Disclaimer: I do not own Eureka Seven, if only…

The Sum of Our Parts

Note: This is kind of a test chapter. If people are interested, I will continue the story, so please review.

Ch.1: Domino Effect

--

If you come here, I'll be waiting…

Always here, always waiting…

For you…

Things went wrong from the start. The charges didn't blow, the security systems were fully operational, and the informant was nowhere to be found.

"Fuck" shouted Holland.

He fired blindly down the hall before retreating around a corner. Eight, heavily armed guards were quickly advancing on them, a deadly obstacle between his team and their objective.

"Renton, how many grenades are left?"

"None" Renton replied.

At seventeen, Renton looked almost the same as he had when he had first come aboard the Gekko three long years ago. He was taller, and had a bit more muscle than he used to, but otherwise looked exactly the same. There was, however, a much darker air around him than before, something that had come about only recently. To Holland, the reason was clear: They had stolen the most important thing in Renton's world, and he would not be at peace until he had her back. Standing there dressed in black, sub-machine gun slung over his shoulder, he looked nothing like the boy who had once sworn never to kill.

"We're running low on ammo too, what the hell happened?" He screamed.

"Our plan went to shit" replied a voice from behind them.

Moving very calmly given the situation, Dominic's voice had all the urgency of a bored telemarketer. Just like Renton, Dominic had changed little over the years. His hair was a bit shorter and he had deep lines under his eyes, but was essentially the same man he had always been. He too was dressed all in black, carrying with him a high caliber assault rifle.

"The charges were supposed to take out the main generators and, knocking out the power. Didn't happen. Our man on the inside was then supposed to disable the security systems and keep the guards occupied while we charged the labs, grabbed, Eureka and made our escape" Dominic said in an exhausted tone.

"That's a lovely summary, but it doesn't help mu-"

"SHIT"

Holland was interrupted as Dominic began firing directly over the older man's head. As the gunfire ceased, Renton began surveying the scene. He was directly behind Holland and had barely avoided taking a bullet in the back of the head. At the open mouth of the hallway, to guards lay dead, blood pooling around their corpses. He turned to praise Dominic and could have sworn he was having Déjà vu. There, in his own neat pool, lay his friend. He had taken two bullets in the chest and one in the stomach, what little life he had left was draining quickly onto the floor.

Before Renton could even register what he was seeing, footsteps thundered down the hallway.

I'm going to die? In here of all places? I'm so close and now I'm going to die without even seeing her…

The sound of something metallic hitting the concrete floor echoed out of the hallway ahead. There was a loud bang and a blinding flash, followed by two gunshots.

"What's going on?" Yelled an anxious guard.

He was answered by four gunshots in perfect succession, they could have been the beat to a song. Calm, measured footsteps were the only sound to be heard. As the man rounded the corner, it was all Holland and Renton could do to stare up at him in confusion. The man raised an eyebrow.

"Gekkostate?"

--

Renton was the first to come out of shock.

"Dominic!" he exclaimed as he rushed to his friend's side.

The newcomer turned to Holland.

"I'm assuming you're Holland Novak, pleased to meet you, I'm Byron Sims." He extended his hand.

Holland, still in shock, stared at the hand blankly. Sims frowned, clearly annoyed with the bovine expression on the other man's face.

"What are you stupid? Shake my hand."

The insult, and the subsequent rage he felt, were enough to bring Holland back to reality. He slapped the Sims's hand away and grabbed him by the collar, giving him his first good look at the man. Just over six feet tall, Sims was roughly equal to Holland in height, but skinnier. He had short brown hair, and calm, dark blue eyes, though Holland could have sworn they were much brighter a second before. What shocked Holland the most however was his apparent age; he didn't look a day over seventeen. Yet, as proven by the smoking gun in his hand, he had just taken out six heavily armed guards with relative ease and had somehow managed to infiltrate one of the most secretive organizations in the world. Holland's amazement was short lived however, as the thought of Dominic began to fill him with rage once more.

"Where the hell have you been? You didn't do your job, and now one of our team is dead!" He screamed and pointed to Dominic's body.

Sims frowned again, an expression which showed less remorse and more frustration than anything else. He grabbed Holland's wrist with surprising strength, forcing the older male to release his grip, and casually strode over to Dominic's side.

"Don't touch him" Renton barked before being forcefully shoved aside.

Before he could be interrupted again, Sims holstered his firearm, took a syringe from his pocket, and jammed it into Dominic's neck.

"That should do it."

"What did you do?" Renton asked

Sims gave him one of his increasingly famous frowns, and sighed. He was going to have to explain himself to this little punk.

"Look kid, don't sound so angry. That shot I gave him, think of it as a sort of… artificial blood. It'll keep his brain alive long enough for us to… 'fix' him. You'll have to leave him here for a couple of days though." Sims explained.

Renton was pissed.

Talkin down to me like that. What the hell is this guy's problem?

"Don't sound angry? If you had been here on time, he wouldn't even be like that. A couple of days? And how do we get him back from here? I mean, today has gone so well, maybe next time there'll be a buffet waiting for us. Do you even care that he has a wife and son that need him. You don't do you? People like you make me sick. And where to you get off callin me kid?" Tears of anger streamed down his face.

