"Any regrets?" Zer0 asked, breaking the silence that had blanketed them as they appraised and observed each other.
Athena shook her head. "Do I regret going on a date with you in a space station in orbit?" She paused to let the question sink in. "No, this is... this is okay. I'm fine with this."
"Except for your dress."
"Yes." She lifted a hand and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Except for this dress." The light in her eyes gleamed dark and sinister. "I'm burning it the moment I take it off."
"Well, may I take it off then?" he asked, marking how a light blush appeared on her face. He chuckled and sighed. "You look amazing."
"You can compliment me a hundred times." She shook her head, the pink on her face slowly vanished. "I'm not wearing another one."
Zer0 shrugged. "Fine with me."
Athena looked up and down his lean figure, the dark look in her eyes turning into one of curiosity. "I like your suit." She smiled. "Looks nice on you."
Zer0 rolled his eyes and snorted. "Don't get used to it/ I'm not wearing another/ It's vulnerable."
Athena nodded. "Same. At least you're wearing parts of your armor."
"He forgot the pants," he explained, rubbing the palms of his hands over his knees, feeling the comforting roughness of his knee guards. "Not that I'll complain of it."
"Lucky you," Athena said sarcastically, eyes lowering to the white table cloth.
"You're irritated," he teased and watched as she lifted her gaze back up at him with an annoyed look.
"Is it that obvious?"
"Yes."
They both stared at each other, waiting for the other to make a move or say something. The silence of the room was only broken by the ever present hum of the ship, a sound only recently noticed upon the pause in their conversation.
Taking this opportunity, Zer0 continued his interrupted observation of her. Sinewy muscle, scars in all shapes and sizes, and the roughness of her skin were very prominent. Looking up at her face, but not looking into her eyes, he suspected that she had been coaxed into putting makeup on, though it was hard to be certain in the dim lighting. Taking in a deep breath, he smelled a distinct, foul contrast of perfume clouding over her usually sweet, cinnamon smell; he almost wrinkled his nose in disgust. His gaze drifted upwards, eyes immediately catching sight of the small braid in her hair, the design familiar as he remembered that Tina had taught her how to braid it, and how he had been used as Athena's practice dummy on more than one occasion. He smiled at this, fondly recalling the countless nights they would get distracted in their conversations and her fingers would inadvertently tangle in his hair, many times entwining it into small braids before the two of them had noticed.
"Having fun staring at me?" Athena asked, the tease in her voice blatantly obvious.
"I can't lie, can I?"
"No."
"In that case, I enjoyed it," he admitted, taking note at how Athena raised her eyebrows at his blunt confession. "Don't be so surprised."
She smiled. Movement caught his eye and he briefly looked down at her hands to notice her thumbs rubbing together; a habit that she acquired to indicate she was abashed. "I just wasn't expected you to be so acerbic, Zer0. Taking after Aurelia, are we?"
He snorted and rolled his eyes. "You are far from close/ I refuse to be like that/ She's a grim woman."
"Honestly, I can't agree with you more," she admitted. "But she did do this for us."
"And insulted us. Plus, she teased us about our…" He struggled to find the words for a few moments, mouth hung open and hand flailing around in the air. "Sexual exploits."
Athena's face lit up in red, and she nodded in agreement. It wasn't every day that a person so easily managed to say the correct words needed to cause the two of them to go from a stoic pair to a tongue-tied, crumbling mess.
"Aurelia has a…." Athena bit her lip and closed her eyes, a sigh escaped through her nose. "Gift of knowing how to get under my skin."
"Make that mine as well/ How she does so eludes me/ She's an astute one."
"Couldn't agree with you more," she murmured.
They both stared at each other in awkward silence, the conversation brought to a clumsy end. For a few moments, Zer0 thought of words to speak in an attempt to revitalize their discussion, but gave up. The two of them were never good at verbal exchanges anyways.
He leaned back in his chair, eyes scanning the room in a wide arch. The confined space had begun to suffocate him, and gave him a feeling of restlessness. Uncomfortably, he tugged at his tie in a weak attempt to loosen the choke it had on his neck. Why Valjean had tied is so tightly was beyond him, though he wouldn't doubt irritation had a part in it.
"We're bad with conversation," Athena confessed what they had both been pondering.
"Yes, we really are."
"Well…" she began, but stopped short. "What do you want to talk about?"
