Sheryl's Penthouse
1900

Like many penthouses, especially expensive ones, Sheryl's apartment had its own private elevator. It functioned as her front door, one just needed hold the key card up to the reader and it would call the elevator, which would run straight up to her penthouse where it opened onto an entry way practically already at her living room. With the cameras and the intercom she could even answer the door herself without any security concerns. No one could even break the door down, as what purpose would it serve to barge into an elevator shaft? The elevator had a further advantage in that it gave fair warning to the penthouse when it was summoned even if someone already had the key, which would give Sheryl ample opportunity to react before a visitor stepped into her apartment. With that in mind, it should have come as no surprise to Alto Saotome when Sheryl was found waiting for him at the doors when they at last slid open, and indeed it didn't surprise him, but how she had turned up left him completely shocked.

"Sh- Sheryl?" Alto asked in bafflement, "What are you wearing?"

With a rose clenched between her teeth, Sheryl leaned in on the arch way wearing a deep red dress that contoured her body from her high heels webbing her ankles and toes to her generously low neckline. There was a faint shimmer to it cast by the light of the elevator more so than the dim, candle-lit room beyond the threshold, and a sort of see-through veil of lavender that extended from the sides of the dress's skirt and attached to her wrists. Her hands were clad in silken gloves that came to a point at the joint between her middle finger and her palm. Her hair, usually left to hang down, was done up intricately about her head leaving her two dangling earrings in plain view. Eye shadow, blush, and lipstick matching her dress was added tastefully to her face in a minimalist fashion. Her blue eyes were half-lidded and the mouth clenching the rose had a smile that could only be described as sultry.

But the smile disappeared just as quickly as he had seen it, and with the rose stem still in her mouth Sheryl could only barely get out, "What are you wearing?"

Slacks. Like always.

"S- Sorry," Alto managed out, slumping a bit with his dumb-founded stare. He felt quite under-dressed now.

Sheryl plucked the rose out of her mouth and straightened herself to a stand. With the heels on she was almost as tall as he was. "Goodness, Alto, you ask a woman to dinner and that's what you show up wearing?"

"It was the closest meal available!" Alto tried to excuse himself. "Besides no one mentioned anything about formal wear."

Sheryl's eyes were still half-lidded, but the curl of her lips was now a frown. "It's implied by it being dinner," she sighed, and when the doors of the elevator tried to close she hit the edge of them to keep them open, "Well, at least you're on time, so I'll forgive you this time!"

Alto shrugged. He just couldn't figure how he was expected to know these subtleties implicitly, and he would have had to wear a tuxedo with her in that kind of dress, and those are expensive. Because of that his mind wandered over how Sheryl must feel, and his mind suddenly recalled a bit of how Princess Sakura might have been if confronted with such a situation, quite unexpectedly and quite unwanted. He presented himself dressed as a commoner, a complete disrespect, her voice said with haughty annoyance, and then with a bit of embarrassment, And as for that woman she is being awfully bold. The potential lines came to his mind before he could dismiss her character again.

Sheryl reached forward and grabbed his hand with both of hers with the rose's stem tangled somewhere in there. Gently she pulled him out of the elevator, a smile already back on her lips, "Never mind, let's just have dinner."

She released his hand and turned around to lead him to the table, a memorable sort of event for the detail of the dress's backside, the bulk of it was cut all the way beneath the small of her back almost as low as possible, but filling that space was an intricate web of cloth like a stain glass window of a set of butterfly wings at her back about where one might expect real wings to be on a fairy. Her bare skin filled in for the glass sections. He kind of thought it was rather pretty.

Sheryl slid the rose into a thin but tall glass vase, one conspicuously filled with water but empty of flowers and placed exactly on the way to her dining room. He started to wonder at what else she had planned, and that started to concern him. Most of the time she was a very spontaneous woman, but if she bothered to sit and plan something it would come down to the most minute details and probably last all night, just like one of her shows. Of course, there was nothing to stop all this from being an entirely spontaneous planning, but if she put this together that fast it was pretty surprising.

"What are you thinking about?" Sheryl asked all of a sudden as she reached the table and rounded on him.

"Uhh, you went to a lot of trouble," Alto confessed.

"Oh, you noticed?" Sheryl said with a pleased tone and smiled, "Come on, have a seat." She presented him an open chair. The table had two tall candles on it, both already lit, and two placements set with steel platters with dome covers like a fancy restaurant. Presumably these contained food.

