Chapter 48 - Refuge
By Cille
The night went by way too fast, yet satisfyingly, for Professor Matrix. He was back in his element, the lord of the lab, the tsar of the tentacles. Of course Lloyd might have disagreed with making him the boss of everything, but Matrix didn't give him much of a choice.
In fact the only annoyance of the night came from Lloyd's insistence on poking his nose into everything, wanting to see how everything worked, wanting to collect his "data," and being irritatingly critical of everything even though Matrix clearly knew exactly what he was doing. Matrix finally got fed up and told him off, and after that Lloyd was a pouty but relatively obedient helper.
Matrix did wish Larry was there, just a little. Even though he was a whiner and a scaredy-cat and had no appreciation for the art, he at least had experience working with tentacles and taking Matrix's orders. But Larry was no doubt huddled in his bed trying to survive the nightmares, and Matrix had no desire to go drag him back to the lab.
And so he and his small but tenacious team worked through the night making his glorious vision a reality. His tentacles seemed as excited about it as he was, and he actually had to use a sedative on them to get them to hold still long enough to hook them up to the mech. They did get a little fresh with Winry, but her wrench put a quick stop to that.
Finally, after many hours of rewarding toil, a full complement of wriggling appendages had been installed on the underside of the crippled mech. Matrix had rewired all of the controls to deliver just the right electric currents to make the tentacles obey the pilots' wishes, and it was simply up to the pilots to learn to work with their new giant robot organism.
When he called in Kamina and Charles to present the refurbished mech to them, he felt like a proud papa sending his child to kindergarten for the first time - sad to be putting his baby into someone else's hands, but immensely pleased with himself for creating something so amazing.
**********
Cille was awakened by the sound of machine-gun fire. It started off in the distance, but as she became aware of it and started wondering where it was coming from, it gradually came louder, faster and more insistent, until she was sure it was right next to her and she was about to get blown away.
She dove for cover - and with a jolt discovered that she was sitting up in bed in her own room in the bunker.
The rapid-fire tapping noise abruptly stopped. "Ms. Cillie?" called a familiar voice from the direction of the door. She was too disoriented to say anything, and just rubbed her head and tried to make sense of where she was.
"Ms. Cillie, are you in there?" the voice said, sounding concerned. Then, when she still didn't answer, "I'm coming in."
The door opened, and Cougar cautiously stuck his head in. She warily turned to see who it was, and even her relief at seeing him couldn't totally erase the obvious distress on her face.
"Hey, what's the matter? Did something happen?" Cougar asked, coming to sit next to her on the bed.
"I..." she began uncertainly, not sure how to explain what she was feeling at that moment. "No, not really... just a bad dream... I think."
He put his arm around her. "Well, it's over now. Maybe it's a good thing I woke you up when I did."
"Maybe..."
They sat in silence for a few moments. She was starting to come to her senses, but she really wasn't sure she wanted to be awake.
"Let me guess, it's morning again already," she mumbled, rubbing her eyes.
"You must have been pretty tuckered out last night," he said, noticing that she was still in her uniform.
"You could say the past few days have been draining," she said. "But that would be a massive understatement."
He gave her an encouraging squeeze. "I'm sure you're doing a great job. You just have to not push yourself too hard."
"That's easier said than done. There's just so much to take care of. So much going on. And I can't let my guard down, even for a second, or I might miss something important." She slumped over even more against his chest. "And it just keeps getting harder to manage, since we're constantly losing people and having to reorganize. And Ozzal just keeps throwing new tricks at us. Now she's trying to find a way to bust in here. If that happens we're all super screwed."
"I didn't realize you were stressing out so much about this," Cougar said. "Maybe you should take a break from the control room."
"No, you know that's not possible. I'll get over it, I guess I just needed to vent a little. And I wouldn't talk this way with anyone but you. Everybody here is working hard, I'm not going to let anybody think I can't handle doing my part."
He furrowed his brow, but he knew that if she was determined to keep going there was no way he could talk her out of it.
"I'm more worried about Elian, honestly," she continued. "He's been exhausting himself using his Alter power constantly. I keep having to cut down how much I can monitor just to help him conserve his strength. But I'm not sure how much longer he can keep this up."
"Hmm, I'll ask Scheris to check on him. He should know his own limits, although I can see him working himself harder than he should if he thinks it's needed."
Cille sighed. "I think there's a lot of that going around. And the worst part is, it's not going to stop any time soon. It's just going to keep on like this until we wear ourselves into the ground. Which is probably exactly what Ozzal wants."
He wasn't sure what else to say. He wanted her to feel better, but he couldn't disagree with her. They sat in subdued silence, until she shook herself out of it and started to sit up.
"Well, and on that cheery note, I'd better make myself presentable and go face the day," she said. "Wouldn't want to be late for the morning meeting."
"Um... there was no morning meeting today, actually," Cougar said.
"Oh, Mustang canceled it? Why was that?"
"Well... the fighting started earlier than usual this morning, so there wasn't really a chance..."
"Wait, it's already started? Why didn't you say so? What time is it?" she asked, throwing aside the blanket and starting to pull herself out of bed.
"Easy does it," Cougar said, holding her back with a hand on her shoulder. "You don't need to rush down there. Eric and Aoi are handling things for now."
"Of course I need to get down there, I'm supposed to be overseeing things. Why the hell didn't somebody come get me earlier?"
"We decided you could use some extra rest. It's okay, nothing will explode if you're not there."
"That's not the point, and you know it," she said with annoyance. "I have a job to do, and -"
"And you'll be able to do it better if you're not half-dead from exhaustion and stress," he said firmly. "Believe me, I know how you feel. But you have to take care of yourself. And I have to do what I can to take care of you. If I could call off the whole war for a week so you could rest, I would. But this is the best I can do for now."
A slight blush came to her cheek, and he softened his tone. "Things will be fine for a couple of hours. Just take it easy, and you can go down when you feel like you're ready."
She relented and nodded. He was right, and (hopefully) everything would be fine even if she wasn't there being hyper-vigilant.
She relaxed against his chest again, and this time he held her with both arms. It seemed like a long time since they'd been able to just be close like this.
"What about you? Do you need to get outside?" she asked.
"Oh, I think the battlefield will manage on its own for a little while," he answered.
Just as they were getting comfortable, their respite was cut short by a knock at the door. With a disappointed sigh, Cille got up and went to answer it. It was Winry, who was smiling despite looking like she hadn't gotten much sleep that night.
"Got some good news for you," she said, handing Cille a file folder. "We've got another mech running."
Cille took the folder and thanked Winry, not feeling quite as excited as she probably should have been. Once the door was shut again, she turned back to Cougar with a defeated expression.
"What were you saying about resting?" she asked wryly, holding up the folder.
**********
About an hour later, Cille was on her way down to the subterranean mech training cavern that Urahara had constructed beneath the bunker months earlier.
Despite her initial reaction to Winry's interruption, she had been very happy to hear that Cid and Proof would be able to use their mech again. It would be a big boost to their forces to have another functioning mech, especially since at this point Kamina's seemed to be held together with baling wire and duct tape.
Upon reading the report from the mech lab she had immediately summoned the two pilots, who weren't happy about having to get up early but perked up immensely when they found out why they were being called to work. She sent them down to the training lair to learn how to use the mech's new controls under the supervision of Matrix and Charles.
Then she sat down with Cougar and Eric, and the three of them quickly put together a plan to use the mech to counter the armored vehicles they had encountered the previous day. With the strategy worked out, all she had to do was check on the pilots' training progress and get them started on their mission.
When she arrived at the training room she marveled at how unexpectedly vast it was. It even had a sky over the barren dirt terrain.
The mech was on the far side of the room, maneuvering around some big rock pillars. Charles was standing not too far from the door, so Cille headed over to talk to him.
"Ah, Cille, you come to see the show?" Charles greeted her.
"I just came down to brief Cid and Proof on what we need them to do," Cille answered.
"Sounds good. They're just finishing with their training run."
"How are they looking?"
Charles scratched his head. "Well I thought it would take a while for them to get the hang of the new controls. But they seem to be naturals at it, somehow. Once they get their instructions, they should be ready to rock."
"That's great," Cille said, relieved that they'd be able to implement their plan so soon.
Charles stepped forward, waving his arms, and yelled into his radio. "Hey, get over here! There's someone who wants to talk to you!"
The mech came to an abrupt halt, and then started racing toward Charles and Cille. Cille was surprised at its speed, but as it came closer she noticed something even more startling about it.
"Uhhhh... are those... what I think they are?" she asked, as Charles looked with amusement at her bewildered expression.
"Yeah, that ain't something you see every day, is it," he chuckled. "That scientist sure has some interesting ideas."
"That scientist apparently left a few things off of the report he sent to me," Cille said with mild annoyance. "Does it even work?"
Before Charles could answer, the mech skidded to a halt in front of them. Cid and Proof emerged from the cockpit, scrambled down and ran to them.
As soon as they saw Cille they started babbling frenetically.
"Our new mech is soooo cool!" Cid gushed.
"It is! It's way faster than the old one," Proof added.
"We even climbed up a wall with it!"
"Well until we got too heavy and fell down."
As they continued excitedly describing their new toy, Matrix emerged from the cockpit. Seeing Cille raising her eyebrows at him, he gave her a guilty-looking grin and took advantage of her being tied up to climb down and slink away out the door.
She watched him go, and then turned back to Cid and Proof. "Okay, okay, that's great," she said, holding up her hands to get them to settle down. "I'm glad it's working so well for you. Now let me explain what you need to do."
They quieted down and Cille launched into her briefing. At first they seemed sort of attentive, but it didn't take long for them to mentally tl;dr and start getting fidgety. Seeing that she was losing her audience, Cille tried even harder to explain things, but that just prompted a barrage of questions that complicated everything even more.
Exasperated, she rubbed her eyes and tried starting over. "Okay guys, this really isn't that hard. All you need to do is patrol the perimeter -"
"Is that like a periwinkle?" Cid interrupted.
Cille Kif sighed. Charles raised an eyebrow at her, and she just looked at him helplessly.
Charles thought for a moment. "Okay, I think I know how to handle this," he said.
"Go for it," Cille replied.
Charles turned authoritatively to Cid and Proof.
"All right, you two, you have a very important mission," he said in a booming voice.
"Aye-aye, Cap'n!" Proof said, snapping into a salute, which Cid quickly mimicked.
"We're going to play a game called Table Flipping. Except instead of tables, you're going to flip tanks."
"Ooh, I like this game already," Cid said, clapping merrily.
"Your job is to look for enemy tanks, and when you find one, you flip it over on its side. But you have to be careful, because if a tank shoots you, it's game over."
The two pilots exchanged very serious looks over this possibility.
"Now there are two types of tanks," Charles continued. "There's the shooty kind and the boxy kind. If you see a shooty kind, you flip it and pull off the shooty part. If you see a boxy kind, you flip it and pull off the wheels so it can't go anymore."
The two of them nodded vigorously, absorbing the rules of the game.
"You also have to be careful where you're going," Charles cautioned. "You have to make sure you don't hurt any of our friends, because that would obviously be bad."
"Yeah, that would be bad," Proof said, exchanging an understanding nod with his partner.
"Every time you flip a tank, radio back in here so we can keep score. That's especially important with the boxy kind, so we know where those are located. You got all that?"
They nodded again and saluted. "You can count on us, Cap'n!" Cid declared.
"Excellent. Now get over to your mech, get out there, and flip some tanks!" Charles said enthusiastically.
"YEAAAHHH!!!" they cheered, running off toward their Knightmare.
Cille turned to Charles with amazement and awe shining in her eyes. "That... was masterful."
Charles just winked at her, and went off to open the room's bay doors.
**********
Roy Mustang had been a man on a mission for the last two days. After abruptly declaring that he and Havoc would be forming their own solo unit, he had been less concerned with directly leading the Syndicate troops and more interested in rampaging around the battlefield taking down enemies.
He kept on a good face for his comrades as long as he was in the base, but once he was on the battlefield it was a different story. He became a search-and-destroy missile, ruthlessly eliminating any enemies he came across. It was the only way to distract himself from the mental images that kept assaulting him - Riza with that sniper, and Angel with that asshole scientist...
Snap. Whoosh. Another eight enemy soldiers turned into charcoal.
He knew he was going off-kilter, but as long as he was taking out enemies and not harming allies, he didn't care.
Havoc noticed it too, of course, but for the most part he wisely decided not to say anything. He was on high alert as he accompanied Mustang around the battlefield, though, watching for and taking out any threats that his superior and friend might be too preoccupied to notice.
Havoc was also quick with a replacement pair of flame alchemy gloves any time Mustang's hands got wet. With the muddy ground and the damp leaves all around them, it was happening fairly frequently. Whenever he handed a glove to Mustang, the alchemist's face would cloud over, as if he were remembering how someone else always used to do the same thing for him...
"Hey, this is it until we can get back to the base and do some laundry," Havoc pointed out, handing Mustang the last glove in his satchel.
"Fine, whatever. I'll make it last," Mustang replied shortly as he put it on.
As Mustang started off in search of his next prey, Havoc scanned the area. He spotted a tank a short distance away.
"Tank at two o'clock," he alerted his partner.
