HALF: Dead nor Alive

The sun was about to rise, Archie and the others left the bar and Ruby locked the door then slid the key from the bottom of the door. They then went to the headquarters to get a briefing from Marlon and Fanheim.

There was barely anyone around the city and the headquarters had gone quiet ever since no more activity from the parasite. They walked into the building and went to the meeting room where Marlon and Fanheim were.

“Good morning, Sir,” Ruby said and then followed by the others.

“Have a seat, soldier,” Marlon said.

All of them nodded and sat at the round table.

“I see that you’re nervous about the mission and I don’t want to make it worse but we have something to show you,” Fanheim said. “Here,” he continued as he passed the clasp envelope to each one of them.

Archie opened the envelope and there were dozens of pictures, he looked at each one of them and he realized that the pictures were taken at the place where The Mother was. The difference was that it wasn’t a lake in the pictures, it was a vast empty field that looked similar to when he met Throne.

“As you can see, in each picture there are different symbols on the ground and there are more than this. All the witnesses claimed there were at least hundreds of symbols on the site, so we want you guys to take pictures of the rest of them,” Fanheim said.

“This place is huge…” Vincent mumbled. “Is there a reason why they didn’t take pictures of all the symbols, Sir?” he continued.

“We actually don’t really know and we have no idea why they only took a few pictures because there’s not much information about the witnesses,” Fanheim answered.

“Could it be that it involved with the reason why they killed themselves?” Ruby asked while she looked at the pictures.

“It’s possible because we thought about that as well,” Marlon answered.

“Sir, is this the only information we have?” Prince asked.

“Yes, this is the only information we have,” Marlon answered.

“After decades of the discovery, Sir? There was no second mission even though they were curious about it?” Resse asked as she looked at Marlon.

“It does sound suspicious, isn’t it? We thought about it as well and we did some investigation,” Malon said as he tapped his fingers on the table. “We found out there are surprisingly so many Axis Humans that were killed in action that we questioned the reason behind their death. We believe they were sent to investigate the Landing Site and ended up with the same fate as those who discovered that place,” Marlon continued.

Archie finally understood the reason behind so many Ex-Axis Humans near the Landing Site. They were sent there to die and based on the time they were sent, they might have encountered The Mother and died to be her children.

“Since this is our first time to go back to the FalCon-3 after years not touching it, we believe there should be a lot of parasites and there could be a lot of Gen 6 out there. We will send everyone to make parameters in the forest and clear up half of the path for you guys,” Fanheim said as he sat straight and looked at them.

“It’s unnecessary, Sir, we can handle things on our own,” Ruby replied. “We have everything that we need and it’s better to go there as soon as possible since the Landing Site is quite deep in the forest,” she continued as she looked at Archie.

Fanheim looked at Archie and nodded with understanding. “Are you guys really confident with this mission?” He asked.

“Yes, we are confident,” Ruby said as she looked at the other who nodded in agreement.

Fanheim looked at Marlon and just raised his eyebrows, Marlon then nodded with understanding and looked at them. “Alright, you guys may grab everything you need in the armory and you can start the mission whenever you’re ready,” he said.

All of them nodded and gave him a salutation. “Yes, Sir!” All of them said.

They left and went to the armory to grab enough magazines for the mission. Archie didn’t bother to use guns because he wasn’t good with the aim and he could really on his abilities and brute strength.

“You’re not arming yourself, Archie?” Prince asked as he loaded the magazine.

“Oh, right, you’re bad with the aim, huh? Do you want to learn how to use guns, Archie?” Ruby asked as she grabbed a few grenades.

“Sure, if you have the time to teach me,” Archie said as he looked at the guns that were hung on the walls.

“Seriously? Do you still want to use these unnecessary items even though you already have the power to kill parasites with your bare hands?” Resse said as she glanced at Archie.

“There will be times where I can’t show my true self, so it’s better to learn everything including martial arts to defend myself. It might be helpful for me to deal with parasites with those things,” Archie replied.

Resse just shrugged her mouth because it made sense to her.

“Alright, is everyone ready?” Ruby said as she put her pistol on her thigh and Bachmut on her back.

They all nodded and immediately went to the South gate.

The sun rose as they entered the forest, Archie looked around and noticed the witches had been watching them. He stopped moving and looked at the tree in front of them. “You guys can come out, if you want to,” he said.

Ruby and the others immediately stopped moving and looked at Archie with confusion but then they armed themselves and aimed their guns at the trees. While they were checking their surroundings, the black-haired witch came out from behind the tree, all of them immediately aimed their guns at her but all of them were stunned because she barely had anything on her. The beautiful face of her mesmerized Vincent and Prince, and before they could snap back to reality, the red-haired witch landed on the ground next to Archie.

“Who are they?!” Resse asked as she pointed her assault rifle at them both back and forth.

Archie turned around and looked at her. “They’re the Ex-Humans that you all have been looking for decades,”

Ruby looked at the two witches stood next to Archie and then she heard a cracking sound from behind, she pointed her pistol and saw the green-haired witch just came out from the tree trunk. She was shocked to see that woman again, the Ex-Human who warned her and saved her life.

“You are…” Ruby said as she slowly lowered her pistol.

“We meet again, young lady,” The green-haired witch said with a gentle smile on her face.

“You know her, Ruby?” Prince asked as he kept aiming his gun on the witches in front of him and glanced at Ruby.

“Yes, she was the one who saved my life. She was the one that I mentioned in my story that an Ex-Human saved my life,” Ruby answered.

Prince and Resss immediately turned their heads to look at the green-haired witch.

“You guys can lower your guns, they’re my friends, they’re the same as me so you can trust them as long as I’m here with you guys,” Archie said.

Vincent looked at Archie and Archie nodded as he looked back at him. Vincent lowered his gun and slid it to the back of his waist. “I think we are good, Prince, Resse, you both should trust Archie,” he said.

Prince and Resse looked at each other as they gulped, then they both nodded and lowered their gun at the same time. The black-haired witch looked at the four of them and raised her eyebrow as she rested her elbow on Archie’s shoulder. “Are you sure that you’re only bringing this many humans to kill The Mother?” She asked.

“What makes you think I brought them here to help me fight her?” Archie asked as he looked at the black-haired witch.

“Oh? Then are you going to fight her on your own again? Are you confident with strength now?” The black-haired witch replied.

“Yes, this is a part of my training and there’s something that I want to try. Of course, since I have these with me, I think I can kill her,” Archie said as he unsheathed both of his swords from the back of his left shoulder.

All the witches looked at it and they were surprised when they saw it. “You really got yourself a really good weapon,” The black-haired witch said as she touched Nyx’s blade. “I think this should help you a lot to fight her,” she continued as she looked at Erebos in Archie’s right hand.

The red-haired witch looked at Archie with a smile on her face. “So, shall we go and kill The Mother?”

Archie sheathed the swords and nodded while he looked at Ruby and the others. “Yes, I’m ready for that,”