A/N: Please be aware that if you are reading this chapter first, it is part 3/3 chapters published. Please start reading from 'Darkness Approaches', if you don't want to get confused. edit: Seriously, you might wanna start at chapter 12, as it adds more info.
Other then that: I do not own To Love-Ru. Fairly graphic description ahead. You havebeen warned.
Oh and thanks for sticking with my story to its end!
Lunar Orbit
Now
*Cough*
"Is everyone okay?" a Devilukean male asked from the bridge of the ship, the side that had not been cooked in super-dense plasma that had breached the hull. Thankfully for small victories, that the emergency shielding had held up long enough for him to get his bearings. Smutts now looked around, noting the young helmsman was gone, possibly evaporated or tossed out into space, and sadly so too had the Captain, with little more than half of him left beyond the force field, leaving only a handful of people alive on the bridge. "Well, damn," Smutts uttered, taking stock of the three surviving members of the crew on the bridge, "Can anyone tell me the status of the ship, or that station?"
"Sir, the station is- it's gone, sir," someone answered, not looking at any instruments, but rather through the force field, towards the moon, "See for yourself, sir." Smutts did that, turning to look and see a smudge, a smear of wreckage across the faintly reflected surface of the lunar body.
"Huh, I honestly-" he stops, suddenly hit with a coughing fit as he takes in a haggard breath, from the faint, possibly leaking, atmosphere, "-honestly, wasn't expecting -that-" The wreckage on the moon only confirmed his suspicions, as he noted with the failing instruments on the rest of the ship, that the gravity well was still increasing, though its end point seemed to be focused now on the location of the moon itself. "It was never the satellite -cough-," he states, wheezing as he takes the nearest injured crewman, and helps them up, "Whatever it is, it's still coming, and we have to escape and warn the princesses!"
A sudden darkness cast its shadow upon them, a sudden shaking of the ship, like an explosion rocking the hull. "No- no, we're too late; the ship is detecting a micro-wormhole, if it's already casting out this strong of a gravity well, and it isn't even here yet..." Smutts states, looking up to see a bright crimson star suddenly light up the dark of night, growing in magnitude like a bloody slash upon space and time, "It's dragging us in-"
Earth
Yuuki House
"I didn't know- I swear, I didn't know he would ever-" the young woman put her hands to her head, her silver tux discarded, her white blouse barely crumpled as she leans into her hands while sitting on the couch, "-I can't believe he was one of them." The group had redirected itself to the Yuuki house, having abandoned their separate attacks while returning to their respective U.L.T.R.A. regional headquarters, they had been prevented from returning to the Sainan division through warp pads.
It had gone something like this:
"Bullshit, I am one of the senior members of the Sainan Division, assigned to this case by the Director himself," Miss Tsuzuki stated, holding out her personalized ID to the transport officer standing watch, "Director Rochefort gave me permission to use these, even when he wasn't currently-" Before her sentence was even finished, three guards in blacked out armor came rushing in to surround both herself and Nana.
"I'm afraid I can't let you by, 'Deputy-assistant Director' Tsuzuki, if that is your real name..." the transport officer states, "Considering Director Belze Rochefort has been presumed KIA, after his wife Angela, and their adoptive daughter Amane were kidnapped by Eden over seventeen years ago, and he went charging off after them, going rogue." The looks both Nana and Tsuzuki gave each other were genuine, not knowing that they had been so deviously fooled by an imposter. "Beyond that, U.L.T.R.A does not have any division, previously established or new, to teleport you too," he continues, as the three security guards raise their weapons, "Meaning the location of wherever it was you hacked into our system from, wouldn't be in our system at all!"
Tsuzuki was prepared to go with them, disheartened and dismayed, shoulders sagging at this news. Nana, meanwhile, had secretly managed to get a hold of her D-Dial and tapped its sensor three times, to activate the emergency function of the device. When the Giga Wild Boar appeared, it threw the while room into chaos, as the girth of its size alone forced the others away and out the door.
"Gii-Chan, I need you to stay there, while Tsuzuki-sama and I figure out this transport system..."
From there on, it was simply a matter of rerouting it to the Yuuki house, and having the Giga Boar destroy the console before recalling it. Momo had arrived shortly there after, having wrapped up the ones with her vines, and threatening them with her deadly cannon flower.
"Beyond the fact we can't get a hold of Lala or Director Rocheforte, Lala's ship sent Mikado-Sensei some kind of garbled warning, before they went radio silent and wouldn't respond to her calls," Momo responds, taking charge of the situation, "Tsuzuki-san, if the man we believed to be the Director is anything like the face we believed him to be, I can't imagine him doing all of this for no reason; perhaps he was a Gireo infiltrator himself, and only thinks he is the real deal, but until we find him and strangle the answers from him, we can't know for sure..." The mood got dark, real fast, but the threat of this situation was heavy, especially with the fact hanging over their heads, that the deadline for stopping the ancient Dyson Sphere from swallowing up this star system, was drawing to a close.
"What... can we do?" Mikan asks, grasping her mothers hands, her arm wrapped around her shoulder in a comforting embrace, as Mikan speaks up, "Without Onii-san...without Lala...do we have any hope of stopping that man?" Ringo squeezed her daughters hand tightly, as Celine grasped her other hand with her tiny fingers.
"I- I honestly don't know, but we do know the most likely place for them to be at, since we can't get a reading, but that may not be our most pressing matter..." opening her D-Dial, Nana opens up a subprogram that was counting down to zero, from 40 minutes, "The fact is, our Father will be coming to retrieve us, Earth saved or not, in little more than half an hour, giving us plenty of time to save as many as we can, before Earth gets swallowed for... however long the council decided..." She looks up to the faces of her younger sister, to the ex-agent, to her host and her mother, and sighed. "Is it- should we try and save as many people as we can?" Nana states, "There are aliens living on this planet all around us, should we not warn them, when we damn well know that the council didn't; to at least give them a choice, even if we don't have the best one ourselves?" The shocked silence that followed her suggestion hung in the air, and the ashamed princess could only look downwards with tears brimming at her eyes.