"Good, something bigger for target practice," Mustang said, turning his attention to the tank slowly lumbering away from them. "Oh no, you're not just going to ignore me like that," he taunted under his breath, moving quickly in pursuit.
The soldiers in the tank must have noticed them approaching. The tank stopped moving, and the gun turret swung toward them. Just as Mustang was about to incinerate it, though, Havoc noticed something moving to their right.
"General, GET DOWN!" he shouted, lunging for Mustang. The two of them hit the ground just as a second tank fired a shot directly at them. The round sailed over their heads and the ground just beyond them exploded.
"Dammit, that would have been the end of us," Havoc said, looking back at the encroaching second tank. "It must have snuck up on us while we were distracted by the first one."
"Good eyes, Havoc, but did you have to shove me into the mud when I don't have any more dry gloves?" Mustang said crossly, holding up his muddy hands.
"Uhhh..." Havoc didn't have a good answer for that one. "Okay, backup plan?" He tried firing off a couple of potshots, but they just bounced right off the tank's armor.
As the tanks loomed over them and Havoc's mind scrambled for a way out of their impossible situation, Mustang just closed his eyes and chuckled wryly. "I can't believe it. I've been unstoppable out here and this is how it all ends. I can't even win at my own game."
Havoc looked at him with concern. "General, you're not -"
He was interrupted by an extremely loud whooping sound coming toward them fast, which also seemed to catch the tank pilots off-guard.
"AWW YEAH THERE'S ONE!"
"OMG NO THERE'S TWO!"
"WOOOOO LET'S GET 'EM!"
The voices were accompanied by a strange squishing sound, as if several very large octopi were writhing around in the mud.
Sure enough, Cid and Proof's refurbished mech burst onto the scene. In their excitement to play their game, they had completely not noticed that they'd accidentally enabled their external communication system.
"What move are we gonna use this time?" blared a voice from the speakers.
"Hmmm... Oh I know, SUPER PWNSOME ULTRA TANK FLIP COMBO!"
"Okay!"
The mech rushed past Mustang and Havoc, coming uncomfortably close to brushing them with the tentacles, and positioned itself between the two enemy tanks. Each of the mech's giant arms grasped the underside of one of the tanks. As the tentacles strained under the weight, the arms started hoisting the edge of each tank off the ground, accompanied by the pilots' dramatic battle shout: "SUUUUPERRRRR PWWWWWNSOOOOOME UUUULLLTRAAAA TAAAAANK FLIIIIP COOOOMMMBOOOOOOO!!!!"
Totally forgetting about Mustang and Havoc, the panicking tank pilots frantically swung their gun turrets around trying to aim at the mech. But it was too late. On the last word of their shouted attack name, the mech hurled both of the tanks onto their sides. Practically leaping with glee, the tentacles propelled the mech first onto one tank, then the other, and the giant arms grasped each of the guns in turn and yanked them right off.
Having achieved their objective, the mech came to rest and struck a victory pose as the pilots exulted over their success.
"AWWWWWW YEAHHHHH!"
"We totally scored maximum points on that one!"
The sound of a high-five rang from the speakers. Then apparently one of the pilots noticed the two men still sitting stunned on the ground.
"Hey look, it's some of our friends. HI MUSTY!"
"AHAHAHA MUSTY THAT'S A GOOD ONE!"
"Hey let's go look for more tanks!"
"Yeah! Ooh, don't forget to tell Cille we got two more! And tell her we should get BONUS points for the combo!"
"Okay, you drive, I'll use the radio."
The entire spectacle had taken less than two minutes, and then the mech was charging off again in search of its next mark.
Finally (mostly) recovering from the shock, Havoc stood up and watched the mech speed away. "Well... ain't that a thing."
"Havoc."
"Yeah?" Havoc looked down at Mustang, who was still sitting in the mud with his arms propped on his knees.
"Tell me I didn't just see what I just saw."
Havoc looked back after the mech, wishing he had a cigarette to light. "I'm... not sure I can do that, sir."
Mustang closed his eyes and lowered his head, sighing with irritation. "Dammit... it really isn't fair."
"Well you can't complain too much about not dying," Havoc said, offering a hand to help his friend up.
Mustang grudgingly took Havoc's hand and hoisted himself to his feet. "I guess you're right."
"You're not hurt, are you?" Havoc asked.
"Just my pride, Lieutenant... just my pride," Mustang answered, trying to wipe some of the mud off of his uniform.
"That's not so bad. There's just one thing though, sir," Havoc said.
"What is it?" Mustang asked, and was immediately answered by Havoc's fist punching him in the face.
Reeling back, Mustang regained his footing and held a hand to his throbbing cheek. "What the hell was that for, Lieutenant?" he barked.
"You were going to give up just now, weren't you," Havoc accused. "You weren't even going to try to save yourself when things went wrong."
Mustang looked chagrined and couldn't answer.
"Look, I don't know what's gotten into you lately, but you need to snap out of it," Havoc continued. "It's not just about you here. You're not allowed to just let yourself die as long as there are people here who need you. That's not the Roy Mustang I know and that's not the Roy Mustang these people are depending on. So get over yourself and man up."
It was hard for Mustang to hear, but he knew he had it coming.
"You know, Lieutenant, soldiers have landed in the brig for sassing their superior officers that way," he retorted, but both of them knew he didn't really mean it.
"You can give me all the demerits you want - after this war is over."
"I'll hold you to that," Mustang promised.
"Good. Now what's the plan, General?" Havoc asked, getting back to business.
"We'd better head back to the base for now - and see about that laundry."
**********
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Clarice was finding it somewhat challenging to keep up with her new squad members. Yemman and Kazuma had brought a kind of revitalizing energy to the team, but it was a little bit exhausting for the others to keep up with their lust for adventure and their constant chase for new enemies to fight.
She was taking a break to wipe the caked mud from her boots when she heard someone calling her name. She turned to see Cougar speeding toward her, holding a walkie-talkie.
"Cougar, what's up?" she asked.
"Ms. Cillie has some news for you," he said, coming to a halt and not looking the slightest bit winded.
"Does she need me to radio in?" she asked, starting to reach toward her comm button.
"Naw, I got this." He grinned and held up the walkie-talkie. "I'm her messenger boy today. We're giving Elian a bit of a break."
"Okay, so what's the message?" she asked nervously. "Please tell me it's good news."
His grin grew even wider. "Oh, you're gonna like this one. Samson is awake."
**********
Clarice could have outrun Cougar back to the bunker. After leaving Kirara in charge of their unit, she raced back and went straight to Samson's room.
The room was even more crowded than usual. Along with Anne, Hikki, Hikki's bed, and Ein, Samson was being attended to by Dr. Tenma as Roxie and Kaia stood by.
"What's the last thing you remember?" Dr. Tenma was asking as Clarice breathlessly entered the room. The doctor was shining a light into Samson's eyes.
"Um..." Samson began weakly. "I was with Hikki. We were... I think we were in a giant robot. We were fighting. Is that right?"
"Yes, that's right," Clarice answered, relieved to hear his voice again.
"Clarice, is... is that you?"
"Yes, I'm here," she said, pushing closer to him. Not wanting to disturb Dr. Tenma, she wedged herself between the two beds to reach Samson's other side.
"Are you all right? I'm sorry I can't see much with this light in my eyes."
"I'm fine, relatively," she replied. "But that's not important, are you going to be okay?"
Dr. Tenma switched off his light and continued examining Samson's face. "I think it's safe to say the worst is over," he said. "He doesn't seem to have suffered any cognitive damage, although I'll need to keep monitoring him and I'd like to run whatever tests we have equipment for."
"Um... we don't really have much of zat type of equeepment," Hikki said, sounding worried.
"I understand. I'll make do with what we have," the doctor replied. "The physical damage to Samson's body is the bigger concern. Whoever did the initial surgery did a pretty good job, but it'll take a long time for the body to really heal. I might schedule a follow-up surgery just to make sure everything's put together properly in there."
Samson didn't look too enthusiastic about that, but Clarice and Hikki both nodded.
Tenma wrote some notes on Samson's chart, and then stood up. "Let's give the patient some space," he said. "He'll need strict bed rest and as little stress as possible for the next several days."
"Does that mean I have to leave?" Clarice asked, distressed.
"No, one or two people at a time is fine. Just keep things calm."
The three medical team members headed out of the room, and Anne stood to go too. "I'll go get him some water and something to eat," she offered.
With the rest of the room cleared out, Samson slowly turned his head to look at Hikki and Clarice.
"So how long have I been out of it?" he asked.
Clarice counted on her fingers. "It's been... four days."
"Man, I've been missing all the action," Samson joked weakly. "Have we won yet?"
Clarice and Hikki exchanged looks. "Well... no," Clarice admitted. "Not even close."
"Well we're not losing, are we?" Samson asked, alarmed.
Clarice looked evasive. "It's... turning out to be a difficult battle. I mean we knew it wasn't going to be easy, but... it's pretty rough out there." She took a deep breath. "We've lost almost all of our mechs, and Ozzal's got way more ground troops than we do. It's... going to be hard."
Samson looked more closely at Clarice, and noticed how worn-out she looked. "Well we can still pull it off, right?" he asked, looking for some glimmer of hope.
Clarice was silent for a few moments. "I really hope so," she answered quietly. "At least, we're going to keep trying until we do."
Samson's mind instinctively started working. "Okay so... what's the plan? I mean, there's gotta be something we can do, right?"
Clarice looked at Hikki, and he felt a sudden pang of anxiety. The truth was, he'd had very little to do with strategy planning since taking up residence in Samson's room. If it was up to him to come up with a way to win the war, they were all in trouble.
"Ummm... well you see, I was eenjured too, and... well I am sure zat Mustang and ze ozzers have someseeng planned, but... zey have not eenformed me about it, and... uh..."
Clarice furrowed her brow and opened her mouth to say something, but before she could there was a tap on the open door.
"Well well, I hear our little sleeping beauty is awake," April said, posing casually in the doorway. He was wearing a cute nurse outfit, and it almost turned Samson's head until he remembered who he was looking at.
"Hope I'm not interrupting a super-important confab, but I wanted to say hi and bring the patients a lolly," April continued. He came into the room and handed a lollipop first to Samson and then to Hikki. Clarice had to wonder when they'd gotten a shipment of lollipops, but neither of the men seemed to mind. Hikki even looked at his lollipop a little wistfully.
"Say, Fearless Leader, how about I take you around for some fresh air? Or as fresh as we've got in here," April offered, perhaps having noticed Hikki's feeling of discomfort. "You've been cooped up in here for a while. And I think the troops could use a morale visit from one of the higher-ups."
"Um... sure, zat would be fine," Hikki said, mostly seeing a way out of the uncomfortable conversation they'd been having. He realized too late that it would also allow Clarice to have more alone time with the newly-awake Samson, but he couldn't really make a stink about that.
April produced a wheelchair, and with some groaning about his stiff and sore muscles, Hikki got settled in for his trip around the infirmary. Ein also ran alongside them, apparently happy to be getting out and about. As April closed the door behind them, Hikki thought he could sense his friends following him with uncertain eyes, and he noticed that they didn't start talking until he was out of earshot.
**********
Whatever he might have expected from his goodwill trip around the infirmary, Hikki wasn't really prepared for what he was about to see. Staying in Samson's room, he had been rather insulated from the full extent of what was going on out on the battlefield. Sure, he'd had reports, but it was very different seeing the casualties with his own eyes. As April wheeled him from room to room, he began to feel a little guilty for enjoying the last few days with Samson and Anne while so many other people had been suffering.
When all he had were reports, it was easy to focus on the number of deaths and think about how that would impact their chances against Ozzal's army. But now he could see how much their forces had been decimated by injuries.
The "infirmary" now occupied an entire wing of the bunker, and was expanding every day. Some people came in for treatment and were able to go right back out to keep fighting, but many were injured badly enough that they had to be kept inside to recuperate. Some required intensive surgery, and Hikki was once again thankful to have Dr. Tenma there to help them.
As Nurse April chatted encouragingly with the patients and Ein wagged his tail cheerfully and enjoyed getting petted, Hikki found himself going through the motions smiling and nodding, while internally feeling more and more hopeless and lost in thought.
**********
Hikki didn't sleep well that night. He couldn't get the images of his wounded comrades out of his head, and he kept replaying the conversation with Clarice and Samson, coming up with things he should have said but didn't think of at the time. When he did doze off, it was like slipping into a cold gray void where he was overwhelmed by the feeling of being completely alone. More than once he awoke and had to remind himself where he was, and he had to look over to make sure that Samson was still there sleeping in his bed.
It was a very strange feeling, and Hikki wasn't sure what to make of it. It wasn't fear, or anxiety, or even his dreams messing with him. He'd experienced all of that before. This was something more complex, something closer to dread, the sensation that things shouldn't be this way and something had to happen. He struggled with the feeling that he should try to do something about it, and the knowledge that he had no idea what to do.
In the morning he decided that it was time for him to get involved in the activities in the base, or at least to see what was going on. He summoned someone to bring him a wheelchair, and once again accompanied by Ein, he wheeled himself through the halls to command central.
He found Cille and the rest of the command crew already ensconced in the day's battles. They seemed surprised to see him there, but were generally happy that he was feeling well.
"Um... status report?" Hikki said, trying to sound like someone who should be in charge. He wheeled himself as close as he could to the monitors without getting in the way. "Ze fighting has started early today, no?"
