My Disclaimer: Oh how I wished I owned you Getbackers! I would keep Makubex around to do all my homework, Ginji would be plugged into my house for a free source of electricity, and Juubei, Kazuki, and Sakura would all make me the most awesome clothes ever. Shido would take out the trash and keep the house in shape. Paul would make me delicious coffee. I would sell Emishi to a TV. Network so he could have his own comedy show. Oh, and I would sell Ban out to rabid fan girls and make lots of $$$$$ But I would keep Maku-chan all to myself MINE I SAY! BUT I don't own them so...I'll just go live in my author cardboard box and keep writing fan fiction. Please enjoy.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed:D And a special thanks to Rogue for helping me realize that I had misspelled Ginji's name. ; I'm so sorry Ginji! I am going to repost the previous chapters with their corrections.
Now presenting:
Getbackers: Get Back the Future
Chapter 4: Catalyst of a Thunderstorm
Ginji woke a bit later to hear the scratching of a pencil on paper. He sat up with a loud yawn and stretched. He rubbed his eyes with one hand in a childish manner then looked to find the source of the noise. Ginji was currently sleeping locked in a medium sized storage room with -Makubex-. Ban had insisted that they lock him up, saying that it would be far too much trouble to have to chase him down in the morning. Ginji had then insisted on being locked in there too because it was not very fair or nice. Besides, it might get scary sleeping in a dark storage room. Ginji was surprised to see that there was light in the room. He looked over to see that -Makubex- had turned on a small lamp that he had evidently scavenged from one of the open boxes. He was quickly scribbling on a sheet of paper. When one paper became filled, he moved on to another. Ginji moved to look over the man's shoulders. Complex formulas and drawings filled the white expanse of the papers.
"Ne, Makubex, what are you doing?"
"Hm?" -Makubex- looked back to see Ginji staring at the paper, "I was thinking so I thought I'd make some plans."
"Shouldn't you get some sleep? You look so tired." Ginji sat down beside him and watched the pencil flying over the paper. A few moments passed and Ginji found himself itching to ask the question that bothered him the most, "Makubex…where did you get that scar?"
The pencil stopped abruptly but -Makubex- did not turn around to look at him, "Why do you ask?"
Ginji put a hand on his shoulder worriedly, "Because it reacted to my lightening. It hurts you a lot doesn't it?"
"Not really. It's fine."
"But Maku-chan…." Ginji looked sad, "Did the Raitei give you the mark?" He drew up and wrapped his arms around his knees, "I can tell these things you know. Something inside knows. It's ok if you are upset with me."
-Makubex- turned around with a sigh and a small smile, "I'm not upset with you Ginji-san. I could never be. It's not your fault anyway so don't blame yourself."
"Then why won't you talk to me?" Ginji drooped.
"Does it really mean that much for you to know?" -Makubex- put the pencil down on the paper.
"Yes. I have to know if I'm responsible for the pain you are in." Ginji looked listlessly at the floor.
"I got this scar because I failed. I was lucky to have not been killed. It reminds me of the burden I bear for letting Mugenjou down. I suppose he let me live because I was a part of Mugenjou and it belongs to him by right. Now that Mugenjou and I have separated paths and I have actively raised my hand to him, the Raitei has taken back his amnesty." -Makubex- unconsciously reached up and touched the scar, "He gave it to me shortly after Mugenjou's first and only up rising against him was crushed. It was the scariest moment in my life staring into those cold hateful eyes and wondering if I was going to die. Instead he traced this into my skin. I assume it's a punishment of sorts for the uprising."
-Makubex- was quiet for a moment, lost somewhere in his thoughts when he felt a pair of warm arms hug him tightly.
"I'm so sorry Maku-chan." It took him just a moment to realize that Ginji was starting to cry.
"No, please don't cry!" -Makubex- frowned, "See, I knew I shouldn't have told you. It's not your fault Ginji-san."
"You say that but…"
"A lot of things went wrong but we'll fix them just wait and see then none of this will have happened at all. You won't have to be sad because it will never come to pass." -Makubex- gave him another small smile, "Ginji-san has always been very kind to me. I don't want to be the reason you are upset."
Ginji wiped his face off on his sleeve. He had to help, to definitely stop all this from happening. He would not hurt his friends. Ginji sat still for a second as he tried to come to terms with his own thoughts when he saw -Makubex- yawn. He reached out and leaned the silver haired head against his shoulder, "You should get some sleep."
"Yes…"
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Kazuki woke early the next morning. It had been difficult to sleep with the loud sounds of too many people breathing in his home. He sat up in bed and was briefly confused to note the absence of both Juubei's. Toshiki was still asleep on his mat in the corner of the room so he did not become alarmed. Kazuki got out of his bed, dressed, and slipped into the main room. He stifled a laugh to see Ban sprawled across the couch in a loud snoring sleep. Shido was sitting cross-legged asleep by the door to the storage room. At a glance, it merely looked as if he were sitting guard. Kazuki continued on to the mini kitchen where he found the two missing people busy at work fixing breakfast for everyone. Kazuki smiled. He had always loved that little gesture that Juubei always did for him. He felt a bit sorry for -Juubei-, he had looked so lost at first, so sad. It made him feel a twist of guilt on the inside to know that he had left -Juubei- behind.
