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The fight between the machine and the angel staggered to a halt as the angel fell, wings flapping out of sync and uselessly, onto the machine.
A shout resonated through the hall as Gabriel fell, startled and a little more than merely displeased at this stroke of bad luck.
His wings shivered.
V1 stared at him, optic trained on Gabriel's wings, watching, silently as always, as the feathered appendages, used for flight, shook.
The gold and blue bordering them appeared to be fizzling. That's how their visual processing described it, at the very least. Little sparks came from the sigils.
Sparks weren't good.
While being pinned under the angel's weight was not exactly optimal, it didn't do anything in hopes that Gabriel would simply get himself up and they could continue fighting.
He didn't.
V1 made a small, questioning beep. Gabriel was still breathing, it could see the rise and fall of his chest.
The angel's voice broke the silence.
"God. Damn it."
He got himself off the machine, muttering angrily to himself under his breath. V1 didn't care to strain the auditory processing array it had, instead simply watching him with its optic as it sat up, before giving him another questioning beep, tilting its head.
Gabriel's armor briefly flashed into a redder colour, before it faded just as quickly as he took a slow, measured breath.
"Just my luck, I... suppose."
He tried to feign some form of nonchalance, plucking at a few loose feathers on one of his wings.
V1 stared, unblinking, before tapping at Gabriel's hand and pointing to the wings, as if to ask what happened.
"Machine, even divinity can't read minds."
V1 let out a longer beep, something that reminded Gabriel of a censored swear word.
The whirring of the machine's fans occupied the silence, at least until Gabriel grunted and gasped in slight pain upon plucking a feather that wasn't loose.
The feather being plucked had drawn blood and V1 craned its head towards it, before putting its hand on the pinpricks. Fuel.
Of course, this caused Gabriel to rear back, evidently not comfortable with having his wings touched, by a machine, of all things.
There was a slight mechanical whine from V1 at being denied blood, the fuel that the war machines coveted, before it attempted to grab at his wing again.
"Cease that. It's barely even a pinprick."
Sheepishly, it raised its lower optic shutter, before shrugging.
He sighed, before simply letting his wings go limp, feathers partially draped against the dusty ground the both of them were sitting on.
"I'm guessing you want to know what happened."
Upon being spoken to, and potentially getting answers regarding what caused Gabriel to simply drop out of the air like that, it nodded, tilting its head again.
"The embers of the Holy Light within me are burning lower. It's not enough to sustain flight anymore. Not for long periods."
V1 stared at him, blankly.
"The... Holy Light provides some assistance with getting into the air, as well as staying up there. Even teleportation is difficult now." His wings slowly folded shut. "I am not a betting man, but I would wager that the muscles in... my wings, they would be too underdeveloped to let me fly at all at this point."
A sardonic bark of laughter escaped him.
"Too used to having some form of assistance. Truly..." What a horrid fate he'd found himself in.
V1 gently pressed its head into his helmet, emitting a low, electronic whine.
Gabriel paused in his musings.
Was the machine... trying to... comfort him?
He squinted underneath his helmet. No, that couldn't be right. The machine had been the one to take his status away, something that, after a long, rage-filled fight, had brought him relief.
While he was still at least a slight touch bitter, he was thankful, ultimately.
He breathed out in a quiet sigh.
The whirr of the machine's fans was something to at least focus on, even if the noise was relegated to being considered a background noise.
"I am sorry about the abrupt end to our sparring session." He said, in a low sort of voice.
V1 stared up at him, optic unmoving for a moment, before simply batting at his helmet.
Gabriel blinked. "Are you telling me not to apologize for it?"
The machine nodded, before craning its neck to look at his wings.
Fuzzy...
V1 silently attempted to stroke them, to smooth the feathers down with one of its multiple arms. Unfortunately, this caused Gabriel to flinch, a startled, strangled sort of noise ringing in its auditory processing, probably from the angel himself.
It could feel a cold glare from Gabriel.
"Don't. I am fully capable of plucking any loose feathers myself."
V1 gingerly raised its hands to try to show that it meant no harm, it was merely curious. Abominable that it couldn't talk, a vocal processor to communicate this would have been a damnably nice thing to have, but V1 had scrapped it at some point after it decided that it was using up more fuel than providing an actual, tangible benefit. And it was more intimidating when it kept silent.
They both remained in the hall of the cathedral, silent and within the company of each other. Perhaps not entirely enjoyable, but tolerable, nonetheless.