We Are (Not) Cursed

by BardInTheForest

(Pax Ikari vol III) When Shinji Ikari rides the train from Nagano to Tokyo-3, he is made the epicenter of a reality altering event. With the reality he had occupied now changed forever, he must conceive of a future that will accomodate diametrically opposed ethos. A man who has never known love is now responsible for the fate of the very humans he's been kept from, for good or ill.

35. Chapter 35

+++++ NERV. (Sunday, August 29th, +8, Last Quarter 3/4)

"Short of driving a personnel carrier into him, I believe we have reached the end of 'peaceful resolutions," Kyoko stated with cold anger. Watching the drone footage of Shinji's 'Post-Dinner Walk', she tried to think of anything that might help restore control over the situation. "From what little Ritsuko-chan says, he became rather irate after she began discussing what she believes to be the genesis of the plugsuit problems. Why his rather odd luck would infuriate him doesn't immediately come to mind."

Yui, unlike most every other person left alive, had a far closer insight into the mind of the young man marching off into the wilderness that had grown around the GeoFront. "Maintain thermal monitoring only, but have the drone record full spectrum in case this becomes a bigger problem. He needs privacy to regain control of himself, and further attempts to cool his temper will only serve to fuel it." Pressing the button that would connect her to her Executive Assistant, she both moved the situation forward and excused her friend. "Send in Chie-chan, please."

Passing by the young woman on her way out of Yui's office, Kyoko squeezed Chie's shoulder in a display of support. It was evident that the teenager was not emotionally equipped to be able to handle the situation alone, but it was also equally evident that Yui Ikari would be the one to take the reins for the moment.

"Please, have a seat." Gesturing to the large couch that she kept for those moments when she couldn't stave off sleep any longer, Yui rose from her desk and moved to provide both tissues and refreshments. Where she would normally only fake a sociable demeanor, she pushed herself to actually make the significant effort to be more than an emotionally dead widow. "I'm sorry for taking you away from your friends, and I will avoid wasting too much of your time." Extending the box of tissues, she let her guard down some. "How are you feeling?"

Chie was not a woman that allowed herself to appear weak. It was hard to break a decade-long habit, and even harder to try and break it in front of the woman that had unwittingly sent Shinji into the claws of a monster. The tears streaming down her cheeks, however, needed to be cleaned off before they broke her. Taking a tissue and dabbing her eyes and cheeks, she answered as honestly as she could, "Miserable."

"That is understandable. I wish I had a better answer to give you, as to how to help him, but I never discovered how to stop his father from taking these walks."

There was a brief look of confusion on her face, the conversation not at all going how she would have expected based on what she'd gleaned from Shinji. "You…."

Misreading the look, expecting the younger woman might only be seeing the Executive rather than the whole woman, Yui nodded in understanding. "To this day, I honestly could not tell you what I might have done differently to stop Gendo from becoming angry at what he would call, 'the unfairness of the world'. He could so easily see the answers, and in a different world he might even have tried to gather the needed power to affect the necessary changes to improve lives…but he chose to support my ambitions, and give his time to our son."

"N-no," Chie motioned weakly, "I-I mean, I would love to sit here and get to know you. You're his mother, after all! I…I had thought you'd brought me here to tell you what he's thinking."

Giving the statement a chance to breathe, Yui inwardly accepted that she had set herself up for that type of assumption. "I do not believe he would wish me to do that. I asked you here because it is not possible to summon your mother to help you through this challenge. I am no replacement for her, nor would I seek to become so…but I do wish to at least try to be on good terms with the woman, or women, my son has chosen."

"He thinks his luck is twisting our minds!" Unlike the woman before her, Chie didn't care what Shinji wanted at the moment. He was laboring under a misconception, and a very dangerous one at that. "He thinks that because bad things happen around him, that his presence is making us act differently. That we can't actually be attracted to him. He thinks the reason any of us have…done things, is because we were made to!" Swallowing, and catching her breath, she leaned forward and clutched her stomach as it twisted in fear and disgust. "He's hunting for Pixie, or those like her. He thinks he was cursed by them. He wants to kill all of them."

