Unexpected Detour (Razgriz x Wingshadow)

Sam could only watch, his body still frozen in shock from nearly dying, as Gnome worked valiantly to defend him; he felt his heart warm as she called him 'my Sam'. He tried to get his body moving, he had to help her! Though he froze once more when Silus strike Gnome, her contractor watching in a helpless fashion as she fell. It was made only worse as she reached out to him, her eyes pleading, before slumping to the ground. "G..nome...." Sam uttered, feeling like shit for letting his contract, lover and mother of his child get hurt. A single tear fell from his eye, his teeth grinding against each other as Silus hunched over, clutching the severe wound in his chest.

Silus' eyes, however, soon roamed from Gnome to Sam, the grimace never having faded from his face. "Well, that's what she gets....." Silus growled, but soon found himself cut off as an earthen fist slammed into Silus, making the leathery-skinned assailant grunt and fly back in pain. Silus' body bounced a few times, coming to a halt with with lying face-down in the dirt. The earth fists that Gnome had made slowly disintegrated into rubble, her concentration having been broken by her current state.

"What..the hell..." Silus grumbled, struggling to get back to his feet; his eyes widened as he looked at his opponent. The once-fluorescent green fire around Sam had grown darker, small crackles of black electricity danced over its surface. "You bastard.....No one hurts my Gnome and gets away with it" Sam growled; what happened next would astonish anyone who was watching. Silus' body seemed to disappear; however it really hadn't, but Sam's attacks with whatever Earth energy remained smacked him around like a ragdoll. Just as Silus hit the ground and bounced a little after a particularly brutal barrage, Sam slammed him once more with an Earth Fist; however, he put much more force behind than he probably would have liked, for soon Silus was flying away from the battleground, even if it wasn't by choice.

Sam just stood there, grunting heatedly as his brow dripped heavy perspiration from his exertion; the giant rock fist crumbled from his hand, turning back into the loose dust it had once been. His eyes then shot wide open: Gnome! He rushed over to her side, quickly getting on his knees and holding her in his arms. "Gnome...Gnome, I'm sorry...Please be OK, Please be OK" he pleaded, his head bowed as he waited to see if she would wake up.
 
"FIRE!" Talbor ordered to her stationed troops who began to launch a barrage of arrows in the direction Silus had flown, trying to ensure that he was driven away in case he decided to continue the attack. Many of the centaurs were enraged at his behavior, both toward them as a race as well as toward Gnome whom they respected (and in some cases worshiped). That single strike to her face was the final straw... It was likely that they would not hesitate from attacking him upon sight in the future.

Sam, however, had his mind occupied with other matters, as Gnome lay limply before him. She was still breathing, albeit shallowly, so she had not been killed from that single attack. Judging at how sturdy the elemental spirit was, this was unlikely even if she had not attempted to protect herself prior to the impact. She felt light and looked somewhat more frail than before, the right side of her jaw bruised and bleeding slightly. Amid the distant sound of many bowstrings twanging, Gnome's eyes finally fluttered open. She gave her contractor a gentle smile and slowly reached up to caress his cheek.

"I'm glad... You are alright," she spoke softly, just barely above a whisper, "Don't worry, Sam. I'll be fine..."
 
The arrows continued to fly as Silus sailed back a fair distance; the leather-skinned man knew he was beat. For now. "Damn it, still not strong enough. Till next then" Silus grumbled as he trudged away from the scene to lick his wounds and plan his next move. It was fairly certain that he would be back, but whether he would come back to the centaur encampment or not, no one could say for certain.

Sam hugged Gnome close to him, saying "Gnome......Thank God". He had a feeling she wouldn't have died from something like that, but he still felt bad for letting her get hurt because of him. Plus, the verification that she indeed had not died lifted a huge weight of f his shoulders he only just realized he was carrying. "I'm....so sorry....I failed, Gnome" Sam choked out, placing a hand tenderly on her cheek. "I try to keep you safe and look what happens" he added dejectedly; if he hadn't been so afraid of the near-death experience he just had, he could have saved Gnome from getting hit like that.

