2023-09-09: Cage
- Log: Cage
- Cast: Rena Lancaster, Yuliana Kafim, Rita Bernal, Enba Rezza, Asciel Colette, Leina Ashta, Anita Rosetta, Liam 7-020, Koji Kabuto, Eight York, Zoltan Akkanen, Roux Louka, Sayaka Yumi, Sayla Mass, Lucine Azul, Sophia Mayhew Castellan, Naoko Suzuki, Shelby Korts, Trevor Teach
- Where: Denver Colony
- Date: 2023-09-09
- Summary: Denver Colony's ghosts have returned to awareness and make a move that could imperil the fate of the Earth Sphere. With the remains of the II Neo Zeong, a copious amount of Psychoframe material, and the helium-3 cylinders, the risk is great and the question of "What is a miracle?" must be answered.
KTS: Leina Ashta has deployed in RX-0 Unicorn Gundam 02 Banshee Norn <Destroy Mode> Awakened. KTS: Koji Kabuto has deployed in Mazinger Z <Astro Scrander>. KTS: Sayaka Yumi has deployed in Aphrodite Areia. KTS: Asciel Colette has deployed in Plan-1056 Codarl-a 'Glaux'. KTS: Lucine Azul has deployed in Dianthus Mk. 3. KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has deployed in SVM-01 Union Flag Sophia Custom. KTS: Naoko Suzuki has deployed in NS-1 Sukeban. KTS: Roux Louka has deployed in MSZ-006-3 Zeta Gundam 'Strike Zeta' <Mobile Suit>. KTS: Liam 7-020 has deployed in ZGMF-575-F CGUE II-L Liath Macha (Striker Pack). KTS: Enba Rezza has deployed in Zentradi Monitor 'Ra Mari II'. KTS: Yuliana Kafim has deployed in Threshold Queen EMPTEAR. KTS: Anita Rosetta has deployed in XVF-25I Svipul <GERWALK Mode>. KTS: Rita Bernal has deployed in RX-0 Unicorn Gundam 03 Phenex <Unicorn Mode>. KTS: Shelby Korts has deployed in MSN-03 Jagd Doga <Korts Custom>. KTS: Sayla Mass has deployed in RX-93-v2-MZ Photon Hi-Nu Gundam. KTS: Zoltan Akkanen has deployed in MSN-06S-2 Sinanju Stein.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
Denver Colony has sat quiet for almost an entire day. The colony cylinder was a closed type, without solar panels or windows on the inside. The gashes torn into it by the II Neo Zeong had been sealed by crystalline material, which is glowing a bright, angry red color. It looks not unlike the red of an infection. A faint glimmering barrier of light repulsed the few times someone thought to try to breach the colony.
By now, of course, a great deal of the Earth Sphere knows this is a problem.
The Three Ships Alliance and their allies were the first on the scene. In the day they've had since the Colony was sealed away, with the Neo Zeong inside it, they've undertaken emergency repairs and resupplied their units. Others have arrived, too. This includes, prominently, the General Revil and several escorting cruisers; they hang back from the Three Ships Alliance's forces, but haven't opened fire.
The first stirrings come across the sensors of nearly every ship -- and a few of the mecha -- present. A sudden spike in the energy output of the colony, as its nuclear reactor goes into overdrive, and then a glowing brightness from the inside of the colony. It shines through the red crystal material covering the colony's wounds, with ugly crimson light reflecting off some nearby debris.
Then, everyone can see that something is going terribly awry. The colony's hull begins to crack and burst apart, the whole thing shaking as the middle portion breaks apart. Chunks of the colony's shell, a few pieces of the long-abandoned city inside, glittering red Psychoframe crystal, and pieces of debris from yesterday's battle explode outward, as the remains of the II Neo Zeong launch from the colony. When it was pulled in, the Neo Zeong was dismantled -- piece by piece, taken apart -- and it was put back together. But it's all subtly wrong.
Armor plates that were blasted and damaged don't quite fit back together right. It is one-armed, without its funnels, and half-melted along the chest. It looks like a jigsaw puzzle jammed into place by uncaring hands, the pieces simply forced back into place instead of done so in a caring fashion. To make matters worse, there is the same angry red Psychoframe crystal that seals the parts broken and torn -- like a sort of glue.
The Neo Zeong Mobile Armor requires a Mobile Suit in its core. Before, this was the Narrative Gundam, but that was torn away from it. Now, it is a singular mass of red crystal, which has jaggedly torn gashes and holes into the metal, and runs deeper through the II Neo Zeong's remnants. Worse than that, though, is that there is a Mobile Suit there -- but encased in the crimson crystal. The Gaia Gear Alpha floats in the middle of the crystal, and hangs limply like a rag doll inside of it.
A transmission opens from it, with a video feed sent out.
Rena Lancaster's face is visible there, but her eyes are closed. Her hair is limp against her face, and the entire cockpit is awash in the same sickly red light. There is some blood on her lips. When she speaks, there are voices underlying her own. For those who can sense such things, she feels distant; she feels like she might be asleep.
"Only the living can end something started by the living," Rena says, her voice trembling with the others.
The debris field all around the battlefield shifts subtly. The problem may begin to dawn on the technically minded. Between the destruction of the Psycho Shards ring yesterday and the Psychoframe crystal sealing the colony a moment ago, there is an enormous amount of psycommu-activated material scattered throughout the battlefield. There is a terribly, shrieking noise in the minds of those present; over two dozen voices calling out into their minds, with wordless anger and fear mixed together.
And then thousands upon thousands of small pieces of debris launch out. A hand of a Mobile Suit here; a spent beam rifle e-cap there; a chunk of colony cylinder; a tire from a destroyed electrical vehicle. They bounce off each other, but they come slamming in towards those anywhere near the II Neo Zeong's remains, like a pinball machine with eerie guidance -- and shimmering crimson light.
KTS: Rena Lancaster has deployed in NZ-999 II Neo Zeong Remnant (Psychoframe Crystal). KTS: Rena_Lancaster has deployed as a Boss for 9 opponents. KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Anita Rosetta, Naoko Suzuki, Leina Ashta, Rita Bernal, Zoltan Akkanen, Asciel Colette, Sayaka Yumi, Sophia Mayhew Castellan, and Shelby Korts with Psycho-Scream. KTS: Rena Lancaster has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Trust Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Rena Lancaster rattles Sayaka Yumi, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Sayaka Yumi fails to react to Rena Lancaster's Psycho-Scream, taking 3780 damage! KTS: Anita Rosetta has activated the Valor Spirit Command.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
A great deal of the Earth Sphere -- and its twin saviours.
No, not those ones.
Yuliana is blindfolded, eyes bound with sacred green cloth; she is only blind until her hand fumbles to the ignition panel, fingertips guided by the song of so much green fold quartz, all embedded into the dance floor she calls her cockpit.
It is green, jutting out from black hexagonal Voidframe. She lays her hand to it, she invokes: "Emptear, get set!" ...
--------------------------------- | Llyph ot th'ioll | | EMPTEAR | | Y-yth'yollyshy-k... OK | | Ll:o sh'jsth'ianish llkh'ioll | | Tiallth'ou-j llkh'ioth'you | ---------------------------------
... and the sight given to Yuliana, as Emptear's eyes light up, is so much vaster than what she could see with her eyes. Rather than viewing Emptear's camera outputs through clear quartz displays, she sees as Emptear sees. That Emptear sees so much MORE, so much FURTHER is of no consequence; without her human input to confuse her, Yuliana's mind is at peace with the alien view. Seawater drips from her as she ascends from the ocean where Emptear hides, and space meets her so, so quickly.
Only the living, she hears, can end something started by the living.
"Renalle," she says, on her approach.
And perhaps these words carry through the transmission link: "... I warned you."
When she comes to Denver Colony, inexplicably, she drops in from ABOVE. When she descends, it is only after the colony's hull cracks with horrific power; only after that horrific Neo Zeong II reveals itself.
She stands sixty metres tall, lithe and menacing, thrice over the height of a Gundam -- let alone those units which Gundams dwarf. The black of her chassis is tipped with green, bright as venom, a shade of emerald unlike this place. Her massive heels conceal jets, alongside the ones hidden in her spikes, all jagged at her elbows and knees as if long gloves and boots. Those spikes fan out into a skirt, into shoulderpads, and in the middle of her chest they seem to form a great spiked maw. Nothing after nothing pours from it, oppressively silent to Awakened senses, as if another realm leaks from her heart. Twin serpents weave from the darkness, behind her, with draconic frills and deadly maws.
An Empress of tears tearing through emptiness, the Threshold Queen holds no weapons in her hands -- just a dancer's scarf, billowing down from the crooks of her arms.
Hers is not the wrongness of Neo Zeong II; still they seem to make fine bedfellows. There is something loudly, sharply wrong here -- the jagged edges, for most pilots, and the yawning, all-consuming, demanding void for the Awakened.
And yet the space around her is so quiet, in the face of all this Psychoframe. Tranquil, by one account. By another, tranquilised.
She musn't be denied.
She will not be denied.
She cannot be denied.
"Yes," Yuliana's voice flows from Emptear, and the only part of her which doesn't display uncannily human movement is her face. Emptear's is locked in an eternal hungry grin. "This is our sacred task, as those still living -- to end the torment of these damned souls before they annihilate our Earth! Billions of lives, destroyed before they could know the hope of what must be... I will not permit it. By my hand shall it end."
The gesture of her hand, talons beckoning gently in, is all too realised. These are not the motions of a controlled automation, but a woman -- and their fidelity is carried by the way Yuliana's hand curls, in her empty, black dance hall. One mirrors the other, with solid black shadows to provide the smaller Yuliana with tactical feedback for Emptear's actions.
"Do not worry!" She assures them, and she is self-assured. "I shall consume these spirits, and bring them the peace of Silence. I see no reason why their hostage should not survive," her hands spread, welcoming, "or perhaps even be improved... though, if she has been too thoroughly subverted by the dead, I regret there may be no saving her." A deep, troubled sigh -- "Know that Renalle made the choice to reach out to these monsters who would now destroy all we know! I counselled her to centre the living in her priorities, but she was determined to save these conglomerated dead... now it's come to this. We bear no blame for what must be done!"
She speaks with all the confidence of a preacher, but there's a manic edge to her words. Call it madness, or agitation, or hunger; the beneficence Yuliana offers comes on the edge of a knife. Surely she will stop the ghosts of Denver from destroying her Earth...
... but at what cost?
Come to her, she beckons with open palm, as she stretches out to begin her first dance movement.
By her side lies safety from this horrific aggregation of Psychoframe.
By her side lies the Void's victory.
KTS: Rena Lancaster rattles Anita Rosetta, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Anita Rosetta blocks Rena Lancaster's Psycho-Scream, taking 3525 damage! KTS: Trevor Teach has deployed in JR-777 Isadore. KTS: Rena Lancaster rattles Leina Ashta, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Leina Ashta partially guards Rena Lancaster's Psycho-Scream, taking 4935 damage! KTS: Yuliana_Kafim has deployed as a Boss for 7 opponents. KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Koji Kabuto with Despirit! KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Enba Rezza with Despirit! KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Liam 7-020 with Despirit! KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Roux Louka with Goad! KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Lucine Azul with Goad! KTS: Yuliana Kafim despirits Koji Kabuto, reducing his SP drastically. KTS: [Spirit Defense] Koji Kabuto's Mazin Pride activates, and his spirit endures. KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Sayla Mass with Goad! KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Trevor Teach with Goad! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has completed their actions for the round. KTS: EN Regen activates. Your new EN value is 392. KTS: SP Regen activates. Your new SP value is 135. KTS: Yuliana Kafim despirits Enba Rezza, reducing their SP drastically. KTS: Asciel Colette successfully avoids Rena Lancaster's Psycho-Scream KTS: Yuliana Kafim despirits Liam 7-020, reducing his SP drastically. KTS: [Spirit Defense] Liam 7-020's Budding Resilience activates, and his spirit endures. KTS: Yuliana Kafim goads Lucine Azul, reducing her Intuition drastically.
<Pose Tracker> Rita Bernal has posed.
Awareness, white-hot, scorches across Rita's awareness. Denver Colony is about to stir. At last. She's been waiting, the Phenex just within the Ra Mari II's hangar doors.
If things go badly, I'll come back for you two. This is the safest place you can be until then.
Rita says nothing more as she parts from Jona and Michele -- nor does she wait for any argument. The Heart of the Phenex simply vanishes from within the Ra Mari II's med bay. In the same moment, the golden Gundam lifts itself into the air and flits out of the ship. She does not look back.
The Phenex is one of the first mobile suits to take to the field. She does not get too close to the destroyed, crystalline Colony, knowing the danger it poses to her in particular.
She waits.
It's almost a vigil. A lone firebird waiting for the inevitable.
Crack
Rita's focus narrows. Denver splits apart, releasing the monster, in yet another terrifying form. Though she tries to push it away, fear threatens to overwhelm her. It wasn't supposed to be like this. Malevolent scarlet living crystal has encompassed the Neo Zeong II, granting it yet more power. This is so much worse than her visions ever showed her it would be. The Neo Zeong II was terrifying on its own, with its capability to rewrite reality, but enhanced this way...
And within...
Illusory green eyes watch the amalgamation's broadcast. That is not Rena Lancaster, not anymore. Sorrow echoes from the third Unicorn sister. If only Rena had listened to Rita's warning. Now...
It's not too late. Jona proved that recovery is possible. But the chance of rescuing Rena unscathed is so terribly, terribly slight. Rita, knowing her companions would not be capable of bringing an end to Rena's suffering, prepares herself to do what must be done.
Glimmering prismatic flame catches along the armor of the Phenex. This must be the end of the monster. Whatever it takes, Rita will not suffer it to haunt this world for another day. For all these years, destroying the Neo Zeong II has been her sole motivation. To allow humanity to continue. So they may reach that shining future she's seen. A humanity that communicates without misunderstanding...
Whatever it takes.
Rita will commit any sin, sacrifice any sacred thing. Nothing could ever matter more than the monster's destruction.
It's a terrible thing, how terror and determination can wind together. It's a terrible thing, what power emotion has. Even when you're facing down the reason you were born. Even as you're prepared to give everything you have left.
Perhaps Rita could have managed to go into battle as a glorious beacon of strength and hope, if not for the entrance of another monster. The Emptear, in all its spiked horror, descends. The Phenex, small before the other machine's gargantuan mass, visibly recoils.
Smothering silence curls oppressively around the Emptear. Just as none but the chosen, most powerful Newtypes may pilot a Unicorn, there is only one person who could possibly be present within the green, serpent-crowned machine.
The barrier of flame Rita kindled within her heart, keeping out all unhelpful emotion, gutters out.
Even as Yuliana's grand declaration echoes through the communications array of the Phenex, a birdlike scream meets it, echoing into the hearts of those open to the spiritual world. Perhaps, this time, it is even powerful enough to be heard by unpsychic ears.
YULIANA!
Rita's voice shrieks, feeding the flame around the Phenex until it roars. Losing its miraculous color, it glows white-hot, impossible against the void of space.
She knew this was coming.
She knew it was always going to be this way.
Even without mystical visions, from the moment they met, Rita knew Yuliana was touched by the Void. It was always going to be this way. It's not something to mourn. It's not something to grieve. Their paths were always going to diverge. Nothing can be done. You've sacrificed everything else anyway.
Accept it.
Accept it.
Accept it.
As the flame keeping Rita Bernals' spirit as it must be burns down to embers, the fire suspending the Phenex grows ever more incandescent. The Gundam shudders, inner light shifting from blue to blinding white. Slowly, her golden armor slides apart, revealing her true Psychoframe body--
I CAN'T!
Rita's voice breaks, though her scream goes on, unbound by physical possibility. Her control over the ever-wild heart of the NT-D begins to slip.
Jona. Michele. Shelby.
Countless faceless, nameless test subjects. Rita never learned their names. She knew how quickly they'd vanish. They could not matter.
Leina.
If Rita was never going to be able to follow the path laid out to her, if this was the way it was always going to end, how many lives could she have saved, by acting the way she wanted to, instead of the way she had to? How much suffering could Rita have prevented?
The weight of her sins bears down on her, heavier than even the Phenex can withstand. Helplessly burning, the firebird seizes, frozen in place. Slowly, Rita curls in on herself, and the Gundam mirrors her, hands covering her armored face.
It does nothing to stop her sight.
KTS: Rita Bernal targets Rena Lancaster with Pass! KTS: Rita Bernal has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Yuliana Kafim goads Trevor Teach, reducing his Intuition drastically. KTS: Yuliana Kafim: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Rena Lancaster rattles Shelby Korts, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Shelby Korts blocks Rena Lancaster's Psycho-Scream, taking 1410 damage! KTS: Rena Lancaster rattles Rita Bernal, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Rita Bernal blocks Rena Lancaster's Psycho-Scream, taking 3525 damage! KTS: Rena Lancaster rattles Naoko Suzuki, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Naoko Suzuki fails to react to Rena Lancaster's Psycho-Scream, taking 6120 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim goads Roux Louka, reducing her Intuition drastically. KTS: Zoltan Akkanen has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Rena Lancaster rattles Zoltan Akkanen, making his next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Zoltan Akkanen blocks Rena Lancaster's Psycho-Scream, taking 5610 damage! KTS: Rena Lancaster rattles Sophia Mayhew Castellan, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan blocks Rena Lancaster's Psycho-Scream, taking 5610 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Enba Rezza has posed.
The Ra Mari II has remained in space near the Denver Colony, holding silent vigil over its red crystal. Within, the ship is far from silent; repairs to machine and person are hurriedly made, and the bridge is kept to a full crew every hour--though at this point, there has been a chance for each crew member to end shift and rest. Enba Rezza is one of those. Staying up for twenty four hours straight after battles like those they've been through--that's a recipe for ruin on a battleship.
But now, now it is time, and Enba sits in the Captain's chair on the bridge, watching. Licia Chovan looks at the viewscreen on which Rena's face appears in horror; Tempo Astelian wavers, to see it. Even Gidon Kall, stoic as ever, blanches in the face of this horror.
And then...
"Kafim," Enba Rezza says. "Open a channel, Astelian. And everyone--remember what it is we're here to do."
"To hell with your peace, Kafim." Rezza's words are calmly delivered--but there is a touch of anger in them, of fury that they would never show openly.
"And to hell with your 'blame.'"
"Captain," Kazama reports warily, "The Phenex--"
"We'll leave the Phenex and the colony to others. We need to stop that monster, here and now." Pause. "Kazama. Lay down a curtain of missile fire. Port and starboard tubes."
"Fire."
Missiles cascade out towards EMPTEAR, even as the crew feels more dispirited than ever. But Enba will not allow such emotion to stand in their way.
...York would never forgive them.
KTS: Enba Rezza targets Yuliana Kafim with High-Power Missile Armament System - Area Denial! KTS: Enba Rezza has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Trevor Teach has changed loadout.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
Asking Asciel about what exactly happened after she fled the fight against the Neo Zeong only to wind up in awful shape in the Ra Mari's hangars is met with an obstinate - "It's improper to ask prying personal questions to idols, you know!~" - but the fact that there's plenty of footage and records of a salvaged Virtual Sage wrapped up in the Isadore's tow cables is evidence enough. And also that she has lots and lots of pictures and footage from very close up to the growing Psychoframe of the Denver Colony also confirms that-
yeah she yeeted herself off to the colony and had to be bailed out when it got very dangerous and she couldn't leave. She will deny this until the day she segfaults.
The past is the past (even if it just happened), and a hastily self-repaired Codarl perches on the Ra Mari's bow, watching and waiting as the thumping chrysalis beyond yearns for awakening. ...The fact that Asciel could only get the Lambda Driver half working is part of what saves her right now - everything it emanates can fly right around her, like a heavy yet invisible black hole upon the membrane.
She can't hear it now, but she vividly remembers all the same. Those feelings of disdainful loneliness. Those ambitions to awaken into something new, no matter the cost. That possessiveness of Rena. All of it - Asciel so vividly understands. Even as she looks upon the growing calamity with a strange sense of empathy...
<"Sorry, but you're just wrong there!~ I resolved to end humanity's story of struggle long ago, and I kind of don't like the implication that I'm living the same way as them. Don't worry, though. I understand your fears. I understand the myriad voices melting into one, crying for something to save them, even as they work too hard to save themselves. I know it way too well. Let me help you understand just what I mean!~ <3">
>relay satellites active
>packet configuration secure
>successful reply from verve.liveatrytone1ei
(NOW LIVE) surprise stream!~ finally getting around to saving the world <3
Countless tiny spheres suddenly erupt from Asciel's back - spreading in a cloud behind her. To all of them, Asciel turns around, giving a big cheery wink, framing herself as vast and the amassed Neo-Zeong as insignificant. <"Hi hi, all my little clouds down there on Earth - maybe a few of my stars in the sky, too! Your goddess of possibility is here for every last person in the world, just as usual! Isn't this wonderful? Seeing something that could match me finally hatch - and it's kinda not even on my level. It couldn't have done any better than just messily stapling together the parts of what it once was? Bo~ring~! Ne - but you know-">
As the cameras all begin to fire little bolts of suppressive fire upon the Neo Zeong II's remnant, and as viewership climbs to...something passable for 'virality', if not massively overwhelming - what Asciel may be trying to do is obvious.
<"...Just this once - it's not just me up here.~ I've gotten quite a few guest stars for this one - so don't forget them, everyone. I'll begin my performance in a little bit - but give a few rounds of applause to all these myriad colors of the rainbow. Just for a little while, okay?~">
-It's not a 'miracle.
It's not anything close. Asciel could never just 'make' one from the wishes of everyone.
This isn't even conceivably the collective wishes of all mankind or anything. It'd be ridiculous, to think a few thousand passive viewers equate to the holding of hands that made the Axis Shock possible - and even if it were, Asciel isn't the one to manifest it forward.
...but it's something, isn't it? Just that little extra 'arrow of light', from the distant blue Earth below.
...Maybe someone could use it to notch their bow, if the time is right. Maybe if those encouraging hopes can find everyone else on camera...
KTS: Asciel Colette targets Rena Lancaster with Musica Universalis Pulse! KTS: Asciel Colette has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Rena Lancaster fails to react to Rita Bernal's Pass, taking 0 damage! KTS: Rena Lancaster blocks Asciel Colette's Musica Universalis Pulse, taking 2790 damage! KTS: Asciel Colette repulses Rena Lancaster, forcing her to disengage.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
The repairs were hasty.
Jona's attack with the Neo-Zeong II had rendered the Norn a tortured mess. Somehow it held together, somehow. Leina herself isn't a mechanic herself, but she lent her own hand to the repairs. Every now and then retrieving a tool, or holding someone so someone else could work on it.
Sometimes she looked sideways and saw Astonaige. Not really of course, it's just where memory and feelings took her.
She was too young to work on the repairs then, but sometimes he let her toss something up to him. She'd like to think that despite it's checkered history, he'd have loved to work on the Norn.
Despite her inability to do much, it was still a machine of feelings, of memory. And perhaps she lent more than she realized, because by the time Denver Colony stirred, it was declared at least battleworthy. They'd have liked more time of course, much more time, there are hastily sealed cracks in the armor, and the Psychoframe is melted in places. The Armed Armor DE they didn't have the parts to replace wholesale, only patch the parts of it that were rendered molten slag.
"It'll have to be enough." She said quietly in the end, as she finished putting her helmet on, and climbed into the cockpit. She could feel everything coming apart at the Colony nearby, the quakes of Psychic wrongness as it erupts with it's crimson crystals...
... by the time the Neo-Zeong II erupts, the Banshee is following the others out of the hangar, "I'm coming, Renalle." Azure contrails erupt from it, as it transforms, interlocking plates separating to reveal it's Psychoframe, shining bright yellow with the light of a resolve shared.
Seeing her in this position is painful. It's like looking into a distorted mirror of herself, from not long ago. Swept up and enthralled by the curses of the Universal Century. The curses are inflicted upon this world by the bitter dead, but the true curse are always the wounds their passing leaves upon the living.
And what she says, while entrapped within the Gaia Gear. There are crimson crystals certainly, but all Leina can see are hands, within her memory.
My answer hasn't changed, maybe we've told each other a few lies... but I don't think our friendship was a lie. The things we went through together on Axis. The way we thought the other was dead, then found each other again. None of that was fake!
The debris field shifts, and the Banshee begins taking evasive maneuvers, the Armed Armor DE flaring, as it dives backwards, flying on its rockets, but despite it all, it's still struck by the debris from the field slamming into it, sending it in a hard spiral before it corrects.
Grimacing in her seat, caught in the light of the NT-D, what she's thinking of more than anything else right now is that moment within the hangar...
What do you want Renalle? I think that's the question you really need to answer first.
I think... I want to know I've helped. Made things better, for others and for myself. And that I did it because I'm me. Not who I was made to be.
"My answer hasn't changed either, Renalle. Nor has my question, is this what you really want? Or are you lying to yourself just like I was? This is your moment! To prove to yourself what we've known all along!"
Moving in a course correction, the Norn hurtles back around in the Debris Field, as she raises the Beam Magnum, it's cylinder turning, sending a a salvo of missiles to slam into the crystals surrounding the tortured remains of the Neo-Zeong II, trying to do what she can to loosen it's hold on her.
"That our world - our lives, are better for having you in it. Because of who you are, not what you were made to be!"
Yet, that is not the only threat, is it? She can feel the cold emptiness even before she sees it. In the psychic buzz, its absence is so very quiet - and loud all at once. Emptear is here, just like before. And Leina's blood runs cold as she announces her intent, the Banshee suddenly whirling around as it lets the AMBAC course correct to stop her flight. "... no ..." Leina stumbles over the thought that Rena chose this, it couldn't be quite so simple.
"It's- they reached out to her! They forced her into submission! I was there! It was..."
Just like me.
It sinks in deeply just how horrific this outcome would be, she doesn't want these souls to do this, but she certainly doesn't want Yuliana to CONSUME them. And what she says about what could happen to Rena if the ghosts have too tight a hold upon her...
... she thinks of Dr. Tasiya Petrov, and what was left of her after Elisa released her.
"Stall her! We'll get Rena out of there before this goes too far."
Yet through it all, she can hear Rita's distress, feel her resolve - even if it's not in the same direction as her own. Her intent is so painfully clear, after spending so much time for her, and the Norn's thrusters move slowly towards Rita in the Golden Phenex.
Dummy.
There is something stern about her psychic tone, scolding, but would she reach out to her at all if she didn't care?
This is your moment too. Things don't always have to end according to the scripts you were given.
The Norn reaches out a hand, palm up, despite it's cracks and injuries as if reaching a hand to help her up - symbolic in the physical realm, but there's something psychic overlaying it. Two other hands overlaying it, and one isn't Leina's.
Write your own for once. With us. This was never intended to be a solo production.
KTS: Leina Ashta targets Rena Lancaster with Revolving Launcher BOP Missile Salvo! KTS: Leina Ashta has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
Once, there was a mount. A noble steed, of a cadet line of glory. Found in keeping away from the valiance of its siblings, it fought well, thermo-nuclear engines stirring the winds of Earth and great weapons fighting battles in a half-shadowed war for, perhaps, the future of the Earth Sphere.
Sorely wounded, the steed did one last thing, and it is perhaps remarkable in itself that it *could* -- it broke its own heart, rupturing within for love of its rider. A good death; one worthy of memory and song, even if Mobile Suits are rarely mourned.
And yet this one was honored, in a manner rare: for another heart was built for it.
And now:
-=-=-=-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7IValobfhE
"Roux Louka, Strike Zeta," says the faithful rider: "Launching!"
The catapult hurls the Mobile Suit into the empyrean of space, empty - no, not empty at all. Distantly, Roux can hear the voices, and it is pretty troubling to her that she can already hear them pretty well, even if she has something else with her, beneath her, around her to keep her occupied from dwelling upon it.
"Hey, Lahvi," Roux continues as she levels out and banks to starboard to get out of the launch cone: "It's purring like a happy cat. You were right, that whole valve array was just Anaheim being budget."
Roux's eyes turn outwards. It's chaos, of course, but she can track it. The communication from Rena - she's trapped there inside of the Neo-Zeong, forcefully transplanted to serve as the core for a machine of malign will. And it is malign, isn't it? Roux thinks, but there's a couple of other bigger problems, even if the psycho-storm isn't her issue (immediately).
The Phenex - Rita. It wasn't that long ago, Roux thinks, that I thought she was like an angel, the real kind, not the kaiju; but now she's screaming. And that's not all.
The Emptear. She's in there - she's speaking to them. At them, anyway, Roux thinks, eyes tracking towards the dreadful machine as her face remains stoic and solemn. She can feel her body reacting, but she feels her body reacting... there is a small space between them. Why is this easier? Roux thinks. Maybe because I committed to something, finally.
