Sweet temptation called Cloud's name as he stood silent inside of the robot hangar. The boy's keen eyes captured every single minute detail of the fine piece of machinery standing in front of him. I must be dreaming..., he thought as he ran his hand along the cold, smooth titanium armor, There's no way that I could've been chosen to pilot one of these things. No way.

"Are you done looking at your new robot, Cloud?" a female voice asked.

Cloud Valin was a teenager of seventeen years. He had been a soldier of the Eclipse for five years, and he had finally been chosen to pilot one of the machines that was the symbol of the Eclipse forces. The man had sleek black hair highlighted with red streaks and dark blue eyes. The outfit he wore was the official uniform of an Eclipsean pilot.

The official uniform of a pilot of an Eclipsean consisted of a black shirt and cargo-like pants with a silver-colored coat-like jacket that came down to their knees. On the sleeve of the jacket were the white wings tipped with blood all inside of a black circle with a gold border; this was the logo of the Eclipsean pilots.

When piloting the Eclipseans, pilots wore a tight body-suit. Usually the colors of the outfit matched the colors of the robot being piloted. But what exactly does an Eclipsean look like? It is a robot shaped with the general form of a human: a head, two arms, two legs, a chest, and a torso. The robot is rather slender compared to what one would think of a fighting robot should be - this is to increase the maneuverability and speed of the robots. The armaments of each Eclipsean varies from robot to robot; they are designed to suit the fighting styles of each pilot.

Not everyone is allowed to become an Eclipsean pilot, however. Each robot is constructed to be used by only one pilot, so a new robot has to be made each time a new pilot is added. The candidates for the robots must first prove that they are good soldiers in the normal ranks of the Eclipse forces. Then they must face a series of mental, as well as physical, tests. Afterwards, the Committee will choose who will be the next Eclipsean pilot. At one time, there are only four Eclipseans in operation.

And Cloud Valin was one of the lucky few.

Cloud whirled around and faced the commander, Natalia Noresko. After saluting quickly, the boy replied. "Yes."

She nodded and motioned him to be at ease. He relaxed and watched Natalia, as everyone called her, pace the ground in front of him. Every now and then she would glance up at him and bite her lip. She seems nervous about something, Cloud thought as he continued to watch.

Finally she stopped pacing and faced him. Though her expression was calm, her eyes showed a slight sense of apprehension. "Cloud, you are our newest Eclipsean pilot, and I'm worried about that. We've been making more Eclipseans than ever before because we keep losing pilots; too many good men and women have been lost to the enemy. I want that to stop. Now."

Cloud was puzzled at what his commander was trying to get at, but he nodded. She glanced at him questioningly before continuing.

"You are young. You are strong. You are talented. Don't die....."

Natalia turned away. The teenager stood silently and awaited further orders, but noticed he wouldn't be getting any soon because his commanding officer was weeping. Her shoulders shook as she wept quietly and away from prying eyes.

After a minute, Natalia turned and faced Cloud with red eyes. "Cloud, my brother was an Eclipsean pilot. In his first battle, he was killed. I'm begging you....please....don't die. This is not a plea from a commanding officer - this is a plea from a friend."

A lump formed in Cloud's throat. Before he could go over to comfort his friend as well as commanding officer, she ran out of the hangar. The boy watched with his hand extended in her direction. When the metal doors slid shut, he lowered his arm and let out a heavy sigh.

Cloud sat quietly inside the cockpit of his Eclipsean, which was named Raven's Wish. As he sat pondering how his life would change with his promotion to Eclipsean pilot, the sound of footsteps came to his ears. Not knowing who was coming, Cloud peered out of the cockpit and noticed a band of three teenage boys coming his way. Their outfit soon told Cloud who they were: Eclipsean pilots.

The group chatted amiably amongst each other as they walked along. Then one of the boys looked in the direction of Cloud with his innocent, shining, green eyes. A smile immediately appeared on his features, and he nudged his comrades. They all looked at the new Eclipsean pilot. The green-eyed teenager waved then shouted, "Hey there!! You must be Cloud, the new Eclipsean pilot!!!"

Cloud blinked and replied, somewhat surprised at the cheer in the boy's voice, "Uh..yeah! I'm the pilot of Raven's Wish here."

The green-eyed boy then turned to face his other comrades and began telling them about all he had heard about Cloud. As they continued to walk closer, Cloud observed his teammates.

The tallest of the bunch was a boy with dark brown hair with blond highlights and soft brown eyes. Walking next to him was a boy with silver hair and piercing blue eyes; he appeared to one of the extremely serious type. Then there was the green-eyed boy who had blond hair and lime green highlights. What an interesting bunch... Cloud thought.

The blond finally had finished telling his friends about Cloud and had raced toward the new pilot. As he came to a stop in front of the black-haired boy, he extended his hand. Cloud shook hands with the shorter boy. Immediately, the boy began doing an entire introductory speech.

"Welcome to the close circle of friends that make up the Eclipsean, which we like to call our little group. My name is Nathan Bane Johanavan, but please call me Bane - I'm not too fond of my first name. Anyways! The tall guy's name is Leif Elsik. He's really, really, really, really nice. Then there's Sirus Glave. Yes, Glave. He's really not as serious as he looks!"

At that moment Sirus cast Cloud a warm smile. Bane grinned broadly and said, "See! Told ya!!" Cloud smiled at all of them and then said, "Thanks for the warm reception. Well, I'm glad to know that we all can work together as part of the Eclipsean."

"Which reminds me," Leif said in a wisp-like voice, "You might like to know which Eclipsean is who's." At that moment, the four-some turned to face the neat row of robots.

"As we all know, the black Eclipsean is yours, Cloud, and its name is Raven's Wish. The forest-green one next to it is mine. It's called Wolf's Cry. The midnight-blue colored Eclipsean is piloted by Sirus and is named Slayer's Dream. And last, but not least, is Demon's Desire, which is obviously piloted by Bane here."

"Bane pilots Demon's Desire?" Cloud asked, his voice filled with skepticism.

"Yeah. It is rather strange how an innocent looking person like Bane could pilot something called 'Demon's Desire', but it's true. He's one hell of a fighter - probably the best of all of us," Sirus said.

It's all starting to make sense now. To all the regular troops, the Eclipsean pilots are known by their Eclipseans' names! Cloud thought.

Suddenly the hangar was filled with the screams of sirens and the blinding red light of warning. "ALL FIGHTERS PREPARE FOR BATTLE! ALL FIGHTERS PREPARE FOR BATTLE!" shouted the commanding voice of Natalia. Immediately, the four pilots ran towards the preparation room.

Once inside the preparation room, the four teenagers changed into their piloting suits with each one matching his Eclipsean in color: Cloud in black, Leif in green, Sirus in midnight-blue, and Bane in crimson. After quickly slipping on their helmets, they ran back to the hangar and scrambled into their cockpits.

Once the hatch closed, windows of information concerning the mission they were about to undertake covered the screen. After reviewing them all, the pilots would then move their Eclipseans to the launch area. With a bright flash of light, the Eclipseans were propelled to Earth's surface.

As the group flew away from home base towards the oncoming enemy, Leif's calm voice came over the com to each pilot. "Our mission here is simply to prevent the enemies from reaching base. We are not to follow in pursuit. Regular Eclipse forces will soon be following. Do not retreat until the enemy has been driven back or completely destroyed."

There was a shout of "Roger!" from all the pilots as they throttled their engines towards the oncoming foe.

As the four robots raced across the earth's surface, Leif's face appeared in a window in the upper left corner of their visuals. "Activate shields: now."

There were four simultaneous shield activations a second after the order had been issued. To the unknowing eye nothing had happened, but to a keen eye there was a faint tinge of color forming a protective sphere around each robot.

"Demon will take kill box A-2. Slayer, you've got kill box D-18. Raven, kill box C-9 is yours. I'll take kill box B-7. Good luck and stay safe."

As the window disappeared, another window opened with a map of the terrain they were currently in. Then a grid was drawn over the map, and different colors marked the kill boxes of the different pilots. In a flash, all four robots went their own ways.

"Deploy Special Forces units 5 and 7 to aid Raven's Wish. Special Forces units 1 and 6 to help Demon's Desire. Slayer's Dream will be aided by Special Forces units 2 and 4. Wolf's Cry will have Special Forces units 8 and 9 to back him up. Move out troops!" commanded Natalia from her commandpost. Men and women scurried about the room carrying out her orders and checking on the various situations on hand.

"Thirty seconds until contact with enemy."

"Twenty seconds."

"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. The battle has begun."

The dull gray robot of the Wavebide Government was now locked on. A bright beam of energy formed in Wolf's Cry's hands; one formed a bow and the other an arrow. "Enemy sighted. Proceeding to destroy." The arrow flew true as it plunged deep into the enemy robot's chest. A large explosion followed and engulfed the two neighboring robots. Not bothering to wait for the enemy to come to him, Leif prepared two more arrows on his bow and sent them into flight.

Slayer's Dream's long beam whip danced across the battlefield. One unfortunate enemy robot was stuck in the whip's curling length. With a quick flick of the wrist, Slayer's Dream sent the gray machine into a crowd of its comrades. The group of robots exploded upon impact, and the navy-blue whip was retracted before beginning its deadly job again.