"Isn't that my job?" Alto asked as he went to take his seat.

Sheryl seemed just a bit more perky from that one simple question. "So you do remember chivalry," she chuckled, "Consider it a rare special service as your host for the evening." Alto took his seat while she explained, and she scooted it forward for him. "After all," she leaned in suddenly and whispered in his ear, "I have to keep you entertained."

Awkward. She must have offered his seat just so she could do that. Fortunately she might not have noticed his sudden tension as she rounded the table. He had wanted a simple evening, a casual dinner, and a candid conversation, but this was shaping up into straight up Sheryl offering him the night of his life. Alto, however, considered himself as not being so shallow as to fall for that so readily. Sheryl knew that. It was probably the biggest reason the two of them ever even became friends. He glanced at her eyes, and were it not for his background in acting he might have missed it entirely, but her eyes said she was hiding something.

And at that point his train of thought derailed onto a tangent about how the woman always made everything complicated. She was probably just teasing anyway.

Sheryl reached over the table and grabbed both of the platter covers with a hand each. "Ready?" Without waiting for his response she lifted the covers up with an extravagant motion.

"A salad?" Alto asked. With all the fanfare he had half-expected a steak dinner.

"I made it myself!" Sheryl stated pridefully as she set the covers aside on a nearby counter top. Sheryl's cooking could at best be described as random, but he could believe this. There were thankfully few ways of ruining a salad.


1955

"I still have to wonder how he got so much financial aid for building up New Frontier," Alto Saotome added, speaking of Frontier's new president. Fortunately there had been more to Sheryl's dinner than a mere salad, but that was unimportant now. Sheryl had started to relax finally and now leaned on the table lazily, legs crossed, one heel kicked off with the other simply hanging by a toe in mid-air.

Sheryl shrugged, "Maybe they feel the colony is owed. You did sort of save the galaxy."

"No one says that but you," Alto replied with a bit of a smile.

Sheryl smiled in return. "It will be nice to see Frontier re-built, back to something like it was before. I still remember our first date and all the places we went, it was lovely," she started to trail off, smile fading, "Back before the war..."

"It's a beautiful planet, I'm sure Frontier will get back to something like it was." Alto took a look outside the window at the night sky beyond. There wasn't much to be seen at night, only a black field where even the stars were overpowered by the lights of the city skyline out Sheryl's window. Really he couldn't see much of anything but the city, but the planet really was quite lovely out that window during the daylight.

"Do you still love your sky?" Sheryl asked.

"Of course, but it means more to me now. When I flew on Galia Four I did enjoy it, but there was something that felt a little empty about it. It was a sky and nothing more, nothing really to care about under it, but here... the sky is home."

Sheryl chuckled, "You used to hate it here."

Alto smiled back at her, "I guess I found something to care about."

It was hard not to notice her blush. He suddenly realized that line turned out to be a little suggestive. He thought maybe he should explain what he really meant by it, but then he thought... what did he mean by it?

"Alto..." Sheryl started, then she took a deep breath before she stated firmly, "Ozma offered me to join SMS's pilot training." She continued, "I'm going to say yes."

He tensed. He opened his mouth to say something almost immediately, but ended up just and he grit his teeth while he composed himself. He had expected this to come up, even wanted it to, but this came all of a sudden. Finally, he spoke, keeping his calm, "I know he offered it, and I had a feeling you would want to say yes, that's the whole reason I'm here."

Sheryl's warm emotions suddenly faded. "What? That's the whole reason you're here?" Sheryl suddenly turned angry, "I see. So, are you going to tell me to give it up again?"

Alto grit his teeth again, annoyed by her anger at him caring, although he considered maybe that was not the best choice of words. "I'm here because I'm worried!" Sheryl softened up at that, and turned her gaze from him. When she didn't immediately respond he lowered his voice and asked, "Why do you always have to get this way, Sheryl?"

She looked up at him again with sad blue eyes right at his. There was an answer there, somewhere, but she looked away again before he could find it. "It always seems like you being worried is the only reason why you're ever here," she admitted softly.

She gave him plenty of reason to be worried. "Is that what this is about? Do you just want to spend more time with me or something?" Alto asked.

"Is that so wrong?" Sheryl asked back.

Alto blinked and stammered an answer with his stiff jaw, "No, I guess not, but it's a pretty stupid reason to join the military."

