FicWad

Allies of Necessity

A/n: I'm thinking I'm not that good at titles... Anyway, I thought this would be something interesting to write. Hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing. And, yeah, the romance? It's probably not quite romance... but just read and find out. :P

**

The Sphere base had appeared to be deserted. But Cortes was taking no chances. It wasn't exactly the type of base that the Sphere would want to leave deserted. And that was because its computers could possibly give anyone access to strategic information about the Sphere's movements. It would be a simple matter of hacking into the system undetected, and retrieving the information as if the base were still fully functional. It was the reason they were here.

Apparently, it had also been the reason that resulted in the pirates walking in on Diwan and an entire Brigadier squadron in the main control room.

Now Cortes was crouched behind a console next to Wayan, trying to stay out of the line of Brig fire, and trying to keep an eye on Dahlia and Mahad's position, as well as take down a few of the Brigs. At least they were indoors, which rendered Diwan's seijin powers inactive. That was, until she shouted an order to one of the Brigs, which then proceeded to blast a hole straight through the ceiling.

The hole let a shaft of sunlight down into the complex. Right onto Diwan. She grinned as she began to absorb the energy. It didn't seem to matter to her that she was standing out in the open. It wouldn't be a problem in a few seconds. But for those few seconds it would take her to absorb enough energy; however, she would be vulnerable.

"Wayan. Cover me."

Cortes didn't wait for Wayan to respond before he rolled from behind the console and dashed across the room. The weapons fire around him immediately cut down. Wayan was watching his back.

He now had a clear shot at Diwan. Cortes levelled his rifle and squeezed off a shot. At that same moment Diwan seemed to notice him. With the power she had built up she reflected the blast up and over Cortes' head, though he still had to duck as the energy whizzed past. He wasn't finished with her yet though. Diwan had wasted all the energy she'd built up, and was unable to stop him ploughing into her with his shoulder, knocking them both into the central consoles arrayed around the power reactor in the middle of the room.

"You'll pay for that!" Diwan snarled.

"I will, will I?" Cortes shot back. He pulled himself away from her and swung his rifle around towards her head.

Diwan grabbed the weapon and pushed it away, her hands glowing blue. It seemed she hadn't used all of her energy just yet. Either that or she was still managing to absorb the sunlight without being directly underneath it.

At any rate, Cortes noticed too late. He'd already fired the shot. But instead of hitting Diwan it stuck at the tip of the rifle, building until the weapon could no longer handle the charge. At which point the rifle sparked and exploded, showering them both in burning sparks, and taking out part of the console beneath it. The console continued to beep. Its melted wires had triggered something. Seconds later the floor around the central consoles and power reactor blew out in a series of small explosions. The central unit was suddenly no longer attached to anything solid. And it dropped into the shaft which had suddenly opened below. The problem was that both Cortes and Diwan were on top of the section of floor that now had nothing to support it.

"Cortes!" Wayan and Dahlia shouted simultaneously.

Mahad ducked from where he was hiding and crawled to the edge of the hole.

"Mahad!" Dahlia yelled, and just in time took out a Brig that had been standing behind him ready to fire. "Get back behind some cover!"

Mahad either didn't hear her, or was ignoring her. Beneath him the shaft stretched into blackness. Somewhere down it he thought he could see the lights on the consoles. And then the depths lit up with a flash of light.

"Whoh-oh! Everyone take cover!" Mahad yelled. He dove to the side and covered his head. Seconds later the room shook and dust and chunks of rock blew out of the shaft.

It seemed like the whole block continued to shake for the next few moments, then finally subsided. The room was left with dust thick in the air, as well as a few rocks which hadn't been there before.

Wayan pushed a loosened console in his way over, and shot a Brig that was still somewhat mobile before moving over to the side of the shaft. Dahlia and Mahad joined him.

"Cortes!" Wayan shouted down the shaft.

Unsurprisingly, there was no answer. Though all three of them leaned over the edge as if they expected their captain to be hanging on some ledge a few feet below, or to call back. But the depths of the shaft were empty and quiet. And none of them could think how anyone could survive that fall, or an explosion.

**

Cortes woke to almost complete darkness. Dust was thick in the air, and he could feel it getting in his lungs. He waved his hand in front of his face in an attempt to clear the air. The movement only stirred the dust around, making him cough.

The last thing he remembered was the floor dropping away beneath him, and then everything being washed in blue light before fading to black.

Diwan. He looked around himself for both her, and his dropped weapon. But that had been destroyed. And Diwan...

He turned around and nearly walked right into her.

Both of them jumped back.

"It's rude to creep up on people in the dark," Diwan growled. "I was wondering if you were going to get up."

Cortes blinked. He didn't like the thought of a Guardian creeping around him whilst he was unconscious. "I'm surprised you didn't kill me."

"To be perfectly honest, I was still looking for a decent sized rock when you bumped into me."

"Right..." Cortes replied. Then he lowered the defensive stance he'd taken when she'd startled him. "Of course, your powers won't work down here."

"No."

Cortes seemed to think for a moment. "Alright. What just happened?"

"And I should tell you because...?"

Cortes took a step towards her. "I'm not feeling particularly patient at the moment. I'd like to know so I can get out of wherever we've ended up."

Diwan didn't budge an inch. "I think we set off the self destruct mechanism," she finally said, unable to think of a good reason to annoy Cortes further. "If we need to destroy our bases, the central power reactor is dropped to a critical point in the block's core, and then detonated."

"This block is obviously still intact."