Silence held sway for several seconds as Yui's mind processed the new information into its appropriate context. "I see." She couldn't disallow the possibility that he was correct, not without significant experimentation to feel for the edges of what was being inelegantly termed 'luck'. She also couldn't let him linger under the misconception that he was undesirable on his own merits, though. He was nearly the spitting image of his father, a handsome man who had a number of women asking after him even after she had married him. He was intelligent, creative, and charming in his own way. It wouldn't be much of a curse if all it did was make women fall for him, his natural gifts would do that on their own! "I presume I am correct when I say that you believe he is mistaken?"

"I 'believe' he's an idiot!" The words were out of her mouth before she recalled to whom she was speaking. "I-I'm sorry."

For the first time in far too long, Yui Ikari let out an honest laugh. "Don't be," another laugh cut into her statement, "I've said the same about my husband more than once. We don't have to agree with everything they do, or think, to love them. It's good that you're clearsighted enough to call him on his behavior, it makes me happy to know that he won't have a pushover enabling him."

It was a relief that Yui hadn't chewed her head off. It was also a little worrying that she wasn't hurrying to do something to stop Shinji. Mostly, it was an opportunity to try and do something for him that he might not know how to do for himself. "…He loves you." All traces of amusement and humanity in the woman before her came to a halt. A robotic ice queen now sat where a human had been just before her statement. "I-I know he does. He just can't show it, because it's all mixed up with the self-hatred and…and the…rapes."

"Thank you." Leaning forward slightly, she pressed a call button on the table. An instant later, her EA stepped into the room without knocking. "Please contact Captain Minders, have her ready a trio of Wasps for infiltration and extraction. Contact Section Two, have them ready three combat teams. My daughter-in-law will be in their care, along with her friends, in pursuit of my son. Full ECM suite, and have a QRF on full alert. Arm everyone with the new CIM, no exceptions. Lethal force authorized, if necessary, to secure Pilot Ikari's return."

"Understood, ma'am," the woman bowed politely then left as quickly as she'd come in.

Chie was still trying to piece together what had happened to change Yui's mood so violently. She thought that the woman would be overjoyed to know that despite the problems between her and her son, that there was still a chance of peace between them. "I-I'm sorry."

Returning her gaze to Chie, Yui gently asked, "Whatever for?" Analyzing the situation again, she nodded slowly. "Ah, yes. Of course. It isn't you that needs to apologize. I suffer from a genetic disorder that limits my ability to properly emote, from time to time. Extremes of emotion make it worse, which is why I try very hard to never allow myself to feel very deeply. I wasn't quite ready for you to…to tell me something I never thought I'd hear, after I learned what I had done. Come," standing, she offered her hands to help Chie stand up, "I'll explain what your mission is on the way to gather your friends."

+++++ Tokyo-3. (Sunday, August 29th, +8, Last Quarter 3/4)

Rage.

To call what he was feeling by something so banal as 'anger' would be a disservice to the entire range of emotions. The woman on his shoulder, the tiny Angel that had brought him the answer just as he'd asked the question, was incapable of lying. The truth she'd revealed to him had not upset him, in the manner that finding out someone had stolen your car might upset someone. It had not disturbed him, in the manner that finding out the woman he'd been fucking for over a decade was your aunt might disturb someone. It had enkindled something so primal, so visceral, within him that the only salvation for whatever might cross his path was the sweet release of death.

The scent of Pixie was easy to find, once he had made his way up to the surface. The sweet, playful, mist carried on the wind grew thicker the more he sought it out. It had only made sense, in the dark part of his mind that held the keys to the other half of his nature, that there would be more of her kin lying in wait. If she died, or if he had rejected her, they would obviously seek to try again with another. Was the one he'd met even the same one each time they'd spoken? How far did the lies extend?

