Authors note: Just a quick heads up, this story is based on one of the bad endings from the angels with scaly wings mod "A solitary mind" so if you haven't played the mod this may not the most sense but regardless, thanks for reading and enjoy.
Alarms sounded and warning lights flashed casting an eerie red glow on the already darkened interior of the facility. "Warning main generator chamber compromised, chance of catastrophic failure and detonation rising, 30 minutes until system failure" a distorted mechanical voice called out.
Naomi who was noticeably panicked, her eyes wide and darting around the room and all her frills were standing on end darted passed me and ran down one of the many corridors. I had no idea where she had run off to but what I did know was that I needed to find a way to shut down the generator and get us out of here or we too would perish along with the facility.
Looking around for anything useful but finding nothing until my eyes settled on the terminal in the corner of the room. Of course, chastising myself for not thinking of it before. There must be a way to shutdown the generator using the interface. Rushing over I immediately tried to power on the system, it took several attempts but I was eventually rewarded with a dimly lit green screen and a displayed message identifying it as a power management console.
Pulling up the system manual I tried an endless combination of commands with none proving to be of any use. It seemed that this machine had become corrupted over the time it sat there and was no longer connected to the network. Sighing in resignation I turned away from the machine and began to head towards the corridors that separated the facility intent on finding Naomi to see if she had any ideas.
I searched room after room almost giving up along the way. Normally, finding a large dragoness like her in such a small area wouldn't have been difficult, but the stress caused by imminent destruction looming over us and a lack of proper lighting severely delayed my search. Eventually, I spotted her, barely visible in the dark corner she chose as her hiding spot. She had coiled up in the corner and hidden her head under a wing. Hearing my footsteps, she jerked to face me.
She was visibly shaking, her wings trembling by her side. Kneeling down beside her "are you alright? Why did you run off" I asked her unable to keep the worry out my voice? I was keeping it together but for how much longer I didn't know. She looked at me tear marks still staining the scales around her eyes.
"because I'm the one responsible for this mess!" she choked out "And I couldn't bare seeing your fear and despair which I'm to blame for."
"I should've shot down the idea of entering this complex from the very beginning. It was so foolish of me to risk our safety to explore this damn husk! But I was confident I could keep us safe no matter what. I thought I was strong and skilful enough"
"I was such an idiot. Now, look where this got us." At this point she sounded like she was on the verge of tears again. Her eyes were closed and she had drawn her head into her chest again. "The whole thing is about to blow up and we're trapped for good"
She turned her head, her gaze met mine and it was at this point I saw a mixture of emotions in her eyes; sadness, regret and most prominently, fear. "I…I don't' want it to end like this, I'm so scared…" she half whispered half sobbed.
It was at this point that I too didn't know what to say, I was at a loss for words. I briefly thought about lying to her, telling her that we would find a way out that there was something we could do but I didn't want to give her false hope, I couldn't bring myself to that be cruel. My words kept getting caught in my throat "I…don't know what to tell you Naomi, it really looks like it might be the end for use are you sure there's nothing we could try"
"no…." she sighed reluctantly "its hard to see what we can do. The door is Jammed, the generator is about to blow up, and we have no way to escape" her eyes moved to the floor "To make it worse, even if we had one, the blast radius is likely going to be too big anyway and kill us before we can get to safety."
"This is all my fault…I'm going to die here and take you with me, Alex." I couldn't stand seeing her like this. Reaching under her jaw with my hand I turned her head so our eyes were level and planted a small kiss on her muzzle. "hey, hey it's alright" I soothed "I knew the risks when I chose to go with you so I'm just as responsible for our predicament if not more so, don't blame yourself for everything"
"I was so curious to see what's inside this place that I rushed in with little consideration for possible dangers." She seemed satisfied with my response "I guess…but I could've stopped you"
"Remember, you have no authority to order me, only to give advice. This whole disaster of an exploration was my idea, and as such, I take full responsibility"
"I guess we're both to blame then" she said with a sad watery smile. "I guess we are" I nodded in agreement returning the smile. "so, what now, is this it?" she asked. "looks like it, mind if we settle down somewhere?"
