Chapter 61 - Despair and Hope
By Cille
Cille was alone in the control room, as usual. The place looked especially desolate with only a couple of lights on and nobody else there. She was surrounded as always by her stacks of books and notes and maps, but she hadn't touched them in nearly a week, ever since the meeting with the rest of the rebel leaders. She just sat slumped over on her desk, with her head on her folded arms, staring blankly at nothing.
She only came up here anymore because she didn't know where else to go, and she didn't want anyone else to think that she wasn't still doing her job. But the truth was, she had no idea what else she could do to help her allies. All the brilliant escape plans in the world were useless if there was no way out.
The "think tank" that had been working on ideas since the meeting hadn't really come up with anything practical, and had mostly produced arguments about what was possible and whose fault all of this was. Hikki kept freaking out and then running off to the infirmary, claiming he needed to get back to work. Nobody had even seen Kamina in the last week. Matrix had made a few token appearances in the mech lab but had a habit of randomly disappearing, and Cille had had to listen to Lloyd bitching all week about Matrix not pulling his weight. It seemed that the "escaping in a giant mech tank" idea was a pipe dream at this point, even if they could safely get out of the base, which, of course, they couldn't.
It was all just a mess.
And of course she couldn't get Cougar off of her mind. She wanted to believe that if he was still out there somewhere, he'd be trying desperately to contact them, or get help, or something. But still there had been no sign of him.
This was exactly the sort of situation where he'd be there to hold her close, and she could just melt into his chest and forget about her troubles for a little while...
She snapped back to reality. He wasn't going to comfort her now, and she was going to have to stand on her own two feet whether she liked it or not. She deserved it, after what she had said to him.
She marveled at the timing of it all, that this whole thing with the ninja and having to close off the escape hatch would happen at exactly the time when he was away. She wondered how upset he would be if they all died inside the bunker and he was the only survivor. Maybe it would have been better if he hadn't gotten out, and at least they could have faced the end together...
She buried her face in her arms. Was she really wishing that Cougar was there to die with her, just so she wouldn't have to feel so alone?
There was a tentative knock on the door. Cille wearily raised her head and rubbed her eyes as the door opened.
It was Kamina. His face and muscular body were streaked with dirt, and he looked even more exhausted than Cille felt.
He smiled when he saw her. "Great, I was hoping I'd find you up here. There's something you gotta come see."
**********
Elizabeth was visiting Spike in his infirmary room, as she had done several times since she was discharged. They had the room to themselves, and they were playing one of their favorite games.
Unfortunately, Spike wasn't doing as well as he usually did.
"Are you sure this is supposed to go in here?" he asked skeptically. "It doesn't seem to want to fit..."
"Of course it does," Elizabeth said, kind of enjoying watching him struggle. "Would I ever do you wrong?"
"This... doesn't... wanna... go in..." he said through gritted teeth.
"You can't just jam it in there," she said. "You have to be a little more gentle. Maybe wiggle it a bit."
"If you wiggle it too much, it'll just slip right out," he objected. "And then we'd have to start all over again. Maybe if I try a different angle..."
"You sure you don't want me to help?" she asked. He just furrowed his brow and tried harder. She smiled and put her hand over his to guide him. "You just have to put the right amount of pressure in the right place..."
Spike felt himself reddening in spite of himself. "I'm not sure this is making it easier..."
"Aww come on, don't tell me it makes you nervous when I'm this close," she teased.
"Of course not, it just..." he began, but was interrupted by a tapping on the door. The two of them looked up to see Dr. Tenma and Hikki peeking into the room uncertainly.
"Um... I hope we're not interrupting something..." Tenma said.
"Hey, guys, come on in," Elizabeth said cheerfully. "You're just in time to witness Mr. Pro here finally meeting his match."
"Hey, I ain't done yet," Spike said, still concentrating on his task.
Hikki followed Tenma into the room, carrying the supplies for his daily rounds. The two of them discovered a tray table in Spike's lap, covered with assorted gun parts. Their patient was apparently attempting to slide one of the parts into the handgun frame, and seemed to be having trouble with it.
Tenma took a closer look. "Hmm, Beretta 92FS? Good choice, I have to say."
Hikki raised his eyebrows at Tenma, but the other two didn't even seem to register the doctor's unexpected knowledge of firearms. Spike chuckled victoriously as Elizabeth took a step back and put her hand on her hip. "Aww Doc, why'd you have to ruin it?" she groaned. "That's the only one he hasn't known so far."
"Thanks, Doc, I owe you one," Spike said, and they heard a satisfying click as the part finally slid into place. "There, and I did that too, all by myself."
"Only because I wiggled it a little for you," Elizabeth said, giving Spike a cheeky look as she leaned over to pick up the tray table. "You can finish the rest when they're done giving you the once-over. Maybe I'll make it a speed trial just for fun."
"Oh boy," Spike said with mock reluctance, not looking entirely displeased with the challenge.
Elizabeth put the tray down on the nearby empty bed and hopped up to take a seat while Tenma came over to tend to Spike.
It had been long enough since Spike's injury that the daily checkups were more of a routine than actual treatment. His internal damage had been severe, and at this point Tenma simply wanted to make sure that nothing was about to rupture.
"I'd say you should be clear to go within a few days," Tenma told him after a cursory examination. "As long as you take it easy and avoid strenuous activity, there shouldn't be any more complications."
"So no hand-to-hand sparring matches, then," Elizabeth said.
Spike returned her playful look. "Sorry, you'll have to wait a while longer for me to take you down."
"Well then, I'll leave you to your, er, game," Tenma said, and he and Hikki began gathering their things to go.
"Hey Hikki, there's somethin' I've been wanting to ask you about," Spike said.
"What ees eet?" Hikki asked, hoping it would be an easy question.
