Full Metal Panic - Sergeant Down

Chapter 1 - Aftermath

It had been nearly a month since Sousuke's return from his last mission. Thanks to him, everyone had made it out safely. Everyone, that is, except him. His injuries from the mission had been so severe that they hadn't even risked sending him to Tokyo to be treated. Mithril indeed had a far more advanced medical unit than anything else on Earth back at its base. But there lay the problem. They weren't back at the base. They were on a submarine equipped almost solely for doing battle. Moving Sousuke further in the condition he had been in, however, wasn't an option. So, on the submarine was where he remained.

Sousuke slowly blinked open his eyes, staring at the blank gray ceiling. There were no tiles to count, and no signs of life anywhere near him. Sousuke turned his head to the side. It was the so called "Toy Box" he was on, he was sure of that. Slowly, he rose from the bed into a sitting position, fighting back the pounding that took residence in his skull as soon as he moved. His vision blurred momentarily. Blinking, the room came back into focus and he got to his feet. How long had he been here? He looked down at a clock on a nearby desk. It was sometime in the early morning. The only ones who would be awake were the soldiers on the main deck. Taking a few steps forward, he had to thrust his hand against the wall just before he got to the door. His world suddenly blurred and he was engulfed by a sudden wave of dizziness. When it finally receded a few minutes later, Sousuke opened the door and continued his trek to the bridge. After many long minutes of this process repeating itself time and time again, he stood outside the bridge door. It had just occurred to him that he was still dressed in the loose white pants and shirt that he had been wearing in the medical unit. Deciding that it was too late to do anything about it now, he was just about to open the door when his whole body seemed to freeze. Somewhere in his brain he was being told not to open the door. Why? Then as if uncovering a treasure, it came back to him. Only bridge personnel were allow through that door. He wasn't authorized to go through it.

Feeling annoyed that he had just made a difficult trip for nothing, he was just about to turn around when the door opened. The person coming from the bridge came to an abrupt halt, and seeing Sousuke let out a surprised yelp. There she was, the silver-haired teenage captain of "Toy Box," Ms. Testarossa.

"Mr. Sagara!"

Sousuke stared at her for a moment unable to find any of the words he needed.

"They let you out of your room?" she continued at last, eventually deciding that Sousuke wasn't going to speak first.

"There wasn't anyone there, Captain," answered Sousuke. His brain felt sluggish and foggy.

The silver-haired woman suddenly looked quite angry. Why hadn't anyone been watching Sousuke? No wonder he looked so confused.

"Captain," continued Sousuke before she had a chance to move away from him, "how long have I been out?"

She frowned, not really wanting to answer. Finally, however, she gave a resigned sigh.

"Mr. Sagara...its been almost a month."

His eyes fluttered and his mouth fell open slightly in disbelief. A month? What had happened in that time? How many missions had occurred. What about Kaname? Did she have any news about him?

Tessa seemed to read his thoughts, "Don't worry, Mr. Sagara. After the second week, we notified the school you are attending as well as Ms. Chidori. We told the school that you had been in a car accident. Ms. Chidori, however, got almost the entire truth."

"How soon can I go back?" he asked.

"We wanted to run some tests once you woke up, but we didn't seem to find anything wrong while you were unconscious, so if you feel well enough, its probably safe to return as early as tomorrow. I know you're eager to go back," said Tessa almost regrettably.

"Yes," Sousuke said, unaware of her discomfort.

"Just...when you go back...take it easy for a few days. You don't have to plunge into school right away. They won't expect you to be back the first day you return home. As of now, they believe you are in Kyoto receiving specialist medical treatment," said Tessa.

"Thank you, Captain."

With that their conversation ended. Sousuke was ordered back to bed and the following morning he boarded a helicopter to take him back to his apartment Tokyo. Kurz Webber was his escort. After several hours of listening to the blond man talk about anything and everything in his romantic and personal life, as well as Sousuke's possible romantic life, they landed in front of his apartment.

Sousuke wearily stepped off the helicopter, followed by Kurz who was carrying his teammate's baggage at the request of Captain Testarossa.

"Well, home sweet home!" Kurz called cheerfully behind him.

Sousuke slowly made his way up to his apartment with Kurz at his heals. Taking the elevator, his eyelids sagged heavily. Something wasn't right with him, he was sure of it. Complaining about it, however, didn't seem very manly of him, though. He was a soldier. Besides, hadn't they told him back on the submarine that he would feel a little out of it for a few days? As the elevator stopped, he and Kurz exited. Immediately he was met with the sight of the outside of his apartment. It was all the same except for the person who stood outside it. Sousuke stopped dead in his tracks.

