Ariamis
Simple Unicycle "I see..." Ritsu responded, sorrow painted on her eyes despite her attempt at seeming otherwise. "There will be formal events, including a mourning ceremony and an award ceremony, coming up after we have sorted things around here. But for now, you may use any facilities located here in Troas. Rest up, Cadets. You've earned it. Carry on," she said with a salute, and briskly walked away, wiping something from her face with her sleeve.
Zim had not only survived the carnage, but had made it through with relatively minor injuries. The few cuts that needed attention were wrapped in field bandages, but most of the damage was from sync feedback from the machine. It was in the nerves, it was in Zim's head. These would take specialized equipment to treat, and it would take time for these phantom wounds to heal. But, Zim was a robustly concentrated individual and pushed on through the pain. However, it would do him no good to put off treatment. Once released from the debriefing with Lieutenant Ritsu, Zim would make his way to the selfsame hospital that housed his comrads. He would get checked in and would be put through a scanner to check him over to figure out what ails him and would be given appropriate treatment. Soon enough, however he would be sent back on his way. 'Well, I'm already here, I might just as well check up on everybody,' Zim thought as he worked his way to a desk to ask for their room numbers.
This first person Zim visited was Serah, by virtue of proximity to the desk. He made his way to the proper floor and down the hall until at last he finally found her room number on a digi-display outside the room. Zim entered the room through the open door, knocking gently just to be safe. "Hello, Serah?" Zim called out before entering. He found her in her bed finishing her meal. "Solid food, that's a good sign! How are you holding up?"
"Zshim? Ahm dyoing fayn-" Serah spoke through a stuffed mouth, swallowing the contents down in a single gulp. "The food's teeerrible though! Like, the meat was all dry and the veggies tasted like green baby food... Blegh!" She slammed her tray down on the bedside table next to her and, quite literally, jumped out of the bed. She was still in her plugsuit, mainly because she hadn't actually been physically harmed, and ran over to give the older pilot a hug. She pushed herself away and took a few steps back, a goofy smile on her face like the Serah he got to know.
"Isn't it always, though?" Zim responded to the food, "Do you think they will keep you here long? If so, next time I come by I'll smuggle in some real food for you, how about that?"
"Nah, I'm not actually hurt, see?" Serah cheerfully responded, jumping up and doing a frontflip real quick to demonstrate her point. Unfortunatily, due to the small size of the room, her foot got stuck on an infusion pole in the corner. It messed up her balance and took both her and Zim down to the floor with it. "Ouchouchouch..."
With a solid thud the pair hit the floor, with Zim on the bottom. Hardly anything worth noticing for the pilot who grew up in high gravity. "Yeah, but maybe you should hang out for a day yet." Zim helped her get up off the floor. "We heard what happened in Troas, about Harold, about Atty... Are you aware of the events that happend in Joppa?" He indicated that she should probably sit down.
When Zim mentioned Atty, a sudden sting pierced Serah's heart and she grabbed it by reflex. It only just happened, so the girl could still remember that moment vividly. Even though she was outside of the framewerk, it still felt like her own heart was torn out when she watched it happen. "Y-Yeah, but... Harold died fightin', and Atty can be rebuilt... r-right? So it's... not worth worrying about." She was a bit nervous on the reply and jumped back onto her bed. "I mean, I've not been briefed yet, butcha probably did great! I mean, you're here right?" Serah cheerfully replied again, blissfully unaware of the massacre that had unfolded.
"I don't honestly know about whether they can rebuild Atty. I hope they can, but we pilots, we just don't know enough about our machines, do we? I mean, they are machines, but they are alive, right? Can they really bring something like that back to life? Or will they repair the machine and it'll be someone else on the inside?"
Serah did her best not to get incredibly wound up from Zim's words, her nails biting into the bedsheet they were grasping. "Atty's fine. I know they are. They always are, and they always will be." Serah averted her eyes and droned out that reply, feeling very uncomfortable and trying to hide it from Zim.
Even as she tried to hide her discomfort, Zim could see it written all over her body. Plug suits offered very little protection in that regard. Her tensed shoulders, her back arched ever so slightly as if fighting against rolling up into a ball. It was obvious that the subject needed no more attention.
"Yeah, we won, but we aren't all here. I probably should leave it for the Lieutenant to brief you, but we didn't all make it out of there in one piece." Zim said with a deep sigh, "Mai is in a Coma, I understand. And Elora is MIA. She is probably dead, but we just don't know. We saw some things that could not be explained, we encountered some sort of Cruxi ace that put us to shame... Elora defeated the Mist, but she was cought in the blast and something changed in her. It was like her mind was released from her skull and was sensative to every thought... Serah, we didn't save Joppa... We just stopped the invasion."
If there was one thing Zim was good at, it was dampening Serah's spirits. The girl looked away, her smile barely noticable now as she muttered "Ah... so it's like that..." under hear breath. Compared to the rather glorious victory in Troas, that was some heavy news. But, as soon as it came, Serah's sad demeanor left again. She looked back with a rather forced smile now. "Mai's in that kind of shape, huh? We should go check up on her. Yes, we. I won't take no for an answer!" Serah jumped off again with puffed up cheeks and pushed Zim out the door.
As Zim was pushed out the door he grabbed a hospital gown hanging near the entry and threw it over Serah. The cadets had gotten used to the immodesty of the plug suits, but there were other people in the hospital, and Serah was still only a child by comparison.
Mai was located on an entirely different floor, in a different part of the hospital from Serah. It made sense, her condition was so much worse than Serahs that she needed more care and different facilities.
Mai had probably the hardest time of it in Joppa, and now her condition showed it. She had given up, but then continued to fight. She was still alive, but if the sync feedback was strong enough, she could be paralyzed. Serah popped out from behind Zim, who walked into the room quietly. She softly chewed on her lip when faced with the rather grim sight. That poor cadet was hooked up to all kind of machinery. "You guys... really didn't have it easy, huh?" The girl whispered to Zim.
"No, she had it amongst the worst. We were mostly lucky when combat started, everybody was pretty close together. Except for Mai, she was on the opposite side of the city... She had to deal with a sniper and a pod of Cruxi War Machines. She took a lot of damage from the sniper while trying to fend off the war machines, but she was strong. She kept pushing on." Zim left out the part where she offered to use her machine as code Ashes to Ashes. "In the end, she was being worked on by Caretaker's drones, they managed to restore thrusters and she fended off the rest of the threat with her beam sabers, after her torso detached... I just don't know, she took so much trauma. If her sync was high enough when it happened, she could be paralyzed due to nerve damage..."
Zim carefully put a hand on Mai's head and said to her, "You fought well, now rest up and be ready for the next fight." Zim lingered in the room a moment with Serah in case she wanted to have a moment with Mai. When the pair was ready, they continued just a few doors down the hall to where Ariin was being cared for.
Ariin was the other person who had a tough time in Joppa who was still here to be able to suffer. Between the ad hoc merge with Paladin and the radiation that he suffered from at the edge of the Mist attack, he was not in good shape. Zim really didn't know what to expect as he entered the room that Ariin was in. If he was unconcious, then it was probably a mercy. With the same soft knock on the open door Zim entered and prepared himself for what he would see. Once again, Serah was right behind Zim and tried to sneak into the room more stealthily, though wound up doing it less stealthily.
Ariin was awake and refusing pain medication. Confined to bed rest, and currently shackled to the bed, when he had been pulled from Paladin he went kicking and scream. He kept yelling he had to go back and find Ariin, Ariin was still inside the Paladin. Ariin looked up, a mess of tubes and IV's that made him look weak and frail. His eye optic changed to a happy face when he saw them.
"I did not think anyone would visit." He spoke in a more monotone manner, no longer casual or relaxed. "You are... Ariin's friends?" He spoke as if he was not Ariin but someone else in Ariin's place. "I do not remember much save... Training, but he spoke of you to me before, he spoke to me a lot..." He blinked and looked back to them. "I am Paladin and I am sorry I failed your friend and your city, Joppa."
Zim stood there for a moment in disbelief. He wasn't really sure what to make of what was going on in front of him. It was a joke, right? Some sort of coping mechanism? But, while Zim didn't know Ariin that well, he did not think him the type for this sort of behavior. "We all fought hard, we did the best we could... Paladin... I'm sorry, I'm having a hard time accepting this, this is just bizzare. You realize that you are Ariin, right?"
