Back at the base, Dilandau puzzled over what he did wrong. He'd made her food. Was the sandwich bad? He wondered about that. He was sure it wasn't... But maybe the bread was mouldy and he hadn't noticed. He was sure the insides were fresh, so that wasn't the problem. Maybe the bread... It must have been the bread. Then he remembered what the Scientists had told him, and he related the two comments by her and the Scientists. Well, they can go screw themselves over. I'll do what I want! She wouldn't turn on us! He said to himself with confidence in his head. There was an announcement.
"Dilandau, please report to the Dragonslayer's headquarters immediately. Thank-you." It said. Why? He wondered, but he headed for the room anyways. He got there only a few moments later, and Gatti was there, holding a piece of paper that he proceeded to read to him.
"Pilot number 68372 has departed on a mecha flight. While this is not prohibited and is in fact encouraged for training reasons, it imposes a danger upon Pilot number 68372 because curfew rules will be enforced in a half hour. We ask that you persue Pilot number 68372 and return back to the base. Curfew lockup will be extended for another half hour to give you time to do this. Thank you." Gatti read. "Which one is Pilot 68372?" Dilandau asked. "Gabrielle," Replied Gatti. "She's gone. This message is already twenty minutes old." He said. "Oh shit." Dilandau swore, and he headed for the docking bay.
If I can't get to her in time, she'll be locked out overnight. The Energist that powers her suit will eventually run out, and if she's still flying, she'll fall out of the sky! The suit needs several hours to recharge... If I can't get to her, what about me? I'll be locked out, too, in the Oreides. Her Energist lasts... Ten hours without a single moment of recharge. The Oreides will only last seven! I'm screwed... He thought grimly. If the fall from the sky doesn't kill her, the wild animals certainly will. She has next to no weapons when the Libreia runs out of power. Oh, wait! The Libreia can use power from the pilot when energy reserves go down. But that will leave Gabrielle weak and vulnerable, and the suit's power taken from her will only last as long as the she is conscious. Then all sheilds will die and the wild animals will get to her if they can open the doors. We're both screwed...
By this time he was already in the Oreides and preparing to jump. The heavy dock's doors opened and a blast of cold night air at high altitude washed over him. He pressed a button on the interface and a tracking grid appeared. He set the modifications for the Libreia's type and then he flew after it at the highest speed his engines could bear.
He passed trees faster than he could see them, and the mountains blurred together to make a greenish coloured mass. However, the computer knew what it was doing, and followed her flawlessly. He noticed that the curfew was closing in five minutes, and he knew there was no way he could make it in time. He continued anways. He noticed that the blinking red dot that representd Gabrielle on the screen had ceased movement. He worried for a moment, then got a grip and homed in on the signal. He landed as carefully as he could o the rocky terrain and exited the Oreides.
He was surprised to find Gabrielle sitting high above on a jutted out rock overlooking the ocean. The moon shone silver on her features and illuminated half of her so perfectly, and he felt that he couldn't breathe for just a second for her beauty. He snapped out of his little thought, and he began to ascend the small hill up towards her.
When he reached the summit that she sat upon, he said quietly, so as not to startle her. "Hey,"He called to her softly. Without turning her head or breaking her soft upon the stirring waters far below, she replied to him in a sad tone. "Hey." There was a moment of mutual silence. "I'm sorry I said that to you, I was just angry." She finally spoke. "It's alright, I understand why, and I couldn't happen to care less what those repulsive Scientists say to me." He answered. She turned and looked at him, and she smiled very softly, which he figured was an invitation to sit by her, so he swung lightly over the tip of the rock that separated them and he sat down.
"You know, the curfew is passed ten minutes ago." He said grimly. "What's curfew?" She asked him, and he looked to the ocean. "All mechas have to be inside four hours past sunset, because the Fortress locks up at night to prevent from attack. Only exceptions are elite missions that nobody talks about." He said. "Oh, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made you follow me like that. I didn't mean to." She apologized. "That's alright, you didn't know. There are strange creatures that roam around these parts of the country during the night, so we should go find someplace safe to stay until first light tomorrow." He explained. She nodded, and stood carefully, taing a last look at the glittering sea. She turned and slid down the face of the rock towards the Libreia. She opened the doors and waited for him.