"It's not the only reason," she whispered.

The tension of anger seeped up again, not that he wanted to be angry with her. Her hunched over form had her facing off to her right side, away from him and the window. Stubborn? Lost? Confused? Perhaps she was all of it, but it was one of those times that Sheryl's emotions were hard to gauge. The war had affected a lot of people, but somehow it seemed as if Sheryl had been affected most of all. Betrayal probably had that effect. Yet still it left him angry, because he knew at least that Sheryl thought she could do it, and like always with these things she was stubborn about proving that she really could. "Do you have to prove this to yourself?" Alto asked, "Maybe you could do it, Sheryl, but I won't be there if you do!"

Sheryl's head whipped up at him with but a single, barely whispered word in shock, "What?" Her heartbroken tone made Alto vaguely wince. He really needed to explain that to her.

With a sigh he rose from the table and slowly walked around it to her right side. Her eyes followed him the whole way like a deer in headlights. He knelt on both knees and put a hand on her shoulder, and another on her own hand in her lap. She was tense. "Sheryl, let me explain," he started gently, "I didn't want to say anything until I was a hundred percent sure it was going to happen." Sheryl looked at him curiously, eyes hanging on his every word. He looked back at her and continued, "I put in for a transfer. Off of Macross Quarter."

Sheryl shot up from her chair and looked down at him, still in shock, "You're... You're not going on the Quarter's next deployment."

Alto looked up at her, "No, I'm not."

"But," Sheryl started, "But you're-!"

"I'm still a pilot," Alto answered pre-emptively while she stammered and he got back to his feet to stand in front of her. "I'll be a test pilot if everything goes smoothly. LAI is considering candidate test pilots for a new project, Project Roland, it's a development project for a new Valkyrie. They're building the first prototype now. I already spoke with Luca and Ozma about it and they're going to recommend me to the project leads." A second of silence passed, with the two of them looking into each other's eyes. "I'm staying home."

Sheryl watched him for a long time, and lost herself all of a sudden. She threw her arms around him, but without a word. Alto couldn't tell what she was thinking, but hesitantly he returned her grasp with his own arms. Her cheek came to rest against his shoulder, but as the seconds ticked by, she kept her silence. Only her arms around him and the force they exerted gave any indication that she was listening when he finally decided to speak again. "Just promise me one thing, Sheryl," Alto started, softly, almost giving up, "If you do go through with this and you don't make it through training, let it go. If you keep this up past that you'll only be putting yourself in danger and you won't be helping anyone. Just let it go..."

Sheryl was silent, but he could feel her breathe. She was probably still thinking about it.

"Really, Sheryl," he repeated, "Promise me you'll let it go if that happens."

Her fingers clenched just a little, and finally she gave an answer, a barely whispered, "I promise."


Frontier Medical Hospital
1029, 3 September 2059

Sheryl watched out the window of the hospital at the distant horizon. Like Eden and Earth and Galia IV the horizon stretched seemingly into infinity where the blue of the sea suddenly met the blue of the sky. She turned her gaze up to the sky, a blue ether tufted with dramatic clouds reflecting white from a late-morning sun that shined over everything. There had never before been a more beautiful sky for Sheryl, not once. The battle was over and everyone had a happy ending. Even her. It was staring her in the face.

"Hey, Sheryl," Alto said all of a sudden. Sheryl turned to face him with a bright smile. "So uhh... what did the doctors say?"

"Clean bill of health as expected!" Sheryl chirped, too happy to care how girlish she sounded, "The V-type infection has entirely migrated to my stomach, where it can do no harm, just like Ranka's."

The tension in Alto's shoulders gave way with relief. "I'm glad," Alto smiled. He came and sat next to her and shared in the view of the sky. "It's a beautiful sky."

"It is," Sheryl nodded and did not hesitate to take Alto's shoulder as a headrest. She could think of no possible way to make the moment any better. The night was over, it was the dawn of a new day, and she was happy. "I'm surprised you aren't still flying in it."

Alto chuckled, "I'll get around to it."

"You are going to take me up like you promised, aren't you?" Sheryl asked.

Alto made an annoying little whine, "When did I ever promise that?" She thought it was cute.

"Stipulation of your birthday present!" Sheryl said, "You never did take me up on Galia Four, but since the planet blew up, I forgive you. Still, it's only fair that you make up for it now."

"That's going to be a little tricky with my plane being a smoldering pancake fifty klicks south-east of here."

