DISCLAIMER: I do not own Vandread or any of the Gundam series, but like all of you know, I do own my OCs and their mechs.
REALIZATION
To say the least of Hibiki's fight, from Taiho's point of view, he saw that the Vanguard pilot was now truly focusing on improving his martial arts and the equipment on his Vanguard as well,' he must be wanting to find out what will make his stronger,' Taiho thought as he sparred with Hibiki at the moment.
Right after the fight with Rabat, Taiho had told him that he was training on making some new techniques and wanted Hibiki to learn these techniques with him, to which the short navy haired man accepted without a second thought. Though he did tell him this, Taiho knew he was telling part of the truth, seeing as how Domon was teaching these techniques to him.
'Yeah, like I'll tell Hibiki that I have a new sensei that is teaching me new techniques from my dreamscape and that he too is from another universe, but only appears in my dreams. That'll really convince him that these aren't just made up techniques,' Taiho thought as he avoided a hook to the face and sent a jab towards Hibiki.
Taiho had been making sure he get enough rest each day, so that he could meet Domon in his dreamscape to learn his martial arts style. So far, he has been doing quite well with learning the style and has learned two techniques that required what Domon called 'Ki'. Taiho thought that the characters from G Gundam didn't even use such energy, but then thought about how all the technique they used in the series; it looked like they required something more than just the Gundams they piloted. Even so, it took Taiho sometime to learn how to manipulate his Ki, but nonetheless, he got the hang of it and was able to learn the techniques taught by the King of Hearts.
The good thing about this was that whatever he learned from Domon, he was able to also transfer that knowledge and teach them to Hibiki himself. But as much time as they took, it was still taking Hibiki time to summon his Ki,' and he doubted what I was telling him was possible, hehehe,' Taiho then thought back to when Hibiki doubted him about such a thing, only to see his sensei's arms glow an eerie aqua glow. That and the punch he made to his gut made him shut up about on whether or not Ki was real.
"Stop," Taiho called out to Hibiki. The Vanguard then halted in his charge and saw the look in his sensei's eyes that were telling him that the sparring match and lessons were done. With that, they both straightened up and bowed to each other. As soon as they did that, they both went for the towels and water they had on the side of a tree.
They both picked up the towels and started to dry their faces off of the sweat that accumulated during the spar. Hibiki then opened his water bottle and drank some. As soon as he was done with that, he turned to Taiho," so sensei, how do you think I'm coming along on controlling my Ki?"
Taiho at the moment was in the middle of drinking some of his water when he heard the question and signaled him to wait for a bit when he was done. When he was done, he wiped the excess water that was trailing down his mouth," you have some time before you can fully use some of you Ki," he then gave a smirk to his fellow pilot," hell, I'm still in the process of mastering my Ki, so I too need to perfect on my control, so don't feel bad about it man."
Hibiki just shrugged,' well as long as I can get stronger and prove my existence, then I can't really complain,' Hibiki thought and then turned to some darker thoughts,' and then maybe I can show that damn old man who is the better fighter,' he got images of him standing over a bloody and beaten Rabat as he stood over him with his foot on top of back and giving off a triumphant pose," hehehehe, hahahahah, HAHAHAHA," he then started to laugh at such images.
'Uh-huh, I'm not going to even ask what crazy thoughts he's even thinking up now,' Taiho thought as he started to inch away from his supposed, but slightly crazy student. He then looked up to see the stars, only to see another planet come into the view of the garden," hey Hibiki, check it out."
Hibiki stopped his maniacal laughing and looked up to see a blue planet coming into the view of the garden," that planet looks cool, it's like it's made of water or something," he said as he looked at the liquid like planet.
'Anpathos,' Taiho thought as he remembered the name of the planet and remembered what going to happen now,' well, I guess it's time to for Jura and Hibki to combine their mechs,' they both then heard the alarm go off," Hibiki, come on, let's get to the hangar now," Taihoo said as he ran off ahead of the short man.