"Just walk in the mech for now, we don't want to use up too much power. You can check your reserves by asking the computer." He explained as he climbed into the Oreides' cockpit. The two mechas started to walk through the forest together for quite some time before they came to a suitable place. Dilandau told her to hop out, and she did after him. They placed the mechs on standby to save power and let them recharge. Gabrielle found a few pieces of wood and some sticks and began to rub them together to make a spark out of the friction. He scoffed. "You don't need to do that," He said. "Well, then how do you propose we make a fire?" She asked him. A peculiar glint in his eye made itself known to her. "Just watch!" He said in a tone she'd never heard him speak in before. "Move back." He announced, and he stepped into the Oreides. One massive arm of the red suit lifted, and a gout of flame blasted from the tip, lighting the large sticks on fire. He then turned it and grabbed two dead logs and heaved them over to the fire, placing them a good distance away from it, presumably to use as seats. He then exited the suit, and hopped out. He stood proudly before the fire. "And that's how you start a fire!" He exclaimed.
She giggled a little bit and sat down on one of the logs. He sat on the other one. "So... When does the Fortress reopen?" She asked him. "Oh, not until morning. We're going to have to spend the night here." He said. "It's too bad you didn't know about curfew." He added, and she nodded slowly. "Then I wouldn't have unwittingly dragged you into this mess." She said. "But you didn't, you did, and here we are." He said, shrugging his shoulders. She smiled, and she watched the fire eat into the wood, slowly sucking the life out of it. She had always been fascinated by fire. She loved it. It was too far away from her to give her adequate heat, and she began to shiver. Dilandau noticed this. "You're cold?" He asked in more of a statement. "Y-yes." She stammered. Her teeth were beginning to chatter. "I'm cold too." He said, and did nothing about it for a moment. "I-is there anything we can get from the mech to k-keep us warm?" She asked him. "No, not really." He said, and he looked at the log she was sitting on. It was big enough to fit two...
He stood and stepped over to the other log and sat on it next to her. "We can keep each other warm." He said. He looked into the fire. He considered moving closer to it, but he figured that the sparks might get them. There was only a row of stones separating it from the ground, and there might be flammable things on the ground. As long as it wasn't catching, he figured he should leave it. He put his arm around her to keep her warmer, so she would stop shivering. He looked down at her, and she looked back up at him. That's when it happened.
He didn't really even consciously know what he was doing; He just... Did it. He leant down just slightly, and he pressed his lips gently to hers, kissing her. The tight feeling in his back came erupting back harder than ever before, and then it suddenly stopped. He ignored this for just this one moment, just this one little moment of bliss he never knew before that he could have. He finally pulled just a little back from her, and she opened her blue eyes. She smiled at him, just looking right back into his eyes.
A black feather floated down between them, and Gabrielle caught it in her fingers. She looked up, slightly past him, and her eyes grew wide. "Dilandau, look! You have... You have wings!" She exclaimed, but all her voice was gone from her shock, and she only whispered it to him. He turned his head to the side to look, and he did have wings. He saw one, massive and shining ebony black. It looked like a raven's wing, except on a much larger scale.
His jaw dropped. He found he could control them. He flapped them, and a massive gust of displaced air whooshed past them. "I... I... I know?" He said. He flapped them again. He stretched one high above him, almost straight up, and then he folded the other. He spread them both at the same time, and then he stood. He looked at her curiously, and he was trying to remember...
"Dilandau, my systems are failing!" Gabrielle's voice announced frantically over his radio. "Gabrielle, you're too close to the sun! Please, pull back! Come back!" He exclaimed. "Please, I don't want to lose you." He added, and he reached out his mecha's arm towards her. "I can't. My systems failed and my boosters cut. The gravity's sucking me in. Oh, God, Dilandau, I'm going to die!" She said, panicked. He could hear her over the open channel, frantically rerouting power sources, flipping switches, twisting dials and punching combinations. Nothing worked. He could see her, spinning away from him, headed invariably twards the sun. "I'm coming after you!" He shouted, determined. "No, Dilandau. I'm at the point that even if my boosters were working, the gravity's too strong. Please, don't play the hero and try to save me, you'll only end up dying, too." She said, her voice broken. "Please, no. Gabrielle, I-" Her radio signal was cut off. The channel was broken. It no longer fuctioned. "Love you." He finished, but she could not hear him. She'd never hear him. His breath caught in his throat, and he shook involuntarily. "N-no! NOOOO!!!!" He screamed, and he could feel the whole universe cave in around him. A blue flash of light surrounded him, coming from Gabrielle's direction, and he figured it must have been the mecha being destroyed, along with his love.
