No Longer Alone

Hi. Thanks for all the review, everyone. I hope that what I write for this chapter will be to you liking. Sorry for taking so long for what's a comparatively short chapter.

Also, the last chapter I wrote received the second largest amount of reviews for a single chapter, tying with Chapter 32 (where Franz went berserk on Amelia) and losing to Chapter 1 (where a lot of the reviews seem to cover the entire story instead of the first chapter alone). Once again, thank all of you so much for the support.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

"Unh…" Lying in the state between wakefulness and unconsciousness, Amelia slowly became aware, first of the dull ache in her torso, second that she was lying on something soft, and third, that Franz was…

Not there.

"Franz!" She jerked upright, snapped to full alertness, sitting up in a bed with a suddenness that left Neimi visibly surprised, and caused the dull pain in her stomach to intensify into a searing bolt. Letting out a pained gasp, she doubled over, breathing heavily. A moment later, she felt Neimi's arms gently but firmly pushing her back into a sitting position.

"Nuh uh." Her friend shook her head. "No running off and looking for Franz. Not for a while, anyway. He's still in the infirmary, getting looked to."

Amelia took several deep, calming breaths, trying to sort out the jumbled mess of memories in her head. She remembered fighting Valter…and then there was a hazy memory of her lunging at a wyvern with her spear raised… had it been Valter again? She couldn't remember clearly.

But there were also the murky half-dreams of Franz carrying her over the desert sands, moving ceaselessly like some sort of automaton… Had that been real?

"Franz." She said, softer this time. "Where is he?"

"I just told you – the infirmary." The expression of relief on Neimi's face faded somewhat. "When I first saw him after he made his way back, I… well, he was in a bad way."

Amelia got the distinct feeling that Neimi was trying to sugarcoat things as much as possible so she wouldn't be worried. Of course, knowing that something was up but not knowing specifically what it was had a tendency to make people even more worried.

"Neimi?" She closed her eyes, taking in another deep breath. "What happened to Franz?"

Consciousness was slow in coming – Franz flittered in and out of a deep fog, vaguely aware on him lying down on… on…well, something, but without the ability to discern what.

After a few more minutes, though, he was gradually able to discern more of his surroundings. Whatever he was on was soft, if slightly scratchy, which probably marked it as a bed of some kind. A dull ache throbbed through parts of his body – mostly those that had received wounds earlier, when he had been so desperate to rescue –

"Amelia." The word formed around his lips, but they came out a soft, feeble whisper. He wasn't sure that he himself had heard them.

Next he became aware of light – a white fog that obscured details around the room as he cracked his eyes open, peeking a blurred world devoid of detail. Later he would realize that it had been early evening, the light the faint orange he'd usually found appealing to look at, but at that moment it appeared bright enough to sear away his very eyes. Screwing his eyes shut, he lay silent for a while more, letting his awareness expand.

It was cool. Well, no, not really. But compared to the relentless searing heat of the outside desert, even a temperate climate felt cool in comparison. For whatever reason, he had a thin blanket thrown over his body, covering his chest.

The next thing he heard was a soft rustling sound in the corner. Low voices, and then footsteps. Someone else was there.

Pausing a moment to gather up his strength, he pulled himself into a sitting position, noting absently as he did so that he had apparently misplaced his tunic in lieu of a large number of bandages across his torso. He hadn't received that many wounds… had he?

"Ah, you're awake." A strong, calm voice sounded in his ear, and still in the haze of waking as Franz was, it took him several moments to realize that the voice was familiar – familiar in the sense having heard it again for the first time in a very long while…

"General Seth!" He yelped as he scrambled to get out of bed and into a position where he could salute his commanding officer. Notwithstanding the small explosion of pain which burst through his stomach as he did so, he managed to get his legs tangled up in the bed sheets, and would probably have landed in an ungainly heap on the floor had the general not caught hold of him and firmly press him down onto the bed.

