Trials And Lies
Chapter 12
AN: And I don't own Gundam SEED or any of its counterparts.
Also shout out to Voltage Axe (this awesome guy has a ton of awesome fics, go check it out) and TheFirstOfMany for their awesome support, as well as others anonymous out there.
Cosmic Era 75
"-mbers is not a problem. We just need to distract them," a familiar female voice rang into Lacus' ears as she groaned, her body feeling stiff like an un-oiled robot. The air was musty and damp, with the prevalent stench of mildew hanging about as Lacus took in her first few breaths since she went out cold. Opening her eyes, she squinted against a lone flickering light source that barely lit the dirty rundown room, revealing two figures that sat by her side as concrete dust fell from the ceiling due to what seemed like occasional tremors from outside.
"Miss Clyne, you're finally awake," another familiar figure. This time going back years. Martin Da Costa, once a skilled subordinate of the Desert Tiger, stood up with a smile on his face which was dirty with grime and dressed in what seemed like makeshift combat gear.
Lacus tried to get her head wrapped around what was going on, just like the bandage that was around her head. Returning the smile, she greeted Martin before turning to Karmen who was seated by the side of the bed that she was on. Lacus quickly remembered what transpired before she totally blacked out back on the Archangel, and something in her heart wasn't sitting right with the way things were. They were obviously no longer on the aforementioned warship.
"Karmen? Where is Kira?" was the first thing that she asked the noirette soldier, unconsciously gripping her blanket as another tremor shook the bare room again, harder this time.
Commander Valkyrie, still with that unsettling smile plastered on her pale face, tried diverting the question, asking Lacus how she felt to which the former songstress quickly waved her off with a frown on her face. Martin tried to calm her down by saying that she needed to keep her health in check despite the ongoing circumstances of the world, but she didn't want none of it and instead protested by swinging her legs quickly to the side of the bed and standing up shakily before Karmen tried pushing her back down gently.
"Please, Miss Clyne. Everything is under control. Commander Yamato isn't hurt in any way, I can assure you-!"
"Something happened...right?"
"You must understand, we are doing this to make sure you-!" Lacus caught a glance of a remote control at the side of her bed, before quickly grabbing it and turning the television in the room on, effectively shutting her soldier up. Maybe it was convenient timing, or maybe it was replayed to prove a point, but what Lacus saw almost made her fall into a state of shock that could send her back to her deep sleep.
The old television, with static ruining the video and audio reception from bad signal, was portraying the destruction of the Terminal's flagship. Lacus' personal pink support ship, the Eternal, was reportedly captured by Librarian Works and driven fatally to its doom against the PLANT Capital colony, Aprilius One. Fortunately, at least, no one was killed in the ensuing blast, though Lacus knew there was significance behind it. It was a sign, a signal by Conrad in an effort to bring down her morale, to effectively send a message that seemed analagous to driving the sharpest knife down her throat.
'You are dead, you just don't know it yet.'
It made her heart shrink, but more than anything, it made THE Lacus Clyne pissed off than she was before. Adding that to the fact that she slept for who knows how long, the young woman was a walking grenade waiting for another incident to pull her pin and explode in whoever's face was unlucky enough to be there. If she was lucky, it would be the Voskhod-3's Commander. Lacus slammed the remote control against the table where she picked it off from and with furious eyes, stood up with Karmen's swift unyielding assistance before walking for the door at the other end.
"How long was I asleep for, Commander?" Lacus asked in a hurried and business-like fashion as she opened the squeaky door to a hallway, sunlight filtering through torn blinds that once decorated the now shattered windows and the stench of napalm fumes thick in the air, "And where are we?"
"Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Ma'am," Martin voiced out as he showed her the way through the exit of the building they were in, which to Lacus, apparently was a hospital before everything in this region went to hell. They shortly came through a short corridor that led to a balcony, overlooking the entire area around, "And...you've been asleep for-!"
