"I just want to hear it again. Matthew told you that he was bringing the girl along?" Cid, who was not sold on the idea, asked again of Sawyer, Toni, and Richie, who had been with their Headmaster that morning, for a quick debrief before heading out.

Sawyer nodded, reiterating what their Commander had told him while down on the docks, if not twenty minutes ago.

"He had sent Mya to get her uniform, believes that her Highness potentially could be in hiding and the servant's presence might bring her forth."

Cid exhaled, shaking his head as he typed away on the computer, his patience wearing thin.

"Did he say anything else about his decision?"

"Yes, and then we plaited each other's hair and painted our nails. Sir."

Cid stopped dead in his tracks, slowly peering over his glasses at Sawyer.

"You know what he is like...sir."

Smirking, knowing that Cid could either lose it or mutter away, Toni and Richie stole a glance at one another, waiting for the reaction to come.

"He believed she held a valid point that if Seraphina were in hiding, her presence would draw out further conversations with the survivors. We are aware they are hesitant, and most of our reports have indicated how cooperative they have been regardless."

"I don't agree, but I'll leave this with you two," Cid directed his attention to Toni and Richie, "you are also restricted to three days. Then back to base."

"Three days?" Toni mouthed to Richie.

"Why are we on a curfew of all people? We aren't twelve," Sawyer protested. First, he had no bar of this sudden pushback from the Headmaster. He leaned into the seat, folding his arms across his chest.

Cid peered angrily between the three men staring at him for an answer, "you are lucky I have even considered this!"

They noticed how different his tone had been with them. It had been quite a few years since Cid had given any of the elite this form of restrictions and time limits on where they had gone and what they had done.

"Not children here," Toni raised his hand in defence, "twenty-three."

"Can't vouch for him, though," Richie and Sawyer snickered. It caused Toni to fling his head to the men with an abolished look of betrayal on his face.

"Dick." 

"I do not care." Cid snapped back the room back from the juvenile banter of his soldiers.

Sawyer, like Toni and Richie, watched Cid's mannerisms, something that does not sit well with all three of them. 

His defensiveness consumed the office.

"Three days." Cid reiterated, "am I understood?"

"Understood," all three soldiers acknowledged, not wanting to further an argument.

"Dismissed." Cid waved them off, returning to the report for the council with the update on the survivors and offboarding situation they currently had at hand.

Toni rose from the chair, followed by Richie, who nodded to Sawyer to follow them out. It was safer to talk outside than in front of Cid at that present time.

Entering the corridors, they made their way to the elevator, and Toni hit the tablet button, allowing the doors to glide open instantly.

"What is all that about?" Richie leaned into the railing as he stepped inside, followed suit by Toni and Sawyer, who joined him. The doors closed instantly behind them, taking them down to the sub-levels for departure.

"Who the fuck knows." Toni pinched the bridge of his nose, "let's just see what we can find in the next three days. I'm not holding my breath for any form of miracle."

"A miracle would change the course of this shit fight." Sawyer humoured.

"Amen." Richie shook his head, exhaling as Toni had.

---- ----

"Weapons loaded?" Matthew's commands echoed through the busy sixty-man carrier, already calculating the ship's system destination. They needed to make these days count, considering what they could be walking into.

"No," Jesse's voice snapped from her tablet, "enter north degrees by five," she peered at him slowly reiterating the coordinates again. 

"Five. Degrees. North."

"Weapons on board!" Toni luckily had shouted from the entry arriving to the chaos of departure.

"North. North Matthew!"

"It does say north," he pointed at the illuminated panels, "it wants the q-west coordinates now."

Jesse exhaled back to the tablet searching for the coordination numbers.

"Medical Supplies?!" Matthew's voice shouted out again.

"L-West 2.8"

"What L-west? No Q -west? And it wants to go by 3.1?" Matthew replied typing away.

"Loaded on, confirmed with a thousand batches." Sawyer answered.

"Matthew, just re-type it in," Jesse looked up from her tablet from her calculations. "The computer isn't coordinating it right."

"I did retype it, look!" He threw his hands towards the controls.

"Jesus Christ!" Jesse began annoyed, "do I have to do everything?"

"Base stationed as ordered?" Matthew's voice echoed, somewhat annoyed at the coordinates and Jesse's communication on their location.

"Told them already of our plan Commander Skarsgard." a female in charge whose name scaped him had called back happily at his command. Her flirtatious tone evident in how she spoke to him.

"Thanks, babe."

"Can you not humour her, she's a lovesick puppy." Jesse scowled softly at the way he spoke to his legionnaire of a fan club.

"She's harmless." Matthew laughed, "relax, you'll get your knickers in a knot."

"She's the fucken president of your fan club."

"And, I owe many great fucks to her for that devotion, her and the others," he grinned temporarily, reminiscing back on those fun times he had.

"You're a perverted, sick bastard." Jesse whacked him over the back of the head with her tablet.

Scowling at the sudden hit at first, it then turned into a burst of laughter that echoed around them at the loss of a joke with Jesse.

"Hey, hey, can you just read me the coordinates and not abuse me."

Jesse rolled her eyes, exhaling as she returned to her tablet, "adjust north by 4.3, then east by 7.6- recalibrate. The mainboard phased off again and interrupted our coordinates."

"So it wasn't me," he grinned at her. That would antagonize her for sure.

"Shut up and put in the coordinates, Matthew!" 

If you don't want Jesse to hit you over the back of the head aswell, I would suggest to VOTTEEE!