A/N: Alright, this chapter is as serious as can be. But don't worry, things always turn out well. Opps, i just told you something i didn't include.

Chapter Twenty: "We Have Failed"

Hibiki was able to hear their conversation about the sudden change, for some reason. He knew how to control the dread himself.

"Meia, listen to me. Use your legs and arms to maneuver your dread. If your going to the right than shift your sights there and move your legs in an upward precision. This will cause you to move in that direction. You got that?" he asked. Meia nodded as she tried her hand at the task. Remarkably, her dread responded smoothly to the new controls and to her freakish surprise, she felt like she had done this before.

"Damn. This thing can move, come on Jura." she said. Jura was having a much difficult time with hers. The two prongs that extended in front of her had gotten much longer and couldn't help but panic when it began to tip forward.

"I don't know how to move. Any suggestions Hibiki?" she asked.

"Yeah, use your head." he responded. Jura eyes narrowed.

"Why you little..."

"No, seriously. Your mind can communicate with your controls, think about moving forward and you will move." he said. Jura did just that and bolted forward at an immense speed, not as fast as Meia's but it was fast enough to make your eye's water.

The enemy snapped out of their temporary immobilization and began and all out attack.

"Dita! Let's give 'em hell!" said Hibiki.

"Right" she said.

Hibiki held out his hands out in front of him making the wings of the Nirvana arch forward. Dita stirred the ships's arsenal as they all pointed to different enemy targets. With a mighty thrust of his arms, Hibiki made the ship rocket forward in light speed. The ship sped into the massive crowd of enemies.

"Now Dita!" he said. Dita shut her hands tightly, it caused all of the ships weapons to deploy everything they had.

It happened in less than a second. The ship stopped suddenly, exiting the crowd of enemies. They had hit every single one, Hibiki smirked. And with a snap of his fingers, all 484 waves of enemies were obliterated. All that was left was two elite ships.

"Ready?" he asked turning to Dita. She nodded but lost her breath when her gaze went back to the battle.

"What's wrong?" he asked, Dita pointed behind the two ships to a massive object. It was ten times bigger than the Nirvana and hovered over the battlefield.

"What's that?" she asked.

Meia's face appeared onscreen, alerting Dita to the situation.

"That's the Earth's mother ship! That's their source! That's what we need to take out!" she said. The immense shadow the ship cast covered the Nirvana, it was nearly pitch black. Then Hibiki saw another screen pop in front of him, this one wasn't friendly. It was coming from the harvest. The screen was black and no features of the person talking were visible.

"This... is... last... chance... for... surrender." the wicked voice bellowed.

"Never in your life!" Hibiki retorted. Their was silence.

"Then... you... DIE!" bellowed the voice. The screen disappeared. Immediately, the oval chamber turned a blood red, sirens echoed through its domain. Hibiki's pupils shrunk in size. He knew what they were going to do.

"Meia! Jura! Get out of here! They're going to blow this galaxy out of the universe!" he said. Meia appeared before him.

"What are you talking about?" she said. Dita was immediately alarmed.

"What about our babies?" she said. Hibiki's heart froze and tried to see if anything he did was able to deflect the blast elsewhere. He couldn't move, the ship wasn't responding.

"Damn, they knew about the ship's ability. They placed a dead zone on us." he said.

"That means... we are going to die?" she asked. Hibiki was afraid to say anything. But it was true, if he didn't find anything to do they weren't going to be able to live beyond the next few minutes. Hibiki's eyes shot up to see a timer displayed in front of them.

Remaining Time Left: 4 minutes.

"Meia, what does it look like from out there?" he asked.

"The mother ship opened itself above you. Right now... it looks like... no! It looks like their charging something!" she said. "Don't worry, Jura and I could..."

"NO!" Hibiki interrupted.

"What do you mean 'no'? You're going to die if we don't help." she said.

Hibiki stared down at his feet and sighed.

Remaining Time: 3 minutes 43 seconds.

"You'll just die in the process!" he said. Hibiki held his arms out in front of him in attempts to move the ship but failed.

"Move! Damn you! MOVE!" he screamed. "Dita do something!"

Outside, the enemy ship lowered a massive cannon that was aiming for the Nirvana. This was it, there was no way they could get out of this (even the author was sweating bullets writing this sequence).

"I can't do a thing! AHH! We're losing time!" she said pointing at the timer.

Remaining Time: 3 minutes 1 second(s)

Hibiki panicked, he frantically pushed forward and yet he couldn't get the damn thing to move. Dita was sobbing under her breath, nothing responded to her dire commands.

"Duero, can you do anything up there?" Hibiki asked. No response. Unaware to him, the Nirvana was under a black out.

Remaining Time: 2 minutes 12 seconds

"Hibiki, get out of there!" yelled Meia.

Hibiki stopped trying, he stopped trying to avoid his fate. Dita on the other hand was panicking beyond believe.

"Dita... stop" he said softly. Dita stopped suddenly, her eyes filled the brim with tears.

"What are you talking about? Don't you understand we're going to die?" she asked.

"Forget it. I'm sorry but we failed." he said.

Remaining Time: 1 minute 9 seconds

Dita broke down into a furious cry. She held her arms close to her chest and sobbed. Hibiki hovered over to Dita and picked her up.

"Don't worry, like you said, whatever happens we will always love each other. At least we will die together in each other's arms, right?" he whispered. He embraced her passionately, Dita felt a warm feeling hit her shoulder, he was crying on her shoulder. They knew they couldn't survive this, they knew this was the end. They reached the peak of their lives.

Remaining Time: 0 minutes 25 seconds

The enemy ship roared over them, signaling it was almost ready for an attack.

"Come on! Don't give up!" yelled Meia. She was helpless as she soared around the field, she couldn't get into the dead zone. Her own controls would stop functioning.

"Yeah, you can get through this!" said Jura as she tailed Meia.

Remaining Time: 0 minutes 18 seconds

Dita and Hibiki embraced, they listened to each others breathing was steadily increasing with every second.

Remaining Time: 0 minutes 10 seconds

The cannon was ready, it glowed an evil red.

9 seconds...

"I love you," said Hibiki

8 seconds...

"I love you too" she replied.

7 seconds...

"Move, Hibiki! Come on, don't die on me." whispered Meia.

6 seconds...

The cannon roared, the sound signaled it's charged completion.

5 seconds...

The Nirvana stirred nervously, everyone onboard were quiet.

4 second...

"It just can't end this way..." whispered Hibiki

3 seconds...

"Because, I believe there is a future" he whispered again.

2 seconds left...

Dita and Hibiki gripped each other, feeling the extreme tension between them. They shut their eyes, awaiting their final seconds of life.

1 second left...

"This can't be... I know we have a future" said Dita.

0 seconds...

"WE CAN'T LOSE!" he yelled into the air.

The cannon fired and devoured the Nirvana. The Nirvana was hit directly, obliterating the shields.

The Nirvana... was...