/*Disclaimer: need I say it?
If I was in the habit of naming my chapters, I would call this one "fanservice." xD */
Chapter 11
Time seemed to pass so slowly for Kratos, as he waited for night to fall- he would wait for the stars and moon to guide him, and for the cover of darkness which would mask him. The sun had finished setting, but it seemed almost slow motion as twilight crept onward. He had grown tired of pacing, and was now gliding back and forth with his wings, dragging his toes in the wild grass on the forest's edge. He made sure to stay hidden from view, but he was quite impatient and wanted to finish his task so that he could get it over with and move on.
The plan was fairly simple- grab the girl, take her out the window into the forest, and be sure to stand behind her as the key crest makes contact with her skin. After he had become sick of waiting, which was probably only a matter of minutes, he decided to take an extra measure in his plan and went quickly to Luin to purchase a length of string- he made the ring into a necklace so that he would be able to slip it on her from behind. If she recognized him and was re-captured before she died, Kratos knew that he would never be able to live it down once the Desians made the connection. His rescue had to be as detached as possible, and he would have to monitor her progress so that she wouldn't truly escape. She belonged to Cruxis, and if he helped her to evade them then he would be betraying his own system of beliefs and loyalties. He knew he was thinking too far into the future, not to mention he was blowing things out of proportion, but he figured that anxiety in a situation as strange as this couldn't be helped. He still wasn't even sure why he was doing this- all he knew was that it would be much harder not to.
When he arrived back in the forest, it was night. He looked up to the heavens, and tried to imagine the giant rock of mana floating above him. Somehow, he had never been able to picture it- he so loved the stars that he couldn't imagine anything else blocking them out. Kratos took a moment to walk up to the edge of the trees, and looked up at the girl's window. As much as he tried to mentally prepare himself, he was unable to calm his nerves. It was such a surreal feeling, this anxiety- he couldn't remember the last time he had felt anything half as intense as this. But he tried not to think about it as he pushed off the ground with his toes. He rested a hand on the pouch with the necklace, and sighed heavily as his wings carried him through the darkness. They sparkled magnificently, and he wondered vaguely if he should have waited for mid-night to do this. Then he figured that he wouldn't have been able to wait that long even if he tried, and resigned himself to carry on quickly, though carefully- with the risks he was already taking there would be no margin for error.
He reached the window, and found it was shut. This didn't bother him, however- Kratos unsheathed his sword and wedged it between the wood and stone frame. With a bit of effort, he was able to use the power of his wings to give him enough leverage to open the window. He sheathed his sword again and used his hands to open it further, taking a quick look inside before climbing in.
Kratos wasn't sure what to do, now that he was here. In planning, it had seemed simple enough to just grab the girl and go, but now that he was in the room he realized that the window wasn't big enough for him to get through with a lady in his arms. He would have to get her to stand close enough to the window for him to be able to reach her from outside. He wondered if she was even able to stand, because as he walked closer she was still on the floor in the same position he had last seen her. Suddenly worried, he knelt behind her and reached for her hand, thinking to check her pulse. She lashed out and slapped him hard, right below his eye. It stung, and he wondered how she could be so strong even though she was practically dead.
"Guess she's alive, then." He muttered quietly to himself, half-smiling until he realized it and became serious again.
He was curious, though, how to move her without being attacked. She wasn't in control of herself, and so it was only natural for her to attack someone in self-defense. Although all he had done was try to hold her wrist- he wondered how she was going to like flying. It had to be done, though, because he hadn't gone to the trouble for nothing. He walked around to kneel in front of her, and cautiously held out both his hands where he knew she would be able to see them. She did not react, so he proceeded to slowly reach for her torso, thinking to help her stand. He felt vulnerable as his face came closer, and he wondered if he was about to be slapped again. However, now that he was moving slower she seemed to be okay with his presence.
He sighed with relief, and with extreme care he wedged his hands underneath her slim frame, one at her shoulder and the other at her lower back. He had to admit he felt a bit awkward as he propped her up into a sitting position, and saw her staring right through him. It was slightly unnerving, but he was thankful she had at least refrained from slapping him again. He recalled his last visit- she had socked him hard in the shoulder, and knocked him to the floor. He half-smiled again, and whispered "humph" before setting to work once more.
He felt strange touching her, even though he knew it meant nothing. Looking into her lifeless eyes made it feel wrong somehow, but he was here for a reason and he wasn't going to turn around and leave. It was because of those eyes that he had come, in the first place- he wanted to see them bright and wild once more. Lifting her arm cautiously with one hand, he placed his shoulder next to her body so that he would be able to help her stand. Her arm rested across his shoulders and his other hand fell into place around her waist. He closed his eyes, fearing she would try to resist, but thankfully she seemed indifferent to touch. Kratos wondered what had set her off the previous times, but didn't have any complaints to make as he made to lift her upright. He had expected her to be light considering how sick she looked, but she was surprisingly heavy. The angel had some difficulty standing from a crouch with her weight, but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle. A smirk came across his face again as he thought of her, but he quickly put it from his mind. This was not supposed to be a person, anyway- she was a project. But with that logic, it made no sense to be rescuing an inanimate thing. He didn't like thinking about that either, so he tried to focus on the task at hand- after moving her to the window, how was he going to get her out?
Kratos knew he wasn't a big puzzle solver, so he felt rather proud when he realized that he could hold on to her and drag himself out the window with his wings at the same time. With the woman situated on his lap, and he sitting in the window frame, it was possible to pull himself out backwards with a small ducking of his head. He had to carefully move her head so that it wouldn't touch the top of the window frame, but after he had successfully done so Kratos figured he was home free. One thing he hadn't thought of, however, was the toll her weight would take on his already exhausted wings.
He had been flying halfway across Sylvarant twice in the past few days, and both to and from Luin on his errand- he had been pacing to and fro with his wings out, and basically spent the majority of his mana flying around without rest. Under normal circumstances, carrying someone this heavy wouldn't have been too much of an issue, but with his mana at these lower levels, Kratos found that he was unable to hold her up. Everything happened so suddenly, and the angel found himself unable to react quickly enough to save himself. He hadn't let go of the other body, but it was dragging him towards the ground faster than he could have predicted. The wings on his back only lasted for thirty seconds of the flight- they had glided for those seconds towards the trees, but as soon as he felt the mana at a life-endangering low he drew them back in, and they disappeared. Kratos felt himself falling, and didn't have time to react before he turned in the air, crashed through the branches of a tree, and landed facedown on the wild grass. He lifted his head and tried to see where the woman had gone, because she was no longer in his arms- the last thing he saw before he blacked out was a shimmering yellow speck in the distance, slowly descending toward the ground.
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A/N: Anyone completely lost? Don't worry, everything will be straightened out in the next chapter =)