Co-written with Monarch Actual (u/2372441/)

You can view this work with illustrations on Ao3 (/users/Bravura_Atma/)


Don't cry, any more, because now there is a person looking for you

Dying to see you


Morgan's face soured at that. "Son of a bitch."

He would have held it in, but that was a secondary concern. Somehow, someway, other than these space time fabric tears or whatever they were, the two had been transported 14 years into the past, or an alternate past that wasn't their own. Crossing his arms, his eyes settled on Noa, a little bit harder than before.

"We're both Federation aligned as far as I'm concerned. She's with me. That brings me to my own question. If we're the second person to tell you, then who was the first?" It seemed the universe was out to fuck with people today. Someone else had suffered the same fate as they had, and recently enough that it had Noa on edge. Then again, even the two of them were enough to put someone on edge, especially with two advanced, unknown Gundam types being central to at least one of the incidents.

"Someone who was very lost. We'll leave it at that." Noa cautioned. Morgan would not get his answer, at least not now. Igarashi shifted uncomfortably.

"Is there a way we can… get back?" She asked.

"We're unsure." Mass spoke next, brushing her hair aside. "These… rifts seem to be random, there's no patterns we've been able to identify with the lights. So we're unsure. I would caution against intentionally entering one of these lights – for now."

"Uncuff them," Noa waved a hand to the nearby officers. John felt the pressure from his back and shoulders ease as his bonds were unlocked.

"Where did you come from?" He asked the pair next.

Pulling his arms forward and stretching them after the cuffs were removed, he rubbed at his wrists. "We came from U.C. 102. It's been about six years since the third Neo Zeon War. Plenty has changed since U.C. 0088." Crossing his arms again, he looked over Mass. He would likely be able to speak with her after this was over to ease the pressure that had built up in his skull.

"Judging by how much you know about this, and how quick you were to come to the conclusion you did, you seem to be more comfortable with this than I would be by far."

"It seems to be happening all around space. Not just in our colonies, but on Earth as well." Mass said, as Igarashi rolled one of her shoulders. "Some of our own are missing... not unlike you, I'm guessing."

It was happening elsewhere? Things just kept piling up on this rollercoaster ride from hell, but what could they do short of flying into another one of those lights and getting put into possibly an even worse position.

Noa crossed his arms. "I think the best course of action is for you to stay with the Nahel Argama for now. We can repair your suits to the best of our abilities and perhaps we can get to the bottom of why this... time traveling is happening."

"Fair enough. Not like we have much of a choice. We don't have the endurance to make it to Earth on our own anyway. I guess you're stuck with us for now." Turning to Igarashi, John caught her eye. "What do you think? You're not exactly military any more, so where do you stand in this? Are you a contractor or a soldier?"

She looked at him sidelong once again. "Contractor, technically, but no way to prove it since I wouldn't be in their database. I don't know what would happen if I showed up at an Anaheim base in our situation." she put her hand to her chin, brow wrinkling. "It's weird. What if we run into our younger selves or something."

John didn't have an answer to that, turning back to Noa. "Where are we now, then?

"Currently an hour out from Side 3, course plotted for Side 5."

"How long have these rifts been going on, exactly? To come to these conclusions has to have taken some time. How many have been experienced?" His mind wandered back to WOLF and the damage on their suits. Whether they could fix the armor damage or not was a non-issue, but if any internals had been damaged, that was a different story. His shield had been heavily damaged, and his beam rifle was ruined as well. All that was left of the starting weaponry was the low-power head and wrist vulcans and the fin funnels, something he was far from interested in using for the time being.

"Two years now." Mass sat across from them, sliding a clipboard she was holding into her lap. "Though one of the individuals who came through these rifts informed us of what was happening. So we weren't alone on that front."

"I take it this is the first time you've encountered this," Noa questioned. "We were heading out from the colonies to investigate some unusual activity in an old shoal zone. We're hoping to find some answers there."

John grit his teeth, the muscles in his jaw and temple standing out easily as he closed his eyes. Two years? One of the individuals? How many had come through these portals and how widespread was it? "It is. First time anything like it has happened ever, far as I know, but yeah, our first time seeing it in particular. Does this unusual activity look like anything that's happened in the past? Seems like someone else knew about it if that cruiser you were duking it out with managed to intercept you."

"We're unsure if that's true, but it's a good estimation anyway," Noa admitted, parting his hands to gesture with his fingers. "Haman Kharn's always been strange, but newtypes seem to be able to detect the rifts just before they happen. She's the current head of Zeon if you skipped your history lessons." Noa paused for a moment, before going on. "I trust you won't do anything stupid on my ship, so I can allow you both to grab a bite to eat and rest before we reach Side 5." The CO told them, getting back to his feet.

