It had been a few hours of their mission. Ash and Carla were in their own open armored vehicle. The AVALON moved with light jets that moved the rolling wheels under it's feet.
The mechanism whirred and hummed as it moved along the hard dirt of the ground, compact from last wars.
It was humid in the forest. Carla took off her uniform and stayed in her black sports bra. Sweat dripping on her collarbone.
Nagito tried not to look out of respect, but what do you expect from a 15 year old boy in a 14 year old's body?
Her white hair tied up in a bun.
Vermy trailed behind on a motorcycle, she caught up to speak to Nagito.
"Ash, how'd you sleep last night?"
He looked back at her.
"Pretty good."
You could tell the faint blush on her face, but her expression was normal. She turned away and hissed.
"Good."
He scratched his head. Eyes on the road with Carla driving.
Whoosh
A bullet at fast speed came and grazed Nagito's right cheek.
"Enemies ahead!"
Carla's yell got everyone's attention, and they moved ahead.
"This is Ryan of squadron 12! We have enemies incoming!"
The captain reported, and after he shifted the gear of his AVALON. With a click, the jets of the wheels soon heated up and he went into full speed mode.
Like a roller blader, the mecha moved in zigzags into the firing.
Nagito's knees locked. He was frozen.
"Dumb bastard" played over and over in his mind like a commanding voice. His final moments of his last life had replayed, and he was shock.
"Ashton, heads up!"
He snapped out of it and ducked down. Another bullet had flew by again, Carla saving his life. He gasped, hyperventilating while moving at 60 miles per hour in their armored vehicle.
"What's wrong? Look out!"
Carla and Vermy yelled at him.
"I wanna go back,
I wanna go back,
I wanna go back,
I wanna go back!"
He trembled in fear, clutching his head with both hands while crouched down. His ears still ringing, breaths came in small pants as if he was drowning in air. The screaming of the school.
"Take me back, DAMN IT!"
…
He closed his eyes, but everything beside him, the sounds got pitched lower.
That's when he realized the car was moving slower. He looked up at Carla, the driver slowly. Eyes shot open, his eyes were wide in tears, but they were glowing golden, design like clockwork on the inside of his eyes. And on the brink of insanity, but all he saw, everything, was frozen.
"W-What the hell..?"
Nothing was moving except for him, not a single one. He reached out to her and spoke.
"Carla-"
Before he could reach her, he got pulled away into a inescapable vacuum. A wormhole to another dimension. A place where there was no sound or air. As he got pulled, he felt his organs pulling him up to move. Tear by tear, everything of material was left behind.
As he got into the dark place, there it was. The interface. A blue holographic screen that was just out of touch.
Ding. Ding. It showed pictures of the past moments of Nagito's time as Ash up to the most present.
And then, whroom!
He could move. His feet was standing on solid ground. Gasping for air, then coughing.
The air was humid. The smell was similar.
"Ash, you got asthma or something?"
The captain grabbed his shoulder, patting him on the back.
"What just happened?"
They ignored him as if he didn't say anything. Captain Ryan walked up inside the AVALON and picked up the audio recorder again.
"This is squadron 12, reporting our fifth mission. Scouting for imperial army of Tron's navigational bases. It is June 13, 1046 of the Baragan calendar. Ready to move."
His eyes widened. Those were the exact same words he said. Word for word.
A few minutes go by. Still in the same formation. AVALON on the left, armored vehicle on the right, Vermy's motorcycle in the back.
The same humidity and heat. The same grassy smell of the forest like the day after rain.
It was about this time Carla took off her uniform and stayed in her sports bra. Sweat dripping on her collarbone in the exact same spot.
But he didn't even care enough about that to look anymore. Nagito was still in shock. Looking at everything in wide eyes.
"Ash, how'd you sleep last night?"
Vermy came up and asked the same question she did.
"Good…"
She faintly blushed and looked away again. Something clicked in his mind. It was about time it started.
Nagito ducked right away. Whoosh, the bullet flew over him.
"Enemies ahead!"
Carla yelled as she started firing her pistol.
"Carla, give me the gun!"
She hands it to him, then focused on driving.
"It was about this time I get shot again… by YOU!"
As the enemy uncrouched, Nagito pre-fired the shot, and splash the bullet hit square on his head.
"Nice shot!"
But Nagito dropped the gun again. Flashbacks pile from the smell of gunpowder. It felt like there was a hand caressing his heart, threatening to squeeze it.
Cough. Cough. His heart started racing again. But with no remorse of killing a man.
"Take it back!"
He handed the gun to Carla, who fired again, killing two other enemies shooting.
"Annoying little critters!"
The captain who piloted the AVALON, fired the minigun attached to the fist of the mecha. It sprayed and rained bullets on the enemies, taking them out.
It slid across the dirt, making a sharp turn towards a heavy weight tank.
"Damn! Should've known they would've had one of them!"
The tank fired right away, hitting the AVALON in it's knees. Making him lose balance.
In the two sides, inside, the AVALON cockpit, he put both it's hands up and kept firing bullets at the tank.
"Shit! I didn't equip anti-tank missiles!"
"Captain, look out! Impact grenade!"
Vermy got in front of him as he went off to the side, she threw an impact grenade, hitting the surface, it exploded the tank open. Smoke came out and the drivers were coughing. At their blindside, Vermy held her sniper rifle, and shot at the two, the collateral killing both of them in one shot.
"Nice job, Vermy!"
The captain praised her and went off to find other ambushers.
The smell of gunpowder had been overridden by the smoke, calming down Nagito.
"Carla, I think we're good."
"Yeah, better catch up with Vermy so we don't lose each other."
They started to speed up and follow her. And soon, they stopped and had a break.
Both the girls sighed.
"Tiresome… but at least we got rid of them."
Carla flipped her silver hair back.
"Yeah. That tank almost scared me. Good thing captain was there."
Captain?
Nagito, the silent one, spoke up.
"Where is he?"
"I'll just contact him. He's probably fine."
In the back of his mind, he had a bad feeling. But Nagito shrugged it off. The big guy's probably okay.