"Well ever since we got trapped in here, I mean when the escape hatch got locked up, there's been talk about how people could've gotten out sooner, but you all stayed because of people like us who're banged up. Is that true?"
"Well... we wanted to make sure zat nobody who needed help was left behind," Hikki said. "We sought zat being cautious and taking our time would let ze eenjured pepole recover, and geev us time to work out our plans."
"Well I guess that's a nice idea, but..." Spike exchanged glances with a sympathetic-looking Elizabeth. "If it turns out that we all really are trapped, and nobody can get out... I'd hate to think it was because of me, and I know other guys would feel the same way."
Hikki sighed. "Believe me, no one has done more 'what eef?' seenking een ze last week zan I have. And eef zere ees anyone who deserves blame for not trying to escape sooner, eet ees me. But what could we do? We could not see ze future. I can only tell you zat feeling guilty over someseeng you could not control weel only make you meeserable. So... I don't recommend eet."
"Yeah..." Spike said with a wistful look. "Just... do your best to work things out so we can all get out of here, okay? And if there's anything you need any of us to do, just say the word. We'll be pulling for you."
"I appreciate zat," Hikki said, trying to look more confident than he felt. "We weel do everyseeng we can. Don't geev up hope."
Spike nodded, and he and Elizabeth exchanged reassuring looks as Tenma and Hikki left the room.
Tenma started down the hallway toward their next patient. Hikki followed after him for a few paces, and then slowed to a halt. He sighed bitterly, and Tenma noticed and turned around.
"What is it?" the doctor asked, walking back to him.
"I... nossing," Hikki said evasively.
"You can tell me if something is bothering you," Tenma prodded.
Hikki sighed again. "Eet ees just..." He reluctantly decided to let it out. "Am I a bad person for not telling pepole ze whole truth? For letting zem believe zat zere's hope when I'm not sure I believe eet myself?"
Tenma looked at him with understanding. "I had a feeling that might be weighing on your mind." He thought for a moment. "The short answer is no, you're not a bad person. Sometimes we need to tell people what they need to hear, in the way they need to hear it. I often have to do the same thing, when I'm delivering an unfortunate diagnosis."
"But zat ees deeferent," Hikki said. "You are a docteur, zat ees your job. I am supposed to be a leader. I want to be honest, but I can't. Zey are all looking at me, and... I am scared to let zem know how scared I am."
"I understand completely," Tenma answered. "And I do often feel the same way. It's not easy knowing that a patient might not make it. But as long as there's a chance, we can't give up."
A new thought came to Hikki. "Do you regret coming here now? Knowing zat we could all die? Eef you had not come, you would be safe out zere somewhere."
"Well... that's debatable," Tenma said wryly. "I haven't felt safe in quite a while. Ozzal's reach extends pretty far."
"Yes, but... At least you would not be looking at an almost-maybe-probably certain end."
Tenma sighed. "Like it or not, we all have to face our own mortality sooner or later. And there's a lot to be said for feeling like you've accomplished something before you die. I may not have chosen to cash in my chips quite so soon, but I do feel like I've made a difference here. I feel like being here was the right thing for me at this time. So if we are looking at the end... no, I can't say I regret being here."
Hikki let out a breath of relief. "I am glad to know zat. And... as for me... Eef we are going to die... I'll be happy knowing I spent my last days weez you."
Tenma looked a little taken aback, and Hikki suddenly felt a surge of panic at the realization of what he had just said.
"I mean - I have learned so much!" he sputtered, waving his hands. "Eet has been a preevilege to see such a talented docteur at work, and - and to see your work up close, I -"
Tenma smiled, a little sheepishly, and held up a hand. "It's all right, I think I understand. And... it's been good working with you too." He paused, looking thoughtful. "In fact I -"
"HEY HEY HEY HEY!" Kamina's voice bellowed from down the hall. Tenma and Hikki turned to see him charging toward them. He clapped Hikki on the shoulder, nearly knocking him over. "Just the guy I wanted to see."
"What... what ees eet?" Hikki asked, trying to recompose himself.
Instead of answering him, Kamina turned to Tenma. "Hey Doc, mind if I borrow your nurse for a bit? I gotta take him on a little field trip."
"Field... trip?" Hikki repeated, not sure he liked the sound of that.
But before he could object, Tenma smiled and answered, "Sure, I think a little excursion might be just what he needs. I can take care of the rest of the rounds today."
"Great, you're a good sport," Kamina said. He wrapped an arm around Hikki's shoulders and steered him back the way he had come. "Let's go, fearless leader."
"Um..." Hikki feebly tried to protest, and gave Tenma a helpless look over his shoulder as Kamina dragged him off. But the doctor simply gave him a wave and an amused look, and Hikki resigned himself to whatever craziness lay in store.
**********
Elsewhere in the infirmary, Samson was going through his daily rehab routine with Kaia while Clarice tried to offer moral support. It was debatable who was having the harder time.
In the space that Hikki's bed had once occupied, Kaia had set up some parallel bars and a workout mat for Samson to use. Every day she guided him through some exercises designed to work up the strength in his limbs, which had been unused for over a month after his injury. Her mastery of chi also came in handy to monitor his condition and bolster his weakened energy reserves.
Unfortunately Samson had never taken well to being an invalid, and he was even less of a fan of having to toddle around while holding onto bars just to remain upright.
"I feel like an old man," Samson groused. "Somebody get me a walker."
Clarice rubbed her eyes. She'd been hearing an awful lot of this lately. "You're not an old man."
"Yeah, you're right. Maybe more like a baby learning to walk. I bet Roxie's kid will be running around here before I am."
"You've certainly got the baby attitude down," Clarice muttered under her breath.
"What was that?" Samson asked.