During their little race, Hibiki managed to get ahead of him and opened the door to the hangar," let's show those aliens who's the boss around here," he called out as he ran in, only to stop as a bright light turned on in front of him, which almost blinded him.
A cocky laugh was then heard," the time has finally come," as his eyes adjusted, the voice turned out to be none other then Jura with a reluctant Barnette behind her recording what was going on," listen closely, you and I are going to combine in the upcoming battle Hibiki," she said with the utmost confidence that her combination will be the best," did you get it? I was brave, wasn't I?" she asked her partner.
'Why am I even doing this?' Barnette asked herself as she pretended to that she liked what she was doing and giving her best friends a thumbs up," perfect," she said in a fake cheery tone.
Taiho didn't hear the rest as he passed them to get to his Gundam," you'd think she would mellow out when Bart told her to ease off a bit," Taiho said to himself as he activated his mech,' let's go Dark Angel,' he thought to his machine as the eyes of his Gundam glowed in response. He then turned on the communicator," this is Taiho Lobo in the Dark Angel Gundam, LAUNCHING," he said as he blasted off into space from the hangar.
Not a moment sooner did he get out, he was then shot at from the Cube Harvesters. Taiho saw this as an opportunity to see how his training has been going. He then calmed his mind and activated the ZERO system.
"Captain, Taiho has activated the ZERO system," Ezra said as she looked at the pilot's conditions in battle.
"What does that crazy man think he's doing? Doesn't he remembered the last time he used that system?" BC asked as she hoped this reckless action wouldn't make them lose the battle.
"I think he believes he can truly master that frightening system," Magno said as she looked impassively at the battle ahead of them," and I feel that if he is able to control such a system, I think we may gain a great new ally," she said as a smirk came up on her face.
Back on the battlefield, Taiho calmed his mind and let the future data he was receiving from the Dark Angel Gundam, flow through his mind. He then also felt something burst through his body, as if something or someone just flipped some switch in his mind. When he opened his eyes, they glowed with the light the Paksis gave off, yet they were dulled at the same time as well.
"Let's go," he said in a low tone, as he blasted off towards the enemies firing at him. But the fired rounds seemed so slow to him, he just evaded them with just the slightest of movement to let them pass him harmlessly," pathetic," he said to them, not that they could hear him.
He then cocked his hand rifle and shot off a precise shot to one of the Cubes. This shot went right through it and continued onto two other that were behind it and also destroyed them. He then made a shot over his shoulder, which from the looks what was behind him was another Cube that was sneaking up behind him. He then opened the shoulder gatling guns and fired precise shots at the enemies before him. While he did this, he shot off more rounds from his hand beam rifle with more precise shots.
As soon as he was done taking down a portion of the enemy with his gatling guns and hand beam rifle, he put them away. He then noticed from the future data Dark Angel Gundam was giving him, that the enemy was going to close in on him and try to shoot him at point blank ranges to take him down.
'I'll have none of that,' he thought coldly, as he saw a whole legion of the enemy heading towards him," here I go," he called out as he started to move his hand in a circular motion. As he did this, red flames came in from that circular motion with kanji's within them," from the School of the Undefeated of the East: Twelve Cyclone," he said as he thrust his palm forward and made twelve smaller version of the Dark Angel burst forward from the twelve flames. As they neared, they combined and formed a large black with crimson streaks, twister and took down a good portion of the enemies in front of him," Daishahei," he called out as the twister continue destroy the Cubes.
He then sensed more enemies coming up from behind him," you think you can sneak up on me," he then griped the sword on his back," I think not," he then flung out his sword and shot forth with his energy wings opened.
