(2023-03-29) Striving to be a Mercenary

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Author:	Saaron
Summary:	Jo and Dane have a meeting with Azizia to discuss the draenei's future in the company. Lots of conflicted emotions are being felt throughout.
Rating:	T for Teen

Jo fidgets a little, waiting in the oversized chair by the oversized table by the enormous balcony. She takes a deep breath, aiming for calm. This would be more comfortable if she were up at the Airstrip, but then again that would probably make it certain that things would not go well. It was going to be a difficult conversation, one way or another, but it had to be done. That was part of being a Captain, as she was certain Elohad would tell her. She takes another breath, slowly breathing out as she watches the staircase for the two people she’s expecting.

Atley descends the stairs in the connecting room, in his battle armor and tabard, both of which are clearly recently clean. He spots Jocoza with his eternal gruff expression and cracks off a quick salute, waiting for her to respond before he marches forward and out onto the dock. He squints at the horizon, jaw set. “Hullo’, Cap’,” he growls.

Azizia gets there moments after Dane. Unlike him, she’s not wearing her armor and is instead wearing a casual white off-the-shoulder top with light blue pants. It looks cold for Northrend, but uh… she seems to be managing well enough! Something new to her appearance since the previous day is the presence of bandages around her right hand’s knuckles. She walks in, her arms crossed, but doesn’t show herself. Instead, the draenei leans her back against a wall and waits.
“Thanks for coming to meet me,” Jo says, looking from Dane to Azizia. Her gaze stops on the bandages of Azizia’s hand. “Are you alright?”

Atley turns in place, armored gauntlets cinched in his belt. He looks to Azizia and nods with a grunt, eyeing her up and down. His gaze, too, lingers on her bandages. He lofts a bushy chestnut brow and expectantly looks back up into her face.

“I am fine,” Azizia answers stepping more clearly into view of her superiors. The wall in her room took the brunt of that punch anyway. She frowns, looking to the side of the room as if it was the decorations here that were making her angry. “You wished to speak of something important?”

"Well, two things," Jo says, shrugging at the non-sitting people and moving to stand on her chair. It helps, a little. "First, let me address the one that is more pleasant and, I hope, requires less discussion. Caspis communicated to me your shared concerns about the activities at the airstrip, and I have contacted the General with specific requests to address the situation."

Atley looks to Jo and smooths over his tabard before he takes a seat by Jocoza’s side, across from the table, his head unfortunately still level with hers, but the attempt is made nevertheless. He grunts and inclines his head towards Jocoza before folding burly armored arms across his tabard, eyes flicking to Azizia.

“And what is specific requests?” Azizia notices the way Dane and Jo move and decides to take a few steps forward again. She stands up, her hands on the free chair. “There is no answer if requests will be taken into account anyway, yes?”

"I suppose that is a reality of the nature of our existence, that I can talk to other people but I can't be them," Jo says mildly. "So no, I cannot guarantee the behavior of people who are not me. But I can ensure our voice is heard. As to what I asked for, it was safety training for the workers at the Airstrip and a workforce to repair the damage done to the local environment."

Atley leans back and grunts, the chair creaking underneath his massive weight with the size of his armor.

Azizia takes a few seconds to answer, standing still, staring directly into Jo’s eyes, her frown still obscuring hers.

“Okay,” she says, sitting in the chair and crossing her legs. “We will discuss this again if they decide to not listen. If they want help, I know druids who would gladly give it.” She makes a gesture towards the captain inviting her to proceed, a cold look on her face. “Go on, with less pleasant thing then, as you said.”

Jo reaches into her bag and sets a small stack of papers on the table. At the top, it is titled, 'Cobalt Company Code of Conduct'. She extends it towards Azizia, and says, "I hope this is familiar. It is the Code of Conduct you agreed to when you first became an employee of Cobalt Company."

Atley lofts a single brow at Azizia’s words but otherwise makes no movement, asides from the clenching of his square jaw. He calmly glances between the two of them, and this new stack of papers.

Azizia crosses her arms, leaving the Code of Conduct on the table. “Yes, I know document. What about it?”

“In your opinion, would you say that you have upheld the expectations of a member of Cobalt Company in recent days, given your knowledge of this document?” Jo says, very calmly.

Atley knits his brow and settles his gaze on Aziza, gaze as stoic as usual, and ever. He goes still and quiet.

“Yes and no,” the draenei says matter-of-factly, shrugging one shoulder.

Jo tilts her head at Azizia, curious. “Yes and no? In what ways?”

Atley leans back, his armor softly clanking together as the seat squeaks under his weight. He licks his lips and gives Azizia a frank look.

“I think I respect rules,” Azizia says, shrugging. “Rules that compass of my moral allow me to, at least.” She taps her fingers on the table. “I feel this is enough explanation.”

“Okay,” Jo says, her face falling a bit with disappointment. “Can you tell me what rules in the Code of Conduct violate your moral compass?”

