//------------------------------//
// Chapter 133: Wings 
// Story: XCOM: Ranger 
// by Wanderer D 
//------------------------------//


Ranger


Chapter 133: Wings


By Wanderer D






"You what?" Alejandra's eyes were wide, her beak hanging open for a few moments before she found her voice again. "Galahad?" she whispered, not believing her ears.

"Last time I checked," the griffon said, walking up to study her wing. "Huh, bad damage… but it seems it was set properly, and taken care of. Once we're sure it'll hold, we should really start training you. From what I heard earlier from Rainbow Dash, you don't know how to fly?"

He turned to look at her and reared back in surprise. "Well, um, you don't have to take that personal, duckie, nothing to be ashamed of."

Alejandra didn't care that she was snotty and crying. "Y-you died. I saw you die!"

"I-what?"

Alejandra started shaking as memories flooded back. Galahad's body flying out of the truck and crashing onto the car behind it, just barely flying over Twilight's head.

The green goo splattered on the street, splashing all around them, melting the pavement and emanating green fumes. Monique's screams turning into gurgles as her face and most of her upper body melted into the floor. 

Galahad was not moving, Ndlovu ran out from behind the car where Galahad's body lay, shouting in defiance and shooting at the Assassin. 

The casual, almost completely uninterested way in which she had killed him, making Ndlovu's chest explode as the plasma from the Assassin's weapon tore into him. 

"Hey!"

"Aah!" Alejandra jerked in place as she was brought back to reality, wincing as pain flared through her whole body. "Gah! It hurts!"

"Easy, easy luv," Galahad ordered, holding her down. "You might be strapped in place by magic, but you can still make things worse if you're convulsing like that."

She forced her body to stop, closing her eyes and breathing slowly as her new body stopped trembling little by little. She gulped, taking a deep, calming breath and letting it out slowly before opening her eyes.

The other griffon smiled kindly. "That was quite the reaction."

"I'm okay now. You can let go."

She endured as Galahad looked deep into her eyes with his own, familiar ones, and nodded slowly, his grip relaxing as he stepped back.

"Aren't the guards coming after I shouted like that?"

"Maybe."

"Shouldn't you hide?"

"Nah, they know I'm here. I'm not trying to assassinate you."

Alejandra's prediction came true as one of the guards peeked inside, glancing suspiciously at the two griffons.

"My bad, good sir," Galahad said cheerfully, "I accidentally surprised our guest."

The guard raised an eyebrow, noticing Alejandra's matted feathers around her eyes, but when she nodded, he shrugged and left them alone.

"Bless them, they're so trusting." Galahad turned to face her. "Not that they have reason not to be, unlike us griffons, betrayal is highly unusual in pony culture."

Alejandra leveled him a look of grudging disappointment. "So we're not a race of honorable warriors dedicated to the glory of the empire?"

Galahad grinned. "Some of us, some of us not. Certainly not most of our kin from that ghastly place, Griffonstone."

"Yeah, I wouldn't know much about that place."

Galahad gave her look of amusement. "Why, my dear, you're missing out on the most perfid piece of despondent land in all of the continent! Why, the Grand Aerie of Raven's Peak is nothing, compared to it. Nothing, I say!"

"You're pulling my leg."

"What an odd expression," Galahad said. "Anyway, I am very sorry, I did introduce myself, but I did not, in fact, ask your name, duckie."

"Please don't call me duckie," she replied, shuddering, "brings back bad memories. My name is Alejandra."

"Huh," Galahad said. "Alejandra? Are you sure? Not… Galejandra? Glinda or Godiva? Or maybe Glimmy?"

"Who would name their kid 'Glimmy'?"

"No one sane, but I still hold to the unlikely hope that one day I will meet someone who will undoubtedly hate their parents for such a legitimate reason." Galahad pulled a chair and took a seat. "I never knew a griffon whose name didn't start with a G."

"It doesn't," Alejandra said. "Everyone here keeps insisting it should but it doesn't. In fact, if you insist on that, the G is silent."

Galahad raised his claws making calming motions. "I believe you duc—um..." He seemed to  be at a loss for a moment, then grinned. "Silent G."

Alejandra groaned. "Come on."

"It's a totally legitimate name for trained assassins!" Galahad insisted. "Some of the most legendary griffons and ponies in our secret history were named like that. Silent Claw, Silent Blade, Silent Jade."

"I'm not an assassin."

"Yet!" Galahad said, grinning. "Do you want to be one?"

"No?"

"Eh, you'll change your mind."

"So what are you really planning, Galahad?" Alejandra asked. "I recall that Sunset Shimmer once had a counterpart in my world, from what Twilight told me. So, if you're anything like what my Galahad was, you're not here just because a figure of authority asked you."

"Hm, curiosity, I was wondering if griffons from other worlds looked different," he winked. "They're as lovely as the ones here."

"Well, if there was any doubt that you're his double, it's gone now," Alejandra groaned.

"You don't happen to have a sister, do you?"

Alejandra's eyes narrowed. "No. And I'm not going to set you up with anyone."

Galahad. "Oh, well, I say! This other Galahad must've been quite the hit with the birds. But that's not why I ask, Silent G." He shrugged. "Luna also told me there were other versions of us flying around in the other world. Another Luna. Another Chrysalis. Another Me. And you look exactly like the older version of this young griffon I met once."

He glanced at the gifts and picked up a bag, glancing inside, and pulling out some chocolates. He popped one into his beak. "Now, you might say, that it's just a massive coincidence, but I doubt it. So no siblings?"

"Why are you so interested? Really? Because of another griffon you saw?"

Galahad shrugged. "I'm curious about you. I'm wondering if she's your counterpart. What would that actually mean… from what I hear none of the others have met their counterparts face to face."

"It's kind of a personal question."

"Personal space? That's more of a pony thing," Galahad said with a shrug. He raised the chocolates up, clearly offering one to her, but she shook her head. He shrugged. Popped in another. "Hmm. They make the best chocolate though."

Alejandra sighed, looking down at the calm room, the multiple presents, her current status. A man—griffon she thought dead. Another thought occurred to her. Maybe here things were different. Maybe here… she shook her head.

"Corran! Gabriel, protege a tu hermana y a tu mamá!"

"Papi!" Alejandra cried, her tiny hands grasping his pants.

The doors cracked, the windows exploded. She was swept up in Gabriel's arms, and they were running into the backyard. Shots in the distance. Screeches, screams. Male and female.

Falling, the world spinning.

"Metete ahi! Entre el carro y la pared! Ahí donde perdiste tu muñeca!"

"Gabby! Gabby!"

"No grites! Te van a encontrar!"

Screeches, clattering.

It was too long ago. Things that had been dead and buried for a long time, and had no place in her life anymore. It didn't even hurt, remembering that. She had been three… she didn't remember her parent's faces, or her brother's. Her only knowledge of them had been from her aunts and uncles, who had taken care of her away from the city when the police had contacted them.

Twenty years was a long time ago.

"I don't have any family."

He offered her some chocolate. Perhaps he had noticed the look on her face. Perhaps he could sense her distress, but he didn't say anything this time.

Alejandra looked at her tied down claws, then back to him, raising an eyebrow, then opening her beak.

Galahad chuckled, shaking his head. "Definitely taking you under my wing."


o.0.o End Chapter 133 o.0.o