All in a Day's Work
CE 72 June 13, Space
Getting a call from work in the middle of the night was never as jarring as it was when Lexi was staying over. Yzak's phone went off and no matter how many months into peace they had made it to by that time, Lexi's hand always immediately went to the firearm she had hidden under his bed on her side. She was usually sitting up and aiming at the doorway by the time her brain caught up with her instincts and he gave a tired groan, sliding himself up against the headboard and taking the call in his right hand as his left reached out to push down her right arm.
"Yzak Joule," he announced, pulling his left hand back to cover a yawn when Lexi mouthed an apology and turned to put the safety back on her gun before stashing it under the bed again.
"Sir, we have some concerning news regarding Jachin Due. You're needed to report."
"What?" The word was out of his mouth before he could pull it back, his groggy mind finding the news hard to compute. That wasn't a name he heard very often anymore.
"A piece of the ruin is heading towards the PLANTs and if it continues its trajectory, it'll hit Quintilis five among others."
"Quintilis?" he echoed and he felt Lexi shift to look at him. "But how is this possible? The remains of Jachin Due have either joined the Debris Belt or are in stable orbit."
"We've been looking into that, sir. Our initial scan brought up traces of mobile suit activity and we're doing more scans to confirm. We don't know how old the traces are, but we still want your team on location to support the demolition squad," the soldier on the other end of the line explained, the severity of the situation finally starting to show through in his tone.
Activity? he thought and felt his breath slow. Mobile suit activity at Jachin Due? Again, not an alert he had heard in a really long time and he felt the adrenaline rush instantly, pulling the covers off and twisting to put his feet on the floor. "Understood. Has the rest of my team been alerted?"
"They're being told right now, sir."
"Good. I'll be there in a half hour."
"Roger that."
He hung up and set his phone back down on the side table, turning on the small lamp before rising and hurrying over to the wardrobe to change.
"What's going on?" Lexi asked, Yzak pausing briefly to turn and see her sitting back against the headboard. Her pillow was on her lap, the bedding tossed haphazardly around her bare legs, almost as if she had debated getting out of bed herself but stopped halfway. The dark, oversized shirt across her shoulders was tilted a bit off center and despite the normality of the moment, the narrowed stare she gave him meant she was awake and very much alert. He knew she had heard at least his side of the conversation and it had probably hadn't taken her long to realize his assignment might not be a typical early morning call-in.
"A large part of Jachin Due is out of orbit and heading this way. We're being called in to support the demolition team."
"I didn't think there was anything left of Jachin Due that was a big enough threat to PLANT defenses."
"Oh, there is," he responded, reaching up to grab a shirt folded on the top shelf of his wardrobe and pulling it over his head as he continued. "There's a couple of pieces we had been keeping an eye on and a team is scheduled to head out there next month. Looks like we're bringing the timetable forward a bit."
He was slipping his legs through his pants when she gave a follow-up question and even he found himself pausing, not quite sure how much to tell her.
"But why are they asking a MS team to support? This is fairly routine, isn't it?"
He sighed. They were usually pretty good at keeping each other in the loop without breaking any sort of confidentiality and ever since Phoebe had dropped by, they had started to let each other know if anything they were doing could result in personal injury. This particular assignment fell within that grey zone and he closed his eyes before releasing another breath. It was quite possible it was nothing and he was just about to sit out in his ZAKU for a couple of hours watching some crew blow up a rock, but he wanted her to be more honest with him too… "They said the initial scan caught traces of MS activity though it seems to be old."
"Activity?" the redhead hissed, Yzak turning as he was buttoning up his jacket to watch her eyes go wide then narrow quickly as she fell to the side. "Smells foul," she muttered, her brisk tumble out of bed stopping short, feet on the floor as her arms were braced at her sides.
"What are you doing?"
"Trying to figure out how I can go with you."
He snorted through a smirk and clipped the final fasten under his chin, walking around the bed and put his hands on his hips as he looked down at her. "Glad to know you have so little faith in me. I thought you said once you'd leave all the mobile suit stuff to me? Besides, I let you go running around playing in far scarier shit than leading a team to do a little recon."
"But—"
"It's my job, Pip, and I have a good team."
"You mean the team you won't let me meet?"
He rolled his eyes and pushed her shoulders back down towards the bed. "Sleep. Now."
"Seriously? You think I'm just gonna do that now?" She resisted at first, her upper body bobbing as she sat up straight after the initial shove. She wasn't amused however, which proved she was actually worried and he sighed.
"It's 0300, go back to sleep. Trust me, would you?"
"I do trust you," she stressed and he was happy to see she meant it. "I'd just trust you more if I was there too."
"I'll call you when I get back, I promise." He pushed her back more gently that time and she grumbled something, but he missed it, picking up her legs next and dropping them onto the covers.
"You need to work on your bedside manner…" she scoffed. Hearing her retort that time, he rolled his eyes, walking back over to grab the remainder of his things.
"Good night, Piper."
"If you need my help—"
"I have a whole army and an intelligence community at my back. You are impressive, former Eclipse, but even you pale in comparison to that." He caught the pout on her face before he turned off the bedside light and gave a soft chuckle as he walked to the bedroom door and then through it. His hand was on the handle when he leaned back into the room. "And don't do anything… untoward when using the apartment internet, got it? Remember who my neighbors are."
"Yeah, yeah," she grumbled and he finally pulled the door closed behind him. Gathering up his bag, he was nearly out the apartment when he saw the bedroom light turn back on, the carpet illuminating near the bottom of the door and he sighed. Something about his assignment bothered her, but he tried not to get himself worked up over it.
He had plenty of time to do that later.
Command wasn't wrong, Yzak decided, looking at the trajectory line on the screen and the size of the debris they were having to deal with. At roughly 175 kilometers in diameter, it would definitely punch through the umbrella defenses easily but was only moving at a speed of 300 kilometers per hour, meaning the demolition team should probably have enough time to set up the charges and mobile umbrella tech to contain the explosion. In that scenario, however, everything needed to be coordinated precisely and seeing as they were practically shoved out of port before the subsequent scans could be completed, their window for a clean execution was quickly closing as they waited for further orders.
Yzak stood on the bridge of his new command, the Nazca-class battleship the Voltaire, next to the ship captain, Alec Kumar, with his arms folded and his annoyance already being tapped onto his upper bicep. The tension on the bridge was high as they waited for news from ZAFT Intelligence, anticipation of the mission keeping everyone's thoughts in their heads or voices barely louder than a whisper. The crew had been rounded up quickly, the only sign of exhaustion being the occasional yawn issued by his CIC officer sitting to his left. The rest had been keeping their yawns sufficiently hidden behind hands, the only ones on the highest level of alert being the pilots on his team, training and experience able to bring their minds and bodies to full awareness as needed. They were waiting behind him at the briefing table, their quiet chatter and banter breaking the silence occasionally.
