War of Rage Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17

“Akane!” Graciela exclaimed in relief as soon as she spotted Akane turning around the corner of one of the markets. “I’m so glad that you are ok! I heard that you helped out this guy, but the majority of Martian samurais refused to believe that.”

Akane shrugged her shoulders carelessly. “So what?”

The female Europan samurai frowned at her low motivation. “If they find out that you did indeed help him, then you would be in huge trouble. They would have sentenced you to death!”

“That doesn’t matter to me. I’d rather die now.” Akane placed her hands on her face, trying not to cry. “He chose revenge over me. What a fucking asshole!”

Graciela sighed lightly at her. She gave her a hug. “Maybe I shouldn’t have encouraged you to get together with him.”

“No, you were right. I should have listened to you. I should have… I… I should have ignored him in the first place. Then I wouldn’t have to feel this shitty emotion.”

“No, we had no idea that it would happen. I mean, we had no idea that James would be killed either.”

“No, that’s not the reason why he decided to go and see Lord Ares.” Akane mumbled quietly. “It’s… the war. He wants to end it.”

“How is eliminating your Lord supposed to help the war to end? Revenge isn’t the answer, you know.”

“That was what I was trying to tell him.”

“Okay, then.” Graciela let go of her. “So, what are you going to do now? Are you going to allow him to get caught? Or allow him to kill Lord Ares?”

Akane paused for a while with a scowl on her face. This was worrying Graciela more and more every second. The female Martian samurai was not being herself at all. Or was it something Graciela said that might have hurt her feelings?

“You are the Lieutenant Colonel, aren’t you? Take me to Lord Ares. I want to talk to him,” Akane finally said.

“What?” Graciela asked in confusion. “Why do you need to talk to him? Is it about Kawa? Because if it is, then it is not going to turn out to be a very good conversation. You will only be a bad impression instead.”

“I don’t care anymore. Please?” Akane pleaded. “I promise you this will be the last time that I do it on my own.”

Graciela bit her bottom lip nervously. “But Akane…”

“Please?”

~EARTHxMARS~

Sighing lightly, Lord Ares ran his hand through his black hair. His ears fell deaf onto the loud conversation between the Martian, Europan, and Venusian Colonels and those with higher ranks.

He yawned quietly, his hand on his mouth politely. Soon, he heard another argument for the fifth time today and frowned. “Okay, that’s enough!”

“What do you suggest we do, my Lord? What should we do with the enemy from Earth?” the Europan Colonel asked. “He had been disguising himself as one of the Martian citizens. We have no idea how long he has been here on your planet! What if he had been sending information about us back to Earth?!”

Ares was playing with his red robe, which was slipping a little over his shoulder and showing a little bit of his bare chest. He glanced his nearly-red eyes around the room at the samurai officials as he leaned forward with his chin on his hand with his elbow on the round table, giving them an arrogant smirk. “Patience, my friends. The wanted posters have been up for more than twenty-four hours.”

“But, sir…” The Martian Major General started.

“Sooner or later, he will turn up.” Ares grinned at them. “There’s no need to turn your hair gray… We have been winning the battles for the last decade, yes? We even captured one of Earth’s strongest spaceships, Limitless - thanks to Venus.” He nodded his head at the Venusian officials. He wrapped his hand around his own katana’s handle. “It’s quite unfortunate that he got here at the wrong time. Now that Venus finally joined us as an ally, we will finally win the war.”

The officials looked at each other, their faces telling him that they were a little relieved. They were over thinking, but now it was three versus two… Mars, Venus, and Europa were working together to defeat Earth and Moon and then finally dominate the whole solar system!

“Meeting adjourned.” Ares got up from the table and stretched his arms out in the man-made air. “The next meeting will be when we capture the Earthling guy and --”

“My lord.” Graciela knocked on the large double door. “I apologize for interrupting your meeting and…”

“Come in. The meeting recently finished.” Ares walked past the samurai officials and glanced at them. “You may go.”

After they left, Graciela entered the conference room and bowed her head respectfully. “Lord Ares, I have a… a comrade who would like to talk to you.”

“I see.” Ares crossed his arms in wonder. “If you don’t mind me asking you, who is it?”

“First Lieutenant Akane Wu.”

“I see. Is it the one who came back without reporting back to me first?”

Graciela was about to open her mouth just when she was interrupted.

“Yes, that’s me,” Akane said, startling her friend as she had been standing right next to her.

“What do you want?” Ares asked.

Akane bowed her head before she said, “I need to talk to you about… the…” She looked away from her lord’s red eyes nervously. “The Earthling that had been here for a while.”

