~What's life without feeling alone?~

You Ain't Nothin'

"Sneezes are just so bad..." I complained as I sneezed for the third time in a row.

"Hold up...." I looked up from my gauges and started glancing around, wondering whether it would happen now or later.

"What," Michael complained, seeming to not sense that.

"Didn't you see something really off earlier?" Seeing his face on the camera, with his fedora covering his face, he raised his head up so his eyes revealed themselves, and seemed to know something - he had averted his eyes away from me.

"I think he's here. He's seen you." He? Who's "He"?

"Run. Hide. Don't engage. This is an order." If that was an order...

"I must find out his reasons... I will understand his agenda. You are my Protector, aren't you?" I moved my Gundam in the source of that feeling...

He's there. I stopped moving, to see a hooded figure. His red eyes were angry, bloodthirsty - they seemed to unforgiving, so murderous.

The definition of a killer.

"It seems you have found me, half-breed. I am Xandor."

"I wonder what makes you so grandiose, Xandor... Aren't you just a normal human being that's... just clothed in black?" His eyes glowed on my camera, and in one second, he was inside my cockpit.

"You're quite delicate for a half-breed. Have you found any other like you?" His gloved hand touched my cheek. His mask seemed to make his breathing sound as if he was on life support - rather, much like Darth Vader or Kylo Ren. Michael was already triggered. He was poised to strike, but he himself was stuck in the cockpit of his Sinanju. He could only watch from his camera.

"I definitely did not..." I pressed a button for the hatch to open and used Nevermore, a skill I learnt, on him. Xandor flew back, but I couldn't see any visible hole in his chest.

"Don't come near me, idiot. My body is not for you." On the edge of the hatch, Xandor just cracked his bones back into place and stood up. I sent Wing into the air and flew in circles trying to shake him off with the high G's, but he just stood there as per normal...

And that dark aura coming from him, it was stronger than Weiss'. Way stronger.

Definitely out of my league.

"You bastard!" Michael pushed Sinanju onto Xandor, squashing Xandor in the process.

Or so I thought. Xandor ripped off the left side of Sinanju's head, leaving nothing but ripped and torn head parts.

"This machine now looks beautiful. Shall I make it mine?" Michael retaliated by firing his rifle loaded with beam ammunition at him, but Xandor just absorbed that beam all by himself...

With no damage done to him at all. It seems Michael had started to panic, because he was using the Vulcan machine guns on his head, and retreating with his shield on defence. Oh my God, was he so rushed up.

"Michael, retreat! I will handle him." Readying my Buster Rifle, I placed my shield such that it defended my cockpit. Xandor's attention was on me now. I fired my first beam, leaving only eight more times of usage...

After I kill off my ammo, using my beam sabre would make things more difficult...

"Why don't you just behave and follow me to our side, Elise? Jeanna is waiting for you." Mom? Waiting? She's still...

Working for them?

"Come home, Elise. The Light has no right to stop you." His smile seemed to become wider as I stepped closer to him, trying to verify his words.

"You're lying," I concluded; he seemed amused, one of his tactics must have failed.

"What if I told you this forest was the town you live in? Because you're currently stepping on people's houses right now, killing them brutally, all by trying to kill me." The forest we were stepping on, turned into a town, with houses being critically damaged due to my frantic stepping, my reckless movements. Humans were running everywhere, seeming to take me for a demon.

Armies, the air force, were all firing bullets at me, with Michael in a faraway hill, being badly camouflaged and damaged, safe.

This was a dream. It was a forest the first time we came here, and it will be.

"Your ability to identify illusions... is amazing... You're that angel I want, Elise. You will become mine one day." The forest was back, and Xandor seemed to disappear into the trees.

His voice rang in my head, "You will become mine one day." His words, they sound weird. They don't sound like words Xandor would say, wouldn't he?

"Michael, are you alright?"I asked as I wonder who Xandor really is... he doesn't seem to be as evil as I thought...

But who's behind all the attacks on Heaven? Who had deployed Lex and his goons after me? It was him, right? I can't be wrong, Michael can't be wrong as well.

"Yeah. Sinanju's sort of badly damaged, that's all." I smiled, flying back to his side as my Wing held Sinanju up.