Serah looked from Zim to Ariin, then back to Zim again. "...Uhm, what?" A puzzled look was on her face, showcasing how she clearly didn't get the point. "Isn't Ariin just Ariin?" The girl asked while throwing her hands behind her head.
"I am... A copy of the Paladin networking and combat systems, I appear like Ariin but I am not him. A mind is made up of memories, experiences, and such... I know the training, the routines, the people. Ariin had the memories, those are lost in the werk's database... Ariin as you knew him is inside the Paladin framewerk." He explained blinking looking at his hands moving them slowly. "I would... I would have to risk what remains of Ariin's mind and mine to fix this." He paused again. "I could damage him beyond repair, which would earn him a demotion... To a penal legion and a good man would die for no reason." Paladin said as if it was just that cold and calculated.
"So you are saying that Paladin, the werk, duplicated a portion of its systems and put them in Ariins body? Why? To keep it functioning? And Ariins concience is floating around somehwere in your database? But there is a chance of fixing it, but if you fail everything will be made that much worse... With time, will Ariin be able to return to us, or will Paladin be with us permanently?"
"Failing would remove Ariin from the pilot program. I do not... I do not know, to bring him back I would either need Lorenzo or the man who designed and sanctioned Paladins... Unique weapon system." He stared down pulling at the restraints. "If only Ariin were still here... He could pick these locks in a second, hides a lockpick in his eye. I know Ariin's life... I watched it unfold before me but... I am not him. He was a thief trying to be a warrior, I am just a warrior and he is for all purposes... Dead."
Serah was... slightly shocked, but didn't completely buy it just yet. She rattled around in her brain, before... "...Huh? You 'saw Ariin's life unfold before you'? 'Paladin', wouldn't that mean you could just... I dunno, emulate Ariin? Or are you just pulling some kind of weird joke on us?"
Zim was wrong about what he had thought previously, that Mai had it the worst. She might be physically disabled, but Ariin had either gone insane or was legitametly lost and replaced by a very advanced set of 1's and 0's. "I'll see if I can't get word to Lorenzo and the Lieutenant, see if they cannot track down the creator... but in the mean time, I am afraid that the restraints are needed. We will get our Ariin back, so in the mean time, you need to care for that body as if it were the only one you had. Feed it, bath it. Emulate the memories that you watched spin by. You are the protector. Protect."
Zim had no more to say, and would hear no more from 'Paladin,' and turned the leave the room. Serah followed after Zim as he briskly left the room. They made their way to Daniel next, going in silence as they traveled. Zim was still trying to process what it was that he had just seen in Ariin's room.
Zim had heard from the briefing that Daniel's werk had been incapacitated, and that he had been hospitalized, but Zim didn't know what kind of condition he would be in when he entered the room. With the door open it was easy to enter. Zim knocked again as he and Serah entered and noticed the same smell of overcooked meat that Zim had smelled in Serah's room. He expected to find a food tray freshly delivered. "I don't mean to interupt, just wanted to check on you," Zim said as he entered the room.
Daniel jerked as someone knocked, freezing in place. Anyone entering the room would find stacks of books around the room, most focused on some aspect of engineering, and a few on biology or chemistry. Daniel was sitting in the bed, one leg and both arms completely wrapped in bandages- a few patches of guaze were adhering to his skin around his torso, and elsewhere on his body less serious burns were visible. On an extendable table to the side was a glass pastry dish containing what appeared to be a section of appendage from a tentacle beast, with electrodes stuck to it that extended towards hospital equipment that had obviously been intended for Daniel's use. He didn't look up as footsteps approached the room; the hospital staff had been bothering him all day.
"Look, if you want me to wear your wires, then bring me more equipment! If I needed a heart monitor, I wouldn't be awake to complain about it. Damn."
He reached over and flipped a switch, watching the tentacle jerk inside the dish, eyeing the heartmonitor at the same time. A few wisps of aromatic smoke made their way out from under the dish, but he waved it off. It wasn't toxic- at least, none of the human-made sensors said it was. The smell was almost good, which had lead him to lean towards the idea that the tissues were natural and carbon based. There were a few important questions with this creature. He glanced at a crumpled sheet of paper and sighed, pushing his notepad to the side.
He froze when Zim spoke, turning slowly to see Zim and Serah enter the room. It was the first time he had seen any of the other pilots since they had left base, what seemed ages ago. "Hey." He looked away from them, grimacing. "I... I'm sorry." He reached over and pulled up another pile of papers- maps covered in scenarios. "It was all my fault that Harold..." His voice died off, feeling inadequate. Repeatedly, he had gone over what had happened, looking for ways that it could have been prevented- scenario after scenario. In the end, it all came down to their fatal actions early on. "Sorry." It felt pathetic, that he could only offer that, for almost getting everyone killed. If he had stayed with the group, they could have eliminated Mist almost immediately. If he had conserved some power and attempted that first shot with just one capacitor, they could have salvaged the fight and again- taken out Mist far more quickly, or the snipers, or both. If.
"I don't know what went down, just what we were told in the briefing. Don't do that. Don't cheapen Harold's death by claiming it to be your fault. If he died because of an action you did, then it was because he chose to do it in an effort to protect you. He chose to do it, no one else. Harold was in the military before all of this, he was a starship pilot, he survived a conflict with them before, he knew what he was up against."
"...Well, seems like I don't get to have a say in the matter! I see how it is! Hmpf." Serah puffed up her cheeks and turned her back to Zim and Daniel, starting to toy around with the ribbon in her hair. "I'll just do my own thing until I'm important again!"
Zim paused for a moment, "... Anyways, what are you working on? How the hell did you get a sample in here?"
Daniel nodded numbly at Zim's thoughts, but smiled slightly at Serah's outburst. "Again?" Daniel tossed off the bedcovers, sending handfuls of papers sliding to the floor. He stood unsteadily and stretched, tossing a hospital gown over himself. "Funny story there." In his minds eye, he could remember crawling out of Magus, having just awoken. He wasn't able to stand, but the burns had cauterized themselves- "One of the beasts left a little present wrapped around Magus's ankle, I managed to smuggle a piece of it in wrapped with my plugsuit." Daniel held up a finger and gave it another shock, watching the piece of tentacle twitch. "I have been trying to figure out if the beasts were synthetic or not. It would be an amazing advancement if we could use similar tech to build werks with synthetic muscle!" While signs seemed to indicate that it was organic, that didn't seem likely, as a beast of that size would have extreme issues with high gravity environments AND zero gravity environments, along with other issues with large organisms and cell composition."What I would give for a microscope...Oh!" He waved at Serah. "Look at this!" He picked up an old styled lightbulb from the tray and winked before sticking it's end in his mouth- the entire bulb suddenly glowed brightly. "So how are the others doing? I missed the briefing." Honestly though, he was a bit afraid of what he would be told.
Serah tried her best not to laugh when the lamp lit up just from being in Daniel's mouth, needing a few moments to recover. The guy then asked about how the others were doing. "...Oh! Well, Zim hasn't told me the full story buuut... Me and Sigma are fine, though a bit tired. Katya got out physically unscathed together with him here, I think Roger's fine... Um... Ariin got nicked by MIST... I don't know what happened to Elora, and Mai is..." Serah quieted down for a bit when she got to Mai, fiddling with her fingers a little. "...Mai has it the worst. She's in a coma, but I'm sure she'll be fine! Oh! And there was some new person that showed up too. Diablo? Dialus? Bollical? Something like that. I dunno if he'll stick around, but he covered for us I think. I don't remember it all that well..."
"Yeah, there was mention in the briefing about him, but not much detail. I'm not sure what is going to happen there. Having more firepower would help, certainly, but who knows what Lorenzo or the rest of the military have planned. So far as Elora is concened," Zim had more time to collect his thoughts since he had tried to explain it to Serah, "She is missing in action. A phenomenon that I cannot begin to explain occured, and her power went through the roof. However, she attempted to sacrifice herself before a space to surface attack struck in order to pin the Cruxi ace. However, at the last moment before the beam struck, they teleported out. Elora is not just missing, but in the hands of the Cruxi."
The air was still and silent for a moment, a pregnant pause ready to burst, before Zim spoke again. "There will be formal ceremonies, according to the Lieutenant, honoring those who fell in combat, and decorations to go along with achievements. With Harold gone the chain of command is broken. I have no doubt that Katya will retain a leadership role, but I suspect she will become the primary officer and that someone else from our group will be promoted. There was no mention of Lora in the briefing, and I have seen no evidence of her anywhere. Her space sickness may have cost her not only this battle, but also her career with the military. Between her and our other losses, I suspect that they may bring in new recruits to the program or bring someone over from a different program like you and Mai and that other drunk flunky.. what was his name?" Zim couldn't think of it, it wasn't important. "Anyways, heal up. We will need Magus on the field, and your brain in the labs it seems."
