Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Hey, why are all these consoles in English?” Chris asks, tilting her head as she looks over Katie's shoulder. 

“They’re in Federation Standard, which I guess is close enough to twenty first century English.” She responds.

“Okay, but we’re all speaking Japanese. So why wouldn’t Federation Standard be some form of that instead?”

Katie blinks, turning around to face the time traveller. “Did no one explain the universal translator?”

Chris blinks, “The what?” 

Katie winces and looks around the bridge, spying Landers at the nearest console. “Okay… Hey Landers, what planet are you from?”

Landers turns toward the duo with a raised brow. He takes a look between the two before realization comes over his face. “I was born on Tellar Prime.”

“Okay, what language did you hear Landers speak in?”

“Japanese?” Chris responds, looking back and forth. 

“And what language do you think is native to his homeworld?” Chris stays silent as she attempts to answer a few times, only to open her mouth with nothing to say as she processes. Katie gives a laugh, “The translator lets us hear what language we know most.  A lot of Starfleet speak standard anyway, but it does help for languages we don't know or are new to the Federation.”

Landers speaks up, “Standard should be pretty easy to learn if you already know some English. Though let me know if you want some lessons on Tellaran”

Chris once again does a double take. “How does it know what language to translate to?”

“Based on the language you’re speaking yourself.”

“And no one thinks this is a bad idea?”

“Why would being able to speak the same language be a bad idea?” Landers asks, fully turned around now.

“Because the last time everyone understood each other it awakened an ancient god that was hell bent on taking over the world!” Chris exclaims, garnering the attention of the rest of the bridge. She realizes her fumble and starts to try to apologize.

Tovi speaks up, the only one who hadn’t looked over at her, “I believe the phrase, ‘Symphogear bullshit’ would be an apt explanation for what you just said, no? You do seem to enjoy using it to explain things.” 

Rubbing the back of her head, she nods. “Yeah that's… accurate…”

Landers turns back to his console and whispers to himself, “He can curse?”

Chapter Text

Nora had managed to track down their new addition, hoping to get more info on the weird armor she uses. “Okay, so I get the spear that killed Christ-” Nora starts.

“Gungnir, also supposed to be the spear of Odin if I remember right.” Chris interjects. 

“Right, I get that. A magic Chinese mirror? Sure.”

“Shenshoujing, mhmm. It’s basically a relic killer.”

“Don’t wanna know how you found that out. The katana?”

“Ame no Habakiri. I think Tsubasa said it had to do with Susanoo?”

“The two scimitars from Mesopotamia?”

“Kirika’s Igalima is a scythe and Shirabe’s Shul Shagana is a buzzsaw.”

Nora blinks, “Right, because scimitar translates to buzzsaw really well.”

“Hey, I don’t make the rules.”

Rolling her eyes, Nora continues, “Then we have your definitely real magic bow. One that’s from Norse mythology while having a Japanese name.”

“Ichaival can’t be the only thing that was left out of mythology in your universe. Even in my universe there were plenty of relics we found that weren’t ever recorded before.”

“Then how did you know what they were?”

Chris raises her hand to respond, only to drop it in favor of grabbing her drink, “I honestly have no clue about that part. That was something SONG and every world government had whole departments for. We weren’t really a part of that.” She says, taking a swig of some fruity soda she had replicated.

“Fair enough I guess,” Nora shrugs. At this point their conversation had garnered the attention of a few of the crew still in the mess hall. “But then there is, what was it again? A severed silver arm?”

“Oh yeah, Airgetlám, that one apparently used to be the arm of an Annunaki. I think the dude's name was Enki? Can’t remember where I know the name from, probably from when I was hive minded with Shem-ha or something.”

“Don’t know how you can say that so casually…” Nora mutters, “So you have six supernatural relics, and one that is a piece of an alien. Because that makes sense.”

“Like I told Gavin, Symphogears don’t make a whole lot of sense if you think about it too hard.”

“But I mean, at least the others have some sort of weapon or tool to them. This one is literally an arm. What kind of mystical power does an arm even give?”

“Energy vector control if I remember right. And a whip sword.”

“Fucking what?”

“I mean, is it any weirder than my ability to copy ranged weaponry?”

“YES!” Nora gives an exasperated sigh, “At least yours kind of makes sense, since it starts as a bow. How the hell do you go from an arm to controlling energy!”

“Maybe it was something Enki could do? Or it could be some alchemy shenanigans from Fine. I dunno.”

“Wait, do you use energy or ballistic weapons?” One of the other crew, cadet Patterson, if Nora recalled.

“Bit of both. I know when I use my crossbows they’re basically energy bolts. But my pistols and gatlings use bullets.”

“Where do the bullets come from? Surely you have to run out at some point.”

Chris simply shrugs, “Hell if I know. I just pull the trigger on my gatlings and they fire until I let go. For my pistols, spare ammo comes from anywhere really. I think the weirdest place I’ve pulled bullets from is my cleavage.” She says putting a hand to her chin and looking off to the side. 

“I ask again, fucking what?”

“I told you, if you think about them too hard you’ll give yourself an aneurysm.”

Chapter Text

“Okay, I’ll ask this again. Explain what dilithium does?” Chris says plainly. She had been invited to visit main engineering while they explained the warp core. How they expect her to understand any of this, she isn’t sure.

“It helps stabilize the matter antimatter reaction in the warp core.” Katie responds, currently waist deep in a service panel for one of the engineering consoles. 

“Okay, and how do you get the antimatter?”

“Miniature particle accelerators, among other things. Don’t you have some back in the twenty-first century?” She asks, pulling herself out just enough to look at Chris.

“We have giant ones. I’m talking like nearly thirty kilometers across.” Katie hums in response, returning to the interior of the console. “What does the warp core even do?”

“Massive battery. Like, think about a bajillion energy cells.” 

“I don’t know what an energy cell is in regard to what I know.”

“It’s enough to warp reality and let us travel faster than light.”

“You do what now?” Chris says in disbelief.

“The warp core helps create a warp bubble around the ship. And the bubble helps move space around us to let us move faster.”

“Dumb it down for me please.”

“The bubble around the ship lets us zoom across the stars.” 

“Yeah, that doesn’t help.”

“What part is confusing you?” The console lights up as Katie pulls herself back out, replacing the service panel.

“How does making a bubble help you go faster than light?”

“Like I said, the bubble is essentially us warping space and time.”

