5. Revelation

Grey smokes filled the atmosphere, threatening the ozone layers. A greyish colour land rover crashed upside down inside the thick forest. Two occupants could be seen inside the broken vehicle. One being the young captain and a bruised kid.

The older one woke up with a grunt. He struggled to breath as the dangerous smoke fills his lungs with dangerous chemicals. He looked beside him to see Storm passed out on his seat. His head leaked a small amount of blood, his mouth were slight ajar for need of air. Ray wasted no time and cut his seatbelts with his knife. He kicked the door three times before finally managed to get out of the land rover. He stood up with his one leg while supporting himself by dragging his body all the way to Storm's seat.

He unlocked the door, grabbed the injured kid out of there and laid him down under one of the huge trees. Ray placed his two fingers under Storm's chin for pulse signs. He sighed in relief.

'He's alive, but his pulse is weak. There must be something inside the back of the car,' he forced his already injured body to the smoked land rover. He searched its insides before finally obtained a bottle of medicine for pain relief and injuries. But the question is, how is he going to give it to the kid?

Ragsherum looked at the description through Ray's vision. "I don't think that's enough. The brat just got into an accident and he went through hell before that. Try finding herbs inside the forest," it's brilliant, but Ray is out of time. Miss a second and Storm is done for.

He shook his head in disagreement. "No can do Rags. I'll just channel a little bit of my magic to enhance its contents," Ray gripped the bottle and started to channel his magic. The bottle shined a little meaning that it has been enhanced. Ray smiled weakly but just then, he coughed blood. He flopped to the ground bawling his hand into a fist. Ragsherum looked at him in worry.

"You idiot! One more magic and you're a deadman. You had already lost toom much blood. Why are you even saving him?" Ray stood silent. Hearing this, Ragsherum had already figured out the answer.

"It's like those days huh?" Ragsherum asked. Ray let out a small laugh.

"How can I forget? It's the first time I felt emotion. Love. Care. I will do it again and again just to get that feeling stuck in my heart," he sat down beside Storm's laid body. He plopped the bottle lid and drink a small amount. He positioned his mouth inside of Storm's own to fill his system with the medicine.

Ray pulled out of his mouth to mouth treatment gasping for air. 10 seconds passed as Storm finally woke up. The kid opened his eyelids slowly with Ray in front of him smiling. The kid put his index finger to his lips, feeling the touch.

Sudden realisation hit him, he blushed a little.

"Wha—what did you do to me?!" he backed away with his face red as tomato. He's brain went on a boom. The memory kept playing again and again. This earned a laugh from Ray.

"Don't worry kid, I just fed you some medicine. It won't be much, but it's enough for you to keep going," Ray raised his hands and shook them signing that he doesn't have any intention in touching the poor kid.

Storm glared at him in hesitation. He was about to retaliate but stopped the moment he saw Ray shivered vigorously and started to cough. Storm went to him check his temperature. To his surprise, it's dangerously cold.

"Are you okay? We need to get you warmed up before,"

"It's no use kid. It's internal coldness. The serum is getting me," Storm's eyes went wide. Serum? If he's correct than it could only mean that Storm's own gene is corrupting the captain from the inside.

Ray sliced a large branch beside Storm to be use as a walking stick. Storm supported him by wrapping Ray's left arm around his small frame.

"Come on, let's get going,"

.......

Meanwhile, with Hikari and the others.

Arithia, Hiyama and Sora fought ruthlessly killing the Sheer Clan members. They didn't stood a chance especially after Arithia used her ultimate magic, flaunting completely. They regrouped inside the forest where Aiwa and her group crashed after getting hit by a horning missile. One female medic is patching up Aiwa's wounds. Ariel went up to them.

"How's the situation Arithia-nee?" the small neko asked. Arithia scratched the back of her head in anger.

"That damn bastard let us to a trap. They managed to counter attack the moment the bomb blew off,"

"There's a mole inside our operation,"

They turned around to face the source of voice. It belonged to the Sergeant Cole himself. His head is wrapped with a bandage and his arms were bloody. They stared at the leader in shock.

