FLCL: Fooly Cooly: The Return: Chapter 7: Battle

I don't own—oh, right, you remember…

Sorry for the length of this chapter, but it obstinately refused to be broken down. Enjoy!

Reviews are appreciated!

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Chapter 7: Battle

…..

"Like I said, I don't have the Atomsk power. Oh, some of it, but…"

"Kid, have you looked at yourself lately? You're fifteen, right? Five nine, at least, your muscles have muscles, and I bet you've never been sick a day in your life. Don't you think that's a little unusual? Plus, I'll bet you an extra twenty-four hours that you're, uhm…how to put this, particularly, er, gifted?" She glanced down at his waist. Actually somewhat below. "At least another twenty-four hours."

"Let's not go there." The other two females in the room looked like they wanted to stone the pink haired space pirate. "Stick to the subject, dammit! Okay, plan: We lure 'em to some desolate solar system or planet, somewhere between where they are and where we are, and, and…I don't know what. Maybe you two could, could do something similar?" He looked, desperately, at Ben and Lindsey. 'Port 'em to a black hole? That wouldn't take too much of your time, would it?"

"It's possible," mused Ben. Lindsey gave him a cautionary look. Don't commit.

{{But, Lindsey…we have to do something. We can't sit here and let this Medical Mechanica destroy this world.}}

{{I know, and I'm not saying we should. But we also can't let Chaos do what he did to that last world. You saw what happened there.}} Ben shuddered. An entire populated world, seventy billion people… Lindsey saw how it was affecting him. {{At least it was quick,}} she consoled him.

{{Not quick enough.}}

Haruko was talking. "But a desolate planet won't attract them, Kid. There would have to be some intelligent life there in order for us to be assured of their being drawn there."

"Then I'll go. They'll surely be attracted to me, what with this Atomsk power you keep saying I have…"

Haruko was shaking her head. "Bad idea. If they did manage to 'port that planet into a black hole, you'd probably go with it. Yeah, you might be willing to make that sacrifice, but think: time doesn't pass the same way that close to an event horizon, and nobody knows how it passes inside. Medical Mechanica might possibly have time to overwhelm you and get the Atomsk power. Then they could just 'port back, and we'd be worse off than before.

"I guess the good news is, it doesn't take the power of Atomsk to lure them to any one particular point. At this rate, as close as they are, just one intelligent being would be enough, to divert their attention.

"They've become creatures of instinct. They'll go for the closest bait, then a larger, but further away, meal."

"Then I'll go," said Mimi quietly.

"NO! Never in a million years!"

"Tak—I mean, Naota…I'm the best choice. No one will miss me, I'm an intelligent lifeform, which is exactly what they seek, and, and…it won't matter what happens to me."

He went over to her and took her hands in his, pulling her to him. He leaned forward slightly, their foreheads touching. "Yes, it does. I once made a promise to stay with you forever. That's a promise I'm gonna keep.

"Naota-kun, you can't possibly mean that! I, I'm nothing! I'm the reason you have anger issues; I, I abused you when you were a kid! I'm the, the prison girl. I have no family. I'm under psychiatric treatment, for god's sake! Nobody will miss me! Let me go. I'll lure these monsters to wherever you want, and then you can, can send them all to hell."

He embraced her, pulling her in close, resting her head on his shoulder. "It will be hell here," he said, "without you. You left once. No. You are not going. End of argument.

"And you have a family. Right here."

"Then I'll go," said Nina. "It won't take but one…"

"No," said Ben. "You're needed here."

"Someone has to go…"

"It won't be you. I can see—sort of—into your future. Like I said, you're needed here. I'll go."

"You will not," said Lindsey firmly, arms crossed. "You talk about people being needed here…if Chaos shows up, and you know he will, you are precisely who's needed. I'll go. I can teleport back-*"

"No."

"Then I'll go," said a previously silent voice. They all looked around at Nina's father. "I'll be the bait. It's the least I can do for my planet."

