Chapter Text
Bang! Bang! Bang! The sound of a gun firing echoes throughout the metallic chamber. I feel my blood run cold and time seems to slow as I see the blonde girl collapse, the blood seeming to float on the wind before falling down to its owner below. Her body hits the ground with a loud thud. In horror and despair, I turn around to see where the shots came from and see the brown haired Martian Count holding a silver gun out in front of him. When our eyes meet, he lowers the gun.
I can hardly breathe, but I manage to mutter out, “Count Saazbaum..?”
“You saved me, Slaine,” he says and I feel panic rush into my body. I clutch my chest and try to control my breathing. This is my fault. If I didn’t save him, Princess Asseylum…
The count smirks, “Well done.”
Something inside of me snaps. Fury and misery fight to take over and I scream, holding my own gun in front of me, shooting blindly. Tears fill my eyes, blurring my vision, but I continue to shoot until I no longer can. I pause and the tears stream down my face. Her Highness is dead, but this won’t bring her back . Count Saazbaum brings his hand to his head and gestures for me to shoot him there instead. I aim the gun, but hesitate. Even though he killed the person I love most in the world, he saved me from death not long ago.
I hear movement and turn towards it. The pilot of the orange kataphrakt steps forward and falls, but he still crawls towards the body of the princess despite being wounded himself.
Why, why, why! Have they wanted her dead so much, he even has to make sure the job’s finished? I stare as he helplessly crawls towards her. But she had gone over to him just before her death. Maybe they weren’t trying to exploit or kill her. Still, I can’t trust them. This man shot me down when I had only been trying to protect Her Highness. I cock my gun and point it at the pilot and try to silence the emotions flowing through me.
“Don’t. That’s far enough. Do not touch Her Highness...Orange.” He pauses, but I stay alert. This is the man that’s taken down several Counts and shot down my skycarrier; he’s dangerous.
He turns slightly to the right to look at me and I glare at him, hoping it’ll be enough to get him to stop. I don’t want to kill yet another person.
He smirks, “Bat.” He then turns so his back is to me once again and pauses. I don’t let my guard down. I don’t know what he has planned, but I can’t trust him and I know he won’t give up so easily.
As I predicted, he turns to the other side and lifts a sleek black gun towards me. I don’t hesitate and shoot my own gun before he has the chance. The bullet makes contact with his head and he falls back, his body going limp. I try not to let it get to me as I stare at his motionless body. If I didn’t shoot, I’d be the one dead. I can’t let that happen.
I move past the brunet and make my way to the princess. I bend down and put my fingers to her neck, searching for a pulse. I feel the anguish flow back into my body and I don’t fight it anymore. I fall to my knees, bringing my hands to my eyes and sob. I let every emotion come to the surface and just cry even though it won’t bring her back.
“Prin..cess..” I manage to say between sobs. I remove my hands from my eyes and look over her lifeless body which lays in a pool of her own blood. “I-I’m so-sorry.”
My thoughts race. All I wanted was to protect the princess. I lived only for the princess. Now that she’s gone.. I feel no point in living. I raise the gun to my head and close my eyes. My finger hesitates over the trigger. Even though the princess is dead, I don’t truly want to die. No, I can’t die. I need to avenge Her Highness. I need to end the war like she would’ve wanted. That’s right. This is war, no matter how sad I feel, I don’t have time to mourn right now. I push my emotions down and vow to end this war for the princess’s sake.
I take the princess’s hand and squeeze it one last time, then return to the boy. I lean down and feel his pulse. He’s still breathing. There’s still time to save him. The princess seemed to care very much for this boy, so I will save him. I carefully pick the boy up, taking care not to agitate his injury more, then look back at Count Saazbaum. He lays limp against the wall, but I’m unsure if he’s truly dead. Before I let my emotions resurface and distract me from my task, I turn my head and make my way to the door.
Right before I reach the door, I hear the patter of feet on the ground. Someone’s coming. I brace myself for the enemy and two girls appear before me in the doorway: one with long black hair and hazel eyes and the other with short black hair and purple eyes. Both of their eyes go wide in horror.
