A/N: Content warnings will be posted where I think it necessary at the start of particular chapters. However, across all chapters, there will be some violence and people dealing with the resulting mental issues, so I probably won't flag those. If you read the summary and didn't realise that these things might happen, then more fool you I suppose. I don't think it's anything too bad, but you have been warned...
Arc 1: Live to Die, Die to Live - Arc Start
Chapter 1
Maki Nishikino leaned down to place a bouquet of flowers in front of a modest grave.
"Hey there. Sorry it's been a while, I've been really busy with the internship. They don't give me a break, even though Papa's their boss… I think he must have told all the other staff to make sure I did my share." She smiled and laughed a little. "But it's useful. I can't wait until I'm qualified… only another year and I'll finally be 'Nishikino-sensei'. It's all right though, I'll always be Maki-chan for you."
Maki looked at her feet, sighing deeply. "Sorry… I just wish I could hear your voice again. I mean, I have all your music that I can listen to, but… you know what I mean. I guess I still miss you Nico..."
Maki frowned, then pulled her face into a smile. "Oh well, nothing to be done. So just watch over me Nico-chan! I'll become the best doctor ever, okay? The world's number one doctor… or something like that."
She sighed again, "I guess I had better get going. I'll try to come visit again soon. See you soon Nico-chan."
Maki turned and left the graveyard. As she did so, she took a music played out of her pocket and put the earphones in, swiftly selecting the playlist she wanted.
"Nico-Nico-Nii!"
Maki considered herself a calm and reasonable person. She was generally prepared for most things in life. However, she had to admit that when, during her late-night shift at the hospital, just before she cursed her tiredness for the fifty-third time, she was taken aback when two gunmen burst into the room she was in. They were in what looked like casual clothing, dressed not to stand out, though the assault rifles they were carrying made them do so.
Maki stared down the barrels of two guns, the papers she had been holding having fallen to the floor where she had dropped them in her surprise.
One of the men spoke, "Nishikino-san, you are coming with us."
Maki trembled, struggling to say something, to do anything. She had no idea what to do. Her mind strangely started to wander. It occurred to her that she had not heard a disturbance. Maybe these guys had sneaked in without attracting the attention of security. If so, they must be very good, and Maki must be very screwed.
When Maki did not do anything, the man who had spoken approached, lowering his gun and reaching to grab Maki. Maki instinctively stepped back, her fear taking over. The man glowered at her, reaching out to grab her.
Phut, Phut
Whispers of silenced gunshots sounded and Maki stiffened as she watched both the gunmen collapse, each with a bullet wound. Vaguely, Maki's training made her realise the wounds would probably not be fatal if treated soon, before it occurred to her that somebody had fired the shots. Looking around, she stared at the doorway, where a figure was lowering a gun.
The figure was very short and dressed in black clothing, which looked like it was padded and had several pouches. A rifle hung from from a strap over their should, which they held in one hand, while a pistol was in a holster on their belt. A helmet with a dark visor obscured their face.
"Nishikino-san," the figure spoke, a voice modulator corrupting their voice, "please come with me, I will escort you to safety."
"Who the hell are you?" Maki backed away again, her back hitting the wall. "What's going on?"
"You're in danger, I am here to get you out of it."
"How can I trust you? You're just another person with a gun!"
The sound of static screeched and another voice spoke quietly from the helmet, presumably not intended for those other than the wearer to hear, "Fairy, what's the hold-up?"
"She won't come with. I told you it'd be like this Swan."
"Just get her to come with, we don't have much time, there are more guys on the way."
The figure shook their head then gripped her helmet. "You don't trust me, right Nishikino?"
"Why should I?"
The figure nodded, "Of course you wouldn't, you barely trust anyone Maki-chan."
"Fairy! What are you doing?"
"Making her trust me." The voice modulator was not applied as the figure lifted the helmet off, revealing a girl's face, with mid-length black hair and red eyes which Maki knew well.
"N-Nico?" Maki stared at the girl. "But you're dead..."
Nico grinned and spoke in a voice Maki had only heard in recordings for the last three years, "If I weren't, I wouldn't be here. Now I'm only gonna say this once Maki." Nico held out a gloved hand. "Come with me if you want to live."