Clarice just sighed. "Do you have to be so grouchy about everything?"
"Why shouldn't I be grouchy?" Samson retorted. "I mean look at the situation we're in. We're trapped in here and we're probably going to die. You people haven't been able to come up with any way to save ourselves. And I've been left out of everything because I can't freaking walk."
As if to illustrate his last point, a sharp twinge of pain struck him and he grimaced.
"Take it easy," Kaia said. "You have to be patient with these things. Clarice is right, raising your blood pressure isn't going to help you at all."
"I don't think my blood pressure is the issue here," Samson grumbled.
"I can feel it in your aura," Kaia said. "The negative energy is only creating more stress for your body to have to overcome. You need to relax and focus your positive energy if you want to recover faster. I can teach you some meditation exercises if you'd like."
"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea," Clarice said quickly, before Samson had a chance to object. "Why don't you guys work on that, and I'm gonna go take a break."
Samson sighed heavily and gave her an exasperated look, but she just ignored him and scooted on out the door.
Outside in the hall, Clarice slouched against the wall and leaned her head back. Just being around Samson these days felt draining.
Seemingly from out of nowhere a fairy ballerina princess came jetéing down the hallway toward her, coming to rest in a graceful pose. As Clarice watched, slightly dumbfounded, the ballerina twirled her hands above her head and then held one hand out toward Clarice.
"You seem weary, Clarice," she said sweetly. "Won't you come dance with me?"
Clarice looked more closely. "Um... April? Is that you?"
The fairy simply gave her a friendly smile.
Clarice spent another moment giving April a skeptical look, and then quickly glanced around the hallway to make sure that nobody else was watching. She had a feeling that this was kind of silly, but something compelled her to reach her hand out toward the beckoning fairy.
"Heyyyy, Clarice!" called a voice down the hall. She turned to see Kamina trotting toward her with Hikki trailing behind him. She quickly pulled her hand back, since she was absolutely not going to let either of them see her dancing like an idiot.
"Hey, share some of that energy, will ya?" she said as the boys caught up to her.
Kamina grinned. "Having a rough day? I bet you'll perk up when you see what I have to show you."
"Really? I hope you're right," Clarice said, glancing back at the ballerina, who looked kind of disappointed but soon masked it with an encouraging smile.
"Go ahead, I hope you find what you're looking for," she said, before pirouetting off down the hallway.
Kamina and Hikki watched her go, Hikki looking a little wistful.
"What in the world was that?" Kamina asked.
"It's... nevermind," Clarice said, shaking her head. She wasn't sure she could explain it to them even if she wanted to. "Let's just get going."
"You got it," Kamina answered, and they headed out.
**********
Clarice, Hikki, and Kamina found Matrix and Cille waiting for them in an isolated hallway, where a hole had been dug into a wall. The three newcomers weren't quite sure what they were getting themselves into, but they followed Matrix and Kamina into the tunnel. It was fairly narrow but tall enough for them to walk upright, aside from a few spots where large rocks or tree roots forced them to duck or crawl on their hands and knees. Matrix led the way with a large flashlight.
"So you guys dug this whole thing in only a week?" Cille asked.
"That's right," Kamina said proudly. "I used to know a little bit about digging, you know. And the Professor here got me the best helpers I could have asked for."
"What helpers?" Clarice asked.
Matrix turned around and winked at her. "You'll meet them when we get where we're going," he answered enigmatically.
The journey took quite a while, and Clarice, Cille and Hikki were impressed by how much work had gone into digging the passageway. It must have been even longer than the original escape tunnel, and Cille grew hopeful that it would lead to someplace outside the army's patrol area.
"Okay, this is where we stop," Kamina finally announced.
The others peered past him, and saw in the dim light what appeared to be a thick mass of tangled vines blocking their way.
"Oh man," Cille groaned. "Don't tell me you got all this way and couldn't get past those vines?"
Matrix and Kamina both turned to her with mischievous grins. "Oh, they're not vines," Matrix said.
Clarice moved past them to look closer at the obstacle. The first thing she noticed was that some of the vines seemed to be twitching. The second thing she noticed was that they were sort of slimy and vaguely reptilian. Or was it amphibian?
"Holy flaming Jebus those are tentacles!" she shouted, jumping back.
"That's right!" Matrix said proudly. "My little helpers dug their way here, and now they're protecting their handiwork. I dare anybody out there to look at this and think it's not just part of the local plant life."
"Sooo... how are we supposed to get through here?" Cille asked, looking around at the walls. "I don't see a control panel anywhere."
"Well, yes, as you may have realized, we didn't really have the facilities for a major technical installation out here," Matrix said. "Hence the concept of the organic door in the first place. As far as getting through, the tentacles have been trained to respond to certain password phrases, as I shall now demonstrate."
The others exchanged glances, not sure what to expect but kind of impressed that Matrix could rig something like this up... presuming it worked.
Matrix cleared his throat, and then addressed the tentacle door with an authoritative voice. "For health and beauty, take a cup of tea after a meal."
Clarice raised an eyebrow. "What the hell kind of password is that?"
Matrix shot her an annoyed look. "It's the only thing they would respond to, okay? I didn't make it up, so don't ask me what it means."
"Okay, okay," Clarice relented.
Amazingly, the tentacles seemed to recognize the phrase, and they started wriggling before separating from each other and pulling back to the edges of the tunnel to reveal a hole leading out of the side of a hill.
"Wow, eet actually worked," Hikki said.
Matrix proceeded confidently through the opening, while the two women exchanged uneasy glances.
"Well... what is it the kids say these days? YOLO?" Clarice remarked. She put her arms up to cover her head and barreled through the door, trying to ignore whatever icky things she might be touching on the way by.
"Oh geez..." Cille murmured, before diving through with a little yelp.
