I don't own these characters; Sunrise does.
12: Frozen in place
Cardair was back in the news with kangaroo courts condemning more nobles and captured Otome to beheadings. The few images that got out of the Empire showed that much of the capital city had been demolished. Any important landmark that symbolized the old regime was torn down. People waiting for their turn to be "judged" were shown in filthy, tiny cages, wounds untreated, and left to see their fates as heads rolled down the main avenue and blood painted once clean sidewalks.
The Otome council had more than enough of Natsuki's staying out of the situation. They called her directly to let her know that they and the "Masters," whoever the hell they were, believed the Otome needed to stop what was happening in Cardair. The "before it spreads" was left unsaid, but heard in the tremble of their voices.
"We're not the world's army," Natsuki pointed out.
"Regardless, we cannot let Cardair be taken over by anarchists."
"So, I'm to march fresh Otome in there with no clue how to stop these weapons that can easily stop our powers, incapacitate us, and have them behead us?" the principal inquired.
"You'll simply overwhelm them with superior forces."
"And lose who knows how many Otome in the process. Not to mention, you don't know the numbers Cardair is working with. We have hundreds of Otome while they probably have thousands of pissed off citizens. This is not a good battle strategy to say the least," Natsuki stated. Above all else, she prided herself on coming up with good battle plans to avoid as many causalities as possible, but it sounded like the Council just wanted to try to smother a fire without knowing how big it was.
"We will not let your sympathies get in the way of doing the right thing."
"The right thing? You mean possibly getting dozens of young women killed in a conflict that has nothing to do with them and well possibly killing hundreds of citizens who are demanding their government change to help them?" she snapped. While she agreed that the citizens of Cardair was not going about their freedom issues the correct way, it was their country. She had nothing to do with that as far as enforcing any rules or laws.
"Mind your place."
"My place is protecting my students."
"Oh, yes, you've done a great job so far. Two missing, presumed captured, possibly dead, and nine murdered in the streets of Cardair."
Natsuki frowned. "And you'd like to add to that number by rushing a bunch of Otome into an admitted disaster with who knows what kind of weapons. You could be sentencing them all to rapid deaths."
"They are soldiers."
"Yeah, exactly! You're involving them in a foreign country's business and making it worse, you're rushing into the matter without a lot of information. We have no clue what is going in Cardair beyond the few messages Otome have been able to get out and news reports from journalists that spend most of their time hiding and dodging bullets. This could be a suicide mission," the principal huffed.
"You just want to sit on your hands until the Reactionaries are in control."
"You keep saying that, but you don't have any proof of it and what the hell would I gain if the fucking Reactionaries won?" Natsuki practically hollered. "None of that makes sense! What the hell is wrong with you people?"
"Principal, that language is totally unnecessary."
"No, your reasoning is totally unnecessary! Would you be so quick to sign these ladies' death warrants if they were your daughters or your sisters? I'm not in such a rush to do that!"
"Well, principal, it doesn't matter what you're in a rush to do. You will take the Otome into battle in Cardair."
Natsuki growled. "Why? So the Masters can stay in power? Otome shouldn't be playing in politics—"
"Your opinion was not asked for."
"But, you're getting it just the same!" Of course, they would not because they simply ended the call. Natsuki screamed in frustration and tossed the phone across the room, watching it shatter into tiny bits. She felt like she was coning apart at the seams while the world went mad. "Who the hell marches to war without knowing what the fuck the enemy has or how the fuck they're going to stop them!"
She kicked her desk, scuffing the fine wood. Another kick cracked the thing and she was about to put her foot through the damned thing, but realized that it would not get her anywhere. Besides, she had other things to do.
"I've got soldiers to march to their possible doom." She sighed and hung her head. There has to be another way. Unfortunately, she had not been able to figure out "the other way" since the whole thing began.
-8-8-8-8-
"We can't invade Garderobe with the amount of weapons that were brought in," Masujiro stated, speaking to Maximilian and a few other rebel leaders. They were gathered in the small house where they were keeping Arika, who was still locked up in a back room.
"Where did they come from in the first place?" Maximilian inquired.
"We're not sure. Men just claimed to have found the cache of weapons randomly and they found out what they were capable of by firing at the Queen's Otome."
Maximilian was quiet for a moment. "Do you believe them?"
"At this point I have no choice. I've never seen the men at meetings, but they claim to be simple out-of-work miners. I have no reasons to dispute that and they're willing to take up arms against the Otome. We just need more arms," Masujiro explained.
The Reactionary orator made a noise deep in his throat. "I'll not have our Revolution set back by this. Already the Otome dogs in the Provinces have begun pushing our people back, trying to round us up in the city to finish us off."