“What about him?”

“My lord… He is not the enemy,” Akane said firmly.

“W-what?!” Graciela cried in shock.

“He never hurt a single Martian citizen here,” the Tiger Samurai said seriously. “Or else there would be terrorist news, but there wasn’t any. Once you get to know him, you --”

“You’ve been hanging out with him on your duty?” Ares narrowed his eyes in anger. “That’s considered a crime. He even helped a Lunan samurai to escape.”

“My Lord, I’m sure she didn’t mean --” Graciela was interrupted once again.

“Yes, sir. I apologize.” Akane looked down, finding the wooden floor to be more interesting for some reason. “Lord Ares, I’m asking you… Please… Please let him go. Let him leave Mars alive.”

“Do you realize that you’re asking too much of me?” Ares raised an eyebrow with his hand on his hips. “Why should I let him go?”

“I’m as guilty as he is. I want to give you my life in exchange for his.”

Graciela widened her eyes and opened her mouth, but she did not know how to say.

Ares stared at her in surprise. “You’re giving up your life for him? So that he can leave Mars? You must be kidding!”

“Please, my lord! I’d do anything! I know that he has been causing too much trouble lately, but he is not a bad guy! He has not done anything wrong! You, out of all people, should know!”

“He killed hundreds of my Martian samurais,” Ares said coldly. “Your life is not worth it.”

“Then, you can have my katana!” Akane grabbed her katana and tossed it onto the floor in front of Ares. “It’s all yours.”

“Hn.” The Martian Lord stared at her carefully. Akane’s pleading eyes were truly honest, but if he decided to let the Earthling go, then what would the Martian citizens think?

Graciela was glancing forth and back between Lord Ares and Akane in anxiety. She did not expect that Akane would confront him like that.

“Fine. I’ll let him go as long as he promises to leave Mars.”

Graciela and Akane snapped their heads toward the Martian Lord with either surprised or relieved faces.

“Thank you so much!” Akane grinned at him, bowing her head once again. “I’d never be able to repay you!”

“No, wait!” Graciela cried. “My Lord, you can’t do that! You can’t allow her to die --”

“Sorry, Graciela.” Akane smiled sadly at her. “I have to do it.”

“But, I…!” Graciela stammered and shook her head furiously. “But, Akane! You are not thinking clearly! You can’t die just for Kawa’s sake!”

“No,” the female Martian samurai said softly. “For the first time in my life, I’m thinking very clearly. It is not about the war, but rather I would go this far to change the world… no, the entire solar system!”

“You…!” Graciela clenched her hands into angry fists. “You can’t go off and die like that!”

“That’s enough, Europan. This is our Martian business.” Ares waved his hand as if to dismiss Graciela. “May you please leave?”

And so Graciela left quickly, knowing what exactly to do.

~EARTHxMARS~

Graciela had been searching furiously almost everywhere in Ares City. She checked every area she thought Kawa might be hiding. Bars, alleyways, abandoned buildings, and so.

Akane must be fucking kidding! Graciela groaned at herself, as she grabbed her black hair in frustration. Damn Kawa!

“Calling my name?”

Graciela spinned around in surprise to find Kawa standing there with his folded arms. She did not realize that she said it out loud. “Kawa! What the fuck have you been?!”

“I was trying to hide from the samurais.” Kawa rolled his eyes. “What is so important that you were trying to find me?”

“Akane,” She said almost quietly. “She is giving up her life for you.”

“What?” Kawa stared at her in disbelief. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“She talked to Lord Ares into letting you go… get off the planet and return to Earth as long as you don’t cause any further trouble here.”

Kawa quickly grabbed Graciela’s top spandex and pulled her a little closer to himself. “Why the fuck would she do that?”

“She is trying to save your life!” Graciela pushed him away and turned away from him with a scowl on her face. “It’s all your fault that she’s going to die! She loves you so much that she is willing to do anything to keep you alive.”

Kawa shook his head furiously. Last time he talked to her, she told him to run. Did that mean that her feelings for him never changed at all?

It was his fault once again. His actions caused someone else important to him misery again. If he agreed to move to Ceres with her, this would never happen. Akane would never have to sacrifice herself just for his sake.

“What are you waiting for? Go and rescue Akane!” Graciela shouted out of desperation. “Then you guys can escape and live on a dwarf planet! Ceres or any other dwarf planet!”

“Why didn’t you stop her?!”

“I tried to! She wouldn’t listen!”

“Shit.” Kawa was breathing a little more heavily than usual at the thought of his only one love dying. If she died, then he would be completely alone. Just like back when his entire family died. He had been alone growing up until he met James and the Dark Fury samurais. Just when he thought he could become happy even if it meant staying in the samurai troops.