With a mad rush of fury, Demon's Desire threw itself into the battle's fray without a second thought. Using its powerful chunk blasters, which were located on its knuckles and feet, every punch and kick was delivered with a powerful explosion. The robot's battle spirit represented that of Bane's as his eyes danced with the light of battle.

Charging into the enemy lines, Raven's Wish was like a black shadow as it swept through the ranks of the enemy. The twin beam blades emitted from the wrist of the robot sliced and diced to the pilot's desire. In a quick upward then sideways slice, Cloud destroyed two enemy robots.

The ground began to shake slightly as the Special Forces units appeared. Units six and seven were fighter jets that were capable of transforming into half-robots - basically a jet with legs. This allowed these two units to be able to fight ground battles as well as air. The rest of the units were all ground troops that consisted of the Eclipsean robots which were painted a fine silver with black details.

"Eclipseans! SF units have appeared. Remember to avoid friendly fire. This is Wolf, over and out."

The battle had been raging on for about an hour when the ground shook. Over and over again, the earth trembled under some heavy weight. Then it appeared.

It was a gigantic robot painted a solid royal blue - the color of the Wavebide Government. Then two more appeared at its sides. Then an entire regiment. These robots were about three times the height of the Eclipseans and were much more heavily armed.

"Stand your ground," Leif murmured over the com to all of the Eclipse forces. The giant robot in the front raised its massive machine gun and began pelting nuclear bombs at the Eclipse forces. A shout of terror came from all four of the Eclipsean pilots as they watched the majority of their support troops, as well as all the Wavebide's regular troops eliminated in a single round. "SUPPORT TROOPS! RETREAT BACK TO BASE!" Leif shouted, his face red with anger, "ECLIPSEANS! FIGHT TO THE DEATH!"

The first to respond to Leif's cry was Bane, who still had the fire of battle burning deep inside of him. Taking a leap into the air, Demon's Desire pounded away at one of the robots blue armor. Small bits and pieces began to fall from the armor. Then it was Leif's turn to release the rage that was rarely seen from him. Five green-tinged arrows appeared on his bow and took flight. The arrows struck the head of another robot and caused the blue paint to fall off, revealing the wired interior of the robot.

Slayer's Dream extended its whip and lashed out. The whip wrapped tightly around the torso of one of the enemy robots, and the armor slowly began giving way to the energy whip. Cloud ran up to yet another robot and dug his blades into where he thought the cockpit might be located. Bingo. The light in the eyes of the robot faded, and the robot sank to the ground.

There was a moment of silence before the giant robots began a counter attack. The giant hands swiped away the smaller Eclipseans, driving them into the hard ground below. Bane's visual system went out, and he was left with only his heat sensors to guide him. Climbing out of the dent in the ground that his robot had made, Bane began another attack on the robot that he had previously been attacking. Again and again, the robot smashed him into the ground. Each time the Eclipsean was downed, a rain of nuclear bombs would fall on Demon's Desire. But all of the punishment would not keep Bane down; he kept coming back for more each time.

Watching Bane keeping coming back for more put strength back into his fellow Eclipseans. Leif slowly maneuvered Wolf's Cry into a kneeling position. As Bane continued hacking away at the enemy, Leif sent in swarms of arrows; the air was filled with the green-tinged arrow-shaped beams of energy.

Slayer's Dream scrambled onto its feet and prepared to begin fighting again when its pilot noticed Raven's Wish was still immobile on the ground. "Leif, I'm not sure what's up with Cloud. I'm gonna check it out," Sirus said to the green Eclipsean's pilot. Without waiting for a response, the midnight-blue robot leapt towards its comrade.

The black titanium armor was scratched and dented in many places, and the framework of the robot's left arm showed since the armor had been completely torn away. A grimace crossed Sirus' features as he looked at the disaster in front of him. Slayer's Dream knelt down beside the black robot and propped it up with some difficulty.

"Don't get out, Sirus," Leif commanded.

Sirus lifted his head in surprise to face Leif's image on his screen. "How did you..."

"It's human sense, but you've got to fight it. Just this once. Instead of getting out of Slayer, get Raven as well as yourself outta this battle zone."

"BUT LEIF! What are you thinking? Do you want to get Bane and yourself slaughtered?! Those things are huge!!" cried the frantic Sirus.

A strained smile spread over Leif's face. "Bane and I will just fine. You take care of Cloud. We'll see you later."

The window closed. Sirus shouted an obscenity and slammed his fist onto his controls. "Very well then. I'll take the coward’s way outta this battle and help Cloud outta here. Good luck to you two. Good luck."

"Eclipsean 04 is down and out."

"04? That's Raven's Wish, isn't it?" asked Natalia, worry filling her voice.

"Yes. It appears that 02 has drawn out of the battle to assist 04. That leaves 01 and 03 on the battle grounds. Should we send more reinforcements?"

"No! Did you see how easily the enemy demolished all of those units? What do you want to do?! Slaughter all our men?! No! All we can do is pray that Wolf and Demon will make it out of this alive....and on top," said the commander, her voice diminishing as she spoke.

"Bane," Leif murmured in a tired voice, "We're all that's left between base and the Wavebide. We're all that's left...."

Immediately Bane's face appeared on Leif's screen. The blond had taken off his helmet, and a thin trickle of blond ran down the side of his sweaty face. "Well, then let's get it on then. We have no choice but to fight them to the end."

"But there must be an easier way to kill these guys. There has to be some weak spot - an Achilles’ heel," the brown-haired pilot mumbled to no person in particular. Bane shrugged and vanished from Leif's screen; he was back at attacking the extremely large robots.

As Wolf's Cry continued to rain arrows down on its enemy, Leif pondered over what a gigantic robot's weak spot might be. Then it hit him. If those guys are firing nukes at us...that'll make good targets for us to hit!

"Bane! Get outta the way! I know what to do!" Leif shouted as he fitted another arrow to his bow. After hearing Leif, Bane immediately leapt away from the enemy and stood beside Wolf's Cry. The forest-green Eclipsean took careful aim and shot an arrow straight towards the source of the enemy robot's nuclear bomb supply. "BRACE FOR IMPACT!" Leif shouted. The two Eclipseans sank towards the ground and awaited the explosion that was sure to come.

The arrow found its mark and caused a chain reaction of nuclear explosions that destroyed the remainder of the enemy robots. After waiting for the aftershocks to roll over them, Wolf's Cry and Demon's Desire rose triumphantly from the brown and lifeless ground.

Pressing a button, Leif sent a message to home base. "Enemy troops destroyed. Proceeding to return to home base."

Wild cheers came up from the men and women at the Eclipse base. They had won yet another battle against the Wavebide Government. At the Wavebide base, however, things were silent as they pondered how to exterminate this thorn in their side.

The Wavebide Government was indeed a government. It had been put into power by the people's vote one hundred years ago when world peace and democracy still reigned. When the government took power, they immediately removed their kind and generous mask and showed their true face of oppression.

There had been over fifty rebellions against this government, but all of them ended in miserable failure. Each time it crushed one of its enemies, the Wavebide Government massacred them all while the world watched. This was the constant reminder that the Wavebide Government would remain in power forever and ever.

This seemingly endless promise of power was very successful until the Eclipse forces appeared. This group of rebels, no matter how badly injured, seemed to bounce back for more. The Government could not understand this and tried again and again to get rid of this small force. With each Eclipse victory, the Wavebide Government grew more frustrated and determined to kill all the members of the Eclipse, especially those Eclipsean pilots that caused so many problems.

With the news of this most recent Eclipse victory, the highest officials of the Wavebide Government gathered in their virtual meeting room and held a long discussion about what to do next.

"I told you, Jaden! I told you your idea to build robots armed with nuclear weapons was a bad one, but no! No one listened to me, and now we have wasted sixteen-"

"Shut up, Ethil. It's not like your "let's nuke them out of their base" idea was any better. My idea at least put those Eclipseans down! And it wasn't sixteen-billion - it was fifteen-billion," shot back Jaden.

Ethil sniffed and turned up her nose. Jaden glared at the black-haired, green eyed woman with his sly green eyes. Ethil then returned the glare and scowled. Jaden snarled and glared back into Ethil's crystal-clear green eyes. The two black-haired officials continued glaring at each other until a graying man slammed his fists on the table and stood up, thus causing them to stop.

"I can't believe you two. The Avan twins still arguing when they are some of the highest officials in the Wavebide government! Your father would disapprove of such behavior, I'm certain!" shouted Calvan Pultim, the current head of the Wavebide government.

The twins looked away from each other and murmured an apology. Though they were still separated, the virtual meeting room made them feel as if they were only inches apart. With a sigh of thanks, Pultim sat back into his chair. "Now, where were we before these two started their nonsense?"

"We were discussing our next plan of action, sir," a thin woman said from another behind Pultim. The man nodded and glanced about the room filled with video windows. "Does anyone have any suggestions for us?" he asked.

There was a long silence before a tight-skinned man coughed politely. Pultim, happy that the silence had finally been broken, turned to the man. "Yes, Canth? Do you have a suggestion?"

Canth looked nervously about him before answering in a quivering voice, "Umm...well, you see, sir...."

"Go on."

