3Witch: ugh yeah, sorry guys. It's not anything from the stories that I SHOULD be finishing and I know it's horrible of me, but I really couldn't help myself from making this story. I promise I'm going back to "Please, help me forget" and "Slave Master" as soon as I finish this one, okay? I'm planning it as a three shot, so it shouldn't take that long.
Chapter unbeated, so please, forgive me for the mistakes!
I hope you'll enjoy it :)
Helios was just finishing his routines of one hundered push-ups, when sudden commotion in the corridor near gym made him interested.
He grabbed his shirt from a chair and followed other fighters, who were already crwoding in the entrance. Noises coming from there were getting more and more violent, from usual threats into undistinguishable animalistic growls. Helios sighed, annoyed, as he recognized one of the fighting guys' voice.
"One more time and you'll..."
"Fuck you, ya colony bastard...!"
There was more struggling and the two apparently hit the wall more than once with all the thudding noise that was going on. Since Helios couldn't elbow his way through the crowd, he resigned and started dressing, completely loosing interest. Not that arguing between fighters was something unusual or strange, but even though he understood all that testosterone going around, he still found Cain's antics over 'protecting' his Navi from others quite childlish.
"He's mine, ya shit!"
"Oh yeah?!"
More thudding noises and screaming. Cringing, Helios took his jacket and decided it was high time for him to leave the gym, since he wouldn't be able to do any more of his training with that fight near. Cain will probably see it fit to run through the area and smash everything into the other guy's head, preferably with him being still alive. And that was something Helios didn't want to watch and actually did't have time to. He had VR training scheduled with his Navigator and he didn't want to be late.
He was just stepping out of the door through back entrance, when another voice could be heard in the crowd of cat-calls and cheering.
"Cain, no! Stop it!"
Helios was the one who stopped dead in his tracks, apparently opposite to Cain, as he must have got punched in the face, judging by his enraged shouting. Helios turned on his heel and started to peel away people from thick crowd in his way in direction of distressed voice of Abel. He didn't know why, but his cries made him want to rip Cain to pieces and sprinkle salt on every little part.
Helios has been coincidently meeting Abel for a while now, usually with Cain by his side, who was a jealous jackass and rude prick. In opposition to his sweet Navi, the fighter made Helios' skin crawl with angry retorts to his growling threats, while they both were bristling like two mad dogs over one cute puppy. Helios couldn't understand what Abel saw in that idiot, but it was irritating him nonetheless that otherwise intelligent person could have such a bad taste. Cain didn't know how to appreciate someone as good as Abel and if that was someone else... if it was him, he would...
Helios' train of thought was interrupted, because he was now near the center of things and could see how two fighters pushed Abel back and away, making him hit the wall with his arm with small cry of pain. That was the moment, when Helios, adrenaline-pumped from training, started seeing red.
However, before he could swing his arm and join the two assaulters that were now tangled in barking heap on the ground, some huge hands caught him by his shoulder and he heard husky voice commanding him.
"That's it, break it up ladies! Come on, break it up!"
Helios' vision was back to normal as soon as Encke threw Cain at him to overpower, taking the other guy for himself. In a matter of seconds the fighting ring was quiet and subdued, as all fighters were staring at the Lead Fighter with awe and some kind of literarily scared respect. Helios barely had time to compose himself, while his hands worked and otheir own and took possession of Cain's arms. Cain was in such a state that he was able to haul himself at Encke and as much as Helios knew his strenght, he would end up getting sent to Med Bay. If he was lucky.
"Listen up, you idiots! You know full well that we're in the space and might be attacked anytime. You should be ready to fight the enemy not each other! Anyone who starts a fight from this moment is going to be thrown down the brig and I'll probably forget about them for the rest of the flight. Any of you bastards wanna try me?"
In the silence that followed, Encke finally let go of the fighter he was holding by the throat. The guy slid bonelessly to the floor, but Encke didn't even as much as look at him. He just started walking into direction of exit and the crowd split into two part before him, as if the fighters wanted to dissapear from his sight.
Cain, as if petrified until Encke was present, suddenly came back to life, finding himself in tight grip of Helios.
"Let go, fuck-"
"No, don't!" Abel came running from his corner, somehow slipping through the other fighters and kneeling in front of Cain. He took his fighter's face in hands and gripped it, so that Cain wouldn't turn around.
