Squeezing her eyes shut due to the bright light coming through the window, Deryn rolled over in her bed. She had been sleeping in that same bed since she had arrived in the floating fortress and fallen for Folken a year ago, yet somehow today it seemed strangely uncomfortable. A sharp pain shot through her spine and in reaction she curled into a ball to ease it. 'That was weird' she thought as she attempted to open her eyes again in her new position, but the sun shone in them all the same. Now she had a headache along with the shooting pain…great. She felt a hand gently rub her back which calmed her down a little. She sighed.

"Morning, Folken." She said calmly, without opening her eyes, but still happy he was there.

"Morning? Ryn, it's two in the afternoon…" She sat up abruptly, though immediately hunched over again in pain. "Ungh…Are you serious!" She asked, glancing over at him with one eye. He held up her watch that she always left setting on her bedside table. She opened her eyes long enough to see that it read "2:10".
"I was worried about you. I came in to see if you were alright, but now I see that you're…not…"He observed from the fact that she was clutching her stomach. She looked up at Folken.

"I…I am too…ok…" She felt a shot of pain again and she sighed. "No, you're right; you've come to know me so well…" She laughed softly. "I feel like crap. My stomach feels like I need to eat and like I need to throw up at the same time. I have a headache now because of that damn sun. My back hurts…I'm cold…and…tired…and I want to just go home…and see my sister again…" As she felt a few tears run down her cheek she quickly wiped them away with her sleeve, but they kept coming. She soon felt Folken's arms wrap around her. She turned and wrapped her arms around him, buried her face in his chest and continued to cry. He gently kissed the top of her head then laid his head on top of hers. Keeping his right arm around her he slowly rubbed her back with his left.

After Deryn had calmed down a bit, Folken lifted her chin with his good hand and kissed her once again. "How about we get you to a doctor?" He said with an intonation in his voice that disguised his statement as a question, minus the choice of one. He was halfway around the bed by the time he finished talking. He held his hand out to Deryn to help her up. She took it, but as soon as she stood she toppled over. Folken caught her, "Can you walk?" Deryn shook her head.

"It hurts too bad…" She winced once more as the pain extended into her legs. Folken smiled, not something a normal person sees everyday, but Deryn knew it was almost mischievous. The next thing she knew, she was in Folken's arms being carried out the door. She tightly wrapped her arms around his neck, laying her head on her own arm.
As they headed toward the infirmary Deryn softly whispered in her fiancée's ear, "I'm sorry…"

Folken turned his head slightly to look at her. "For…what?" He asked, a curious look appearing on his face. Her eyes glanced up as he turned back around forward.
"For…everything. For wandering in here and falling in love with you. For screwing your life over by needing your attention. For being sick and making you miss your meeting and just stuff like that. I know you had plans today and as much as I wanted to see that man die, as soon as you set me down on that bed I want you to go follow through with your plans. Don't let anyone stop you.

Folken sighed. "Oh, Ryn. You don't have a thing to be sorry about. I love you more than anything in the world. I would give anything to keep you safe. You've helped me more than you know especially through the past four months." He finished as they entered the infirmary. The nurse quickly showed them to a room toward the back of the room. He sat Deryn down on the bed, bending down and kissing her for what seemed like five minutes. He pulled away to see Deryn in tears again.

"Its okay, I'll be back for you when I'm through with my…'errand'" He said, the last word kind of sarcastic, and quickly winked at her. He then headed toward the door.

"I love you!" Deryn called to him. He stopped and smiled at her then turned and opened the door.

"And I love you." He told her as her exited the room.
Deryn could feel more tears streaming down her face, and then the nurse, whose name was Kane, put her arms around Deryn.

"Are you okay, Lady Deryn?"

