Ninth Light

[curseu-reflexes.livejournal.com]

[In the wake of the most recent mission, you'll find a disheartening sight if you enter the hangar.  The HK-1138' Corona lies in a crumpled, ruined heap off in a side designated for unsalvagable wrecks, the entire machine nearly split in twain height-wise, a huge chunk of it just fucking gone.  Those parts from before?  Yeah, phoney.  All of them.  Danconias-Phillips imitation parts and completely incompatible.  You didn't actually think they'd HELP Julia, did you?]

Come on... move... move!

[And elsewhere in the hangar, Julia has been trying as hard as she can to use other machines.  Knightmare Frames.  Mobile Suits.  Everything and anything that currently isn't claimed by someone else just so no stone was unturned.  But it's all for naught.  Her hands fly wildly and clumsily at the controls.  It takes all of her willpower and focus to just a machine to stumble awkwardly forward, and all too often her machine stumbles and falls.  And finally after one failure too many...

[Well, everyone has a breaking point and Julia's just hit hers.]

I can't...

I can't pilot anymore...

Comments

[curseu-reflexes.livejournal.com]

That...

... That's impossible.

We don't have the resources... and Prominence Armors aren't Mobile Suits. This isn't like a project you can work on in your spare time, Kamille.

[zetahatsudo.livejournal.com]

Then we get the resources, I learn the schematics! We still have the cockpit to use as a base, we can start there! [He's dead serious about this.] The dud parts may be duds, but we can use them in conjunction with the actual blueprints to build the real ones from the ground up!

[curseu-reflexes.livejournal.com]

[If she wasn't dead inside she'd probably be admiring your resolve, Kamille.]

... It's pointless. Like Herrera Futuristics would help us out in that...

They tried to kill us the last time we met, remember?

[zetahatsudo.livejournal.com]

Then we steal what's needed! Who cares if they'll try and kill us on sight, they're the ones who set you up for this fall! [Okay, this is getting much, even for him.] Besides, the company was bought out, wasn't it?! That doesn't mean the old CEO wouldn't be willing to help!

[curseu-reflexes.livejournal.com]

[And now being dead inside is all that's keeping Julia from slapping Kamille for saying something so stupid.]

Kamille you're...

... you're taking this too far...

1/2

[zetahatsudo.livejournal.com]

[And there it was, it wasn't much, but she was trying to rein him in, if only a little. His anger reaches its peak as he starts speaking rather passionately.] So what am I supposed to do!? Watch you withdraw into yourself and cut off all ties with the outside world because of this?! To hell with that! Maybe your right and you can't pilot anymore without months of training to relearn the controls! So the fuck what!? Even if you can't pilot, that doesn't mean any of us are going to want to throw you to the wayside! Did you do that to me when I was all but stalking Perrine? No, you told me straight up that I was out of line and verbally beat the hell out of me for what I had done!

2/2

[zetahatsudo.livejournal.com]

[Most of the anger, the passion, is gone now, and he seems rather tired. Of what is hard to say, but tears are forming at his eyes now.] I've never thanked you for what you did that day. It was because of you that I was able to return from the brink of becoming something horrible. You're... I wish my own parents actually gave a damn about me like that. [those tears are now falling freely.] I... I don't want to lose that person to something like this. If you just run away then what will the rest of us do? You've helped us all to much for us to just let you do this!

[curseu-reflexes.livejournal.com]

But... you don't need me anymore.

Humans grow. They can learn and adapt. When a situation changes, they can change in response.

Irgelions can't.

[She brought her legs up to her body, curling up tightly in the cockpit.]

It's what separates us from you; why we couldn't defeat you.

[zetahatsudo.livejournal.com]

[That actually gets a chuckle from Kamille.] Need? It's got nothing to do with need. We want you here because you're our friend, Julia.

You may say the Irgelions can't be humans, but you sure as hell beat that girl who was supposed to replace you in the ambush, didn't you? And maybe the Irgelions did lose the war, but because your people surrendered the way you did, you were able to live and meet us.

[curseu-reflexes.livejournal.com]

Christine's not a soldier though. She's just... someone just beginning her growth.

Eventually she'd surpass me anyways. Better machines; more experience... she was already a better pilot than I was when I started a year ago.

... And the Irgelions survived because my father knew when to quit. More than anything else, I should take that from him.

[zetahatsudo.livejournal.com]

['Damnit, and this is what she takes from that?']

You seem to miss the point where we don't care if you can't pilot anymore because of our friendship with you, but that fact's not gonna last long. ['Ah. An idea.'] Three words: Mobile Trace System. Something like that would be completely different to piloting the Corona, wouldn't it?

[Hand on her shoulder now to get her to look at him.] Realize this. We're not going to throw you to the wayside. Ever. We're gonna beat this, no matter what it takes.