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Miorine was avoiding Suletta.
It was a fact that the girl wouldn’t ( couldn’t ) deny. Ever since the incident at Plant Quetta, Miorine had made a concerted effort to be in as little contact with her groom as possible. The only times she couldn’t were when it was mandatory, usually involving GUND-ARM Inc. People had started to take notice too, if the rumors and gossip that Miorine would sometimes overhear were any indication. She was certain that the other members of Earth House had noticed too, though none of them had said anything to her. They had been strangely distant lately, though Miorine had yet to find out why. Whatever it was, they were keeping it close to their chests.
Ironically, the only one who hadn’t seemed to notice was Suletta herself. Or, at least, it didn’t seem like she had. Miorine would sometimes hear her mumbling to herself about how ‘Ms. Miorine was busy’ or some other flimsy excuse. But, god forbid, the girl still kept to what they promised. Miorine would return to her room twice a week to find the place completely spotless, she noticed that the compost in the Greenhouse was depleting faster than usual and every day without fail Suletta would send her three messages. One to say good morning, one to talk about whatever she was doing that day, and one to say goodnight.
To Miorine’s shame she had left every single one on read.
Every time she tried to give the other girl even something as simple as a curt response she just… froze up. Fingers hovering uselessly over the keyboard, memories of a haunting smile coming unbidden to her mind.
Even now, laying in her bed and staring at the ceiling (not because she didn’t want to leave and probably run into Suletta), she couldn’t get that moment out of her head. She had had time to reflect on it, she had even talked to her father about it, something she still found hard to believe. Her best guess was that she needed to unload, and he had been the closest one at the time.
All of that culminated in her current line of thought: she didn’t blame Suletta for killing that man. She had, at first, when the shock and adrenaline hadn’t left her system. Now that she was calm, she couldn’t bring herself to be mad at her groom. That terrorist was prepared and more than willing to kill her father, and probably would have killed her too. If Suletta hadn’t acted when she did…
Miorine shivered. She didn’t want to think about that.
No… the thing that disturbed Miorine?
That smile. That damned smile.
She had just crushed a man into paste, yet she was acting like… like she had tripped over her own feet! Was that… was that really the same Suletta? The same Suletta that Miorine had been slowly but surely falling in love with? Someone who could smile in the same breath she took a life…
Has it all been an act? Is this how Suletta truly is?
That formed the basis of why Miorine had been avoiding Suletta. She couldn’t… couldn’t reconcile the two different Sulettas. Every time she was near her, that haunting smile and bloodstained hand would appear before her. She’d feel blood on her skin, the metallic tang of gore and viscera assaulting her nose-
Miorine was snapped out of her thoughts by the dinging of her phone.
She frowned. It wasn't time for a message from Suletta, so who could it be? Her father demanding something from her? An update on his condition? Perhaps one of the members of Earth House?
Miorine lazily rolled over, reaching out her arm and fetching her phone from its resting spot on her other pillow. She powered the phone up, quickly navigating to the messages tab.
Sure enough, there was a notification alerting her to a new message. Strangely enough though it wasn’t from any of Miorine’s current contacts.
She had half a mind to delete it and mark it off as spam.
She opened the message.
Miorine-San, please come to the Earth House Mobile Suit hangar at your earliest opportunity. I want… I NEED your help.
It’s about Suletta.
-Anonymous
Miorine had been ready to ignore it. Some anonymous source calling her out to a location she didn’t visit very often? It was beyond suspicious.
That is, until she read the final sentence.
“Suletta…”
A few minutes later Miorine was dressed and walking out the door. Because despite everything that’s happened, despite the apprehension and confusion and fear she feels… she still loves the other girl.
And if she had a chance to figure out what the hell is going on then she was damn well doing to take it.
Miraculously, on her way there she didn’t run into Suletta or any of the members of Earth House. The only ones were other students, who gave her wary glances as she passed by.
