Chapter 2 – Blood Memories

Shoryu was rudely awakened by the sounds of screams.  Not just any screams though.  These screams were anguished painful screams from a person’s core.  He opened his eyes and squinted in the bright sunlight.

SUNLIGHT!

Shoryu suddenly remembered what had happened and who he was with.  More importantly, he remembered what he was with.  Lexi lay on the grassy ground beside him, writhing in agony.  Her face as well as her hands were smoking and the outer skin had burned away to reveal the raw bloody flesh underneath.  Her black outfit was smoking too, as if her body’s internal heat was suddenly more than the tough material could endure.

Damn it! What the hell had happened?  Shoryu didn’t let himself be paralyzed.  Lexi was in trouble!  He tore off his t-shirt and threw it over Lexi’s face.  It didn’t help.  His t-shirt suddenly burst into flames and Shoryu threw it away with a violent curse.  “Shit!”

He looked around to find that he and Lexi were on a hill of some sort and there didn’t seem to be any sort of cover.  He thought he could see some trees in the distance though.  It was his only option and it was better than watching his friend burn to death.

He stepped away from Lexi and yelled, “Guyver!”

The killer within burst forth and covered his body.  It only took a few seconds for the transformation to be complete, but in that time, Lexi’s combat outfit had started to melt off her body and Lexi screamed in fresh agony as more flesh became exposed to the sun.

Shoryu picked Lexi up and tried to shield her as best as he could.  He oriented himself towards the distant trees and took off like a land rocket.  His telescopic vision told that there was indeed a forest of sorts in the distance.  He fervently hoped that he would reach them before it was too late.

The soft grassy ground didn’t provide decent footing though and Shoryu couldn’t reach his top land speed.  In his arms, Lexi squirmed and writhed and Shoryu had to tighten his grip to make sure she didn’t slip out.

He saw his chance when he spotted a large boulder.  He ran to it and timed a jump that maximized his momentum.  At the same time, he concentrated on the orb in his midsection and forced it to bend gravity.  As a result, he hit the boulder and then rebounded off and arrowed away from it much faster than before.

In mid air, he shifted his body in an effort to block as much of Lexi’s body from the murderous as possible.  It helped because Lexi’s screams trickled off into inarticulate murmers.

The momentum from his jump didn’t last forever though.  Fortunately, Shoryu was almost to the forest’s edge.  He hit the ground running and though this meant shifting his grip on Lexi so that she was more exposed, he didn’t have a choice.  Lexi was silent though.  She had passed out.

The forest provided some cover but Shoryu had a feeling that it wasn’t going to be enough so he kept running.  As he ran, he kept swiveling his head from side to side, trying to spot a good place where he could hide Lexi.  He remembered how quickly Lexi had healed from her wounds the night before, and he fervently hoped that her healing ability also worked on burns.

He spotted a clearing off to the left.  The sun streamed down through the break in the trees and Shoryu would have avoided the area except that beyond the clearing, there was a cave.  Before he could second guess himself, he changed course and headed for the clearing.  At the edge, he lunged for a large tree, rebounded off it, and then with the help of the gravity orb glided into the cave head first.

Once safely inside, he gently laid Lexi on the rocky ground and took stock of his friend.  Lexi’s once beautiful face was gone.  In its place was a bloody and raw facsimile of a face.  For a horrible moment, Shoryu thought that Lexi was dead, and that he had betrayed her trust by leading her into sunlight.  When he leaned his head down towards her chest though, he could barely make out the beating of her heart and the unevenness of her breathing.  She was still alive!

Shoryu released his hold on the killer and the bio boosted armor slid off his body and retreated back into the two scab-like sores on the back of his neck.  Lexi let out a pain filled groan and Shoryu looked down at her.  He wished he knew what to do.  Maybe there was something he could do…what did vampires need?  He gently rolled Lexi to her side so that he could get at her sword.  He quickly undid the straps holding it in place and removed it from her weapons harness.  When he pulled it out, he was amazed at how light it felt.  Like its owner, the sword was absolutely beautiful.

The blade was about twenty-six inches long and the leather wrapped tsuka was another eight inches or so.  The hamon was an irregular wavey line that ran down the entire length of the blade.  While growing up, Shoryu had seen many imitations, but somehow, he knew that what he was now holding was the real thing.  How on earth did a vampire with a European accent get her hands on a real authentic historical Japanese katana?  And not just any katana!  On the blade, just above the habiki, there was engraved a name written in ancient Japanese:  Arai Shakkuu.  The name sounded familiar to Shoryu, but at the moment, he could not place it.

