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Calling Freud’s interest in Raven a mere fascination is an understatement.
Snail grew tired of listening to his pressing request about getting deployed in the same mission as a low-level mercenary, Rusty hid his anxiety as best as possible every time her callsign came out of Freud’s mouth, and the people passing by his garage back on Arquebus’ base couldn’t believe that he was still watching her fight records for the thousandth time.
And Freud realized it, of course he did. He never drastically changed LOCKSMITH’s loadout for a single person. Still, with Raven… he couldn’t help but tinker with his tools, search for related weapons that could effectively immobilize and cut her down, anything, anything, to bring her down.
He found a few fun and worthy opponents before her, but she was different.
He did want to defeat her, but more than anything, he wanted her to fight, rebel, struggle, triumph, dominate him, crush him, eliminate him, kill him. He wanted her to know how much he poured himself toward her, and he wanted her—only her—to bring him back. He wanted her to have control over him.
Is that so wrong?
“You’re crazy,” she said, her voice echoing in his cockpit. Raven stood across him, the cliff separating them had no visible bottom.
“No, I’m just testing a new battleground.”
She scowled, her voice stabilizer distorting it. “Then don’t include me in this.”
“No, no.” He smiled, hoping it was carried through his voice. “It needs to be you,” he said, “so let’s fight, Raven.”
“No.”
“You’re no fun.” He sighed, feigning sadness, but he knew it would come to this.
His AC took a step forward, rattling the rocks forming on his side of the cliff. To Raven’s surprise, he then opened his AC’s core, exposing his cockpit.
Amidst the rocky cliffside, the brown-haired man stood on his AC’s open core and climbed onto its arms.
“Enough, Freud.” A sliver of emotion betrayed Raven’s usual stoic facade. “What are you trying to do?”
—I need you to see me for what I have become
“Raven.”
Freud’s voice crackled through the comm as he walked out of its range. He grinned as he mouthed his next words, throwing them with the wind of the cliffside the moment he jumped.
“I want you to catch me, Raven.”
She let out a surprised gasp, far more emotions than he believed he could get out of her at this moment. And as he predicted, she boosted after him, purging her weapons, and catching his body with her AC’s arms.
As the AC landed on even ground, she jumped out of the cockpit and rushed to him, her lips trembling with emotions, her eyes sparkled—ignited by him, his actions—her hair messier than usual.
She grabbed him by his arm, but before she could say anything, he grabbed her cheeks and pulled her face close, his calloused fingers bruising her pale skin.
Those dark, bottomless irises widened with shock yet remained stoic, reflecting his dilated pupil so perfectly.
—My, my, those eyes like fire
I'm a winged insect, you're a funeral pyre
“Isn’t this fun?” He laughed. “This is the most fun I’ve had outside of a fight.”
“I don’t understand you, Freud.” She spat out. “You’re getting reckless and reckless the more we spar, you did… unthinkable things like this. You modified LOCKSMITH into a tetrapod the other day. You, Freud,” she took a breath, “why? Why me? Why did you do all these things?”
—Come now, bite through these wires
I'm a waking hell and the gods grow tired
He closed his eyes, chuckling to himself as she continued to ooze with emotions; her words weren’t calculated and composed as usual. She was now a flame, a soaring predator, a hound with her teeth baring out, and he liked her that way.
“Freud.” She gritted her teeth, grabbing his attention again. “I never understood you.”
—Reset my patient violence along both lines of a pathway higher
Grow back your sharpest teeth, you know my desire
Without saying a word, he dragged her down onto the cold metal, wrapping his arms around her in a suffocating hug.
“You will always ground me back, right, Raven? Raven. You will always win against me; you will prove to me that being at the top of the Vespers is nothing. You will show me your true prowess, Raven, show me how I’m nothing to you.”
He was shaking, the impact of the fall creeping up on him, but the adrenaline was preventing him from feeling pain, and the tangy taste in his mouth was more than sweet. It was addictive.
—When we were made, I know
It was no accident
“This,” he exhaled, his breath shaky, “this, Raven, is what love is. It must be!”
Love, the woman swallowed her saliva. She didn’t understand, she would never understand with her limited emotions. She couldn’t refute him, so he grinned again.
“Tell me I’m wrong, Raven. Tell me.”
“I don’t understand love, Freud, I can’t.”
“But you must understand that this isn’t something Rusty will do, right?”
Her lips parted, pausing. “Yes.”
“Then I’m wrong.”
“You’re…”
—You know my desire
We were tangled up like branches in a flood
“Answer me, Raven.” Freud’s nails dug into her shoulders, and she struggled, yearning for the sky again. “I want you to fight against me. I want you to prove me wrong. Say it. I want you to be the only one who understands, the one who can show me what’s right. I want you to guide me, Raven. So say it.”
He pushed her back to look into her eyes, the endless void, the depth he could never comprehend. How he loved them.
The woman fell silent at the way he gazed at her. Light refused to touch those eyes, the green almost lost under the brown strands he let loose.
How could someone like her understand what’s normal? How could someone like her tell him what’s right? How could someone like her, without emotions, without life, without being seen as a human, understand what love is?
“Freud.”
Her next words are only mouthed; her voice stabilizer crackled and shut down under the immense weight of her voice.
At her answer, he laughed out, tilting his head down, his smile lost under the shadow.
“Mm, then please show me what love is, Raven.”
—I have traveled far beyond the path of reason
Take me back to Eden
Take me back to Eden