"Father, NO!"

"Nina," and he took her in his arms, "I'm the logical choice. You know my career is in the toilet. Okay. If I'm going to go out, I'm going out with a bang. This is the biggest bang I can think of. At least…at least people won't remember me as the loser I was." Nina opened her mouth to reply to that…

…and at that very moment, the whole house exploded.

….

Ben and Lindsey automatically threw up TK shields around everybody, and Ben even managed to shield Haruko's beloved Vespa. But the bits and pieces of the house continued to rain down around their suspended bodies.

"Hello, there, son! Fancy meeting you here!" said a hatefully familiar voice. Chaos, glowing with power, hung suspended in the air over the ruined mansion.

"I am so NOT your son!" Ben's own temper boiled over completely, and Typhon charged up to meet his adversary.

The two elemental forces collided with sufficient force to shatter windows for blocks around. Chaos was actually driven back a few yards. "Not bad. Keep it up, kid. You'll get ther-* Ooof!" A TK blast that could have shattered a mountain range propelled him back a full kilometer. "Okay, gotta admit, I didn't see that one coming! But keep this up, and, when you lose, like every time you have before, you're little friends down there will be toast!"

"No, they won't," retorted Lindsey coldly. She'd joined the two combatants in the air. "One thing seems to have escaped your attention: you're alone." {{Ben!}} she 'pathed to him, {{Get ready!}} And she opened a portal into the time-stream.

Ben physically slammed his own body into Chaos', knocking them both into the portal—and away from Earth. "That portal got him at least out as far as Uranus. I don't think even he can destroy this world from that far away." Lindsey turned to stunned crowd on the ground. "I have to go. I can't let Ben go it alone. Be safe until we return." Then she flew into the portal herself, closing it behind her.

Naota and company looked at each other, tiny bits of Nina's house still raining down around them.

Out by the planet Uranus: Ben and Chaos once again collided with a force greater than the entire nuclear arsenal of Earth could have produced. Surrounded by the highly attenuated atmosphere in space, far from the roiling ice clouds, there wasn't much in the way of a shockwave, but just the sheer wave of elemental power was enough to shake the nearby gas giant to its core. Lindsey flew in closer, hoping against hope she was in time.

Chaos had claimed to be Ben's future self, the being he'd become in three thousand years, the being who'd slaughtered his friends and, in fact, destroyed his whole world. Lindsey could sense that these attacks were designed to enrage Ben, to anger him beyond his ability to cope with that anger.

Her self-imposed task was to give him an anchor, keep him reminded of his essential humanity. Otherwise…

…He could very easily become the monster he fought.

So she had to be a reverse-Jiminy Cricket. She had to make sure Pinocchio stayed a real, live boy.

Back on Earth: Naota and the rest had been safely deposited on the ground amongst the remains of what used to be Nina's house. Nina choked back a sob at the thought of all her possessions, utterly destroyed…all the little things she'd accumulated over the years. But, she reminded herself, more importantly than all those things, she still had…

"Hey! Anybody see my Vespa?" Haruko.

"To hell with your Vespa! Where's my father?"

…..

At that particular moment, Nina's dad was just passing the orbit of the moon, which, at the time, was on the other side of the Earth. He was glad amateur astronomy had been a hobby of his. In his youth, he'd driven motorbikes, and the Vespa, for all its unique abilities, didn't differentiate too greatly from those he was familiar with.

He hated leaving Eri alone like this, what with her mother declaring she wanted nothing more to do with either of them. But he didn't see that he had any other choice…

From what the strange woman in green had said, the two superbeings were duking it out somewhere in the area of the gas giant Uranus. That was a large area, and, right now, even more inimical to human life, but he only needed to find the planet itself. Surely the alien armada would at least notice the activity out that way, and if the things didn't pick up on his presence there, perhaps they were too blind to see Earth.

But either way, he figured he was still dead.