“Okay, but how?”

“By using the energy from the warp core, through the coils and deflector dish it distorts the subspace around us.”

“That still doesn’t explain how it actually does the distorting part, just that it does happen.”

“I…” Katie starts to speak, only to begin thinking about what Chris said. “Don’t exactly know how to explain it better…” She gives Chris an apologetic smile and rubs the back of her neck.

Chris groans and lays her head down. “I’m never going to understand this shit…”

Chapter Text

Zyva yawns as she heads back to her dorm room. She still hadn’t gotten too close to her roommate beyond shooting back and forth different theories, but then again it’s only been a few months. The fact that she lets her use telepathy in a pinch does give points in Zyva’s book. Yawning again she adjusts her PADD under her arm. With any luck Yukine will be in and she can run a few things by her. Who knew a command track would be so invested in interdimensional physics?

Reaching the door, she stops suddenly, sensing a mind other than Yukine. Furrowing her brow she slowly opens the door to the sound of the new person. “I swear Yukine, you need some stuff to put on your shelves. All you have is the academy provided alarm clock. I mean come on! It’s like you don’t actually own anything!”

“She doesn’t as far as I’m aware.” Zyva says coming in, noticing the gold uniform the caitian is wearing. Must be one of her classmates.

“Hey! I own stuff!” Yukine huffs and pouts. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out the device Zyva has seen her use a few times. “See! I’ve got a phone!”

“Oh yeah, you use that for music right?” Zyva says, setting her PADD down and sitting in her chair. 

“Oooh, what kind of music do you have!” K’mieo snatches it from Yukine’s hand, causing her to squawk and stand.

“Hey! Ask nicely, don't just grab!”

“There’s so much twenty-first century music on here! And a whole bunch of cartoons!”

Zyva snorts, “Well, glad to see someone’s gotten on your good side.” 

Yukine turns, still pouting, “C-c’mon, I’m not that bad…” She turns to K’mieo and sighs and falls back onto her bunk. Zyva gives a small chuckle as Yukine’s ‘phone’ starts to play some old timey music, drums and guitar ringing out.

“Oh! I’m K’mieo by the way! Yukine’s new friend!” The caitian, K’mieo, Zyva’s mind corrects, gives a playful salute and a fanged grin. She sets down Yukine’s phone on her desk.

“Zyva. Her roommate and also kind of friend.” She hums and tilts her head, “You wouldn’t happen to be interested in theoretical and interdimensional physics, are you?”

“Can’t say that I am! I’m a lot better with hands-on things than stuff like that.” K’mieo goes over to Yukine’s closet and starts rifling through it. “Geeze Yukine, all you’ve got are standard issue unifor- Oh hold on! What’s this jacket from?” She pokes her head out from the door. In her hands is a blue two-toned jacket with a strange emblem on the side. A medieval shield shape, large yellow letters spelling “SONG” in the top half, with the bottom half showing piano keys.

“Hey, give me that!” Yukine bolts up and snatches the jacket out of K’mieos hands. The song changes to what sounds like some sort of old pop song. “It’s irreplaceable!”

“Oh man, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” K’mieo says with a half smile, rubbing the back of her neck. 

Yukine sighs, “It’s fine, dummy. Just ask next time you wanna-”

“ I love you!” Yukine freezes as a female voice comes from her phone. She turns her head, eyes wide.

“ Even if the world may become a cruel hell” A different female voice sings out. Yukine makes her way over to the end table and stares for a few seconds. “ At least, lets convey: I lo-” She taps the screen pausing the music. 

Zyva and K’mieo share a concerned look with each other. “Yukine, everything okay?” Zyva asks. She turns her head and raises her jacket, currently clenched in a tight fist. “Yukine?”

“M’fine…” Neither of the other two miss how Yukine’s voice cracks just the slightest bit. She takes a deep breath and lets out a bone deep sigh. “I need to take a walk.” She makes her way past Zyva, then K’mieo who tries to reach out to her.

“Yukine…” the caitian raises a hand, only to have a jacket hung over it.

“Hang it back up for me?” She asks quietly. All K’mieo can do is nod as Yukine walks out of the room, shutting the door softly behind her. 

K’mieo looks down at the jacket, “She was crying…” She looks up to Zyva, a small frown on her face. “I’ve never seen her cry before, even after she gets hurt during training.” 

Zyva stands and goes over to Yukine’s phone, left on the end table. Picking it up she looks at the names of the pair of singers, the album cover showing a pair of blue and pink haired humans. “I wonder who Tsubasa Kazanari and Maria Cadenza Eve are, and why hearing them made her react like that…”

Chapter Text

K’mieo didn’t need telepathy to know something was up with Yukine. She’d been sulking more than usual, and had somehow logged even more time in the sims than normal. Hell, the last time she’d watched over one of the training sessions Yukine had seemed a lot more…

“‘Aggressive’, is the word you’re looking for. I noticed it too.” Zyva says, tapping away on her terminal. 

K’mieo grumbles and sighs, having been laying on Zyva’s bed while her friend works on whatever it is she does in her free time. “I know there’s still a bunch of stuff we don’t know about her, but I wish we knew enough to figure out how to help her.”

“Maybe we can ask Doctor Atula? She might know why?”

“I mean we could, but there’s the whole doctor patient confidentiality thing.” 

“We could always just ask for her phone. There’s bound to be stuff on there.”

“I can’t be that easy though, right?”

***

“I can’t believe it was that easy,” K’mieo says, holding Yukine’s phone.

“Hey Yukine, you mind if I borrow your phone for a bit? I wanna watch some of that twenty first century anime you’ve talked about before.” K’mieo asks hesitantly.

Yukine slips her phone out of her pocket and holds it out, not really paying attention to their surroundings, “Go nuts, password’s the same. If you like mecha I’d say watch Gundam. Any of them really. They remind me of myself sometimes.” She walks off without another word.

“Are you going to watch that one she recommended?” Zyva asks as they make their way back to the dorm room.

“I’m a little worried it’ll only make us even more concerned for her. I mean, the way she said that they remind her of herself…” K’mieo frowns. 

“I swear, the more we learn about her the more I’m glad she has a therapist.”

K’mieo nods as she inputs the numerical code onto the phone, and finds a pop up notification for Yukine’s upcoming birthday from some game she has installed. “Oh crap, I can’t believe we forgot.”

“Forgot what?”

“Her birthday, it’s in a week.”

