trans_9 | There are times to keep a stiff upper lip

Who: Allenby and open
Where: Pod caverns
Summary: Allenby is pissed at being abruptly short a best friend.
Warnings: Some cursing.

If someone were to venture down to the pod caverns today, they would hear the sound of screaming. Not the sounds of pain or terror--in fact, it was rather articulate and purposeful screaming at a specific individual, although very little of it was the kind of thing that ought to be repeated.

"Damn you, Stacy," Allenby snarled, stalking from pod to pod, wiping at the surfaces with her gloved hand--her left arm was still in its sling--and glaring inside, even though she knew that there was no point in trying to identify the occupants. She'd given up trying to find Domon and the others that way a while ago and just settled for the yelling... but this had just happened. Just happened. Shouldn't a pod that had been refilled so recently have some kind of sign?

So far, it didn't look like it. And even if they did, there were millions to go through....

"STACY! YOU BITCH!" she screamed for about the fifth time, looking up at the ceiling. "You expect us to think you're on our side, huh? Just 'cause ooh, you let Howard and his friend off two seconds before you were gonna rip him apart, gosh, we're so fucking grateful you let the Daligig and the Kessek stomp all over us for an hour just for that!" She clenched her fist, not caring that there were tears running down her face again. "If you want to be nice to us WHY DON'T YOU GIVE ZOUICHI BACK, HUH?! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU POD HIM FOR!"

Not just Zouichi... Ildraniath too. Jr. That psychic kid, Raz. And she hadn't missed that councilor Tarrant vanishing, either. It wasn't a coincidence. "You stupid puppet of a ship, tryin' to tie everyone else to the same strings you got. You try and put me back into the pods and there's gonna be trouble--we both know there ain't one thing wrong with my soul and there wasn't anything with theirs either! So give 'em back!"

She moved to the next pod, peering inside at the indistinct blob that might have been a person.

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Billy had come to take a walk through the pod caverns. He did so every now and then: when people weren't popping, it was a generally quiet and peaceful place. Where better to think of the friends he'd missed: friends returned to stasis, or friends who had never awoken in the first place? He hoped that they were safe here, waiting for the day that the war would be won and everyone could be reunited.

There was nothing peaceful about his walk today, unfortunately. A shout startled him out of his dazed walk: it sounded like someone could be in trouble! He tapped the morpher on his belt to assure himself that it was there and tore off toward the noise, sprinting up the ramps until he saw the source of the voice. It was his coworker, Allenby...distraught.

This felt familiar. He'd been on the other end of this scene once, a long time ago. His expression shifted from panic to an understanding sadness. Billy stepped forward hesitantly.

"You've lost friends to stasis too?"

Oh... really, she should have expected that someone would come to see what all the fuss was about. Obviously she wasn't the only person who visited the pod caverns to try and find friends. At least it was Billy and not some jerk.

Allenby let out a shuddering breath, leaning on a pod with one hand. "Zouichi," she said. "Junior. Ildraniath." All right, so she hadn't managed to know Ildy all that well. But she'd been Zouichi's girlfriend and--goddammit it would all be wiped out, wouldn't it? If or when Stacy let them go again, it would be like they'd never been on the ship before in their lives. "She got 'em... I dunno when. Not that long ago."

She swallowed. "I hate this ship."

She had. Billy knew this feeling too well. He came closer, gently resting his hand on the same pod. Were they safe? It was always impossible to know for sure, and that was what ate at hm.

"I'm sorry. It's happened to me a fair few times as well," he whispered.

Allenby nodded. That didn't surprise her. Billy had been here for ages, way longer than she had. This wasn't exactly the first time someone she knew--even a good friend--had been sent back to the pods. But it hadn't been the same, then. She figured that they were at least safe there. Not anymore.

"It sucks," she said. "I mean--Hikari got sent back. Other people I know, too. But I didn't know better back then. I figured that well, even if they were in the pods they were okay. I ain't so naive now."

"I know what you mean," Billy agreed, thinking back on those same deaths. His heart had caught in his throat as he'd read the names of the deceased, praying he wouldn't see a familiar one appear.

"All we can do is try harder to protect them, prepare for anything...but that's impossibly difficult, you know that too," he sighed, leaning against a pod and sinking to the floor. "You wonder if you'll ever talk to them again."

Allenby nodded. "All the awful little surprises that Stacy's brought out for us even since I've been here... I don't wanna be a pessimist, but you'd be a fool to expect that things are gonna be okay." Not after all those missions where the crew had nearly been killed by the people who'd asked them to come, and especially not after SHODAN.

Goddamn SHODAN.

She picked at the edge of her cast. "I don't wanna think I'll never see Zouichi again. Or my friends from home." Then she clenched her fist. "What makes them think they got the right, anyway? To just gab us and put us away, like we're--like we're just screwdrivers or something!"

Allenby's words were harsh, but they rang all too true. Billy curled up against the pod, imagining all the worst things that could happen. More death, more pain. It was all they didn't need.

"You know? Maybe you will," Billy said quietly, reaching for that last shred of hope. "I think...after the war's over, there's a chance that everyone could be released."

Allenby winced as Billy curled up. Sometimes, she thought she really needed to try and watch what she said and did. Not everyone god mad at things like she did. But it was surprise when he spoke up with something considerably less bitter and resentful than anything she'd said.

The end of the war. It was hard for Allenby to see to that point. The end was a kind of vague possible future that she hoped would be the return of everything that had been destroyed, and if not that at least the end of destruction and a free life. But in that free life, there wouldn't be a need for Stacy's avia-preserving pods, would there? Certainly not if the ship was in their own hands, and Allenby fully intended it to be.

"Sure, I'll look at it that way," she said after a moment. "Once we're finished with it all, there's no reason they'd have to be in there."

Billy honestly couldn't see it on most days either, but a little hope was needed now. He nodded firmly, trying to will himself into believing, but his voice gave him away.

"Exactly. And we'll see them, we'll make it...I just don't know how, or how long."

Ouch, that note in his voice. Allenby reached out and gave him a little shove in the shoulder. "Hey, just 'cause something's impossible by every possible logic doesn't mean it really is," she said. "I've seen impossible stuff done before! I mean, it wasn't as much as this, but it still happened. 'Sides, we're both young enough that we'll be in our prime when it is over."

Or if they were alive. But she wasn't going to bring that into the conversation. She had way too much that she still wanted to do to let herself die.

"We will, huh. Most likely, at least."

A very faint smile appeared. Billy reached over to sling an arm around her shoulders, ready to hang on. With everything that happened, it was time to show friends love when it counted.

"I can picture it now. Trying to decide whose world to go to first."

Allenby's face cracked into a grin when Billy's arm went around her shoulders. "You bet--so many universes out there, it's gonna take a while to get to all of 'em," she said. "But I'd love to show all you guys my Earth. I mean, it's not perfect or nothing, but I think it's pretty damn good. Not to mention a hell of a lot of fun."

"My Earth's not too terrible either," Billy agreed, grinning. "I think you'd like the juice bar. We'd all have great-tasting smoothies."

It was a fun fantasy to indulge in every now and then. If only it could become reality sooner. But that's why they were here, huh?

There are times to keep a stiff upper lip

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