His regular team consisted of Shiho Hannenfluss, Silas Anukirun, and Kaeya Weston, the four of them thrown together during the war in what was now looking like a good twist of fate. They knew each other well, had each other's backs and, perhaps most of all, knew how to navigate each other's weaknesses effectively, even if that meant Yzak had to put up with their verbal abuse every now and again. He might complain more about their jests aloud if, perhaps, he hadn't grown so attached to them at Panama and then extending that camaraderie through the battle at Alaska and onto Jachine Due. Panama, however, was a very grim origin story, the moments of desperation in that battle forming their team for them. It definitely hadn't been as easy as he had thought at the time going in without anyone else from the former Le Creuset team there. And, perhaps, he hadn't really appreciated his old team until that time either. Dearka was MIA, Nicol was KIA, Athrun had been promoted to FAITH special forces, and Lexi had been transferred to what he now knew had been to be experimented on. New terrain, upgraded machine, and no fighting styles he recognized. It was a nice feeling when he had somehow managed to scrounge up these mangy mutts and an even nicer feeling when Command had finally agreed with his request to have them on his team again nowadays.
Silas was the quietest of the pilots as well as the oldest, about five years Yzak's senior, but not bothered that someone younger than him was holding the reigns. In fact, Silas seemed to thrive in following orders, more than happy to do as he was told and Yzak could imagine he was thinking more about his wife and new daughter than any sort of scenarios Yzak was having to run through his head. Silas was the one Yzak actually felt the worst for at that moment, knowing he had a shuttle booked for that very afternoon to head back to Earth to introduce his firstborn to his family in the Republic of East Asia. The young commander's eyes drifted over to the time at the thought, watching it tick over to 0458 and he released a slow breath.
Shiho and Kaeya were the liveliest of the four, though where Shiho tended to give off an almost older sister vibe to the rest of the crew, Kaeya often fit the role of the younger, annoying brother. His charm reminded Yzak of Heine, but where Heine seemed to understand people's limitations, Kaeya did not, often plowing headlong into a verbal situation that either he or Shiho had to bail him out of. Still, the reckless pilot had a good head on his shoulders and even Yzak was beginning to see it was all a front—perhaps an attempt to exude enough confidence to overcome his insecurity about having lost his right ear at Alaska and the scaring there he often tried to hide with his longer hair typically dyed some color of the rainbow. That particular day, it was baby blue.
Yzak had also rounded up three new cadet pilots first and second class for the mission who would be joining his team as soon as they graduated. Miles Tardiff, Finn Leblanc, and Brin Duguay were fresh blood he hadn't had a chance to properly work with yet, but this mission should be an easy entrance onto the team even if he wasn't one hundred percent sure he could shove them all into mobile suits. The Voltaire had space for six units, and four of those slots were taken up by the veterans' machines.
His entire team piloted ZAKUs, their units from the war scrapped and their upgrades in the oven, as far as he was aware. There were four new prototypes that were all the hype and despite Yzak getting the Duel, he wasn't offered to pilot any of them. His reaction to the news probably surprised him more than the decision, Yzak realizing the higher-ups liked to put promising pilots straight out of the academy into their new mobile suits, which either meant they wanted the newbies to learn all the bells and whistles and yet still survive, or personalized machines were just an unspoken badge of honor, the veterans able to hold their own even in a mass-produced skeleton. Either way, Yzak took the news with a shrug, but did find himself curious enough to want one of the prototypes on his team. He was getting assigned the Chaos and its pilot Finn Leblanc, but he had to make do with the pilot for now, the mobile suit still in production.
"So, what's the commander like?" Miles's light voice asked, Yzak's eye twitching at the question and after hearing both Shiho and Kaeya hum in thought, he dreaded the response.
"Well, we all know Commander Joule's a big softy, but we all pretend to be scared of him anyway," Kaeya whispered, trying and royally failing to keep his response from being heard by everyone on the bridge. "It makes him look good, which makes us look good. And, frankly, yelling's the only way he can properly communicate."
Helmaya's balls, Yzak thought, stealing Lathan's phrase and returning to his captain when the older man gave a frustrated sigh.
Kumar's right hand grabbed the cap off his head and tossed it somewhere off to his left, Yzak's eyes following it for a moment before his attention returned to the darker-skinned man. He couldn't see the expression on Kumar's face, but the taut skin on his bald forehead as it was pulled into a crease was enough to give Yzak a rough idea of what was on his mind. "I mean, we're not picking up any additional MS activity or heat signatures so what's the hold up? If they found traces, they would have to be too old to matter by now."
"If Intelligence thinks someone might have been in there a couple of days ago, they'd ask us to investigate," Yzak said, seeing his captain scratch his forehead in thought.
"If we're to take on pirates, though, I feel thoroughly underequipped," Kumar continued.
"We should be able to hold our own just fine and besides, as soon as the scans indicated mobile suits in the vicinity, either us or another MS team would have been called in."
"We're just the lucky ones then."
Yzak scoffed. "'Lucky' is a word, but not the one I would have chosen. We'll have to wait and see what the follow-up scans indicate and whether or not we should be even more nervous."
"It's probably just Intelligence being overly cautious. Demolishing any part of Jachin Due would make a ZAFT soldier sweat. If the scan had been half-assed and we find out we blew up anything important, all of our careers would be on the line," Kumar grumbled and let out a quiet curse.
The piece they were staring at was roughly a third of the original asteroid and one of the two main ports used for supply and personnel. While teams had been dispatched to scout the remainder of the debris after the war, the demolition teams had been delayed, and that delay had been extended as soon as reports came in the pieces had been caught in an orbital field and would be of no danger to the PLANTs or Earth. New reports indicated this piece had been kicked out of orbit and based on the alert that sounded from the back of the bridge, they might finally get some answers.
All eyes immediately turned to the front of the bridge, the radio officer throwing up the report sent in from Intelligence. It took a few moments to go through the material, but Yzak couldn't hold back his frustration any longer.
"What do they mean just in case?" he hissed, slamming his palm onto the corner of his captain's chair, the Voltaire bridge suddenly going quiet at his outburst.
"So, Intelligence caught movement and signs of MS activity in the first scan, scanned it again and caught nothing, shoved us out the door and is only now telling us to investigate based on subsequent scans despite them not picking up anything more," Kumar muttered, his deeper voice growling through the statement.
"We don't have a whole lot of time," the younger commander grumbled, his eyes scanning the report once more. "Is there more?" He whirled back to look at his communications officer who was already beginning his check. "Has Intelligence said there's pirates in the vicinity?"
"Nothing, sir," came the reply and Yzak cursed. Even if, for whatever reason, there was something aboard that piece of rock still functioning, it would give off different readings and he bit on the inside of his cheek. His team was now stuck having to check the wreckage more thoroughly prior to destruction and while trained for such a mission, a MS team would never have been his first choice. He should have brought a field team with him and he clicked his tongue in annoyance. If there were pirates close by and they got control of one of his machines, the whole thing could turn out to be a huge disaster.
"Looks like Intelligence has called for any ships in the area to respond for additional support," his communications officer reported. "And one is calling in now."