"I guess not" she replied before moving over to a relatively clean corner of the room, sitting down and beckoning me to come over. Reluctantly I made my way over to her, composure threatening to break as it was finally sinking in that this really was the end for us. I sat down with her only to suddenly find myself held tight against the soft scales of her underbelly while she carefully repositioned herself to rest on her back, using a wall to support her shoulders and head.
She closed her wings above me, forming a sort of leathery shelter or a cocoon even. I felt her tremble slightly, but her features didn't falter when our eyes met. With a sad smile she leaned down and firmly nuzzled my face and then much to my surprise, pushed her mouth against mine, her long tongue slipping past my lips. The initial shock of her action surprised me but I overcame it and leaned into the kiss, caressing the sides of her face with my hands.
We remained there just enjoying the heat of the moment as we explored each other mouths. Her mouth was warm, much warmer than my own and tasted of the sea breeze and exotic fruits. Her long serpentine tongue coupled with her alien anatomy made kissing a challenge but utterly rewarding.
Taking our time to savour the moment we eventually had to break contact in order for me to take a breath. Not uttering a word, she leaned back and sighed heavily whether out of sadness or from the afterglow of our moment I didn't know.
For minutes feeling like an eternity, we stayed close together. To comfort her, I gently caressed her neck and upper chest running my hand along her scales in long, slow strokes. Her eyes remained shut, either asleep due to the stress or simply unwilling to see the world around her. I felt that before I died, I had to make a confession.
"hey Naomi, you still awake?" I asked in a low almost-whisper. "I'm still here" was her response. "just need to get a few things of my chest before it's too late." she opened her eyes to look at me "like what?" she asked.
"I just wanted to tell you that this, our time together, from the day we met to present moment has been some of the greatest times of my life. I've been a loner most of my life not really having anyone special to call my own, it was one of the reasons I volunteered to go through the portal as if I failed there would be no one I would leave behind"
Her gaze was now fixed intently on mine "the day I met you everything changed, I had met someone I could relate to, a kindred spirit of sorts. You brightened up my day in ways others never could, every time we met, I would get a warm feeling in my chest and I didn't know how to explain it before we shared that kiss, my first kiss by the way, but I think…." I paused, my breath hitching and my words catching in my throat "I think I love you Naomi and if this is the end then so be it but at least I'm glad we're together in the end"
I couldn't do it anymore, my composure completely shattered, I could feel the tears streaming down my face and by the looks of it Naomi was the same. "Alex…I.. I don't know what to say, I never knew you felt this way" she stuttered. She took a moment to compose herself "If its our last chance to say it then I will too, Alex I think I love you as well you were the first one to treat me with kindness who wasn't interested in my parent's money or a one-night stand"
"I poured my heart out to you, shared all my issues and worries and where others would leave not wanting to deal with the baggage you chose to stay with a smile on your face. I don't know how you can be so understanding and considerate but its one of the things I love the most about you"
Hearing her admit that she felt the same way, I felt a massive burden lift from my chest. I reached up and cupped her cheeks "what do you say, together till the end" I smiled. She returned the smile "together then. Until we meet again Alex"
I heard the mechanical voice in the background garble out "10 seconds until generator detonation" and knowing that this would be our final moments together. "farewell Naomi and may we meet in a better life" I whispered to her before pulling her in for one last kiss.
We stayed like that for our final moments as the seconds ticked by lips locked and united as lovers in their final moments until the world faded away into black and silence was all I knew.
Authors note:
Well there you have it, my first attempt at writing an angels with scaly wings fanfiction. I based this fic on a scene I head playing out in my head the first time I got the bad ending during the facility escape in the solitary mind mod for AWSW which I can't recommend enough that you play as its an absolute roller-coaster of emotions and the scenes are so well written. The first time I played through the Naomi story I think I ended up falling in love with her for real instead of the game which speaks volumes about the level of writing.
Well enough rambling as I want to keep this short so I'll end with this: I'd like to thank two authors on for inspiring me to write this, the first is DSPhony with their story A kind of polymer and the second is LukasDeAudi with his two stories frozen city and Case of Khymera as they provided me with the inspiration to write my own fics.