His hands tightened a little on Gnome; he would make that bastard pay. Somehow, he felt an incredible surge of power after Gnome got hurt; though for the life of him he couldn't figure out what exactly had caused. All he knew was that he was kicking Silus' ass and sent him flying like a ragdoll. He then remembered Gnome's injuries and placed a hand lovingly on her cheek, "Here, Gnome....Take my energy, you need it"
 
"No, Sam... I underestimated him and I left myself open. It wasn't your fault... I should be the one protecting you," Gnome turned her head over slightly and kissed his hand, "I should be alright... You don't have much energy for yourself, even. You've been very affectionate with me recently and stored up a lot of power, so I should have enough. Besides, if you tire yourself out too much here we won't be able to continue on our journey until you recover."

Gnome managed to push herself up into a seated position, kissing down his cheek and neck until she reached his shoulder, where she laid her head down in a content manner. Her arms wrapped around his broad back and held herself close to him, trying to reassure him that she was not that badly hurt. The earth spirit had come quite a long way, showing such tender affection to Sam even in front of nearly the entire centaur race watching.
 
"E..even if you say that...." Sam stuttered out, clearly taken aback by Gnome's words; well, Dryad did say contracted elementals were completely devoted to their masters. But he didn't really see himself as a master; she could easily crush him if she wanted to. Before he could argue any further, he felt Gnome embrace him; this was one he returned. This really surprised him; her acting like this with so many people watching them.

Of course, he didn't say a thing, just reveled in the embrace itself. "Gnome....." he mumbled out, his own arms coming to wrap around her as well. She was right; he had to be careful with how he dispensed his power. "I want you to rest, Gnome.....Go into spirit form". When that was taken care of, he made his way over to Talbor; he could feel the eyes upon him, now that basically the entire camp knew he was the vessel for someone they clearly held in high regard. He knew there were wounded, but he also had places he needed to be. Still, he could at least offer to help and if she needed it, he would stay. "Well, hopefully that's the last we'll see of him....Do you need any help tending to the wounded?" he then asked his lover, gazing up at her intently.
 
Gnome nodded and vanished in a flash of light, obediently returning inside Sam. The proud centaur leader looked down at Sam and shook her head slowly, bending down slightly to show him a bit more respect, "No, we will tend to our wounded ourselves for the situation demands an immediate response from all our tribes. Should we meet such an abomination again, we wish to be ready rather than rely upon your strength to defend us and our young ones. Your assistance was most welcome and for that we are thankful. Gnome's power and beauty are far beyond anything we are capable of, and I am grateful that I was able to observe it in person. However, you have a mission of your own, and I have to get to work with the other leaders. I do not believe that we will see each other again for some time, so please take care of yourself."

In a shocking display of affection, she kissed his forehead before turning to leave, her hooves padding the ground with each step. Sure, she was a bit firm and perhaps even stiff and awkward at times, but she was tender toward those she cared about... even if it wasn't always evident.
 
Sam looked up at Talbor as she declined his offer; he should have figured as much, but it never hurt to ask. Though her little bow to him was unnecessary and he was about to tell her so when she started giving an explanation as to why she was refusing his help. Typical Talbor, he thought; still, her steadfastness and courage were some of her redeeming qualities. Her comment about his mission made him remember that he did indeed have an objective: Find and contract Undine, then go to the Pharaoh and defeat her. Sounded so easy in theory, but Sam knew better.

Her kiss to the forehead definitely surprised him; he could only watch as she walked off, muttering "I will. You and Tutan do the same". And with that, Samuel Dellsman left the Great Congregation of Tribes to continue his quest, leaving behind another lover and the child he sired with her. From there he traveled west, following the small map that Poseidon had given him towards the Cleansing Embrace and by Sasha's direction, to the northern spring. Little did he know that fate had one more stop for him.

On his travels, he came across another abandoned town; this one on the edge of the plains in a small valley. There was a well-traveled road leading down into it; as Sam progressed further and further into it, he noticed something peculiar: This town was extremely well-preserved. He could sense no one here, but he still kept an eye out regardless; it was eerie, simply because it looked like people still did live here. At least in the desert town it was clearly abandoned, but this.....He shook his head free of the thoughts as he wandered further in. "What place is this?" Sam said aloud but in a somewhat subdued voice; he still hadn't fully recovered from the large expenditure of energy against Silus, and didn't want to get into another fight so soon. Little did he know that they were in the town where Gnome's mother met her contractor.
 
