Nadesico Fan Fiction ❯ To Die or Not to Die ❯ Chapter 14

A/N: Like Chapter 12, this chapter has been stewing in my brain for a long time. Unlike chapter 12, it's not completely and totally thought out and planned. >< Oh well. Welp, this is the chapter for episode 21, "The Meadows we once ran across" which happens to be my favorite episode, but yeah. This is rather difficult to describe… We get to see… many pilots'… past things… I'm trying not to reveal stuff already. >< This is not a fun chapter, so don't even think it. There is no breakfast scene either. Trust me, there won't be room for one. Anyway, just for a news thing, as we're winding down near the end of the anime, this book is almost over. Just about four or five chapters left (Thank god). Don't worry though. There will be way too many loose ends to take care of, that I would probably be shot if I didn't continue it. But… yeah… this chapter… is the turning point. Really, it is. Now, as you've all been completely drained of your life force, here's the playlist… "Suteki Da Ne" from Final Fantasy X, "Silence Must be Heard" by Enigma, "Feel the Evil" by Kim Justice, "Last Impression" by Two-Mix, "Silence" by Delerium and Sarah McLachlan, and "The Round Handball Song" and "Eternal Miyu" from Vampire Princess Miyu. Here goes nothing…

~*~

(T-Minus 80 minutes)

Mr. Hory read through his schedule, a little unnerved that he had to explain the mission before them. He cleared his throat to have quiet, simmering the dull roar to a slight murmur, coming mostly from a redhead pilot to a blue-haired one. He pushed some buttons on the console, making the screen behind him show a figure of the moon. He began to brief the crew of the task. "We're to aid the Second Lunar Fleet against the Jovian forces. If we can distract them and wipe them out, Luna will be again under our control."

Ryoko, sitting in front with Akito, raised a hand slightly in question. "How are we going to take out an entire fleet? I mean, if our distortion fields can't deflect the Boson Cannon, what's our strategy? What're we gonna hit them with?" The tomboy somehow voiced the thoughts of all the pilots, as if she was almost reading their minds. Itsuki smiled slightly. 'That's why she's basically in charge of our force.'

Miss Fressange stood from her seat next the Captain. "Our PT Cannon," she answered simply, as if it were completely obvious. Most of the crew cried out in surprise in confusion, "PT Cannon?"

Uribatake jumped up from his seat next to her. "That's right! The Y-Unit gives us three Phase Transition engines and-" Inez pushed down his head and pushed him out of the way. No one took her explaining job and got away with it. "We can use the Y-Unit to create two simultaneous folds space. This would cause space to collapse upon itself."

Yurika stood up this time, looking a bit worried. "The only problem is, we have to make sure we're at the intercept point and ready to fire the PT Cannon in less than 80 minutes!" Her statement emphasized haste, and it was not lost on the crew, as they began shuffling out of the cafeteria immediately to prepare.

Akito ran up to Gai and almost started to grab his hand when Erina ran up to him. "Akito-kun, stay behind. I need to talk to you." The Martian gave an apologetic look to his significant other, which was answered with a shrug. Akito sighed. "What is it, Erina?"

Inez had sat back down, apparently not fazed by the call for hurry from Yurika. "The only known Boson Jump fields are those created by Black Holes and Nebulas. As there are neither of those within our solar system, we have to resort to making temporary, artificial fields." Akito raised an eyebrow. "And this has to do with me…"

"We're going to conduct an artificial boson jump test. To see if you can jump yourself and an Aestivalis," answered Erina. Akito's eyes widened. "An artificial boson jump test…" he whispered. Erina nodded. "We can create a jump field using Chulip Crystals. And all we need is-"

"Someone to survive the jump itself," finished Akatsuki, standing by the door. He looked at the black-haired woman he called his cousin. "I'd like to be part of this test as well." Erina opened her mouth to protest, but Akatsuki silenced her with a look. "We're doing it, whether you agree or not."

Erina sighed. "Fine. As we get closer to the fleet, they'll be trying to fire they're Boson Cannons. We will jump you to get them disabled as soon as we're in range."

~*~

(T-Minus ?? minutes)

Akito, Yurika, Inez, Gai, Itsuki, Hikaru, Ryoko, Izumi, Akatsuki, Jun, and Ruri found themselves all seated around a red-clothed table in a dim room. In front of them, many mahjong tiles stood in lines. Nobody knew what was going on, but none acted as though this was true.

Yurika picked up a tile, and looked at it questioningly. It was green, but the shade kept changing. "What is this? A mahjong tile?" Ruri answered Yurika, as if she knew what this place was. "It's also a memory."

Just as Ruri said that, the tile in Yurika's hand flashed silver, then showed a little video of Akito and Yurika riding a bicycle through an Earth meadow. Yurika's green eyes narrowed. 'Memory? Did this even happen?'

~*~

(T-Minus 54 minutes)

The silver haired girl reported the advance of the Onihana to the crew. "Two Gekigan-types approaching!" she cried, sounding a bit worried.

7 of 8 pilots had already deployed, and were advancing to engage fighting with the Jovian robots. Unfortunately, they Boson Jumped right past the Aestivalises. The tomboy cried out, turning her robot, "We missed them!"

