*Chapter Twenty-One. Aftermath*

Gaara lifts his head up and gazes at the remnants of the building, blinking. Half of the theater remains, barely standing on its own.

Tsunade spots Gaara and Fang, sighing. "That's everyone now, right?"

Shizune nods. "Yes."

Fang glances around at everyone, sighing deeply when she feels the arms around her leave. Gaara walks over to Tsunade, whispering to her softly. She curses loudly. "I should have known they would be behind something like this..."

Gaara sighs, heading back over to Fang. "Are you alright?"

She nods, her eyes still on the destroyed building. "Yeah..." Gaara hugs her gently, sighing. She hugs him back, closing her eyes. "Do you know what we're going to do?"

"Tsunade's going to send everything she can after them. They won't get away with this. As for the rest of us, we're going to help rebuild the theater while we can. It'll be fall soon, which means we won't have much time."

She sighs, laying her head on his shoulder. "I guess we'll all be staying here a little bit longer than we expected..."

The sand nin closes his eyes. "I guess so."

"...When are you going back to Suna?" she asks quietly.

"Winter."

Fang nods in acknowledgement, not wanting to ask the question that's been running through her head the whole day. Keeping her silence, she lets go of her boyfriend and backs away.

Gaara reaches out for her, his eyes boring into hers. "Fang, I have to ask you something."

She looks over at him. "Yes?"

"What were you doing just a few moments ago, when you were fighting against Deidara. Your arm-"

Fang shakes her head at him. "I'll answer that at another time, you don't have to worry about that for now." Gaara raises his eyebrow and she glares slightly. "Unlike someone I know, I tell people when they need to know it, not after the story."

"What are you-"

"You knew this was going to happen. After your pool party when we were in the forest you found something out. You said you would tell me later and you didn't." Gaara blinks over at her as she turns away. "Like I said, I'm going to tell you. Later." The sand nin sighs deeply, able to sense how angry Fang really is.

"Alright everyone! I want the rest of this building knocked down by the time the sun sets! Get to work!" Tsunade yells, pushing her sleeves up. The theater kids all begin walking back to the demolished building, a look of sadness in all of their eyes as they begin in work.

Fang sighs and walks over to where her dressing room was, her bare feet scraping against the sharp debris. She shifts the pieces of drywall away, searching for her shoes. Lifting another piece off, she throws it over her shoulder and looks down. Fang's eyes widen in shock and she reaches down, gently pulling her roses out of the wreckage. Not a single stem bent or a petal missing, they survived. She looks over at everyone working to fix the destruction. Her eyes scan over glowing sea-foam green ones, locking in a steady gaze. Surviving, that's all they can do.

"Fang, where are we going?"

"I don't know," the brunette answers truthfully, hiking up the cliff higher. She pushes herself up through the trees, the elevation making her ears pop annoyingly. Behind her she can hear Gaara sigh as he follows after.

Gaara watches Fang carefully as they make their way up, wondering why she wanted to go on a hike if she didn't have a place planned out. Sure it was slower doing it this way, but it seemed to him that Fang was enjoying herself. One would think that after a fight, demolition, and cleaning all day she would want to relax for a little bit. Apparently not.

But then again no sane person would want to go for a walk at night.

After a couple more yards of walking, the terrain begins leveling. Soon, they take their final steps out of the forest and onto a cliff. The moonlight stifled by the low clouds.

"Wow," Fang mutters, looking around after her eyes get used to the darkness. Glancing over the cliff she looks down at the village, mesmerized at how small it looks, the lights twinkling softly.

Gaara walks up behind the brunette, his eyes alight with confusion. "Fang?"

She glances over her shoulder at him. "Yeah?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Gaara looks at her, not believing a word she said. Fang sighs deeply. "I'm just…thinking."

"About?"

"A lot of things," she says, running her hands through her hair.

Gaara watches her, noticing the anxiety in her eyes. He reaches out to her, his hand lightly grazing against hers. She looks over at him when his hand grasps hers, giving it a reassuring squeeze. "What's bothering you Fang, and don't say anything. Don't lie to me. Don't lie to yourself."