"This is the place where I was conceived... I know it quite well," Gnome's voice rang out clearly inside Sam's mind, "My mother lived here for quite some time, her desire to forage a peace between the humans and the inhabitants of this planet drew her out of her natural solitude. She worked with the humans here and even found her one true love here, forming the first contract between an elemental and a human. From their union, I was later born."

She paused for a few moments, to allow her words to fully sink in. This place had many memories of her childhood, chasing her favorite rubber ball down the street while playing by herself. Many of the other children were scared of her, her taciturn nature and vast powers intimidating them although she was significantly smaller in terms of physical mass. She did not dislike humans, but with the rising tension between their races she clung to her mother and father for support even when things looked grim.

"With the rising contention between humans first broke out when groups of monster girls began to take human males by force or surprise, mother and father sent me to live with Dryad for my own protection... They feared that some of the humans might kidnap me for their own purposes, or perhaps to use me as leverage and force my mother into protecting them from the onslaught... I still don't know what happened to them since the day we parted," Gnome continued in a slightly morose tone, clearly unsure if her mother was even still alive.
 
"Your mother?" Sam replied; that's right, Gnome mentioned a town where her mother had met her contractor. "I'm...sorry you had to go through all that, Gnome; that couldn't have been easy to deal with" he then replied when she told him about how she'd been sent to live with Dryad because of the escalating conflict. What made it worse was that she didn't get the comfort of knowing what happened to her parents.

Then....It hit him all at once, like a freight train. The holodisk of Dr. Braun! He said something about a town where he stored a database on the different species listed here, which Gnome had said she knew where it was. "This must be Nexus, then" Sam uttered lowly; he was surprised to see how good the shape of this town was. Hell, even the signs for the different stores - ice cream parlors, grocery stores, and other things - were faded, but still standing. Many of these buildings look like they'd never been touched.

He then said something that would likely take her by surprise, "If we have the opportunity, Gnome, I'll help you find out what happened to your parents....I can promise you that much". But right now, Sam needed to find that database; there could be invaluable data that he could use to his advantage. With that, he continued searching the sizable settlement until he came to a heavy iron door. Beside it was a sign "RESEARCH OUTPOST: RESTRICTED ACCESS" Sam looked up and saw a degraded security holoemitter; it was dark, which meant there was no power here. "Great...Now how to get in?" Sam mused aloud; he could try busting down the door, but that might alert something he didn't want to his location.

He then had an idea, but he wasn't sure he could pull it off. Time to ask the expert, he thought before saying, "Hey, Gnome, is there a way we can travel underground.....Like, you know, move through the earth or something? Or does it not work that way?" He honestly had no clue if he could merge with the earth, but the possibility kind of tickled his curiosity.
 
"Its technically possible," Gnome shrugged, picking up on what he was asking rather easily, "But that would require a very high amount of concentration... However confident that I am in your abilities, I'm not sure you are ready for something like that just yet. If you loose your concentration while inside the earth, you will become bound to it or simply be buried alive in the dirt. Since neither of us want that, why don't you just let me give it a try?"

The earth spirit appeared beside her contractor and walked over to the door, looking over it a bit before knelling down before it. She pressed her palms onto the ground in front of it and the dirt began to fall away and form a passageway under the door. She stood back up and vanished back inside Sam.

"There isn't any need to do something so risky just to get through a door," Gnome smiled.
 
Well, now Sam just felt plain silly; he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, chuckling as she vanished back inside of him. "That works......Thanks, Gnome" he replied, clearly a bit embarrassed for overlooking such an obviously simple solution. But, no time to stress over a small, non-lethal mistake now; he hopped into the hole and went under the door, creating a small series of hand- and footholds to help get him out of the tunnel. He would emerge in a large courtyard; the concrete had largely eroded away, making the exit from the underground passageway that much easier for him. Brushing the dirt from his somewhat tattered robes, he stood up and looked around; now the question was where to go. As an added measure, he collapsed the tunnel Gnome had just created for him; didn't need anything following him in, after all.