He then slashed through one Cube through the mid section and punched right through another one what he assumed was its face. He then notices more were starting to gather and took out a beam boomerang from his shoulder and used it as a dagger (he held it in a way the ninjas off of Naruto do with their kunais). He then slashed through one down the middle while gutting one with his beam boomerang. He saw from his position that one was charging above him, so he casually got out the way of its charge and kicked in the mid section. As soon as it got some distance from him, he through his beam boomerang and it hit it right in the face. As soon at it hit, he was already in front of it and took the beam boomerang and slashed upward, then slashed downward with his sword, making the cube into three sliced pieces before it explode. He then put the boomerang back in his shoulder.
He then saw another group trying to got for the Nirvana," I don' think so," he said as he cocked the long range beam rifle from his back and fire. As soon as it hit them, he destroyed the group. But he didn't let off the trigger and dragged the beam that was being held toward the rest of the enemies and destroyed a few more groups that were starting to surround the Nirvana. As soon as he could tell the rifle couldn't take anymore, he stopped and put it back in its place.
During all of this, he didn't notice that Hibiki and Jura went down to the planet's watery surface and combined to make Vandread Jura and that the rest of the pilots returned to the Nirvana, seeing as how they could not destroy the larger ship with their current equipment.
"Whoa," was all BC could say as she looked at the battle Taiho was in with the Harvesters.
"I guess I spoke sooner than I thought," Magno said, as she too was dumbstruck at the moves Taiho used.
When Taiho got back in the hangar, he was met with a curious look from his leader," Meia, what's up?"
"How were you able to pull off that move earlier? I saw no added equipment made to your machine. I should know the capabilities of your machine if I am able to make good formations with our pilots Taiho, you know that," she said as she still held the curious look on her face.
Taiho just shrugged at her," I know you won't believe me, but I was able to do that because I used my Ki, or for a lack of a better word, my life force. The move I used was taught to me by my mother," he said as he lied about the last part.
"I see," she said as she shook her head a bit," I won't even pretend to understand such a thing, but if you're able to do such a thing, please tell me what else you could do so that we can both make the necessary formations for our pilots," she said as she then noticed Dita pacing back and forth behind her.
"Mr. Alien and Jura…they're down there together," she said out loud as she paced back and forth in worry, well more worry on what Jura might do to Hibiki alone.
"Why don't you try to calm down Dita?" Meia said as she was getting tired of watching her pace back and forth.
"But Mr. Alien is alone with Jura on that planet," she said with worry in her voice and a sad look on her face.
"The captain and commander are down there too," she argued, as she wanted to have her stop fidgeting and actually get something done.
"But even so," she then let out a bit of sigh and looked up," Mr. Alien," she said in worry.
Meia just shook her head a bit," ah, young love, what can you do," Taiho said as he held a big smirk on his face.
"Oh, and what makes you thinks this is all about love?" Meia asked as she walked off with him walking along beside her.
"Come on, don't tell me you haven't seen the signs?" Taiho asked as he put his hands in his pockets and casually walked.
"What signs?" she asked as she rose an eyebrow at him.
"The way she looks at him, the way he doesn't just completely brush her off, and the times they both look at each other," he then turned his head a bit to her and gave a big smile," I've seen these looks on my planet and I can see how things are working out between them, even if they don't see it themselves."
"Yeah, and what makes you so keen on the affairs of love, huh?" she asked as she had her own smirk on her face.
"Considering we're on a ship that is full of women and so few of men, I can easily spot how this is happening. It's not that hard to see really," Taiho said as he shrugged a bit too her. He then started to think about something," hey Meia," she turned her head a bit too him as he got her attention," how about I teach you some of my martial arts techniques. This way, if there was a situation that called for it, you would be prepared for the worst."
She seemed to think on this for a bit and then turned to him a serious face," I think that would benefit, when do you want to start on training?" she asked as she wanted to learn how to do the things he did out on the battle earlier.
He then did his own thinking for a bit," how about a little later after we're done with the enemies here. Wouldn't do us any good if we do it no, aahh," he failed to notice he made a misstep and tripped. He tried to get his balance back, but any attempt was stop as he went towards Meia, who made a small 'eep' at what happened.
