Disclaimer: I don't own Gatchaman. If I did, I would change nothing.
She gave a sigh. Stretching and then standing up, the flames were now calm again. "Well, it wasn't exactly the freezer. But we still sank. Like a rock. A big blue and red, burnt and battered rock with small traces of radiation scalded onto the hull along with the rear half of the ship missing. We kept sinking until we hit the bottom of the river and settled there, which roused Ryu enough to bring him back to consciousness. He was bleeding a bit from under the helmet, what from I'm not sure but he was still alive and breathing. Sure, he was dazed as hell and had no idea what happened but he was alive. Once he gathered his wits about him, he tried activating the thrusters but as we know, the rear of the ship was in tatters so that wasn't going to do anything. He wanted to go check the engine room, but as he approached the turbo-lift, he saw that water was pouring from the top of it which meant that the water level was rising inside the ship. With nothing working and water leaking in, he activated a brief diagnostics while he started securing the bulkheads manually. It took a little bit of time, especially since the bulkheads are naturally stiff but it was designed so that the team could close them if needed with a bit of effort. Ryu was still dazed and shaky so he was having some difficulties in closing them. By the time he closed it, diagnostics was finished." She gave a sigh, shaking her head.
"Remember what I said about escaping the frying pan and entering the Freezer? How we escaped a nuclear explosion, a mountain falling on us and an out of control flight path. Well now we were stuck underwater, the rear thrusters destroyed and the engine room was completely flooded and was leaking into other parts of the God Phoenix. If he didn't secure the bulkheads within the next hour or so, then, the pressure would have eventually broken through and flooded the room. Luckily, the God Phoenix was designed to be fully submersible and had a lot of insulated and protected wiring. We had every function still working, except the engine. He sent out an emergency broadcast on an ISO frequency and set about checking to see what was working and what wasn't. The radar did detect several ships closing in on our position but since they were unmarked, we weren't too optimistic about whom they were but with us dead in the water there wasn't much he could do. He decided to settle in and wait it out and boy was that a mistake." She shook her head.
"The God Phoenix was designed to dump heat rather than retain it, since it did a lot of high-speed flying and manoeuvres especially since it was designed to go fiery and had to cool down quickly. So with no engines running the ship was basically dumping heat without generating any, making the place get cold really fast. He was shivering now, the emergency blanket doing little to help out and his bird-style wasn't the warmest thing to be wearing. To give you a clue, I'm technically wearing it as well." She spread her arms, exposing her red and blue bird-style that was similar to the God Phoenix's colours. "Yeah, not exactly great underwater wear is it, especially in a freezing situation? So, combined with his slightly dazed state, the risk of him falling asleep was immense and he may not wake up from it." She pauses for a moment, before looking to the distance. She then puts on a knowing grin appeared and shook her head when the other figure asked a question.
"I'll tell you once I've finished, I'm almost done anyway. So back to our story. I did the only thing I could do to help. I wrapped my presence around him and set about trying to invoke feelings of warmth. It worked, kind of. Our connection was stronger than expected and I could swear we were doing our own version of the Hinotori state, but he was shivering a lot less so I didn't care, I just kept holding him close and speaking about warmth and beaches. He managed to stay awake, I was really helping in a way. Until we were boarded." She gave a sad shake of the head.
"The relief we both felt was immense when proximity alerts warned us about non-ISO members were on board the ship. This was when his guard slipped. Relaxed at the thought of being saved, or killed if they were Galactor he closed his eyes for a moment and started to rest. By the time I could sense several humans enter the ship and approaching our position, he was fast asleep despite me trying to wake him up. I had no way of defending him since my powers were too weak to affect physical beings yet. I tried sensing their presence, which told me that they were weary but not too aggressive. They apparently already knew about Ryu being on board already and they didn't have Galactors aura at all. By the time they reached the cabin and wrenched the bulkhead open, much to my shock, they had a group of guards and medics enter. A medic began checking over my Owl as some guards and what looked like a robot started examining the ship. The medic removed his helmet to examine where the bleeding was whilst covering him with another blanket they brought with them. They mentioned something about exhaustion, possibly a concussion, some minor burns and hypothermia before ordering him to be taken to medical straight away, which they did kinda made sense. The Hinotori is stressful under ideal circumstances, entering a dimensional rift, on his own must have been exhausting. Combined with me focussing on getting us through quickly he must of felt the heat burning him rather than the effect being reduced." She gave a helpless shrug.
"I couldn't do anything else, so I parted my essence from the God Phoenix so I could watch what was happening to Ryu. I saw them taking the ship up to the surface before flying up and onto a large, flying ship, which then took him to the ship's infirmary to receive medical attention. Once I was sure he was safe, I decided to do a bit of exploring. I found such alien things in the world, stuff that shouldn't exist or should exist but was, different somehow. As I kept expanding my senses, I felt something lightly touch my essence. It was you and, well, you know the rest."
She stops there for a moment, gives another stretch and a sigh before turning to the other figure. "So that's my story on what has happened, and now you…" She pauses, before glancing off into the distance again.
The flame clad figure tilts her head in confusion again. "Well, that's the end of the story. So why are you looking that way again?"
Phoenix shakes her head and turns to leave. "He woke up a few moments ago, none worse for wear but I just sensed his presence again and it's tinged with regret and urgency. He needs me now. Farewell sister, we will meet up again someday, I'm sure of it." With a flare of red energy, she leaves the flame-clad figures mind and returns to the God Phoenix. Her spiritual essence getting around undetected, speeding all the way to the flying ship that currently had her physical shell on its deck in a matter of seconds.
As she re-enters the physical shell, she briefly connected with Ryu's mind, who was currently seated on his seat and reviewing the diagnostics he has apparently re-ran while she was away. Sifting through his memories to find his most recent ones, she gave a sigh upon witnessing what he saw. She couldn't examine the people's minds here, only the Science Ninja team's minds were capable of being read by her, so she only had their auras to go off by and now that she could do a quick check, she confirmed that Ryus thinking was pretty much correct. Curiosity and desire, tinged with anger and fear at what the Owl has done.
She watched her Owl utter a prayer before asking for her forgiveness for what he was about to do. She responded with all the reassurance she could muster. "You're forgiven…"
He pauses then, looking around in confusion. There wasn't much time left according to his mental countdown, so she spoke again. "Fly Owl!" He shook his head and stepped onto the bubble platform and let it rise up, his thoughts flying between what he's doing, his memories of the God Phoenix and the team. She could feel him want no, need reassurance. They weren't anywhere near home, so Gatchaman won't be coming to save him. So she made a decision that will change his life in the future.
"I will always be with you, my Owl…" With that vague statement complete, she splits off a portion of her power, sending some of it through the closing rift and to the next God Phoenix that Nambu will create to combat Galactor, the power of the Hinotori going to them. The main part of her power, her essence included was fully separated from the broken ship. Her power flared up slightly as she delves into his mind, his form shimmered in fire for a brief moment before settling, leaving him confused, despite leaping off the bubble and down onto the deck of the ship...
Until the day she was needed, she would stay in his conscience, waiting for the time when a suitable container was found or when she was needed. Until then, she'll take a brief nap. All this energy expenditure by helping to protect the ship when traversing the dimensional barrier and protecting her owl sure exhausted her.
Yes, rest sounds really good...
A/N: The final chapter of the fic, done and dusted. So how was it? Probably a little rushed in places, little to no beta-reading (dunno who can beta-read so meh) and a fairly peaceful response (no flames means it was not crap, so yay! Although no Reviews means it wasn't that compelling. Oh well).
This chapter ties this fic with my next one, which, interesting piece of trivia, is actually chapter 1 of the series according to my draft notes (This is technically the prequel, but it was more well-written compared to the original that it got published first, so it's not a prequel despite it being one), once it's been finished with the draft, updated to story-wise and then proof-read several times it'll be posted. Also, hints at what's going to come in the future in the series (which was actually one reason why the storyline is like this to begin with). I'll probably will post a review chapter at the beginning of the next fic, just to summarise the important information parted from this fic for that one (not really needed but I want to).
Again, please critique honestly, I want to know of any mistakes I've made whether it's spelling or grammer mistakes. As this fic was in the final proof-read part of the posting, the next fic will come up either next week or a week after. I already have the draft done and am just converting rough lines to actual storyline.