Phoenix bowed his head as he mourned, sitting on a cargo container. "This is it, guys. We're done."
Miko looked up at the state of the art mech, with stubborn determination. "No! It can't be. We just need to wait. Angelum will be back. H-he will." Her voice cracked showing that despite all her inherent tenaciousness even she was losing hope.
Roy walked up to the teenage girl as placed his hands on her shoulders and looked her dead in the eye. He hated to do this but she had to be brought to reality. "Miko. It's been close to two years since he even wrote a word about us."
She shook her head slowly, tears forming at her eyes. She know what he was going to say.
"It's time to let it go."
"NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" She screamed, crying, shoving Roy back. "I can't accept it! I won't. If I do then you guys disappear. This entire world disappears. It's so much better than the regular world I came from. There I only helped the autobots only a few times, but here I was gonna get the chance to be in every battle and fight beside bulkhead."
At the mention of his name the large green bot stepped forward and said sadly. "Miko, I know how you feel. Being with the Skull squadron felt like I was with the wreckers again, and you, of all people, should know what that means to me."
She nodded numbly and choked back a sob. "I do."
"Then you should know how much it pains me to tell you to let it go."
Before she could raise anymore protest, Captain Gloval swept his arm out slowly gesturing around. "Take a look, Miko."
She looked around at the fragment of the Earth they stood on. It was no larger than then the town of Jasper and it was barren. Completely devoid of life the only sign that civilization existed was the cargo container the Phoenix sat on. Surrounding the rock was the vacuum of space, the only reason they weren't dead was the last vestiges of imagination the once held the reality together. Other pieces of the earth of various sizes filled the space with them. All as barren as the one that was occupied. Among the rocks one could see various objects that marked which reality this graveyard belonged to. Unicron's arm, the partially built SDF-1, a half obliterated Ark. All this spiraled towards a black hole where it was being destroyed. At the end of the spiraling doom was the rock they stood on.
"As long as you cling to this world we will be forced to live in this wasteland." Despair filled the once stoic captain's voice. "At this point you're just stretching out the suffering"
The Japanese teen bowed her head as the despair started to set in, but she still held on. "I don't wanna let go of you guys. You're my friends."
Phoenix stood slowly and walked towards Miko. As he did, he changed. He turned from titanic to human sized. Steel turned to flesh. Hair replaced helm. He stopped in front of Miko not as phoenix but as Jack. He said morosely. "If we're really friends then you'll let us go home."
That did it. The last string of hope she held onto broke. Her face fell into melancholy, and she dropped to her knees, not even able to shed a tear. Seeing her usual bright happy face be in a such a dark place tore at everyone's heart but it had to be done.
miko
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for putting you guys through this." She languidly apologized.
Miko.
"I'll let go."
Miko!
She raised a hand to the dog tags that hung around her neck. Given to her by Staff Sergeant Nantz who started training her. She closed her fist around them and whispered. "Goodbye."
"MIKO!"
Finally, everyone took notice of the voice that seemed to carry on unnoticed winds as rose to godly proportions.
"GIGA...DRILL…BREAK!"
Do the impossible, see the invisible
Row, row, fight the power!
A tear in the fabric of space time formed and a giant drill the size of the SDF-1, made of pure fighting spirit manifesting as crimson energy came out. Everyone was shocked into silence by the sudden reference. No clue what to say or even what expression to have other shocked. Everyone but Miko, hope and joy filled her face to the brim as she realized who came to the rescue.
The energy drill dissipated revealing it's wielder. It was a youthful man with a runner's build wearing equally lithe black knights armor with a angelic theme, including armor that covered the ebony wings on his back. He had no helmet, showing his chaotic black hair, azure eyes, tan skin and western features. In his right hand he held a bastard sword with a blue blade and angel wings as the crossguard.
Finally mustering up the words, Jack exclaimed quietly. "Holy scrap. He came."
Miko cried in estaticness, crying tears of joy. "ANGELUM!"
With a flap of his wings he descended and landed in front of Miko. He sheathed his sword into a scabbard on his belt and crouched. With a smile, he raised his armored hand and rubbed her head affectionately. "Sorry for being gone so long."
Miki shook her head. "It's okay. You came back. That's all that matters."
"Unfortunately, I have to disagree." Gloval countered sternly. "Where have you been? Why did it take you so long to return?"
"Valid questions." The manifested imagination of the author responded before standing up. "I had chosen to focus on my other story Shivering Grasp of a Promise, now titled, The Eyeless Devil."
"And how'd that go?" Roy asked.
"Well…" Angelum looked down at his armor so did every one else.
That was when it became apparent to every that he looked like he'd been through the ringer. His armor was covered in scratches dings and scuffs. His left vambrace was gone revealing that the sci fi skin suit he wore underneath was cut showing a place white scar. His face had a scar too. Running down from mid-forehead over his eye and down his cheek. Part of his hair looked shorter than it usually was.
"Yeah, it was touch and go for a while." He admitted.
"Are you okay?" Miki asked worried.
"Kind of." He answered vaguely and when everyone stared at him silently demanding an answer he stated. "I lost my writing spirit."
While imagination and understanding of proper writing tools and techniques are a must have for being an author. They pale in comparison to the writing spirit. It's what gives an author the urge to write, the courage to publish, and the willingness to keep going come what may. It's how Stephen King had close to fifty plus books tied to his name. Its how, despite all logic, Stephenie Myer pubished the Twilight saga. Losing this has been detrimental to many authors. To some it's been a career ender.
"Writing Shivering Grasp was fun but after a while it started getting harder and harder to write." He explained. "Then I chose to reread the story and I didn't like it. Then I lost my writing spirit. I had to step back and regain that lost spirit. I got my readers to analyze the story while I began a… soul search of a sort. Thus I decided to come back to an old friend. Unfortunately, it took the last of my spirit to get here."
"Then you should rest." Gloval wisely advised. "Continuing when your writing spirit is low will get you bad results
"True, but just being here has already restored some." The Dark Angel lifted the arm without the vambrace and crimson energy gathered around it for a second before transforming into his vambrace. "I'll straighten everything out before taking a nights rest, then I'll get back to work."
"So, how long will you be here?" Bulk asked.
"That depends." He sighed tiredly, the strain for getting there starting to show. "But at the least I will finish this arc with equal maybe even better quality than before. Even if it takes the last of my writing spirit."
"Well, as you can see, we've got a lot work to do." Jack said gesturing to the spacial wasteland.
Angelum bent over and held a hand our to Miko. "Then we get should started."
She smiled with elation and courage . "Right."
He helped her stand then walked to the swirling black hole, drawing his sword. As he did, he couldn't help the subtle feeling of relaxation. Like coming home after a long day work. It felt nice.
Wanted to do a little something special than just saying I'm back.
But, just for restatement. I'm back.
It'll take me a little while to get on track but a chapter will be out soon.
