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He was late, but as they say, better late than never, and this time it would be different. He threw his shotguns , making a loud sound as they hit the floor. With swift steps and being half corporeal and half cloud, he kneeled in front of Jack and took a moment to caress his cheek tenderly, it was awfully pale and cold. But he could save him, he had to!
“Please mi Luna, tienes que aguantar! I’m here, no te fallaré esta vez!” He said upon noticing the faint breath that escaped from Jack’s lips, the dim light emanating from where his soul rested drove him with more determination to his statement. Quickly, a small cloud of nanites enveloped Jack’s chest forming a thin black ring, it swirled letting small tendrils caress the skin and wounds to repair them, but the biggest influx of nanites focused on his chest wound that had stopped bleeding already.
Leaving that cloud with the task of repairing Jack’s body, he became smoke and floated back to where Jack had fought with the Talon ambush, he would need souls to make the process successful. The eerie souls floated freely, not going too far away from the corpses of their previous owners, if Gabriel wasn’t in a hurry he would stop to gaze at this behavior, the souls seemed happy to be free. A single flick of his fingers evoked another small cloud of nanites and ordered them to claim the four souls.
Dividing his conscience like this always proved to be quite the effort and strained his control, even for a small task as repairing Jack’s body, but the image of Jack at the doors of death, resting on his grave with his beanie and repaired pocket watch was incentive enough to overcome his limits. Satisfied with what he got, he rounded back his way as fast as his incorporeal body allowed him. While he floated he evaluated the energy the souls stored, Talon operatives were in a good physical state, so four souls should be enough for the process.
He materialized in a swirl of darkness, kneeling again in front of his dying lover and dissipating his mask. “Please mi Luna, be strong,” tenderly he kissed Jack’s forehead and proceeded to check on the state of the cloud repairing his body, the chest wound was completely healed and the nanites were now stitching other injuries. Both of them were enveloped in a macabre whirlwind of black and red smoke.
“Ahora, deja que te cuente una historia mi Luna.”
His left hand evoked the previous cloud that held the four souls, this still bouncing cheerfully in the air. His right index finger drew a line from left to right over Jack’s chest, where the wound was before, another cloud of nanites got inside by his airways, making his chest bulge by the intrusion and the faint shining flashed for a moment. Slowly he traced his finger upwards, brushing his throat, chin, and finally resting on his lips. He withdrew, and flexed his finger as if he was pulling something, Jack’s mouth opened and a small ball of pale blue and tarnished grey appeared, thin tendrils kept it linked to Jack’s body and carefully placed the soul on Gabe’s right palm.
“Mi bella Luna, cuenta la leyenda, que el Sol aunque dolido y rechazado, le dió parte de su alma a la Luna, para así juntos poder brillar.” Two of the four souls were suddenly absorbed by Jack’s soul, now flaring with radiant light and a new faint feeling of heat. The pale blue now deep and strong as the ocean and the tarnished grey shining as the purest snow, the beauty of the now invigorated soul captivated Gabriel’s attention, he could feel the flimsy heartbeat regaining it’s strength slowly. He snapped himself back to reality, the other two souls vanished in a nanite cloud and by the same process and ritual, Gabriel extracted his own soul to rest on his left palm.
Sluggish black with a red and orange burning core, Gabriel couldn’t avoid noticing all the differences between them. Another nanite cloud enveloped the other two souls, surrounding his own and making it flare vividly. Now the difference was as clear as night and day, looking at Jack’s soul was like staring at the ocean, white foam and deep blue water. All of it in a sea of tranquility, like the one on the moon. He chuckled at that, even like this Jack kept looking more and more like the Moon, as if he was it’s embodiment. He then looked at his soul, it was Jack’s opposite in all aspects, flaring red core instead of calming blue, sluggish black like the sunspots of the Sun instead of the brilliant white of the Moon’s surface. And while his soul had glints of blazing orange and yellow like the Sun’s corona, Jack’s had a serene teal blue effect, the Sea of Serenity on Jack’s soul.
Reaper let out a tired sigh, what a silly poet he still was, looking for similarities between two celestial objects and their souls. He put their souls closer, the nanites clouds linking themselves, Reap’s soul shone and a sliver of red swirled around the link, reaching Jack’s and kept swirling. After a full minute the nanite cloud condensed in a perfect sphere around Jack’s soul, a glow of red filtered between the minuscule spots between the bots, making it shine like a real star. When they dissipated Jack’s soul had now faint stripes of red, Gabriel noticed how his soul now had the same stripes but in teal blue instead.
His soul came back to his body and he took Jack’s soul with both of his hands, which now shone with a vibrant strength and illuminated the place, leaving a warm feeling on Gabriel’s skin. He cradled the soul and faintly he brushed it with his right fingers, the soul jumped as if something startled it. Smiling to himself, Gabe let the nanite cloud take the soul back to Jack’s body, the shining faded and the nanites came back to his smoking body. Everything fell in silence and darkness surrounded them, till the Moon seeped through the slowly vanishing clouds.
Gabe felt how the world crumbled around him when Jack started to breathe again softly, he let a soft chuckle scape his lips, the chuckle became a soft laughter and he found himself leaning on Jack’s now fully alive body. He sunk his head in the crook of his neck and wanted to smack himself, for crying and at the same time laughing. He was an utter mess and it always was Jack’s fault somehow, but this time, he was happy Jack was the cause of this bittersweet feeling. He let himself enjoy the moment a bit more before taking Jack in his arms, carefully he shadow stepped them to his Geneva safe house.
There Gabriel laid Jack on his bed, carefully undressing him and tucking him under the covers. He left the pocket watch open on the night stand, letting their song fill the silence. He changed to a pair of old sweatpants, and picked up his sewing kit, he laid against the wall and let Jack’s head rest on his lap, while he worked to fix the jacket and softly sang in spanish.
He felt happy, for once in the last six years he felt as is he had made the right choice, and now he had to be ready for Jack’s awakening, he wasn’t sure if the process would leave side effects, so better be ready for the worst. He wasn’t sure, but, he felt a flimsy feeling of satisfaction and comfort from Jack. Not giving it much importance he kept singing and sewing, giving a few looks to Jack’s soft expression every now and then.