Chapter Text
Suletta Mercury was drifting. Around her, particles of permet shimmered their last and faded, replaced by the stars beyond. The sound of the storm had given way to blissful silence, and its claws ripping into her had stilled. Her fight had ended.
Suletta Mercury closed her eyes. There was an unusual noise. It sounded like it came from very far away. It was very sweet to her ears, yet it made her heart ache, as if she had forgotten something-
A sudden blow struck her head, sending her reeling back to consciousness. Muttering in pain, she opened her eyes- and looked straight at her bride.
“Answer me sooner, you idiot!”
Tears filled Miorine’s visor. Suletta felt her embrace and through it, her trembling in fear. She tried to give comfort, to wrap her arms around her bride. Her arms didn’t move.
She realized with muted horror, that nothing could move.
“Oi, Miorine-“ Chuchu’s cantankerous voice crackled over the suit’s commlink. “Hate to ruin the moment, but can you get her inside so we can get out of here?”
The endless void of space stretched into infinity beyond them. Far in the distance, the lights of the League fleet pulsed on and off, as if to warn the small band that the tenuous peace could break at any moment. Miorine looked closely at Suletta. Her face glowed red with permet infection, sweat beaded her skin, and her breath was heavy, yet shaky.
This was no place for her. Miorine released one hand to control the micro-thrusters of her suit and slowly directed her and her fiancée into the waiting hand of the Demi-Barding. Nika emerged from the cockpit to assist, and soon all three joined Chuchu inside the now-cramped piloting dome. Miorine sat her fiancée down while Nika grabbed a device off the wall and plugged it into Suletta’s suit, displaying her health information on the screen. The two anxiously read the diagnosis as it appeared; a high fever, excessive pulse, lower-than-average blood oxygenation. Nothing good, but far better than could be expected after what Gundam Calibarn’s pilot had just pulled off.
“Is she good to go?” asked Chuchu. On the surface she seemed calm, but her thumb tapping wildly at the thruster throttle betrayed her worry.
“Umm… probably…” Nika’s answered with a wavering voice. She looked over at Miorine for support, but the girl was completely focused on her beloved. Nika took a deep breath to gather her strength and responded confidently. “We should get her back as soon as possible, Chuchu. Head straight to HQ.”
“Aye aye!” came the affirmation. Chuchu relayed the decision to the waiting Earth House crew and pushed the throttle forward. As the engines roared to life, a green light flashed on the dashboard, signaling that the cockpit had fully pressurized. Miorine unsealed Suletta’s helmet and gently removed it, careful not to hit her head in the process. Without the tint of the visor, the permet-stricken lines on Suletta’s face glowed a bright red. The cold of the air-conditioned interior stung her tender skin.
“Ow ow ow…” she hissed quietly. Her eyes opened and were met with a gray pair staring straight at her, tears welling up in their corners. Suletta smiled with great effort, trying to reassure her bride. “Thank you, Ms. Miorine… for coming to save me…” she whispered, voice hoarse.
“I love you…”
Miorine opened her mouth, but no words escaped. Tears streamed down her face now, as she took in the extent of Suletta’s injuries, and her wife-to-be’s all-encompassing tenderness. She suppressed her sobs and choked out a reply.
“I love you too.” She nestled against the red-haired girl’s chest, trying to hear her heartbeat beneath the many layers she wore. “I love you too, Suletta.”
“You’re lucky I like you both enough to tolerate this sappy shit in my cockpit.” Chuchu grumbled beneath her breath. Her hand pushed against the maxed-out throttle, as if begging it to get them home faster.
Paramedics were on the scene the minute the Demi-Barding docked at Benerit HQ’s hangar. The cockpit door opened to a pair of EMTs with a stretcher, who helped the crew prepare Suletta for transport. The rest of Earth House were waiting as their wounded friend reached the medical shuttle. A collective utterance of shock rose from the group at the sight of her injuries. Lilique began crying unashamedly. Aliya clasped her hands together and whispered a quiet prayer. Till closed his eyes, paying his respects silently. Chuchu patted Miorine on the back. “Go, Miorine. We’ll handle the rest here.”
The white-haired girl fought back her lingering shock to give her friend a small, pained smile. “Thanks, Chuchu.” she responded, and then the shuttle was off, carrying the wounded and the bereaved to the Front hospital.
