Despite that the hour was just limping past midnight, the streets of Troy were empty, yet the bars were full. People of all types came in to the bars, whistling for drinks, laughing in high spirits with whoever was next to them, instantly becoming their best and life long friend, if only for a few intoxicated hours. Others seemed to come in with the stealthiness of a shadow, get what they wanted, and sit unperturbed from anyone else, or promptly leave, a few disgraceful words from the other drunkards, but nothing amounting to it. A few people were also normal, enjoying their drinks, but neither being drunk, ranging everywhere from cheap muggers and street-dwelling vagabonds, to men in business suits who had come down to the street-level for some cheap liquor, and later, cheap thrills. The bar itself was pretty small, the front door a metallic criss-crossing mesh of steel rods, known to have stopped more than its share of robbers in their way in or out, dry blood stains all over the floor, in nearly every direction, the establishment seeing over thirty years of service. From the front door was a long hallway to the rest rooms, and two small ramps to the right of the hallway led down to the drinking area, a rounded bar top with stools set up around it, as well as a few old booths surrounding the bar, seperated by a narrow alley to walk. All of it was old, consisting of darkened cloth, a sat-in stink that wouldn't go away, and a lingering alcohol in it, as well as rips, tears, years of use and abuse, and what not, but for a street-level bar, it was more than acceptable. For the same price, they could be out buying the same liquor from people in alleys, but the establishment helped its customers come back again. One of the booths had Bianca and Darton, sitting opposite each other.

"You really were serious about that?" Darton said with an unsure chuckle, scratching the back of his head.

"I said you owed me a drink, I meant it." She said, smiling. She knew he had no money, she knew he couldn't pay or he wouldn't know how to, but either way, she liked to say those sorts of things, those sorts of little nuances and flirtatious things, it was in her nature. "You can repay me other ways, though." Darton's interest perked slightly, leaning forward, looking at her with a wry smile, asking what. "Tell me some more things about you."

"Oh jeez, always wanting to know about me and my past. What's with you, Trojan?" he said with a sarcasm. "Seikishidan boy comes in, let's poke him with sticks and pry him for information!" he said with undue sarcasm, a nudging kick in the shin from Bianca underneath the scratched and potholed table top seperating them. The kick wasn't hard or meaningful, just part of the act, which they both played out with each other perfectly. "Honestly, I've told you some things I've not told other people, though…ever…" he said, looking away at the rest of the bar, not wanting to look Bianca in the eyes. Finally, his gaze was drawn back magnetically. "I feel safe sometimes, being able to say things to you, or with things I have had inside of myself for so long, never put to words, I don't even know how to tell them…but I told you, I told you about my past, I never told anyone about that." They both sat silent for a minute, before Quint continued. "You already know some things about me, how about you, Bianca? Your turn, time to tell." Bianca rolled her eyes, laughing slightly, then looked back, thinking for a second.

"Well, what?" she said, putting on another act, as if she had nothing to say or didn't know.

"Come on, you live in Troy, and you live alone. That's gotta be a story." Quint said, serious in a deliberate way.

"Jeez, you cut right to the point. Fine, where to start? You're right, I live in Troy, I live alone. I've lived in Troy ever since I remember, but I'm not from here. I was raised in that apartment…relatively alone. Ever since I was a child, I remember being there, alone…that couch there, the rooms how they are. Over years, I added some furnishings of course, but that's always been my home. Since I was…four or five, when I remember, I always lived there, and when I needed anything, I just went down to the streets, grabbed what I needed from the trashes, stole a couple of wallets, and found people who were willing to help me out whenever I needed it…"

"Zimmerman." Quint said in her absence of words.

"Yeah, like Zimmerman. But, that's the story of Troy. I just kind of grew up outside of families, outside of society, in my own little apartment on the third story of a building built on top of another. I always found myself looking upward, thinking if my parents, my family, had dropped me from one of those higher buildings, and I landed here…that one day, they would come find me, and take me back up to those buildings up top…the ones that look as if they're stabbing the sky. But, it never happened…I only know bits of how I came to be in Troy."

