Priss's mind flooded with memories as Genom's artificial
mountain of a headquarters grew larger in her sight.  Twice she
had been there before, both times for a confrontation with a
single man.  Mason.  Largo.  And the cycle began anew.
     Uncertainty tore at her heart as they raced toward destiny. 
With Sylia out of the picture, the leadership had fallen to her. 
More memories... lessons in command she had not wanted to learn
but was now glad for.  Sylia had seen this day coming, and once
again her foresight might save them all...

***************************************************************
Stormwalker <stormwalker@airmail.net> proudly presents:

                  Bubblegum Collision

A work of Bubblegum Crisis fanfiction by Douglas A. Reeves
***************************************************************
Part Six - Dead Ends!

     In her mind, Priss reviewed the mission objectives.  As
their identities had been compromised, there were now several
levels of threat with which to contend.  First and foremost, they
had to know exactly what Genom knew about them, and that meant
accessing the Tower's central computer.  After that, they had to
find Quincy... his very existence was now a threat to their
survival.
     A chill passed through her at that thought.  She had often
wondered how Sylia had felt when she came to the conclusion that
Mason had to die; now she knew.  A cold knot formed in her
stomach as she steeled herself to the task at hand.  Finding
Quincy would not be easy... killing him might be more difficult
still.  Nevertheless, it had to be done.
     Trying to part from that line of thought, she looked up at
their destination.  "Defensive strength?" she asked, almost
mechanically.
     "Heavy, but spread pretty thin," Nene responded.  "We should
be able to punch through the front gates if we strike quickly."   
     "Let's do it, then.  For Sylia!  Knight Sabers, sanjo!"     
"For Sylia!" came the unison response as they throttled up their
motoslaves and charged onward.
      As the defenders came into visual range, Priss was
surprised at just how undefended their front gate was.  "Didn't
they learn from the first time?" she thought to herself.  "Guess
not."  Using her left hand to steer, she raised her arm cannon
and fired two shots.  Armor piercing rounds slammed through the
front door, caving it inward, and a third shot blew it down.
     "Seven rounds left," she reminded herself.
     The two boomers on each side of the gate charged out to meet
them. Each pair consisted of one 34-CX and one 55-C, with the
modular variants equipped for artillery.  Cannon fire blazed on
all sides as the Sabers closed in, getting frighteningly more
accurate.  "Enough of this," Priss growled and transformed her
motoslave.  As the massive armor slowed, she raised her gun and
fired two shots.  The 34-CX's exploded, leaving only the smaller
opponents, and their last shots bounced harmlessly off the
Typhoon-IIB's armor.
     "I've got the left one," Linna called, leaping from her
motoslave. Even as she jumped, a beam of energy from the boomer
she was targeting seared the space she was departing.  Before the
boomer had even shut down the weapon, she was upon it.  The
Knuckle Bomber flared, and one defender remained.
      Christine swerved left and right, taking the motoslave
right up to the target while still in cycle mode.  Deploying her
newest weapon at the last second, she was rewarded with a shower
of sparks as the micro-serrated blade decapitated the cyberdroid. 
Sparks flew, and it fell in a heap.  Not stopping until she had
reached ruined door, she called out, "Clear inside."         
     "Great," Priss answered, unable to shake the feeling that it
had been too easy.  Still, she wasn't about to complain... the
worst would not begin for some time.
     Nene and Linna quickly slipped into the building behind
Christine and Priss, and they set off down the entrance corridor. 
     "No pursuit," Nene noted, "but this whole building is full
of boomers."   
     "Try to steer us around them as best as possible," Priss
said, then thought, "Did I just say that?  It's the right
decision, though..."
     "Right.  Primary computer core is fifteen floors up.  There
should be stairs that way," Nene pointed.
     "Let's go, then."

                   * * * * * * * * *

     Alarm Klaxons rang throughout the Tower as the Knight Sabers
easily blasted through the outer defense.  The security chief sat
comfortably at his desk and started giving orders.
      "They're on the ground floor now, making for the main
stairway. Groups Alpha-Seven and Gamma-Six, move to intercept."   
     "Affirmative," a very synthetic-sounding voice answered.

