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AUTHOR NOTE:
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AAAAUUUUUUGGGHHH, I give up, I give up!! I'm just gonna post what I have so far!!
Okay, here's what happened (and why the hell this took so long). My blurb for the last chapter had the promise of pirates in it, because with this fic, I do what I do for no other fic: plan ahead. **Earth hurtles into the sun** Anyway, I kept writing and writing to try and get to this planned-out pirate cliffhanger o' mine, but the chapter kept getting longer and longer, and the pirates just kept getting farther and farther away.
So, I have decided to temporarily stall my Evil Plot (tm), which was to leave you all at terrible cliffhangers each time I ended a chapter, so you'd actually care about reading the next chapter.
**Everyone points and laughs at her for breaking her own rant. Miko's voice is heard in the background: "Why do the bad guys always reveal their evil plots? Are they stupid or WHAT?!"**
Apparently, the answer is no, they just want to share their genius with the little people. )
ANYWAY, I have this nasty habit of going into these long, angsty... things. If you haven't noticed already, they take up anywhere from one paragraph to one whole friggin' chapter... but they usually get completely deleted in the end. The difference this time is, I actually like most of the stuff I've done here... so I'm keeping it in.
Hell, my fic, my rules. *throws head back and laughs* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
So, uh, these next parts start off with a torture festival, and then fall into pure, raw, angst. In all forms possible, baby. Trust me, we'll go back to the format I was using before (I call it "episode format," It's basically a detailed episode writeout.). But for now, it's an angst format.
For half of you, this is a treat. For the other half, this is an "Uh oh. Better put up with this and review so she hurries and changes back."
Oh yeah, REVIEW to tell me whether I suck or not for changing the format. I mean, I'm going back to episode format either way, but I wanna see if the angst format appeals at all.
Sanji and No-name sure had a field day with this... *** ^_^v ^_^v ***
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CHAPTER EIGHT
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Aisha tightened her grip and pulled.
Gene's scream was immediate. It resonated against the walls of the ship and all but drowned out the thick, sucking sound of his sodden flesh as it began to tear away. He convulsed under Suzuka's hold, and she tightened her grip to hold his thrashing body.
"Hang in there!" Suzuka hollered over his scream. Melfina gave a small noise that sounded like an escaped convict from an entire prison of barred-up feelings, and Jim reached up to clutch Melfina's shaking hand. It was to comfort himself more than she, though; watching this, seeing Gene in such pain, hurt him far beyond any electric shock Ron McDougal could inflict. He refused to look away, though. He would never dishonor Gene's bravery like that. He kept his eyes open, their gray-blue a storm of intense, chaotic emotion.
Aisha growled, and her arms shook in their strain. There was no way in heaven this was beyond her strength... but to focus and control it for a delicate procedure such as this took extreme effort, and it sapped her energy immensely. Not only that, but her earlier glance, the one that had told her that the cone section of the Scrappler was conveniently smooth and easy to grip against the jagged metal head of the weapon, had turned out to be a terrible lie; she now knew how truly rough the surface of the cone was, because she could feel the sharp points of the unpolished metal sticking holes through her palms and fingers as her grip intensified. She did her best to ignore the pain, and with Gene's screams in her ears, she succeeded; the holes in her hands were virtually a good thing, since they prevented her hands from slipping.
Gene flung his head back in pain, screaming all the way, and the back of his skull slammed into Suzuka's face. She groaned and her ears rang, but her arms only tightened around his in a painful but necessary lock.
The Scrappler began to give. Aisha knew it would only be a matter of centimeters before it gave out and flew away completely, so she prepared for a final, full-strength effort. She clutched the bar tighter to make the directional control easier, digging the support holes deeper as blood gushed from her palms and dripped down the handle. She gave it no heed; after all, it was nothing compared to what would come out of Gene in a few seconds. She clenched her eyes and gave it all her strength.
After that much extreme pressure, the Scrappler gave instantly.
Aisha knew it was out for three reasons. One, Gene's scream cut off with a choke, and nothing but silence followed.
Two, her body stumbled backwards and into the nearby wall with a definitive thud, and as the strain in her muscles slowly relaxed, she became painfully aware of the dull stinging in her hands.
Three, blood was the last thing she saw before she was blinded. It had gushed from the newly-opened wound, covered her arms, and splashed into her eyes.
"Gene!/Aniki!" Jim and Melfina yelled simultaneously to break the silence, and they leapt foreword to him. Aisha gasped for breath as she sank to the ground against the wall, the almost unbearable smell of newly-broken human flesh dominating her keen senses; she almost didn't hear the yelling of the others as they rushed to Gene's collapsed side, and she barely noticed the Gilliam unit that had dropped down beside her to ask if she was all right. She blinked furiously, but somehow she couldn't clear her eyes of the deep red shade covering them. If anything, she made it a little translucent, but still all she could see were outlines, shadows. She prayed she could wash it out later. If there was one thing she did not wish to be for the rest of her life, it was blind.
