Everything was white.

Snow was deep on the ground, and falling in enormous rippling windblown sheets.

As befits the concept of camouflage and mountain warfare, Sousuke's 'borrowed' Venom was white in color too, making it difficult to see as it plowed its way through the enormous drifts filling the valley.

Unfortunately, the enemy Arm Slaves were identical, making the deadly game they played extremely anxiety-filled. Due to the storm, none of the external locating devices would work. The radar was blinded, and the only thing that the external microphones could pick up was the constant howl of the wind. It sounded like the call of a pack of wolves.

Close the door, put out the light.
You know they won't be home tonight.
The snow falls hard and don't you know?
The winds of Thor are blowing cold.
They're wearing steel that's bright and true
They carry news that must get through.

They choose the path where no-one goes.

They hold no quarter.

The words to a song echoed through the young pilot's head, causing him to think back to simpler days, when he was a member of the SRT aboard Da Danaan. Kurz would blast his music. Melissa would treat the long-haired sniper like a punching bag. Sousuke would sit quietly and watch the antics of his teammates.

"I hope they are still alive," Sousuke muttered, rubbing his eyes. Strangely enough, he almost felt as if he was going snow blind, even though he had been staring intently at a view screen, not out through a window. It must be a psychological effect.

During his one man odyssey, he had been unable to find out anything definitive about Mithril. No one whom he had spoken with during his trek across Asia and Europe knew anything about Tessa, Kurz, Melissa, or any of the others. It had been hard enough piecing together information about Kaname.

"It's one more thing I owe them," Sousuke said, thinking about Leonard Testarossa and the ruling members of Amalgam. He had fought for revenge in the past. He could do so again. If his friends were dead, he would make certain to take some of the enemy down with him, before his own time was up.

His primary goal was something altogether different, however. Never before in his life had he fought for love. Until he had met Kaname… and come to treasure her… the idea of fighting for someone merely meant fighting for a comrade… a fellow soldier. He had been willing to give up his life numerous times in the past, party because his life had meant very little to him. He had been a feral animal, trying to survive. Today… in that desolate stretch of mountain… he wanted very much to live. If he died, there would be no way to bring Kaname home as he had promised.

Walking side by side with death, The devil mocks their every step
The snow drives back the foot that's slow, The dogs of doom are howling more
They carry news that must get through, To build a dream for me and you

They choose the path where no-one goes.

"I can't let the message get through." Sousuke clenched his teeth. Holding the Venom's feet in one specific manner, he was able to maintain the balance of the machine with an unbelievably deft touch, using the broad and flat surfaces like a toboggan as he surfed the A.S. down along one long steep slope. "This weather is more friend than foe…"

It was true. The storm was one of the greatest on record, and had knocked out communications systems and hubs throughout the afflicted countries of the Lapland region. Relay stations for satellite communications were bollixed, and the individual units for the Arm Slaves were hopelessly frazzled. At least for now.

His presence was no secret. Not after he had taken out three enemy machines in a brutal surprise attack. Rather than overwhelm him, a number of the enemy craft had taken off running, looking to bring word back to base. Their top order was to inform their leaders if and when they caught sight of a potential foe. He couldn't allow them to do that, and not only for his own sake. Snow storm or no snow storm, they would move Kaname again if they knew that someone had located her. He might never pick up clues of her location again.

Snow jumped off of a large stand of evergreens. Shots from a Gatling gun had just missed Sousuke's Venom, decapitating the stout and ancient trees. Causing the machine to make a prodigious leap, he quickly buried himself in a massive snow drift at the mouth of a nearby ravine. His hiding place could not be seen from the precise angle the enemy fire had come from.

They hold no quarter. They ask no quarter.
The pain, the pain without quarter.
They ask no quarter.
The dogs of doom are howling more!

He would grant no quarter. That much went without saying. In his own way, he was a dog of doom tracking down his adversaries, just as they and the capricious weather were the hounds nipping at his own mechanized heels. It didn't matter if the devil mocked him, or those he fought against. He would win through this. He had to. For Kaname.

The swirling winds occasionally died down or changed directions, giving brief clear views of the rocky landscape. He couldn't afford to lay concealed for too long, with just an external camera system thrust above the covering snow. This was a perfect place for ambush, but there was no guarantee that the pilot who shot at him would walk his machine this way. What's more, the longer he waited, the closer the other two enemies would get to their base, or any nearby safe-house.

Tapping his fingers impatiently against the control levers, Sousuke willed himself to be calm. His mind wandered ever so slightly, as he thought about the series of events that had brought him through Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, and Russia, leading up to his theft of an Amalgam Arm Slave in northern Finland. It was amazing that he had gotten as far as he had. Now, against all odds, he found himself buried under the fresh snows of Finnmark, the largest and least populated area of Norway. Why the hell had the organization built a secret research facility in this place!