"We don't have our sister, we don't know where Smutts or Maul is, Nemesis should have appeared, but she hasn't been by for days, Tearju and Mikado-Sensei haven't heard from Yami-chan, Mea-chi, or Kuro-san in weeks," she continues, trying to hold her voice steady as she talks, "Rito is dead, the Earth is lost, and the Doctor has won...but we can regroup, we can convince those with ships to save as many humans as we can, and then we can take the Earth back, but only if-" A tiny punch, barely a tap, and it was all she need to cause her to stop, as she looked down to see the Tiny form of Celine pounding on her legs. She leaned down, hugging the small child, to stop her, as she broke down in grief and anguish at the stupid, selfish words she had been speaking.
Yet it was Momo who took her words in, and then blinked, as if something had dawned on her. Looking up, a smile growing on her face, she faced her older sister with a crazed expression. "Nana, you're a genius!" she stated, before taking off on a full fledged run towards the stairs, through the living room, and straight into Rito's room, and into his closet. The others followed, and they found Momo among a pile of unfinished and forgotten inventions, hands and knees, searching and sifting through them. "Here!" she cried triumphant, before extracting something that looked like an old, school microphone that would plug into some kind of sound system, "I always new she would have kept this one, after she pulled that prank on the castle." Pulling it out for the others to see, Nana's eyes lit up like a light bulb in understanding her sisters find.
"Is that the Wub Wub Karaoke-kun?" she says, all excited, "I remember that thing- when Dad didn't want us going and spending money on singing that one night, when we wanted to go all out and party, since he had work to do, Lala built that for us instead," she states, taking the box like object, and smiling at it with fond memories, "Only she built it out of a high-powered interplanetary radio transceiver, and managed to accidentally hijack all radio and interplanetary audio communications for four hours, before Dad finally figured out it was us, caterwauling away, unaware our terrible singing voices were being broadcast all across the planet..." Nana looks to Momo, raising a brow in question. "Are you sure you want to do this?" she asks her younger sister, "If we let them know what is going on... we're letting them ALL know."
The hesitation was clear on Momo's face, but she shook her head clear and showed her resolve by slapping her cheeks. "Yes," she responds, "It's the only way...and we might just be able to save this world and its people!"
Shadow Vault
Putting a hand over the coffin of pure obsidian, the reflective surface obscures the alien form within its container, Mason turns to his accomplice in their ruse. "Belze, I need you to prepare the conference room in the upstairs lobby; the 'Doctor' had prepared an interview with various worldwide news agencies, featuring live coverage of a ground breaking nanite technology that was going to revolutionize the wasted resources of this planet," Mason states, folding his hands behind his back as he addresses his underling, "While I prepare the Shadow Vault for contact with Hades, I require you to explain the truth of why we are here, and what the next step in our plan is..." Handing Belze a device with information on it, Mason dismisses the Gireo servant, as the former Chronos Agent looks over the outline of the speech.
"Quite...devious, sir, if I may say so," putting the device in his coat and looking back up at his master, "I am sure I can properly deliver your narrative in the light you require, though I ask how you plan on acquiring such a god-nanite in such a short time- unless, of course, you have recreated the Doctor's work in this world..." Mason smiles, chuckling manically as he strokes his beard.
"No worries, my favorite apprentice," Mason states, as he smiles fondly at the crystal pillars surrounding him, "I believe that in a short time, the answers to all of our problems, the lynchpin to our story, will be arriving...very soon." Chuckling, the man watches as Belze exits the room to go complete his task. "And, if not," he states, focusing on the black casket, "I believe there is one more source I can rely on..."
BREAKING NEWS: 7.1 Earthquake hits North America's West Coast.
Canada Wildfires still blazing.
Flooding and winds threatens areas, as typhoon makes landfall in South China province.
Newspaper clippings featuring natural disasters, both current and past, scroll across the screen of the scientific institutes video screen. The Facility had opened back up after a public health scare, allowing the reporters and TV and international newspaper journalists to flood into the transformed area of the party that was supposed to lead up to the revelation of a groundbreaking new invention. It was here that the fair maiden and Junior Ace Photographer, Akiho Sairenji, found herself dragging her boyfriend slash unpaid intern to attend this as a last minute assignment from her work, after just getting back from paid leave. "I'd rather be taking pictures of hot guys and bikini clad cuties for our magazine's summer issues; not covering some lame science expo," Akiho grumbled to herself, while her boyfriend/unpaid intern tried to sooth her growing impatience.
"Now now, we are going to be here for a couple of days," Yuu stated, smiling while trying to console his pouting photographer, "You know the Chief wouldn't have asked you to go, if his regular wasn't busy with her side work." The purple haired adult blew a stray hair out of her bangs in annoyance at that reminder.
"Stupid Otome, disappearing at all hours of the day, just cause her little brother needs help running that stupid cake shop..." she pouts, salivating at the memory of the cake, "Surrounded by all that delicious...yummy...succulent cake..." Sighing as his girlfriend gets lost in her daydreams and imaginings, he takes his own camera and snaps a few photos of the various attendees, just as the lights were lowered, and spotlights focused on the stage.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the joint research division here at this facility, partnering with many of the fine eco organizations around this world, are proud to welcome you this evening, to a night of wonder and discovery!" Akiho realized the man from the stage was not the Doctor Kousuke she had come here to photograph, nor did he appear to be a member of the facility, from her pre-check on the flight, so she watches him as he talks, "This investment into a new nanotechnology has been fundamentally vital to instituting vital changes across, not only this facility, but around the world!" He continues to gloat, explaining things in boring technical term as they continue, but Akiho tunes this all out, as she waits for the stuff she is paid to take photos of to appear.
"Now, we are aware you were expecting Doctor Kousuke to appear here tonight, I am afraid that he won't be able to make it, do to...pressing matters of another research subject." The rumors and mutterings that follow, almost draw her attention, but she knows better than to jump the gun, and waits for him to continue. "As you no doubt understand, this facility is one of three spread across the North Atlantic, with our joint goal being the resolution of a problem that has currently plagued this modern world for far too long:" he states with much more false enthusiasm then she could ever think possible, "Wasted resources!" The crickets were followed by a stale cough, and an unimpressed reaction from the crowd, most of whom were looking for a juicy spin and to spread gossip about the elusive Doctor Kirisaki Kousuke.
