"How long ago did you decide this?" 

I'm relieved that I can't see the expression on Luke's face, "You weren't going to tell me anything, Arylette?" I can hardly hear his voice amongst the wind that thrashes along the ancient wall beneath us. I turn to face him, the revisiim band over my eyes coloring him in hues of blues and purples, but never quite sketching his finer details. The revisiim are meant to expose the enemy at night, now, they only offer a visual aura of sadness.

For once, I wish the dark stayed dark.

His presence closes in on me, I feel it reverberate through the air like heat or an uncontained emotion.

"I wasn't expecting you here..." I say, hesitating.

"Even after all this time with me?" He continues slowly, painfully. Body nearly touching mine he herds me against the side of the parapet. My heart is struck with a wave of emotion, "You're planning on following through with this?" I'm drowning in the darkness covering my eyes, the revisiim band wet with my tears.

"Yes," I say, raising my face to let him hear me clearly. There's nothing to hide anymore, he caught me after all. "I'm leaving."

"Tell me what I can say, Ar." He takes my face in his hands, thumbing my cheeks softly. I don't answer. My loose hair whips against our faces. He listens to my stifled crying, the whimpers I choke on. I didn't want a goodbye. "I could go with you, given time. You don't have to be alone." I lower my head, my hood's caught in the wind and slaps against my shoulders. "I don't want you to be alone."

"I should go, Luke." I press a hand against his chest.

"Arylette, how am I supposed to let you go?" The strain in his voice clear, "You're not going into town, you're going into The Rot. We've gone before, Ar. We barely escaped the Vilka..."

I turn my head. Focusing on the heat of my cheeks and the brunt of the wind.

"I'm sorry," I say. I feel his shoulders fall, he steps back, taking his sticky presence with him. Everything is so cold.

"I don't know if I'm ever going to see you again." He voices the deepest pit of my heart. I reach up to my revisiim band and tug it down. I squint my eyes at the dark until warm golds hum to life like fireflies and stain my vision with a gold lense. The band is merely a prop, an unnecessary way to blend in and another reminder that I don't belong here.

I study Luke's face. He is a cast of deep bronze, a live painting of acrylic, from the arches of his cheekbones to the pretty bow of his lips.

"I'm going to miss you," I tell him, tracing the lines of his face slowly. His frown only deepens, lips pressed together holding back... everything. We both know what he wants to say, but there's nothing changing this.

I kiss him gently, chastely, with nothing but love. Luke catches me there, by the elbow and the nape of my neck. We take a moment, I press my face to his hard chest plate, its dark metal freezing cold in the early winter air.

"I'm going to tell the rest of the Guard you fell off the wall." He says against my face, voice light, snarky grin revealing his sharp teeth. He pulls away from a little, still holding me close.

"Luke!" I half-smile.

"What?" He laughs, "Tomorrow's Solise, I'll just tell them you got a little too excited while celebrating."

"Stop talking..."

"Imagine it," He continues, "The Misera thought she could fly.."

I laugh a little, it's dry and airy, overcome by the sound of the wind and my breaking heart.

"Don't call me that as I'm abandoning my post." Every part... "I need to leave before my sub arrives, Luke." I distance us a little, "It's time."

"So," He says finally, "I never saw you..." He turns his face to the landscape beyond the edge of the wall. The revisiim band over his eyes catches a slip of bright gold like a brushstroke of amber.

"I'm sure we'll meet again." I tell him gently, "I've wait-"

"You don't need to explain." Luke smiles a little, "I know why." He releases me and every part of him tenses, "I hope you find them. I really hope you do."

I step back, his hands clench at his sides. He looks like a fish out of water, mouth opening and closing. My feet turn hurriedly, wanting to leave before he figures out something convincing enough to make me stay. I hear his heartbeat from here, a panicked drumming.

Luke watches me walk away.

I steady myself against the wall with a light touch of the hand. The wind catches me a few steps later, with the half-wall of the parapet at my side I continue along the length of the wall. My hair whips around in bright gold shining waves. Disorienting, beautiful, and beating any hesitation out of me.

