Bloodstained Rose

Chapter 2

The village was devastated by the attack. By morning, the forces of the Global Eurasian Initiative had finished the sweep of the village and the surrounding area. They had vanished as fast as they appeared. In their wake, they left a massive grave far away from the village. It had taken them less than twelve hours to remove the bodies. The G.E.I. had the tools, the manpower, and the equipment to cross any line they so pleased. The devastation was devoured by the mist from the valley, blotting out the morning sun. The shrine had burnt through the evening, being left in embers by sunrise. All the walls had been demolished, leaving the remains of the elders before them scattered across the floor. Each of the scrolls had barely survived the destruction, being left damp from the exposure to the elements. Down below, the hatch on the fallout shelter had been buried in rubble.

After hours of remaining undisturbed, the pile of debris started to shake. A hand reached out from below, pushing the wreckage clear. Rei had finally awakened and spent the last hour trying to clear enough of the debris to pass. The primary blast from Vic’s grenade had warped the door, immediately causing the ceiling around it to collapse. The shelter had not been built to withstand this type of weaponry but had miraculously prevented her from being consumed in the blast.

She had pushed enough debris aside to crawl through. By now, she had not been sure how long the blast had knocked her out. Her sight was still blurry. The presence from her suit had remained silent. It had since reverted to its normal form, reverting her hair back to its regular orange. Rei squeezed her waist under the top of the doorway, carefully making progress getting on her feet only to stand on the barely stable ground that was once the stairwell. Her body had never been so broken. After standing, a sharp pain had quickly run across a few of her ribs.

“Ah, that’s broken.” Rei muttered—a slight shock that she could speak. Beneath the rubble, her weapon had lay in the open unscathed from the blast. After pulling the black-metal sword from the debris and holding it overhead, a chill graced what remained of the stairwell. Now it resembled more of a slide, for the most part—its steps had been blasted into gravel. She had tip-toed up the very brittle remains, reaching the shrine to see the tattered wooden floor. The sight of the immediate area had brought her to tears.

Everything was gone. As she was finally starting to deal with the trauma of losing Shugo, her entire life had suddenly been ripped away. She made her way closer to the monastery, or what was left of it. The fog kept her from seeing no more than a few feet in front of her face.

“Is anyone there?” she called out.

The wind behind her gave her a soft push forward and away from the shrine. She slowly paced ahead, so as not to lose her balance. The people once continued with the cycle of their lives, but now the ambience of the valley was all that remained. The rubble, shredded clothes, and blood across the ground was the only indicator of life that once roamed the area. The sun had slowly begun to clear the gloom, further revealing the remains of a place she once called home. Further up the hill, the wreckage from the dropship remained.

The ship had once been used to transport troops but had met a swift end during the battle. Its hull had been covered with soot from burning throughout the night. The G.E.I. had tried to go out of their way to ensure there would be no bodies in the open but had left their damaged ship behind. The wreckage around the craft had been twisted beyond recognition.

Rei had decided to search inside the aircraft regardless, fighting the wind as it blew against her. It had felt like a supernatural presence pushing her back, telling her to go elsewhere. What remained inside the ship were the charred remains of a few crew members, frozen in horror. The entire inside had been exposed to the outdoors since the explosion and became covered in a thin layer of frost. For the rest of the day, she had searched through the ship and village for any survivors or supplies.

Her many patrols had only led her through the valley, far away from any other settlements or other traces of civilization. If she wanted to find help, she would have to take her chances in the wilderness and only hope that she would find another settlement. The continued search had led her towards the woods. The ambience of the valley had echoed the thoughts in her head. Once she made it towards the first meadow, her robe had started to react much like it had the night before. She held her weapon above her, feeling another presence among her.

“Show yourself,” she called out. With her weapon still tight in her grip, she had pointed it ahead towards a pile of leaves. Another burst of pain run across her back, causing her to grunt and lower her arms. “I’m not here to hurt you.”

“Please, help me.” a voice called back. It had been a relief hearing it, but she cautiously approached the source of the noise. Over by the pile, she could see a young man starting to rise from beneath. The leaves and dirt had been bound to his face by blood and sweat. His body was covered in bruises and scratches following the attack.

Rei made her way over towards him and tried to remove as much of the debris as possible. The boy was much younger and appeared weakened from his brush with death. There were some people in the village who had a position lower than hers and from the looks of his haggard physique, she could guess that he would have most likely been stuck in the fields.

“It’s going to be alright,” she said calmly while continuing to brush the dirt off his body. “Is there anybody else out there?”

“I don’t know.” He returned before coughing again. The fibers of the robe over his torso had been stained. Beneath it, there was some shrapnel from one of the G.E.I.’s munitions that had been lodged into him. Blood continued to pour from the wounds and onto her robe, causing even more distress as the boy started to gasp for air.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“Duo,” he replied once he had taken another breath. “You’re Rei, right?”

“That’s right,” she nodded back. “Listen, I’m going to go back and get something. Duo, I need you to remain calm.”

“Don’t leave me here.” He pleaded as he reached up to grab her arm.

“I’m not going to leave you.”

She had tried to pull away, but Duo had let out a whimper under his breath. His body had begun to shiver in the cold morning breeze. Rei had leaned into him, this time cradling him in her lap.

“Where’s Jin?” Duo whimpered again.

Tears began to roll down his face. Rei sighed upon thinking of the night before. She had watched Yulia snap his leg in two, leaving him helpless while Vic finished the job. The thought of a firearm or a gun was a foreign concept. Seeing the G.E.I. mow down her village gave her to needed context to understand the horrific weaponry. They were far too powerful for them to handle. She brushed her fingers through Duo’s hair and started pull him closer.