Svartfjell. Øksfjordjøkelen. Seilandsjøkelen. The names of the mountains and glaciers he had passed by were too damn difficult to pronounce. One thing was certain. He was a long way from Tokyo. He would rather be in a warm school learning about geography, than be sitting in a machine whose hydraulic fluid threatened to freeze, leaving him part of the cursed Scandinavian landscape.

The snow falls hard and don't you know?
The winds of Thor are blowing cold.
They're wearing steel that's bright and true

The song. The relentless snow. The damned white world he found himself in. The urge to kill or be killed. It all blended together, causing him to think about Vikings and Norse gods they worshipped. He thought back to his first days aboard the TDD-1. A crusty old engineer had befriended him, giving him some old worn books to read. The man had been from Sweden, and the books had included a translation of the Prose Edda, a picture book on ancient Scandinavian artifacts, and a primer on Norse mythology.

"If this were underground, it could easily be Niflheim." Sousuke clenched his teeth. He was growing antsy. He felt a need to act, not lay still. But, he wouldn't do Kaname any good to rushing out and getting killed, or doing something rash that left his machine injured beyond repair. Needless to say, there were no friendly repair facilities nearby. Looking at the shifting snows on his view screen, he almost expected to see Hel. The goddess, a daughter of Loki and the giantess Angrboða , was the ruler of the cold shadowy Norse underworld.

In Norse cosmology, the earth is represented as a flat disc situated in the branches of the world tree, Yggdrasil. Asgard, where the gods lived, was located at the center of the disc, and could only be reached by walking across a rainbow known as the Bifröst bridge. The Giants lived in an abode called Jötunheimr. Álfheimwas the home of the light-elves, the loafer. Svartálfaheim was the home of the dark-elves, the svartálfar. In between Asgard and Niflheim was Midgard, the world of men, called Middle Earth by some.

Sousuke rubbed the back of his neck. Was Mithril like the light elves, going up against the dark elves of Amalgam? Was he, a lone man, brashly going up against gods or giants?

"No," he said, shaking his head. "This will be Ragnarok." That mythological conflict would supposedly be waged between the Æsir… led by Odin… and their aggressors, the fire giants and various monsters… led by the traitor god Loki. During that apocalyptic conflagration, many of the gods would perish, and the universe would be torn asunder.

Sousuke didn't care what happened to the rest of the world, if he couldn't save Kaname. If he caused terrible amounts of death and destruction the process of freeing her from captivity, he wouldn't blink an eye. This confrontation had been building for a long time. He would love to take down Leonard Testarossa, his own personal Loki. But, he wasn't going to let personal vendettas get in his way.

Blood dripped off of his chin and splattered on the white A.S. suit he had taken from a dead Amalgam pilot. He had bitten his lip clean through, without realizing it. That wasn't like him. The stress of the situation was getting to him. Being so close to Kaname had him feeling too much anticipation. He needed to relax. He had to fight his best fight.

"Kaname is my Iðunn," Sousuke said. "I do not wish to think about life without her." In Norse mythologyIðunn was one of the goddesses, a custodian of the apples which allowed the Æsir and Vanir to maintain their eternal youthfulness, but did not bring immortality.

She was once abducted with her apples by the giant Þjazi, who used Loki as a stooge to lure Iðunn out of Ásgarðr. During her absence, the Æsir began to age without the rejuvenating qualities of her apples, prompting them to press Loki into the task of rescuing her. Borrowing Freyja's falcon skin, the trickster retrieved Iðunn, transforming her into the form of a nut for the flight back. Þjazi, displeased, pursued them in the form of an eagle, but was defeated by having his wings set alight by a bonfire created by the waiting gods.

Sousuke certainly felt as if he had aged far beyond his years during the trek to rescue the girl he loved. Before meeting her, he had never felt the weights and pains of life. Now, they threatened to overwhelm him. What's more, the people whose lives he had touched had suffered the slings and arrows of mortality themselves. He sighed when an image of nami crossed his mind. He didn't know if his life could ever magically return to what it had been, before battling Leonard and Belial in the streets of Tokyo. But, he was determined to find out.

"There!" Sousuke had caught brief sight of the enemy A.S. as it passed the front of the ravine. The image was quickly obscured, preventing him from taking a well-placed shot. That didn't matter. If he rushed out now, he could attack from behind, before the bastard knew what hit him. Pushing hard on the controls, he shot the Venom to its feet, shrugging off a large amount of powdery snow. He took the wicked anti-armor dagger into one free hand, slinging the hand-held cannon next to the shoulder-mounted Gatling gun.

The Old Norse vision of the future was remarkably bleak. Anyone versed in that topic would know that the forces of evil and chaos far outnumber and overcome the divine and human guardians of good and order. Right now, Sousuke found himself in just such a numerically unfavorable situation. But, as long as he could face them one on one, he had a chance. Indeed, even though the gods and heroes are destined to fail in the end, with Odin himself swallowed by Fenris the wolf, there will be a few survivors, both human and divine. In the sagas, they are the ones who will populate a new world.