"Patch it through," Kumar said and the fair face of Captain Talia Gladys replaced the intelligence report at the front of the bridge. Her blonde hair was disheveled around her cheeks and despite the grin on her lips, she looked tired, no doubt having either been awoken much like they had or had been doing training at night, which given the sea legs on the vessel she was manning, could be the more likely of the scenarios.
"Do you need help, Commander?" she asked and Yzak swung his arm into a salute. Talia's hat was on but tilted to the side, as if she had brushed some sweat from her brow and didn't bother to reposition it, not even after her hand fell down from her own salute. Yzak knew her to have been assigned to the newest ZAFT warship the Minerva and the visual of that very vessel popped up on the screen to Talia's right. It was a sight to behold for sure, Yzak having little time to digest the ship visually, but he had gone through the schematics and knew a formidable ally had just joined their team, even if he wasn't sure how armed she was at the moment.
"Captain Gladys," Kumar said first, cutting in before Yzak could make the first word. "Surprised to see you so far away from port."
"Doing drills is all," she explained and nodded to them on the screen. "We got the same message you did just now. It seems like any and everyone in the area is getting mustered, though I have a feeling 'everyone' is just us."
"Support is always appreciated when there's whispers of pirates," Kumar continued, and they all shared a knowing nod.
"Have you been briefed?" Yzak asked, crossing his arms again and hearing one of his team give a whistle of approval behind him, possibly having been going through the Minerva specs.
"I'm up to speed, yes, Commander. What do you propose?"
"I already have my team gathered," he began, flicking his head back towards the mixture of redcoats and cadets gathered around the briefing table, hearing them slide into salutes at the acknowledgement. "My immediate idea is to take a personnel transport to investigate and see what the scans have us all nervous about. The Voltaire and any remaining pilots of mine will guard and scout both the asteroid and immediate area as we do a full sweep."
"Based on our calculations, we don't have a lot of time, Commander, how many are you taking?"
"Four of us should suffice. Most of this is rock and collapsed hallways. The biggest areas are the harbor and its control room, which should take no more than an hour to sweep and that is with taking extra precautions."
The two of them shared a long stare and not one Yzak knew what to do with. He couldn't read her, and it made him nervous. Was his plan not good enough?
"I'll send a team as well to double the effort," she said at length and Yzak felt his lips dip into a frown. Apparently, she didn't like his plan after all.
"No offense, Captain," Kumar spoke up, "but I do recall your vessel has more newbies than veterans. If we're up against pirates, this isn't really the moment for cadets to gain confidence."
"And no offense yourself, Captain, but you're sending in a MS team where a field team should be taking point. Not sure this is the place to judge." Talia's response was quick and Yzak felt the shiver run up his spine. "If there are hostiles there, I'd rather we had more numbers on the inside."
Kumar muttered something and turned to catch Yzak's eye, but Yzak was staring at Talia, clenching and unclenching his fist under the crook of his elbow. He agreed with Kumar and, technically, had the rank to say something, but didn't have the authority to overrule her. Talia was higher in command—hell—Kumar could even tell him what to do though he was one of the few ship captains not wanting to. Their relationship was of mutual understanding. Yzak handled the pilots, Kumar handled the ship, and any decisions that involved both, they discussed. At that particular moment, however, Talia outranked both of them and while she wasn't flaunting it, she was putting her foot down.
"Don't get me wrong," she continued, probably catching onto their uneasiness. "I'm not trying to give you orders, Commander, merely giving my opinion."
Opinion indeed... Yzak thought, but opened his mouth to reply far more conciliatory. "Noted and you make a good point, Captain, though I do echo Captain Kumar's concerns. If we are to take on more soldiers, I'd rather have two at most. We'll form two, three-man teams, which should be sufficient given the size of the asteroid and the search area."
The blonde nodded slowly and looked to the side as she seemed to churn over the idea, nodding a thanks to a crew member when they handed her an information tablet. She took a moment to scan it before handing the device back to whomever had given it to her. "I'll agree to that plan, Commander. I have two in mind I'll send over to the Voltaire. One is actually trained for fieldwork, just little experience. He will probably be of the most value to you. The other is good with a gun and doesn't startle easily, but I advise you put her with two others more willing to take point. Our main pilot I'll send out with yours."
"The Voltaire and Minerva will be on standby. Is the Minerva fully armed?" Kumar asked.
"She is sufficiently armed, yes, but not fully. We've been running exercises, so our arsenals are primarily filled with blanks, but we have other guns at our disposal. The only thing you need to be aware of is our Tannhäuser is not operational. Despite that, we should still be adequate support for the Voltaire." Kumar nodded slowly, no doubt thinking the same thing as Yzak. The Tannhäuser was the strongest weapon between the two ships and would have been nice in a pinch, but if things went according to plan, they wouldn't need it anyway.
If everything went according to plan.
Yzak didn't like it; the whole thing was suddenly making him nervous. He didn't need academy greenhorns to bog down his investigation teams, but, then again, he had been fresh out of the academy when he had been put on the Vesalius and briefed on his first mission, ironically a similar mission involving an armed entry. Given, they had been led by field specialists at the time as well, but the responsibility ZAFT often put on their young soldiers was suddenly becoming quite clear. Yzak didn't know Captain Gladys very well, but she couldn't have gotten that high up by making decisions lightly, especially when it came to her crew. Hell, ZAFT couldn't afford to be irresponsible with any of their recruits, especially pilots with high marks at the academy.
He bit the inside of his cheek before grinding out a reply. "Roger that, Captain. Send over your cadets and we'll finish the briefing then suit up. I'd rather not waste any more time."
The blonde smiled. "Glad we are in agreement, Commander. I will have them on your doorstep in ten."
"Oh, and Captain?" She paused before turning off the communication and Yzak continued, "Put them in red. I don't want anyone to stand out as lower rank and have targets on their back."
A twinkle sparkled in her eye and Yzak felt that shiver again, trying to hold it off before she finally reached to turn off the call.
"Good idea, Commander. You'd best wear red too."
Well, her timing's accurate, I'll give her that, Yzak thought, eyeing up the two cadets as they filed onto the bridge. The third—Minerva's main pilot—had already joined Silas and Miles outside and he heard the confirmation from the CIC officer, Kumar offering up his thanks as Yzak focused in on the fresh faces of the new pilots at his doorstep. Both cadets were wearing red spacesuits as requested and the group of soldiers all saluted around the table. Everyone else had changed into their suits other than Yzak who had to deal with some remaining orders to the demolition team and he pulled at his collar, itching to leave the ship and get their investigation started.
"Lunamaria Hawke, Cadet Pilot Second Class," the first soldier announced, her short red hair a lighter shade towards violet than the spacesuit on her shoulders and her indigo eyes full of an eagerness Yzak only knew for cadets to possess, or at least anyone who hadn't set foot on a battlefield in the war. If he didn't know that spark to probably dwindle out over her time in the military, he might have been annoyed by it. Her partner, however, held the gaze of someone who knew a battlefield well and knowing both of the soldiers to be at least two years his junior, the look in his blue eyes was almost unnerving.
