Darker than Black
Chapter Twenty-five: Alternate Time Line
Before the battle at Hell's Gate:
Amber stood at the window after Amagiri had left the room without noticing the egg she had slipped in his pocket. She knew he would be surprised at her action, but unfortunately, it wouldn't be enough to save him. War was a cruel and unforgivable thing.
An image of someone appeared in the window. Amber didn't turn to look at the person since she already knew whom it was. Instead she smiled and said, "Come for the meteor shard?"
"Yes, I have," said Amber's older self.
Amber turned to face herself and threw the shard at her. Older Amber grabbed it and looked down at the thing. Amber knew herself was thinking of how such a small thing could be so powerful, and that that thing was the only way Hei and Bai could see each other in Heaven's Gate.
Somehow Bai had found a way to connect her soul to Hei's body through Heaven's Gate. She wanted to save his life after the Jupiter System had gone crazy because of her, and to be with him.
"Are we sure we want to save Hei's kid as well?" asked her older self. "If things go right, it wouldn't matter?"
"It does since she will help Hei," replied Amber. "You must also give her the shard and tell her to slip it into Officer Kirihara's pocket."
"Why is that?"
"It's the only way to save Hei from getting shot by Mito."
"All right, I shall return in just a moment."
"I'll be waiting."
Twenty-six years into the Future and a Month after Hei's Disappearance:
Riku was chasing Mito and her former commander, Okina, with Nina and Miko trailing far behind. Mito and Okina whipped around a corner, which she followed, and saw them entering an abandon storage facility. She burst through it to see a stack of crates gathered around. Suddenly, there was a flash of blue light behind the crates, which made her round them only to see a machine running.
Suddenly, she felt as if the world had stop along with her. The next thing she knew, Amber appeared before her. Riku also noticed everything seemed to be a grayish color and Amber and she gave off a gold glow.
"What's… what's going on?" Riku asked.
"I'm sending you back in time," said Amber. She held out her hand and opened her palm to show the meteor shard, causing Riku to stare at it flabbergasted. "I need you to place the shard in your mother's coat pocket while your parents are storming Pandora."
"My… my mother?" Riku stuttered. Amber wanted her to go back in time and meet her mother's past self! "Why?"
"It's the only way to save Hei," said Amber. "The Mito of your time will be giving the final shot on him."
"Nani? The Mito of my time went back in time! When?"
Amber turned around, pointed at the machine, and said, "That's a duplicate of the American's time machine. Mito and Okina had just used it to go back to your father's time."
"But shouldn't his attention be to stop me from being born? I mean, it was his past self that killed my dad."
"That's his attentions now, Riku, but his first attention was to finish what he wasn't able to do."
Riku looked at Amber perplexed.
"I don't get what you're saying," she said.
"The past Mito tried killing your father, but he missed. The Mito of this time wanted to correct that mistake, so when he found out the American's machine worked; he went back in time and killed your father."
Riku stared at her bewildered.
"Are you…? Are you telling me that my father should had never been killed that day? Are you telling me, all this time, I've been living in an alternate world?"
"Hai," nodded Amber.
"All this time I could have been growing up with a father?"
"Riku, even though your father was still alive, you still hated him since you were three. You spent most of your time getting into fights to make yourself stronger. You could even take on a Contractor one-on-one."
"That's not possible? Me, take on a Contractor alone?"
"You have the talent and you have shown it. How else were you able to capture your father?
"After your mother was shot ten years ago you blamed him for it since he was the one that had gotten the lead on the Syndicate."
"Nani? Otosan got the lead, not Saitou-san?"
"Hai."
"And she still ended up getting killed! Even though he lived she died?"
"No, she lived since your father saved her from the final and deadly shot, but your anger got the best of you.
"I've spent too much time on my obeisance. I need to send you back in time."
Amber gave the stone to Riku, placed her hand on her shoulder, and took her back twenty-six years.
Present:
"Sparkle, sparkle, twinkle, twinkle," muttered Stargazer. "My little stars, fall randomly like you had nine months ago. Heh, heh. Soon my precious little star will plummet. Everybody, humans, Contractors and Dolls, watch in amazement. Heh, heh."
Chibisaka watched on in shock next to Hina. She was still blabbering about her favorite star, but which one was it? It couldn't be BK201, or was it?
"Hey, Chibisaka, I don't like how things are going," said Hina.
"Me neither," replied Chibisaka.
Brita's second platoon entered the lab where the Solar Absorber was. It was a huge ball held up by four thick layers of stilts with green narrow lights running around it. Circular cross catwalks ran around the device on three different levels with staircases running up and down it.
