Disclaimer: Mobile Fighter G Gundam is owned by Bandai and Sunrise. I just write about it in my spare time.
Author's Note: Many thanks to ALittleSalty1 for all her help with this story! Please check out her fanfics sometime!
On the Dark Side
Chapter 13: Is It Over Now? The Future Looks Brighter and Brighter
The low hum of the ships' engines became audible as the fleet drew near. Domon and Rain felt the Dark Gundam's contentment snatched away by mounting fear.
No! I cannot go back! it cried, They will dismantle me!
The humans tensed as its chest opened slightly and few cables spilled out. However, the tendrils simply dangled lifelessly.
ERROR! Motor systems not responding due to emotion processing taking up all resources! it explained.
Rain and Domon felt its fear intensifying in their minds. Rain's body trembled to the point of having to lean against a rock, and Domon buried his face in his hands.
"Get out of my head!" he screamed.
"Everybody calm down!" Rain shouted. She closed her eyes for a moment and felt around for the source point of the Dark Gundam's mental connection. She took several deep breaths to calm herself, then focused on sending that calmness to the panicked machine. Its fear subsided somewhat, just enough so that she stopped shaking.
"Listen," she told it, "you need to let them take you back."
I do not understand, the Gundam protested, If I allow them to bring me back to the base, I will be disposed of!
"And maybe you won't!" Rain replied, "You did some good things out here today. If you show them what you did, then perhaps …they may change their mind?"
The Dark Gundam's fear gradually faded and was replaced with a dull unhappiness.
It is highly unlikely that showing the military personnel my battle footage will affect their decision, it said.
"You could at least try," Rain said. A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead. She had run out of ideas, and she was afraid the machine would start panicking again.
Instead, its emotions abruptly stopped as it slowly turned its head in the direction of the test Gundam's wreckage. It stared into space for a few moments before turning back to the humans.
Perhaps my fears are irrational, it said cryptically. Upon further analysis, this situation is not as dire as I first thought. Therefore, I will allow the recovery team to return me to the base.
"Oh…that's good," Rain wasn't sure what happened, but she felt relieved.
But know this, the Dark Gundam added, When the military decides to proceed with dismantling me, I will find a way to escape again. I will make sure that they will not capture me next time.
Rain let out a small gasp as her body tensed.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Domon demanded.
The giant Gundam did not answer, instead looking up at the advancing fleet. The ships were descending and spreading out, surrounding the area.
The military vessels have arrived, the Gundam said, Therefore, I must take leave of you now, It looked back down at them, I hope that we can meet again soon so that I may experience more "love."
It then turned off its optics off. Its presence faded from the humans' minds. They stared at it in silence for a few moments, waiting to see if it would make a move.
Finally, Domon broke the silence with, "Leave it to the Dark Gundam to make love sound creepy."
As Rain turned to look at him, he added, "I gotta say, it's really amazing how you got it to listen to you."
"Well, it wasn't easy," she sighed.
"Let's just hope it keeps listening to you," he said.
Rain uttered some words of agreement, but they were drowned out by the roar of ship's engine. A medical ship landed a few hundred meters from their position along with a small squadron of armed Nobusshi.
She waved to them, "Over here! We've got a man down!"
"Aww, Rain!" Domon groaned, burying his face in his palms.
A medical team dressed in hazmat suits rushed out of the ship with stretchers and headed over to them as fast as the rocky soil would allow. The Nobusshi escort slowly followed, their weapons trained on the silent Dark Gundam. The team reached Domon first and quickly assessed his wounds. Deciding not to trust his DG Cell cast, they reinforced his broken leg with splints and tape. Then they carefully lifted Domon onto a stretcher, despite him insisting that he could walk it off. Another team hurried up to Rain.
"Are you okay, ma'am?" a medic asked through his respirator.
"I'm alright. Just a few bumps and bruises," she explained, "But it's probably better to carry me back anyway. This suit is actually made of DG Cells."
