Alpha and Omega - Jackal's Story

Chapter 1 - Prologue

In collaboration with Subzero Dragon. Visit their profile to see the other side of this story.

Located deep into the forest is a meadow which houses a well camouflaged facility known as "The Valley". If you didn't know what you were looking for, it would be very hard to spot as it is covered in camouflaged netting and tactical paint. About 10 minutes away from the facility is an individual battling an Ogretail with relative ease. Maintaining a relatively safe distance, the individual swings his God Arc and inflicts minor damage to the Aragami. It only takes a few more swings with his Scythe before killing it, allowing for him to devour it to harvest its materials. This individual is an 18 year old boy with brown eyes and and dark, wild hair. He may have originated in America but there was no definite way of knowing. The boy himself had forgotten everything about his past and the only thing that he could remember was that the name "Jackal" meant something to him. One day he had stumbled across the facility and ever since then has been a part of it. That day was approximately two months ago and since then Jackal has had numerous check-ups to see if his amnesia will ever be cured. Unfortunately, Jackal has not remembered a single thing about his past during the time that he has been at The Valley...

"Just as I thought; that was too easy." I say as I look around to see if are anymore Aragami nearby. Unfortunately, there were none.

"Really?! Oh, man. I only need four more Ogre fangs before I can upgrade my God Arc." I speak aloud with a depressed voice before walking back to the Valley.

After walking back to the Valley, I comes across another individual. Or rather, the individual comes across me. I know who it is immediately. The person in question looks to be about 20 years older than me. He has green eyes as well as short, untamed red hair with a beard that trailed to his upper chest. A stern expression marred the man's face. It was one of the expressions that I had grown accustom to over the years he had been here. In fact, I began thinking to myself of the time when I first saw the man. I had been scared stiff at the time. There had to be a height difference of two feet at the time; me being four-foot eight and the other man being six-foot eight. Now though, the height difference had decreased but not by much though. I had grown to be five-foot five and thus closing the difference by seven inches. This man is named Viper and he has the role of Commander.

"Jackal! Where the hell have you been, boy?!" Commander Viper shouts in anger.

"I was just..."

"Where are your manners?! You know you can't talk to someone like that!" Viper's anger grows to the point where it could rival the larger types of Aragami once they realise that they are being targeted by God Eaters.

"Sir!" I take a military stance and raise my right hand to salute the Commander.

"I was eradicating an Ogretail, Sir!" The commander gives a sigh in response, his anger momentarily deflating.

"Can I assume that Miss Kimura was with you?" Viper asks, expecting me to confirm the whereabouts of another trainee God Eater but in all honesty, I had no idea where she was.

"No sir!" My response slightly surprises the Commander but it also highly annoys him.

"What do you mean, 'no'? Where the hell is she?!" Commander Viper shouted with an annoyed expression on his face. The girl in question always had a tendency to wander off.

"No idea, sir." I respond easing myself out of the soldier stance. I, too, began to grow annoyed although it was probably because the Commander was shouting at me for not paying attention to Robin's whereabouts. I began thinking about how often this scenario had played out. I had always been blamed for not paying attention to the whereabouts of the girl and Commander Viper was always the one blaming me.

"You never learn do you?! Go and find her! Quickly now!" Viper commanded and I began heading off to the place that I had found her the previous times that she had wandered off, making sure to grab my God Arc since the world is still a dangerous place. Continuing my walk through the forest for a few minutes before coming across another clearing. I knew that Viper was trailing me at quite some distance but didn't pay any attention to him. He doesn't know the meaning of the word stealth. Looking around, I noticed some unusual shadows. One of which appeared to take the form of a God Arc whilst the other shadow appeared to be a tree with an unusual human-like growth coming from it. Walking at an angle towards it, I noticed that the the human-like growth was in fact a human, or more specifically a human girl. Disregarding the chirps of unseen birds nearby, I stopped a sort distance away from the girl as I spotted a sketchbook on her knees. After seeing this, there was no doubt in my mind that the girl was Robin.

"I'm surprised you can even concentrate with all of them petals falling onto your book." I whispers to myself as I sees Robin brushing off a few of the petals from her book, failing to notice that she still has numerous petals on her long, green hair that had been tied into a pony tail which hangs at her waist.

"Hey, Robin! Commander Viper is looking for you! You don't want to get yelled at again, do you?" I shout to gain the girl's attention. Now that I think about it, it is almost second nature for me to call her by her codename of Robin and I rarely use her real name of Reiko Kimura. The girl turned towards me with a slightly surprised look on her face with her blue eyes looking directly into my green eyes. I could have sworn I had seen a cat in her place rather than a human.

"C'mon, Robin." I begin with a slightly annoyed expression on my face as Robin keeps staring at me, "Don't ignore me. If I don't bring you back, Commander Viper will tan my hide again. Now get up and come back with me already." The girl continues to stare at me and I begin to suspect that she is deliberately trying to get a response out of me.

"Robin!" I shout as I sees no obvious movements to suggest that she will comply. The girl jumps slightly in response, not expecting me to shout.

"S-sorry Jackal! I was kinda lost in thought..." Robin responds sheepishly whilst slowly making her way up.

"I know what will get you moving." I gave a competitive grin. "Let's have a race! Last one back to the Valley buys the other a mochi ice cream!" I announce my idea. Foolproof. This will surely help motivate her to move quicker and it may just save me from having the Commander scream at me, I think to myself. Robin smiles in response to my challenge and I give a satisfied nod.

