- episode 8 -

Amy entered the apartment-like space she shared with Bebel and greeted him with a strained smile. "Want some tea?" she asked, trying to hold her voice steady, but Bebel, happy-go-lucky as ever, didn't notice her tension just yet.

"Sure," he said, smiling with his eyes closed.

Amy returned his smile with a weak one of her own and went into the kitchen. What am I doing? she asked herself, gripping her head. I can't go on moping forever! I've got to have a happy attitude so nobody worries about me. I have to put on a smile, for Bebel, for Melty, for Bellows and everyone... She just started to boil water when she felt overwhelmed. "That idiot Ledo," she said, tears already rolling down her face.

"Sis?" Bebel asked from the other room, but it was too late to pretend like nothing was wrong.

"I can't believe that he would just leave Gargantia like that. Here, I thought we were becoming friends...and then he goes and does this...how could he?" she asked, putting a hand over her mouth to stifle her sobs. "Do I really mean that little to him? Maybe it was too much to assume...since he means so much to me..."

"Amy," Bebel said worriedly, and after a pause, he asked, "Ledo...is he really...leaving?"

"Yeah," Amy said, wiping her eyes and giving Bebel a tired smile. "He really is. That idiot. I really thought..." She turned back to the tea, planning to try to put on a smile and go with it, but Bebel was already getting up and heading for the door. "Bebel? Bebel! Where are you going? You shouldn't be out of bed! You could hurt yourself!" she called, turning the stove off and running off after him, but he had a head start and she didn't know where he was going.

Bebel, however, knew exactly who he was going to see. "Ledo!" he said, standing just before Ledo and Chamber. "Is it true? You're really going to leave?"

Ledo looked up from the flute he was carving. He looked at Bebel, knowing that he couldn't lie (especially because he'd probably be awful at it). "Yeah, Bebel. I'm going with Pinion to kill the Hideaze. That's the mission I was given. It's the only way I'll be able to protect all of you."

Bebel looked down at the ground. "Yeah, I understand, but..." He looked up at Ledo, his face surprisingly angry. "But that's no reason to make Amy cry!"

Ledo looked somewhat shocked. "Amy was...crying?"

Bebel nodded. "And you have to take responsibility."

"Take...responsibility?"

Bebel nodded again, looking stern. "Why do you have to kill the whale squid? Don't you know that war only hurts people? Why can't you stay here with us? You're not in space anymore, Ledo. Nobody's trying to kill us here. We can be at peace. So why? Why do you have to leave and break everything? Amy...Amy cares about you a lot, Ledo."

Ledo processed everything that Bebel had said, using Chamber to interpret a few things, and as he was about to reply, Amy came rushing up.

"Bebel! I found you! Thank goodness you're all right!" she cried out, hugging Bebel. When she pulled back, she noticed Ledo and looked away before looking back towards him and putting on a fake smile. "Good luck, Ledo. Do your best!"

"Amy-"

"Ledo has to stay," Bebel insisted, walking across the narrow metal bar that Chamber was on the end of. "I'm not leaving until you promise to stay," he said, tears sliding down his cheeks.

"Bebel!" Amy shouted, taking a step towards him, but he shook his head.

"Don't come any closer, Amy," Bebel said, looking at Ledo and crossing his arms. "Ledo, please stay. For Amy."

"Bebel! You can't ask that of Ledo! It's too much," Amy said in a worried tone, still inching closer to Bebel while his back was turned. By this point, she was only three feet away.

"I...I..." Ledo stuttered. "I was born to kill Hideaze. It's why I exist. I can't...abandon that mission...it would be treason...I would be useless...My existence would be pointless."

"That's not true," Amy said, looking away from Bebel for one moment to glare at Ledo, but then the ship hit a rough wave. Bebel stumbled with a look of surprise on his face, leaning too far to one side to be able to balance.

"Bebel!" Ledo yelled, but it all happened too fast. Amy leaped towards Bebel, giving him just enough of a push to regain his balance, but in the process, she tumbled off of the metalwork and fell just as Ledo dropped his flute. He stared after it for half a second, remembering what must have been his brother as he was killed for being weak. However, that half second was too long.

"Ledo! Save Amy!" Bebel yelled, snapping Ledo back.

"Right!" Ledo said, turning to Chamber. "Chamber!" He hopped in the cockpit and soared down towards the water, trying to find where Amy had landed, but he couldn't find her. "Chamber, can you search the water for heat signatures?"

"Cannot determine any heat signatures. Data not conclusive, but I have formed a hypothesis. Hypothesis: the recent group of Hideaze and the electronano particles that make up their shells have temporarily disturbed the charge of the water ions. No heat signatures located."

Ledo tightened his fists. "Then we will have to search the entire proximity manually," he said, holding himself back from the pent-up frustration that he felt inside as he searched the ocean. I was only leaving to protect Amy...and yet, somehow, she's in danger because of this...So it's all my fault...If Amy...

Don't think like that. We will find her. But Ledo wasn't convinced. The ocean slowed their search, and its vastness was disconcerting.

I have to find Amy.

***

In the end, her body was never found. The entire fleet showed up for her funeral, filling a boat with sand and sending it into the ocean, hoping that it would find her one day.

Ledo didn't attend the funeral and wasn't heard from ever again. On Gargantia, rumor had it that he was still searching the entire ocean for her body, stricken with guilt and grief. Just one foreign human and foreign Yunboro searching the world for one girl. Ledo was driven with emotions that he didn't truly understand, emotions that Amy would have explained to him...if he had found her in time.