Hikki paused to take a closer look at the doorway, trying to weigh how badly he wanted to go through it.
Standing next to him, Kamina chuckled. "The Prof sure is smart, but he sure is strange," he observed.
"You don't have to tell me zat," Hikki replied.
Kamina grinned. "You should have seen him before. He was stumped on what to do about covering up the opening so nobody could get inside, and then all of a sudden he just started talking to himself. Except it wasn't like mutterin' your ideas out loud, you know, it was like he was actually talking to someone, except it was just him. I tried to talk back to him, but he shushed me and told me I was interrupting his muse. But after all that, he comes up with these ideas to make a door out of tentacles and give them a passcode to open and close. Pretty brilliant, if you ask me."
Hikki couldn't argue that the plan seemed to have been effective, but it still squicked him out when he had to step over (and duck under) the tentacles to get out of the hole.
He was instantly reminded of how long it had been since he had experienced fresh air and sunshine. He had to take a moment just to close his eyes and breathe in.
Cille and Matrix were busy scanning the area with an infrared heat sensor as Clarice looked around with binoculars.
"I'm not seeing any army encampments out here," Clarice said.
"My readings are only picking up non-humanoid life forms," Matrix added.
"Does zat mean zees area ees safe?" Hikki asked hopefully.
"There's a good chance of it," Matrix answered. "I've been running periodic scans since we broke through and I haven't detected anybody out here. So for now, I'd consider it clear."
"Where exactly are we?" Cille asked, wishing she'd brought one of her maps.
Matrix pulled a GPS out of his pocket. "Right here," he said, showing her their location.
"Hmmm... that's actually not far from one of our escape routes," Cille said thoughtfully. "It wouldn't be hard to make your way there and then follow the rest of the path to Comedia."
"You're not gonna get a mech out through that tunnel though," Clarice pointed out.
"Well yeah, obviously, but you'd at least be able to start getting people out through here," Kamina said. "And some people getting out is better than no people getting out."
The others considered this idea.
"The whole reason we waited was so everybody could get out at once," Cille said. "What about the people who are still hurt?"
"Yeah, if we tell people there's a way out now, everybody's gonna just rush the exit and leave the weaklings behind," Clarice agreed.
"Well you'd want to be careful how you handled it," Kamina said. "But you guys can work out a plan for that, right?"
Clarice and Cille exchanged glances and then turned to Hikki. He was looking very thoughtful, and in fact was remembering his earlier conversation with Spike.
"We weel speak to ze council about zees, and decide togezzer what we should do. But we cannot let zees opportuneety sleep by," he said quietly. "Some weel have to volunteer to remain weez ze eenjured, but zose zat weesh to go should be geeven zeir freedom. We weel determine ze best and safest way to go about eet when we talk to ze ozzers."
Clarice nodded. "That sounds reasonable. Do you want to call a meeting right away?"
Hikki looked up at the sky. It was late afternoon, and the sun would be going down soon. "I... seenk we should consult Solomon and Mustang first. Zey should be prepared weez zees eenformation before we breeng ze ozzers een."
"Roger," Clarice said. "I'll find them and let them know. Let's meet in the control room as soon as we can."
"Right," Cille agreed. "I'll update my maps in the meantime." She sounded like she was actually looking forward to having something to work on.
"First we need to get back zere..." Hikki pointed out, not really looking forward to another hike through the dank tunnel.
"No problem, back in we go," Kamina said, cheerfully bounding toward the doorway. The others followed, and Hikki and Cille both took one last longing look at the outside world before they squicked past the tentacles.
"I assume you have a way to close this up?" Clarice asked.
"Of course," Matrix said confidently.
Once everyone was inside, the scientist once again addressed his squirmy minions. "One cup of Russian tea, not with jam, not with marmalade, but with honey."
Clarice and Hikki exchanged skeptical looks, but decided not to say anything this time.
Right on cue, the tentacles entwined around each other across the opening, restoring the thick vine-like barrier.
"And voila!" Matrix said triumphantly, looking like he expected the others to start applauding.
"Well that certainly is a thing," Cille acknowledged.
"I never thought I'd say it, but you might have saved our asses here, Matrix," Clarice added. "Nice work."
"Thank you, thank you, all in a day's work for your average brilliant mad scientist," Matrix said, bowing with faux humility.
Kamina cleared his throat.
"And of course your average... um, former digger and bastion of manliness," Matrix added quickly.
"Right on!" Kamina said with a grin. "Now let's get moving."
As they trooped back down the tunnel, all of them actually felt a new spring in their step. There was a lot of work and a fair share of uncertainty ahead of them, but at last they'd been shown a glimmer of hope.
Chapter 61 Author's Notes
Recurring Characters:
Lucille "Cille" Compton - Cille
Hikki Follet - Kohikki
Professor M. Matrix - matrixman124
Elizabeth Saurie St. Gaurdsmen - EdSpikeSesshyGirl
Samson Monroe - MasterSamson
Clarice Rowe - QueenoftheDorks
Kaia Namek - namek_kaia
*Roxie Goldsmith - anime_goddess05
April - LirpaYamEnujYluj
Goose Maverick - Top_Gun (Matrix's muse)
Kamina - Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann
Lloyd Asplund - Code Geass
*Straight Cougar - s-CRY-ed
Spike Spiegel - Cowboy Bebop
Kenzou Tenma - Monster
Solomon Goldsmith - Blood+
Roy Mustang - Fullmetal Alchemist
* Characters marked with an asterisk are mentioned but do not take an active part in the story.
