When It All Comes Down
Transformations…
Chapter 23: When It All Comes Down
Saber arrives at Calvary Command about the same time as Fireball, April and Colt. They are gathered in Commander Eagle’s office, waiting to be briefed on the situation.
“So how’s Amanda, Saber?” April asks trying to lighten the mood.
Saber looks up from his thoughts, “She’s fine, or was until I left,” he replies quietly.
April studies his face for a while, trying to read him. “You care for her, don’t you?” April asks.
Saber stares at her for a minute before replying with a slight nod “Yes,” he replies quietly, barely above a whisper, “I do.”
Commander Eagle comes into the room and they all stand up in greeting, sitting down when he does. He looks to each one, his eyes meeting theirs for a moment. He takes a deep breath before speaking, “All of you know that the PLANT colony of Sextilis was destroyed a few hours ago. Captain Zala of Orb is sending the little bit of information they have to us. They are amassing their forces to try and be ready for whatever is coming. We need to be vigilant, that means all of you must remain here, unless somewhere close is threatened.” Each of them nods their head, acknowledging the truth in his statements. He looks to Colt, “I know this is difficult for you, in light of your son and Robin being elsewhere, but I think they are still safer where they are than rather than here.
“I know they are, Sir,” Colt replies.
The commander looks to his daughter, her hand tightly holding Fireball’s, fear obvious in her eyes. “We will win this. We have come too far to fail, April,” he says trying to sound sure of himself.
“He’s right. With everything we have been through, we have to believe in our abilities and the technology that we have,” Saber offers. “We will find a weakness and exploit it.”
The room falls silent for several minutes, each person sorting through their own thoughts. “We should do a bit of scouting. We need to know if she has any one closer to us that Orb. She could be trying to draw all of us out,” Saber says thinking aloud.
A beeping noise is heard and everyone looks up. Commander Eagle opens the com-link and Keith's face appears. “This is Commander Eagle, go ahead.”
Keith looks around the room and notices they are all there and takes a breath before speaking, “Fala has been taken by someone who works for Merla. They are headed in your general direction in some sort of transport. Fala is injured, although we aren't sure of the severity of her injuries.” His tone is fairly serious and it's obvious that he is trying to stay objective.
Saber is the first one to speak, “How were they able to get close enough to take her?” he asks.
Keith cringes, “She had someone infiltrate into our trusted people. They killed a woman and had someone replace her. We didn't know until it was too late.”
Saber nods grimly, “So you are headed this direction?” he asks, getting a nod from Keith. A beeping is heard and the screen splits into two. The other is a radar showing a rather large fleet heading in the direction of Calvary Command. “Well, it looks like we've got company coming,” Saber adds dryly.
Keith nods, “We'll be heading your general direction. Take care; I'm not sure just what this witch has at her disposal.” The connection closes and the satellite images show three battleships, flanked by several smaller fighters.
“There are dozens of them!” Colt says annoyed.
“They are headed right for us,” April says.
Commander Eagle stands up, “We need to start the evacuations to the shelters and send up some sort of defense.”
They all nod in agreement. “Let us head out and see if we can slow them down. Perhaps we can buy enough time for everyone to evacuate safely,” Saber says as everyone stands up. Commander Eagle heads quickly out of the room, the others following him out before turning in the opposite direction, towards the hangar area.
The Eternal is launched towards the battleships that are hovering perilously close to Orb. Lacus is at the helm, Kira and Athrun ready to launch in their suits when ordered. They are flanked by the Archangel, and several other fighter ships. They come up even with the ships, no one seeming to want to fire the first shot. They are waiting somewhat impatiently for something to happen when an image of a woman holding Fala appears on their communication screen.
“Do not try and stop this ship or the queen will die,” Sakaki says perilously. They can see that Fala is injured, blood trickling slowly from her neck, and she is looking a bit pale.
“Kill her! Save your people and mine,” Fala says before being thrown to the floor and collapsing.
Several gasps are heard from the crews of the Eternal and the Archangel. Lacus' face becomes cold and emotionless, “You have caused harm to one of our allies. She has requested our aid, and we will oblige her request and protect our people and hers. You are responsible for killing millions of innocent lives without provocation, and for that you will pay.”