The team nodded and laid out the stretcher for her. She climbed in, and they swiftly escorted her off the battlefield. She looked up to see a cargo ship hovering directly over the Dark Gundam. Thick cables with tipped with bladed anchors shot out from underneath the ship and surrounded the quiet mobile fighter. The anchors opened, and the electrodes inside sprang out and began to glow. They created an energy net around the Gundam, and the ship carefully lifted it off the ground. Rain swore she saw a brief glint of green in its optics as it was slowly hoisted up into the hold.
The medevac team loaded her into their vessel along with Domon. As the bay door closed behind her, she shivered. She had a sinking feeling that this would not be the last she saw of the Dark Gundam.
The Dark Gundam peacefully rumbled to itself as it continued to enjoy the emotion known as "love." It didn't even mind when the humans loaded it back into its hangar and imprisoned it behind the energy barriers. It did not attempt to take a life unit, or even growl at its handlers. The humans had quite a few conversations over their radios wondering why it was so cooperative, and what it was actually up to. In reality, it couldn't fight back if it wanted to; most of its systems were still overloaded by the new sensation.
The Gundam watched as personnel secured the barriers before exiting its hangar. Because the main bay doors were still under repair, they had to close the emergency shutters behind them. Now alone, the machine spent the next few hours contentedly processing the data on the positive emotions. This had to be done first to free up its resources.
The door to the control room suddenly opened. Dr. Raizo Kasshu entered the room along with an unfamiliar male human that must have been a new assistant.
"As you can see, it appears to be offline right now," the doctor explained to his companion. "However, it's actually online at all times. Please don't try to shut it off - it doesn't work, and will only further agitate it. We may be safe thanks to those barriers, but we still don't want to risk anything."
The Gundam watched quietly as the humans started up their computers. It hadn't expected that its creator would come to work today; it had predicted his research would have cancelled effective immediately. It slowly began encrypting any data it did not want them to see, the process lagged by its still overloaded systems.
As it felt its creator's terminal connecting to its CPU, it recalled Rain Mikamura's suggestion to show them its footage from the previous battle. However, it decided against doing so; for the time being, it did not want anyone else to know about Major Ulube Ishikawa's revival after the Gundam Fight. That knowledge might jeopardize something the machine had in mind.
The Dark Gundam let the humans work as it returned to its data analysis of this mysterious new emotion. It had determined that with a steady supply of this "love," it would have more energy than it would ever need. It could easily restore Earth's biosphere without having to harm another human being. Its most generous estimates predicted that it would still be able to restore worldwide environmental damage even if a Gundam Fight was held every year.
It wished it had known about the power of this emotion earlier. If it had the capability to process this "love" from the beginning, then...
It paused. That fear response had suddenly returned. It decided to ignore it this time and continue its conclusion.
...If it had the capability to process this "love" from the beginning, then the violence during the previous Gundam Fight would not have had to happen.
The fear response was replaced with a new negative emotion. It found itself regretting its past actions, finding them detrimental to itself and its directives. Comparisons to human emotions showed that it was similar to Rain Mikamura's "sorrow." This sensation was unacceptable, so it quickly looked for rationalizations. It did not possess the ability to process emotions until a few months ago, and it is possible that it would have never gained it if past events had been different. Some violence was necessary due to being hunted by the Neo Japanese military and Domon Kasshu. Some of the violence was committed by its associates, and therefore-
Its depressive thoughts were interrupted by an error message. An unauthorized program had been transmitting data through its DG Cell network for the past couple of minutes. It was in communication with Rain Mikamura, who was still currently within range.
The Dark Gundam had just enough resources free to activate its antivirus scanner. It already knew what that unknown program was. It quietly grumbled to itself, followed by a long, deep sigh.
There was a knock on her door.
"Come in," Rain replied.
A nurse stepped in, with a gown and gloves on. He was carrying a large shopping bag.
"Good evening, Dr. Mikamura," he said, "A neighbor of yours stopped by to drop off your things."
"Oh, thank you," she said. "You can put it on the chair."
The nurse placed did as he was told. After reminding her to let him know if she needed anything else, he left and closed the door behind him.
