Disclaimer: I don't own Nadesico or any of the characters appearing in the television anime series or manga. This fanfiction is meant purely to entertain. So please don't sue me, I'm not worth it. I openly admit that I don't own Nadesico, and I'm not trying to pass this off as a completely original story. Also, I don't own Golden Boy or Transformers, but I do use a few lines from both and a lot of mecha from Transformers, but I do own the characters Finn Saotome, Yumi Yoshino, Sanoske/Sakura Hashima, Mr. Noda, Mrs. Noda, and I think that's about it. If you want pictures of the mecha, don't hesitate to e-mail me at soundwave100@hotmail.com Thanks!
Act 5
Race to the Pole
Ryoko had been released, but not before delivering three black eyes, a broken nose, and a few cracked ribs to her captors. She found Finn brooding in the cafeteria. "Those…idiots!" He pulled at his hair. "They just don't get it."
"Get what? What's this all about?" Ryoko asked, taking a seat.
"Huh?" Finn saw her and sat down opposite of her.
"What is this all about? I've been kept in the dark long enough," she said. Finn heaved a sigh.
"I didn't want it to have to come to this," he said, staring at the table. "But that bastard Akatsuki found out some other way. Probably Inez. She can't keep a secret.
"You're not answering my question." Ryoko crossed her arms.
"Right. Ok, it's like this." Finn looked around, making sure no one else was in sight. Fortunately the cafeteria kitchen was closed and it was deserted. "You're probably not going to believe this. But thousands, maybe millions of years ago there was an ancient race of beings that lived on Mars. No one knows for certain what they were or what they were doing, but they invented the technology that we call boson jumping. They invented the chulips, the grasshoppers, the spiders, and probably the basic framework for the dimojin and goliaths units. They also invented the phase transition engines, which is why any history on phase transition science is shady. Anyway, these aliens populated Mars and the moons of Jupiter. And they used the chulips as a form of instant transportation. However, for some reason these aliens vanished and left their technology behind. Thing is, it kept on working. What Akatsuki is after is the mega computer that controls all boson jumping." They sat in silence for a long time.
"You expect me to believe that?" Ryoko asked in disbelief. "You're saying that aliens left this stuff for us to find? You're joking."
"I wish." Finn said grimly. "I personally don't buy the whole alien thing, but so far it's the only explanation I've come across. And, if Akatsuki gets his hands on that computer, he'll be able to control all technology related to boson jumping and phase transitioning."
"I don't see why that's really a bad thing. I mean, sure he's a snake and a lying son of a bitch, but he seems pretty harmless, Ryoko said.
"Nu uh. He may seem harmless, but you have to look at how his mind works," Finn explained. "People like him…they hunger for power. He'll dominate transportation. We're talking ships, goods, even information. He'll be able to send it anywhere instantly. And whoever controls transportation, unfortunately for us, pretty much controls the world. Businesses won't pay for regular shipping when they realize they can send something anywhere instantly. You think Nergal controls the world now. Just wait and see what they'd do with boson jumping. Not only that…" he trailed off.
"What? What else is there?" Ryoko asked.
"It's their fault," he said in a low voice. "It's the Akatsuki family's fault I'm like this." He showed the deformed IFS symbol that was displayed on the back of each of his hands. "They're monsters. They made me a weapon. From as far back as I can remember, they've been drilling it into my head to hurt, destroy, and kill. I can't sleep without nightmares. I can't do anything without there being some part of me that says 'look at you. You're nothing but a weapon.'"
"But you're not a heartless killer. You've proven that," Ryoko said simply.
"That's only because I fight it. I've always fought it. They only kept me because I was the only one 'suitable' for their little experiments. I'm worse than a weapon. I'm a guinea pig. A fucking lab rat scurrying through my maze," he said. A sudden sting suddenly sprang across his face.
"I can't believe you. You're saying you're out for revenge? I can't believe you'd let your life be consumed by something as useless as that," Ryoko said. "I'm with you on stopping him from getting that computer. But if you're saying everything you've done has been for revenge. Then goodbye." Ryoko got up and began walking away. "Come and see me when you've grown up." Finn continued to scowl, but his face softened when she turned the corner and disappeared from view.
"Awww crap," he said to himself, leaning back in his chair. "But still. One second she was sympathetic, the next it's like…I don't know." He sat that way for a long time, his head dangling over the back of the chair.
"Excuse me, is anyone in here?" came a voice from the corridor.
"Wha?" Finn lifted his head up. "Oh, it's you. Shiratori, right?"
"That's right," he said, stepping into the room. "I just wanted to thank you for what you did for me back there."
"No problem." Finn resumed his earlier position and stared at the cafeteria upside down.
"Can I ask you a question?" Shiratori asked, taking a seat opposite of Finn.
"You mean, 'can I ask you two questions?'" Finn replied.
"Huh?'
"Ask away."
"Why did you help me out when the Admiral ordered me dead?"
"Pretty simple. I don't like to see decent people get their heads blown off," Finn answered. "And you seemed like a decent guy."
"So that would explain why you shot most of the soldiers on the ship in non-vital places," Shiratori concluded.
"Bingo." Finn lifted his head up, allowing some blood circulation to his head. "So what do you think of the 'infidel dogs of the earth'?"
"It's certainly not what I expected. They always taught us that you people were savage animals."
"And they told us that you were space aliens bent on conquering Earth," Finn said.
"I guess no side is completely without fault."
"Don't start getting depressed on us yet. We might need you," Finn said. "Besides, it's not like this is the first time this has happened. We're just poor guys who get to clean up the mess left behind by all our 'superiors'." They passed a few minutes in silence. Finn snickered.
"What's so funny?" Shiratori asked.
"That Sanoske guy. They're going to have a field day when they find out." Finn laughed.
"I don't understand."
"You see…Sanoske is…"
"Attention," Megumi's voice sounded over the comlink, interrupting Finn. "We are nearing the pole. All combat personnel to your stations. Pilots, report to the bridge for briefing."
"And if anyone knows where Commander Shiratori is, tell him he has to come too," Yurika said in the background. Finn hauled himself out of his chair and grabbed Shiratori by the collar and dragged him to the bridge.
"Someone loose a commanding enemy officer?" Finn said as he walked onto the bridge.
"Alright, Captain. Time for the Nadesico to do what she does best," Akatsuki said from the Nadesico's sister ship.
"I really don't like using a weapon like this on other people," Yurika said doubtfully. "Do we really have to use the PT cannon?"
"Well, if you want to subject the lives of everyone on board both our ships to avoidable danger you can…"
"Alright! Have it your way." Yurika closed vidwindow.
"Enemy positions displayed onscreen," Ruri said, displaying a window. "Enemy forces are concentrated within 90% of the PT cannon's maximum range of fire."
"Fire," Ruri sent the command and the black sphere of the graviton energy began to build. Just as before, the sphere was fired into the heart of the Jovian armada and exploded, consuming all of the ships and turning them into molecular crumbs.
"The Katkitsubata has taken position where the Jovian forces were. It appears to be holding position over a strong distortion field. They also appear to be launching aestivalis untis. A Jovian chulip has now entered Mars space. It will hit surface level in approximately ten minutes." Finn began to walk out of the room.
"Where are you going?" Yurika demanded.
"I've got a mission to complete," Finn said, stopping at the doors.
"On whose orders?"
"My own." He disappeared into the corridor.
"Idiot." Ryoko said to herself. "Stupid idiot."
"So you're just going to abandon your ship, your comrades?" Yurika asked. Finn's footsteps could still be heard. "Your friends?" The footsteps stopped. "This 'mission' of yours wouldn't happen to involve a certain Nergal executive, would it?"
"What if it does?" Finn asked, returning to the entrance.
"Than I would have to ask that you refrain from doing anything rash."
"This doesn't involve you, Captain. You don't know what Akatsuki has planned," Finn said. He then took a look in Ryoko's direction. She looked at him as if to say 'go ahead. I dare you.' "Besides, what else do you have in mind?"
"If I may interrupt the adult conversation, the chulip will land…" Ruri stopped and waited while the monitor showed the chulip slamming into the ground. "now."
"Well?" Yurika asked. Finn remained silent.
"Numerous enemy ships are emerging from the chulip." Ruri informed them. The Nadesico shook slightly from the shock of an early barrage from the Jovian forces.
"Are you with us? Or are you just selfish enough to let us handle this ourselves," Ryoko asked. Finn didn't reply. "Let's go team." Ryoko said to the others. "Looks like we're on our own." They filed passed Finn and began walking down the hall.
"Wait." Finn said. "You'll need help."
"Well then, what are you waiting for? Move!" Ryoko commanded.
The Second Battle of Mars
"Saotome, you're seek and destroy," Ryoko ordered, climbing into her aesti.
"What about the rest of us?" Hikaru asked.
"Same thing."
"You mean no strategy?" Hikaru asked. "No plan?"
"Who's had time to think of a plan?" Ryoko shot back. Akito was the first to take off. Finn stood in line, waiting to board the catapult that would shoot him out once again into combat. Ryoko, in her aesti, was in front of him. Just before she was about to leave, she turned around and gave him a hard whack on the head.
"That's for being such a smartass," Ryoko said sternly. She tried to sound tough and indifferent, but a small smile broke through. "Good to have you back, Finn. But don't think I'm not still pissed off at you," she said and was launched out.
"Yes ma'am," he said dully, taking his place on the catapult and was thrown out into the battlefield.
"We've identified the source of the unknown distortion field. It appears to be some form of ruin," Ruri reported.
"About time you figured it out," Finn said. "That's what Akatsuki's after. If you destroy that, this will all be over!"
"Ruri, configure PT cannon for close range firing. Target those ruins. Why didn't you tell us this before, Lt. Saotome?" Yurika demanded.
"Would you have believed me if I had told you?" Finn retorted.
"Wait a second! Wait a second! What in the hell do you think you're doing?!" Akatsuki shouted.
"If what Lt. Saotome says is true. Then this whole war will be over," Yurika said. She hit a control on her console and Finn's voice became audible.
"Thousands, maybe millions of years ago there was an ancient race of beings that lived on Mars. No one knows for certain what they were or what they were," the recording played.
"I'm sorry it had to come down to that, Finn. But I had to be sure just what we were fighting for," Yurika said.
"Gah, who cares about that now?!" Finn said, slicing through a goliath's distortion field.
"The Katkitsubata has launched aestivalis units, Captain," Ruri said. Akatsuki's aesti joined the battle, making a beeline for Finn.
"I've had enough of you and that nuclear scrapheap," Akatsuki said, firing a missile barrage at Finn, who used the goliath he was facing as a human shield. The missiles ripped the Jovian unit apart. He drew one of his sabres. "I've ordered my wingmen not to interfere. I'm going to shut you up, permanently. You're even more annoying than that anime fanboy!"
"Wow, what's the matter? Little rich kid not getting his way? Throwing a temper tantrum?" Finn said, countering Akatsuki's blows with his sabre.
"Shut up!" Akatsuki took another slash, but Finn dodged out of the way.
"Struck a nerve eh?" Finn said. Akatsuki threw a flash bomb between them. It exploded in a brilliant flash of light. He then grabbed Finn by the arms and hurled him down towards the ruins.
"Ryoko! Bail him out!" Yurika ordered, seeing Finn falling.
"We're a little busy, Captain!" She yelled back, locked hand to hand with one of the Katkitsubata's aestis. Hikaru, Izumi, and Akito were busy fighting off the mix of Jovians and enemy aestis.
"I'm fine," Finn shot back up and landed a punch into Akatsuki's frame, tearing a huge hole in its chest. Akatsuki grabbed onto Finn and fired missiles at point blank. "What are you doing?" Finn's monitors shook and fizzled.
"Your whole justice and honour crap. It's all shit," Akatsuki said, trying to land a kick in Finn's chest.
"I think you're getting confused here," Finn said, catching the flying leg and using it to hurl Akatsuki high into the air. "I'm not doing this for justice, or honour!"
"Then what are you fighting for?" Akatsuki recovered from being thrown and flew straight at Finn, wielding his distortion blade as a spear.
"I fight because it's the only thing I know how!" Finn cranked up his thrusters and flew head on into his opponent, knocking the blade out of his hands and severing his left arm. "It's all your fault!" He grabbed Akatsuki by the throat with one hand and held his sabre to his chest with the other.
"What do you mean it's my fault?" Akatsuki asked, struggling to get out of Finn's grip.
"You. You are Nergal. And it's your fault I am what I am!" He slammed his knee into Akatsuki's chest. Ryoko, having heard all that had been said between Finn and Akatsuki, looked in their direction.
"So is that why you're doing this? For revenge?" Akatsuki asked.
"No. Not for revenge. Not anymore." He severed Akatsuki's other aestivalis arm. "Go back to the hole you crawled out of and stay there!" He threw him into the Katkitsubata, through its distortion field, and into the ship. "I'm doing this so that people don't have to put up with whiney, selfish brats like you!"
"What are you doing?" Erina demanded. "We're all supposed to be on the same side. So how about a little cover fire here!" The Katkitsubata wasn't faring too well. The ship was weakening under the onslaught of Akatsuki managed to pull himself out of the ship's hull. And floated over to the Nadesico, where he landed, and most of his frame fell to pieces. "Are you just going to ignore us?!" Erina shrieked.