"First, you are still off duty, like any other invalid who was on the brink of death not half a day ago. Second, while your adherence to decorum is admirable, I'd much rather you focus on recovering first – you're on strict bed rest for the rest of the week, by the way. And Sister Natasha was rather insistent that you," and here the general handed him a mug. "Drink this upon waking up."

Cautiously, Franz accepted the drink, taking several long sips. Then finally something the general had just said clicked in his head. "Wait, 'brink of death'?" He looked up to his mentor in bafflement.

The Silver Knight sighed. "Multiple wounds covering approximately seventy percent of your body, with three potentially fatal if they had been left untreated. Extremely severe case of heat exhaustion, on the verge of progressing to full-blown heat stroke. Severe blood loss. There's a tale going around that some of the knights who found you weren't sure if you were a revenant at first. Sister Natasha stated rather emphatically that she was surprised you lasted as long as you did, and she, Father Moulder, and several other healers were working on saving you for the better part of five hours." As he finished, Seth raised an eyebrow, apparently content to let the facts speak for themselves.

"What about Amelia? Is she okay?" He blurted out the question a moment before he registered that he'd never mentioned her name to General Seth in any of his letters, but he seemed to understand well enough.

"If you're referring to the soldier you were carrying when they found you, then yes, she's fine – although probably still asleep. For the record, her wounds were far less serious than yours." The General gave a half smile as he pulled up a chair and settled himself next to Franz. "I take it she's also the Grad deserter you were so effusive about in your letters to me."

"I – well, yes." He nodded, heaving a sigh of relief. Amelia was all right, then. He paused for a moment to let the knowledge sink in.

He'd succeeded. Where it had really, truly counted, he'd succeeded. He had protected her. He had gotten her to safety.

He'd kept his promise.

He closed his eyes, letting his breath out in another long, slow sigh. As he did so, he found a smile on his face, and another question forming in his mind.

"If you're here…" he began. "If you're here, then it must mean our mission was a success, right? All our forces met up?"

"Indeed we did." The General nodded. "And with the timely aid of reinforcements from Rausten, we were able to rout the Grad forces. We even managed to bring down both the Moonstone and the Tiger Eye. It was a lot trickier than we'd ever anticipated, but at the end of the day, this was our most successful battle thus far."

As the general fell silent, Franz could now hear the sounds of revelry in the distance, some kind of exotic tune along with yells and cheers punctuating the music. He knew from experience that it was the sort of thing that would continue long into the night, and felt a slight twinge that he wouldn't be able to join in the celebration.

"Well, you should be resting now. What you accomplished yesterday was nothing short of phenomenal, so-"

"Phe – phenomenal?" Franz sputtered as he felt his face grow hot. "That's – that's absurd, sir. I was just doing what I had to do. It's not like what I did was anywhere near what you've accomplished, general."

"Isn't it now?" The Silver Knight's smile only grew wider. "That's funny. You were wounded in a confrontation with Valter the Moonstone. You fled, with a young maiden you wished to protect in tow. You fought your way through enemy lines on your own, successfully delivering that maiden to safety. That sounds remarkably similar to one of my exploits, one which you held in rather apparent awe. And let us note that I didn't have to go through a desert in order to succeed in my task."

"I…" Franz began before trailing off. It's not like what I did was anything great, was it? I just did what I had to do to protect her.

Another throaty chuckle sounded from his mentor. With a shake of his head, he stood and made for the doorway. "Well, even if you do not agree with my assessment, you might as well know that the prince was certainly rather impressed." As he said so, he placed a tiny metal object on the small desk next to the table. Franz glanced over at it and blinked once.

"Rank insignia?" He took a closer look and then jerked away as if it had suddenly morphed into a hissing viper. "A lieutenant? Me? Are you – I mean… this isn't…" His voice trailed off into silence as he continued to stare at the metal piece.

