Trailblazer - Dream of Eden

Mickey always committed the same mistake.

The most basic mistake.

He charged right in the moment she was on the back foot and tried to barrel over her. It was cop training really. Cops were only trained to use caution until they could resolve a conflict. The moment they could they were taught to end it. If they weren't taught that, it's certainly the attitude that was encouraged.

It was a good thing she enjoyed beating the stupid out of people.

The moment his suit wound up for a swing, he found his feet leaving the ground as his target stepped in. A hand grabbed his and the metal groaned as one shoulder led the rest of his suit into a roll that sent him crashing to the ground. A crash that rattled and shook so badly that most guys were disoriented for a minute or longer the first few times it happened.

Also, these rookies kept acting like a mobile suit made them invincible, which was less stupid than suicidal.

As soon as his suit settled, her hatch opened and Lafter pulled herself out.

"How many times do I have to tell you?!" she snapped, engaging full drill-sergeant mode. "You think you have an opening and you charge right in without thinking!"

She snapped her head around, pigtails whipping around as she glared at the line of trainees watching from the sideline of the arena.

"That goes for all of you! This isn't a fist fight, these are mobile suits! You screw around in these things and someone gets screwed over or done in. You don't get to turn your brain off in these things just because you feel invincible!"

Especially not the ones everyone was using nowadays.

Lafter jumped down from the Tieren and walked around to the one laying on the ground.

They were both old suits, no longer fit for active use. Once the cutting edge of technology, a mere ten years saw the entire line reduced to backups, trainers, and scrap. Lafter couldn't blame anyone.

Once you've been in a Gundam, nothing else feels right.

Lafter stepped onto the arm where it lay and stomped her foot on the suit's chest. "You okay in there Mickey?"

"Uuugh."

"Yeah, he's fine." Lafter turned. "Reset! Ribbons, go automatic!"

From some unseen corner of the room a voice answered her. "Of course Mrs. Frankland."

Lafter stepped down and the AI took control of the Tieren and got it back up. Two of the other trainees came forward and got Mickey out. He was fine. Just a little rattled.

He needed to be rattled.

Mobile suits leveled the playfield, but the playfield was for keeps and a fuck-up could get anyone killed.

There's no replacing people's lives.

"Get over here Rickard, you're next!"

Three hours later, Lafter strolled through security and dropped her bag into a plastic bucket.

"Done for the day, Mrs. Frankland?" Ribbons asked as a system scanned the bag and conveyed the bucket through to the other side of the gate.

"Quit with the missus already." Lafter shook her head and undid the tails in her hair. "You're going to make me feel old!"

"Heaven forbid," Ribbons replied.

"You know, you lot have gotten really sassy." She stepped through the gate, nodded to Terry from Security who was sitting off to the side reading, and grabbed her backpack. "Since when did I stop being the sassy one?"

"I believe Forecast beat you to it years ago."

"See! That's what I'm talking about!"

"I apologize."

"Eh. It's fine. See you day after tomorrow. Another batch of rookies to beat the smarts into."

"Have a good vacation, Mrs. Frankland."

"Again with the missus…" She kept her own name and this is what she got for it.

With that, Lafter strolled out of the building and onto the street.

The old PRT building, funnily enough. The DPA had no use for such a large space when the dust settled. The entire structure was sold off and Celestial Being bought it. Converted the structure into the world's first training ground for mobile suit pilots and police units. She wasn't the only instructor anymore. Most of those first guys she trained—the ones who didn't die—were working there too now.

She wasn't sure she'd ever get used to having a regular nine-to-five job.

It had its perks though.

Jumping onto the bus moments before it pulled away, Lafter slipped by and grabbed hold of an overhead rail.

She wasn't famous anymore. Not really. Laughter hadn't been a cape for ten years. There were old-school groupies and enthusiasts who knew about her. People studying the history of capes knew the name. She hadn't been on TV in years though and the upside was people couldn't pick her out of a crowd.

Lafter thought she still looked great, but ten years had grown her up a bit more and she looked different enough from her teenage self that she just scooted by unnoticed.

She tried not to take that as an insult to her good looks.

Her bus wasn't a long trip.

At the stop, she almost jumped off and resisted the urge to sprint up the sidewalk.

