Reina sat in her cockpit, "Apollo..." she whimpered, tears floated in the air as the Eternal made its way into open space. She got out of the cockpit and took off her helmet. The momentum sent the teary pebbles flew everywhere. The flight crew escorted her down, and she made her way to her quarters. She sat there in her room waiting for Apollo to come bursting in, but the moment never came. She regretted how she treated him the first time they met, but now couldn't find a way to say she was sorry. Shinonome opened the door and walked into the room. She sat on the bed facing Reina and looked at her.
"It's hard isn't it," she told her.
"Couldn't we have..."
"Don't think about that, you know that blast would've endangered the integrity of the Eternal's armor if it was fired too close to it."
"But we could've saved him."
"It's not just about that, there are other people on this ship that we have a duty to care for. I'm sure given the choice, Apollo would've done it again. He's that type of person." She walked over to her and wrapped her arms around her. Reina could feel the warmth as well as the sadness outpouring from that single action, "I think for a lot of us here this is our first experience feeling loss. This is just practice for what waits ahead."
"If this is practice, then I don't want to know the real deal," Reina sobbed into Shinonome's shoulder, "I wanted to be the hero, that's why I trained and studied so hard in the academy, yet when the time came, I couldn't bring myself to even think about putting myself out there."
"I know, that's a hard decision to make," Shinonome replied, releasing Reina from her embrace. She sat next to her and lay down on the bed. "There aren't many people like Apollo, Reina. You know his story don't you."
"I've only asked about it once or twice, didn't really get it in full detail from him."
"Well to tell it to you shortly, when he was a young boy, he was a star mobile suit pilot on Onogoro, always fighting Shirou to hone his skills. Then his father died of unknown causes and his life spiraled out of control. When he was 13, he joined a group of bandits known as the Black Flag to try and support his family with whatever earnings he could get from the heists. Black Flag was known for being an insurrectionist group in the UHFS. They frequently targeted UHFS bases for their raids. We treated them as enemies of the state, and they were hunted relentlessly, my job at the time was to kill anyone from that group on sight."
"So, I'm guessing at one point you met him on the battefield before."
"I remember it clearly, that's why I was the one who recommended him for the Parallel Program, no one else even knew who he was at the time, until his mother remarried and became Zachariah's stepmother," she replied, "the first time I met him on the battlefield he was piloting a ZGMF- GOUF-X Ignited, a model dating back from the 3rd Bloody Valentine war. This was the first time I and anyone else in my squadron had seen a Mobile Suit like that. It was practically history book material. I didn't know he was that kid..."
"Stand down," Shinonome declared over the intercom. She had her rifle aimed at the GOUF Ignited, "you are under arrest, come quietly and we won't shoot."
"Fareed, Gara get out of here we got the loot I'll take care of them," the boy told his teammates. The two ZAKU Warriors flew off with the vault in hand. The GOUF Ignited drew its Anti-Ship Sword and the beam came to life.
"Get them," Shinonome commanded. Several Astrays flew off but were immediately brought down by the GOUF Ignited. She noticed that he only cut off their arms and legs."Zachariah, Shayla, status report."
"We're alright," they replied, "but take down that bogey."
"On it," Shinonome replied. She flew up in her Astray Blue Frame and whipped out a gigantic scimitar-like blade. She then dove down swinging the sword and tried to cut the GOUF in half. Her MS landed on the ground crushing the pavement below her. She immediately noticed she missed, "Where are you?" Alarms in her cabin went off and she turned around and saw the GOUF swinging its sword down onto her. She blocked it with her own sword and the force of the blow sent a shockwave that rattled the buildings nearby. The GOUF activated its thrusters and started pushing the Blue Frame back.