When they both got their senses back, they noticed that he was on top of her with her back to the wall. Her arms were around his neck and his hands were on her hips. They both looked at each other in the eye for a moment. At that moment, images of them back in Meia's mindscape came back to them, the image of them almost kissing each other; with this in mind, they both started to lean their faces toward each other as they started to close their eyes. As a small moment passed, their lips were about to touch unitl…
"Ahem," someone coughed about to get their attention, which made them whip their heads to see Gascogne with a bigger smirk, than her usual, on her face," I'm not interrupting anything am I?" she asked as she eyed the both of the a bit.
When they got the message, they both got up from their position with beet red faces," N-NO, NOTHING, N-NOTHING AT ALL," they both said in unison, which made them look at each other a bit and made them turn away from each other with even redder faces, if that was even possible.
Taking a deep breath, Taiho looked at Gascogne with the best calm best face he could muster at the moment," I just tripped a-and I happened to land on Meia, th-that just it, this is all just misunderstanding," he said as Meia quickly nodded with him, not wanting to be looked at any differently if word got out of the close encounter," come on Meia, we gotta make those formations," quickly catching onto his meaning, she nodded and quickly followed him, leaving a knowing and smirking Gascogne behind.
"You two should really tell each other how you feel," she said before she turned to walk back to Reg Central.
As soon as the two look back to see Gascogne was out of sight, they both let out a sigh of relief," umm, how about we not talk about this, let's just keep it between us, okay?" Taiho asked with a little blush on his face, to which she gave a small nod and a blush that equaled his.
They both then start to walk with each other again, but not moment sooner did she think about something," Taiho," the Gundam pilot turned his head to her at the moment," before Rabat came on our shipe, what did you mean that we may have more enemies than the Harvesters?"
This made him stop for a bit and made him wonder if he should tell her about the Dark Gundam. But he knew he couldn't keep a secret for long from her, she was a stubborn woman who got the answer she needed when she asked a question. If she didn't, she would go to any means to get the answers she wants from the person. Letting out a sigh, he turned to her and gave serious look," come with me to the hangar," he said simply as he went back to the hangar. Meia just looked at him for a second before following him back to the hangar.
When they get there, Taiho is already in the cockpit of his Gundam along with Meira," this is a recording from the battle before Rabat came on board the Nirvana," Taiho said as he let the recording go. When he got to a part of the recording, he stopped it," now look when I zoom in on this area," the camera then zooms in and shows a shadowed figure.
"I don't get it, that could be just some debris left behind on the mission," Meia said as she tried to make out the image.
"Ah, but wait till I lighten the camera's image," he said as he started to lighten the video a bit. When he was done, he looked to see her with wide eyes.
"What is that thing?" Meia asked with a little fear in her voice.
"You have right to be scared Meia, that thing is a servant of a dangerous, evil, and powerful Gundam," he then turned to her with a grim and serious face," the Dark Gundam," he said simply.
"A Gundam?!" she asked with even more fear in her voice.
"Yeah, a Gundam. Let's just say that our planet is used making such machines and that this particular one is more powerful than all Harvesters put together," he said as she looked at him like he was crazy.
"How is that possible?" she asked as she looked at the Gundam head on the screen.
"There are many things that make the Dark Gundam very powerful. But it has three main abilities that make it a powerful force to be reckoned with, the ability to self recover, to self evolve, and self multiply. These three abilities are what make the Dark Gundam a frightening machine," he answered as he explained the abilities of the Dark Gundam.
"How do you even know about his machine Taiho?" she asked with a bit of suspicion in her voice.
He let's out a bit of heavy sigh," I'll explain when the time is right, so please, just bear with me, okay?" he asked in a bit of worried voice.
Knowing him to be good person, she relaxes a bit and nods," sure, but you'll need to tell me soon, and then we'll both need to tell the captain of this news. It won't do us any good if the crew doesn't know of this potential threat."
