[center][h2][color=6ecff6]ELI[/color] and[color=662d91] VERA[/color] [/h2][b]Mess Hall, New Anchorage[/b][/center]
[hr]
 
Unacceptable. 
 
Eli’s stony surface could endure a myriad of traumas and remain unscathed, she could glare through [i]torture[/i] if need be, but such a flagrant display of insubordination was enough to force her eyes wide. Not in anger –at least not at first– but genuine shock and deniable fear, fear for New Anchorage. In her mind she could almost see it, the settlement a fiery ruin and their fractured team powerless to help. She swallowed hard, her throat constricted in protest.
 
She saw them dead, all of them in flashes. The Papa Mike torn in two, Stein hanging limp from the bullet-riddled cockpit of the Little Dragon, Swarm and Goldenspur smoldering wrecks, and Blur impaled upon its own sword. 

She dragged her bloody, broken body across the snow, clawing her way towards the horrific sounds rising from the fresh ashes of New Anchorage. Over the raging fire and artillery she could hear screams, every dying citizen, everyone she’d never met and everyone she’d ever known. Desperate, indignant, futile, only to die coughing up her lungs a mile off with nothing to mark any of their graves but the blizzard turning their NC’s into massive dunes of frost. 
 
Her skin went cold, like her bones had turned to ice. The chilled air condensed in her throat, and she felt as though she were drowning from the inside out. Was this what it was like to die? Perhaps that was why her chest was heavy, and she couldn’t breathe, this must have been it. 
 
Small fingers clutched her wrist, and it was all Eli could do not to shout. Reality took hold once again, and at the same time that she realized this, an involuntary gasp filled her neglected lungs. Slight but sure, her hands were trembling from fingertip to wrist, and she shoved them into her jacket pockets. A far more potent embarrassment overshadowed her terror.  
 
[color=662d91]”Lizzy…”[/color]
 
Eli’s attention shot to the side, where Vera was still holding her wrist. She nearly gave the younger girl a hard look for breaking attention during a meeting, but quickly realized the mess hall was more or less empty now that Graham was making his way for the hangar. 
 
Vera didn’t say anything else, the question was asked well enough by the concern in her eyes. Eli shook her head, quick and doubtful, and started after the others.
 
The anger began setting in, her eyes fell to the floor. Weeks, she’d gone [i]weeks[/i] without incident. She’d gotten through successful and failed missions, Sophia’s desertion, and even the [i]humiliating[/i] defeat in the simulation only a short time prior, and yet now after a small spat that didn’t even involve her, she was on a timer. 
 
Every heartbeat sent a dull throb through the palms of her hands, and despite the warm clothing she could feel chills spreading like icy fingers from her spine. The outward signs were minimal, and she was convinced no one would notice, or at least be able to infer anything from the spacey breathing and balling of fists, but that didn’t help the shame. Her mother could spot the incidents a mile away, and Eli would have been confined the moment her focus had faltered. Vera could see them coming too, part from experience and part from the girl’s sheer attentiveness to people. 
 
Eli could only pray that the tour would conclude quickly. The faster she could get confined, the better, then she could give more attention to the alarms going off in the back of her mind. 

[color=662d91]”Lizzy,"[/color] This time Vera's tone was more assertive. She rounded up in front, barring the way with more than just her body, but the assurance in her eyes. [color=662d91]”S'gonna be okay, whatever happens. Promise."[/color]

The words Eli wanted to say were soft and kind, that she believed in her, that she'd never let Graham or [i]anyone[/i] put her in harm's way. But those words were stuck in her throat, and in her silence she realized it wasn't simple assurance in Vera's eyes, but fearless determination. Suddenly Eli wanted to tell her to leave, to go to their room like Ana had, and lock the door and never come out again.

Instead, [color=6ecff6]"We're falling behind,"[/color] was all she could muster, before pushing on after the rest of the group, cold as the world outside. 

She didn't hear Vera's footsteps following along for a few moments after.