Time, Love and Armageddon
EPILOGUE
Feb 14, 1599
A young and lovely peasant woman quietly attends to her chores as a weaver in a small and dainty Japanese fishing village. While nearby, a rich yet still youthful nobleman watches her intently. Enchanted by her beauty, the benevolent daimyo approached the girl and politely introduced himself to her, expressing how he was disarmed by her gentle charm.
Her first reaction was that of tremendous loathing, as the former ninja warrior Taki felt a natural impulse to draw her psi blade Jutte and drive this pestering suitor away from her house and from her life. However, the fierceness in her demeanor was immediately doused when she got a good look at the nobleman's handsome countenance and amiable smile. She can't begin to explain the wonderful feeling of warmth that enveloped her entire being. Staring intently at the comely stranger in front of her, Taki felt something familiar about this event, as if this very moment already took place not too long ago. Whatever it is, the strange sensation thrilled her to no end; and more importantly, effectively disintegrated the loathsome attitude she had against men.
Bowing her head in reverence, the former warrior of the underworld offered her hospitality to the nobleman.
"Please, my lord. My house is in shambles. And I'm afraid I have nothing to offer to your graceful presence." The uncharacteristically humble Taki remarked.
"I'm the one who owes you an apology, my lady." The kindhearted aristocrat replied. "I shouldn't have come barging in like this while you're in the middle of your chores. Perhaps I can pay you a visit later this evening?" The gentleman respectfully asked for permission to visit her.
"I will be most honored, your grace." Taki acknowledged the Japanese chevalier cheerfully.
March 9, 1599
The sun showers the evening sky with brilliant crimson resplendence as it barely peeps over the western horizon at the onset of dusk. Most of the guests and well-wishers have already left. While near the gargantuan main gate of the regal ancestral palace of the Sato Clan, young nobleman Yaroze Sato beams while escorting the Shinto priest to his private entourage. Overlooking the vast courtyard, the radiant Taki gazes lovingly at the man whom she had just exchanged vows with a few hours ago. Her equally glowing Athenian confidant and guest-of-honor, Sophitia, stands right beside her.
Sophitia's heart is brimming with happiness for her beloved friend. And she can't possibly measure the joy the former dark warrior has to be experiencing at this very moment. As she stares intently at Taki, she can't find any trace of the woman who used to be feared by everyone for her battle-hardened disposition and dreadfully volatile temperament. All the astute Hellenic maiden can see right now is the blissfully serene face of a girl who can't possibly ask for anything more in her life. Sophitia was still deeply entranced in her jubilation that she didn't notice the tears of joy moistening her effulgent eyes.
"Hey what's with that face?" Taki thoughtfully asked her friend.
"Nothing" Sophitia retorted while wiping away the moisture from her eyes. "I'm just well I'm just so happy for you that's all."
Touched by her cherished friend's sincerity, Taki gently pulled Sophitia toward her and gave her a heart-felt embrace.
"Thank you, Sophie" Taki tearfully muttered.
The two best friends remained in that state for a few moments before hearing an echoing voice from down the courtyard.
"Sophie, Yaroze wishes to show me his collection of horses. We won't be gone for long." The resonating utterance of Sophie's husband, Rothion, reverberated from the main gate.
"Be careful!" Sophitia responded while waving her hand to her loving husband before turning her attention anew to her friend.
"Gotta hand it you, Taki. You snared a real good-looking one. Yaroze's quite cute." Girlishly exclaimed the grinning Sophitia. "He's almost as cute as Rothion."
"Nope. He's cuter." Taki jokingly snapped back, which elicited a resounding laughter from the two warrior maidens.
"But seriously," Taki resumed. "There's something kind of wonderful about Yaroze. Strangely wonderful."
"Of course there is, silly!" the Athenian exclaimed. "You wouldn't have fallen in love with him if you didn't see anything special about him, am I right?"
"No, no. That's not what I mean. What I'm trying to say is it's like I've known him all my life." Taki assessed. "To put it more accurately, it's like I have already met him before"
"Well, have you?" the Hellenic girl inquired.
"I'm not so sure anymore. All I know is there's something familiar about his handsome face his amiable smile his wonderful aura everything about him feels awfully familiar. I really have this immensely strange feeling that I've met him before. I don't know I just can't put my finger on it." The Japanese bride replied with a trace of perplexity in her voice.
"I guess that's how it is with your destined soul mate." Sophitia commented. "After all the confusion, questions you come up with, and prospects you allowed to pass through the course of your life, when that special person comes, you'll suddenly know the reason why you held yourself back.
