OS/PG-13: My Destiny Awaits (An Emotional Laika Fanfic)

[Vanilla_Go_Rilla]

(Note: The names of Laika's family were made up only for use in this story and are not officially licensed to Capcom or Shopro; all other official characters belong to Capcom.)

~~~~~~~~

My name is Laika, and my destiny awaits.

I’m riding an armored personnel carrier through the desolate landscape of Sharo’s western border region, defending our border against the derelict rebels from the rogue nation of Pharaia. We’ve been stationed in a small outpost on the outskirts of their region of control, where the rebels are planning a full-scale assault. As part of Sharo’s elite CFC, or Cross Fusion Combatant division, I’ve been ordered to perform the most dangerous part of this mission, something that’s never been done in the epic history of Sharo’s military.

I’ve been ordered to launch a pre-emptive strike at the heart of the Pharaian rebellion.

“All units, ready your gear and prepare to move out!” our commander cries. I get into my night camouflage and load my weapons, then grab my PET and tell Searchman to prepare for stealth infiltration. He responds without questioning the motives of my actions; sometimes I wish he had an actual personality.

I see the lighting of campfires off in the distance. I know that as soul-less as our media portrays them to be, the Pharaians are real humans, too. I can see them talking about their hopes, their dreams, their lovers, and their families. What they have done in the past and what they will do once they get back home. Most of all, I focus on what they would be doing if our two nations decided never to declare war against each other in the first place…if only it were that simple. But then again, the corrupted and power-hungry Pharaian regime knows nothing of diplomacy, which would explain what I’m doing here.

My mind fades from these thoughts and segues into a passive and melancholy state of reflection, pondering over memories long past. I see my family waving goodbye as the army truck carries me off to training camp. I see the desperate look of my parents the moment I told them by videoconference that I was enlisting in the Sharo forces to defend my country. I remember the glistening and moist freshly shed tears trickling down my lover’s eyes as I told her I volunteered to be a soldier.

“ALL UNITS MOVE OUT! IT’S AN AMBUSH! THEY JUST SHOT DOWN OUR STEALTH BOMBERS! THIS IS NO DAMN DRILL! MOVE! MOVE!!” Gunfire and explosions awaken me from my reverie. I leave the safety of my truck to enter the multicolored aura of a newly initiated Dimensional Area, and before me Navis and Cross Fused humans are enveloped in a fog of war and blood. Bullets and explosions play a dreadful and tragic ballet of death as my friends and comrades clash with the enemy.

I stare to my left and see a young boy with silver-and-black hair with a military tag that reads, “ENZAN IJUIN.” To my right is a younger boy with flowing brown hair and a blue bandanna, and his tag reads, “NETTO HIKARI.” So these are the two young ensigns assigned to my troop as foreign expatriates. I decline to tell them they are too young to die, their fresh and youthful faces glowing with determination. With this, I make the most regretful statement I’ve ever said to a child.

I tell them to Cross Fuse and follow me.

The two children nod, and my heart wrenches as I drag two innocent young soldiers off to risk it all for the sake of a political dispute they were never involved in. We open our Battle Chip Container pouches to pull out our Synchro Chips, our eyes taking a moment to glaze over their shiny metallic cases and pondering the fate that activating such a power will unveil for us.

“Blues! Cross Fusion!” Enzan shouts, becoming R-Blues.

“Rockman! Cross Fusion!” Netto cries as he becomes R-Rockman.

“Searchman! Cross Fusion!” I say quite matter-of-factly as I transform into R-Searchman. Our simultaneous Cross Fusions create a blinding flash of light, and when it clears, we are completely synchronized with our Navis, feeling the sheer rush of power that can only come from a Cross Fusion. Unfortunately, our sudden presence has not gone unnoticed…

“There they are! All units, OPEN FIRE! Concentrate on those Cross Fused humans before they ruin everything!”

Our hearts race as madly as our feet as we rush through a rain of bullets to the central target. R-Rockman activates a Universal Barrier Battle Chip and for the moment, we are safe. He disengages the barrier once we are inside the enemy’s main command facility; any more and the stress of maintaining it would have been fatal. R-Blues tells us to wait, then activates a Minibomb chip. The most experienced in hand-to-hand combat, he uses the veil of the smoke that the bombs create to clear the room.

As we enter, Netto becomes sick to his stomach at the bloodied corpses strewn throughout the room. Enzan stands with a horrified expression on his face, questioning what he has done in his own mind. A usual occurrence on the battlefield, I had seen this an infinite number of times before. Yet it is even more tragic when I saw it on the face of one as young as this Enzan.

“Are you all right, Netto?” I ask R-Rockman.