"I know, I know," he states, raising his hands, to placate the crowd, "It doesn't sound interesting, but think about this: with how much plastic waste is in the Sargasso Sea alone, are you aware how much of it can be broken down, re-purposed, to serve a more fulfilling use, than just killing the local, vital, and extremely delicate, aquatic ecosystem?" The murmurs were a bit more, and even Akiho was getting a bit interested, if what he stated had any merit behind the so far empty words. "I promise you, before the night is through, you all see exactly what it is that we have planned that will, frankly, change the face of the world!" the silver haired man smiles, his slicked back, long hair giving him a debonair, suave mix that would have made any normal lady swoon at his charms, "For now, I would like you all to take your eyes to the sky, as we prepare to show you the first of what will be the most earth shaking developments of the night... ladies and gentlemen, we are not alone!"
As the roof above them splits open, to reveal a clear blue sky, the sunset slowly lowering into the horizon. A single, glass frame remains suspended on what appears to be something of a gyroscopic track, with the clear view of the sky being enlarged within its frame for everyone to see. A small shimmer is seen at first, barely noticeable, until it begins to grow, and the gyroscope moves to follow its track. Though not clear at first, the visible sparks of atmosphere trying to burn it away diminish, until a form, a space ship, is seen in the view. Many of the photographers quickly take pictures of the device while it is as still as can be, while tracking the falling object, which is definitely no satellite or simple chunk of debris. "Many of you can see the ship, for what it is, entering the atmosphere, almost undetected as it hides itself as a piece of meteorite, or other debris," the man announces, as if the subject of an alien craft wasn't strange to him, "For years, while humans have been concerned about their terrestrial borders, many alien beings have come to lay claim to Earth in secret, infiltrating your world, until enough of an invasion force could overpopulate your nations, throwing the world into anarchy!"
By now, many of the international news organizations had begun live coverage, no doubt broadcasting the footage across the world, along with the mans words. "I have seen no conqueror greater than one, the one who has sent these alien vessels scurrying to our world," the man states, with much enthusiasm, and hatred in his seething words, "Gid, Gid Lucione Deviluke, a madman, a conquering despot, who believes worlds like Earth should be handed to him on a silver spoon." He points up to the shifting magnifier, as the ship grows ever closer to the ground in its decent. "Good people of Earth, I declare to you this day: No more!" with a pounding of his fist,the anvil of justice descended from the sky, mirroring his motion. A beam of light pierced the clouds, the darkening sky turned a brilliant white with a flash, as an unmistakable arc of energy crashed through the ship on screen, reducing it to smithereens as the world watched in awe.
Akiho had the opposite effect in her head, a growing horror as she realized that the name of said conqueror, was suspiciously similar to the brilliant, kind, and eager alien girl that had become her younger sisters best friend at school, beyond her human friends. Whose known whereabouts were supposed to be Sainan High School, and a boys house, whom her sister at one time had had a crush on. The man must have been wrong, as Lala could have not been a more polarizing individual, compared to an alien infiltrator.
"But this work could not have happened from mankind alone, no, not without help of the very aliens whom had tried to conquer us, this very day!" the man pulled back, pointing to the screen, which then replayed the conversation between the Doctor, in reality Mason, and Torneo Rudman, albeit heavily edited to make it seem like Mason had been warning off the very man, whose weapon they had painted as 'taking control of', although no one present would have known of such a conversation. And so it was with Akiho, as she turned to Yuu, who had long since dropped his camera, to turn to his girlfriend.
"And this, this was only the first of many 'secret invasions' that have occurred over the years," the man continued, "The seized alien weapon, is merely one weapon of defense we will be turning over to the United Nations, as a sign of good faith, but it is the first of the many revelations we have planned for you tonight...at the end, it may just shatter your expectations of our place in the universe!" With a malevolent glint in his eye, Belze smiled as his captured audience recorded him for the posterity of the future of the human race, as it took its first steps towards understanding. No matter how short that future really was.
Mikado's Clinic
"Can you believe that?" Ryoko states, silencing the television, which was playing a recap of the events interpreted by the late night news anchors, broadcasting it live on practically every station, "Years of work, of peace, and isolation, all undone in a single night; and we wonder why the GPD is only doing this to humanity, now of all times?" Ryoko was surprised when she realized that the exposure of alien life living on outside a planet wasn't exactly a new idea, but when the world began painting aliens as invaders, she knew the darkest thoughts and ugly imaginings of the world of science fiction, would paint over the brightest hopes and dreams the reality of it actually pictured. Had they mentioned that the King had actually threatened Earth, and left peacefully, then perhaps it would have been different,but she recognized fear mongering and manipulation of the masses amongst any world as the thing it really was: pride, ugly and vain as it was in its truth.
"Yes, Sensei, it is definitely disturbing," Oshizu nodded, as she fearfully watched the muted television, "I thought the old style of politics were bad enough, but this manipulation of the people's fears, has seemingly grown even worse in this time." The nurses assistant clasped her hands together, in a trite gesture. "I pray that Lala is alright, and that Nana and Momo manage to spread even an ounce the truth!"
"If an ounce of truth is a vaccine to the lies and hatred, this patient might already be septic, and we'd be better to cut our losses and amputate," The words of Mikado were nothing but cold and cruel logic, having not been unfamiliar with prejudices and the very same bigotry while out there among the stars, "If I weren't so attached to this place, so needed here, I would likely leave...but I can't abandon you, or the hope that the girls can't keep this world from falling into the darkness and despair!"
Princess' Attic Space
"Are you ready?" Nana asked, hooking up the final connections into the worldwide satellite system, and ensuring the device was ready to be turned on. Momo nodded, and so it was Nana, along with Mikan, whom waited with baited breath as she turned the Wub Wub Karaoke-Kun on.
"H-Hello?" Momo states into the mike, as the screens of televisions all over the world suddenly halted. Mikan heard a burst of static from her phone, before looking down to see it replaced with an unusual box that showed the waving lines indicating sound waves were being broadcast over the air. "People of Earth, I know this may seem strange, frightening even," she starts, as she looks to Nana for encouragement, who shoos her on, "-I am aware that a star ship, an abandoned vessel, has fallen into orbit, but I assure you, this is not an act necessitating hostilities..." She hesitates, taking a deep breath before continuing. "I am Momo Belit Deviluke, Third born Princess, and heir to the throne of Gid Lucione Deviluke, the so-called conqueror that supposedly sent that ship to 'invade' your world," she states, "But there is no reason to... I and my sisters, my elder twin Nana, and I have even made human friends, and my eldest sister, set to inherit the throne, is to be wed to a human boy named Rito Yuuki; they love each other so much, he was the one who convinced my Father to leave Earth alone!"
