ZAC 2061: YEAR TWO
Chapter 10

Phoenix stood facing Willow at the northern end of Fort Zephyr's wide street. The wind tossed his copper hair playfully, though he took no notice. Fuzzy, who was now back at full operational and offensive capacity after his ministrations these last couple weeks, sat behind him, her nose lifted to the breeze. The sun hung low over the western horizon.

"So...you're sure about this Dan guy?" he asked, hopefully.

Willow laughed. "No. But like you said, sometimes you just need to have faith in people."

"I suppose I did say that," he acknowledged, rubbing the back of his head. "Well, I can admit when I'm outmatched."

She laughed again, a quiet laugh nevertheless edged in melancholy, and a long silence descended between them.

"I'm no good at this part," he said softly, after a time.

"Neither am I." She held her upper arms in her hands, shielding her chest, trying to keep something out, or perhaps trying to keep something in.

"You won't be completely alone," he said, his eyes shifting over to Zeke, who was lying faithfully beside her.

"I know."

"I'm sorry, Willow. I don't want to leave you. You know that, right?"

"I understand why you have to go. Of course I understand. If one of my siblings were still alive, I'd be doing anything I could to find them, too. He's all you've got."

"Not quite," he replied affectionately, green eyes bright.

"Oh, Phoenix," she said sadly. "Take care of yourself, okay? Fuzzy, too. And tell Heinrich...tell him I said hello."

"I will. I'll try to send you a communication of some kind when I can. And you do the same."

She nodded, smiling bravely through a thin veil of gathering tears. "I promise. Goodbye, Phoenix."

He took her palm in his, bending forward in a gallant bow to plant a soft kiss on the back of her hand. "Should have done that a long time ago," he murmured. "Goodbye, Willow." With one last long look at her, weighted with words unspoken, Phoenix turned towards Fuzzy as the Zoid simultaneously crouched down, whirring open her metal canopy for him. He climbed in, and Willow waved as Fuzzy stood, turned, and went trotting off north, the sunset's light blazing bright on the cat's crimson legs.

Zeke lowered his head down beside Willow and gave a tiny growl, and she remembered. She settled herself into his cockpit and he stood; already Fuzzy's red and gray form was shrinking in the distance.

"Just like two years ago, remember?" Willow whispered, and Zeke answered with a soft vocalization. Of course he remembered; he hadn't forgotten Dan any more than she had.

When Fuzzy was no longer visible, Willow leaned back into the headrest with a sigh and closed her eyes for a moment, unable to ignore this new reality any longer.

She was alone again.

-.-.-.-

Phoenix had never felt so joyous and depressed, all at once, in his entire life. He was at the controls of his dear Zoid once again, and ahead, the twilit horizon beckoned with its promises. Somewhere, far from here, was an orphanage, and in that orphanage was his beloved brother, waiting for him. Sometime, not too long from now, he and Heinrich would be together again, and they would make a life for themselves somewhere. They couldn't go back home to the Empire, where he knew he would eventually be made to pay for his desertion, and so it seemed the only course open to them would be to become political refugees in the Republic. It wasn't going to be easy. But what did any of that matter now? Heinrich and Fuzzy were the only family he had left in the world, and as long as they were all together, anywhere was going to be home.

At the same time, Phoenix felt as though he had left a piece of his heart behind in Solas Base. He wasn't sure what type of love it was that he felt for that brave and beautiful Earthling girl, but it was indeed love, and he had never felt this way about anyone before. Sure, there had been other women in his life - sweet Cass from back home, a handful of other recruits as lonely and homesick as himself at his base - but, he understood now, the feelings he had had for them, even feelings he had once labeled love, were as nothing compared to the experience of having known Willow.

"It's going to take a long time to get over a woman like her, Fuzz," he murmured. Fuzzy, having only known Willow for a short time, nevertheless seemed to agree, for she nodded her head slightly as she trotted along, and gave a low purr.

Willow was the most courageous person he had ever met, he decided; even his desertion of service and frantic desert escape, which could be considered pure and valiant in a certain light, seemed small and meaningless compared to what Willow had gone through. For as alone as he had ever felt when separated from the only family he had left in the world, he, at least, still lived within a familiar civilization, among his own kind, on a planet that had always been his. What was it like to have your home, and everyone you had ever known, taken away from you in the span of mere seconds?

