Phase 23.12

Ouma Shu

"The garage is this way! I'm sure of it, this time!"

It was something of a lie, but we were running out of time and I didn't want my continual failure to lead Charlie Team correctly to frustrate anyone. By this point I was relying on gut feelings rather than memory, and I had a gut feeling that the next door was the right one. To my relief, it proved accurate. We burst through into the side of the garage to face row upon row of Endlaves, but none of them were active.

Arugo's communication device beeped again, echoing up and down the metal structure, and at the sound every Endlave in the room started activating and standing up.

"Holy—"

"Base to Charlie," a voice spoke over the device.

"This is Charlie, we read you," Arugo replied quickly as Endlaves continued setting themselves up all across the room and members of Charlie Team swapped weapons with the heavy artillery they carried in on their backs.

"Charlie, we just received word from the Endlave fleet. They've dealt with the situation on the beach and hacked open a gate. Should be converging on your location soon."

"Good, 'cuz we've got trouble here! Every Endlave Da'ath's got is activating as we sp—"

Arugo was interrupted by an Endlave taking aim on our position and opening fire. The team was divided in half as we dodged in opposite directions and then came back up with weapons loaded. Rockets and grenades soon engulfed the room in deafening noise and blinding smoke, taking out multiple mechs along the way. For my part I started hurling crystals into the chaos, slicing at the Endlaves' waists for maximum damage. But our metal opponents didn't just stand there and let us have at them. Though we tried our best to stick together, Charlie Team was slowly split up and spread out all across the garage to dodge all manner of projectiles the Endlaves were equipped with. Before long I was fully occupied just manifesting shields and cutting bullets out of the air—the team wouldn't have survived otherwise.

"Where the heck is our fleet?" Arugo shouted over the noise.

I thought hard. Then it dawned on me: we were instructed to locate an Endlave entrance on the west side of the facility because that's the only one we knew about. But if the fleet found an entrance on their own coming from the beach, that would mean they were entering on the east side instead.

"It's the wrong garage!" I replied. "They must have gotten in on the other side!"

"Are you serious?" roared a member of Charlie Team as he sent a rocket flying into an Endlave's head. "So what, are we gonna miss the sweep team, now?"

"Inori!"

It was a real possibility. The plan was for Charlie, the fleet, and the sweep team to all converge at phase two, and since we were supposed to be with the fleet, the sweep team might just pass us by. Charlie Team was effectively a straggler—most likely we wouldn't receive support at our current location until the secondary infiltration teams moved through all the way out in phase three. That would be an awfully long time to hold out against these mechs.

"What do we do, Arugo?" another team member asked.

"Not this!"

Arugo dove beneath an Endlave missile, rolled in my direction, and came back up to fire off an RPG. His target was a step ahead of him though, and shot a missile right back. The two projectiles would've collided, but I leaped over and made a crystal block just in front of the Endlave missile, destroying it before it hit Arugo's RPG. I landed in a roll and stood back up in front of Arugo just in time to make a shield to protect us from the resulting blast, which was now mixed with deadly crystal shards. Arugo's target fell, but was immediately replaced by another Endlave. There were just too many for us to handle on our own.

"Need a hand?" a voice came out of nowhere, accompanied by several rockets that took down a handful of Endlaves with ease.

A moment later a team of soldiers in UN uniforms stepped up beside us with heavy weapons of their own.

"Lieutenant Katsumi Aki," a woman beside Arugo introduced herself.

"Tsukishima Arugo," he replied.

"We heard the commotion and thought you might need an assist!"

"You thought correctly, Lieutenant!"

Everyone dove out of the way of more gunfire and then fought back, three times stronger what for our newfound support.

"We've been separated from the rest of our army," Arugo explained to the Lieutenant. "Have UN forces made much progress?"

"Yes, but complications have arisen. Perhaps we should find a better place to talk!"

"Agreed! Charlie: fall back!"

One by one everyone exited back into the hallways until it was just Lieutenant Katsumi and Arugo left firing, with me as their defense. Endlave fire rained down on us as we stepped backwards to safety, at a disadvantage for moving to one point while the Endlaves could spread out. I shot out spikes and shields as fast as I could, but while I managed to protect the other two, I myself was exposed for half a second and a pain shot through my right shoulder just before the door closed in front of us and we were safe once again.

"Shu!" Arugo exclaimed, noticing blood on my shoulder.

"I'm alright," I promised.

"Don't try to be a hero," said the Lieutenant. "You've done your part for now. There's no shame in visiting a medic."

"No, you don't understand. I'm fine."

