Eru was the last one to wake up. She sat up with a yawn and glanced at Mayaka's bed; she sighed and thought of how hard all of them were working on practicing. She decided to get dressed and start on breakfast. She slipped some slippers on and pulled on a cozy dress then slipped out into the hallway. Satoshi met as she stepped out and greeted her with a smile.

"Good morning Chitanda," he said with his normal vibrancy, "Today's a big day!"

"Why is that?"

"We're going to be stopping at an asteroid today to pick up another of Hotarou's packages!"

"Oh!" she recalled what Hotarou said and his uncertainty about the plan afterwards and while she was a little worried, she was still glad he had something of a goal. "Is this the last one?"

"I don't think so," he replied, "There's one more on some planet, I think." Eru nodded and walked with Satoshi over to the kitchen.

"Have you eaten yet?" she asked as she donned her apron and he moved towards the couch on the other side of the half-wall.

"Nope."

Eru looked around the kitchen and pulled some things out and began cooking rise and making miso soup. As she cooked Satoshi continued:

"Hotarou is combo training with Fuyumi and Mayaka. He and Fuyumi look made to fight, Mayaka has a litter harder time keeping up because she used to doing her own thing rather than being in-sync with someone else.

"You know Hotarou went to Earth to get one of his packages, right?"

"Yes," Eru replaced the ladle on the counter then began cooking the eggs.

"Well the reason we stayed so long was because he was waiting for this asteroid to get a little closer so we didn't have to travel as far."

Eru smiled to herself, that's just like him, thinking of everyone else…

"But Loki messed up his plans even more when Hotarou flew away and stayed hidden for so long." Satoshi waited for Eru's reaction then suddenly recalled that Eru was the one who called Loki to the ship; he quickly tried to correct himself, "I-I mean, it's not your fault that Loki—you didn't know what he was. None of us did. But really don't worry about it, it's a mistake we all could've made!"

"Anyway," he resumed, assuming that Eru's silence meant that she didn't take the comment too hard, "then staying with Suzie wasn't planned either. But I think it was a really good thing! We got some excellent training while we were with her! And we met some really interesting people!"

Eru agreed with this statement then scooped out the rice into a bowl and placed a plate with the tamagoyaki to the other side and added the miso soup into a bowl. Satoshi stood and moved himself into the eating area and after heatily thanking Eru for the food, began to eat happily. She turned back to finish making food for everyone else as well.

"Chitanda, by the way, we're supposed to arrive near the asteroid at 11. From there Hotarou will take one of the jets to the asteroid, since it's too rough to land on with the ship. He said it should take about an hour if everything goes well."

Oreki must have told everyone that this morning while I was still asleep…I hate being left out of the loop! Eru sighed and puffed out her cheeks in a mildly irritated manner.

"Oh! Chitanda's mad!" Satoshi remarked when he saw this reaction. "That's rare from Saint Eru!"

Eru shook her head quickly. "Fukube!"

"Sorry, I'm just teasing." He held up his hand apologetically. "Was it being left out of the loop on today's events?"

Eru was surprised, but Satoshi often had a way of figuring out what was on other people's minds while still keeping any of his own thoughts hidden behind his happy smile. Now if only she could be that stone-faced.

After a while everyone came down from their morning workout and nearly collapsed at the table. Eru, with some help from Satoshi, placed their food at their places and ate a late breakfast. After the brunch Irisu and Mayaka went to go take their baths.

…

Hotarou put on a space suit and climbed into the jet a half an hour before the scheduled time so that he could make all of the checks without a rush. Though no one really knew why there would be a rush.

The others watched from the monitor in the cockpit then from the front window as he rounded the edge of the ship, and watched as he landed on the specified asteroid. Everyone went to sit in the living room to wait until he came back to the ship; Eru began to make some tea. As there was a lull in the conversation and that somewhat awkward slice took over there was suddenly the sound of metal being crushed and the whole ship shook so violently that it threw its passengers to the floor. They all looked around at one another—had they been hit by an asteroid? Some other space debris? Certainly no one was crazy enough to be out in this part of space of no reason, right? Then they heard the shout of unfamiliar voices. Satoshi picked himself up and braced himself against the wall.

"Get ot the practice room! Now!" he ordered. The crew gathered together, Eru abandoning her supplies and grouping up with all of them then they all moved for the practice room, Satoshi fell in behind everyone as they all swept up the hall. The voices were coming from above them and the sound of feet came as a steady stream even as they just managed to slip inside of the room. The room recognized the individuals inside and registered all of their weapons. Each took their own and girded themselves with it and other defense material. Mayaka glanced at Eru who stood behind them all watching with eyes widening in fear.

