The creaking of bugs and the sound of leaves swaying in the wind blended with each other. The natural sound of the wilderness would be completely overwhelmed when the sound of an explosion occurred. The dark greenery would be blinded by a purple burst of light. As the colour faded, a glowing orange flame would fall down through the thick treetop. However, the thick mangrove branches would put out the flame as the figure within it declined slowly. The figure eventually fell down onto the wilderness floors in a cowering position. As the figure laid down flat, a woman rose out from the arms of the figure.

“Exquisite landing.” Ava stretched herself, cracking her back as she slowly got back up to an active stance. The figure, Ryan, would sit upright, immediately disposing of the thruster pack attached to his back. They were shot down by Monarch in an attempt to escape him.

“We should find a way to retrieve the files.” Ryan adjusted his gauntlet as he slowly stood up. 

“There’s no point…” Ava would finish stretching. Ryan turned his vision to Ava, the protective face shield that surrounded his helmet would retract into his guard. It revealed Ryan’s confused face.

“You launched this mission. Why am I the one keen to finish it?”

“You saw Ashe. She joined Monarch on his conquest. I can see it in her eyes. I didn’t see Monarch or some unleashed monster. I saw her for what she truly is.”

Ryan sighed, he crossed his arms as his head tilted down. He knew something along this line would happen. “You were wrong…but in some ways, you were right.” Ava looked into his eyes. “You thought we could give hope for survival and goodness to Ashe. Yes, it might seem impossible but we can still give it to others.” Ava frowned as he said that.

“How? How can we give hope to millions of people across the galaxy if we can’t even save one?”

“We expose Monarch.” 

Her eyebrows narrowed as Ryan began explaining his plan.

“If we leak as little as one file through a secured public media channel, it would send a direct message that the Galactic Liberation Front are hypocrites and torturers. Imagine the amount of support we can get as a rebellion. The New Allegiance can actually be the new allegiance of heroes, peacekeepers and people with good will.” 

The perception from Ryan made Ava look the other way as she gave herself a moment to think. The silence broke as she pivoted back to Ryan’s direction.

“Okay…What’s your pla-

 As thumping footsteps could be heard from afar, both of them immediately crouched. Ryan activated his face shield as he began scanning the area for heat signatures. The scanner in his helmet began marking heat signatures around them. As it filtered out the signatures of animals on the trees, it would ping towards a metal monster wandering slowly. It was Aiden. Both Ava and Ryan would begin to make their way past Aiden, both slowly taking footsteps. However, the Ravage suit had a tracker of its own. As Ava accidentally steps a branch, the crimson eyes of the suit turned to the direction of the sound. Aiden charged at it. The mangrove trees collapsed from his path. However, Ryan pulled Ava in time. The manoeuvre was timed perfectly to the point that the sound they made while thrashing through the bushes were in synchronisation with the thumping boots of Aiden. As both of them recovered, Aiden turned around slowly. The slight disadvantage of the Ravage suit over the Spectral suit was that when Aiden activates the sound tracker, he is unable to see his surroundings normally. He walked through the dense forest. Ava began advancing forward in an attempt to walk past Aiden and into the direction he came from. However, the smallest footsteps she took were registered into Aiden's tracker. Aiden, suspecting this could be something, began taking smaller steps. He walked closer…and closer…and closer. Eventually, Ava was frozen as she was right in front of the Ravage Suit. Ryan saw Aiden completely looming over Ava without knowing she was there. Before Aiden had the chance to take another step, a burning sound could be heard behind him. Ryan would cut down a tree beside him with his plasma blade, causing enough sound to catch Aiden’s attention.

Instantly, Aiden began charging at the direction of the sound. Ryan leaped, using his rocket boots as a boost for him to momentarily fly, picked up Ava and was out of range of Aiden’s scanners. Only one word kept lingering in Ryan’s mind.

Predictable.

~~

Moments passed as they were back where they started, Ryan hidden in a mangrove tree and Ava crouching behind a boulder, both overlooking the base they had just attacked. Their attack went smoothly as before. Sneaking past guards, taking out watchtowers and stealthily making their way to the hangar door without alerting the alarm. It seemed weird due to the fact that the terminal had an attempted raid yet the infiltration was easy. The realisation, however, didn’t affect both of them.

However, their approach is different this time. Ava shot up a grappling arrow. Together, both her and Ryan would grapple up to the ventilation shaft by the side of the building. Crawling through the dark vents and sneaking through the wretched hallways, they found themselves at the center of the Terminal. The target.

“I’ll search the eastern banks. Take the south?” Ryan asked, his protective face shield lowered.

“Sure. Once we get the Tariol files, we leave.”

Ryan nodded, his face shield emerged out of the mouth guard. The duo would disperse, scouring through the drive farm in search of the files. Ava scrolled through the drive, using a wayfinder to search for the specific drive. She walked past the columns before halting. Someone caught her eye. A light beam glowing down onto the person in the dark abyss of the bank.

“Finding something, Ava?” Ashe was standing at the end of the column, her weapon by her hand.

“Ashe…” Ava held her bow forward. She was in a defensive stance.

