Perfect Sacrifice (34 page)

"Well…" he began, seeming to think it over.  "I don't see why not."  He gave her a smile, which she returned, giving him a thumbs up.

"You won't be disappointed," she assured him.  With that said, the monitor went blank.  Dr. Solaris decided to leave his study, seeing as how he had to tell his sons the news.  Chris would be delighted.  It was Leon he wasn't so sure about.

When he got to the living room, he was happy to see that Leon and Chris were playing chess.  Now that Chris had gotten better, Leon was trying harder.  It was hard to guess now exactly who would win.  Both brothers were equally skilled.

"Leon, Chris," called Dr. Solaris, drawing their attention.

"Yeah dad?" asked Leon.

"I was just wondering how the two of you would feel about having Ray come back to live with us," he said, and as he had suspected, Chris's face brightened.

"That would be great!" he exclaimed, his blue eyes full of immense joy.  Now the decision was all up to Leon.  He only reclined on the couch lazily, placing his hands behind his head.

"I guess that wouldn't be so bad," he said, bringing a smile to Dr. Solaris's face.  He also felt a little relived, since he had already told Ray that she could.  Now there would be no objections.

"Good," he said as he turned around.  "She'll probably be coming back tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" questioned Leon, confused.  "Then why did you even…?"  However, he never finished his sentence.  His father was already gone, safely back in his study.  Leon only sighed in response, but a small smile tugged at his lips.  Despite what he had said, he had missed Ray.  Maybe this time he'd try harder to get along with her. 
This time, I'll make sure to keep my mouth shut.  I wonder though…why does she want to come back?

Leon simply shrugged off the question and leaned forward.  After all, he had a game of chess to win.  Or so that's what he thought before the word "checkmate" fell from his brother's lips.  Leon only sighed and hung his head as Chris began cheering about his victory.  However, the smile that had been playing on his face still remained. 
Things could be worse…I guess.

With that last thought, he began the tedious task of cleaning up the chessboard.  After all, he
had
lost this round.  Perhaps tomorrow he'd have better luck.

CHAPTER 17

Battle Tragedies

The hanger to the Solaris base was opened as a black armored Geno walked in.  It soon crouched down in the corner, the cockpit opening as Ray jumped out.  There was a smile on her face and two bags in her hands, along with her backpack on her back.  She watched as the Solaris family walked over towards her, their eyes on her Geno.

"So, you switched it back again?" questioned Dr. Solaris.  Ray only shook her head.

"Nope," she said rather shortly.  "This armor was made just for me.  It looks like the standard black armor, but it's closer in attributes to my silver one."

"Just what does silver armor do?" asked Chris.  He was familiar with the different colored armors and their attributes, but he had never seen a Geno other than Ray's that had silver armor.  His brother's white armor cut transformation times, and his red armor provided a better defense, but he wasn't sure about Ray's.

"My silver armor does everything," she stated.  "Better durability, better transformations, it allows more speed and better movements…I could go on, but I think you get the point."  Chris only nodded, not planning on asking anymore about it.  An armor that could do everything was pretty impressive.  It began to make him wonder about Ramirez and his midnight blue one.

"Anyway," began Dr. Solaris.  "You'll be happy to know that we didn't repaint your room yet."

"Good," she said as she began heading towards the stairs.  It was nice to know that nothing had changed.  However, Leon was being exceptionally quiet…

* * * *

Three days went by rather normally at the Solaris base.  Nothing exciting had happened at all.  There was no news of Ramirez or anymore burglar attempts in Torran.  The first day for Ray at the base had been simple.  She had spent the whole day fixing up her room.  She had had to unpack everything when only about half a week earlier she had packed it all up.

Currently, she was coming back from the shower, a towel hanging around her neck and a slightly sleepy look on her face.  She was dressed simply in a white t-shirt and blue jeans.  She was currently on a course to the kitchen, but her communicator soon began to beep, stopping her in her tracks.  She flipped up the screen only to see Abby's face.

"Good morning Abby," greeted Ray with a small yawn.

"There's no time for that," stated Abby, drawing Ray's attention and waking her up a little.

"What?" she questioned, confused.

"Turn to channel forty-six, quick," she said.  Ray was currently walking into the living room, so she went over to the couch and sat down next to Leon.  He was channel surfing again like he always did when he had nothing better to do.  He finally found a channel he liked watching when Ray snatched the remote from his hand.

"Hey!" he yelled, shooting her glare, but she just ignored him and changed the channel to the news station Abby had mentioned.

"…Repeat," began the newswoman after Ray came in halfway through her message.  "A strange Geno was seen on the continent of Azran yesterday.  At about three o'clock in the morning, two witnesses said that they saw the massive creature heading to a nearby GRC base.  It was too dark to tell just what it looked like, but both witnesses said that it was large and black with red glass eyes."  By this time, Dr. Solaris and Chris had entered the living room, their eyes on the television.

"What's going on?" questioned Dr. Solaris, but he was quickly hushed by Ray, who kept her eyes completely glued to the screen.

"We bring you live to the battle site where only hours ago, this massive black Geno fought against three knights of the GRC," said the woman as the screen changed to view a desert.  Ray's eyes widened in disbelief at what she saw.  Gold metal littered the desert floor, broken off from two motionless Genos.  The beautiful golden armor was gone, showing nothing but the basic skeletons of the three machines.  Limbs had been torn off, the heads now separated from the main bodies.  All three Genos were beyond repair now.  There was nothing that could be done for any of them.

"My God…" whispered Chris, obviously in shock at what he was seeing.