"Cain, look at me! No, come on... why did you do that? I told you I'm alright, you didn't have to... I'm really fine, why did you..."
"Erm... Abel?" Helios decided it was the best moment to interrupt that emotional moment, especially because he was still holding Cain down. "Everybody's watchin' so maybe you'll take it somewhere else?"
He released Cain from his grip, helping him up, but Cain must have been beaten more than he would admit, because he staggered heavily at the wall. Abel took his shoulder and swung it over his without a word. Nodding his fair head at Helios in thanks, they limped together into the corridor leading to joined bunks. Helios tried real hard to fight back pangs of jealousy that appeared in his mind, but he couldn't. He still didn't understand what Abel liked about such a douche like Cain, but well... not that he could do anything. If he could judge from the look that Abel was giving his fighter, the case was hopeless.
Realizing that if he ran, he would only be few minutes late for training with his Navi, Helios rushed to the exit opposite to the one Abel dissapeared with his injured lover.
/
When this day ended, Helios was half-dead. He lied on his bunk, with his arm over his eyes and groaned from muscle pain.
"Are you alright?" gentle voice inquired and a silouette covered electric light. "Do you need something?"
"It's okay Selene." Helios mumbled with his eyes still closed. "I'mma just tired like hell."
Soft chuckling told him that his navigator is in high spirits even if equally drained like him.
"No wonder." admitted Selene and Helios could hear him doing something by the desk as the drawer was opened and closed. "You worked very hard today and it amazed me how... strong you are." he said, hesitating a little. If Helios wouldn't be so exhausted, he would certainly be interested in seeing his navigator blushing red in dim lightening of their bunk. But right now, he was not aware of any turmoil going on in Selene's head and completely oblivious to his tries to change the atmosphere. He just wanted to sleep so badly... he heard Selene saying something more and his brain registered it as important, but his eyes were hurting, his body was hurting and his head was so heavy, even lying down...
"...and I was wondering if we are really compatible... I mean, we do well during the VR training and all, but... Helios?" Selene noticed that from where his fighter was, he could hear quiet regular snoring. He sighed tiredly, a little dejected.
"You're asleep, huh? Not that I can blame you." he said to himself, brushing hair that fell on his face. For a moment he looked as if he was wondering about something, but finally his shoulders slumped and he rubbed his eyes in tired gesture.
"I just hope... I just hope you'll notice me someday..." he whispered, leaving a careful kiss on Helios' mouth. Then, he climbed into his own bed and fell asleep even before his head touched the pillow.
/
Alarm clock rang too early for Helios' poor head. He grimaced, half-asleep and tried to block the sound with his pillow, when his brain woke up with a scream: it wasn't an alarm clock! It's a ship's alarm!
Jumping right away to his feet, still kind of sleepy, Helios knocked over Selene, who wanted to wake him up, apparently worried that he wasn't already up yet. The navigator lost his footing and would fall down if Helios didn't react quicker, fully awake now. He caught Selene into his arms and holding him tightly to himself, sunk to the floor to regain their balance.
"Sorry." Helios rasped into Selene's ear, his voice hoarse from sleeping. "What's going on?"
"I don't know!" Selene had to try real hard to hide his emberassement, but before he came up with a way to not blush more, they could hear a sound of dostant explosion and the ship tilted violently to one side. Alarm became even more urgent than previously.
"All personnel to the away ships in Dock 256! We are under attack! This is not a drill! I repeat: all personnel to the away ships in Dock 256! We are under attack!"
The speakers were barking orders one after another, but Selene couldn't find strenght to move – he was being hugged closely to the body of someone spent just a week with, but that someone was everything he wished for...
"Ow." said Helios, letting go of Selene with one hand and massaging his scalp. "must have hit something hard." he added with a smile, looking down at his navigator. He could see that Selene was gripping his shirt tightly, as if afraid to let go and he found it rather strange, since the other shouldn't be afraid of explosions, right? Helios moved the hand that he was keeping on Selene's neck to pretect it from any shaking that could follow.
"Hey, Selene, you okay?" he asked, feeling on his skin that the navi was trembling slightly. "Let's go, we may be needed."
He helped Selene to get up from the floor and still holding his hand, directed them out of the bunk and into the hangar, where majority of other fighters and navigators off-duty were gathering. On huge monitors they could see the alien ships creating damage in the Kepler and appearing ships of the defense. Also, orders of the commander could be heard through the intercom.
