Chapter 2:

The house was in ruins. Fire was still hot as it burned down the last pieces of the place. Elisabetta, unfrightened, ran inside the half destroyed door, just to look at that unpleasant scene.

But it was not what was gone that interested her. It was what was left. Or at least, what she was hoping to be left with.

"Where is it?!" She asked loudly. Not to Mark, but to the event that had happened.

She ran everywhere but couldn't find it, until, after stepping forward, she heard glass breaking. She had stepped on her most valuable picture, whose frame was still burning vividly.

The picture showed a 9 years old Elisabetta on the grass of mountain Fei in Xialand. But, in that picture, she was not alone. Behind her there were her father and her mother, both smiling at the camera. That was the only proof of their existence.

But the more she tried to stop the picture from burning, the more it did.

As the picture was now completely dissolved, Elisabetta knelt on the ground. Mark, watching this, soon came by her side to comfort her. However, unlike Mark had thought, Elisabetta did not kneel out of grieve, but out of relief.

"Look how beautiful this is!"

Just when Mark got closer Elisabetta lifted a vase in the air and showed it to him. The vase contained a well kept violet, which, unlike any other element of the building, was completely untouched.

"This is a violet my family and I took while hiking on Fei mountain 9 years ago. It's truly wonderful, isn't it?"

"Yes, it really is. Your parents have good taste, don't they?" Mark still hadn't realized that she was an orphan.

"Well yeah, they did when they were alive. Unfortunately they are not with us anymore, but they left plenty of beautiful things, such as this violet. See?"

"Oh. I'm sorry for..."

"Don't be always sorry, you did nothing wrong!"

"Well, anyhow," Mark, who had been used to ask for forgiveness at each little mistake in his life, changed the subject, "where do you intend to live now?"

"As of now, we should get back to the barracks. We are both soldiers so they should make us stay."

"Right."

Elisabetta took the vase from the ground and brought it with her. Mark let Elisabetta pass and walk in front of him. As he then started looking at her from behind, he felt so awkward. Not only had he tried to comfort her and failed, she didn't even need such help.

She gently opened the door of the car for Mark to enter. After some seconds, both were inside and they started their journey.

"I haven't said it already but..."

"Uh?" Elisabetta, who was amazed by the sight in front of her, was surprised by such a declaration.

"Thank you for sparing me." Mark concluded.

"Well, you were truthful after all. It was my job to help you, wasn't it?"

As he was sitting on the front seat, looking at mountains in front of them, Mark felt like a kid who was taking his first steps. It had been a long time since he had a sincere conversation with another person and he didn't know how to express himself at all.

On the other hand, though, Elisabetta had Mark's same initial conditions, and yet spoke so naturally, as if she was born to communicate with others.

Noticing this, a doubt came to Mark.

"Why did you become a soldier? With your flourishing charm you could have easily become a well liked teacher, or a respected manager, or..."

His ideas stopped there. And before he could come up with something else, Elisabetta responded.

"I know I don't look like a soldier at all, but there's a motive for it."

"A motive?" Mark asked

"Yes. All the other soldiers apply in the military for toughness, for the war, for the cruelty, for the challenge..." That was not fake at all. Many liked the tough atmosphere in the military barracks, the adrenaline that came once one had to go to battle. Elisabetta, however, did not relate to any of those, "But I do it for moments such as this. For those times where one can see tranquility among the chaos. I am a soldier who does not fight for war, but for conclusive peace."

Mark understood. When he was 10 and he had taken that path, he only accepted it because he thought that it was cool to be a spy, to control big mechas and execute strategies. As he grew up, though, he realized that there was nothing cool about it.

"And you..." Elisabetta was looking straight at Mark, once again that day, "are the proof of that."

It was long since someone had felt gratitude for Mark's existence.

"Therefore, thank you too, Mark." Elisabetta, after speaking out these words, turned her gaze back at the mountain formation, with an unrequested smile this time.

As soon as they got to the barracks they were welcomed to sleep and eat there. The place was smelly and in disorder. No one seemed to have taken care of it. No one saw it as special enough to do so. However, thankfully, Mark and Elisabetta would not have lived there for long.

The sun rose above the white mountains, as the night's cold air calmed down for a new start. Elisabetta, at the arrival of the light, woke up dizzy in the morning. Soon, she got up and woke up Mark too.

"Mark!" She called him.

He woke up, his vision blurry. The moment he was able to realize what was in front of him, his pupils delayed. He then got up and seated on the bed.

"Tonight I had a dream." She affirmed.

"What dream?"

"In that dream I fought and fought against a beast, but I never succeeded. In the end I died." She answered, "But then, I didn't wake up from the dream, there was no fear in my death."

"Hm?"