Walking further into the compound, he could only imagine what this place must have been like: He pictured soldiers standing guard everywhere, men in white lab coats and their assistants ferrying results and samples between buildings via a series of interconnected tubes and capsules. The only problem was, none of these doors were labeled nor was there a map dictating a layout of the compound. Just what was it they were doing here? Well, if he had to go from building to building, he would; backtracking, he went back to the entrance of the compound and then went to the first other entrance he encountered initially.

It was a pair of sliding doors, ones that seemed to come apart rather easily given that nothing was powering the pressure mechanism to keep them shut. He slipped inside and began walking down a hallway; at the end was a huge room of dining tables with bench seats. Rows of serving trays lined each side of the room; they were in a cafeteria. Ironically, as if to tempt him, Sam's stomach growled; he was rather hungry. "Don't suppose anyone works here" he said humorously, wondering if there was. He shook his head, deciding if there was food here, it was most certainly rotten; very few items could withstand being sealed even a few centuries under the best conditions.

He then came across a Lt. Fizz vending machine. The pictoral was still intact too: A Space Marine holding a giant gun in one hand and a bottle in the other, the speech bubble saying "Drink Up, Soldier!" These space-age colas were the first of their kind; make an otherwise unhealthy drink an actual meal replacement. And they were rumored to last a millennium without going flat or bad; then again, that was a rumor, not a confirmed fact. But what was a little risk for a potential reward? "Wouldn't happen to have any change, would you Gnome?" he then asked humorously; mostly, he was curious to see if there was anything left in here at all.
 
Gnome once again appeared beside him and looked over the drink-venting machine with a fair amount of interest, "No, I don't have anything like that, but I could use some dirt or sand to juggle it about a bit and see if there is anything's in there. Its strange, for some reason I feel like something is hiding inside, but I can't figure out what, exactly."

She bent down and picked up some of the dust and dirt that had collected on the sides of the room and molded it in between her fingers, shoving it into the coin slot of the machine. She then folded her hands together, glowing dimly as there was a rattling sound from inside. There was a loud, metalic groaning sound followed by a startling thud as a bottle landed in the dispenser. Then, another followed, one after the other falling from the machine and making quite a ruckus.

"Oops..." Gnome looked up at Sam sheepishly at the pile of bottles that rolled out onto the floor. Thankfully, none of them broke... but some of them were already opened and empty, oddly enough. The earth spirit jumped when she heard a tiny cry from the bottles, and a small creature crawled out from them and floated up next to Sam's face.

She looked like a small woman, perhaps around twenty to twenty five years old but retaining a distinctly youthful charm about her. Her entire body was glowing dimly, and little sparkles floated about her as she flew. On her back she had a pair of butterfly-like wings, brightly colored like pieces of colored glass. She wore a dress made of a thin, silk-like material. Her small, pretty face, however, showed that she was not the least bit amused.

"I was stuck in that damn machine for years with nothing to drink but old bottled drinks..." the fairy grumbled, "but when I finally get out who do I see but Gnome... Jeez, talk about the last person I wanted to see at a time like this."

Measuring a mere six inches from the top of her head to the tips of her toes, she was hardly intimidating... especially considering that she lacked the power to even get herself out of a dispenser that she had somehow gotten herself inside.
 
Sam watched with vested interest as Gnome worked her magic; she really was a master of her craft. He watched the machine jiggle and groan as the dirt did what it did - likely sever the mechanisms holding the bottles in place - and causing the bottles to come tumbling out in a veritable avalanche; he took a step back as the bottles began piling up on the floor, clanging and clinking together as they spread out in a wave. "Well, that's one way to get a free product" Sam said in a bemused tone; though he noticed that some of them were empty. Not that he should be surprised, but the fact that they were still in the machine made him curious.

Sam jumped back at the same time Gnome did upon hearing the high-pitched yet muted cry; he looked around, readying himself in case the bottle incident awakened a dangerous creature that he didn't know was here. Though he then saw a dim light out of the corner of his eye and upon turning, he noticed an extremely tiny woman floating in front of his face going on about how she was stuck in there for years and how Gnome was the last person she wanted to see.

His head cocked curiously as he gazed upon the tiny creature; how did she even get in there anyway? "Um...Hi there" Sam said somewhat timidly; just because something looked non-threatening didn't mean it wasn't. And the last thing he wanted to do was piss off something that could really make him regret it. "Sorry to hear you were stuck, but how did you get in there....If you don't mind me asking, that is. And how do you know Gnome?"
 
