Tsubasa Kazanari awoke in a cold sweat, screaming silently.
Forcing herself to calm down, she rolled over in bed to gaze at the hotel bed opposite her own.
There was a click, and the lamp on the bedside table came on, partially illuminating the figure of Maria Cadenzavuna Eve. Dressed in a plain nightgown, the older idol was sitting up on the edge of her own bed wither arms crossed under her chest and a hard look in her sea green eyes. "…So you were having nightmares," Maria said, her tone clipped, "How long has this been going on for?"
Without answering, Tsubasa rolled onto her other side so as to face away from Maria. "Tsubasa!" Maria said indignantly, and Tsubasa sighed. "Go to sleep, Maria," Tsubasa said quietly.
Maria was annoyed, but she knew she wouldn't get anywhere by bothering Tsubasa. Of course, this knowledge only served to annoy her more. "Trying to take everything onto yourself and bear it alone isn't going to help anyone," Maria sighed, turning the light back off and lying down again, "That's a lesson we've all learned by now."
Tsubasa knew Maria was right, of course.
Unfortunately, this wasn't something she could talk to Maria about.
Because the nightmares were about her.
Tsubasa knew what the dreams meant, of course. They were replays of Kanade's death, only with Maria playing the role of Kanade. Tsubasa had been in love with Kanade, Maria was wonderful, and it did not require a doctorate in psychology to figure out why she would be having these dreams.
Tsubasa tried to imagine what her friends would say if she told them about this. Hibiki would blush and stammer helplessly, Miku would pat her hand in a knowing, sympathetic manner, and Chris would-
Chris would -
Chris would blush, stammer, call Tsubasa an idiot repeatedly, and probably give Tsubasa the silent treatment for some time after. Akatsuki would just faint flat-out, and Tsukoyomi would simply immediately tell Maria. Telling Shinji or her uncle was obviously out of the question; She'd never hear the end of it if that happened.
…Tsubasa knew that this was just her mentally dancing around the problem. There was only one person that she'd be able to turn to in a time like this, and despite the fact that said person was long dead, she knew exactly what they'd say. "What are you telling me for, Tsubasa? Tell her!" And then they'd grin wolfishly at her and tousle her hair affectionately. "I will, Kanade," Tsubasa whispered to herself, closing her eyes and snuggling into the warmth of the memory, "Once the concert tomorrow is over, I promise."
The concert was a memorial for those who had died during the disaster five years ago, and it had been decided that it would take place in the same venue as that fateful concert had. Tsubasa had initially questioned the wisdom of this, as it was clearly jinxing things - Though she herself held no such belief in such things. Still, she had ultimately gone along with it, because the concert venue HAD been in use without incident for five years, and with the Treasury of Babylonia destroyed, there was not much chance of that incident repeating itself. All this Tsubasa knew, and yet-
And yet-
…She just kept having the same dream about Maria dying.
The set list was a combination of Tsubasa's songs, Maria's songs, their duets, and Zwei Wing songs. The last song was to be Zwei Wing's greatest hit, and final song ever performed: Gyakko no flugel.
It was the only song that they could end with. Anything else just wouldn't have been right.
During the show, she and Maria were in perfect synch. It was the best performance either of them had ever given, together or individually. Their dancing was flawless, their every note perfectly on pitch and key. Even the lighting and effects were better than they usually were. This is it, Tsubasa thought to herself as she performed with all she had, this is the dream. What I've always wanted to do. More than anything in this world I've wanted the world to hear my songs when I was at my best, and that is what is happening now.
I made it, Kanade.
Overhead, the sky rippled, though both audience and performers were too distracted to notice.
Finally, it was time for the final number. The music swelled. The lights dimmed.
Tsubasa and Maria took their positions on stage.
And the audience began to scream.
Killter Ichaival tron
Four enormous missiles launched from the stands into the air some hundred feet above the stage, and a familiar voice screamed out over the cacophony: "LOOK ABOVE YOU, SEMPAI!"
