Chapter Twenty-Eight: Afterglow

{“Okay so, you’re grounded.”}

I nearly spit out my coffee at Maribelle just saying that into my earpiece after she heard my true explanation of the last few days. I flush when half the crowded coffee shop looks at me for a moment. I anxiously lift up my phone as people jerk their heads away, pretending to have been reading something on my phone.

A bit shellshocked at the sudden bomb, I furiously whisper, “What do you even mean grounded!?”

Maribelle huffs. {“Well, it’s simple. You’re not allowed to go do.”}

“Go do?!” I laugh in disbelief. “That’s so fucking vague!”

She doesn’t dawdle as she responds, {“No more fighting, killing, or causing problems in general until you arrive at the first actual mission location. Or most anything else I don’t sign off on.”}

After a moment, I start to raise a finger. “So I can’t-”

{“No, Minea, you can’t have sex with the Engineer again.”}

Clicking my tongue, I sink in the seat. “But there’s like no downside now!”

{“There is, mainly the risk of you getting attached despite the imminent separation that I remind you that you consented to.”}

Grumbling, I respond, “I can’t believe you’re doing this to me, I’m a grown ass woman.”

{“Apparently you need it! You probably would have gambled away that pseudo-inheritance that guy gave to you if not for the fact that you weren’t in that casino long enough to run through the free chips they gave you!”}

I wince at that. “Fuck, I didn’t even think about that…”

{“This is why you talk to people about things, Minea.”}

Feeling like an idiot, I cover my face and whisper, “You’re right. I fucked up. Sorry.”

Maribelle sighs, then responds, {“Don’t apologize, you’ve been through a lot in the last few days. I forget how fragile the human psyche is until moments like this.”}

The conversation goes quiet for a moment, so I take a moment to look around the Café I’m in. When I found this place a couple blocks away from the train depot, even though I had the mask on, I entered expecting a rather visceral reaction to my presence. But there was nothing, and I was finding it rather nice to be able to sit somewhere in public and just… exist without making everyone nervous.

Well, at least when they don’t look at me it seems, but I’ll take what I can get.

Suddenly, an errant thought pops into my head, and I bite my lip before hesitantly saying, “Uh, Mari?”

{“Yeah?”}

“Looking back on it,” I ask, “do you think that the ED did something to my head?”

Mari actually snorts. {“Obviously? You said it overlaid itself on top of you and began dragging your consciousness into demiplanes?”}

I blush a little as I frantically shake my head. “N-No, that’s not what I meant! I mean, obviously it did something to me but…”

With a hum, Mari explains for me, “But you think it did something more, or that the aftereffects only just wore off?”

“I mean…” I groan. “Kinda? After that encounter I never really felt entirely… me again, at least until I woke up this morning.”

{“Minea, can I be honest with you?”}

I tilt my head a bit. “Of course?”

{“After hearing about what happened, while the dream thing was strange and something we need to watch out for, I think it’s more likely that this was your own brain’s fault.”}

I raise an eyebrow. “Explain?”

She obliges without pause or mercy. {“Minea, we’ve known you have PTSD for years now, and this is just one way that can materialize. We’ve avoided it until now thanks to you being able to focus yourself entirely on your schoolwork, but after the sequence that you went through earlier it seems you fell into a rather poor state of mind that lingered until something genuinely positive happened to you.”}

“Oh.” I linger on that for a moment. “That makes sense.”

{“To be honest, it’s also the main reason we’re keeping you on the team despite the mistakes that you’ve made. We really can’t blame you for reacting poorly to a series of events sticking needles into your brain to see how you react.”}

Wincing, I nod. “Is it bad that my callsign and identity are known now?”

{“Oh, that’s not a problem. We knew that was going to happen eventually, it was going to be impossible to avoid with your particular flavor of abilities. Your cover mainly matters for ensuring that the conspiracy doesn’t come to light. Speaking of which… Brion.”}

I blink. “Oh right. I’m assuming you talked?”

{“Yuuup. I’d heard about Fuschia’s first partner since she always gushes about him, didn’t expect to have my first conversation be him interrogating me about my evil plans.”}

Blushing a bit, I mutter, “Sorry, that was entirely avoidable on my part, I shouldn’t have let my guard down.”

{“Nah, we can’t blame you for that, there were just too many variables you weren’t used to at that point. It ended up benefiting us in the end anyways, so…”}

“Uh.” I struggle to find words for a moment. “What does that mean?”

Maribelle giggles. {“Simple, Brion is our collaborator now, along with Fuschia actually. Thank you for that by the way, it’s nice not having to hide this from my wife.”}

I gape. “You never told her?!”

{“Noope. She was an innocent, or at least I thought she was. Now, I’m not so sure.”}

I cough. “You’re not sure? What does that even mean?”