The world of memory gradually disintegrated before his eyes, and it brought him back to reality.
"You... Died." He said after a moment. "But I can't have, because here I am, in front of you. Last time I checked, I was still alive." She said. "Well... Then what was that? I just saw a segment... Just a fragmented moment, and it was in the past, the last time I saw you. You were in a mech, and the sun started to suck you in because your fuel boosters weren't working, and... I think you got sucked into the sun." He said, bewildered. "Dilandau, mechas can't go in space." She said. "Well, I know that, but these two could... How could I have forgotten you?" He asked nobody, not expecting an answer.
"I can come up with only one viable solution," She started. "Memory erasing technology." She said with a note of coldness. Dilandau was half listening. He was too busy thinking about what he saw. He had honestly felt that he should go and get her, regardless to the danger presented to him. He hadn't cared... Only cared for her. He'd never felt like he should do that in any situation. He'd always let people fend for themselves if he was in too much danger to attempt to save them. But he'd felt different for her... What was this feeling? This was new to him... So new and confusing.
"Your wings are gone," She said, amazed. "They just... Sucked back into your body." She said. She stood curiously and walked around to behind him. He instinctively turned to face her. "Turn around," She said, and he reluctantly complied.
She inspected the torn material. It was torn halfway down his back, the leather busted through, evidence of a great force. She touched his shoulder blades with one hand. He turned his head halfway to see what she was doing. "Can you do it again?" She asked, and stepped to the side of him so that if the wings did come out again, they wouldn't knock her backwards. "I don't know." He replied. "I'll try."
He knelt on the ground and crossed his arms, shutting his eyes. He concentrated for a moment, but grew frustrated and slammed his fist on the gound. "Dilandau, relax." She said softly. "I can't do it." He said bitterly. She looked at the torn material. "It takes a lot of force to rip through leather and punch through some metal, too." She said. The backs of his shoulderguards were all bent out of shape at the expellation of the wings. He quieted and tried again. No effect. She thought for a moment, and then an idea struck her. "You might as well take off that thing, because it's useless now." She said, in a practical tone. It was true. He slipped off the arm guards and the bent shoulder guards, letting them fall to the ground with a clanking noise. He pulled off the ruined leather over his head, smoothing down his hair when he pulled it off. "What does that have to do with anything?" He asked, a confused expression on his face. "Well, you won't wreck your shirt anymore, and it will be easier for your wings to come out," She explained. That's all she'd thought about it when she'd suggested it. But now, when she looked at him... He looks good shirtless. She girlishly giggled to herself in her mind.
"Try again," She suggested. "It won't work," He said stubbornly. "Please, I have an idea." She said. "Fine, but I'm telling you it won't work." He said flatly, and she smiled at him. Just the way she smiled and the light played about her, it made his insides melt like butter. "Okay." He finally said. She walked to his front and gripped his ice cold hands. She stretched up and kissed him on the cheek. Then she kissed him properly, letting go of his hands and holding him around the waist. There was a slight 'fwish' noise, and then he stood, his wings extended fully behind him. Dislodged feathers floated down around them. He opened his eyes when she pulled back. "Yeah. Well. Yeah. That um, worked." He said. She smiled warmly. "See? Don't be so quick do dismiss ideas." She said. "But... You didn't tell me first." He said, tilting his head to one side. "I know. You might have disagreed if I'd told you." She said to him. He looked to the tree beside him. "No." He said simply, a hot feeling creeping over the bridge of his nose. "I wouldn't have."
She smiled. "Try to fly," She said, changing the subject for his sake. She didn't think he'd ever really been embarassed before. He nodded and turned, lifting his wings high above him so that he didn't bump her with them. He put his foot on the Oreides to climb it. He figured he could jump from there. All of a sudden, his wings retracted. "Um," He said, and turned back to face her for a moment. "They... Went back. You, ah, think we could, um..." He pointed to her and then himself rapidly. "Do that... Thing... Again, you know, that feels nice and makes my wings come out." He scratched the back of his neck. She smiled. "Yes, Dilandau. I'll kiss you." She said and smiled, and she walked towards him again. He smiled sheepishly, and she kissed him on the cheek. That was all he needed, and his wings came back out. "Go fly." She said to him. He began to climb the Oreides, and he sat atop the mecha's head after only a minute or two, the occasional feather blowing from his wings to the ground. He stood shakily on the smooth, polished surface. He was beginning to rethink trying to jump from this height.
