All characters are the property of ASW
Yes, I've taken a few liberties, but doesn't everyone?
(A/N: Play 'Breeze' from the OST if you want musical accompaniment.)
There was complete calm. No noise, no light, just...peace But she could also sense she was missing out on something. Something important. That was almost enough for her to begin to re-gather her sensibilities. It was cool, quite agreeably so. And it came with the feeling of movement. It made a tiny part of her want to wake up, though the rest of her was quite adamantly against that at that moment. She was tired; no, that wouldn't do the term justice. Nearly every fibre of her being wanted to go back to sleep for another 10 years or so. But she wouldn't have it. Now was simply not the time.
Wind. Saya just about remembered the sensation of having it blow through your hair. It would have come easier had she been more awake, but considering what she'd just come back from, she could be forgiven for that. What also struck her as odd was the weightlessness. That definitely wasn't normal. She mustered some effort and tried opening her eyes...
...And instantly regretted it. Wherever she was, she was several hundred feet in the air, with a ruined city rolling away beneath her at some speed.
"Oh good, you're awake."
The shock made her jump, and her erstwhile courier dropped her...
"WAAAAAAAH!"
Thankfully she only managed to fall a few feet before she was caught.
"Idiot! Don't ever do that again!"
"Lemme go! Lemme go!" Saya struggled in her grasp.
"No. I promised to him that I'd take care of you, and that's what I'm gonna do."
Saya decided against further struggling and turned to her companion, a young woman with long blonde hair, blue eyes and a rather spartan attitude to clothing. It was kind of like a swimsuit, only with a lot less left to the imagination. She was really pretty though. What also stood out were the two small mounds on her chest. Saya had never seen anything like them before, and she knew she didn't have them. She gave one an experimental poke.
"What!? There's nothing there...oh, I admitted it." Her face fell.
She'd heard tales of beings called angels, with long blonde hair and who could fly. It seemed one was carrying her now. She didn't seem to have any wings, so how she was doing it was a mystery.
"How are you feeling?"
Saya was slow to answer; her big brother had warned her about trusting strangers...wait, her bro...
"Ragna! Where's my brother!?"
This brought a hug from her angel, "Ragna's okay, he'll be with us soon." The woman laughed, "He's too stubborn to let anything bad happen to him now."
"How do you know my brother? Who are you?" Saya didn't like that this unknown woman was familiar with her beloved brother...wait, she said he'd be with them soon. If she was an angel, then that meant..."Where are we going!?" She was panicking again.
"My name's Noel." Her face reddened a little, "I suppose, in a way, I'm your sister."
This was too much, "Wha? B-but I don't have a sister!"
Noel leaned in and kissed her on the crown of her head. She chuckled, "You do now."
Saya looked confused. She sure didn't remember having a sister, "How?"
Noel looked embarrassed, "That's a story for later. As for where we're going, Ragna asked me get you away from the city. He's been looking for you for a long time. Let's just focus on getting you somewhere safe, alright?"
The rest of the flight was uneventful. It gave Saya the time to admire the sunset; she couldn't remember the last time she'd seen one. The orange was blending into a faint pink. It made her feel a lot more at ease somehow. Maybe it was Noel; she just felt...safe in her presence now, despite the fingers of butter and fists of ham. Like she instinctively knew no harm would come to her.
Noel started to descend towards a hill a few hundred yards from their current location. There was far too much mist below a certain height to see anything more of the area. Maybe it was just as well, as there was a certain majesty to the scene before them. As they got nearer, Saya could make out a wooden shack.
"A safe house." Noel explained. "Whenever one of us needs to hide, we always come to places like this." They touched down with little fanfare.
"There are more of you?" Saya asked
"Oh yeah!" Noel laughed, "There are quite a few of us...don't you remember?" She suddenly looked concerned "We were fighting-"
"No. I don't remember much beyond my big brother." Saya cut her off and sighed. Noel set her down, shone for a moment, and was dressed in a white vest and blue skirt and boots, "I guess I can understand that. I don't remember large chunks of my past either." The resemblance between the two was a lot more evident when Noel looked like this; her eyes had returned to their natural green.
"That...was...SO COOL! Do it again!" Saya was leaping in amazement.
"Let's just get you inside. You must be starving." Noel smiled, "A bath would help too."
The bath was uneventful; feeling grubby herself, Noel had decided to join Saya in the tub, thinkingthat, given the age difference, it wasn't too different from parent and child; her mother had bathed with her when she was little, and if Makoto could be believed, which admittedly wasn't likely, then she and her siblings bathed together when they were young too. It gave them some bonding time while tea was 'cooking', though most of that bonding consisted of splashing, blowing soap suds at each other, and other related tomfoolery. Noel enjoyed the brief chance to be a kid again.
Suitably refreshed, Noel strolled into the kitchen while Saya took a nap. Saya's white dress was filthy, so Noel had chucked it in the washing machine with some of her own laundry. With that sorted out, Noel's attention returned to food; her specialty was goulash, a beef stew recipe from old central Europe, appropriately a place called Hungary. She'd got it down to 'borderline edible'. She gave herself 4 spoonfuls of the steaming pile of something, before giving Saya 3; she looked like she could do with a good meal after all she'd been through. She carried them into the sitting room were Saya was tossing and turning, pain etched on her face, lost in a nightmare. Noel placed the meals down on the table and felt her forehead; she had quite a temperature. Noel's eyes flashed back to blue.