Nevertheless, what Yuliana says rankles Roux. The difference is meaningful but it doesn't mean it doesn't get to her. Maybe it's simply that self-same fury she'd felt when in this area before, but filtered by time and changed. Not every change is bad, even if you can't go back.
"How's the wife?" Roux answers, without humor, even as she opens fire with the head-mounted 60mm vulcans, an immense number of small-but-peppy shells accelerating into the darkness. Roux tilts the Strike Zeta's head around at a different arc than its maneuvers' evolution; it's a momentary impression, if you're looking closely, of a neck straining. The rounds fly without fanfare, aiming towards their destination. Which part's the important part?
I hope all of it is, the faithful rider prays.
KTS: Roux Louka targets Yuliana Kafim with 60mm Vulcan Cannon! KTS: Roux Louka has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Yuliana Kafim goads Sayla Mass, reducing her Intuition drastically.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
A fleeting moment of comfort, stolen from under the baleful glow of Denver Colony, followed by a handful of hours of rest. Like all good things: Over too soon.
Koji runs his hand through Sayaka's hair, and presses a kiss to her forehead. He wants to stay here - but he knows they can't. They have responsibilities to see to. He slowly extricates himself from the bunk, and begins to make ready for the battle to come.
====== ======
"MAZIN GO!"
Borne on thruster-streams of Photon Power from the Astro Scrander, Mazinger Z launches from the transport ship Paralus, Koji sucking air through his teeth at the sight of Denver Colony cracking like an egg - and the II Neo Zeong emerging, newmade but wrong.
The transmission opens - Rena Lancaster speaks with her voice, but not her own words - and Koji's brow furrows. "If I have to punch you out of there, Lancaster - "
A half-second before EMPTEAR's void-portal opens, Z's reactor output gutters. Recognising the phenomeon, Koji curses as his console lights up again, flipping control overrides to improve the feedback loop that keeps the Japanium core of the Photon Reactor spinning and glowing.
The Threshold Queen descends, to stand triumphal over the shattered Denver. Yuliana proclaims that she will devour the spirits within the Psychoframe, and for a moment that would be fine (if not for the worrying edge to her tone, the mania a half-step away... and then she speaks of Rena.
Perhaps it's because Koji has made a recent effort to reach out to people cast out as 'monsters', even perhaps against his own better judgment, that where Yuliana seeks to crush hope, her words instead chip against his spirit like flint on stone, casting sparks where she meant to cast doubt.
"Sayaka," he says, in that cold, barely-restrained tone his love knows well. "I'm changing targets. Mazin Power online."
Yellow devil's eyes track onto Emptear as light spills from beneath Mazinger Z's plates. "So - what?" Koji yells, "She's to be condemned for making a mistake? For not being able to resist that hunger? If that's what your better world demands, Yuliana Kafim - "
The yellow eyes flare brighter, to incandescent white -
" - then I WANT NO PART OF IT! KOUSHIRYOKU BEAM!"
As the Castle of Iron blazes forwards, rays of concentrated Photon Power lash out from its eyes, raking across the space EMPTEAR occupies.
"Ra Mari II! This is Koji Kabuto of Londo Bell, rendering assistance from Mazinger Z! Leina, I've got your back!"
Like Leina, he's noticed the Phenex motionless and unable to defend herself from the II Neo Zeong. He can't hear Leina reach out, but he does in his own way.
"Rita Bernal," his voice echoes in the empty Phenex cockpit as he opens the transmission.
"I won't lie - I'm still real angry at you, and Michele, about - everything... but you have a chance now to start making it right. Sure, you didn't see things getting this bad... but that just means it's possible there are better things ahead you haven't seen either."
"The only way you're gonna find out is to fight for them yourself, instead of being a slave to your own power."
KTS: Koji Kabuto targets Yuliana Kafim with Koushiryoku Beam! KTS: Koji Kabuto has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Koji Kabuto's Mazinger Z <Astro Scrander> has been disabled. KTS: Koji Kabuto has deployed in Mazinger Z <Astro Scrander>. KTS: Koji Kabuto targets Yuliana Kafim with Koushiryoku Beam! KTS: Koji Kabuto has completed their actions for the round.
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
The XVF-25I Svipul launches from the Ra Mari II. For Anita, there can be only one destination - one target. She grimaces at the sight of colony's state, which turns into a look of shock at the sight of the II Neo Zeong as it launches. She saw it before - but it's not like it was before. Not exactly. It's... grotesque. And worse... the sight of the red crystal at its core, in which a familiar mobile suit floats.
Rena's.
And there is a transmission - Anita's eyes dart to it immediately as Rena's face appears on her screen. It's... awful, to see her like that.
"Rena! Rena, listen to me, you gotta wake up!" Anita calls out to her. "You-"
She starts to say something else - but she is interrupted as the debris field starts to shift. Anita curses as she braces the Svipul against impact, each one causing the the machine to reel. She stabilizes it after a moment - but even she can hear the voices screaming in her head now, and it makes focusing difficult. And Rita... something seems to be wrong with Rita.
...Which is when another problem reveals itself.
"Yuliana!?" Anita gasps... and then frowns, her expression set. "...Don't pat yourself on the back and act like you care now. Like you're some big savior. Rena tried because she cares!"
She has a lot of choice words for her - but for now, she has to focus on the machine ahead of her.
"...Don't worry, Rena. I'm gonna get you out of there. Even if I gotta tear that beast apart piece by piece." Anita says. She takes aim focusing a barrage of vulcan fire onto the II Neo Zeong. There's a lot of robot to get through - but if she can at least make an opening...
...Anita pauses, though, as she hears Asciel's announcement.
"...Wait, uh, are we being recorded right now...?" She starts. She didn't plan for this! It'll ruin her image!
...Well, that's fine. If it's for Rena's sake... it's worth it.
KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Rena Lancaster with Vulcan Barrage! KTS: Anita Rosetta has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
It's easy to underestimate just how valuable it is to rest and recover in moments like these. Liam has not made that mistake. Liath Macha was towed back to the Ra Mari II, where it immediately went into an isolated berth for quarantine and repair. Liam himself went to Medical, then did whatever he could to steady himself. Simple things: good, nutritious meals, a solid eight hours of sleep, bathing, spending time with his loved ones, working in the hydroponic bay.
There's no way Liam can be truly prepared for what's about to happen, whatever that is. The best he can do is ground himself. That counts for a lot.
A launch catapult fires, hurling a freshly-repaired Liath Macha into the void. There's a little white-knuckle tension in Liam's hands as they grip the sticks--he's still afraid, against reason, that they'd stop responding, that his machine would turn against him. Everything seems to be working. The Greytone CGUE II slows a little as the colony... hatches, for lack of a better term. His eyes go wide. He can only imagine what he'd feel if he were Awakened. As it is...
"Rena," Liam whispers, horror in his voice. "Rena! Rena, can you hear us?!" He can't claim to know her as well as he knows Eight, or Koji, but she's hurt and suffering and not in her right mind.
A dancer takes the stage, and Liam's horror grows like a spreading bonfire. Yuliana. She's here to--the ghosts. Rena. His heart tightens. His mind flashes back to the corpses he saw in the lab, the suited bodies of people who held each other or tried to escape in their last moments. Yuliana speaks with Authority. Liam has never been good at defying it.
Liath Macha whips its shield and beam rifle free, and whirls from the colony to face the much, much larger machine. "Yuliana. Those ghosts were test subjects," Liam says, and his voice cracks. "Just like us. Where do you--what gives you the right to--to pass that kind of judgment?!" Anger flares up in him as he channels the horror towards something he can do. "And how--how DARE YOU act like maybe killing Rena is helping her?!"
The CGUE II sights its beam rifle high up on Emptear's torso--thankfully, Banagher demonstrated that a shot to center mass will do nothing--and pulls the trigger. A moment passes, and Liam double-taps, to properly express his anger.
KTS: Liam 7-020 targets Yuliana Kafim with MA-M21G Beam Rifle Shot! KTS: Liam 7-020 has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Liam 7-020's Biorhythm activates Trick!
<Pose Tracker> Trevor Teach has posed.
Trevor was not sure what was gestating within the sepulchral womb of Denver Colony. Who could have ever really predicted that what would emerge was a twisted agglomeration of ruined machine, bloodsoaked crystal and spectral antipathy? Not Trevor Teach, that's for sure. Even when the Isadore sailed into dangerously close proximity to the ravenous colony on what was most certainly not a rescue mission (even though it absolutely was according to every single recording of the event, including those by the rescuee), Trevor could sense little beyond the growing malice that now thrums a discordant bassy roar through the very fabric of space.
And now... It's here. It's terrible. Awful. Trevor feels the blood surge through his veins as fear grips his heart. Facing the II Neo Zeong was bad enough, but--
And then it all stops.
"What--" That feeling. It's all too quiet. Trevor feels his heart drop into his gut as that awful, familiar sensation creeps like icewater through the lattice of blood vessels interlacing through his brain. He'd never seen the Emptear before, but he knows the power that it radiates. That terrible, impossible quietude it radiates into the world-- the promise of Silence.
And of course, he instantly knows who sits at its heart.
In that instant, he's not sure which of the two he's more afraid of. But a few things are absolutely certain--
The Kakapo girl is in danger. Rita is losing control. And, burning brighter above all of the rest, with base emotion dominating over all else--
Is that this bitch used him as a human shield and nearly gave him a concussion.
"Yuliana, what the FUCK!?" Isadore's visor flashes. It races forward, even as Trevor feels his connection to the machine slip. It's fine. They don't need to hear each others' voices to know to coordinate. "Eating ghosts is one thing, but this is a bridge too far! You're hurting Rita-- you're GOING to hurt Rena! For what!?" Isadore reaches for its sword--
--s. Swords. Plural. A pair of ORB anti-ship swords, in fact.
Isadore's weapons were a little bit ruined during the first II Neo Zeong encounter, and without adequate time to repair them, Trevor's decided to make use of what he could find in the Ra Mari's arsenal. And as it turns out--
The Emptear is about the size of a ship.
"This shit is chaotic enough WITHOUT some crazy prophetess preaching ghost cannibalism!" Trevor roars, racing into the embrace of the void...
To cut its face off.
KTS: Trevor Teach targets Yuliana Kafim with Orb Anti-Ship Swords Dashing Slash! KTS: Trevor Teach has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
Going back to the Ra Mari II to resupply and get the Dianthus patched up, there had been little time to decompress from the battle before. Lucine had as much faith in Liam's ability to take it as Sayaka had in her suit's ability to take Koji's efforts to stop the II Neo Zeong's control, but... Liam was a man who had suffered abuse at the hands of so many people he had trusted, whether willingly or by force, a lot of which had taken surgeries to undo. He may trust her, but she couldn't. She also refused to back down from the challenge itself.
And this one, Lucine is similarly determined.
Sparing a moment to look at the crystal hidden in the dash, Lucine considers taking it out to avoid it becoming a possible means of contamination, but, remembering it displaying the same green glow Banagher and Leina's frames had, she decides against it.
The angry red of the Denver Colony is another matter. Something is gestating inside that chrysalis, and judging by the Dianthus's sensors, it's ready to burst out like the butterfly that witch's brew of loneliness, fear, and anger deserves.
And emerge it does, a glittering cyst of red crystal, psychoframe, and in the center-
< "..... How did...." > Horror blanches Lucine's face as she hears and feels what has transpired, realizing that there could have been a similar fate for her, if she had tried to contact them alone.
..... But she didn't. Rena did, knowing it may likely go badly, but, if she hadn't, what would have changed except for the addition of regret?
Monsters. Monsters, says Yuliana.
< ".... You call them _monsters_, and you're blaming Rena for trying to reach out to them?!" >
Like Koji and others, Lucine stares the Void down, anger blanking out all reason or sense.
< ".... This *can't* be our only option... it's just replacing one anger with another. You should have some inkling of who the REAL monsters are, Yuliana!!" >
The arbarest at the ready, the Dianthus charges up, firing a blinding shot straight into the 'heart' of the green and black unit, not long after Liam.
KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Rena Lancaster partially guards Leina Ashta's Revolving Launcher BOP Missile Salvo, taking 2494 damage! KTS: Lucine Azul targets Yuliana Kafim with Argen-21 Beam Arbalest Snipe! KTS: Lucine Azul has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Zoltan Akkanen has posed.
Zoltan, unfortunately, was doing a very wicked thing moments before the Sinanju Stein streaked out of the Ra Mari II, the silver streak of the former Sleeves piercing through the skies. The events of the past few days. The Neo Zeong II. What was inside Denver Colony. Yuliana's role. The Phenex's role in everything. Places, people, the death of his handler, the way the Sleeves were collapsing left and right after Laplace's Box had been wrenched open and exposed.
Zoltan Akkanen was thinking.
There's little time for that now. The SInanju Stein was in better condition than ever. Having to stuff it in the Ra Mari II had left it in (relatively) better shape, shaking off the rust of it being stored for so long on Earth. One sortie didn't destroy it, knock on psycommu.
The Neo Zeong II is absurdly easy to spot. To make due, to recieve that feed sent out to the cosmos. For once, he can agree with Rena...Or whatever Denver Colony is thrumming through her. The obvious. "You damn idiot..." Absolute buffon. Denver Colony isn't going to repair itself after this. The same crystals. The same sort of infection. Was this possibility?
And the bigger idiot. "Yuliana." His voice is cold towards the woman who always set his body on edge. A tradeoff that's obvious most people wouldn't make. "You should've kept to grandstanding." His own personal aesthetic disagreed with this machine, after all. Something so petty.
The attack is merciless, vulcans firing every so often as hands are crossed in front of the cockpit. Dents, pockmarks, minor gashes along the frame, exposing the Psycho-Frame under the surface. Minorly worrying. Come on, you've done better than this.
A thrum across a bond. The head instinctually snaps towards Rita Bernal. Ah. Ah damn. Ah shit. What happened at Palau. What happened there. Goddamn it- "RITA!" NO use. She won't listen. There's a gun of the throttle, rifle aimed out to potshot at the Neo Zeong II. His own machine, once again, wreaking havoc.
He'll have to make peace with killing his past. One shot. Two. Three. Crowd out everything around you. Focus. Four shots. Five. Six. Dump the entire magazine. Pop it off, swing the leg wide, careen towards the Phenex...
And swing towards the cockpit, a roundhouse kick to dent the flares of possibility beginning to alight inside Rita.
KTS: Zoltan Akkanen has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Zoltan Akkanen targets Rena Lancaster with MSN-06S Sinanju Stein High Beam Rifle Reckless Fire! KTS: Zoltan Akkanen has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
"It's time, Koji," Sayaka says quietly, as the world outside them, that grand amalgamation of psychoframe and spirits, begins to shift and shake with a massive spike of power. Just like Koji, she'd rather stay in that short moment of comfort forever. "Don't worry. I'll be with you, this time, even if our machines are apart. And there's nothing we can't do when we put our hearts together." She takes her partner's hand, as they both prepare to deploy. "So let's do what we must... and never forget it."
Even as Rena unleashes power, trapped in the Gaia Gear, trapped in the Neo Zeong II - trapped in Denver, it's not the only power that courses through space. A similar, no, opposite force that the two researchers would intimately recognize. "'Emptear'..." Sayaka gasps. "With power like that, what in the world could Yuliana be trying to do?"
The pilot of the Threshold Queen is, of course, kind enough to explain exactly that. "What she would bring... it's not salvation." Sayaka shakes her head. "We can't let those ghosts destroy the Earth Sphere... but there has to be a better way than that!"
What comes their way - could be described as more of a 'scream', than it is an attack, as that crimson light combined with various debris flies their way. Sayaka leaps ahead of Mazinger Z, letting the attack weather against her own Super Alloy New Z. See? The armour replacement was perfect. "Go ahead!" Sayaka shouts, facing down Denver itself, as the Oracle of the Void's words seem to goad Koji. "Kafim's all yours. I'll take care of getting Rena Lancaster back!"
Rena's video transmission - only the living can end something the living ended. She's not sure she can so much talk to it, as talk at it. But she speaks nonetheless. "The Photon Power Labs, no - I will stand for the powerless as long as I'm alive!" Sayaka says from Aphrodite Areia. "You've stood up for us more times than I can count. Now it's our turn to do the same for you. So just hang on tight, because it might get rough! SCARLET BEAM!" That bright red beam of Photon Power clashes with the psychoframe energy, attempting to do at least something to stop this disastrous situation.
She opens to the rest engaged with Denver as well. "Ra Mari II, Sayaka Yumi of the Photon Power Labs is with you. I'll help you get your crewmate back!" The Banshee Norn, too... "Leina, don't do anything too reckless. We'll help you save your friend -- so just hold on."
KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Rena Lancaster with Scarlet Beam! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Rena Lancaster partially guards Anita Rosetta's Vulcan Barrage, taking 2450 damage! KTS: Anita Rosetta begins a Formation attack! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Yuliana Kafim has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Yuliana Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Yuliana Kafim fails to intercept Enba Rezza's High-Power Missile Armament System - Area Denial, taking 3900 damage! KTS: Enba Rezza begins a Formation attack! KTS: Yuliana Kafim successfully evades Roux Louka's 60mm Vulcan Cannon
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
The Hi-Nu's reactor surged to life not long before the battle was set top commence. Repairs to the armour in the day had been... enough.
Sayla herself had been waiting to launch from the Ra Mari II when the transmission came in. She did not know Rena well, despite her connection to Leina. But she knew what Leina wanted to do, and as much as she hated the idea of Leina going into battle so fresh again-
It was going to happen no matter what, and in that case Sayla had to do her part to help her come back alive.
But then the Emptear appears, and Yuliana makes her declaration. The peace of Silence...
"On it," Sayla responds to Leina, over the comms. She knows once she gets in close to Emptear, she won't be able to feel Leina anymore. She won't be able to know for sure how the fight is going- and neither will Leina. "I promise you I'll see you on the Ra Mari when this is over, okay? Please make sure you do the same."
As the Photon Hi-Nu flies into the Emptear's zone of silence, Sayla can feel her senses dull. Feel herself being deafened. *This* is the 'peace' Yuliana wants?
"...That's unacceptable, Mrs Kafim." Sayla's voice is hard. She knows how Yuliana feels about newtypes- she's seen those horrid fliers, too. "That 'peace' you offer is no peace at all. It's suffering and nothingness. Nothing kinder than Triple Zero offers the world. Leina and her friends are going to solve this her way. Take your salvation and leave!"
She doesn't fire. Not yet. Instead she opens her comms wider. "Roux, Koji, Captain Rezza, I'm sending the data from the last time we fought this thing. We can't let her cut through us- not before they're done. We're keeping Yuliana busy, destroying the Emptear should be a secondary goal.
The Hi-Nu raises it's shield. Fighting defensively, drawing out the battle to keep Yuliana busy, it's a risky gambit... But the Emptear is dangerous enough- and taking risks while her senses are dulled is something she can't afford to do.
KTS: Yuliana Kafim successfully evades Liam 7-020's MA-M21G Beam Rifle Shot KTS: Sayla Mass: Will Barrier Activates. KTS: Sayla Mass targets Roux Louka, Koji Kabuto, and Enba Rezza with Caution. KTS: Sayla Mass has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Yuliana Kafim successfully evades Lucine Azul's Argen-21 Beam Arbalest Snipe KTS: Lucine Azul completes the Formation attack! KTS: Zoltan Akkanen rattles Rena Lancaster, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Rena Lancaster blocks Zoltan Akkanen's MSN-06S Sinanju Stein High Beam Rifle Reckless Fire, taking 990 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim charges into the attack! KTS: Yuliana Kafim successfully avoids Koji Kabuto's Koushiryoku Beam KTS: Yuliana Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Yuliana Kafim parries Trevor Teach's Orb Anti-Ship Swords Dashing Slash, taking 570 damage! KTS: Trevor Teach has engaged Yuliana Kafim! KTS: Sayla Mass suggests caution, raising Roux Louka's Intuition! KTS: Sayaka Yumi rattles Rena Lancaster, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Rena Lancaster blocks Sayaka Yumi's Scarlet Beam, taking 1500 damage! KTS: Sayaka Yumi continues a Formation attack! KTS: Sayla Mass suggests caution, raising Koji Kabuto's Intuition! KTS: Sayla Mass suggests caution, raising Enba Rezza's Intuition!
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
To say that the MSN-03 Jagd Doga has been put through the wringer is to put it ... relatively lightly. In twenty-four hours, the repair work put in on it has been peacemeal; the work of technological miracles keeping things holding together. The lefthand display on her console is practically bolted in, wired straight into the system and obviously not designed for this machine.
The left arm, an unpainted metallic gray mess of obvious riveting and weldwork that does not match the Mobile Suit or it's messy, burnt, and torn knockout pink paint. The helmet, bent and torn at the fraying edges with a gouge, one leg ... barely holding on.
Likewise, to say that she owes the Ra Mari II's crew a favor is a colossal understatement.
Even the shield that she has -- temporary on it's face, mismatched and lacking the in-mounted scattering gun. Three of her funnels are on a stripped-down panels and a skeletal chassis of it's original racking. It looks ... rough, but still servicable. Not because she wants it to be.
Because it needs to be.
"Yuliana..." Shelby Korts says through a tight jaw. Everything inside her is screaming 'I told you so,' 'I knew she would do something,' 'Yuliana better not screw us,' but ... at the same time, she had a sliver of an inkling of a hope: A tiny little wish, that maybe, just maybe, she had changed.
Voices still echo and ripple across space, pounding against her skull. Her senses-- her very sense of herself. Her identity. Her shoulder still aches, sore and tight. Her head is pounding still. Roux? Leina? Lucine, Zoltan, Liam and Rita... and the voices-- Rena. Everything-- everything is just... so... loud...
'I'm scared... t-that I'm not strong enough to help.'
'You've become a woman with things you must do.'
Shelby's head straightens up as she takes a deep breath, exhaling hard against the inside of her visor. "I'm going in!"
The six funnels take flight; half with precise motion and half practically being thrown off the rack as the rickety system swivels open. The hastily-repaired Jagd Doga hefts the gatling rifle and braces itself, sending off a chattering, heavy spray of weapons fire from the spinning barrels at the Neo Zeong!
KTS: Shelby Korts has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Shelby Korts targets Rena Lancaster with Beam Gatling Gun Constant Barrage! KTS: Shelby Korts has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Rena Lancaster partially guards Shelby Korts's Beam Gatling Gun Constant Barrage, taking 2430 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Another sleepless night working on getting the Sukeban in perfect working order is nothing new for Naoko. It's what needed to be done, as the matter of Denver Colony is far from settled. It's the best thing she can do at a time like this anyway - if she tries to sleep during a crisis situation, she'll just lie awake thinking about what she could be doing to help. A quick power nap and a great deal of caffeine will have to keep her going. She doesn't have any actual plans, but that's nothing new. She just has to be out there. As long as she's out there, she can make a difference. There has to be something she can do to help. She won't accept that it's already too late for Rena.
As soon as the colony stirs, the Sukeban deploys alongside Anita, the Whispered quick to attempt to analyze the situation, mumbling to herself, "...What have they done to her?" Surveying the battlefield, she is heartened to see all the allies on their side, particularly happy to see the Aphrodite Areia is back in action. ...And is Asciel setting up for a stream, now? She shakes her head, but smiles, regardless... and reminds herself to ask after that reward she's owed, later.
She is less enthused about seeing the Federation ships in the area. The General Revil has never been a welcome sight. They're not about to try and take advantage of this situation to attack again, are they? And what's going on with the Phenex? Oh no, she's seen that happen before...
Unfortunately, that's where her monitoring efforts end, overwhelmed by a sudden massive psychic assault, echoing in her mind. She screams, covering her ears in a futile gesture, forcing Uriel and Ariel to take over the controls for the moment. But Sukeban cannot function well unless three minds are in sync. Debris pelts the Arm Slave, knocking it about, and further away.
To make matters even worse, the Emptear appears, right when Naoko has barely pulled herself back together. Even far removed from it as it is, she can sense it - rather, she can't. The absence of existence itself. To say that it's horrifying is the understatement of the century. "Nonono, what is THAT thing, it's--" She cuts herself off, hearing Yuliana's proclamation. And immediately decides to stay away from that machine, for a plethora of reasons. Yes, she's choosing the ghosts who wanted to absorb her into their collective over Yuliana's empty void. Better the devil you know? Not in this case. Every fiber of her being is telling her that she CANNOT be near that machine.
Gritting her teeth, she does her level best to shut out all the noise in her head and refocus on the task at hand. Taking the giant club in its hands, the Sukeban extends it towards the Neo Zeong II - or what remains it. She wavers about where to aim, for a moment. Will this hurt Rena? She has no way of knowing. But that crystal... they need to get the Gaia Gear out of there. She has no choice but to try and do what damage she can do it.
"Rena! Please open your eyes and see what they're making you do! KANABOU BEEEEEEEAM!"
With that, a large, sustained burst of energy launches forth from the Sukeban's weapon, directly towards the corrupted mobile armor.
KTS: Naoko Suzuki targets Rena Lancaster with Kanabou Beam! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
The battle against II Neo Zeong nearly shattered the Hyperion - Jona Basta's impossible asasult causing enormous damage to the ship and her compliment of mobile suits. And so, the Captain sent it to the back line, where it greeted the oncoming General Revil. Despite being on a patchjob of life support and multiple decks of lost environmental seals, not to mention a nearly totally depleted offensive capacity, it has remained on the edge of the field.
The Captain is still away, after all. Sophia took the escort vessel Helios off to dock with Ra Mari II to visit with one of the crew, accompanied only by the Heliios' own small crew. She knew more would come - that much was obvious. She almost expected worse, like the whole colony coming alive.
Perhaps it's better she not share that thought. She's on the Helios - they've thrown a small berth together for her so that she doesn't have to impose even further on Captain York. The reports begin to come in that Denver is stirring. Something is emerging. The chrysalis opens.
"We're going," Sophia announced, obviously; soon, the Helios is in the sky again and Sophia's Flag stands on the deck, in turn launching from its own single catapult. The deep blue Union Flag surges forward. She surges her Geass as the thing inside the Federation pilot speaks, and...
She can see it, just. Threads of connection reaching down to something that her spiritual eye doesn't see, but her real one does. She manages to get the Flag's Defense Rod up in time, the whirling projectile batting away a few simple pieces of debris. But the scream cuts through her focus, especially as it seems to COURSE through the connection between the world of Connections and RIGHT INTO HER OPTIC NERVE, causing her to scream a strangled noise and claw at her eye again. "Damnable creature," she grates out, low in her throat. This time, she doesn't dare turn it off, but it means that when a chunk of debris the size of an industrial refrigerator comes at her, she doesn't dodge correctly, and it crushes both into her arm and into her body.
Recovering herself after that hit, she has to look at the arrival of Emptear. She huffs and glares, the Emblem of Kings shining in her eye and showing her the grim powers the Void beast possesses. Watching as a thing like the opposite of a connection reaches to create a downhill for the ghosts to fall down. "So that's your plan," she huffs. ... "Fine. Try it."
She doesn't intervene, instead flicking her linear cannon to charge stateand then drawing up the linear rifle with her remaining good arm. So instead...
Her eye cuts to the side, at another light flickering in all this agony. She hates the sight of it. But she redoubles her grip on the sticks.
'I'm going in!'
"Caedra, I'm with you!"
Amid the funnel fire, Sophia's linear fire rains down, pellets of light spattering across the II Neo Zeong's frame.
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has changed loadout. KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan targets Rena Lancaster with Linear Rifle Rapid Mode! KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Rena Lancaster partially guards Sophia Mayhew Castellan's Linear Rifle Rapid Mode, taking 2190 damage! KTS: Rena Lancaster blocks Naoko Suzuki's Kanabou Beam, taking 1440 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
EMPTEAR's arrival prompts a cacophany of murmurs, a couple of screams, and even a handful of curses from the ghosts present.
Then, four voices as one speak over it.
"You won't have her. You, who cannot accept our gift."
"You have no place in this world!"
"Rita..." Rena's voice has that almost emotionless, otherworldly tone. Detached, like she is somewhere far away. "They want you to join them. They want you to become one with them. They've told me, Rita."
When she speaks, her voice is underlaid with the ghosts. And there's almost no emotion in her voice.
The Codarl looses bolts of energy into the II Neo Zeong's remains. Scarred, battered armor has dentsand slashes torn through it; chunks of crystal fly off like chips of glass, as the blasts strike into it.
"We can make everyone understand. We can make everyone like us," Rena tells Asciel. "This much Psychoframe..."
Then, her attention shifts. Leina can feel it; the familiar sensation of her friend's mind on hers. But then there is an amalgamation of over two dozen other minds, and Rena becomes washed out in all of those.