"I know it's hard to believe, but trust me. We elite forces have been trying to destroy any traitors in sight. Even though Ray had already killed the furious four, it looks like there are still more of them,"

Ariel out his hand under his chin, thinking of a probability to find the culprit. Sudden memory hit him.

"Hey, has anyone seen Sergeant Jonathan?" the group faced Ariel.

"Come to think of it, isn't he the one that planned the whole fiasco and all? Where is he?" Hiyama looked around trying to find the said man. Suddenly, the bush behind Ariel wiggled. Ariel turned around only ro be meet with a punch to his face. He yelped in pain. The culprit grabbed Ariel with an M9 Beretta cocked to the side of his head. His large arms choked around Ariel's neck.

"Ariel!" they shouted. Sergeant Jonathan grinned maliciously at the idiots in front of him.

"My, my ,my. I guess you really are Ray's kitten huh. The same intelligence, spirit and courage. Oh, how I admire you! It shouldn't be this short for you to know that it's been me the whole time," Jonathan laughed. The choked the neko a bit harder making him gasping for air. The others took out their weapons.

"Now, now ,now. You don't want anything to happen to him right? Lower down your weapons, or else a dead neko will be your pet for tonight!" they looked at each other before finally giving up. They tossed their weapons aside. Then, Jonathan signalled Aiwa to come to him.

She shouted. "Why would I go with you! I never even know you!"

"Shut up girlie, you and the kid is why that Ray bastard keep getting stronger," he fumed in anger. Aiwa had no choice the moment she saw Ariel's pained expression. His car-ears folded down, his tails started to wave weakly left and right. She sighed. Aiwa walked slowly towards him with her arms in the air.

"Why do you hate Ray so much? What has he ever done to you?" Hiyama shouted angrily. Jonathan spat his spit to the ground before revealing his intentions.

"Why wouldn't I, he killed Gremory! I won't let him alive. NEVER!"

"Gremory is a traitor Jonathan! He killed Ray's first friend, Shen Haneshura," Cole spoke up. Anger started to stir inside him. Indeed, Sergeant Jonathan Spring is the older brother of Gremory Springs.

Gremory Springs or known as 'Nox' was a traitor to the elite force. He was involved with different scandals such as human trafficking, drug dealing and illegal business involving firearms. He was caught red-handed by Nexon himself when Ray accidentally caught one of his subordinates. The interrogation led him into the info of Nox's wrong doings.

And that was the day, they met Ray's true potential.

Nox murdered Shen by impaling the poor kid with his sword. He captured the kid at his birthday party after he successfully drugged the teen. Ray noticing this, sprung into action. But luck wasn't happy with him. He was too late.

Nox launched a large scale attack as a sign of rebellion towards the force. He packed an army filled with high tech suits to infiltrate the party. This day was known as "Red Strings" by the amount of blood shed that night. For the first ever time, Ray went berserk.

'Haneshura Ito-Ryu : Seven swings of Desire'

With just one technique, he turned the tides of the battles into his own favour.

But that's a story for another time.

Nox was murdered in the process. The news broke Jonathan. He planned a long term plan, to kill Nexon himself. All of those betrayals, the furious four, false accusation, hidden identity, it was all a part of his plan.

Why? Why isn't it working!?

Jonathan decided to pull the last straw, he made an agreement with the Sheer Clan as an exchange for Hikari's crystal and Ray's power. Seeing his cover blown, he decided to take what Ray's love the most. The only thing that kept Ray Asaki sane.

Ariel.

"Let go of the kid Jonathan! This isn't you. We've been friends for a long time. It's not worth it!" Cole growled in anger. He walked up to the impostor only to get shot at his shin making him fall on his knees. The others tried to help but multiple armoured soldiers apprehended them from behind. Jonathan laughed hysterically.

