Video: Love at War

Chapter X - The Light in the Dark

"Fire's Fight!" - Piper did her magic once more.

The Sky Knight used his fire powers to blast away the incoming Night Crawlers. After that, the enemy army was starting to get considerably smaller. Radarr was doing a great job on chasing the dark soldiers away. The red aura disappeared from Aerrow and he was about to fall when Piper grabbed his hand and pulled him up.

He noticed she was very pale and her eyes were reddish with dark circles under them. He looked at her worried. She had gotten terribly sick and weak all of a sudden.

"Piper, what's going on?" - he asked her.

She winced in pain.

"It's the Binding. Every time I cast a spell it drains some of my energy and amplifies it, then sends it to you." - she explained - "I've used it way too many times in a row and without replenishing my strength."

"Then we should get you back to safety right now!" - he said alarmed.

But as soon as he finished speaking, a red bolt of energy came towards them, missing them by a few inches: it was the Dark Ace and the Master! They were furious with the Sky Knight and the Crystal Mage.

"Oh, c'mon, seriously?!" - he mumbled as he punched the metallic plating on the back of the heliscooter.

Piper flew them away, the two Cyclonians still in hot pursuit. Aerrow bent forward to protect her from any incoming shots. They went high in the sky, trying to evade the enemies somehow. But they weren't successful. The Dark Ace was able to get very close to them and sliced their skyride in half. They started to fall as Aerrow held Piper by the waist. He jumped out of the heliscooter, pulling her along, then opened his glider.

He tried to dodge the blasts sent out by the Talon Commander but it was harder and harder for Aerrow to keep that up. He was getting tired the more he avoided the shots. Soon the Master took that opportunity to shoot a bigger blast that hit one of the wings in the glider, which caused them to lose control and fall.

They collided against a metallic spiky pillar on the top of the Cyclonian tower. They tried as hard as they could to keep the traction between them and the metal, but it just wasn't possible. They slid down up until an extremity they luckily managed to hold onto tightly, which was their only way of survival.

The Master laughed maniacally as she floated near them, drawing their scared stares towards her.

"At last... My two biggest annoyances, the ones who had been causing me so much trouble, are now right within my reach." - she said - "Infernal Blaze!"

Oh, no... She knew how to do the Binding as well! An orange beam of light came out from her hand and enveloped the Dark Ace in its aura. Suddenly he could just snap his fingers to generate a lot of fire in his hands. Piper tried to move one of her arms to grab the green crystal in her pocket, but that made her grip loosen up a bit, causing her to slid down a little.

"Piper!" - Aerrow shouted in fear, but soon he calmed down a little when she managed to recover her hold.

She pulled out the crystal while holding tightly against the pipe.

"Lightning Strike!" - she attempted to summon the power, but there was no reaction - "Why isn't it working now?!"

She was way too weak! She had depleted all of her spare energy, now she could no longer cast her spells! She and Aerrow looked at the Master upon hearing her laugh.

"Silly girl! Did you think you could come close to my skills?!" - she said arrogantly - "Now it's time for you to learn what the real Crystal Mastery is about. Dark Ace, finish them."

The Talon Commander grinned evilly. Aerrow stared at him with a murderous glare. If he could just grab his swords again! That man would've been dead by now! But his thoughts were interrupted when he heard Piper weakly calling for him.

"I'm sorry, Aerrow. I've failed you." - she said sadly as her grip on the pipe finally gave up.

"Piper, no!" - he shouted as scared as ever.

He saw her falling, that moment playing in slow motion in his head. He could hear his heart beating loudly in his ears. No... No... He couldn't let that happen... In the blink of an eye, he let go of the pipe, grabbed Piper's wrist just in time then quickly held back onto the extremity of the pipe.

The girl noticed she was no longer in free fall and looked up at him with an unreadable stare. Almost as if she were asking "why?".

"Piper... I can't let you go. Not like this." - he said - "If this is really the end, I want us to go through it together. I want the last thing I see to be your eyes... The last touch I feel to be your skin... The last thing I hear to be your voice... So I can take at least a little bit of you with me... Wherever I end up after this. Because..." - he trailed off.

She was tearing up, by looking into his emerald eyes she could clearly see what he meant by all that, where did his feelings lie. She smiled at him, letting him know she felt the same way. They stared at each other for a moment. That was it. They were done for. But at least they were going to die together. And they had already accepted their fate. They simply let themselves get lost into each other's gaze, completely ignoring everything around them.

In that one single instant, something was triggered. And that caused a chain reaction that became one thing: a miracle. Aerrow's body suddenly started to glow in a blue aura. The aura grew beyond him, enveloping Piper as well and healing her. She looked at the green crystal in her hand and saw it shine very brightly.

"This is over now." - the Dark Ace said as he summoned two fiery wings behind him.

But he soon blinked surprised as Aerrow and Piper floated in front of him, holding each other's hands and staring determined at him. The girl breathed in a little to focus that energy to her crystal.

"Lightning Strike!" - she shouted.

Aerrow flew up high in the air and shot out a lightning bolt that blasted the Talon Commander away and caused him to collide against the Master, dragging her along. The two were sent flying very fast towards a strange crystal in the base of the Terra and crashed against it, cracking it in half.

"NO!" - the Master yelled.

From the crack, a portal opened up, sucking everything nearby into it, in other words, the Dark Ace and her. The two didn't even have a chance to retaliate or escape the gravitational field. They were dragged into the portal nearly instantly. Aerrow and Piper noticed they were a little too close to the portal so they flew away to a safe distance as they watched the open rift collapse on itself, sealing the entrance to another dimension forever.

They observed with wide eyes as Cyclonia simply fell from the skies right in front of them. Luckily there wasn't anyone else left in the Terra. There could've been innocent people stuck in there, who knew? They exchanged glances, they were stunned by what had just happened. Radarr suddenly appeared near them, flying with the levitation crystal. He chirped happily as cheered on them. The Condor also approached her, Starling, Harrier, Carver, Suzy Lu, and Tritonn were all standing on the landing strip.

The three floating in the sky flew towards the ship and landed in front of the Sky Knights.

"Thank goodness you two are okay!" - Suzy Lu said in relief - "I don't know if you two realized that but you've just saved the whole world by yourselves!"

Yes... They... Had... They quickly looked at each other then back at the Sky Knights. Atmos... Was free... Atmos was free! It took a few seconds to sink in but when it did, it felt like the best sensation ever! The rest of the army approached them as well.

"All bow down to our saviors!" - Harrier announced.

Everyone knelt on the floor of their ships or just bent their backs forward when they were riding on skimmers. They all placed a fist in front of their hearts, acknowledging the victory was thanks to two brave souls that ventured themselves into the depths of the chaotic battle and nearly gave their own lives for the world.

The two of them didn't even know how to react, they were simply moved by all that recognition. They held hands and just enjoyed the moment. There was nothing more important at that time.