And finally, I have this chapter up^^

As always, make sure to read the authors note at the end of this chapter for explanations and stuff.

Disclaimer: I do not own AKB0048, nor it's characters.

Chapter 8: NO NAME

After having finished only one song, River, the successors retreated back to the Flying Get. Several of them fell down to her knees, and started crying. The understudies ran over to them with water bottles and towels.

"Sae! Good work out there!" Megumi ran over to the trembling successor with a water bottle, and a towel. "Sae?"

"I can't take this anymore..." Sae replied, and her tears spilled over. She trembled once again, and threatened to fall forward, and Megumi caught her, and gave her a hug, before leading her to a chair where she could sit down.

"Sae..."

Before the heavy atmosphere got quiet for too long, Mariko spoke up.

"I want to believe them." She said. "I want to believe in the people of Akibastar. They have always supported us before." Kanata smiled at her friend.

"You're right. Their warmth, sincerity, and smiles gave us the strength to come this far."

"Even if they come to hate us, I'll never hate them. I believe in them, them and the kindness they've given us until now!" Mariko added, knowing fully well that everyone in the room was listening at their conversation.

"Mariko-san!" Yuka exclaimed, voicing the lifted spirits of all the idols.

"She's right!" Makoto added. "I mean, they were kind enough to show kindness towards a lousy, useless girl like myself! They showed me enough kindness to become my fans! They're the kindest people you can meet! If we won't believe in them, why should they believe in us? Besides, if we don't believe us, then karma's gonna bite us in the rear!" She made an 'X' sign with her arms over her head, and everyone started laughing.

"I'm not sure if you're negative, or positive." Yuka said, which just added to the laughter.

"Then there's only one thing to do! Everyone! Kanata-san!" Nagisa looked at her fellow 77th generation understudies. "Mariko-sama!" She turned to Mariko, and then Megumi. "Megumi-san!"

They nodded, and joined in a circle, and forming a circling chain with their fingers.

"All right! Here we go! Always calm, kind and just!" They said in unison. Sonata continued.

"Smiles and happiness for all!"

"That's right, Sonati." Suzuko added. "Smiles for all!"

"And for all doesn't mean just us." Orine smiled. "It's for everyone on Akibastar, and everywhere else as well!"

"Let's go!" Kanata exclaimed. Everyone nodded, and jumped up on their flying boards. They formed their starting position for Niji no Ressha, and flew off the stage of the Flying Get as the music started. When they started singing, the angry chants were as loud as ever, but the understudies managed to sing even louder than the screams. As they got closer and closer to the chorus of the song, the screams faded ever so slightly. The kirara was shining as if there'd be no tomorrow, and the crowd was beginning to understand the feelings of the singing girls.

"I can hear it..." Yuko slowly rose up from her lying position on the stairs. "Music..?" She asked, as she heard a tune which took a second for her to recognize.

"Everyone is singing." Yuko turned her head, and saw the one who had uttered the words. She saw a brilliantly shining, huge girl.

"Acchan!" Yuko exclaimed.

"So we meet again, Yuko." Acchan smiled. "You see… The Centre Novae were summoned by Sensei-Sensei… No, the collective unconsciousness of all living things, channelled through the Kirara and integrated by the dualium."

"The collective unconsciousness?" Yuko asked.

"If entertainment disappears from the universe, the hearts of the people would lose their light entirely." A new voice cut in. When Yuko turned her head, an equally big Yuihan the 6th appeared.

"And that's why the collective unconsciousness formed through dualium resonance has gathered us Centre Novae here, in the space theatre where DES won't be able to get to us. Not, that we wouldn't be able to blast them right out of here. I mean, all of us here have 'the ultimate radiance'." Yuko turned again at the sound of another voice, and saw one of her predecessors. Oshima Yuko the 7th. The older Yuko grinned. "It sure feels weird speaking to someone wearing the same name as yourself... I've got to admit, you've been quite the Yuko." Yuko the 7th shrunk, along with Acchan and Yuihan, to the same size as Yuko the 9th. "Though, you're still nothing compared to me." The older Yuko's face went from dead serious to one of laughter when she saw Yuko's face. "Yup, you're a Yuko all right!" She laughed, before smiling. "All 00-members are unique, even if as example you and me, or Acchan and Maeda Atsuko the 14th share the same successor-name."

