Disclaimer: Burst angel and any of the original characters are the property of I believe Funimation not mine. I simply barrowed them to tell this story. Bardon Fran and any other characters no mentioned are however my creations (Don't touch! Mine! Get away!)
AN: Thank you to everyone who left a review on my last chap. I'm just too short on time to list them right now. And as always any spelling/grammar issues I may have and in all likelihood missed.
Chaos Theory
Ch.4
Well this looks like an awkward roast smothered in an awkward gravy with a side carrots and mashed potatoes.
My response to how a BBQ with a friend's EX-Girlfriend and said friend will be.
Bard was bored, extremely so. To make things worse he was more or less confined to Sei's trailer because the team was running systems checks and moving the M-5's around a bit. Mr. Johnson decided that multi ton cybots and a blinded man was an accident waiting to happen. Bard agreed, but it still didn't help to alleviate the boredom or the feeling Bard had of his ass becoming one with the seat cushion. In the kitchenette Kyohie was frying something. , creating a temping sound and smell. The only down part was that Bardon couldn't tell what the meal to be, might be.
The seat in front of Bard shifted as someone sat down.
"Morning Sei. Or is it afternoon?" Bard said.
"Lucky guess." Sei answered
"Not really. There are only 4 women here, 1 is injured, Jo wouldn't wear heels if her life depended on it, and Ami isn't heavy enough the shift the table like that."
"Can you see yet?" she asked.
"Only light, bright and dark areas." Bard shrugged, there was no point in getting angry, it wouldn't heal his eyes faster. "Is lunch ready or is there a point to the visit?"
"Both. But Meg needs your help." Sei explained
"Ok."
"No questions?" Sei was puzzled.
"Even if I say no Mr. Johnson will order me to, so saying no is a waste of time. I know how this works."
"Well I'm going to ask anyway. Meg's body can't handle all the toxins the shrapnel put into her body very well."
"I know were this is going." Bard interrupted.
"They want to swap a pint of blood between you two to take the pressure of her kidneys. Get her through easier. You have enough body mass that the toxins won't put stress on your body."
"What kind of toxins?" Bard asked
"I can't pronounce it, something to do with the breakdown process the body uses on Brazumium."
"She has the Brazes"
"Excuse me?"
"She has Brazumoxide poisoning. Most shrapnel producing weapons these days use Brazumium because it has such a high resistance to pressure it shatters instead of tears like most metals, makes more shrapnel that way. The down side is the metal is like lead in the fact that your body can handle a little, too much will kill you." Bard said "my blood type is B negative; it's a rarer blood type. I've gotten this call 4 times. 5 if you count the time I was unconscious."
"Fine, we should go." Sei softly commanded
"Wait, there's a book in my bag. It's black with an image of the planet in the cover and a red ribbon book mark. Would you get it for me please?"
Meg walked across and empty space. There was no land no sky nothing but black in all directions, even down. Meg walked on an invisible solid plain that the source-less light did not illuminate never mind show the edge of. Oddly Meg felt safe here, nothing here could hurt her. In the distance a figure sat at a folding card table, in a folding metal chair, playing dominos.
"Hello." Bardon said from his chair.
"What are you doing?" Meg asked aggressively
"It looks like I'm playing dominos, but I could be plotting how the take Jo from you. You wouldn't know would you?"
"What?"
"I heard you hear me. Wait would that be hearded? It was in the third person so maybe heardeded?"
"Those aren't words." Meg told him.
"Ok, moving on." Bard placed down the next piece "your move."
"Huh?" Meg grunted.
"It's rather hard to play against yourself. Take a seat." A chair appeared opposite Bard. Meg backed away in surprise.
"Where in god's fucked up universe are we!"
"No where." Bard said calmly.
"We have to be somewhere."
"No, but welcome to the void none the less." Meg nodded
"So this place is called the void?" she asked
"No." Bard said stonily. Meg scratched her head in confusion.
"But you called here the void."
"Technically yes I did."
"So this place is the void."
"No."
"I'm lost."
"No, you're in Japan, haven't moved an inch."
"Where in Japan is this?" Bard sighed
"It's not."
"I'm confused. Where is this place?" Meg finally sat down in the chair, it was sturdy.
"This isn't a place. To be a place or a thing you must exist. To exist you need to have matter. Thoughts don't have that." Bardon lectured
"Thoughts?"
"Yes. Basically you're talking to a part of your internal-self, in your mind's eye, the void."
"But why the void?" Meg asked sort of catching on.
"Because that's what it is until you fill it with something. From here you can see your past," Bard snapped his fingers Meg saw herself as a small child, riding on her father's shoulders "your now," Meg saw herself sitting at the trailer table laughing with the girls. "Your could-have-beens" Meg saw Meg in high school taking a test "and your could-bes." Meg saw two images one of her and Jo sitting on the beach, alone and some years in the distance, and Meg a mother.
"How can you do this Bardon?" Meg asked
"I'm not Bardon; I am a figment or your imagination. The manifestation of a part of your mind and personality that you need to come to terms with."
"Then why am I talking to you and not me." Meg questioned.
"Because your mind has decided I am a better symbol of what you need to deal with, your own fears, desires, insecurities, and it's rather unhealthy to talk to yourself. That is how split personalities tend to start." The image of Bard placed another domino down. Despite the fact it was Meg's turn. Meg was quiet for a long period of time. Bard started to play by himself again.
