SLAM

Another door, another surgeon, another failure. With heavy steps Terial walked away from the door, carrying Luca to the other side of the street near a chain link fence. Though the fence was rusted and jagged pieces of metal stuck out randomly; Terial couldn’t do much more than sigh while turning around to slide down the fence, almost collapsing onto the ground with Luca in his lap.

42 doctors, from the Cloud District with their clean rooms and high tech surgical suites to the slums with those who were no better than butchers, none would assist them. If they could even get in to see the high class surgeons, they would just take one look at the damage to Luca, look at the painted markings of the Ice Temple on the both of them and begin to offer apologies.

Sure the given reasons varied, some said that they didn’t have the right equipment, or that they were fully booked; one surgeon even had the temerity to say that they could wait until his assistant came back from her break. But they all meant the same thing. The shifty eyes and hesitant speech. They were afraid of going against the Temple. After all thought Terial, if they were seeking help down here, something must be amiss.

Terial thought for sure that the back alley barbers and stitchers would be willing to take the heat for treating a Skysworn, but there he ran into a completely different issue. Not enough funds. Even when Terial pulled out the meager amount of money that he had taken from their secret nest-the cause of this whole ordeal- he was simply scoffed at. He needed a good 5 times as much money to even get the meanest of the slum doctors to take a look at Luca. The truth hit Terial like a hammer blow. He had failed.

With the stuttering light of faint neon signs and billboards casting their light upon them, Terial reached once more into the cool calmness of his Aetheric Heart. Gathering a soft yet firm hold on the energy within Terial pushed out to check his Bond-Brother…and found nothing.

Closing his red-rimmed eyes, Terial gently nuzzled Luca’s head feathers for one final time. He ached to hear his raucous laughter one more time, to see him flex his muscles when asked to perform a simple task, to feel his touch during the especially cold nights of the temple when he was so exhausted from his training he could barely move. But no. Luca was gone, all due to fear.

Fear from the Elders, seeking to maintain their meager power on the mountain top of drudgery. Fear from the surgeons, of reprisals and hunger. But most of all fear from himself. Fear that they would be ejected from the Temple. That Luca would leave him. And after the terrifying flight down the mountain, his fears had come true. Luca was gone, and there was no way that the Temple Elders would not hear of 2 Skysworn running frantically all throughout the Neon City.

Terial allowed his Aetheric Heart to cycle, to build, to elevate. Not caring about caution or ensuring his aether was contained within his body, the wind began to whip around the two figures sitting on the ground. As the temperature begand to drop, shards of ice began to whip through the air, cutting through the plumes of breath that were expelled from Terial’s beak. With a scream tinged with all the fear, anger, and heartbreak he could muster, Terial became the focal point of a whipping and whirling explosion of ice and wind.

Shutters along the street whipped back and forth, neon signs cracked and shattered, all adding to the cacophony of madness. The junk yard behind Terial mimicked the groaning of the damned as massive piles of cast off metal and detritus of city life began to move and smash into one another. Deep in the heart of the mountain of scrap, a lone metal cylinder filled with an organic lubricant tipped and fell upon a certain machine with a cracked plastic cover. The machine filled with a deep red light as it searched for input as to its new mission.

Venting, yearning for release, Terial cast his wish out to the wider world as his elevation finished, and his Aetheric Heart elevated, equal to that of the Elders. “I JUST WANT YOU BACK LUCA!”

Pulsing in acknowledgement, the W.A.N.G. released the cloud of nanobots and went to work.

Leaning his head back, Terial stared blankly up into the night sky, her stars obscured by lights of Neon City and the dust that he had stirred up during his elevation. However as Terial observed the nothingness above him he noticed a cloud actually increasing its size and spreading out, rather than settling down. As the gray cloud spread towards the neighboring buildings, Terial began to hear shouts and screams as the buildings seemed to fall inwards on themselves. Almost simultaneously, Terial heard the sound of collapsing and scraping of metal behind him. Turning his head, Terial saw the piles of metal and trash behind him melt into more of the cloud stuff and float into the sky to join their brothers.

Originally a simple slate gray, the cloud began to be tinged with waves of shining neon, cobalt blue, silver, gold…and red. Moving now with a swiftness that belied its size, the striated cloud began to funnel and spiral above Terial and the still warm corpse of Luca. With a detached interest Terial stared at the vortex above him, wondering if he too would soon be joining those screams that had cut off so suddenly. As though moving on some unseed signal, the cloud funneled downwards, faster than Terial could blink…straight into the mortal wounds of Luca.

Terial felt the body of Luca begin to almost become lighter, until it actually began to float. Rising before Terial’s astonished eyes, Luca hovered a few feet off the ground with head, back, wings and legs stretched past the point of comfortability. A bright coruscating light began to emanate from Luca’s mouth, eyes, and chest, obscuring all but the vague outline of the Sparvieran. It was all Terial could do to rise to his knees as the miracle continued before him, as the iridescent cloud finished its inexorable journey into his Bond-Brother.

The light slowly faded from Luca, the wounds that once covered his chest and neck now a lustrous gold. Luca slowly touched down upon the cracked pavement, and his eyes opened, immediately connecting with those of Terial. Gentle tears of happiness flowed down Terial’s upturned face as Luca’s hand softly caressed them away.

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Almost as an afterthought and unnoticed by all those involved, a bright light moved upwards from the remains of the scrapyard, heading off once more into the void; course, destination, and mission unknown.