Of course he knew about Haman Kharn. She was only on the same level as the Red Comet himself in some ways, least of all being a Neo Zeon leadership figure. That was the standard curriculum for mobile suit pilots anyway at this point. Regardless, he went on. "Your trust won't be misplaced. I'll get some food, then head to the hangar and make heads or tails of my machine."

He turned his head to Mass, his tone easing off a bit. "As the medical officer, you're the first person I wanted to see. I need some painkillers, something to dull this headache I have forming." Turning around, he gestured to the neural interface port at the base of his skull, about an inch tall and three inches wide, with two circular connectors and a longer rectangular connector port with multiple pin holes in it for the control bus to connect to his body.

"I…" Mass stood and leaned over to peek at the port with narrowed eyes. "I can help you, follow me."

"I'm going to the mess hall." Igarashi got to her feet. "I need a coffee after all this. Then I'm probably going to check on my suit as well." She told John, before drifting off.

"Yeah, keep her company for me, would ya?" He asked as Igarashi left. He was referring to WOLF, of course, but anybody out of the loop would think he was just talking about the Starburst. Pilots had long referred to their craft as feminine, but WOLF had already beat him to the punch in that respect.

Mass instead moved down a different hall – guiding the Starburst's pilot to a small medical bay. Inside, there were actually two children, one was a boy in a flat cap who was probably about ten years old, the other was a girl with short blond locks. She looked a bit younger.

"Out," Mass barked at the pair of children, who left without a fuss, though the boy gave Sayla a backward glance. The medic went to a cabinet and started to scan through its contents.

"I've never seen anything so desperate." She told him in an even voice, pointing to the base of her own skull. "The port on the back of your neck."

"Desperate? Not exactly. I'm an Oldtype, and the designers wanted to figure out a way for Oldtypes to interface with psycommu systems in case of any further Newtype rebellions. The biggest conflicts in recent history have always had Newtypes at their hearts, and their skills and power make them natural aces." He shrugged. "I volunteered for it anyway. People are tired of these conflicts flaring up and causing trouble, asteroids or colonies being dropped on Earth and ruining it more than it already is."

"Still?" Sayla tossed him a small bottle of pills with a dry rattle, she had a small, sardonic smirk on her features. "I suppose it is, since there's still Zeon wars." She let out a small 'tch' and glided to another cabinet. "Take one of the one I just gave you, and one of these." She tossed him another smaller bottle – at least the names on them seemed familiar; ibuprophen and carisoprodol. "One's a painkiller and one is a muscle relaxant. It'll help you for later."

"You're the doc, doctor's orders and all that." Unscrewing the lid, he quickly tossed one of each into his mouth, swallowing them without fanfare before handing the bottles back to her. "Don't think I'll need them long term, side effect of the funnel testing. Not quite used to it just yet." Watching her catch the bottles and put them away once more, he went on. "You're not gonna baby me too much, are you? I know how these things usually go. The hunky pilot comes in, the medical doctor takes care of them, they fall in love..." He chuckled a little bit, happy to finally feel a little bit of the stress easing off. "I'm only teasing, don't report me to Captain Noa."

She lifted her icy gaze to him and smirked again… there was something so very piercing about the way she just fixed other people with her stare. "Do I look like the type of person to fall for that twice?" She asked him, though there were no tones to her voice. "That's not a challenge." She added, after a beat.

He snorted, raising an eyebrow. "Twice, huh? I'm an innovator, y'know, not one to rehash what's already been done. Don't worry, I won't bother you too much except to further the beginnings of a painkiller addiction." His darker humor was showing through, now that he was away from the militarized confines of a mobile suit on a test run.

"I appreciate it if that's the case." Sayla admitted. She stuck her clipboard to a hook on the wall and latched it in, so that it wouldn't float away. "I tend to be here or in the hangar if you need further assistance. And I recommend that you also grab at least a drink and a bite to eat, sooner rather than later."

He nodded, holding his hand up in farewell. "Thanks for the help, doc. I'll come see you if I get a booboo," he called over his shoulder, turning and grabbing one of the conveyor handles that would take him through the ship. He hadn't been on the Nahel Argama in particular, but it was easy enough to find his way, and within a few minutes, he had found the mess hall. Sliding in and searching for his partner, he couldn't find her. She must have grabbed her food and booked it. With little else to do, he grabbed one of the ration packs and left as soon as he'd come in, making his way back to the hangar to get his eyes on the Starburst once again. It remained where he had left it for the most part, but it had been moved to sit a bit more out of the way, with just enough room for other mobile suits to get in and out of the recovery corridor.

