GUILTY GEAR

The Wedding Night

The Series

Conceived and Written By: Sheo Darren (back at last and here for good)

           In the previous chapter:

           I'm back, save that Lumiere had spoiled my grand return. sigh Anyway, Athena and Justine tag-team to defeat the fallen Cloud Strife (damn Sho Tsuzuku for pretending to have Aeris' soul!) Sol Badguy finally picks Kagura as a girlfriend. The Purple Dinosaur dies double time. And a new mysterious character appears in the world of The Wedding Night 2. Who can she be?

Coupling: Not just a Bridget-May coupling: The one and only Bridget-May coupling ever in fanfiction.net, ever. Flame me, burn me, bribe me and deny me a real-life Japanese girlfriend –okay, maybe not the last one. Still, I will always be forever and ever a Bridget-May fan.

           Do forgive me, but this chapter will be mostly dark and sadistic and angst-laden, but there will still be funny elements still present and an overall romantic theme. I'm also adopting a new style of formatting for the text. I just have to finish this arc at last, the arc dealing with how I really got Bridget and May to pair up. Next chapter? Sho Tsuzuku dies at last! Yay!

The Wedding Night Series

The Lonely Battlefield Which Is Love

The Previous Chapter:

            "Ohayou, Bridget. Okaeri."

           Hello, Bridget. Welcome home.

The Past:

            "I… I lost…"

            "Looks like it."

            "This is so stupid! How could I ever lose to you?"

            "It was a fair fight. You were very good; I could have lost to you if I was careless."

            "Is that supposed to comfort me?"

            "No. But I enjoyed fighting with you, if it makes any difference…"

            "Eh? What do you mean by that?"

            "You're different from all the others. You're just like me. We're just kids, dragged into the world of adults because of what we believe in."

            "My reasons are different from yours."

            "I know. You fight to gain the love you long for; I fight to gain the acceptance I dream off."

            "Maybe…"

            "Can we be friends?"

            "Huh? Why?"

            "Nothing wrong with being friends, is there? Kids like us should stick together. Besides, I'd like a rematch with you."

            "You got it."

            "Bridget. My name's Bridget."

            "And I'm May."

           May…

The Present Chapter.

           Bridget stared in horror at the girl who had once been –and still was– his beloved May.

She still wore a tight black formfitting leotard over her petite frame, but her pirate costume was no longer cute and vermilion. The hems of her dress had been shortened, the color changed from vermilion to dark ruby red– blood red. Her armored wrist guards were now bigger and paired with black leather gloves. The hat was gone, and her long brown hair was now tied up in a ponytail at the top of her head. The really scary part was that she still wore her squeaky shoes –the same shoes all GG gamers remember due the squeaky noise they made while she walked–, but overall her new costume made May a far more formidable-looking figure.

Especially the fact that Sho Tsuzuku was standing beside her.

"Now, I didn't expect you here," Sho Tsuzuku said to Sister Rosette Christopher, the nun holding Bridget protectively. "I don't even know you or the anime you come from. But if you don't let go of Bridget, I'm sure you'll start feeling pain."

"Eh? What the hell do you mean by–"

Faster than Bridget or Rosette could react, May's anchor went up and forward in a powerful one-hand smashing blow that sent the Magdala nun flying a good five meters before hitting the ground hard.

"Sister Rosette!"

Before Bridget could come to his friend's aid, May was already between him and the injured Rosette, and between them was her anchor. Bridget stared in abject horror and confusion at his wife.

"May! Why? Why did you attack her? She didn't mean you any harm! Why are you doing this?"

Her faint smile was the only answer he received –and the only warning as well.

The anchor came up and whirled at him with unbelievable speed, coming to a stop only a bare inch from his face.

"Why?" Bridget knew that the pirate girl could easily hurt him in that one unexpected move –killed him, even. But the specter of death wasn't the one that frightened him, but the specter of this girl who was his beloved. "Why? Why?"

"Don't you get it, boy?" Sho Tsuzuku smirked. "Your darling girl has turned to the Dark Side –my side. She is now officially evil."

"What?" He stared at the villain first, then at his wife. "May? Evil?"

May broke into a slow, evil and sad smile. "I am no longer just May. I am Dark Evil EX Gold God Hyper Omega Orochi Shin Super Saiyajin 4 Vicious Kusanagi May` 9999."

"Dark Evil EX Gold God Hyper Omega Orochi Shin Super Saiyajin 4 Vicious Kusanagi May` 9999?" the audience echoed in horror.

"But you can call me Mistress May for short," she added. "That way, you avoid wasting too much time, like saying, 'TRUE KAISER LONE DARREN FORTY-EIGHT AND THREE QUARTERS' or something like that in Blackheart's story."

"Oh," the audience said in relief.

"May…" Bridget was overwhelmed by this ominously evil transformation. "May, what happened to you? Tell me?"

"What happened to me?" She made a false show of looking at her hands, then at her husband with surprisingly honest sadness in the crimson eyes that had softened to dark brown. "I think… I think I changed. And it's for the worse, too…"

"May." He reached out to her with a pleading hand, and to Sho Tsuzuku's slightest concern, May made as if she wanted to touch him back…

"Hold it right there!"

Ryu Hoshi, Ken Masters, Sakura, Rugal, Mister Karate, Iori, Akuma, Son Goku, Kyo Kusanagi (the original one), K` and K 9999 were there.

"We will not allow you to wreak your evil upon this world!" Ryu declared.

"I'm with you, bro," Ken said.

"Me, too!" Sakura said.

"Give me back the power I've been looking for since KOF '95!" Rugal ordered.

"You do not have the super long nose that comes with the title 'Hyper'," Mister Karate pointed out.

Akuma just stood there in his usual pose.

"Hey, kid," Kyo said with all his charm, "Want to date me?" Immediately an anvil fell from the sky and crashed on his head. "Where did that come from?"

"Your power level is impressive," Goku said, "But let us see how well you fight."

"K` and K 9999!" You-know-who said this. "Blast off at the speed of light!"

"No more Pokemon references!" everyone else yelled at them.

"I don't want to get blown up again," Iori mumbled, knowing full well what the Sheo Darren Effect specialized in: Random chaotic mayhem. "Sheo hadn't gotten enough sleep again…"

Whatever little humanity had returned to May vanished all of a sudden. Her eyes became blood red again and she walked past Bridget as if he wasn't there. That settled Sho Tsuzuku's slight onset of doubt: May would accomplish what he wanted her to do.

"Mistress May, destroy them all!"

Bridget turned around in panic and fear. "May! No!"

Too late: Her eyes ablaze and a thin smile on her lips, the anchor in one hand and a burning aura around her, May surged forward, her shoes squeaking comically but she herself like Lady Death given shape and life.

Background Music Battle Theme: Meet Again

           Ryu went first, rapidly launching Hadoken fireballs at May. Being the Hadoken Master, the Shotokan karate fighter could pump out a lot of them in short notice, and each was the equivalent of a standard C4 demolition charge in terms of destruction. Pretty soon the area around May was cratered like the moon.

But May herself was unharmed.

She had dodged each and every one of the Hadoken effortlessly, the fireballs flying missing her completely.

As further insult, May swatted the last fireballs away with no sweat at all. "Where are you aiming?" she taunted.

(In the SRX dimension from Super Robot Wars Alpha, SRX pilot Rai sweat-drops. "That's my dodge quote.")

Ryu was consumed with anger, and he focused his chi into one massive attack. "Stand still and feel my fury!" he challenged.

Smirking, May obliged. She did not even prepare to dodge or even raise Fortress Block, instead awaiting the oncoming onslaught.

"SHIN-HADOKEN!"

The hugely destructive wave of chi energy enveloped May completely.

Rosette just barely managed to stop Bridget from running towards his wife –or what was left of her after that massive attack. "Yamete, Bridget-kun!"

"May! No!"

But when the smoke and debris cloud cleared, May stood there, unharmed and unaffected by the blast.

"What?" Ryu murmured in disbelief.

May smirked. "You can't hit."

(Again in SRW, Rai says, "Will you cut it out?")

The Japanese girl raised her hand, and then a tiny black ball of crackling energy coalesced within it. The dark energy ball rapidly grew to softball size and stayed that way. Though it was small, it was definitely a–

"How on Earth did May get a Fireball?" Bridget asked in disbelief.

"Remember when Person WMA whacked her with a stick in Chapter 1 of Keeper of the System, complaining about what kind of Japanese she was without a Hadoken move?" Rosette shrugged. "Sho Tsuzuku apparently fixed that."

"Thank you very much, Person," grumbled the blonde boy.

"That was so well said, I don't know if it was insult or praise."

(Far away, Person WMA was saying, "Will you never let me live down that comment, Sheo?")

"Are you ready?" smirked May.

"A ball of evil energy?" Then Ryu, seeing the diminutive size of his opponent's fireball, glared as he charged up his own attack. "I will not be beaten by such a token gesture."

"Suit yourself." Saying so, May lazily cast the dark ball of energy towards Ryu as if it was a baseball and then Double Jumped away, Fortress Blocking as she did so.

"You will not escape my attack this time! Hadoken!"

Just as Ryu released his fireball, the dark ball May unleashed dove straight at its target: The Hadoken itself, only a foot or so away from the person who had just fired it–

–the blue-white fireball prematurely detonated, fully catching Ryu in its lethal blast radius, the Shotokan fighter receiving his own devastating medicine (albeit with a little bonus from May). Ryu fell down, badly burned and incapacitated.

"How dare you hurt Sensei Ryu!" Righteously angered, not waiting for Ken or the others to back her up, Sakura blindly darted forward with a battle cry towards May. The latter girl's only reaction was to bend back a little as Sakura executed a roundhouse spin kick that in its sheer force and power would have taken May's head off if it connected.

But Sakura's kicks had always had an angle to them where the attack becomes more of an anti-air move; that was how high she kicked. May predicted that angle and –seeing that the margin of safety where the foot would simply whiz over her head was horizontally the gap between her and Sakura and vertically just an inch lower than her own height– had repositioned herself appropriately.

Simply put, she ducked and backed away just a bit.

Sakura's kick missed.

As the stunned girl –unable to correct her error in time and totally vulnerable to attack– just barely managed to halt herself, May stepped up to her and advised, "You and Jam kick too high. Bai, bai."

Bye, bye, indeed, as the massive anchor swung in for the finishing blow–

Sakura disappeared.

Sho Tsuzuku blinked just once before he allowed himself to smirk. "It appears that someone is taking an interest in that schoolgirl's safety."

"I thought he didn't like her very much," May commented as she shouldered her weapon in a ready position.

"The Street Fighter Alpha OAV he glimpsed must have changed his mind."

"Sheo really is a pedophile."

"He must also like panty flashes. And fuku."

"Ah, yes, the inklings of a repressed pervert's obsession..."

Now it was Ken's turn to fight. "You not only hurt my best friend, you also erased Sakura! You may be a girl, but I won't go easy on evil people like you!"

May shrugged in a cutely evil manner. "I didn't get rid of the girl; Sheo Darren did. As for your best friend–" she snickered roguishly at the thought, "I've always been of the opinion that you and Ryu were more than just chums."

"What?" Ken puzzled over that comment for a minute. Then two minutes. Then five minutes.

"Stupid youngsters," Mister Karate muttered impatiently.

"Stupid Americans," added K`.

"Stupid blondes," agreed K 9999.

"Shut up, will you?" Then Ken realized what innuendo May was suggesting. "We are not gay!" he practically howled at her.

"Tell that to all the yaoi fan fiction writers in the world. See if they care."

Enraged beyond reason, Ken dashed forward for his Shin-Shoryuken, the dragon flames of vengeance enveloping his arm as he launched into an uppercut that would have wiped out 30% of anyone's health bar–

–Had he hit May, save that the latter teleported and appeared right behind him, completely dodging the attack.

Any Shoryuken style attack is powerful enough by itself (Sol Badguy's Volcanic Viper/Grand Viper is a stellar example). The Shin-Shoryuken is the ultimate Shoryuken. Ken is the Shoryuken Master.

But the primary weakness of Shoryuken is that if you missed, you were left wide open for attack.

"What the–"

"You may have been Vicious," May smirked, "But you are still Ken."

So saying, she smacked him hard with the one ton anchor.

The impact reduced all of the bones in Ken's body into powder and sent him flying back to America, where all impudent gaijin should remain and where his wife Eliza was happy to have her husband back home, albeit the latter having been reduced to a helpless pulp.

May pretended to yawn as a gesture of contempt and said, "Next."

Because the author is bored and can't think of appropriate fighting scenes and wishes to keep this story from growing to epic proportions, he will not bother to flesh out the details of how May massacred the rest of the fighters. Suffice to say that each fighter received a crushing blow that broke them completely and utterly. May pulled out all of Rugal's teeth–

Rugal: "I nid tu she me ordontist."

Bridget: "He said, 'I need to see my orthodontist,' or something like that…"

May: "Icky. Don't you brush your teeth?"

–broke Mister Karate's nose–

Mr. Karate: "I can still apply for Pinnochio, right?"

–kicked Kyo in the groin–

Kyo: "Ah! Megumi-sama! Please grant me a new set!"

Belldandy: "Collect seven magic balls first, return them to us and summon the magic dragon. Then we grant your wish."

Urd: "You're cruel, sister."

Skuld: "Where's Sheo? I was supposed to give him my Banpei Mk III attack robot…"

Blackheart ZERO: "And I quote: 'Nevermore' anymore!"

–blew up Akuma's island beneath his feet–

Akuma: "I was the one who was supposed to self destruct my base. Oh, well…"

–bashed the two K's heads in–

May: "No appropriate comments will be coming from these two."

Fans Who Hate Pokemon: "Yay."

And for Goku? Let's just say that May found a certain someone who everyone knows to be a monkey-hater.

Earl Osborne: "Die, monkey!" stabs Goku with a pencil in the eye, and thus Goku dies, dropping an Animal Skin, a Banana, a Yoyo Tail, a Yoyo Card and a Yoyo Doll "Wow, yayaman ako nito, a!"

Bridget stared at the gory spectacle. "That was all you needed to kill Goku? Sheo must really hate Dragonball Z."

Resting her huge anchor on her shoulder, May aimed a sideways glance at him. "Well, Bridget-chan?" She was smiling evilly. "What do you think? Did I improve?"

The sheer violence of those attacks left Bridget stunned. The cute pirate girl was always a formidable fighting character thank to her powerful chi, a mystical power found only in the almost-extinct Japanese people and in an even fewer handful of others. But this evil side of hers was far more devastating, simply because she wasn't holding back anymore. May had let her power go wild and unlocked her dark side freely, and whoever was in her way was cut down mercilessly.

Before he could attempt to speak, three more figures arrived.

"Dan Hibiki, master of the Saiko-Ryu, will save the day!"

"I, Mister Satan, shall defeat the evil child and save the world!"

"Ryo Takazashi will not stand down and lose!"

"Lambs to the slaughter," May murmured gleefully.

"No!" Bridget yelled, but he was too late. Dan and Mr. Satan and Ryo charged forwardly bravely –or idiotically, considering they were the losers of their respective games and anime.

"Ha-yaah!"

May pursed her lips and then said, "Boo."

Dan and Mr. Satan and Ryo screamed like silly –Morale -100, to all Super Robot Wars fans out there?– and tried to run away. 'Tried' was the operative word. Annoyed at the bumbling losers and feeling sadistically inclined for overkill, May used her new –actually, her reconstituted Overdrive move to finish them off.

"SUPER VANDREAD!"

The massive robot came out of the sky, opened up all of its missile launchers and laser cannon weaponry, and fired. When the explosions stopped at last, all that remained of the three losers were three gravestones marked 'Dan Hibiki', 'Mister Satan' and 'Ryo Takuma'. May their souls rest in peace –or not, considering May is now chuckling evilly.

("You know," Lone Wolf SIX said to Hibiki and Cassandra, "I think it was a bad idea giving May that particular attack back in GG vs SNK.")

"Well," May said as she dusted her hands theatrically, "I think that handles that."

"I don't think so," said a voice.

Before May could react, Iori Yagami began blasting her point blank with all of his moves. "I will not allow you to retain my Orochi power! Feel the burning of my purple flames of evil!"

May reeled back from the relentless barrage. "Eight Wine Cups! Crow Bite! And now," Iori got into his Overdrive pose, "Prepare for Maiden Masher (but with you, there's not much to mash)–"

WHAM!

Before Iori could begin to execute: Anvil from the sky!

"What was that for, Sheo?" Iori shook his fist at the sky. "She is the bad guy!"

Sol Badguy appeared out of nowhere, bopped Iori on the head with the hilt of Fuenken, gruffly said, "I'm the one and only Badguy around here, bub," and left.

Kagura appeared and added, "And there's nothing you can do about it, Mr. I'm A Gay," and left as well.

Iori sweat-dropped and decided a groan was in order. "Nothing changes much…" He then felt someone tapping his shoulder. "Eh?"

"Nobody does that to May, however evil she may be." Bridget was glowing with a red aura, and you know what follows next.

"SHOOT THE MOON!"

The Moon

           As Iori pulled himself out of the lunar rock he had been half-imbedded into, he decides that since it's so far away from the trouble spots on Earth, the moon isn't such a bad place–

And then sees a bunch of Chinese astronauts hot-footing it like hell past him.

"What was that for?"

The answer came a second later as a howl of fury –audible even in the vacuum of space (which is scientifically impossible according to physics; but this is, after all, sort of like a movie)– reached him, and then a nearly naked and very homicidal man dressed only in a bahag (loincloth) and brandishing a kris (wavy Muslim sword) charged at him.

Yes, it's the same guy from Chapter 3 of this same story, the Filipino who was shot to the moon and who promptly claimed Mare Tranquilis for himself.

"Crazy Filipinos…"

The World

           The yoyo came to rest in his hands, but not with the usual daredevil grin of before. Instead, when he turned around to look at the girl he had just saved –the girl he was willing to give up his life for, however deep into the darkness she had fallen– there was a profound intensity to the sadness in his green eyes, a sadness that knew no end.

"Doshite? Doshite?"

Why? Why?

"Why did you save me?" she asked.

"I love you, May." Bridget was trembling with unhappiness and anger. "You're my wife, the girl I'm bonded to till death does us part. I love you more than anyone and anything in this world, even myself."

His head snapped up, his green eyes meeting May's crimson ones. "But I can't let you go around hurting and killing people like what you're doing now!"

"So you'd fight me?" she asked quietly. "Would you, Bridget-chan?"

"I'll stop you! I'll stop you!" His fists clenched. "If I have to fight you, yes, I will fight you! I'll fight you if it's that what I need to stop you!"

"Why? Why do this?"

"Because this is all wrong, and you can't –won't stop doing this, you won't stop hurting everyone, hurting yourself!–, and only I'm around to stop you!" Bridget was crying now, crying unmanly-like, but being a man even in tears. "I love you too much to just stand by and let you hurt yourself!"

To his surprise, his words seem to have paused May. "You… you promised…"

"May?"

"One… one more fight… you promised… you promised me that…"

The Past:

            "…I'd like a rematch with you."

            "You got it."

The Present:

            "…You promised me… you promised me one more fight."

"Is this the reason why you did all this?"

A fateful wind blew through the fields.

"Yes."

Cold wrapped Bridget's heart tight, but he was no longer moved by it.

"Will you?" May looked pleading, helpless. "Will you fight me?"

A gloved hand squeezed upon his yoyo strings.

"Will you fight me?" she asked again.

"Wait."

It was Rosette, injured from May's earlier attack but on her feet, moving towards Bridget with decision. May nearly stepped forward, as if to block the nun's way from her potential opponent, a human feeling in her eyes that was–

Sho Tsuzuku restrained his ward with one strong hand. "Not yet."

May stopped, but the feeling of envy bottled up within her –the envy at seeing another girl so close to the boy who was hers alone, the wave of jealousy that a faithful loving wife had for her beloved husband– raged.

"Here." Rosette put a bundle of clothes in Bridget's hands. "A guy I met gave these to me and asked me to give them to you. Strange swordsman guy dressed in black who talked really weird, but he's a good guy. He said to give it to you if you ever felt your old life coming back to you."

When Bridget unfolded the bundle he held, he only just managed to choke back his emotions.

It was his old clothes, the girly 'nun' outfit he wore for fifteen years before discarding it completely for a new life.

Somehow it all seemed to fit now. Even as Rosette blushed and turned away to give him a semblance of privacy, Bridget slowly discarded the clothes he wore and put on his old battle costume. Everything still fit: The gloves, the blue and white dress, the veil with cross and insignia, the oversized hula-hoop handcuff around his waist. The wind blew away his other clothes, symbolically carrying away the dream-like new life he had cherished, leaving him to bear his old one again like a heavy cross.

He turned to face May now, alone, as Rosette moved away to give him space and Sho Tsuzuku himself stepped back, swaying as he once did when he was still cosplaying as a girl, that all-too-feminine sashaying that belied his true gender.

It was his battle, his alone. Bridget would fight her alone.

And yet, he never fought alone…

"I have an appointment elsewhere," Sho Tsuzuku was saying, "So I'll leave you to deal with Bridget. Do have fun." He vanished, teleported to another place on earth.

Only Bridget, May and Rosette were left.

"Will you?" Again, that question of hers. "Will you fight me?"

This time, he answered: "Yes."

"Bridget," Rosette murmured, and began to pray that somehow this fight end well–if it could ever…

She smiled at last, a sad smile. "Heaven or Hell."

"Let's rock," he murmured back.

The J-Ark

           "My grand return's ruined. There's a big battle looming ahead of me, and I don't exactly think it's easy to win. Ebs and Rocky writing a fan fiction that involves dragging all of the girls I like into it, and I'm powerless to stop it since it's their story, not mine. My friends' ecchi tendencies are rubbing off me. In real life, I just might have to take summer classes. I hate summer classes. I still don't have a girlfriend. And the worst of all: Lone Wolf SIX didn't review my previous chapter."

Sheo Darren sighed and began thumping his head softly on the table. "I think I want to just drop dead right now."

"Sheo?" It was Lumiere's voice over the PA. "ETA is 45 minutes."

"Hai. Sound red alert, please, Lumiere. All hands to battle stations."

"Wakaremasu. All hands, battle stations. All hands, battle stations. Red alert. This is not a drill. I repeat, red alert. This is not a drill…"

Again Sheo sighed, even as around him the formidable J-Warriors battleship J-Ark and its accompanying flotilla of powerful warships –the Silvana, the Stargazers space battleship Yamato, the Nadesico of Martian Successor fame, the Terran battle cruiser NORAD II, the SDF-1 Macross, and the Crossbone Vanguard's Mother Vanguard being some of the notable ones– went to full annihilation mode.

"Death on the wing…"

Background Music Battle Theme: A Simple Life

           The peace was broken by the huge mass of a giant pink whale that materialized out of nowhere, a monstrosity that met its match in the equally huge teddy bear dropping from the sky. Their collision broke the ground all around them, the two super-heavyweight attacks canceling out each other. Even as the dust had not begun to clear, battle cries could be heard.

"Starship!"

"Rolling Pursuit!"

Bridget's yoyos rebounded off the thick steel mass that was the anchor May brought to bear. The Brit lad ducked underneath –Rolling Pursuit was more of an anti-air move–, loosed one of his red-black yoyos again and waited until his opponent came down.

"Roger Rush!"

Immediately the yoyo transformed into a teddy bear, its limbs swinging around wildly in a kung-fu assault that would have made John Woo cry in joy. May was ready for the attack, using her chi to summon the blue-white dolphin and send it as a living missile against Roger.

"Mister Dolphin Upper!"

Roger was flung back, but Bridget was already running towards it. Retrieving the teddy bear as it transformed into a yoyo again, he released both yoyos, jumped aboard the flaming contraptions and sought to ride down May with Kick Start My Heart. The latter blocked her anchor and then used her weapon to flip him into the air. As she swung around to take a shot at him again, May wasn't surprised to have Bridget right up to her, grabbing and throwing her over his shoulder in a judo throw and then following up with the Rolling Pursuit leg drop that knocked the breath out of her.

Bridget jumped back to his feet but didn't stay up for long as May –adopting a move that the Hulk made famous– bashed the ground hard with her anchor. The mighty blow actually cracked the rock they stood upon, sending splinters and dust flying. Just as Bridget just barely managed to get his balance back, May did a football tackle, caught him around the waist and then flung him up into the air to meet her Overhead Kiss. Amazingly he managed to get his yoyos up to deflect the killer blow, but was still knocked backwards a good five meters through sheer impact strength.

Even he skidded to a halt, Bridget executed his next move. One of his yoyos was lying right at May's feet –he had intentionally dropped it there during their scuffle. He flipped a switch on his yoyo controls, and the toy fasted itself upon May and began to blink. "Lock on!" Bridget yelled for extra effect as he darted in yet again. "Me/My Killing Machine!"

Again Roger was unleashed, this time riding a bicycle apparatus of doom, catching May open and blasting her backwards. At the same time, Bridget was rapidly executing enhanced Starship after enhanced Starship at her, his attacks boosted by his earlier Lock On. The seemingly relentless wave of rapid hammer blows forced May back, the pirate girl unable to block all or even just some of the strikes.

But just when he thought he was winning, May shrugged off his last Starship and summoned yet another whale, this time a scarred black-and-white orca whose mass clipped Bridget aside despite his agility. Then, both of her hands gripping her anchor tightly, May began to go absolutely berserk, thrashing this way and that with the immense bludgeon and screaming her head off. Bridget was forced to use Fortress Block, as his normal defense couldn't withstand the Ultimate Unmanageable Child. When the anchor slammed one last time into the ground, he dropped the shield and rushed back in yet again, knowing May had no Tension energy left to launch another Overdrive–

But she was waiting for exactly that move. Almost immediately Bridget was proven wrong –almost fatally so, at that.

"Anchor Whirlwind!"

It was just by the worst kind of luck –or the best, perhaps– when the anchor caught him across the back and sent him flying into the dust. As he rolled to a stop, the air beaten out of his chest and his whole body feeling numb from that one blow, Bridget was thinking one painfully late thing: Unlimited Tension Bar.

"Kisama…" One of the numerous Japanese words May had taught him the past year escaping his lips, Bridget got up again –and very nearly went down for the count. His vision went black for a moment, and he sagged against something or someone–

"Bridget!"

All throughout the uneven battle, Rosette had stood by and watched, hoping against hope that Bridget would win. To her horror, the courageous boy had gotten hit one time, and it seemed only one hit was enough to bring him down. Before he could fall again, the Magdala nun had rushed towards him and, despite her own injuries, caught his battered frame in her arms.

His dusty yet handsome face looked up to her and forced a grin. "It's not as easy as it looks like," he coughed as he gratefully accepted his friend's help.

"Stop this at once." Rosette was frightened now, totally unlike her usual bravado-filled self. "You're in no condition to fight anymore. You're overmatched. You have no chance to beat her in this state!"

"And you're saying I should give up?" Those green eyes flashed. "I'm not going to give up that easily!"

"Until you die in the attempt, is that it?"

He looked away. "I'd rather die trying than die not doing anything."

Opposite them, May had stopped fighting and was watching them intently, almost enviously. Bridget noticed this.

"You're envious, aren't you?" When she did not respond at once, he decided to go on. "You're envious because there's a girl close to me and that girl is not you, is it?"

Her fist tightened on her anchor. "Don't try me," she warned, angry.

"A simple 'yes' or 'no' would do."

May actually glared at him, then turned her eyes away from his. "Yes."

"Then enough of this." Bridget pushed Rosette away from him and staggered forward, yoyos armed and ready. "I know talking to you won't accomplish anything. Let's finish this fight."

There was just a tiny hint of fear in her voice when May shot back, "You'll get killed if you go on fighting me!"

"Probably," he deadpanned.

"You're no match for me at all. I've got all of their evil powers locked up within me. Ryu, Ken, Sakura, Iori, Akuma, all the others. I've got so many moves to choose from that my head is spinning, and I've got so much power locked within that I think I'm going to burst."

"So?"

"You don't get it!" Real heartfelt tears spilled from crimson eyes that were suddenly returning to the familiar chocolate brown of before; May was regaining her humanity in that outburst of unhappiness. "I've ignored all of those powers! I've only used my own power, the power I've got! And even against just that, you're no match at all! How can you even hope to win against me?"

A faint smile crept over his battle-worn features. "I'm going to win," said Bridget with growing confidence, "Because you're going to let me win."

She very nearly dropped her anchor in shock.

"You hear me, May? I'm going to win. I'll win because you'll let me win."

"Baka Bridget…" Stupid Bridget… "You think I'll let you win?"

He kept on grinning.

"Baka… baka… baka… baka… baka… BAKA!" Even roughly wiping away her tears with her free arm, May found out she couldn't hold back the tears anymore. "Stupid Bridget! Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid! Stupid!"

"Let them go." He was smiling softly now. "You can let them go, can't you?"

She stared at him, consumed in her anguish as she was, but knowing truth at last. Then she shuddered as all the dark evil energy rushed out of her in one primal scream and left her powerless save for her own spiritual energy, her own natural power retained.

The small gasping form hunched over her anchor was no longer Mistress May, but merely just May.

As Bridget took a step towards her, thinking to help her, May pulled herself back on her feet, swaying as she did from exhaustion as she did so but shrugging off any outside help. But what reignited hope inside Bridget's heart was that the look on May's face was one that didn't ask for pity or help, but was a familiarly bratty game look that was hers alone.

"Let's get this thing over with, Bridget," she said.

"Let's."

They ran towards each other for the final attack they would launch. They passed by each other as blurs, their last moves brief and swift. Then, to Rosette's horror, Bridget fell down to his knees, clutching at his right arm with a small cry of pain.

"Bridget!"

