[LightDragonman]

Welp, here comes the next part. Note; any nods or shout-outs to other works going forward are intentional. XD

_____


As Haruto continued to look at Saki's injured form, guilt welling up by the second the longer he looked into her despair-filled eyes, the screen suddenly shifted from her to another area.

"This is Barlet, reporting for ARUS Golden News" the reporter announced, standing in front of a massive ship. "Most of us here are shocked by what the Fuhrer has shown us, and I am currently inside the Module 77 hanger."

Haruto rose to his feet. "What is he doing over there aboard the Phantom?"

Shouko looked confused. "Phantom?"

As Barlet continued to investigate, the images he brought up were damning. The rows of captured people, their heads hooked up to green wires, and energy being drained from them, causing them to go into seizures, was all transmitted across every screen checking in to the event. It certainly didn't help that several of the captured were related to several of the students currently in attendance.

"DAD!" yelled Vice-Student Council President Iori, shocked at seeing her father among the captured.

"Just what are they doing to this people over here?" Barlet asked harshly.

The screen cut back to Amadeus, his face set in stone.

"This is the horrifying truth behind Module 77 and New-Jior!" he announced. "We uncovered these heinous actions and made plans to stop them. Before you criticize Dorssia, I will say once again! We are fighting an army of immortal monsters that feed on humans! The New-Jior inhabitants are all inhuman monsters!"

To end his declaration, he once again gestured towards Saki's broken form. Indeed, now most watching the broadcast viewed her with fear and anger, as she was no longer the simple idol of New-Jior, but a brain-eating monster in the eyes of the world.

One of the few who didn't share such views was Haruto. Taking one last look at his ally before the broadcast turned off, he felt all the despair she was currently feeling, amplified by his guilt at seeing her be exposed like this.

"Again," he thought sadly, "Why does she have to suffer for what I've done?"

_____


As the screens switched off, President Jeffry Anderson got to his feet in indignation.

"What is the meaning of all this Prime Minister Shouko Sashinami? Are we in a den of monsters?!"

"No!" she protested. "I didn't know about any of this, nor was I ever informed!"

"Right" Haruto added, the reality of the current situation catching up to him. "We were going to tell you all of this after the summit was concluded!"

Immediately, he regretted the words he just uttered, as Shouko turned to him, eyes wide open in shock.

"Haruto......You knew about that ship?"

"So what you are saying" Anderson questioned, "is that had the Fuhrer not showed us that, we would've all become meals for you?!"

"No, that's not true!" Shouko objected.

However, the President was unyielding.

"As per international law, I hereby classify all inhabitants of Module 77 as Type Seven Specialized Dangerous Lifeforms!"

The students gasped in horror.

______


The images hadn't just shocked the people in attendance at the auditorium. All across the school campus, suspicions were being raised by the students, especially as they gazed upon the ones who had partaken in that mission to Earth.

"What's going on?"

"What the hell were you doing on Earth?"

"Are only the pilots monsters?"

Inuzuka, inside a classroom with his back to the wall, found himself facing a throng of questioning students, their eyes all demanding answers.

"Calm down everyone!" he said, his hands raised. "We didn't-"

"Just what did you go to Earth for?!"

"You're one of them too aren't you?!"

"Please, let me explain" he said, placing a hand on the shoulder of a questioning female student. Said girl recoiled with disgust.

"Don't touch me you monster!"

"That's right!" a male student yelled. "After all, that strange ship's yours right?!"

"..." Inuzuka could only remain silent, the situation now out of his control.

_____


Back in the auditorium, the tension in the air was reaching a breaking point. In one last attempt to clear things up, Yohei got to his feet.

"Listen President!" he yelled, rushing towards Anderson, "This is some misunderstanding! We never-"

*BANG*

He never got to finish his sentence, as he was silenced as an ARUS soldier unloaded a round into his head, blood and brain matter splattering against the floor.

"YOUHEI!"

"He was shot!"

As terror gripped the students at the sight of one of their own being killed, three female students also made an attempt to leave. They didn't make it very far before they too were gunned down by ARUS soldiers.

"NOOOOO!"

"Why is this happening!?"

"Please" Shouko begged, her eyes glistening with tears, "don't kill anyone else!"

However, Anderson was unthinking in his mindset.

"They are no humans! They are Type Seven Specialized Lifeforms that have deceived us all this time!"

He turned to the ARUS Troop Commander. "We are conducting a purge! Commander, you and your men are to eliminate every single monster in this area!"

"No, PLEASE DON'T!" Shouko screamed, getting to her feet.

Immediately she was apprehended by several of the ARUS soldiers, guns pointed at her. Haruto quickly tried to shield her with his body, eyes closing in anticipation for the pain he was about to feel.

"I'm sorry Shouko" he thought.

*CRASH*

Just then, the left roof of the auditorium broke apart. As moonlight filtered into the auditorium, all attendees looked up in shock. There stood Valvrave Unit 06, it's left fist pointed at Anderson and the other ARUS members in attendance.

"Shoot a single student" the voice of Akira Renbokuji bellowed from the mech's speaker, "And I'll shoot back!"

Needless to say, no more bullets were fired for the moment.

"Didn't we have control of the hanger?!" Anderson asked, not having realized that Akira was watching the whole thing in her Unit, and came to the scene as soon as the first broadcast was shown.

______


Throughout the school, the situation was quickly turning dire. The Other ARUS soldiers were taking over the classrooms with the students still inside, some even being forced to line up against the connecting walls.

"Please, don't kill us!"

"We're only kids!"

"I'm not a monster!"

For his part, Lieutenant Joseph Sheridan of ARUS hadn't planned on this night turning out this way. He figured that all he had to do was simply safeguard the president against maybe a couple mischief makers, not suddenly be forced to gun down inhuman monsters. Granted, they were all kids, or at least at the appearance of them, but orders were orders.