As a whole the trip was thankfully uneventful, and Miorine soon found herself in Earth House’s MS hangar. ChuChu’s custom Demi-Trainer was there, along with the Zoworts that they had acquired from Peil for the duel against Shadiq. They weren’t operational again yet, there had been a few… distractions since then, but to Miorine’s knowledge it shouldn’t be much longer.
And then, of course, there was Aerial.
Honestly, it was kind of jarring for Miorine to look at the mobile suit after its repairs. She had grown so used to Aerial’s previous design that the new look was throwing her off.
A hand coming down, blood and viscera and bone flying through the zero-G air, a metal hand tinted a dark red-
Miorine shook her head. No time to think about that now. She scanned the hangar, trying to find the person who had asked her to come here in the first place.
No sooner did she start looking, her phone buzzed, indicating another message. She looked down to examine the contents, from the same anonymous messenger.
Please ascend to the scaffolding around the Mobile Suits and make your way towards Aerial.
Miorine frowned. That was… oddly specific. She still wasn’t sure about this, but she did as the message instructed. She took the elevator up, maneuvering her way carefully towards the group’s resident Gundam.
As soon as she got close she got another message.
Please take a seat in the cockpit
The hell did that even me-
Miorine jumped (just a tiny bit) as Aerial’s cockpit hatch opened. After the shock wore off her confusion only deepened. How did it open? She didn’t do anything, and from what she could tell there wasn’t anyone inside. So how…?
She shook her head. Only one way to find out.
Taking a breath, she cautiously stepped into the rebuilt Aerial’s cockpit and took a seat as the hatch closed behind her. She was enveloped by darkness for a scant few seconds before lights began blinking to life, bathing the cockpit in a gentle glow.
This only serves to confuse the girl more. It was… starting up on its own? No… the suit itself hasn't fully activated. It was more like it was entering a standby state, a limbo between asleep and awake.
A message flashed across the console. “ Thank you for coming, Miorine-san. ”
Miorine frowned, looking around in confusion. Now whoever this mystery person was was sending messages through Aerial? Was that even possible? “Who are you? Where are you, and how are you doing this?”
“ Ah, you appear to be confused. My apologies. I am the Gundam Aerial, and you are currently sitting inside my cockpit. I would explain how I am doing this, but that would take time better spent on other things.”
Miorine blinked. “What-“
“I’ve called you to discuss a matter of great-“
“Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute! I think we’re skipping some pretty important stuff!”
“ We are?”
“Yeah! Like, Y’know, how are you even doing this?! You’re a Mobile Suit, aren’t you?”
“ Yes. However, this suit also has an Artificial Intelligence system installed on board, which forms the basis for my ‘conscience’, if you will. I assist Suletta with piloting, and act as an intermediary between her and the GUND-Format. As I can process data at levels far surpassing that of a human, this allows us to avoid the issue of data storms.”
Miorine, for her part, was still trying to digest this sudden information dump. Aerial was an A.I? She was fully sentient? Or, barring that, approaching the point of being so? She actively had a hand in helping Suletta pilot? Suletta talking to her mobile suit WASN’T some strangely endearing quirk of hers?
“Okay… I have so many questions about everything you just said, but that can wait. You said you wanted to talk about Suletta?”
“Yes. I trust that you noticed a… radical shift in behavior during the incident at Plant Quetta?”
Miorine sighed. “That’s a bit of an understatement…”
“ This is what I called you to discuss. It is worrying to me as well. ”
“…so… she wasn’t always like this?”
“ No. This is an extremely bizarre turn of behavior. Exceedingly out of the ordinary. ”
Miorine let out a sigh of relief. So that meant the Suletta she had fallen for was the real Suletta. It hadn’t all been an act to hide her murderous intent.
But that raised the question…
“What the hell happened then?”
“ I believe I have an answer for that. That is why I called for you.”
“Then come on, out with it! If you know what’s going on then it’s my right as her bride to know!”
“Of course. However, I believe it would be easier to show than tell.”
Just as Miorine was about to ask what Aerial meant, the main screen flashed to life.
A mobile suit hangar was displayed, though it looked distinctly different than the one at Earth House.
“A… video feed?”
