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kuribohThis one is kinda special in that it will be constantly updated. The main one, Been Here Before, takes place over the course of three or four other RPs. Therefore, this dump will NOT be finished until the last of BHB is completed, which could certainly take awhile. It begins directly after my last dump.
~~~
~~~
It had been several hours since Krensky had left the Angels his gift. The small shuttle had docked with the warship, and the six aboard plus two suits had al transfered over. The Skeleton Crew had been at least somewhat happy to recieve them and the small crew headed off to JOSH-A.
Kazée was asleep in the captain's quaters, both needing and dreading the sleep itself. Ryley had taped a "DISTURB AT YOUR OWN RISK" to the door.
Speaking of, the siblings were sitting in the lounge a few decks down with a deck of cards between them.
"I change it to spades."
"Smarmy bitch."
There were only three people on the bridge, as it were. The rest of the crew was off doing what they did. Melchior sat at the helm, asleep and with his feet upon the dashboard. In the CIC was a gentleman by the name of Boorman, who also was dozing at his station, lound yawns eminating every few minutes. At sensors sat a lass who went by Wizzen. Her eyes were fixaed on the screens attentively, but her head was in her arms, using them as a pillow.
A beep went off, signaling an incoming communication followed closely by a second, signaling the ship's impending arrival at their target. Boorman promptly sat up and opened the message. His tiny grey eyes skimmed the message before he reached over the captain's chair for the phone, immediately beeping for the lone resident of the captain's quarters.
~~
Kazée groaned loudly at the incessant buzzing of her communication panel. She opened her eyes irritably and reached one hand over to the desk near the bed. The desk was a bit out of reach, so she streched her arm farther, rolling onto her back to do so...
and onto the floor.
Kazée popped her head up and grabbed the phone angrily.
"What?" she snapped, "What is it?"
On the other end, a startled and slightly terrified Boorman squeaked out "A message from the office of the late Emperor just got relayed down here. It's for you ma'am."
"Guh," she sighed, "exactly what I wanted to think about right now. Patch it through to here. What's the ETA to JOSH-A?"
"About five minutes. Alright, the message is through. I'll bug you again when we're there."
Kazée hung up the phone and looked at the message that had popped up on the screen next to it.
'To you and your son, the emperor leaves his greatest treasures: The Providence and his Empire. The former is on it's way to Alecto now, and the later will be inhereted upon your son's 14th birthday.'
It took a few seconds for that to register...
~~~
~~~
~~~
::Earth Orbit, aboard the Vindication::
"Got a delivery up from Songnam this morning. It's addressed to you guys," the gruff voice of the chief mechanic bellowed from the hangar floor.
A teal suit leaned over the edge of the catwalk, before leaping over the edge, letting the absence of gravity cushion its fall. "Is that so?"
"Yeah. It's heavy, too. It's also shiney."
Connor laughed. "Shiney is good."
"Is it shiney, or shineh?" came the voice of Trent, whose black clad armor landed with a thud behind the other TITAN. Soon after, the rest of the squad landed in similar fashion.
Shrugging, Connor moved over to the large crate, and punched in the command to open. The releasing air hissed through the opening seal of the hatch, which crashed to the floor moments later.
"I would have to go with shineh."
__--||--||--__
"Mark six, eh? What's it got that our current armor doesn't?" Michelle groaned as the technicians helped remove the chest armor of her suit.
Ezekial shivered as he rubbed his hands across his arms. "Man, I hate taking the armor off. Feels like you're naked."
"Skins suits don't do much to count as clothing, Sword. But apparently, the mark six armor has better sensors, and I guess some sort of gel layer that protects against heat. Or something like that." Lisa said.
"And they couldn't just install that into the fives? It's like going clothes shopping, man! I hate new clothes."
"Zeke, you've never been clothes shopping," Trent muttered.
"I've read about it though!"
"Television doesn't count as reading."
"Well, uh, it was with closed captioning, so technically it does."
"Touché."
A loud pounding brought the discussion to a close as the soldiers known as TITANs looked to the doorway as their leader walked in.
"It looks the same to boot. So, we're going to match colors now?" Sandra scoffed.
Connor grunted as he flexed the new armor; the dull green plating reflecting the overhead lights. "I hope not. I'll paint it myself if I have to. But damn, this stuff feels good."
__--||--||--__
"TITAN DRIVE X Three one fi-, er, six, reporting as requested, ma'am!"
"Hello, Connor," the blonde woman smiled as her chair twirled to face the soldier. "I like what they did to your armor."
"Thank you, ma'am. It feels better than the Mark Five."
"Good, good. Is your team good to go, then?"
"Final fitting preperations should be wrapping up any minute now."
"Excellent. In that case, now would be the best time to inform you of your next mission. Or rather, the culmination of a mission."
"The kid?"
"The kid."
The TITAN slumped and moaned.
"You don't have to transport him this time. That's already been taken care of." Nicole grinned as she caught a muffled "sweet" come from the suit of armor. "Your mission is to make sure the deal goes through. Should be a cakewalk."
"Handing over a kid requires seven TITANs?"
"It took seven of you, plus a a squadron of marines just to watch him, didn't it?"
"Well...yeah...but that was different..."
"This time around, though, you get to, shall we say, wing it."
"Ma'am?"
The aging officer stood up, and walked over to the Hawke. 'You get to field test the heat layer of your new armor, and in doing so, inspire fear into the enemy of the advancement of the Earth Alliance's technology."
"So, I get to show off?"
"Exactly."
"About time."
Kazée? Come on, hun. It's time to go.'
Kaz rolled over.
'Oh come on beautiful. The fresh air might make you feel better.'
No response.
'You know, they might not give him over to us.'
Kazée's bandanged hand pulled itself out of her little next of misery and self-loathing and pointed vaugely towards the desk, upon which sat a note.
"To whom this may concern,
If you are presented with this, you have my deepest apologies for being unable to make it. The people standing before you (one of whom no doubt handed you this letter) are my representatives. They are to be treated as though you would treat me. The payment will go to them.
I look forward to future business with you
Kazée Virgo"
So now Shasa was driving towards the entrance of JOSH-A. Ryley was in the front seat, her feet up on the dashboard and a tilly hat* pulled down over her face. They stopped at the entrance to state their business and finally arrived in the middle of the complex - right where they were supposed to.
Shasa got out of the truck carefully - pulling his ususal jacket on. Alaska was freaking cold.
Ryley, however, stayed put. Her last run-in with a TITAN had resulted in a sexualy-charged fistfigt with that odd german man (who still had the sexiest accent known to mankind). Part of her wanted to meet him again, part of her didn't. She cast a glance to Shasa from under her hat. He was armed. Heavily. So was she. Ryley wiggles her boots a bit, feeling the "Anti-Son-Of-A-Bitch" daggers in them.
A moment later, she too was out of the truck, and waiting to finish the bloody deal.
"All right boys and girls!" Connor shouted as he entered the hangar, which, aside from the mobile suits, a few containers, and the other TITANs, was empty. "We just got our mission details."
With a push off the catwalk railing, Katar descended to the main floor where his siblings stood. Landing with a grunt, the mag-seals in his boots activated to keep him from bouncing away in the zero gravity.
"Does it involve a few buckets of paint that we can use to get rid of this puke green color? I mean, yuck," Michelle growled as she looked over her armor.
"Hey, I use a shade of this color, y'know!"
"Err, yeah, but it still looks like vomit."
"That's a low blow. Anyways. I've made sure that our next shipment includes some paint." Connor raised his hand to silence the voices of optimisim. "However, we have the job first. We get to test out this wonderful new suit today."
"Awesome," Lisa said. "Where at?"
"Joshua."
Trent shook his head. "Wait, what? We're in space dude, and I don't see any shuttles. And last I knew, this boat has a few more weeks of orbital patrol in it. Or did things change and we weren't told?"
The middle Hawke brother nodded. "Everything is as you said. We're going for a spacewalk."
One of the olive green arms raised, and the thick germanic accent spoke up, "Uh...sure. Um, question though. How in the world are we going to get from here, to there, with no shuttle, and no ship? Jump?"
"Yep."
"Oh. Okay then. Here I thought you'd come up with a...wait...wait...what?"
Connor walked over to the hangar wall, where stacks of cargo containers stood. Attached to the metal box that brought the Mark Sixes, Connor typed in a code on the keypad. With a hiss, the crate opened, and seven large backpacks rattled on their racks. "Meet the 'OGIHIDGS' Paragliders."
"Ohwhatsits?"
"Oh God I Hope I Don't Go Squish. That's not their official name, mind you, but its more realistic than 'Aerial Drive Sequencer'."
__--||--||--__
Connor felt his stomach churn as he stepped onto the edge of the Vindiciation's 'leg'. The Earth filled his entire range of vision. "I've never seen it this big before. Well, outside of looking through a window. This just takes the cake. "All right TITANs. Let your onboard computers launch the chute. It knows better than we do. Concentrate on not moving; You don't want to wave an arm around and end up in the middle of the pacific. Mission start in ten seconds. Any last minute questions?"
"Is it too late to go to the bathroom, because I really think I'm going to piss myself!"
"JUMP!"
__--||--||--__
Nothingness. Complete and utter nothingness surrounded him. His altimeter showed him descending, and his computer feed showed a green light. He was falling correctly.
"Radio cutoff in forty seconds. Remember to lock your armor plates once the computer tells you to. It will make the adjustments, not you. Burning up in the atmosphere is not how the TITANs go down. We go out in a blaze of glory, not just a blaze, remember that!" Connor hoped his siblings didn't pick up the slight tremor in his voice. He'd faced down the Emperor of ZAFT on public television. Outflew a nuclear explosion in an enemy PLANT. Fought against the supposedly invincible Umbrella of Artemis, and even the Redcoats themselves, all with a smile on his face, and not one hint of worry.
Now, free falling through space, seconds away from the Earth's atmosphere, with only a few inches of untested armor and an untested glider between him and a very messy landing, he couldn't think of anything but fear.
The blinking light in the cornor of his HUD caught his attention, and he could feel the small boosters attached to the glider spin him around. "Great, now I won't even know when I'll be a pancake," he mentally groaned. The timer ticked down to the cutoff point, and he willed the armor to lock in place. With a series of clicks, the joints of the armor froze, locking him in a slightly reclined position.
Vibrations followed almost immediately after, and traces of red and orange began trailing the edges of his armor. The temperature inside the armor rose dramatically as the flames engulfed him. Sweat stung his eyes as he tried keeping an eye on his sensors.
With the joints locked, he couldn't look over at his brothers and sisters, and with the radio blackout, he couldn't check on their condition either. Straining his eyes, however, he could just make out one of them to his left, locked in the same position as he.
The time in the inferno seemed to drag on for hours, along which the agonizing heat. It was a welcome surprise then when the flames disappeared, and the computer relinquished positional control to the user. Connor immediately unlocked his armor, and rolled around. He wished he hadn't as soon as he did, as the pacific ocean and Alaskan coastline was approaching very, very, fast.