"Ruri, how much longer before the Nadesico can fire the PT cannon?" Yurika asked, ignoring Erina. A part of the Katkitsubata blew to pieces.
"Twenty seconds," Ruri said. The Katkitsubata erupted in a brilliant ball of fire. "90% of the Katkitsubata's superstructure has been destroyed."
"Alas, poor Erina Wan. Blown to bits along with her ambitions," Izumi wept.
"I am not dead!" Erina screamed from the bridge of the Katkitsubata, which doubled as an escape shuttle and was currently en route to dock with the Nadesico.
"All pilots, return to the Nadesico!" Yurika ordered.
"Roger that, Captain," Finn said, and flew straight into the hangar. He saw Akatsuki crawl out of his crippled air combat frame and make his way towards the bridge. Erina and the surviving crew of the Katkitsubata landed at the time and began to unload personnel.
"Prepare to fire PT cannon. Target those ruins!" Yurika ordered as Finn came onto the bridge.
"Hold it right there," Akatsuki said, limping onto the bridge. "I'm taking command of this ship."
"You and what army?" Finn asked. The doors opened and security officers who had escaped from the Katkitsubata flooded onto the bridge. "Oh come on! Again?!"
"My philosophy is to go with what works," Akatsuki laughed. "And here I thought I wouldn't live long enough to see that look on your face again. Ruri, change of plans. Target the chulip and the Jovian forces."
"Captain?" Ruri asked.
"I'd advise you to cooperate, Captain," Akatsuki grinned. "We wouldn't want anything unfortunate to happen to any of your crew members." There was the sound of a gun being drawn, followed by the arming of a lot of machine guns, all of them aimed at Finn. "Are you sure?"
"Do as he says, Ruri." Yurika said.
"Captain!" Finn shoved his way to the up to the command deck of the bridge. You can't just cave in. Why are you just going along with whatever he says?" The Nadesico shook violently from a gravity blast.
"Because if it means that my crew will be safe, then I have to. I have to do what's best for the crew," Yurika said.
"Where'd you guys go!" A vidwindow popped up, showing Ryoko, struggling against enemy forces, apparently still outside the ship.
"Pilot Subaru's aestivalis' escape route back to the Nadesico has been cut off. She is surrounded and her distortion field is unstable. At this rate it will collapse in fifteen seconds," Ruri said, displaying Ryoko's location on the main screen.
"Fire the PT cannon," Akatsuki ordered.
"But she's in the blast zone. She wouldn't make it!" Yurika said.
"Why should I care? If anything it will give me great pleasure destroying the object of nuclear boy Saotome's twisted affection. Ruri, I'm ordering you to fire."
"You son of a…" Finn walked up to Akatsuki and delivered a quick, but hard, blow to his face. He then took off, pushing and shoving people out of his way, back to the hangar. "I'd kill you without hesitation if I were anyone else," he called back.
"You'll only get caught in the blast with her, you know." A vidwindow followed Finn down the corridors. "Ruri, fire the PT cannon."
"Negative," Ruri said.
"You're disobeying me?" Akatsuki said, furious.
"That is exactly correct. I have come to view every crewmember on the Nadesico as a family member. Pilot Subaru means a great deal to everyone on this ship, and her death would cause us all a great deal of personal anguish," Ruri said.
"Iwata." Akatsuki said to one of the men. "Fire the PT cannon manually." The man known as Iwata lifted Ruri out of her seat and tossed her into the corner as though she were a mere doll. Yurika hurried over to her.
"It's been delayed, sir. She's locked the cannon. It won't fire," Iwata said.
"Then override it. The pass code is 'endgame'," Akatsuki ordered.
"Are you alright, Ruri?" Yurika asked, helping her up.
"Yes ma'am." Ruri replied. "But we're in trouble. I told Omoikane to ignore any commands to fire the PT cannon. But that override passcode supersedes everything I've ever taught it. Omoikane will fire if that code is entered."
"Passcode accepted, sir. Firing in two minutes." There was a loud bang, as though someone had fired a cannon on the bridge. Akatsuki fell over clutching his chest. "Who the…?" Standing by the bridge door was Shiratori, holding the smoking gun. Erina ran to him, but he stared blankly back at her with dead eyes. Hori took the opportunity to elbow his nearest captor in the stomach, winding him. He grabbed the gun from his hands and landed a blow to the head on another.
"You're commander has been killed," Shiratori said. "You have no further reason to threaten the Nadesico or her crew."
"We're holding all the cards here," Iwata said. "I'm assuming command."
"Anyone who follows this man's advice." Shiratori stopped and shot him dead, right there in front of everyone. "Is quite willing to join him." Hori went around and collected the weapons at gunpoint.
"Ruri…" Yurika began.
"I'm on it," Ruri said, jumping back into her seat and pressing her hands against her IFS interface. "Please Omoikane. Please stop." A window appeared on the main screen. It read 'Negative. Passcode override accepted. PT cannon will fire 1:26.'
Meanwhile Finn was not having much luck getting close to Ryoko, who was managing to evade her attackers, but she couldn't fight back. 'There's no way she can keep that pace up for long,' he thought.
"Saotome." Ruri's face popped up. "You have one minute until the PT cannon fires. I can't override it. You have to get yourself and Pilot Subaru out of there now.
"Great. Just what I needed to hear," He quickly entered commands into Skywarp's computer. A small glass box appeared out of the control panel with a button inside it. "Here goes." He smashed through the glass.
"Maximum power output initiated," his computer told him. "Reactor running at 100% capacity. Melt down immanent."
"Shut up!" Finn powered his distortion field to full and dove into the swarm of grass hoppers, dimojins, and goliath's attacking the Nadesico. Jumping from jimojin to goliath, slashing anyone who stood in his way to pieces, he channelled as much power into his sabre as it would hold, and cut through all of his enemies like a hot knife through butter. He flew straight through a Jovian cruiser and finally spotted Ryoko. Cranking his engines to full and unleashed an onslaught of plasma bolts from his shoulder cannons, clearing a path for them.
"About time you got here!" Ryoko said, her distortion field shattered around here. Finn didn't answer. Every fibre of his body concentrated on controlling the massive surge of energy flowing through it. "My field's gone. I can't take another hit."
"Open your cockpit." Finn managed to say. "Do it!" Ryoko quickly entered the commands and the emergency hatch blew off. Finn reached inside and pulled her out. He then quickly opened his own cockpit and placed/threw her inside.
"PT cannon will fire in 7 second,." Ruri said.
"Hold on," Finn said, and burst straight up. Ryoko felt herself being pushed into Finn's body from the force of the acceleration.
"5, 4, 3, 2, 1, PT cannon firing." The massive surge of energy flooded beneath them, vaporizing all of the attacking Jovian units. However, two more chulips fell from the sky not far from the first. Finn landed on the Nadesico's outer landing bay and dropped Ryoko off.
"Where are you going?!" she asked when he took off again.
"I'm going to end this war once and for all!" Finn shouted back and flew high above them. A vidwindow from Ruri appeared in front of Ryoko.
"I am detecting a massive power buildup from Lt. Saotome's frame," she said. "At this rate, his reactor will melt down in forty-two seconds."
"Computer," Finn said. "Divert all available power to primary weapon." Finn aimed his arm and shoulder mounted cannons at the ruins.
"Warning. 100% is not advisable…"
"I know!" Finn shouted at the computer. He channelled all power his reactor could muster into his cannons. "Wait for it…" He watched the capacity indicator on his screen climb. 75% "Wait for it…" 80%
"Warning. Core temperature critical," his computer beeped.
"A little more…" Finn grit his teeth. The energy surging through his body made him unaware of the pain he would have otherwise have been suffering. The gage read 95% "Just a bit further. Come on." 98% Finally the gage started blinking red as it hit 100% capacity. Finn's body sparked and tiny jolts of electricity jumped from the monitors. "Now!"
From Ryoko's spot on the outside landing deck, she saw a massive blast of yellow light erupt from Skywarp's cannons. The wave was shaped like a cone. It was small at the tip but grew exponentially the further back you looked. It travelled at amazing speed. Although to Ryoko, everything happened in slow motion. The energy surged out of the cannons, finally colliding with the ruins' first layer of distortion fields. It detonated in a brilliant flash of light. The shockwave from the blast blew Ryoko against the hull and caused the ship to shudder violently, but she held on and kept watching. All she could see was the bright glow of the blast sinking into the ground. It vaporized the very rock and ice foundation surrounding the ruins and erupted in a brilliant flash of light. When the energy finally stopped surging out of the cannons, it was the dust's turn to block her view. It grew thick Ryoko, and forced her to seek shelter inside. The blast had also created a vacuum within its blast range, and fresh air surged into the area.
"Ruri!" she shouted. "Ruri! What happened?" A satellite image was projected in front of her. It looked as though someone had taken a giant hand and gouged a hole out of the surface of the planet. Above it all floated Finn. His frame sparked and pieces blew off, and he began to fall. His engines at the rear of the frame blew off, sending the front of the frame, along with the cockpit, hurtling down into the dust. There was a bright flash of light a few seconds later. "Ruri? What happened to him? Ruri?!"
"Lt. Saotome's id beacon has ceased transmitting. I am no longer detecting his reactor signal," Ruri said.
"What does that mean?" Ryoko asked, as though what Ruri just said might mean there was a chance Finn was still alive.
"I'm sorry, Ryoko," Yurika said. Ryoko stared at the window. They all waited and watched as the dust storm continued to rage. When it finally settled, they all stood shocked. The ruins were unharmed.
"I'm sorry I'm late." Inez's face appeared on the main screen. "But interference from before prevented me from contacting you earlier."
"Just where are you?" Yurika asked.
"Inside the ruins. I've been trying to tell you to not attempt to destroy them. There are distortion fields in place every 800 meters. Even the PT cannon on continuous fire won't be able to be break through," she explained. "What was that shockwave just now? I saw a bright flash when something hit the fields. What was it?"
"That was Lt…Saotome…" Yurika trailed off.
"It ripped through the first layers of the distortion field surrounding us," Inez said.
" 'us'?" Yurika asked.
"Where's Mr. Akito?" an offscreen voice asked.
"Ai?!" Akito stared at the screen. Inez turned off her communicator again. "Yurika, I'm going down there." He took off in the direction of the hangar.
"Tenkawa!" a voice screamed at him, making him stop in his tracks. It was Ryoko. "I'm going too," she said, tearing herself away from the window. Akito nodded and continued towards his frame. "Hikaru. I'm borrowing your aesti," she said, climbing into the orange cockpit. They left the Nadesico and began to fly towards the still functional layers of the distortion field surrounding the ruins. The dust was still thick, making it difficult to see. But they managed. Bits and pieces of Skywarp rained down on them and bounced off the distortion field.
"His reactor is still intact," Ruri said, performing a radiation scan. "His power converters overloaded, causing a massive backflash of energy. That was what destroyed the frame."
"Look at this," Akito said. "It vaporized the rock around this place. It's all exposed." Then they made contact with the distortion fields and took out their blades began to hack their way through them.
"How deep is this hole anyway?" Ryoko asked.
"Approximately 14 kilometers," Ruri answered. "With distortion fields placed every 100 metres."
Fortress Magnum
"Inez, where's Ai?!" Akito said, jumping down from his aesti.
"You just missed her. I was trying to tell you to hurry," Inez replied.
"You mean…she's gone?"
"She just boson jumped."
"But I don't understand. Where did she jump to?"
"Akito." Inez said with tears brimming in her eyes. "The first word in Inez is I (Ai)."
"You mean…you're…"
"It's wonderful to see you again, Mr. Akito," Inez said, holding onto Akito."
"It seems so obvious," Akito said. "It was all there in front of me but I never put all the pieces together. I'm sorry Ai."
"Thank you. Mr. Akito," Inez said, drifting off into a kind of sleep.
"Ryoko," Akito said, taking Inez off her feet and into his arms. "I'm taking her back up. Wait a sec. What the heck is this?" Akito picked up a small plate off the floor.
"I'm going to look around for a bit," Ryoko said, her frame taking giant steps through the ruined city. Akito carried Inez up into his aesti and headed back to the Nadesico. From what Ryoko could tell, most of the city still lay buried. Only the tops of buildings appeared out of the ground, with the mega computer sitting on a central pillar. She looked up out of the giant crater and up into the sky. Finn's blast had vaporized all the sediment surrounding the ruins, but had only broken the first few layers of the distortion field. Now that those fields had been neutralized, the ruins lay fully exposed. She looked around for any sign that Finn might have somehow survived. However, even with Finn's luck the chances of him having found a way out of it were slim. She found scattered pieces of Skywarp everywhere, most of which were of the most basic of parts, a bolt here or a strip of wiring there. Very view pieces had survived intact.
"So it was all in vain," Ryoko said to herself, picking up a piece of scrap.
"Ryoko," Megumi called. "Please return to the Nadesico. The Captain wants to take this opportunity to destroy the computer."
