumped up. “So Tuberoff killed my family!?”

“I don’t know. I don’t have time to look into it. But Tuberoff would be the main suspect.”

With those words hanging in the air. Heero left Jayce behind to wonder.

*******

He felt a pull. He was being dragged. Jayce spun around. Pagan? What’s he doing? Pagan looked over his shoulder to speak to Jayce, but did not slow down. “Hurry up, youngster Jayce. I’m told to evacuate all students. Come with me.”

Jayce tried to wiggle through. “No. Pagan, please let me go. I’ve got to fight. I’ve got to… for my fami—” Four new hands grabbed him and lifted him. These were strong hands of strong people. Two security guards were carrying a kicking Jayce into the jet plane, where two dozen students were already seated.

They strapped him in as he attempted to bite them, but a boy of 14 was no match to muscular adults. Helpless. He could only watch the explosions of battle as the plane carried him to safety.

--------------------

The battle between Romefeller and the Sanc Kingdom is fierce. But with Romefeller possessing over 4 times more man power and weapons, it appears the chances for--CLICK! A student had turned off the intruding voice of the television and the flashing explosions vanished with it. They were in the nearest city, all huddled in the lobby of the local hospital.

“Useless.” Stated the student who had turned off the TV. “We don’t need to watch this thing to know what’s going on.”

Jayce was at the entrance of the lobby, looking out at the sliding glass doors. Useless. That’s right. That’s how he felt. If he can’t even do something as stay at the site of battle, how was he to fight? To avenge his family. For Blake.

He couldn’t stand it any longer. He dashed out of the sliding doors, oblivious of Pagan’s frantic calls, begging him to return. He kept running. Running down the street towards the Sanc Kingdom.

BOOM!! KABOOM!! Jayce staggered. The rumblings became louder, and harder for him to balance. But he didn’t give up and continued to run.

A shadow. HUGE! Jayce jumped sideways as a mobile suit crashed down to the street. Only a meter away from where he was lying and had he not jumped out of the way, he would have been one with the cement of the street.

The Suit’s left arm was burning and the machine gun in it completely disintegrated. Jayce climbed to the cockpit of the suit and triggered the hatch to open. Empty. A Mobile Doll. He lowered himself onto the seat.

He realized that he was familiar with the functions of the suit. Where had he seen this before? Working fast, he opened connection to the Command Center. Great. It’s still on the network. Now let’s see what we have here. Typing at top speed he opened another connection to Taurus-S3CU1. According to the blueprints from the night before, it was Noin’s Suit. Jayce also connected to the Epyon. Typing fast, he started sending all the battle stats of the Mobile Doll and any extra information from the Oz Command Center to Heero and Noin. This wasn’t much, but that was all he could do for now.

Beep beep beep beep. Mobile Dolls started disappearing on Jayce’s radar. Yes! His information got through and is being put to good use! The tables were turning, they were catching up to the loses. On the radar screen. Jayce noticed roughly 40 new suits. Who are they? Romefeller or Sanc? Why hasn’t Noin reacted to them?

Suddenly remembering that Taurus radar sensors cover less area, meaning Noin probably didn’t even spot the newcomer, he relayed his sensor information to her.

<<SKKK…SKSKK….>> A connection was coming in. <<Jayce?? Is that you? Keep it up, we’re winning! Thank you.. kee… SKK KSKSKS>> ..Noin…

Jayce was elated to hear that and continued to relay information at full speed. Yes, the tables were turning.

BEEP! Incoming suit! Jayce looked up, it was a Romefeller Virgo Doll with his Machine Gun pointing directly at Jayce. “SHOOT!!! Been discovered! I can’t move with this junk. Can’t get away from line of fire.”

The Virgo was loading up energy. FIRE! In haste, Jayce shut down the left engine and detonated the right. This action shot his suit sharply to the right and it skidded along the pavement for a good distance. He dodged it.

Acting fast, he ran out of the burning suit and got out of range seconds before it exploded.

“Darn. There goes Sanc’s bonus information.” Jayce cursed to himself and murmured an apology to Miss Noin. He slowly walked back to the hospital.

Too quiet. Everything was too quiet. Something was wrong. Minutes before, there was the sound of constant battle, but now it is dead quiet. Jayce picked up his pace and ran back to the hospital. The glass sliding doors were shattered, but all the students inside were huddled around the Television, which was now back on.

Rofis hurried in but was only able to catch a few words. But those few words were all he needed to hear.

“I, Relena Peacecraft, surrender the Sanc Kingdom to the Romefeller Foundation.”

TO BE CONTINUED.

AN: Whew, this one took a while. Review please!