"Um, Yusuke-" Yuki began.
"As I said: escape first, questions later," Kaiba replied as the building around us quaked from the commotion on the surface.
"I just wanted to know if you'd like me to help carry something..." Yuki suggested, a bit quieter. Kaiba had been carrying the girl we found downstairs on his back ever since we escaped the underground. After she rescued him from the collapsing ceiling, her legs got wobbly and she couldn't seem to stand anymore. Kaiba explained that it was probably muscle atrophy, and the reason she was able to move before at all was due to adrenaline. I understood all that, but it seemed as though he was doting on her a little too much. Maybe I was overthinking things, but it almost felt as though he saw this strange girl as a stand-in for Viviana. He did tell us that they were lovers at one point, so now that they were on opposing sides, maybe this was his way of having a connection with her.
"I wasn't expecting things to turn out like this..." I sighed, glancing back, "But at least we can get out of here. Right, Shirley?" But for some reason...Shirley was gone.
"Shirley?" I repeated, stopping in my tracks, "Where'd she go?" Kaiba and the others stopped as well, looking back with me. She was right behind us until just a moment ago...and it wasn't like this place was a labyrinth. There was literally only one way to go - a linear path. No way she could have gotten lost, especially when we were right in front of her. We didn't hear any rubble collapsing or anything like that, so she couldn't have gotten trapped.
"Did she fall behind?" Yuki asked, sounding concerned.
"She'll be fine," Kaiba said to us.
"But she just disappeared. How can you be so sure?" Daisuke asked him.
"Given our circumstances, the only way she would have disappeared was of her own volition. She'll find her way to us. I have faith in her," he explained.
"...Alright, Kaiba," I agreed, "Let's go."
"But, wouldn't Shirley have at least said something to us?" Yuki asked as we continued on.
"There are many reasons she might have chosen not to," Kaiba explained, "As of now, I will trust her strength and resourcefulness and focus on the matter at hand."
"...If you say so," Yuki accepted begrudgingly. It was honestly a bit of a surprise, hearing her protest so much against Kaiba's command. Before, she just went along with whatever he said, but something obviously changed in her recently. It was a welcome change - we had enough mindless zealots - but it made me curious.
"It's almost certain that whoever attacked us will be waiting for us on the surface. I've devised a plan to allow the rest of you time to escape," Kaiba told us, "Your objective is escape. Nothing more. Do not attack - just run. Everyone clear?"
"Yes, sir," I agreed.
"Wait, what's this about someone attacking you?" Yuki asked.
"Someone, or something, wiped out most of our forces up above," I explained to her, knowing Kaiba wanted to focus on escape, "We haven't seen it yet, but we have reason to believe it's immensely powerful. It's the most likely reason for all the quakes, after all."
"And you want us just to run?" she asked Kaiba.
"Yes," he confirmed.
"While you do what? Hold them off?" Yuki objected, "If they wiped out most of your forces, what are you hoping to accomplish?"
"It will buy the rest of you time to escape. That is all I'm trying to accomplish," Kaiba told her, "I appreciate your concern, but this isn't a negotiation. This is an order. You will retreat with the girl to base. Understood?"
"...Understood," Yuki accepted, hesitantly.
Earlier that evening...
"They did what?!" Alexis exclaimed, "Get me a line to command, now!"
"Already prepared, ma'am," the technician replied, handing her a earpiece.
"I want a SitRep, immediately," she said, a tranquil fury burning inside of her. After a few seconds of silence and her expressions changing wildly, Alexis responded to the person on the other end.
"They'd destroy their own homeland just to cripple us...?" she remarked in awe, "...What are we looking at in terms of damage estimates?...Yes...I see...how could this-" Just as she finished, we heard at least two explosions in the distance and sirens following immediately after.
"It can't be! They're already here?!"
"Alexis? What's going on?" I asked her, concerned. She quickly turned to me, turned to the Gilgamesh's frame, then at the ground for a moment. She spun around and directed her attention at one of the technicians who was beginning to put the frame in the truck.
"Stop loading the frame," she said, "We're going to retrieve the experimental fusion cartridge and send the Gilgamesh out again."
"Ma'am?" the tech replied, confused. Alexis turned to me and finished.
"Viviana, I know I said you shouldn't be pulling any all-nighters...but I need your strength," she admitted, "It's possible that we're under attack by a Foreign power. That means a lot of innocents are in danger."
"Say no more, Alexis. Just tell me what you need me to do," I agreed instantly.
"Thank you, Viviana," she sighed, gratefully.
Later, underground...
"Kaiba!" I exclaimed, running over to Kaiba as he was knocked to the ground.
