Mirror Sky. Part 1 - Blissful Nemesis

25 - Guardian's Dream

When Sonya's vision went dark, chaos ensued. The courtroom exploded in light flashes, screams, bullets, and pieces of metal flying. None of it concerned her. She felt detached from the waves of life still swirling around her.

Then, it all stopped. She felt Artur's embrace for the first time in her life. It did not give her butterflies but filled her with a familiar warmth of nostalgia, deja vu. It felt so right.

She opened her eyes. Everything was dim red, and it was hard to make anything out. She saw bodies just a few feet away, lying on the floor, motionless. Was one of these bodies hers?

No, these were their executioners. They lay on the floor, naked, with pieces of their armor scattered around. Why naked? What happened? A strong smell of ozone tore Sonya's nostrils and made her throat scratchy.

Sonya was upright, propped up by Artur's massive figure. They were alive. Tom and Dan stood nearby, also unharmed. Sonya did not want to let Artur go, but she did, gently, to assess the situation.

They were alive! How in the world did they survive? What was the commotion when they were forced on their knees, expecting to draw their last breaths?

She spotted the blurry figures of people who tried to protect them. Illuminated with red emergency lights, they stood deeper in the room, making a solid wall around her and her friends. She followed this wall with her eyes. She saw Rin in it, covering her mouth.

Sonya turned, and her eyes fell on the reason everyone was petrified. She jolted.

Five figures in slim black armor stood in the middle of the circle formed by the crowd, not far from her, Artur, Tom, and Dan. Each figure had a sword and a rifle, forming an X on their backs. Their hands were crossed in front of them.

"Are these Nightfighters?" she whispered, not believing what she had just uttered.

"The original Aeon Guard," mouthed Dan. "Holy shit..."

"Dude, they have energy guns," whispered Tom with his eyes wide. "Those are E-Guns!"

"And those swords..." mouthed Artur.

The crowd was getting louder again, whispering rumors to one another, growing more comfortable in the presence of the legends. Everybody seemed to forget what they were doing here. Sonya herself forgot that she was on trial and nearly got killed a few minutes ago. Nightfighters in the flesh!

Vida Guardians, so brazen not long ago, were now paralyzed in fear, eyeing their naked colleagues on the floor and wondering if they were dead or alive. Sonya looked at the bodies, too, and saw them breathing slowly. The signs of life gave the Vida Guard sergeant encouragement.

"You're under arrest," the Vida Guard sergeant voiced. "For aiding the escape of the defendants and using force against a guardian without a proper vote."

He made a step forward. One of the Nightfighters drew a blade that glowed white around the cutting edges. Next, lightning split the air and hit the Vida Guard sergeant in the chest, making Sonya jump in surprise. The armor on the sergeant exploded into pieces and got scattered across the room. Sonya and all the others had to cover their faces and heads from the debris. Once the metal stopped raining, Sonya peeked through her fingers and saw the sergeant naked and unconscious on the floor, butt up, next to similarly unsuccessful and disgraced executioners. The Nightfighter lazily holstered the sword on his back.

That clarified a few things for Sonya while muddying many others.

"I wouldn't go against Nightfighters if I were you," somebody said calmly.

Custos Lyber, accompanied by Sergey Sage and Mayor Oleg Woodberry, made his way to the front of the crowd with sizable armed forces from the city behind them. Sonya and her friends received guns and got hidden by several lines of armed citizens. Dan and Sergey exchanged smiles and nods.