He got his answer to where Igarashi had gone when he returned to the hangar - her legs were sticking out of the Silver Bullet's cockpit. Nearby, the Qubeley lay under a tangle of cables with a team around it. It looked like they were still trying to extract the pilot. Oddly enough, a much smaller children's toy was floating near the Starburst. He'd recognize a haro - often in the arms of kids he'd see in civilian spaceports. It was orbiting the Gundam's head, and WOLF seemed to be following it to the best of her ability. He frowned as he saw the Gundam's head moving. So much for staying undercover, he thought. WOLF was supposed to stay hidden, not watch a child's toy. The shield on its left arm had already come down on a hoist, somewhere in one of the maintenance bays being fixed one way or another, and there was no beam rifle replacement that was a natural for it, but one could be used from another mobile suit if need be.

Grunting, he pushed off the floor in the zero gravity bay and launched himself up towards the Starburst's cockpit block, where the cockpit had been shut behind him when he left. He poked his head up a bit to look into the Gundam's eye cameras, catching it's attention with a cocked eyebrow and a questioning look. When the cockpit opened, he slid inside of it, making sure to close it behind him.

Reattaching the neural interface cable directly to the port on his head, he skipped the helmet entirely. It was the same port, just a way to interface with the helmet on or not. He felt like a glass of ice water had been poured into his mind, and he shuddered as it happened again, bringing back a flash of the same pain behind his eyes, but it dissipated almost immediately. "I thought I told you to keep yourself hidden, WOLF. Nobody on here knows about you yet and I don't need people snooping and trying to find out what makes you tick. Not yet, at least. Why's the Haro floating around here anyway?"

The cameras showed that WOLF had stopped looking back and forth at the haro, and the children's toy floated away. The haro flapped two circular panels on its head to do so. Thankfully if anyone did notice the movement, most of the mechanics were keeping their distance from the Starburst.

"Sorry." WOLF's avatar looked appropriately scolded, even making a bit-crushed whining sound, ears and tail down. "We were talking."

He felt bad as soon as he saw the avatar's reaction, and he pinched the bridge of his nose. "No, it's-" He grunted. "It's fine, just try not to get found out yet. I have no idea how they'll react but it can't be any worse than what's already happened." Sitting back in the pilot's seat, the commander crossed his arms, sinking back against the material and closing his eyes for a moment. "What were you talking about?" He asked, his tone more curious than anything now.

"Haro was informing me of other Gundam units on the vessel. I was told only part of the ZZ is here." She told him, highlighting a pair of nearby mobile suits - a gold coloured one and the disembodied legs of the Double Zeta. "I was curious as I saw the detached legs across the hangar. Apparently the top half as well as the ZZ's pilots went missing inside a tear in space time."

That got his attention, and when he glanced over, he realized that she was right. "Looks like you ended up getting the information about as quickly as we did. Saves me the trouble of having to explain it all back. Doesn't make sense to me yet, but..." He shrugged again. "Your new friend tell you anything else?" Seeing the ZZ Gundam was a blast from the past. Like the others that came before and after, it was iconic, and he realized how nice it would have been to see the full thing, but that wasn't possible it seemed. There was no telling how many different people and mobile suits had been displaced by these space time tears. He didn't quite remember the other's name, but he had seen it before, now that he thought about it. It reminded him of the Delta Plus that was used during the Laplace Incident.

"There is an unusually high presence of newtype brainwaves on the vessel." WOLF noted, her avatar looking around. "I wish to find the source, but will be unable to without a smaller chassis. Haro is too rudimentary to detect brain waves and had no answer to that query."

"You can sense Newtype brainwaves? That's a first. I don't see you being able to explore on your own though, not in the Starburst." He moved closer to the avatar, leaning forward and putting his elbows against his knees to keep himself propped up. "I figure you've got a solution to that, though. Am I at least somewhat right?"

"I do not, outside of asking you to investigate to sate my own curiosity." The AI told him. "You also possibly display some Newtype brainwaves, but the output is very low. However, readings of your cognitive abilities spiked when engaging the Qubeley temporarily. I was given sensors to detect Newtype activity outside of the port that connects us as an early warning system."

"I'll have to do some snooping then, I guess." That was far from what he wanted to do, but it would answer a few questions of his own with or without Noa's explanations, and there was no telling when those would come. The Newtype brainwaves were certainly new though, catching his attention. "I thought they put this interface port in my head because I was confirmed to not have Newtype capabilities. How is it that they're registering now, and what do you mean it spiked during the fight with the Qubeley?"

"Unsure. Prolonged time in space has shown to increase newtype brainwave activity. Strong newtypes can generate a field of energy. I recorded the same but on a much, much smaller scale. However, other readings show that using an interface such as the one you have to this Gundam can also temporarily increase oldtype to newtype-like abilities. My data on all of this is inconclusive and could be incorrect." WOLF admitted, her avatar laying down.