Maki stepped forward and took the hand.
"What?"
"They finally found her body… it seems she was caught up in the explosion..."
"No… that can't..."
…
"I hear her body was in a terrible state. They had to use her dental records to identify her."
…
"Thank you all for coming here to remember my daughter Nico..."
…
"I wanted to tell her the truth, and then…"
…
"Nico!"
Nico looked out of the room, her helmet back on. She looked both ways down the corridor, before signalling for Maki to come out with her. The two hurried down the corridor. They were in the back of the building, in the staff areas, away from the wards, and were on the first floor. They were aiming for the stairs to get to the ground floor, then to find a way out from there.
As they reached a corner, Nico stopped up against the corner and looked around the corner with a small mirror attached to her rifle. She raised a hand to tell Maki to stay still. Maki stood behind the shorter woman, waiting with baited breath.
Nico turned the corner suddenly and squeezed the trigger on her rifle. Three shots burst from the gun, and a cry of pain sounded from down the corridor.
"Thirteen! What's wrong?" a voice called from a room nearby and Nico cursed quietly through the voice filter as several sets of footsteps moved towards them.
"Cover your ears and close your eyes Maki."
Maki did as bade. Even through her closed eyelids and hands over her ears, she saw and heard a flashbang go off. A moment later she opened her eyes as Nico grabbed her arm and dragged her down the corridor the way they had come.
"There are stairs this way too. That should have slowed them down but I can't take them all."
Footsteps sounded behind them, still some way behind as they turned another corner, but the women were both aware the footsteps were gaining on them.
Nico hit something on the side of her helmet. "Archer! You got visual?"
"Aiming now Fairy. You've got five on your tail." The sound of glass breaking and a cry of pain came from behind the pair. "Make that four… no, three..." More glass shattered, and another voice screamed.
"You have a sniper?!" Maki exclaimed as they turned another corner.
"Yup, she's pretty damn good."
Glass shattered behind them again and Nico stopped a few yards from the corner. Maki turned to her, "What are y…?"
Nico raised a finger to her helmet, signalling for silence. The sound of footsteps kept coming down the hall. Nico raised her gun, and Maki swore she could see a grin behind the black visor.
Two men rounded the corner and were immediately met by a round of bullets, followed by a second burst. They both stumbled forwards, collapsing onto the floor. One of them was still grasping for his gun. Nico stepped forward, lifting her gun so the strap came off her shoulder and over her head. She then slammed the butt of the rifle into the back of the man's head and he slumped down unconscious. Nico then calmly put the strap back on and turned to Maki. "Let's keep moving."
The two hurried along, heading for a different set of stairs. As they ran, Maki noticed the absence of other staff. "Where is everyone else?"
"Everyone else had things to do in the wards right now, by complete coincidence, allegedly."
"Meaning?"
"Someone probably hacked your IT system, and either found a time when you'd be by yourself, or made one." Nico glanced to her side just after she finished speaking, looking out the window, before hurling herself into Maki, forcing her to the ground as the windows by them shattered, a bullet embedding itself in the wall behind them. "Keep low, keep moving."
Maki nodded, carefully avoiding the shards of glass as much as she could, and half-ran half-crawled towards the stairs, Nico by her side.
Nico's helmet blared a message suddenly. "Fairy, I've taken out the sniper on the South side."
"Rodger that Mochi." Nico looked at Maki, "You okay?"
"Yeah, just great," Maki panted, receiving a blast of static as Nico snorted.
"Still as sarcastic as ever then?"
"Still as annoying as ever then?"
Another chuckled came from Nico's helmet. "Anyway, we're nearly to the stairwell. Think you can manage one last dash?" Maki nodded, and Nico returned the gesture. "Okay, here we go!"
The pair stood and ran towards the stairs. Maki could feel her legs in agony, but tried to put it out of her mind. She had to keep going, had to keep moving, had to get away with Nico…
Her Nico-chan…
The women were in sight of the stairs when the enemy made their appearance, two gunners appearing from the lower floor. Nico shoved Maki, pushing her to the ground and out of harm's way, before both sides opened fire. Nico gritted her teeth as a bullet found lodging in her side, but her opponents faired less well without the benefits of body-armour.
