[FMP] [Sousuke x Kaname] [R] Moment
May. 16th, 2006 09:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azuriteThis is a sequel to Counting. This is in answer to the 15-people meme, where ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
atlantian_magic requested a Sousuke x Kaname piece with a KISS. But, since this is a sequel to counting, a story universe which I've semi-planned out in my head, this won't be a drabble. It'll be more of a free-flow ficlet-- a second chapter to "Counting," if you will, and I say it's finished when I say it's finished. :P
Title: Moment
Genres: Drama/Romance/Action
Pairing(s): Sousuke Sagara x Kaname Chidori
Rating: PG13-R for this one
Spoilers: For episode of 5+ of "Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid" and books in the "Owaru: Day by Day" series. If you've read "Counting," that's about all you'll need to know.
Notes:mklutz, not sure if you liked/enjoyed "Counting" enough to get a sequel, but since I owed you "double," here's part two. I hope you like. :)
I do not own the universe nor the characters represented herein. This is a work for fun, not for profit.
Tessa's throat burned. It always felt constricted in the morning, but this morning, when she'd been woken up suddenly and unexpectedly by alarms signaling that the main hangar had been forcefully opened, she woke up with an even drier throat than normal. It was as if there was a lump in her throat that wouldn't go away, no matter how much Tessa swallowed.
She had no time to grab any water, no time to rid her eyes of the black rings that encircled them. All she knew was the tightness in her throat, and the chill in her veins-- something was happening. Something big.
Kurz Weber wasn't usually a morning person, but for some reason on that day, he was already wide-eyed and awake. He suspected it had something to do with Sousuke's chronic insomnia-- ever since Kaname had disappeared over three weeks ago, he had hardly slept. And for whatever strange reason, that meant Kurz couldn't sleep either. Was he really beginning to think of Sousuke like a younger brother or a friend, caring so much...?
Or maybe it was care for Kaname -Kurz liked her well enough; she was cute, if a little trigger-happy. But she was gone, and...
Sousuke, methodical, predictable Sousuke was gone, too. He was erratic and irregular now, and Kurz could hardly blame Captain Testarossa for taking him off officially active duty. Even if he did shape up soon, where would they place him? What could Sousuke possibly do?
Matter of fact, what the hell was Sousuke doing right now? He wasn't in his bunk, which meant...
'Well,' Kurz reasoned, 'It's not as if I have anything better to do.'
So he got up, dressed in his standard uniform, and headed out the doors of his and Sousuke's shared compartment at the Merida Island base. Halfway down the hallway where Kurz hoped he'd run into Sousuke, he heard the klaxons-- and he immediately wheeled around and ran back down toward the hangar at breakneck speeds.
Unmistakably, the girl that had emerged from the mysterious black Arm-Slave was Kaname Chidori.
It was, and it wasn't.
Kaname Chidori didn't know how to pilot an Arm-Slave. But was it even an Arm-Slave? It didn't look anything like those that Mithril possessed, nor anything like those they had faced in battle, belonging to other countries and organizations. But it had an ECS system, and what appeared to be a hydraulically powered cockpit release-- that was where she'd emerged from, clad in a black suit that only pilots wore...
One moment seemed to stretch out into eternity, into the breaking dawn. All eyes were on Kaname Chidori --a Whispered. A Whispered who had been on base, alive and "well" three weeks ago, up until she'd suddenly disappeared. She hadn't been kidnapped, and she hadn't been killed. Captain Testarossa had seen it with her own eyes-- Kaname literally VANISHED from Merida Base.
Apparently the process of disappearing was slow and painful as well, for Kaname had been under heavy sedation and tightly restrained, but people had still heard her screams from meters away.
This Kaname appeared to be wholly there, and in no sort of pain whatsoever. She also appeared... older, somehow. She still had that same face though, and those same eyes-- though maybe it was just a trick of the fresh sunlight, streaming in through the hangar roof. The same dark hair, and the same cheery little red ribbon that tied it all into a simple, but manageable ponytail.
Kaname-but-not-Kaname moved as if to leave the cockpit of her Arm-Slave, but a crew of riflemen were still aiming right at her. One of them -a new recruit, young and uninformed about much of Mithril's previous workings- trembled, and with a single slip of his finger, fired.
Sousuke heard the click of the hammer much louder than the actual sound of the shot-- he felt like he was made of lead, for all the time it took him to turn and see if Kaname had been brought back into his world only to be cruelly stolen from it again. But though the young rifleman had a perfectly clean shot at Kaname's breast, the bullet never made contact.
Instead, a brilliant blue-violet light flared up around Kaname, at the same moment that she raised her left hand. The bullet collided against the field and fell, flattened like a 5-yen coin. The light faded away as quickly as it had come, and Kaname was still whole, still there, still smiling.
It made even less sense than before.
"Cease fire!" Kalinin ordered, and there was an audible "sigh of relief" in the form of an entire battalion of soldiers putting their weapons down as quickly as possible... all except the rifleman that had originally fired on Kaname. He looked too petrified to put his weapon down, but too petrified to try and use it again, either.
Kaname jumped smoothly from the cockpit to the bent knee of her Arm-Slave, making the final leap to the floor with the grace of a ballerina. There were no awe-inspired whispers of "Ooh" or "Aah," for even those at Merida Island that knew Kaname personally could find no words or even syllables coherent enough to express their surprise at Kaname's "return."
The dark-haired girl cocked her head to the side, as if spotting someone without really looking their way. Her lips seemed to curve upward into an amused smile, and she opened her mouth for the second time that morning: "Kurz!"
The blond sergeant, startled to hear someone calling his name amidst the thickening silence, stood at attention and responded automatically: "Yes Ma'am!"
Kaname's smile widened, and with a flick of her hand, the rifle lifted from the bewildered rifleman's hand and soared across the room, straight into Kurz's waiting arms.
"Please take care of that would you? See that the firing mechanism isn't... malfunctioning."
Kurz nodded dumbly, unable to come up with a coherent reply. Kaname didn't talk like that. Hell, Kaname didn't have the ability to telekinetically lift things out of someone else's hands and send them soaring across the room! But... she'd just spoken like that. Like she'd given him an order-- and she HAD. She'd done it nicely though, the same way Tessa ordered people around "nicely." But Kaname wasn't Tessa. Kaname wasn't even in Mithril, except by honorary association.
