"Oh, that. Well, Hyper Mode didn't seem to cut it when I was fighting that dog demon, Terranox, was it? Well, he decided to put a hole through me," he said, lifting up his good hand to point at the large gap in his armor, showing ruined parts through it. "So, when he did that, I decided to bear-hug up so he couldn't do anything else, and threw myself down to the bottom of the gorge. With, uh, the full output of my Ao-Gem running. He got splattered, and, well, you can see how I came out of it."

"Will you be okay?" Helena asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Jared waved it off--at least, he tried to. His hand spasmed and then fell down to his side. He stared at it. "Huh. Servos went out in my arm."

She grabbed his failed hand and lifted it up. "Just get better soon, okay? Alasea already lost her dad, she doesn't need anyone else to die."

Jared looked startled, his eyes widening. Which was rather disconcerting, considering one eye was unnaturally bright while the other was unnaturally dim. "What? The General is dead?"

"Yeah," Helena said. "Alasea's crushed. She went off to be by herself, but I don't know where she ran to."

"Best way to find her if she's like that is to ask in the security room," Jared mused, looking quite distraught himself, "But its not a real good idea to approach her when she's really upset. 'sea doesn't deal with grief that well, and she pushes people away if they try to comfort her when it happens."

He groaned irritably and laid his head back, causing the nurse to give him a concerned look. "Hope no one decided to approach her. She's got a pretty sharp tongue as it is, and when she's upset..."

He shook his head.

"Yeah. We just found out how she gets." Helena laid Jared's hand over his chest, carefully. "I'll go look for her."

Jared winced. "Which one of you guys was lucky enough to make that mistake?" he asked before Helena could leave.

Helena looked back at the cyborg. "R.D.. But I think Matt would've made her mad anyway if he said the little 'inspirational speech' he was planning."

"R.D., huh?" Jared murmured. Well, that wasn't good. He had a feeling that she and him were an item, like he was with her years ago. Or at the very least, that she liked the amnesiac boy. Who knows how much this damaged their relationship now.

"Well, good luck finding her," Jared said. "I need to go and get repaired. God knows that's gonna take forever and a half."

"Okay," Helena said. "I'll see you later, Jared." She floated off to find someone who could point her to the security room.

He watched the weredragon go, then laid his head back, looking up at the ceiling as the nurse continued taking him to the Ragnarok's online robotics laboratory.

"So, that's what everyone was in such a bad mood about?" Jared asked the nurse.

She nodded. "We didn't tell you what happened because we didn't know how you'd react," she explained. "You're in no condition to be stressed out about General Dagenais' sacrifice."

"I'll live," he said. "I'm the world's strongest cyborg, after all."

"You're also missing three of your limbs and can't even use your remaining one," she pointed out with a raised eyebrow. "You're strong, sure, but you're not invincible."

"Yeah, yeah," Jared grumbled, rolling his eyes. Only one of them responded for him.

Meanwhile, Matt and Hugo had found themselves a table, and instead of talking strategy, they were doing what every soldier has probably done at one point or another.

"I've never slept in space before," Matt remarked, several empty cans of cola lurking in front of him. "I'm kinda concerned about it."

"Why?" Hugo asked.

"Well, it's space. I'm kind of afraid of...you know. Not being able to breathe."

Hugo chuckled. "I wouldn't know what that's like."

For maybe the fourth time in as many minutes, Ileyna had to reach up and grab her beret and force it back onto her head.

"Mmn," she grumbled, looking up as she did so. She was used to her beret slipping, that was nothing unusual. Floating off her head, however, was getting annoying.

The door to the mess hall opened up with a soft hiss, allowing R.D. entry. He had fallen back when the others had left the hallway outside of Alasea's quarters, causing them to go on ahead of him. He floated on over to the edge of the serving counter and ordered something to eat, and then took the tray back to the others. The troubled expression was still on his face, even though he wasn't looking at anything in particular.

"Just put that in your pocket for now," Matt told Ileyna. Her floating beret was starting to piss him off, too. He saw R.D. approach and opened with a curt nod. "Hey."

Pouting, Ileyna pulled her beret off and held it in both of her hands. R.D., meanwhile, grunted in response, lost in thought as he was.

"She'll come around," Hugo said to R.D., responding to what Matt figured was the problem.

R.D. finally looked up, as if realizing they were talking to him. After a moment, though, he frowned. "Its... not that," he muttered, sitting down. Or rather, making the attempt, as the level of gravity made it a bit complicated.

"What is it, then?" Matt asked. He pointed underneath the table. "Wrap your feet around the seat legs, it'll keep you still."

R.D. did so and anchored himself, dragging him down to sit on the seat. It was weird, but nothing he couldn't tolerate. "Its... I don't know. Just forget about it."

Ileyna gave the older boy a sidelong glance as she sucked some juice out of the thermos she had been given. She knew about how R.D. had amnesia, but she wondered if no one else could do anything about it.