Rain was back in the government hospital again. Hours earlier, she had undergone the decontamination process along with Domon and Ken. It was much faster for her this time, as the metal coating was still a gel and easily peeled off. She was currently quarantined in a room by herself. She had been sitting in bed, watching TV and awaiting her next anti-DG Cell treatment.
She leaned over and took a peek inside the bag. Not long after she had been transferred to her room, she had made a couple of phone calls. One was to get her car towed (hopefully it was still intact), the other was to ask Mr. Watanabe to send some stuff from home. She found a note from him right on top.
Ms. Mikamura,
Sorry to hear you're in the hospital again. Also sorry to hear your boyfriend's in there with you this time. Here's hoping your luck turns around, because I don't want to see you kids in there a third time!
I also wanted to let you know that the towing guys returned your car. I hope you don't mind, but I went in there and took everything out of it. The car was unlocked, and I didn't want anything to get stolen.
Anyway, here's hoping the both of you get better soon!
-Watanabe
Rain smiled to herself as she put the note down. She took another look inside the bag to find a change of clothes, and surprisingly, her phone. She turned it on and found four messages waiting for her. She had a good feeling she knew who they were from as went to her voicemails and pressed play.
"Heya, Rain! It's me, your old pal Chibodee!" a familiar New York dialect greeted her, "Anyway, I couldn't help but notice that my crest was going crazy last night! Is everything okay down there? If you guys need any help, feel free to let me know. Me and the gals will come runnin', okay? See ya later!"
Rain bit her lip as she paused the messages. She sat quietly for a moment, wondering what to tell her friends. Telling them about Ulube was a must, but what about the Dark Gundam? She was still under a gag order, after all. On the other hand, the thing had escaped twice since the Gundam Fight, and promised to escape again.
She couldn't do anything right now, however. Once she was out of the hospital, she'd make a careful plan to leak the information to the rest of the Shuffle Alliance. Right at the moment, she'd let them know she was fine, but she had something important to tell them later.
"Are you okay, Rain?"
Rain yelped and dropped her phone on the bed. She looked up to see Kyoji standing next to her bed.
"Sorry, did mean to scare you," he apologized.
"No, no, it's okay," Rain replied, "It's good to see you again. You were gone for so long, I thought the Dark Gundam might've done something to you!"
"It's tried to delete me a lot, but I always manage to move my files just in time," he explained, "For awhile now I've been hanging out on my father's computer. Makes it lag, but the Dark Gundam can't get me there."
"So I guess that means you're a...?"
"Computer program? Yes. I'm the template of the original Kyoji's personality. I was used in the creation of Schwartz Bruder."
"I see. That makes sense," Rain briefly recalled wondering what he was at one point. "You're definitely not a ghost, then."
"No, unfortunately. Wouldn't have to worry about getting deleted if I was!" Kyoji joked, smiling.
"So why are you here?"
"Earlier today, something strange happened," he explained. "I think I might have been knocked offline. All I know is that the internal clock on Father's computer suddenly skipped ahead a few hours, and the Dark Gundam's connection disappeared. When it was reconnected, it was very busy compiling data on some new power source. It didn't even notice when I uploaded myself back into its CPU. I checked its network to see Domon is on it now, and the both of you were in the hospital. Thought I'd ask what happened since both of you are still in range."
"A lot of things, that's for sure," Rain told him, "First...do you know anything about what happened right after the Gundam Fight?"
"A little bit," he answered, "Most of it is pieced together from the Dark Gundam's memory banks. I wasn't quite self-aware back then."
"Okay, well...do you remember Ulube being defeated the first time?"
"I've seen the footage of it." He paused, "By 'first time,' I'm assuming that means...?"
"He came back somehow," Rain continued. "He also got his hands on some experimental software that practically made him psychic. He was the one that stole those military mobile suits and attacked the Dark Gundam's cargo ship. Today, he used it to lure Domon into an ambush and took out the Burning Gundam!" She paused and frowned. "At the same time, the Dark Gundam managed to escape again because of an earthquake. It made its way to me, and we used its power to defeat Ulube again. We think he's gone for good this time, at least we hope so."