"Do you think she's going to be okay?" he wondered aloud.

Fuzzy replied with a confused little mew; she didn't know, either.

The cockpit radio, which Phoenix had left tuned to an occasionally-used alternative frequency in a half-hearted bid to avoid any unpleasant surprise encounters, crackled to life just then. Low, guttural voices, speaking in an uncommon rural Guylic dialect, filled the cabin. His breath caught in his throat.

"Nearly there. Stick to the plan or you'll regret it, you hear me? I don't want a spectacle. Clean and quiet. It's just our old Gustav and possibly a Command Wolf. Easy job."

"Roger that."

"They won't know what hit them."

"A surprise attack on the little brats! Revenge is so sweet."

"Are you sure you don't want to keep the girl alive for at least a little while, boss? We could have some fun…"

"No," the first voice barked, harshly. "We're all that's left of the gang now, and we have to do right by our fallen brothers. We'll just get it over with and then finally be able to move on with our lives."

"But-"

"I'm done discussing this. Radio silence!"

"Sorry, boss."

"Roger."

"Roger that."

The crackling ceased, and Fuzzy's cabin quieted again.

She had come to a dead standstill. Phoenix's head was swimming and his breath came in shallow gasps. "Fuzzy," he choked out dizzily. There were no other settlements for a hundred miles. He knew where those men were heading. He knew what they were about to do. "Run!"

The Helcat pivoted swiftly towards the pale southern horizon, and took off at a desperate gallop.

-.-.-.-

Zeke was tucked comfortably in his little den beside the Lake of Shining Waters. Willow was in her cottage at her table, writing furiously. Phoenix was a part of her story too, now, and she did not want to forget a thing. The lamp beside her burned brightly, and all that could be heard were the scritch of her pen across the paper, and the desert wind sighing around the eaves. Outside, she knew, were the innumerable stars and their two lunar sisters, watching over her. In spite of the sadness of her solitude, it was cozy and comfortable in here; she looked forward to a quiet night.

The sudden thunderclap of an explosion across town, then, startled her so badly that her pen left a wide slash of ink across the page. "What was that?!" she cried to Phoenix, although he, of course, was not there.

She ran to the door and looked out. Smoke was rising from a building on the eastern part of the base, near her garden. A whistling sound was heard presently, and then another explosion shook the ground beneath her feet. She didn't have time to think; her only defense was to get in her Zoid. She scanned the sky briefly for any more incoming fire, then dashed across the street to the atrium.

As she had expected, Zeke was ready for her, his head already low, the canopy swinging open the moment she appeared. She quickly strapped herself in and scanned his monitors for the location of their foe. Except there wasn't only one.

"Four?!" she squeaked, registering their presence to the northeast, outside of town. "How am I supposed to fight four Zoids all at once?" The last time she had fought a bunch of Zoids, she'd had the element of surprise on her side, but this time it had been used against her. Still, terrible odds or not, there was nothing to be done but go and face her attackers. If she remained cowering in here, Fort Zephyr would surely be leveled.

Perhaps she could still achieve at least some semblance of an element of surprise. Four Zoids were attacking Fort Zephyr, but even if they knew she had a Zoid with which to defend herself, they didn't, she assumed, know precisely where she was. If she planned well, she might just be able to take out one of the attackers, possibly two, before they had a chance to train their fire on her.

Willow could feel the tense energy crackling through Zeke's vast metal body; he was on high alert and ready to fight. Combat motivation was registering as very high. "Stay out of sight," she told him. Another explosion to the east rattled the ground. "Let's find out what we're dealing with first, and then we can figure it out from there." Zeke slunk carefully out of his side room and crouched at the northern end of the main street, remaining hidden behind an old storage facility. He peeped his head around a corner just far enough for the enemy Zoids to come into the view of Willow and his cameras.

"Look, another Command Wolf," she breathed, spotting the gold lupine creature standing ahead of the others. It was the only one currently firing. "And two Molgas and a scorpion kind of thing. That Command Wolf must be the leader. He'll be the hardest to take out." And just who were these people, anyway? Why were they attacking what the rest of Zi thought was an empty ruin? Unless...they knew it wasn't empty? But how could they know she was here? Had she somehow not noticed some recent aerial reconnaissance?

