-Chapter 4, Preparation

"Jesus Christ, this has been a day! First the nightmares, and then the babysitting, and now this?! Can't a girl catch a break around here?" Sam struggled to fend off the blinding fury of the girl with the white hair's attack. With her missiles expended already, Sam was mostly down to hand-to-hand, as well as a few remaining shots from her shoulder-mounted gauss cannon. "Go away!" she screamed as she parried one of the girl's blows. She was dressed in the same futuristic armour as the rest of the AST unit, with her pale skin disrupting the familiar grey in some places; most notably her stomach.

"Never!" the girl growled back, swinging her green laser sword in a blazing, yet still controlled, rage.

"Heads up, Sam!" yelped the tumbling Princess as she barrelled helplessly towards them.

Sam perked up at the sound of her name, and just managed to jump out of the way. The other girl, however, didn't see her in time, and was wiped-out by Princess' momentum.

Sam gaped. "What the-?!"

"No talk time! Fight, now!" she replied before speeding back off for revenge. She had technically just gotten Sam out of what could have been a stalemate, but she didn't want to admit that.

Struggling, her armour (and pride) dented, the girl rose. "You...damn...Spirit! Rargh!" She made to dash after Princess, but before she could, Sam put her arm across her chest. She scowled at Sam for that. "Unhand me, filth. You're just on the same level as them."

Sam recoiled. "Filth?"

"The Spirits! You choose to help them, after seeing for yourself what they cause! Destruction, death, violence! It's all because of them!" She hyper-ventilated with anger. Not solely directed at Sam, but partially enough to make her feel queasy.

"What are you talking about?"

"You could never understand! What it's like to lose everything to these monsters!" she shrieked.

But, to Sam's surprise, it did resonate with her somewhat. She had once lost everything important to her. Four years ago… So much so, in fact, that she did take her hand away, and she did let it fall back down to her side. "I… What do they tell you…in the AST?"

But she was left without an explanation, and in the very literal dust, as the girl took the slightest window she was given and went after the purple Spirit. At first, Sam was stumped. Stopped in her tracks. "Why does she hate them so much...?" She seemed to objectify all of them as the same entity, without any regard for uniqueness. But then, Sam flipped it on its head. "Why don't I?" She bounced the question around inside her head, searching for an answer, until she finally came up with one. "It's because I talked to one… Saw her for what she was worth as a person. Nothing more or less…" Sam whispered that, letting it flow out of her subconscious and into her ears. She believed that.

Then, as she looked back up, and saw the girl chasing after her Spirit friend, she realised what she had to do. Not now, but later. Definitely later.

For now, though, she lined up a shot using the cannon on her shoulder, spun up the magnets, and let the round fly. It punched through the green shield of the white-haired girl's territory, then into her armour, knocking her out of the sky and leaving a thin smoke trail, the sight of which forced the AST squadron leader to order a retreat, much like what had happened every other time. Still, though, Sam needed to get that girl's name. Perhaps Kotori would know.

Princess let out a breath as Sam approached. "You know, it turns out all that showing off earlier actually paid off!" She stretched and clicked her back, still trying to loosen it from where she had been battered by a couple of units that had been pretty adept, especially compared to what either of them had been faced with before, which was, in one word: bad. However, when she saw Sam's face, she dropped the attitude. "What is it?"

Sam was too lost in her own thoughts to hear the question, and only after it being repeated twice, did she finally respond, "That girl, the one you knocked over, I need to talk to her."

Princess was confused. "Why?"

"Because…because we're more similar than she thinks."

Cocking her head and still confused, waiting for some clarification, Princess looked at Sam.

She sighed, and turned away. "Never mind."

Sam had her face in her palms, her legs swinging under Kannazuke's desk and a soft breath seeping out through her lips. "Ugh, Shido… It's not that hard! You date the Spirits, seal their magic and save their lives. Not difficult." She watched the boy struggle with the concept again and again as Kotori tried to explain it.

"Look, bro, it's not that difficult," Kotori started for, according to Sam's counting, the ninth time. "All you have to do is-"

Shido swiped his hand through thin air, cutting his sister off. Sixth time that's happened too. "I get it, okay? Date the...Spirits; seal their...magic; Save their lives. I get it! I just don't get why I have to do it! I don't get why this exists!" He gestured round at the bridge of the ship. "I don't get why you're involved!" He gestured at Kotori. "And I don't get why I need a bodyguard!"

Sam gave him a two-finger salute. "Yo."

Shido looked at her for a second, and remembered earlier that day. "Okay, maybe I do on that last one," he corrected.

Kotori shook her head disapprovingly. "Shido, we need you. I don't know why it has to be you, but I just got lucky in figuring it out, and as it turns out, you have a special ability."

"To seal a Spirit's power?"

"Yes."

Shido took a deep breath, then exhaled again. "Why can't you use..."

"Samanya. Field operative Samanya," she offered.

"Yeah, why can't you use Samanya? She seemed to be doing just fine earlier on her own," he said.

Kotori, again, shook her head. "No. Sam is a very temporary measure. You're the only long-term solution we have."

Shido sat down, and held his chin in his hands. "And why should I?"

His sister reached forwards and placed a slim hand on his head. "Don't you want to help the Spirits?"

Then, as Shido gazed back up at his sister, and he opened his mouth to say, "No." Sam doubled over.

It was like a shotgun to her stomach, and within seconds of feeling it, she completely fainted.

"What…out there…?"

