Long Kiss Goodbye

Mao let out a slow breath as a single drop of sweat rolled down her left cheek. In the cockpit of her M-9, various lights blinked and flashed across the screens around her relaying information about her position, her machinery's status and her target's location. She gripped the controls and closed her eyes. Outside, the hard blue summer sky carried out the sun's exuberant rays as Meridia Island experienced one of its record highs of the season. She tuned out the sounds of chirping birds and bugs on her sound speaker and waited patiently amidst the rhythmic beat of her heart.

Suddenly the bells and whistles of her sensors blared at her. Her opponent appeared out of nowhere was coming from behind with incredible speed. But she was ready for him. Even as the Arbalest's anti-tank dagger sloped downward to slice her in half, her M-9 was sidestepping. Its torso twisted forty-five degrees and she caught the Arbalest's arm just in time. The dagger barely nicked the paint of the M-9's helmet before Mao pushed upward. Counting on Sousuke to lose his balance one of the M-9's legs swing around in the same motion to kick him down. Before she made contact, however, Sousuke's Arbalest leaped back and her M-9's foot only caught air.

"You're moves are too predictable, Sousuke. They're practically out of the manual. I thought you wanted me to train with you, not play with you," she said mockingly. Before she could catch another glimpse of him on her monitor, the Arbalest vanished. Out of the jungle brush from a completely different direction Mao heard a pop and a three-pronged metal claw whizzed past the M-9's head. Reflexively she held out a hand to shield herself. As her arm caught the wire the claw changed it's trajectory and the metallic rope wound itself around her arm and neck. Before she could figure out that he had shot out his wire gun, the metal rope caught her AS's neck and she was falling backward from a sudden pull down. Sousuke had recalled the wire and with a tight fisted grip of the rope that caught at the base of the M-9's head, he forced her down. Immediately as her AS made contact with the coffee colored dirt, the Arbalest twisted around as if to elbow the M-9 in the chest while still holding its lasso to the ground. He stopped his machine at the last moment and as the dust cleared, the two giants lying on the ground looked like immobile metal statues. Realizing the commotion was over the birds and bugs recommenced their afternoon melodic suite.

"Well done," smiled Mao as she took off her helmet in the cockpit and leaned her head back against the pilot's seat headrest with a relieved sigh. "You pass."

The two had been training rigorously for nearly half a year after Sousuke's recovery period after the Russian "incident." She knew he would not relent until he took Kaname-san back again, or died trying. As his superior officer and friend, she understood the passion that drove him. Though she would much rather he didn't throw away his life for such a silly thing like "love," she wanted to make sure he was prepared to face the end. While time passed on the island, Amalgam had again withdrawn into the shadows and the world was quiet and peaceful for the time being.

Sousuke moved his AS into a kneeling position and opened the cockpit. The sweat against his tank top cooled as a light breeze picked up. He would ask the Captain to return him to active duty. Mao could vouch for him. He wanted to return to the world where Kaname was, and he was determined to save her from them and from herself. There was nothing else he lived for. No matter what, he would keep his promise and continue to believe in her. Deep down he knew that Kaname would always be Kaname, no matter what.

With a hand held up to his eyes to take some of the sharp glare away from the sun, he studied the deep blue atmosphere above. There hadn't been any rain for weeks—not even the humid summer downpours. His thoughts wandered in time and space to a place near Jindai High School, where quaint little shops and stone streets stood charmingly frozen in a picture in his mind of another summer now past. Kaname had asked him to go with her to try out a dessert and parfait shop there. He remembered their arms almost touching as they walked side by side in their summer uniforms. Because she had told him he was often too quiet and sullen, he thought to commence quaint conversation and commented on the summer sky and the lack of rain.

"Without rain, there are no rainbows," she had said. Sousuke could almost hear her voice on the breeze. Nowadays, his heart no longer ached when he thought of her. Instead, that pain was replaced by twinges of sadness he would feel from time to time. Sometimes he wished his mind wouldn't remember things like that so clearly.

The pair returned their AS's to the hangar in silence. Mao patted him on the back as she would her little brother and walked alongside him towards the main building. She was working out a kink in her shoulder that resulted from her being so rudely forced to the ground when she noticed a familiar petite figure standing to the side of the main entrance. She grinned at their commanding officer.

"Well, I guess I'll go make Kurtz do push-ups in the sun again," she said out of the blue. Teletha looked at her quizzically as she waved goodbye absently over her shoulder and walked away.

"He's no doubt doing something perverted right now. It's my job to discipline my subordinates." She stretched lazily as she turned the corner of the building and disappeared around the back.