"Rey Za Burrel, Cadet Pilot Second Class," he announced, his blond locks lifting slightly from his shoulders as his feet found the floor. If Yzak had to guess which one had the experience Talia was hinting at he would have guessed him and after asking as much and receiving just that answer, Yzak nodded slowly.
"Got it. You'll be on Team A with Leblanc and I. Hawke, you'll be on Team B with Hannenfluss and Weston."
The variations of "Roger that," chimed around the briefing table and Yzak turned them all back to the screen below his hand. A blueprint of the Jachin Due debris was sketched below, the dimensions and velocity ticking away in the corner of the screen, a firm reminder of their closing window. The piece was an abnormal shape, an elongated "V" that looked like a boomerang and after hearing the demolition team grumbling about the shape, he had to admit he was finding it all rather frustrating as well. Most of the area they had to search was in the middle near the bend, which was good for them, but the demolition team was going to have a harder time, knowing they had to set their charges on the outside of the debris and make a big enough explosion to break up the rock instead of having the nice, hollow interior of hallways to help break down the structure from the inside.
"Both teams will enter at the old personnel port here," Yzak began, turning the model of the piece with his fingers and drawing an "X" over the bend of the boomerang. "The two teams will split up and do a quick sweep of the area, reporting in every five minutes." He made a circle with his finger, the circumference not large on the table and, in reality, the section mimicked what was on the screen. "Our search area spans about three kilometers and with two teams, we should be done in an hour. Or, more accurately, we have to be done in an hour. Our pilots are already beginning their sweep of the outside and I want Duguay stationed at the port," he pointed to the X again and looked up at Brin, the black-haired cadet giving a firm nod. "You will be our main light source. The Minerva we will be positioned on the other side of the asteroid and the Voltaire will remain here," he continued, marking a triangle on the map for the Minerva, positioning it between the asteroid and the PLANTs.
"If we keep to our schedule, we will have plenty of time to scout, leave, and demolish this thing all in ample time and not make anyone at home sweat. Understood?"
He looked at each in turn and landed on Shiho for a second longer than the others. She hadn't liked that he was teaming up with the newbies and, potentially, leaving himself vulnerable, but he had squashed that argument quickly. He needed Silas outside with the rookie pilots and while Kaeya was reliable, Yzak needed a stabler head on Team B, which meant Shiho. Her gaze showed a level of stubbornness and worry he had begun getting used to from her, but she needed to start trusting him more and he narrowed his eyes briefly at the silent accusation.
"Everyone is to be on their guard," Yzak continued, Shiho not backing down, but neither was he. "I don't know whether this is nothing, pirates, or ghosts, but we're damn sure not going to do anything until we find out and we don't have a lot of time. Any questions?" No one said anything and he nodded. "Good; dismissed." He turned away from the table quickly and back towards Kumar, stopping his momentum with a hand on the captain's chair.
"Good luck, Commander," Kumar said and Yzak nodded.
"Communication is gonna be key. You let me know if anything makes you nervous and I'll do the same."
They shared a salute and Yzak left the bridge to go change, slipping into the locker room and getting startled briefly when he ran into Rey, Yzak seeing him put a pill bottle back into the pouch on spacesuit. The commander didn't pry, however, one hand undoing his jacket while the other opened his locker. Rey remained in the room however, Yzak feeling an unusual moment of tension as he changed and the younger pilot checked some of his weaponry.
"How much field training have you done?" Yzak finally asked after another moment, slipping his arms into his suit.
"Enough to be of some use, but I'd be lying if I said I could lead this on my own," came the response and Yzak nodded slowly, shrugging into the material and zipping up the front before working through the fastenings.
"Well, you're not supposed to, so no problems there," Yzak responded simply. "Not sure what kind of commander I'd be if I forced a cadet to make the plan." He saw Rey's shoulders move in a shrug and heard the click of firearm he had been checking as he returned it to its holster at his waist.
"I do know you're used to working with a field specialist on your team though," the cadet began.
"I am?" That was a surprise and Yzak blinked, clipping the final fasten near his chin and reaching up to grab his helmet.
"Yes, but perhaps it wasn't so obvious. I guess," Rey began slowly and Yzak closed the door to the locker. "I guess you can think of me as the Lunar Eclipse on your team."
Yzak felt the chill go down his spine, for the third time that morning hearing something he hadn't heard anyone else utter in a really long time. His eyes roamed from the metal door in front of him to gaze into Rey's, but the younger soldier was looking thoughtfully to the side, as if his own metaphor was half-baked and he was still working through it. Based on his body language, Yzak took a breath and forced himself to calm down. There was no malice there—no threat. Just the comment of a cadet who probably didn't realize the weight of what he had just said.
"What do you mean?" Yzak asked, trying to keep the sharpness out of his voice but, most likely, failing.
"She was on your team at one point in the war, right? Primarily field?" Yzak didn't reply and he continued, probably taking that as a confirmation. "Guess I thought it would be easier to make a comparison you might be familiar with. Our field training programs are similar, so you can probably know what to expect from me."
Yzak began nodding slowly, trying to get a read on whether the innocence on his face was, in fact, innocent. Not many knew about Lexi and her connection to the Le Creuset team and he also knew it wasn't being taught at the academy. She wasn't erased from history entirely though so he could have found that information himself and that realization was the only thing keeping Yzak from getting far more defensive than he probably should.
"I don't know much about Eclipse's training," Yzak lied, "but she was skilled, yes. If you're even half as good as she was, I'm happy to have you at my back."
"Thank you, Commander. I hope to live up to that praise." Rey saluted and finally left, leaving Yzak to breathe out a curse before putting on his helmet and following him into the hangar.
The teams split off as soon as they breached the port, Team B staying to do a sweep of the right side of the hangar and hallways further down while Team A took the remainder of the harbor and the control room up and to their left. The area was vast, a darkened chasm that not even the giant light Brin was holding in her ZAKU was powerful enough to scare away all the shadows. It was able to hold at least two Nazca–class ships comfortably and the section had been wiped clean, self-destruction causing anything not latched down to be hurled out into space and the void beyond. It wasn't hard to search and it had taken them less time than expected, that bit of news receiving a positive response from Kumar and Talia alike.
The harbor might have been clean of debris, but there were fading traces of mobile suit propellant and scorch marks from boosters on the walls, confirming the initial scan and that there had been mobile suits in the hangar as recently as a week ago. Based on the reports he was getting, however, whomever had been squatting in that piece of rock was no longer there, Shiho announcing an all clear on her most recent call-in. Her team was advancing further in, and Team A was heading up the stairwell to the control room, Yzak announcing his own report and aiming the flashlight at his breast towards the door as both cadets worked to get it unjammed.
"Commander, we found Flare Motors on the outside of the asteroid opposite your position," Kumar reported.
"Flare Motors?" Yzak repeated, the light flickering as his aim hitched at the news. That was remote technology often used by demolition teams to move debris in order to either gather everything in one place for destruction, or to move it away from other things for demolition. Any other application was down to the imagination, but while other groups besides ZAFT had commercial use for it, there were few companies who manufactured them.
