Mondo did what had never been done. He flipped up the cover and toggled the switch that Professor Hiiragi had told him to never, NEVER touch. The Utopian Eagle halted in its headlong flight and hung in the nothingness between the worlds.
"One last time, Spectra Angel," Mondo said with unaccustomed seriousness. "Do we really want to do this to him?"
Spectra looked down at her brother, held in her sleep spell, cradled across her lap. She touched the horn that erupted through his hair and brushed her fingers lightly across his cheek. She recalled how he had appeared, joyful and innocent, before Redda had turned him. She recalled the pain on Gabriolis' face when he told her he no longer belonged in the Upper Kingdom of the Realm of Good.
"Let us give my dear brother a chance to find a place and happiness for himself. If he must forget me..." Spectra's throat suddenly closed with the tears she refused to shed. There was a very real chance that Gabriolis would be content enough in the false life crafted for him on Earth that he would never regain his memory of Mon World, or of her. The tears swam in her eyes.
"If he must forget me..." she stopped again. The two Mon Colle Knights looked at her with deep compassion. "If he does...please, watch over him and make sure that he does find the peace and happiness he deserves."
"Spectra Angel...you must love him very much," Rachna stated.
"I do. He is my brother," she replied as if it explained it all.
"With so much love waiting patiently for him...I'm certain Gabriolis will remember and return to Mon World!" Rachna declared.
"That is my fondest hope, beyond that for his happiness. But I will be content if he no longer suffers. Even if he must forget all about me."
Spectra leaned over and kissed Gabriolis. A moment later she lifted him to embrace him, holding him tightly against her heart. Finally, she settled him gently against the deck and stood.
"Let us do this," she decided.
"With us...you can...do it," Mondo and Rachna joined Spectra Angel once more, increasing her power to where she could see the insubstantial Lark grasping Gabriolis' shoulder. Lark was as gently sorrowful as she, regretful that this was the only way to help his friend.
"If you love something..." he began.
"...Set it free..." Spectra continued.
"If it comes back, it is yours..." Rachna intuited the next part of the angels' quote.
"If not, it never was," Mondo finished it. "But I think Gabriolis will come back to you! Both of you love him so much!"
"He can't know of my love," Lark sighed ruefully. "It is only because of you, Mon Colle Knights, that Spectra is even able to see me and know that I watch over Gabriolis still. There is no way Gabriolis could know."
"We could tell him," Rachna offered.
"No, thank you, but no. I see what happened when I left him behind once before. I don't want to put him through that kind of pain again, even if he does find his happiness and comes to remember his life on Mon World. It is better if he never knows," Lark smiled gently.
"It is time. Come, Spectra, Rachna, Mondo, let us do this thing and pray that it is the right thing to do!"
Though she couldn't touch him, Spectra reached her hands out for Lark to take.
"In this between place, if you allow, we can all be in the same plane at the same time," Lark told her.
"Truly?!" Spectra exclaimed. Lark nodded.
"Then, let us! Lark...I have missed you too!" Spectra cried.
"I know. It has been very hard on you too, dear Spectra. Losing me, and then, losing Gabriolis as you did. I am impressed that you never gave up the hope that you would recover him. In the end, that hope, and your love, along with Mondo and Rachna's friendship is what saved him."
The ship melted away. Mondo and Rachna, in the merge with Spectra Angel, hardly noticed it, except that their surroundings completely disappeared. The only things they could see, were Spectra and Lark, talking face to face, and Gabriolis, stretched out upon nothingness. Lark stepped forward and took Spectra into his arms. She sobbed at his touch and clutched to him tightly.
"Oh, Lark! I've missed you so much!"
"Dear Spectra," Lark stroked through her hair. "I can't explain, I am not permitted to, but I am still able to guard Gabriolis. And you. Even if he never recalls who he is, I will always watch over Gabriolis. And you...as your power increases I think you will sometimes be able to notice me watching over you."
"It's not the same as having you lead us, the Angels of the Upper Kingdom, but...it comforts me," Spectra finally admitted.