Melanie waved from behind the front desk, and Lafter waved back as she went down the hall. She made it to the back door and went through it outside.

There were a lot of things she just never got used to.

Some of them she thought were good things.

"Mama!"

Lafter dropped into a crouch and took them in her arms. Then she closed her arms like a vice and grinned.

"Squeeeeeeeeze!"

"Too tight!" Margaret complained.

"Not tight enough," Hannah retorted.

Lafter laughed and drew back. She looked at their faces. The twins looked more like her than Akihiro, but there was some of their father in the color of their hair and eyes. Their faces were all her though. Soft and heart-shaped.

"Is work over?" Margaret asked.

"Can we walk home?" Hannah inquired.

"Not today," Lafter said as she rose up, holding a small hand in each of hers. "You know what day it is?"

"Oh," they both said. Kids forgot things all the time. Lafter blamed the childlike sense of wonder. "Let's go!"

They tried to encourage her, grabbing onto her hands even as they moved toward the cubbies to get their things. The teacher waved to Lafter from across the room where she was managing some of the other kids and Lafter nodded.

"Where's your sister?"

"Reading," Margaret answered.

Lafter glanced toward the reading corner and slipped free of the twins. "Get your things. I'll be right back."

"'Kay."

Lafter crossed the room, looking at the back of her eldest child's head with as much adoration as the twin's faces.

"Hey, Taylor."

Her daughter turned, looking up at her and smiling. "Hi Mom."

She crouched down, peaking at the book for a moment before asking. "Ready to go?"

"Mhm."

She closed the book she was reading—20,000 Leagues Under the Sea—and put the volume back on the shelf. She stood up in her sundress and took Lafter's hand as they crossed the room back toward the twins.

Few things were as difficult as managing the logistics of having only two hands and three kids.

It was easier when the twins were small enough to be carried.

Fortunately, Taylor was old enough to wisen up. She let Margaret and Hannah have Lafter's hands and alternated holding one of theirs. They left the school in a line and got back onto the bus to go uptown.

It was an important day.

"So many people." Hannah stepped off the bus wide-eyed.

"Stay close," Lafter said. "Come on. Best view's over here."

Lafter guided them around the square and up the library steps and away from the packed crowds.

A lot had changed in Brockton Bay in ten years. The city square, for one, had been completely rebuilt. An entire block was cleared out and replaced with a small park. Nothing too fancy, just some grass and trees. Mostly it opened space, making it so that the city library, courthouse, and county seat were all facing each other.

They'd also built a new annex onto the local historical society, building off the community college. Brockton Bay was a big story now. Had been for years. There were a few pictures of Lafter buried in the exhibits even!

"Up there?" Margaret asked, pointing her finger.

"Yup." Lafter took them inside the library rather than waiting in the square.

It was mostly empty inside with the show being out in the square, but Lafter had come to the library enough to take note of the second floor. The windows were tall and overlooked the square. There were seats too.

Lafter found a small bunch of people there but not many. It wasn't nearly as crowded as the square below.

"Over there."

Taylor pulled on her coat and Lafter followed with the twins to four seats that were together and open. They settled in and Lafter set her bag down as all eyes turned toward the big screen set up in the square. It was massive. The kind of thing you'd see at some huge sporting event.

"Is that space?" Margaret asked.

"It's the moon," Taylor noted.

"I know that!"

"You just asked if it was space," Hannah commented, leaning around Lafter to look at her sister.

"You can see the moon from home!" Margaret protested.

"Shsh," Lafter hushed. "Any second now."

They were alone in their little area. It was the kind of thing Lafter took more notice of than ever. Having kids tended to change what you worried about that way. There were some guys nearby but they were harmless enough. Just some space nerds who wanted to avoid the crowd. A small family was to the other side of them—man, woman, and two boys—and off to the far side opposite Taylor was a single woman with her hands folded behind her back.

Nothing to worry about.

On the screen down in the square, the moon was in full view. It was different than the one Lafter had growing up. Had been ever since the Shards took it over. The surface was smooth now, like glass, and pearl colored rather than white. Light flickered around the edges, shimmering in a much more timid display of the one put on…

Put on back then.

Things had been hectic then. She spent her last days as a cape mostly being angry and sad. Keeping things from blowing up after people found out aliens were real and everyone with powers knew one personally! Then the morning sickness started and she felt like an idiot because she had the sense to buy condoms but forgot to use them.