Melissa Mao, not that far removed from where Kurz was standing, still looking shell-shocked, wasn't sure what to make of this.
(1) Kaname, returned from who-knows-where.
(2) Returned... in an Arm-Slave. That she'd piloted herself.
(3) An Arm-Slave that looked far beyond any that Mithril possessed, or had ever seen.
(4) An Arm-Slave that Kaname had leaped from like she was a cat leaping off a tree branch.
(5) The same Kaname that used to thwap Sousuke over the head with a paper fan... stopping bullets in mid-air, lifting things out of people's hands and sending them flying across the room, and giving orders to Kurz as if she outranked him.
Mao squinted when she saw Kaname come closer to the side of the hangar where she and Kurz stood, removed from the center of everything by the battalion of riflemen still kneeling over their weapons.
'Where's Sousuke? Don't tell me the fool is out moping and he doesn't even know--' Mao's train of thought derailed abruptly when she saw a shadow near the far hangar door, which opened out to the cliffside.
'Ah. Sousuke.' The young soldier came closer, almost warily, as if he didn't believe what he was seeing. Cautious was a word that well-described Sousuke Sagara, but sometimes his wariness caused him to act irrationally. Well, irrationally in the eyes of Kaname, at any rate. But that was the old Kaname. Mao got the distinct feeling that even if this girl had Kaname's face and voice, there was still something very different about her...
Mao's gaze drifted back to the black-clad Kaname, who had moved across the hangar to where a bleary-eyed Tessa stood. Though the petite captain was obviously tired from a lack of sleep, the pure shock in her eyes couldn't be disguised by any amount of weariness. Tessa's posture was not nearly as straight as Kaname's when the dark-haired girl walked up to her, a strange, though gentle smile on her face.
Neither of the girls said anything -not aloud, anyway- but that was the way things between the Whispereds went. Tessa and Kaname both, possessors of the greatest secrets this century had ever known... all of it mysteriously programmed into their brains, without cause or explanation.
"Everyone is dismissed! There is no emergency here!" Tessa said in the clearest voice she could manage, her gaze never straying from Kaname's. There was a moment of stillness and silence, and then all at once, everyone began to pick up their weapons and head back to their quarters, intent on getting what few precious hours of sleep they had left before work had to begin anew.
Still, a few remained, even if the tone in Tessa's voice had indicated her words were an order, not just a suggestion.
Mao.
Kurz.
Kalinin.
Sousuke.
Each of them occupied a part of the hangar near the corners-- Sousuke on the far right, coming closer, but with agonizingly slow steps. Mao and Kurz occupied the far left, moving closer to the center to shift out of the way of the soldiers leaving the hangar. Kalinin walked between the crowds from the other left, having entered the hangar somewhat later than everyone else; injuries sustained a while ago had aggravated him this morning, and he'd suffered for pushing his limits. Tessa and Kaname stood left of center, just beyond the reach of Kaname's black AS, still staring at each other as if they were having a silent conversation-- and for all the others knew, the two girls were.
The moment Mao and Kurz got within a few meters of Kaname, they noticed something they hadn't before-- a set of three, burnished metal bars vertically aligned on each of Kaname's shoulders, with the familiar Mithril shield-and-sword crest right below them. Not just the random decorations of a futuristic piloting uniform-- those were rankings. Sure, Kaname could have arrived in disguise, but...
Kurz and Mao looked at one another the moment the realization hit them: 'She's a captain!?'
Kaname Chidori, Whispered, target of countless terrorist organizations, and previously the 'poster-child' for "I wanna be a normal high schooler!" was a captain in Mithril!?
No, she couldn't be. It was all a disguise, a mistake. Kaname was just a hell of an actress-- that was the only reason why she seemed to walk like a soldier, with her back held perfectly straight, or why she was dressed like a pilot.
But... it was one thing to dress like a pilot, and another entirely to actually be able to PILOT an AS. And Kaname had done just that-- they'd all seen it. She'd even landed perfectly, and to top it all off, she'd jumped out of the AS like a gymnastic off a trampoline.
Neither Kurz nor Mao had any idea what to do or say, so they settled for respectfully remaining at attention while Sousuke and Kalinin approached.
Sousuke approached last, having come furthest, and -oddly- most likely being the one with the most reluctance. To come forward and verify that what he was seeing was real, and that he wasn't losing his mind meant taking a chance-- but a chance on what? With Kaname here OR gone, it wasn't as if...
"Sousuke."
It was her! There simply was no doubt about it; no one else said his name like that, no one else dared, and no one else COULD!
But it was as if his lips were glued together, as if he'd swallowed a rock, and as if bile crept up his esophagus, all at once. He couldn't speak. He wanted to -her name was on the tip of his tongue, and he wanted to say it, to scream it, to do all sorts of insane, crazy things, like grab her into his arms, protect her completely, with everything he was and everything he had, and whisper her name into her hair, over and over, just so she knew...
'I am losing control over my mental faculties...' Sousuke thought dimly, but it was even more difficult to think at all. After twenty-one plus straight days of thinking nonstop about Kaname, now she was here, now she was here: 'Kaname Kaname Kaname Kaname Kaname...'
"I think I have some explaining to do," Kaname smiled --this time, a familiar smile, not a the mysterious ones she'd worn earlier, before hurling a gun across the room, or before activating her mysterious "personal ECS" system. This smile was familiar to everyone: it was a tired, resigned, but overall HAPPY smile.
It had been quite a long time since they'd seen that look on anyone's face around here.
"Let me see if I've got this straight," Kurz said after Kaname's third explanation. "You... were in the future?"
Kaname nodded affirmatively. "That's where I 'disappeared' to, yes."
"Some unmentionable number of years in the future, where Black Technology really came from?"
"That's correct."
"I still don't understand how you just VANISHED there. There wasn't any sort of an AS involved, or a Lambda Driver, or..." Mao trailed off.
Kaname hesitated. "It's hard to explain, but what happened to me is programmed into all Whispereds." Kaname's gaze drifted over to Tessa, who had been mostly silent during this briefing. "In the time that I came from, it is possible to genetically program a child before they are even born. Children meeting specific needs were programmed with a host of knowledge, locked away in part of their brain. It would only become accessible to them if certain requirements were met, internally."