"That makes this deliberate," Talia said, the threatening tone far scarier than her commanding voice earlier and Yzak narrowed his eyes. She was right. If someone had detonated the flares and thrown the debris off orbit towards the PLANTs, it was something ZAFT needed to pay attention to.
"Report it," he said simply and followed the cadets through the threshold into the control room, the two of them having managed to free the piece of metal.
The space they entered was long and narrow, the control console to his left busted and he made a brief warning to watch for floating glass. The chairs that had been at that desk were currently wired frames and wedged into the wall to his right, one floating near his knee and after closer inspection of the doorframe, he realized it was most likely the reason the door had been jammed in the first place.
Rey and Finn finished the sweep as Yzak went over to the console, his flashlight scanning the desk and controls as his eyes focused in on some papers wedged underneath the uneven crack in the top made by some fallen debris. Little could have survived the force of the explosion, especially paper which would have been eaten by the flames. His attention quickly noted the cracks in the plexiglass separating the control room from the harbor and the small puncture holes with their melted ends, knowing that some flames had, in fact, entered the room even if only briefly. Pulling out the papers, he realized they might have actually been put there recently, seeing as they weren't wedged so much as stuffed in that crack. Using the end of his semiautomatic, he helped his left hand opened the folded pages and noted the lines and numbers quickly scrawled across the faded surface.
"Definitely deliberate, but the target was accidental," he clarified into his radio, hearing Shiho offer up another "All clear" and confirming Team B was heading back to the hangar.
"Bring any evidence you find," Talia ordered and Yzak gave a steadying breath, feeling Finn and Rey looking at the contents of the paper over his shoulder. Based on the numbers and lines there, the debris had indeed been kicked out of orbit on purpose, however it was meant to have been nudged towards Earth, not the PLANTs, and Yzak gave a silent curse. The piece would had burned up upon entry—he was quite confident of that—and the evidence along with it. Someone was having very dangerous thoughts and Yzak folded up the paper before stashing it into the pouch located just under the holster on his right thigh.
Peacetime was suddenly starting to feel very threatening.
"Commencing detonation in t-minus ten minutes."
Yzak watched the screen with his arms crossed, having swapped with Brin and was sitting comfortably in his ZAKU near the Minerva, the PLANTs to his back. Shiho, Kaeya, and Silas were all near him as well, the remaining rookies, Finn and Miles, on standby in similar machines in the Voltaire hangar. Rey and Lunamaria had returned to the Minerva and the final rookie in the field was a cadet pilot, first class by the name of Shinn Asuka, sitting almost restlessly in the only prototype to currently be in working order, the Impulse. Yzak had the specs mapping out around the machine as he looked at it through the cameras to his left, the thin lines and rows of text forcing him to arch an impressed eyebrow more than once. Conceptually, it was like the Strike had been, in that it could have various packs depending on necessity and environment, but with an added flexibility of detachable parts that could be disbursed onto the field at any given time.
At that particular moment, it was equipped for close-range combat, which was a strange choice, Yzak thought, seeing as they were, most likely, going to be tasked with sniping any stray pieces that might slip or break through the energized, mobile umbrella the demolition team had positioned around the debris. While Yzak's team had the added firepower of their high-energy beam cannons for that very task, the Impulse had two, Excalibur, anti-ship laser swords on its frame, one currently held in the Gundam's right hand and the other still snug in the holster behind its left shoulder. The choice in weaponry either meant Talia had full trust in the Joule team's aim to take out any pieces at a distance, or the pilot's skills leaned heavily towards melee and that particular loadout would be the most effective no matter the situation.
Perhaps both.
Yzak didn't know much about the Impulse's pilot, but he did know he had to be a jack of all trades given the Gundam's functions and that meant the kid was bound to be bad at something, Yzak just didn't know what that particular something was. Though, his lack of long-range firepower gave Yzak a pretty good idea where his weaknesses might lie.
"It was built so ZAFT could fit within the mobile suit limitations of the treaty," Shiho explained, her voice cutting through on a private line and he looked up at her screen. "It and its pilot are supposed to be good at many things."
Yzak snorted. "No one is good at everything."
He watched her shrug and his attention returned to the red and white machine, vaguely hearing Shinn talking quickly with Kaeya about other features of the Gundam. The demolition team announced t-minus five minutes and Shiho spoke up again.
"I'm sorry about before," she started, and his gaze returned to her slowly.
"We've talked about this many times. I do know what I'm doing. This isn't Panama or even Alaska."
She gave a soft smile and shrugged again. "I just get worried, you know?"
"I have plenty of people who worry about me, Shiho," he replied simply; his mother, Lexi, and Dearka being the prime faces who appeared at that line. "It would be nice if someday I could move you to the list of the people who trust me too."
There was a moment of silence and he looked back towards the Impulse, figuring his statement had ended the conversation. The call hadn't been disconnected, however, her soft breathing being the only thing alerting him that she was still on the other end of the line. "I trust you enough to follow your orders," she began slowly. "And I worry enough about you to make sure you don't get hurt. It's what teammates do," she added after a moment of hesitation—as if it was an afterthought and he tried to look at her again, but the line had been cut, the silhouette of her helmet framed in his mind's eye over the black screen. He tried to make sense of her words—gauge any significance from them, but the demolition team's announcement took precedence.
"Detonation in 10… 9… 8…"
Yzak sighed and straightened in his seat, wrapping his fingers around the controls and saving the moment to think on later. If everything went according to plan, he wouldn't have to do anything. He aimed his ZAKU's long-range beam cannon and focused in on the crosshairs.
"5… 4… 3…"
If everything went according to plan, his paperwork would take an hour max and he would finally get his day off, relaxing at home well before noon.
"2… 1…"
But not everything was meant to go to plan all the time.
The detonation worked well, just not on the entirety of the debris. The loud curse from Kumar was what had alerted Yzak to the issue and his eyes scanned for the problem but his cameras were shaky, the amount of smaller debris particles disrupting and peppering his suit with enough pieces to not be harmful, but still be a hindrance.
"Kumar, talk to me," he hissed through the open communications line, but he didn't need a response, his suit's alarms flaring up around him and the larger chunk of debris shooting beneath his ZAKU at a speed he was grateful he hadn't been in the trajectory of. It must have broken through the umbrella mesh, but it hadn't slowed it down much, Yzak still finding it hard to line the piece up in his crosshairs. He aimed and fired, seeing the shots from the rest of his team doing the same, but they barely managed to chip away at it, the speed giving them only a few shots each. Yzak cursed. Loudly.
"How big?" he yelled as he chased after it full throttle.
"Too close to call," Kumar replied, Yzak seeing the Minerva's guns added to the mix of gunfire, but they fared just as well as his own team's and his breath began to quicken, the fear beginning to take hold. Surely one of those shots should hit it and his shaky cameras has revealed as much, but none of them were direct hits, only chipping away at what was practically a perfectly aimed asteroid that could do far more damage than he cared to think about. His ZAKU was losing ground and he cursed.