Danton nodded. "But, once those Otome make it here, we do have enough weapons to fight them. They are only a little more than a dozen. We just need to put distance between them, so they can't help each other."
"But, that still leaves us with a school of them right outside our doors. We have to eliminate that threat for our Revolution to live. We can't allow hundreds of them to end up helping the Queen."
The older man nodded again. "We'll figure something out. The Otome aren't immortal."
Before the conversation could go any further, someone burst through the door. He rushed right to the Reactionary leaders. He was out of breath and needed a moment, but tried to explain his presence anyway.
"Scientists … scientists coming. Scientists with … with … with weapons," he reported through deep breaths.
"Weapons? Weapons for us to fight Otome?" Masujiro asked anxiously.
"That's the claim. They just entered the city limits. We weren't sure what to do."
"We should meet them outside. We don't know who they are or what they want. No need to show them our base just yet," Maximilian reasoned.
Masujiro nodded in agreement and the pair left with several bodyguards, who were just average Windbloom subjects; they would be citizens when the revolution was done if they had it their way. They found the caravan of scientists not too far from the downtown area, which was deserted. While there were still people living in the city, they had tried to get away from areas that were heavily trafficked by the rebels.
"There's a lot of them," a bodyguard noted.
"But, what do they want with us?" Maximilian wondered while eyeing the group suspiciously.
"We'll find out," another bodyguard declared as he and the rest of the group rushed out to stop the caravan. The band of bodyguards pulled out weapons, mostly knives, but some guns. They blocked already narrow path through the destroyed urban area.
"Stop!" they ordered while brandishing their weapons.
The caravan came to an immediate halt. There were murmurs from both camps and then the chief scientist emerged from the front van. He held his hands up high as he stepped forward.
"What's your business?" a bodyguard demanded.
"I am Doctor Emiliano Tojo. We're here to aid the revolution. We've come with our own special weaponry to fight off the ruling class and their dogs," the scientist reported, giving a small bow that allowed him to continue watching the rebels.
"The ruling class? Who are you?"
"We're just a band of Reactionary scientists. We call ourselves the Mad Scientists because we are angry about the state of the world today. We've been working on weapons to stop Otome for a while now. We want to use them to fuel the revolution. They've already helped the people of Cardair. We want to do the same here," Doctor Tojo announced.
"Why would you want to help us? You're not from Windbloom," Masujiro pointed out.
"On the contrary, we're from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. Our group is made up of people from all over the world, Windbloom included. We are of the world. We came together with the hope of starting our own worldwide revolution, but now that Windbloom and Cardair have begun to fight back, we want to help these causes because we have the means to and you have the means to put our hard work to good use. We've already loaned you some of our strength. One of our scientists leaked several weapons to you. We've got hundreds more and a variety of things you haven't even had the pleasure of seeing."
"Hundreds?" Masujiro whispered, practically drooling at the thought. "We'd be able to launch our assault against Garderobe."
"Steady, man. We don't know these men," Maximilian pointed out.
"We need to make a move. We should take out the Otome before Mashiro gets her army together. We don't want to fight two enemies, especially if the Otome are helping the Queen. She'll be back in power and all of this would be for naught," Masujiro retorted.
Maximilian could not argue that. He nodded his agreement and reluctantly accepted the scientists into the fold. He supposed it would be worth it if they could deliver, but he hoped that things did not go the way things had been in Cardair. He was certain that the people of Cardair had lost sight of their purpose and simply given into pure revenge. He did not want their movement to go that way because he feared that when the smoke settled, the states quo would be maintained. But, it was like Masujiro said, if they ended up fighting the Otome and the Queen's army together without proper equipment and lost, then everything would have been for nothing anyway.
"And all that will be left of the notion of equality is blood and slaughter," he sighed. The movement would be set back by at least a hundred years if they ruined their chances now. Equality and the people's rights would be a distant dream.
-8-8-8-8-
Natsuki gathered all of the Otome that were at Garderobe. It was just over two hundred women. It was a large chunk of the active Otome on the planet, but not every single one. They had been there to help find Sara Gallagher. Now, they might be racing to their deaths, depending on their reactions to her words. She took a deep breath, wanting to say the right thing to make sure they all thought before they acted.
"Ladies, I have asked you all here because we have another crisis on our hands," Natsuki announced. She did her best to keep her shoulders squared, but it was hard. She could not do a thing about the lines under her eyes or the black circles.
"Who'd you'd lose now?" someone called and earned a few laughs.