"Started out kind of like every other story you hear about Gears and death, but basically, I was an orphan, parents couldn't take care of me, threw me at some instution, never came back. I was a few weeks old at this point, and the orphanage took me in. When I was about three, they say that the city was attacked…somewhere in Italy…and the refugees fled, trailed by Gears, no Seikishidan to be found, they said, and Troy took us in, fought off the Gears, and a few of us made it in. The nanny of the orphanage only got me and a few other children in, and from what I heard, soon as the gates closed behind her and she was inside, all of us safe, she fell down dead, severe exhaustion and blood loss, not to mention a few stabs and slashes. Old ladies carrying a few children and on the run from Gears don't mix. And, from the point I can remember, I always lived in that small shit hole." Darton sat silent listening, just watching her demeanor as she told the story in a low tone, almost a whisper, like it was confidential, her eyes transfixed on a rut in the surface of the table, her head leaned down slightly, not looking at him.

"Well, it's in the past, not much to say about it. But, you got something to tell me now, one for one." She said, smiling out of habit and having to force it, her memories being driven back into nostalgic seclusion in her own mind. Perks of living alone, kiddo. You can control your emotions and thoughts when you need to, unlike Darton, who kind of exploded on me last night…can't blame him, he had a bit of a worse experience than I, but still…

"Well, what?" he asked, mocking Bianca's previous situation. She gave him back the look that he gave her, and he sighed in defeat. "Alright, alright. So…"

"You told me about your past. You never told me why you came with me."

"Yeah, I did. In the boat, said I was sick of it all."

"Darton, I know something happened in that headquarters…something you haven't told, haven't wanted to say…I'm not that dumb, but I never brought it up. Now's the time. I want to know. There's more to your reason."

"You're good, remembering all the little things, as well as being pretty damned shrewd too."

"Well, you gotta tame me before I won't be." She said seductively, taking a drink from a recently arrived two small glasses filled with a house-special bourbon, brewed in the back, most likely flavored with whatever trash they threw in it to give it some added flavor, probably a boot, by the taste, but no one said bourbon was a sweet drink either.

"I will eventually, if it's in the cards." He said with a wry smile. He set his own glass back down, Bianca's echoing his as both simultaneously slapped down onto the table between them, the contents sloshing around slightly before settling back down. "Anyway…well, you know the debrief on the mission right?"

"'Course, came in with the rosters this morning. Attacked, band of survivors made their way to Floor F, got out by tether, only two survived, Kiske and then some other guy."

"That's the basic story. Real basic…it started out pretty normal, I remember being in my bunk, sitting there, being late as usual, so I finally got dressed, and headed down to get something to eat before doing whatever it was I did in that place, considering I wasn't a very good soldier, and that I didn't even remember my assignment. Then, all of a sudden, the place goes ape shit. Lights bust out of the walls, sirens screech, and soldiers burst out of the rooms, cafeteria, all running the opposite way of me, I'm taken into the storm, next after that, the entire base was on call in the cargo room. I don't know if you saw it or not, but the cargo room is on Floor C, it has a lot of huge steel doors for the MTs to unload or load, park inside, whatever. Kiske gave a speech, told us the Gears were coming, they murdered the sentires before they could warn us, we'd have no time to prepare, it was now. They always preached about always being ready in the worst damn situations, when unexpected and unprepared, they weren't shitting you." He said, smirking with another gulp of the liquor, setting down an empty glass, drops of remaining bourbon sliding down the sides and pooling in the center of the bevelled cup.

"So, we got a little speech from Ky, half assed no less. Definitely a kid, he is…he's not as good as Kliff was at speeches or morale, he just gave a speech as best as a sixteen year old could. Not bad, but not nearly good enough for the situation. The other soldiers bought into it, their blind patriotism and bullshit kind of getting in the way of reality, but hell, that's the Seikishidan, right? The glimmer wore off for me long before, others still saw it. Anyway, we go out of the cargo room, into the fields in front of the H.Q., and the Gears are there waiting for us. Justice wasn't going easy, he really wanted to kill us, he even sent his second in command"

"Testament?" she butted in, anxiously wanting to know, one of her hands resting on the table, other propped up on her chin, arching forward slightly, listening intently, looking at Darton, but eyes elsewhere, envisioning.

