An automated voice interrupted the drowsy music on the elevator�s tiny speaker system, �Floor forty-three, please watch your step.� Amber stepped out onto the roof in the anticipation of seeing some kind rooftop restaurant but found only the sandy-haired European waiting with a picnic ready to eat. He flashed a charming smile, � �Ey �Eather, glad you decided to come. I�m sorry �bout anything I might �ave done to upset you and really want to try again.� Part of her wanted to return to him, accept his apology and keep things the way they were; though it had only formed when he�d begun to speak. The rest of her will pressed away from him, he would never match even that one kiss�Amber turned away from him, �Daniel, we�ve been dating for almost two years. When are you going to ask me to marry you?� His grin faded instantly, �Marry you? I just don�t �ave the money for that right now �Eather. That and I don�t �ave enough guts yet, I want it to be perfect.� Doubt overshadowed the longing she�d had for him, �I�ve met someone, and I personally think that he surpasses you without even trying. I�ve given you chances, Daniel; I�ve given you a lot of them. I�m tired of this.�
A careful gaze peered through the glass door to a railed rooftop; it was set on one of the two forms it could see. Trowa wiped away the fog he was creating with his breath and continued to watch. He knew that Amber wouldn�t be happy with him if she caught him here but he didn�t like it. Makima was known to do irrational things when ends wouldn�t meet and Trowa was well aware that the ends relating to Amber were not meeting. Any time the demon opened his mouth, Poseidon could feel a slight pulse of power, even through the door. Heavy Arms� pilot bared his teeth in disgust; I didn�t know his powers were mind oriented. This is why Amber hasn�t stopped seeing him, he�s playing with her head. He was preparing to barrel into their conversation with a word of his own but completely forgot to as he felt the presence of death. Quickly ruling Duo out as a possibility, he scanned the sky he could see for any signs of Thanatos.
Amber regarded Daniel with a cold gaze she�d never used with him before. When he didn�t react to her, she went to admire the tower�s view. She could hear him setting up things for their dinner but didn�t care to find out exactly what. Carefully contained frustration raged near her tongue, but she bit anything back that might come out. The skyline she turned her focus to was obscured by its distance. The street below was merely a small thread in a vast web of them that she could see, the small, lighted cars were bugs making their way about them. Amber leaned her elbows on the chipping metal handrail that kept her from seeing that cement, so far below, any closer. The spectacle of false stars glinted at her from every building, a galaxy of human life.
As she considered this miniature universe, her mind was completely separate from it. That part of her was busy hating Daniel with a passion that she was unaware she had. Amber wanted to be free of him so badly and his effect on her was dwindling. An awareness that something was coming snapped her with a vicious force from her contemplation; it was a force she�d felt before, when she was on the brink of death. This realization came to late and a shove hit her back with a surprising gentleness that sent her over the edge of that metal safety net. The German�s pitch into the empty distance towards the earth dragged a terrified scream from her lungs.
Trowa spotted the darkly clad soul taker only an instant before he�d made his move; hovering over Amber with an ire fed scowl. Even as he opened the door, he saw her fall. He was faintly aware that Makima had not seemed to notice her absence until her scream reached him. Then he had jumped over the railing, and the familiar but heart gripping sensation of falling filled him. Horror wanted him to call his wings, but he knew their mass would slow him substantially. Amber opened her eyes and some tiny piece of hope entered her face, she reached out an all too distant hand. The ground was gaining more rapidly than he was and his fear was sickening him, but that faint gleam of trust, of longing drove him on. She was closer; her grasping fingers only a foot from his own. Trowa could nearly see the gawking expressions of the people on the sidewalk, but he would not call his immortality into play. He found her hand and clutched it tightly, pulling her into his arms as his restrained wings tore from his back and shirt to lift them away form the approaching cement in a shower of crimson. He could feel her racing heart through her thin cotton shirt and knew that his own must be doing the same.
