Sequel time, part 7!
Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread.
#7: Spectacular Expectations
Meia was sitting alone in the mess hall of the 'Nirvana', sipping a steaming mug of coffee. Everyone else was using the mess hall of the 'Supernova', as it's facilities were much larger, and all the female crewmembers not yet with a man, wanted to spend as much time associating with them as possible. It was the night after they had defeated the White side red controller, and she was content to just lounge around. She was in her slender black and white jumpsuit, having taken off her out vest thing so she didn't feel to clustered. A door behind her hissed open and heavy footfalls gave the intruder away before he even spoke.
"There you are, your missing out on the celebration." It was John.
"I just feel more at home here." She said, trying not to sound concerning.
"Well, sure, it's nice and all, but it's completely empty. They aren't even serving food here!"
"Yes, but I'm not really hungry." She realized how distant she was sounding. She still found herself steering away from large gatherings, he old habit's still putting up a fight. John sat down next to her, and looked her over. She did look a lot less intimidating without her shoulder pad things, but John liked the rare occasion when she wasn't wearing it.
"All this good and evil stuff is confusing." She stated, putting her back to him, and leaning on his side. "I don't even see the difference sometimes."
"What do you mean?" he asked, putting his arm around her stomach.
"Well, all through life, we are told that men were the ultimate evil, and we were supposed to treat you as the enemy at all times. Were as our own people were good, to be treated as family, and never looked down on."
"The same with us." He mumbled, wondering where this was going.
"But no we are all here together, some more than others, but still working together against a common enemy.
"Ok…" he wanted her to continue, because it was his firm belief that you always felt better when you got things out into the air, and off your chest.
"All this time we have been friends with Jack, and trusting that he was on our side, the good side. But then, we find out that he is in fact, an evil entity, yet we still follow him, and his actions seem to be for the best. What does that mean for us? Are we evil as well?" John took a full two minutes to think this over.
"Well, good and evil is not always black and white. Even though it may seem that way on the surface, under closer inspection, you find shades of gray to leverage it out. We do what we think is right, which may seem wrong to some, but works for us. The path we travel may not always seem clear when you look down the road, but if you think your doing the right thing, then you'll be just fine." He had never known himself to be so insightful, and judging by the silence that Meia was now absorbed in, hadn't expected it either. Meia was deeply absorbed in thought, she had a bad feeling that Jack didn't have all the cards in his hand showing, and when he showed his true self, they would all be in trouble. But she decided to drop the subject, her mind at ease, and enjoy herself.
"Why is our relationship the only perfect one around here?" She asked, turning and nuzzling into John's broad chest.
"Because we listen and trust each other." He said romantically, as he stared out the window.
A brown haired girl in orange coveralls walked into the infirmary, seeing the doctor seated at a computer across the room, back to her. She cleared her throat, but he mearly sighed, thinking it was another female solider wanting to put their moves on him.
"If this isn't an emergency, I would be most grateful if you would leave, I am very busy at the moment. She figured he must have thought she was just another solider, and decided to mess with him.
"I think it might be." She said, sounding extremely seductive, though in a voice most different that her norm. Duero continued typing.
"What are you symptoms." He said in his normal, alluring way.
"Well, I got this odd burning sensation running through my skin whenever I look at you. That plus a strange gambit of emotions that also join in." She put in her most sexy tone of voice, and wrapped her arms around his neck. He saw the bare arms and stained white gloves, and realized who he was talking to.
"Well, lay down on the bed, and I will examine you." He said, in a seductive tone that sent shivers down her spine. She nothing short of leaped on the bed, lying on her back, and waited for him to shuffle over. He walked to the bedside, with his kit of doctoral supplies.
"Why is are relationship the only perfect one around here?" She asked, letting him probe her playfully in the stomach with a tongue depressor.
"Because we aren't afraid to be adventurous with each other." He smiled, and kissed her passionately.