Before the answer came, a long swathe of explosions lined the area a few kilometers from them as they watched the already crumbling and desolate city take further beatings from a squad of aerial bombers high in the sky. Lacus Clyne placed her hands on the parapet of the hospital balcony as she watched locals in the same outfit as Martin's makeshift gear, lugging rifles around the area under cover. She was amazed to watch these Naturals, that despite the overwhelming odds, they still find a way to survive based on skills and knowledge alone, no genetic modifications.
"Move it, idiots! We need the south side covered!" the men below cried out, their accent quickly noticeable by Lacus to be those of the Japanese which was, needless to say, peculiar. Karmen quietly wrapped her dirt-stained combat jacket around Lacus as a way to keep her partially camouflaged among the rubble of the building they were in, seeing that she was still in her defiled Council kimono-esque outfit.
"Karmen, we're out of time. We need to move," Martin sounded out as they proceeded quickly down a slope of destroyed walls and property by the balcony, a bloodied teddy bear catching Lacus' eyes as they slowly approach the foot of it, "Our forces are losing ground as we speak."
"Beijing already sent their reinforcements?" Karmen continued, surprise not in her voice even though knowing that the same state she mentioned was literally wiped off the map of Earth after Junius 7's Break The World incident.
Karmen and Martin went on ahead engrossed with their discussion, while Lacus fell behind noticing dead bodies littered around the demolished streets. Bodies of children and women were also in sight, which meant the location was attacked without so much as a warning.
Lacus dusted off the bloodied teddy bear she saw earlier, her heart cringing in sorrow as she imagined what happened to its loving owner. An unethical and unrestrained preemptive strike was one of the signature moves of the Visotoniki, which sparked a thought in Lacus that she found really disturbing pertaining to her earlier question.
"Karmen! Martin-!" Lacus was about to call out to them but they were no longer in sight among the rubble of apartment homes and shopping stands. She huffed in disappointment before she looked around trying to figure her way back to them. Things were desperate and she understood that. But to leave her behind was...
"Woaaah... Lookie here fellas!" a voice broke the silence at the same time a few sets of footsteps were heard. Lacus quickly turned to look, gripping tightly to Karmen's jacket as a small group of men in the same outfits as the one previously found converged on the defenseless woman.
Lacus' heart skipped a beat as she inspected the men with further details. Armed with smuggled weapons, the men were heavily tattooed, scarred and did not seem to carry the dignity and pride of the people Lacus was used to being around with. She took a step back, feeling with every fiber of her being an impending danger ready to fall on her as the group of five or six men smirked and grinned in what could only be interpreted as corrupted sexual predatory instinct.
It was good to be back in PLANTs, away from the gravity of the Earth and the infinity of its skies. Shiho Hahnenfuss took a deep breath as she sat down on the travelling elevator from the space port of Aprilius One, the colony that recently played tandem in the destruction of the Eternal support ship.
It felt weird to come back without the usual red ZAFT uniform Shiho always wore, and the fact that she's now here with her brother only made it doubly awkward but comforting at the same time. Hopes of returning to their real home now seemed close to slim or nothing, seeing how Conrad was already fully devoted to capturing and controlling the major factions of the world for reasons still unknown to her.
"Shiho? You alright?" the said person turned to look at her with a smile on his face, sliding his phone into the pocket of his casual suit. The younger sister immediately responded with a gentle nod of her head and a smile in return. Sightseeing on the elevator soon came to an end as it reached its destination at ground floor, synonymous to where the PLANT Supreme Council building in the distance was located. It overlooked a marvelous view of lush green grasslands around beautiful organic gardens, a view Shiho always enjoyed during her time with Yzak's squad.
A few ZAFT soldiers came to greet them, before leading them into an armored vehicle to take them to the said location. As she was transferring from the elevator to the vehicle at the exit of the spacious elevator lobby, Shiho saw at the corner of her eyes a person with platinum blonde hair and white ZAFT uniform with Dearka and another group. Her heart skipped a beat as she tried hard to hide behind the collar of her brown coat, but to her disappointment, Yzak had sharper eyes than most in that area.