She pauses, as Mikan then takes the microphone from her. "It's true, Rito is my brother, my name is Mikan Yuuki, and I live in the city of Sainan, in Japan, and I have watched my idiotic older brother grow from someone almost shameless, into an onii-chan I can depend on..." she states, as her voice slightly breaks knowing he wasn't there, "He- he loves the Earth, he fought against impossible odds to beat the King of Deviluke, and he's made plenty of alien friends, real friends, more than I ever thought he could! And they helped him all save the Earth too, because the Earth is their home, and they just want to be left along in peace!" Momo took the microphone back, as Nana hooked her D-Dial into the Karaoke machine, and began to play video footage she had recorded in secret of the day Rito won the race. A sudden commotion could be heard from the teleporter, but it settled down with the arrival of Ringo and another she was supporting.
"I'm sure most of you can see it now, but what should be showing up on your screens is actual video footage of my Father's flagship, when it came to Earth only a couple of years back," Momo states, as it shows Rito, as he dodges her vines, only to be helped out Mikado and everyone else, "Mikado-Sensei, she may look human, but she's an alien Doctor, whose goal in life is making sure all of her patients, alien or human, are well cared for, and manage to live fulfilling lives!" It cuts to Rito, as he barely makes it in time to hit the button, encouraged by all his friends, until it shows him being brought up to the ship, and then the ship leaving after a bright flash of light. "Most of you weren't aware of this event, because my sister, Lala, loved Rito so much she couldn't bare forcing him into a marriage while he wanted to live out the rest of his school life with his friends; so she erased everyone's memories of herself, of our father ever being there, and managed to win his love all over again," Momo states, as the video ends, "Father promised us that as long as Rito marries Lala, the Earth is under no ones domain, and eventually you all would have benefited from our technology, with Rito becoming the first Human Emperor of Deviluke and Earth...but the way things are going now, the Earth is never going to get that chance to grow!" Maul has appeared, a bit battered and bruised, and hands Nana something for her to take.
The words resonate across the world, and their reaction to these words vary, though it goes unseen. "A radical group of our Galactic Police Department, has scheduled your world for isolation through the use of an ancient technology, what you would call a Dyson Sphere, because of the fact an alien terrorist group has embedded itself within Earth; with Doctor Kirisaki Kousuke, and Belze Rochefort, at its heart!" Momo makes the announcement, and its implications resound across the world, "That weapon he just displayed, it isn't a planetary defense, its an outright act of aggression; we've spoken up, because we can show you how they really acquired it!" Nana pushes play on another audio and video file, this one hijacked directly via a shuttle Maul had taken out before he was able to return to Smutts and the others onboard the ship.
The video shows the Devilukean ship on the border of the far side of the moon, sitting where it couldn't be seen. Suddenly a tear in space, and the satellite and its weapon folds into view. After an initial blast that cuts out the video for a moment, as the arcing beam rushes past and shears off a side of the ship, the audio continues, until video is reestablished.
"Doctor, should you not be trembling at the devastating power just one blast of my mighty weaponry caused," a voice states smugly, to taunt someone else, "Why is it you seem so confident in your security, you pitiful fool?"
"Oh, no, I am quite grateful to you Torneo, for taking care of one more problem for me in the long run; it would have been harder to stop them without you, though, I shall make that gratitude clear," a voice who is assumed to be the Doctor states, though it is unknown why he sounds so smug, "But... you forget, whom it was that suggested, who approved, and dare I say it, installed that pretty little weapon you have in your arsenal?" Unseen, the satellite suddenly went dark, before suddenly turning upright and staying there. "I must say, you played your part well, just as Keize had his uses, I will remember that you had a part to lay in my rise to power in this universe-" It breaks off into static at that point, but the aftereffects are clearly seen, as the weapon suddenly plunges into the moon, in all its sickening glory, before video also scrambles into static.
"I know this is a lot to take in, but I wanted to let you all know the truth, before humankind gives into their worst fears, their secret desires, the apocalyptic fervor we all know is shown so frequently in your movies and television programs," Nana states, taking over for Momo, "Don't give in, don't lose hope, don't think this is the end of the world..." Nanatrails off, gathering her courage while giving time to let her words sink into all those listening and watching. "We've come out tonight, not because of fear of being found out, but because we are all running out of time to do something!" she states with as much urgency as she can muster, while keeping her voice level as possible, "We've called out, not to defend ourselves, but to send out an SOS, a call-to-arms, as the Princess' of Deviluke, as inhabitants of Earth, we call out to all that can hear, to all that can do something, anything!" She connects her D-Dial to the device, allowing it access to her Camera, where she records herself, Momo, Mikan, Celine, and even Ringo in the background, "Human and alien alike, whomever is listening, get whatever ships you can, your friends, your neighbors, whomever is willing to go, and meet us in lunar orbit so we can take out that blasted weapon and end this stupid interference from those senseless bureaucrats who don't live here, who really don't understand what is is to be human; who don't understand what it is like to live freely on such an accepting world as Earth." Momo hugs her sister in the video, Mikan, who is holding Celine, grabs her hand and fits both of them into the small video frame.
"To anyone who can hear this message, this is the plea of the twin princesses of Deviluke-"
"And the plea of Mikan and Celine Yuuki!"
"-We ask of you all: despite our differences, despite our Father's measures in uniting this universe, anyone on Earth, or the surrounding star systems, help us save this planet, help us save the Earth!" Momo now states; pleading as she stares into the camera, "This world has become our home, and if you cannot stay and fight, if you cannot say this wonderful place has become your home..." Momo looks over to her sister, to Mikan and even little Celine, lowering her head as she speaks. "Please, do not let our fight go unnoticed; go to your peoples governments, go to the union council and plead our case!" she says all of this, defiantly looking up at the camera now, "Kirisaki Kousuke, Solgam, whomever you are, know that even if this planet is locked away, even if you say you aren't a threat to this world, I-we, will find you, hunt you down to the ends of this world and take everything back the future you took; not only from us, but all of those that call Earth their home!"
\\\ Earth \\\
\\\ Ten Years From Now \\\
"Mom, mom, what did you do?" Ichigo asked, her bright, young eyes a double for her own, shining up at her mother's face, all pretense of sleep forgotten amidst the excitement of the story, "If the bad guy caught you, how did you escape... did Dad rescue you?" Uwe laughed, chucking a pillow at her cousin's overactive response to the pause in the flow of the story.