"In other words, you had to will the knowledge to come forth, without truly knowing what that knowledge entailed," Kalinin supplied.
Kaname nodded in the affirmative and continued, "Outside forces could possibly stimulate that area of the brain without a Whispered's will, but..." Kaname trailed off with a sharp shake of her head. She remembered being subjected to all sorts of experiments and tests, all for the sake of terrorists trying to worm their way into her brain, find out her secrets, and take control of her body...
"It would be like getting past the electrified front gate of a house without dealing with the security system inside. If you were out to steal the garden topiaries, that'd be fine, but the real information is locked away-- much deeper inside."
"The will..." Tessa whispered, the first words she'd spoken aloud all morning. She shook her head distractedly and then looked up at Kaname as if seeing her for the first time.
"You look different," Tessa said bluntly.
Kaname blushed faintly, her dark bangs almost covering her eyes. "Well, that is..." She mumbled something under her breath that no one could quite make out.
"Could you repeat that for us, Cap'n Chidori?" Kurz quipped, his use of Kaname's "rank" more out of fun than real recognition of the possibility that she outranked him. However, one of Kaname's hands flew up to her shoulders, as if trying to disguise the rank signet that was so clearly there. Her blush darkened, and this time she mumbled louder, "I told them I didn't want to wear my rank on this thing, it would only make things more complicated..."
"So you really are a captain?" Mao asked before anyone else could, the astonishment plain in her voice. "You're a soldier of Mithril?"
Kaname sighed deeply and then nodded once sharply. "Yes. I'm from a Mithril in the future, where I hold the rank of Captain alongside two other Whispered women."
"Two more?" Kurz repeated hollowly, though he wasn't upset-- rather, he looked in a state of bliss. Two beautiful Whispered girls with amazing powers, amazing bodies...
"Watch it, Kurz," Kaname snapped, though there was a trace of humor in her voice. "They both have adult daughters, and one of those daughters is me."
"Your... mother?" Tessa asked quietly, her voice just barely above a whisper.
Kaname hesitated once more before nodding. "Yes. Black Technology has been proven to genetically transfer over with a higher success rate into women. That's why most Whispereds tend to be female..." Kaname trailed off, though her gaze went straight to Tessa for some inexplicable reason, "But there are exceptions."
"I thought your mother was... er..." Kurz trailed off. He remembered reading all the reports about Kaname Chidori. He'd read them backwards and forwards-- Kaname Chidori, lives alone. Father involved with the United Nations, younger sister Ayame living with him and attending school in the United States. Mother died shortly after the birth of Ayame. At least, that was how the story went. Kaname seemed to be saying something completely different-- but how had Mrs. Chidori managed to fake out Mithril, along with countless other organizations, for more than ten years?
"She was... in this time. Well, if you want to be technical about it, she disappeared the same way I did. Matter of fact, it was already happening by the time Ayame was born, so at least in her case, the pain of the transport was dulled by childbirth." Kaname laughed wanly, sarcasm coloring her choice of words.
"There was just enough time before she started to fade for her to use her abilities enough to influence the doctors and nurses to think she was dying of a hemorrhage or something. At any rate... it worked. Father was never any the wiser, or else I would have awakened much sooner than I did."
"And... your younger sister, Ayame?" Kalinin asked.
"Not a Whispered, if that's what you're thinking. Mother didn't expect to get pregnant with another child, and there was no way for her to 'program' Ayame." Kaname paused, and when she spoke again, her voice was akin to a broken whisper. "I'm glad. It's for the better. Ayame can live... a normal life."
"And you? Aside from racing through the ranks, what have you been doing?" Mao asked.
Kaname pursed her lips, her gaze glued to the tabletop, as if she truly had to consider the right words to say.
"Let me guess-" Mao said, waving her hand dismissively, "If you told me, you'd have to kill me?"
Kaname looked up suddenly, her eyes almost wild -but the hurt in their depths was plain. "Yes! I mean, I don't-" She stopped, her voice cracking again, "I'm not supposed to be here. I wasn't supposed to come back. I don't know how the future is going to change because of this, but... I won't let anything happen to *any* of you- no matter what my duties say."
Everyone shifted in their seats uncomfortably -everyone except Sousuke who was still STARING at Kaname. He had been since the start of this little 'meeting,' and his gaze hadn't shifted once, even when she'd looked away, her eyes filling with tears that never got the chance to fall.
"I know it's crazy, everything I'm saying," Kaname said after a time, "But you have to believe me. Everything you never understood -about Mithril, about Black Technology- it's *in* me now, for better or for worse. And I'm here now- for good, this time."
Everyone seemed to take this in slowly, each wondering their own things: Kurz wanted to know how Kaname had hefted a rifle out of a soldier's arm with a mere flick of her hand; Mao and Kalinin were curious about Kaname's AS and that strange shield -Lambda Driver, ECS, or otherwise- and Tessa...
"Who is the other captain?"
"Tessa..."
"WHO?"
Kaname pursed her lips and then let out a heavy sigh. "Your mother."
Tessa nodded once and then put her trembling fist into her lap. Her light bangs covered her eyes, preventing anyone from seeing what she was truly feeling. No one ever got the chance, as Tessa stood up suddenly and rigidly, and left the room.
"I don't know how much more any of you want me to say... if I can even say it right." Kaname threaded a hand through her hair, looking resigned. "The best I can do is... *show* you, but..."
"That's fine, Kaname-chan!" Kurz said in an unexpectedly loud voice. A cheery smile was plastered on his face, but no one could tell if it was genuine or not. "You probably had a long trip from the future, and after your surprise this morning, I think what we all need is some rest, right? I'm pretty sure everyone on base would agree with me."
Kaname laughed quietly under her breath. "Yeah, I suppose you're right. But-" she stood up and stretched, the skin-tight piloting suit stretching over her body perfectly, giving Kurz and Sousuke both an eyeful they hadn't expected. "It's good to be back."
Kalinin had left the room first, asking to speak to Kaname as soon as she'd rested up. Mao headed to the door next, dragging Kurz by the ear behind her -Kurz had obviously become too addled by the ranks on Kaname's shoulders, and instead decided that humor was the best recourse-- so he'd flirted shamelessly with Kaname while she giggled all the while.