But before the Magdala nun could even begin to run towards her friend, before she could even think about doing something, his eyes fell on her, and Rosette saw not pain or frustration in them–

Sunlight fell upon that long thin line of indestructible string whose starting point was in his gloved hands…

–because he had succeeded in catching May in his most underestimated of moves, a move most game reviews belittle as 'too obvious and slow' and 'of limited practical combat use', but one that came in pretty handy in real life battles–

…and whose length was wrapped around his target, immobilizing her and forcing her to let go of her anchor, the massive weapon resting on the ground just as the business end of her opponent's weapon –the yoyo– was ticking ominously…

–The attack, executable when Bridget pressed that small red button on the controlling end of his yoyo, would end this battle, was the Overdrive known as–

"Faulty Maintenance," whispered May in a voice that was both despondent and happy, satisfied at last by this battle. "You caught me with a Bad Trick…"

Bridget didn't speak.

They stood like that for a long moment.

Silence reigns for a while.

"Do it."

He doesn't answer.

"Do it. Finish me off."

Still there is silence.

"If you don't use it, I'll break free and continue fighting. If you use it, you win."

Yet, his silence continues.

"Bridget." The softness of her plea was honest and of good intention. "There is no other ending but you or me. There is no such thing as a draw. Either you win, or I win. Do it, and win. Do not do it, and our fight will go on, and maybe I will win."

And still he goes on with his silence.

"Do it. Do it now."

He trembles only once, but is still once more.

"Do it, Bridget."

His hands tighten upon the detonator.

"Bridget–"

He hugged her.

Background Music Drama Theme: Sayonara Solitaire

           Of all the things she expected, this was the last thing on her mind.

There were only two outcomes. Sho Tsuzuku told her that. Victory or Defeat. Life or Death. Heaven or Hell. There could only be two outcomes, no more and no less. There could not be any other.

She had come here and fought in order to see which outcome was hers and which one was his. She wanted to know.

And yet this…

"May."

His voice, it seemed so familiar and pleasant. She longed to hear it again and again and again, talking to her, arguing with her, bawling at people who called him 'Quatre' when he was not Quatre. She did not care about anything he said; she only cared that he was the one to say it. Only that he says it.

"May."

His embrace, it was so warm and loving and tightened every second as if he did not want to let go of her, as if she was his anchor in a stormy sea and to let go was to risk annihilation and loss. It was as if by this hug that he gained importance and identity and protection and happiness, as if he and she were close together like nothing else, a bond that was cemented by so many nights when they held each other tight and knew nothing else but each other… and love…

"May."

His lips, they brushed past her cheek softly, slowly, teasingly. She had felt them before many times, and yet she never was tired or annoyed by them. She would never be; she would always be waiting for that caress as eagerly as the first time, even after years and centuries and millennia pass by.

"May."

Her hand rose up to stroke his face gently, like always, a gentleness that wasn't like her at all. His hand rose up to touch her hand, their fingers merging into each other, finding the gaps between and filling them for each other, just as a man and a woman were meant to fill the empty spaces of each other with their love.

Rosette wiped away a tear of joy. "At last. Thank God it's over"

"May," he said softly in her ear.

"Bridget," she murmured in answer.

"I love you."

           Though depressed like hell, Sheo did faintly smile as he observed his two favorite Guilty Gear characters finally find each other once more. "A ray of sunshine in a dark life: When all else seems dark, a semblance of hope remains." He tipped his glasses. "And that is what we all can hope for. That is all we need hope for."

With a last smile, he turned to issue the command all of his allies and his girls await.

"Now is the time to fight for a lasting peace." His eyes glimmered with hope. "Let's roll."

           The girl watched the lovers' reunion. The sunlight fell on her glasses, hiding her face from view.

"There is a storm gathering to consume all of us." She coolly observes the collection of awesome warships straddle the sky, their massive bulk bristling with weaponry. "An errant flame comes to engulf the world, a flame that does not belong to this world. The cost will be high: Hearts will perish and bodies wither away.

"Dust to dust. Amen.

"But a soul shall be redeemed in that battle, and the return of one so long lost cannot be stayed."

She smiled frankly and pleasantly.

"But for now, peace reigns. For now, love is all that matters."

So saying, she left.

           She dared to keep silent only for a moment, her emotions taking over her heart gladly, she herself allowing it to happen so. "Baka Bridget." Stupid Bridget.

"Baka May." Stupid May.

And then, the cord that held her heart prisoner fallen away decades ago, turning around and sweeping him in the full force of her hug, May buried her face against Bridget's chest and murmured, "Gomene." I'm sorry.

"Aishiteru. Now and forever." I love you. Now and forever.

She kissed him, and he kissed her back, and they knew nothing else but each other… and love…

           May had returned to her beloved Bridget.