Chapter 3, The beginning
Sam gritted her teeth and dug in with her heels as her beam struggled against the figure's. She channelled it straight from her body, despite being able to feel the weight of her armour upon her. It was also red in colour. A sickly crimson battling the pure white that she was confronted with. She was also aware that her hair had become that same colour, and that she was shrouded in furious flames, the very embodiment of her rage. She screamed out as the beams pushed against each other, mirroring their firer's will and power.
"You're nothing, Sam!" the figure shouted, but it was if it came from within Sam's own mind when she heard it. "I am a God! You're nothing but a patchwork of failings! You steal my power as if it was your own! You are Powerless!"
The white beam doubled in force and size, and pushed Sam's back all the way to the cusp of her hands. There was only the faintest glimmer of red now between her and oblivion. She tried to push back, but no matter what, she couldn't draw upon anything more. This was her limit. She had been pushed to the edge of her being, and she was about to be pushed past it.
"You failed, Samanya! You never should have even existed! Now…Die!"
Whiteness overtook her body.
She had let everyone down.
She had failed.
Sam threw herself awake as sweat poured down her face and body. All over her skin, tiny, impossible sharp needles, laced with salt, punctured her skin. She screamed again, the pain too much too bear. She lashed out and thrashed wildly, desperate above all else for it all to stop; for the torture and torment to end.
"Sam!"
The voice came from her right, and the face it belonged to, she had never been so happy to see.
"Nat…"
Nat looked at her, a worried expression on his face. "Nightmares again?"
She sat up and nodded guiltily, taking responsibility for ruining the boy's sleep. "Same one."
Nat, too, sat up and put his arm around her. It had been three weeks since they had both met Princess for the first time, and since then, this had been a regular occurrence. The first night, Sam had been alone, but after that, she had insisted they slept together. Unfortunately, It hadn't made the nightmares go away, but it helped to reassure her as soon as she woke up. "It's alright, I'm here."
Sam leant into him. "Thank you…" she whispered, the words scarcely making it out of her mouth.
The alarm clock by their bed, displaying the time in a soft red, showed:
03:23 April 10th
Sam sighed as she saw this. "I feel so bad for you."
But Nat simply shook his head. "Please don't. I'm doing this because I love you, not because I have to, so you don't have to worry about that kind of stuff."
Sam smiled and kissed his cheek, before snuggling into his chest. "I love you too."
Nat stroked her hair, running his fingers through her blue locks. "Now come on, get some sleep."
When she woke up again, she felt around for Nat, but quickly, and to her dismay, discovered that she was alone, except for the sun now poking through the curtains and the fresh clothes she was wrapped up in, as well as the blanket that cosily smothered her. Had he changed her pyjamas while she was asleep? She fumbled for her glasses and set them down on her petite nose, before asking the emptiness his name.
A simple "I'm here." came in from the kitchen, along with a waft of something absolutely delicious, which Sam immediately started drooling at as she sniffed hungrily.
"Oh man, that smells good! What is it?" she called out.
"Waffles," was the reply.
"Waffles! Ahhh!" Sam did what basically amounted to hurling herself into the kitchen with excitement as she heard the name of the treat, and looked to Nat with puppy-dog eyes as she fell into the room. "Gimme!"
Rolling his eyes, Nat opened the oven door. Inside, stacked like a perfect, golden-brown pile, were ten pristine waffles. The girl's mouth dropped open in surprise at how good they looked. "Now go sit at the table and stop embarrassing yourself."
She eagerly nodded and hopped up onto one of the chairs. Her kitchen was pretty small for two people, and the table tucked away into the corner was barely large enough for them both. Sam had no idea where Nat had gotten the other chair from, too. She'd only ever had one before a few days ago. On the wall above Nat's head hung a television. On it, a news channel was reporting on the spacial quake from a few days ago. Sam recalled it vividly, and seeing that purple sphere again sparked a brief memory of the conversation her and Princess had had, before getting violently interrupted by the AST, but this time, Sam had managed to save her wings on the approach, and thus the skirmish was over laughably quickly. "So much for being on par with my armour," she had thought.
Ignoring the television, the room was quite sparsely decorated. Just an ordinary, perfectly-functional kitchen.
Apart from the dishwasher. That didn't work.
On the waffle front, Sam had covered in hers with just about everything: butter, syrup, chocolate spread, ice cream, whipped cream and cinnamon. Nat, however, was gunning for a much more reserved approach, with just some strawberries and chocolate.
"Mmm, thee are weally goo-!" Sam applauded with her mouth stuffed full.
Nat shook his head. "Sam, swallow."