"Shut up!" he snapped at the panicking lifeforms. "We won't allow your activities to go on any longer!"

"You have to believe us!" a student with short green hair protested. "We're on your side!"

"Shut up!"

With that, he and the others in his squad raised his rifles to open fire, his finger just about to pull the trigger.

"HOLD YOUR FIRE!" the voice of his Commanding Officer suddenly bellowed in his earpiece.

"...Commander?"

_____


It was more or less a standoff inside the auditorium. None of the soldiers dared to shoot another round, lest they face the wrath of a gigantic machine and its inhuman pilot.

Haruto and Shouko found themselves surrounded by ARUS soldiers, the barrels of guns pointed at them from all angles. Satomi and the other students in attendance were all forced into a circle, also surrounded by unfeeling soldiers. All while the president yelled for his men to fire as soon as reinforcements showed up, while Akira kept her Valvrave's weapons pointed at him.

As the situation continued to grow in intensity, the Commander of ARUS looked back at the bodies of Youhei and the three female students. At first, he simply scoffed at them, as the fact that they were kids just disgusted him even more, as how dare these monsters take on the visage of children to dissuade others of attacking.

However, the longer he looked at them, something seemed a bit off. Clearly, he had seen that witch on the broadcast quickly regenerate from a stab wound. So that means that these ones should be getting back up any second now. Hence, why he still kept his rifle trained on their bodies.

So then why weren't they getting up?

"Mr. President" he said, kneeling over Youhei's body, "somethings not right!"

"Of course things aren't right!" Anderson yelled. "We're in the den of monsters right now, with a demon about to reign fire down on us should we try to defend ourselves!"

Akira gritted her teeth in her cockpit, eyes obscured by her hair bangs.

"That's not what I meant!" the Commander clarified. "We all saw how quickly that witch easily regenerated!"

"Of course we did!"

"Then why aren't these lifeforms getting back up?!"

At that sentence, the other ARUS soldiers all looked towards their commander, eyes wide open as they too looked at the grisly sight the latter was investigating.

"Are you questioning the orders of your president!?" Anderson barked. "They aren't human! You are to purge them immediately!"

The commander wiped his hands over the wound on Youhei's forehead. To his horror, he saw that the hole hadn't healed, and the student still wasn't regaining consciousness. Looking over at the dead female lifeforms, he noted the same thing.

"If they aren't regenerating" he realized, his eyes widening in horror, Then that means that we just............oh no."

"HOLD YOUR FIRE!" he yelled into his headpiece. "I SAY AGAIN! ALL ARUS SOLDIERS, HOLD YOUR FIRE!"

At that, the others ARUS troops lowered their weapons. Some, as they looked at the sight their commander was witnessing, also came to the same realization. Indeed, a few of them even looked they they were about to vomit.

"What is the meaning of this?!" President Anderson yelled. "You are defying an order from the President of ARUS himself!"

"Sir," the commander retorted "if these truly are inhuman monsters like we saw on the screen, then the ones we gunned down shouldn't still be dead!"

"That's right!" Shouko added in, now that guns were no longer being pointed at her and Haruto. "We had no idea of any of this to begin with!"

"Listen to her!" Satomi said. "We aren't some group of brain eating monsters!"

Anderson remained firm in his decision however. "So you're going to side with these things over your own leader?! What about the Phantom ship?!"

"We can investigate that later!" the commander replied. "In fact, that's exactly why we shouldn't kill these kids. We should take them in for questioning instead."

He looked back at the dead bodies, his expression heavy. "Mr. President, if we don't get this right, then we are essentially murdering innocent children. How do you think that's going to reflect on ARUS, let alone you?"

The President gritted his teeth. This was not the way things were supposed to be going. Yet looking at his commander, it was clear that the latter's mind was set.

".......Alright, fine" he eventually capitulated. "Take Prime Minister Shouko Sashinami and pilot Haruto Tokishima into custody. The rest of you will hold control over Module 77 until we get some answers."

At that, every single student breathed a sigh of relief. Even several of the ARUS soldiers looked grateful that they didn't have to spill any more blood.

"You heard him" the commander said to Shouko. "Prime Minister Shouko Sashinami, you and your friend there are to come with us to ARUS for testing and questioning. I'm expecting some answers regarding everything that was shown up there."

"Don't worry" Shouko said shakily, looking as though she had aged several years. "We won't hide any secrets from you."

Haruto nodded, though he still couldn't keep a grimace from his gracing his mouth.

"Of all the ways for the truth to come out to Shouko, this isn't what I had in mind"

Unseen by the ARUS soldiers or the students however, President Anderson placed a hand to his hear, whispering something.


_____


"It all went according to your plan" Amadeus said to Cain, while watching Saki get dragged away. "I'm surprised that we didn't get more resistance though."

"As I said" Cain replied, thinking to his former student, "you cut off the head of the snake, it ceases to function."

Just then, he put his hand to his ear, receiving a transmission from the President. As he listened, his expression grew more set in stone. He turned back to Amadeus.

"It would appear that our new partner is having some troubles with our plan. His men are softer than we anticipated."

Amadeus snorted. "This is why you can't rely on the weak-willed forces of ARUS to do what is asked of them."

With that, he put his hand to his ear.

"Taurus Company, execute the mission."

_____

Pretty long one huh?

Yeah, I decided to not have the ARUS forces conduct the massacre. Honestly, the fact that the first students they gunned down stayed dead should've tipped them off. I mean, yeah the president is obviously a pawn of the Council, but the soldiers should've known better.

However, that doesn't meant he massacre isn't going to happen. Quite the opposite.

Thoughts?