"Did you leave yet?" Luke yells, through the deafening wind. I don't bother answering, he's just... being Luke. I do, however, smile. Despite myself.

"Maybe I should just come with you?"

"Your sister and your rounds with Aridon on the wall tonight prevent that."

"Wow," He snorts a sarcastic laugh, "I've always said you had a sense of humor. I'll just tell everyone you both fell..." Ignoring him, I fiddle with the wire at my belt loop, readying the hook for a wall crevice.

"You really weren't going to tell me anything?" He scoffs, obviously ruminating as I prepare, "Wait! Don't answer that." I release my verci claws from my hip, tracing their edges with my fingertips. Sharp, thick, built for climbing just about anything.

"I hope you live happily, Luke," I tell him over the sound of the wind.

"That wasn't what I wanted to hear either, Arylette." He replies solemnly, "When you return, find me." I slip the verci on each hand and flex, the nails clack threateningly.

"I will."

I lock the hook in place and watch Luke's bronze silhouette blend with the shadows of the wall as I step below the rails.

"Bye Lu," I say to the rough stone of Gurren's mighty walls. I refuse to think any more of him and set the wire's lock loose, I descend slowly. I stick close to the wall, wind-fighting me and my claws.
A whistle catches the air in a pitch so high, my ears fill with hot liquid. I wince, covering one ear with my free hand. I wipe the blood on my pants and lift my head.

The hell was that?

My wire bounces. I grunt at the sudden jerk and hit the wall hard. I crane my neck, eyes wide, heart pounding, there's no way it's breaking...

I hear the branches break seconds too late, the Owln's talons run along the wall, pulling stones free before hooking around my waist and ripping me from the wall. We dart into the air, I hear a distorted scream.

"ARy-"

High.

And higher still. My body goes cold, the tip of a talon sliced into my side. My bloody ears pop as we ascend and then the only thing I hear is my beating heart. Skittering, panicking, terrified.

Just as suddenly as I was swept from the wall, we steady in the air, nearly floating before the giant bird points its head down and dives.

The world is a blur of gold. It lurches for me, I can't breathe as we fall until I see Luke's tiny form growing and growing. My chest expands in the creature's tight grip and I cry.

"Luke!"

I struggle in the Owln's talons, a little closer and I can-

I snap my claw against the middle of its boney foot and it releases me, just above the roof of the parapet. The roof cracks on my impact but doesn't collapse. All of me is as heavy as lead.

The Owln screeches overwhelming another of Luke's calls. I lift my head and spin on my side, vision rolling in waves of amber. It limps in place on top of the wall directly across from Luke. The blood from its foot blooms like a flower, puddling over in waves of gold. Luke steadies his mighty sword, Serala, fist haloed by its bladed hilt.

"Tell me you're alive!" He yells again, back to me, facing the Owln directly.

A gust of wind from above keeps me down. The parapet shakes as another Owln claws against the stone and lands in front of me. I get to my elbows, my side pinches but its pain is dull. Adrenaline is the only thing I need right now. I rise, rapier raised.

It straightens, ominous gaze daring me to move.

"I'm alive." I call back over my shoulder, "Get to the alarm!"

"Trust me everyone knows they're here." True enough.

I swing my head around and start toward the Owln, moving fluidly over the parapet beginning to crack beneath us. My boots kick up shingles as I dart on the edge of the roof, rounding the Owln's side. Its head swivels, left wing stretches out- but I'm too close. It stumbles backward, eyes struggling to see me so near.

Tip of rapier against the bones of its wing, the metal thuds making my arms bounce as I finish my swing. Sturdy beast! Feathers and blood are taken in the wind, I'm splattered.

The Owln cries, the screech enough to bring me to a knee. Its leg rears back, talons spread wide. I clench my teeth and answer it with my rapier.

I support the flat of the blade with a hand, raising my arms as high over my head as I can muster. The claws close around me, the talon breaks the skin of my lower back, I roar in pain. My muscles feel like they're fraying rope... I am going to burst under this pressure.