Daniel swallowed, but nodded at each name. They had gotten extremely lucky. As far as the Cruxi were concerned, this may have been a devastating defeat. Just one or two casualties among the werk pilots compared to their forces. It certainly didn't feel successful though. Mai concerned him though. He felt a bit closer to her- if only because she had been just as new as he had to the rest of the group. If she didn't make it, he would be the last of that transfer group in operation. Between Harold and the spacesick cadet, they were down four pilots. "Well, we did it." An underwelming statement, considering what had transpired- but accurate. "Aye Captain." Daniel's gaze drifted away from the other two pilots. "Can't let the squad roster get too short, and besides..." He smiled weakly and slowly sat back down on the hospice bed, "I need to add more to my resume. I doubt 'billion dollar grenade' will get me many jobs after the war is over." Daniel sighed and lay back dramatically on the bed, covering his face with an arm. "Any chance one of you could sneak some real food in here? They got me on an all liquid diet."
"Hey, doctors orders, you want real food? I'll bring in a steak, but you can only have it if they liquify it first. If that still sounds good to you, then I'll bring it by soon, if not, I'll treat you when you get out!" Zim said with a smirk, a rare attempt at humor. "Well, we've got one more stop to make before I head back to base, so I'll be heading out now. Listen to your doctors, they know what they are doing. You'll be back on your feet in no time." With that Zim gave a friendly wave and headed for the door.
The last room to visit was Sigma and Iota. As they were listed as Sisters and not in critical care, they had a shared room. Zim entered the room of the "sisters" with a gentle knock on the partially opened door. Serah followed soon after, popping in her head from the doorway. When he stepped inside he found Iota standing over Sigma, who was asleep or unconcious, Zim wasn't sure. Zim wasn't sure what was going on until Iota turned with a start, a thick black marker in hand. Serah was snickering from her vantage point in the hallway, but kept her laugh contained as to not wake up Sigma. "I'm glad to see you are in good spirits," Zim said with a smirk as he approached to see her handywork. "How is she?"
Iota's reaction was pretty spectacular. One moment she had been giggling like a maniac, the following one she backpedaled as if a piranha had bitten her backside, yelping as her hands flailed around, failing to grasp the marker in time as she fell backwards. The ruckus seemed to wake up Sigma, who groggily looked left and right. She stood for a few seconds contemplating the scene, her movements not unlike a wind up doll who was running out of juice.
"Ah." She eyed her reflection, Iota in the floor, before noticing the marker. Her gaze narrowed, but in a rather peculiarily slow manner. Wiping her face like a cat grooms herself, the young pilot's eyes then rested on the offending ink.
"...forget it. I'm not even..." She paused halfway, before her eyes rolled towards the door, still too dazed to even bother to finish her sentence. Her eyes rested on Serah's face, exhaling air as if the weight of a thousand tons had fallen from her shoulders.
"Right. We suceeded." She paused for a second, before lazily throwing an arm up.
"Hooray." She said in a weak voice, her attempt at cheering coming out as a stoner who just had found out his missing shoe on his own foot. She was too tired, and certainly emoting was not her forte.
She tried to incorporate herself, as Iota rolled her eyes, and began to relentlessly poke Sigma with the marker. "Heh, wakey wakey, Sigma."
Of course, the nose twack caught Iota, and probably everyone off guard, before making the fellow clone reel.
And yet... Sigma was still groggy. Somehow, whacking Iota had become a reflex move? The young pilot yawned afterwards, flopping once again on the bed, snuggling herself against the blanket.
"Joppa?" She asked, after noticing Zim's presence. She was too tired to even talk coherently. So many things happened. So many emotions. She truly had threaded into unknown territory this time. The feelings of two frames... plus she had sworn that for a very brief moment, she and Serah and been one. It was truly mindblowing, really. She wanted to sleep three days straight.
Zim shook his head at first, he had told the story enough times that he was tired of repeating himself, but then he gave a sigh as if he had been pressured into telling someone elses secret.
"I'll give you the bullet points, I can tell you are still tired," Zim eventually responded, "We didn't stop the MIST. We encountered an Ace Cruxi. Mai is in a coma. Ariin is in for radiation treatment, amongst other things. And, we lost Elora. You'll get more details in the briefing, once you are well enough. She isn't dead, I don't think, but she is MIA... We did stop the invasion, but more than half of Joppa was destroyed."
Sigma blinked slowly, as she shivered ever so slightly. This had to happen. They were in an open war after all. Her implanted memories told that this was to happen. Harold had also been one of the victims. And Mai and Elora. Mai was just as robotic as she was, and Elora had been one of her acquaintances since day one. She squeezed her eyelids, trying to conjure away the tears. She succeeded almost inmediately, as something else caught her attention.
"But Serah and I destroyed the MIST. We saw it explode." She asked, confused.
"...Oh. About that..." Serah began but was then interrupted.
"We both fought one," Zim said sullenly, "There is more than one MIST, and ours took out half of Joppa. Again, you'll get more details in the briefing, it has something to do with what happened to Elora."
"Go figure, huh. It's never that easy." Sigma bit her lip as her factions and gait became more stern. Her body language seemed to turn from sleepy to alert in a fraction of second, as she eyed everyone else in the room. With an energetic wave and an alarming lack of modesty, she tossed the blankets around, jumping out of the bed in her gown.
"Alright. I've been sleeping too much." She said, trying to convince herself, as she stood on her feet. But for people who had known her for a bit, they knew something was very wrong within Sigma. Even if she seemed cool and in control, it was more akin to a dog poised to attack someone at this point.
Iota, who had managed to get on her feet in the meantime, was the voice of concern, for once. "Sigma, don't push yourself, there's no way you couldn't have done anything. The opponent was not something we could beat ourselves... not that we didn't try."
Sigma's head tilted slightly, her eyes now piercing Iota, her fellow clone. "I...we tried to attack the Cruxi, but I...bungled up the landing...Elora..."
"You still smell of alcohol, Iota," Sigma said in a slow voice, as she curled her fist. "You could've done better."
Zim stopped her there with an interjection, "More would have died had she not done what she did. Yes, she botched the landing, but if she hadn't been there to help the ace pilot might not have been distracted enough that the orbital assault forced it to teleport out... Taking Elora with it."
Sigma's fist seemed to recede. She knew it was futile, as she gave a tired, and jaded expression. Her fist turned into a comforting hand, who then hugged slightly. "I'm sorry Iota. You did what I could. But you should check on that habit of yours." Sigma smiled slightly, as she began to walk away.
"After all ... I will need those organs of you safe and sound. SPARE." She added, with no passion in her voice, as she started to walk away trying to find her stuff and clothes.
Zim's jaw dropped slightly. Now he definitly knew something was wrong. He shook his head and gathered his composure. Certainly this wasn't something that Zim had any right commenting on, after all, they were part of an... illicit scientific study. But, Sigma had gone through so much to save Iota, and suffered so much when she could not save the others.
"Well then," Zim finally said, "I'll leave you to it...."
Serah had been quiet for the most part, staring at the wall absent-mindedly. "...You go on ahead, Zim. I think I'll... stick around for a bit." The girl took a few steps back, making way for the older man to leave the room. She probably had a lot to go over with Sigma, after what happened.
"Alright, I'm going to head back to base, see if I can't get some of this to make more sense, see if I can find some help for Ariin," Zim said as he went through the door. "If you are still here in a few days I'll probably stop by again. If not, I'll see you around base. In the mean time, rest, please."
Zim looked from one to the next of each of the three girls before finally heading for the door.
After the hospital Zim returned to the base where they were being housed and recovery processes were being run from. So soon after the battle and already pieces of equipment were being dragged into massive hangers. Zim wanted to help. 'Rest,' Zim thought to himself, 'Rest first. You've already helped enough. Rest so you can actually be of use.' Zim rubbed the back of his neck as he fought with the phantom pain. "Yeah, yeah," he muttered to himself as he continued in to the base. Being new to this location Zim quickly found himself lost. Even to the point of wandering down unlit corredores. Aparently even this base had lost full functionality and was opperating on back up power. Only the most important operations and functions got attention. Zim used one hand on the wall to help guide him, just in case he tripped on something. Up ahead he thought he heard something, a sob or a sigh? It was hard to say... Maybe it was nothing, a door or window opening. Zim's curiosity pushed him toward the percieved sound.