The wind stirred his hair, and his wings fluttered a little as he regained balance. What if they go back when I jump off? He thought nervously. A strange feeling bubbled up in the middle of his stomach. It felt like a creature was swimming in there. He was about to just shake his head and climb down when he reminded himself... Of himself. He was a soldier, and an officer, too. He wouldn't let a height like this scare him! He was only fifty feet off the ground, and he had wings, like that cursed White Dragon's pilot. Better than that other boy's. His were black, he smugly told himself. Not a sissy white. He looked back at Gabrielle down below him, and he coiled back to jump into the chilled night air with his shining black wings.
He took in a deep breath, and he leapt into the air, his wings spreading to catch the air. He reached the critical split second moment where he would either begin to fall, or rise up into the air. He began to fall. He used everything in him to make the wings pound hard in the air, making him stop and hover for a moment. Slowly, he started to rise, and he tried to make himself move forward. Nothing happened. He aimed towards the ground and let himself fall with his wings open, to gather momentum so he could propel himself up in the air. He was two feet from the ground when his wings made it possible for him to pull up. He did, and the speed caused him to burst out of the treeline, overtop of the canopy.
He flipped over in the air unintentionally, as it was probably from a breeze. He regained control and soared up higher, even though he was so cold that he could see his own breath. He grew steadier in the air as he practised for a few moments. His wingbeats were getting slightly weaker, and he noticed fatigue building up. It was only the first time he'd flown. He was surprised that he could support his own weight in the air with them. He made lazy circles down the the clearing, and then dropped down, using his wings as airbreaks.
He landed gracefully, with a sweep of his magnificent wings, and he stood back on the ground, breathing fairly heavily with the effort of flight. His wings retracted. She was sitting complacently on the log, near the fire, which had begun to burn down. She was smiling softly. "I wish I could fly," She said. She stared up at the space between the leaves longingly. "Anyways," She continued, "I'm tired." She yawned.
"Where are we going to sleep tonight?" She wondered aloud. "Well, the mechs might be good." Dilandau said thoughtfully. "Well, the systems stay online as long as a pilot is present in the cockpit and I thought we were trying to recharge them." She reasoned. "True." He said, "But I don't have any other better ideas, how about you?" He said. Her gaze turned to the soft earth by the fire. "There," She said nonchalantly. "I guess." He said flatly. "If we have to."
He gathered up the remnants of the leather shirt and placed it on the ground. "Use that as a pillow. You don't want to get your nice hair dirty." He said, and smiled. "Is that an insult?" She asked him with an air of dispondence. "No, I didn't mean it that way. It's not an insult at all." He replied rapidly. She smiled and said "Alright then." In joking disbelief. She stood up from the log and made her way to the place where he had placed down the clothes. She slowly and sleepily lowered herself down on the ground and placed her head on the makeshift pillow. She curled up as small as she could comfortably, and watched the fire embers glow as they began to die. "Y-you should put on another log," She commented as she shivered, feeling the utmost cold, but refusing to show signs of it. He nodded agreeably. He walked not far before he found a hefty dry log and poked it into the fire. She watched the sparks skip and dance about. In barely a few moments, the fire was crackling again, but she still felt cold.
He went and lay on the other side of the fire, and watched it too. She didn't notice that his gaze more than often wandered to her. She shut her eyes and attempted to sleep, but every few minutes she would shiver, waking herself up. She did this several times without complaint. She sneezed, and made an exasperated noise. She had almost been asleep! She shuffled a few inches closer to the fire, but it made hardly a difference. Any closer though, and she feared a spark might catch. She sighed in her predicamant, and attempted to sleep again, all her attempts in vain. She could feel his watchful eyes on her. She pretended to ignore it and went back to trying to sleep.
There was a very slight shuffle in the dirt as he stood up. He treaded softly, so as not to wake her again, just in case she had finally managed it. No. She shivered again and her eyes opened. He lay down again, but this time beside her, putting one arm over her. He was cold himself, but he figured that two together would keep them warmer. Slowly, and over time, she stopped shivering. Her eyes closed, and she finally slept. He watched her sleep. He found her beautiful, like a creature made out of the Land of the Devine itself. Once her muscles had relaxed, and her breath had slowed and become deeper, he pulled her closer to him. Not because he was cold, but just because he wanted her to be there. It felt good to him. He wanted to... What was that word she had used? Oh yes, 'kiss' her. Kiss her, and touch her soft, smooth flesh. Why, he didn't really know. It was unclear to him. He just wanted to. The feel of it, perhaps. He held her firmly with his left hand, and he fell asleep that way, close to her, just like he wanted.
