Das.h.i.+ng through the busy noon street of Kingstead Terra almost ran along the walls as she avoided the nonchalant morning traffic. With a large smile on her face, the h.e.l.lwalker cadet leapt cleanly over a two story building as she closed in on the city centre. Leaping from building top to building top Terra closed in on the central compound, meanwhile Dax and Lilly were travelling back towards Kingstead at top speed.

"We're so high up, why is the sky all dark up here?"

"Because there is no sky, the atmosphere is what makes the sky blue and shatters the sunlight, without it s.p.a.ce is cold, dark and empty. That means life is impossible up here, while it is either cold or hot enough to kill you in seconds, heat radiates away from crafts so slowly that they need specialized equipment to not cook their occupants."

Explaining the concept of hard vacuum to Lilly Dax noticed how she was for once interested in 'his' world, something that made him feel somewhat happy, even if he would never admit it. 

"That sounds ruthless…"

"Yeah it is… Even though I'm made for surviving in s.p.a.ce it's more along the lines of dying a little slower than normal people."

As Lilly and Dax were talking the CAS-A7 suddenly cut thrust, jerking the entire craft as Dax's magnetic boots kicked in and nailed him to the floor while he secured Lilly in her seat.

"Time for reentry, this is going to be a bit rough but try and bear with it Lilly."

"O-okay… What exactly are we doing?"

Seeing Dax's large smile, Lilly got a bad promotion.

"Just a neat little manoeuvre called a suicide burn, it's completely safe."

Hearing the what Dax called the manoeuvre, Lilly's smile visibly flinched.

"Somehow I don't trust you on that…"

"It is, trusts me. Only a few people have died this way."

"That doesn't sound safe at all!"

"Here we go!~"

"DAX!"

-

"... Looks like Dax also got the message, I hope Lilly is not in there with him…"

Seeing a CAS-A7 perform a full on suicide burn right in the middle of Dax's compound, Terra s.h.i.+elded her eyes with her Reaper's mask as the landing craft kicked up a ton of dust. Making her way towards a two story building that sat in the middle of Dax's compound Terra accidentally witnessed Lilly as she stumbled out of the landed CAS-A7, immediately getting down on all fours as she puked.

(Rough landing… Sorry Lilly I don't have time to help you right now.)

Mentally apologizing to the elver Terra hurried on, entering her home as she took off her mask and heard the sound of gla.s.s shattering from upstairs. Getting an extremely bad feeling Terra rushed up the stairs, entering a room she had visited many times over the last few years and was immediately stopped from going further by Dax who held her back.

"Is she okay!?"

"First of all calm down a little. As for Alice you can ask her yourself."

Laying eyes on her long time best friend Terra froze in place. Alice had spent the best part of the last 2 years she had been in a coma, stuck in a tank where countless nanomachines fixed the delicate damage done to her central nervous system and the burns she had suffered all over her body when the exoskeleton she was piloting was struck with a 40 millimeter AD-LBD HEAT sh.e.l.l. According to Dax, Alice was supposed to spend at least one more year in a coma while further repair had been done on her body, but somehow she woke up early, leading to both Terra and Dax dropping everything they were doing as they rushed home to her.

"Alice?... Are you okay?"

To Terra's surprise, Alice had somehow broken out of the healing tank she was being held in, gla.s.s and water were spread all over her room as Alice stood silently and unresponsive in the middle of it wearing a black medical grown and breather mask that still covered the lower half of her face while her arms and legs were covered in implanted access ports to allow for faster healing. Her long chestnut brown hair had turned completely ashen white somewhere along the healing process, while her warm blue eyes had turned cold and cloudy as she looked at Terra.

"Stay put, she might not be all there."

Making sure Terra didn't get closer to Alice, Dax himself opted to be the live test subject as he cautiously approached Alice.

"Alice can you hear me?... Looks like the light is on, but there's no one home. ICI read her biometrics please."

Inching closer while appearing as non treathenly as he could, Dax read Alice's biometrics.

(Heatbeat is 300 BPM and climbing… Something is wrong!)

