Before the crowd

[ASG: The Approaching Dawn]

Joule watched Arisa as she was sitting down. Both of them had comfortable chairs which seemed odd to her at first. But really, why wouldn't the chairs in the waiting room be comfortable? The fact that Arisa knew what was going on was a new development.

Even then, even if they knew she turned, why would they change the chairs already in place. If they had swapped them with less comfortable chairs then that would just be petty.

Joule met Arisa's gaze and then looked up at the clock on the wall. It was only a minute or two until the performance began.

There were a lot of costumes up here and both she and Arisa had been forced into a matching set.

This was originally meant to be a solo performance right? Why had this all been set up already?

Regardless, while Arisa wore a red dress with a black flower headpiece, Joule wore blue with a white flower. It would have been nice if not for the growing terror that she'd be used to do... something on a global scale. It brought back memories of the last time.

She was close to a panic attack but knew if she fell into one then that was it. It's very likely that everything could fall apart.

Meeting Arisa's gaze again, Joule wondered how similarly the idol was thinking at this moment. Did they share the same worries?

Lumen had helped the others escape and they were on their way but they wouldn't get here in time. Joule was on her own. Well, she had Arisa at least.

So, her friends had met Lumen now. That would be quite the story to tell them when they got down. When, not if. She had to believe that it was possible. She had to keep the fear at bay.

"One minute girls, get ready."

Ladylee's voice over an intercom. She had left at some point, probably to get the best seats from which to watch her evil plan coming to completion.

Arisa stood up and Joule followed her. Arisa looked back to her and she smiled. It was a fake smile, Joule knew Arisa and knew how she smiled. While the crowd might not notice it was clear she was pained doing this. Joule put on a fake smile of her own and nodded as Arisa walked out on the stage.

She could hear the roar of the crowd followed by the announcement that "Arisa had help today."

Walking as if to her own execution, Joule approached the stage and joined Arisa in the lights and before the crowd.

She had never performed in front of this many people but if she messed up- No. She would not fail.

She gave a wave and the crowd cheered for her as well.

Now then, it was time to begin.

[ACMItm: Arisa's song] (I couldn't find it's actual name but this is just how I found it on youtube)

Gunvolt tilted his head as they raced down the hall. The performance had began without them.

Just then however, Shutaura collapsed to the floor, her head cradled in her hands.

"Are you okay?" Uiharu was the first to ask.

Shutaura shook her head and winced again "That damned noise."

"Noise? Is the music hurting you?" Misaka asked, still carrying Kuroko's sleeping form even after they had re-entered a part of the station with gravity.

The woman nodded before wincing again.

"I'll follow you, just shut them up!"

GV nodded to her and then to the others.

"She's right, let's go."

"But-" Saten was about to say something but GV had already rushed off.

Lumen floated behind as everyone followed after GV.

"I could help you, maybe." She tried "But I'm worried my songs would only hurt you more."

Shutaura didn't move but she did speak "Go, they may need you."

Lumen nodded and rapidly flapped in the direction the others had gone.

"So what's the plan now?" Misaka was asking GV "It's already started, are we going to crash the performance or something?"

Uiharu shook her head "We can't do that, we'd cause a mass panic."

A sigh came from GV "Most things at this point would cause a mass panic, at this point we just need to pick the thing that would cause the smallest panic."

"And that is?" Saten asked.

GV nodded "We get to their prep room backstage, when they next leave we rescue them away from there. The crowd's panic will be delayed by confusion."

"But what about Ladylee's threat?" Misaka asked "When we remove Arisa and Joule, what's stopping her from killing the spectators?"

GV cursed before stopping.

"Damn, missed that. Can you guys make your way to a security room? Misaka, you would be able to hack their systems right? Could you disable any purge systems they have?"

Misaka nodded.

"I can handle that."

The team broke in half again as GV made his way towards the backstage area.

Elsewhere, the Touma's team found an odd room and an odd girl inside.

"What do you think?"

They entered the room and saw Ladylee looking at some sort of three dimentional hologram.

Index gave it a look and blanched.

"What is that? That isn't rational!"

Ladylee turned round and gave her a smile.

"Ah, you must be the list of prohibited books. How nice to meet you."

Kanzaki raised her sword.

"What are you doing. What is she doing Index?"

Index considered for a moment when Ladylee remained silent.

"Trying to destroy the planet? That's my best guess from what I can see here."

"Not all of it." Ladylee replied "Enough though."

Touma's fist clenched "What the hell for?"

Ladylee gave an odd smile then "When you get to my age, there is one goal that I want beyond anything else."

The smile turned angry as she finished "Release, from this curse of a life. And not a moment to soon. I must thank you for bringing Joule along, she made all of this much faster."

"Joule?" Touma didn't understand.

Ladylee's grin didn't fade as she answered "You didn't know? I'm fairly sure that she's a saint too, or at least something close to it. A saint born of science perhaps? I don't know enough about her background to know for sure."

End of chapter

Woo, only a few chapters left.