The briefing had proven hard for Katya. Watching the orbital blast hit overloaded Caretaker's optical systems, blinding the werk momentarily, and left Katya with a nasty pain in both of her eyes. She hadn't seen the Cruxi teleport out of danger at the last moment and for the entire trip back to Troas she thought by calling in for support she had killed Elora. To hear that was not the case only made Katya heart sink. Knowing she was alive in the hands on the Cruxi. Maybe death would have been better. Maybe she could of done something that might hand resulted in Elora being safe. Once the briefing was over Katya let out a heavy sigh moving slowly out of the room and began roaming the base aimlessly. Replying the events of the battle over and over. The young woman blaming herself Elora being taken. Positive if she had done something instead of merely watching as she tackled that Cruxi. Elora would with them, instead of enemy hands.
Before she knew it Katya managed to find herself in a middle of an unlit corridor. She stood before a door that lead into what seemed to be the perfect place for Katya to ... Well, what Katya would call rest. She was away from everyone; out of sight, out of mind. Here on her own, in the darkness, she didn't have to appear like she was handling the events of the battle well. In reality, everything she had buried during the battle had slowly started bubble to the surface. She wanted to cry, but she was too tired, so she merely gave heavy sigh. Entering the room, she walked until she could touch the far wall. Turning so her back was to it. She sat down leaning against it. She felt a shiver as she found the room too cold for comfort, but she couldn't be bother getting up and moving. It was then she heard the sound of something moving in the room. Katya wishing whatever it was, it wouldn't bother her.
However, whatever was in the room seemed to be shuffling around. Katya looked over and could see something small by the door. By the look of it it was something close to a rodent, but she couldn't really tell in the darkened room. Giving a loud heavy sigh. Katya closed her eyes. Again started to replay the battle in her mind. Failing to notice the sounds of something much bigger then rodent moving.
Zim felt his way to a door near where he thought he heard the sound. A rodent of some sort scurried off into the darkness, no doubt displaced by the combat that took place near by. He thought for a moment that perhaps he had just heard the rat move something searching for food, and was about to turn away when he heard a deep sigh. "Hello? Whose there, are you alright? This is cadet Zim Rage..." He announced himself as he knocked on the door way.
The sound of someones voice echoed in the darkened room. Dragging Katya back into the world.
"Huh, who's there?" She called out to the darkness.
"Whoever it is go away. she said half heartily, giving another sigh. She thought here she could have some time to herself. Was it too much to ask? Katya was sure if it was someone they'd either run off or come investigate just who was in the powered down section of the base. Hopefully they'd just leave, but something told Katya that wasn't going to happen. Something about the voice was familiar.
Zim recognized the voice, it was different, more sullen, but all the same it was still Katya's voice, the accent gave it away. Everybody on the team had an accent that was relative to their homeworld, a linguist could probably tell you where each member was from by the way a word was said, the stretch of an a, the swallow of a consonat. Zim was no linguist, he had just spoken with her enough to know it was her. "Katya, it's Zero," he called back from the door way. There was no need to move any closer. "Listen, I know you are feeling pretty awful right now, but you did good. You did the best you could in that situation, we all did the best we could... I was just at the hospital, everyone is recovering. Some will take longer then others, you'll see that for yourself when you get there. We'll all do better next time. We know more about the MIST now. The same thing wont happen again."
Knowing the owner of the voice was Zero, Katya sighed. If it had to be another person did it have to be someone form her own squad. Half the reason she decided to stay here was to be out of sight, from everyone, especially anyone from squad Sigma. She didn't want anyone, especially anyone she knew, to see her like this. Katya couldn't help ponder why he was here. Had he been seeking her out of some reason or had he simply ended up here like herself? Either way, it didn't matter as Zero began to speak, telling Katya that she did her best in that situation, and the everyone was recovering in the hospital. Katya huffed, almost feeling angry at how Zero said everyone was recovering. Her breathing became heavy as her mood quickly changed to anger.
"Don't bullshit me, Zero! Not everyone made it back! So don't you dare say everyone is recovering! Not everyone made it back, one of us is missing and in the hands of the enemy, most likely being tortured ... dissected or who knows what! Or did you forget that little fact! It's my dam fault Elora got taken. All I did was watch when she ... the beam ... just go away." Katya said her mood slipping back into a more mopey one. Katya just didn't have the capacity to remain angry at the moment.
"How can you hide out there and say it won't happen again? What gives you that ability or that right?" She questioned, more so speaking to herself then Zero.
"I haven't forgotten. I simply meant that everybody who came back is recovering," Zim explained softly, "I don't doubt for a second that this is the last we have seen of Elora, for good or bad. But what could you have done? You could have sacrificed yourself and either died alongside her, or taken her place at best. Don't kid yourself, anything you could have done in that instant would have resulted in more death, either it be your own, or the deaths of even more innocents in Joppa as the fight continued to drag on. Hell, had we all engaged that ace, none of us would be here right now. They would have taken Joppa, and then they would have reinforced Troas and they would have taken the planet."
Zim never raised his voice, he spoke calmly. No, that wasn't the right word, he spoke coldly. As if, to him, these were solid steel facts that could not be disputed. It was obvious that Zim had thought about the "what ifs ", too. The difference was that Zim wouldn't allow those what ifs to shake his resolve to move forward. The words came out stronger now, though, "What sense is there in me stumbling through the dark to close the distance, my words reach your ears the same, and they certainly wont reach your heart any easier. This wont happen the same way again. We know more about the MIST now, we know that even if it isn't targeted, it will attack. Seems to me, based on the visual changes that we witnessed, that even if it senses that its squad is losing it will go ahead and attack. Meaning that our strategy of killing off the easy targets and taking our time to figure out how to deal with the MIST is not an option. We learned from Troas and from Joppa that we are largely not properly equiped to deal with opponents who are resistant to physical attacks. Meaning that we need to make sure that if we are ever split into seperate squads again, Blackstar and Magus should remain on opposite teams because of our energy attacks, and that we should prioritize those attacks for MIST and then worry about the other stuff, or when next our werks get upgrades, we need to find ways to diversify our attacks to be better able to deal wth a situation. That is why I say this won't happen again."
Zim let out a sigh as he collected his thoughts once more. "You wanted to save Elora, you still do. Well so do I, but we are not strong enough. Even if we knew where they were, we couldn't get to them in our current state. The best we can do for Elora right now is to recover and get stronger. Either in her memory, or with the intention to fight on and eventually someday save her. That is what I intend to do."
Zero's words earned him an annoyed huff followed by a defeated sigh. As much as Katya hated to admit it, the more logical side of her knew he was right. She had all she could with what she had. Caretaker simply wasn't equipped to handle such a powerful opponent solo. So what more could she of done? It reminded her of the stress test's she underwent back home. Where Cadets were placed in impossible situations without warning and forced to make hard choices. She felt it this was one of those moments she made a choice and hard one at that. Still even if the logical side of her knew Zero was right. It didn't make her feel any better. Right now the loss of someone close to her had ripped a hole in her heart. One that no amount of words would fix. Still if his words had made her decide maybe she shouldn't be sat in the dark letting the feeling over take her. After all Elora wouldn't like that and Katya had her pride. That she was the squads only living officer. She should be setting an example not hiding in the dark like a rodent.
Getting to her feet she sighed, she really didn't want to be seen right now ... but like Zero said they needed to get stronger if they wanted to save Elora. Maybe this was the first step for her.
"You know Zero I respect you, but you can be a real asshole at times. When you're trying to make a girl feel better you should try a nicer approach. Speaking to someone upset so coldly rarely helps. Look Zim, Elora was like a little sister to me. So much so I pretty much considered her family. She was always around me ... so it's noticeable to me in particular that she's gone, alright. I just need time for it to sink in that she's really gone. Not to mention Ariin by the looks of it is really messed up. Did you say how many it took to pull him from his werk. It all just got to me." she spoke giving another sigh.
"You can go if you want I just need a minute to put something other then frown on. Can't let the others see me down."
"At times?" Zim responded with a raised eyebrow, "Most people think I'm an asshole all the time. Look, I don't expect my words to help with your loss, not one bit. I only intended to lighten the load of blame, hopefully by helping you see tat you are not at fault. We've all felt that loss here, we all have our own ways of coping with it. You need your space and time, I see that. I'm sorry I interupted."
