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“Ugh!” Libel let out a grunt as he swung his sword at an approaching machine life-form, slicing it in two. He glanced behind him at Arme, whose hands were covered by gloves embedded with metal knuckles, in a guarded fighting stance in the middle of the desert sand as a couple more aggressive machines approached.
“Hah!” Arme yelled as he punched one of the machine life-forms in the head. The last machine life-form leapt up into the air while screaming, aiming at Arme.
“Diiiiieeee!” the machine yelled. Arme froze as the machine life-form descended, but Libel rushed in front of him in the nick of time, blocking the machine’s arms with his blade and pushing it away from himself and Arme. The machine landed headfirst in the sand and exploded in the distance, scattering small mechanical parts into the air.
“Thank you, Libel,” Arme gasped.
“Don’t worry about it,” Libel replied while smiling. He scanned Arme up and down for injuries and his eyes automatically fell to Arme’s gloves. His smile faded. It was sometimes hard to believe that this hardened Arme and the isolated, sheltered Tenshi he met so long ago were one and the same.
Libel remembered when the alien machines first invaded. He and Arme were driven out of their small house amidst village ruins and forced to wander the earth once again. Even though they couldn’t die, with even the deepest wound regenerating until the skin it broke was pristine, that didn’t lessen the intense fear and pain that the pair experienced from dancing with death each time.
Libel was forced to take up his sword after centuries of some semblance of a peaceful life with Arme. He fought tooth and nail to protect Arme whenever any machines would attack them. He couldn’t say he minded. Arme meant more than the world to him now. However, Arme protested this within a couple of months into the machines’ invasion.
***
“Please teach me how to fight!”
“It’s too dangerous. I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“I know that… But I don’t want you constantly getting hurt because of me. Even if we can’t die and our bodies always heal themselves, watching you get so close to death scares me every time!”
“Arme…”
“Please, let me protect you too. Don’t you remember that Fuga taught me some hand-to-hand combat? It isn’t as though I’m completely helpless. I just need you to teach me more.”
“... Alright. But I don’t want you rushing into battles recklessly.”
“I want to ask the same of you.”
***
“Libel, are you alright?” Arme broke Libel out of his reminiscence, waving a gloved hand in front of his face.
“A-ah, yes I am,” Libel replied quickly.
“You seemed lost in thought.”
“I was just thinking about how much has changed since the Surface and the Ark fell. And… I just don’t know if I can ever get used to seeing you fight like this.”
“Heh, well after Fuga, you’re the one who taught me, so you’d better get used to it!” Arme pauses as he briefly remembers the young gunman and their rocky relationship. “Do... you think Fuga would be proud?”
“I don’t know if I could have ever taught hand-to-hand combat as well as Fuga, but I think he would be,” Libel replied as he felt a slight sting of heat behind his eyes. He looked down at his feet buried in the sand. So much time passing by didn’t dull the ache of missing his friends and allies.
Arme walked up to Libel and gently grabbed his arm, pressing his forehead against Libel’s own in a comforting gesture. He used his free hand to touch Libel’s cheek until Libel’s silver eyes met his own golden ones.
“I miss them too.” Arme struggled to smile as tears formed in his eyes. He wiped them and continued in an attempt to lighten the mood, “Ha… Qual would probably be appalled if he saw me now…”
“But he still would have remained by your side. Even if you’re no longer the Tenshi and a ground warrior like me now, you’re still Arme,” Libel reassured Arme.
“And you’ll always be Libel, no matter how much time goes by.” Arme and Libel gently touched their foreheads together. Despite all the unpredictable changes that came with the alien invasion, they were still themselves and they would always have each other.
Their tender moment was interrupted by a stirring in the sand. Libel and Arme turned at the sound and found what looked like a round machine head burrowing itself out of the sand. Libel drew his sword and Arme once again adopted a fighting stance.
Once the head unburied itself, it rolled out on the sand until it was in front of Libel and Arme’s feet. The face had wide round eyes and a wide skeletal smile, nothing like the small blank eyes and expressions of the machines.
“Another machine?!” Libel exclaimed.
“Eh… eh?! Wait, please don’t hurt me! I’m not one of them!” the head pleaded, its jaws opening and closing slightly as it spoke. It quivered as it glanced between Libel’s blade and Arme’s metal knuckles. Then it tilted itself up to look at Libel. Then it rolled forward until he was positioned in front of Libel’s feet.