“Nao!” “Inaho!” They yell simultaneously and burst into tears.
The girl with longer hair looks as if she'll collapse with the slightest breeze. Even so, she lifts her gun toward me. The other girl already let the tears stream down her face freely.
"P-put him down or I'll shoot, " she commands.
Hesitantly, I show my hands the best I can while still holding Orange. Trying to make it clear I'm not hurting him but helping. She seems to realize the situation because she lowers her gun enough that it's not aimed at my head, but with a stance that says she’s not afraid to shoot given reason.
“H-how..?” The girl with purple eyes manages to muster.
I immediately feel my body go tense. I can’t tell them I did it. Not yet. I need them to trust me. Like all my other emotions, I push the guilt down. I can’t think about this right now. “That’s not important right now. He’s still alive. We need to get him medical attention immediately.”
That seems to calm the girls enough to compose themselves. Like me, they must have realized they need to push their emotions down for now.
The girl with longer hair reaches for me. “Please, c-can I..?” Her hand extends for the boy in my arms and I hesitate before handing him over to her. I carefully put him in her arms. She holds him close to herself and bows her head over him.
“Go. I’ll follow right after you.” I turn and run back to Princess Asseylum. Even if she’s already gone, she deserves a proper burial. It’s the least I can do for her. I hear the footsteps of the girls retreating. On my way over to her, a very familiar pendant catches my eye. I slowly reach down and pick it up, looking at the blue cross on top. She kept it with her all this time.. New tears threaten to leak from my eyes, but I fight them and put the pendant around my neck, then carefully pick up the princess. When I turn around, I hear a gasp and see the girl with short hair is still here, waiting for me.
As I walk towards her, her question cuts through the air, “Princess Asseylum...is she..?”
The tears that I refused to let fall now come pouring out of my eyes and I hold the princess even closer. I can’t manage to answer, but her horrified look shows she understands my reaction. Wordlessly, she turns around and we make our way out of the landing castle with silence in the air.
When we exit the landing castle, white flakes flash in front of my eyes and add to the already thick blanket of snow on the ground. Under different circumstances, I would be mesmerized, but I can’t feel any such thing when the princess lies dead in my arms. The princess would have loved the snow.
It doesn’t take much longer before we reach a large battleship. The ship is dark, most-likely the power is cut. The girl nevertheless leads me through the ship and stops when we get to the cockpit. We enter to find a disoriented crew. An older lady with short brown hair looks over at us and sees the princess in my arms. A look of grief passes over her face before she looks up to meet my eyes.
“Who are you?” She says with an authoritative tone filled with suspicion.
“Slaine Troyard, ma’am.”
Before the captain can ask another question, the girl beside me speaks up, “Captain Magbaredge, he saved Inaho!”
“Kaizuka Junior…where is he?”
A wave of grief passes over her face and she looks down at her feet. “He’s in critical condition. I believe Yuki took him to the medic bay.”
“Critical condition,” the captain repeats. “We need to find a way to get out of her. The supplies we have are only enough to stall a fatal wound. We need to find a way to get him out of here, but with the aldnoah drive down…”
I follow her gaze to an orb in the center of the room and realization strikes me. The princess was the one who powered the ship. I think back to when I powered up the Tharsis. I don’t know how, but it was able to power up.
“C-captian,” I say nervously and the woman’s gaze whips back to me. “I think I may be able to power it up.”
Everyone in the room turns to look at me. The captain seems to be curious, but given the situation, time is of the essence, so she nods at me to continue. I carefully put down the princess and slowly walk to the center of the room where the orb is and place my hand on it. Upon contact, the orb lights up and the lights to the cockpit flicker on. Before long, the ground shakes beneath us as the ship rises off the ground.
“A-all systems check,” I hear a girl’s voice shakily call out.
I hear voices sound around me as the crew prepares to take off, but I can’t make out what they’re saying. I feel all the emotions that I tried to bury, resurface and take over. Unable to handle the surge of emotions, my body locks up, my vision blurs, and I soon hit the floor. Everything goes black.