Nadesico Fan Fiction ❯ Chasing the Darkness ❯ [15] ...In Thirty Years ( Chapter 15 )

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PART FIFTEEN: In Thirty Years

"Akito, you can't do this," Ines said softly.

Akito didn't move. Ai peeked out curiously from behind him, but she couldn't understand the mechanical wrenching of their distorted voices.

"Akito, we can't do anything to change it now-- she has to go back," Ines spoke into the radio again. "You can't save her from any of this. It's already happened."

"How do you know?" came his reply, still metallic and buzzy even over the radio. "If we take her back with us now..."

"Then what exactly do you think will happen? The Nadesico probably won't exist, and even if it did it would have been destroyed on Mars. What are you trying to accomplish by saving me? All you'll do is guarantee everyone else's deaths. Isn't that what you started out trying to stop? Doomsday?"

"I made a promise, Ai!" he protested.

"Let it go!" Ines insisted. "You've spent your entire life living in either the past or the future. But this is me, talking to you now. I would not give up my memories for anything. Even though you think it's for the best, you'd be taking away more than you were saving, if we sent Ai to Earth after Utopia was destroyed."

Akito didn't know why he bothered. First Yurika, then Ai... it was almost like the fact that he was trying to protect them meant absolutely nothing.

Ines took his silence as an agreement. "Ai, do you have the disk?"

"Yup!" she answered brightly.

"Okay. We're going to send you to see Mr. Akito now."

"Okay!"

Akito turned away, but a little hand grabbed his through the glove. "Bye, bye, Mister Alien," she said.

He couldn't help but smile. "See you, Ai."

"Akito," Ines's voice came through the radio, "We had better get going as well."

******

"Aestivallis, pull back!"

"Here we go," Akatsuki grinned. This was the most fun he'd allowed himself in ages. "Ready, Genichiro?" he called over his private line.

"We'll be jumping momentarily, but there's a problem..."

"Well, fix it," Akatsuki snapped impatiently. "The point here is to fake an accident."

"We can get you aboard, but you'll have to lay low. We've gotten some unexpected visitors, and they're sure to recognize you."

"Damn," Akatsuki swerved around another droid, once again concealing himself from the view of the other pilots.

"If you can time it right, our jumper can send you straight to the Nadesico B without stopping here. I'm sending him the coordinates now."

"Great, let's do it," Akatsuki closed the window.

"Akatsuki, fall back!" Ryoko's voice came again.

"I'm com--" he smashed the radio solidly, making sure not to damage any vital systems. "--ing. Ouch."

Cradling his left hand, he shot straight out into the open again, spiraled lazily, and then plummeted back the way he had come. When he was certain that the other pilots had all caught a glimpse of him, he let loose the explosives from the hidden chamber in the leg of his Aestivallis. He vanished just as the first ones were going off.

******

"Akatsuki? Akatsuki?!" Ryoko said, punching at her radio uselessly. All that met her eyes was static. "Dammit, his radio's out," she said. At that moment, his robot came careening through the enemy fighters and then fell back into them, trailing smoke and minor explosions as it went.

"What the..." Saburota began, cut short as a massive blast threw everything in the vicinity backwards.

"Shit," Ryoko whirled around and made towards the last spot she had seen him. Akito had the same idea-- she followed him back the way they had come. Ryoko chewed her lip grimly. She had never lost a pilot-- never. Akatsuki may have been a pain in the ass but she refused to believe he was stupid enough to go and get blown up, too.

She and Akito both knew it was useless; if Akatsuki was still alive-- if there was anything left to find-- they would have seen it by now. But even Ruri's repetition of the order to retreat didn't stop them from criss-crossing the area in hopes of finding something... anything.

******

"Ms. Misumaru!" Kusakabe called, "I know you can hear me in there. The coordinates for the jump have been sent to you, yet you refuse to cooperate. Make this jump happen or I'll have everyone here killed."

There was a tense silence. Lapis opened her mouth, but she couldn't bring herself to say anything. She was scared. She didn't want to die. Kusakabe tightened his grip around her neck, and then she couldn't hold back the sharp cry of pain and utter fear. Suddenly, Yurika's statue-like face distorted, even though her features seemed to be as immovable as stone. Glowing lines emanated from her face and trailed down her shoulders and across the surface of the Artifact. The JF forces gasped in awe.

Lapis finally found her voice. She couldn't let such a horrible thing happen, even though she was so afraid. "Yurika, stop! He's going to destroy everything!"

