AFA Part 2

"Falling from Grace"

Ch. 3 – Love Me When I'm Gone


Holding her throbbing hand, Priss shuffled away from the tent. She was so distracted by what had just happened with Linna that it took Leon three yells to finally get her attention.

"Priss! Wait!"

The singer growled to herself as she stopped. She didn't feel like dealing with anyone else, much less Leon right about now. "Weren't you supposed to be guarding Mackey?" she snarled without bothering to turn around.

"I thought I heard some screaming over here. What happened?" he said, walking over from the direction of the mobile pit.

"Nothing that concerns you."

"Damnit! If it involves Linna it sure the Hell does!"

The Blue Saber now turned towards the man and shot out a disapproving glare from her fiery eyes. "… so that's what this is really about… Look! Get your damn schoolboy jealousy away from me right now! I've got more important things to deal with," she darkly retorted.

Her tone more than anything else forced Leon to back away. "Priss… I didn't mean…"

"Just SHUT UP Leon! Look, in case you forgot, Galatea almost killed all of us back there. It's time to stop screwing around and go get that little bitch!" Priss spun on one foot and strode away from the ADP officer.

"Priss! Wait up! Where are you going?"

She stopped for a moment and snapped her head around with one last word. "I'm finding Sylia and Nene. We're gonna end this now… one way of the other!"


The thin strip of concrete ran out from her feet leading towards the path she must now face… a path that seemed so bleak and hopeless… a stark contrast from her dreams just a short time ago. Nene looked out at the menacing tower looming in the distance, desperately trying to steel her mind. I've got to do this… we've got to win. Together we can beat her. But even as she tried to convince herself, her own consciousness questioned her bravery, reminding herself that there were only three of them fighting now. Linna wasn't coming this time, still suffering from the effects of Galatea's attack and her own self-destructive alcoholic binge. That wasn't the point troubling the young girl the most though. The being she cared for more than anyone else lay unconscious, felled by Galatea's influence as well as Sylia's blunt attack just a few short hours ago.

Nene wasn't upset with her leader though. She realized that it could have easily been herself and not Nigel whom the young boomer had attacked. But it wasn't him. It was her… Galatea, right? In her heart she wanted desperately to believe, but there was so much she still didn't know about him…

"Let's get this over with," Priss announced beside her, agitation spilling through her words.

"Right," Sylia added, standing tall in her hardsuit between them, grim determination burning in her eyes. Just before she closed her visor, the Knight Saber's leader let out one final phrase of personal motivation… "For Nigel."

"For Mackey," Nene chimed in.

The young Saber thought she heard Priss whisper something just before she rocketed off onto the bridge and straight for the tower. As Nene followed Sylia down the wide bridge, she wasn't sure if it was "Leon" whose name she had uttered… or if it might have been "Linna"…


Galatea stood firm in her circle of power. Calculations scorched through her mind, determining exactly the precise features required to perform her next god-like feat. A small part of her consciousness grew aware of the impending disturbance approaching her castle. However, she wasn't going to let the Knight Sabers distract her from the plans she now had in motion. Galatea was sure the tower would stand tall against their assault. It would stand for as long as necessary… and then her throne would rise… rise with her into the heavens to rule over this infested planet. The humans would pay for their insolence and their stubborn resistance. Then the boomers would lay claim as the next inhabitants of the planet once and for all…
Mackey's eyes snapped open from the nightmare he was enduring… only to find it wasn't just a dream at all. He lifted the remains of his arm up… and found his worst fears come to life.

"… my… arm… what… what did I do?" he weakly croaked out. But even as that question came to his mind, another image from his lingering nightmares came back into focus. "… nene… she … she's in trouble…" Too weak to physically move, he readied himself to aid in the only way he still could.

Maybe he could somehow manage to undo some of the horrible things his boomer body had done after all… before his body further betrayed his friends… and the young human whom he loved…


"Humans… Pitiful humans. Why do they struggle so?"