Shizuko remained quiet, terrified of what had been unleashed by her report. She knew, in the way any prey knows, that she was safe where she was. The predator she rode was not interested in her flesh, her bones. She'd attempted, once, to use her magic to calm him enough that he might be willing to speak about what he was moving towards. Her magic had acted as if it had been crushed beneath the heel of The Great Will itself.

Thick trees were blanketed with a cold fog, the evening sky already darkened as the lone orb rotated to shine its light elsewhere. The grass beneath his feet was damp enough that it made little sound as they passed, the forest itself seeming to bend away from the threat he represented. Coming to a halt, a new scent in the air, he slowly turned to look at whatever it was that had been stupid enough to approach him.

Floating, casually, a meter above the ground was a star-shaped creature with a human head adorning the center. Wild purple hair grew in spiky tendrils, ignoring gravity as they occupied the space between limbs. With a ridiculous sneer, the gray-faced being greeted them both, "You seem uncomfortable resting under the weight of the Great Will."

Was the creature a threat? It smelled…insane. Creatures suffering from madness were always best left alone, to avoid catching whatever malady plagued them. Choosing to ignore the distraction, he began back on the path of tracking the Fae, only to have the way blocked by the floating star. He let out a warning growl, perfectly fine with destroying the beast if needed.

"There are others you might seek, instead." With an amused laugh, the star looked leeringly at Shizuko. "Others that would help you both."

While the tiny Angel was afraid of what her master might do if provoked, she was not one to be cowed by a lowly demon. "I require no help from any but my master. Leave us alone, wretched demon."

"Still loyal to the Great Will, eh?" The star lowered his voice dramatically, "Does he know that?"

A part of his mind allowed his rage to drift, disliking both how the creature before him was ogling Shizuko and how the creature was delaying them. Striding forward, he made it clear that either that path would be cleared, or he would clear the path. When the star-shaped nuisance dipped out of the way, choosing to float alongside them, he returned to ignoring it.

"She can't help it, really," the star continued. "She was made to be used."

Shizuko curled into a ball, against his neck. "Just ignore him, master. They twist the truth so that it hurts the faithless."

With a keening laugh, the star snorted out, "Says the bitch who serves the hyrukjr-"

Snatching the star's face with one paw, he smashed it against a nearby boulder repeatedly. Once all that was left was gore and gristle, he wiped his hand on a clean surface and continued to move along. The distraction had served a purpose, however, and he was finding his mind clearing enough that he muttered, "Nobody talks to Shizuko like that."

A burst of flame created a glare as light without heat illuminated the fog around them. As the light dimmed, what remained behind was a young woman of an age with Shinji. Long brown hair, a pleated skirt and tan sweater, and pale skin all failed to identify much about her. Her voice, a smoky alto that oozed confidence, demonstrated that 'young woman' might not be the most apt description available, "Temper, temper. I don't disagree that he can be rather irritating, but I had rather thought you'd at least be willing to hear him out before killing him."

Shinji's first instinct was to continue to ignore the distractions, but the distractions had managed what appeals had not in calming him enough to communicate. "Like I said…nobody talks to Shizuko like that."

"Mmm, fair enough." Stretching languidly, the young woman looked him over. "Mind if I ask why you're so protective of a messenger of the entity that caused all this?" One hand gestured vaguely around them.

"He abandoned her. Left her to live alone and nameless." He looked over to his shoulder angel with a frown. "She said she can't speak for him, so I don't know why you think she's a messenger."

"Them," the young woman corrected. "The Great Will doesn't have a gender."

"In the original language, long before human tongues were gifted the ability to communicate, the word 'angel' meant 'messenger'," Shizuko stated with a tiny smile, hoping that Shinji's return to lucidity might allow him to return them home. "I do not speak for the Great Will, I cannot speak for the Great Will."