"Honestly speaking, your duties aren't going to be substantially changed." Seth's voice was calm. "For one, as my personal apprentice you never interacted very much with the overall chain of command, and this promotion isn't going to change that. And if you're worried about being assigned to take command of a unit, then don't be – there's not really one available anyway." He ran a hand through his red hair. "What it's amounted to is a rather significant boost in reputation and salary. And, well, the ability to order some of the lower hierarchy about if you really wanted to. Amelia, for instance, although I deem it unlikely that you'd do so in her particular case."

"That's not quite what I was talking about…" Franz paused. "I was doing what anyone else would have done in my place. That's not really deserving of such honour."

"Well, 'anyone else' wasn't the one who did it. You were. And if quite so many people were able to accomplish feats like the one you did, then I daresay we'd have received far less casualties than we actually would have." Seth shook his head. "Honestly, Franz, why do you always keep selling yourself short? It's rather jarring."

"I – jarring? What do you mean, sir?"

General Seth opened his mouth to speak, and then he shut it again and shook his head. "No." He finally said. "There'll be time enough for that later. For now, rest." He pointed back to the bed.

Franz obliged, feeling the seeping weariness in his bones rush up to claim him as he lay back to rest his head on the pillow. Still, he continued to ponder the meaning of General Seth's words as he finally went to sleep.

Night had fallen by the time Amelia stepped through the doorway of the room Franz was staying in for the night, and so she wasn't surprised at all to find that he was lying on the bed, eyes closed, looking as if he were completely sound asleep. A couple of candles burned away in the room, filling it with a faint orange glow. With a tiny smile, she turned away, intending to leave him be.

Before she could take a step however, she heard his voice. "Amelia?"

After a moment's hesitation, she turned around, nodding. "Yeah."

The knight pushed himself up so that he could sit on the bed as Amelia walked over, settling herself down on the edge of the mattress. "You okay?" He said softly.

She nodded. "I'm fine." When she'd started walking over to his room her mind had began filling up with things she wanted to tell him, and now there were more than ever, so much that they were all jostling around in her head and she could hardly begin to decide which to say first, and so she said nothing, just sitting there with him until a sudden impulse struck her and she shifted her position, leaning over to embrace him.

"Hey – ow." He said, but in the flat tone of someone who didn't really mean it. She'd been careful not to hug him too tightly

"Thanks." She whispered. "You saved my life again."

A moment later she felt his right up coming up to hold her close as well. "I wasn't going to leave you there, Amelia." He paused, and she could feel him hesitating, unsure about whether he should continue. "You know how much you mean to me, don't you? If anything happened to you… it'd hurt me almost as much as well."

She closed her eyes, nodded. "Yeah. I know what you mean. I… when I found out that you had been so badly wounded for my sake, I… I kinda lost it for a while. I was so worried." She swallowed. "I'm happy that you saved me, but… but a part of me just feels awful that you got yourself so messed up for my sake."

"Amelia, what I did, I did willingly. I'd do it again if I had to."

"… Yeah. I would, too." Releasing him from her hug, Amelia sat in the darkness for several seconds before giving a short laugh. "It's a pretty weird situation, isn't it? We'd sooner give up our lives rather than see the other hurt, but we know that if we died, or even got badly injured, they'd be devastated on our account. It's all just wrapped up and tangled together in a huge pile."

"Yeah, our relationship does seem pretty complicated, doesn't it." Franz said softly.

"Sure does." She sighed.

Pause.

"I still wouldn't trade it for the world, though."

She mirrored his smile, just barely visible in the flickering candlelight, and grasped his hand tightly. "Definitely not." Acting on impulse – she'd been doing that more often recently, hadn't she? – she leaned over and kissed him lightly on the cheek. "Good night, Franz."

He reached up with one hand to brush the spot her lips had touched, a surprised – but not displeased – expression on his face. And then he nodded. "Good night, Amelia."

Chapter End

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