Galatea watched from within the tower as the Blue and White Knights fought against the microbarrier she had put into place around the tower. The Red one joined in the fray and promptly was caught as well. All three of the remaining Knight Sabers were now trapped in the ultra flexible net, their hardsuits powerless against its speed and efficiency.

"Mackey's knowledge has proven quite useful in nullifying the abilities of their boomers. With them connected to the shielding now, perhaps it is time to reclaim what is mine."

Galatea focused on the three minds now joined with part of her sphere of influence, coaxing control of the boomers they wore back under her evil spell. Her lips thinned into a small grin as she recognized the brightly colored boomers answering her dark call…


Nene screamed under the jabs of a virtual knife plunging into the back of her head. Again and again it struck down, severing her link to the armor around her. The metal began to liquefy, her feet feeling the cool air beginning to flow against her skin. "No! The… the hardsuit… its… can't…"

"Fight it Nene!" Sylia yelled out words of encouragement even as she struggled with her own control. Her words fell silent as she was forced to turn her struggles inward and tried to press back… although her hardsuit was still trapped in the microboomer shield.

She will NOT beat me here… Where are you Galatea! If I have to stop you in my mind first, then that's what I'll do! Priss found herself floating in that place again, the same dreaded scene of her numerous nightmares. A green blade thrust out from the emptiness around her, but the Blue Knight was ready. She gripped the sides of the blade, cutting into her virtual fingers as she twisted the knife sideways. The sharp edge shattered from the force of Priss' counterattack.

Gotcha!

In its place hundreds of more blades reformulated themselves all around her. The Blue Saber swallowed hard at the overwhelming odds, but quickly gathered her wits. C'mon! Who's next! All the invaders answered her call, attacking as one…


Galatea raised her hand towards the top of the tower, calling down her cloud-like servants to answer her queries and to report on the status of preparations. They gathered around the dark, glowing goddess, almost acting as an extension of her very thoughts. "With Sylia's boomers no threat to me any longer, it is almost time. The gateway to the sky is now open and I shall ascend its staircase." The tower rumbled with the flow of dark energies surging through the corridors. "Now just a few more… Mackey…"

A soft voice distracted her plans for just a brief moment before rainbow colors erupted in her mind, blinding her thoughts to everything else around her…


All three Knight Sabers saw it at the same time. The flash… the light… then within their virtual planes Galatea's dark form enveloped by a bright shroud of colors. Priss didn't recognize it… Sylia thought she might have known what it was… but it was Nene who had no doubts. Her voice carried over through her thoughts and into the minds of the other two Sabers…

… Mackey… no…

"Nene! Hurry!" were the last recognizable words she heard from the young boomer.

A loud roar followed as reality was blasted back into focus, signaling their freedom from the virtual attack. Their reprieve was thanks in large part to a knucklebomb from Priss, who now understood the window of opportunity now presented to them. The molecular shield shattered setting the Knight Sabers free of their physical bonds. Priss continued on, blasting a hole through the outer shell of the tower. Sylia followed but Nene remained behind for a moment. She said a brief prayer to whatever God might look after a being such as Mackey. She pushed back the tears threatening to pour from her fractured heart as she focused on the task she could now complete… the task of stopping the evil demon now holding Mackey's soul hostage.


… too much… too… much… so much emotion… wonderful… passionate emotion… i… I understand now… love… desire… anger… companionship… I… I see now… The colors faded from around Galatea's body, it's bright energy sucked into her dark core. She breathed in the depths of her discovery, but exhaled deeply in regret. Even though… even if I now know these emotions of Mackey, and even those of the human Linna, I still… still cannot experience them. I cannot reach their height… not here… not in this body… not yet… not quite yet, but… An explosion rocked the walls of the sublevels beneath her.

So, a distraction? Well my dear brother, it was in vain. They still stand no chance of stopping me. And now, thanks to you, I hold the key to my ascension…


"Nene, what was that!" Priss asked, rubbing the side of her throbbing head while pulling herself out of the side of a wrecked wall.

