Secrets

Chapter 5

Daily Task

" What? Right now? But where? The shortest time I could manage to get to the city is in fifteen minutes and that'll take too long..." " Myra, calm down. Unfortunately, Commander Misato only informed him on the mission so I guess Almin's there already.." " Cara." " Oh yes. Luckily, the location is near you. Just about today morning, the piece was located near the forest next to an apple orchard. In the heart of the forest is a shrine. I'm not exactly sure but I think the piece is hidden inside the shrine. Be careful.. I heard that ancient temple builders put a lot of traps so no one will pass unto the treasure the shrine's protecting." A click sounded as Myra turned off her phone.

She scanned the entire area for a sign of a forest. Locating it to her right, she was about to run when something stopped her by tugging on her leg. A girl in her age of around five looked at her with teary eyes. Temia Warrens. Age 5. Her mission.. but. Myra squatted down and asked. " What's wrong Temia?" The girl didn't even look surprised that she knew her name. Instead, she sniffed. " Did you see my nanny or daddy?" Temia lifted up a piece of photo to Myra's eyes. Carter Warren. Next to him was a picture of Veronica Warren, his wife. " No. What happened? And what about your mother?" More tears gushed out of the girl and Myra silently panicked. " My mommy died when I was little and my daddy had to go off somewhere. He promised he'd meet us here today. Nanny took me here so I could meet my daddy. But I lost nanny and my daddy..." Taking out a locket, the little girl handed Myra the jewel. " I was going to give daddy this so while he's away at work, he'll remember me.."

Something flashed inside Myra. Her heart hurted?

Myra snapped out of her daze as she felt time ticking away. But she couldn't leave this girl alone. Scanning around, she found a old woman climbing up to where she was. " Temia!" was the first cry that came from the old woman's lips as she caught sight of the little girl.

" Nanny!" The little girl and the old woman hugged. " Thank you so much for finding Temia.. She's the only connection I have of my son.." Smiling a little, Myra smiled softly. " You're welcome. I gotta go now.."

Before anybody could say a word, she ran. As soon as she gotten within the shades of the forest, a flashed lighted and in the place of a normal fifteen years old girl stood an assasin.

Her black pontail trailing swiftly behind her, Airis jumped from tree to tree, going a mile a second. A gunshot sounded around her, causing her to stop her ascent to the heart of the forest. Grabbing her 'x' shaped necklace, a flashed light again and in her hands formed two guns.

Millions of bullets whizzed by each other and many men fell in darkness as Airis dodged them all. Looking around her, she decided that Zevia was all already here. Damn. Only a few seconds late, and she was a mile behind.

After making a path through the gunshots, she kept running, not bothering to kill the remaining soldiers behind.

She now had covered three fourths of the distance to the temple. Only one fourths to go.

Suddenly Airis's eyes widened. Clutching her bleeding right arm, she glared at the figure in front of her carrying a bloody knife. " So this is the 'unbeatable' soldier from Nasear?" The figure mocked." Somehow I expected more from the unbeatable one." Looking at Airis's wound, the figure smirked. " I guess I was mistaken."

Anger flared throughout Airis. Suddenly, her eyes widened in realization. She was letting this ' feeling ' get to her head and it was blocking her goal of retrieving the piece! Come on Myra. Concentrate, she thought to herself. To get to her goal, she had to get past this other soldier. And it didn't look like she could get there without a fight.

Just as she thought that, the other figure launched into attack. Using her knife, the figure was going for Airis's heart. But just as quickly, Myra dodged and before the other figure could regain her senses, she formed a weapon in the speed of light and threw the weapon at the figure.

However, the figure was agile and was able to avoid the dagger piercing her neck. However, she wasn't quick enough as the dagger pinned her to a tree nearby.

Determining she wouldn't be able to get out of that for a few minutes, Airis without looking back at the cursing figure, ran forward to the temple.

The moment she broke through the shrubbery of the trees, she realized she made a mistake as she saw more than four dozen men surrounding the place. And the fact that they were all from Zevia didn't help. Quickly regaining her senses, she began shooting everyone with her gun. The men, who were surprised as her had all frozen and were made easy targets.

Getting a shaky path through the mass of dead people, Myra leaped unto the entrance and ran into it only to stop sharply as she felt her foot sink into the floor and about twenty arrows were shot across the place where she was minutes ago. Hanging unto the ceiling, she used her scanning system to find the hidden traps.

She silently gulped as she 'saw' about ten traps hidden inside the walls of this one hallway.