And then, it was just them. Sousuke and Kaname, all alone together. Like it used to be, but in a different place, and in a different time.
Kaname studied Sousuke for a moment, but even though he continued to stare right at her, it didn't seem as if he was *seeing* her. Kaname, obviously unnerved by this, slammed her palms on the tabletop and stood up abruptly.
"Well... let's take a walk."
Sousuke didn't respond; he stood up at attention, and respectfully followed Kaname out the door.
Before long, the two of them were outside the main buildings of the base, walking along the beach side cliffs where they'd gone fishing that first time at Merida Island. But that seemed so long ago...
Even when they sat down, legs swinging over the open ocean, neither of them could say anything. What *was* there to say, exactly? Kaname knew more than she could -more than she wanted to- say, and Sousuke still didn't know how to say whatever he felt and put those feelings into words. He wasn't even sure what he was feeling.
Kaname looked at him briefly, her face clearly a mask of despair. With one sudden movement, she tore the ranks off her shoulders and stood, stretching her arm back as she hurled the insignias into the ocean.
"NOW will you talk to me? I'm not a stupid captain now- I'm just Kaname! Kaname Chidori, Chidori-kun, whatever you want to call me-- please..." Kaname fell to her knees before Sousuke, hardly resembling the powerful, sweetly-smiling captain she'd been only hours ago, and instead looking every bit the part of a broken-hearted teenager-- the girl she'd been when she'd disappeared from Merida Base three weeks ago.
"Just talk to me. Don't leave me all alone again."
"Kaname--" It was the only thing he could think of to say. It was the only SURE thing that he *could* say-- his throat felt so dry, his head so addled. Was this all real? Or was it just a momentary dream -a hallucination inspired by... something Sousuke didn't have the power nor the comprehension to explain.
All he needed was to say her name, for in the next moment, Kaname pushed herself into his arms, burying her head into the crook of his neck.
"I missed you. I missed you so much. All I wanted was--"
Sousuke's hands trembled as he raised them slowly -holding them up just beyond Kaname's shaking frame, as if to see if the sunlight would stream through them if *he* was the one that was real in this world. His hand cast a trembling shadow on Kaname's back -no light passed through them, and he wasn't a ghost. He still *felt* -he could feel Kaname in his arms, her breath warm at his neck, her tears wetting his nape. All this he could feel, but when it came to describing that intangible "feeling" he got whenever it came to Kaname, the words escaped him.
"I'm here."
Not for duty. Not for a mission. Not for anything except the fact that he wanted to be, because the past three weeks had more than proven that Kaname wasn't -hadn't been, wouldn't *ever* be- just a mission. He'd been unable to function, thinking that he'd somehow failed, that he'd abandoned her, that he hadn't protected her enough. As if to exact the sweetest, cruelest revenge, Kaname had disappeared from his world, like the perfect death.
That was what it was supposed to have been, except now she was back, now she was in his arms -IN HIS ARMS, not just beyond their reach, not just there, wanting as badly as he did, except not doing anything because it "breached protocol" or would "compromise the mission."
"You weren't- you're not, in the time I came from," Kaname admitted quietly, her voice hiccuping. "They never let me find out what happened to you, and even when I got the chance, I was too scared. But I couldn't stand it anymore, being in the future and staring at the past... watching the world change around me. I was stuck there, frozen... a tool, a means to an end!" Once Kaname started, it didn't seem as if she could stop. "That's all the Whispereds are -data storage centers, living, organic servers! And when our bodies die, our minds just get transplanted into an AS, sent anywhere or anywhen..."
"Into an AS...?" Sousuke mumbled quietly, his grip around Kaname tightening ever-so-slightly.
"Al," Kaname said hoarsely, chuckling mirthlessly a moment later. "Just a consciousness locked away into 1s and 0s."
"You're--!" It was impossible. What Kaname was suggesting was--
"Don't worry, it's not as if the universe will explode because Al and I exist in the same space," Kaname laughed. "By coming here to the past, I've undone the future where I 'copy' my consciousness into the Arbalest. Now, you'll have two Whispereds protecting you, wherever you are..."
"That's why I was always the only one..." Sousuke said aloud.
"Why you were the only one to make a connection with Al? Yes." Kaname smiled slightly, but she still looked like she was on the verge of tears. "If it was the only way of being with you, then..."
"But if you've changed that future, then I would no longer be able to-"
"Pilot the Arbalest? Not true. Another Whispered's consciousness is inside the AI now, even if it can't be reverted to its original personality. The memories of the human Whispered are gone, I'm sure. But that connection can't just 'disappear'," Kaname chuckled mirthlessly. "Not like I did."
"It doesn't matter," Sousuke shook his head. "I don't want to have anything to do with that machine. I don't even want-"
The moment changed, and suddenly Sousuke wasn't talking anymore -couldn't talk anymore, because Kaname's lips were on his, effectively sealing away his words into the ether. His eyes were still open and his own lips hardly moved... but this wasn't "mouth-to-mouth resuscitation," because though he was steadily growing hotter under his collar, he could breathe just fine...
"You're supposed to kiss me back, stupid," Kaname whispered when she pulled back slightly, her forehead lightly touching his.
Sousuke studied her for a moment and then nodded in the affirmative. "Permission to try again- Kaname?" Not 'Captain.' Not 'Chidori-kun' or any other crazy "man-on-a-mission" nickname or alias for her. Just Kaname.
She smiled and then nodded, and the both of them stopped shaking, stopped thinking about the past, stopped talking about ASes, AIs, and Whispereds. And the moment stretched on, and on, and on...
Meh, kind of sappy, but it could easily be continued/revised if I wanted it to. Well, what do you think?
atlantian_magic requested a Sousuke x Kaname piece with a KISS. But, since this is a sequel to counting, a story universe which I've semi-planned out in my head, this won't be a drabble. It'll be more of a free-flow ficlet-- a second chapter to "Counting," if you will, and I say it's finished when I say it's finished. :PTitle: Moment
Genres: Drama/Romance/Action
Pairing(s): Sousuke Sagara x Kaname Chidori
Rating: PG13-R for this one
Spoilers: For episode of 5+ of "Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid" and books in the "Owaru: Day by Day" series. If you've read "Counting," that's about all you'll need to know.
