A white light covers a hexagonal hatch as it extrudes open, leading into a long white hallway. Ashihei and Miya walk outward, along with Vivi and Loliel following as they enter the receptionist's room.
Vivi stops in between her next step, with her head tilted downward. "I thought… I thought we put all of that behind us, Ashihei…."
Ashihei lowers his shoulders, then continues to take another step.
Loliel grabs onto his sleeve, her nose flared and eyes producing an intense stare. "Answer her, dammit! Why won't you talk to us?"
Ashihei sighs and scratches the back of his head. "There is, nothing to talk about."
The air was still for but a brief moment as the nearby windows vibrated from a large black space shuttle gliding past the outer window.
"Why didn't you tell me you kept in contact with Stellar after the evacuation protocol? The sole reason we stayed on Earth was so that we would be pronounced dead and-"
"It was never that simple, Vivi. It was never going to be that simple. I'm one of the only two people belonging to COEN that know the fundamentalism of alien technology; The other person was presumably dead…."
Ashihei glances at Miya, clenching his hand at his side. "… Until now."
Vivi nods her head. "But why would you keep it a secret all this time? And the Conglomerate of Earthian Nations…? What do they have to do with Stellar?"
"In 2025, Stellar Analysis found out that an American genetics manufacturing agency had been doing its dealings with the Federation despite the Ya'valt and them holding several pending agreements. So, they did what any radical security agency would do and stormed the American's plant, took their research along with multiple alien artifacts, metals, and weapons."
Loliel balls up her fist and then slams it onto the glass pane at her side. "So what you're saying is, everything we were fighting for back in Opactu was for nothing."
Ashihei looks to the side.
Loliel walks in front of him, her eyes giving off an azure glare. "My troops… Men and women with families… All fought so the greedy high elects and spineless researchers of CERN and Stellar could make a break for it into space. They promised to come back after finding another inhabitable planet, but they never did…."
Vivi dips her head down, rubbing her outer forearm.
"… I watched as my friends and comrades continued to die of war and famine. New illnesses caused by the Sperc-breach made expectant mothers and their daughters suffer. They became mere dolls of the loving and caring people I once knew them as. Even in a world of advanced technology and inventive medicines, human nature will always be the same."
Ashihei whips his hand to the side. "I did this for us, can't you see! If I hadn't agreed to continue working we'd all be dead for the amount of work me and your mother has done for Stellar!"
Loliel then brushes past him. Ashihei lifts his hand but sighs as it starts to lower.
"I know why you're so afraid of Valerie being alive now. It's all so crystal clear."
Ashihei's body quivers as he shakes his head. Loliel then stops a few paces in front of him, with her back still turned.
"You made promises you couldn't keep, and she died because of it. If you two met again, she'd tell you how much of an uncaring, fiendish, and selfish father you really are."
Loliel's sharp sapphire-blue eyes glint as she turns around, her scowl making Ashihei's eyes widen with a gasp escaping his mouth.
She then turns back around and heads for the elevator. "Let's go mom."
Vivi walks forward. She stops a few inches behind Ashihei and reaches for his arm but retracts her fingers with a hesitant jolt.
"She… She didn't mean it…." Vivi whispers before striding past him.
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Ashihei then drops to his knees, his arms slouched to his sides as he watches Loliel and Vivi leave through the closing slit of the elevator door.
Miya walks over to his side, tapping her neck device as a set of white holographic screens blink in front of her. "Stay here. Someone will come to escort you to your supervised quarters."
"Could you do something for me… Please…”
All the screens blink off at once; Miya then sighs and kneels down in front of Asheihei, holding her knees close to her chest.
"Don't say something brainless like, 'Please take care of them in my absence.' That'll really piss me off. I only made that deal with you on a whim, I didn't know if she was going to accept or not. If she would've told me to shoot you, I would've plastered your brains across the floor."
Ashihei nods his head, a smile growing at the middle of his lips. "I see."
"And I didn't do it because I like you or anything. Unlike you, I simply thought ahead. Sooner or later you would've had to leave 4056-E, and it would've been a matter of time before Stravos or someone outed you as a frontman of COEN. Then you and your family would've been targeted by marauders and private orgs for ransom. Did your organization even contact you after your home-planet iced over?"