                  * * * * * * * * *

     "We've got two groups of boomers closing in on us... they're
not going to let us have the stairs," Nene warned.
     "Like hell they're not," Priss answered.  "Get ready for a
fight."
     They set up a defensive position in the corridor, with Nene
giving continuous updates on the boomers' locations.  The wait
seemed eternal to Priss.  Every decision she made, every order
she gave, weighed heavily on her heart.  "Second-guessing is part
of the business, I guess," she thought to herself, but that still
didn't make it any less nerve-racking.  Quickly she was coming to
understand why Sylia always seemed so dispassionate, when she
knew she wasn't really that way, and she found her respect for
their leader increasing.
     "Here they come!" Nene called out the warning.
     "How many, now?"
     "Looks like two groups of four.  The groups will arrive
about a minute apart."
     "All right, work fast, then."  As she said it, the boomers
burst around the corner.  Raising the motoslave's mammoth gun
again, she blew the first cyberdroid to oblivion.  Linna charged
headlong at the second, dropping into a roll at the last second
to avoid being struck.  Her razor-whips trailed out to the sides,
and with a flurry of sparks the boomer's legs were severed at the
knees.  It fell, and she drove the Knuckle Bomber into its back
to finish it.  Two remained.
     "Fifteen seconds," Nene warned as she gave her suit a mental
command.  "Time to see if this works."  Suddenly, a piercing
screech was torn from the nearest boomer as it fell to its knees. 
Nene finished it off quickly with her arm laser.
     "What the hell was that?" Christine shouted as she dodged an
attack from the fourth boomer.  Leaping backwards to get some
clearance, she fired three discs into the boomer.  The first two
only grazed, but the third struck it cleanly in the head, and it
fell.
      "Something new Sylia cooked up," Nene answered, gesturing
to the second group of boomers as they rounded the corner ahead
of them.  "I'll explain later!"
      "Right," Christine agreed, selecting her energy web...
                   * * * * * * * * *
     As the Knight Sabers cautiously ascended the stairs,
Christine said, "Now... what did you DO back there?"
     "Well,we each got a new weapon, and that was mine.  It
scrambles the artificial synapses of a boomer's neural net."     
     "Ouch.  Effective," was Christine's comment.
     "Very," Priss agreed.  Looking up the stairs, she could see
that they narrowed as one ascended.  "I'm going to have to leave
the motoslave behind," she said.  The others had done this some
time back, with each of them given orders to try and distract the
security forces wherever possible.  Climbing out of the massive
armor, Priss slapped it on the "back" and said, "Go raise some
hell."  With that, they resumed their ascent.
     By the time they had reached the fifteenth floor, a
reception had been prepared for them.
     "It would seem that they know where we're going," Priss
scowled as she fired her arm cannon with its usual devastating
result.
     "No kidding," Linna said with more edge than usual on her
voice.  Ducking underneath a Bu-12's machine-gun barrel, she
planted her left hand on the ground and drove both feet toward
the boomer in a savage kick.  Electrified blades extended from
her heels, and with all the force she could manage she rammed
them into its knees.  A loud crackling drowned out the sounds of
battle momentarily, and the boomer collapsed, its systems fried. 
Even as she withdrew her feet and moved to stand, the blades
retracted.
     "Nice," Priss commented, picking off yet another Bu-12 with
her flechette cannon.  "This is too easy,"
      "You complaining?" Chris shot back.
     "Yes!" she growled as she dodged an energy-blade swipe and
responded with a sharp strength-enhanced uppercut that crushed
the offending 34-CX's armor.  "Something's not right about this!" 
     "Some of the defenses still haven't been mobilized, and I
can't pin down why," Nene observed.

