The battle at Hyde Park was fierce, so fierce that there wasn't a single person that wasn't a Ranger within ten city blocks of the park.

None of the Rangers knew how long they had been fighting as the heavens opened up. They only knew that the sun was still up when the battle started, but now it was gone, plunging the park into darkness.

As the bear monster hoisted Gia above its head, Orion pulled himself to his feet, coated in mud. They'd exhausted pretty much their whole arsenal of Ranger keys on it, and by now Orion was getting fed up of seeing it come back. Cursing and swearing in his native tongue as he approached, he readied his Silver Spear into blaster mode. Where she was lying in the mud, Emma could see him throw off his helmet, and despite the fact his eyes were almost completely white, she could still see the fury in them.

He barked and spat as he approached in his unintelligible native language. Still, Emma could guess the context of what he was saying. She had studied enough of Andresian faith...the Faith of the Earth Gods, to know that his fury, and his vengeance was more than just personal, but that it was spiritual, that he was willing to damn those he defeated when he could. She watched as he fired his Silver Spear Blaster, and even though it ripped itself from his hand, and sent him somersaulting through the air almost twenty feet, as soon as he was up, he looked to the creature. Its head had vanished, completely obliterated by the blast.

She saw that despite this though, Orion was on his feet, and still making his way towards the creature. He bent down low, picking up his blaster. She had no idea what he was saying, but she could guess its content, seeing the tears streaming down his face. She tried to get up, and her muscles failed her at first. As he fired off another blast, hitting the corpse and sending pieces all over the place, she forced herself with more, so much more than physical strength, with everything she had in her.

Emma had seen sadness in her life. She didn't claim she had more right to complain than anyone else, but the fact was, by the time she was ten years old, her mother, the woman who had shaped her whole life, the woman who gave her all her beliefs and taught her the beauty of the world, told her that she had contracted cancer. Emma didn't really know or understand what had happened, all she knew was that something bad had gotten into her mother, and grew inside her. By the time she knew, it was already too late. By the time Emma was 11, her mother was taken from her by the terrible blight.

Emma was not a person of faith. She wasn't really sure what she believed in, or if she had faith at all, but all she knew was she was in awe of the universe. She believed in the Earth, and its resilience. No matter what happened to it, the Earth had existed for millions of years before a single human walked its surface, and she was confident it would exist long after the time of humans ended. Still, she had some idea what faith was. She could remember a fight that she had with Jordan long ago. She believed in dreams, something her mother had taught her, that dreams were something to reach for and believe in. He had mocked that belief, and she took it personally. It was as if he was attacking the core of her being, her belief in her dreams was something that Emma had learned from her mother, a now-absent being that she still idolised and aspired to emulate. Her physical strength was gone, she had no idea what brought her to her feet. She searched her mind; her heart, everything, and something finally came to her, one word in Andresian she knew that made any sense.

"Stop!" She screamed, putting herself before Orion. He looked to her, and screamed at her in Andresian.

"I don't understand you!" She screamed at him. Orion looked to her, and pulled off his helmet. She could see in his eyes he was looking for a translation. "NO, I don't understand YOU!"

He just stared at her.

"He's gone Orion, his threat has ended!" She told him. "There's no need..."

"He has no entitlement to a merciful or peaceful end!" He yelled, raising his blaster again. Emma shoved it down.

"He was made from a hat Orion; did IT deserve to be destroyed?" She asked him. "What about the bear it was made from? Doesn't it deserve to return to the Earth?"

Orion paused for a moment, thinking about what she said. It was true, the battle was over, but all he could think about was incinerating every millimetre of the Bear Monster, to ensure it would never return to the Mother Andresia. He pointed the blaster at it once more, but this time, Emma moved to stand directly in front of the barrel. Orion started to say something.

"I don't understand Orion, and I don't just mean Andresian!" She yelled at him. "Your faith demands the burial of the dead!"

He didn't flinch as she said this. Instead, he could only think of one thing. He had enjoyed tea with the others. To him, it was something he could remember being part of the rites he enjoyed with the prayer readers back home. To the Earthlings, it was also present, and the time with the Rangers at the cafe had reminded him of chantries back home. With members of his mining team at rituals. He now realised that there were similarities between Earth and Andresia, that they perhaps weren't so different. He realised now that perhaps Emma hadn't meant any disrespect when she told him she studied his faith.

"That monster..."

