Another battle.

Another brutal engagement with the Legion; another swift yet endless frenzy of metal and fire. Another landscape of carnage afterward… in which Shin walked with deliberate steps toward yet another broken Juggernaut, the scent of smoke and blood filling his senses.

His nerves quivered in a way that was not normal for him. His body was practically straining with hunger… yet he wasn't sure its reaction was entirely that at all.

The Feldreß was slumped upon the crumbling remains of an outbuilding, dangling in such a way that Shin had to climb rather treacherously to reach the cockpit. Even as he pulled himself up one-handed onto a secure perch, he peeled his glove from his left hand with his teeth. His fingers trembled and his fist clenched, his soul and body arguing with themselves more loudly than ever before; and when he looked down through the open hatch at the pilot of the shattered machine, what he saw gave him an involuntary start of surprise.

Haruto smiled up at Shin through a bared-teeth grimace and a trickle of blood from his forehead. Farther down, his torso was impaled by a piece of the shredded wreckage of his own iron coffin. A twisted shaft of metal had pinned him through his right side, and yet—

Shin had seen more than enough spilled entrails to know where they rightfully belonged inside the body—and he knew that length of shrapnel had just missed anything vital. It might even have managed to slide between ribs instead of breaking them. Haruto would bleed massively, life-threateningly, if the rod was removed, but if the outer flow could be staunched in time and the internal damage was survivable…

"Shin." The boy's voice was a rasp of pain. His fingers curled futilely around the blood-slicked length of metal that held him in place, but he did not try to move it. "S-sorry I couldn't make it to the end…"

The end. The Special Reconnaissance Mission: the bittersweet plunge into Spearhead Squadron's final journey that was now only two days away.

Two days. Just two more days and he would have been…

For the first time, Shin felt something break inside him that never had before. It overwhelmed his hunger, causing him to flinch back slightly, even as that primal other part of him wanted nothing more than to reach for Haruto.

"…We can get you out of there." He braced himself and grasped the end of the rod—taking care to ensure that his bare left hand was nowhere near Haruto's own. "If we can stop the bleeding—"

"You can't. You know that."

Haruto's voice was taut but extraordinarily steady. He gazed up at Shin, and although a shine of tears filled his eyes, that indomitable smile appeared once more.

"Think, Shin. When was the last time the Republic sent us a roll of bandages—much less any medicine to fight the infection I'd get from this thing? Even if you got me out and I survived the blood loss, I'd just die a lot slower and uglier. Or else the Pigs'll be the ones to shoot me instead, when they bring in the next batch of poor bastards and find me still lying around. Without a Juggernaut or even the strength to walk, I'm not going anywhere now… unless it's with you."

Something tightened beneath the veiled scars on Shin's throat. His left hand slid a little closer to Haruto's, only to pause an inch away, thoughts and nerves entangled in an uncharacteristic knot of hesitation.

"But—"

"It's okay. I want this. I'm done either way—so let me still be part of the journey ahead of you the only way I can." Haruto's tears spilled over his smiling lips. "Take me with you, Shin. Please."

Shin swallowed hard. Through the bewildering murk of indecision within him, rational sense and raw instinct and inescapable hunger pushed his bloodied fingertips forward just a little more…

And Haruto met him halfway, his hand stretching out to grasp Shin's firmly.

The tide of stolen life that flooded the Reaper's being was warmer and more peaceful than any other he had felt before.