Sam's cheeks flushed red and she quickly gulped down. "Right, right, sorry! I said that it's really good!"
He smiled. "It sure is, if I don't say so myself. Now come on, we're going to be late for work."
She checked her watch to confirm this, and yep, he was right. "Okay, I'll sort the dishes out, so you go and get ready, and tell Kotori we'll be there soon."
"You got it."
They stood up and shared a tender kiss, before Nat walked off to the shower and Sam attended to their plates, happily humming a tune to herself, the dream dissipating from her memory entirely.
"What do you mean she's not here?" Sam asked, hips cocked out to the side.
"She went to school," Kannazuke said with a shrug. "That's all I know."
Sam huffed and rolled her eyes. "Of course."
"Also, I'm not sure exactly how she feels about our newest...recruit," he added.
Hinata chuckled when Sam flared up at that. "We really didn't have a choice, remember? So stop being so…" she fought to find the right word, but after a few seconds, nothing came up, so she just let the sentence float away.
Nat stepped forward to fill the gap anyway. "Sir, I appreciate I have very little experience in anything like this, but I know Sam better than anyone, and I also know how to stay out of people's way. I'd really really like to work with Sam here! Not knowing what she does for so long has been killing me."
"Yeah, what he said," Sam chimed in.
"And I am the second person to ever talk to a Spirit."
Kannazuke rubbed the bridge of his nose and thought for a long while, before reluctantly agreeing at last.
"Yay!" Sam cheered and hugged her boyfriend. "See? I told you I'd convince him."
"Well, I'm fairly sure I convinced him," he replied, rubbing Sam's head.
"Yeah, yeah, sure." Sam brushed him off with a sly smile and turned her attention back to her senior. "So, why's Kotori in school today?"
Kannazuke picked up one of their red earpieces and handed it to her. "Why don't you ask her for yourself? She's already connected."
Sam and Nat looked at each other, both wearing surprised faces, before she fastened the earpiece in her ear and tapped it twice. "Kotori?"
The red-headed girl on the other end of the line, her hair split into two long twin-tails by two white ribbons, sucked on her lollipop as she answered, "Yep. How are you, Sam?"
"Yeah, I'm alright... I wanted to ask why you were going to school today," she said as she sat down on Kannazuke's desk and folded one leg over the other.
"Well, there's no particular reason, and I'll be back pretty soon, but I thought I'd keep my brother from getting too suspicious. I think he's starting to catch on about the other days I keep missing." Inside the Chemistry department's preparation room, the only light coming from a small laptop's screen set up on one of the tables, a lady that looked to be in her thirties, dressed in a lab coat with a small blue teddy bear tucked into her breast pocket, sat at the laptop and worked away while Kotori was talking. "Why do you ask?"
Sighing, Sam handed the earpiece to Hinata. "Here."
Nat placed the small device and cleared his throat. "It's Hinata. We met a little while ago."
"Ah, yes, Sam's boyfriend. You wanted to join Ratatoskr, correct?"
Nat, cheeks slightly colouring, nodded, even though he knew there was obviously no way Kotori could have seen it. "Yes. I'm the second person to talk to Princess, after all, and I'd like to help her any way I can. Sam told me this would be the best - and possibly only - way."
Kotori rolled the candy around her tongue, then said, "Sure, you can join."
Nat was taken aback. "R-Really? Just like that?"
"Sure, why not? You said it yourself."
Nat quickly regained composure, replied, "Thank you, Itsuka. It will be a pleasure." then quickly took out the device and put it down onto the desk beside Sam.
She smiled and lightly punched his shoulder. "Already addressing her by surname, huh? Good job." Then, she turned towards Kannazuke once more. "May we be excused, sir?"
He waved them off, before getting up and walking away down one of the halls, hands thrust into his pockets and eyes staring at his steps. The other officers aboard the bridge watched him go, before getting back to their duties.
"Sweet, I guess we've got the place to ourselves then! Come on, I'll give you the tour."
Nat followed Sam down the other hallway leading out of the bridge, and with her help, he explored every inch of Ratatoskr's airship, The Fraxinus.
Shido Itsuka sprinted down the street, moving as fast as his legs would permit. His little sister had said that she'd be at that diner, even if a spacial quake hit, before school today. She had said that, hadn't she? "Damnit Kotori! Of all the days to make a stupid promise like that!" He skidded around the corner of a block, and his time living in Tenguu city told him he was on the right street. The diner should be just up ahead…
The warning sirens were suddenly drowned out by something even more awful. An ear-shattering explosion, a torrential rush of air and a devastating CRASH. It threw the dark-haired boy back into the air, and when he landed, consciousness failed him.