The parapet begins to shake as the creature releases heavy gusts of wind with its uninjured wing. It's weight above only grows, using the air it conjures to add force.

We burst through the rooftop together. I struggle in its claw, body trembling. The Owln trembles against the wall, the wing I'd sliced broken with the fall and the other caught in the building's falling stones. The creature stares at me, silent. It's canvas once an array of golds now splattered white.

"Arylette!" Luke cries; I hear the sound of wood splintering, cracking, breaking.

The cloud over Gurren parts just enough to light the hole in the ceiling of the parapet. Moonlight I- no one has seen in ages. I blink, eyes adjusting as the gold dies away to a pale moonlit scene.

"Luke," I say to his lit face, skin pale, violet eyes dark with worry.

He roars with effort as he pries me from the creature's grip. He pulls my arm over his shoulder, careful with my injured back.

"The world just won't let you be rid of me." He says into my ear, voice tense, words light.

"The other one?" I groan as he steadies me.

"It took off..."

"Something's wrong." I tell him, "Someone shou-"

"Be here by now. I know." He assures me, we edge to the cracked threshold of the parapet and cross it, I notice now that we're both limping.

"Luke?" The question in my voice, he doesn't answer me- he doesn't have time. A whistle sounds in the air above us. Luke and I spin, the opening in the cloud not natural at all, instead- Luke's Owln dives for us. I move to take us back into the parapet, but I'm not fast enough, it catches the wall crumbling it like an anthill in its claw. Luke and I dart to the side our backs pummeled by stones and chunks of wood.

The Owln lands in front of its brethren, its chest rises and falls quickly. The wall behind it tumbling down. It leans heavily to the right, careful eyes on us.

We shudder and step back.

"Could we make it?" To the next parapet- he means, the one nearly a kilometer behind us.

The Owln in front of us whistles again.

We're clipped by another set of claws from the other side of the wall, it came up just like the first one did. Darting up from the dark of The Rot.

"Arylette!" He cries out, I'm half caught in the claws, slipping free just before we reach the wall's edge. I lock a hand around Luke's ankle, the Owln's grip on him tightens. A millisecond passes between us, we both know I must let go.

I do.

I land on my side, world spinning, wall spinning, stomach reeling.

"Luke!" I scream. It won't stop. I squeeze my eyes shut, feeling around for him. "Luke?!" I manage to stand, but everything keeps turning, I'm on the wrong axis.

I catch blurry movement in the distance, wings flapping, Luke's flailing silhouette.

I am left in the wake of the battle alone atop the wall.

___

"Misera Sundra." Councilwoman Jore greets as she opens the door to the infirmary. I don't bother hiding my grimace. She stands in her white robes, black hair tied in a low knot. Every bit the opposite of me, dark clothes, ashen hair. "I'd like to formally apologize for the events that took place last night. In light of all that's happened, I'm happy to be able to greet you here this morning."

"Ma'am," I say with a curt nod. A candle on the nightstand threatens to extinguish as she closes the curtain of my section of the infirmary behind her.

"The reinforcements that we discussed earlier... it seems they were incapacitated and therefore unable to aid you and your partner. Before you say anything, an investigation is already underway."

I lick my teeth, attempting to find patience.

"I understand."

"There's a final matter I'd like to discuss before you're released."

"Don't say it." I cringe. I cradle my face in my hand.

"We will have a vigil in the Guard Hall for him at midnight. Bring her with you." I nod. She leaves and my shoulders fall.

I shrug my cloak on and press a hand to my blouse covering my wound. This doesn't set things back. It only pushes me forward. It's time to leave this lifeless city. The Rot took another person from me and I'm going to get him back.

Please find a way to stay alive until then, Luke... 

__________

Thank you for reading! We hope you enjoyed! Feel free to comment below, we're excited to hear your thoughts! :) 

Chapter 2 launching 1/03/2020 and updated weekly! ;) Stay tuned! 

Feel free to read The Other Side and Scattered Thoughts in the meantime! <3