******

I don't want to do this, Yurika's consciousness fought with itself. She didn't know what this jump would do, but she was positive it wouldn't be good. The object was massive-- she was sure she would kill herself trying to move it. But if she could do it, then Lapis and the JF troops, who had nothing to do with any of this, could be saved. But what crisis would she be causing if she averted this one?

She heard Lapis yell and made a split second decision. It was something she had tried before, but this time there was no one there to stop her from trying again. Luckily, this time she was almost certain she knew how to succeed.

She changed the coordinates of the jump, moving the target and the arrival. Then she jumped the Artifact into itself, and into oblivion. She felt herself falling; dying, she was sure, to the morbid serenade of Lapis's screams.

******

Akito abruptly drew in on himself, clutching his head with both hands and yelling in pain. Battle, Nadesico, Akatsuki, everything forgotten, he lost control of his Aestivallis and felt the sickening drop of a free fall right before the pain knocked him out.

******

In her lab, Ines was typing furiously, trying in desperation to finish the last of the codes before time ran out. The virtual model of the Artifact was glowing slightly in the corner of the room, the final pieces being highlighted as they were put into place. Yoshio, proofreading the codes on another console, was interrupted suddenly by a cry of sheer agony. He shot around the lab table to find Ines sobbing on the floor, holding her hands over her ears and curled into a fetal position. Then, just as suddenly, she fainted.

He checked for a pulse, relieved when he found a quite steady one. He looked from the blonde woman to the computer and back. Then he picked up Ines, hurried her over to the couch, and went back to the codes. The little clock by the console read 30 seconds. Yoshio's eyes widened and he dove towards the keyboard. There wouldn't be any time to proofread-- he'd have to try it cold.

******

Across the known universe, boson jumpers began to drop like flies.

******

"Tenkawa? Tenkawa!!" Ryoko cried, watching his Aestivallis falling towards the Moon's surface. Wheeling away from her search, she turned her Aestivallis and plunged after him without another thought.

******

"What are they doing?!" Megumi shot out of her chair to get a closer look.

"Captain, call them back!" Minato cried.

"Akatsuki's not responding, Akito's not responding, Ryoko's not responding..." Megumi flipped buttons uselessly. "Saburota-san, Hikaru, Izumi... please answer me!"

"Oi, we're a little busy here!" Saburota's window appeared and vanished just as quickly.

******

Erina stood with her hands to her mouth; in shock, yes, but a shock of understanding, not of grief. She knew instinctively what had happened, even without the confirmation from the pilots that would alert the rest of the crew.

"Oh, go crash your Aestivallis!"

"I plan on it."

"Cut the PT Engine," Ruri ordered as the Nadesico got another knock against the starboard side. "Minato, turn the ship and try to pull the fire away from the most damaged sections. Megumi, who is responding?"

"Hikaru and Izumi are trying to help the others but they're up to their necks in enemy fighters."

Erina realized it was quite possible that the ship would not survive this encounter. The only thoughts for Akatsuki that came to her mind at that moment were, "Damn that bastard."

******

"Captain, there are ships coming up behind the Successor fleet!" Harry looked up frantically. "If we're going to use the PT cannon, we need to do it..."

"Wait!" Mayumi yelled, struggling to keep her footing. "Look!"

At that moment an energy blast went sweeping across the Successor rear flanks from behind. The distortion fields, focused forward to defend against the Nadesico C, could not be moved quickly enough to defend against the ship that had snuck up behind them.

"Hey everyone! Miss us?" a chirpy voice shouted. Yukina's smiling face appeared suddenly. "V!"

"Shiratori Yukina, what the hell are you doing?!" Minato was out of her seat in an instant. "Genichiro, if this was your idea I swear I'll..."

"Don't look at me," the Jovian spread his hands in a helpless gesture. "This wasn't my idea at all."

Minato turned accusing eyes to Gort Holy, but chose not to pursue it any further.

"Jun and I figured that since Tenkawa and Ines-san weren't going to hijack the Nadesico A, we'd do it for them. So Jun got both of us to a rendezvous with the Jovians, and then Remmy and Linca here were kind enough to jump us all to meet you," Yukina explained, pointing over her shoulder at the two dark children relaxing in cushioned chairs so large that their feet swung a good foot above the floor. "Them and their classmates back on Earth. It took a lot out of them, poor tikes. They both passed out a few seconds after we jumped. Aren't they just precious when they're sleeping?"

"Yukina, really..." Genichiro sighed in the background and looked heavenward.

"All right, all right. But anyway, aren't you glad to see us?"

"Captain, there's another fleet closing on our position!" Harry interrupted.