"Dilandau, please report to the Dragonslayer's headquarters immediately. Thank-you." It said. Why? He wondered, but he headed for the room anyways. He got there only a few moments later, and Gatti was there, holding a piece of paper that he proceeded to read to him.
"Pilot number 68372 has departed on a mecha flight. While this is not prohibited and is in fact encouraged for training reasons, it imposes a danger upon Pilot number 68372 because curfew rules will be enforced in a half hour. We ask that you persue Pilot number 68372 and return back to the base. Curfew lockup will be extended for another half hour to give you time to do this. Thank you." Gatti read. "Which one is Pilot 68372?" Dilandau asked. "Gabrielle," Replied Gatti. "She's gone. This message is already twenty minutes old." He said. "Oh shit." Dilandau swore, and he headed for the docking bay.
If I can't get to her in time, she'll be locked out overnight. The Energist that powers her suit will eventually run out, and if she's still flying, she'll fall out of the sky! The suit needs several hours to recharge... If I can't get to her, what about me? I'll be locked out, too, in the Oreides. Her Energist lasts... Ten hours without a single moment of recharge. The Oreides will only last seven! I'm screwed... He thought grimly. If the fall from the sky doesn't kill her, the wild animals certainly will. She has next to no weapons when the Libreia runs out of power. Oh, wait! The Libreia can use power from the pilot when energy reserves go down. But that will leave Gabrielle weak and vulnerable, and the suit's power taken from her will only last as long as the she is conscious. Then all sheilds will die and the wild animals will get to her if they can open the doors. We're both screwed...
By this time he was already in the Oreides and preparing to jump. The heavy dock's doors opened and a blast of cold night air at high altitude washed over him. He pressed a button on the interface and a tracking grid appeared. He set the modifications for the Libreia's type and then he flew after it at the highest speed his engines could bear.
He passed trees faster than he could see them, and the mountains blurred together to make a greenish coloured mass. However, the computer knew what it was doing, and followed her flawlessly. He noticed that the curfew was closing in five minutes, and he knew there was no way he could make it in time. He continued anways. He noticed that the blinking red dot that representd Gabrielle on the screen had ceased movement. He worried for a moment, then got a grip and homed in on the signal. He landed as carefully as he could o the rocky terrain and exited the Oreides.
He was surprised to find Gabrielle sitting high above on a jutted out rock overlooking the ocean. The moon shone silver on her features and illuminated half of her so perfectly, and he felt that he couldn't breathe for just a second for her beauty. He snapped out of his little thought, and he began to ascend the small hill up towards her.
When he reached the summit that she sat upon, he said quietly, so as not to startle her. "Hey,"He called to her softly. Without turning her head or breaking her soft upon the stirring waters far below, she replied to him in a sad tone. "Hey." There was a moment of mutual silence. "I'm sorry I said that to you, I was just angry." She finally spoke. "It's alright, I understand why, and I couldn't happen to care less what those repulsive Scientists say to me." He answered. She turned and looked at him, and she smiled very softly, which he figured was an invitation to sit by her, so he swung lightly over the tip of the rock that separated them and he sat down.
"You know, the curfew is passed ten minutes ago." He said grimly. "What's curfew?" She asked him, and he looked to the ocean. "All mechas have to be inside four hours past sunset, because the Fortress locks up at night to prevent from attack. Only exceptions are elite missions that nobody talks about." He said. "Oh, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made you follow me like that. I didn't mean to." She apologized. "That's alright, you didn't know. There are strange creatures that roam around these parts of the country during the night, so we should go find someplace safe to stay until first light tomorrow." He explained. She nodded, and stood carefully, taing a last look at the glittering sea. She turned and slid down the face of the rock towards the Libreia. She opened the doors and waited for him.
