Miku awoke in the middle of the night, feeling sudden, extreme levels of stress and fear. She looked hurriedly around, thoroughly confused as to why she was so terrified before she realized that the emotions weren't her own. She turned to see Luka quivering under the blankets, and tentatively reached out to grab her shoulder and wake her up. Wide awake, Luka still didn't appear to acknowledge that it wasn't a dream. Her mind was like a barrier, and Miku couldn't communicate with her, so instead she just threw her arms around the other woman and held her tightly to herself. Eventually, Luka's sobbing calmed down and she recognized where she was, slowly curling her fingers into the back of Miku's sleep shirt in an attempt to return the embrace. When she was calm enough, Miku laid her back down, releasing her just a bit so that she could look into her eyes without it being uncomfortable. She waited for Luka to be ready to say what had happened, rubbing her back and whispering nonsense to calm her down. Finally, Luka felt ready to speak.
"You die." she whimpered, starting to cry just after she had stopped. Miku tried to wipe away the tears, shushing her lightly. Luka pulled her closer and clung to her, and Miku hugged back, not knowing what to do.
"No, Luka. I don't die." she responded softly. "What kind of a partner would I be if I left you all alone, feeling like you are now?" Luka sniffed and clutched her shirt, not responding.
"It felt so real..." she muttered into Miku's shoulder.
"I can imagine..." Miku responded, "Did you feel my pain in the dream?" such an event could easily terrify someone, even if it was only in a dream. Luka shook her head no, prompting confusion from Miku. The shorter woman tried to move her head to look at her, but they were pressed too firmly together, and it didn't seem like Luka planned on moving even the slightest bit. Instead of responding right away, she just stroked the other woman's back, waiting for her to slowly relax.
"It was only a dream." she murmured eventually. "I'm right here, and I always will be." Luka wanted to believe what she had said, but she was still skeptical.
"I dreamt that you die in the future..." she muttered, sounding like a child. Miku didn't understand why the idea caused her so much pain, but she supposed that being alone in the mysterious upperworld without a partner would be a horrifying idea. Thinking of Luka in such a situation gave Miku a renewed vigor to survive.
"It was just a nightmare, Luka." she responded, "Unless we both have time powers, you shouldn't be dreaming of the future. It was just a bad dream." She shivered and moved an arm to pull the blankets back around them. "We both know I'd never let that happen, because I'll never leave you behind." she surprised herself with her own words, but that was what tended to happen in middle-of-the-night sleep discussions. Luka was quiet for a long time, and eventually, Miku lifted her chin so that she could bury her head in the crook of her neck, allowing her to properly cradle the pink-haired woman. She felt fresh tears, but there weren't many of them, and soon they were gone.
"For both of our lives, every moment has led up to this." Luka stated just as Miku was about to doze off. She understood that they were both slightly afraid of the unknown.
"It's a big event, yeah. But you won't be tackling it alone." she reassured her.
"I know that, and yet... saying it makes such a huge difference." Luka stated honestly.
"Trust me," Miku smirked, "if the partners system is anything like it sounds, you'll be so 'not alone' that you'll want to get rid of me."
"I doubt I'd ever want that..." Luka murmured sleepily, snuggling a bit deeper into the crook of the other woman's neck.
"That's good..." Miku responded, placing her hand on the back of Luka's head and lazily playing in her hair. "'cause you're stuck with me..."
"And you're stuck with me..." Luka murmured. They fell asleep that way.
The following morning, both women woke up late but refreshed from a long night's sleep. Miku was the first one to wake up yet again, but her mobility was very limited seeing as she had somehow managed to complicate her embrace with Luka overnight, requiring the other woman to release her. She noticed with moderate relief that Luka had not, in fact, suffocated herself on her neck, and had instead shifted slightly in her sleep in order to breathe properly. The position that they were in meant very little to them besides shared affection, seeing as the subject of romance wasn't very interesting for the trainees to explore, not to mention physical intimacies. Miku had certainly never gotten into reading about it besides the mandatory education, and it was unlikely that Luka got much farther than her, and so to them, it was a simple expression of their care for one another. Eventually Luka woke up and lay there for a minute before she realized that she was still clutching Miku and let the young woman go. They sat up and ate a leisurely breakfast before staying in bed for a while, talking.