Teletha handed Sousuke a towel, which he took gratefully. They walked through the sliding double doors into the suddenly dark hallway. The glare from the outside sun made it difficult for their vision to immediately adjust. Out of habit and familiarity he walked sightlessly to the vending machines ahead without having to really see where he was going and she followed blindly after him.

He pulled several coins from his pocket and slipped them into the slot and pushed the button for an energy drink. Wordlessly, he also pushed the button for the milk flavored bubbly beverage the captain always purchased from there, no matter how long she spent pondering the choices.

"Thank you," she said as she took the offering. She watched him take a sip of his drink before she had any of hers.

"Melissa tells me that you want to be reinstated into active duty," she said after a while.

"Yeah," he responded, finishing the rest of his drink. He looked at her and smiled a little. "The sooner the better."

"I understand," she said and took another sip. She accidentally took a bigger sip than she originally planned and turned a shade of pink as she gulped it down. It would be embarrassing if she choked in front of him. Mortified of the thought, she quickly regained her composure.

"Is there a problem, Captain?" he asked gently.

"No," she said and looked away. "I just thought…" she let her voice trail away into the dark corridor.

"Would you rather I didn't return to active duty?" he surmised.

"You'd find a way to act even without my permission," she answered. "I just wish there was a way I could help you more."

"You do help me a great deal, Captain. You've always been a great support to me."

Teletha looked at him with wide eyes and her heart jumped a little. "I just wish you wouldn't be so reckless with your life. Every time you go out there I wonder…"

"You wonder what?" he asked, looking puzzled.

"I wonder what I could have done to make you stay." Her voice was almost a whisper and a rosy flush came to her cheeks.

"Captain," he began.

"Please don't!" she cried out. Before he said another word her arms were wrapped tightly around his waist and her face was buried in his chest. "Please don't humor me. I know you've already made your choice." Sousuke was a little surprised at her boldness, but he placed his hands on her shoulders to comfort her. They stood like that for a little while, as the corridor remained empty. As she held him, she breathed in his scent, determined to remember it forever—not knowing when she would have a chance to do this again. No, she wouldn't let herself do this again. This would be the last time she acted so foolishly over him. She composed her facial expression and pulled away from him slowly, lingering in the embrace.

"Good luck to you, Sergeant Sagara. I will support you as far as I can."

He looked at her and wondered at the strength behind her petite frame. "Thank you, Captain. I will always appreciate your friendship."

"Then you shall always have it," she responded with a warm smile.

000

In the side streets of the Piazza Malta in the heart of Rome the pedestrians and the passers by were starting to dwindle in number as the sun was going down. No one took serious notice of the several expensive looking cars carrying their passengers down the stone streets towards an immaculate white building, inconspicuous among a city of fine architecture. The building was labeled the Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato e Agricoltira. Its smooth cut stone masonry facade was saturated in the style of the Italian Renaissance. The courses, moldings and all decorative detail were carved with great precision. Its windows, mimicking the orange gleam of the sky, were paired and set within semi-circular arches and triangular shaped accents at their tops. Ornately carved buttresses sat atop the slender roman columns along the front of the building. There were no sentries, no guards and no people otherwise seen in any of the windows. Aside from those who claimed membership there, there was no one in the vast, old city who knew that this was Amalgam's headquarters, nicknamed the Aerie.

Kaname leaned against the frame of the balcony door to her room facing west, in the direction of the sunset. She barely noticed the play of hues over the colorful tiled roofs of the city that was a common sight for her nowadays since they had relocated. She recalled the conversation she had with Kenji the night prior with chagrin.

"Kaname-san, I'm really sorry," he had apologized. She had only looked at him listlessly. After the explosion in Russia Kaname didn't have very much more to say to him. Though she had been a lot like an older sister to him, she had found her feelings suddenly turn cold in the aftermath of his little rampage. Though he had only thought of her when he killed Sousuke, Kaname couldn't find it in her to forgive him. How many times had she tried to teach him that life was precious? How could he do such a thing? Had he lost a part of himself while he was incarcerated in his experimental glass jar? Kaname couldn't help but feel that somehow it was her fault. She had mourned for many weeks prior to even being able to look at Kenji again. Leonard had expressed his concern for Kenji's inability to train properly while his mind was so troubled over Kaname, but she didn't care. The less he trained, the better.

"Do you regret setting me free?" he had asked quietly in her room. She looked at him and understood that he would not be able to bear it if she said she did. She was not so heartless as to admit it aloud, but she said nothing to comfort him.

After a while, she had asked him, "Why are you here? What is it you want from me?"