"I'm fine," he said, "But perhaps you have a better idea now of why this girl is so important." The look on his face when he said that...he was absolutely certain. There wasn't a shred of doubt in his mind that this girl was our ally now. Though I couldn't disprove it, it seemed a little reckless to just grab some girl that's been in a lab that we've never met before and take her with us. Though I had complete faith in Kaiba's decisions, I couldn't help but find myself wondering if her resemblance to Viviana had something to do with it.
Kaiba got up off the ground and covered the girl with his cape delicately, but she stumbled to one knee as if she lost her strength all of a sudden. Kaiba lunged to keep her from hitting the ground, and for some reason...that bothered me. Just then, a transmission came through on my headset. I could tell that it only came through on mine, because it addressed me alone and nobody else seemed to notice.
"Shirley Anderson, yes?" the voice said. It was male, obviously, but a bit flamboyant, "Daughter of Captain Thomas Anderson and First Lieutenant Diane Anderson?" Though I was about to reply, they stopped me - as if they could see me all these levels underground.
"Ah-ah, no need for words. I already know, you see," the voice replied, "We wouldn't want your comrades getting wise, either. However, just to be sure you're getting this, would you mind clearing your throat for me, dear?" Who was this person? How did they know my parents? How did they know their ranks and how did they know me? How did they even find me down here? I was so confused, but I wasn't going to get answers unless I played along - so I cleared my throat like he asked.
"Excellent! Excellent...moving on," he responded, "I'm with the American Army's R&D department, and we have something we'd like you to help us with. We have an Agent waiting to extract you once you get some distance from the others." American Army? That can't be possible, because-
"America was completely dominated in the war, so you don't think I could be telling the truth. You're thinking something along those lines, yes?" he purred, self-satisfied, "Don't you think we went down a little too easy, hm? Just get some distance between your pals and we'll prove it to you."
I wasn't sure about all this...but I wanted to find out. My heart was tugging at me, telling me this is something I had to do even if it was fake. I needed to find out. I'm sure Kaiba would understand once I explained it to him. All that was left now was to evacuate, anyway. I could just meet up with them back at the base.
So, as we began to head out of the underground facility, I slowly began to hang back. Further and further they got, and eventually they reached the stairs without noticing I fell behind. Utilizing the opportunity, I quickly ran back to the lab, and was astonished to find someone standing there - as if waiting for me. It was a tall woman wearing darkened glasses and a black longcoat with a white undershirt. She had a large rifle on her back and some kind of earpiece on the side of her head.
"Ms. Anderson. Glad you came. Are you ready to depart?" she asked me.
"Depart? Wait, where are you taking me? What's this about?" I asked.
"It'll all be clear soon. If you're not up for it, we can simply return you to your friends. I have a feeling you'll be interested, though," she smirked, "Any red-blooded American such as yourself would be thrilled for this kind of opportunity."
"...Alright," I agreed.
Meanwhile on the surface...
The fires around me illuminated the battlefield, causing the blood I had spilled to flicker ominously. I did my best to move past it, focusing instead on why I was seeing the kind of soldiers I was. This wasn't an American splinter faction as Alexis had thought. These were Duelists from Giorno's group. They were raiding this prison...but why? From what I could tell, most of their forces were situated up on the surface with only a few having actually entered. From the looks if it, they were rescue teams, too. They appeared to be carrying wounded out of the building - and not other Duelists. It was almost like...a rescue of some sort.
Even though I had a clear shot a those who were evacuating, I didn't take the opportunity. Some of them were fine, but they had wounded with them. I wasn't going to prey on the defenseless. Even though I accepted that I had to end the lives of those who confronted me up here, the ones who escaped were only tending to the injured. I had to draw the line there. Besides, it wasn't as if they posed an actual threat to me - especially while piloting the Gilgamesh.
I was doing my best to figure the situation out, and the best I could come up with is that the Americans attacked the prison building, and to boost their publicity, Giorno sent his Duelists here to rescue those trapped inside. It would explain everything I was seeing, partially at least.
"Viviana, how's the situation at the Correctional Facility?" Alexis asked over the com system.
"The Correctional Facility is badly damaged and structurally unsound. I was met with minor resistance, but it wasn't an American attack force. It was the Duelist Rebellion," I explained, "They appear to be evacuating the building."
"The rebels are evacuating the facility?" she asked, confused.
"Yes. It appears that they weren't the ones to besiege the building initially, but that's just speculation," I admitted, looking at Gilgamesh's remaining battery to gauge my time limit.
"I'd like you to remain there and secure the area. We're continuing our investigation into the military base bombings," Alexis responded.
"Acknowledged," I accepted, looking back at the scenery before me. As I was scanning the area for any more hostiles, I spotted a few figures exiting the side of the building and entering the courtyard. Upon zooming in, I was astonished to see Yuki again with some other rebels. I had just seen her near the old buildings in the city, and now she had somehow gotten all the way out here. There were three more of them with her. Two men and someone in a strange costume, two of the men I recognized from the past. They were certainly pat of the Rebellion. When they finally caught sight of me, Yuki looked panicked. Though I didn't want to engage them, I didn't really have a choice. Just as I was about to raise the arm of the Gilgamesh, though, I was hit from behind by some kind of blast. I turned around briefly to see what had hit me only to be hit again directly.
