SHONEN ALLIANCE
RE:BIRTH
OPENING THEME: HOLOGRAM (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)
Vine saw Edward and Alphonse off at the train station the morning after the attack, as they departed to return to southern command.
"I'll be stuck here for a few days cleaning up this mess," he sighed, "but I'll try to make my way south with the girl as soon as I can get away."
"Right, hopefully, in the meantime, we can figure something out from that pod she crash landed in," Edward hoped as the Elrics boarded the train.
"Don't forget to report to Mustang when you get to South Command," Vine ordered, "he's going to want to know what happened here."
"Gaaahhh, do I have to? I really don't want to deal with the Colonel right now," Ed groaned in complaint.
"Get over it," Vine ordered, "that's an order."
"Yes sir," Ed sighed, giving a sarcastic salute.
"And in all seriousness," Vine continued, his tone and expression growing more serious, "watch yourself out there. We still have no idea who our new enemies are or how they infiltrated Central so quickly, so assume that they could make an appearance anywhere at any time."
"Do you think those guys will attack again?" Alphonse inquired, a bit nervously.
"I'd bet my State Alchemy listened on it," Vine admitted, "we haven't seen the last of these Obelisk guys."
At that moment a shrill whistle signaled the last call to board the southbound train.
"That's us," Ed realized, "let's go Al."
"I know I'm wasting my breath here, but try to stay out of trouble," Vine gave one last order as the Elrics boarded the train.
"I could say the same to you, Colonel!" Ed called back nonchalantly, "we'll see you in a few days."
Vine couldn't help but shake his head as the two disappeared from sight. "Like I said, wasting my breath." He looked up at the station clock and sighed when he saw it was only a quarter to 10. Seeing off Edward and Alphonse hadn't been his only reason for traveling to the station today, it was just a convenience that they were heading south on the same day he was waiting on a train from the south. Unfortunately, said train was still a good 15 minutes from its arrival, assuming it was on time. Experience had taught the Raging Blast Alchemist that that was a dangerous assumption to make.
"Guess I'm a little late to see off the boys, huh," a friendly man's voice called out from behind. Vine rounded to see a friendly looking, dark haired man in Amestrian military uniform approaching him. He couldn't help but let a smile crossed his own lips at the sight of him. He hadn't been able to touch bases with Mayes Hughes since shortly before the Elric's had arrived yesterday, but if he was this chipper, it meant that not only was he okay, but his wife, Gracia, and little girl, Elicia, were safe as well.
"You just missed 'em," Vine admitted, indicating the departing train the Elrics had boarded, "if ya got a few minutes to wait, though, you're just in time to welcome the girls."
"Oh that's right, you're receiving some company today," Hughes remembered.
"Yep. Worked out pretty well. I could see the Elrics off when they headed back south then meet the girls when they arrived. Gotta admit though, I'm really glad they had to set the trip back a day."
The two military men found an unoccupied bench and took a seat to wait and chat.
"I'm just glad the fighting never made its way to our part of town," Hughes admitted, "I heard things were pretty bad."
"That's an understatement," Vine sighed, "eggheads're still studying their weapons, but they're not really getting anywhere. I kept one myself, but I'm not having much more luck," he admitted, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out the Ancient Gear Golem monster card he had with him to show Hughes, "best we can figure out is that the cards are for some kind of game. The decks they used consisted of three different types of cards, 'monsters', like this one, blue 'spell' cards, and red 'trap' cards. How you actually play the game or how these guys weaponized the cards is still anyone's guess."
"Huh, seems we're never left wanting for mysteries around here lately," Hughes sighed, his shoulders drooping as though he were exhausted.
"You're telling me. Our mystery woman just barely remembered what her own name was. Her little crash landing must have jarred her noggin worse then we thought," Vine revealed, "I'm sure the memories just need something to jog 'em, but her craft is our only real lead for that and that didn't help much."
"Nothing for it but to take care of her until we can find a lead."
"Ed and Al are going to check the crash site again after they report to Mustang, so hopefully we'll find that lead sooner rather then later," Vine sighed. He felt exhausted, but he needed to find his second wind quickly. After all, the train coming from the south was rolling into view of the station.
"So who all came?" Hughes asked, noticing the train as well.
"Welkin was occupied with some stuff at the university," Vine admitted, "but I'm pretty sure Alicia was planning to come. Otherwise, as far as I know, it's just Cosette and Ali."