"You're the only one I have in the world. I want you to love me." His words were honest and his intentions pure. For a moment she stared at the boy's earnest eyes. Before she could fathom what he meant by "love" he reached over and pressed his cheek against her breasts. Though she wanted to push him away, she didn't have the strength to. She merely looked away. Kenji looked up and his eyes pleaded with her to hold him.

"I cannot be what you want, Kenji. I don't know what you have suffered in the past before we met, but it's better that you start witn a clean slate now. I only want you away from here…away from me. I want you to live outside of the glass cage like a normal boy." She looked down and patted his head in a rather motherly way. Just as her own mother used to do. "When my mother died in a car accident and I had survived it, my father blamed me. I thought I was all alone. But then I made friends again and I met him. My life was so much richer for that. That's what I want for you, but I have none of that to offer you. From this point forward, I am walking in a direction towards a destination I must reach alone." She only looked at him sadly.

Without another word, he left. She didn't know where he went, but he climbed down her balcony and walked away into the night without explanation. She would always remember the look he gave her when she watched him quietly go. It was a mixture of relief, sadness and release. Perhaps he had thought himself bound to her, because she was the only one who was kind to him and had spared his life on a whim. Perhaps he had even fallen in love with her. The last thing she wanted was for him to share in her nightmare. Also, with him gone, she wouldn't have to forgive him.

Just then, there was a slight knock on her door. She turned to see Leonard poking his head into her room.

"May I join you, Kaname-san?" he asked in his usual, sweet voice.

"I can't stop you," she answered, and turned her gaze back towards the view from her balcony.

"Ah, I love Rome, the city of my birth. And Teletha's as well for that matter. It's so appropriate for us to have finished our joint project here in the land of myth and ancient gods. I feel as though we've just set the stage for a grand spectacle on a worldwide scale on this hallowed ground. I just wish I wasn't now pent up here with nothing to do." The agitation in his voice subsided as he sidled up next to her and took a lock of her hair into his hands and inhaled deeply. On cue, she turned around with lightning speed and an open palm to strike him. He caught her wrist gingerly and smiled apologetically.

"I see your grief hasn't stopped you from being feisty."

"My grief is none of your business," she stated flatly, turning away from him.

"I can never leave a grieving woman alone. I was actually hoping that I could let you use my body to comfort you in your time of need."

"Pass," she responded curtly. He sighed. "The higher ups for Amalgam are downstairs planning an all out attack on Mithril to end it once and for all. I'm only their technical genius. Strategy games bore me." He set himself down gracefully on her golden upholstered sofa and kicked off some of the fluffy tasseled pillows to make room for his feet. With his head resting against one end he looked up at the wooden ceiling and began to snack on the fresh fruit in the bowl he had swiped from the side table. His long platinum locks hung over the side lazily in the dying sunlight. For a moment, she marveled how he resembled a beautiful portrait. "I suppose our forces from our various locations, such Russia, Hong Kong, South America, Antarctica, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Haiti will have to strike separately. An Amalgam double agents has informed us that there's to be some kind of summit meeting among Mithril's high ranking officers on Meridia Island. It may include the illustrious and illusive Lord Mallory. As I understood the bulletin this morning, all fighting personnel and trainees from our European bases are to report to the meeting hall for debriefing a quarter before midnight tonight. I suppose that means me, since I can pilot an AS. You're a natural as well. I don't suppose you'd want to come along?" he asked nonchalantly, as if he were asking her to go with him to a picnic.

"I don't like the smell of the interior cockpit of an AS. It's too stifling."

"All the better, I suppose," he replied. "I'm not sure how I feel about killing my old mentor, Mallory."

"And your sister for that matter," added Kaname quietly. He fell silent for a moment and then heaved a sigh.

"If they want to succeed all of our forces that can be spared should head to Meridia Island. Not a soldier less. If we leave via mass submarine transport by midnight, the fighting could commence within 48 hours. I guess Elanna eventually became of use to us." He absently continued to chew on a cluster of grapes. Kaname wanted to smack him. His lounging figure reminded her of Bacchus, suckling his grapes and not caring about the mortal world. Leonard was a demi-god in his own head and in his own eyes he could do no wrong.

Aside from Kaname herself, she wondered if he ever thought highly of any other Whispered. He always talked with disdain about his younger sister and had no respect for the Whispered who couldn't control their gifts, such as Elanna. She had been captured in Russia and was one of the first to be tested upon. Much like Teletha, she had vast submarine technology buried within her mind. The attack would most likely utilize her one and only creation, Leviathan; a huge submarine that rivaled the Tuatha de Danaan in both stealth and speed. It was the size of a small city. Kaname heard that Elanna was rescued by Mithril, but subsequently hung herself to stop the voices.

