Chapter 1: Nia
Digging. That was all he was good for. He was never cut out to be a leader, a hero, anything other than a simple digger.
Simon laid lifelessly in the the mud as rain poured over the landscape, drenching everything with its relentless fury. It was a pretty accurate place for him to be right now, considering what had happened. Maybe he should just lie here for eternity and wait for death to end his suffering. That isn't what Bro would have done, granted, Bro would never have gotten into this situation to begin with.
Simon turned his head to see an unmoving Lagann staring blankly back at him. "Heh, even you have betrayed me now, haven't you."
He thought back to the recent encounter with some enemy Gunmen while the team was trekking across the land to their next destination. Rossiu had taken over piloting Gurren after Bro had died and was about to strike the finishing blow on a Gunmen when Simon decided that he wanted to do it himself. Maybe killing the Gunmen would make him feel better, maybe it would make Kamina proud of him. Who was he kidding, nothing he could do could ever compare to what his Bro had accomplished. In a fit of rage, Simon had ruthlessly speared the Gunmen in half, hitting it so hard that the Beastman inside became separated from the rest of the machine and collapsed dead on the ground. Killing the Beastman had proved to provide him no satisfaction in the end and Simon was still left a hollow inside, still angry. He deserved everything that was happening to him. If he had of been stronger, he could have saved Kamina. Simon continued his rampage as more Gunmen closed in on him. He pounced on one and proceeded to stomp on its head over and over and over.
"Simon, this is overkill!" Rossiu shouted from the lower cockpit.
"He who strikes first wins! It's what Kamina would have done!" Simon retorted. What did Rossiu know, spending his whole life trying to avoid trouble by making other people deal with his problems.
Simon charged at a pack of flying Gunmen near a large gorge, stampeding through their bullet rain without a second thought.
"Simon, you need to stop being so reckless. If you keep fighting like this, YOU will die this time."
"Kamina wouldn't run away. Not Kamina. Not ever!" Simon screamed. "What is the point of running away anyway. If I run away, more people will die. If I stay and die, what does it matter, my life means nothing anymore. I'm useless. I actually hope I do die, maybe then people will stop expecting things from me that I clearly can't do!" Simon thought.
At that moment, Simon unleashed a tornado of spiral energy all around him, destroying all nearby Gunmen. He charged again at another group, except this time, Gurren Lagann stopped responding to his controls. It halted in the middle of the battlefield and refused to move as one lone Gunmen closed in.
"Dammit, come on!" Simon thought. He gripped the controls harder and put more energy into it. All the spiral power he was generating was bottling up in Gurren Lagann's throat until suddenly it burst out from all sides.
"What the hell!?" Simon thought as Lagann began frantically detaching itself from Gurren. Suddenly, Lagann freed itself from the rest of the mecha and launched itself into the gorge, dragging Simon down with him. After using so much spiral power at once, Simon's fatigue caught up to him and he blacked out during the fall…
And now he was here, alone, face down in the mud, total scum of the earth. "I might as well try and get back to them," he thought. Simon pushed himself up off the ground and walked over to Lagann. He grabbed his core drill, half expecting it to not work at all, and inserted into Lagann's control panel. Lagann flared to life with this action, startling Simon. "It started!" he exclaimed. Having nowhere else to go but upwards, he spotted a hill and figured that was the best way to go. He began trudging slowly across the muddy wasteland in search of some way to get out of this gorge. It didn't take long for him to reach to reach a vast clearing at the crest of the hill. Simon was startled by what he saw. The landscape was dotted with small, metal containers, each with a dim red dot glowing on them.
"What are these things?" Simon mused aloud as he exited Lagann's cockpit, bringing along his core drill. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted something moving on the cliffside to the east. Simon squinted his eyes at the object and managed to make out its form. It appeared to be a bug Beastman of sorts holding another one of those odd containers. A few seconds later he hurled it into the pit that Simon was standing in.
"Whatever is in there, it mustn't be very important. They throw the things away down here like they're trash, but if they are trash, why do they need a container?" Simon thought. The recently thrown box slid through the mud all the way to where Simon was standing. Out of curiosity, he approached the container, curiosity driving him forward. He stared blankly at it for a seconds before noticing a drill shaped hole on the front. It looked identical to the keyhole in Lagann!
"Here goes nothing, I guess," Simon thought as he inserted the core drill into the hole. He hesitated for a second before turning it. "Do I really want to know what is inside here. What if it is some kind of monster? No, Kamina wouldn't be afraid of anything, I have to try and live up to that," Simon thought as he turned the key.
