Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"How can it be this hot in the middle of winter, in the middle of the night?" Ally attempted to fan herself, it doing little to alleviate the sweat covering her body. The airport had relatively little in terms of air conditioning, and it seemed unusually humid in Mozambique.

"Because we are close to the equator." Hyun Jae stated, trying her best to remain neutral in spite of the annoyance of both the heat and her tagalong.

She had quickly begun to regret bringing along the young girl, she did little beside prater on mindlessly, and was sorely tempted to leave her behind to fend for herself. Fortunately for Ally, Hyun Jae did have a conscience… as well as the knowledge that she'd be held culpable if anything happened to the girl.

"Do you think Jinmay will be alright? Switching between the planes I mean. I mean, besides this, we have three more switches, it's kind of crazy." Ally asked.

That was actually a legitimate question for once, but then again, there wasn't exactly anything the two of them could do. Best to just put Ally at ease, "She will probably be fine. And this was the soonest flight that would get us to Denver, I checked the time, even with the switches this takes off several hours."

"Well, I guess so."

Hyun Jae nodded, and took out her cell phone to call Jin Sang. She then realized that with the time difference, the boy was probably out cold, and mused that he was probably the type to not get enough sleep as it was.

She sighed as she got up and stretched her legs, "I will be going to the bathroom. Do you need to go?"

"No thanks. And take your time, still two hours before our connecting flight takes off," she sighed, "and I can't fall asleep. Shoulda brought my DS or something."

Hyun Jae rolled her eyes as she made her way towards the woman's room. She noticed that the airport was surprisingly clean considering where in the world they were; but she mused that an airport was essentially where a country made its first impression on visitors, so it was likely things detonated once one left the location.

The woman's bathroom seemed good enough, very clean with sto- *thump* Hyun Jae stumbled.

"Oh meu Deus, me desculpe!" A woman cried out, Hyun Jae looked up from the floor where she now sat, to the dark skinned woman above her, holding out her hand "Você está bem?"

Hyun Jae took her hand, noticing that she was wearing a flight attendent outfit. "Um, thank you. Sorry, I do not speak Portuguesa."

The young lady helped her to her feet, "Ah, sorry. American?"

Hyun Jae shook her head, then began to brush herself off, "No I am from Korea, but I know no one here speaks that."

"Oh, you are a long way from home then." She bowed her head slightly, "I am very sorry about that, I wasn't looking where I was going."

Hyun Jae appreciated that the young woman was trying to adhere to East Asian standards, even though she probably had no idea of the Korean specifics, "No, it is okay. I wasn't either."

"You're sure you're alright Miss?"

"I'm fine…" she glanced down at the girl's nametag, "Saada."

"I thought your friend said it was supposed to be warm in here." Otto mumbled as he wrapped the blanket around himself tightly.

Gibson sighed, "He said it was warm-er than a luggage bay of a passenger plane. Which is true Otto, it's barely below freezing in here."

Antauri nodded, "Yes, I am glad Sprx knew about that before we snuck aboard that plane to Brazil. Neither you nor I knew how cold it got in there, Otto. We might have died in those temperatures"

All this talk of cold; everyone glanced over at Nova, who was wrapped up tight in a wool blanket and sleeping away. Antauri sighed deeply; everyone was worried about her, and so far Nova remained completely silent on what was disturbing her; well, almost completely. He looked back at his red brother, "Is there any chance you are going to tell us about the conversation you two had, back in that tool shed?"

Sprx looked over at Antauri, "It was…" he shook his head, "No, sorry Antauri but she'd hate me if I told you like this. She's already been through enough without having me go behind her back."

"So you know what happened then?"

Sprx seemed to be slowly shrinking into himself as he recalled the conversation, "Yeah, it's… it was pretty messed up. But she's gotta be the one who talks about it, not me."

Antauri narrowed his eyes towards his brother in suspicion, "Are you sure? I know you think you're doing her a favor, but if this is something that might be a danger to Nova, you have to tell us Sprx."

Sprx glared, "It's not, and even if it was I don't have to tell you anything."

"Oh, both of you stop it." Gibson snapped at them. "You can ask her when she wakes up, Antauri, last time I checked she has the right to make her own decisions."

A silence fell over the group, with the only noise being the constant dull roar of the plane engine and the air whipping past. It was an uncomfortable situation for all of them, finally being together again as a team, but still feeling so separate after all they had experienced on their own; having to abandon what they had come to know as their new lives, new friends.

Otto was the one to break the silence, "Why don't we all get some sleep you guys? I know that Nova's not the only one who's tired, and I'm sure Chiro will wake us up if anything important happens."

Gibson glared over at Otto and tried his best to subtly motion to Antauri. The silver monkey smiled sadly, "It is alright Gibson, I can meditate; I think it would do me some good."

As the other wrapped themselves in the blankets Chiro had managed to slip them as they snuck aboard the plane, Antauri began to slip into a meditative state.

In truth, what had gone unsaid by Gibson was affecting Antauri somewhat; the sudden transition from a fully organic young man to this robotic body still somewhat affected him. In particular, these long stretches of time where everyone else slept and he was left alone with his thoughts in such a small space. It was different back in Shuggazoom, things weren't quite as tense then; here and now everyone nerves were still raw, and the situation unsure. It was at times like this, he wished he could sleep so he could have a brief respite.

