Disclaimer: I own none of the characters from Gurren Lagann, they all belong to Gainax. This fic has spoilers for the end to Gurren Lagann, so if you have not finished the series DON'T READ THIS.
After the end: Secrets
The wedding was so beautiful, then it went so very, very wrong. Yoko had been the first to see the eerie pixelation effect wash over Nai, all of them gazing on in horror as the girl they had all fought for simply disappeared just as she was married to Simon.
Her heart practically broke at those words, both of them looking at each other so lovingly. Simon explained, gently, why he couldn't use spiral power to restore the dead, then he bid them farewell, declaring himself simply 'Simon the digger.' As he walked away Yoko tossed him the wedding ring and he caught it with a hand over his shoulder, looking nearly as cool as Kamina had.
A few weeks later in a bar in the city, Yoko finished off a drink, the redhead frowning slightly. "I don't like how calm he was," she admitted. She was dressed in her usual fighting gear, a bikini top and shorts, though today she didn't have a gun belt slung over the shorts.
Kinon Bachika nodded seriously, the black haired woman sitting with her taking a break from assisting Rossiu in running the city. "You think he's in shock?" she offered, the young woman dressed in a more conservative blouse and dress.
"Could be," Leite Jokin nodded, puffing on a cigarette as the older woman sat with them at the table, her bloyse and pants covered by a overcoat. They had picked a slightly seedier joint than usual and they were drawing the attention of some pretty disreputable guys. All three ignored them, of course, confident they could handle anything that came up.
"He better not do anything stupid," Yoko scowled as she took a drink.
Leite shook her head, "He's not the type."
Kinon, however, looked rather alarmed as she asked, "You don't think that he...?"
"Damn it, someone should have gone with him!" Yoko growled, thumping her glass down on the scarred table.
"Rossiu pointedly said no," Kinon revealed to them quietly, "he said we should respect Simon's right to privacy."
"If Simon respected Rossiu's right to privacy he'd have a hole in his head," Leite noted flatly. Kinon looked at her in alarm and she shrugged, "No, Simon didn't tell me. I hacked it off Gurren Lagann's memory banks."
"Damn," Yoko blinked in surprise. She had realized Rossiu had a hard time taking over when the people had temporarily turned of Simon, but she hadn't thought he'd...
"Don't tell anyone, please," Kinon sighed.
"We won't," Leite promised as she finished off her own drink. She looked at Yoko, "Do you seriously think Simon might...?"
"Hell if I know," Yoko admitted, "but Kamina would never forgive me if I let anything happen to his little brother."
"Hmm," both Leite and Kinon nodded glum agreement.
"Hey," one of the drunk men finally got the nerve up to stagger over, "you ladies look kinda lonesome. Wanna join me and my friends?"
"No," Leite told him flatly.
"Buzz off," Yoko agreed, considering ordering another beer.
"Hey, you can't talk ta me like that!" the hulking bruiser complained, thumping a hand down on Kinon's shoulder.
"Eee!" Kinon squeaked.
"GET YOUR HANDS OFF HER!" Yoko roared as she practically dived over the table at him. She balled up her fist and punched him right in the nose, sending him reeling backwards in a gush of blood with a broken nose.
"Oh crap," Leite moved to back her up as his buddies lumbered over to get into the brawl.
"You little...," the bearishly sized guy swung at Yoko, who ducked below the swing then punched him in the overhanging gut.
Kinon grabbed a chair as two tried to gang up on Leite and broke it over one guy's bald head as she shouted, "No double teaming!"
Agilely Leite dodged a punch then kicked the bruiser in the junk, the man whimpering in shock. While he was stunned she thumped his chin with a palm strike, knocking him silly. She walked over and calmly kicked him in the side of the head, making sure he stayed out.
"Too bad the others aren't here," Yoko grinned as she bobbed and weaved, looking for a opening in one guy's guard.
"I think we'll manage," Kinon said as she ducked, grabbing at the man's arm. With a twist of her hips she threw him, sending him crashing into a fully occupied table and sending plates of food flying around everywhere. "Oops," she paled as the men and women growled and advanced on them.
"Come on then," Leite yelled as she finished off the guy with the bleeding nose, dropping him with a chop to the throat.
"Yeah," Yoko picked up their empty table, glasses falling to the ground as she roared, "WHO DO YOU THINK WE ARE?"
After that most of the bar's patrons got involved, and things got a bit... hectic. By the end of the night they racked up a new record in broken glass and broken heads, and the police had to be called to try to quiet things down.
"Well, this is certainly unexpected," Rossiu noted as the black haired man appeared to bail them out in the morning. The Supreme Commander looked rather amused, honestly, especially by how much his girlfriend was blushing.