"Err...well..my opinion, not like it's important or anything...but..."

"Hurry up already!" shouted Ethil who was known to have a short temper. Canth cringed at the sound of her sharp, demanding voice, but nodded weakly. "Of course, of course. I was thinking we should make an attempt to take one of the Eclipse force members hostage."

When he finished speaking, he turned his eyes toward the ground and waited for the other committee members to respond. There was another moment of silence. After shifting uncomfortably several times, Pultim spoke up. "Well, Canth, that would be a great idea. But there's one slight problem - "

"I knew it! I knew something would be wrong! I can never get anything right!!" Canth wailed while wringing his pale, skinny hands. Pultim immediately shook his head and said, "No! No! That's not what I mean, Canth. I meant that it might be hard to obtain an enemy to prosecute."

Canth immediately stopped wailing and looked up. His eyes were red from crying, but a wide grin had spread across his face. Ethil rolled her eyes and muttered, "What is wrong with you, Canth? Must you act so much like a baby?"

The Avan twins' patron, who was also part of the committee, glared at the young woman. "Ethil Avan! Stop behaving in such a childish manner! You are no one to be talking about others acting like babies."

"Sorry, Mr. Walice."

"Then we are settled! We shall get ourselves an enemy to prosecute. Kathleen, write that down please. Now, let us plan a trap to catch ourselves an Eclipse," Pultim announced. While the thin woman behind him scribbled down information, Pultim grinned wickedly.

Cloud slowly opened one eye, but quickly shut it. "Aww...it's so bright! Where am I?" he mumbled, his hand covered over his eyes. A giggle came from his right. "Good morning, Cloud," Natalia said from his bedside.

Cloud removed his hands and opened his eyes. He was inside of a medical room and was resting on a hospital bed. "Whoa. When did I get here?" he asked, thoroughly confused.

"Sirus took you here."

"Sirus! Leif! Bane! Where are they?! Are they all right? How did the battle go? What did I miss?!" Cloud sputtered. Natalia smiled and replied in a calm, sweet tone, "I'll only tell you if you calm down and be a good boy."

Cloud raised an eyebrow at her teasing, but did as he was told. "Well, Sirus took you here, and Leif and Bane were left to finish off the battle. They did indeed finish the Wavebide troops off, but they set off a string of nuclear explosions in the process. But it's all over now, and they are all safe. Now, get some rest."

"BUT I JUST WOKE UP!!"

"Be a good boy, Cloud!!" Natalia caroled as she strolled out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

As the Wavebide Government prepared their Eclipse trap, there was practically a cease fire between the two warring groups; not a single shot was fired during this time. But the two groups were not idly waiting for their foe to attack, however.

The Wavebide Government had started to spread propaganda that they had created a weapon that was capable of destroying entire continents and that it was located at their main base. Though this was fake, the Government knew that the Eclipse forces would find it irresistible to find out more about it. It was only a matter of time until the fake peace ended.

At the Eclipse home base, repairs on the four Eclipseans had been completed, and all four pilots were in good health. The rebels had found out about this continent-destroying weapon and were trying to obtain some information through hacking, but it appeared that it wasn't turning out anything useful.

So they decided to send in an infiltrator.

"Yes, Natalia?"

Natalia spun around to face the person who had just called her name, her long blond hair flowing around her. She smiled pleasantly and motioned for the silver-haired boy to sit down. "Take a seat, Sirus."

Sirus mouthed a thank you and sat down. The moment his body sank into the deep leather chair, Natalia began pacing back and forth. "Sirus, you know about the Wavebide's Hell Bringer weapon, correct?"

"Of course."

"I assume you also know that we have been unable to obtain any information on this weapon?"

"You assume correctly."

"Good, good. That's where you come in, my friend. You're the best infiltrator we have, and I want you to get into Wavebide's main base and seen what information you can glean out of there."

"Whatever you want."

"Very well then. Are you well rested? If you are, we'll shall commence operations immediately."

"I'm ready whenever you are, Natalia."

"Good! Let's get this started then. I'll send the Eclipseans to provide a distraction while you sneak in; is this understood?"

"Completely."

Sirus saluted and dismissed himself to prepare for his own special mission. As soon as the wooden doors of Natalia's office closed, the commander called over the intercom. "ECLIPSEAN PILOTS! PREPARE FOR BATTLE IMMEDIATELY!"

When going on infiltration missions, Sirus traveled very lightly with only a small backpack and its contents. The backpack contained everything from hairpins to the metal-studded whip that was the chosen weapon of Sirus.

As Sirus changed into the pitch black body suit, he heard Natalia's voice booming over the intercom. After making some fine adjustments to his gear, Sirus streaked out of his room into the hangar where his fellow Eclipsean pilots were suiting up.

"THERE YOU ARE!" Bane cheered. The boy ran up to Sirus and enveloped him in a warm hug. "What took you so long? And what's with the outfit??"

Leif cast a wary eye over Sirus' outfit. "I see you're on an infiltration mission again," he said, his voice hushed. A strange silence fell between the group of friends as Sirus looked at the ground. "I'll be all right. Promise." he whispered.

Without a word, Leif slipped into Wolf's Cry and shut the hatch. Bane blinked innocently and asked, "What was all that about?" Cloud quickly noticed the pained look on Sirus' face and tried to quiet Bane who was still bubbling with questions.

Bane waved Cloud's attempt off and answered, "Before you two became Eclipsean pilots, I was called on an infiltration mission. No one has ever said anything about it before, but I made a huge mistake and got in quite a bit of trouble. The others came and rescued me, but at the price of one of their lives. That was when Bane was added to our group."

His voice trailed off, and he slowly walked away. Before disappearing out of sight, Sirus said, "You two better get going. I've gotta prepare my transport. Good luck and stay safe."

As soon as Cloud and Bane were inside their Eclipseans, Leif commanded them to launch. Once above ground, Leif's face appeared on their video screens; his face was more strained than usual. "We are not to destroy the base. We are only here to provide a distraction so that Sirus can get into the base. Got that?" he growled. The other two vigorously shook their heads. "Good."

The Wavebide Government's main base was located was located about two hours away from the Eclipse base, but the Eclipseans were able to reach the area in about half that time.

Pultim was anxiously awaiting this attacking. "They're finally here! Remember men, keep security just high enough so that our friend doesn't find it too easy to get in here!" he shouted. As the battle commenced outside, Pultim and the top officials were escorted down to the underground sector of the base, just to be safe.

Fifteen minutes after the Eclipseans had arrived, a gray-black stealth jet swept over the Wavebide base. After making two circles over the area, a small figure slipped out of the aircraft and plummeted toward the ground.

"Slayer has entered the field. Wait fifteen minutes, then begin retreating," Leif said, his voice colder than it had ever been. If anything happens to you again, Sirus....

Sirus fell towards the ground at an incredible pace; the ground seemed to be coming to swallow him up. Too close to the ground to parachute, Sirus ran his hand through his backpack and took out what looked like a gun. Taking quick aim, Sirus fired the grappling gun and watched the grappler soar and sink into the high, dark walls of the Wavebide base. Now, instead of plummeting towards the ground, Sirus was flying towards the wall. Three. Two. One. Touchdown! He had landed safely on the wall of the large building.

He watched his comrades in the field for several seconds before scrambling up the steep edifice. By the time he had reached the top, he had noticed that the three Eclipseans were beginning their retreat. But as he watched, he noticed that something unplanned was happening: the enemy troops were following them. For about a minute, Sirus watched through squinted eyes as his friends faced heavy fire. "I'm sorry guys. I'm really sorry about all of this," he whispered.

A somewhat comforting sound then reached his ears. The ground troops! In a great cloud of dust, large groups of robots were appearing and were quickly moving in to help their Eclipsean friends. A "thank you" escaped Sirus' lips as he moved away from the building's edge.

Leif breathed a sigh of relief as his radar showed the ground troops coming from behind them. One by one, the leaders of the separate units reported in. All of them showed great respect for the Eclipse pilot; all of them, but one. This one was the leader of unit sixty-seven and was named Janeel Halo. She was one of the best female pilots in the Eclipse forces, but she also had one of the worst personalities; she spoke kindly to no one and always had a frown glued on her otherwise beautiful features.

Wolf's Cry's pilot was not shocked one bit when Janeel reported in and glared at him for several seconds. "We're here. I'm not sure why you Eclipseans need our help. I mean, it's always said that you guys are so great and everything," she mumbled before quickly disappearing from Leif's screen. Though he knew Janeel would act like this, it still hurt him somewhat. He shook his head and continued his retreat.

This sure is odd, Sirus thought to himself as he silently pried open a small window in the roof's ceiling. With a soft popping sound, the plastic pane of the window popped into Sirus' steady hands. Why does this seem a bit too easy?

Sirus cast his bright blue eyes across the scene around him once before leaping through the hole he had just created. The ground came up quickly, and Sirus landed safely by tumbling just as he landed. As soon as he had gotten into a crouching position, his small handgun was held at ready; nobody seemed to have noticed his entrance. The silver-haired boy slowly straightened and walked cautiously towards the door.

