Her answer left Siegfried stunned. From the data she inherited, they were the last batch of samples before Kira and Yamato Kira, with targeted enhancement applied. The female sample was strengthened for data processing, while the male sample was enhanced in motor response, a choice made to amplify existing strengths after considering gender differences.
"So you cannot pilot a mobile suit?"
"I can, but I am not good at it."
This exchange answered only part of Siegfried's questions while creating many more. He clearly remembered his life before crossing over, even though those memories were slowly fading, which seemed normal. What felt wrong was that Hilde had no memories from before at all.
According to her, the only link to before was Siegfried's rambling talk about made-up battles, while her knowledge of the SEED world came from "Kira and Lacus told me." That answer only made him more confused.
"That cannot be right. You should not have met Lacus."
"I mean before I came here. Lacus told me then."
"What? You came from another SEED world?"
"Cannot answer."
"Then are you human now?"
Halfway through, Siegfried remembered a critical point. Hilde answered in a steady voice, explaining that her body was flesh and blood, but she could not understand human emotions and had no samples before.
Through Haro, she had absorbed anger, liking, unwillingness, fear, and terror. To Siegfried, they all sounded uncomfortably familiar.
"Then why did you deliberately let the advance team be sunk?"
"I do not know." She hesitated for once, then continued. "My logic said that if the timeline changed, we would not find our way home."
"Your logic is flawed. The moment I boarded a mobile suit, this world already split from the original SEED. Our existence itself is the biggest disruption, and why do we even have to go back together?"
"I cannot parse it. I just feel that alone, I am incomplete. A voice keeps telling me that to go back, I must meet someone."
"Your boyfriend?"
"Cannot parse. Likely female."
Silence hung between them until Siegfried broke it first. He said he had people he wanted to save and could not ignore lives for the sake of a cold timeline.
"I understand. I agree."
The talk with Hilde gave Siegfried only limited answers, while producing even more questions. In the end, after repeated confirmation, she promised that as long as she stayed nearby, Haro would not show those strange behaviors again.
He also finally understood her confidence when she said she would find him no matter how large the universe was. That eerie Haro was not something she had made, but an attachment from the second black machine, whose origin even she did not know.
After she moved the emotional collection device into Haro, a strange link formed between them. As long as they stayed within the solar system, they would not lose track of each other.
As for the black mobile suit she used to save him, Siegfried could not get any clear answers. Back in Mendel, he had entered its cockpit almost daily, yet found no useful data at all, as if the entire system had been reset to factory defaults.
The other machine, said to be badly damaged, he had never even seen. If not for Hilde later programming by hand, the suit he used would not even have a working OS. That also explained why the GINN system felt so familiar to him.
"Why tell me all this now, after three years?"
"I did not know who you were or where you came from. I could not trust you, so I was afraid."
They fell silent again until Badgiruel knocked and entered. Seeing Siegfried awake, her expression softened for a moment before she turned a stern gaze on Hilde.
"First, thank you for saving Siegfried. But I need an explanation for your background and that strange mobile suit."
"Lieutenant."
"You do not speak."
Siegfried tried weakly to ease the tension, but one look from Badgiruel shut him up. Before he could think of what to say, Hilde answered smoothly without pause.
"We are technical personnel from the Mars belt colony satellite Austrel. An accident damaged our machines and left us stranded in Mendel. During this period, we will provide necessary protection to your ship under a comprehensive assessment."
Siegfried stared at her, stunned by how easily she lied. He had been worrying about how to deal with Badgiruel, only to find that Hilde had already handled it.
"Given the statement from Orb, I will reserve judgment on your explanation, but…"
Badgiruel glanced at the boy on the bed, her tone easing. In the end, she did not press further and simply told him that as a professional soldier, she did not approve of such reckless actions.
"Yes, yes."
After watching Badgiruel leave, Siegfried understood that they had gained temporary trust aboard Archangel. That trust had been bought with his life, even if that had not been his intention.
When he suggested that since he was awake, the now flesh-and-blood Hilde should go rest, she refused. She told him that during his coma, she had left for ten minutes, and Flay had come in with a knife, only to be stopped by Cagalli.
"That is your fault. I have put up with you for a long time, and you only cling to me."
"No. Because you are my subject for learning emotions, I get nervous. When I am nervous, it happens."
The long conversation drained Siegfried of what little strength he had left. After learning that Archangel was staying at a base in Dawn Desert, he finally fell asleep again.
Watching the boy sleep, Hilde reached out, then stopped with her hand in midair. She pressed it to her own chest in confusion as the door opened and Cagalli appeared.
"That guy, Siegfried. They said he woke up earlier."
"It has nothing to do with you."
"I am his friend. What do you mean it has nothing to do with me? I am going to see him."
Hilde blocked her with one hand. In the shadows outside, Qisaka glanced inside, saw it was only a dispute between two girls, and chose not to step in.
"It has nothing to do with you, woman of the Athha family. Your future should not include him."
Writing fan works is both easy and hard. It is easy because the framework already exists, but hard because staying within it invites criticism, while changing it risks angering other readers.
Another difficulty lies in choosing the fate of original characters, especially in a war setting like Gundam. If no one dies, people complain about playing it safe, but if someone does, you never know which group of fans you might offend.
Hilde's words landed on Cagalli with the strange feeling of being turned away by a parent. But she was already worked up and did not care where this person had come from, so she planned to push past her in the next second. She forgot one very important thing.