"Fools! Do you think I would ever do this alone? Face my new army of unbreakable humans. HAHAHAHAHA!" Hiyama turned his face slightly to get a sight of their faces, then it hit him. Hard.

The many holes on their bodies looked the same as if the 3mm bullet that came out of the large minigun from before. They're indeed, the same 'dead' soldiers. He looked around and true, majority of their battalion are traitors. The only exception being the medic, Jonathan and the whole group.

Tears started to leak a little out of the experienced soldier. "Jonathan, didn't you said you idolised the kid? What happen to that same, enthuastic friend of mine 5 years ago?" Jonathan stared at his ex best friend while keeping a strong grip towards a certain neko. The kid eventually passed out from the lack of air. His body went limp making it easier for Jonathan to make an escape.

He pulled the holster and aimed it straight to his head. His fingers pressed the trigger.

"It was a pleasant memory, Cole. If only Calem killed him while he's a kid, this wouldn't happen,"

CHUNK

A flashbang rolled beside his feet. His eyes widen.

"What the fu-," he was cut short by the bright flash emitting out of the small container. Screams filled the forest as his henchmen went down one by one. He turned around to wing it only to get his face eat a hard punch thrown by an angry immortalist. His grip on Ariel loosen but just before the kid fell, a man wearing a skull mask caught him with his arms.

The whole surrounding turned into a massacre. The traitors body scattered on the ground. The ones that survived held their injured body parts while moaning in pain. A horde of men surrounds the crashing lane. Jonathan looked frantically left and right, then front but soon regretted it just by seeing dark aura emitting from Hikari. His hands flashed purplish black magic. The traitor backed away in fear.

Hikari smirked and let out a low growl. " I was curious why I couldn't find one of my crystals, but your briefcase beat me to it," a body was thrown by one of the savior to Jonathan's sides.

"Moule…." He muttered under his breath. The admin's body filled with large cuts and some black markings, probably the effect of Hikari's magic. He glared back at Hikari and stood up with his own GmXT-92 aimed towards the immortallist.

"I ain't going down down without a fight. Come at me!" he emptied the whole chamber only to be blocked by Hikari's shield. Before he could reload another round of heavy bullets, a hand chop made its way to his neck knocking his system out. He fell to the ground unconscious. The attacker held her arms in the air.

"Woohoo! A score for me. Man, for a sergeant, this guy talks a lot. I wonder if," the woman keeps blabbering gibberish as the others stood with their jaws gaped even Hikari lost his composure seeing this energetic woman. Her soldiers just shook their heads. One of them put a hand on Hikari's shoulder.

"You'll get used to it," Hikari sweat dropped. The others move on with their work, treating injured, stacking the traitors bodies and cuffing the survived ones while leaving their air head of a leader talking with herself. It only took surprisingly 30 minutes before she eventually stopped.

"And so I really hope to get strong, what was I doing again?" she tapped her chin. Her right=hand man facepalmed.

"Ma'am, we've caught the traitor. Now we need to regroup with the others and eventually interrogate this bastard. We might get an intel on Ray's whereabouts," this peaked Aiwa's interest. She walked towards him.

"How do you know Ray? How is he? Is he oka-" the mature woman placed her two fingers to Aiwa's lips silencing her outburst.

"Shhhh, don't worry about your boyfriend. Now, how about we get you all patched up," Aiwa blushed hearing the word 'boyfriend'. Sure she did kissed him after the whole 'Memory' accident, but she still has yet to hear him confess to him. The woman walked towards the guy that has been carrying Ariel. She took the kid into her own hands and hugged him tightly while at the same time, squealing like a schoolgirl. This left a question mark on everyone's heads.

"KYAA! A cute neko, I never thought I get to meet one. Oh, how lucky is the man that's taking care of this little cutie. I want to eat this boy up. Kyaa!" sudden shivers went through Hiyama's spine.

"Sh!t. Another shotacon. I thought having Ray as one is enough, but I guess it's not,"

........