"Just walk in the mech for now, we don't want to use up too much power. You can check your reserves by asking the computer." He explained as he climbed into the Oreides' cockpit. The two mechas started to walk through the forest together for quite some time before they came to a suitable place. Dilandau told her to hop out, and she did after him. They placed the mechs on standby to save power and let them recharge. Gabrielle found a few pieces of wood and some sticks and began to rub them together to make a spark out of the friction. He scoffed. "You don't need to do that," He said. "Well, then how do you propose we make a fire?" She asked him. A peculiar glint in his eye made itself known to her. "Just watch!" He said in a tone she'd never heard him speak in before. "Move back." He announced, and he stepped into the Oreides. One massive arm of the red suit lifted, and a gout of flame blasted from the tip, lighting the large sticks on fire. He then turned it and grabbed two dead logs and heaved them over to the fire, placing them a good distance away from it, presumably to use as seats. He then exited the suit, and hopped out. He stood proudly before the fire. "And that's how you start a fire!" He exclaimed.
She giggled a little bit and sat down on one of the logs. He sat on the other one. "So... When does the Fortress reopen?" She asked him. "Oh, not until morning. We're going to have to spend the night here." He said. "It's too bad you didn't know about curfew." He added, and she nodded slowly. "Then I wouldn't have unwittingly dragged you into this mess." She said. "But you didn't, you did, and here we are." He said, shrugging his shoulders. She smiled, and she watched the fire eat into the wood, slowly sucking the life out of it. She had always been fascinated by fire. She loved it. It was too far away from her to give her adequate heat, and she began to shiver. Dilandau noticed this. "You're cold?" He asked in more of a statement. "Y-yes." She stammered. Her teeth were beginning to chatter. "I'm cold too." He said, and did nothing about it for a moment. "I-is there anything we can get from the mech to k-keep us warm?" She asked him. "No, not really." He said, and he looked at the log she was sitting on. It was big enough to fit two...
He stood and stepped over to the other log and sat on it next to her. "We can keep each other warm." He said. He looked into the fire. He considered moving closer to it, but he figured that the sparks might get them. There was only a row of stones separating it from the ground, and there might be flammable things on the ground. As long as it wasn't catching, he figured he should leave it. He put his arm around her to keep her warmer, so she would stop shivering. He looked down at her, and she looked back up at him. That's when it happened.
He didn't really even consciously know what he was doing; He just... Did it. He leant down just slightly, and he pressed his lips gently to hers, kissing her. The tight feeling in his back came erupting back harder than ever before, and then it suddenly stopped. He ignored this for just this one moment, just this one little moment of bliss he never knew before that he could have. He finally pulled just a little back from her, and she opened her blue eyes. She smiled at him, just looking right back into his eyes.
A black feather floated down between them, and Gabrielle caught it in her fingers. She looked up, slightly past him, and her eyes grew wide. "Dilandau, look! You have... You have wings!" She exclaimed, but all her voice was gone from her shock, and she only whispered it to him. He turned his head to the side to look, and he did have wings. He saw one, massive and shining ebony black. It looked like a raven's wing, except on a much larger scale.
His jaw dropped. He found he could control them. He flapped them, and a massive gust of displaced air whooshed past them. "I... I... I know?" He said. He flapped them again. He stretched one high above him, almost straight up, and then he folded the other. He spread them both at the same time, and then he stood. He looked at her curiously, and he was trying to remember...
"Dilandau, my systems are failing!" Gabrielle's voice announced frantically over his radio. "Gabrielle, you're too close to the sun! Please, pull back! Come back!" He exclaimed. "Please, I don't want to lose you." He added, and he reached out his mecha's arm towards her. "I can't. My systems failed and my boosters cut. The gravity's sucking me in. Oh, God, Dilandau, I'm going to die!" She said, panicked. He could hear her over the open channel, frantically rerouting power sources, flipping switches, twisting dials and punching combinations. Nothing worked. He could see her, spinning away from him, headed invariably twards the sun. "I'm coming after you!" He shouted, determined. "No, Dilandau. I'm at the point that even if my boosters were working, the gravity's too strong. Please, don't play the hero and try to save me, you'll only end up dying, too." She said, her voice broken. "Please, no. Gabrielle, I-" Her radio signal was cut off. The channel was broken. It no longer fuctioned. "Love you." He finished, but she could not hear him. She'd never hear him. His breath caught in his throat, and he shook involuntarily. "N-no! NOOOO!!!!" He screamed, and he could feel the whole universe cave in around him. A blue flash of light surrounded him, coming from Gabrielle's direction, and he figured it must have been the mecha being destroyed, along with his love.
The world of memory gradually disintegrated before his eyes, and it brought him back to reality.