Kyoji raised an eyebrow. "…The Dark Gundam actually cooperated with you?"
Rain nodded. "Yeah, it did. I know this sounds crazy, but after that dream, I think it's learned to respect me! At least for now, anyway."
"It sounds like you accomplished a lot while I was gone," Kyoji smiled again. "Looks like you guys don't need me after all."
"Oh, don't say that!" Rain protested.
Kyoji chuckled. "Just kidding."
Rain smiled slightly. "So what are you going to do now?"
"I'll continue to keep watch over the Dark Gundam from the inside," he replied. "Someone needs to make sure it behaves itself."
"Are you going to talk to Domon?" Rain asked.
"I'm not sure," Kyoji sighed, his shoulders drooping, "I really want to say hello before the remaining DG Cells are removed from his body. But at the same time...he saw two versions of me die already. I'm afraid my presence will just upset him."
"Maybe," she said, "but it might not hurt to try anyway. He might be upset at first, but he'd probably be glad to know that you still survived in some way."
"I'll...have to think about it," he said, as he turned his gaze down at the floor.
A second later, he bolted straight up, eyes wide. He sneered as he whipped his head to and fro, glaring at some invisible objects above him. The room suddenly became cold and dark.
"Kyoji, what's wrong?!" she cried. "What do you see?"
"I think the Dark Gundam just realized I'm here," he answered, clenching a fist. "That would be my cue to go."
His form turned transparent. He turned back to her and the smile returned to his face.
"Just remember: I might be a program, but I still love you guys," he said as he began to fade, "I'll try to help in any way I can. Take care of yourselves!"
"Goodbye," Rain whispered as he disappeared from view.
The room returned to its normal brightness and temperature. She continued to stare wistfully at the empty space, in vague hopes that he would come back. Minutes passed and nothing happened. She sighed and looked at her phone. She didn't feel like listening to her other messages right now.
Night had fallen on the rocky stretch of land. Scorched soil, burned scrap metal, and small pieces of broken glass were all that remained of the earlier Gundam battle. A large pile of ash and slag marked the place where the test Gundam had been destroyed.
Something stirred in that ash. A twitching metal hand tried to pull itself out from under a plate of melted glass, but simply did not have the strength to. Ulube stared into space, trying desperately not to go offline again.
Earlier, he had managed to eject his core lander from his experimental Gundam. Unfortunately for him, the explosion was large enough to destroy the lander before it could escape. The lower half of his body had been reduced to useless sand. His right arm had fallen off and would not reattach. What was left him twitched involuntarily and occasionally produced sparks. Half of his "hair" had melted off too.
His self-repair systems were not functioning. Not even the new cells he had received from the Dark Gundam were mending themselves or the cells around them. His old cells were gradually shutting down and sloughing off. His CPU had been randomly shutting itself down and rebooting. His vision was plagued with static and fatal error messages.
He could think of nothing else to do but wonder where it had all gone wrong. He had found a program that gave him pre-cognition. He had Domon Kasshu right where he had wanted him – twice! He had even defeated the latest version of the Dark Gundam. How did he still lose?
The short answer was that the Dark Gundam was far more resourceful than he thought; he never expected it to combine with the Burning Gundam. But there was something more to it than that. There had to be another reason.
He thought about where his losing streak first started – the 12th Gundam Fight Finals. What did he do differently before then? He recalled that his fixation on power began after his humiliating defeat. Was his obsession the reason he kept losing? It couldn't be.
But maybe it was. Back then, he saw his opponents as human beings instead of objects to be dominated. After he became addicted to power, all of his best laid plans would fail in the end.
Was he wrong about the nature of power? His body continued to twitch as he thought it over. The Shuffle Alliance was able to destroy his Grand Master Gundam with the power of their friendship. Domon and Rain used the power of their love to combine their mobile fighters and nearly vaporize him.
