Warnings (story as a whole): Second Raid and Season 1 spoilers, violence, mild swearing, and maybe a few not-so-savory events later on in the story.


Disclaimer: Full Metal Panic and all characters and settings are the creative property of Shouji Gatou, Shiki Douji, Retsu Tateo, and are tortu—I mean, used without permission for no profit to this humble little authoress. X3 ADV currently has Season 1 of the anime and the primary manga series licensed in the US.


Chapter 2

Three. There were three of them, all outfitted in simple grey jumpsuits and blast armor just like his. He thought he could make out faces, but only barely and only until his own vision blurred with exhaustion and pain. Gods, he was so tired and his side hurt horribly, but they wouldn't let him sleep. They made him stay in the AS, caused his head to hurt when the Lambda Drive kicked in and tried to invade his thoughts.

No, no… this is all wrong… but he couldn't hear his own voice. He didn't even know if he'd spoken aloud, but was almost too tired to care. Just let me sleep…

"Kill the others, and you can lay back down," he was told. "Kill them all."

Eyes widened in fright peered back at him from the screen, and he realized that they'd heard the transmission. Another voice fought furiously in the back of his mind, telling him that these were inexperienced fighters. No, not even soldiers – civilians? Struggling against the drugs in his system, the pain, and the voice in his head, he forcefully cleared the fog from his mind.

"Kill them!" the voice whispered again in the back of his mind. "Show me what you can do – destroy these men!"

"No!" he wanted to scream, but no sound came from his lips. "I… I don't want to do this anymore! They – but I… But they're civilians!"

Hands reached out, grasping his arms in painfully grips, brutally forcing his hands towards the controls. "Eliminate them, or I will take what is most dear to you."

"N…No! I won't do it!" His throat burned, but he still couldn't hear his own voice. He panicked, trying to twist out of the vice-like hold of his unseen enemies. Gods, it hurt!

Fingers tightened around the trigger, and as much as his body shook in effort against the action, he couldn't—

A loud report and light recoil in his hands declared his defeat. Fire… screams, pain, vision bled black as he heard himself yelling angrily.

"No!" Sousuke shouted, and heard himself this time. The dream dispelled as soon as he opened his eyes, breathing heavily and realizing that he really did hurt. When he tried to sit up, a sharp pain stabbed in his side and made his stomach clench uncomfortably. Punctuated, rapid beeping forced him to try to focus on where he was. Once he picked up the pungent smell of antiseptic solution – which only made the nausea worse – the pieces fell into place.

Infirmary, or the hospital, his instinct told him. Hopefully where it's… nnnh…

The steady throbbing in his side stole his train of thought, and he tried to clasp his injured side but stopped when he felt a stinging tug at his elbow. Confused, he glanced down to see the needle attaching him to an IV stand holding a bag of clear liquid next to his bed.

"Shit," he growled angrily, sitting up and trying to pull at the IV. A soft hand reached out to grab his before he could jerk the line out.

"Sousuke! It's alright – those are just painkillers," a familiar feminine voice said quietly from the shadows next to his bed.

"Ch-Chidori?" he rasped, still having trouble catching his breath.

"Yeah, it's me… You're alright now," she whispered soothingly as she tried to help him lay back down. "You should go back to sleep; the doctor said you really needed the rest since you've lost a lot of blood and exhausted your body."

Sousuke groaned as he settled back into the sheets, his wounds throbbing in vicious retribution for his movements. The blood rushing through his ears finally subsided after a moment, allowing him to think a little more clearly. Blinking a few times to clear his vision, he regarded his blue-haired friend warily. She looked worried, he noted. Worried and… something he couldn't quite put his finger on.

"Where is this?" he asked thickly, throat feeling raw and sore.

Kaname lifted a straw to his lips, offering him water from a plastic hospital cup to help him clear his throat. "We're onboard the TDD-1… though we haven't been here long – a few hours, at most."

TDD-1…? His mind quickly sought a recollection – one that would help him lead to answers and conclusions he could work with. He had so many questions, and he was sure Kaname had her own questions as well. She was quiet, a sign for him to speak. She wanted him to ask. So he did. "How long have I been… unconscious?"

"Almost twelve hours now," she replied with a weary sigh. "Do you have any clue how hard it is to contact your friends without your cell phone? Damn near impossible!"

He resisted the urge to smirk, reading all signs of Kaname giving him the lecture before she actually did. She was scared. She was frustrated. Understandably. So he let her speak; it would help her vent. Perhaps she would answer some of his questions in the meantime.