A comm system opened suddenly, revealing May. "How's it going over there?" May asked, now fully seated in the Silver Bullet.

"Good enough. WOLF found out that half the ZZ Gundam is onboard, The other half and its pilot are missing, apparently, and there are several Newtypes on board that I'll have to track down for her. What about you? What's the status on the Silver Bullet?"

"We're fine." She replied. She appeared on his UI, despite the fact that they were a few feet away. Outside of her helmet, she had pulled on a pair of goggles with a very yellow tint to the lenses. "Just some superficial damage from the funnels. I'm concerned about this whole thing, like what if our suits get really messed up. Would these folks even be able to fix it?"

He shrugged, having thought about the same question but unable to come to an actual answer. "No clue. Tech is more than a little outdated with the advent of the full on psycommu that got built up over what they have now. We take anything more than superficial damage, we're gonna be up shit creek without a canoe. I'd say as of right now, we're working off of the assumption that any major damage we take is gonna be permanent, possibly enough to completely take us out of action. That's not to say anything about maintenance either. We can do everything right and something might just break on its own."

It was a thought he barely wanted to consider. The Starburst and Silver Bullet were both leagues ahead of anything that was currently in space or on land. Not even the ZZ fully assembled would be capable of matching their power. But with him still learning the controls and how to properly use the funnels, his combat capability was far lower than it should be. That was nothing to say about May and the Silver Bullet. She was more than capable, but it wasn't a true Gundam.

"What will you do now?" WOLF asked.

"We're just going to stick with the crew here for now. We don't really have a means of getting back to where we're supposed to be - at least not safely. Londo Bell isn't a thing yet." May explained. She stopped to scratch the side of her head. "And these guys are investigating things anyway... so we may as well help out and probably find our way home that way."

A grunt of agreement came from John. It was better than trying to figure things out on their own, and it would keep them functioning at least for now. "We'll figure out who the Newtypes are and see what else we can find out over the next few days. While we do that, you can do a deeper diagnostic and figure out what caused that power drop when we were transported. Deal?" He asked, looking up at the wolf avatar with a quirked eyebrow.

"Agreed." The avatar nodded, then walked 'offscreen'. Moments after a diagnostics box popped into the UI, showing a complicated scrambling of code and terms that scrolled too quickly for John to really read. And it didn't look like she was going to be finished anytime soon.

With WOLF disappearing and being left to her own devices, he looked back at May's comm box. "I'd set your own to run, figure out what happened on your end. After that, I figure we can seal these things back up for the time being and..." He shrugged again. "I guess search for the other people on the ship, figure out who's here that shouldn't be here."

"Sure." She shrugged, typing on one of the consoles in her cockpit. "I wanted to ask Sayla Mass more questions, myself, but not tip her off... I heard she was one of the crew members of the original White Base, but in our time she sort of vanished after that operation and made herself untrackable. And I have a few questions about Bright Noa as well, mostly on Neo Zeon. I'm not sure if Zeon is capable enough for time travel." She didn't wait for a response and instead slid out of the doors to her mobile suit, sealing it up when she exited.

He followed her out, sealing up the Starburst's cockpit, and floated over until he was close enough they could talk quietly. "I doubt anybody has the tech to do it purposely. Sounds like the whole thing is a bunch of freak accidents. No cause, no set up, no nothing except for complete randomness. If you wanna question them and figure out more, I'll hunt down the Newtypes. We'll meet back here in a bit, wait for the other. Not like there's much else to do."

"Right." She nodded to him, unfastening the top of her suit. She wore a simple t-shirt underneath. "Well, good luck on... whatever your computer girlfriend wants you to do." She said with a small, but toothy grin, before kicking off from the floor to go back to the elevators to the rest of the ship.

He rolled his eyes, giving her a pointed look. "Yeah, laugh it up. They say don't wear sunglasses inside, y'know," he pointed out her goggles, watching her float away.

Now that his conversational partners were gone, he felt something. Almost as soon as he unplugged from the Starburst, John could sense something - like a buzzing feeling, deep within the ship. But it was fading quickly. He frowned, filing it away for later to ask WOLF about when he returned.

For now, though, he was on his own again. A new ship, new people, it was like new deployment orders all over again but with literally none of his possessions or any idea of what to do besides follow people around with a history book in one arm.

The hangar didn't have any answers for him, mechanics milling about and tending to mobile suits and other shipwide work. But when he moved further into the ship, the feeling returned again. In a way it was like dowsing, or following radar - he'd move toward the combat bridge, and the sensation faded. With that same feeling growing and returning as he made his way through the ship, he got more and more irritated with it, confusion filling his mind until he figured out how to track it down. The crew quarters was where it grew stronger until it felt like something was trying to pry his skull open. It wasn't painful, but it was upsetting in more than one way, and he nearly backed off, but his curiosity got the best of him and he shook his head as he closed in on it.