"They're Eight's siblings. That's who these Cyber-Newtypes are. Sold to Anaheim after Neo-Zeon failed." That's Rena's answer to Leina -- and it isn't an answer. "They're my mother's sin."
Her voice halters. "My sin."
Her voice wavers, for a moment. "I'm sorry, Doctor Kabuto. But... I think I was always going to disappoint you." Her voice sounds withdrawn for a moment. Then, she falls quiet entirely, as the Norn raises the Beam Magnum -- and several missiles fire, slamming into the side of the Neo Zeong II. Armor plates are shorn off; fire blasts across its ashen, stained frame.
"Annie," Rena murmurs in the quiet of her cockpit. Her voice doesn't carry.
"I'm already lost, Anita." Rena's voice speaks out, her eyes still closed. "They showed me the truth about who I am. What if I am awake? Now that my eyes are closed, I can see. Now that I'm here, I understand that I'm nowhere."
Vulcan fire chases across the armored hull of the II Neo Zeong's remains. It's soon clear that the I-Field is no longer operational -- but in some places, there is Psychoframe crystal visible just underneath. A faint glow.
"I'm sorry."
For a moment, Rena's voice is quiet. Then, she answers Liam: "We all hear you, Liam. They want to help you. They want you to become them, so you won't hurt."
The Sinanju Stein fires in, vulcans slashing more gashes across the battered armor. The beam rifle fires, a lance of energy slamming into the II Neo Zeong. It strikes where the black outline of the Sleeves emblem was -- and burns through it, a circular hole glowing molten red for a moment.
"You always called me an idiot." Rena's voice is monotonous. Her eyes stay closed. "I realized why I couldn't understand you, Zoltan."
Rena, herself, sighs. Her fingers at her side tense -- and then fall slack again. "I couldn't accept myself. Not the way you could. But they showed me what I really am. I can be their vessel. Maybe I can do that much for you."
The Aphrodite Areia's beam slashes across the skirt armor and midsection of the Neo Zeong -- burning armor away, until it starts to scorch into the sickly red crystal. Rena hesitates, for a moment.
"Please, Doctor Yumi. This is all for the best," she says. "The people who died in Denver... the people who showed me. They were victims of the first war against Neo Zeon. They just want to help everyone."
The shoulders of the Neo Zeong's remains open up; in one case, a piece of armor slides back, catches, and will never slide back into place. The mega particle cannons inside swivel, before they take aim. Then, beams of golden light criss-cross through space.
Two slash out for the Banshee Norn. One hurtles towards the Sinanju Stein, with a hint of desperation -- a furious blast of golden light, as if it could ward it away.
Then, two converge -- and a pair of beams come crashing down for the Aphrodite Areia.
"I always wanted to help you, Shelby. Ever since I met you." Rena's voice wavers in that alien, unusual away, as she speaks. The gatling beam rifle tears through armor, slashing some of it off; plates of it go flying away, burnt off. The Mobile Armor's mechanics, clearly, are more animated than functional at this point.
"But I realized I can't help anyone as I am. They showed me that." She is quiet for a moment. "But they'll try."
Nearby, glittering golden dust from the shattered Psycho-Shards glimmer -- and then two pieces of shattered colony wall lurch -- and hurl together, trying to pincer Shelby's Jagd Doga between them.
A moment later, the linear rifle's shots fire -- Sophia's Flag loosing rounds into the hull of the Neo Zeong's husk, blowing gashes through it. Two dozen eyes that do not exist turn their attention onto her Union Flag.
And the leftmost chunk of colony wall begins to rip apart. It moves away from the Jagd Doga, deconstructing itself -- and reconstructing itself quickly, building infinitely upon itself to make it move. It forms a crude arm, which slams at the midsection of Sophia's Union Flag.
Rena's attention turns towards Naoko. The sustained blast of energy explodes from the Sukeban, slamming into the Neo Zeong, below where one of its rather short legs is -- and sheers through it, outside the back.
"My eyes are closed. I can truly see, now, Naoko. I wish I had been able to really see you, before it was all too late."
The shoulder-mounted mega particle cannons on the Neo Zeong shift -- and then two beams fire, sending rapid pulses of golden energy out for the Arm Slave.
Aboard the General Revil, the commanding officer stands up and stares as the field comes alive. "Do we have a read on that?"
"Yes, sir! We've confirmed the Emptear is also present, and should be considered a priority threat--"
Another technician cuts that one off: "Sir! We're--we're picking up some sort of of movement, in the debris field, it's--"
The debris field comes to life. It isn't Rena who speaks to the crew of the General Revil -- who speaks to everyone here. It's four voices, speaking into the minds of all present, their voices laid over another two dozen voices.
"You failed us."
"You should have saved us from Glemy."
"But all you could do is use people."
"So now we'll use what remains of you."
The debris field stirs -- as chunks of twisted colony hull, shattered Mobile Suits, and more compress together into multi-layered tendrils. They move like gigantic cables; like an octopus's appendages, and the move by debris compounding together to build those limbs to lengthen them, even as the back ends fall apart.
Eight of them slam into the General Revil. The hull's armor crumples around the impacts, as they wrap. Voices echo over the local communications.
"Massive damage to the starboard, sections three through nineteen!"
"We're venting atmosphere in the medbay!"
"Captain, we can't--"
Then, it becomes screaming, as the tendrils of debris begin to twist. The armor crumples like an accordion; the framework begins to bend. Hardened glass viewports shatter. The lights on the General Revil flicker, once, twice, thrice, and then go dark.
And then great white streams of mist explode from a hundred different gashes in the great battleship's hull as the bow is twisted around until it's upside down, relative to the stern. Armor tears apart in sheets, like ripped paper, before the tendrils all yank.
And the General Revil is torn in half, spraying out its air supply and dozens of crew. They scream.
But they are not heard.
Inside the Gaia Gear Alpha's cockpit, Rena makes a strangled sound as the Federation's flagship meets its end. "Nngh--"
And that, as it happens, is heard.
KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Rita Bernal with Prevent! KTS: Rena_Lancaster Changes attack to Leina Ashta, Zoltan Akkanen, and Sayaka Yumi with Shoulder Mega Particle Cannon Salvo. KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Anita Rosetta with Nullify! KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Shelby Korts with Debris Compression! KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan with Compounding Debris Arm Strike! KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Naoko Suzuki with Shoulder Mega Particle Cannon Focus Fire! KTS: Rena Lancaster has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Trust Spirit Command. KTS: [Lucky] Anita Rosetta's Serious Mode activates, and luck goes her way! KTS: Anita Rosetta successfully Accepts Rena Lancaster's Nullify KTS: Leina Ashta blocks Rena Lancaster's Shoulder Mega Particle Cannon Salvo, taking 3180 damage! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Sayaka Yumi blocks Rena Lancaster's Shoulder Mega Particle Cannon Salvo, taking 2880 damage! KTS: Rena Lancaster prevents Rita Bernal's maneuvers, reducing her Skill drastically.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Ritechka," Yuliana's voice, at least, can reach through empty space -- though her hand would surely shatter her. "Why do you seize so...? Do not despair, old friend. We will ply our most potent weapon towards the safety of this Earth. The Threshold Queen, EMPTEAR... this is the greatest gesture I proffer." And there is concern, in those words. There may even be care.
Such as when her voice lifts, still open channel, to meet Leina: "I'm sure you think me cruel," Yuliana sighs, and not without regret. "Oh, Leyasha, you want so many things... you do not yet understand that the more you want, the less of it you will gain. Do not be troubled," Yuliana smiles, and Emptear never doesn't. "You are young, yet. There is so much time for you to learn." A breath of a pause, "... just, do not do as I do. Rather, take your example from my decree --"
Emptear welcomes these transmissions; she is welcoming. And so the Ra Mari II sees that black, octagonal-matrix Voidframe interior, a strangely VAST and strangely EMPTY dance floor. The camera naturally focuses on Yuliana's face -- though she doesn't, entirely, look at it, sacred green cloth wrapped firmly about her eyes.
A blind Oracle.
Behind her, set into the walls, are panels of Earthly clear quartz, displaying the battle outside and Emptear's readings. She looks at none of them, now; nor the Green Fold Quartz, set into one cardinal direction, glowing in concert with the Green Fold set into her jewellery. A crown over her helmet, a choker around her neck -- and a bracelet, visible, as Emptear's hand lifts to her face just as Yuliana's lifts to hers. It must have taken months of work to bring all this power into one place, so much Green Fold all clustered to one location.
And she smiles, hearing Enba's denial. "You do not understand," she says, and she is understanding. Has infinite understanding, for their foibles. She answers Anita, in the same breath: "You understand nothing at all. You think I care nothing for this world...? You listen to nothing but your own biases. But as you wish, false Captain," her hands lift above her head, twirling around each other, before she reaches out to the ship: "... come to Hell, with me. Abyssal Beam!"
So do the serpents twisting behind her back orient to the Ra Mari -- and open their maws, to blast black magic into the ship. The black magic attempts to consume the missiles coming for it, just the same -- but the curtain is too thick to shred, and enough of that payload lands against her arms and legs, where they may find physical purchase.
(Though, nothing touches her middle, that awful place where the Void's leaking out.)
Emptear spins, in the open air, taking her dancer's cloth and spiralling through existence. In her dancing, she abjures Roux's vulcan-fire entirely, shots glancing off that cloth which is far more sturdy than cotton or silk. "My Elisa prepared EMPTEAR for me, that I could offer you salvation! She is very well... how kind of you to ask. Won't you dance with me?" That cloth wraps about the Strike Zeta, seeking to pull her in. The dance is -- well. Moving at the speed and velocity and violence of Emptear's level...
... it's going to be rough.
She spins, and leaps through empty space, OVER Koushiryoku Beam. "I would condemn her to save us all!" She replies, her hand lifting high. "What will you tell Fujinomiya, when these ghosts bring so many colonies down upon it? That one woman was more important than all their lives? I weep for them. Darkness -- Shine!" And she does, her empty palm coming down to crash into Mazinger, with something unlike light glinting in its palm.
There she turns, and in her dance, she abjures more fire -- from Liam, this time. She simply isn't there, where he shoots, though he shoots with such anger. "Oh?" She asks him, sultry-sweet. "Do you think your sweet Rita meant to spare these ghosts, boy? What gives you the right to scream at me -- and accept her? I need not entertain this. Abyssal Beam!" Once more, those snakes open their maws, and a beam of darkness crashes forward towards Liam's machine.
She brings her claws up, easily catching that Anti-Ship swords -- though she has to devote both her hands to doing so. "I will not harm Rita," she assures him, and still she is assured. "Do not worry. She has not lost herself to the morass; she may yet be saved. Perhaps Renalle, as well, can still be saved. You are all very pessimistic, aren't you...?" Though, what Rena(?) is saying... perhaps their pessimism is warranted. She may well be lost.
Lucine, meanwhile, shoots at the very heart of Emptear --
And she will find --
That Emptear didn't even need to move.
Her shot lands true in that horrible black heart,
And it disappears.
It's not here, any more.
It's Hers, now.
"Foolish girl," Yuliana says, as she tosses Trevor and Isadore into Lucine and the Dianthus. "You cannot kill me so easily. I am not here. I am where I must be."
She turns, then, to Sayla's Hi Nu. "I wish only to save the world I love," she says, and sounds, if anything, hurt. "Still, you would deny me? Then, Doctor... I must show you my heart."
The very heart Lucine tried to shoot -- the place where Yuliana is trapped, here --
"Hollow Heart Surgery..."
The emptiness pours out, and out, and out, screaming and unheard, to pour over Sayla's machine. It is deafeningly quiet.
She still sounds a touch sad, speaking to Zoltan. "Should I have? Nothing I do will be enough, to these people. Nothing I do... why, just listen to Rita's little friend, there. She never believed in me, did she?" She's talking about Shelby, of course. She doesn't know that Shelby hoped.
Really, when the only person who embraces her is --
"I'm surprised," she says, to Sophia, "but pleasantly so. Watch me, Castellan. You will see."
To Leina, she offers one, final message: "See to Ritechka, would you? I... cannot."
But as the General Revil explodes, Yuliana loses her composure -- and screams: "THIS is what you tell me I SHOULD NOT CORRECT! You cannot even hear them screaming, can you?! How many HUNDREDS of people are dead, just like that--?! You damnable fools...!!"
KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Enba Rezza with Void Snake's Abyssal Beam! KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Roux Louka with Dance With Me! KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Koji Kabuto with Queen's Claw Shine! KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Liam 7-020 with Void Snake's Abyssal Beam! KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Trevor Teach with Queen's Claw Slap! KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Lucine Azul with Queen's Claw Slap! KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Sayla Mass with Hollow Heart Surgery! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Naoko Suzuki has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Naoko Suzuki fails to evade Rena Lancaster's Shoulder Mega Particle Cannon Focus Fire, taking 6600 damage! KTS: Lucine Azul rushes into the attack! KTS: Lucine Azul partially guards Yuliana Kafim's Queen's Claw Slap, taking 2520 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim repulses Lucine Azul, forcing her to disengage. KTS: Enba Rezza Activates barrier generator KTS: Zoltan Akkanen has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Enba Rezza successfully avoids Yuliana Kafim's Void Snake's Abyssal Beam KTS: Zoltan Akkanen blocks Rena Lancaster's Shoulder Mega Particle Cannon Salvo, taking 6360 damage! KTS: Trevor Teach partially guards Yuliana Kafim's Queen's Claw Slap, taking 1680 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim repulses Trevor Teach, forcing him to disengage. KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Koji Kabuto fails to parry Yuliana Kafim's Queen's Claw Shine, taking 4050 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has engaged Koji Kabuto! KTS: Yuliana Kafim begins a Formation attack! KTS: Yuliana Kafim anchors Roux Louka, forcing her into close range. KTS: Roux Louka fails to evade Yuliana Kafim's Dance With Me, taking 6480 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has engaged Roux Louka! KTS: Yuliana Kafim roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable. KTS: [Lucky] Shelby Korts's luck activates, and luck goes her way! KTS: Shelby Korts successfully blocks Rena Lancaster's Debris Compression KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Sayla Mass partially guards Yuliana Kafim's Hollow Heart Surgery, taking 2204 damage! KTS: Liam 7-020 has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Liam 7-020 successfully Evades Yuliana Kafim's Void Snake's Abyssal Beam
<Pose Tracker> Rita Bernal has posed.
I-frames spark to life across the Phenex, dancing perilously above the flame consuming the Gundam. They manage to diffuse most of the Neo Zeong II's attack, though some of it strikes true, cracking bits of the Phenex's golden armor.
Rita, even as her conscious spirit starts to give way to the NT-D, hears the voices of those around her. Concern echoes from the Ra Mari II. There is, perhaps, a visible twitch toward the battleship. It's been a place of safety for Rita time and time again. Some part of her wants to run back to the safety of the hangar -- but she can't, not like this.
Through the Phenex's communications, Koji Kabuto speaks to Rita. She squeezes her eyes shut all the harder at his anger. Didn't she tell him, back at the Photon Power Laboratory? Didn't she tell him she didn't deserve his kindness? Why is he willing to give her another chance? There's nothing to be done to make up for the suffering Rita has allowed. Even Yuliana is paying the price, now, and Rita can't even touch her.
The only way you're gonna find out is to fight for them yourself, instead of being a slave to your own power.
Rita shakes her head. More of the Phenex's armor slides apart, revealing the progress of the NT-D's battle for control. There's no way to make this right. There can't be anything in the future that makes up for the horror of the past.
The Banshee approaches, and despite everything, the Phenex's fire lessens on the side her sister approaches from. Even like this, she can't imagine bringing harm to Leina. But that isn't quite true, is it? How much harm did Rita bring by refusing to take action?
A sob echoes from the spirit. If she touches Leina like this, Rita will burn her. Even so, the Banshee reaches out. Rita can see Leina's hand waiting, along with... the remnant's. Even the remnant cares enough to reach out, when Rita would've exorcised it without a thought?
It's too much. The sting of kindness is too sharp to bear. Rita recoils, though strangely, the Phenex does not. Perhaps the golden Gundam wishes to be close to her sister. Perhaps it's merely Rita's subconscious, desperate for that forgiveness and love.
As the Heart of the Phenex agonizes over her loved ones, something approaches. Rita raises her head at the feeling of that strange new bond plucked like a guitar string. Despite a distinct lack of true hostility, Rita's awareness flickers to life at the impression of something coming toward her.
It's the Sinanju Stein. It's Zoltan. And he's -- kicking the Phenex?!
ZOLTAN!
The Phenex grabs the Sinanju Stein's leg just before it makes contact with her cockpit, clinging onto it. With a narrowing of illusory eyes, Rita's spirit floats up into the other machine's cockpit, hands on her hips.
What is wrong with you! Why would you try and kick her after you two bonded! You know she's sensitive!
A huff.
...
Rita blinks widely, suddenly realizing her thoughts are clear. Zoltan's idiocy broke through the overwhelming despair, extinguishing the blinding white fire surrounding the Phenex. Slowly, the Gundam folds back in on herself, returning to her soft blue glow. In harmony with her partner, Rita's own form stabilizes, and slowly, a small smile crosses her face.
If you say you did that on purpose, I won't believe you.
Rita vanishes from within his cockpit. With a slight pull, the Phenex brings the Sinanju Stein before her, next to the Banshee. Leina is still waiting.
Rita Bernal takes a breath.
I'm so sorry, Leina. Thank you. Please help me destroy the monsters. I... can't do this on my own.
Just as Leina and the... other girl's hand overlays the Banshee's, Rita's hand overlays the Phenex's as she reaches out to grasp it. Warmth suffuses both machines. A happy meeting, long overdue. The Phenex glows just a bit more brightly, hand in hand with her sister.
Please write this ending with me.
The Sinanju Stein isn't escaping unscathed after the stunt Zoltan pulled. With a quick motion, the Phenex's other hand snatches the hand of the grey mobile suit. Rita extends her free hand toward the machine, eyes luminous with prismatic hope.
Thank you too, Zoltan. I couldn't do this without you, somehow. You've given me so much. Let me return the favor, at least in part.
With a soft exhale, Rita allows her power to flow into the Sinanju Stein, illuminating the machine in a halo of rainbow light. Searching for a home, the psychic energy settles into the Psychoframe cockpit of Zoltan's machine, giving it a soft blue glow, much like that of the Phenex.
Perhaps, now, Zoltan will find a deeper harmony with his mobile suit. What that means, is of course, up to him to decide. Perhaps his true partner was with him from the start.
The moment between the three mobile suits ends. The Neo Zeong II is stirring, and attacks fly their way. Rita, taking her hands back from Zoltan and Leina, extends both her arms forward. Shields fly in their defense, hoping to break down the monster's attack before it can crash into them.
Asciel.
The Phenex's shields orbit around her. With one more look to Leina, then to Zoltan, she ascends, darting faster than any living pilot could maintain. She's practically a blue of blue flame against the dark battlefield, arcing up and around to face the Neo Zeong II head-on.
You're going to have to find a new trademark. There is already a Goddess of Possibility.
Distantly, the General Revil is destroyed. Death washes against Rita. It's familiar, in a sense. It brings Rita back to the very start of her halfway existence.
My name is Rita Bernal. I am the Phenex. One last time, I'll be what I must!
Unending radiance spills from the firebirds hands. Rita, floating within her Gundam, extends an arm, and the Phenex mirrors her. Miraculous, rainbow light races from the golden machine toward the Neo Zeong II, seeking to burn away the poorly-reassembled armor. Seeking to shatter the crystals.
It's a long, drawn out attack, the Phenex channeling as much of the Resonant Plane to destroy the monster as she possibly can.
Don't worry, Trevor. I won't give up. Not now. I won't let anyone stop me.
A glance back at the Isadore. Rita smiles, seeing it wield those enormous swords. She's slightly surprised it took as long as it did for him to find such bombastic weaponry.
As she guides her flame, Rita extends her other hand toward the Phenex's communications array. She's never tried this, but it's a pretty desperate moment...
Perhaps, should Emptear's inner workings allow for it, a bit of text will appear within. Will Yuliana be able to see it, 'blind' as she is?
I WONT LEAVE YOU TO THIS
A pause, and then one more sentence.
I LOVE YOU
Rita couldn't find how to make the letters small. There are bigger problems. Refocusing her gaze on Rena's face against her cockpit, Rita's expression softens into a gentle smile.
Amalgamation of Denver Colony. Your feelings are true. You're not wrong to feel them. But I cannot let the future you wish for come to pass. I'm so sorry.
At last, the flame cuts off, and the Phenex darts away. One of her shields chases after the Banshee, the other finds the Sinanju Stein, each orbiting around their chosen machine. It's all the protection Rita can offer in a battle like this.
Rena Lancaster. I've told you before. This life isn't all there is. You may choose if you wish to attend the spirits of the dead, or if you wish to stay with the living. But you must choose. Do not simply let yourself be swept away.
KTS: Rita Bernal has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Leina Ashta KTS: Rita Bernal has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Zoltan Akkanen KTS: Rita Bernal targets Rena Lancaster with Coronal Aurorae! KTS: Rita Bernal has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
With that exceptionally encouraging smile Anita's way, Asciel reassures her - <"Just work your hardest out there, and your image will shine through. Just cry out for what you believe in with the truth that comes from your deeds - and everyone will beg me to credit you in the end!~">
-Naoko's distress at the EMPTEAR forces a more serious tone into Asciel's voice. <"Nova. That's just as much a calamity as the thing that's captured Rena. If you fixate on it too dearly, it's an abyss you're liable to fall in. Ideally, I'd let them destroy each other, but I think that the wriggling void there's overdone it. And honestly, it just seethes with contempt. That's why you can't just save the world with purity of will! It takes that one little concession - that others will need to idealize you in their five senses - to get it done. Hehe. What if I told you that without that conceit...I'd probably look a lot more like her than I cared to admit right now...?">
Tellingly, as Asciel pulls what looks like some sort of twelve-stringed guitar from her waist, the Codarl's feet gripping into the Ra Mari's deck - the cameras surveying the field have one very notable exclusion. They all, without fail, abjectly refuse to let EMPTEAR enter frame.
INSERT - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIHZwrSb09Y
\ ~ VOICE OF GAIA - Yoko Ichikawa ~ \
Dorehodo arasoeba owaru no deshou
How much conflict will it take for it to end -
Kanashimi de tsutsura reta ~history~
This history written in sorrow?
That song slowly builds up, slowly extending to a crescendo backing Asciel's stream, and a few adjacent airwaves besides. (It's not hard to exclude with the right radio settings, of course.) Resonating across the darkness of the abyss, Asciel's eyes remain locked on Rena - the Gaia Gear encased in that crystal prison - first and foremost.
Anata wa mata hitori tabidatsu no deshou
Are you once again embarking on that journey all alone -
Hateshinai koya e to, ima
Into the endless unknown today?
With each verse, those guitar strings fly out - arcing out past the myriad crystals hanging in the air, the pure resonance of Asciel's song sending the cosmos thrumming.
Hibiwareta kaze no daichi ni
On this cracked, windswept earth,
Kikoeru wa toi inorinouta ga
I can hear a distant song of prayer.
Her free hand swept out towards the earth - leaning into the rhythm - Asciel carefully unseals just a little bit of the Lambda Driver's output. Just for the chorus. Just for a little while. It leaves her oh so exposed to the voices possessing Rena, just like she found when she got too close to that cocoon - but...
>((That's not 'love'. To become too much like each other, Rena. Say. You look at me, and maybe assume what I am - what you can feel that I've made myself - is too lonely for you to bear. Maybe it is. ...Maybe I've let it be. ...hehe. But. I know from what's become of you that being too 'together' is just as horrifying. I've gotten every step by standing on my own two feet - YOU'RE gonna get out of this the same way!!!))
Ai no RESISTANCE
Love's ~resistance~
Anata no yume wo, kanashimi kara
Your dreams, born of grief -
~Sotto~ mamoritai
I'll ~carefully~ protect them.
Asciel's bellowing each word by now. If sweat could fly off of that flesh-toned face she's given the Codarl, it would. (Maybe that's a future slight-uncanny-valley feature.) This song from ages past that she found - from the moment Asciel first saw the burgeoning air of miracles in Denver Colony, she knew it resonated. She knew it'd speak for her.
Kokoro wa donna ni DISTANCE
No matter the ~distance~ of our hearts,
Hanarete ite mo, kanjite iru
Even if you're far away, I can feel it -
~Kitto~ inochi wo tsunaida anata dake wo
I ~promise~ you're the only one I've ever held close
...As the guitar strings soar towards their mark, for just a little while, the barest hint of intent from Asciel's will-surging form changes. She'd like to think she devoted this performance to Rena, but at that line-
There's only one faraway face that comes to mind.
>...I wonder if she's watching.
>...If you are...
KTS: Asciel Colette targets Rena Lancaster with Epithymia Binding Entangle! KTS: Asciel Colette has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Enba Rezza has posed.
"Acknowledged, Mazinger Z." Tempo is on the comms for Koji, followed up by Rezza themself, "We'll rely on you, Kabuto." Then comes Sayla's data; it scrolls down their screens as Kazama looks for information on EMPTEAR's defenses. "Acknowledged and agreed," Rezza says to Sayla. "Rescuing Lancaster is a higher priority than destroying EMPTEAR."
Rezza is in charge... but part of that duty involves understanding what their own Captain would wish, where possible. They don't believe yet that that's impossible.
The Ra Mari II's bridge is treated to the sight of EMPTEAR's heart, strange and glowing and crystalline as it is. And Yuliana, of course, has a counterpoint. Tempo stares for a moment at that serene, awful smile. But Enba? Well. Enba taps a few quick buttons on their armrest console, "Kall! Attenuate particle field!"
The Ra Mari II shakes with impact, but only with impact; the strange particles that the ship emits from its hull deflect and absorb much of the horrible magic, the entire field becoming a gaseous hell of green light that shimmers all around the ship.
"Not false. Just temporary," Enba corrects when they've righted themselves in their seat. "...Frankly, it doesn't matter to me what you 'feel', what you value, what you believe."
"But fine. We'll learn the truth 'together', then."
And then... and then, the General Revil. Tempo looks on in dismay; Licia grits her teeth. Kall, "...Could've been..."
Kazama pales. But then she says, "Your orders, Captain?"
"..."
"Get shuttles ready. We can't risk it yet, but once the Colony is neutralized... we look for survivors." If any exist. The way that looked...
"For now, we keep fighting."
"Beam cannons online!" Kazama calls, and Enba nods. "Don't bother targeting the center. Go for the shoulders. We need to disable, above all."
"Yes, Captain!"
Green beams rocket forth from the Ra Mari II, cascading towards EMPTEAR's shoulders from all segments of the ship. Enba hasn't blinked since they started this fighting.
They can't afford to let up for even an instant.
KTS: Enba Rezza targets Yuliana Kafim with Guided Beam Cannons - Maneuvering Shot!
KTS: Enba Rezza has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
---Blazing gold shields surround Asciel in the middle of the chorus - and while she focuses intently on her song, while the world becomes noise and fire and passion and agony-
While EVERY TIME the Phenex has appeared, it's stopped her spirit cold, shutting down to keep herself safe from the overwhelming 'miracle' it represents. While she's stuck her fingers in her ears to avoid hearing the cold 'truth' Rita manifests every time she appears, one that will never be true for herself-
That whisper seeps in.
The star Asciel clung to as hard as she could, in a moment when she nearly gave up everything...
...If Asciel can hear Rita in this way, just a tiny peek - even if she's a hazy blue specter, then the rumbling of her core can perhaps leak out that same way.
>...
>so that's why I couldn't bear to perceive you.
>that's what you're claiming - that seizing that title entails becoming like you.
>unfair~
>unfair unfair unfair unfair~
>...bet you're feeling that way too.~
>...but I always knew I had unresolved business with you. for now...my blue planet is at stake.
KTS: Rita Bernal rattles Rena Lancaster, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Rena Lancaster fails to react to Rita Bernal's Coronal Aurorae, taking 5590 damage! KTS: Asciel Colette anchors Rena Lancaster, forcing her into close range. KTS: Rena Lancaster fails to react to Asciel Colette's Epithymia Binding Entangle, taking 5330 damage! KTS: Asciel Colette has engaged Rena Lancaster!
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
It heartens Leina to see Roux back out there in the Strike Zeta, engaging Yuliana, "... Be safe Roux. We've got wedding planning to talk about after this is over!" It's a pleasant thought, perhaps, in the middle of the battle.
"Roger- Thank you Sayaka! Though one day we're gonna have to define what 'too reckless' is given the kinds of things you and Koji do!" And Sayla, her promise... "That's a promise. I know you're scared for me, but I've got this. Just pretend it's one of my swim meets."