By now, the train was beginning to roll into the station, and Vine and Hughes both stood to make their way to where the passengers would soon be disembarking from the train.
The first familiar face to become visible as she exited a train car was that of a beautiful young woman with gentle, brown eyes and long, brown hair tied to twin ponytails under a red head scarf. Another young beauty wasn't far behind her, this one with short, golden blonde hair and bright blue eyes. A final young woman stuck to the second like glue. She had long, light silver-blue hair and fiery, red, mischevious eyes.
The brunette spotted Vine and Hughes as she climbed down the stairs off of the train and waved to them, allowing her two traveling companions to spot them as well. Hughes returned the wave, while Vine watched, letting the smile from before slip back over his face, and failing to suppress a thought about how glad he was these three had been delayed a day.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
"But if she wasn't taken by Debauchery, then where is she?" the grizzled old general, Braun, asked in disbelief. He had joined a group of Lunaria's military and political leaders in a meeting with Queen Fiona at Castle Lunaria where the Queen had just revealed to them that her eldest daughter was still missing.
"I cannot say," Fiona admitted, her expression distressed and tired. She had long since removed the bikini she'd been forced to wear during her entrapment in favor of a simple but elegant white dress and wore a simple, silver crown with a single green jewel embedded in its front. "We are working now to try to locate the ship she made her escape in, but for the moment, we do not know where she ended up."
"Or even if she survived," an elderly man with thinning, grey hair suggested.
"Hold your tongue, Archbishop," Braun growled, "we can not…"
"We can and we must," the Archbishop cut off the General, "Believe me, old friend, I am no more pleased then you to bring forward the idea, but we do ourselves no favors by dismissing the possibility."
"Had Shantella perished in the Kingdom," another high ranking officer in the knights spoke up, "then she would have been brought back when the rest of us were, right?"
"Right you are, lad," Braun replied heartily to the younger knight's suggestion, "so we know she escaped Lunaria, at the very least."
"But where did she end up?" The Archbishop inquired thoughtfully, "we all know the princess would never abandon us. Something must have happened to prevent her return."
"Or she has yet to find the help I sent my daughters to seek," Fiona suggested, "whatever the case may be, I will not rest until I know for certain."
/\/\/\/\/\/\
In her lab beneath the castle, Karina was watching one of her machines work, her hands nestled in the pockets of the white lab coat she wore over a black tank top that left her midriff uncovered and long pants. Her bare feet tapped the floor anxiously as she waited for the readout. The wish on the Dragon Balls had restored the damage that had been done to her lab, but even so, she was having no luck with her objective.
"Still no luck?" Teresa's voice snapped her out of her train of thought and she turned to see her eldest sister. The silver haired princess was clad in a white t-shirt and grey pants and looked as anxious as Karina felt.
"Well, let's start with the good news. I'm still receiving a signal from Shantella's ship, meaning it hasn't been destroyed," she informed her elder sister, knowing what response would follow.
"Given how you said that, I'm guessing there's bad news to follow," Teresa responded exactly as Karina had expected her to.
"The signal is weak. The ship may not have been destroyed, but it would seem the transmission equipment might have been damaged. Whatever the case may be, I can't lock onto it. The ship could be anywhere, and even then, simply knowing the ship is fine tells us nothing about Shantella's condition."
"Can you boost the tracking signal on our end?" Teresa inquired hopefully.
"I'm trying, but I can't promise much. Finding the ship might be a lost cause," Karina lamented, "we're running out of options. If we want to find her we'll…"
"Absolutely not," Teresa declared forcefully, interrupting Karina, "you can't ask her to try that again."
"We may not have a choice. Believe me, the idea doesn't sit with me any better then it does you, but Shantella could be anywhere in our universe. It would take decades, if not centuries to find her if we just blunder around hoping someone gets close enough to her to find her energy. Silphia is the only one with sharp enough senses to have any hope of locking onto her."
"Let's assume your right and Silphia really is the only chance we have. You remember what happened the last time she tried a stunt like this, right!? Wherever she is, Shantella would rather stay lost then put her through that again!"
"Do you think I'm not fully aware of that?" Karina responded calmly, "but it isn't up to Shantella, it isn't up to me, and it isn't up to you, Teresa." She directed her eyes to look at something, or someone, behind Teresa before continuing."It's up to her."