"Acchan the 14th?!" Yuko exclaimed. As far as she knew, the Acchan in front of her was the last one to hold that name. A new one couldn't have been born when she was on the stairs, right?

"Yuko, don't get sidetracked." Yuihan said, sending a not-so-happy glance the way of Centre Nova Yuko, who just waved it off and laughed slightly.

"As Yuko was saying, we sing here forevermore, out of reach of the DES, so that the hearts of humanity will never truly be consumed by darkness, and so that the light of hope will never fade." Acchan added.

"The light of hope?" Yuko asked.

"Yeah. When, or IF, that light disappears, the hearts of people will be swallowed by darkness." Centre Nova Yuko replied.

"Though, if you, and the rest of your generation of 00, can protect the entertainment in what you call 'reality', that future may never come to pass." Yuihan smiled, but the youngest generation Yuko took a step back.

"That's impossible! You're asking too much of me!" She said.

"Hm." The older Yuko leaned closer to her successor, studying the other closely. "Maybe you're not as much as Yuko as I thought… I'd never have said something's impossible, and from what I've seen of you, I'd say the same… Yes, we have been watching you, you know. From what I've seen of you, you'd never say that it was impossible a month ago."

"That's not it..." The successor replied. She looked down.

"Then what is?" Acchan asked, smiling kindly.

"If… If I'd go back to 'reality', my dream wouldn't be fulfilled…" Yuko said, and looked back at the Centre Novae. "If you've been watching me, you know that my dream is more important to me than anything!"

"That's it?" The older Yuko said. "I mean, if you go back, you can always complete the Centre Novae journey later. If you stay here, you won't be able to climb any higher than this. A small setback like that shouldn't stop you."

"You don't get it!" Yuko yelled. "I kept on walking around stating that Maeda Atsuko the 13th was my rival. That I'd become a more radiant Centre Nova." She paused for a second. "No, it's not a matter of pride!" She stopped Yuihan's question before it left her mouth.

"What I didn't realize, was that you weren't my rival!" Yuko turned to Acchan solely, and she had tears in her eyes. "All I really wanted was to sing beside my idol, Atsuko Maeda!"

Acchan smiled and leaned forward, embracing Yuko, and enveloping her in purple light. "But Maeda Atsuko is right at your side." Four Kirara's one being Yuko's own note-shaped floated past their heads, in the direction of something behind Yuko. Yuko turned around, and saw something that looked like a window to Akibastar.

"It looks like the Gate is about to open." Yuihan smiled. "Don't worry, you're radiant enough to become a 'true' Centre Novae. You have what it takes to climb the rest of the stairs. All you need to do is find the parts hidden."

As the song ended, the girls on flying boards lined up in front of the crowd, which had started shouting angrily again.

"Everyone! Please listen!" Kanata's voice was projected from the speakers of the Flying Get. "We realize our temporary retreat from Akibastar may have caused a misunderstanding. Please forgive us!" The idols bowed.

"But we want to protect our home, together…" Kanata trailed off due to the screams of the mob. The mob lit torches which they threw in the direction of 00.

"I don't think we can get them to understand." Suzuko said to her friends. She had turned off her mic, so the people couldn't hear her.

Nagisa flew forward. She hadn't turned off her mic. "Please, listen to us!" She said. "We're not your enemies! We just want to sing and show our love!"

She continued flying forward towards the crowd, but was hit off her flying board by a book, which someone in the crowd had thrown at her. She fell down on the ground, and Yuka rushed to her side, whipping up her micsaber.