The pony-tailed woman's rubber bands punctured throughout the sphere, as the bandana man ripped the lights apart. The blonde-hair Contractor shot needle-sized nails at it to rip miniature holes in it while a gooseneck looking Contractor poured acid like rain down to eat at the metal.
Within seconds, the thing exploded. It tilted to lean on the catwalk to tear through it, and then it rolled onto the ground with a loud thump and crumbling into pieces while wires ripped apart.
The pony-tailed woman pulled out a walky-talky and said in it, "It's done."
"Good work," said a man on the other line. "BK201 has taken care of the Saturn System. Time to get out of there."
The pony-tailed woman put away the walky-talky and gestured for them to split. They exited the lab and ran down the corridor. More Pandora soldiers rounded a corner and fired, killing the blonde-haired Contractor. The remaining EPR platoon took shelter and returned fire.
The ponytail woman shot a rubber band through a soldier's heart, and then a second one through another guards head. The bandana man snapped a third solder's neck, and a fourth soldier's vertebra. The gooseneck looking Contractors created an acid rain storm on the remaining soldiers.
After they were dealt with, the Contractors continued down the hallways.
xxx
Riku dodged a vertical wave that sliced into the wall where she had been standing. She then rolled under another and fired off a shot. Kawakawa Okina flicked his right wrist to block the bullet and sent another wave at Riku.
She twisted around it, getting part of her shirt ripped at the waist, and fired another shot. Okina easily blocked it.
"I'm wondering something?" began Riku. "Why would the Syndicate allow you to join the Foreign Affairs since they would have known you were a former Contractor?"
"Because I was trustworthy," he replied. "I was always trustworthy. I never lied about anything after losing my power. I hated it and I tried to ignore my feelings, but it did no good. I had wished I had my powers still so I wouldn't have to react to my emotions, and when I had heard the Syndicate had built a time machine, I begged Mito to take me with him. Of course Mito didn't want to at first, but he thought he could use me in his little plan."
"So the whole thing about putting up guards around Hell's Gate when my father's star appeared was you trying to see if you could get your powers back?"
"Hai, and the Syndicate couldn't risk me being there so they made Yamato reinstate himself."
"They made him, how?" A thought crossed her mind. "They threatened to kill his family, didn't they?"
Okina smiled and continued to attack. Riku frowned as she dodged his ability.
xxx
Hei stood in Heaven's Gate looking up at the real stars shining above an orange hurricane-like eye. It had happened again. How was it possible without the meteor shard? Someone had to have had it, but who?
Hei saw future Mito run towards a time machine not far from him. He jumped in it and disappeared.
Hei noticed a lake at the corner of his right eye and began approaching it. He walked onto the shoreline where his telescope was, and as he was about to look into it, he stopped as someone behind him asked, "What are you doing, Onisan?"
Hei turned to see his little sister standing in the lake blinking slowly with her arms behind her back.
"Xing?" questioned Hei. "You're here. We can finally be a family again."
"No, we can't, Onisan. At least not yet."
Hei stared at her baffled.
"But I'm supposed to be dead, right?" Hei pointed out. "That means I am to be here with you."
"But you didn't die, Onisan. Only Mito did. Also, you have two people who love you dearly and need you…"
"But I have seen the future, Xing. I had died."
"The future hasn't been written yet, baka!" shouted someone else from behind. Hei turned to see it was Huang with everybody else: including Amber and Tsu. "After I had saved your butt nine months ago you want to throw it all away, especially since you're going to be a dad?"
"You had shown that Contractors can love, Hei," said Mao smiling. "It would be a shame not to rub it in the Syndicate's face."
"And you made a promise to Riku, Hei," said Amber, as she stepped before him. "You can't go back on a promise. Riku would dearly be hurt and she would have to deal with losing you a second time."
"Amber?" whispered Hei.
Amber stared into his eyes and drew her lips to his, but she stopped and stepped back smiling. She loved him, he knew that, and he loved her too, but she knew his heart belonged to another. How painful it must have been for her.
Before Hei could ask another question, he was engulfed in the bright light again, and then he found himself lying in Misaki's lap. Her lips were trembling, as her tears poured like waterfalls to drip onto Hei's left cheek and trickle down the side of his face to dampen Misaki's pants.
"Li!" cried Misaki while she caressed his cheek. "Don't leave me! Please. Not now. Not when I'm… I'm… I'm pregnant… with your child."
"Mi… Misaki…?" he muttered heavily.
"Li!" replied Misaki startled.
Hei sat up and looked around to see nobody else, and then noticed future Mito's clothes were the only things left.
"What happened?" Misaki asked.