There…this button, the big square one, red on the bottom, shading to blue towards the top. Blue shift? That had to be the FTL drive, however it worked. Fortunately, the life support system seemed to function automatically. Well, that's how he would've designed it.

Now let's see….just where would Uranus be?

…..

"Call your bike back! Do something! Whistle it back or, or something!"

"I can't! It doesn't have that feature! If it did, I'd've summoned it back when Sameji there, hijacked it."

A desperate Nina turned to Naota. "Naota! Do something! 'Port him back here NOW!"

"Nina, I can't! I don't have any connection to him! And Canti can't travel fast enough to catch up with Haruko's bike! Believe me, I would if I cou-*"

Her slap, powered by her full strength, caught him on the left side of his face, practically knocking him down. "THEN WHAT GOOD ARE YOU?!" She turned away, face in her hands, sobbing. Mamimi wrapped first one arm, then another around the suffering girl. Such was her misery, that Nina didn't even notice that it was her rival holding her, trying to comfort her.

Haruko took Naota aside. "Kid, we DO have to do something. Those two MIGHT destroy Medical Mechanica…or, much more likely, they'll destroy each other and leave Medical Mechanica intact."

"I'm open to suggestions."

"Open up Canti, over there." Not fully understanding, he mentally ordered Canti to open his "jaws." Haruko leaped in before him, then virtually dragged him inside. "C'mon, kid, this is likely to smart." And again, the vast light bulb descended, screwing itself into his head. Even though he was ready for it, or thought he was, still, even after all this time, it still hurt.

"N…now what?" Somehow, Canti seemed bigger on the inside than he remembered…and…cushioned?

"Now hold real still." And Haruko raised her guitar…

….

The beons-the forces of the entity known on Earth as Medical Mechanica-had just reached the outskirts of the solar system when they began registering energy shockwaves of unprecedented power.

They/It briefly considered turning back…but then they/it picked up an energy signature consistent with intelligent life coming from one of the outer gas giants.

Lacking true sentience, such opportunity was not to be denied.

…..

Ben and Lindsey took turns tag-teaming against Chaos. Unfortunately, he seemed to anticipate their every move, and countered them smoothly. "Oh, come on!" he shouted, "Haven't you two already figured out that I remember fighting this exact same fight? OF COURSE I know what you're going to do! I'm not just some plain jane vanilla supervillain! I'm you!

"I'm trying to show you what you really are, boy! You're a god! A real god! You just haven't allowed yourself to realize it yet! Get with the program!

"When mortals kill other mortals, that's called 'evil,' and it's wrong!

"But when gods kill mortals, that's natural! That's the way it's supposed to be! Where do you think the term 'Acts of God' came from?

"I'm just trying to show you how to do it, that's all!"

{{Ben, don't listen to him! He's trying to make it sound like it's inevitable! It's not!}}

{{One thing I know for sure is inevitable: this guy's goin' down! No matter what it takes!}}

As long as it doesn't take your soul, thought Lindsey.

Nina's father had arrived at Uranus after only a few minutes of hyperdrive. Fortunately, a similar switch right by the other, blue to red, turned it off.

Uranus, often referred to by Earthly astronomers as an "ice giant," due to the relatively large amount of ice in its atmosphere, does not actually have a solid surface in the same way that Earth does. Rather it has a gradually increasingly-thick atmosphere of poisonous gases that become liquid, then ice, then finally, deep within the planet, a more or less solid core. It has twenty-seven moons, an escape velocity of 21.3 km/s (13.24 m/s), and a declination of -15.175 degrees. All this ran through his head, as he hung suspended, just above the outer layers of the roiling, icy atmosphere. He didn't really care; he wouldn't be here long enough for any of that to make a difference.