"That's exactly how I felt with Rothion. He's not really the first to capture my heart. I admit I've had my share of intense emotional involvement with other men. And it puzzled me to no end why in Hades did I let them go why didn't I grab the opportunity that presented itself with the first man I fell in love with or the second or the third
"And when I met Rothion, all of the sudden, I have my answer. All of the sudden, I realized that the reason why I allowed those other chances to slip through my fingers is because I was waiting for him. All my life, I've been waiting for him."
"Wow!" Taki blurted out. "That's heavy! Could you write it down for me? I can give it to my husband and he can translate it into a Haiku or something." The former lady ninja teased.
"You know, Taki, in spite of your vaunted grim and gritty image, you really have a way of ruining a solemn moment." Sophitia retorted. "Which reminds me, sister. You owe me big time."
"How do you reckon?" a questioning Taki looked at her friend.
"Let me put it this way: would you like some condiments on that sheath?" Sophitia shot back with a smirk.
"What? Oh" the new bride was stopped on her tracks when she remembered the wager the two of them started nearly a year ago. "Oh yeah, we made a bet on uh-oh I lost" Taki bit on her fingernail. "You didn't really think I was serious, did you?"
"Well I am serious." Sophitia teased. "And I intend to collect. Here, I even made a special sheath for Rekki-Maru just for this occasion." The Athenian added while producing a package wrapped in expensive linen.
Taki burst into a resounding laugh when she beheld the contents of the package, which turned out to be a sweet-smelling, raisin-adorned gingerbread loaf made to look like a sword holster. The two chuckling maidens then pinched and poked at each other while making their way to the kitchen.
Later that night, Yaroze Sato was sitting in front of his working desk, scribbling furiously at the lengthy scroll littering the rich walnut material making the surface of the table. He was so immersed in his chore that he completely didn't notice the beautiful, kimono-clad woman approaching from behind. Yaroze drove the tip of his quill pen into the hardwood when he was finger-jabbed at the waist by his giggling wife.
"Taki you almost gave me a heart attack." The panting Yaroze blurted out. "Why do you always sneak up on me like that?"
"Old habits die hard. I used to be a ninja, you know." The snickering Taki replied as she tenderly massaged the breadth of her husband's chest. "Sorry I startled you."
Noticing the messy scroll of paper over the work desk, the curious woman peered through its engrossing contents.
"I didn't know you're writing an epic." Taki remarked. "When did you start on this?"
"I already told you, haven't I?" Yaroze answered. "Right after our engagement, when you began to tell me about your adventures as a demon hunter."
"Oh" the enlightened Taki quipped while continuing to browse through the parchment.
Her attention was drawn to the upper edge of the scroll, where the title "The Soul of a Warrior" is etched in bold characters. A reminiscing smile formed in the woman's face when she recalled the perilous life she used to lead as the feared Underground Hunter. Though filled with danger, she nevertheless acknowledged that segment of her life as a requisite to leading her into the peaceful existence she's now about to commence. And if she is to be given a choice, Taki would most certainly not change anything about her past, for all of it led to this blissful present which promises the roseate prospect of a bright and blessed future for herself and her husband. And right now, she can't possibly be more eager than she already is to hasten the coming of tomorrow.
"My love, I'll be waiting in bed. Come to me whenever you feel like it." Taki enticed her husband with a most alluring timbre.
"Alright." Yaroze curtly replied before carrying on with his tedious scribbling.
However, as if waking up from a deep slumber, the nobleman suddenly realized what he stands to miss in the first night of his marriage with his beautiful bride.
"I must be insane! What am I doing?!?" Yaroze blurted out as he frantically dashed into the bed chamber.
Dec 14, 1957
Japanese-American technician Robert Hiroyuki, working from an observatory in Matterhorn peak in Switzerland, received a cable message from a group of scientists at the other side of the world. Hiroyuki, himself a part of the worldwide scientific exploration project known as the International Geophysical Year (IGY), read the missive, containing an instruction to point the large radio telescope at the coordinates given.
However, he got distracted by a book he was reading, and made a mistake by entering a set of coordinates which are three degrees off target. Unaware of his error, the bespectacled technician quickly returned to the book which he had immersed his undivided attention in for the last three hours; a collection of epic Haikus written by one of the greatest names in medieval Japanese literature: Yaroze Sato. The title of the compilation: "The Soul of a Warrior."
