chapter 17

Petia flew as quick as possible. Luckyly there were no ARDs nearby, so she didn't have any problems. As the doors of the shelter were closing she shouted.
"STOP! Wait for a minute! Don't close!"
The guards heard it and stopped. They looked towards her.
"It's that girl!" (guard 1)
Petia landed in front of them and handed them the girl she was carying.
"She needs to be treated as soon as possible. She was injured by some derbis." (Petia)
"OK. We've got it!" (guard 2)
"T-thank you for saving my sister!" (boy)
"You're welcome but I don't have time now. Close the door tight, I have to go!"
She then flew away. The guards did as they were told. Petia was flying as fast as she could towards the meeting spot. If Shin and the others weren't there, she was going to go and search for them. She had to help Lance.
BOOOOOOM!
Something exploded behind her but she didn't dare to look back. As expected Shin, Mary and Blake weren't at the centre. She had to look for them. She headed towards the closest shelter to the centre. They weren't there, luckyly the shelter was closed and the people were safe. She headed towards the next, on the way there she spotted them. They were on their way towards the next shelter. She quickly flew over to them and landed.
"Petia!? What are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to be with Lance?" (Mary)
"Yeah, where is he?" (Shin)
"Hah,hah...We need help! Lance is fighting with some other boy with strange weapon and armor. We need to help him!" (Petia)
They followed Petia to the place where Lance was fighting. On the way there Blake asked Petia.
"Why is he fighting? Couldn't you have ran away?"
"We couldn't. There was an injured girl we had to take to the shelter. Lance gave it to me and told me to go. Before I knew it, the other boy suddenly attacked and..." (Petia)
"That's enough! Don't waste your breath! For now, we'll save lance, the explanation comes later!" (Mary)
=== Somewhere in the city ===
Alisa, Melinda, Kurama and Chuo were fighting with a level 5 ARD.
"Haaah!" (Kurama)
Kurama delivered the final blow to the ARD they were fighting.
"This one's also finished. Let's move to the last one, the level 4." (Alisa)
""YES!""
"I wonder what are those trainees doing right now?" (Chuo)
"We don't have time! Let's go and defeat that ARD!" (Kurama)
Kurama ran ahead of them, they followed after him. Alisa looked at Chuo.
"Why are you suddenly interested in them?" (Alisa)
"I don't know. It's just a feeling." (Chuo)
=== Back with Petia and co ===
They reached the place where Petia and Lance parted, it was a mess. There were deep cuts left in the asphalt and the buildings. The pavement was destroyed, there were few big craters and butrnt marks.
"Wwhat in the world happened here...?" - Mary whispered.
"Maybe he's somewhere else. Let's look for him!" (Shin)
They looked for him together in a formation. Who knew when that boy with the strange weapon would attack. They followed the traces of battle untill they heard a voice. It was Lance's voice. It was very quitet but they could still find from where it came. It came from the next corner. They ran towards it. When they turned left, the thing they saw relieved and shocked them at the same time. In front of them stood Lance, he wasn't seriously injured but still was badly bruised, they sighed in relief. The thing that shocked them was that Lance stood in front of that mysterious boy, which was badly injured and was holding the back of his bleeding neck, talking to him with his arm extended.
"I know the things that were done to you can't be erased but you should stop it. Hatred won't bring you anywhere, so come with me! I'll be your friend." - Lance said that and smiled warmly.
No 5 looked at Lance bewildered, deep inside his heart warmth he hadn't felt in years appeared. The ends of his mouth slightly rose and he took Lance's hand.
"My name is Lance. What's your name?"
"Z...ane?" (No 5)
After such a long time living like in a nightmare, right at that moment he had the time to realize something. He almost didn't remember anything. He looked down with a slightly worried expression.
"Well then, Zane, nice to meet you." (Lance)
"Lance!" (Mary)
She and the others ran towards him. Zane (No 5) rose up weakly and looked at them with hostility. They fliched and stopped moving for a bit.
"It's OK. Ther're my friends." (Lance)
"Lance, what happened?" (Shin)
"Oh, at first we fought quite seriously but then I realized that he was just a bit angry, so I befriended him. Zane, this are my friends Shin, Petia, Mary and Blake. There are others but they aren't here right now, try to be nice, OK?" (Lance)
"O...k" (Zane)
Shin, Petia, Mary and even Blake were bewildered. They thought the same thing.