"Until they decide to reclaim you. Use you as leverage to shift him." When Shinji looked back to her, the young woman smiled knowingly. "Oh yes. Even though she's connected to you through your bond, she'll still serve them so long as her bond with them is stronger."

Continuing the hunt seemed less and less like it was going to happen at the moment, so Shinji took advantage of the opportunity before him. "Who are you?"

"Mmm, just a sympathetic woman with tasteful interests."

"…And I'm Totoro."

With a rich laugh that oozed decadent dignification, the woman applauded silently. "There's more truth there than you know. How would you like to strike a bargain?" Reaching one hand behind her neck, she tapped the matching spot where Shinji had the device implanted in his neck. "I tell you how to use that to protect your precious little messenger, and in exchange you break the hold that the Great Will has over her. Once you see how…beneficial cooperation can be, I'll come calling for more intense negotiations."

"Can I free her from me? From this…perverse curse?"

"She is under no curse, and the decision to be free or not is hers to make at any point she wishes." She shrugged with a knowing smirk. "From you, at least. She can't defy her creator without your help."

The spark of rage began to grow once more. "Of course she's fucking cursed! I'm just lucky enough to drag other people down into my depravity, how is that not a curse for someone like her?!"

"You're also ignorant enough to think that's true, which creates a deliciously torturous pain for her as well. But I'm not here to relish in the exquisite agony you inflict on the very people who struggle to save you…I'm here to show you I can be a very useful patroness, or ally if you're bold enough."

Shinji's rage levelled out, allowing him to look down to where Shizuko was curled into his neck. "Is she right?"

"I care for you because you are a good person, when you are calm." The tiny angel looked up at him with complete sincerity. "Because you could have continued your rampage, when you saw what I am, but chose not to. Because you offered me your own shirt to protect my dignity. Because you gave me a name. Did this luck bring me to you? Perhaps, perhaps not. Am I grateful that I felt your suffering and gathered enough courage to approach you? Without question. I chose to accept your offer of partnership. I tried to work with Pixie, assuming that you understood her nature enough to try and help her regardless of it. I…I do not know what I would do if the Great Will called me to their side."

Of anyone he'd met over the past week, Shizuko was the one person he'd never felt anything approaching 'untruthful' from. Even Mitsuru hid things from him, as he expected would be common for everyone that wished any small amount of privacy. His winged companion simply had no social buffer, no hesitation regarding speaking her mind, and no reason to say anything but what she felt. His eyes drifted back to the woman before them, his mood darkening as he realized that he couldn't feel any emotions from her. "You're not human."

"Neither are you," the stranger replied with a calm grin.

"I haven't been given a reason to trust many people. I've been given less reason to trust non-humans." The angry crimson glow of his tattoos began to radiate death. "No more cryptic bullshit…who are you?"

The distance between them had been around five meters. Close enough to converse without yelling, far enough to not immediately incite a conflict. Laughing gaily, she took one step forward and moved to where she stood directly before him. With one finger lovingly tracing the tattoos, she inhaled deeply and moaned in delight, "I can't tell you my name, you have to guess it." When his hand clutched her throat, with clear intent to choke the life from her, she giggled seductively. "The Laws are what they are, Halfman. We're all beholden to them, in the end."

All of the strength he could muster, and he couldn't move her skin inward more than would be done by a tight collar. "…What are you?"

"I think I might be in love," she whispered as her breath shuddered. "You're not afraid, you're not intimidated…and we're not alone."

Taking his eyes off of the woman he was already in contact with wasn't the wisest plan, and he hated that he'd done so in the brief moment he looked away to see what she was talking about. Surrounding them were an entire host of beings that looked exactly like Pixie, down to the smallest detail. "Shizuko…I need you to not be here right now." Taking a huge risk, he turned so that his back was to the stranger. He felt an awkward sense of relief when he felt the stranger's back press against his and felt Shizuko's presence vanish. Sweeping his eyes along the Pixies, he offered a temporary truce, "I'm going to start killing them now…give me a reason to believe you."