The brunette takes a deep breath, closing her eyes. Who knew it would be this hard to tell him this? Thoughts on how badly this can turn out keep on rushing through her mind, only adding to her already growing anxiety. Deftly, she nods her head. "Yeah, I know. I'm just stuck between a rock and a hard place…"

"Then let me help."

Again she shakes her head. "You can't help me when it comes to this, well, I don't think so anyways."

The red head tilts his head, not understanding. "Then why did you tell me?"

"Because I said I would tell you when the time was right. Unfortunately, that time is now. I can't be in a relationship with you when you don't know. I can't since you've been honest with me, you deserve the same…" she says, sighing. Arms wrap around her, pulling her close.

"I'm not going to judge you Fang, you can tell me anything."

Fang nods her head. "I know that and that's not the part I'm worried about. It's the consequences you'll have to go through if they find out you know me."

"They?"

Fang pulls away. "How do I explain this..?" She looks up at the sky to see a bird soar through the clouds. Her eyes follow it as it continues to fly fluidly through the sky. "…Have you ever wondered what it would be like to fly…?"

"…What?" Gaara asks, bemused at the sudden change of subject. "When I was younger maybe, no, not really…what does this have to do with what you wanted to tell me?"

"Do you have a kunai on you?" she asks him, throwing him off even more.

Gaara nods. "Yeah…" His eyebrows knitting in confusion when Fang holds her hand out simply. "…Why do you want it…?"

"You'll see."

Gaara pulls out the double-sided knife, handing it to her. She grasps it lightly and walks over to the edge, her hand still holding onto Gaara's. He follows her, his eyes scanning over the edge.

"Trust me," she says quietly. With that she jumps, pulling him down with her, spiraling toward the ground.

Air whistles past her ears, deafening her. Glancing to the side of her she sees Gaara watching her intently as the air rushes past them. Fang nods her head, letting go of his hand. She can see the confusion in his eyes as he lets her go. Once released, she closes her eyes and pushes ahead of him. Her eyes open and she grasps the small crystal in her hands tightly.

The brunette spins around and faces up toward Gaara and throws the crystal up past him. It catches the moonlight and she sends the kunai after it, shattering the delicate stone with accuracy. Black smoke curls around, forming a thick cloud until purple symbols etch through the air.

The sound of broken glass makes the sand nin turn his head. From above him, he can see the dark cloud, darker than any cloud he'd seen before, cover them in pure black. Strange purple etchings spread through before they shatter. A beast-like roar ripples through the air as something breaks through the symbols, heading straight at them.

It's too dark. His eyes scan into the black cloud, searching for the thing that came through the sky-born gate. Something grazes his side and he turns his head quickly, but sees nothing. The same sensation brushes against his arm before it disappears the same way it did before. Then he feels something hit him, not painfully, just a force of some sort. He looks and sees small lights now surrounding his form, keeping his suspended in the cloud. He barely has a moment to question this before something knocks into him, something much harder and sturdier than the gravity-defying lights.

A hand grasps a hold of his own and holds on tight, pulling him up onto something made of metal. As soon as he feels himself supported on the thing, they're propelled up, deeper into the cloud. Unable to see anything, only the feel of the air forced upon him gives any hint of how fast they're going, until they break through.

The sudden bright moonlight makes Gaara blink his eyes, adjusting to the light concealed by the cloud bank. Once he's able to see properly he glances in front of him and sees Fang sitting carefully, her legs hanging off the side of a…dragon?

The sand nin's eyebrow furrow and he looks down at where he's sitting, seeing shining metal. He does a double take, looking around curiously and taking in the violent purple color of…wings?

"Fang, what is this?" Gaara asks, his eyes locking on the beating, metallic wings of the engineering beast. Part animal, part machine.

"A Bahamut," the girl answers, her eyes looking upward. The red-headed Kazekage blinks, never having heard of a Bahamut before. His eyes narrow as he thinks about how the machine appeared, remembering how Fang threw something up in the air and then sent the kunai after it. Then the shattering, the cloud, the symbols…

"Fang…" Gaara turns his eyes away from the beast and looks over at his girlfriend intently. "What exactly are you?"