If they knew she was here, then this attack had been premeditated. They probably knew what type of Zoid she had, as well. She needed the element of surprise now more than ever; it was her only chance. She guided Zeke gently backwards, out of the attackers' possible line of sight. "Maybe...we'll let them think we're somewhere we're not," she mused, turning him around. "Stay as low as you can, buddy. But go quick. We don't have much time."

Zeke crept down the main street and turned east at Fern's house, past the cooper's and towards his old hangar. He then moved north a bit, towards the attackers, but remaining low so as to stay hidden behind Fort Zephyr's many tall structures.

"Alright, this spot should be good. Let's manually lock on to their location from here and send over a few rounds. If we're lucky, we'll do some damage, but if not, at least it'll distract them." Zeke's double beam cannons faced the band of Zoids outside of the ruin, and Willow squeezed the thumb triggers several times, creating a volley of shots that, from the Zoids' roars of surprise some distance ahead, indicated she had caught them off guard. "Okay, now go!" she whispered urgently. Zeke spun on his heel and hustled off towards the hangar, then west towards Fern's house, then north towards Willow's hut, staying in a crouch all the while. Numerous explosions near the old hangar told her they had fallen for the simple ruse - for now, at least.

At the north end of the main thoroughfare again, Zeke poked his head into view and they observed the goings-on for a few moments. Both Molgas were firing steadily now in the direction of the hangar, as was the scorpion. The Command Wolf was hanging back, turned alertly in the direction of fire.

Willow paid particular attention to the scorpion; she had fought Molgas before and knew what they were capable of, and, piloting a Command Wolf herself, she was familiar with this opponent, too. The scorpion was a new Zoid to her, however, and she needed to understand its movements and offensive capabilities. It had eight legs, a gun mounted on its forward-curled tail, and a pair of fierce-looking pincers. "I wouldn't want to get into close combat with that one," she told Zeke.

Time to think. Both Molgas were minor threats. They weren't fast enough to keep up with her, but would cause a huge problem over time if she ignored them in order to focus her attention on the other two. They would need to be eliminated first, and quickly, so there wouldn't be much time for her to be an easy target for the others. Both the scorpion and the Command Wolf made her nervous, but at least with the latter, she understood what she was up against; not so the former. Therefore, she would use her initial, and likely only, surprise snipe attack against the scorpion. If she could eliminate its tail gun, it looked like it would no longer be able to harm her without getting in close, and she was reasonably certain she was faster and more agile.

Still, the odds were stacked heavily against her.

"Okay Zeke," she said, closing her eyes and taking a deep, steadying breath. "We're going to do our best." He knew better than to snarl in response while hidden, but she knew he agreed and was ready. "Right. Let's take out that scorpion guy's weapon."

Willow very carefully aimed the monitor's crosshairs at the scorpion's tail-mounted gun, which was rather difficult because the pilot was firing it at fairly frequent intervals and it kicked back each time in mild recoil. Fortunately, he wasn't moving much, either, so the gun's range of motion was small. She wondered what these attackers were trying to accomplish, as the southeastern part of the ruin had to have been completely obliterated by now. Even the stored Gustav and its thick armor had probably been blown to smithereens under such a relentless assault. What was the point?

The attackers finally paused in their firing, perhaps to see if any retaliatory attacks were forthcoming from where they assumed she was, and this gave Willow the perfect lock-on she'd been waiting for. She squeezed the trigger several times and, without waiting to see if she'd hit her mark, drove Zeke swiftly out of their hiding spot.

There was a brief moment of chaos as the intruders registered both an attack from an unexpected direction and the presence of a charging Command Wolf, but after a quick scramble they regrouped to face her. Willow spared a glance at the scorpion as Zeke galloped towards the two Molgas, and her heart lifted at the sight of its stumpy tail, flailing helplessly as electricity hissed and spit from its tip. They might have a chance!

All four of the Zoids began firing at her as she approached, and as she shifted Zeke from side to side unpredictably to evade their attacks, she felt some hits connect, but not many. Monitors indicated only surface damage. Either these pilots were still a bit muddled from her surprise attack, or they had a fairly low level of skill.

"Okay Zeke, remember the last time we fought Molgas?" she asked. "Let's try that move again, except this time, let's get both at once!" Zeke bellowed in agreement.

Just as they closed in on the nearest Molga, the enemy Command Wolf fired its double beam cannons at them, at nearly point-blank range. Zeke dodged its fire and ducked behind the Molga, using it as a temporary shield, while he thrust his nose forward and latched on to the creature's tail with powerful fangs.

