A/N: Okay; I guess this chapter might get a little confusing without prior instructions: for the parts focusing on Meia and Jai,
'this' = Meia, and
"this" = Jai.
You'll understand when you read it. Or when you re-read it, probably.
Mistra Rose - Thank you very much! I just hope you won't get mad at me after reading this chapter.
Skillfulist - Two chapters in one month means I'm writing at the speed of light. Thanks.
And a many thanks to all those who fave/alert this story.
This one's a rather long chapter. Enjoy!
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CHAPTER 15
Fusion
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Meia shook her head. 'A fever?' No wonder she wasn't feeling well – she really wasn't well.
"Yes, and don't make me repeat myself. In any case, something must've happened to our ships," Jai said. Meia then noticed he was kneeling in front of her, not sitting, when he got up and moved to the seat adjacent to her right.
'Something like...fused together?' There seemed no other way to put it.
"There does seem to be no other logical explanation, other than your Dread and my Vanguard did fuse," Jai said, echoing her thoughts. Meia just shrugged.
She had a wide field of vision, 180-degrees, of the space ahead, much different from in her own Dread. Jai was seated so close to her, their whole arms were touching. Her right hand rested on half of a glowing green sphere; his left hand was on the other half.
'What could this be?' she wondered.
"This must be the control mechanism, or something..." Jai said. He was probably thinking the same thing. Other than the chairs and the sphere, nothing else was in the vicinity.
'But how can we possibly control this thing?' she thought to herself.
To her surprise, Jai answered her. "I don't know...maybe we just..."
'Wait, how did you hear that?' Meia said out loud.
"You were talking, all this time," Jai replied simply.
'I was not!'
"You most definitely were. I could hear you, that's why." After a pause, he said, "She must be really tired..."
'You could address me properly when you talk, thank you very much, and I am not hallucinating.'
"You heard that last part?"
'Still think I'm only imagining things?'
"Well, touché. It seems that I can hear your thoughts, and you can hear mine."
Both were silent for a while. It was only five seconds since Jai took his seat beside Meia; their entire exchange lasted for only that much time.
Then the side of the enemy mother ship floated into view – dangerously close.
"Whoa!"Jai, for one, was caught by surprise. The Dread/Vanguard shifted backwards and let loose laser blasts from three different ports.
'What are you doing?!' Meia shouted. Their craft then veered upwards, launching missiles in all directions.
"What are YOU doing?!" Jai shouted back. They surged forward, coincidentally dodging enemy fire in the process.
The atmosphere was, to put it simply, chaotic. Barrages of conflicting ideas and judgments passed between them without words, and so quickly that they didn't know which thought was whose exactly. It was as if they were fighting each other for control, Jai wanting to do one thing, and Meia wanting another.
Amidst their mental dueling, Meia noticed out of the corner of her eye that the sphere had changed color – it was now a deep red.
Then all of a sudden, Barnette appeared onscreen. "What the heck are you doing...together?" her pause was momentary, but significant. The expression on her face was the most telling, however, changing from furious to almost dumbstruck.
'I wish I knew...' Meia grumbled, needing to reassure herself that she HAD said that out loud. The fusion ship had stopped moving.
"Something happened with our ships, Barnette," Jai explained; truth to tell, even he wasn't sure what exactly 'happened'.
The other Dread pilot 'hmpf'ed. "Well, that much is apparent. It looks like a larger version of your Vanguard." Considering the circumstances, she didn't look very impressed.
"Really?" 'Really?' Both pilots exclaimed at the same time.
"Status!" Jai commanded. A holographic image of their vessel showed up and, true enough, looked enough like a Vanguard, though not exactly like that of Jai: it was about twice as big, had silver plating covering its limbs and trunk, and wielded what seemed to be a lance and a shield – not to mention other laser and missile weaponry within its frame – instead of just the one steel blade.
"That's awesome," Jai said. Meia pretty much felt the same.
"Now if you would please get serious!" Barnette was having a harder time dodging enemy fire. The fighting had lulled somewhat after they had transformed, but was picking up again. Stray laser beams reminded them they were in the field of battle.
'We'll do our best. Hang in there,' Meia said, more of an assurance than a command.
Barnette nodded, and then closed the link.
Jai took a deep breath. "All right; we'll have to work together to get this thing to work properly. This sphere is our only means of controlling the ship, and it seems to respond to just our thoughts. We have to coordinate even our very thinking."
'Agreed.' Meia nodded.
"And Meia..."
'What?'
"Don't overwork yourself." His thoughts were full of concern.
'Huh?'
"I could feel your fever getting worse. When we get back to the Nirvana, it's straight to bed for you, understand?"
Meia frowned. 'He dares order me like that!'
"I heard that...or have you forgotten? I am a doctor, besides." Jai smiled slightly when he saw her visibly stiffen. 'Okay, okay.'
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"Hey! Wake up!"
Dita was still out of it, but the battle didn't wait. Hibiki was having trouble moving the craft with her in the way...on his lap. Personally, he found her touch to be not that unpleasant – somewhat a surprise, actually – and he probably would have sat still quite contentedly given the scenario at some other time, but the present situation called for action.