But another thought dazed her. If this was the damage with a Ctarl-Ctarl's strength... if it was this bad when pulled out that fast...
How on earth could this be the minimum damage?!
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"Are you all right?" Suzuka asked Aisha quickly, and at her hasty nod Suzuka put worry over the Ctarl-Ctarl out of her mind and fully focused on Gene. She felt the heat of his blood soaking her sleeve and knew they had to act fast, so she immediately released Gene to gingerly pass him to Melfina. They were already standing right over the entrance to her chamber to minimize the needed movement, and she was grateful she thought of that beforehand.
"Careful with him," she said as she helped move Gene into a safe position around Melfina, who nodded. She looked very somber, not unlike Suzuka's own face, and that gave her extra hope; no panic meant steadfast determination, which was the only thing needed at this point. But suddenly, Melfina turned her head, looked right into her eyes... and changed expression. For an instant, she seemed to stand in awe of Suzuka... in awe of her strength in such a terrifying situation.
"Good luck," Suzuka offered, bewildered... but she remained calm-sounding, collected-looking. Melfina nodded, determined once again, and the moment passed for her... Suzuka, however, continued to muse on it, asking herself when the last time she showed her emotion was, being unable to find an answer. In a final adjustment, she pressed her hand gently against Gene's forehead to brace his neck upwards, and she saw his face for the first time since the Scrappler had been pulled out.
Her eyes widened.
Then, as if some god had pressed the fast-foreword button, Gene and Melfina suddenly lowered into the mystery of the android's world, and the chamber slammed shut with a bang that made Suzuka jump what felt to her a mile high. The sudden movement passed, and she stared at the seal as she heard the process beginning... stared at it, since it was a solid thing to look at in this blur of sudden emotion.
She couldn't remember the last time she had felt this kind of heat in her soul...
But when she saw Gene's face... that strong face with the amazing eyes usually so full of emotion, be it good, bad or boredom... when she saw him in complete weakness so close to death, her throat swelled inside of her, and she felt the heat of what would have been tears... long ago.
She didn't know whether to be grateful or sad for her inability to remember how to cry. One thing was certain: her current stoic face was a flaming lie.
She prayed that Melfina's determination would be enough. She prayed for Gene's heart to keep beating, she prayed for his full recovery, she prayed for his happiness. She prayed with all her soul, and had been praying since the instant her fingers left him.
She prayed. And willed all of that strength she was supposed to have to Melfina.
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Melfina worked calmly, silently, and efficiently.
Upon seeing Gene on the threshold of death, Melfina had felt nothing, gone blank. And after nothing, came anguish... after anguish came pain. But that was quickly overridden with something stronger. Something she had never felt so strongly before.
It wasn't love. Love was too mixed, too complex, to be focused for strength in a way that wasn't risky. It could burn her heart with complete passion one second, then fill her with utter helplessness the next... love, in fact, was the very cause of the nothing, the anguish, and the pain that came before. It was in act the whole time, even before Gene was hurt, weakening and strengthening her as she lived and breathed. If she relied on love, and if things didn't go exactly like they did in the storybooks, she would end up powerless against its varying strength, and Gene would be destroyed by her very love for him.
It was devotion. With her love, in the mix of it all, came the pure feeling of devotion. It came out with all the power and vengeance of the love that created it, and it would not let any other emotion come anywhere close to leveling with it. For devotion, once in its raw form, becomes a type of obsession. And pure obsession is one of the strongest, most dominating forces in existence.*
She had told Gene she would never leave him. She wouldn't leave him now.
With patience beyond what any human could achieve, she continued to piece him back together. She had already removed all the bullets, reduced the deep holes they had made to surface wounds, healed to some extent the broken arm, and had even healed completely most of the stab-wounds.
"Stay with me, Gene," she said to him calmly. Things were going smoothly.
But suddenly, she reached her limit. And sadly, her earlier, private guesstimate of just how much she would be able to heal was correct; although all other wounds were now either completely healed or on their road to recovery, the Scrappler wound remained gaping and mortally dangerous. She had managed to repair the shattered bone and most the ligaments, but as for the muscle...
She knew this would happen, and she had a plan. She hadn't wanted to do it, but it was what needed to be done.
To save the man she loved.
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Okay, that was fluffy, only... uh... not. ^_^;; Sorry, I just think the power of love is the ultimate cheat in certain fanfiction realms. Of course in others it's mandatory and I forgive it; examples are Sailor Moon, Fushigi Yuugi, and Magic Knight Rayearth (DUH).
Jim teenyboppers have permission not to review this chapter and run, do not walk, to the next chapter... Providing you review that one, of course. ^_~.
Everyone else: what'd you think of the part where Aisha finally pulled that damn little f---er out? Eh? I had a generally fun time with that one. ) Tellmetellmetellme, onegai!!
* about obsession: Don't we all know it! ^_^
