The Sword of Truth
Noah sits in the apartment of his internship mentor, reviewing call signs and signals used by the different emergency services in Japan. Localoca was the woman in charge of the boy and knew him well from the rescue courses he took with her. Noah was many things in her view: dedicated, charismatic, comforting, and patient despite his age. Whether in the field or not, he was the very model of not just what a rescue hero should be but a hero in general...in an ideal world.
Localoca sits and watches the boy silently. He never liked to frown when he was around people, but let that slip off when he thought he was unobserved. It proved something to her that Gentle little Noah had limits, but either by a compulsion or some kind of perceived need, he hid it exceptionally well.
She closes the sliding door with a slight clatter, causing the boy's wings to perk and him to look behind his shoulder.
"Hey, I wanted to check on you, make sure you were doing okay" Localoca says, still in her costume after the days patrolling.
"Noah's fine, I'll handle the chores tonight if that's okay" he says with a smile.
"You've done them for a week straight. And about the rescue today, you did your best. The recovery heroes will make things right" she says with the gentlest tone she can muster.
Noah is quiet, looking at his table cluttered with studying materials and carefully organized notes. He looks longingly at one of the workbooks Sally and he used to go through for studying Japanese before the internships consumed their entire schedule, or at least his. Sally was always texting him and it was worrying to him to have her in proximity to Hoge with the way her impulsive wrath was. Inigo being around to further add to her irritation would
only make her more prone to an outburst that would have her soul lost.
She was a soul who needed light, like a ship lost in the mist and sent astray. She was scared and alone, but it was his faith that Sally found comfort in. For every act of spite and anger which forced its way to the surface, there were acts of love and charity given freely. Whenever her doubted his relationship with Sally, he asked himself: "What Would Jesus Do?"
According to his study of the New Testament, he would give hope to the hopeless and dangerous. He would spare the penitent thief of life and grant her comfort according to the infinite mercy of his father, and raise her on wings of angels when she passes on.
Localoca meanwhile saw the boy sleeping, having exhausted himself after a rough day for the both of them. She places a pillow on his desk for him to sleep on as his wings draw in closer on instinct to keep him warm. He has a long, cute snore, like a cat as Loca checks her plans for the next day. She replaces the lesson with "day off" and yawns.
The dishes could wait for tomorrow, and all the clattering might wake her student from his well-deserved rest.
Noah was disappointed he fell asleep at his desk, it was becoming a bad habit after trying to adapt to Localoca's work pace. But a day off? Not even standby?
"Loca-sensei, Noah is worried about taking a day off. What if something happens without me around?" he says, knocking on her bedroom door.
"Noah, It will be alright. You should make sure to give McCathy-san a call, maybe the two of you can even meet up if she's not busy?"
"But-"
"No buts! You WILL have a nice, relaxing day off until further notice!" Loca says in a cheerful drill sergeant tone, being playful with the boy and sensing some hidden anxiety.
"O-Ok, Noah will... Noah will do his best" he says. He would give Sally something to look forward to when she was available, and hopefully be able to keep the spirit of wrath which haunted her at bay.
Sally and Noah look at a frozen-over waterfall on a mountain trail in the chill of the Japanese winter. The cold December winds make him shiver a bit, but he's warmed by the thought of Sally being so comfortably wrapped in his wings as they take a moment to look at the still picture of nature. Sally was dressed in a long-sleeved grey sweater dress with an elegant black belt at the waist to cinch her waist while her legs were kept warm in thick black tights. Her whole look contrasted her shoes, practical hiking boots with plenty of signs of wear and past repairs, and her brown leather jacket with its padded lining. She snuggled up to Noah as they sat on a rock, resting her head on top of his and mixing her long brown waves of hair with his straighter white hair.
Noah's outfit was just a pair of durable khakis, some tennis shoes, and a turtleneck sweater under a special white coat tailored to allow his wings proper movement while wearing it. He clutched Sally's hand as he could feel the stress melting off both of them despite the chilly weather. Sally liked the outdoors, even if it took train rides to get out to good hiking trails.
Even he had to admit it felt good to take a break, even if that feeling of selfishness followed it that made it hard to do things like this alone. But this was a good use of time as long as Sally was getting a good break from her own stressful internship.
