Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread – it is a property of Gonzo. All characters I introduce may not be used without permission.

This is an alternative history of Vandread. The action begins in eleventh episode when Hibiki escapes from Nirvana. Words spelled in italics are referring to situations from anime.

Alone yellow figure was flying away from Nirvana. "It's Vanguard. The prisoner escaped." Stated someone on the bridge. BC tried to stop young pilot, using his private channel: "Hibiki, what are you doing?"

"I'm not going back to the cellar again! Goodbye! " - said Hibiki and thrusted away. In no time his Vanguard vanished from scouting systems of Nirvana.

"Really, what the hell did I do? " - Hibiki asked himself recalling previous moments of his life - "Shit!"

He couldn't understand what to do next and where to go now. He almost began considering a possibility to return to Nirvana when battle alarm started beeping. Suddenly group of strange blue stars appeared at some distance and high-intencity energy beams were fired everywhere around him. Dancing between the beams, Hibiki cried - "Noyarro, I'll beat you all without uni…"

The end of this phrase was cut off when one of beams hit his vanguard straight in the head.

On the bridge of the Melanos fleet flagship second officer cried excitedly "We did it, Commander! The enemy doesn't show any hostility anymore!"

"Wait, this unit is not in our database, this is probably not our enemy … well rather was not now." said his counterpart girl.

"But it was coming from our eternal enemy's direction and the response codes were unknown, so…"

"Stay calm please, let's pick this robot up and see if there are any survivors." stated commander and the flagship started moving towards drifting Vanguard.

When Hibiki regained his consciousness he was lying on a treating bed looking at white ceiling. He tried to move his head to look around, but was paralyzed with sudden pain in his head. "A-a-a" – he couldn't hold a gasp. Almost in a moment he heard a beautiful voice:

"O, you're alive! Thanks god!" - some pretty girl's face appeared beyond his blurry eyesight - "We thought you didn't survive the explosion, but your robot was much more tough it looks."

"My robot… explosion… what's going - Ouch!" - Hibiki was too excited and tried to move again – with the same result.

"Don't move please you are still too weak after the operation. Your forehead was severely damaged, it's a miracle that you are still alive. " - Girl laid her hands on his shoulders and laid him again.

"Where am I? Why am I here? And who in the hell am I? Damn why can't I remember anything?"

"As I've already said the fact that you are alive is a miracle by itself. Your head was damaged very severely and our surgeons warned that minor brain malfunctions may occur for some time after operation."

"Well it's all very nice but still – do you know who am I?"

"According to the data we got from your robot for some time you were flying a great starship called "Nirvana" and several hours before you parted from it and headed in our direction. We must apologize we took you for our eternal enemy and fired on you. Your robot was eluding our beams very well but something went wrong and you got hit in the head. Our engineers said that your body and robot's corpus are connected so damage inflicted to robot's head was transferred to you also so… "

"Oh Aivoh…"

"Looks like you are already remembering. So you are Hibiki Tokai from Taraaku planet, your battle partners are UFO-girl, Jura and Meia and your robot can do something called uniting – it's about all we know about you and your companions. We thought that you would tell us more about it when you wake up but now I understand that you need rather much time before you will be able to do it. You must have your rest. Good-bye."

"Wait tell me please…"

"You must sleep now. Do it yourself or I'll give you a medicine, ok?" - girl left his room. Hibiki decided to follow her rather pushy advice. Well he couldn't do anything else could he?

When he awoke next time room was very noisy - he saw several people sitting and chatting around him. All of them were sitting in pairs – man and woman. There were two characters without a pair though – a nurse he had already seen and an old scarred man sitting in the center. That person started conversation:

"Hello brave warrior! It's very nice to see you onboard. I'm sorry about that misunderstanding - we thought you are our foe. We know now that you are fighting with our eternal enemy so you are our friend. As people say: "The foe of our foe is our friend" isn't it? Well, let me introduce myself – I'm Commander Tadoroko – the admiral of Melanos anti-Earth fleet. Our planet – Melano - was never a paradise still we enjoyed our life there for hundred years. But three month ago our scouts spotted a great fleet coming by. Then a part of it changed its course and directed to us. We tried to communicate with them but our attempts were ignored and our ships were destroyed. We countered most of their attacks but now a great ship with support fleet is coming this way. Its size is several times bigger than anything we've ever seen. So we set up a defense line here and we shall fight to the end to stop that fleet. We would gladly accept any help you can lend to us. First of all please try to remember any information that could be useful in our struggle. If data from your robot's systems is correct you've also been fighting with this enemy for a long time now so maybe you could tell us about their strong and weak point and so on… Feel free to say anything you'd like."

"I'm really sorry I can't help you right now – my memory is totally empty, but I hope I'll regain it sooner or later and then I'll tell you everything I know. But…" – Hibiki's voice cracked and he passed out.