Jura lay in her room rubbing her stomach, using Vinn's lap as a pillow. She had ultra sound pictures all over her wall, having gone to infirmary almost hourly to get a new look at her developing child. She was three months away from adding a new name to the crew roster of the 'Nirvana', and wasn't shy about showing it. She had always pursued what she liked rather obsessively, and this was just another one of those things. She had been banned from the infirmary except for once a week to get an update on her baby, and wasn't too happy about it. She had driven Barnette into hiding with her constant complaining, and almost everybody else just tried keeps a bit of space. Every one except Vinn, whom had always listened to her complaining without ever asking her to stop, or walking away, or anything like that. That was what she found had attracted her to him in the first place. She had heard that he was every bit as obsessive as she was, but had never seen him at it. She watched his eyes shifting around the room. Little thing bugging him, like an unevenly hung picture, and other stuff like that. She loved how he could control himself from just getting up and fixing it to his liking. She had recently resolved to try not to be quite as obsessive, at least not around him, anyway.
"Why is our relationship the only perfect one around here?" She asked lovingly.
"Because we have greater control over ourselves when together." He said, smoothing a bunch of her hair over his leg.
Dita was sitting on a couch in the large recreational room near the rear of the 'Supernova', thumbing through a book on animal species form the time earth was still healthy. Hibiki was next to her, dozing lightly, exhausted from the battle. He had fought the ships docked around the planet while the ground crew had done their work on the surface. An odd query from Dita brought him back to the world of the waking.
"Why didn't you like me when we first met?" She asked in a dark voice, much the opposite of her normal cheery one.
"What do you mean?" he asked, sleep hindering his thought process.
"When we first met, you ran away from me." She looked away from the book, and into his eyes, the florescent lights making her azure eyes shine even brighter. As he looked into her eyes, a ray of understanding flashed between them.
"Well, it was the first time I ever came in contact with a woman, and I was a little…" He didn't want to say the next word, but he realized that Dita wouldn't think any lower of him for his feelings. She had always done her best to make him happy and comfortable, even when he was being a huge ass. "I was scared." She just looked at him for a moment, and then wrapped her arms around him, causing the minuet blush in his cheek to a full coverage.
"Well, then, if that was all, I guess I can forgive you this time." He was about to protest, but never got the chance as she pressed her lips firmly into his. "Why is our relationship the only perfect one around here?" She asked when she finally pulled away.
"Because we were meant to be together." He said, though he didn't really know why.
Jack sat alone on the bridge of the 'Supernova', until Barnette entered. He kept his back to her, and huffed loudly.
"What's wrong with you?" She said. He kept his back to her, and huffed again as he answered.
"That was a dirty trick you played back there." He said, a mixture of darkness and sadness in his voice.
"Well, would you have preferred to have killed yourself?" she said, but had a feeling he was going to say yes.
"Of course! It would have hurt less! It broke my heart when I though it was you!" His voice cracked, and she knew he was crying.
"Well, to damn bad!" She yelled, and he turned to face her, their was something she had only seen in his eyes once before. It was on Christmas morning, right after he had told her why he was really on the 'Nirvana' in the first place. The despair that was so deeply embedded in his heart, that there was almost no hope in easing it. She didn't soften her tone as she walked forward. She grabbed him by the collar of his cloak, and pulled his face to her's. "You are such a stupid Bastard! You try to die at every possible opportunity, which tears the hell out of me every time! And now you have the nerve to pout after I stop you!" He had never seen her this angry before, and she was frightening. "What the hell is Wrong with you!"
"It's not like that." He said sheepishly, trying to drop his gaze to the floor, but brought it back up as she shook him violently. If anything, his comment made her angrier.
"The hell it isn't! You're just trying to rationalize it to make it look good for you!" It was now taking all her self-control not to smack him in the face.
"No, it is, I'd rather die, than have you get hurt because of my mistakes." His voice was small, but the most sincere she had ever heard from him. She lost her grip, and dropped him to the floor.
"And I'd rather die, than have you die because of me." She said, voicing the concern that had been pulling on her for a long while. She sighed, and dropped to her knee's next to him.
"Why is our relationship the only screwed up one around here?" she asked, placing her hand on his shoulder.
"Because, I'm an catalyst in an unstable vat of chemicals." He said, his voice grim.
"Now just you listen to me. You're going to cheer back up, and return to the Jack I fell in love with, or I'm going to beat you until you at least think your that Jack." She said, her voice showing her determination.
"Just promise me that you'll always be this damned reliable." He said, his voice still grim.
"Of course, I mean, it's your fault I'm like this."
"I didn't make you such a fat ass."