Natsuki took the remark in stride, along with the laughter. She was over the attitude toward her. She had never felt so tired in all of her life, as if everything that piled up on her and beat her into the ground. She wanted everything done now and she walked to be able to sit down, not thinking about anything ever again unless it had something to do with her wife and child. The rest of the world could vanish.
"The Otome Council along with some of the Masters have decided that we need to go into Cardair and put down the Bloody Rebellion," Natsuki informed them in a dull voice. The media had taken to referring to the situation in Cardair as the "Bloody Rebellion" since several Otome, nobles, palace guards, and "enemies of the People" had been publicly executed and their bodies put on display as a warning to any other "enemies of the People."
"It's about time someone made you do the right thing, New Philosophical coward!"
"Whoa, we don't have any business getting involved with a civil dispute in Cardair!" another Otome objected.
"Otome are getting killed! We have every right to be involved!"
"Otome are soldiers for their countries above all else! If we get involved without our Masters' permissions, we can cause all kinds of international problems! The Council can't do that!"
"The Council has made its decision, but you all have your own minds. You know what you want to do or you can at least make your own decisions once you have all the information. Unfortunately, for this, we don't have all the information. We don't know how the Cardair Reactionaries are taking down Otome, we don't know what might happen if we do go into Cardair, and we don't know what the Council might do if we don't go into Cardair. We don't know how many people are rebels in Cardair and we wouldn't know how to recognize them if we did. Reports have come in that even children have been shooting at nobles and the military," the principal told them.
"Children?" Mai clearly gasped.
"Bullshit, principal! You just don't want us to go because you want the fucking rebels to win and you don't care how many Otome die in the process!" someone called out.
Natsuki growled. "Now, that's pure bullshit! If I didn't care about your lives, I'd sent you all to Cardair all hyped up and gung-ho with no fucking clue as to what was going on in Cardair! I refuse to do that! I won't order any of you into Cardair. It's your decision to make and I will take personal responsibility for any of you that refuse to go! Those of you that do go, I'll not hold it against you and do my best to smooth it over with your Masters. I may have my beliefs, but they don't rule over my reasoning. Going into Cardair turns the Otome into something other than we are meant to be. If we go into Cardair, then why not Windbloom and if we do that, what about the next national incident? Do we go in then? Do we go into civil wars? Simple riots? Do we go into every request? Worse, do we go in when there are no requests? Do we go in any and every time an Otome asks for help? Do we go in with or without our Masters' permissions?"
There were mumblings amongst the crowd. Natsuki took Shizuru's hand and squeezed slightly. The tawny-haired woman was standing by her spouse's side as always. She squeezed back.
"I can't believe we're even talking about this! Animals claiming to be people have killed Otome in streets of Cardair with an audience watching! I, for one, won't stand for it!" An Otome stormed out without looking back.
Natsuki held her breath as she waited to see who would follow suit. The wait was not long, only a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Slowly, but surely several women followed and left until almost half of them were gone. Natsuki sighed, but refused to let it get to her. She was surprised to see that Miss Maria remained. She was certain that the ancient Otome would have been the one to lead the charge. She was also surprised to see Shiho had remained behind. The proud Cardairian should have been the first to leave, but instead she understood that as the Otome of Florince, she had duties to her Master before her birth country.
"Well, principal, what now?" Chie asked curiously. That always seemed to be the question of the hour.
"We still have two missing Otome and they're our top priority," Natsuki reminded them. "We also have to try to learn more about these weapons being used against the Otome because those may have been used against Arika. That means those weapons could be right in our backyard. We have to take caution. The more we find out, the more information we can also give to those that left for Cardair and hopefully aid them."
"Shouldn't we at least fight the people with these weapons? They're clearly designed to take us out," Shiho pointed out.
"We could fight them if we knew who they were. They're mingling with the Reactionaries. Hell, they might be Reactionaries. We don't know. Nao, do you think you could find out?" Natsuki requested.
Nao shrugged. "I'll do my best, but it's a mad house out there. I don't know if I'll be able to find my usual sources. But, I'll try." She rushed off right after that, understanding how important it all was.
"Now what?" Chie pressed.
Natsuki pulled out a small baggie from her inside jacket pocket. "We use dogs to track Arika." She had had the idea for days now, but never had the time to do because there seemed to be a million things going on. That seemed to be her problem; there was not enough time to think, which was why she could hardly even react to anything.
"How did you get an article of Arika's clothing?" Shizuru asked curiously.
"Stole it from Mashiro," Natsuki easily admitted with a shrug. She had lifted the small handkerchief from the Queen that she knew belonged to Arika as soon as the opportunity presented itself. She did not bother asking for it because she did not want to deal with Mashiro's bratty behavior. She understood that the Queen was under a lot of stress, but she did not think that excused the way Mashiro had regressed so much that she did not even want to deal with the younger woman, ever again if it could be helped.