"Alright, you've got him! Do it, Zeke!" Willow shouted.

Zeke stood, bracing his front paws deeply into the sand, and tossed his head violently to the left, sending the squealing Molga flying through the air and straight into its companion. There was the sickening crunch of metal and shriek of shattering glass as one cockpit smashed directly into the other, and immediately both Zoids' command systems reported as frozen on Zeke's monitors. He roared in triumph.

The remaining two Zoids had ceased firing for a moment, and Willow knew they were struggling to register what had just happened. As the smoke and tossed sand cleared, the two faced the one, and Willow got her first clear glimpse of the pilots controlling the enemy Zoids. She was not surprised to see two older men with telltale black stripes down their noses. Bandits again. The Command Wolf's pilot stared at her, his expression shifting rapidly from shock to anger to angry shock once he saw whom he had been fighting. Zeke's cabin filled just then with enraged shouts in a language she didn't understand, although his message came through clearly enough.

"What? Are you surprised a girl can fight?" she said fiercely, although they, like the last group of outlaws, probably did not speak the Common Tongue. It didn't matter; there was courage in her voice and they would hear it. She would not be cowed by bandits ever again. She was too strong for fear now.

Another torrent of words, and she closed the communications link to the two Zoids. "Not worth my time," she told Zeke. "Let's finish them off." He pawed the ground impatiently, in complete agreement.

She settled back in her seat and watched both Zoids intently with narrowed eyes, attuned to the slightest motion that would betray their next move. She did not have to wait long.

The Command Wolf shifted its weight backwards just slightly, and that was enough: Zeke dove out of the path of its soaring tackle. He pivoted swiftly to face its exposed flank for a follow-through, but Willow had only enough time for one shot before Zeke suddenly howled with rage. The scorpion had moved in quickly behind them as they had been focused on the Command Wolf, and slashed Zeke's left hind leg with its pincers.

"Zeke! Are you okay?" Willow cried. The monitors showed significant damage: top speed down 17%, maneuverability down 36%.

The Command Wolf's pilot, meanwhile, had capitalized on her momentary surprise, and fired directly at Zeke's cockpit. In a reaction so swift it could only have been impelled by deep-seated instinct, Zeke wrenched the front of his body to the right to keep Willow out of danger, taking the hit on his left shoulder. He cried out once more, this time in both anger and pain.

Sweat dripped into Willow's eyes but she did not dare remove a hand from the controls for the split second it would take to wipe away. She locked on to the Command Wolf and fired repeatedly, watching in dismay as it dodged many of her attacks, although she did manage to graze its jaw. The scorpion, meanwhile, swung again at Zeke's hind leg, and Willow hopped him awkwardly out of reach, though this scarcely bought her any time: the arachnid pressed forward relentlessly.

Though Willow struggled valiantly to keep Zeke out of harm's way, it was a losing battle. He was difficult to maneuver, since he was holding up his injured hind leg, and his front left leg was now barely strong enough to support the extra weight. The evasive dodges that ordinarily came so naturally to her were almost useless now. And even as she somehow kept a watchful eye on all of Zeke's monitors and the two enemy Zoids circling her like birds of prey, a part of her brain wondered: what do I do now?

There was a sudden thundering boom, followed closely by the nearly deafening scream of tearing metal close at hand, and Zeke collapsed into the side of a low dune with an anguished cry, canted heavily to the left. Willow, thrown violently by his abrupt fall, dazedly rubbed the left side of her head where it had hit the canopy, and blinked at one of the few monitors that still remained online. Even in her befuddled state, it was clear what had happened: Zeke's left shoulder, after receiving another direct hit, had completely given out.

His right front leg pawed helplessly at the air as he keened - in anger, in agony, Willow knew not. It was hard to hear anything over the ringing in her ears. She shook her head, trying to clear it of the jumbled noise and chaos clogging it, but dark clouds were creeping steadily in along the edges of her vision. The Command Wolf and scorpion were closing in on her in front, savoring the last moments before the final blow. It was all over now. A tear she had not known was there leaked out of the corner of her eye. "I'm sorry, Zeke," she whispered, the words coming painfully slowly, like wading through thick mud. "You deserved a better pilot than me."