I gritted my teeth, closed my eyes, and focused on the point of pain. In a few moments I could feel two hard objects scraping against one another inside me. There was a brief period where my shoulder burned so badly I couldn't even think, but then all of a sudden the pain dissipated to a dull ache, and there was a series of clinks as a bullet fell from my wound onto the floor, forced out by my crystals. I opened my eyes and tested my right arm. Everything still worked fine, though a bit less comfortably than before.

"That's some ability you have, there," Katsumi commented in amazement. "Too bad it looks like the Apocalypse Virus."

"It's not contagious, I promise."

"Forgive me, I meant no offense. It's just...a bit hard to see."

"I understand. Believe me, I do."

"Sorry to interrupt, but you were going to inform us of the mission's progress?" Arugo reminded the Lieutenant.

"Ah, yes. Or rather, what has gotten in the way of it. We suspected from the beginning that Da'ath may have infiltrated China's government, and it turns out that hunch was correct. You've no doubt heard that your Endlave fleet was detained, but what isn't being spread around is that it was Da'ath agents within the Chinese military that caused the trouble."

Arugo cursed at the news.

"So what, an entire third of our forces are traitors?"

"That's what we'd like to know. By numbers the Chinese actually account for more than a third of our forces, not to mention we're operating on their territory, so if they can't be trusted we'd prefer to find out sooner rather than later. This is a UN task, though—your own military is not required to dedicate resources to keeping tabs on China. And for now it does appear that at least a portion of China's infantry is genuinely on our side, so don't be too quick to judge them all as foes."

"Even if that's true, I don't like this one bit. Too many things are going downhill too fast."

"But our fleet did eventually get in," I reminded Arugo.

"Right. Well, let's hope things are going more according to plan on their end, now."


GC


Shinomiya Ayase

I wasn't sure if we'd successfully broken in to Da'ath headquarters or just a big, metal beehive. Endlaves swarmed the area both on the floor and in the air. To make matters worse the area was quickly littered with derelict mechs and their dismembered parts, further complicating navigation in the crowded space. Japan had far more Endlaves than Da'ath, but what our adversary lacked in numbers they made up in effectiveness. Their Endlaves were smaller than ours, more maneuverable, and yet their weaponry was heavier than average. What's more, they were either equipped with AI or driven by genetically modified pilots and had incredible aim and reflexes. If space hadn't been so limited, I don't know but that we would have dangerously struggled to land any significant hits on the enemy.

"Come on, you little gnats!" shouted a nearby Japanese pilot in an especially large, bulky Endlave. "See how you like this!"

He reached out a big arm and grabbed a Da'ath Endlave out of the air as it tried to boost up and out of the way, then slung it over his head and into the ground, right on top of another one. Both were smashed to bits and exploded, blackening the big Endlave's arm. The pilot laughed victoriously. Meanwhile I sped Steiner off to one side to dodge oncoming enemy fire, then kicked up a dead Endlave from the floor to act as a shield while I closed in on my attacker. The robot was quickly shot and exploded, and I fired into the smoke. By the time it cleared my target was full of holes and fully inoperable. A moment later another Da'ath Endlave pounced on Steiner's head and was just about to shoot out my optics when I boosted up to the ceiling and crushed the Endlave on top of me. And Steiner's feet hadn't even touched the ground again before I found myself engaged with another hostile.

It was the fastest, most frantic Endlave combat I'd ever experienced. Human combatants would have been exhausted from the flurry in minutes, but of course robots knew no such fatigue. However, even the mind can grow weary, and after some time of constant action passed I could feel my finesse slipping ever so slightly.

"Not now, Ayase! Just hold on a bit longer! We're making progress—we have to do this. You have to do this."

I let out a battle cry and took out three more enemies in one sweep with Steiner's cannon arm. Mech parts were piled all over the floor now. I could almost smell the metallic fumes that must've filled the air. We'd lost numerous members of the fleet, but somehow Da'ath was losing more. If we just held out long enough, it looked like we could score a sound victory for Japan.

That's when a funicular at the end of the garage activated and gave passage to the first wave of backups. Leading them was a larger Endlave with red stripes and a name printed across the left side of its chest.

"Orion?"

"Is...is that Steiner I see?" Orion's pilot taunted arrogantly.

"Aya!" Tsugumi shouted into my ear. "It's him!"

"Yan Daryl," I confirmed.

"Well who else would it be? You think I'd pass up the chance to finally finish off you little runts?"

Another Endlave tried to take advantage of my distraction and gun me down, but Daryl reached up and shot the mech down instead. It managed to get off one shot, but I easily blocked it with a shield mounted on Steiner's left arm.

"Stay out of this!" he roared. "This one's mine!"

I heard Tsugumi's knuckles cracking.

"Ready for this, Aya?"