"Come on, kid, she can't get to the good part of the story if you keep interrupting her, you little rugrat!" the older cousin states, grabbing her from her Lala's lap to tickle her and free her aunt from being trapped beneath her own child. A sudden knocking at the door, and Lala looked up to see the golden tresses of one of her oldest friends, who had been assigned to protect her on the trip back to Earth. "Hey, let's you an me go raid the fridge before the cook comes in," Uwe states to Ichigo, before leading the smaller child out of the room, despite her protests, "It seems the adults need to chat." After leaving the room, Yami took Uwe's spot, staring across to Lala.
"Yami-Chan, is something the matter?" the Queen of Deviluke asks her most trusted friend and confidant, "Has something come up; does it require us to meet back up with Rito?or is it..." The golden haired TRANS Weapon merely folded her hands in her lap and stared at the queen.
"Lala Satalin Deviluke- I, am afraid..." she suddenly confesses, much to Lala's surprise at the use of her full name, without its proper title attached, "I cannot keep this connection open for long, or else Adam will notice." The confusion of the queen only grew, until Yami started to talk once more. "Princess, I am not in control of my actions, and soon Darkness will take full control from me," Yami continues, reaching out to grab Lala's hand and squeeze them together, "Please... please, protect my sister, don't let her become that monster again... she called out for help; I failed, but maybe you can still protect her." Lala noticed something odd, something sleek and red around her friends neck, but then it was gone, and for the briefest of moments she recoiled upon seeing something scarlet snake down her friends arm. She tried to free her grip from Yami, but the scarlet circuitry was too fast, spreading to each of her fingertips, before recollecting itself together at her wrist, and wrapping itself fast in a single band of red.
"Golden Darkness, explain to me what that was, and what-" her complaint was hushed by her friends sudden covering of her mouth, as Uwe and Ichigo walk back into the room, "Hmmph-" Uwe laughed at something Ichigo had just said, and Yami pulled her hand away and got up, as if to leave.
"Are you going already, auntie?" Ichigo asked, cocking her head and pouting as she did so. The TRANS Weapon merely nodded, remaining mute as she smiled and left, as if nothing were wrong at all.
"What was that all about?" Uwe asked, looking back as she sat back down next to Lala, with her cousin squeezing in between them both, holding a dish of gourmand ice cream, dark matter flavored. Uwe offered a bowl to Lala, who took it with a bit of hesitation.
"I don't know," Lala stated honestly, wondering what that was all about, "I think it was really odd..." Bringing a silver spoonful of the dark matter flavored treat to her mouth, she had the unfortunate luck of having the event playing over again in her mind, and absently looked down at the black, oozing ice cream. Lala swore as she took to close a look at her spoon, as the sudden flash of a golden eye appeared to be floating in the black ooze, and she nearly screamed as she dropped the contents of her utensil back into the bowl. As if the horror movie effect on her spoon wasn't enough, staring along with a matching eye inside the bowl, was a misshapen and malformed attempt at a mouth that seemed to be screaming up at her in horror in imitation of some muck monster, or swamp ghoul.
"No- no, I always wanted a daughter named Ichigo, I thought Uwe would have -no-" Lala suddenly began muttering, as if realizing something for the first time, "Golden eyes, dark matter..." The look from Uwe was one of surprise at her aunts screams, but the mask of terror on Ichigo was enough to confirm her suspicions. "What have you done to Nemesis... where am I?" taking the bowl in hand and swatting the other two out of her daughter and niece's hands, "Who are you both, really, and what kind of sick joke is this?" Stepping up off of the bed and turning around to face the two children, she takes her spoon and points it back out at both of the girls.
"Honestly, I'm glad you figured it out so fast, it was getting a bit hard to stay composed," Uwe suddenly stated, going to get up from the bed, black veins suddenly spider webbing their way across her face, "You left us behind to die...you never even bothered to try and save my father, as I shot him down!" Veins turned to cracks, as pieces of skin fell away like porcelain, leaving an empty void of inky black beneath her skin, where blood and bone and sinew should be. "I have so much hatred and anger..." she starts to say, before Ichigo jumps into action, clamping onto Uwe's arm and pulling her back.
"No, this isn't you, this isn't what I wanted!" the girl suddenly cries out, as the older girl swats her back, causing her to fall hard and hit the edge of the bed, "OW!" Lala's own maternal instincts, false as they may be, wanted to step in and check on the girl that wasn't really her daughter, but Uwe appeared to have other plans.
"I don't care anymore, we're too late anyway, Hades has come to Earth," Uwe states, as she lunges and grabs Lala by the straps of her nightgown, "We kill her, and the Doctor loses two universes worth of genius, all in one package!" Lala wants to resist, to figure out what the hell is going on, but the fact is she can't speak, waves of terror crashing over her as the child she had thought had been erased by the change in the timeline, had come back as some temporal wraith, all to seek some misguided revenge.
"NO!" the young child states, getting up from the floor and lunging at the older girls center of gravity, her bust, "If there is any chance to get your father back, we need her to help find him!" The girls succeeds in knocking her over, taking all three of them to the ground, and it was there as Lala was getting back up, that she noticed something different about the little girl. She was no longer little, rather she appeared to be about the size of herself, if she had been still in her preteens, like when she had lost most of her power after facing down Darkness.
"You- you're like me?" Lala poses it in rhetoric, but the child tears up as she looks up at her.
"No, Lala, you're like me..." the girl responds.
Lala knows that the child isn't making any sense, but the sudden realization as she looks at the child closer, she realizes that instead of black cracks forming, like Uwe, the area around the girls heart was exposed, revealing a cracked and piecemeal organ that seemed to be slowly flaking apart.
"I know this won't make much sense, but I was you, the last of the remnants of the true you, before the Doctor, or Mason, I can't really remember..." she goes off on a tangent, before shaking her head and getting back to the main issue, "Anyway, he tried to take us and cut away all our feelings for Rito out, childlike innocence and all, and make us kill him... that feels like forever ago, now that I think back." The fuzzy memories of the Earth from the moon, of screaming, of pain, come flooding back to her as she keeps speaking. "He decided he wanted our body, too, for some grand experiment, but he had to distract Rito long enough because he would have kept getting in the way, so he split us into two halves, keeping me in his grip, while sending you, a shadow of myself, out instead," the younger Lala states, beaming up at the older Lala as she continues to speak, "Except he fought his way across the universe for us, with Mason faking our death as an stopgap to keep Rito confused, except Rito managed to get us to come to our senses, and using the power of the Pearls, which were still under our control, we tried to go home..."