"Yuka, don't!" Nagisa slowly rose up, and continued walking towards the crowd. She got hit several times by things thrown by the crowd. "You can hate us all you want..." She said. Yuka made an attempt to run up to Nagisa to help her, but Nagisa stopped her with her next words.

"But… even if you hate us..." Nagisa said, her voice being carried through the speakers of the Flying Get. Akibastar went dead silent. Her Kirara materialized, and zoomed up over her head where it started glowing intensely in orange. "Please don't hate songs and entertainment!" Nagisa screamed, and started shining in purple.

The crowd gasped at the sight of Nagisa.

"No way..." Yuka mumbled.

"Nagisa!" Orine smiled with tears of happiness and pride in her eyes.

Nagisa had started glowing purple, and, for a brief moment, Acchan the 13th stood in her place.

"You know, two things have always inspired us… Inspired me. They've always given us courage… Entertainment, which have defined the ages through all of history, and AKB0048. I don't want them to end with our generation." The purple light around Nagisa faded, and she fell down on her knees. She was breathing heavily, and Yuka and Kanata finally ran over to her, and got down on their knees beside her..

"Nagisa!" Yuka said.

"Are you all right?" Kanata asked, and Nagisa nodded, despite clearly not being 'all right.' Yuka put a hand on her forehead, and gasped.

"You're burning up!" She said after retracting her hand.

No one said anything for a while, the only main thing that could be heard was Nagisa's breathing. Because of this, the sound of flying engines could be heard quite clearly, and the source was quickly noticed by the idols.

"DES." Kanata said. "Nagisa, get to the Flying Get. You're in no condition to keep singing."

"No." Nagisa slowly rose up on steady legs, and Yuka and Kanata rose up as well. "I have to keep singing." Nagisa said, and her flying board which she had fallen off earlier flew over to her.

"But Nagisa, if you continue, in your current state..." Yuka exclaimed, but what cut off by Nagisa.

"Thank you, Yuka." She said. "But I can't simply sit by and do nothing while you fight to take back Akibastar. I have to continue, I want to keep singing, right here, right now!"

Her words made both Kanata and Yuka smile in awe.

"Alright, everyone!" Kanata called back to the other girls. "We're up!"

The idols nodded, and Kaze wa Fuiteiru started to play from the speakers of the Flying Get, with Nagisa and Megumi as centres. The DES robots landed, and started firing bullets at the singing girls who evaded them easily.

The fight between 00 and the WOTA against the DES (well, 00 didn't really do anything but sing, avoid the attacks, and be a distraction for the DES robots) didn't go in anyone's favour really, until another DES joined the fight from the opposite side of the singing idols. It shot a barrage at them, and all of the shots fired flew between the idols - even if it had surprise on it's attack. The bullets continued into the DES robots on the other side, and took down several of them. The mechsuit flew up into the air, and fired another barrage of bullets at the closing in DES robots, who, frankly, let it do it, since they registered the defector as one of them.

The idols did of course not miss this, but didn't make a deal out of it, because firstly, they couldn't stop the song, and secondly, if it really was a DES shooting down it's comrades, then they wouldn't complain.

As the girls kept on singing, slowly, but surely, a green light formed over their heads, and after a few seconds, several colourful rings sprouted from the light, forming a Gate.

"Please break open a new world from this land once more" A voice which all the idols knew rang through all of Akibastar as it sang along.

"This voice..!" Mariko exclaimed.

"Yuko-san!" Nagisa followed suit.

And sure enough, only seconds later, a certain brown-orange haired girl flew out of the Gate. She was, as usual, singing and dancing both flawlessly and dynamically. Her uniform changed colour, and she joined in on the performance. Yuko said something in her ear-piece mic, but the other idol didn't need to hear it. They'd find out soon enough.