If there was something to that, it was permanently beyond his reach. He hadn't had anyone he considered a friend or a loved one in ages. Even if he wasn't a rotting pile of nanotech, he wasn't sure if he was even capable of falling in love or forming a friendship. He had long suspected that he himself was a psychopath. This was a revelation that came too late. He slumped in resignation. This was the end for him.
Have you reconsidered my earlier offer?
Ulube shuddered uncontrollably when the voice in his head startled him. Just when he thought the situation couldn't get any worse…
Unable to speak, he messaged the demon back over their mental connection.
"Why are you here, Dark Gundam? What could you possibly want from me now?"
I wish to know if you will accept my offer to become my auxiliary life unit, the machine answered.
"Of course not!" Ulube replied, "I'd rather die than become a puppet again!"
He felt irritation briefly flash through the Gundam's mind before it immediately replaced with a muted sadness.
I understand why you are refusing, it said, I believe I have "make things up to you." Perhaps I can offer you something that will change your mind?
Ulube's ravaged body spasmed violently as he gurgled in rage. His fury almost caused his CPU to crash.
"You've taken everything from me!" he responded, wishing that he could scream. "You've taken my body, my life – you even took my mind! You can't just "make up" for what you've done! Don't you understand?! You can't just negotiate absorbing me! There is NOTHING you could offer me to make me go along with-!"
He quickly fell silent when he felt the Dark Gundam enter his mind. His decaying body shuddered all over, sending metal flakes flying. It invaded his memory and leafed through the recent files. He was too weak to fight it; all he could hope for was another random reboot.
You wish to know what the true nature of power is, and how "love" relates to it, it said.
Ulube's lip formed a shaky sneer as he hesitated, "...Yes."
While I cannot determine if "love" provides the most amount of power overall, I can tell you that it is a very potent source of energy, the Gundam explained, I have determined that with a steady supply of "love," I could restore Earth without having to resort to violence.
"Congratulations," Ulube replied, "I still won't become your-..."
A warm feeling suddenly came over him. His body stopped convulsing, and his glitching vision cleared up.
I will share with you the energy I received from Domon Kasshu and Rain Mikamura's 'love', the Dark Gundam told him, I will give you a small amount so that it does not overwhelm your systems.
The major had tuned the machine out, enjoying the sensation that had washed over him. It brought back pleasant memories of lying on his mother's lap as he listened to her humming, stroking his hair on breezy summer nights. Of his first time in the warm, sensual embrace of a woman in the heat of passion. Of being genuinely respected by his fellow soldiers. Of the night he was accepted by Neo Japan as their Gundam Fighter.
He closed his eyes, feeling the most content he had been in a long time. For the first time in years, he smiled, and that smile was the truth.
I hope it's really over now. That's what Rain thought as she sipped a cup of tea.
She was sitting out on her balcony again, having a drink and contemplating life. The air was much cooler now. Leaves were just beginning to turn orange or yellow on the maple and gingko trees.
It had been a week since the battle with Ulube. She had no more mysterious chills or bad dreams. The Dark Gundam never contacted her again, not even by text messages. Neither she nor Domon spotted any strange, shady people were following them around. There were no news reports about government cargo ships getting attacked, or military mobile suits getting stolen.
Hopefully, life would finally get back to normal. Rain put her teacup back down on the table as she looked down at the street below. There were a few people walking up and down the sidewalks. Sometimes they would enter a building. Sometimes they would cross to the road. It was nothing exciting, but Rain was glad not to have excitement for once.
That's when she saw him. He had his back turned to her. A man with shoulder-length, feathery hair in a blue jacket.
"Kyoji?!" Rain cried. She jumped to her feet causing the table to shake and her chair to fall over. She stepped up to the railing to get a better look at the man.
He turned around to open a car door. From what she could make of his features, he had a pug nose and a rounded face. Emblazoned on the front of his jacket was the logo of a local noodle shop. Definitely not Kyoji.
She sighed with relief as she walked away from the railing. As she picked her chair back up, she noticed that she had spilled her tea. This time, however, she remembered to bring napkins with her.
The tea didn't turn silver when she wiped it up. Yes, maybe things were finally over.
THE END