Shinonome activated her own thrusters in response pushing the GOUF back; she knew her MS had a lot more power than the old GOUF model. Sparks of light flew between the two mobile suits as their swords clashed. Then the GOUF shut off its engines and Shinonome tripped and fell forward, and the GOUF used the momentum to roll over the Astray. The GOUF boost jumped over her and swung its sword right through the main camera right down to the right shoulder joint, cutting the head in half and removing its right arm. " I can't see, damn it," Shinonome yelled. Her mobile suit soon fell to the ground as the GOUF proceeded to cut off its legs. She activated the secondary camera only to see the edge of the Anti-Ship Sword right in her face.
" I win," she heard the boy say over the speaker.
"What's your name," she asked.
"Apollo," he replied, "I hope we meet again." The GOUF then flew off into the horizon.
Reina was surprised, "so this is a great story, but what does that have to do with Apollo's motivation for sacrificing himself."
"The point is that at that moment he knew the odds were stacked against him, its no easy feat to try and take down several of us, and that he put himself in harms way in order to insure that his friends wouldn't be harmed," she explained, "I guess the tragedy he suffered early in his life changed him, he places the value of life very highly, and I think that's something we lose as we go through the academy. We're just told to follow orders for the greater good, but never to weigh the cost of our own actions. He will always choose even against his own better judgment and against what anyone else tells him, to take action in a way that benefits everyone. " Shinonome went out for a brief moment and came back with a package. It appeared to be labeled with Apollo's name, but it was labelled "Apollo Raynorth."
"What is it," Reina asked. She opened the box and saw a mechanical bird inside of it. She touched the power button and the bird came to life. It chirped, "Birdy, Birdy, Birdy."
"While we were discussing the plan on the bridge, Apollo told me in private to hand this to you. He knew that he had nothing else to his name other than this, and as his partner he entrusted you with it." Reina stroked the surface of birds head. Then the bird began flying around the room, it flew up on top of the lamp on her nightstand and perched itself on it. She watched it for a few seconds as it powered down.
Reina stood up and headed to the door, "I'm going to train for a bit, I need to set up the simulator..." Suddenly, Reina felt the strength leave her legs and collapsed. She desperately tried crawling closer to the door.
"I think its best if you rest, Reina, you've had a long day." Shinonome helped her back into the bed.
"But I didn't even do anything. All I did was sat in the cockpit and watched him fly out," she cried, "I need to become stronger just like him. I need to become stronger to do the impossible, to make sure we won't fail." Recalling Apollo's words when they first met. She wiped the tears from her eyes, "even if it means losing a few hours of sleep. I can even fine tune the Parallel's Operating System if I have to, I just need to go." She felt Shinonome's hand reaching out to her and helping her stand up.
"There's a difference between doing what is good and doing what is stupid," Reina replied, "you're choosing the latter right now, please rest." Shinonome helped her back into the bed and watched over her as she fell asleep. "Reina Kimura, now I see why you're considered a prodigy, what a work ethic. The difference between Apollo and you isn't the result of hard work but resolve. I hope you'll find that soon." Shinonome walked out of the room and headed up to the bridge. There she was greeted by the captain and found a seat in one of the observation desks.
"Captain, so what is the situation," she asked. She crossed her fingers hoping for the best.
He turned his chair towards Shinonome. "We are now at Mars, The exit of the rift conveniently spat us out back into our solar system," the captain informed, "Nina, you can explain the rest to her. I'm not fit to give the most technical explanations about our current status."
"Yes, sir. Shino-san, we have reached our destination, but we've tried connecting to the Mars Resupply Station, but there is no response."
"So does that mean that the Grey Matter even got this far, or...," Shinonome replied absolutely puzzled.
"Let me finish, there are several ways to explain our current situation. Since the rift didn't take us somewhere else in space, it is possible that the rift was theoretically a quantum tunnel. A type of anomaly that is like a wormhole but instead of bending the space in between us and its final destination it bent the time between us and our final destination. There's also the other possibility that we've traveled to our same timeline but in a Parallel Universe."
"Parallel Universe?"
"One that's exactly like our own, but was created in response to different decisions being made," Science Officer Nina replied, "a Parallel Universe."