"You just hit a battery substation you Gorilla! Watch it before you kill us all!"

"Alright ladies, stop the bickering! We're in," Sylia said, grabbing command once again.

Priss stormed in the still smoking hole screaming at the top of her lungs… "WHERE IS SHE!"… at least she was screaming until she began floating up into the cavernous space inside. "H… hey! What the…"

"Priss, what's wrong?" Sylia questioned before experiencing the same effects.

"It's a negative gravity field… because of those plasma coils," Nene quickly surmised.

"What are you up to?" Sylia asked to herself more than anyone. Priss answered for her anyway.

"I don't give a damn about her plans! The only thing that bitch needs to worry about is her funeral!"

"Priss! Stay focused! You can't let what she did get the better of you now!"

"Why! You probably want me to just sit back again while you take her on all by yourself, right?"

Sylia growled her displeasure but didn't get the chance to articulate her rebuttal.

"Something's coming!" the Red Saber yelled as she detected the mysterious cloud-like objects flying down from the top of the vast tower above them.


The rumbling echoes called Linna back from the darkness, her mind still spinning even as she brought herself up on her arms. "Unngh, my… head… hurts… wh… what happened…"

More sounds of explosions drew the human out of the tent, although she was only able to crawl on her hands and knees. Her head gingerly turned to look in the direction of another small explosion. Even in her current impaired state, Linna immediately recognized the significance of what she saw. "The… the tower… they… they're attacking her… they're attacking Galatea… without me… W… why?"

Another explosion ushered in more smoke pouring out of one side of the tall structure.

"They'll… need my help…" she quickly decided, her blackened memory failing to remind her of what she had done to herself just a few short hours ago… and the consequences of those ill-advised actions. Linna struggled back on her knees and somehow managed to stand upright.

"Unngh, my head," she complained again, stumbling through the beginnings of dawn towards the mobile pit… and towards her hardsuit…


"My God, I hope that was Galatea," Leon remarked wistfully, standing alongside an equally concerned Henderson.

"I do hope they are successful. They are all so brave, so full of life."

Leon turned his head to nod in agreement with the old man and then quickly turned his attention back to the smoke-obscured tower across the bay.

A metallic crashing sound caused Leon to jerk his head around to the park behind him. Through the thin line of trees between their observing spot and the mobile pit, he made out the stumbling shape of the Green Hardsuit. It emerged from a jagged opening off the side of the heavy-duty van, off balance as it lumbered towards him.

"What the… Linna! I thought she was out cold!"

"Apparently, all of this ruckus must have woken her up I'm afraid," Henderson guessed.

After a few shaky steps, the Green Saber launched herself into the sky, over their heads and towards the fight in the distance.

"Oh my… shouldn't we try and warn the others?" the old man asked.

Leon took one look back at the smoking remains of the mobile pit and shook his head. "I don't think that'll do any good. Besides, I think we need to worry about Nigel and Mackey first," he remarked, unsure of Nigel's health and completely unaware as to what the young boomer had already sacrificed…


"Over here you bastards! Come and get it!" Priss shouted with the severed portion of the huge plasma conduit fused to her hardsuit.

The cloud-like demons descended to their fate seemingly oblivious to the warrior's intentions.

"Now Nene!"

"Right!" the Red Saber answered from safely behind her.

The released plasma jet obliterated the inhuman pets of Galatea as it heated the surrounding air to flash point temperatures. In one fell swoop, they were all erased from existence.

Nene cut off the jet as soon as she verified the job was done. Priss ripped her armored arms from the pipe. "Okay, lets go find her now Sylia… Sylia? Hey, where did she…"

"Priss! She's up there… with Galatea!" Nene pointed up to the top of the gravity free tower.

The Blue Knight jerked her helmet upwards. Using the hardsuit's visual magnifiers, she made out two female shapes facing each other, both motionless for the moment. "I knew it! I knew that bitch wouldn't wait. I'll kill her!"