At long last, Amber turned her gradually calming eyes to his, �Wow, this must be one of those really messed up falling dreams. You actually look kind of like some one I know.� The pit that had been slowly unknotting itself in Trowa�s stomach returned with a nauseating consequence when she spoke her disbelief of the situation. His feet found a none to comforting rooftop landing and he released her to her own, �You think this is a dream?� A faintly amused look answered him and the huntress grinned, �In what else would I meet a rather dashing man with wings that looks like Trowa?� Startled, Poseidon ruffled his dark feathers, �How do �dashing� and �Trowa� go in the same sentence? I never really wanted to gain that kind of attention.� Amber pursed her lips with disapproval and set her battle wise hands on her hips, �It�s pretty easy to think of him like that, he has a great deal of sex appeal. So, you must be my representation of him because you are very hot.�
Before Trowa had a decent chance to rebut her statement, she�d stepped forward and taken a firm hold on the back of his head. Her searching mouth found his with more force than expected and shut Poseidon�s golden gaze in longing. A light trail of fingers up her back pushed her against him. The moment was a piece of time that neither of them could identify the length of after; at last, their lips were parted from each other. Her arms were still wrapped tightly around him and her fingertips made themselves comfortable in the downy of his wings. The winged immortal was still panting quietly from his partially open mouth as Amber leaned in to kiss him again. This time, he regretfully avoided it; �This is no dream. This is your reality.� He ministered a gentle, but effective pinch to her upper arm and she pulled away with a cry of surprise. Bewildered, pilot six looked first to her arm, then to Trowa as he returned to his normal state. Only tattered remains of his shirt covered his upper body, it drew Amber�s stray and fraying attention for only a moment, �How can this not be a dream?! You have wings and your hair just went to shoulder length from barely past your jaw and it changed color!�
He adverted his gaze with a grimace as he struggled with the limited options he faced, �It�s very hard to explain, but I�ll try my best�Heaven and Hell are more of a realism than some people have actually thought they were. Demons, angels and fallens are always among the human race; we live as humans as well. Occasionally, an immortal is born on Earth with no guidance to their wings and are never aware that they even are one.� He paused and shifted warily to face her again, �I was brought here to aid Helios in finding the Midian. Which, before you even ask, is supposedly a being of great power that will lead Armageddon, the Apocalypse. The Midian was born in this day and age and we have to find it, the side he or she gives favor to will win the war.� Amber seated herself on a silent air conditioning unit and brooded on his statement, �A war, I thought Armageddon was the end of humanity on Earth.�
As was typical when he was tense or deep in thought, Trowa began to pace, �No that�s what all mortals think. Armageddon is the separate plane on which every war between Heaven and Hell takes place. It�s a large expanse of nothing, a plane of blood. Very few have laid eyes on it and lived to speak of it. It always reeks of carnage and rotting flesh, as it always will. It is parallel to the Plain of Esdraelon, a place on Earth that has seen a great deal of battle over the ages. In the holy books of human religion, that place is where Armageddon is meant to begin. Where in reality, it occurs just a dimension above it.�
This rather lengthy piece of information left Amber in a state of quiet shock for several minutes. Rather than respond to it, she transferred subjects, �Trowa�I didn�t even know that you had followed me and you saved me.� A bitter thought of how little Daniel did, or has he even noticed I�m gone, crept it�s way into her mind but was shoved in the corner with the other things that she wasn�t ready to face. �Well, in all honesty, I figured you�d be mad at me for spying on you while you were on a date. I just couldn�t sit at home,� he said while toeing the gravel covering of the roof. Amber stood and wrapped her slender arms around his neck, �I�m glad you were there. I�m not happy that you spied on me, but I�m glad you were there.� With a nod, Triton lifted pilot six into a tight grip and went to the edge of the roof; �At least you�re not mad�let�s go home.� Before Thanatos tries again, was the whisper in his head.
Taking to the air, Trowa spent a leisurely hour flying home with Amber tucked safely in his arms. He knew what Helios would do when he found out, but, with this girl folded against his body, the fallen arch found that he didn�t care. He wanted to say, �Try your luck�, but he knew that he lacked the courage. Thinking back, Trowa could find no other time when courage had fled him. Confidence was one thing that he�d never lacked, whether it was in battle or love. He felt he knew where it had gone as he recalled the threat of Hell that Helios kept hovering over his head. Then again, Duo was from Hell and never seemed to be tortured or pained, except when he was around Heero. Fallens gave birth to the first demons, why would they be treated poorly down there? Considering this, Trowa came to a well-needed conclusion, Heaven only told us that to keep us inline. It�s only an empty threat!
Amber was deep asleep by the time Trowa landed. He stored his wings away and took her in the house to her room. After tucking her in and discarding what remained of his muscle shirt, the tall youth traveled to the kitchen. He�d opened the fridge and had a beer in hand before realizing the promise he was breaking. With an extreme show of self-control, he returned the dark glass bottle to its shelf in the fridge. �Well, this will make the night difficult,� his voice was overwhelming in the previously desolate room space. Dragging himself from the kitchen and back to his own room, Trowa didn�t bother to even fool with sleep. The punching bag in the corner of his room received a thorough beating before dawn.
