Past and Present
"…..W-What…? Where am I…?" I lazily got up and looked around. And blinked. Even after six years of living on Ark Rose, I still sometimes woke up expecting to be on the Titania, or better yet, the life boat. I glanced at Lori's bed, only to find it empty. Then I looked at the digital clock imbedded into the wall on my room. Flashing in bright neon blue colour were the numbers '6:00'. "Oh shit!" I yelled, "I'm going to be late!" and I dashed out the room.
I woke up in that same way six years ago. Only the last time, it was with fear. Fear that melted into a feverish excitement.
Wha…? What is this? Where am I…? I was lying on a small cot in a room of metal, not so unlike my cabin in the Titania. The room was bare except for a small writing desk, a chair, and the cot I was now sitting. Oh, and there was a smooth black surface imbedded into the wall so neatly that I would have mistaken it for the wall. Only then, the surface flashed, and a mechanical flat unisex voice came on. Only, I couldn't see any speakers. Huh.
"THIS IS A MESSAGE FOR ALL ARK MARIA SURVIVORS AND ALL INA MEMBERS WHO HAVE BEEN INFLUENCED BY THE FALL." The flat unisex voice said all that while the words appeared on the black screen. INA members? I've never heard that term before. I had always assumed that INA stood for Independent Non-Ark. 'Independent Non-Ark members' doesn't really make much sense. I was still pondering about this when I realised that the announcement was almost over.
"… AUDITORIUM NUMBER NINE. THANK YOU."
"Oh no nonononono. Wait!" I cried as the voice disappeared and the screen went dead. "Great. Just great." I had missed practically the whole announcement! But at least I was pretty sure that I was on Ark Rose. I thought back to when Xander shot the flare. And then…wait…what? I couldn't remember. I racked my brain as hard as I could. Nope. Nothing. Huh. Weird. But that brought to mind a new thing. Xander! Where's Xander? I paced around my room when it suddenly hit me. God, I am stupid. What did the voice say? Auditorium number nine, wasn't it? And it was supposed to be an announcement for Ark Maria survivors and INA members, right? So the logical explanation was…. I didn't even finish the thought as I dashed out the door.
I didn't go far along in that metal bound corridor when I finally realised that I had absolutely no idea where auditorium number nine was. Or where I was. I cursed myself for not listening to the announcement properly. I was wandering around, hoping to find someone who would show me the way when that flat, unisex voice came on again.
"THIS IS A MESSAGE FOR ALL ARK MARIA SURVIVORS AND ALL INA MEMBERS WHO HAVE BEEN INFLUENCED BY THE FALL." Oh! "THE MEETING IN AUDITORIUM NUMBER NINE WILL BEGIN IN TEN MINUTES"…SHOOT. I ran through the corridor, hoping this time, that I would magically stumble to the auditorium. Fortunately, I did stumble. Unfortunately, I stumbled into a wall. Or rather a person. Or rather, a girl. A really pretty girl. She had long blond hair that put my short brown messy mop I call hair to shame. Plus, she was really tall. She looked like she was about 12 or 13, maybe, and again, she was really pretty.
"Ohmygoshiamsosorryiwasn'tlookingwhereiwasgoingand..,"I stammered an apology. What was that, Valentina Gucci? I took a deep breath and tried again. "I-I mean, I'm r-really s-sorry…" I trailed off. What is with me today? Luckily, the girl didn't seem to be offended, and flashed me a smile. Like I said, pretty.
"No, its fine…"she said, and held out a hand to help me up, "…what's your name?"
"Valentina Gucci. But you can call me Val. Don't call me Tina. I hate it." I rambled automatically. Then I scolded myself for rambling, but she didn't seem to mind. Pretty and nice.
"It's fine, Val-don't-call-me-Tina," pretty and nice and funny, "just be more careful next time, alright?" I nodded. "By-the-way, where are you hurrying to?"
I explained my dilemma to the pretty girl and she was nice enough to point me the way to auditorium number nine. Apparently, I had just past it. I thanked her and started to walk away, before I realised that I didn't know her name. I called out to her.
"My name is Jessica!" she yelled back, "but you can call me Jessie!"
I rushed my way to auditorium number nine, where we were supposed to meet. The smell of fresh bread wafted to me as ran past the mess hall. Breathe in... Breathe out. No time to buy anything to eat, I told my growling stomach, and I sighed. "Why, oh why, didn't Lori wake me up!?" I fumed as I finally tore myself away from the mess hall.
