Chapter 6 : A New Companion
"Ughhh, my back hurts like hell" Saber said with a hoarse voice. His entire body felt sore from his back to his toes, even moving his fingers would make a slight 'crack' sound signalling he hadn't move then in a while. He tried to roll around the soft bed for a while longer until he realized he had no idea where he was. He slowly opened his eyes to survey the surrounding around him. His vision still hazy but could make out a few objects.
The room was huge with white walls all around a single window at the side with pink curtains showing some trees and bird nest in them along with a single cyan coloured door parallel to the window. While looking around with blurry vision he saw another bed across to him with someone on top of it. He tried to get a look failed a few times due to the fatigue still not leaving him. After a few more attempts he sat at the side of the bed to let his legs wake up before standing so as to no fall if they were still limp.
Saber stood up and did some stretching to take away the feeling of soreness in his limbs while some 'crack' sounds were heard. After stretching he felt refreshed and took a look at his current state, he had plaster on his arm and felt some on his face with a huge bandage on his left and one wrapping around his right arm with a strap covering his stomach. He wondered who had helped him while he was unconscious but shrugged it off when he saw the other bed at the edge of his eyesight. Saber walk towards the bed across him and staying wary if it was a trap. His fingers felt for the metal handle of the nanosabers behind his back through his gloves but found nothing but the sheaths. He looked around and saw them laying on a drawer next the his bed with some painkillers and some ointment. He picked up and gripped one it tight and put the other back in its sheath while walking warily to the bed across to him.
He calmed when he saw the same petite blonde figure that had accompanied him on his journey. He lowered his nanoblades into their sheath and checked on the female laying on the bed. She had fewer injuries than he has, which mostly consists of cuts from trees while running away. A strap was around her right arm which was in a cast as he remembered she had twisted it most likely fractured her arm from taking a hit from a hammer. The female slept soundly and was still in a deep sleep so Saber left her alone and proceeded to the door.
He used his free hand to twist the knob and push open the door as soundlessly as he could, it still made a 'creak' which wasn't too loud but startled him as it pierced through the peaceful silence. He looked around and saw a few doors along the path to the right of him and a single golden colored door to the left. He was about to open the golden door before he heard the sound of metal hitting each other and the sound of something sizzling. He froze and listened carefully through the sound of Layla's snores. "Must be a real heavy sleeper" he thought to himself while proceeding with caution to the source of the noise. As he got closer and more and more light shone from the room as the pathway was dark as it had no light source except for the light panel above them which shone a warm orange colour, illuminating the walls with a dusky hue. His stomach grumbled and betrayed his stealth as he smelled a wonderful aroma that reminded him he had woken up without any sense of time.
Blade still in hand he walked to the edge of the opened door and peeked inside to survey the surrounding. When he did though, he barely saw a beautiful woman with bubblegum hair sitting on a wooden chair next to a table with intricate patterns surround it. She was wearing a dark blueish metallic one piece body suit with what seems to be a machine piece around her waist that was barely being covered by her pink apron that has flowery patterns on it with a golden Halo in the middle. Steel gloves could be seen on both of her hands with black colored leather on her arm, a pink-glassed visor with an earpiece that was rather large connected to it sat next to a bowl of fruit on a wooden table. What amazed Saber wasn't the way she dressed, heck he was dressed almost in the same way, what was amazing about her is the large wings protruding from her back. It was made completely of metal and looked like giant butterfly wings. There was a blue light source at the middle top of her left wing and red light source at the middle top of the right wing, giving the impression that she was authority figure. What seemed to be the feathers were made of grey metal protruding from her suit and had a few noticeably large scratches on them while the tip of the wings were black and had light shining almost at the edge of the wings. To put it simply, she looked like an angel.
"You can come out, I saw your blade" came an angelic voice from the female. He walked in, the aroma of sizzling food getting stronger. Just when he was about to speak, she said "You need not speak, you must be starving, eat and we'll get on with the questions" she said gesturing to the plater on the table. The breakfast as what it seems was made of up of a sunny side up egg, two pieces of sausage and a few strands of bacon with a glass of milk at the side. He looked up, about to thank the women, "Rafaela, don't mention it, we'll have questions later now eat up" Rafaela said as if she could read his mind.
Saber engulf the breakfast as he was starving after he smelled the aroma and saw Rafaela got up grabbed another egg, bacon and sausages with a spatula from a pan and placed it on plate next to his. Saber was getting into the bacon while Rafaela poured a glass of cold refreshing milk and placed both on the seat next to his. "Tell your companion to eat this after she wakes up" she said and walked out of the kitchen while taking off her apron, leaving her visor behind.
Whilst the milk wash away the last bit of sleep left in him, he heard the sound of soft footsteps coming. Saber stood up and walked to the entrance of the kitchen to find the source. The petite female who seems to still be asleep walked towards him once she rub her eyes a few more times, a look of surprise on her face. He gestured for Layla to come in and she did so by tiptoeing as to not make any sound. "What are we doing here? Where are we? How did we end up h-" "Just eat your breakfast first, then we'll move on to questions" he said cutting her off mid sentence. She looked like she was about to argue back but decided not to as it was futile to do so, she was hungry and couldn't care less about her surroundings.
Saber watched as Layla eagerly consumed the food he pointed at using her left arm, she looked like a real monster when she's hungry with tomato sauce on her lips and oil greased smeared on her hand. He got up and walked towards the direction in which Rafaela went and left the room after he placed the dirty dish and glass in the sink. He knew he couldn't leave Layla behind as she would also get lost in this desolate maze so instead of walking off, he stood outside trying to clear the image of the bloodlust Layla out of his mind. After 5 minutes, she came out looking a lot more refreshed and calm. They both walked towards the opposite direction of where they came until they stopped at a set of stairs which was made of wood but was barely noticeable over the purple carpet with carvings at the end draped over them, leading up to the 2nd floor.
They walked up the staircase, not caring to mute the sound of their heavy footsteps and arrived at a large area with the living room on the left and a music area on the right with a balcony in front of them. Sat atop the sofa on the balcony was a beautiful woman with wings outstretched. Layla gasped in amazement while Saber just walked towards her in awe. Once they made it to the entrance of the balcony, Rafaela gestured for them to sit down before continuing by muttering, "It has been awhile since I saw this much peace" under her breath.
"Now, let's start our chat shall we?" she said as she turned to look at them, a beautiful golden glow in her eyes. "Who should start first?" and so the long explanation of how they got injured began. They left out the parts where they would trip and fall but her keen observation always got them to speak up, it seems like she was very experienced in interrogation as well as lie detection.
Somewhere in the abyss.
"So what was so important that you had to call me from my research minion?" came a male voice which seems to haven't gone through puberty yet. "I've found them and her" said a raspy voice. "So you finally came out of hiding Savior" said the young voice to no one in particular. He then turned to the minion who had green skin over his tiny frail body holding a red shield and a sword while wearing red painted armour and said "Tell them to get ready as orders from the Octopus, master will be pleased" while a small sadistic smile which shouldn't be on his face crept up. He had heard them announce they're names at the first "present" he gave them, "Your time is up Savior, you can't save anyone now, not the Regulator nor the Breacher"