"…Yeah, Testament." How would she know about…who cares, she's a fake A.A., she probably gets around, hears shit, and that despite this is Troy, they do get shit like the K.I.A. lists, so they're not really detached. "Anyway, we were driven back, into the H.Q., to the back of it, the very back of Floor C. I was running, soldiers all around me being flanked, and then brilliant Ky decides to use that lightning sword of his, and blows out a hole in the walkway, a hole that takes out more than a chunk of Floor C, but an entire twenty feet. So, I fell down to Floor B, the Gears kept going though, twenty feet's nothing to them. So, I was in the clear, but I kept running in the same direction the soldiers went, because the other way still had Gears surging in, hundreds, thousands…we must have had maybe six-thousand on base, they brought over ten."

"The Gears spread out, and a main force kept going straight, above on the Floor C, chasing after Kiske and the survivors. I finally came around to the back of Floor B, climbed up the stairwell, and found myself behind the losing battle on both sides, both being pushed in by the Gears. Then, all of a sudden, Kiske gets knocked down, he flies past me, his sword turns loose. I grab it, the Gears were breaking loose on the side he was thrown back from, and something comes over me, and I couldn't control it. One hell of a blast comes out of it, and me, kills all the Gears on that side of Floor B, about twenty or so of them in the one charge, and the other side got mopped up by the Seikishidan survivors, and I passed out. The sword kicked my ass, and it really is hard to use and control, Ky gets his points there."

"Anyway, I wake up, we're back the cargo room of Floor C. Thing was busted up by the Gears, they closed it off with rubble and destruction, no way out. And, the base really only has that for an exit, as you saw. So, we decided sky light or bust. Instantly, Kiske takes a hating to me for the crap with his sword, and we go on our merry way. We get to the back of Floor C, I say I need to go back to my room to get something, and while I'm there and get it, Kiske leaves with the team, seven of them, besides him and I. So, I back track, find them gone, and then go searching. Lucky me, I find a Gear sentry crawling around, looking for any more humans. After killing it, I kind of alert about a zillion more, and while I'm running, I find the rest of the soldiers, hiding out in an old warehouse that wasn't used since when Kliff came to order. Place is totally dark, runs all the way along to Floor E, good for us. So, I yell at everyone to get in, they start running again, and I smash into something on my way in, lose my sword, which wasn't even mine, it was a Gear's, mine was lost somewhere or another. I pick up the sword, I keep running. Then, I noticed this ain't my sword, it's that thing you picked up before you found me."

"So, later one, we're all running in the darkness to a freight elevator that's old as shit, hoping it'll work, and we finally get there. It's all metal, so obviously, Kiske is gonna put the sparks to it, and no Gears can touch it. The end of the battle, we lost two soldiers. He saw me coming, and was going to do it anyway, but I stopped him with the sword. Oh yeah, did I mention it has this weird thing where it shoots wind?" Her expression turned very cold and questioning, then he just shrugged his shoulders and continued, speaking at a frenzid pace as he remembered and told it, almost like a story teller, her sitting and just wanting to know about it. Even Trojans loved war stories, and in this war, they were very common, not to mention the only other entertainment or story was the Bible…so take your choices.

"I got on the elevator, we're sitting there, going up slower than hell. Eventually, we reach the top, we get off, and we have to fight off the Gears who followd us up. A few of the more animal Gears could climb, and they did so, kind of keeping up with the open elevator, and when we got off, they surrounded it. When it happened, we fought, and Kiske went down, hard. Took a blade in his back…"

"I know, I helped sew him up." She said with a slight smile.