“Oh, that would explain why she’s throwing herself into things. It’ll be her first birthday away from her family.” 

“What should we do for it? I mean, we have to do something. I’m just not sure what she would enjoy.”

“Well, we have her phone. Let’s just go through her old photos to see if we can get any ideas.”

***

Chris sighs as she makes her way back to her dorm, rolling her neck. She knew she’d need to take a much needed break from training and research soon, but her homesickness was hitting her hard today. She turns twenty today, and the others aren’t here to celebrate with her. Not like they’d be doing much anyway. 

But they’d all be settled in her apartment, and they’d all have insisted on getting her some sort of gift. She’d be embarrassed about how perfect their gifts were somehow, and then they’d all enjoy the night and her dad… Genjuro would make such good food. It always baffled Chris how good he was at cooking compared to Tsubasa. 

Sighing again at the memories, she frowns as she reaches her dorm room. “More reasons to make it back to them.” She whispers, opening the door to K’mieo and Zyva sitting on Chris’s bed and their desk chair respectively. A small cake sitting on top of the desk that was moved to the center of the room.

“Happy birthday Yukine!” the two say. Chris just stands there dumbfounded. 

K’mieo chuckles and motions her in, “Come on, we’ve got cake to eat and you’ve got presents to open!” Chris gulps and enters, closing the door behind her.

“How… How did you know?”

“Well… We kinda had to get our memory jogged, but you did say it out loud back in medical.” K’mieo rubs the back of her neck.

Zyva pushes the cake forward just a bit, glazed strawberries and whipped cream adorning the top of it. “We don’t know what your favorite is, but I remember you mentioning you like fruit flavors.” Chris can’t help but stare at the pair, part of her happy that she’s able to spend her birthday with friends. Another, more pessimistic part, wonders if she won’t be able to spend another with her family.

***

“Okay, time for presents!” K’mieo says, clapping her hands together. Zyva chuckles as she grabs the two objects.

“Okay, so first one is from me.” She sets a small picture frame on the desk. “It’s empty right now, but it should be compatible with your phone. All you gotta do is upload pictures and they’ll show up on the screen, and they’ll be able to project onto a specific surface.”

Chris runs her fingers over it, a sad smile taking over her face. “Lemme guess, you wanted to give me something to help personalize my side of the room?”

“Something like that, yeah. Figured you could reminisce with a larger screen now and then.” 

“Thank you, really.” She sets it down on the desk. “I’ll be sure to use it.”

“Next one is mine. I actually was able to make it myself!” K’mieo says, grinning. “I had to use replicated materials, but I’d say I did a pretty good sowing job!”

“Sowing?” Zyva pulls out a stuffed rabbit. One that looks very familiar. Light pink fur, bows on its ears, a darker red matching her own scrunchies. “That’s…” She slowly reaches for it, her vision becoming blurry. Oh, she’s crying now. She pulls the rabbit in front of her, staring at it with tear filled eyes for a moment. 

“Yukine? Do you not like it?” K’mieo asks worriedly. Chris simply responds with a sniffle, tears starting to flow freely down her face. She clutches the rabbit tightly as sobs start to spill out. 

“D-dummy…” She tries to wipe her eyes, only for more to replace them. She stands, still clutching the rabbit, and presses herself against K’mieo. It’s at this point that she is unable to stop her silent sobbing, feeling K’mieo wrap her arms around her.

“I take it you like it Yukine?” Zyva asks after letting Chris cry until her shoulders stopped shaking.

“C-Chris…” She manages to stammer out. “Both of you.” She sniffles. “Call me Chris. And thank you.”

Chapter Text

“Sorry, who are you again?” Chris asks with a raised brow.

“Kirk, James T.” The cadet says with a flirtatious smirk.

“Never heard of you.” She deadpans. Kirk falters for only a second, before taking the seat across from her. Rolling her eyes, “What can I do for you, Kirk?”

“I just wanted to match the face to the name. You’re pretty popular for that stunt you pulled a few months ago.” He says, resting his chin on his hand.

“Uh huh, well here you have it. Now let me enjoy my afternoon in peace.” She says, taking a sip of her drink. There are a few moments of silence before Chris raises her brow again. “Why are you still here?”

“Just trying to memorize a pretty face.” Kirk says, causing her to cringe visibly.

“Yeah no, not interested. Does that usually work for you?” She asks, not bothering to hide how uncomfortable she is.

He blinks and sits up straighter, “Uh yeah. It’s been working pretty well so far.”

She nods with a frown, “Well next time, might wanna make sure the girl you’re flirting with is into guys like you.”

“Oh? And just what do you mean by that?”

“I have no clue who you are, and yet you think walking up here acting like I’ll be some easy mark will make me fall all over you. I’ve met pimps who know better.”

“Well that’s mildly hurtful.” He says playfully. He puts a hand to his chin, as if he was questioning something. “In that case, got any sisters as capable as you?”

“Try it and see what happens.” She says, narrowing her eyes. 

“Damn.” He rubs the back of his neck and stands up. “Welp, can’t say I didn’t try. See you around Yukine, hope to see what else you can do in the future.” Kirk gives a grin, his teeth somehow giving a quick sparkle before he walks away.

“Seriously, who flirts with someone they just met?” She mumbles to herself. “Stuff only works in Bond movies.”

Chapter Text

“Hey Chris, how come we’ve never heard you sing?” K’mieo asks, taking a sip of her drink. 

“You have though? Every single time you guys watch me train.” She responds with a raised brow.

“I mean for fun. I don’t think you’ve ever sung outside of training while you’ve been here.”

Chris hums, looking out across the plaza. “Guess I’ve never really had the opportunity to.” She shrugs. 

“Well, what if we go to a karaoke booth!” K’mieo gives a classic fanged grin. 

Chris blinks, “Those still exist here?” Zyva appears and plops herself down with a groan. She rests her head on her hands. “Tough day?” 

“Still can’t seem to figure out this artifact. We’re getting power to it but it’s not actually doing anything.” She sighs, “Did I interrupt anything?” 

Chris shakes her head, sliding over a coffee. “The dummy here suggested we go do some karaoke. Apparently she wants to hear me sing.”

“But we hear you sing all the time?” Zyva takes the coffee, taking a swig and sighing. “Ahh, best coffee on campus.”

“She only sings in training though! And we barely know what kind of songs she likes to sing!” 

“You know what music I listen to.”

