Elizabeth and the girls sat in the waiting room of the Spacelab in Düsseldorf. Never mind the fact they were back home--what all mattered to them when the men they loved were at the mercy of the Creator above? Each other? Of course, but they would be alone. And considering that they were now at home in Düsseldorf, given all the emotional torments they suffered at the hands of men that could've cared less, if the guys died... then what?
"Florian... please tell me you're alright" she begged her beloved as the train swiftly made its course for home. But the Roboter, in his weakened state, could only open his eyes and smile sadly.
"Florian... Florian, please tell me you're alright..."
But he said not a word as his eyes closed and his skin went cold.
"Florian...!?" she whispered, then looking to the other girls feared the worst of the matter. Tears spilled from her eyes, all hope was lost. Finally she looked at the lifeless face of the only man she ever loved... and cried in inexplicable despair.
"FLORIAN!!"
Her eyes reopened, the memory of the fight of the century, the fall of the courageous running through her mind. She looked to her best friend, then to her neighbor, and finally to her younger sister. They all were silent, somber. Professor Henning had advised the girls to wait in the waiting room while the guys recovered--if there was any possible chance of recovery. Quietly, and fed up, she stood up and straightened out her skirt, wiped a few tears from her face, and looked to the other girls.
"Anneke... Rebekah... please look out after Johanne," she instructed.
"Where are you going, Elibeth?" her best friend asked.
"I'm going to cry over a dead soul."
With that she quietly found Florian's room and, as she entered it, closed the door. She went to his bed and, sitting down at the side, looked him over, her eyes taking in the sight of her true love--wires attached to machines at one end, his body at the other. Wounds slowly healing, cuts and scars from the final fight.
"...my God" she whispered, "what has this all done to you?"
Closing her eyes for a moment, she recalled their first staring contest, fearing that she'd never see the blue eyes that challenged her green eyes boldly...
Elizabeth and KW070447 kept their eyes on each other for a while. Finally she spoke. "You know, I'm not one for staring contests."
"Neither am I, liebling," he replied with a polite smile.
"You must be our guardians on the Trans-Europa then" she said. He nodded in reply, took his hand in hers, and kissed it.
"I am Florian" he spoke, his kind gaze now fixed on hers. She smiled.
"Elizabeth Korinn" she introduced herself, then looked to her sister and KW200846. "And over there... my sister Johannes, who was born blind." Florian nodded in acknowledgement, still holding her hand.
She reopened her eyes, drowning in the memory, fixing them to her dying friend.
Taking his hand in both of hers, she kept his eyes on his calm yet lifeless face. For the first time in her life, worse than the death of her parents, she truly felt alone in the world, unable to go any further. She felt unable to stand strong as she once used to.
For the first time in her life, it was as if life was no longer livable.
"Florian," she spoke softly, "I know you can't hear me... yet I only wish you could. I really wish you could hear me, I really just..." For the moment the words died, and all she could do was sigh for a moment before speaking again.
"We're home... in blessed Düsseldorf yet... I am not happy to be home. I don't know if it is even worth returning home anymore. If anything is of any worth. It just...
"This life just doesn't feel so livable anymore."
Closing her eyes again she recalled their first night in Paris, when they had an argument over her fear that the Darkstrom would find them and destroy them all. They argued now and then over that dark and violent fear, but he understood where she was coming from--that she had watched her parents die in the hands of darkness, with no way to help her younger sister whatsoever. But her concern to look out after others were cause for unnecessary verbal fights as well, as she recalled their first night in Venice...
Fed up with his tendency of silence he finally stormed up to her and stood in front of her. She fixed her gaze to his eyes, which was in the meantime fighting tears.
"...Elizabeth, I'm sorry."
"...for what, Florian?" she asked quietly.
"For... for being the bastard that I shouldn't be" he answered, lowering his head. "I didn't mean to push you away and snap at you and act the way I did. I was wrong to do that. And...
"and I'm truly sorry. I just... I just don't deserve you."
Elizabeth blinked and tried to look him in the eyes. "--what?" she whispered.
But Florian shook his head. "Really, Elizabeth... I just... I didn't mean to hurt you the way I did. I...
"I knew better than to have acted like that--and even Ralf knows me damn well I would never do that. Hell, if he heard about what I did today he'd sock me in the jaw and scold me half to death. And I damn well deserve that but..." Finally the words died. "Damnit to hell, I don't know what else to say. I'm miserably in love with the one woman I acted so coldly to. I'm..."
The young woman blinked her eyes at what she was hearing. This wasn't the Florian she knew, who kept quiet about his feelings and often could've cared less about his actions. This... this was the Florian that not even Ralf would've seen.
"Florian..." she whispered, and with a sigh took his hand in one of hers and, with her other hand, lifted his chin so that their eyes met. What she saw had put her speechless--a small river of tears down each cheek, his face pale and filled with remorse. Her heart now broken altogether, she placed his face upon her shoulder, wrapped her arms around him, and consoled him as he wept silently in her arms. Now which pain was worse than enough for him to bear--the pain from the gunshot wound to his arm, or the pain of the heart that he unnecessarily broke?
With a sigh, she spoke again.
