Chapter 15: Dirge of the Nirvana

As everyone heads to the bridge worried yet also slightly hopeful, realizing they overcame a lot just to defeat the enemy, they hope that maybe just maybe fate is smiling upon them and things may start looking up. While they pass through the hallways they see the scattered bodies of many injured crewmembers writhing in agony, but confidently reassuring them that it's not fatal. So as they reluctantly march along they finally enter the bridge and are completely aghast at what they see.

" This is the bridge? It looks more like a slaughterhouse this is insane…" Barnette mutters as they all look around. Jukkai quickly runs to Bart who just began crawling out of the control area looking around at his fallen comrades and confused peers.

" Hey guys… congrats on beating those things… wish I could have been of more use." Jukkai makes it over to his friend and smiles down at him, " You idiot, you should be more worried about your well being not if we killed a few lizard looking things." Bart laughs slightly until his eyes land on Ezra and B.C.

" B.C.! Ezra!" Alexei and Barnette quickly tend to them as Dita walks towards the Captain's chair and lets out a blood-curdling scream, " AHHHHHHHH! MAGNOOO!" Dita starts sobbing uncontrollably as Meia rushes towards her friend while Ezra and B.C. slowly return to consciousness, partly because of the scream and the other part due to Alexei and Barnette gently prodding at them.

B.C. holds his head in pain and says in a weary and beaten way, " D-Dita… what's wrong? Is Magno alright…?" The head trauma obviously causing him to forget that she passed shortly before the energy blast hit the ship.

Dita still crying as Meia runs up behind her and gasps in horror as Dita quickly turns around and hugs Meia squeezing her tightly as both women begin crying in each other's arms. Renz and Hibiki stare at one another slowly starting to realize what happened as Hibiki slowly walks to the scene.

" Hey old lady! Stop playing dead and-" his comment is stopped short after he finally sees Magno corpse. Her body seems flung against the wall, as it lies there upside down with an obviously broken neck. " No… no… old woman… Magno… NOOOOO!" Hibiki falls to his knees with his teeth tightly gnashed together and his fists clenched unable to speak. So as Hibiki stays there seething in rage and misery Renz lowers his head in respect for the dead and addresses a now standing B.C.

" Commander, what shall we do?" B.C. choking back tears of his own looks at Renz and smirks, " A soldier to the very end, aren't you Tagino?" Renz's eyes widen slightly as he shakes his head, " This is not my place… I didn't know Magno that well. So obviously I mourn the fact that we've lost one of our own, but I can't relate to your pain…"

B.C. holds up his hand and shakes his head, " It's alright, all this time around women has gotten me more emotional than I should be." He turns towards the Captain's chair and takes a deep breath, " If it is any consolation… Magno died of a heart attack prior to the enemy attack. So the state you see her in right now… all those injuries were sustained after death." Dita hears this and sniffles a little as she then glares at B.C., " But she's still dead B.C.! Magno was like a mother to most of us, and now she's dead… just when we need her the most." Meia nods as she hugs Dita tighter and looks down at Hibiki, " What do you think about this Hibiki?"

His eyes open vacantly as he just stares at nothing for a moment until it all finally hits him, " What do I think? I think we need to kick the crap out of those damn monsters! It is all their fault Magno is dead!" Bart smiles seeing Hibiki's rage as a cover up for his real feelings. " You know Hibiki… it's alright to cry." Bart manages to say while tears slowly trickle down his own cheeks.

Hibiki stands up quickly and shoots a very hard gaze towards Bart as he speaks, " I have no reason to cry, she was just an old woman. Who, respected me… and treated me like an equal when no one else would. She was always there when we needed her to be… and, well… she…" Hibiki can no longer fight the feelings as he begins to breakdown into tears.

Seeing this Meia lets Dita go and Dita flings herself to Hibiki as they both cuddle on the floor of the Nirvana, mourning the death of their beloved Captain. Renz then slowly walks over to Meia and places a hand on her shoulder, " You gonna be alright Meia?" Meia slowly turns as her pretty emerald eyes lock onto Renz and she just shakes her head and buries her head into his chest and holds him close, " Oh Renz… she was… so dear to all of us. Now, now she's gone…" Renz smirks and holds the beautiful blue haired pilot close to him and sighs. " It's alright… we'll get through this. No one worry."

Ezra staying pretty quiet the whole time looks over at Renz and asks in wonderment, " How can you say that? We just lost our captain, the most respected and revered women on this ship." Renz continues focusing on Meia but responds to Ezra, " We are forced to follow the chain of command and worry more about getting the ship operational. So with that, B.C. is the new Captain and he is to pick a commander. As for the repairs… we still need to check the entire ship, but Parfait is being treated by Duelo… so with how she works the ship will probably be working by tomorrow."

Ezra looks over to B.C. and says quietly, " Is this how all military men are on your planet? Uncaring and callous… I hope you say no." B.C. sighs and responds to Ezra with a faint smile on his face, " No Ezra… they aren't." But before Ezra can breathe a sigh of relief B.C. continues, " Only the good ones are like this. He is truly a soldier… as is Jukkai and Alexei. We defiantly came across an elite group here, almost as if it were fated to have the new arrivals hold the ship together after a tragedy."

