Dear Readers,

This is the last(?) installment of David Tai's Trilogy. The story will be marked as complete.

I did NOT write this. All credit MUST go to:

u/65609/

(David Tai)

Please forward your compliments to him directly. All reviews will be forwarded to him as well.

Thank you, and enjoy.


Nano Notes: This Fic is in the same continuity as the previous one. Please see notes in Ch1 for details.


BANG. BANG. BANG.

Leona eyed the circular shooting target and took a deep breath. They were off by 0.1 cm. Unacceptable.

"Having trouble?" a voice came from behind her. Whip.

"No." Adjusting her electronic shooting muffs, Leona aimed once more.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

"Hmmm. You're definitely off by a bit. So, what's going on with you and Yagami?" Whip- no, Seirah, asked. Her voice shifting from clinical analysis to youthful curiosity from one sentence to the next.

"Nothing!" Leona's response might have been a split second faster than necessary.

"Didn't look like nothing," Seirah laughed, before hugging Leona from behind. "I got your back. But what -were- you thinking?"

Setting aside her gun, and removing her muffs, Leona turned to eye the younger Ikari Warrior. "I just wanted to see what it was like being Iori Yagami, that's... stop laughing."

Seirah covered her mouth, trying to muffle the giggles. "Yeah, well, I don't think -that- was the way to go about it."

Leona sighed. "It's just... I mean, sometimes I wonder if he hears the same voices, and what he does about it. The Commander has me trained to ignore the -voice- that tells me things, but..."

"Oh, the miles in another person's shoes thing?" Seirah asked sympathetically.

"Kind of. But..."

"Still not the best idea. Was the voice telling you to go down there?"

"I... don't know if that was mine or not."

"I wish I'd been around for that."

"Speaking of which, how's K'?"

"My brother's doing fine, he's... hey! You're changing the subject." Seirah wagged a finger. "What did the Commander say afterwards?"

"I've been banned from attending any more concerts." Leona's voice was cold and controlled.

"If it's any consolation, I've made sure there's no blackmail material," Seirah responded, flashing a grin and a V hand gesture.

"Yes, the Commander wanted to know why I was doing this. I had no answer."

"That's easy," Seirah responded. "You're curious about life outside the Ikari."

"Hmm?"

"What, you think I'm a soldier full-time? I'm -nineteen-," Seirah flashed a smile. "Just because we're soldiers doesn't mean we can't have fun off-duty. Isn't that why you went to the concerts in the first place?"

"I was keeping tabs on Yagami."

"Oh come off it, we know better than that. The Commander just doesn't know what to do about it, but we're rooting for you. Clark, me, and that thing that calls itself..." Here, a note of disdain creeped into Seirah's voice. "Ralf."

"It is not a crush."

"I think you find something in common with Yagami, obviously, because of that whole blood history thing. So just talk to him about it."

"I don't want to discuss it."

Seirah gave a 'mou' sigh. "All right. Anyway..." She pushed the target recall. "Felt like shooting. Want to join me?" Whip asked, as she took down the paper target.

She replaced it with a customized one of her own.

Leona raised an eyebrow, and then offered a small smile. "Sure."

Whip flashed a winsome smile, as she offered another copy of the target.


Clark whistled as he inspected the targets. Particularly... where the bullet holes appeared.

"It's probably just as well you weren't around, Ralf. You'd -definitely- never be able to have kids."

"Hey, why would you think it was -me-? Maybe it was -you-!" Ralf protested.

"They got your face on it. They didn't try any headshots, man."