CHAPTER THREE
The first thing Steel felt when he came to, was a life-saving warmth. His frozen heart started pumping again, pushing slowly-thawing blood along his veins. His nerve endings were receiving the brain's orders again, and he gradually managed to flex his muscles. The first things he wanted to move were his eyes. With a great effort, he managed to open them, but he had to blink several times before being able to see through the haze of his frozen pupils. When the image got clearer, he distinguished the worried face of an unknown man. He was huge, but his black eyes were gentle, so Steel didn't classify him as a threat. The man spoke with a deep baritone: "What happened, Steel? Why did you attack Sapphire?"
Steel forced his vocal cords to speak, although his voice sounded coarse to his own ears. "Who are you? Who's Sapphire?"
The other man opened his eyes wide, his bewildered expression suggesting that Steel was supposed to know both of them. "You don't know who we are?"
"No. Should I?"
The big man's expression saddened. "Yes, you should. My name is Lead, and that woman over there is Sapphire, your partner. We are all colleagues."
Steel looked at the woman sprawled on the floor, still covered in frost. She was beautiful, but he was sure he didn't know her.
"Sorry, I can remember neither of you. What's wrong with her?"
Lead let go of Steel's arm, which he had been holding for the whole conversation. Steel immediately missed the comforting source of warmth that revived him, but now his body was able to cope with the temperature drop.
The big man turned to the woman, and gently enveloped her in his muscular arms. He said: "She was touching you when you dropped your body temperature to absolute zero. It's a miracle she's still alive, but I'm not sure I will be able to revive her. Her core is not made of steel like yours. She's a gem, and I cannot warm her up. We will have to find some source of heat."
Steel asked: "Why don't we light a fire?"
"You know how to do it?"
"I think so, yes. Help me up."
Marveling at Steel's request of assistance, Lead took hold of him with one of his huge arms, and easily lifted him from the ground. Steel cautiously tested his limbs before wandering off in search of broken branches. He gathered enough to light a good fire, then went looking for a specific type of stone. He couldn't remember its name, but he knew that it could produce sparks when rubbed against another rock.
He silently applied to the task, while Lead was hugging the woman tight in an attempt at keeping her warm. Under his hands, a bright fire soon started to blaze, its lively flames in open contrast with the men's somber faces.
They brought the woman near the fire, with Lead still hugging her protectively. She was so thin and haggard, she looked like a doll in his arms.
Steel sat by the fire, grateful for the warmth his body was still demanding, and looked at the woman in the giant's arms. He probed deep in his memory, but she wasn't there. Yet, somehow, she did look familiar, but the feeling was so distant and indistinct, that he gave up any attempt at remembering.
So he asked the man who called himself Lead: "You said we are colleagues. What do we do?"
"We are time agents. We regulate time anomalies. You and Sapphire are partners, you have been working together for such a long time, I wonder how you could have forgotten her. Also you and I have know each other long. What happened to you, Steel?"
The blond man shook his head, looking frustrated: "I have no idea. I can't remember anything, except my name." Then he looked at Sapphire again. "She's very beautiful. Will she survive?"
Lead's expression looked sad, although Steel knew, somehow, that it used to be much jollier. "I don't know. She's the expert in rescuing frozen people, namely you. Whenever you wander off and ice yourself up without me around to insulate you, she has to keep you warm until I show up. And she's not just beautiful: she's a wonderfully talented operator, and you two are our most valuable team. You are very fond of each other. Well, used to be." he corrected.
Steel thought that something really terrible must have happened to force him to hurt such a graceful creature. Who, among other things, was his partner. The problem was that he didn't even remember being a time agent. He vaguely knew what they were, but he could not recollect being one of them.
While he was lost in thought, Lead was studying his face. "You know, Steel, I'm pretty sure you are looking much younger than usual."
Steel was confused. "What?"
"You were much older last time I saw you. Our job certainly doesn't help keeping young, except for our Sapphire, here. I suspect you haven't just lost your memory: you have lost actual years of life. You have reversed to youth."
Steel was dumbfounded: "How can that be?"
"Sorry, you're asking the wrong person. The only one who could give us some answers is Sapphire."
"How is she?"
Lead shook his head. "Not good, I'm afraid. She's not warming up."
Steel considered. "You just said that we were very close. She might react to my touch. Why don't you let me hold her?"
Lead looked suspiciously at his fellow operator. "You are the one who did this to her. How can I trust you?"