The container appeared to emit smoke before the top swung open like a chest. More and more white smoke billowed out, covering the surrounding area with its haze. Eventually the smoke in the box cleared and Simon could get a good look at its contents. His eyes widened and he gaped in awe as his brain tried to process what his eyes couldn't believe.
In the box lay a young girl with pale, slender legs, a short pink dress that didn't reach her knees, gold accessories all over her outfit, and long, pale blue and white hair that was shaped like a wispy cloud. She also appeared to have a large pink flower in her hair. The girl was curled up with her petite hands being used as a pillow for her sleeping head. She looked as if she couldn't be any more than Simon's age considering her size. Simon just stared at her in a daze, a large amount of thoughts all conjuring themselves up in his brain.
"She's absolutely beautiful…" Simon thought to himself as he stared. She wasn't sexy in the way that Yoko was, with her large proportions and accentuated curves, but instead boasted her own sort of elegance and innocence to her, like a flower that has yet to be picked. Realizing that that was the last thing that should be on his mind, he began to think of some way to help the girl wake up when suddenly her eyes fluttered open.
Simon took a step away from the container as she pushed herself up and sleepily blinked her eyes at him. Simon could now see the jewel plated collar on her shirt and the red tie she appeared to be wearing. Her outfit looked to foreign for Simon to truly be able to understand the style. She sat up and turned to face him and smiled. "Hail fellow, well met!". Her voice was and smooth and seemed to calm the atmosphere.
Simon was completely dumbstruck and at a loss for words. He stared into her pink, cross shaped eyes and replied with: "H-Hail fellow..?" He didn't understand her speech and it became evident to him that she was likely not raised among the kind of people he was. This gave him a small glimmer of hope to know that at least someone out there seemed to not be constantly suffering.
Tilting her head to the left a little the girl sleepily said: "Who are you, good sir?".
"Ohh, uhh, I'm nobody important enough to be called 'good sir'". He had considered for a moment just telling her his name but figured he wouldn't want to get her hopes up on him being a good person. He wasn't worth the effort.
Suddenly the girl perked up and started looking around. "Oh! This is the outside, isn't it?". Her gleeful reaction to the surface reminded him of the first time he saw the surface, wide eyed and full of hope. He didn't want to be the one to spoil her fantasy for her. She reached her hands up into the air.
"This is rain!" she exclaimed excitedly.
Simon was overwhelmed by her innocence. Being excited to be rained on was an atypical reaction. She appeared to be enthusiastic and optimistic about everything, the complete opposite of how he felt at the time. Maybe this was the kind of happiness he was fighting for? Not this girl specifically, but what about the other people who were trapped underground? Were they this joyful to experience the surface after he and the rest of team Dai-Gurren helped liberate them? Of course, the team had only managed to liberate a few villages so far, but how were they managing now?
"Is that the world Bro wanted to make?" Simon thought. "But no, it is no thanks to me that we had made it this far. All I have accomplished in doing was getting Bro killed and failing to live up to his legacy."
Simon was dragged back into reality as the girl jumped out of her container and her bare feet squished in the mud. "It is cold. What is this?" she questioned.
Realizing that she expected an answer to her seemingly simple question, he hastily replied. "Um, that's dirt. Are you okay without any shoes?" he said, trying to be friendly to the the girl. Now that she was standing, Simon could get a real feel for how she looked. Her clothing was no doubt nicer than anything the members of the crew wore. She stood with her eyes closed and head tilted to the side, trying to take in the surface.
"It's cold and wet and squishy…" she said," It feels wonderful!".
"Really? It does?". Simon was left with no choice but to go on with the girls musings. He really didn't want to hurt her feelings by doing something wrong. She was too delicate, like if he touched her, she would shatter into pieces. He felt a strange urge to want to protect her, but from what. The reality of the cruel world she was born into, that was most likely it. Based on the way he found her in a container, Simon could already tell she was heading towards heartbreak.
She straightened herself out and smiled to him. She walked right into his personal bubble until she was practically right on top of him. Simon's face turned bright red as the girl brought her hands up to his face and put them on him. Her hands were smooth and warm and, if it would have been under other circumstances, he would have wanted to enjoy her presence and her touch. But right now he was more concerned about what to do with her. He couldn't just leave her here.
