Disclaimer:Kaze no Tani no Naushika © Animage/ Hayao Miyazaki/ Studio Ghibli. Chikyuu Shoujo Arjuna © ARJUNA PROJECT/ Sotsu Agency/ TV Tokyo. Macross Zero © Shoji Kawamori/ Bandai/ Satelight/ Big West and whoever else owns that blasted jumble of legal entanglements. This work is not intended for commercial gain or to otherwise challenge the status of these copyrights.

Author's Note: This is part of another story (under heavy revision) from an Anime Addventure thread I'm writing entitled Ghibli Travelers. Basically, it involves Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind being unable to get home from the Christmas Party at Studio Ghibli (which see my other fanfic "A Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind Christmas"), along with Marco Pagot and Donald Curtis. They meet up with a vacationing (and college-level and AU and whose love life with Tokio Ooshima is in a shambles thanks to a monumental misunderstanding) Juna Ariyoshi as they roam around Tokyo, and while the men from Porco Rosso are able to return to their time, Nausicaä is stuck in the real world, slowly dying because her body is not adapted to our relatively clean environment. Juna is able to keep her alive, and they both get accidentally involved with a SEED TI gone rogue. That rogue TI steals an atomic demolition munition from a North Korean freighter selling the bomb to some Japanese Red Army terrorists. He intends to use it in revenge for mankind's mistreatment of the environment. SEED goes after the TI, Arkady Klimov, and in a massive firefight in a Yokohama dock area kills him. But the bomb timer has gone down to less than an hour, and no one wants to tamper with the device for fear of booby traps. Nausicaä and Arjuna do the only thing left possible: they lash the bomb onto Mehve and fly out with it into the Pacific night, where it detonates and kills them both.

But oft it has been said that death is never really the end, and for our two self-sacrificing heroines this saw proves true: Nausicaä is sent away to the Spirit World, where Angel (the winged girl from On Your Mark) brings her to Chihiro Ogino and Nigihayami Kohakunushi, to begin the process of restoring her so she may return to her own reality; Juna ends up somewhere else, to begin her own journey back to the world she left behind. This is her part of the story.

Summary: (post-manga Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind, AU Earth Girl Arjuna, pre-OAV Macross Zero) Juna Ariyoshi is killed protecting Tokyo from a nuclear threat, and winds up in an unlikely place and time, to help and be helped by a girl whose destiny is to become mankind's judge, jury... and executioner.

PROLOGUE

For the wages of heroism is death.
-J.R.R. Tolkien, Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics

Away they flew, away from the comfortably familiar lights of the Japanese capital and out into the unknown darkness over the Pacific. They had crossed Tokyo Bay and passed over Chiba prefecture before Nausicaä spoke up.

"How are you doing, Juna?" she asked the figure below her. They were both on Mehve, lying prone and clinging to its handlebars.

"I'm fine," answered the Avatar. She was in Arjuna form and had one palm pressed against Mehve's surface, feeding what power she could into the glider. They had discovered earlier that something—a piece of shrapnel or a stray bullet, they couldn't determine what it was—had punctured its engine. After they had lashed Arkady's nuclear toy onto Mehve using Arjuna's ribbons Nausicaä had test-flown the glider once and reported that it was performing sluggishly, most likely because of the damage it had suffered. Fearing that they wouldn't get the bomb far enough away from Tokyo in time, Arjuna had tried to overcome the glider's torpidity by feeding the engine power from herself, and so far it seemed to be working. Nausicaä's fears of an engine fire were proving unfounded.

"Nausicaä-hime?"

"Yes?"

"Actually, I'm scared out of my mind."

"So am I. Best we turn our attention to something else. Hey, do you think we could do what I told you earlier?"

"Which is?"

"Zoom climb to twenty thousand and push over?" Unseen by Arjuna, Nausicaä frowned. "Oh, wait, I left my sack and oxygen mask at Koganei." When she had first come to this world the Princess had been carrying a sack which contained her supplies, a small Dorok oxygen tank and mask, and the shipwrecked pig she had come across on an island, Boo. She had never needed the bag since she arrived at Koganei, so she had inadvertently left it on the wall of her room in the studio.

"So?"

"I can't breathe above ten thousand."

"I can take care of that." Arjuna twisted around until she was looking up at the Princess, then removed the hand pressing against Mehve momentarily, pressed her index finger against her lips, and touched Nausicaä's own with it. "There," she said. "You won't have to worry about that anymore."

Nausicaä nodded in thanks, shifted her body rearward and took Mehve up at best climb speed.

------oOo------

"Well, do something!" wailed Katsunari Hoshinogawa, Juna's old schoolmate and now a SEED trainee, as she stood watching Teresa Wong helping the casevac crew load the laden stretchers into the belly of the CH-47J. "Go after them!"