He'd spot a younger woman with long, black hair and straight cut bangs moving between rooms - and he'd found the source of the feeling with her. She wasn't generating it, but it was in the room she had entered. She kept the door unlocked, but not open. When John neared, the feeling reached a plateau; it felt like being near whatever was in that room was like a deep violation, like an invisible hand that pried its fingers deep into his brain. The woman who entered the room and every other crew member around him didn't seem to be disturbed.

Without knocking, John opened the door and moved inside the room, eyes immediately finding the person he'd been tracking. "You, I'm sorry, I don't-" A grunt as he shuddered against the feeling that was piercing his mind. "I don't know your name. Do you feel that?" He didn't know how to explain it, but merely held his hand up and waved it around, his words failing him.

She whipped around, startled "Ah! I'm Fa, but," She perked up in surprise when he walked into the room. "I don't know what you're talking about." It was a pretty typical room for crew members, there were two single beds, an attached small bathroom, a kitchenette and a closet.

Tucked into one of the beds was a person, and that was causing the feeling. It was a younger figure, like Fa (who looked barely out of her teenage years) but all John could see was a shock of teal hair and eyes poking out from under a bedspread. But those eyes were wide and unblinking, focused on nothing. There was no light, or real colour to the irises. Yet... After a moment the figure's gaze re-focused onto John. Fa didn't seem to notice.

He realized he had stumbled into what was essentially a private dorm room, and his embarrassment rose to eclipse the feeling he had, and he was just starting to apologize when he glanced over at the other woman tucked into the bed and locked eyes with her. Suddenly, the feeling of fingers pressing into his mind was like a ripping sensation, and his eyes squeezed shut again, and he nearly backed out of the room but ended up leaning against the bulkhead.

"It's her," he managed to growl out through gritted teeth. Something about her was causing this, but nobody else noticed. Nobody but him. Was this the Newtype that WOLF was talking about?

No, it couldn't be. Plenty of Newtypes had been around him and none had ever exhibited such an intense aura, not even immediately after the augmentation to implant his neural interface. His hand came up, pressing the base of his palm against his left eye and keeping the right one barely open. "Who are you?"

He'd suddenly find a pair of hands gripping his collar and a white hot rage engulfed him. The figure had jumped from the bed like a wild animal, flinging the blanket in their wake. What he had incorrectly assessed as a girl was actually a young man - though Fa screaming "Kamille!" in alarm didn't help.

She impotently grabbed Kamille by his shoulders, trying to pull him off of John. His anger was palpable, pressing down and in on him. It was as if he'd used the funnels for days; an instant, a white hot supernova of violence and mania. Kamille's frenzied gaze held John's own for only a few seconds before his grip slackened and he slumped, eyes blank. The newtype's animosity felt like it was clinging to Morgan's body, but the feeling was much less intense after the teen seemed to have fainted.

"Who are you?!" Fa demanded the Starburst's pilot, hefting Kamille's body to her own so that he didn't just bounce around the room from his leftover inertia.

His will to fight off whoever had grabbed at his collar was sapped, taken by the force pressing down on him, the white hot intensity of a knife in his mind nearly had him black out, and his eyes forced themselves closed against his will. Both hands came to his eyes, pressing against them in an attempt at relieving the pressure that was overwhelming against the interior of his skull. The mild discomfort of using the funnels was nothing compared to this, a tidal wave of pain and what felt like anger, rage, but none of it his. It was almost cloying in a way, as if it had been humidity on a hot day, but infinitely worse. When he was released by whoever attacked him, he was left to float backwards, inadvertently curling into a ball to try and relieve the pain that still assaulted him, feeling as if he might throw up at any moment. Her question fell on deaf ears, no response coming from the older pilot who had been doubled over by the assault. All that came from him was a groan, one forced out in a futile attempt to stop the pain. He wanted to scream, to try and expel it in any way he could.

He'd dully be aware of Fa stepping over him and calling for Sayla. And it was hard to stay conscious and aware in the wake of what had happened to him. But following that was a sudden calm. Like when he had approached the Qubeley, he was plunged into a void where he could only hear himself; his breathing, his heartbeat.

But he wasn't alone again, and that shifting feeling had taken a form. It was a wolf, standing in the void with him. It consisted of glowing, geometric shapes and two dark voids for eyes. It was exactly like WOLF's avatar, but it was now tangible - he could reach out and touch her. "What... happened?" She asked.