"The ambulance wanted your insurance cards, but you weren't carrying your wallet or any identification. You're so lucky you found me to give them a story for you! I'm pretty sure they still didn't believe me, but you were bleeding badly enough that they were concerned enough to let it slide. I had to go back to your apartment and sneak through all your damn booby traps in order to get one of your crazy gadgets that would let me contact your buddies! Good thing you told me about them ahead of time, or I would be in the bed beside you." She took a deep breath and sighed. "I finally got a hold of Kurz, who somehow arranged to have you transferred back here. Now here's the interesting part – if Mithril was surprised to hear that you were alive, what the hell were you doing to get in this mess?"

Sousuke blinked. "I—"

"I mean, they're supposed to have an immense amount of tracking technology," Kaname interrupted and continued, "and you up and disappear on them. I thought you were only supposed to pilot the Arbalest when they need you to, not take these life-threatening missions! Gods, Sousuke, you can be such an idiot sometimes!"

Sousuke would've offered a sheepish laugh with an equally sheepish reply, but any chance he had to defend himself was lost when a curt knock rattled the door lightly, and then opened without waiting for a reply. A lab coat clad, clean-shaven, middle-aged Caucasian man entered the room with a confident stride, green eyes brightening as they fell upon a conscious Sousuke.

"Sergeant! Glad to see you awake," he greeted amiably. "Chidori-san here has been worried sick about you, but I'm sure she's already told you that herself." The doctor winked at Kaname, who smiled cheerily in return. Turning back to his patient, he said, "I'm Doctor Robinson, by the way. I've heard much about you, but since you're apparently as good as your reputation, I haven't had the honor of meeting you until now."

Sousuke couldn't hide an embarrassed flush, but managed to murmur a quiet thanks to the doctor. Robinson prattled about how impossible it was to work with local Tokyo hospitals as he expertly checked Sousuke's vitals and made a few notes on the charts. When he finally finished his narrative on bureaucracy, he pulled on a pair of rubber gloves and moved the ridiculous-looking hospital gown Sousuke wore to inspect the wound. A few moments of painful prods, presses, and close inspections, the doctor covered the injury with a fresh bandage and took a serious look at the soldier.

"How are you feeling?" he asked gravely.

Sousuke hesitated, and then replied, "Sore and tired. The drugs are throwing off my balance some and making me feel sick, but otherwise I'm functional."

Robinson had to chuckle at his last admission. "Functional, yes, but not cleared for action. We managed to clean out the injury and pack it to stop the bleeding and encourage proper healing, but I'd like to run you through a few tests to make sure it didn't do any damage other than the superficial flesh wound. It looks like it had been treated to an extent before. I was waiting until you awoke before we performed any tests; we were hoping you could tell us a little more about how you got it."

At this, the young soldier frowned, as if searching for a memory. "I… I'm not entirely sure. I was stabbed, but with an… unusual object. I couldn't identify it." Sousuke caught Kaname's flinch out of the corner of his vision, but continued anyway. "After that, I don't remember much. I'm pretty sure I had been drugged."

"Mhmm…" Robinson made a few quick notes on the chart. "What kind of symptoms did you have, if you recall?"

"I…" Sousuke's frown deepened. "I do not recall…"

Robinson stopped him with a wave of his hand. "Don't strain yourself, but if you do remember, we'd like to know so we can make sure it's not still in your system. Commander Kalinin has some other questions for you on the details of your disappearance, so I'll let him know you're awake once I'm done here."

Sousuke nodded, but didn't look pleased by the information. He seemed reluctant, Kaname noticed, in sharing information on his apparent capture. Something else was going on that Sousuke was hiding, and she fervently hoped that Kalinin would wrestle a few of those answers from the young soldier. If she were to be honest with herself, she hated seeing Sousuke on edge like this; it most certainly put her at a state of ill ease when her bodyguard was injured and spooked, as he was now.

"I want you to get plenty of rest, Sergeant. We'll have to perform the tests tomorrow, since I don't want to exhaust you now. You are not to leave this infirmary without clearance from me, do you understand?" Robinson sternly ordered.

Sousuke offered the crispest salute he could manage in his condition. "Yes, sir!"

The action pleased Robinson enough that he grinned. "At ease, soldier. You should get some sleep too, Chidori-san. I don't want to make you join your boyfriend here on the extra bed!" he exclaimed with a wink.

"B-Boyfriend?" Kaname sputtered, blushing furiously to match Sousuke.

Robinson's uproarious laughter echoed even after he'd exited the room, leaving an awkward silence in his absence. Sousuke and Kaname refused to look at each other for a moment, cheeks still flaming. Of course, this only lasted until Kaname couldn't stifle a yawn.

"You should get some sleep, Kaname," Sousuke stated quietly.