With that Zim turned away from the door way, by now his eyes had well acclimated to the dark and he could at least figure out where the walls were and started walking away. Katya could here his voice echo a little in the distance as his foot steps continued to fade, "Now where the hell did I turn wrong?"
Zim had not only survived the carnage, but had made it through with relatively minor injuries. The few cuts that needed attention were wrapped in field bandages, but most of the damage was from sync feedback from the machine. It was in the nerves, it was in Zim's head. These would take specialized equipment to treat, and it would take time for these phantom wounds to heal. But, Zim was a robustly concentrated individual and pushed on through the pain. However, it would do him no good to put off treatment. Once released from the debriefing with Lieutenant Ritsu, Zim would make his way to the selfsame hospital that housed his comrads. He would get checked in and would be put through a scanner to check him over to figure out what ails him and would be given appropriate treatment. Soon enough, however he would be sent back on his way. 'Well, I'm already here, I might just as well check up on everybody,' Zim thought as he worked his way to a desk to ask for their room numbers.
This first person Zim visited was Serah, by virtue of proximity to the desk. He made his way to the proper floor and down the hall until at last he finally found her room number on a digi-display outside the room. Zim entered the room through the open door, knocking gently just to be safe. "Hello, Serah?" Zim called out before entering. He found her in her bed finishing her meal. "Solid food, that's a good sign! How are you holding up?"
"Zshim? Ahm dyoing fayn-" Serah spoke through a stuffed mouth, swallowing the contents down in a single gulp. "The food's teeerrible though! Like, the meat was all dry and the veggies tasted like green baby food... Blegh!" She slammed her tray down on the bedside table next to her and, quite literally, jumped out of the bed. She was still in her plugsuit, mainly because she hadn't actually been physically harmed, and ran over to give the older pilot a hug. She pushed herself away and took a few steps back, a goofy smile on her face like the Serah he got to know.
"Isn't it always, though?" Zim responded to the food, "Do you think they will keep you here long? If so, next time I come by I'll smuggle in some real food for you, how about that?"
"Nah, I'm not actually hurt, see?" Serah cheerfully responded, jumping up and doing a frontflip real quick to demonstrate her point. Unfortunatily, due to the small size of the room, her foot got stuck on an infusion pole in the corner. It messed up her balance and took both her and Zim down to the floor with it. "Ouchouchouch..."
With a solid thud the pair hit the floor, with Zim on the bottom. Hardly anything worth noticing for the pilot who grew up in high gravity. "Yeah, but maybe you should hang out for a day yet." Zim helped her get up off the floor. "We heard what happened in Troas, about Harold, about Atty... Are you aware of the events that happend in Joppa?" He indicated that she should probably sit down.
When Zim mentioned Atty, a sudden sting pierced Serah's heart and she grabbed it by reflex. It only just happened, so the girl could still remember that moment vividly. Even though she was outside of the framewerk, it still felt like her own heart was torn out when she watched it happen. "Y-Yeah, but... Harold died fightin', and Atty can be rebuilt... r-right? So it's... not worth worrying about." She was a bit nervous on the reply and jumped back onto her bed. "I mean, I've not been briefed yet, butcha probably did great! I mean, you're here right?" Serah cheerfully replied again, blissfully unaware of the massacre that had unfolded.
"I don't honestly know about whether they can rebuild Atty. I hope they can, but we pilots, we just don't know enough about our machines, do we? I mean, they are machines, but they are alive, right? Can they really bring something like that back to life? Or will they repair the machine and it'll be someone else on the inside?"
Serah did her best not to get incredibly wound up from Zim's words, her nails biting into the bedsheet they were grasping. "Atty's fine. I know they are. They always are, and they always will be." Serah averted her eyes and droned out that reply, feeling very uncomfortable and trying to hide it from Zim.
Even as she tried to hide her discomfort, Zim could see it written all over her body. Plug suits offered very little protection in that regard. Her tensed shoulders, her back arched ever so slightly as if fighting against rolling up into a ball. It was obvious that the subject needed no more attention.
"Yeah, we won, but we aren't all here. I probably should leave it for the Lieutenant to brief you, but we didn't all make it out of there in one piece." Zim said with a deep sigh, "Mai is in a Coma, I understand. And Elora is MIA. She is probably dead, but we just don't know. We saw some things that could not be explained, we encountered some sort of Cruxi ace that put us to shame... Elora defeated the Mist, but she was cought in the blast and something changed in her. It was like her mind was released from her skull and was sensative to every thought... Serah, we didn't save Joppa... We just stopped the invasion."
If there was one thing Zim was good at, it was dampening Serah's spirits. The girl looked away, her smile barely noticable now as she muttered "Ah... so it's like that..." under hear breath. Compared to the rather glorious victory in Troas, that was some heavy news. But, as soon as it came, Serah's sad demeanor left again. She looked back with a rather forced smile now. "Mai's in that kind of shape, huh? We should go check up on her. Yes, we. I won't take no for an answer!" Serah jumped off again with puffed up cheeks and pushed Zim out the door.
As Zim was pushed out the door he grabbed a hospital gown hanging near the entry and threw it over Serah. The cadets had gotten used to the immodesty of the plug suits, but there were other people in the hospital, and Serah was still only a child by comparison.
Mai was located on an entirely different floor, in a different part of the hospital from Serah. It made sense, her condition was so much worse than Serahs that she needed more care and different facilities.
Mai had probably the hardest time of it in Joppa, and now her condition showed it. She had given up, but then continued to fight. She was still alive, but if the sync feedback was strong enough, she could be paralyzed. Serah popped out from behind Zim, who walked into the room quietly. She softly chewed on her lip when faced with the rather grim sight. That poor cadet was hooked up to all kind of machinery. "You guys... really didn't have it easy, huh?" The girl whispered to Zim.
"No, she had it amongst the worst. We were mostly lucky when combat started, everybody was pretty close together. Except for Mai, she was on the opposite side of the city... She had to deal with a sniper and a pod of Cruxi War Machines. She took a lot of damage from the sniper while trying to fend off the war machines, but she was strong. She kept pushing on." Zim left out the part where she offered to use her machine as code Ashes to Ashes. "In the end, she was being worked on by Caretaker's drones, they managed to restore thrusters and she fended off the rest of the threat with her beam sabers, after her torso detached... I just don't know, she took so much trauma. If her sync was high enough when it happened, she could be paralyzed due to nerve damage..."
Zim carefully put a hand on Mai's head and said to her, "You fought well, now rest up and be ready for the next fight." Zim lingered in the room a moment with Serah in case she wanted to have a moment with Mai. When the pair was ready, they continued just a few doors down the hall to where Ariin was being cared for.
Ariin was the other person who had a tough time in Joppa who was still here to be able to suffer. Between the ad hoc merge with Paladin and the radiation that he suffered from at the edge of the Mist attack, he was not in good shape. Zim really didn't know what to expect as he entered the room that Ariin was in. If he was unconcious, then it was probably a mercy. With the same soft knock on the open door Zim entered and prepared himself for what he would see. Once again, Serah was right behind Zim and tried to sneak into the room more stealthily, though wound up doing it less stealthily.
Ariin was awake and refusing pain medication. Confined to bed rest, and currently shackled to the bed, when he had been pulled from Paladin he went kicking and scream. He kept yelling he had to go back and find Ariin, Ariin was still inside the Paladin. Ariin looked up, a mess of tubes and IV's that made him look weak and frail. His eye optic changed to a happy face when he saw them.
"I did not think anyone would visit." He spoke in a more monotone manner, no longer casual or relaxed. "You are... Ariin's friends?" He spoke as if he was not Ariin but someone else in Ariin's place. "I do not remember much save... Training, but he spoke of you to me before, he spoke to me a lot..." He blinked and looked back to them. "I am Paladin and I am sorry I failed your friend and your city, Joppa."
Zim stood there for a moment in disbelief. He wasn't really sure what to make of what was going on in front of him. It was a joke, right? Some sort of coping mechanism? But, while Zim didn't know Ariin that well, he did not think him the type for this sort of behavior. "We all fought hard, we did the best we could... Paladin... I'm sorry, I'm having a hard time accepting this, this is just bizzare. You realize that you are Ariin, right?"
Serah looked from Zim to Ariin, then back to Zim again. "...Uhm, what?" A puzzled look was on her face, showcasing how she clearly didn't get the point. "Isn't Ariin just Ariin?" The girl asked while throwing her hands behind her head.