Just then, a feral shriek ripped through the ringing silence, and Willow blinked. Something - something she could barely see - went flying by in front of her and pounced on the scorpion, flipping it clear over. The hapless creature's legs flailed as it struggled to right itself. The Command Wolf didn't have time to react before it, too, was tackled to the ground. A fierce, high-pitched bellow nearly split Willow's eardrums, and the flash of muzzle fire from seemingly empty air preceded the enemy wolf's savage cry as its cockpit was hit point-blank in a vicious fusillade. Zeke's monitors registered nothing but the two enemy Zoids, and soon showed too that the enemy wolf had been stilled at last.

How hard had she hit her head? Was that an invisible Zoid that had come to her aid? Perhaps...it was the desert mirage? Trying to think felt like stumbling blindly through an endless fog.

"Willow!"

That voice crackling over her radio…

So familiar.

Phoenix?

"Willow! Can you hear me? Are you alright? Willow, answer me damn it!"

"Is that really you?" she murmured weakly. Alertness was returning slowly, like a trickle of water struggling to break through an obstacle so it could flow freely once again.

"Are you hurt? Can you-" His next words were cut off by a grunt of pain. She looked, but did not understand: the scorpion, now righted, was working mightily to keep control of something it had clamped in one of its pincers, although there was nothing whatever being held there that Willow could see. An image flickered - a mirage? - no, not a mirage. Fuzzy. The crimson cat blinked in and out of invisibility until that power seemed to leave her, and then there she was, quite visible now, writhing frantically to escape the vice-like grip the scorpion had around her torso. Sparks shot out of her body as she flailed, and Willow didn't know how much longer the desperate Helcat would be able to hold on as the scorpion squeezed her tighter and tighter.

The clouds around Willow's vision were returning again, and with them came soft twinkling lights, like the stars, but so much lower to the ground. Had the stars come down to Zi? Were they there to take her back into the night sky with her mother? Would Zeke and Phoenix and Fuzzy come too?

There was a momentary flash of white and red before her.

A voice she had not heard in two long years echoed faintly through her mind as a distant memory returned.

"You're not helpless now - you're going to survive." She closed her eyes and listened. "With Zeke with you, you'll have nothing to fear."

From whence came this voice, as familiar as her own body yet as indescribably, impossibly faraway as Earth?

"I broke my promise, Dan," she murmured in response. "I promised I would take care of Zeke, but I failed."

Cutting through the dark clouds closing in came the sound of Zeke growling.

Something flashed out of the corner of her eye; it was the image of Zeke on one of the cockpit monitors, and while it registered all the extensive damage he had sustained, there was something else: the image Zeke's mouth was blinking.

Ragnarok Fang.

"No, Zeke," she whispered sadly. "I don't care about myself anymore, but I - I won't do that to you."

The image Zeke's mouth blinked faster, more brightly. He growled again, pointedly, though it was barely audible over Fuzzy's distressed cries a short distance away. He wanted this; he didn't know what else to do.

"Keep going," came the voice of the terrestrial lights. The stars were all around Zeke's prone form now, and she knew the mirage was standing guard over them both. Its words fell lightly over them like a cool, soothing mist. "Don't give up. Hold on."

"I will," she said to the mirage and the stars and the black sky far above.

"Hold on," she said to Phoenix and Fuzzy. She knew they could hear her.

"Hold on," she said to Zeke. He was listening to her too, her dear friend, bonded to her forever with the force of a planet and the vastness of space and the faith of the stars. "Hold on."

He sensed her, could feel her reassurance and love.

He needed to protect his pilot.

He would do anything to protect his pilot.

Zeke growled low, a struggling, laboring sound made with the finality of his strength.

His sighting monitor suddenly flickered back online. Without conscious thought nor even a moment's pause, Willow rotated his double beam cannons, aimed directly at the scorpion's cockpit, and fired. An explosion ripped through the creature's face and it collapsed to the ground, its pilot at last eliminated.

The stars around her faded. Silence reigned for only a split second before Fuzzy wrenched herself free from the enemy Zoid's grasp and galloped over to where Zeke still lay in the sand, her canopy rising.

"Willow!" Willow looked up and registered the presence of another dear friend, one she had thought only hours earlier she would never see again. She saw his familiar red hair plastered to his forehead with sweat, and his frightened green eyes, still so bright even in the starlight. He jumped out of Fuzzy's cockpit and ran over. "Willow! Open up!" His hoarse voice rang out across the desert's silence and stillness.

