Year 2035, March
6:00 A.M
Outskirts of Moscow, Russia
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I slept for four hours and woke up at around 6 o'clock in the morning. I was grateful for Lily, as she insisted that I had to rest after what happened. She worried that I pushed myself too far during the fight with Kian. And so, I took her suggestion and slept in Klaus's Teria airship.
Lily, Caesar, Sofeea, and the Pseudo Users from The People's Light fought for the rest of the night, and they managed to defeat the remaining C.U's forces in Moscow. By the time I woke up, they hadn't returned yet.
"I'm . . . Still Sleepy."
I strode into the airship's lobby area and found Hope, Beatrice, Jeremy, and Gray. Beatrice swung her arm a few times and nodded at Gray.
"Thank you, Sir Ludwig," she said. "My shoulder doesn't hurt anymore."
Gray smiled and gestured for Beatrice to take a seat on the couch. Hope and Jeremy sat next to Beatrice.
"I'm afraid you need to rest for a week or so, Miss Garcia," said Gray.
"Alright. I understand."
Surprisingly enough, she was content with not fighting on the frontline. I always thought of Beatrice to be a battle-hardened girl, that would always seek any chance to fight.
"Really?" asked Hope.
"Yup. She's fine," replied Gray.
"Thank goodness!"
Hope hugged Beatrice all of a sudden and she instinctively slapped him in the face.
"W-What are you doing?!" said Beatrice, her cheeks flushed.
Hope shook his head and held his hands outward. "I'm just grateful that you're fine. You don't have to hit me!"
Beatrice clicked her tongue and shot an icy glare at him. "Don't do that again, you fool."
"Alright, alright." Hope sighed and ran his hand over his blond hair. Then, he noticed me standing at the entrance. "Oh, Ava. You're awake."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "What was that all about, Hope?"
He blinked. "Huh?"
It took him a minute to figure it out, and he clapped his hands after that.
"Wait . . . Are you implying that I did something to a girl that's older than me, and from the look on your face, you are thinking about what a desperate eighteen-year-old guy I am to go as far as doing things that could be interpreted in a wrong way to a female friend I have here."
Beatrice and I glared at him. Jeremy, who was watching the whole thing minded his own business, while Gray just smiled awkwardly. Hope gulped and chuckled.
"Hope is a pervert. I should have known," Beatrice said.
"What?! Oh, come on." Hope waved his hands at us nervously. "I'm not that type of a guy, you know!"
Beatrice smiled and patted Hope in the back a few times. "Haha. You're so defensive, Hope. Why so nervous? I'm just teasing you."
Beatrice winked at me, and I just stood there, confused.
"I really thought that Hope has feelings for Beatrice, and vice versa. Everyone who saw you two together always said this," I said. "So, it's really just a friendly hug, huh."
"Exactly!" exclaimed Hope.
Beatrice covered her mouth as she tried to look away from him. "W-Which one?"
"The friendly hug part," explained Hope. "And no, I don't have feelings for Beatrice, I think."
"You think?" Beatrice's eyes gleamed for a moment.
"Hmm. I don't know." Hope smirked as he said that.
"Ugh, you're teasing me," said Beatrice.
"Haha! Gotcha!" Hope hit her in the shoulder and she winced. "Oh, your wound . . . Um, sorry for that."
"You little--"
Jessie walked into the lounge area and everyone straightened their posture. I scrambled to take a seat on the couch, and so did Gray.
"Hmm?" Jessie frowned at our demeanor, but she just shrugged in the end. "I have some news to deliver."
Everyone focused their attention on her.
"But before that, how is Beatrice?"
"I'm alright. It will heal," she replied.
"You didn't make any moves on my son yet, I suppose? Good, good."
Beatrice's mouth twitched. Though, she tried to not let it bother her. Hope was silent, and so did the rest of us there. Jessie swept a quick gaze over everyone.
She coughed. "As you guys might have heard, Moscow is now in the hands of The People's Light. We suffered . . . Some casualties, and so did the military coup. Other than that, we did better than Evgeny had anticipated. Great job, everyone."
No one made a sound. Of course, the victory was bittersweet. It could be considered normal in everyone's eyes since war only brought casualties on both sides. There was nothing great about it. The powerful reigned supreme in the end, while the powerless were trampled.
"Finally, Evgeny had requested the Lutalo Aegis squad to meet him back at his mansion. He wants to have a meeting to discuss the aftermath."
I narrowed my eyes at her. "I'm sorry, Jessie. But, Caesar's our temporary leader right now, so we can't actually just go there without informing him first."
Jessie nodded slowly. "How about Gheele Folami? Evgeny wants to meet him as well."
Gray Ludwig cleared his throat before he replied to Jessie. "I'm afraid he's not here with us. Like we had said a few days ago, he's busy."
"But he's here in this airship, right?" insisted Jessie.
"Not really--"
Gray covered Hope's mouth in the blink of an eye. "Um, Madam Jessie Domitius. Lutalo has no obligation to tell The People's Light what they want to know. Remember, even if we are allies right now, there are still some things that we can't tell you about us."
I nodded at Gray's explanation.
"I see . . ." Jessie squinted at Gray. "I won't ask any more about Gheele Folami. Judging from your reaction, I suppose he's nowhere inside this airship. He's still in Neo Africa. You lied to us about him."
The tension in the lounge area suddenly spiked. All in all, it was Caesar's decision to bring up Gheele's name a few days ago.
I sighed and stood up. "Jessie. From how I see it, Gheele's involvement in this whole thing doesn't really matter. He chose Caesar to replace him while he is gone, so I can't pinpoint anything wrong here on our side. You have a problem with us making sure that you can be trusted by using his name?"
Jessie blinked.
"He is still our leader, mind you. Remind yourself that we have the upper hand in this whole alliance thing we have going on. Know your place," I continued.
Everyone went silent.
A minute later, I shook my head and regretted the words I just spat at Jessie. "Um . . . Sorry. It's an old habit of mine."
"Er . . ." Hope stood up and went over to Jessie's side. "Mom, I want to have breakfast with you actually. It's six in the morning, and I'm hungry. Let's go to the cafeteria downstairs."
Jessie looked down at the floor. "The meeting will be in the evening, right before dinner."
"Alright! I'll let Caesar know about it. Anyway, let's go eat."
Jessie nodded at me and I nodded back. Hope proceeded to pull Jessie's hand, and a moment later, the two of them had left the lounge area.
"You are awesome, Ava!" said Gray and Beatrice at the same time.
"Feeeeh, what?"
Beatrice patted my head while Gray complimented me on how I reminded Jessie of her position. I thought what I did to her was quite excessive in a sense. However, I did feel relieved somehow after that.
Perhaps I needed to spend a few minutes to meditate and clear my mind.