"Why are you the same as I am?" Nia asked him. That line really threw him for a loop. "You have no fangs nor tails nor scales." she observed. "Your skin in soft, as well." She began to lightly stroke his face, which only made him more flustered. The gesture didn't seem to be intimate, but it truly seemed as if she was just inspecting him. Luckily, the girl seemed to be oblivious to the fact that she was making him uncomfortable.
"Well, that's only natural. I'm a human being."
"'Human being'," she said slowly, as if she was saying it for the first time. This conversation was taking a strange turn.
"Right. A human being. A human. A person."
She took a step back from him, removing her hands from his face. "And what, exactly, is a human?".
Simon could not believe what he was hearing. Had she really never seen another human before? "Well, a human is… Well, like you and me. We look like this, we have a head, stuff like that." How was he supposed to answer that question.
"There are others like us?!" she said enthusiastically.
"Yeah, there are plenty."
"Really? And all of them are the same as you? They have the same face?" she asked.
"No, we're not all identical. It would be creepy if everyone had the same face." Simon laughed a little on the inside at her naivety. It was cute, to watch her ask all these questions and always be so excited and surprised
"It would?" she said. "Oh, the rain has stopped!"
Simon looked up. Light had began filtering through the clouds as the rain slowed a halt. The whole area seemed to become a lot less eerie that way. "Hey you're right!" Simon said, trying to match the girls enthusiasm. A short silence passed over them as they took in their brief moment of tranquility together.
"I wonder why I am outside?" the girl wondered, breaking the silence.
"Um, I don't really know," Simon stated. That was one question Simon wasn't prepared to answer. One that worried him deeply. "What could a girl be doing out here alone in a container?" Simon wondered. This was all to weird. Although he did know that whatever the reason was, the girl was not going to like it. The feeling that she was being abandoned out here didn't leave Simon's mind. What would have happened to her if he didn't open her container. Would she have stayed in there forever until death? Simon didn't like that notion. Whatever she was doing here, he knew he had to get her out. For the first time in a week, Simon strengthened his resolve.
"First things first, we need to get you out of here," he said with a hint of confidence in his voice. He removed his shoes from his feet and placed them down in front of Nia's bare feet. "Here. I can't let you walk around like that, put these on." he said.
"All right," she said as she stepped happily into his shoes. She looked up at him and smiled. "My name is Nia. What is yours?".
"M-Me? I'm Simon," he said timidly. He suddenly found himself nervous around her.
At this point the sunlight had unveiled Nia completely. Simon could see her bright beaming colors that shone radiantly. Again, he was taken aback by how beautiful she was. "Simon… What a beautiful name," Nia said, feeling out his name in the same way she had done with 'human being'.
Simon couldn't help but stare at her as she bathed in the sunlight. "Thanks."
"Tell me, Simon."
"What?".
She lifted her arm up and pointed behind Simon. "What is that?" she asked.
"Huh?" Simon turned around. "AAAAGGGGHHHH," Simon screamed. Before them stood a horse headed Gunmen with rocket launcher arms. It towered over them, easily over 100 times their size.
There was no time to panic. Simon really had to get Nia out of here now. Instinctively, he swooped Nia's legs out from under her and caught her back in in his other arm and started running through the Gunmen's legs. "Hurry! Let's go!" he shouted. He had to get to Lagann, that was their only choice if they were to fight it.
The Gunmen began to fire a barrage of bullets at them from its arm. Simon ran faster than he ever had before, faster then that time Kamina threw boulders at him for manliness training. Simon was sure that this is what Kamina would have done in this situation.
"Simon, what was that?" Nia asked. Oddly enough her voice didn't sound too scared.
"It's a Gunmen!" Simon explained. "Humans on the surface are at war against them!".
"At war?" Nia said puzzledly.
"If we don't fight them, they'll kill us!" Simon explained. They had almost reached Lagann now. Once they got there, Simon placed Nia down inside the cockpit before jumping in himself. Nia watched him as Simon put his core drill into the control panel.
"Please, Lagann!" Simon pleaded as he turned the key. This was a time he could not afford to have Lagann fail on him, he was fighting for more than just his life now, he had to protect Nia! Lagann's green eyes flared to life after the key turned.