Her hand stretched carefully through the long void between her and the right side of the console, and her fingers' light touch found the canopy switch, the first control she had ever used in a Zoid. Zeke groaned, and the canopy glass swung slowly upwards.

Phoenix clambered halfway into the dangerously tilted cockpit and fumbled to undo her safety harness, freckled hands shaking. "Are you alright?"

She blinked at him. "Is Zeke okay?" Thinking hurt. Speaking hurt.

"He'll be fine, but right now I'm more worried about you."

"Fuzzy?"

He shook his head impatiently as he gathered her into his arms and then looked over first one shoulder, then the other, trying to figure out a way to safely maneuver onto the ground. "She's fine, she's fine."

"Did we...did we get them?"

Phoenix had evidently located a foothold, for he stepped down onto it, then made the short hop the rest of the way to the sand, being sure to cushion her neck and head from movement as much as possible. "Yeah, we got them. Although, really, it was mostly you. I can't believe you were able to take on so many at once." His glance cast over the fallen enemy Zoids scattered across the dunes.

"I can't keep fighting them off forever," she said softly. "It's just Zeke and me here." It wasn't fear she felt so much now as resignation to an unavoidable outcome: there was nowhere safe left for them.

"I don't think anyone else will be bothering you," he said, placing her gently on the ground, still cradling her head in one arm. Something in his voice caught her attention. There were questions she longed to ask, but her head was throbbing so painfully she couldn't think straight.

She looked up into his green eyes, still bright, though clouded with worry. Maybe this was an illusion, too; maybe her body was somewhere nearby, hovering close to death, and the desert mirage was giving her these comforting visions before she perished. In spite of her steadily building headache, she felt calm and serene, now that her friend had returned.

"Phoenix…" she whispered.

He shook his head. "Just rest, okay? I'm here. I'll stay awhile and take care of you. Zeke and Fuzzy, too. Don't worry." He tenderly brushed her dark locks back off of her forehead, which was damp with exertion. Her face, now that the flush of the struggle for survival was fading, was frighteningly pale. "You're safe now, Willow." His voice, and maybe his heart, too, was breaking. "You're safe."

Night was passing and Phoenix knew he needed to get Willow to bed. With any luck, a lot of rest would be all she'd need to recover. He carefully picked her up once more and headed back to Fort Zephyr, leaving Fuzzy to stand watch in the desert over her injured lupine friend, though Phoenix expected no trouble whatsoever. He'd heard what the bandit leader had said: they were all that remained of the group. Willow had killed every member of the first wave a year ago, and now she'd almost singlehandedly eliminated everyone in the second. There were none left to cause her any further difficulties. In due time, he would tell her all of this, and put her mind at ease, but not yet. She would have trouble understanding him, and the fewer mental struggles she had right now, the better. Her head lolled like a rag doll's, eyelids fluttering, and she gave a little humming sigh.

He tore his eyes from her tragic, beautiful face and looked forward. Even from this distance, the lamp's friendly glow pouring out the windows of Willow's cottage and onto the sand was like a lighthouse's beacon, drawing its wandering ships back home.

-.-.-.-

Instead of camping in the desert that night as he'd planned, Phoenix found himself in decidedly more comfortable environs as the moons rose high in the dark sky. He was tangled in a morass of familiar blankets and staring up at a familiar ceiling, his eyes running ceaselessly over the intersecting lines of the aged wooden beams holding up the roof.

He'd been rattled around in the Zoid battle, had had enough adrenaline pump through his blood to last him for weeks, and by all accounts, should have been exhausted. But he wasn't. Instead, he was awake and alert, keenly aware that these few prized moments in the night silence were simply borrowed time in the company of someone who had become very dear to him.

Still, someone else who was also very dear to him was out there somewhere right now, waiting.

Was Heinrich also awake? Could he see the moons out his window, too? Phoenix closed his eyes, willing his thoughts to the wind, to the moonlight, to carry his love to his brother across the countless miles.

And, perhaps, to carry it a little bit closer at hand, as well, in the time that they still had left.

"Phoenix?" Her voice across the room was no more than a small whisper in the velvet blackness, though it startled him a little bit anyway.

"Yes?"

"Thank you for coming back."

Warmth blossomed in his cheeks and in his chest. He smiled up at the ceiling, a smile no less heartfelt for the fact that no one could see it.