"Kaname," he whispered in surprise.

She instantly turned and looked at him, "SOUSUKE!"

Her beautiful face lit up with a broad smile. As she trotted happily over to him, throwing her arms around him, he found a slight smile come to his face. He gently put his arms around her after a moment. On any normal occasion, Kurz would have taken this time to start teasing him, but if truth be told, they weren't under normal circumstances.

"He's been in a coma for almost a month. Just woke up yesterday, Kaname, so treat him gently," said Kurz with a smile.

Kaname released Sousuke and stepped back still glowingly happy. Sousuke's gaze lingered on her a moment before he walked forward again and unlocked his apartment. Walking inside, he instantly felt a wave of dizziness sweep over him. Leaning against the wall to gain his balance, he pretended to need to catch his breath.

"You alright, man?" Kurz called to Sousuke as he swept by, placing his friend's baggage next to the dining room table.

"Yes. I'm just going to have to go back and train for a bit when I have the chance. I fear I've gotten out of shape," said Sousuke.

"Don't push yourself. Tessa wants you to rest up for a bit, remember?" said Kurz. "In any case, Kaname, would you be so kind as to start dinner?"

More eager to help than usual, Kaname nodded with a smile and began putting together food that she had brought over.

"Now then, Sousuke," said Kurz as Sousuke sat down in a chair at the table and Kurz sat down across from him. "About the mission. Melissa wanted to be the one to tell you, but she had too much work to do. First of all, though, I guess I should tell you that everyone made it out because of you."

Sousuke nodded, the helicopter ride there had taken much more out of him than he could have possibly imagined. What happened to him? Why was it suddenly so hard for him to do anything that he used to do in the past? Even something as trivial as going through a day of high school or sitting on a Mithril chopper for a few hours made him more tired than going through a several day mission with only a few cat naps here and there used to.

"You alright, Sousuke? You look a little out of it?"

Sousuke looked at his friend with an undefined expression, "Kurz, please don't say anything to anyone else, but I just haven't felt right since I woke up yesterday. I'll get checked out the next time I go to base, but until then, I just want to continue life here, pretending that everything is back to normal."

Kurz's eyes narrowed. It was odd for Sousuke to be not only sharing personal information with him, but he seemed to be the only one he was trusting to confide in. Why?

"Sousuke..."

"I'll just need to train hard to get back to where I was, that's all," Sousuke added. It was a lie. He could feel it in his bones...something was out of place. Still, he wasn't about to involve anyone any further in his personal matters than he needed to.

Kurz knew Sousuke was done talking. It was time to continue with Kurz's briefing on how the mission had ended.

"How much do you remember?" Kurz asked wearily.

"I was backed against a rock face and Arbalest was telling me that missiles were approaching from three sides. All I could remember was the lambda driver barely kicking in when they hit. After the second missile, though, the shock wave made me black out. I can't remember what happened to the third one."

"Huh," said Kurz befuddled. "Well, I guess that makes sense. We all managed to get away because you took the missiles, but even from where we were, we saw the first one hit and no problem. Then the second one hit almost right after and it wasn't blown away as quickly. When the third one hit, we started to wonder if Arbalest had taken too much of a beating to deflect it, but it didn't blow up so I guess somehow it did deflect it. Still, it took on heavy damage. When we lugged you back to base and got you out of the cockpit...you were a mess. Tessa said we should've gotten you out of the cockpit as soon as we were within arms length of Arbalest, but I don't think it really would've done much good moving you more than we already had to. And we were still under fire then too, so trying to get you out would've been impossible."

Sousuke nodded. It made sense, but somehow it all felt so unbelievable.

"Done!" said Kaname cheerfully as she suddenly reappeared.

The two men who had fallen into silence looked up at her. From the looks on their faces, she could tell that they had just been talking about something very serious. Kurz quickly plastered a happy grin on his face.

"Good. I can't wait to eat," he said, his eyes positively glittering in delight.

Sousuke nodded, feeling awkward. As Kaname set a plate in front of each of them, his mind wandered. He wouldn't be going back to school for a few days, of that he was entirely sure of.

Okay, so this was my first attempt at a Full Metal Panic fic. I'm kind of going between this and a Witch Hunter Robin fic that I just started a few days ago too. Haven't tried either series before so it might turn out good, might not. Right now I'm feeling a little brain dead, so comment, let me know what you think. Based on that I'll decide whether I'll continue this one further or whether I'll end it with a really quick second chapter. Thanks for reading!