"Well... no, actually," Cille answered wearily. "It never actually ended last night. We tried to pull our people back but the army wouldn't let them retreat. Some of them got in but many units had to stay out there to keep the army from following them back to the base."
"Oh..." Hikki murmured, not quite sure how to respond.
"We've got the bulk of our forces out there now, but it's pretty tight. Pretty much everybody is running on fumes, and we've got a long day ahead of us."
Looking at one of the screens, Cille reached for a walkie-talkie that was sitting on a table next to where Hikki had pulled up beside her. Unfortunately she wasn't quite able to reach past him. "Um, could you..." she began, and Hikki quickly moved his wheelchair back to give her space. She gave a message for Cougar to relay to a nearby unit and then went back to watching the monitors.
It soon became apparent that Hikki would be more of an observer than a participant in the control room. At first he tried to come up with suggestions or contribute to their discussions, but they seemed to be handling things well enough without him. Eventually he just kind of sat and watched, and the others were mostly too preoccupied with their work to pay him much mind. He wasn't sure whether to be relieved or discouraged that they didn't seem to need him to help in any way.
He even felt himself starting to doze off at one point, until Ein suddenly started barking in front of one of the monitors.
"What's the matter, Ein? Is Hikki stuck in the well again?" Cille quipped.
"Eh? I am right here..." Hikki said, confused.
"Oh right," Cille said, looking at him and trying to decide if she should explain the joke.
"You should take a look at this, Cille," Eric said.
Cille turned to the monitor that Ein seemed to be yapping at. "Crap, is that what I think it is?"
"Yeah, looks like one of their surveillance vehicles. And it's getting awful close to one of our secondary entrances."
"Then we'd better take care of it before it gets any closer." Cille reached for her radio and fiddled with some dials. "Cid, Proof, do you read me?"
"Why, are you a book?" Cid replied through the radio, and Proof guffawed in response.
Cille made a face. "Very funny. Listen, we found one of those big boxy tanks and we need you to go take it out."
"Ooh, where is it?" Proof asked.
"It's approaching... Entrance C, looks like," Cille said, checking the monitor again. "Do you know where that is?"
"No, but I know that C is for cookie!" Proof answered proudly.
Cille turned to Aoi, who was tapping away at his computer. "Aoi, can you send them the coordinates or something?"
"Already on it," the hacker assented. "Just tell them to follow the big green dot."
"You got that, guys? There should be a big green dot showing up on your display somewhere. Follow that and -"
"OOH I SEE THE GREEN DOT!"
"YEAH LET'S GO!"
"Just be careful on your way there," Cille cautioned, imagining them running willy-nilly into trouble. "But try to take that thing out as quickly as you can."
"Roger!" Cid chirped.
"Her name isn't Roger, dum-" Proof chided as the radio signal went out.
Cille leaned back in her chair with a sigh. "Well that's just great," she grumbled, watching the tank's slow progress on the monitor.
"Don't lose hope yet," Eric said, patting her shoulder. "Cid and Proof have been doing a great job. They won't have any problem with that tank."
"I'm not worried about them, really," Cille said. "But even if they do take that thing down, once it's spotted our door and lets everybody know about it, that'll be the end of it."
"Ze end? What do you mean?" Hikki asked.
"We won't be able to use that entrance anymore. All Ozzal has to do is keep sending troops to that spot to wait for us to open the door and then they can storm in. We'd have to park a unit there just to defend it if we wanted to keep using it."
Hikki looked hopeful, and Cille and Eric exchanged glances.
"We don't have enough people to spare to just leave a unit there," Eric explained. "She's right, we'll have to seal the door if the mech doesn't get there in time."
"Oh..." Hikki said quietly, and then joined the others in waiting to see what would happen.
Within a minute the tentacled mech appeared on the screen and quickly dispatched the surveillance vehicle. The group heaved a collective sigh of relief.
"We got it, chief!" Cid's voice came through the radio.
"Great job, guys. Keep up your patrols," Cille said.
"You got it!" The radio went dead again, and the mech sped away.
"Does zat mean ze door ees safe?" Hikki asked.
"Possibly, but we'll have to wait and see if any of their troops show up. We can't get complacent yet," Eric said.
"Good point," Cille said. "Put a temporary hold on that door and we'll keep an eye out to see if anybody comes."
Unfortunately, within minutes their fears were confirmed. A group of army soldiers swarmed into the area and quickly stationed themselves in front of the door.
"Dammit, lock it down. Encrypted lock, Aoi," Cille instructed crossly.
"On it," Aoi said, pressing a few buttons on his computer. "I already had it set up just in case."
Cille sighed bitterly and crossed her arms. "Another one down. At this rate it's only a matter of time before they come barging in here."
"Don't get too discouraged," Eric said. "Maybe this would be a good time for you to go get some rest. Get a couple hours sleep and clear your mind."
"Fine, as long as you guys can handle things here," Cille said, too tired and annoyed to oppose the suggestion.
As she got up to leave, Hikki decided that this might be a good opportunity for him to head out too. He had seen all he needed to see, and although it had been pretty much all disheartening, he felt that at last he was starting to have an idea of what he should do.
**********
Hikki wheeled himself through the halls, which were mostly empty aside from a few support staff members scurrying around here and there. They all smiled and nodded at him, but they were all too busy to stop for conversation. So he just roamed around, immersed in his thoughts.
Turning a corner, he saw someone walking away from him that he actually wanted to talk to.
"Foley!" he called after him, and the man executed a deft U-turn and came back. Adjusting his glasses, he saw who it was calling for him.
"Ah, Mr. Follet, it's good to see you up and at 'em again," Foley said cheerfully. "What can I do for you?"
Foley S. Goode had joined the Syndicate during its transition into the bunker. He had shown up at the cafe one day looking for an accounting job and was disappointed to hear that the place would soon be putting its operations on hiatus. But when he overheard Samson and Clarice talking about the supplies they would need for the new base, he took the opportunity to volunteer to be their new quartermaster.
Within the bunker, he was usually found walking purposefully in the hallways or taking stock of the boxes of supplies neatly stacked in his supply closets. He had a penchant for making lists, and he was never seen without his trusty clipboard and lanyard pen. He also had a remarkable memory for conversations, and could quote anything he overheard even a week later. He was fairly unassuming and easy to overlook, which totally explains why he was never mentioned before now, but every once in a while he did something that surprised his comrades - like holding his own in a drinking contest with some of the GAR Streeters one night.
"Oh, um... I was just wondering," Hikki began, not sure how to phrase his question. "How are our supplies looking? I mean, how long do you seenk zey weel hold out?"
Foley made a thoughtful face. "Well... frankly, with the decrease in personnel over the last few days, our supplies should last longer than we initially planned for. I'd say with our current stock..." He did some scribbling on his clipboard. "...I'd estimate about three to four months on the food we currently have stocked. Unfortunately where we'd come up short is things like medical supplies. We've gone through a lot of what we have already. We really weren't anticipating the level of injuries we've been dealing with. So I'd expect to run out of that stuff well before the three-month mark. Probably more like three weeks with sustained fighting."
"Hmm... I see," Hikki responded. "Can we get more?"
"Well, hrm, in theory, yes. But we'd have to send somebody out to bring the stuff back, obviously. Which, under the circumstances, might be tricky."
"Okay, well... sanks for ze eenfo, anyway," Hikki said.
Foley nodded genially and went on his way, leaving Hikki to mull over this new information.
Hikki returned to his room to find Samson still asleep and lunch waiting for him. He quietly ate his sandwiches, still lost in thought.
**********
Not long after returning to the control room after her nap, Cille got a call from Hikki over the intercom. He wanted to see her, Clarice, and Mustang, once the latter two were free to come in from the battlefield. It took a little while longer to bring the two of them in, but eventually all of them convened in Samson and Hikki's room.
"I am sorry to call all of you away from your duties," Hikki began. "But zees ees eemportant. I wanted Samson to be here too, so zat ees why we must meet here."
"Fine, but make it quick," Mustang said gruffly. "We've got work to do out there."
Hikki nodded, but the look on his face made Clarice think there might be something bigger going on here than a simple status meeting.
"Is something wrong, Hikki?" she asked.
"Well... eet's just zat..." Hikki said uncertainly, and then seemed to find his resolve. "I have been seenking a lot about our seetuasion, and I seenk I know what we have to do."
"You've been working on a strategy?" Samson asked, sharing a raised eyebrow with Clarice.
"Well... sort of," Hikki said. He took a deep breath, and looked at them somberly. "I do not need to eenform you about ze gravity of our seetuasion. All of you know firsthand ze steep odds we face and ze setbacks we have encountered."
They all nodded with understanding, and he took another deep breath and continued.
"Our forces weren't zat beeg to begeen weez, and every day zey're getting smaller. Eet's been mostly redshirts so far, and one or two more eemportant pepole for dramatic effect, but eef zees keeps going we'll start lozeeng major characters. And I don't want to see zat happen. Sammie and me almost dying was bad enough."
Clarice raised an eyebrow, but decided against pointing out that Hikki hadn't come anywhere near as close to death as Samson had.
"What are you suggesting?" Samson asked. "We can't just make them stop killing us. We have to keep fighting them off."
"Do we? Eet's obvious zey're just trying to wear us down. We go out zere, zey peeck some of us off, and eet just keeps going. Eef we keel some of zem, zey just breeng een more men. We cannot beat zem, and we cannot outlast zem."
"Then what are we supposed to do? Just give up?"
Hikki's face was grim. He knew they wouldn't like what he was about to say, but he knew he had to say it. "I seenk we need to stop fighting." As the others started to protest, he cut them off: "Not - to geev up. Not to surrender. But... right now we are only playing her game. And eet ees a game we cannot hope to ween."
He looked around at each of them. "I said once long ago zat I would never let anozzer person die. I could not keep zat promise. But now I can do what must be done to protect ze lives we have left. And zat means..."
He paused, and then looked around again at their expectant faces.
"We must retreat into ze bunker, and cease our engagement weez Ozzal's army," he said resolutely. "As of right now ze Syndicate ees een defenseev lockdown mode. We weel concentrate our efforts on forteefying ze bunker and looking for ozzer solutions."
The others were stunned, and looked at each other uncertainly.
"But that means..." Samson began, looking at Clarice.
"...We're under siege," Clarice finished for him. "As long as the army is out there, we're stuck here until we die or they get bored."
"Oui," Hikki said sadly.
They were all silent for a few moments, until Mustang abruptly crossed his arms and turned his back on the others.
"G-general?" Hikki asked tentatively.
"You know what you're saying, don't you," Mustang said, his voice rough. "You're asking all of these people to give up the battle they've been pinning all their hopes on. You're taking away the only chance we had of defeating Ozzal and taking back this country. And what are you going to give them in return? How are you going to convince them that it's all been worth it?"
"I... I don't know," Hikki stammered. "But I know we cannot go on like zees."
"I understand what you're saying, General Mustang," Cille said. "But I think he's right. He's exactly right about what's going to happen if we keep fighting. I've been watching it happen for six days now. The longer we keep fighting, the more people are going to die. And... I really hate to say it, but in all honesty I don't believe we can win this war."
Mustang stiffened. "Is that so."
Cille exchanged concerned looks with Hikki, and Clarice and Samson looked at each other questioningly.
"I think... I agree with them," Clarice said. "I mean I don't like the idea of giving up either, but it's getting pretty desperate out there. I don't see how we can win either. We need to think of another way to get out of this."
Samson looked troubled. "Get out of it how? If we give up fighting and hole up in here, they'll just sit outside and wait for us to come out. We'd need an atom bomb to drop on them or something."
"Honestly we could use an atom bomb right now," Cille said bitterly. "Just continuing to fight isn't the answer. Hikki's right, we need to protect the people we have left. They'll just need to understand that we've done what we could but it wasn't enough."
Mustang sighed and turned back to them. "Fine, but you can be the one to explain it to them. My responsibility was getting them onto the battlefield. You can be in charge of getting them off of it."
Cille nodded, not really wanting the responsibility but prepared to take it on. Then they all turned to Samson, waiting for him to cast his vote.
"Sammie?" Hikki asked.
Seeing that they had all more or less come to an agreement, Samson just looked down and nodded his acquiescence.
Cille immediately went into mission mode. "All right then, what are the logistics of bringing all of our people off the battlefield with minimal casualties and without compromising the integrity of our base?"
"Well first you'll need to communicate the plan to all of them," Mustang said. "Which will be challenging since they're all scattered around the field. Is your communication system still viable?"
"Well Elian's having a rough time and hasn't been able to use his Alter very much the last couple of days," Cille said. "But I'll see if he can muster enough power to contact all of the unit commanders. Maybe Scheris can help bolster him a little bit."
"All right, fine. Make it work," Mustang said. "Now as we learned last night, the army isn't going to just let us sneak back to the base. As soon as they notice our people trying to retreat, they'll be right on our tail following us back. Which means I don't think we're going to be able to pull this off without compromising at least one entrance."
"Can we keep them from following us in?" Clarice asked, worried.
"I think so. We'll reinforce the entry points as much as possible." Mustang thought for a moment. "Actually, we should probably make it a single entry point. No need to give up more than one if we can help it."
