Alice almost couldn’t contain her excitement when Trapp revealed himself. Not only had he regrouped with the 7th safe and sound, but he had managed to take an experimental Coalition MAS in the process. Beyond its elegant design, having such enemy technology in UEE hands was invaluable. While they had been forced to crash land on Jehan, at least they weren't returning empty handed. She began to take her boosters when she was alerted of a last enemy firing at McKnight. None of them could have been able to react in time, not even her, but Trapp did. Almost instantly, he forced him out of the path of the plasma, and not only did he save McKnight, but the new MAS’s shields endured the blast like it was nothing. It’s a good thing that machine was on their side now…
As her Eagle was finally docked back in the hangar and she disconnected, she let out a deep sigh. After today, she felt so...tired. Not physically, of course. But still tired. Tired of fighting, tired of herself, tired of everything. In this moment, she almost wished she could be human, just so she sleep for once. To just lay down and not have to experience anything, if only for a short while. It was dark and quiet inside her idle MAS, but she still closed her eyes and held her hands over her ears, trying to shut out everything around her. It didn’t, and couldn’t work, but just for a second, she wanted to not have to deal with this anymore.
Eventually, her cockpit was opened from the outside. Already, there was a team of special engineers ready to repair the Eagle and download the Coalition data she had taken. They seemed excited over the successful activation of the Odyssey Protocol, as well as Alice’s retrieval of valuable Coalition secrets. She managed to pull herself out of her cockpit, but recoiled when a pair of engineers approached her with a datapad.
“Wait, I...I have to do something.”
Alice quickly walked away from them to try and reach her wingman, so they could talk about everything that happened today. She found her with Gerard and Yuuyami, comforting Ariana, who appeared to be traumatized by the sight of a severely lacerated corpse. She didn’t see the body, but it had to have been horrific. She remembered what she had done to those Coalition soldiers back on Jehan. What if Ari knew about what she did, or Gerard, or the rest of the 7th? Would they see her as a ruthless monster? And would they be right?
She wanted to be there with them, supporting Ariana in her time of need. But with what she had done, she wasn’t sure if she should be anywhere near her right now. Either way, Trapp soon met with the group, ordering them to give Williams some space. He then addressed them all, affirming their duty to each other as family in the face of today’s events, both gains and losses. Throughout his speech, Alice could only awkwardly fiddle her fingers. While the 7th was the closest thing to a family she could ever likely have, now she wasn’t sure if Maki still even trusted her. But they were each other's’ wingmen, and as Trapp correctly asserted, if they didn’t have trust in each other, they would die. All Alice had to offer now was honesty, and she hoped that would be enough.
With great hesitation, she managed to make her way over to Maki, still unable to make eye contact.
“I’m sorry, Maki, I...can we talk? Please?”
Not long after, Alice’s engineers caught up with her and began trying to take her back to the Eagle’s station.