"Right." She took one last look around and then took off back to the Nadesico, unknowingly carrying the scrap in her hand.
"Ruri," Yurika said once Ryoko had returned. "Prepare to fire PT cannon."
"So you're assuming that by destroying the thing that both sides want, they'll have no reason to fight anymore?" Jun asked.
"That's right," Yurika replied. "Ruri, fire PT cannon."
"Roger, Captain," Ruri replied, and the Nadesico, again, charged up the energy required to fire. "Captain, this will drain what little is left in the PT engines. If the Nadesico were to remain exposed to an atmosphere, it would take several days to recharge enough to fire again."
"Just fire, Ruri. Just fire," Yurika ordered. The black sphere of energy began to grow at the front of the ship.
"3 seconds to firing," Ruri said. "2…1, firing PT Cannon." A priority vidwindow appeared onscreen. "The ruins are projecting another barrier. Source is from inside the ruins themselves." The PT cannon fired, but was absorbed by the invisible barrier.
"What the?" Yurika said. "Ruri, what happened?"
"Collecting data," Ruri said. "Data gathering complete. It would appear that as a final line of defence, the ruins have a self contained PT engine, or engines, with in them. These engines are projecting a field twice as strong as the external fields were."
"But I don't understand," Akito said, scratching his head. "How could that thing survive a full PT blast?" It was Seiya's turn to explain now.
"I've been going over the data Inez gathered while she was inside the ruins," he said, holding her palm pad. "And it looks to me as if the ruins are protected for a reason. I'm not exactly sure, I mean, this is pretty complex stuff, but I think that if we were to destroy the jump computer then all boson jumping that ever took place in the past, present, and future would all be voided."
"So what does that mean?" Jun asked. "We should keep trying?"
"No." Ruri said, vidwindows popping up all around her bearing that word. "To void all boson jumping that ever took place would mean to totally erase history and rewrite it. As a result I would lose the one thing that is the most precious to me, and that is, the time I have spent on the Nadesico."
"Ruri?" Yurika asked.
"Think about it. None of us would know each other. And for all we know this war could still have existed, only for different reasons and means. However, we are so close to being able to conclude the war. Why would you willingly start it all over again?" Ruri pleaded. "Please, Captain."
"Is there anyway we can transport the ruins to a safe location?" Yurika asked. "If we're going to protect those ruins, we need to get them out of the hands of both sides.
"We could try towing it up into the Nadesico?" Jun suggested. "We have a winch strong enough to lift that thing."
"Good idea. Ryoko, Izumi. Go down there and secure the cables." Yurika ordered. For the second time that day, Ryoko flew down into the ruins. In her aesti's hand she carried a thick cable attached to the Nadesico.
"It's all hooked up, Captain," she called when they were finished.
"Ruri, begin retrieval of the jump computer unit," Yurika ordered. She began to bring the winch online. However, as she did, the ground beneath them began to shake. "Ruri! What's going on?" Yurika said, holding onto the console.
"Seismic activity is coming from the ground under the ruins, Captain."
"Is this area volcanically active?" Yurika asked.
"No ma'am. The cause of the disturbance appears to be emitting from the ruins themselves," Ruri replied.
"Ryoko! Izumi! Get out of there, fast!" Yurika ordered. Ryoko and Izumi returned to the Nadesico as the walls of the crater collapsed into a huge storm of dust. Something began to rise from the storm of dust. "What the hell?" Yurika asked herself. They all stood gaping at what was happening below them. All of a sudden, the dust storm engulfed the Nadesico, blocking out all the monitors. "Minato, take us up and out of the storm." The Nadesico headed skyward, but couldn't seem to escape the dust. "Keep going up."
"But if we keep going, we'll be in space," Minato said.
"Just do it!" Yurika ordered. A few minutes later the Nadesico floated high above the scene blow. The dust storm was visible, even from space. They sat there for quite some until,
"The dust storm has begun to settle." Ruri said. "Visual imaging now possible. However, due to the thickness of sediment in the atmosphere, I cannot display very accurately what is going on." She displayed a vidwindow that, at first glance, looked like the computer, just raised higher above the ground. Then, it began to sink into the dust and was followed by a brilliant flash of green light.
"Oh my gosh…" Yurika stood there staring at what lay before them "It's a city." The dust settled, and they could clearly see what the ruins had turned into. It was a fortress, with a main tower as big as a skyscraper, with two smaller towers on either side. There was a large section that the towers rested on. Out of which a massive double-barrelled cannon could be seen. It looked as though someone had built a city on top of a giant space barge.
"Whatever that thing is," Akito said. "It's big."
The city was slowly rising off the ground, a massive distortion field covering the length of its hull.
"Captain, I am receiving a faint recognition signal," Ruri said. "Signature matches Lt. Saotome."
"Where is he?" Ryoko demanded from her aesti.
"I am currently unable pinpoint the signal's exact position."
"Best estimate," Yurika ordered. "Ruri?"
"This isn't making any sense," Ruri said. "Are you sure, Omoikane?" An 'YES!' window appeared onscreen. "Captain, Omoikane says that the signal is coming from…inside the city."
"You're kidding," Yurika said.
"No ma'am."
"Try to make contact with him. Maybe he's still alive," Yurika ordered. There came a coughing sound from the bridge.
"I knew it," someone said, sounding as though they were choking on their own words. "I knew that bastard had nine lives," Akatsuki said, coughing blood onto the cold metal floor.
"Someone take him to sickbay," Yurika ordered off handedly.
"After all he's done?" Ryoko said angrily. "Let me die. Put him out of our misery."
"We could still use him. Besides, all his troops have abandoned him. He's harmless," Yurika said as two men rolled Akatsuki's body, which was saturated with blood, onto a stretcher and carried him out.
"He's not human," Akatsuki said on his way out. "He can't be."
"Ruri, can you tell if he's still alive down there?" Yurika asked.
"No ma'am. His communicator must have sustained damage and the vital signs monitor must be offline."
"Megumi, try and see if you can get through to him."
"Roger." Megumi did her routine. "I'm not getting any response, Captain. Is it possible he's just being an ass again?"
"Well, if you want to put it technically…"
"No!" Ryoko said definitely. "He wouldn't pull that stunt now."
They stood around, watching the dust continue to settle. All of a sudden, three more chulips slammed into the ground not far from the city and began to deploy units.
"I am detecting activity from the city." Ruri said as the city began to change shape. The two smaller towards fell parallel with the ground and extended out with two more massive double cannons appearing from the skyward sections of the towers.
"What the…? Jun asked, but was cut off when the two newly revealed cannons fired a round each. Each shot hit a chulip. However, it seemed to do more than just vaporize them. It was as though the blast was so intense that it destroyed the very fabric that held the space around them together.
"It would appear," Inez's face appeared onscreen. "That the megacomputer that we identified as the one that controls and regulates all boson jumping in the universe is actually an extension of a much larger super structure, with it being the core processing unit."
"Very interesting, Inez, but what if that thing starts attacking us?" Yurika asked.
"I wouldn't worry about that, Captain," she said and closed the window.
"The Jovian forces are attacking the city." Ruri said. 'Wow, I'm getting a lot of screen time here,' she thought.
"Minato, bring the Nadesico down," Yurika ordered.
"Say what?" was the response she got from most of the crew.
"Do you know how much a ship like this costs?" Prospector said, his calculator on the verge of exploding.
"I don't think that city is any real threat to us as long as we prove our presence to be friendly," Yurika said. As they got closer, Ryoko, Izumi, and Akito all launched and engaged the Jovians. The city seemed to tolerate their presence and did not perceive them to be hostile.
"The Jovian forces seem to be withdrawing," Ruri reported a few minutes later. The city, along with the three aestis, had destroyed three out of the five chulips and had nearly eradicated all the Jovian forces.
"Any word from inside that thing?" Yurika asked.
"No ma'am," Ruri replied. "But our aestivalis units appear to be able to move through the city's distortion field. It is as though they are operating on the same frequency."
"Move the Nadesico closer to the city, Minato," Yurika ordered. "It sees us as friendly." The Nadesico crawled forward a few hundred meters closer. A Nadesico sized hatch opened along the base of the still erect tower.
"Landing lights have been deployed," Ruri informed them.
"Captain?" Minato asked, unsure if she should accept this invitation.
"Take us in," Yurika said. The Nadesico slowly entered the opening. Inside it was lit up as anyone would expect a standard spaceport to be. However, it was strangely quiet. Ryoko and the other pilots could hear a kind of humming noise along with a steady beat every few seconds, like a massive heart pounding.
"What's going on?" Akito asked as he set his aesti down. As he did, the opening closed and became a transparent green colour.
"The city is emitting high concentration of bose particles," Ruri said.
"It's trying to jump?" Yurika asked as they vanished from the Martian surface. They rematerialized somewhere in space. "Where are we, Ruri?"
"Calculating position," Ruri said. "Location confirmed. We are currently approximately halfway between the Mars and the Earth."
"What are we doing out here?" Megumi asked.
"I don't know. But I think they have something to do with it," Jun said, pointing to the main monitor, which showed the UF fleet not far from the city.
"What's going on?" Yurika asked.
"I am detecting high energy concentrations from the front of the city, ma'am," Ruri said.
"What's it doing?" Yurika asked. Her question was answered with a massive surge, a hundred times more powerful than any PT cannon blast, erupted from between the horizontal towers. The whole city, with the Nadesico inside, shook. "What happened out here?!" Yurika aksed, holding onto her consol.
"100% of UF forces have been destroyed," Ruri reported.
"Whats all that?" Ryoko asked, walking onto the bridge. "What the?" She looked at the sparking section of space that had once contained the UF fleet.
"High bose particles detected," Ruri said, and the city once again vanished.
"Where are we now?" Yurika asked when they rematerialized. This time it a small planet lay before them, surrounded by chulips.
"It can't be…he couldn't have…" Ryoko said, staring at the chulips.
"Calculating position," Ruri said.
"Captain, we're on Jovian space. That's one of Jupiter's moons," Ryoko said.
"That is correct. We are currently situated in front of the moon Europa," Ruri said. "I am reading another highly concentrated surge in energy." And like it did with the UF fleet, the wave erupted from the mouth of the towers. However, it did not strike the small moon, nor the chulips surrounding it."
"It missed?" Yurika asked. The ship shook slightly as a shockwave ripped along the city.
"No ma'am. The blast detonated in Jupiter's upper atmosphere. It apparently struck some kind of sub orbital station," Ruri said.
"That would be the artefact," Shiratori said. "We found it when our ancestors fled to Jupiter."
"But what was it an artefact of?" asked Jun.
"Phase transition power cores," Shiratori replied. "And a factory for leap gates, or what you call chulips."
"I am detecting large numbers of grasshopper robots and dimojin fighters outside the city's distortion field," Ruri said. From the view the Nadesico had, looking through the clear green field that kept them inside the city. "There appears to be some structural reconfiguration." The Nadesico shook as the city began to change shape. The ends of the horizontal towers flipped back, forming a kind of foot. The centre tower split in two and attached itself to the sides of its structure. The ramps at the opposite end of the towers rotated so they where parallel to the legs. A massive section of the front blew off and transformed. It rearranged itself into a kind of head, and situated itself on top of the city, which had now turned and stood up in front of the moon.
The Jovians stood agape at what they saw before them. The floating city transformed before their eyes into a massive robotic being. Cannons were mounted on the legs, wrists, and forarms. With who massive gun barrels at mounted on what they guessed to be the stomach. For a few moments it just floated there, as though it were waiting for something. However, it broke its motionless trance and reached forward with a massive hand and crushed a group of open chulips. It threw the broken bits off into space and tore a shopping mall sized hole in the moon, ripping the command centre clean off its icy foundation and crushed it in its fist.
"What is this?" Yurika asked. With each movement made by the metal titan caused the Nadesico to shift and move, rattling the insides of the ship.
"The beginning of the end," Ryoko said to herself, watching the destruction outside. The city grabbed a giant space station out of its orbit with the moon and crushed it between its two hands and tossed it onto the moon's surface. It then began to back up and deployed all cannons. The two on its legs, the four on its arms, and the two in the middle, all eight of them came to life. First they fired a sheet of projectiles, clearing the space around it of any Jovian insects. When they stopped, the humming noise inside the ship became steadily louder. The city shook slightly.
"Ruri!" Yurika yelled, barely managing to keep herself upright.
"I am detecting another build up of energy. But it is different than the one before. It is focused narrowly within a highly concentrated blaze zone," Ruri said.
"Just what does that mean?"
"It's going to fire," Ryoko replied and grabbed the railing that ran along the side of the bridge walls. Light from the cannons charging up poured in through the glass of the Nadesico's bridge. The humming became a buzz, and the buzz became a rumbling. Then everything went quiet.