The lyrics to another song entered his thoughts uninvited, as he ran his machine through the deep snow at the valley floor. Not usually one to remember tunes or riffs, he nonetheless felt his heartbeat keeping pace with what few snatches of music he could remember.

Ahh-h ah ahhh-hh-h ah
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!

On we sweep with threshing oar, Our only goal will be the western shore.

He was not the oarsman on a Viking ship, headed for battle and plunder. But, jogging his A.S. across one of the lands that the Norse warriors had come from, he could imagine himself clad in armor, a helmet on his head and an axe in his fist. There were no horns on his helm in that brief mental image. That kind of thing was merely latter-day myth created by national romantic ideas in Sweden at the end of the 19th century. The Venom was his armor and helmet. He had been driven to a new land. He would fight the horde. He would see her again!

"Yes!" Finally, a prolonged break in the gusting wind. He could clearly make out the form of his adversary. The other Venom was moving slowly, as if the pilot was concerned about an ambush, having lost sight of him. He had reason to be concerned. But, it would not be an ambush. Wishing to conserve ammunition, Sousuke passed up a chance at taking a potential kill shot with either of his guns. That gave the other man the opportunity to catch sight of him as he leaped across the rocky terrain. "Let's get this done!"

He threw his machine into a tremendous leap, just as the enemy pilot fired his multi-barrel weapon, sending projectiles deep into the snowy ground where he had been running. Dagger held in front of him, he felt a visceral lust for combat grow inside him, the kind of thing he usually felt in hand-to-hand skirmishes.

The Amalgam Venom's Gatling gun continued to rotate, but was out of ammunition. Before the pilot could bring out his own hand held weapons, he must have realized that the end was near. Looking at his view screen, he saw Sousuke's A.S. descending on him like a huge chunk of ice shot from a catapult. Despite several attempts, he hadn't been able to get his thrice-be-damned Lambda Driver system to activate. The unreliable nature of his equipment cost him his life.

Ahh-h ah ahhh-hh-h ah
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
How soft your fields so green, can whisper tales of gore,
Of how we calmed the tides of war. We are your overlords.

Tales of gore, indeed. Even before Sousuke felt his Venom's feet touch earth, he had rammed the dagger into and through the pilot's compartment of the other machine. Blood mixed in with fountaining hydraulic fluid. With one final contemptuous blow, he cut a slash across the metal face of the Arm Slave, as if he were branding it a criminal or slave. In this battle against a fleeing foe, he was the overlord. He would leave no doubt of that.

It was illogical. He knew that. Just the same, he grunted, feeling a certain sense of satisfaction. The enemy pilot probably never met Kaname. He might not even have known that a Whispered girl was being held prisoner by his superiors. Just the same, Sousuke felt as if he had struck a blow for the blue-haired girl. Looking down at the control panel, he stared at a picture of her that he showed to anyone he hoped to get information from. He had taped it there. Nodding his head, he ran a finger over it before setting off again.

"Which way?" He reached a pint where the valley slit into two forks. With the strong wind forming drifts as he watched, there would be no way to follow tracks. For all he knew, the other two Venoms could have split up and taken different paths. Even worse, they may have done so leagues earlier, if they knew something about the countryside that he didn't.

Had he been an ancient Norseman, he might have prayed to Viðarr,god of stealth and revenge, hoping the silent son of Odin would grant him opportunity to run down his foe. In the tales, that god was destined to kill Fenris by stepping on his lower jaw with his foot, taking the wolf's upper jaw in hand, and tearing the beast apart. Sousuke could identify with him, as he wanted to do the same to Amalgam.

As a Viking, he might also have offered sacrifices to Tyr, the one-handed god of battles and bravery. He too had a connection to Fenris, who along with Hel and the sea serpent Jörmungandr were the children of the trickster Loki. The monster wolf broke every chain that the gods tried to put upon him, until they had the dwarfs make them a magical ribbon called Gleipnir from the sound of a cat's footfall; the beard of a woman; the roots of a mountain; the sinews of a bear; the breath of a fish; and the spittle of a bird.

Fenrir had sensed the gods' deceit and refused to be bound with it unless one of them put his hand in his mouth, pledging to release him if he failed to break the chain. Tyr, known for his great courage, agreed, and the other gods bound the wolf. Fenris bit off the god's hand, when the other Æsir would not keep their word . While the young soldier had no desire to end up like that… or to die as Tyr was fated to do in the jaws of the monstrous dog Garm… he knew it might be more realistic for him to think of limiting Amalgam's plans, rather thinking he could destroy Leonard and his peers.