Cille considered this. "I think... I'd propose we use the main entrance. Since it's so big they're more likely to discover it anyway once they start searching the area. We can try to protect the other secondary entrances to use for escape routes or something later."
"That sounds reasonable," Mustang agreed. "Do any of you have thoughts?" He turned to the other three.
"Uh... sounds good to me," Hikki said.
"I'd just want to make sure we can get them all in safely," Samson said. "It won't be a good scene if they're all just running away in a panic."
"We'll have them group together before they begin making their way to the bunker," Mustang said. "The rear flanks will hold off the enemy as the group moves in. The strongest unit will have to be the last one in before the door is sealed. That way we should avoid letting them force their way in."
They all looked at each other and collectively nodded, ready to take on the difficult new mission.
"All right. Let's make it happen," Cille said.
**********
In her control room, Ozzal was feeling kind of bored watching the ongoing battle. Not much interesting had happened all day, and the excitement of the previous day's door pwnage had long since worn off. She could tell, though, that there were fewer and fewer rebels out on the battlefield, meaning that victory was coming tantalizingly closer.
As she idly watched the monitors, her experienced eye began to notice something.
"Mmm..." she murmured, leaning forward to get a better look.
"What is it, madam?" Makina asked from behind her chair.
"Oh, it's... mmm, this is interesting," Ozzal mumbled distractedly. "You see that there, they're all moving differently. Just now, all of them..." She sat watching for a few more minutes, as Makina searched the monitors to try to figure out what her superior was talking about.
Finally Ozzal sat upright and pointed at a certain area on the screens. "Yes, you see it, right there. They're all converging here, as if they're gathering their forces together. Are they trying to make some kind of last stand or something?"
She grabbed her phone and tapped her fingers impatiently after dialing.
"Yes, madam?" General Zoltron's voice answered.
"Are you seeing these troop movements, Zoltron?" Ozzal said, not even bothering with pleasantries.
"I've noticed them moving toward a concentrated area," Zoltron answered. "We're of course pressing after them. Do you think it might be some kind of trap?"
"I don't know yet, but I doubt it. They've probably realized the jig is up and they're trying some epic last stand. Which means you'll be ready to totally crush them."
"That's the plan, madam."
"Good, I'll be excited to watch it."
Ozzal hung up the phone and she and Makina continued watching the unfolding action.
**********
Given the sudden and unexpected orders and the barely-organized way in which they had been communicated, the Syndicate troops were doing a remarkably good job of staying focused and moving together toward their goal.
Emiri, Cougar, Mustang, and a few others were appointed to bring up the rear once the group started its retreat. They secured the meeting point while the others converged on the area. Somehow, the rebels managed to combine into a single unit surrounded on only three sides, with a clear path to their escape route into the bunker.
At the main entrance, Holland and Charles each led units stationed on either side of the door, ready to cover their retreating comrades and provide an additional line of defense once the enemy soldiers reached their gates.
Cid and Proof, in the only functioning mech, were tasked with running around the battlefield, distracting the enemy troops and taking down any tanks that might try approaching the bunker.
Once Cille confirmed that everyone was together, Mustang gave the signal for the retreat to begin. The people closest to the bunker began moving in that direction, creating a stretched-out formation while keeping the enemy at bay on either side. Once they reached the bunker, Cille ordered the door partially opened to allow them to come in.
The troops poured in, until only the mech and the final group remained outside.
"Clear the room!" Cille ordered. "We need to get the mech in!"
They opened the door wider and the tentacle mech skittered inside. A group of enemy soldiers tried to force their way in after it, but Mustang's crew held them back. A few soldiers tossed grenades through the open door, but they were cut up by Zoro and Emiri before they could explode.
"Prepare to shut the door!" Cille called. "Final unit, get inside!"
Unfortunately the army soldiers now vastly outnumbered the Syndicate fighters still outside the base, and they were fully intent on overpowering them and charging into the bunker.
"Go ahead," Cougar told the others. "I'll take care of this."
Mustang looked at him for a moment and then nodded. "All right, let's go," he instructed the others. They backed toward the door, continuing to take shots at the encroaching army, and left Cougar facing down the mass of troops.
"Wait... what is he doing?" Cille murmured, suddenly alarmed.
"RADICAL GOOD SPEED WHEELS UNLIMITED!" Cougar shouted, as if in answer to her unheard question.
A flash of bright frooty colors momentarily disoriented everyone watching, and then it faded to reveal Cougar now sheathed in shiny metallic armor from head to toe. In his ultimate Alter form he was faster than ever, and he was a complete blur as he propelled himself around slamming into the soldiers trying to swarm the door.
Once his teammates had reached safety, Cougar called back to them. "Close the door!" he shouted, still smashing into the enemies outside.
Cille was too stricken watching Cougar to give the order, so Mustang did it instead. "Close the door!" he barked.
"No, he's still out there!" Cille cried.
"Do it!" Mustang roared, and the door began sliding shut.
Cille watched helplessly as the gap in the wall became smaller and smaller, threatening to separate her from the man she loved. But just as the door was about to completely slam shut, at the last possible moment the frooty blur sped through the crack in the door and Cougar appeared in a badass one-knee pose right in front of Cille. His armor disintegrated into rainbow sparkles, and he looked up at her with a confident grin.
Her anxiety melted into relief, and she felt a little guilty for doubting him.
Coming back to her senses, she remembered the walkie-talkie she was holding. "Eric, how's it looking? Are all of our people inside now?"
"I believe so," Eric responded from the control room. "I'm not picking anyone up on the monitors."
"Aoi, lock down the main entrance. Scramble the codes," Cille continued.
"He's on it," Eric said.
"Cille, we need to let Elian rest," Scheris' voice came through the walkie-talkie. "He's pushed himself way too hard. Even with my help I think he's about to pass out."
"Have him shut down his surveillance," Cille said. "Take him back to his room so he can rest. And tell him we're grateful for everything he's done for us."
Cille lowered the walkie-talkie with a sigh and looked wearily at Cougar. Then she realized that the entirety of the remaining Syndicate forces were standing behind Cougar looking expectantly at her.
She glanced at Mustang, who just crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at her.
"Um... so you're probably all wondering what the hell is going on," she began nervously. "Well... first I'd just like to congratulate you all on that maneuver you all pulled off. We managed to get everybody inside safely without losing anyone. You should all feel pretty good about that."
There were a few murmurs in the crowd, but pretty much all of them were still waiting for her explanation.
"So um, as far as the reasoning behind the pullback... Well, the leadership decided -"
Her big speech was interrupted by shrieking from one side of the crowd.
"WILL SOMEONE GET THIS PERVERTED THING OUT OF HERE?" Hot Ice Hilda screamed.
As the room erupted into general chaos, Cille realized that the mech was still there and the tentacles were taking advantage of the close quarters to get gropey with the easily accessible booties.
"Um, okay... everybody calm down," Cille began, but nobody seemed to hear her. They began scattering amid continued screeches and guffaws.
"Charles, can you get that thing down to the cavern?" Cille shouted. Charles just grunted and ran toward the mech. He jumped up and the pilots let him into the cockpit, and the mech took off down one of the large tunnels.
Only a few people remained in the room, and Cille just sighed and told them all to go to their quarters or to get food or medical attention as needed. It seemed that they would all have to come to terms with the situation later.
**********
Ozzal had watched the retreat through narrowed eyes. The expected clash between the Syndicate throng and her pouncing troops did not happen, and by the time the massive bunker doors thudded shut she was still not entirely sure what she had just seen.
"I don't believe it. Did... did they seriously just run away?"
As it sank in, her expression of bewilderment gradually transformed into a wide smile of pure triumph.
"THEY SERIOUSLY JUST RAN AWAY! AAAAHAHAHAHA DID YOU JUST SEE THAT?! PWWWWNED BITCHESSSSS! WHO'S THE BOSS NOW?! BAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
Makina thought Ozzal might actually get up and do a gratuitous end zone dance, but before she got the chance the phone rang.
Ozzal grabbed it immediately. "Zoltron! How the hell do you like that?"
Zoltron sounded nervous and apologetic. "I'm sorry, madam, we weren't able to take them all out like we discussed. We weren't prepared -"
"I don't care about that, did you see them skittering away like cockroaches? That was amazing!"
"Um... you're not mad?"
"Hell no, that was worth the price of admission and then some! We've got them cooped up in their little cave, and there's nothing else they can do to me! I win! I don't lose, I win!"
"Well... yes, madam, it does seem that we've driven them back, but... Well they're still in there, so technically we haven't entirely crushed them yet."
"Well, yes, technicalities," Ozzal grumbled. "Fine, get your people lurking their gates, and comb the area for anything they've left out in the open. Stop up every single one of their escape hatches. Jam their surveillance and communication while you're at it. And maybe drop a few bombs on them for lulz."
"Understood, madam. And... congratulations on your flawless victory."
Ozzal hung up the phone and settled back in her chair, more subdued than before but still entirely pleased with herself.
"Well... that's the end of that."
Makina looked soberly at the monitors, which now showed only army personnel surrounding the large metal panel. "Yes, I suppose it is."
**********
Later that evening, when things had finally settled down a little inside the Syndicate bunker, the uneasy quiet was broken by a loud squealing from the loudspeakers scattered throughout the base.
"Ees eet on?"
Clarice and Samson were alone in his room, and they both looked up in surprise.
"Is Hikki making an announcement?" Clarice asked.
Samson nodded. "Yeah, he told Cille he would. He's going to explain what happened today."
The speaker cleared his throat and began his address. "Attention everyone, zees ees your leader Hikki Follet. But... you probably already feegured zat out."
Samson raised an eyebrow and Clarice couldn't help rolling her eyes.
"I weesh to take zees opportunity to speak to you all about ze deceesion to cease our engagement weez ze enemy today. First you must understand zat ze responseebeeleety for zees deceesion ees entirely mine. Eef eet was ze wrong deceesion, zen I weel be entirely to blame. But I do not seenk eet was ze wrong deceesion, and I weesh to explain why."
He paused to collect his thoughts. "When we embarked upon zees war, we knew zat eet would be deefeecult and zere would be many casualties. All of us came here knowing zat we would be reesking everysing. But we came anyway because we believed zat we could be veectorious and breeng an end to ze tyranny overshadowing our country. Now... I have come to believe zat warfare ees not ze means by wheech we weel achieve our veectory."
In Cille's room, Cougar held her close as she was finally releasing the tears that she'd been holding back.
"Ze truth ees zat we cannot match Ozzal's meeleetary might. I only weesh I had understood ze extent of our deesadvantage before so many of our comrades sacreeficed zeir lives for our cause."
In the infirmary, Roxie and Kaia each looked grim as they tended to the newly-arrived injured.
"But eet ees my hope zat by pulling back from ze battle now, we may protect ze comrades we steel have unteel such time as we can determeen ze best way to move forward."
Emiri sat gulping whiskey amidst the shambles of the furniture she'd smashed up in her frustrated rage, as Kira dutifully bandaged up the cuts on her arms and hands.
"I... am sorry zat I cannot say at zees time what zat plan weel be. But I just ask zat please, all of you carry on ze best you can, support each ozzer and don't geev up hope. Zees ees not ze end. As long as we are steel determeened to see zees revolution through..."
His voice broke, and the listeners felt the emotions behind the strong words.
"We weel go on, we weel survive, and we weel make seengs right somehow. Someday... just don't geev up hope. Sank you, all of you, for everyseeng you have done. God bless you all."
The loudspeaker went silent.
Clarice wiped away a tear and shook her head. "You know, he may be an idiot... but when he really tries, he can give one hell of a speech."
And so, after only six days of direct armed conflict, the Blacken Uprising came to an end.
Chapter 48 author's notes:
Recurring characters:
Professor M. Matrix - matrixman124
Larry Zorin - LAZY17
Lucille "Cille" Compton - Cille
Michelle Ozzal - Mike Lazzo
Eric Ominae - OMNI-Enforcer
Cid - cidthekittyisfun
Proof - NoProof91
*Angel Sarcasta - mgangel1124
Clarice Rowe - QueenoftheDorks
Captain Yemman - myname
Samson Monroe - MasterSamson
Kirara Amour - kiraralove
Anne Monroe - herself
Hikki Follet - Kohikki
Roxie Goldsmith - anime_goddess05
Kaia Namek - namek_kaia
April - LirpaYamEnujYluj
General Bernice Zoltron - SwimMod_Beezo
Emiri - _Boxers_
Lloyd Asplund - Code Geass
Winry Rockbell - Fullmetal Alchemist
Kamina - Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann
Charles Beams - Eureka seveN
Straight Cougar - s-CRY-ed
Elian - s-CRY-ed
Scheris Adjani - s-CRY-ed
Roy Mustang - Fullmetal Alchemist
Aoi - Ghost in the Shell
*Kisuke Urahara - Bleach
Jean Havoc - Fullmetal Alchemist
*Riza "Hawkeye" Yuy - Fullmetal Alchemist
Kazuma - s-CRY-ed
Ein - Cowboy Bebop
Kenzou Tenma - Monster
Major Makina - Deadman Wonderland
Holland Novak - Eureka seveN
Roronoa Zoro - One Piece
"Hot Ice" Hilda - Outlaw Star
Izuru Kira - Bleach
New characters:
Foley S. Goode - Foley_is_Good_149
The night went by way too fast, yet satisfyingly, for Professor Matrix. He was back in his element, the lord of the lab, the tsar of the tentacles. Of course Lloyd might have disagreed with making him the boss of everything, but Matrix didn't give him much of a choice.