"Is it over?" Megumi asked, opening one eye. The Nadesico shook violently as a bright flash of light erupted from outside. From their seat inside the city, they could see eight massive beams of light being channelled into one massive wave of destruction. Everything seemed to happen slowly. They watched as the crushed station dissolved and the remnants of the chulips vanish. However, it did not stop there. It swept forward slowly, obliterating everything in its path. It collided with the moon kept going. They saw the moon erupt in a cloud of steam before it vanished from sight and existence. The vibrations died down and returned to a light hum. The crew of the Nadesico stared at what lay before them, or rather, what didn't lay before them. The chulips, the station, the moon, they were all gone. As though they had been swept away and out of the universe. They watched silently as they slowly passed high above Jupiter's sky. Then, before any of them could say a word, it all vanished. Ruri was the first one to break the silence.
"The Nadesico has returned to Mars surface, Captain," she said. However, she did not receive a reply. "Captain?"
"What…what just happened here?" Yurika asked herself.
"Snap out of it, Captain?" Ryoko slapped her across the face. "Standing there staring into space won't give you any answers. I'm going outside." She left them all and made her way to the hangar where she, for the second time that day, took Hikaru's aestivalis.
"I'm going too," Akito said and ran off after her. A few minutes later they walked down the catapult out of the hangar. "This place is huge!" he said when they manoeuvred their aestis out into the massive hangar that the Nadesico was sitting in.
"Yeah," Ryoko said, walking around.
"So what exactly are we looking for?" Akito asked, pressing his hands against the screen that kept them trapped inside, but to no avail.
"I'm not sure," Ryoko replied, walking her aesti along the adjacent wall. "A way out, I guess." There was a massive line that ran vertical from the floor to the ceiling. She pressed her hand against it and the two panels split apart and slid open. "Hey, Tenkawa. I found something. It looks like a hallway or something." The opened corridor was dark. They turned on their searchlights. "Hmm." Ryoko hesitated a few seconds before proceeding. The door slid shut behind them. They rushed back, hoping it would open for them, but it remained shut.
"Oooh crap," Akito said. "Megumi, can you hear me?" he asked into his comlink. "The signal's not going through."
"We could always blast through. I've got a few missiles left. But…" she trailed off.
"What?" Akito pressed.
"I was just thinking. If this thing wanted to attack us, it would have already done it by now," she replied. "But I don't want to risk pissing it off." She added, remembering the small collection of atoms that remained of the UF fleet. "No choice but to look around, I guess. If worse comes to worse we can always blast our way out. Come on, this way." She took a few steps forward. She felt as though she were some small insect scurrying around. The passage way was as wide as it was tall. Just then, there came a horrible sound of twisting metal. Ryoko grabbed her rifle.
"Did you just hear that?" Akito asked, grabbing his gun.
"Yeah," Ryoko answered, taking a few steps forward and the sound echoed through the passageway. "It's coming from this way." she said, running a sonic scan. She picked up the pace, with Akito behind her. They stopped when it sounded again, only this time from around the corner. They carefully looked down the adjacent corridor and shone their lights along the walls. The sound erupted again and they could see massive dents in the sides of one panel, as though something was breaking through from the other side. Akito fell back, but Ryoko stepped forward.
"What are you doing?" Akito whispered, as though he feared whatever was in there would hear him.
"I'm taking a closer look," she said, standing in front of the panel. More dents were smashed into it from the other side and the sound of twisting metal reverberated through the walls. She raised her gun.
"Are you nuts?!" Akito said, jumping out and grabbing her rifle. "What are you thinking?"
"I'm going to check it out." Ryoko said simply, grabbing back her gun. "Are you going to help?"
"Help?" Akito asked confused. Ryoko raised her rifle and fired along the panel's edges. "You're letting it out?"
"Uh huh. And if you're not going to help you can get out of my way," she said, firing again along the top, blowing holes through the panel. The noise subsided. "Are you going help me, or what?"
"I suppose that's one way to go," Akito said and opened fire at the other side of the panel. They continued firing until they had completed a line of bullet holes in the form of a square around the front of the panel. Nothing came from the other side. Ryoko began to walk towards it. "Ryoko I don't think…" He was cut off as the panel came flying off the wall and something burst out. It was difficult to see with the bits of panel and sparks flying to see exactly what it was. It ploughed right past Ryoko, sending her crashing to the floor and towards Akito. He fired at it out of pure fear, but was simply brushed aside. Whatever it was, it was a little bigger than an aestivalis, but packed a much heavier punch. It ran off down the way they had just came.
"Don't just float there!" Ryoko screamed at him. "We're going after it." She cranked up her thrusters and flew after it, grabbing Akito and tossing him into the air as she passed. They followed the slight impressions the creature had made in the floor and the scratches it left on the wall. "You're fast," she said to herself when they had almost caught up with it. They could see its red metallic heels running just ahead of them. She tried to dive and grab it, but it kept moving and she skidded to a stop on the floor.
"You alright?" Akito asked. Ryoko brushed him aside and took off again after it. They could still here the thundering of the creature's feet against the floor, but they had lost sight of it.
"Where did you go?" she asked herself. Her question was answered by a sudden speck of light at the end of the corridor followed by another, then another. "It's ripping through," she said when they had caught up to it. They watched from a slight distance as whatever it was ripped its way through the metal door they had entered earlier. It burst through the hole it made and into the bright hangar and headed straight for the Nadesico. "Come on!" Ryoko said, grabbing Akito by the arm and throwing him through the hole. She drew her rifle again and fired at the creature as it made its way towards the Nadesico. Upon being hit, it stopped and turned around. It was red and black in colouration. It looked somewhat like Ryoko's red space aesti, only with sharp edges rather than circular curves. It stood there, poised to strike. Akito raised his rifle. "Wait." Ryoko put her hand over his gun. "Look." She motioned at its head, which was looking this way and that. She took a step closer, but it swung one of its arms at her, but did not move any closer. She took another step and it took a step back. She took several steps at once; the metal being held it's ground, but did not make any motion of hostility towards her. When she was close enough, she extended her out as though to shake its hand. The metal being took a step back. Ryoko placed her hand on its shoulder. The creature flung her aside and fell to its knees, clutching its head.
"What's it doing?" Akito asked, coming closer to it. The being pounded the floor and seemed to tear at its head in frustration. Finally, after several minutes of this display it seemed to calm down. It's body sparked with bolts of energy as it fell to the floor. It's head ejected from its body and crashed on the floor not far away. As it sailed through the air, it seemed to change shape. Ryoko ran over to it and gently picked it up. The thing twitched and sparked. Ryoko fell to her aesti's knees and held it in both hands. "Ryoko!" Akito ran over to her. "What is it?" he asked. Ryoko didn't reply. Akito looked down to what she held in her hands. There, lay Finn's mangled and twisted metal body.
Alive?
"Hmm," Inez said, examining Finn's body, which was still sealed inside his pilot's suit. "Interesting."
"What is it?" Yurika asked, standing not far from the examination table. Ryoko and the other pilots waited outside sickbay. The Nadesico still sat inside the city's hangar bay, but the green field that kept them inside had long since vanished, and a slight breeze blew in from the Martian surface.
"It would appear that he's not dead," Inez said grimly.
"But…?"
"I don't know. I've never seen a piece of technology so complex before," Inez said, looking at the suit. "From what I can gather, it would appear that when his frame was destroyed, the cockpit remained intact and crashed into the ruins. Somehow he was absorbed into the structure and used as a catalyst. The city used his mind as a central processing unit in order to activate itself and, in the process, reconfigured his suit to act as a giant semiconductor. From our studies of the alien technology…"
"But he's still alive, right?" Yurika interrupted.
"In a nutshell, yes. I am detecting brain and circulatory activity."
"So what's the catch?"
"I don't know how to remove his body from the suit without killing him," Inez said. "In the original design, there's a series of locks that hold the suit together from the back. In order to secure the suit, you press the command key and it locks. When you want to get out, you hit the command key again and the back unlocks. But the suit has been modified so such a great extent that the original plans are useless. All the original joints have been fused shut, we'd have to take a welding torch to get through."
"And you can't find a way out for him," Yurika concluded.
"Exactly. We can simply cut through without risking damaging whatever's left of him."
"Whatever's left?"
"If his mind is still intact. This is all speculation, but his mind was technically in control of the city when it attacked the UF fleet and the Jovian station. But the stress of it all could have been too much for him to handle. His antics in the hangar didn't help his situation much either," Inez explained.
"So you think his brain was fried?" Yurika said. Inez nodded. "Would it be more humane to just pull the plug?"
"I don't know. There isn't really any plug to pull, so to speak. He's alive without any outside assistance. But if you're suggesting that it would be kinder to let him die, I can't give you an answer," she said. The suit sparked again, causing Finn's body to twitch. "And I don't know how much time he has either."
"Inez," Yurika said, getting up from hear seat. "Get him out."
"Alright, Captain. Seiya," She opened a vidwindow to Seiya who was in the hangar. "I need some equipment." She listed everything she thought she might need.
"Where am I?" Finn asked, slowly opening his eyes. He saw nothing but black and his voice echoed off into the distance. "What's going on?" He looked at himself. He was dressed in his usual uniform. But his hands dripped with some strange substance. "What?" He examined his hands. "Blood?" He looked around again. "What's going on here?" he shouted. The only reply he got was his own echo.
"They're blood is on your hands," came Inez's voice, as she appeared out of the darkness. "You killed them. You killed them all."
"Killed who? Inez, what's going on?" Finn tried to grab her by the shoulders, but he passed right through her.
"Name: Kasumi Mutsuki. Age: 26, scramjet fighter pilot," Inez said. "Akihiro Mijura, age 22, communications officer. Kazuki Kato, age 34, Captain. Toshio Yanagisawa, age 26, gunner. Goichi Masuda age 30 Captain."
"Who are they? What are you talking about? Tell me!" Finn shouted at her.
"Jyuzo Hirata, age 28. Akio Kawamura, age 53," Inez continued.
"What is this? Who are they?" Finn tried to shake her, but he passed right through her again.
"Toshimichi Akamatsu, age 35. Fumio Hirose, age 22," Inez continued.
"Stop!" Finn shouted at the top of his lungs. "Stop it! Who are they?" Inez fell silent. She displayed a vidwindow in front of them. It showed the city emerging from the cloud of dust and destroying the Jovian forces on Mars. It showed how the chulips dissolved as the space around them collapsed in on itself. "What…?" She opened another vidwindow, which contained the UF fleet and its destruction. "Inez, what is this? When did this happen?" Another window appeared, showing the transformed city ripping apart the Jovian Central Command. "How did all this happen?" She pointed her finger at him.
"You," she said. "You killed them."
"I didn't kill those people!" Finn screamed at her. "I didn't do any of this!"
"It is their blood on your hands," sshe said. "You killed them."
"Why did you do it?" came a faint voice and a young woman dressed in a UF uniform stepped appeared. "Why did you?"
"I didn't do anything!" Finn said again.
"Why?" a young man dressed in a Jovian uniform appeared next. "Why?" he said as more stepped out into view. "Why? Why? Why?" they chanted. "Why did you kill us? Why did you slaughter so many? Why did you do it?"
"I don't understand," Finn said, falling to his knees.
"Why? Why did you kill us?" they chanted.
"I didn't kill you!" Finn shouted. "I didn't!"
"Why did you slaughter so many?"
"ENOUGH!" Finn screamed.
"Their blood is on your hands, Lieutenant Finn Saotome of Nergal Special Forces, age 22, blood type B+, height 188 cm," Inez said, displaying another window. It was of Finn. He was hovering inside some kind of computer controller. It showed him attached to it. His body wired into it. It showed his view as the UF fleet was destroyed. It showed what he saw when the Jovian forces were destroyed.
"What? When did…?" Finn began, but was interrupted by the soldiers.
"You did it!" they screamed at him. "It's because of you! You killed us!"
"I didn't kill you!" Finn tried to shout at them, but his voice could not be heard over the dead's chanting. He shut his eyes and tried to block out their chanting. Then, everything went quiet. He opened his eyes. Everything had returned to black again. His hands still dripped with blood. He felt sick, as though he were choking on his own breath. His mind raced with images of what he saw himself doing. The hatred he felt for those he destroyed. The sorrow for destroying them. It tore at him. He hated himself for doing it, but at the same time was glad he'd done it. "I…I killed them?" he asked himself.
"Yes, you killed them," Inez said in an emotionless voice. "You killed them out of hatred." Finn looked up and saw the faces of people looking down at him, some with hatred, others with disgust. Finn shrank to his knees.
"I…killed…them," his voice trembled.
"I thought you didn't mind killing if you never saw the enemy's face?" Inez asked. "You did it before."
"That doesn't mean I liked it! I had to. I didn't kill out of hatred! I killed…"
"Because you had to?" Inez finished for him.
"That's right," Finn said. "I had to. It was them or me."
"You killed thousands, just so you could live?" Inez asked. "Rather selfish, isn't it?"
"I had to kill some of them! If I didn't, they would have killed others. They were soldiers, they accepted the risk," Finn tried to defend himself.
"I don't think Mitsuri Akitaka, the cook on the Magnus, accepted the risk, nor did she deserve do die," Inez said. "Murderer."
"But…"
"Murderer!" the dead chanted. "Murderer! Murderer!"
"Stop it!" Finn shouted.
"Murderer! Murderer! Murderer!" they continued.
"Stop!" Finn choked, shutting his eyes, but tears flowed through and dripped onto his bleeding hands.