"Maybe Thor," Sousuke said. This mission was more akin to something the red-bearded god would have undertaken against the Frost Giants. After choosing one direction and heading off at full speed, he thought about the fate of that well-known hero. During Ragnarök, Thor would supposedly kill and be killed by Jörmungandr, the Midgard Serpent, a creature that had grown so large that it was able to surround the Earth. Amalgam had done the same, in a sense. But, Thor's beloved Sif had been his wife, not girlfriend. And, she had golden hair, not blue. That hair had been made for her by dwarfs, after Loki had cut off her own hair. He sighed, knowing that a genius like Leonard would never try anything like that with Kaname. Why would anyone want to remove her hair?

As the Venom continued on its dash through the snowy wasteland, Sousuke couldn't help but think about Leonard. Compared to other men, he might seem to have godlike powers, thanks to his staggering intellect, his perfect looks, and the technology at his command. Sousuke wasn't fooled by any of it, even though he felt somewhat inferior, after the defeat at the silver-haired man's hand.

Could Kaname have fallen for someone like that, over time? The two of them were Whispered, after all. Did that somehow mean that they were meant for one another? Was that the tragic truth that awaited him? Doubts clouded his thoughts much the same way that snow obscured his sensors. He pounded one fist hard against the control panel. Leonard might be a trickster and smooth talker like Loki, but he was plainly evil. How could Kaname ever forget some of the things that he had said and done?

"She can't have forgotten me… or the things that I had told her…" Sousuke gripped his controls tightly again. Even though it had been difficult for him, he had confessed his feelings. He had told her that he loved her, back when she wanted him to run away with her, before she had left willingly with Leonard so that the bastard would let him live. "The things that he did to Kyouko will not be easily forgiven…"

Sousuke closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He had been defeated by opponents in the past. He had come up against men who had out-thought him, out-maneuvered him, and out-gunned him. He tried to convince himself that it was unreasonable for a soldier to obsess on any one opponent; but, he knew too many examples where entire armies had worried about a particular general or ace. What's more, like Gauron and Seina before him, Leonard had kidnapped Kaname. How could he not dwell on that fact?

"He wasn't right about me…" Sousuke felt his throat go tight, thinking back to the day that Tessa's brother had been at Kaname's apartment, accompanied by two Arastols. Leonard had compared to a serial killer. "This is different…" He was ready to tear apart dozens of men, if that meant he could rescue Kaname. But, part of him worried what she might think about him afterwards. "It doesn't matter. She can despise me if she wishes, as long as she is safe and free." He would not kill indiscriminately, or in a red rage. But, for those enemies that stood in his way, there would be no mercy.

The snow falls hard and don't you know?
The winds of Thor are blowing cold.

The winds were so strong now that he could actually feel the Arm Slave being buffeted by the fiercest gusts. He wasn't having an easy time of it himself. In the past three days, he had gotten a total of five hours sleep at best. He hadn't bathed or shaved in over a week, and would be a fragrant surprise to Kaname when he found her again. He had lived like an animal, using the countryside as his restroom, and sometimes resorting to using the cabin of the Venom, so that it smelled like the bad section of a subway station.

His stomach growled. It had been a while since he had last eaten. By necessity, he had melted snow on a number of occasions, to make drinking water. He was locked on his task the way a heat-seeking missile locks onto its target. The storm was a godsend that couldn't be wasted. Kaname could be moved at random at any moment when the weather cleared. Any delay could lead to his to being discovered before he made the next crucial move.

"The Thunderer had it easy," Sousuke said. The stories described Thor traveling in a chariot drawn by the goats Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr, along with his servant and messenger Thjálfi and his sister Röskva. Both the goats and the chariot were said to be magic. When Thor was hungry, he would roast the goats for a meal. When he wanted to continue his travels, he need only touch the remains of the goats and they would be instantly restored to full health to resume their duties, as long as the bones had not been broken.

Sousuke would gladly give just about anything for some roast goat. He would have drooled, if he had enough spit left to salivate. Eyes closed, he remembered the smell of meat wafting across the campsite, from his days with the mujahideen. As long as he was being so free with his wishes, he would happily borrow the thunder god's war hammer Mjollnir, which, when thrown at a target, returned magically to the owner. That would require the belt Megingjord, which had the ability to double the god's strength. Yawning, he rubbed his eyes again and went about rechecking his ammunition stores. This wasn't a comic book or movie. His supplies were finite.

He thought back to those days spent fighting the Soviet invaders in Afghanistan. Orphaned, he had found a family of sorts with the freedom fighters. He had been taken in, since the enemy of an enemy was a friend. As a child, he was indoctrinated into the ways of Islam, but had never found himself taking that way as his own. Just the same, he had fought as ruthlessly as the grown men, following the words of one of their commanders: 'God says, give no quarter to Infidels, but cut their throats. Then, know this is the command of the great God'.