"Hey, Noah" Sally says, moving her hands to hug Noah closely while still resting her head atop his.
"Yes?"
"Is my Japanese getting any better? Hoge says I talk like a child still"
"Noah thinks she's exaggerating. You're holding a conversation with me great, and your reading was getting much better the last study session we had" he says as they shift to look at each other.
"It feels weird, to understand this place more. Just a year ago I was finishing up studying the basics of how to talk and ready to scream at every bit of this language"
"Understanding is never a bad thing, every bit of care we give to the world is another bit of understanding our purpose under God"
Noah looks away from Sally for a moment, like a bad memory crossing his mind. An image that won't leave his mind like a wrench in a clockwork machine.
"Noah... did something happen? If something hurts, then sharing it's better than letting it fester like a wound"
Noah looks up at Sally, her face offering him confession for once. He gulps and places his hands in his lap.
"Noah... Noah and Localoca were called into a scene where a man had lit his apartment on fire and was about to jump off the roof. I.. rescued him by grabbing him before he fell to the ground, but he.... had nothing but damning insults for me. I prayed about it but... God must be giving me a test of faith" Noah says, his gentle smile falling into an anxious frown.
"Noah isn't sure if he saved anyone that day"
Sally purses her lips: "{Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we receive from God.}" she says, a learned verse she managed to remember.
She clears her throat, switching her headspace back to Japanese: "Visit him and.. and offer him assurance that it... it wasn't his time. God decides when he calls us up to be judged by Saint Peter and works in mysterious ways. You... you were aligned with God's will that day"
"Noah.. Noah was someone's angel?"
Sally nods and hugs him tightly, and his wings flutter: "You are an angel to so many other people too... like me. I.. I... have my confession to make"
Noah looks at her but is interrupted by his cell phone ringing. As he politely and awkwardly refuses the telemarketer's services while complimenting him on his perseverance in marketing his service, Sally reconsiders what she is going to say. She was confessing a crime to the boy who can't lie and the idea of Noah being forced into giving her and Chris up to the police as heroes trying to punch way farther up than they should be made her feel a void in her stomach.
She just had to commit this one more sin and keep hiding it. She was protecting him, keeping him free of more of her problems.
She said this to herself every night, and every morning, and the same word rings in her head now as she listens to him finally hang up.
"Noah is sorry, what did you want to confess?" he asks with a renewed smile, a bit weaker than usual but present.
"...I've been fogging up Hoge's glasses when she sleeps so I can get to the shower first while she cleans them" Sally says with red cheeks, both from the cold wind and the embarrassment that she was technically being honest.
Noah laughs it off: "Maybe the two of you can work out a schedule then, for who gets to go first on different days of the week"
"Y-Yeah, I'll talk to her about it" Sally says with a shy smile.
"{Sorry if that seemed really.. trivial compared to your issues. You're the reason I find a lot of strength on my bad days, cause... I know you wouldn't ever half-ass important work like an internship}" Sally says while tucking her hair behind her ears.
"{you are always welcome, Sally. Noah would never turn down a chance to help take some weight off your soul}"
"{You're always making things about me, do you.. not like sharing your worries?}"
"{Noah just... feels it's selfish to put himself ahead of others, especially souls that bear the weight of much more struggle. It feels much better to relieve even a tiny fraction of that weight than to do the same for Noah's soul}"
Sally looks into Noah's eyes as she looks at him and tries to figure out what the boy feels right now like Chihiro always looked at her. The penetrating gaze tells her what she wanted at least: Noah was being truthful and letting his guard down for her.
"{It.. it's not a flaw, its a trait}" she says, causing Noah to cock his head in confusion.
The two walk down the mountain trail as Sally explains that in an ancient game called "Radout", you could take traits that had positive and negative effects which made your character more a believable person. Noah's excessive generosity and selflessness were not a fault, just a part of him God decided to make him with for a reason.
The train going home was a quiet one, mainly of other people who were enjoying the snow-covered outdoors. Sally snuggles up close to Noah with her jacket on her lap, letting his wings warm her as she blissfully rests on him with a calm and cheerful look. Noah watched the towns and roads on the outskirts of Kyoto and let his mind wander while keeping an ear open for their stop.
He sees the train enter a massive ball of shadow, breaking him out of his reverie as he shakes Sally awake quickly.