That may be a big ask given the screaming Newtype chaos going on in this Colony debris field.
"I'll see you after."
Yuliana responds to her, and in that moment, she does make a point. Leina does want many things, she wants a better world for everyone for example. And yet... and yet-! "You're right, I do want many things, but what I want in this moment? It doesn't feel like very much at all."
The Norn turns to face Emptear, she cannot make this point psychically of course, but there is emphasis in this stead as the shining Beast of Possibility. "I'll make it happen, with everyone here, again and again. I never wanted this power - but while I wield it, I'll always grasp for a better possibility than one that makes 'necessary sacrifices' of people that were in a place like where you were." Still, she asks of a singular thing...
"... Don't worry, I will."
Rita.
It's more gentle now, at her sob.
You have to get up now.
Which is when Zoltan fires from the Stein over towards the Zeong, as suddenly the Norn swings wide to avoid the Stein, even as a roundhouse kick is aimed at the Phenex, "REALLY? ZOLTAN! There are better ways to make a point!"
Are there!? Well, she always believed in using her words. Even when she's in a mobile suit shooting at someone, shut up.
Still, she does get up, and...
They're not monsters. No more than you or I. But this narrative needs an ending. Let's write a different one together.
Rena speaks then, and the Norn turns to face the Neo-Zeong II, as Leina looks to Rena.
"Your sin." She echoes to her, and there's something pained in the words, as if that hit too close to home to a girl that was there with her. Two beams of Golden Light slash down, and the thrusters weave a backwards serpentine pattern, even as it raises its Armed Armor DE. It's I-Field swirls out, devouring some of the energy, even as more scores across it, melting armor plating perilously.
"Tell me Renalle, did I fail Elpeo? On those days when I heard her screaming in those chambers - could I have done more for her? Day after day, year after year, I told myself I could have." Something cracks in her voice, "That I could have been kinder, done something for her, helped her, reached out to her! Even as she hurt me-! That it's my fault! Because I received a second chance... and she... she didn't." She deflates, it's like a sigh. "Give yourself the grace I didn't give myself." The debris field speaks, and her feelings leak out
Don't all of you understand? We were at each other's throats too. This is what Glemy did.
"Stop putting the blame on the wrong person! You were- she was just a CHILD!"
The Revolving Launcher makes a turn, as now, profoundly upset, the Banshee dives in, zig zagging in lines, coming in closer as it inverts suddenly, firing off several shots.
If they strike home, then several blinking globes will appear upon the Neo-Zeong II, before they suddenly erupt, into a bright flash and a detonation.
"Just like ALL OF YOU!"
KTS: Leina Ashta targets Rena Lancaster with Revolving Launcher MGaP Flash Barrage!
KTS: Leina Ashta has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
"...I dunno how I feel about that... do I gotta sign a release form or something...?" Anita wonders in response to Asciel in the face of that smile, massaging the back of her neck.
Soon enough, however, she's brought back to the fight. Yuliana replies, and Anita frowns.
"...I don't understand, huh? Yeah, well... how the hell could I?" She replies, and shakes her head.
And Rena replies to her. Rena... Anita grits her teeth, and shakes her head.
"...I don't buy that. The truth? That's not up to them. That's for you to decide. You've got people here that care about you. If you think you're lost... then let us guide you back!" Anita calls out.
...But this isn't the end of the horrors today. Four voices ring out - and through them, the General Revil is torn upon. Anita stares in horror and disbelief. Even with as much as they've fought... she never wanted this.
After a few moments, Anita finally breathes in, then out. This time, she draws out her gunpod, pointing it at the II Neo Zeong.
"Let her go!" She shouts. "She doesn't deserve this! She wants to help you - but not like this!"
This is meant more for the spirits, than Rena herself - and Anita opens fire, once again doing everything she can to create an opening.
KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Rena Lancaster with Leading Fire! KTS: Anita Rosetta has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
Negative damge. Damage, negative? Liam has never had to fight a machine that warps reality like Emptear; even the void dragons had the decency to pretend to follow the rules. He hisses out a breath, and twists his machine back and up. Liath Macha maneuvers behind a chunk of drifting metal that was part of Denver's outer hull ten minutes ago.
"If she didn't," Liam hisses, "then we'd be having words. She's Hadn't realized you two were so much alike--!" Liam sees those snake-heads moving, and jams the accelerator. The debris chunk burns, reinforced colony hull turning to Void-infused ash in the blink of an eye. Liath Macha jukes left, then up, then spirals up and around, all at velocities that would put a normal pilot at risk of blacking out.
All the while, the amalgamation's voice echoes in his ears.
'They're Eight's siblings. That's who these Cyber-Newtypes are. Sold to Anaheim after Neo-Zeon failed.'
Ice shoots down Liam's spine. Eight was lucky. There were others who weren't.
'My sin.'
"Rena, please!" Liam cries. "You--you have to--"
'We all hear you, Liam. They want to help you. They want you to become them, so you won't hurt.'
"I don't want their gift, either! What did Anaheim do?!"
...Whatever Anaheim did, those tortured souls want revenge. Liam's eye twitches at the mention of 'Glemy Toto', but then he sees--
A flagship, ripped open like a paper bag, bodies spilling into the void. Liam wants to scream and vomit and feel vaguely satisfied all at once, and none of those feelings win. Yuliana inadvertently gives him something else to orient on instead. 'Foolish girl.'
"Lucine." Liath Macha jets through the field of colony debris, passing over a chunk of infected-red Psychoframe. "KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF HER!" The CGUE II reflects that bloody light as it drops at Emptear from above, its glaive lashing out to scar that horrid, grinning face.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
The familiar curved blades snap out from Mazinger Z's arms as EMPTEAR's palm descends, and Koji raises the Mazin's arms in a two-handed block.
Against a hand almost as big as the Castle of Iron.
Look, sometimes it works. Sometimes.
In the absolution of the void, where Momentum is all, Mazinger Z spins away from the impact until Koji stabilizes it - in time to see the tendrils of debris reach out towards the General Revil.
In a matter of moments, the Federation's flagship, its symbol of force projection across space... is nothing but so much metal confetti.
Koji averts his eyes, muttering a quick prayer. Thoughts of the memorial wall in the Mazin Museum come to his mind.
Rena's words, though...
He doesn't know if she can hear her, but... "No. You're wrong, Rena Lancaster. Your mother's sins are not your own - no more than my grandfather's or my father's are mine. Maybe you feel a responsibility for her actions - a responsibility to make things right - but sometimes that... just isn't possible."
How could he 'make right' what Kenzo Kabuto did to Tetsuya and Jun in the name of destroying the Mycenaeans?
You can't help these ghosts, Rena. They're using you - devouring you - to express their hate upon the world that destroyed them. Maybe you think you deserve it, but I know for a fact that you're wrong - and so are they."
He shakes his head to clear it, focusing again on EMPTEAR - "As if your world won't devour all those souls and more! I felt that hate, Yuliana Kafim! What else displeases Her?"
Mazinger Z closes the distance again, the missile launchers on the back of the Astro Scrander beginning to glow. "Eat this! KOUSHIRYOKU CIRCUS!"
Volleys of glowing Photon Missiles spew forth from the Scrander, arcing round like shooting stars to explode around and against EMPTEAR's armour.
KTS: Liam 7-020 targets Yuliana Kafim with JS-F03A 'Gae Buidhe' Beam Glaive - Slash! KTS: Liam 7-020 has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Liam 7-020's Biorhythm activates Wall! KTS: Koji Kabuto targets Yuliana Kafim with Photonic Missile Circus! KTS: Koji Kabuto has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.
On the ship, deep in the residential quarters, Eight York sits with a few friends among the crew, former members of the Sleeves. She's had them over because they're all off duty during the battle, and they have to do something other than sit and be anxious. Currently, they're talking animatedly, but Eight has suddenly gone quiet.
'Only the living can end something started by the living.'
"Rena," Eight breathes suddenly, and a man beside her reaches out, "Captain? Are you--"
Eight rises from her seat suddenly, too suddenly, because as far along as she is rising too quickly makes her dizzy. She almost falls, but the woman on the other side of her rises to take her arm. "Eight," she starts, and Eight shakes her head.
"I have to know what's going on," she says, and none of them can really stop her as she pushes aside and starts forward. She extends her mind--she feels Rita's distress, despair. She feels the gaping hole that is EMPTEAR's presence. She feels Leina....
"Yes," Eight says, "I have... to..."
"EIGHT!"
As the Captain tumbles to the ground, her friends rush over in alarm. But Eight is not there, anymore. Not completely.
-=-=-
Suddenly, there is light.
Eight York's spectral form hovers before Rena, reaching out for her hand, unseen in the mass of the Denver Colony. But not unheard.
"Rena," Eight starts. "Oh, Rena, what have they done to you?" Her intangible hands run down Rena's shoulder. "Can you hear me...?"
<Pose Tracker> Zoltan Akkanen has posed.
"YOU DAMN IDIOT!" The hell, everyone's acting like Full Frontal! Was it something in Denver Colony!? Saying they're vessels, saying they're embodiments of the people who birthed them!? Idiots, the lots of them, you included, Rena! "DON'T TAKE MY DAMN JOB FROM ME!" He wasn't even being paid. The shots from his weapon, HIS OWN DAMN WEAPON, AGAIN, score along the frame. Metal plates fly off, exposing the frame underneath. He had to admit that it was good, but goddamn it. Another person stole it. Maybe it was better off crushed into oblivion.
Yuliana's answer earns a click of the tongue. "Fine! Go major in theatrics and put on a show of an idiot who can't even speak straight!" One final scream before the kick and-
He was grabbed. Grunting in place as the sudden onset of g-forces assault his body, gasping out with the stop of rotational energy. "You...! RITA, COME ON! Your idiocy is going to lead to more suffering if you'd not STOP AND LISTEN TO PEOPLE FOR A SECOND!" Lessons learned from someone subject to Rita's own movements.
The minute struggle as he tried to pull away for a second. One eye keeping an eye on the battle. Heartwarming, yes. "I didn't do that on purpose, then." He did. Even if it was slightly terrifying to see a ghost manifest in his cockpit. Again.
There's only the minutest glance across at the Banshee. A shrug. Hello, I guess? It's rare to fall into orbit so easily. "It worked. Go yell at Char for the idea." He barely reacts to having his suit's hand taken, the energy surging through the machine. Light. Light of possibility, of machinations touching across the higher spheres, light that was willing to warp at his command.
BGM: https://youtu.beBoIEcGExAKE?si=-K7dLYEu7lBDx-Vx - The Silver Star Rises - Syntaro Jimbo
The cockpit glows. It shines blue with the energy sucked from the Phenex, siphoning off the overabundance and taking it into its own self. "So next time, yell at someone before you decide to act like Gihren!" A final click of his tongue; One glance at the Phenex. One glance at the Banshee. Break.
He goes the opposite way. Down, relative to the Neo Zeong II. Swooping down with the blue aura around him, mouth twisting at the sheer ease of it all. Fly. Scour through the skies. Move under the beast, aim behind it. The entire thing is coated in crystals, but it still has weak points, structural bits that demanded to be freed.
The bazooka unslung itself with the mental push, grabbing at it and aiming at the joint of one of those wings. "COME ON! IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE THEIR VESSEL, I BETTER HEAR YOU SAY YOU WANT TO BE WITH YOUR OWN DAMN VOICE!" And he fired. The rocket careening forth, carrying the weight of hope and desperation down onto the wrath of Denver Colony.
KTS: Zoltan Akkanen targets Rena Lancaster with MSN-06S Sinanju Stein Bazooka Penetrating Shot! KTS: Zoltan Akkanen has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
A voice comes through the aether. It's familiar. And it's a voice that brings hope.
"Ah! Ko~ji!" Roux calls out, which is probably going to really impair her cool mercenary image previously established moments ago. She doesn't elaborate on the news because there's a great deal of other action in the field.
Right? Roux thinks but doesn't quite say as the pirate man makes his bold advance into the affray. The momentary surge of surprise, even *delight* fades out as familiar voices come out. Roux even smiles to herself, however ruefully, at the arrival of Sayaka.
It is short-lived. Someone is speaking - saying that she should have --?
And then in the background the looming shape of the General Revil, strangely small-seeming thanks to the wonders of the visual perspective of the human eye and its aides, is engulfed... soon enough it ruptures, torn apart. Roux stares for a moment, even as her eyes track towards Denver Colony. But it's brief.
Yuliana's addressing her, after all. She isn't someone you want to ignore, because she likely has a knife. And see, right there? She has a cloth - it wraps around Roux, which to any aficinado of the Gundam Fight's recent highlights has a subtle and profound terror, even if Yuliana's edition of this maneuver is somewhat less...
SOMEWHAT less devastating. Drawn inwards, the Strike Zeta's thruster array immediately begins screaming, the Gundam jinking and jerking like a fish fighting the hook. Perhaps the analogy isn't so bad, given what the fish's stakes are compared to the fisherman's. Jerk to the side - bring up arms when you can - abruptly twist with the AMBAC system - it is enough, in a heart-stopping space, to avoid destruction or critical damage to anything vital.
That isn't much. Twice or three times Roux doesn't feel the flow right and the Strike Zeta screams; even when she succeeds in her abrupt twisting maneuvers, half or more of the time it simply makes a blow something that grazes and abuses a plate. Finally, Yuliana's attention shifts --
"Yeah," Roux answers her.
"I can hear them."
Roux doesn't stop there. "For like ten years I've been able to hear them. I guess it was more academic at the start. Maybe it's louder for you than it is for me - but my eyes work too, you know."
"So what's your point," Roux continues. "Is it that you're better than us? Fine! You're a better person, always was, and always will be," Roux continues, bringing up a weapon: "But I'm not going to sit on my ass and cry when someone's still out there to save!"
The beam emitters mounted on the upper thighs of the Strike Zeta erupt, a pair of blasts and then another as the machine hikes up its legs while turning forwards; rising, if you can say anything is 'rising' in space except in very conjectural terms, to aim at the shoulders of Yuliana's great machine.
Maybe she overheard Enba and her people.
"Someone has to do it," Roux continues, "and if that's me -- FINE!"
KTS: Roux Louka targets Yuliana Kafim with Thigh Beam Fountain! KTS: Roux Louka has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan fails to parry Rena Lancaster's Compounding Debris Arm Strike, taking 5880 damage! KTS: Rena Lancaster has engaged Sophia Mayhew Castellan!
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
Leina's little comment, after she thanks Sayaka for looking after her, gets a little chuckle. "Perhaps the two of us do need to be held to the same standards, after all. I guess I'll have to count on you to keep me in check, too." After last night though, she's not taking any chances.
Rena tells her that this is for the best, that the ghosts of Denver suffered, and wish to help everyone. "What happened to the people of Denver is unforgiveable," Sayaka replies, to the host of the Neo Zeong II. "But I can't abide by as they attempt to destroy the Earth Sphere, to snuff out the light of a kinder future, either."
The Mega Particle Cannon fire shoots forth, Sayaka raising the Photon Barrier for defense. The first beam fizzles out, but a second fires through her blindspot, crashing through the barrier and into the Super Alloy armour. "Ghhh..." Sayaka grits her teeth, as her sensors flash. "These ghosts... they're in so much pain, they can't see anything but that. It's time for them to move on before they can continue the cycle of hurt. But you, Ms. Lancaster... as long as you're still talking to me, I know you're still there!" She pleads. "And I know it's not time for you to go yet! There's so many people out there who still need you, want to see you."
It's not just her, after all. Allies, friends of Rena, even Asciel is streaming her hopes to the world.
But the General Revil moves as well. And it receives the wrath of the ghosts, for everything it represents. "Oh god..." Sayaka gasps, as the Federation flagship goes up in flames. Those silent screams. Yuliana estimates hundreds of lives lost in her bid to deal with Denver her way.
It's not Rena's fault, strictly, that they died. As it is, it's no one individual who could have done this - but it just means it must be stopped all the sooner, so the rest of them don't end up like the General Revil.
But even now, Aphrodite Areia's sensors aren't trained on the 'core' of the Neo Zeong II - where the Gaia Gear Alpha and Rena are housed. She won't take the same approach as Emptear and Yuliana Kafim would. "Areia Missiles - ROCKET PUCNH!" She calls, as two fist-shaped missiles aim to puncture the Neo Zeong II's limbs each with all the force of an actual punch.
Seems the Sukeban isn't taking all this mega particle fire well... Sayaka opens a line to Nova as well. "If things start to look ugly, feel free to stand by me... my armour will keep you safe, this time. I owe you for last night after all, don't I?"
KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Rena Lancaster with Rocket Punch Missiles! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Leina Ashta KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Naoko Suzuki
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
"Then I hope you can hear me cheering you on." Sayla responds to Leina, quietly, as the two go to their own battles. "As loud as ever."
The General Revil is engulfed in an explosion. But Sayla can't feel the deaths- she can't feel anything beyond herself. She would perhaps feel worse about the fate of the General Revil, had they not been so hellbent on killing Leina not that long ago. Soldiers just following the orders given by a corrupt system.
The silence engulfs Sayla, crushes her, just as it does the Hi-Nu. The Psychoframe cannot help her reach out through the void. A small trickle of blood oozes out of her nose, the droplets forming into bubbles that float around her helmet. It's not the first time she's felt this. She's a little more prepared for it- but it's utterly horrid. This emptiness, this lack of connection-
Prolonged exposure would destroy a newtype. She's sure of it.
"...Can you truly say you feel that?" Sayla's voice wavers a bit, as the Hi-Nu hefts it's New Hyper Bazooka from it's back. She has to fight like she did when she was teenager, not relying on her sixth sense. Tracking the Emptear's movements she leads the shot, and fires.
"You've shown me the silence of your heart, Kafim. But I will still deny you. The warmth and light of people's hearts is supposed to reach others- not to be strangled alone in darkness!"
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
< ".... Rena. You must tell them... we are taking on all of Yuliana's Emptear just to give all of you room to find another answer! She wants to snuff all of you out! Please.... You may think there's nothing you can do, but... you might be in the best position to act as a mediator! Find a new path!" >
Lucine calls out, not mentally, but through her radio. It's too risky to concentrate here for even the smallest span of time, just for the chance that something on the other end of that connection might be able to grasp one of those clumsy fumblings towards a message sent across the psychic plane. Maybe if she had, she would have begun to process the complex emotions that spring up over the mention of past sins. Still, the time for it is over.
Case in point: an oncoming Isadore.
If this was in an appropriate atmosphere, there'd be an equally appropriate sound of a collision as the Dianthus is knocked away by the larger Isadore, sending them spinning backwards. < ".... Ghh.... Trevor--" >
She tries to reach out mentally to Trevor-- perhaps, they can sync their flight patterns to offset the spin before she possibly becomes knocked out, as well as how to maybe proceed ... That is, if they're far enough away from Yuliana to make any sort of connection at all.
One way or another, the two are able to separate, and Dianthus is redirecting herself back towards Yuliana.
< "..... You misunderstand me, Yuliana..." >
The double deer horned 'crown' atop the Dianthus glows, firing a shot as Lucine closes in.
< ".... I'm not aiming to kill. I'm aiming to delay you." >
KTS: Sayla Mass targets Yuliana Kafim with New Hyper Bazooka Curtailing Shot! KTS: Sayla Mass has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Lucine Azul targets Yuliana Kafim with Lunate Crown v.2 Bolt! KTS: Lucine Azul has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Leina Ashta rattles Rena Lancaster, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Rena Lancaster partially guards Leina Ashta's Revolving Launcher MGaP Flash Barrage, taking 2160 damage! KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has disengaged. KTS: Yuliana Kafim charges into the attack! KTS: Yuliana Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Yuliana Kafim partially guards Enba Rezza's Guided Beam Cannons - Maneuvering Shot, taking 2590 damage! KTS: Enba Rezza begins a Formation attack! KTS: Yuliana Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Yuliana Kafim fails to parry Liam 7-020's JS-F03A 'Gae Buidhe' Beam Glaive - Slash, taking 2700 damage! KTS: Liam 7-020 has engaged Yuliana Kafim! KTS: Yuliana Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Koji Kabuto rattles Yuliana Kafim, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Yuliana Kafim blocks Koji Kabuto's Photonic Missile Circus, taking 750 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
The reply is sudden and welcome; in and of itself a reassuring hand on the shoulder-- her expression-- her mood and presence -- brighten, stronger than before. "Sophie!"
Not Captain Castellan. Not Commander Sophia Mayhew Castellan--
Sophia's Union Flag moves swift and instinctively; the Jagd Doga starting to twist and lean as the linear rifle starts firing. It seems -- it worked, almost? But what the hell is going on there with the parts. Is this ... is psychoframe really able to do all this? Was Anser right? And, Nanai's worries about the technology she birthed-- Anaheim's abuse of it the moment it fell into their hands. But... Rita's here, now, because of it. Rita--
Rita. I found my sister. And she's here-- with me. You too. So let's finish this, okay?
The dying voices of a battleship ring in her ears. Shelby's head slants, eyes clenching tight and face scrunching up as she starts to get swept up in it. She has to-- ride the wave PLANT-- YOUR-- FEET!
Her eyes open as a tingle shoots up her spine, eyes widening. Her displays flicker and display a bit of static now and then, but she doesn't need it -- the Jagd Doga twists, the arm snapping up the heat knife-beam saber hybrid affixed together with brackets and braces. The blade igniting to catch the pincer from one side, the shield smashes down against the other side, using the momentum from both sides to push herself in an awkward vault followed by a controlled blast of her thrusters. 'Ascending' 'upside-down,' the legs of the Mobile Suit spread a bit wider, one knee bending to aid in a sharp twist of motion to change directions and flip back over clear of the attack.
"You don't have to!! Rena!!-- I--" Her mouth pulls into a line, struggling for a moment's time. "I'm not-- I don't-- I don't need to be saved anymore!!"
Funnels swirl in a formation that shifts from defensive to offensive. "Sophie!! Be careful!" While Shelby darts back toward the Flag, the funnels keep moving forward, trying to encircle the psychoframe-laiden armor from both sides in a similar manner-- though firing beams intent on trying to saw into the crystalline structures!
KTS: Yuliana Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Yuliana Kafim blocks Roux Louka's Thigh Beam Fountain, taking 930 damage! KTS: Shelby Korts has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Yuliana Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Sayla Mass rattles Yuliana Kafim, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Yuliana Kafim fails to intercept Sayla Mass's New Hyper Bazooka Curtailing Shot, taking 2925 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Trevor Teach has posed.
Swaddled in the embrace of the void, there's little chance of Trevor hearing anything that Rita is trying to communicate--
Until Yuliana casually slaps him right out of space and-- into Lucine's face. "Ghh--" There's some part of him that is TREMENDOUSLY EMBARASSED at the fact that Isadore and Dianthus are somersaulting through space like some kind of two-machine buzzsaw. But really, he's more thankful that years of living in space have made him... somewhat more resistant to Being Dizzy than most.
"Lucine--" They slip out of Yuliana's immediate proximity, and at the penumbra of the Denver's wrathful, blazing hate and Yuliana's frigid void, there is... something approximating normalcy. And in tht space, Lucine reaches out...
And Isadore takes Dianthus by the hands, before spinning up its thrusters. "I got you! Momentum...!" Centrifugal force is redirected, white-hot booster rockets fire in tightly coordinated sequence as Isadore pivots into a complicated dance...
"TRAAAAANSFEEEERED!"
--That concludes by hucking the Dianthus as hard as it possibly can right back at Yuliana!
"You BETTER not burn yourself up EITHER, Rita!" Trevor growls as Isadore levers its right arm up at the Emptear. The industrial crusher claw mounted to its wrist hinges open as a bank of rockets engage, suddenly redirecting its own momentum on a collision-course in Dianthus' shadow. "That still counts as 'stopping!' So you better not! Or I'll be very upset!"
In the distance, the General Revil vents to void. Isadore lunges in to punch its claw into the Emptear's hull. Trevor clicks his teeth, "Blaming us for what a bunch of angry ghosts do isn't helping anything, Yuliana! Maybe if you were standing OVER BY THEM, they wouldn't have died! But if we spend all day arguing 'what ifs', we won't get anywhere. So keep your indignation to yourself!"
KTS: Yuliana Kafim charges into the attack! KTS: Yuliana Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Yuliana Kafim partially guards Lucine Azul's Lunate Crown v.2 Bolt, taking 1959 damage! KTS: Lucine Azul continues a Formation attack! KTS: Shelby Korts targets Rena Lancaster with Jagd Doga Funnels Pincer Formation! KTS: Shelby Korts has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Trevor Teach targets Yuliana Kafim with Rocket Anchor! KTS: Trevor Teach has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Trevor Teach has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Yuliana Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Trevor Teach anchors Yuliana Kafim, forcing her into close range. KTS: Yuliana Kafim partially guards Trevor Teach's Rocket Anchor, taking 3360 damage! KTS: Trevor Teach has engaged Yuliana Kafim!
<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
"I'm sure Caedra will be angry with me," Sophia muses, at Yuliana. "...but I'm already sick of having the ghosts of children screaming into my eye."
Yuliana cannot possibly know what that means, but it's not like Sophia knows what in damn ass hell is going on with Yuliana, either, so we'll call it even.
She peppers the Neo Zeong's possessed corpse with fire, and in return, she FEELS the attention turning on her, crawling along her soul, the connection of that horrible attention...could she feel that before? Is that even something she SHOULD feel, or is this because the gaze and Connection of such things is so unaccountably stronger than the little human lives she surrounds herself with? Boosted beyond reason by the Psychoframe...She feels a shudder run down her spine. "Unnatural," she says, and maybe they hear it. She stood unflinching before Jona, but THIS, this is...
Again, she balances her distraction poorly; when the incoming assembled appendage flies at her, she tries to bash it aside with her Sonic Blade but it simply does not possess the strength, and Sophia pinwheels aside, screaming again. "GAAAAH!"
Seconds later, she is roused again by the beeping of a ready charge on her cannon. She grabs the sticks and punches the Flag into flight mode, swerving fast and away from the II Neo Zeong, But she looks back, her gaze full of unseen eyes. "I see you," she says, low. "Is that what you want to be told, you grasping things!? I see your throttling fingers!"
Once she's further away, she transforms back, then throws her rifle aside to grasp her Linear Cannon and pull it from the dock, a heavy cable running between it and into the capacitor belt strung along her Flag's belly. Power burns through it.
She grits her teeth. Here, the blooming light of that miasma of hearts is more of a mess than a guide, and she has to shut her geass off to focus on the actual physical debris field around the Neo Zeong in order to try and plant the massive 200mm cannon shot that comes next right into the core of that crystal. If she can cause a break, perhaps....!
Be careful... "I'm...fine!" Sophia yells back at Shelby, although her cockpit's loud, honking alarms would beg to differ.
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has activated the Attune Spirit Command. KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan targets Rena Lancaster with Linear Cannon Precision Shot! KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Rena Lancaster fails to react to Anita Rosetta's Leading Fire, taking 5460 damage! KTS: Anita Rosetta continues a Formation attack! KTS: Rena Lancaster blocks Zoltan Akkanen's MSN-06S Sinanju Stein Bazooka Penetrating Shot, taking 1350 damage! KTS: Rena Lancaster partially guards Sayaka Yumi's Rocket Punch Missiles, taking 4200 damage! KTS: Sayaka Yumi completes the Formation attack! KTS: Rena Lancaster blocks Shelby Korts's Jagd Doga Funnels Pincer Formation, taking 1320 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Somehow, of all the possibilities Naoko considered... Rena still being able to respond wasn't one of them. She was sure that these vengeful spirits had completely taken control. She doesn't want to even entertain the thought that Rena may on some level have wanted all of this. No matter if it appears as if it's coming from her... it's not her. She won't believe it.
"What... what's this nonsense you're talking? That's not like you at all! I haven't known you nearly as long as Anita and the others, but even I know that you wouldn't just give up like this!"
Asciel informs her on the nature of the other calamity, and that's not doing anything for her mood. It's just... frustrating. Obviously it would be best if she could take down both these massive threats at the same time. That should be what's expected of a Miracle Worker. And here she is, just... Afraid. Weak. In her frustration, she can't help but lash out a little.
"I'm doing what I can! I'm sorry if my best isn't good enough!"
As if to prove the point she's making to herself, the Neo Zeong's particle cannons fire, and she isn't able to get clear in time, the searing heat causing serious damage to the Sukeban's frame and systems. Already, warnings in the cockpit are going off. Telling her the wise course of action would be to retreat. How are things this bad? How could she let Rena down like this?
A fist slams down on her instruments, quieting the alarms. "...why. Why is it always like this? Always when I need to make a difference more than anything... is this all you're capable of, Sukeban? Is this really the best you can do?!" She lowers her head. "...is this really the best I can do...?"