"Murderer! Murderer! Murderer!"
"Increase oxygen flow into the mask! I need 100 CCs of 0021. I can't feel a pulse," Inez ordered from sickbay. Around her medical staff scurried.
"Murderer! Murderer! Murderer!"
"Stop it!" Finn pleaded, shrinking lower
"I'm not reading a pulse. His heart's failing."
"I killed them," Finn began to fade away into the darkness.
"No response. We can't use shocks with this much of a suit on. Give me 120 of adrenalin," Inez said.
"I killed them," Finn said, only an outline of him was visible.
"He's going into respiratory failure."
"I don't have a pulse."
"Too late," Inez said, looking at the heart monitor. "He's gone."
"I killed them." Finn said, partially hidden in the darkness.
"You're pathetic," a new voice said. "Look at you. You're pitiful." Finn looked up, recognizing the voice.
"Ryoko?" he asked.
"You're going to just roll over and die? Is that it?" she demanded, coming into view.
"But I killed them! What else can I do? I can't bring them back. Maybe I should just fade away and spare everyone the pain of my existence,"
"Idiot!" she slapped him across the face. "Look how selfish you're being, try thinking about those who might actually care about your absence. Don't those people matter to you?" Finn remained silent.
"Why would anyone care about a murderer like me?" he muttered.
"Because you're not a murderer! Grow up! This isn't just about you," Ryoko said. Finn bit his lower lip. "What about me?" she asked. Finn glanced at her. Her face scowled, but her eyes shimmered. Slowly, she began to fade from view. "Come and see me when you grow up," she said as she disappeared. This struck Finn like lightning to a tree.
"Wait," he whispered. "Wait!" he shouted when he got no response. "WAIT!!"
Finn's body convulsed.
"I had a pulse. It started then stopped, ma'am," a med officer said, noticing the heart monitor jump a little. Inez quickly placed her hands over Finn's heart and pressed down firmly. "Nothing. Again." Inez pounded on his partially exposed chest. "I have a pulse!" the med officer said after a few more attempts. "It's faint. But I've got one." Finn's body suddenly took in a great breath of air. Inez quickly removed the last remaining pieces of the suit. She would have torn them off if she could, but did what should could with the cutters Seiya had provided her with.
Awww
Outside sickbay, Ryoko stood, leaning against the wall opposite the doors.
"Well?" Ryoko demanded when Inez came out.
"If you're asking whether he's alive, I can at least answer that question. He's alive. Although I had to tie Akatsuki to his bed and gag him. He was doing everything he could to distract us," Inez said. "You can go see him…" she trailed off when Ryoko pushed past her.
Inside sickbay, Ryoko spotted Finn. He was still being poked and prodded by med officers, but she heard the steady beep of the heart monitor and saw the gentle rise and fall of his chest. A good portion of his shirt had been cut off and there were cuts up and down his legs from the cutters. There was an IV line sticking out of his hand and an oxygen mask over his mouth. His face was one you might expect from something having a nightmare.
"The avenging hero," Ryoko said to herself, leaning against the wall adjacent to his bed. One of the med officers noticed Ryoko and pulled a chair up to the bed for her. She took it and sat down, taking Finn's hand. "Idiot," she said to herself, allowing a small smile to slip through. "When will he wake up?" she asked the officer beside her.
"Tough to say," he said, putting another bag of fluid onto Finn's IV. "I wouldn't say for a while though. He was dead, after all. And medically speaking he should have stayed that way." The word 'dead' sent shivers down Ryoko's spine. "But with this guy…" he said, thinking back to the numerous times Finn had been shot at, burned up, knocked over, and blown up. "who knows?" He drew a few vials of blood, stuck them in a bag, and left. Most of the other staff miraculously finished what they were doing and left. With exception to one nurse who took a seat way off on the other side of the room. Behind the curtain she could hear Akatsuki pull at the straps that held him down. Ryoko ignored him and gave Finn's hand a gentle squeeze. She jumped a little when she felt, or thought she felt, a slight squeeze back. She looked at him more closely now that everyone had left. He looked very frail, as though even the slightest breeze would knock him over. A tear rolled down Ryoko's cheek and dropped onto Finn's hand that she was holding. She was startled by a sudden but slight slap as a small notebook fell out of her pocket and fell open onto the floor. She picked it up and read the page fate had opened to her. She glanced up from the page noticed something hanging around his neck. Slowly, she reached for it. She unclasped the chain and examined the object that hung from it. It was a gold ring with tiny specks that sparkled in the light. She held the ring in the light and saw something inscribed on the inside. She drew a quick breath upon reading what had been cut into it She closed her hand around the ring and held onto it tightly. The dam of tears broke as they flowed freely from her eyes.
"Yes," She managed to say and held his hand tighter than before.
Ryoko slowly woke. She raised her head and opened her eyes, taking in what she saw around her. It was the Nadesico's sickbay. Her eyes slowly looked around the room. She looked at the foot of the bed she was sitting by and slowly traced up, taking in the sight of its occupant. Finn lay there, looking pretty much in the same shape he did when she had first seen him the night before. However, his face was no longer contorted and twisted. Instead, it held a slight, content looking smile. She smiled back at him, tears, again, welled in her eyes. Clutching his hand, which now felt warm and alive, rather than cold and lifeless as it had the night before, she buried her head in his chest. Finn began to stir a few moments later.
"Finn?" she asked when his eyes opened a crack.
"Mmm?" was the voice that managed to escape his throat. "Ryoko." He stopped when a fit of coughing overtook him.
"Should I call the nurse?" Ryoko asked.
"I'm," he said, coughing up small spatters of blood. He took several deep breaths. "I'm ok." He fell back against the pillow. He stared at the buzzing florescent light overhead. "What's going to happen?" he asked weakly.
"About what?" Ryoko asked, brushing the tears from her eyes.
"It's over," he said. "This war's over. But…"
"But what?"
"At what cost?" he said quietly.
"Just forget about it. It's over, that's all that's important."
"I can't," he said, covering his face with his hands. "I can't." He looked at her. "I killed them. I was the one who killed them. How can I go on knowing that I was responsible for it all?"
"But…"
"I don't know," he said. "I don't know."
"Look at you," Ryoko said sternly. "Here you are, wallowing in your own sorrow. Think about it. You ended the war. It's as simple as that. You did what probably any of us would have done given the opportunity." They remained in silence for a long time.
"I want to ask you something," he looked into Ryoko's eyes. "Can you stand being with me, knowing full well what I've done?" Ryoko looked at him. " I need to know," he pressed.
"I'll always," she hesitated and tried to gather her thoughts. "You've put your neck on the line for me time and again. You've gotten us out of trouble when I would have said it was impossible. You've blown yourself up more times than I can count." She fell silent and gathered up all her courage. "I'll always be with you."
"Ryoko I…" Finn stopped. Their eyes locked and slowly the gap between them began to shorten. They both closed their eyes. Ryoko trembled slightly as their lips brushed together. Finn felt his body jump at this first contact.
"Good morning Ryoko," Inez said as she strolled through the doors and into the room. Finn and Ryoko quickly pulled away from one another, both turning a deep shade of red. "You're awake?" she gaped at Finn, seeing him sitting up and conscious.
"Is there any reason why I shouldn't be?" Finn asked, puzzled.
"Well, considering you were dead and the damage your body sustained, I'm surprised that you're conscious so soon," Inez said, scribbling something on her clipboard. "How are you feeling?"
"Like someone's been playing hockey with me as the puck." Finn replied, wiping a small dribble of blood from an open cut on his face. "Is that abnormal too?"
"No. By all accounts you should be dead right now. If you weren't feeling bad at all then I would be concerned," Inez said in her usual explanation tone of voice. "It's a joke," she said when she saw Finn and Ryoko looked at her strangely. "But how do you feel in comparison to the other times you've been here?"
"About the same, I guess," Finn replied. "I feel more like I've been beaten up than almost died."
"I see," Inez scribbled some more on her clipboard. "Hmm."
"Something wrong?"
"No, it's nothing," Inez said quickly. "Ryoko, I have to make sure Saotome doesn't have any long term or disabling injuries. Why don't you head to the cafeteria and get something to eat?"
"Alright," Ryoko gave Finn's hand a quick squeeze and left.
"So what's the bad news?" Finn asked as soon as the doors closed.
"I'm concerned about something," Inez said.
"And that would be?"
"You seem to be healing at an artificially accelerated rate," Inez said simply. "I've talked with all the medical personnel and they haven't given you anything that would speed up the recovery process this quickly."
"You're talking about this as if it's a bad thing," Finn said.
"It could very well be," she said. "Look, I'm going to be frank here."
"Ok, can I still be Finn?"
"This isn't a joke! I've gone through all the data the medical component on your communicator recorded, and from the stresses your body had undergone and the damage you received, I can find no reason why you are still alive. Even the toughest person in peak physical and mental health would have died. But for some reason, you did not," Inez said. "And even if by some miraculous event that they did survive, they would not be up and about so quickly, if at all. It just isn't at all what I'd expect. Something doesn't add up."
"So what's the bad news then?"
"I don't know just yet," Inez replied. "But it worries me. Anyway, let's get started, shall we? First, I'd like you to stand up."
"No problem." Finn hopped out of the bed. "No…problem…" he said again, only this time holding onto the edge of the bed to support himself.
"Well, that proves you actually have some kind of physical limit. It's not surprising, considering how much blood you lost," Inez said. Finn narrowed his eyes. "Now, walk to the other end of the room." Finn, more or less, did so. Inez then poked him with certain instruments, drew more blood for tests, and gave him every kind of sight, hearing, and recognition test known to mankind. "Do you remember what happened to you?" she asked, continuously scribbling on her clipboard. Finn stopped his hobbling. "Do you?"
"Kind of," Finn said, sitting down at the edge of his bed.
"Tell me what you remember." Finn stayed silent. "This is very important."
"Alright," Finn said, frustrated. "Look, I remember being blown up in Skywarp. There was this light. The next thing I new, I saw the chulips not far from the ruins. It felt like I was one giant entity and just crushed them. Then I thought about the UF and all of a sudden there I was, floating out in the middle of space. I kept thinking how much I hated them, how much I just wanted all of this to end. The next thing I knew, they were gone, like I had willed them out of existence. It was the same with the Jovians. All that was going through my mind was how much I just wanted all this to end and it did. They all just vanished."
"So you have no memory of how you did this? Are you sure it wasn't just a dream? When we found you, you were in pretty bad shape," Inez said, testing Finn.
"No, it wasn't a dream. I know what I did. There's no mistaking it for a dream," Finn replied, in an unusual tone of voice.
'Anger? No, that's not it,' Inez thought. To her, his voice sounded angry but glad at the same time. "But you have no idea how you accomplished this? And you're certain it wasn't a dream. Is that correct?" Finn nodded. Inez began another series of tests.
"Now that's a woman," Finn said, catching Ryoko out of the corner of his eye as she came back. Inez flipped to the next card. "That's a tree. That's a car. That's…" he looked at the inkblot. "an old man fashioning a kayak out of a log?"
"That's correct. Well, there seems to be no serious damage physically. And you're as mentally fit as you ever were, not that I can comment on that. Ryoko, it's a good thing you're here. I need you for the last few tests," Inez said, seeing Ryoko standing by the doors. "What do you have under your arm?"
"It's," Ryoko blushed slightly as she came forward. "It's a fresh set of clothes. I mean, just look at him."
"What's wrong with…?" Finn looked at himself. He was still wearing the cut, torn, and bloodstained remnants of his uniform. "Oh, right."
"And might I suggest a shower?" Inez said, noticing the dried blood all over him.
"Right," Finn said, gratefully taking the clothes.
"When you're finished," Inez said. "I'd like you to come down to the hangar. There's one more test I'd like to perform." Finn hobbled off towards the doors. "Where are you going?"
"I think after all this, I should at least get to use my own shower," he replied as he disappeared out into the hallway Ryoko got up to go after him, but Inez stopped her.
"I need you to prep your aestevalis. I need you to take him outside," she said.
"How does he look?" Ryoko asked.
"He seems fine. There's just one thing I want to see," Inez lowered her voice. "You haven't talked about the city with him, have you?" Ryoko shook her head. "Good."
Crikey!
Ryoko stood against the wall outside Finn's room. Ten minutes or so had passed since she had last seen him limping away and out of sickbay. She stared at her feet and took no notice of people coming and going from the rooms around her.
'I wonder if…' she began to let her mind wander. 'Would he have…?' Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud shriek from Finn's room. Ryoko snapped back into reality and kicked the door down.
"Finn, you alright?" she shouted. "Finn? Hello?" she asked when she got no reply. She knocked on the bathroom door. "Finn, you alright in there?" She got no response. She slid the door open and cocked her head to one side. "What are you doing?" she asked Finn, who had a towel wrapped around his waist and was standing still, every joint rigid, as though someone had frozen his body like that. "Hello?" She waved her hand in front of his face.
"Kah…" Finn said, his teeth grinding together. "Aftershave…dripped…in cut," he managed to say. Ryoko looked at the small bottle of aftershave he held in his hand and traced a small drop as it dripped off his chin and landed in one of the open gashes across his chest. Ryoko facefaulted.