"Everyone, report!" Connor shouted as soon as the radio link was re-established. Five green acknowledgement lights flashed their okay. Connor's eyes widened at the flashing red light. "Sword, what's the matter?"
"I'm getting no response from the glider. I think it shorted."
One of the sisters muttered what Connor was thinking, "Oh god, no."
The youngest Hawke laughed, "What's an experiment without failures, huh? Connor...do something, please."
Connor glanced at his sensors. "Everyone that isn't Sword, converge on him. Bro, remain calm. Remain still."
The six speeding TITANs waved their arms and legs into position around the seventh with careful precision.
Trent's signal pulsed a private message, "This won't work. The gliders will tangle up in each other. We'll all go down."
Connors pace quickened. The deployment zone was fast approaching. "Everyone, back away from Sword, now!"
"What?!"
"Do it, now! Deploy you're gliders. That's a fucking order!"
The five TITANs spread out, and disappeared from vision as their gliders deployed. The parachute deployed first, cutting much of their speed, before the wings of the glider itself opened, leaving them in a controlled descent.
Connor and Ezekial kept falling. "Zeke, listen to me. Open your arms and legs. Kill as much speed as you can."
"Deploy your glider, Katar! Only one of us has to go down!"
"Dammit, shut up!" Connor growled as the computer blared a warning. Altitude was approaching dangerous levels.
Nothingness. A vast field of black nothingness. Suddenly, a gem of light. A black object projecting a green aura. Emerald spokes of light break out of the black gem as it descends from the sky and bounces off the vast nothingness, sending ripples through space. The gem shatters.
With a roar, Connor smashes his fist into the glider unit on Swords' back. With a wrenching of metal, the chute deploys, sending the young Hawke upwards into the sky - and into Connor.
The force of the impact caused him to spin out of control, and black out.
"So, this is how it ends, eh?"
"Don't count on it, Matthew."
"What?"
A blaring woke him, and he reached for the glider control. With a tug, the chute deployed, followed by the wings. "Too late!"
"CANNONBAAAAAAAAAAAALL!"
__--||--||--__
"Where are they?"
"Vanhar says they should be arriving any time now, sir."
"He said that ten minutes ago. They weren't made to be late. And the mercenary reps are getting restless."
__--||--||--__
"I'm sorry ma'am, but until your escorts arrive, you'll have to stay in this area." The marine tightened his grip on his rifle as he stared down the two guests. He and the rest of his squad looked about anxiously. Not only as the problem child awake and being annoying, the TITANs were late. And no way in hell were ordinary marines going to handle a transfer of this scale.
A loud rumbling broke the silence as the waterfall gate opened, allowing a small vessel inside the confines of the underground base.
The marine sighed, "God I hope that's them."
As soon as the ship came to port, the hull door opened, and a choir of armored boots echoed through the area.
"Sorry we're late, but I decided to go for a swim," Connor chuckled, before wincing and nearly buckling to his knees. He was supported by Trent and Charlie, while the rest flanked them. "You can go now, marines. We can handle this."
The six marines hustled away, leaving the TITANs and the mercs alone. Connor shrugged off the arms of his supporters, and straightened himself as best he could. Lances of pain coursed through every part of his body as he did so, but he couldn't let the Coordinators see him as weak. "Where's Virgo? The deal is with her, not you, Snowball."
If there was one thing Shasa hated beyond all reasoning, it was someone speaking ill of his sister. He took an uncharacteristicly agressive step forward towards the olive-clad soldier who addressed them, letting one had slide to the gun on his waist, and the other flicking down half a dozen throwing knives.
Instantly, he was met with several guns trained on his torso, as well as his siter's arm out stretched, barring his path further. He looked down at his sister, who's pink eyes glared back up sternly.
"I can fight my own battles." she whispered.
Shasa exhaled sharply and leaned back to where he was standing, but did not remove his had from the gun holster on his belt. Ryley dropped her arm and approached the TITANs calmly, holding out the note to Connor.
"Talk to me like that again and I can promise you that every guard in here, armed or not will be dead within a minute. The seven of you would be next."
Trent grabbed the slip of paper and read it quickly before laughing. "Either of you draw a weapon, you'll have ten seconds tops before you're gunned down. You're smack dab in OMNI central, Snowflake. One word and you two will need a dentist to verify the remains."
Thankful for his brother handling the situation, Connor locked the leg joints so that he'd remain standing. The plunge into the ocean should've killed him. Clenching teeth to block the pain, he checked over his vitals displayed on his visor: The armor, it seemed, is the only thing that was in fact holding him up. More than a few bones were broken, and chances were good that there was a touch of internal bleeding. If it weren't for the constant pumping of the Gamma vaccine through his neural interface at the base of his skull, he'd long be down for the count.
While Trent and the Coordinators argued semantics, the redhead silenced outbound noises, and opened a channel to the TITANs. "Spear is in charge for now. Sword and Javelin, get me to Medical, now."
Wordlessly, two of the olive clad warriors carried their injured leader away from the mess of squabling.
Looking over his shoulder, Trent nodded. "As your negotiator is unavailable," he turned back to Ryley and Shasa, "so is ours." Crumpling the note into a ball and tossing it to the ground, he stepped closer to the albino, to the point where she was inches away from him. "I'm told we're to escort you to the brat. If you will, follow me."
Ryley glared up at him, willing her reletively poor eyesight to see through the dark faceplate. They were toe to toe, with the OMNI soldier practically towering over her, but the stubborn albino did not flinch.
"Take us to him," she said quietly, "Quickly please. I'd rather he not be a drain on your resources any longer." Maybe it was a trick of the light, but the armoured soldier in front of her seemed to flinch. Regardless, she smiled. "I'd think you'd all be getting a mite tired of him by now."
Behind her, Shasa restrained a laugh as he watched the soldiers react to that. Two of them turned away almost completely, one shuddered vehemently and the one who Ryley was staring down clenched and unclenched his hands very slowly. He dropped his hand of the gun and moved up to stand next to his sister, smirking evily. If Tobias was half the kid he thought he was, then whoever had the amazing job of babysitting was probably in the nuthouse by now. "So come on!" he laughed, leaning his elbow on Ryley's shoulder, "lets go already."
"Just know that if it were up to me, the kid would've had a fun trip doing what we just did." Trent sneered. Glancing at Charlie and Lisa, he nodded. Those two stood to the sides of the two Coordinators, while Trent took the lead. Michelle brought up the rear.
True, the journey to the detention area could've gone a lot faster by car, but as luck would have it, there weren't any available nearby. So, the four OMNI Enforcers had to endure the long, long walk through the base, listening to the two talk about the 'wonderful' things Tobias had been known to do.
Suffering in silence, the tolerance of Charlie peaked. He knew lashing out at the Coordinators would be fun, but chances were good he'd get hurt, and more than likely get reprimanded. And then get sentenced to watching Tobias. So, he used the trump card.
"So darlin, my place or yours?"
Ryley froze mid step and turned to the TITAN next to her. It took her a moment to process the voice and accent, but realization brought about a look of slight dispair and exasperation.
"Oh hell. You really don't give up, do you? Your place."
A low chuckle sounded, and the TITAN shruged slowly and elaborately, continuing his pace. Ryley sighed a "gah" and began walking again. Lucky for both of them, Shasa was busy talking the leader's ear off about everything that COULD have happened....
And damn was it funny.
Charlie drifted back and spoke quietly to the albino, resulting in several rolling eyes and light chuckles.
"Don't mind them, Shasa. Arrow likes the ladies. We're almost there. Y'hear that, snowflake? Stop pestering my bud."
Before any protests could be made, the parade of armor and Coordinator stopped in front of a large building, the double doors guarded by a quartet of guards.
The highest ranking of them approached the two mercenaries. "All weapons must be left at this checkpoint. You'll be allowed to recover them on your exit. This is non-negotiable."
As he spoke, he gestured towards a small room jutting from the building. Glass surrounded the three walls, where a clerk was waiting for the weapons to be delivered.
Charlie chuckled. "That means the anti sonuvabitch daggers too sweetie."
Both sibs sighed - Ryley more out of exasperation - and disarmed quickly, handing everything over to the clerk. Ryley, incidentally had no more on her than the daggers and an automatic pistol, though Shasa took almost a full minute to completely disarm. The entire group gave him a funny look.
"What?"
~~
As the pair were led through corridor after endless corridor, Ryley could feel the eyes of the olive-clad TITAN on her, even though she now walked a few steps ahead of him. She suddenly felt a bit more paranoid about it. Maybe it was just the Gravity making her edgy. But nevertheless, she slowed her pace until he came up beside her and picked up the conversation that they'd been forced to cut earlier.
The four remaining walked in an awkward silence, but one that Shasa soon broke.
"So how much farther is he? Or are you walking us around in circles for no reason?"
"Circles are fun, especially when they're meant for buying time. The kid is still being prep-ah, he's ready." Trent stopped the group, and turned down the next corridor. Passing through a large door, the sound of screaming could be heard.
Not the screaming of a kid, no, but a grown man that came running from the storage area, a black sphere attached to his posterior.
The TITANs sighed loudly as a pair of guards managed to pry the Haro off the tech before putting it back into it's box.
"Uh, yeah, you didn't see that," Trent muttered. "This way."
Passing through the area, and into a hallway marked with numerous doors, the group ended their march at a door guarded by no less than six armed marines. The leader of them passed a keycard on to one of the TITANs, who opened the door, slowly.
Ryley, practically in tears from the sight of Chain Chomp's idea of hostility, pushed past the few TITANs and slid into the room. It was a pretty plain room - not quite a cell but little better than one. On the far side, sitting on the bed was an equally amused little boy, doubled over with laughter and fast running out of breath.
Ryley covered the ground between them quickly and hauled the child up under his arms.
"Hey kiddo!" she managed to get out between the fading giggles, "Holy shit, you grew!"
Tobias's laughs had stopped when Ryley had picked him up, but upon recognition of his captor, he squealed in delight and started squirming to get closer to her.
Ryley put him down as Shasa walked in and was promptly glomped hard enough to require Shasa's catching her. Tobias looked happily from one to the other and back again, still attached to his godmother's waist. Shasa reached down to ruffle his hair, and ended up squatting to meet his eye level, entrapped in a forceful hug from the child.
Finally, Tobias' look sobered. "Where's Mama?" he asked.
Ryley looked at Shasa worriedly and motioned for the guards to close the door for a moment. The Albino squatted down next to her brother and met the boys eyes.
"Tobias....have you read the news?" she asked, quietly, cringing as the boy shook his head.
"No...why? What happened?" He asked with increasing panic in his otherwise quiet and calm voice.
Shasa looked away from him, to Ryley and nodded at her subtly.
'Clear my thoughts, clear my thoughts...' Ryley thought to herself before she answered. "I think your mom should be the one to tell you this, but your Godfather is dead, Tobias. Somebody murdered him." She had to look away right afterwards, because the sight of Tobias' slowly widening gaze.
Shasa took over from here, " Your mom 's still dealing with that news, which is why she's not here--Oh kiddo..." The older man cut his speech and pulled the boy, now on the verge of tears into a tight hug...