Her girls were staying away from boys until their thirties.

"There."

Taylor pointed and Lafter looked as a small dot appeared on the screen. It was small, too small to make much out. The camera, wherever it was, zoomed in. The image blew up, casting the dot against a shimmering white background.

"Big," Taylor realized.

"Yeah," Lafter agreed. "It is."

Two smaller dots, barely visible against the background, pulled it along while a third trailed behind. It was huge. A shadow in the sky with blinking lights that ran its whole length. It was slowing very slowly, the smaller dots pulling in as their load came to an apparent stop.

The whole world seemed to quiet for a moment. Watching.

Watching as the colony stopped and the massive panels tucked against its side extended. They caught the sun and turned a brilliant golden color.

"Pretty," Hannah whispered.

"Yeah." Lafter looked past the cylinder and smiled. "Pretty."

The light shined and the image collapsed into the corner of the screen.

"And zero!" a voice boomed.

Lafter had to give it to Eledore. Dude had moved up from local radio. Be nice to hear what he was saying, but the crowd was too loud. Even from outside, the cheers were deafening.

"Why's everybody so loud," Hannah asked, hands over her ears.

Because Taylor was from here. Even if ten years had seen her name fade behind Newtype's, people from this place knew who she was. She was one of them. One of their own.

And even when people blamed her for this or that—that the amnesty passed, that aliens were real, that they lost their job to some new piece of tech—the people of Brockton Bay still loved her.

"Because it's a big deal," Lafter answered.

And her daughters weren't old enough to understand all that just yet.

Let them see the world as a happy and wonderful place. Just a little longer.

Charlotte was on the screen now, all done up in a way that would make Kati proud. Nice suit. Nice hair. A good smile.

There was a look in her eye though. One that Lafter understood. She thought they all did. As much as Newtype remained Brockton Bay's hero, Taylor was their friend.

Lafter pulled her eyes from the screen and looked at the woman off on her own.

"Taylor's proud of you."

Taylor—Lafter's little Taylor—raised her head in confusion. Then she followed Lafter's eyes and called.

Veda glanced over, meeting their eyes with a solemn smile.

They left the library, walking away from the square toward home. Taylor had switched to holding Veda's hand… And Lafter had to admit there was something adorable about that.

"You made that?" Hannah asked.

"Yes," Veda answered.

"All by yourself?" Margaret inquired.

"Dragon helped me, and others. It was a very big project."

"Like homework?"

"Like homework."

"I don't like homework."

"You should do it anyway," Taylor said. "It makes you smart."

Sometimes Lafter wondered if naming a kid passed them some kind of karma or something.

They came onto the block and Lafter looked up at the house.

The house.

She'd never… She couldn't think of it as her house. It was in its own way, but it wasn't.

It was Taylor's house. The one Danny had let her and Akihiro have after their daughter was born and they needed somewhere for her to grow up. Danny couldn't bring himself to live there anymore. Aisha had moved on, palling around with Alec and his siblings dealing with any master problems that propped up in the world. Lafter got the feeling Veda couldn't bring herself to stay at the house even if she could visit.

There were too many memories for her and Danny, and too many reminders of what they'd lost. Lafter… Lafter supposed she saw it differently. Not that she didn't understand, but it was a good house. For them it was painful because of the memories.

Lafter liked staying close to them.

"Daddy!"

Hannah and Margaret bolted off as Akihiro rose up from behind the grill.

Lafter suppressed the urge to laugh.

He always got those deer in headlight eyes whenever he was confronted with the products of… Lafter stopped that thought there. PG only around the kids.

He smiled though, bending down and taking the small girls up in his big arms. "How was school?"

"Boring!"

"Fine."

He glanced past, noticing Taylor first. He nodded to Veda and to Lafter—

She shut him up by kissing him and then laughed as their daughters started going 'ew' and 'gross!' It was worth it for the shade of red on his face.

"Got everything we need?" she asked.

Akihiro swallowed and grinned. "Yeah."

"Good answer!" She glanced down at the grill, asking, "What's on the menu?"

"Masahiro and the guys are coming by after their shift," he answered. "They're bringing some hot dogs and burgers. Trevor's gonna pick up Char from the studio and bring a big screen. Figure we can throw on some mac and cheese for the girls. I cut up some carrots earlier too."