As she says this, Mobile Suits are launched from both ships. Kira and Athrun are in their suits, they are joined by Mu and Shinn from the Archangel. They start destroying ships quickly before the enemy has time to react. A firefight breaks out seemingly very one-sided at first, the advantage being for Orb and the Mobile Suits. Just as they think they have the upper-hand; several dozen more fighters appear from nowhere and begin combining.
“This isn't good,” Kira says over the com-link. “Where are they coming from?”
“I'm not sure Kira, but we need to break them apart or we don't stand a chance,” Athrun replies.
“They just keep multiplying,” Shinn grumbles, firing at any enemy fighter he can.
Soon the combined robots have grossly outnumbered the Mobile suits and they attack several to one. The suits quickly begin taking damage.
“We can't keep this up, Athrun,” Kira says taking another hit. “We destroy two and four more show up from nowhere.”
Suddenly, there is a flash of light and a large portion of Orb's support fleet is obliterated. The Eternal narrowly manages to evade the beam. “What the Hell was that?!” Athrun says looking around wildly. They look to where the light came from and see a large cannon type laser gun mounted to a huge battle ship.
“Surrender or meet the same fate as your comrades,” Sakaki says as she begins charging up the ray once more, pointing it towards Orb. “This ray can take out most of your forces, and decimate a good portion of your colony. I recommend surrendering now, while I'm feeling generous.”
At the last comment, Kira, Athrun, Lacus, and Shinn all go into their SEED modes, their pupils shrink and their iris' expand, their natural abilities are heightened one-hundred fold. The three Mobile Suit pilots begin simultaneously destroying a large number of ships, faster than what is seemingly possible. Sakaki fires up the ray and it fires towards Orb. Mu jumps in front of the ray in his suit and it appears that he absorbs the brunt of the attack.
The Bismarck crew quickly launches and almost immediately engaged in fighting. “Damn!” Fireball yells as he's hit, knocking him back a little before he regains control and starts shooting down enemy crafts. “They’re everywhere.”
“No kidding,” Colt says as he dodges an onslaught of firepower, narrowly avoiding being hit.
“Okay boys, we need to come up with some sort of plan,” April says trying to get them to focus. A large explosion is heard and she glances to her screen and gasps, “We just lost three ships. Let’s do something!”
They start firing rapidly at the enemy ships, but seem to be making little headway. “We need to combine. Perhaps then we can use the larger blaster and do more damage,” Saber says.
“Right,” the others reply and begin the combination sequence. The Bismarck robot is formed and they immediately pull out the blaster and start firing, hitting several of the ships at a time.
“This is more like it!” Colt says as they continue shooting down ships.
The battle ensues, with the Bismarck seeming to be at the advantage when they see several larger robots coming towards them.
“This doesn’t look good,” April says nervously.
The largest robot fires its weapon at them, hitting them and knocking them back. They all scream as they fight to regain control. They return fire as they right the robot only to find they are now surrounded by several large robots. One of the robots pulls out a sword and slashes towards them; they dodge, narrowly avoiding being hit.
“Separate! We stand a better chance!” Saber yells and they break into their individual suits again. They spread out, April heading back from the battle, firing her cannons at one robot that is in pursuit of her.
Colt activates his METEOR and starts making little work of destroying one large robot and breaking apart several others.
Fireball and Saber are each deep in their own battles, neither side seemingly at any advantage. This continues for a long time, enemy robots reappearing as quickly as some are destroyed.
On the ground at Calvary Command, Commander Eagle is leading people into underground shelters. He orders any available fighter pilots to launch and assist the Bismarck crew in any way they can. After making sure that the people are as safe as possible, Commander Eagle goes to the command center, to see how he can be of assistance. After being briefed by the soldiers that are already there, he starts watching the radars when he notices a rather odd configuration of ships perilously close to the English Federation Colonies, “Can someone get me a visual on this cluster here?” he says pointing to the area near Saber’s home.
“Yes Sir,” A soldier replies and starts typing furiously. After a minute or so, an image appears that makes the soldier’s face pale, “Sir, you need to see this!”
Commander Eagle hears the fear in the soldier’s voice and comes quickly, looking over his shoulder, “What have you found?” The soldier points to what seems to be a floating asteroid. A few ships are looming close to it, but nothing looks unusually threatening. “That’s nothing abnormal.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about, Sir,” The soldier replies. “It’s what’s on the asteroid that worries me,” he finishes as the visual comes up of a large nuclear laser cannon that is pointed towards the area where the soldiers including the Bismarck crew are fighting.
