Chapter 7: Aftermath
Kaname and Momomi joined the rest of the army after the nurse had finished with Momomi's wounds. They were all sitting in a room, most of them huddled together, others scattered around. Yaya was nonchalantly laying on the floor, sleeping. The rest of them were being guarded by Amane, who was looking out of the many exits of the room, making sure that no Buggers were going to come out and ambush them. Kaname grinned at them all.
"Looks like all of you are finally here," Kaname said. "If you were wondering where I was, I was tending to a wounded soldier. How have you all been?"
There were scattered fine's and okay's. Yaya continued to sleep. Kaname looked down at the floor and rolled her eyes, kicking Yaya in the side of the head.
"Wake up, you lazy lump. This is hardly the time to sleep."
"Whenever you're tired is the time to sleep," Yaya retorted back as she raised herself off the ground like a zombie, walking with her arms stretched out in front of her, making her way towards the girls. Everyone squealed and scattered away, and they laughed. Kaname rolled her eyes and looked to Momomi, who giggled.
"She has a good sense of humor."
"A sense of humor is no good in the midst of battle."
Momomi sighed and shook her head. "The battle is over, Kaname."
Kaname nodded. "With the Buggers? Yeah. But with legislation? Forget about it. They'll be after me."
"For what?"
"Interviews. Proposals. Bill signings. Pacts. Examinations. Tests. Everything," Kaname said. "The government is going to be up at arms for publicity. They'll want to know what happened, everything."
"Then tell them."
Kaname grimaced. "I hate people."
"Then don't tell them."
"Are you messed up in the skull?! If I don't spit out what happened, they're going to come after the rest of us! Maybe torture them into telling them the information that they need!"
Momomi laughed. "You think they'd do that to little kids?"
"The government is cruel, Momomi. Think back during the Civil War. Think back during Internment Camps. Do you want our soldiers to be locked up in a room until they confess?"
Momomi rolled her eyes at her. "We're child soldiers, not the yakuza."
"We might as well be," Kaname said gravely. "I'll bet anything that they come looking for us in the next five minutes. Which reminds me," she said, and then turned to the rest of her girls, who had been listening privately to their conversation. "All of you need to get out of here. There are more modes of transportation in the pod room, Shion can show you all. Make sure you don't leave the group. I don't care where you go. Make a beeline for Earth. We'll arrange a meeting place and I'll join you later."
Everyone nodded, and Shion instantly led the group of girls off into the hallway. The only ones that remained were Momomi, Kaname and Amane.
Kaname narrowed her eyes at them. "Well? Get going."
Momomi and Amane narrowed their eyes back. "Bugger that," Momomi said sternly.
"We're going with you. We started this together, we'll end this together. Got it?" Amane put in, and Kaname grinned at her two best friends and sighed.
"I should have known you two would follow me...Alright then, you guys. Let's play a game of Chicken."
So they did. As they trugged down the hallways, more of the I.F. and government officials were walking down the hallways as well, expectantly looking for Kaname. Momomi and Amane looked horrified, staring at Kaname with nearly bulging eyes. Kaname grabbed both of their shoulders and led them down a deserted hallway into a custodian's closet, where Amane tripped over a bucket of dirty water. Resisting the temptation to laugh, Kaname pulled Amane up from the floor, who's left leg was now drenched in water up to the knee, and pulled her close, placing a hand on her mouth and doing the same to Momomi, to keep them quiet.
"If they find out that you're with me, they'll come after you, too!" Kaname said in a harsh whisper. Her tone was urgent. "I need you two to stay here and hide. I'm going to see if I can reason with them."
"Fat chance of that," Momomi said, pulling Kaname's hand away from her mouth. "You're a 14-year-old kid. They're not going to reason with you."
"I'm their Commander. I just saved the Earth from years of trauma. And you say they aren't going to reason with me?"
That shut Momomi up. Kaname grinned at her and placed a hand on both her shoulders. "I'll be fine," she said softly, reassuringly. It was as though she adopted a whole new personality around Momomi. She smiled back and nodded at her.
"I trust that you will."
Kaname nodded and moved away from her, looked to Amane whom was looking at her curiously, and walked out of the small room and exposed herself in the hallway. Looking up and down the hallway, she contemplated where she should go. It was like she could hear people all around her, their feet tapping against the tile floors with an echoing sound that seemed to bounce off the walls. Clutching the handle of her pistol, which was still tied to her yellow Velcro belt, she ran down a few hallways. What she was running from, however...she had no idea. Luck must have been on her side that day, she hadn't ran into a single guard or I.F. member since she'd left that custodial closet. Inside, she wondered if the people were evading her on purpose.