~~
Several moments passed before the door opened again. Ryley was carrying Tobias' things, while Shasa carried the boy himself.
"Just give us back the Haro and we'll be on our way." said Ryley, holding one hand out to the TITAN in the lead, you don't even have to take it out of the box..."
"Yeah. Sure. We'll even gift wrap it for you." Lisa growled as they walked back towards their initial meeting place at the entrance of the base.
Along the way, they retrieved a small metal box covered in chains and duct tape and welded closed. Charlie carried it with apprehension, as it's cargo seemed intent on trying to eat through metal.
Awaiting the group at the entrance was the jeep the mercs arrived in, prepped and ready for departure. 'Courtesy of OMNI', so to speak.
Within minutes, the jeep a spec in the distance, the TITANs whooped in joy.
It was past sundown when Kazée found herself able to move again. The figure below her had long since grown cold. The right hand gripped her broken one lovingly in rigor mortis, and the left lay cold underneath her, it's unnatural pallor now matching the rest of the body.
The bleeding in her arm and leg had stopped, but the wounds were still open and painful. At least her leg could support her now. As she stood, Kazée found herself conflicted. To Radio for help first, or to bury the body that lay before her?
The little voice of rationality told her that it was probably better to call for help. Regretfully, she looked at the dead form and limped off to the crumbled structures of The Divine Punishment and the Gold Frame AMA2.
So began the painful task of scaling the side into the cockpit with only one useable arm, but once inside, the once-comforting metal cocoon seemed like a cold, dark hell....
lucky, Raziel isn't going there...
She fumbled around, finding the communications miraculiously still working. At least one thing went well today...besides her being alive and all that.
Her message was a simple SOS with her location and status. She knew somebody would pick it up - Last she heard, Nic was at JOSH-A, and the Marriones had come with her to Earth too...
She relaxed back into her seat and looked up at the black starry sky above. A cynical grin crossed her face.
"Getting jealous?" she asked, maybe to the air, or maybe elsewhere.
With that, she hauled herself up, and tried to leave, but ended up taking several pipes of metal with her. She swore loudly as she tripped, flipping out of the cockpit and banging her already bruised self on several panels before hitting the soft, cool sand and promptly breaking out in tears.
"IT'S NOT FUCKING FAIR!" She screamed into the night. "WHY ME? WHY ALWAYS ME? WHAT DID I DO?"
Around her had fallen several steel pipes and a good deal of wire. She looked from it, to the dead body not far away, and back at the rubble.
~~~
As the small carrier sailed over it, Ryley could see first hand why it was called the "Dead Sea". Fitting, she supposed considering the situation. Her late-night musings were cut short, however, by the man seated next to the helm.
"Oy Snowflake!" He called, "boss lady's sent us an SOS." Beside him, Shasa nearly fell out of his seat, and Ryley whipped around. Simultaneously, the siblings whooped in delight and Ryley ran excidedly over.
"Lt. Melchior, set a course for where it originated from and forward it to Nic. Tell him we'll meet him at JOSH-A in a few days."
"Roger that. He knows now and the course is set. ETA is six hours."
Shasa grinned as he climbed back up onto the pilot's seat, "I can make it in four."
~~~
Hours later, Kazée was seated beside a steel cross, hastily made, but lasting. Beneath it, the body was buried in full uniform and sunglasses, but curled up as though asleep. The possessive girl inside of her hoped desparately that it wold never ever be found.
'The desert will keep you in her arms forever. I'm only sorry it's on Earth...but maybe you can help her rest.'
Far to the east, the sun was rising, casting a pink glow across the sand.
'A sailor's warning, eh?"
Kazée remained still, watching the last of the desert life scurry away to escape what would soon become blistering heat. Very soon she too would have to seat shelter, for without the Normal suit, her legs were bare save for a pair of black panties. She shifted her gaze back to the pair of fallen Giants. Maybe it was the lighting, but both looked as though they too were in tears.
Finally, she stood, leaving the desolate gravesite to wait out the day in the tiny dark hell...
It was the only comfort she had...
...until the whirring of engines sounded above her. Kazée stood again and stuck her head outside, seeing a large shadow cast over the ground. She pulled herself out further and stood upon the charred hull of her weapon, waving broadly with one hand.
In less than an hour, the only thing left was a lonely cross.
The bleeding in her arm and leg had stopped, but the wounds were still open and painful. At least her leg could support her now. As she stood, Kazée found herself conflicted. To Radio for help first, or to bury the body that lay before her?
The little voice of rationality told her that it was probably better to call for help. Regretfully, she looked at the dead form and limped off to the crumbled structures of The Divine Punishment and the Gold Frame AMA2.
So began the painful task of scaling the side into the cockpit with only one useable arm, but once inside, the once-comforting metal cocoon seemed like a cold, dark hell....
lucky, Raziel isn't going there...
She fumbled around, finding the communications miraculiously still working. At least one thing went well today...besides her being alive and all that.
Her message was a simple SOS with her location and status. She knew somebody would pick it up - Last she heard, Nic was at JOSH-A, and the Marriones had come with her to Earth too...
She relaxed back into her seat and looked up at the black starry sky above. A cynical grin crossed her face.
"Getting jealous?" she asked, maybe to the air, or maybe elsewhere.
With that, she hauled herself up, and tried to leave, but ended up taking several pipes of metal with her. She swore loudly as she tripped, flipping out of the cockpit and banging her already bruised self on several panels before hitting the soft, cool sand and promptly breaking out in tears.
"IT'S NOT FUCKING FAIR!" She screamed into the night. "WHY ME? WHY ALWAYS ME? WHAT DID I DO?"
Around her had fallen several steel pipes and a good deal of wire. She looked from it, to the dead body not far away, and back at the rubble.
~~~
As the small carrier sailed over it, Ryley could see first hand why it was called the "Dead Sea". Fitting, she supposed considering the situation. Her late-night musings were cut short, however, by the man seated next to the helm.
"Oy Snowflake!" He called, "boss lady's sent us an SOS." Beside him, Shasa nearly fell out of his seat, and Ryley whipped around. Simultaneously, the siblings whooped in delight and Ryley ran excidedly over.
"Lt. Melchior, set a course for where it originated from and forward it to Nic. Tell him we'll meet him at JOSH-A in a few days."
"Roger that. He knows now and the course is set. ETA is six hours."
Shasa grinned as he climbed back up onto the pilot's seat, "I can make it in four."
~~~
Hours later, Kazée was seated beside a steel cross, hastily made, but lasting. Beneath it, the body was buried in full uniform and sunglasses, but curled up as though asleep. The possessive girl inside of her hoped desparately that it wold never ever be found.
'The desert will keep you in her arms forever. I'm only sorry it's on Earth...but maybe you can help her rest.'
Far to the east, the sun was rising, casting a pink glow across the sand.
'A sailor's warning, eh?"
Kazée remained still, watching the last of the desert life scurry away to escape what would soon become blistering heat. Very soon she too would have to seat shelter, for without the Normal suit, her legs were bare save for a pair of black panties. She shifted her gaze back to the pair of fallen Giants. Maybe it was the lighting, but both looked as though they too were in tears.
Finally, she stood, leaving the desolate gravesite to wait out the day in the tiny dark hell...
It was the only comfort she had...
...until the whirring of engines sounded above her. Kazée stood again and stuck her head outside, seeing a large shadow cast over the ground. She pulled herself out further and stood upon the charred hull of her weapon, waving broadly with one hand.
In less than an hour, the only thing left was a lonely cross.
~~~
"You're sure they went this way?" Nicolas asked, his Dreadnought keeping pace with the Recon Murasame as best it could.
"Yes sir. Our radar showed the transport landing around here, after which it loaded up both of the damaged mobile suits and took off for a nearby city." the pilot reported.
The Dreadnought, unarmed except for its CIWS and Beam Reamers, created a large dust cloud as its thrusters hurled it into the air again. He'd come to Jerusalem looking for the mercenary Kaze Virgo, but she'd moved on, forcing him to play this game of cat and mouse with the Recon Murasame that was guiding him to the Serpent Tail transport that had picked Kazèe - and appearantly the late Emperor's beast - and gone off for other parts. Fortunately for Nicolas, they were reletively close parts.
"It's dead ahead sir." the recon pilot reported. "No way to tell from here if anyone's aboard or not."
"They'd be fools not to leave at least one guard aboard their ship and the Fallen Angels aren't fools by any measure." Nicolas replied, landing the Dreadnought fifty meters from the transport. "Watch my back, ensign."
Nicolas ignored the pilot's acknowledgement of the order and hailed the Serpent Tail transport.
"Good day, mercenaries. I wish to speak to Kazèe Virgo. Is she available?"
Ryley was the only one on the bridge at the time - The rest of the crew had screwed off to do god knows what. The beeping of a hail stirred her from a light doze, and she quickly picked up the phone beside the seat she was in.
"Fallen Angel's Steakhouse, you kill it, we grill it...Oh....Hold on a second."
Ryley set the phone down nearby and ran, quickly, to the back of the ship where her boss and best friend was sleeping. The albino set her hand gently upon Kazée's shoulder and shook it a bit to rouse her from her sleep.
Pastel green eyes opened slowly, looking around wildly a moment before seeking the source of the disturbence which opened them.
"What?" Kazée croaked.
"Someone wants to talk to you." Ryley reponded gently, "We're ahead of schedule anyways, so there's no harm. Besides, if you don't walk around a bit you'll get stiff. C'mon."
Ryley reached down and grabbed Kazées hand, helping her into a sitting, then standing position. She fixed one arm securely around Kazées waist, and the pair began the treck back to the bridge.
Once there, Kazée sat down on the captain's chair, and picked up the phone.
"Sorry for the wait," her voice was quiet and raspy, like she'd been coughing for hours, and none of her usual arrogance came through, "what can I do for you?"
Nicolas mentally scolded himself for not taking into account time zone differences when he came, but this was important. Well, to him at least.
"Hello, Miss Virgo. This is Nicolas Krensky of the Orb Armed Forces. You may have heard of me." Nicolas replied. "I have a couple pieces of business to discuss with you, preferably face-to-face if that's alright with you."
When the only response he got was a tired sounding silence, he continued.
"The first being that I'd like to know if certain rumors are true, rumors saying you were, to be it lightly, a little miffed at the firing of GENESIS at Panama that I ordered seven years ago. The second is that I'd like to thank you for killing Raziel Frost for me and I brought with me a small token of my appreciation."
Kazée pondered his request awhile before muffling the phone and giving an order to Ryley. A moment later, she retured the reciever to her mouth.
"Come on in. I'm trusting you're unarmed? I'm really not in the mood for a firefight." Though the line was said slowly and sleepily, Nicholas could hear the underlying threat behind it.
"Of course not. I did say I simply wanted to talk, didn't I?"
"IN the hangar you go then. I'll meet you there."
Kazée hung up and leaned her head back on the seat for a moment before finally rising. She teetered a moment off balance before grabbing the wall and heading to the hangar in the back.