Indeed they did. They Jumped all the way to the edge of the Nadesico distortion field, and started their attempts to neutralize it. The princess of Peaceland proclaimed, in a hurried voice, "The Gekiganger-types are compromising the integrity of our distortion field!" Mr. Prospector shook his head. "Ever since these Gekiganger-types appeared, the capabilities of our distortion field have been severely lowered."

The Martian cook's face appeared. "Stop calling them Gekiganger-types, dammit!" he yelled as he and the green haired pilot reached the two Daimajins were using their field lances. The cook used the lance, then his missiles to disable the unit while the tomboy used just her lance. "It looks as though your back is your weak spot…" she said rather softly.

Erina's face appear before the cook. "It's time now."

~*~

(T-Minus 45 minutes)

Pockets of Chulip Crystals open around the Martian's Aestivalis. Erina was talking to him, telling him how it should all go as the artificial field stabilized. "It's imperative that your mind be clear of all things while doing this. If one stray thought comes about-" She was interrupted by the captain, looking unconfident. "If you're having second thoughts, then we'll stop!"

Erina looked at her watch. 'The Onihana must be closing in to fire the Boson Cannon as we speak.' "Let's go, get ready Akito." He stiffened his shoulders and gritted his teeth. "All right!" Erina nodded. "Think of the enemy battleship! The cannon!"

Light blue lines started to form on the cook's face as the field started to shudder. The next thing he knew, he was surrounded by colorless and colorful space, then he was back in normal space again, in front of the Onihana.

"I did it!" he gruffly announced, opening a hole in the distortion field of the Onihana, then fired his missiles at the cannon, completely destroy the fatal weapon.

Tsukuomi Genichiro nearly fell down from the impact. "Damn the evil Earthlings, destroying our precious Leap Cannon!" He shook his head, and gave an order. "Prepare the Daimajin! I go to fight!" He had just turned to head for the Leap Chamber as the face of his best friend, Shiratori Tsukumo, appeared on the main screen. "Hold it Genichiro! Pull back your forces!"

Genichiro turned back and growled, "But Tsukumo, we can't just let them go like this!" Tsukumo didn't change his look. "That was an order!"

Genichiro sighed. "Do as he says."

~*~

(T-Minus ?? minutes)

Yurika surveyed what tiles she had before her. There seemed to be at least three for each person present, except for Akito. 'No! I wanted to see why he's acting different… maybe someone else has some of his.' "Why is Akito acting so different?" Akito's eyebrows shot up, but before he could open his mouth, Inez started answering the question.

"Every boy dreams of becoming a hero. In Akito, these dreams were much more intense, but he hid them away within himself. The question is why…"

Akito shook his head. "My parents were heroes and then… they were murdered." Akatsuki's eyes twitched, and they seemed to be putting two and two together. Akito continued, nevertheless. "I thought that if someone was a hero, they end up getting killed." He glanced at Gai, a few seats away. "I discovered… almost two full years ago… that I'm afraid of getting killed."

Inez nodded. "So you insist you are just a cook, and not a hero, so you won't get killed. Being the first Earth-aligned human to successfully Boson Jump, you're already a hero." Akito stood up, glaring at Inez. "Stop looking at my memory tiles!"

Inez smiled. "It's not to when they're right there in front of you." She picked up another Akito tile and made a motion towards the other tiles. "Look at them. They're just begging to be examined and explained." The tile in her hand flashed a mixture of light blue and dark green. The video before her showed Akito, 12 years old, going into yet another foster home, looking completely detached.

Yurika looked over Inez's shoulder, in attempts to see the video, but her attention was brought to the tiles in front of her. 'Holy god! Inez has all the Akito tiles!'

Akito sat back down, looking defeated. "I'm no hero…" he whispered.

~*~

(T-Minus 43 minutes)

The amber-eyed hacker sighed in relief. "Tenkawa Akito has successfully Boson Jumped. The Onihana's Boson Cannon has been destroyed and they are now pulling out." The captain and Mr. Prospector also sighed, happy that it worked.

The longhaired pilot's face appeared next. "My turn, Erina." His cousin shook her head. "Not yet…"

He glared at her. "Come on! I can do anything that punk can…" He focused on the enemy ship as the field began to stabilize, then shudder. He pushed as hard as he could, little dark green lines forming on his face.

Erina saw his Aestivalis start to pull apart from itself, the sign that it was moments before the robot would jump, but the cockpit would collapse. She rushed to the abort button and pushed it with all her strength.

The jump field dissipated, having gone back into the Chulip Crystals floating in the endless space. The longhaired pilot was breathing heavy. "What happened…" he asked, his eyes widening a bit as soon as Erina's window popped up.

"I knew it wasn't going to work so I aborted your jump attempt!" The black-haired pilot glared at her. "But why?" Erina glared back. "But why? Look at yourself!" He looked down to find that his flight suit had been melting, sticking him to the leather seat.