As the key researcher in the Avatara Project it was likely that Kaname was needed to monitor and study the results of using their newly created platoon of fantastic and deadly winged Armed Slaves. Even as the sun was setting, she was formulating her plan. For herself, for Sousuke who tried to save her, she would end it one way or another.

Leonard got up and walked over to her, gently offering a grape to her lips. He smiled kindly and waited patiently for her to open her mouth. She looked away but he caught her chin with a thumb and forefinger and pressed the grape to her lips. As Kaname's lips parted he replaced the grape with his mouth and kissed her deeply. She was too emotionally exhausted to resist. She was determined that this was the last time he would steal a kiss from her. As he pulled away and looked at her quizzically, as if to ask permission to do more, he was disappointed to meet her dead gaze and emotionless countenance. He dropped his hand and sighed.

"It would give me great pleasure to have you accompany me for dinner tonight," he said softly. "I will do everything in my power to make you happy tonight."

"My happiness is unnecessary," she replied coldly and looked away. "But dinner would be fine."

In a way, she had to thank Leonard for showing her what she could be, pulling all the stops of what was right, what was moral, what was socially acceptable in order to find out the meaning of the secrets inside of her. Knowing what she now knew, having done what she had done, Kaname realized she could not return to normal society. The picturesque scene beyond her balcony was nothing more than a poor, plain shadow of her reality.

As she moved out to the balcony and place a hand over the stone rail decorated with twisted vines of bougainvillea he moved over to place his hand over hers. But just as they touched a shock went through him as their eyes met. He suddenly couldn't breathe as he stared into the depths of her eyes. To his surprise, they were resonating. A familiar chanting wound around his consciousness as he started to drown in the visions, symbols and formulas that gushed forth like a massive reservoir. Leonard's eyes went wide as he caught a glimpse of the endless chasm of Black Technology in Kaname's head. He forced a break in their resonance by biting his own lip. Leonard breathed normally again and he could taste the blood in his mouth as he raised his handkerchief to his lips and finally looked away.

"Kaname-san you never cease to amaze me. You've been holding back on us," he smiled weakly.

"There is only one person I trusted in this world…and you will never replace him," she said quietly. He looked at her for a bit, his expression unreadable. She wondered how much of her personal thoughts he had seen in that second of resonance. Just then, there was another knock on the door. Simultaneously she and Leonard granted permission to enter.

"I'm sorry to interrupt Sir, Ma'am. I was told by Monsieur Dubois to let you know that all the members have arrived and dinner will be served shortly. Also, that a member of your new test unit was shot and killed while trying to escape the premises. Monsieur Dubois informs you to find a replacement pilot as soon as possible." The guard bowed politely and shut the door.

Kaname looked away to the sunset once more, resisting the urge to cry. Leonard placed a hand on her shoulder briefly, and then left the room. As the sun hovered right above the horizon, Kaname quietly sipped her sparkling Spumante aperitivo on the glass table set out on her balcony, a practice emulated from Leonard.

"When in Rome…" said Kaname gently as she raised her glass to the sun. The rim twinkled in the light. As she blinked a single glittering tear rolled down her cheek in response. The simple sweet taste of her white wine reminded her of easier times—like those she had spent with Sousuke in high school. Those memories were so distant now. The perfect fishing spot on Meridia Island seemed etched in a far away time; and now Amalgam was going to destroy that as well.

Only her conviction to follow through with what she had mind kept her buoyed atop the swells of sadness that threatened to drown her. Kaname took another sip as the evening breeze blew against the pages of her notepad on the table. The pages flipped over with faint, crackling resistance. Therein, her scribbles and theorems, layouts of the Avatara's weaknesses jotted out in detail faded with the sun's departure. She had mapped out in pencil the intricate mechanism of wiring from the pilot's brain to the Lambda driver hidden deep within the impenetrable body of the beast connected underneath the massive and bendable wing-like appendages that operated as the exhaust for the power boost when the Lambda driver was activated. Constant cooling allowed lengthier periods of use and this was key. Leonard often compared the Avatara's strength and power to that of a demi-god. But how does one stop Amalgam's squad of demi-gods?

With determination burning bright in her eyes, Kaname plucked a blood red, wing-shaped bougainvillea petal from the vine.


Author's notes: You knew I wasn't going to let anything happen to Sousuke…yet. Long Kiss Goodbye is a theme song to Naruto Shippuden that I really like. Thanks to all who RxR'd, especially the faithful Perpetual159, sippingsodapop, Langus, princessknit and Necat. You know I'd post regardless of whether any one reviewed it but I really do appreciate the reviews—love me or flame me. But I hope you all enjoyed it. Savor the flavor; I have no idea when I'm going to finish this story. – Kero (10/30/08)