God Eater: Fates Entwined

16 - Drifting

The world was a blur of colors and a horrid mixture of sounds. Yuka felt as though her body was on fire, every movement she tried to make seemingly scorches her insides like a volcanic eruption. Her consciousness was beginning to fade into the darkness.

"Defend the Captain! Move, move, move!"

The voice echoed in her ears, blending with noises of gunfire, screeches and growls. Thunder clapped and electricity fizzled. Concrete broke and flames sizzled. Chaos. Nothing more, nothing less. The blonde forced herself to focus, but it was hard. Sooner, she found herself being hauled upwards and led away from where she was. Yuka can't even get her bearings right. Despite that, she could feel the throbbing pain that seemed to hammer against her bones and limbs.

At some point, her consciousness began to pull together like pieces of a puzzle being dragged towards one another. "I said—" She pulled herself to sitting position, bruised face trying its hardest to get her angered expression through. "—you're not touching your God Arcs."

"But you were in danger!" Addison reasoned out. "We had to get you out of there!"

"And what if something happened to you?!" She didn't mean to raise her voice. But it was out there before she even took notice, and Yuka saw how their expressions shrunk. The senior female let out a sigh. "I'm worried about you three, okay?" She tried for the calmest tone she could manage amidst the mess of explosions behind them. "The prototypes are dangerous and I don't want anything happening to any of you."

They opened their mouths to argue. "But you—"

"I'm different," Yuka cuts them off quickly. "I'm not like you, not like any of you. I'm a monster and what works for me doesn't work the same way for all of you." The words were out before she could even stop herself, and she easily saw that look of surprise crossing their faces. Shocked, most likely, because she'd never done this to them before. She'd long come to terms with what she is, and while acceptance of the truth was hard before, over the passing years, her views had changed.

Far from saving.

Her own heart now suffering from the tearing this situation brought, the blonde turned away from her subordinates and returned to the battlefield with her God Arc. The Borg Camlann and the Vajra spotted her easily despite the wreckage, and she blocked the rain of attacks with her shield as she pushed forward. Tough task, if anybody would like to ask, because the barrage came one after another. But that split-second of opening didn't escape her and the blonde swung her blade, striking the Vajra head on.

It yelped in pain upon the contact, the beast staggering backwards, its electric attack being cut short.. Yuka made the mistake of catching her breath, and she was swept off the ground, the Borg Camlann's tail smacking against her torso.

She should have called off the mission before it even started. She could do that, she's the captain after all. Yuka gripped the handle of her God Arc as she struggled to rise, the faces of her subordinates being caught in the corner of her eyes—pleading to be given a chance. But she denied it to them, getting back up on her feet and charging for the scorpion Aragami.

If she can't even do this—if she can't even get them out of here alive, then what good is she? She won't be able to protect anybody...

... She won't even be able to come back to Soma.

To think she didn't even get to bid him goodbye the last time they were together.

Yuka parried the next swing of the Borg Camlann's tail, sending it off balance, just as the Vajra returned to pounce. It blasted her with a ball of electricity and she almost—almost—lost her footing. Maybe she would have if another attack followed, but a salvo of explosive bullets distracted the Aragami enough to leave the blonde captain alone. "What the hell are you—?!"