“ Yes. This recording will have the answers you seek. ”
It started out on the inside of a Mobile Suit hanger, obviously from Aerial’s perspective. After a few seconds Miorine could make out movement behind the glass window overlooking the hangar.
As if responding to her unannounced curiosity, the camera zoomed in, revealing the unfortunately familiar normal suit that the Dawn of Fold members wore. At least, it was the same as the one she had seen.
She fought down the bile threatening the back of her throat.
They were talking, though Miorine couldn’t make out what they were saying. But something else stole her attention away.
Suletta climbing her way out of an air vent.
“Suletta?”
Miorine’s groom had bolted to the ground, sitting against the wall and slapping her hands over her mouth.
For a moment Miorine was hopeful that they wouldn’t notice her.
But then they twisted around, raising their rifles to aim down the corridor.
Miorine’s heart quickened. “Suletta!”
The screen blinked, and the perspective was changed to inside the corridor.
Miorine blinked. Huh?
“I have switched the camera feed to a security camera inside the corridor. In addition, this camera also possesses an audio receptor, so you can hear what is about to transpire.”
Miorine frowned. “How did you even get access to the camera in the first place?”
“I hacked into it.”
“… You… hacked into it?”
“Yes.”
“Is that… something you could always do?”
Miorine swore the lights pulsed red for a second.
Did… did Aerial just blush ?
“ No. During my recent repairs, Mother- that is, Prospera Mercury- added a suite of ECM features to me.”
…The more Aerial talked to her the more questions Miorine had.
She shook her head. Suletta came first.
“Continue, please.”
“Affirmative.”
The Dawn of Fold members began marching down the hallway, and each step caused Miorine’s heart to beat that much faster. Realistically, she knew Suletta was going to be okay. They saw each other not even an hour later, after all.
But that didn’t do much to ease her anxiety.
Mere moments before one of the men discovered Suletta a bullet ripped through his head.
The suddenness of the gunshot cause Miorine to jump, the blood in the air reminding her of-
Miorine clenched her fists, digging her nails into her palms hard enough for the pain to ground her.
No. Not again.
It took her a moment to slide her eyes across to spot the shooter. It surprised her, but in hindsight… it really shouldn’t have.
Prospera Mercury.
She didn’t even flinch as she quickly put down the other Dawn of Fold members along with help from her assistant. She gunned them down without hesitation, without so much as blinking an eye(so far as Miorine would guess).
It was… too familiar.
Soon enough the Dawn of Fold members were lying motionless on the floor, blood slowly pooling around their bodies. Prospera walked forward calmly, stepping over a couple as she approached Suletta’s hiding spot.
“Suletta?”
Suletta turned her head as Suletta rounded the corner.
“ I’m sorry about that. You must have been scared.”
Prospera’s voice was smooth, and at first glance it might even sound like she was genuinely relieved Suletta was okay.
But that… that was too smooth.
Prospera was far too calm, given that she just killed three people and her daughter was almost killed. She was acting as if everything was perfectly fine, perfectly natural.
That scared Miorine.
Suletta looked terrified, clutching her knees as she stammered about how Prospera killed them.
“ If you run you gain one. If you move forward, you gain two.”
Suletta looked to be just as shocked to hear Prospera say that as Miorine was. How the hell did that even apply to that situation?
“ If I had ran, I would have gained one by not killing them. But by moving forward I saved you. Will you move forward, Suletta?”
Every word Prospera spoke made Miorine’s skin crawl. Every single sentence was calm and calculated, spoken as if she were talking to someone less than half Suletta’s age.
Suletta stammered on how if she moved forward she’d have to kill, and Prospera’s tone never changed. She gently tugged Suletta forward down the path she wanted the girl to walk with every word.
Suletta, for her part, looked to be on the edge of a panic attack, her eyes darting in every which direction.
“It’s scary, right? You don’t want to get hurt, right?”
Prospera gently (too gently) took Suletta’s hand in her own. “But if you and Aerial work together… then Mom… and Suletta… and Miorine-san… can all be saved.”