"No problem," Lafter agreed. "You remember the milk?"

Akihiro nodded. It was really convenient when you had a husband who always remembered the shopping list. None of that cliché sitcom crap.

Lafter started toward the back door, asking, "Any of the other tykes coming?"

"Biscuit said he's coming."

"Dane is coming?" Hannah asked.

"Probably," Akihiro repeated. He looked at his daughter, explaining, "Aunt Alice is busy but they'll be here."

They patted his shoulders and Akihiro let the girls down. They both started toward the house, and Taylor released Veda's hand to follow.

"Something up with the grill?" Lafter asked.

The thing was a wreck.

She kept suggesting they get a new one. Cash had never really been an issue between Akihiro's work, her work, and the massive fund Taylor had checked all of Laughter's royalty checks and bounty shares into. They could buy a new grill.

Akihiro was just a packrat sometimes.

"It's fine," Akihiro answered. "Just need some more starter fluid I think."

"Check the house?"

"Yeah. Shed?"

"I'll look."

Lafter spun on her heel and went to the shed. It had a window now, and a heater and AC unit on the side. While she'd been going to night school she spent a lot of time up late. They didn't want to wake the girls so she worked out in the shed where the lights and noises of any online classes wouldn't disturb anyone. The shed became her own out-of-house office, but she hadn't used it in years now.

Mostly stuff for the yard and what didn't fit in the house piled up inside.

Opening the door, Lafter started poking around.

"Starter fluid, star—

Something clattered and a container toppled over just an inch away from her fingers.

Lafter smiled, sending a silent thanks before hoisting her prize overhead.

"Ahah! Found it!"

"You've kept it?"

Lafter turned, finding Veda in the doorway looking inside. Her eyes were set across the shed to the far wall.

Ah.

She turned, looking at the face of an old friend. "Yeah. In the shed, I know. Just… Didn't have anywhere else to put him. Didn't seem like it mattered much. Old bird is never gonna fly again."

The suit was covered by a tarp, save for the head. It didn't work anymore. The last GN Drive broke down six years ago. Veda had said it was a miracle she and Trevor managed to keep it working for so long. Dynames was the last one using it.

Kimaris and Barbatos were still around. Trevor kept them locked up but maintained, just in case. Veda still used Stargazer but…

Taylor made the Gundams to save a broken world.

Maybe it wasn't perfect, but it wasn't so bad these days.

No one needed the Gundams to save them anymore.

Lafter had a feeling that Taylor would be happy with that. It was never about the suits to her. They were only a means to an end, not the point. She kept hers around out of nostalgia, or maybe a sense that however unnecessary it was, someone should put a roof over his head.

Kyrios was family too in a way. She liked having him around, even if he just sat there.

"Sticking around?" Lafter asked.

"I have nowhere to be at the moment," Veda answered. She stepped out of the doorway and Lafter moved toward it. "Danny and Orga send their regards."

"Pft. Jealous."

"I did offer," Veda noted.

Lafter shrugged.

She wondered those first few years, but looking back it was stupid.

The moon was where Taylor was. They all knew it. No one ever told them that. Nothing overt ever suggested it. It was just something they knew. Like it had been beamed directly into their heads.

And Lafter knew why Danny and Orga had to go. It just wasn't for her.

"It's fine," Lafter declared with a smile. Lafter tossed the fluid into the air and caught the bottle on the way down. "Got the girls to look after and all my idiots who need sense punched into them. Like I have time to go to the moon!"

Veda nodded. "There wasn't much room on the shuttle either way."

"I know."

If she could have brought the girls with her, she might have swung the other way. But it was fine. Taylor would be back, and Lafter would see her then.

Until that day, there was life to live.

Taylor never wanted any of them to live their lives looking back.

Her eyes were always forward.

Stepping out of the shed, Lafter waved the can. Akihiro waved back, then turned as a jeep pulled up. The driver side door opened and Biscuit hopped down.

He spotted her first and waved. "Lafter!" He tipped his hat toward Veda.

"Hey, Biscuit."

"Akihiro." He came around and opened the passenger side door. Reaching into the vehicle, he lifted a figure about the size of the twins and hauled him out of the tall vehicle. "Girls in?"