The interior of the ship, the woman who had questioned him, her voice calling for Sayla or anybody else who would listen, all seemed to fade out. Everything went black around him and left him in that hypersensitive void that had afflicted him during the start of the Qubeley encounter, where he'd nearly been hit by the opening beam attack. His heartbeat thundered in his ears, and the gurgle and squelch of other organs that worked even while he was taken to wherever this place was. The powerful feeling that had descended on his mind was gone, thankfully, and he felt himself able to think once more, even if he was struggling to hear it over his organs being loud and obnoxious. The avatar that had appeared in front of him seemed to look him over, silent despite the movement it made. There was no panting, no howling or growling, nothing but the voice that sounded from it. It didn't even have eyes he could look into, but the familiar tone was somewhat comforting, if unexpected.

"...WOLF? I don't… I don't know. Where are we?" He was still curled into a ball, floating in the void, but he extracted himself from it, his arms and legs extending, and he reached out to put his hand against the wolf form's snout, almost recoiling when he realized his hand wasn't going through it, despite its computerized look.

"I don't know... what this is." She looked up - seeing that the void around was covered overhead by a sea of shifting colours and stars. She had not moved her head, and his fingers made contact with her form. "What's... wrong with you?"

When his hand made contact, something clicked. The avatar's eyes filled in, displaying pupils, irises and shines. The wolf's form wavered like a bad television signal, but those eyes never changed.

"It hurts...?"

He frowned, startled by the sudden appearance of eyes that looked far too detailed for the rest of her form, but his hand remained where it was. The only thing grounding him at this point was the wolf in front of him, and he slowly nodded before speaking. "I don't know what happened. I found a Newtype, I think… they touched me and everything… blanked. The pain was unbearable. Now, I'm here. Something like this happened before, when we fought the Qubeley. How did you get here?"

"I don't know." She replied. "I don't know." Rising tones had entered her synthesized voice. She was now rendered a glowing blob with eyes, but he could swear that he felt fingers intertwine with his own.

Then he woke up.

A gasp of air filled his lungs as he tried to come to terms with the sudden shift, and he looked around, struggling to find the wolf that had been his guest. He could see a stark ceiling and a familiar curtain - he had been put into a med bay. The void of noise and colour had been replaced by the distant din of the Nahel Argama and people talking around him. He frowned, his body relaxing as he waited, his heartbeat slowing from the racing pace it had been at. Sayla's voice was the one that stood out the most, and he called for her, his throat feeling dry and scratchy. "Doctor Mass?"

"Jesus!" Her voice hissed, followed by the sharp sound of her shoes on the floor. She drew back the curtain with a smooth motion. "Don't say that, Sayla!" shouted the concerned voice of a nearby child but they were swiftly ignored. "What in God's name happened back there?" She asked him, medication in tow. Her eyes were steely. "Fa told me that Kamille attacked you while he was in a coma."

His frown deepened as her eyes met his. "I have no idea." He was right, at least. "There was some… feeling that came over me. It got stronger, until I found him. It felt like my mind was being… ripped open the closer I got. Then he just attacked me. It got worse, and I just..." He kept the rest to himself, unsure of whether or not she'd think he was crazy. "I blacked out after. How long has it been?" His head was hurting, a throbbing across the back of his cranium, and especially around the neural interface port. It felt warm, as if he had been plugged in for too long.

"An hour. I thought you had a concussion but Kamille didn't hit you, nor did you hit your head anywhere." She handed him another set of pills and some sort of drink to wash them down with. Thankfully it was the same painkiller and muscle relaxant as before. The drink looked like a thick paste; a precursor to some nutrient slurries he had seen packed in MREs. "... He's a very powerful newtype." She added, with a different gravitas to her voice. "But his behavior is erratic."

He grimaced at the slurry that she offered, nearly rejecting it. It was tasteful, but the consistency was like drinking oatmeal, and he had hated it for as long as he could remember. Still, it was better than nothing. Taking it, he threw the pills back and slurped down some of the paste, grimacing as he felt it coat the inside of his mouth and teeth. It almost felt like it was oozing down his throat and he held it away from himself, far from interested in trying it again, but he knew he would eventually. He was a glutton for punishment it seemed. "Erratic doesn't exactly do it justice," he huffed. "We locked eyes and he was on me like white on rice. Do you know why he might have attacked me for no reason?"

"He..." She paused to sweep hair out of her eyes and think. "... Through the end of the Gryps Conflict, he watched a lot of his friends die. His newtype abilities were intensified by everything around him. We were able to end the conflict with his help... But... It was at the cost of his mental wellbeing." She sat in mid-air. John was anchored in place with a weighted blanket. "I did classify him as being in a coma but he can still perform some motor functions on his own. Now? I've never seen someone act like how he does."