Notes:
mklutz, not sure if you liked/enjoyed "Counting" enough to get a sequel, but since I owed you "double," here's part two. I hope you like. :)I do not own the universe nor the characters represented herein. This is a work for fun, not for profit.
Tessa's throat burned. It always felt constricted in the morning, but this morning, when she'd been woken up suddenly and unexpectedly by alarms signaling that the main hangar had been forcefully opened, she woke up with an even drier throat than normal. It was as if there was a lump in her throat that wouldn't go away, no matter how much Tessa swallowed.
She had no time to grab any water, no time to rid her eyes of the black rings that encircled them. All she knew was the tightness in her throat, and the chill in her veins-- something was happening. Something big.
Kurz Weber wasn't usually a morning person, but for some reason on that day, he was already wide-eyed and awake. He suspected it had something to do with Sousuke's chronic insomnia-- ever since Kaname had disappeared over three weeks ago, he had hardly slept. And for whatever strange reason, that meant Kurz couldn't sleep either. Was he really beginning to think of Sousuke like a younger brother or a friend, caring so much...?
Or maybe it was care for Kaname -Kurz liked her well enough; she was cute, if a little trigger-happy. But she was gone, and...
Sousuke, methodical, predictable Sousuke was gone, too. He was erratic and irregular now, and Kurz could hardly blame Captain Testarossa for taking him off officially active duty. Even if he did shape up soon, where would they place him? What could Sousuke possibly do?
Matter of fact, what the hell was Sousuke doing right now? He wasn't in his bunk, which meant...
'Well,' Kurz reasoned, 'It's not as if I have anything better to do.'
So he got up, dressed in his standard uniform, and headed out the doors of his and Sousuke's shared compartment at the Merida Island base. Halfway down the hallway where Kurz hoped he'd run into Sousuke, he heard the klaxons-- and he immediately wheeled around and ran back down toward the hangar at breakneck speeds.
Unmistakably, the girl that had emerged from the mysterious black Arm-Slave was Kaname Chidori.
It was, and it wasn't.
Kaname Chidori didn't know how to pilot an Arm-Slave. But was it even an Arm-Slave? It didn't look anything like those that Mithril possessed, nor anything like those they had faced in battle, belonging to other countries and organizations. But it had an ECS system, and what appeared to be a hydraulically powered cockpit release-- that was where she'd emerged from, clad in a black suit that only pilots wore...
One moment seemed to stretch out into eternity, into the breaking dawn. All eyes were on Kaname Chidori --a Whispered. A Whispered who had been on base, alive and "well" three weeks ago, up until she'd suddenly disappeared. She hadn't been kidnapped, and she hadn't been killed. Captain Testarossa had seen it with her own eyes-- Kaname literally VANISHED from Merida Base.
Apparently the process of disappearing was slow and painful as well, for Kaname had been under heavy sedation and tightly restrained, but people had still heard her screams from meters away.
This Kaname appeared to be wholly there, and in no sort of pain whatsoever. She also appeared... older, somehow. She still had that same face though, and those same eyes-- though maybe it was just a trick of the fresh sunlight, streaming in through the hangar roof. The same dark hair, and the same cheery little red ribbon that tied it all into a simple, but manageable ponytail.
Kaname-but-not-Kaname moved as if to leave the cockpit of her Arm-Slave, but a crew of riflemen were still aiming right at her. One of them -a new recruit, young and uninformed about much of Mithril's previous workings- trembled, and with a single slip of his finger, fired.
Sousuke heard the click of the hammer much louder than the actual sound of the shot-- he felt like he was made of lead, for all the time it took him to turn and see if Kaname had been brought back into his world only to be cruelly stolen from it again. But though the young rifleman had a perfectly clean shot at Kaname's breast, the bullet never made contact.
Instead, a brilliant blue-violet light flared up around Kaname, at the same moment that she raised her left hand. The bullet collided against the field and fell, flattened like a 5-yen coin. The light faded away as quickly as it had come, and Kaname was still whole, still there, still smiling.
It made even less sense than before.
"Cease fire!" Kalinin ordered, and there was an audible "sigh of relief" in the form of an entire battalion of soldiers putting their weapons down as quickly as possible... all except the rifleman that had originally fired on Kaname. He looked too petrified to put his weapon down, but too petrified to try and use it again, either.
Kaname jumped smoothly from the cockpit to the bent knee of her Arm-Slave, making the final leap to the floor with the grace of a ballerina. There were no awe-inspired whispers of "Ooh" or "Aah," for even those at Merida Island that knew Kaname personally could find no words or even syllables coherent enough to express their surprise at Kaname's "return."
The dark-haired girl cocked her head to the side, as if spotting someone without really looking their way. Her lips seemed to curve upward into an amused smile, and she opened her mouth for the second time that morning: "Kurz!"
The blond sergeant, startled to hear someone calling his name amidst the thickening silence, stood at attention and responded automatically: "Yes Ma'am!"
Kaname's smile widened, and with a flick of her hand, the rifle lifted from the bewildered rifleman's hand and soared across the room, straight into Kurz's waiting arms.
"Please take care of that would you? See that the firing mechanism isn't... malfunctioning."
Kurz nodded dumbly, unable to come up with a coherent reply. Kaname didn't talk like that. Hell, Kaname didn't have the ability to telekinetically lift things out of someone else's hands and send them soaring across the room! But... she'd just spoken like that. Like she'd given him an order-- and she HAD. She'd done it nicely though, the same way Tessa ordered people around "nicely." But Kaname wasn't Tessa. Kaname wasn't even in Mithril, except by honorary association.
Melissa Mao, not that far removed from where Kurz was standing, still looking shell-shocked, wasn't sure what to make of this.
(1) Kaname, returned from who-knows-where.
(2) Returned... in an Arm-Slave. That she'd piloted herself.
(3) An Arm-Slave that looked far beyond any that Mithril possessed, or had ever seen.
(4) An Arm-Slave that Kaname had leaped from like she was a cat leaping off a tree branch.
