Chapter Eight: Dynamic Duel
POWER…ON
REACTOR…99.98%
POWER ON SELF-TEST (POST)…OK
RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (RAM)…1024TB…OK
READ/WRITE MEMORY (RWM)…2048PB…OK
OS 'ALIA'…ONLINE
Alia's eyes opened to the familiar view of her quarters from inside her recharging pod. The steady thrumming of her reactor sounded in her audio receptors until her sound suppression subroutines initiated, filtering out the ambient noise.
The glass door on her recharging pod slid open, and she stepped out into her otherwise unoccupied room, ready to start her day…only she had nothing to do. Without her job as navigator, Alia found herself at a loss as to what to do with herself.
A beeping from the entrance to her quarters drew her attention, and she pressed a button on one of the many consoles scattered around her living space. "This is Alia."
"Good morning, sleepyhead!" Palette's voice chirped from the other end. "Can we come in?"
Alia smiled to herself; what good friends. "Just a minute." She ended the communication and headed over to the entrance, pressing a button next to it to open the door. A whoosh of the door sliding into the wall, and her friends came into view. "Good morning," she greeted. "Come on in."
"Good morning, sleepyhead!" Palette greeted again as she entered, followed by Layer. "We're headed to work, but wanted to stop by to check up on you!"
"Thanks, but I'm okay," Alia said.
"Have you decided what you're going to do about Max?" Layer queried, getting right to the point.
Alia sighed. "I thought about that a lot before turning in…"
"Do you want to be with him?" Layer followed up.
"Yeah," she replied, ducking her head.
"Why are you embarrassed?" Palette asked. "You're not ashamed for wanting to be with a human, are you?"
"If it were anyone else…probably," Alia admitted. "But Max…"
"He's different, isn't he?" Layer asked with a soft smile.
"Yeah…"
"Well, go get 'em!" Palette exclaimed. "You know where he lives, right?"
"No," Alia said, shaking her head with a look of regret. "He never told me. In fact, I don't even know if he knows that I live here."
"Ouch," the shorter reploid replied sympathetically.
"At least he knows where you work," Layer offered. "If he comes here to find you, then you can get back together."
"That's true," Alia conceded. "I hope he actually-"
Her words were interrupted by the sound of the klaxon alarms, causing all three women to look up. "That's the perimeter alarm!" Palette yelled as she scrambled to her feet.
"Could it be Dynamo?" Alia wondered aloud. The mercenary hadn't been seen since the Gate incident, but that certainly didn't mean that he had been destroyed.
"It could be," Layer replied, also getting to her feet. "We'll keep you posted, but you should really be focused on your situation with Max."
Alia watched sadly as her friends hurried from her quarters. She knew that in a few seconds Maverick Hunter HQ would begin reconfiguring itself to Fortress Mode, making it nearly impregnable, but she still wished she could join her friends; at least she'd be doing something.
She jumped as Signas' voice sounded through the PA system: "Attention, please: Alia, please report to the command center. I repeat: Alia, please report to the command center."
"What could he need from me?" she wondered. "He put me on leave just yesterday." She quickly donned her headset just in case, and bolted from the room. As she ran down the hall to the nearest elevator, the building started to shake around her, and she knew that, outside, thick doors would be slamming shut over the main entrance, and trap doors would be opening in the sidewalk around the building to reveal varying types of energy weapons specifically designed for all different kinds of mavericks.
She dashed into the command center and skidded to a stop before Commander Signas. "Nav-er, Alia here, sir!"
"Come look at this, please," he intoned, gesturing toward a monitor.
With a puzzled look she moved to his side and looked into the monitor. Her eyes widened and her reactor output increased at the sight of a familiar face on the screen. "M-Max?!"
Sure enough, her friend stood outside Maverick Hunter HQ with energy blades brandished, surrounded by rookie Hunters. The monitor showed that he was yelling something, but she couldn't tell what.
Signas leaned forward and pressed one of the buttons near the screen. "Report."
On the monitor, Alia could see one of the hunters bring his hand up next to his head. "It's Navigator Alia's human," she heard him reply. "He's challenging X to a duel…" He looked over at the human for a moment. "…in one of our training rooms, preferably."
"Max, what are you doing?" Alia breathed. Then she whirled on her former commander. "Please let me talk to him, sir; I might be able to talk him down."
Signas studied her for a brief moment before he smiled and laid a hand on her shoulder. "This is not the reunion I was hoping for the two of you, but go ahead."