Ezra looks down and nods slightly, " Yes… I suppose you're right. We can't just mourn and be left wide open for attacks." Jukkai and Bart stand up and Jukkai speaks, " Alright… Jura why don't you…" Jukkai looks around and raises a brow, " Where the hell did Jura go?" Just as he says that Jura, Duelo and Parfait all start walking into the bridge area.

" Remember Jukkai, I said if anyone was so much as cut I'd drag Duelo up here… and dead is much worse then cut." Jura masking her emotions well points over to Magno corpse as Duelo and Parfait gasp.

" No way… I can't believe it…" Parfait starts as Duelo places his right index finger over her lips and looks over to Alexei, " Alexei and Barnette… go check on Gasco." Alexei and Barnette nods as they run off hearing Barnette say as they run out, " Crap! I completely forgot about Gascogne!" So as they run off Duelo slides Magno's body off the wall and into a laying down position on the floor as he then removes his lab coat and places it over her head.

" Hibiki… how do you think she'd like to go out?" Hibiki looks up at Duelo still crying and fighting to not become a complete wreck as he sniffles a bit as Dita kisses Hibiki's cheek. " Calm down Hibiki… everything will be fine…"

Hibiki smiles enjoying the affection and attempted soothing from Dita as he finally speaks, " Well the old lady was really unconventional so I say… we send her out in an escape pod. Place her in there and give her a proper respectful goodbye, fit for the best space pirate ever…"

Parfait smiles and Bart grins a little as he cheers, " Ya! That's what I'm talking about! We should celebrate her death, or at least not be so in the dumps. Cause you know… she'd prolly be yelling at us for being wimps or something." Bart laughs slightly as the others just nod.

Meanwhile, Barnette and Alexei reach the area where Gasco almost always is and start looking around for her. " Hey Gasco, you better not be dead too! You already scared us once with the fake death thing, not again!" Barnette says in a worried and still slightly annoyed way as Gasco opens her eyes and responds weakly, " Barnette, you hot headed brat… I'm not dead… yet…" Alexei hears her voice and runs over to where Gasco is and nearly throws up, but instead manages to mutter, " Oh god…"

Barnette reaches the spot a few moments after Alexei and has a similar reaction. " Oh my god, what happened Gasco?" Gasco props herself up against a counter with her good arm and smirks, " Would you believe it was a really nasty poker accident?" Alexei's eyes widen as he barks, " How the hell can you joke when your leg is bend backwards and you have bones in your arm sticking out!"

Gasco smirks and sighs as she answers, " Eh, you'll understand once you get to know me better. But anyway… what's this you better not be dead too stuff Barnette?" Barnette looks down as she bites her bottom lip trying to not cry and responds quickly, " Magno, she's… she's dead." Gasco's eyes widen as she then looks over at Alexei and back to Barnette, " You're joking right? Magno… she… can't be dead…" Alexei slowly lifts up Gasco as Barnette comes over to help, " You'll see for yourself…" and with that they both start taking her up to the bridge, to see for herself and to also see Duelo.

So as Barnette and Alexei take Gascogne up to the bridge Paiway slowly stumbles to the bridge and looks at everyone. " Hey, what's going on? Why's everyone so sad looking?" Shocked to even see Paiway standing up Renz speaks to her over Meia's shoulder, " Magno, she was killed in the fight." Paiway's eyes widen as she limps over to the covered body and moves the coat a little and begins crying. " No…"

She falls to her knees and then quickly falls back into a sitting position next to Magno's corpse as she begins to cry. Duelo looks over to the young girl after he finishes tending to the wounds of Ezra, B.C., and Bart. " Hey Paiway… why don't you come over here and help me with a few things." Usually Paiway would jump being as she has a kind of crush on Duelo but she doesn't budge and inch. All she does is continue crying.

Some time later, Alexei, Barnette and Gasco make it up to the bridge where Gascogne can finally see. As soon as she looks around she sees Paiway, Hibiki, Dita and Meia crying, with Renz consoling Meia, Duelo tending to injuries and Parfait fiddling around in the bridge console trying to get something to work.

" So… it looks like you weren't lying…" As she says that Duelo looks over at the entrance and sees the very banged up Gascogne and walks over to her, " Gasco, wow, you're in the worst condition I've seen so far." Gasco glances over at Duelo and smirks, " Don't you mean second worst?" Duelo's eyes widen as he nods, " They told you huh?"

Gascogne nods and motions to the coat covered body, " I take it that's Magno…" Duelo nods, " Would you like to see her one last time before I tend to your wounds?" Gasco looks down and says quietly, " Is anything abnormal on her…" Duelo stops and sighs as he glances off to the side and reluctantly says, " Her neck… it was broken… so her head is kind of rest on her shoulder in a very unnatural way."

Gascogne nods and grins weakly, " Then no, I want to remember her as she was… not as she is now." Duelo nods and smiles slightly, " I can respect that wish. Alright then… I need to get to work on you quick before any of your abnormalities set."

So as Duelo goes to work on Gascogne and the others try and occupy their time, either working to try and get the Nirvana operational, or even just consoling a loved one, everyone is trying to do something. So B.C. just turns and looks at the Captain's chair… his new spot and thinks, ' Can I fill Magno's shoes? When will we be attacked next? Can we win without Magno's leadership?"

To Be Continued…