As the song neared the end of the first chorus, all of the lamps and projectors on the Flying Get shone on the buildings of Akibastar - and some of them had definitely seen better days - but the focus wasn't on them. On every building that was illuminated by the light of the Flying Get, there was a picture being projected against the walls. And all of them were happy moments, before AKB0048's retreat of Akibastar, and they were all taken by Yuko the 9th.

Of course, the pictures was a nice surprise for fans and idols alike… Except for Yuko, whom it wasn't a surprise for her.

"Akibastar!" Yukirin exclaimed, clasping her hands in happiness.

"That's right..." Yuka added. "All of us love Akibastar!"

"You might resent us..." Orine said, clearly talking to the crowd below the singing girls. "You might hate us… Even so..!" Several surprised sounds could be heard from the crowd. Their confusion was born in the honesty of the idols.

"Even so," Mariko continued after Orine. "our feelings..."

"0048's feelings..." Kanata added.

"For everyone..." Sonata followed her sister, and Suzuko was not far behind.

"For all of you…" She said.

"Always..." Megumi added as she flew over to the edge of the crowd, and offered a high five to one of the fans, who gladly accepted, and returned the favour.

"Until the end of time..." Nagisa finished, in the same moment as their song ended. All of the idols lined up in front of the crowd, and Nagisa added a final part.

"We love you all!" She yelled, and her Kirara zoomed up over her head, and shone brightly, bathing Nagisa in a purple light.

At first the yells of response were few and hesitant, but then, they turned to a chant, which the idols could hear clearly, even if they would cover their ears, because they felt the same way as well.

"Acchan! Acchan! Acchan!" The chant just went on, and for a minute, that was the only thing that could be heard in Akibastar.

"Thay're all calling you." Yuko said, and turned to Nagisa. She hadn't turned off her earpiece mic, so all of Akibastar could hear her words. "Aren't you going to say something to them?"

"Do you feel it as well?" Yuka asked, and she turned as well.

"Yeah." Orine nodded. "They're saying that you're Acchan… And we all feel it too."

"Come on!" Kanata smiled. "Say something."

Nagisa nodded after wiping away the tears of happiness threatening to flow over. "Um… I'm the 77th generation understudy, Motomiya Nagisa. When we," She looked at the other idols, and glanced at the Flying Get as well. "came back here, we didn't have much of a plan. It was like we were grabbing after a straw. Even so, thanks to my dear friends and teammates, as well as the staff, and most importantly, you guys, the straw isn't a straw anymore. Thanks to you, we have been able to get this far. Thank you so much!" She bowed quickly, and stayed bent forward for a good ten seconds before rising up again, offering a big smile, as well as happy tears to the audience.

Nothing more happened for a minute, and everything was extremely calm. Too calm, according to most of the present. And of course, they were right. Suddenly, the sky went black. Not stormy-like black. It went black, as in the power to the climate control system got cut. This sent a wave of alarm through those present. And only seconds later, the crystally shields of the Flying Get appeared, and blocked several missiles, but, as the Flying Get wasn't in top condition, a few of the missiles made it through, and the lights projecting Yuko's pictures faded as the black smoke of the explosions slowly rose upwards. The idols heard several screams from the mass behind them, and they turned around, noticing several odd figures.

"DES!" Kanata exclaimed.

"No way!" Nagisa followed suit.

"They came from underground..." Yuko snarled. She did not want a repeat of the last time they fought the DES on Akibastar. If she was going to become a Centre Nova, then she wanted to be a true one, not what she managed to do the last time.

"Time to protect everyone!" Takamina ordered, her authority as 00's captain back in place. Even if Tsubasa was listening, and was completely capable of giving the orders, Takamina had full rights to that privilege, as long as her orders didn't collide completely with Tsubasa's. Tsubasa didn't say a word, as that was the order she had planned to give, if Takamina hadn't beaten her to it.

"Got it!" The other idols exclaimed, before whipping up their micsabers, and speeding towards the DES soldiers in the crowd.

