"Ava..."
Everyone came closer, with Alicia offering me her hand. "He... He's still alive. I can save him for you. It was just that his Aegis mutated from him forcing other Aegis into his own body, but he isn't dead, just frozen in time."
"..."
"He gambled on a chance that you'll not lose yourself again if he took away your power, Ava. Taking some of your Aegis prevents that no doubt. It will take some time for me to make a cure or something to convert his Aegis back to normal, but—"
I took Alicia's hand and with my eyes still filled with tears, I begged her. Incessantly, I begged her to save Hope.
My revenge didn't matter if Alicia could save him, and in fact, I already threw it away a long time ago. I wanted to kill Alicia because she hurt Hope back then, but... at times like these, my feelings were not the least bit important.
Alicia looked at me with warm, gentle eyes— the same ones that the 'old' Alicia used to do, back when she became 'my mother'.
"Alicia! Please, please save him!"
I thought she proposed such a thing like saving Hope because she had ulterior motives, but I was wrong. For one year after I last saw her, Alicia's heart didn't have that rebarbative malice anymore. Her heart was filled with the blinding light of resolve and a new purpose she'd found for herself.
"I will save him. You have my word," Alicia said resolutely.
"Thank you, Alicia..." I never thought those words would leave my mouth, ever.
"Hmm?"
"What is it, Sofeea?"
Everyone looked at the flashing Hologram Bracelet wrapping her left wrist. Before Sofeea managed to press the button, Klaus's hologram popped into existence.
Huh...? Next to him in the hologram were two girls I hadn't met before. To his right was a red-haired little girl with strange metal-like armor piece attached to her left arm. Her hair was quite long and it covered her face.
To Klaus's left was a girl wearing the standard dark blue C.U military uniform. She was taller than me, about 166 cm, and her raven black hair was short.
"That fortress is falling down!" said Klaus. "Get the eff out of there!"
"Tsk!"
Alicia went over the controls near Amathelia's chamber and expertly maneuver her fingers to take over, trying her best to pull the flying fortress Leah back up. After a few seconds, she shook her head and looked at us.
"Guys! It's no good! With Amathelia's down, I can only hope to land this thing at sea. Amathelia was the one who used her Aegis to float this fortress, to begin with."
"Just do it!" said Derrick.
Alicia didn't wait any longer and controlled the fortress herself. It swayed— tilting sideways before its colossal vessel landed roughly near the shore of Bulgaria. Sofeea urged everyone to head back to Klaus's Teria airship (which I just found out that they even had one on standby outside). So, we did just that. Since Hope's body was encased in his golden Aegis crystals, Sofeea teleported him herself.
"Ava!"
"...Hello, nice to meet you, Sis Ava."
Julia and Ernestine introduced themselves and greeted me, in that order. I was briefed with bits of details about what happened— mostly after when I went berserk. It turned out all those people back at camp didn't die.
To prove it, Klaus led us all to the infirmary in that airship— where Maltyie, Qara, Lily, Khenbish, Odval were all there, awake and completely healed.
"Avaaaa!" I didn't notice Erhi at first and then she just hugged me out of the blue, crying. They expressed their relief that I was safe and sound. But, I knew what I had to do. Shortly after, I apologized to them wholeheartedly, over and over, about my incompetence in protecting those I cared about and having the very same wonderful people to worry about me.
As for what happened to Amathelia, Sofeea told everyone about it, and a search would be conducted inside Leah, the flying fortress. Alicia though, she...
"I committed so many sins. I wasn't there for my own daughter... I'm... truly a horrible person."
Alicia said those words as she looked at all of us in the infirmary. She insisted on a severe punishment, but before that could be done, I had made her promised me.
"I will save Hope Domitius no matter what. After what happened in Mansel Island, what I did to him, it's unforgivable. And I'm not looking for forgiveness. I just want to do things right... starting from now."
"Can Lily use her Aegis to do it...?" asked Odval.
"She's in a coma right now. And, her Aegis will work no doubt. But the shell trapping Hope will just regenerate, instantly I believe," said Klaus at the infirmary's door. Alicia turned and nodded at his statement.
"But! We'll never truly know until Lily wakes up."
"..."
Silence. Klaus's words were hard cold truth. Right then, Lily was the only one I could rely on to save Hope from his mutating Aegis, and until she woke up, we could only do so much on our own.