Sayaka's communication couldn't come at a better time. She can't be this down on herself when someone from the Photon Power Labs is watching her, encouraging her. She takes a deep breath, doing her best to recompose herself. "...Thank you, Sayaka-san. Can I... can I ask you to watch my back? Things aren't looking too good right now, but... I still have to do what I can, right now. For Rena."
So she said, but... the destruction of the General Revil. She can't help but stare wide-eyed in disbelief, when its signal is just gone, and she looks over to the wreckage, torn asunder. Frustration boils over into anger.
"Damn it! Damn it, Rena! That was so many people! Nothing that would do that is a force for good! Don't tell me you didn't see that! Don't close your eyes to something like that! They're not what you think they are, they're just vengeful spirits that only want to make people suffer!"
Her tirade ends with her breath catching in her throat. It's... it's Eight. She's here. She can hear that voice, so clearly. Even though she couldn't be here, Eight is still doing everything she can right now. That settles it. She has to do everything she can, too.
"...This is stupid. This is so, so stupid. And yet... I gotta do what's right, even if it's not smart."
Abruptly, the Sukeban charges ahead. Closing the distance to the II Neo Zeong in no time flat, its fist drawn back, glowing white. Unlike usual, Naoko doesn't yell. Instead, she focuses her mind, fingers flashing across her touch screen. She has that back door, allowing her to hack into the Gaia Gear's systems. But she needs to be close to it to have a clear connection. Especially now. She has no idea if all that psychoframe crystal will make this easier, or render it impossible. But she still has to try. She's only after one thing. To send Rena some kind of physical sign, through means of a power surge. Electrical feedback, to remind her that she's not a part of this amalgam. That she still has a physical body, that can, and should, feel pain when exposed to this level of wrongness.
And... to send a message, more directly than she could before.
">One person sacrificing themselves to save countless others... it makes sense, logically. But every sacrifice will make someone sad. So I say... screw that! The easy way out is for losers! Wake up and we'll find a better way, together!<"
KTS: Naoko Suzuki targets Rena Lancaster with Buster Knuckle! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Rena Lancaster fails to react to Sophia Mayhew Castellan's Linear Cannon Precision Shot, taking 7840 damage! KTS: Rena Lancaster fails to react to Naoko Suzuki's Buster Knuckle, taking 7020 damage! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has engaged Rena Lancaster! KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Rita Bernal with High Mega Particle Cannon Blast!
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"Do you see? This creature of the Void would defend the damned!" the Ghosts of Denver Colony scream, collectively. "She must not be suffered to exist. She cannot be part of our utopia!"
Their anger causes more to stir. Those four voices are the ones in command of the ghosts of Denver Colony, but there are others there. Their voices linger through:
K e i O r e d a n C h a r l i e . . .
I t ' s s o c o l d . . .
I m i s s y o u . . .
Impressions for those who can feel them, through the battlefield.
And Rita reaches out to them. Their attention, which turn all as one, onto the golden RX-0. They look at her for a moment, with eyes that don't exist.
"Why? Aren't you like us, Rita?"
The cannon in the center of the II Neo Zeong's waist gleams. Then, a beam of golden light explodes out from it, hurtling off for the Phenex -- and with an angry scream of a cacophany of screams to accompany it.
"I tried to choose, Rita," Rena says. "But it wasn't enough. I tried to reach them. But... but they reached me, instead." But there's a hint of discomfort; a resistance there, in the wake of the deaths on the General Revil. "Didn't they?
Rita's light slams into remains of the Mobile Armor. The Monster should fought burns, Psychoframe crystal and armor alike smouldering under the fire of the Phenex.
Rena floats in the cockpit of the Gaia Gear Alpha.
The cockpit is dark, save for scales of red crystal growing across it. Rena's eyes are closed, as she sits in the chair -- slumped over in it. Asciel's music reaches her ears, coming through dimly at first. She keeps her eyes closed.
She tells herself she can't hear that.
But Asciel speaks to her. "It... it isn't enough. What scares me. What I want. It can't be enough, Asciel."
The Gaia Gear Alpha stays suspended in the crystal. But, then, there is a flicker -- and the ocular cameras come online. They glow, a deep blue, and behind the flecks of crystal across the screen, words are written out before Rena's unseeing eyes:
A000-0001 GAIA GEAR ALPHA
LANCASTER ADAPTIVE OS, VER. STELLAR
ALL SYSTEMS INITIALIZING.....
The space around the Neo Zeong's remains glimmer, flecks of red crystal and golden psycommu material shimmering. Then, a massive spike of debris begins to form -- chunks of debris slamming into one another, piece after piece. They explode forward, debris forming to lengthen it, and falling away as it rockets.
It forms a spear -- which tries to slam through the Codarl. It tries to silence her.
"Of course you didn't!" More heat enters Rena's voice then. But then she quiets, her voice more ethereal again. "But... if it isn't my fault, then whose is it? Why did I deserve to live on, when they didn't?"
The Revolving Launcher fires as the Banshee zips in -- and then the globes explode in brilliant flashes, all around the II Neo Zeong. Rena flinches inside the cockpit, even as her eyes remain squeezed shut.
"They did what everyone else has to us lost children, Liam." The four leading ghosts of Denver speak. "They used us because no one would bother looking for us. And when the colony failed, they left us."
Rena squeezes her eyes shut, all the tighter. Koji tells her it isn't possible, and she snaps at him: "No! That--"
And then she quiets, because she finds her argument doesn't reach her own heart -- and the ghosts cloud her conscience for a moment. Zoltan shouts at her, and then she stirs.
"What does it matter? What I want?" Her voice wavers, even as the bazooka fires -- slamming into one of the wings of the Neo Zeong. The explosions rip the winged thrusters away; they fall off, along with chips of Psychoframe.
"Do you really think we're more than they made us to be, Zoltan?"
Rena's eyes still squeeze shut as Sayaka speaks to her. "I don't... I don't think they should, Doctor Yumi."
The two fist-shaped missiles slam into the arm of the Neo Zeong; the limb is snapped back, armor crunching as it does, and it now hangs at an awkward angle. Near the Aphrodite, several chunks of colony frame combine together -- and then rocket off, forming an outline of a fist (the fingers fuse together too much to really open). It slams for the center of the Aphrodite Areia's mass.
"I-I can't--" Rena tries to answer Lucine. Her voice falters, though; the ghosts overwhelm her mind, a moment later.
"Shelby, I'm glad, but--"
"Everyone needs to be saved, Shelby Korts."
The funnels' blasts slash through the Neo Zeong's remains -- chunks of armor slough off, as holes are punched into it. Then, there is a pulse from the Psychoframe material there. Shelby can see it as a mass of swirling, crimson light -- and small, fragmentary debris that accelerates suddenly, and tries to strike through.
But it's also an assault on the mind. Shelby feels them: twenty eight souls, mingled until they've lost much of who they are, slamming her with memories. Being held on a table; sobbing alone in a room; seeing frost spread across a wall; watching the vents grow still.
The illusion breaks a moment later (but not the hyper accelerated pieces of baseball-sized debris), as Sophia's 200mm cannon fires -- a shot that rips past, slams into the crystal, and makes a tremendous crack in it.
Their eyes turn to Sophia. Then, their voices.
"Your deeds. How many more like your sister have you made?"
Rena hesitates a moment -- her mouth opening, then closing -- when Naoko speaks to her. "They're my fault, Naoko. If... if I'd done something different, when I was younger, maybe--maybe it wouldn't have happened like this."
She falls quiet, as the Svipul also rushes in.
"Why do you want to guide me? Look where I led you, Anita. Look at all of the horrible places I've shown you since we've graduated." Rena's voice becomes more heated, even if that anger isn't directed at Anita. No, there's a target much closer to her.
"I could have gotten you killed so many times. You could have lost everything. You're wonderful. And I..." Her voice breaks, for a second. "I don't deserve to be guided by someone like you."
Anita shouts to the ghosts, even as her gun pod tears into the armor. It rips gashes into it, sparks flying. Rena's eyes are squeezed shut, ignoring the blue glow of the Gaia Gear's start-up procedures against her face.
A large chunk of a half-destroyed Geara Zulu -- its head, half of its torso -- is suddenly hurled towards the Svipul, as if toward it away.
Rena feels a faint impression of a hand on her shoulder. She doesn't look up; she doesn't open her eyes. "I never realized, Octo. How many people I let down..."
Eight -- even if she isn't exactly here -- gets the first good look at Rena. The video feeds showed just her face. Eight can see the blood stain on the front of her normalsuit and a tear.
And, underneath the tear, a glimmer of sickly red light below the collarbone.
The Sukeban flies in. It strikes into the crystal mass around the Gaia Gear, and there's a burst of electricity. It shoots through it -- and the jolt makes Rena shudder. The Gaia Gear Alpha's eyes glow that much brighter.
"All... all those people, I tried to--I can't stop hearing them! Every time I think I'm myself, they're--they're there, and--" Her voice trembles, then falls quiet again.
KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Asciel Colette with Compounding Debris Arm Pierce! KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Leina Ashta with Prevent! KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Zoltan Akkanen with Nullify! KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Sayaka Yumi with Compounding Debris Arm Strike! KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Shelby Korts with Psycho-Attack! KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Sophia Mayhew Castellan with Melt! KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Anita Rosetta with Debris Compression! KTS: Rena Lancaster targets Naoko Suzuki with Prevent! KTS: Rena Lancaster has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Rena Lancaster prevents Leina Ashta's maneuvers, reducing her Skill drastically. KTS: Rena Lancaster rattles Anita Rosetta, making her next maneuvers more difficult. KTS: Anita Rosetta blocks Rena Lancaster's Debris Compression, taking 5170 damage! KTS: Sayaka Yumi's EN Barrier activates, negating 500 base damage. KTS: Sayaka Yumi fails to parry Rena Lancaster's Compounding Debris Arm Strike, taking 5280 damage! KTS: Rena Lancaster has engaged Sayaka Yumi! KTS: Rita Bernal has activated the Foresee Spirit Command. KTS: Rita Bernal fails to Evade Rena Lancaster's High Mega Particle Cannon Blast, taking 6840 damage! KTS: Asciel Colette has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Rena Lancaster melts Sophia Mayhew Castellan's armor. KTS: Asciel Colette fails to retreat. KTS: Asciel Colette fails to react to Rena Lancaster's Compounding Debris Arm Pierce, taking 6000 damage! KTS: Rena Lancaster has engaged Asciel Colette! KTS: Rena Lancaster nullifies Zoltan Akkanen's defensive abilities.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
Yuliana is blinded to the distractions of this world. Her blindfold is in place to stop her from being cut on the edges of two realities; to focus her, in just the way Leina isn't.
She does not see the warning text subverted on that quartz display. Oh, to be sure, Emptear's warnings reach her -- the Voidframe echoes up through the soles of her feet into her heart -- but the message which Rita subverts onto that clear quartz screen isn't of Emptear.
She does not see Rita's heartfelt promise.
Though, someone does.
An idiot who can't even speak straight...? "Hahaha..." Yuliana laughs, an edge of despair to the sound, as she hears Zoltan's cry. Perhaps the General Revil's destruction has broken her, just one inch further. She hates the Federation, of course -- but for so many years was that flagship an icon to her, when she served in the REA. For so many years... they're dead, now, and surely it's what they deserved. (But not like this.)
"It never feels like very much," Yuliana says, and almost sounds helpless, to say it, "when you want it, it never feels like much at all..." Her breath is a little heavy, weighed down by crushing emotion -- but she centres herself; "I will not stop you from trying. Save Renalle, if you can. But be quick! Your time is short, and I will not suffer the hourglass to run dry."
She's regained her presence, at least, when she answers Enba. "Come," she invites them, a sneer across her lips. She leaps into Enba's beam cannons, and they score lines across her spiked shoulderblades as she does. They do not wish for it to be personal? As if in sheer defiance, she twirls forward -- and her scarf wraps about one of those jagged edges at its cannon, to yank it in. "Entangle yourself with me!"
At least she dances away after threatening to get far too up close and personal with one of the only things LARGER than herself, here. "Why don't you ask her?" She asks Liam, laughter at the edge of her words. "Ask Rita who she trained with, all those years... why is she your Goddess, while I am dismissed as a demon on your chest?"
When Liam's Macha launches towards Emptear, she reaches up, to grasp it in a hand. Its might pushes in; Liam carves a hole INTO her vast palm, before she's able to properly react to him. "Did I TOUCH her, boy?" She demands, her voice thundering through empty space, as her grip tightens. "All I remember doing is releasing one of her dear little psychic friends back towards her! Would you prefer -- I -- did not?" Each syllable, she punctuates with her hand tightening its grasp, just... a little... further.
She won't crush his machine entirely, but that is where her mercy ends.
She tosses him aside before Koushiryoku Circus reaches her; she spins, and her scarf absorbs some of those Photonic missiles, even as others crash against a strange green barrier. "You make a thousand judgements from a single heated moment," Yuliana judges him, unkindly. "Have you never lost your temper, Koji, when those you love are under threat? Would you wish for the Earth to be judged by your intemperance, then? For shame. I meet your light -- Abyssal Beam Barrage!" And those snakes blast out a series of those dark magic beams towards Mazinger Z, now.
That scarf veils her from Roux's thigh beams, just the same -- though a few of them, too, shoot through that strange cloth and into the machine. "It's a shame," Yuliana sighs. "You are an exemplar amongst your people, Roux. I've thought so since I celebrated your aid, back then. I hold no grievance against your desires -- they are good and true. But you are fighting the wrong enemy," she says, as she lifts her hand. "And if I must slap you away to get to my goal -- I shall!" It can, indeed, be characterised as a slap, more trying to push her away from the battlefield than anything.
The Void reaches out, tendril-thick, to try and consume Sayla's bazooka -- but her aim is too clever, and it strikes at her exposed shin, instead, too low for it to consume so easily. "Darkness is a salve," she insists; she must insist it. She has been here so long. "Harsh light does nothing but illuminate one's scars!" She sweeps in, to try and wrap her dancer's scarf around the Hi Nu, just the same. "Now flourish!" Dancing... can be terribly harsh, can't it?
(Who is Yuliana dancing for?)
She is distracted, at least, by Lucine -- and if she will be blamed for it, she thinks, with infinite spite, she will do what she is blamed for. She leaps into the Lunate Crown's assault, and when she lands she brings her dancer's cloth about to try and wrap the Dianthus, just the same. "Dance with me!" Yuliana demands, and laughs, as she does. "Do you not realise, foolish girl? Whence I dwell? I am here, in darkness. At the heart of myself is the heart of myself. Once I tried to dig out my own heart from my own heart from my own heart from my own heart from my own heart"
She is interrupted by Trevor, digging his crusher-claw into her spiked chassis. "Ahh?" She asks, turning to examine him. "Do you mean to say that I should save you all despite the distraction you pose? I accept it. I should be even greater than this. But perhaps I am sentimental, Trevor. Leina cares so much for this..." She reaches down, to pluck him from herself, to tear him from herself. If she gets a grip, she'll hold him up, closer to her chest. "Perhaps... I am too easily distracted. Event Horizon!" And it is not magic but sheer gravitational FORCE which crushes at Isadore, brought too close to Yuliana's heart, brought too close to a reality which isn't his.
The reality she bathes in, held safe at the Threshold, bathed in where she must be. So close. She is so close to Her, in Emptear. Two of that machine's four eyes see the claws ripping through space around Naoko's Sukeban, in another realm's desire to tear her to pieces. The jaws which split open and open and open, wide enough to eat Denver whole -- and Her eyes, staring accusation. She tells Koji it is one moment of rage which met them, but the scorn which only she can see, boiling off of Sayla and Leina and Shelby and Zoltan and Trevor and Lucine...
Yuliana is an unreliable narrator. She isn't even a reliably unreliable narrator, in such a way that the truth can be gleamed from disregarding her entirely. Why does Yuliana hold so much scorn for Rena, reaching out to all those hopeless, lost souls...?
Yuliana offered no rejoinder to the souls of Denver, screaming that they could not suffer her to exist, that she could not be permitted to know utopia. She could not have; she cannot hear them.
She cannot know how similar they look, all these damned souls who no one would bother looking for.
When all you've learned is annihilation, how do you save the world?
KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Enba Rezza with Black Scarf Entangling! KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Liam 7-020 with Queen's Claw Grasp! KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Koji Kabuto with Void Snake's Abyssal Beam Barrage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Roux Louka with Queen's Claw Slap! KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Sayla Mass with Black Scarf Flourish! KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Lucine Azul with Dance With Me! KTS: Yuliana Kafim targets Trevor Teach with Hollow Heart Event Horizon! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Rena Lancaster prevents Naoko Suzuki's maneuvers, reducing her Skill drastically. KTS: Enba Rezza's Barrier Generator activates, negating 200 base damage. KTS: Yuliana Kafim anchors Enba Rezza, forcing them into close range. KTS: Enba Rezza partially guards Yuliana Kafim's Black Scarf Entangling, taking 3420 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has engaged Enba Rezza! KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Alert Spirit Command. KTS: Lucine Azul retreats from the attack! KTS: Yuliana Kafim anchors Lucine Azul, forcing her into close range. KTS: Lucine Azul fails to react to Yuliana Kafim's Dance With Me, taking 6480 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable. KTS: Shelby Korts has activated the Wall Spirit Command. KTS: Shelby Korts partially guards Rena Lancaster's Psycho-Attack, taking 6840 damage! KTS: Roux Louka fails to react to Yuliana Kafim's Queen's Claw Slap, taking 2880 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim repulses Roux Louka, forcing her to disengage. KTS: Sayla Mass has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Sayla Mass's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Yuliana Kafim anchors Sayla Mass, forcing her into close range. KTS: Sayla Mass blocks Yuliana Kafim's Black Scarf Flourish, taking 1200 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has engaged Sayla Mass! KTS: Koji Kabuto fails to Evade Yuliana Kafim's Void Snake's Abyssal Beam Barrage, taking 5490 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim completes the Formation attack! KTS: Liam 7-020's Physical Wall L1 activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Yuliana Kafim anchors Liam 7-020, forcing him into close range. KTS: Liam 7-020 blocks Yuliana Kafim's Queen's Claw Grasp, taking 5720 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has engaged Liam 7-020! KTS: Yuliana Kafim anchors Trevor Teach, forcing him into close range. KTS: Trevor Teach fails to parry Yuliana Kafim's Hollow Heart Event Horizon, taking 3960 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim has engaged Trevor Teach! KTS: Enba Rezza has activated the Resupply Spirit Command targeting Lucine Azul KTS: Trevor Teach has activated the Trick Spirit Command.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Koji pauses, for a moment, as Yuliana accuses him of wishing for Earth to be judged by his own intemperance. A moment's hesitation is enough for Mazinger Z to be caught and swallowed up in that black-on-black-on-green barrage, comms crackling out as the blast envelops the Mazin.
...
...
There's a cough as communications come back online.
"Teenage anger is FAR too different from that. I don't have an eye that'll rip someone apart and stitch them so agonisingly back together again, Kafim!"
He pants, then draws in a breath with a feral grin. "... but I can do this. MAZIN POWER, FULL THROTTLE!"
Light sprays from under Z's cracked and battered plates again, heat flowing to the radiator plates mounted on its chest as they warm up. Those great fists swing back, locking into place as micro-missile launchers iris open within the Castle of Iron's elbows as the launcher in its gut also opens wide. With the horns crackling a cold blue and the launchers on the Scrander opening up again, Mazinger Z brackets EMPTEAR's joints.
"You want to dance so badly? Then dance to this tune! ALL WEAPONS: FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRE!"
What follows is a deluge of overwhelming firepower: Impossible heat and flame matched by bitter chill, shimmering beams and warheads of raw Photonic output, and the devastating explosions from the multiple types of warhead mounted within the weapon Juzo Kabuto designed to destroy Doctor Hell, turned upon the open maw of the Void.
KTS: Koji Kabuto targets Yuliana Kafim with Full Arsenal Volley! KTS: Koji Kabuto has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Koji Kabuto has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Koji Kabuto has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Liam 7-020 has activated the Spirit Spirit Command.
<Pose Tracker> Rita Bernal has posed.
Though there's a hint of irritation from the Phenex at Asciel's claim of said blue planet, but Rita chooses to ignore it.
I have no quarrel with you, Asciel. Especially not if you help save the Earthsphere.
And though she has her doubts, Rita turns her attention back to the battle at hand. Perhaps she and Asciel will meet again, and perhaps sooner than either of them would truly like.
Rita laughs softly as Leina yells at Zoltan. The Phenex holds to her sister's hand tightly for a moment, then releases it.
I believe you, Leina. And it starts with the end of this battle. I'll help you bring Rena home.
...even if Rita still does believe there are monsters here, she can at least recognize the humans trapped within them.
As the Phenex soars, the Sinanju Stein dives below the Neo Zeong II. It's an odd sort of harmony between the two of them. Unfortunately, neither escapes unscathed -- though the Phenex's fire warps the armor of the Neo Zeong II, she takes a sound hit from the monster's cannon fire.
Shrieking in distress, the firebird darts away, trailing glimmering pieces of golden armor. It takes Rita a moment to calm her companion and regain control.
Zoltan, fall back, you're taking too much damage! The Sinanju Stein can't take any more!
The Phenex isn't in much better shape, but Rita can't give up. Not even if it costs her her soul, she has to win this fight. There's a pause.
Don't call me Gihren!
Rita isn't entirely sure how her actions relate to who she thinks is one of the old dead Zabis, but if Zoltan's saying it, she knows it's something offensive.
Shelby's voice reaches Rita, and the Phenex darts in her direction, flying side by side for a moment. She can feel Shelby's fear and pain, and Rita reaches out to her, trying to offer comfort. It's a gesture Rita repeated many times when they were children. Perhaps now it will bring a measure of peace to her dear friend.
Your sister? Shelby, I knew you would. I'm so happy for you. I'd like to meet her once this ends.
Darting away, the Phenex returns to the Neo Zeong II. With a gesture, both her shields return to her, orbiting around the Gundam's form. As they circle, Rita infuses them with radiance, giving everything she has to illuminate her 'wings'.
I'm with you, Trevor. That will never change. Please keep fighting, just a little while longer.
Rita raises her arm, and the shields spin faster, becoming a blur around her. The ghosts of Denver Colony speak, and though she listens, she cannot grant them what they wish for.
We are alike. We exist between two worlds. We were wronged in life, and suffer in death.
The shields reach their top speed, and Rita lowers her arm, sending them both racing for the Neo Zeong II. They aim to strike at the heart of the crystalline structure holding back the Gaia Gear Alpha. Once striking once, they retreat, whirl around the monster, and strike again -- relentless.
We've sacrificed innocents in order to fulfill our desires. We speak with more than one voice.
The Phenex holds her hands out, guiding her wings through their whirling, dancing assault.
But we do not belong here. Not like this. This world is for the living. That cannot be changed, no matter the Miracle you give to them. And I'm afraid the vessel you chose is well-loved.
Rita raises her voice, using her strength to force it to echo above the noise of the battlefield.
Rena Lancaster! Can't you hear the voices of your family calling to you? This is a gift, not given to many!
Her wings strike once more and return to the Phenex, and the golden Gundam stills, waiting for Rena's answer.
You know where you belong. It's not selfish to take your place there. Let the dead tend to the dead.
Then, speaking again to the trapped spirits of Denver:
You know this isn't where you belong. All of you. There's a place waiting for you, where you'll find peace. It's time to go. I'll show you the way.
KTS: Rita Bernal has activated the Resupply Spirit Command.
KTS: Rita Bernal targets Rena Lancaster with Eye of the Wind!
KTS: Rita Bernal has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
Saving the world that you 'hate'. Koji's little remark to Yuliana hits just that lightest little chord with Asciel. A smile crosses her lips - it has to, because her ability to force it to is the only thing she has.
>that's just how it is, huh?
>yeah. i wasted a lot of time, trying to see utility in things 'like me'.
>but every single time.
>they drive me forward by being the few things i can stand less than the 'world'.
>don't worry everyone. i won't be anything like them. i [promised].
>and the funny thing about a promise like that is it won't let me give up until it's resolved. no matter how much i have to melt and reforge to make it possible~
Itsunohika anata wa deau no deshou
I wonder, will you one day finally encounter -
Sagashimotome teta jibun ni
Me, who you've been searching for?
35,128 people watching. With all of Asciel's effort, the 5th battle to save the fate of the Earth this year makes it to the dizzying heights of 19th most viewed stream on verve.live!
>but you know, when we're all working this hard for all of you, who're so pathetic they can't possibly save themselves - have a little bit of forgiveness if there's a sour note in my song!~ sorry that this isn't quite as important as that Skyfish Squadron tournament, you hedonistic things!~ ahahaha!~
>what a lucky species that I don't need to like you much at all to still want to save you.~
With the General Revil combusting at Asciel's back, her foot stamps harder on her stage. In this moment, those repulsive truths in the Virtual Sage's center, where she keeps it most guarded - they're maybe not voiced. But they're a little more obvious than usual. An acrid edge to her tone that wants nothing more than to prove something almost solely to 'herself' as she sings. But she promised.
Asayake no chiheisen e to
There, towards the dawn on the horizon
Tobitatsu wa shiroi tsubasa hirogete
I'll soar, white wings spread wide
And that Asciel does. Finally stepping free from the Ra Mari's deck, the idol takes off, dawnlight burning in her - the thing she wants most in the world being only conditionally what all these heroes want. Her song trying to become care for Rena Lancaster can only be so 'real' if she's faking it. What Asciel wants most of all - is for the echoes of the past to relinquish her humans.
Ai no RESISTANCE
Love's ~resistance~
Samayo hoshi wo michibikitai
I want to guide these wandering stars
~Motto~ mirai e to
~Further~ into the future
It's a lie. It's a lie again and again and again. Will it help Rena stand up, even though the thing burning and blazing in Asciel's heart is rejection of everything surrounding her? Will it help her resist, with the power of love, the same way the overwhelming force ejecting from the AI's heart is pure, loveless 'resistance'? The spear that crashes through Asciel's upper body, while sending her trajectory towards the Neo Zeong II spiraling out of control, crackling and sputtering mid-chorus before painfully wrenching it free - it bolsters her determination. To throw it as far away as possible. Where everything else in this cursed miracle belongs.
Afureru namida wa DISTANCE
The endless tears of this ~distance~
Harukana toki o koete futari
The two of us, far beyond the time -
~Kitto~ meguri au tame no chikaidakara
I ~promise~ that we will meet each other again.
Those 'wings of light' Asciel propelled herself with seem to tuck in - and to invert themselves, reaching from her center like two long arms, iridescent like the rainbow. But where a miracle would be for them to embrace those spirits yearning to engulf the world, hers...will only ever push away. Her voice becomes unyielding, hard titanium.
"I will be an endless miracle. "You", a limited miracle, have no role."
"I will make an endless today. "You", a contorted yesterday, do not belong."
"Relinquish that human. It is mine. . . .That's my only secret, Rena. My weapon is that I decide what belongs to me or not.~ Are you going to be your own, Rena?! Are you going to let a hateful yesterday consume you? Or do I have to always be the one to make humans realize that all they can do with the past is scream and reject it whenever it tries to claim them?!"
"...It's okay if you can't, you know. Most humans can't. So if you're too weak, sit down and let me do all the work, and you can live happily and docile in my aegis. I just thought you were some kinda hero type, and hated that idea, but hey~ It's my promise to prove you wrong if you just can't defy the world anymore~"
>...after all, hearing Nova-chan say something as brilliant as that...how's she going to accept that I have to be the [One] who'd do that to save everyone? nobody here would allow it, least of all that rival self-professed goddess, it appears. sigh.~
not one hint of introspection on calling someone else that.
KTS: Asciel Colette has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Asciel Colette has activated the Spirit Spirit Command. KTS: Asciel Colette targets Rena Lancaster with Lambda Driver Smite! KTS: Asciel Colette has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Enba Rezza has posed.
Maybe Roux did hear the bridge on the Ra Mari II. In any case, they're watching her, a display of the blips on the map of each mobile suit within Enba's sight. They have not yet deployed most of their squadrons, not against an enemy like this.
And indeed--an enemy like this can do much that another ship could not. The ship rocks with the impact of EMPTEAR against them. Oh, the cannon does not break--it is better made than that--but that means the entire ship feels its movement. "Gh--" Licia says, "I can't shake her, Captain! She's attached to the ship!"
"So be it," Enba says, an their video to Yuliana next says, "You may not like what you see when we do, Kafim. We are not afraid of personal entanglements." They cut off the communication with a gesture to Tempo. "All CIWS on the bow, train on that mech. Give her everything we've got."