Eventually, they cleansed themselves and hung around their apartment before heading outside. Considering that they had the entire day to themselves, they revisited all of the places that they had ever been, stopping by the place where they had come to life inside of their life-sustaining tubes. After waiting for a considerable bit of time, a doctor was ready to see them, and took four samples from them before dismissing them. It was of course required for partners to offer organic matter in order to ensure the strength of future generations. Once that was over, they decided to go to the 'before' simulator, which was a peaceful location to hang out. It was supposed to represent whatever nature looked like before everything fell to chaos. There was green stuff on the ground that was about an inch tall and came in many thin blades that could not actually cut without considerable effort. Water ran around a tiny inflation in the green stuff as if it were supposed to be there as opposed to in storage compartments, and Luka often found herself wondering if it was really how things used to be. From the inflation in the ground rose a dark substance called wood with green at its top that was different from the green on the floor. From something that branched out of the large wood, there was a suspended swing.
They lay in the fake sun for a while before Miku grew devilish and pushed Luka into the water. Luka responded by pulling Miku in, and the latter noticed very abruptly that the water was quite cold. She splashed Luka, who splashed back, and by the time they were done, they were both entirely drenched. After a while, they left the room, where the were dried and decontaminated.
"I don't think that they have any decontamination booths up there..." Miku muttered absentmindedly.
"Gross..." muttered Luka. "How do they keep clean?"
"I think they just use water. That's what it said in the books, right?" Miku responded. Luka thought, and then nodded.
"How can water make you clean?" she asked confusedly. Miku shook her head.
"We probably shouldn't be able to drink the same water that we cleanse ourselves in." she deduced. They played around like children, running through the halls and then stopping abruptly upon sensing someone approaching, pretending in an exaggerated fashion to be mature and adult. The day passed lazily, although both women made sure to do a few last practice sessions in the training room, and it wound up with them back in bed, uncertain of what to do with themselves.
"I wonder what the airship will look like..." Miku daydreamed, feeling oddly positive.
"I wonder if the walls will be white or if they'll have color." Luka muttered. "If it's anything like the simulator, there will be a lot of unevenness and color. I hope that's how it is... I wonder how many colors there are." Eventually, they both fell asleep. Miku took Luka's hand so that she wouldn't worry.
When morning broke, they both took special time eating their food, making certain that they couldn't eat any more before getting cleansed and dressed. Their possessions were already loaded for them, and all that they had to do was get onto the airship and wait. Of course, waiting was the difficult part. Sitting down on a moderately comfortable bench that lined one wall of the airship, Miku and Luka remained very close to one another. Miku felt a chill run down her spine and noticed Luka feeling the same, and realized that it was because of the silence. Never before had silence been eery. Deciding to speak, Miku made light conversation with her partner, slowly getting to know her better. They were in the middle of discussing how unprofessional they had both started when Rin and Len boarded the airship, followed by a few other people from the same class. Miku sat back and quietly slid her hand into Luka's, a practice that had become very common as of late. Rin and Len smiled confidently at them, but it was clear that they were nervous too.
"We're not actually supposed to be on here. It's sorted by rank." whispered Rin, "But we wanted to bid you guys good luck."
Luka smiled, and Miku tried to as they thanked her. There was barely anybody that they knew very well on the ship, and Luka was relieved as she saw Meiko and Kaito enter a bit later than everyone else. Under Luka and Meiko's silent agreement, the latter sat next to Miku as opposed to Kaito, sparing them both any unnecessary tension. After a very long stretch of time that everyone spent trying to be calm, people entered the ship to make certain that everyone was there. One of the assistants called an affirmative over their earpiece and waited. Finally the ship began to take off. Luka squeezed Miku's hand and received firm pressure back and a small smile.
"In the event that you are asked to return, you will bring your partner under all circumstances." an attendant advised. "Yes, this does include death."
Miku felt Luka tense up and leaned over to whisper in her ear.
