Perfect Sacrifice (66 page)

"Yes, I know," stated Gordan with a small smirk, "but Ray can handle it.  In case you haven't noticed, she's not like most people."  Dr. Solaris thought this over, and he quickly became curious about the ace knight.  She was just your average girl, minus the attitude, so what could make her so much stronger?  Why was it that bullet wounds didn't hurt her as much?  How was it possible that her dislocated shoulder had healed within four days?  There was something that Gordan was leaving out, something important, and he was determined to figure out what it was.  That or he'd just pry the answer out of Gordan himself.

"Boys," began Dr. Solaris, earning him Leon and Chris's attention.  "I'd like you to leave the general and I alone for a moment.  There's something I need to ask him about."  Gordan only nodded to David and then looked back to Abby and Brian.

"You two leave for now as well," he told them, and they both nodded in response.  The four of them left, heading down the hallway towards the hospital's cafeteria.  They had nowhere else to go, and it was highly close to dinner time.  They hadn't eaten all day.

Gordan sighed deeply and took a chair in the waiting area.  He rested his head against his hands, his eyes following Dr. Solaris.  David sat down as well, taking the empty seat next to the general.  He had a lot of questions to ask him.

"So, what did you want to ask me about?" questioned Gordan, but he had a sneaking suspicion that he already knew the answer to that question.

"I want to know why Ray is so different," he said.  "Why can she heal from wounds that leave people hospital ridden for at least two days?  Why will scarlet poison have no real affect on her?"  Gordan's only response was a deep sigh.  That was exactly what he had thought David would ask.  After all, anyone who had even half a brain would have noticed by now that Ray wasn't in any way average when it came to strength.  She wasn't abnormally strong, but her body's immune system was next to flawless.  She rarely got sick.  Not only that, but she was able to heal much faster than anyone.  It was time he explained this to the GRC scientist.

"This won't be easy to explain," he began, "and it may be even harder to believe, but you'll have to bear with me."  David only nodded, signaling for him to continue.  "You see…it's because of sacrum."  That one word threw Dr. Solaris through a loop.  That was one thing you didn't hear very often.  The word "sacrum" was ancient.  What did it have to do with Ray?

"Sacrum?" he questioned in disbelief yet in high curiosity.

"Yes," responded Gordan, seeming a little distant as if recalling an old memory.  "There is sacrum flowing through her veins, and she has the markings burned into her skin to prove it.  It's the reason why nothing can hurt her.  It's as if her body is immortal.  It can heal deep flesh wounds in the matter of a day, and a broken bone can be better in a week, two tops.  She can't get seriously sick, and she can't die from poison.  She's the perfect soldier, the perfect pilot.  Nothing will ever hurt her."

Dr. Solaris was speechless to say the least.  Never in his entire life had he ever expected to be told that someone with sacrum existed.  It wasn't something that was normal.  In fact, it should be impossible.  Sacrum was extinct, along with the ancient people.  How could Ray possibly have something like that?

"How is that possible?" he asked Gordan softly, his voice showing how insane he thought this all was.  After all, it was only natural not to believe a story like this.

"It happened a long time ago," he began, "back when Ray was only ten."  He paused, preparing himself for the memory.  After all, he had been so afraid at the time.  Sacri poisoning wasn't something you wanted to mess around with.

* * * *

A silver Geno limped into the open hanger, its right leg spitting out sparks.  The same thing was happening on its back.  There was a large hole there, one that looked as if it led all the way down into the core of the mighty mechanical beast.  It was possible to see the wires and circuits that made up the main body.  Despite all the damage done, it was still able to move.

The cockpit opened, and a young girl stood up to stretch her arms.  She began looking over the damage done to her Geno, and in no way was she happy about it.  No one did this to her Geno.  She'd make them pay for this later, but right now her Geno was more important.

"Ray, come down here," called out a man wearing a military uniform.

