Titans Ch. 04

As they sat around eating their evening meal in the dusk light, Alex and Talia looked over the strange purple sword. Talia ran her fingers delicately across the metal, furrowing her brow in confusion. The blade was straight, but roughly sharpened with many scratches and gouges in the dark, purplish metal.

"I can't tell what it is," the elf shook her head, standing up and stalking away in disappointment, "It's draining my magic, so I can't use my magic to work out what it's made of."

Alex scratched his head thoughtfully, looking over the giant longsword. He had never seen anything like it used as a weapon. He had however, he suddenly realised, seen that kind of metal before.

"I know what that is," he laughed in surprise, "That's a shard of reactor shielding. At that size it must be from a starship."

"Reactor shielding?" asked Thrak, who was sat reading by the fire.

"Yeah," he ran his fingers through his hair, "It's used to contain the energy in a slipspace reactor. I wonder why it drains magic though..."

"Maybe your magic works the same as ours," the orc suggested, licking his thumb and carefully turning a page.

"It's not magic..." Alex started to explain, but then paused, "...actually, you might have a point there. That's an interesting thought."

"Glad I could be of assistance," the orc raised a meaty eyebrow without looking up.

They shared the same tent again that night, easily falling into a deep sleep from a hard day of marching and fighting. Once again, Alex began to dream.

The steel city was strangely silent, as always. As with last time, Alex found himself alone. He tucked himself into a corner as quickly as he could manage, not wanting to be caught out by the other two mech pilots he had seen last time. What could have been minutes or hours later, he looked up to see Anna, stood stock still in the middle of the road. As he watched, she took a sudden gasp of air and shook herself, looking around disoriented. He waved, catching her attention, and she walked over.

"Hi," she smiled nervously, looking down at her feet.

"Hey," he responded, smiling back with confidence he didn't have.

They stood in awkward silence for a while; two soldiers, bred and trained for war for over a century and a half between them, too afraid to speak. After an uncomfortable length of time, Alex finally spoke up.

"So," he began, "How are you..."

Alex never got to finish his question as Anna suddenly launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him passionately. He reeled for a moment, then kissed her back and pulled her against him. They broke apart, needing to breath but unwilling to let each other go.

"You have no idea how long I've waited for this moment," Anna gasped, dazed and exhilarated.

"You'd be surprised," Alex smirked playfully, "You weren't exactly subtle about it."

"Oh yeah?" she challenged, kissing him again and grinning, "Try first day of training."

"Really?" Alex raised his eyebrows in surprise, "You were barely a teenage then."

"I know," she sighed, resting her head on his shoulder, "But you were kind and smart, and more charismatic than you thought you were. I started having weird thoughts about you when you grabbed my waist to correct my posture in close-quarters training and they never went away."

"I never realised," he ran his fingers through her hair, enjoying the silken locks against his skin.

"Mhmm," she relaxed even further into his arms, "So I've had a very long time to come up with all sorts of filthy things I want to do with you."

Alex froze suddenly, and Anna burst out laughing at his sudden shock. After a moment he joined in, and the collapsed to the floor laughing, hugging and kissing.