"I know, but I feel it is not the right time to tell them yet, as I am sure the Dark Gundam will not strike yet," he said as he got up and jumped out of the cockpit. He then knelt down to pull her up," need a hand," he asked with a smile as he tried to get his mood back.
She looked up to him with her own smile and nodded," sure," she said as she took his hand. He got her up, but she slipped a bit and fell forward, and landed on his chest. They both were caught off guard, but she didn't expect what to happen next as she felt two arms wrap around her," Taiho?" she asked as she felt a little weird by the embrace.
"Meia…I," but he was cut off the alarms went off; they both got out of the embrace and land inside the cockpit. Taiho then brings up Bart on his vid screen.
"Eh, what now?" Barts asks to no one in particular as he looks at the larger ship going in to combine with the strange device that is hovering over Anpathos.
"That's obvious," he then looks over to his screen to see Meia, along with Taiho, speaking to him," you want us to put a immediate line of defense, is that right?"
"Eh, I suppose so, DREAD TEAMS, PREPARE TO SCRAMBLE," he commands with a lot of nervousness in his voice.
Getting amused smirks on their faces, they look at him and say in unison," ROGER THAT."
As soon as that was said, Meia quickly got out of Taiho's mech and went to her Dread. As soon as she did, Taiho blasted out of the hangar with her not far behind. When they got out there, they saw that the other Dread pilots had already gone out to prepare for combat.
"Meia to all Dread teams, our main mission is to maintain a line of defense. Try not to stray to far away," she commanded over the communication systems on all the mechs.
"ROGER," they all say together as they blast off into combat.
Taiho immediately activate the ZERO system and calmed his mind immediately. When he opened his eyes, they were the same as before in the last battle," okay, let's see how I do this time," he said to himself as he blasted off to take down the Harvesters.
He started to shoot off a few round with his hand beam rifle at a few Cubes. As he did, he also used the should gatling guns to take down a few more. One got a little too close for its own good, as it found itself on the other end of a hand when Taiho quickly turned and plunged a burning hand into its face," and now HEAT END," he said as the cube into pieces.
"Don't be such a coward," Taiho heard on his communicator.
'Heh, I guess it's time for that old lady to give her little pep talk,' Taiho thought as he went back to taking down the Harvesters.
"I've been alive a long time and I've seen many deaths along the way. Every time I curse myself for my powerlessness. I curse myself for not being able to do a single thing to save those people. There's hardly so much left to do. So many things left unsaid. When I think of these things, I feel like I'm being torn apart," there then a pause in her speech, but she then continued," but even in their final moment, not a single one gave up on life. They were all brimming shining stars to the bitter end. I'm proud to have known them and proud to have called them friends. And this is the reason why I can never forgive people who RELY ON OTHER TO CREATE THEIR OWN DESTINY," she said as she got angered towards the end of her speech.
'Well said Magno,' Taiho thought as he diagonally slashed a Cube and caught one of his beam boomerangs he had thrown to a group of enemies. He then noticed that Vandread Jura came out of the planets surface and launched its shield discs around the planet,' good job you two, now you can use that planet as you own big super soaker on that large Harvester.'
When he thought that, the Vandread immediately shot out the planets water towards the Harvester that was trying to suck them into it own personal type of black whole, which was most likely used to capture people on the planet's surface. As the water went in, it started to bulge and when it couldn't take it, it exploded into pieces. When that happened, the Vandread returned all the shield discs back to it.
Taiho relaxed as he knew now the battle was over, but that was not to be," one part of the device hasn't been destroyed, it's not disintegrating from the planets atmosphere. It's headed toward the island the captain is on," Ezra called out to everyone on the communicator, but then they heard her gasp.
'Oh, I know I'm not going to like this,' he thought as he blasted off towards the large piece of the device that was heading down on Anpathos.
"Meia is the way of the fragment, someone help her," she said as Taiho's eyes went wide.
