Everything was planned so carefully, Alycia thought there were no flaws in her plan. She was mistaken and underestimated her abilities, and that nearly got her killed by some Navy pilots, Natalie's colleagues. Alycia knew her enemies, every weakness and strength, yet she failed against them. She barely made it out alive, her Guardian was already burning and was about to implode, it was more like flying scrap metal than a ship. It crashed shortly after entering the hangar bay 7-B of Barrier Gate, the impact threw her against the console, which was quite a painful situation for Alycia, she even heard some of her ribs cracking, her head was hit as well, which knocked her out for some minutes.
Once she opened her eyes again, Alycia immediately felt the pain that was caused by the injuries, every breath she took was painful for her, and she noticed how blood was streaming out of the wound on her head. She opened the canopy and grabbed her pistol before she climbed out of the cockpit. Once she was outside of the ship she realized in what shape it was. 'A miracle I survived...' She whispered and turned herself around, her Sabre was standing some meters away, but using it now would just be silly. 'They'll probably try to capture me here...' She thought and also realized that she was not in a good condition to fly a ship.
Nobody else was in the hangar, she made sure nobody would interfere with her business, though it cost her quite some money. Alycia sat down on some boxes in order to regain some strength. She stood up after some minutes and walked towards a hallway, the pistol was still in her hand and it was sure that she would have to use it soon. 'Alright Ashfield, it ends today.' She said and turned around, expecting a Guardian to enter the hangar in the next moments.
His heart was beating agressively, his thoughts were wandering between keeping Aleesha safe from Alycia and Natalie's health. He was sweating, more than he could imagine after he took his helmet off. His Guardian was docked in an adjacent hangar to the one where Nat's Guardian crashed. He still could feel a sharp pain in the leg, even if it was supposed to be almost healed. He climbed down his ship, not before grabbing a handgun, probably the last resort he could think on using, but probably the only deterrent he could think on in case things didn't go as expected. He had a plan, maybe.
Walking through the hallway leading to the next hangar, he spotted the piece of junk Nat's Guardian was turned into. Didn't take him much to notice her either, wounded. "Natalie...?"
Ashfield had always made her angry, this time however, it was even worse. She clenched her fist. 'It's Alycia, you moron!' She yelled, it was a painful yell for her, and she immediately walked some steps backwards and touched her ribs, hoping it would somehow reduce the pain. 'Damn...' She thought, aimed her pistol at Ashfield and fired shortly afterwards, she was not able to focus and all the shots missed so that they only looked like warning shots.
She then turned around and ran into a hallway, knowing she would not get far with her injuries. Almost unbearable pain that increased with every new step. Alycia stopped after some minutes and leaned against the wall, she aimed the pistol into the direction from where she came, her hand was shaking, it was sure that it would be quite difficult to hit anybody. 'Trying to lure him into a trap won't work, I guess...' She thought and took a deep breath. Alycia was raging about her own failure, after all it had caused her all these troubles.
Josh drew his gun. He certainly wasn't going to allow Alycia shoot any single bullet more, but his hand was shaking over the idea of firing a fatal shot against Natalie. -He made a promise, and he was going to keep it-.
"I don't know any Alycia. Natalie, come on!" He kept distance from her, hesitating when it came to aim the gun at her.
'Why...' She said with a face distorted with pain and took a deep breath before continuing. 'Why did you follow me? Why do you ALWAYS have to interfere?' Alycia then yelled. 'Imagine what Aleesha would feel if her beloved Josh wouldn't return one day. Can you imagine that?' She kept the pistol aimed at him, even though she was not able to focus on it. One could perfectly see in what pain she was at the moment.
'Can you imagine what problems you can cause her? I've been through this. I saw how Natalie lost so many people, you can't imagine what it did to her. Nobody cared about her, no family, no friends, everybody treated her like garbage. She was alone in her life, all the time. See what it did to her, see what they've done to her. Everybody has destroyed the life of my sister.' Once she said that, she noticed how a tear was flowing down her cheek, it was the first time she showed emotions to anybody. 'They'll pay for what they've done to her...'
"Isn't... isn't it obvious? I DO care about her! And so DOES Aleesha!" He took a few steps forward, gun still pointing at floor. "Natalie has never been alone since then... And now dare to tell me that?" He walked closer. "You're not doing her any good, you're just a leech, a parasite! Give up already, GIVE UP!"
Josh dropped to his knees in front of her. She was aiming the gun at his head, shaking. "Natalie, you won't shoot me, you know it... Y-You don't need Alycia anymore... Please, stay with me."
'A parasite...' She said and shook her head. 'You've no idea what I did for her.' She then lowered the gun, turned around and walked a bit. 'I was there for her when she was young, when our mother was away, trying to earn some money. She was alone, she was sad, nobody wanted to be her friend, Natalie didn't exist for them.' Alycia stopped and took another deep breath, however she did not turn around.
'I changed that. I cared about her. I was the sister she always wanted, and you're telling me that I'm not good for her? She would've died without me.' She shook her head again and chuckled after some seconds. 'But you're lucky. Killing you wouldn't make sense, I finally realized that. It would only make her sad...'
He felt angered. He clenched his jaw as he listened to Alycia, -maybe he wouldn't be killed, but he wasn't going to chase Alycia forever either-. He got up from the floor, and without even thinking, he turned around and hit Alycia's wounded head with the rear of his gun, leaving her unconscious.
Josh managed to catch her on his arms before she collapsed on the floor and brought her to his ship to apply first aids in the best way he could. He was unsure about the final outcome, wondering if he'd ever talk to the Natalie he knew again. She was finally brought to the medical bay aboard the Yukon, awaiting for new actions while Ashfield had to report to the High Command about the successful retrieval.
"First Alexis, now Natalie. I could swear I'm not beating women on purpose."
'I need a coffee...' Doctor Johnson mumbled after he had left the room in which he had treated Natalie. He was holding a clipboard with some notes in his hand and noticed Ashfield sitting on a chair. 'Ah, there you are.' He then said and walked over to him and kept a look at his notes. 'Right, painful injuries, but far away from being severe ones. Some broken ribs and a concussion. She'll probably wake up soon, not exactly when, might be in some hours, or might be tomorrow. You can wait in her room if you want to, just don't flood her with questions once she woke up, give her some time to recover.' He scratched his head after a pause.
'How did that happen anyway?' Johnson then asked. 'Sounds like she fell down the stairs.' He commented without having spent much time to think about it before that sentence came out of his mouth.
Ashfield stood up from the chair, glancing at the door of the room where Natalie was resting. He shrugged. "A lot of things happened, too many of them. High Command will decide what details should be made public or not, I think. I just did my job. Now you make sure she remains tied to her bed."
He remembered this same situation not-so-many months ago, after Natalie and Josh were ambushed by an Outcast raiding group in California. Same outcome, but this time nobody knew whether Natalie would wake up or Alycia would do instead.
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