She shakes herself awake and sees the globe of darkness their train is throttling toward, her eyes widening: "{Nox, has to be fucking Nox!}" she blurts out.
"{Sally calm down and explain, please}" Noah pleads, ready to pull the emergency stop.
"{Member of the five, her darkness can trap you inside it! Stop the train!!}"
Noah pulls the lever and engages the emergency brakes, a loud grinding noise filling the whole car as the train barrels forward, barely sparing the cars behind the pair of heroes-in-training as the civilians inside grab onto the standing poles and scream. Noah tries to take control of the chaotic situation but is talked over.
Sally digs in her purse for her provisional license and fires a loud hollow point into the roof of the train car, harmlessly lodging itself in the metal: "EVERYONE CALM DOWN! WE ARE STUDENTS IN SHIKETSU'S HERO COURSE AND WILL SAVE YOU!" She says with a straining yell in her awkward Japanese.
Noah finds his own provisional license and presents similarly to Sally: "I will be carrying everyone off the tracks in groups of two! Please stay put and avoid the shadow wall" He says as reassuringly as he can while trying the emergency doors, thankful the one in the back of the car worked well. He turns to Sally, who is wasting no time marching up to the wall of shadows preparing herself to enter. Noah gets the emergency door open and grabs her hand: "{Sally, My light.. I think it will help keep you safe in there. Let rescue the back cars first, together}" he says in her native tongue getting through to her as she runs ahead to alert the other cars.
"THE TRAIN IS BEING ATTACKED BY A VILLAIN: EVACUATE OUT OF THE TRAINS AND AVOID THE WORLD OF DARKNESS!" Sally shouts as she goes car by car, thankful her technique of gunfire into the air got the attention of those tentatively in her care.
While Noah lifted the elderly and disabled out of the cars, Sally caught people jumping out of the train cars so they could avoid the electrified tracks along with a host of others who stepped up to get their loved ones away from looming darkness. Of the train’s 8 cars, 5 had managed to avoid the darkness bubble, with 3 stuck inside.
Sally and Noah look at each other as a hiker takes off his fireproof gloves to light a campfire to warm the civilians while hundreds of people call for aid. The two knew their grim duty and decided an approach from the back would be the best chance they had. The door to the first darkened car is not working, requiring the persuasion of a 7.62 at close range to open. Noah cast his light ahead, barely lighting the inky blackness ahead of them as Sally fires a round into the roof of the car and steps in.
She hears nothing, not even the rancor of gunfire or the screams of civilians. She sees nothing but what Noah's light can manage. He looks to have exhausted his supply quickly as they both feel like their trudging through floodwater in freezing weather. Sally manages to feel around for a hand on the ground. She can't hear her own words as she shivers and pulls the woman out of the darkness: she carries a terrified child in her burly arms. It takes all of Sally and Noah's strength to pull her out of the darkness, the cold December winds like a light summer breeze compared to the dark world they had gotten out of.
As Noah sends her off to join the others and warm up, he looks to Sally: "Noah needs light to help rescue those people, so... Noah has an idea"
"{I'm listening, you're the one who's taking the rescue classes after all}"
"{I can angle my light off of your bullets and send your flashes of light from outside the darkness. It should let you see where you are going and find victims. The longer you spend in there the more... the more Noah knows you'll be hurt"
Sally gulps as she nods, throwing her jacket on and hugging Noah. He warms her up with his wings as she takes in the heat and lets out a deep breath: "{Fire light beams every three seconds, I'll out of the right side with loud tracers every three seconds: Aim ahead of where you see the tracers, okay?}" Sally says on the edge of the cold, isolating blackness.
Noah nods as he flies up parallel to Sally's line of fire, the girl running in and firing volleys of rounds out the windows to get some speck of light, saving a group of shivering teen boys and a man of at least fifty years who seems to barely be able to walk under the oppressive weight of the shadow bubble. The idea of having two more cars deeper in made her spin shudder as she ran out to warm up, quickly going back in and blowing the emergency door to the second car open, finding a mother desperately trying to keep her 3 children warm and a group of girls who were trying to smash the window with their purses. The villain must have had some way to reinforce the emergency doors too, forcing Sally to use rounds specializing in door breaching rounds from Rika to get through them. Even as the civilians try and speak, Sally can only guess what they're saying as she relies on daisy chains of people holding hands to lead them out safely as she pushes herself to the brink of her pain tolerance.