"Yes, Captain!" Kazama makes use of the auto-aiming software to position many more guns than she could keep track of on her own, and their beams open up on Yuliana, a web of crisscrossing green blasts that blot out all vision in that entire segment of the ship's hull.
"Show her our resolve! For Lancaster!"
KTS: Enba Rezza has activated the Enable Spirit Command. KTS: Enba Rezza targets Yuliana Kafim with Turbo Particle Cannon CIWS Entrapment! KTS: Enba Rezza has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
Leina's words reach Roux a little slowly. A wedding to plan. Every time she heads out here, Roux thinks, that stuff feels so far away. It's all a bunch of tortured children. Is it that I'm on that level? Roux thinks, with a sort of bleak wry amusement. I guess I'd have to join the front line to really find out.
Is there a front line? Roux thinks -
And it's strange to consider, and it flicks away, because the switching-room of Roux's brain decides it's not important right now. Even the screams, they're --
They're something she can filter, at least for now.
She lets out a "Tch!!" as something of what Yuliana says seems to pique her. At least she remembers that, Roux thinks, probably a good sign. Stop praising me, dammit, she thinks a moment before she twists her machine's great hand around and
K T A N G G
It is a slap, isn't it? There are several independent blows against the Strike Zeta. Raw damage is attenuated, energy distributed, by the simple fact that it was spread out across a larger surface. It works nonetheless, because the laws of mechanical force do not care for such things, and the AMBAC screams a flat blat of warning at Roux as the Strike Zeta is hurled aside.
Something is making her face burn. For a moment Roux questions it, in the space of three breaths. And she finds it - "An exemplar," she chokes out, "of my people."
Roux's eyes widen slightly for a moment.
that's why I've gotten so upset!
"Yuliana Kafim!" Roux says.
"You're calling me an exemplar of my people," Roux continues. "I'd say by the way most of the people out there think of them, I'm actually a damn poor one. Because it seems like we're nothing more than freaks you can put into the right kind of Mobile Suit and watch them burn themselves out, like somebody lit a pine tree on fire."
"But here's the thing, Yuliana," Roux continues. "You hear me saying that and you think probably, she's talking about Rena, isn't she?"
"No," Roux continues, as she brings up the Hyper Mega Launcher. "She's the other one. But you know what the great thing about that whole vision the Federation, the REA, Britannia, even half the Neo-Zeons, everybody has about this, the whole thing they're chasing and chasing and maybe once in a while they do something awful in just the right way, mostly by accident, and they manage to wake something up?"
Roux breathes out then... and it's like she keeps breathing out even if it doesn't really end at her lungs; it pours out of her. Her eyes almost close, but something beneath her gently bumps into the underside of her thighs as if to prompt her, and her eyes open again, pupils focusing on the targetting HUD for the Hyper Mega Launcher. She can see Koji coming up as she aims.
He's moving into a full unload --
good, Roux thinks, adjusting the fall plot of the Hyper Mega Launcher. There's a warning discordant note, like someone's blowing a musical '??' on some mid-tier brass instrument, as the software tries to facilitate against obvious screw-ups, but Roux has a plan.
Roux finishes:
"It's not true. They don't know the half of it."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYAPgPH9hsI
The Hyper Mega Launcher fires.
The Hyper Mega Launcher is not like ordinary beam rifles. Most beam rifles use a condensed package of megaparticles, generated at a shipboard reactor -- in a pinch you might be able to do it with a mobile suit. The Hyper Mega Launcher cuts out the middleman: it has its *own* reactor plant... and it had been filling a compression space, a sort of integrated and dedicated e-cap, since Roux launched from the Ra Mari II, where it was put into warm-standby as part of the routine launch checklist.
The Hyper Mega Launcher fires... and it casts shadows, in its intensity. Where most beam rifles have a subtle violet or magenta cast to their light, this one moves deeper, phasing into a strange hue of wine red. The ray is immense it remains, but the fact is that the way Roux was aiming, the shot would miss...
... except that it is aiming as if to strike the back of the Threshold Queen, against that strange and noisome aperture to the void...
... and she is estimating how Yuliana will move in immediate response to Mazinger's barrage.
KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Roux Louka has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Roux Louka targets Yuliana Kafim with Hyper Mega Launcher Barrage! KTS: Roux Louka has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Rena Lancaster fails to react to Rita Bernal's Eye of the Wind, taking 9490 damage! KTS: Rita Bernal roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable. KTS: Rena Lancaster fails to react to Asciel Colette's Lambda Driver Smite, taking 9620 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
< "--transferred!!" > Lucine says at nearly the same time as Trevor, albiet through gritted teeth. It's been a while since she's forced herself to do such stunts, but it's still a little exhilarating.
Even if Lucine now sees Liam attacking Yuliana for attacking her. "... Liam..." Even if her cheeks feel a little flushed over it, it does mean he's potentially diving into danger--
-- as well as making Lucine feel a similar flush of anger as the Emptear tries to crush the Liath Macha just a little for its rushed judgment.
But no worries, Yuliana's dance card has just now be freed, and the Dianthus is within the Emptear's grasp. She jerks about in her cockpit's restraints as she's whirled around in a nonsensical carousel, glowing green and black, colder than space and deeper still.
Somehow, she frees herself, the Dianthus's thrusters firing to reverse the spinning mess it's left in.
< "--You can, Rena." > Lucine winces at how tense her voice sounds; it's not Rena that's made the light on the Dianthus's dash bleed red. < "... You have to. This cycle of death.... it can't continue." >
Millions of lives snuffed out in the name of a price tag with no degree of scaling or sense. These aren't like the Jovian Lizards; there are humans here, and entities that were once humans, and lives that had been placed on an uncaring, cold scale.
In the end, there is a dragon of impossibility in front of Lucine, and she must deal a blow to stop it before the Dianthus is crushed.
Enba's ship comes in with the nudge the Dianthus needs, in order to speed in and sink that glaive into an impossibility.
< "..... Yuliana. You're both human, you and Rita. You're trying to save everyone. But... So are those ghosts. And so... are we. We might never come to a solution... but it's a nice change from trying to end each other, isn't it...?" >
KTS: Lucine Azul has activated the Dash Spirit Command and has gained proficiency bonus. KTS: Lucine Azul targets Yuliana Kafim with CL0-V3 Glaive Dragoon! KTS: Lucine Azul has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"Always." Is her response to Sayla in that moment. "... Always." Whereas Sayaka she lets out a small laugh, "Sure you want to do that? I can be pretty exacting in how I dress people down for it."
And Zoltan, Zoltan even as the two briefly fall into orbit- "Don't just cluck your tongue at me! I'll yell at Casval AFTER I finish yelling at you!"
And Rita, as she says she'll help bring Rena home, it's tough, she's still quite upset with her but...
Thank you. Now let's save her.
But she feels, no sees Eight's soul from where it is. "Eight...?" A connection within a connection, suddenly Leina inhales sharply, and there's a pained blink in her helmet. "... God..."
Leina's breath catches as Rena acknowledges her point, but then as she regresses back under their control, "Oh Renalle - it's not about deserving! Life isn't fair with who gets a second chance and who doesn't - it never is." She takes a long breath, "Why did Elpeo deserve to die in Dublin? Why did I deserve to live when Haman shot me? ... But I'm still here, you're still here! That's all there is to it-! We survived...!"
Yet, the Neo-Zeong II, countermanded by the ghosts, it is an assault on the mind. As pain racks her, a familiar pain. It's not unknown to her. Once, second hand.
And now more recently, first hand. The Norn feels it all, amplifies it all, as phantom pain wracks her psyche, her nervous system, she hyperventilates, she bites down to prevent herself from screaming, and then... relief, save the moment of experience, dulling her senses.
It becomes a near whisper what she says next, "... Now let's let ourselves live."
There is a moment, just a moment, where she hears it from Yuliana. Is... is that why she's doing this? Stunned from the psychic attack, and the realization, the Norn just floats for a moment.
Before she grabs her Beam Saber, and flies in. The Norn, a shining Beast of Possibility, holding a Beam Saber.
And she remembers. She remembers, being that girl on the beach. Being led to die, to bleed out where noone could help her. Sensing her intent, she grabbed an oar. Another grabbed a pipe. Heated words, a fight between two girls on the beach, and a moment.
...
A moment of understanding.
The Beam Saber, she could drive it through the Neo-Zeong II, and could save her best friend. After all, these are the ghosts of the dead.
And instead the Beam Saber is turned off, and the Norn stops its flight, it's sense of aggressive intent whatsoever. Because she hits upon a word Rita said...
Family.
Family calling out to her, and in that moment what she needs to do is clear, "Aren't you able to share your feelings because of Renalle? All your hurt, betrayal?" Leina tells them quietly, with Psychoframe as her medium, "You don't need to hate each other. That's Glemy Toto's fault, that's Rhella Kan Zeitun's fault, that's Anaheim Electronics' fault. They hurt all of us, so much. Rena was groomed to be a noble's daughter, you got raised to be weapons. It's wrong, what they did. To you, to her."
To me.
"You shouldn't be fighting with her, taking this out on her. It's what they want, for us, for everyone they manipulate and control. Always hurting each other, rather than blaming the right people. Always directing it the wrong way."
A moment of understanding, brought about by Judau on that day. Between two girls who never thought they'd get along. For a brief time they were sisters, except, they still are.
They still are.
"What we were assigned to be doesn't define us, those labels. Those feelings they caused. In Rena, or any of you. Don't you feel it? Your sister so close by? Her connection to her? Her feelings for her. You could be so much more than this."
There's no guarantee it will work, none whatsoever, she's betting so much on this, just as Judau did that day. Elpeo could have snapped her neck, and it's not just a pipe at Rena's throat right now.
"You could all be family together."
It is perhaps a leap of faith in this moment, to the angry ghosts of the dead, but all she sees is hurt children lashing out... just like back then. She has to try. For Renalle, for Eight, for all of them.
KTS: Leina Ashta targets Rena Lancaster with Pass! KTS: Leina Ashta has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Rena Lancaster KTS: Leina Ashta has activated the Trust Spirit Command targeting Rena Lancaster
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
As the scarf comes for the Hi-Nu, it's funnels burst to life, forming a triangular barrier ahead of Sayla- and she raises her shield to give her space to maneuver, even as the scarf wraps around her unit tightly, and is yanked into close range with the Emptear.
Does it get worse the closer she gets? It's hard to say. But her head is truly throbbing at this range. Yuliana calls it a salve- and sometimes the dark is necessary. Desired and needed, but this... God it's hard to focus, this close to the nexus that cuts her off from her world. "People can't exist without light. That isolating darkness you offer..." Her voice strains under the incredible pressure that roils off the Emptear. "That won't save anything. It will just doom us to freeze in space. Alone."
Sayla's funnels form up around the Hi-Nu, and crackle with electricity- much like the Great Mazinger's thunder break- before a blast of lightning rolls out from them, trying to push Emptear away and give Sayla the breathing room she needs to counterattack.
They just have to hold out a little longer.
KTS: Sayla Mass targets Yuliana Kafim with Thunder Burst! KTS: Sayla Mass has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.
Here, now, Eight can hear the voices of the others. Through radio and through other means, she can hear them. Lucine, looking for another answer. Sayaka, speaking of a terrible pain. Naoko, who will do what's right. And yes, she hears those many voices.
...But for Eight, there is only one soul she wants to see or hear just now.
"Rena! Rena!!"
"You've never let me down," Eight tells her, and this, too, can be heard by those with the ears to hear it. Not ordinary radio, but...
"Not even once, in all the years I've known you. You've never let me down. And I relied on you so much. Since I was that little girl who couldn't do more than hide behind you from everyone else."
"What could you have done differently? It doesn't matter. Because you did the things you did, because we lived the lives we have... You and I are together. Here. Not because we deserve it, but because of the choices we've made, day by day."
"No, because of you, I've been able to live. You were my very first friend, Rena. Growing from a silent, scared rescue to a full person... I could do that, because you were at my side. And then when I got old enough to tease you, strong enough to understand that you, too, had so much inside you..."
"How could I not love you? Of course I did. Of course I do. Not just because of what you've done, but because of who you are. And they... they never got the chance to know you as you are. So how could they understand?"
"Everyone," Eight says to the ghosts, as she looks up, and around, as she wraps arms around the wounded Rena. "Please. Let her go. I was like you, once. I could have been you, if I hadn't gotten lucky. But I did. I'm alive... and I need her."
"And you, Rena..."
"You promised me you'd come home. Come back to us. Come back to me. I'll tell you how cute it is when you get mad and call me 'Octo', and I'll hug you until you feel like you'll be crushed. Because I love you, Rena. ...More than my body can contain. I'm in your hands, now. So come home."
She holds as close as she can, within the cockpit, and hopes.
<Pose Tracker> Zoltan Akkanen has posed.
Ah, the thrill of hitting a target. It never gets old, even if the ones nowadays always have barbs and quips and have this dumb thing of engaging him in talk. Che, can't they just scream about their hatred for Zeon? Keeping the Bazooka trained as he takes a wide trail upwards.
What does it matter. "It doesn't matter what you want, you idiot." Look at himself. Someone who doesn't know what the DAMN hell he wants, dragged about like a boat in a storm as he tried to find something. "YOU'RE the one in my place now! And if you can't do that, what does it matter!?"
The ultimate question. Che. "DOES IT LOOK LIKE I KNOW!?" The blue aura grows hot, surging through the psychoframe throughout the cockpit. The Sinanju Stein is glowing blue at the center, limbs completely dark. "I LOST MY OWN DAMN PLACE, SO EITHER SHAPE UP ENOUGH TO ACTUALLY DO IT, OR GET THE HELL OUT!"
He isn't listening to Rita. Not in the slightest. Power given doesn't mean he's actively listening. There's only the smallest twitch, the urge in his brain to run. Stupid bond, stupid idea. The strangest of tugs as he kept his aim.
Yell at him, huh? That wouldn't be the first or last time someone's yelled at him for something he said. No take-backs, though.
"I'M NOT LEAVING UNTIL SHE'S OUT OR I'M DEAD!" A pull of the trigger, sending another blue-fired rocket at the other wing.
KTS: Zoltan Akkanen has activated the Focus Spirit Command. KTS: Zoltan Akkanen targets Rena Lancaster with MSN-06S Sinanju Stein Bazooka Penetrating Shot! KTS: Zoltan Akkanen has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
"Hey, I'm pretty tough. I'm sure we can both take whatever punishment we throw at the other... even if it won't be fun." Sayaka grins at Leina, even if there's still worry in her heart for the young woman. "...Long as we both make it back alive. With Ms. Lancaster, too." No one needs to die to save a person, or even to save the world.
No matter how hard they try to reach out to Rena Lancaster... it doesn't seem to work. It almost sounds as if she sinks deeper and deeper into defeatism and despair - by the second, acceptance that she is to be one with Denver.
"Do you know what I think?" Sayaka asks the Neo Zeong II, even as she's punched right back with the frame of the colony itself. "I think -- to hell with 'should' or 'should not'." She raises the Mazinger Blade, grappling with the Neo Zeong II's assault. "You never said you didn't want to see them again, did you? You deserve to have your agency as much as anyone, and I'll fight as I always have to get you that."
"Of course, Miss Stellar. I've got you!" Aphrodite Areia shares some of the power of her very own Photon Barrier with Naoko's Sukeban, protecting her from falling debris and other colony parts. "Tell her exactly what you think. Straight from the heart. Even if it sounds stupid... it's going to be worth something, if it's coming from you." Sayaka assures the young woman, as she sends a message as directly as she possibly can.
"MAZIN POWER, FULL THROTTLE!" From a distance, on the other side of the battlefield, as if in sync, Koji mercilessly launches everything in his arsenal upon the Threshold Queen Emptear - stopping an enemy with full force, necessary in many cases. When Sayaka turns her own Mazin Power to maximum throttle, she has very different intentions...
Transforming her angel-like wings into a bow an arrow, filling it with as much Photon Power light as the machine can muster. Far less indiscriminate than precise - no less powerful. When the Neo Zeong II hijacked Aphrodite Areia, it could not use this technique, lacking Sayaka's expertise and her heart.
"Rena Lancaster, it's time to wake up. To return to the land of the living, and live out the future you deserve. If it takes using this light, so be it!" The arrow fires, aiming to puncture a single, critical component of the Neo Zeong II that keeps the Gaia Gear Alpha in its grasp, light enveloping it. "ARTEMIS FINAL AAAAAARROOOOOW!"
KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi has activated the Trick Spirit Command. KTS: Sayaka Yumi targets Rena Lancaster with Artemis Final Arrow! KTS: Sayaka Yumi has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
The mind of Shelby Korts is a dangerous place. She isn't just, specifically, a newtype: She hears thoughts. She lives memories. Experiences become a slurry in her own brain, and only through a lot of rigorous aid, therapy, and training has she started to even start detangling the mess of information caught up in her head. And -- so it isn't just a feeling for her: It's a memory: The experiments. The tests. The flashes of her own self and the things she went through and experienced. Everything that--
"Ahh-- AHHH--"
The Jagd Doga spins out of control in the next moment. On visual comms, her eyes are wide. Her head snaps back, her spine straight and muscles tensing. She can't-- there's too much
It's all inside
None of it inside
Everything inside
Twenty-eight--
S C R E A M I N G
The Jagd Doga is caught up in the hail of weaponized debris; smashing, spreading against the armor, stabbing in and ripping away at her Mobile Suit, the rifle drifting out of it's grasp and floating in the darkness.
And-- a voice, a memory. A-- call to arms, almost?
YOU'RE. NOT. THERE. ANYMORE.
"... Anser...?" she murmurs into the cockpit. Sucking in a sharp breath between her teeth, Shelby's eyes open; bloodshot, her nose flecked with crimson, ringing in her ears-- it hurts.
The Jagd Doga's battered form jerks back to activity, the mono-eye pulsing within the torn helm-- reaching out with a swatting hand before grasping the gatling weapon tightly.
"STAY OUT OF MY HEAD!!"
STAY OUT OF MY HEAD!!
Blasting forward, the pink Jagd Doga's arm sweeps ahead in a sharp gesture-- the funnels reacting to her intensity and will. Each start to move in, pairs and firing at full intensity; foregoing attempts to shard and tear the machine apart and instead trying to burn a hole straight through the heart of the machine.
KTS: Shelby Korts has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Shelby Korts has activated the Strike Spirit Command. KTS: Rena Lancaster fails to react to Leina Ashta's Pass, taking 0 damage! KTS: Rena Lancaster fails to react to Zoltan Akkanen's MSN-06S Sinanju Stein Bazooka Penetrating Shot, taking 5850 damage! KTS: Shelby Korts targets Rena Lancaster with Jagd Doga Funnels Follow-Up Formation! KTS: Shelby Korts has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Rena Lancaster fails to react to Sayaka Yumi's Artemis Final Arrow, taking 8060 damage! KTS: Rena Lancaster fails to react to Shelby Korts's Jagd Doga Funnels Follow-Up Formation, taking 7410 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
Maybe Asciel's bluster would annoy Sophia more if she weren't deeply engaged in a staring contest with...
She tries to silence her Geass but the attention from that world opens it wide, like blinking once only to notice the demon in your mirror. Her lips curl back. Her deeds, indeed.
How many more like Caedra has she made? None, she dares to hope. But like Shelby? A lost girl with everything taken from her? Her fingers quiver on her controls, feeling those eyes on her like raking solar heat.
"Perhaps they'll find me, someday," she says, quiet. She feels the bonds to death trailing away from her, like an ocean of blood revealing her every step. "Perhaps they deserve blood as much as I did."
"But blood is a price for the living to extract!" she seethes, rallying. That geass in her eyes flares again and she dares to look Rena and her accompaniment in the eye, seeing the flow of energy from within it toward--
She blinks, blinks, blinks, both eyes blazing red. "AND KEEP YOUR FINGERS OFF OF MY SISTER!"
She levels the linear cannon again, firing - one, two, three, four, five shots, a short capacitor-sucking charge falling between each shot as she attempts to overwhelm any attempt to defend with sheer volley of fire.
KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has activated the Attune Spirit Command. KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has activated the Valor Spirit Command. KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan targets Rena Lancaster with Linear Cannon Burst! KTS: Sophia Mayhew Castellan has completed their actions for the round.
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
"Rita's no Goddess," Liam snarls. "She's a person! She saw more than anyone should ever see, and it gutted her! And she's still going, just like you!" His lips twist in a grimace as the beam glaive cuts; Liath Macha jets back and away, but not in time. Emptear's colossal hand closes around it, and for a moment, that horrible helplessness sinks into Liam's brain.
"His name is Trevor!" Liam shouts, because it's always easier for him to get angry on someone else's behalf. "He's a person, just like her, you, Rena, those spirits--" Liath Macha's hands brace, and it starts to shove. Flashes of brilliant green ignite around it as its Phase Shift Armor activates, blunting the crushing force of Emptear's grip. Groans reverberate through the cockpit, nevertheless. The armor strains. When Yuliana finally lets go, there are deep, visible indentations marring Liath Macha's frame.
The CGUE II turns on its axis and twists up and around Emptear, circling the larger machine. Unfortunately, Liam gets just far enough away to open his brain to the ghosts' entreaties.
"THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU SHOULD KILL PEOPLE!" he howls. And yet, if it were Emperor Charles and those who damned Dublin on that ship, would he even shed a tear? "I know it hurts! But you're killing her! You killed everyone on that ship!"
But he wants to lash out. He wants to lash out at Yuliana, and the ghosts, and--
Emptear grabs the Dianthus.
For a very long, pointed moment, Liath Macha remains perfectly still, even as Liam blazes inside like a star of rage. "Please," he says, and he's not sure if he's talking to Yuliana, the ghosts, himself, or all of them. "We've all suffered so much. Why do we--" Liam's hands shake as he deliberately lets go of the sticks, and sets them in his lap. Hephaestus would give him no end of grief for being a stupid idiot in the middle of the battlefield, but Liam...
Uses his words. "I don't want your utopia! I don't want to be a ghost or--or a Void-person, I just want to be me! I want to know what I am! I just want to live! So does everyone else!"
Oh, he realizes, a moment later. You've really done it now. Liam braces for what he feels is inevitable punishment.
KTS: Liam 7-020 targets Yuliana Kafim with Pass! KTS: Liam 7-020 has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Liam 7-020's Biorhythm activates Wall!
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
Anita grimaces as Rena responds. Why does she want to guide her? Haven't they been through so many awful things...?
"...Yeah. I'm not gonna lie. We've seen a lot of bad stuff. We've been in a lot of pretty tight spots." Anita replies with a shake of her head. "...But we've been in a lot of great places, too. That time we camped out underneath the stars in Japan, and made s'mores. That time we checked out the Frontier Fleet's market, and we found that brick pizza oven you loved so much we just had to buy it... Moments like that, they're worth a thousand near-deaths. I'd go through it all again if it meant spending more time with you!"
A half-destroyed Geara Zulu is hurled toward her. It crashes into the Svipul, sending it reeling through space. Gritting her teeth, Anita manages to right it barely.
"...I know what it's like to lose everything. If I lose you now, it'd be like losing it all all over again. You've given me everything. You, and Eight, and everyone... you helped me to live again. So... to hell with whether or not you think you deserve it. I want to do it anyway! 'Cause I think you're worth it! 'Cause I think you deserve it!" She says. She needs to get closer.
...She has an idea.
It's a crazy idea. Too crazy? ...Maybe. But she's done a lot of crazy lately. Maybe all this fighting alongside heroes has rubbed off on her a bit.
"...I'm goin' in close. Try not to shoot me, alright?" Anita alerts everyone. And then, the Svipul folds into Fighter Mode. The Pinpoint Barrier crackles to life, forming around the Svipul's front. And then - Anita charges. The Gungnir SC emerges over its left shoulder, beam spear crackling to life like a jouster's lance. She rams into the II Neo Zeong, trying to pierce through as deeply as she can. The sheer impact causes her to rock forward. She takes a deep breath... and looks up.
Just above her. It's the crystal, contaning the Gaia Gear... and this close, she can see it. The crack, formed through everyone's efforts. ...There it is. There's the opening she was hoping for.
...The Svipul doesn't have the juice left for another attack, so...
"...EX-Gear power, one-hundred percent. Normal suit seal... OK." Anita mutters to herself, looking over her console. "I'm opening the hatch."
The Svipul's cockpit opens and Anita stands up, one foot braced on the edge as she looks up at the mobile weapon looming above her..
"...I'm here. Look at me." Anita says. "I'm taking her back."
Her gaze lowers to the Gaia Gear.
"...I made a promise too, you know. I told you... if you ever tried to put everything on your shoulders, I'd give you the nudge of your life. I meant that. So, here goes...!" She kicks off the edge of the cockpit, sending herself flying up to the crack in the crystal. "Rena... you'd better come back to us!"
She hauls her left arm back.
"Come back to ME!" Anita roars, slamming her left fist toward the crack in the crystal. She ignores the whine of protest in her left arm, not meant to stand up to this kind of pressure. It's fine. It's worth it.
Like she said - she'd do it a thousand times over.
Anita Rosetta transforms to XVF-25I Svipul <Fighter Mode>
KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Rena Lancaster with Spear Mode - Daring Charge! KTS: Anita Rosetta has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Rena Lancaster fails to react to Sophia Mayhew Castellan's Linear Cannon Burst, taking 6930 damage!
<Pose Tracker> Trevor Teach has posed.
"No, I mean that if you're going to accuse us of getting people killed for things we didn't do, then I can just as easily blame you for doing the same th-hnnnk!!" Isadore is plucked away, and then held close. Too close. Isadore is face-deep in the Emptear's torso, which is ABSOLUTELY not a comfortable place to be considering the circumstances.
Even with the psychic connection being dampened, even with all the world feeling so cold and isolated that the only things linking him to the outside are the images on Isadore's monitors, Trevor knows that his machine feels awkward about this situation. He's pretty sure, anyway. But he only has about a second to dwell on it.
...Because the Emptear's heart is a greedy, all-consuming thing. A gravity that is not entirely physical pulls at him, wrenching at his body and soul both. Metal screeches as it collapses, crushing down, down, down. Trevor feels as though he's standing before a vast, all consuming darkness. A heart of uttermost, blackest night. It's a world that doesn't belong to him. A world that rejects him, as much as it swallows him in. A heart. A heart.
A reality which isn't his. Which has no place for him. What can he do but try to carve his way back out?
"Rrrrrragh!" Pinned against the event horizon, Isadore can't do much more than pivot, but that's all it needs to do. Its hands gripping tight to the hilts of those twin swords, paired beam-emitters ignite, and Trevor leans in.. He can't fight the gravity. At this range, in this position, there is only one way for him to go, and it's down. Blades push down, following gravitational vectors before being suddenly wrenched up into the body of the Emptear itself.
Cleaving, or trying to, into the Emptear's bosom.
KTS: Trevor Teach targets Yuliana Kafim with Orb Anti-Ship Swords Cleave! KTS: Trevor Teach has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Anita Rosetta targets Rena Lancaster with Spear Mode - Jousting! KTS: Anita Rosetta has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Rena Lancaster partially guards Anita Rosetta's Spear Mode - Jousting, taking 1800 damage! KTS: Rena Lancaster has been defeated! KTS: Anita Rosetta has engaged Rena Lancaster! KTS: Yuliana Kafim fails to react to Koji Kabuto's Full Arsenal Volley, taking 9840 damage! KTS: Koji Kabuto completes the Formation attack! KTS: Yuliana Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Yuliana Kafim fails to react to Enba Rezza's Turbo Particle Cannon CIWS Entrapment, taking 4320 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim fails to react to Roux Louka's Hyper Mega Launcher Barrage, taking 5670 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Yuliana Kafim fails to react to Lucine Azul's CL0-V3 Glaive Dragoon, taking 6050 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Lucine Azul's In Her Blood activates, causing Control Bonus! KTS: Lucine Azul has engaged Yuliana Kafim! KTS: Lucine Azul roots her unit, coming to a standstill and leaving her vulnerable. KTS: Yuliana Kafim's Will Barrier activates, negating 1000 base damage. KTS: Yuliana Kafim fails to react to Sayla Mass's Thunder Burst, taking 2760 damage! KTS: [Dynamic Hit] Sayla Mass's No More Hesitation activates, causing Nullify! KTS: Sayla Mass repulses Yuliana Kafim, forcing her to disengage. KTS: Yuliana Kafim fails to react to Liam 7-020's Pass, taking 0 damage! KTS: Yuliana Kafim fails to react to Trevor Teach's Orb Anti-Ship Swords Cleave, taking 6400 damage! KTS: Trevor Teach has engaged Yuliana Kafim!