Sousuke had been taught to be ruthless. He was told to know his enemies… to besiege them at any opportunity… and to lay in ambush whenever and wherever the chance arose. He grew to be relentless, impressing the hard men he served. When he moved on to new masters, he no longer fought for the old causes. But, he still fought with single-mindedness and ferocity. He knew that frightened Kaname sometimes. It had even unnerved Kurz and Melissa on more than one occasion. But, it was who he was. It would not be too large a stretch of the imagination to picture himself as a Viking warrior massacring everyone he came across during a raid, had he been born during those times, with that set of ethics and mores.

"Kaname…" He looked down at the photograph again. He wasn't fighting for rape and plunder. He wasn't battling unbelievers to gain his place on a jeweled couch in Paradise, waited on by immortal youths with bowls and ewers of purest wine, and pleasured by virgins as fair as corals and rubies, reclining on green cushions and fine carpets. He was here for her. "Shit…"

He had become way too distracted, thinking about Kaname and the concept of virginity at the same moment. Not catching sight of a jutting rock outcrop in time, he was unable to correct his path in time to prevent the Venom from taking a nasty tumble. Bouncing, sliding, and rolling, the machine found its ay down into a small crevice. Fortunately, there was no serious mechanical injury. Undoing his harness, he moved one arm, relieved to find that the pain in his shoulder was not from a dislocation.

Sometimes it is better to be lucky than to be good. This was one of those times. When the winds died down briefly, he caught sight of two important things from his unexpected vantage point. First, the enemy pilots had taken time to build a deadfall of sorts, propping some huge boulders underneath some supporting trees, which had been torn out of the frozen ground roots and all. Had he triggered that trap, the game would have been over. Second, he managed to catch a glimpse of an ascending path between crags, one he might have missed in the heavy snowfall. Even better, he caught sight of movement.

Walking side by side with death, The devil mocks their every step
The snow drives back the foot that's slow, The dogs of doom are howling more

Yes. He had been a few steps from death. It was a sobering realization. But, life as a soldier often came down to that. This wasn't the first time. It wouldn't be the last. The big thing was to make the most of the boon he was granted.

Bringing the Venom back to its broad feet, he ran a quick systems check with special attention paid to structural integrity. When a bank of lights was glowing green… with one orange-blinking individualist… he pushed things back up to full military power and found the entrance to his frozen stairway. He acted not a minute too soon. The wind returned, whiting out his view of the surroundings. That was reason to smile. It would be hard for his prey to know when he was breathing down his or her neck.

Your head is humming and it won't go because you don't know
The piper's calling you to join him
Dear lady can't you hear the wind blow and did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind

Sousuke wasn't certain why that song verse came to mind. It was yet another tune he had heard in the launch bay of the TDD-1, while the SRT was prepping for battle. It could be the fact that the tricky trail he followed did indeed look like a stairway that could lead to Asgard, if not Heaven. He certainly didn't know enough about Celtic folklore, despite serving aboard a submarine with the named Tuatha Da Danaan, to make any connection with pipers and May Queens. But, the one saying he knew about pipers made sense: 'He who pays the piper calls the tune'. He held the figurative coin in his fist now, as long as he went undetected.

He thought more that song. That fact that it was thought by some to be one of the greatest of all rock songs of all time, and one of the most frequently requested songs on radio, meant nothing to him. It was the underlying story that troubled his thoughts. It was about a woman who thought that her money could buy her happiness, and gain her way into Heaven.

"Money isn't everything." Sousuke knew that was true. But, he also knew that money was very useful. What would he do after he spirited Kaname away? When Mithril went under, his financial backing vanished. Not only that, the large sum of money he had earned over years of service was overseen by money men within the organization, not private brokers. That arrangement had seemed safe and convenient. Now, it left him penniless and a pauper. "I have made do before. I will do it again if necessary." Nothing could be harder than the first weeks following his parents death.

"Straight ahead. Keep moving. Avoid distractions. No quarter." Sousuke coughed, and his throat burned for a while after that. The climb was arduous and trying, even though it was the A.S. that was doing most of the work. Sweat trickled down his face, as he narrowly escaped disaster on numerous occasions. Because he was willing to risk all, he was gaining ground on his foe.

Gonna ramble on, sing my song. Gotta keep-a-searchin' for my baby...
Gonna work my way, round the world. I can't stop this feelin' in my heart
Gotta keep searchin' for my baby. I can't find my bluebird!

His bluebird!

Kaname was his bluebird in a sense, and not just because of her hair. She had brought springtime into a life that had been bereft of seasons. She had brought a sense of purpose, where there had only been existence. Gauron had been wrong.

Bedridden and dying in Hong Kong, his former adversary had claimed that Kaname was dead, sapping away the Sousuke's will to fight on. Before that, he had laughed at him, saying that he had been ruined by hanging out with weaklings. Instead, after finding out that Kaname was alive… and she had kicked, punched, and elbowed him repeatedly to make up for the pain he had caused her… he had finally begun seeing Arbalest as a teammate, working together with the Al to take down five Venom Arm Slaves.