"Thank you," she said before bolting from the room, squeezing between the blast doors as they slowly opened. She entered the elevator at the end of the hall and fidgeted as it descended. "What am I going to say to him?" she asked herself. "And why does he want to fight X? He had enough trouble with Seismic Sloth; what chance does he think he'd have against X?"
The elevator finally reached the entrance level, and as she ran across the main floor she barely noticed Shortwave's replacement behind the reception desk as the defensive doors parted just enough for her to hurry through.
Her breath caught in her throat as she saw her man in the middle of the group of Hunters, just as she'd seen on the monitor. "Max…"
"Hey, Alia!" he greeted with a huge smile, his demeanor an almost humorous contrast to the serious-looking Hunters who had their weapons trained on him. "Sorry I haven't visited you."
"What are you doing?!" she exclaimed as she marched up to him through the crowd of Hunters, who parted as she approached. "I haven't seen you since the park, and now you have HQ in an uproar!"
"Yeah, sorry about that," he said as casually as though they were taking a walk. "I'm just here to challenge X."
"Why?"
"I…can't tell you," he replied with an apologetic look. "But I can tell you that I'm not leaving until X accepts my challenge…or if I get need to get something to eat." He leaned toward her, causing more of the nearby Hunters to ready their weapons. "Do you think Mr. Zero could talk him into it?"
Alia looked at him in disbelief for several seconds before bursting into laughter; the whole situation seemed surreal. "All right, Max; I'll go talk to the commander and see what I can do. Just…" she gestured helplessly at him. "…Just don't do anything stupid while I'm gone, okay? Promise?"
"Promise," he replied, moving to cross his heart with his hand before remembering he still had a blade in it. "Oops. Yeah, promise."
She shook her head with a smile before turning to head back into the building. Partway there she stopped and turned back to him. "Max? It's…I'm really glad to see you again."
"Thanks," he said, raising one of his blades in a knight's salute and causing even more of the Hunters to raise their weapons. "Oops. Sorry, guys."
She saw him deactivate his blades before she entered Maverick Hunter HQ again. "May I use your comm?" she asked as she approached the receptionist.
"Of course, ma'am," the male reploid behind the desk replied.
"Thank you." Alia leaned over the counter and pressed one of the buttons behind the desk. "Commander? Alia here."
"Go ahead."
Alia smiled with a shake of her head. "It's no use, sir; he's set on challenging X. I didn't think to specifically ask him, but I'm sure he's not here to try to kill him."
"He must know that X is our best Maverick Hunter and wouldn't stand a chance."
"I could be wrong, but I get the feeling that he's challenging himself more than he is X," Alia remarked. "He's a seeker of truth, after all; he's probably doing this to try to learn something. Is X here today?"
"He is, surprisingly. I will contact him about this, then contact you again. Stand by. Signas out."
"Why would a human want to challenge X?" the receptionist asked as Alia cut her end of the line. "They're inferior to us in every way."
"Not every way," Alia countered with a withering look. "They're capable of amazing feats of insight and creativity that we haven't been able to duplicate. Besides, if it weren't for those 'inferior humans' we wouldn't be around to begin with."
"Yes, ma'am." With that, the receptionist sat back down behind his desk and began entering information into his computer. Whether he had been working on it before Alia's arrival, or if he started on it to keep himself busy, she didn't care.
Left with nothing to do but wait, Alia fell into one of the chairs in the reception area. She really wanted to go back out to Max, but she had been told to 'stand by', so she would.
Several minutes later the building started to shake again, and Alia was relieved to see the defenses starting to retract, the heavy doors opening fully, letting sunlight back in again, and she could see the rookie Hunters making their way to the entrance, leaving Max standing alone in the courtyard. At the same time, the elevator doors opened, revealing the commander along with HQ's top maverick hunter, and she hopped to her feet. "Sir!"
"Please come with us," Signas said as the pair passed by her on the way to the main doors.
She followed them out the doors and up to Max, who waited while shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "Thanks for coming out to see me, gentlemen," he greeted. "I'm sorry for tripping the alarms."
"Don't concern yourself with that at this point," Signas replied. "I must admit to curiosity, though, as to why you would challenge our best Maverick Hunter."
"I-I'm sorry, commander; I can't say right now. I can promise, however, that I'll tell you after we're done…assuming that my challenge is accepted," Max replied while looking meaningfully at X.
X looked to Signas, who simply angled his head. "I will leave this up to you, Hunter Commander X; while I don't normally condone dueling, I also understand that this is not a normal situation. Let me know what you decide, as I will want to be in attendance should you choose to accept."