“It’s just us now.” She said softly, trying to comfort him.

“They took everything,” his soft sobs and sniffles filled the air, causing the heartache to surmount. Rei could feel tears starting to bead up in her eyes. The pain and sorrow had caused her focus on the surroundings to slowly fade away. Duo’s pulse started to slow with his breath, coming closer to a halt as he reached up to her again. “You’ve got to get them, please.”

“I will.”

“Please, Rei, make them pay.”

His breathing had finally come to a stop as he started to exit the plain of life. She knew at that point he would be passing on with the others. Somewhere in the Deep, she could feel his essence starting to fade. The forest had faded to black as she could feel a wave of water starting to sweep through them.

All things will pass through the Deep, Rei’s thoughts started to pass through her head. She could feel the presence of the Deep starting to push Duo away from her. The area around her had become an abyss—the water around her had flowed endlessly. She thought again of familiar words from an old friend. The Deep is an endless river flowing forward and backwards through time. We all come from the Deep, we pass through the Deep.

A chilling sensation from the water had started to slowly bring her back to the forest. The morning sun had caused the darkness and the cold mist of the valley to retreat. Rei stared back down toward Duo to see his lifeless eyes staring back at her. She gently began to glide her hand down his face to rest his eyelids. Once again, she had felt alone—a familiar feeling by now, and one she dreaded never being able to avoid.

“Reina.” A voice had hissed through the forest.

Her head snapped towards the sound. She eventually stared back towards the ruins of the shrine in the distance. The voice had repeated her name, raising her back to her feet.

“It’s not real.” She whispered before looking back down towards Duo.

Not wanting to leave him, she reached down towards him and tried to lift him from under the pile of leaves. It had taken her the next few hours to finally move him back to the village and find a final resting spot. She had chosen a spot near the only tree—which had been devastated in the battle as well. The boulder by the monastery where she had sat after the end of every shift had been turned into gravel.

The village was barely recognizable, and she could hardly remember where anything had stood previously. In that moment, she had found many words starting to run through her head. After placing the last mound of dirt over Duo’s body, she felt compelled to drag her fingers through the fresh soil. Inspiration had started to root, but she continued to think of the elders’ warnings. They had tried preparing her for this moment, but she had chosen to go against the grain.

I could have stopped all of this if I were stronger, she thought again. Instead of scratching out her thoughts, she turned back towards the shrine to locate the scrolls. She and the other warriors had spent their lives defending them. Months earlier, she and Shugo had barely thwarted Tetsu’s attempts to steal the most prized of the scrolls—the Rising. She looked down and recognized it lying in the rubble.

The contents were cryptic, but she had remembered the power of the Rising. Such a force could be harnessed to give her the extra edge to fight back. After picking up the scroll and walking away from the shrine, she took a seat in the dirt to begin reading. She was not clear if it was something she could learn. However, she thought of Shugo sneaking into the shrine night after night to read the contents.

He learned it, I can do this too.

Weeks had crept by. Tonight, the moon was not visible from under the clouds. Rei has already passed out after another long and grueling day of training. In the last few weeks, she had tried to balance her time between recovering and reading. There was no way to do any fighting with the number of broken ribs she had amassed. Yulia was too powerful. If Rei were to ever get revenge, she would need a better plan to be able to defeat Vic and Yulia. Given how powerful they were in that push, it was possible there were even more destructive weapons in existence.

As she remained fast asleep, a voice called out, “Reina.”

Rei had bolted off the ground, standing at the ready. This was the first time she had heard anything in weeks. She was not sure if the G.E.I. had decided to return or if another group of scavengers was coming to plunder the ruins.

“Who’s there?” Rei asked aloud.

She knew that she was being watched. Across from what was the monastery, she could see a figure standing in the rubble up ahead. Upon closer inspection, she could see a white-haired woman staring back at her. She had felt a sense of déjà vu, almost as if she had found herself facing off against such a presence before. The woman stood naked and appeared faceless and inhuman with her figure. Stretching from the edge of her body appeared to be a collection of wires extending towards Rei, connecting the two. Rei lifted her hands, seeing the long strands extending out. She was certain she was dreaming now.

It has been so long. Rei had plucked the strings, asking her, “What is happening?”

The woman had not responded with words. Instead, she brushed her hair aside, revealing the two miss-matched eyes, blue and green.

“You know what you have to do.” The woman spoke back.

“Who are you, and why are you doing this?”

The woman turned away, stepping further away in the distance. Rei had started to make her way towards her. There had to be some deeper meaning to her presence, but she could not find it just yet. She had moved in closer, following the string connecting them. Going further, she started to realize that her legs were getting heavier. The wires connecting her to the woman in her dreams had started to twirl in the air.

Soon, they had completely left the mysterious woman, instead binding to the sun, causing the light to grow brighter. Rei shut her eyes, trying to keep the radiant light away. A silhouette had started to burn itself into her vision. Soon, there was a chirp and she immediately found herself back in the village. She lifted herself from the ground and started to scan the empty area around her.

“Are you still there?” Rei asked aloud.

She was alone. Another chirp had rung out. The temperature over the winter had been so warm that several animals still had not migrated to their part of the valley. Rei stared up ahead towards the rising sun, feeling the wind pushing her towards it.

She stood tall before saying, “Let’s see how broken you are.”

She tried doing a standard shoulder stretch. The pain had been manageable. It could certainly have been worse, but it had gotten to a point where she was no longer in agony trying to do basic tasks. She tried to lean forward. This time, the sharpness had remained.

“Broken, but I can work with this.” she said finally.

The wait was over. Not wanting to fight the wind anymore, she had chosen to walk with it. Her only hope was that she would be able to find the ones who had taken everything.