"And what would that accomplish, Katsunari-chan?" asked Miss Wong, adjusting the FN P90 slung at high port against her chest. "Do I send more people to their death? They wouldn't be able to save Juna even if they tried. They'd just get caught up in the explosion."

The neophyte telepath sniffled. "You're heartless."

Teresa Wong's head snapped up and her eyes flashed. For a moment it appeared she wanted to shout something, but mastered her anger enough to remain silent.

"Yes," she said finally. "I'm damned heartless. You're right about that. Now you and your boyfriend haul your asses into the helicopter before I kick them there." She spun away and her black combat boots banged on the Chinook's loading ramp as she tramped into its cavernous belly.

Something touched Katsunari's elbow, and the dusky-skinned girl turned to see Cindy Klein standing behind her, grasping her with her injured hand.

"Way to go, Hoshinogawa," she said, looking at Katsunari with those eerie yellow pupils of hers. "You've never been as shallow as this. Congratulations."

"Bug off, Klein," returned Katsunari. "I'm tired of seeing your face. Why don't you go bother someone else?" She pulled her elbow away from Cindy's touch.

"Alright." Cindy hovered hesitantly a moment longer beside her. "I just want to say I'm sorry too, for what it's worth. And I want you to remember that Miss Wong is the one who has to make the hard decisions." Then she left, heading for another of the newly-arrived casevac choppers, a Boeing Explorer.

Katsunari watched as the Chinook's ramp began to close. There was a building whine and a loud tak-tak-tak, tak-tak-tak as the helicopter's engines started up. The massive three-bladed rotors above her head began to move. Why even bother tending to the wounded? she thought miserably. We'll all probably end up dead in a couple of minutes anyway. Word of the nuke had quickly spread throughout the assault force's relief crew. She turned her gaze to the east. Juna...

------oOo------

"Here. You might want to use this to pass the time." Nausicaä handed down a small rectangular object to her passenger, careful not to lose it in the cold, whipping wind.

"Ka-chan's mini-iPod?" Arjuna took the device from her. The instant she removed her hand from Mehve, the glider sputtered and began to lose speed. She quickly turned into Juna Ariyoshi and hooked the iPod into her jeans' waistband. She felt Mehve nose over as she inserted the earphones into her ears.

"What's happening?" she asked Nausicaä. "What're you doing?"

"Hold on," the Princess cautioned her. "This is a zero-g dive. For maximum acceleration."

Juna felt the rush of the wind build up and blinked. She wished she had brought goggles along with her. Then an idea came into her mind, and she materialized another one of her translucent white ribbons and, letting go of Mehve's handlebars for a moment and flying in close formation with it, tied the strip around her head. It was helpful, but not by much.

"I wish I had a helmet like yours," she told the Princess as she regained her hold on the kite. She blindly reached down and pressed the iPod's center button, and a sweet, serene voice came pouring out of the earphones. Juna looked down, and finding the earphone cord missing its usual control buttons, adjusted the volume manually on the device itself. By the iPod Mini's auto-activated light she saw the song's title scroll across its little LCD screen.

Kuniaki Haishima - Arkan Part I, Holy Raz.mp3

Juna listened and smiled to herself. Typical, that a romantic like Ka-chan had such tastes in music.

"I'm sorry I didn't return that to Katsunari," Nausicaä apologized, seeing Juna fiddling with the player. "I left it in my belt pouch."

"Oh, that's okay." Juna replaced her hand on Mehve. "I don't think she'll mind. Did you hear the songs she wanted you to hear?"

Nausicaä pulled her cloth helmet's goggles into place as the kite continued to build up speed. "Yes. I didn't know they made music about me." There was a smile in her voice. "I don't know whether to feel embarrassed or proud."

"Both, I guess. Hime-sama?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm sorry your trip to this world had to end this way."

"It's alright." Nausicaä paused. "I find I'm not so afraid of dying any more, now that I've heard those songs, because I know as long as people continue to listen to them I'll live forever in their hearts. I just wish..."

"Really? You're not afraid of dying?"

Another pause. "Not as much as the first time. It's not the dying I'm afraid of, it's the pain I'll experience along the way. You?"

"I'll miss my mother. And my friends. I guess Chris Hawken will have to find another Avatar to protect my home." Juna's thoughts wandered back to her first kiss with Tokio Ooshima, and her heart contracted. I'll miss you too, Tokio. There are so many things I still want to ask you, so many things I still want to say. When did our friendship turn to love? Who do you really care for, Sayuri or me? I wish there was some way I could tell you goodbye. Looks like I'll never be able to do that now. Tears started to well in her eyes, and she was glad Nausicaä couldn't possibly see them as they finally trickled out, to soak into the ribbon tied around her face. And when that was saturated with moisture, to be blown out into the night by the icy wind, like unseen pearls of sadness.