"Minerva!" Yzak heard the voice of the Impulse pilot shouting through the communications line amid the other panicked orders. "Catapult me!" The order made no sense and Yzak ignored it, stopping his suit and opening a communications line directly to the umbrella system control. While the system itself was automatic, he knew it could be remotely initiated and perhaps if they could amp up the positron power output it might be enough to disintegrate the debris. The tired face of a female ZAFT soldier appeared on his screen and he talked over her greeting.
"We have an urgent—" he began, but didn't get off the remainder of the order, his alarms blaring again and alerting him to an object to his left. He spun just in time to see the burning silhouette of the Impulse flying past his machine like a comet. It was such a strange sight he had to blink to make sure his cameras weren't tricking him. The Impulse was actually gaining on the asteroid and Yzak stared, mouth agape as his mind started to piece together the pilot's words and the sparking catapult on the Minerva's hull with the other, abandoned Excalibur sword floating nearby. Shinn had used the Minerva's catapult system to fling the Impulse towards the asteroid and with the added speed of his thrusters, he was actually going faster than it. But the problem was, would he reach it in time?
"Commander Joule?" the soldier asked on the other end of the line and Yzak shook off his shock.
"Put up the umbrella defenses—now! One piece—" He was stopped short again, alarms blaring not in his ZAKU, but on the other end of the call. Cursing, Yzak returned to his cameras and his shock returned in a wave.
The Impulse had—amazingly—caught up to the asteroid, one Excalibur rattling and gripped in both hands as the blade was held out in front of the suit's head. If the cadet was lucky, the blade wouldn't be dull from the abuse he was putting it through. If he was lucky, he wouldn't pass out from the heat that he was, no doubt, currently being cooked in.
If he was lucky, his plan might actually work.
The tip of the Excalibur pierced the rock first and then the rest of the blade followed, the Impulse itself going through the break it was searing and cleanly out the other side. The two halves broke off to the sides and spiraled away, their danger no longer threatening and Yzak followed their trajectory for a moment, making sure that, indeed, they were in the clear. It wasn't until he heard the hum of the umbrella defenses and Shinn's loud curse that Yzak realized he couldn't relax just yet. The umbrella defenses did go up as ordered, but even though the PLANTs were now safe, the Impulse was not.
Narrow, red hexagons wove like a screen where the asteroid was meant to have hit, growing outward like vines and never looking to be anything other than a defense mechanism until Yzak saw the Impulse's momentum hurling it towards the positron mesh. The control room had anticipated his command and had upped the energy, Yzak watching the hexagons grow red with intensity, their hum growing in his ears as quickly as his blood rushed from his face.
"Disengage!" Yzak shouted, returning to the screen and seeing the female frantically typing at her console, other shouts sounding around her as the alarms continued. The Impulse's trajectory should take it safely below the PLANTs, but there was no way it could avoid the umbrella and Yzak's breath quickened, his face shield fogging up momentarily with his panic. Shinn was trying his best to slow down his machine and he was doing a good job, but not well enough. He had twisted the Gundam, the thrusters being pushed to their max as he tried to speed away from the menacing red screen but they began to pop from the abuse and his suit faltered. It wasn't going to stop in time.
"Disengage!" Yzak shouted again, hearing Shinn's loud curses and feeling helpless to do anything but watch—watch as the Impulse hit the umbrella defenses.
Or, at least where they were meant to be.
The red hexagons made a loud pop and Impulse fell safely beyond, the umbrella humming and weaving its tapestry once again just in time to catch the remainder of the debris as it hit the field. The smaller rocks hissed as they disintegrated, the sound resonating around his now silent cockpit, his colleagues too shocked to do anything but stare. It had actually worked.
That maddening plan had worked.
The female at the control center gave a sigh of relief and Yzak did the same, falling back into his seat and leaning his head against the cushion. Cheers erupted across the communications line and Yzak felt the smile tug at the side of his mouth.
"Well done, team," Talia announced, giving her own relieved laugh when Yzak heard the Minerva's CIC confirm the Impulse's status. The Gundam was sort of in one piece, just waiting for retrieval, and the pilot was alive, just currently getting sick in his suit because of the abuse he had just put himself through. Overall, not great, but at least Homeland was in one piece. "Dear God, I feel like a drink. And it's barely sunrise."
Yzak did laugh then.
He had to agree.
"So, when will you be back?" Lexi asked, kicking the toe of her shoe against the pavement and staring in front of her through the iron gates and past security.
"I have to fill out the report, so I'll probably be a couple of hours yet."
"Hours? That bad of an incident, huh?"
"Not 'bad,' per se. More like, I have a story to tell you about what a cadet did," Yzak responded, the phrase vague, but she could hear the humor pushing through the exhaustion and she smiled at least a little. He was in one piece and the mission was a success as far as she could tell. Even if she would probably never learn any of the details, that was good enough for now.
"Do you want me to get anything for you?"
"Food," he replied quickly and hesitated a moment before adding, "And would you judge me if I also asked for a stiff drink?"
She laughed, a short burst of sound that was accented with the shake of her head. "No, I wouldn't judge you, but you're not exactly calming my nerves."
"Relax, we're all fine. Looking forward to putting my feet up though."
"Well, you deserve that, I suppose," she began, her smile slipping into something more genuine as her free hand ceased its nervous pulling at the collar of her T-shirt. "Just get home and we'll see what we can do to help you to relax."
"Oh? Is that a promise?" The inflection in his voice made her laugh again and they pieced together their goodbyes, Lexi pulling the phone away from her ear and wishing he was standing close enough to security that she could see him. He was exhausted—even she could tell that over the phone—and she had to check herself—hold herself back from barging through the base gate to have her make sure in person.
She had done as he had asked and had fled to sit at a corner table in Stray Delicacies the moment its doors opened, exchanging dialogue with Noah and Sean in real time as she searched every corner of the web for chatter on a group at Jachin Due. Jaeger was at work that day and he sat down with her often, providing coffee and sustenance before she even had to ask for it. Logan had started working there as well, his unnervingly smiley face reminding Lexi she was going to be happy when he moved out, but him and Jaeger had yet to find a place and with Namarra currently in Scandinavia, the apartment felt refreshingly less cramped. Still, not even Jaeger's pampering could calm her until Sean's comment about the Voltaire having docked in port sent her abandoning her seat and rushing with her things out the door to do none other than stand outside the gate of the base he was currently stationed at.
She hadn't been that close to a ZAFT facility in months and even the panic in her gut didn't outweigh the niggling in the back of her mind. Or, perhaps more accurately, the Berserker-fueled doubt that had been plaguing her all morning. The thing was, she trusted Yzak to hold his own and knew of his skills well, but for some reason her other half knew what buttons to push—fears to inject, but to what end the redhead wasn't entirely sure. Somehow, having a jittery Lexi Rymyr walking around seemed counterintuitive, but the games the Berserker was playing were based around rules the redhead didn't know—didn't understand.