Commander Eagle lets out an involuntary gasp. “Get me on the com-link, now!” he yells as the soldier scrambles to comply. “This is Commander Charles Eagle, if you can hear me, get out of the area quickly; the enemy has a nuclear weapon ready to fire at you! Abort the mission.” Just as he says this, the laser is powered up and fires a small shot. The room falls silent as all anyone can do is watch as several of their fighter ships are destroyed. April manages to pull back, but is hit, flinging her down towards Calvary command and severely damaging her ship. Colt misses being hit by the ray, but the force of it locks up his suit and he is suspended in space, unable to move. Fireball is knocked into another ship, causing the ship he hit to catch fire. His suit takes some bad damage and he is knocked unconscious. Saber turns just as the laser fires and narrowly escapes the beam. He is blown backwards, spiraling out of control several hundred yards. Many of the ships that had just been close to him were obliterated, including enemy ships. Saber drifts in and out of consciousness, his vision blurred as he tries to make heads or tails of what’s happened.
Just as it seems hopeless for Orb, the ray explodes in an expansive ball of light, destroying a large number of enemy ships and a few of Orb's fighter ships; the force of the explosion also causes the battleship that the ray was mounted on to crash towards Orb. Lacus' orders the Eternal to follow the descending ship, and after it crashes, a few of her crewman board the wrecked aircraft and search for Fala. After several minutes Andrew Waltfeld finds Fala unconscious and bleeding, and carries her out of the wreckage.
GoLion arrives just before Waltfeld comes out carrying Fala. They land close to the wreckage and Keith is the first out of his lion. He meets Waltfeld at the ship and takes Fala from him, moving closer to the lions he lays her down, trying to assess her condition. As this is happening, Shinn, Athrun, and Kira finish off the few remaining enemy ships before landing beside Eternal. Mu's suit comes out heavily damaged, but he manages to return to the Archangel, as it hovers protectively above the Eternal and the allies on the ground. Athrun, Kira and Shinn land close to the lions and the wreckage. After they land the Mobile Suits, Athrun starts to lead Kira into the wreckage of the ship to search for any other survivors.
“I’m coming too,” Lance says, anger and rage apparent in his voice. Athrun goes to object when Lance holds up his hand and shakes his head, “That witch killed a woman I cared for. I plan on making her pay for that. You can try and stop me, but you would have to kill me to do that.”
Kira touches Athrun’s shoulder and nods slightly, indicating to Athrun to allow Lance to accompany them, “Let him do this. It’s not worth arguing over.”
Athrun turns to Lance, “Let’s go,” he says as he turns around and leads them into the ship. They reach the command center and find Sakaki crumpled in the corner. Several of her crewmen are around her attempting to guard her.
Lance enters the room first and aims his blaster towards Sakaki, “You will die here.” He fires a blast towards her, one of her guards leaps into the way, protecting her, and dying from the injury. “You have millions of deaths on your hands,” Lance continues as he fires another shot, striking her in the shoulder. She winces in pain, but watches him as he approaches, his eyes cold with rage. He fires once more, but misses when she manages to barely move from the spot.
“You will not survive beyond today, human. I’ll take you with me,” Sakaki says an evil smile on her face.
Lance shrugs, “You think after everything I’ve seen that I’m afraid of death?” He laughs bitterly. “At this point, if I take you with me, then my death will not be wasted.”
An alarm starts blaring and the doors begin to close to the control room. “Self-destruct will commence in t-minus sixty seconds,” an automated voice says.
“Lance! Let’s go!” Athrun yells as he struggles to keep the door from closing, Kira carrying a badly injured woman in his arms.
Lance turns and fires his blaster once more, hitting Sakaki in the neck then runs to the door, just barely making it through before Athrun loses his grip on it.
“Self-destruct will commence in t-minus thirty seconds,” the automated voice says, continuing the countdown.
Athrun, Kira, and Lance run as fast as they can trying to make it out of the wrecked ship before it explodes.
“Self-destruct will commence in t-minus ten seconds,” the automated voice says, continuing the countdown, “nine, eight, seven, six…two, one…” The explosion begins from the center of the ship; They are at the entrance when the force from the explosion throws them several hundred feet. They manage to roll behind some rocks, but then they black out from their injuries.
