NEO World of Advent Chapter Seventeen
Light forced a laugh with his teammates. They were just returning from rescuing a couple out at sea from their malfunctioning motorboat. Excursions at sea were decidedly less romantic when your motor starts leaking oil and starts spitting sparks, Light thought to himself. His life perpetually stuck on what was essentially a very big boat had at last given him his sea legs; it was his decisive action in removing them from a waterlogged boat filled with electricity that made the mission a success. It was, as Mist said, "An exemplary example of what she expected from the rest of them."
Speaking of Mist… Light tried to catch her eye, but found her resolutely talking to Fin instead. The two of them had been painfully civil after their drunken night of lovemaking. He let out a growl of frustration. She had refused to even talk with him about it after the fact. She had just dressed and was gone. Light had been transferred back to his room, but it felt empty after being back in his old one beside her.
"Cheer up man," Rak told him with a cheerful nudge. "We did it! First mission's a success. Even the Capo said you did well."
"Yes," Fin said, having finished his talk with Mist. "You did well. You should be proud of yourself; not everyone can react like that in the face of danger."
"I expect no less from any of you," Mist said. Her face was a mask, the perfect commander. "You did well, Light."
"What specifically," Light asked, desperate to talk to her, even if it were under the guise of just as her subordinate. "What can I do better?" There was a different meaning behind what was said, but Mist ignored it.
"You did fine," she said. "I see no need to criticize anything that was done. Your blocking the electrical malfunction was useful," she said. "It does us no good if we get electrocuted while trying to save them."
"Are you sure," Light asked. "I'm getting the feeling like I did something wrong."
"No," Mist said stonily. "What's done is done. I see no need to bring it up."
"Are we talking about the same thing here?" Rak's voice shattered the look Light held with Mist. "Because I thought we did great. Go us."
"You did better than I thought you would," Orca admitted. "I guess I might have been wrong about you."
Shale made a series of encouraging hand signs. Light thanked them both, but his heart really wasn't in it. "I appreciate the kind words," he managed. "I don't want to be left behind. The team, that is. I was afraid you guys wouldn't accept me."
"What apprehension we had is no more, I assure you." Fin clasped a hand on Light's shoulder. "You are a fine addition to the Meikai army."
"Thanks." Light removed Fin's hand, unable to bear another person's touch at the moment. It brought back memories of Mist's body pressed against his, their warmth intermingled as they… Light shook his head angrily.
"You all did well," Mist said. "Not just Light here. I do want to talk to him alone if you don't mind. Feel free to do what you want for the rest of the day." She gave them a genuine smile. "Thanks."
Rak walked backwards, giving Light a thumbs up as he did so. Soon, they were around the corner. "Are we finally going to talk about what happened," Light asked. "Or are we going to pretend like it never happened?"
"As far as anything is concerned, it never did happen." Mist's own hand was clenched now. "As your commanding officer, I take full responsibility for what happened. I… I lost control. I wasn't myself."
"You were yourself," Light said lowly. "That's the thing, Mist. This isn't you. That was the real you, back there. Admit it."
"No," Mist told him. "That was nothing more than hormones getting in the way of my duties. I'm sorry for leading you on, but I don't feel the same way."
"I'm not gonna tell if that's what this is about," Light said. "Just please, can we go back to the way things were?"
"No." Mist's voice was a command, stiff and resolute. "Your behavior really was exemplary," she said in a mechanical voice. "You're off latrine duty, by the way. You don't have to clean the stalls anymore."
Somehow, Light thought as he watched Mist's back fade into the distance and round a corner, that hurt even more. His bet with Mist that led to his being made cabin boy was when they would give each other grief, would banter and flirt. Now it was gone. For good. For the second time in his life Light found the crushing despair of losing someone precious to him. "Don't go," he whispered. He didn't know if he was talking to a cerulean blue dress and its fierce owner or the fading forms of his two friends. "Please don't go."