"That's assuming Galatea doesn't beat you to it," Nene commented darkly as they both rocketed up towards the showdown.


As soon as Linna stepped into the hardsuit, something felt different… it just felt… odd. Still struggling to recall what had happened earlier, she had assumed the strange sensations were just an aftereffect of all the beer she had drank. The only gauge she had was her past drinking experience warning her of the magnitude of the hangover about to crash over the top of her. As she dwelled on those sensations for just a moment, she swore it almost felt like the hardsuit was driving her, not the other way around. God, how much did I drink?

Those problems weren't the most distracting for Linna though. Through her foggy memories, she remembered something about Priss… something that deeply troubled the young Saber. She just couldn't remember exactly what had happened, or if it all hadn't been just another one of her torturous nightmares.

As the Green Saber juggled the puzzle in her mind, she approached the tower unfocused and subsequently unprepared for what actually awaited her there…


"I'm just glad I could finally get a moment alone with you sister," Galatea's voice resonated aloud without so much as twitching her thin emerald lips.

"A moment is all this will take Galatea. I'm sorry," Sylia answered, letting out her blade as she prepared to cut down her father's evil creation once and for all.

"Sorry for what Sylia?" a hauntingly familiar voice terrorized the White Knight.

Sylia blinked twice and found herself facing the small form of Mackey now. Her eyes flared, but steadied out as she maintained her focus.

"Are you saying that you are sorry for having to cut my arm off?"

"I did what I had to Galatea. This little game of yours is over." She flashed the blade up over her head and prepared to strike… but stopped as the shape before her took on a different form.

"I know how hard this has been for you Sylia," a very deep, masculine voice spoke directly into the Knight Saber's broken heart.

Her arms began to shake uncontrollably in response to the vision and the words. "… nigel…"

"I didn't understand everything she was capable of until now. It's okay Sylia. I know what you wanted to do with me once this was all over. But, you see, we don't have to wait anymore. We can be together now."

"… nigel… it… this is…"

"It's not a trick Sylia. This is very real. We can be together. We can love each other for eternity."

"… love?…" The blade retracted involuntarily from the White Knight's arm, her visor opening to get a clearer look at the image floating in front of her. With each word he spoke, Sylia found it more and more difficult to deny her ripped open heart.

"Come here Sylia."

The woman found herself drawn towards the man she feared gone, but still held something back. "I… I can't…"

"Yes you can Sylia. We can do this… together… just like always…" The image of Nigel extended an open hand towards the trembling Saber. "Haven't I always been there for you when you needed someone?"

The faceless helmet nodded hypnotically in agreement with him.

"Well, I'm here for you now Sylia. Together, we can finally make everything all right."

"Oh Nigel!" Sylia shouted, completely giving in and thrusting towards his open arms.

Her watery eyes were so clouded, she never saw the shimmer in the illusion before her… nor did she see the outstretched hand of Galatea contact her helmet, fusing directly with her mind, paralyzing Sylia's body instantly…

"No! SYLIA!" Priss screamed, finally managing to close the enormous gap to the top of the tower.

Galatea released her grip and drifted just beyond the reach of the reckless Priss. The Blue Saber sailed past her target but quickly circled around to attack again. "Nene, take care of Sylia!"

"Right," the Red Saber answered trailing slightly behind her.

"You're not getting away that easy!" Priss promised while locking onto the evading boomer goddess floating in the air.

Nene grabbed onto the shaking White Knight and pulled her out of harms way. "Sylia! Sylia, are you okay?"

"… he… Nigel… where… he's dead… Priss…"

"C'mon Sylia! Snap out of it. We need you!"

"But she… she killed him… Priss…"

"No! It was Galatea! Sylia, listen!"

Meanwhile, Priss threw a haymaker right hook that impossibly flew straight through Galatea's body. "What the…"

The demoness didn't even bother moving, she simply opened a hole in her own body, letting the attack pass through before reforming herself behind the confused Blue Saber.