The door was locked, but a locked door was nothing to Sirus. Reaching into his backpack, Sirus removed a small explosive and attached it to the lock. After stepping to the safety of the other side of the wall, Sirus detonated the explosive. There was a small plume of smoke and a soft boom, but that was all. Sirus approached the door again, and this time it silently slid open to reveal a brightly lit stairwell. With gun held in front, Sirus slinked down the stairs.

"Enemy fire is increasing, Leif!" shouted Bane as his force field began to dwindle, "I can't even get to them to attack!!"

Leif grit his teeth as he fit five more arrows onto his bow. He was the only one in the group of Eclipseans that actually had a long-range weapon, and this was proving to be fatal for the Eclipse forces. The ground troops were doing their best to support the Eclipseans, but their best was not enough. "All we can do is continue retreating. Cloud, how are you doing over there?" Leif said through gritted teeth.

Cloud's sweat covered face appeared on Leif's screen. "Not too good. I'm just as helpless as Bane is. I'm sorry, Leif."

Wolf's Cry's pilot shook his head and muttered, "It's not your fault. It's not. You guys go first, I'll try to knock out a few more."

"But Leif! You're gonna get slaughtered!"

"Shut up Bane! Just get outta here!"

"But!"

"No but's! GET OUT OF HERE!!"

The forest green Eclipsean waited impatiently as it watched its crimson and black comrades disappear into the ranks of the ground troops. Then something caught his eye. "The sixty-seventh unit!" he screamed when he noticed that the small group of robots had been surrounded by a ring of Wavebide forces.

After casting a quick glance to make sure that all the other forces were far enough away to not receive further damage, Leif sprinted over to the stranded unit. But just before he reached them, a large explosion knocked out all of the robots, except for one. Miracuously, Janeel's robot was still there.

"Janeel!" shouted Leif as he frantically tried to contact her. After a few nerve-wracking seconds of static, Janeel's face appeared on his screen. She had removed her helmet, which lay at her side with a large crack running down the center. Her usually neat black hair was in complete disarray, but what surprised Leif the most was that Janeel was showing signs of fear - her hands were trembling, as well as her lips.

"Leif?" she whispered. Leif nodded and smiled gratefully at her. "It'll be all right. Let's get you outta here now," said the Eclipsean pilot, his voice soothing to Janeel's frantic mind. Then he remembered that getting themselves out of the mess they were in was going to prove rather hard with the group of Wavebide robots surrounding them.

Turning away from Janeel's robot, Wolf's Cry faced the group of robots. The Eclipsean's depleted shield removed itself from the Eclipsean and encircled Janeel's robot. "WOLF! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! You'll get killed that way!!" Janeel screamed hoarsely.

"I'll be fine. You get outta here now...." Leif said before vanishing from Janeel's scream. The girl screamed again. "NO WOLF! MY LIFE ISN'T WORTH YOURS!! NO!!" Through her tear filled eyes, Janeel noticed that the Eclipsean was motioning to her to move out. There's nothing I can do...nothing. she thought to herself as she lifted her wrecked robot off the ground. With one final glance, Janeel departed the battle ground.

"Well, Wolf's Cry, it was nice knowing you...." Leif murmured as the enemy fire ate away at his Eclipsean. With each hit the robot shook more violently, until with one strike, the Eclipsean toppled over. With a shout of anguish, Leif found out he had just broken his right wrist. With several grunts of exertion, Leif managed to maneuver his Eclipsean into a sitting position. "If I've gotta die, I'm gonna go down fighting," he growled as he fired away at the enemy that was closing in.

Pain seared through his arm and his mind as Leif frantically fired at the enemy. With a final shriek of pain, Leif fell unconscious. The last thing he remembered were two streaks streaking by his window: one red, the other black.

This is way too easy, Sirus thought to himself as he landed at the bottom of the long stairwell he had been descending for several minutes. Then an odd feeling washed over him. Out of pure instinct, Sirus made a quick retreat to the stairwell. None too soon either for just at the moment Sirus' feet left the ground, a hail of bullets pierced the ground where he had been previously standing.

Amazingly, this entire event was somewhat of a relief for Sirus because things were getting too easy. There weren't any sounds before that happened...which means that the gun firing at me is automated. It'll probably shoot at anything that doesn't have a Wavebide mark or something, pondered the Eclipsean infiltrator. The boy's gloved hand drifted into his backpack and pulled out the metal-studded whip. With a crack, the black whip was unraveled.

Slowly creeping back down the steps, Sirus looked about him for where the gunshots might be coming from. He couldn't find the location, but just as his foot touched the last step of the staircase, something happened. From the ceiling, two machine guns appeared and immediately began firing at him. But they were too slow.

In one swift, clean motion, Sirus knocked one of the machine guns out of commission with a hefty strike from his whip. The second machine gun was quickly knocked out by the gun Sirus was holding in his other hand. The silver-haired boy cheered silently before running off to continue his mission.

The battle for Leif and his Eclipsean was a tough one. Bane and Cloud's shields were seriously depleted, and they wouldn't be holding out much longer. "Cloud! What are we gonna do?! Leif's unconscious! That means the only way we can get him outta there is to drag him out," Bane cried out while slamming one of the Wavebide robots with the chunk blasters.

Raven's Wish sliced another robot in half before its pilot replied to Bane. "I know, but it's the only way. Just a few more Bane, just a few more...."

Sirus had made his way into one of the base's many computer rooms. The thought of capture still was in his mind, but he knew he had to finish his mission. With several switches were flicked on, and several buttons were pressed, the entire computer room came alive with the eerie blue light emitted by the computer screens.

Rummaging once more into the small backpack strapped on his back, Sirus pulled out a small disk and slid it into the computer. After typing furiously for several minutes, information began going onto the disk. But then something happened; all the computers in the room were beginning to have a blood red screen. Suddenly, the entire computer system exploded.

The enemies had finally been defeated. Bane and Cloud carefully hoisted the badly beaten Wolf's Cry onto their shoulders and began to lug the machine and its pilot back to home base. To their great relief, a carrier jet soon arrived and took them in.

As soon as it was safe to get out of their Eclipseans, Cloud and Bane rushed over to Wolf's Cry. With some prying, they managed to open the somewhat dented hatch of the forest green Eclipsean. When the hatch finally opened with a soft hiss, the saw a rather horrific scene. Obviously, Leif had received more damage after Cloud and Bane came back to rescue him for there were more cuts and blood than they had seen after they first tried to reach Leif after he had been knocked down.

A few minutes after the Eclipsean pilots had come out to check on their teammate, medical crews poured into the impromptu hangar. It wasn't long until Bane and Cloud weren't allowed to see their friend because he had been hoisted off to the makeshift hospital. "Hope he'll be all right," voiced Bane in a quiet, suppressed voice.

"We have caught the mouse!" cheered Ethil as she watched the TV screen fill with orange and red flames. Pultim smiled grimly and immediately ordered his forces to put out the fire and put their prisoner into the containment facilities next to where they were currently located.

Jaden's green eyes danced with pleasure as he awaited the new POW next to the designated cell; he had been waiting there since the beginning of the operation earlier that day. When the prisoner was finally brought down, he was slightly disappointed to see that the prisoner wasn’t struggling or fighting back; the prisoner was simply limp.

It had been one week since the Eclipse forces had lost Sirus to the Wavebide government. This day was also the day that Leif woke up from his coma. As he sat silently in his room staring at the picture of his fellow Eclipsean pilots, a light tap at the door caused him to leap out of his seat. After calming his startled nerves, he mumured, "Come in."

A slender, beautiful woman – no, girl - stepped into Leif's room. "Hello. I thought I'd just pay you a little visit," she said, her voice almost a whisper.

"Janeel?"

The girl looked away at the ground and refused to keep eye contact with the Eclipsean pilot. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" asked Leif, puzzlement clear in his voice.

"For doing what I did to you. For....almost killing you."

Leif slowly walked over to where Janeel was standing perfectly motionless. The girl continued to avert eye contact, but she did raise her eyes from the ground. But when she did, she wished she had not. A light cast encircled the pilot's wrist, a large bandage was wrapped around his torso, and there were several bandages elsewhere. Leif was wearing a loose bathrobe, and it opened just enough to expose his lightly muscled chest.

As Janeel's eyes continued to drift upwards, she caught sight of his dog tag. Without thinking, she grabbed it and looked at what was inscribed on the small metal tag.

ECLIPSEAN PILOT
WOLF

"Your name is so secret that they won't even put it on your dog tag." Then something else caught Janeel's sharp eyes. Leif's good hand was coming up towards her face. In an instant, his gentle touch was tilting her chin up towards his face.

"You can call me Leif," he whispered before drawing the girl in for a kiss.

"Pultim! Please allow me to be the prosecutor of our little friend here!" demanded Jaden, his green eyes intense. The old man closed his eyes in thought and mumbled something before turning his gaze at the young man. "Very well then. You won't be the only prosecutor, mind you, but you will be the first."

A grin spread across Jaden's features before he saluted smartly and walked off. Pultim rolled his eyes and muttered to Kathleen, "Stupid young people."

Sirus shook himself awake as a thin ray of light slinked its way across the floor of his prison cell. Through one open eye, the silver-haired boy watched as a heavily built man strode in. "Huh?" he mumbled as the man walked closer. In the next second, Sirus found himself in the man's burly arms. He struggled feebly as he was dragged out of his cell towards another room.