He didn't know how long he stood there, the weight of what felt like an eternity crashing around him. He wanted to cry, to scream, to tear the place apart. For the first time in a very long time, Light wanted his parents. He wanted to hear Ciel's voice on something other than a recording, telling him it would be okay. He wanted to work out the stress in a spar with his father. It was so tiring, being alone. There was nothing more exhausting than to know that no one cared.
Light found himself staring at his communicator. His parents were a mere phone call away. He could call the Resistance. He could tell them that he was alive. He could even say he was being held hostage out at sea, Light thought with a hint of his old humor. That would get them coming fast. But he didn't. He never did. All he had to do was press 'send.' One press of a button and everything might be made okay. They would make it okay. Wasn't that what parents were supposed to do?
Light's thumb hovered over the green button that would initiate the call. As the tips of his thumb brushed the smooth glass, he heard Sanctum's voice. The two of them were laughing at something Chaos had done. He didn't remember what it was, just her voice and his. And Chaos. The three of them were once inseparable. What wouldn't he give to have that again? Light pocketed the communicator. No, Light thought. He never did call them. There was always an excuse. Some way of getting out of it.
Light took a deep breath. Life went on, he supposed. It was just one more bump in the road. He didn't come here to get a date, he reminded himself. Even if he had met the girl of his dreams, she had moved on and left him behind, like so many other people had before. If you don't want to be left behind, you had to be prepared to chase after them. He couldn't force Mist to be anything more than Leviathan's daughter, even if Mist herself wanted to be something more. What happened between Chaos, Sanctum, and he was a mistake. A grave miscommunication, but a mistake nonetheless. He could at least make that alright.
Light found, with a jolt of surprise, that his feet were moving forward. He was almost to his room. Light eyed the door and the privacy it would provide, but stopped short of its threshold. They had the rest of the day off, right? Maybe the others would be playing cards, or foosball, or striking the balls all wrong in a game of pool. He could be a part of that now, if nothing else. Light made his way to the rec room, breathing a sigh of relief when it was apparent that his captain was not there.
"Hey," Rak greeted him. "What'd the Capo have to say?"
"She says I'm off scrubbing duty," Light said. "Something about my having earned my freedom or whatever."
"So that's what you were doing." Rak turned to Orca with a defeated sigh. "I guess I owe you fifty zenny."
"Damn straight." Orca held out his hand, which soon became a few bills richer. "Told ya it wasn't like that."
"You made bets," Light asked, "About what I was doing?"
"Well yeah," Rak said as Shale nodded. "What else are we going to do to pass the time around here? I guess I was way off," he said with a laugh. "I thought you were her secret husband or something."
Light forced his features into a smile that probably looked more like a grimace than anything. "Wouldn't that be something."
"Yeah," Rak said. "It was a long shot, but the odds were good. Orca promised he'd give me a yacht if you two were secretly smooching it up while the rest of us were doing our exercises."
"Really," Fin asked Rak. "What did you expect? Still," he added with a chuckle, "I would pay to see the look on Orca's face if he found out he had to pony up the zenny for Rak's private boat."
"Luckily," Orca said, "That will never happen. I don't know if I could actually afford something like that, in all honesty. Do you want your fifty zenny back? I don't feel like it was fair."
"Nah," Rak said. "You keep it. You won; I lost. Fair and square."
Shale made a few hand signs, letting them know that Orca could always just steal one of the many boats not in use here. They had a laugh about that, even if Light's was still forced. How he would have loved to see Orca's face of dismay. If only he hadn't been so stupid, he could have. She held up a deck of cards, asking them if they wanted to play.
They ended up playing a bootleg version of Blackjack, where the loser had to buy the rest of them something of their choice from the vending machine. Once they saw that Light was too distracted, they took pity on his wallet and ended the game.
"Hey," Rak said as he rummaged through one of the books Neo Arcadia approved for their library. He found a dusty old cover titled 'The Sea and You.' He tossed it Light's way with a wink. "I often find educational books to lift my spirits. You know, nothing quite brings me out of a bad mood like learning about the many different currents in the ocean."
