Author's Note: Okay, this is more of a flashback chapter, but next one we will be back in Gaia! And boy oh boy,does shit go down in Gaia! Anyway, here we see more of who Dante is, and how he is, as well as his relationships in his past world. Of course, this is not the last flashback, there will be more! I feel we can see more of Dante's personality that way, so bear with me! Thanks for reading, enjoy!

The cold wind bit into my face as I climbed higher and higher into the crisp blue sky.

"C1! It's almost time to go back!" Sasha's voice sounded clearly through my earpiece.

I looked down to a little black speck flying below me.

"Ok, let's go then," I spoke into my mouthpiece, and stopped my climb. I looked at my wrist mounted display. 3 km in the air. No wonder I was having trouble breathing! At least it was a new record. I would get a lot of credits for this! It had been about 8 years since we left the Hospital Branch. We were now 12 years old, and studying at a second year high school level. I was the best in the School, be it in studies, or in combat, or overall success of tests. I tucked my wings close to my body, and hung in the air for a second. Then gravity took hold, and I began to free fall. The special mask wrapped around my face did little to fight the biting wind, but I still dove face first regardless.

"WOOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!"

"Dante, you dumbass! You can't dive from that high! Your wings will rip from their sockets!" I could barely hear Sasha as the wind whistled past my face, and my ears popped. I whipped past Sasha, C2, C3, C4, A1 and the rest of her team as I plummeted to earth. The monitor beeped, and I could hear an automated voice saying through my earpiece, "1.5 km, 1 km, 950 m..." 

At 800 m, I slowly began to unfurl my wings.

-Steady, steady...- 

I fought the wind, straining to find a balance between the wind resistance and the output of my own strength to open my wings. If I opened too quickly, my wings would tear out of their sockets, but if I opened too slowly I would crash into the hard ground. My muscles strained, my joints creaked, until finally, at 100 meters I opened my wings completely. I let myself slow to a steep glide, and let my large, bat-like wings catch the air. I floated to a stop in the back lawn of the School, landing lightly on my feet. The Principal was there to greet me in his black suit and red tie, sunglasses on his face, bald head gleaming in the sun.

"C1, did you just dive from 3 km?"

"Yes, sir," I said, folding my wings close to my tight-fitting, modified Syndicate special forces suit. 

"Marvelous! And you feel no discomfort at all?" The Principal asked me eagerly.

"No, sir."

"Truly amazing!" The Principal grinned. "The Director will be very pleased to hear of your improvements. For this, you shall receive 2,000 credits." He tapped a few buttons on his own wrist-mounted display and turned on his heel and walked off. 

"Da-zzz-okay?" Sasha's worried voice trembled and buzzed from my earpiece.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What's taking you guys so long?"

"We-zzzz-down. Stay-zzz! I'm-zzzz-your dumb ass!" A1 shouted at me through the earpiece.

I chuckled and lay down on the grass. It was a Sunday, so we had the day free after our daily wing training. Other than us from the C experiments, there was one other flying group of survivors, with avian wings instead of bat wings. The A series of experiments. A for Avian, C for Chiropteran. There were other experiments, of course. Prehensile tailed groups, psychic groups, lupine groups, snake groups, even a starfish group! Those guys could regenerate their freaking limbs! I didn't like socializing with the others, though. I was the only one who was made to be like this. Only three of the others were born with their modifications, like me, so the only ones I really talked to was Sasha, Claire (A1), Daniel (Tk1) and Horace (L1). Other than Sasha, these guys were the only ones who were born in test tubes with their abilities fully developed. All the other attempted 1's from the other groups died. As I lay in the grass, I dozed off a bit. I woke up when I heard the heavy flapping of wings and was buffeted by violent gusts of air. I opened my eyes and stared at the nine figures descending from the sky. Sasha was the first to land, and rushed at me with open arms.

"Dante! I was so worried! Why did you dive like that? You could have died!" She hugged me tightly, and I felt her well-developed chest through the skintight suits.

-Hohoho, my little Sasha, you've been developing quite nicely!-

Claire (A1), seeing my lecherous grin, smacked my head and tugged Sasha away from me.

