Still Waters Another Turn, Chapter 6

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No, I Won't Back Down

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Donner hesitantly picked up the telephone in his office and dialed a number. After a moment someone answered.

'Gaze here.'

Donner gulped and almost choked.

'Hello?' Gaze asked when Donner didn't reply.

"I-it's me, Master Gaze. Donner."

'What is it?' Master Gaze did not sound happy to be disturbed. He had been the one to pass the order about the robots down to Donner, and hadn't been happy to learn about the recent problems. Apparently, he had some big shot lined up to buy several thousand of the robots.

"We…haven't caught him yet." Donner took a moment to calm himself down. "We found where he was hiding, but he managed to escape on foot."

Gaze cleared his throat on the other end. 'It doesn't matter as long as you get that program back, correct?'

Donner licked his dry lips before answering in the affirmative.

'Have your people attempted to recover the program from his computer?' Donner didn't answer. 'Donner,' he said sharply.

"No! We can't. The computer was formatted as per company policy." He neglected to mention that the one who had done the formatting was Wheeler, or how no one had even realized anything was wrong until they returned later in the day and found that Wheeler's nasty little program had made the computer format the hard drive, then filled it with meaningless ones and zeros and followed that up with another format; they had only managed to stop it on the fourth cycle. They later found the Rally program missing from the backup servers as well, something that had evidently been performed with a similar, though less destructive, method; the servers themselves were still intact. It was simple, but quite effective.

'Then capture him; the higher ups on the other side want that program immediately. Is there anything else?' Gaze asked, his irritation coming through clearly in his voice.

"No, Master Gaze."

'Good. Then I trust you will recover the program in a timely manner. Goodbye.'

There was a click as Gaze hung up. Donner, shivering now, fumbled the wireless phone and dropped it to the floor before he placed it back in its docking station. He wished not for the first time that Gaze hadn't demanded regular updates of information. Without the Rally program, the robots, along with his whole project here, would be virtually useless, and Donner would become expendable, not to mention drawing the ire of the mysterious 'higher ups'. As for the Rally program, they had other much simpler AI programs, but none would be anywhere near Rally's level of sophistication. His entire project would be… He wished again that he had never gotten involved with these people.

He made another call to his second in command and gave the order to begin mass production. If he couldn't produce a robot with high quality AI, he could at least have numbers on his side. But still…he needed the Rally program. Besides, the robots could always be reprogrammed later, when the Rally program was in his hands again.

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Ayaka, her resolve firm, vowed to face Asuna after school. She had had another bad dream and lain awake for a few hours the night before, so she wasn't at her best…but she wouldn't let that stop her. She would have to corner the other girl alone somehow and keep her from escaping. The bathroom, maybe? She could block the entrance and corner the red head in one of the stalls where there was no room to maneuver. Yes, that was probably—

"Yukihiro-san? Do you hear me?"

She snapped her attention back to the classroom. "Ah yes! Sorry, sensei."

"Ok, don't let it happen again. Now, can someone explain this equation…"

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Eventually, the last class of the day ended and Ayaka approached Asuna, who was chatting with Sakurazaki-san and Konoka-san in the classroom. "Asuna-san, I have something I need to speak about with you privately."

"Iincho…? Ok. I'll be a little late today, sorry Konoka. Tell the others, ok?" Konoka answered in the affirmative, and Ayaka led the redhead out into the hallway. "Ok, what is it, Iincho?"

"Not here, there are too many people," Ayaka said as she grabbed Asuna's upper arm and debated internally on where to take her so they could speak privately. Honestly, the bathroom was the only place nearby...there were too many students still in the classrooms. "Ok, let's go," she said after a moment as she pulled Asuna to a nearby bathroom.

"You want me to go to the bathroom with you…?" Asuna asked with an odd tone as Ayaka pulled her through the doorway.

"What…? Here, go in here," Ayaka said as she dragged the girl across the small room, finally pushing Asuna into one of the stalls and following after. She closed the door and locked it.

"What?! Iincho, what are you—" Asuna asked as she started to become very nervous, her sword case clacking against the walls in the narrow bathroom stall as she tried to squeeze around the other girl.

"It's time for the truth, Asuna-san!"

"Iincho!? I'm not, I mean, I don't like g—"

"What are you hiding from me?" Ayaka demanded.

Asuna looked at her blankly. "What?"

"You and Negi-sensei are hiding something important from me! What is it? Tell me!"

Asuna's relief was palpable. "Oh thank God, I thought you were…nevermind," she said as she slumped against a wall.

"So? Tell me!"

Asuna glanced at the girl that had been her friend/rival for pretty much her entire school life and looked away quickly, then steeled herself and looked her in the eye. "I-it's nothing, Iincho," she finally said, her eyes twitching slightly at the end.

"You lied…" Ayaka finally said. The hurt in her voice was genuine. "Why are you lying to me?"

Asuna's eyes were downcast. "I can't tell you."

The class rep looked at her disapprovingly.

"It's true!"

Ayaka sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I will tell Takahata-sensei about…it." Asuna's gasp echoed in the small bathroom. Ayaka hadn't wanted to go that far, but there was no choice at this point. She had had enough of these feelings of paranoia. She was tired of doubting everyone's words, she wanted answers she could trust. And this seemed to be the only way to get them.

"You wouldn't!"