"GRC knights Ari Dayton, Gina Lori, and Jeremy Richards were all pronounced dead at six o'clock this morning," continued the reporter.  She went on to say more, but Ray didn't hear it.  The remote slipped from her hand, clattering to the carpeted floor below.  Her eyes were wide with shock as the images of the totaled Genos played through her head.  Three of her fellow knights were now dead.

"R.C," called Abby calmly over the communicator.  In her haste, Ray had forgotten to shut it off.  "Are you alright?"  There was no response, so she continued talking.  "We have reason to believe that Ramirez is somehow behind this, but…"  That was all she got to say to the ace knight.  Ray had shut off the communicator.

Without a word, Ray dismissed herself from the living room, running back to her own bedroom before slamming the door shut.  All three members of the Solaris family stared down the hallway, each feeling pity towards Ray.  It was obvious that the knights of the GRC were like family.  Losing three of your family members in one day was obviously difficult.  What were they supposed to do in this situation?

Without a word, Leon removed himself from the couch and began to head down the hall.  When he reached Ray's room, he tried to open the door, only to realize that she had locked it.  Instead, he knocked gently.

"Ray?" he questioned.

"Leave me alone," was her only response.  He wasn't about to obey her request though.  He knocked again.

"Come on Ray, open the door," he coaxed.

"No, go away," she said stubbornly, which only caused him to knock harder.

"Please Ray?" he pleaded, waiting for her response.

"I thought I told you to go away," she said harshly.  "I want to be left alone."  Leon was starting to get angry, but he had to keep his temper in check.  He didn't need to make her any angrier than she already was.  That didn't mean he was going to leave though.

"Look Ray," he began, "I only want to help.  Please open the door."  There was no response this time, so he just waited.  After a while, he decided to just leave, but she stopped him.

"…It isn't fair," she said softly.

"What isn't?" he questioned, getting rather close to the door so that he could hear her.

"Everything," she replied rather softly.  "Three knights were killed today.  Whatever did it won't stop there.  He'll kill the rest of the knights on Azran and then move to Trin.  When he's done there, he'll…he'll come here."

"But you can handle it," encouraged Leon.  "I'm sure you wouldn't have a problem taking care of that thing."

"That's not what I'm worried about," she told him.  "It that Geno goes after Abby and Brian, I don't think they would…"  She couldn't finish that sentence.  She didn't want to think about it.  "I don't know what I'd do…if I lost them."  She didn't say anything else, giving Leon a change to speak.  However, he wasn't sure what to say.  How was he supposed to comfort her now?  There really wasn't anything he could say to make her feel better, and with the door separating them, he couldn't physically comfort her either.  For some reason, he found the situation rather frustrating.

"Ray, could you open the door?" he asked softly, but when he turned the doorknob, he found that it was already open.  Leon shoved the door open, his eyes instantly going to Ray.  She was sitting on her bed, leaning against the wall.  Her legs were drawn up against her chest, her head buried in her knees.  Her soft, silvery blue hair was hiding her face, seeing as how it always hid the left side anyway.

Leon stood in her doorway silently, just watching her.  It was so quiet that you could probably hear a pin drop.  They were even able to hear the news announcer on the television, and the words she spoke quickly caught Ray's attention.

"We bring you live to Azran where one of our reporters is currently watching a battle with the mysterious black Geno and GRC knight, James Anders," she said.  Leon was expecting Ray to bolt from the room, but she remained where she was.  The sounds of the battle soon filtered into her room, and she could hear the sound of metal clashing with metal.

"It looks like James can't see the giant Geno, seeing as how it seems to be using some form of stealth," explained the reporter.  There was more clashing of metal against metal, and soon the sound of gunfire was added.

The sounds went on for a while, but the gunfire began to get worse.  In fact, the sound of an explosion soon followed.  There was more shelling, and now the sound of something charging could be heard.  The squeal of a laser being fired followed not long after, accompanied by a rather large explosion.

"My God…" whispered the reporter, but his voice managed to reach Ray's and Leon's ears.  "It's hard to believe that anything could survive that."

Leon watched as Ray pulled her knees tighter to herself, her body starting to tremble.  She had yet to cry, however.  Perhaps shedding tears wasn't possible for the ace knight.  Maybe her pride was getting in the way.

Without a word, he walked over to her, taking a seat beside her on her bed.  The added weight to her mattress caused it to shift, startling her.  She raised her head and turned to Leon, quickly meeting his dark violet eyes.  She didn't want him there.  She wanted to push him off her bed, tell him to leave her alone, but for some reason she couldn't.  She just couldn't bring herself to force him out.  Maybe it was because of the way he was staring at her.  His deep eyes were full of sympathy, and they were so incredibly vast.  She found that she didn't want to pull away.  She liked his eyes.

Without warning, he put an arm around her, still not looking away from her.  It was hard to believe that this was the same boy who had yelled at her a few days ago, making her mad enough to want to slap him.  It was like he had a split personality.  Or maybe he felt challenged whenever she yelled at him.  Either way you were to look at it, she liked him better like this.  He was more comfortable right now.  Perhaps this was the Leon Solaris that his fans knew of; the skilled, cute, and sweet Geno warrior that she was sitting with right now.

"Will you be alright?" he asked her softly.  She hesitated before nodding, still finding that she couldn't pull away from him.  She didn't have to, however.  He removed his arm from around her shoulders and stood up.

Her eyes followed him as he made his way to her door.  He paused before turning back to her.

"Good," he said with a smile.  "That's all I wanted to know."  With that said, he left her room, closing the door softly.

Ray sat there for a while before stretched and laying out on her bed.  She rolled onto her stomach and rested her head on her arms.  She was thinking about this new threat, a Geno that was black, incredibly large, and was able to use stealth.  This was definitely a problem.  This thing seemed strong enough the way it was.  Not being able to see it would only make things worse.