"What, you want a hug too?” I asked, smirking slightly.

"No, you idiot! That was for scaring us all, and for that look in your eyes when Sasha hugged you!" Claire snapped at me, pink tinting her pale cheeks. 

Sasha looked up at her quizzically.

"What look?"

"Nothing, Sasha! Don't mind me. Just don't hug him that hard in that suit again!”

-Aww, ruin a young boy's dream, will you?-

The others chuckled, and headed back inside to the dorm wing of the School.

"Well, I guess we should go get changed, right? What about we go have lunch at the Village today! I got 2,000 credits from today, so let's go spend some!" 

Claire ruffled her black feathered wings down and thought for a moment. Then she agreed.

"I'll go get Dan and Horace after you two are done changing. Call us as soon as you're done!" Claire bid us farewell, and Sasha and I walked to the C dorms. 

"Dante, what do you think the tournament between us C series is going to be?” Sasha asked me with curious eyes. The Director had announced that all series will have a competition between other members of their series in two years, and told us to train hard in our fighting styles. The prize was supposed to be something good, so I was looking forward to it.

"Ah, don't worry about it, it's still in two years! Though it was strange that he asked us to master our fighting by then. Maybe it's a combat tournament?"

"You think so?" Sasha shuddered. "I hate those! I always get beaten up!" She clung to my arm.

"Haha! Don't worry, I'll protect you!"

"Really?"

"Yeah of course!"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"After all, I love you," I muttered under my breath.

"What was that?"

"Ah, nothing! Let's hurry up, I'm starving!"

After we got changed, I sent a message to Claire through our wrist displays. These wrist displays monitored our health, allowed communication, access to the School network, displayed our position, and was were we got paid in credits by the School to spend at the Village. We met at the entrance to the Village. Daniel was Tk1, a natural-born telekinetic, and Horace was L1, a natural-born wolf-boy, or Lupine experiment. Horace had wolf ears and a wolf tail, he was of course faster and stronger than most humans his age, and his sense of smell and hearing were extremely good! They were about five times better than mine, and seven times better than a normal human! He could even smell better than a lot of dogs!

“Well, you sure took your time! What were you doing in there together, huh?” Horace grinned at me, revealing his sharp teeth.

“Ah, we weren’t doing anything! I was just choosing what to wear…” Sasha said quickly, blushing slightly and gesturing to her short black skirt and light blue shirt. Her hair flowed freely down her back.

-Jeez, you don’t have to deny it so vehemently!-

I pouted a bit at how quickly she denied anything. Of course, what she said was true, but she didn’t have to deny it so strongly…

Claire smiled at us. She was wearing a long blue skirt and a white shirt. Her dirty blond hair was pulled into a ponytail and hung to her shoulder. 

“Hey, let’s get going! I’m hungry, and I got 800 credits from disassembling and dissecting that rat in under fifteen minutes, so I have money to spend!” Dan said impatiently, flipping his fair hair from his eyes. Since he was Tk1, he naturally had the most skill in controlling his power.

“Hah! Only 900 credits? Come on man, step up your game! I got 1300 credits for smelling out and hunting down a tiger in the forest!” Horace grinned, teasing Dan and flexing his large biceps.

“Oh, you pitiful creatures. So poor! Guess I’m paying tonight! Well, can’t help it if I’m just that awesome,” I smirked, raising my head at them. “I got 2000 credits today from diving 3 km and landing safely!”

“WHAT! 2000 CREDITS! LEMME SEE!” Dan and Horace rushed to my wrist display, urging me to show them the money. I complied, and opened up my recent deposits.

“HOLY SHIT! The Principal likes you too much, man! That isn’t fair!”