References
Fairy ballerina princess - Princess Tutu
Beretta 92FS - Tenma's firearm of choice in Monster
"For health and beauty, take a cup of tea after a meal" & "One cup of Russian tea, not with jam, not with marmalade, but with honey" - Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Cille was alone in the control room, as usual. The place looked especially desolate with only a couple of lights on and nobody else there. She was surrounded as always by her stacks of books and notes and maps, but she hadn't touched them in nearly a week, ever since the meeting with the rest of the rebel leaders. She just sat slumped over on her desk, with her head on her folded arms, staring blankly at nothing.
She only came up here anymore because she didn't know where else to go, and she didn't want anyone else to think that she wasn't still doing her job. But the truth was, she had no idea what else she could do to help her allies. All the brilliant escape plans in the world were useless if there was no way out.
The "think tank" that had been working on ideas since the meeting hadn't really come up with anything practical, and had mostly produced arguments about what was possible and whose fault all of this was. Hikki kept freaking out and then running off to the infirmary, claiming he needed to get back to work. Nobody had even seen Kamina in the last week. Matrix had made a few token appearances in the mech lab but had a habit of randomly disappearing, and Cille had had to listen to Lloyd bitching all week about Matrix not pulling his weight. It seemed that the "escaping in a giant mech tank" idea was a pipe dream at this point, even if they could safely get out of the base, which, of course, they couldn't.
It was all just a mess.
And of course she couldn't get Cougar off of her mind. She wanted to believe that if he was still out there somewhere, he'd be trying desperately to contact them, or get help, or something. But still there had been no sign of him.
This was exactly the sort of situation where he'd be there to hold her close, and she could just melt into his chest and forget about her troubles for a little while...
She snapped back to reality. He wasn't going to comfort her now, and she was going to have to stand on her own two feet whether she liked it or not. She deserved it, after what she had said to him.
She marveled at the timing of it all, that this whole thing with the ninja and having to close off the escape hatch would happen at exactly the time when he was away. She wondered how upset he would be if they all died inside the bunker and he was the only survivor. Maybe it would have been better if he hadn't gotten out, and at least they could have faced the end together...
She buried her face in her arms. Was she really wishing that Cougar was there to die with her, just so she wouldn't have to feel so alone?
There was a tentative knock on the door. Cille wearily raised her head and rubbed her eyes as the door opened.
It was Kamina. His face and muscular body were streaked with dirt, and he looked even more exhausted than Cille felt.
He smiled when he saw her. "Great, I was hoping I'd find you up here. There's something you gotta come see."
**********
Elizabeth was visiting Spike in his infirmary room, as she had done several times since she was discharged. They had the room to themselves, and they were playing one of their favorite games.
Unfortunately, Spike wasn't doing as well as he usually did.
"Are you sure this is supposed to go in here?" he asked skeptically. "It doesn't seem to want to fit..."
"Of course it does," Elizabeth said, kind of enjoying watching him struggle. "Would I ever do you wrong?"
"This... doesn't... wanna... go in..." he said through gritted teeth.
"You can't just jam it in there," she said. "You have to be a little more gentle. Maybe wiggle it a bit."
"If you wiggle it too much, it'll just slip right out," he objected. "And then we'd have to start all over again. Maybe if I try a different angle..."
"You sure you don't want me to help?" she asked. He just furrowed his brow and tried harder. She smiled and put her hand over his to guide him. "You just have to put the right amount of pressure in the right place..."
Spike felt himself reddening in spite of himself. "I'm not sure this is making it easier..."
"Aww come on, don't tell me it makes you nervous when I'm this close," she teased.
"Of course not, it just..." he began, but was interrupted by a tapping on the door. The two of them looked up to see Dr. Tenma and Hikki peeking into the room uncertainly.
"Um... I hope we're not interrupting something..." Tenma said.
"Hey, guys, come on in," Elizabeth said cheerfully. "You're just in time to witness Mr. Pro here finally meeting his match."
"Hey, I ain't done yet," Spike said, still concentrating on his task.
Hikki followed Tenma into the room, carrying the supplies for his daily rounds. The two of them discovered a tray table in Spike's lap, covered with assorted gun parts. Their patient was apparently attempting to slide one of the parts into the handgun frame, and seemed to be having trouble with it.
Tenma took a closer look. "Hmm, Beretta 92FS? Good choice, I have to say."
Hikki raised his eyebrows at Tenma, but the other two didn't even seem to register the doctor's unexpected knowledge of firearms. Spike chuckled victoriously as Elizabeth took a step back and put her hand on her hip. "Aww Doc, why'd you have to ruin it?" she groaned. "That's the only one he hasn't known so far."
"Thanks, Doc, I owe you one," Spike said, and they heard a satisfying click as the part finally slid into place. "There, and I did that too, all by myself."
"Only because I wiggled it a little for you," Elizabeth said, giving Spike a cheeky look as she leaned over to pick up the tray table. "You can finish the rest when they're done giving you the once-over. Maybe I'll make it a speed trial just for fun."
"Oh boy," Spike said with mock reluctance, not looking entirely displeased with the challenge.
Elizabeth put the tray down on the nearby empty bed and hopped up to take a seat while Tenma came over to tend to Spike.
It had been long enough since Spike's injury that the daily checkups were more of a routine than actual treatment. His internal damage had been severe, and at this point Tenma simply wanted to make sure that nothing was about to rupture.
"I'd say you should be clear to go within a few days," Tenma told him after a cursory examination. "As long as you take it easy and avoid strenuous activity, there shouldn't be any more complications."
"So no hand-to-hand sparring matches, then," Elizabeth said.
Spike returned her playful look. "Sorry, you'll have to wait a while longer for me to take you down."
"Well then, I'll leave you to your, er, game," Tenma said, and he and Hikki began gathering their things to go.
"Hey Hikki, there's somethin' I've been wanting to ask you about," Spike said.
"What ees eet?" Hikki asked, hoping it would be an easy question.