"Florian... for most of my life I've been watching out for Johanne, Anya and Rebekah. After the parents were killed it was us four looking out for us. We were captured, sent to Lisbon. Three years of hell later we meet civilization. We knew different people, we were different people then to now.
"But you... I never met anyone else like you.
"The very moment we fixed our eyes on each other I noticed... a sense of silence yet a sense of guardianship. And admiration--a strong sense of admiration.
"One that I... I guess I was a bit cowardish to show myself."
Time out--what was she saying!? Florian blinked for a moment, not believing his ears. Did Elizabeth mean to say that... she had fallen for him as well?
"I always enjoyed your company" she continued sadly. "And you always made sure I was alright, that I would be okay after an attack from the nightmare. You looked out for me when I had a tougher time to even consider looking out for myself when I was more concerned about the others.
"It hurts me even now to admit all this yet..."
...yet? he asked mentally, the tears escaping whatever was truly left of him until all that remained was in the safekeeping of the woman he loved.
She hugged him even tighter as she quietly confessed--
"...yet, I love you too dearly, Florian."
And quietly, she sobbed against his shoulder, her embrace even tighter as she whispered the three words over and over. The mensch-maschine was moved enough to embrace her just as tightly, knowing the pain in her heart was the same he'd felt in his own nerve.
"I am so sorry I hurt you, Elizabeth--" Florian started, but she quickly pressed a finger to his lips, her eyes finally meeting his.
"Really, you can call me Eliza, Florian" was her quiet answer.
The semi-human being was stunned beyond thinking--had her temper finally ceased to burn after all that had just happened? He could only think of one answer as he took a deep breath and, carefully holding her face in his hands, planted a bittersweet kiss on her lips. She blinked but for only a moment, then closed her eyes and smiled a tiny bit into the kiss.
"I... won't forget this" she whispered, remembering the feel of his warm lips against hers in that little kiss. She opened her eyes again and, with one hand, held his hand tightly against her own heart, her other hand carefully touched his cheek. He still felt terribly cold as if in death's final sleep, yet with some strange warmth to him. But the warmth meant nothing to Elizabeth as she ran her fingers along his silent lips. Tears fell down her cheeks again as she looked at him with longing eyes.
"Florian... take my soul with you, please. I love you too much to hurt this way... if you must die, so be it. Just... don't leave me here... don't leave me alone here.
"I can't survive this miserable world alone. Even if I had Johanne and Anneke and Rebekah... I still wouldn't have you. And at this point... you are the one person I'm holding on to the most.
"I don't want to live in this terrible world alone."
When he didn't respond she gave up on the whole matter and leaned over to sob against his chest as she had done many times before in her times of weakness. Holding herself tightly to him she cried the tears that she wouldn't ever tell her parents about if they'd still been alive. For her, losing the one she loved more than anyone else hurt her more than anything.
"Please... don't leave me in this world alone" she cried softly. "Don't... leave me... alone here."
Elizabeth woke up the next morning to dried tears, a warm hand against her back, another still gripping hers tightly. She still had more tears to cry--she'd cried them all night, and still more to spare. But something felt so strange--the hand she held tightly felt warm. She recognized its warmth, its familiarity. His hands were hers to hold, and she slowly turned her head to look into the eyes who'd watched her sleep in tragedy... only to awaken in mysterious hope.
"...Florian?" she whispered, unsure if she was still lost in sleep wide awake as ever.
"Yes, Shortcake?" he answered with a warm smile.
"You're... you're alive... right?"
"Yes, I am, Liebeling."
She blinked for a moment, then smiled softly, still crying the tears that now came in small streams. But Florian in all his love for her hugged her at the waist, moving her face closer to his. With one hand he dried the tears she cried, smiling all the more.
"Florian, you... you wouldn't leave me alone in this world... would you?" she asked in momentary hesitation.
"Never, not even if my wired soul was depending on it. My heart depends more on you, Eliza."
She smiled with a happy sigh, hugging him tightly when she noticed something new, something... special about him... that wasn't there before. She kept her ear against his chest, and tears of joy resumed falling from her eyes.
"What... what is it, Shortcake?" he asked with a slightly alarmed look.
"Your heart... is beating...!" she whispered with a smile. "Florian, you have a heart now!!"
He blinked--wait, a heart!? He put his hand to where his heart was and, behold! he felt a beating, living heart. He had survived the pains of the glitch attacks--he had truly become a Mensch-Maschine in its finest form.
"Wow... that's pretty damn good news!" he laughed gently. Then he took her face in his hands and pressed his forehead against hers. "And I promise, I won't ever leave you alone in this world. Not as long as you don't leave me alone in this world."
But Elizabet simply smiled, her pale-green eyes fixed to Florian's blue eyes. After a moment the two giggled again and she hugged him tightly, basking in the joy of being with him again.
"Sugarplum?" she spoke again after a moment of silence.
"Yes, Shortcake?" he responded.
"I love you" she whispered with a grin.
"I love you too" he whispered back with a kiss.
*writer's notes--memory excerpts are from Chapter 2 [We Are The Robots] and Chapter 13 [A Sense of Understanding].*
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