Waking to Another Sky Ch2 bit – Flash

~ crossovercreativechaos

Deep breath. Stand straight, sheet or no sheet. Forget the sheet. Stand, just as if she were in full armor. They didn’t need Yuuki Asuna; they needed Asuna the Lightning Flash.

Time to find out what these people are made of.

“Dr. Fraiser,” Asuna said levelly. “You said, everyone from the game is here?”

“Yes,” Janet answered, picking up a black marker to sketch a tall building on a little whiteboard hung on one bookcase. “I know it might not seem that way, but you can fit a lot of people in one building when they’re… well. Unconscious. We’ll try and find more room for you now.” She turned back with a professional smile. “The logistics of moving you wasn’t as complicated as you might think. You needed long-term care-”

“Everyone?” Asuna persisted, almost feeling Klein and Agil stiffen as her meaning sank in. “You’re sure?”

“We’re sure,” Carter put in. “We tracked down all of the NervGear that Kayaba sold. If you haven’t seen someone, they’re probably just on another floor.” She winced. “Sorry. If they’re alive, they’re here.”

“I… see.” Asuna took a deep breath, catching a glimpse of redheaded stillness that usually meant Fuurinkazan was about to take something apart into tiny, tiny pieces.

You’re lying to us.

It hurt. They were out of the game. This was the Otherworld. They were supposed to be safe.

Kayaba came from the Otherworld, Asuma reminded herself, grim. Nowhere’s safe.

Time to find out what other lies they’d tell. “You never answered my question, Colonel. Why did you move us? You knew it could kill us! What gave you the right?”

Brown eyes narrowed at her, annoyed. Asuna gritted her teeth. If he tried patting her on the head, he was going to lose a hand.

“It wasn’t his call to make.” Janet stepped forward, marker capped and gripped tight. “It was mine. The governments involved agreed that even with the risks involved in transporting you, it’d be more dangerous to leave you scattered in hospitals across Japan.”

Asuna gave her a flat look. “Why?”

“Because we didn’t know what else Kayaba was planning for you,” Janet replied, just as level. “And we didn’t know how many other innocent people he’d be willing to go through to do it.”

46 thoughts on “Waking to Another Sky Ch2 bit – Flash”

  2. >You’re lying to us.>
    >Brown eyes narrowed at her, annoyed. Asuna gritted her teeth. If he tried patting her on the head, he was going to lose a hand.>
    Oh boy. Both sides are just getting more riled up. Unless one side is willing to take a step back or another situation comes u that tables this ‘discussion’ I can’t see this ending well.

    Because SG1 won’t (so much classified stuff these people aren’t allowed to know) and Asuna can’t if she wants to avoid a general panic among the players.

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  3. Is Asuna referring to Heathcliff/Kayaba? Pretty sure that the stargate team had no clue he was in the game with all of them…

    Actually, that’s an interesting question. How *was* Kayaba able to play the game? He couldn’t exactly log out for long periods of time to eat, sleep, or use the restroom, and he couldn’t pass himself off as a victim because I’m sure everyone knew what he looked like (and I’m pretty sure someone would’ve gotten angry enough to rip his NervGear off his head out of sheer vindictive spite if he was in a general hospital.) so how did he play the game and not die/get caught logging out to take care of his physical body by the players?

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    1. From what I recall he logged in from his personal hideout or something. He could log out at times but I don’t remember if it was ever mentioned how he disguised the fact that he could.

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  4. Thank you, Janet, goddess of common sense! Also, Jack needs a refresher ASAP that medical //trumps// all other chains of command. Even Hammond must bow to the CMO.

    Or in other words: Jack, shut up and let Janet //do her job//!

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  5. You’re lying to us.

    Yeah, there is going to be a lot of that. From both of you.

    You never answered my question, Colonel.

    Probably be good to let him know that yes, you are going to notice when he avoids answering questions. Or gives non-answers. And that, no, you are not going to stop asking the question unless you get an answer.

    And the more you fib and tap-dance around the questions, the less she or anyone else is going to trust you. And considering that she already doesn’t trust you further than she could throw the Moon . . .

    Just saying that this situation started off ugly and is getting worse. And I don’t think some people quite understand just how much of a powder keg they’ve got nor that they are giving off sparks . . .