"But with you and I split, it wasn't enough, was it?" Lala stated, as the younger one looks up at her, tears in her eyes as she nods, "Infinite power, but only half a compass; so part of me got left behind..."
"Right," she states, as she walks closer to put a hand on Lala's chest, where her heart would be, "So with the other half of our pearl in his hands, he...he..."
"We've never left the world inside the Pearl," Lala finishes, as she puts her hand over the younger Lala's, "And now he believes he has all of us..." The touch of the younger Lala began to burn, as the exposed heart began to throb, until it broke apart in a shimmer of red, along with her child form, having finally found its other half as it suddenly begins to be absorbed back inside her newly reunited body.
"Mason believes he has won." Lala states, as she looks at a cowed Uwe, whom had fallen silent at this revelation, "Let us see if we can't surprise him even more..."
Have you ever heard of the five-minute hypothesis? Sometimes called Last Thursdayism, it postulates that the divine creator created this world in the blink of an eye, fully formed, full of life and everything to necessitate its continuation, but that false evidence was introduced to make everything appear as if it always existed. You and I could have been created last Thursday, but to us, we've held rich, long lives, full of experiences we believe to be real, to have happened...
"-We will find you-" these words were barely heard, as Lala started to come around, having fallen asleep in the mind numbing darkness of that insulated capsule she had been placed into. She was still, unfortunately, strapped into said device, but at least the cover had been removed, and the bright, sterile lighting was illuminating her and her surroundings. She couldn't help but see the smug face of the man in gray, Kirisaki, Zero, or Mason, or whatever he called himself, standing there, watching the television feed being piped into the screen.
But the begs the question...
'Who created this world?'
"It's all quite hopeless, their little resistance," Mason states, looking over to Lala, who was trapped and restrained, "Your sisters are quite persistent, even despite the little charade we pulled to get you all split up, they managed to pull together for one last hurrah." He chuckled, a sardonic laugh full of ridicule, as he put his hands behind his back. "Unfortunately Torneo's satellite is little more than a distraction now, I only needed it to stir up the pot, get people antsy and nervous, so all those negative emotions get bubbling up in the chaotic maelstrom of overreaction," Mason states, as he sighs just audibly enough to confuse her, "You see, Princess Lala, humanity is not at the top, or at the very least, not the best version of itself... but that will all change, very soon, indeed." Taking a remote from his pocket, he switches the feed off, and reveals a wall, filled with technical schematics and various drawings that Lala couldn't even begin to understand, especially not while strapped into this infernal machine.
And, inevitably...
"You see, I needed a little bit of something from you all," Mason states, turning to Lala, "Yui Kotegawa's moral sense, Haruna Sairenji's personality traits, her meekness, shyness, her...kindness; even your physical parameters, which I received from an agent within the Devil's Playground, they were all parts of something I wanted to use to build a better, well, you." He rubbed his chin, chuckling as he does so, turning away towards the schematics. "While I would have preferred to capture and dissect Rito, with all the anomalous readings he had been giving off, your body is already physically perfect in every way; capturing you actually rendered the clone body I had prepared unnecessary, so all I have to do is offload the anomalous personality hiccup in your template, and I can have my lovely little Lala Lillia back under my thumb." Lala recoiled at his words, confusion sweeping through her mind, as she tried to process his words.
'Am I real?'
Her heart was beating fast, too fast for her liking, as Mason drew closer, taking his hand and drawing it towards her face. "Let me show you what I mean," he states, as he slowly drags his hand over her cheek, before pinching into soft flesh, and digging fingers and nails into her cheek, until he pulls it away in one bloody chunky.
Hell if I know the answer to either.
Oh, wait...
Except there was no blood, no dangling flesh from her cheek, just something smooth, jagged all around like some kind of puzzle piece, and altogether unnatural. Taking a mirror from his forgotten implements, he brought it up to her face so she could see what he had done to her. Lala stared up into the missing chunk, noticing a perfectly matching gap in her face to the smooth lump of flesh he held in her sight. What was beneath her skin was nothing. No muscle or bone, no bloody veins, just emptiness and shadows. Like all she was, was an empty husk, a shadow of her true self.
I CAN answer that first one.
'What am I?' she thought.
"What am I?" she voiced, "Who am I?"
"Who did this?" she cried, "Am I even real?"
"It was me." Mason stated. He grinned as he then went back to his work.
Planetary Orbit
Royal Memorzean Transport
In the space of such little time, the two princesses had done the impossible. Riding in Run and Ren's spaceship, with Ren giving them the keys to it while his sister was out and about in her idol career and he sat by Haruna's bedside, Momo and Nana had quickly gathered a fleet of over thirty nine various ships. Some were insignificant transports, freighters refugees had outfitted with the basic protective weaponry, and even ships from the enemies of Deviluke joined in, adding some fighting power to their attack fleet.
"Alright everyone, we'll send a few ships to the moon to take care of the laser cannon," Nana stated, taking the lead with her sister Momo behind her, "The rest of us, we will head to the edge of the solar system, to intercept the sphere before it reaches Earth." She looks upon the faces of the aliens that were part of the small fleet, and realized that most of them were fairly simple folk, who had very little part in any kind of battles. "Do we have any questions about what we are going to do?" she asks.
"I have one, Nana-dono," a small, older looking alien, whom had introduced himself as Shikura, speaks up, "Do we expect the GPD to give up their encapsulation of the Earth, to such a small fleet as this?" The words were murmured around the entire communications channel, as both Nana and Momo realized that any drop in morale could cause this temporary alliance to crack.
"We know it's not likely, but we have to try!" Momo stated, deciding not to hide the truth from them about their odds, "Our father was trying to get one last word in, but there is a slim chance in him directly changing their minds; by showing our defiance, though, we can try and deter them from completing their objective, stalling them at the very least..."
"And, if worst comes to worse..." Nana states, looking up at the men and women and non-gendered aliens shown onscreen, "Those who don't want to stay...we authorize their retreat into known space; our youngest sister will return to Deviluke, if necessary; Lala...Lala and I have decided to remain on Earth, to help fight from the inside, if it comes down to it." The lie was ashy on her tongue, and Momo's surprise almost showed on her face at that sudden declaration, but Nana had made her mind up. She would find Lala, and help continue the fight from the inside, but one of them would have to return home, to inherit the throne. At that, she was going to give the order to begin the advance, when a sudden spike in gravity and the sudden appearance of multiple ships folding out of warp, drew both princesses attention.