Shido finally got his bearings back, and he tried to blink his eyes open. The light was blinding to him at first, and there was a sharp pain all over his body. It felt like he had been pelted by rocks or something, but finally, as his vision adjusted, he saw something just below him that he'd only ever seen on TV before. An entire city block, vanished in an instant, and replaced with a smouldering crater. Traces of the quake still hung in the air in the form of slight, wispy purple flames. He eased himself onto his feet and stared down at the destruction, and that's when he noticed the girl. The girl stood in the centre, her head pitched towards the sky, and gave off a mixture of feelings and emotions: sorrow, pride, anxiety, hope.
Shido had never seen anyone like that in his life.
The girl looked at him as he picked his way down, and as he did so, she pulled out her powerful sword. It was like the ground itself had spit it out, coming up from a stone 'sheath'. She pointed it at him. "So, you've come to kill me, then?"
The girl's accusation stopped him in his tracks. "Wh-What?"
Flaring up, she strode towards him, the blade glinting intimidatingly in the sunlight. "You heard what I said. Now, answer me!"
The pressure alone that the girl gave off knocked him over, like a punch to the stomach, and now on his back for the second time in as many minutes, he held his hand out before him, arm locked straight, in a vain attempt to stop her. "No, you've got the wrong idea! I could never kill anyone! I was just looking for my sister!"
She growled, "Liar!" then swung downwards, casting an arc of pink energy at him. It sliced through the air, and Shido was sure it would slice through him too. He braced and closed his eyes.
But there was nothing.
He was confused. Had it been that quick? Was he dead? When he opened his eyes, however, he saw that he was wrong. Before him, standing truly proud, was a girl with bright blue hair, clad in some fantastically futuristic armour, with metallic wings protruding from her back. On her head, a headset, no doubt made of the same material as the rest of her suit, sat over her ears, and when she turned her head to flash a smile at him, he saw that a glass visor covered her eyes.
Then, she spoke. "Hey, Princess, I'm gonna need you to not kill him, please and thank you."
The girl, responding to 'Princess' lowered her sword. "Sam? What's going on?"
"Look, I'll explain in a bit, but just know that he's with me."
Princess tried to look past Sam at the shocked boy. "He is?"
Shido, also, was confused. "I…I am?"
"Yes," she emphasised as she looked back at both Shido and Princess, "he is, so don't kill him."
There was silence for a just a little bit longer than too long, before Sam said, "Well, come on then, meet Princess, Shido." She extended a hand out to help him up, and once on his feet, he looked warily at Princess.
The girl also looked warily at him, until, at last, she walked forwards, her hand out in greeting.
Shido tentatively shook it. The girl's armoured hand was cold in his.
"See? Now we're all best friends!" Sam chirped.
"Indeed," Princess mused.
As Shido rubbed his hand, he remembered why he was here in the first place. "Wait, my sister!"
Sam perked up at this. "Hmm?"
Shido turned towards the other armoured stranger he had met today. "Sam, right?"
She nodded.
"I need to find my sister, Kotori! Kotori Itsuka. Have you seen her?"
"Sure I have."
"Where is she?"
Sam took off the headset, the glass visor folding back into the ear-cups as she did so, and presented it to him. "Here, put this on."
Unsure, he placed it over his own head. The visor unfolded over his eyes once it was on, and his vision was suddenly filled up with data and information that he didn't understand. Then, Kotori's face popped up in the centre. "Kotori?!"
"Hey bro."
He wasn't sure whether he should be relieved or angry. "I… Where… What the hell is going on? Do you know these people?"
He settled for a mixture of both.
"Woah, woah! Calm down, bro! I'll explain everything in a bit, but right now, you need to give this back to Sam, and then you need to find some cover."
"Cover? What are you talking-" he was cut off by Sam's swiping hand as she snatched the headset back.
"Sorry Shido, I need this. Princess?" she asked.
"Ready," she replied.
"Good, they'll be here any minute now, so prepare yourself."
From within the inverted dome, both fighters readied their weapons. Princess flourished her blade with expertise, leaving thin trails of pink in the air, while Sam unfolded her wings and activated a dizzying array of ordnance. Missile pods opened up all over her armour. A long, white tube slid into place on her shoulder, closely following where she looked. Two blades of blue plasma reached out over her hands and two more cylinders popped out from the underside of her forearms. Up and down her red-and-white armour ran lines of energy, similar in colour to her blades, and focused in the centre of her chestplate and in the two turbines in her wings, where her main power sources were.
Princess, Kotori and Kannazuke watched all of this, before snarkily commenting, all in unison, "You done?
Sam chuckled and nodded softly. "Yeah, I'm done. Now come on, let's rock and roll!"