He collapsed onto his controls, his shoulders shuddering. "Dammit… Why can't I Jump? Oniisan…"

~*~

(T-Minus ?? minutes)

Inez picked up a tile of a man with short black hair, looking similar to Akatsuki. She announced what she saw. "Your brother was so much older than you, wasn't he? Eight years? Your father was grooming him to be his successor…" Akatsuki wasn't fazed by Inez's words. "What's that got to do with anything?"

Inez shoot him an angry, yet piteous look. "He died." Akatsuki gave the details. "He died on a shuttle accident on his way back from Mars." Izumi looked down. 'Rinji died the same way… Wait, what am I talking about.' She looked up again. "He never made it to Satsuki Midori."

Akatsuki's jaw dropped. "You! You're the woman he was going out of his way to see, his fiancée?" Izumi nodded slowly. Akatsuki snarled at her. "It's your entire fault he died-" He was silenced when Hikaru got up and cuffed him in the back of the head. He turned to her as she started to scold him.

"It was an accident, Akatsuki-san! It's not your fault or her fault! It's no one's fault!" Akatsuki stood too, towering over her. He pointed towards Izumi. "He wouldn't have been on that shuttle had he not been on his way to that colony, going to see his would-be future wife because she was feeling lonely!" Izumi pounded a fist on the table. "You think I don't know that?!?" she screamed, no strange smile hiding her emotions now. Self-hatred and a sense of eternal mourning swam in her crimson eyes. Akito, though frightened by the emotions finally conveyed by Izumi, stood up and silently pushed people back into their chairs. "Miss Fressange, I don't think we should do this anymore."

Inez smiled before picking up an Akito tile. "If you can find out how to get out of here, tell me then." Akito realized she meant that they would stop, but they were in a bit of a predicament.

~*~

(T-Minus 40 minutes)

Shiratori Tsukumo bowed before addressing his superior, Kusakabe Haruki. "Isn't our goal a stable and lasting peace?" Kusakabe grunted an affirmative. "Exactly. That is why we fight." Tsukumo wiggled his fingers, his palms getting a little sweaty from nervousness. "Then… isn't it imperative that we at least consider a negotiated peace?" He added quickly, "Of course, the Earth government will have to apologize for their past injustices…"

Kusakabe kept facing away from the captain. "Our phase transition factory is on the verge of shutting down, and our excavations on Mars have brought no good news." He turned to Tsukumo. "Is peace possible?"

Tsukumo smiled. "I have a plan that should work, sir."

Not ten minutes later, Tsukumo was sitting and watching Gekiganger while drinking green tea. The door behind whipped open, showing an angry Genichiro.

"Damn you Tsukumo! Why did you order me to pull out?" Tsukumo answered with a curt reply, "To save your life." He was about to tell Genichiro that he must not underestimate the Nadesico when he heard another screech at the door.

"Oniichan!" He spit back into his cup and stood, turning towards the door, which now showed a somewhat frightened Genichiro and an extremely pissed off thirteen year old.

"Yukina?" Tsukumo swallowed, the naked rage sparking in her brown eyes. "Er… what're you doing here…?" She stepped forward and hissed. "I've heard what you've been doing!"

A fake-sounding scream from the TV caught Tsukumo and Genichiro's attention, and they were both sitting down before Nanako could even started her monologue. Shiratori Yukina sighed. Only three words could convey her feelings for the moment, and she said them under her breath, "Honto, baka baka." Once she was sure she could grasp their attention again, she shouted. "Oniichan!"

Tsukumo waved a finger at her. "Yukina, how could you be so disrespectful to interrupt Gekiganger?" Yukina stuck her nose in the air. "I hate that anime." She glared at her brother again before he could scold her again. "Now what's this I hear about you and some stupid peace treaty?"

Genichiro jumped on Yukina's statement before Tsukumo could attempt to explain himself. "A peace treaty, Tsukumo? How could you even suggest negotiating with those subhuman brutes?" Tsukumo yelled back at his best friend. "If peace is truly our objective that we've got to try every path!"

Yukina interrupted the fight. "That's a bunch of bull!" Tsukumo and Genichiro turned to the teenaged Jupiterian. "The real reason you're doing this is because you've fallen for an Earth woman!" She pulled down a wallscroll of Nanako to show a picture of Minato. Tsukumo gasped. Yukina screamed at her older brother. "You disgust me, Oniichan!"

~*~

(T-Minus ?? minutes)

"Somehow our memories have all become interconnected," hypothesized Inez, reaching for a Yurika tile. Yurika herself blinked at Inez's statement. "You mean this isn't all just part of a really strange dream?"

Inez shook her head, glancing at Yurika before activating the tile. "If it was a dream, we wouldn't be able to see each other's memories." The tile flashed a mixture of dark green and silver. The video made her smile. "For example… You were a bed wetter until you were ten!"

Yurika gasped. "Er… I'm not one anymore!" She laughed nervously. Ruri rolled her amber eyes. "Baka."

Ryoko's black eyebrows knit. "Then… if we're all here, Miss Fressange, who… or what… is in our bodies?" Inez glanced at Ryoko. "Other facets of our personalities, I'm afraid. The parts we normally repress."

Itsuki glanced around. "Just where are we anyway?" Ruri answer her. "We're in Limbo. Here, Time and Space are no object." Inez nodded. "This is similar to the Boson Jump tunnels, going under Time and Space, and beyond it."