Sheryl laughed, "EX-Gear is fine."

Sheryl could feel his smile on her, a warm feeling that made her heart feel more full than it had ever felt before. There was no question about it...

She was happy.

"Hey, Alto, what about that new wingman of yours? Did he find his gift yet?"

"What?" Alto asked in confusion.

"You know, Maruyama, that fanboy in your squadron with nose art of me on his Valkyrie's wings. Really, Alto, you should know who I'm talking about," Sheryl said with a short laugh, then explained, "I snuck an autographed album into his locker before I went on stage. He must not have gotten it yet or I'm sure he would have found some way to shout his gratitude at you." Sheryl turned her gaze from the window to smile over at Alto.

But Alto wasn't smiling anymore. His face had fallen from the sky to the sea.

Sheryl's smile faded, "What's wrong?"

He turned his gaze to hers. "Sheryl..." Alto started solemnly, "He didn't make it."


Sheryl's Penthouse
0737, 29 February
2060

It was with those words that Sheryl suddenly realized that she was awake with a half-empty heart. Her eyes opened onto her dark bedroom, and slowly she sat up and waved her hand at the bedside lamp to make a dim light. She winced only briefly at the sudden lighting change, but soon looked over to the other side of the bed, hand feeling but finding nothing but sheets. She looked at the empty side of the bed sadly for a long moment, then she got up and started her daily routine on auto-pilot in her sky blue nightgown.

The dreams were still fresh on Sheryl's mind, all of them were, memories she couldn't forget. It was supreme irony that on the day of her appointed fate she gave up to death and lived while another fought to live and died. She had wanted for them all to have their happy ending and to give everything she had left for it. She expected that not everyone would make it in that last battle, but she hadn't expected to live to see it herself. It would have been enough to die knowing she had given her all, but when she heard of that pilot being killed in action she wondered if she really had given her all.

She saw the framed picture of Alto on her dresser, sitting on the edge of a dock in his school uniform wistfully smiling up at the sky. He had tried to tell her that it wasn't her fault, a V-9 Ghost had caught him mid-transformation, there was nothing she could have done about that, and if someone had to die Maruyama would have wanted it this way, that she had lived instead. Maybe it was true.

Alto was always a comfort to her. She couldn't imagine how life would have been if he had really died during that battle, especially if she hadn't. He had stayed by her side the entire war, and threw just about everything aside to do so. He was always by her side, wasn't he?

Why was she looking at her bed now?

She reached for a drawer, the one that was hard to open. It rarely opened. Inside an album sat atop a framed picture of an exuberant, younger Sheryl with an older, blue-haired woman wearing glasses and a slightly embarrassed smile. She picked up the album. Alto had told her Maruyama was quite annoying with all the times he asked about her, or compared the next battle to the battle that had made Minmei famous in Space War One, or the times he just wanted her autograph. Apparently he had stayed a fan even when Ranka's popularity had eclipsed her own, and really believed that they would all make it with Sheryl singing them on. She had figured why not write something special on the last album she ever expected to sign? And so written across the sleeve booklet with the last of her prismatic ink was "For my biggest fan, who always believed in me," along with her trademark signature. It had still been in his locker after the battle, right where she had left it.

He never even saw it.

She drew the curtain of the massive glass window built into the wall of her bedroom. The sun was only just now starting to peek from the distant horizon over the warm sea, casting a play of shadow and light across the cityscape. She looked at how the skyline had changed because of the war, thought of how she had changed herself because of the war, and how much had been lost and how much had been gained. Now when she looked out at Frontier she knew that she had somewhere she could call home and a new life ahead of her. This was her happy ending. It was everyone's happy ending. But war still happened, and just like every home she had ever had before, this one could one day be gone, too.

But she wanted to keep this one.

And as much as she might want to follow Alto's advice on this, just to relax and live out her happy ending, she couldn't let this go. It wasn't just about proving she could do it. She once promised herself to give it her all for everyone. Alto, Ranka, her fans, Frontier, everyone. She still had more to give.

She picked up her phone from a table and dialed.

"Good morning, Miss Nome, how are you?" Catherine's voice answered, "We were going to come see you in an hour."

"I'll save you the trip," Sheryl said, "I've made my choice."

"And?" Cathy asked.

"Tell Ozma..." Sheryl started, and took a deep breath, "I'm in."

~ Episode 3 End ~

See you next deculture...