When I could finally spot my attacker, I could only see a lone Blue-Eyes Twin Burst Dragon flying above. At this point, I knew it was Giorno who was controlling it. At first, I had thought the person in the costume down there was him, but it seems it's just another ally of theirs. The attacks weren't destroying Gilgamesh due to its effect of not being able to be destroyed by battle, and it wasn't banished due to its effect of negating effects that remove it from the field. It was at an impasse with Twin Burst, for the moment. I quickly used an equip spell card on Gilgamesh, causing an arm cannon to materialize and increase it's attack by 500. If neither of us could be destroyed, I could at least cause Giorno to be knocked out of the battle from damage.
Just as I prepared to fire a shot at the monster, though, something hit the Gilgamesh with so much force that I was completely dropped to the ground. My visuals short circuited for a moment as I turned myself around on the ground, and I was completely floored when it came back online to show my attacker.
"Another Slayer Frame...?" I asked, confused. There, standing before me, was what appeared to be another Slayer Frame. It seemed much lighter in design, not having as much armor plating as the Gilgamesh. I didn't have much time to scan over it before it resumed attacking.
"You're slaughter ends here, Domino Scum!" a vaguely familiar voice called out on its loudspeaker, as it readied a wrist canon and fired it at me. I lowered the shoulder-mounted shield armor on to my wrist and held it up to block the attack, but whatever the other frame shot stuck to the shield itself. After that, it began to make a high pitch ringing noise that increased in volume. I knew what was happening, but I couldn't do anything else to avoid it at this point except stand and brace myself. The projectile stuck to the shield exploded violently, completely blowing the right arm off of Gilgamesh.
"Viviana, the status screen says Gilgamesh just lost an arm! What's going on?" Alexis asked over static filled comms. While she asked, the Slayer Frame rushed at me, full speed. It began throwing kicks and punches that I did my absolute best to block, but it was far more dexterous than I could be at this point with the Gilgamesh. Many attacks got through, and I was taking more and more damage.
"Another Slayer Frame! It came out of nowhere!" I alerted her, "Energy Cell at thirty percent and dropping! Please advise!" There was a moment of silence while I did my best to fend off this attacker, but she responded.
"Retreat, Viviana. We can't lose the Gilgamesh, or you," she said to me, sounding frustrated.
"Roger!" I agreed, releasing the smoke capsules and hitting reverse at full speed. It was enough of a diversion to get away, and I got the feeling that whoever was in that thing didn't really care to pursue me. Their main focus seemed to be the facility. I had so many questions, though. Alexis told me that Gilgamesh was the first of its kind, so who was this person and how did they get a hold of another Slayer Frame?
"Are you sure this is gonna work?" I asked Latch.
"Kaiba's plans usually do," he admitted, "Just have some faith in him." Kaiba gave his new helmet to the girl and had her wrapped in the cape in order to make her look like him, then he climbed to the roof while we exited through a hole he had made earlier. When we finally got outside, we got a good look at our adversary. As Daisuke and I looked on in horror, we finally understood why this thing didn't pursue us last time. It had bigger fish to fry, apparently - but we were now part of the bigger fish. I looked on hopelessly as it began to raise its arm at us, but we were quickly saved by a blast hitting it from behind. It quickly focused away, staring up at a Blue-Eyes Twin Burst Dragon in the air. Looks like Yusuke's plan worked.
"Come on, hurry!" Latch called out, signalling us all to run while the machine was distracted. With Latch, helping the girl we found run as best she could, we quickly headed for the escape route Yusuke told us about where some people were apparently waiting for us. Just as we were nearing the perimeter of the Correctional Facility, though, we heard a loud clang behind us. I glanced back for a moment to hear what sounded like Shirley's voice over loud speaker coming from another large machine.
"Your slaughter ends here, Domino Scum!" she called.
It was skinnier than the one attacking us, but it appeared to have the larger one on the ropes. It blew one of the arms off with an explosive of some sort and eventually forced it to retreat with smoke bombs. That's all I could see as I made my way around the wall and outside of the facility. Just a ways away, there were a few Vengeful Shinobi waiting for us.
"We stayed behind in order to ensure your escape. Is Master Kaiba with you?" one of them asked.
"He stayed behind to cover us. He told us to go on ahead. He'll rejoin us later," Latch explained.
"Very well. The city is on high alert," the Shinobi told us as we began to follow him, "We must move quickly and quietly."
While we trailed a bit behind, treading the same carefully laid path he made for us, I asked Latch about that other machine.