"That's Dad's flagship!" Momo cried out, noticing it flanked by a few Deviluke ships, and a small majority of GPD escorts, "He must have convinced the council to let Earth go!" It wasn't seven seconds after her utterance, that the first volley of attacks from the flagship went out, striking a civilian transport in range, and blowing it up to smithereens. Opening up a channel to the flagship, Momo quickly tried to figure out what made him do such a crazy thing.
"Dad, Dad, it's us, Momo, Nana; these ships are under our protection, they aren't hostile!" Momo cries out, as she opens up a secondary channel to the rest of her small fleet, "Break formation, civilian transports should return to the surface if you can; I'm trying to contact our father to figure out what screw is loose this time!" After that, a break in the formation occurred, as several smaller transports and frigates returned to the surface, leaving the Memorzean ship, Shikura's vessel, and a few other armed vessels.
"Father, this is Nana Astar Deviluke, I demand you cease fire on the retreating civilians, and explain yourself before we get angry!" her bluff was met with silence at first, until the screen opened up to receive video feed from her father's ship. On screen, he looked the same as ever, but his eyes, Nana noticed, were far from the warmth he usually showed them.
"This is King Gid Lucione Deviluke, Emperor of five galaxies, undisputed warlord, and Earth's time has come," he responds coldly, mechanically, "Return to your homes, evacuate this planetary system and leave me to my work- the Earth is to be sealed away, with no exceptions." The video was cut after his proclamation, but something just didn't add up to either of his daughters. But before they could voice their concerns to the remainder of the fleet, over half their number folded away, entering the warp to return to known space.
Momo kept herself from commenting on their cowardice, but the self preservation instinct was-
An explosion, then another, as noticeable light shows appeared from the dark just a bit beyond her father's own fleet. Brilliant red crosses of light, lit up the shadows like exploding stars. The shockwave rolled by and it was with growing horror that both Nana and Momo came to the same sickening conclusion.
Darkness had arrived.
Encapsulating the surrounding area in a cloak of darkness, leaving tiny bits of filtered light that mimicked the stars, the Dyson Sphere had already long since surrounded the planet, cutting off all escape.
And it did not come alone.
They were too late.
Shadow Vault
Ten crystals resonated in the hilly recreation, one having been fully destroyed to fulfill its true purpose, a second left intact upon their original resting grounds, to ensure the bridge between the two sites would connect. It was here that Mason found himself staring at the false image of the planetoid he had created sat in the sky, where too thereupon the recreation of his original home, for untold eons, now rested, its visage restored once more around its home star.
"It's beautiful," Mason said while looking up at the sky, just to the side of the pale moon, "And soon it will open the way for mankind to become the pinnacle species, in this and any universe that follows!" Joy renewed, he returned his gaze to the obsidian coffin, excitingly picking away another piece of his masterwork, placing it among a few dozen pieces he had already methodically placed so he could return it to its full glory, once his job was done. Using the knowledge of the twisted scientist and doctor, he returned to the delicate operation he had been undertaking, calling upon all the skills of a dead man, replicating his vast talent for use by a man who was practically talent less in the field of medical knowledge.
On a slab of black that was his easel, Lala was his subject of dissection. Left eye socket removed, her lower jaw partially removed with her tongue, rendering her mute, her breastbone cracked open, too clean, to expose an impossible, beating red heart among an empty black void. Lala sat in silent agony, having been turned into a science experiment.
She could still feel every piece of her body lying there at the table side; in fact she could still see out of her left eye, which had been positioned so obviously, he might have replicated the psychopaths mind too well, all in a way so she could watch him work on her body from an outsiders perspective. No doubt in her mind, it was the black coffin that had done this to her, changed her bodies structure so she was a living imitation of some porcelain doll, broken down, only to be glued back together. She could see her beating heart so clearly from a nauseating perspective.
"So strange, no wonder you seem to be going off script, you have grown yourself a heart," Mason states, as he takes to removing yet another rib from her chest, so as to get to the heart of the matter, "You're just a shadow, a shade of the real thing, yet here you have a real, live, beating heart inside of you, hollow girl." He peels more skin away, the bloodless tissue more like papier-mâché than real flesh. "Such an interesting heart, so full of love," he noted, as he removed the last rib obstructing his progress, so he could remove her heart for closer study, "I wonder how you got it..." Taking the heart, gently at first, he squeezes it slightly, as he tries to pull the slippery thing from her empty chest cavity.
'It hurts,' she thinks to herself, 'So hot...feels so wrong, why can't you stop-' As if in response to her mind, the heart begins to tighten, her breathing gets dizzy despite the obvious metaphorical and literal changes to her body.
Despite the pain from the tugging, Lala realizes something that Mason cannot: her heart isn't budging. "Hmm," he hums in annoyance, as he takes a closer look at the beating organ, "Strange... why does this seem to be segmented..."
As if by some sort of odd magic her heart actually unravels itself, released like a spring toy, and what appeared to be one whole muscle, revealed itself to be a bright red surprise. Her heart was one big, red string, and despite it small size, it explode upwards and out of her chest in loops and whorls that seem to reach up into the sky, and fluttering back into her chest in one chaotic symphony. Seeing it for herself, she noticed one crucial detail that wasn't obvious with it all swirling and whirling in the air, like it was trying to protect itself: It seemed to be unevenly frayed at one end of a single piece of the string. One half was short, barely an inch, the other seemed to be cut at five or more inches. The longer she stared at it, the more familiar it became, as if she had seen it once before, in a dream. And it seemed that this dream knew more than she did about her missing better half; as the waves of pain and heat finally resonate with her understanding as she places it among an aspect of love: heartache. It seemed the red sting that had bound her to Rito, was just chalk full of surprises.
'Rito,' she thought to herself, 'I can still feel your love...'
*****
To Be Continued
Welp, that's it. I also do not own 'Don't Forget', which is owned under the Deltarune/Toby Fox label, featuring Laura Shigihara as the singer.
I think it's time to move on to another story for me.
Hope you enjoyed my wild ride.
Please don't forget to leave a review, or else I can't improve my writing. (;P)
Favorite and follow if you wish!