He had walked away from the ARX-7 at mission's end, acting against orders. He had confronted General Ammitt, talking to the great man in a manner that had left Cmdr. Mardukas weak in the knees, and had Lt. Cmdr. Kalinin saying how much more like a man he looked. He sighed, wondering how his father figure was doing. There had been worrisome concerns about his behavior just before Amalgam had struck.

Ramble On, Gotta find the queen of all my dreams.

Sousuke looked down at his hands. They fit so well into the recesses of the A.S. waldos, and seemed apt at manipulating the controls. But, when he had returned to school after leaving Kaname behind, he had been uncertain what to do with those hands. His emotions and humanity bubbling up close to the surface, he had wanted to put his arms around a the sobbing girl. He was certain that he would have done so, had Kyouko and the others not appeared, taking him to task for their friend's tears. Some time later, he had done his best to show hid feelings by giving her the Lapis Lazuli at the end of the cruise ship mission. He had gone even further, putting his feelings into words as best he could, not long before Leonard had come and snatched her up.

Indeed, Kaname had not made him weaker. She had not tarnished what had been the perfect killing machine. She had made him human. She had helped him become stronger.

T'was in the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair.
But Gollum, and the evil one, crept up and slipped away with her, her, her...yeah.

Gonna ramble on, sing my song. Gotta keep-a-searchin' for my baby...
Gonna work my way, round the world. I can't stop this feelin' in my heart
Gotta keep searchin' for my baby. I can't find my bluebird!

"Damn!" Sousuke somehow managed to sense that danger was near, throwing the levers forward and causing the Arm Slave to leap just before a number of boulders careened off of the very site he had been standing on. He had reacted out of pure instinct. Neveretheless, lights were flashing on his control panel, signaling some slight damage to the left leg. He must have landed funny. "I miss you pal…"

It was strange, finding himself lamenting the loss of Arbalest and Al. For most of their time together, he had resented the white A.S., mainly because he couldn't get the Lambda Driver to work consistently. He had been surprised later to find out that the Artificial Intelligence had a similar opinion of the Black technology. He still couldn't fathom sharing thoughts and ideas with a mechanical device. But, there was no denying that he and Al had been sharing a common bond of sorts before Leonard had shattered his world. How he wished that he could personally throw the asshole into the fires of Mount Doom.

"She won't have changed…" Sousuke said, once again trying to chase away his fears about Kaname. In the Lord of the Rings, the One Ring had corrupted Frodo, despite his good and faithful heart. If it hadn't been for Gollum and his lust for his Precious, the ring and Sauron would never have been destroyed. Leonard was a smooth talking and persuasive man. Could his honeyed words, and a shared Whispered nature, corrupt someone like Kaname? "She left to save me…" She had to know that he would come for her, just the way that she had come for him.

Visibility improved dramatically, without any warning. Up ahead of him, its large white plume streaming out behind, one of the remaining Amalgam Venoms was passing around a bend, no more than one hundred yards in front of him and his machine. Slowing things down considerably, he stealthily looked around the curve of the rocky path. Trying to get a good idea of the terrain, he sought some optimal place to make his attack. There. Turn-about's fair play.

Huge sheets of snow and ice clung precariously to a flat vertical mountain face. The enemy would be passing under that natural deadfall in a matter of moments. Taking in every little detail, he knew what to do. More memories came to mind. He thought back to his first time at the controls of Arbalest, and how he had taken down one of the outclassed RK-92s. Perfect.

Seeing that the weather holding off longer than before, Sousuke said a word of thanks to no one in particular, and then made a risky dash towards a small cluster of scraggly trees. Wrapping the Venom's arms around the smallest, he tore it from the ground, and then used the great hands to strip off the boughs. Finished with that task, he hefted the tree and hurled it as if it were a war hammer. He watched as it flew end over end.

Thump… thump… thump… thump… thump

It was only a matter of heartbeats, but it almost seemed an eternity. The tree seemed to fly in slow motion. When it impacted high above the other A.S., the snow and ice appeared to break free again and again in his mind, even though the small and intentional avalanche took place only once. Tons of snow and rock plummeted downward, engulfing the unsuspecting enemy and sweeping him and his Venom off of the ledge and down to the distant valley floor.

"Doesn't matter if it's pretty," Sousuke remarked, thinking about Melissa Mao. She had jousted verbally with Kurz early and often. His long haired friend always crowed about the beauty of his shots. Their short-haired superior didn't care a whit about style.

Thor would have approved. The solution had come more from strength than wit. While his father Odin had been the god of the powerful and aristocratic, the war god had been the god of the common man. Not the brightest of the Æsir, he was depicted as being earnest, straightforward, and pragmatic. He was also rather rash. Sousuke could identify with him quite well.