"..."
"I'll do it right now if you want," said a woman's voice.
"Eh?"
"Lily?!"
Her body sprang to a sitting position on her bed and no one realized she was listening all along. Hold on, wait up! She is awake all this time?!
"How is Caesar?!" were the words she spoke of a moment later.
"He's fine. He's resting in his own room. So you can just rest—"
Lily leaped from her bed and pushed Klaus before he could finish speaking— but Gray Ludwig was already in front of her, white cloth in hand. He pushed it into her mouth swiftly and a few seconds later, her legs lost its strength and she slumped to the floor ever so slowly.
"Told ya' she will do this." Gray shrugged and carried Lily back to her bed. "It's modified chloroform. A strong one. We can't have our patients running up and about before they heal completely, do we?"
"Lily's regeneration is nothing to scoff at..." said Alicia and Klaus at the same time.
"Anyway, we have things to do," said Gray. "Gheele is taking care of Neo Africa, and the war is still ongoing..."
"I will go back to Master Gheele, and then check on stuff back in Finland, and also the situation for The People's Light in Russia." Sofeea used her Aegis to teleport soon after she said that, and the ones left dispersed to do what must be done.
Derrick and I chose to stay back in the infirmary. I went over to Lily's side and sat on a wooden chair already propped up, while Derrick went to Maltyie's side. Oh, and his daughter, Elle stayed as well.
"Ava, I'm just glad that you're alright."
Odval came to me after Qara, Khenbish, and Ulii—who were on their beds— urged her. Something along the line of:
"Go and talk to her. She's worried about you."
Actually, it was more than that but... yeah.
"Ava... About Hope... you see..."
"Hm?" The face I made must have been weird since Odval flinched. "He's gonna be alright. He promised me. That Hope... took a part of my Aegis so that when I go berserk again, if ever, my Aegis wouldn't react like last time..." I said.
"Um, sorry. I shouldn't bring him up..."
"No, it's fine, honestly. I knew why he did that. After all, I can't be a normal girl with how things are, and, if my Aegis is suppressed to a point, then I'm sure my emotions will not take over me. So... yeah... it's fine, Odval."
She smiled and patted my shoulder. "You're strong, Ava."
My cheeks warmed up all of a sudden. "T-Thanks. It's just that, I have to change myself from now on. I don't want to trouble anyone for every little thing I do. So... the first step towards that is to keep my emotions in check. Yup. Gotta think before I do anything rash."
Qara and Khenbish burst into laughter, and before Odval could reprimand them, Ulii hit them both with her wooden cane. Odval giggled at it and then covered her mouth.
"Julia saved us. Yup yup," said Khenbish. "Damn. I thought my arms would stay broken, but voila, it's all good now."
Julia, the Aegis User who defected from C.U just like Ernestine. Her Aegis's specialty gave her the ability to heal almost any injury by having the affected consume her Aegis crystals. It was an ability opposite to mine, which was heavily focused on fighting.
Both of them were nice people and I could find myself talking with them for hours if I ever had the chance to.
"Maltyie."
Everyone who was left looked at Derrick as he sat next to Maltyie's bed. Wait, is he about to...?!
"I promised to tell you my answer when we meet again... and... um... but before that, you see, is it alright if it's here?" said Derrick.
Ah, that was what bothering him. He couldn't properly tell Maltyie with us watching them (excluding the sleeping beauty Lily). Though, this was the perfect chance for him. Who knows what the future had in store for both of them, so better let it all out while they could.
"It's fine. Hehe. I don't mind. In fact, with all of them watching, and Elle too, it helps me to calm down," said Maltyie.
"Well, I'm the one who's going to say it... so... it's kinda hard for me with the five of them watching. I don't mind Elle, but..."
"Wow. I really am forgotten, huh."
We all shifted our attention to... Eugene standing at the corner of the infirmary, alone. Gloomy clouds hovered above him, shadowing his expression.
"What am I, a ghost? I'm invisible, aren't I? Welp, did I just get a cheat ability that allows me to become unconsciously invisible? I'm not transmigrated to an alternate reality, am I?"
Everyone laughed at Eugene as he spoke his frustration. Yeah, this is not bad. Hope, are you seeing this? Right now, I am happy, so please, come back...