"…Good for you." He said mockingly, her mildly insulted, before he continued telling his story. "We finished the fight…and then we, me and some other guy, Jaygus, dragged his ass out of there...he was dead if I didn't do anything, a Gear would have made sure he was dead three times over, I had to get in the way…I don't know if he even knew I saved him, but I did. Anyway, battle was over, and Jaygus tried stitching him up. This time, we lost two more, down to five, including me. There, we went up an elevator shaft, got to Floor F, and from there, we scavenged for a few materials, or whatever we could get, and a guy came out of the sky light, attached by tether. Lucky him, he just alerted the last remaining Gears, the ones from before, in the warehouse who couldn't climb, they doubled back and up to Floor F, and he gave away our position, since we were relatively silent in our exploits."

"There, we fought the last of the Gears…the end of them. We had lived this far, we had to live more. Jaygus took a beating, Ky did, two more soldier died, now only me and the other two. At the end of the fight, Ky and I were the only two left conscious, Jaygus in some pile somewhere else, I thought he was dead, but obviously, he wasn't, don't know how I knew, but I could feel it. Gears didn't care though, if they killed the live humans, they could get to the sleeping ones easy. Same tactic they use everytime the storm cities. Basically, we killed the rest of them, except the very last Gear…it knocked me off of the edge of Floor F. From there…"

"You fell and I found you?"

"…Yeah." You're such a goddamned liar. Some other time, shut up. "And obviously, I was K.I.A….and here I am now."

"Okay, good story." She said, leaning back in her booth, folding her arms, looking straight at Darton. "But, you're still a terrible liar."

"…What?" he stifled out. She always goddamn knows…

"Story makes sense, accounted for damage, survivors, death, blood, bodies…but not why you would leave. If you weren't dead after that enormous fight, you would have most likely kept yourself in the Seikishidan, kept fighting. Like refilling the shot glass of Seikishidan love or religion, or whatever. But, you left something out, some reason, something."

"…Damn you, Bianca. How the hell do you always know?" he said, half humorous, half sneering. She shrugged, downing another glass of bourbon, her second. "Fine, you wanna know? You really want to know?"

"I've been wanting to know for a long ass time."

"…I should be dead right now. That K.I.A. on the list by my name is right, I should be dead, I should have been killed in action. I fell of that edge of Floor F, I had this broken collarbone, this dislocated shoulder, this gash right through my arm, all of these damages…" he said, nodding to each in order. "When I fell off, it wasn't entirely because I was pushed. Yeah, I wouldn't have fallen off otherwise, but once I was pushed…I let it happen, I let myself be pushed over, where else I could have grabbed a ledge or try and snag a floor below, but no, I didn't…"

"But Ky did. He grabbed me. The bastard threw himself over also, and caught my arm." He said, looking away, a low tone of his own, a snake like distanced feeling of it, as well as that pervasive death through each syllable, no matter how low or mumbled, it was clear as day, the camoflauge of a rattler never enough, because of that constant noise. "He tried to pull me back up, but he couldn't. I was too heavy, he was too tired and weak, and he was slipping off the edge also. He would have died with me…I told him to let me go, he said no. I always would insult Ky, berate him for being a child, and I still do, I don't like him…but what he did, I cannot put words to. I told him to let me go, I told him to let me die, it was my time. I had done something in my life, past my child hood that renewed something there that had been missing, no more reason for vengenace, no more disenchanted-with-the-Seikishidan…I had witnessed all of these men die, and for one man…one boy to live. I've seen death, I've been in a lot of battles, but not has it ever hit me like it did there. All of it, the entirety was for Ky Kiske to live, and if he died, the Gears won, check mate…but he risked his life for me at that point." Darton said, drinking another glass of bourbon that was slung across the table by the waitress making her rounds. It was bitter, and it burned, but his eyes watered because of more than that. He looked away, at a man at the bar drunk and laughing heartily in his belly.