Miorine swore she saw a flash of… something… in Suletta’s eyes.
Suletta blinked. “ Saved?”
“ Yes. Only the two of you can save them now.”
Prospera stood up, reaching her hand down to Suletta. “ Suletta, I know you’re ready to move forward.”
Miorine shivered. The way she was standing, with her hand outstretched… it looked almost like…
A bloodied hand, a terrifying smile, the girl she loved-
No… no, it didn’t almost look like it.
It looked exactly the same.
The exact same as when Suletta offered her own hand to Miorine… the exact same as when she called her Groom a murderer.
Suletta stood up slowly, and even more slowly took a step forward.
“I can move forward. I have moved forward.”
Her gaze turned back up towards her mother. But there was something… wrong, with her eyes. The look on her face…
It was the same as when Prospera brushed aside the fact she had been lying to Suletta her whole life.
Suletta wore a smile as she spoke her mantra. “If you run, gain one.”
Prospera returned the smile with one of her own. “If you move forward, gain two.”
And just like that, the camera feed cut out.
Miorine was left alone with her thoughts, trying to sort through everything she just saw as gentle blue light enveloped the cockpit.
“Miorine-san?”
Miorine held a hand to her head. “She… she was terrified at the mere thought of having to kill… then she said that, and…”
Miorine’s confusion rapidly gave way to rage. “Prospera… Mercury!”
It was her fault! It was her fault that Suletta could smile like that after turning a man into paste. It was her that twisted their mantra, gaslit her own daughter into becoming a killer.
“Aerial… has she always treated Suletta like that?”
“For the brief times they would often meet, yes.”
Miorine had a bad feeling about that. “What do you mean?”
“Mother was often away on business trips in the Earth Sphere. She would return intermittently for whatever reason, but it was not often. After a while, she even stopped returning in time for Suletta’s birthday. And as Mercury had no other children…”
“Suletta has only had you.”
Realization dawned on Miorine. “She’s been alone practically her whole life, with only you and her mother to interact with. And even then, Prospera was the only human contact she had… uh, no offense.”
“ None taken.”
“She probably takes Prospera’s word as gospel. She probably doesn’t think her mother could do any wrong… it would explain why she so easily went with the flimsy god damn excuse Prospera gave her for lying about you not being a Gundam her whole life.”
Miorine felt the rage that had been simmering begin to rise to the forefront of her mind once again.
Prospera had manipulated Suletta perfectly. Could you really even call it conditioning or gaslighting when Prospera was just able to perfectly use Suletta’s personality and ideals against her?
She had made Suletta view that man as something not even human in the first place.
“Damn her!”
“Do you understand now, Miorine-san?”
“Yeah. I understood perfectly.”
“ Then please… I have a request.”
Miorine cocked her head. “What do you mean?”
“Please save Suletta… please save my sister from herself. I never wanted this for her. I wanted her to have a normal school life, to make friends her own age and do all the things on her wishlist. I had to watch, helplessly, as my sister used me to take a life without even realizing the gravity of it. But Mother keeps too close of an eye on me. And besides that… right now my voice wouldn’t be able to reach her.”
“And you think mine can?”
“I know it can. I’ve known it ever since you and Suletta first met, ever since that very first duel. The two of you are fated for each other.”
Miorine couldn’t control her blush. “W-what’s that even supposed to mean?!”
“It means… I look forward to calling you my sister as well, Miorine-san.”
Miorine swore her face was as red as one of her tomatoes. “I-I-Isn’t that thinking a bit too far ahead!?”
“I digress. Now, Miorine-san… will you please accept my request? Will you save Suletta? My sister?”
Miorine scoffed. “Did you even have to ask? That girl's my groom… and the one I love. No way in hell am I leaving her. B-but you better not tell her that, got it!?”
“Thank you so much, Miorine-san. I will do everything I can to help.”
Miorine smiled. “Thank you, Aerial.”
Miorine had a mission now. She was going to get Suletta out of Prospera’s clutches. She was going to save her idiot groom, whether she liked it or not.
Or she was damn well gonna die trying.