"Blue Team advance! Red team, stay behind to guard repair mechs!"
"Whoa." It was Helios' first observation of real-time fight, because he didn't count in all that VR training. It was totally different and he wondered shortly how would it feel to be up there, with his ship and fight the Colterons that were mercilessly ripping through the Keplers defences. As much as he wasn't a tactic person, even he could see that Blue and Red teams were up to their necks in trouble, being attacked from every side. He was just wondering if it wasn't the high time for the commander to mobilize the off-shift personnel, when the intercom cracked and some other transmission was launched.
"This is Captain Chronos of reinforcements team calling Commander Hayden of Kepler. Captain Chronos calling Commander Hayden. Please, respond."
"Commander Hayden speaking." came in barking voice of the officer. "State your position Captain Chronos."
"We can see Kepler being attacked. My ships are joining the fight and I want you to warn your people of friendly fire, sir."
"Captain Chronos, we don't see..."
The moment the commander said that, radars on the bridge jingled together, signalling new participants in the brawl. From where Helios could see, a squadron of about ten ships or more was quickly advancing from the side to take the Colterons in crossfire together with Blue team. The crowd could hear that Commander Hayden was shouting instructions for the Red team to leave the newcomers alone, as they were reinforcements of some sorts and apparently were sent to help. Helios wondered shortly about how did they manage to have such a good timing, but that was a problem that could be solved later, since right now, both teams somehow managed to surround the enemy and force them to retreat.
A loud cheer hit the hangar.
"This is captain Chronos, come in Kepler. Asking for permission to access the ship."
"We can hear you captain Chronos. Permission granted."
Helios gripped tighter Selene's hand.
"Hey, let's go see who's that!" he shouted, walking forward cheerfully, with his navigator trailing after him, still confused, blushing and feeling as if his hand in Helios' was of fire.
/
Because Cain was always first when something was going on and Abel was on duty on the bridge when the attack came, they both managed to be relatively quick in getting to the arrival hangar. The crowd that observed the fight started to gather here too, as all crew was curious about the newcomers, so it took some effort of Abel and close to none for Cain to work their way through other people. When they finally found themselves by railing on a gallery, all new teams were standind at attention before commander Hayden. The hangar fell into silence, when evebody waited for Captain Chronos to appear.
"Chronos... Chronos... rings a fucking bell." muttered Cain, hanging from Abel's arms in a very intimate way. "Where did I..."
"Shh!" Abel tried to make him quiet, his eyes curiously jumping from pair to pair. "It's starting."
From the group, neatly divided into Fighters and Navigators in rather unique uniforms, came forth a very tall man. Abel and Cain weren't that far from the landing point, so from what Abel could tell, the captain was... he was...
"Captain Chronos along with reinforcement squad under my command report for duty, Commander Hayden, sir." his voice was strong and loud, Abel was sure that whole hangar heard him perfectly. He had a small smile on his lips, a little ironic, but saluted the commander with every proper manner. And those lips... oh my god, thought Abel, does such a man really exist? Abel knew that men could be handsome or not, but this particular man couldn't be described as anything else, but... beautiful.
"I don't remember sending for help, captain." Commander Hayden's voice was cold, when he looked at the new guy up and down. Chronos saluted again, still with his strange little smile.
"We were sent from CC as a result of some higher-up analysing your battle percentage, sir." he said simply, giving an impression as if he wanted to be helpful. "They decided that you meet Colterons too often for your own good, so they've sent us and our commander to be a temporary help, should such a situation occur. Sir."
"Commander?" Hayden caught this phrase with furred eyebrows. "Who is your commander and why isn't he here?"
Abel couldn't see all that well, constantly being pushed and shoved aside by the other viewers, but he could swear that for a split of second Captain Chronos had an expression as if he wanted to attack Commander Hayden. But it must have been an illusion from lightening in the hanger, because when Abel blinked, captain was still standing, unmoved, before the CO.
"Our Commander is Commander Faraday." he said and his beautiful face brightened with a really charming smile. Behind Abel, Cain sharply took in a breath and then seemed to have stopped breathing at all. "Some urgent matters stopped our Commander from coming here directly, but they shouldn't take long."
"How long?"
"No more than a week-"
Abel couldn't hear anything more, because Cain erupted into quiet string of curses and forcibly turned Abel around to look in his face.