He turned back to the main room to leave them to their work and wait for everyone else to wake up. It did not take long once the scent of cooked food hit the air for the others to stir. Shido woke to hear a light scratching sound from the storage room door. He stood, stretched then unlocked it to find a chibi Ginji scratching at the door with big hungry eyes. It waddled out with a happy expression and started toward the kitchen. Shido looked in to see that -Makubex- was still asleep. He started to go in and wake him when Ginji turned back to him.
"Shido, couldn't we let his sleep just a little more. He was up all night writing."
"Sure." Shido shut the door quietly.
T H E N (flashback/ dream
The explosion had caused the whole building to come down on top of them, all seven floors. Between all of them most of the rubble had been blocked and pushed to the side but at least one entire floor had made it down upon them. Makubex limped through the rubble looking for the others. Masaki's light could be seen clashing with the Raitei's power in the distance. He had managed to pull the angry entity away from them.
"Emishi? Sakura? Juubei?" He called into the settling dust, "Teshimine?"
"Over here!" Emishi's voice called out.
Makubex started over when he tripped and fell tumbling down a hill of rubble. When he hit the bottom and began to collect himself, he felt as if he had fallen into thick water. He looked down to his arms to see that they were covered in blood and it was not his. Wide eyed, Makubex looked down to see that he had fallen into a pool of it.
"W-what-- "
His mind froze for a moment in terror when the implications of such an amount of blood hit him. Seeing that it was coming from beneath a pile of destroyed ceiling, Makubex began to try and dig into it, "Sakura! Juubei!"
"Kazuki!" It was Juubei's voice. He sounded wounded but relatively fine.
Makubex moved quickly throwing and pushing the rubble from the pile when he came to a large heavy slab that refused to budge. He did not have the strength to move it but he tried anyway. He was surprised when it began to move and looked up to see that Teshimine and Juubei had made it over and they were helping.
"I'm sorry I'm late." Teshimine's face was weary and drawn.
The slab tilted sideways then fell to the side to reveal the terrible secret it hid. Makubex turned quickly away as his stomach turned. There was not much recognizable but the hair and bells. The rest was a mass of pulverized bone and blood. He heard Juubei scream then a scuffle after that filled with Emishi's, Teshimine's, and Juubei's voices as the two had to subdue Juubei from trying to kill himself. The rest of it became a blur. He remembered vaguely seeing Masaki's light fading in the distance then being back at the ruins of the Honky Tonk. Juubei was unconscious and everyone else was nursing their wounds. Teshimine and Paul were talking but he could not hear it all from his place by the wall.
"If Ban had been there…"
"Rather if he were still here…"
"Ban was…before Ginji became…"
"How…"
"…it was…"
He blinked only to see angry empowered eyes staring back into his.
N O W (flashback/ dream
-Makubex- woke up with a start. When he came to, he was shaking violently and breathing quick shallow breaths. Ban had him by the shoulders trying to keep him still. The others were crowded around with worried expressions.
"Calm down." Ban said sternly, "You were only dreaming."
-Makubex- tried to will himself to stop shaking and to breathe normally but his mind was reeling as he tried to bring himself back to the here and now. Then it struck him, what had been missing. What had gone wrong. He pointed a shaky hand at Ban.
"My god, it was you!"
Ban looked annoyed, "What are you jabbering about?"
"Because you weren't there! You are what's missing!"
His voice was shaking almost as hard as he was. -Juubei- started forward when his former self beat him to it.
"Let me, Mido-kun."
Ban moved aside and let Juubei take his place. Juubei reached out carefully and put his hand over -Makubex's- eyes, "Take a deep breath. Another." He spoke the command to breathe several times in a calm coaxing voice and after a few moments had passed, -Makubex- had stopped shaking. He removed his hand, "How do you feel now?"
"Fine." -Makubex- blinked several times to clear his eyes, "Thank you Juubei."
Ban propped up against the wall nearby Shido, "So what are you talking about over there?"
"I understand what happened now. It all makes sense."
"Understand what? That you are being a troublesome brat?"
"Ginji became the Raitei completely because you weren't there to bring him back. We shouldn't be watching after Ginji, we should be watching you." -Makubex's mind calculated away, "Teshimine and Paul were talking about you being gone before Ginji went Raitei. The grief over your loss must have compounded what ever the reason was for Raitei's appearance. Ginji didn't want to come back because of the trauma."
"So Ban died first?" Shido frowned.
"Yes. He did." -Juubei- stated.
"If we make sure that Ban survives what happened to him then it will fix everything." -Makubex- continued excitedly to himself.
"I'm glad you figured that out but…your Raitei is still here." Toshiki interjected.
