The Casualties of War

[Megami*]

(Continued from the Helicopter Crash Site; Along the Path to Destiny...)

He'd heard the sound of gunshots coming from this area not too long ago, and Cody Jenson had initially journeyed to the hillside cliff in order to find and eliminate two more competitors in Survival of the Fittest. Inwardly, he hoped he would find one of two people in this place: Adam Dodd or Sidney Crosby. What he found when he roared onto the scene with Loretta was neither of those boys. In fact, it was nobody. Nobody alive, anyway. Casting a quick glance down to the bottom of the cliff, Cody saw the broken and bruised corpse of Toby Valerik at the bottom.

Damn.

Somebody had done that boy in, and they'd picked one hell of a way to do it. The death reminded him a lot of the one he'd given that pig-faced bastard at the lighthouse what seemed like eons ago. Multiple gunshot wounds had entered the boy's body, that much was apparent even from Cody's vantage points. Momentarily, Cody wondered if Toby Valerik suffered much before he died, or if he was dead before he'd ever fallen from the cliff and hit those sharp rocks at the bottom. Shrugging his shoulders lightly, Cody unboarded Loretta and stalked around the area, looking for a potential weapon.

Whilst searching for the designated weapon of Toby Valerik and finding only a useless drill on the ground, Cody's foot came into contact with something laying on the ground, causing the muscular boy to trip and almost fall. Turning around in annoyance, he found something he'd never expected to find. It was... it was her!

"My princess..." Cody muttered quietly as he leaned down into the tall grass of the hillside cliff and cradled the battered body of Lyndi Thibodeaux in his arms momentarily.

Letting out a grieved sigh, Cody ran a blood-stained hand over the bashed in features of the beauty who had spent time with him on the island, the girl he would have killed for, did kill for. She had betrayed him, she ran away, and now, she'd gotten herself killed. However, something in Cody's mind simply didn't click. It was as if the fact that Lyndi was dead never quite registered in his mind, and for the longest of times he simply stood there, cradling the broken body.

"Look what they did to you," he whispered in a strange mixture of anger and sadness, "You're a mess. But that's okay. You'll always be beautiful to me."

Cody smiled, and if not for the fact that he was probably classifiable as criminally insane, it would have looked like a caring, compassionate smile. After all, that was his girl. His princess. And he was her knight. He was supposed to protect her from those who would harm her. But apparently, Lyndi didn't quite understand the rules of the game.

"You're not supposed to die, silly," he cooed quietly, "I'm supposed to protect you. Now you see what you did? Now I've got to go out there and avenge you. The princess can't be dead, because then the knight would have no one to fight for."

Kneeling over and taking hold of Lyndi's badly beaten body, Cody tossed her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and stood up to his full height, still holding the dead girl's corpse. He smiled as he headed back toward Loretta, Lyndi's lifeless body flopping helplessly with each step he took. Standing at the edge of the cliff, Cody looked off across the island, into the sunset. Now this, this was how it was supposed to be. The prince rescues the princess and rides off into the sunset on his trusty steed.

It was a fairytale ending.

Suddenly, Cody came back to the only form of reality he knew. He couldn't be standing around daydreaming. This wasn't the time. It wasn't the end yet, his story wasn't over. He hadn't vanquished the villains and saved the world. After all, that's how every good story goes, right? Smiling kindly, Cody lay the dead girl back in the grass near the edge of the cliff, adjusting her body into an almost serene and peaceful pose and closing her eyes as if it were an afterthought.

"Alright," he cooed, "You stay here, and when the danger's gone, I'll come back for you, alright?"

As if the lifeless body lying before him had actually responded to him, Cody once again grinned, this time a smile full of pride. Bending down, his lips touched the cold lifeless ones of Lyndi Thibodeaux before he returned to his full height after a moment. Throwing his leg over Loretta to straddle the bike's seat, he cast a final look back at his "princess". Cold and lifeless though she may be, it was as if in Cody's mind, she were speaking to him.

"Just rest here, my lady. Meet me here when the battle's over, and we'll ride off into the sunset together."

This is how it's supposed to be. The engine of Loretta sparked alive and Cody revved the engine once more. It was almost time... time to go fight the final boss, save the world from destruction, and win the hand of the princess. Cody's apparent insanity was becoming worse and worse, and he had somehow managed to create a little storybook for himself in which he was the writer, the narrator, and the hero all in one. A faint smile formed on Cody's face as he rode off, thoughts of his princess dancing in his head.

(Continued in: The Brink of Insanity.)