"I am... A copy of the Paladin networking and combat systems, I appear like Ariin but I am not him. A mind is made up of memories, experiences, and such... I know the training, the routines, the people. Ariin had the memories, those are lost in the werk's database... Ariin as you knew him is inside the Paladin framewerk." He explained blinking looking at his hands moving them slowly. "I would... I would have to risk what remains of Ariin's mind and mine to fix this." He paused again. "I could damage him beyond repair, which would earn him a demotion... To a penal legion and a good man would die for no reason." Paladin said as if it was just that cold and calculated.
"So you are saying that Paladin, the werk, duplicated a portion of its systems and put them in Ariins body? Why? To keep it functioning? And Ariins concience is floating around somehwere in your database? But there is a chance of fixing it, but if you fail everything will be made that much worse... With time, will Ariin be able to return to us, or will Paladin be with us permanently?"
"Failing would remove Ariin from the pilot program. I do not... I do not know, to bring him back I would either need Lorenzo or the man who designed and sanctioned Paladins... Unique weapon system." He stared down pulling at the restraints. "If only Ariin were still here... He could pick these locks in a second, hides a lockpick in his eye. I know Ariin's life... I watched it unfold before me but... I am not him. He was a thief trying to be a warrior, I am just a warrior and he is for all purposes... Dead."
Serah was... slightly shocked, but didn't completely buy it just yet. She rattled around in her brain, before... "...Huh? You 'saw Ariin's life unfold before you'? 'Paladin', wouldn't that mean you could just... I dunno, emulate Ariin? Or are you just pulling some kind of weird joke on us?"
Zim was wrong about what he had thought previously, that Mai had it the worst. She might be physically disabled, but Ariin had either gone insane or was legitametly lost and replaced by a very advanced set of 1's and 0's. "I'll see if I can't get word to Lorenzo and the Lieutenant, see if they cannot track down the creator... but in the mean time, I am afraid that the restraints are needed. We will get our Ariin back, so in the mean time, you need to care for that body as if it were the only one you had. Feed it, bath it. Emulate the memories that you watched spin by. You are the protector. Protect."
Zim had no more to say, and would hear no more from 'Paladin,' and turned the leave the room. Serah followed after Zim as he briskly left the room. They made their way to Daniel next, going in silence as they traveled. Zim was still trying to process what it was that he had just seen in Ariin's room.
Zim had heard from the briefing that Daniel's werk had been incapacitated, and that he had been hospitalized, but Zim didn't know what kind of condition he would be in when he entered the room. With the door open it was easy to enter. Zim knocked again as he and Serah entered and noticed the same smell of overcooked meat that Zim had smelled in Serah's room. He expected to find a food tray freshly delivered. "I don't mean to interupt, just wanted to check on you," Zim said as he entered the room.
Daniel jerked as someone knocked, freezing in place. Anyone entering the room would find stacks of books around the room, most focused on some aspect of engineering, and a few on biology or chemistry. Daniel was sitting in the bed, one leg and both arms completely wrapped in bandages- a few patches of guaze were adhering to his skin around his torso, and elsewhere on his body less serious burns were visible. On an extendable table to the side was a glass pastry dish containing what appeared to be a section of appendage from a tentacle beast, with electrodes stuck to it that extended towards hospital equipment that had obviously been intended for Daniel's use. He didn't look up as footsteps approached the room; the hospital staff had been bothering him all day.
"Look, if you want me to wear your wires, then bring me more equipment! If I needed a heart monitor, I wouldn't be awake to complain about it. Damn."
He reached over and flipped a switch, watching the tentacle jerk inside the dish, eyeing the heartmonitor at the same time. A few wisps of aromatic smoke made their way out from under the dish, but he waved it off. It wasn't toxic- at least, none of the human-made sensors said it was. The smell was almost good, which had lead him to lean towards the idea that the tissues were natural and carbon based. There were a few important questions with this creature. He glanced at a crumpled sheet of paper and sighed, pushing his notepad to the side.
He froze when Zim spoke, turning slowly to see Zim and Serah enter the room. It was the first time he had seen any of the other pilots since they had left base, what seemed ages ago. "Hey." He looked away from them, grimacing. "I... I'm sorry." He reached over and pulled up another pile of papers- maps covered in scenarios. "It was all my fault that Harold..." His voice died off, feeling inadequate. Repeatedly, he had gone over what had happened, looking for ways that it could have been prevented- scenario after scenario. In the end, it all came down to their fatal actions early on. "Sorry." It felt pathetic, that he could only offer that, for almost getting everyone killed. If he had stayed with the group, they could have eliminated Mist almost immediately. If he had conserved some power and attempted that first shot with just one capacitor, they could have salvaged the fight and again- taken out Mist far more quickly, or the snipers, or both. If.
"I don't know what went down, just what we were told in the briefing. Don't do that. Don't cheapen Harold's death by claiming it to be your fault. If he died because of an action you did, then it was because he chose to do it in an effort to protect you. He chose to do it, no one else. Harold was in the military before all of this, he was a starship pilot, he survived a conflict with them before, he knew what he was up against."
"...Well, seems like I don't get to have a say in the matter! I see how it is! Hmpf." Serah puffed up her cheeks and turned her back to Zim and Daniel, starting to toy around with the ribbon in her hair. "I'll just do my own thing until I'm important again!"
Zim paused for a moment, "... Anyways, what are you working on? How the hell did you get a sample in here?"
Daniel nodded numbly at Zim's thoughts, but smiled slightly at Serah's outburst. "Again?" Daniel tossed off the bedcovers, sending handfuls of papers sliding to the floor. He stood unsteadily and stretched, tossing a hospital gown over himself. "Funny story there." In his minds eye, he could remember crawling out of Magus, having just awoken. He wasn't able to stand, but the burns had cauterized themselves- "One of the beasts left a little present wrapped around Magus's ankle, I managed to smuggle a piece of it in wrapped with my plugsuit." Daniel held up a finger and gave it another shock, watching the piece of tentacle twitch. "I have been trying to figure out if the beasts were synthetic or not. It would be an amazing advancement if we could use similar tech to build werks with synthetic muscle!" While signs seemed to indicate that it was organic, that didn't seem likely, as a beast of that size would have extreme issues with high gravity environments AND zero gravity environments, along with other issues with large organisms and cell composition."What I would give for a microscope...Oh!" He waved at Serah. "Look at this!" He picked up an old styled lightbulb from the tray and winked before sticking it's end in his mouth- the entire bulb suddenly glowed brightly. "So how are the others doing? I missed the briefing." Honestly though, he was a bit afraid of what he would be told.
Serah tried her best not to laugh when the lamp lit up just from being in Daniel's mouth, needing a few moments to recover. The guy then asked about how the others were doing. "...Oh! Well, Zim hasn't told me the full story buuut... Me and Sigma are fine, though a bit tired. Katya got out physically unscathed together with him here, I think Roger's fine... Um... Ariin got nicked by MIST... I don't know what happened to Elora, and Mai is..." Serah quieted down for a bit when she got to Mai, fiddling with her fingers a little. "...Mai has it the worst. She's in a coma, but I'm sure she'll be fine! Oh! And there was some new person that showed up too. Diablo? Dialus? Bollical? Something like that. I dunno if he'll stick around, but he covered for us I think. I don't remember it all that well..."
"Yeah, there was mention in the briefing about him, but not much detail. I'm not sure what is going to happen there. Having more firepower would help, certainly, but who knows what Lorenzo or the rest of the military have planned. So far as Elora is concened," Zim had more time to collect his thoughts since he had tried to explain it to Serah, "She is missing in action. A phenomenon that I cannot begin to explain occured, and her power went through the roof. However, she attempted to sacrifice herself before a space to surface attack struck in order to pin the Cruxi ace. However, at the last moment before the beam struck, they teleported out. Elora is not just missing, but in the hands of the Cruxi."
The air was still and silent for a moment, a pregnant pause ready to burst, before Zim spoke again. "There will be formal ceremonies, according to the Lieutenant, honoring those who fell in combat, and decorations to go along with achievements. With Harold gone the chain of command is broken. I have no doubt that Katya will retain a leadership role, but I suspect she will become the primary officer and that someone else from our group will be promoted. There was no mention of Lora in the briefing, and I have seen no evidence of her anywhere. Her space sickness may have cost her not only this battle, but also her career with the military. Between her and our other losses, I suspect that they may bring in new recruits to the program or bring someone over from a different program like you and Mai and that other drunk flunky.. what was his name?" Zim couldn't think of it, it wasn't important. "Anyways, heal up. We will need Magus on the field, and your brain in the labs it seems."
