Guardian Angel

"I'll be there watching from way up high, the shadow you can't see when the suns in the sky"

- the song "Guardian Angel" by Abandon all ships

Nemophila sighed, she stood in the middle of what was once a warehouse full of criminals and now contained nothing but a mess of tables and piles of bodies. Laranja looked stood up after searching what was the mob boss’ suit for something. “Hey Aran,” Nemophila turned to a now standing Laranja, “Can I ask you what we do as hunters and huntresses?”

“Nene,” Aran throw a pair of dog tags and caught them in one hand, “I thought you were smarter than that. You know that we fight using our combat capabilities to protect humanity. We’re trained to fight those who would harm everyone else.”

“So we go out and ‘hunt’ Grimm like our title implies since normal people can’t do it. Makes sense I guess. Its also why we hunt down criminals and terrorists like these guy right?’, Nemophila pointed to a pile of bodies in the corner of the warehouse, “They kill people and bomb stuff. They cause havoc and destruction to the innocent people we’re sworn to protect, thus we’re destined to fight them since we are the protectors of the right and just.”, Nemophila slapped her hand onto her face like she just had an epiphany, “We kill them so they don’t kill other people. We just commit crimes in the name of justice for the greater good.”

“Hey, Nene-”, Laranja had a worried look on his face but was ignored by his partner.

“We’re not much better than these fuckers aren’t we? Somewhere by we all just decided that killing them was the best way. No trails, no second chances, no rehabilitation, we just slaughter them using our incredible weapons and super-powers. It saves money and time I guess, no legal limits to hold us back! I’m amazed that everyone thinks legal mass murder is the best way to do shit around here, its to a point where I even think its the best way.”

“Nene.”, Aran slowly walked towards the raging girl.

“It all equates to mass-murder having the best results! Crimes are at an all time low because of this and I ashamed that I was happy with the results. It must be that killing loads of people is the best way to uphold justi-”

Laranja put his hand on Nemophila’s shoulder and asked, “Nemophila, how long has it been since you took your meds?”

She looked confused, “Meds? what meds? Is there something wrong with me?”

Her partner nodded as she searched her bag and pulled out a white-capped, orange bottle with little snow white pills inside of it.

“T-This was in my bag... I have to take it atleast once a day and its been a few... so I guess...”, Nemophila opened the bottle and dumped a few pills into her mouth and gulped them down with water.

“Whoo... that wasn’t so bad.”, Nemophila’s mood changed as she laughed and said, “Thanks Aran. Aran?”

She looked around in a frenzied panic shouting for her partner saying “Aran, we have to stick together, we’re a team.” before remembering, “Oh yeah... I forgot....”

She slumped down and looked at the ceiling, “Aran isn’t here anymore, neither is Aernin or Rihou. They’re all gone... I’m the only member of this team left.”

She planted her face in her hand, “Dammit, remember your meds Nemo, hallucinations are bad and you know that.”

She moved to put her meds back into her bag before seeing something on the ground. It was a pair of dog tags. The same dog tags her hallucinated-Laranja was holding. They definitely weren’t there before and she leaned over to pick them up. Their coldness melted into her hand as she rubbed her fingers over the letters that spelled “Larnja K. Heckler-Cuprum” followed by her deceased partner’s info. She thought they couldn’t be real, Aran died with his dog tags and his body was never found, but yet she let herself believe they were real and continued to press her smooth fingers across it. She stopped when it listed his semblance, “Guardian Angel” and smiled with a small tear escaping her eye, “You always said you would never leave my side didn’t you you dummy?”

She picked up the dog tag that appeared out of nowhere it seemed and hung it around her neck right next to her own dog tags. She walked out of the warehouse and stepped into Vale’s night sky. Her mission was done, she had eliminated all threats in the area just in time to see it start to snow. She had lost count of the days and just remembered that the Winter Festival was coming up soon and she planned to go.

Nemophila stopped walking down the pavement and drew both her and Laranja’s dog tags, cupping them into her hands and breathing on them as if it would do anything. She sensed something and turned around on the stop and saw Laranja on the roof of the warehouse, crouching there in his long white trench coat that never really fitted him in Nemophila’s eyes and swords held in an X-shape.

He jumped down from the roof with a flip for style and walked up to the last member of his team and said, “I never left you Nene.” and went in for a kiss. Nemophila closed her eyes and went into but her lips weren't met. It was just another hallucination of Laranja. She sighed a decided a kiss on his dog tags would be good enough. “Promise to never leave me, kay?”, she whispered into the bits of metal in her hands before letting them go and walked back to downtown Vale where she was awaiting her warm bed and possibly a good book.

And as if the heavens heard her, she thought she hear the voice of Laranja say “Till’ death do us apart, and even then I’ll still be watching over you, love.” Nemophila looked up at the shattered moon and said, “Damn I hate hallucinations.”, taking an extra pill from her bag, “If only they were real.”