He couldn't see any of the ships of Medical Mechanica, but he could see the flares of raw energy from the battle of the three beings. But he figured, from remarks he'd overheard, that Medical Mechanica couldn't be far away. He stood up on the bike, which was hovering over the denser layers of gas and ice that constituted Uranus' atmosphere. "Hey!" he shouted, "over here! Intelligent life form! Come and get me!" He only hoped that either the superbeings or Naota and company had some plan in mind. "Lunch tiiiiiiiiime!"

…..

The beons had just reached the outskirts of the solar system, near Pluto. "Here!" shouted Chaos, "let me show you a trick! Watch closely; you'll like this!" And he turned his own tremendous power on the Pluto-Charon system.

Both bodies were instantly converted into energy, transforming from one form of mass to another. Calling what happened next an "explosion" would have been a vast understatement. "But you can do so much more than just blow stuff up! See! There's some gnats. Watch!" And Chaos directed the full power of the nova-like energy blast directly at the oncoming beons.

The leading beons quite literally didn't have a prayer. Caught in the onrush of energy, they were vaporized instantly. Those just behind them found their systems hopelessly scrambled beyond anything remotely like recovery or repair. But those furthest to the rear, out of the direct path of the beam, continued their advance. They did not fear death; indeed, "death," for them, was an outmoded concept, left behind when they evolved beyond sentience. They closed ranks and continued to advance. Chaos took no notice; they were beneath his attention. He had a much bigger issue in mind. "Just imagine," he shouted, "what that sort of power could do to Earth? What it will do to Earth? Starting, oh, maybe with this Earth? And maybe finishing up on yours? Your friends, your lover?

"So come on, boy! Level up here! We've only got three thousand years! Believe me, it goes by a lot faster than you think!"

…..

"It's not working," fretted Haruko. Inside Canti, who was even then rocketing towards the conflict at the outer edge of the solar system, she'd been rocking Naota's throbbing head with her guitar.

"No…no more. 'Bout…to pass…out." He actually managed to smile, however. "Bet…bet this is the most…fun you've had in…three years..."

"This isn't about fun, kid." Haruko moved to one side, there in the near-weightlessness inside the still-accelerating Canti. "We gotta do something. Or…" And a surprised look came over her face, "Maybe it is about having fun. Stimulation…I've always assumed it hadda be pain. But maybe… Takkun, do you think you could open a portal of, oh, say a couple of kilometers, maybe a little bigger? And project it at the edge of the solar system?"

"Don't…know. My head's hurting so bad…can barely see straight."

Haruko hesitated. Then, "Well, there may be one other way of opening a portal." She started unbuttoning her red jacket. "Guess there's no time like the present to find out. Just do as I say, and it'll all work out.

"Now, take your clothes off."

"W-wait…what?"

"Your clothes. Get out of 'em." Again that crazy grin. "At the very least, I'll cure your headache."

Attracted by the signal of intelligent life on the outer gas giant, the beons zeroed in on the planet. They were less than a thousand miles away from Nina's father…he could see them coming…

"Look! There's a mortal! Watch! This is how you do it!" And, right in front of Ben and Lindsey's horrified eyes, Chaos projected a titanic sickle-shaped blade of pure energy…straight up Uranus' south pole, and exiting at the north. Such was the energy involved that the entire planet blew up like a bomb, the release of energy not only destroying the planet and sending the moons flying, but also destroying the closer beons. "I always did wanna stick something up Uranus, anyway!" laughed Chaos.

"You," began Ben, "are sick."

Inside Canti: Once again, Haruko was moving against him in that way, but this time, not only were they both naked, he was moving with her, and he was thoroughly enjoying it. He was deep up inside her, up inside that body. "Relax, Naota," she whispered. "Just do like I told you, and you'll be fine. Now. Picture the galactic black hole. Just a few inches above it. Picture it in your mind…and now picture what you sense of Medical Mechanica. Doesn't have to be accurate; just position is enough. Bring the two together. Yessss, bring the two together. Just…like…this…." And he found himself, throbbing headache subsiding, moving along with her, moving up inside of her, clumsily at first, but with increasing skill and enthusiasm, into that wonderful body that had been the subject of so many of his guilty fantasies…. "Yesss….that's the way…just like that…"

An N. O. Portal opened a few millimeters above the supermassive black hole that formed the center of the galaxy. Not being a material object, it was unaffected by the fantastic gravity.