"Nico, you're hurt..."
"It's fine..." Even through the voice filter, Maki could hear the pain in Nico's voice.
More footsteps sounded from the stairwell, coming up the stairs. Nico hurried over, detaching a grenade from her belt and rolling it down the stairs.
An explosion sounded, along with several screams of pain. Maki hurried over to Nico's side, her eyes first drawn to Nico's wound, then to the ruined stairs. The steps down were unusable, unless one was willing to jump down a floor. Even then, the sounds of movement from below discouraged the pair from trying.
"We need to go to the roof." Nico said, moving to the stairs up.
Maki followed, confused, "But we'll be trapped."
"Not exactly… Swan, we're going to need aerial extraction, we're heading to the roof."
"Understood, Fortuna, you heard the girl."
"On it."
"We'll be in position in three minutes Fairy."
Maki could feel it now, the grin concealed behind Nico's visor. In spite of the pain she was in, and the risk their lives were in, Nico was having the time of her life. Then again, as Maki recalled, she always was. And as the pair ran and adrenaline coursed, Maki could not help but grin too.
They ran up three flights of stairs, until they reached the door onto the roof. Behind them, they heard a series of footsteps, close on their heels. Too close to risk a grenade again, in case they had learned their lesson and threw it back.
The pair burst onto the roof. Nico scanned the area, looking for something, but not finding it. A half-dozen gunners rushed up behind them, Maki and Nico now stood at the edge of the roof, staring across at six guns, aimed at them.
"Give it up!" one of them shouted.
Maki swallowed hard, her prior adrenaline-high giving way to fear. A sudden gust of wind chilled her. Then she realised that Nico was still grinning.
"Maki, do you trust me?"
Maki stared at Nico. "I… always have, and always will." Maki gently took Nico's hand. Nico gripped tightly back.
"Thanks, Maki-chan." Nico allowed her rifle to fall on its strap in front of her, as though in surrender. What only Maki could see was her free hand going to her pistol.
"Right, that's the correct attitude, now hand..." the man who spoke had no chance to finish as Nico whipped around, firing her pistol.
There was a large chain-link fence around the roof, supported by a number of metal posts, bolting the links in place. It was at one of these that Nico fired – four shots, removing the bolts attaching one side of one fence piece, freeing it to move. Move it did, as Nico ran at it, pulling Maki along.
"JUMP!"
When Nico shouted, Maki did as told, both of them jumping, Nico first, into the damaged fence. The metal scraped Maki slightly, but she ignored that, as she realised that Nico's plan had worked. They had jumped through the fence…
More notably, they were now in free-fall.
As they had jumped, Nico had twisted her body, so she ended up with an arm around Maki, still holding her hand. The other arm reached out and suddenly grabbed something. Maki stared at strange patterns where Nico seemed to be holding air – then it seemed like the outline and gleam of something metal flashed into existence where she held it.
Two sets of arms appeared, reaching out of nothing to pull Nico and Maki up, and suddenly, they were inside a metal cabin. At the same time, Maki could now hear the hum of engines and the dampened whir of helicopter blades. The arms which had dragged them in belonged to two other people in the same outfit as Nico, both wearing helmets.
"What the?"
"Stealth craft, hard to see..." Nico pulled off her helmet as the helicopter door closed behind them "...unless you know what to look for."
Nico turned to one of their saviours, "By the way, are you going to leave those guys there Swan?"
"Of course not..." The sound of an explosion rang out nearby. "Fortuna has it under control."
"Good good..." Nico turned to Maki. "So, Maki-chan, I know this is our grand reunion, but… would you mind patching me up?"
Maki smiled a small smile, "Can someone get me a first-aid kit?"
A/N: So, a thing this is. Review you should. Encourage the writer it does.
But yeah, as NicoMaki seems to be drying up, thought I'd throw something else into the metaphorical ring, hopefully stimulate something (as if I'm popular enough to...)
Anyway, that's all for now...
'Til Eternity Ends
E.D.
Edit 12/03/18: Some minor corrections made, including correcting one instance of the code name 'Fortuna' incorrectly being written as 'Fortune'. The correct code name is 'Fortuna'.