She took Eru's hand in her own, "Don't worry, we'll protect you. When Oreki gets back, he'll know what to do." There was a fear in Mayaka's eyes, but yet a great amount of courage still. Eru took Irisu's hand as well for support. There wasn't a trace of fear in her eyes and her hands were as cold as ice compared to Mayaka's who were hot with anxious waiting. Then the barrage came. There wasn't even a simple knock at the door, just a huge crash as several huge men stormed the room, trampling the door as if it were made of straw.

"Put your hands up and come quietly!"

Eru saw a quick movement out of the corner of her eye: it was Irisu who had had suddenly leapt forward and ceased the closest man by the shirt and using her gloves charged with electricity, disabled the man and was onto the next. Taking this signal, Satoshi lunged forward and fired his gun in rapid succession. The attackers were smart and very fast at dodging the bullets and maneuvering around Irisu's electric grasp. But the two were still well-enough trained to keep most of them away from Myaka and Eru. Almost as if they had already planned it, Mayaka stayed close to Eru's side and any man that managed to squeeze past the defense met a quick end at the tip of Mayaka's pistol as she fired with one hand and gripped Eru's tightly in her other.

Once Irisu and Satoshi had pushed back the attack just enough to opened a hole for them, Mayaka lead Eru through the fight and down towards the living room, Satoshi and Irisu folded behind then holding back the barrage of attackers. Eru was astonished at how accurate her friends had become in such a short amount of time, but that was to be expected of Suzie's training. Suzie had given them noting but the best instruction and with even the small amount of partner training they had been an almost elite fighting force, a formidable bulwark for even this onslaught of attackers.

At the shrinking of the hall at the bed rooms Satoshi took a stand at the entrance while they others fell in line just behind him. Once he ran out of ammo and had to reload, Irisu fell in as back up until she tired. When she moved back Myaaka stepped forward. However, though strong the trio was, they couldn't stand up to the attackers by themselves at such close range. With each attacker that was fought back another fresh fighter appeared. So the group was pushed back down the hall.

"We can't let them into the living room, they'll surround us!" Myaaka hissed to Satoshi as he backed out to let Irius step forward once again.

"Right…" Satoshi panted. He glanced around then frowned. "Where's Chitanda?"

"Eru-?" Mayaka panicked and looked around frantically then saw her standing behind the wall. She rolled over to her and hissed, "what are you doing?"

"There's a trap door here, we can block it and…"

Suddenly there was a high-pitched whistle and several loud screams as a flash of electricity exploded in the hallway. Without thinking twice Eru and Mayaka pulled the door open and grabbed Satoshi by the collar who in turn grabbed Irisu by the wrist.

While the men were still blinded and paralyzed by the flash, the four slipped into the hidden door and closed it behind them. Irisu removed one of her gloves and pulled out the cords and strapped them across the door and activated the glove.

"If anyone tries this way they will be removed," she turned the setting up to the highest energy level so that the glove practically hummed with the current. They all moved quickly downstairs and into the storage room.

For the moment they could catch their breath until the invaders had figured out where they had gone. During this time they also began to wonder who was attacking their ship.

"Those men are beast-like!" Mayaka gasped. "I had to shoot one 5 times before he dropped! His hand was bigger than my head! Are these dealers like Suzie's men?"

"They're African decedents," Satoshi said in a low voice while shaking his head. "They're some of the toughest people in the galaxy because of how hard it was to survive on the savannahs of Africa. I think they're agents from the Organization. The Organization trains them to never stop fighting until they're killed or achieve their goal. They specialize in hand-to-hand combat and some weaponry."

There was a loud thud at the door above them. The attackers had found them.

"We need to somehow get them away from the ship," Satoshi began again with more urgency in his voice, "I don't think their ship is larger than ours or else it would have done more damage to our own."

"Where is that idiot Orkei when you need him?" Mayaka fumed. "He'd know what to do."

There were sudden footsteps and the door behind them opened up. Out stepped Htoarou, "You aren't supposed to call the one who's going to save you an idiot usually. If you don't want my help, I'll just leave it to you. It's a lot of work anyway…."

"Oreki!" Eru gasped maneuvering in the tight space to stand next to him. It was all she could do to keep herself from crying with relief and continued fear at his appearance. There was yet another loud thud at the top of the stairs. Hotarou looked around at each of them, their eyes glimmering with renewed confidence at seeing him.

"Satoshi, Ibara, take the upstairs to try and seal off their exit to their ship. Irisu, you'll hold here until it becomes too much then lock this door behind you and retreat to the upstairs with Satoshi and Ibara. You'll be covering for us as we get to the hanger to get the jets." He turned back to Satohsi and Mayaka, "If push comes to shove, force your way into their ship and fly that to Mars as fast as you can. Chitanda and I will catch up." Without another word but a simple synchronized nod of the head, the group split, Satoshi and Mayaka followed Hotarou's brief directions to take the tunnel at the bow of the ship, that lead into the cockpit then into the end of hallway on the top level. Hotaoru was going to hand Isiru something else to protect herself with, but she assured him she was fine.