Ally was trying her best to read a book Hyun Jae had purchased for her, to keep her occupied during the flight. Ally realized it was better than nothing, but she was starting to understand that this 'adventure' was mostly going to be very long and boring. Not to mention that the book wasn't very good; it was trying to be some mystery thriller or something, but Ally had already figured out both who the murderer was and how she did it. Then again, the only other alternative was… nothing, she wasn't tired enough to sleep.

And thus she sat there, reading her crappy little book; hoping that something would happen to distract her, to give her something else to do. As if on cue, she looked up and saw that Hyun Jae had returned.

"Hey, um… who is this?" A young woman, just about Hyun Jae's age, stood beside her, wearing what looked like a flight attendant outfit.

Hyun Jae seemed strangely happy as she motioned towards the young lady. "This is Saada, she'll be coming with us."

Ally thought she understood, "Oh, you mean she'll be a flight attendant for our flight?"

Saada smiled coyly, "Well yes, but I will also be joining you as a passenger once you transfer in Sao Paulo."

"Huh?"

Hyun Jae plopped down beside her, smiling, "Jinmay did tell us there were more to her friends then Otto and Antauri, remember?"

Ally quickly looked back and forth between the two for conformation, "Wait so-?"

Saada nodded, "Yes, my friend, his name was Sprx, and Hyun Jae has told me that Otto and Antauri were very much like him. Seeing as I am scheduled to attend those two flights regardless, and I can get a significant discount on the two remaining flights, I see no major harm in accompanying you."

Ally was trying to understand, "You won't like, get in trouble with your bosses?"

"I am an acquaintance of his, and he said not as long as I don't take any sick days for a while. I don't get sick much, so it should be fine." Said Saada

Ally was somewhat bewildered, "Wow…" She extended her hand out, "Nice to meet you then, I'm Ally."

Saada took her hand and shook, "It's a pleasure."

The three began to get acquainted, although there was less exchanging basic information and more talking about their respective friends. Saada was about to head off to help prep for the flight before Hyun Jae stopped her.

"I actually have another question Saada, if you don't mind."

Saada shrugged, "I don't think I will."

"How did you and Sprx become friends if you were a flight attendant, this is a job that takes up a lot of time."

"I… only finished training about a week ago, and this is only my third flight. I was hoping to surprise Sprx to be honest; he loved the idea of flying." She sighed deeply, "I hope we will be able to find him."

"We will." Said Hyun Jae, a look of determination on her face.

Saada smiled wistfully, "Thank you. I'll see you on the plane, alright?"

"See ya." Ally waved slightly as she walked off.

High above the taiga, the cargo plane began to rock slightly as it came across turbulence. One jolt woke Chiro, who had managed to fall asleep a few hours ago in spite of the uncomfortable seats, such a skill learned over the past of having to sleep in far worse places.

As Chiro rubbed his eyes, the indistinct voices at the edge of his awareness came into focus.

"So you know what you're gonna do when we land? You have it planned out?" That sounded like Sandra.

Chiro looked about the cockpit, and saw that her and Marcel were indeed talking, and Anna was now asleep in the copilot seat; her light snoring blending in with the constant dull roar of the engines.

Marcel hadn't noticed that Chiro had awoken, and continued his conversation, "We rent a car and start driving, Chiro knows the way."

Sandra checked the controls as she talked, "You know they don't accept Euros, right?"

"Don't worry, I've got my credit card; I checked and it should work in Russia."

"What about speaking, you know any Russian? Or will sleepy head back there be your personal translator?"

Marcel shrugged, "Pretty much. I only know German and some English, and how to ask directions in French."

"Well, be careful when you're driving, you may have heard, but most of Anna's fellow Russians, aren't what you would call 'good drivers'."

Marcel waved off her concern, "It'll be fine. I passed my driving test like it was nothing."

Anna started giggling, surprising everyone who thought she was asleep, "You tell yourself that, just hope you've got some good insurance kids."

Marcel glanced at her nervously, "Um… thanks."

Chiro had a bad feeling about this, but he was somewhat afraid to talk, he had been letting Marcel do all the talking as to ensure that no one became too suspicious of him. The fact of the matter was he still had very little idea of how things operated on this planet; although from what his teammates had said of their time here, it didn't seem like any of the locals did either.

The planet had been pretty interesting, but at the end of it all he was just happy they were all heading out together again, he couldn't wait to get back to Shuggazoom and see Jinmay again; it had been months, she must be worried something horrible by now.

"What are you thinking about back there kid?"

"Huh?" Chiro glanced up to see Anna looking back at him, a knowing smile on her face. "Oh, just wondering what things are like back home, it's been a little while."

Anna nodded and turned back to lie back in her seat "Well, I always say one of the best parts of traveling is getting to come back home, although yours is a little soured by what's happened."

"Hmm?" Chiro was confused, this lady couldn't possibly know about Nova. Then he remembered the cover story, "Oh, well I'm sure she'll be fine."

At least, Chiro hoped she would be.