Yzak quickly ran up to her from the side while Shiho tried her best to act as if she didn't notice, before he grabbed her arm. Shiho hesitated as she turned, looking slowly at Yzak's frowning face which not only displayed anger, but also spelled great disappointment in her decision to defect to the side of the enemy. Shiho tried wresting her arm away from him, and as expected he wasn't letting his former officer go so easily. Dearka, on the other hand, decided it unwise to interfere, quickly bringing his team away from the lobby.
"L-let go, Comman-!"
"I'm not your Commander anymore, Shiho. Why did you leave," he asked first and foremost, with no bush-beating but straight for the root of it the problem.
The young girl did not respond immediately, nor did she planned to, but her face turned instinctively to her current superior who was leaning against the vehicle with his arms across his chest, a stone's throw away. Conrad was smiling as if telling her to take the time to catch up with her former colleague, or maybe it was just a mocking gesture towards Yzak. Either way, Shiho cursed her circumstances in her mind, before turning back to Yzak who already got the situation wrapped in his head, "I don't know about having siblings, Shiho. But a man who kills millions and still smiles like that is not your brother-!"
"What do you know about me?" was all it took for Yzak to flinch and loosen his grip on her arm. Shiho kept on her straight face as she pulled her arm away, "I've been serving under you for more than a few years and the only thing you know about me is that I am a ZAFT soldier, nothing more."
"..." Yzak's mind went blank. He had nothing on his mind to say that could counter what she said because she knew she was right.
In fact, she knew no one, besides Dearka, in ZAFT military who Commander Yzak Joule viewed as more than fellow soldiers. When she was younger and admired the Commander, she studied everything about him like a little girl after her idol. Every single detail committed to memory, which stayed locked up in her heart and never revealed. She thought things would change after she came back from her laboratory job before the Second Bloody Valentine War, but nope. Yzak was still the same old hardass.
"Sometimes," the young girl gave a distant look as she turned a squinting gaze towards the synthetic sunlight, visibly feeling uncomfortable and embarrassed, "I think you don't even look at me as a person, Commander. I was especially hopeful after what happened at Carpentaria that you'd look at me as more than that but... I've had enough. I'm tired of waiting."
Gripping the part of her wrist that Yzak grabbed earlier, Shiho turned on her feet quickly with a downcast look. She felt her heart get lighter after divulging one of her deepest desires in life. Not that it did anything good in her opinion, but at least Yzak knew how she felt and she was thankful for whatever power gave her the chance to do so. Maybe it was her fault for not sending the right messages, but it doesn't matter to her now anymore.
Before she reached the steps down to where Conrad was waiting for her however, Shiho felt a strong tug on her wrist again on the same sore spot. Shiho was stunned for a second as her vision blurred in motion, her body turning by force before being caught by two strong arms. Her eyes went wide with shock and surprise at what was transpiring, her mind going blank as it looked for that one answer to satisfy what seemed like a million different questions.
"I've lost alot of people in this war, Shiho," Yzak's voice, filled with warmth and sincerity, penetrated into her very soul as her body registered the warmth of his hug, "Say what you will. Lie to yourself if you must...but I'm never gonna lose anyone again. I can't-... I don't want to lose you, Shiho."
Shiho's face literally went red with embarrassment at the Commander's confession. She was confused. What should she do at a time like this? Everything she did after she was clueless of her brother's whereabouts led up to this day...and she was totally lost. Her deeply ingrained habits of being meticulous, detailed and always prepared wasn't able to get her out of this as her mind scattered itself into bits and pieces blown around by a hurricane of swirling emotions.
The young girl was forced to choose between the loyalty to her beloved Brother, or to her only Commander.
Lacus took another step back as the men drew closer to her, tripping over a piece of rubble that caused her to land on her back painfully with a helpless yelp. Before she could react though, one of the men rushed forward with a look of starvation that scared Lacus at her core. She screamed in panic as he grabbed onto her arm roughly while pinning her down with the other.