    . . .The governments involved agreed . . .

    Except Japan.

    Through Janet might not know that. Hammond might not have told her since untangling the politics of that mess wasn’t her job.

    “Because we didn’t know what else Kayaba was planning for you,” Janet replied, just as level. “And we didn’t know how many other innocent people he’d be willing to go through to do it.”

    Okay, that kind of logic they might be willing to accept as a good enough reason. It even has the benefit of being true, if not the entire truth.

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      1. Yes.

        Unfortunately I don’t think it’s going to be enough to prevent her patients from losing patience with SGC in the very near future.

        Some of them might be holding onto patience simply due to the virtue that Kirito isn’t back from scouting yet and they will need what he digs up if they are going to cut and run. Which is probably looking increasingly tempting.

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      3. Yeah . . . snow.

        OTOH, depending on how angry and distrustful they get, some of them will probably think they should take their chances with the snow. After all, snow doesn’t kill you with lies and manipulations. It kills you because it is snow.

        Also, there is no such thing as a free lunch. They aren’t helping us just because it is right thing to do – what do they want? Is it something we are willing to pay? Are they going to stick to the terms agreed upon or disregard them as they will?

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      5. Everyone should get the chance to be the voice of reason at least once. 😉

        Even through for some characters, it might be a disturbing. Like:
        Character A: “I just want to point out how scary it is that all of you are depending on me to be the sane and reasonable one here.”
        Character B: “Believe me, that terrifies me too.”

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  7. Come to think of it, I can’t see Sg1/Janet being allowed to even really truthfully explain WHY they are keeping the players there.

    They aren’t going to talk about whole nanites and gene modification aspect and just going to give BS answers. And when Kirito comes back and shows that ‘SAO came with them’ it’s going to be even more obvious that these people are lying to them.

    At that point the only options I can see SG1/Janet having is coming clean or trying to force the players to remain where they are. Jack is going to be dead-set against doing the former (classified etc) and the latter is going to result in a riot.

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  8. It’s probably not going to happen but in some way I wish that the players DID leave…just to leave Jack standing there scratching his head and having no idea why his way of talking to the people nominally in charge of the players resulted in them going “…yeah, stuff this.”

    Hmm..another fun possibility is that Argo is left alone for five minutes and managers to get an email out because that could have all kinds of repercussions.

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    1. I doubt the email would out pace the initial announcements. Unless Argo already has a relationship with a credible news organization. The SGC should have a line of communication now to somebody in the US embassy who can send out a press release.

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      2. I’m not expecting them to have a press release right away. I think it might not be too hard to hit next afternoon, Japan time. (Haven’t checked the time zone differences, but then I don’t know what time it is in story either.)

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      1. Traditionally, there are a lot of polite ways in Japanese to avoid answering questions. There are also a lot of ways to be politely noncommittal, to disagree in a way which doesn’t sound like disagreement (because that would just sound so harsh), and so on. We don’t usually get a lot of this in anime, but Japanese corporate negotiations are chock full of this stuff.

        It is kinda gauche to lie outright, though.

        OTOH, there is a lot of Japanese and corporate cultural orientation towards getting to know someone on a gut level, in various traditionally informal ways. Same thing with the military. But Jack cannot take Asuna and Kirito out drinking….

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      5. Anyway, my point was that Asuna has usually been dealing with either people she can trust to the end and be open with, or with enemies who would kill her as soon as look at her. She expects people to either be straight with her, or be evil traitors.

        But in normal life back in Japan,she would not have expected things to be so clear cut, and certainly not if she went into business.Her expectations of discourse have changed.

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      7. Of course, your basic hotblooded anime hero or heroine is usually protesting the opaque side of Japanese manners and speech, in favor of absolute honesty and gut-level interaction. But in real life, this would cause a lot of hurt feelings and enmity, unless the hotblooded persons were also very charming and sensitive.

        Daniel or Teal’c probably need to make some tea.

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      9. Or take them to a steak house. I’ve heard Japanese businessmen sometimes want to be treated to that. Of course, they are willingly traveling to a different cultural context.

        The players probably shouldn’t be a fed a lot of meat right away.

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