After only a ten second walk, Sirus was thrown into a chair, and his hands and feet were tied to the metal chair, though he was already handcuffed. "Horrible state, absolutely horrible. How in the world am I supposed to question a person who can hardly keep his head from drooping onto his chest?!" growled a man's voice.

The gruff man that had dragged Sirus into the room shuffled his feet and muttered something under his breath. "Uhh...umm...I...uh..."

The young man sighed and dismissed the guard. Though Sirus' eyes were still directed at the floor, he saw the man bring a chair in front of him and sit down. "Let me see your sorry face, boy!" he commanded.

With painful slowness, Sirus raised his head and faced the young man. The Eclipsean, though pale in the first place, was as white as a ghost. "Goodness! To think that we treat prisoners so horribly gives me the creeps! I'll make sure that they get a hot meal in you."

What is up with this guy? Isn't he supposed to be the enemy? puzzled Sirus as he stared blankly into Jaden's green eyes. "Now then, onto business. State your name please," Jaden said, his voice clear and crisp. He leaned back in his chair and waited for Sirus to respond. After waiting for half a minute with no answer, Jaden tried again. "What's your name?"

Sirus still refused to answer and turned his face back towards the floor. Jaden sighed and grabbed the metal tag hanging around Sirus' neck. Eclipsean pilot. Slayer. Hmph. That doesn't tell me a bloody thing! Jaden thought as he read the dog tag of his enemy. "Sure are a secretive bunch, those rogues," Jaden mumbled.

In one swift movement, Jaden's strong grasp encircled Sirus' dog tag and pulled Sirus towards Jaden's face. They were a mere centimeter apart and Jaden asked again. "Now tell me 'Slayer', what is your real name?!" he hissed.

"Slayer."

"No, you bafoon! Your real name!"

"Slayer. Slayer of the likes of you."

This last comment shocked Jaden and caused him to slide back into his seat. After taking several seconds to calm himself, the Wavebide officer glanced back at Sirus. "Very well then, Slayer. You are from the Eclipse forces, and you are one of the Eclipsean pilots. How very interesting. It seems to be that you are the pilot of 02, also known as Slayer's Dream. What say you to this?"

"I will tell you this much. You are correct. Now will you get outta my face and leave me!" screamed Sirus. Piercingly blue eyes bore a hole through Jaden's soul as the two sat in front of each other. "LEAVE ME!!!" Sirus screamed again. Jaden was so unsettled by Sirus' behavior that he did actually get up and leave.

After exiting the small room with the still screaming prisoner, Jaden turned to the guard and roared, "WELL?! DON'T JUST STAND THERE, YOU LAZY BUM! GET HIM BACK TO HIS PRISON CELL!!"

The guard jumped at Jaden's angry command and scurried into the room. "I'LL KILL YOU ONE DAY! YOU UNDERSTAND? YOU AND ALL YOUR WAVEBIDE BUDDIES!! THE SLAYER WILL COME BACK TO KILL YOU ALL!!!" howled Sirus as he was dragged bodily back into his cell.

Jaden was taking deep breathes to prevent himself from losing his temper. "No you won't, fool. No you won't. Feed him enough just to keep him alive." Jaden cast a sidelong glance at the prison door before striding out of the vicinity.

"Well, well, well! Looks like brother didn't succeed at getting any information out of the prisoner!" jeered Ethil when Jaden strode into the sitting room where she was currently located. Jaden shot his sister a death glare before stiffly sitting down in a nearby chair. The glare only made Ethil smile even more as she walked over to where Jaden was sitting. "Poor little Jaden. You never were capable of doing anything by yourself - "

Jaden's hand came fast and hard. In a mere second, he had slapped his twin sister. Unlike most women who would start tearing up, Ethil glared menacingly at Jaden. "You...you...you beast!" she said shrilly. In another moment, Ethil slapped her brother back. "Don't you ever do that to me again!"

But Jaden had lost his temper by then and had sunk into somewhat of a depression. Ethil noticed the sudden change and sank down onto the chair's arm. "Oh, I'm so sorry Jaden. I didn't mean it...really I didn't!" she said. A single tear escaped Jaden's eyes and flowed down his face. Ethil gasped and murmured, "Jaden...I...."

The green-eyed man turned away from his sister and looked at the carpeted floor. Ethil looked grievingly at her brother and stood back up. "Jaden...," she whispered. Jaden turned his sad eyes upwards and looked into his sister's eyes. Not another word was exchanged between them as Ethil wrapped Jaden in a loving hug.

"Where the heck is Leif?!" Bane wondered aloud as he walked leisurely through the hangar. The blond whirled around when he heard a voice answer his question.

"He's with Janeel," Cloud answered, a grin dancing across his features. Bane looked puzzled and asked, "Huh? He's with Janeel? What do you mean 'he's with Janeel'?"

"Exactly what I said. Leif is hanging out with Janeel. They're..umm..how should I state this?"

"What?! What?! Tell me!!"

"Well....they're going out."

"WHAT!!!???? WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?!" sputtered Bane. Demon's Desire's pilot ran up to Cloud and shook the taller boy. "HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?! WHY DIDN'T I KNOW?!"

Cloud smiled sheepishly while trying to pry Bane off of his arm. "When Leif woke up! Remember that night when we went to go visit him?"

"Yeah. I remember very well how you prevented me from seeing him," Bane answered, a faint hint of disdain in his voice. Cloud sighed and continued. "WELL, Leif was....umm...having a private chat with Janeel. I thought it'd be best if we didn't disturb."

"Was that all they were doing? Having a 'private chat'?" Bane questioned while eyeing Cloud suspisciously. Cloud gave an exasperated sigh and nodded his head. "YES!"

Bane grinned and slapped Cloud on the back. "Cool!" he exclaimed before frolicking off while chanting, "Leif has a girlfriend...Leif has a girlfriend...Leif has a girlfriend..."

As he watched his friend move away, Cloud wondered if it had been right to tell Bane what was happening between Leif and Janeel. He sighed, shook his head, and returned to making adjustments to Raven's Wish.

It had been one month since Sirus had been captured by the Wavebide government. None of the Wavebide officials had succeeded in gleaning any information out of the Eclipsean pilot known to them as "Slayer". On the other side of the war, the Eclipse officials were frantically trying to devise a way to get Sirus back.

"How about if we send in another infiltrator?" Natalia asked while nervously pacing the ground. The other officials around her shook their heads.

"I think that would be unwise, Natalia," one man said while averting his eyes from the commander's sharp eyes. Natalia frowned; she had been getting the same answers to all her suggestions the entire meeting, but they never said why. The Eclipse officials looked up when Natalia stopped abruptly.

"What is it, Natalia?"

"If you guys keep rejecting my ideas, why don't you come up with some of your own?! What is wrong with mine? I've named so many ideas...I don't know what else we can do to help get Slayer out of that wretched prison he's probably sitting in!!" Natalia spewed, her face red with diminishing patience. With a final nod, the commander stormed out of the meeting room.

The other officials looked nervously at each other. "I guess we had best come up with something," murmured one of them.

"Pultim, I would like to become an active soldier in the Wavebide forces."

"What? Why do you ask that, young man?" Pultim replied while looking at Jaden with great puzzlement, "Are you not happy with what we are doing? Why the sudden wish, dear boy?"

Jaden cringed slightly at being called a boy. Pultim noticed and murmured an apology. Jaden shook his head and then said, "I don't know, sir. I just feel to useless sitting here safe while men give their lives to fight for us. I think that it would be better for them to know that someone, preferably one of the leaders, was down there with them."

Pultim still looked skeptical about Jaden's wish to become a soldier. "Really Jaden, I don't want to put your life in danger. Your father was a direct descendant of the man who started the entire Wavebide regime!"

Jaden rolled his green eyes and said exasperatedly, "But I don't want to be like my father! He was...just a lazy old man who did nothing but order troops around!"

"Jaden! How dare you disgrace Father!" Ethil screeched. Jaden looked towards the open door, a look of astonishment on his face. "Ethil...I...I...I didn't know you were there!"

Tears streamed down Ethil's face as she glared at her brother. "All these years...I have struggled to maintain Father's image, but you Jaden! You fiend! All you have done is spoil our, no my, dear father's name! I hate you Jaden! Do you understand?! You are no Avan!! You...you...you are an Eclipsean!!" she burst out.

Jaden said nothing and stared at the floor. With a glint of anger in his eyes, Jaden slowly looked up at his weeping sister. "Dearest Ethil. How observant you are...how very observant. You always were Father's favorite. He always gave you gifts and love and everything you desired! But what did I get? Nothing. Never did I receive a birthday gift or any gift for that matter! Who was the one always getting punished? Me. Oh Ethil, you don't understand how right you are....how right you are to say that I am an Eclipsean. I denounce my name! I am no longer an Avan, you hear me? Make sure that is written down and recorded!"

With one final death glare, Jaden left the room still fuming with anger. Ethil's lip trembled as the tears ran anew. After several sobs, Ethil scowled and screamed, "ARREST THAT MAN!! ARREST THE ONE WHO WAS FORMALLY KNOWN AS JADEN AVAN!! LOCK HIM UP WITH HIS FRIEND!!!!"