                  * * * * * * * * *

     "What do you mean, no response?" the security chief
screamed.    
     "Boomer groups Eta, Lambda, and Mu are not responding, sir." 
     "Find out why!"
     "Yes, sir," the comm specialist responded, having no way of
knowing that it was an impossible order.  Triggered by the Knight
Sabers' attack, a long-dormant and nearly untraceable computer
virus was running rampant in Genom's systems and causing massive
degeneration in their internal commnet.  Sylia's foresight worked
in their favor again.
     "Where are they now?" the chief asked himself as he stared
at the monitor.  "Looks like they've split up.  See if you can
get ANY security forces to respond."
     "I'll try," was the response, accompanied by a sigh.         
                        * * * * * * * * *
     "They're diverting forces to stop the motoslaves," Nene
informed.  "They STILL have not activated all of their defenses."
     "Then let's move before they fix that," Priss prodded.  Two
empty corridors later, they were confronted with a
heavily-armored security door.     
     "This is going to take time," cautioned Nene as she set to
work.
      Priss nodded.  "Set up a defensive position, in case we get
company."  So far, so good, she thought.  Things were going a
little too well for her to be entirely comfortable, but if Genom
was setting up a trap they'd waited too long to spring it.  Any
second now they'd be at the primary computer core.
     "I'm in!" Nene said triumphantly as the doors parted for
her.  Greeted by a hail of laser fire, she barely managed to get
under cover.     "Be careful!" Priss warned.  "We need to access
that computer before we trash it."  Once again, she was surprised
by her own words.  Perhaps Sylia had taught her better than she
believed.
     "Right," Christine answered, a trace of sarcasm evident in
her voice.
      Priss almost repeated the order, not liking the sound of
Christine's response.  Just as she opened her mouth to speak,
however, she realized that it was exactly what she would have
said -- even if she intended to obey.  With that thought, she
wondered what it was like for Sylia to deal with her.     
     Another burst of gunfire pushed such thoughts from her mind.
"Christine, can you web those bastards down?"
     "I can try," she responded dryly as she prepared the weapon
and waited for enough of a lull to get off a shot.  Eventually
the break came; she stepped into the doorway and fired the web. 
Leaping backwards to avoid the retaliatory fire, she nodded to
Priss.  "Got most of them, anyway."
     "It'll have to do.  Let's go!" he yelled as she charged
through the door.  Machine gun fire ricocheted off her armor as
she dove for cover.  Once she was safe, she started picking off
guards with the flechette cannon.      
     "Cover me," Christine called, then dove through the doorway
herself.  Immediately three of the boomer guards turned to fire
at her, but Priss was faster.  Three armor-piercing rounds took
out the defenders, and Christine set herself up on the opposite
side of the door. 
     "All right, we've got them now," Priss couldn't help but
grin as she and Christine finished off the remaining guards. 
"Come on in."
     Linna and Nene hurried into the room, and Nene immediately
set to work on the computer.
     "Guard that door," Priss ordered vehemently.  While Nene
worked on the computer, she would be vulnerable to shots coming
in from outside.      
     "Accessing... I'm in," Nene informed.  Quickly, she began to
search for certain keywords in the databanks.  The amount of data
she found was frightening.
     "Priss..." she breathed.  "They know almost everything."     
     "Damn."  Suddenly, all their plans had been shot to hell. 
"Destroy it."
      Nene nodded, downloaded one last packet of files, and
stepped away from the databank.  Firing several shots, she
rendered the machine little more than melted scrap.  "Let's go."  
                        * * * * * * * * *
     "Sir, the primary is down!" the communications officer said
in a panic.  "I'm getting nothing on the commnet, either."     
"No point for us to hang around, then... let's get the hell out." 
     "I'm right with you, boss."
 
                        * * * * * * * * *

     Priss's mind was reeling as she tried to salvage some form
of a battle plan.  They had not counted on more than a few
higher-ups having access to their identities, but it turned out
that the data had been keyed at only a moderate security
clearance.  Hundreds of people might possibly know everything.
     Sylia would know what to do, she thought... damn.  Any hope
of a quick solution was lost now; Genom had to be taken out of
the picture entirely, or they would never be safe... but how? 
"Think, Priss!" a voice in her head cried out.
     "All right.  We still have to achieve our primary goals,
then we can worry about what's left," she sighed.  "What kind of
defense are they putting together, Nene?"
     "Not much.  Their entire internal communications system is
down for some reason."
     "Good... we can split up.  Linna and I will hit the
secondary computer core, you two go after the tertiary.  Destroy
anything else you happen to find on the way."
     "Right," Christine nodded.  "Let's go, Nene."
     Nene hesitated.  For a split second, bitterness flared up
inside her, and she almost asked Priss to change the groups...
then she stopped.  She was a Knight Saber, and a Knight Saber she
would be above all.  This was not the time for personal
conflicts.  "All right.  This way," she indicated.
     Priss sighed.  She had seen Nene freeze up for a moment, and
she had feared that their unity was too fragile to hold. 
Fortunately, she had been wrong.  Crisis fuses a team, after all. 