"And here I thought you were in some kind of trouble!" she said, shaking him, causing his towel to begin to unravel from around his waist. Ryoko, upon seeing this, instinctively closed her fist and brought it back, but didn't conclude the potential punch. She rewound the towel around his hips. Finn, still in some coma-like, didn't seem to notice. "Wakey wakey." She poked him in the chest. However, she got no reaction. She spotted the bottle in his hand and took it. Pouring a few drops onto her finger, she pressed the liquid into one of Finn's gashes.
"Gah!!" he came back to reality. "What was that for?"
"Hey, welcome back to the world of moving parts," Ryoko laughed. "Come on, get dressed or I'm going to have to pour the whole bottle on that." She flicked his chest causing Finn to wince lightly.
She waited outside the broken door while he changed. He emerged later wearing the sweats and t-shirt Ryoko had provided him with. Not that he had much choice in terms of clothes anyway. A few red stains seeped through the material of his shirt as cuts opened slightly as he moved. He, with help from Ryoko, managed to hobble his way to the hangar, stopping along the way once for a can of pop.
"I guess I'm still not a 100%," he said as he sat down on some empty crates to rest. He threw his empty pop can into a recycling bin not far away.
"I'm not surprised," Ryoko said, joining him. "Even with your knack for staying alive, I'm surprised you even made it." She thought about those words the second she uttered them. 'But what if he didn't survive?' she asked herself. "But I'm glad to have you back," She said aloud and slapped him on the back. Finn looked at her and smiled. He was about to reach for her hand when Inez appeared and beckoned them to join her by Ryoko's aesti. They hitched a rid on the back of an aestivalis transport that was headed in that direction.
"So what's next? You going to shoot me out of the gravity blast or something?" Finn asked as they approached.
"As much as that would prove interesting, I have a much simpler test in mind," Inez said as they boarded the elevator that took them to the upper deck of the hangar. "Here." She handed Finn a long strip of cloth, who looked at it strangely. "It's a blindfold," she explained. "I want you to put it on and get into the aestivalis. Ryoko, you're going to take him outside."
"Seems simple enough," Finn said, tying the cloth around his head and across his eyes. He made his way to Ryoko's aesti, or rather thought he did. Ryoko yanked him back as he almost walked off the edge of the deck.
"Don't you think it would be better if you got in first?" Ryoko asked. "Idiot," She added, trying to sound like her normal self, but couldn't stifle a smirk.
"Oh, right. Woops," Finn said, pulling the blindfold off and crawling into Ryoko's aesti. He took a seat along the side of the pilot's seat. Ryoko climbed in.
"Now, Saotome, put the blindfold on," Inez said from a vidwindow. Finn did as he was instructed. "Ryoko, now I want you to take him outside to the surface. I'll instruct you further then, and Saotome, do not take that blindfold off," she added, noticing Finn lifting the bottom of the cloth up a little.
"Right," he said, flipping the cloth back down. He felt the aesti walk forward and out. However, he was startled slightly when they made the drop from the Nadesico onto the city's hangar floor. He reached out to brace himself. He grabbed onto something that felt familiar. The next thing he knew his face was getting to know Ryoko's side monitor a little better. "Owchies," he managed to say as Ryoko drew her fist back. He peeled himself off the monitor and sat down again.
"Ok, we're outside, just like you said," Ryoko said as her aesti hit the ground. They had travelled a few minutes away from the city. They now stood on a hilltop, overlooking the city. It appeared even bigger from the outside. It's main tower stretching up towards the sky and the long stretches of smoothed metal that she guessed to be roads lay before her.
"Alright Lieutenant. Remove the blindfold," Inez said.
"Ok," Finn said, untying the cloth. "What next?"
"What do you see in front of you?" Inez asked. Finn opened his eyes and looked. His eyes seemed to bug out of his head.
"What…the…?" He rubbed his eyes, but what he saw didn't change.
"Do you recognize that?" Inez asked. Finn continued to stare at the massive construct before him.
"Agh!" He clutched his head in agony and fell to the aesti's floor.
"Finn?!" Ryoko leapt out of her seat and down beside him. Finn's face was pressed against the floor, but he was holding his head as though he had just been shot. "Inez, what's going on?"
"I don't know," Inez said from the Nadesico. She quickly began to check the data from Finn's communicator. However, her readouts were all blank. "Ryoko, is he wearing his communictor?"
"No, I don't see it," Ryoko said, trying to pull Finn up, but he shook free and knelt there, his eyes shut tight. "I'm bringing him back." She jumped back into her seat and cranked the robot's treads to maximum.
"Ryoko, what happened?" Inez asked, as Ryoko landed in her aesti's docking mechanism.
"I don't know," Ryoko said, climbing out, carrying an unconscious Finn over her shoulder. "He was looking at the city when he just started holding his head as though someone had taken a hammer to it," she said, laying him down on the stretcher the med team had waiting for him. They quickly rushed him from the hangar, Inez led the way and Ryoko followed. When to returned to sickbay, they hauled Finn onto an examination table.
"No vital sign deterioration," one officer said as she hooked Finn up to the monitoring system. "His heart rate is high, but not unusual given the circumstances."
"There's no sign of any structural fractures on his skull either," another one said. Ryoko took a seat by the doors and watched.
"I can't find anything wrong with him," Inez said. "Ryoko, you said he collapsed holding his head, right?" Ryoko nodded. "It could be some kind of internal injury then, something we didn't find earlier. Su," she ordered. "prep the MRI." Su, one of the med team ran over to one of the machines and punched in some controls. "We're looking for any internal abnormalities. All variables."
"Right," Su answered, hitting more controls. "It's ready." They moved Finn from the table to the MRI's conveyer. Su hit the start command and Finn slowly disappeared into the long tube that would scan his body. "The results are beginning to come in, ma'am." Inez sat down at the computer terminal.
"There isn't any internal bleeding. That's one piece of good news," Inez said, typing away. "Uh oh."
"What is it?" Ryoko asked, standing behind her.
"I don't know just yet. Give me a second," Inez continued to go through the data. "Well, he's right now he's in stable condition. That's one piece of good news. But…"
"What is it?" Ryoko pressed.
"This is not good," Inez said to herself, ignoring Ryoko.
"Damnit, tell me what's going on!" Ryoko demanded. Inez continued to sit there clicking on this and that. It was a few minutes before she said anything.
"It is as I feared," Inez said, swivelling her chair around to face Ryoko. "It's his IFS. It's beginning to deteriorate."
"What does that mean?" Ryoko asked.
"Look here," Inez said, displaying an image on her computer screen. "This is what a normal IFS implant looks like in the body." The image showed a small dot at the base of the brain with tiny blew strands extending to the body's major nerve centres. "Normally, these nanomachines go into a state of dormancy and only activate when the pilot is using the interface. They serve as a link between the pilot and the machines. But this is what Saotome's IFS looks like." She brought another image onscreen. It showed a large, blinking red light near the brain with thick red lines running all over his body. "With a normal IFS, a certain number of nanomachines are injected into the body. These nanomachines then replicate until there are enough to control something with an IFS interface. Saotome's nanomachines have replicated several times that of a normal implant, which caused them to entangled themselves with every nerve in his body. His implant has spread to such a large extent that it can no longer support itself and is beginning to malfunction, effecting brain activity and chemical secretion."
"Is there anything you can do?" Ryoko asked.
"I'm not sure," Inez replied.
"And what happens if you do nothing?"
"His nerve centres will begin to shut down and eventually cause his brain to cease functioning," Inez said simply. She moved over to a cabinet and retrieved a nanoinjector.
"What are you doing?" Ryoko asked when she saw the injector.
"A shot of fresh nanomachines should help stabilize his system. Problem is it's only temporary. But it will give me some time to research this."
Nano Nano
"Well?" Ryoko asked impatiently. She, the Captain, and the other pilots had assembled on the bridge. They had decided to move the Nadesico out of the city and had landed not far away. Apparently no one knew just what to do yet. There was no reason to fight, but the main question was what to do with the city, which some had called Fortress Magnum.
"I have isolated the cause of Lt. Saotome's nanomachine deterioration," Inez said. "I extracted a small cluster using micro surgery techniques and managed to tap into their data collection programme. This programme records what the nanomachine network is doing and stores it. It would appear, as some of you already know, that Saotome's nanomachines are several times the number you four have and are spread in higher concentrations throughout his body. This was caused by some kind of accident during his IFS experimentation. However, due to the experience of controlling the Fort Mag…"
"We know that," Ryoko said. "Skip ahead a few pages."
"The injection of fresh nanomachines seems to have stabilized his condition. However, this is only temporary. Soon the source data will spread and the deterioration will continue."
"So what exactly can we do about this?" Yurika asked, raising her hand.
"We can't keep giving him fresh nanomachines. It will only work a few times before it becomes ineffective. However, an injection of nanomachines taken from a pilot with a stable IFS implant could, in theory, give his nanomachines the data required to go into their dormant state and stop spreading," Inez explained. "So I ask for volunteers. But I must warn you, this is only theoretical and the procedure to remove a sufficient cluster of nanomachines would be quite dangerous."
"What kind of danger are we talking here?" Akito asked.
"The concentrations throughout your body would not be sufficient. We would have to extract them from the larger cluster they form at the base of your brain."
"So we're talking brain surgery here?" Hikaru asked.
"This isn't rocket science, Hikaru. It's only brain surgery," Izumi snorted.
"What about that snake Akatsuki?" Ryoko asked. "He seems pretty expendable to me."
"It's a nice thought, but we can't use him. The nanomachines tie themselves into your cranial system. They form a backup copy of your memories. It's like making a recovery disk for a computer. However, unlike a computer, this backup also reflects your personality. In order to be of any use, you have to be willing, which makes your nanomachines willing. So only you four are useful because you have a positive relationship with Saotome. I hardly think Akatsuki would be willing to help us," Inez explained.
"I'll do it," Ryoko said, stepping forward.
"You could all see that one coming, right?" the author laughs. "I guess it was kind of obvious. Anyway," he said, addressing the cast. "Carry on."
"Are you sure? This is a very dangerous situation you'll be putting yourself in," Inez cautioned.
"Yeah yeah, I know all that," Ryoko said. "But I'm probably the only pilot you'll get who'll actually want to do this," she added quickly. "And what are you laughing at, Izumi?"
"Saotome!" Izumi and Hikaru sang together.
"It…it's not like that." Ryoko said, turning a nice shade of red. "Someone, back me up here."
"Oh Saotome!" they sang again.
"Anyway," Inez interrupted them. "It will take an hour or two to get everything ready. I'd try and relax until then. And," she said specifically to Hikaru and Izumi, "No stresses. The last thing we need is for her mind to be anxious while we're working. Understood?"
"Yes ma'am," they said in unison, but still laughing.
"You're dismissed until then," Yurika said. They dispersed. Ryoko headed for the observation deck, Hikaru and Izumi decided to leave her alone.
Ryoko sat on the blanket she and Finn had shared. She took in his scent from the fabric. It comforted her in one way, and terrified her in another. His scent made her feel at east, but it also reminded her of what she had to lose. Not just her life, something much more precious than that. She remembered their time on Dusty and stretched out on the blanket, a smile on her face.
Ryoko woke some time later as the door to the observation deck slid quietly open. She lifted her head up to see who had intruded on her uneasy sleep.
"Tenkawa?" she asked, picking herself up off the ground.
"Ryoko, I…" Akito said nervously. He fell silent and drew her into his arms.
"What are you doing?" Ryoko asked. However, she did not protest. This was what she would have killed for at one time. But now…
"Ryoko, if you make it through this," he took a deep breath. "I want you to be with me." This made Ryoko's heart stop for a moment. "When you were gone, I couldn't stop thinking about you," he said, and after some time had passed held her tighter.
"Stop," she whispered. "Stop it!" She pulled herself out of his grasp.
"What is it?" Akito asked, confused.
"Look Akito. At one time I would have jumped at this opportunity. But…"
"But what?" Akito pressed.
"I can't. I just can't. We don't belong together. What happened when Sao…Finn," she corrected herself. "and I were sucked into that chulip…"
"What is it?"
"Don't you get it? You can't see it? We don't belong together," she said again. "Besides, you belong with Yurika. You're only doing this to make me feel better," she added.
"But why?" Akito pressed, taking a step closer.
"Because," Ryoko said, taking a step back. "I…"
"Ryoko, it's time." Inez said over the comlink.
"Be right there," Ryoko said and closed the window. "Look, Tenkawa. I'm flattered, but think about it," she said and left, leaving Akito standing there. The door shut and he sat down to think about this.
"What's this?" He asked himself when he it was not grass that touched his hands. He picked up the blanket.
"Alright Inez, I'm here," Ryoko said as she came into sickbay. She felt a twinge of fear in the pit of her stomach, but she tried to force it out of her mind. There had been some big changes to the room since she last visited it earlier that day. Two operating tables had been placed in the centre of the room, with bright lights hanging overhead and there were monitors, machines, and all kinds of strange devices that beeped and flashed. Finn already occupied one table. She could see the steady beat of his heart on the monitor and the gentle rise and fall of his chest. They had removed his shirt and applied every kind of instrument to almost every available part of his exposed body. However, one thing puzzled her. Finn lay face down, his face exposed through a padded hole, like something you'd find at a masseuse.