The other end of the portal opened up just where Naota sensed the swarm of beons. Those same beons had no chance: the gravity 'ported in was measured in trillions of Earth's normal gravity. They were drawn in, "spaghettified," their mass lengthened into thin strands and sucked into the inescapable gravity field. Even those in the rear could not escape.

Of course, they felt no fear. Fear is a product of sentience, and they had none.

Meanwhile, Ben and Lindsey had been unable to keep Chaos from moving into the orbit of Jupiter. "Won't be long, youngling! Soon I'll have Earth in my sights! You saw what happened to that last planet!

"So come on! Fight me! Damn, but you're a slow learner!"

"You were looking in the wrong direction, monster!" And with that, Lindsey struck.

Ever since their last battle, in that other realm, Ben had been surreptitiously feeding her some of his power. Not enough to be noticed, but enough to build up a huge reserve in her, far beyond what she was normally capable of alone. Chaos had underestimated their teamwork; working together, they opened a portal into the time stream, the hypercontinuum, but one with no end point. "Sucker punch, asshole!" And Ben channeled every erg of his last remaining reserves and drove a fist straight up into Chaos' jaw.

The force of the blow sent Chaos reeling, straight into the portal into the time-stream.

…..

Inside Canti: "Wow. That…was great, kid. And that was your first time, for real, I mean? That was-*"

"I…can't believe we just did what we just did."

Haruko laughed, a genuinely satisfied laugh. They were lying side by side, inside Canti, fingers intertwined. Naota thought it odd, that the inside of the robot seemed bigger than the outside. It was very much like Dr. Who. Well, if it's good enough for Time Lords, I guess it's good enough for me. "Believe it, kiddo. Told you I had a reward for you that was better than CPR.

"But anyway…we saved the galaxy. The two of us, together. Neither of us could've done it alone." And here she rolled over onto him, pressing her naked body up against his. It was amazing how the anger, the hate, he'd thought he'd felt for her was dissipating…turning into…what? "And I'll let you in on a little secret: you keep swingin' that bat—"and she moved her hand down below his abdomen—"like you just did, and Mamimi won't have any complaints." She whispered into his ear. "Neither will Ninamori."

Quick, change the subject. "Wonder where Tatsuku is? He promised to come to me if I needed him, and I sure did…" It was a lame misdirection, but it was all he had at the moment, especially with her hand down there and her breasts up here and her body everywhere in between.

Haruko actually giggled. That was another thing he'd though she was incapable of. She wrapped an arm around him, pulling him in close. "You mean you haven't figured it out? Naota, your brother's been back, for three years now. You just haven't recognized him."

Again, that realization hit him. Things began to connect… "Canti? You can't mean…"

"Ever heard of telepresence? Yeah, he's in America. But he's also linked, electronically, to Canti. Everything Canti sees and hears, he sees and hears."

Suddenly, a lot made sense. The speed with which Tasuku responded to his texts…like he was just thinking the responses. But…"You mean…what we just did, we did inside my brother? That is at least three levels of sick and wrong!"

"Yeah," chortled Haruko, "great, wasn't it?" She turned pensive. "I wonder if he thought to get recordings?"

….

Earthside: Canti landed and disgorged a fully clothed Haruko and Naota. Mimi practically threw herself on Naota. "I thought you were gone for good."

He stroked her hair. She'd allowed it to go back to its natural black, and it felt like silk in his fingers. "Told you I'd stay with you forever."

A bright golden flash in the air over them heralded Ben and Lindsey's return "Okay, people. The good news is, we managed to shove Chaos into a time portal that should take him to a…place beyond the end of time. Surely, even he couldn't come back from that.