As the Dreadnought briskly walked toward the transport, Nicolas was busy removing his weapons from his persona. His old ZAFT-standard issue sidearm would have to stay in the cockpit. So would the knife he kept hidden in his boot. That was okay though. If he'd come for a fight, he wouldn't have disarmed his Dreadnought so much. When he was 20 meters from the vehicle, the Dreadnought kneeled, its armor turned grey, and its hand held itself next to an opening cockpit.
"Keep an eye on my suit, ensign! I shouldn't be too long." Nicolas shouted at the Murasame, which saluted smartly.
Nicolas steadily walked up to the transport's door and rapped three times.
The Massive doors hissed open wide enough for a few men to pass through, and pass through Nicholas did.
Reletively speaking, it was a small hangar. The Divine Punishment and what remained of the Gold Frame took up most of the space, but there was nobody in there working on them.
Nicholas could hear the echoes of footsteps from the other end of the hangar, and a moment later, the purple-haired figure making them.
Kazée approached the man slowly. She had no weapons on her person, but a simple gesture would have both Marriones armed and the man before her riddled full of holes. Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that.
As it were, she came to stand a comfortable two feet in front of him.
"Welcome to our temporary hovel."
The reply Nicolas had on the tip of his tounge held in place as he took his first glimpse of the mercenary leader. Something about this woman was very familiar, but he couldn't quite place the feeling. Under the curious and somewhat impatient stares of the purple-haired woman and her guards, Nicolas leaned to his left, then to his right, his brow wrinkled with deep thought. A little impatient redness began to appear on Kazèe's face and promptly sparked Nicolas' memory.
"Oh...my...God...you're Narusa's friend, the cherry-faced girl from the hospital!" Nicolas exclaimed. "Wow...now I'm really sorry you almost got caught by that GENESIS shot."
"I...what...Naru---THAT WAS YOU?!"
Kazée, now very much awake, stepped back from shock as her mind flashed back to the afternoon she got out of the PLANT hospital. The gentleman she'd met in the lobby....
WAS THIS GUY?!
She sighed and hung her head, "Talk about a blast from the past. So what brings you this way, besides waiting 9 years to ask me if I was going to kill you or not. By the way, come in."
She stepped aside, extending her arms in greeting and allowing the ORB officer further on the ship.
"I get the feeling we have alot of talking to do, Mr. Krensky..."
"Thank you for letting me on your ship, Miss Cherry. It's been awhile since I had the time to do a social call." Nicolas replied. "Sometimes it seems like I'm running from one fight to the next, stopping only when my Dreadnought is being repaired."
She nodded knowingly and motioned for hiim to follow her, presumably to a lounge where they could talk in reletive comfort.
"As I mentioned earlier, I'm also here to bring you a gift. I'm sorry if you don't feel that killing your lover is something to be rewarded for, but hearing I'd outlived my greatest enemy made me utterly giddy." Nicolas said. "But we can talk about that after my first piece of business."
The pair reached their destination and sat, the guards not immediately visible, but Nicolas knew that if he caused trouble, they'd be back in an instant.
"Well, there are many reasons I could give you for waiting until now to ask you if you want me dead, but the simplest and most relevent is this: I have been really freaking busy. A social visit to a potential enemy isn't something one does on a whim. Well, not counting today, but this is a different matter altogether, because killing Frosty really opened up my schedule."
Kazée had become quite good at controling her anger, especially in front of prospective clients...so her brain flipped to "Job Mode" almost the very second they entered the lounge.
"I can imagine his death would be good for your lot, however...well, rumours aside, it's kinda bad for my team. Jobs from the general direction of ORB and OMNI have been...sparse. I'm sorry about the ORB mainland by the way. Anyways, any reward or gift I receive for that mission pales in comparison to the actual payment...
"As for any potential deathwish I have for you, well, one of the first things I learned as a mercenary was "hold grudges on your own time". If I killed you, what good would that do me, or any of my mates? Besides. My child is healthy, Ryley is alive and the cargo was safe. The only real loss that firing cost me was Longevius."
At this, Kazée stopped, and took a few deep breaths. There was somethign about this man that supressed her arrogance more than usual...or maybe that was fatigue. Regardless, she fixed her eerie stare on him, awaiting a question or comment.
"Well, I could think of a reason or two, but I don't want to inspire you." Nicolas grinned. "Especially now that I'm in lion's den, so to speak."
He couldn't help but chuckle at his joke. Not that it was funny, but knowing that all these years of fearing being hunted by this woman, a woman he now knew he had some sort of connection to, were at an end brought almost as much relief as hearing about Frost's death had. His hysterical laughter lasted another moment before he brougt himself under control.
"I'm...hee...I'm sorry about that. It's just that...this is the best I've felt in years. It costs me no honor to say this, but you're one of the few pilots strong enough to beat me in a fair fight, not that I'd expect either of us to fight fair if we didn't have to, but when you say you don't want me to kill you...well...it's like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders! I feel for the first time since I defected to Orb truly safe. I know otherwise, but at least now I don't have to worry about a vengeful merc stabbing my vitals."
As he brought his rant to a halt, he realized he'd stood and had paced around the room. With an embarassed haste, he returned to his seat.
"My apologies. It's just...it feels good to not be hated, ya know?"
Kazée watched in amusement as the man paced.
"I can fully understand your feeling of elation, Mister Krensky. It's rather...uplifting to know that there are those in ORB who aren't hypocrites...however, I think you were overestimating both myself and the late emperor....neither of us cared very much, to tell you the truth, and I assure you that if I were to even make an attempt on your life you'd be facing me and armed. It's rather unsettling to slit throats while one is asleep. Call it a personal honour.
"But As you've said many times - assuring my lack of a wish to kill you wasn't your only order of business, so please, continue. I'm sorry if I'm sounding like I'm rushing you, but please try and understand what just happened. I think my fatige would be far more understandable."
Kazée brought a hand up to attempt to rub the fatigue away, but to no avail. Instead, she rose and plodded over to the coffee machine in the corner and poured herself a cup. She made a face at it before slugging the entire cub back in one go, cursing loudlt at the heat and stalked back over to where she had been before, in a slightly grumpy mood, but definately more awake.
"Oh, right, terribly sorry." Nicolas said, admonished. "The gift I brought you should be arriving in a few minutes."
He checked his watch, silently ticked down the next five seconds, and looked up when a mercenary ran into the room.
"Miss Virgo! There's a battleship approaching! Archangel class!" the young merc exclaimed.
Suddenly a lot more aware than before, Kazèe flashed a surprised glance at the former chairman and the guards wondered if they should be shooting him on the spot.
"It's an Archangel-class battleship, the Yue. Fresh off of Nachtblue's assembly line and..." Nicolas grinned. "It's all yours, as well as some special Astray parts that were recently developed at Nachtblue. I don't believe they'll make up for the Longiveus, but it's just a small token of appreciation from a troubled man to his saviour."
Kazée stood dumbfounded at the man who had, basically, just presented her the keys to a shiny new warship.
In thanks.
For a single death.
"Well this is an extravagent gift, Mister Krensky. You have my thanks." She turned to face him, extendinng her hand. "I hope this will also improve bussiness relations with us? Oh! And uh...what's her crew? There are a grand total of six of us on this shuttle at the moment. If she's manned, we can let everyone off at JOSH-A when we stop by to pick up our comrades there..."
Nicolas took the surprised mercenary's hand and shook it.
"Just a tender skeleton crew right now. They can get you here and there, they might even be able to repair light damage, but if it got involved in a fight between here and wherever your crew is, the best it could do is fire the CIWS turrets since those are mostly automated anyway and maybe use the Gottfried turrets." Nicolas reported. "And don't worry about dropping them off; they've got a small shuttle of their own to take them back to Nachtblue after the Yue is officially delivered."
Nicolas straightened the collar of his uniform and let himself be escorted outside.
"I think it'd be very safe to say that business relations between us have improved, Miss Cherry. I'm glad we were able to get this cleared up, it's a load off my shoulders. I wish you well with your new ship and thank you for meeting with you." Nicolas said, shaking Kazèe's hand again. "You might want to do something with that hair though. The frizzy, bedhead look isn't very professional looking, if you ask me."
Nicolas chuckled to himself as he exited the ship.
"Oh, and there should be an instruction manual on how to use that new Astray gear. I figure it'll fit your style perfectly." Nicolas called back briefly.
Minutes later, color rushed back onto the Dreadnought's armor and, whether Kazèe was watching or not, mimed blowing the mercenary queen a kiss. Motioning for his escort to join him, Nicolas began the trek back to the Uziel.
"Was your meeting productive, sir?" the Murasame pilot asked.
Nicolas sighed. "Yes, yes it was. Expensive too, but I feel like I could fight a hundred GiNNs with no more than a Trident and a net."
"Yes sir." the pilot replied, not sure how to properly answer.
"Well, lead me back to my ship. I've got asses to kick and some ego to replenish." Nicolas ordered and began humming.
"Yes sir. Our radar showed the transport landing around here, after which it loaded up both of the damaged mobile suits and took off for a nearby city." the pilot reported.
The Dreadnought, unarmed except for its CIWS and Beam Reamers, created a large dust cloud as its thrusters hurled it into the air again. He'd come to Jerusalem looking for the mercenary Kaze Virgo, but she'd moved on, forcing him to play this game of cat and mouse with the Recon Murasame that was guiding him to the Serpent Tail transport that had picked Kazèe - and appearantly the late Emperor's beast - and gone off for other parts. Fortunately for Nicolas, they were reletively close parts.
"It's dead ahead sir." the recon pilot reported. "No way to tell from here if anyone's aboard or not."
"They'd be fools not to leave at least one guard aboard their ship and the Fallen Angels aren't fools by any measure." Nicolas replied, landing the Dreadnought fifty meters from the transport. "Watch my back, ensign."
Nicolas ignored the pilot's acknowledgement of the order and hailed the Serpent Tail transport.
"Good day, mercenaries. I wish to speak to Kazèe Virgo. Is she available?"
Ryley was the only one on the bridge at the time - The rest of the crew had screwed off to do god knows what. The beeping of a hail stirred her from a light doze, and she quickly picked up the phone beside the seat she was in.
"Fallen Angel's Steakhouse, you kill it, we grill it...Oh....Hold on a second."
Ryley set the phone down nearby and ran, quickly, to the back of the ship where her boss and best friend was sleeping. The albino set her hand gently upon Kazée's shoulder and shook it a bit to rouse her from her sleep.
Pastel green eyes opened slowly, looking around wildly a moment before seeking the source of the disturbence which opened them.
"What?" Kazée croaked.
"Someone wants to talk to you." Ryley reponded gently, "We're ahead of schedule anyways, so there's no harm. Besides, if you don't walk around a bit you'll get stiff. C'mon."
Ryley reached down and grabbed Kazées hand, helping her into a sitting, then standing position. She fixed one arm securely around Kazées waist, and the pair began the treck back to the bridge.
Once there, Kazée sat down on the captain's chair, and picked up the phone.
"Sorry for the wait," her voice was quiet and raspy, like she'd been coughing for hours, and none of her usual arrogance came through, "what can I do for you?"