(5) The same Kaname that used to thwap Sousuke over the head with a paper fan... stopping bullets in mid-air, lifting things out of people's hands and sending them flying across the room, and giving orders to Kurz as if she outranked him.
Mao squinted when she saw Kaname come closer to the side of the hangar where she and Kurz stood, removed from the center of everything by the battalion of riflemen still kneeling over their weapons.
'Where's Sousuke? Don't tell me the fool is out moping and he doesn't even know--' Mao's train of thought derailed abruptly when she saw a shadow near the far hangar door, which opened out to the cliffside.
'Ah. Sousuke.' The young soldier came closer, almost warily, as if he didn't believe what he was seeing. Cautious was a word that well-described Sousuke Sagara, but sometimes his wariness caused him to act irrationally. Well, irrationally in the eyes of Kaname, at any rate. But that was the old Kaname. Mao got the distinct feeling that even if this girl had Kaname's face and voice, there was still something very different about her...
Mao's gaze drifted back to the black-clad Kaname, who had moved across the hangar to where a bleary-eyed Tessa stood. Though the petite captain was obviously tired from a lack of sleep, the pure shock in her eyes couldn't be disguised by any amount of weariness. Tessa's posture was not nearly as straight as Kaname's when the dark-haired girl walked up to her, a strange, though gentle smile on her face.
Neither of the girls said anything -not aloud, anyway- but that was the way things between the Whispereds went. Tessa and Kaname both, possessors of the greatest secrets this century had ever known... all of it mysteriously programmed into their brains, without cause or explanation.
"Everyone is dismissed! There is no emergency here!" Tessa said in the clearest voice she could manage, her gaze never straying from Kaname's. There was a moment of stillness and silence, and then all at once, everyone began to pick up their weapons and head back to their quarters, intent on getting what few precious hours of sleep they had left before work had to begin anew.
Still, a few remained, even if the tone in Tessa's voice had indicated her words were an order, not just a suggestion.
Mao.
Kurz.
Kalinin.
Sousuke.
Each of them occupied a part of the hangar near the corners-- Sousuke on the far right, coming closer, but with agonizingly slow steps. Mao and Kurz occupied the far left, moving closer to the center to shift out of the way of the soldiers leaving the hangar. Kalinin walked between the crowds from the other left, having entered the hangar somewhat later than everyone else; injuries sustained a while ago had aggravated him this morning, and he'd suffered for pushing his limits. Tessa and Kaname stood left of center, just beyond the reach of Kaname's black AS, still staring at each other as if they were having a silent conversation-- and for all the others knew, the two girls were.
The moment Mao and Kurz got within a few meters of Kaname, they noticed something they hadn't before-- a set of three, burnished metal bars vertically aligned on each of Kaname's shoulders, with the familiar Mithril shield-and-sword crest right below them. Not just the random decorations of a futuristic piloting uniform-- those were rankings. Sure, Kaname could have arrived in disguise, but...
Kurz and Mao looked at one another the moment the realization hit them: 'She's a captain!?'
Kaname Chidori, Whispered, target of countless terrorist organizations, and previously the 'poster-child' for "I wanna be a normal high schooler!" was a captain in Mithril!?
No, she couldn't be. It was all a disguise, a mistake. Kaname was just a hell of an actress-- that was the only reason why she seemed to walk like a soldier, with her back held perfectly straight, or why she was dressed like a pilot.
But... it was one thing to dress like a pilot, and another entirely to actually be able to PILOT an AS. And Kaname had done just that-- they'd all seen it. She'd even landed perfectly, and to top it all off, she'd jumped out of the AS like a gymnastic off a trampoline.
Neither Kurz nor Mao had any idea what to do or say, so they settled for respectfully remaining at attention while Sousuke and Kalinin approached.
Sousuke approached last, having come furthest, and -oddly- most likely being the one with the most reluctance. To come forward and verify that what he was seeing was real, and that he wasn't losing his mind meant taking a chance-- but a chance on what? With Kaname here OR gone, it wasn't as if...
"Sousuke."
It was her! There simply was no doubt about it; no one else said his name like that, no one else dared, and no one else COULD!
But it was as if his lips were glued together, as if he'd swallowed a rock, and as if bile crept up his esophagus, all at once. He couldn't speak. He wanted to -her name was on the tip of his tongue, and he wanted to say it, to scream it, to do all sorts of insane, crazy things, like grab her into his arms, protect her completely, with everything he was and everything he had, and whisper her name into her hair, over and over, just so she knew...
'I am losing control over my mental faculties...' Sousuke thought dimly, but it was even more difficult to think at all. After twenty-one plus straight days of thinking nonstop about Kaname, now she was here, now she was here: 'Kaname Kaname Kaname Kaname Kaname...'
"I think I have some explaining to do," Kaname smiled --this time, a familiar smile, not a the mysterious ones she'd worn earlier, before hurling a gun across the room, or before activating her mysterious "personal ECS" system. This smile was familiar to everyone: it was a tired, resigned, but overall HAPPY smile.
It had been quite a long time since they'd seen that look on anyone's face around here.
"Let me see if I've got this straight," Kurz said after Kaname's third explanation. "You... were in the future?"
Kaname nodded affirmatively. "That's where I 'disappeared' to, yes."
"Some unmentionable number of years in the future, where Black Technology really came from?"
"That's correct."
"I still don't understand how you just VANISHED there. There wasn't any sort of an AS involved, or a Lambda Driver, or..." Mao trailed off.
Kaname hesitated. "It's hard to explain, but what happened to me is programmed into all Whispereds." Kaname's gaze drifted over to Tessa, who had been mostly silent during this briefing. "In the time that I came from, it is possible to genetically program a child before they are even born. Children meeting specific needs were programmed with a host of knowledge, locked away in part of their brain. It would only become accessible to them if certain requirements were met, internally."
"In other words, you had to will the knowledge to come forth, without truly knowing what that knowledge entailed," Kalinin supplied.
Kaname nodded in the affirmative and continued, "Outside forces could possibly stimulate that area of the brain without a Whispered's will, but..." Kaname trailed off with a sharp shake of her head. She remembered being subjected to all sorts of experiments and tests, all for the sake of terrorists trying to worm their way into her brain, find out her secrets, and take control of her body...