Gai took a good look around now too. "Akito… is this what you see when you Boson Jump?" Akito shook his head. "No… it's not all dark… it's… well, it's hard to describe…" Jun nodded. "That makes sense. If Boson Jump tunnels are under Time and Space and beyond it, on a whole other plane, words are lost to it to, are they not?" Inez glanced at him. "You're smarter than we thought, and apparently…" She picked up a Jun tile, and it flashed red and dark green. The video showed his father pressuring him to join the United Forces. "…More than you're father thought."

Jun looked down. "My father… wanted me to die by his side in battle. In the end… he died by himself in battle."

~*~

(T-Minus 35 minutes)

The blue-haired pilot was just checking on her Aesti of the same color when she saw a flash of brown and yellow near the leg. She glanced around the leg. And went running for her exorcism ribbons.

Many mechanics, not to mention her two best friends, started to stare at her as she performed a little poem to get rid of the vision she just saw. "Spirits be gone, Spirits be gone, Never more to bother me… Spirits be gone, Spirits be gone, Halloween is over, can't you see… Spirits be gone, Spirits be gone…"

Mr. Prospector, who had just come to ask Uribatake a question about his account, saw this act by the punning pilot. He turned to Uribatake. "What's Izumi doing?" Uribatake shielded his mouth, as if telling a secret and whispered, "She says she saw a ghost."

She jumped up, waving the stick. "Spirits be gone!"

~*~

(T-Minus 34 minutes)

The tomboy was heading to the hangar vending machine, but she could have sworn there had been something gray near the machine. She shrugged, and went back to making a soda selection. She heard a sharp sound, like a squeal. She looked back to where she saw the gray. And gasped, for there stood Subaru Yukari, her long black hair framing her serene face.

The redhead was a little timid about going anywhere. Her best friend was usually not as out of it as she just acted, so she just may have seen a ghost. Sure enough, a static sound shot through the air. The artist whipped her head around, her red bangs hitting her in the face. "Okachan?"

The blue-haired pilot would have gone back to business, but she had to repeat the entire scene, swearing to have seen yet another ghost. By now people were starting to wonder if she had really lost it. 'They can't seen him… Rinji's here!'

The Executive Officer thought he was hearing things. It sounded like ringing in his ears, like a television was left on over the night, but it had a voice. "I died alone… I hope you're happy with your choice…" He slowly turned his head. "'Tosan… Stay away from me…"

The princess at the console gasped. "Admiral Munetake?" Besides her, Minato's eyebrows shot up. "You see Munetake? Are you sure?" The younger girl nodded, her worried amber eyes wide. "Other people too… but who are they?" In her vision, she saw Admiral Munetake… and a woman with long, dark hair, all dressed in red.

The captain saw Munetake and the dark-haired woman too, but she saw, in the corner, another woman, this one with short, dark blue hair. "O… O… Okachan… is… alive…" Nearby, even the doctor seemed entranced by the transparent people before them. "Juveus-sama…"

~*~

(T-Minus 30 minutes)

Ariko looked down the long corridor as one of the older mechanics crawled out of it. "Is it in there, too?" asked Uribatake over a communications window. The man nodded. Ariko turned to the window. "Uribatake-san, it's everywhere. There's no way we can get through it."

On the bridge, the silver-haired princess had an announcement.

"My assistant, Sarutahiko Omoikane, has completely shut down. At the same time, I cannot connect to the Sarutahiko itself. Also, the software diagnostics have been blocked." Nobody seemed to notice that she had just announced that Omoikane was a robot; they seemed to be worried mostly about the situation with the Yamato.

Mr. Prospector pushed up his glasses. "Is this a hardware issue? There must be a solution." An angry communications window popped up, showing Uribatake. "We're completely spooked down here! All passageways leading from the Nadesico to the Y-Unit either have high voltage running through them, or nonfunctioning gravity control!" Ariko, in the background, nodded. "It's as if Sarutahiko doesn't want to let anyone in."

Megumi looked a little worried, but not as much as the computer operator. "Will we be able to fire the PT cannon in thirty minutes?" Minato sighed. "I think today's lesson would be: 'Try not to do everything at once.'"

Mr. Hory glared at her. "I want a team sent into the Y-Unit." Mr. Prospector gave him a shocked look. "Our pilots aren't doing so well…" Mr. Hory looked at him questioningly. "Just what does that mean?"

Prospector answered, short, sweet, and to the point. "They claim to be seeing ghosts."

~*~

(T-Minus ?? minutes)

Hikaru lifted a hand in question. "Why is it that we're seeing people from our pasts, Miss Fressange?" Inez shrugged slightly. "I don't know. Perhaps it is these people, the people in our lives that died, that have given us so much trauma, and also effected our repressed personalities."

Akito turned to Gai. "I saw my dad… who did you see, Gai-chan?" Gai shook his head. "I saw my mother." He looked straight at Itsuki. "She asked me if my life with you was good." Itsuki gasped, her hands flying to her face. Yurika looked at Akito, as if seeing him for the first time. 'Is Yamada-san talking about his life with Kazamo-san? But they're only friends… Or is he talking about his like with Akito- Oh my god. Why didn't I see it before?' "Akito, why didn't you tell me you had a boyfriend!?"