“Now that I think about it though, I don’t think I’ve heard you do anything more than hum along to some of the songs you play.” 

Chris rolls her eyes and crosses her arms. “If we go to a karaoke booth for the evening will you be satisfied?” K’mieo perks up, standing and slamming her hands on the table. She nods furiously, causing Chris to snort.

“After I finish my coffee.” 

***

“Go and spread happi-happi-happiness… one more time! Happi-happi-happiness, Singing Hood!” Chris finishes the song, panting heavily. She really didn’t expect to get so into the song, but maybe this was a good idea after all. 

“Holy shit Chris.” Zyva says, eyes wide. “That was… amazing.”

K’mieo has a starstruck look, “You have such a beautiful singing voice!”

Chris blinks, blushing slightly and rubbing the back of her neck. “W-well it’s not my favorite song… but it is pretty catchy…”

“What is it from? I don’t think I recognize it.”

“One of the things the UN did to help hide the existence of Symphogears was to create media for it.” Chris says, running her free hand through one of her twin tails. “This was from the anime that helped hide Ichaival.”

K’mieo snorts and giggles, “Okay, that’s kind of adorable.”

“S-shut it dummy!” She crosses her arms and huffs, turning off to the side. 

“You did seem like you were enjoying yourself though. Why not do another song?” Zyva says, smiling warmly.

Chris takes a moment to look at both of them, before sighing and scrolling through the list she had uploaded from her phone. “Fine, but I’m not the only one singing tonight. You both better do a few songs at the very least.”

Chapter Text

“Hey K’mieo, have you seen my…” Chris trails off as she enters the common room of K’mieo’s floor. The caitian had asked to borrow her phone to upload some anime to watch. That was several hours ago at this point, and Chris has to head into the city and she’d prefer to do it with her phone on hand. 

What she wasn’t expecting was to see K’mieo, Tilly, Tek and a few other engineering cadets surrounding the large projection. Looking closer at the projection, Chris can see that it’s currently on a freeze frame of Gundam Unicorn. “What uh… Whatcha doing there guys?”

K’mieo’s ear flicks and she turns, “Oh, Tek wanted to watch Gundam to see if he could figure out how they work, and Tilly and the others joined in after!” Chris looks over the other cadets, noticing each have some sort of device in front of them, a few conversing quietly with the other about materials or how certain systems would work.

Chris narrows her eyes, “Tek.”

The Vulcan in question turns his head. “Yes Yukine?”

“Are you trying to build a Gundam?” She asks hesitantly. 

Tek simply nods, “I have not yet been able to discern the method of creation and use for Raising Heart, so I have temporarily moved on to something more attainable.” He turns back towards the projection. “However, choosing a Gundam frame to attempt creation of has been… difficult.”

Chris raises her hand and opens her mouth to try and respond, only to find no words coming out. “I’m a fan of Barbatos, but that one is a little too ‘beastly’ for a Starfleet Gundam. I’d love to pilot it though.” 

“Aerial’s GUND format does seem like an interesting way to pilot, but the drawback is something we would definitely have to fix if we want to use it in anything current.” One of the other cadets says absentmindedly.

“The transformation between MS and Waverider mode from Zeta was pretty cool though. Imagine if we could make a starship do that.”

Chris has a moment of horrific realization, “How many meetings like this have you had?”

K’mieo rubs the back of her head, “Well, remember how every Saturday for the past few months I asked for your phone? Tek had asked if there was something other than that staff from Nanoha he could try to build, and I figured we probably have the tech to build a mobile suit. Then Tilly joined us and a bunch of other engineering cadets while we went through a couple of the different series to see which one to try for first.”

Tek stands and walks over to Chris, handing her a PADD, “Here is a compilation of our findings so far.” Chris begins scrolling through the copious amounts of data the group had somehow gathered from anime of all things.

She comes to a stop at a set of diagrams detailing a side view of Unicorn. “T-this is a textbook of fully fledged schematics. How the hell did you even make this?”

“By using current science and engineering capabilities we were able to discern and infer certain variables regarding certain systems. Some do remain out of reach however.”

“And you thought this would be a good idea?”

“C’mon Chris, haven’t you ever wanted to pilot a Gundam? You did recommend the series after all.” K’mieo says, smirking. 

Chris takes a few moments to consider, looking back and forth between the data and the group. “You uh… You think you could make Heavy Arms?”

Chapter Text

“ Captains personal log. ” There’s a loud sigh, “ Until further notice the Dawson has been reassigned to Earth, due to the fact that my crew is technically the next best experts on Noise and relics as well as our connection to cadet Yukine. Not exactly the most glorious or exciting posting, but I’ve had worse. Not to mention I could probably go to Sammie's. ”

There’s a pause before he starts back up, “ Actually that sounds like a good idea. New plan, once I’m done here I’m going to Sammie's and getting my usual. It’ll be like getting home cooking after being gone for a long time. Though since it is family run could it be considered home cooked? ”

“ Great, now I’m getting distracted by good food. Stay on track Gavin. ” There’s a quiet slapping sound, “ Right, so related to our new posting I’ve also been given one of the lead positions of the project. Meaning I have access credentials and can get to the artifact. Should I call it an artifact or relic? ”

“ Chris always calls it a relic, but James calls it an artifact? ” A pause. “ Whatever feels right in the moment. Yeah, that sounds good. Moving on to another topic I need to get off my chest, reactions to cadet Yukine’s past actions were not as bad as I was expecting. Especially from her two girls. ”

There’s a soft chuckle, followed by the clinking of a glass. “ Oh she’d probably get all pouty if she knew I called them that. But you can’t blame me! The three of them are basically a packaged deal. If there’s one of them, another or both aren’t too far behind. I honestly think it’s been good for her. Kid could use some positive people in her life. ”

“ Sure there’s been a distance that wasn’t there before, but that’s par for the course after learning someone has done bad things for what they thought were the right reasons. Hell, half of the other captains I know have done stuff like that. It does look like whatever was going on between them is still around at least, and slowly getting back to what it was.”