Lafter pointed over her shoulder. "Ye—"

"Dane!" Hanna and Margaret ran out of the house like a fierce wind and went right toward Dane as he got his feet on the ground. "Hi Uncle Biscuit."

"Hey girls." Biscuit closed the door and watched the kids.

Good hands.

Lafter waved and left them to kid it up. She needed to get that mac and cheese started or the girls would stuff themselves on hotdogs. They'd eat their veggies without complaint if they could get some cheese on them.

Stepping into the house, Lafter could still see what it had been years ago. Danny left some of the furniture. Lafter and Akihiro acquired other pieces of their own.

The big thing she missed was Pink cooking fancy meals. Damn robot was off on the cooking network now. Figured.

Walking into the familiar kitchen, Lafter started gathering what she needed.

"—the part with the submarine. I like it."

Lafter perked her head up at the voice. "Tay? That you?"

She stepped over to the living room and poked her head inside. Her oldest daughter blinked and turned to face her.

"Who you talking to?" Lafter asked.

Taylor didn't answer immediately. She glanced to the side at a shelf and then back to her mother.

"Owly."

Lafter glanced toward the stuffed critter. It had been Taylor's first toy after she'd been born. A little stuffed owl Akihiro grabbed out of the hospital gift shop. It had also been her imaginary friend since she could talk.

"What'cha talking about?" Lafter asked with a smile.

"It's a secret."

Lafter felt pretty sure they were talking about 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and chuckled. "Secret huh?"

"Very secret," her daughter insisted.

If there was an upside to becoming a teenage mother, it was that she was still young enough to remember being young. And to remember the day she'd stopped really being young. Innocent, rather.

Ten wasn't that old.

If Taylor wanted to keep talking to her imaginary friend, then she could.

"Well get your secret-keeping butt in here and help me. Getting your sisters to eat their veggies is a nightmare unless we put something calorious on them."

Taylor started toward her. "You should stop enabling them, Mom."

"You should act more like you're ten!"

"I'm ten and one-quarter."

Lafter and her daughter left the room, both walking away from the wall of photos and pictures. One showed the first class of graduating officers Lafter had trained, all arranged before the Tierens she trained them on. Others depicted Taylor or the twins, or Akihiro and Lafter. One showed dozens of boys gathered together. Another was Veda, holding Taylor right after she'd been born while Lafter showed her how to hold a baby.

A single standing frame—right next to Owly—showed a tall girl with wavy dark hair and glowing eyes, standing for the camera in a sushi shop a few blocks away.

Just one of dozens.

I wanted to write this chapter for so long.

Not just because Lafter and Akihiro got the shaft in IBO. Well, Lafter definitely more than Akihiro. Akihiro at least got to kill fucking Iok while screaming 'it was you!' and his ascension into memedom as 'Space Guts' has been cathartic. I digress.

I wanted to write this so bad because of what it represents for the story. That the characters who had to deal with all the crap that happened across its length not only got to grow up but they got to find their place. Be happy. Live life. I really wanted 1 of the Celestial Being crew to effectively retire and live a quieter and more mundane life and I figured pretty fast it was going to be Lafter because I think that's what she really wanted. Her story started with her punishing abusive parents for wasting what she'd lost (family) and her story ends with her having a family of her own.

Also just the image of Veda holding lil'Taylor's hand is adorable as is the fact Lafter and Akihiro live and raised their kids in Taylor's old house. All three of Lafter's children are named after women important in Lafter's life (Taylor, Sister Margret, and Miss Militia) and she keeps the decommissioned Kyrios sheltered in a shed where it's still close to her.

I just love the imagery of it all. Kyrios is out back, still close but no longer needed, while the house her best friend grew up in has become hers and is filled with her own family photos.

People might note I ultimately flipped from not suggesting Lafter's kids were innovators. After the chapter was written, reviewed, edited, and reviewed again, it felt incomplete and I think I like it in the end. I found a way to suggest it that simply plays of lil'Taylor's budding telepathy as having an imaginary friend, one she's probably been talking to for years so Lafter finds nothing particularly odd about it. Lil'Taylor herself might not even be aware her imaginary friend is real, let alone the question of if she's talking to big Taylor or not.

I'll just leave that mystery there. The question of the emerging Innovators is more directly addressed in Charlotte's chapter.