'Lance really is strage. What's up with this situation?'
"I-is it really OK? I mean- he attacked us without a reason and all.." (Petia)
"Ah, it's fine we talked things out. Let's go and finish our job!" - Lance grabbed Zane's whole arm and dragged him off to somewhere.
"Lance, wait!" (Mary)
"What's it?" (Lance)
"We also finished our work. All citizens are safe." (Shin)
"Is that so...." - Lance's face became blank, he looked like an idiot.
A light suddenly flashed and Lance's ONE turned bak to a bracelet.
"I guess you used up all of the energy." (Blake)
"It looks like that...What should we do now? We have to find a safe place for you Lance." (Petia)
Screeee! BOOOOM!
A loud explosion sounded from the other end of the city.
[Attention! All citizens listen! The ARDs have been defeated! Repeat, the ARDs have been defeated!]
"So miss Alisa and the others had defeated all of them? That's a relief, let's go to the city centre and meet with them!" (Shin)
"Wait! Before that we have to discuss something! What shall we do about him?" - Blake pointed at Zane.
Zane was covered in blood, wounds and his armor was tattered at a few places.
"Now that you mention it...Lance, didn't he have a halperd?" (Petia)
"Yes, he had."
"Then where is it?" (Blake)
Lance let go of Zane and ran inside the building on their left. After a while he returned with a broken halberd. Half of the handle was gone, the geen light no longer glowed and the blade was chipped at numerous places.
"This is all that's left from it. It flew into this building at some time." (Lance)
"....Wwell we better bring it to Alisa and the others, rright?" (Petia)
The others nodded slowly in agreement.
"Then, let's go!" - Lance took Zane's arm and led the way.
'What would miss Alisa and the others do when they see Zane?' - Shin thought.
"Shin, you hold on to the broken weapon in any case." - Mary tossed him the halberd, or what was left from it.
Shin caught it and held it in his left hand as they walked. Whithout any of them paying attention ar looking at it, for a brief moment the green light flashed on top of the halberd again and then disappeared.
=== Special! Zane's story! ===
A bit more than a year had passed afrer the ARDs appeared. Everything was in ruin but a hope appeared. People wielding ONEs had began to fight the ARDs. People hoped for them to come and save them as soon as possible, but here, in the ruins of Eugene, Oregon, a boy was crying on the street. Instead of being in the shelter or hiding somewhere, it was sitting on the pavement in the wide open. That boy was Zane. At that time he looked like an ordinary boy but his eyes were swollen from all the crying. A few days ago his parents were ripped to pieces by an ARD. Although they were supposed to be moved out of the shelter to a safer place but their truck was attacked. Because his father's ankle was sprained, he couldn't run so his mother tried to help him. They were too slow to get away. The other people left them in order to save their lives. Zane ran away and hid in the city. He fed on some caned food he found in an abandoned shop. In the end he fell into depression and gave up on life. That was why he was staying in the open. He then heard a sound, it was the sound of a car. He looked at the direction and saw a van in camouflage paint. The van stopped in front of him and from the back door a few men in military clothes came out. A woman's voice from the inside of the van ordered them.
"Tie him up and stuff something in his mouth so that he doesn't make a rucks."
They tied him up and threw him in. In the van he saw a woman in a lab coat with long blonde hair, black shirt, red skirt and a few piercinggs on her right ear. This was Prof. Shiroyama. Se took him by force and locked him up. He was then experimented on along with the other children. Unfortunately after the experiments were done, because of the ARD body fluids and other medications, along with the acumolated negative emotions from all the pain he became like a furious beast. Lost control and started attacking everyone. After they locked him in the cell, they conducted even more tests on him. His dark days continued like that. Untill fate took a big turn and brought a change. He was released, because he was no longer usefull to Shiroyama, in order to spread chaos and be killed but that didn't happen. He met with Lance, who brought light again to his frozen heart. Without even him knowing, Lance had clawed out the device Shiroyama had implanted on the back of his neck, along wiht the other Varions.