Libel stepped back and pointed his blade at the head. The head was now visibly shaking in fear. Arme felt his heart tremble at the head’s helplessness. As Libel stepped closer until his blade touched the head’s forehead, Arme’s body moved on his own.
“Wait Libel, don’t! He’s frightened!” Arme clenched Libel’s wrist until he slowly lowered his arm. Libel steadied his breathing and looked at Arme regretfully. Arme only nodded and gave a small smile to reassure Libel. Then he looked back at the head and crouched down on one knee to get a closer look at it.
“What’s wrong?” Arme gently asked as he placed his hand on top of the head and started soothingly petting him.
“U-u-um, your friend with the sword. He… seems so familiar…” Arme and Libel blinked at one another and then looked back at the head with puzzled expressions.
“Oh of course, it’s been so long, of course you’d need a refresher! I’m Emil! Yeah, Emil! And… I was… human before…,” the head muttered. Libel and Arme remained silent, pondering the head’s– Emil’s words. Emil tilted himself downward, seeming to express sorrow. “If you don’t remember me now-”
“I’m sorry, Emil. I don’t believe we’ve met before,” Libel solemnly answered.
“Oh…,” Emil tilted himself slightly downwards. “It’s probably just… the feeling I got from you. It’s the same as… as...,” Emil trailed off, shaking his head to try to brush off the dust on his hazy memories of who the white-haired swordsman reminded him of.
“We were traveling together... There were… four of us,” Emil continued half-muttering to himself. Arme perked up at Emil’s remembrance. It was not unlike his journey across the surface with Rebellion, all those years ago.
“They first found me… in a… mansion? Someone else was there too… He took care of me, but I was… all alone before meeting them…,” Emil continued. Arme’s heart ached and he suddenly felt a longing to know Emil’s story. His memories were already too distressingly similar to Arme’s own.
“Emil, can you please tell me more?”
“We should get somewhere safer first. Maybe camp out in a cave on the cliffside,” Libel suggested while pointing at a rugged rock formation at the edge of the desert.
***
The three sat in a small cave huddled around a campfire.
“So you were also used as a weapon?” Arme asked Emil tentatively after the head divulged all the fragments of memories he could still recall.
“Yeah. It was really dark… and lonely.”
“I’m sorry, that must’ve been awful,” Arme replied in sympathy, his eyes shining with unshed tears.
“Don’t worry, I was okay after that! I had my friends from… Gee, thousands of years ago at this point? It could be wishful thinking, but I feel like we camped out together just like this.”
“The person I reminded you of… what were they like?” Libel asked.
“Oh… Well that’s… I know they were important to me, but every time I’d try to think about them, my mind draws up a blank,” Emil’s voice quivered, sounding like he was about to cry. “Maybe my memories got lost as I cloned myself… I’m such a horrible friend…”
Arme scooted closer to Emil and gently lifted him up into his arms and hugged him to his chest. Emil shook slightly as he let out some sobs. “It’s okay. A lot must’ve happened,” Arme said in a soothing voice as he pet Emil gently. Libel also moved to sit closer to the pair, putting his arms around them. They all sat together in silence until Emil started to calm down a little.
Libel was the first to break this silence. “Emil, is there a way we could recover your memories?”
“Huh?” Emil looked up at the white-haired man from Arme’s chest.
“You mentioned cloning yourself. Do you think finding your clones will restore your memories?”
“I don’t know. A lot of them died in space while fighting with the machines. And I wouldn’t even know where to start to find the ones that made it back.”
“Do you think familiar objects or locations will help?” Arme asked.
“I guess it’s worth a try. But are you really willing to do all this for me?”
“Of course. I can’t leave you alone after you said I reminded you of someone important to you.”
“What you’ve gone through sounds painful and I don’t want you to completely forget about those who’ve given you hope. And I think we’re very alike, which makes me want to help you even more.”
“Thank you, Arme! Libel!” Emil leaped out from Arme’s grasp in joy. He stopped momentarily to confirm one more thing, “But would you really be okay, dedicating the rest of your lives to this?”
“You won’t have to worry about that. It’s a long story, but we can’t die so we’ll be with you for as long as you need,” Libel reassured as he smiled at Emil.
“We’ve had so much time to live in this world. And we still have so much time ahead of us. We’ll be happy to go with you,” Arme added.
As time has gone by, they learned grief and loss. But as two weary immortals found a boy from a distant past, they learn how to live again in a different way.