"Well, I decided to hide in there when the panic broke out in here and everyone started evacuating. I was born in this town and I really don't know how to fend for myself in the wild like my parents did... When things calmed down I tried to get out, but as you saw, I don't even know how to get out of a tight, stuffy place like that," the fairy grumbled, "I was one of many fairies that came here to live with the humans. Most of them were kind to us since we don't pose any threat to them. That's the thing about humans, though... They only trust the things that they have control over."

Gnome peered up the fairy, realizing that she ever so vaguely remembered her, "Would you happen to be Patty, by any chance?"

"Why yes... I didn't think you could possibly forget me even after all these years," the fairy nodded, turning to look at Gnome, "I thought Gia told you never to come here again. You should realize how dangerous this place is for you, little Gnome. After what happened here-"

"What happened?" Gnome demanded information from the small creature, much to her dismay, "You must tell me!"

"Whoa, calm down... There should be some data-banks that are still operational around here somewhere that would do a better job than myself at telling the story," Patty waved her hands in the air in protest, "Besides, I don't want you to lynch me for tarnishing your mother's name or anything."

"What do you mean by that?" the earth spirit looked up at Patty with confusion, "Please, I have to know."

"I'm not the one who should tell you something like that," the fairy replied in a grave tone.
 
"So there were more of you...." Sam initially said, then realized just how idiotic he sounded; of course there was more of her kind. Humans were probably the minority here, though hopefully finding this Dr. Braun's data terminal would provide more insight into that particular issue. Her little comment about how humans could only trust that which they can control earned her a bit of a disapproving glare with his arms crossed over his chest; there were plenty of things he didn't fully control and yet he trusted them. However, he was snapped out of his thoughts as Gnome and the little creature, a fairy apparently, bantered back and forth, his eyes following the current speaker in their little discussion about the past. He was surprised that Gnome seemed to be familiar, at least on a first name basis, with this Patty.

Though when Patty mentioned what happened here, Gnome's little freakout didn't go unnoticed by Sam; even if he missed the physical reaction, the feedback spike from her energy could easily be sensed inside of him. But Patty seemed to just make it worse by mentioning her mother; it was too little too late that Sam tried to get her to hush up about that. Though not really knowing the little fairy was going to bring it up made that all but impossible. Sam rested his head on top of Gnome in a comforting fashion, saying rather directly to the fairy, "Can you at least tell us why you can't say anything about it? In case you didn't notice....There's no power here".

Of course, Sam immediately considered the fact that most military installations had back-up power supplies hidden somewhere in the base itself; this being a research station, he was fairly certain it would be the case here and their hermetic-sealing technologies allowed them to last long periods of time when dormant. But he was hoping maybe they could save themselves the effort by getting it out of Patty.
 
"Well, if you are going to push me I suppose I really don't have a choice," Patty sighed, "Just don't jump to conclusions without hearing the entire story... From the time you were sent away, Gnome, things around here quickly devolved into chaos. Some of the humans wanted to integrate with the monster girls, while others wished to eradicate us from off the face of the planet since we had become a threat to their survival... just what gave them the right to treat this planet as their property I will never know, but that is beside the point. Gia and her contractor were trying to bridge an uneasy peace between the races, and between the two human factions as well. Eventually, it was clear that they could no longer hold everything together, so they betrayed us... I don't know why, but Gia and her master began to murder her own kind. It was like something I have never seen before, her eyes were so filled with fury and hatred-"

"That's got to be a lie!" Gnome grabbed the fairy in her hands tightly, enough to cause her pain, "Mother would never do something like that!"

"I-I told you that you wouldn't want to hear it!" Patty protested, "Please, let me go! It might have been her contractor who forced her to do it. I don't know what happened, but eventually she had to be put down before she laid waste to the entire planet. It was like she was bound and determined to destroy everything she had ever worked for."

"Enough... I've heard enough," Gnome released her and vanished back inside Sam, "I can't hear any more of this..."
 