Sure, he was going to forget about it. When Matt was in a mood, EVERYONE knew something was wrong. No point in R.D. trying to hide it-it was pretty obvious something was down.

But there had been enough bad feelings for today, so Matt just went back to his soda and left it at that.

They ate in silence, letting themselves adjust a bit to the unusual environment that was space. After eating his sparse meal, R.D. excused himself and left the cafeteria. As he drifted down the hallway, occasionally passing a uniform-clad crewmember or a G.A.R. soldier in full gear, he became lost in thought once more. He knew he shouldn't upset his friends with the way he was acting, but he couldn't help it.

No you don't! You have no idea! How could you, when you don't even have a family of your own!?

Alasea's words cut deep into his soul. Family. Of course, he lacked a family. Why was that? He was young; seventeen years of age according to his genetics, as Samus and the scientists of Aube had told him. He was decidedly healthy, lacking any kind of sign of malnourishment from any point in his life, so he had lived comfortably up until a point. He had a home, a home that could easily fit more than one person it it and still be able for everyone to live comfortably. There were pictures of more than just him there. And yet it was so... empty.

When R.D. had spoken to Ondal on that deserted island, after he and Alasea had washed up from their battle on Persior, he had distantly hoped that he would find... someone there at his "home". That there would be someone there who would recognize him and tell him what he couldn't remember. But the place was cold and empty, only being a step away from having an air of abandonment surrounding it.

So where was his family? Did he even have one? And why... why did it hurt so damn much when he thought about it? When Alasea had screamed at him that he didn't have one? What had happened?

His train of thought was instantly derailed when something heavy barreled into him from an adjacent hallway.

Matt and Hugo were still drinking together.

"I need a monocle," Matt said.

The Mettaur just gave him a look that meant he wasn't even going to answer.

"Why do you need a monocle?" Ileyna asked after finishing another sip from the thermos.

===

There was a simultaneous grunt and high-pitched yelp as the collision happened in the hallway, sending R.D. drifting into the wall and bouncing off of it slowly. Turning in the air, R.D. looked to see whatever it was that slammed into him. He was surprised, as it were, when he saw that it had been a young woman, who was now slowly rotating in the air with a dazed expression on her face.

He decided she looked rather unsuited for the environment aboard the XA-26-483 Ragnarok. Instead of a crew-member's uniform, the girl was clad in an outfit more suited for running about in the wilderness. Green shorts clung to her hips, and her white button-up shirt had its sleeves rolled up to her biceps. Her wrists and feet were covered in wristbands and heavy boots, respectively, but most unusual was the gigantic backpack slung around her shoulders. It was slowly spilling various objects as the girl drifted.

She suddenly shook her head, whipping her blond hair, pulled back in a ponytail, around her face. Blue eyes blinked several times before focusing on him. She yelped again. "Ah! Special Officer R.D.!" she squeaked, straightening her body and saluting him immediately. "I'm sorry for running into you, sir!"

R.D. blinked. Did everyone in G.A.R. knew who they were or something? He'd never seen this girl before. Hesitantly, he saluted her back. "Uh... who are you?" he asked.

"Rumi, sir! Sergeant Rumi Aikawa!"

Right. At least he had a name now. He noticed the girl had slightly Asian features in her face. He shook his head, realizing the girl had probably been shunted on board during the evacuation and hadn't had a chance to get changed into anything else.

"Is there, uh, a problem or something?" he asked Rumi.

She flinched. "I'm, uh, lost, sir. I don't know my way around the ship. I'm trying to find my assigned quarters and a mess hall to get a bite to eat."

"I can't help you with your quarters," R.D. said, then pointed down the hall where he'd floated from. "But there's a mess hall right down this hallway."

"Ah! Thank you, sir!" she exclaimed, saluting him again before pushing off down the hall. R.D. watched her enter, then shook his head before turning around.

Edited by RisingDragon on August 26, 2009 at 19:49:04.

"What? Oh, I dunno. Just felt like saying something random."

"Which is practically ALL the time," Hugo said.

Ileyna opened her mouth to comment, but closed it as the door to the mess hall opened up again, allowing Rumi entrance. Ileyna stared at the girl's giant backpack as she floated around the table towards the cafeteria. She'd never seen a backpack so huge.

Rumi halted her flight at the edge of the serving counter, and flashed the cook a smile.

"You're here early," he said, getting her ordered food ready.

She pouted. "I don't get lost all the time!"

The cook shot her a rather pointed look, and the girl looked away, looking embarassed. "Okay, someone gave me directions. Jeez."

Was the size of that thing really neccessary? Eh, it didn't matter. Matt had more important things to do. Like raise his blood sugar with this health-threatening soda. Lip-smackingly good!

As Rumi went to sit at a far table, Ileyna turned back to Matt and Hugo.

"So when are we supposed to leave?" she asked, remembering just how adamant he had been on leaving when they had received the Omega Essence from G.A.R.'s forces.

"We're gonna eat, get some sleep, then get outta here," Matt said. "I'm too tired to do anything else right now."