Shinn rushes over, Hothead and Shorty in close pursuit; Athrun wakes first and looks around, “The ship?” he asks still a little disoriented.
“It’s gone. You barely made it out,” Shinn replies as Kira and Lance start coming around. He takes the woman from Kira and rushes her to the Eternal for medical treatment.
Amanda is outside with the children when a few of them start commenting on the 'shooting stars'. Curious, she comes over and looks in the direction they are. After watching for few minutes, her heart stops as she realizes that they are probably seeing pieces of things re-entering the atmosphere from a battle. Soon larger pieces start coming down and appear to be getting closer to the village. She notices a couple of soldiers coming towards the town, they stop at the first lands near the edge of town and appear to be talking. After a minute or two, the people in the fields start yelling and the soldiers continue on, arriving at the edge of the school yard. Amanda walks quickly over to the soldiers.
“Ma'am, we need you to take the children to a designated shelter. There have been things falling from space because of fighting, and we cannot guarantee your safety outside of a shelter,” a young soldier says, trying not to sound frightened.
Amanda nods, “Of course sir,” she replies trying not to sound frightened. She turns around to the children, who are coming closer to her and the soldiers.
“Hey, you don't have a horse like Captain Rider. Is he okay?” One of the older boys asks before several questions are thrown to the perplexed soldiers all at once.
“Children, go and gather your things. We need to go to the shelter down the street quickly,” Amanda says forcefully, ceasing the onslaught of questions. The tone of her voice sends the children running to the school house to gather their things.
“Thank you both for venturing this far to warn us of danger,” Amanda says to the two soldiers.
“The children mentioned knowing Captain Rider, does he come out this way?” the older of the two soldiers ask curiously.
Amanda nods slightly, “He was here when the attack began. I just hope he's all right.”
“Well, we've not heard of him being hurt or killed, so I would take that as good news, Miss.” the older soldier says as he turns his horse towards the town, “Stay safe. There are tunnels underground from the individual shelters that lead to a large area where families can reunite. Someone will get word to you when it's safe to come out.”
“Yes, thank you,” Amanda replies absently as she rushes to the school house to gather her things and the children. The soldiers take off, to warn others of the impending dangers from the battle going on above them.
They all gather at the front of the school house and head to the closest shelter. There are already many other people gathered. Once everyone is accounted for, a tall heavyset man closes the doors and bolts them from the inside.
“How will we know when we can leave?” Amanda asks nervously.
“Someone from Calvary Command will come through the tunnels and let us know,” the man replies before heading off to help secure other areas.
Amanda takes the children to an area free of people and they all sit down and begin talking, waiting for word from their families.
Lance sits up, holding his head and looks around. He notices that he is no longer on the ground. He looks to his right and sees Fala on a cot with Keith sitting beside her. She looks pretty beat up, but the constant beeping of the monitor indicates that her vitals are good. To his other side the woman that Kira was carrying is laying still on the bed, hooked up to various pieces of medical equipment, most of her face covered in bandages.
Keith notices Lance's movements and turns towards him, “How are you feeling?”
Lance swallows trying to wet his mouth before answering, “Like I've been through a bomb going off.” he says barely audible.
Keith chuckles, “Well, that's an accurate description. You're damned lucky to be here. All of you are,” Keith replies quietly, glancing towards Fala.
“How is she?” Lance asks, looking towards Fala.
“She'll be fine,” Keith says.
“What about her?” Lance asks, looking briefly to unknown woman in the bed on his other side.
“I'm not sure. We don't even know who she is at this point. She needs help breathing, and she has some sort of infection in the gash on her face, so the doctors are treating that. I think I heard Lacus say that she has some broken or fractured vertebrae as well,” Keith replies.
“Where are we?” Lance asks, looking around.
“We're at Orb's base. Kira and Athrun were injured, though not badly, they are up and about already. Both you and Fala are stable, so we are trying to find out how things are at Calvary Command.”
“How long has it been?” Lance asks, not sure he wants to know the answer.
“Three hours,” Keith replies.
Athrun comes into the room and clears his throat, causing both of them to look up at him. “I just spoke with Commander Eagle at Calvary Command. Evidently Merla has attacked them and they are not faring well. He has lost contact with the Bismarck crew and they have lost numerous ships. Kira and I feel that we are well enough to go and try and be of assistance,” Athrun says.