"Don't touch anything metal if you hear the high-pitched whistle," she warned him. Hotarou nodded then gestured for Eru to follow him into the storage room. Without hesitation he hit a button on the side of the wall. The floor opened up and he told her to climb down into the hole. This was the same trap door she had wanted to explore earlier, but now wasn't the time to think about this. Eru took a deep breath and stepped inside and down the small flight of stairs and into a long, cold tunnel. Hotarou soon followed. It wasn't tall enough to quite stand up in, but it was wide enough to crawl side-by-side. The distant sounds of the fighting soon faded out so that the eerie creak of the metal ship was the only noise.

"O-oreki?"Eru wavered as they made slow progress forward due to her long skirt, "When did you get back?"

"Only a few minutes ago. There was nothing on the asteroid, the box was there, but it was completely empty. So I came back as soon as possible, only to be met with this mess," he grumbled under his breath. "You should fix your skirt."

Eru blushed at his comment, and apparently he seemed uncomfortable mentioning it. So they stopped to see if see if anything could be done

"There isn't any string," Hotarou said, "So it can't be tied…"

"Well there is…" Eru suggested quietly meaning the corset that was tied tightly with string.

"But what happens if we take it off?" Hotarou asked slowly.

"Then the corset comes off…"

"Then we're not doing that!" Htoarou said shaking his head quickly and accidentally hitting it on the metal wall. Both froze as the sound bounced around then fell to silence again.

Eru's blush deepened and she said quietly, "I have long bloomers underneath, that'll just have to do for now…"

"Right…"

Eru removed the skirt and tied it around her waist as best as possible. After she finished there was a high-pitched whistle that they heard. Both quickly got up on their shoed feet. The floor below them buzzed with electricity then the sound and vibrations died away. They glanced at each other and continued to crawl with increased speed towards the hanger.

At the end of the tunnel there was a small door blocking the opening and through the cracks, little shafts of light could be seen from the hanger. Htoaoru pressed his ear to the door and listened. "There are some people in there," he murmured to her. Eru nodded and listened as well. He leaned away quickly, "I'd say about 5." He lifted his arm to examine his weapon in one of the small cracks of light he adjusted some settings on it then leaned against the wall, ready to spring out as soon as the door was opened. Eru placed her hand on his arm and looked at him with a great amount of fear.

"You shouldn't go out there, it's not safe…I'm afraid…" her words faltered as she tried to choke back tears as she thought of what could happen to him. He didn't respond. But what she noticed is that the trembling which felt in her hand, didn't belong to her as much as it did him. "Oreki…"

She tried to see what Hotarou was thinking by looking at his eyes, but they were closed until he looked at her, then she knew: he had an over powering fear of what was coming too. "I…"

Eru could barely heard his hushed voice, "What?"

"No, it's not safe…" he said as if trying to encourage himself with the thought. "But you don't have to be safe…to be unafraid."

With that he swung open the door and leapt out into the opening. Eru jumped out behind him and hung by his side. Those who had mingled in the hanger smiled as if they had expected them. They all came at him at once, but Htoarou was faster and pointed his arm, and without as much as aiming, and fired multiple shots which hit their targets with enough force to be able to send them sprawling on the floor. But there wasn't any blood. Eru's eyes widened as she realized, Hotarou wasn't killing any of them, only stunning them or knocking them out with the force of the shot. Is he doing this…for my sake?

Suddenly she felt her hands restrained behind her. She screamed out of fear then smelled familiar cologne. It's him…!

Hotaoru whipped around at the sound but was too late to do anything and found himself held at gun point from behind. Without thinking he aimed his arm gun at the one who held Eru.

"Let her go Loki." Hotarou growled. "She isn't a threat to you."

"Oh I know! But she is to you!" cooed the mellow voice of the other. "I can threaten you with her all I want! And really you were too easy to catch! Your other shipmates have put up more of a fight! It's like you didn't even try! You might as well lower your weapon. You have a greater change of hitting her than me." Loki's eyebrows lowered and his smile faded, "Unless, of course, you are going to put up the 'I don't care about anyone' act like you always do. Then by all means, fire away!"

Hotarou didn't lower his arm, but looked through the crosshairs and aimed. Eru suddenly sensed a cold malice from him. Her eyes widened with fear as she watched him narrow his eyes and place his finger on the switch. "O-oreki!" Eru cried as he suddenly fired, a real bullet whizzing past her head and nearly hitting Loki's. So close was it that it even scared Loki. There was a sound of splitting metal then suddenly a gush of liquid onto the floor. Loki turned hesitantly, hiding most of his body behind Eru and looked.

Gallon upon gallon of jet fuel was pouring from a barrel and began to pool around their feet. Loki side-stepped himself and Eru away from the growing puddle and watched it spread across the floor towards Hotarou who stood with a wicked look of anger on his face.