This statement caught everyone's attention. Granted, everyone except Yurika knew about this development in Nadesico drama, but no one expected her to put two and two together so fast. Akito stammered. "Er… Erm… Uh… You see,-"

Yurika stood. "Akito, why couldn't you have trusted me? We were friends on Mars, don't you know you can tell me anything?" She looked at Gai. "Enough if you find someone else, I'll still care for you." She turned back to Akito. "Before all else, Akito, I want there to be friendship between us. Friendship means trust, Akito. I want you to trust me." She shook her head as he opened his mouth to say something. "Shut up, Tenkawa, let me finish. You're my oldest friend. I've known you forever. I'd like to not be lying when I can tell people I know more about you than everyone else. I don't want to be the last to know about things! I just want to be your friend. I'll still love you, but…" She walked over to Akito's chair and gave him a big hug. "I can tell when I've lost a fight." She walked back to her own chair and sat down.

Akatsuki looked at her, a bit hungrily. 'She's wide open now. There's no Akito in the way. Good luck Erina. Against me, you'll need it.'

Jun looked like he was going to burst into tears. 'That's exactly how I wanted to tell Yurika goodbye… when she would inevitably run off with Akito. And now… My god, I don't have to say goodbye to her, I have a chance again!'

Gai was looking at his tiles. He had all of his in front of him, and no one else's. He knew Itsuki had all of her tiles. He looked up and gray met dark brown. An unspoken message ran between them. 'Trust is the basis of everything, and we never trusted them to not have a heart attack. Itsuki's eyes asked Gai the same question in his mind. 'Let's tell them now?' Gai took a deep breath, and nodded slowly.

Itsuki picked up one of her tiles, the one that showed her and Gai's secret. Gai picked up the same corresponding tile. Itsuki tapped Ryoko next to her. "Ryoko." Gai got Akito's attention, and looked to Itsuki for help. She cleared her throat.

"Jiro and I have been inspired by your speech, Kanchou. So inspired. Trust should be the basis of every relationship. Trust in loyalty, trust in words, and trust… in secrecy." She nodded to Gai, who was starting to breathe rather heavily, as if his heart was in his stomach. 'This time has come.' "Akito, Ryoko… Itsuki and I believe that now is the time to show you our secret." Simultaneously, Itsuki handed Ryoko the tile and Gai handed Akito the tile. There was a large flash of silver, light orange, green, and light blue. The video played at the very same time in each tile. Ryoko and Akito had been transported to Itsuki and Gai's childhood.

A transparent, younger looking Itsuki ran into the room. "Can't catch me, Jiro no baka!" she cried. Half of Ryoko's mouth turned up. Young Gai stumbled into the room, looking very winded. "You bet I can't catch you, Itsuki-chan. I'm way too lazy." Akito smiled brightly, about to laugh at the scene.

Young Itsuki walked over to Young Gai and nudged him with her foot. "Hey, Jiro no baka, you'd better get up and back to running. I'm not gonna get married to some fat butt who sits around all day."

The video cut right then, both Ryoko and Akito pulling themselves out. Gai and Itsuki were both looking down. Itsuki started to tell the tale.

"Our families, the Kazamos and the Yamadas, were rivals. But our parents wanted the feud to end. Each family had an only child, both different genders. To end the feud, our parents'… betrothed me to Jiro, and Jiro to me. We were to be married the day after Jiro's eighteenth birthday. But… our parents were killed before then. As Jiro and I hated each other, we called it off entirely. We swore we wouldn't speak a word of it…" Gai finished her sentence for her. "But you two have a right to know."

Ryoko looked down. "I never would have thought… Why didn't you tell us before this? I know it came up. A few days ago, when we were playing cards. The 'subject for another day', that was this, wasn't it?" Itsuki nodded. "We didn't tell you… because we were scared."

"Of what?" asked Akito, staring at the cloth in front of him, his tone icy enough to freeze the room. He looked up, and straight at Gai. "What was so scary that you had to keep things from me?" He was obviously asking Gai, and no other.

Gai looked down, ashamed. "I was afraid of your reaction." Akito clenched his fists under the table. "My reaction? My REACTION?!?" He stood abruptly, his chair falling down behind him, but making no sound.

"You were scared of my reaction? Is this the reaction you were scared of? Fuck, Gai. If you told me from the get-go I wouldn't have even cared! You told me when you confessed that you loved me that things should not be kept secret! If you believed that then, why didn't you tell me? Scared of my fucking reaction. Didn't you even LISTEN to everything Yurika just said? Trust is the basis of everything! There has to be friendship before a relationship! You were my fucking BEST FRIEND and you through it away because you were scared of my goddamn fucking reaction! Best friends don't keep things like this from each other! Do you think I'd just go on forever never learning all the details of your past?" Akito's breathing started to shudder. "No, just… don't answer that. Just… don't talk to me. I don't want to even see your fucking face right now."

