Chapter 7: Stopping For Repairs

South of The Ironspike Mountains and North of The Institute of War.

A complex swirl of emotions filled each and every cell that made up Zac. Like the world was his, now and forever. He moved his hands up and around Riven's head to link them together behind her neck. Little strands of him started combing through her hair as he continued to hold her in for this moment. He felt like… if this was life, then he'd want it to be like this forever.

Zac finally let her go. Riven looked into his eyes smiling. "Your lips are smooth as glass, yet soft like syrup, and to be honest…I kind of knew what to expect of a first kiss with a human," Zac looked at her with dismay, "but, but I'm happy to have kissed you first." Riven put on a tiny, little embarrassed grin.

Zac's face made a smile wider than his actual head. It forced Riven to giggle at its sight. Then Zac started 'thinking' a whole lot. "So, what is this-?"

Riven placed her left hand over his mouth. "Don't over-think this Zac, it is what it is."

Zac nodded and leaned back into Riven, lips pursed. Riven shook her head with a smile and leaned back into Zac. It can't be said for sure if they did this until they fell asleep and well into the night, because Zac doesn't actually sleep so he just kept doing it in her sleep. The real question would be: If Zac did keep his lips on hers all night, what crazy shit did Riven dream about?

Morning came, to Riven, in a rush. Her eyes opened, having just been at the end of her dream about kissing Zac outside a cottage, that she had spent the whole dream in. But Zac wasn't there. Riven shot up to look around, checking to see if the Zac-bandages were still on her, they were, but Zac was nowhere to be seen. "Zac! Zac, where are you?!" Riven called out. No answer.

Riven stood up, feeling her wounds tingle a little as the Zac-bandages adjusted to her standing up. She kept looking around, but he was gone. "Zac! Zac!" She cursed herself. In her head she exclaimed, 'Oh fuck me! What did I do wrong?! I thought he…! I thought we…! Agh! C'mon Zac, where are you?!'

"Six o'clock high!" Riven heard Zac say, but had no idea what he meant as she turned around. "Look up!" Zac spoke again, but this time Riven noticed him in the air coming down fast. He was a big green ball sailing through the air and down at her. "Don't move! I won't hit you, I promise!" Riven felt stupid for doing it, but she stayed still, closing her eyes and praying Zac knew what he was doing. "Okay, nevermind…take a step to the left quick!" Riven took one side-step to the left. "No! Not your left, my left!" Riven decided she had enough and just jumped to her right as hard as her feet could push her. Zac came down next to her, almost clipping her feet as she was in the air.

Riven rolled and got to her feet. "What in the fuck is your problem?!" She roared, smacking the dirt from her clothes and armor.

Zac reformed his human-like appearance. "Nothing, sorry. I was just having fun. If you weren't then I'm sorry." Zac tried to look as apologetic as he could.

"I thought you were gonna-. What…what are those?" Riven had just noticed a colorful grouping of flowers in Zac's left hand. Many of the flowers were picked twice and some had the roots still attached, dirt clots and all.

Zac held out the hand picked bouquet of flowers. "I picked them for you. I went out as the Sun was about to rise."

Riven smiled at him. She was amazed by how he had such a big heart. To go out and find flowers to give to her. She thought it was sweet. "They look nice, but I'm really not the flower type. Sorry." Zac held his head and arms down, sulking. "No Zac, its okay. Here I'll take 'em."

"It's okay I-." Zac stopped himself short without another word as he turned towards Riven's shattered sword. He picked it up and started looking at it meticulously.

Riven held her hands up. "Zac! Be careful with that!" She moved towards him to try and grab the sword but he pulled back to keep her from doing so.

It can't be said for sure what was going on in his head. Was he angry at her, like he'd hit her with her own sword? Did he want to destroy it in anger because she didn't like the flowers? Some serious thoughts pooled together in the individual nuclei of his cells and he started latching parts of himself onto the sword.

"Zac! Stop! What are you doing?!" Riven said, beckoning him to put it down. She began to worry, but didn't quite know what to be worried about yet.

But Zac kept going. Chunk after chunk of his body started to build itself onto the sword. He looked up at Riven. "Do you trust me?"

Riven looked at him, then her blade, then him again. "Sort of." She at least wanted to; if not for herself, than for him. She had just made something with him, and she really wanted to keep it.

Zac gave her a tiny smirk. "Then grab a hold of my cells on your sword. Right here," He pointed to a specific spot where the back of her shattered sword met the cells from his body, "with the hand that you don't draw your sword with." Riven placed her left hand on the back of the sword, over Zac's cells. "Now take hold of your sword, next to my hand." Riven did just that with her right hand.

Riven was amazed and perplexed. "What are you doing?"