Shizuru chuckled and kissed Natsuki on the cheek. "You're going back to being a bad girl. Brilliant."
The pale woman preened. She decided to get moving, knowing a man with dogs that would help them. It took time to get hold of him, which she expected considering the chaos in Windbloom. He had been hiding in an abandoned shop in one of the more pristine neighborhoods in the city. He agreed to help, but she would need to go to him in the city. Before she even made it to the gate, Nao was on her way back and practically tackled the principal back into the main building.
"What the hell, Nao?" Natsuki demanded.
"They're fucking lining up to attack!" the redhead reported in a hurried tone.
"Who is lining up to attack?"
"The fucking Reactionaries! I went out there and found out that these bastards somehow got an arsenal of Otome-stopping fire power and they're getting into formation to take us out!"
"Motherfucker!" Natsuki screamed at the top of her lungs.
"I'm so serious! I had to sneak in here. They're coming close. We need to do something!"
"No shit! Let's go!" Natsuki yanked Nao down the hall just as shoots were fired into the school. "Fuck!" The pale woman ducked, pulling Nao down with her.
"Dammit, I didn't think they'd attack so soon," the redhead hissed.
Natsuki began to crawl forward with Nao following behind her. She used her GEM to open a line of communication. "Hey, Yohko, patch me into the school PA system!"
"All right, but what's going on? What was that noise? It seemed closer than the other noise coming from Windbloom," Yohko said.
"That's because motherfuckers are actually fucking shooting at the school! So, put me through to the PA system, so I can get the students to safety and then teach these dumb motherfuckers how fucking stupid it is to shoot at me and mine!" Natsuki roared. She would be damned if she would let anyone harm the girls while she was around.
"You're in," the chief medical officer informed her.
"Attention all students, staff, and visitors, this is Principal Kruger. Blowback from the situation in Windbloom has made its way to our doorstep. Everyone needs to report to the designated shelter areas now! I repeat, everyone needs to report to the designated shelter areas now! Drop everything you're doing and go to the shelter!" Natsuki ordered. "That's all." The announcement was then played on a loop in case anyone missed it. She could kiss Yohko for doing that.
"Where are we going?" Nao inquired.
"The shelter. I need to organize a proper defense, which is why I didn't say we were under attack. We have too many hotheads here right now. They can charge to their deaths on their own time."
"I don't think I'll ever understand you. These people have treated you like shit for the most part since this whole mess started, actually before this whole mess started, and you still worry about them not getting killed if they chose to diss you and try to be heroes."
Natsuki shrugged. "Their feelings about me don't factor in. I'm responsible for them and I have to do what's in their best interest. It's part of the job and part of being a good person."
"And people really wonder why you're into New Philosophy, even though you're a princess and an Otome? Idiots," the redhead chuckled. "Now, let's get the fuck out of here, so we can come up with a plan to fuck these dumb Reactionaries in the ass!"
The Second Column nodded and they crawled their way to a stairwell that led to the underground bunkers. The sound of broken glass and debris followed them until they had it to a room that required an access code. Natsuki punched in the numbers and they entered.
"Principal Kruger, what's going on out there?" an Otome asked as soon as she crossed the threshold of the room. The small, underground chamber was filled with the visiting Otome. The other bunkers held the students and staff, who had to keep the students calm.
"Right now, it's just some stuff from Windbloom spilling into our front yard," Natsuki said, moving through the room to another door. It, too, required an access code. The door led to a small office, where Natsuki released a sigh as soon as the door slid shut.
"So, what now, genius?" Nao inquired.
"I need to see what we're dealing with," Natsuki replied as she turned on several monitors in the room. The screens showed the perimeter of the school. She shook her head at what she was seeing. They were surrounded by people and being suppressed by automatic weapons that were just raining down bullets on the whole campus.
"That looks even more fucked up than it did in person," the redhead commented with worried lime green eyes.
"We'll think of something. Do they have anti-Otome weapons?"
"According to people I know, yeah, they do. They have a shit load of them and they're planning to use it on us."
Natsuki nodded, her eyes remaining focused on the screens. "So, they're more them likely just trying to lure us out there with all of this gunfire. Maybe if we could go in behind them –" Her thoughts were interrupted by the other person that had the code to the door and one of the last people that the principal wanted to see, Miss Maria.
"Principal Kruger," Miss Maria started, but gasped when she saw what was on the monitors. "We're under attack. We're under attack and you knew," she hissed, leveling a heated glare at the pale woman that was totally unfamiliar to Natsuki. It looked like hate.