Success came with a price. The trail he was on had been obliterated by the falling snow and ice. Looking for an alternate path to take, Sousuke began climbing a series of ledges, knowing that he needed to head in the same general direction that his erstwhile opponent had been traveling in. The Amalgam headquarters ought to be somewhere out there. So should the remaining other A.S. he had put to flight.

He would not be able to rely solely on swiftness of action and strength of hand when he reached the stronghold. Whether it turned out to be a fortress… an elegant chalet… a series of tunnels… or a cluster of skier's shacks… he would need some means to enter the base, locate Kaname, and then escape in one piece.

"Baka!" He barely managed to gain purchase of a lower ledge when the outcrop he grabbed hold of tore free from the mountainside. He had forgotten to use one of the legs as an anchor before pushing up with the other.

Taking a moment to catch his breath and regain his equilibrium, Sousuke wondered just what level of security Amalgam would keep in a research facility located far out in the middle of nowhere. Had Mithril remained an active threat, they would likely be on high alert, since a submarine cruising in the Barents or Norwegian Seas could easily launch Arm Slaves, cruise missiles, or VSTOL aircraft well within reach of these mountain ranges. But, as far as he knew, Mithril was no more, and no sovereign nations were making any moves against the pervasive organization.

He thought about a story he had heard about Thor. The war god had visited the stronghold of the giant king, Útgarða-Loki, who wondered if such a small being could be as strong as stories made him out to be. That king, ruler of the city Útgarðr in Jötunheimr, outwitted Thor and his companions. He had challenged the god to a series of contests, using his magic to trick them. Útgarða-Loki used a spell to make one of his giants run faster than Thor's swift servant, Thjálfi. He called Thor weak when he could only lift one paw of a cat, not telling the angry god that the cat was actually the Midgard Serpent with an illusion cast upon it. Thor was challenged to a drinking contest, where he was unable to empty a small drinking horn. The horn had actually been the ocean. He wrestled with a decrepit and toothless old giantess, unable to defeat her, since in reality she was Old Age, something that no mortal could beat. Loki lost an eating contest against fire personified.

Sousuke sighed, seeing why that vignette was pertinent to him. There was no way he could match wits with Leonard Testarossa and come out ahead. He could only hope that Tessa's brother would not be expecting him. While Leonard might not think much of him, he was certain that the other man would be a good judge of his combat skills, just the way that Útgarða-Loki had correctly judged Thor's abilities. The tricks the giant used were a necessary defense, since the god had been strong enough to defeat them all under the right circumstances. While Leonard and Belial had been victorious over Sousuke and Arbalest, there was no denying that Sousuke usually found some way to get things done.

"It's only a myth," Sousuke said, scowling. In that same tale, Thor had been furious when he learned the truth, swinging Mjöllnir over his head in preparation for a killing blow. But, the giant vanished. The stronghold disappeared, too, leaving only a wide and beautiful stretch of mountain.

The ascent up along the snowy pass was even more nerve-wracking after that. He reached mountain top after mountain top, but never caught sight of the single white A.S. moving through the vast white landscape. The possible ways that the enemy could go kept multiplying, not diminishing. The dangers became greater, the higher he climbed, and the more tired he got.

In his mind, he pictured an hourglass. The sand was pouring down relentlessly.The other pilot had all of the advantages. Where was the other Venom? The enemy pilot knew. Where was the Amalgam base? The enemy pilot knew that too. In contrast, all he could do was hope that the weather held off a little bit longer, and pray that he could catch sight of light reflecting off an A.S. or building. If the winds would stop for a long enough period of times, he might stumble across footsteps.

"Odin gave up an eye for knowledge." Sousuke massaged his temples. He wished that he had the two ravens Huginn and Muninn, who traveled the world to acquire information at Odin's request. Those mythical birds would mean a great deal more to him than the god's other noteworthy possessions: a spear that never missed, a gold ring that created other gold rings, and an eight-legged horse. "He would not be lost like this." The chief Norse god could see everything that happened in the universe from his throne Hlidskjalf.

If he could not be Odin at that moment, he would choose to be Heimdall. That god's senses were so acute, that he could hear the grass grow, and could see to the end of the world. He also didn't ever need to sleep. Thinking of that naturally had Sousuke yawning again. He also remembered reading that Heimdall had nine mothers. That brought back memoies, since he himself once had nine surrogate mothers amongst the camp followers of the Afghan fighters. He hoped that the similarities ended there. Heimdall was destined to be the last of the gods to perish at Ragnarök. He and Loki would kill one another.

What would one of the Norse gods do in this situation? Thor would probably laugh a lusty laugh, throw back a large horn of mead, and let fate take its course. What about a Viking warrior? Used to living life by the moment, a Norseman would probably do something similar.