Jessie and Lori were already there. Apparently, Xander had slept in too, which was kind-of surprising. I would have thought that he'd be the first one up. It was our first mission after-all. What wasn't surprising was the absence of one Saiki Ackerman. Saiki was always late. And when I mean late, I don't mean five or ten minutes late. I mean and hour to two hours late. Always. I sighed. I had hoped that he'd at least be on time for the mission, but apparently not. Come to think of it, he was late the first time I met him too...
I burst through the doors of auditorium number nine, preparing a whole bunch of excuses for my tardiness, then stopped. I felt my jaw drop to the floor. It had never occurred to me to me before how big the Arks were. I mean, I knew that they were big, but sizes didn't really register well in my mind. As a ten year old, and a fairly short ten year old to boot, everything was big to me. But this... this was huge.
It was a gigantic room of metal, like the cabin I had come from, but larger. Much larger. Beams crisscrossed the ceiling in a way that made it look extremely sophisticated. The floor was polished, not a scratch to be seen.
And the people! There were so many people in the room! It wasn't until now that I realised that I had feared that perhaps, Xander and I were the only ones who survived. And being alone on that little lifeboat hadn't helped it either. It was a while before I realised that all of the people were either coming from or going to a spot in the room. I got closer and saw a sign on the same smooth black surface as the one I had received the announcement on. The sign read: 'SURVIVOR REGISTRY' in big bold letters.
"Um... Excuse me?" I called to random people around me, but they all ignored me. They were either too busy, too sad, too angry, or too oblivious (like that little kid I tried to talk too). I sighed. I wasn't going to find out anything this way, and the Survivor Registry was far too crowded; I couldn't even hope to get closer. Defeated, I went to stand by the door.
Just I as was debating whether to stay or not, someone crashed into me, not unlike the way I had crashed into the pretty girl, Jessie, earlier. She stood up quickly, gave a quick, "Sorry!" before running off. And running back. Huh?
She stared at me for a while. I stared back. It was getting rather awkward, and suddenly she gave a big "AH HAH", and I jumped back. She must have noticed my reaction, because then she said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, I just thought that I knew you from somewhere."
"You know me..?" This was getting creepier by the second.
"Yeah! My name is Zoe Hanji..." She looked at me hopefully. It was a while before I recognised the name.
"Oh! You're that weird person who got yelled at on the radio!"
"Aw... The weird person that got yelled at? That's mean..," She pouted. I
laughed.
"Why are in such a hurry?"
"OH RIGHT!" I jumped. I think she must like, yell, at least every second. "I'm supposed to give an announcement to the INA and the Survivors with Ackerman, but WHERE IS HE?! You haven't seen him, have you?" I shook my head. Ackerman? Oh that guy who yelled at Zoe!
"Can I help you look for him?"
"Nah, Saiki's always late. If he's not here, then he's probably not here... Thanks though!" She called as she ran off again. I blinked. Zoe was really like a storm. She was probably here for ten second, max.
"Oh shoot! I could've asked her where to go!" I stood there, dejected, with my head down. I was seriously considering leaving. There were too many people I didn't know, and I still hadn't found Xander, and still didn't know what I was doing here. A pair of feet entered my field of view.
"Huh..?" I looked up. There was a girl attached to the pair of feet. She had long black hair that was pulled up into a ponytail, and she had really big grey eyes. She was also short, like me, but her height was justified by her obvious young-ness.
"Are you lost?" I found myself saying. She nodded. "Well," I smiled at the little girl, "I'm lost too. Do you want to be lost with me?" She nodded again. She moved to stand next to me at the wall. "What's your name?"
"Lori... Lori Rivaille"
It's hard to imagine Lori as the little girl she was before, I noted, as I glanced over to her slim form. She was taller than me now (aren't they all), and although she still spoke with the same quietness as she did back then. Meaning, she didn't speak unless absolutely necessary. Speaking of quietness, I looked over at Jessie. Jessie was constantly making noise, especially when Xander was there. That made me sort-of glad that Xander wasn't here. If Xander was here, Jessie would waste no time fawning over him. But still, this silence was quit unusual for Jessie. I was just going over when-
"HELLO TEAM FOUR HOW ARE WE TODAY!"
Oh no.
Alexander Jeager had arrived.
We must have looked weird, the two of us, a brunette and a raven haired, standing against the wall, but I think it was all rather comfortable. We stood in silence, but it was a good silence. A good, cozy silence in that gigantic room of so many people, so similar to us, yet so different. Not for the first time that day, I felt a distinct feeling of loneliness, and something else I could only name as loss.