"…WHAT!" With that little comment, she proceeded with beating the living crap out of him, the first time he had enjoyed getting his ass whooped, since they first met Missy. Barnette landed the last blow, and sat back to admire her handy work. His face healed rather faster than she expected, but the purpling would last a few hours at the least.
"There, you got the love struck Jack back, and you got to beat the crap out of him." He said, lying on his back. She bent down to kiss him, but the deck shook, throwing her off, and managed to smack her face into the floor above his head. By the time she brought her face back up, Jack was in one of the seats, typing rapidly as displays appeared on the screens, some status, some camera images. A planet with blue atmosphere, and green landmasses filled one display, and 3 more showed massive warships swarming around the planet, facing them. Another display flicked open on the center screen, and three people starred down. Jack told Barnette to go and get ready for battle, and she hurried to it. The door closed, and Jack locked all the doors with a wave of his hand. Cage was foremost in the screen, and slightly behind to either side, was a woman with long purple hair, and a man with shoulder length blonde hair.
"Long time no see, Jack, but it looks like you made it here sooner than you expected. Our Intel said you weren't due for another day, I was about to send George here to intercept you." Cage said, his jovial attitude more pronounced than usual. Another face appeared in a separate screen. This face was the most unexpected one yet.
"Sorry my Intel was incorrect, sir!" Jenny said, saluting smartly.
"It is no problem, what you have told us has given a good deal of advantages over them." Cage said, watching as jack gaped at his one time second in command, who was believed dead.
"You betrayed me?" He said, a smidgen of hurt in his voice.
"No, you betrayed me!" She yelled. "I just found someone who appreciated my feelings more than some stupid little bi…" Her sentence was cut off as the metal chair Jack had been sitting in slammed into the screen, shattering it into a shower of glittering glass and arcing electricity.
"So, Jack, I see your temper is the same as always. What is it you came to visit me about?" He said, sounding happier than ever.
"I thought me might make amends, you know, bury the hatchet?" Jack said, regaining his composure.
"And why would you want that? Don't you live for death and destruction?"
"I just though it would be nice not to get my ass kicked again for awhile."
"Well, I can't do that, it is fate that we settle our dispute in battle."
"Then I would like you to do me a favor, as my brother."
"I'm listening." Cage said, his curiosity piqued.
The 'Nirvana' separated from the 'Supernova' so that it might be able to add its weapons to the mix. The crew's surveyed the scene, but held their fire, as the enemy fleet hadn't shot again sense the initial warning shot. Jacks face appeared on the 'Nirvana's' main monitor.
"Cage has given me the chance to go down to the surface of the planet, and try to negotiate a settlement, as a favor to his brother. Keep the shields up, and I'll be back soon." He clicked the screen off, and entered the atmosphere, his Vanguard carving a burning slash across the sky.
"What do you think is going to happen?" B.C. asked the Captain.
"I don't know." She said with a sigh. Meia had that bad feeling welling up in her stomach as she sat in her dread, waiting for the order to launch. After only 20 minutes, Jacks hooded head appeared on the screens again.
"We have decided to make amends, and work together to rule over the universe!" He roared triumphantly.
"Weapons lock by every ship in the system, including the earth's army ships!" Belvedere yelled from her bridge station.
"Even with your re-enforced shields, it's still enough fire power to reduce you into dust in a single volley. We will give you a 10-day head start if you leave now. What do you say?" The Captain thought for a moment, as Barnette came tearing onto the bridge, and started yelling at Jack, but he took no notice.
"Ok, we'll go. We trusted you, and this is how we get replied, huh?" the Captain asked calmly.
"Yes, well, the clock is ticking, so you best get moving." The screen blackened, and Barnette stopped yelling, and ran off the bridge, a mix of sorrow, betrayal, anger, and confusion rushing through her mind. It had been an hour since they left, when Celtic spoke.
"A message has just arrived from the 'Supernova', sent over 2 hours ago."
"Put it on the screen." The Captain said lazily. A typed message appeared, and they all read it with wide eyes. It was a shocking document, but made them all realize something.
The end of seven. Try and guess what's going to happen, and you'll be both wrong and right, because I'm always trying to do the unexpected. One of the last chapters is going to be at least partially a song, so, it's only 2 or 3 chapters away.