What's wrong with her? If Murakumos could interact mentally, like she and Nu had done, then she should be able to do it with Saya. She felt her consciousness begin to drift...
"Just...lemme see her...one last time...please."
Back on the battlefield. The resurgent Take-Mikazuchi holding the ragdoll-esque Ragna in its fingers.
"Do you finally accept that your struggle was pointless? That death is your one and only truth?"
"..."
"Then enjoy. The peace your soul longs for is at hand." A body sprouting from the gigant's chest...
"Br...brother?"
"Hi Say...a."
"Where am I?...What happened to you?"
"Heh, nothing you should worry about. Big brother business."
"C-can we go home?"
Tears fell down Ragna's cheeks, "Yeah, soon."
Saga's eyes turned red. "Your request is fulfilled. Now you may die..."
"No!"
Saya began to retreat back into the Behemoth, "She belongs to me now."
"...get FUCKING REAL!" Ragna grabbed and tried to prise her out, not easy with only one arm.
"Futility. I cannot be denied. This vessel has no other reason to be than to give me the..."
"Well, here goes nothing...JIN, PLATINUM, NOEL, NOW!"
"The Power of Order!", " Murakumo!" "Muchorin!" Feelings of something terrible being ripped away from Saya's soul. A sickly figure hovering over her, phantasmal chains linking the two.
"Observing us as separate beings? Inconsequential. I am far too tightly woven to her soul for you to.."
"Sorry kiddo, but I beg to differ. MUSASHI!"
They fell. "Way to go, master." Ragna grabbed Saya and made sure he hit the ground first, to the crack of breaking bones. Saya was out cold.
"No! Not today!" Powered by nothing more than the fire in his soul, Ragna got up and ran, "Noel!"
"Huh?" Ragna placed the unconscious girl in her arms, "Just get her out here!"
"But..."
Celica was already patching him up, "Don't argue! Just go!"
"...Don't you dare die on us. She would never forgive you...and neither would I!" Noel took off.
(A/N: Black Onslaught II for this littke passage :D)
"Gotcha." Celica having finished, Ragna reached for the bag on his hip, and pulled out the all too familiar circular device, which oozed darkness into the stump of his right arm. Wait, this feeling...that's Nu's... "Now where we? Oh yeah...Restriction 666 released!"
Noel was back at the safe house, the expression on Saga's face had softened, but still looked pained. "Psst wake up." She gave her a shake. Saya woke with a start.
"Dinner's ready...are you okay? Looked like you were having a nightmare." Saya just nodded. Noel handed her a plate of the stew. Due to a lack of extra clothes that fitted, Saya sat wearing a dressing gown about 10 sizes too big for her. She looked kind of cute, in that 'girl trying to wear mom's high heels' sort of way. She took a mouthful...
"...This is...AWESOME!"
"You really like it?" Noel was hopeful.
"Yeah, this is better than big brother's cooking!"
Inside her head, ChibiNoels were popping champagne bottles, throwing confetti, doing cartwheels and generally freaking out; apart from Mai, no one had ever complemented her cooking before. Getting one over Ragna was just a bonus.
She scooped Saya up in a bear hug, "Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!"
"Hehe. You're the best sis ever!"
(A/N: Stardust Memory for this bit.)
After the two had stopped laughing, Noel took a look out of the window, "Wanna go watch the sunset?"
Saya had already seen it on the way here, so she didn't think it'd be that interesting. Once she got another look at the sky, however, she quickly changed her mind; that faint pink had gone a most vibrant shade, nearly red.
"Whoa..."
Noel grabbed a chair and spare blanket, stepped outside and set it down just outside the door. She patted her lap, "Have a seat."
"Aren't we hiding?" Saya was a little confused.
"Ohnononono. We just came here for safety. No one's chasing us. Besides, I'm here to protect you."
Satisfied with explanation, Saya ambled over and snuggled up to Noel. They sat in silence for several minutes, just staring into space.
"You said you'd tell me how we're sisters before."
Noel sighed. This would take some explaining, "What's the last thing you remember?" She'd hoped Saga's memory had cleared up a little by now.
"Ragna and Jin...the church...outside the church. It was sunny..."
Noel considered for a moment where to begin. "Well, do you remember a man with green hair?" Says shook her head, "Well, he kidnapped you, and had the one he served take over your body...your mind, I'm not really sure how it worked. We've only just got you back, which is why you don't remember a lot." She let Saya digest this for a moment. "Anyhow, there's something called The Boundary, kinda like the space outside the universe. Humans can't go there, so they created...well...others from you, called the Murakumo Units. I'm one of them, the twelfth to be exact. I guess that makes you my sister, kinda like twins." Says looked a little overwhelmed. Noel couldn't blame her; it took her a while to come to terms with what she was and where she came from. Deciding she had told her enough for now, Noel went back to admiring the view.
"Pretty, isn't it?" Noel whispered. She looked to Saya, only to see her eyes drooping and head lolling. Thinking it would help, Noel began singing a lullaby, one she remembered her mom singing to her back in the day. Noel was actually a pretty good singer; while she, in her own opinion, was no Tsubaki, she could more than hold a tune. She scratched Saya's scalp gently till she fell asleep.
"Sweet dreams Saya." Noel whispered. She soon found herself feeling pretty drowsy too, and it wasn't long before both of them were sleeping under the stars.
Hehehe...I have a little sister.