"Xing," replied Hei.
"Your… your sister? But how?"
Hei didn't respond to her comment, but he instead took her in his arms. He didn't want anything else but Misaki. She embraced him tightly, as if to prevent him from slipping through her grasp.
Suddenly, he felt something in her coat pocket and took it out. To his surprise it was the meteor shard.
"What's that?" Misaki asked.
"The thing that helped Xing save me," replied Hei. "How did it get into your pocket?"
Misaki thought on his words, and then her eyes widened as something came to mind.
"Riku?" she muttered.
Hei looked at Misaki shocked. Had Riku told her? No, she had figured it out on her own somehow.
xxx
Saitou and Kouno found themselves somehow in a different hallway after being swallowed from the light. They ran down it, hoping to find Misaki and Li again, but they instead came across two guys running around a corner in front of them.
"Freeze, police!" shouted Saitou.
The two guys turned around and shot at them. Saitou and Kouno took cover around a corner and returned fire. They ducked behind the wall again, as bullets flew by, or struck the wall. Saitou peeked around and fired, but missed and hid his head from oncoming fire.
"I don't think those two idiots are going to give up, Ken?" said one of the guys.
"No, really, I haven't guessed that yet, Brian?" shouted the other guy.
"If you two give up we'll understand!" shouted Kouno.
"I don't think so," said the guy named Ken.
They continued firing. Saitou and Kouno snorted and took quick pop shots. Saitou flinched back, as a bullet grazed his right elbow.
"Saitou!" shouted Kouno.
"I'm fine," assured Saitou.
Suddenly, there was a plop sound. The two detectives looked around the corner to see the guys lying on the ground knocked out in front of a beautiful green-haired woman with orange eyes in a red and black jump suit.
"Don't move!" shouted Saitou, as he whipped around the corner, and pointed his gun at her.
"Sorry," replied the woman, and then she highlighted in blue.
"CONTRACTOR!" shouted Kouno and fired.
Suddenly, the room turned into a grayish color, as everything seemed to slow down. The next thing that happened was the woman disappearing and the room turning to normal.
"Wh… where… where'd she go?" Kouno asked, as he looked around.
"Maybe her power is to disappear?" questioned Saitou.
Darker than Black
Riku leaped over a wave and rolled into a kneeling position to fire off a few rounds that were batted aside. Okina flung two waves to make them twirl like fan blades. Riku had enough time to jump through the little open space, and having the bottom of her shoes sliced off. Riku looked back at them and breathed out a sign of relief.
"Too close," she muttered.
Okina sent another wave in which she rolled out of the way and kneeled while taking a shot. That too had been blocked.
"Give it up, Riku," Okina smirked. "You can't win. Just lay down your gun and I will make sure your death is painless."
"Commander," replied Riku, as she stared down her sights at him. "You are stupid to think I would give up on a fight since my father is the Black Reaper."
Okina laughed. "Pardon my rudeness of forgetting about whom your old man was, Chibi Kuro no Shinegami," he stated cruelly.
Riku stared at him with deadly eyes. She had told him the story about knocking her Senpai's teeth out after he had called her that. Okina figured he would throw that nickname into the mix and irritate her physically so he could easily kill her due to her anger.
Riku smirked which surprised Okina.
"I am proud to be the daughter of the Black Reaper," she stated.
Okina frowned and sent another wave at Riku. She dodged to the right and busted the emergency fire extinguisher glass. She pulled out the hose, turned it on, and sprayed Okina. He cursed as he swatted at the sudden gush of water. Riku turned it off and ran at her commander to fight him one-on-one. Since she was in close range he couldn't call on his power and use it on her.
Riku dropped under a swing and punched Okina in the kidney, and then struck him across the face. He stumbled and slammed into an electric box, causing it to bust and electrocute him. He screamed out in pain while shaking vigorously, and then fell forward dead.
"Sayonara, Commander Kawakawa Okina," said Riku.
She turned on her heels and ran down the halls hoping to find her parents alive.
Xxx
Akira busted through his door and ran over to his desk. He hit a switch to open a secret tunnel in the left hand corner of the room, grabbed a revolver out of his desk, and ran down the hall to escape from Hell's Gate.
Akira turned a corner to see a man pointing a nine-millimeter at him. The man fired and struck Akira in the upper right side of his chest. He stumbled backwards and tripped to fall on his bottom. Akira pressed his hand on the wound and stared up at Yamato angrily.
"How dare you!" he barked. "After the years we served together in Okinawa. Is this how you are going to treat your old partner?"
"My partner died the day he signed his soul over to the Syndicate," replied Yamato.
