Log ; Closed ; Complete

[eagleofautozam.livejournal.com]

When; Backdated to Sep. 22, evening
Rating; PG
Characters; eagleofautozam and geo_metro
Summary; Aftermath of the attack on Lantis / Finding the GTO
Log; Geo listened carefully to his Commander’s plans for locating the GTO. Several nights worth of searching had yielded very little information on the missing GTO, but at least the list of places where the missing mecha was not… was growing. The wayward mecha could only be in one place now, the westward side of mountain. That was what Eagle was saying now. That he would once again take out the FTO and fly a search pattern over that side of the mountain to discover the mecha’s resting place.
How Geo had managed to land safely in the ocean without his mecha, it was a sure sign of the City’s influence.

But as interesting as the information being relayed to him was, Geo’s whole attention was focused on the man sitting on the sofa. His sad eyes and slightly slumped shoulders… something had happened.

“Are you sure you should be going out tonight?” Geo asked as soon as Eagle had stopped speaking.

The Commander in turn had the gall to seem surprised by the question, “Hm? Why shouldn’t I go out?”

Geo sighed, shifting his stance to lean against the wall he had been standing in front of. “You don’t look like you are feeling very well. Was there another attack?”

Eagle frowned slightly and looked away. There had been another attack… just not the kind Geo had been thinking of. “I attacked Lantis.”

“Lantis?!” Geo gapped, “Why would you… “

But, when Geo’s voice faded unsure how to finish that question, “Only two items can open the door to where the proof on the pillar is kept in Cephiro… Clef’s ring and Lantis’s sword. Even if this Lantis is from the same dimension as Clef, I still had to know if his sword had that power.”

“Eagle… “ Geo’s voice was soft, sympathetic… To attack Lantis. No wonder Eagle seemed so sad today.

“I tried to explain the situation to him, I even offered to extend the Non-Aggression Treaty to include him if, once scanned, his sword showed no sign of this power. But, he wouldn’t agree even to a simple scan…
I was hoping we could iron this situation out before he entered Clef‘s household… I see no reason for the others to be involved in this matter.“
The Commander himself smiled wistfully, “I suppose I should have just scanned the object without telling him anything about it. Then this whole mess might have been avoided.”

And Geo remained silent. This pause… there was more to this, so he waited patiently for Eagle to be ready to rely the rest of the story.

His patient wait was rewarded. “Now I suppose the others will think I breached our agreement… unless Lantis hasn’t told them about it.”
That was very possible… Lantis was a very quiet type of person, not prone to complaining or tattling on people.

“But, I have not broken any agreement. When we settled on our treaty I said that “at this point in time I saw no purpose in harassing any member of Clef’s household” and I further clarified my position by adding “that if Clef and the other members of his group agreed not to interfere in any of my plans then I could agree to a loose Non-Aggression Treaty”.
However, at that time Lantis was not a member of their household. The terms of the Treaty do not apply to him and we never agreed that any one arriving in this City after our arrangement was made would be covered by the terms of the Non-aggression Treaty.”

One more long pause… followed by the sad smile of suddenly realized knowledge, “Perhaps in hindsight we should have written our arrangement down… so that we could have avoided any misunderstandings of this nature.”
Geo shrugged his large shoulders. He was no politician… all this talk of Treaties and … Lantis… it made his head hurt a little. But what was said next nearly bowled him over completely.

“Maybe you should renounce your association with me and join the others.”

“WHHHHAAAATTTT?!?!” Geo was saved from a face-plant into the carpeted floor only by a quick grab of the nearby doorframe. “What are you talking about!”

Eagle looked up, meeting Geo’s eyes, “I have made a lot of enemies in this City… Perhaps even alienated those people from Cephiro again, I don’t know how they will react. Besides… it maybe too dangerous for only two people in this place. During that one curse, I could have…”

But, Eagle couldn’t bring himself to say ‘chopped off your head’. It was too horrible.

Geo clenched his teeth and crossed the distance between the doorway and the sofa, slamming his fist into the coffee table with a sudden release of pent up anger that startled even the normally unflappable Commander.
“I already said! We are in this together! Stop trying to push me away!”

“Geo…” It was all Eagle could say before the Sub-Commander interrupted.

“I don’t care how dangerous it is, I won’t abandon you!”