"Yes, it worked!" Simon shouted. The Gunmen shot a barrage of missiles at them this time. The cockpit closed just in time around the two to protect them from harm. Simon leaped headstrong into the enemy. He ramped up the power output, but as soon as he did, Lagann started malfunctioning again. Green spiral power began to leak out of the mecha. The Gunmen realized the weakness and retaliated with a crushing punch. Simon and Nia were sent flying out of the cockpit. Simon hit the ground first with Nia landing on top of him soon after. Good thing for Simon she didn't weigh much.
"Simon, are you alright?" she asked, sounding genuinely concerned.
"Damn it, not again!" Simon said as he pounded the ground with his fist . He couldn't believe that he let yet another person down. Let another person die. Now both Nia and Simon were defenseless, and it was all his fault. "No. Not again. This is the same thing that happened with Kamina. I was too weak to save him, and now I'm too weak to save Nia! Why do I have to be so damn USELESS! And to think, maybe I could have been able to really get to know her," Simon thought, "Haha, fate sure is cruel, if I never opened her container, she wouldn't be in this situation. Damn me and my weakness,".
Simon pushed himself up and off of the ground.
"No. I can't let it end like this, at least not for Nia. Bro would have gone down fighting, and I'll be damned if I'm just going so shrivel up and die," Simon thought. He walked up to the malfunctioning Lagann and grabbed his drill.
"Run, Nia," Simon said somberly. "Once you start, don't stop. Keep running until you reach tomorrow, and maybe then will you be safe. I'll stay back and fight the Gunmen." He wasn't quite sure what he intended to do with his measly drill, but he would think of something. "At least, Nia can escape safely. As for me, well, that's not really important, is it," Simon thought. His hands were shaking violently as he struggled to control his fears. "Pathetic. I can't even work up the courage to fight," he thought, mentally scolding himself.
"No, I can't allow you to do that!" Nia said defiantly. She placed her hands on his. "Do you really want to die? If you stay and fight, you will likely not live for the next one. If you are scared, there should be no shame in running," she reasoned. "There will be other days that the world will need your strength. Today we run, so tomorrow, we can fight."
Simon had not expected such strong words and resolve from the girl who didn't know what a human was. But, he couldn't let himself run away this time, not after spending his whole life letting other people fight his battles for him. "That's how Kamina died. I was too weak," Simon thought. "I need to be a man."
"That's exactly why I must fight now. If I don't, will there be a tomorrow for everyone? I'm sick of watching people die! So, please Nia, run," Simon commanded, his spiral power flaring to life around him. He radiated a green aura that started resonating with his core drill and he felt power flowing through his body.
Removing Nia's hands from his, Simon let out a battle cry and charged at the Gunmen. The power around him seemed to be boosting his physical capabilities, as he had closed the distance between him and the Gunmen in a matter of seconds. He thrust his drill through the Gunmen's leg, creating a large hole straight through it. Enraged, the Gunmen retaliated with a flurry of bullets in his direction. He dodged a few and parried the rest with his drill, which infused with power, had transformed into a staff of sorts with a sharp drill on the end. It resembled Kamina's sword in many ways, in matter and in spirit.
"AUURRRGHHHHHH!" Simon screamed as he leaped up the Gunmen's weak leg. The machine shook frantically in an effort to shake him off, but to no avail. Simon had already climbed up the torso and put all his energy into massive leap, propelling him high into the air above the Gunmen's head. He let out another scream as he brought his weapon down of the Gunmen's head, creating a massive hole. As Simon's feet landed upon the Gunmen's head, his foot slipped from the wet metal and he was sent tumbling down towards the ground.
It happened in a matter of seconds, seeing his opening the Gunmen brought its massive fist down upon Simon's falling body. The force of the punch sent Simon flying in Lagann's direction. He crashed into the ground and slid in the mud from the force of the blow, his drill landing beside him and reverting to its original form.
"Simon!" Nia screamed, who up to this point had disobeyed Simon's orders and was taking cover behind Lagann, ran up to his limp body.
"Simon! SIMON!" she screamed, frantically shaking his body in an effort to see if he was still alive.
He was, in fact, still alive, but only just hanging on. Everything hurt. He was in so much pain, he actually hoped that he did die so he could be put out of his misery. He had truly failed this time. "Damn it...I can't believe.. that.. this is how it's going to end for me… I couldn't win, I never had a chance. In the end...I was still to weak.. again… All that effort and big talk… wasted on me," Simon thought as he slipped out of consciousness. The Gunmen in the distance opened its gaping mouth and released a massive missile at Simon and Nia. It was over this time…
"Hey, look down there! I think we found him" Kittan yelled as he pointed down into the gorge where Simon had fallen. From the cliffside they could see a large Gunmen regurgitating a missile from its mouth. A little ways away they could see Lagann and what looked like two figures lying next to it.