"Idiot! This is no time to sleep! Get your lazy ass up!"
None of his shouting seemed to work, but that didn't deter him from keeping at it. The other Dreads were zipping around, guns blazing, and all he could do was move awkwardly.
A communications link popped up; it was Magno. "And what have we here?"
"Hey, hag! Something happened with my Vanguard and her Dread!"
"I'll pretend I didn't hear that remark," the pirate Boss muttered.
In the background, Parfet waved. "Hibiki! Are you and Dita all right?"
Hibiki replied after making an annoyed sound. "The alien-crazy girl here is fast asleep, and I'm still learning how to control this thing exactly."
"Well, you should be more accustomed to it, since it looks more like your Vanguard than it does her Dread," the mechanic said.
Hibiki looked around. 'Oh yeah...'
Parfet continued. "In any case, try to get your bearings. It seems that your specs are vastly improved; it'd be a waste to just float there...not to mention there are more enemies on the way. We have much to discuss later." Then, the link was closed.
'Now she tells me...' Hibiki thought glumly.
True enough, more enemies swarmed in. He was able to locate the weapons controls and learn to better steer this new vessel, but was still having problems with Dita sitting on him.
"Darn! If you would just wake up!"
More and more blasts and careening fighters blew by. Frustration gnarled at Hibiki; there was something missing, something that was supposed to make everything all right and running smoothly.
"Come on! Wake up! Dita!"
Almost instantly, her eyes opened and she was looking at him.
His face colored in anger and embarrassment. But...what was there for him to be embarrassed about? "Y-you were awake all this time?!"
She giggled. "You know, that was the first time you said my name."
"What?!"
"Now let's go, Mister Alien! I'm not exactly sure what happened, but now that you're with me here, I feel all better!"
'The first time...?' Hibiki was more than a little distracted by her words.
Jura appeared on communications. "I got the info from Nirvana! Don't mess up, you two nitwits! Your ship may be cool and all, but it's useless if..."
That woke him up. "Yeah, yeah! And I am NOT a nitwit!" Angrily closing the link, he nodded to Dita. She nodded back, and they both sped forward in attack.
The battle seemed to go much smoother; the rise in power and speed was that much more apparent now, perhaps because they were both up and working together?
And it also seemed that he was getting more accustomed to having Dita in the same seat.
The fighting was reaching a fever pitch. Even then, the mission of defense was easier than any time prior.
"Let's see how you like this!" Hibiki shouted. The twin boosters at the craft's back aligned to form a giant beam weapon. The resulting blast from the cannon decimated whatever was in its path – in this case, more than an entire platoon of enemy fighters.
"I-I didn't know we could do that!" Dita exclaimed.
'I'm shocked too...' Hibiki thought, mouth wide open in disbelief.
Even Parfet was excited enough to need to contact them. "What was that?! That was amazing!!!"
"Hey; something's happening," Hibiki said.
In the distance, tangent from where they had just fired the huge beam, there was an explosion so huge that even that far, the resulting shockwave was more than noticeable.
"That's...the enemy command ship," Parfet reported almost incredulously.
Dita brightened almost right away. "Then Leader and the rest must have won too!"
Parfet was openly smiling. "I think yeah."
The enemy ships all just...stopped, as if whatever had been controlling them was simply cut off. The surrounding space was littered with floating metal and whatever else they were made of.
"Let's go back," Hibiki said.
"Wait!" Parfet had one more thing to say. "Let's get one of those fighters for analysis. We might learn something of importance."
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Even right after turning off the communications link, Barnette had to immediately focus on the fighting, which had gotten all the more frenzied after a short respite.
That didn't bother her as much, however, as the fact that they weren't still able to damage the enemy command ship whatsoever, no matter what attacks they tried thus far.
'I'll have to admit, this is as irritating as fighting the Tarak,' she thought. Then again, it didn't take all that much to irritate Barnette.
Her Dread now joined in formation with four others, the last few of Squad A remaining on the field. Barnette had earlier been contacted by them, asking about the strange vessel that looked like a Vanguard, and what had happened to Meia and Jai.
She addressed them now. "Listen up! It seems like their crafts did fuse into that one. How, don't ask me. I don't know. Meia is going to come up with something; we just have to keep trying a bit more," her pride made her keep to herself the silent hope that the new Vanguard could turn the tide of battle; the others probably also had the same notion.
More enemy fighters fell as the battle dragged on, which seemed to matter little since there were so many of them still. Even more importantly, the Dreads had yet to even scratch the enemy mother ship. The five broke from formation and scattered, waiting to regroup and try again.
But they couldn't take much more of what was happening. 'Come on, Meia! Jai!' Barnette silently urged as another Dread was taken out of the fight.
All of a sudden, a column of white light streaked through the dark space ahead. From her vantage some ways from the side of the enemy command ship, Barnette watched in bewilderment as it passed cleanly through the hull of the hulking vessel, entering directly in front of, and exiting directly behind, it.
'What...was that?'
The front end of the column slowed; and as the light disappeared altogether, the fused Dread/Vanguard came into view.
