Galaxy gave a tiny salute to his partner before launching himself in Envy's direction. He tackled the thin girl, hugging her as they slid across the ashphalt. Her head hit the ground with a dull thunk that made Galaxy wince. They rolled a good 50 metres from the spot which she stood. His arms and legs burned, but still, he held onto her. Then, when they came to a stop, a good 200 feet away, he allowed himself to breathe. His body lay above hers, propped up on his forearms. He could feel her soft breaths on his chest. Envy was peacefully knocked out, her eyes closed and her chest rising and falling. He gave a relieved sigh, about to stand up from her and observe his wounds. 

Her green eyes flicked open, pupils like pinpricks. A lightning bolt of fear tore through him and he went in the direction his instincts told him- up. And so he did, a back blur off the ground. 

He looked back and saw a smiling Envy, hanging onto him by his upper arm. The exposed part of his arm. 

Envy's electric green hair flew behind her, her ponytails long gone. She smiled blissfully, like an angel. She knew that she'd won.

Galaxy, though jetting through the air at 100 miles per hour, felt fear rip through his heart.

He felt himself slipping away, like water streaming through a hand. Envy grasped onto him, an unnatural strength in her twig thin arms.

"You know what to do," she mouthed over the roaring wind.

He saw a face in his mind's eye: blonde hair, iceberg blue eyes, a domino mask, and a pair of blood-red lips. Shadowbird. 
His hatred for her grew ever stronger.

The other in Galaxy's head was screaming for him to stop, that he was better than this, that he could overcome this manipulation! Slowly, he closed her out. All that was in his mind was Envy's smiling, angelic face, and his growing anger.

Galaxy hovered there in the thin atmosphere, above the cotton-ball clouds, without saying a word. A breeze sailed over his cheeks. 

Yes, he knew what to do.

He shot back down, thrice as fast. He held Envy in between his arms so that she didn't get killed by the speed. Green lit the edges of his vision.

Mere seconds later, he was at Winlock, accompanied by a loud sonic boom. He dropped Envy from his arms and kept going. Shadowbird turned around.

She didn't have time to do anything that might have protected her as he flew at her at Mach one, fist outstretched in a punch. 

Her face twisted in a delicious agony as she sailed back and hit a building. Blonde hair spilling everywhere, her eyes shut, and her mask off kilter. Who knew what torturous injuries she had sustained? Her pain sent a shiver of joy down his spine.

Galaxy hovered a few feet off the ground, hands held at his sides, summoning the purple plasma balls that would appear over his palms.

How could he have loved her? He had gotten nothing in return.

She was useless, anyway.

The violet balls appeared over his palms, crackling with electricity. He was [i]not[/i] her sidekick, and she would know that soon enough.

A smile snaked its way across his face.

Just then, her eyes opened.