Zer0 hummed in thought and his gaze drifted towards the window. The most immediate object that caught his attention was the Helios moonbase, a behemoth space station that was the pride of the Hyperion corporation. Light shone from its surface in blues, whites, and purples. A distant explosion at the rear end of the station caught his eye, but the assumption of it being the automated defense system allowed it to stray out of his thoughts. A chill ran up his spine as he suddenly felt irritably weak and small against it, so close and yet so far away that he felt he could touch it if he pressed the palm of his hand against the glass.
"The Helios space station," he murmured under his breath, not expecting Athena to hear him.
"What do you want to know about it?" Her tone had suddenly went defensive.
He looked back at her, and saw her posture had straightened, her muscles had tightened, and there was a wary look in her eyes. Immediately, he lifted his hands, not in a defensive, protective way, but as an attempt to calm her down.
"Nevermind, 'Thena," he answered.
No, no." She shook her head. "You want to know."
"Are you positive?"
"Yes."
He swallowed for a moment, eyes drifting back out of the window. Despite her reassurance that it was okay to talk about the moonbase, he still heard and felt the edge in her voice. The type that raised the hair on the back of his neck in alarm and caused him to grit his teeth together.
"Why not tell me anything? Everything you can."
"This'll be a long talk, then." Athena raised her eyebrows.
"Isn't that the point?"
She leaned back in her chair, apparently mulling over her thoughts. A sigh escaped through her nose after a few moments. She leaned back towards him, elbows pressing against the table.
"The inside of the station is enormous, even more so than this one." She waved a hand around the room, motioning the entire station that they found themselves in. "From what I saw, workers usually had their own offices." Her expression soured. "Though, that probably changed now."
Her gaze drifted from him towards the window. Already knowing what she was staring at, he waited for her to continue. A few minutes passed and her eyes skittered back and forth continuously.
"That thing in the middle of the station was the Eye of Helios." She pointed out the window towards the station. "It is… was a giant laser beam with the power to crack and destroy planets."
"The Eye of the Destroyer. A Vault Guardian."
"Yeah, sure," she agreed. "What you said. A 'Vault Guardian'."
"You've killed one before," he pointed out, eyebrows raising in interest. "The Eleseer Sentinel. A massive creature."
"A beast of many heads," she whispered to herself. "You've killed one before as well: The Warrior."
"A fire-breathing foe/ One that nearly killed me thrice/ And refused to die."
"Didn't you say you have a burn scar from him?" she pondered out loud.
"Yes, it's on my leg."
"Strange. Why haven't I seen it?"
"You're usually asleep then."
Athena raised her eyebrows in slight surprise. "Oh."
The lack of aloofness in the air didn't puzzle him. Instead, he smiled at their rambling, seeing as how it was the most they had talked nearly all night. A sudden thought popped up in his head and the smile disappeared from his face. Sighing, he leaned back in his chair and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Oh, no. Thanatos," he said promptly, noticing her confused expression.
Athena understood immediately as her eyes widened and she sat straight up, her mouth hung open as if she couldn't think of what to say.
"Can't believe I forgot about him." Her face went into her hands.
"I'm sure he'll be fine/ He's a few weeks old by now/ And protects himself," he reasoned, seeing her gray-blue eyes peek through her fingers.
"He's a baby stalker."
"Not just a stalker. The son of Voracidous," he reminded. "He'll handle himself."
Athena seemed to mull it over for a few moments, her eyes fluttering back in forth in thought as she bit the inside of her cheek. A twinge of desperation shuddered through him as even he didn't feel confident in their newest companion's survivability without them. They never let him stay in their apartment for more than four hours at a time without one of them being there to watch over him. He was an infant after all, barely sixty hours old when they originally found him.
"I… yeah, he'll probably be fine," she finally agreed, hand rubbing at the back of her neck. She looked up at him and nodded confidently.
Silence blanketed the two of them as they felt at lost at what to say to continue their conversation. The abrupt interruption of their previous conversation by him had left the two of at a loss of friendly banter, instead silently worrying.
A few minutes passed before Athena leaned back and looked behind her, obviously expecting something. Bewildered, he cleared his throat to catch her attention. Turning her head slightly, she looked at him.
"What are you doing?" Zer0 asked.
"Aren't we supposed to..." She stopped and thought for a few seconds. "Eat, or something?"
"No clue, you shouldn't ask me. I'm just as confused," he answered.
Looking down at the table, he noticed how there was a lack of silverware or any other eating utensil on its surface, an observation that had previously not been made. No one had come out to check on them for at least thirty minutes. Even with his very limited knowledge of "dates", he knew that there had to be some form of interaction that wasn't just talking to the other person. He glanced over her shoulder as well, watching for any sign that the door would be opened.