"I'm really sorry about this," Kinon sighed, blushing furiously.
"Thanks," Yoko smiled at him wryly as she dusted herself off, glad to be out of jail. Thankfully it was nicer than the prison they stuck Simon in, back in the day...
"Don't blame Kinon too much," Leite noted, "they started it."
Rossiu looked at Kinon and smiled slightly, "Well, I'm glad you're all right."
The two women moved off, leaving the romantic couple alone. "Have you decided what you're going to do?" Leite asked curiously as the morning sun bathed the city in violet and red.
"Check up on Simon," Yoko admitted, "I think someone needs to."
"Rossiu won't be happy," Leite cautioned her quietly.
Yoko shrugged, "Rossiu can go kiss my ass." She paused and smirked, "Assuming Kinon didn't kill him for even trying it."
Both women broke into giggles at that mental image...
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
As Yoko used her mini gunmen to fly over the countryside, she was very happy she had talked to Leite before taking off. The engineer had pointed out how hard to find Simon was going to be, and provided her with a modified Spiral Energy tracker. Simon generated as much energy as a gunmen, and it gave her the means to track him... after all the false trails anyway.
Setting down at the edge of town Yoko hefted her backpack and walked around, looking for the young man while trying to get a feel for the place. Rather strangely she noticed she was getting a lot more odd looks from people, but she brushed it off. Passing through a courtyard she noticed a familiar figure and hit around a corner, watching cautiously.
Simon actually looked pretty happy as he walked close by to someone, though who was hidden by the press of people. Silently Yoko wished that some of the crowd would move, but all she could see was a bit of odd looking red hair.
'Damn it, move!' Yoko mentally growled, trying to get a good look at whomever it was.
Finally someone shifted, then Yoko blinked in astonishment. The woman had badly dyed hair, a bikini and short shorts, all like hers. But the face was what froze her, considering it was someone she had seen disappear some weeks earlier. Without thinking about it Yoko pushed through the crowd to their side, smiling grimly as they noticed her.
"Uh oh," Simon blinked.
"Fancy seeing you here," Yoko nodded to him and Nia. "Nice outfit," she added.
Nia laughed a bit sheepishly, "I thought if anyone saw me with Simon they'd think I was you..."
"Not unless you get a few feet taller," Yoko said wryly. Looking over at Simon she asked him, "Care to explain?"
They ended up in a quiet cafe, all of them eating snacks and drinking hot drinks as they talked. "Shortly after we defeated the anti-spirals, Nia started getting threats," Simon explained flatly.
"Why didn't I hear about this?" Yoko growled.
"I didn't want them to alarm everyone," Nia offered gently.
"Rossiu and I weren't sure how serious they were, too," Simon added. His expression went grim, "That changed when they tried to bomb her."
"Son of a bitch!" Yoko blurted. "Who are they? If I get my hands on..."
"We don't know," Simon sighed. He looked her in the eye, "Nia was the Anti-Spiral messenger, Yoko. There are still a lot of people who blame her for the whole attack on Earth."
"I can't really blame them, either," Nia added, smiling wryly. "I really looked like the evil villain queen at that point..."
"Anyway," Simon said briskly, "we didn't know who was after us, when they might attack or how many innocents might get chopped in the crossfire." He shrugged, "So we decided to give them what they wanted, sort of."
"You faked her death," Yoko realized, "using Spiral Power?" She frowned thoughtfully as she remembered the wedding, "Rossiu is in on it?"
"Him and Ron," Simon agreed, "we needed them to back up the story."
"I'm sorry you and the others went through that," Nia said gently, "we had to have everyone react realistically, or they wouldn't believe it."
Yoko patted her hand, "It's all right." She glared at Simon, "I'm beating you, Rossiu and Ron to a pulp, though. You should have asked for help, idiot!"
"Sorry," Simon smiled sheepishly.
"Well, at least things turned out for the best," Yoko conceded, watching as Nia cuddled up against Simon's side. Privately she thought that the other reason they followed this plan was so that Simon could retire. He really wasn't suited to being Supreme Commander, no matter how much people wanted him to be.
"So, what will you do now?" Nia asked.
"I won't tell," Yoko admitted, "you two deserve a retirement, and I dunno if the rest of the crew could keep their mouths shut."
"Thank you," Simon smiled.
"But stay in touch this time," Yoko told him. She looked at Nia, still dressed as mini-Yoko, and added, "And find another disguise, okay? The outfit really doesn't suit you."
"Aww," Nia pouted.
End.
Notes: I really, really liked Gurren Lagann, but I absolutely HATED the ending. What the hell, Gainax, can you not let your heroes ever get a happy ending? So after thinking about it I decided to write a 'fix-fic' to the series, and give Simon and Nia a happy ending.