In fact the only annoyance of the night came from Lloyd's insistence on poking his nose into everything, wanting to see how everything worked, wanting to collect his "data," and being irritatingly critical of everything even though Matrix clearly knew exactly what he was doing. Matrix finally got fed up and told him off, and after that Lloyd was a pouty but relatively obedient helper.
Matrix did wish Larry was there, just a little. Even though he was a whiner and a scaredy-cat and had no appreciation for the art, he at least had experience working with tentacles and taking Matrix's orders. But Larry was no doubt huddled in his bed trying to survive the nightmares, and Matrix had no desire to go drag him back to the lab.
And so he and his small but tenacious team worked through the night making his glorious vision a reality. His tentacles seemed as excited about it as he was, and he actually had to use a sedative on them to get them to hold still long enough to hook them up to the mech. They did get a little fresh with Winry, but her wrench put a quick stop to that.
Finally, after many hours of rewarding toil, a full complement of wriggling appendages had been installed on the underside of the crippled mech. Matrix had rewired all of the controls to deliver just the right electric currents to make the tentacles obey the pilots' wishes, and it was simply up to the pilots to learn to work with their new giant robot organism.
When he called in Kamina and Charles to present the refurbished mech to them, he felt like a proud papa sending his child to kindergarten for the first time - sad to be putting his baby into someone else's hands, but immensely pleased with himself for creating something so amazing.
**********
Cille was awakened by the sound of machine-gun fire. It started off in the distance, but as she became aware of it and started wondering where it was coming from, it gradually came louder, faster and more insistent, until she was sure it was right next to her and she was about to get blown away.
She dove for cover - and with a jolt discovered that she was sitting up in bed in her own room in the bunker.
The rapid-fire tapping noise abruptly stopped. "Ms. Cillie?" called a familiar voice from the direction of the door. She was too disoriented to say anything, and just rubbed her head and tried to make sense of where she was.
"Ms. Cillie, are you in there?" the voice said, sounding concerned. Then, when she still didn't answer, "I'm coming in."
The door opened, and Cougar cautiously stuck his head in. She warily turned to see who it was, and even her relief at seeing him couldn't totally erase the obvious distress on her face.
"Hey, what's the matter? Did something happen?" Cougar asked, coming to sit next to her on the bed.
"I..." she began uncertainly, not sure how to explain what she was feeling at that moment. "No, not really... just a bad dream... I think."
He put his arm around her. "Well, it's over now. Maybe it's a good thing I woke you up when I did."
"Maybe..."
They sat in silence for a few moments. She was starting to come to her senses, but she really wasn't sure she wanted to be awake.
"Let me guess, it's morning again already," she mumbled, rubbing her eyes.
"You must have been pretty tuckered out last night," he said, noticing that she was still in her uniform.
"You could say the past few days have been draining," she said. "But that would be a massive understatement."
He gave her an encouraging squeeze. "I'm sure you're doing a great job. You just have to not push yourself too hard."
"That's easier said than done. There's just so much to take care of. So much going on. And I can't let my guard down, even for a second, or I might miss something important." She slumped over even more against his chest. "And it just keeps getting harder to manage, since we're constantly losing people and having to reorganize. And Ozzal just keeps throwing new tricks at us. Now she's trying to find a way to bust in here. If that happens we're all super screwed."
"I didn't realize you were stressing out so much about this," Cougar said. "Maybe you should take a break from the control room."
"No, you know that's not possible. I'll get over it, I guess I just needed to vent a little. And I wouldn't talk this way with anyone but you. Everybody here is working hard, I'm not going to let anybody think I can't handle doing my part."
He furrowed his brow, but he knew that if she was determined to keep going there was no way he could talk her out of it.
"I'm more worried about Elian, honestly," she continued. "He's been exhausting himself using his Alter power constantly. I keep having to cut down how much I can monitor just to help him conserve his strength. But I'm not sure how much longer he can keep this up."
"Hmm, I'll ask Scheris to check on him. He should know his own limits, although I can see him working himself harder than he should if he thinks it's needed."
Cille sighed. "I think there's a lot of that going around. And the worst part is, it's not going to stop any time soon. It's just going to keep on like this until we wear ourselves into the ground. Which is probably exactly what Ozzal wants."
He wasn't sure what else to say. He wanted her to feel better, but he couldn't disagree with her. They sat in subdued silence, until she shook herself out of it and started to sit up.
"Well, and on that cheery note, I'd better make myself presentable and go face the day," she said. "Wouldn't want to be late for the morning meeting."
"Um... there was no morning meeting today, actually," Cougar said.
"Oh, Mustang canceled it? Why was that?"
"Well... the fighting started earlier than usual this morning, so there wasn't really a chance..."
"Wait, it's already started? Why didn't you say so? What time is it?" she asked, throwing aside the blanket and starting to pull herself out of bed.
"Easy does it," Cougar said, holding her back with a hand on her shoulder. "You don't need to rush down there. Eric and Aoi are handling things for now."
"Of course I need to get down there, I'm supposed to be overseeing things. Why the hell didn't somebody come get me earlier?"
"We decided you could use some extra rest. It's okay, nothing will explode if you're not there."
"That's not the point, and you know it," she said with annoyance. "I have a job to do, and -"
"And you'll be able to do it better if you're not half-dead from exhaustion and stress," he said firmly. "Believe me, I know how you feel. But you have to take care of yourself. And I have to do what I can to take care of you. If I could call off the whole war for a week so you could rest, I would. But this is the best I can do for now."
A slight blush came to her cheek, and he softened his tone. "Things will be fine for a couple of hours. Just take it easy, and you can go down when you feel like you're ready."
She relented and nodded. He was right, and (hopefully) everything would be fine even if she wasn't there being hyper-vigilant.
She relaxed against his chest again, and this time he held her with both arms. It seemed like a long time since they'd been able to just be close like this.
"What about you? Do you need to get outside?" she asked.
"Oh, I think the battlefield will manage on its own for a little while," he answered.
Just as they were getting comfortable, their respite was cut short by a knock at the door. With a disappointed sigh, Cille got up and went to answer it. It was Winry, who was smiling despite looking like she hadn't gotten much sleep that night.
"Got some good news for you," she said, handing Cille a file folder. "We've got another mech running."
Cille took the folder and thanked Winry, not feeling quite as excited as she probably should have been. Once the door was shut again, she turned back to Cougar with a defeated expression.
"What were you saying about resting?" she asked wryly, holding up the folder.
**********
About an hour later, Cille was on her way down to the subterranean mech training cavern that Urahara had constructed beneath the bunker months earlier.
Despite her initial reaction to Winry's interruption, she had been very happy to hear that Cid and Proof would be able to use their mech again. It would be a big boost to their forces to have another functioning mech, especially since at this point Kamina's seemed to be held together with baling wire and duct tape.
Upon reading the report from the mech lab she had immediately summoned the two pilots, who weren't happy about having to get up early but perked up immensely when they found out why they were being called to work. She sent them down to the training lair to learn how to use the mech's new controls under the supervision of Matrix and Charles.
Then she sat down with Cougar and Eric, and the three of them quickly put together a plan to use the mech to counter the armored vehicles they had encountered the previous day. With the strategy worked out, all she had to do was check on the pilots' training progress and get them started on their mission.
When she arrived at the training room she marveled at how unexpectedly vast it was. It even had a sky over the barren dirt terrain.
The mech was on the far side of the room, maneuvering around some big rock pillars. Charles was standing not too far from the door, so Cille headed over to talk to him.
"Ah, Cille, you come to see the show?" Charles greeted her.
"I just came down to brief Cid and Proof on what we need them to do," Cille answered.
"Sounds good. They're just finishing with their training run."
"How are they looking?"
Charles scratched his head. "Well I thought it would take a while for them to get the hang of the new controls. But they seem to be naturals at it, somehow. Once they get their instructions, they should be ready to rock."
"That's great," Cille said, relieved that they'd be able to implement their plan so soon.
Charles stepped forward, waving his arms, and yelled into his radio. "Hey, get over here! There's someone who wants to talk to you!"
The mech came to an abrupt halt, and then started racing toward Charles and Cille. Cille was surprised at its speed, but as it came closer she noticed something even more startling about it.
"Uhhhh... are those... what I think they are?" she asked, as Charles looked with amusement at her bewildered expression.
"Yeah, that ain't something you see every day, is it," he chuckled. "That scientist sure has some interesting ideas."
"That scientist apparently left a few things off of the report he sent to me," Cille said with mild annoyance. "Does it even work?"
Before Charles could answer, the mech skidded to a halt in front of them. Cid and Proof emerged from the cockpit, scrambled down and ran to them.
As soon as they saw Cille they started babbling frenetically.
"Our new mech is soooo cool!" Cid gushed.
"It is! It's way faster than the old one," Proof added.
"We even climbed up a wall with it!"
"Well until we got too heavy and fell down."
As they continued excitedly describing their new toy, Matrix emerged from the cockpit. Seeing Cille raising her eyebrows at him, he gave her a guilty-looking grin and took advantage of her being tied up to climb down and slink away out the door.
She watched him go, and then turned back to Cid and Proof. "Okay, okay, that's great," she said, holding up her hands to get them to settle down. "I'm glad it's working so well for you. Now let me explain what you need to do."
They quieted down and Cille launched into her briefing. At first they seemed sort of attentive, but it didn't take long for them to mentally tl;dr and start getting fidgety. Seeing that she was losing her audience, Cille tried even harder to explain things, but that just prompted a barrage of questions that complicated everything even more.
Exasperated, she rubbed her eyes and tried starting over. "Okay guys, this really isn't that hard. All you need to do is patrol the perimeter -"
"Is that like a periwinkle?" Cid interrupted.
Cille Kif sighed. Charles raised an eyebrow at her, and she just looked at him helplessly.
Charles thought for a moment. "Okay, I think I know how to handle this," he said.
"Go for it," Cille replied.
Charles turned authoritatively to Cid and Proof.
"All right, you two, you have a very important mission," he said in a booming voice.
"Aye-aye, Cap'n!" Proof said, snapping into a salute, which Cid quickly mimicked.
"We're going to play a game called Table Flipping. Except instead of tables, you're going to flip tanks."
"Ooh, I like this game already," Cid said, clapping merrily.
"Your job is to look for enemy tanks, and when you find one, you flip it over on its side. But you have to be careful, because if a tank shoots you, it's game over."
The two pilots exchanged very serious looks over this possibility.
"Now there are two types of tanks," Charles continued. "There's the shooty kind and the boxy kind. If you see a shooty kind, you flip it and pull off the shooty part. If you see a boxy kind, you flip it and pull off the wheels so it can't go anymore."
The two of them nodded vigorously, absorbing the rules of the game.
"You also have to be careful where you're going," Charles cautioned. "You have to make sure you don't hurt any of our friends, because that would obviously be bad."
"Yeah, that would be bad," Proof said, exchanging an understanding nod with his partner.
"Every time you flip a tank, radio back in here so we can keep score. That's especially important with the boxy kind, so we know where those are located. You got all that?"
They nodded again and saluted. "You can count on us, Cap'n!" Cid declared.
"Excellent. Now get over to your mech, get out there, and flip some tanks!" Charles said enthusiastically.
"YEAAAHHH!!!" they cheered, running off toward their Knightmare.
Cille turned to Charles with amazement and awe shining in her eyes. "That... was masterful."
Charles just winked at her, and went off to open the room's bay doors.
**********
Roy Mustang had been a man on a mission for the last two days. After abruptly declaring that he and Havoc would be forming their own solo unit, he had been less concerned with directly leading the Syndicate troops and more interested in rampaging around the battlefield taking down enemies.
He kept on a good face for his comrades as long as he was in the base, but once he was on the battlefield it was a different story. He became a search-and-destroy missile, ruthlessly eliminating any enemies he came across. It was the only way to distract himself from the mental images that kept assaulting him - Riza with that sniper, and Angel with that asshole scientist...
Snap. Whoosh. Another eight enemy soldiers turned into charcoal.
He knew he was going off-kilter, but as long as he was taking out enemies and not harming allies, he didn't care.
Havoc noticed it too, of course, but for the most part he wisely decided not to say anything. He was on high alert as he accompanied Mustang around the battlefield, though, watching for and taking out any threats that his superior and friend might be too preoccupied to notice.
Havoc was also quick with a replacement pair of flame alchemy gloves any time Mustang's hands got wet. With the muddy ground and the damp leaves all around them, it was happening fairly frequently. Whenever he handed a glove to Mustang, the alchemist's face would cloud over, as if he were remembering how someone else always used to do the same thing for him...
"Hey, this is it until we can get back to the base and do some laundry," Havoc pointed out, handing Mustang the last glove in his satchel.
"Fine, whatever. I'll make it last," Mustang replied shortly as he put it on.
As Mustang started off in search of his next prey, Havoc scanned the area. He spotted a tank a short distance away.
"Tank at two o'clock," he alerted his partner.