Daniel swallowed, but nodded at each name. They had gotten extremely lucky. As far as the Cruxi were concerned, this may have been a devastating defeat. Just one or two casualties among the werk pilots compared to their forces. It certainly didn't feel successful though. Mai concerned him though. He felt a bit closer to her- if only because she had been just as new as he had to the rest of the group. If she didn't make it, he would be the last of that transfer group in operation. Between Harold and the spacesick cadet, they were down four pilots. "Well, we did it." An underwelming statement, considering what had transpired- but accurate. "Aye Captain." Daniel's gaze drifted away from the other two pilots. "Can't let the squad roster get too short, and besides..." He smiled weakly and slowly sat back down on the hospice bed, "I need to add more to my resume. I doubt 'billion dollar grenade' will get me many jobs after the war is over." Daniel sighed and lay back dramatically on the bed, covering his face with an arm. "Any chance one of you could sneak some real food in here? They got me on an all liquid diet."
"Hey, doctors orders, you want real food? I'll bring in a steak, but you can only have it if they liquify it first. If that still sounds good to you, then I'll bring it by soon, if not, I'll treat you when you get out!" Zim said with a smirk, a rare attempt at humor. "Well, we've got one more stop to make before I head back to base, so I'll be heading out now. Listen to your doctors, they know what they are doing. You'll be back on your feet in no time." With that Zim gave a friendly wave and headed for the door.
The last room to visit was Sigma and Iota. As they were listed as Sisters and not in critical care, they had a shared room. Zim entered the room of the "sisters" with a gentle knock on the partially opened door. Serah followed soon after, popping in her head from the doorway. When he stepped inside he found Iota standing over Sigma, who was asleep or unconcious, Zim wasn't sure. Zim wasn't sure what was going on until Iota turned with a start, a thick black marker in hand. Serah was snickering from her vantage point in the hallway, but kept her laugh contained as to not wake up Sigma. "I'm glad to see you are in good spirits," Zim said with a smirk as he approached to see her handywork. "How is she?"
Iota's reaction was pretty spectacular. One moment she had been giggling like a maniac, the following one she backpedaled as if a piranha had bitten her backside, yelping as her hands flailed around, failing to grasp the marker in time as she fell backwards. The ruckus seemed to wake up Sigma, who groggily looked left and right. She stood for a few seconds contemplating the scene, her movements not unlike a wind up doll who was running out of juice.
"Ah." She eyed her reflection, Iota in the floor, before noticing the marker. Her gaze narrowed, but in a rather peculiarily slow manner. Wiping her face like a cat grooms herself, the young pilot's eyes then rested on the offending ink.
"...forget it. I'm not even..." She paused halfway, before her eyes rolled towards the door, still too dazed to even bother to finish her sentence. Her eyes rested on Serah's face, exhaling air as if the weight of a thousand tons had fallen from her shoulders.
"Right. We suceeded." She paused for a second, before lazily throwing an arm up.
"Hooray." She said in a weak voice, her attempt at cheering coming out as a stoner who just had found out his missing shoe on his own foot. She was too tired, and certainly emoting was not her forte.
She tried to incorporate herself, as Iota rolled her eyes, and began to relentlessly poke Sigma with the marker. "Heh, wakey wakey, Sigma."
Of course, the nose twack caught Iota, and probably everyone off guard, before making the fellow clone reel.
And yet... Sigma was still groggy. Somehow, whacking Iota had become a reflex move? The young pilot yawned afterwards, flopping once again on the bed, snuggling herself against the blanket.
"Joppa?" She asked, after noticing Zim's presence. She was too tired to even talk coherently. So many things happened. So many emotions. She truly had threaded into unknown territory this time. The feelings of two frames... plus she had sworn that for a very brief moment, she and Serah and been one. It was truly mindblowing, really. She wanted to sleep three days straight.
Zim shook his head at first, he had told the story enough times that he was tired of repeating himself, but then he gave a sigh as if he had been pressured into telling someone elses secret.
"I'll give you the bullet points, I can tell you are still tired," Zim eventually responded, "We didn't stop the MIST. We encountered an Ace Cruxi. Mai is in a coma. Ariin is in for radiation treatment, amongst other things. And, we lost Elora. You'll get more details in the briefing, once you are well enough. She isn't dead, I don't think, but she is MIA... We did stop the invasion, but more than half of Joppa was destroyed."
Sigma blinked slowly, as she shivered ever so slightly. This had to happen. They were in an open war after all. Her implanted memories told that this was to happen. Harold had also been one of the victims. And Mai and Elora. Mai was just as robotic as she was, and Elora had been one of her acquaintances since day one. She squeezed her eyelids, trying to conjure away the tears. She succeeded almost inmediately, as something else caught her attention.
"But Serah and I destroyed the MIST. We saw it explode." She asked, confused.
"...Oh. About that..." Serah began but was then interrupted.
"We both fought one," Zim said sullenly, "There is more than one MIST, and ours took out half of Joppa. Again, you'll get more details in the briefing, it has something to do with what happened to Elora."
"Go figure, huh. It's never that easy." Sigma bit her lip as her factions and gait became more stern. Her body language seemed to turn from sleepy to alert in a fraction of second, as she eyed everyone else in the room. With an energetic wave and an alarming lack of modesty, she tossed the blankets around, jumping out of the bed in her gown.
"Alright. I've been sleeping too much." She said, trying to convince herself, as she stood on her feet. But for people who had known her for a bit, they knew something was very wrong within Sigma. Even if she seemed cool and in control, it was more akin to a dog poised to attack someone at this point.
Iota, who had managed to get on her feet in the meantime, was the voice of concern, for once. "Sigma, don't push yourself, there's no way you couldn't have done anything. The opponent was not something we could beat ourselves... not that we didn't try."
Sigma's head tilted slightly, her eyes now piercing Iota, her fellow clone. "I...we tried to attack the Cruxi, but I...bungled up the landing...Elora..."
"You still smell of alcohol, Iota," Sigma said in a slow voice, as she curled her fist. "You could've done better."
Zim stopped her there with an interjection, "More would have died had she not done what she did. Yes, she botched the landing, but if she hadn't been there to help the ace pilot might not have been distracted enough that the orbital assault forced it to teleport out... Taking Elora with it."
Sigma's fist seemed to recede. She knew it was futile, as she gave a tired, and jaded expression. Her fist turned into a comforting hand, who then hugged slightly. "I'm sorry Iota. You did what I could. But you should check on that habit of yours." Sigma smiled slightly, as she began to walk away.
"After all ... I will need those organs of you safe and sound. SPARE." She added, with no passion in her voice, as she started to walk away trying to find her stuff and clothes.
Zim's jaw dropped slightly. Now he definitly knew something was wrong. He shook his head and gathered his composure. Certainly this wasn't something that Zim had any right commenting on, after all, they were part of an... illicit scientific study. But, Sigma had gone through so much to save Iota, and suffered so much when she could not save the others.
"Well then," Zim finally said, "I'll leave you to it...."
Serah had been quiet for the most part, staring at the wall absent-mindedly. "...You go on ahead, Zim. I think I'll... stick around for a bit." The girl took a few steps back, making way for the older man to leave the room. She probably had a lot to go over with Sigma, after what happened.
"Alright, I'm going to head back to base, see if I can't get some of this to make more sense, see if I can find some help for Ariin," Zim said as he went through the door. "If you are still here in a few days I'll probably stop by again. If not, I'll see you around base. In the mean time, rest, please."
Zim looked from one to the next of each of the three girls before finally heading for the door.
After the hospital Zim returned to the base where they were being housed and recovery processes were being run from. So soon after the battle and already pieces of equipment were being dragged into massive hangers. Zim wanted to help. 'Rest,' Zim thought to himself, 'Rest first. You've already helped enough. Rest so you can actually be of use.' Zim rubbed the back of his neck as he fought with the phantom pain. "Yeah, yeah," he muttered to himself as he continued in to the base. Being new to this location Zim quickly found himself lost. Even to the point of wandering down unlit corredores. Aparently even this base had lost full functionality and was opperating on back up power. Only the most important operations and functions got attention. Zim used one hand on the wall to help guide him, just in case he tripped on something. Up ahead he thought he heard something, a sob or a sigh? It was hard to say... Maybe it was nothing, a door or window opening. Zim's curiosity pushed him toward the percieved sound.