Noah was putting all his focus into lighting a way for Sally to get to the poor people trapped inside the insidious quirk. Hitting the bullets was hard but it would allow Sally some moments of relief and a way to at least use her eyes, if not her ears. The bubble was truly colossal, like a rain dome of a sports stadium in terms of size as it swallowed the outlying landscape. To find the villain themselves was second to rescuing the civilians and train operators still in danger while keeping the civilians safe from any further attack.
With how far out they were, it would take some time for professionals to arrive and take control of the scene from them: Noah was ready to follow the advice of his superiors, but he knew Sally often had issues with being told to back off...
He shakes his head and nails another light ricochet as he could Sally coming back from every trip inside the cars more exhausted, his whole mind and body focused on lighting her way through the otherwise impenetrable darkness.
When Sally finally pushed up to the front car where the conductors were, she has to help drag one of them who went unconscious out of the train, the conductor taking one arm as Sally takes the other and pushes with all her might despite the needles of the weighty and cold making it feel like she was in a meat locker/trash compactor combination.
When they get out, the conductor gives Sally a strong handshake: "Miss... I promise, I will never forget your bravery. You're still a student, right?"
"Y-Yes, at Shiketsu.." Sally says as her body tries to claw its way back to homeostasis.
The man pats her shoulder before going to find someone in the camp of civilians to help bring his colleague back to the waking world. Sally looks up at Noah, who looks exhausted, but smiles down at her and gives her a thumbs up.
Sally returns the gesture with a twinkle in her eye, letting a silent prayer float to God for giving her the courage to face her valley of death and not wilt away.
Nox chuckles to herself as she feels someone rescuing the people stuck inside the bubble, navigating with trickshotted light beams. She had to admit this was a good omen for McCathy's test even if she was ignoring the true threat for some people who would take hours to die under the power of her quirk.
She must be a woman of "principal" then, but that still failed to explain her taking an internship with the laughing stock of the Kyoto hero scene and not someone who could teach more advanced techniques. Desolator was simply disappointed in her poor decision-making skills, while she saw a chance:
Why kill the old man herself if he ever had it out for her when she could keep the gun nun following that trail and ready to pounce when she throws her a bone of good information? All it would take is a "change of heart" and she would have deniability on any poorly planned assassination attempt on the quirkless killer. He was good enough to kill her if she ever stepped fully out of line and that was something she didn't wish to test.
So far, she was impressed with her stubbornness. Even as Sally made things far harder for herself she didn't try seeking the user of the quirk out or use her angelic boytoy as a living spotting flare: she really had been trained for theatrics.
The woman smirks as she leans on a tree and checks her watch: she should have about 30 minutes more at least to test the girl and shake her Abrams off before the pros arrive and demand a retreat.
Sally and Noah take a moment to rest with the civilians, but a moment is all they get as the shadow globe pushes forward. The civilians are forced to move, with Noah trying to slow it down with his light beams. The method only buys a little time for Sally to Rally everyone into moving their asses to the ring of corralling gunfire.
"MOVE! WE'LL HOLD IT BACK!" Sally yells before looking back to see how the darkness is proceeding. She remembers a lesson of Majestic's that stuck after she had to have the concept spoonfed to her...
Sally tries to avoid the hero's directed laser blasts, succeeding as the hero's agility training seemed to awaken a part of her that made her slippery at medium and long range. Regardless, she kept failing the exercise even after staying late so he could conduct a private lesson. She was already looking exhausted as he knocked the civilian targets for what must have been the 40th time.
"AGAIN!" He says as the targets get reset.
"BUT WHY!? I'M NOT GETTING HIT!" Sally yells furiously back at him.
"Do you seriously not get it yet? This is one of the foundations of hero work, so you may as well drop out if you're not going to listen!"
"{THEN SAY IT LOUDER YOU SMUG-FUCKING DICK!}"
Majestic sighs: He felt absolutely nothing but vitriol toward Sally since she first showed. Even though she had a nice body in workout sweats, she was a powderkeg so fiery and volatile that even he felt like he'd have to melt a live round with his lasers just by critiquing her and making her work. She was here by obligation and for reasons the school kept close to its chest. But unlike Sampson, she was a bitch to work with even when he tried to be nice.