Tsubasa and Maria immediately looked up - And just as quickly regretted doing so. Holes had opened in the very fabric of reality itself, and from them were descending monsters of indescribable horror. Misshapen entities of tentacles and slime they… exploded spectacularly in a hail of missiles.
This was somewhat anticlimactic.
More holes in reality opened closer to the ground, and out of them crawled horrific beings that were part fish, part frog, and all riddled with bullet holes from Ichaival's Billion Maiden. "Yukine! Secure an escape route for the audience!" Tsubasa shouted, pulling her relic out from her dress.
"Please leave that to me, Miss Kazanari," The voice of Shinji Ogawa said over the concert hall sound system, and at that very moment, the smoke machines went into overdrive, obscuring the view of the stage from the stands. Under the cover of the smoke, Tsubasa and Maria activated their relics, completely confident that Ogawa would get the audience out safely.
Tsubasa found that if anything, she and Maria were more in synch in battle than they had been on stage - And their teamwork with Chris was excellent as well. "What the #$% are these things!? Chris shouted as she converted her Billion Maiden chain guns into crossbows and pirouetting on one foot, unleashing a storm of arrows around her, "Bastards aren't noise, or even anything like them!" And this was true. The monsters did not calcify on contact with armed gears - Though the gears were proving effective against them. "TSUBASA!" Maria roared, "YOUR NIGHTMARES! CAN YOU REMEMBER ANYTHING!?" "HAAH!?" Chris spouted indignantly, turning to glare incredulously at the pair of them, "WHAT DOES-TCH!" Chris cut herself off as her attention was pulled back to the swarm of tenebrous amphibians before her. "TSUBASA!" Maria screamed again, "TSUBASA, ANSWER ME!"
Tsubasa looked around herself. Despite the monsters slow movement, their were thousands of them, they were everywhere, and more continued to pour out of the rips in the sky. One look at Chris told showed her that the younger woman was clearly on the ropes, and Tsubasa knew Chris would not survive if she became surrounded - Which was but an inevitability at this point. And as for Maria -
Maria was bleeding.
BECAUSE SHE WAS FIGHTING WITHOUT LINKER.
In that moment, Tsubasa's panic cleared. She pointed her sword at the sky, and thousands of energy blades rained down upon the stage. She took a deep breath.
"OH NO YOU DON'T," Chris screamed in rage, working out what Tsubasa was about to do, but Tsubasa just looked at her Kohai and smiled.
"Gatrantis-"
"OY!" A voice screamed from nearby, "DON'T GIVE UP ON LIVING!"
Croitzal ronzell Gungnir zizzl
Chris and Maria both misidentified this voice as Hibiki's - As this was what they knew to be on of her battle cries - but Tsubasa did not. Tsubasa knew that voice. Tsubasa stood frozen as a tornado like tube of whirling wind ripped through the monsters that surrounded her. She remained unmoving as a vermilion flash streaked across the battlefield, mowing down the monsters before her like blades of grass, leaping and twirling with the grace of a dance and slashing and stabbing with the deftness of an expert seamstress.
No way.
NO. WAY.
"Your innocence, I want to protect," sang a voice that Tsubasa would have recognized though a million years had passed, "I believe in the love that will change your sadness into strength."
"I don't know who the #$% that is, or what the #$% is going on," Tsubasa heard Chris say through gasps of pain, "But I LIKE IT! IGNITE MODULE: DRAWN BLADE!"
Tsubasa just stared in disbelief. None of it seemed real.
It was like a dream.
And just like that, the tide of the battle had turned. The monsters fell before them, and the holes in reality vanished just as they had appeared. As for the remains of the monsters, they dissolved into tiny black stars and faded away without a trace.
Tsubasa felt a hand on her shoulder, and when she turned, she found herself staring deeply into a pair of gentle vermillion eyes.
It's been awhile-" Kanade began, but Tsubasa cut her off by kissing her right on the mouth.
Maria and Chris stared in open-mouthed shock.
End Episode 1.