A groan escaped from Lexi’s charred lips and Shoryu pushed all other thoughts from his mind.  He quickly drew the blade across his wrist and ignored the sharp pain.  His blood flowed from the wound and he held his wrist to Lexi’s mouth.  The blood dripped down and Lexi unconsciously swallowed the fluid of life.

The change was almost instantaneous.  The charring around her lips disappeared and her lips regained their luscious fullness.  The skin around her face healed and Lexi’s beauty was restored.  Shoryu glanced down her body and noted with satisfaction that the flesh that had been exposed when parts of her outfit had burned off was healed too.  He quickly glanced away when he realized that many of the holes in Lexi’s outfit were in embarrassingly strategic places.

Suddenly, a strong hand with a grip like a vise gripped his hand.  It pulled his hand down towards a blood filled mouth that had two extended canines.  Shoryu instinctively resisted the pull and a feral growl escaped from Lexi’s throat.  Her eyes were glowing blue, just like the night before, but this time they had a wild untamed look.

“Lexi!  It’s me, Shoryu!” exclaimed Shoryu.  He remembered what Lexi had said the night before about being bitten by a lycan.  He didn’t know what would happen if Lexi bit him and he didn’t really want to find out.  “Lexi!  Snap out of it!”

Lexi snarled and pushed herself up.  She grabbed Shoryu with her other hand and pulled him closer.  Shoryu tried to resist but found that he couldn’t.  In his current state, she was much stronger than him.  Her fangs reached for his throat and he closed his eyes and prepared to call the killer forth.  At this range, transforming into Omega Guyver would severely harm Lexi, but he couldn’t let her bite him.

Suddenly, Shoryu flew back as if pushed by a rushing bus.  He hit the far wall with an audible thunk and he fought to stay conscious.  He looked up and saw that Lexi was still in a crouch that made her look like some sort of wild animal.  There was a crazy look in her eyes, as if she were barely holding back a rampaging beast inside of herself.

“Get away!”  The voice didn’t sound like Lexi at all, even though it came from her mouth.

“Lexi, it’s me!  Are you alright?”

“Get out!”

“But –“

“GET OUT!”

Shoryu edged towards the cave entrance.  Lexi’s eyes followed him like a predator stalking a prey.  Her body made a half lunge towards him.

“GET OUT!” she screamed again.

This time, Shoryu turned and ran out of the cave.  There was a wordless howl behind him that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand straight up, but he didn’t look back.  He paused in the clearing, to let the sun warm the goose bumps on his arms.  Another howl from the cave behind him kick started his heart and made him run once more.  What had happened?  He was only trying to help!  He recalled the crazy angry expression on Lexi’s face and prayed that he wasn’t the cause of it.

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Lexi screamed and writhed on the cave floor.  It had been centuries since she last drank live warm blood from the source.  The bloodlust that currently possessed her was goading her to run out, seek the source of the blood and drink it dry.  She fought it though.  She fought it with all her might.  She just needed a few more moments and then she would have control once more…just a little more…

Like a snap in her mind, the bloodlust vanished.  Lexi sat down on the rocky ground and panted deep hoarse breaths.  Sweat dripped off her brow in rivers.  The fight with her bloodlust had left her physically and mentally drained.  When the memories hit her a moment later, she was completely unprepared for them.

The world around her disappeared and in its place, a flood of images and sounds overloaded her consciousness.  She found herself on a battlefield…

“GUYVER!”

“GUYVER!”

“GUYVER!”

A swarm of monsters crested a large hill and charged down towards her.  They were practically all shapes and sizes.  There were ones that resembled monkeys, some that looked liked rhinoceroses, and others that waved long scaly tentacles in the air as they ran.

Other monsters stayed back on the ridge, as if the charging monsters were simply cannon fodder.  If the charging monsters were hideous mockeries of normal animals, the ones that held back were monstrous mockeries of normal humans.  They were smaller, but she instinctively knew that their power dwarfed anything else on the battlefield.