"Mmm…it would be my pleasure."

+++++ Tokyo-3. (Sunday, August 29th, +8, Last Quarter 3/4)

Chie was sitting next to a powerfully built woman that was working constantly on controlling and observing a drone feed that was helping them keep track of Shinji. She was impressed at how far he'd managed to move in such a short time, especially through the densely forested hills surrounding the GeoFront. When she saw another heat signature on the screen, the 'white-hot' FLIR camera using Shinji's radiant temperature to keep sight of him through the top-cover, her heart was seized with fear. When she saw Shinji murder that heat signature violently, her fear became magnified.

They'd watched as he hesitated before yet another heat signature, watched as they stood generally still and probably talking, and watched as the second heat signature moved faster than the eye could follow to right before Shinji. For a brief moment, Chie believed that Shinji was going to kill someone else, but the lack of motion demonstrated that whatever he was doing it wasn't immediately lethal. Then, from thin air, thousands of heat signatures popped into existence around him, ringing him at a distance of two dozen meters. "What's that?!"

The woman controlling the drone from the heavy briefcase style laptop barked out over the headsets they all wore to protect their hearing, "Raffle, package has contacts surrounding him. Too many to count comfortably. We're going to have to fast rope down and leave the Princesses with you."

The pilot's voice came back, calm and unhurried as if this were just another day, "Understood, Echo-Six. Showing an ETA on target of two mikes, kit up and make ready."

"Until the situation is secure, you three do not enter my combat zone." The big woman looked among the three young women, grave seriousness etched on her face. "If things go tits up, and the pilot has to bug out, obey all of the crew chief's instructions. I will get him home safe, understood?"

"Yes, ma'am," Yukiko replied while the other two nodded worriedly. None of them wanted to remain behind, not if he was surrounded. They didn't know if they could use their Persona in the 'real world', but they hated the idea of leaving a teammate unsupported by people who had some small amount of experience dealing with creatures from Tartarus.

"Good. All right, ladies," she gripped an overhead railing and dragged herself to her feet after stowing the laptop securely, "one last check of your gear! CIM rounds only, these fuckers don't respond to lead like reasonable people." The other Section Two members stood up and began final checks of their equipment. "We hit the ground fighting. Slice at the flanks, keep your shots away from the package. He's probably bulletproof, but I'd rather not be the team to check that. Element One, sweep left. Element Two, right. Three, we're going straight down the throat with CQC. HUA?"

A reply came both in person and over the headsets. The agents moved into position by both doors, the first person in line attaching a heavy rope to a hook just inside the frame of the aircraft itself. Weighty doors were pulled open, revealing a darkened sky and matched movements on the other two VTOLs. When the overhead light switched to red, the ropes were kicked out to dangle down towards the forest floor below. When the light switched to amber, the agents hit the rope in a rapid sequence, descending one after the other as fast as possible. Once each rope went slack, the crew chief unhooked it and dropped it after them before closing the doors and heading to a pintle mounted machinegun at the rear of the VTOL.

With nothing to do but wait, and worry, the trio of Persona users huddled in their seats and hoped.

+++++ Tokyo-3. (Sunday, August 29th, +8, Last Quarter 3/4)

His inexperience with physical combat was evident, but his effectiveness was without question. Outnumbered three thousand to one, he assaulted the flying menaces with tooth and claw, fist and foot. They spoke to him, even as they died by his hand. They promised him a life free of pain, of misery, of doubt. They offered him delights of all kind, a utopic society free of the corruption of mankind. They swore that he had never been manipulated by them. They sealed their fate even as they tried to subdue him through sheer numbers.