"Good, something bigger for target practice," Mustang said, turning his attention to the tank slowly lumbering away from them. "Oh no, you're not just going to ignore me like that," he taunted under his breath, moving quickly in pursuit.
The soldiers in the tank must have noticed them approaching. The tank stopped moving, and the gun turret swung toward them. Just as Mustang was about to incinerate it, though, Havoc noticed something moving to their right.
"General, GET DOWN!" he shouted, lunging for Mustang. The two of them hit the ground just as a second tank fired a shot directly at them. The round sailed over their heads and the ground just beyond them exploded.
"Dammit, that would have been the end of us," Havoc said, looking back at the encroaching second tank. "It must have snuck up on us while we were distracted by the first one."
"Good eyes, Havoc, but did you have to shove me into the mud when I don't have any more dry gloves?" Mustang said crossly, holding up his muddy hands.
"Uhhh..." Havoc didn't have a good answer for that one. "Okay, backup plan?" He tried firing off a couple of potshots, but they just bounced right off the tank's armor.
As the tanks loomed over them and Havoc's mind scrambled for a way out of their impossible situation, Mustang just closed his eyes and chuckled wryly. "I can't believe it. I've been unstoppable out here and this is how it all ends. I can't even win at my own game."
Havoc looked at him with concern. "General, you're not -"
He was interrupted by an extremely loud whooping sound coming toward them fast, which also seemed to catch the tank pilots off-guard.
"AWW YEAH THERE'S ONE!"
"OMG NO THERE'S TWO!"
"WOOOOO LET'S GET 'EM!"
The voices were accompanied by a strange squishing sound, as if several very large octopi were writhing around in the mud.
Sure enough, Cid and Proof's refurbished mech burst onto the scene. In their excitement to play their game, they had completely not noticed that they'd accidentally enabled their external communication system.
"What move are we gonna use this time?" blared a voice from the speakers.
"Hmmm... Oh I know, SUPER PWNSOME ULTRA TANK FLIP COMBO!"
"Okay!"
The mech rushed past Mustang and Havoc, coming uncomfortably close to brushing them with the tentacles, and positioned itself between the two enemy tanks. Each of the mech's giant arms grasped the underside of one of the tanks. As the tentacles strained under the weight, the arms started hoisting the edge of each tank off the ground, accompanied by the pilots' dramatic battle shout: "SUUUUPERRRRR PWWWWWNSOOOOOME UUUULLLTRAAAA TAAAAANK FLIIIIP COOOOMMMBOOOOOOO!!!!"
Totally forgetting about Mustang and Havoc, the panicking tank pilots frantically swung their gun turrets around trying to aim at the mech. But it was too late. On the last word of their shouted attack name, the mech hurled both of the tanks onto their sides. Practically leaping with glee, the tentacles propelled the mech first onto one tank, then the other, and the giant arms grasped each of the guns in turn and yanked them right off.
Having achieved their objective, the mech came to rest and struck a victory pose as the pilots exulted over their success.
"AWWWWWW YEAHHHHH!"
"We totally scored maximum points on that one!"
The sound of a high-five rang from the speakers. Then apparently one of the pilots noticed the two men still sitting stunned on the ground.
"Hey look, it's some of our friends. HI MUSTY!"
"AHAHAHA MUSTY THAT'S A GOOD ONE!"
"Hey let's go look for more tanks!"
"Yeah! Ooh, don't forget to tell Cille we got two more! And tell her we should get BONUS points for the combo!"
"Okay, you drive, I'll use the radio."
The entire spectacle had taken less than two minutes, and then the mech was charging off again in search of its next mark.
Finally (mostly) recovering from the shock, Havoc stood up and watched the mech speed away. "Well... ain't that a thing."
"Havoc."
"Yeah?" Havoc looked down at Mustang, who was still sitting in the mud with his arms propped on his knees.
"Tell me I didn't just see what I just saw."
Havoc looked back after the mech, wishing he had a cigarette to light. "I'm... not sure I can do that, sir."
Mustang closed his eyes and lowered his head, sighing with irritation. "Dammit... it really isn't fair."
"Well you can't complain too much about not dying," Havoc said, offering a hand to help his friend up.
Mustang grudgingly took Havoc's hand and hoisted himself to his feet. "I guess you're right."
"You're not hurt, are you?" Havoc asked.
"Just my pride, Lieutenant... just my pride," Mustang answered, trying to wipe some of the mud off of his uniform.
"That's not so bad. There's just one thing though, sir," Havoc said.
"What is it?" Mustang asked, and was immediately answered by Havoc's fist punching him in the face.
Reeling back, Mustang regained his footing and held a hand to his throbbing cheek. "What the hell was that for, Lieutenant?" he barked.
"You were going to give up just now, weren't you," Havoc accused. "You weren't even going to try to save yourself when things went wrong."
Mustang looked chagrined and couldn't answer.
"Look, I don't know what's gotten into you lately, but you need to snap out of it," Havoc continued. "It's not just about you here. You're not allowed to just let yourself die as long as there are people here who need you. That's not the Roy Mustang I know and that's not the Roy Mustang these people are depending on. So get over yourself and man up."
It was hard for Mustang to hear, but he knew he had it coming.
"You know, Lieutenant, soldiers have landed in the brig for sassing their superior officers that way," he retorted, but both of them knew he didn't really mean it.
"You can give me all the demerits you want - after this war is over."
"I'll hold you to that," Mustang promised.
"Good. Now what's the plan, General?" Havoc asked, getting back to business.
"We'd better head back to the base for now - and see about that laundry."
**********
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Clarice was finding it somewhat challenging to keep up with her new squad members. Yemman and Kazuma had brought a kind of revitalizing energy to the team, but it was a little bit exhausting for the others to keep up with their lust for adventure and their constant chase for new enemies to fight.
She was taking a break to wipe the caked mud from her boots when she heard someone calling her name. She turned to see Cougar speeding toward her, holding a walkie-talkie.
"Cougar, what's up?" she asked.
"Ms. Cillie has some news for you," he said, coming to a halt and not looking the slightest bit winded.
"Does she need me to radio in?" she asked, starting to reach toward her comm button.
"Naw, I got this." He grinned and held up the walkie-talkie. "I'm her messenger boy today. We're giving Elian a bit of a break."
"Okay, so what's the message?" she asked nervously. "Please tell me it's good news."
His grin grew even wider. "Oh, you're gonna like this one. Samson is awake."
**********
Clarice could have outrun Cougar back to the bunker. After leaving Kirara in charge of their unit, she raced back and went straight to Samson's room.
The room was even more crowded than usual. Along with Anne, Hikki, Hikki's bed, and Ein, Samson was being attended to by Dr. Tenma as Roxie and Kaia stood by.
"What's the last thing you remember?" Dr. Tenma was asking as Clarice breathlessly entered the room. The doctor was shining a light into Samson's eyes.
"Um..." Samson began weakly. "I was with Hikki. We were... I think we were in a giant robot. We were fighting. Is that right?"
"Yes, that's right," Clarice answered, relieved to hear his voice again.
"Clarice, is... is that you?"
"Yes, I'm here," she said, pushing closer to him. Not wanting to disturb Dr. Tenma, she wedged herself between the two beds to reach Samson's other side.
"Are you all right? I'm sorry I can't see much with this light in my eyes."
"I'm fine, relatively," she replied. "But that's not important, are you going to be okay?"
Dr. Tenma switched off his light and continued examining Samson's face. "I think it's safe to say the worst is over," he said. "He doesn't seem to have suffered any cognitive damage, although I'll need to keep monitoring him and I'd like to run whatever tests we have equipment for."
"Um... we don't really have much of zat type of equeepment," Hikki said, sounding worried.
"I understand. I'll make do with what we have," the doctor replied. "The physical damage to Samson's body is the bigger concern. Whoever did the initial surgery did a pretty good job, but it'll take a long time for the body to really heal. I might schedule a follow-up surgery just to make sure everything's put together properly in there."
Samson didn't look too enthusiastic about that, but Clarice and Hikki both nodded.
Tenma wrote some notes on Samson's chart, and then stood up. "Let's give the patient some space," he said. "He'll need strict bed rest and as little stress as possible for the next several days."
"Does that mean I have to leave?" Clarice asked, distressed.
"No, one or two people at a time is fine. Just keep things calm."
The three medical team members headed out of the room, and Anne stood to go too. "I'll go get him some water and something to eat," she offered.
With the rest of the room cleared out, Samson slowly turned his head to look at Hikki and Clarice.
"So how long have I been out of it?" he asked.
Clarice counted on her fingers. "It's been... four days."
"Man, I've been missing all the action," Samson joked weakly. "Have we won yet?"
Clarice and Hikki exchanged looks. "Well... no," Clarice admitted. "Not even close."
"Well we're not losing, are we?" Samson asked, alarmed.
Clarice looked evasive. "It's... turning out to be a difficult battle. I mean we knew it wasn't going to be easy, but... it's pretty rough out there." She took a deep breath. "We've lost almost all of our mechs, and Ozzal's got way more ground troops than we do. It's... going to be hard."
Samson looked more closely at Clarice, and noticed how worn-out she looked. "Well we can still pull it off, right?" he asked, looking for some glimmer of hope.
Clarice was silent for a few moments. "I really hope so," she answered quietly. "At least, we're going to keep trying until we do."
Samson's mind instinctively started working. "Okay so... what's the plan? I mean, there's gotta be something we can do, right?"
Clarice looked at Hikki, and he felt a sudden pang of anxiety. The truth was, he'd had very little to do with strategy planning since taking up residence in Samson's room. If it was up to him to come up with a way to win the war, they were all in trouble.
"Ummm... well you see, I was eenjured too, and... well I am sure zat Mustang and ze ozzers have someseeng planned, but... zey have not eenformed me about it, and... uh..."
Clarice furrowed her brow and opened her mouth to say something, but before she could there was a tap on the open door.
"Well well, I hear our little sleeping beauty is awake," April said, posing casually in the doorway. He was wearing a cute nurse outfit, and it almost turned Samson's head until he remembered who he was looking at.
"Hope I'm not interrupting a super-important confab, but I wanted to say hi and bring the patients a lolly," April continued. He came into the room and handed a lollipop first to Samson and then to Hikki. Clarice had to wonder when they'd gotten a shipment of lollipops, but neither of the men seemed to mind. Hikki even looked at his lollipop a little wistfully.
"Say, Fearless Leader, how about I take you around for some fresh air? Or as fresh as we've got in here," April offered, perhaps having noticed Hikki's feeling of discomfort. "You've been cooped up in here for a while. And I think the troops could use a morale visit from one of the higher-ups."
"Um... sure, zat would be fine," Hikki said, mostly seeing a way out of the uncomfortable conversation they'd been having. He realized too late that it would also allow Clarice to have more alone time with the newly-awake Samson, but he couldn't really make a stink about that.
April produced a wheelchair, and with some groaning about his stiff and sore muscles, Hikki got settled in for his trip around the infirmary. Ein also ran alongside them, apparently happy to be getting out and about. As April closed the door behind them, Hikki thought he could sense his friends following him with uncertain eyes, and he noticed that they didn't start talking until he was out of earshot.
**********
Whatever he might have expected from his goodwill trip around the infirmary, Hikki wasn't really prepared for what he was about to see. Staying in Samson's room, he had been rather insulated from the full extent of what was going on out on the battlefield. Sure, he'd had reports, but it was very different seeing the casualties with his own eyes. As April wheeled him from room to room, he began to feel a little guilty for enjoying the last few days with Samson and Anne while so many other people had been suffering.
When all he had were reports, it was easy to focus on the number of deaths and think about how that would impact their chances against Ozzal's army. But now he could see how much their forces had been decimated by injuries.
The "infirmary" now occupied an entire wing of the bunker, and was expanding every day. Some people came in for treatment and were able to go right back out to keep fighting, but many were injured badly enough that they had to be kept inside to recuperate. Some required intensive surgery, and Hikki was once again thankful to have Dr. Tenma there to help them.
As Nurse April chatted encouragingly with the patients and Ein wagged his tail cheerfully and enjoyed getting petted, Hikki found himself going through the motions smiling and nodding, while internally feeling more and more hopeless and lost in thought.
**********
Hikki didn't sleep well that night. He couldn't get the images of his wounded comrades out of his head, and he kept replaying the conversation with Clarice and Samson, coming up with things he should have said but didn't think of at the time. When he did doze off, it was like slipping into a cold gray void where he was overwhelmed by the feeling of being completely alone. More than once he awoke and had to remind himself where he was, and he had to look over to make sure that Samson was still there sleeping in his bed.
It was a very strange feeling, and Hikki wasn't sure what to make of it. It wasn't fear, or anxiety, or even his dreams messing with him. He'd experienced all of that before. This was something more complex, something closer to dread, the sensation that things shouldn't be this way and something had to happen. He struggled with the feeling that he should try to do something about it, and the knowledge that he had no idea what to do.
In the morning he decided that it was time for him to get involved in the activities in the base, or at least to see what was going on. He summoned someone to bring him a wheelchair, and once again accompanied by Ein, he wheeled himself through the halls to command central.
He found Cille and the rest of the command crew already ensconced in the day's battles. They seemed surprised to see him there, but were generally happy that he was feeling well.
"Um... status report?" Hikki said, trying to sound like someone who should be in charge. He wheeled himself as close as he could to the monitors without getting in the way. "Ze fighting has started early today, no?"