Deryn really didn't like being called that, but she was too weary to protest. "I just have a really bad feeling right now. Maybe it'll go away if I get rid of this stitch in my side." She explained to Kane about the pains and the headache and in the end, Kane gave her two choices:

1. Take a pain medication and leave it to see if it will go away on its own or

2. See if there's anything causing it and deal accordingly.

Although the second choice would take longer Deryn felt as though she should go with that one. She lay back on the table the best she could and Kane rolled over a table with a bunch of tools and what looked like a TV on it. Kane asked Deryn to lift her shirt and show her exactly where the pain was originating. Deryn complied. Kane squirted cold blue gel-stuff on her stomach. She didn't bother looking at the screen as Kane examined her organs and stuff because she figured she would understand it anyway. About a minute later Deryn heard a small gasp come from Kane's direction.

"What! What is it!" Deryn's head shot up from its resting position, suddenly becoming extremely concerned. She tried looking at the screen because Kane just gave her a sly smile. All she saw was a grayscale mass that made no sense to her.

"Kane! Tell me what's wrong!"

"Oh, Lady Deryn…You're not sick…"

"What? What are you…?" Kane laid her hand on Deryn's.

"You're pregnant."

"I'm…what!"

"Pregnant. You know 'with child'? With a son by the looks of it. See, there's the head and…" Kane attempted to explain the grey picture on the screen.

"I know what pregnant means, Kane…it's just…hmm…" Deryn interrupted Kane's explanation, so Kane just grabbed a towel off the table and wiped the gel off Deryn stomach. Deryn was trying to decide how to take this news. She'd never really thought about it, even at the time of engaging in the act nearly four months before.

So…Why was it hurting my back?"

"'He', Lady Deryn. I told you that. But I suspect he was probably just kicking you."

Deryn looked hurt. "What a jerk. I give him a warm place to stay for nine months and he thanks me by giving me excruciating back pain!" Kane just laughed. I think you're free to go now. I advise you go tell Lord Folken, The sooner the better."

"Thanks for everything!" Deryn smiled as she hopped down off the table and headed out the door. The auburn-haired girl ran to the room off the Guymelef hangar that Folken and Dilandau used to communicate with their emperor, Dornkirk. Folken had once shown her how to activate the transporter, but she could quite remember how it went. There were three pillars that needed to be pressed in a certain order. She stood in the center of them and let the memories come back to her. They were numbered as so:

2

3 1

When presses in numerical order the screen showed up. Suddenly she remembered how it went. She pressed them in the 2, 3, 1 order and a beam of light appeared in the center. Deryn slowly stepped into it and she was taken up then almost immediately brought back down at the end of a long corridor in the palace of Zaibach.
Deryn heard a yell from the other end of the hallway. It was a girl's voice she had never heard before and she couldn't make out what the voice had said so she continued toward the door at the other end of the hallway. As she neared the room she heard it again, this time loud and clear:

"Folken! I said don't do it!"

Deryn's heart raced and she ran the rest of the distance. She grabbed the door handle and slammed the door open to reveal a girl with short brown hair, probably the one who had been yelling, standing at the railing of this balcony. Deryn noticed Folken falling to the floor from the platformed chair on which sat a now dead Dornkirk with his wings outspread.

"Folken! No!" Deryn screamed as she felt her eyes brimmed with tears for a third time today. She ran to the balcony, but, unlike the other girl, she climbed atop of it and spread her own wings for the first time in eleven years. She jumped off after her fiancée. She managed to catch him mid-air and bring him slowly to the ground. Only then did she notice his sword tip impaled in his heart.

"Ryn…I love you."

"Shh…Don't talk. I'll get you to Kane; she'll take care of you."

"No…She won't…be able to do…anything…"

"Shh…" Deryn covered his mouth as his violet eyes met her own green ones. He was growing weaker by the second, but she had to tell him the news.

"Folken, I know this is my fault. I should still be at home living peacefully with my sister and mom and dad..."

"No, Don't say that…I love you…I took your…advice. I didn't let…anyone stop me…now you can be safe."

"I would rather you have listened to her. Then you wouldn't be like this! I need you, Folken. I need you…and our son needs you." She took his hand and placed it on her stomach. "Do you feel him, Folken? He needs a father." She choked as another wave of tears fell down her face and onto Folken. "He needs…you." As the last words escaped Deryn's mouth she felt the hand she was holding go limp. "No….no…! Folken, NO!" The tears came harder and faster now as she laid her head on her Fiancée's bloody chest and continued to cry.