Nicolas mentally scolded himself for not taking into account time zone differences when he came, but this was important. Well, to him at least.
"Hello, Miss Virgo. This is Nicolas Krensky of the Orb Armed Forces. You may have heard of me." Nicolas replied. "I have a couple pieces of business to discuss with you, preferably face-to-face if that's alright with you."
When the only response he got was a tired sounding silence, he continued.
"The first being that I'd like to know if certain rumors are true, rumors saying you were, to be it lightly, a little miffed at the firing of GENESIS at Panama that I ordered seven years ago. The second is that I'd like to thank you for killing Raziel Frost for me and I brought with me a small token of my appreciation."
Kazée pondered his request awhile before muffling the phone and giving an order to Ryley. A moment later, she retured the reciever to her mouth.
"Come on in. I'm trusting you're unarmed? I'm really not in the mood for a firefight." Though the line was said slowly and sleepily, Nicholas could hear the underlying threat behind it.
"Of course not. I did say I simply wanted to talk, didn't I?"
"IN the hangar you go then. I'll meet you there."
Kazée hung up and leaned her head back on the seat for a moment before finally rising. She teetered a moment off balance before grabbing the wall and heading to the hangar in the back.
As the Dreadnought briskly walked toward the transport, Nicolas was busy removing his weapons from his persona. His old ZAFT-standard issue sidearm would have to stay in the cockpit. So would the knife he kept hidden in his boot. That was okay though. If he'd come for a fight, he wouldn't have disarmed his Dreadnought so much. When he was 20 meters from the vehicle, the Dreadnought kneeled, its armor turned grey, and its hand held itself next to an opening cockpit.
"Keep an eye on my suit, ensign! I shouldn't be too long." Nicolas shouted at the Murasame, which saluted smartly.
Nicolas steadily walked up to the transport's door and rapped three times.
The Massive doors hissed open wide enough for a few men to pass through, and pass through Nicholas did.
Reletively speaking, it was a small hangar. The Divine Punishment and what remained of the Gold Frame took up most of the space, but there was nobody in there working on them.
Nicholas could hear the echoes of footsteps from the other end of the hangar, and a moment later, the purple-haired figure making them.
Kazée approached the man slowly. She had no weapons on her person, but a simple gesture would have both Marriones armed and the man before her riddled full of holes. Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that.
As it were, she came to stand a comfortable two feet in front of him.
"Welcome to our temporary hovel."
The reply Nicolas had on the tip of his tounge held in place as he took his first glimpse of the mercenary leader. Something about this woman was very familiar, but he couldn't quite place the feeling. Under the curious and somewhat impatient stares of the purple-haired woman and her guards, Nicolas leaned to his left, then to his right, his brow wrinkled with deep thought. A little impatient redness began to appear on Kazèe's face and promptly sparked Nicolas' memory.
"Oh...my...God...you're Narusa's friend, the cherry-faced girl from the hospital!" Nicolas exclaimed. "Wow...now I'm really sorry you almost got caught by that GENESIS shot."
"I...what...Naru---THAT WAS YOU?!"
Kazée, now very much awake, stepped back from shock as her mind flashed back to the afternoon she got out of the PLANT hospital. The gentleman she'd met in the lobby....
WAS THIS GUY?!
She sighed and hung her head, "Talk about a blast from the past. So what brings you this way, besides waiting 9 years to ask me if I was going to kill you or not. By the way, come in."
She stepped aside, extending her arms in greeting and allowing the ORB officer further on the ship.
"I get the feeling we have alot of talking to do, Mr. Krensky..."
"Thank you for letting me on your ship, Miss Cherry. It's been awhile since I had the time to do a social call." Nicolas replied. "Sometimes it seems like I'm running from one fight to the next, stopping only when my Dreadnought is being repaired."
She nodded knowingly and motioned for hiim to follow her, presumably to a lounge where they could talk in reletive comfort.
"As I mentioned earlier, I'm also here to bring you a gift. I'm sorry if you don't feel that killing your lover is something to be rewarded for, but hearing I'd outlived my greatest enemy made me utterly giddy." Nicolas said. "But we can talk about that after my first piece of business."
The pair reached their destination and sat, the guards not immediately visible, but Nicolas knew that if he caused trouble, they'd be back in an instant.
"Well, there are many reasons I could give you for waiting until now to ask you if you want me dead, but the simplest and most relevent is this: I have been really freaking busy. A social visit to a potential enemy isn't something one does on a whim. Well, not counting today, but this is a different matter altogether, because killing Frosty really opened up my schedule."
Kazée had become quite good at controling her anger, especially in front of prospective clients...so her brain flipped to "Job Mode" almost the very second they entered the lounge.
"I can imagine his death would be good for your lot, however...well, rumours aside, it's kinda bad for my team. Jobs from the general direction of ORB and OMNI have been...sparse. I'm sorry about the ORB mainland by the way. Anyways, any reward or gift I receive for that mission pales in comparison to the actual payment...
"As for any potential deathwish I have for you, well, one of the first things I learned as a mercenary was "hold grudges on your own time". If I killed you, what good would that do me, or any of my mates? Besides. My child is healthy, Ryley is alive and the cargo was safe. The only real loss that firing cost me was Longevius."
At this, Kazée stopped, and took a few deep breaths. There was somethign about this man that supressed her arrogance more than usual...or maybe that was fatigue. Regardless, she fixed her eerie stare on him, awaiting a question or comment.
"Well, I could think of a reason or two, but I don't want to inspire you." Nicolas grinned. "Especially now that I'm in lion's den, so to speak."
He couldn't help but chuckle at his joke. Not that it was funny, but knowing that all these years of fearing being hunted by this woman, a woman he now knew he had some sort of connection to, were at an end brought almost as much relief as hearing about Frost's death had. His hysterical laughter lasted another moment before he brougt himself under control.
"I'm...hee...I'm sorry about that. It's just that...this is the best I've felt in years. It costs me no honor to say this, but you're one of the few pilots strong enough to beat me in a fair fight, not that I'd expect either of us to fight fair if we didn't have to, but when you say you don't want me to kill you...well...it's like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders! I feel for the first time since I defected to Orb truly safe. I know otherwise, but at least now I don't have to worry about a vengeful merc stabbing my vitals."
As he brought his rant to a halt, he realized he'd stood and had paced around the room. With an embarassed haste, he returned to his seat.
"My apologies. It's just...it feels good to not be hated, ya know?"
Kazée watched in amusement as the man paced.
"I can fully understand your feeling of elation, Mister Krensky. It's rather...uplifting to know that there are those in ORB who aren't hypocrites...however, I think you were overestimating both myself and the late emperor....neither of us cared very much, to tell you the truth, and I assure you that if I were to even make an attempt on your life you'd be facing me and armed. It's rather unsettling to slit throats while one is asleep. Call it a personal honour.
"But As you've said many times - assuring my lack of a wish to kill you wasn't your only order of business, so please, continue. I'm sorry if I'm sounding like I'm rushing you, but please try and understand what just happened. I think my fatige would be far more understandable."
Kazée brought a hand up to attempt to rub the fatigue away, but to no avail. Instead, she rose and plodded over to the coffee machine in the corner and poured herself a cup. She made a face at it before slugging the entire cub back in one go, cursing loudlt at the heat and stalked back over to where she had been before, in a slightly grumpy mood, but definately more awake.
"Oh, right, terribly sorry." Nicolas said, admonished. "The gift I brought you should be arriving in a few minutes."
He checked his watch, silently ticked down the next five seconds, and looked up when a mercenary ran into the room.
"Miss Virgo! There's a battleship approaching! Archangel class!" the young merc exclaimed.
Suddenly a lot more aware than before, Kazèe flashed a surprised glance at the former chairman and the guards wondered if they should be shooting him on the spot.
"It's an Archangel-class battleship, the Yue. Fresh off of Nachtblue's assembly line and..." Nicolas grinned. "It's all yours, as well as some special Astray parts that were recently developed at Nachtblue. I don't believe they'll make up for the Longiveus, but it's just a small token of appreciation from a troubled man to his saviour."
Kazée stood dumbfounded at the man who had, basically, just presented her the keys to a shiny new warship.
In thanks.
For a single death.
"Well this is an extravagent gift, Mister Krensky. You have my thanks." She turned to face him, extendinng her hand. "I hope this will also improve bussiness relations with us? Oh! And uh...what's her crew? There are a grand total of six of us on this shuttle at the moment. If she's manned, we can let everyone off at JOSH-A when we stop by to pick up our comrades there..."
Nicolas took the surprised mercenary's hand and shook it.
"Just a tender skeleton crew right now. They can get you here and there, they might even be able to repair light damage, but if it got involved in a fight between here and wherever your crew is, the best it could do is fire the CIWS turrets since those are mostly automated anyway and maybe use the Gottfried turrets." Nicolas reported. "And don't worry about dropping them off; they've got a small shuttle of their own to take them back to Nachtblue after the Yue is officially delivered."
Nicolas straightened the collar of his uniform and let himself be escorted outside.
"I think it'd be very safe to say that business relations between us have improved, Miss Cherry. I'm glad we were able to get this cleared up, it's a load off my shoulders. I wish you well with your new ship and thank you for meeting with you." Nicolas said, shaking Kazèe's hand again. "You might want to do something with that hair though. The frizzy, bedhead look isn't very professional looking, if you ask me."
Nicolas chuckled to himself as he exited the ship.
"Oh, and there should be an instruction manual on how to use that new Astray gear. I figure it'll fit your style perfectly." Nicolas called back briefly.
Minutes later, color rushed back onto the Dreadnought's armor and, whether Kazèe was watching or not, mimed blowing the mercenary queen a kiss. Motioning for his escort to join him, Nicolas began the trek back to the Uziel.
"Was your meeting productive, sir?" the Murasame pilot asked.
Nicolas sighed. "Yes, yes it was. Expensive too, but I feel like I could fight a hundred GiNNs with no more than a Trident and a net."
"Yes sir." the pilot replied, not sure how to properly answer.
"Well, lead me back to my ship. I've got asses to kick and some ego to replenish." Nicolas ordered and began humming.
~~~
It had been several hours since Krensky had left the Angels his gift. The small shuttle had docked with the warship, and the six aboard plus two suits had al transfered over. The Skeleton Crew had been at least somewhat happy to recieve them and the small crew headed off to JOSH-A.
Kazée was asleep in the captain's quaters, both needing and dreading the sleep itself. Ryley had taped a "DISTURB AT YOUR OWN RISK" to the door.
Speaking of, the siblings were sitting in the lounge a few decks down with a deck of cards between them.
"I change it to spades."
"Smarmy bitch."
There were only three people on the bridge, as it were. The rest of the crew was off doing what they did. Melchior sat at the helm, asleep and with his feet upon the dashboard. In the CIC was a gentleman by the name of Boorman, who also was dozing at his station, lound yawns eminating every few minutes. At sensors sat a lass who went by Wizzen. Her eyes were fixaed on the screens attentively, but her head was in her arms, using them as a pillow.