Keith looks to Lance, who starts disconnecting the leads to his monitors, “Let's go. Tammy can still pilot Blue Lion, right?” Keith nods and Lance stands up, looking a bit unsteady, but refuses help. “I'm fine. If they need our help, we should go and do what we can. They would do the same.”
Lacus comes in, followed by Kira. “I'll stay with Queen Fala. Nothing bad will happen while you're gone,” she says placing a hand on Keith's shoulder.
Keith gives her an appreciative look and turns to Lance, who is suiting up, “You sure you're up to this?”
Lance nods, “Let's go end this once and for all.”
They go to the control room where the other team members are waiting. They all look up surprised to see Lance. “I thought you'd be in bed, Moody.” Hothead says.
“And miss the fun?” Lance replies sarcastically.
Athrun taps the table to get everyone's attention. Once everyone is looking his direction he pulls up some images on the screen, “The information we've gotten is sketchy at best. Commander Eagle says that Merla has a laser cannon bigger than the one we destroyed here. She evidently fired a test shot and wiped out a rather large chunk of Calvary Command's reserve fighters. The Bismarck crew was caught in the fire, but they all seemed to be alive, though possibly unconscious, as no one is replying to repeated requests for contact. Several people look around the room to see shocked and worried faces.
“Let's get going then. The sooner we can get there, the better the chance of helping them,” Lance says. Several people nod in agreement.
Athrun turns to Shinn and Mu, “You two stay here in reserve, in case we need back up or if there are more people that try to attack.” They nod. “Let's move out.” Athrun says to the others, who follow him to the hangar and take off towards Calvary Command.
Saber is startled awake by laughter. Confused and disoriented, he looks around. He sees a lot of debris, he looks over himself, but doesn't see much blood, so he starts scanning the radar and image screens. He spots Merla on top of her battleship, she's in what appears to be a type of Mobile Suit, only a bit larger and she is working on aiming her cannon.
“Ah, you're finally awake,” Merla says, appearing on Saber's screen. “You're just in time to watch the destruction of your precious base and the two nearby colonies.”
“You can't.” Saber stammers, his eyes becoming glazed over with rage.
“I can and I will, then I'll kill you. After you watch the demise of your home,” Merla replies laughing. She reaches the base of the laser cannon and begins firing it up, aiming it right between Calvary Command and Saber's home colony. “After this I destroy this, no one will dare oppose me.”
Something inside Saber snaps. His pupils shrink and his iris expands, his breathing becomes shallow and steady. “I will not allow you to destroy any more lives. You have killed countless lives, all for your own gain, without provocation. You killed my family, and many other families, none of which can be brought back. This ends here and now, Merla,” Saber says, voice dripping with rage.
Merla laughs, “You think you can stop me? You're all alone, human. Your comrades are either dead or unconscious. All of you together couldn't stop me before, why do you think you can do it now?” she says taunting him. She aims the ray and fires, moving back as it releases.
Saber instinctively places himself in front of it, his suit heating up, then a blast so strong it blows Merla farther back, the beam deflects back to the cannon, destroying it. In that instant, Saber notices a button to his right, he hits it and Colt's METEOR detaches from his suit and reattaches to Saber's, “Now, you will pay for all of this needless death and destruction.” He fires the METEOR towards her, barely missing her, but decimating the remnants of her fleet. He draws his sword as she comes at him, firing her weapon at him, the shots deflect she realizes a split second too late. Saber pulls his sword back and slices her suit in half, then follows through a second time, causing her and the suit to explode.
Just as he moves in front of the beam, The GoLion crew and Athrun and Kira get close enough to see him deflect the beam, destroying the cannon. They are about to contact him when they see the METEOR detach from Colt's suit and go to Saber, “What the Hell?” Lance asks astonished.
“Athrun?” Kira asks.
“I think so, Kira. This should get interesting,” Athrun replies. “Stay back, he may not be aware that we're not a threat. We should pull back a bit and just watch what transpires,” Athrun says to the group with him.
“What's going on, Athrun?” Keith asks.
“It's hard to explain...But right now isn't the time. Perhaps when this is over,” Athrun replies.
They all watch as Saber destroys Merla and her remaining forces. After Merla's suit explodes, Saber ceases movement.
Saber looks around unsure of what exactly came over him. He looks around and sees no sign of the attack, other than debris. Scanning his screens, he notices that Calvary Command looks fairly intact, with a few exceptions of debris that has fallen from the battle. He sees Colt's suit and goes over to him. “Colt?” he says hesitantly. “Colt, can you hear me?” Saber says, sounding a bit more worried when he gets no reply.