"Well... no, actually," Cille answered wearily. "It never actually ended last night. We tried to pull our people back but the army wouldn't let them retreat. Some of them got in but many units had to stay out there to keep the army from following them back to the base."
"Oh..." Hikki murmured, not quite sure how to respond.
"We've got the bulk of our forces out there now, but it's pretty tight. Pretty much everybody is running on fumes, and we've got a long day ahead of us."
Looking at one of the screens, Cille reached for a walkie-talkie that was sitting on a table next to where Hikki had pulled up beside her. Unfortunately she wasn't quite able to reach past him. "Um, could you..." she began, and Hikki quickly moved his wheelchair back to give her space. She gave a message for Cougar to relay to a nearby unit and then went back to watching the monitors.
It soon became apparent that Hikki would be more of an observer than a participant in the control room. At first he tried to come up with suggestions or contribute to their discussions, but they seemed to be handling things well enough without him. Eventually he just kind of sat and watched, and the others were mostly too preoccupied with their work to pay him much mind. He wasn't sure whether to be relieved or discouraged that they didn't seem to need him to help in any way.
He even felt himself starting to doze off at one point, until Ein suddenly started barking in front of one of the monitors.
"What's the matter, Ein? Is Hikki stuck in the well again?" Cille quipped.
"Eh? I am right here..." Hikki said, confused.
"Oh right," Cille said, looking at him and trying to decide if she should explain the joke.
"You should take a look at this, Cille," Eric said.
Cille turned to the monitor that Ein seemed to be yapping at. "Crap, is that what I think it is?"
"Yeah, looks like one of their surveillance vehicles. And it's getting awful close to one of our secondary entrances."
"Then we'd better take care of it before it gets any closer." Cille reached for her radio and fiddled with some dials. "Cid, Proof, do you read me?"
"Why, are you a book?" Cid replied through the radio, and Proof guffawed in response.
Cille made a face. "Very funny. Listen, we found one of those big boxy tanks and we need you to go take it out."
"Ooh, where is it?" Proof asked.
"It's approaching... Entrance C, looks like," Cille said, checking the monitor again. "Do you know where that is?"
"No, but I know that C is for cookie!" Proof answered proudly.
Cille turned to Aoi, who was tapping away at his computer. "Aoi, can you send them the coordinates or something?"
"Already on it," the hacker assented. "Just tell them to follow the big green dot."
"You got that, guys? There should be a big green dot showing up on your display somewhere. Follow that and -"
"OOH I SEE THE GREEN DOT!"
"YEAH LET'S GO!"
"Just be careful on your way there," Cille cautioned, imagining them running willy-nilly into trouble. "But try to take that thing out as quickly as you can."
"Roger!" Cid chirped.
"Her name isn't Roger, dum-" Proof chided as the radio signal went out.
Cille leaned back in her chair with a sigh. "Well that's just great," she grumbled, watching the tank's slow progress on the monitor.
"Don't lose hope yet," Eric said, patting her shoulder. "Cid and Proof have been doing a great job. They won't have any problem with that tank."
"I'm not worried about them, really," Cille said. "But even if they do take that thing down, once it's spotted our door and lets everybody know about it, that'll be the end of it."
"Ze end? What do you mean?" Hikki asked.
"We won't be able to use that entrance anymore. All Ozzal has to do is keep sending troops to that spot to wait for us to open the door and then they can storm in. We'd have to park a unit there just to defend it if we wanted to keep using it."
Hikki looked hopeful, and Cille and Eric exchanged glances.
"We don't have enough people to spare to just leave a unit there," Eric explained. "She's right, we'll have to seal the door if the mech doesn't get there in time."
"Oh..." Hikki said quietly, and then joined the others in waiting to see what would happen.
Within a minute the tentacled mech appeared on the screen and quickly dispatched the surveillance vehicle. The group heaved a collective sigh of relief.
"We got it, chief!" Cid's voice came through the radio.
"Great job, guys. Keep up your patrols," Cille said.
"You got it!" The radio went dead again, and the mech sped away.
"Does zat mean ze door ees safe?" Hikki asked.
"Possibly, but we'll have to wait and see if any of their troops show up. We can't get complacent yet," Eric said.
"Good point," Cille said. "Put a temporary hold on that door and we'll keep an eye out to see if anybody comes."
Unfortunately, within minutes their fears were confirmed. A group of army soldiers swarmed into the area and quickly stationed themselves in front of the door.
"Dammit, lock it down. Encrypted lock, Aoi," Cille instructed crossly.
"On it," Aoi said, pressing a few buttons on his computer. "I already had it set up just in case."
Cille sighed bitterly and crossed her arms. "Another one down. At this rate it's only a matter of time before they come barging in here."
"Don't get too discouraged," Eric said. "Maybe this would be a good time for you to go get some rest. Get a couple hours sleep and clear your mind."
"Fine, as long as you guys can handle things here," Cille said, too tired and annoyed to oppose the suggestion.
As she got up to leave, Hikki decided that this might be a good opportunity for him to head out too. He had seen all he needed to see, and although it had been pretty much all disheartening, he felt that at last he was starting to have an idea of what he should do.
**********
Hikki wheeled himself through the halls, which were mostly empty aside from a few support staff members scurrying around here and there. They all smiled and nodded at him, but they were all too busy to stop for conversation. So he just roamed around, immersed in his thoughts.
Turning a corner, he saw someone walking away from him that he actually wanted to talk to.
"Foley!" he called after him, and the man executed a deft U-turn and came back. Adjusting his glasses, he saw who it was calling for him.
"Ah, Mr. Follet, it's good to see you up and at 'em again," Foley said cheerfully. "What can I do for you?"
Foley S. Goode had joined the Syndicate during its transition into the bunker. He had shown up at the cafe one day looking for an accounting job and was disappointed to hear that the place would soon be putting its operations on hiatus. But when he overheard Samson and Clarice talking about the supplies they would need for the new base, he took the opportunity to volunteer to be their new quartermaster.
Within the bunker, he was usually found walking purposefully in the hallways or taking stock of the boxes of supplies neatly stacked in his supply closets. He had a penchant for making lists, and he was never seen without his trusty clipboard and lanyard pen. He also had a remarkable memory for conversations, and could quote anything he overheard even a week later. He was fairly unassuming and easy to overlook, which totally explains why he was never mentioned before now, but every once in a while he did something that surprised his comrades - like holding his own in a drinking contest with some of the GAR Streeters one night.
"Oh, um... I was just wondering," Hikki began, not sure how to phrase his question. "How are our supplies looking? I mean, how long do you seenk zey weel hold out?"
Foley made a thoughtful face. "Well... frankly, with the decrease in personnel over the last few days, our supplies should last longer than we initially planned for. I'd say with our current stock..." He did some scribbling on his clipboard. "...I'd estimate about three to four months on the food we currently have stocked. Unfortunately where we'd come up short is things like medical supplies. We've gone through a lot of what we have already. We really weren't anticipating the level of injuries we've been dealing with. So I'd expect to run out of that stuff well before the three-month mark. Probably more like three weeks with sustained fighting."
"Hmm... I see," Hikki responded. "Can we get more?"
"Well, hrm, in theory, yes. But we'd have to send somebody out to bring the stuff back, obviously. Which, under the circumstances, might be tricky."
"Okay, well... sanks for ze eenfo, anyway," Hikki said.
Foley nodded genially and went on his way, leaving Hikki to mull over this new information.
Hikki returned to his room to find Samson still asleep and lunch waiting for him. He quietly ate his sandwiches, still lost in thought.
**********
Not long after returning to the control room after her nap, Cille got a call from Hikki over the intercom. He wanted to see her, Clarice, and Mustang, once the latter two were free to come in from the battlefield. It took a little while longer to bring the two of them in, but eventually all of them convened in Samson and Hikki's room.
"I am sorry to call all of you away from your duties," Hikki began. "But zees ees eemportant. I wanted Samson to be here too, so zat ees why we must meet here."
"Fine, but make it quick," Mustang said gruffly. "We've got work to do out there."
Hikki nodded, but the look on his face made Clarice think there might be something bigger going on here than a simple status meeting.
"Is something wrong, Hikki?" she asked.
"Well... eet's just zat..." Hikki said uncertainly, and then seemed to find his resolve. "I have been seenking a lot about our seetuasion, and I seenk I know what we have to do."
"You've been working on a strategy?" Samson asked, sharing a raised eyebrow with Clarice.
"Well... sort of," Hikki said. He took a deep breath, and looked at them somberly. "I do not need to eenform you about ze gravity of our seetuasion. All of you know firsthand ze steep odds we face and ze setbacks we have encountered."
They all nodded with understanding, and he took another deep breath and continued.
"Our forces weren't zat beeg to begeen weez, and every day zey're getting smaller. Eet's been mostly redshirts so far, and one or two more eemportant pepole for dramatic effect, but eef zees keeps going we'll start lozeeng major characters. And I don't want to see zat happen. Sammie and me almost dying was bad enough."
Clarice raised an eyebrow, but decided against pointing out that Hikki hadn't come anywhere near as close to death as Samson had.
"What are you suggesting?" Samson asked. "We can't just make them stop killing us. We have to keep fighting them off."
"Do we? Eet's obvious zey're just trying to wear us down. We go out zere, zey peeck some of us off, and eet just keeps going. Eef we keel some of zem, zey just breeng een more men. We cannot beat zem, and we cannot outlast zem."
"Then what are we supposed to do? Just give up?"
Hikki's face was grim. He knew they wouldn't like what he was about to say, but he knew he had to say it. "I seenk we need to stop fighting." As the others started to protest, he cut them off: "Not - to geev up. Not to surrender. But... right now we are only playing her game. And eet ees a game we cannot hope to ween."
He looked around at each of them. "I said once long ago zat I would never let anozzer person die. I could not keep zat promise. But now I can do what must be done to protect ze lives we have left. And zat means..."
He paused, and then looked around again at their expectant faces.
"We must retreat into ze bunker, and cease our engagement weez Ozzal's army," he said resolutely. "As of right now ze Syndicate ees een defenseev lockdown mode. We weel concentrate our efforts on forteefying ze bunker and looking for ozzer solutions."
The others were stunned, and looked at each other uncertainly.
"But that means..." Samson began, looking at Clarice.
"...We're under siege," Clarice finished for him. "As long as the army is out there, we're stuck here until we die or they get bored."
"Oui," Hikki said sadly.
They were all silent for a few moments, until Mustang abruptly crossed his arms and turned his back on the others.
"G-general?" Hikki asked tentatively.
"You know what you're saying, don't you," Mustang said, his voice rough. "You're asking all of these people to give up the battle they've been pinning all their hopes on. You're taking away the only chance we had of defeating Ozzal and taking back this country. And what are you going to give them in return? How are you going to convince them that it's all been worth it?"
"I... I don't know," Hikki stammered. "But I know we cannot go on like zees."
"I understand what you're saying, General Mustang," Cille said. "But I think he's right. He's exactly right about what's going to happen if we keep fighting. I've been watching it happen for six days now. The longer we keep fighting, the more people are going to die. And... I really hate to say it, but in all honesty I don't believe we can win this war."
Mustang stiffened. "Is that so."
Cille exchanged concerned looks with Hikki, and Clarice and Samson looked at each other questioningly.
"I think... I agree with them," Clarice said. "I mean I don't like the idea of giving up either, but it's getting pretty desperate out there. I don't see how we can win either. We need to think of another way to get out of this."
Samson looked troubled. "Get out of it how? If we give up fighting and hole up in here, they'll just sit outside and wait for us to come out. We'd need an atom bomb to drop on them or something."
"Honestly we could use an atom bomb right now," Cille said bitterly. "Just continuing to fight isn't the answer. Hikki's right, we need to protect the people we have left. They'll just need to understand that we've done what we could but it wasn't enough."
Mustang sighed and turned back to them. "Fine, but you can be the one to explain it to them. My responsibility was getting them onto the battlefield. You can be in charge of getting them off of it."
Cille nodded, not really wanting the responsibility but prepared to take it on. Then they all turned to Samson, waiting for him to cast his vote.
"Sammie?" Hikki asked.
Seeing that they had all more or less come to an agreement, Samson just looked down and nodded his acquiescence.
Cille immediately went into mission mode. "All right then, what are the logistics of bringing all of our people off the battlefield with minimal casualties and without compromising the integrity of our base?"
"Well first you'll need to communicate the plan to all of them," Mustang said. "Which will be challenging since they're all scattered around the field. Is your communication system still viable?"
"Well Elian's having a rough time and hasn't been able to use his Alter very much the last couple of days," Cille said. "But I'll see if he can muster enough power to contact all of the unit commanders. Maybe Scheris can help bolster him a little bit."
"All right, fine. Make it work," Mustang said. "Now as we learned last night, the army isn't going to just let us sneak back to the base. As soon as they notice our people trying to retreat, they'll be right on our tail following us back. Which means I don't think we're going to be able to pull this off without compromising at least one entrance."
"Can we keep them from following us in?" Clarice asked, worried.
"I think so. We'll reinforce the entry points as much as possible." Mustang thought for a moment. "Actually, we should probably make it a single entry point. No need to give up more than one if we can help it."