“My head’s a little fuzzy, but I’ll manage,” he mutters. I can tell he’s hiding his pain; it is written all over his face. I tell R-Blues to carry him to the Sharo medic truck waiting a few city blocks away. He responds and rushes Netto out of the building, showing the benefit of the increased speed a human has when powered up with his Navi. As for me, I approach the central office of Pharaia’s commander, and I can hear Searchman’s voice whispering to me: “Laika, the office should be straight down this corridor.”

“Understood,” I whisper back, a hint of nervousness trickling into my voice.

“Laika…is something bothering you?”

“Nothing at all.”

I can feel Searchman’s concern for my well-being. I had not attempted to hide my emotion, and it is clear my voice is shaken.

I hesitate a little before killing the two guards outside the commander’s office. Somehow I expect to react mundanely to the whole matter of death; I’d been accustomed to witnessing it firsthand my entire life. Yet the pain of denying another the right to live is always a shocking blow. Not just to my conscience, but also to my soul. If I ever make it out of this alive, I wonder…will I ever forgive myself?

The door collapses with a single blast of my rifle. I burst into the central office to find the commander wearing a hat with a visor worn so low it obstructed my view of his face. I know I cannot hesitate any longer; the mission must be completed. I shout to him in a stoic manner, “Commander of the Rebel Forces of Pharaia. You are under arrest for high treason of the Sharo Diplomatic Code. Come quietly; there is no other option. Accept your defeat and surrender, or die.”

The commander remains silent as I disperse my Cross Fusion, revealing myself to my adversary. He pulls out a revolver from his belt holster and I go by pure instinct, drawing a gun from my own belt. Our guns aimed at each other, he raises his head and I can see a short glimpse of his face…and then, he lowers his gun and begins walking toward me. My heart rushes; I don’t know what to do as he slowly approaches me, saying, “Do you recognize me…son?”

“HOW DARE YOU LIE TO ME! HOW DARE YOU CALL YOURSELF MY FATHER!” I scream. I raise my gun to point-blank range. He is coming quicker now, and I am shaking in my boots with nervous anxiety. How can an enemy remain so intimate, so at peace with himself in a situation like this? And how can he make such a ridiculous assumption that he is my father? My heart swells with rage just pondering this…

…and I pull the trigger.

One shot is all it takes to bring him down; a shot focused directly at his chest. With a brief cry of anguish he falls with his back faced to the ground, his visor falling over his head and concealing his face completely. I slowly approach him and realize he has dropped a letter. I pause to read it, knowing I should not, but feeling the need to know my enemy, my eyes glance over the Cursive handwriting:

“To My Dearest Love.”

“It has been so long since I have seen you. My duties as the leader of Pharaia forbid me from a normal life. I have not seen you in years, and often wonder how are children are. Ever since our eldest son left to join the regime we are now opposing, I’ve been in a state of mental despair, trying to piece together what I can of my wretched life. Our youngest son turns three this year, and I regret with all my heart that I cannot be there to see another of his years pass before me. The war is almost at an end, and we have only just begun to show our resolve. I know we have a chance at seeing this war through to our independence, but the one battle I cannot win is not in the field…but in my heart.”

My chest wrenches with emotional anguish, and I can no longer hold back my feelings of sadness and sympathy for a man I once thought to be so wretched and unworthy of salvation. I know his story is not mine, and yet I feel as though part of it truly is. I cannot possibly read on, yet my curiosity compels me to do this despicable deed.

“I have a picture of you and our sons together, walking along the beaches of Pharaia and taking in the breeze and warm sunshine. You were all so beautiful and radiant that evening. I long for the day when independence will be brought to our great nation, and we can once again enjoy this evening together, as a family, without a care in the world. No politics, no old men debating, no soldiers running off to die…just the ocean currents, the warm breeze, the summer sun bathing our faces.”

“With that, I would like to end with a final note, one that I feel I should say but never truly had the chance to tell you all. I should have told you a long time ago, but never found the strength or the courage to. And to you, my wife and sons, wherever you are, I want to tell you, from the bottom of my heart…”

“I love you all…my family.”

I can no longer hold back the tears and cries of sadness as they escape from my body like an exorcised demon. The letter falls from my hands, and in my saddened, weakened state I fall limply to my knees. At that moment, the letter falls to the ground and my eyes glimpse at his final words,

“From Commander Roila, to All My Dearest…My Wife Elena, and My Sons Gerreth and Laika.”

My heart skips a beat. Here is a man with my father’s name…talking to a family that shared the exact same names as mine! It is simply too much of a coincidence to be believable.

