Perfect Sacrifice (65 page)

Ray turned towards her Geno, which was now blasting apart the hanger they were in.  Pieces of the ceiling began falling around Ray, and she realized that she needed to get into her Geno now.  She began to run towards the mechanical creature, its white glass eyes seeming to glow in the flashing red vicinity.  It instinctively crouched down when she got close enough, letting her get into the cockpit that opened for her.  Once she was inside, she took control, blasting at all of the other Genos in the hanger.  She had to eliminate her threats.

As soon as all of the enemy Genos were taken out, she left the hanger, going into the desert.  Once there, her Geno transformed into its aerial form, and she took to the skies.  She began raining ammo down on the rather large prison base.  She needed to destroy it.  She was going to no matter what the cost.  Ammo continued raining down on it, as if the base had been caught in a fiery spring shower.  All it took were a few nicely aimed shots to start a chair reaction of explosions.  After a few more seconds of raining ammo, the base exploded, changing into a ball of hot crimson flames.

Ray gave a contented smirk as she watched the building burn.  That was one base down, but there were probably hundreds left.  No one knew just how big Ramirez's organization was; in fact, no one really knew what it was called either.  They were always so secretive.  This was the first base they had ever found that the silver haired knight owned.  Perhaps the rest were underground or camouflaged as normal battling team bases.  Either way, finding them intentionally seemed impossible.

Ray began looking around the area, trying to spot Chris and Leon.  It didn't take her long to see the two of them.  They were sitting a little ways out from the base.  Chris had apparently gotten tired from carrying Leon.  It's not like she could blame him.  Chris wasn't exactly built for lifting.  He didn't have the physique of a Geno warrior like Leon did.

Ray landed her Geno and jumped from the cockpit.  She quickly went over to Chris and Leon, who was still unconscious.  At least there weren't any physical injuries, and his still healing one appeared to be fine.

"What now?" asked Chris.  Ray sat down next to him and stretched her arms. 

"We wait for Leon to wake up, and then we go home," she told him as she lied down in the sand.  She was a little tired after all of this.  She prayed that Leon would wake up soon so that they could head home.  She wanted to get back to the base and take a nice long bath.

Leon groaned as he slowly shifted his position.  Hesitantly, he sat up, placing a hand to his forehead.  He looked like he had a headache, but that was only natural.  He had taken a pretty hard hit to his head from the explosion in the stairway.

"Welcome back," greeted Ray as she sat up, drawing his attention.

"Where are we?" was the first question out of his mouth.

"In the desert," Chris answered.

"And don't worry about the base," said Ray as she stood up and stretched once again.  There was a smile on her face.  "I got rid of it."

Leon glanced back at where the base had been.  All that remained was a hole in the ground.  There were still a few pieces of flaming debris, but almost all of it had been completely obliterated.  Not even the metal of the Genos had been left after Ray's onslaught.

"Let's go," Leon said as he stood up as well, followed by his brother.  Ray only nodded as she began walking to her Geno, but she quickly staggered back a few steps.  She managed to catch herself and quickly placed a hand to her forehead.  She was instantly assaulted with a killer migraine, and everything suddenly felt as if it was spinning.

"Ray?" questioned Chris.  "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just a little dizzy," she said with a smile.  She began to walk forward again, but everything just kept spinning, and she suddenly felt nauseous.

"Ray, are you coming?" asked Leon.  He and Chris had already gotten ahead of her, now waiting by her Geno.

"Yeah, in a second," she responded as she tried to focus her eyes.  Her vision quickly blurred, and the world before her looked kind of like the images in a kaleidoscope.  "I'll come…as soon as everything stops spinning."  With that said, she took one more step and collapsed to the desert floor.  Before she knew exactly what was happening, Chris and Leon were at her side.

"Ray?" began Leon, worry flooding through his voice.  "Ray?  What's wrong?"

"It's hot…" she said as she tried to push herself to her hands and knees.  Even that made her feel sick.  Just what was going on?  She had never felt like this before.  Sure, she had been sick and even dehydrated at least once in her lifetime, but this was too much.  She felt absolutely horrible, as if her head was splitting into hundreds of pieces.  How could this have happened?  What had she done to bring this upon herself?

Her mind suddenly snapped, and it was all so clear.  She thought back to what Nathan had said when he had brought her the food.  He had been so intent on making her eat it.  The bread had been alright, but the water…it had tasted so foul.  She had thought that perhaps it was just dirty, but now she understood.

"Poison…" she whispered as she fell over onto her back, her breathing now labored.

"What did you say?" asked Leon, rather alarmed.  He had heard her, but he had to make sure that was what she had said.

"Poison…in the water," she said as she coughed a few times.  "Nathan…he…he poisoned me."  She couldn't speak anymore, her voice coming out in broken fragments.  She could barely breathe anymore, let alone speak.

"Ray?" questioned Chris, noticing how her eyes were slowly closing.

"Hey, stay awake," demanded Leon, but she couldn't hear him anymore.  As she slipped into unconsciousness, she could have sworn she had heard someone call out her name, but the pounding in her head quickly drowned it out, leaving her in nothing but an empty silence.

CHAPTER 32

Sacrum

Leon and Chris sat in the waiting room at Torran city's largest hospital.  It was hard to believe how often they ended up there.  Ever since meeting Ray, it seemed that they were there at least twice a month, if not more.  They were currently waiting for the nurse to come back and tell them what was wrong with Ray.  She had mentioned poison before passing out, but that didn't really give them any leads to help her.  There were so many different poisons in the world.  How were they supposed to know which one Nathan had given her?