Nurse jumped from her seat – "God damn I should've thought about that – he is too weak to have such a long conversation. Please leave now, I'll inform you if he returns in condition well enough to say something to you. "

Everyone in the room sighed and went away except The commander. He asked: "When do you think this will happen?"

"I don't know, but I hope it'll be soon – we don't have much time left."

"Yes, you are right. Contact us whenever it would happen. Goodbye." – commander left also.

Treatment room was now silent and peaceful once again. Nurse shut down all lights except a night-lamp and looked at sleeping figure. Then she sighed and sat near Hibiki. "God, please help this boy … and all of us too."

Several hours after Hibiki awoke again. He saw the nurse sitting near him and snoring quietly. It was the first time he could examine her appearance: she had a slender figure but she wasn't especially tall, she had a kind-looking face, framed by long red hair. He stated for himself that looking at her feels good.

Then his train of thoughts was suddenly interrupted - "She must have been watching for me to the full exhaustion. Hibiki smiled – "Baka, you don't have to do this." – suddenly a strange feeling arose inside his soul. Just seeing this girl caring about him so much made him very content and he understood he wants to do something good in return. Never ever did he have such a feeling, so he was a bit scared about it. And still strangely… content? He couldn't remember much about his previous life – just random episodes here and there but he was somehow sure he never had this feeling before.

"What've happened to me, what's going on? Why would I have such a feeling to an unknown person, especially to a girl? Am I going crazy or something?" – An answer didn't come, but something hidden in a distant corner of his mind told him, that it was ok and this feeling is more than normal for a guy.

"A guy? Is this the source of my worries? Do I think it isn't normal for a man to have such feelings? Guess it's true." – Suddenly an idea came into his mind – "I should ask her about it when she wakes up. It looks like her world is different from mine, maybe she can tell me more about men and women and how they relate… Anyway I should try to sleep more now – I need some strength to talk with her about all this."

The decision was made, so he gave sleeping girl one last thankful look and closed his eyes. In several minutes his snoring joined hers, making a perfect mushy scene.

Next time Hibiki awoke he saw that the girl raising her head and rubbing her eyes. Then she understood he wasn't sleeping and jumped from the bed – "I'm really sorry, I was so tired I must have had some rest. How long have you been up already?"

" Well I think one or two ho…"

"Oh no, the Commander will kill me"

"Just kidding – it was several seconds." – Hibiki laughed.

"Damn, you scared me. Next time you would like to pull my leg please try a subject that isn't connected with my duties… hmm you joke and laugh – it means you are much better than before so you can have a more productive conversation with our authorities then last time. I'll contact the bridge."

"There's no need to do this. I've tried to recall at least anything of my memories after I woke up but it was only some scrap pieces here and there – nothing of interest to you. I'm useless right now so don't bother them."

"Well I'll just contact the bridge and tell them what's going on. Commander can decide everything he wishes right? After all it's his own time and he knows how to spend it better than anybody else."

"Ok, ok of course I don't mind. Call him but it would be only a waste of time."

Girl pressed some button and told – "Commander our guest has already awoken but he says he can't remember anything useful right now so he asks you not to waste your time on him." – she turned to Hibiki – "Am I right?"

"Totally." Answered young boy, so nurse continued – "When he we will have at least something to tell you I'll contact you again, ok?"

"Let it be so then, thanks for you work" – said commander – "I'm looking forward to hearing you again. Goodbye." – communicator switched off.

"So young man, what are you going to do?"

"Well ma'm I would like to introduce myself – I'm Hibiki Tokai, third-class citizen, parts mechanic and a Vanguard pilot all in one. I'm very please to meet you. And you are?"

"Since when do you have remembered all thus stuff? Last time we talked you didn't know even your name… Maybe you have recalled more than you just said so I should tell commander about it ne?"

"Hey why are you so picky all of a sudden? I didn't say anything wrong! What's up? Or you don't want me to know anything about you, ne?"

"Alright, it's a draw. My name is Reiko Hotaru and I'm a nurse here as you could have already guessed. What else would you like to know? Maybe my measurements?"

Opposed by such repulsive answer Hibiki decided to step back for a while:

"I'm really sorry. If you have so much negative feelings about this talk I'll ask you no questions any more. I really appreciate everything you have done to me, so thanks for your care."

An uncomfortable silence fell on them for several minutes then girl began with her voice trembling:

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to oppose you. Your curiosity is quite understandable, just… " – she stopped for a second – "Well I didn't like speaking about myself for a rather long time. It takes some time to get rid of old nasty habit, ne? So what would you like to ask me about?"

Hibiki had a deep thinking for some time before starting new topic. Then he asked thoughtfully:

"If it would be ok with you I'd like to know more about life on your planet - how can men and women coexist to be more precise?"