She found that her speculation was right. When she turned a corner, there stood about five people in a line, aiming their weapons towards her. They seemed to think they were doing a clever ambush, and Kaname laughed at them.
"How cute. Five adults teaming up to take down a 14-year-old. You do realize that I've just saved your hides from blowing up?"
"Enough with the smart talk," a bulky man said in a husky voice, apparently thinking that he was being intimidating. Kaname raised her eyebrows at him. "You're coming with us."
"Am I?" Kaname said, seemingly confused. "I don't think I am, actually."
"Be careful with that kid," another skinnier man said, looking to the bulky, husky-voiced man. "She's terribly violent. She won't hesitate to attack you. We'll have to reason with her."
Kaname laughed again. It seemed as though the fact that she was not in the least bit intimidated greatly pissed off her apparent ambushers. She grinned at them, amused. "You guys are geniuses, really. Teaming up together against one of the most powerful people on Earth? Do you have concrete for brains? Do the five of you really think you'll be able to overthrow one of the strongest and most dangerous people in the world by yourselves? You're sadly mistaken, then."
"We're not scared of a little girl who's barely a teenager!" the skinny man said, and as one, they all reached for their pistols. However, before Kaname could draw her own pistol in return, three girls came running at them, one slamming against the bulky man, causing him to fall backward and right into the skinny man, along with the man next to him. The two people still standing drew their weapons, but the three girls had already surrounded them, pulling their triggers and hitting them both with bullets of red light. Kaname knew that the red lights meant that they would not start boiling from the inside, but would just remain paralyzed for a few hours. She looked to her saviors and noticed the three girls who had tried to attack her back at Battle School.
"That's what you get for trying to kill our Commander!" Shafts, the oldest girl out of the three, said to the unconscious men on the floor, kicking one out of them out of the way. "Pubescent scum..." The girl sighed, looked to the men on the floor, and glanced sideways at Kaname before addressing her friends. "Come on, let's get outta here."
"Wait!" Kaname said, wanting to know what that was all about. She smiled widely. "Shafts, eh? What are you doing helping me?"
Shafts looked at her, her eyes narrowed. Apparently it was hard looking at her. The memories of Battle School seemed to be resurfacing in her mind. There was no doubt that the girl still towered over Kaname like a skyscraper.
"Well," Shafts said, her voice even and cold. "If you had died in the hands of those I.F. guys, and we were the sole witnesses, they would have blamed us for your death, wouldn't they? They would have asked why we weren't dead as well, how we could have let our Commander die when we could ahve helped. I don't want to sign a bunch of paperwork, if you catch my drift."
Kaname grinned at her and it seemed, even for a fraction of a second, that Shafts returned the smile. "You better get out of here before more of the- look, here come more people."
Kaname looked around, and saw that people were coming from left, right and behind them. Kaname backed into a wall, as to avoid being trampled on. A lot of people in I.F. uniforms, and a few people who's uniforms Kaname did not recognize, were belting towards them. Kaname went after an older woman, who was belting at her and trying to grab her. Before she could even land a blow on her by hitting her with her pistol, Shafts grabbed Kaname by the back of her shirt collar and held her up.
"What are you doing?! Don't be stupid!" Shafts said as Kaname squirmed around in her grasp. "Do you even know who that is?!"
"She's trying to kill me!"
"No, you idiot! She's trying to protect you! Stop!"
Kaname calmed down after a few more feeble attempts to free herself from Shafts's grip. She looked up at the face of the taller woman and recognized her at once. She'd seen her in the vids of the First and Second Invasion, going back to Belgium...Shafts kept her grip on Kaname as she looked apologetically at the woman.
"I apologize for her violent ways, Sister Carlotta," she said, in an amusingly polite voice as she struggled to keep Kaname in her grip. "She's not in her right mind."
Sister...? So she's a nun? Kaname thought as she examined the woman. Sister Carlotta smiled softly, a mother-ish smile.
"It's alright, Shafts. I wouldn't expect someone who's gone through as much as she has to trust people too easily. You may release her."
Shafts's grip lifted, and Kaname pulled her arms away, brushing some dirt off of her. Kaname looked up at Carlotta, watching her closely.