"It's an old base. The power reactor mustn't have had much power left. There was an explosion," she gestured over her shoulder, and the corridor behind them was quite obviously in shambles, even in the dim light, "but not enough to destroy the block."

Cortes nodded. "And I suppose you got up a shield with the last of your powers?"

"We're still here, aren't we?"

"I assume the 'we' was an accident, then?"

"Obviously. You owe me one, Cortes."

Cortes snorted at that. "If one saved life can make up for all the people you and the Sphere have murdered, then yeah, maybe I do."

Diwan raised an eyebrow. "I don't call justice murder."

Cortes just growled and shook his head. He turned half around, still keeping an eye on Diwan, but trying to get an idea of his surroundings as well. The dust was settling a little, and it was getting easier to see.

"I assume you know enough about this place? How do we get out?"

"What makes you think I'm going to help you any further?"

"How about if you want to live?!" Cortes snarled back.

"You have no weapon."

"Maybe I'll find a good sized rock."

Diwan thought for a moment. "You won't kill me. You can't get out of here without me."

"And why not?"

"One, this is a Sphere base, so you don't know the way out, and I do. Two, this is a base that was managed by Guardians. If the security gates are still active, you'll need a seijin to open them."

"And if they're not still active?"

"Then they'll be frozen shut. And we'll both be stuck down here."

Suddenly the block began to shake, throwing them both around and stirring up the dust again. More worryingly, it was shaking more rocks loose.

"What's going on?" said Diwan.

Cortes put a hand against a wall to steady himself. The block felt like it was shaking apart. "How big was that explosion!?" he yelled back to her.

"Big enough. It blew us a couple hundred meters down this corridor."

"Damn it! Your self-destruct might not have destroyed the block, but it's going to. It must have destabilised the block; the whole thing's shaking loose!"

"Then we need to get out of here. I'll help you get out Cortes. But once I get to the surface you're going to have your whole ship to back you up. And I only brought one squadron of Brigadiers, which I think your crew have destroyed. I want safe passage back to my ship, and safe passage away from this block."

"Fine," Cortes growled. "Deal. Now run!" He reached back and grabbed her arm, flinging her ahead of him up the corridor.

Behind them more rocks dropped from the ceiling, burying the corridor behind them.

**

"Well you have to go look for him!" Cheng shouted back into the radio.

He and Lena had been waiting back on the Saint Nazaire when Cheng's readouts had shown there'd been an explosion, followed by a block-quake. A minute or so later Wayan had radioed in and somewhat unsteadily informed them of what had happened.

"Cheng... that shaft was huge, and there was an explosion. I don't see how he could still be alive."

"Maybe... Diwan's a seijin; she could've shielded the blast..."

"Why would she protect Cortes?"

"I don't know! But it's possible isn't it?"

Wayan sighed, and it came through the radio as a crackle. "I don't know. But I don't see what we can do. The Sphere computers say that a self-destruct mechanism was set off. The whole block is unstable. It could fall apart at any minute. We need to use whatever time we have left to get as much information from these computers as possible."

"What about Cortes!?"

"Cheng, I don't think he'd want us going on a hopeless search when we can do more good up here."

Cheng paused for a moment. He could feel Lena standing just behind him, and then she put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm... I'm going to see if I can pick up his radio's signal and maybe contact him."

"Okay. That'd be a good idea."

Cheng could tell from his tone that he didn't think it'd do any good. But he didn't care. He had to do something, even if no one else would. "Right. Bye, Wayan." Cheng shut off the radio.

"You think you'll be able to pick up Cortes' signal... if he's still alive?" said Lena carefully.

"I've got to be able to," Cheng replied, practically ignoring her as he set to work gearing the Saint Nazaire's communication systems to pick up the slightest signal. If anything, he needed to do it to keep himself distracted.

**

Wayan clicked off the radio in his hand and sighed. Telling Cheng about Cortes had been just as tough as he thought it would be. He still wasn't sure if it had clicked with him yet. But he now had a job to do, and he was going to get it done. He could think about what losing Cortes would mean to both him and the rebellion on his own time.

"I think this computer's still accessible," Dahlia called across the room. It was simply a statement, and her voice didn't contain as much excitement as it usually did when she accomplished something that required a bit of expertise.

Wayan moved over next to her. "Good. See if you can get a connection established."

"Working on it."

Mahad watched them playing with the console for a moment, then paced back across the room, making sure he stepped over the few fallen rocks in his way. He figured he wouldn't be much help. Usually, that thought would have made him go over and make a nuisance of himself. But he just didn't feel like it. Instead he walked back over to the edge of the hole and peered down into its depths. It was still dark and quiet. He looked around at his feet and saw a fist sized rock.

Both Wayan and Dahlia jumped at the crash that came from the shaft. It probably hadn't been that loud, but it echoed in the enclosed space.

"Mahad!" Dahlia yelled.

"I was seeing how deep it was!"

"For crying out loud, have some bloody respect!" She scowled at him, and then hurriedly looked back down at the computer screen, punching the keys with more than the necessary force.

"Mahad, can you just go to those computers and see if we can use them. In case this one mucks up?" suggested Wayan.

Mahad nodded, but said nothing. He moved across the room, picked a relatively intact console and poked its screen unenthusiastically. It lit up, flickering slightly. Mahad just looked at it, knowing what he was doing was pointless. It was just to get him out of the way.

So that's what he would do. Stay out of the way.

The problem with staying out of the way was that it left him alone with his thoughts. And he couldn't help thinking that as much as he hated it when Cortes treated him like a kid, he'd give anything to hear him do so again.