"No time to waste then, let's get down there and help out!" Yoko commanded. She was mounted on a Gunmen with her rifle in hand, ready to shoot.
"All right, let's give em' hell!" Kitten cried as he launched himself into the canyon head first with Yoko right behind him.
Yoko positioned herself in her sniping stance. She could see that the missile was almost upon Simon and trained her gun on that target. Once she had lined up the shot, she fired three bullets into the metal missile, blowing it up before it could cause any damage.
"I'm not going to let anyone else die!" she proclaimed.
Meanwhile, Kittan had lined up his King Kittan's pointed head with a large hole in the enemy Gunmen's head. "What the hell could've done that?" he wondered. "Heh, makes things easier for me I guess." He drove his head into the Gunmen's weak spot as he prepared for his ultimate combo.
"KITTAN! STINGER!" he yelled as he hoisted the enemy up in the air on his head.
"HELL'S HEADSPLITTER!" he yelled again as he separated the two halves of his King Kittan's head, ripping the enemy in two and causing a massive explosion.
"Hell yeah! I finally got to use it!" he yelled as he reveled in the awesomeness of his ultimate combo that he came up with. He had asked Leite to make that modification for him a few weeks ago and finally seeing it pay off was awesome.
Yoko looked over at Simon to see a strange looking girl lying over him and holding his hands. She then noticed how bloodied and bruised Simon was and he lay unmoving. "What is this all about?" she wondered.
Nia sat over Simon's body as they were hurriedly carried home in Lagann by a large yellow Gunmen. It was clear that Simon needed medical attention, and fast. She wasn't sure how much longer he would last. Once arriving on board a massive Gunmen, Simon was immediately taken to one of the ship's doctors for emergency treatment. What shocked her was the lack of care they seemed to treat him with considering his critical condition. They seemed to be more interested in her for some reason.
A large man in black with yellow hair told her to come with him as he led her to what she could only assume was a dining area. A large crowd had shown up to the room at the same time she did and they made a lot of noise.
"I wonder if this place is always this loud?" Nia thought as she observed the people in the room around. What Simon had told her earlier was true in that there were many others out there like her and that no two people had the same face. It was a startling sight to see after having met almost no other humans in her entire life up until recently. A familiar looking man wearing a cooking hat continually brought out food and placed it on the table in front of her. The people around her seemed to refer to him as "Old Coco".
"Human beings certainly come in all shapes and sizes, don't they?" she asked to nobody in particular.
"So you've never seen another human being before, have you?" a voice from the crowd asked.
"No, only my honorable father," she replied. Nia thought back to how strange her father had been acting before she suddenly appeared on the surface.
"Honorable father she says," a voice responded from the crowd.
Suddenly the man called Old Coco wobbled up to her and offered her some tea.
"Thank you," she replied taking a sip to see what it was like. "It's delicious!" she said. Nia couldn't quite tell what it reminded her of, but it tasted familiar. "Everyone here seems to be very nice," she thought.
A large man with green hair spoke up next. "So when you woke up you were in a container and had been thrown into the gorge for some reason?" he said worriedly.
"Yes," she responded.
"Do you remember any details as to where your village is?" the man asked.
"Village?" she said confusedly. These surface humans certainly came up with a lot of strange words. She had no idea what this "village" was.
"Where your house is," the man explained.
"I have no idea. I've never been outside before. Father always told me that the outside world was dangerous," Nia said dejectedly, sorry for being unable to provide these strange people with answers to their questions.
"Well, he was right about that. I bet your father is worried about you," he replied in a soft voice.
"I'm not so sure," Nia said sadly. A few shocked reactions could be heard from the crowd. "Well I believe I may have angered him," Nia explained.
"Why is that?" the man responded.
"I asked him a question. 'Why was I born' I asked? As soon as I said it, father closed his heart to me," Nia said. In truth, Nia had been very lonely after that happened. Her father had stopped talking to her and didn't even look at her. She was shut up in her room with nobody to entertain her. Not long after, Simon had founder her in the gorge.
Any trace of the bright and upbeat girl that she was earlier was now unrecognizable. Nia's face was stone cold and serious. She didn't understand what could have made her father so mad by that question. She just wanted to fulfill her purpose, whatever it was.
