I can't stop turning ideas for this over in my mind so here I am with another chapter.

Dwight Anderson and Saber-Strike were created by the MAD-MAN.
Ailec and Sataburn are owned by ceestar

Some mild language in here somewhere.

Missing Love chapter2

Ailec was sitting in the park under a tree heavy with green leaves and spring blossoms. The ground all around was littered with the small pink petals and Valentines Day was rapidly approaching. She saw couples in the park walking along hand in hand and whispering to one another while their medabots where off searching for their own loves.

Ailec leaned back on the grass and stared up into the branches above her. It had been three years since she had last seen Dwight but she hadn't given another boy a thought. All her friends had tried getting her to move on but she couldn't bring herself to accept any of the valentines that came every year.

She was beginning to hate this holiday if only because of the storm of cards asking her out or wishing for her love. She heard the clink of metal feet running down the nearby stone path. Sataburn shoved past an older couple and turned off the path towards her medafighter.

Sataburn looked like the newest transforming KWG but she was very different. Firstly her armor was much stronger and her speed was incomparable. And the large wings from her back could protect her from hits as well as let her soar in the skies. And while other KWG medabots used almost entirely grappling attacks Sataburn could perform several pyro-attacks, both melee and ranged. Her gold and red armor shone lightly because of Ailec's near constant polishing and careful repairs.

"Ailec, you got some more cards, and some candies too." She held out a large heart shaped box and a stack of red and pink cards of different shapes and sizes.

Ailec jumped up and grabbed the box of chocolates and with a snarl of frustration flung them away from her, narrowly missing a married couple walking past. "They should stop trying to send me these stupid things. I always turn them down but then next year there is twice as many." She snatched the cards and started to tear them in half without reading them, flinging torn paper and ribbon everywhere.

She tore a large purple and red heart in two and crumpled it in her fist, as she reached for the next. She held the card up and griped its edge, stopping as she saw it was a simple square card of dark gray paper. She didn't know why but she gently broke the strange wax seal holding it shut and opened the card.

Taped inside was a small shard of red stone on a gold chain. Only a handful of people would recognize the shard having coming from a powerful artifact that was destroyed soon after its discovery. And below it was written in hard angular writing,

You are the spark of life in my soul that has cut past the dark shadows of the past. I hope this finds you well and that you know how I miss your sunny smile and cheery disposition.

And then in bold letters that pressed hard into the paper,

Don't forget who you are and the power you hold. The time is near; the stone will keep you safe. Keep it with you and know you are not alone.

Her hand shook as she picked up the necklace, feeling the hum of power in it still. "Ailec? Who is it from? Ailec?" Ailec didn't hear Sataburn as she turned and walked back towards home with the sent of the blossoms filling her as well as happiness. The card wasn't signed but only one person would write like that on dark paper and know about her and the shattered stone.

Uhnn! Dwight hit the brick wall behind him as a fist was driven into his ribs again. The fist came back across his face, drawing blood from his mouth and leaving a welt on his jaw.

The owner of the fist stepped back and cracked his overly large knuckles. His features where hidden under a large brown hat while a dusty overcoat hid his giant body. He easily towered over Dwight and would be hard to miss as he stood at eight foot three.

"Spill boy. Where did you hide the stone shards." The large fist drove into Dwight's ribs again making him fold over as his wind was pushed out of his lungs. Another backhanded blow spent him against the wall again, his head banging off the wall behind him.

The huge man stepped back again and let Dwight catch his breath. Off deeper in the shadows Dwight could hear the clang and clash of steel against steel. Saber-Strike was battling the man's medabots, strange medabots that looked more animal than robot.

He grinned at the man, showing a cracked front tooth from his beating. "Piss off." he spat at the man's feet, the red colored saliva striking an enormous work boot.

"Bad call kid." The man came forward again, cracking his fists again.

Dwight kept his smile as the man approached him, "I'm far from being a kid." He stepped forward and drove a fist into the man's groin, sending the man stumbling back a few steps. Something sharp flashed as he took it from his belt and he slashed upward, tearing across the man's face and cutting a notch from the brim of the hat.

Blood splashed on Dwight's hands and the ground as the man stumbled away cluthing at his face. He pulled his hands away and looked at the blood covering them and spilling down the front of his coat. He turns and runs out of the alley while shouting back over his shoulder. "I wont forget this kid. I will get you back real soon."

Three furry armored blurs flashed past Dwight faster than he could follow and disappeared into the sun streets full of confused people. He calmly drew a tissue from his pocket and scrubbed as much blood from his hands as he could. The blade was already back in its sheath at the small of his back, its flashing edge hidden and the leather grip invisible against his belt.