"Nice warning shot," Loki laughed lightly, but Eru could hear the tenseness in his voice. "But you have to try better than that."

"Don't be a coward," Hotarou began. "Leave Chitanda alone, she's done nothing to you. You're here for me, right?"

"I'd be lying if I could say that I want to flatter you like that. I'm here for all of you to take you into custody. But some of you will be in better shape to give a testimony than others." Eru felt something pressed up against her head.

Hotarou went to move towards her but felt the gun pressed against his back. Loki smirked, "Yes, be careful there Hotarou, one false move and neither of you will be able to cry over the over! And look at yourself in the mirror before you start calling others cowards. How can you stand to look at yourself every morning knowing just how worthless you are?"

"Oreki!" Eru suddenly cried, "Don't listen to him! You're not worthless! Don't let him call you that!"

"Oh, no, it's not just me that called him worthless. Ever since he was born he's been worthless! Everyone is worthless! I'm just insuring that he doesn't get a big head about being the hero and try some stunt to save all of you. He can hardly save himself let alone all of you. Why do you think he runs away so much? Why do you think he's abandoned you so many times? It's because he's trying to run away form his own worthlessness. He sees it reflected in everyone that he meets. He couldn't even save that old woman in the mountains!" Eru saw the fire die from Hotarou's eyes at the mention of Isa and his will almost visibly collapse. He dropped his head and started at the floor. "So what makes you think you could even spare this one?" Loki pulled Eru into his arms and pressed the barrel against her head again. "What's the point of making friends if all they end up doing is ultimately making you suffer in the end because you're too worthless to save them? You know, things like this will always end up happening to those who make friends. You'll have to choose whose life is more important, yours or your friends'. So which it is Hotarou?"

Hotarou's frame tensed, Eru felt Loki's tense as well, waiting for his move. Eru looked into Hotarou's eyes and fell speechless at what she saw. Hotarou ducked quickly and Loki suddenly jerked his weapon away from Eru and fired at Hotarou all Eru saw was the flash of a laser toward him and a spark that ignited the jet fuel underneath Hotarou and the other man. She heard a shriek from the man as the fire roared up and engulfed the two of them. Eru screamed and collapsed to her knees and felt a sudden stinging sensation in her side she covered it with her hand and found that she had been cut by something she turned around to look at Loki. He had been more injured than her, shot in the stomach, but it wasn't bad enough to be fatal. A random man of the raiding party rushed to Loki's side and picked him up as he paled from blood loss.

Eru watched the flames then realized that she was sitting very close to them. She tried to pick herself up but her legs wouldn't support her. She heard someone calling her name and turned to see Irisu standing at the entrance of the hanger.

"Eru, get up! You need to get out of here! The jets are going to explode!" Eru looked at the trail of fire that had started near the jet. Irisu suddenly stood next to her and was lifting her up. "Come on!"

"But…Oreki…"

Irisu looked over at the flames and averted her eyes, "There's nothing we can do now." She lifted Eru to her feet and helped her to the further jet. She yanked down the steps and pushed Eru up the stairs into the jet then slipped inside after her. She started the jet at a roar then shot the ship's gun through the hanger door and blasted out into space just before the other jet caught on fire and exploded, obliterating the hanger of the ship.

Irisu piloted the jet around and met with a larger ship piloted by Mayaka and pulled next to the other. Irisu contacted Myaaka on her watch, none of the conversation Eru recalled later.

"Ibara and Fukube…?" Eru whispered.

"Ibara is fine, nothing more than a few scratches. Fukube got seriously injured, but it's not fatal."

"I'm glad…" Eru sighed as she fell into a sleep of delirium. As she slept, her dreams were plagued by a scene that played over and over again in her mind: Hotarou standing before her; the boy that she couldn't save because she was too afraid to fight, who saved her by sacrificing himself instead; the look in his eyes that held the desperation after the damage of Loki's words, but still gripped the determination to protect her. The unspoken words that she could find no response to:

I'm sorry, Chitanda.

This signifies the end of this Fanfiction. I think I've exceeded what I can do with the Hyouka characters a this point. I've added just a bit too much to the characters to be able to call this a Hyouka Fanfiction anymore. I am going to continue the story and post revised chapters (probably on Fictionpress and on a Tumblr account, but it might be a while) as if it were a novel of itself and when I continue writing I'll make sure to write a re-direct chapter so that if anyone wants to continue they can. At this point this story is is nearing 70,000 words, more than enough to be a novel, and I have a lot more planned.

The characters will have different names and have different backgrounds, but you can still think of them as the Hyouka characters if you'd like-I know I still do. Thank you all for supporting me this far and I hope that some of you will still have enough interest in the story to continue reading it even if it isn't a Fanficiton anymore!