It was starting to get late in the day when Zest walked into Regius's office. Looking at his old friend, he was mildly surprised to see Quint there, and more surprised to see Auris there as well. "Nakajima," he nodded to her, "Regius, what's with this meeting?"
"Ask her." Regius said as he looked at Quint directly. "I haven't even gotten the reports back from Riot Force about their last mission, though, from what I've heard, that's probably because they're heavily injured."
"Partially," Quint nodded and looked at the windows. "I need this place locked down before I tell you anything."
Regius looked at Auris and nodded, when she pushed a button, all the windows in the room closed down and were covered as the shutters around them closed down. "Very well, talk."
Quint pulled out Snap Calibur and put it on the table. "Replay events 30 through 46 of the most recent battle."
"Yes ma'am."
A screen popped up in the room and Regius, Zest and Auris all wondered what it is they were looking for.
It took exactly two seconds to know why Quint didn't want others to see the footage.
"Megane?" Zest stared, before shaking his head. "No, she's too young to be Megane..."
"It's not Megane..." Quint said softly, what she said next had even Regius floored, "it's Lutecia, your daughter."
"She... She can't be, she's too old."
"That's kind of what I thought too, after the battle was over," Quint looked at him sharply, "even if she is simply a Project-F clone, the fact is, Zest, she is still your daughter. Could you live with yourself knowing that you rejected someone who needs you right now? Do you think Megane would reject her, even if she was a clone?"
Zest twitched at hearing that, he knew she was right, but even so, such a thing... "Are you sure?" Just as he asked that, a familiar face appeared on the screen. "She... She looks..."
"Like someone you thought you killed." Quint supplied for him. "Remember the mission that went extremely sour and cost us Megane?"
"How could I..." Zest's eyes widened and his pupils shrank as he looked at the screen. "She was... I thought I killed her."
"Apparently not... Snap, replay her lines to me before she left."
"Yes, ma'am."
"As much as I'd like to let you have her, there's someone else that I need to answer to, and you aren't her."
Zest looked at Quint as the scene of battle continued on. "...Is... She wasn't talking about..?"
"I don't know, but Megane... She might not be dead like we thought she was." Quint crossed her arms under her breasts and took a deep breath. "The power that crippled me is known as Chaos... I dunno about you, but if I didn't die, there's a chance that Megane didn't either."
Zest looked at Quint and narrowed his eyes. "Are you sure?"
"Not at all, but..." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, "think, after all this time, seeing Lutecia alive... And then that woman said that... There's no doubt in my mind... Megane has to be alive."
Zest turned and started walking to the door. "Nakajima..." He turned to look at her out of the corner of his eye. "I think I might just join your little group after all."
"Before you go, Zest..." Regius spoke up, catching his attention. "You'll need to know something," Zest turned to look at his oldest friend, "if you do run into those women, remember this, they may or may not be directly responsible for Lutecia's current condition. Try not to kill them."
"We shall see."
Meanwhile...
"How are you feeling, Subaru?" Ginga asked as she walked into her sister's hospital room.
Subaru smiled as she saw her sister enter the room. "I'm fine, other than my leg," she patted the bandage on her leg gently, "which should be fixed in a few hours. They just had to stop the bleeding, since Erio, Fate-san and Yuuno-san were all worse off. How are they?"
"Erio's awake, if that makes you feel better." Ginga smiled as she sat down on the bed. "Not what you expected out there, huh?"
Subaru shook her head and rubbed her leg softly again. "No. A lot more painful than I expected too. How about you, Gin-nee? You okay?"
"A lot better than you." Ginga snorted and moved so she was closer to her sister. "But, thanks, if you hadn't given Caro enough time to summon her other summon, mom and I couldn't have hit that thing like we did."
"Gin-nee..." Subaru sniffled and hugged her sister. "I wasn't even thinking of that. I was just thinking how mom was hurt, Erio was hurt, Fate-san, Yuuno-san... They were all hurt and I did nothing to stop it!"
Ginga sighed softly and rubbed her sister's back. "You always have been such a cry-baby." Ginga smirked when Subaru let out a cry of protest. "Yet, you've always been able to do what you needed to do when it counted."
"Gin-nee... I was scared that mom was going to die and..."
"So was I." Ginga hugged Subaru tighter, trying to fight the tears in her eyes. "And I was scared that you were going to die too." Squeezing her sister tightly, she continued to speak, "so don't ever do that again, you got it?!"
"Right..."
Meanwhile, on top of the building...
"Ah," Teana turned to see Zelgadis walking out of the elevator, "Vita did tell me that I'd find you here." Smiling lightly he walked up to her. "Tell me something, Teana, you once said that you wished to join the Air Force, right?"
"Well, yeah, but... I flunked out of that and, well..." Teana grabbed at her right arm. "I can't fly anyway, I have no aptitude for flight magic."
"Oh?" Zelgadis looked at her curiously. "What makes you say that?"
"I'm not strong enough to do anything really." Teana sighed and turned away to look at the sky. "Flight sounds fun, but... I could never get to that level. Maybe I'll be able to stand on the air one day, but flight? Impossible."
"What if I said that you could fly?" Zelgadis smiled as she turned to look at him. "It's not exactly true flight, not compared to what a lot of people can do here, I admit, however..." He smiled as she turned to look at him fully. "I think you'll need it."
"...What?"
"It's called Levitation."
Teana stared and for the first time all day, a sense of hope came to her.
See other episodes by Philip Weigel
(Posted Sun, 01 Jan 2012 21:42)
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