"Oh, right, did I mention we brought back-up?"

"Yukina!"

Ruri sat back in her seat. "The Jovians are here." That was the luckiest thing that had happened to her in weeks. Now she could focus her attention on other matters-- like finding her Aestivallis pilots.

******

When Yurika felt the touch against her temples, she snapped out of her oblivion for a second. It was a boson jump, coming through now, here.

But the Artifact is gone... she thought uselessly. The jump continued, the air (if it was air) around her head rippling with unseen waves of energy. And then it came close enough for her to recognize the jumper.

Oh Jun...

And then she understood. She hadn't been able to sense Jun's jump because he hadn't used the Artifact; there was no Artifact to jump him. If time didn't matter to the Artifact, then what was to say that jumps couldn't go through whatever time period the Artifact wanted? And she also understood that it was up to her to make sure Jun got back safely to save Akito.

Akito, she thought, drawing Jun closer and closer until she enveloped his presence completely. Then, with a ripping sensation, she sent him all the way through her.

After that, she was prepared to sink back into the nothingness, knowing that the universe was safe from the Doomsday Akito had been so afraid of. But then the strangest thing of all happened. After she sent Jun on his way, she saw a light. Just a small one, no more than a thread. A slim cord that seemed to reach through her and continue in both directions into infinity. Almost unconsciously, she reached out to touch it. Suddenly, more strings began to appear, radiating outward from her body until all she could see was a solid wall of light. Where the first string met with her fingers, sparks began to fly up, forming new strings in familiar patterns and lines. She felt the moving lights cover her, felt her body stiffen and her senses dull.

With my findings, I think I can create an entirely new Artifact!

She sighed wryly; but now she knew for certain that the Artifact could not be destroyed without destroying the very fabric of time. At least this new one was in Nergal's research lab instead of the Successor base; her plan hadn't failed completely. But as the new Artifact finished itself, she found herself staring at a horrible display in a sort of omniscient dream. She hadn't realized that if she destroyed the Artifact, the jumpers in the universe would feel its effects as much as she would. She saw Ines and Lapis, lying so still she didn't know if they were still alive, she saw Jun collapsed against the bridge of the... no, she wasn't going to ask; she saw Akito...

Akito was falling, and nothing any of the pilots could do would get them there in time to save him, though it looked as if Ryoko would die trying.

No death, Yurika thought frantically, reaching out to this new Artifact that was her only hope. Please don't let them die. Bring them back safely.

A soft glow spread through her and she reached out to everyone who was hurt without really knowing how. And the jumpers of the universe began to glow with tiny moving lights, boson jumping seemingly at random as Yurika sent them to safe places.

My Artifact won't be the cause of so much death. she decided, remembering the Jovian War. Then, overwhelmed with it all, she sank back into a deep sleep.

******

"Damn!" Yoshio cried uselessly, staring at the blank space across the room. There had been too many errors in his hasty completion of the program for the computer to fix. He'd failed, and now there was no way to change the codes for Yurika's jump. What would happen to them all? What would happen to the very fabric of the universe? And Ines-- poor Ai. As much as he yearned to be a boson jumper, it was times like these he was glad he wasn't one. Though it wouldn't do much good now.

He figured that most of the past thirty years would be erased from history. He wondered what he would grow up to be, now that he would never find little Ai in the desert and never become obsessed with Mars and its ruins.

He was so lost in his complete misery that he didn't notice it until it was almost done. There was a strange glowing where the virtual Artifact had been constructed. Yoshio choked on the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. If he squinted through the bright light, he could make out the figure of a woman. She was shining with thousands of moving lights, which were flowing around her and weaving into a familiar pattern.

Shocked beyond all reason, he looked down at his screen and got another surprise. The errors in his program were correcting themselves. True, they were not corrections he would have made himself, but they were plausible command codes nevertheless. Apparently, he had done enough to allow for Misumaru Yurika to instinctively put together the rest.

Then, in a bright flash, it was done, and a soft sigh from behind him ensured that Ines was still breathing.

******

"Dammit, Ryoko, stop!" Saburota shouted, finally drawing up even with the other pilot. The two Aestivallis grappled together for a minute, until what Saburota was saying finally reached Ryoko's ears.

"He jumped-- he's okay! If you keep going like this you're going to add another crater to the Lunar Station!"

Ryoko stopped fighting, breathing heavily. Saburota was right, of course, but damned if she was going to tell him that. "That idiot..." she muttered, gasping. "Never did... listen... to orders."