The idols did easily avoid the bullets fired from their opponents, and did quickly close the distance. Yuko, going all out, as ever, sped towards a mechsuit, which she disarmed by with a fluid motion of first the micsaber in her right hand slicing the Mechsuit's leg clean off. What she should have aimed for though, was the gun-arm. At least she could blame that on being a bit rusty. Hey, she had practically gone Super Nova, and then gotten stuck on a set of stairs for several days (even if she didn't have any aspect of time when she was there). She didn't have to worry about it, either way. Kanata took care of the gun arm in the same manner as Yuko had taken care of it's leg; by cutting it off, literally.

Then, the WOTA joined the fight, and they took down several Mechsuits on their own, some with 00's assistance, some without.

Suzuko had flown towards a Mechsuit, which she had taken down quite quickly, and she had proceeded on to another one. Just as she finished that one off as well, she heard footsteps behind her, and when she turned around, she found herself cornered by a man in DES armour.

He quickly close in, and pried her Micsaber out of her grip, and grabbed her wrist.

"Let her go!" Nagisa yelled. The man turned around, and faced her.

"Don't pick on Linda!" Sonata yelled, and came flying like a rocket. She knocked the man down by the sheer force of her descent, and she crushed his visor in the process. "Pick on me, my sister's gonna kill you. Pick on Linda, Sonata's gonna kill you." She rose her micsaber to his face (which she only managed to do because of her flying board).

"Sonati..." Suzuko stood in awe. She knew Sonata could be really furocious, but she hadn't expected Sonata to blow for her. For Kanata, yes. Her, no.

"Sonata!" Nagisa exclaimed. She flew over to the younger. "Don't."

"He picks on Linda." Sonata stated stubbornly. Nagisa sighed.

"That's not how 00… No. That's not how we do it." She said. "We're not killers."

"... Fine." Sonata replied after a second. She lowered her micsaber, and turned away, only to quickly turn back to face the DES soldier. "But. If I catch you doing it again..." She turned around, and flew away to help Kanata deal with another DES robot.

"I'm sorry." Nagisa said to the DES soldier, who defensively rose his gun. Nagisa backed away a bit. "Sonata can be a bit… Unpredictable at times."

"Don't come any closer." The soldier said. He was clearly very nervous, and scared.

"I will respect that." Nagisa smiled. "But you know, fighting with weapons only bring sadness. Could you do me a favour?"

"Why should I?" The man replied. "And what?"

"It'll be a lot easier for both you and me if you do." She wasn't fazed with by his gun pointing at her chest. "I won't ask you to like 00, only to give it a chance."

"The wish you made one day lies sleeping in the earth. At the promised time a sprout of hope will push forth." Nagisa sang, and her Kirara materialized, and flew in slow circles around her. "Instead of fighting us, would you please listen to our song?"

"Nagisa-san, we need to join with the others." Suzuko said, as the tune to Kono Namida wo Kimi ni Sasagu began to play.

"Thank you." Nagisa bowed to the soldier, and Suzuko jumped up on her flying board, and the two flew up, and the other understudies joined them.

As they sang, they flew around circling the audience, and illuminating Akibastar with their radiance. When Nagisa flew closer to the ground, a DES soldier emerged from the crowd. He aimed at Nagisa.

"Cease, or I'll open fire!" He yelled, and fired one lone warning shot in her direction. She deflected it by pure reflexes and luck. Reflexes because she flicked the saber part on last minute, and luck because her micsaber was in the right place to deflect the shot.

She flew down to the ground, and stepped of her flying board, switching off the blade as she did so. She didn't stop singing, and the man fired several shots.

Nagisa was as surprised herself as the rest of the present people. Her micsaber wasn't on, no-one had jumped in front of her to deflect the bullets, and still the bullets ricochet before they could hit her. Her kirara circled around her, shining brightly, and when the DES soldier fired again, Nagisa realized that it was the light of her Kirara which was deflecting the bullets, for everytime a bullet was closing in, a bubble of light, much similar to the one Yuko had disappeared with, and the one they had created on Funghistar, appeared around her which prevented the bullets from reaching her.