"No," he said as he saw that Meia ship wasn't moving," MEIA, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? GET OUT OF THERE," he called out to her in fear of losing her.
"My machine isn't responding, I don't know what the hell is going," she said as she tried to frantically get control of her Dread.
Taiho then neared her ship," I'm going to get you out of here," but before he knew it, a light appeared between the both of them. But the gravity started to pull in that light to the planets surface.
"The fragment has entered the atmosphere," Ezra said as she kept everyone notified of the situation," huh? Something is flying ahead of it."
"Huh? What is that, it looks like Taiho's machine, but it's looks almost like the Gundam Epyon, only it blue, red, and white," Hibiki said as he took a zoomed in look of the new Gundam.
The new Gundam had wings just like the costum Gundam and Gundam Epyon, only these wings were sleeker and it had the boosters in them, they also weren't segmented like the Epyon. It had a big rifle in its right hand, along with a shield on its left hand. (basically, it is the Wing Zero from the original series, not the one from the movie)
In the cockpit of the new Gundam, Taiho and Meia were in the same kind of cockpit Gundam Epyon had, but they weren't really paying attention to that little detail though. As soon as they both got enough distance between them and the fragment, they turned the Gundam around and aimed the rifle right at it.
"What do those two think the rifle will do against that large fragment?" Jura asked as she looked at the vid screen of what the Gundam was doing.
Hibiki was too busy getting the reading off this new Gundam. When he was done, he was shocked, but quickly got a big smirk on his face," oh, you'll see."
Taiho and Meia were gritting their teeth at the force of gravity had on them while trying to aim the rifle in the right angle. As it came closer and closer, they still had not got a lock on it, so they fire up the booster on the back on the new Gundam to slow them down and help them aim.
"We will," they both said as it came closer with the lock on system still not locking onto it.
"We will," they both said again as it came even closer.
"We will," the fragment got even closer.
"WE WILL SURVIVE," the lock on system then locked onto it and they fired the large beam rifle. The beam that was fired was huge and hit the fragment. As it went right through the fragment, it took a moment before it exploded into a million pieces.
When the explosion occurred, there was not sight of the new Gundam," Taiho, you there, hey," Hibiki called out to his sensei,' come on, I know you survived. As if on cue, they saw a faint image of the new Gundam flying towards them.
A vid screen then popped in the Nirvana, showing the two pilots in each others laps, though the people were just relieved to see them both alive, so they didn't pay it much mind," ain't nothing like that going to take us down, of that I can assure you all," he said as he gave them all a thumbs up with a cocky smirk. The vid feed then stopped and everyone let out a sigh of relief.
"Ooh, I'm glad that's over, I was getting hot during that whole thing," Meia said as she leaned back, only to find herself leaning back into Taiho's chest. This made her blush a bit of course. But what made her blush more was him wrapping his arms around her waist," Taiho?"
"Just let me stay like this, with you in my arms, just let me stay like this," he said softly into her ear as he rested his head on her shoulder.
For some unknown reason to her, she leaned her head back into his and closed her eyes, liking the feeling of being close to the man she is piloting with at the moment,' right now, I don't care,' she thought as she rested for a bit.
'The thought of losing her was almost too much for me,' Taiho thought as he opened his eyes to look at the serene look on the blue haired pilots face,' I think I've fallen for her and I can deal with that, the only problem is…' he then rests his head back on her shoulder with a little bit of sad look on his face,' does she feel the same way about me?'
A/N: Well, that CH.8 for ya guys, anyhow, I've introduced Ki because I think it serves Taiho better than just relying on the Gundam's current equipment, that and I think that what the people off of G Gundam use to do the techniques they use. If not, oh well, it's my fic and this is how it's going, plus, there is a reason for it, but like anything else, you'll just have to find out. As for when I got the Wing Zero in this, some of you might know what scene and dialogue I used to make it, and yes, it was the final moments of Gundam Wing. If anything else, PM me, or post it on the reviews, ja ne.
ShadowDragonGX