"I don't want anyone to panic –" Natsuki tried to explain, but the older woman cut her off.
"Oh, so no one would hurt your precious Reactionaries! All this time, I figured you were just trying to be cautious, but we're under attack by average men with more than likely average weapons and you have us hiding down here like scared rats! What the hell happened to you? Have you lost all self-respect, courage, or are you trying to embarrass the Council because they disagreed with you?" Miss Maria hollered.
Natsuki snarled. "Are you fucking mental, old woman? This has nothing to do with that! I'm not that fucking petty!"
Miss Maria turned and marched out, turning her attention to the visiting Otome. "Attention, the school is under attack and the principal lied about. We can march on the few hundred people daring to take us on!"
"What!" dozens of outraged Otome shouted.
"Follow me, ladies, and we'll deal with the principal later," Miss Maria declared and there was a rallying cry as the Otome began leaving the room.
"No! Don't leave! We need to think this through because they have anti-Otome technology!" Natsuki hollered, but she was met with accusations of being a liar as the room cleared out. The only Otome left were her wife, a few close friends, and people that trusted her. Again, she found it odd that Shiho remained behind. She wondered if Shiho was following Chie's lead.
"You really know how to clear a room," Nao teased her.
Natsuki snarled. "Fuck!"
"Calm down. The idiots made their decisions. Let's see what it looks like on the big screen and then we might be able to figure out what to do. Of course, if they successfully repeal the attack we look like cowards and you'll probably get fired," Nao pointed out.
The Second Column only shrugged. She could care less about being fired and she was already considered a liar, traitor, and a dozen other things. Being called a coward was just a drop in the bucket now. So, the small group of less than ten went back into room to see what was going on.
Their colleagues were outside, their shields holding against the automatic gunfire. But, as they charged forward, things quickly changed. A few fell as if wounded as the shooting persisted. Natsuki shook her head.
"They're mixing the anti-Otome rounds with the fucking regular ammo," the principal sighed. "They wanted us to charge out there like muscle-brained oxen."
"Now, what?" Shiho asked.
"Yeah, what octopus head said," Chie remarked with a teasing grin. "Although, I'm surprised you stayed."
Shiho growled and glared at the Aries Otome. "While I don't like what's going on in Cardair, my Master told me to stay out of it and I'm professional, unlike others who have to rush into Windbloom because her girlfriend lives there."
Natsuki ignored the bickering and squinted as she studied each screen as more Otome fell while trying to help their comrades. It was like having just that moment to pause and observe allowed her brain to click back on from passive to active. Her eyes darted back and forth as she watched their enemies starting to advance. She nodded to herself.
"They're concentrating on the firing the front, drawing our attention there, but the left is what's taking us down. Chie give us a shield, everybody else just draw their attention, and I'm blasting a fucking in that left side," Natsuki proclaimed.
"How can you tell it's the left?" Anh inquired.
"The guns look different from the frontal assault and the back up on the right and mostly the people on our left are falling," the principal explained. "Once the left side is done, we can take out the rest."
"Then Natsuki can relax and stop cursing," Shizuru commented.
Natsuki save her wife an apologetic smile. They all moved out, knowing that they did not have much of a plan to work with, but it was better than nothing. They broke apart as they got outside into the heavy fire. Dozens of Otome littered the ground with dozens more trying to push forward.
"Don't get killed!" Natsuki ordered everyone as they activated their Robes.
Chie threw out her hand to put up a shield only for them to find out that the anti-Otome bullets went through the shield. "Shit! Natsuki-sama, we've got a problem!"
"On top of the trillion of others!" Natsuki screamed in disbelief.
"My shield doesn't stop the bullets!" Chie reported.
"Then do it the old fashioned way!" Haruka shouted as she charged forward as if it was a normal battle.
Natsuki dug her heels in and called forth her Element. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the enemies advancing, putting some of the fallen Otome behind enemy lines. They drew closer to an isolated Miss Maria, ready to overtake the ancient Otome. Natsuki locked and loaded as Miss Maria went down. Shizuru came over to defend the older woman. Natsuki fired just as her wife went down a few feet from Miss Maria.
"Shizuru!" Natsuki screamed as she blasted the left flank of their enemy.
The single shot of her cannon was more than enough to back the enemy up, considering it tore up and froze a huge section of the school. Smoke and dust flew up, covering the battlefield. A shot clipped her in the shoulder, twisting her body around and painting the grass with her blood. She growled as she remained on her feet.
"Shizuru!" she called as the smoke cleared. The enemy was gone, along with several Otome … her wife included. "Shizuru!"
-8-8-8-8-
Next time: the Queen's army gets into the act.