                  * * * * * * * * *

     "Tertiary core is down," Nene called out.
     "Good work," Priss's response cut through the static. 
Static... Nene thought.  Ever since they had dropped below the
ground level, the commlinks had not worked quite correctly.  It
was almost as if there was some sort of shielding.     
     "Christine," she said coldly.  "There's something important
in these sublevels."
     "Besides this core?" Christine asked.
      She nodded.  "More important than that.  They've got some
serious electromagnetic shielding down here."
     Christine nodded.  "In other words, this place was designed
to take a hit."
     "Exactly."
     "Well, let's check it out.  Can you put a map on the screen
in here?"     
     Nene smirked at that, even though it could not be seen
through her helmet.  "Of course."

                   * * * * * * * * *

     "All right!  Main computer systems are destroyed," Priss
reported.  "We're moving on to the research facilities."
     "You do that," Christine responded.  "Nene's found something
down here, we're going to check it out."
     "Right.  Be careful."
     "Always.  Starblade out."
     Priss looked around the corner to see a small squad of
boomers coming down the hall.  "Linna, we've got company."
     "I see them.  Four Bu-12's.  Shouldn't be a problem."     
     Priss nodded.  "Let's take them."
     Like a carefully orchestrated and long-rehearsed ballet, the
two sprang into action.  Not a word was spoken between the two,
but each instincitively knew where the other would strike.  Linna
went high as Priss fired low, the last shells of her arm cannon
taking out two of the four.  Even as the rounds impacted, Linna
fell on the nearest enemy, and the Knuckle Bomber flared as she
rammed the emitters into its neck.  Smoke and flame shot from the
gash made in its armor, and it fell.
     Linna never touched the ground, using the hulk of the first
cyberdroid as a springboard.  Flipping forward, she extended the
blades from her heels and used her weight to drive them downward
into the second boomer's shoulders.  A flurry of sparks
accompanied the sizzle of overloading circuitry, and the fight
was over.
     "As good as ever," Priss said, her grin hidden by her
helmet.
                    * * * * * * * * *

     "Two major spots to check out," Nene commented, pointing out
the locations on the map.  "I'll take this one... the electronic
security is tighter."
     "Right," Christine said.  "You sure you're up to going it
alone?"
     Nene nodded.  "I don't read any active boomers down here,
and they'd have a hard time activating any with the computer and
commnet down."
     "Good point," Christine conceded.  "All right, let's go."    
Nene nodded, and they headed back out into the corridors.  Moving
in opposite directions, they began their search.      
     Nene smiled slightly, as a predator might.  Slipping through
the corridors as stealthily as was possible in full body armor,
she switched her scanners to passive mode.  The active mode read
too many signals, and she might miss something important.    
     Almost immediately, a small object on the wall in front of
her was overlayed in red.  Analyzing the threat - an
infrared-targeting laser, she raised her arm cannon and vaporized
it.  This would be slow going, she realized.

                   * * * * * * * * *

     Christine was being far less cautious; in fact, she was
preoccupied with something else entirely.  Her instincts were
blaring a warning, telling her that she was being deceived, but
she couldn't tell why.  The area she was checking out didn't seem
suspicious at all to her.  There was minimal security, and so far
she had seen nothing but storage facilities.  Still, Nene had
indicated that there was something of importance this way.

                    * * * * * * * * *

     Nene's slight smile became a grin as she found what she was
looking for.  The sensors in her suit displayed the outline of a
hidden door in the wall in front of her, and she began to scan
for electronics.  "There!" she thought, isolating the security
mechanism. 

                   * * * * * * * * *

     Priss whistled as she looked at the lab they had just
cleared out. Experimental technologies abounded, and most of them
looked like military advances.  Nodding to Linna, she activated
her flechette cannon and started destroying equipment.  By the
time they were done, the whole lab was in ruins.
     "This floor is all labs.  We need to trash them all," she
said.
      Linna nodded.  "It's time to put Genom out of the boomer
business."