As Nagisa realized it, she slowly walked forward, closing the distance between her and the soldier. When she got close enough, she grabbed the gun, and forced it out of his grip, before she let it fall to the ground. The song ended, and now, the Acchan chant was even clearer from the audience, and all of the idols was as awestruck.

"No kidding." Takamina said.

"Yeah." Yuko was at a loss for words. "She really stopped the DES with her song."

"Nagisa..." Yuka cried tears of pride. Orine hugged her.

"She really did it!" Orine agreed.

"Thank you, everyone!" Nagisa said, holding her mic to her mouth. She bowed. "I can't say more, than that! This isn't my doing. It isn't Yuko-san's, or Takamina-san's, or Orine's, or Yuka's either. It's everyone's doing! It's because you you've been wishing for this battle to end, I feel it!"

Several of the DES rose their guns towards Nagisa, but a lot of them didn't. They were stopped from firing by several of the successors, who, in one way, or another, made them drop their weapons - mostly without using force.

"If it wasn't for you all, me and the rest of 00 wouldn't have been able to continue singing. For that, I am grateful!" She turned to the DES soldier. "I know that, the DES have hearts as well, and that they do also care for the happiness of everyone above fighting. So, I am grateful to you as well." She smiled, and reached out her hand to the DES soldier whom she had unarmed. "Isn't that true?" She asked him.

Slowly, and shakily, he rose his hand in return, and took Nagisa's hand, who took it with her other hand as well. Her purple radiance enveloped the DES as well, and then a bright, shining dome appeared around them, which shot upwards in a pillar of light, and where it stopped, a Gate formed in less than a second.

"This..." Yuko said, covering her eyes. "...Radiance..." Even if she couldn't help but feel let down, she couldn't help but feel a bit proud too; she had called it, even if she had thought Chieri would get one of the titles Nagisa now had achieved.

"Centre Nova..." Takamina answered. She had been around long enough to have seen this happen before, with the exact same name and frankly, she wasn't surprised that Nagisa would become Centre Nova, since all Acchan's tended to be very radiant.

Only seconds after the pillar of light faded, an explosion made the already existing hole in the roof of Akibastar bigger, and a big battleship entered the airspace.

"A DES battle-ship?" Nagisa asked as she turned around to look at it.

"This is bad." Yuko said. "They want to dive into the Centre Novae Gate!"

"What?!" Nagisa exclaimed.

"And from the looks of it, they're after you as well." Yuko added as five crafts left the battleship.

"Takamina-san!" Kanata flew over to the captain. "We have to counter-attack!"

"Yeah, but if we decide to take on a fully armed battleship head on without plan, it'll just result in casualties."

"So there is nothing we can do?" Nagisa asked. She was expecting an answer, and she got one, but not from the person she guessed would answer.

"You're the Centre Nova, on top of being Maeda Atsuko, and Takahashi Minami, the captain of 00. Come up with something." The voice of Sono Chieri sounded in their ear pieces.

"Chieri?!" Nagisa was the first to react. "Wha..? Where..? How..?"

The other idols had similar reactions only seconds later.

"Don't worry about that now! You have a battle-ship to deal with." They heard a faint beep, and no matter what they did, Chieri wouldn't reply.

"What are we going to do, captain?" Yuko asked, and turned to Takamina, after all, she was the one with the most experience.

"I think I might have an idea." Nagisa stated, making the others look at her. Becoming Centre Nova did wonders to her confidence. "Yuko, please protect the Gate. As for everyone else, we're going to use everyone's emotions and end this sadness." Her voice sounded in all the others' earpieces, and they nodded.

Takamina smiled at the proposition, and added her own order. "All right, successors, fan out. We'll take care of the robots. If Nagisa is going to get to the battleship, and somehow get it away from here, then we'll keep the DES' crafts away from her."