------oOo------

Teresa Wong stared out the round window as the Chinook bore them back to Kobe. She had asked the pilot to fly a course that would keep the southeast in her view. Almost all the SEED soldiers who were in the Chinook with her were also looking out the port-side windows. Some, like Katsunari, were weeping openly. Others had dazed and dumbfounded expressions on their faces. A few still had stony countenances, and Teresa wondered if they were wearing masks or if they had none at all and were like that naturally.

She was puzzling over how they had managed to clear the area without being accosted by the Tokyo police, and chalked it up as another one of Lady Luck's caprices. Of course they had no time to sanitize the place. Gouts of blood, piles of gore and innumerable shell casings—not to mention the wreck of a Comanche—still littered the battle area. She would parcel out as much of the nasty PR job as she could to someone else in the SEED hierarchy. She was just too tired and heartsick to care much about it anymore.

It had been an accident, really. Arkady was about to give up when someone's hot M-60E3 cooked off a round. Teresa had turned to bark the instruction 'Hold your fire' to her men, and in the process accidentally bumped her side against a lathe table and depressed her radio's transmit button. The waiting Apache gunner heard a clipped and emphatic '—fire!' in his headset and thought it was a command meant for him. Thus ended the life of Arkady Klimov, the Russian TI. Teresa hadn't known whether to go berserk or laugh miserably at the pathetic situation, which made her all the more angry when Katsunari had accused her of being heartless.

And now Juna herself was also going to die, along with that strange girl she had come to the warehouse with. Reminded of the Avatar, the SEED leader looked at her wristwatch. It was almost time.

------oOo------

Nausicaä. The ghostly mind-voice grew louder. Nausicaä.

The warrior princess saw something at the periphery of her vision. Namulith? She twisted her head to get a better view, but the thing shifted so that she could see its blue-white glow, but not its entirety. What are you doing here?

What else? I've up and died, Nausicaä. Some of those blasted insects ate my head. Thought I'd see how you were doing, girl who would save the world.

As you can see, Namulith, I'm not doing very well at the moment. It's odd that you should visit me right now.

Well, I'm a creature of the dark, aren't I? So I think coming to you on this occasion is only fitting. I also came to ask what's happened to my country, that I gave to you.

I let go of it. I gave it to Chikuku.

What? An incredulous snort. You gave it to that child?

It's rightfully his. Not mine. Charuka and the Council of Priests rule it in his name, until he comes of age.

Didn't find the burden to your liking, eh? There was a hollow laugh.

Namulith, my cares are greater than one kingdom's. Consider yourself fortunate that we met again, for now I can honestly say that I forgive you of all you've done, even if no one else will. Go in peace.

There was a period of silence. I can see you've grown, Nausicaä. I couldn't take over your mind now, even if I wanted to. But I really think you've overstretched yourself this time. There's no Ohmu now to save you from your recklessness.

I need no saving. Go follow your brother Miralupa and be at peace with yourself and the world.

Oh, no. The voice grew harsher. I will not rest until I see you and your cowardly and traitorous friends dragged down into the mud like I was. Savior of humanity indeed. The only thing that needs saving is the world itself—from nihilistic, deluded fools like you. Why did you destroy the Crypt of Shuwa? You're just as much a murderer as I was, Nausicaä.

Yes, I am. I never claimed to be something other than what I was. I am just as foul and stinking as you. But I have yet to learn what your predecessor's despair was like. I have yet to belittle people and consider them as goods to be sold, or their lives as mere commodities to be used or traded. That's the difference between us, Namulith. In the end, you and the Master of the Crypt worked only for your own weal.

You will do the same, I fear, the Emperor's Brother replied quietly. In time you will learn to hate the people who depend on you, who never stop whining and complaining, who are too small-minded to understand what it takes to rule a kingdom and live in harmony. The dumb, stupid and uneducated masses. It would have been better if they had perished under your son's fire than go on struggling to live like they do.

That, Namulith, is something I sincerely doubt. Goodbye.

The blue glowing thing slowly moved itself into the center of Nausicaä's field of view, and to her horror it was a skull with red flames issuing forth from its empty eye sockets. Its worm-eaten bones were a macabre lacework that made her want to retch even as she looked at it.

Goodbye, Nausicaä daughter of Jhil. I'll see you soon.

------oOo------

Katsunari cried quietly in her seat, heedless of everyone and everything around her. Yuuki cradled her against him. He didn't cry himself; he was just too ornery to do that. But his eyes also glistened as he looked out into the darkness beyond the city.

When the false dawn came, he followed Teresa Wong's instruction—shouted above the whine of the T58 turbines—and closed his eyes against the sight-damaging glare. He crushed Katsunari in his arms, keeping her from looking out the window; prevented from seeing the bright fireball that marked her dear Juna's violent farewell, she sobbed louder and more bitterly.

Goodbye, Juna, Yuuki thought. Thanks for sparing KatKat. And goodbye to you too, Princess Nausicaä. Thank you, both of you. Thank you.

Someone once told me that if life were a maze, you would never find the end,
For the end is death, and death itself is but a new beginning.