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Disclaimer: Ya know what, I'm GLAD I don't Outlaw Star. Because then I would never have gotten the pleasure of watching the series from the viewer's perspective. -----------------
Author's Notes: YAY! I'm back and I'd like to apologize for keeping all of you in suspense! Alright, I've been working my arse off to get this chapter finished, but I was having a lot of trouble with it because I didn't know how to fit it all together in the chappie without making it seem rushed. I'm sure we've all felt that way before.
Sere: So says you.
Himiko twitches and then boots her out the door
Sorry about the stupid cat. Anyway, I've got a really good idea for a one-shot that I may just upload after this fiction is finally complete. I'll add a summary at the end of the chapter. Please review and tell me what you think! And please don't steal the idea because that would just be saying that you don't have enough imagination to come up with something yourself!
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Review Responses:
SonJanusX – I really hope I do break the one hundred and fifty mark! It would make me so happy. –sighs- I can't wait until the day...Anyway, I'm a hopeless romantic as well!
The Ronin – Good luck with that, by the way. FF.net is just being stupid. Don't worry. Thanks for the review, though! I was trying to add to the tension, and I'm really happy with the results. Thanks again.
TetsuoTsuboshi – I hope you enjoy what lousy crap I've concocted up for ya'll this time! Just kidding – enjoy, okay?
Midi Tenshi – Ah, yes, the joys of text enforcers! –laughs really hard- Thanks for the review, sis! I'll review the chapters of your story when I get a break! (By the way: when's Dad getting back from his business trip?)
Seashah – Why heeeello, my dear friend. How's everything with you? I'm glad that you're in a good mood! I hope you like this chapter! By the way, thanks for reading all of Yesterday's Mistakes and continuing on into Tomorrow's Decisions. I appreciate it!
StoryWeaver1 – Hi StoryWeaver1! Nice to hear from you! Yeah, it was rather fluffy, but it gets sickeningly sweeter as the fic goes on! XD
Layline – Thank you so much for your support!
Malachite Aoi – Oh wow! -tries not to cry- Thank you so much for your support and the compliments! You have no idea how much those words meant to me. I hope that this story and its ending meet your expectations!
Goddess-Xia – Yeah, I know...I'm not real good with keep a consistency with chapter lengths. I'm going to have to make these last two chapters really long if I want to end it all within schedule. -.-() I'm sorry if the chapters were too short.
Thanks for the reviews! Here's the update!
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(In the last chapter...)
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"I'm sorry too, Gene. If I hadn't met up with you in the first place, then you wouldn't have to go through all this trouble."
All of a sudden, Gene was standing in front of her, giving her a strange look, a mixture of pain and sorrow.
"Don't ever say that, Mel. If I hadn't met you, I never would have grown up enough to see what my life was amounting to – nothing. At least now I've done something to help others out. I became a better man. Don't EVER say that you shouldn't have come into my life. Don't EVER."
Melfina stared at him, wide-eyed. Then she looked away, smiling a little.
"I love you, Gene."
"I love you too, Melfina."
And then the pain hit.
(WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT? READ ON TO FIND OUT!)
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Prince Charming: Chapter 17
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"Melfina?!"
Gene almost started hyperventilating as he saw Mel's face contort with pain as she fell forward against the glass of the system's window.
After a moment, she drew herself back up, forcing a smile that caused Gene more pain than tears would have. How could she be so strong? He didn't think that he'd be able to survive this sort of thing...he'd have already given up.
"I'm fine, Gene..." she drifted off grimacing, but then regained her painful smile. "Not much longer now. I can last until we reach the location. I promise."
Gene gave her a doubtful look despite the reassurance in her tone. There was no way he could believe her – not when he could clearly see the gleam of pain her wide brown eyes.
----
Jim bit aggressively into a piece of bread that he'd brought from Sentinel 3. Even thought he'd already eaten, he still felt empty, although he seriously doubted that it was because he was hungry.
No, he felt empty because he felt useless. Helpless, more like it. Melfina was...in danger of dying, and all he could do was sit in the ship and eat stale bread.
'It's just not fair,' he thought. 'To Melfina or Gene. I've always known the Tao pirates were scumbags, but to think that they could go this low...' He didn't finish what he was thinking, and instead stared wistfully out the window of the ship out into the deep, dark recesses of outer space which held the same barrenness that was curled up inside his chest.
----
Aisha leapt to her and slammed her palms onto the table, unable to take it anymore. "This just isn't fair!" she screeched, kicking the chair so hard it sailed through the air and crashed into the wall.
Suzuka watched her from her own chair, for once not trying to reprimand or anger her even more. For the first time in memory, she and Aisha were feeling and thinking the same thing.
'It just isn't fair.'