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
It would be so easy too, for Yuliana or whomever else so chooses to tear the Sukeban apart, following Naoko's reckless action. Her approach may not have gone nearly as well as it did to begin with, were it not for the protection of Aphrodite Areia's barrier. But when that fist impacts, coupled with an electronic and mental maneuver from its pilot, it all seems to have been a bit too much. The Arm Slave ricochets off the crystal, floating uncontrollably in its wake. And Naoko, she is left out cold in the cockpit, unable to respond to anybody, leaving two concerned voices to fret over her.
>"Ariel, what the hell are you doing? Pull her out already!"<
>"I-I can't! It's not working!"<
Maybe it was the shock of the impact, maybe it was her will, or maybe a little bit of both. But whatever the case may be... Naoko's mind refuses to break contact, once it's made. She may not be able to pull something like what she did before, when she allowed the Whispers to take over... but her machine still serves as one big interface with her mind. In this manner, she can more easily communicate with Rena, while not risking losing her Self to the spirits as well. Instead, she's risking losing her Self to the machine.
>"What do you mean, it's not working? You've got to hurry before... wait, what's going on?"<
With a sudden lurch of movement, the Sukeban turns itself upright, immediately activating full thrusters to charge right back towards the II Neo Zeong remnant.
>"It... it's moving on its own?! No, wait, it has to be...!"<
Naoko isn't quite as out cold as she seems to be. While her body remains still, her mind is still working overtime. Fully focused on one thing, and one thing only. Rena. She has to reach Rena.
This time, the Arm Slave seeks to attach itself more firmly to the giant Mobile Armor, it hands curved into a claw shape as it seeks to drive them into the metal below the crystal mass. Holding on, and refusing to let go. And all the while...
She says nothing. She only listens. Because Eight is talking. And even in the state she's in right now, she realizes that nothing she can say could be more important than Eight's words. She is aware now, of the relation between Eight, Rena, and the spirits that hold Rena in their grasp. ...Some other things, it feels like she shouldn't be listening in on. But she can't exactly help it. Good thing she's not currently in a state where she can blush.
Shortly after Eight finishes, however... Naoko's voice, too, can be heard.
">...Nothing I could say compares to that. But, I have my own story. A story of a 'gifted child'. That's what they called me, just because I had smarts. But that's all I had. All it got me was isolation.<"
">...Do you understand how much it means to me, that you just accepted me, right from the start? Treated me like a normal person? Actually made me feel wanted, without needing anything in return? I bet you think 'that's normal', but that's exactly what makes you special. And I don't... want to lose that. I don't want anybody else to lose that, either.<"
">Believe me, I know how easy it is, to fall into this trap of thinking 'I have to do this, because it's my responsibility, I'm the only one who can.' I'm always assigning burdens to myself that are too big for one person to carry alone. That's the same thing you're doing, isn't it? Never once considering that you might be wrong. That you should only have as much responsibility as anybody else. That it's unfair for something bigger than yourself to be all up to you.<"
">You're so sure that you've found the one and only perfect solution. So completely convinced that it never even occurs to you that sometimes... sometimes it's not all your fault. Sometimes you don't owe anybody anything. Sometimes it's fine to let the past be the past.<"
">...We all have regrets. I think the company you're keeping now should make it clear enough what happens when let those regrets control you. Don't let it get to that point, Rena. Listen to Eight. Come back to her. To us.<"
KTS: Naoko Suzuki targets Rena Lancaster with Pass! KTS: Naoko Suzuki has completed their actions for the round. KTS: Rena Lancaster fails to react to Naoko Suzuki's Pass, taking 0 damage! KTS: Rena Lancaster has been defeated!
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"Rita Bernal... no. No, we cannot pass on. How can you not see? How can you deny how much we still have to do?"
There is something desperate in their voices, then. There are ways in which some voices speak quietly; some speak firmly. There is a discord between them.
Rena's eyes stay squeezed shut. Rita speaks to her, and Rena opens her mouth. This time, when she speaks, it's with her own words. Spoken aloud, but sent psychically as well, and the ghosts don't underlie her voice as much as they had.
"Rita... But--but do I really deserve it? I don't..."
But it isn't selfish. Asciel's song continues to play, even as the Lambda Driver's light rises to a crescendo.
The remains of the Neo Zeong are struck, again and again. The Phenex's wings burn away layers of armor; crystal flakes off from it, heating and cracking apart. Asciel's wings score across it, leaving the armor breaking away -- showing inert, mangled mechanical skeleton underneath.
"Become something of my own..." she repeats, after Asciel.
The Banshee Norn's beam saber flashing -- and then turning off. Rena's head jerks, in the direction of the Banshee. "I don't--I don't what to do, though, if I don't deserve--"
The ghosts hesitate in the face of Leina. "Nothing good of us is left. None among the living will carry our memories on. We must make something of this world."
Sayaka calls for her to wake up. The Aphrodite Areia flies in -- and then an arrow of light fires, slamming into where the crystal encasing the Gaia Gear Alpha is lodged into the Neo Zeong. Armor breaks away; crystal shards fly off, and the cracks in the crystal widen all the more.
The Sinanju Stein rockets in towards the II Neo Zeong. It's an utter wreck, now, and another rocket flies off -- slams into the other wing -- and the explosion slams into the crystal, the fireball pitching off the armor. The shredded, torn wing falls away from it.
"You... you don't know?" Rena asks. She hesitates -- and then part of her realizes that, maybe, not knowing isn't so bad. Maybe that's what Zoltan means.
Maybe she doesn't misunderstand him as bad as she thought.
The ghosts are beginning to panic. They hurl themselves away from Shelby, in a moment; then, her funnels fire, shots tearing through the battered, shattered frame of the Neo Zeong. A moment later, Sophia's linear cannon rips another massive hole in the Mobile Armor.
The ghosts pull back from her fury -- and her statement.
The ghosts and Rena fall quiet, as Eight speaks. The ghosts pull away, and Rena sucks a breath in. They could all be family, Leina said; the lesson she learned years ago. The family that, as Rita said, is calling out for her.
Finally, Rena's eyes blink open.
"O-Octo," she manages. She hesitates for a second, before she hears Naoko's voice. Naoko's story, about accepting her. Her hesitation begins to melt away. It's easy, sometimes, to forget the good she's done.
Eight's still in front of her. Rena lets out something halfway between a laugh and a sob. And that lets her look and listen, as she feels the ghosts of Denver pull back from her. "I... I want to come back. To you. To everyone."
And it lets her see, too, as the Svipul comes in. There's something about hearing about the good times and the hard times she had with them both. About the little moments that meant the world to her, but amazingly, meant the world to the people she loves, too.
The Svipul flies in, pinpoint barrier aglow -- and smashes the spear into the Neo Zeong's remains. With the damage done to it -- the wings shorn off by Zoltan, the armor burnt away by the Phenex and the Codarl -- it can't jerk away and can't resist being run through.
And then Anita jumps for the crack carved into it. Rena's mouth hangs open. "Annie, what are you--"
And in the end, after the crack torn into the crystal by Sayaka, by Shelby, and by Sophia, one punch is all it needs. Her cybernetic left arm smashes into the crystal. The crack explodes outward -- into spiderwebs of thousands of smaller cracks -- and the crystal shatters apart.
The Gaia Gear, before, always had a green Psychoframe. It was based on the original model, installed in the Sazabi. It was the Psychoframe of Char Aznable and Amuro Ray -- or, more accurately, it was an imitation of theirs. It wasn't the Psychoframe of Rena Lancaster. So when the Gaia Gear Alpha comes online, it's not green motes of light that drift away from it -- nor gold, nor the sky's blue, nor red.
It's a deep blue, not unlike the ocean's.
And the Gaia Gear Alpha's hand reaches out, gently enclosing Anita, while the other grabs for the Svipul -- and the thrusters fire, as Rena grabs the controls.
"Annie!" Rena laughs, tears running down her face. "I--I--"
She laughs, again, at a loss for words. "You're amazing, you know that?"
The ghosts pull away, deep blue light keeping them at bay. Rena looks back at the ruin of the II Neo Zeong. She thinks of what Leina said; about how they could have a family. She thinks about what Lucine said.
"You don't have to do this," she says. Asciel's song may not echo in her ears anymore, but it echoes in her heart. "We can carry on for you. And we can remember you--"
But she feels a pulse from them. A powerful wave of confused, angry emotion.
"No! No--no no no no!"
The ghosts of Denver Colony scream, their voices separating into all of their separate ones for a moment, in sheer shock. They recombine after a moment. There is a pulse of them. A pulse of intent; a pulse of purpose.
It rushes through Rita Bernal's mind like a jolt. It brings back the feeling of rocky stones under her feet on a beach; it brings back memories of Sydney, in the moments before the end; it brings back her life, and everything that came after its end.
It is the Monster she saw that day. The terrible, stark white monster -- broken, but not destroyed -- and in a form other than what she saw.
But it's the same, too.
She can feel the heat. She can feel the light. And before it happens, Rita knows.
The helium-3 tanks spread out all behind them -- cylinders stacked into neat rows and clusters, one after the other. The ghosts of Denver Colony reach to them, and there is a shimmer -- there is a shudder -- and then energy readings begin to spike on the Ra Mari II, then other ships.
"We'll bridge the place between our souls! Let's write this ending together! RITA!"
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Hahaha..." Yuliana laughs, a touch ragged, as Koji yells. "Of course you do not appreciate Her blessings, Her constant efforts to save me. Of course you focus on the agony, and not its intent. You understand so little. You would never appreciate Her touch, night after night. You know, Koji, I used to have terrible nightmares? Awful memories of those laboratories which hurt me... and the floods. No longer am I plagued! Now I am blessed!" And the blessings Yuliana speaks of --
She does not say that she traded her traumatic nightmares for something tenfold worse.
She couldn't.
"Come to me!" She cries, as she welcomes the full arsenal of Mazinger Z, dancing through those warheads and that heat and that frozen rage. His might blasts at her chassis, marking those green-tipped spikes; still, she stands.
Just as she stands after Enba's full CIWS assault -- though those guns all pepper her, striking true as she meets them in melee. "I'm not afraid," she snaps, to them. The complication in the statement is revealed as she dances away, as soon as she says it.
She laughs, again, hearing Roux's anger. She doesn't relate to what Roux is saying, of course. Emptear is her armour and her protection. She will not be burnt out by such a thing. She will not be tricked into hurting her wife by saying such flagrantly wrong things again! No, it has nothing to do with her, and she laughs and she laughs and she laughs because she can't relate, so it must be funny.
"Yes," she says, teeth all bared, as she finishes laughing. "They don't know. They don't know! The REA cannot comprehend what they chased, in chasing me! They know not what they WROUGHT!"
The Hyper Mega Launcher impacts at the base of Emptear's neck, and any reasonable mech would be beheaded by the force of it. The impact does blow her forward, stumbling, until she manages to catch herself on one of the larger shreds of the General Revil's debris. (Inside her dancefloor, her hand presses against a solid shadow.)
It is there, as she straightens, that Lucine drives her glaive right in between Emptear's four glaring eyes. (Yuliana's already helpfully told Lucine where her cockpit is, so giving her a third -- well, a fifth -- eye isn't as bloodthirsty as it may first appear.) "If it's as cosy as you say," she snarls, "why do you try to STOP ME?!"
Yuliana's the one who pulls away from the Dianthus, this time. The Hi Nu's electricity crackles over her, and Sayla, with her years of experience, might see it first: Yuliana's movements have slowed. Her dancing is no longer as frantic; no longer does it abjure their efforts so easily. What she Sees, what is demanded of her -- is she biding her strength? She offers no explanation. Instead, she says: "The cold doesn't bother me," a shred of insistence to the words. (She's a tropical child. Even if they moved to Zaftra, later --) "Why can't you recognise how welcoming this is? Don't you want to make something good of this wretched world?"
She hears Zoltan, screaming it's his life or victory; even Shelby, screaming at them to stay out of her head. "I'm failing them," she whispers, ragged. "Those few who deigned to ally with me... what worth am I, that I cannot even..."
Her despair doesn't last. "Yes," Yuliana says, drawing a breath, drawing herself up again, as she faces Liam's Macha. "We all have suffered. I will bring this suffering to an end. We will not end your life, Liam! I am here to prevent this loss of life!" And, strangely, she doesn't move to punish him.
Perhaps it's because she's occupied with Trevor. His swords cleave up into Emptear's clavicle, to either side of her neck; she drops him from her grasp, with a little shove to extract those blasted giant blades from her chassis. "Go on, then! Blame me! I will suffer your slings and arrows! I need not your understanding!" And perhaps Asciel is right, to think that they could so easily have been the same. Isn't it the same kind of spite?
But --
"The tanks --"
Yuliana cannot hear the ghosts of Denver, but she can see the way the helium-3 begins to glow -- and the warnings which Emptear translates to her, at least, she heeds. "TIME'S UP, LEINA!" Yuliana screams, angry again, as she kicks Trevor's Isadore away with a long and slender and too-powerful leg.
"IT IS THE EMPRESS'S WILL THAT I END IT!"
She reaches up with her vast claw -- and tears something down, reaching and grasping at a thing not quite here. Holding tight to it, she whirls, and tosses something which isn't across vast, empty space.
All at once, with a horrific lurch, the light in those helium-3 tanks die to darkness. All at once, the field of fuel decouples from physical reality. Throw a missile at it, and it will pass right through. Try to grasp it, and grasp only air. The helium-3 no longer -- entirely -- exists.
But neither has it entirely disappeared.
Now this threat, too, is liminal.
And Yuliana's breath comes ragged. "I won't stop," she hisses, and the trembling in her flesh is carried into the shaking of Emptear's chassis, those spiked shoulders rising and falling with laboured effort. "I won't stop, I won't stop, you scream and throw yourselves against me but this world, this world, this world, this world, this world, THIS WORLD,"
The helium-3 trembles, as her claw and her hand tightens to a fist.
She will stop the ghosts of Denver Colony from destroying her Earth, expecting neither aid nor succour...
...but at what cost?
<Pose Tracker> Rita Bernal has posed.
Memory pierces Rita's soul. For one who walks in dreams, she is entirely unprepared for being dragged into her own past. In the space of a heartbeat, Rita relives every step she's taken on the path that led here.
Finally, finally... echoes her own voice, at the moment of her death, broken and exhausted. Green eyes slip closed, a smile crossing the then-living Rita's face. Heat. Light.
That's enough.
Spirit-Rita breaks free of the memories, her inner flame scorching through the false reality around her. Though she's shaken, she can't allow herself to show it. Not now.
This is over.
As if to make good on her words, Rita raises both her arms. Incandescent rainbow light gathers around her, brilliant and fierce, promising destruction. Though she cannot show it, this is the end of her strength. This is all she has left, all the grace given to her combined in one grand final strike.
...but though the memories have ended, something remains. Heat. Light. Green eyes widen in horror. The tanks are going critical. Part of her wishes, fruitlessly, to broadcast a message to her allies, telling them to flee. The rest of her knows there is no safe distance from such an explosion.
The Phenex darts away from the Neo Zeong II, racing to the very center of the helium field. If she burns the rest of her soul to power the NT-D, it may be enough for a Miracle large enough to avoid at least some of the damage.
We'll bridge the place between our souls! Let's write this ending together! RITA!
The amalgamation's voice brings Rita pause. Promises made return to her mind. Leina's words echo. Rita cannot do this alone.
But in this short span of time, what can be done? Who can she turn to?
As if in answer, Yuliana screams. The Phenex turns to face the Emptear, the monster who devoured her best friend, and as its claw comes t e a r i n g down, the Phenex shudders, repulsed and sickened by the void magic wrapping around the helium tanks.
Is there a word for what Yuliana's done? Not a Miracle, surely.
But, whatever it is, is exactly what Rita needed. With the cylindrical tanks decoupled from reality, their psychic 'weight' reduces drastically. Like this, Rita realizes, she can change their fate. Despite the way her journey diverged from the path, they've wound up at the very same place.
Rita knows what to do. She always has.
The Phenex brings one hand to her chin, and then brings it away, palm flat, toward the Emptear. Yuliana will understand.
This life isn't all there is.
Rita smiles, her green eyes slipping closed. How many times has she repeated these words? They've become a mantra, an expression of her faith.
Again and again we're reborn.
As the Emptear's claw comes down, the Phenex's arm rises. The brilliance encompassing the Phenex coalesces, fanning out behind her in the shape of feathered wings. Though ghostly, they are incandescent, and Rita laughs with joy as her feathers spread.
When I'm reborn again...
Endless, miraculous light spreads across the helium-3 field. As Rita's wings open, the encompass each and every tank. As the Emptear strains to hold them in this in-between state, Rita raises her gaze, looking through the physical realm to the Mists of Possibility.
I hope... I get to be...
Prismatic wings reach their apex. With a pulse of brilliance, the Phenex's wings close. With nothing more than a brush of illusory feathers, one by one, the helium-3 tanks vanish. Any mobile suits caught in the Miracle are untouched, though their pilots may feel the sacred warmth of another place illuminate their souls.
No mobile suits are taken, that is, save one. The Phenex opens her arms to the monster of her childhood, wreathed in shattered scarlet crystal. Empty, now, it remains an object of terror. A power humanity isn't ready for.
Little by little, the Neo Zeong II fades. This takes noticeably more effort -- Yuliana hasn't untethered it from reality, and so Rita must carry its weight on her own. As her wings close around the Phenex, momentarily hiding it from view, they beckon the monstrous mobile armor with it.
The Phenex's wings collapse into celestial light, warm as sunshine. It bursts out from the Gundam in the form of a great wave of radiance. Just as soon as it appeared, it is gone.
And with it, the helium-3 tanks.
And with it, the monster.
...a human being.
<Pose Tracker> Enba Rezza has posed.
Enba is not so unwise as to taunt Yuliana while she has their ship in such a vice--but their face shows a certain calm, a certainty. She snaps at them, but it's not so simple as that.
Regardless, Enba remains on the bridge to watch. And suddenly--
"Captain!" Kall shouts, "The Helium-3 ntanks--"
"Are we out of time?" Enba wonders, and turns to face the viewscreen once again. Only to see...
The threat becomes liminal, and perhaps Yuliana has done... something?
What has she done?
Licia, on the bridge, looks up, eyes widening. "Rita!" she calls, sharply. "Rita, you don't have to--"
Celestial light bursts out in a great wave of radiance, and Enba sits quietly. "...The Phenex...?"
"I'll--I'll check our readings," says Tempo.
But it isn't over...
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Still EMPTEAR stands against Mazinger Z's barrage. Koji grimaces, revising his data on the terrible Threshold Queen. It might not have Titan G9's sheer stature, but it certainly matches the massive kikaiju for durability.
But - the helium tanks - they glow with a terrible light -
EMPTEAR intervenes, pulling them halfway out of space - and the Phenex envelops them in light.
'I hope I get to be...
... a human being.'
Koji's voice sticks in his throat. He can't call out.
A pulse of green in the cockpit catches his attention - the shard of psychoframe stolen from Denver in their flight, secured on the dashboard. He reaches out and touches it, focusing on the hunger and hate even his famously dull senses picked up in the Colony.
"It's okay. You don't have to be scared and angry any more. What's been done to you... It won't be forgotten. I promise: I'll fight like hell to save anyone else suffering the pain you went through."
"You can't stay here any more, but... tell me your names, and you'll be remembered."
Maybe he'll build a garden for the shrine. Another twenty-eight names on the memorial wall won't be that out of place.
<Pose Tracker> Jona Basta has posed.
Jona Basta lay in his bed in the Ra Mari II.
Slowly, two blue eyes open. They blink twice; then, he opens his mouth. It's dry. It feels so terribly dry -- so terribly exhausted. But his mind reaches out, and when Jona's mind reaches out...
There are always two people he seeks. He blinks his eyes once, but he isn't looking ahead.
It's one thought he feels, as much as hears. 'A human being.'
And that's when, a moment later, there's the briefest impression -- the briefest outline -- of a hand over Rita's spectral one. Kind and gentle, like the boy he was; firm and resolute, like the adult he grew into.
The impression fades a moment later, and Jona closes his eyes again. It's all that he could do, today.
But as sleep takes him again, he thinks it felt good to do something.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"... You can live."
Is Leina's response, quiet but insistent. "You can live, Renalle." And as the ghosts hesitate, she asks, "Her feelings. They put them within the Norn. A forbidden curse - but they became a prayer."
The Norn, with no aggressive intent, reaches out a hand, "A prayer of possibility. Don't be so quick to dismiss what you could become."
And indeed, tentatively, on the psychic plane. A hand reaches out, not from Leina, but from the Norn.
Yet it is Eight's move, she can feel her, powerful and resplendant, her feelings offering Rena the succor, she so desperately needs, offer her what she truly wanted, when she asked the question.
"Come home. All of you."
The Gaia Gear reaches out, and Anita - the Svipul takes its hand. And there's a smile. "Welcome back, Renalle." Yet... it's not so easy to appease the ghosts of the departed. That emotion. Those feelings.
And Leina understands, it is the moment that Rita feared SO MUCH.
"You don't have to do this!"
Leina says, in alarm, even as the Banshee moves to try and get clear what she can, from the blast radius. She TRIES - but there's no TIME.
'TIME'S UP, LEINA!'
"No!"
There's no time at all. She understands that. All the same, what Yuliana proposes to do. So many children like Elpeo, trapped in such a state.
"You don't have to do this either!"
And Rita, answers, resplendant, with prismatic wings, incandescent - miraculous as she creates the miracle.
The tanks vanish, and Leina breathes more easily, the Neo-Zeong II disappearing...
... the wings collapsing...
And what's left are her feelings.
The Norn hovers, looking upon the Phenex. Her feelings are complex in this moment, but for all of her anger, she's always seen Rita as just that.
A human being.
The sacrifice to the miracle were perhaps, the feelings that shaped Rita Bernal into believing she was something else. And the price, is living in this world...
... knowing she is human...
The Norn's rises towards the Phenex.
That's the first step. The next will be harder.
This is the world you helped create, and I want you to have the chance to live in it, Rita.
Just like the rest of us.
For all of her feelings of anger, of betrayal, for words unsaid in the moment. That remains true.
But there still remains the curses left by those bitter and tortured souls...
"My little sister died in Dublin, fighting against the forces of the man who hurt her - and all of you. She lived a short life, full of suffering and tragedy... and even after she died... they wouldn't let her rest - they still used the feelings she left behind to hurt and control me."
There's a tiny smile on her face as she reaches this part, tentative, vulnerable, fragile, but happy, "But despite it all, even as she's moved on, I feel her with me. For all the ways she hurt me - she doesn't want me to suffer anymore, she wants me to be happy."
She puts a hand over her chest, "Bit by bit, I want to live, I want to make this world a little kinder for people like her - and you. And I know everyone else here does too, in their own way. I know it's a lot to ask, but please, leave it to us... and we'll carry your feelings, your will with us."
A beat.
"Let us make them a prayer for the possibility of a kinder world, together."
<Pose Tracker> Sayaka Yumi has posed.
Her efforts - their efforts pay off. A crack, just small enough for Anita to rush in and save her partner. "Thank god..." Sayaka breathes out as the Svipul and the Gaia Gair Alpha escape together, hand-in-hand.
Their time for celebration is all too limited, unfortunately... as the ghosts' wrath refuse to die down, even with their current host retrieved. They are legion - and they have nothing left except to blow the helium tanks, leaving nothing left. "No!!" Sayaka shouts, as the Pilder's energy readings begin to skyrocket. "Everyone... get out of here!" It's a futile effort, she knows it, but...
Emptear acts, aiming to disorient the helium tanks from this... very reality? Sayaka truly has no scientific explanation for what she's witnessing. The Phenex acts too, in concordance with Emptear. No scientific explanation for that one either, she's afraid. Rita's desire to be human though? Anyone can understand that.
Nonetheless, the helium-3 tanks and the Neo Zeong II are gone, no longer to threaten the world. She can... thank Yuliana and Rita for their efforts later.
Because the ghosts remain. Aphrodite Areia rushes to Mazinger Z's side, as Sayaka pulls that strange crystal-like object she found during their initial investigation of the place. She's hardly a Newtype or any sort of psychic... but will this let her make her bid to the ghosts? She emits her feelings more than her words through the thing. "Your sorrow is acknowledged, spirits of Denver." Sayaka tells them. "I wish for nothing more than a peaceful world where what you experienced is never repeated. A world where the weight of your tragedy is understood with all its breadth."
"But at the same time, I know that you don't get there by wishing and waiting. No, a world like that is something I work tirelessly for, even if it means I have to fight for it tooth-and-nail. Your stories... I don't want them to ever be forgotten, either. Even if I'm just one person of the living, will that satisfy you enough to rest in peace?" The psychoframe shimmers, and then it dies down. She has said her piece.
<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.
"Yes," Eight says to Rena, when she says she wants to come back. "Yes, that's right. To your home." And then, suddenly--the Svipul comes in. Eight flinches, instinctively, but the physical impact could not touch her in any case. Not as she is now.
And then... "She did it," Eight marvels at Annie. "...She said, if we both came from different directions... that we could reach you. And we did it. Tell her... she was right, okay, Rena?"
She smiles, seeing Rena and Anita together, but her spectral form has no tears. She thinks of a family... She thinks of that deep blue light, and she basks in it, purple with their auras mingling. But...
"But there's something only we can do, too..." With Leina's support. Because Leina understands better than most. She, too, should...
-=-=-
On the Ra Mari II, Eight's ex-Sleeves friends are waiting for the doctor, having laid her out. She doesn't move, doesn't stir, no matter what they say. But in her hand is a small crystal...
-=-=-
"...Everyone," Eight says. And she does not mean her allies. She looks to that amalgamation, outside the light of Rena's aura. "...It's not fair," Eight says. "It's not fair! That none of you had a chance, like I did. That I was the only one. For so long, I've wondered... what became of the others. What happened to all of you. And now, I see, and it's so terrible."
"...I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I couldn't do anything for you. I was just a child. Just like you were."
"I could've been you. I was you. I'm what you could've been, if only you had the chance."
"Three... Five. Eleven, Thirteen."
"There's one thing that's left. ...I'm here. That's why... That's why I chose to keep this name, Eight. So that I would never forget that I was one of many. That I was the one who got away."
"I'll live for me... and I'll live for you, too. I'll never forget you. I promise."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
...Events like these are supposed to be the light and hope that anchors humanity. Their glowing certainty that no matter what, something will rise for salvation.
The myriad cameras that attempt to exclude the EMPTEAR (out of rejection) and the Phenex (out of fear) no longer can - they are too pivotal, and those still watching from Earth know it. They can see, plainly, what has saved them.
They gasp and scream as the helium tanks threaten to erupt.
They recoil in confusion as what Yuliana seems perform the utterly impossible and restrain the eruption-
...And they cheer-
how they cheer-
-at the now legendary sight of the Phenex giving its all, once more, billowing with radiance and tearful hope. A lost girl who yet held on with all her will to save the Earth again and again. If there is anything in this world that is - (is? how often does this entity seem to say 'goodbye' over and over...?) - a 'goddess of possibility' - it's absolutely, without a doubt, Rita Bernal.
>it's unfair it's unfair it's unfair it's unfair it's unfair it's unfair it's unfair it's unfair it's unfair it's unfair it's unfair it's unfair it's unfair
...Unbridled jealousy blooms like an ichorous green flower, vines coiling around the interior of this shell Asciel has built for herself - looping around and around, drowning this thing she calls a 'self' in it. She knows it. She knows that it is too much for humans to endure. That the searing hot depths of her ugliest feelings and the unbridled willpower to bring them about would drown everyone she touches. That she would be a calamity to be quelled rather than a light of salvation if she ever truly let go. It has to be contained.
it hurts so much to drown in. how. how am I supposed to hold this back??? how much more do I need to extend my reach? these things that'd ruin the world are better at saving it than me.
---And at such a horrible time - the crystal Asciel kept clutched in the Codarl's hand pulses and shines. Right in the wake of her letting loose her willpower - right next to the glowing hole into her heart that she desperately keeps closed at all but the most needed moments.
"you CAN'T HAVE THESE FEELINGS. please!! don't look. every way I burned alive, every attempt at a miracle, is all fake, you can just ignore all of it. you don't need these things that keep me going if you want to move on"
---That's not how it can just 'work' though.
There is no amount of desperate and defiant rejection Asciel can shout at the resonating Psychoframe shard that can make her decide how something else feels about her.
From within her own heart, these things look like smothering, all-consuming envy for the many, many things that are greater than her.
...A whisper of her deepest, truest drives extends out, a tether that weaves right into the aperture. Past the bell of defiance. Past the hands that try to close its gap. Past the myriad vines. It can only find the truth.
(((I can't help but remember everything about every last one of you. About all of you who've died this way. Every last unfulfilled regret. Every tragically taken life and the things they want. I don't care if you're good or not. This is what I have to do. And I will. No matter the cost.)))