“It is not rules written in Code that are problem. It is when I am asked to break promise I made to myself for them,” Azizia says, leaning into her chair. “I do not think respect is to be earned; I also do not think it is to be given. If you give me enough reasons, I will not respect anymore.” She shrugs with one shoulder. “So yes, when leaders we work with disrespect my people for long period of time to detriment of their own, when they poison water and animals and do not think to try to fix mistake, when they forget allies they sent on missions…” The draenei throws her hands up, in an almost ironic defeatist way, as if it’s completely out of her control. “I am sorry, but showing respect to them is not order I can follow, as much as I maybe respect person who gives me order. I just cannot do this to myself.” She looks off to the side, crossing her arms again. “If ego of theirs was not standing in way, they would understand that it is because I expect better of them given position they have received.”
Jo listens to this through, and takes a breath. “Some of your concerns are valid, and they are being addressed. However. I am given to understand that you not only disrespected the leader of the Airstrip, but you made disparaging remarks about the entire gnomish race. That, honestly, lowers my respect for you. Especially after our experiences early in Valiance Keep, I would think that you would be particularly sensitive to the dangers of making generalizations about an entire species.” Jo folds her hands on the table. “Further, I would ask you to remember that you do not know everything. For instance, what if I told you Fizzcrank Fullthrottle had found out that a wandering Nerubian had killed his sister, just before you spoke to him? That he was struggling to hold it together until he could find some place alone to grieve, and that he could barely think? Would you still mock him in front of his people for not, at that exact moment, remembering someone’s name?”

Atley looks between them, burly arms still folded as he sits back. “Nor are you alone in these issues you take with the leaders and allies the Company associates with. I can name a time where each member personally chafed at present expectations, but when we wear the tabard not only do we represent one another, but we represent White Squad, to the far east. We represent the Cobalt Blade. We represent Sir Elohad Ference. I’d like to’ve your respect for wot’ we do outweigh your frustration with wot’ we’ve come across. To be a member of a team is to place the team before you, especially when ‘tis most difficult, especially in a fighting force like ours.” Atley growls in his usual way.

“That was not meant to be about all gno—…” Azizia sighs. “I did not mean it as a comment on all gnomes, just reference to what Mr. Dane said earlier on that day…” She shakes her head. “But I get point of yours. What I do not get, is next point. It was not question of just forgetting name. It was question of abandoning gnome there. No one was sent to save, we only saved gnome because we found him doing other mission, name thing was just… claw in coffin, as is said in Common.” She upnods her captain. “Would this happen with you?” The Draenei then turns to Atley. “I think I represent others well when I fight for what I believe is right.” She uncrosses her arms and clasps her hands. “But I may be wrong in what I believe is right. There is only one conclusion, I think,” she adds. She takes a second before making said conclusion explicit. “I am not meant to be hero, like everyone else in company. That I have always known.” Her voice isn’t sad when she utters these words, neither is her face. She is simply stating a fact.

"To your question, no. And as it happens, Alysson Mondragon is currently missing," she nods toward Dane, "and the search effort is underway. As to being a hero, I think that is something one strives for, rather than what one is." She drums her hands once, and continues, "I hope I did not lead you to feel you could not come to Dane or to me with your complaints. I want you to do that. I want to help you fight for what is right. But in the moment, in the field, or when talking to our allies in an official capacity, I need you to be able to follow Dane's decisions.”

Atley furrows his brow initially at the news about Alysson and performs a soft double take at Jocoza before he immediately refocuses. He looks to Azizia and grunts. “You’ve been a fine member of the squad. Your unique talents and expertise prove useful time, and time again, but as the Captain says, I cannot tolerate blatant disregard, disobedience, and a direct challenging of the chain of command. We are not the military, but we are a disciplined fighting force with rules and regulation.” He slowly shakes his head. “If I were to tolerate such behavior, it’d lead to the eventual breakdown of our unit’s cohesion, somming’ I will not abide for the sake of one member.”

He exhales smoothly. “I’d have had you come to me, or perhaps the Captain and myself earlier with these reservations you’ve. I gave you a final chance to resolve things, but now we sit here, and the Captain is affording you one more.”

Azizia also does a double take at the news of Alysson’s disappearance, but seeing this being just glossed over at this meeting, she decides to ask about this later. She takes a moment to listen to what both of her superiors in that room have to say, then takes a deep breath. “Very well, I understand what it is you mean.” She gets up from her chair, and goes back to standing behind it. “Let us not waste more time. What will be consequences of actions of mine? Go on, tell me,” she says, almost defiantly. “I just have one request.” The draenei takes another deep breath, closing her eyes. She thinks carefully about her next words, their implications, the consequences they themselves could carry.

“Please, I beg to not be fired from squad,” she simply adds, her eyes still closed.

Jo looks at Azizia for a long moment, her mouth twisted in something like confusion. “Well, Azizia, as Dane said, I wanted to give you… I wanted to hear your side of things, explain why this is an issue, and see if the situation can be resolved. If you are to remain a part of Cobalt Company, which it sounds like you want to, you do have to abide by the Code of Conduct. Not just when you want to, but always. But that doesn’t mean we don’t care about problems you see and complaints you might have. We do.”

She hesitates again, thinking. “Caspis understands some of your perspective. He’s also been alive for thousands of years, most of that in a… pretty political group, I guess? Can you commit to following orders, if you can also talk over any problems with Caspis when you’re not in dialogue with external allies? Then the two of you will be better able to create a plan to make things better.”