Kaname snorted. "You first," she retorted with a grin. "I'll tell you what: if you sleep, I'll sleep. Sound fair?"

"Inescapably," Sousuke replied with a small half-grin of his own. As Kaname settled down to sleep, and as he felt his own eyelids drooping shut, he allowed his grin to grow into a full-fledged, contented smile. She hadn't denied Dr. Robinson's assumption.


Sousuke, despite the drugs, didn't sleep well that night. Though Kaname had slept through most of his restlessness, she did notice the dark circles under his eyes, and the downcast expression he wore as one of the nurses helped him move to a sitting position. Something was bugging the soldier even in his sleep, but he didn't seem willing to share it. Either that, or he was just exhausted from that morning's various tests. Kaname's brow furrowed lightly with worry; she had hoped that sleep would help Sousuke become more talkative, though now she saw that it had an opposite effect.

"Kalinin was supposed to come in last night, but he told me to send his gravest apologies that he couldn't make it," Robinson was saying. "He had some sort of emergency meeting crop up at the last moment."

Sousuke nodded in acknowledgement, though his expression didn't change. He looked like he wanted to say something but was having trouble finding the words to express whatever he was hiding. Kaname shifted uncomfortably in her seat while one of Robinson's nurses checked Sousuke's vitals for what seemed like the millionth time to Kaname. He was alright, wasn't he?

"The MRI scan came clear, but the test results for your x-ray won't be back in for another hour, and the blood work won't be finished until tomorrow," Robinson explained. "For now, I suggest that you rest; your body needs time to recuperate from this whole ordeal."

"How long will I need to be here?" Sousuke asked.

"Oh, I'd say for another four days or so, depending on your test results," replied the doctor. "You won't be on active duty for another week after that. I want to make sure your injury is fully healed before clearing you for action."

The answer seemed to neither please nor displease the soldier; perhaps he had meant it as a simple question, or as a gauge to see just how badly he was injured. Kaname couldn't tell with his expressionless face staring down at the blankets covering him.

"Lunch should be served soon, so rest until then and hopefully we'll have some good news by then." Robinson turned to leave, but paused at the door. Over his shoulder, he added on his way out, "I wouldn't worry too much about the brief memory loss just yet, Sergeant. You'll have your answers soon enough."

Sousuke's grip on the hospital sheets tightened ever so slightly in response; that answer did not please him at all. At that small movement, Kaname knew he was hiding something, and became determined to wrest it out of the young man before too long. She placed a hand gently over one of his clenched ones, grasping it and giving it a quick squeeze. Sousuke glanced up at her wearily, a troubled gleam in his hazel eyes.

"Sousuke…" she began quietly. "You know you can talk to me about… it if you want to. I can tell something's bothering you, and I know all too well how keeping it clammed up inside will just make it more difficult to deal with later."

He looked away, but she could tell he was thinking of something to say. "Kaname, I… I don't know if telling you about it would help you. It is probably best that you don't get involved; I can't afford to endanger you as well."

Well, it wasn't the answer she was looking for, but it was a start. Scowling with arms crossed and nose in the air, she replied haughtily, "It might be best, but you already dragged me into this the moment you decided to show up at that study session anyway, even while you were injured. So whether you like it or not or whether it's best or not, I am involved, and you're just going to have to deal with it."

Sousuke's gaze fixated on her again, eyes widened in surprise. For a moment, he said nothing, but then smiled wryly. "I can't argue with that," he agreed. "But that doesn't mean I have to think it's the best idea."

Kaname took the small victory for what it was, and allowed herself to display a pleased grin and stood to grab Sousuke a glass of water. However, she lost her balance when the ship rocked with a sudden impact, sending loose objects flying across the floor and sent her down along with them. Sousuke grunted as he jerked forward in his bed, nearly falling to the floor along with Kaname. Sirens blared, and red lights flashed, bathing the room in a crimson glow. A sudden bustle and sounds of nurses' voices exclaiming loudly trickled in from the hallway outside the door.

"What was that?" Kaname exclaimed over the alarm, pulling herself shakily back to her feet. She glanced sideways at Sousuke, who tried in vain to find a more comfortable bracing position; he was clearly in pain.

Another impact shuddered through the submarine's hull, displacing more of the ship's inhabitants. The PA system crackled to life as a stern male voice informed everyone that this was not a test, and that all capable needed to find their battle stations. Sousuke blanched this time.

"Sousuke? Are you okay?" Kaname asked uncertainly.

"Shit…" he grunted through clenched teeth. Kaname suddenly realized that he wasn't talking about his wound.

"Oh gods," she breathed. "Who are these people?"


.end chapter 2.


Comments, as always, are greatly appreciated (and obsessed over).