----
The rest of journey was just as full as tension as the first half had been. By following the coordinates they had directed themselves to a small planet that seemed to be more like a gigantic forest than an actual world.
"What is this place?" breathed Jim, staring at the green world below them where they drifted in the Outlaw Star.
Gene glanced down at the hand-held navigator in his hand and sighed. "It's an unnamed planet that lies just outside the Meteora Solar System. We have no way of telling what kinda shit we could run into down there."
"Or," added Suzuka, clutching her sword in an iron grip, "more importantly, where the bio-android specialist is. It may be impossible to find one single person inside all of that."
All of a sudden, Aisha let out a loud, catty laugh, scratchy and full of pride. "I think that you all forget that you have a C'tarl-C'tarl in your midst! I have the nose and ears of a god! I'll find him for Mel!" She flexed a bicep and Jim shook his head, sighing.
Suzuka chuckled and laid a hand on Jim's shoulder. "Sometimes it's better to let her be full of herself," she said. "Because then she tries harder."
Gene laughed and punched Aisha in the arm. "Hey Aisha, I think this is the first time you've ever been of any real help to us! I knew if I kept you around you'd come in handy one day!"
"Come in h – GENE STARWIND!"
----
"So...Gene."
Gene glanced down at Jim, who was giving him a dubious stare. "What?" he asked flatly.
"I just have a simply question."
"Then ask already, damn it!"
Jim took a deep breath, and then screamed: "WHERE THE HELL ARE WE SUPPOSED TO LAND THIS THING?!"
Gene frowned. "We'll have to take a line down there while someone watches the ship. –
(A/N: Remember Jailbreak From Gravity Prison? Yeah, like that. Sorry about the interruption.)
– Not all of us will be able to go."
"Yeah, well I don't care what you say," retorted Jim determinedly, "I'm going! Anything to help Mel!"
"I would like to go as well," said Suzuka, coming up beside them.
"No way!" exclaimed Aisha, pushing her way past the assassin. "Suzu gets to do everything! I've stayed behind too many times! Besides, I have to go – no one else here can smell and hear like me."
"Don't call me that," ordered Suzuka.
Then it burst into a flat-out argument.
After a few moments, Gene leaned forward and shouted, "GUYS!"
Silence fell.
"This is NOT the time to be arguing. Melfina is in pain and not even hell will stop me from getting her the help she needs! So just shut up or I'll have to kick everyone's ass! GOT IT?!"
Jim and Aisha nodded furiously and Suzuka bowed her head a little, all three ashamed.
"You're right, Gene," whispered Jim, looking downcast. "And maybe they're right, too – I can't come. You need Aisha and Suzuka down there with you; God knows they can help more than me. I'll stay up here to guard the ship."
"And Mel," added Aisha.
"But I thought she was going to-"
"No," growled Gene angrily. "Carrying her across Sentinel 3 almost killed her. Traveling across a remote planet would only finish the job. She stays here with you, Jim. I'm trusting you to keep her company until we get back, understood?!"
Jim gulped and then nodded once.
"Of – of course."
The red-haired man nodded as well. "Then get the lines ready for us. We're leaving. Come on Aisha...Suzuka. Let's go."
----
The trip down was horrific. All three of them were scratched numerous times by the huge layer of branches that nearly blocked the entire forest floor out from the rest of the universe.
"Which way, Aisha?" Gene asked as soon as they landed.
The C'tarl-C'tarl sniffed once and her left ear twitched. She smiled grimly, uncharacteristically serious. "Left."
And with that they took off running.
----
"Jim?" called Melfina weakly. "Have they left?"
Jim nodded resolutely upon entering the hull.
"Yeah, Mel, they left."
Mel was silent, but Jim sensed her worry. It amazed him that after all the pain and hardship she had gone through, she still refused to focus on herself and feared instead for Gene.
Jim lowered himself to the ground in front of her. She sunk deeper into the navigational hard drive so that she was sitting as well.
"You know, Mel...they'll be fine. And so will you."
Melfina smiled a little; it may have been small, but it was genuine, and it made Jim feel better.
"Thank you, Jim."
"Anytime, Mel."
"Did they make it to the surface alright?"
"Yeah," reassured Jim, biting into a sandwich he had made. Eating comforted him in times of stress. "Gene wanted me to tell you that you can get out of there if you want. You must be hungry, Mel."
Mel paused and then shook her head. "No, I'm fine, really. It doesn't hurt as much when I'm in here, so I think I'll stay."
Jim nodded understandingly.
'Oh Gene,' thought Melfina. 'Please be alright.'
----
Three hours later, the screen of the Outlaw Star beeped loudly and then Gene's face appeared. It looked as though he was running and talking at the same time.
"JIM?!" he thundered.
The younger boy rushed to his seat, pressing a button and opening his side of the communication transmitter.