"THEN SIT DOWN!" he bellows, enough to make Sally hesitate for a second.
"YOUR LETTING ME HIT THE CIVILIANS! If it's between you getting put in the hospital and saving a crowd of people, you always sacrifice yourself or you'll end up a wreck in the polls worse than Popsy!"
"NOW EITHER STOP ME KNOCKING OVER THE DUMMIES WITH RUBBER ROUNDS AND PEPPERBALLS OR GET IN THE WAY OF MY BEAMS! Guessing at a villain's goals and using that to keep the damage down and gain an advantage is something you'll need to master before you get any further than the intro courses, McCathy"
"Yes sir......." Sally growls as she loads her nastiest pepperball rounds and gets ready to throw herself in front of his sight for good measure.
Sally snaps out of her flashback as Noah seems to be faltering in his bid to buy the civilians more time, and she notices the shadows forming a line and trying to curve toward her.
"{NOAH! WE NEED TO GET ME IN THE AIR!}"
The angel nods keeping his beams concentrated on the section of shadow he was suppressing for as long as possible as he takes flight and takes Sally up in a princess carry.
"{What's our destination?}" Noah asks as Sally can't help but blush a bit at the way he's carrying her, but she snaps out of her shoujo shyness quickly: "{See that big forest? The shadow is zigzagging its way out of there, so the villains gotta be there!}"
"{We should focus on rescue though and leave this to the proffe-}"
"{We can't hold it back forever: You know that. and... OH SHIT!}" Sally says as she looks behind, raising an arm to fire into the darkness in a futile attempt to slow it down as they fly just above the canopy with the blob of shadows snaking behind Noah with remarkable speed.
Noah swerves to the side, watching his altitude as they buzz right above the canopy, already feeling the crushing cold of the shadows on his back wings.
The angel boy knows he can't outrun this forever: He was already reaching exhaustion before he started flying, and his wings felt ready to give out soon. He had two things he had to two do before he lost altitude.
1: Reveal the location of the villain.
2: Get in a position to at least get Sally to land safely.
He pushes his wings back to create a pocket of lift, squinting as the wind rushes over his eyes: "Sword of Truth, guide our way!" he says as a ray of light scans its way across the forest, cutting through the darkness like a surgeon's clean scalpel. He spots it: A woman in black sitting by a radio, concentrated with her eyes closed on the north end of the forest. Sally tries her best to follow the light beam to make a sniper shot at the high altitude, aiming higher than usual to account for the dropoff as she fires off buckshot which seems to go wide but grab her attention enough to slow the shadows for a moment.
Noah takes his chance to descend quickly while his passenger closes her eyes and grips onto his neck. He can hear her choked prayers between the rushing wind and his heartbeat lodged in his throat and rising to his head. He circles his way into the forest, as he finds a clearing he could land in. Only to see a wall of shadow rise up in front of him.
He swerves in a desperate evasive maneuver, but he can't make it and takes a branch to the stomach, losing Sally in the darkness. He can't hear anything as he tries to feel his way down safely, refusing to leave Sally injured in this dark hellscape, even if every muscle contraction hurts at this point.
God would provide him the stamina to keep going.
He had never failed before, after all.
Sally awakens in utter, chilling blackness. Her body hurt all over like she had fallen out of bed 5 times in a row. She catches herself loading lethal ammo but dissolves it. The girl feels around for her bag, and prays to God Rika used different casings for the flare rounds than she did for the Sabot's she was using for door breaching. By a stroke of luck, the flare rounds had a ridged exterior and a designation engraved on the round.
The process of loading the round is extremely awkward, as it requires her to trace the shape of the right arm with her left up to the end of the thumb. Very carefully, she puts the wide end of the round down her right arm barrel and raises the arm up to set the round. She hears the click of it falling into her firing gland and breathes. She fires the flare upward and is briefly blinded by the magnesium light being tamed by the hood of the projectile, the only one that separated from a flashbang round.
She crawls toward the light and stands once inside its light. She warms up and takes stock of the situation while staring mournfully at her torn tights.