Pultim looked bewildered and remained sitting. But when Ethil cast her red-shot eyes at him, he immediately stood up and went to do her bidding.

"JADEN!!! I'LL KILL YOU ONE DAY!! FATHER'S NAME WILL BE PRESERVED FOREVER, AND YOURS WILL BE ERASED FROM HISTORY!! YOU TRAITOR!!!!!"

Jaden swept down to the prison and opened Sirus' cell. "Get out," he ordered while staring fiercely at the feeble figure sitting dejectedly in the corner. The figure shifted slightly and got up. "More questions, devil?" Sirus spit out. Jaden ignored the former prisoner's attitude and unlocked the handcuffs. "Get out of here."

Sirus made no movement. With a great sigh, Jaden took Sirus' hand and dragged him away. They had not gotten far when the sound of running footsteps approached. As they rounded a corner, two guards stopped them in their tracks.

"We are to arrest you, traitor," one of the guards sneered. He had been the one Jaden had scolded a while ago. Jaden grit his teeth and reached into his coat. In one clean, cat-like movement, the former Avan drew his gun and shot both guards through the chest.

Sirus opened his eyes in astonishment at this drastic movement. "Traitor?" he asked, his voice nearly inaudible. Jaden's eyes filled with tears as he answered in an unwavering voice. "That's right. I have officially denounced my name, and now my former sister is after my life. Mind if I join you in your fight to destroy Wavebide?"

Jaden cast a sidelong glance at Sirus. A new look had appeared in Sirus' formally dulled eyes; they were bright with determination. "You bet."

So the treaty was made right then and there with a firm hand shake.

Jaden led Sirus down a series of hallways until they reached what appeared to be one of the various hangars in the base. Just as Jaden punched in the access code for the hangar, Ethil's voice could be heard screeching across the intercom. "JADEN!! WHERE ARE YOU?! SHOW YOUR HIDEOUS FACE!! I'LL FIND YOU AND KILL YOU!!!"

Sirus motioned with his hand at the nearest speaker and asked, "Your sister?" Jaden rolled his eyes before nodding his head. The door in front of them slid open to reveal a hangar containing a black jet and a robot.

"Ethil, is it really necessary to go on this man hunt?" Pultim demanded as he watched the black-haired woman pacing angrily across the smooth floor. Ethil spun around, her medium-length hair whipping in front of her face. "Of course it is necessary!" she answered shrilly. She was about to turn her back on Pultim when he heard him mumble something that sounded very close to "fool".

"What did you just say?" she snarled. Pultim feigned a puzzled look. "What are you talking about?"

"You just called me a fool! You, Pultim, always were a supporter of my former brother. You liked him better, and you never tried to hide that fact."

"Ethil-"

Pultim never got to defend himself. Ethil had raised her handgun and fired. After completing this bloody deed, Ethil left the room in search of Mr. Walice, her patron. You’re next on my list, Jaden-follower!!

"You take the jet, and I'll take the robot," Jaden said as he leaped toward the kneeling, white robot that slightly resembled an Eclipsean. After noticing that Sirus was staring at the white machine, Jaden explained. "I created that robot in hopes of joining the fight, but I was refused the offer. So, this machine has never seen battle. Perhaps I can use it against Wavebide someday. We'd better hurry; Ethil will be sending out troops soon."

"For me?"

"No. She’s after my neck right now. I always knew that temper of hers was going to get me in trouble one day."

Several minutes later, the hangar doors opened. The stealth jet with Sirus aboard left first, and then the white robot, named Revolt, followed. As soon as Sirus was airborn, Jaden contacted his new friend. "I'll tag behind you and cover. Wavebide robots should be following in about one minute."

Sirus nodded and throttled his engines. "Guys, I'm coming home!" he shouted as the sudden burst of speed pushed him into his seat.

Ethil had just committed another murder and was stalking around the hallways of the base. Just then Canth appeared breathless beside the green-eyed woman. His entrance had surprised her, and she drew her gun on him. "What do you want?!" she hollered.

Canth grimaced and motioned feebly with his finger. "Umm...Miss Avan, it appears that your brother and the Eclipsean pilot have escaped."

"WHAT?! HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN?!" she roared as she ran down the hallway, "THIS CAN'T BE!!!! GET THEM!!!!!!"

Jaden's prediction was quite accurate. In about a minute's time, what appeared to be the entire base's forces streamed out of the base like bees. Jaden winked at Sirus and stopped to face the oncoming enemy. "You keep going, I'll catch up."

Sirus thanked the former Wavebide officer and bolted off; the jet soon became nothing more than a black dot.

With a push of a button, Jaden fired a hail of missiles at his former allies. The Wavebide forces lost quite a few robots to the missile strike, but continued to plow on forward through the rain of bullets. When the enemy got too close for comfort, Jaden produced a ball of glowing energy in his hands. "Energy blast: ready to fire."

In a bright flash of white light, several divisions of the Wavebide forces were destroyed. The rest of the forces were so disorientated by this point that Jaden was able to make a clean get-away.

At the Eclipse base, Natalia was still fuming about the rest of the officers not wanting to take action to rescue Sirus. As she angrily paced the floor, she noticed a small group of people walk towards her; they were the officers. Pretending to not notice them, Natalia continued pacing.

One of the men emitted a polite cough, and Natalia looked up at them. "What is it now?" she asked as she straightened. The same man who coughed smiled meekly and answered, "We've decided to take action to save Sirus."

Just then, a regular soldier burst into the area. Natalia cast a cold glare at this intrusion, but the young man seemed to not pay attention. "MA'AM! SIRUS IS RETURNING!! HE-"

There were a flurry of feet for the control room before the poor man had time to finish his sentence.

"Sirus! You're all right!" greeted the Eclipseans as Sirus stepped off the stealth shuttle. But before any more warm welcomes could be said, Natalia's voice boomed over the intercom. "BANE! CLOUD! GET INTO YOUR ECLIPSEANS IMMEDIATELY! WE HAVE AN UNIDENTIFIED ROBOT APPROACHING AT A FAST SPEED!"

Cloud and Bane shrugged and jogged off. Leif, who was still nursing his broken wrist, turned to Sirus and smiled. "Welcome back, friend."

But Sirus had a horrified look on his face. "Jaden! They're going after Jaden!!" Before Leif could ask what this was all about, Sirus had climbed aboard Slayer's Dream.

Natalia's face appeared on Cloud and Bane's screen as they zipped across the barren land to intercept the other robot. "I wish to inform you that your robots now have two vulcans located on the heads of your Eclipseans. Use them wisely! Good luck."

"We will intercept rogue robot in five seconds," Bane said, his voice a low growl. Cloud sighed. He's in his blood-thirsty mood again. From previous experiences, Cloud had learned that when Bane was in his fighting mood, he would listen to no sense and was nearly unstoppable.

Suddenly, a white robot appeared in front of them. It did not try to attack them; it merely landed on the ground and stared at the two Eclipseans. "My name is Jaden Avan. I was formerly part of the Wavebide government. I seek Slayer; is he here?" the green-eyed man said coolly.

"You're lying. Once a Wavebide, always a Wavebide. You're not getting anywhere near Sirus!" Bane spat as he throttled his engines and plowed towards the white robot, his vulcans firing away. Cloud stood silently to the side; he did not know whether he should attack Jaden or not.

Then a wave of the blue Wavebide robots appeared. "I knew it! You were lying!! You've brought reinforcements right to our front door!!" Bane shouted as he continued to pummel away at the white robot which was side-stepping each attack. Cloud looked grimly at the two battling robots before taking on the Wavebide troops.

Sirus came running towards the battlefield. As soon as he saw Demon's Desire attacking Revolt, he let out an anguished groan. "NO BANE! NO! JADEN'S OUR FRIEND!" he hollered. But Bane only increased his attack. Sirus moaned and came up behind the crimson robot. "I'm sorry, Bane," he murmured as he wrapped his robots arms around Demon's Desire's.

Bane cursed at the sudden loss of movement. In his furied mind, it took him some time to find out what the hold-up was. As soon as he found out it was Sirus, he screamed in protest and slammed his Eclipsean's elbow into Slayer's Dream's torso.

The cockpit of the Eclipseans was located in the torso, and when Bane hit Sirus, the silver-haired boy's head slammed against the back of his seat; a loud shout of pain escaped Sirus' lips. But Bane's rage did not end there.

"TRAITOR! YOU'VE JOINED WITH WAVEBIDE HAVEN'T YOU? YOU SNIVELING BRAT!!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. Bane seemed to forget all about Revolt and its pilot, and turned his attentions to the midnight blue robot. With each impact, Sirus let out another howl of pain.

Cloud had just finished up the last of the Wavebide robots, with a little help from Jaden, and was proceeding to try and disengage the two fighting Eclipseans. Jaden took the hint and came over as well. By this time though, Sirus had gotten back up and was starting to fight Bane.

"What's going on?!" demanded Natalia as she watched the large screen in front of her; two Eclipseans were fighting each other. One of the women under her command yelled, "It appears that Bane has become enraged! Sirus tried to stop him from attacking the white robot, but it appears that Bane turned on him. Sirus has now begun to counter attack."