"Well ever since we got trapped in here, I mean when the escape hatch got locked up, there's been talk about how people could've gotten out sooner, but you all stayed because of people like us who're banged up. Is that true?"
"Well... we wanted to make sure zat nobody who needed help was left behind," Hikki said. "We sought zat being cautious and taking our time would let ze eenjured pepole recover, and geev us time to work out our plans."
"Well I guess that's a nice idea, but..." Spike exchanged glances with a sympathetic-looking Elizabeth. "If it turns out that we all really are trapped, and nobody can get out... I'd hate to think it was because of me, and I know other guys would feel the same way."
Hikki sighed. "Believe me, no one has done more 'what eef?' seenking een ze last week zan I have. And eef zere ees anyone who deserves blame for not trying to escape sooner, eet ees me. But what could we do? We could not see ze future. I can only tell you zat feeling guilty over someseeng you could not control weel only make you meeserable. So... I don't recommend eet."
"Yeah..." Spike said with a wistful look. "Just... do your best to work things out so we can all get out of here, okay? And if there's anything you need any of us to do, just say the word. We'll be pulling for you."
"I appreciate zat," Hikki said, trying to look more confident than he felt. "We weel do everyseeng we can. Don't geev up hope."
Spike nodded, and he and Elizabeth exchanged reassuring looks as Tenma and Hikki left the room.
Tenma started down the hallway toward their next patient. Hikki followed after him for a few paces, and then slowed to a halt. He sighed bitterly, and Tenma noticed and turned around.
"What is it?" the doctor asked, walking back to him.
"I... nossing," Hikki said evasively.
"You can tell me if something is bothering you," Tenma prodded.
Hikki sighed again. "Eet ees just..." He reluctantly decided to let it out. "Am I a bad person for not telling pepole ze whole truth? For letting zem believe zat zere's hope when I'm not sure I believe eet myself?"
Tenma looked at him with understanding. "I had a feeling that might be weighing on your mind." He thought for a moment. "The short answer is no, you're not a bad person. Sometimes we need to tell people what they need to hear, in the way they need to hear it. I often have to do the same thing, when I'm delivering an unfortunate diagnosis."
"But zat ees deeferent," Hikki said. "You are a docteur, zat ees your job. I am supposed to be a leader. I want to be honest, but I can't. Zey are all looking at me, and... I am scared to let zem know how scared I am."
"I understand completely," Tenma answered. "And I do often feel the same way. It's not easy knowing that a patient might not make it. But as long as there's a chance, we can't give up."
A new thought came to Hikki. "Do you regret coming here now? Knowing zat we could all die? Eef you had not come, you would be safe out zere somewhere."
"Well... that's debatable," Tenma said wryly. "I haven't felt safe in quite a while. Ozzal's reach extends pretty far."
"Yes, but... At least you would not be looking at an almost-maybe-probably certain end."
Tenma sighed. "Like it or not, we all have to face our own mortality sooner or later. And there's a lot to be said for feeling like you've accomplished something before you die. I may not have chosen to cash in my chips quite so soon, but I do feel like I've made a difference here. I feel like being here was the right thing for me at this time. So if we are looking at the end... no, I can't say I regret being here."
Hikki let out a breath of relief. "I am glad to know zat. And... as for me... Eef we are going to die... I'll be happy knowing I spent my last days weez you."
Tenma looked a little taken aback, and Hikki suddenly felt a surge of panic at the realization of what he had just said.
"I mean - I have learned so much!" he sputtered, waving his hands. "Eet has been a preevilege to see such a talented docteur at work, and - and to see your work up close, I -"
Tenma smiled, a little sheepishly, and held up a hand. "It's all right, I think I understand. And... it's been good working with you too." He paused, looking thoughtful. "In fact I -"
"HEY HEY HEY HEY!" Kamina's voice bellowed from down the hall. Tenma and Hikki turned to see him charging toward them. He clapped Hikki on the shoulder, nearly knocking him over. "Just the guy I wanted to see."
"What... what ees eet?" Hikki asked, trying to recompose himself.
Instead of answering him, Kamina turned to Tenma. "Hey Doc, mind if I borrow your nurse for a bit? I gotta take him on a little field trip."
"Field... trip?" Hikki repeated, not sure he liked the sound of that.
But before he could object, Tenma smiled and answered, "Sure, I think a little excursion might be just what he needs. I can take care of the rest of the rounds today."
"Great, you're a good sport," Kamina said. He wrapped an arm around Hikki's shoulders and steered him back the way he had come. "Let's go, fearless leader."
"Um..." Hikki feebly tried to protest, and gave Tenma a helpless look over his shoulder as Kamina dragged him off. But the doctor simply gave him a wave and an amused look, and Hikki resigned himself to whatever craziness lay in store.
**********
Elsewhere in the infirmary, Samson was going through his daily rehab routine with Kaia while Clarice tried to offer moral support. It was debatable who was having the harder time.
In the space that Hikki's bed had once occupied, Kaia had set up some parallel bars and a workout mat for Samson to use. Every day she guided him through some exercises designed to work up the strength in his limbs, which had been unused for over a month after his injury. Her mastery of chi also came in handy to monitor his condition and bolster his weakened energy reserves.
Unfortunately Samson had never taken well to being an invalid, and he was even less of a fan of having to toddle around while holding onto bars just to remain upright.
"I feel like an old man," Samson groused. "Somebody get me a walker."
Clarice rubbed her eyes. She'd been hearing an awful lot of this lately. "You're not an old man."
"Yeah, you're right. Maybe more like a baby learning to walk. I bet Roxie's kid will be running around here before I am."
"You've certainly got the baby attitude down," Clarice muttered under her breath.
"What was that?" Samson asked.
Clarice just sighed. "Do you have to be so grouchy about everything?"