The sun had long since risen when the day found either Duo or Jess awake. They met each other with sleepy grins in the living room after breakfast. The couch soon felt their combined weight as they ran playful fingers through each other�s tousled hair and kissed with such a furious passion that could only come from a deep seated love. Amber was not one to appreciate this, �Jess! What in the hell do you think you�re doing?!� The frazzled teens broke the seal of their mouths to stare blankly at the screaming German. She reached for her gun, but stopped her hand as Jess shifted her position to cover Duo protectively. Amber curled her lip, �Look Jess, I�m tired of this and am going to stop it one way or another. Me or him, choose.� The expression of shock and pain spread over the Irish girl�s face faster than her boyfriend could even retaliate, �That�s not fair, Amber! You can�t make her choose!� A murderous glare silenced Duo as Amber awaited her answer, �Shut up Duo, I don�t care what you think! Choose one of us Jess. Now!� The pain faded into a stubborn look and Jess spoke something Amber never thought she�d hear, �If I must, I would choose Duo.�
Pilot three was heading through the garage with a midnight blue toolbox in one hand when the door into the house slammed hard enough to shake the walls around it. He set down the box to watch Amber dash across the distance to the vehicles and shove her key into one of the motorcycles she�d brought over from a warehouse when they�d moved in. She had a ratty backpack slung across her shoulders and seemed to have no intention of coming back that night. Worry situated itself in Trowa�s mind when Amber peeled out one of the smaller entrances and it complied him to follow. Not bothering with an easily noticeable vehicle, Trowa shucked off his shirt, tucked it in the back of his jeans and summoned his own mode of transportation.
He followed at a fairly good distance above Amber so as not to alert her attention and watched as she parked at an airport. The winged creature determined not to land in such a populated area, perching on a communication tower to wait. It took nearly an hour before he spotted her again; she was heading out to one of the larger, in-atmosphere jets. Trowa finished working a dead feather from his wing as he waited for her to board, �So she�s staying on Earth at least, that will make things a little easier.� Launching into the air, he vaulted after the jet that prepared to leave. It began to climb as he caught it, and he took an uncomfortably windy seat on the tail to wait the ride out. The trip was long and tiresome, the cold eating at his flesh and the altitude making it hard to breathe. He knew that if he attempted to fly beside the plane that he wouldn�t be able to keep up, so he remained where he was. His wingspan was nearly fourteen feet across, but a jet was a different story. Thoughts of conjuring a wind to aid him flitted around vaguely as he played with it. The ponder brought on memory as he faded back to that fateful day in an endless eternity that the blue Archangel had brought him a new disciple.
Gabriel had simply smiled, one hand on the shoulder of the young angel beside him. The winged boy had turned stunningly sky blue eyes to his old mentor, then to Poseidon. The gaze came out from beneath white bans that were just taking on a faint golden tint, that look had stolen the very air from his lungs. Gabriel�s lulling, singsong voice had broken the moment, �I have taught him all that I can. His hair just began to take on your color and I brought him to you as soon as it did.� Apollo had been so young, but easily able to take in what he was taught. At first, it was difficult, as Poseidon hadn�t known what element suited the youth. After weeks of experimenting, wind had struck the proper chord and Apollo had begun to grow. Soon, e was summoning gales strong enough to rival Poseidon�s own power.
The sudden decent of the plane nearly unseated Trowa from his smooth plated seat. Jarred thankfully from the old memories, he looked down for the first time since the flight had begun. The land that stretched out beneath the metallic bird, Trowa later learned was Germany, was taken up by more trees than industry. As the airport came in sight, Trowa opened his wings and was lifted instantly into the sky. Landing nearly a mile from the plane�s destination, Trowa drew his energy back into his center and shivered as his sudden awareness of the chill around him. He found shirt to be missing, which didn�t surprise him and started to trudge through the several inches of snow on the ground.