"It would be like getting past the electrified front gate of a house without dealing with the security system inside. If you were out to steal the garden topiaries, that'd be fine, but the real information is locked away-- much deeper inside."
"The will..." Tessa whispered, the first words she'd spoken aloud all morning. She shook her head distractedly and then looked up at Kaname as if seeing her for the first time.
"You look different," Tessa said bluntly.
Kaname blushed faintly, her dark bangs almost covering her eyes. "Well, that is..." She mumbled something under her breath that no one could quite make out.
"Could you repeat that for us, Cap'n Chidori?" Kurz quipped, his use of Kaname's "rank" more out of fun than real recognition of the possibility that she outranked him. However, one of Kaname's hands flew up to her shoulders, as if trying to disguise the rank signet that was so clearly there. Her blush darkened, and this time she mumbled louder, "I told them I didn't want to wear my rank on this thing, it would only make things more complicated..."
"So you really are a captain?" Mao asked before anyone else could, the astonishment plain in her voice. "You're a soldier of Mithril?"
Kaname sighed deeply and then nodded once sharply. "Yes. I'm from a Mithril in the future, where I hold the rank of Captain alongside two other Whispered women."
"Two more?" Kurz repeated hollowly, though he wasn't upset-- rather, he looked in a state of bliss. Two beautiful Whispered girls with amazing powers, amazing bodies...
"Watch it, Kurz," Kaname snapped, though there was a trace of humor in her voice. "They both have adult daughters, and one of those daughters is me."
"Your... mother?" Tessa asked quietly, her voice just barely above a whisper.
Kaname hesitated once more before nodding. "Yes. Black Technology has been proven to genetically transfer over with a higher success rate into women. That's why most Whispereds tend to be female..." Kaname trailed off, though her gaze went straight to Tessa for some inexplicable reason, "But there are exceptions."
"I thought your mother was... er..." Kurz trailed off. He remembered reading all the reports about Kaname Chidori. He'd read them backwards and forwards-- Kaname Chidori, lives alone. Father involved with the United Nations, younger sister Ayame living with him and attending school in the United States. Mother died shortly after the birth of Ayame. At least, that was how the story went. Kaname seemed to be saying something completely different-- but how had Mrs. Chidori managed to fake out Mithril, along with countless other organizations, for more than ten years?
"She was... in this time. Well, if you want to be technical about it, she disappeared the same way I did. Matter of fact, it was already happening by the time Ayame was born, so at least in her case, the pain of the transport was dulled by childbirth." Kaname laughed wanly, sarcasm coloring her choice of words.
"There was just enough time before she started to fade for her to use her abilities enough to influence the doctors and nurses to think she was dying of a hemorrhage or something. At any rate... it worked. Father was never any the wiser, or else I would have awakened much sooner than I did."
"And... your younger sister, Ayame?" Kalinin asked.
"Not a Whispered, if that's what you're thinking. Mother didn't expect to get pregnant with another child, and there was no way for her to 'program' Ayame." Kaname paused, and when she spoke again, her voice was akin to a broken whisper. "I'm glad. It's for the better. Ayame can live... a normal life."
"And you? Aside from racing through the ranks, what have you been doing?" Mao asked.
Kaname pursed her lips, her gaze glued to the tabletop, as if she truly had to consider the right words to say.
"Let me guess-" Mao said, waving her hand dismissively, "If you told me, you'd have to kill me?"
Kaname looked up suddenly, her eyes almost wild -but the hurt in their depths was plain. "Yes! I mean, I don't-" She stopped, her voice cracking again, "I'm not supposed to be here. I wasn't supposed to come back. I don't know how the future is going to change because of this, but... I won't let anything happen to *any* of you- no matter what my duties say."
Everyone shifted in their seats uncomfortably -everyone except Sousuke who was still STARING at Kaname. He had been since the start of this little 'meeting,' and his gaze hadn't shifted once, even when she'd looked away, her eyes filling with tears that never got the chance to fall.
"I know it's crazy, everything I'm saying," Kaname said after a time, "But you have to believe me. Everything you never understood -about Mithril, about Black Technology- it's *in* me now, for better or for worse. And I'm here now- for good, this time."
Everyone seemed to take this in slowly, each wondering their own things: Kurz wanted to know how Kaname had hefted a rifle out of a soldier's arm with a mere flick of her hand; Mao and Kalinin were curious about Kaname's AS and that strange shield -Lambda Driver, ECS, or otherwise- and Tessa...
"Who is the other captain?"
"Tessa..."
"WHO?"
Kaname pursed her lips and then let out a heavy sigh. "Your mother."
Tessa nodded once and then put her trembling fist into her lap. Her light bangs covered her eyes, preventing anyone from seeing what she was truly feeling. No one ever got the chance, as Tessa stood up suddenly and rigidly, and left the room.
"I don't know how much more any of you want me to say... if I can even say it right." Kaname threaded a hand through her hair, looking resigned. "The best I can do is... *show* you, but..."
"That's fine, Kaname-chan!" Kurz said in an unexpectedly loud voice. A cheery smile was plastered on his face, but no one could tell if it was genuine or not. "You probably had a long trip from the future, and after your surprise this morning, I think what we all need is some rest, right? I'm pretty sure everyone on base would agree with me."
Kaname laughed quietly under her breath. "Yeah, I suppose you're right. But-" she stood up and stretched, the skin-tight piloting suit stretching over her body perfectly, giving Kurz and Sousuke both an eyeful they hadn't expected. "It's good to be back."
Kalinin had left the room first, asking to speak to Kaname as soon as she'd rested up. Mao headed to the door next, dragging Kurz by the ear behind her -Kurz had obviously become too addled by the ranks on Kaname's shoulders, and instead decided that humor was the best recourse-- so he'd flirted shamelessly with Kaname while she giggled all the while.
And then, it was just them. Sousuke and Kaname, all alone together. Like it used to be, but in a different place, and in a different time.
Kaname studied Sousuke for a moment, but even though he continued to stare right at her, it didn't seem as if he was *seeing* her. Kaname, obviously unnerved by this, slammed her palms on the tabletop and stood up abruptly.
"Well... let's take a walk."
Sousuke didn't respond; he stood up at attention, and respectfully followed Kaname out the door.