"Why shouldn't I be grouchy?" Samson retorted. "I mean look at the situation we're in. We're trapped in here and we're probably going to die. You people haven't been able to come up with any way to save ourselves. And I've been left out of everything because I can't freaking walk."
As if to illustrate his last point, a sharp twinge of pain struck him and he grimaced.
"Take it easy," Kaia said. "You have to be patient with these things. Clarice is right, raising your blood pressure isn't going to help you at all."
"I don't think my blood pressure is the issue here," Samson grumbled.
"I can feel it in your aura," Kaia said. "The negative energy is only creating more stress for your body to have to overcome. You need to relax and focus your positive energy if you want to recover faster. I can teach you some meditation exercises if you'd like."
"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea," Clarice said quickly, before Samson had a chance to object. "Why don't you guys work on that, and I'm gonna go take a break."
Samson sighed heavily and gave her an exasperated look, but she just ignored him and scooted on out the door.
Outside in the hall, Clarice slouched against the wall and leaned her head back. Just being around Samson these days felt draining.
Seemingly from out of nowhere a fairy ballerina princess came jetéing down the hallway toward her, coming to rest in a graceful pose. As Clarice watched, slightly dumbfounded, the ballerina twirled her hands above her head and then held one hand out toward Clarice.
"You seem weary, Clarice," she said sweetly. "Won't you come dance with me?"
Clarice looked more closely. "Um... April? Is that you?"
The fairy simply gave her a friendly smile.
Clarice spent another moment giving April a skeptical look, and then quickly glanced around the hallway to make sure that nobody else was watching. She had a feeling that this was kind of silly, but something compelled her to reach her hand out toward the beckoning fairy.
"Heyyyy, Clarice!" called a voice down the hall. She turned to see Kamina trotting toward her with Hikki trailing behind him. She quickly pulled her hand back, since she was absolutely not going to let either of them see her dancing like an idiot.
"Hey, share some of that energy, will ya?" she said as the boys caught up to her.
Kamina grinned. "Having a rough day? I bet you'll perk up when you see what I have to show you."
"Really? I hope you're right," Clarice said, glancing back at the ballerina, who looked kind of disappointed but soon masked it with an encouraging smile.
"Go ahead, I hope you find what you're looking for," she said, before pirouetting off down the hallway.
Kamina and Hikki watched her go, Hikki looking a little wistful.
"What in the world was that?" Kamina asked.
"It's... nevermind," Clarice said, shaking her head. She wasn't sure she could explain it to them even if she wanted to. "Let's just get going."
"You got it," Kamina answered, and they headed out.
**********
Clarice, Hikki, and Kamina found Matrix and Cille waiting for them in an isolated hallway, where a hole had been dug into a wall. The three newcomers weren't quite sure what they were getting themselves into, but they followed Matrix and Kamina into the tunnel. It was fairly narrow but tall enough for them to walk upright, aside from a few spots where large rocks or tree roots forced them to duck or crawl on their hands and knees. Matrix led the way with a large flashlight.
"So you guys dug this whole thing in only a week?" Cille asked.
"That's right," Kamina said proudly. "I used to know a little bit about digging, you know. And the Professor here got me the best helpers I could have asked for."
"What helpers?" Clarice asked.
Matrix turned around and winked at her. "You'll meet them when we get where we're going," he answered enigmatically.
The journey took quite a while, and Clarice, Cille and Hikki were impressed by how much work had gone into digging the passageway. It must have been even longer than the original escape tunnel, and Cille grew hopeful that it would lead to someplace outside the army's patrol area.
"Okay, this is where we stop," Kamina finally announced.
The others peered past him, and saw in the dim light what appeared to be a thick mass of tangled vines blocking their way.
"Oh man," Cille groaned. "Don't tell me you got all this way and couldn't get past those vines?"
Matrix and Kamina both turned to her with mischievous grins. "Oh, they're not vines," Matrix said.
Clarice moved past them to look closer at the obstacle. The first thing she noticed was that some of the vines seemed to be twitching. The second thing she noticed was that they were sort of slimy and vaguely reptilian. Or was it amphibian?
"Holy flaming Jebus those are tentacles!" she shouted, jumping back.
"That's right!" Matrix said proudly. "My little helpers dug their way here, and now they're protecting their handiwork. I dare anybody out there to look at this and think it's not just part of the local plant life."
"Sooo... how are we supposed to get through here?" Cille asked, looking around at the walls. "I don't see a control panel anywhere."
"Well, yes, as you may have realized, we didn't really have the facilities for a major technical installation out here," Matrix said. "Hence the concept of the organic door in the first place. As far as getting through, the tentacles have been trained to respond to certain password phrases, as I shall now demonstrate."
The others exchanged glances, not sure what to expect but kind of impressed that Matrix could rig something like this up... presuming it worked.
Matrix cleared his throat, and then addressed the tentacle door with an authoritative voice. "For health and beauty, take a cup of tea after a meal."
Clarice raised an eyebrow. "What the hell kind of password is that?"
Matrix shot her an annoyed look. "It's the only thing they would respond to, okay? I didn't make it up, so don't ask me what it means."
"Okay, okay," Clarice relented.
Amazingly, the tentacles seemed to recognize the phrase, and they started wriggling before separating from each other and pulling back to the edges of the tunnel to reveal a hole leading out of the side of a hill.
"Wow, eet actually worked," Hikki said.
Matrix proceeded confidently through the opening, while the two women exchanged uneasy glances.
"Well... what is it the kids say these days? YOLO?" Clarice remarked. She put her arms up to cover her head and barreled through the door, trying to ignore whatever icky things she might be touching on the way by.
"Oh geez..." Cille murmured, before diving through with a little yelp.