That wasn't all they were waiting for though.  They were waiting for Dr. Solaris to show up.  They had left a message for him, but they weren't sure if he had gotten it yet.  They were also waiting for General Gordan, who they had called as well.  The base was pretty far away though, so it was no wonder why he wasn't there yet.

The door to the hospital was quickly thrown open, and Dr. Solaris ran in.  He went to the receptionist, but before he could ask any questions, Leon drew his attention.  He ran to his two sons, a panicked expression upon his face.

"I came as soon as I got your message," he told Leon.  "Now tell me exactly what happened."

"Ray was poisoned," explained Leon.  "You see, we were kidnapped by Ramirez, but we managed to escape from his prison base.  Ray demolished it, but when we were going to head back home, she passed out."

"I see," he said in a sigh.  It was strange really.  A few months ago, a story like that would have given him a heart attack, but now it all seemed rather routine.  If they weren't being taken hostage, they were getting attacked by someone.  It just didn't faze him as a parent anymore.  He knew they'd always come back, what with Ray around.

"We've been waiting for hours," said Chris, "but they still haven't told us anything."

"Let's go then," he said to them, and they both just stared at him in confusion.

"Go where?" asked Leon.  "We can't just leave without knowing if Ray will be alright."

"Exactly," he stated as he began to walk towards the receptionist's desk.  She looked up at the three of them, a smile on her soft face.

"Hello," she greeted.  "Can I help you?"

"What room is the ace knight in?" he asked the woman, and she quickly lost her smile.

"In room 120.  I'm sorry, but you can't see her right now," she told him, and it seemed like she honestly was sorry.  It's not like this was her first time seeing them here.  By now, all of the doctors probably knew the Solaris family as well as they knew Ray.

"Please," he began.  "My name is David Solaris.  I work for the GRC. I'm sure I could at least be of some help."  The receptionist thought it over for a moment, a smile quickly gracing her face.

"Very well," she said.  "You can go, but those two stay."  Dr. Solaris nodded and then looked to his sons.

"Don't worry," he told them.  "I'm sure Ray will be just fine."

"No offense dad," began Leon, "but exactly how are you going to help?"  Dr. Solaris just gave his son a very confident smirk.

"There's a reason people call me 'Dr.' Solaris," he stated as he began making his way down the hallway towards Ray's room.

* * * *

Nathan staggered down the hallways of the base, trying to make his way to the main command room.  He had barely managed to escape the base in time before Ray completely destroyed it.  He had been happy to hear that Ramirez had also made it out.  In fact, he had left long before.  Now all Nathan had to do was find him and tell him about what he had seen.

He pushed the doors open that would lead him into the main command room.  All the officials turned to look at him, but they quickly returned to their busy work with the computers.  The only one who hadn't turned at all was Ramirez.  He stood in the middle of the room, his back facing Nathan.

"It's good to see you made it out, commander," he told Nathan, not seeming to care much at all about the fact that he was still alive.  After all, he could always replace him with someone else.

"Sir, there's something I need to tell you," he began, wasting no time in getting to the point of the visit.  "It's about the ace knight."  Ramirez glanced back at his subordinate, a now interested glint in his eyes.

"What about her?" he asked curiously.

"On her back," he began, "there's a marking.  It looked like the sun symbol from those ruins."  Ramirez inhaled sharply, his eyes widening in deep surprise.  Had he heard right?  Did Ray really have the symbol on her back?  If she did, then according to Andy's findings, she was marked for having sacrum.  That wasn't supposed to be possible though.  No one was supposed to have it in the present world.

Ramirez smirked.  This was useful information.  If Ray had sacrum, then there was a possibility that his plan would work.  He would control the ultimate army, and now his sacrum amplifier wouldn't go to waste.  He wouldn't have to try and create someone who had it.  He could just use Ray.  She was the missing piece to his puzzle, but now the only question was how to bring her back alive.

* * * *

Dr. Solaris heaved a deep sigh as he made his way back down the hallway.  He hadn't been of too much use to them, but at least they had managed to figure out what was wrong.  He was a doctor after all, but in no way was he trained to be a professional.  He could deal with smaller injuries and diseases, but when it came to poison treatments, there wasn't much he could do.  Sure he knew every type of poison there was and their symptoms, but that didn't mean he could cure them.

"Tell me what happened," demanded a rather deep and familiar voice.  Dr. Solaris turned the corner and saw his sons still standing in the waiting room, now accompanied by Gordan, Abby, and Brian.  Gordan were currently interrogating the two boys, who looked just a tad bit nervous.

"Hello Gordan," greeted Dr. Solaris as he made his way over.  Gordan quickly snapped his attention to David Solaris, his expression still rather demanding.  However, there was a deep amount of worry in his eyes.  It's not like they could blame him.  Leon and Chris hadn't mentioned exactly what was wrong.  They had only mentioned that Ray was at Torran's hospital.

"David, finally," Gordan sighed as he walked up to the doctor.  "Tell me what's going on here."

"Ray was poisoned," he told the general, and oddly enough, that seemed to quell most of the worry.  "It's known as scarlet poison, a favorite of Ramirez's if I'm not mistaken."

"Is that all it is?" asked Gordan, sounding highly relieved for some reason.  Abby and Brian seemed to be as well.  The Solaris family was shocked at the way they were taking this.

"Didn't you hear right?" asked Leon.  "She was
poisoned
!"