Teresa turned to see who Karina was talking to and discovered Silphia had entered the lab behind her. The golden haired princess stood, clad in a yellow tank top, blue short shorts, and white, calf-length socks. The expression on her face conveyed obvious fear, but her determination could be discerned from her beautiful features as well. She nodded understandingly to Karina's declaration.
Teresa gritted her teeth defiantly for nearly a minute before finally letting out an audible sigh of defeat. Karina was ultimately right, after all. This was not her decision to make. She didn't have to like it, and she definitely didn't, but Silphia was no child. She had every right to make her own choice in this matter.
And they all knew full well that if they wanted to find their sister, then at this point, there was only one decision to be made.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Despite being in Karina's lab with only two of her older sisters, Silphia couldn't suppress a very slight feeling of embarrassment as her yellow tank top hit the floor, even going so far as to thoughtlessly cover her breasts with her arm, despite there being no one around to see her that she would consider truly embarrassing. Even her two older sisters were currently preoccupied, Karina calibrating her machine while Teresa observed, nervously.
Silphia's embarrassment passed quickly, but her nerves didn't. She remembered all to well what had happened the last time she had been hooked up to that machine. One year was far from enough time to forget such an unpleasant experience, nor did she believe was it enough time for Karina to have fixed the problem.
The machine was an enhanced, meant to sharpen one's ability to locate energy signatures, and while anyone was technically capable of using it, it had been specifically designed with Silphia's own special skills in mind.
Though no one was entirely certain why, the golden princess had, since she was very young, possessed an incredibly accurate and potent ability for sensing energy. By her 18th birthday, she was sensitive enough to be able to detect even minuscule amounts of power emitted from planets that would take a Saiyan space pod over a year to actually reach.
It was around that time that Karina had had the idea for her machine. Theoretically, it would sharpen the senses of anyone hooked up to it, granting them the ability to detect energy over distances far larger then they normally could, or perhaps even granting those usually incapable of sensing energy the ability to. With Silphia's senses already being far enhanced compared to others, Karina had theorized that the machine would extend Silphia's senses until she could accurately detect power anywhere in the universe.
And it had.
Silphia could clearly recall how amazing the initial moments had been. For a brief window, she had felt like she could feel every living thing in the universe. Like even the weakest life forms on the other side of the universe were still close enough for her to reach out and touch them.
That incredible feeling hadn't faded while Silphia had been connected to the machine. Unfortunately, it had quickly been joined by a feeling like two thin, metal needles being mercilessly driven through the pupils of her eyes.
Silphia only remembered feeling like her head was splitting in half and the sickening nausea that had struck her like a five ton weight. She vaguely recalled that she had screamed in pain and vomited but the memories were blurry, distracted as she was by the worst pain she had ever felt.
It had taken less then 30 seconds for Karina to deactivate the machine, it may have taken less, but she had had to prevent Teresa from simply destroying the machine, fearing the shock of the power suddenly being cut might cause even further damage, but to Silphia, it had felt like an eternity.
Karina had nearly destroyed the machine on the spot, but Silphia had weakly pled for her not to. Her big sister was so smart, there wasn't a doubt in Silphia's mind she could fix the machine. Make it work the way it was supposed to. Now, she was extremely glad she had convinced Karina to continue her work.
Unfortunately, it was clear no one expected one year to have been enough to work out the issues. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as previously, but it was still going to hurt. Teresa was completely opposed to the idea, and Silphia knew her older sister was right when she said that Shantella would oppose it as well, even if it meant finding her. She also knew that if either of them had to endure such a trial for her sake, they'd never hesitate for even a moment.
"We're ready," Karina finally said after she had finished her preparations.
The machine consisted of a large, glass orb in which hung a headset that would slip over the top of Silphia's cranium, covering her eyes with a transparent visor. Several other wires hung down from the orbs ceiling which would need to attach directly to the users skin, necessitating the removal of any clothing over the upper body, hence why Silphia had stripped down to only her shorts.
Karina guided her into the orb and she pulled on the headset, flinching a bit as the ice cold metal discs that ended the various wires were carefully attached to her skin. Teresa was standing just outside the glass, pacing anxiously. Silphia couldn't help but wonder if her older sister was contemplating destroying the machine before they could even begin.
"I'll be ready this time," Karina promised, "so the moment you feel any pain, say the word and I'll shut it down." Silphia settled for nodding in confirmation rather then vocalize a reply, concerned that speaking might shatter her confident façade.
