Excitement!!! This is officially the last chapter before the epilogue!!!! I'm sorry it took me so long to write, but school is very taxing on the nerves and the schedule. (i.e. the only reason I'm done is because it's spring break for me right now)

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Ohjiro had been running for a very long time. The rhythm of his feet pounding on the floor seemed to echo through every corner of his mind, and it was all he could hear. He couldn't believe how long it took to get a place when it mattered most.

People clogged the hallways, all chattering about what had happened. He shouted at them to move, but they just looked at him with huge eyes and whispered to each other. What's so special about him? or, Why can't we go down there. He thinks he's allowed to.

He finally pushed his way through to the entrance to the stadium. His brother was waiting for him with a strange calm settled about him.

"Is she-" Ohjiro didn't want to say it.

Icchan only nodded and put his arm around Ohjiro's shoulders as tears ran down his younger brother's face. They walked into the stadium together but as soon as he saw Yoko, Ohjiro broke away from his brother and ran to her. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly. As if to try to escape this moment, he closed his eyes and rocked back and forth.

"Oh-ji-ro."

His eyes flew open and focussed on Yoko's face. Her eyes were barely open and he could feel her breath, faint and ragged, rattling through her body.

"You spoke," he said it calmly, softly, almost as though it didn't come as a surprise. Yoko didn't answer, only smiled gently and closed her eyes.

It took Ohjiro awhile to figure out that she wasn't breathing anymore. When he did, he picked her up very gently and carried her to where Icchan was standing. Neither of them said anything, but each knew what the other was thinking.

"Who- who is she?" Misaki's voice broke the silence that hovered around the people in the arena.

Ohjiro turned to her, tears making his eyes shine. "She was my sister."

The silence was deafening. Only Tamayo, who now cradled Hiroko in her hands, found the courage to speak.

"I'm sorry. What - what happened?"

Icchan spoke, his voice quieter than Misaki had ever heard it before.

"I guess you have the right to know," he said, "well, here goes."

~*~

Shouko sat down beside Shuuko and put her arms around her older sister's shoulders as Shuuko shook with sobs. Together, they had watched the battle from the high balcony where Shouko had been doing her news report. The moment that Hiroko stopped, Shuuko had screamed slightly and gone completely white. Shouko looked up as she heard a small click. She turned toward the cameraman and her eyes widened when she saw the light on that indicated recording. She stood up and turned to him.

"SHUT OFF THE CAMERA! BAKA!" She screamed.

"But ma'am-"

"Don't But Ma'am Me Mister. Shut It Off."

"But we're live..."

"I don't care if we're dancing monkeys. Turn it off or you're fired."

"But we can't just-"

"Oh, yes we can." She walked over, turned off the camera, pointed to the equipment and told him to pack up and leave immediately.

The cameraman stood dumbfounded for several seconds, trying to register that "Tokyo's most beautiful news anchor" had just blown up in his face.

Shouko walked back over to where her older sister sat and knelt down again. Slipping her arms around Shuuko's shoulders again, she gently rocked the small form. Shuuko looked up at her younger sister with tears in her eyes.

"Why did it have to be now?" She whispered shakily. "Why couldn't it have been later. It would have been one of the happiest days of her life since before - since before-"

"I know," Shouko told her. "I know."

~*~

Icchan smiled slightly at Misaki and her friends and put his arm around his younger brother's shoulders.

"I guess you have the right to know, now that you've seen everything. Yes. Yoko was my younger sister. Tomorrow would have been her fifteenth birthday," he stopped and looked fondly at the small form in Ohjiro's arms. "I guess you might think that it was wrong, letting her continue after she did what she did to Hikaru-"

Misaki nodded, biting her lower lip and tightening her grip on her angel.

"But we thought it was for the best. The reason that Hiroko was like that was that Yoko was so depressed. Angelic Layer was her life, before - before-"

"Before what?" Tamayo's voice was soft. Misaki turned and noticed that her friend carried Hiroko gently in her arms as if she were a child. Misaki's face turned pale and her eyes hardened into an expression of betrayal. Tamayo smiled faintly back.

"Well... three years ago, there was an accident. A semi-truck collided with a car at an intersection on one of the highways. Both vehicles exploded, and only one passenger escaped alive."

Koutarou nodded, remembering reading the article in a newspaper. Something about the sole survivor being a young girl of about twelve... Suddenly, he felt sick, "You mean..." He trailed off as Icchan nodded solemnly.

"Yoko was in the car. She was on a trip with one of her friends when it happened. She was just barely alive when they pulled her out. She was on life support for so long that we were ready to pull the plug. Then, Shuuko brought in Hiroko, whom she had found on a shelf in Yoko's room. After that, something happened, and things went uphill. Yoko came out of her coma and began to recognize things. Her mind was completely intact, except for some permanent depression sustained upon hearing that one of her best friends was gone. Her nervous system was another story. She has never been able to move, or even to speak."

"Except until now," Ohjiro spoke softly, but evenly. "She hadn't said a word since the accident." A smile pulled at the corners of his mouth, but only caused more tears to come tumbling down his cheeks.

"Mmm hmm. And the depression ravaged her mental well being so much that she could only escape through angelic layer. Soon, all her feelings took root inside her angel, thus Hiroko, the DarkAngel, was born. She played several times in local competitions, but couldn't keep a hold on her emotions, Hiroko began thinking and moving on her own. As the only feelings she could fathom were despair and pain, she fought with that kind of emotion, twisting it into hatred for all human kind, as they mocked Yoko and herself for being different. That's why she was so powerful. There isn't anything stronger than pure human emotions. I guess you could call Hiroko the very first AI - Artificial Intelligence.

"We let her battle again because we thought it might help her to become happier, especially since the doctors warned that she only had a little while to live. I think it almost worked because she seemed to be happy when she- when she-"

Misaki, Koutarou and Tamayo nodded understandingly.

"What I can't understand is how Hiroko became an AI," Misaki said.

Icchan looked at a loss for answers, but Tamayo spoke for him.

"When you- when something means enough to you, it becomes the central thing of your life. You pour your energy, your love, your whole being into it. Yoko just managed to take it the extra step and made a living creature. I think it's probably because she knew a level of feeling beyond what any of us have experienced. She was crippled for life, so she imagined herself walking, moving, being a normal person, and she wanted it enough that she created a reality. So in a way, Hiroko is Yoko. Yoko lives on in Hiroko."

Misaki looked at her friend as she spoke. Tamayo sounded so sure of herself, as if she had been researching this her whole life. Her eyes swept down to where Hiroko lay nestled in Tamayo's arms. She could have sworn that a smile lingered on the angel's lips and that those were tears glistening in her dark eyes. Misaki remembered her own angel and lifted Hikaru up. The angel was good as new, thanks to Icchan, but somehow, she seemed different, almost alive. A forgiving look had settled on Hikaru's face, but Misaki couldn't tell whom it was meant for, herself or for Hiroko.

Koutarou didn't quite follow everything that Tamayo had said, but somehow, he knew that he agreed. But something still didn't make sense. Why hadn't Masao shut down when he took off the headset? He looked down at the angel in his hands. There was a different sort of look on his face now. It wasn't the plastic looking smile that some angels had; rather, it was a smile that held meaning, one that said, 'You don't need to ask questions, just believe in me. Believe in all of us. That's what we were made for.' Koutarou nodded, suddenly feeling just a little better.

Tamayo seemed much more reserved than usual to her friends. She seemed completely in control of her feelings and seemed calm. That scared them. Tamayo was always the unpredictable, out-of-control one, while Misaki was the quieter one.

"Tamayo-chan," Koutarou said tentatively, "What's wrong?"

Tamayo turned to him, a smile resting on her lips, making a small ray of sunshine through the tears that rolled gently down her cheeks, "I don't know. It's just that Hiroko, I can tell how she's feeling. She's so sad, it's as if she's losing part of her soul. I think, though, that she's ready to begin a new life, even though the walls still aren't quite down."

Koutarou hesitantly put his arms around her shoulders, and when she didn't move, he pulled her closer and hugged her tightly. They made an odd couple, standing there. Tamayo had her shoulder-length brown hair pulled into a ponytail and her odd outfit contrasted very much to her and Koutarou's current attitude. Koutarou was a good five inches taller than her now and wore just jeans and a t-shirt. His black hair stood out darkly from his face, now pale from shock, fear and sadness. But, in spite of the differences in appearance, anyone looking on could see that there was something more there, something deep inside. Now that they were hugging, their angels had been somehow maneuvered into such a position that they were side by side, hands just touching. This couple seemed even odder than their deuses, but there was, once again, something unexplainable there that said they were meant to be together. That something had been strong enough to lend Masao strength enough to comfort Hiroko, even when power had been cut. And those somethings put together made an even better one, one that was able to erase the depression and bring out the sun.

Misaki watched her friends and felt lonely, standing there, in the middle of the room without anyone nearby to comfort her. That was when an arm slipped around her waist and pulled her close to a warm body. She looked up into Ohjiro's dark eyes. He smiled through his fading tears. She returned the smile and put an arm around him as well.

"I'm sorry about - about what happened," Misaki said slowly.

Ohjiro shook his head, "It's okay. I think she was happy for that one moment, and that one moment of pure happiness was enough to make up for the years of sadness and emptiness. Life goes on, after all."

"Yeah," a smile broke out on Misaki's face, making the cloud that hung around Ohjiro dissipate. He smiled, and then, everything seemed to be all right.

~*~

Shuuko had stopped crying. The tears still came, but now, her countenance seemed lighter and she seemed to be calm. She looked down at her daughter and her friends. Ohjiro and Misaki stood next to each other and Misaki had a smile on her face. Tamayo leaned on Koutarou's shoulder and he had his arms around her. She looked up into his face and smiled.

"It seems that they're feeling better," Shouko said. "Shall we go down and be happy with them?"

"I guess so," Shuuko sighed and then shook off the sadness. She smiled at Shouko, "Yeah, let's go."

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I hope you enjoyed it. And I stopped where I stopped because it just didn't flow right when I tried to add more. I figured that I'd stop when everyone is happy. Please review. I'll do an official thank you to all my reviewers in the epilogue... cuz it's gonna be short.