"I know who you are," she said knowingly. "You're Sister Carlotta, Julian Delphiki's surrogate mother. What are you doing here?"
"I'm here on orders," Carlotta said, raising her eyebrows at Kaname. "I don't quite understand why that's any of your business."
"Everything is my business."
"You're not the Hegemon, little girl."
"No, I'm not. I'm just the greatest Commander known to humankind. But I suppose that still doesn't add up to your darling Peter Wiggin."
"You have a nasty attitude," Carlotta said, and Kaname rolled her eyes. "Come with me. There are some people here to see you."
Carlotta held out a hand. Kaname stared at it. If this woman though that she was going to hold her hand, she was sadly mistaken. However, to be safe, she held her hand anyway and was led to a room with a great many people inside. She recognized Dink Meeker, Major Anderson, Colonel Graff and Mazar Rackham at once. They all looked apprehensive as Kaname and Carlotta entered the room. Kaname also noticed two other people in the room she did not recognize, a man and a woman standing next to each other. One good look at them told her that they were probably married. But Kaname watched them more closely, and they equally watched her. The man had her same hairstyle, he leaned against the wall the same way she did, and had the same eyes. She looked over to the woman next. She had an air of complete control over the man. He wouldn't make a move unless she gave permission. Even though Kaname did not recognize them, had never seen them before in her entire life...they seemed oddly familiar, like Kaname had known them for a long time and they were just now meeting again after ten years.
Kaname noticed that she was still holding Carlotta's hand, and she pulled her hand away gently as she examined the two people. They couldn't be...
"Kaname," Graff said, and Kaname nearly jumped out of her skin, turning her head sharply towards Graff. "Congratulations on your victory. Earth will continue to be a peaceful place forever thanks to your efforts. Then again, there's still the chaos caused by humankind, but we'll get to that later. I trust by now that you realize who those two people are that you've been staring at."
Kaname looked from Graff to the unnamed people standing next to each other, and she shook her head, addressing Graff but her eyes on the people. "No, I don't."
"Your parents."
Kaname's heart seemed to stop. So her suspicions were right once again. She blinked at the two people, who stared back, and then she aimed her pistol at them, moving from the man's head to the woman's, and back again. Sister Carlotta seemed horrified, but Graff, Dink and Mazar Rackham did not seem surprised.
"You! What's my birth date?"
"October 25th," the woman said, smiling wryly. "Fourteen years ago."
"Middle name?"
"We don't want to embarrass you," the man said, rolling his eyes. Kaname's face turned puce.
"Alright, alright. What's the name of my foster mother, then?"
"You mean Orihime Kohana? How could we not know who she is?"
Kaname sighed. So far, they hadn't flawed on any of the questions so far. Her face grew more and more puce with frustration, her collar seemed to sweat. The man and the woman seemed to notice and they both smirked.
"Don't think you're going to retain a victory out of this conversation, Kaname," the woman said, and Kaname's skin suddenly turned to ice. "There's no denying the truth."
"So," Kaname said, shivering and gazing at the two people, refusing to believe that they were her parents at the moment. "So. What was the reason of sending me to that goddamn awful orphanage?! Why didn't you keep me with you?"
"For the exact reason that you are here now," the man said. "You needed to be away from us. You were supposed to grow up as a great Commander, with nothing in your way. And wanting to protect a family was something that would have definitely held you back. We couldn't have something like that. We knew you'd be the one to lead mother Earth to victory, and you have. We didn't want you to have any weaknesses. However...from what Graff tells me, you do have someone who held you back. Isn't that right?"
Kaname's face turned more puce as she turned and glared at Graff, who was pretending to be in deep conversation with Dink. She looked back at the two people. "It's none of your business."
"We'll make it our business," the woman said, and Kaname felt her insides ice over again at the sound of her voice, the stern tone, the power behind it. "Kaname, you're stubborn and arrogant. You have a bad attitude and you think you're always going to win. But in reality, there's always someone who's going to bring you down, whether they mean to or not. And most likely, they'll mean to.
"That doesn't mean," Kaname said, her voice nearly trembling, "that I'm letting you off the hook for abandoning me."
"We know that our plan might not have been the most...gentle," the man spoke, "but it was effective, nonetheless. Look where it's gotten you. You're one of the strongest people in the world. You're the best Commander ever known to man, besides Ender Wiggin, and who knows where the hell he is. You're all of those things, in yet, you quaver under the pressure of having a nice conversation with your parents."