After the devices were connected, Karina stepped out of the orb and the glass door slid shut, sealing Silphia inside. The golden princess drew in a deep breath and steadied herself, casting one final glance at her, still visibly anxious, silver haired sibling.
"Let me know when you're ready," she heard Karina's voice echo around her. Even though the orb was sound proof, Silphia knew that behind her, Karina had just slipped a headset of her own over over her head, boasting a microphone that would project everything she said into the orb and headphones that would let Karina hear any sound she made, thanks to a series of near microscopic microphones embedded throughout the glass.
"Ready!" she declared firmly, before gritting her teeth and steeling herself for what she knew was to come.
She felt her senses stretch out into the world around her as a ringing in her ears indicated the machine was warming up. She first sensed Teresa and Karina. She could feel their anxiety and concern, but she had to shut that out. She had enough of her own of those two emotions to deal with without adding there's.
Soon, her senses expanded, encompassing her entire kingdom. She could feel each of her sisters in turn, each occupying themselves with one task or another, trying but failing to distract themselves from the fear for their missing sibling. Their new friends were scattered throughout the kingdom as well, emitting strong presences that went a long ways towards easing Silphia's anxieties and calming her nerves. Each was preparing, in their own way, for the battles they each knew lay ahead of them and their resolve served to strengthen Silphia's own.
She hesitated for only a fraction of a second, then extended her senses to their limits.
The feeling was instantly nostalgic. Just like a year prior, Silphia felt her awareness stretch out, seemingly for an eternity. She didn't have time to enjoy the feeling this time, though. There was no way of knowing how quickly the side effects would strike, and there was a lot of space to search for her target, so she closed her eyes and began to focus.
Billions, if not trillions of life signatures flickered like flames in her mind's eye, but she was only interested in one specific one. A familiar one that she had known her entire life. It wasn't a question of if she could find it. Her senses were more then sharp enough to lock onto a single life force in the endless sea of flames. The real question was, could she do it in time.
As quickly as she could while still being careful not to miss anything, she sought out her target. She felt she'd already been in the machine far longer then the last time she'd done this, meaning Karina must have made improvements. She was just beginning to let herself believe that one year had indeed been enough time for her sister to perfect the device, when the first, sharp pain struck her.
At first, it struck and faded so quickly, she might have thought it was her imagination, were it not for the intensity of the pain. It was like someone had stuck a red, hot pin directly in the middle of her forehead and quickly withdrew it, leaving only a sharp, burning sensation that faded away. Her time was running out.
She tried to hasten her efforts, scrambling to grasp at anything that could guide her to her goal. Half a minute passed, then everything seemed to happen at once. A familiar energy caught the corners of Silphia's awareness, drawing her towards it, but at the exact moment she began targeting her senses on the source of the power, she was struck by a pain that felt like her skull was splitting in two.
This time, she clearly heard her own scream as her eyes opened wide and she glanced at Teresa, tears beginning to spill over her cheeks. Teresa was already yelling something to Karina, who was undoubtedly preparing to cut the machines power, and cost Silphia the lead she had on her missing sister.
It took all of her strength to rise to her feet and force her senses to feel through the pain and relock onto the familiar presence she was tracking!
"Not… yet!" she cried with all her might, knowing Karina could still hear her through the headset, "please… give me ten more seconds!"
Karina did indeed hear the plea, even as Teresa ordered her to stop the machine. Her hand hovered over the kill switch for the machine. One push of the button, and this miserable experience would end, but it would end in utter failure. It would have gained them nothing. As hard as it was, she bit her lip and gave her younger sister the ten seconds she demanded.
/\/\/\/\/\/\
Silphia couldn't remember when she'd fallen to the floor, or when Teresa and Karina had burst into the glass bubble, Karina ripping off the wires attached to her back as Teresa held her comfortingly in her arms.
She didn't remember who had carried her to her room, who had laid her in her bed and covered her with a blanket. She had a blurry recollection of three women, one with pink green hair, one with pink, and one with orange, busily toiling around her bed, she'd later learn that those three had been Isabella, Sakura, and Orihime, and that she almost certainly owed the three of them for her quick recovery.
That wasn't the first thing on the golden princess' mind as her senses slowly began to clear and she sat up in her bed, startling Teresa and Karina, who had dozed off while watching over her. A triumphant smile crept over her features as she addressed her sisters.
"It worked."
CLOSING THEME: NEVER GIVE UP (Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters)