They lost.
Despite everything sacrificed, despite everything they had being thrown at the Anti-Spiral, they still lost.
It was such an anticlimactic defeat, too. So simple it made him queasy. When Simon had made the initial charge towards the massive carriers the Anti-Spirals had deployed, the solution for their defeat was revealed to be so simple it was almost ridiculous.
Stress had taken it's toll on Simon throughout all the fights he had been through, and the heart was a muscle that remembered. The Anti-Spiral had simply increased the likeliness of him having a heart attack at that precise moment to 100%, and killed him there.
That was where Lee came in.
Project Rift, as it was called, had taken him as it's subject, starting with the founding of Kamina City seven years ago when they learned that with enough spiral energy even time travel was possible, and since being chosen at the age of 8 to be the ultimate backup plan, he had been trained by the best of the best, given the best equipment, and even, been taken through classes(Tests unfortunately included) so as to be as prepared as possible.
And while he watched the best of the best in their own fields, his friends of seven years since the majority of the team had helped tutor the boy one time or another, die, he knew what hid mission was.
Go Back. Fight. Get humanity as prepared as possible, save as many as possible, and finally, most importantly, Win.
However it was, like most things, easier said than done.
Leeron, Viral, and Yoko, the ones who had been the most privy to the project aside from Simon himself, and who were Lee's closest friends, hopped on a private channel to send him off.
"Lee... looks like we'll see you later..." Leeron started, before Yoko cut in.
"Lee, listen. You can do this. No matter what, know that. It'll be hard. We won't know you, and you won't really able to confide in anybody. But we've trained you, equipped you, and gotten you as ready as possible. And we all believe in you. No matter what, remember that we all believe in you, and you should, too. Good luck. You'll need it. And, goodbye."
The transmission from her cut off, and Leeron continued,
"She's right. You can do this. I know you can, everybody does. There's not much else to say but good luck, and I'll see you later, honey. Well, technically earlier, but you know what I mean. Good luck, and kick some butt for me, okay? Buh-bye!" and with that, a wave and a wink, Leeron's transmission cut out too. Now it was just Lee and Viral.
"Listen, I'm not going to get all sappy like them, but I will say this. You were my student, and you are my friend, as few of them as there are. What you're going to do I doubt Simon himself could handle, not even because of the combat, but because of the mental stress you'll face. Your whole world will change, and so will we. None of us will be the same as today... well, excepting Twinkle Boy. He'll probably be just as infuriating, but other than that, you'll be on your own. Now, goodbye, and good luck, Lee. I'm going to kill as many of these bastards as I can before I go down. Despite my 'immortal body', being vaporized will still kill me. Give em' Hell."
The last words heard by Lee were a roared out challenge, a loud, "Kill me if you can, you bastards! If I'm going to Hell, you're following!"
Then the transmission cut out, and all that was left was for Lee to begin the mission.
He had the Time Rift Device set up, and was standing inside it, waiting for a technician to send him back, and watching the battle through the glass. They were losing, horribly, but that was why Lee was leaving, to give them a second chance. While he waited, the inevitable happened.
Slowly, Gurren Lagann was swarmed and turned into a ball of flame as Viral self-destructed the core, taking as many with him as possible.
The Dayakkaiser was torn to pieces by laser fire, and Yoko was taken with it, a similar fate befalling all the other space gunmen outside the ship.
And finally, the massive Cathedral Terra erupted, and humanity's last chance was swallowed in the blaze left in it's wake.
Lee felt hot tears run down his face as his friends died.
'Well, not Humanity's absolute last chance. I'm still here, and if I have anything to say about it, they're all gonna burn!'
Then, finally, the Time Rift Device was ready, and Lee was ripped from his current existence and thrown into the past.
Eyes blinked open, and the 12-year-old Lee awoke for the first time in the past.
"Oh man, I'm glad you're okay, we thought you might be dead or something!"
Lee's head snapped up, and he regretted it almost immediately, as a razor sharp pain shot through his skull.
"I told you Simon, he'd be fine. Doesn't matter whether or not you accidentally dug into his tunnel and hit him in the head with a drill anyways, cuz I could tell he could take it, just by the look of him. He's a fighter just like you and me!"
"B-but Bro, I'm not really a fighter, I mean,..."
Lee wasn't paying attention to what he said, as his eyes were locked onto the figures in front of him.
One was a much shorter version of Simon. If he'd been sent back to the exact right time, then right now, Simon was 11, and Kam-
That was when it hit Lee who the other one was, the man standing next to Simon.
It was the man who had a city named after him, the co-pilot of Gurren Lagann, the statue in the middle of the biggest human civilization on earth personified, Kamina.
"So, buddy, you got a name?"
Lee jumped slightly, then replied, saying his first words in the past,"Lee. My name's Lee. You are?"
"I'll tell you who I am. I am the great Kamina, and this is my Bro Simon! We gotta go do something, and to make up for hitting you, you can help us if you want."
"What are you doing?" Lee asked, finally sitting up on the cot they had him placed upon.
Kamina looked around to make sure no-one else was paying attention, then leaned in close to Lee and whispered, "We're digging to the surface. You in, or out?"
Kamina proffered his hand, waiting to see if Lee would take it.
"Let's do this." Lee said, grabbing his hand, and allowing himself to be pulled up off the cot.
"Haha, that's what I'm talkin' about. Ya know, man, you can just call me and Simon 'Bro', k?"
"Alright then, Bro, let's go. Got some digging to do, don't we?"
Yeah, maybe he'd gone from fifteen to twelve years old ( A side-effect of the time travel), and maybe he was stuck underground in Giha village, but he had his gauntlet, his plans, and about three years till the whole thing really began, and running around causing trouble with Kamina and Simon was pretty fun.
And he'd be ready for when he finally started fighting. He'd have to be. And, no matter how long he spent away from his old life, the image of his friends all dying, getting taken out, one by one, was etched into his memories. He would make them pay. They all would.
But he had to start somewhere, and he needed to start by being ready.
So he would.
Yes, I know this isn't TTS chapter 6, and I'm sorry about that, but this plot bunny got stuck in my head after binge watching Gurren Lagann on Netflix, and I figured that I should have something to work on besides TTS, so... yeah. This is more of an intro chapter, so that's why it's so short, but the story'll pick up soon. And if it has a feeling like you're just getting thrown into the middle of it, then don't worry, I tried to do that to give you an idea of what Lee kinda feels like. Anyways, if you have any questions, feel free to PM me, and Read n' Review please, even though you probably already handled the reading part.
Sincerely, Sea Scorpion