The SDF-2 is nearly completed. The events of Christmas Eve are still fresh in everyone's mind. Angel's shop has been flooded with orders for replicas of her Christmas Santa dress, and for autographs. The excitement and publicity is not without it's toll. Angel takes to opening late, letting Stacy take the store front, while hiding in the backrooms and working at night. The crowds that flock around her in everyday shopping are starting to wear on her patience, but never to be rude Angel is seen as the citizen of the year in New Macross, if such an award existed.
What worries Angel more now though is the thought of another attack. She knows she could never sing like she did on Christmas. That somehow felt like it so much a one-time deal. Still, the excitement and instensity brought on by the narrow escape from certain death left her hungry to do more. She wondered now more than ever if this is why Marcus joined the RDF Civil Defense Flight. It was a dangerous job having no back up and often being overwhelmed... the thought of him still could bring her to tears. She changed the subject in her mind as she finished yet another Christmas special. Four down, 137 to go.
:: A week later ::
"How does it fit ma'am?" Angel asked as she watched a soon to be bride turning in the wedding dress Angel had designed.
"Oh it's fantastic!" The lady replied. "My Rick will be so surprised to see how fabulous this looks!"
"Well Ms. Hayes, if Rick's any sort of person as I take him to be you could show up in uniform and he'd be taken with you." Angel finished with a wry smile that Lisa Hayes couldn't help but return. The statement, however was correct and Lisa knew it was use to argue.
"I suppose." Lisa said with a touch of reluctancy in her tone.
"What's wrong ma'am?" Angel asked, showing her genuine streak of kindness and compassion for others that had made her so popular in the first place.
"Oh nothing." Lisa said, as she began to wipe tears aside. "It's just there's so much... So many I wish could be here."
Angel stood there silent for a minute. She could sympathize with Lisa, but instead she wanted to make her feel better, not help her wallow in sorrow. She mustered all the strength she could and finally spoke, "It's ok. A boyfriend once told me, 'If you truly love someone they are never gone, they are always in your life.' "
"That sounds like something Rick told one of his pilots once." Lisa said with a half chuckle and grin. "Something to do with his family, just before I transfered him to CDF." Angel knew imeadeately that that was Marcus. Ironic, she thought, that that same line Angel heard from Marcus would later be used for someone connected to the person who taught him that. Surely her work here was not done, for a brief moment Angel smiled, knowing Marcus was there, and that she and he had work to do...
"So you want to pick it up in three days?" Angel asked as Lisa came out of the changing room.
"That will be perfect." Lisa replied. "You are so talented at this, I can see why you're always so busy here."
"Thank you." Angel could only muster two words throught her smile.
:: Aftermath ~ The Birth of a True Legend ~ ::
Lisa would never get to pick up that dress... Two days later Kyrhon attacked, destroying the SDF's 1 & 2. In the chaotic battle that ensued most of New Macross was ruined, including Angel's shop. Stacy, who worked diligently in the shop never had a chance to get out before a battlepod downed from ariel combat crashed through the roof crushing the store, and her.
At the funeral were less than a dozen from the shelter, Angel included, to lay to rest the last of the Bradford family. Angel knew that Marcus would be proud of his sister. Both of them had endured the loss of their younger sister, Angel, and their parents... and Stacy and [our] Angel lost Marcus, and then Angel lost Stacy. The circle of cruel pain that personified this war sickened Angel; she vowed to rebuild her dream, Marcus's dream...
Angel would later leave New Macross, but never made it to Monument City where everyone else would settle. Her legacy there lives on, as the shelter and shop insurance made enough for her to create another safe haven, an orphanage for those like Stacy. Now in the center of the city's great park is a statue of tribute, an trio of angels. Marcus being represented by the only male,largest and center-set standing gazing into the heavens; the second to his left representing Stacy, whose eyes are open wide with the same look of compassion Angel has for the people; the third begin Angel, their darling sister, a child still, but kneeling reaching down with a gift of water to the people below, still giving in her position of personal dilema.
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