Sam only listened as Patty told them the story of just what happened after Gnome was sent away; his eyes widened with surprise at first at the mention of 'two human factions'. He supposed that the factions were the ones that wanted to integrate with the monster girls and the ones who wanted to wipe them out. The surprise then turned to shock as Patty explained that Gia and her master had begun murdering the monster girls; what would drive her to do something like that?

Apparently, his shock was also experienced by Gnome; soon, Patty found herself in the Earth Elemental's clutches, being squeezed like a child's toy. "Gnome....." Sam muttered; he felt a heaviness in his heart, a welling of sadness for her. This wasn't how he wanted to find out about her parents; there had to be an underlying cause for all this. There just had to be; maybe he was being naive, but two people who were trying to bridge peace between the monster girls and the humans seemed the least likely people to suddenly switch teams like that.

Now....Sam just felt helpless. He wanted to help Gnome, but what could he possibly do? He knew nothing of the history of this planet, of how things progressed before the human population was eventually evacuated. But....that made finding that data terminal more important than ever. Maybe it would hold some answers that could help unravel the mystery. "Gnome....I'm sorry.." he said to her mentally, noting how pathetic he sounded. He was sorry? What the hell kind of shit was that?

His hand clenched, feeling Gnome's agony well up inside him; with that he began to march out of the cafeteria, leaving Patty behind. He didn't care what it took.....He would turn this base upside down and inside out to find anything that could be considered useful. Any data at this point...Anything at all. Gnome would feel his determination; he would clear her mother's name. No matter what it took, he was determined to prove Gia was an innocent victim in all of this. All this time, Gnome had done so much for him and he'd hardly given back to her. Well, now would be his chance.

He went from building to building, not really caring about being found anymore; any doors that were too stubborn to move without Earth power quickly found themselves obliterated, crumpled and smashed out of the way. The power was dead, so no alarms would trigger, but he was making one hell of a racket as he visited the Head Researcher office, scientist and soldier barracks, research laboratories and other various buildings. His searching turned up nothing at first; however, with each building visited, he crossed them off with visible "X"s on the front so as to remember which ones he eliminated. Eventually he would come to a heavily reinforced steel door; this was the only one he hadn't visited yet. A keypad sat to its right; however, Sam had little patience to play guessing games with the passphrase.

Rock formed around his right hand, coalescing and condensing into a super-sized extension of his right hand. The rocky digits clenched as he pulled fist back and drilled it hard into the panel; nothing. He did it again, still nothing; he felt himself growing aggravated, even more than he currently was now. His strikes became uncharacteristically violent and powerful, but even his best efforts only served to ding the hyper-strength surface; eventually after a short while of doing this, he quickly became fatigued, having used up a sizable portion of his own reserves in his recently heavy use of Earth elemental power. One final strike served to shatter his Earth fist, forcing him to lean against the door for support with his brow dripping sweat, his unprotected fist banging weakly against the door, his voice weakly uttering, "Come on.......come on.....break.....break.....Bend....do..something".
 
By then, Gnome had once again appeared beside her contractor, her small hands wrapping around his human fist which had been encased in stone just moments before, pressed against the firm, unmovable steel frame. Visible tears were pooling at the edges of her eyes, but refused to run down her fair cheeks and stain her hooded robe. She forced a smile to gently curve her lips as she drew herself close and kissed the back of his hand, gently rubbing his skin with her fingertips, "Its ok, Sam... Please, don't tear yourself up about it..."

"I'm fine, see?" Gnome gave him another slightly wider smile, but her entire body was quivering with unbearable grief, "So, please stop this... It must be some mistake. Perhaps Patty was just locked up inside that place for too long and didn't know what was going on. It can't be right... Why would she do something like that? Its silly to even consider it."

The earth spirit made an effort to laugh, but it sounded more like coughs, "She's still alive, I know it... Mother was kind, and gentle... She never caused any harm to anyone for as long as I knew her. That's one of the reasons why Father loved her so much, because he knew she would never do anything wrong or betray him. It can't be true... It can't be..."

Unable to bear it any longer, she threw herself against Sam and began to cry uncontrollably, streams of tears running down her cheeks and soaking into his robes. Her hands gripped his clothing tightly as if fearing that he would draw away from her, at this moment when she needed him the most. She wanted him to say something to her that would help drive away her fears that what the fairy had said was true. Could Gia, her own mother, have really done such a thing? It seemed unthinkable, and yet for all the years that she had known Patty she had never heard her tell a single lie. Sure, fairies were very playful folk, but they never used lies to stir up trouble or distress in others, let alone someone like Patty who had cared for her on occasion when Gnome was just an infant.
 
