I was so happy after Sakura and I won the Regional tournament. But right after that I went straight to the hospital to check on Allie. Allie was hooked up to lots of machines and stuff. They gave me about an hour alone to talk with her. She said she had watched the whole battle on the little TV in her room. She said she was so proud to be my friend. I showed Allie Kiba and asked if any of her friends might be interested. Allie told me that I should alter Kiba a little, like trim her hair and change her outfit. Then tell Piffle Princess that Kia had abandoned her Angel and she was going to give Kiba to someone else.
We talked for a while, about forty-five minutes about Angelic Layer and how Allie wished she would have gone onto the Nationals. I told her she should go out for the B-Block again next year. But then she said something that broke my heart.
"Hannah. For me there is no next year." She smiled sadly. "I was just glad that I was able to teach you and Sakura about Angelic Layer. Now you can become the next Princess of Power." I started crying a little while she kept talking, "Let the power of your own star guide you." In between words she was coughing. "Hannah."
"Y-Y-Yes?" It was hard to talk while crying.
"Reach into my bag, and take Lulu. Please, just don't let anyone else operate her. We were a team and I would want her to be a solider under my command than be a solider under someone else's." I held Lulu with a shaky hand and promised that she would be Allie's only Angel. Allie smiled at me, she weakly grabbed my free hand, "Will you stay with me? I have to go to sleep now. But when I wake up I want you and Lulu to be the first people I see."
"You promise that you'll wake up?" I asked, smiling sadly at her.
Allie nodded, she closed her eyes and started falling asleep.
But she broke her promise.
I cried really hard. Her parents rushed in along with some nurses and doctors. They pulled me away from Allie and put me in a room by myself. My parents and lance were there in about ten minutes. I cried and wouldn't stop. I clutched Lulu in my hand, tears falling on her head and cheeks. It looked like she was crying too by the way my own tears fell down her cheeks.
I thought I would drown in my own tears. Maybe drown the whole world.
It was all over the Angelic Layer channel when I got home. "Deus Allison Sullivan dead!" "Angel Lulu, gone missing!" "Princess of Power has passed."
Lulu now sits next to my bed, along with Sakura. They say the more the merrier. But in this case Lulu's presence didn't help. This pain was too real. Too great. And what were the odds that Allie was supposed to die? It was against the odds.