Cille considered this. "I think... I'd propose we use the main entrance. Since it's so big they're more likely to discover it anyway once they start searching the area. We can try to protect the other secondary entrances to use for escape routes or something later."
"That sounds reasonable," Mustang agreed. "Do any of you have thoughts?" He turned to the other three.
"Uh... sounds good to me," Hikki said.
"I'd just want to make sure we can get them all in safely," Samson said. "It won't be a good scene if they're all just running away in a panic."
"We'll have them group together before they begin making their way to the bunker," Mustang said. "The rear flanks will hold off the enemy as the group moves in. The strongest unit will have to be the last one in before the door is sealed. That way we should avoid letting them force their way in."
They all looked at each other and collectively nodded, ready to take on the difficult new mission.
"All right. Let's make it happen," Cille said.
**********
In her control room, Ozzal was feeling kind of bored watching the ongoing battle. Not much interesting had happened all day, and the excitement of the previous day's door pwnage had long since worn off. She could tell, though, that there were fewer and fewer rebels out on the battlefield, meaning that victory was coming tantalizingly closer.
As she idly watched the monitors, her experienced eye began to notice something.
"Mmm..." she murmured, leaning forward to get a better look.
"What is it, madam?" Makina asked from behind her chair.
"Oh, it's... mmm, this is interesting," Ozzal mumbled distractedly. "You see that there, they're all moving differently. Just now, all of them..." She sat watching for a few more minutes, as Makina searched the monitors to try to figure out what her superior was talking about.
Finally Ozzal sat upright and pointed at a certain area on the screens. "Yes, you see it, right there. They're all converging here, as if they're gathering their forces together. Are they trying to make some kind of last stand or something?"
She grabbed her phone and tapped her fingers impatiently after dialing.
"Yes, madam?" General Zoltron's voice answered.
"Are you seeing these troop movements, Zoltron?" Ozzal said, not even bothering with pleasantries.
"I've noticed them moving toward a concentrated area," Zoltron answered. "We're of course pressing after them. Do you think it might be some kind of trap?"
"I don't know yet, but I doubt it. They've probably realized the jig is up and they're trying some epic last stand. Which means you'll be ready to totally crush them."
"That's the plan, madam."
"Good, I'll be excited to watch it."
Ozzal hung up the phone and she and Makina continued watching the unfolding action.
**********
Given the sudden and unexpected orders and the barely-organized way in which they had been communicated, the Syndicate troops were doing a remarkably good job of staying focused and moving together toward their goal.
Emiri, Cougar, Mustang, and a few others were appointed to bring up the rear once the group started its retreat. They secured the meeting point while the others converged on the area. Somehow, the rebels managed to combine into a single unit surrounded on only three sides, with a clear path to their escape route into the bunker.
At the main entrance, Holland and Charles each led units stationed on either side of the door, ready to cover their retreating comrades and provide an additional line of defense once the enemy soldiers reached their gates.
Cid and Proof, in the only functioning mech, were tasked with running around the battlefield, distracting the enemy troops and taking down any tanks that might try approaching the bunker.
Once Cille confirmed that everyone was together, Mustang gave the signal for the retreat to begin. The people closest to the bunker began moving in that direction, creating a stretched-out formation while keeping the enemy at bay on either side. Once they reached the bunker, Cille ordered the door partially opened to allow them to come in.
The troops poured in, until only the mech and the final group remained outside.
"Clear the room!" Cille ordered. "We need to get the mech in!"
They opened the door wider and the tentacle mech skittered inside. A group of enemy soldiers tried to force their way in after it, but Mustang's crew held them back. A few soldiers tossed grenades through the open door, but they were cut up by Zoro and Emiri before they could explode.
"Prepare to shut the door!" Cille called. "Final unit, get inside!"
Unfortunately the army soldiers now vastly outnumbered the Syndicate fighters still outside the base, and they were fully intent on overpowering them and charging into the bunker.
"Go ahead," Cougar told the others. "I'll take care of this."
Mustang looked at him for a moment and then nodded. "All right, let's go," he instructed the others. They backed toward the door, continuing to take shots at the encroaching army, and left Cougar facing down the mass of troops.
"Wait... what is he doing?" Cille murmured, suddenly alarmed.
"RADICAL GOOD SPEED WHEELS UNLIMITED!" Cougar shouted, as if in answer to her unheard question.
A flash of bright frooty colors momentarily disoriented everyone watching, and then it faded to reveal Cougar now sheathed in shiny metallic armor from head to toe. In his ultimate Alter form he was faster than ever, and he was a complete blur as he propelled himself around slamming into the soldiers trying to swarm the door.
Once his teammates had reached safety, Cougar called back to them. "Close the door!" he shouted, still smashing into the enemies outside.
Cille was too stricken watching Cougar to give the order, so Mustang did it instead. "Close the door!" he barked.
"No, he's still out there!" Cille cried.
"Do it!" Mustang roared, and the door began sliding shut.
Cille watched helplessly as the gap in the wall became smaller and smaller, threatening to separate her from the man she loved. But just as the door was about to completely slam shut, at the last possible moment the frooty blur sped through the crack in the door and Cougar appeared in a badass one-knee pose right in front of Cille. His armor disintegrated into rainbow sparkles, and he looked up at her with a confident grin.
Her anxiety melted into relief, and she felt a little guilty for doubting him.
Coming back to her senses, she remembered the walkie-talkie she was holding. "Eric, how's it looking? Are all of our people inside now?"
"I believe so," Eric responded from the control room. "I'm not picking anyone up on the monitors."
"Aoi, lock down the main entrance. Scramble the codes," Cille continued.
"He's on it," Eric said.
"Cille, we need to let Elian rest," Scheris' voice came through the walkie-talkie. "He's pushed himself way too hard. Even with my help I think he's about to pass out."
"Have him shut down his surveillance," Cille said. "Take him back to his room so he can rest. And tell him we're grateful for everything he's done for us."
Cille lowered the walkie-talkie with a sigh and looked wearily at Cougar. Then she realized that the entirety of the remaining Syndicate forces were standing behind Cougar looking expectantly at her.
She glanced at Mustang, who just crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at her.
"Um... so you're probably all wondering what the hell is going on," she began nervously. "Well... first I'd just like to congratulate you all on that maneuver you all pulled off. We managed to get everybody inside safely without losing anyone. You should all feel pretty good about that."
There were a few murmurs in the crowd, but pretty much all of them were still waiting for her explanation.
"So um, as far as the reasoning behind the pullback... Well, the leadership decided -"
Her big speech was interrupted by shrieking from one side of the crowd.
"WILL SOMEONE GET THIS PERVERTED THING OUT OF HERE?" Hot Ice Hilda screamed.
As the room erupted into general chaos, Cille realized that the mech was still there and the tentacles were taking advantage of the close quarters to get gropey with the easily accessible booties.
"Um, okay... everybody calm down," Cille began, but nobody seemed to hear her. They began scattering amid continued screeches and guffaws.
"Charles, can you get that thing down to the cavern?" Cille shouted. Charles just grunted and ran toward the mech. He jumped up and the pilots let him into the cockpit, and the mech took off down one of the large tunnels.
Only a few people remained in the room, and Cille just sighed and told them all to go to their quarters or to get food or medical attention as needed. It seemed that they would all have to come to terms with the situation later.
**********
Ozzal had watched the retreat through narrowed eyes. The expected clash between the Syndicate throng and her pouncing troops did not happen, and by the time the massive bunker doors thudded shut she was still not entirely sure what she had just seen.
"I don't believe it. Did... did they seriously just run away?"
As it sank in, her expression of bewilderment gradually transformed into a wide smile of pure triumph.
"THEY SERIOUSLY JUST RAN AWAY! AAAAHAHAHAHA DID YOU JUST SEE THAT?! PWWWWNED BITCHESSSSS! WHO'S THE BOSS NOW?! BAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
Makina thought Ozzal might actually get up and do a gratuitous end zone dance, but before she got the chance the phone rang.
Ozzal grabbed it immediately. "Zoltron! How the hell do you like that?"
Zoltron sounded nervous and apologetic. "I'm sorry, madam, we weren't able to take them all out like we discussed. We weren't prepared -"
"I don't care about that, did you see them skittering away like cockroaches? That was amazing!"
"Um... you're not mad?"
"Hell no, that was worth the price of admission and then some! We've got them cooped up in their little cave, and there's nothing else they can do to me! I win! I don't lose, I win!"
"Well... yes, madam, it does seem that we've driven them back, but... Well they're still in there, so technically we haven't entirely crushed them yet."
"Well, yes, technicalities," Ozzal grumbled. "Fine, get your people lurking their gates, and comb the area for anything they've left out in the open. Stop up every single one of their escape hatches. Jam their surveillance and communication while you're at it. And maybe drop a few bombs on them for lulz."
"Understood, madam. And... congratulations on your flawless victory."
Ozzal hung up the phone and settled back in her chair, more subdued than before but still entirely pleased with herself.
"Well... that's the end of that."
Makina looked soberly at the monitors, which now showed only army personnel surrounding the large metal panel. "Yes, I suppose it is."
**********
Later that evening, when things had finally settled down a little inside the Syndicate bunker, the uneasy quiet was broken by a loud squealing from the loudspeakers scattered throughout the base.
"Ees eet on?"
Clarice and Samson were alone in his room, and they both looked up in surprise.
"Is Hikki making an announcement?" Clarice asked.
Samson nodded. "Yeah, he told Cille he would. He's going to explain what happened today."
The speaker cleared his throat and began his address. "Attention everyone, zees ees your leader Hikki Follet. But... you probably already feegured zat out."
Samson raised an eyebrow and Clarice couldn't help rolling her eyes.
"I weesh to take zees opportunity to speak to you all about ze deceesion to cease our engagement weez ze enemy today. First you must understand zat ze responseebeeleety for zees deceesion ees entirely mine. Eef eet was ze wrong deceesion, zen I weel be entirely to blame. But I do not seenk eet was ze wrong deceesion, and I weesh to explain why."
He paused to collect his thoughts. "When we embarked upon zees war, we knew zat eet would be deefeecult and zere would be many casualties. All of us came here knowing zat we would be reesking everysing. But we came anyway because we believed zat we could be veectorious and breeng an end to ze tyranny overshadowing our country. Now... I have come to believe zat warfare ees not ze means by wheech we weel achieve our veectory."
In Cille's room, Cougar held her close as she was finally releasing the tears that she'd been holding back.
"Ze truth ees zat we cannot match Ozzal's meeleetary might. I only weesh I had understood ze extent of our deesadvantage before so many of our comrades sacreeficed zeir lives for our cause."
In the infirmary, Roxie and Kaia each looked grim as they tended to the newly-arrived injured.
"But eet ees my hope zat by pulling back from ze battle now, we may protect ze comrades we steel have unteel such time as we can determeen ze best way to move forward."
Emiri sat gulping whiskey amidst the shambles of the furniture she'd smashed up in her frustrated rage, as Kira dutifully bandaged up the cuts on her arms and hands.
"I... am sorry zat I cannot say at zees time what zat plan weel be. But I just ask zat please, all of you carry on ze best you can, support each ozzer and don't geev up hope. Zees ees not ze end. As long as we are steel determeened to see zees revolution through..."
His voice broke, and the listeners felt the emotions behind the strong words.
"We weel go on, we weel survive, and we weel make seengs right somehow. Someday... just don't geev up hope. Sank you, all of you, for everyseeng you have done. God bless you all."
The loudspeaker went silent.
Clarice wiped away a tear and shook her head. "You know, he may be an idiot... but when he really tries, he can give one hell of a speech."
And so, after only six days of direct armed conflict, the Blacken Uprising came to an end.
Chapter 48 author's notes:
Recurring characters:
Professor M. Matrix - matrixman124
Larry Zorin - LAZY17
Lucille "Cille" Compton - Cille
Michelle Ozzal - Mike Lazzo
Eric Ominae - OMNI-Enforcer
Cid - cidthekittyisfun
Proof - NoProof91
*Angel Sarcasta - mgangel1124
Clarice Rowe - QueenoftheDorks
Captain Yemman - myname
Samson Monroe - MasterSamson
Kirara Amour - kiraralove
Anne Monroe - herself
Hikki Follet - Kohikki
Roxie Goldsmith - anime_goddess05
Kaia Namek - namek_kaia
April - LirpaYamEnujYluj
General Bernice Zoltron - SwimMod_Beezo
Emiri - _Boxers_
Lloyd Asplund - Code Geass
Winry Rockbell - Fullmetal Alchemist
Kamina - Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann
Charles Beams - Eureka seveN
Straight Cougar - s-CRY-ed
Elian - s-CRY-ed
Scheris Adjani - s-CRY-ed
Roy Mustang - Fullmetal Alchemist
Aoi - Ghost in the Shell
*Kisuke Urahara - Bleach
Jean Havoc - Fullmetal Alchemist
*Riza "Hawkeye" Yuy - Fullmetal Alchemist
Kazuma - s-CRY-ed
Ein - Cowboy Bebop
Kenzou Tenma - Monster
Major Makina - Deadman Wonderland
Holland Novak - Eureka seveN
Roronoa Zoro - One Piece
"Hot Ice" Hilda - Outlaw Star
Izuru Kira - Bleach
New characters:
Foley S. Goode - Foley_is_Good_149