Honestly I couldn't tell if I was or not. I could feel my brow furrowing in my pod as determination welled up inside me.

"Yes," I replied firmly.

I braced Steiner's feet into the ground and then boosted forward towards Orion, blasting through another of Da'ath's Endlaves along the way. My charge was brought to a desperate halt when Daryl responded by extending a long sword from Orion's right arm, nearly causing me to impale Steiner straight through the chest. Such blades were not common on Endlaves due to the arms' movement being somewhat limited, but I shouldn't have been surprised to learn that Da'ath found a way to make one responsive enough to effectively handle such a weapon.

"What do you think of this, huh!?" Daryl crowed, swinging the blade around. "Don't think I miss Steiner much anymore!"

I blocked Daryl's blows with Steiner's shield, but I feared it wouldn't hold up long. Sparks flew everywhere with each collision.

"But that doesn't mean I forgive you," he kept talking. "You still stole my Steiner, and its your fault I lost Gespenst. I don't like it when people take what belongs to me!"

He swung down from above, but I quickly dodged off to one side and shot the blade right at its base. The first hit simply made the metal shimmer, but the second left a decent crack, and with the third the blade broke entirely.

"Hah! You think I didn't come prepared?"

My crazed opponent released the broken blade from Orion's arm and promptly extended a new one in its place.

"This time, you're not getting off the hook so easily, haha!"


GC


Ouma Shu

Lieutenant Katsumi Aki took point as our combined team made its way back through the halls.

"You say this is where you found a group of children?" she asked.

"Yes," Arugo answered. "Not that it was unexpected, but it still made me sick inside to see it with my own two eyes."

"Then you'll be delighted to know that this isn't the only facility where such things go on."

"Again, not surprising."

"But what is a bit unexpected is how easily we were able to obtain records elsewhere on this floor containing precise data on Da'ath's other locations. They've got smaller facilities all over the globe—I know, not surprising—and we now have the ability to shut each one down. I've already forwarded all of the data to the UN, so no matter what happens, we've got them."

"Sounds like you're doing better than us, then."

We continued moving for some time without further chatter. Katsumi took us back a different route than we came in, leading to a stairwell found by a UN infiltration team.

"Is this where we part, or shall we continue on together?" the Lieutenant asked.

Arugo took his communication device, switched the frequency, and held it up to his face.

"General Hashimoto, this is Tsukishima."

A reply didn't come for several seconds—no doubt the general was busy issuing commands to a number of parties.

"This is Hashimoto, what's your status?"

"The Endlave fleet found its way in a different garage than our team located. At the moment we've joined forces with a UN team led by Lieutenant Katsumi Aki and are separated from our own military. Shall we attempt to rejoin our own sweep team or continue on under Katsumi's lead?"

"Japan's sweep team has already made significant progress into the dome. I doubt you'll be able to make it to their location in time, and we can't afford to hold them back to wait for your arrival. If you didn't have Ouma Shu I'd send you with the Lieutenant immediately, but I'm concerned for our sweep team's performance without him."

"The UN has a sweep team as well," Katsumi chimed in. "If we paved the way in our third of the facility with Ouma Shu then there would be far less resistance for Japan's team to handle behind us. We already know that the building narrows the farther down it goes, so eventually our progress will overlap as it is. Fewer hostiles should mean less firepower necessary to take them down."

General Hashimoto thought a moment before giving his orders.

"Alright, I'll inform our sweep team to proceed without you. Good luck, gentlemen."

Arugo was visibly relieved at the decision—I wondered if it had something to do with Katsumi, judging by his expression.

"That's it, then," he said. "We're yours to command, Lieutenant."

"Welcome aboard," she nodded.

With that we began our descent, joined up with the UN's large sweep team, and finally started making real progress through the Da'ath facility. Before long evidences of all the infiltration teams disappeared as they'd split up and plugged holes so no one and nothing associated with Da'ath could slip in or out. As such the farther our team went, the more hostiles we encountered, and the more hostiles we encountered, the more skilled agents we discovered. At first it was easy enough for me to set up crystal shields to protect the others while they gunned down everything that moved, but things got more difficult once we started engaging genetically modified subjects. Some had the same ability as Yuu and Gai to teleport around the room, others had skin with the resilience of carbon fiber, more had inhumanly fast reflexes, and a few could even stop bullets in midair with their minds. It was a long and grueling fight, claiming the lives of easily a dozen UN soldiers and earning everyone else on the team at least one mark or another. But we didn't let up. Ever downward we pushed—sometimes literally, shoving through Da'ath bodies like a collective battering ram with a crystal head. I'd never seen such carnage, not to mention so many mindless human drones so physically corrupted by Da'ath's experiments that they eagerly hurled themselves at us with no concern for their own safety or pain. Not all of the experiments were even fully clothed or armed, but they attacked with whatever powers they had and so we were forced to eliminate them, no matter how pitiful their state.