"Ow, what're you doing?!"
"Listen." Cain barked, holding his navigator by his shoulders. Abel could feel his hands gripping so tightly that he would surely end up with a lot of bruises. "You are under no circumstances to get close to this Chronos guy! Understood?"
Abel blinked in surprise.
"What? Why?!"
"Because I know him! He's a total psycho! And belongs to Faraday's Suicide Squad, the ones who went into Colterons' part of territory and came back as loonies!"
"You know his commander?" asked Abel, gently untangling Cain's fingers from his already hurting shoulders. His fighter was always impatient and a fireball, but right now he was pale and looked really disturbed. That alone made Abel wonder in what situation Cain must have met captain Chronos.
" 'I know' is sayin' too much." Cain shrugged, composing himself a little. He let Abel turn around to face the hangar again, then leaned on him as usual and continued talking. "Never saw 'im, just heard about 'im. A sadist and total nut. Rotation in his unit is highest from all and not from injuries, but clear deaths. When joining his squad, people say that you're already in a coffin, if you're lucky enough to have your body intact when you die. That's why they got a nickname 'suicidal'."
"That's... awful." Abel cringed, looking at captain Chronos' face in new light now. Maybe there was something in what Cain said, because now he could see in captain's beautiful features signs of cruelty frozen into his expressions. Well, that's a pity, because Abel really felt that he could spend a pleasant hour or so on just watching this incredibly beautiful person. Right now however, not only Cain prohibited him from even coming close to Chronos, but Abel himself assert that didn't want to do it anymore. He wasn't first to believe Cain's usually baseless suspicions, but something in the captain's face made him wonder. And shudder.
Abel shrugged indifferently, watching as Chronos was giving orders to his men. Actually men and women, as he could see that some of the navigators wore different uniforms and had long hair plus very delicate features. And as he was voyageing through their lines, one person made him twitch in surprise. He caught Cain's hand.
"Hey, isn't that Selene? What's he doing there?"
"Who the fuck's Selene?"
"Oh, Cain." Abel sighed with frustration at how dense his fighter could be. "Helios' navigator, remember?"
"The one with doll face?"
"If you want to say it like that." Abel made a face. "Look, isn't it him? The one at the end on the right?"
Cain hanged out of the railing to see better.
"Seems so." he said. "So?"
"Aren't you interested in what he is doing among the new reinforcements when he was assigned to Kepler a week ago?" Abel asked, clicking quickly on his pager. Ignoring Cain, he observed closely Selene standing below and talking with unknown fighters. Seconds later the pager chimed and Abel hissed.
"Whoa."
"Wazzup?"
"I mailed Selene where is he and he says he and Helios got stuck in the bridge." said Abel slowly, taping in another message. Then, not looking back at Cain, who barked "wha-?", Abel ran downstairs.
/
There were still many people not going into the hangar and when Keeler ordered Selene to stay and do some work, Helios decided he would stay too. Right now he was watching his navigator hitting the keyboard in frustration.
"Problems?" he asked with a smile. Frustrated Selene was blushing slightly, as if he felt personally offended that the machine didn't want to cooperate.
"Rather lack of information." Selene said, gritting his teeth. He was told to write a report on the new crew and right then he got to know that almost all data about them was restricted. Trying to make some sense from it, he ran himself in a deadlock. "It's not a glitch. I just don't see, how can I-"
Pager on his belt chimed melodically. Still focusing on blockades on his screen, Selene reached for it and flipped open little monitor.
"Huh?"
"Something wrong?" Helios got up from his seat seeing that his navigator paled in record time. Selene's eyes, those always calm and warm eyes widened first in surprise, then in fright, still looking at pager's screen. Blindly, he outstretched his hand, in search for support and that was when Helios decided he had to step it. He took Selene's hand and made him meet his own eyes.
"What happened?" he asked gently, not wanting to create any chaos on the brigde, where navigators were walking here and there, absorbed in their tasks. Noone had to see Selene like that. "You know you can tell me, right?"
"Yes... yes." Selene was clearly disturbed, his eyes looking at the fighter, but not seeing him at all, lost in his thoughts, deep in his mind. Finally, Selene shook his head violently and bolted from his chair, running at top speed right away.
Of course, such behaviour from usually composed navigator immediately made other people wonder and gossip, espacially those who were run over by hurrying Selene. But he didn't stop even when Keeler appeared from behind his desk and shouted after him to come back. Ignoring an order from his superior was quite an offence and Helios started to be seriously worried.