Sousuke knew what it was like to live one day, with no worry about what the next day might bring. He had spent too many years existing in that fashion. But, during those dark times, he had never been able to reach out and grab the joy that life offered. When the day came to an end, a Viking might have found friends to laugh with, roast meat to fill his belly, and a willing wench to drag to his sleeping furs. Before he met Kaname Chidori, Sgt. Sousuke Sagara would return alone to his cabin, eat a plain role, and work on his weapons.

In the past, he had gone on a number of missions to rescue women, some of them Whispered. He did not always succeed. When an attempt ended in failure, he simply shrugged things off and prepared for the next mission. That kind of existence had been easier in some ways.

Things were different now, at least where Kaname was concerned. Her could not give up at some point, feeling he had done everything within reason.

"I also made a promise." Sousuke sighed when the winds returned and the lull in the snowfall ended. Picking one set direction, and taking note of compass and GPS headings, he set off at a steady pace. As he did so, he thought back to his confrontation with Eri Kagurazaka and his fellow students.

"The one inside that white A.S. was... yes, it was me. I was... no I am a member of a certain mercenary force. Piloting an A.S. is my job. When I first came here, I told you that I was a transfer student. That was all a lie."

"Wait a minute... 'I'm sorry'... that's all you can say?" Ono-D had been livid. "Say that to Tokiwa! She's still in the hospital hooked up to a respirator, with tubes all over her body. You know the last word she said to her parents before she fell into a coma? She gave them a key to Chidori's apartment and asked them to take care of her hamster. She said that was her promise that she made with you!" He had grabbed Sousuke by the collar, anger competing with his sense of anguish. "Don't you guys even feel a single remorse for what you did to Tokiwa? She had nothing to do with this!"

After Ono-D was restrained, and had shouted out challenges and condemnations laced with profanity, Sousuke had managed to say his last bit. "I will bring her back," he had claimed. "I will bring her back. No matter what happens, I will bring her back to this place. That what I wanted to say." When everyone quieted down, he continued. "This is all my fault. There is no fault for her. That is why I will return her, right here. I promise."

After saying what he had come to say, he had turned around, walked out of the classroom, out through the hallway, across the school grounds, and past the school gate. He had walked forward, without ever turning back. He had known what he had to do. Finding out how to do it had been the hard part.

There had been moments of disorientation and confusion, after Leonard and Kaname had disappeared. There had been days filled with boredom and frustration, as he searched for people with even the smallest shred of information. There had been days of excitement and sorrow, as he fought in a A.S. gladiatorial games. There had been days of sweating and aching muscles, as he worked aboard a tramp freighter. There had been days of beauty and discovery, as he hitch-hiked across the European countryside. There had been painful moments of guilt and self-doubt, whenever he found himself enjoying what he did. But, that was better than slipping into depression. He had done that in Hong Kong. He never wanted to do it again.

"This is not good." Sousuke shook his head. He had caught sight of the cockpit chronometer. At this longitude and latitude… during this time of year… there wasn't a lot of daylight left. It might be nice to sneak up on the secret base after dark. But, it would be impossible to find the base without sufficient light. "I cannot expect any chance for victory if I weather another night…"

There was enough power to keep the heating units going. Perched near one of the mountaintops, the newly accumulated snow prove easy enough to dig out of. But, if the other pilot got through, the new morning sun would bring aerial reconnaissance, snowmobile scouts, Arm Slaves, and ski troops.

The snow falls hard and don't you know?
The winds of Thor are blowing cold.
They're wearing steel that's bright and true
They carry news that must get through.

They choose the path where no-one goes.

For the next couple of hours, Sousuke pushed himself and his captured machine to the limit. He lost track of how many times he came close to disaster, finding loose areas of rock, or thinly covered holes in glaciers. His luck continued to hold true. He managed to escape whatever situation he found himself in. Then, when he almost felt too weary to continue, he caught sight of movement. There! Out on an immense frozen river of ice. Arm Slave! Unless Amalgam had other patrols in this area, that would be his quarry.

Pushing the levers full forward, he began slogging through the deeper areas of snow he came across at the nadir of the snowy basin he was crossing. Heading up a slight incline, he began familiarize himself with the Lambda Driver system one more time. Like the earlier prototypes, the newest production run of Venom machines continued to have sporadic problems with the advanced technology.

If he or his opponent could keep their system on line, and the other suffered inopportune failure, there would be little difficulty in predicting who the victor would be.

Sousuke shook his head violently, and then slapped himself hard on the cheeks. His eyelids were drooping. His vision was blurry. The white landscape looked to be moving past him at a snail's pace. Biting his lip, he clenched and unclenched one of his hands, after feeling his fingers grow numb. Holding the hand in front of him, he found that he had involuntary tremors. Too much stress. Too little food and rest. Gripping the controls too tightly for too long. It could be due to any or all of those, or something else altogether.

It was a difficult truth to believe at that moment, but he had been through worse than this in the past. With a goal in sight, he felt his mid grow sharper and his muscles relax. The chase continued.

Valhalla, I am coming!