Lucid

Chapter 37

POV: Fixer (Y/N)
I wake up, and the first thing I notice is the odd crack in the ceiling. Then the loud noise of yelling, from the other room. It sounds panicked, but not too bad. Standing up, I tidy my cloths before stepping into the kitchen to see a small fire from where mr Kim was trying to make some sort of pancakes, with some difficulty. Liz is sitting at the table, and smiles at me upon seeing me. I nod, then walk over to her.
"Sleep well?"
"Very. How did you sleep?"
"It was fine." I can tell she's not been awake for long. Eyes and hair show she's still freshly rustled. There's some issues still happening over at the stove, but they'll sort it. I leave them to it, instead sitting down next to her. The trip has been peaceful so far, at least. "What's planned for today?" I ask.
"We're going to eat, then head to a local market. After that we visit family for lunch, then we'll go to the beach for a while since it'll be nice out." I nod. Easy enough.
"Got it."

Timeskip: 2 hours
People slide past me as I observe all. Liz is ten feet at my ten O'clock. Her parents, ten at my noon. Brother is four feet to my seven. Nobody within fourth feet is a risk I can't mitigate. Safe.

Timeskip: 3 hours
Her family and her, along with her aunt and uncle and their family are inside. I stick to the exterior, looping slowly to keep loose. I have food, but I took it outside to not crowd things or make thing awkward. Besides, the listening device on Liz's purse keeps me informed.

Timeskip: 2 hours
Ahh; the beach. Calm, and slow. Wind and water, sand and sun. Clear skies and cloudy seas. Lots of balances, makes it quite satisfying. It really is genuinely peaceful.
"So... thanks for helping me out here." Liz is next to me, looking out at the sea, both of us with our feet in the sand. Of course she has a swimsuit and I have my usual urban tactical clothes, but same difference.
"Of course. I said I'd help."
"You said you would. But you didn't to say so. You could have simply not offered."
"Yes. But a promise to help isn't much use if I never help, Liz." She nods, seeming a little calmer.

POV:Liz
I really did misjudge him at first. Maybe he really is on our side. My side, even.
"You know... I'm not really Liz." I guess I can trust him with this. In some ways, he deserves it after all this time with my family. "Liz is... sort of a persona. My name is Jiwon, but my stage name is Liz. But Jiwon is calm, shy, intelligent, focused. Liz is quiet, but also fearless, confident, and energetic. I use Liz as a way to protect myself from the world, and show a more likable version of myself to everyone." Wow; I really threw that all out at him. Looking over at him, he doesn't seem to react or look over at me. Then, he nods.
"That makes sense." That's it? Really? "I have something similar, or I used to. When I became a soldier, my soldier was one person, my personal self another. But as time went, my personal life... had issues. Instead of the soldier being the work side, the soldier was the person who didn't have so many issues and struggles. When I fought my enemies, I didn't fight myself. So eventually, as the people I cared about all disappeared, I became nothing but the soldier. And look at me now." His tone of voice is clear that what he's showing, he doesn't like. He doesn't like who he's become, I guess. That must be difficult.
"I'm... sorry." I say. I'm not sure what else to say, really. He shrugs.
"Life goes on. Those kinds of things were never meant for me." I look back out at the sea, not sure where to go from here. There's some clouds moving in, plus some fog over the distant sea. Odd, it's not usually foggy this time of day. Fixer stands up, and looks out at the horizon, before starting to look at something on his arm computer thing. He types for a moment, before looking up. "Hey. There's a storm coming, we should go." A storm? The weather was clear. It doesn't even look too bad, although there are some clouds about.
"A storm? You sure?" He nods.
"It'll be forming soon. I know, it's hard to see; but it's coming. Grab your family, I'll pack the bags." He starts gathering things, and I walk over.
"Appa, Eoma, Fixer says we need to go, there's a storm coming." My father seems confused, but I explain. Once he understands, he follows me, we pack up, and head out. Y/N repeatedly checks his arm, constantly looking at the weather I guess.
"It may be forming up a little later than I expected. This forecast must not be as accurate as I hoped" he says, as we leave the beach.
"It's alright. Jiwon, did you have a nice time?" My dad asks, from the front.
"I did. I had plenty of fun."
"That's good. We can go back later, you'll have to go back to Seoul soon. I'm glad you had your beach time." It's nice to be back where my dad can care for me. Because I'm only back occasionally now, he spoils me. Y/N looks around frequently, glancing out of windows repeatedly as we head back closer to home.
"Stop the car please." He says out of nowhere. I look around, but there's nothing here but an abandoned beach house.
"What? Why?" My father asks.
"I need to step out and make a call. Would you mind? It's urgent." My dad, sounding confused, pulls the car to the side and Fixer gets out quickly, before grabbing his bag from the back. "I'll get a ride home. Don't worry about me." He walks out, towards the abandoned building, and my dad continues. That's odd.

As we get home, there's an odd echoing noise, like fireworks or firecrackers going off a long ways away. Nothing major though, but the sound travels pretty far here. Lots of echoes of blasts and pops. We unload the car, but as I get the last bag, my brother points, and I see a large cloud of smoke coming from the direction Y/N in is. There's a loud rumble, shaking the dust off the ground as it vibrates across the valley. The smoke cloud keeps growing, pillaring up into the air as suddenly another rumble comes across the house.
"Everybody, get inside. Let's not be outside." My dad urges, and I rush inside. I hope that's him, and he's doing well. He's usually good with violence, so I assume he's blowing something up over there. Why am I so calm about this? I guess it's only smoke and sound, so really, nothing to be concerned about. He's a soldier. No reason to worry about him in a fight, I'm sure.

POV: Y/N
I fucking hate corporations. Fucking SAI just had to show up and start trying to kill me right as I was having a nice time. At least I can tell SRO about it and they'll tear into them. So that'll be nice. In the mean time, I'll get things tidied up here, gather all my gear and get my bag. Plus patch my wounds. Fifty versus me isn't bad, along with their six helicopters. Probably shouldn't have made quite so much of a mess but whatever. Right now, I'm tired and annoyed.

Timeskip: 30 minutes
POV: Liz
I step outside, still pacing uncertainly, then see Y/N, walking down the drive. I walk towards him hurriedly, but when I get a good look at him, he doesn't look so good. He's got a bunch of rips in his clothes, he's got multiple bloody bandages, and he's carrying a duffel bag and a huge gun of some kind, a sniper kind. I walk up, and he looks me up and down.
"Are you good?"
"Are you seriously asking me that? Look at you! You're covered in blood!" He shrugs.
"It's normal. All these will heal. I just need a shower and some strong bandages." He walks past me, and I see that he's covered in dust on the back. He walks inside, and I follow.

Flashback: Fixer
So what happened? Well, there was no storm. SAI had probably seen my plane fly to Jeju, so they sent someone to kill me. Nothing unusual, I should have paid more attention. I used the abandoned house as a place to set up and defend, and it worked well. A few laser tripwires, a few other explosives, and some work with an antimateriel rifle to take out three of the heli's before they got to me, meant I could take them on at my pace. So all in all, not too bad. First, clear out the breaching teams. Than the followers. Than the remaining ground crew. Then go to the roof, jump onto one of the helis, and get him to misfire rockets into the other two. Then toss an explosive into his engine and good to go. Honestly, for as annoyed as I feel, it's not really that bad.
(End flashback)
Anyways, that's all in the past. This shower feels amazing, except for the water in that new bullet hole in my arm. Lucky it didn't hit anything useful. So, a new scar! Fun. Looks like I'll have more stories to tell when I get home.