"And have you come here to kill me so I am officially dead?"
"No, I came to kill you so you wouldn't threaten me again, and so that nobody under my watch at the Foreign Affairs is hurt or killed again."
Akira snorted at him.
"Because of you and the Syndicate," continued Yamato, "EPR targeted us and killed five of my men. They had wives and kids. A dozen or more are injured, and it's all because of your regime. So I had come to help BK201 and Misaki end it."
"You do this and I'm sure Mito will kill your wife and son from your action!"
"That will be the last time you will threaten my family."
Akira raised his gun to shoot Yamato, but it only clanked. Yamato smiled as he raised his gun at Akira while saying, "I took the time to remove the bullets. You always forgot to check your ammo."
Yamato pulled the trigger and put a bullet between Akira's eyes.
Xxx
Young Mito and the Contractor ran through walls in hope of escaping the fiasco, and avoid the security checkpoint. They were drawing close to the parking garage when the Contractor was shot in his chest and killed. Mito looked around and saw Naoyasu nearby pointing a smoking gun at him.
Mito freaked out and ran down another corridor, as a bullet grazed the corner. He headed into the checkpoint and shoved workers and security out of his way. He bolted through a metal detector, setting it off, and stormed out into the garage. Mito hurried over to his car, which was parked four rows over, hopped into his car, and brought his engine to life to drive out of the lot. Suddenly, a figure in black dropped in front of him. He freaked out as he slammed on the brake to stare at BK201.
"Oh hell!" Mito shouted.
He put his car in reverse to get away, but Misaki was there pointing her gun.
"Out of the vehicle, Takeda Mito," demanded Misaki.
Mito looked back and forth at Misaki and BK201, wondering what he should do. Believing there was no way out of it; he threw the car into drive, and slammed on the gas to run over BK201. He smiled devilishly as he drew closer, but to his amazement BK201 jumped onto his hood at the last minute, placed his hand on it and glowed blue along with the car. Suddenly, the engine clanked, as if something broke, and then the car's brakes seem to come to life on its own, as the brake peddle slammed to the floor to stop the car. BK201 back-flipped off the hood from the momentum, and landed a few meters away. Smoke rose from under the hood, giving the Black Reaper an appearance that he had stepped out from the depths of hell.
"Get out of the car and put your hands up!" shouted Misaki.
Mito looked back at her while cursing and then stepped out of his car with his hands in the air. Misaki and BK201 walked up to him. BK201 whipped out his wire and tied it around Mito's wrist.
"You're under citizen arrest," stated Misaki.
Suddenly, Saitou and Kouno ran into the garage, scanning for the ruckus that had happened, and then spotted Misaki and BK201. They looked on surprised, but shook it away to aim their guns at BK201. Misaki jumped in front of BK201, causing Saitou and Kouno to stare at her baffled.
"Misaki-san, please step aside," said Saitou.
"No!" she said.
"Misaki-san!"
Riku bolted through an emergency exit while looking over her shoulder. She turned her attention towards the stand off, making her stare at the scene hysterically, as Kouno trained his gun on her.
"Drop the gun and put your hands up," he demanded.
Riku did what was ordered. Kouno cautiously walked over to her pulling out his cuffs from his coat.
"Kouno, no!" shouted Misaki. "Please don't. Just let her go!"
"Can't do that, Misaki!" said Kouno, as he stepped behind Riku. "It pains me to do this to such a beautiful woman."
He grabbed her right arm, pulled it behind her back while snapping his cuff on her wrist, and repeated his action with her left arm.
"Please, Kouno," Misaki begged. "She's—she's my… she's my daughter!"
"EH?" said Kouno and Saitou surprised.
"Misaki, are you on something?" Kouno asked. "There's no way she can be your daughter since she looks the same age!"
"It's… it's hard to explain," stuttered Misaki.
They stared at her, waiting for her to explain, but she couldn't find the right words to say.
"I'm from the future," said Riku.
"The… future?" questioned Kouno. "Don't be absurd. How can you be from the future? It is proven time travel is impossible."
"Anything is possible. It's possible for Contractors to exist, isn't it?"
Kouno opened his mouth to say something, but apparently a cat had caught his tongue. He frowned and said instead, "Doesn't matter anyways. We're still taking you and BK201 in."
"Saitou, Kouno!" yelled Misaki.
"Misaki, it'll be all right," said Hei.
"But, Li?"
"I don't want to run anymore."
"Okasan, we'll be all right," said Riku. "We'll get things settled."
Saitou cuffed Hei, as Yamato and Miyusu exited Hell's Gate. Yamato looked at them, and then smiled with glee.