"Achuu," a sneeze escaped out of a certain young man's nose.

He wiped his nose using his left hand.

"Why do I have a sudden urge to beat the crap out of Hiyama?" he questioned himself. Ignoring the sudden feeling, he glanced at the sky. The sun is almost at it's nearest as the light begins to fade. Orange colour filled the sky. He sighed. Ray glanced at the kid beside him. Storm breathed heavily while walking beside the soldier. Fatigue started to toll over the light blue haired kid.

Ray felt pity for the kid. He shouldn't be walking as his injuries hasn't been treated fully. Ray closed his eyes and started to concentrate a small amount of magic, of course a small amount to him will make him lost a lot of blood since he lost his 'Ragium Drive'. A black prosthetic leg made its appearance on his lost right leg. Storm stared wide eye as to why he's using magic when he's still injured. Ray dropped the stick and aired Storm to the air thus putting him on his back giving the small boy a piggyback ride.

"Why are you-" a hand was placed on his lips.

"Sleep, we'll get there. I can't have you fainting on me kid. Don't worry about me, I've faced worst," Ray said. Storm's eyes started to droop as he felt drowsy. The warmth from Ray's body made him feels safe. He finally closed his eyes, drifting into dreamland. Ray smiled at the sight in front of him.

Ragsherum appeared in his mind as they walk to their destination. "Always a shotacon are you kid? I'm surprised you haven't got arrested by the cops yet," the general smirked at him. A tick mark appeared on Ray's forehead. "Why does everyone likes to call me that?"

"Face it kid, you are one,"

"To hell with it demon scum,"

"Ho, you're talking to me that way now human brat. Now your place,"

"Make me,"

The two continued to bicker in their own minds. Ray kept throwing insults and horrible remarks but the demon general kept retaliating with his own savage insults and snappy retorts. They laughed together after the bickering ends.

"You know kid, even though I do like killing and all, you should do this thing a lot often,"

Ray sighed.

"It's not that I hate it Rags, but I'm not in the mind right now. I've been thinking. How am I going to smile if I keep seeing the memories of the people that I have murdered,"

Ragsherum went silent. This poked his interest.

"Explain more. Never thought you kill innocents before me,"

Night time finally came. The moon shined with all of its glory. Suddenly, Ray started cough again letting some blood spilled at the corner of his mouth. He could feel the coldness starting to kill his insides. He struggled to tell his stories as he held the urge to shiver from the cold inside him.

"After Astera found me, Calem had a crazy idea of turning me into a super soldier," he gulped harshly before continuing.

"He forced me into a hellish training that he had prepared for years. In includes endurance, torture and sanity. There is one training that made me become the way I am today,"

"Loyalty,"

"Calem lead me to a room with a guy strapped to a chair. I was tasked to kill him, as a sign of me willing to cooperate with the force, to show them my loyalty to Calem. My mind went blank. But there's more than meets the eye. If I don't do it, then Calem will shoot his daughter and throw me out into the woods for me to survive alone,"

He started to tear up. He choke a little sob. "I had no choice Rags, I killed him. The poor guy, he doesn't deserve it. I can still remember, the sound her daughter screaming, his pleads for mercy and Calem's laugh. It's stuck to me like a glue. Everytime I sleep, the memories kept playing again and again. Oh and how can it become better? The moment of me and my kouhai. He was such a potential soldier. But I let him died. Only turned into one conclusion,"

"Calem was right. I am a scum, a trash for the whole world," his steps became slower with tear falling down to the ground. One hand steadied to Storm to make sure he doesn't fall while the other was used to wipe his tears. Ragsherum felt remorse. He tried to reassure him only to stopped when he spotted a hyena in the shadows through Ray's field of vision.

"Crap! Kid, we need to run now! We got visitors," Ray nodded and started to pick up the pace, He ran as quickly as he can resulting in Storm to wake up from his slumber. He became panic when he saw a horde of hyenas running from behind.

