Fan Fiction / Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Yamato Gun IV ❯ My Last Breath ( Chapter 9 )

"Holding my last breath safe inside myself... are all my
thoughts of you, sweet raptured light?... it ends here tonight..."

"Alright, this has gone on far too long." Raynor says in the conference room, where the senior staff and healthy Senshi are. "We've got to take this fight to Mengsk, or we're going to end up with all the Senshi comatose. Where's his main base now? Still Augustgrad?"

An ensign comes in the door. "Sir?"

"I thought I said this was a closed meeting! Nothing but emergencies warrant an interruption!"

"This probably qualifies, sir. I suggest you take this comm signal."

A look of realization appears on Raynor's face, and he looks at us, then the ensign. Then, as one, everyone gets up and goes out the door, single-file, to the bridge. "Put it on." Raynor says.

The visage of none other than Emperor Arcturus Mengsk I appears on the screen.

"Why, hello, Raynor. And all your girls. Pity, I only see three there? Where's the other two?" He says.

"Shut up about that, Mengsk. What the hell do you want?" Raynor replies.

"Now, you know it'd be pretty hard to do both. What I want is a nice clean war between your army and my army."

"Oh, cloak-and-dagger too good for you now? You've settled for a war with an army unprepared for your forces?"

"Would you not abandon a plan that wasn't working? Anyways, for this little war, we need a battlefield. And lo and behold, Braxis! War-torn already, no allies waiting on the planet... you know, in case you're shot down..."

Raynor's eyes go to saucers. "Ensign, shields u-"

A blast rocks the Hyperion and everyone is thrown to one side. Mengsk starts cackling as he closes the link. "Damage report!" Raynor yells over the din that erupted.

"We've got major damage to the tail end of the ship, maybe a third power at max! Barely enough for a controlled landing!"

"Do it! Mengsk wants a war, we'll give him a war. Get the infantry up and outfitted! He's going to come at us hard!"

"Hull breaches on decks 72 to 80!"

"Patch them!"

"Interstellar comms down! Life support failing on decks 74 to 80! We're going down!"

"All hands, we are going down, repeat, we are going down, stand by! We have power for a controlled descent!" Raynor says over the comm system.

Small fires break out as the main damaged piece of the ship break up and hit the front of the ship. The Hyperion is steadily going down, and we'll hit in about 15 seconds. "All hands, brace for impact!"

We all brace on the bridge. When we hit ground, man do we hit ground. Everything and everyone on the bridge are tossed around like toys. Screaming. Pain. Black.

¯¯¯---

I wake up again on the sky grass. Shakily, I get to my feet. I look over myself-one or two scratches on my right arm, one or two on my right cheek, but nothing of any significant damage. I look around and notice this isn't the normal Imaginary. This is more like the Imaginary where I met Ami Two and where I dreamt myself into. Only this time there's a giant crown in the middle of the field. "Ami?" Rei says. "Where are we?"

"This is the Imaginary world." I reply. "Only not."

"Not? How not?"

"I don't know. Another damned je ne sais quoi thing. It feels different."

"Oh, for heaven's sake!" She says in mock anger, then lets the subject drop. "You still baked?"

"No. You?"

"No."

"I wasn't when I went into the real Imaginary world either."

"I see." She says, despite her confused look. "Weird contradiction in terms, there."

"How else am I supposed to describe it?"

Rei nods in agreement. "This place is huge." She says, looking around. "I wonder if anyone else is here."

"I don't think so. And if they did, they would have heard us here by now and come over, right?"

"I heard."

We spin around, and stare at Arcturus Mengsk.

¯¯¯---

"You." I say, my eyes narrowing.

"Me." He replies. "How are you two? Not as perpetually out of it as I had wanted, I would bet."

"Indeed." Rei says. "Why is that, anyway? There are a million different ways you could have killed us more efficiently."

"True." Mengsk says. "But as Raynor said, I was crazy when he knew me..."

"That may be, but-" I start before something clicks in my mind. "How did you know that?"

"Simple surveillance equipment, about a cubic micron."

"Where?"

"A lot closer than you may think, Ami. A lot closer."

"What does-wait-the device is planted on me?"

"Got it in one. Ever since that incident in the Crown Arcade."

"So that was planned?"

"Oh yes. Didn't the other Ami explain to you?"

"Alright, that's just plain impossible. That was a dream."

"Not entirely, but close. Once you're in the Imaginary universe for the first time, it comes back if you go into a state similar to the one you were in the first time. In your case, you were stoned solid and in a coma. Asleep is almost the same thing, so that one day you were in enough of a THC-induced leaveover and in a deep enough sleep to bring about the alternate Imaginary universe that you stand in today."

"So why was Ami Two in that universe?"

"She was also asleep, and also baked. It took a few tries to get the right mixture of DNA fragments so our Senshi didn't end up like your Minako and Makoto. A few times Ami and Usagi Two went into a coma temporarily, and told us about this universe they went to."

"I still don't get how you know about that when I killed Ami Two."

"Well, her corporeal body was with us. We have our own ways of traveling the dimensional planes too, you know. So we put Ami Two into a medically induced coma to call you out, so to speak. You just nipped that plan in the bud."

"And why are you in this universe?"

"I was the first to know of this universe, actually. When I was in my late teens, I was quite the stoner. And at one point, I did go into a coma in a car accident. I woke up in the real Imaginary universe, and since have come here more than everyone else put together, twelve times in fact."

"So what happens now? Do I kill you like I did Ami Two?"

"Do you? I have Raynor's ship exactly where I want it. You kill me, he goes down with me."

"He's going down anyways. Ice dagger." I say, drawing the line to conjure the weapon. "The only difference is whether you die or not."

"I assure you, my intentions are not to die." He pulls a large sword out of seemingly nowhere. "Come on."

Rei goes for her Fire Dagger but I stop her. "Him or me." I tell her. "He kills me, he's all yours."

Rei doesn't seem all that pleased but complies anyway, stepping back. She conjures her Dagger, and awaits the outcome of the battle.

Mengsk drops into a battle stance. I follow suit. "May the better man win." He mocks.

"He will. I represent Raynor."

"I hope that little blade of yours is magic, my dear girl, because I'm wearing the best armour in the Koprulu sector."

"Unless you've heard of the material Clow, no, you aren't."

He charges, setting up to deliver a vertical slice. I duck low and stab him square in the chest with my blade, going right through the armour and stopping him in his tracks. He yells out in pain, but doesn't fall. "The better man won." I say coldly, separating the handle from the blade and making a run for it.

I go right for Rei and tackle her, sending both of us out of the blast radius, and when I hear the explosion and feel the heat on my back I know we won. But still, it was far too easy. Why was he so cocky? And why wasn't he better prepared? Why didn't he protect himself better?

Some things will never be explained.

"So now what?" Rei asks. "Do we just wait here to rejoin our real selves, or..." She pauses. "Did you feel that?"

"Feel what?"

"Like the universe just shifted." She says as I get the same feeling.

"That means we're going back. I just felt it too."

Everything blurs. Pain starts to register... head. Arms. Darkness... natural light...

Back.