"Over here, Ryoko," came a voice from the other side of the room. There were at least a dozen people scurrying setting monitors up and bringing necessary programmes online. Ryoko found Inez typing away at a computer terminal.
"Ok, let's do this," Ryoko said. "Before I loose my nerve," she added to herself. "What's that?"
"It's a virtual reality simulation of what we expect to encounter when we open you," Inez said. Ryoko cringed at her choice of words.
"How does it look?"
"I'm not going to lie to you," Inez said, closing the simulation. "This is going to be a lot harder than it looks." She spun around in her chair, her white lab coat trailing behind her. She led Ryoko over to a drawn curtain. "Here." She handed Ryoko a hospital gown and closed the curtain.
"Just one question," Ryoko said when she had finished changing. "Why is he facedown?"
"We're going in from the neck, it's the closest entry point to the nanomachine cluster. It's where we'll be opening you up as well." Inez said.
"You sound like you're about to dismantle a machine," Ryoko said. "Not go into two people's brains."
"Well, like I said when I first joined the ship, whether anyone is alive and or dead doesn't mean that much to me," Inez said, checking some of the monitors.
"So you couldn't care less if we both snuff it?" Ryoko asked. Fear began to bubble within her, but she did her best to suppress it. She felt slightly insulted at being told her life was in the hands of someone who didn't care whether she lived or died. "Don't our lives matter to you?"
"I didn't say that," Inez said, turning to face her. "I suppose what I just said isn't entirely accurate. I've come to think of everyone on the Nadesico as more than just people to interact with. I suppose, in a way, I've come to think of you as an extended family. I guess old habits aren't so easy to get rid of." Inez hit a switch and all the monitors surrounding the operating tables came to life. "Would you like me to show you what we'll be doing, to put your mind at ease? If you think we're going to have your organs spread across the table, you're quite mistaken. This is surgery, while extremely complicated and delicate, involves a small hole the size of a quarter in the back of your head, and…"
"Sorry, but that's all I needed to know. I'd rather remain blissfully ignorant of the rest," Ryoko said, putting up her hand to stop Inez.
"Very well," Inez said. "Then I'd like you to lay facedown on the table." Ryoko walked over, feeling a cold sensation as her bare feet touched the hard metal floor. "Make yourself comfortable. You're going to be there for quite a while."
"Alright." Ryoko lay down on the table, the cold sensation spreading throughout her entire body. She felt the chain around her neck make a soft impression in her skin. Staff gathered around. Every pair of hands that could fit around them was there, attaching electrodes and other recording instruments. She didn't need a heart monitor; she could feel her heart ready to burst from her chest.
"Ryoko," Inez said when they turned her heart monitor on. "You've got to calm down."
"Easier said than done," Ryoko replied. An assistant took one of Ryokos hands and slid an IV line into it. Ryoko winced for a moment at the sudden contact of the needle pushing into her skin.
"We're going to give you something to knock you out. It would be best if you didn't see what was going on. As Hikaru might put it, you'd probably 'freak out'," Inez said, testing these words that she had not used in that combination until now.
"Yeah, that's a great way to calm your patients down," Ryoko said sarcastically.
"Su, add 0048 into Subaru's IV," Inez ordered. Ryoko watched as best she could from her spot as Su stuck a blue liquid into her IV and saw it drip into the tube and down to her hand. "You shouldn't feel anything. When you wake up you might have a bit of a headache."
"Right," Ryoko said. The room slowly began to go fuzzy. She glanced from side to side; everything appeared to be moving in slow motion. She could hear Inez talking, but she couldn't make out the words. Calmness fell over her as she succumbed to sleep.
"Good, she's out," Inez said, poking Ryoko with her pen. Su proceeded to immobilize her neck with a clamp. "Keep adding it every hour. We don't want her waking up." She washed her hands as any surgeon would do before an operation and put on the necessary dress. The med team stood ready, some with instruments, others constantly watching the various monitors and other things that went beep. Inez took a deep breath and took a scalpel. "Here we go."
Those Words We Will Say Someday
Ryoko opened her eyes slowly. Everything was blurred.
"What?" She pulled herself off the ground, a und her, a grassy field. There was a cliff far to her right with the faint sound of the ocean crashing at its base. From her left came a steady, cool breeze. She looked at herself, and found she was wearing a faded yellow sundress, like the one she had been released from hospital in on Dusty. She walked towards the cliff edge; her bare feet making small impressions in the dark green grass. Far below her, she could hear the gentle crash of the waves. The sun shone brightly down overhead and warmed the cool air around her. "Where am I?"
"Why, you're on the planet Mars," came a voice from behind her.
"Inez?" Ryoko asked, turning around. "What's going on? What is this place?"
"This is whatever you choose to make it," Inez answered.
"Like that helps," Ryoko said. "Am I dead?" she asked herself. "Inez, tell me what's going on." Inez didn't say anything. She stood staring off at the horizon. "What is it?" Inez pointed at a section of the cliff edge not far away. Ryoko squinted her eyes, trying to make out what she was at. Two people hung onto an exposed rock on the cliff's wall. She then burst into a run, and Inez followed slowly. When Ryoko skidded to a stop she gaped at what she saw. There, hanging on for dear life, was Finn, with Akatsuki not far below. Akatsuki grabbed at Finn's ankles, trying to rip him off the wall. "Finn!" She lay down and stretched her hand out to him. "Grab on!" Finn looked up and saw her. He tightened his grip on the rock and extended his hand out. "You've almost got it, come on!"
"No…you…don't!" Akatsuki yelled and pulled at Finn's ankle. Finn's hand clutched back onto the rock. Finn looked at Ryoko, but she couldn't read the expression on his face. It was…
"Fear?" she asked herself. She reached for him again. "Finn!"
"No!" Akatsuki yanked at Finn's legs again, causing him to slide down several feet below Akatsuki. "This time you're staying dead!" he screamed and proceeded to kick Finn about the face and stepped on his hands, which desperately clung. Ryoko made a move to climb down and assist Finn, but Inez, having caught up, put a hand on her shoulder.
"You cannot interfere. This is their fight," she said.
"You can't be serious!" Ryoko snapped and shook her off. She began to climb down, but Inez held onto her. "Let me go!" She struggled, watching in horror as Akatsuki kicked ferociously at Finn's bruised face and bloodied hands.
"This time you won't come back!" Akatsuki said, crushing Finn's hands under his boot. Finn lost his grip and began to fall.
"Finn!" Ryoko struggled some more. "Let me go!"
"It would appear that the battle has been decided," Inez said.
"Decided my ass!" Ryoko burst free of Inez's grasp and knelt by the edge. She could see Finn's body fall until it finally disappeared into the dark blue abyss below. "Finn!" Her heart felt as though someone had driven a dagger into it. "Finn!" she sobbed in both anger and sorrow, covering her face with her hands, as though if she blocked this sight from view, she would she would still see Finn still hanging onto the edge and it would be Akatsuki's body falling. However, when she dared to take a look, Akatsuki still clung there. Finn was now no longer visible. She shut her eyes again, shedding tears of anguish and fury.
"Help me!" Akatsuki said, grabbing hold of an exposed root that dangled over the edge. Ryoko opened her eyes, and saw the monster of a man below her. She stood up, anger taking control of her, and drove her heal onto Akatsuki's clinging hands. "What are you doing?" She continued to stomp on his hand, but he kept pulling himself further and further to safety.
"Just die!" she cried and kicked his throat. "Just die like the miserable worm you are!" Akatsuki brushed her aside and brought the rest of his body up over the edge. Ryoko pulled him up by his throat and delivered her knee right into his stomach. "He's gone," she heaved. "And it's all because of you!"
"Good riddance!" Akatsuki spat at her, blood dripping from his mouth. "There's nothing you can do about it anyway!" Ryoko, consumed, with anger, drove her fist into his face and threw him to the ground. He lay there coughing up blood while Ryoko furiously kicked him in the ribs until he stopped moving all together. She collapsed on the ground, taking in great breaths of air.
"Inez," She said, her voice trembling and her hair casting a dark shadow over her face. "Is it true? Is he gone?" Inez stood silent. "Answer me!"
"Look here," Inez said, motioning across the meadow. "This is life. What you see here is all of what life is. Down there," She motioned to the ocean below. "That is death."
"So what am I supposed to do?" Ryoko asked, still gasping for breath. "Choose between life or death?" She added angrily.
"That is correct."
"How can you even ask that of me?" Ryoko screamed at her. "How can you call yourself a human being and ask me to do that?"
"I'm am merely a guide. It is not my place to interfere. You have to choose a path."
"What the hell is going on here?!" Ryoko said. "This can't be real. It can't be! None of this is possible!"
"You must choose," Inez said emotionlessly.
"To hell with you!" Ryoko swung her fist at Inez, but she passed right through her. "You're nothing but a doll, a fucking puppet. Who's pulling your strings? If this is what it means to live. Then maybe I'd rather be dead!" She stood up and began to step off the cliff. However, before she did, Inez grabbed her.
"You have to think about this. This is not something that should be decided in a fit of passion," Inez cautioned her.
"Shut up!" Ryoko struggled. "Let me go!"
"Not until you calm down," Inez held fast. "I cannot allow you to make your decision based on fury and despair."
"I said let me go!" Ryoko ripped free and sprinted forward, only to have Inez pull her back. She fell to the ground, a stick sliced a small cut into her face. Ryoko pulled free and ran forward.
"Come back!" Inez shouted. However, Ryoko ignored her and dove straight off. She began to fall, the blue abyss doubling in size every second. Her hair flew wildly around her. Inez watched helplessly as she plunged into the blue ocean below.
"Where am I?" Ryoko lifted her head up. A small trickle of blood fell down her face. Everything around her was black. There didn't seem to be any up or down. A light shone down on her. She remembered Finn falling, and Akatsuki, and Inez. "Was it all for nothing?" she asked herself and began to run. She ran as hard as she could, not caring where she was going, for there was nothing around here, just blackness everywhere. "Finn!" She shouted. "Finn! Where are you?!" A vidwindow popped up in front of her. A message blinked at the bottom of the screen. "What the?" She touched the blinking light and a word appeared.
"Life" the screen read. It showed Ryoko stepping off the shuttle when she first arrived at the L2 colony. It showed her rooming with Hikaru and Izumi. It showed her Tendo's accident. It showed her joining the Nadesico. "Continue? Y/N" Appeared on the screen. She hit yes. "Death" was the next word that appeared on the screen. It showed Ryoko destroying Jovian ships, the crewmen's screams of fear as their ships erupted in a brilliant display of fire.
"Stop it!" Ryoko said. "Just stop it." The screen continued to show images. Dimojin's being destroyed, Ryoko's face of satisfaction after each kill. It showed her applying enemy kill marks on her aesti. The screen showed beeped at her.
"Why do you fight?" it read.
"What?" Ryoko stared at the screen.
"Why do you fight?"
"I fight because I'm a soldier. It's what I do," Ryoko said. "What does it matter to you, anyway?"
"Fighting causes death. Death brings sorrow. You fight, therefore you kill, therefore you bring sorrow," the text scrolled onscreen.
"Am I happy about it? Of course not, how could I be happy about it? But it's all I know how to do," Ryoko said angrily at the screen.
"Death, sorrow, pain."
"Shut up!" Ryoko screamed.
"Death, blood, destruction."
"Just stop it!"
"You fight because you are a soldier. Soldiers kill. You kill. You have killed. You have murdered." the screen showed Ryoko beating Akatsuki. It showed the anger in her eyes the fury and the hatred behind each blow. It showed the blood dripping from Akatsuki's mouth, his ribs cracking, his jaw splitting. All of this played across the screen.
"Just stop it!" Ryoko said again.
"Why do you fight?" the screen read after a while had passed.
"I don't know." Ryoko said quietly. "Tell me, why?"
"Error:" The screen read. "The function of a soldier is to be a unit of one faction, working with other units to achieve objectives."
"So I'm just a cog in the machine?" Ryoko asked.
"Affirmative," The screen read. "You are a strategic unit, designed to seek and destroy other enemy strategic units. Death, sorrow, pain, blood…" These images scrolled down the screen.
"Will you just stop it?!" Ryoko punched the screen, but her fist hit nothing but air. "I'm only human."
"You are human. Definition: Having form of nature that is classified as homos sapien. Only known species of life that has the ability of complex thought, reasoning, and social structure. History: is a series of wars, each followed by temporary ceasefires while all factions regenerate fighting capacities."
"But I'm fighting to protect other people," Ryoko protested.
"Your actions only further your function as a soldier."
"But soldiers aren't supposed to think about that. We do what we have to do. If it protects other people, what's wrong with that?" Ryoko shot back. The screen showed the faces of Jovian soldiers she killed. It showed their families weeping.
"Human – soldier – killer"
"Stop it!" Ryoko screamed, her voice echoed and reverberated throughout the infinite space she was trapped in.
