Nathan landed with a soft thud, his gaze shifting to the remnants of the battlefield.
Natasha and River exchanged glances, their faces softening with relief as they saw him standing there, alive and mostly unharmed.
Nathan caught their looks and offered a small, tired smile, but it didn't last long however as his expression hardened when he saw the two cadets that had died.
'You're kidding me.' He thought. 'No doesn't matter. A few are still alive. And in the worse case scenario...'
He paused as he stared at Lucas and the rest of the unit present. Both his and Natasha's.
A dark thought seemed to broil in his head but he waved it off.
'No, no. There's another way but.. No. For now. Don't think too much about it. For now, we should go move forward.'
Coming to that conclusion, he decided to address them.
"Alright, guys, listen," he began, his tone casual but laced with an edge of seriousness.
"I think we might've miscalculated. That guy I just fought? He was no joke. And if he was that strong, then whoever's in the control room… well, let's just say we're probably out of our league."
The group fell silent. While not too particularly surprised, it was still rough hearing it directly.
"And you're sure you're not just being dramatic," she said, flipping her hair. "I mean, so far, haven't really met any that seemed that tough."
Nathan raised an eyebrow at her. "Did you already forget about the spear that almost cut our heads off along with those guys we were interrogating?"
"Had we been even a little bit slow to respond, we would've been dead."
Alicia opened her mouth to retort, but Natasha cut her off. "Nathan's right. We need to think carefully about our next move. Charging in blindly isn't an option."
Lucas, who had been silently staring at the dead bodies, finally spoke, his voice low and somber. "So what do we do? We can't just turn back now."
They all fell dead silent.
Nathan ran a hand through his hair, thinking. "Alright, let's lay out our options. One: we go to the control room anyway and hope for the best.
Two: those of us who can fly try to go get help from the academy assuming we aren't shot down by their magic."
"And Three…" Natasha spoke, drawing everyone's attention.
Nathan raised an eyebrow as he asked, "You have a suggestion? You?"
Natasha nodded slowly. "Yeah. But you're not gonna like it."
"Does it matter?" Patrick questioned. "Right now we need to know our options and the more of them we have, the better."
Natasha nodded her head at his words as she faced Nathan. "Huuu." She then took a deep breath.
"Theodore."
Nathan's expression darkened immediately at the mention of his name. His jaw clenched, and his hands balled into fists.
"No," he said sharply. "Definitely not."
"Nate. I know you and him hate each other but we have to—!"
"Hate?!" Nathan snapped, his voice rising. "Isn't THAT putting it lightly, Nat. He... you know what he did. What they did. To me, to Liza," He said, his teeth gnashing against themselves.
River, seeing the heated situation, spoke up to intervene in Natasha's favor.
"Nathan, I get it. I really do. But Natasha's right. We're outmatched here. Theodore can help tip the scales in our favor, we have to consider it."
Nathan's brows pulled down, and his jaw tightened. He shook his head once, sharp and unforgiving, making no effort to mask the anger smoldering behind his eyes.
"No fucking way. Hell will freeze over before I work with him. With any of them for that matter."
Alicia let out a derisive laugh. "Oh, great. So we're just going to ignore the one person who might actually be able to help us just because Nathan's feelings are hurt? Real mature."
Nathan shot her a glare.
Alicia however didn't back down as she continued speaking.
"Besides, who died and made you king. You can't one-sidedly refuse a decision for the team. Emphasis on team. You're not our leader. Neither are you your unit's. You're not the one making the decision." She added as she turned to face Natasha and River.
The leaders of the two units here. Both of them nodded their heads in agreement.
"Good," Alicia commented as she clapped her hands together. "Now let's go find that asshole."
"I'm not coming." Nathan spoke, drawing the attention of everyone there.
"What?" Marcus questioned. "Say it again, I didn't hear you the first time."
"I said I'm not going. Like I said, hell's gonna freeze over before I ask any of them for help." Nathan spoke, his fists trembling in rage as he did.
"You little..."
Just as the quarrel was about to escalate, Maria quickly spoke up, her voice soft and steady as she did.
"What if… what if we split up? Some of us go to the control room, and the others try to find Theodore. That way, we're not putting all our eggs in one basket and Nathan doesn't have to do what he doesn't want to."
"We all have to do things we don't like sometimes," Lucas muttered, the words barely louder than a breath.
"I'm in." Lucas said, affirming his support.
Kevin sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm in too."
"I'd rather take my chances in the control room." Nathan said as he turned and began moving towards their original direction.
"I'll go with you." Natasha interjected.
"River, you and Maria should try to find Theodore. As for the rest of you, just—"
"Wait!" One of the cadets they picked up, intervened before she'd finished talking. "That option two, I have an idea on that."
As she said that, everyone, including Nathan, turned to look at her.
"The airships are near the control rooms right? Why don't we just implement our original plan, but this time more carefully."
"How?" This time it was Anabelle who had been quiet the whole time that spoke up.
"Think about it. It's nigh impossible we're able to fly the ship out of here but it has comms. We'll be able to contact the academy to come save us."
"And how do we do that without beating whoever's there to begin with." Patrick asked.
"We don't have to. All we have to do, is get him away from the area while some of us sneak onboard the ship." The brown-haired girl replied.
Everyone nodded their heads as the plan seemed doable. "What's your name?" Nathan asked.
"You...don't know my name?" The girl asked, her cheeks red from embarrassment. "Even though I said it earlier."
"Just answer," Nathan brushed her off. She seemed to pout for a mini-second before answering. "Eren. Eren Gr—"
"Eren's good enough. I don't need to know the rest." Nathan disrupted her words as he faced the others.
"We have a working plan. Everyone has their roles. Now... Let's do this."