Before long, the two of them were outside the main buildings of the base, walking along the beach side cliffs where they'd gone fishing that first time at Merida Island. But that seemed so long ago...
Even when they sat down, legs swinging over the open ocean, neither of them could say anything. What *was* there to say, exactly? Kaname knew more than she could -more than she wanted to- say, and Sousuke still didn't know how to say whatever he felt and put those feelings into words. He wasn't even sure what he was feeling.
Kaname looked at him briefly, her face clearly a mask of despair. With one sudden movement, she tore the ranks off her shoulders and stood, stretching her arm back as she hurled the insignias into the ocean.
"NOW will you talk to me? I'm not a stupid captain now- I'm just Kaname! Kaname Chidori, Chidori-kun, whatever you want to call me-- please..." Kaname fell to her knees before Sousuke, hardly resembling the powerful, sweetly-smiling captain she'd been only hours ago, and instead looking every bit the part of a broken-hearted teenager-- the girl she'd been when she'd disappeared from Merida Base three weeks ago.
"Just talk to me. Don't leave me all alone again."
"Kaname--" It was the only thing he could think of to say. It was the only SURE thing that he *could* say-- his throat felt so dry, his head so addled. Was this all real? Or was it just a momentary dream -a hallucination inspired by... something Sousuke didn't have the power nor the comprehension to explain.
All he needed was to say her name, for in the next moment, Kaname pushed herself into his arms, burying her head into the crook of his neck.
"I missed you. I missed you so much. All I wanted was--"
Sousuke's hands trembled as he raised them slowly -holding them up just beyond Kaname's shaking frame, as if to see if the sunlight would stream through them if *he* was the one that was real in this world. His hand cast a trembling shadow on Kaname's back -no light passed through them, and he wasn't a ghost. He still *felt* -he could feel Kaname in his arms, her breath warm at his neck, her tears wetting his nape. All this he could feel, but when it came to describing that intangible "feeling" he got whenever it came to Kaname, the words escaped him.
"I'm here."
Not for duty. Not for a mission. Not for anything except the fact that he wanted to be, because the past three weeks had more than proven that Kaname wasn't -hadn't been, wouldn't *ever* be- just a mission. He'd been unable to function, thinking that he'd somehow failed, that he'd abandoned her, that he hadn't protected her enough. As if to exact the sweetest, cruelest revenge, Kaname had disappeared from his world, like the perfect death.
That was what it was supposed to have been, except now she was back, now she was in his arms -IN HIS ARMS, not just beyond their reach, not just there, wanting as badly as he did, except not doing anything because it "breached protocol" or would "compromise the mission."
"You weren't- you're not, in the time I came from," Kaname admitted quietly, her voice hiccuping. "They never let me find out what happened to you, and even when I got the chance, I was too scared. But I couldn't stand it anymore, being in the future and staring at the past... watching the world change around me. I was stuck there, frozen... a tool, a means to an end!" Once Kaname started, it didn't seem as if she could stop. "That's all the Whispereds are -data storage centers, living, organic servers! And when our bodies die, our minds just get transplanted into an AS, sent anywhere or anywhen..."
"Into an AS...?" Sousuke mumbled quietly, his grip around Kaname tightening ever-so-slightly.
"Al," Kaname said hoarsely, chuckling mirthlessly a moment later. "Just a consciousness locked away into 1s and 0s."
"You're--!" It was impossible. What Kaname was suggesting was--
"Don't worry, it's not as if the universe will explode because Al and I exist in the same space," Kaname laughed. "By coming here to the past, I've undone the future where I 'copy' my consciousness into the Arbalest. Now, you'll have two Whispereds protecting you, wherever you are..."
"That's why I was always the only one..." Sousuke said aloud.
"Why you were the only one to make a connection with Al? Yes." Kaname smiled slightly, but she still looked like she was on the verge of tears. "If it was the only way of being with you, then..."
"But if you've changed that future, then I would no longer be able to-"
"Pilot the Arbalest? Not true. Another Whispered's consciousness is inside the AI now, even if it can't be reverted to its original personality. The memories of the human Whispered are gone, I'm sure. But that connection can't just 'disappear'," Kaname chuckled mirthlessly. "Not like I did."
"It doesn't matter," Sousuke shook his head. "I don't want to have anything to do with that machine. I don't even want-"
The moment changed, and suddenly Sousuke wasn't talking anymore -couldn't talk anymore, because Kaname's lips were on his, effectively sealing away his words into the ether. His eyes were still open and his own lips hardly moved... but this wasn't "mouth-to-mouth resuscitation," because though he was steadily growing hotter under his collar, he could breathe just fine...
"You're supposed to kiss me back, stupid," Kaname whispered when she pulled back slightly, her forehead lightly touching his.
Sousuke studied her for a moment and then nodded in the affirmative. "Permission to try again- Kaname?" Not 'Captain.' Not 'Chidori-kun' or any other crazy "man-on-a-mission" nickname or alias for her. Just Kaname.
She smiled and then nodded, and the both of them stopped shaking, stopped thinking about the past, stopped talking about ASes, AIs, and Whispereds. And the moment stretched on, and on, and on...
Meh, kind of sappy, but it could easily be continued/revised if I wanted it to. Well, what do you think?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-05-17 03:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-17 06:24 pm (UTC)X-Men 3 comes out on 5/26, and Rochelle's bday is on the 27th, so if anybody wanted to
a) see the movie on either of those days
b) just have some party thing
c) come annoy me at Fanime and we can party in the hotel room and steal all the mini-alcohols
d) something else much more ingeniously creative
Feel free to suggest. The next big trip to SF will be in July though, so if I miss anyone/anything, it'll have to be rescheduled then.
I NEED PENS! (That is to say, cute Japanese pens that smell good and sparkle/marbelize/never dry up)
no subject
Date: 2006-05-17 09:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-17 11:18 pm (UTC)I think it'd be cooler with a smaller group of people, but that's just me. In the end, it'll be whatever Rochelle decides.
WAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!
Date: 2006-05-19 08:18 am (UTC)But fantastic nonetheless. Couldn't have asked for anything better. *mutters* Except for a little tongue action.
Sorry. *sheepish grin* I couldn't help my hentai self.
*bows humbly*
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!