"What about it?" he asked back.
"Didn't it sound like Shirley's voice was coming from it?"
"Huh? Well...yeah, maybe. I wasn't really paying attention," he admitted, "You think she left to go fight in a big robot thing?"
"I don't know, but it would explain why she disappeared," I shrugged.
"But not how she disappeared," Latch countered, "It was a one way corridor. We would have seen her go on ahead of us."
"...Right..." I said, realizing he was right.
"Your mastery over the Liberator is quite impressive, Miss Shirley!" Archimedes told me, sounding pleased with my performance, "I'm sure your parents would be quite proud of you."
"Thank you, but I did this to save my friends," I told him, sternly.
"Ah, yes. The Duelist Rebellion...I believe the President wanted to speak with its leader, if I'm not mistaken," he informed me, "You wouldn't happen to be able to arrange that, would you?"
"...Maybe," I said, still not entirely trusting him, "Why does the President want to talk to him?"
"An alliance of some sort, I'm sure," he surmised, "With what we've seen, you've proven yourself a valuable ally - the Rebellion and you as an individual."
"An alliance...sounds like it could work out. Everyone in the Rebellion hates the Dominion for similar reasons as the US..." I murmured, "...and I'd be lying if I said working with my home country to stop the Dominion wouldn't make me happy."
"We're in agreement, then? You get your leader to contact us, and we'll-"
"No need. I'm right here," Kaiba said, coming through in our comm system.
"My my, you managed to decrypt our frequency so quickly?" Archimedes said, almost as if he were expecting this.
"You say that as if it were supposed to be difficult," Kaiba replied.
"Aha..." Archimedes purred, pleased with what he was hearing, "That's the kind of confidence that comes only from a natural leader. You're the real deal, aren't you?"
"Shirley, I'm surprised you didn't mention any of this to the rest of us," Kaiba said to me, ignoring Archimedes.
"I...I didn't mean to-"
"I'm glad that I trusted you would do what was best for us all. I'm very proud of you," he praised me.
"T-Thank you, Kaiba!" I exclaimed.
"As for you, American..." he trailed off.
"Please, just call me Archie, Mr. Kaiba," Archimedes replied, playfully.
"If you think our goals are the same, you're mistaken," Kaiba told him, "The Duelist Rebellion wishes to return every Dominion territory to its rightful heirs and restore the culture that was lost - no matter how long it takes. Knowing your history, you only wish to take the Dominion's place as the dominant world power."
"Well, I can't speak for the President, but I can tell you that it's data that I'm after. I only wish to test all our wonderful armaments," Archimedes told him, "But even if our end goals are different, surely you agree that our short-term goals are the same, yes? Defeat the Dominion. Erase them from existence. Isn't that what you want?"
"The salient issue here is that you will try to erase us from existence, if we give you the chance. What's to stop you from turning around and betraying us once the Dominion is out of the way?" Kaiba retorted, "The fact that our end goals are different ensures future conflict. Considering we're able to handle the Dominion on our own, it doesn't offer much incentive for a united effort."
"Oh, but I believe it does, Mr. Kaiba - because having both the Dominion and the United States as an enemy is worse. Perhaps you can handle the Dominion on your own at the moment, but we could erase both of you in due time," Archimedes explained, his tone changing dramatically.
"You're resorting to threats now?" Kaiba scoffed, "I could handle the entirety of the United States military on my own. My Rebellion could thwart the Dominion in my absence. Your words are as empty as your pride."
"Mr. Kaiba, there's a fine line between confidence and stupidity. Handle the entire United States military alone? Don't be-"
"It's true," I interjected, "Archimedes, I can tell you that it is absolutely true. As someone who still considers herself American, I humbly ask that you don't instigate a conflict with us. I already thought I lost my homeland. I don't want to lose it again."
"...Even having felt the destructive force of the Liberator, you still say that?" Archimedes asked me, "You realize the USS Liberty is even more destructive?"
"I do. The Liberator couldn't stand against Kaiba. It would be basically useless," I explained. Archimedes was silent for a while, then sighed a bit.
"If I'm being frank, Mr. Kaiba, there really is nothing to gain from being enemies," he responded after a few moments, "Even if our end goals different, you've proven yourself formidable enough that we know to avoid direct confrontation if at all possible. You should know that we tend to avoid unwinnable wars...most of the time."
"...I'll need a direct meeting with your President if negotiations are to proceed," Kaiba said, sounding disinterested.
"I suppose that could be arranged in due time," Archimedes replied, "You'll need to discuss the terms of the alliance, after all."
"Very well. I assume Shirley will be your contact?"
"That was what we intended, yes."
"Then I will await a reply."
With that, Kaiba disconnected.
"Your leader is quite an interesting one, isn't he?" Archimedes asked me.
"There's nobody else like him," I said, happily.
"Indeed..."