To either side of her, were two beings that looked familiar.  One was light blue and the other was dark purple.  Somehow, she knew that these two were Guyvers.  The two Guyvers waded into the ranks of the monsters and clove a path through them.  Suddenly, she was moving too, even though she had no control over her body.  Her hands came up, into her vision and she could see that they were armored like the other two Guyvers, but her armor was completely black.  A ball of light formed between her hands and the orb in her midsection.  It grew in size and then the hands pulled back before throwing the glowing ball of super condensed pressure at the charging monsters.  As the ball left a trail of destruction in its wake, a word came to her mind:  Zoanoids.

The monsters were called Zoanoids and the leaders that were hanging back were called Zoalords.

An anorexically  thin Zoanoid jumped out of the ground in front of her.  Before she could think to react though, a brilliant beam of light shot from her forehead and decapitated the Zoanoid.  It fell to the ground and immediately started to dissolve.

Her conscious mind finally caught up with her.  She wasn’t part of this battle.  This battle had happened a long time ago.  She was seeing it again through Shoryu’s eyes.  Thanks to his gift of blood, she was now witnessing the memories that were embedded in it.

The battlefield blurred and suddenly, she was face to face with a beautiful Japanese girl.  The name Miyu flashed through Lexi’s mind.  Miyu closed her eyes, pursed her lips and leaned in…

Miyu’s face blurred and then took on another expression.  This time, Miyu’s face was frozen in a combination of anger, terror and pain.  Her hair was tangled in the grasp of a gigantic beetle like Zoanoid.  Her neck was dripping blood from where it had been ripped from her body…

The scene shifted...she was on a lonely hilltop,, accompanied by the light blue and the dark purple Guyvers.  The light blue Guyver screamed a scream of defiance and madness.  Lexi watched on in horror is he reached up to his own forehead and ripped a round metal medallion out.  It trailed long vine-like tentacles that reached forlornly for the empty hole where the medallion used to be.  The blue Guyver’s scream of madness turned into a scream of pain.  The light blue armor turned into a mush-like substance that dissolved inward.  With last of its strength, the light blue Guyver crushed the metal medallion.  A few seconds later, nothing remained of the light blue Guyver but a pool of acidic slush.

“Father!”

Lexi’s black armored hand reached out in a vain attempt to do something.  A dark purple armored hand grasped her forearm and a metallic voice spoke to her.  “Let him go Shoryu.  It was his choice.  He has lost everything in this war, including the will to live.  You are his legacy.  Come, we must rebuild.”

Lexi’s arm pulled itself away from the purple Guyver.  “You caused much of his pain.  You betrayed him time and again.  You used him…used me like a pawn.  Never again Agito!”

“Don’t be a fool Shoryu!  The world lies open for us to remold to our liking.  We can take control of the Builder’s technology.  As Guyvers, we have a natural affinity to everything that the Builders built.  We can remake this world!”

“My father’s pain drove him mad.  Your ambitions have driven you just as mad Agito.  I have lost Miyu, and now I have lost my father.  I’m done with this war!”

“You’re not done until I say you’re done, boy!”  The purple Guyver stepped back and ripped open both of its chest plates.  The twin lenses of his megasmasher glowed as they charged up.

Lexi’s right arm sword flashed out and swept through Guyver III’s unguarded neck.  His head rolled off his shoulders and his megasmasher fired blindly into the air.  After the blast, the headless body fell to the ground a couple of feet from the head.  The arms groped blindly in a vain search for the missing head.

“You think you can stop me this way?”  Foolish boy!  I’ll crush you!”

“I am Omega Guyver old man.  I am what you will never be:  a natural born Guyver.  Your weakness is the control medal in your head.  I have no such weakness because I AM the control medal!”  Lexi raised up her foot and stamped down on the dismembered head.  She ground her heel in and the control medal popped out.  Almost right away, the Guyver organism that made up the bio armor began to dissolve and eat its own host.

Guyver III writhed in silent agony.  Lexi pulled out her chest plates to reveal her own megasmasher.  A few seconds and a mighty tidal wave of light later, she became the sole surviving Guyver…

The visions stopped as suddenly as they had begun.  Lexi collapsed onto the cave floor in exhaustion.  Damn it!  The memories had been so intense but so completely disorganized.  She had no idea as to what order the memories happened in, but at least now, she had had a glimpse into her new friend’s history.  It appeared that Shoryu’s life had been every bit as tragic and bloody as her own had been.