The next few hours of Suletta’s life were a blur of fluorescent lights, the smell of anesthesia, and painkillers. Lots of painkillers. Sometimes Miorine’s voice cut in, measured but forceful. Sometimes she felt a soft hand gripping hers. The pain she felt was different than in Calibarn. There, it was like outrunning a storm. If she concentrated, she could ignore it, but the moment she slipped it was upon her, roaring inside her veins, threatening to drag her under and rip her apart like it had with Sophie, and so many others before her. Now the pain was dull but inescapable, like every one of her nerves had been pierced with a nail and pinned to the bone. Her body throbbed with a terrible numbness.
But sometimes, she would feel her bride’s touch against her skin, and for an instant she was free.
Suletta awoke from a slumber she couldn’t recall entering. She was lying on a hospital bed more comfortable than anything they had on Mercury. Tubes from an IV stand ran into a vein on her right arm, pumping in fluids and painkillers as required. Occasionally, a beep indicating a stable heartrate would echo around the dimly lit room. Suletta looked around and saw no sign of Miorine. A pang of loneliness struck her. Then there was a knock on the door.
Suletta’s eyes flicked to the left as the door opened. To her disappointment, the person that entered was not her fiancée, but an older, bespectacled woman in a white coat. “Oh good, you’re awake. Hello, Ms. Mercury.” She began, pausing to activate a screen on the wall across from the bed with her data pad. “I’m Doctor Amina, and I’ll be taking care of you while you’re with us.”
Suletta did her best to smile. “Thank you… Doctor…”
The doctor returned her smile. “I’m glad that you feel well enough to speak. Please don’t push yourself on my account, though.” A few taps on the data pad brought up several notes on the screen that Suletta couldn’t quite make out. “You were admitted about six hours ago, and I just received the preliminary results of the tests you were given. If you’re ready, I’d like to share them with you.” She looked to her patient for confirmation, and Suletta gave a tiny nod. The screen switched to display an image of her face.
“You’ve suffered burns to both the epidermis and dermis, which is likely to result in some permanent, but minor scars.” She tapped the pad and the screen changed to an x-ray view of the nerves. “Much of your peripheral nervous system was also affected by the permet load, which is why you’re having trouble moving right now. But miraculously, your central nervous system was almost entirely unaffected.”
“Does that mean…?”
“You probably won’t be free of the pain, or have the fine motor control you once did, again. But with proper medication and therapy, you’ll be able to walk, talk, and move as if this never happened, one day.” She tapped her device, and diagrams of Quiet Zero and Calibarn filled the screen.
“I requested documentation of these so I could understand the extent of the data storm you experienced. Somehow, I got it.” She brought up a bar graph comparing a human figure, Calibarn, and Quiet Zero. “This is the total amount of integrated permet an average person can be exposed to in a day before suffering significant effects.” She said, pointing to the figure. The bar above it was just lower than the bar above Calibarn’s, and utterly dwarfed by the bar above Quiet Zero. “And these two show the permet load a connected pilot would be under every minute of operation. To put it another way, a different pilot would have died a hundred times over if they did what you did.”
“O-Oh.” Replied Suletta, dumbfounded. She knew that the data storm was dangerous, but seeing it so clearly displayed in front of her was harrowing. She resolved to thank her sister for giving her such helpful genes. “Um… is Ms. Miorine here?” she asked timidly, wanting to change the conversation.
“The President- former President is currently in a meeting to discuss the dissolution of the company.” The doctor noticed a slight twinge of dismay on Suletta’s face and gave the girl a small smile. “I understand they had to practically tear her away from you to make her attend. We told her that giving you some time alone would assist your recovery in these early stages, but I’m sure she’ll be back to see you in a few hours.” Relieved, Suletta’s eyes began to flicker as exhaustion overtook her battered body once more. The doctor quietly retrieved her datapad, dimming the room lights as she moved to the exit. Right before she left, she turned to the mercurian girl, quietly dozing.
“Rest well, Ms. Mercury.”
Suletta had no clue how many hours had passed while she slept. The dim lighting had gone dark, likely to simulate night. The occasional beep of the heart monitor still rung out in intervals. There was one major change, though. On her left was a chair that wasn’t there before. And in the chair was Miorine, sleeping by her fiancée’s side. Her hand clasped Suletta’s, too gentle to cause harm, but tightly enough to assure the girl that her beloved was with her.
Suletta tried to curl her fingers. Every muscle in her arm felt like they were made of lead, and somebody was heating that lead with a blowtorch. Her breath hitched as the pain spiked up and into her chest- but she kept going. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, her fingers twitched, one by one, wrapping around Miorine’s hand in hers. Then she was holding her bride’s hand and with a final, monumental effort, squeezed it as tightly as she could.
“Suletta…” breathed her beloved, in the throes of a dream.
Then and there, Suletta Mercury made a promise to herself.
“I will move forward, until I can stand by her side again.”