"W-wait! Help!" Lacus tried struggling against the attacker as he leaned in between her legs, grinning like the scum that he was. The poor girl swung her free arm across the perpetrator's face, a loud sound of a slap clearly heard among the other noises of struggling. This proved to only make Lacus' predicament more dire, as he pressed on his attack before she felt him get lifted off by a powerful force.
The assailant slid across the floor before hitting the side of a destroyed shopping stand, causing buckets and pots to fall on him violently. Lacus quickly sat up and moved further back, looking up at Karmen's pissed off expression, the first of many probably. The helpless girl's heavy breathing soon slowed down as she clutched tightly onto her commando's jacket that she was wearing to the point she was trembling, the horrid warmth of the man still fresh on Lacus' skin.
"K-Karmen!" Lacus cried out, clumsily getting up and hugging the larger woman desperately for protection. Karmen returned the hug before stroking Lacus' head gently, her face still holding a deathly guise. The rest of the tattooed men apparently didn't care about their injured comrade which seemed strange to Lacus' civilized mind as Karmen stepped between Lacus and the gang, leaving the care of the songstress to Martin Da Costa.
"Hey, hey. We could die at anytime, you know?" the one in the front, apparently the squad leader, rested his rifle on his shoulder as he walked up to Karmen and talking to her eye-to-eye, "What's wrong with a little fun and game-!"
"You can have your fun and games if you want, Fubuki 2-6," Karmen violently gripped the face of the leader at arm's length, just revealing his eyes that stared stubbornly into Karmen's, "But the moment you damned Yakuza touch my superior, you'd wish you were born without a stick between your legs."
The other men, apparently from the organized crime group in Japan, laughed at Karmen's threat as if she was joking. The leader swatted Karmen's strong grip with his rifle, looking at her now with the same grin they had earlier for Lacus. Martin placed a hand on Lacus' shoulder, hinting at her to keep going and leave Karmen to what she had to do. Lacus refused to budge.
"Karmen! What are you doing?" the question came from the former Chairwoman, but the answer was immediately conveyed as the female commando unzipped her combat vest and dropped it down absent-mindedly before proceeding to unbutton her top. Could things get any worse? In place of Lacus, Karmen would surrender her own body to take the brunt of being sexually violated as a method for peacemaking. Lacus didn't know how or why, but they were now allies with criminal syndicates and underground organizations that hold questionable reputations. Were things that dire? How long was Lacus asleep for?
"You men and your insatiable lust. If this is what you desired, all you needed to do was ask," Karmen grinned widely as her eyes narrowed, her words coated in a way that conveyed her forbidden sultry nature, "Don't blame me if you can't feel your legs when this is over."
"Come on, Miss Lacus. We need to go," Martin again pointed the way, before Lacus reluctantly moved as she looked back at the group.
Lacus couldn't believe what the hell just happened. One of the strongest and most skilled soldier at her beck and call was going to be brutally violated and the only thing she could do was look on. Martin gave a worried glance to Lacus as they came out of the streets and into what seemed to be a subway entrance. It appeared to be a sort of base of operations as she watched the same type of men running around. Martin seemed afraid of letting her see the truth of what was happening down here.
As they moved in deeper into the makeshift base with a few heavily armed guards, Martin explained how him and the rest loyal to her were moving around and making contact with organizations that suffered attacks from Conrad's ilk, ranging from the widely renowned NGO-for-tech-salvation Junk Guild and the independent mercenary group Serpent Tail to the criminal organizations like the Chinese Triads, Japanese Yakuza and the Korean Geondal.
"Martin..." Lacus halted in her steps as she gave a forlorn look at her loyal soldier, "How long was I out? What happened to Cagalli and Kira?"
"...Lady... Lady Cagalli was rescued before she tried to drown herself together with the Akatsuki in the Pacific. Kira Yamato on the other hand...he-!"