"The bad news is, we don't know for sure it'll work. I-*"

"TO HELL WITH YOUR PORTALS! MY FATHER DIED OUT THERE!"

Ben made a soothing gesture with his hands. "Well, yes. But his death doesn't have to be permanent."

"H-huh?

"I….do have some ability to manipulate time. Once the space-time continuum has a chance to settle down, I might, I just might, be able to fold time back and retrieve him before he actually died.

"But," he said to her elated expression, "it won't be right away. Right now, the space-time continuum is in such an uproar, it's affecting the orbits of the outer planets themselves. Lindsey and I had a hard time dampening the gravitational waves so they wouldn't hit the Earth or the sun. I'll have to wait until it settles down."

"How…how long?"

He held up his hands in a helpless gesture. "I don't know for sure. Maybe a year?"

"A year?"

"Only an estimate. But even we have our limits."

Ben and Lindsey left to return to someplace they called "Olympus," which Ben explained was an artificial moon, circling another Earth, where he and his friends lived. The pair had promised to return in a year, to see about retrieving Nina's father. Ben seemed to think it wouldn't be very difficult. "I've done it before, lots of times," he'd said. "It won't be any problem." Nina had broken down at that, all her grief and tension taking its toll on her. Both Naota and Mimi had comforted her as best as they could.

{{Uh, Ben? You've actually only done it once.}}

{{So? It worked, didn't it?}}

Ben had turned his face up towards the heavens. "I can't sense Chaos anywhere. If we're lucky, that last portal sent him to a place where even he couldn't survive. We can hope."

"What about Medical Mechanica?" asked Haruko. She was sitting over on a windowsill, a fragment of a wall left standing, plucking at her guitar. "Do you sense anything of them?"

"No. I think you and Naota got them all."

But Haruko's expression didn't lighten. "We got all the ones that were here. But Medical Mechanica is…still very much there. And its origin point is very far away. It could easily send another armada, anytime."

"They've lost one fleet. That should give them pause, wouldn't you think?"

"That's the problem: they don't think. Not like we do, at least. So we have no way of telling what they'll do."

"We'll stay in touch. If they do show up, perhaps Lindsey and I can give them a more permanent surprise." And with that, he'd opened a portal into a swirling nothingness / everythingness that dazzled them for a moment, and the two of them made their exit.

…..

Later, Naota found himself reflecting about what a good thing it was that Shigekuni had all those inflatable mattresses in the attic. Good foresight.

His room was getting a little crowded. Mimi was still in the lower bunk, and he noticed she now normally slept on her right side…as though to keep watch over the rest of the room.

Nina had, quite deliberately, he thought, placed her own mattress between him and Haruko's. And Haruko, he noticed, normally slept on her left side…as though to keep an eye on him. "After all," she'd said, with that pretend innocence he'd come to recognize as such, "without my Vespa, I'm basically stranded here." But whether her watchfulness was protective or predatory, he hadn't decided. Probably the latter.

Though, somehow, he really couldn't bring himself to fear the consequences of an attack.

"I'll make sure to get your Vespa when I retrieve Ninamori's father," Ben had said. He hadn't heard, or pretended he hadn't heard, her whisper to Naota, "Besides, I still owe you forty-six hours. At least." Both Mimi and Nina hadn't stopped glaring at the space pirate.

But Mimi had taken him aside; she had a special request. "Uh, Naota-kun? Could...could I ask a favor?"

"Of course." When could she not ask a favor?-he wondered.

"Do...do you have an extra jersey I could wear? One of your own, I mean?" She'd been wearing Tatsuku's old jersey to sleep in, being extra careful to keep it clean. She even ironed it. "I think it's time I...put some things behind me." She looked up suddenly. "I'll pay you for it..."

He put his arms around her. "Of course I do. And you don't need to pay me for it. You wearing it is more than enough." Yes, perhaps it was time to put some things behind her.

And...to move on with life.