"The monster is gone!" Emma reiterated. "What's left is what was there before, a bear that was in the wrong place at the wrong time. What did it do to deserve your damnation?"

Orion took the key out of his blaster as he put it away.

"We should tend to the others." He responded. "We should turn our rudder to this place before another creature shows up. They are seeking us after all."

Emma just nodded as he picked up Noah, throwing him over his shoulder like he was a blanket. Working in the mines back home, his strength was more than enough to carry the young Ranger unhindered.

It was a long time later, the Rangers had left London, and the UK far behind, sending the ship far enough before cloaking that they were confident that The Armada would be convinced they were really gone.

At least...those that were active did. Only Emma and Orion were up and about at the time. Most of the others had been medicated and left to sleep off the worst of their injuries below decks. Orion was up on deck, sitting with Tensou as Emma arrived. She had been on navigation duty since Troy was out of action, but since they hadn't actually figured out a new destination, there really wasn't much to do that the auto pilot couldn't handle. As she got onto the deck, once they were at a decent cruising height and velocity, she found Orion looking out over the edge, with Tensou next to him. Both of them were speaking in Andresian. She hated that in some ways, she hated the fact she could only understand snippets of what they were saying, but that wasn't the main thing. It was something that brought comfort to Orion, that there was someone who spoke his language fluently, but in some ways it also distanced him from the others. Gia knew some Andresian...Emma had picked up a word or two through context...the others...she had no idea. All she knew was that none of them were fluent, and so when Orion spoke Andresian, he was losing them.

She saw that Tensou saw her, before he said something and flew away. By context, she presumed he excused himself in Andresian. Orion just sighed as he leant on the rail.

"I owe you an..." He paused as he thought about it. Emma never considered this before as she saw the awkward look on his face. He had spoken in English very well for so long, sometimes it escaped them that strictly speaking it was a second language to him. "I would like to say...I realise I was wrong to shout at you before."

"I didn't mean to insult you." Emma told him. He just nodded.

"I know...I spoke with Tensou about you since we left." He told her. She just looked at him. "He...he explained some things about you."

"So it's alright for you to research me, but I can't research you?" Emma teased him. He chuckled.

"I believe you call that sarcasm." He told her. "My friends at the quarry...we passed the time with such jokes back home."

He approached her as he thought about what to say. Emma held up a hand to stop him, and sighed.

"My mom died when I was young, she died of cancer." She informed him. "Do you know what that is?"

"We had another name for it, but yes, I understand." Orion replied. Emma just nodded.

"She was my whole world. I idolised her, I shaped my whole life around her." Emma continued. "I miss her to this day. Sometimes, sometimes when I'm alone, I like to think about her, and what she would think about all of this."

She looked to him and smiled.

"I don't claim for one second to know what you feel." She told him. "So...perhaps you could tell me."

"I feel angry." He stated bluntly. "Not just with enemies...I feel anger all the time, like it is the very thing that wills me to wake up in the morning."

"Orion..."

"I had a LIFE!" He snapped before she could finish. "I had friends, a family...I had brothers and sisters..."

"You did?" Emma asked.

"I buried them all!" He roared. "My fingers bled because The Armada left no tools intact for me to bury them, but I saw every last one of them returned to Andresia with every ounce of strength I had, and then I prayed to the Gods for guidance."

Emma approached him slowly.

"Faith is a powerful thing, it can keep us going in the darkest of times, and through the worst of storms." Emma told him. "But we always have to have the wisdom to seek the teachings within that faith, and not to allow it to become all that we are, and to confuse things. Faith is strong enough to will someone to live beyond their time, but it is also powerful enough to blind us to certain truths."

"Like what?" Orion asked her. Emma put an arm around him.

"Alex spoke to you in Andresian." She reminded him. Orion just looked to her. "From the way he said it, it didn't sound rehearsed. He said it like he knew what he was saying."

"So?" Orion asked.

"Alex came back from the year 3012!" Emma reminded him. "So apparently some people are still speaking Andresian in a thousand years."

She smiled as she prepared to leave him.

"I think we have some Earl Grey." She told him. As she left, Orion couldn't help thinking about what she said. Why would people still be speaking Andresian in a millennia?

Fin.

A/N: This chapter cut out a lot of action...but I really wanted to focus on the Orion/Emma interactions, and the faith aspect. Sorry if the ending was a little dry. More coming soon.