******

"Incoming message, Captain," Megumi reported. "It's from Mars."

"Thank you, Megumi."

"Captain Hoshino," a gruff voice said immediately.

"Admiral Jackht?" Ruri asked in return. The Admiral nodded shortly.

"We've apprehended Kusakabe Haruki and request he be brought into custody as soon as possible."

Ruri gripped the armrests of her chair a little tighter. "Is your crew in good shape, Admiral?"

"They're all quite well and clamoring to see you, Captain."

Ruri blushed slightly.

"Is Lapis okay?" Harry demanded, standing. Jackht nodded again.

"She gave us a scare but she'll be all right. She boson jumped to a safe spot when things began to get rough."

"Captain, Tsukiomi Genichiro reports that the Successor fleet has surrendered," Megumi turned around. "The JF will handle it from here."

"Then we'll head for the chulip on Eden colony as soon as we've finished tying up loose ends," Ruri said. She turned back to Admiral Jackht. "Have you retrieved the Artifact as well?"

"The Artifact and Ms. Misumaru vanished early on-- we thought you might know what happened to them."

"I do. They're here on Earth with us," Yamasaki Yoshio piped up, his window taking up a small corner of the screen. "She seems stable enough, but to avoid any possible damage to her we have to wait until the Artifact 'calms down' to get her out," he added sheepishly. Everyone on the bridge blinked at him a few times.

"How'd the Artifact get to Earth?" Minato asked.

"Where's Ines?" Megumi said simultaneously.

"Ines is unconscious. I think if you take a moment to think about it, you'll notice that all the boson jumpers are unconscious. It's really not my job to explain things, but from what I could pick up from Ines, Misumaru Yurika attempted to destroy the Artifact."

"She's really got a one-track mind, hasn't she?" Erina muttered.

"Apparently, this time she would have actually succeeded," Yoshio addressed the dark-haired woman. "I'm not too sure exactly how this worked, but somehow we seem to have stopped Doomsday."

"And now the Artifact is on Earth," Megumi said. Yoshio nodded.

"And Yurika is okay," Minato remarked. Another nod.

"So..." Harry frowned, "Does that mean everything is over?"

"Almost," Ruri answered, rising. What was to come was bound to be less pleasant than what had just happened. "Harry-kun, please take over."

Erina was on her heels as she left the bridge.

******

Ryoko didn't even look up when Ruri came in. She was sitting, surrounded by the other pilots, with her arms wrapped around her legs and a bleary expression on her face.

Erina pushed in front of Ruri, then came to a complete halt. She didn't know what to do or say; half of her even cursed Akatsuki for making them feel so guilty. "Where's Tenkawa?" she finally choked out. Ryoko's eyes widened, then narrowed again.

"Gone."

"Where?"

"Hell if I know!" At least that got her moving. Ryoko began to pace the floor. "At least he's alive. Shouldn't you be asking about your boss? Or is that all he was to you? Are you truly that heartless?"

Erina almost snapped, but managed to keep stiff control. "Where is Akatsuki?"

Ryoko stopped pacing. The others looked up. "The idiot went and got himself killed."

"I see," Erina turned on her heel and left the room. Let them think she was heartless. It would benefit her later when they all thought twice about asking her for favors. And they would be asking for them... it occurred to her that Akatsuki had only one person he could leave his assets to. One person who knew he was still alive and knew all the secrets of the company.

She smiled lightly to herself as the door swished closed behind her. She'd have to talk to Prospector about opening the "late" Akatsuki's will.

******

Ryoko bared her teeth but refrained from going after Erina. "That vicious bitch," she exclaimed. "He really didn't mean anything to her."

"Ryoko, everyone grieves differently," Ruri said gently. "Can you all tell me what happened?"

******

"Hey, Mister," a soft voice called him back from dreamland.

"Ai?" Akito asked, blinking in the bright lights, "Where are we?"

"We're in the infirmary in the Nergal research lab in Osaka," Ines informed him. "You were jumped here after you passed out-- I assume Yurika sent you where you could get medical attention."

Akito sat up abruptly. "Is she all right?"

Ines smiled. "She's here, actually. They're helping her out of the Artifact right now, actually."

Akito swung his legs back and forth until the numbness began to fade. It left an unpleasant tingle in its wake. "I need to see her."

"Are you sure you'll be all right? I'm still having trouble standing up straight," she motioned to the chair supporting her limp frame.

"I need to be there this time."

Ines hesitated before nodding. "Help me up-- I'll take you."