Nagisa nodded in thankfulness. She was not used to ordering people around. "Yuka, Orine, Megumi, Kanata, Sonata, Suzuko, Makoto, and Mariko, could you help me?"

The mentioned girls nodded, and replied positively.

"All right, let's hope this works!" Takamina said, and the girls separated, with the nine girls who were to perform joining up instead.

They swiftly moved into position, and Kibou ni tsuite started to play. By the first few tones, a rainbow aura formed around Nagisa, and Kirara's formed into being very quickly around them, being attracted by the immense radiance gathered by the understudies. As they spread out to become harder to hit, the DES did immediately target Nagisa, but, thanks to her new-found courage and the choreography of the song, she avoided all of their bullets with ease, and several of the DES got taken down by LAS and idols on flying boards.

As Nagisa got closer to the battle ship, Megumi, Yuka and Orine joined her as more of the DES robots launched and opened fire towards the four. Of course, the bullets didn't hit; They just ricocheted off the bubble of light which formed everytime a bullet came too close.

Meanwhile, Yuko faced two DES robots herself; After all, she was interesting, because she became Centre Nova, disappeared, and came back without the title, so the DES registered her as someone to capture as well. Yuko let the DES close in before slicing them clean off on the middle in a swift motion with her micsabers. Another DES approached her from behind, but was quickly shot down by Sae, who had taken one of the Flying Get's LAS.

Kojiharu whipped up her wand when several DES soldiers in mechsuits surrounded her. She exclaimed "Heart Attack", and the command activated the wand, which, when she struck the men down in a quick motion electrocuted their armour, and shorted their weapons. Seconds later, she stood in a ring of groaning DES soldiers lying on the ground. Straight above her, Mayuyu took down one mechsuit after the other. She took down the first few ones by using the machine-gun in her arm, and when the others around her finally registered her as one of the more dangerous opponents, her limbs flipped inside out, and big, pink containers appeared around her, from which a huge barrage of missialumes emerged on her command. She played cute as always in front of an audience.

The understudies continued their song, and they got closer and closer to the battleship. Nagisa left the formation, and Megumi followed closely behind. As the two sped towards the big ship, one of the biggest cannons changed direction, and aimed towards them. The two girls continued, they couldn't stop, as the cannon started to charge up and glow yellow. In a matter of seconds, it fired, and got a dead hit.

Only, that it didn't. The beam of energy from the cannon would've hit, but the only damage dealt to the pair was an extremely strong wind. Around them was a shield formed by the Kirara's who were shining with the combined radiance of all of the idols. Nagisa and Megumi was protected by their friends.

When the energy beam subsided, the two shot forward again, and avoided the second beam of the cannon. The tunnel of light appeared around them, and Megumi could quickly feel that she was falling behind.

"Megumi-san?" Nagisa asked, her voice was weirdly clear.

"Yes?" Megumi felt like her voice was fading in comparison.

"I'm going in." Nagisa looked back, and gave a smile. "Please take centre for a while, OK?"

Feeling like her voice wouldn't be able to reach Nagisa, Megumi nodded, and gasped when the tunnel of light disappeared at the same rate as a white sphere of light formed around Nagisa.

The sphere of light zoomed towards the battleship, and then went through the wall. Inside the control-room, the main monitors suddenly turned white, and shone brightly. From the light, emerged Nagisa, which shocked pretty much everyone in the room. Then, she split into three, and this did of course unnerv the DES soldiers even more.

"So this is..." The captain spoke, completely awestruck. "...The radiance of a Centre Nova?"

While Nagisa sang for the DES inside, the other understudies performed in front of the audience, showering them with light. The Kirara's kept on coming, and they spread the radiance of the idols around, bringing the message out.

Suddenly, the DES battleship started to shine, and the idols realized immediatelly what it meant.

"The DES Kirara Drive..!" Kanata exclaimed.