"Huh, you're the 'great' Lacus Clyne?" a Chinese man interrupted before he walked down to them dressed in a full black suit with a pair of bodyguards with him, the burning cigarette resting on his lips causing Lacus to consciously control her breath, "You look skinnier than when you were on TV. Your chest is as impressive as ever though."
"Miss Lacus, this is Mr. Jiang, the leader of the Triads branch for this area," Martin introduced the seemingly lighthearted man, which in return Lacus greeted Jiang with a smile. She wasn't really comfortable having a face to face conversation with a man that directs prostitution, drugs and illegal activities, but Lacus understood perfectly well of the situation and adapted.
"I'm sure you're just as shocked as I am that we're on a date together against the same enemy," he started as he snuffed out his cigarette after dumping it on the floor, "But we owe the Librarian Works a kick in the teeth for killing my men. And we know best we can'd do it alon-!"
"Oi, oi, kuso yaro. I'm sure revenge is the last thing on your mind. You only want the trade rout-!" another person, topless with a Japanese wear tied around his waist came through with a pissed off look, his upper body heavily tattooed like the men that attacked her earlier. Lacus was getting a headache as she placed a gentle hand on her bandaged head. Apparently, the tattooed man was the leader for the Japanese Yakuza.
"Hmph. Mr. Batou, unrefined as always. Your accent though, already pisses me off, pìyǎn," Jiang casually remarked with a sardonic smile.
"Enough. You Japanese and Chinese behaving like little children. We already have enough on our hands," an older gentleman with graying hair sat quietly with a smoking pipe in his hand. Martin shook his head as if for the nth time that day, almost expecting no cooperation between all sides as the last older gentleman introduced himself as Mr. Kim, the head of the Korean Geondal.
The men quietly gathered together at a large table with the world map at the center, the air thick with smoke as Lacus stood quietly at the head of it. Everything seemed sideways for her. Her time in the PLANT Supreme Council, those times during Clyne Faction meetings. It all seemed far away. She missed it dearly.
"Alright," Martin started off as he pulled a board that showed the map of the PLANTs and its orbit, "Here's the plan gentleman. We-!"
"You mock me by calling me a gentleman, Martin," Mr. Batou, the heavily tattooed Yakuza sounded off as he held lightly the sword in his arm.
Anyone could almost hear the whole room sigh.
"As I was saying," Martin continued, "the Kaohsiung Mass Driver is currently under 'repair' by our forces from the Junk Guild, led by a friend of mine, Lowe Guele. They are also providing provisional support by supplying us Mobile Suits for its defense as well as transports."
Lacus was lost and couldn't resist asking. Why the protection and repair of an already destroyed mass driver when they have a bigger fight on the surface? The answer soon came as they got deeper into the plan, that it was only meant to deceive Conrad and his forces into believing that they would take the fight to space when in actual fact, ambush points were being set up to easily eliminate East Asian Republic and EAF forces if they come knocking, while at the same time moving resources around to hidden areas of the globe for bases of operations to prepare for Mobile Suit combat just in case the Freedom drops into orbit.
The young girl's ears perked up to what she heard, somewhat in a state of denial by telling herself she was delusional or delirious. She took a step forward and with a shaky voice, asked the whole room about what she heard.
"I'm sorry, Martin. But I think I heard you wrong," Lacus can't afford to remain in the dark anymore, she needed to know the truth, "You said, we are up against the Freedom?"
Martin choked on what she asked. He looked as if he hoped she wouldn't catch what he said. Mr. Jiang was the first to open his mouth after taking a drag on his cigarette, contributing to the smoke in the room. He seemed as if he perfectly understood what Lacus was going through.
"The supposed ultimatum deadline ended three days ago, young lady. Looks like the Librarians really had a fetish for your young boyfriend and his machine," the Chinese man joked as he kept a cautious look on Lacus, who froze in place, "We're hoping that you'd politely ask him to not kill our people."