"Then it is good. Now, before we no longer have the strength to do so..." Lark set Spectra free of his embrace. "Come Knights. You share this space with us, because of your merge with Spectra. Each of you, take my hands."
Mondo stepped forward, amazed to find that he was solid-seeming in this place. Rachna followed. Lark extended one hand toward each of them. Mondo reached forward to find that Lark's hand was as solid as he was. Rachna took Lark's other hand.
"Let us surround Gabriolis with our love," Lark directed. He was so solemn that the statement wasn't as icky-sweet as it could have been. Spectra reached for Mondo's free hand and led him toward where Gabriolis still floated eerily in space. She reached down and closed their circle by taking Rachna's free hand.
"Send all your power to Lark," she directed. "And mine too. As long as our circle is closed, Lark can tap our powers as if they were his own." Spectra began to send her power through their circle toward Lark.
Mondo, along with Rachna, already in merge with Spectra Angel, felt as if they were creating a new merge with Lark. He felt Lark's deep regret at what they had to do as if it was his own. The love he felt from both angels toward Gabriolis made his feelings of friendship seem feeble in comparison.
"No, Mondo, Rachna, do not belittle what you feel by comparing it with what we feel," Lark said aloud. "Angels love in a different way than humans are capable of understanding. It does not mean that we love more, it is just different. The friendship you feel for Gabriolis is vital to making this work!"
"Believe that! It is the truth!" Spectra added. "Gabriolis is very fortunate to have found friends like you. Now, focus on Gabriolis and the friendship you feel for him and let Lark use that to do what he must!"
Lark looked down upon Gabriolis sleeping in the void between the worlds and locked his memories of Mon World away. He then placed the outline of the life Hiiragi had made for him deep within Gabriolis' mind, knowing that the magic would impel Gabriolis to flesh out the details. Finally, he pulled almost all the power from Spectra, Mondo and Rachna, dropped Rachna's and Mondo's hands and knelt next to Gabriolis.
He gently touched Gabriolis' wings and they disappeared. The horns too vanished at his touch. At Lark's touch the dark purple armor that Gabriolis wore changed into a set of casual clothes. Lark looked for a long moment at the changes he'd wrought in his friend.
"Your hair color exists on Earth," he muttered. "But the length won't do for your new life." His touch shortened the hair, coaxing it into a modern carefree style. "The original tone of your skin, though fair, does work for Earth people though."
Spectra's hands clutched convulsively around Mondo and Rachna's. Each of them squeezed back, offering mute support.
"And I mustn't forget your eyes. Red does not suit for Earth any more than it ever suited for you, my friend," Lark dropped a graceful hand across Gabriolis' closed eyes. "Be restored to your original color as well!"
Lark stepped back, regarding the changes he'd forced upon Gabriolis. He then looked toward Mondo and Rachna.
"Will it do?"
"Yes. He looks as though he could have been born on Earth," Mondo claimed.
"Oh, Lark! If we could just take him this way back to the Upper Kingdom!" Spectra cried out.
"We can't. He must now find a new life on Earth."
Spectra sobbed, dropped both hands held in hers, dropped to her knees and cried against Gabriolis' chest.
"Be happy. Be well, brother!" She stood again, dashed the tears from her eyes and composed herself.
"Do take care of him, Mon Colle Knights. He is very dear to me."
"We will!" Mondo promised. Rachna added, "Someday surely he will return to you!"
"I hope so. I pray so. That day will come sooner, dear Lark, if you would...send him on his way," Spectra reached for Rachna's and Mondo's hands again.
Lark knelt himself, stroked one hand through Gabriolis' shortened hair and placed his other hand upon Gabriolis' chest.
"Enter your new life, Gabriolis Knight, and find peace!"
Under his hand Gabriolis glowed brightly and disappeared.
"I will leave too, so I can watch him settle into his new world," Lark told them. "But remember, dear Spectra, you are never as alone as you seem!" Lark vanished.
"We should take you back to Mon World," Mondo suggested as the interior of the Utopian Eagle formed around them again.
"Yes. Now, I must hope and...wait," Spectra agreed.
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