"Hey Gordan," she greeted with a small smile.  "Just hold on a sec, okay?"  She got out of the cockpit and carefully began to walk across the back of her beast.  She was soon right next to the extremely large hole, one that was easily big enough for her to fit through.

"What are you doing?" Gordan called out to her.  "Get down here this instant!  Your back is bleeding!"  Ray placed a hand over the cut she had received during the battle.  It indeed was still bleeding, but the pain had more or less subsided.  She'd be able to tolerate it a little longer.

"I said in a second, okay?  There's something I have to check out," she told him.  "I think the core was damaged, so I'm going to see what happened, alright?"

"Wait Ray!" he called, but it was too late.  She had already disappeared inside the Geno.

Ray climbed down the hole, grabbing onto whatever she could find that was sturdy enough to support her weight.  It was a pretty clean cut hole though.  The beam that had hit the machine had really made an even hole, and the sides were rather smooth in most parts.  She wasn't about to let herself fall though.  She had to be careful not to damage the core further.

She finally made it to the core where there was another hole.  It was just big enough for her to fit in if she tried hard enough.  However, she wasn't that careless.  Instead she pulled back a bit of the metal and looked down into it.  What she saw amazed her.  Never had she seen such a beautiful sight.  Inside the core was a large mass of blue liquid.  It was glowing softly, the substance seeming almost solid.

Ray wanted a closer look, so she peered down into it a little more.  However, she lost her footing, and she slipped down through the hole and into the core.  The light was so bright from the liquid that it hurt her eyes, but her whole body suddenly hurt.  She was covered in the strange liquid.  It was all over her arms and legs, and it had gotten on her back as well.  Only her head was dry.

"Ray!" called out General Gordan.  Ray looked up and saw him standing at the entrance to the hole.  "What's going on?"

"I fell," she answered.  "I ended up in the core."

"Get out of there now!" he shouted in worry, so Ray decided that she had had enough.  It was time to leave her Geno and let them repair it.  However, her whole body quickly began to burn, and she cringed as the cut on her back ignited.  She looked to her bare arms and noticed that the liquid was disappearing.  However, it wasn't drying up nor was it running off.  Instead, it seemed to be going inside of her, as if it was penetrating her skin and sinking into her body.  The cut on her back soon burned like fire, and she cried out in pain.  The burning was just too much for her, and she was about to pass out when a gloved hand grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled her out.

"Ray?" questioned the man who had just saved her.

"Sorry Gordan," she apologized with a small smile, her body still burning up.  "I'm always…such trouble…"  Before he could say anything to her, she blacked out, her body still burning up from the blue liquid.

* * * *

Dr. Solaris said nothing after Gordan ended his explanation.  There was so much he still didn't understand.  After all, the core of a Geno wasn't made of blue liquid.  It was a sphere that contained sacri crystals.  The machines used those sacri crystals to operate.  What was all this about the liquid?

"I still don't get it," he began, earning him Gordan's attention.  "The core of a Geno shouldn't be able to function properly without sacri crystals."

"You're wrong," stated Gordan, which was not something normally said to David Solaris.  He was usually right about everything.  "It's true that a Geno needs sacri crystals to operate, but that doesn't mean they have to be solid."  David's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Impossible," he whispered, but his voice quickly rose.  "Sacri crystals can't be melted.  It would take the heat found on the surface of the sun to do that.  You couldn't possibly have made liquefied sacri crystals, even if it is hot on Des."

"We didn't make it," Gordan stated with a sly smirk, one that showed just how much he was enjoying outsmarting David Solaris.  It just wasn't a very common happening, but out of everything he knew, this was one topic he was an expert on.  He had manufactured plenty of Genos, including the one Ray was now using.  He knew exactly how they worked, and he was indeed a sacri crystal expert.

"Then how?" asked David, waiting for Gordan to continue with the explanation.

