We walked for a few days, much like the first days we traveled together, it was all almost entirely in silence.
"You've been awfully quiet." He said and I hummed looking up at him.
"Isn't that what you prefer?"
"Normally yes, but I find it odd you haven't found anything to complain or whine about. Someone you seem very fond of doing." He let out a soft chuckle, which caused me to growl and move forward, turning to stop to face him.
"You want me to complain? Fine, alright, I will!" I growled crossing my arms to glare at him. But I fell into silence, thinking. He pushed his weight to one foot, crossed his arms and waited, though I am sure was smirking beneath his helm. "How about the fact that every night we share together, you always take care of yourself? What about me? Do you not care enough to-"
"I am going to stop you." He said uncrossing his arms and I tensed up. "Out of all the nights we have spent together I have seen the look on your face, the sounds you've made, the way your body has moved and twitched beneath me." He moved closer and I uncrossed my arms staring up at him. "Or shall I prove you wrong?"
"R-Reaper...I was joking..." I muttered softly trying to relax, but I couldn't.
"No, I think you need a demonstration." He reached out for me but then hesitated, I saw his head turn slightly and then he moved quick. "Shield." He snapped.
I didn't know why he suddenly said that but as he was grabbing me, I spread my wings and exploded a firey shield around us. I felt something collide with my shield and he pulled back, unwrapping his arms from me. I took the moment to lower the shield and turn around to see what it was. There, not far off in the distance stood Soldier 76.
"But...how?" I muttered softly and then saw a second agent step out beside him. "Mercy." I growled removing my staff and spinning it around. "Should have assumed. There is only one person that can revive another agent."
"Phoenix. Where has your path strayed you? You were such an honorable fighter, if I had known of your betrayal I never would have helped you beat death."
"Kind of going against the code of ethics for doctors, aren't we?" I hissed at her. "There is only one thing I am fighting for, the end of the Ominic uprising, and peace returned. So if you would kindly get out of our way, we can continue."
"It is your fault they stand against us!" Soldier shouted and I turned my glare on him.
"Oh no, you foolish imbecile. It was you! If you hadn't started taking int Omnic and killing them by the thousands they wouldn't have started an uprising! The world in its current state is thanks to you!"
"Save your breath, Phoenix." Reaper said stepping up beside me. "Get out of our way, Soldier, I don't have time for this game." He started walking forward again, not paying them any mind. I saw Soldier bring up his gun and fire his helix rockets. Moving forward I rose my hand and sparked a wall of fire destroying the rockets. Standing upright I glared at Soldier before Reaper slowly turned his head to look at Soldier and utter silence passed for a long moment. "This is the plan, you keep Mercy off of Soldier, I will take care of Soldier."
"Okay, fine, but Mercy has long range healing, she will heal Soldier even if I keep her away."
"Then don't let her." He said walking up beside me. "Let's kill them quick." I saw shadows wisp off of him for a second before he shot forward towards Soldier. Cursing to myself, I rushed towards Mercy.
The long fight then started, I did everything I could to keep Mercy away from Soldier, whether it was taking hits or getting in the way of the healing which would cancel it. I saw us losing this fight, they were too well coordinated and we weren't. I began setting up for my ultimate ability, making sure there was plenty of fire. I purposefully missed bolts of fire, only to hit more flammable objects. Soldier was unknowingly helping by shooting his rockets and missing, the amount of fire around us was enough, I knew it.
I heard Reaper shout in pain and I glanced over seeing him hit the ground rolling. Hissing, I sent a burst out at Mercy knocking her back then shot towards Reaper. Spinning my staff, I slammed it into the ground and released a heat around us creating a shield. I then knealed down beside him and raised my hand towards him, healing him. "I'm going to need you to get up, Reaper." I said softly but he wasn't moving. Glancing over, I saw Soldier and Mercy standing side by side, slowly walking towards us. "Damn it." I moved out of the shield and towards them, pulling up my gun.