The briefing had proven hard for Katya. Watching the orbital blast hit overloaded Caretaker's optical systems, blinding the werk momentarily, and left Katya with a nasty pain in both of her eyes. She hadn't seen the Cruxi teleport out of danger at the last moment and for the entire trip back to Troas she thought by calling in for support she had killed Elora. To hear that was not the case only made Katya heart sink. Knowing she was alive in the hands on the Cruxi. Maybe death would have been better. Maybe she could of done something that might hand resulted in Elora being safe. Once the briefing was over Katya let out a heavy sigh moving slowly out of the room and began roaming the base aimlessly. Replying the events of the battle over and over. The young woman blaming herself Elora being taken. Positive if she had done something instead of merely watching as she tackled that Cruxi. Elora would with them, instead of enemy hands.
Before she knew it Katya managed to find herself in a middle of an unlit corridor. She stood before a door that lead into what seemed to be the perfect place for Katya to ... Well, what Katya would call rest. She was away from everyone; out of sight, out of mind. Here on her own, in the darkness, she didn't have to appear like she was handling the events of the battle well. In reality, everything she had buried during the battle had slowly started bubble to the surface. She wanted to cry, but she was too tired, so she merely gave heavy sigh. Entering the room, she walked until she could touch the far wall. Turning so her back was to it. She sat down leaning against it. She felt a shiver as she found the room too cold for comfort, but she couldn't be bother getting up and moving. It was then she heard the sound of something moving in the room. Katya wishing whatever it was, it wouldn't bother her.
However, whatever was in the room seemed to be shuffling around. Katya looked over and could see something small by the door. By the look of it it was something close to a rodent, but she couldn't really tell in the darkened room. Giving a loud heavy sigh. Katya closed her eyes. Again started to replay the battle in her mind. Failing to notice the sounds of something much bigger then rodent moving.
Zim felt his way to a door near where he thought he heard the sound. A rodent of some sort scurried off into the darkness, no doubt displaced by the combat that took place near by. He thought for a moment that perhaps he had just heard the rat move something searching for food, and was about to turn away when he heard a deep sigh. "Hello? Whose there, are you alright? This is cadet Zim Rage..." He announced himself as he knocked on the door way.
The sound of someones voice echoed in the darkened room. Dragging Katya back into the world.
"Huh, who's there?" She called out to the darkness.
"Whoever it is go away. she said half heartily, giving another sigh. She thought here she could have some time to herself. Was it too much to ask? Katya was sure if it was someone they'd either run off or come investigate just who was in the powered down section of the base. Hopefully they'd just leave, but something told Katya that wasn't going to happen. Something about the voice was familiar.
Zim recognized the voice, it was different, more sullen, but all the same it was still Katya's voice, the accent gave it away. Everybody on the team had an accent that was relative to their homeworld, a linguist could probably tell you where each member was from by the way a word was said, the stretch of an a, the swallow of a consonat. Zim was no linguist, he had just spoken with her enough to know it was her. "Katya, it's Zero," he called back from the door way. There was no need to move any closer. "Listen, I know you are feeling pretty awful right now, but you did good. You did the best you could in that situation, we all did the best we could... I was just at the hospital, everyone is recovering. Some will take longer then others, you'll see that for yourself when you get there. We'll all do better next time. We know more about the MIST now. The same thing wont happen again."
Knowing the owner of the voice was Zero, Katya sighed. If it had to be another person did it have to be someone form her own squad. Half the reason she decided to stay here was to be out of sight, from everyone, especially anyone from squad Sigma. She didn't want anyone, especially anyone she knew, to see her like this. Katya couldn't help ponder why he was here. Had he been seeking her out of some reason or had he simply ended up here like herself? Either way, it didn't matter as Zero began to speak, telling Katya that she did her best in that situation, and the everyone was recovering in the hospital. Katya huffed, almost feeling angry at how Zero said everyone was recovering. Her breathing became heavy as her mood quickly changed to anger.
"Don't bullshit me, Zero! Not everyone made it back! So don't you dare say everyone is recovering! Not everyone made it back, one of us is missing and in the hands of the enemy, most likely being tortured ... dissected or who knows what! Or did you forget that little fact! It's my dam fault Elora got taken. All I did was watch when she ... the beam ... just go away." Katya said her mood slipping back into a more mopey one. Katya just didn't have the capacity to remain angry at the moment.
"How can you hide out there and say it won't happen again? What gives you that ability or that right?" She questioned, more so speaking to herself then Zero.
"I haven't forgotten. I simply meant that everybody who came back is recovering," Zim explained softly, "I don't doubt for a second that this is the last we have seen of Elora, for good or bad. But what could you have done? You could have sacrificed yourself and either died alongside her, or taken her place at best. Don't kid yourself, anything you could have done in that instant would have resulted in more death, either it be your own, or the deaths of even more innocents in Joppa as the fight continued to drag on. Hell, had we all engaged that ace, none of us would be here right now. They would have taken Joppa, and then they would have reinforced Troas and they would have taken the planet."
Zim never raised his voice, he spoke calmly. No, that wasn't the right word, he spoke coldly. As if, to him, these were solid steel facts that could not be disputed. It was obvious that Zim had thought about the "what ifs ", too. The difference was that Zim wouldn't allow those what ifs to shake his resolve to move forward. The words came out stronger now, though, "What sense is there in me stumbling through the dark to close the distance, my words reach your ears the same, and they certainly wont reach your heart any easier. This wont happen the same way again. We know more about the MIST now, we know that even if it isn't targeted, it will attack. Seems to me, based on the visual changes that we witnessed, that even if it senses that its squad is losing it will go ahead and attack. Meaning that our strategy of killing off the easy targets and taking our time to figure out how to deal with the MIST is not an option. We learned from Troas and from Joppa that we are largely not properly equiped to deal with opponents who are resistant to physical attacks. Meaning that we need to make sure that if we are ever split into seperate squads again, Blackstar and Magus should remain on opposite teams because of our energy attacks, and that we should prioritize those attacks for MIST and then worry about the other stuff, or when next our werks get upgrades, we need to find ways to diversify our attacks to be better able to deal wth a situation. That is why I say this won't happen again."
Zim let out a sigh as he collected his thoughts once more. "You wanted to save Elora, you still do. Well so do I, but we are not strong enough. Even if we knew where they were, we couldn't get to them in our current state. The best we can do for Elora right now is to recover and get stronger. Either in her memory, or with the intention to fight on and eventually someday save her. That is what I intend to do."
Zero's words earned him an annoyed huff followed by a defeated sigh. As much as Katya hated to admit it, the more logical side of her knew he was right. She had all she could with what she had. Caretaker simply wasn't equipped to handle such a powerful opponent solo. So what more could she of done? It reminded her of the stress test's she underwent back home. Where Cadets were placed in impossible situations without warning and forced to make hard choices. She felt it this was one of those moments she made a choice and hard one at that. Still even if the logical side of her knew Zero was right. It didn't make her feel any better. Right now the loss of someone close to her had ripped a hole in her heart. One that no amount of words would fix. Still if his words had made her decide maybe she shouldn't be sat in the dark letting the feeling over take her. After all Elora wouldn't like that and Katya had her pride. That she was the squads only living officer. She should be setting an example not hiding in the dark like a rodent.
Getting to her feet she sighed, she really didn't want to be seen right now ... but like Zero said they needed to get stronger if they wanted to save Elora. Maybe this was the first step for her.
"You know Zero I respect you, but you can be a real asshole at times. When you're trying to make a girl feel better you should try a nicer approach. Speaking to someone upset so coldly rarely helps. Look Zim, Elora was like a little sister to me. So much so I pretty much considered her family. She was always around me ... so it's noticeable to me in particular that she's gone, alright. I just need time for it to sink in that she's really gone. Not to mention Ariin by the looks of it is really messed up. Did you say how many it took to pull him from his werk. It all just got to me." she spoke giving another sigh.
"You can go if you want I just need a minute to put something other then frown on. Can't let the others see me down."
"At times?" Zim responded with a raised eyebrow, "Most people think I'm an asshole all the time. Look, I don't expect my words to help with your loss, not one bit. I only intended to lighten the load of blame, hopefully by helping you see tat you are not at fault. We've all felt that loss here, we all have our own ways of coping with it. You need your space and time, I see that. I'm sorry I interupted."
With that Zim turned away from the door way, by now his eyes had well acclimated to the dark and he could at least figure out where the walls were and started walking away. Katya could here his voice echo a little in the distance as his foot steps continued to fade, "Now where the hell did I turn wrong?"