Atley grunts, and raises a hand to itch the side of his jaw. “And I will not tolerate having my authority challenged or having a direct order disobeyed in the field ever again. I’d have that made known clearly and fairly here and now.”

Jo nods to Atley, and then looks to see Azizia’s response.

“Ugh,” Azizia says loudly rubbing her face with hands out of frustration. She finally opens her eyes again.She speaks as if in a hurry, words coming out of her mouth faster than usual. “I understand what you say, I do, I understand solutions you suggest, and if it was normal situation I would just go ‘fine, I leave’, but this isn’t normal situation.” She brutally pushes the chair away from her, which is definitely not meeting-with-your-superiors acceptable behavior. “I have met friends I wish to fight with in Squad, and I am in Northrend for punishment and I have not atoned for mistake I make, so I cannot leave yet. I have to stay in Squad for now. Yet…” She takes a deep breath, trying to calm down. “Yet I do not know if I can promise you two what you want me to promise. I do not know if I will not disobey like I did when I feel it is right to disobey.”

Atley sets his jaw a few times, lifting a bushy brow at the chair shove. He side-eyes Jocoza, before he looks up to Azizia. “If you cannot swear that you’ll hold yourself to the same standard that your squad members are held to, I cannot lead you. I will not.” he informs gruffly, with a faint undertone of regret.

“That is, and has always been, a condition of employment with Cobalt Company,” Jo says, not unkindly. “You have already violated that. I am willing to give you another chance. However, that is only on offer if you are willing to take it.”

Azizia’s jaw twitches, or was it her lip quivering? She doesn’t answer. Staying silent for what feels like hours to her, thinking of everything. If she says yes, she feels like betraying herself in advance. Staying silent in front of people just because of their rank, even though she’s got things to say? She can’t do that. She doesn’t want that. Backing down, being a pushover, that’s not her, that’s not who she wants to be. And yet, she has so many reasons to stay with the Company. People, obligations, and, truthfully, how else could she afford her shopping sprees?

The Draenei takes a step backward. And another one. And another one. Her hooves hit the floor loudly with every step. She turns around, making her way towards the door without a word.

And then she stops. She clenches her fist, ready to dent another wall. She doesn’t turn to look at Dane and Jo as she speaks. Her voice is cold, colder than usual. “If I say I try, is it enough?” She pauses. “You say being hero is something to strive for, not something we are born. What if I say I am not made respecting Code of Conduct like heroes in Company, but I will strive for that? I cannot swear I will, but I can say I try.”

Atley leans back in his seat, briefly looking to Jocoza, before he shifts his gaze back to Azizia. “I do not speak for the captain, only myself. If I give you a second chance to prove yourself, or make an effort to, as you say you want, any failure of yours that brings dishonor upon the company would be my responsibility. My own.”

Jo hesitates, glancing at Dane, and then looks back at Azizia. “In a certain sense, I suppose none of us can guarantee we will never fail, so I appreciate your honesty. But.” Jo takes a deep breath. “If we give you a second chance, and you do fail, then there will not be a third. Dane, is that a responsibility you would be willing to take on?”

Atley works his jaw, shifting his glare from Azizia to Jocoza. He inhales deeply before letting it out in the form of a heavy sigh. “I would accept a stronger commitment made. I’ve no interest in having the squad morale and unity challenged outright once again, especially when we’re in the field. It’s disrespectful to the Company, to our comrades, and to myself.”

Azizia keeps her back turned toward her superiors, clenching her fists even stronger. The tension in her muscles makes her arms shake. Her whole body screams at her to leave and go back to her life of not caring about anyone but herself, to simpler times. “… I will respect Code until I know friends will be fine in Squad and I have completed punishment from Mr. Elohad,” she says, finally turning back to look at them. She speaks in that same cold voice as earlier. “When time comes, you will be first to know when I decide it is enough and I leave, I will say clearly in advance. Now, is it strong enough commitment?”

Jo looks to Dane to see his reaction.

Atley lifts his head and sets his jaw, peering across the room at her. He sets his jaw and grunts. “And I’ve your word on that?” Dane growls warily, evenly.

The draenei nods.

“Very well.” he growls. He looks to Jocoza and nods once.

“Then as Captain, I will allow you another chance in Cobalt Company,” Jo says, looking seriously at Azizia. “As for squad… I think we’re due for some down time soon, in any case. When that happens, I will discuss the situation with the lieutenants.”

“Thank you,” Azizia says, with an almost ironic tone. “Do I need to sign paper, or is it done?”

“If I have your word,” Jo says, “That’s enough for me. I trust you. Dane?”

Atley sharply knits his brow at the ironic tone but otherwise keeps still. “It’s done,” he agrees with a grunt.

“Okay,” Azizia says. “Then I leave.” Just as fast as she said it, the Draenei turns around and walks out the door. She wasn’t sprinting out of there, but it came close.

Atley watches Azizia make her escape before he slowly turns to Jocoza. “Well then.” He pushes himself up and salutes. “We shall see.”