Later, scientists reviewing the sky photo noticed an anomaly in the star pattern. The aberration was determined to be an enormous meteor cluster, which subsequent calculations revealed to be on a direct collision course with the Earth. But the impact is not expected to happen until after thirty years, giving them enough time to prepare. They immediately relayed their findings to the United States Office of the Secretary of Defense, who initiated a top secret military and scientific committee whose task is to conduct studies and prepare strategies on how to vanquish this cosmic threat.
Dec 7, 1987
A joint Russian-American top-secret space mission commences, launching two gigantic rockets carrying more than a hundred multi-megaton neutron bombs into space from an orbiting space station. It took all of two months for the nuclear missiles to reach the Mars-Jupiter asteroid belt, where it intercepted the deadly cluster. As it detonated, the missiles set off a calculated system of explosions designed to use the asteroid belt itself to scatter the rampaging meteor cluster.
The top-brass officials of the two superpowers who participated in this world-saving mission held their breaths as the countdown to ground zero began. Thirty minutes later, radio telescopes attached to a pair of roving satellites in Martian orbit confirmed the explosion of one hundred twenty neutron bombs. And ten seconds since, the same satellites beamed an array of electronic data that, upon reception by the Earth Defense station, immediately began processing them.
The Soviet-American committee exploded with cheers, laughter and sighs of mixed relief and anxiety when the monitor screens confirmed that the destructive meteor cluster was completely scattered by the precise nuclear detonations. The mission was successful, and the Earth was saved from total annihilation.
Feb 14, 1999
Dick Grayson felt a strange compulsion as he walks past the Bludhaven Museum of World History. He ignored the weird feeling, scurrying past the city landmark in an effort to make it on time for his lunch date with a certain Nina Williams, a lady who has given him much to wonder about during the past few days. Later, on his way back to his apartment after being stood up by his mysterious date, the police academy student who is secretly Bludhaven's resident crimefighter operating under the guise of Nightwing, again felt the unusual drive to enter the museum. He then walks through the door.
The compulsion drew him to the Nippon exhibit, where his attention was caught by a display case containing a lock of hair and a note written in Japanese. The exhibit label described the relic as belonging to a woman named Taki, a legendary warrior who gave up her adventures to be one with the love of her life, the Japanese nobleman and epic chronicler Yaroze Sato.
Being fluent with the language, Dick Grayson began reading the note which contained the following lyric paraphrase:
"Like this lock of hair, my love for you will endure the test of time. You are my life, my song, and my salvation. You're the wind beneath my wings, and the light that shines in my nights."
Dick discreetly laughed at the trivial coincidence of the note having the words "night" and "wing" in it. But suddenly, he felt an eerie yet soothingly warm feeling envelope his being, as if some ethereal spirit is wrapping its arms lovingly around his body. This was followed by a strong sensation of deja vu that puzzled the crimefighter immensely.
He nevertheless dismissed the experience as a freakish side effect of too many late nights patrolling his city. "Hmph, next thing I know, I'll be sailing the seven seas hunting for pirates."
Dick then interrupted himself in mid-thought, wondering how he ever came to thinking about pirates.
Vanishing Point
"Waverider, they don't remember a thing." Liri Lee commented to her teammate while monitoring the sophisticated device called the chronoscope. "How'd you do it?"
"Remember how I possess the power to telepathically feed historical information to a person just by touching him?" Waverider began. "Well, I just found out recently that I can also do the exact reverse. And in this case, I just erased the portions of their memories about their encounters with each other. Neither Batman and his team nor Taki and the 16th century warriors will ever recall running into each other."
"Yeah, but what about the battle with the resurrected Cervantes?" the female Linear Man further inquired.
"Simple. The Blade Hunters just remember going through that adventure by themselves. The important thing is, as far as everybody is concerned, no Batman ever defeated a Captain Cervantes, nor a Taki ever fell in love with a Nightwing." The stalwart time guardian further explained.
A permeating silence abruptly settled over the two Linear Men while Waverider tried to contemplate the chain of events that eventually led to the Earth's salvation. Catching on to an idea he only now realized, Waverider then turned suspiciously to the mysterious Liri Lee.
"Admit it, Liri. You knew this would happen." Waverider accused his comrade.
"Whatever made you say that, Waverider?" Liri snapped back while feigning a look of ignorance on her face.
"Well, for one thing," the mightiest Linear Man began to explicate. "you didn't try to stop me when I rushed to the 16th century to rescue Batman and the others."
Realizing it utterly futile to further deny her handiwork, the amused Liri Lee finally admitted her role in the time-spanning drama. "Okay, you got me there. But I'm not guilty of anything except for a little tweaking."
"Tweaking?" Waverider repeated.