And as always...
Have a fun and successful rest of 2019!
What? You don't believe this is the end?
Really?
Really?
Really, really?
V
Continued...
Somewhere
How long had he been here?
[-as her heart swelled-]
Ten years?
minutes?
days?
[-and would rescue her from the darkness,-]
It all blended together for him now.
All that was and all that is and all that could be.
It was so white, so much lIgHt,
ALL THE LIGHT
But he was
NoWhErE
EVeRyWhErE
But HE couldn't be...
He was wanted to be DEAD
But you are dead?
You entered a black hole
Or are you exiting a white hole?
[-knowing her beloved would survive-]
He was crazy, after all the voices were speaking to him now too...
Angels?
Devils?
Not god, he knew that much...
He would have ended this torture with sweet, sweet oblivion...
Do you really want to die?
The light burns even when he closes his eyes and covers them with his hands...
He used to create black light, but even that had turned golden in this holy inferno.
The mind sees what it wants to see, Rito. Are you sure you've been swallowed up by the light,
and not the dark?
No, no,of course not, that would be CrAzY...
[-whatever trial came upon him,-]
He WaSn'T iNsAnE
I can help you, find the place where you belong
If you want to escape the dark
Only if you want, though, and even then the choice is yours
Choice? Mine?
Yes
Yes,
YES, PLEASE!
[-with burning passion-]
Anything but the DARK!
Endless, cold...
Nothing could be so maddening!
Days?
minutes?
hours?
So dark, he couldn't see anything...
Couldn't feel anything...
[-'I can still feel-]
Worse[-r-]
How long had he been there?
He would choose to go...
Anywhere else...
In the endless dark, a stark white page fluttered before his very eyes, and Rito opened his eyes to see a near blank page before him, as it began to fill with words:
Unknown Time
Unknown Place
A black journal, bone-white paper filled with graphite dust, etchings of ink, colored black and blue, and every color of the rainbow. "The days will come, when I will not be able to save this world," a figure cloaked in black states, staring around at the wooded, hilly area, where their journey had long ago started, "This is my record, my story, so that my sacrifice for you all may not be forgotten." Finishing his words, he closed the journal and turned to face her, in silent scorn. "I'm sorry, my princess, but it seems that I can't join you yet..." he states, bending down to set the heavy words he had written upon the forest floor, "My story is nearing its end, though,and I shall soon join you, after one last task..." Leaving the unmarked grave, with the last paper watchmen standing guard from the shadows, he turned back to head into the small valley. Walking back to the parched rock face, where once clear water flowed; back to the place where it all began, and where his story must end.
A waterfall, a hags old, crumbling house, the broken ground where he first beat his former brother in arms. A tunnel, darkness, mustiness, a mirror that showed only the truth of your heart, and the memories of a girl whose resolve was forged by this blasted, cursed object. Drawing his sword, the one that was not his but the other's, he knew what had to be done, if this world was to be saved, its peoples knowledge and sacrifices not forgotten in vain. Muttering to himself, the mirror came to life before him, and began to bubble, even warp in odd angles, as he watched it rend underneath his control.
"No...you can't," a voice from beyond the mirror stated, as the face takes shape in the mirror, from the world beyond, "I didn't have the power to change- why, why do you think you can...traitor?" The voice was merely an echo, of a man he had killed in another world, a haunting specter of doubt he clung to, balancing that sole, rational part of his mind that told him he would fail while trying to accomplish this.
"It doesn't matter anymore, nothing you can say, or do, will change my mind, old friend," he stated, taking the sword he had prepared, and weighing it in his hand, "Though, perhaps, I may have thought wrong..." Taking the sword, he put the crimson blade that was not his away, cooling that shadow of doubt until it was a simple hiss of rage, as he drew his own blade from the sheath at his side.
"Perhaps the failure comes, or perhaps it doesn't," he states, smiling as he takes the pitch-black blade, and levels it with the mirror, "I will rewrite this world, not with someone else's power... at least not without sacrificing every ounce of my own!" Taking the blade he forced it into the mirror, the glass warped and rippled; the metal behind it turning the color of pitch, then obsidian, until the hilt was to its base, and would go no further. At first everything was fine, but then a crack, and then another, until it slowly but surely began to spider-web its way across the surface of the mirror. "No... if our world must end-if it must end-it ends with me, and me alone..." he roars, as he begins to pour every ounce of strength and power into that weapon, a shining, pure light sealing every crack in that obsidian glass as fast as they were fracturing, "I will open the door for a new future, even if it means sacri-***"
A vacuum of silence sucked away all sound.
An explosion of energy, and then the world continued spinning on its axis.
Inside the now pitch-black mine, a single, cracked mirror remained, sealed forever with a fearsome sword.
On that unmarked grave, as the energy wave ripples across the wind, the forgotten journal's inner pages are exposed, its power burning the leather bindings to ashes. Black bound leather is blown away into the sky, the pages written inside it are then scattered in a twister of white and disappearing ink. Unseen by anyone, the now blank pages scatter on the wind, the words that stained their pages burned away by the cinders of cast off power..
Unwritten, save a single pair of lines:
[-Lala thought to herself,-]
Rito was mad with grief, but...
A heartbeat, a broken red thread entangled, coiled, and bunched around his still beating heart. A crimson band that throbbed with heat against the cold, a chain of love filled memories etched inside every link. A spark, just a little bit tinder, and then there was...
[-'Rito,'-]
[-love...'-]
[-you-]
LIGHT
"This old story has penned its final chapter.
Your new one had just begun to be written."
{['Rito,'][Lala thought to herself,][as her heart swelled][with burning passion,][knowing her beloved would survive][whatever trial came upon him,][and would rescue her from the darkness,]['I can still feel you][r][ love...']}
/Don't Forget, by Toby Fox, Feat. Laura Shigihara/
/When the light is running low/
/And the shadows start to grow/
/and the places that you know/
/seem like fan~tasy/
/There's a light inside your soul/
/That's still shining in the cold/
/With the truth/
/The promise in our hearts/
/Don't forget/
/I'm with you in the dark./
Final A/N(For Realz): Ok, seriously, this story is over. No more new chapters. I'm thinking of creating a prequel spin-off going into depth, so let me know what you want answered, and I'll se what I can do.
As always, favorite, like, review, and leave a comment so I can continue improving. Thank you all for joining me on this journey, and know that Rito's journey has just begun.