Chasing Selene wasn't easy with a lot of people in the corridor, so only after he lost him, Helios noticed he was near the landing hangar. As it couldn't hurt, he went in to see if his missing navi was inside.
It soon turned out that indeed, Selene was there. But why were Abel and Cain standing defensively before him, with a tall female fighter shielding her own navigator from all of them...?
/
Few minutes earlier
"Whatcha sent him?" asked Cain, finally catching up to his navigator, who was marching across the landing hall.
" 'There's someone among new guys who looks just like you. U have a double?' is what it said." Abel manouvered through ships and people, directing them straight to their objective. When they saw the other Selene, Abel elbowed his fighter. "I'm the one doing talking, come on."
"Hey, Selene!" Abel shouted, running. And being as close, he already could see how wrong they were. It wasn't Selene, it was someone really similar, but...
"Ugh, excuse me? You are talking to me?"
… a woman. Shorter and with more delicate features, but undoubtedly with the same genotype as Selene. She was even smiling like him, with one corner of her mouth and her eyes were looking at Abel and Cain with the same calm dignity that was characteristic for Selene. Damn, even her hair were the same colour and length as his!
Abel was thinking very fast, so by the time he stopped before woman-Selene he was smiling invitingly and tried to look friendly.
"Ooooch, I must have mistook you for someone. But really, you look just like him, right Cain?"
"Sure does."
"Really? Your friend looks like me?" Abel didn't know why, but the navigator woman, actually more like a girl, seemed to be quite disturbed at such thought. She uncounciously made a step back.
"Yeah, you two are really hard to tell apart." Abel nodded, still smiling. "I'm Abel, what's your task name?"
"I'm... erm.." the girl began to move back, one little step after another, until Abel elbowed Cain to stop staring at her so evily. As if by magic, another fighter appeared by their side, a tall, black-haired woman, who looked at them equally threteaningly as Cain did a few moments ago. Abel blinked.
"They giving you trouble?" she asked the girl, who seemed to have woken up from her stupor of rabbit in headlights. She waved her hands violently.
"It's nothing, really! They wanted to be friendly! They said they have a friend that looks totally like me and that's how it went... Oh!" she turned to Abel, looking at him for some support for her pacifistic mediations, since both fighters were eyeing each other aggresively. "I'm Carmilla, by the way. And this is my fighter, Lestat."
"Eh? I thought Lestat was a man in the books?" Abel took on the hint and stepped in front of Cain to break his eye contact with the other blackhair. Carmilla visibly relaxed.
"He was, but someone in the Central Command has funny naming sense." she stated, a little more calmly. "Our ship is called "The Count", to top it all..."
Both navigators laughed, already on friendly terms.
"Abel, right?" Lestat asked, her voice low for a woman and even if not hostile per se, still holding a lot of negative emotions. "Of The Reliant?"
"And so what if he is?" Cain hissed in answer. They looked at each other with scorn and Abel was about to sigh and tell Cain to cut it out, when he looked over fighters' shoulders, just to see Selene running through one of the entrances. He was looking around with an expression that Abel still hasn't seen on him yet. Abel frowned, but stood on his toes and waved.
"Hey, Selene! Here!"
As everybody followed his gaze, some things happened at the same time. First, when Selene was still far away, Carmilla groaned and backed off into a wing of one of the ships.
"Oh no.. "she whispered. She was white as a sheet and her lips trembled. "oh no no no no no!"
Lestat turned to her and back to closing Selene, focusing on him as a potential threat. Standing before her navi, she took a defensive position and waited. Then, Cain jumped to Selene to catch him by shoulder, as the navigator was gasping for breath, equally pale as Carmilla. He stopped abruptly pointing a finger at her.
"Why!" he shouted, despair evident in his not-anymore-serene voice. "Why are you here, Ju-"
"No names!" barked Lestat. "you may know each other, but you don't want people know your identity huh?!"
"Selene, what happened?" Abel took his other side, securing his left shoulder. "You look awful!"
"Why! Why here, of all places..."
"I'm sorry! I'm so, so, so sorry" wailed Carmilla from behind her fighter. She was covering her face with hands and apparently cried from fear. "I didn't you would be here! I'm so sorry, brother!"
That was when Helios came in.
