A/N

So, in case anyone noticed, Liang's artwork in Rivals got changed again, to the extent that he now has a buzz cut. Somehow, I was able to make a oneshot out of that. Is that a sad reflection of me, a sad reflection of the state of the franchise, or both?

On the other hand, we're at least getting remasters of Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert, so there is that, I guess, though I'm not celebrating just yet. But in the meantime, he's Rivals...stuff.

Buzz Cut

"Hey doc. You changed on us again?"

Doctor Joseph Liang, who'd just walked into the mess hall of the Yukon, stopped, turned, and looked at the grinning woman who was seated behind him. A smoking beverage was on the table, her legs were on the table, and a cap covered most of her red hair. Basically, the type of person that he'd ignore under usual circumstances.

"Excuse me?"

Except these weren't usual circumstances for him. Usual circumstances involved being in a lab somewhere, cut off from the world he was trying to save. Normal circumstances involved working with fellow scientists, all of whom had at least some interest in saving the world from tiberium as well. Normal circumstances didn't involve him being on what was effectively a flying aircraft carrier, heading for Sydney, Australia.

"Your hair," said the woman. "Used to be longer. Plus, you used to have glasses."

Both were true, but he wasn't sure what the significance was. Nonetheless, he took a seat opposite the woman, who had the courtesy to at least remove her feet from the table.

"Strongarm, is it?" Liang asked.

She tapped her name tag. "That's what this thing says I am."

"And what do you say?"

"That I liked it before you went full GI."

"You noticed?"

She shrugged.

"Right…"

An uneasy silence dwelled between them, which was more than what Liang could say for the world right now. Over the past four years, the world had been in uneasy silence, what with the end of the Second Tiberium War, the death of Kane, and the fragmentation of the Brotherhood of Nod. Over the last few months however, that silence had been replaced by voices coming from all over the place. It had started in Rio, and ended in Central Australia, where an experiment in liquid tiberium had gone horribly wrong, setting the centre of the continent (or country, but then, what countries technically existed these days anyway?) into a red zone? Hence, GDI United Peacekeepers under Commander McNeil were on their way to keep the peace…officially. Unofficially, they were there to be ready for any further moves by Nod. Because even with their prophet dead, the Brotherhood still had a poisonous fang or two within the snake's severed head. There were even rumours that the Brotherhood was moving to secure nuclear missile silos in various sites around the world.

"Hello?" Strongarm asked, waving her hand in front of him. "Hello?"

"Hmm?" Liang blinked, the mechanic's protestations having snapped him out of his daydream. "Oh, sorry. Wasn't listening."

"Yeah, I could tell." She pointed up at his hair. "So what's up with the buzz cut anyway?"

He shrugged. "Seemed appropriate."

"Yeah, but you're a civy doc, you ain't obliged to keep your hair short." Liang opened his mouth but Strongarm kept talking. "Yeah, ditching the glasses and getting implants or something? Sure. No-one likes glasses. I mean, glasses are for old people or crazy people, and no-one likes those people."

Gee, thanks.

"But hair?" She tugged at her own ponytail. "Everyone likes hair. I know the eagle in the sky wants us to keep it all short and proper, but way I see it, they're just jealous that they ain't got hair as nice as mine."

"You…think decades of hair regulation is down to your hair?"

"It's 2034 mate, how many redheads are left in the world anyway?"

"I…never stopped to count."

"Yeah, well, that's your problem ain't it? So concerned about tibs and mutants and red zones that you ain't stopped to consider the important things."

Liang knew that Strongarm was taking the piss out of him. That wasn't to say that he minded. It was the type of thing Jade had once did. Before the types of things his sister did and said became a lot less funny and a lot more disturbing. Like, joining with the Brotherhood and embracing tiberium-level disturbing. Like, becoming battle commander-level disturbing and defeating Colonel Jackson- and obliterating his forces with a nuclear strike disturbing.

He figured that a large part of the world had normalized "disturbing." He hadn't been alive when tiberium had first come to Earth, but he could imagine what people had felt at the time when they realized that this green super crystal was slowly consuming their world, and that there was a bunch of crazies with enough firepower to rival the United Nations that embraced that. Even if the problem of tiberium was solved, human nature was an issue that-

Wait a minute. He snapped himself out of his daydream this time, his eyes following his nose (or his nose his eyes), focusing on what Strongarm was drinking.

"Is that coffee?"

"Yep." She put the mug down and wiped her lips. "Long black, to be exact."

"How the heck can you afford coffee?"

"By saving my rations you twat."

"Yeah, but…"

"But?" Strongarm asked.

"But…to save that long…to get coffee…"

"Hey, didn't say it was quick. But hold out long enough, and you can afford coffee." She smirked. "What? You been making do with tea all this time?"

He nodded, thinking of days when he could have enjoyed coffee. Days where the world wasn't as worse off as it was now, and before what was left of the world's arable land had to be converted to staple crops. Coffee was a luxury – not as much a luxury as something like non-synthetic meat, but a luxury all the same.

"Anyway," Strongarm said. "Figure we'll be in Sydney in about ten hours, so you might want to get some rest. Boys on the Philadelphia want to convey at least the impression that GDI is competent."

Liang couldn't help but frown. "You…do know that Nod was behind the liquid tiberium explosion, right?"

"Yeah, and?" Her smile turned into a frown, and Liang raised an eyebrow when he saw how much difference that made. "Either it's an accident, which means the eggheads are incompetent, or it was an attack, which means the troopers were incompetent."

"That's a bit harsh don't you think?"

"Considering that you'll be spending the next few months in a lab doing what you've always done up to this point, while I and my Corps of Engineers gets to work on the zone wall?" She took another sip of the coffee. "Figure I have a right to it."

Liang supposed she did. Whether it was wise was another matter.

"Anyway," Strongarm said. "See you around then. And, hey, don't get another haircut doc. Longer hair looks good on you."

"Um…thanks." He got to his feet and turned around, before stopping, and turning round to face Strongarm. She'd put a now empty cup aside and was now dabbling away on a mobile phone, playing Tetris.

"It's because of my sister actually."

She didn't look up at him.

"Jade. You probably know, it's no big secret what my sister's doing. I guess maybe I thought that if I looked different, people would see me as different, and-"

"You are different," Strongarm said, not looking up from the screen. "Your sister's a bitch, and you aren't."

He made a small frown – he couldn't doubt Strongarm's assessment of Jade, yet she had been…was, his sister. On some level, he felt compelled to defend her from such comments.

"Ain't gotta look far to find someone in GDI who's got some relative on some branch of the family tree fighting for Nod. I mean, besides us, them, and mutants, what else is left?"

"Technically, we're all related, so-"

"So, when Nod's returned to the dust from whence it came, we get to remove the branches that held the rest of the tree back."

"That's a bit like eugenics don't you think?"

"Yeah…I don't know what even means." Strongarm put her phone aside. "Just…I dunno, grow your hair back or something." She tugged her ponytail again. "What pleases me is good for you."

"Really?" He couldn't help but smirk. "How?"

"Well, considering that I probably get more ration allowances than you, and that could mean coffee, I-"

"Done."

She smiled, and he couldn't help but smile back.

Growing his hair would take time. But he had months to burn in Sydney. And if that meant coffee at the end of it…

…well, some sacrifices were worth making.