"Shut up," Kaname said coldly, and Carlotta gave her a stern look. Kaname ignored her. "Just shut up. And stop calling yourself my parents. You're not my parents, you're not-"
"Open your eyes, Kaname!" the woman said, her voice magnified to twice it's normal tone, and the hairs on Kaname's neck stood upright, piercing fear into her. Why did this woman make her feel so much fear? "You are not the only person in the world that matters! What about your friends? What about the Earth that you just saved? What about that girl?!"
Kaname was struck dumb, speechless. She couldn't even make her mouth open, she just stood there, staring at the woman. The man looked at her as well, looking confused.
"Girl? What girl?"
The woman ignored him, staring back at Kaname. She smiled her wry smile at Kaname.
"Apparently I've scared you into silence. Kaname, just step down and face the truth. We're your parents, not impostors. Just trust us. I know that isn't one of your golden rules, but really. Stop being ignorant."
Kaname sighed. Her heart seemed to stop wanting to beat right out of her chest...when had she started hyperventilating like that? The sudden realization dawned on her. These people were her parents. It was apparent to her now. They were her parents...the people who Kaname had longed to meet for the last ten years, the people who seemed so far away, yet so close to her. She suddenly grinned at them, but did not go run up and hug them like she wanted to. She didn't want to go causing a scene in front of Graff or Dink or Mazar Rackham.
Almost as suddenly as the realization hit her, the door to the room burst open and Amane went sailing onto the ground. She sputtered and got to her feet, getting back in fighting stance, holding her fists in front of her.
"Bring it on, you scum!" she said, and dodged a bullet of light and launched herself at her attackers. A few seconds later, she re-entered the room, apparently thinking that it was empty, brushing off her uniform. "Damn it...persistent little pieces of...oh," she said, and she looked up, noticing the people. Her face turned a light pink. "Sorry about that, Colonel Graff. Kaname!" She said, suddenly spotting her and grinning. "People are still looking for you outside."
Kaname rolled her eyes. "I'm sure. Where's Momomi? Wasn't she with you?"
"She...was," Amane said, looking as though she was choosing her words carefully. "But when those people attacked me, I lost sight of her. I'm sorry. She looked like she was fighting other people, too. Who knew we had so many spies here?"
Amane suddenly looked at the two people standing next to each other, then looked from them to Kaname. "Who are they?"
"No time to explain, but they're my parents," Kaname said, almost proudly, and Amane's jaw dropped. "Go find Momomi and tell her to go hang with the rest of the girls. I want you to do the same. I'll join you soon, hopefully."
"Yes, Commander," Amane said, giving her a mock salute, and sprinted out of the room. Kaname's parents looked at each other, their eyebrows raised.
"What are you two thinking? She's not the one," Kaname said, narrowing her eyes. They grinned at her and shrugged.
"We figured she might not be your type," her father said, shrugging. "We pictured you being with a more 'girl-y' kind of girl. Anyway, shouldn't you be getting to your army?"
"I...oh, yeah," Kaname said. She had completely forgotten the group of girls who were waiting for her instructions a few floors down. The shock of finding her parents had blocked the rest of the thoughts out of her mind. She smiled at them both again, and they smiled at her. "So what are you two going to do? Go back to Earth?"
"Eventually," her mother said. "We've got a few things to patch up here. My suggestion is that you round your girls up and head out back to Earth in the pods. We'll send you our new address so you can come and join us at home. We can talk about everything then. But, more importantly, you have to take care of your responsibility first. Get them all home safely. We'll see you later."
Kaname nodded, waved at them, and sprinted out of the room like Amane, her spirits lifted, feeling happier than she had ever felt in her life. Her life seemed to radiate some sort of...complete-ness. She no longer felt alone. She had Momomi, her parents, her army...everything seemed so real now. When she made it to the room where the girls were scattered around, some huddled together, she called to them, clapping her hands together.
"Huddle!" she called, and the girls made a crowd around Kaname. "We're heading off for Earth. Shion, Shizuma, Miyuki and Chikaru will take you guys in groups, since it's too dangerous to go in a big mob. Wait for your next instructions in the pod room. If anyone tries to get in your way, show them no mercy. Move out!"
The girls started organizing themselves at once. Kaname blinked at Amane, who shrugged.
"I still couldn't find her," she said, and Kaname waved her off.
"It's okay. She'll turn up, if I know her as well as I do. Let's go."