"It was only a matter of time until Bane's other self would lose control," a calm voice said from behind Natalia.

The commander whirled around and faced Leif who was staring placidly at the screen. Nearby Janeel stood in the doorway; her shadow was almost present where Leif was. An exasperated sigh escaped Natalia's lips as she walked over to Leif.

There was a funny gleam in the commander's eyes that caused Leif to be taken aback. "Commander?"

"Leif, do something about this. You are the unofficial leader of the Eclipseans."

Leif suddenly looked grief stricken; he was looking down at his still mending wrist. Natalia noticed this and shook her head. "No, never mind. Sending you into battle with a broken wrist would be a very bad idea. Plus the doctor would probably kill me."

"I'm sorry, Natalia. I'm sure that Cloud and that mystery pilot can figure things out. Have you tried to contact any of them?"

"No. Sirus and Bane's lines are blocked. Cloud and that other pilot are in great danger at the moment, and it would be of no good to try and talk with them now. They don't have the time or mind to."

Leif nodded at his commander's wise choice. The control room went silent save for the sound of battling robots.

"Guys! Guys! Break it up!!" Cloud shouted as he fought furiously to bring Bane under control. In the meantime, Revolt was trying its best to stop Slayer's Dream from doing any further damage. But the two fighting pilots would not let the issue drop.

"Don't stop me Cloud! Sirus is a traitor, and all traitors deserve to die!!"

"I am not a traitor, you freak! I only brought someone that is willing to help us!"

Cloud scowled. This is going too far. In one cat-like movement, Raven's Wish came between the two fighting Eclipseans, a blade of energy resting right underneath the robots' necks. "Not another move, you two. We're a team, if you forgot, and teams don't fight each other!" he shouted angrily. "Now shut down your systems. NOW."

There were several angry grunts from Sirus and Bane, but they followed Cloud's order. Once the light in the eyes of the Eclipseans went out, Cloud withdrew his two energy beams. "Now that we aren't posing a threat to each other's lives, why don't we sort this out?"

"He's a traitor! He needs to be killed!"

"Bane! Come to your senses already!"

"I am not a traitor!"

"Sirus!"

"I'll kill you yet!"

"No you won't!"

"SHUT UP! BOTH OF YOU!!" Cloud snarled, his knuckles white from clenching his controls. His two teammates were getting on his nerves, and they were soon approaching the last one. "Now then, let's try this again. Sirus, who is this 'friend' you have brought along?"

Sirus sent a glare in Bane's direction before answering Cloud's question in a low growl. "His name is Jaden Avan. He used to belong to the Wavebide-"

"SEE!!!! HE CAN'T BE TRUSTED!"

"BANE! Let Sirus finish his sentence!"

"As I was saying before I was so rudely interupted. He was a former officer of the Wavebide government, but currently his sister is after his life. He only wishes to join us in our fight against Wavebide."

"Is that all, Sirus?" asked Cloud.

"Yes."

"Very well then. Bane, I hope you have no objections to this?"

By this time, Bane had finally managed to shake off his battle mood and was nodding solemnly. Though he had acknowledged that Jaden could live, Bane still was holding a grudge against Jaden, and even Sirus a little. "Yeah. Whatever," he mumbled.

"Then it's settled. Let's head back to base. Welcome to the Eclipse forces, Jaden Avan."

"So they escaped?" Ethil asked, her mood mellowed. Canth nodded nervously, but did not say anything. The woman's green eyes flicked over to Canth, and Canth winced. Ethil turned her eyes away and said, "I'm not going to hurt you Canth. I've killed everyone who ever supported Jaden. I'm the only Wavebide official, save yourself, that is in power. Now, you have two choices: be my underling or suffer a most horrible fate."

"I..I...I..I'll work under you," Canth stuttered, his eyes shifted around nervously. Ethil gave him a cold sort of smile. She had hoped that a smile would calm the poor man, but all it did was make Canth shudder. The black-haired woman sighed in exasperation and leaned her chin on the couch she was sitting on. "Leave me, Canth."

Canth bowed several times and fumbled his way towards the door backwards. As soon as the door shut, Ethil broke into broken sobs.

Canth had not gone anywhere; he simply was standing next to the door. A wicked grin spread over his face as he took pleasure in listening to Ethil cry. "I want to thank you, Ethil. Thank you for killing the rest of the Wavebide officers. Now it's just you and me, but soon...it will be only me!" he whispered before finally departing.

The real Canth was far from the stuttering, frightened man that he pretended to be. In reality, he was one of the most brilliant masterminds of the era, not to mention one of the most evil men of the era. He had started as a lowly janitor in the Wavebide ranks, and now he would soon be the leading official. Soon. Soon this will all be mine!

Ethil emerged out of her sitting room haven after several hours of crying and feeling guilty. Her commanding composure had returned, and she was about to go order for a search time to find and kill her brother when Canth appeared in front of her.

Ethil motioned for him to move, but Canth didn't budge. Ethil narrowed her eyes and said, "Canth, move." The man in question simply shook his head and grinned slyly. The look frightened Ethil because Canth had never been anything more than a scared, stuttering man. "Canth, what is the meaning of this?" she asked; her attempt to cover her fear had failed for her voice quavered.

"Nothing less than assassination, Miss Avan!" he chimed, pure joy ringing through his voice. Canth moved his right hand, which was previously hidden behind his back in front of him. "This should solve all your problems!" he chortled happily as he sank the dagger into Ethil's heart.

A madman's laugh rang through the base's hallways. As Ethil's blood began to spill onto the cold, metal floor, Canth skipped off to the hangar where he would fly off to another base to begin his takeover.

Once aboard the jet, Canth's first actions were to contact the members of the Wavebide government that were next in command under him. "Hello there. I'm sad to announce that Miss Ethil Avan has murdered all of the other Wavebide officials. She then turned violent against herself, thus leaving only me in command," Canth said with false solemnity and grief.

As soon as he had cut the transmission, he let out a blood-curling laugh.

"Bane! Sirus!" called Leif as the Eclipsean pilots stepped out of their robots. Bane gave Leif a half smile and walked off, but Sirus didn't even bother to acknowledge the other Eclipsean pilot's shout. Leif sighed in exasperation and waved to Cloud, who was the last Eclipsean pilot to leave his robot. Cloud seemed to be quite annoyed at the happenings between his fellow teammates, but all he did to show it was shake his head. "It wasn't too fun having two friends fighting each other. It was even worse that they're both armed with Eclipseans!" he muttered as he continued to shake his head in disbelief.

A soft hiss came from the white robot as the hatch opened, and a tall, elegant looking man came out. Leif looked at him and nodded. "Welcome to the Eclipse base, Jaden," Cloud said while taking several steps toward the man he had just greeted. "My name is Leif Elsik. I see no point in hiding my name from you since you probably heard all of theirs while they were bickering."

Jaden thanked Leif in a low, hoarse voice; he suddenly appeared very tired. Cloud noticed the somewhat strange expression of pain on Jaden's face and asked, "Is something wrong?"

The green-eyed man grimaced slightly and shook his head. "I don't know. I've got this pang in me. A pang of pain. It's just like those other times when Ethil, my sister, was in pain or something. It's just that this time it's about ten times worse."

"Perhaps I know the reason."

The group of pilots turned around to find Natalia looking at them, her arms crossed. She walked across the metal hangar floor and activated a computer screen. In a few seconds, she had the computer tuned into a television boardcast by the Wavebide.

"My name is Canth Taner, and I am the sole survivor of the Avan massacre, if I may call it that. Miss Ethil Avan, one of the highest-ranking Wavebide officers, went insane and murdered all of the Wavebide officials, save myself. After she had finished her killing streak, she committed suicide. Among those dead include her brother Jaden Avan. I am very regretful of this most tragic event. I would-"

"Ethil's dead? Ethil. My twin sister Ethil is gone forever. Gone. I..I just can't believe that! She's not the type of person that would commit suicide! Never would she do that to herself! Never!" Jaden exclaimed while looking at the now blank screen. "I don't believe it. I don't."

"You'll have to. My guess is that this Canth character has been waiting for ages upon ages for his chance in the spotlight. I don't know what your sister is like, but she could've been completely innocent to these murder charges that Canth is bring down on her. But now he's made Wavebide weaker. All we have to do is cut the head off of the snake, and victory will be ours!" Leif said while placing a comforting hand on Jaden's shoulder.

"Yes. Victory will be ours," Jaden murmured, his voice almost inaudible as he continued to stare into space.

Mad laughter rang through the new Wavebide home base. All of the men and women inside gave a groan as they heard their new leader, Canth, doing his daily rounds. Canth, who was so very afraid of an uprising, did his rounds so that he could quickly silence anyone who opposed him. The Wavebide members were more frightened of his laugh than they were of him, however; it had the most spine-chilling ring to it.

"HELLO THERE IN THE RADIO ROOM! MAKE SURE THAT YOU CATCH ANY OF THE ECLIPSEAN ANNOUNCEMENTS! WE DON'T WANNA MISS ANY OF THOSE!!" Canth sang as he marched past the radio room. The people inside rolled their eyes and mumbled, "Yes, sir."

"THERE'S MY GOOD PEOPLE!" he chortled as he walked away. Once he was out of earshot, a woman whispered to her co-worker nearby, "What a nutcase!"