Her eyes closed and she fell back against the wall of the apartment building behind her, releasing another sigh as she heard the foot traffic start to pick up around her once more. Neither her nor her Orb helpers found anything on pirates at Jachin Due; didn't find anything at all, really. She had remembered Yzak explaining once about the number of mobile suits, mobile suit parts, and amount of ammunition that had gone missing after the battle, but the comment had been so unsurprising, she hadn't paid much attention to it at the time. The list of deserters from either side of the war was long and many hardcore Blue Cosmos and Zala supporters had gone underground the moment GENESIS was destroyed. Hell, Yzak had even said most of those individuals fled with ZAFT equipment as Jachin Due was being evacuated. Sean and Noah had been tapped out of the black market since being targeted and falling under the thick veil that was Morgenroete security, but they had a good idea of how many old war goods were being traded and the number of pirate names circling was vast. While no one seemed to have been at Jachin Due recently, that wasn't to say someone hadn't been there.
And it also didn't mean they hadn't been sufficiently armed.
Lexi had started noticing the small rumblings at the bottom of whatever peace the world had been thrown into. If anything, the places and things Athrun had been sending her and Namarra to investigate had showed a level of unravelling that when looked at individually might not seem like much, but as the tapestry of peace was growing, those snags were starting to look menacing.
She let out a slow breath, still remembering how Waltfeld had taken the news about the O'Neill colonies and Athrun's continued worry about the pressure Cagalli was under to speak to the new Supreme Council come July. A piece of Jachin Due being kicked out of orbit just seemed to be another piece to that puzzle, even if she didn't quite know where it fit just yet.
Lexi leaned against the wall for a few moments longer, her eyes closed as she listened vaguely to the chatter around her. She should probably get moving, head back to Yzak's place and grab that food he had asked for. There was nothing someone as small and insignificant as her could do for the state of world peace and the person of her immediate concern was safe again, just had to wade through paperwork and that was a task he hated most of all. She would have to pick up something sweet as well; maybe that would make him feel better. She might not be able to force people to keep to a treaty, but at least she could make sure Yzak was properly rewarded after a hard day's work.
She was going through food and dessert options when a new voice confronted her and she opened one eye, finding the red orbs of a dark-haired teen dressed in a green, ZAFT academy uniform. His eyes left hers for a moment to look at the annoyed gaze of his redheaded companion when Lexi hadn't responded. The girl to his right was dressed the same, the two most likely having left the base, but the girl's words confirmed her look the moment before.
"What are you doing?" she hissed at him and both of Lexi's eyes opened to focus her attention on them fully.
"You okay?" he said, the words directed at Lexi and they sounded repeated. His hair was disheveled and choppy around his face, Lexi not sure whether it was a fashion statement or from a day of training, but his eyes is where her attention lingered. His concern seemed genuine, not the rehearsed lines of a soldier thinking it was their duty to care.
Lexi felt her eyebrow arch. "You're talking to me?" she asked and his head crooked in an animated gesture that looked like something Heine might do, but where Heine often did it on purpose, the cadet seemed to do it naturally. He looked pale, the contrast between the color of his skin and his darker features almost startling until she noticed the exhaustion in the way he stood and held himself. The exhaustion in both of them, she realized.
"Yeah—you're bleeding." The phrase was simple, but somehow Lexi couldn't compute the words until she followed his finger down to the scuff on jeans at her left knee and the growing blood stain edging outwards. In her hurry to get to the base, she vaguely remembered running into the jagged outcrop of a store windowsill, but hadn't thought about it at the time. In fact, she hadn't really felt any pain until the cadet had pointed at it.
"Seriously, Shinn, we're leaving port as soon as we're fueled and you really shouldn't be out of bed anyway—" the redhead began, Lexi twisting her leg to see the damage further. It was nothing to worry about as far as she could tell. Just—unfortunately—another bit of clothing to add to the growing list of shopping she was dragging Yzak out for the next day.
Maybe she should buy him more than one sweet thing.
"I told you, I'm fine. I just want to make sure she's okay," he cut in, his head turning back to his comrade and receiving a huff as a response. "It'll take two seconds."
"Why do you care?" Lexi asked, her attention roaming back over to the younger soldier and she shrugged when he seemed surprised at the remark. "The wound looks worse than it is. Anyway," she continued, twisting to reach down and grab the handle of her backpack near her feet, "based on your teammate's not-so-subtle hints and your rather grey complexion, I'd wager you should be worrying more about yourself. If you put even half as much effort into your training as you do talking to a stranger, I'd listen harder to medical advice. No point in dedicating so much of yourself to ZAFT if you die before making rank."
"I'm stronger than you think," he responded quickly and the change in tone made her look back at him. Either he believed those words or he was forcing himself to, his face gathering an angry flush and based on his teammate's huff and eye roll, this happened often.
"I'm sure you are," Lexi responded slowly. "But strength isn't everything."
"But it's not nothing either," he spat and Lexi was halfway through a shrug when one more academy cadet called from nearby. Presumably another team member, his longer blond hair fell down past blue eyes that even she noticed despite the distance. The most unnerving thing, however, was those eyes were looking at her, not at his supposed teammates.
"Coming!" the girl replied and pulled on Shinn's arm, muttering an apology to Lexi and the other cadet did the same. Lexi's eyes hadn't left the blond, however, their stares lingering on each other until his comrades had joined his side.
Lexi shuddered as they walked away.
CE 63 Orb
"She's just a child, Uzumi. How in Helmaya's name would she know how to do any of that?" Emilia spat, her words biting even behind the thickness of the wall.
"She was just being protective—just trying to get her and Cagalli out," her uncle's calm voice responded.
"And we should be thankful she did," Kisaka's voice said next, piggybacking off the statement, but his words were barely audible, a stark contrast to her father's.
"And where were you during all this, huh? Hours, Officer. Ten hours they were with those people."
"Bryce, this isn't his fault."
"Save it, Uzumi. You'd protect him even if the girls had been killed."
"There, all done," the older doctor said, Lexi's eyes focusing back on his spectacles and soft wrinkles rather than the arguing happening in the other room. "You're safe and healthy." His face was kind and she knew it well, the older man having been a friend of the Athha family for many years, but she had begun seeing less of him since Cagalli's mom had died, his support no longer needed.
"Thank you," she replied quietly, no amount of kindness able to pull even the itch of a smile from her lips. Despite his words she felt… off. Her lighter, late-autumn clothing felt heavy across her shoulders and her muscles ached with an exhaustion she had never felt before. Even walking inside from the car had been a chore, but nothing made her as uneasy as the side glances she had received from Kisaka after Cagalli had recounted what she had remembered from their experience. Her chin dipped at the thought, but not for long, the older man's soft fingers stopping its descent and she found his smile again.
"Keep your chin up, okay? We're all so relieved to see you two safe."
"Thank you, doctor," Lathan said next, stepping forward and helping him to his feet after Lexi heard him grunt. Her brother was off to her right, his nervousness hardly contained. They had all been on an outing together when the whole event had happened and even though Lathan was far more logical than his years would dictate, his guilt was clear.