They made it to the pod room, and some girls were already being placed in pods in groups of three, the person steering always an older girl. Yaya was in a pod with Hikari and Tsubomi, miming steering in the air and dodging asteroids for their amusement. After about five minutes watching the older students get organized, Kaname clapped her hands again to get their attention. Each and every head turned to her.
"Nice job, nice job. It seems like a lot of you already know how to direct the pods. Since these are a lot faster than regular spaceships, for evacuation purposes, we'll make it to Earth a lot faster. But we have to plan our course well, or else we might run into satellites and other space junk. Just follow my lead. Any questions?"
Everyone was silent, and as soon as Kaname was going to give them the heads-up that it was alright to get revved up and ready, the door slammed open and Momomi ran into the room, red-faced and panting.
"I'm...sorry," she said through breaths. "Got...ambushed...had to...hold them off..."
"It's alright," Kaname said in her professional, Commander-voice, even though she was quite happy to see that she had found them. "We're just about to make the departure for Earth. Go ahead and get into the pod with Amane."
Momomi nodded, they looked at each other for a split second, then Momomi took Amane's sleeve and dragged her off to the only empty pod. Kaname gave her last few announcements, and then sat herself in between Momomi and Amane, handling the controls.
"Everyone set the coordinates for Cell Block #0083426. This will make sure that we're going in the right direction."
Mechanical clicks and buttons could be heard all around her, as she was listening to all of them through the speaker in her pod. Tsubomi's voice carried through the clicking as they finished entering the coordinates. "London, England? We're landing in America?"
"Well, I would have given each pod a different destination, but then we would have been separated too easily."
"But won't they have a better chance of finding us if we're all headed for the same destination?"
"Ah," Kaname said, grinning. "That's the exact question I wanted someone to ask. You see, you typed the coordinates for London, but what you don't know is that each pod has a unique code so that it seems that you're heading for a different direction. So if people are tailing us, they won't know that we're all together. It's one of my many brilliant plans."
Momomi snorted at this comment and Kaname glared at her, pushing her into the door of the pod. "Are we ready? Then let's head out!"
A few girls let out a battle-cry and pressed the controls on their pods, causing them to rise into the air. About ten pods were now floating off the ground, off into space. The black atmosphere of the endless space engulfed them, and some girls made noises of awe. Kaname didn't understand why, though. Most of these girls have traveled in space their whole lives. Then again, they had always been inside, forced to look up at a red sky with pink clouds twenty-four-seven when they were outside. They had never once been able to actually look into space, see the stars and the asteroids and the planets zooming past them as they made a beeline for Earth.
Being in the pod was exactly like driving a car, except for the fact that they were able to turn upside-down at will. As Kaname drove, Momomi and Amane started to have a conversation about different feelings and how they were caused. Kaname rolled her eyes.
"Why don't you take a Psychology class to learn about that kind of thing instead of trying to come up with theories yourselves and end up thinking wrong things?"
They ignored her and she sighed, continuing to steer with one hand, her other hand resting on the chair behind her, her fingers inches from Momomi's shoulder. She did not touch her, though, even though every single nerve in her body seemed to ache for the feeling. She would not do it while Amane was there with them.
They had been flying for about two hours at this point. The journey to Earth was expected to be a few months in a normal spaceship, and they were already half-way there. Kaname was wide-awake and still steering with the same hand, while Amane and Momomi slept. Amane leaned against the window, and Momomi leaned gently on Kaname's shoulder. Kaname did not mind, she was obviously tired. But she felt like falling asleep right with her, sharing the relaxation. Oh well, they would have more time when they made it to Earth.
"How much farther, Commander?" Hikari's voice suddenly sounded, and Kaname jumped, making sure she didn't wake up Momomi. She hadn't realized that the girls were still flying with her. Most of them had remained silent, apparently a lot of them were sleeping.
"About two hours," Kaname said, her voice was robotic. Exhaustion was starting to take over her body, her nerves were starting to shut down, and her hand almost slipped off of the steering wheel. She felt Amane stir next to her, and a few seconds later, she was awake. She must have noticed that Kaname was tired, because she offered to steer for the rest of the way. Kaname was torn between two desires...the desire to sleep, and the desire to stay near Momomi. But the desire to sleep was greater and she was now leaning on the cold glass of the door, looking out the window. She thanked and mentally hated Amane for her generosity. But, in the next few minutes, all feelings other than exhaustion drained out of her, and she fell asleep.