Renton was about to continue when he noticed the change in Sims's eyes. They had grown steadily darker over the course of Renton's outburst and were now staring at him in a way that made Renton seriously regret what he had just said.

"A couple of days" Sims replied in a dry tone. "I'll bring him to you."

He turned to Dominic's mostly dead body and hoisted it over his shoulder. He poked his head around the corner to make sure no new obstacles had presented themselves before beckoning the two remaining team members to follow him.

"Where are we going?" Renton demanded. He eyed Holland who had remained oddly quiet for the last couple minutes. Holland returned the glance with an annoyed look. You forgot already? He thought.

Sims turned and gave Renton a smile that seemed so out of place and yet so fitting at the same time.

"Weren't you here for the girl?"

--

As the elevator descended, Holland couldn't help but worry. Sims did not strike him as the most trustworthy person in the world. He glanced at Renton, who looked about ready to explode with anticipation. Can't wait to see Eureka. I guess I can understand that, but still, it's like he couldn't care less about Dominic.

"Worried about your friend?"

Holland turned and gave Sims a hard stare. Several minutes before, they had left Dominic's semi-dead body with one of the many research teams in the facility. At first Holland had been worried that they would be recognized, or at least questioned for carrying around a corpse. As it happened, they were not questioned; they didn't even get so much as a second glance. When asked about this, Sims simply replied that it was "common practice" for "research specimens" to be "relocated" throughout the facility. There was definitely something troubling about him, but Holland couldn't determine just what it was. He couldn't say for sure why nobody recognized them, but he could guess. Most of the people here looked as though they hadn't seen the outside world in years.

"He'll be fine. I'll contact you in a couple days, we'll meet up, and you can take him back to his loving family" Sims said, with a slight air of sarcasm at the end.

Holland assumed he was trying to get at Renton, but the boy still seemed off in his own world. Boy? No, he's more of a man now. Holland shook his head. He didn't have time for sentimental thoughts right now, he still had questions.

"Won't they be expecting us now that we've caused such a ruckus?" He asked.

"No one knows you're down here, or that there are eight corpses stuffed into a closet in one of the maintenance hallways. The security and surveillance systems are down after all." Replied Sims.

Apparently Renton noticed the matter-of-fact tone in that last comment. He pivoted rather violently and began screaming at Sims.

"If that's true, how come they knew we were coming? How come Dominic is… is…"

Sims replied simply "Somebody must have seen you."

Renton didn't have the energy to argue anymore.

Sims continued "If the security systems had been active, the cameras would have picked up three heavily armed men, dressed in black, attempting to infiltrate one of our most guarded areas. You would have encountered, if you'll pardon the language, a shit load more guards, most likely far better equipped as well as our experimental laser turrets."

Sims turned to Holland who looked somewhat anxious without his rifle.

"Which is why I made you leave your weapons behind. Ah, we're here."

Renton hade been expecting a labyrinth of hallways and various rooms, each with some sort of twisted experiment lying in wait. Instead, there was one short hallway leading to an automatic door. He looked at Sims questioningly. Sims nodded and Renton sprinted down the hall towards the door.

"Renton wait" Holland shouted.

"It's ok, there's no traps down here, no monster waiting behind the ominous door at the end of the hall" said Sims.

Holland eyed him suspiciously.

"How come they just let us come down here with you even though we're not employees? And what about all the blood we left in that hallway?"

Sims smiled, this one darker and a bit more twisted than his previous expressions.

"Common Practice" he replied.

Holland didn't understand, but Sims was already following Renton and the older man assumed he wouldn't be answering anymore questions. Besides, after that smile, Holland didn't want to understand.

--

Renton burst into the room, eyes searching frantically for his beloved. He didn't have to look far. There was only a single, circular, extremely bright white room with a small bed in the center. On the bed lay Eureka. Unlike Renton and Dominic, she had changed much in two years. Her teal hair had grown well past her shoulders and was approaching the small of her back. She hadn't grown much taller and her figure was still pretty much the same, she looked older, more mature. Then there were of course, the wings. Bright green, with intricate designs flowing within them, they were beautiful. Renton ran to her side and stared down at her, almost unable to believe that he had found her. It's only been two weeks, but it feels like so much more than that. Two weeks is too long to live without your heart, he thought.

As Renton leaned down and kissed her forehead, her eyes fluttered open.

"Renton?" She asked as she looked at his face.

Renton couldn't speak, he just nodded.

"Ah… what a horrible cliché" commented Sims as he and Holland entered the room.

Renton ignored him as Eureka continued to speak.

"I'm so happy, but… I don't know why… who are you?"

Renton frowned in confusion.

"It's me Eureka, Renton. You just said my name, don't you recognize me?" Renton said with increasing worry in his voice.

"I do, but… who are you Renton?"

Before Renton could respond, the power went out. Flashing red emergency lights replaced the blinding white fluorescents and an alarm began to shriek. From the corner, Sims sighed.

"Fucking janitors"

End Ch.1

First chapter, first story, how did you like it? Please review.