Doing some complicated somersaults, she managed to land safely away from the first hallway. And continued to run when she ran into more soldiers of Zevia. Making each shot count she was about to run when something caught her eyes.

Carter Warren. Temia's dad, who promised his daughter he would be here for her today. And he had readied his gun in front of him, pointing it at Airis's heart. The shot rang and Airis dropped to her knees. The bullet whizzed over her and reacting upon instinct, Airis shot him.

Only when she shot him did she froze as her eyes widened. " No.. my littl. Temia." The man croaked out. Airis felt a bitter revolting taste come over her mouth. She had killed him. That dawned on her for the first time when she had already shot millions of men and women to death. She had killed someone who had another identity besides being a Zevia's soldier.

She watched silently as the man's eyes teared up. " they said.. I could go free.. when I complete this task.. egh." His breathing came rapidly. Without any warning, Airis dropped to her knees next to the man. Carter turned to glare at her and spat. " finishing.. the job?! .."

Airis continued to kneel when she felt something wet on her cheeks. She wiped them and looked at the tears on her hand. " What's this?.. why is water coming out from my eyes?" She looked at him for explaination.

Carter looked at the young girl in front of him and saw the confusion in her eyes making him just stare at her. Airis suddenly noticed the necklace still in her clutches. " Temia, you daughter wanted you to have it." She stated. Carter took the necklace and more tears filled his eyes. " Thank you.." He clutched the necklace to his heart and closed his eyes as pain took over. Airis felt words come out from her mouth in whispers. " I'm sorry.. I'm so sorry.." However when she looked back at him, it was too late and now a dead corpse laid before her.

She held her gun and looked at it blankly. Cara still needed her to do a mission. Getting up and wiping the tears, she continued on her way. As she reached the inner chambers of the shrine, she came to find Almin and the stranger she fought yesterday, fighting and shooting at each other, both having exceptional skills at their aim. Beyond them, the piece laid bare, in easy reach. Dodging the bullets swiftly, she ran towards the piece. Both men froze until she actually gripped the silver warm piece in her hand.

The enemy began shooting at her but she didn't shoot back and just dodged, dangerously close to death when Almin defended her, making a safe path for her. Airis without giving a glance ran full speed out of the temple. As soon as she came across another batch of the enemies soldiers, she avoided them all by jumping over them all, trying to dodge the millions of bullets shot at her. Two caught her arm and she fell with a thud from her flight as red liquid began to soak her left arm. Before the soldier could shoot at her, more shots rang out. Airis just laid there, and watched as every men fell, dead. She felt a arm grasp her waist as a urgent voice rang in her ears. " Ai-ris! What do you think you're doing?!" Almin hissed in annoyance. " You're going to kill yourself and loose the artifact before we could get the hell out of here. And what the hell is wrong with you. Though I hate to admit it, your fighting skills are ten times better than mine. After all, you are made for this." He didn't say any more as he swiftly carried her all the way outside.

Made for this.. The job to kill..and do whatever is commanded to me... Airis thought. I'm made for this..

In just moments, they were in a very safe distance away from the shrine, and Almin laid Ai-ris down and she immediately detransformed into the innocent schoolgirl named Myra. The wounds in Myra had all healed up and Almin snatched the piece from her. " I guess I'll be delivering this then." He walked off and turned around unsurely. " Just be careful, Myra.. and don't get yourself killed." Myra stared back blankly at him. Almin walked off.

A hand reached out to grab Myra's shoulder and she stiffened. She quickly turned around to see Tyler, a worried look evident on his face. " There you are. We were looking all over for you..We thought you got lost.. and.." Myra kept silent. " Hey. I'm sorry about alarming you like that.."Tyler voice warmly apologized.

Before she even know what she was doing, Myra buried her face in Tyler's shirt and began to sob. Tyler surprised stood still. A worried expression came over Tyler as he held her to him. " he... he.. ." muttered Myra in her sob. And Tyler stiffened hearing that. His embrace grew tighter as a very distressed frown appeared on his face.

He just hugged her tighter, trying to soothe her and share her pain. And the two stood like that underneath the full white moon of the darkening sky.

Sorry for the ultra late update.. but I guess that's all I'm really doing nowadays..- - ;; gomen ne~!

Neway, to arcticflames: wow~ how'd you know?!!! Neway thanks and enjoy~!

Orlha: well, we'll see about if what you guessed really is what I thought of^^- *grin*

Riyue: ^^- all I can say is thanks and you'll have to wait and see~^^-