{“Brion told me some things about her I didn’t know about, and clarified a few things about her job I had apparently misunderstood in the past.”}

I take a sip of my coffee, then politely respond, “I don’t know enough about her to say anything on that, so I’ll take your word for it?”

There’s a pause, before Maribelle suddenly drops, {“Considering that she’s likely going to be heavily involved with your first mission, I think you’ll get to know her well.”}

“Uhhh.” My mind takes a few moments to parse that. “What?”

{“Well,”} Maribelle pauses before explaining, {“To make a long story short, it turns out my wife actually runs a semi-major anti-corporate militia specialized in what she referred to as artistic vandalization?”}

The mental image that creates in my head is more than enough to make me giggle a bit. “Seriously? That’s so fitting.”

Proudly, Mari confirms, {“I know right? She’s the best.”}

“Do I get to hear the mission now or…?”

{“Minea, can you do me a favor and look around for a moment?”}

Raising an eyebrow, I do as she asks. The coffeeshop is still as bustling as it has been all morning, and though people are avoiding looking at me, it’s rather calm altogether. The more I look though, the more a sense of unease falls over me, and it doesn’t take long for me to realize what is wrong. Doing my best to stay nonchalant, I pull out my phone.

[“There are three Engines lurking at the edge of my senses…”] I grit my teeth. [“Fuck, I’m being watched aren’t I?”]

{“Yup, and I’d bet they’re listening too. My voice is probably too faint for them to catch but anyone who can read lips or is close enough to hear would have gotten most of what you’ve said so far.”}

I pale, and open my mouth before I realize that Mari would have warned me should I have given the game away. For now, I must have avoided saying anything about what’s happening by pure dumb luck.

Frantically, I type, [“What do I even do?”]

{“You can speak as long as it’s nothing about our situation, or about knowing you’re being watched. We could maybe fish to see what they’re trying to get information on if you want?”}

“What, like the Coltons?”

There’s a barely noticeable shift in the energy of two out of three people I can’t see. I can’t help but smile as Mari confirms:

{“Well, two of them visibly reacted to that word. Who else beyond the rich girl did you meet during the poker game again?”}

“Sleipnir and The Pale Rider said they’re mercenaries, in town between missions.”

Nothing.

“The Nero guy was from the Midwest Mecha Mosh, which…” I chuckle. “What a name for what amounts to organized Mecha wrestling.”

Nada.

“I think the last one was Penelope, she’s also one of Melody’s girls and like, works for the police here I think?”

Flare. Gottem.

{“So, two people following because of the stupid girl and another who is concerned about the police?”}

I think for a moment, then type, [“Maybe one sent by Olivia, one by her dad, and the last is just here to make sure I don’t go on a slaughter or something? You think they’ll try to arrest me?”]

{“You’re probably fine, you had enough witnesses and it was obviously self defence. We probably need to take the information we just got with a grain of salt though, since they could be faking to throw us off. It’s kind of suspicious that all three gave themselves away.”}

Concerned, I bite my lip as I swiftly send, [“Still, what do I do? Is it going to cause problems if I leave?”]

{“Probably not, but we have to keep in mind that they’re there whenever you’re out and about in the city. You’re not going to be able to keep anything a secret while they are here.”}

I click my tongue. “There’s a few things that I need to pick up, I need to find a hardware store…”

{“For what? I thought you said the workshop they gave you was well stocked?”}

“Uhh.” I try to come up with an excuse, then panic a little before I just blurt it out. “Bullets?”

Maribelle pauses. {“Why are you buying bullets at a hardware store?”}

I pull back my jacket a bit, looking at the SP holstered in it. “Well, the box of the SP said that they’re sold at a hardware store near you, and I kinda need some paint too.”

{“See, that one makes more sense. What’s the paint for?”}

Reaching up, I kind of awkwardly scratch the side of my head. “It was an idea I had yesterday and kind of wrote off at the time because it seemed ridiculous, but… I kind of want to paint a marigold onto the Doberman.”

Having not been there, Maribelle asks, {“Why specifically a marigold?”}

“Well…” I sigh. “It might have been the last one in the box so I didn’t get a choice, but it was still the first flower I offered to a fallen comrade.”

{“Ah. I see.”} Maribelle hesitates a bit I think. {“I think you’re safe to leave, the watchers have put a little distance in because of you mentioning the need to go to the store.”}

I sigh again, and go to take another sip of my coffee, but pause when I feel that it is empty. Looking at my cup as if it had wronged me for a second, I stand up and walk towards the door, tossing it into the bin in the meantime. As I step outside, the sun shines down into my face, and I reach up to shade my eyes as I look up into the sky above Kansas City.

It’s a beautiful cerulean dotted with white.

“Y’know, sometimes I wish I could shoot the sun.”

{“Literally or metaphorically?”}

With a shit eating grin, I immediately respond, “Yes.”

Mari sighs, and I can’t help but giggle as she says, {“I probably should have seen that coming.”}

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