Unfortunately, Ray tripped on a sturdy rock making him fell rolling to the ground. Storm followed suit but Ray managed to hug him to lessen the kid's injury. The two rolled into they down a slope making them roll down crashing Ray with his back towards a tree. He let out a groan. He looked around. Thankfully, the hyenas lost their tracks.

"Go now Storm! Get to the village quick," he placed a his knife and pistol on both of Storm's palms. He included 3 mags for his ammunition as protection. Storm shook his head.

"No! I'm not leaving you here. Come on we can still make it," Ray grinned. He showed his right leg only to see the prosthetic leg now gone into ashes. He coughed another amount of blood.

"By the time I follow you, we'll be animal's foods. Go Storm. I'll hold as much as I can," Storm started to cry silently. Ray patted his soft fluffy hair. Storm looked up to Ray with determination in his eyes. The kid stood up strapping the ammo bag to his small waist. He put the knife inside his pocket. He started to run to his location with a map on his hand but not before making a pinky promise with Ray.

"Promise me," he choked. "Promise me you're still alive when I get here, okay?" Ray smiled weakly and intertwined his pinky finger with Storm's. The kid finally Stormed out leaving Ray alone. He chuckled while pulling out his other knife. A howl could be heard in the distance not far from his current location.

"Heh, cheeky bastards," a pack of Hyenas finally made their appearance in front of him. Each one of them glowered like beasts. Ray smirked. He silently chucked out a flashbang from his pocket.

"Come on everyone, I'm right here!" he shouted attracting every wild life occupants to make sure none of them managed to get to Storm. A light of flash emits from the metal canister blinding the furry predators. He dashed to them slicing their bodies ending their lives. He didn't think it would be this hard.

As one down, another one appears. It's like there's a spawner of predators that maybe the death of the young captain. He smirked. He flicked his knife to shrug the blood of the sharp metal.

"Heh, not giving up aren't ya? Herk.... Guh!" he vomits blood. He clutched his chest falling on his knees while shivering. His visions were hazy and his surrounding aren't helping either. The furry predators took their chances and leaped at their prey. One of them managed to sunk his teeth into his arms making him shrieked in pain. The whole Hyenas marked their own bite, some on his legs, back arms and even his sides. He weakly waved his knife to shove them off his body.

Ragsherum had enough. He took control of Ray's body and let out a magic burst blowing the hyenas away. They quickly switched as Ragsherum told Ray to run into a nearby ruins that he spotted by using his magic. He weakly ran towards the direction the demon pointed only to finally fell down face first to the ground the moment he reached the place. He crawled to the entrance as his vision had black spots in front of him. His hands reached the air as he finally faints after letting out another vomit of blood.

......…..

Storm kept running at the same glancing at his map for direction. Suddenly, a wolf pounced on his back making fell to the ground. The wolf strikes his jaw to his chest but he managed to parry it with a knife. The two struggled for dominance before the kid shoved the wolf aside. He quickly got up and pulled out a gun and shot the wolf only to miss. He winced putting his left hand on his right ear from hearing the loud gunshot. The recoil from the gun made the situation worse. Storm had never shoot nor touch a gun before. The wolf smirk before pouncing again but this time with additional force.

The furry carnivore hovered its body on top of the smaller figure. His paws trapped his two hands aside locking his movements completely. He whimpered as the saliva from the wolf trickled from its mouth dropping it on his shirt.

'This is it. I should've used my knife before," he closed his eyes waiting for his death. The wolf happily opens his jaws revealing his sharp teeth only to get shot in the head. A bullet pierced the wolf's skull making a 'pop' sound.

A man in his 60's pumped his sniper rifle with a smirk on his face. A man in his 30's quickly ran up to Storm to check on him. He quickly carried him bridal style before heading back to the old man but not before letting out 3 bullets from his pistol towards 3 sneaky wolves that had been hiding in the shadows.

"Let's go old man. The kid needs medical treatment," the older male nodded. They finally head back to their village with the injured boy in their possession.

........