It had been called many names throughout the history of medical science. Shell Shock, Soldier's Heart, PTSD, The Soul Grip. All of them led to men and women who had been mentally broken, their hearts cold or their souls left as little more than a void. Plenty had been taken by it, but he'd never heard of a case like this. "So he's… what then? Did I do something wrong? I have no idea why he'd just rush me like that." The headache was still there, still pounding at the back door of his mind, wanting him to pay attention to it. The painkillers needed to act faster. Another sip of the slurry in the pouch, another grimace. The boy must have lost nearly everything to have his mind shattered in such a way, and despite the sudden attack and what had happened, he felt sympathetic to the boy. It was unfortunate that things had to be the way they were.

"Maybe. I'm not sure." She sighed. "Fa told me he's been calm again since you left, so stay away from him for now. We're hoping to bring him to Side 7 after the investigation at Side 5 anyway, so you won't have to worry about him."

He nodded, humming his agreement. "I'll keep well away from him. I don't want to go through whatever happened to me again. That was… bad."

The door hissed, cutting any further talk as a new person entered the med bay "Hey, gun show!" May's voice cut through the air as she moved into view, arms in the air. "How are you feeling? I heard you fainted and shit."

When she drifted into his sight, he quirked an eyebrow. "Gun show? I thought nobody saw me when I was flexing in the mirror." He gave a hint of a smile before it fell away. "I feel like hammered shit. If you had been around to catch me, it might not have been so bad."

"You'd break my glasses." She smirked at him. "But actually Noa wanted a report from you-" She was interrupted when Sayla tore a piece of paper from her clipboard and handed it off to May. "Oh, okay, well that solves that." She shrugged, before reaching up and scratching the side of her head. "And your uhh... Diagnostics are done. On your Gundam."

"I'll make sure to go and check it out when I get released. Speaking of released..." He looked back to Sayla. "How long do you plan on keeping me here?"

"You can go when you're feeling like it. A headache won't kill you." Sayla waved him off with her fingers in the air. She spoke with experience... Perhaps it was firsthand. "If you feel like you're going to faint again then just relax and make sure you don't come in contact with Kamille again. And stay hydrated. You were sweating quite a bit."

That was easy. "Alright, I'll just..." Glancing back down at the pouch in his hand, he went on. "I'll just finish this as I go then. Thanks, for the care. Hopefully we stop meeting like this, as much as I enjoy your company, doctor. I'll have to take my leave of you." Slipping from under the weighted blanket, the sudden inertial shift messed with his equilibrium again, and he shook his head to clear it without much trouble. Pushing off of the wall, he floated over to May, latching onto her arm as he skirted past in an attempt to keep from banging off the wall. "You'll have to escort me, make sure I don't get hurt on the way to the hangar or Noa's office. Where's our date gonna be, huh?"

May slid down a hall – at this point, he probably could have got to the hangar on his own, but now only she and the Starburst were his anchors to his own time. She didn't pull away from him, but instead adjusted her grip him him so she'd hooked her arm with his. "I dunno, I usually prefer my dates to have tits, but-" She suddenly glanced back. The two children that had been hanging around the med bay were following them.

The boy in the flat cap had his hand on the wall and in his other, he was towing the blonde girl. In her arm was the Haro that had conversed with the Starburst and WOLF. The Silver Bullet's pilot balked. "…Can we help you?"

"You both smell like a dead dog." The girl sputtered.

They both shared a similar thought as they glanced at each other, before back to the children. Who were these sassy, lost children? "That wasn't very nice. Why dead dog in particular? That's kind of a… unexpected smell in space, isn't it?"

"You smell like the gym lockers." The boy affirmed, scrunching up his face. "And you're new. I have to keep an eye on you. You might be spies."

"Haro was talking to the nice robot lady you have with you." The girl told them, hosting the toy up a little bit. It wobbled in her hand and made a chattering noise.

He grimaced a bit, his secret getting out piece by piece. "Haro has loose lips, it seems." He'd have to make sure that they didn't end up getting her presence out before he was ready, but at this rate it wouldn't matter. "I can promise you we're not spies," he said, watching the small robot in her hands. "The nice robot lady can vouch for us."

"Do you think you can keep our nice robot lady a secret?" May asked in a gentler tone as all four of them were whisked along. "

Okay!" The girl nodded.

"I've got my eye on you," The boy warned; though given his age it didn't seem to be a serious threat. Thankfully the two kids veered off to another hall when they reached the hangar. Everyone had thankfully given the Starburst and the Silver Bullet a wide berth, outside of minor repairs like for the Starburst's shield and the Silver Bullet's slightly singed head.