"You... Died." He said after a moment. "But I can't have, because here I am, in front of you. Last time I checked, I was still alive." She said. "Well... Then what was that? I just saw a segment... Just a fragmented moment, and it was in the past, the last time I saw you. You were in a mech, and the sun started to suck you in because your fuel boosters weren't working, and... I think you got sucked into the sun." He said, bewildered. "Dilandau, mechas can't go in space." She said. "Well, I know that, but these two could... How could I have forgotten you?" He asked nobody, not expecting an answer.
"I can come up with only one viable solution," She started. "Memory erasing technology." She said with a note of coldness. Dilandau was half listening. He was too busy thinking about what he saw. He had honestly felt that he should go and get her, regardless to the danger presented to him. He hadn't cared... Only cared for her. He'd never felt like he should do that in any situation. He'd always let people fend for themselves if he was in too much danger to attempt to save them. But he'd felt different for her... What was this feeling? This was new to him... So new and confusing.
"Your wings are gone," She said, amazed. "They just... Sucked back into your body." She said. She stood curiously and walked around to behind him. He instinctively turned to face her. "Turn around," She said, and he reluctantly complied.
She inspected the torn material. It was torn halfway down his back, the leather busted through, evidence of a great force. She touched his shoulder blades with one hand. He turned his head halfway to see what she was doing. "Can you do it again?" She asked, and stepped to the side of him so that if the wings did come out again, they wouldn't knock her backwards. "I don't know." He replied. "I'll try."
He knelt on the ground and crossed his arms, shutting his eyes. He concentrated for a moment, but grew frustrated and slammed his fist on the gound. "Dilandau, relax." She said softly. "I can't do it." He said bitterly. She looked at the torn material. "It takes a lot of force to rip through leather and punch through some metal, too." She said. The backs of his shoulderguards were all bent out of shape at the expellation of the wings. He quieted and tried again. No effect. She thought for a moment, and then an idea struck her. "You might as well take off that thing, because it's useless now." She said, in a practical tone. It was true. He slipped off the arm guards and the bent shoulder guards, letting them fall to the ground with a clanking noise. He pulled off the ruined leather over his head, smoothing down his hair when he pulled it off. "What does that have to do with anything?" He asked, a confused expression on his face. "Well, you won't wreck your shirt anymore, and it will be easier for your wings to come out," She explained. That's all she'd thought about it when she'd suggested it. But now, when she looked at him... He looks good shirtless. She girlishly giggled to herself in her mind.
"Try again," She suggested. "It won't work," He said stubbornly. "Please, I have an idea." She said. "Fine, but I'm telling you it won't work." He said flatly, and she smiled at him. Just the way she smiled and the light played about her, it made his insides melt like butter. "Okay." He finally said. She walked to his front and gripped his ice cold hands. She stretched up and kissed him on the cheek. Then she kissed him properly, letting go of his hands and holding him around the waist. There was a slight 'fwish' noise, and then he stood, his wings extended fully behind him. Dislodged feathers floated down around them. He opened his eyes when she pulled back. "Yeah. Well. Yeah. That um, worked." He said. She smiled warmly. "See? Don't be so quick do dismiss ideas." She said. "But... You didn't tell me first." He said, tilting his head to one side. "I know. You might have disagreed if I'd told you." She said to him. He looked to the tree beside him. "No." He said simply, a hot feeling creeping over the bridge of his nose. "I wouldn't have."
She smiled. "Try to fly," She said, changing the subject for his sake. She didn't think he'd ever really been embarassed before. He nodded and turned, lifting his wings high above him so that he didn't bump her with them. He put his foot on the Oreides to climb it. He figured he could jump from there. All of a sudden, his wings retracted. "Um," He said, and turned back to face her for a moment. "They... Went back. You, ah, think we could, um..." He pointed to her and then himself rapidly. "Do that... Thing... Again, you know, that feels nice and makes my wings come out." He scratched the back of his neck. She smiled. "Yes, Dilandau. I'll kiss you." She said and smiled, and she walked towards him again. He smiled sheepishly, and she kissed him on the cheek. That was all he needed, and his wings came back out. "Go fly." She said to him. He began to climb the Oreides, and he sat atop the mecha's head after only a minute or two, the occasional feather blowing from his wings to the ground. He stood shakily on the smooth, polished surface. He was beginning to rethink trying to jump from this height.
