The sound of fighting was in the young girl's ears as she was running down the corridor; her instinct to help everyone was overridden by the need to remember her mission in case such a situation arose.
"I need to find Doctor Kal'tsit right now!" the young lung girl told herself. Her lungs were burning from how quickly she was running through the halls of the landship, her body screaming at her to rest. As she came around the corner, she was suddenly stopped by two of her enemies blocking her path, their bodies poised and ready to strike.
"Dammit!" the lung girl cursed, realizing that to get to her destination, she would have to fight through these two enemies. Her body was exhausted, sweat dripped from her long, white hair. Quickly looking around, she saw no other way out but to fight. So, she drew her blade and held it up in a defensive position, waiting for them to charge.
As one of her enemies lunged at her, a shuriken cleaved the enemy in two. She took advantage of this opportunity; the other enemy was momentarily distracted, seeing its kin slain. She charged at the enemy and, with careful, precise strikes, brought the enemy down.
Taking a moment to catch her breath, she looked at her saviour and shouted, "Miss Shirayuki!" The ninja looked in her direction and said, "Come, young Madam; we must hurry to the control centre." Together, they continued onward, cutting down any resistance along their path until they reached their goal.
Once inside, they shut the door, and the young lung was able to enjoy a momentary respite. As she was catching her breath, a voice spoke out to her. "I am glad you were able to get here." She looked up toward the voice and said, "Doctor Kal'tsit, thank goodness you are alive." The older woman simply nodded and then looked at Shirayuki and asked, "Are things as bad as we believe?"
Shirayuki looked solemn and simply replied with a nod of her own. Having understood how dire the situation was, she composed herself and simply said, "Then we have no choice, Yua, Shirayuki, come with me."
As they started walking toward another area of the control centre, Yua asked a question. "Doctor Kal'tsit, have you seen my mother?" Kal'tsit replied, "Yes; she is with Mostima, Closure, and the time machine. We will see her shortly."
As they went through another set of doors, Yua's eyes caught sight of an older lung woman with blue hair, horns protruding from her head, and several cuts on her Rhodes Island uniform; clearly she had been involved in the fighting aboard the Landship.
"Mother!" Yua shouted as she ran towards the woman. As the older woman turned towards the voice, she realized who it was and exclaimed, "Yua!" The two joined in a hug, with the younger girl crying and sobbing into the older woman's shoulder, saying, "Mother, I am so glad you are safe." Is all Yua could muster to say. The white-haired lung was struggling to keep it together.
The older lung woman replied as she was trying to comfort her daughter by rubbing her head. "I know, sweetheart; I am so glad you are safe too." As the reunion between mother and daughter was happening, Doctor Kal'tsit and Shirayuki walked up to the pair. Doctor Kal'tsit stated, "Ch'en, this is our only option; it is time."
Ch'en Hui-chieh: Former superintendent of the LGD...
Operator of Rhodes Island...
Mother of Yua...
Widow of one of the greatest strategic minds in the history of Terra...
She was going through one of, if not the most horrible realizations that any parent should ever have to go through. Even though she had been preparing for this eventuality for years, the reality of what was about to happen wasn't easy no matter how long she had been expecting this. Ch'en was never going to see her daughter ever again...
"I know!!...I know!!" shouted Ch'en at the top of her voice. "Just please let me have this moment." She continued, "It's the last one I'll ever get to have." She finished in a defeated voice. Shirayuki then replied, "None of us wanted it to come to this, Madam Ch'en, but it is the only way to ensure that this future never happens and that Madam Yua can have a future of her own."
Realizing that both Kal'tsit and Shirayuki were telling her the cold, hard truth, she nodded and let go of her daughter. They all walked towards a device where two occupants were working on it. Kal'tsit then asked the two of them, "Is the device ready to go, Closure?"
The vampire poked her head up from the controls and then responded, "Yes, Doctor Kal'tsit. It just needs all the power redirected from the rest of the landship to get it to work." Mostima the blue-haired Sankta added, "I will only be able to use my powers for a few seconds. Yua, when the portal opens, you had better be ready. I won't be able to keep it open for long. Let's hope all these years of research were worth it."
"Thank you both of you," Ch'en then replied. "I've lost so much because of the seaborn, my country, my friends, my family, and possibly my husband; Yua is all I have left; I will not let them take her as well." Closure then responded, "We have all lost so much because of the seaborn, Madam Ch'en. If this means this future doesn't happen again, then this is worth it."
After this conversation, loud banging could be heard behind them. Kal'tsit shouted, 'We need to hurry!! The seaborn will break through any second!!" Shirayuki then said, "I will guard the door; I will not let any of those monsters pass." Closure then replied, "Roger that! Mostima and I will get the device on; remember, Yua. Just as Mostima said, you won't have long to enter the portal. You had best say your goodbyes now!"
Yua then looked at her mother. Even though their bond had become strained these past few years, the two still cared greatly for each other. "I'll miss you, mother." The white-haired lung chocked out. Ch'en was equally emotional as her daughter, "I'll miss you too, Yua." The blue-haired lung said to her daughter.
Ch'en then reached into the pocket of her uniform and handed her daughter a locket; "Take this sweetheart, know that we will always be with you." Yua looked inside the locket and saw a photo of herself when she was very young, with her white hair and two tiny horns on her head, her mother holding her with a beaming smile on her face and her father in his long coat and mask, with one arm around her mother and his hand on his other arm raised in a thumbs up gesture.
Yua then hugged her mother and said, "Thank you, Mother." The sound of more banging could be heard, and the door could be seen beginning to bend. Kal'tsit then turned to Ch'en and said, "We need to guard the door and buy them enough time for the time machine to work." Ch'en nodded in reply, drew her blade, and headed to where Shirayuki was stationed, ready to defend her daughter until her final breath.
Yua then looked at Doctor Kal'tsit and said "Thank you for everything, Doctor Kal'tsit." She replied "It is no problem Yua, I owe this to your father; even though he did some things I could never forgive him for, I could see he had everyone's best interests at heart." Kal'tsit then walked over to where Shirayuki and Ch'en were guarding the door, waiting for the inevitable.
"The time machine is ready," Closure exclaimed. "Hurry it up, Yua!" After some whirring, the device started to power up, and the whole room began to light up. The door was slowly bending with each second, as if someone was trying to force their way in. The seaborn were getting closer and closer. Using her arts, Mostima then managed to open to open up a portal, "Yua! Get going! Move!" The blue-haired sankta shouted at the white-haired lung.
Yua then gave one last look at her mother and said "Goodbye mother." She then ran into the portal and as soon as she entered she felt reality twist and contort around her; she started to feel dizzy and confused, her body not being able to comprehend what was happening. She then started to feel like she was in a dream, and then everything went dark.