“ Still, quite the trio of species they make. Earth, Andoria and Cait. Two founding worlds and one that’s talking about joining the Federation. Funnily enough I think I know the captain that recommended K’mieo, though it’s been quite a while since I’ve seen them. I’m thinking of snagging them for their first official postings. It’ll definitely be interesting to have those three around. ”

The audio trails off, with the occasional clink of glass and sigh. “ I know we’re doing the right thing, trying to find defense against Noise. But I still can’t shake the feeling of dread I get whenever I think about the future. I just hope that Chris’s worries turn out to be unfounded. I’m sure she does too. ”

“ I do have to wonder… How long is it going to be until we can get her home? ” Another pause, longer than the rest. “ Computer, end log. ”

Chapter Text

“Ah fuck!” Chris exclaims, sticking her finger in her mouth as the tool she was holding clatters onto the desk. Pouting, she glares at the small mount the red pendant of Ichaival is sitting on. She sighs, slipping the borrowed set of goggles off her face and letting them rest around her neck. “How the hell did the squirt do this?”

 She stares at the unopened pendant for a few moments, before huffing and resting her chin on her hand. “Ya know, for somethings that’s been with me for some of the worst and best parts of my life, you’re really stubborn. I’m trying to make sure nothing’s wrong with you!” 

She continues to glare at the pendant, having been trying for the better part of the last three weeks attempting to open it. She vaguely remembers seeing Elfnein do something like that in order to repair any standard wear and tear, but it’s been so long that she can’t quite remember exactly how it happened. 

“C’mon work with me. I know I probably should have figured this out years ago, but I’m not as smart as the squirt! She basically lived and breathed this stuff. You probably saw some of her week-long science binges, plus she had all that alchemical knowledge.” 

She sits there for a few minutes, simply staring at the pendant before sighing and letting her head fall onto the desk. “Please, you’re pretty much the only one I’ve got here. I can’t have you not trusting me either.” She hasn’t been able to spend much time with K’mieo or Zyva since she joined the project. Not like they’d even want to right now anyway.

Chris hasn’t always been the most emotionally well versed, but she knows that at the very least the two of them are a lot more… hesitant around her. Hell, she’s pretty sure K’mieo could actually be somewhat afraid of her now. Though, that could just be her spiraling. She talked with Jura about what happened and the doc put forward that they probably just need time to process the new information.

Doesn’t mean she can’t miss their coffee dates. She picks up her head and shakes it, lightly slapping her cheeks. She eyes the clock, seeing the late hour. “One more try. Please, let me figure something out?” She asks Ichaival before sighing. “Great, now I’m begging with my Symphogear. That’s definitely good for my psyche.” 

She slips the goggles back and picks up the tool. Messing with the dials on the lenses, she zooms in on the pendant. Once more she’s viewing the small details of its crystalline shell. She delicately moves the tool along the depressed ridges of the casing. “Oh hello.” She speaks to herself, finding a small notch that she had somehow missed before. 

Twisting her fingers slightly, the tool extends into the notch. Jostling it gently, she hears a small click as what looks like a small hatch on the casing opens. “Got you.” She carefully opens the hatch the rest of the way, doing so with the other side now that it’s free. With the magnification of the goggles she can see the small shard of Ichaival.

“Huh, so that’s what you look like…” Now that she thinks about it, she hasn’t actually seen that many relics outside of Symphogears and Faust Robes. She observes the inside of the pendant closely, using one hand to type out notes on what she can see. Only to realize, “I have no fucking clue what any of this is.”

Chapter Text

 “Alright, good work today everyone! K’mieo, you’re good to exit the cockpit!” The chief engineer calls out. K’mieo nods, even if no one is able to see it. She lets go of the controls and taps a few buttons on the lower side of the pilot seat. The cockpit doors slide open, and she slides herself out and onto the ground. 

She slides her helmet off, flicking her ears and shaking some of the sweat out of her fur. Turning she takes a look at the torso and set of arms that she’d been operating. “Left arm feels a little stiffer than the right. Think it has something to do with the bearings?” She says, making her way over to the chief.

“We’ll take a look at it and cross reference with the other models.” He responds, not looking up from his console. “Go ahead and shower off. We’re done with testing for the day.” She nods and heads to the onsite locker rooms, seeing a few of the other test pilots mingling. 

“I’m telling you, whoever had the idea for these things is either crazy or insane.”

“Those are pretty much the same thing.”

“And to be fair we are the ones crazy enough to test them out.”

“But you get what I mean right? Large scale hazard suits? The idea itself is pretty genius so it's a wonder why it hasn't been thought of before”

That's because its technically not our idea. K'mieo thinks as she slips off the suit, shaking a little to help air get to her fur better. It was… because of her… She frowns to herself, staring at the orange phone in her locker. 

That was definitely a strange night to be sure. Both her and Zyva getting called out by different people to go to a random lecture hall after dark. Only to get a call from Chris and get gifted a phone like hers, blue for Zyva and orange for K'mieo. 

She sighs, slipping on her tank top and loose pants, using a hand to help her tail through the loop. She'd rather showroom back in her dorm anyway. She stuffs the flight suit into the duffel she brought it in, and packs everything but the phone in as well. 

She picks up the phone, staring at it for a few moments and seeing the generic lock screen staring back. She shakes her head, sliding the phone into her pocket and making her way back to her dorm. 

“Jazz, I'm back!” She calls only to remember that her roommate was currently doing a rotation on  Starbase One and wouldn't be back for a few more weeks. She sighs again, doing her newish routine of showering for a day of wandering campus looking for something to do. It’s not like she has the courage to ask Chris to do anything. 

Hours later she finds herself wandering back to the hazard suit test hangars, finding that the chief was still around, albeit a lot less professionally dressed. She meanders over to him, tapping him on the shoulder.

He startles, turning his head, “Oh, K’mieo. You’re back early.” He looks her up and down, “Not here for another test run I see.”

She shakes her head, rubbing the back of her neck. “Just kinda wandering around with nothing to do.”

“Why don’t you call up those girls you used to gush about all the time?” She frowns, her gaze going over to the half body that’s currently mounted on the wall. “Ah, so that’s why you stopped talking about them all those months ago.” He says, leaning back in his chair.

“Sill, crazy to think all of this can come from one girl sharing an old timey TV show with a Vulcan. I heard they're working on something called a Nanoha project up on spacedock. Know anything about it?”

“That would another show she showed us.” She responds, ears falling flat and tail dropping still. “Mind if I ask you for some advice?”

The chief huffs a laugh, “Bold choice, but shoot.” 

She slides her phone out of her pocket, staring at her reflection in the blank screen. “One of the girls… turns out she did some bad things when she was younger. Like, real bad. She's spent the past few years making up for it but…”

“It's a little awkward, knowing the things she did?” The chief finishes for her. She nods, turning to him seeing that he's giving her a smile. “Well, does anyone else know?”