The wind stirred his hair, and his wings fluttered a little as he regained balance. What if they go back when I jump off? He thought nervously. A strange feeling bubbled up in the middle of his stomach. It felt like a creature was swimming in there. He was about to just shake his head and climb down when he reminded himself... Of himself. He was a soldier, and an officer, too. He wouldn't let a height like this scare him! He was only fifty feet off the ground, and he had wings, like that cursed White Dragon's pilot. Better than that other boy's. His were black, he smugly told himself. Not a sissy white. He looked back at Gabrielle down below him, and he coiled back to jump into the chilled night air with his shining black wings.
He took in a deep breath, and he leapt into the air, his wings spreading to catch the air. He reached the critical split second moment where he would either begin to fall, or rise up into the air. He began to fall. He used everything in him to make the wings pound hard in the air, making him stop and hover for a moment. Slowly, he started to rise, and he tried to make himself move forward. Nothing happened. He aimed towards the ground and let himself fall with his wings open, to gather momentum so he could propel himself up in the air. He was two feet from the ground when his wings made it possible for him to pull up. He did, and the speed caused him to burst out of the treeline, overtop of the canopy.
He flipped over in the air unintentionally, as it was probably from a breeze. He regained control and soared up higher, even though he was so cold that he could see his own breath. He grew steadier in the air as he practised for a few moments. His wingbeats were getting slightly weaker, and he noticed fatigue building up. It was only the first time he'd flown. He was surprised that he could support his own weight in the air with them. He made lazy circles down the the clearing, and then dropped down, using his wings as airbreaks.
He landed gracefully, with a sweep of his magnificent wings, and he stood back on the ground, breathing fairly heavily with the effort of flight. His wings retracted. She was sitting complacently on the log, near the fire, which had begun to burn down. She was smiling softly. "I wish I could fly," She said. She stared up at the space between the leaves longingly. "Anyways," She continued, "I'm tired." She yawned.
"Where are we going to sleep tonight?" She wondered aloud. "Well, the mechs might be good." Dilandau said thoughtfully. "Well, the systems stay online as long as a pilot is present in the cockpit and I thought we were trying to recharge them." She reasoned. "True." He said, "But I don't have any other better ideas, how about you?" He said. Her gaze turned to the soft earth by the fire. "There," She said nonchalantly. "I guess." He said flatly. "If we have to."
He gathered up the remnants of the leather shirt and placed it on the ground. "Use that as a pillow. You don't want to get your nice hair dirty." He said, and smiled. "Is that an insult?" She asked him with an air of dispondence. "No, I didn't mean it that way. It's not an insult at all." He replied rapidly. She smiled and said "Alright then." In joking disbelief. She stood up from the log and made her way to the place where he had placed down the clothes. She slowly and sleepily lowered herself down on the ground and placed her head on the makeshift pillow. She curled up as small as she could comfortably, and watched the fire embers glow as they began to die. "Y-you should put on another log," She commented as she shivered, feeling the utmost cold, but refusing to show signs of it. He nodded agreeably. He walked not far before he found a hefty dry log and poked it into the fire. She watched the sparks skip and dance about. In barely a few moments, the fire was crackling again, but she still felt cold.
He went and lay on the other side of the fire, and watched it too. She didn't notice that his gaze more than often wandered to her. She shut her eyes and attempted to sleep, but every few minutes she would shiver, waking herself up. She did this several times without complaint. She sneezed, and made an exasperated noise. She had almost been asleep! She shuffled a few inches closer to the fire, but it made hardly a difference. Any closer though, and she feared a spark might catch. She sighed in her predicamant, and attempted to sleep again, all her attempts in vain. She could feel his watchful eyes on her. She pretended to ignore it and went back to trying to sleep.
There was a very slight shuffle in the dirt as he stood up. He treaded softly, so as not to wake her again, just in case she had finally managed it. No. She shivered again and her eyes opened. He lay down again, but this time beside her, putting one arm over her. He was cold himself, but he figured that two together would keep them warmer. Slowly, and over time, she stopped shivering. Her eyes closed, and she finally slept. He watched her sleep. He found her beautiful, like a creature made out of the Land of the Devine itself. Once her muscles had relaxed, and her breath had slowed and become deeper, he pulled her closer to him. Not because he was cold, but just because he wanted her to be there. It felt good to him. He wanted to... What was that word she had used? Oh yes, 'kiss' her. Kiss her, and touch her soft, smooth flesh. Why, he didn't really know. It was unclear to him. He just wanted to. The feel of it, perhaps. He held her firmly with his left hand, and he fell asleep that way, close to her, just like he wanted.