"Yeah. Look Rider, Nightwing may be one of the best in the trade, but there's no way he could have caught Taki's shuriken on time. So I kind of slowed time down a bit around the throw blade's path."
"And that led to Taki noticing Nightwing." Waverider completed the recap.
"Brilliant, isn't it?" the female Linear Man beamed.
"What? The way I see it, all it took to attract Taki's attention was just a fancy game of catch. Is it really THAT easy to impress girls?"
"For most of us, yeah, it's that easy." The pouting lady time guardian replied. "You know what's the problem with you overbearing macho jerks? You always seek to do things the hard way. You always strive to utter the most flowery words in the dictionary and do the most death-defying and, dare I say it, stupid stunts you can think of to impress a girl, when all it has to take is one red rose and a few simple words spoken from the bottom of your heart. That's it."
"Geez, really?" a dumb-looking Waverider boyishly replied. "Man, maybe that was how she saw me a perfect jerk."
"Who's she?" Liri Lee reacted to Waverider's musing.
"Oh, forget it. It doesn't matter."
"WHO'S SHE?!?"
"Okay, okay geez" Waverider was forced to reply. "She's just a girl I met in the university. I courted her for six years and she just you know dissed me."
Liri Lee felt like bursting into a frenzied laughter. But she tried to restrain herself, not wanting to embarrass her already sheepish compatriot. She instead hurled another question towards Waverider just to prevent herself from chortling.
"What's her name?"
"." Waverider intentionally mumbled softly to prevent Liri from making out the name.
"What? I can't hear you."
"GERALDINE! Okay, are you happy now???" the embarrassed time guardian blurted out.
A few moments of silence again permeated through the peaceful ambiance of the Vanishing Point monitor room, which was broken anew when Waverider returned the conversation to its original subject.
"All points considered, Liri, I think you did a smashing job of cheating, that is."
"No. That's not cheating." Liri Lee countered. "That's setting things right."
"Whatever" the golden-hued time protector quipped. "At any rate, I commend you."
"And may I ask why?" Liri questioned her teammate's dubious statement.
"That stunt with the shuriken is something I'd have done if I thought of it." The grinning Waverider shot back. "You're starting to think a lot more like me."
"Rider" Liri muttered.
"Yes, Liri?" he replied.
"Don't push your luck."
Dec 23, 1999
Following up on a lead Batman told him to investigate, Robin waits patiently atop a towering office building in the bright and bustling Asian city of Hong Kong. Tapping into his comm-link, he contacts his partner and waits for further instructions.
"Robin, so far this is the best we can do. The Joker is up to something huge, so this means he needs funding." Echoed the Dark Knight's voice in the sophisticated communication device attached to Robin's face mask.
"Uh-huh. And you still think he's not colluding with Luthor this time?" inquired the Boy Wonder.
"I believe it's safe to rule that possibility out. After that incident in Metropolis, I strongly doubt those two would ever meet again without trying to murder each other. Besides, the new evidence we got strongly suggests a new player in this game."
"Yeah, Eastern Sun Trading. I used to believe they're pretty legit, and I just can't figure out what's in this racket for them."
"Eastern Sun is a direct affiliate of this financial giant called Mishima Conglomerate, the largest corporation in Japan and one of the biggest in the world, falling somewhere in between Lexcorp and Microsoft." Batman further clued in his young partner. "I've always suspected something fishy about Mishima, but I just didn't have the time to look further into its activities. Until now, that is."
"You have a point, Batman." Robin concurred. "Now that I thought about it, this whole racket is starting to look like a millennium-scale caper from a certain point of view. Especially after what happened to Kuala Lumpur last week."
"Forget Kuala Lumpur." Batman echoed back. "I have reason to believe that this is another scheme geared at taking advantage of Gotham's vulnerability. I'd look into it myself, but right now my hands are tied with the matter of that butchered body I found near Wayne Manor."
The resolute Boy Wonder scanned the area again with his one million dollar night-vision binoculars to familiarize himself more with the lay-out of the city. Confident that he can easily swing around unnoticed, Robin radioed Batman one more time before pulling a stretch of decel cord from his utility belt.
"So who am I looking for, Batman?"
"Oracle gave us a lead on a person we can trust in that locale. He's a veteran secret agent working for the Hong Kong International Police Force, and I believe he's expecting you." Batman further instructed his partner.
"What's his name?"
The exhausted Dark Knight paused for a while, then his voice came crackling back with a short reply.
"Lei Wulong. Go find him and contact me when you do."
THE END (?)