The little bit of money that was in his jeans purchased him a long sleeved sweater from a small town shop and got him on his way. He waited outside one of the two entrances to the airport, watching colorful multitudes of mortals going in and out. It wasn�t long before Amber made her way through the crowds; head hung down and backpack dangling from her hand. Trowa followed her from taxi to bus and finally to a slightly run down inn that radiated alluring smells. She opened the door to enter and a chorus of cheerful German words welcomed her. Once Amber disappeared from sight, Trowa�s search for a place to stay commenced. Determining that he would return earlier than the huntress was even likely to be awake, he settled into a cozy bed and breakfast down the road. The couple that welcomed him were both easing gently into their later years, the husband a very robust gentleman with a deep laugh. Trowa noted in his already exhausted mind that he could easily borrow his obviously warmer clothing if necessary, as they were nearly the same height. Once upstairs, the tall Latino didn�t bother to examine his room for bugs or wires. He wondered for a fleeting moment why he was being so secretive about following Amber, losing the thought as he dropped thankfully into the pile of blankets and comforters that adorned the small bed. Sleep snatched him away instantly, but the nightmares returned that night, fierce and driving.
Amber made her way barefoot through the dark rooms of the sleeping inn; her boots she set down carefully near the door and slipped on. An old fashioned grandfather clock in the hall glared at her, it was very unnatural for it to spot anyone up at two. Its only protest was the constant click and clack of its un-oiled and neglected pendulum. Amber was gone from its domain in a small flurry of snow that pushed in from the dreary company outside to melt on the hardwood. Pulling her wool scarf up around neck and chin, Amber scanned the all but empty street in the dull golden glow of a single street lamp. To her surprise, a darkly clad figure stood in the circle of light, bundled tightly against the frigid air in a knee length coat with the hood pulled up.
Amber�s hand dropped instantly to the handle of the gun hidden against her waist but a cheerful hail eased her caution enough to deep her from pulling it out. He spoke in fluent German, though his voice seemed faintly familiar (Translated for those who don�t speak German.), �I�ve never met anyone else on my midnight travels, can�t sleep?� A slight nod answered him and he chuckled, �I never can at this hour, drives the old lady crazy. She never can understand why I want to be our at such an ungodly hour, but I guess she never really will.� Amber gave him a faint smile, �That�s just the way it goes, some people are lucky with sleep and others aren�t. Good to know you�re not alone though, huh?�
With a bed goodnight, pilot six made her way a mile and a half along a rarely traversed road. The pale moon was the last light left beyond the city, barely enough to expose her path. It didn�t make her aware of the form finding it�s way silently behind her. She walked with purpose until the trees that cocooned the road gave way to a single expanse of white, broken by a simple wooden cross. Her tail slowed to a stop just inside the furthest edge of woods, his emerald gaze glimmering in the cold as he watched the slender young woman kneel before the marker with a grim face. Her words broke through the silence that had settled, �I still haven�t done it, Mom. He�s still alive. I must seem like such a failure, I�ve been after him since that day and I still haven�t managed to kill him. He�s gotten harder to get at though, he was promoted. That damn bastard is a general now; Mom, but that won�t stop me. He has to die for what he did to you.� Amber�s voice shook slightly with unshed tears as she curled up on the child dug grace and ran her fingers through the numbing snow; �He couldn�t possibly be allowed to continue like this, so many people are dying by his hand�it�s a disgrace that he is my father, but I suppose the blood stains run in the family.� Her watcher stepped back several paces; this wasn�t something that he was meant to hear. Leaving the huntress with her mother, the heavily shrouded young man started in the direction that he�d come.
Amber couldn�t recall haw long she�d spent by her mother�s grave when she commenced her return. Even before she�d gone a foot, a set of fresh prints apart from her own caught her startled attention. A shiver crept down her spine, though not from the damp chill eating at her right side through her coat. The trail came to a stop, grew deep where the creator must have stood for some time, and turned to follow itself to it�s source. Amber did the same and frowned halfheartedly at the small bed and breakfast. With a slight sigh, she left the problem for the next day.
The innkeeper seemed puzzled at the question of a new guest; he told the girl again that people come and go all the time and added that there was one guest that had arrived the day before. Amber nodded and requested to speak with him. After a minute or so, a well-known body came downstairs with a solemn grin. Pilot six�s expression melted into surprise and faint amusement in greeting, �Trowa, why did you follow me all the way here?� He shrugged and flopped into an overstuffed chair that was nestled in the corner of the sitting room, �You seemed so flustered when you left that I wanted to make sure you got where you were going all right.� She seated herself on the armrest of the same chair and draped her slender arm across his broad shoulders, �So I guess I picked myself up a guardian angel.� He reveled in the truth of her words with his now genuine smile. Amber leaned into him, releasing her built up tension, �Trowa, tell me, what kind of man says �flustered�?� His laughter shook them both in a contagious fit.