Three days... Three... days. Lacus Clyne moved her hands up to her face as if trying to deny what she just heard, gritting her teeth while she digested those two words in her mind. A lot of things can happen in three days. What happened to Cagalli, and the Archangel? What really happened to Kira? So many uncertainties, with such limited time. Lacus was getting exhausted of clawing in the dark.
She finally let her hands drop by her side as she opened her eyes slowly, a few drops of tears rolling down her cheeks before releasing a long sigh that was worth a thousand years of pent up stress. Everything they had planned was laid to waste. Forget desperation, this was already beyond that. Lacus' alliance were now practically on their knees begging for help from the scums of the Earth and the worst thing about it was that she had to accept it as if it was an everyday thing.
Maybe it was getting pointless. Maybe she should just stop and give up. Maybe she should just retire to a beach and forget all this. But one thing was as sure as the rising sun, Lacus was at this point definitely tired of playing around as the good guy. Librarian Works and every single form of formal government that pushed her into the corner will soon realize the wrath that she was going to bring down upon them.
Time flew by quickly as Shiho stared emptily into the distance on the Supreme Council's courtyard as the artificial atmosphere of the Aprilius One colony slowly moved towards dusk. Despite that, she felt really restless and her mind was still in overdrive thinking about what just happened a few hours ago. Yzak's 'confession' seemed to shake her out of stability and forced a newer form of perspective that was incompatible with her current decision.
A new path was open for her, which she was eager to take both, but also fearful of the consequences that may come with it all. Out of nowhere as Shiho was thinking to herself, a voice alerted her before a red apple hit her square on the face, causing a shocked shriek to come from her lips. Conrad laughed as he reacted to her unexpected outburst.
"Oh god, you should've seen your face, Shiho," he claimed as he walked up to her, grabbing the fallen apple, "Hm, its dirty now. Nevermind then."
He quietly wiped it against his suit before taking a bite of the apple, chucking it halfway into his duffel bag the contents of which Shiho determined to be his combat gear. The girl just eyed her brother curiously as he placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, his expression still holding that warm look that he always wore for her ever since she was a kid.
"Conrad..." Shiho's lips moved on its own as if against her will, not wanting to ask what she was about to, "Are you really...you know...you?"
The older male just gave her a quizzical look that sent messages of surprise and confusion. Shiho quickly shook her head and decided to leave the matter altogether. What was she so uncertain about? Was it the fact that she was still thinking about what-ifs? The issue of her brother being called a 'carbon copy' bothering her up till now? Nothing was going to change if she didn't act. For all the good it did, she acted.
"Listen, Shiho. No matter what happens to any of us," Conrad moved in close as he wrapped an arm across her shoulder and around her neck, bringing her as close to him as possible, "You know I'll always love you-goddamnit, Shiho, you know I'm not good with this kind of thing."
Her face burned bright red as she smelled a whiff of his scent that almost made her head spin, reluctantly returning the hug before another figure came up to them and broke the almost heartwarming moment. Kira Yamato watched as Conrad kept a firm hold on his sister, while Shiho just looked away from Kira who was obviously unprepared to see such a scene from the man who plunged the world into a deeper chaos.
"Commander Yamato, nice to see you here," Conrad gave a smirk at the young Coordinator, "I heard Lacus' Syndicate is going to launch an assault on us. I must say, she has more determination than I expected. I'm kind of proud to see the younger generations stepping up to the plate. Too bad its against us."
Kira frowned in contempt as he clenched his fist in control, but he had nothing to say that could possibly present any benefits to Lacus and his cause. Conrad let go of his sister gently before walking to the edge of the courtyard and staring into the setting sun, "PLANTs, Orb and even the Earth Alliance are under my control. There's no way her rag-tag band of misfits and criminals are able to stop the order of the new world. Or at least, that's what I'd want to say. I'm not a poet, Commander, don't look at me that way."
"What is your motive, Conrad? Why-!"