Light nodded slowly, wondering if his new friend had lost his mind. "I'll check it out."
"Make sure you do." Rak high-fived Shale nearby, as if it were some sort of inside joke. Light shrugged; he'd figure out soon enough. "I'm kind of tired; the mission took a lot out of me. If you need me, I'll be in my room okay?"
"Gotcha," Rak said. "Go sleep it off. I can tell you're not exactly yourself."
Light gave a very real yawn, thanking him for the book. What he could find so interesting about sea currents was beyond him, but it really didn't matter. Dealing with his emotions was tiring and sexual innuendo could only do so much in lieu of distracting him from the crippling loneliness he had to keep constantly at bay.
Inside his room, Light collapsed on the bed, letting the book drop to his side. He let out a long sigh; why was it that whenever he found someone he really liked, some opposing force pushed them away? Even if that opposing force may have been his own idiocy, it wasn't like it had to be the end of their relationship. Besides, Light thought irritably, didn't people who like each other have sex anyway? What was so bad about being in bed with him? Surely he wasn't that bad at it.
Light cracked open the pages of 'The Sea and You.' Even sea currents beat his rising melancholy. To his surprise, he found a completely different table of contents. A quick scan of the rest of the book told him that it had been completely replaced with his favorite book. Light smiled; Rak had remembered what his favorite book was and had even gone through the effort of changing the title for him, like he did back when the team was still getting to know each other.
Light sunk into his pillow, losing his problems in the life of Allen Edgardo, gentleman thief. Soon Edgardo's problems replaced his own and he no longer felt the sinking maw of depression threatening to drown him in self-pity. It was well past midnight when Light finally came back to reality, letting the book down with a reluctant earmark of the page. By now, he was too exhausted to even think, which was a definite boon in his opinion. He didn't know if he could handle anymore thinking for the night. He closed his eyes, dreading what would happen should Mist find some hapless soul who mistook latitude for longitude and found himself at the edge of a whirlpool.
Light's alarm rang with a vexing beep. He just stared at the wall, not moving to turn the alarm off or face the reality behind what it meant. At last, after the automatic snooze had taken effect ten long minutes later, Light forced himself to an upright position with a groan. Staying up to read had been the death of his proper amount of sleep, but it had been what he needed, Light decided. She wants to pretend like it never happened? Fine. She wants to pretend like there was never anything between them? Fine. Hopefully breakfast would give him more satisfaction than his failed romance ever would.
Light got dressed, slipping his uniform on. For the first time, he noticed that Leviathan's head was on the emblem of the Meikai army uniforms. He found himself staring at the symbol with a sort of visceral hatred. No manner of vandalism would make Mist change her mind though, and the uniforms were kind of expensive. Light let the emblem rest out of sight on the side of his shoulders. It wasn't his problem, anyway. If Mist wanted to keep being no more than Leviathan's daughter, so be it.
Breakfast was a blessedly familiar act of going through the motions. Get your tray. Get your food. Sit down. Eat. Nothing complicated about that, Light thought. It's not like you could have a one night stand with a piece of toast. Light munched on a bagel as the others debated on the accuracy of Light's old nickname.
"I mean," Fin said, "It's not like he's actually a cabin boy anymore. Shouldn't we just refer to him as Light?"
"Nah," Orca said. "Let's do something like Bookworm. He's the one who had the idea to switch the covers, right?"
"I actually thought it was pretty brilliant," Rak admitted. "And don't tell me you don't have a few contraband books hidden away under that book about all the knots."
"That may be true," Orca said. "I never said being a bookworm was a bad thing. Hey," he addressed Light. "You mind being Bookworm?"
"I don't care." They could call him Ringworm if they wanted to. At this point, he was just too drained to give a crap about anything.
"See?" Orca took a sip of some kind of oil. "He doesn't mind."
"Alright," Rak said. "Bookworm it is." They grew quiet as Mist approached the table with the aura of purpose.