A beep went off, signaling an incoming communication followed closely by a second, signaling the ship's impending arrival at their target. Boorman promptly sat up and opened the message. His tiny grey eyes skimmed the message before he reached over the captain's chair for the phone, immediately beeping for the lone resident of the captain's quarters.
~~
Kazée groaned loudly at the incessant buzzing of her communication panel. She opened her eyes irritably and reached one hand over to the desk near the bed. The desk was a bit out of reach, so she streched her arm farther, rolling onto her back to do so...
and onto the floor.
Kazée popped her head up and grabbed the phone angrily.
"What?" she snapped, "What is it?"
On the other end, a startled and slightly terrified Boorman squeaked out "A message from the office of the late Emperor just got relayed down here. It's for you ma'am."
"Guh," she sighed, "exactly what I wanted to think about right now. Patch it through to here. What's the ETA to JOSH-A?"
"About five minutes. Alright, the message is through. I'll bug you again when we're there."
Kazée hung up the phone and looked at the message that had popped up on the screen next to it.
'To you and your son, the emperor leaves his greatest treasures: The Providence and his Empire. The former is on it's way to Alecto now, and the later will be inhereted upon your son's 14th birthday.'
It took a few seconds for that to register...
~~~
It was cold and wet. The torrential rainfall didn't help much either. Nicolai mumbles "That last battle was a close one...if that anti-ship sword had been a little bit higher.." he shuddered, "I don't want to think about it. At least I lucked out by finding this old town. It's bad enough that I don't have a mobile suit, but I'm sure that Kazée wouldn't forgive me if I went and died on her..."
A beeping cut his musings.
"An Archangel class? IFF is friendly..now what?' He sighed, "Nicolai to unknown Archangel class, please state your business."
~
Shasa brought the warship gently onto the ground, as his sister plonked down on the captain's chair to answer the incoming hail.
"Why hello thar, mister Ginovaef," she began, "Say hello to the Fallen Angel's new flagship, Yue. We'll be over where you are in a few minutes. Boss says she's got presents for you."
"Hello, Ms. Marrione. Why would Kazée have presents for me? My birthday isn't until December and the Regenerate's now a scrap heap. Permission to come aboard? My clothing's soaked, and I'm getting chilly. If there's coffee, I'll take it black." He visably shivered. The fire that he'd made was dangerously close to dying, and there was no more dry kindling within...well a large area.
"The doors are open, dear. Kazée is waiting for you."
With that, Ryley shut off the comm and signaled for the hangar doors to open. From her vantage point, she could see the hulking form of what was LEFT of the Regenerate and cringed, remembering all the work she'd put into it. With a final wave to Shasa, she turned to head for the hangar, meeting her best friend along the way.
Kazée looked worse than she had when she met with Krensky. It stood to reason though - she'd had more time to mull over the preceeeding events, and thus more time to wallow in tragedy. Ryley slid her arm around Kazée's shoulder and pulled her into a half-hug as they continues to the hangar to meet with Nicolai.
Kazée leaned her head on the taller woman's shoulder. In her hand was gripped a small pile of important-looking papers. She clutched them to her chest as they entered the freezing cold hangar which housed the sad remains of two giants.
As Nicolai entered the hangar, he spotted the remains of two mobile suits: The Gold Frame and..the funny-looking machine that Raziel had used. Kazée was leaning on Ryley, looking extremely sad.
"Kazée, I can't imagine what you're feeling right now. Ryley mentioned that you had some presents. I can't imagine that I'm exactly the most gift-worthy person right now..."
Kazée pulled away from her friend, shoving all but one paper into her chest. She crossed over to Nicolai, grabbing his wrist to place the sheet in his hand.
"This," she said sternly, "is your first gift." Nicolai looked down at the paper, and whitened. He looked from the paper to his boss' face and back. Kazée continued, "She was left to me, but not only is she practically useless in my hands, Tobais is stil far too small to use her at all. You can babysit her for a few years, and I'm almost possitive you have the capacity to use her DRAGOONS." Nicolai looked back at the sheet.
Entitlement to the Providence.
Kazée then went back and took a second sheet from Ryley, handing it to Nicolai. "This," she said, "is your second gift. Two ships are too hard for me to manage, and with all the traveling you do, I figure you'd need this. She's got a full complement of six GINN EKs, so you owe me those back." Nicolai's jaw nearly hit the floor.
Ownership of Selene.
Kazée went back a third time, taking the rest of the papers, and walking back over to stand in front of Nicolai. She drew his attention up and away from the ownership deeds he was holding and met his slate blue gaze. "These," she said somberly, "took Shasa weeks, brushes with the law and several thousand pulled strings to dig up." She fwhummped them into his grip.
Ginovaef familly records.
Nicolai was in shock. "This..is almost too much. And the Providence is a loaner? Huh. Never thought that mobile suits, much less Gundams, could ever be loaned."
He looks at the family history documents, then folds them up and places them in his shirt pocket, looking at Kazée, Shasa and Ryley.
"I appreciate what you did, Shasa. Does this mean that all of you believe me? Even though I was in training, I still remember what happened when the last guy was accused. But Kazée, I can't bear seeing you so depressed like this. How can I, or anyone for that matter, cheer you up?"
Kazée sighed a bit, despite herself. She ducked her head a bit and shook it. "Nothing really you can do, Nic." She looked back up at him, her eyes a bit glassy with unshed tears. "I appreciate the thoughts."
She backed off and turned to head back into the ship proper. "Take an officer's room. We're picking up crew in a few hours, and those'll go like hotcakes."
A beeping cut his musings.
"An Archangel class? IFF is friendly..now what?' He sighed, "Nicolai to unknown Archangel class, please state your business."
~
Shasa brought the warship gently onto the ground, as his sister plonked down on the captain's chair to answer the incoming hail.
"Why hello thar, mister Ginovaef," she began, "Say hello to the Fallen Angel's new flagship, Yue. We'll be over where you are in a few minutes. Boss says she's got presents for you."
"Hello, Ms. Marrione. Why would Kazée have presents for me? My birthday isn't until December and the Regenerate's now a scrap heap. Permission to come aboard? My clothing's soaked, and I'm getting chilly. If there's coffee, I'll take it black." He visably shivered. The fire that he'd made was dangerously close to dying, and there was no more dry kindling within...well a large area.
"The doors are open, dear. Kazée is waiting for you."
With that, Ryley shut off the comm and signaled for the hangar doors to open. From her vantage point, she could see the hulking form of what was LEFT of the Regenerate and cringed, remembering all the work she'd put into it. With a final wave to Shasa, she turned to head for the hangar, meeting her best friend along the way.
Kazée looked worse than she had when she met with Krensky. It stood to reason though - she'd had more time to mull over the preceeeding events, and thus more time to wallow in tragedy. Ryley slid her arm around Kazée's shoulder and pulled her into a half-hug as they continues to the hangar to meet with Nicolai.
Kazée leaned her head on the taller woman's shoulder. In her hand was gripped a small pile of important-looking papers. She clutched them to her chest as they entered the freezing cold hangar which housed the sad remains of two giants.
As Nicolai entered the hangar, he spotted the remains of two mobile suits: The Gold Frame and..the funny-looking machine that Raziel had used. Kazée was leaning on Ryley, looking extremely sad.
"Kazée, I can't imagine what you're feeling right now. Ryley mentioned that you had some presents. I can't imagine that I'm exactly the most gift-worthy person right now..."
Kazée pulled away from her friend, shoving all but one paper into her chest. She crossed over to Nicolai, grabbing his wrist to place the sheet in his hand.
"This," she said sternly, "is your first gift." Nicolai looked down at the paper, and whitened. He looked from the paper to his boss' face and back. Kazée continued, "She was left to me, but not only is she practically useless in my hands, Tobais is stil far too small to use her at all. You can babysit her for a few years, and I'm almost possitive you have the capacity to use her DRAGOONS." Nicolai looked back at the sheet.
Entitlement to the Providence.
Kazée then went back and took a second sheet from Ryley, handing it to Nicolai. "This," she said, "is your second gift. Two ships are too hard for me to manage, and with all the traveling you do, I figure you'd need this. She's got a full complement of six GINN EKs, so you owe me those back." Nicolai's jaw nearly hit the floor.
Ownership of Selene.
Kazée went back a third time, taking the rest of the papers, and walking back over to stand in front of Nicolai. She drew his attention up and away from the ownership deeds he was holding and met his slate blue gaze. "These," she said somberly, "took Shasa weeks, brushes with the law and several thousand pulled strings to dig up." She fwhummped them into his grip.
Ginovaef familly records.
Nicolai was in shock. "This..is almost too much. And the Providence is a loaner? Huh. Never thought that mobile suits, much less Gundams, could ever be loaned."
He looks at the family history documents, then folds them up and places them in his shirt pocket, looking at Kazée, Shasa and Ryley.
"I appreciate what you did, Shasa. Does this mean that all of you believe me? Even though I was in training, I still remember what happened when the last guy was accused. But Kazée, I can't bear seeing you so depressed like this. How can I, or anyone for that matter, cheer you up?"
Kazée sighed a bit, despite herself. She ducked her head a bit and shook it. "Nothing really you can do, Nic." She looked back up at him, her eyes a bit glassy with unshed tears. "I appreciate the thoughts."
She backed off and turned to head back into the ship proper. "Take an officer's room. We're picking up crew in a few hours, and those'll go like hotcakes."
~~~
It took twenty four hours almost to the minute for the full force of greif to hit her. Kazée, once again in bed, rolled over to lie on her uninjured side. She brought her broken hand up to cover her face as tears began to silently leak down her face. She didn't try to stop them.
Unbidden shadows of you formed yesterday,
I ran away to a room here on the bay.
Her injured arm was curled up under her. Already, the wound had started to ache less, but she wished it wouldn't stop. She brought the arm up so her hands could clasp to eachother for comfort.
Her palms tickled.
For as long as Kazée could remember, she'd believed in angels. Even after she denounced religion, she kept that belief. To her, tickled palms were a sign that an angel was holding her hand.
Interrupted life again, another new beginning,
Where the silence echoes you're no longer with me.
Almost unconsiously, she closed her hands around nothing, like she was holding the angel's hand back. Her reddened eyes shifted to look at the celing. Her lips curled into a cynical, almost evil smile.
"You were jealous..." she whispered, "or...were you angry? At me? Is that why this happened....because I've tried to move on? Because I've tried to be happy without you? Becasue I was happy without you?" her voice grew louder and more tear choked as she continued.
"....it's your fault you know...you didn't run. You didn't let me come. You accepted that job. You let that bastard on the team...you led us to war....why? Why?!"
Kazée sniffed loudly and gracelessly before flopping back over and sobbing violently into her pillow. A hole had opened in her heart, and with every tear shed, it simply grew bigger and blacker.
Here and now, i feel that i'm embracing freedom,
Even though i may be alone, but that's ok.
"I just...." she spluttered between choking on tears and sniffing back a slowly running nose, "...why can't I go back? God damnit... " she exhaled shakily to try and draw in a solid breath. "Why didn't I die when I was supposed to?"
And looking out to a different sky will disengage me,
Absence is never the answer, i know, but it serves as my shade.
