i command armies

[autokinetic]

Sue graduates from Tactical School a year early, he's barely fifteen. He's toned down the flirting - he treats Aegis completely platonically, in particular - and has cut down on the unhealthy amount of sleeping-with-everything-that-wants. And he's apparently, via his independent study, gotten far enough through the curriculum that they're nudging him along to Command.

They've given Sue a strange old man for a tutor, who appeared in his room and started a physical confrontation, which Sue won; Sue related this story to her with something between amusement and irritation.

And a quicker-than-average flurry of notes has been piling up in the psych data since about that time, according to the timestamps.

Aegis knows before they tell her that they're going to send her to Command early too. She's just barely fifteen herself when she gets another update of the psych files and sees that Sue's had - well, the files aren't terribly clear, some of the communication is happening via in-person conversation and memos that don't get stored in these folders, but Sue's had some kind of breakdown and the only things they can think of to get him out of it, get him back into shape to train and fight, are her friendship and Howlett. They have mixed feelings about both - Howlett's insubordination problem; their bewilderment that Aegis and Sue can be so close when "she's the one person he can't link!" - but they're desperate.

Bird? They don't talk as often over the long distance, just as there was a lull when he went to Tactical ahead of her; their schedules have nothing in common and their contexts less. But he knows her, and he can reach this far if he tries. And she wants to know what's wrong.

Comments

[autokinetic]

"Then I'm stumped," says Aegis. "They don't even know if you'll be a big deal."

[pythbox]

He shrugs expansively.

[autokinetic]

Later, when Sue has unclung, Aegis gives him a final hug and says, "I'll go get my desk and my uniforms and move in. It's nearly bedtime."

She goes.

She comes back, and sets up in the other bunk in his room.

They go to sleep.

When Aegis wakes up, she feels - wrong.

Bricks and clay. The blanket over her weighs a hundred pounds. She ought to be forcing herself to sit under running water, ought to be reaching for the soap - but she's -

"Sue?" she asks tremulously.

[pythbox]

"Mm? What's wrong?"

[autokinetic]

"My exo's gone."

[pythbox]

"...What the fuck," he says, rolling out of bed and going over to her. "You okay otherwise?"

[autokinetic]

"I think so." She lies very still; only her eyes move.

[pythbox]

Quietly: "What do you want me to do?"

[autokinetic]

"...I might need you to bring me breakfast. If it doesn't... turn up. I've been wearing it so long, I don't think I remember how to walk without it... But I - have to know where it is, why it's gone -"

[pythbox]

"You're..." He frowns suddenly. "I can see you. I mean. You're there. You're—" And he nudges her mind, and there is no wall at all.

[autokinetic]

Aegis gives an abortive little flinch, barely visible past her blanket.

"But - even if I just somehow unmutated overnight - how would anybody know in time to take my exo -"

[pythbox]

"They didn't," he says. "They couldn't have. They must have done it to you, and taken your exo so nobody could fuck around with it."

All of a sudden he is very, very angry.

[autokinetic]

"But they - I'm unusable like this - they can't train me to do anything if I'm fucking bedridden -" she exclaims. "...Oh god, they never wanted me to convince you of anything or else they gave up on that awfully fast, I'm here so they can extort you, that's what I'm for -"

[pythbox]

Sue goes to the door.

It does not, of course, open.

He returns to Aegis's bed.

"Can I pick you up and see if your hand gets us out of the room?" he asks gently.

[autokinetic]

She nods. "You probably don't need to outright pick me up - I can probably walk a little -" But her attempts at even getting out from under the blanket are laughable; she moves like an insect trapped in amber that is moments away from hardening through.

[pythbox]

Sue scoops her gently out of bed and carries her to the door.

[autokinetic]

She can move her arms. She's had to be able to do that to wash. She can reach out and clumsily drag a palm across the door panel.

[pythbox]

"Wanna go exploring?" he asks, stepping out into the corridor.

[autokinetic]

"Exploring?"

[pythbox]

"I'm thinking," he says brightly, "that we keep walking until we're out of doors you can open or we find somebody to yell at. Or somebody shows up to give your exo back."

[autokinetic]

"Okay," she says, and she leans her head on his shoulder, because holding it up when it won't stay up just from wanting is exhausting and terrible.

[pythbox]

Sue keeps going, down to the end of the corridor, where Aegis can try her hand again.

[autokinetic]

A certain nasty old fart opens the door before they get there.

"She's not paralyzed, boy," he says to Sue.

"I might as well be," murmurs Aegis.

[pythbox]

"You're gonna give her exo back, right?" he says with false cheer.

[autokinetic]

"I don't have it," the man says.

"You know who does," hisses Aegis.

"It's not safe for you to have it while there's any of the C24 left in your system suppressing your mutation," replies the man. "But on the plus side, now you can link up with your friend."

Aegis buries her face in Sue's shoulder and sobs.