Chapter Text
Kamille had befriended yet another maybe-Newtype girl.
“—and that's what happened,” the boy reported to Bright, explaining why he had once again brought an unknown girl onboard the Argama, and why she wasn't a Titan and/or cyber-Newtype this time.
Said girl was wandering around the hanger, eyeing the mobile suits hungrily. She had short red hair, large green eyes and a diminutive figure—but Bright had been inflicted with enough teenagers under his command to know not to trust that harmless appearance. He kept half of his attention on her, but given she had yet to make a break for the mobile suits (which could not be said about Kamille’s other maybe-Newtype friends), nobody stopped her meandering. Yet.
Bright resisted the urge to sigh, briefly contemplating if it was too late to join the majority of the White Base crew in retirement. He addressed the girl, “You’re claiming to be from a—an alternate universe where Zeon won the war, is that right?”
“Pretty much, yeah.” Came the nonchalant reply, the girl’s eyes still glued to the mobile suits. “Hey, so you still haven’t answered my question, Kamille. Are you terrorists or not?”
It depended on whom she asked, to be honest. “We are the AEUG.” Bright replied firmly, deciding not to think about how blunt that question was.
“That was a yes or no question,” the girl grumbled. If she was truly from another world, there was a chance she didn’t know about AEUG and the Titans. Bright did not particularly care.
He turned his head back to Kamille, a question on the tip of his tongue—you believe her? Kamille held his gaze defiantly. Hm. That answered his question.
An alternate universe. Of course. With his luck—why not?
There were a million questions racing through Bright’s mind—a million things to handle regarding this girl who had been supposedly displaced through time and space. But first, “What’s your name?”
That question finally drew the girl’s attention away from the mobile suits. Nearby, Astonaige breathed a sigh of relief now that the mobile suits were in less immediate danger of being stolen. The girl wrinkled her nose, “Call me Machu.”
This was clearly an alias. “Machu,” Bright accepted. “Tell me more about your universe, and how you appeared here.” In his periphery, Kamille opened his mouth in protest. Bright added, “I want to hear it from you, not Kamille.”
“I guess.” Machu made a face. “I was in the GQuuuuuux, getting ready for the Clan Battle. And then there were—the lights. The Kira-kira. And then I was here.”
That was even worse than Amuro’s mission reports. At least those included plenty of technical details regarding the mobile suits involved—a little too much sometimes.
Bright opened his mouth, about to order Machu to elaborate. It was at that moment that Char finally appeared to Bright’s request to meet Kamille’s maybe-Newtype friend.
The red-clad man floated through the doorway to the hangar floor. His gaze was obscured by his signature sunglasses, but he did not disguise the way he was considering Machu curiously. “Hello, I am—”
“It’s you!” Machu shouted, glaring accusingly at Char. Char’s features remained unchanged, but Bright could notice him shift imperceptibly towards a combat stance in anticipation of a confrontation. “You’re Shuji’s imaginary friend!”
Surprise visible only to those who knew Char flashed across his face. Then, his features smoothed over, and he pasted an approachable smile on his face. “I assure you, I am perfectly real. I am Lieutenant Quattro Bajeena, and you are…?”
Machu appeared distinctly unimpressed. “I’d recognise the Voice of the Red Gundam even if I was deaf.” She accused, “I don’t know why you have a human body, but I do know I heard you right before I appeared here. So. This is your fault, isn’t it? What did you do?”
This time, not even Char could conceal his bafflement. Kamille frowned, glancing between his mentor and new friend. He voiced what everyone in the hangar was thinking. “What.”
Sayla had the right idea disappearing for a quiet retirement, Bright thought in despair — a headache beginning to rear its ugly head. It was a pity he couldn’t retire to a resort colony with Mirai and the kids, but maybe they could find a nice beachside house to live after the Titans were defeated.
Ha, that would never happen, but Bright could dream. In the meantime, he desperately needed Machu to elaborate on what the fuck was happening in her timeline.