Ayaka's look was serious. "You are leaving me no choice, Asuna-san."

Asuna looked ready to bolt for a moment, but with no room to move, she couldn't get past Iincho without hurting the other girl. Finally, with no choice left, she relented. "Fine. But we have to go out to Eva-san's resort." At Ayaka's questioning look, she paused. "I'll explain later. Let's get out of here before somebody else comes in," she said.

They opened the stall door and stepped out together just in time for Ako, who had just entered the bathroom, to see them together.

"Ah…ah…I'm sorry!" she squeaked as she ran from the bathroom.

"Ah…?"

"Oh crap!"

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The two exited the school and headed out past the still-closed-off athletic field, and were just about to enter the woods when an injured man stumbled out and clung to Ayaka.

Naturally, Ayaka shrieked.

"..yaka-chan…" he muttered as he leaned on her, forcing her back several steps before he tripped and fell, smearing blood on her clothes and almost accidentally pulling down her skirt.

"Iincho! Get back!" Asuna shouted, shoving a hand into her pocket as she pushed the class rep back with the other.

Ayaka stumbled back out of the way as the bloody man kept going, crawling pitifully with an injured arm toward the school. "…un…run…" he said, his voice coarse.

Ayaka set herself to rights and finally spoke. "…Wheeler-san? Is that you?"

"Run," he said as Ayaka helped him to his feet.

"Iincho, do you know him?"

"He is one of my father's business associates," she said hesitantly. "Wheeler-san, what happened? Were you in a wreck…?"

"Robot…" he managed to say before he started coughing and fell back to his knees. Asuna was instantly on edge, her hand fishing around for something in her other pocket as she turned to face the trees the man had come out of.

"Don't speak, Wheeler-san, I'm calling a doctor," Ayaka said as she pulled out a cell phone and began dialing. There was a distant, distinctive sound of a fallen tree snapping, and Asuna starting digging around in her bag. Ayaka couldn't get an answer on her phone, the line was busy. She flipped the phone shut just as a nearby tree fell over, revealing what had been chasing Wheeler.

Asuna muttered angrily and yanked the sword case from her shoulder, taking out the sheathed katana held inside. She took hold of the hilt and drew a sword with a blade as black as night. Asuna shook her head a bit as something foreign seemed to shoot through her mind, then charged at the robot. Ayaka could only watch in open-mouthed wonder as Asuna's sword sliced through it easily, neatly chopping off the head, left shoulder, and left arm in one large chunk, which slowly slid off to the side and hit the ground with a solid thump.

Asuna turned to look back at her. "Run, Iincho!" The robot took a wide, awkward swing with its right arm that sent Asuna flying. Ayaka screamed as the other girl bounced off a tree with a grunt; she took a hesitant step back and almost fell when Wheeler grabbed her ankle.

"…take it…" he wheezed, holding out a mini-laptop. She took it automatically, distractedly trying to avoid the blood that had dripped on it while simultaneously backing away from the robot and staring in shock at Asuna. "…run…away…" he gasped, and then the robot stepped on him and slid, and…things…came out of his mouth as he spasmed and rolled a bit like a rug on a rough floor and Ayaka shrieked again.

Then the robot came apart in three chunks and Asuna stood on the other side with her sword, breathing heavily and holding her side, but otherwise unhurt. She looked down at Wheeler and quickly looked away. "Ayak—Iincho? Are you alright?"

Hounded by terrible dreams and paranoia for weeks, Ayaka's legs finally failed her and she dropped to the ground as she tried to scramble away from the dead man, almost dropping the mini laptop when she realized she was still holding it. After a moment, Negi flew up on his staff. "Asuna-san! What—Iincho-san?!" He fell silent when he saw the dead man. The others quickly arrived at a run.

"Wheeler-san…he…" Ayaka felt her stomach roiling as she looked at what remained of her father's old friend. He had been more like a close uncle to her, and now he was dead. Wrapped up in those thoughts, she didn't even notice that Negi had been flying.

"Don't look, Iincho," Asuna said quietly as she knelt by the class rep, blocking her view of the corpse. "Negi, hand me the sheath, ok?" She replaced the sword in its sheath and offered a hand to Ayaka, who looked at her blankly for a moment. "Come on, Iincho, we can't stay here. There may be more of them."

Ayaka nodded dumbly and let them help her to her feet. It was then that she noticed the people around her. "Negi-sensei…? You…"

Negi tried to hide his staff behind his back. Asuna was starting to feel sick from being so close to the dead man, and from the faces of the others, most of them were as well. Kazumi was very pale, and Konoka was shaking her head and tearfully muttering something that sounded like "I can't do it, it's too late," over and over again. Setsuna was staring at the body with a kind of morbid fascination. Asuna had never seen a dead man so close before, not that she could remember; she could have reached out her arm and touched him from her current position. It brought back strange half-memories that she desperately didn't want to recall, so she turned away again.

"You flew…" Ayaka said suddenly, looking at the teacher.

Negi looked around for help, finally settling on Asuna, who seized at the opportunity to divert her attention from what had just happened.

"You might as well tell her. She saw everything, Negi," the girl said shakily as the group started moving away.

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Author's note: Well, I meant for this chapter to be humorous so the mood could be lightened a bit, but…yeah. Sorry about that. Also it's full of conversation, so it's not as long as it looks. In any case, it's about five pages too short as far as I'm concerned.