"I'm…sure. She…fainted and…up…"

"Whatever...was, make...never happens again..."

The black space, that Sam was just waking up to, forcefully ripped itself out from under her.

Sam shot bolt upright on the bed as soon as consciousness returned to her, and by the sterile-clean walls and pure-white beds, she very quickly located herself within The Fraxinus' sickbay. Relieved, she gently laid her head back onto the pillow. "Ugh. Why have I got a bad feeling that this is going to become a regular occurrence..." She held the back of her hand to her forehead. She was burning up. The springs squeaked as she sank a little more into the mattress, and she let nothing but her gentle breathing fill the silence. The soft yellow of the sun cast in through the window at the end and bathed the room in its glow. A light, simulated wind passed over her face and gently brushed her cheek. The clock on the wall told her that just over sixteen hours had passed while she was out, and that it was now the early morning of the eleventh.

Sam groaned and swung her feet over the side, planted them on the cold floor, and shakily stood up. "Wow…I feel like crap," she said as she stumbled into the wall. She fought to stand back up and locked her legs beneath her. She was stable at last. "Right, now that I've regained the ability to stand up, apparently, let's get some clothes on."

Fifteen minutes later, the left-side door to the bridge slid open with a soft hiss and Sam stepped through. Kannazuke noticed her entrance, and gave a quick greeting, but Kotori was nowhere to be found. Then, out of the corner of her eye, Reine Murasame, the woman in her thirties and always adorned with a small brown teddy bear, who had been with Kotori in the Chemistry preparation room during their talk yesterday, she caught her glaring at Sam. However, once Sam noticed, she quickly looked away. "That's...troubling," she mused under her breath.

She didn't think about it again while she asked Kannazuke what happened, been told that he had no clue aside from what Sam herself already knew, and that Hinata was in her workshop if she wanted him, until she saw the exact same expression as she went to leave. It sent a chill dancing down her spine.

"What are you doing in here, then?" Sam asked as she entered the ship's workshop, that she had quickly claimed as her own after she noticed that seemingly no-one else used it.

Nat jumped off the workstation and hugged the girl. "Sam? Are you okay? You just collapsed!"

Sam smiled and returned the favour. "I-I don't know. It felt like I was punched or something, then I was gone after that." She chuckled guiltily as Nat rubbed her back.

"Well, you're better now, right?" he asked.

"Mmm, I'm fine," came the reply. "Now, answer me. What are you doing in here?" she repeated as she peeled away from his embrace and strode further into the space. She always felt a sense of nostalgia upon coming back here.

"Well," he started, "I was snooping around and looking at all your old prototypes and plans; seeing if there was anyway I could help you out there."

"Out on the field?" she queried.

"Yeah. It's all well and good being the voice in your ear, but I was thinking...I don't know...that I could be down there helping you, or something."

Sam rolled her shoulders and neck as she played with the idea in her head. "Ahhh, I don't… Have you ever even been in a fight before?"

Nat was sheepish as he said, "N-no..."

Sam sighed. "Then, as your friend, I can't let you be down there with me. It's way too dangerous."

"Oh, come on, Sam! I'm not a baby! I can fend for myself," he complained.

"Yes, but, you have no armour, weaponry or training. I do."

"And that's where you come in!" Nat grabbed her shoulders. "Teach me! Train me! Build me a suit like yours and some weapons to boot! You won't regret it."

Sam grimaced awkwardly and moved her head back. "I mean…if you really really really want to..."

Nat nodded firmly. "I do."

Reluctantly, Sam said, "Fine. I'll train you. But you won't like it."

"You'd do that for me?"

"Sure...I would."

He hugged her tightly. "Thank you, Sammy."

"Come back to me after your first mission, and then tell me if you're still thankful," She replied.

Nat grinned mischievously. "Okay."

Later that day, Sam and Kotori were explaining Shido's training to him. "Everyone getting trained today," she joked inside her head.

"I have to play a dating game?" Shido questioned, totally dumbfounded.

"Y-yes..." Kotori replied.

"And then I have to ask out my homeroom teacher?"

"That's what I said, yes."

"And that's it?"

"Well, we might test you out on some of your other friends too-"

"Test me out?! I'm not a lab rat!"

"I mean, you kinda are," Sam commented.

Shido tilted his head in her direction. "Not helping."

Sam put her hands up in surrender, before Shido turned away again.

"Look, I know it may seem trivial, but there is some science behind this. And it's one Ratatoskr themselves have made, so it's entirely topical," Kotori explained as she wrenched control of the conversation back under her.

"Meaning…?" Shido replied.

"Meaning it's not a waste of time."

"That remains to be seen."

"Sam, shut up!" Kotori snapped.

"Right, right, sorry. Please continue."

"Look, this is what we're doing, end of story. Got it? Me, Sam and Reine will talk you through the whole process, and then we can go after the Spirits. You'll have Sam as your bodyguard for when things go south, and the full power of the Fraxinus behind your every action. You'll do fine."

He let out a long breath. "Fine. I don't really have a choice, do I?"

"Nope!" Kotori cheered.

"So, it's settled then?" Sam asked while she played a bang around her finger.

"Yeah, it's settled." Shido held a hand out to Sam, which she then took and firmly shook.

"Keep my job simple by not getting yourself killed, will you?" She said.

Shido, however, didn't bite. "No promises."

"Hey, you two, play nice."

They both looked towards Kotori. Sam smirked playfully, but Shido simply looked away with subtle embarrassment.