“I think Starfleet does. Or at least some of the admiralty. They did have to approve her to join the academy.”

“Well if they okayed her then everything should be fine on that front. Now it's just a matter of what you want.” 

“I think… I want to keep being her friend, at the very least. I think she's someone trying to do better, who deserves to have people close to her.” She hears him huff another laugh and pat her shoulder. “I should call her.” 

Her thoughts are interrupted by the faint sound of and explosion, followed by a siren. The two look at each other for a second before rushing out of the hangar. “What the hell is that?” She hears the chief ask. 

She'd normally try to follow his eyeline, but a flash of light in the distance followed by the telltale trails of Chris's boosters takes her attention. “I've got a bad feeling about this.” She takes off, sprinting towards the direction of the shuttle bay. Dread pooling in her gut. 

Chapter Text

When Zyva woke up this morning after turning off her phone's alarm, the first thing she noticed was the disheveled state of Chris’s bed, followed by the lack of Chris in the room. The next thing she noticed was the blood trail leading from their bathroom to the door. 

What she found next made her sick to her stomach. The blood splatter on the mirror in addition to the small bits of blood scattered across the floor wasn’t enough. No, there was also somehow a small crack in the mirror itself. She’d be impressed if it didn’t mean that Chris had definitely had another nightmare and injured herself, badly. 

Zyva looks around their room again, frowning to herself as she starts the clean up process. It’s the least she could do, especially after being so distant despite still being roommates. She takes a glance at the phone on her nightstand, her thoughts wandering towards the past eight months after finding out what Chris did.

She’s a pacifist, she made that clear to Starfleet when she joined up. She doesn’t want to touch a phaser if she doesn’t have to, but she does know how to protect herself if necessary. She’s not naive enough to believe she won’t need that knowledge.

But learning about what Chris did, about how many people she killed. It made her weary. Weary of her, weary of the mission, of what it would mean to be Captain or even just someone in command. Sure she knew logically that if she were in command at some point she’d have to make tough choices. And sure what happened to Chris was an extreme case. 

She sighs again, silently berating herself from getting distracted. She manages to finish cleaning, leaving the broken mirror for another time. “O-oh you didn’t have to… I was going…” She hears from behind her. She turns to see Chris in her bedwear along with her SONG jacket, looking absolutely terrible. 

God, she’s such an idiot. She can’t believe it took seeing her best friend like this to realize how stupid she’s been for months . She opens her mouth to say something, only for the words to get caught in her throat as she sees the look in Chris’s eyes. She looks so tired. 

“A-ah well, I’m just going to shower and change then.” Chris says, hunched over and rubbing her arm with the other crossed in front of her. She shouldn’t be doing this with Zyva. She shouldn’t be acting like this because of her. 

All Zyva can manage is a nod as she exits the bathroom, leaving Chris to her privacy. What follows is an extremely awkward hour of the dancing around each other. Chris's gaze barely leaving floor as Zyva's can barely leave her friend. 

She had wanted to get some air, think things over. Maybe meet with K'mieo and talk with her about how they're going to reconcile with Chris. After all, she'd done what she could to meet them much further than halfway. 

She stares at her phone, one that was designed and made by the friend she's been so unkind to. She clenches it in her grip, the breeze blowing against her as she watches from atop one of the academy roofs. 

“There you are!” She turns around to see… Farnsworth? What's she doing here? “You mind explaining to me why I was the one to take your roommate to medical at ass o’clock in the morning?”

Ah, so that's why she looks so upset. “I…” Zyva can't find the right words to respond. Farnsworth seems to take this as an opportunity to dive into an impromptu lecture. 

“...Look, I get that you Aenar are supposed to be pacifists, but you have to remember that she comes from a completely different time and place than we do. Not to mention how she was just a kid when shit hit the fan.”

Zyva blinks, “Hang on, how do you know about all that?”

“I basically forced it out of her at medical while she was sitting under observation. I also know how important you and K'mieo are to her and how much it's hurting her that she doesn't have either of you as close as you were.”

She sighs, resting her head on the roof's railing. “I'm pretty sure we both know we messed up on this. But-”

“But nothing! In the short time I've known her Yukine has saved my life like, four different times. I think that's more than enough to believe she's a good person.”

“Her being a good person isn't what's questionable here-"

“You're sure as hell acting like it is.” Once again, Zyva is realizing just how badly she's messed up. “She gave you a phone, right? Call her. Tell her that you still care about her, that you still want whatever it was that the three of you had.”

Zyva frowns, looking over the academy’s skyline, San Francisco bay in the distance. She slides her phone out of her pocket, staring at it for a few moments. Her thoughts are interrupted as an explosion rings out from the city, followed by several more a few moments later. “What the…” 

She feels the phone in her hand vibrate, and she manages to tear her attention away from the sight of the city being attacked by something too far away for her to see. Looking at the caller ID she’s left confused. “The Dawson...?”

Chapter Text

Katie was bored. So, so bored. Even if the Dawson was stationed at Earth for the foreseeable future she at least imagined something a little more than sitting in orbit or around Spacedock. At least she gets to be in the big chair while Gavin is on the surface.

She frowns, remembering why he’s down there today. “Damn kid. Can’t ever catch a break can you?” She mumbles to herself, resting her head on her fist. One of the good things to come out of this is being able to spend more time with her pseudo little sister. The downside is that she’s had a first hand look at what she can only describe is her deteriorating mental health. 

She’s suddenly reminded of one of the nights Chris had spent aboard the Dawson. That one was rough for her. She had silently cried herself to sleep in Katie’s arms, barely able to speak with the weight of everything crashing down on her. It didn’t help that a few weeks later there was the whole incident during the last test run.

She sighs, garnering the attention of a few of the bridge crew. “Is everything alright Commander?” She hears the Vulcan cadet say. He was on the away mission where Chris got drunk off radiation, Tek right?

“Just thinking about our resident superhero.”

“I assume you are referring to Yukine?” He asks with a quirk of his head.

“Know anyone else with magic powers?”

“Not as of yet, but I am in the process of deciphering them.”

Katie blinks, turning in the chair towards him. “Come again?”

“Yukine had shown me media depicting the use of something called ‘math magic’ and I have spent the previous eight months attempting to replicate it.” He says, typing away at his console. 