Gai shook his head and stood, finally, after his outburst. "I don't care if you want to pretend I don't exist. Just be like all this other assholes on the ship you keep yelling at. Pretend that Yamada Jiro never came on the ship, never nearly died. Go ahead, worry about frivolous stuff like when you get a promotion, a raise, or a girlfriend. Think about only the fun things; don't even dare to face the facts of life. Trust takes long to stabilize, Akito."

Akito glared at him. "And it's very easily broken."

Everyone was silent for a minute or two before Ryoko broke the silence, speaking to Itsuki calmly. "Itsuki. I may not be happy about the turn of events, or the long amount of time it took you to reveal this to me, but…" She took a deep breath. "Trust does take long to stabilize, and we weren't friends at all when you started flirting with me. I'm… honored that you trust me with this tidbit of information." Itsuki smiled, another real smile, a smile that was starting to be reserved only for Ryoko. She wrapped an arm around Ryoko. "I'm glad that the revealing of secrets unknown hasn't ruined our relationship," whispered Itsuki in Ryoko's ear. Ryoko blushed slightly.

Yurika kept her eyes on the table. 'I was just telling Akito I didn't care who he was with… and then he basically breaks up with his boyfriend right in front of me… what am I suppose to think now? I feel… wrong to think that it's a good thing, that I have a chance now…'

~*~

(T-Minus 20 minutes)

Uribatake finished fastening the new rubber tires to the eight bicycles and installing the gyros. "All right, we're all set." He turned to the eight pilots. The longhaired pilot looked a little scared. "Are you sure this is going to be safe?"

Uribatake gestured towards the bicycles behind him. "I installed rubber tires for when you go through the passages with high voltage, and gyros for if you run into lack of nonfunctioning gravity."

Mr. Hory looked over the teams, wondering just how he got into the mess. "We need to have the PT Cannon back online by the time we reach the intercept point. The entire mission is in jeopardy."

The Martian gaze a thumbs-up. "Right! Let's all go kick some ass! Akatsuki, Izumi, and Itsuki with me! Jun, you're with those girls left over!" He glared at his now former boyfriend, who grabbed his bike. "Let's get it done and over with, Aoi!"

The Executive Officer grabbed some guns as the Martian's team headed out. "All right, everyone! We're going to go the opposite way!"

~*~

(T-Minus 18 minutes)

The cook shouted, a strange smile on his face. "Well, I never thought I'd be leading an attack on a BICYCLE! Come on, pump those pedals!" The punster giggled. "I wish you pumping something besides those pedals…" The musician had a blank look as she hung in the back of the team. "What does that mean?"

The longhaired pilot was even with the Martian. "Hey hey, wanna have a race? The first person to reach the Y-Unit first gets to claim a prize from the loser, okay, okay?" The Martian guffawed. "Why the hell not, I could use a laugh! But what if there's a tie?" The blue haired pilot straightened herself. "There's enough of me to go around, you know." The lesbian cocked her head. "Enough of what? Are they going to eat you Izumi?" The now-perverted pilot snickered. "We can hope, dear Itsuki-chan."

The longhaired pilot and the Martian were still talking about their race. "If I win, I get to have the captain!" cried the older man, then he started riding off. The Martian yelled after him. "Hey! She's not mine to give away anyway, you little weenie! Hey! Get back here!"

The red-eyed pilot was left behind with the purple-haired pilot. "Men sure have strange tastes," she stated simply.

On the bridge, Megumi and Minato, in unison, cried, "You can sure say that again!" Above them Erina sighed. "This is completely inappropriate." Two window popped up, showing the two best friends, Minato and Megumi. "I think someone's jealous!" they replied in singsong. Erina was indignant. "I am not! I am just stating my professional opinion on the matter!"

Minato closed her window. "What I'm worried about is how their personalities seem to be changing." Erina heard her, nonetheless. "That is a point. Akito-kun seems much more assertive than usual."

~*~

(T-Minus 15 minutes)

The now-submissive tomboy glanced at the Executive Officer, who was surveying the locked door before them. "I don't think we should be doing this but I guess we have to!" She sounded very afraid. Her redhead best friend, however, was completely silent, holding her gun loosely.

The ex-otaku pointed his own gun at the blue-haired XO. "Get on with it, Aoi!" He nodded, a crazy smile forming on his face. "Don't worry, I've got it!" He raised his rifle at the door made it eat lead. The tomboy screamed, fell down, and covered her ears as the blue-haired pilot laughed maniacally. "All right! Get on your bicycles, everyone! There's a million obstacles ahead, and I just can't WAIT for an excuse to BLOW THEM ALL AWAY!" He continued laughing insanely as he hopped onto his bicycle.

~*~

(T-Minus 10 minutes)

The Martian continuously shouted motivational things to his group. "Keep pedaling! We're almost there!" The longhaired pilot pointed at the ceiling about ten feet in front of them. "Lookie, lookie! It's the hatch to the Y-Unit!" The blue and brown haired pilots screeched the brakes on their bikes, the longhaired pilot and the lesbian slowing theirs first. The Martian made a boost for the punster, who giggled about him having full view of her crotch before opening the hatch and climbing up.