Canti had installed himself in a broom closet on the first floor. Knowing it was his brother, essentially, Naota had, at first, had doubts about that idea, but he had to admit, they needed the room. And Canti's robotic body didn't really require such amenities as a bathroom or bed.

And Naota had to admit, when he got used to the idea, that he wasn't entirely comfortable with the notion of his brother's metallic self in the same room as his three female guests and himself…

But before he'd left, the robot had turned and surveyed the now-crowded room, his TV-like face dwelling, for a moment, on Mimi and her new jersey. Then he turned to Naota, and imaged a "thumbs up" emoticon on his display-face.

Later that night, texting: Hey, bro. You comfortable down there?

Yeah. I'm sorta not really here, you know, but I sorta am. It's complicated. Someday you'll understand.

Did you see what…went on inside Canti? He used the name Mimi had assigned to the robot-that-was-more-than-a-robot, so many years ago, automatically. It both was and wasn't Canti. Or not just Canti.

Who, me? Would I peek at a thing like that?

Yeah.

Oh. Well, what can I say. Busted. Yeah. Waytago, lil bro. She's fantastic, isn't she?

Still not too sure how I feel about her.

You hated her because of the changes she wrought in you, that you weren't ready for. But I think what you really felt was passion. And passion can work both ways.

OK Mr Expert.

Only sayin,' bro.

I don't know what I'm gonna do with all these girls in my room.

Want a suggestion?

Youve got SUCH a dirty mind

Yeah and Denise loves it. Your guests might appreciate my suggestions a lot

Can it big bro. You know I love Mimi. Everyone in the room, aside from himself, was either asleep, or, in Haruko's case, pretending to be asleep.

Of course you do. You also love Nina. And, if you're honest with yourself, you also have a thing for Haruko. And you love them all in different ways.

Okay okay aready. But… He really didn't know what to text after that.

You don't gotta rush it. There's plenty of time.

Maybe not

What do you mean?

You didn't hear? Haruko said the Atomsk Effect drives a person insane

There was a pause. Then, You sure?

She is.

How long?

She thought maybe ten years

Another pause. Then, Shit

My feelings exactly

She may be wrong lil bro She's been wrong before

I…don't think she is. I already see things inmy dreams that both make sense and don't make sense at the same time

Can you quit using the power?

Wouldn't help the Power's still in me

Another pause, this one longer than before. Naota wondered why. Would the next message come from his brother in the US, or from his brother down in the broom closet?

Or…maybe it didn't really make that much difference anymore. With that close a connection, who could say where one left off and the other began?

Then, Don't give up lil bro. I have some…contacts, let's just say. And you said those two would return in a year to retrieve Nina's father-*

And Haruko's bike. She's still bitching

*-and Haruko's bike. Who knows? They may be able to do something. But even if they can't…ten years is a long time. It can be a long, satisfying time, if you work it right

I guess, you look right at it, time—however much of it we've got-is really all any of us have

Yeah, with MM and that Chaos guy gone. Now we got time. At least… And for a moment, he stopped texting, a little unwilling to type in, for a while. Naota sighed, then resumed texting. Time to…find out some things. He glanced over at Haruko's mattress. She'd positioned it right by the door to the bathroom…he couldn't tell if her eyes were completely closed or not. What am I gonna do? he thought.

Texting: I don't see Haruko as hanging around very long, in any one place. And, I don't really think Nina wants to be more than a friend right now. That's good. He glanced down, over the edge of his bunk, at the sleeping form of Mimi. She was beginning to twist slightly, in her sleep. Not again, he thought. Would the nightmares ever end?

But her whole life had been a nightmare, a nightmare that had driven her into a kind of insanity when she was younger, living in a video game, and believing that Canti was a god. The horror of her home life, that had driven her to that, he thought, you just don't get over in a day, in spite of all the medication and psychotherapy in the world.

Mimi began twisting even more. Gotta go, bro. Love ya.

Love ya too lil bro. Go to her.