"I don't understand it. Your father sounds like a very strange man," said a slender man with odd features. Nia didn't understand either, she only longed for the days in which she could be happy and play with her father. She was starting to think that that time may be over.
Simon walked out onto the Gunmen deployment room that was connected to the main bridge to find Lagann looking back at him again. He had made a miraculously quick recovery after being put into emergency care for just a few minutes. It seemed that some strange power was aiding his healing. The doctors, of course, just dismissed it as some sort of miracle, but Simon knew that wasn't the case. Ultimately they cleared him to have after realizing that there was no longer anything wrong with him. Simon had wandered around for a while before he found himself here. He had considered going and seeing how Nia was doing, knowing that the others were probably asking her all sorts of questions, but in the end he decided against it. He didn't have the courage of the right to see her after his recent failures, even if he really wanted to.
Simon stared at Lagann for a few seconds. "Lagann, are you going to abandon me too?" he asked. No reply. Of course not. He was talking to a machine, it was insane to expect anything else. Nobody seemed to be supporting him anymore. Yoko, Kittan, and the others just yelled at him for being worthless and blamed him for Kamina's death. Even Nia didn't even bother visiting him during his treatment, that he would have expected her to anyway after not being able to protect her. Even Lagann, an object with no free will, had turned against him. All his anger and resentment spilled out at once.
"What the hell do you want me to do, damn it!?" he pleaded. "Can't I even avenge Kamina's death?". He was in complete despair. There was nothing anyone could do to save him if he didn't even want to save himself. Simon just wanted it to end.
Suddenly, a massive earthquake knocked him to the floor as plumes of water erupted around the ship. Simon didn't care. Nothing really mattered to him anymore and he decided that he would just lie there until the whole Dia-Gurren brigade was wiped out, including him.
Leeron's panicked voice sounded over the intercom. "Simon! Where's Simon!? Where's Gurren Lagann?" he shouted.
"Heh, after every failure, they still expect me to be able to do something. They're foolish. I'm too weak. I wish they would just give it a rest already," Simon thought. Not this time. He wasn't even going to try this time. Why bother?
A massive centipede like Gunmen crashed onto the front deck and sent shock waves throughout the whole ship. A smaller butterfly looking Gunmen hopped off and landed squarely on the deck. It crossed its arms sassily as a voice sounded out.
"There's no escape, human scum," a feminine voice said. Well, she wasn't wrong about Simon being scum at least. Purple whips of energy materialized around the Gunmen and began assaulting the ship.
Rossiu was already hopping into the cockpit of Gurren while Yoko charged out on the deck, rifle in hand, ready to defend team Dai-Gurren.
Simon didn't even bother to get up and help, being completely unfazed by the Gunman's threats. Suddenly, Nia rushed by him, running towards the enemy with no way to defend herself. This elicited a reaction in Simon as he stood up and watched her leave.
"Nia?" he said, wondering what it was she thought she was going to accomplish. It was clear from when they met that che wasn't a fighter. Simon ran after her in an attempt to stop her from getting herself killed. He knew he was too useless to save her, but he tried anyway. He wasn't exactly sure why though.
Nia rushed by Yoko, who was firing a few rounds at the Gunmen, and Yoko had the same line of thinking as Simon then.
"Wha-? That idiot, is she trying to get herself killed?" Yoko yelled. She already didn't like this girl, she was just too suspicious and the way everyone paid so much attention to her bothered her.
Nia halted right before the large Gunmen as Simon arrived on deck to stand beside Yoko. "What could she be planning?" Simon thought.
She lifted her arms up and out to her sides as her cape spread out along her back. It all looked very impressive from where Simon was standing. Nia lifted her head up and stared down the mecha.
"Stop this, Adiane!" she commanded. Her voice was powerful and commanding, nothing like the way it was before. Simon was completely enthralled by her bravery and beauty at the same time, but that didn't make him any less worried.
This seemed to have worked, surprisingly, as the purple whips stopped attacking the Dai-Gurren.
A voice could be heard from inside the Gunmen: "Wait, is that-?".
"First Princess Nia, daughter of Spiral King Lordgenome, orders you!" Nia commanded again. "Leave us, Adiane the Elegant! Are you aware of who I am? ".
"Daughter of the king? No way. That can't be right," Simon thought. That meant a lot of things, and none of them were good.
Nia continued to fearlessly stare down the enemy, not moving an inch. It seemed, for a moment, that all time had stopped as no side made its move to attack.