"Understood, commander," X replied.
Signas nodded once before turning to head back into the building, leaving two reploids and one human in the courtyard. "Sooo…" Max said, clearly sounding anxious. "I know it's kinda sudden, but…can we do this?"
X studied the human for a minute before reaching out and clapping him on the shoulder. "Sure. I could use a new challenge; I've sparred with Zero and Axl so many times that it's gotten kind of boring. Are you going to be okay, though? I don't know what my shots would do to real skin, so do you have any armor? If not, I'm sure we have some that would fit you."
"Thanks, but I'd rather not be made any slower than I already am," Max replied. "I have a light mesh woven into my jacket and pants; I'll just have to be really good at dodging."
"Are you really sure you want to do this?" Alia asked, holding Max's arm as they walked. "X can hold back, but…"
"I'm not really sure," Max admitted, "but I know I have to do this."
"Max, you-"
"Alia," X interrupted. "He'll be fine. He had to have a good head for strategy to do what he did to Seismic Sloth. For what it's worth, I think he has the potential to be a very capable Hunter."
"Wow…thanks," Max said with a look of wonder.
A few minutes later, Max found himself in one of HQ's many training rooms. It was a large, rectangular room with silver walls. Other than the three of them, the room was empty.
"Why do the walls look funny?" Max asked as he carefully traced his fingers down the odd finish on one of the walls.
"They're designed with shock-absorbing properties," Alia explained as X made his way to a console mounted next to the door. "It reduces potential damage if someone collides with it."
"That's…reassuring."
"Max, you…" Alia started, having difficulty finding the right words. "You really don't have to do this; I'm just glad you're here, and…" she bit her lip. "…I've really missed you."
"Thanks," he said as he laid a hand on her cheek, and she reveled in the feel of his pulse. "I've missed you, too. Don't worry; after this we'll celebrate. How does corn dogs sound?"
In spite of her worry, she managed a laugh. "You're something else, you know that?"
Max smiled, and was about to reply when the doors to the training room slid open, and he gaped as Signas, accompanied by Zero and Axl, as well as Palette, Layer and Shortwave, all entered the room. "Whoa…" he breathed. "We're sure getting the VIP treatment, aren't we? Now I'm starting to get a little nervous," he finished, tugging at his collar.
"Do you need a minute or two to prepare?" X asked, drawing Max's attention from their audience.
"Huh? Oh, yeah…please," the human managed, his gaze returning to Zero. "Hey, if I make it through this, do you think Mr. Zero would give me his autograph?"
"A-Autograph?" X stammered, surprised by the out-of-place question. "I'm…sure we could work something out."
"Thanks," Max said, then drew a deep breath. "Well, where's my starting point? I don't want to keep us waiting too long."
"It's right over here," Alia said as she took Max by the arm again. As they headed over she said, "I'm really worried about you; your reflexes and durability are nowhere near X's level."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," he quipped.
"I'm serious, Max," she said, and he could feel her trembling through his arm. "If you get hurt…I don't know what…"
"Look, Alia," he said, turning to face her as they reached his spot. "I'm supposed to be nervous right now, but I really can't afford to be; I need to be focused on the task at hand. What I need you to do," he said, gently tapping her on the nose, "is to have faith in me. Can you do that?"
"I'll try," she said worriedly.
"'Try not; do or do not'," he quoted with an impish grin. "'There is no try'."
She sputtered a laugh at the familiar reference. "O-Okay, M-Max; just…take it easy on him, okay? He's our best Hunter."
"I'll do my best," he said giving her a smile and a wink. "Now excuse me, please; I have work to do."
She nodded once before heading over to join the others, who had made their way to an enclosed booth containing several seats. The booth was normally used by trainers and evaluators to protect them from stray shots and other projectiles that would occasionally fly in unexpected directions. She took a seat between Layer and Palette, who had saved the seat just for her.
"Are you okay?" Palette asked with a look of concern.
"I don't know," Alia answered honestly. "I'm really worried about him, but…somehow, I know everything's going to be okay."
"X isn't the type to destroy a human," Layer pointed out. "I'm sure he'll be holding back."
"Yeah, but…I think it's more than just that," the blonde reploid replied, then chuckled with an expression of wonder. "Somehow…I just know he's going to do just fine. I don't think he'll 'win', but…he'll be amazing."