Currently, they were all at the Rymyr estate, Lexi sitting on one sofa as Cagalli sat across the room on another, a similarly older doctor helping her rotate her left arm to gauge how hurt it was. Her parents, Cagalli's father, and Kisaka were in a side room to Lexi's right, the adults somehow thinking a mere door could keep their emotional states hidden from their children. It hadn't been working that way for the past few months so why they suddenly thought it would now, the redhead had no idea.
Cagalli gave a muffled, painful cry and Lexi quickly glanced over. She didn't remember when Cagalli had been hurt and she felt her stomach sink as the blonde wiped a small tear from her cheek. I'm sorry, were the first words that came to mind, but Lexi remembered little of what had happened and only understood what she felt. And she felt sorry.
The redhead tried to catch her attention and she did for a second, but Cagalli looked away quickly, wincing when the doctor rotated her arm again.
Is she angry? Lexi thought and her chin begin its descent again. Are they all angry?
The front door opened quickly to Lexi's left and she felt the entire room grow tense, the action startling everyone into a protective panic as they shifted. The older doctor stepped in front of Lexi to get between her and the door and Lathan did the same, his arm held out in front of her as if to shield her from the intruder. She blinked, surprised by gesture and looked over at Cagalli who seemed just as startled when her doctor had done the same.
"The girls?" a deeper, male voice said and Lexi recognized her uncle Homura immediately.
"Safe," Cagalli's doctor responded.
"Uzumi—"
"Next room," Lexi's doctor said that time and Lexi leaned forward, trying to look around the bodies at her front to see him, but only saw the tail end of his long, blue jacket as it brushed along the hall. His quick steps slowed as he neared the door and the loud voices began anew, both startled and excited to see him.
"Did they find them?" Lexi's father asked, Homura's loud "No" sounding before the door closed again.
Lexi didn't remember much about what had happened, but she vaguely recalled who "them" might be, knowing it was probably the people who had taken them. She was out with Lathan and Cagalli shopping with a couple of maids and guards when she and Cagalli had gotten into an argument. In fact, they argued even more nowadays than they had earlier, but it felt different this time. Cagalli seemed to be arguing for the sake of venting her frustration on something and Lexi was always the most convenient recipient, but too stubborn to not retaliate. So, all she remembered was chasing after Cagalli and then… not much else. Only vague flashes of people until Kisaka found both girls near the ice cream stall; the one they had always gone to with their moms.
The redhead looked down at her hands as the conversation turned to yelling once again in the other room. She had smaller cuts and bruises on her knuckles and up onto her arms. A couple of plasters were covering the worse of them and she looked past them down to her bare feet, wincing when she tried to squeeze her right, big toe, noticing the redness around the knuckle.
"How could no one find them?" Emilia hissed.
"As soon as the girls fled, so did they, I'd wager," Homura explained. "We have witnesses who saw the girls taken though, so they won't be hiding for long."
"But why were they taken?" Emilia continued. "Do you think they were targeted?"
"They were fighting, I bet," Bryce grumbled. "That's why they were so far away from the guards and probably too distracted to realize what was happening. Golden opportunity for kidnappers, I would think."
"Kids always fight—those two always fight," Homura replied.
"They're just lashing out," Emilia said and even from that distance Lexi could hear the disappointment in her mother's voice.
"We could channel that energy—that anger into—" Kisaka began and Lexi already knew he was going to mention some sort of physical training. Cagalli had been the one to bring it up in the first place and while it had been a jest at the time, the fact Kisaka had taken it seriously meant others were seeing the signs as well.
"No!" both of Lexi's parents shouted at the same time and the redhead winced, hearing Lathan sigh and she looked up to meet his gaze. Lathan had been channeling his time into studying, excelling in his classes, but she saw the tired shadows under his eyes and the way his shoulders crumpled as he stood. Losing Cagalli's mother had been rough on the whole family, but perhaps no one really knew how rough it actually had been.
Lexi's attention shifted over to Cagalli again whose left arm was being fitted into a sling. The blonde still wouldn't look at her.
"You didn't do anything wrong, Lexi," Lathan said suddenly and she turned to look up at him, noting his fists at his sides as her eyes sought his. "There's nothing wrong with you."
Wrong with me? she thought, but didn't get a chance to ask, the older doctor breaking in amid the renewed shouting in the other room.
"Nothing wrong at all. If anything, you're a hero."
Hero? Lexi thought, blinking through her surprise again, finally catching Cagalli's eyes that time, but there was nothing about her gaze that made the redhead feel heroic.
Cagalli was afraid.
A/N: Hello all. I suppose the biggest news this chapter is the announcement concerning new SEED material that is coming out beginning July. Looks to be in the form of a new manga story about a team who is basically Terminal in Orb. New machines, new characters... the exact same time as Serenade. (Sigh) Now, for those of you who have been reading my author notes, you'll know I've completely ignored Astray and will, most likely, completely ignore this new one, SEED Eclipse. If I should find something in it that's useful, I will add it into my story, but at the moment, it's kinda under that umbrella named "Ugh." It's sounding a bit like what Hermes does, just with mobile suits and, ironically, Orb machines that have Mirage Colloid (which is against the treaty). Orb will be toeing the line for sure...
The other bit of news is the post-Destiny movie that we'll be getting in 2022. So, big "Woohoo!" from me on this one, a huge protective, guard dog growl as well should they think to do anything to my characters, and another "it depends" on whether or not I'll incorporate anything later on. I have the next book kinda (sorta) planned out and then the fourth book after that as well, so I might not do anything with the movie other than enjoy the new artwork that will come out.
As for the chapter, this is (my) Joule team. Given Yzak's increasing importance in my story, I couldn't help but bring them in and I have a feeling they'll show up from time to time. I find them to be super amusing and I hope you all share the sentiment. We'll be heading to the Kingdom of Scandinavia next chapter and perhaps more Dearka and Miri? I wonder how they're doing...
Shoutout to my Beta Death-Scimitar for always finding time for my crazy ideas. Another shoutout to lordfiresword and Tristraim for helping me with the technicalities of this particular chapter. I had many ideas for what the Joule team could do and none of them really stuck until I had a brainstorm session. So, one more shoutout to the writing Discord I frequent and my support team there.
Corrections to the Narrative:
So, I have been told recently that the Orb god is actually a goddess and would not have any "balls." XD Well, I honestly didn't think that far ahead and just, genuinely, liked the phrase so it's kinda stuck. I plan on keeping it unless anyone has any huge problems with it.
Questions/Gripes:
*Crickets have returned for this one.* No chatter; no need for a response. ...I suppose... :/ I do wish someone would say something...
Shameless Recommendations:
Friend of mine just started his own RWBY story and I highly recommend it. It's an AU which will involve our favorite heroes, so keep an eye out for that. Good voice, good story, good characters—not sure what else you need, really.
Gravediggers & Gunslingers by FearTheFedora: "Following the events of Volume One, Team RWBY finds themselves ensnared in Ozpin's machinations. They soon learn that they are not the first team to catch the Headmaster's eye and that doing the right thing often comes at a price. A Canon Divergent story with a cast of canon and original characters."
Take care, all. Thanks for stopping in and please leave a remark if you have time. Would love to hear from you. See you next chapter.
Strata