"Damnit! Hold still already!" she cried out, thrusting her jets to face the drifting Galatea.

"Why do you struggle so, Priscilla?"

As the out of body voice spoke inside of her mind, Priss ignored the distraction, maintaining her focus. "JUST DIE DAMNIT!" The Blue Knight twisted and turned through the air until she positioned herself behind the child-god. Priss charged in with the unimpeded attack… until a tentacle shot out from the floating boomer body before her.

Catching Priss off guard, the blue hardsuit crashed hard into the wall. Before she could recover, the metal came alive, beginning to swallow her hardsuit whole.

"RRRAGHH!" The Blue Saber roared as she instinctively fought back, ripping her body free and launching herself at the controlling entity still eluding her reach.

Galatea's body was motionless, floating in the center of the tower, turned to face the attacking Priss. "That's enough play Priscilla. I have what I want now." With that, the boomer goddess shuddered briefly before exploding into a mass of metal lines that vectored into every corner of the structure surrounding them.

A confused Priss stopped her attack, unsure of what she had just seen. "What the hell just happened!" she screamed. The walls seemed to answer her by beginning to flow and expand. "Is she dead?"

A quick check of her scanners affirmed Nene's worst fears. "Not hardly!" She's transferred the phenomenon to the tower!"

"The tower!"

"Yes! Galatea is now the Genom Tower!"


"Priss? Nene? Sylia? Anybody? Strange… must be interference," the Green Saber reasoned as she reached the smoking hole in the tall structure. Cautiously proceeding inside, she tried to ready herself for anything… but the last thing she was ready for was her hardsuit suddenly freezing around her. "Damn! Is my battery… wha… what the…" Linna squirmed as her first theory was quickly dispelled by two distinct clues. A nerve-wracking tingling sensation traversed the back of her spine just as haunting words shattered the remains of her courage.

"Welcome Linna. I was afraid that I would never get to see you again," a hollow voice echoed inside of her helmet.

"Who… who are you?" An image instantly appeared in Linna's vision. At first, the confused country girl thought the apparition was outside of the hardsuit. But as she struggled with the armor, vainly trying to get it to respond, she realized the image was actually on the 'inside' of her helmet, projected on the inside of her visor. Linna found herself claustrophobic from the proximity of the unnerving presence.

"The boomer won't answer to you anymore Knight Saber. It now belongs to its rightful owner once more."

Linna swallowed hard as she suddenly recognized two things simultaneously. For one, this was the same 'woman' she had met last night… although she couldn't remember exactly what had happened after that meeting. Her blank memory was now the scariest part of all for Linna since she now realized that this must be… "… Galatea…"


"Priss! We've got to get Sylia out of here!"

"Not without killing Galatea first!" the Blue Saber howled as she continued to smash the lifeless carcass that had been the child-god's previous form.

"And just how are we supposed to do that Priss! You're certainly not helping anything by beating up that, that thing there!"

Priss finally stopped long enough to dart her head back and forth, seeing that the structure around her continuing to grotesquely mutate regardless of her actions. "Damnit, why won't she die! Hey, can't you find a central core or something!" she demanded, pointing an accusing finger at the Red Saber.

"All I can detect is that phenomenon everywhere around us! Besides, we're out of time!" Nene screamed as the walls continued to collapse in on them.

Priss finally relented with a huff as she took the now unresponsive Sylia under the other arm and began dragging her out.


Linna desperately tried focusing her thoughts to regain control of the hardsuit, but found it useless. Her mind panicked, as she feared she hadn't been controlling the suit at all after leaving the mobile pit. The young woman's blood froze as a horrid thought formed in her mind… Did… did Galatea bring me here?

"We have so much to talk about Linna and so much time to do it in now."

"Wh… what do you want with me?"

"I needed some company on my journey," the child-god toyed with the helpless human trapped with her newly reclaimed boomer.

"Journey?" Linna asked from the depth of her rampant fears.