Throwing caution to the wind Dax approached Alice and grasped her arm as he tried to remove her breathing mask, this had some sort of adverse effect on Alice as her cloudy eyes suddenly regained their focus as her aura changed in a split second.

(FAST!-)

In an instant, Alice struck out against Dax with her free hand, forcing Dax on the defensive as he secured her other hand with slight difficulty.

(When the h.e.l.l did she get this strong!?... Unless….)

"Alice!"

Raising his voice Alice stopped in place, halting her a.s.sault on Dax as her eyes turned unfocused once more.

"I told you to stay back Terra."

Hearing his disciple lift her feet, Dax spoke out to her while still keeping his attention firmly on Alice as he removed her breathing mask.

"But-"

"No buts! Stay put."

"Fiiine."

Giving her usual response to Dax, Terra started pouting as she remained in place, this had some sort of effect on Alice as her eyes once more became focused.

"Terra?"

Speaking for the first time in 2 years, Alice's bright voice was rough and coa.r.s.e and her eyes fully regained their former light.

"Alice? Are you okay?"

"Eh? Dax… I don't know."

Realizing Dax was right in front of her Alice blinked a few times as the qiton made her sit down on the floor, taking care that she didn't sit on the broken gla.s.s that was all around her.

"Now are you going to try and hit me again or are we cool?"

"W-why would I hit you?"

"That's inconsequential. What's the last thing you remember?"

Making Alice focus on something else Dax took the liberty of removing the tubes and wires still attached to her arms.

"I helped you, Solaris and Terra in the invitation of the Northern Republic… We took the capital and went to find the so called monster of the north... Then I can't remember anything."

"Okay, that's good… Alice I need you to remain calm as I say what I'm about to say."

"O-okay…"

As Dax took a slightly sterner att.i.tude, Alice forced herself to pay full attention as she sat up straight.

"You almost died."

"What?"

"After we met with Iris, as I decided to name her, we were ambushed by one of my subordinates that had lost her memory. After she shot you I managed to return her to sanity, then we brought you back to Kingstead where we currently are and started the long healing process that you just woke up from."

"... How long have I slept?"

Taking a second to process the knowledge Dax instilled in her, Dax didn't immediately answer, instead he took a few moments to check up on Alice's vitals.

"... You have been under for about 2 years. Good news is that your vitals look okay, take a moment to catch up with Terra, I'll go prepare another room for you."

Leaving the two friends behind to catch up, Dax left to prepare a room that was not filled with gla.s.s shards as he looked over the result of Alice's scan and biometrics.

(Brain activity was off the scales for a while there and her strength was immense too… There must have been some kind of anomaly doing the healing process that I didn't catch, which is extremely problematic.)

Anomalies in nanomachines were extremely bad news, even if it proved to be a positive effect this time next time might be different. While Dax had his suspicions about possible reasons that the nanomachines had malfunctioned, he didn't immediately jump at them. Instead, he had ICI go over the operation logs, immediately eliminating the possibility that the grey matter had glitched somehow.

(So the problem is not on that side… What could it be?... Unless-)

-

"You've gotten taller…"

"Have I?"

Taking a short moment to catch up with each other, Terra and Alice quickly ran out of things to speak about.

"Yeah… So what has been happening lately?"

"A lot… So much in fact that I don't know where to start."

Seeing Terra getting a far off look in her eyes, Alice believed a joke would lighten the atmosphere.

"Well it's not like you people slew a demon, so just start at the beginning and. Go… With…. No way."

Seeing how Terra reacted Alice's smile froze as her friend explained.

"We did actually kill an archdemon a few months ago… I helped to distract it along with Victor, Lux and Lilly while Dax brought it down with the help of Solaris and two other archangels."

"EHH!? Wait who are Lux, and Lilly too?"

Reacting to unknown girl names being mentioned, Alice realized she had missed two years worth of chances with Dax.

"Well… Lux is Dax's adopted daughter, kind of. She's the one that almost killed you. As for Lilly, she's a grand elver…. And kinda dating Dax, I don't know exactly what's going on between the two of them."

That day would come to be named 'the awakening'. Marked by a confused scream that could be heard all over Dax's compound and lasted about half a minute, it was the day Alice woke up again, and the day where Dax's problems with women really started.