"After my death, I was reborn again. This time, though, I was not in the same place as before. It was a place full of trees of any kind and plenty of juicy fruits that I could eat freely. It felt like life was perfect again: no responsibilities, no work, only happiness and fun. As I had taken one of the peaches and decided to eat, I woke up all of a sudden."

"Well..." After listening and analyzing the story, Mark had thought of a basic conclusion that didn't go beyond the realms of logic, "It is said that dreaming of dying symbolizes a radical change. it may be because, from today, you won't live in your house anymore."

"Oh right, I know where we will be leaving from now on." Elisabetta changed the topic.

"Oh?" Mark, glad that the subject had been swapped, questioned her. What made him so grateful of the fact that they were not talking about dreams anymore was that, during that night, he had dreamt of her. It would have been a great embarrassment to reveal such a thing, especially because they had not even known each other for one day.

"From today we will be living together inside ZA-7! I will put the furniture inside, connect it to the robot's electricity and we will be fine. I don't even pay myself for the mecha's energies so we will be saving money too. Don't you see how beneficial this is?"

"Living inside a mecha?"

"Think about it! Living up there, above everything. The view will be amazing!"

"I guess that's right." Mark said, after carefully thinking about it.

They exited the barracks and went to the closest furniture shop. Mark had just been paid for his service as a spy, thus they had plenty of money for the expenses.

After a ton of work, also with the help of ZA-7's strength, all the furniture bought were firmly placed in order for them not to move inside the core room of the robot.

It had been a day of fatiguing movements and strengths, as they were completely tired. They were going to sleep again, on the cozy beds they had placed in the mecha's head themselves. Before Elisabetta and Mark could close their eyes, though, a communication via radio came.

"Nugany is invading us again. New order: defend the homeland. I repeat. New order: defend the homeland."

Everything, which was supposed to become serene, had just gotten a mood of agitation. Elisabetta stood up and ran to the control chair, while Mark headed to the elevator to exit the mecha and control one of his own. As he was getting on the platform, a voice stopped him.

"Don't go away, not now that we have gotten together! If you get control of one of the army's mechas, that will probably be destroyed by the enemies' unknown forces. The army of Nugany is not forgiving, after devastating your robot, it will also kill you next."

Mark knew this well. After all, he had been a spectator while the Nugan army was destroying Villetta's citizens and houses relentlessly and unreasonably. If they would have ever gotten the chance to eliminate him, there would have been nothing to do for salvation.

"You are right, Elisabetta. I'll make some coffee to fight tiredness." 

Sometimes, even the easiest things to do were the most effective. And this one was the case.

After some time a red point showed up on the digital map in front of Elisabetta: the battle was being fought in the militarized city of Yurlin, prefered by the military due to its hydric resources and its dam. Elisabetta started moving ZA-7 towards the danger, as she was sipping the coffee made for her.

As they were getting close and closer to the city, the smoke coming from it made the vision gray and blurry. Once again, the Nugan army had not spared the buildings and people. It was a ruthless disaster.

Thankfully, due to ZA-7's functions, the vision got clear again, creating a clear path for the mecha to fly through. What had been cleared, though, was not the path alone, but also the enemies at the end of it.

ZA-7 rushed rapidly towards the Nugan frontlines, smashing and debilitating the first 3 mechas. Elisabetta's mecha had far greater technology than any Mark had ever piloted before, making him think at first that her actions were a pure gamble. The realization of ZA-7's true power soon came though.

As Elisabetta was smashing more and more mechas, Mark was spectating the horror that had formed before their eyes when Elisabetta was not protecting the city. Before they had come, a theatre of fire and death had been created by the invasors. But now, it was their role to defeat the villain and come as saviours.

Elisabetta continued smashing and destroying mechas repeatedly. However, there was a difference between her and the enemies.

"Mark..." She called, "Do you know why I like mecha battles?"

"Uh? Why?" Mark, who had expected her to be focused on moving the mecha accordingly, didn't expect for a conversation to start.

"Because you can choose who to defeat." She responded. "In the past, a soldier, to be defeated, had to die, no matter what. But now, one can decide whether to hit the body or the head of the opponent's mecha. If you hit the mecha's body you are disabling them from moving and doing any harm: you are destroying the weapon. If you hit its head, though, you are destroying the person who is using that weapon, willingly or not."

Mark was left confused, but Elisabetta continued.

"That's why I am choosing to hit the mecha's body, because I believe that unlike the unhealthy weapons, what's inside the head can change for the better. People can always change!"

Saying so, ZA-7's sword penetrated 5 different mecha's bodies at once.

Watching this scene, Mark finally understood. Even when it's own mecha's head was being destroyed by ZA-7, the force that Elisabetta had put on that attack wasn't even a fraction of what Mark was watching her do now.

He understood that even though his mecha's head had been crushed by Elisabetta, it was not an attempt to destroy him, but to make him better.