As before, she could still feel her consciousness behind the program
that was trying to overwrite her memory. It was like knowing you were
dreaming in the middle of one ... only ...
... only she felt like she was being strangled in her sleep and
couldn't wake up.
It started with a dizzying collage of Strysiavanian propaganda. The
face of her king - the man she had served all her life - put on a
hundred thousand images of how his line had brought glory to his
nation, and how he would lead them all into the greatest age
Strysiavania had ever known. In the images of the army she had joined
when she was just fourteen standing victorious upon the rubble of
conquered foes she saw herself growing up, learning how to drive, how
to shoot, how to cook, how to fight ...
All this was the same every time. The program was designed to invade
her own memories and use something in them to sway her.
As the propaganda images faded, she saw a familiar face that was not her own ...
- Show quoted text -
And then she was standing next to it - next to Kossus, the first man
she had loved ...
They were in a room, listening to a brief from their commanding
officer about how they were to infiltrate an enemy base. He brushed
his hand against her leg - their secret way to say, "I love you," when
they could not do it out loud. She smiled and ignored the briefing
for a moment to look up at his strong, handsome face ...
And then, all the world was on fire ...
And he was dying ...
Again!
He was dying again in her arms again ...
-----
Novaman had hoped to drop the sea-dragon's metal head dramatically
into the courtyard of the compound on the island. As he pitched it
into one of the dozen glider-board riding Nighthawks coming at him, he
decided it was a close second.
To their credit, the seasoned elite troopers weren't even fazed by the
move, and they opened up with a volley of rockets from their boards.
Novaman swept his laser vision across them, destroying them and
leaving a big line of smoke between him and the Nighthawks.
He dropped, flying low and to the left. When he made it to the level
of the water, he banked hard and cut the other way at supersonic
speeds. He turned just in time to see the massive wave he had kicked
up wash the Nighthawks off of their boards, and silently thanked the
White Blur for teaching him that trick.
He looked across the last mile to the island. He made out the wall of
the compound and decided he'd had just about enough of these defenses.
He closed the distance in a matter of seconds and hit he wall like a
missile, sending debris and dust all over the compound. Tuning out
the sounds of the confused chaos going on around him, he looked around
using his "energy vision" for something he could recognize as Sky
Striker's.
-----
His dying words were carved upon her stone heart as she accepted the
solo recon mission.
Just as they were written in fire across her mind as she emptied one
clip after another into her pursuers, spreading their blood to land
with her tears on the ground.
When they brought her around just long enough to tell her that she was
dying, but that they would rebuild her, she asked that they be etched
onto the new power source they would put in her chest ...
... her new heart of reactive neutrons and Ferro-titanium ...
... his words ...
... on ...
"... my heart ..."
Her sobbing whisper broke the program. As it left her alone for the
few moments it took to restart, she was left with the image of her
dead lover's face, and the memory of the last thing he said in this
world.