"It's resonating with our radiance!" Mariko finished.

Only seconds later, that same ball of light sped out of the battle ship, and Nagisa emerged from it.

"Come on everyone!" Nagisa exclaimed. "Let's end this, right here, right now!"

"Right!" The others answered, and Megumi moved to the right, making place for Nagisa. Then, as the song came to it's climax, the light from the battleship expanded, and became a Kirara Drive Gate. The gate swallowed the battleship, and by the end of the song, it was completely gone.

Akibastar was re-taken.

"Wow..." Takamina said. She was completely awestruck, and proud, of the understudies and Nagisa in particular.

"I didn't think that we'd actually be able to pull it through." Yuko said, although being a bit bitter, happily.

"So this is the start of a new era, huh?" Yukirin flew over to Yuko and Takamina.

"Yeah." Takamina nodded. "Nagisa and the rest of those girls will lead it forward."

"But!" Yuko exclaimed, grinning cheekily. "I'm not leaving." The other two laughed.

"It's so beautiful!" Suzuko exclaimed as she sat down and looked down over Akibastar and the countless Kirara's floating around.

"The Kirara's look like stars!" Sonata cheered.

"No kidding!" Makoto laughed. "They're sparkling."

"This is lovely!" Mariko said. "Every one of these stars..."

"Every one of them are filled with the love and emotions of everyone here on Akibastar!" Orine smiled.

"Look!" Yuka exclaimed, pointing down. "The stars are connecting!"

"They're forming a constallation of hope!" Kanata looked down at the beautiful scene below them.

"A constallation of hope, huh?" Nagisa sighed happily.

"I knew you could do it." Chieri said in the earpieces. Pride was evident in her voice. "If someone's the right person to extend this constallation of hope to the rest of the universe, then it's you, Maeda Atsuko the 14th!"

As Chieri stopped talking, tears brimmed Nagisa's eyes. "Thank you, Chieri. I won't let you down!"

Yays~ The longest chapter yet!

Did you really think I'd leave Chieri out of the story completely? If so, surprise! But really, she wouldn't be able to stay out of the fight to take back Akibastar, and leave 00 to do the work alone. Besides, I can definitely see her hijack a DES mech-suit, to help fight in the fight.

For Megumi performing with No Name in Chieri's stead:
I figured that Megumi got to stand in and fill Chieri's position, as all of the 77th and 75th generation are already singing, and when one of NO NAME's spots was left open, one of the 76th generation would have to fill that spot. Out of the 76th generation girls, Megumi is the most talented/hardworking/skilled/something (which we find out in the 7th episode). Because of this, I figured she'd probably be the one to fill Chieri's position.

And for the Acchan/Yuko/Yuko/Yuihan conversation, where in the original anime, it's only a Yuko/Acchan conversation, I wanted the old Centre Novae to have a little bit more spotlight than just being pictures on a wall in the dorms, and titles. Besides, I doubt Acchan was the most radiant of all the past Centre Novae, since they all disappeared the second they achieved the 'Ultimate Radiance', as stated by Miichan. Besides, it was fun writing as the old Yuko as well. We all know that Yuko the 9th is rather serious, so I decided to make C.N. Yuko a bit more easy-going and playful, at least in this scene.

Also, everytime I've written just 'Yuko', not 'the older Yuko', or something else, it's Hikari (present Yuko/Yuko the 9th I'm writing.)

For Sonata's outburst against the DES soldier, we are shown several times that Sonata is rather possessive over things she consider her own, or people close to her. Suzuko is her #1 fan, and a really great friend as well. Because of that, Sonata got a bit mad when she was almost captured.

And Takamina being around when Acchan the 13th became a Centre Nova, doing the maths, on average, every Takamina would have been around with at least 2 Acchans (Takamina is the fifth generation, the previous Acchan is the 13th. Divide 13 by 5, and you get 2.6, so, generally speaking, every Takamina has been around at least 2 Acchans.)