Unbidden shadows of you formed yesterday,
I ran away to a room here on the bay.
Her injured arm was curled up under her. Already, the wound had started to ache less, but she wished it wouldn't stop. She brought the arm up so her hands could clasp to eachother for comfort.
Her palms tickled.
For as long as Kazée could remember, she'd believed in angels. Even after she denounced religion, she kept that belief. To her, tickled palms were a sign that an angel was holding her hand.
Interrupted life again, another new beginning,
Where the silence echoes you're no longer with me.
Almost unconsiously, she closed her hands around nothing, like she was holding the angel's hand back. Her reddened eyes shifted to look at the celing. Her lips curled into a cynical, almost evil smile.
"You were jealous..." she whispered, "or...were you angry? At me? Is that why this happened....because I've tried to move on? Because I've tried to be happy without you? Becasue I was happy without you?" her voice grew louder and more tear choked as she continued.
"....it's your fault you know...you didn't run. You didn't let me come. You accepted that job. You let that bastard on the team...you led us to war....why? Why?!"
Kazée sniffed loudly and gracelessly before flopping back over and sobbing violently into her pillow. A hole had opened in her heart, and with every tear shed, it simply grew bigger and blacker.
Here and now, i feel that i'm embracing freedom,
Even though i may be alone, but that's ok.
"I just...." she spluttered between choking on tears and sniffing back a slowly running nose, "...why can't I go back? God damnit... " she exhaled shakily to try and draw in a solid breath. "Why didn't I die when I was supposed to?"
And looking out to a different sky will disengage me,
Absence is never the answer, i know, but it serves as my shade.
~~~
::Earth Orbit, aboard the Vindication::
"Got a delivery up from Songnam this morning. It's addressed to you guys," the gruff voice of the chief mechanic bellowed from the hangar floor.
A teal suit leaned over the edge of the catwalk, before leaping over the edge, letting the absence of gravity cushion its fall. "Is that so?"
"Yeah. It's heavy, too. It's also shiney."
Connor laughed. "Shiney is good."
"Is it shiney, or shineh?" came the voice of Trent, whose black clad armor landed with a thud behind the other TITAN. Soon after, the rest of the squad landed in similar fashion.
Shrugging, Connor moved over to the large crate, and punched in the command to open. The releasing air hissed through the opening seal of the hatch, which crashed to the floor moments later.
"I would have to go with shineh."
__--||--||--__
"Mark six, eh? What's it got that our current armor doesn't?" Michelle groaned as the technicians helped remove the chest armor of her suit.
Ezekial shivered as he rubbed his hands across his arms. "Man, I hate taking the armor off. Feels like you're naked."
"Skins suits don't do much to count as clothing, Sword. But apparently, the mark six armor has better sensors, and I guess some sort of gel layer that protects against heat. Or something like that." Lisa said.
"And they couldn't just install that into the fives? It's like going clothes shopping, man! I hate new clothes."
"Zeke, you've never been clothes shopping," Trent muttered.
"I've read about it though!"
"Television doesn't count as reading."
"Well, uh, it was with closed captioning, so technically it does."
"Touché."
A loud pounding brought the discussion to a close as the soldiers known as TITANs looked to the doorway as their leader walked in.
"It looks the same to boot. So, we're going to match colors now?" Sandra scoffed.
Connor grunted as he flexed the new armor; the dull green plating reflecting the overhead lights. "I hope not. I'll paint it myself if I have to. But damn, this stuff feels good."
__--||--||--__
"TITAN DRIVE X Three one fi-, er, six, reporting as requested, ma'am!"
"Hello, Connor," the blonde woman smiled as her chair twirled to face the soldier. "I like what they did to your armor."
"Thank you, ma'am. It feels better than the Mark Five."
"Good, good. Is your team good to go, then?"
"Final fitting preperations should be wrapping up any minute now."
"Excellent. In that case, now would be the best time to inform you of your next mission. Or rather, the culmination of a mission."
"The kid?"
"The kid."
The TITAN slumped and moaned.
"You don't have to transport him this time. That's already been taken care of." Nicole grinned as she caught a muffled "sweet" come from the suit of armor. "Your mission is to make sure the deal goes through. Should be a cakewalk."
"Handing over a kid requires seven TITANs?"
"It took seven of you, plus a a squadron of marines just to watch him, didn't it?"
"Well...yeah...but that was different..."
"This time around, though, you get to, shall we say, wing it."
"Ma'am?"
The aging officer stood up, and walked over to the Hawke. 'You get to field test the heat layer of your new armor, and in doing so, inspire fear into the enemy of the advancement of the Earth Alliance's technology."
"So, I get to show off?"
"Exactly."
"About time."
Kazée? Come on, hun. It's time to go.'
Kaz rolled over.
'Oh come on beautiful. The fresh air might make you feel better.'
No response.
'You know, they might not give him over to us.'
Kazée's bandanged hand pulled itself out of her little next of misery and self-loathing and pointed vaugely towards the desk, upon which sat a note.
"To whom this may concern,
If you are presented with this, you have my deepest apologies for being unable to make it. The people standing before you (one of whom no doubt handed you this letter) are my representatives. They are to be treated as though you would treat me. The payment will go to them.
I look forward to future business with you
Kazée Virgo"
So now Shasa was driving towards the entrance of JOSH-A. Ryley was in the front seat, her feet up on the dashboard and a tilly hat* pulled down over her face. They stopped at the entrance to state their business and finally arrived in the middle of the complex - right where they were supposed to.
Shasa got out of the truck carefully - pulling his ususal jacket on. Alaska was freaking cold.
Ryley, however, stayed put. Her last run-in with a TITAN had resulted in a sexualy-charged fistfigt with that odd german man (who still had the sexiest accent known to mankind). Part of her wanted to meet him again, part of her didn't. She cast a glance to Shasa from under her hat. He was armed. Heavily. So was she. Ryley wiggles her boots a bit, feeling the "Anti-Son-Of-A-Bitch" daggers in them.
A moment later, she too was out of the truck, and waiting to finish the bloody deal.
"All right boys and girls!" Connor shouted as he entered the hangar, which, aside from the mobile suits, a few containers, and the other TITANs, was empty. "We just got our mission details."
With a push off the catwalk railing, Katar descended to the main floor where his siblings stood. Landing with a grunt, the mag-seals in his boots activated to keep him from bouncing away in the zero gravity.
"Does it involve a few buckets of paint that we can use to get rid of this puke green color? I mean, yuck," Michelle growled as she looked over her armor.
"Hey, I use a shade of this color, y'know!"
"Err, yeah, but it still looks like vomit."
"That's a low blow. Anyways. I've made sure that our next shipment includes some paint." Connor raised his hand to silence the voices of optimisim. "However, we have the job first. We get to test out this wonderful new suit today."
"Awesome," Lisa said. "Where at?"
"Joshua."
Trent shook his head. "Wait, what? We're in space dude, and I don't see any shuttles. And last I knew, this boat has a few more weeks of orbital patrol in it. Or did things change and we weren't told?"
The middle Hawke brother nodded. "Everything is as you said. We're going for a spacewalk."
One of the olive green arms raised, and the thick germanic accent spoke up, "Uh...sure. Um, question though. How in the world are we going to get from here, to there, with no shuttle, and no ship? Jump?"
"Yep."
"Oh. Okay then. Here I thought you'd come up with a...wait...wait...what?"
Connor walked over to the hangar wall, where stacks of cargo containers stood. Attached to the metal box that brought the Mark Sixes, Connor typed in a code on the keypad. With a hiss, the crate opened, and seven large backpacks rattled on their racks. "Meet the 'OGIHIDGS' Paragliders."
"Ohwhatsits?"
"Oh God I Hope I Don't Go Squish. That's not their official name, mind you, but its more realistic than 'Aerial Drive Sequencer'."
__--||--||--__
Connor felt his stomach churn as he stepped onto the edge of the Vindiciation's 'leg'. The Earth filled his entire range of vision. "I've never seen it this big before. Well, outside of looking through a window. This just takes the cake. "All right TITANs. Let your onboard computers launch the chute. It knows better than we do. Concentrate on not moving; You don't want to wave an arm around and end up in the middle of the pacific. Mission start in ten seconds. Any last minute questions?"
"Is it too late to go to the bathroom, because I really think I'm going to piss myself!"
"JUMP!"
__--||--||--__
Nothingness. Complete and utter nothingness surrounded him. His altimeter showed him descending, and his computer feed showed a green light. He was falling correctly.
"Radio cutoff in forty seconds. Remember to lock your armor plates once the computer tells you to. It will make the adjustments, not you. Burning up in the atmosphere is not how the TITANs go down. We go out in a blaze of glory, not just a blaze, remember that!" Connor hoped his siblings didn't pick up the slight tremor in his voice. He'd faced down the Emperor of ZAFT on public television. Outflew a nuclear explosion in an enemy PLANT. Fought against the supposedly invincible Umbrella of Artemis, and even the Redcoats themselves, all with a smile on his face, and not one hint of worry.
Now, free falling through space, seconds away from the Earth's atmosphere, with only a few inches of untested armor and an untested glider between him and a very messy landing, he couldn't think of anything but fear.
The blinking light in the cornor of his HUD caught his attention, and he could feel the small boosters attached to the glider spin him around. "Great, now I won't even know when I'll be a pancake," he mentally groaned. The timer ticked down to the cutoff point, and he willed the armor to lock in place. With a series of clicks, the joints of the armor froze, locking him in a slightly reclined position.
Vibrations followed almost immediately after, and traces of red and orange began trailing the edges of his armor. The temperature inside the armor rose dramatically as the flames engulfed him. Sweat stung his eyes as he tried keeping an eye on his sensors.
With the joints locked, he couldn't look over at his brothers and sisters, and with the radio blackout, he couldn't check on their condition either. Straining his eyes, however, he could just make out one of them to his left, locked in the same position as he.
The time in the inferno seemed to drag on for hours, along which the agonizing heat. It was a welcome surprise then when the flames disappeared, and the computer relinquished positional control to the user. Connor immediately unlocked his armor, and rolled around. He wished he hadn't as soon as he did, as the pacific ocean and Alaskan coastline was approaching very, very, fast.
"Everyone, report!" Connor shouted as soon as the radio link was re-established. Five green acknowledgement lights flashed their okay. Connor's eyes widened at the flashing red light. "Sword, what's the matter?"
"I'm getting no response from the glider. I think it shorted."
One of the sisters muttered what Connor was thinking, "Oh god, no."
The youngest Hawke laughed, "What's an experiment without failures, huh? Connor...do something, please."
Connor glanced at his sensors. "Everyone that isn't Sword, converge on him. Bro, remain calm. Remain still."
The six speeding TITANs waved their arms and legs into position around the seventh with careful precision.
Trent's signal pulsed a private message, "This won't work. The gliders will tangle up in each other. We'll all go down."
Connors pace quickened. The deployment zone was fast approaching. "Everyone, back away from Sword, now!"
"What?!"
"Do it, now! Deploy you're gliders. That's a fucking order!"