“Ugh, guys! Let’s go already! I’m hungry! Let’s eat at the pasta place!” Claire grabbed Sasha’s arm, dragging her along, and we entered the Village. That night, we had a feast! I even managed to waste almost 900 credits on a single meal for five! But it was worth it. Dan left first, saying he had to go meditate and rest as part of his training. Because his ability dealt with the mind, it was extremely important for him to rest and meditate. Horace and Claire stayed for a little while with us, enjoying the stars and sweet drinks and deserts. Horace left after about an hour, when the full moon began to climb higher in the sky. We laughed, knowing he was embarrassed about his inexplicable urge to howl at the moon. He left, blushing slightly after he had howled loudly at the moon and attracted the attention of other lingering students. Claire left a little while later, saying she was tired. As she was leaving, she winked knowingly to Sasha, and left us alone under the full moon that was at its peak. We were sitting on a hill by then, side by side. The night air was relatively warm, and the sky was clear, cloudless. The stars were shining very brightly. I looked at Sasha, her face illuminated by the bright moonlight. I stared at her face, entranced by how she looked under the moonlight. Sasha suddenly turned to me, blushing slightly.

“W-want to fly around a bit? It’s nice out tonight,” she said, looking straight into my eyes, capturing me with her beautiful glimmering grey eyes. And how could I refuse when she looked at me like that? I nodded slightly, too entranced to speak. I didn’t know what was happening! Maybe the moon, the stars, the warm breeze, my adrenaline filled day, had caused me to feel this. But, in all honesty, I had always liked her. She was my light, my life, my savior in such a dark place… Without her, I probably would have become a machine, devoid of emotion, just like what the Syndicate wanted. But… She defied them by being my friend. She defied them by making me feel love. All our cloths were modified to allow our wings freedom, so I slowly spread my wings. We looked at each other, and took a running start. Soon, my wings had caught the wind, and I was in the air, flying low and slow under the night sky. We began to climb higher and higher, close enough to each other that our wing tips almost met. Her movements were still somewhat clumsy, but the pale skin of her wings seemed to shine in the moonlight. She had wings of light. Soon, the ground was far below us, and the temperature had dropped quite a bit, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to fly with her forever, stay with her. We floated in the air for a bit, facing each other. I just couldn’t take my eyes off her! She enchanted me! She was my angel.

“I love you!” I couldn’t help but blurt out suddenly. This girl had been with me for most of my life, we had supported each other for all these miserable years! She made my heart beat in such a way, I almost couldn’t breath. Her eyes suddenly teared up, and she held out her arms to me. Then, she folded her wings in, and let herself plummet to the ground.

“Wait, Sasha, what are you doing!” By now, she was a considerable distance below me, so I folded my own wings and dove after her. The cold wind rushed past my face, and I could see her eyes were closed as she fell back.

“SASHA!”

I was like a bullet, dropping as fast as I could. My blood was pumping so hard, I felt my heart would burst! I was getting closer… Closer… Closer… I reached my hands out to her and controlled my dive using my body, in order to soften the impact between us. We were 500 meters from the ground, and falling fast! I hugged her close to my body, and slowly began to open my wings. I remembered what I had done today, and followed my actions accordingly. My muscles strained against the wind, and we fell closer and closer to the ground. 300 meters, 250 meters, I could feel the strain on my wings as I tried to stop two bodies from smashing into the hard earth at near terminal velocity. At 100 meters, I finally managed to open my wings to a certain extent, slowing us down considerably, but it was still too fast. So I pointed my feet down and held Sasha in a princess carry. I flapped my wings desperately, yet careful not to dislocate or tears them from their sockets. I landed on the grass with Sasha in my arms, staring up at me with tears in her eyes.

“I’m so happy.”

“What?”

“I’m so happy you love me. I love you too.”

Then she wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled her face to mine, and kissed me passionately. Her lips were sweet, her cheeks salty from her tears of joy, and I kissed her back with all my feelings, all my love. We stayed there for a while, under the bright sky full of stars and a beautiful, full moon.

===========

I woke up lying on the grass, under my blanket. It had been nearly a week since we left the Greattree village, and we were now a day's walk away from Pan, the capital of Sylva. The girls were still sleeping peacefully a little ways away. We had stopped in a small clearing, and I could see the stars in the clear sky, and a full moon hanging overhead.

"Shit. I thought the memories were finished already. At this rate... Damn, I’m gonna relive that torture.”

I lay back down and realized I was leaking tears.

"Why do I have to relive that hell? Why? Those memories… Fuck.”

I wiped my tears away and stared at the full moon and bright night sky.

"Sasha..." I whispered, and I slowly fell back to sleep.