For the first time in his life, he wished he listened to her.

“Kawa?” Graciela asked in concern.

“Where is she?” He looked up at her with so much determination in his eyes.

~EARTHxMARS~

“This is the closed execution. The public can’t know about this,” Lord Ares said as he withdrew his katana and pointed it at the crowd of the samurais. “If you leak such an important execution, then you will be punished severely.”

Akane was standing in the middle of the open field with handcuffs binding her hands. The samurais were surrounding her at least twenty feet away. She had been looking at the ground for the past fifteen minutes, not wanting to look into any samurai's eyes, especially the Martian ones who worked under her for the past year. Even though she was going to die in a few minutes, she smiled lightly at the thought of keeping Kawa alive and allowing him to leave Mars.

She almost flinched at the sounds of loud approaching footsteps. Lord Ares was coming closer and closer to her.

“I really admire your bravery, you know?” Lord Ares said as he was caressing his sword with his red rag. “I can see the reason why the samurais under you really looked up to you. But I can’t really see the reason why you are doing this for such a guy like that Earthling. Why are you giving up your life for him?”

Akane did not answer him right away.

“Okay, then.” Ares shrugged his shoulders. He raised his sword up into the air, about to strike down his very own Martian samurai.

All of sudden, all the samurais could see was the rush of flames all across the field. Before they knew it, Lord Ares’s sword was completely stopped by a certain person they had been looking for the past twenty-four hours.

“Who are you?!” Ares demanded loudly, clearly startled by the sudden appearance of the Earthling.

“Let her go,” Kawa said coldly, his gripping becoming even tighter on his flaming sword’s handle. “She doesn’t have to die in my place.”

In some sense, he felt very relieved that he made it on time. Akane did not die at the hand of her own Lord.

Using his flaming sword, Kawa quickly pushed away the Lord. “If you don’t want to die, then I suggest you stand there quietly as I leave with Akane.”

“You are not leaving,” Ares said firmly. “You’re causing trouble here once again. Here, I’m willing to give you a chance to escape. Can’t you see that she is sacrificing herself for you? Or is she worthless to you?”

“N-no, that’s not…” Kawa mumbled, almost to himself. “Please spare her life. I forced her to do this.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Kawa looked up at Ares who was glaring back. He pointed his flaming sword at him threateningly. “I promise to leave Mars if you let her go.”

“How am I supposed to believe such an Earthling like you? My own brother killed my wife ten years ago!”

“No, he never did,” Kawa said, placing a scowl on his face. “This war doesn’t make any sense at all. If neither of you killed each other’s wives, then who did?”

“Kawa!”

Kawa turned around as soon as he heard Akane’s cry. He widened his eyes just right when Akane jumped in front of him, getting stabbed in the chest.

“Akane!” He cried as he quickly swung his flaming sword at the Venusian samurai and grabbed Akane, preventing her from falling to the ground at the same time.

Now that the Earthling enemy was distracted, the Martian samurais took the opportunity to grab Lord Ares and took him to somewhere else safe.

Just as the samurais charged at Kawa, he disappeared instantly somehow. Completely confused at how he disappeared, they were running around hurriedly looking for both of them. If Kawa and Akane got away, then Lord Ares would not definitely be happy at all.

~EARTHxMARS~

In one of the abandoned warehouses, Kawa carefully laid Akane back on the floor after he slowly yet painfully pulled the sword out of Akane’s chest and then quickly used his hooded cloak to wrap around her wound, trying to stop the rush of blood.

“K...Kawa…” Akane said weakly.

“Shhh, please don’t talk,” Kawa said quietly as he placed his warm hand on Akane’s sweating face.

“I… I am sorry,” said Akane with a tear sliding down her face cheek. “I… I thought I could change the world.”

“You did.” He was caressing Akane’s face lightly. “You changed my world. You… You changed my perspective on the world completely. Not everyone was bad, you know?”

“I… I’m glad you un-understand,” Akane said with a small smile. She moaned in so much pain.

“Akane!” Kawa said worriedly.

“I-I’m fine,” Akane mumbled as she placed her hand on Kawa’s which was still on her face. “Kawa… revenge is not the answer…”

Kawa shook his head furiously. “Look at yourself. They hurt you!”

Akane’s breathing was getting harder and heavier. Her eyes began to close. “Kawa… I… I love you.”

He stared at her in shock, not knowing what to say until he realized that she was not talking anymore. “A...Akane…? Aka?”

She never answered again.

~TO BE CONTINUED~