Mimi was, by now, twisting more violently than before, her legs moving, trying to run. "No, no! Please! I haven't…!"

He got into bed beside her, as he had many times before, wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her close. "Mimi, it's alright. The nightmare's over. You're safe. You're here, with me, and you're safe." He repeated that, and her eyes opened, seeing him there. She clung to him, burying her face in his chest, her tears drying up, her face relaxing. He stroked her hair. It seemed to frame her face, a face that had grown in beauty during her time away. "Your nightmare's over with, Mimi. You're with me, now. I won't let anything or anybody hurt you, ever again." And perhaps someday, the nightmares will stop. Eventually, she relaxed further, drifting off into peaceful slumber, there in his arms. I just hope it's before those ten years are up.

Since his back was to her, he couldn't see the approving smile on Haruko's supposedly-sleeping face. She needs you, kid. She will need you.

And perhaps you need to be needed. Who knows? Given the right incentive, perhaps that ten years will be twelve. Or fifteen. Or twenty…

There's more than one way to save the world, and more than one world to save.

The End.

Epilogue: In the hypercontinuum, the corridors of time, that strange state of existence between all realities, two figures hurtled towards an alternate Earth, one they'd come to call home. {{Ben?}} 'pathed Lindsey. {{I've a question.}}

{{Shoot.}} Ben was looking forward to getting home, to Tori. He missed her terribly, in spite of…

{{Something's been bothering me. Our last battle with Chaos…did you notice anything odd about it?}}

{{You mean, other than the fact that we blew up a sizable portion of that Earth's solar system? That was odd enough for me.}}

{{But did you notice that, in at least two cases, Chaos actually seemed to assist us in fighting that Medical Mechanica? Perhaps weakening the armada so that Naota's attack would be all the more effective?

{{In fact, he did more damage to them than we did, since we were focusing on him.

{{Even Nina's father. If Medical Mechanica had caught him, and drained his mind, he would, essentially, still be alive in the main group mind, back where the swarm originated. And the exclusionary principle would have prevented you from retrieving him. He couldn't be in two places at once without it causing a paradox.}}

He stopped dead still, right there in the hypercontinuum, universes, realities, and what-may-have-beens flying past him. {{You're right. That's true. It's almost like Chaos was working for us, rather than against us, for once. But…why? Why should he do us any favors? This would be the first world that's caught his attention that he hasn't destroyed.}}

{{Could Chaos have had an agenda for that world? A plan? One that required the removal of Medical Mechanica?}}

{{Hm. You're right. Maybe he did. I can't imagine what it would be, though. With his power, he could have just wiped the entire armada out of existence, the way he very nearly did us. I mean, why play cosmic shatterball with them?}}

She reached over and took his hand. {{Ben, keep in mind, Chaos' whole purpose, in all he's doing, is to turn you into him. Don't ever forget that.}}

He squeezed the grip of his best friend. {{I won't. I can't. But it's no longer an issue; Chaos is gone, for good this time. Even he couldn't come back from the end of time itself.}}

She squeezed his hand back. {{I only hope so.}}

Homeward bound, they flew.

Epilogue 2: Naota's Earth, geosync orbit above Mabase: Completely undetectable, a figure in red and black floated just outside Earth's atmosphere. With senses humans would never understand, the Destroyer of Worlds saw Naota, saw Mamimi, Nina, and Haruko. He saw the texts Naota had sent to his brother / "brother." He even saw the thoughts going through their minds. He saw it all.

He floated there, in orbit above Mabase, feet together, arms crossed, a pleased expression on his face. Everything had gone perfectly, just like he remembered it, from so long ago. "Get some sleep, Naota Nandaba. You've got a lot more than ten years ahead of you, so you'll need it. We've a lot of work ahead of us, and I've big plans for you." The figure smiled, but not in a reassuring way. "Big plans indeed.

"There's more than one way to destroy the world, and more than one world to destroy."