"They hadn't made a transmission for the past two months… I'd also been working under an alias while in contact with the Stravos agency, so it wouldn't have helped for me to go down there unannounced and ask for assistance."
"Wow, they really seem like they care about you. And they're the ones you decided to stay on your dying planet for? Such amiability between you humans, real role models for the entire macrocosm."
"I didn't look at the bigger picture until it was too late. And now… Everyone that I meant to help is no longer in my circle. I'm... I'm such a fool."
Miya stands up and flicks him on the head, making Ashihei look up at her with a wince.
"And you should feel like a fool. It's called a mistake because we learn to correct them. Your family is mad and disappointed because they care about you and your decisions. Don't take them for granted anymore and one day you'll be able to talk again."
Ashihei nods his head, turning back towards the floor. His eyes then squint shut, with beads forming at the sides of his eyes.
"… Thank you."
"Oh no, don't thank me." Miya then grabs onto the scruff of his hair. Ashihei gazes into her sharp vampiric eyes giving off a crimson gleam. "I'm only performing a favor for your daughter. We're even in that regard. However, now, you owe me a favor. And you're going to pay it in full. Do you understand?"
A wide grin spreads across her face, almost mimicking a Chesire cat. Ashihei gulps and nods his head, his eyes watering as he's unable to break their gaze.
Miya then throws his head to the side with a chuckle. "Glad we have that understanding."
The elevator at the front of the room slides open, with Ushura comes out with a groan.
"You two are still here? I'm sure the Coordinant has already excused you so make yourself scarce and leave."
Miya then turns around, offering him a bright and innocent child-like smile. Ushura's eye twitches with an irate glare. He then strides in front of her then reels his fist back.
"What're you smiling at? I said get out of here you-"
A small whir resounds through the room, making Ushura look down at Miya's hand, now clenching onto her XMS pistol. Its body was now colored light gray and circular, with a long arch of red lines built on the outer nozzle.
Miya continues to give him a guileless smirk as she leans the gun in front of his face.
Ushura's eyes widen as he takes a step back. "W-wait, what're you-"
Before he could protest, the arch of red shoots out the outer end of the gun, creating a dense cherry-colored beam. The beam then flares in front of his face, with the lights then tracing down his body as if he is being scanned.
Ushura closes his eyes, then blinks, looking at his hands and then the rest of his body with a sigh of relief. In the middle of his sly smirk, his eyes roll to the back of his head, with his entire body leaning forward as he starts to fall head first.
Miya catches him by the face, mushing his cheeks together while still having her rosy smile. "I might've not done anything before, as I want to keep a certain image around those two… But I could care less what this disappoint of a father figure thinks of me."
She then allows his body to continue to plunge to the floor, creating a clack as his nose busts onto the ground with blue blood oozing from his nostrils.
Miya presses her foot onto the back of his head with a smirk, holding her gun in front of her. "This here is a FUS-12 Synapse Taser used by the security team at Vide Nul Maximum Holding. Despite it being called a taser, it acts more like a point-blank neural disruptor that puts the bigger guys to sleep."
She then squats down and taps the gun on Ushura's head. "Though, for someone your size, I guess it would only cause severe brain damage making you unable to move or think. Only to just lay there, like a helpless, defenseless child."
One of Ushura's eyes glistens with moisture, with a tear then sliding down his cheek.
"Oh no, don't cry!" Miya consoles while wiping his tear away. "You need to keep your tear ducts nice and full! Because when I'm ripping the nails off your fingers, or tearing the teeth from your gums and watching them fall down your throat… That's the only way I'll know that you're feeling the pain when I come back to play with you."
With a resilient huff, she then jumps onto her feet with her hands on her waist. "Ok! And once the people come to take you Dr. Yamauchi, just say that he collapsed or something. The FUS-12 doesn't produce any radiation so it'll be like he just had a bad hit to the head on examination."
Ashihei nods his head with a bewildered look, watching as Miya steps into the elevator with a blink.
"Thanks, doc!" Miya whistles as the door slowly closes in front of him. "We'll meet again soon~."