She may have broken a bone when she fell. She once heard a story about a woman with a broken leg traveling 3 miles unassisted after a climbing accident. She was cut up from the branches she hit on the way down, but nothing more than scrapes luckily. She had 2 other flare rounds to work with since she thought these things would be useless and ordered only a few from Rika. She knew better than to touch the magnesium-cored ammo, but she could kick it with her thick boots and not get burned to keep light. She saw where the villain was, now was just a matter of reaching her without dying of hypothermia.
But she couldn't. Noah took priority.
He had to be here, somewhere. The idea he was freezing or bleeding to death made Sally sick, more than the idea of the villain getting away. Saving a life always counts for more than taking one, it's what Jesus would do in her situation. The pros had to be arriving soon...
She had a confession to make anyway. She could not let her confessor angel pass away no matter what while that weight on her soul remained.
Sally picks herself up, and fires her other flares upward in the hopes of casting rays of light onto Noah, praying vigorously before each round is fired.
The first is a dud in terms of finding Noah, causing her to break out a Hail Mary:
"ail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen." she intones with desperate faith. The last flare round clicks into place.
She sees it: white, soft feathers rustling with life as they slowly fly down. It's off in the distance as the white-haired boy looks at the fired flair and absorbs as much of the light as possible to amplify it. Sally runs toward the newly created sanctuary in the darkness, kicking her first flare along before leaping onto Noah and crying into his shoulder as they fall into a pile of snow.
The two wander through the darkness, Noah magnifying the dying light of the flare enough for them to get out of the darkened forest. They hear the sounds of evacuation heroes and ambulances very far in the distance. Both of them are cut up all over and drained of most of their strength as they keep each other upright.
Sally's tights are ruined from splotches of blood and so many tears that she wouldn't have the material to fix them. Her dress is stained dirt enough she could salvage it, while her arms are unscathed because of her trusty jacket. She didn't feel any bleeding on her head, which was a good sign considering Noah was only trained as a first responder.
Noah's khaki's are torn up and there's a constant pain in his midsection from where he got clotheslined by the branch. His wings felt misaligned, like some of the fragile bones in them snapped or a muscle got pulled and his body was doing its best to not feel that right now. He felt out of breath and had a splitting headache, but his wings kept him and Sally warm at least.
Despite their injured state, they had no idea how to get to the ambulances. God's providence would reveal itself: An abandoned house lost to the snow with an attached garage. The two look at each other, and approach it.
Sally forces the sliding doors and holds them open for Noah, who smiles at her generosity toward him even if Sally could see the pain on his face from being the recipient of charity. The two find a firepit in the traditional style, Noah noticing the coals are usable.
"{Sally, can.. you light a fire?}" he says with belabored breaths, clutching his midsection with his arm before a coughing fit.
"{Yeah, just please... save your strength}" Sally says with utmost worry, firing some weak dragon's breath birdshot to light the coals and create a source of warmth. She finds a pillow and blanket for Noah.
"{I'll fix you up, lay down while I search around for some bandages and alcohol}" she says as the boy hesitates to lie down
"{Noah... Noah can still help-}"
"{You already saved so many lives today, and mine at least twice. Please, for the love of God.... let me take care of you since you’re hurt worse}" she insists, tearing up as she touches his shoulder.
Noah nods weakly, cozying up by the warm fire while his aching middle left wing shoots in pain. He lays on his back to let them lie still without being crushed as prays for their safety and that the villain has fled.
He focused his mind, trying to prepare for guiding Sally through splinting a wing as he got his breath back. The selfless saint in him spoke:
"Noah's duty is to help others. Noah's physical pain is nothing compared to the pain that her soul carries every day from her mortal sins. Rise up, scorn the pains of the flesh, and render aid to one less fortunate, as is Noah's duty as a man of God"
He winces at the voice, a more friendly, practical, yet playful one balancing it out as his cold bones found relief by the fire:
"Chin up! No more self-deprecating talk Noah! Skipping meals and letting those what-ifs keep you down won't make things better: rest, relax, and let her be nurturing. You set such a good example after all~"
Noah smiles as he closes his eyes, letting the warmth of the fire comfort his body into slumber while his dreams are occupied by images of the Archangel Gabriel showering aid over the hungry and hurt.
Sally sits across from Noah as she watches him sleep.