“You know, Monarch predicted this. He told me that you would be after the Tariol files.” She would pull out a drive clipped on her belt, waving it. She holstered it back on her belt as she pulled her scythe up to her attacking stance.

“You don’t have to do this, Ashe.” Ava took an arrow out, resting it on her bow.

Without hesitation, Ashe charged. Ava would fire an arrow. Though Ashe managed to manoeuvre past it, she found herself on a locked parry with Ava. Both would duel out with their weapons, trying to gain an upper hand over one another.

Right at the other end of the room, Ryan was scrolling through the drives. His fingers stopped when he discovered a drive named Head Operators. To his shock, the drive contained every single information there ever was on the Head Operators. Ava, Destoria, Kal, Ajay and his name were compiled into folders stashed in that drive. He pulled it out, placing it on the ground. He plugged in the holo transmitter from his gauntlet with hopes that he could scroll through the folders. As a folder opened up, it showed a hologram of the Spectral suit. However, it seemed weird. It had a cape, horns protruding from the helmet and dark clothing. It took Ryan a moment before he realised that the unusual addition to the suit was just a man standing at the end of the column, coincidentally aligned with the suit from his point of view. The man had his hands tucked inside the cape and right as Ryan panned his head up to him, his visor glowed.

“You think you can study us, Monarch?” Ryan stood up.

Monarch remained silent. His purple visor glowed at the end of the dark column as he waited for Ryan to make his next move. Ryan then closed the drive, activating his plasma blade and completely severed the drive. The files are no more.

“You’re not going to get an upper hand of us anymor-

A purple beam would hit Ryan. He would get tossed through the banks. Eventually, he would halt right at the central processing chamber at the center of the room. Monarch walked through the damage he caused, stopping when he exited the last bank.

“Your folder was yet to be made when I broke you all those years ago. What were the exact words that I told you when your head was at the bottom of my boot?” 

Ryan slowly recovered himself as plasma beams formed right at the end of his gauntlets.

“Destroy the ghost and I will spare you. Leave the fight for justice for me. Clearly you didn’t heed my warning.”

Ryan leaped towards Monarch, both his blades at the ready for a lethal attack. However, Monarch took a step back. He knew how he would attack. Due to that, his sword was not with him and his hands were not charged with energy. As the ghost flew right to the dark king, Monarch simply dodged his attacks. He toyed with Ryan, chuckling after his failed attacks. On the far end of the room, Ashe eventually overpowered Ava. Her brutal strike from the blunt end of her scythe knocked her balance off, causing her to fall and unintendedly unarming herself of her bow. The fight was tough for Ava. She had to defeat the person she wanted to save but in doing so, would show how wrong she was of the people she once knew.

“None of this would have happened if you helped me.” Ashe lowered her weapon, the blade of the scythe hovering right above Ava’s head. “You could have gone to our old ways…Stop at nothing to sentence our enemies to justice. But no…You wanted to be the hero. You think that fighting on the inside works but you just became one of them.”

“I didn't. I lost many people while trying to wipe the Allegiance from the corruption it endured. I lost you, my friends, the Corps and my home. I wanted to do good but I chose the wrong path.” Ava yielded, her left hand slowly sliding behind her hip.

“And whose fucking fault was that?” Ashe became distracted as she became emotional.

“Mine…but this path you're embarking on, is yours. You think Monarch is different? He is the pinnacle of evil this galaxy has ever witnessed. It won't be long until he cast you aside-

Ava would be silenced as Ashe swung the blunt end of her scythe onto her face.

“LIES! I know him. He is the only one who has a vision of a brighter future. We do the dirty work so that the world is cleansed from the sins of our past!”

“Tariols…” Ava mumbled as she placed pressure on her mouth to stop the bleeding.

“What?...”

“Find that out soon enough.” Swiftly, Ava pulled out a knife hidden underneath her quiver, slicing her right thigh. The cut was deep enough to slice through her muscle tendons, destabilising her leg. Ava stood up, grabbing her bow. “I will free you from him, Ashe. One day, but not today.” She immediately ran to Ryan.

As she pivoted from a corner, Ryan would get tossed to her. Monarch gently strolled to the two of them, halting when he was near them. “Your bravery is interesting. Heroic, but naive. I doubt that heroism is what the galaxy needs when you are fighting a war. Perhaps that is why you keep losing.” Ava primed her bow, firing at Monarch in an instant. The arrow flew through the air, before halting right at his face. He caught it.

“You don’t learn, do you? Pentercost.” He lowered the arrow.

“Oh…I do.” The arrow exploded right at his palm. It was an explosive arrow. It caught the Supreme Leader off-guard. Immediately, both Ryan and Ava ran for the exit vent they came from. They hurried through the hallways as an eerie siren was blasted across the terminal. Troopers flocked to their position but they were able to clear them. At the vent they crawled in from, Ava fired a grappling arrow up to enter. Before Ryan could boost himself up, he was held by a purple force. An aura of energy kept him in place. He struggled to move as Monarch stood behind him, slowly increasing the damage from the energy. Ryan screamed. The heat from the energy increased as it was slowly burning him alive. Squads of troopers flocked in as they surrounded him and Monarch. He felt no hope that he could escape. His eyes locked with Ava’s as both of them stared at each other before…

BOOM!