"You just accomplished what I wanted to add on to Sinanju - battle damage and weathering, all without me having to pay a single cent." Returning home, the mobile suits shrank on their own as we exited, returning to the lifeless small models that I had built.

"That weathering just looks so fine! Gotta post that on my Instagram!" I took out my phone almost immediately, snapping photos of it in its most cool positions. Michael was wary of my phone; he was eager to get it.

"Is your phone new?" Was what he asked out of the blue.

"Why'd you ask? A tracking device from the Fallen in my phone, that I don't know?" I smiled, holding up a short-circuited device stuck in the insides of my phone that I tried so hard to take out.

"Man, if that's the cause of every single Fallen attack they're plotting, I gotta take my hat off to them." I passed him the tracker, only to see him crush it like it was a mere bug.

"Hey, I'll see you tomorrow, okay? This time, in class." Michael bid me farewell, and I was left to stare at my model kits.

"How about going to the hobby shop and get some kits to work on?" Father stepped in, knowing I had returned. I never knew that he would allow me to go out after school again, but at the least, I am grateful this time around.

"Buy anything you want, just keep it to less than three hundred dollars. I have a feeling you won't be able to buy any after this round." Appalled, I wondered what he meant.

"You're a halfbreed, Elise - the Fallen are looking everywhere for you. They want you in their custody. They want your powers. They're a menace. I need to keep you safe from them, you hear?"

"I know, that's why you sent me only for education," I replied half-heartedly, knowing this was what I was going to say.

"Hey, I'll go now. I'll be back for dinner." I took my wallet and phone and left the house. I took my father's car keys on the way out, to his well-polished Ford Mustang. I switched on the ignition and took off for Jade's Hobby Shop.

The drive was long but not boring. Coincidentally, on the radio, I hear Michael's songs playing - not much of other singers, which was weird.

"He's dominating the radio station right now." Varus?

"I'm sent here to accompany you. Michael is dedicated to making sure your ride is a nice one, I guess." Jade's Hobby Shop loomed in the distance, a few shopping malls surrounding the small shop.

"We're here. Do you have some sort of disguise?" I looked at Varus' outer-dimensional outfit, hoping he had an alternative.

"I'll follow you. Don't ask any further." With that, he vanished. Weird dude.

I parked the Mustang, locked it and headed inside. The shop was filled with stock, and it had new arrivals too!

"Elise! It's nice to see you again!" Jade's cheerful voice came from the cashier, where her workplace also was stationed. She was building an expensive kit - how great for a shop owner.

"What would you like to get today?" I had already planned my list - I was just wanting to tell her.

"Quite a long list today - I have three hundred dollars worth of budget. Let's see... all the remaining RG kits I haven't bought - I'll take them later, and the usual sprays; Gold, Silver leaf, Blue Violet, Metallic Red, and a TopCoat, thanks." Jade knew me since I was young - I had visited her shop the first time when I was only four, my father was also in this hobby, and came here to buy planes.

"Here you go! All your stuff. You sure you don't want to buy the Perfect Grade Zeta? It's currently on offer!" I declined, knowing that I preferred to have small ones I could bring around and have photoshoots in the real world.

"Thanks for shopping at Jade's Hobby Shop!" Jade waved goodbye as I left. As I reached my Mustang, the first reaction wasn't to open the door. On my windshield, was paint sprayed randomly in red...

Or was it? Looking from the front, it was lettering. It was not anything good.

The letters spelt out 'Fall'. Just then, I heard a familiar voice.

"Miss me, Elise? "

Author's Note

I've updated Accentier, and I felt I should update this too - I've really made you guys wait this long, I feel very bad about it! Accentier's plot and this book's have been clashing lately, I have realised that... and I needed to give a lot of changes, which led to very slow updates, and the need for at least decent English had also added to the delay, with me typing in text language and all nowadays - how tragic my life is XD

Since Accentier is on it's last two chapters, I have decided the update of this chapter be accompanied with a new chapter of The Protector, to celebrate the upcoming completion of Accentier! It will still take quite long, but I promise - two updates will be coming to you soon, loyal readers!