The angry furrowed brow, the intensity in his eyes…
Eagle felt his own resolve dissolving under Geo’s forceful glare. He didn’t want to be alone in this place, not again. To be once more constantly assaulted by the ticking of that damn clock…
But, asking Geo to stay… with everything Eagle had done and was yet to do, how could he ask for that?

Fortunately he didn’t have to ask. Geo had already made up his mind and he too could be stubborn when there was something important he had to protect.

The Commander‘s deep silence led to his eventual concession, “Thank you, Geo.”

And a sigh of relief… as Geo flopped down onto the sofa next to Eagle, “Good. Now don’t bring that up ever again! It’s like you are trying to tick me off…”

To that Eagle just smiled sadly… It really had been an emotionally draining time.
With closed eyes he reflected briefly. The surprise… disapproval on Lantis’s face when he had been attacked… the blood… Lantis’s blood…
He couldn’t say it out loud, how much it had hurt to injure Lantis… and then to have that effort lead to nothing. It made him have doubts about everything.

A situation Geo could sense… so he smiled, trying to get Eagle busy on something again. Then he wouldn’t have time to dwell on this anymore. “Hey, aren’t we supposed to be looking for the GTO now?”

While still gloomy Eagle did open his eyes, trying to focus again on the task at hand. Whatever came out of the Lantis situation… He would deal with when it arrived. Ultimately even if he was hated, he still couldn’t give up on his wish. Eagle was fully prepared to sacrifice everything in order to achieve his last wish. The cool certainly of that, eased his mind. Some how it made all of this easier… to know that you had so little time left. These sacrifices while still painful, suddenly seemed insignificant.
I’m sorry… Lantis…


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Passing clouds blurred and stretched themselves across the view screen, parting as the mecha charged forward. It had been a short journey to were the FTO had been hidden and it was taking even less time to jet over to the mountain and restart the systematic search for the GTO. It felt good to be able to fly again, something of a release from all of the confusing events that had happened in the City. Eagle enjoyed the moment, leading the FTO through a series of unnecessary maneuvers… just to have a bit of fun.

“Hey! No acrobatics out there!” The FTO’s communications device crackled with Geo’s teasing voice, “You are supposed to be searching not playing!”

The Commander chuckled but cut the engines to a slower speed and began the search. “Beginning the search pattern now, Geo.”

“Let me know if you run into anything out there.”

But, nothing readily jumped to the scanners attention. The forest below was dark and seemingly untouched by any large crashing object. Surely something like that would have left a large track of trees bent and broken in its wake. That just didn’t seem to be the case… or maybe the forest had healed itself between the time of the GTO crash and now. Plant life did have a tendency to grow rapidly in this City.
A flash of colored lights and the satisfying steady beat of a tracking signal.

“Geo,” Eagle spiraled in… zeroing in on the source of the signal even as he spoke, “I have found something. It could be the GTO.”

“Really?” The voice took on an air of excited anticipation, “Can you get a look at it?”

The trees below parted under the FTO’s weight as it landed where the source of the signal had been coming from. The dark metallic body of the GTO glimmered in the faint sunlight that filtered its way through the dense canopy of leaves. It was partially buried in the soil and rocks of the mountain and completely hidden from the air. If it hadn’t been transmitting the automatic distress signal… it might never have been found.

“It is the GTO,” Eagle’s voice was serene as he explained the state of the machine, partially buried as it was. “I might be able to pull it free with the FTO.”

And no matter what Geo had to say about that, Eagle was already taking to the air. Hovering feet over the ground he willed the FTO to extend an arm and bring a tractor field to life around the disabled GTO. The loose soil moved easily enough but the rocks held firm… until they too were also rolled aside as the green mecha lurched free from the earth.

“I have it,” The Commander reported as he steered the FTO back to its temporary base with the green mecha in tow.

“Great! Bring it in!” Geo was clearly enthusiastic about the discovery as his voice took on a an energized edge. “We can worry about repairing it after we get it under cover.”

Eagle smiled. Geo was getting a bit ahead of himself there. They weren’t even clear what kinds of repairs it would need. “We can scan it for damage tomorrow. Let’s just try and get it secured tonight.”

Once the two mecha were secreted safely away, Eagle could check off another one of his minor goals.