(Aww, man, now I feel bad :()

Sam paused, feeling a gentle set of hands grab his own; he turned to see Gnome, brimming on the edge of sadness. Even as she tried to convince him verbally that she was fine, that nothing was wrong, her body and emotions were in tune with his own; he could tell when she was lying. And he was about to call her on it too, before she did it for him; he started as she fell into him, the tears from her sorrow staining somehow the fabric of Vivian's Sea Bishop husband robes. Her relatively dainty hands maintained a firm grip on him, not that he was trying to shake her off or anything. He wouldn't be so cold and heartless towards someone so torn, so divided on such a sensitive issue.

Soon enough, his arms wrapped around her, holding her close to him as he gently stroked her hair; he realized that he wasn't helping the issue in the slightest by getting so worked up. But he hated seeing Gnome sad; here he'd promised himself to make sure she wouldn't be sad or lonely again, and yet here she was, bawling her eyes out because that damn fairy opened her mouth. She could have said no and flown away, Sam thought in a heated mood. But he took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down; he had to be strong right now. Not just for himself, but for Gnome.

Then as if to complicate matters, Terra began to cry, sensing the severe anguish coming from her mother. The blanket-wrapped child appeared in Sam's arms, her face all scrunched up; now he had two sources of sorrow to contend with. He had to pause lest he drive himself mad; he decided quickly that first things first, Gnome needed to be calmed down. Then Terra would calm down too. "Gnome....Gnome....My darling Gnome.....Listen to me" he then said to her, trying his best to keep his voice level and calm so as not to distress her further. When she did, he kissed her on her forehead, looking into her beautiful eyes, "I wish I could make this all just go away....I don't like seeing you upset. And neither does our beloved daughter"

Sam held the crying Terra firmly yet gently in one arm, letting the elemental see the bundle of joy that they had created, hoping it would remind her of who and what she was. "I promise, Gnome......Whatever happens, we'll get to the bottom of this. We'll find out what happened....Together."
 
"I'm... I'm sorry, Sam," Gnome sobbed, wiping her tears away with her sleeves, "Its not just about my mother. I love her dearly and I miss her more than anything, but when I think of what Patty said happened, I can't help worrying that I might fall down the same path. When we were fighting that man, at the centaur camp, I realized the lengths to which I would go to protect you as well as our daughter. I fully intended on kill him, on breaking apart anything that might threaten those I care about... I love you so much that it hurts, Sam!"

She reached out and took Terra up into her arms, gently stroking their daughter's face, "Please, Sam... Tell me that you will love me, no matter what I may become or what we discover to be the truth about my mother."

Gnome took some deep breaths, managing to collect herself to some degree although her body was still slightly shaking. She whispered in a strange language to their daughter, holding her gently in her arms as she rocked her back and forth to calm her down as well. The earth spirit's maternal instincts had been triggered, it seemed, and she gave her daughter a genuine smile to reassure her that everything was alright. She began to sing a pleasant song, just as a distant tinkling sound echoed throughout the hall.

Patty peered out from behind a corner at the three of them and gasped, not realizing that Gnome was a mother as well... But held her peace least her presence drum up undue distress on the young family which had just started to recover from the shock her words had instilled in them.
 
Sam just held Gnome closer as she spoke, giving her his body as a source of strength; he knew all too well what it was like to miss someone close to the heart. "There's nothing to apologize for, my beloved". As she sang to Terra, Sam decided to try to help put her at ease even more, "Gnome, if it helps you in any way, when that man hit you..." He ever so lightly touched the faint bruise on her cheek, continuing, "When he hurt you as you protected me...I felt something inside snap. I too was willing to kill him, to end his miserable existence for marring your indescribable beauty. But I hit him too hard and sent him flying out of the range of my fury. But now I think he knows not to mess with us".