Her friends exchanged puzzled looks before looking out to the training room, where X stood at one end with his arm transformed to the X-Buster, double checking it. At the other end, Max sat with his legs crossed and his eyes closed. The handles for his blades rested on the floor in front of him, arranged so the blades would cross each other if activated.
Alia sighed as she smiled fondly at her human friend; she had missed him terribly after the incident at the amusement park, so to see him again was…more than a relief.
"What is he doing?" Palette whispered, though it was unnecessary. "Is he going to fight sitting?"
"He's meditating," Alia replied, her eyes still on Max. "It helps him to clear his mind and get focused on…whatever he needs to do."
"I've heard of that," Layer remarked, "but I've never seen it done before."
"It's done more on the inside than the outside," Signas said, his eyes also on their guest. "That's likely why it appears…boring."
Palette had to cover her mouth to hold back her laughter, but it became more difficult when Signas gave her a sidelong glance along with a smile.
"What's so funny?" Axl hissed. "Let me in on the joke."
Any response was silenced at the sight of Max getting to his feet, retrieving his blade handles as he stood. "Thanks for waiting," he said.
"No problem," X replied. "Are you ready, then?"
"As ready as I can be," Max replied, sliding into a sideways combat stance as he activated his blades.
Alia noticed something different about his weapons. "That's new," she remarked thoughtfully. "One of them is shorter than the other."
"Did he adjust them?" Palette asked.
"I don't know," Alia replied, shaking her head. "But Max doesn't seem to be worried about it, so I assume he at least knows about it."
"I hope so," the short reploid said.
"Quiet, please," Signas admonished. "They're starting."
Not unexpectedly, X moved first, firing a trio of Buster shots. Max rolled to the side, and Alia marveled at how he could do that, blades extended, without hurting himself.
"Go, X!" Shortwave cheered, leaping from her seat.
Kneeling on one knee, Max examined his opponent. From his research, he knew about many of X's abilities, along with a few limitations. He knew that X could only fire three shots at a time before requiring a short recharge as well as needing several seconds to charge up an X-Buster shot. Up to that point, it had all been academic; facing the real deal, though…
Fortunately, he had figured out a way to modify his blades to account for the former, at least. He saw X dash a short distance from his starting point and fire off three more Buster shots, and allowed his reflexes to bring up the shorter blade in the path of the volley. As he hoped, the rounds bounced off his blade, sending them harmlessly away. "Whew," he sighed. "Glad that worked, or this would have been a reeeeeally short duel…"
Alia's mouth dropped open at the sight of X's shots being reflected. "How…How did he do that?" she gasped.
"Very impressive," Signas intoned.
Max knew he couldn't close the distance quickly enough to land a blow, so he slowly advanced, making short dashes of his own, diagonal to X's line of fire. He kept the distances random, partly to keep his opponent guessing, partly to conserve his stamina. Using this method, he was able to corner X without the latter even becoming aware of it. When the senior hunter bumped the corner behind him, he leaned forward and activated the dash thrusters in his boots with the intent to dash past Max and gain some breathing room.
As he passed, however, he felt a brief but intense heat against his left leg and, when he came to a stop and quickly checked his leg, he saw a long scorch mark, from his thigh to just above his ankle. "Nice one," he said, giving his opponent an approving smile.
"Thanks," Max said. "You okay?"
"I'm all right," X replied before leveling his arm cannon and firing off three more shots.
"He hit him…" Alia breathed, staring wide-eyed into the training room. She reached to the side, grabbing Layer and starting to shake her. "He hit him!"
"A-Amazing…" Layer said as she tried to free herself from her excited friend's grip.
"Noooo, X!" Shortwave wailed. "Don't let him do that again!"
Max deflected the first shot as he rolled to the side to dodge the next two. Deciding to take the risk, he charged X with the shorter blade up for protection, and X had to dodge to avoid the strike, much to his surprise. He tried firing ahead of Max, but his intended target executed a breakfall, coming to an abrupt stop before quickly windmilling his legs to spin himself upright again.
Wanting to end the fight before it got too heated, X dashed toward the nearest wall and started 'wall-jumping' up it. He knew it wasn't fair to do something the human couldn't do, but he also figured that Max wouldn't settle for anything less than his best, so X would honor that by fighting with everything he had, excepting his Ultimate Armor.
As he watched X ascend the wall, Max took a knee to give himself a little recovery time. To the best of his knowledge X couldn't fire at an angle, so the hunter couldn't just hang out in the corner and take pot-shots at him. He would wait and take the chance to meditate a little longer.