“I’m sorry, are you saying you’re going to become a magical girl?”

He stops, quirking his head slightly. “I do not believe that term would fit me, as I am not adolescent or female, however I have yet to find a proper alternative.” 

Katie swings back towards the front of the bridge, eyes wide. “Ookay. What other kind of surprises haven’t you told us, cadet?”

“I have also been working on designs for different hazard suits once the testing phase is complete.” 

“You made the Gundam program too?!” Uria calls out.

“I was present during the initial planning, however I have not been part of the more recent testing. I simply am providing possible ideas based on the different media available.”

“Are there any other things from Chris that you got inspired to make?” Katie asks, the ridiculousness of a Vulcan not only being interested in human media, but also trying to replicate it hitting her enough for her to start questioning reality. As if Chris hadn’t caused her to do that enough already.

He pauses again, as if trying to consider something. Which is worrying in his case. “I did find the near instantaneous transformations of media such as Kamen Rider rather intriguing. If I had to choose a project after my current one, it would be an attempt to replicate that.” 

No fucking way a Vulcan of all things was, what did Chris call it again? A ‘toku’ fan? But damn, now Katie really wanted to find out if it were possible. She had to admit some of those things were honestly really cool. Super corny at times, but they did have some really awesome looking suit designs. 

“Let me know when you get to that, I’d love to take a crack at it.”

“Duly noted Commander.” 

Well, that’s one thing she might get to do sometime in the future. Which one would she try for first thought? So many different ones to choose from…

“Noise signals detected on the surface!” She hears someone yell.

“Red alert! Where are they?” She turns to the ensign who reported it. She doesn’t get an answer right away, but the look of horror on the ensign’s face doesn’t speak of anywhere good. “Ensign, where are they?”

“San Francisco ma’am. There’s so many of them and more signals keep appearing.”

“Incoming communication from Captain Tameron!” 

“Put it through.”

“ Katie what the hell is going on !” Gavin’s voice rings out on the bridge.

“Noise are in the city Gavin, a lot of them.”

Chapter Text

Jura is unceremoniously woken up by the ringing of her communicator. She starts wiping the sleep from her face, one hand lightly slapping her nightstand for her communicator. She feels it against her fingers and grasps it, thumb flipping it open and bringing to her ear, “Mother I swear to every god out there, I’m not going back to Betazed now will you please just let me sleep?!” 

There’s a few moments of silence before a voice she vaguely recognizes belonging to one of the nurses comes through, “Doctor Atula?”

She sighs, sitting up and resting her face in her free hand. “Apologies. What do you need?”

“Your personal patient came in with a broken hand earlier. Said she punched a mirror.”

Jura blinks a few times and groans into her hand, “That girl is going to give me gray hairs I swear. Why did I agree to this posting?” She mumbles to herself. “Were you able to get her taken care of?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Great, anything else I should be worried about.”

“Other than the clear lack of sleep I don’t believe so. Though you probably can gather more from that than I can.”

“I’ll meet with her later today about it. Thank you for letting me know. Atula out.”  She flips her communicator closed, before staring at the time. “Guess I’m up for today.”  

***

“I didn't realize you were coming in today, doctor.”

“Just passing through right now. Need to grab the details of my patient's visit earlier this morning before I try and track her down.”

“I believe she said something about a meeting with Captain Tameron, perhaps you could meet her there?”

Jura gives a nod, rifling through the different PADDs they have available until she finds one that isn't being used. “I'll keep that in mind, thank you.” She leans against the desk, scrolling through the report about Chris and sighing. 

“If I ever meet Commander Kazanari I’m half tempted to slug him for the amount of neglect towards those under his command. I get they’re a secret organization but there had to be a therapist they could pay off or something.” She pauses, tilting her head, “they did that back then, right?”

The med bay goes into red alert, causing everyone to pause. Since when the hell does the academy have a red alert drill in the middle of the day? Jura thinks to herself for a moment before she happens to speak out at the same time as the other medical staff, “Oh shit.” 

***

“So much for Earth being a quiet posting huh?” One of the nurses asks as they work through their ‘wounded’. There’s not really any wounded aside from shock victims and collateral damage from Chris’s attacks. Jura knows better than to blame the girl though, after all she’s their main line of defense and offense right now. It's these Noise that are the issue. Chris had confided in her what they do to Humans. She can only imagine how many people are now in the wind. 

“Ever since that girl showed up there’s been a lot more excitement to be had.” She responds, finishing patching up one of the kids that had gotten caught up in a blast before getting beamed out. “Good as new kiddo.”

“DOCTOR ATULA!” She hears someone yell from behind her.

She turns, “Zyva? What are you doing Here?”

“I need you to come with me. Quickly.” She says panting between every word.

“I’m a little busy at the m-”

“Chris is going to need you.” Normally she’d be ticked off at getting interrupted but the kid being in trouble is enough of a reason to let it slide. 

“Nurse, you’re in charge.” She gets up skipping a few steps before finding a proper gait. “I take it we’re running?”

Chapter Text

The first thing Chris notices is pain. Her throat feels like it's on fire and it feels like thousands of needles are stabbing her hands and arms. There's also something wrapped around one of her hands, and something pressed into the opposite side of her.

The next thing that registers is a constant beeping sound, something she's heard plenty of times before in her line of work. What she's not sure about is why the room is so dark. The medbay is pretty much always lit up when someone is in it, and considering she's here why would the lights be turned off?

Oh, her eyes are closed aren't they.

Her eyelids are heavy, but with plenty of effort she manages to pry them open herself. She stares at the ceiling, using the stark white as a backdrop for piecing together what exactly happened. 

She was fighting on a building and ended up singing her superb song, she remembers that much. Something went wrong after that though. A wave of pain hits her, causing to cry out in a quiet, raspy voice, her throat feeling like it was tearing itself apart.  Must be the backlash. She hadn't really had to experience it before because she was either with the others or she died right after. At least now she knows Federation medicine helps mitigate most of it. 

The weight on her side shifts, causing her look as well as she could to the side. The sight of a sleeping K'mieo greets her, ears flicking a few times.

Cute… She finds herself thinking as she stares at the sleeping caitian. She tries to lift her arm, but she feels so weak it doesn't make more than an inch off the bed before falling back down.  There's a small beep and several seconds later the pain begins to recede. She gives a soft sigh of relief through her nose, flexing her fingers as the dull pressure takes hold. 

