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“Goodbye, my Mercurian country bumpkin.”
How does one react in a situation like this? Losing a battle for your bride, and being- Rejected? Thrown away? The moment Miorine had finished that sentence, Suletta found her eyes incapable of proper sight; they blurred and watered too much and constantly for the world to make any visual sense to her. She forgets what it’s like to not have a sore and parched throat, for her body empties all of it’s tears in a constant wail of despair.
She wasn’t even able to make out the look- the last look Miorine had given her before she reluctantly walked away. Suletta had been left to sit there in Aerial, screaming her heart out for the cruel world that gained nothing from it, but allowed it to happen regardless.
She can’t remember ever being in a fight in her life- A physical one, of course. She always hid or ran, never wanting to do something so… wrong. But today, when Guel had approached the two of them clad in the suit she’d been wearing moments ago, and the rest of Jeturk house showed up to take Aerial-
Suletta’s never screamed and kicked and punched in her life like that.
Guel and Miorine watched- No, they were just… on the sidelines, neither able to focus their gaze on the one person drawing the most attention to herself. They nearly relented after three minutes of fighting what felt like a wild animal on it’s last legs when-
Suletta, her name comes from a voice that beckons her body still, that commands her to listen. Suletta finishes kicking someone trying to pull her from the cockpit before she stands, her eyes focused on one of the only two women in the world that demanded her attention above all else. If she was completely lucid, perhaps she’d have caught the look of pure hatred spread across Miorine’s face- Instead she stumbled away from her family, tumbling down her damaged metal leg before falling to the ground.
She stands up before anyone can consider helping her up, and she sprints to her mother so fast one could feel the wind shift it’s direction, to push her closer and closer-
She grasps at the arms that’s held her in the worst of times, that’s patted her head and tells her what a good job she’s done, and looks up to see a smiling mother. She was going to fix things-
She didn’t know what happened, Aerial just- just shut down. She has the right to challenge him again, or her mother can just claim ownership. The duel can be voided. She can still be Miorine’s groom, and the three of them can go shopping for dresses and rings and make up wedding invitations. All of Earth House is invited, and she would be too, of course.
The woman does something Suletta’s never seen her do before. A… shiver rocks her mother’s body, and her smile falls but for a moment. It comes back quickly, and soon enough she’s pulling her daughter in for a hug while rubbing at her red hair.
If she had eyes in the back of her head, perhaps she’d have noticed the way her mother stared a hole into Miorine’s head, as if confirming something with her.
She says she’s sorry. An agreement is an agreement. She’s going to consult with them over Aerial of course, but as of this moment, there was nothing she could to get her back.
But she could win again, just like always-
Without Aerial?
Suletta feels her lungs and her heart trying to escape from their cage, and she steps away from the hug. Her arms try to wrap around her, but they make nothing more than a small movement before she crumbles to the ground, staring aimlessly ahead. Her mother leans down, but the bile is already leaving Suletta’s body before she can do anything.
She’s not sure what exactly happens in-between then and now. She wakes up in her room at Earth House, and there are a bunch of letters on her nightstand that she doesn’t read for what feels like forever. She stares at the ceiling, trying to piece the broken fragments of reality into something more tangible-
She realizes all that’s happened, and she calls Miorine.
It instantly goes to voicemail. Or so it says.
Her number’s been blocked.
She calls her mother.
It rings for a while, and she doesn’t pick up.
Chuchu’s the first one to respond to Suletta’s screams, and it’s just the sight of blood on her knuckles that gives Suletta pause.
Oh-
Chuhu is at a loss, and averts her eyes. She never does that. Some light questioning forces it out of her.
She’d punched Miorine.
Suletta pushes her aside and runs with a speed that puts the Earthian to shame, and shouts that wonderful name all throughout the halls.
Miorine.
No response, but her friends all try to stop or talk to her.
Her legs do not tire or stall.
Miorine. Miorine.
She runs to their greenhouse. She still- The tomatoes, they-
The locks are different.
Miorine bangs on the door until a vague pain pushes through her adrenaline, and when she realizes that that avenue is cut off, she runs. And she yells.
MiorineMiorineMiorineMiorineMIORINEMIORINEMIORINEMIORINEMIORINEMIORINE-
She’s eventually caught up to by her friends, and they force her still. Her body feels the strain it’s been pretending not to notice, and she tires until her second wind decides to grace her with its presence.
She’ll be at company meetings, silly.