Her stomach had a slight put in it as she looked at how peaceful he looked. She had already woken him up and carefully used gauze to wrap his wings properly and prevent further damage from broken bones. She wasn't trained in any of this, so she was happy to let Noah guide her in alleviating his pain for once. He fell back asleep, seeming to trust her enough to keep him safe.
She can understand that at least: she made a good guard dog. But she wasn't loyal, since she was keeping a secret from him.
About her potentially ruining her life by getting caught being a vigilante.
About her potentially dying at the hands of the world's greatest assassin.
About her secret meetings with Inigo and Chris.
And it ate at her like a chest-burster feasting on her organs. If she didn't tell him now, then she never would. It was like the difference between the angel and devil route in that VN Inigo gave her: One choice that affected the ending.
She scowls when she catches herself thinking like Inigo: she thought she was immunized against the special kind of stupidity he carried.
"{Noah... I...}"
"{I've been... offered a place with Desolator, an internationally wanted assassin. He... he says I'll never be allowed to graduate and be normal}"
She looks back at Noah, still asleep. She bites her lip as she watches a grin form on his face: he was listening.
"{I...I refused and he... I need to help to bring him to justice. Chris and Inigo are... are helping me}"
"{I won't kill him, I can't or... or I'll just prove I've not changed}"
"{I can control myself.. I can do good... and... I've been lying to you for a while about it. Those study sessions with Chris are... planning sessions, pooling our info, just... planning an ambush}"
The air holds still for a moment as Sally feels a weight in her soul lifted, like medicine taking effect after a delay as she watches Noah rest with a smile on his gentle face.
"Could... could you forgive me? For betraying your trust again?" she asks in Japanese, choked by a sudden onset of tears.
Noah's eyes flicker open as he sits up: "You are forgiven... my love" he says with a cheeky grin causing Sally to laugh a bit at his awkward phrasing, wiping her tears away. The two sit for a few minutes longer looking into the fire as the lovebirds do more casual, almost joking confessions with each other for minor things, savoring the moment they've given for as long as possible.
All moments end, and it was Noah who spotted a cloud of darkness expanding its way toward the house out a window. The villain was still chasing them, against all reason.
"{Noah.. Noah sees the darkness, we need to move}" he says sadly, as he gets up slowly and tucks his wings in.
"{The garage!}" Sally exclaims as she gets up and rummages through her jacket pockets.
Noah tilts his head and is surprised when he sees a car key, dusty and old-looking, but whole.
"{I drove Mister Nelson's old truck a lot! Only got it stuck in a ditch once so I think I'll be fine}"
"{Noah... Noah trusts you, just please be safe...}"
Sally nods as they see their chariot away from the darkness, covered in cobwebs and a few layers of dust. A Kei truck.
Sally opens the garage by hand and starts the car as Noah hops in the passenger seat and puts on his seat belt and says a prayer. The fuel tank is about half full if the meter is right.
"Should be enough to outrun her, right?" Sally says, slipping back into her Japanese.
"We can only hope" Noah says as he touches the stick shift with Sally, putting the vehicle into drive together as Sally slammed the gas and did a quick turn onto a dirt road while Noah kept the tendrils of darkness that branched from the main cloud from reaching the car away with his own light.
Nox could have let them run, but she figured she could spare a few minutes while the mess over on the train tracks was getting cleaned up. She could already tell Sally herself wasn't adaptable against anything that wasn't flesh, blood, or machine. Fighting the esoteric was something she required help to do from those who would tolerate her antics.
She wanted to see how far she could push Sally before she or her pretty boyfriend broke down and left the other. She knew Sally was already competent in her comfort zone and may be able to wound Desolator if she was given a chance, maybe even kill him if she was lucky.
She chases them using tendrils of darkness as feelers, having more than enough range to simply walk forward and still be in striking distance of the two little heros: The pretty boy's light blasts were getting irritating, making a quite effective counter to the advancement of her darkness. She smirks when she realizes what direction the fools are going: right to an under-construction bridge.
Hopefully, McCathy was quick on the brakes.
[Music: https://youtu.be/DAK24FQ7DrA?si=_Xu1FYfKw__SWUpC ]
Sally was feeling her adrenaline spike as she sped along, trying to stay on the new-looking road: Time moved slower and she moved faster as wondered how far this bitch would chase them and why she even wanted her dead.