"You will have to believe my word that I won't hurt her again." The bigger man still didn't look convinced, so he added: "Look, Lead, I don't know what happened, but I swear I haven't got the slightest animosity toward her now. Quite the opposite: I do want to help her. I can't stand the thought of staying here and just look at her slowly slipping away. You said we were a great team: well, then, give me a chance to assist my partner."
Lead decided he sounded sincere enough, and gently handed over the woman to him. Steel sat closer to the fire, holding Sapphire in his lap. The feeling was somewhat familiar. She was so cold and looked so helpless, he couldn't resist stroking her beautiful face, still covered with a thin layer of frost. He called her in a quiet voice: "Sapphire? Can you hear me?"
A soon as he heard his own voice calling her, he instinctively knew he used to communicate in a different manner. A mental call came out of his mind by its own accord: [Sapphire?]
The woman stirred, and slowly turned her face toward him.
Lead exulted. "You did it, Steel! You reached her mind! Keep calling her, you must bring her mind back to life. Her body will follow."
Steel closed his eyes to better concentrate. [Sapphire, can you hear me? It's Steel, your partner. Please, Sapphire, come back.]
He got no reactions, this time, so he sent out a louder thought: [Sapphire! You've got to force your mind out of this state. I know you can do it! SAPPHIRE!]
His mental call was so loud, that it even startled Lead. But he wasn't the only one to hear it: the woman moved in Steel's arms again, and he could feel her temperature starting to rise ever so slightly.
He smiled to the other man. "She's warming up. Her mind is coming back."
He hugged her tighter to lend her some of his warmth, and soon the frost still covering her face and hands melted. When her body temperature reached a life-sustaining level, her eyes began to flutter.
When she finally opened them, Steel wondered at their color: they were the nicest blue, like the stone she was named after. He smiled broadly at her, and said: "I'm glad you're back, Sapphire. How do you feel?"
She looked at him with a puzzled expression and said, in a coarse voice. "What happened to you, Steel? You look – and feel – different."
"I'm afraid you are the one who will have to tell me what happened. You see, I seem to have lost my memory, and apparently not only that."
The woman made a recollection effort, while extricating herself from Steel's embrace. She flexed her reviving muscles and sat by the fire, a pensive expression on her delicate features. She looked at the giant operator. "Why are you here, Lead?"
The giant flashed a happy smile at her. "My dear Sapphire, it's so nice to have you back among the living. You see, the authority sent me here on a red code, and the first thing I saw when I teleported was the two of you on the ground, unconscious. You were apparently frozen by Steel, since you looked like you were grabbing him. Now, your partner here doesn't remember anything, and he seems to have reversed to a younger self, so it's really up to your own memory now. I sincerely hope you haven't lost it, either."
Sapphire managed a weak smile. "No, I remember, but I need time to give some sort of sense to my memories. Let me see... The last thing I remember very clearly is stepping into the portal."
Lead interrupted her. "What portal?"
Sapphire pointed at an area not far from where they were. "You see those two trees over there? Well, that's a portal, and it leads straight into a time anomaly. We decided to enter it to analyze it, and I volunteered."
Lead was surprised: "You volunteered? It's not like Steel to let you take such a risk."
She smiled sheepishly. "You're right. I sort of... imposed my decision on him."
Lead laughed knowingly, and just said: "Go on."
"All I can remember of that place is the fog. There was fog everywhere, and I didn't see it coming: the entity. It attacked me from behind, and took possession of both my mind and body. It forced me out of the portal, it wanted me to touch Steel and steal his memory. No, wait, it wasn't just his memories: the entity eats up time. It stole Steel's time!"
Lead commented pensively: "That's why you got frozen: Steel probably entered a self-preservation state and his body temperature dropped on its own. He didn't attack you, he was just acting out of self-defense. The entity didn't know what was going on and didn't let go. Well, I must admit that sapphires are much more resilient stones than I though." He added, smiling warmly at the woman.
She smiled back, and looked at Steel. "What do you remember?"
He looked back at her with inconceivably younger eyes. "Nothing. Only my name and same fuzzy impressions."
The woman frowned. "The entity stole your whole experience as a time agent."
Steel averted his eyes. "Yes. I'm no use to anyone now."
She approached him and put a comforting hand on his arm. "You still have your powers, and you still have me and Lead. We will recover the time the entity stole from you."
"How?"
She smiled reassuringly, although she knew that he was the plan-devising party of their team. "We will find a way, together."
He smiled back, and Sapphire marveled at the candid quality of that uncharacteristic smile.