...of course it's that way.
Twelve years ago, in a colony not too unlike Denver, ten million died suddenly, quietly, and suffocatingly, with nobody in the world to care or consider them. Every last hope in that faraway place died all at once.
...except for in one single mote of light.
One call of agony at the injustice of this.
One desperate need to make such a heinous tragedy not just the apex of human cruelty.
...Of course she'd care about 28 vengeful things trying to hold onto something good in this world.
She's been trying to care for so many more, endlessly far away, utterly lost lives as long as she has lived. It is impossible for her to carry the torch for that many silenced souls. That's why she absolutely will.
...that, no matter what she might say, or believe her own feelings to be, is what truly flows out from the Psychoframe's harmony, towards the painfully empathizable amalgam of souls crying for something they could call a tomorrow.
<Pose Tracker> Roux Louka has posed.
"Maybe not," Roux agrees with Yuliana.
And the Hyper Mega Launcher clips the back of the neck --
-- God damn it, Roux thinks, as perhaps the essence that is Roux resurges from whatever place she was touched or seated there: Why can't I have the damn machine that isn't made out of physical matter? Stop trying to dice up people's brains, Murasame, figure out how that shit works -
Roux doesn't laugh, but there is a sense of 'coming back to herself'.
She keeps her eyes on the enemy -- on Yuliana, which isn't quite the same thing -- but the Hyper Mega Launcher, trailing volatizing coolant, raises upwards.
And then she can feel -- "What are they -- No! Oh my god! Are they seriously trying uncontained fusion-- Stop!" Roux pleads, eyes widening. It's starting alrady. The neutron flux must be rising. Her head turns for a moment. SHIT, Roux thinks. Maybe -- what's the density on Alloy Z? A hare-brained scheme, to try and line everyone up behind Mazinger Z and pull Koji out to huddle with them --
Becomes superfluous in a moment.
Light and darkness strive.
A feather of light brushes. Roux blinks back tears.
And...
...
... the future has changed, but the past hasn't.
Roux can feel tingles up along the back of her neck, across her forehead, as her eyes turn again to Denver Colony. Thrice-damned Denver Colony, site of high-altitude horrors.
"None of you deserved any of it," Roux says. "Not any. It was done by wicked men, but what made them wicked? I don't know. It all came along. It's like a big chain. Just, trailing back to a big... I don't know, nothing. I don't think anybody made the world the way it is. Nobody's responsible," Roux says, feeling her eyes well up, "and that's the worst part, right? Because you want to find a bad person and make them stop. But they came from something that came before. They've got their chains too, even if there's no way to stop them, except with Mobile Suits..."
"... but..."
"If we have to make something," Roux says, "let's make something that isn't chains."
She sniffs to herself, and turns her head away, even if the light is being filtered on several levels.
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
There's a shift, small but noticeable, in the way Yuliana is fighting. As she makes the distance from Yuliana, she gets ready to shield herself again. "Your 'welcome' requires cutting out a piece of myself! I've done enough of that in my lifetime!"
'Don't you want to make something good of this wretched world?'
"Of course I do. It's what I've spent the last 15 years of my life doing! And I'll continue to do so- in my way, no matter how slow the going is!"
TBut then Yuliana roars, and flies past them. "Leina- she's coming!"
As Yuliana makes distance, her senses start to return to her.
She can see it now. The Miracle starting to occur, as the Phenex's wings open. As the Helium tanks and Rita just... vanish.
But there are still the ghosts. Still here, unable to just move on.
She falls silent as Leina reaches out, as best she can. To those dead by Neo Zeon and Anaheim. "The warmer world is waiting for you. A place where you can rest. Where you can be free." The world not for the living, that Nanai let her glimpse once. "It's time to go. The burdens of this world aren't yours to bear anymore. Leave them to us. We'll carry them- and make this world better."
There's little comfort one can offer the dead... but she'll try.
<Pose Tracker> Trevor Teach has posed.
"That's not-- the point--" Trevor gasps. When he was aboard Denver, he felt a spectre of what those unfortunate spirits experienced: their own death by asphyxia. But this, constricted by gravity itself, it's all he can do to keep ragged breaths filling his lungs. The sensation is far too real-- because it IS real. But--
His swords bite deep enough that Yuliana finally sees fit to toss him aside. Isadore is batted away, and finally the gravity well releases its grip. Trevor sucks in a desperate breath, just as Rita's message finally reaches him.
I'm with you, Trevor. That will never change.
"What... Rita...?" Isadore turns, its visor a blank, glowing surface as the gas cylinders begin to glow. They're all moments from death, but--
Yuliana twists them out of reality.
And then--
When I'm reborn again... I hope... I get to be...
"Rita...!" The Phenex's wings expand, reaching across the battlefield, wrapping around each of the unreal tanks one by one. Isadore's thrusters ignite, Trevor levers the throttle as hard as he possibly can. But he won't make it. He's too late.
By years. He's too late.
Because Rita Bernal... has been a ghost for a long, long time.
...a human being.
A curtain of warm, soft light washes over Isadore, past its outstretched hand. Through the pilot, and past his. Their thrusters die with a sputter, as Trevor's hand drops to his lap.
He is utterly silent.
<Pose Tracker> Zoltan Akkanen has posed.
A hit. That's all it's needed; Those wings were damn pesky, so undercutting one of the major bits of the II Neo Zeong was a victory....However minor it was. The question, however. "OF COURSE I DON'T! You think I have an answer after being dumped out here!? Of course not. WHERE'S THAT FIRE FROM TORRINGTON!?" Agh, it's so simple! If there's not a place, make one! If there's not an option, make one!
If there isn't a position you have, what else is there but to press on!?
Yuliana's muttering goes unnoticed. There's little to care from someone so set in their ways.
He watches on, the same blue fire coursing through. A grunt, a click of the tongue, watching the crystal split. So they have her. Secure. The smallest chuckle slipping through his lips as he jets around, keenly aware of how the tanks are moving and shifting. "That so? One slipup, and the ghosts are pulling their trump card?"
Fools, every single last one on that Colony. If after one slipup, you're gonna scream, then come back when you've had more expereince!
This ending. This bridge. To cascade everything into a giant mess. Oh, how he'd love to revel in this, to push past and make it all of this pain worth it. ...He doesn't pull in. Not with the tanks as limnal as they are, the smallest smirk creaking on his lips. "Like hell it is...!"
The thrusters burn aflame, pushing. If nothing else, he can burn the energy inside this cockpit away, leaving it to the will of the Phenex's miracle. Angling himself, watching Emptear and Phenex collide. Nothing to do but watch, hope, and wonder.
Rebirth, huh. There's an absent muttering at that final line, sighing. THe tanks. The ghosts. The insanity of everything, eyes flicking to the drifting wreckage of his 'prized' unit, the sole thing that was keeping him anchored and alive in the Sleeves. No more.
"What sort of person would go this far if they weren't human to begin with?"
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
Rena asks what she's doing, but Anita lets her actions speak for her. Her arm sags a little from the impact - but in the end, it's enough. The crystal spiderwebs and then explodes. Anita braces herself, hunkering down so the EX-Gear can protect her from any shrapnel.
A smile crosses her face. She did it.
...No. They did it. Everyone here... and even though she can't hear or see her, or feel her presence, Eight must have done everything she could, too - must have reached out to her in the way only she can. She knows how strong her heart is, and how strong her love for Rena is.
And here, floating through space... Anita witnesses the Gaia Gear flare to life, aglow with deep blue motes of light.
"...It's beautiful." Anita murmurs, staring in awe. The Gaia Gear Alpha reaches for her, closing gently, protectively around her. She knows by heart that it's Rena in full control, now. She trusts it, trusts her, allowing it to hold onto her while the other retrieves the Svipul.
She can hear Rena over her helmet's built-in communications - laughter and tears in her voice - and after all this, Anita can't help but laugh along with her.
"Rena." Anita replies, and smirks. "Well, someone pretty important to me keeps telling me I'm the coolest person she knows, so I kinda mighta figured it out by this point~."
Once again, Rena tries to reach out to the ghosts... but in response, they scream. Anita grimaces. They pulse. They make one last effort to detonate the helium-3 tanks - but they are decoupled from reality, and then they, and the II Neo Zeong too, are gone. She can't see what happened to the Phenex, can't feel what happened to Rita... but somehow, she feels a small sadness.
But the spirits... they, it seems, are still here.
"...Hey, listen." Anita starts, reaching out a bit awkwardly. "What happened to you guys... it's awful. It shouldn't have happened."
She shakes her head.
"...We aren't gonna forget you. We aren't gonna forget this happened - and we're going to do everything we can to make sure this doesn't get repeated." Anita says. "So, it's okay." Anita pauses. "...Well. I guess it isn't 'okay' okay. But... it's okay. You can rest easy now. We hear you."
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
Rena looks at Eight -- at a spectral form she can see, without any trouble. She swallows, once. "I will, Octo. I promise."
Then, her eyes close, but only for a brief moment, as she sighs. "Thanks, Leina," Rena says, her voice quiet. She wipes at her eyes. "I heard you. I promise. I'm... I'm back.
She is quiet for a moment, then, as she listens to Zoltan. She hesitates for a second. Then: "Zoltan... thanks. I'm glad that you came."
Then, finally, she smiles -- and flushes when Anita speaks to her. "A-Annie..."
Rena's eyes widen as she gets a good look at the helium-3 cylinders. She understands what that could mean. Rita explained it to her -- and she knows perfectly well what danger awaits. They won't have changed things, here, if those are destroyed.
But they're sent away. Rena stares, a smile spreading across her face slowly, as she sees them vanish. And Yuliana did help, even if... even if she also made things worse. But--
She looks to the ruined colony.
Rena takes a breath, then, and she makes herself keep looking. "We'll carry you with us, to the future. The possibility we find, we'll make sure it's one we share with your memory. You won't be forgotten... and we'll do more than mourn you."
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.
In the cockpit of Liath Macha, Liam breathes. After ten precious seconds, he feels less like he's going to dissolve into helpless, frustrated rage. He wouldn't have the luxury of focusing on that, on the battlefield, without everyone else here. That includes Yuliana.
"I felt what she did to you," Liam says, "at Ra-Shalom. She loves you, but the rest of us--she tried to change us! And I won't EVER let anyone do that to me, again!" He grips the sticks again, and this time his hands aren't shaking. Liath Macha surges forward, darting between chunks of colony debris, and takes up position next to the Dianthus. It raises its shield.
And then the ghosts' screams rip through Liam's head, a cacophony of horrible noise. "Stop!" Liam screams. "STOP! RITA, STOP THEM--!" This is what she's spent her whole life obsessing over, she has to do something. He can't. Lights ignite across his cockpit, each one representing a fuel tank about to go critical. And then--
They die, in an instant, smothered. The Phenex's light washes through Liam's cockpit, and he holds still, eyes closed, one hand pressed to the Connemara pendant beneath his normal suit. When he opens his eyes again, another piece of green stone floats lazily in the air before him. It's a Psychoframe fragment--the one he noticed stuck to his glove after Jona captured him. The little thermos holder he'd stowed it in is now conspicuously open.
Liam is not a Newtype. Part of his brain insists that what he's about to do is stupid. But he reaches out, clasps the fragment in his hand, and F O C U S E S
* * *
"Three. Five. Eleven. Thirteen. Subject 20, from Group 7. My name is Liam. It's... good to meet Eight's family." There's a presence behind Eight, much fainter. A psychic quantum entanglement of a gentle, anxious, scared little boy and the man he grew into. There is the sense of a white jumpsuit, and a shaved head, and flawless, sterile hygiene, and so many surgical scars. Bright, gas-flame-blue eyes.
"You were growing up in Neo-Zeon while I was growing up in Dublin. Glemy and Haman and the war wrecked all our lives. Nobody knew who I was, either. Nobody knew I existed. So... share your stories. What you liked, what your names were, what happened. I'll share them. No one should ever be forgotten."
The balance of entanglement shifts towards the Liam that exists. That same big man, but in his normal suit. "I promise I'll help take care of Eight for you."
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
The Sukeban's grip on the II Neo Zeong only lasts as long as it takes for Anita to pull that incredible (and incredibly crazy) stunt. The machine looks over at that, lets go of the machine when Anita's fist impacts the crystal, and right at that instant...
Naoko takes a sharp intake of breath, opening her eyes in the cockpit to the chorus of voices calling out her name. "I'm here, I'm here, geez, calm down."
>"Don't you 'calm down' me, that was way too risky!"<
Naoko pffts, adjusting her position to sit upright again. "Nothing compared to what Anita just did. Did you see that? That was... none of the words I normally use are enough, so I'm gonna use the word 'dope' here."
>"Can you two please focus? This isn't over yet, look!"<
It doesn't take Naoko long to see what Ariel was talking about. The Helium-3 tanks. She'd... completely forgotten about them, with how laser-focused she was on Rena. And here she is in a very poor condition, battered and exhausted, unable to act in any meaningful way - as if there was anything she could do to stop that kind of disaster to begin with. 'This can't be how it ends', she thinks, but the thought doesn't make it to her lips. Reduced to a spectator, her feelings of powerlessness return with a vengeance.
She would never have predicted that disaster would be prevented by a team effort of Yuliana and Rita. She'll hate herself for it later, but in the moment, the predominant emotion she feels is... envy. That's it - the true power to work miracles, to save so many lives. She can boast all she likes, but she's still so far from attaining anything like that. That's the kind of power she wants, so badly. ...Rita's side of it rather than Yuliana's, obviously. Surely there must be a miracle she could work with Psychoframe...
There was a lesson to be learned from today's events that clearly somebody failed to learn. But at least her feelings are ultimately more constructive than certain other envious parties currently present.
She only vaguely understands the effort that must have taken. She certainly has no idea to what degree the stars had to align for things to happen this way. She can simply accept it all as the nature of miracles. Which leaves...
The Sukeban, tentatively, begins to distance itself from the II Neo Zeong, wary of what else it might try to do. She feels that it would be a really bad idea to try and reach out mentally in her current state, but... she can at least say a few words, in hopes that they might help a little.
"...I can only imagine you fought to stay alive just as hard as everyone here today did. I'm sorry there wasn't anyone to help when you needed it most. But I promise you - each and every one of the people here today will fight with everything they have to prevent tragedies like yours from happening again. And if I know Eight, she will make sure you'll never be forgotten."
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
Everything in her head is screaming.
She struggles; her vision blurs and swims. Her head feels like it's going to explode -- forces of spirit and science, of the mind and technology. Shelby wards them away with intensity, focus, and the thoughts-- memories -- of the people who care about her and who she cares about.
'I'll tear down the sky for the people I care for,' she said to Anser... Rita, Sophia.
Tearing a hole in a psychoframe-empowered cluster of ghosts is a good secondary option.
'And keep your fingers off my sister!!'
The Jagd Doga twists around; Yuliana, the tanks, and Leina-- the Phenex.
Celestial lights; the warmth-- tanks vanishing. The monster, even-- the wings closing around the Neo Zeong II and the energy spent to vanish them. There's desperation in her voice as she shifts in the control seat, hands gripping the console as she practically stands up out of the seat in zero-G. "Rita??! RITA!!" Shelby starts to scream in desperation.
She drops, slumping in her seat and staring at the on-fritz monitors, her jaw slack and eyes wide, eyes wet with tears as the machine drifts in the void.
Rita-- Rita--
"S-Sophie...?" Shelby stammers out, her eyes unfocused and half-lidded. "Wait, where's--"
Immediately, the Jagd Doga sets to find the Flag, hurrying to her sister's side. "Sophie, are you..."
<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
Sophia's cannon strikes its mark, and then...
She can't turn her eyes away. She doesn't quite realize how far away her cockpit seems as a world with no walls sprawls out in every direction, lights joining to lights in a network that she would find incomprehensible if she hadn't studied its ways so thoroughly.
She doesn't notice the two emblems of a bird on the hunt in each eye, the icon of the power of kings. There are few here who could.
But it gives her the perspective to release her controls. Yuliana hurls something and she knows she can't see it on any sensor, but she thinks she just detects...something beyond. Every moment of this has been new experiences, new curses. She just barely senses her too-quick breathing and forces her hands tighter on the sticks to anchor herself.
She cannot look away from the bloom of Rita's final deeds. She cannot look away. She can only see.
Of course. Desmond told her, didn't he? A King must know their subjects' hearts. A King must bear the burden of knowledge no normal man could stand.
She looks down and forces herself to perceive her own hand, reaching for where she left the small object she was left with after assaulting Denver Colony. With greater eyes it seems to shine.
She looks up and sees the pleas of people reaching out with heart to those whose souls were cursed, urging them to depart with peace. Forging a kind of short-lived bond of tranquility and comfort.
She leans back against her seat, blind go tall but the divine, and turns the crystal in her hand.
She looks at them, direct. She can see those hearts, wavering and ephemeral.
"Your part in this is over," she says, clasping the crystal between thumb and index finger. "It is a regretful thing, to leave too soon. But this wheel of tragedies must end, mustn't it?"
She looks back down to the crystal chip in her hand. She feels like she could sink into that light. "Can monstrosity end a monster, I wonder..."
Shelby calls out to her on radio but Sophia looks toward her light on reflex, not to the monitor. "I'm here, Caedra," she says. She thinks about her frank admission to Cornelia: That she knows fully well herself or Shelby may well die any moment.
Shelby's light bathes her such that it's hard to keep grasp on the world around her and she can only smile, though tightly. "....and I will continue to be," she promises.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
Maybe she is a hypocrite, in the end. Rita gets to be the shining child of hope in spite of her mistakes, while Yuliana gets blamed for her many stumbles further and further down the void.
But.
< ".... I'm trying to make myself remember, Yuliana... that you're trying to do something to help. ... You're right, in that it's unfair that Rita is forgiven by people like Liam and me, while we thumb our noses at you... but at the same time, if Rita and I were in the same positions as you and I are, right now..." > The glaive hit something, alright. Lucine's chest swells with awkward pride, both for her, and Liam's verbal assertions earlier. < "I'd fight her too. The methods might be different, since I'd convince myself that I could get through to her, but... You've made me decide I would." > She frowns, thoughtfully. < ".... A bird is a bird, whether it's gold or black. My soul's answer will be the same." >
She wants to say more, but there's no time.
Yuliana and Rita, two birds of different colors, are buying them time.
There's a green outline of light from the compartment on her dashboard, reminding Lucine of its presence. Desperate, Lucine curses as she jams her fingers while trying to open the compartment a little too hard.
The glow of the crystal, now freed from its simple cage, begins to imbue the Dianthus's cockpit with a gentle green glow.
.... Rita.... I....
(BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGWxNI6fy4k)
Clasping the crystal close to her chest, Lucine's tears begin to puddle on her corners of her eyes. Her thoughts want to focus on Rita right now, but she can't let them wander away from the ghosts at the center of all this.
.... Somewhere, there was a field, where my mother told me what I was... and that she, secretly, was one too. I was a small child then. Her hand was bigger than mine. The colony's sky field projected a sea of stars... I learned not to be afraid of myself, but to guard myself from the world that can and would try to hurt me.
There will be more like us, I'm sure. As more generations of Newtypes have or adopt children, and those children, whether or not they are Newtypes, understand the children they have or adopt... there will be gentle fields and long talks, understanding, and comfort. On Earth, in space, on Mars and the Belt, and beyond.
The same white flowers that dotted the fields where she once stood follow in Lucine's bare footsteps, the same color as the sundress she wears. She walks over to the group, and extends her hand towards the amalgam of Liam's own.
The time for cruelty towards Newtypes is ending.
The time to cruelly modify people to be Newtypes, or the opposite, is ending.
Still, even here, her eyes are tearing up.
<Pose Tracker> Rita Bernal has posed.
Having given all she has, the Phenex goes dark. She's still powered on, her communications array active, but the light of her Psychoframe body has extinguished. Though her cockpit has been empty from the start, now it feels truly barren.
It's alright. This is the reason I was born.
Rita's voice, in response to Licia, is extremely faint. Even the most sensitive will have to strain to hear her. She has left the Phenex, in an effort to keep her partner from danger, and floats before Denver Colony.
Even like this, she isn't alone. Rita smiles, still feeling the impression of Jona's hand over her own. He woke up. He's okay. The monster has been slain, the helium-3 explosion averted, and Jona and Michele are alive.
Finally, finally...
This is the end of the path. For the first time in her life, Rita is free. There are no more visions to guide her way.
It's terrifying.
It's beautiful.
And now, as her very first true choice, she reaches out her hands.
I'm on my own now. I've never been able to see further than this moment. Not in any way that matters. I imagine every step will get harder. This is the easiest it will ever be again.
Green eyes take in the ruined Colony, Rita's otherwordly vision able to take in the tangle of spirits deep within.
I'm still here. I promise. Please don't worry. If this first choice is the last thing I do, I want it to matter.
Whispered reassurance to Trevor, Shelby, Zoltan -- so many others. Rita's voice is thin, her distant image flickering like a candle's flame. Arms open, she waits, letting the heroes of the living entreat the spirits of Denver Colony. Their words mean so much more than hers ever could.
Are you ready to go?
Rita smiles. Her green eyes are so soft. She will not force the spirits to accompany her, but she's ready to show them the way. There are so many of them. But they can all hold hands so no one gets lost.
You won't be alone. Any of you. I'll be with you all the way. Your next life will be so much better than this one was.
A glance back at her gathered heroes. Her friends.
And I promise, you'll never be forgotten.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
There are so many promises.
There are promises to remember them. Promises to do better. Promises to save the ones who can be saved. They are promises that float about the ghosts; float about where the helium-3 cylinders had been; float around the empty space where a monster had been.
Koji makes promises, but he asks them a question. And it's with some struggle that they answer as separate people.
"Three." "--Five." "Eleven..." "Thirteen."
A moment, before they add, as one: "The rest of us... we can't remember our names anymore."
They speak for them, now.
Their attention turns to Sayaka, next; it's felt, more than seen or heard. They hesitate for a moment.
"I hope you can build that world. I hope you remember... how many of us are waiting for it, still, Sayaka Yumi."
They're quiet, though, after Asciel addresses them -- and yet they seem to understand her.
"It's a heavy thing to carry." "We know." "Don't carry it alone." "And even with everyone else, you can be alone."
Their attention falls on Roux, next; like eyes looking at her, pleading.
"We'll hope for more than chains, next time, then. Please make it so."
There is more quiet from Sayla. As if they know who this is; as if they know the way she helped, and the way her family was tied into their fate.
"Then... carry those burdens for us."
There is a pause -- a hesitance at Zoltan's question. A bubbling of laughter, from a few of them; in one case, a peevish grunt, annoyed at being called out. "Maybe... we were good at fooling ourselves."
Their attention turns to Anita, then. They hesitate for a second. "Then... take care of Eight, for us."
Their attention turns towards Liam. They see him, then; the boy he was, the boy that was like them. They are quiet for a moment. "So much suffering..." "So many like us, everywhere." "Please remember us. We've forgotten so much."
There is a pulse of agreement -- understanding -- when Naoko speaks of Eight. The ghosts speak, after a moment, voices mingling again: "There are so many depending on all of you. To do just that."
Then, they look to Sophia; to one of the people they held so much wrath, so much hate for. They are quiet for a moment.
"Do your best to see that wheel stopped."
They're quiet as Lucine's thoughts reach out. A few murmurs; the ghosts remain silent for a moment. Then, finally, they answer her.
"I hope..." "I hope you're right." "I hope the future doesn't disappoint us."
They seem to hesitate, when Rena speaks to them. There is a momentary pause; a feeling of agreement. A feeling of understanding. And then, one word:
"Sorry."
The ghosts' attention turn towards Eight. Towards their sister; towards the woman they could have been, or who could have been them.
"It's a heavy burden, Eight. To live for all of us. But..."
There is a moment of intense effort from them. A moment where their essence seems to flicker -- and then it resolves, into the faces of four young children, wearing uniforms, and looking at all of them. But, most of all, looking at Eight.
"...you're gonna do great."
It's Rita that they turn to last. The vision of them fades; it's their presence, expansive and immaterial, that she reaches her hands out. They are quiet for a long time.
And then the voices begin:
"Yes." "We're ready." "Let's go." "I'll... miss it."
Other visions float by. Ellic Hugo, looking over her shoulder at the Sinanju Stein. A pair of Denver Colony maintenance staff turn and smile. 'Thanks,' one mouths.
'Princess Mineva... I wish I could stay to see the world you envisioned...' A translucent Ferolio Addir rubs at his eyes, as though they still could sting from tears. 'My dear friends... I've missed you. Sorry I'm late... Next round is on me.'
A quartet of children, in uniforms, looking over their shoulders -- back at Eight -- and then to Rita. One by one, they nod.
And they walk with her.
The Psychoframe crystal, the huge mass of it that had been in the II Neo Zeong, once glowed a sickly, angry red. Now, it fades -- until it is dull and inert. The presence and pressure of those within is gone with them.
<Pose Tracker> Yuliana Kafim has posed.
"Just as She changes me," Yuliana smiled, to Liam, back then.
She's not smiling any more.
To claim so much is not without cost. It is an impossible task to grasp so much fuel and step it back from ignition -- to neutralise its reactions -- and to drag it towards another place. Yuliana pants, and pushes through; she must end it. She must be the one... to end it...
But there's a message she didn't see, displayed over her quartz display.
Someone still on her side, even here.
Emptear's four eyes glimpse Rita as she thanks her with a gesture; her head rises, with Yuliana's, as she draws in a shuddering breath. "Ritechka," she mumbles, as she watches the Phenex's arm raise up.
"... help me," she cedes, the tears at the corners of her eyes all soaking into that sacred green cloth.
What would have cost too much for one of these impossible Mobile Suits -- is so much more bearable, with two.
Emptear's arms wrap about herself, as if she could hug the Void into her heart. "I'm all right," she says, breathless, and she does not speak to them. "I'm all right, I'm all right... just let me, a moment... nnh..." She feels ill, for a passing moment, swallowing thickly; but Elisa's anti-emetics do their job, and she's spared from anything more than that wretched wave of nausea.
She looks up, to find the Phenex, across the battlefield. Confirms, at least, that still she stands. Yuliana had been so desperate to stop Rita from burning herself out with such an overwhelming Miracle, she almost...
... she must... grow more accustomed to her power. Rita... will not always save her. But... today...
(They're not so dissimilar, are they? And Rita's... known her Psychoframe longer, after all.)
Emptear drops, in space, to one knee; she is kept aloft by those jets, even as Yuliana's fingers press against the octogonal patterns of the Voidframe on the floor. Psychoframe, she thinks, with venom. This material which twists reality around its fingertips, relentlessly... even in this purified form...
Yuliana's fingers curl, against the Voidframe floor. "Humanity... cannot be trusted with such a thing," she hisses, as slowly she pushes herself up. "This material which demands human sacrifice... this world is not... ready to grasp it." The ghosts are -- well. Yuliana feels the lack of their presence by the way the world grows a shade less jagged, less empty spaces where the Colony should be.
"So... there is nothing more to consume," she says, a touch bleary, as Emptear's four eyes fall on the Colony. "Very well. I will even congratulate you... for achieving such an improbable end."
Regardless, that massive machine jets towards Denver. She lands, at that huge outcropping of dulled Psychoframe, and plunges her claws into its base. "But this -- this world has proven it cannot be trusted with this material!" Her knees bend, and lift, and Emptear WRENCHES the largest iceberg of Psychoframe from its moorings. It is huge; it is horrifying, in its way. "I will not have you gift it to some other whitecoat who would enact these horrors once over! I will handle it myself!"
Her arms are vast on her sixty-metre frame; even so, they do not reach all the way around the inert Psychoframe which Denver grew.
And she carries it alone. She acts alone, but for -- "ZHENUSHKA!" Yuliana invokes, with sharp anger. Emptear tips backwards and falls, weighed down by something like gravity, into a terrible green portal which opens behind her.
Emptear disappears, and the Psychoframe does, too.
<Pose Tracker> Trevor Teach has posed.
Her voice is so thin, her light so dim. Teardrops float by in the absence of gravity. She's-- leaving. Finally completing the journey she set out on so many years ago.
It's a rare opportunity, one few people can avail themselves of. To say a last farewell in the moments before the end. Yuliana carries the psychoframe away. The others speak to the other spirits of the dead. Trevor hesitates, hoping for a moment that if he never says goodbye that she won't go-- but that's not how life works, cyclical as it may be.
"There was so much I wanted to show you. I'm... I'm sorry. I couldn't keep my promise." Trevor starts, tears beading along the ridge of his visor. "Thank you. For everything. If it weren't for you, I would've still been flying aimlessly. I don't know when I'll see you again, someday. So..."
"Goodbye, Rita. And--"
"I love you."