No time to think, since the road was ending right up ahead. Sally's eyes widen as the realization hits her that the bridge is out and Noah's left wing is busted. She slams the brakes with a lead foot and grabs the wheel with both hands, desperately trying to keep the truck straight to avoid the construction equipment and trees.
"{HOLD ON!!}" Sally yells to Noah as she starts to swerve, loudly grinding against the guardrails on the side of the road as the last bits of momentum the car held propelled to the top of the bridge, about a foot away from falling freezing river covered with ice very long ways down. The girl takes a moment to catch her breath before she catches Noah losing a volley of light behind her and puts the obvious together.
This was a last stand.
"{Noah give me a beam! cut through as much of it as you can so I can line up a shot!}" Sally says as she loads a rubber rifle bullet that should fly long enough to hit wherever Nox is.
"{Got it!}" Noah says, sweeping from right to left and cleaving a temporary hole in the darkness, just enough to see the quirk user generating it: A slender, dark-haired Japanese woman with a wicked grin as she looks toward Sally. Nox almost looks like she's daring Sally to shoot at her.
Sally lets the Rubber 7.62 fly with a bang as she steadies her arm against the recoil. When she notices no sign of it having an effect, She gets into a stabilized position and lets loose bursts of it, tracing the bullet trajectory.
"{Her darkness must be defending her somehow! Noah... Noah can ward them off! Run!}"
"{Fuck no!}" Sally says as she holds his hand tightly, and feels a tingle in her left arm with a yellow energy that surged up her arm. It feels warm despite the cold winds slicing against her jacket. She and Noah share a glance, and share a look of determination: Whatever this was, they were going to see this to the end.
"{Face Divine Intervention!}" they both shout in unison.
The couple raise their hands at the same time, Sally pathing a barrel through her index finger and aiming by the knuckle of her thumb: The bullets were only 9mm pistol rounds, but they moved twice the muzzle velocity and seemed to bear their own light which streaked ahead as she fired concentrated burst at where she could see flashes of Nox.
Nox was starting to get worried: She couldn't slow these down, and trying to take cover was difficult without stranding herself on the ground since even looking at the light bullet was blinding. The ones that landed were only rubber tips, but that didn't stop the unslowed bullets from hurting like a stressed pressure point. She scowls as she concentrates her darkness into a tunnel to shroud the couple, causing them to miss enough to slink away into the forest.
Nox sighed as the two lovebirds lose sight of her, still on the defense and not chasing her: a lucky break. She had to get out of here before the pros came by and investigated the automatic gunfire. It would be a long, cold walk back to civilization, but at the very least she knew what Gun Nun could do for sure.
[Music: https://youtu.be/QtMmKZye1YY?si=qTdBgBblQ4IRT_e0 ]
Noah pulls Sally's arm down and looks at her, catching his breath as he did the same: "{Save your energy please, Sally, she escaped...}"
Sally growls and curls her hands into fists like a werewolf, wrath evident in every aspect of her being. Noah reminds himself: be assertive with her, and show her a better way, even if she may not like it.
He reaches up to the back of her head and brings her lips down to his. He wraps her in the feathery embrace of his right wing along with his gentle, soft hands as Sally does not resist. They kiss for longer than they had ever before, separating after a few minutes.
"{Sally, let her go. We are alive... that.... is enough}" Noah says, his hair ruffled and spiked from the wind.
"{Noah knows you want revenge, you want finality, but... when you go on a quest for revenge you dig two graves. I don't want your soul to be lost like a flickering flame. You are more than the gun barrels in your limbs: you'll... you'll save the lives of thousands someday. If Noah's light helps you see a way to that future, then Noah will stay by your side as your lantern}"
Noah smiles up at Sally, both tearing up as Sally cries into his shoulder, speaking in a choked prayer. The girl's reservations were gone as she wiped her eyes with a pure white feather: "{I... don't know what I did to deserve an angel, but don't go... please. I don't deserve you, and I've committed mortal sins: Hellfire is what I deserve. And I keep looking for it in every shadow as if I can just shoot it away and keep my dreams for another day}"
Sally clings tightly to Noah, a weeping mess of joy and sorrow as feathers shield her from the snow.