"Alright, Let's see what the data says," he started, breaking away from May and floating to the cockpit. John could see the diagnostic had finished, though it was in a lot of numerical code he just couldn't read. WOLF's avatar also looked different, less cohesive, erratically jittering with new pixels and shapes even though all it was doing was lying down. Frowning, he tapped against the console with his finger, making a metallic tink with each press. "You alright in there?"

He wanted to ask about the vision that they'd shared, to see if it had all just been a dream of his own or if it had been truly shared, but there was something that felt off about it all, something he couldn't quite describe. It was like another of those pits in his gut, one that he'd long ago learned to trust.

The way her avatar moved wasn't like a cartoon, she put one ear forward and one back, and shifted a little where she sat. It was more realistic. Something had changed, and he could sense it somehow. "The energy source of the tear that brought us here is unknown. It is similar to radiation but it is not nuclear in nature. I have found traces of an unknown metal within the chassis of the Starburst." She told him.

His eyes narrowed, watching the different movements. It wasn't as slow and antiquated as it had been, but that was something for another time. "Hold on, you've lost me. What do you mean traces of unknown metal in the chassis? I take it you've run an analysis on it, does it give improvements in any way or will it be something to watch down the line? And I shouldn't have to worry about the radiation, should I?"

"The traces of metal are from an unknown origin. Not in my database." said WOLF, flicking another ear. "The Silver Bullet has traces as well. The other Mobile Suits on the Nahel Argama do not have this metal. Metal must be from the rift. Radiation is not nuclear, do not worry about it... but further investigation is warranted."

He sat back in his seat, his mind trying to wrap around it in a way that would put him at ease, but he shrugged it off. "Alright, so as of right now it's just something I'll have to put aside and not worry about since I can't do anything anyway." That wasn't a pleasing thought. Things snowballed too much on a ship in combat, and they were fish out of water until something more concrete could happen. There were too many variables, too little room for error. Face dropping into a scowl, his mood seemed to follow it. "So, something else then, since you're still investigating. Did you see what I did? A few minutes ago?"

"You? And you touched my face? I did see that." She told him bluntly. "I am still processing that information."

"So it wasn't just a dream then," he said, barely above a whisper. Something had happened to connect them together. Was it feedback from the neural implant? Was there a copy of her somewhere in his mind already that could reach out to the Starburst and her? He knew about as much as she did, but it unsettled him either way. Regardless, he frowned. Picking the neural interface cable up, he held it up and into the light, looking at it with a bit more scrutiny. "Give me your first thoughts on it then, without analyzing. Best guess, for lack of a better term." He didn't look over at her, instead focusing on the cable itself.

She pinned her ears back as her brow furrowed in thought. "Newtypes are able to communicate with one another using telepathy. Perhaps this vision had something to do with your neural link to the chassis communicating with my programming remotely?"

A further narrowing of his eyes, before they cut back to look at her. "So you think I may be developing latent Newtype abilities? I experienced something similar during the Qubeley fight, like I said. My body reacted before the first shot, without me thinking about it. They tested me for Newtype abilities less than a month ago and nothing substantial has happened between then and the test. Something caused it and I think that our little… transfer may have done something to amplify it." He shrugged, seemingly unsure about it all. "I'm just spitballing here, shots in the dark, you know the drill. What's with the new animations you have?"

"I don't know. The state of my avatar can only be altered by Dr. Everdred and yourself. In an options menu." She stretched out a leg to open a said menu to the side of the logs she had gathered. Though it only showed some superficial settings, like size and opacity.

"So even if I alter it, it's nothing that would cause a monumental change. They did mention something about you being a learning AI. Do you think that as you progress and develop, your UI might advance with it?" He hummed in thought, looking over her avatar, but the memory of the wolf avatar becoming a blob, one that felt like a human hand against his own, was still fresh in his mind.

"It is entirely possible. I don't remember how the vision - or the shared dream we had - ended." WOLF affirmed, shifting to lay on her side. "This has been a very strange series of events. Development may have been altered by the tear in space - for both of us."

"I don't remember exactly how it ended, but I felt a hand against my own. I don't know if it was yours or just a feeling, but it was there." There was little that they could definitely decide as of yet, essentially only having been an hour or so since they got there and with things far from following a pattern. "Just keep me posted on it and any other changes you notice, however small they are."

The ship's claxon sounded just as he finished his sentence.

"All hands on deck, level 3 battle stations. " Noa ordered over the comm systems. " Neo Zeon incoming. It's The Sadalahn. " The hangar personnel sprung to life around them - a small pack of pilots running past both the Starburst and the Silver Bullet to other suits on the ship.

"The Sadalahn is the flagship of Neo Zeon leader Haman Kharn." said WOLF, returning to a standing position.

Things were going from bad to worse.