"Yes. That is a very big problem." Kazuki said with a worried face.
"I've already worked that out. I need to see Paul and in eight days, Raitei will be gone from here." -Makubex- collected his papers from the floor.
"And how are you going to manage that? I doubt if you ask him nicely it'll work." Ban raised an eyebrow.
"We will rebuild the time machine and send him back. As he goes forward in time, he will cease to be as the events that spawned him changed. Well, hypothetically…" -Makubex- flipped through his papers, "See one can only go backwards in time because if any event is changed the future they are from will cease to exist that way and hypothetically, they will be forcibly merged into that reality. Leaping forward is an impossibility."
"Stop right there, you are giving me a migraine." Ban rolled his eyes, "So you are saying that he gets to run around insane for eight days until you build that contraption? I don't like how that sounds."
"Mido-kun, it took a month to build it the first time. Eight days is pushing it." An apologetic look crossed -Makubex's- face.
"Where would we find the Raitei now?" Juubei asked.
"Mugenjou." Ginji answered. He looked around to see everyone staring at him with awkward looks, "It's where I would go."
"Well then, we should go entertain him and keep him from killing anyone." Shido said as he popped his knuckles.
"Then I am coming too." Ban smirked at Shido, "Someone has to save your mangy butt when things get rough."
"Perhaps it would be best for Ginji to stay with Makubex and Paul." Kazuki spoke up quickly.
Ban thought for a moment, "Ginji, you stay out of trouble. Go with the brat to the Honky Tonk and stay there."
"Why can't I come too, Ban-chan?" Ginji blinked with an innocent ignorance.
"There's already one Raitei in Mugenjou, we don't need two." Ban put a hand on Ginji's shoulder and pulled him from the room, "Besides, you should keep an eye on that computer brat. Keep him out of trouble."
"Ah." Ginji smiled, "Ok."
"Good." Ban slapped him on the back then turned to everyone else, "Let's get going then."
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"There goes another one." Emishi pointed as one of the lights on the monitor went out. There was now a line of them across the screen that were blank, "What's going on?"
"Someone must be putting them out." Makubex frowned as the camera monitor went blank before the culprit was shown, "There is no way that they would all go out like this. It's all in a line, 32D through 34D so far."
"It could be someone planning a surprise attack. I'll go check it out." Teshimine turned to the door.
"I'll go with you. It's been rather too quiet in here lately." Emishi said then he followed him.
"Be careful!" Sakura called out after them.
A few minuets later, the camera destruction came to a halt but the level of power drainage inside Mugenjou spiked quickly and sounds of fighting could be heard on the next camera down. Suddenly, Emishi came flying into view slamming into a wall. Then the camera went out. Five minuets later the camera destruction continued.
"What is going on?" Makubex slid the visor over his eyes and began to raise Lower Town's defense grid.
"We should prepare for an attack." Masaki frowned as he watched the lights go out.
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Raitei looked briefly to the pile of rubble where Emishi had been thrown. He was sure that he had killed this one before not too much earlier. Perhaps it was another trick, how he hated tricks! The other one he had defeated had disappeared from sight, escaped to fight another day but he was not concerned. He looked around him for a few moments then started toward the rubble pile. He would just have to make sure that this one was absolutely dead this time. He stopped as the electricity burning about him hissed and popped loudly. Raitei turned to see another camera several feet away. He walked toward it angrily until his energy struck it from sheer proximity. He watched it explode with a frown. If Mugenjou's eyes were working again, someone was at the heart of Mugenjou. The only one who could do that was Makubex. As long as the king of Lower Town lived, Mugenjou could try to rise against him once more and he did not like that. He turned and began walking toward the Core.
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Paul needed to sit down and consider this for a moment, and then he needed a strong cup of coffee. Time machine? Projector box? Future? Interesting concept but improbable, not likely. It was like a episode of the Twilight Zone. Still, here were the specs, the building plans, and the mathematics seemed stable and probable, though very theoretical. Worst yet, an improbable person was trying to explain it to him…at five hundred words of information a second. He wondered briefly if he should ask him to slow down or wait politely for him to finish then ask him to start over. He would have asked to be pinched and woke from this bizarre dream if only Ginji were not here. If this were a dream, Ginji would have paid the tab.
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Ban glanced back over his shoulder to see -Juubei- walking very close to him. It was annoying. How could Kazuki stand this all the time?
"Why don't you go play with String-boy and co."
"I have to make sure that nothing happens to you." -Juubei- replied as if it were obviously the correct action to take.
I don't need a bodyguard. If you get too close to a snake, you get bit pincushion." Ban cut himself short as they approached one of the entrances to Mugenjou. The door was blown off it's hinges and the metal frame seemed slightly melted, "I guess he went this way."
Shido examined it then looked to the ground for a second, "It's not too old. He's walking."
"Well, let's catch up and tell him it's rude not to knock first."
End Chapter 4
Yeah, I'm going to have fight scenes next chapter I promise.