Things were not going to well between Sirus and Bane; they had not spoken to each other since Jaden had joined the Eclipsean ranks, and that had been several weeks ago. Cloud and Leif were making every effort they could to bring the two friends back together, but it wasn't working. Jaden, who thought and knew that he was the cause of this, grew more depressed every day that passed.

Cloud noticed and sat beside the black-haired man one day. "Look Jaden, I know this is kinda your fault, but it's not entirely your doing. Bane and Sirus really need to get over this entire 'Oh my gosh, he's from Wavebide' thing. We don't function like a team anymore. And we all know the price of not working as a team - disaster."

Jaden cast a sidelong glance at the Eclipsean pilot. "I guess I should go talk to Bane."

Cloud smiled and replied, "Good luck."

Bane was punching furiously at a punching bag inside of the gym when Jaden found him. For several minutes, Jaden stood silent as he watched the blond beat the red-colored bag; he appeared to be murmuring to himself as he battle his swaying enemy. Jaden was about to leave the room for fear of disturbing Bane, but he noticed that Cloud and Leif were standing farther down the hallway; Leif waved. Well, looks like it's now or never!

"Um, Bane? Can I have a chat with you?" Jaden asked, uncertainty obvious in his voice. Bane immediately stopped punching and looked at Jaden with a piercing glance. "Yeah, sure," he said coolly as he began to unwind the athletic tape wrapped around his hands. "Take a seat."

Jaden gave a half-smile and sat down on the bench nearby. After Bane had finished unwrapping the tape, he stood silently in front of Jaden. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Well, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for causing so much commotion between you and Sirus."

Immediately at the mentioning of his friend's name, Bane's eyes became a degree gentler. "I mean, I'm the cause of this break in friendship, and I feel like it's my duty to restore it. I'm really sorry, Bane. I really am."

"You'll be a true friend of mine one day, you know that? I like it how you came and apologized, even though you didn't. C'mon, let's go find Sirus and tell him that everything has been patched up and mended," Bane said as a grin spread itself across his features. The short blond offered Jaden a hand, and Jaden took it. "Welcome to the Eclipsean forces, Jaden."

It had been one battle-filled year since Jaden had joined up with the Eclipse forces; the Wavebide had officially recognized the pilot of the white Revolt as an enemy not long after Jaden had joined. The Wavebide government had begun to crumble under the leadership of Canth who appeared to be losing more sense each day. One day he asked all of his forces to abandon their bases and come to the one he was located at.

The Eclipse forces decided that the revolution was about to be completed. In a secret operation named Operation New Moon, the Eclipse forces would completely and utterly destroy the remaining Wavebide forces. The rebels had even gone so far as to make sure that the people could vote for their new leader as soon as the revolution was over by carefully selecting several leaders of the pacifistic groups spread across the planet. Tyranny would finally be over.

"It's Liberation Day!" Bane shouted cheerily as he practically skipped into the hangar with his piloting suit on; Cloud grinned and ran after the short blond. Jaden and Sirus walked slightly slower and were having a conversation about what they wanted to do with their lives after Operation New Moon was completed. The last to come into the hangar was Leif, who was whispering sweet things into Janeel's ear; Janeel was not going into battle, but she was staying to help in the command center.

Several minutes later, the five robots were lifted onto transport jets and were flown off. The journey to the new Wavebide headquarters took about one day. In this one day, the Eclipseans waited impatiently for their arrival; they were anxious to begin their mission. Finally, at the crack of dawn one day after take off, the Eclipseans were dropped into their locations.

"Report to Wolf," Leif said as he landed on the grassy ground. In a matter of seconds, the other pilots responded.

"Yo! Demon is ready to rumble!" Bane exclaimed, a giant grin pasted on his face. Leif shook his head and laughed as the blond disappeared from his screen. "Raven is ready to take flight," Cloud said with a wink.

"Slayer is all set, Wolf."

"Revolt is ready to begin."

"All right then! Proceed onto the battlefield! Best of luck to all of you, and stay safe. This is Wolf, over and out," Leif said as he shut all connections with his fellow pilots. The five robots took to their separate assignments and glided over the grassy landscape towards a large, gray edifice that was located on a small hill.

"Deploy all robots!!" Canth cackled. "And get me one as well! I don't want a single person in the base...EVERYONE GET OUT THERE AND FIGHT!!!" After sauntering out of the command room, insane laughter could be heard throughout the entire base.

Cloud's radar scanned the region ahead of him; it was completely blank save for the building in front of him. Suddenly, the radar screen began to fill with lots and lots of little dots that represented robots. A smirk crossed Cloud's features for a brief second before it disappeared into nothing.

In a burst of speed, Raven's Wish streaked toward the oncoming foe. The black robot took to the air and performed a flip before coming down upon the enemy and destroying two Wavebide robots with its blades. Cloud swung to the left and sliced several more robots into messy halves.

The Wavebide robots began firing hails of bullets upon the black robot, but Raven's Wish simply took to the air again. Using its recently installed jet boosters, the Eclipsean hovered in the air as it rained bullets down upon its enemies with fearsome fury.

Sirus flicked his wrist and sent his whip lashing across the battlefield in front of him. The whip retracted back to the blue Eclipsean. A second after the whip was retracted, a long line of explosions erupted. Once again, the whip flew out, and this time, it wrapped its length around the torso of one of the Wavebide robots. With an upward movement, Slayer's Dream sent the robot flying into the air. It exploded, and the shockwaves from the explosion caused several nearby suits to explode as well.

Bane was hammering away at the enemy all around him. After punching one robot in the torso region, the crimson Eclipsean spun around and kicked another Wavebide robot in the leg. With a quick leap, Demon's Desire escaped the ring of explosions that he had just created. As he hovered in the air, Bane poured bullet upon bullet onto his enemy, creating more havoc. With a flurry of kicks and punches, Bane came back down to earth.

A massive ball of energy gathered in Revolt's hands as it stood with enemy robot suits in front of it. Jaden braced himself as the energy released itself upon the Wavebide robots, the white light washing over the navy blue robots. The light was so bright that the fiery explosions could not be seen.

Arrow after arrow were sent into flight by Leif's expert archery skills. Wolf's Cry had chosen to remain somewhat hidden, and it knelt in the upper branches of several large trees. From this high vantage point, Leif could easily pick off the enemy; his robot was designed for long range fighting anyways. Though he was farther from the battlefield than his comrades, he was doing as much damage as they were.

It was several hours later when Canth emerged onto the battlefield. The way his eyes rolled every once in a while seemed to show that he was drinking, but he still managed to make his way around the battlefield without running into anything. For the oddest reason, Canth began to attack his own men; he just came up behind them and stabbed them with his beam sword. It wasn't long until all of the remaining Wavebide troops were defeated by the Eclipseans or murdered by Canth.

Canth teetered his way towards the group of five robots standing next to his destroyed base. "Surrender, Canth," Leif ordered. Canth grinned foolishly back and shook his head. His head continued to shake as his trembling hand brought forth a small cylindrical object. "If I go down, so are you!!" he sang as his eyes rolled. "FAREWELL WORLD!!"

With a small press of a button, Canth self-detonated. A flash of bright light enveloped the entire area for miles around. After the shockwaves of the explosion had finally passed over the group of robots, they stood up and looked around them. The once green ground was now scarred with brown marks, and much it was nothing more than dirt.

Jaden was the first to speak. "It's all over. We've won," he said, his voice a mere whisper. It was another minute until wild cheers erupted from all the Eclipse forces.

One month of reconstruction and growing peace had passed since the fall of the Wavebide government. On this special day, the results of the election for the new leader would be revealed to the general public. Unknown to him, Jaden's name had been slipped into the voting ballot.

As Natalia proudly walked up to the podium where she was to announce the planet's new leader, she smiled at Jaden. The black-haired man smiled back, unknowing of what was about to happen. Natalia cleared her throat once and began to speak. "Ladies and gentlemen! On this happy, peaceful day, I have the honor of naming the next leader of our fine planet."

It seemed like the entire planet was holding its breath as it waited for Natalia to continue. "By an overwhelming majority vote, Jaden Avan has been voted to be our next leader! President Avan, will you please come up to the front!!"

Jaden's mouth opened in surprise. Bane grinned slyly and pushed Jaden to the front; it was he who had suggested putting Jaden's name on the ballot. The Eclipseans were the most enthusiastic of the crowd as Jaden made his way onto the raised platform where Natalia awaited him.

After Jaden had finished taking the oath of office, he turned to face the public with his first speech. He smiled breathlessly at the clapping masses. "I'd like to thank all of you for giving me another chance, but there's a certain group of people that I'd like to especially thank. Cloud, Leif, Bane, and Sirus. Thanks guys. Thanks a lot," he said as he looked at the four young men. The group smiled back.

Epilogue

In the years proceeding the revolution, the Eclipse force dissolved. Leif had gotten married to Janeel, and the two were living happily. Sirus, much to many people's surprise, was nominated by Jaden to be his vice-president; the former Eclipsean pilot accepted. Cloud and Bane joined up with the International Defense Committee that was headed by Natalia; they kept their Eclipseans and stopped several uprisings of a last few Wavebide members.