Buildings were toppled and the streets were filled with bodies. Monsters and people alike, blood oozing and flowing, flooding the city slowly. Tanks, planes, helicopters, and mechs decorated the ruins like Christmas ornaments. The heart of the city was pure carnage and it was slowly spreading.
From her lofty perch 120 meters above the ground, she watched as more and more the city burned and died. Rage filled her being at everything, shafts of purple light lashing out from her mouth to make rubble into debris into detritus. Nothing was destroyed enough even if the streets WERE empty.
But suddenly they weren't. Voices rang out and the firing of bullets echoed through the artificial canyons, ricocheting off of her impenetrable hide. She turned to see an army of children in ill-fitting uniforms screaming in Spanish or Portuguese as their tiny limbs raised the finest castoff firearms a rebel army could scrape together, charging blindly towards her while some adult with a well-tended AK-47 and an actual uniform made sure they obeyed or else. She halted for a moment as she looked at the conscripts, vaguely recalling names.
Vanessa...Alex...Casey...Chris...
Chris...Yukine...
Shin Godzilla's purple ray suddenly raked through the children and she was alone.
Alone...all alone...
...until she wasn't.
Chris Yukine suddenly found herself awake, though her body was slow to catch up with her mind, eyes opening to see a blue meatball as her blanket was slowly pulled off of her body. The fog of suddenly-ended sleep receded and her memory caught up with her, the ceiling of her room in Journey's End coming into focus.
"About time you woke up. Bad dream?"
She sat up in the bed, looking towards the voice: the Fallen Angel Yohane. Chris sat up in her bed and nodded, making a note for her next therapy session.
"Yeah," Chris replied. "Boston."
"Ah. Well, if you're still up for it, I've got a cake and a small party waiting down at the bar for you," Yohane said with a knowing nod. "Most of the Kobbers scattered to the four winds in November, but Miyoi's always around and there's a few other people we know still in town. Your pal, Kirika, also made the trip, so..."
"A long trip to that anime store," Chris snorted, climbing up, stretching her legs.
The silver-haired mercenary briefly looked back at her bed and shuddered, trying not to look like the girl who had been kidnapped into a rebellion a decade or so ago and more like the dedicated fighter who'd once challenged an invincible AI gestalt as she accepted a clean shirt from her roommate. Yohane watched and waited, helpfully handing over a pair of jeans too until Chris had finally dressed herself.
"Good enough?" Chris asked.
"Almost." Yohane put a brush through Chris' hair to bring some semblance of order to it. "There we go."
The noise Chris made was irritated, but inside she felt a surge of relief, forcing out memories of the bad days in hopes of enjoying her birthday surrounded by friends, eager to drown out the old days with new ones, happier ones.