I looked over to Lori, her piercing grey eyes surveying everything in sight. I wondered if she had lost her family too. I wondered if she was feeling the same feeling of loss right now. I wished Xander was here. Xander was crazy and eccentric, but he understood me. He shared that feeling of loss. I'd known it ever since that day on the boat, with both of our feelings stripped bare. It was a feeling I thought that only I had known. And now, as I look over to Lori, and her eyes met mine, I knew that I had another member of out loss party.
As I was musing all of this to myself, the crowd became quiet, and a bright light shone onto the middle of the floor. I vaguely remembered what Zoe had said about an announcement to be made. Zoe must have found him then... what was his name... Saiki, was it? Just as I thought that, a man with black hair stepped out into the spot light. He looked to be in his twenties, around 25, maybe, and he had extremely... h-hand..some...face... I think I melted right then and there. But he was EXTREMELY good-looking, and EXTREMELY cool-looking. He look all ooh! and aah! worthy. I was so caught up with admiring him that I almost missed the announcement...AGAIN. Luckily for me, it wasn't all that important, but still, I might have missed the whole thing if it wasn't for the sudden appearance of one whirlwind Zoe Hanji.
"Hello everyone!" she beamed at the crowd. "I have a few announcements to make that are v-e-r-y important, so be sure to listen carefully, ooookkkaaayyyy?" I swear, she actually said that. She looked down at a clipboard that she was holding. "So, first things first, can the following people please come to meeting room 416, and that's just down the hall to the right," and almost as if she couldn't hold it in, "ooookkkaaayyy?" She follow that with a string of names that I really couldn't careless about, much less remember. I was just immersing myself in the beautifulness of one Saiki Ackerman when I heard it. "...aaand Monte Gucci..." I've only ever heard that name twice in my life, but I remembered every letter.
Monte Gucci
My father's name.
Some people say that Hell it burning. Others say that Hell is cold. I say that Hell is loud. Why? Because of that.
Xander: Hey hey hey! Imma here!
Me: *rolls eyes*
Lori: *looks annoyed*
Jessie: *_* …..XANDER~~~~~
Xander: *face palm* Oh God...
Jessie: XANDER MY BB~~
Xander and Jessie: *Proceeds to chase each other in a circle with occasional bursts from Jessie calling: Xander~~~ or yells from Xander going GETTAWAYFROMME et cetera, et cetera...*
Me: *face continually turns purple (I think) from pent up anger* SHUTTAP!
Jessie and Xander: *looks at me*...XANDER~~! GETTAWAYFROMME!
Me and Lori: *sigh*
I wished that Saiki would come soon.
I was confused. No.. I was astounded. How did they know his name? More importantly, was he here? I looked around frantically. People were leaving the auditorium, but I couldn't find him. Was he here? Was he HERE? WAS HE HERE? Or maybe, he was already in the meeting room! Yes, that must be it! I pushed through the crowd as fast as I could to where I could see the people were going to. But I was little and the crowds covered the paths again. No..
A hand touched my shoulder. It took me awhile to realise that the announcements were over, and I had, once again, missed them. I stood up to move out of the way, then stopped in surprise. Looking down at me was one sheepish smile from one sheepish Alexander Jeager. He raised me off the floor, and I hugged him. I could sense his surprise, but I mentally begged him to let me hug him for a while longer.
There was too much that I didn't know. Too many people. Too many places. Too many mysteries. Too many. Too many. Too many. And, like a wave, it all crashed over me, and I think I might have cried. I was thrown out from what I'd known for all my life, and thrown into an unknown so deep, so alien, and so... unkown.
Saiki had finally arrived. Jessie stopped fooling around, Xander breathed a sigh of relief, Lori was just the way she was, and me? I was ready. I was more than ready. I didn't have to look at the rest of my teammates to see if they were ready, because I knew they were. We had been preparing for this for the last three years and will be preparing for this for the rest of our life.
"Do you, the Team Four, pledge to always put the survival of humanity before your own lives?"
"We do."
"Do you, each and every one of you, have the courage to venture out into abysses and unknowns where man has never been?"
"We do."
"Do you, Lori Rivaille, Valentina Gucci, Alexander Jeager, and Jessie Smith, vow to swear undying loyalty to humanity, to the Survey Corps, and to Ark Rose?"
"We do."
"Team Four, why do we fight?"
"For the survival of humanity!"
"Team Four, who do we fight for?"
"Each and everyone of us!"
"Team four, when do we fight?"
"Now!"
"WHEN DO WE FIGHT?"
"NOW!"
"AND, LAST OF ALL! WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING!"
"THE UNKNOWN!"
"SO, TEAM FOUR... ARE WE READY?"
Did he even have to ask?
WE ARE
WE'VE BEEN READY ALL THIS TIME. READY...
FOR THE ATTACK ON THE UNKNOWN