Hikki paused to take a closer look at the doorway, trying to weigh how badly he wanted to go through it.
Standing next to him, Kamina chuckled. "The Prof sure is smart, but he sure is strange," he observed.
"You don't have to tell me zat," Hikki replied.
Kamina grinned. "You should have seen him before. He was stumped on what to do about covering up the opening so nobody could get inside, and then all of a sudden he just started talking to himself. Except it wasn't like mutterin' your ideas out loud, you know, it was like he was actually talking to someone, except it was just him. I tried to talk back to him, but he shushed me and told me I was interrupting his muse. But after all that, he comes up with these ideas to make a door out of tentacles and give them a passcode to open and close. Pretty brilliant, if you ask me."
Hikki couldn't argue that the plan seemed to have been effective, but it still squicked him out when he had to step over (and duck under) the tentacles to get out of the hole.
He was instantly reminded of how long it had been since he had experienced fresh air and sunshine. He had to take a moment just to close his eyes and breathe in.
Cille and Matrix were busy scanning the area with an infrared heat sensor as Clarice looked around with binoculars.
"I'm not seeing any army encampments out here," Clarice said.
"My readings are only picking up non-humanoid life forms," Matrix added.
"Does zat mean zees area ees safe?" Hikki asked hopefully.
"There's a good chance of it," Matrix answered. "I've been running periodic scans since we broke through and I haven't detected anybody out here. So for now, I'd consider it clear."
"Where exactly are we?" Cille asked, wishing she'd brought one of her maps.
Matrix pulled a GPS out of his pocket. "Right here," he said, showing her their location.
"Hmmm... that's actually not far from one of our escape routes," Cille said thoughtfully. "It wouldn't be hard to make your way there and then follow the rest of the path to Comedia."
"You're not gonna get a mech out through that tunnel though," Clarice pointed out.
"Well yeah, obviously, but you'd at least be able to start getting people out through here," Kamina said. "And some people getting out is better than no people getting out."
The others considered this idea.
"The whole reason we waited was so everybody could get out at once," Cille said. "What about the people who are still hurt?"
"Yeah, if we tell people there's a way out now, everybody's gonna just rush the exit and leave the weaklings behind," Clarice agreed.
"Well you'd want to be careful how you handled it," Kamina said. "But you guys can work out a plan for that, right?"
Clarice and Cille exchanged glances and then turned to Hikki. He was looking very thoughtful, and in fact was remembering his earlier conversation with Spike.
"We weel speak to ze council about zees, and decide togezzer what we should do. But we cannot let zees opportuneety sleep by," he said quietly. "Some weel have to volunteer to remain weez ze eenjured, but zose zat weesh to go should be geeven zeir freedom. We weel determine ze best and safest way to go about eet when we talk to ze ozzers."
Clarice nodded. "That sounds reasonable. Do you want to call a meeting right away?"
Hikki looked up at the sky. It was late afternoon, and the sun would be going down soon. "I... seenk we should consult Solomon and Mustang first. Zey should be prepared weez zees eenformation before we breeng ze ozzers een."
"Roger," Clarice said. "I'll find them and let them know. Let's meet in the control room as soon as we can."
"Right," Cille agreed. "I'll update my maps in the meantime." She sounded like she was actually looking forward to having something to work on.
"First we need to get back zere..." Hikki pointed out, not really looking forward to another hike through the dank tunnel.
"No problem, back in we go," Kamina said, cheerfully bounding toward the doorway. The others followed, and Hikki and Cille both took one last longing look at the outside world before they squicked past the tentacles.
"I assume you have a way to close this up?" Clarice asked.
"Of course," Matrix said confidently.
Once everyone was inside, the scientist once again addressed his squirmy minions. "One cup of Russian tea, not with jam, not with marmalade, but with honey."
Clarice and Hikki exchanged skeptical looks, but decided not to say anything this time.
Right on cue, the tentacles entwined around each other across the opening, restoring the thick vine-like barrier.
"And voila!" Matrix said triumphantly, looking like he expected the others to start applauding.
"Well that certainly is a thing," Cille acknowledged.
"I never thought I'd say it, but you might have saved our asses here, Matrix," Clarice added. "Nice work."
"Thank you, thank you, all in a day's work for your average brilliant mad scientist," Matrix said, bowing with faux humility.
Kamina cleared his throat.
"And of course your average... um, former digger and bastion of manliness," Matrix added quickly.
"Right on!" Kamina said with a grin. "Now let's get moving."
As they trooped back down the tunnel, all of them actually felt a new spring in their step. There was a lot of work and a fair share of uncertainty ahead of them, but at last they'd been shown a glimmer of hope.
Chapter 61 Author's Notes
Recurring Characters:
Lucille "Cille" Compton - Cille
Hikki Follet - Kohikki
Professor M. Matrix - matrixman124
Elizabeth Saurie St. Gaurdsmen - EdSpikeSesshyGirl
Samson Monroe - MasterSamson
Clarice Rowe - QueenoftheDorks
Kaia Namek - namek_kaia
*Roxie Goldsmith - anime_goddess05
April - LirpaYamEnujYluj
Goose Maverick - Top_Gun (Matrix's muse)
Kamina - Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann
Lloyd Asplund - Code Geass
*Straight Cougar - s-CRY-ed
Spike Spiegel - Cowboy Bebop
Kenzou Tenma - Monster
Solomon Goldsmith - Blood+
Roy Mustang - Fullmetal Alchemist
* Characters marked with an asterisk are mentioned but do not take an active part in the story.
References
Fairy ballerina princess - Princess Tutu
Beretta 92FS - Tenma's firearm of choice in Monster
"For health and beauty, take a cup of tea after a meal" & "One cup of Russian tea, not with jam, not with marmalade, but with honey" - Legend of the Galactic Heroes