                   * * * * * * * * *

     After a few seconds, Nene managed to access the door's
systems and bring them on-line.  Isolating the activation code
from its own databank, she began the security sequence.     
     "Welcome," a gentle female voice spoke.  It was a prompt of
some sort, Nene realized, but for what?  Guessing that she had
little time, she submerged herself in the computer.
     Neural transceptors in her helmet sprang to life as her mind
linked directly into the machine, reading her thoughts and
translating them to the computer.  Her vision blurred for a
moment, then data began to overlay itself on her sense of sight. 
Cryptography fell to pattern-recognition, and finally she saw it. 
Voiceprint.
     "Initiate search," she mentally commanded the suit, and in a
matter of nanoseconds it had isolated the correct pattern. 
"Playback." she commanded.
     "It is I." Quincy's ominous voice came from the speaker of
her comm system, crystal clear as there was no transmission to be
scrambled.
     "Greetings, sir," the voice responded.  "Welcome home." 
With those words, the door slowly opened, revealing a
surprisingly large entry chamber.  De-synchronizing with the
suit's computers and beginning a lifesign scan, Nene found that
which she looked for and cautiously slipped through the entryway. 
                  * * * * * * * * *
     "Damn!" Christine thought to herself as she rounded the
final corridor and found herself looking at a blank wall.  "She
tricked me... but why?"  Suddenly, she thought she knew, and she
broke back down the hallways in a dead sprint.
     "Nene!" she called out, neither expecting nor receiving a
response. "Dear Lord, grant me the speed!"  Triggering her jump
unit for further acceleration, she felt her feet lift off the
ground, and she flew.

                  * * * * * * * * *

     Quincy did not hear the door softly open; it had been
designed to be silent.  He did not hear the sounds of hardsuited
feet on the carpeted floor, nor the soft whine of the armor's
sensor systems.  He certainly did not expect to be so rudely
jolted from his rest as he was.
     "QUINCY!" Nene screamed, bringing her arm laser to bear. 
Her voice hardened as ice as she warned, "Don't even move."       

                  * * * * * * * * *

     "Hell!" Christine cursed under her breath as she heard
Nene's cry.  She was closing down on her position, but if she
didn't get there fast, it would be far too late. 
     "Damn it, Nene... why?" she questioned, knowing only that it
was a race against time, now.

                   * * * * * * * * *


     "Who are you?" the old man asked, a slight crack in his
voice barely betraying the fear he felt.  "What are you doing
here?"
     "I am a Knight Saber, and I am here to kill you," Nene
breathed, taking two short steps toward him.
     "Many have tried that before... do you really think that I
would allow you to find me?" his voice echoed through the room,
and his image appeared on a screen behind him.
     "Allow?  You didn't have a choice.  My scanners say that you
are flesh and blood, and no double.  You hurt me, Quincy, and for
that--"                

                   * * * * * * * * *      

     Christine breathed asigh of relief as she slipped through
the closing door.  Why it had remained open so long was beyond
her ability go guess, but right now she was nothing but grateful. 
Another open door lay at the end of the entry chamber, and
through it she could see...
     Nene.  Cannon leveled at someone, preparing to fire.  As
Christine closed in, she could hear her words. 
     "You hurt me, Quincy, and for that--"
     "NO!" Christine cried, firing her last energy web at Nene. 
Caught off guard, the young Knight Saber was thrown across the
room into the wall, where she was pinned.
     "Chris... you..." her voice trailed off, the bitter taste of
betrayal choking off the words.
     "I'm sorry, Nene... but I can't let you do that."

                   * * * * * * * * *

     "That does it," Priss said, the satisfaction clear in her
voice.  "Let's go meet up with Nene and Chris."
     "Wait," Linna answered.  "One more thing."  Grabbing a pair
of ammunition crates, she drug them into the center of the room. 
"Find anything that will burn," she told Priss.
     "Ah... good idea."  It took a couple of minutes, but they
set up a large stack of explosive materials.  
     "Now, let's go," Linna suggested. On their way out, she
turned and fired a single shot with her laser.
      The explosion was dramatic.  "Go!" she yelled to Priss as
flame shot from the doorway she had just fired through.  Fleeing
the conflaglaration, they headed for the stairs down.             