"What's up, Gene? Did you catch 'em?"
"I'll explain it all when we're back inside the ship. Let down the line for us NOW!"
Jim saluted and hurried to do as he was told.
----
Gene and the others arrived in a hurry, and didn't even stop to remove the loose padding they'd put on so that they'd be safe on their way down the line.
"What's wrong?" Jim called as Gene ran right past him with Suzuka on tail.
Aisha was the only one to stop for him. "He's dead!"
"What?!" Jim questioned, confused, hardly even noticing that the C'tarl- C'tarl was wearing nothing but Gene's coat. "Who's dead?"
"The specialist, that's who!"
"What? Why? HOW?"
Aisha shook her head. "It had to be those stupid Tao pirates!"
"What happened exactly, Aisha?"
Aisha began.
----
The C'tarl-C'tarl sniffed once and her left ear twitched. She smiled grimly, uncharacteristically serious. "Left."
And with that they took off running.
Once again, Gene found himself surprised at how close the trees grew together. Except for little spaces between the trunks or areas where the branches didn't interfere with other branches' growing space, it was as if they were trying to make their way through a solid piece of glass that had been dropped and cracked but not broken.
In about the first thirty minutes, they'd made their way inside by barely twenty yards.
"That's it, I'm getting tired of this," said Suzuka, lifting her sword. In an instant an entire tree fell to the ground. Taking her cue from the assassin, Aisha's eyes grew wide and her clothes ripped as she transformed. As soon as she was full-tiger, she snarled and began ripping branches out of their path.
"Good thing none of us are environmentalists," commented Gene as they barged on through, every once in a while using his Caster to blow a tree or two away.
"If we weren't in such a serious situation, I don't think I would have laughed anyway," replied Suzuka, while the C'tarl-C'tarl unrelentingly ravaged the growingly annoying foliage.
They continued on like this for some time, stopping every once in a while so Aisha could sniff or hear out the correct direction.
After about two hours of exhausting hacking, Aisha came to a halt.
When Suzuka and Gene noticed, they stopped as well.
"What's wrong?" asked Gene. "Do you hear something?"
The C'tarl-C'tarl shook her head and jutted her chin out towards a small grove maybe thirty feet away.
Suzuka made her way there at once. After a moment, she reappeared and beckoned for Gene and Aisha to follow.
"This is it," said Suzuka dourly, and when Gene saw what she meant, he let out a loud curse.
The grove was around ten feet wide and twelve feet long. On one side of the area the trees grew so closely together that they made a solid wall. The dirt and grass floor had been covered with metal tile.
"So he isn't here?"
Suzuka shook her head dismally, and gestured towards the far end of the grove.
"Oh shit," breathed Gene, clenching his fists.
There lay a body, burned from head to toe, but his surroundings were perfectly fine.
"There's no way a person could burn to death without leaving lighting anything else up. The entire forest would have been destroyed."
"You're right," the assassin agreed. "It was Tao magic."
"We've got to get back to the ship. There's only one thing left we can do."
Aisha butted his leg with her head as if to ask what he meant.
"I'll tell you when we get there – come on!"
They immediately made their way back.
----
Gene had never seen Melfina so crestfallen. Tears formed in her eyes and left trails from her cheekbones to her chin as they slid silently down her face.
"So...I guess that there's nothing else we can do..."
Gene shook his head determinedly. "No, Mel. That's not all we can do. We're gonna call up an old friend of ours on a well-past-due favor."
Jim arched an eyebrow and exchanged a glance with Aisha.
"Who?" asked Suzuka.
Gene's mouth was set in a hard line.
"Gwen Khan."
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I'm sorry, but I felt that it was absolutely necessary to have Gwen Khan play his part. I couldn't leave him out, and it seemed like a good idea.
Anyway, I know that this is gonna sound totally random, but I was wondering if someone would please read my Cowboy Bebop one-shot entitled Black and Blue to the Devil's Name and give me some feedback. I've had it on the site for quite some time, but no one has told me what they think yet! I also have an Escaflowne 1-Shot out. It's super short, but I'd really like some input on that too. Thanks and here's the summary for my OS one-shot that is currently in the works!
Melfina and the others have just gotten back from a long break and they are forced off of Sentinel 3 once again because of a request from Fred for assistance. The only problem is, when they reach Fred's location, they find that Melfina has become stuck in the navigational system! What was Fred's business?! How will they get her out?! Why is it that Jim seems to be hiding something?!
I know that might sound lame, but it's actually going to be much funnier than Prince Charming. I'm thinking of calling it Just Beneath the Surface. Tell me your thoughts in your reviews.
Can you believe that the next chapter is the last before the epilogue? It's going to feel so weird not writing more in this. I'll probably start Just Beneath the Surface right after I finish Prince Charming.
Ja ne!