Just then, his screen comes to life and Commander Eagle appears, he sees that Saber is alive and seemingly unhurt and relief washes over his features. “Saber, what happened?”
Saber looks a bit bewildered, “I wish I knew exactly, Sir. It's a bit of a blur. I remember Merla saying she was going to fire that cannon and I saw it power up, after that, I remember feeling anger, and fear of losing everyone I care for and something just...snapped. Next thing that I consciously remember is looking around and the cannon being gone, and Merla exploding with her suit.”
Colt comes around when he hears talking and looks on his screen. “What's going on?” he asks.
“She's gone, Colt. We're safe,” Saber replies, still not entirely sure of what happened himself.
“The others?” Colt asks, referring to April and Fireball.
“Shinji has yet to answer us, but he is alive. April was hurt, but she will be fine,” Commander Eagle replies soberly.
“Hey, that was one helluva battle, Saber,” Lance says piping in over the com-link.
“I don't remember much of it, Lance. Although I'm glad that we won. I see you are all fine, as you have all of the lions once more,” Saber replies.
“We are mostly all okay. Fala is on Orb in their sickbay,” Keith replies.
“Then who is in blue lion?” Saber asks curious.
“My name is Tammy, Sir.” she says as her image pops up on the com-link.
“She's my wife, Saber,” Shorty says grinning as he appears on the screen.
Saber smiles, “Then congratulations, and I'm glad that you've found someone to help fill in when necessary.”
“What is going on? Where's April?” Fireball asks as he becomes aware of his surroundings.
“Good, you're awake. Can all of you land here at Calvary Command?” Commander Eagle asks.
“Yes, Sir!” they all reply in unison.
A few minutes later, they are all in the hangar of Calvary Command. Commander Eagle looks over the remaining crew of the Bismarck. He notices they are all a bit beat up, Fireball is favoring a leg, and Colt an arm. He looks at Saber, noticing a cut on his head. “You should probably all go and be checked out at the medbay,” Commander Eagle says to the crew. Fireball and Colt nod and leave for the medbay.
“Sir, I know there was some damage here, what about the outskirts?” Saber asks a bit apprehensively.
“We know that there was some damage, but we don't know to what extent,” the commander replies. “I am sending out some soldiers to investigate.”
“I wish to go and check on Amanda myself, Sir,” Saber replies, concern in his eyes.
Commander Eagle studies him for a minute before replying, “I want you to be checked out first, then I will allow you to go and check on her, if we haven't heard anything by then.”
Saber goes to protest, but the commander gives him a look that means no arguments, he sighs knowing it's of no use to argue and heads for the medbay. He enters the area and is immediately led by a nurse to a bed. After a while, the doctor comes in and begins stitching up his head, “You're very lucky, Captain. You could have fared much worse.”
“How is April, doctor? I heard that she was hurt pretty badly.” Saber asks.
“She has a couple of broken ribs, a mild concussion, and some bad bruising, but she will be all right,” the doctor replies. “Colt has a fractured radius and ulna on his right arm, but we will cast it and he will be all right. Shinji has a moderate concussion and some bruised ribs, so he won't be able to pilot for a few weeks. Overall, considering the severity of the battle and how many were killed, all of you were extremely lucky.” He finishes stitching him up and cleans the dried blood from around the wound, “You will have a bit of bruising close to your eye, but you don't seem any worse for wear. I'd be careful of your knee though, it looks a bit swollen. It's probably just a bad sprain. So walk carefully on it.”
“So I am clear to go and check on some people in the village?” Saber asks hopeful.
The doctor looks at him closely for several minutes and is just about to speak when Athrun appears in the doorway, Kira not far behind him. They both look up and the doctor nods, allowing them to enter before returning his attention to Saber, “If you have someone accompany you, I will allow you to do so.” Saber starts to protest, but the doctor holds up his hands, “I don't want you alone in case you have a mild concussion or some other issue that has yet to present itself. You can agree to my terms or I will admit you as a patient here.”
Saber nods, acknowledging defeat. The doctor turns to check on his other patients, leaving Saber alone with Kira and Athrun.
“We need to talk...” Athrun begins as he and Kira sit down beside Saber's bed.