“Sh-shoot me…shoot…m-me…”

I ignore his pleading croaks in his last moments of life to finish him off, and start to walk out the door, when suddenly I hear the faint ruffle of him removing the visor from his face, revealing his true identity. I turn around and my face grows pale. My eyes widen and my mouth twists into an expression of grief.

For there I stand, looking into my father’s face.

“I’ve…caused e-enough grief…i-in this…w-world. Son…shoot me…p-please shoot me…”

My body quivers with an indecisive anguish. A chatter over the radio reveals that my troop is heavily assaulted in Quadrant Five and needs my immediate assistance…and yet I cannot leave this man in his helpless and suffering state…the man who for my entire life, I knew only as “Father.”

“Father…” I groan, my voice shaken and filled with grief, “do you remember that walk along the beach?”

Calming himself down from his death throes, my father replies, “I remember it…as if it were yesterday. I…even…r-remember what we were all wearing…we all looked down the h-horizon…f-for miles. We could s-see the seagulls flying off into the dist…”

BLAM.

It is finished with one shot to his head. He has suffered more than enough…and so have I. Of all the people I have known, loved, feared, hated, and grown to like or dislike, I have always felt my parents were the ones I could least afford to lose. For my father had always been the one I loved the most. And yet, in a tragic ironic play of fate, he died by my wretched, bloodied hands.

“Laika!” Netto shouts as he rushes into the office, Cross Fused with Rockman. “Are you all right?”

“We heard a loud shot!” R-Blues cries. “What happened…and who was he?”

I turn to glance at my father’s body, and say, “He was a dedicated soldier.”

“I…see…” R-Rockman replies solemnly as he looks at the man I once called Father.

“Laika, we must rejoin the others,” R-Blues replies as he makes his way outside with Netto. “R-Rockman and I will meet with you at the outside perimeter. We’ll hold off with whatever we can throw at the enemy…but we can’t do it alone!”

“I understand,” I reply.

In a moment they are gone, and I am alone with my father. I take a deep breath to blow away the fog of sorrow that floats so densely over me. My memories cleared, and yet my heart forever destroyed, I fold his arms across his chest and say with a heavy and tragic burden upon my voice:

“Rest in piece. From the bottom of my heart …”

I make my way out of the office, but as soon as the office door closes behind me, I whisper my final words…

“I love you…Father.”

Mine is a selfish and lonesome journey, full of much more pain than I had realized at its beginning. When I first set out to discover my true worth to my friends and countrymen long ago, I did not believe that I would have to take an equally hard look at my own self. A life thrown away. Friends made and lost in battle. And now a father, destroyed by his own son, a father who sacrificed everything so that his son could live…including his own life. It hurts me deeply. It hurts me so much.

And yet I have come too far to turn back.

I Cross-Fuse with Searchman and meet up with R-Rockman and R-Blues at the outside perimeter of Quadrant Five. Our mission is to hold off the enemy until the reinforcements our commander has called for has arrived. My sniper rifle loaded, I rush into the heat of battle, the multicolored aura of the Dimensional Area caressing my body like death itself is waiting for my ultimate demise. Search lights trace the ground as the enemy attempts to locate us. All three of us are concealed in a wall of sand bags, and it’s only a matter of time now.

At last, our commanding officer shouts, “NOW!” We reveal ourselves to the enemy and leave the security of our wall, guns blazing with the full fury of hell. The last of the Pharaian remnants meet us with gunfire and violent explosions, beginning our journey to the other world.

My name is Laika, and my destiny awaits.

THE END

~~~~~~~~

*This fanfic is dedicated to my friend Chris, who was drafted into the military against his will and died fighting in Baghdad three days ago. May you tweak your Honda Civic in the Lord's garage forever, friend.
_________________
Better to keep your mouth shut and make people wonder if you are stupid, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

[Nazne]

America makes me glad to be female. My deepest condolences for the death of your friend, and may a Civic be waiting in God's garage for him.

You've shown the more real aspect of Cross Fusion in this story quite well, though I'm not sure why Japan's Net Saviors would be dragged into Sharo's wars. However, Laika is characterized very well (or as well as you can get, considering Stream's constantly shifting character personas :P), and the sensitivity of this story actually made me think for a moment. I can't remember the last time I pondered a fanfic. You've written a very emotional one, and I like it.

Not that I count, of course.

-BMA

[CrossFusionStarman]

This was...amazing, really. You write awesome. That was a very emotional thing, that had me wanting to read more. And the fact that it keeps us reading until the end is nice. Amazing job.
_________________
EXEHQ. Click now, I demand it.

NT Champions. Click!

SERAS VICTORIA OWNS MY SOUL