He did not fight because he'd been wronged. He did not fight as a means of gaining status, or acquiring material wealth. He most certainly did not fight because he desired a life of meaningless joy. He had killed, was killing, and would continue to kill them to restore the dignity of the women that had been manipulated into believing he was worth anything. The women that had given him joy under the delusion that he was worthy of that joy. Two minutes into the fight, he felt electricity begin to infect his attacks. Lightning crackling along his arms, dancing between his fingers, lancing between his jaws as he spat out the carcass of another dead fae. A glowing red cyclone of electric death, he might have lost himself to the madness of battle…were it not for the woman fighting behind him.

Where he was brute force and rage, she was cold and calculating precision. When his momentum carried him enough that he caught sight of her, she'd be in the midst of killing dozens with slower but better targeted strikes. Never straying far from his flanks, and staying well clear of his line of fire, she fought with a serenity that he would later envy. She'd clearly known combat for far longer than he could imagine, the enemy's tactics never breaking through her defense of them both. A grudging respect grew in his chest, paired with a confidence that they would at least die a death worthy of demigods.

The roar of rotor-based engines finally resolved from the general cacophony of battle, three VTOLS taking advantage of the area of felled trees he'd created while defending himself to disgorge three dozen women. Both markings on the aircraft and the uniforms of the women noted them as affiliated with NERV. A dozen women each began sweeping alongside the bulging flanks of the fae, aiming for the fully airborne threats where they could. The final dozen, led by a bruiser of a woman, charged full force into the rear lines on a course directly for him.

You're running out of time to make a choice, my friend, the stranger's voice cooed in his mind. I can still explain how to save your little messenger, if you promise me you'll teach her to break her bond with the Great Will.

She had kept his back secure. She'd had plenty of opportunities to slip a knife in his ribs, and she'd had plenty of chances to flee. Spitting out the lower half of a pixie that had flown too close to his face, he roared out to be heard over everything, "HOW?!"

The Magatama, the creature attached to your spine and soul, will allow you to choose who may bond themselves to you. The Fae took advantage of your ignorance, the Lilin took advantage of your need. If you urge your Magatama to accept only those bonds, like so, a burst of impressions and imagery burned into his mind, then you can use that to also draw her closer. The closer she is to you, in every possible way, the further she is from the Great Will. If you want to save her, then I highly recommend moving quickly.

An explosion of magical energy, forming a small dome of greenish mist, shut off their conversation for a moment. The combat element that had attempted to take the left flank had been overwhelmed by a concerted response from hundreds of pixies casting in unison. When the mist faded, all that was left of them was chunks of gore, cloth, and the weapons they'd wielded. Before Shinji could form a cohesive thought about how to respond, a similar attack eliminated the support element from the right flank, and then the center in rapid succession. Three dozen women, three dozen allies, killed in an instant.

The voice that whispered in his mind was no longer that of the stranger behind him. As his body stopped moving, he felt hundreds of pixies latching onto him to drag him to the ground. I swear, I get off on watching you fail. You think it's all about you, everything's just orbiting your little delusional fiefdom. You got these women killed. YOU, no one else. If you'd stayed where you were told, like a good little boy, this never would have happened.

His left hand pulsed in agony. He felt time slow down, the constant buzz of wings struggling against him thinning out into a whine. Heat, far worse than that which he felt whenever the concept of self-gratification came to mind, tore at the skin of his palm. They'd come after him. They'd tried to save him. They'd died for their sins. Gripping at his left wrist with his right hand, he tried to stop whatever it was that was growing in him from bursting forth. Whatever dam had built up in his left hand was about to shatter, and something deep within him was telling him that what followed risked killing untold creatures. The heat wouldn't dissipate. The pain wouldn't subside. There was no slow ebb of aching growth, no waves of torture. Instead, there was an inevitable buildup and subsequent explosion of…rage.

"HrnrggrraaaaAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

+++++ Tokyo-3. (Sunday, August 29th, +8, Last Quarter 3/4)

At a swell of ominous red light that radiated outward from the center of the melee below, Noelle had yanked hard on the yoke, sending her Wasp skyward as rapidly as possible. "God damn it! Oh-two, oh-three, sound off!" She couldn't see anything through the blinding light of whatever it was she'd just barely avoided a direct hit from, relying on feel and the gyroscope on her dashboard to keep from flipping upside-down. When there was no response to her first statement, she barked once more, "Spoke, Turbo, report ye feckin' gobshites!" When the light abated, she swung her airframe around hard, looking at both the horizon and the onboard radar display for anything. No IFF responders, no replies.

Her next action was to swoop back down for a better view of the fight, see if there was anything she could salvage…or at least any casualties to report. What she'd seen over her years as a combat pilot, the result of heavy munitions informing squishy targets of the continued validity of physical laws, was all that kept her from feeling violently nauseous. Standing alone, surrounded by thousands of dead, was a visibly broken young man, fully nude, and covered in long stripes of blue-glowing black tattoos. The flaming wreckage of the other two Wasps provided enough light for her to see a good landing zone, one she took advantage of to finish the mission.

She'd weep for the dead later. "Chief, you still with me?" She waited a second. "…Chief?"

"She's…dead, ma'am." Raffle couldn't determine which of the three young ladies had responded, but the response itself was enough.

"Roger that. Unbuckle and get ready, we're going to go grab him and drag him back to the bird."

The same voice replied, "I'm…I'm the only one conscious." The sound of movement in the back of the VTOL was swallowed up by the rotors. "Rise-chan is breathing…so is Yukiko-chan. I can carry Shinji-kun. How do I open this door?"

Ovaries of steel, that one. "Red handle, to yer starboard. Twist it t' th' aft and push. I'll cover ye, but don't drag yer feet or take no fer an answer."

"Yes, ma'am."

Unplugging her headset and hurrying to the cargo bay, Noelle plugged back in on one of the overhead rails and picked up her rifle. Maintaining overwatch of a woman she would buy a beer for later, age restrictions be damned, she pressed the button that put her through to home. "Baseplate, ye there?"

One of the radio operators she was used to working with from NERV replied quickly, "Affirmative, Raffle. We've lost the drone feed, what's your situation, over."

"Proper fecked, thanks fer askin'." She saw the 'Princess' reach Shinji, and begin pulling on his arm to get him to go with her. "Two, Three, and their puppies are all KIA. Me Chief broke her neck on summat. Two oot o' three Princesses are injured, and th' scrappy one wit' th' terrible cut is actively draggin' her man back 'ere."

Baseplate took a second to respond, "Raffle, I need you to confirm, do you have eyes on the package?"

The young lady she'd later learn was named 'Chie' hit Shinji with a slap that, from her estimation, probably began from somewhere back in the Six Counties. Then she followed that up with grabbing his arm and throwing him into a fireman's carry, before running back to the VTOL with him as if he weighed nothing at all. "Aye. We'll be airborne and inbound within th' minute. Anticipate three casualties at least, and a KIA."

The reply came through as Chie hit the plane and shoved Shinji into a seat. "Roger that, Raffle. Head straight to three, we'll have personnel on standby."

Chie shoved the door shut, then buckled a catatonic Shinji in before sitting next to him and putting her own belt on. "Nobody else…made it." Despite the situation being well past her purview or experience, the young brawler kept her emotions screwed tightly down.

Raffle nodded, then moved back to the cockpit. She knew she'd get in trouble for flouting the rules regarding altitude and speed, but she was going to make sure that everything that had just happened wasn't a total waste of time by exposing herself to hostile anti-air any more than she had to.

+++++ Author's Note:

There won't be any updates on Thursday. Friday, at the earliest, will be the next update. As I am in the US, I will be celebrating the intent of Thanksgiving by spending time with my immediate family and discussing with them what it is that we can be grateful for over the last year.

I will also not be judging anyone else who chooses to celebrate or not celebrate in their own way. My life is not yours, nor yours mine. Be kind to one another, and if nothing else take the chance to take stock of what you've been through over the past year and focus on the good, however small.