"I hope you're done fattening yourselves up," Mist said, "Because we have work to do." She ignored the small groan coming from them at the thought of going on a mission with a full stomach. "A group of human sailors have gone out of Neo Arcadian territory. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be a problem, but they haven't made the trip back in bounds in some time now. I suspect something may be wrong." Mist passed them all a folder each detailing the specs of the boat in question: the experience of the sailors, the path they had taken before going out of reach for their communication towers. "I want you all to go over these. Help me figure out what might have gone wrong."
Light went over their chosen path, noting that it had gone rather smoothly up until the last few days, where the dots that marked the last ping a sonar caught them under spread out erratically towards the edge of Neo Arcadian waters. This had not gone unnoticed by the others, who were bringing attention to it now. "I don't understand," Rak said. "This is a new ship. Like, brand new. They shouldn't be having any malfunctions in their systems. What made them veer off the course like that?"
"I don't know." Mist ran her fingers through her hair. "I was hoping we could get to the bottom of that."
"Are there mechanloids in the water," Light asked. If he wanted to make it look like their quasi-pseudo-not really a breakup didn't bother him, avoiding her wasn't the best way of going about it. "Maybe one of those went rogue?"
"Impossible," Mist said. "The defense grid would have taken it out while they were still in range."
Light nodded, returning to his packet. Something caused them to go off course, Light thought. It's not like the sailors all had a sudden fit of epilepsy and jerked the wheel. Light accessed the base's naval records, a privilege they had been granted access to via their personal communicators. The ship was brand new, so its engine, motor, even shielding should be perfectly functional. And if that defense grid would have taken out any threats outside of Neo Arcadian control, that shouldn't be a problem. Light's eyes browsed a section on obsolete mechanloids employed by Neo Arcadia in the past.
What if the threat wasn't outside of Neo Arcadian control? Light browsed a list of mechanloids in search of one large enough to prove a threat to the fishing vessel. He came across an old but very big machine based off a shark, called the Sharven. The Sharven series was deployed to deter any threats from reaching the city by way of water and to help keep nearby sailors safe from dangerous wildlife. It was decommissioned ten years ago due to a faulty processor chip that caused it to mistake newer Neo Arcadian mechanloids for a foreign threat. Light read up on the mechanloid in question until he was sure that he had found the problem.
"I think I know what it is," Light said, sending them all a link to the page. "You said this boat was new, right? Maybe this thing is mistaking it for a threat."
"You could be right," Mist said grimly. "If that's the case, then we need to hurry. The Sharven is meant to outspeed its' targets and destroy them. I want you on the Kraken, all of you in thirty minutes. Pack what you have to and be ready. We're leaving as soon as possible."
The others quickly packed what they had to in a frenzy of motion, taking to the deck when their designated supplies were all in order. Mist made a quick head count before telling them all to get in the Kraken's diving pods, which they would use to get up close to the ship. Mist stopped by to make sure Light was properly strapped in his Pod, sighing. "Be careful out there," she told him.
"What do you care?" Light took pleasure in the way Mist's head reeled back, as if she had just been slapped. She slammed the door harder than necessary before moving on to the rest of the crew. It had been petty, Light knew, but it sure felt good to say. Once they were out to sea, Mist made good use of Orca's refined sonar through an open communication channel they all shared.
"Two objects," Orca reported. "About the size of what we're looking for. One's stock still and the other is circling around it. I think Light might be onto something here."
"I will engage the Sharven," Mist told them. "Get the passengers out to the safety of the Kraken." Light gripped the controls determinedly as she released them from the Kraken's mechanical womb.
"Be careful," Light told her. "That thing may not look very fast, but it's designed to overcome smaller craft."
"Don't worry about me," Mist said. "I'll be fine."