The cook gave the musician a boost next, then the longhaired pilot pushed him up there. The blue-haired pilot pulled him up last, and they walked down the corridor, rifles cocked and ready to shoot anything that seemed out of the ordinary.

~*~

(T-Minus 8 minutes)

Nagare gasped. Before him stood Akatsuki Rinji, his older, and deceased, brother. "Oniisan. Why…? I thought you were dead…" Izumi looked up, remember that his brother and her second fiancée were one and the same. "It's not possible for you to be here!" She turned her attention to straight in front of her. "No… it can't be…"

Akito stared into the area in front of him, afraid of the vision he saw. "Otosan… you're dead…" Itsuki didn't looked afraid, or surprised at who she saw. "Nana-chan. Nice to see you again."

On the bridge, the crew saw that they were standing in the middle of a hall, but just standing there, not doing anything. Mr. Hory's eyebrows knit. "Why are they just standing there?"

Megumi tried to make a communications window appear in there, but Sarutahiko wouldn't let it. She tried to make a speaker-call. "Pilots Tenkawa, Izumi, and Akatsuki! Why aren't you responding to our communications? Hello? What're you doing?" There was no response.

Mr. Hory sighed. Apparently, that team was hopeless. "I'm afraid to ask about the other team." A communications window popped up, showing Jun laughing maniacally, pointing his rifle down the hall as he pedaled. "Ahahahahaaa! I love to shoot things!" Gai was in the back, keeping his own gun on Jun. "Pedal faster, Aoi!" Ryoko screamed. "Somebody HELP ME!" Hikaru was completely quiet about the whole scene.

Mr. Hory pushed the window away. Mr. Prospector shook his head. "I wonder why they're all acting strange."

Megumi turned to the level above hers. "And Miss Fressange isn't here to explain everything." She opened a communications window to Inez's room. She sat, smiling childishly, and eating an orange.

Back in the Y-Unit, Akito swallowed, then took a step forward to confront his father. "Otosan… I'm a failure." Tenkawa Oniji glared at his son. "You certainly are," whispered he, and Akito seemed paralyzed in place.

Akito started breathing heavily. "Why are you stopping us from reaching the Y-Unit, Otosan?" Oniji just stood, glaring at his lost cause of a son.

~*~

(T-Minus ?? minutes)

"They aren't stopping you at all." Ruri attempted to explain why Akito seemed frozen. "What you are seeing are just memories of the deceased who have contributed to, and are so attached, to the repressed parts of your personalities."

Akito looked at the young girl. "What does that mean…"

Ruri closed her amber eyes. "In short, it is yourself who holds you back."

~*~

(T-Minus 5 minutes)

Itsuki smiled at the ghost of her nanny, Dazai Nana. "Nana-chan, I've missed you so much." Nana nodded, her brown hair swaying slightly. "You've grown to be such a beautiful girl. So talented." Itsuki nodded slowly. "Thank you, Nana-chan… won't you come back to me?"

Nagare glared at Rinji. "When will you stop dictating my life? When will you finally leave me in peace?" Rinji stepped forward, and Nagare stepped back, murmuring, "I'm not afraid, not anymore." Rinji smiled. "It wasn't me, Nagare. I never would have wished this on you. I'm sorry." He glanced at Izumi. "Do not blame her for my death. It was simply fate that brought me to my destiny."

~*~

(T-Minus ?? minutes)

Ryoko picked up an Izumi tile. In a flash of blue and green, Ryoko saw an attractive young man, with brown hair that just barely fell in his eyes. "Hey, Izumi, who is this a picture of?"

Hikaru looked over Ryoko's shoulder and gasped. "It's Ken! One of your fiancées! He… he died of space pneumonia…" She looked at her very best friend, scared of what these dug-up memories would do.

Izumi kept her crimson eyes closed. "I had two fiancées. One lost to disease. The other to an accident." She crossed her arms on the table, and hid her face on them. "Everyone who's ever been close to me has died." Hikaru rubbed her best friend's back, giving her a hug to console her.

~*~

(T-Minus 4 minutes)

Neither smile, nor any sign of happiness was on Izumi's face as she confronted her first fiancée, Hosokawa Ken. "Please tell me the time has come to join you." She looked down. "It's all right. There's nothing to keep me here." She took some slow steps toward the ghost, and wrapped her arms around him, trying to collapse into his arms, and give herself to dearth, as she had tried many times after his death. He disappeared from her vision, just as he disappeared from her life. Sheer pain took over her expression as she fell to her knees, hugging only thin air. "No…" She looked up at the ceiling. "Please don't abandon me Ken!" She started to sob. "Please…" She wrapped her arms around herself.

~*~

(T-Minus ?? minutes)

"For Itsuki, Izumi, and Akatsuki, it isn't death they fear. It's the loss and separation that comes with it. For Akito, however, the fear is much more direct." Inez stared hard at him. "You still haven't come to terms with the death of your parents." Akito glared at Inez. "But I'm not afraid of dying! I'm not!"

~*~

(T-Minus 3 minutes)

"Bullshit." One word left Oniji's lips, and Akito's eyes widened, then he looked at the floor. "I'm not afraid of dying… I'm afraid of being killed. But, even though I'm afraid, I keep fighting…" He looked him father in the face, glaring at him back. "I never give up when it's important!"