"Because I need you people to realize how stupid it is to run the world with idealism. If it all comes down to ruthless calculus of war and your deaths, if need be, then I'll happily take all that," Conrad turned to look at Kira, holding an almost indescribable expression bordering regret and sorrow, "You'd better prepare the Freedom, Commander. Lacus and her Syndicate are on the move."
Shiho was somehow transfixed on her brother's figure the whole time, and agreed with what he mostly said about the lack of pragmatism in leading a world through blind idealism that Lacus and Cagalli hoped to achieve. Kira shook his head in disbelief as he quickly turned on his heel and left with the same frown that he came with, before a soldier Shiho recognized to be one of Conrad's subordinates came running.
"Commander Conrad, we have an urgent report coming in. The Minerva-Class Battleship Athena and a few of ZAFT's warships have broken off from defense formation and are linking up with the Syndicate's forces that are in orbit."
Conrad calmly looked back to where dusk was starting to fall, "Leave them alone and reorganize the first defense line. As long as the Freedom is with us, they can't do a thing to us. And...Shiho?"
The girl looked up at him with a questioning brow, acknowledging his call to her.
"Thanks...for deciding to stay with me."
Atlantic Federation
United States of America, New York City
Rain was definitely something she can't get used to as she walked down the pavement in her usual dark and dull raincoat, the heavy atmosphere of a bustling ignorant city pissing her off more than anything. If this was what it really was like down here, the young lady would've definitely chose to stay in PLANTs. Despite that, this was her job. A job only she can do and a job no one would dare touch.
"...-tinue raining for the next couple of days due to the arrival of the frigid Arctic air! Be sure to have a coat and an umbrella read-..." even the voice of newscasters was starting to annoy her as she entered an alleyway where a black hummer was waiting with its engine running. The girl smiled under the hood of her raincoat as she crossed the dark and damp alleyway that was littered all over with garbage and dump. Waiting by the car, a figure in heavy armor and armed to the teeth approached to greet her.
"Commander Valkyrie, expecting another world war?" the woman voiced out in a lighthearted tone as she kept on walking towards the daunting vehicle before the Commander opened the door for her. Karmen Valkyrie, as usual, kept on her unsettling grin as she heard the remark.
"Always," the reply came as the cloaked lady moved into the hummer before Karmen did, "Get us moving, Lee."
"Alright, hang on back there!" the hummer roared as it accelerated, the driver Lee racing down the alleyway with skill and precision before coming out into the streets, almost hitting a few people along the way to which strangely neither of the passengers said anything. Karmen slowly pulled out a datapad and passed it to the woman at her side, all the while clutching the pair of dog tags that was attached securely to her vest.
"Dai-lo Han and his men were able to secure trade routes between New York City and Ireland. We can now set up a supply line of weapons and supplies to the Irish Mob. As you said, Atlantic Federation really do guard their secrets heavily," Karmen explained the summary of what was on the pad before the woman looked at her with a puzzled look, "What?"
"You're a Coordinator, Karmen. Calling him 'Dai-lo' is just weird for you," the remark made the commando chuckle and explain it was just a joke, "How is Lady Cagalli?"
"She's as bloodthirsty as ever with the Justice, but she's okay as far as our doctors can tell. Though she's still unable to get over Admiral Zala's death. Its been months. Anyway, we have a two-hour window to get you off-site," Karmen looked at her watch as the driver made a sharp turn into an interstate highway, "The Junk Guild has provided for us a shuttle that would take us to Moscow."
"Don't worry, ladies! I'll get you to the port in just a minute. You owe me a date, Ms. Valkyrie," Lee slyly remarked to which Karmen coldly affirmed that it was just his delusion. The heavy vehicle weaved through the busy highway, causing the hood of the mysterious woman's coat to drop to her shoulders, revealing bright bubblegum pink hair and fierce cerulean eyes. Karmen pulled a genuine smile as she saw the ever radiant face of the determined young woman before continuing on, the shuttle port already in view on the horizon.
"The Syndicate back home will be thrilled to see you again...
...Chairwoman Clyne."
...End...