"We found it like that," he responded.  "You see, sacri crystals are strange.  Once they're put into a state, they can't change from it.  Sure, a crystal can be melted, but not with our technology.  When they are melted though, they can never go back to being a crystal.  They'd stay liquefied, even if the planet froze over.  We discovered that liquefied sacri provides more power than the crystals, so we used the amount we had to build Ray's Geno.  However, it had to be made a little smaller in order for the process to work.  We didn't have quite enough to make another, and we never did find anymore liquefied sacri, even after searching for years."

"I think I get it now," said Dr. Solaris as he analyzed the data given to him.  He had his own conclusion drawn out in his head.  He finally understood just what had happened to ray.  "Sacri poisoning, right?"

"Yes," sighed Gordan as he turned his attention to the floor.  "We weren't sure if she'd make it.  Sacri is a terrible thing in its liquid form.  It enters the skin through wounds, and if left on the skin long enough, it'll sink in through the pores.  It fuses with your blood stream, altering everything.  She became so cold to the point where we thought she was dead, but Ray ended up surviving long enough for the sacri to level out."

"Then exactly what is sacrum?" David questioned curiously.  "If sacri is what is in her blood, then why did you call it sacrum?"

"Because sacrum is the word given for the type of blood it is," Gordan stated, now seeming just a little annoyed.  Why didn't David already know this?  It wasn't uncommon knowledge to know that fact if you read enough research books, and he knew for a fact that the Solaris base was full of them.

"I'm willing to believe there's more though," stated Dr. Solaris as he crossed his arms in front of him.  "Ray can do a lot of things that most people can't.  Is it the sacrum that allows her to manipulate a Geno without being inside?"  Gordan only nodded in response, but David wasn't quite finished.  "It's because Genos run on sacri crystals isn't it?  So then I'm guessing that given the right amount of concentration, she would be able to control any Geno she wanted."

"Yes, but she'd have to be in the right mind," responded Gordan, not wanting David to get the wrong idea.  This topic was far too detailed for him to understand all of it right away.  "Ray is often too blinded by her pride to use this skill effectively, and she can't control another Geno for very long.  She's the most in tune with hers.  That skill is also what allows her to use that four point cannon so effectively."

"One more question, and then I promise to stop," David said with a smile, earning him Gordan's ear one last time for the day.  "If Ray is as powerful as you say she is, then why do you worry about her so much?  If nothing can harm her, then why worry?"  Gordan just sighed deeply, his eyes taking on a rather fatherly look.  Perhaps the question had been a little pointless.  What parent figure wouldn't worry about their children, and Gordan was just like a parent to the knights.  He worried about Ray just like Dr. Solaris worried about his boys.

"To be honest, I worry the most about Ray," Gordan admitted as he slouched in his chair, his head still down.  "It's true that her body can fight off almost anything, but sacrum isn't in any way common.  If she were to get hurt to the point where she needed a blood transfusion, she would die."  He lowered his head even further, his voice coming out as nothing more than a whisper.  "I never want to lose her.  She's the only Cayden left.  I won't let her suffer from the same fate as her parents…as Lee."

* * * *

Ray's eyes slowly opened, a soft moan escaping her lips.  Her head was pounding, and everything looked so blurry.  She was still seeing through a kaleidoscope, and the images continued to turn and dance.  When she couldn't take anymore, she closed them again, but a sharp pain in her right arm quickly drew her attention.

"Ouch," she said, her voice seeming rather quiet to her throbbing ears.  "Watch what you're doing.  That hurt."

"Y-you're awake?" someone stuttered, and she opened her eyes again.  Through the blurring and the spinning, she could see that the man before her was a doctor, and he happened to be the one who had just jabbed her with a rather large needle.

"No, I'm sleep talking," she said sarcastically, even if her voice was too weak at the moment to make her seem cynical.  The man was nonetheless startled.  "What's with the needle?"

"It's for the poison," he told her, seeming to still stumble over his words a little.  He probably wasn't used to talking to a patient who had been poisoned.  Most of them probably didn't talk when he was administering the antidote.