If there was one word to describe her situation, it was "fucked"; if there were two words, it would be "fucked up"

Rayet woke up on the floor somewhere. Obviously, she wasn't outside, like she last remembered herself. The outside didn't have floors, or soft humming when you laid your head against it. And equally obviously, the harsh lighting was even more indication that something was, indeed, fucked up.

Slowly, and wincing at the pain that shot throughout her shoulder as she tried to sit up, she got more and more of a view of the room that she was in. Bland, with no real furniture, nor any indicator of where she was, asides from 'not outside'. Just her, wrapped in her coat, and her rifle nowhere to be seen.

"Fuck," she whispered to herself, stripping herself of her coat that was still wrapped around her shoulders, dropping it to the floor.

She stood up, squeezing her eyes shut against the pain in her shoulder. It wasn't as bad this second time using it. As she did, more and more did the memories of what had happened in the Forests of Cascadia come flowing back into her mind. The gunfight, and the feeling of her shoulder splintering into pieces as she was shot. She didn't quite remember what had happened after that point, but it was pretty obvious that she either blacked out, or was knocked out, and that's how she ended up here. Which, for all intents and purposes; was almost certainly a Martian Landing Castle.

The question then became, "where the fuck was she?" The idea of being captured didn't exactly make her feel all giddy inside, although there was some benefit to having been brought in, away from the elements and the cold. Although she wasn't pleased that she had been brought indoors somewhere, against her will.

She paced the room, looking around, for some indication where she was, whether she was in orbit, or still on the surface somewhere.

She was sure that the closest Landing Castle, was the one in Calgary, the one that landed during Operation Earthfall. Meaning that she had either been taken towards Calgary, and was still on the surface somewhere; or she was in Orbit. It seemed unlikely that the Martians would tote her halfway across the planet just because they captured her here otherwise.

It didn't take long for her to realize that there was something else wrong with the room either; that there was no water or food. And taking into account when she last figured she ate or drank water; and the fact that she had no idea how long she was out — she didn't figure that the desire to drink water was going anywhere any time soon. Considering she figured she was a prisoner, rather than a guest — that this was a tactic to get her to talk under interrogation.

She sighed, not being entirely sure what to do with her time.

Rather than sit down again, she paced the perimeter of the room, doing her best to not stare into the lights that were implanted in the floor.

She realized, after several moments, that there was gravity here.

Which to the outside observer, was an obvious statement. Of course there was gravity here, it was what was keeping her firmly against to the floor. However, she thought back, as best she could, to the high school textbooks she would read instead of going to school like other girls her age. The idea of standing on the inside of a rotating cylinder, and what it would be like to stand inside one. She had never been inside a Martian Landing Castle before, but had only seen the ones from the Deucalion — back when she was still aboard it. Unfurled like a black metallic flower, with a glowing-green stem at the middle, a sickly sight against the night sky of the Earth.

But what did it look like in Orbit? She hadn't the slightest.

She was confident, however, that they didn't have gravity generators. After all, the only machine of Martian property had been their Kataphract, the Deucalion — which had been stripped of parts and its gravity generators incorporated into the UFE Deucalion.

Meaning that there was some kind of physics trick going on here, allowing her feet to stay firmly planted on the ground. She went over to her coat, digging through its pockets for something like a rock, or a pebble that might have been picked up during her gunfight.

She found something that would work even better for her intents, a single bullet casing from her rifle, somehow having made its way into her coat's pocket. A bit of brass that would be good enough for her task for it.

She stood up again, and took the bullet between her fingers, before flicking it into the air above her.

It twirled up into the air straight above her, but when it took its path back towards the floor, did it twirl in a direction she couldn't figure out why, landing anywhere else other than her waiting hand.

"Huh." She said, looking at the casing as it rolled around on the floor, eventually moving the meter or so towards it, to pick it up again.

It hadn't behaved like she thought it would. Which confirmed something that she suspected.

She wasn't on Earth anymore. Which sent a thrill of mixed joy and fear down her spine.

Rayet was asleep when the door to her cell opened. The noise was enough to wake her up, and she scrambled up from her laying position, leaving her coat balled up on the floor, having served its purpose as a pillow well enough.

From the door entered two soldiers, brandishing rifles at chest level, but not aiming at her, which struck Rayet as more of a show of force than force itself. Behind them, from the harsher light of the hallway, strode a young man, one who was adorned in a burgundy outfit, and black dress boots. His blond hair and striking blue-green eyes spoke to her of something that she didn't quite place.

Behind him, stood another Martian, one wearing the red-trimmed-black that befit someone of a lower station than the blond young man who stood before her, flanked by the rifle-brandishing men.

"Apologies for disturbing you, Miss."

Rayet scowled. Her eyes flicked between the two riflemen. Not being sure what exactly to say in response to the Young Man.

"I can't imagine you're in much of a talking mood, Miss." He had taken note of her scowl in the direction of him and his soldiers. "I apologize for your treatment, I wasn't aware that you were being treated so unjustly. If you would like, you may accompany me to dinner, and we can have a chat in a more friendly place than a prison cell."

