Cold. More than anything else, Ai Hoshino felt cold.
"I've been irresponsible from the start."
She had been stabbed in the abdomen. She thought it would hurt more, but instead, she felt cold all over. That could only mean she was losing too much blood.
"I'm not pure, and I'm dishonest and dirty."
Ai knew she was dying just as much as she knew that her lies had been for nothing. She should have been afraid, yet the certainty of death gave her a strange sense of calm.
"I don't have a good grasp on what it means to love someone. So instead, I told pretty lies that would please everyone, always hoping that one day those lies would become the truth."
Well, she told lies to almost everyone. Ai had never once told her children that she loved them for fear it would feel no different than the lies she told her audience. What kind of mother can't even express love to her children?
"I tried my best, worked hard, and lied with everything I had. To me, lies are love. And in my own way, I thought I was expressing love."
But it wasn't enough. It was never enough.
"I don't know if I was able to love you and the others, but I sang all those love songs while thinking that I wanted to, hoping someday that would be the truth. Even now, I want to love you."
Ai outstretched her hand towards her killer. The man backed away. In spite of everything, he was afraid.
"Liar. . ." he accused. "You don't even remember me, do you? You just want me to let you go, ri-"
Ai took a long look into the man's eyes, and many images of meet-and-greets from long ago came to the front of her mind. "You're Ryouske-kun, aren't you? You often came to the handshake events."
Ryouske's eyes widened in shock.
"Oh, am I wrong? Sorry, I was never very good with names. I was happy when I got that star sand from you as a present."
He told her it reminded him of her eyes. It was the most thoughtful gift she had ever received.
"I've still got it displayed in my living room."
"What the hell! That's not what I. . ."
A flurry of emotions crossed Ryouske's face. Shock, fear, confusion. But one stood above the others. Shame. The killer ran from his victim wailing in despair. As soon as Ryouske was gone, Ai fell back against the glass door that separated the entryway from the rest of the house. She could faintly hear Aqua's frantic call for an ambulance. Aqua had always been a clever boy, and it warmed Ai's heart to see how much he loved her. But it was too late. Ai knew she only had a short while left to say goodbye.
Ryouske thought he knew pain when he first heard of Ai's twins. The betrayal was unlike any kind of anguish he had felt before, until today. He didn't want this, he just wanted Ai to pay for manipulating his feelings all these years. He had no idea Ai had so much love for others, despite what she may have thought of herself. Guilt tore at Ryouske as he realized he not only stole life from an innocent woman, but also stole a mother from her children. Ryouske was so distracted by his feelings that he failed to notice that he was about to run into an eight-foot-tall giant in power armor.
Galen Soranus looked down at the mortal who had crashed into him. The boy's frail body failed to shake him, let alone chip the white-red paint of his armor. But still, something about the way he carried himself told the Sanguinary Priest that the boy required closer inspection. Galen quickly noticed the blood on Ryouske's hands and the crazed look in his eye. Galen was nothing if not a good judge of character, and it took him no time to realize the guilt that stuck to the boy.
"What — what are you?" asked Ryouske as he looked up at the angel of death.
"Suffer not the unclean to live," Galen replied as he revved the toothed blade of his chainsword.
The Blood Angel rammed his weapon through Ryouske's abdomen, allowing the chainsword to rip and tear through his body as Ryouske fell further onto the blade. Once Ryouske's body was reduced to a pile of gore, Galen took off in the direction the boy had come from. On the way he contacted his battle barge, having a feeling that he would need bigger tools.
As a former doctor, the worst feeling Aqua knew was helplessness in the face of a dying patient. He had felt it once with Sarina, and it broke him. And now he was feeling it again but with his mother. As Ai whispered dreams of a future with her children that could never be, Aqua heard heavy footsteps approach from behind.
"Ai, you're going to be ok! The ambulance is he-" Aqua's relief died in his throat as he saw the armored giant standing in his doorway.
Aqua's first thought was to curse whatever cruel gods sent this stranger as a practical joke. But then he noticed the red and white colors and the medical tools hanging from the armor. Could this giant be a doctor, if not the medic he had called for?
"Please, you have to help us! My mother was stabbed — I think he hit her abdominal aorta!"
Despite his Space Marine stoicism, Galen was shaken by the sight of two children watching their parent die. It was a pain the Blood Angel knew all too well. Wasting no time, Galen sealed Ai's stab wound and moved her away from the door. After requesting a special delivery from the battle barge, Galen began examining Ai's vital signs.
While Galen desperately tried to save Ai, Ruby pushed her way past the bloody door and stood next to her brother.
"Aqua! What's going on! What happened to mom! Who is. . . wait, does that man have a chainsaw sword?"
Aqua said nothing, opting to watch the apothecary work in silence. After a tense few minutes, Galen looked up from his patients and addressed the twins.
"You may want to cover your ears."
Aqua and Ruby had an inexplicable feeling that they could trust Galen, so they obeyed. A sound like thunder roared from the sky as a drop pod crashed to Earth. Out popped a twelve-foot-tall box-shaped mecha suit. Galen picked up Ai's unconscious body bridal style and carried her towards the dreadnought.
"Wait!" cried the twins as they ran towards Galen. Tugging on his robe, Ruby asked, "What are you doing with my mom?"
"I stopped the bleeding, but your mother went too long with too little blood. Without the blood to carry oxygen throughout the body, your mother's vital organs have taken significant harm. Forgive me, if I had arrived sooner. . ." Galen's voice trailed off regretfully before recovering. "This Castraferrum Pattern Dreadnought will keep your mother alive for a long time despite her wound. She will need to sleep more often, but you will not need to grow up as orphans."
Galen turned and placed Ai inside the metal sarcophagus. As he applied the finishing touches on what would be Ai's new life, her children quietly sobbed in relief and shock
Cold. The only thing Ai could feel anymore was cold.
Ai didn't open her eyes so much as turn her eyes on like a switch. How long had she been unconscious? As Ai's vision came into focus, she saw her twins standing alongside the Saitous. All four were looking at her with concern.
"Ai, can you hear us?" asked Ichigo nervously.
Ai ignored him and looked at her children. "Ruby, Aqua," she called.
The twins ran from Miyako's side to embrace their mother's new metallic frame. As Ai wrapped her arms around them, she recalled the words she wanted to tell her children before her savior arrived — the words she almost missed the opportunity to say.
"Even in death, I still love you."