The five TITANs spread out, and disappeared from vision as their gliders deployed. The parachute deployed first, cutting much of their speed, before the wings of the glider itself opened, leaving them in a controlled descent.
Connor and Ezekial kept falling. "Zeke, listen to me. Open your arms and legs. Kill as much speed as you can."
"Deploy your glider, Katar! Only one of us has to go down!"
"Dammit, shut up!" Connor growled as the computer blared a warning. Altitude was approaching dangerous levels.
Nothingness. A vast field of black nothingness. Suddenly, a gem of light. A black object projecting a green aura. Emerald spokes of light break out of the black gem as it descends from the sky and bounces off the vast nothingness, sending ripples through space. The gem shatters.
With a roar, Connor smashes his fist into the glider unit on Swords' back. With a wrenching of metal, the chute deploys, sending the young Hawke upwards into the sky - and into Connor.
The force of the impact caused him to spin out of control, and black out.
"So, this is how it ends, eh?"
"Don't count on it, Matthew."
"What?"
A blaring woke him, and he reached for the glider control. With a tug, the chute deployed, followed by the wings. "Too late!"
"CANNONBAAAAAAAAAAAALL!"
__--||--||--__
"Where are they?"
"Vanhar says they should be arriving any time now, sir."
"He said that ten minutes ago. They weren't made to be late. And the mercenary reps are getting restless."
__--||--||--__
"I'm sorry ma'am, but until your escorts arrive, you'll have to stay in this area." The marine tightened his grip on his rifle as he stared down the two guests. He and the rest of his squad looked about anxiously. Not only as the problem child awake and being annoying, the TITANs were late. And no way in hell were ordinary marines going to handle a transfer of this scale.
A loud rumbling broke the silence as the waterfall gate opened, allowing a small vessel inside the confines of the underground base.
The marine sighed, "God I hope that's them."
As soon as the ship came to port, the hull door opened, and a choir of armored boots echoed through the area.
"Sorry we're late, but I decided to go for a swim," Connor chuckled, before wincing and nearly buckling to his knees. He was supported by Trent and Charlie, while the rest flanked them. "You can go now, marines. We can handle this."
The six marines hustled away, leaving the TITANs and the mercs alone. Connor shrugged off the arms of his supporters, and straightened himself as best he could. Lances of pain coursed through every part of his body as he did so, but he couldn't let the Coordinators see him as weak. "Where's Virgo? The deal is with her, not you, Snowball."
If there was one thing Shasa hated beyond all reasoning, it was someone speaking ill of his sister. He took an uncharacteristicly agressive step forward towards the olive-clad soldier who addressed them, letting one had slide to the gun on his waist, and the other flicking down half a dozen throwing knives.
Instantly, he was met with several guns trained on his torso, as well as his siter's arm out stretched, barring his path further. He looked down at his sister, who's pink eyes glared back up sternly.
"I can fight my own battles." she whispered.
Shasa exhaled sharply and leaned back to where he was standing, but did not remove his had from the gun holster on his belt. Ryley dropped her arm and approached the TITANs calmly, holding out the note to Connor.
"Talk to me like that again and I can promise you that every guard in here, armed or not will be dead within a minute. The seven of you would be next."
Trent grabbed the slip of paper and read it quickly before laughing. "Either of you draw a weapon, you'll have ten seconds tops before you're gunned down. You're smack dab in OMNI central, Snowflake. One word and you two will need a dentist to verify the remains."
Thankful for his brother handling the situation, Connor locked the leg joints so that he'd remain standing. The plunge into the ocean should've killed him. Clenching teeth to block the pain, he checked over his vitals displayed on his visor: The armor, it seemed, is the only thing that was in fact holding him up. More than a few bones were broken, and chances were good that there was a touch of internal bleeding. If it weren't for the constant pumping of the Gamma vaccine through his neural interface at the base of his skull, he'd long be down for the count.
While Trent and the Coordinators argued semantics, the redhead silenced outbound noises, and opened a channel to the TITANs. "Spear is in charge for now. Sword and Javelin, get me to Medical, now."
Wordlessly, two of the olive clad warriors carried their injured leader away from the mess of squabling.
Looking over his shoulder, Trent nodded. "As your negotiator is unavailable," he turned back to Ryley and Shasa, "so is ours." Crumpling the note into a ball and tossing it to the ground, he stepped closer to the albino, to the point where she was inches away from him. "I'm told we're to escort you to the brat. If you will, follow me."
Ryley glared up at him, willing her reletively poor eyesight to see through the dark faceplate. They were toe to toe, with the OMNI soldier practically towering over her, but the stubborn albino did not flinch.
"Take us to him," she said quietly, "Quickly please. I'd rather he not be a drain on your resources any longer." Maybe it was a trick of the light, but the armoured soldier in front of her seemed to flinch. Regardless, she smiled. "I'd think you'd all be getting a mite tired of him by now."
Behind her, Shasa restrained a laugh as he watched the soldiers react to that. Two of them turned away almost completely, one shuddered vehemently and the one who Ryley was staring down clenched and unclenched his hands very slowly. He dropped his hand of the gun and moved up to stand next to his sister, smirking evily. If Tobias was half the kid he thought he was, then whoever had the amazing job of babysitting was probably in the nuthouse by now. "So come on!" he laughed, leaning his elbow on Ryley's shoulder, "lets go already."
"Just know that if it were up to me, the kid would've had a fun trip doing what we just did." Trent sneered. Glancing at Charlie and Lisa, he nodded. Those two stood to the sides of the two Coordinators, while Trent took the lead. Michelle brought up the rear.
True, the journey to the detention area could've gone a lot faster by car, but as luck would have it, there weren't any available nearby. So, the four OMNI Enforcers had to endure the long, long walk through the base, listening to the two talk about the 'wonderful' things Tobias had been known to do.
Suffering in silence, the tolerance of Charlie peaked. He knew lashing out at the Coordinators would be fun, but chances were good he'd get hurt, and more than likely get reprimanded. And then get sentenced to watching Tobias. So, he used the trump card.
"So darlin, my place or yours?"
Ryley froze mid step and turned to the TITAN next to her. It took her a moment to process the voice and accent, but realization brought about a look of slight dispair and exasperation.
"Oh hell. You really don't give up, do you? Your place."
A low chuckle sounded, and the TITAN shruged slowly and elaborately, continuing his pace. Ryley sighed a "gah" and began walking again. Lucky for both of them, Shasa was busy talking the leader's ear off about everything that COULD have happened....
And damn was it funny.
Charlie drifted back and spoke quietly to the albino, resulting in several rolling eyes and light chuckles.
"Don't mind them, Shasa. Arrow likes the ladies. We're almost there. Y'hear that, snowflake? Stop pestering my bud."
Before any protests could be made, the parade of armor and Coordinator stopped in front of a large building, the double doors guarded by a quartet of guards.
The highest ranking of them approached the two mercenaries. "All weapons must be left at this checkpoint. You'll be allowed to recover them on your exit. This is non-negotiable."
As he spoke, he gestured towards a small room jutting from the building. Glass surrounded the three walls, where a clerk was waiting for the weapons to be delivered.
Charlie chuckled. "That means the anti sonuvabitch daggers too sweetie."
Both sibs sighed - Ryley more out of exasperation - and disarmed quickly, handing everything over to the clerk. Ryley, incidentally had no more on her than the daggers and an automatic pistol, though Shasa took almost a full minute to completely disarm. The entire group gave him a funny look.
"What?"
~~
As the pair were led through corridor after endless corridor, Ryley could feel the eyes of the olive-clad TITAN on her, even though she now walked a few steps ahead of him. She suddenly felt a bit more paranoid about it. Maybe it was just the Gravity making her edgy. But nevertheless, she slowed her pace until he came up beside her and picked up the conversation that they'd been forced to cut earlier.
The four remaining walked in an awkward silence, but one that Shasa soon broke.
"So how much farther is he? Or are you walking us around in circles for no reason?"
"Circles are fun, especially when they're meant for buying time. The kid is still being prep-ah, he's ready." Trent stopped the group, and turned down the next corridor. Passing through a large door, the sound of screaming could be heard.
Not the screaming of a kid, no, but a grown man that came running from the storage area, a black sphere attached to his posterior.
The TITANs sighed loudly as a pair of guards managed to pry the Haro off the tech before putting it back into it's box.
"Uh, yeah, you didn't see that," Trent muttered. "This way."
Passing through the area, and into a hallway marked with numerous doors, the group ended their march at a door guarded by no less than six armed marines. The leader of them passed a keycard on to one of the TITANs, who opened the door, slowly.
Ryley, practically in tears from the sight of Chain Chomp's idea of hostility, pushed past the few TITANs and slid into the room. It was a pretty plain room - not quite a cell but little better than one. On the far side, sitting on the bed was an equally amused little boy, doubled over with laughter and fast running out of breath.
Ryley covered the ground between them quickly and hauled the child up under his arms.
"Hey kiddo!" she managed to get out between the fading giggles, "Holy shit, you grew!"
Tobias's laughs had stopped when Ryley had picked him up, but upon recognition of his captor, he squealed in delight and started squirming to get closer to her.
Ryley put him down as Shasa walked in and was promptly glomped hard enough to require Shasa's catching her. Tobias looked happily from one to the other and back again, still attached to his godmother's waist. Shasa reached down to ruffle his hair, and ended up squatting to meet his eye level, entrapped in a forceful hug from the child.
Finally, Tobias' look sobered. "Where's Mama?" he asked.
Ryley looked at Shasa worriedly and motioned for the guards to close the door for a moment. The Albino squatted down next to her brother and met the boys eyes.
"Tobias....have you read the news?" she asked, quietly, cringing as the boy shook his head.
"No...why? What happened?" He asked with increasing panic in his otherwise quiet and calm voice.
Shasa looked away from him, to Ryley and nodded at her subtly.
'Clear my thoughts, clear my thoughts...' Ryley thought to herself before she answered. "I think your mom should be the one to tell you this, but your Godfather is dead, Tobias. Somebody murdered him." She had to look away right afterwards, because the sight of Tobias' slowly widening gaze.
Shasa took over from here, " Your mom 's still dealing with that news, which is why she's not here--Oh kiddo..." The older man cut his speech and pulled the boy, now on the verge of tears into a tight hug...
~~
Several moments passed before the door opened again. Ryley was carrying Tobias' things, while Shasa carried the boy himself.
"Just give us back the Haro and we'll be on our way." said Ryley, holding one hand out to the TITAN in the lead, you don't even have to take it out of the box..."
"Yeah. Sure. We'll even gift wrap it for you." Lisa growled as they walked back towards their initial meeting place at the entrance of the base.
Along the way, they retrieved a small metal box covered in chains and duct tape and welded closed. Charlie carried it with apprehension, as it's cargo seemed intent on trying to eat through metal.
Awaiting the group at the entrance was the jeep the mercs arrived in, prepped and ready for departure. 'Courtesy of OMNI', so to speak.
Within minutes, the jeep a spec in the distance, the TITANs whooped in joy.
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Date: 2006-08-31 01:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-31 05:29 am (UTC)