"I'm not leaving you if you won't leave me. Don't worry." she said. She felt Luka nod, and wished that she could do more to calm her down besides whisper statements that she couldn't presently prove, but there was little else. The flight lasted just over an hour. When it was finally time to get off, Miku felt Luka tense up considerably, and led her by her hand to where they would be standing together in line, sharing mental reassurances that no one else could hear so as not to accidentally embarrass her. Finally, they all exited the room and entered a building that was not white inside. Being professional, neither Luka nor Miku showed anything, but they could feel one another's emotions very intensely, and knew that the location was strange. Luka was nervous, but she liked the excitement, while Miku was reserved but extremely curious. Both of them were slightly afraid, but they had also been built to anticipate the moment for the entirety of their lives, and so they were filled with more interest than fear. The building was instantly very different from their old home. As previously mentioned, color was everywhere, and although it appeared well-kept, the walls and floors had actual textures, and the lights didn't come through the ceiling but actually hung from it in public view.
Miku guessed that the building was quite extravagant for an alleged 'time of chaos', but she supposed that a building that had to house all of the new recruits would need to be big. This was the one place that their precise ranks were disguised. As opposed to everyone knowing that Luka and Miku were top scorers and the pair in front of them probably scored fourth, they simply knew that the particular ship that they arrived in packed soldiers of a higher class. Their group was greeted by four commanders. Miku met each of their gazes, noticing that they all looked hardened and exhausted. Although she respected their experience, she didn't act unusual, and simply waited for instructions as if she possessed her characteristic mild arrogance.
"Listen up." one of the commanders spoke. It wasn't harsh, and he clearly wanted to display that he wasn't an enemy, but he also needed to show that he was in charge. "As of this evening, you're officially adults, which means you fend for yourselves. You will be listed as soldiers for hire, but it is entirely up to you to complete your objectives and report back to myself or one of the other commanders. A word of advice to the loyal ones: At least four of the people in your group are going to betray us. Do not grow attached to anyone besides your partner. I make this same speech every year, but people always wind up damaged and surprised anyway."
Miku was extremely glad that Luka had turned out to be a really great person as opposed to her rival.
"If you get lost, we will not send people to find you." he continued. "You are valuable to us, but remember, even the closest people to me could potentially betray me, excluding my partner. If you are gone for long, we either expect you to be back whenever your mission is complete, or assume betrayal. Sending search parties is also not an option because people would die without proper coordinates. I'd like to slowly let you adjust to the lifestyle here, but there is simply no way to protect you for very long. It's a dog-eat-dog world, and unfortunately, you need to learn that as fast as you can. I wish things weren't like this, but this is chaos."
Miku felt Luka drop her nervousness and begin to assess what he was saying through pure logic.
"Tomorrow, you will all be in charge of going out there and changing the world as you see fit. Mind you, we will do everything in our power to kill you if you become an enemy of this agency, because we want to win the war as much as anyone else does. Fortunately, the majority of soldiers tend to stay with us, because unlike other troops, we have morals and actually want a better world. Unfortunately, a better world can simply not be achieved at this point without violence. However that saying goes, 'no peace without violence' or whatever.
"You're allowed to stay in this place for a day, but honestly, I'd suggest running to your rooms as fast as your legs can take you, picking up your possessions and loading them into your belt, and then going to the field. The longer you stay, the harder it is to leave." he concluded, turning to his partner.
"Additionally, you'll want food." she began. "In the cafeteria, you can load the canteens on your belts with enough virtual food to last a month, although there's no guarantee that someone won't steal it if you are unfortunate enough to meet a rogue or enemy soldier right off the bat. For those of you with healing abilities..." she paused, stepping back a bit, "lucky! If you can use them right, you'll be able to stop hunger and restore your bodies, but I'm assuming you've learned that in training already. There are a lot of convenient uses for your abilities that don't entirely consist of attacking. I'd suggest investigating them a bit while you're out there if you haven't already."
Miku subconsciously created a tiny butterfly of light and had it flutter around her free hand before making it disappear into her palm. She had most certainly used her powers for things besides attacking, especially since she was supposed to be a healer who had something to do with time, relatively gentle aspects when not considered in-depth. She briefly remembered her first day of training. She had been the first soldier to be released, giving her a few extra days before Rin and Len appeared, followed by Luka.
A/N: Erm... Something clever to say... It's hard when I post all of the chapters at once because I need to think of what I wanna say and then come up with summarizing conclusions because I like to talk to you guys. In the next chapter, we'll finally see whatever has become of the outside world! As per usual, please feel free to leave your thoughts in the reviews, or just shoot me a message (I kinda like to talk if you couldn't tell), and that should be it until next chapter!