"Don't worry human. You needn't concern yourself over the details just now. But I would prefer if your stay here went… unnoticed… for the time being."

"What!" Linna tensed her body as the hardsuit began to move without her consent.

It slowly turned, stepping backwards and directly into a wall… where the metal parted behind it. As the flowing liquid structure encased the protesting but helpless Linna, she caught a brief glimpse of the other Knight Sabers racing past the corridor just in front of her. "PRISS!" she yelled out to the one closest to her.

However, the Blue Knight didn't stop as she quickly passed out of her limited line of vision… just as the metal completely covered up her orange visor. Staring into the rippling flow, Linna's heart pounded in her chest, her arms and legs beginning to shake uncontrollably.

"That's enough now human," the feminine voice cautioned her, "you need to rest now. I have an important task for you later…" A sudden snap inside her head sent everything in Linna's consciousness immediately to black…


A brief familiar ping in the back of her head caught Priss' attention for just a second. Otherwise distracted by the morphing walls around her, she found herself stopping and glancing behind her from some unknown reason. The only thing she saw was the flowing, liquefying metal remains of the tower still changing its shape all around her.

"Priss, what's wrong!" Nene shouted hysterically while caught up in the rush to escape.

"I… I'm not sure. For a second, I thought…"

"Shit! The hole is closing up Priss! Hurry!"

The two Sabers opened up their thrusters to haul Sylia out and sped through the rapidly mutating structure. They made it out just in the nick of time, the large hole they had made to enter the tower now completely closed up behind them.

They flew away from the tower and towards the direction of the mobile pit. Reaching the edge of the dry land, the two conscious Sabers stopped to turn around and see the impossible sight in the center of Tokyo Bay.

"Holy…" Priss muttered under her breath as the whole tower horrifyingly morphed into a large statue-like idol of the being they had vainly tried to kill. The sheer size dwarfed both Priss and Nene's resolve as the both took a step back in awe.

Sylia remained lying in the spot she had been deposited in, her mind temporarily shut down from sensory overload thanks to Galatea's playtime exercises. The ground beneath them began to shake as the whole unreal structure ripped free from its foundation and slowly rose into the sky.

"We… we never had a chance," Nene whispered.

Priss responded with a sullen word of her own. "Yeah," was all she could muster.

The sound of pounding boots distracted Priss from the sight above her. "Are you okay?" Leon shouted, running up to her with Henderson pacing far behind.

"Y… yeah, I guess so," she answered weakly.

"Hey, where's Linna?"he asked.

Linna? The bottom immediately fell out of Priss' stomach as the likely meaning of his question caught up with her.

"Linna? We never…" Nene started to answer before Priss turned and shot off for the mobile pit.

"NO! NO NO NO!" She stopped just short of the van, the large hole ripped out of the side right where the Green Hardsuit had been left, mirroring the rift currently searing through her own heart. "Wait, maybe…" she started, hopeful for a miracle. She ran over to the tent next, ignoring Nene's panicked questions through the comlink for the moment.

"Leon, what happened to Linna!" Nene yelled at the man, forcing him to take a step back in self-defense.

"All we saw was her hardsuit flying over to the tower. She must have gotten there no more than a minute before you came flying out."

"So where the Hell is she!"

The blue hardsuit's shaking hands ripped the cover off the tent, exposing the empty contents to the morning sunlight. "No! Oh God No!" Priss dropped the remains of the flap as she turned around to look into the specter of evil slowly lifting into the eerily tranquil blue background above. The face of that image burned itself into the back of Priss' mind, triggering a phrase to be replayed… the last phrase spoken by Galatea before her impossible transformation… "… I have what I want now…"

The Blue Saber's hands clenched as she began grinding her teeth, barely restraining the combustible mix of loss, rage, and revenge swirling in her soul. An instant later it ignited, causing Priss to cock her head back and scream her pain into the heavens… "NOOO! LIINNNAAAA!"

To be continued…