"So it was them..." Barnette sighed in relief. She was right to have faith in their captain.
The mother ship was still for a moment before erupting in flames and explosions.
"...but still, with only one hit..." she mumbled. That it happened this way was a little incomprehensible, even if she had seen it with her own eyes.
"...what fearsome power."
Now that the command ship was in ruins, the smaller fighters were little more than useless pieces of debris, floating aimlessly.
Communication screens came up from the other pilots who remained. "Vice-captain! They did it!" They screamed, ecstatic.
"Looks like," Barnette replied similarly, if only a little subdued.
Their elation was short-lived, as they saw their savior vessel speeding away; Jai appeared onscreen, and his voice held pure panic. "Everyone! We return to Nirvana at once! Meia is severely injured!"
They followed instantaneously.
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Everything was moving at the speed of thought.
Understandably, since they were using their thoughts to control the ship.
'Synchronization is more difficult than I thought,' Meia complained.
Jai agreed. "You can say that again."
'Synchronization is more difficult than I thought,' Meia repeated, with a hint of amusement.
"Haha. Still, I still can't believe we're...whoa!...actually maneuvering like this and joking around at the same time."
Their Dread-Vanguard ship moved fairly smoothly through the swarms of enemy fighters, downing every one it passed with a projectile or a masterful stab or swing of the lance. Though now and then a stray missile or laser beam shot off somewhere totally unintended, it seemed like both pilots were managing well enough to be successful overall.
In the back of her mind, Meia was observing the sphere that served as their means of control. Every so often, it would shift color, from green, to blue, then green again, then yellow, then back to green, and then blue, and so on.
"Yeah, it seems to alternate between the three colors. What do you suppose it indicates?"
'I'm not sure, but it looks like a gauge of how much we're in sync.' Meia shrugged.
Jai nodded thoughtfully.
'Now what about that command ship...?'
Neither of them noticed a proximity bomb from one of the enemy minefielder ships approaching quickly on their right.
*BOOM*
Almost immediately, an intense pain stabbed at her right arm. 'OUCH! What the...?'
"Somehow, that boom sounded almost comical," Jai wondered dazedly. His left hand had left the control sphere, and was clutching his right arm.
'Damage to the ship also hurts us?!' Meia tried to think straight, but she was almost in a panic. Her fever didn't help. She then noticed the sphere, which was now a deep black.
Looking forward again, she found herself staring at an incoming missile.
Too close to dodge in time.
Still, their ship was able to veer ever so slightly to the left before impact, so that only the right side of the face was hit.
Meia blacked out instantly.
The violent shaking due to the strike rocked Jai back aware. "Damn! That was..." His thoughts trailed off as he turned to Meia. She was slumped in her seat, bleeding badly from the head and clearly unconscious.
"H-how...? Why am I not...?!" Jai saw that she was still holding onto the sphere.
"So we're only hurt while touching the sphere?" He thought in a quick moment of calm clarity before his wits finally left him in a state of terror. He quickly removed Meia's hand, and placed his own hand back atop the device.
He had to move. Fast.
His next target was the mother ship, straight ahead, facing him, mocking him.
Driven by pure adrenaline, he squared the lance in one hand, and prepared for a full-speed charge. Maybe he wasn't thinking very clearly as well by this point; he had no idea if the tactic was even going to work.
Still, something had to be done. Now.
The shield was poised in defense, and the lance pointed forward. Oddly, he was reminded of the Spartans in '300', a graphic novel he had read before.
"Pretty much sums us up right now..." He grinned sardonically; a handful of Dreads against a veritable army.
Acceleration wasn't gradual, it was immediate – Jai closed his eyes for a second, and it was over. He could feel the deceleration, though.
He also felt the shockwave from the mother ship exploding behind him. Absently, he wondered whether he was going to get burns on his back because of the heat.
"Apparently not," as the blast died down. He sighed, glad that it was over, but anxious for his companion. He quickly turned his attention to her, and ministered whatever first-aid he could to stop, or at least slow, the bleeding.
"And she has a friggin' FEVER besides!" He snarled. Jai then seated her on his lap leaning against him, and, controlling the ship from her seat, sped back towards the Nirvana. One hand was on the sphere, the other firmly pressed against her wound to control the bleeding, and to assure him that he was at least trying to do something.
Mission accomplished.
But this was no time to celebrate.
He contacted the other Dreads. "Everyone! We return to Nirvana at once! Meia is severely injured!" was all he said before terminating the link. He didn't even check to see if they followed; he was sure they would.
Meia's breathing was labored, she was shivering, still unconscious and losing more blood.
"Just hold on a little...I haven't let any patient down yet..."
Jai was also doing something he'd never done before in all his medical service and training...
He was crying.
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A/N: Now this is probably the best (or worst, depending on which way you look at it) cliffhanger I've ever done.
Lots of POV changes in this one. And the events don't exactly come one after another as they are written; some happen simultaneously.
Oh, and "300" is copyright 1998 Frank Miller and Dark Horse Comics. The movie absolutely ROCKED! I just needed something to better illustrate Jai's stance.