******

"Are we too late?" Akito asked, walking as quickly as his numbed limbs would allow. He didn't know how long he had been unconscious but he wasn't willing to waste any more time waiting for the pins and needles to disappear from his legs.

Yoshio shook his head. "The Artifact was so active that we couldn't get near her until just a few minutes ago." They stopped just outside an open doorway. "It was excellent timing, actually. The Nadesico C jumped in from Eden colony not five minutes ago. Aritomo is dead, Kusakabe has been captured, the Successor hierarchy has fallen apart...it looks like you succeeded after all."

Akito nodded absently, grit his teeth, and began to move again. Yoshio moved to support Ines.

Yurika's eyes shut tighter at the harsh light, refusing to open. Her dreams were pleasant and warm, and she was not ready to relinquish them to cold reality just yet. She was vaguely aware of someone shaking her, because her shoulder kept moving and a dark shadow passed above her, back and forth.

"Wake up, princess."

She couldn't tell if the words were inside her head or whether someone had uttered them aloud, but they stirred enough emotion in her that she managed to summon the energy to open her eyes. Blinking lazily, she could just make out brown spiky hair framing a pale face obscured by dark glasses.

"Welcome back," he said, and took the mask off. He tucked it in his pocket, confident he would never need it again.

"Akito," Yurika smiled faintly. "You came back for me."

"What kind of knight slays the dragon and leaves the princess?" he smiled back. Yurika's face softened dreamily and she reached up to touch his face, as if to prove that he was really there. For a moment it seemed to the crew of the Nadesico, who had crowded in behind the pair, that a fairy tale ending was truly in order. Yet Yurika's face twisted abruptly, into an expression of absolute horror. She pushed herself upright to a sitting position, grasping first at his arms and then at her own, finally wrapping her hands across her chest as if something pained her there.

"Yurika..."

"I can't feel anything!" she exclaimed, pressing her fingers to her arms frantically. In a desperation she began to scratch at her shoulder, clawing blindly at the bare skin; Akito grabbed her hand before she could hurt herself. Yurika burst into tears.

"All the activity in the Artifact must have finally short circuited her nerve endings." Ines murmured. "Of all of us, she was the best suited to be the Human Imaging System, but it was still too much for her in the end. It was the same with you, Akito, right?"

Akito nodded the affirmative, wrapping Yurika in a tight embrace. He knew she could sense the warmth of his touch, even if she could not feel the touch itself.

"Will it take her three years to heal, like Akito?" Lapis asked, hovering worriedly behind the adults.

Erina frowned. "Only the ones that are damaged will heal." she said. "But I'd bet most of her nerve endings are dead. There's no way to fix them."

Yoshio grinned. "Maybe there is." He glanced down at Ines, who was leaning on his arm. "Remember the samples we took of her DNA? We've got her gene map. Maybe we can rebuild some of the burnt bits."

"That could take months!" Erina protested. Yukina shoved her.

"What is your problem?" Megumi asked.

"She's just so bitter that she wants everyone else to be miserable too." Minato sniffed.

That started a catfight; the others just zoned out the shouting.

"Months is still better than years." Ruri commented.

Yurika's sobs had subsided by then. "Can you heal Akito the rest of the way, too?"

Ines smiled kindly. "Akito will be easy to fix, if all that's wrong are some dead nerve endings. I can't understand why no one thought of that before."

"You didn't have me around before." Yoshio remarked breezily. Ines rolled her eyes.

"Modesty isn't one of your best features, is it?" she asked.

Ruri blinked as Ines and Yoshio exchanged glances. Her too? Why did grownups always act so stupid around people they liked? "Bakabakka." she muttered under her breath, though without the usual conviction it normally held.

******

"No, wait," Yurika protested as she was being helped from the room on shaky footing. "The Artifact..."

"Is safe here," Erina finished for her. Yurika shook her head and looked at Akito beseechingly. Akito looked to Ines, who also nodded. The blonde took Yurika's hand and the three began to glow. Then there was a bright flash of light.

When everyone stopped blinking, they were met with an empty room. Yurika smiled dazzlingly, then fainted and fell against Akito, who caught her gently but staggered on his own unsteady feet. Erina gaped at the blank space where the Artifact had been.

"Wha..how..." she stuttered. Ines pushed her glasses op onto her hair.

"This is the last How and Why of this mission," she smiled tiredly. "The Artifact is boson jumping itself into the future. That gives us that much time to end the conflicts that come up between us all. There isn't a tangible Artifact to fight over any more-- not for another 30 years, at least."

She shot Akito a knowing look. He returned the smile.

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