Rayet, scowled, but following the Young Man out of the room, was appropriately flanked by the riflemen.

She followed him through the Landing Castle, and to a state room, where a small table was set, food and water waiting for each of them. The day or two of being stuck in the cell alone, made her mouth water when the smell of the food hit her nose.

She held her ground and resisted the urge to just dive into eating, and instead sat down as politely as she could, despite the scowl that she had on her face.

As they sat, and the young man unfurled a cloth napkin, and set it out as would be expected from someone of class, he smiled as he watched Rayet immediately gulp down mouthfuls of water. The water, of which, felt like the most hydrating drink that had ever passed her lips.

"I truly am sorry, Miss…" Slaine sighs, "I'm sorry, I don't think I caught your name."

Rayet wiped the water from the corner of her mouth on her sleeve. "Why should I tell you?"

Slaine smiled, and took the fork and knife in hand, and started cutting up whatever meat it was that was on his plate. "Because I asked nicely?"

Rayet scoffed, looked at the pitcher of water, and then back up at the Young Man. "I'm Rayet… And you?"

"Slaine Troyard."

At the mention of the name Troyard, Rayet laughs. A hearty, true laugh that came from deep within her belly and heart at the hilarity of it all. At the situation she was now in, the fact that she was a prisoner of the one man in the universe that probably had any idea of what it would be like to live the life that she had lived before the Second Heaven's Fall.

Slaine cocks his head ever so slightly at the reaction.

"Apologies for laughing, Master Troyard." Rayet said, stifling another laugh as the words came from her mouth. They sounded so silly compared to anything she was used to saying.

"Count." Slaine corrected her.

Rayet didn't feel her legs or uninjured arm move in spite of the correction, but she had practically sprung across the table, butter knife in hand as she lunged at Slaine, sending food and plates sprawling and spiraling across the table. Blood-rage coursing behind her eyes and racing in her chest. The rage that propelled her wasn't anything that was of Earth. It was solely her own. A rage that came from deep inside her and came from the knowing of who this man was that sat so serenely before her. How could he, a man who had given up the splendor of his planet, and left it behind for the dust-bowl that was Mars.

He stopped the knife with uncanny strength, grabbing the blade just inches away from his open hands. His face not changing from the serene look that was across his face despite the lack of smile.

"I see you know my name."

"Fucking bastard!" She hissed at him, trying to apply more force, putting her other injuredf arm onto the hilt of the blade, sending shocks of pain up her arm. She didn't pay any attention to the two men aiming their rifles at her back. "How dare you leave Earth behind for a shithole!"'

Slaine blinks at this. Genuinely perplexed at the statement. "I think you have me misunderstood, Miss Rayet. I didn't leave Earth behind for a 'shithole'. Vers is a grand empire—"

"Vers took everything from me." She hissed. Tears threatening to spring from her eyes as she gave the blade another near half-hearted thrust because of the pain in her shoulder. "My father believed in the cause until the very last! He should've been a knight!"

Slaine raises his eyebrow at this. "Was your father of Vers?"

"He was the one who tried to assassinate the Princess!"

Slaine feels his own grip on the blade tighten, an involuntary reaction… Had he not snuffed out the last of the traitors among the Orbital Knights? Was this girl, hiding among the Terrans beneath his feet all along, truly the last person to know the truth about what had happened that day?

However in hell did the Council expect Jessamine to come up with a team for a reconnaissance mission down to the surface, involving a few cities, and the cities along the way — was beyond her. She had seen the world as it was and had been in its abandonment, left behind by those who, until the day prior, had lived their lives in ignorance, bliss; and then broken by those who had sought the last vestiges of Terran life be wiped from the land and replaced instead by their own order. She found it hard to believe that there was anyone else on the station, much less in Space at all who was Terran-born and wanted to go back to see the Earth in its broken, disjointed state.

She, however, was spending her time well while she was biding it, with a lightly-spiked drink in one of the officer-lounges-turned-cafés that dotted the inner rings of the Armistice Station. She thought about the number of people she knew aboard the station, and realized that it was fairly few and far-between. Mostly the service staff that had been brought aboard station to take care of those who were aboard station, largely civilians, but a few military liaisons were among those on the station. And then of course, herself — who had been propelled to the station of UFE Intelligence Officer.

She sighed, leaning back in her chair, and lightly stirring her straw in her drink, watching as the colors of the drink spun about in the transparent cup, creating spirals like aurora, something that she had never seen in person but had seen pictures and videos online and in her studies.

"You okay, Miss Ainzel?" A voice asked from across the café.

Jessamine turned to look at the owner of the voice, and realized who it was in short order. A woman who she kept crossing paths with, and no doubt was starting to become in of a little bit fond of. Granted, the list of people who knew her, and felt comfortable enough to use her first name, much less knew it at all was fairly small, meaning that Jessamine knew who it was both by virtue of knowing the voice's sound and also by process of elimination.