He then smiled at her and cupped her chin in his fingers gently, lifting her eyes up to look at him, smiling at Gnome as he tightened his grip on his lover slightly, "I promise, Gnome.....No matter what happens, no matter what obstacles life may throw at us, our love will be indestructible. No force on Heaven or Earth can break it, Gnome.....That is my solemn vow."
 
(aw... I love sweet SamxGnome moments :3)

"Thank you... That means more than anything else in the world to me," Gnome smiled brightly and leaned up to peck Sam on the lips, Terra calming down soon afterward, "Please let our love be forever."

Beep

The earth spirit suddenly realized that someone was pushing the keypad, and for some reason it had power running through it... Just what would cause such a thing to occur? Who else could possibly be here? She looked around a bit but didn't notice anyone right away, other than Patty that is...

Beep beep beep

Sure enough, the small fairy was literally punching in the buttons to the keypad, an aura around her supplying power to the circuits to make them run. Gnome mentally smacked herself in the face, realizing that Patty knew all the pass-codes to the labs since she used to work there as one of the lab assistant's familiars, and could probably help them get the place up and running at least temporarily. She had been so upset at what she had told them that she had not even considered asking for her help.

"I'm sorry about all that, alright?" Patty sighed, leaning against the door slightly as the large metal locks unfastened. The door let out a deep, reverberating groan as it opened, like the maw of a great sleeping iron giant. The inside of the room was dimly lit, but when patty flew inside the stale-smelling room the lights began to flicker to life.
 
(D'awww.....me too :D)

Just as Sam was about to reaffirm Gnome's assertion about their eternal love, the beeping consumed his conscious. "What the...." he started to say, but soon saw the little fairy punching in numbers on the keypad. "Wha...How are....." he started to ask; however, the doors to the room creaked and groaned before sliding open noisily, revealing the same empty interior as the other buildings he'd crashed through in a vain attempt to find answers. "Well....I suppose I can't be too mad at you....I am the one who pushed for the answers after all" he replied to her apology; he soon followed her inside, the little fairy seemed to possess quite an amount of power.

However, as they went further in, Sam found what he was looking for: This was the main data room, where backups of research reports were sent. He knew this because the main UniTravel Industries R&D building had a set-up just like this. The fairy's power wouldn't be enough, however, not to run all these terminals. "Alright" Sam mused out loud; he felt relieved that something from his old life would finally be useful. "This type of building would have a secondary and tertiary generator that delivered power to this building only; if we can find those, we can access the data on the terminals. Maybe we'll find something useful here..." His fingers tapped together as he thought of where the generators might be; however, it had been so long that he only remembered there potentially being generators in the building itself, not where they were exactly.

"Excuse me, Patty, but you wouldn't happen to recall where the generator room might be, would you? If I can get those online, then we can crack these data towers wide open" he then asked the small fairy; of course this was based on the assumption that the towers themselves hadn't corroded from lack of maintenance. Then again, these rooms were often designed to seal hermetically in case of catastrophe, to aid recovery efforts later down the line. The staleness of the air in the room - which was almost overpowering for Sam - told him that this place had been sealed up tight as a drum for some time now, so it was likely the towers were in good condition to operate.
 
"Well, the thing is... This place was the newest of the research facilities so the generators were somewhat unconventional in their placement. the humans were beginning to get a bit uneasy about our kind, and placed them deep in the basement level. They should be still in perfect order, since the place sealed itself up when it locked down during the last attack... but I'm unable to get through those doors. They never told me the access codes and if I turn the power on there the anti-monster barriers will just activate," Patty replied in a weary grumble, "They don't harm monsters, but we can't pass through them... So unless you find one of the techs that used to work around here, I don't think we could get the generators moving again. Considering how long its been since then, I really doubt that is an option."
 
Sam breathed out a sigh of disappointment; well, that was going to be a bit of a setback. No, he needed to be strong about this; he then said to Patty, his tone confident, "That's fine......As long as you can give power to the access computer for the generator room, I can run a bypass and get us in that way". Of course, that would be dependent on what model the computer was; but many of them used fairly similar coding structures. A structural vulnerability, perhaps, but only if one was intimately familiar with computerized systems; thankfully, his time in designing and working with computer engineers at UniTravel gave him the experience he needed to overcome this obstacle. It would just have to come down to hope that he could recall enough of it to hack the computer and get them access to power on the generators.
 
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