Minutes passed, and the only lives on the station seemed to be their own. Suddenly, there was a loud bang! that startled him from his focus, his hands curling into fists as his heart pumped fast with adrenaline.
"What the world was that?" he growled, the tense muscles in his arms refusing to relax.
"Sounds like it came from the docking bay." Athena immediately stood up, a hand outstretched towards him from across the table.
Zer0 accepted the offer and grabbed her hand, chair squeaking against the floor from friction as he stood up. His gaze flickered away from her face and towards the door leading out into the corridors, already making his way towards it a moment later, Athena at his heels. His hand reached out and grasped the doorknob, almost surprised at how he managed to open, expecting it to have been locked.
Athena brushed past him, heels clacking against the floor as she rounded the corner, practically leaving him in the dust to follow. He had to jog for a few seconds to catch up with her brisk pace and watched as her eyes constantly darted around the hallway, almost as if she expected an assailant to come out of one of the many closed doors, brandishing a gun or a sword.
"Do you remember the way?" he asked, already knowing the answer.
"If I didn't then you shouldn't be following me."
"Of course, my mistake."
They passed empty corridors leading off into other parts of the ship and multiple closed doors. Despite a few of them being open, he hadn't the time to let his curiosity get the best of him and peak inside, the rush to figure out where the explosion had originated from was more important than looking inside possibly vacant rooms. Despite Aurelia's best efforts to fully furnish this station in lavish decor, it was obviously not finished yet.
Zer0 looked in front of him at Athena, noticing her muttering underneath her breath. Concentrating he heard, "Left and then right. Keep going straight past three corridors and then take another right…"
He blinked in confusion for a brief moment, before smiling. She was simply repeating the directions that she had hardwired into her brain so that they could get back to the docking bay.
Seconds blurred into minutes. It felt like it was taking longer to return back to the docking bay than to leave it. Pauses were made every once in a while as Athena adjusted her heels, almost leading him to snicker at her situation. Why she chose not to take them off and ditch them was beyond him.
"Are we close?" he asked during one of their few breaks.
Athena nodded confidently, but he could see the worry, anger, and suspicion in her eyes.
They continued along, eyes watching for any indication of intruders on the ship. Finally, they rounded a corner and she opened a door. A sigh of relief escaped through his mouth as they entered the large room with a glass dome that was its ceiling.
"No, no, no!" A feminine, booming voice yelled from the other side of the room. "Soulevez-le! Ne pas baisser!"
The distinctive shrill of Aurelia's voice calmed his nerves slightly, though he would certainly never admit it to her. Athena followed the direction of the sound, and he was right behind her. Quickly, as they walked over, he glanced around the room. Pieces of the ceiling had fallen and littered the ground in differing spots, cracked or shattered. A few lights were stubbornly flickering on and off, trying to hang onto their lasts surges of power that shot through them. A large crack ran from the middle of the floor all the way to the left wall, spread apart ever so slightly so that it would trip him if he wasn't careful enough.
"Something happened here/ This room's in poor condition/ From an explosion," Zer0 whispered into her ear. He noticed her nodding, probably already coming to that assumption sooner than he had.
They rounded their transport shuttle, and saw Aurelia with two workers, both of whom were grasping chains and trying to pull a shutter open. Her expression was sour and her arms were across her chest, giving them a straightforward indication that she was irritated.
"Aurelia!" Athena called out, lifting a hand.
Immediately, he notice her mutter something under her breath and turn her head to look at them. She had put on a facade of a smile and walked over to them, arms pleasantly swinging by her sides with carefree. Instantly, his nerves were set ablaze again and his muscles tensed. Something was definitely wrong.
"Darlings! What are you doing?" Her tone had a tinge of vexation behind with. Not even her enjoyable front managed to mask it. "Is your date already over? So soon?"
Aurelia was blocking their view of the shutter with her body, arms behind her back. This only further caused him suspicion as he looked over the top of her head to see the two men struggling against the heavy weight of it, chains occasionally slipping from their hands. As he peered closer into the room that she apparently wanted to desperately get into, he noticed a large hole in the floor of it.
"We heard an explosion and we came to investigate," Athena explained.
"Athena, darling! The shutter to an unfinished part of the station simply closed before all of the workers could get out!" Aurelia chuckled. "I'm just trying to get it opened."
Athena's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "I thought you didn't care about your workforce. After all, it is just free labor."
Aurelia's mouth hung open as she contemplated an answer. Finally, she laughed. "I have a few foremen on the other side of the station that I need. They helped design it after all."