He had finally regained his focus when X decided to drop down from the wall to fire three more shots at him. Max held his shorter blade in front of his face, between himself and the incoming projectiles.
"Max! Look out!" Alia yelled, bolting from her seat.
Max took in a measured breath, and exhaled as the first round bounced off his blade…right back at X. Unfortunately the first shot collided with the second, annihilating them both, but the third streaked toward its previous owner, who had to dive to avoid his own projectile.
Signas was on his feet in an instant. "How could he do that?"
Tears welled in Alia's eyes, pride causing her reactor to work overtime to keep up with the various feedbacks. "Max…"
X looked to his opponent, impressed. "That was amazing, sir!"
"Thank you," Max replied, but his expression seemed, off; like he was there but wasn't. He returned to his original combat stance and began to slowly approach his opponent.
X fired off several buster shots, staggering them on occasion to try to throw the human off, but he kept having to dodge his own shots, as Max somehow kept reflecting them back. Finally he took to wall-jumping again, giving himself enough time to charge his buster. The moment his buster registered a Stage One charge, he dropped again and fired it at Max, who somehow reflected it, but accidentally sent it into the wall near the observation booth, causing Shortwave to cry out. "That was scary!" she wailed.
Max glanced over long enough to see that no one was hurt before directing his attention back to X, who was halfway up the wall again and working on another charge. He threw his longer blade at the hunter, catching him somewhat by surprise and forcing him to drop to the floor. As X dashed away, still working on a charge, Max ran to the spot where he had been to retrieve his blade.
He had just grabbed up his blade and spun while in a kneeling position in time to see a huge globe of energy racing toward him, and he quickly crossed his blades before him. The charged X-Buster shot struck his blades and quickly dissipated; unfortunately for Max the concussive force was enough to slam him into the wall a short distance behind him.
"Max!" Alia cried as she shot to her feet to bolt from the observation booth and run across the room where her friend lay slumped against the wall, dropping to her knees next to him. "Are you okay?"
He looked up, giving her a weak smile as he weakly patted the wall behind him. "Very good walls…yeah, very good walls. Very comfy."
"How is he?" X asked as he jogged up with a concerned look, Signas and the others close behind.
"Call Lifesaver!" she snapped, causing the warrior to take a surprised step back. "I'll watch him!"
X blinked, then turned and ran to the console next to the entrance and started speaking into it.
"I'm all right," Max said, raising a hand toward her face. "Just got the wind knocked out of me."
She intercepted his hand, taking it into both of her own. "Max, you idiot," she trembled. "I was so worried about you."
Palette started to say something, but Signas motioned for her to remain silent.
"Thanks," he grunted, then winced. "Ugh…maybe your doctor should take a look at me… Wait, does he serve my kind here?"
Alia managed a laugh in spite of the optical lubricant that threatened to overflow. "How…How can you joke at a time like this?"
"Read it in a book," he quipped before wincing again. "I'd like to not talk for a while, if that's okay."
"O-Okay." Still trembling, she released his hand to carefully draw him into an embrace.
Lifesaver arrived a few minutes later with one of his many medical teams. "Who requires mechanical attention?"
"Right here," Signas said, indicating their guest.
Alia eyed the doctor warily as he knelt down next to her friend. "Commander, this is a human," he announced.
"Brilliant deduction, Sherlock," Axl quipped before being shushed by Zero.
"We know," Signas replied. "Can you at least scan him?"
Lifesaver 'humphed' in annoyance before reaching for Max's shoulder. "Just hold still," he said in a surprisingly gentle voice. "This shouldn't hurt, but you might feel a tingle."
"Do what you need to, doc," Max grunted. "I trust you."
The medical reploid paused, smiling briefly before turning serious attention to his medical scanner. "Let's see…no broken bones…multiple bruises…minor damage to the right shoulder and hip…" He snapped his scanner shut and looked to the human. "We need to take you to the infirmary. We have equipment that will help with tissue regeneration, so…" he looked over his shoulder to his attendants. "Gurney, please." As they worked on opening up the carrier he returned his attention to Max. "What were you doing to incur such injuries? They aren't beyond what we can handle, but…"
"He…was dueling with X," Alia replied hesitantly.
"He what?" Lifesaver exclaimed before snapping his gaze to Signas. "And you approved this? Do you know what kind of damage X's buster could do to a human body?"
"He fought Seismic Sloth," Signas replied evenly. "He has heart to spare."