I'd lost count of how many floors the team had cleared when Lieutenant Katsumi finally stopped us from continuing onward.

"We should hold this position for a while, if we can," she said, looking around the room at the panting men and women of the UN's sweep team. "We'll only get all of ourselves killed if we go on like this. Tsukishima: are you able to track your sweep team's progress?"

Arugo made a quick communication and then turned back to the Lieutenant.

"Sounds like they're six floors above us," he confirmed, still breathing hard from the assault.

"I see. We can't stay here long enough for them to catch up, then. We'll have to continue on our own."

No one made a sound, though the disappointment in the room was palpable. Personally my mind wasn't entirely focused on the challenges yet to come, though. When everyone quieted down to catch their breath I took Arugo aside to ask him something privately.

"Did you catch how many casualties have been in Japan's team so far?"

"Nine," he answered gravely.

"And...Inori? Is she..." I couldn't even bring myself to say the words.

"Yes. The commander commented that they almost don't miss you with her on the team. Said he's never seen anything like her."

My spirit lifted to the point it was like I hadn't expended energy all day.

"Thanks, Arugo."

We were allowed only a few minutes of rest, though even that was generous of the Lieutenant under the circumstances. Standing to face the team, she took up her weapon and loudly clicked it off of safety to get everyone's attention.

"We should keep moving," Katsumi declared. "As you can all see, the floors are getting quite small, so we must be close. Remain strong: with one more push, I am confident we can break through to the bottom of this facility and this fight. All of you have already accomplished much for the cause, yet our task is incomplete: now is not the time to falter. Now, we finish the fight!"

A weak round of shouts and cheers went around the room as everyone genuinely tried to rile themselves up for their remaining part in the conflict.

"An inspiring little pep-talk," a voice suddenly echoed all over the floor from some kind of PA system, "but I am afraid you are mistaken: your role in the universe is already quite finished. There is one in your midst with whom I would meet, but the rest of you are not invited."

Somehow I understood exactly what was going on—in fact I had expected it sooner, so I didn't hesitate to step forward from the crowd at the voice's bidding. The others were less certain, though. I only progressed a couple paces before Arugo reached out and stopped me by the arm.

"Shu! Do you have any idea what you're doing?"

I turned to Arugo and smiled to assure him everything would be alright.

"Yes. This is my burden. No matter what happens, I'm ready to face it. I know I've run from it, abused it, hidden it...but no more. This is something I have to do. You've...always been a good friend to me, Arugo."

"Shu..."

I pulled free of Arugo's grasp and walked to the very center of the circular room.

"I accept your invitation!" I resolutely declared to the ceiling, picturing the very essence of Da'ath in its place. A moment later a bright light appeared beneath my feet and slowly swirled up my body. Everyone watched in amazement and fear, unsure of how to react.

"If I don't come back, take care of Inori for me!"

I wasn't sure who I was talking to, and nobody answered. But I knew they all heard me, and I hoped that would be enough. The light at my feet continued upwards until it covered my face, at which point a feeling of total weightlessness overcame my being. Then the brightness faded, my feet hit the ground again, and I found myself in a totally different area of the facility: the very bottom floor. It was a dark room with an extremely high ceiling, and circular like the last floor. A flat-topped cone platform stood in the center, with satellite-like fins decorating its rim. A light shone down on the strange contraption—the primary light source for the entire room. And most importantly, directly across from me stood a crystal throne whose back extended to the ceiling, and whose occupant was none other than the blue-haired Gai, Izanagi, dressed completely in white.

"Welcome to my domain, Ouma Shu-kun," he said. "It's high time you knew the truth—the whole truth."


Author's notes: Wow, this fanfic isn't even quite finished yet and its already crossed 2,000 views! Thanks so much, everyone! I think things really will be drawing to a close next time, but there's a lot to cover and I may tack on an epilogue as well, to be released as a separate chapter on the same day as Phase 23.13, so stay tuned while I make sure everything gets finished strong-it may be a bit slower in coming than the other chapters so far, but the plan is to have it up no later than the end of the week.

So, explanations...I've done my best to jot down notes as I've gone along to make sure I explain everything I can in the climax, but it's likely I've missed a few things. I won't spoil what's in the works right now, but if there's some burning Guilty Crown questions out there I'd love to hear them so I can try my hand at answering them over the next few days. You know what to do.

Well, here we go: down to the wire, as I like to say. Thanks as always for reading!