"Continue? Y/N"
"Why should I, if you're going to just trash me?" Ryoko demanded.
"Continue? Y/N" Ryoko was about to touch the 'No' icon. However, she hesitated. "Continue? Y/N" Quickly she went for the "No" icon again. But something held her back. Some part of her told her to hit 'Yes'.
"I'll just go with my gut," Ryoko said and, before she lost her nerve, hit the 'Yes' icon. She closed her eyes, fearing what the next dreadful word would appear. But after a few minutes of an eerie quiet, she gave in and opened her eyes.
"Love" Was the word displayed on the screen.
"Love?" Ryoko asked.
"Love" The word was followed by images from Ryoko's memory of her father tucking her in at night. Driving her to school. Him standing inside the terminal watching her shuttle leave for the L2 colony. "Humans are also the only known species of organism to have the ability to love." The screen showed Finn's first arrival on the Nadesico. It showed he and Ryoko being sucked into the chulip and them on Dusty. It showed them sleep together. It showed Finn diving back into the battle on Mars after Ryoko. It showed Ryoko at Finn's bedside. It showed her diving off the cliff after him. "Do you love?"
"I guess…" Ryoko said, indecisively.
"Input insufficient: You are human, you have the capacity to love. Do you love?" The screen displayed Finn's face. "Do you love? Y/N" Ryoko stared at the screen.
"Yes," she said. "I do love. I love Finn." Tears came to her eyes. "But…
"You love. You are human. You love Finn Saotome."
"Yes! I do love him! I'll never see him again. I've got nothing left. He's dead, I'm dead, we're both gone! If I weren't already dead I'd put myself out of my misery!"
"Error:"
"What, you mean this is just the start? Do you have something else horrible planned in your little black box?" Ryoko said.
"Error: You are not dead."
"What?" Ryoko stared at the screen.
"You are alive. You love." The window beeped. "Continue? Y/N" Ryoko's hand trembled as she touched the "Yes" icon. "Please wait." The window showed a small hourglass. There was a bright flash of light. Ryoko shielded her eyes against the blinding flash. When she opened them again, she was on a beach. The waves gently rolled in from the sea and she could smell the clean, salty air. She slowly got out of the beach chair she was sitting in and looked around. The beach was deserted. The beach stretched for miles in both directions, and behind the sand was a dense forest. There was another beach chair beside hers, both under a wide beach umbrella. Her eyes slowly went from the chairs to the water. There was a man standing with his feet in the water just in front of her, his back turned. Ryoko took a few steps forward; unsure of whether this was actually happening.
"Finn?" she asked. The man turned around, and sure enough, there was Finn. "It is you!" Ryoko cried as she fell into his open arms, causing them both to fall back into the wet sand. "I thought I'd never see you again." She sobbed and held onto him, as though the surf would carry him away. The water slashed at her feet. "I thought…I thought you were gone." Finn held her tightly. He tilted her tearstained face to face his and opened his mouth to speak, but Ryoko put her finger on his lips. "You don't even have to say it." She never wanted to let go. Never wanted this moment to end. They remained in each other's arms, both smiling and looking into each other's eyes. Ryoko's eyes still sparkled with tears, but they were tears of sheer joy. Her tears of sorrow had long since been washed away. Finn ran his hand through her soft hair. "I…" She tightened her hold around him. "I went through hell to find you. And now I find myself in heaven." She managed to say, burying her face in his chest. "I chose you over life." They lay together for a long time. Each feeling the other's heart as they beat as one. Around them the surf gently rolled around them, and then pulled back into the vast expanse of ocean. "What'cha being so quiet for?" Ryoko asked, bringing her face level with his. He stared back at her, a content smile on his lips. "Say something." Finn remained silent. Ryoko's vision grew fuzzy and she began to feel light headed. "What's going on?" She asked. Everything around her was blurry, she gentle crashing of waves turned to violent ocean swells. The force of the water ripped the two apart. Ryoko tried desperately to keep her head above water, but the current sucked her down. She kept being pulled down, down, down, into the ocean depths.
The Difference Between
Finn slowly opened his eyes. The intensity of the bright florescent lights above made him shut them tight again. His head was pounding and he felt weak, as though someone had sucked the strength out of his body. He lay perfectly still and tried to gather his thoughts. There was a pressure against his face. He raised a weak hand to his mouth and touched some foreign object.
'What is this?" He felt around the edges. It had a cold, hard, plastic feeling to it. 'Strange,' he though and let his hand fall back beside him into the cool, sterile material of the bed he was in. He was breathing heavily, as though the simple act of raising his arm depleted what little energy he had left. His eyes opened slowly once again. Keeping them open just enough so he didn't feel blinded, he looked straight above him. Everything seemed white. He looked to the left and saw something strange. It stood beside his bed, a small line of light bouncing up and down on its screen. He looked to the right and saw the blue and white curtain separating him from whoever might be on the other side. Slowly, he became aware of a noise. A beep sounded constantly every second or so. Shutting his eyes, he tried to block the sound out. He laboriously raised his hands to his head and covered his ears. Tubes protruded from his hands and arms and the sudden motion made his head pound even more. 'Stop it,' Finn's mind said. He threw his hand at the machine in an effort to make it heed his wishes. However, his hand grazed the device and fell almost limp beside him.
"Give me 104 of 220," a voice said, drawing Finn out of his uneasy sleep. His eyes remained closed and his body remained still. Even the act of breathing seemed laborious. The pounding in Finn's head grew worse with the added noise of consciousness.
"I think he's coming to," came another voice as Finn's eyes flickered in attempt to open.
"Brain activity?" the first voice asked.
"Low, but it's enough."
"Finn?" There was a sudden cold sensation on his face. "Can you hear me?"
"Ry" was the noise that escaped his lips.
"He's trying to say something," the voice made it feel as though his skull would crack under the intense pressure in his head.
"Ry…yoko," he managed to say.
"Finn, do you know where you are?" a voice Finn recognized as belonging to Inez asked. He tried to raise his hands to his head to block out the noise, but the mere effort in thinking about it made his temples throb even worse. A sharp pain ripped through his head. It was so great that it forced Finn upright, his hands at over his ears. Someone tried to push him back down, but Finn's muscles stiffened and refused to move.
"Add the 220," Inez said as two people managed to bring one of his arms down enough to stick the needle into his arm and inject the chemical. Finn felt something wash over him. It made him feel tired, inviting him back to sleep. Slowly, his body returned to the bed. "Saotome?" came Inez's voice again. Finn drifted back into an uneasy sleep.
Finn found himself seated at a card table, a line of small dominolike tiles was laid out in front of him.
"Aww man, I thought I'd done all this weird stuff," he said to himself, looking around "What is this?" he asked, picking up a tile and looked at it. There was a still image on the underside of it. In his head, he saw Ryoko diving off a cliff into a dark blue cloud. He felt her sorrow when she found herself alone, surrounded by black. Quickly, he put the tile back down the sensation was too unbearable. But something urged him pick it up again. Slowly, he touched the tile, and felt its smoothness. When he looked at the image on the underside, the sensation flooded his mind, but he held on. In his mind, he saw what was happening through Ryoko's eyes. He felt what she felt, saw what she saw. No matter how much he wanted to stop feeling this pain, something encouraged him to hang on. He felt as she touched the "Yes" icon on the window and woke on the beach. The memory ended then and he replaced the tile. It disappeared the moment he let go and reappeared in the centre of the table. He looked around him. There was a single beam of light shining down on the table. Around the table there were no other chairs except for one opposite him, containing one person. "Ryoko?" She picked up a tile and watched one of Finn's memories, more specifically, his nightmare. He saw her watch in horror as the flames engulfed her mind, but she persisted. It wasn't until a few minutes later that she returned the tile to its place on the table, which quickly appeared at the centre of the table.
"Finn?" she asked, staring at him. "I just saw it…your dream."
"What is this place?" Finn asked. "What are you doing here?"
"I don't know," Ryoko replied. "But I think these…" she trailed off, as she picked up another tile
"Are memories," Finn concluded, picking up another tile. This time it showed him the time he had seen Ryoko come out of the shower dressed only in a towel, and then her proceeding to send him sailing into a collection of garbage bins at the end of the hall. He laughed at this one, even though it reminded him of the bruises that came as a result of it. He put the tile back and watched as it appeared at the table's centre. Ryoko put hers down, it appeared in the centre. The two lines of tiles seemed to be forming a circle around a small circular design at the table's exact centre.
"What are we supposed to do with these?" Ryoko asked.
"Hmm." Finn picked up another tile and watched its memory. When it placed it back onto the table, it formed another piece to the circle.
"I guess the idea is to complete the circle," Ryoko said, picking up a tile. She saw the memory of a young Finn sitting at an IFS consol. There were scientists huddled behind Plexiglas shields. She watched as something went wrong and the room filled with smoke, sparks flying from Finn's hands. No one rushed to help him, they sat behind their shields taking notes. There was a man standing with a woman behind the scientists. The woman was saying something and looking at a clipboard. The smoke began to clear, but Finn was no longer in his seat. He crawled along the floor away from the consol before finally collapsing. "Why do these memories have to be awful? Haven't we suffered enough?" Ryoko said, slamming her fist down onto the table. "Why do we have to relive the hell we've been through?"
"I've given up on asking questions," Finn replied, picking up another tile.
"Doesn't it bother you that…?"
"Yes," Finn interrupted. "It does bother me. In fact I think it sucks." Ryoko sat back down, her arms crossed. "You can't ask a question without having to look for the answer," He added, examining the tile. The memory he held in his hand was one of Ryoko training on L2. She was doing pushups while the drill sergeant stood with one leg on her back. Sweat dripped from her chin and blood from her mouth as the sergeant struck her across the face with his boot. Finn felt a pain in his mouth. He ran his thumb along the inside of his lip. When he withdrew it, there was a small streak of blood. He put the memory down and watched it join the others. "Besides," He flicked a tile in Ryoko's direction. It bounced off some invisible barrier and landed back in front of Finn. "It's not like we have anything better to do. And I don't know about you, but I'm beginning to miss the real world." Ryoko picked a tile and looked at it.
"I guess you're right," she said in defeat, and looked at one of his memories. She winced as she felt the pain Finn had endured during a test of the TF system. They continued this way for quite a while, for there were a fair number of tiles in front of them. Each one felt every source of pain the other had felt. Ryoko felt herself be blown up and experimented on through Finn's memories, while he felt himself be kicked and punched through hers. Finally, they both came down to their last tiles. However, when Finn tried to pick it up, it wouldn't budge. It was as though it were fastened to the table. Try as he might, the tile refused to move. Finn drew his hand back and sat staring at the object.
"You're not having much luck either?" he asked, noticing Ryoko in a similar state.
"It's like this thing's been nailed down," Ryoko said. They sat and thought for a while. They checked under the table, but there was no sign of anything what would hold the tiles down. "I don't get it." Finn tried again to lift the tile and Ryoko did the same. However, this time it did budge. They both let go, surprised at the sudden cooperation. Finn tried again to lift it, but it held fast.
"Wait a sec," Finn said, the light bulb glowing. "Try yours." Ryoko pulled at the tile, but it refused to move. Finn placed his hand on the tile. "Now try it."
"It's not moving, Finn," Ryoko said.
"Just trust me," he replied. Ryoko shrugged and tried to pick the tile up again. Finn did so as well. He waited for the moment when Ryoko tried to pick hers up. The tile moved a little. Finn let go, and saw Ryoko's tile lock itself to the table.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Ryoko asked. Finn nodded. "Alright, on three." They both placed their hands on their tiles. "Three, two, one, now!" They both pulled the tiles off the table. "Let's see what hell has been planned for us this time," she said. They both looked into the memory, and both drew breath in surprise. It was not one memory, for what they saw kept changing. At first it was an image of Finn and Ryoko after the battle on the moon. Then it showed their first meeting on Dusty. After that they saw themselves in their room in Mr. Noda's ramen shop. The tile finally showed their near kiss earlier when Finn had woken up after having the metal suit removed from his body. Then, just as quickly as it had come, the memories stopped. They both sat there staring at one another.
"That wasn't so bad," Finn said, breaking the silence.
"No, it wasn't. Wasn't it?" Ryoko smiled at him. They placed the tiles on the table, and they joined the rest, completing the circle. Nothing happened. "For crying out loud." Ryoko leaned over and looked at the emblem at the circle's centre, the barrier between them appeared to have broken. "Wait a sec," She looked at Finn. "Let me see the back of your hand." She took it and examined it and looked back at the emblem. "They're the same."
"What?" Finn leaped out of his seat and looked at the emblem. Sure enough, it was the same odd design that was on the back of his hand. He touched the emblem and his began to emit a blue glowing light. When he removed it, the light faded away. Ryoko touched it, and her tiles glowed. They both looked at each other. Full understanding flowed between them. Finn placed his hand on the emblem, his tiles lighting up. Ryoko placed her hand over his, and her tiles began to glow. They could see each other's minds, and acted as though they were one person. They concentrated on a single thought. Home.
…To be continued in Act 6
End of Act 5