"He showed a lot of guts!" Axl added, giving Max a thumbs-up.
"And they could have been splattered all over the walls of our training center!" Lifesaver countered. "This was irresponsible, unnecessary, and-"
"Requested," Max gasped as the medics carefully lifted him to the gurney.
Lifesaver blinked in surprise at the interruption. "You can explain after we get you to the infirmary," he grumbled as they wheeled the human toward the exit.
As the group headed out of the training center X paused, then headed back to retrieve Max's blade handles, carefully palming them before following the others out of the room.
"I wanted to know if I could fit into your world," Max explained to the group as the medtechs passed their tissue stimulators over him.
"Our world?" Signas asked.
"Well, yeah," Max said; then, his face tinted. "I wanted to know if I was good enough to be with a reploid."
Alia stared at him in disbelief. "You mean…you did that…"
"…so I could be with you," Max finished. "I just wasn't sure if I'd be good enough."
"Good enough?" Layer repeated. "But…it's generally accepted that humans are superior to reploids, isn't it?"
"I only know what I know," Max said, reaching out to take Alia's hand, who eagerly accepted. "I don't give a damn about so-called 'contemporary wisdom'; I want the truth."
"So you challenged X to see if you could understand us?" Signas theorized.
"You got it, chief," Max, replied, already sounding better.
"That's awesome!" Palette exclaimed before glomping onto her blonde friend. "And he did it all for you, Alia! Isn't that awesome?"
Alia started to leak optical lubricant for what seemed like the umpteenth time that day. "Max…you…"
"Hey, that reminds me… Hey, is it okay for me to use this arm?" Max asked one of the techs, who nodded. "I meant to give these to someone before the fight," he explained as he took two small boxes from an inside pocket of his coat. "I hope they didn't get broken."
"What is it?" Alia asked as she released his hand to accept one of the boxes.
"I picked these up a few days ago. My plan was to give that to you after the duel, but…" He nodded sheepishly. "…I didn't account for getting hurt."
"Everyone makes mistakes," Zero said.
Max's face lit up at the hunter's words. "Thank you, sir."
"So what is this?" Alia asked as she started to open the box.
"Wait!" Max exclaimed. "I need to tell you something first!"
"Eep!" She quickly snapped the box shut. "G-Go ahead, then."
Max closed his eyes and took a deep breath, wincing once before opening them again. "Alia, thanks for accepting me at the café even though you didn't know me. You've, uh, added beauty and intelligence to my life and given me encouragement I didn't even know I needed. Thanks."
"Y-You're welcome," she replied as optical lubricant started to trickle down her face.
"Go ahead and open that," he said. As she started to open the box again he said, "Alia, I want exclusive rights to that beauty and intelligence. Now, I'm not a traditional guy the way Ginny thinks I am, but…" he waited until she finished opening the box and gasped, with her hand flying to her chest, "…I want you to be mine and I want to be yours... If you're okay with that."
"Max…" She looked up in disbelief. "Are you asking me to marry you?"
"Am I?" He looked to the ceiling of the infirmary in thought. "Huh, I guess I am."
"Just like the way he asked you to be his girlfriend," Layer observed quietly.
"I know we don't know each other as well as most couples do," Max continued, "but I also know that I don't care. I know that we haven't known each other as long either, but I know that you've given me a lot already, and I want to give back." He held out his hand again, which she quickly took. "Will you join me again, Alia? Will you join me on a journey for truth?"
Alia breathing quickened as her reactor started to overheat from stress. "M-Max…I…oh, absolutely!" she exclaimed, finally bursting into tears of joy as she kissed his hand several times before snuggling it against her cheek. "Yes! Yes!" she cried as Palette and Layer moved up behind her to each rest a hand on her shoulders. "I want to do great things with you…"
"Then it was all worth it," he sighed with a smile. "Here, give me the box; I want to put the ring on you."
She released his hand and gave him the box. He carefully pulled the ring from its mounting and took hold of her trembling hand with his shaky one to slide the ring onto her finger. "You're mine, now," he said with a wink and a grin before handing her the other box.
"This doesn't seem very romantic," Palette complained, whispering to Layer.
"It is, actually," Layer whispered back. "You know how Alia hates ceremony."
"Quiet, please," Signas said in a low voice.
Alia slid the ring onto Max's finger as she looked into his eyes. "You're mine, now," she said with a wink and a grin of her own. "I have a question, though."
"What's that?"
She leaned over him, stopping with her lips just millimeters from his. "What's my last name now?"