She took a breath in again, and turned to look at who it was that had said her name; "I'm fine, Miss Kaizuka."

"Yuki." Yuki corrected. "Just call me Yuki."

"You can call me Jessamine then. No need for the formality." Jessamine made a motion towards the chair on the other side of her table that said 'you can come sit over here you know', and Yuki nodded knowingly and made her way over from the bar-style counter and over towards Jessamine's table. "Bored out of your mind too?"

"In a manner of speaking." Yuki gave a small smile at this, a sad smile that made Jessamine wonder what she was thinking about. "Just waiting for my permission to leave."

"To go back to the Deucalion?" Jessamine asked, taking a sip from her drink.

"No," Yuki traced her finger along the rim of her mug of tea. "My commander told me I could stay with my brother."

Jessamine nodded, knowing who Inaho was. The god of the battlefield, a Kataphract pilot unlike any other, the one who had been one of the sole units that had been able to keep up with the fight that the Martians had brought to Earth's surface from beyond the atmosphere. A new type of soldier, unparalleled on the Martian or Terran side, being able to deftly run through the battlefield. A young man unprecedented in his ability to control his KG-6 Sleipnir against the Martians and was able to single handedly (or something close to it), defend the Deucalion against several attacks by Martian Orbital Knights, and their Kataphracts.

He was also Yuki's little brother.

"He still aboard Luna-2?"

Yuki nodded. "They're still keeping him in a coma, letting his brain try and repair itself."

"I can't imagine." Jessamine set down her drink, watching momentarily as the aurora span in its cup, before looking back up at Yuki.

"I'm sure you could… I'm sure you saw a lot of stuff down there. I know I did."

Jessamine smiled ruefully at this. Knowing that there were unspeakable things that she had seen down there, and likely would continue to see since she had been deputized (or something closer to being drafted) and assigned to go down to the planet again, this time with an actual mission. Actual objectives that would direct how she would go about existing on the surface again. She wasn't sure she was entirely prepared to possibly see things that weren't too difficult to articulate to anyone. In that respect, even though she had never seen fighting in the same way that she knew Yuki had and had also detailed to the council, the two shared that kind of sisterhood.

"I saw you during my meeting." Yuki commented, referring of course to her own meeting in front of the Armistice Council, where she had given her account of her brother's abilities but also the current state of him. "I appreciated seeing someone at least somewhat familiar."

"Don't mention it," Jessamine said, "I sit in on a lot of meetings these days." She waved her hand dismissively.

"But that doesn't mean that I don't appreciate it." Yuki pointed out.

"Fair."

"But it means a lot to see some kind of friendly face."

"Well, if it means anything, I'll be happy to show up to the next one you're at." Jessamine picked up her drink, turning her eyes from Yuki's glance. Something about the way Yuki would look at her made her feel strange. Maybe it had just been so long since she'd last had a friend. "Not like I've got anything better to do in the meantime."

"'Meantime'?" Yuki asked.

"I've been deputized." She spoke calmly, trying to not think too hard about the mission that she had been given. "Going to be going back down to the surface to do some information gathering."

"Information Officer?" She took a sip from her tea, "Not exactly going to be a pleasure trip, I imagine." She said sarcastically.

"No, not really. But I need to find a team if I don't want to be hoofing it through the ruins of New Orleans alone." Jessamine shrugged.

"Want a warm body?" Yuki said, almost shockingly. Jessamine about gaped at this, and the aforementioned feelings came back in droves this time.

"You do realize that this isn't going to be a pleasure cruise, right?" Yuki gave a shrug like 'sure, and?', "Fair enough, I suppose. If you want in, I'll figure out how to get you in on this… But how about your brother?"

Yuki blinked, and then smiled smally. "He's in a coma, I can't exactly take care of him any better than the nurses and doctors that are taking care of him now."

"Fair enough." Jessamine took another sip from her drink. It wasn't hard for her to follow the logic behind that, even if it meant being separate from her brother, it wouldn't be that much different than spending time in his hospital room; considering he wasn't cognizant or responsive either way. "Can I ask something?"

"Go for it." Yuki said, setting down her tea.

"Why do you want to go back to Earth?" Jessamine asks the question casually, like she hasn't just asked a philosophical bombshell.

Yuki doesn't take very long, maybe a few seconds at most to think of her answer; almost like she already had the answer all the while, and was simply waiting for the question to be asked instead. "Because I want to see it again."

"That's not a cheery answer." Jessamine half-scoffs.

"Did you expect one?" Yuki picks up her tea, swirls it around in a motion with her wrist, and then takes a sip from it. Jessamine shrugs at the question. "Its not like I'm expecting to die out here one day, but its also like this; I've seen a lot of my comrades in arms die. Meaningless, futile deaths against forces that we can't control, nor could the average person conceptualize how. Deaths that aren't natural… If me going back to Earth not only helps me see the planet again, but also helps this war come to an end where more people I know don't have to die meaningless deaths? That's all the better."

4