"You've never seemed to care about anyone who works for you, a promising worker or not." Athena crossed her arms over her chest. "What's really going on?"
"Darling, I don-"
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
Before she could continue, her ECHO device went off. Quickly, she plucked it off and accepted the call.
"Mlle Aurelia , ils ne sont pas dans la salle à manger plus!" A man's voice quickly said over the line.
"Valjean," Zer0 piped up.
Aurelia laughed nervously at them. "Valjean, Valjean. Ils sont ici avec moi."
"Je... Excusez-moi, madame," Valjean said, the translation of the words lost to both his and Athena's ears.
Aurelia looked up at them, and then back down at her ECHO device. "Nous avons un grave problème."
"Je pensais que nous avons fait. Je savais que ça ne vous tester les canons de défense."
She covered her mouth for her response, but one word stuck out.
'Hyperion'.
While Aurelia was distracted, Zer0 nudged Athena with his elbow, her attention promptly turning towards him. He tilted his head upwards towards the dome, motioning towards the large 'H' that partially hovered over the station. Her eyes followed his movements, and she stiffened, eyebrows furrowing and eyes darkening.
"S'il vous plaît me dire que tu te moques de moi en ce moment, Aurelia." Valjean's voice held a pleading note to it.
Athena looked up at him in an expecting way, almost as if she wanted him to say something. He knew instantly from the look in her eyes and the impatient tap of her fingers against her biceps what it was. He shook his head in a declining manner, and she exhaled.
"Valjean, je souhaite que je l'étais, mais je ne suis pas."
"Qu'est-ce qu'on fait?"
"Permettez-moi de comprendre cela."
Zer0 wished he knew how to speak the language that they talked in secrecy in. It was obviously about the damage that had been taken to the station about Hyperion. Their frantic tones almost sealed the deal that they hadn't a clue of how to fix or solve what was happening. It almost made him pity them… almost.
"Recevez Zer0 et Athéna pour aider!"
Immediately, he perked up at the sound of his name, Athena doing the same from what he could see through his peripheral vision. Aurelia ended the call right there when she noticed the two of them hadn't returned back to their dining room. She looked at them, and smirked.
"Well, darlings. I hate to end your date so soo-"
"Hyperion," he interrupted.
Her expression turned into one of caution. It was as if her hand had been caught stealing from a jar of sweets.
"Whatever are you talking about?" she asked.
"Hyperion moonshot into this station, didn't they?" Athena wasn't ready to play games.
"What!? No!" Aurelia exclaimed. "What a blasphemous idea!"
"Aurelia."
Even though Athena's words weren't directed towards him, Zer0 still felt a shiver run down his spine at her commanding tone. Aurelia seemed fazed by this, as she bit onto her bottom lip and edgily chewed at it.
"Darlings, there is nothing that can't be handled here!" She tried to reassure them.
Unconvinced, they both looked at each other. "We can help deal with this problem."
"In those heels and dress?" Aurelia murmured to herself.
"I heard that," Athena growled. "And yes."
"Well, let's say that I did have a problem that needed help dealing with. Then, I'd call you." She moved past them and walked over to their transport shuttle. "I believe it's time we left for Pandora. I do hate to end your date so, so soon, but I'm afraid I must."
They didn't budge from their spots, feet unmoving. Aurelia sighed and brought her hand up to her mouth, letting a shrieking whistle out. A group of men exited from a door and approached them. Instantly, he went into his stance, ready to attack. However, a hand at his arm stopped him, and he looked down to see Athena shaking her head.
"Not worth it," she said. "Might as well give her what she wants."
Zer0 grumbled in protest, but followed her into the shuttle. The interior of the ship was in top shape, as if the damage from outside hadn't affected it. Aurelia sat patiently in one of the chairs, waiting for them to sit down so that they could fly off. Hesitantly, he sat down beside Athena and crossed his arms, glaring at the woman across from him.
"Come now, darling. Don't look so grim," Aurelia pleaded with fake sympathy. "I'll let you come up here again on another date at another time."
He snorted. A sudden striking thought crossed his mind, causing him to sit up, startling the Baroness. "Our armor."
Athena's eyes widened as well. She sat up just as quickly as he had, preparing to leave the ship and return back to their changing rooms to retrieve their missing pieces alongside him.
Aurelia sighed and waved them to sit back down. "I will have your gauche clothing returned to you tomorrow."
Before they could protest, the shuttle lifted off and out of the docking bay.
Author's Note: Beta-read by CGAdam. Like usual, fun chapter. Just one more to go and this story will be completed. I hope you enjoyed reading this, and thank you.