They try to reassure her, to lighten the blow. Suletta can still attend school; she’ll just be handling a normal mobile suit for now until GUND-ARM-
Stop it.
Suletta knows that she’s…different. She’s never understood things like other people, even if she understands things others could never comprehend. But she’s not- Not stupid. She knows, even when hope begs her to believe otherwise, when a situation has changed. They’re not going back to how things were. Otherwise-
She wouldn’t have said goodbye.
Things at the company are…different. Orders are handled from afar- Miorine doesn’t show up to the meetings, and the air is so stifled, so thick in awkwardness and despair that they simply stop. It’s handled in an automatic, appropriately corporate way, and Suletta begins to question why she even tunes in to these anymore.
Of course, her thoughts never allow for her to not think about her family either.
They won’t let her see Aerial. Guel seems to be fine with it, but he can’t always be there when they’re working on maintaining her. His team gets too fed up, too angry with her. It’s not like they know how to treat her properly anyway-
Then again, she lost her in the first place.
Her days and nights are sleepless, restless. Friends try to reach out, but she’s too far to even be seen at this point.
Her mom picks up eventually. Gives her sweet words of encouragement, telling her it’s okay before they’re done talking.
That’s not enough.
It’s not enough.
Aerial is gone. Her family is missing a crucial piece. Miorine is gone. Her bride-to-be is- is a stranger who-
“You made a good shield.”
Made. Made. She wasn’t good anymore. She wasn’t anything- She wasn’t whole, but-
Oh.
She jolts in her bed, the realization coursing through her body.
She was broken.
She had come here with her family to go to school. To make friends. To fall in love. To go on dates. To dance.
Even her friends had started drifting, though Chuchu made the strongest of attempts to wake Suletta back up. But that wasn’t going to happen.
What was her purpose? Her reason? No, what-
What was Suletta Mercury without Aerial?
What was Suletta Mercury without Miorine Rembran?
What… Who…
…was Suletta Mercury?
Her mother answers the questions as smoothly as she handed over Aerial.
My daughter.
Was she a good one?
Of course she was.
Suletta remembers the words that gave her strength. She asks her mother how it worked here. She moved forward, and lost two. What then?
Will Suletta Mercury run?
Suletta doesn’t answer. Her mother stays on the line forever.
She doesn’t know.
Their second talk after the event ends, and Suletta wishes she could gain one. Aerial, Miorine- If she had at least one, she could move.
Now, she couldn’t even run.
Suletta hears it in the cafeteria on one of the rare days she leaves her room.
It’s Miorine’s birthday.
She’s seventeen.
She’s getting married.
Suletta wants to smile, to blush because she’s the groom, and that’s her wife they’re talking about.
But she can't. Because she’s not. She’s not anything to Miorine but a broken shield beyond repair.
She tosses whatever she was going to eat in the air. Students get out of the way when she starts screaming and running to who knows where, and no instructor is around to help if they even cared.
Her feet stop near Miorine’s greenhouse. She remembers the storage shed for some reason. She wanders, and somehow, thankfully, it’s unlocked. She noticed that the tomatoes inside had gone rotten, but to comment on it would send her body on a road of pain she wasn’t ready to feel again.
She sees it somehow, it especially among everything there. She grabs it, not knowing at all what she’s going to do with it.
But it’s the most comforting thing she’s had since the day she lost it all.
It’s night, back in her room. She has a chair, and she thinks she can do it. She’s so terrible. Mother says she’s good, but she doesn’t believe her. Not because her mother is a liar, or would think about anything other than her feelings.
But because her mother isn’t a liar that Suletta can tell she isn’t focused on her. Not like before. This… She failed, she lost, she broke, she-
Suletta tugs to make sure the rope works, and she stares at the harmless chair. She takes a step towards it-
*BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ*
Suletta grits her teeth and banishes tears away; she can’t cry, not now.
*BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ*
Suletta feels her entire frame shake, and something compels her to turn towards her vibrating phone.
Thirty missed calls.
Her eyes read the text notification, and her frame goes still.
I know you were in the shed. I’m coming.
Her door opens, and Suletta lets go of it all and tackles the white-haired woman with the force of a mobile suit crashing into a human being. She wails, she cries, she screams, she yells-
She does not react. She grimaces, and has her hand on Suletta’s shoulders, but nothing more.
She has one more request. Just one thing Suletta can do.
Anything. Everything.
Live a life as happily as you can.
And Miorine Rembran leaves her life.
And Suletta Mercury is as lost as the day she was born.