Oniji's crossed his arms. "You've always been so arrogant. You haven't changed a bit. There's no reason for anything, Akito. Only excuses."

~*~

(T-Minus 2 minutes)

The princess, still very worried, rushed to say, "The Nadesico has reached the Intercept point!" Mr. Hory glanced at her computer operator. "Is the Y-Unit online?"

~*~

(T-Minus 1 minute)

Akito forced open the door to the core of the Sarutahiko. There he saw windows, no, exploited memories. Him and Yurika as children. Izumi with her fiancée Ken. Akatsuki and his brother Rinji. Itsuki and Gai as kids. Hikaru going to her parents' funeral with her grandmother. Ryoko separated from her best friends. Jun being forced into Military Academy. Ruri being adopted by a couple working for Nergal. Ai and a very regal looking woman. He looked straight ahead to see a Jovian robot.

He raised his rifle, pointing it at the mecha. "Get off our ship, you damn Jovian!" He fired.

~*~

(Zero Hour)

The Yamato extended, exposing its engines. They fired up, then shot twin blasts of energy. Akito recognized this energy's color as being like that of the Boson Jump plane: colorless and colorful. But it was much brighter. And after it dissipated, There was nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Yurika gasped. "It's destroying the fabric of space itself…" Mr. Hory was shocked too, but he said in monotone, "I've never seen anything like it." Yurika shook her head. "We can't use a weapon like this against humans." 'It's wrong… It's… just sick.'

Ruri lightened the scene a bit, not feeling as worried as she had a few minutes before. "Not if all we want to do is vaporize them."

~*~

(T-Plus 15 minutes)

Inez stood in the center of the circle of pilots, all seven of them. She had finally figured out what had occurred. She cleared her throat. "The Image Feedback System Type nanomachines in our pilots create an auxiliary brain near the base of the brain. Obviously, our little hacker crab mistook these as computer memory and hacked into them."

Ryoko interrupted for a moment. "Then how did all of our brains get stuck talkin' to each other?" Inez closed her eyes. "Through our communicators. Our personal communicators are all interconnected, and the hacker must have seen it as part of a larger network."

Itsuki had a question next. "How did the crab get into the Y-Unit?" Inez shrugged. "I don't know." Yurika raised her hand. "Oh, but you and I have never gone through Nanomachine Treatment, have we, Miss Fressange?" Inez looked down. "I can't explain that either."

Ruri didn't seem surprised. "A hacker into the Sarutahiko… Omoikane would have detected it, but he has, apparently, broken down. The crab must have known this, and cut him off the network, systematically making him shut down." He glanced at the motionless robot sitting on the floor beside her. "However, Omoikane should have restarted by now, but he hasn't. Apparently there must be something wrong with the system still." She faced Inez. "Or maybe he thinks something will happen soon that will effect him greatly."

~*~

(T-Plus 20 minutes)

Tsukumo gasped at what Kusakabe just told him. "You've already sent a peace emissary to the Nadesico?" Kusakabe nodded. "Our hacker has proven that they are still disorganized. Now would be a good time to get them to do as we wish."

Tsukumo shook his head. "But who? Who did you send to the Nadesico?" Genichiro laughed. "Oh, haven't you figured that out yet?"

Within a Boson Jump tunnel, Shiratori Yukina controlled a flitter, getting ever closer to the Nadesico. "I'll get you Earth Woman! You've deceived my brother! And for that treachery I swear you will pay!"

~*~

(T-Plus 30 minutes)

"It's over," stated Gai, simply. He glared at his ex-boyfriend. "I don't have time to deal with people like you." Akito shrugged. "I don't care. We didn't benefit from this anyway," said the Martian calmly, grabbing his few things and leaving the room.

Gai glared at the metal door, as if it was its fault all of this happened. 'You fucking bet nothing came out of it.'

In the hallway, Akito ran into Erina. Before she could say anything, Akito stated, in an icily calm voice, "I'm not going to do any more experiments, Erina." Erina's jaw dropped. "What do you mean you're not going to do any more experiments? We need you!" She shook her head. 'I'll put it into terms he can understand.' "It's just like that show you watch, Gekiganger. You're the only one who can save the blue planet earth!"

Akito turned back to the black-haired secretary. "It's not about Gekiganger anymore. This isn't a game. It's time to get serious, Erina. This is a war."

TBC…

~*~A/N: Yeah, that was rather crappily done. >< Oh well. Ho ho, it seems there's not so much perfect with the Gai and Akito relationship as we thought! And what's this with Yurika? Is she maturing a bit? Erina seems to be getting a bit… obsessed with this Boson Jump thing, doesn't she? And Akito is a bit pissed at the world now. Didn't anyone else think it was strange, watching this episode, that both Izumi's fiancée and Akatsuki brother died in accidents? So, yeah, it was my idea that they were one and the same. Anyway, did you like this chapter? Should I be killed for how I did it? Review me as usual, please! Next chapter, Yukina meets the crew of the Nadesico, including Minato and stuff! I bet you can't wait!