Saber-Strike hobbled out of the deeper shadows and stopped beside Dwight. He was in bad shape with his one arm hanging limp and tears in his legs and the woven mail-armor over his head. The file edged blades at the end of his arms notched and chipped from striking against hard armor with little success.

Dwight looked at his medabots beaten condition and then thought of the bruises forming on his body and the few chipped teeth in his mouth. He placed a hand on Saber-Strike's shoulder, "lets head home SS. I need to send off those other stone shards before that ass comes after us again."

Home was a cramped dusty room in the back of an abandoned second-hand shop. Dwight eased himself down onto the flat mattress and pulled his shirt over his head. His hard muscled chest was covered in darkening bruises but worse than that was the scar. Dozens of inch wide scars criss-crossed his body, the nearly fatal wounds he had suffered while saving Ailec and the others.

He rested for a while and thought of the others who had saved the world. There was Ailec, his love and the most powerful of the group. Ikki and Koji and all their friends were in school and struggling against each other to hold the top medabot rankings. Ikki and Koji couldn't go a week without switching ranks with each other and had a strong friendship built on beating the other. The others had drifted into different interests but still had great battle potential that often caused them to be challenged. The children from the other world and their strange friends had returned and with the stone destroyed wouldn't be able to return.

He sat up with a wince as the scars and fresh bruises pulled at him. He reached down under the mattress and drew out a small cigar box; flipping it open he looked inside. In the box was what many people would call junk or garbage. There were a few battered and worn photos and a half corroded locket of tin. A handful of stones and peaces of glass, even a bottle cap and a broken marble.

Dwight leaned forward and picked up the faded photos and gently held them between his long strong fingers. The first two photos where of a man and woman standing before a lovely old home. The man had his arms around the woman and they smiled at the camera together. Even with the colors worn away by time and his fingers he could see her rich dark brown hair and her piercing eyes surrounded by that soft round face. The man's hair was wild and uncombed but lighter than the woman's; his eyes held that same piercing quality but looked as if seeing everything around him.

The next photo was the man and woman standing over a crib with two squirming bundles inside. Dwight moved on but even then he could still feel a shadow of warmth and caring that he couldn't remember in all of his memory. The next photo was cut from a newspaper and had the article beside it.

He didn't need to read the clipping anymore but his eyes traced over every letter as he read them under his breath. "Unexplained fire claims family. Terry Anderson and his wife Christine along with their infant son Christopher died in a fire at their colonial home late last night. Fire marshals and police are still searching for the missing infant Dwight, presumed dead in the fire."

He looked up as a shower of sparks jumped from Saber-Strike's damaged arm. Dwight carefully placed his treasures away in their ox and moved to help his medabot. Saber-Strike was his only family anymore; having saved him from the monster that had destroyed his home and murdered his parents and brother. Saber-Strike was always near at hand as Dwight grew up in an orphanage, he helped him with his troubles and taught him things that he needed now more then ever.

After the last rent in Saber-Striker's armor and watching him lay down to rest on another mattress Dwight went into the dingy bathroom. He stared into the mirror and saw the purple bruise across his jaw and turned on the water. The pipes rattled and shook before beginning to run with rusty water. He scrubbed his hands free of blood and kept scrubbing until his skin was pink and chaffed. Then leaning on the sink he looks at his teeth, finding the cracked tooth and several other wriggling in their sockets. He turned and left the bathroom, collapsing on the bed and watching the ceiling above him as the light from around the boarded window faded.

He knew that tomorrow he would have to find someone to keep the stone shards; they were no longer safe with him. He closed his eyes and started to have the most wonderful dream, Ailec was in it and together they simply sat a talked amongst a sunny park as children played nearby and Sataburn tried getting Saber-Strike to play.

There you go, another chapter in a romance.

Sorry there wasn't much romance in this chapter but I had to set up the plot, don't worry the story is being built around Dwight and Ailec and their feelings for each other.

Oh and just to be clear. While Dwight Anderson is my name the Dwight in this fic is NOT me. Except for our hair we are not anything alike.

The big man is not Squidguts, the face slash and size came out before I even thought of it. I'm not changing this because this coat covered brute doesn't have a brain of a sponge like the rubber clad brute.

Why the heck do I keep making characters homeless?

MAD-fact #1 I first made up Saber-Strike as a tribute to Final Saber. However I never got around to starting the fic I made him for so I donated him to a few authors needing medabots.