Chapter Text
June 10th, 2148
The sound of a helicopter drew the members of Spearhead out from their barracks. They were not scheduled to recieve any new supplies today. Something was off.
Helicopters weren't used for resupplying the 86... Those were used to transporting human personnel, specifically those of Alba heritage.
As the helicopter touched down, Shin and Raiden went out to meet it.
"What's going on?" Shin asked the officer who jumped out to meet him.
The man handed Shin his orders. "You pigs got real lucky... That pig-loving Princess is going to be your new Handler." Shin started to flip through the orders, but both his and Raiden's attention jumped to girl coming out of the helicopter. Silver hair got caught in the door. She yelped, falling to her knees. Another officer who was still in the plane tried to pull it free from the door. The first man turned back, hearing the girl's cry and sighed. "Just cut it, Wilhelm!" He clicked his tongue and went to help the other. "Nothing but trouble."
Shin had already started moving towards the girl when Raiden looked at him. Raiden followed him to the bay of the helicopter. "Alright, you boys grab her and we'll cut her loose!" They pushed the girl out of the helicopter. Shin and Raiden did their best to catch her. The Alban officers sawed her hair free from the door. The girl ended up in Shin's arms, he lowered her down to the ground gently. The first grabbed the handcuff keys from the second and got back out to uncuff her hands. He roughly grabbed her and spun her back around. He unlocked and slipped the handcuffs from her wrists, and then leaned forward, teasing whisper into a shout "Have fun with your dolls, PRINCESS~" He shoved her back roughly then spun back around the the helicopter.
Shin caught the girl again. "Hey, what's going on?!" Raiden shouted. "We haven't heard a single thing about this." The officer having climbed aboard the helicopter, turned back around to shout "She's your new Handler, remember?" The plane started, and as it took off, the officer shouted "Everything you need to know is in your orders, have fun with her, pigs!" "Bye, Princess~!" The helicopter's door closed. As the helicopter turned off, Shin and Raiden took a look at the girl who was in front of them.
Matted, dirty silver hair, unbelievably pale skin. An alban officer's dress uniform. She stood unsteadily, wobbling slightly. A glassy look in her eyes. A dark bruise spreading across her face, chaffed, red-rubbed wrists. She groggily felt towards the back of her neck. The helicopter's shadow fell over them.
"Are you okay?" Raiden asked worriedly. "I don't-" She inhaled sharply. "...think..." She was moving in slow motion. She drew her hand back. Her fingertips were bloody. "Oh no... Let me see." Raiden walked towards her, and the girl awkwardly tried to turn around, nearly falling over. Raiden brushed her hair around her shoulders. Her hair had blood clotted in it. There was a wad of gauze, and bandages around where a paraRaid's quasi-crystal would be, blood had soaked through it. "Oh, that's not good... I think we might have some bandages inside, let's go inside."
Raiden hustled the girl inside, she could barely walk. He sat her down in the mess hall and sent Haruto to find bandages. Looking over her, her eyes were glazed, and they kept slipping over people's faces. Her speech was slurred.
"What's the matter with her?" "She's pretty~ For a white pig." The word spread quickly that the Republic had dropped off a drugged lady officer. The Processors poured in to the common room.
Raiden was washing his hands at the sink, getting a basin of water and a clean rag ready to tend to the girl's wounds.
"I think she's here to stay... Can somebody prepare a room for her? Any girls willing to share with an Alba?" He asks.
Kaie volunteers herself. She goes out of the common room, passing by Theo who’s running in followed by Daiya and Louie.
Theo slams his hand on the table as he sits in a chair. “What's on earth is in those orders?!"
Shin was speed-reading the orders. "I don't know..."
"What do you mean you don't know?!"
Shin set the booklet down with a thud, and passed it on to Theo. "Read it."
Shin went over to the cabinet and and got a mug out of it. Theo looked down at the packet and started reading.
"Orders from the Republic... blah blah blah... Spearhead's new permanent onsite Handler, E-938 uh long number... revoked of Alban citizenship on charges of high treason against the Republic, assigned to Spearhead as Handler replacement..." Shin had poured a mug of water, and sat down beside the girl, placing the mug beside her. "Geez, what's going on?” Kurena walks in to see Shin sitting next to another woman. Everyone looks at her, then looks back towards Shin.
"We treat her as a friend. For now. She's drugged up on something right now, so we can't get any answers out of her tonight. Understood?"
Processors murmured okays, altough they lacked conviction. Shin turned his gaze back on the girl.
Raiden came over, shoving chairs out of the way and setting his basin of water down. "Haruto, where are those bandages?!"
"Coming!" Haruto ran in with a box full of yellowing bandages.
"She'll be treated as a friend until she proves herself otherwise." The girl's petal-like lips trembled as Raiden sponged the wound and reapplied the bandages. "What's your name?"
The girl's brow furrowed, and you could practically see the wheels turning in her head as she tried to remember.
"Vladi..." She broke off, looks like she can barely say her own name.
"Do you have a nickname?" Shin asked.
The girl’s mouth soundlessly worked as she tried to remember. "Lena..." Slipped out.
"Alright, her name's Lena."
“Somebody placed a paraRaid in her, and it’s definetely a new incision... I think they gave her painkiller or something for the procedure, which is why she’s all drugged up.”
They scoffed at the idea, the 86 were implanted with paraRaids in less than ideal conditions. The chisels were not cleaned in between patients, The rooms were poorly lit and not at all sterile, and the stiches were slipshod.
The stiches in Lena’s neck were neat and methodical, however. The incision was just large enough to fit a paraRaid in, unlike the large gouges which led to the scars that some processors had on their necks.
Whoever did this to her must have been a Republic doctor, whoever they were. And the procedure must have been done inside the Republic, there were no painkillers out here in the 86th Sector.
However, that didn’t explain why they had embedded her with a Quasi-Nerve, labelled her a Handler, and shipped her out here. And they’d have to wait until tomorrow to ask her, so that the drugs could wear off.
The girl’s face was lined with sweat and she hissed as Raiden doctored her wounds. Her nails were digging into her palm.
Eventually Raiden finished, taping the new bandages on as best he could. Kaie came back, and helped Lena up to her room.
Cute art (not mine) I found on Pinterest!