Zac made a huge grin and exclaimed, "If you're not the flower type, then I have to assume you're the weapon type. After that I got nothing left, so I hope you like this." As the chunks of his body stopped forming onto the sword an incredible thing happened. They coalesced into a blade that fit perfectly into the jagged parts of the actual sword. "Okay now say, 'Blade Off!'"

Riven didn't get it. Mostly because she was amazed about how the blade fit so well and looked so solid. "Blade Off!" She commanded. The solid blade that was attached to her shattered sword started to be drawn to her left hand and swirled around her arm to form a backpack shape on her back. "Sweet fuck!" Riven exclaimed.

"Yeah cool, right?" Zac asked her. "Now say, 'Blade On!'"

Riven was made busy with trying to catch a glance over her shoulder of the Zacpack. "Uh…Blade On!"

Zac shook his head. "No, no, while you hold the sword where I showed you."

Riven grabbed the back of her shattered sword and said, "Blade On!" The Zacpack followed the same route back to the sword to reform a blade. "Zac! This is amazing!" Riven looked so happy.

Zac started to smile. "So you like it?!"

"I love it!" Riven exclaimed. She started to spin it around and slash with it. "Its just like it was before-." Riven stopped slashing. She held her arms down with the sword touching the ground.

Zac noticed something was wrong. Honestly for a guy it is really hard, but this was pretty obvious. "What's wrong? Did I make it wrong? If you're worried about breaking it, don't, it's tougher than steel. I commanded my cells to become solid carbon when they form the blade. That's what diamonds are made of. It won't ever get dull either. Riven? What's wrong?"

Riven looked up at Zac with a glum face. "Zac, that sounds absolutely amazing. Thank you. But it's not about how you made it for me. I love it. Its how it looks so much like it did before I broke it."

Zac looked confused. "That's not good?"

"No Zac," Riven shook her head, "that's not good."

Zac silently cursed himself for not being able to bring joy to Riven. Mostly because he inadvertently brought up her past. "I can disable it, or make it look different."

Riven figuratively wiped her sadder face off and put on a smile. "No way, Zac. I love it the way it is." Then she strode up and pulled his head down to her level to give him a kiss. "I really do."

Zac smiled. "Then I am happy to be of service."

Riven started waving her Zac-bladed sword again. "So it's like a diamond, huh?"

"Yeah, but I wouldn't try to sell it. Real diamonds have value for their purity." Zac said chuckling to the amusement of his own joke.

Riven looked a little hurt. "No Zac, I wouldn't try to sell it, I-." Then she finally caught on to the joke. "You know what; I think it might be worth a little more than a real diamond. Maybe I should check with a jeweler for a better opinion." Riven shot Zac a smirk.

On the sword itself; a smooth, glass-like, opaque, green blade fit snugly into the jagged edges of the shattered sword. The blade was so pristine, because of Zac's cells, that as Riven held it in a way to reflect the light she realized it: one, was really a matte green color; two, had no flaws, just smooth carbon; and three, she realized that it felt like no weight had actually been added.

Zac let her play for awhile, as he collected his thoughts. His biggest thought was, 'What about the blade reminded her of her past?' of which he had to know. After a few minutes his curiosity started to boil over, so he approached her. "Riven?"

Riven stopped to look at Zac. "Yeah?"

Zac didn't know how to ask it nicely, so he did it bluntly, "Why did seeing your sword remade, make you feel bad?"

Riven realized that this was it. 'I either tell him now, and hope he doesn't think less of me. Or I don't tell him, and can't ever get him to fully trust me.' Riven looked into Zac's eyes and said, "What will you think of me, when I finish telling you?"

Zac looked at her with soft eyes and said, "What do you fear I will think? Because to me I can't think of a way to better know you than to know everything about you, no matter what it is."

Riven could feel an urge creep up in her face to cry, so she shrugged it off, and broke eye contact with him. "I just found you. Someone who's kind. Some who's strong. Someone who has the courage to do the right thing, even when they don't have to. Someone I feel like my life would be safe in their hands, which you've proven so much already. Someone who can see the good in life. Someone who…likes me. I just don't want to chase you away." Her eyes met his again.

Zac paused to take in her words. He stood there for a moment without any expression, which started to worry Riven a little. Then without warning he stretched out his arms to pull Riven up close to him. Riven looked into his eyes as he spoke the words she would remember all of her life. "If you ask me to hold on, and not let go, then I will do just that."

That was it for her. She couldn't hold back another second. Riven buried her head into Zac's gooey mass and let the tears pour out. When she had cried more than she had wanted to, she pulled back to say, "Okay, I'll tell you. But hold me, and don't let go."