Before The Rebirth

Heading for New Pork

I was resting under a tree, Typhoon was off by my side, and "Brain", the little bird in a cage. I was looking at the clouds, and suddenly I remembered those moments with Claus resting under a tree looking at the clouds, talking about anything, reading fantasy books and taking naps; I missed him, I imagined how excited he would be if he had known that I had just tamed the most dangerous beast of all, I would have taken him for a ride with me on Typhoon all over the Island.

I got up to see if everything was ready to go, a Pig Mask soldier told me that it was almost time to go to New Pork. As I walked around waiting for everything to be ready, I felt that something strange was happening to my right leg; it was not moving, I tried to move it, but nothing; it had broken down. I then limped to the laboratory for Dr. Andonuts to repair it. I went into the lab to look for Dr. Andonut. I asked a soldier who was there and he told me that Dr. Andonuts was busy fixing the commander. I asked him if there was anyone who could fix my right leg that wouldn't move; the soldier inspected my leg and told me there was someone who could; then he took me to the door of the room where Dr. Andonuts was, the soldier told me to wait here, and he went into the room to talk to Dr. Andonuts, then the soldier came out of the room telling me that I had permission to come in. I entered the room, there was Dr. Andonuts and the commander on a stretcher, without his shirt on, surrounded by many tools repairing his robotic parts. I sat down in a chair and one of the lab workers started checking my leg; he grabbed screwdrivers, disassembling part of my leg, checking wires, etc; the repair was quick, then I listened to Dr. Andonuts said that the commander was almost ready; I could get up now and I went up a little closer to the stretcher and I saw him there, there were cables connected to his helmet; "He has just been in battle" said Dr. Andonuts, I was impressed. Dr. Andonuts said to me: "Don't touch anything, young lady". I stared at the commander for a while, then the commander opened his eye, slowly turned his head, looked at me and asked me, whispering, "What are you doing here?" I told him that my right leg had broken down and had been repaired, right here, and that I took advantage of the moment to visit him, and that I was not touching anything. He stared at me for a long time, then his gaze went down on my left arm, extended his hand a little and started to touch my robotic arm, I raised my arm a little and then he slid his hand towards mine; then the commander turned his head back to where it was before and closed his eye again; then I saw Dr. Andonuts, he saw the moment very moving. When the repair was completed, Dr. Andonuts told the commander that he was ready, that he could get up and leave; Dr. Andonuts left the room. The commander was sitting on the stretcher, I sat next to him, the masked man looked at my legs, put my hand on my right leg, slipped his fingers down my leg; I asked him if I could touch his helmet; the commander answered: "Do it Carefully"; I put my hand gently on his helmet. As I slid my fingers down his case, he looked up at me, I looked at him. Suddenly, I noticed a tear coming out of his eye. I was impressed; THE COMMANDER WAS CRYING?! I asked him if he was in any pain; the commander replied very quietly that he was not. He raised his hand and put it on my face, I moved my face slowly towards his, when our faces were almost touching, I thought he was comfortable enough, I put my lips close enough to his, and I began to kiss him gently; the amazing thing is that he did not move his face away from me. Then I asked him how he felt; he didn't answer. The commander got off the stretcher to get dressed, I came down too. Before I left the room I said: "Thank you for the rose, Commander, I won't tell anyone you gave it to me, ok?". Then I walked out of the lab with my leg fixed. I was still a little confused by that tear the masked man shed.

With several minutes to go before the ships took off, I was sitting around near the ships in a quiet place, watching as several soldiers walked from here to there arranging everything to leave, I was with one of my most valuable possessions, my synthesizing piano, I turned it on and started playing the musical piece "Gymnopedie no. 1". I didn't realize anyone, when I finished playing the piece, the commander was in front of me; maybe he heard the piece of music and it caught his attention. "You're as good as new!" I said. He came up to me saying we were about to leave, then he looked down at my instrument, I asked him if he wanted to try it, the masked man told me there was almost no time for that. Then a soldier appeared telling the masked man that they were having problems with an engine, the masked man said to repair it as quickly as possible. The soldier ran off to repair the engine. Then I asked the masked man if while the soldier was repairing the engine we had extra time for him to play the piano, the masked man thought and nodded. I lent him my synthesizer and he started playing the keys with one finger, I asked him if he wanted to play the piece "Gymnopedie no. 1" with me again, I told him which keys to play, he put the fingers of his left hand where I told him to play, he started playing when I told him, as I showed him at Club Titiboo. We spent some time with the synthesizer playing the piece until the soldier appeared telling the commander that the engine was repaired. The commander stood up immediately, told me it was time to leave and go to my ship.