“Chris?” A tired voice comes from her other side. She manages to swivel her head, seeing Zyva with a tired yet concerned look On her face. The lighting of the room doing wonders for her icy completion.

Oh wow she's really pretty… I wish the three of us could sleep together in a proper bed. She thinks she smiles and tries to say something, but the words ‘pretty lady’ come out as a croak instead. 

Zyvas eyes widen as she removes her hand to shake K'mieo awake, frowning at the absence of pressure. “K'mieo, she's awake, get out of her bed!” 

She hears a yawn, followed by a tired “Does this mean we can tell her we both have feelings for her now?”

Chris's face heats up at those words. She was very much so not prepared for that. Her heart starts beating faster, her mind forgetting where she is to supply her with any number of responses and forgetting that she can't really speak at the moment. 

An alarm begins to sound from one of the machines and Jura sprints into the room only a few moments later. She skids to stop, staring at the trio before her before her eyebrow twitches. 

“Both of you out. You'll have your chance to be gay later.” She orders, causing Zyva and K'mieo to jump away from her bed and scurry out. She gives a soft whine at their absence.  Jura sighs and goes over to her monitors, turning off the alarm and starts checking her over. “I'm glad you're awake Chris. We've got a lot to cover before I let your girlfriends come back in.” Chris's heart monitor alarm goes off again, causing Jura's face to fall into one of the most apathetic deadpans she's ever seen.

“Really? That's all it took?” 

Chapter Text

“So this is why you didn't come to the mess earlier.” She hears Zyva say as their shared quarters door opens. K'mieo turns her head as best she can from towards her, one hand holding her phone and the other wrapped around the sleeping white hair woman's waist.

Chris had come into the room with her after they had gotten off duty, the pair supposed to be taking a small break before heading to the mess hall to meet up with Zyva. They never made it, K'mieo having started an episode on her phone when Chris had climbed onto her sans jacket.

It hadn't been long before she was trapped beneath her softly snoring girlfriend. Not that she'd complain about it. Chris tended to run slightly colder than the humans from this universe, so it was nice having a full body cooling pillow. The fact she was so soft was also a huge bonus. 

“She fell asleep on me, and its illegal for me to get up until she does.” She responded plainly. Zyva snorts, moving to get undressed on her side of the room. 

“I feel like that should be the other way around.” She slips off her uniform jacket and starts rummaging through her dresser. 

“You look at her and tell me you'd even want to move her.” K'mieo says, rubbing one of her hands along Chris's semi exposed back. 

Zyva turns, taking a moment to look over the pair. “Only to insert myself into the cuddle pile.”

It was K'mieos turn to snort, earning a small noise from Chris. Her head snaps to her as she feels pressure on her chest. Chris pushes herself half up, K'mieo's arm sliding down along her. Still in the midst of a sleeping addled mind, Chris squints at her, then to Zyva, making small confused noises.

Thankfully Zyva could keep it together enough to say something, because right now her heart was exploding because Chris was acting like she did as a kitten when she was sleepy and it was absolutely sending her. “It's just me sweetheart, go back to sleep. I'll be joining you both soon.”

“...kay…” Is the quiet response they get as Chris lays herself back down onto K'mieo. She is so glad the captain let them bunk together. Even if the cuteness overdose is bad for her heart there's no way she could live without this.

She apparently spaced out staring at Chris, because the next thing she knows there's another cold weight pressing against her side. “You should get some sleep too K.”

“Squished between my two girls, I think I'll sleep just fine,” She smiles, kissing Zyvas forehead and softly scratching Chris's back, electing a soft sigh from the sleeping human. 

Chapter Text

“It’s insane what she can do. I mean, she’s her own walking artillery!”

“She can use ballistics, and doesn’t have to reload. Ever. I once saw her fire those gatlings of hers for twenty minutes straight!”

“She can tear apart a starship in just a few minutes! In atmosphere! By herself!”

“They fired her out of a torpedo tube. The used her as an actual torpedo against a starship and it worked somehow. I don’t even want to know the kinds of g-forces she can handle.”

“She always sings these crazy ass songs. Gotta admit some of them are catchy, but it’s kind of weird having some sort of idol protecting you from the skies. Though I guess with her codename it’d be a singing valkyrie flying in to save the day”

“No matter what anyone else thinks-”

“I believe this valkyrie is a war hero.” Zyva says, cringing at those last two words. “Eesh, she’s not gonna like that.” She sets down the PADD on the table, Sarah swiping up to read the article for herself.

“I don’t understand, why wouldn’t she like it?” 

“Two of her least favorite words smashed together to describe her.” K’mieo says in between bites. “She already has to jump through hoops just to keep her cool while fighting.”

“Okay, yeah I get that. But she’s saving countless lives on our side? Shouldn’t she be happy about that?”

Zyva sighs, resting her chin on her hand. “She has the unfortunate tendency to focus on the negative things instead of the positive. Something she’s at least aware of but it’s like she put it on hold after war started.”

Sarah slides the PADD over to K’mieo, who uses her free hand to skim the article herself. “Gotta admit-”

“Chew and swallow before talking please.”

She takes a moment to do so before making a silly face towards Zyva. “The guy got plenty of good shots of her. Might have to make this one my phone background.”

“God you’re down bad for her.” Sarah says, rolling her eyes.

“Have you seen how hot she is in that bodysuit? Of course we are.”

“Sorry I’m late,” Chris apologizes before sitting with her tray at the table. She starts scarfing down her large meal.

“I’m still amazed you can eat that much and have some sort of a figure.” Sarah says.

Chris finishes what’s in her mouth before responding, Zyva gesturing to her and giving Kmieo a look. “I burn a fuck ton of calories using Ichaival. Singing like that makes you super hungry.” She goes back to eating, Zyva sending a fond smile her way.

“Hey Chrissy, have you seen what they’re calling you?” K’mieo asks. She shakes her head between bites, looking over at the PADD as K’mieo scrolls. She stops, shoulders sagging as she frowns. 

“I hate that title…” She says, barely above a whisper. She goes back to eating, this time at a more melancholy pace.

“Take a look at some of the pics that guy got though.” K’mieo says, Scrolling and turning the PADD back to her. “I’m kinda bummed you shrunk the boob window though.” Chris chokes on her food and goes into a coughing fit. Zyva doesn’t hold back the groan at K’mieo's triumphant look as if she just accomplished something amazing. Sarah can't help the bubble of laughter that escapes her.