"Mochi?! I have to race you now! You better be ready to treat me when I kick your butt!" The girl shouts as she hops to her feet and puts her sketchbook away.

"Ha, I knew that would get your attention, but don't get so excited that you forget your God Arc." I chuckle and point to her God Arc. My chuckle becomes more intense at Robin's sheepish expression and she straps it to her back with ease. I make sure to do the same thing, not wanting my God Arc to get in the way of our race before giving Robin a playful look and bending over my knees; preparing myself into an "on your marks" position.

"Ready? On the count of three..." I state and Robin crouches into the same position as Jackal.

"One..." The two of them get into a "set" position.

"Two..." They both lean forward and I give a sinister smirk.

"Pineapple!" I shout and look over to Robin as I see her make a false start and fail to stop. She trips and falls over, sending a cloud of cherry petals flying as she lands face-first onto the grass. I slap my leg a few times as I bursts out laughing which turns into full blown hysterics as I notices Robin's glare from the ground.

"Ow! It's not funny," She protests as she rolls back onto her feet, "You bully."

"Sorry." I respond as I try to suppress my laughter, "I didn't mean to." She gives me another glare before her stare moves past me. It is at this point that I remember that Commander Viper had been following me albeit at a significantly slower pace. The Commander moves closer to the two of us and stares down his nose at us before his gaze settles on me.

"I thought I ordered you to bring Robin back, Jackal, and I told you to make it fast. Did I not speak English?"

"Sorry..." I bowed, "My bad." For some reason my response seems to infuriate Viper.

"'My bad?' You know better than to speak to your superiors like that! Show some respect, whelp!"

"Sorry sir! It won't happen again, sir!" I responds appropriately despite the fact that we both knew that it would happen again.

"That's more like it." He finishes speaking to me and aims his glare towards Robin. "Don't think you're off the hook either. You were supposed to be back for your debriefing at 1300 hours! Do you know what time it is now?" Viper enquires, seeing Robin check her watch visibly flinched. Her face contorted to something like fear before regaining its former expression. Something about that moment of fear must have struck a chord with the Commander as his expression slightly softened but still withheld a resting angry face.

"Stop your flinching. You will not be punished... this time. Today is a special day for both of you." At the Commander's words, my surprise made itself known on my face. I remain silent though, with Robin asking what he was thinking.

"Special? How do you mean?"

"I'll tell you, so shut up and listen because I won't repeat myself!" He begins with his anger flaring again. Robin stares at her feet after Viper's words whilst I listen with an equally flaring curiosity. Viper clears his throat before continuing,

"today is the day your training will conclude. From this day forth, you kids will be true God Eaters."

"Woo!" I leap into the air with my fist leading the jump, too excited to care about how Viper may react. "Hell yeah! About time! I'm so tired of doing nothing but training all the time!" Robin nods and smiles in agreement.

"However!" Viper's slightly angered voice halts our musings. "There is one last thing I need from you brats." With this new information, my mood sharply deflates and I grumble with a "should've known..."

"Sir?" Robin speaks up but the Commander interrupts her.

"You two need to come with me. Hurry it up!" Viper speaks before turning around to begin the walk back to the Valley. With Viper's words, I remember the events that occurred before Viper's interruption and turn towards Robin with a mischievous smile,

"Hey, Robin..." I waits] for Robin to turn towards me before shouting, "three!" And running across the meadow. Despite the distance between the two, I can still hear Robin's protests, "H-hey! That's cheating!" Robin runs after me.

The Valley soon came into view and the two of us head for the door; Robin having caught up and slightly ahead of me which I don't know how she managed to accomplish. I knew she was fast runner but still, I had a good head start on her. Robin leans in an attempt to become more aerodynamic but her foot becomes ensnared in something on the ground. With her momentum being halted, she finds herself falling onto her face for the second time today. I notice Robin's fall and halt my run, moving over to her.

"Robin," I put a hand on my hip as I regain my breath, "You are the clumsiest God Eater I've ever seen! How the hell did you trip over a tiny little tree root like that?" I point to the root of her problem, noticing how it has wrapped itself around her boot. Robin expresses her annoyance with a groan before removing the root from around her boot and sitting on her legs.

"Crap. I guess I lost, huh..." Robin says with a dejected expression which made me feel slightly bad. With a shrug, I speak,

"Eh, this doesn't count. I kinda cheated by surprising you, and you tripped," I offer her my hand. "I'll treat you since I didn't exactly play fair." Robin takes my hand,

"C'mon, up you go, you klutz." I put my hand back on my hip, watching Robin dust off the dirt and petals from her uniform.

"Are you two done clowning around now?" Viper interrogates the two of us from behind Robin, having caught up to them during our conversation. We both look towards the Commander, getting the feeling that he wasn't finished yet.

"We have some final testing to do. Get over to Doctor Sophia ASAP, am I understood?"

"Testing?" Robin groans and I share her lack of enthusiasm; having to remain motionless whilst people jab things into you, who wouldn't be unnerved by that?

"Of course you fool." Viper speaks whilst giving Robin a scowl, causing her to stare towards her feet again. "We can't send you two off if you're infirm. Now move your carcass, soldier!" Viper commands and the two of us continue into the facility. I give a dejected Robin a nudge once out of the Commander's sight.

"Hey, perk up, Robin." I began in an encouraging tone, "We finally get to leave this place. We'll be real God Eaters from today on. I dunno about you, but I'm psyched! I wonder where they'll send us?" I speak with excitement although half of my excitement comes from the misconception that we will rarely see the Commander again...