I began fighting the both of them, but I knew it was useless. Mercy kept healing Soldier, Soldier kept right on me, no matter how many times I went after Mercy. I was running out of energy, I had only a little left, I couldn't even use it to heal myself. I glanced over at Reaper a moment, then back towards the other two. I had no choice now. I sent a shockwave at them, knocking them off their feet, then spread my wings flying over towards Reaper, who was still laying down.
"Hold on, if you can hear me, don't move." I said turning my back on him and kneeling down. I grabbed the staff and spread my wings out long and wide, the fire in the area started growing, moving, a whirlwind had started above my wings, sucking the fire into them. Their size growing the more fire was sucked in.
Reaper slowly turned and looked over, darkness was stealing his vision but he saw the blood on my face, coming down from under my helmet. How clenched my jaw was, the sweat that covered my face. "Phoenix..." He muttered softly, but I hadn't heard it.
Once my wings had drained in all of the fire in the area, I stretched them out as far as I could. They nearly covered the entire length of the field we were standing in. I began pulling them back, they were slow moving and painful. Closing my eyes, I gripped the staff hard, almost for support and then thrust the wings forward, all of the fire built up in them exploded over the field towards the other two.
Gasping out, I pulled the staff out and placed it on my back. I stumbled a bit regaining my energy before I wrapped my arms around Reapers and used my wings to pull him up. "Come on." I growled and spread my wings again. With a thrust, we were into the air and I kept beating them until we were up high enough to be safe, then flew away from the battlefield.
I was losing energy fast as I flew us out of there, but kept at it, used what was left of the suns light to recharge as I went, but it wasn't enough. I used the last of my energy with that attack, and healing him as we were flying.
It was a solid hour before he let out a groan and began waking up. "Phoenix, what are we..." he looked around a moment. "Ground. Now." He hissed, but I couldn't respond, I was so focused on my flying, I couldn't, had my teeth grit too tight. But, I did begin to lower. "Faster." He snapped and I tucked a wing, taking us in. He grew even more irritated, I could feel it radiating off of him. He grabbed my wing and forcefully tucked it in, we then plummeted to the ground. I dropped him once we were close enough and he landed on his feet. I crashed onto the ground, rolling a few feet before langing on my side, wings resting down.
"What do you think you're doing?!" He snapped coming over. "We could have killed them, we could have-" He stopped himself suddenly and saw I wasn't moving, aside from my rapid breathing and he watched me slowly moving up onto my elbow. He watched my back, looked at the burns and damage on my armor, my wings were smoking and were mangled. I slowly moved my hands to my shoulders, healing up the wounds, then began to run them over my wings, healing the wounds there as I went. "Phoenix, what happened?"
"You lose consciousness." I muttered softly, forcing myself to sit upright. "I spent a good hour fighting the two of them, trying to get them off of you, giving you time to get up, but you didn't. I then used a very large energy attack to get them down and flew you out of there as long as I could before we landed here." I answered taking in a deep breath. Very slowly, I stood and rest my wings on my back. "Gibralta should only be a days walk ahead. We can finish our main mission, then find them and kill them, but for now, we can't face them. I'm sorry Reaper, I failed you. Forgive me." I said turning towards him and bowing my head.
"You're still injured." He said.
"I healed most of my major wounds, the rest are small, or just dried blood I will need to clean off. The sooner we get to Gibralta, the sooner I can-"
"Take off your helmet." He said cutting me off and I decided it best not to argue, so I pulled it off. He walked over and turned my head lightly looking over my wounds. He grabbed my hand and rest it on the wound on my forehead. Sighing softly, I healed it but wobbled slightly. "You're weak."
"Yes, I know, I have almost no energy left." I muttered softly.
"Come close." He said wrapping his arm around me and pulling me close.
"Reaper, I-"
"Silence." He cut me off then quickly picked me up. "Get some rest, we can discuss this later." Frowning a bit, I looked at him, stared at him, then sighed deciding I should close my eyes and rest. He walked only far enough to find a decent spot to camp out the night. It was in a destroyed house, though the side of it was gone and it overlooked the ocean, the same direction the sun would rise. We were secluded and safe.