"…I punched him. I punched Kiske three, four times…until his wrist couldn't hold me, I killed myself. He wouldn't let go, even when I punched him, he held on tighter, him slipping off too…but then, I finally released his grip, and he didn't release it, but it was one of those nerve things…he would have fell down to Floor A with me, to save a soldier like me, who had been nothing but trouble on him anyway…I told him my life was worthless, that at least now, dying here, I helped in having Ky Kiske live, having the one who would end the war live because I killed a few Gears that were meant for him, that was enough of a way to go. Also, my vendetta, my entire life long pursuit of revenge and hatred…had lost meaning, swept under the rug…it was gone, I was a shell of myself, there was no more Quint Darton in me, there was something else…something I didn't like. And I fell, I should have died, I wanted to die…but I didn't, not because of Ky, but I didn't die from what should have killed me…" He sat in silence, looking downa t the table unblinkingly, then back up at Bianca, a slight smile on his face. She was suddenly pale, her eyes transixed upon Darton, just listening, wondering, sucked into the story and what happened, the emotions taking over her…the last bit of conversation, the last two paragraphs such a departure from the point-by-point narration of before, to something she hadn't expected, something entirely different, she couldn't believ Darton did or said those things, words not being able to compensate her feelings. She had only known him for a few days, but still…that was beyond her.

"Yet, now, I feel better." He said, smiling slightly, reaching across the table to a hand that sat lifeless on the table. He slowly grabbed it, his fingers wrapping around hers and tightening over them, and pulled her hand toward the center of the table slowly, shaking her from daze, her breathing in deeply. "I said that my life was over, I should have died…and now, this, it's a different situation. I have a reason to live, a past behind me, as well as a death that's official…I can start over, build a new life, no shadow to live in…I can live in Troy…live without Gears or Seikishidan…I can live with you. You brought me here, you are my friggin' angel, you, Bianca…you, in all of three days I've known you, you've shown trust, compassion, and such…friendship for someone you don't know and in all cases shouldn't give those luxuries, but you did…you did that for me, to me…and now, I have reason to live. I want to live, I want to build a new life, I want to be here, in Troy, with you…" he said, his words trailing off.

She sat shaken from reality, like the foundations of the buildings that echoed Babylon were picked up and thrown around, unable to speak or talk in any way, shape, or form, the power in the words said by Darton, what she heard…beyond what she was expecting, and it entirely brought her in, engulfed her, she couldn't understand, she didn't want to understand, yet she did, and…

She leaned forward over the table quickly, her eyes closed and kissed Darton. He was uprepared, though only slightly, eyes widening slightly at first, then closing as he kissed back, her soft lips meeting his chiseled and some-what chapped ones, a small cut on the inside of his mouth from biting his own lip in battle not fully healed. Her lips were soft…moist, more than complacent to his, and she pressed hard into him, her eyes closed and a distinct emotion in her actions undeniable by even him. Her hand embraced his and tightened over it as she kissed him, and he finally kissed back in entirety. The sounds of drunk men and pouring liquor, a bit of a talking murmur above the rustle and activities of the sky dwelling above in the towers of Troy, they all bore down upon both of them, crashing down, the entire base of what they both knew falling into pure and absolute chaos around them…yet they were oblivious, invulnerable, just simply enduring with that passionate kiss, that both of them reciprocated and fell into. It was somewhat bittersweet, in their kiss, tinged with bourbon, and emotions running like the liquor in the bar, but both of them knew it, felt it…couldn't deny anything or really deal with what they knew and felt any other way…than a kiss.

Zeronova's Notes:
This is an interesting time…considering it is romance, and a kiss, le gasp! I'm not nearly as good a romance writer or try to be one as some others are, and I don't try and lean into that sort of section more than I need to. I especially tried to avoid certain things very common in most romance writing (like the word luscious), and some other very notable phrases and adjectives, which go hand in hand with yuri/yaoi for the most part, and simply cease to get the true meaning across to me anymore, so I took a more classical approach to how a kiss was done, and I think it turned out better than worse. Not perfect, but definitely gets the point, feeling, and story driving position across. I kind of neglected Lyon for now, but there will be next chapter (In plus, this has to happen now, same time/night as Lyon, which happened last chapter…).