The end of endymion, Part 1

[ACMItM: I have lived for a thousand years]

Misaka pushed her way into the unguarded security room and was quickly followed in by the rest of her group.

She darted over to the console and put down Kuroko before taking a quick look at the system.

Air purger? Disabled.

Airlocks? Locked.

Self-targeting munitions? Disarmed.

She quickly went over everything that Ladylee could use as a threat and locked it down.

It was only then that Lumen gave the warning. Ladylee's plan was already building up. They were too late.

Saten tapped her shoulder and Misaka looked round.

"Don't worry. Let's trust in the others to figure that out. We've still got to keep the people up here and down there safe."

Misaka nodded and checked the system again. The tower was still stable, so far at least.

"Ok, let's get to work."

[ASG2:Iolite]

Joule and Arisa returned to the stage.

The crowd seemed to regain some hope upon seeing them and that made Joule smile.

It was time though. She and Arisa began to sing.

For them, for everyone.

Touma raced through the station in the direction Index had told him. He kicked off walls to add to his speed and ran at a full sprint where there was the gravity to do so.

He knew he didn't have long at all.

To his ear was a walky-talky that they had taken from a guard earlier. Index and Misaka were on the same line, helping guide him toward the core of the spell.

"You have just over a minute left." Index warned "You'll have to make sure that you act quickly when you're in."

"I know."

He was at the highest part of the station and thus the location of the spell's core. He turned and headed into the room that Misaka had told him about.

The room was massive. It looked like it was full of floating crystals.

"I'm here. What do I touch?"

Index's voice was frantic "Center of the room, it should look brighter than the other crystals. 30 seconds!"

Touma ran into the center of the twirling crystals looking for the one she had mentioned.

"10 seco-"

He dropped the walky talky and dived for the crystal. His hand reached it and cracks shot threw it and into the air around it as if the air itself was preparing to break.

The cracks spread through the air to the crystals and then out the window onto the runic circles.

He could hear noise from the walky-talky and when he went to check he heard cheering.

"I got it then?"

"Yes." Index sounded truely relieved "The array has been struck. It can't activate now. Now it just needs to be disarmed safely. I'm on my way up now."

As Index and Kanzaki left the room, Ladylee was in despair.

"What do you mean? It can't have failed." Her voice was empty.

She crawled over to a terminal and signed in.

...Everything that she could have used for revenge had been disabled. Damn. Right. They had the two electromasters. Of course they'd do this.

She looked through the remaining systems she had access to before her eyes settled on one of them.

"Ah." At that moment an evil smile formed on her face.

"This is punishment. You don't think I should die, hmm? Well then. I won't. All of you will though."

Accessing the tower's anchor she tapped in a few keys.

"Emergency anchor release, approved."

[ACMItM: That's why I deny the existence of miracles]

"What have you done?"

The girl's music wasn't playing anymore.

Shutaura was standing above her. Ladylee gave a laugh.

"I've set off my revenge. You're all going to die now."

There was a gunshot. Pain bloomed in Ladylee's chest. It didn't stop her though.

"I've disabled the anchor that holds the space elevator up." She whispered through her damaged lung. "In maybe fifteen minutes the tower will fall. It'll be like the miracle all over again."

"What miracle?!" Shutaura grew heated and fired the gun again.

Ladylee just laughed a choked laugh.

"Is this about your father?"

Another bullet, this one aimed at her face. Ladylee lost sight in one of her eyes.

"So how do you plan to survive then?" Ladylee asked "Are you going to pray for a miracle too."

A fourth bullet, this one in her throat. That was annoying to Ladylee, it prevented her from gloating further.

Shutaura growled and turned away "Miracles don't exist."

The teams quickly got into communication and Shutaura filled them in on what Ladylee had said.

"The anchor?" Uiharu was actually scared by that news.

Most of the others didn't know what it meant though so she explained.

"The space elevator is made of three main pieces that all must be in a straight line. The elevator itself, the station and the anchor. The anchor's job is to prevent the tower from wobbling and keep it stable. If it's gone the entire elevator will fall!"

"How do we stop it then?" Gunvolt asked quickly.

Uiharu was silent for a while "I don't know if we can. If the anchor cable was detached, we can't exactly go and re-attach it. Anti-skill might be able to activate a purge system on the ground that will cancel out some of the wobbling but we can't stop the tower from falling."

"So what do we do?" Arisa asked. She and Joule had left the stage again and the crowd was getting worried.

Shutaura was the next to answer but it took her a moment "I'm fairly sure the elevator has escape pods. We might be able to get some of us away."

"No!" Arisa was determined "We are not leaving the crowd behind and escaping!"

"Then what!?" Shutaura yelled over the walky-talky "What do you want to do!?"

"It's impossible isn't it?" There was a kind of emptyness in Saten's voice "We saved the planet but can't save the crowd or the city."

"Umm?" Index spoke up.

"I'm sorry." Arisa apologised "This is my fault."

"Yes it is/No it isn't" Shutaura and Joule spoke at the same moment.

"People?" Index tried again.

"I might be able to save them." Kanzaki suggested "I'm a saint. Self-sacrifice for the good of the many is one of the things I could do."

"Self-sacrifice? But what would happen to you?" Touma asked.

"I'd die, most likely." Kanzaki concluded.

"No!" Index finally yelled "Everyone, I have a plan."

"Index?"

The girl in question nodded.

"We'll need to make our own miracle. We have two... three? We have some amount of saints here and a crowd who need them. Arisa, we'll need you to make another miracle. Joule can help you and I'll see if I can use Ladylee's stored power to help too."

"That can't possibly work though." Shutaura noted "How would she be strong enough to save the station and the city."

Finally Arisa spoke.

"Just watch me! I'll do it!"

Joule nodded to her friend and spoke into her own walky-talky.

"Count me in too. Let's do this."

Shutaura sighed and muttered "F***ing hell."

End of chapter.

Part 2 is next week (And it should be the last bit of the main story. We'll still need wrap-up chapters but after that we can finally move on to the next arc.)