"Fine I'll start." Bard growled, finally ending the silence. "You hesitate talking to Jo because you're afeard of being hurt, yet you are being hurt by not talking to her and watching her respond to my flesh and blood alter-ego."
"Not true." Meg argued
"I am the manifestation of your own mind, I know everything you know don't waste your time lying. You don't want to lose someone you love, understandable."
"I care I don't love her." Meg said
"Bullshit. What was that little conversation in the park with the real Bard? Lovely banter? I think not. The relieve you felt after was pretty real."
"Quiet."
"You're just a coward; you don't want to take the chance of being hurt again. Your mother abandoned you. Your father didn't love you enough to not die in the accident. You Grandmother didn't love you enough to make her heart last another 87 years."
"Shut up."
"Even those damn kids in the bus only cared enough so you'd feed them."
"Shut up! Just shut the hell up!" Meg screamed and bellowed. Tears soaked her face.
"Hurts don't it?" Bard asked "having all your fears thrown in your face. To finally stare them down. Now don't get me started on death.
"Why?"
"Because you need to remind yourself that only two things really matter, you get one shot a life. Live it as you want. Enjoy what you can."
"And the other?" Meg asked still teary eyed.
"The only thing a matters in any relation ship is how you feel. Weather you love them or care about them or whatever term fits at the moment." Bard or the Bard shaped illusion stared at Meg across the table.
"You got something to say?" Meg asked.
"No."
"But you're staring at me."
"No where else to look, besides once in a while you enjoy being the center of attention." Meg shook her head.
"This place makes no sense."
"If the human mind made more sense, the world would be half as dangerous, twice and logical, and twenty time colder." Bard said "I do have something to say now."
"What?"
"Wake up."
"Sei! Come take a look at this." Ami exclaimed. Her voice was projected out of an inter-comm system in the trailer.
"Patch it through here Ami." Sei told her. Sei moved to at the computer terminal in the command cabin, Mr. Johnson leaned in behind her, looking over her shoulder. What came up was a satellite picture of the Tokyo harbor centered on a container ship. "What are we looking at Ami?" Sei asked
"This is the cargo ship the MMV lusitania. I started poking around after Mr. Johnson said whoever moved the Chaos gun couldn't move all the supplies it needed with out attracting attention. The manifest says it is caring construction equipment, but the thermal imaging shows heavy metals, far denser than the steel I-beams it says it's carrying."
"Ammunition maybe." Mr. Johnson said. "Was there mercury on board?"
"I have nothing to say it wasn't." Ami replied. "But that's no the weird part. Another ship from with the MMV designation ran aground close to were Meg and JO got hurt. But waited 2 days to call for help."
"When was that?" Sei asked
"The 3rd." she answered. " 26 days ago."
"Damn, plenty of time to hide the Gun." Mr. Johnson said.
"Or it could just be a prideful captain." Sei commented.
"Maybe." Mr. Johnson said tapping Sei's shoulder as he thought. "I'm gonna have my boys start reconing that Ghost city of yours, see what we can dig up. Seems the best place to hide that creation."
"Very well." Sei said, "We have to start somewhere I guess."
Meg opened her eyes in a slow careful motion, protecting them from the harsh light. She started to move and stretch out the knots in her muscles when a hand held down her left arm.
"Don't move." Bard said. "I don't want the needle jerked around thank you." Meg finally saw the transfusion line connecting both their circulatory systems. A man from Bard's team pulled the needle out of their arms.
"That should be enough." He said.
"Thanks. Dean." Bard said.
"How long have you been here?" Meg asked.
"Beats the hell out of me. I still can't read a clock, or see red and green for that matter."
"Sense when?" Meg asked concerned in a vague way.
"I forgot you where sedated, you tripped a booby trap. It messed everybody up, blinded me." Bard explained. Meg sat up. Bard screwed his eyes shut, in pain.
"What?"
"When the blurry colored shadows move too fast it hurts my eyes." Bard explained. Bard paused as he wiped pain-tears off his face. "Jo came to see you."
"When?" Meg looked around expecting to see her.
"She left as I came in she hasn't been back yet. At least I think it was her, she didn't say a word so I assume so. Thought you'd like to know"
"Thank you." Meg with nothing else to do examine the medical part of the trailer she was in. there was nothing out of the ordinary as far as she could tell, so she examined her companion, in his lap was a book. It was tattered and well used. The title had long been faded out of the cover fabric by the author's name John Ringo was printed in a tougher ink and was still legible.
"What's with the book?" She asked.
"My mother gave it to me a long time ago. I've had it on me every time I end up in the hospital, it kind of a get well token. A superstition really."
"Most people have something like that to keep from getting hurt." Meg said.
"People have them to try to keep from dieing. I'm not that stupid. I'd rather die of old age or at least die standing up on my own two fucking feet. I guess this is my way of trying not to die in a hospital. You came a little too close for comfort." Bard was blunt, he hadn't been as concerned as Sei or Ami was but none-the-less another human being had been fairly close to death. Meg gently pried the book out of Bard's hand. As she looked/felt the book over an odd notion came to mind. Meg opened the book to where the book mark was and started to read out loud.
"You can start from the beginning if you want. I know how it's going to end." She did.
That's it for now. Please R+R