Light rolled his eyes where no one else could see him. Couldn't she cut the tough girl act for one goddamn minute? Light watched her Pod's progress in relation to the Sharven in the corner of his eye as he sped toward the stationary vessel. The passengers aboard, for their part, were waving wildly at them, as though five random pods coming out of nowhere hadn't noticed their predicament. Light magnetically attached his own to the side of the boat as the captain let him know what had happened.
Apparently, they had been out chasing it, thinking it was a whale, when it turned on them, chasing them instead. They had thought that if they went out of the borders, it wouldn't follow, but whatever prerogatives its processor chip programmed it to do were apparently fried or not as important as sinking this new threat the Sharven had found. Once they realized that they weren't going to outrace it, they put all the extra energy into the shields. It had been circling them ever since, waiting for their energy field to run out.
"Get inside," Light told him, keeping an eye on each spray of water that represented the Sharven and Mist's own pod. "We've got you now, don't worry."
"Aye." The man placed a grateful hand on his shoulder. "We appreciate it."
"Now would be great," Light said impatiently. "Single line, but hurry up if you can help it." The Sharven was gaining on her; at this rate, it would overcome her. Light made a quick question to the others: "Is her pod special? Can it go any faster than ours?"
"Each pod is made in the same fashion," Fin said nervously. "But I'm sure she knows what she's doing."
"Like hell she knows what she's doing." Light shut the door of his pod, forcing the rest of the stranded crew to get inside one of the other four. "She's getting herself killed, that's what she's doing."
Light redirected the Comm. Feed to his personal headphones as he took the wheel. It would not due to have his passengers hear whatever stream of curses his suicidal captain would have in store for him. He ignored the others' words of warning as well, piloting his pod within the reach of the Sharven, hoping it would take the bait.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Mist's voice was a screech of auditory disbelief as it blared through his headphones at a deafening decibel level. "GET THEM OUT OF HERE!"
"Engaging the target," Light said calmly, as if he couldn't hear her. "Let's take turns, shall we? I'll steer it away from you until it gets closer and then you can return the favor. Have the Kraken send it to the bottom of the ocean when we're in reach."
"I swear to whatever you consider holy," Mist breathed furiously, "If this has anything to do with my decision to keep things professional between us-"
"You're breaking up, Captain." Light enjoyed the double meaning the words held, even though it was a purely accidental pun. "That thing would have overtaken you and you know it. If you could take it off my hands now, that would be very appreciated." The passengers of his vehicle held their breath as the Sharven advanced, only to be distracted by the sight of another pod getting in reach. They let loose a sigh of relief when a torpedo crashed into the Sharven's side with a muffled explosion.
"Thank you for flying the S.S. Kraken," Light told the panicked crew. "May the rest of your journey be a lot less eventful than it's been." He hooked his pod up to the deck of the Kraken, where Fin took it from there. He felt no need to leave the relative safety of his own pod, turning off all communication channels and locking the sides. He would ride the rest of the way back in silence.
Once back inside the base, Mist made sure they all would receive proper medical and psychological treatment. The moment they were all accounted for and out of sight, Mist reeled on him. "You disobeyed a direct order," she told him. "Do you know what that means?"
"You're gonna court-martial me?" Light was unimpressed. "Because that's worked out so well before."
"Do you think this is some sort of game?" Mist was in his face, the image of absolute fury. "You're not getting off the hook this time. Stay inside your room until I decide a fitting punishment."
"You're welcome, you know." Light threw down his headset, hearing it clatter against the metal floor. "If you're so worried about the people you care about dying at sea, maybe you should think about how they would feel if you were in their place."
"I don't," Mist spluttered, half with rage, half some other, unidentifiable mix of emotions. "How dare you?"
Light didn't answer; he found himself slamming the doors of his room the next moment. "What is she playing at?" he whispered. He picked up the picture of his friends and threw it at the door with some satisfaction as the frame shattered into a million shards of glass. He regretted it immediately after, brushing aside the glass as he held the picture tenderly. "I miss you guys," he said softly. "I'm sure you would know what to do." He held the picture to the light until the extent of the emotions swirling inside overcame him, and he was asleep.