                  * * * * * * * * * 
     At the abandoned security station, fire alarms wailed in
protest as the blaze swept through the laboratory area of the
tower.  Automated blast doors slammed shut on three floors to
contain the fires, but the fire would still cause hundreds of
millions in damages.

                   * * * * * * * * *

     "I'm sorry, Nene, but I can't let you do that," Christine's
voice took on an apologetic tone.  "Not you."
      Quincy looked up, the expression on his face that of a man
who had just stared down death and walked away.  Christine turned
to face him, removing her helmet.
     "My name is Christine Starblade.  Do you remember me?"     
Quincy nodded, remembering no such thing but not wanting to
offend his savior.
     "You once hired me," she continued.
     Quincy nodded again.  Slowly, the name started to come to
his memory... but he could not quite recall it.
     "And then you tried to kill me." she finished, her voice
turning cold. 
     Quincy's eyes widened, his hope shattered like so much
glass.  "You've hurt a lot of people," Christine added.  "And now
it's time you paid for it."
     The old man retreated a little, stepping backwards, hoping
to find a way to escape.  There was none.
     "This," Christine narrated, firing a razor-disc into
Quincy's wrist, "was for Nene."
     Shocked at actually having been hurt, he cried out in pain. 
Fear gripped his heart, and he backed away farther.
     Firing another, this time through his left shoulder,
Christine continued,  "That was for me."
     She paused a minute, checked the number of discs in the
magazine, and smiled slightly.  Two.  "This one," she carried on,
"is for Sylia."  The disc shot through his body, nearly striking
his spine, and tore through his back.  
     Then, she stopped.  Quincy climbed back to his knees before
her, silently begging for life.  She might yet spare him, he
thought, but he soon saw that any such hope was in vain.     
Slowly, deliberately, she opened the magazine on her disc
launcher.  Carefully, she removed the final remaining blade,
slipping it between two of her fingers as she walked toward
Genom's cowering CEO.  Standing over him, she felt a tear roll
down her cheek as a memory came back to her.
     "This..." her voice broke.  "This is for James, you son of a
bitch!"  Her whisper became a scream as she slashed across
Quincy's throat.  Blood trailed from the blade as she pulled it
away, and with his larynx sliced open, Quincy began to choke.
     "Just die, you bastard," Christine whispered as she turned
away from him, feeling her rage drain away in a torrent of
sorrow.  Stumbling over to Nene, she releaed the web and pulled
her close to herself.  Knowing it was over, she began to weep
silently.
     Behind her, Quincy fought in vain for breath.  It was only a
matter of seconds before he died.

                   * * * * * * * * *

     It was about ten minutes before a resounding explosion
signaled the destruction of Quincy's secret door.  Triggering the
motoslave's release, Priss climbed out of the armor and ran into
the room.  What she saw stunned her.
     Quincy lay dead on the floor in a pool of blood.  Christine
and Nene, helmets off, stood in the corner of the room, hugging
each other, Nene comforting Christine.  As for Christine, she
looked as if all the grief she had suppressed had broken through
at once, and she cried like a wounded child.
     Linna came in behind her, stopping short in the doorway at
the sight. "So... it really is over," she whispered.     
     "Maybe," Priss said cautiously.  "The beast has lost its
head... but time will tell if it may grow a new one.  For now, it
is enough."
     Linna nodded.

                 * * * * * * * * *

     Fifteen minutes later, the Knight Sabers were gathered on
the roof of Genom Tower.  The AD Police had just started to
arrive, having not been alerted until the security chief had
personally reported the situation at Headquarters.
     "Did you leave all that data you downloaded?" Priss asked
Nene.
      Nene nodded.  "Hard copy and locked into the viewscreens. 
It should give them something to think about, anyway."
     "Heads will roll," Christine added, speaking more quietly
than usual.
     "I hope so," Linna answered.  "Maybe it really is over."     
     "Maybe so," Priss said, for once with no trace of cynicism
in her voice. 
     "Maybe so."
     Almost on cue, the sun broke the horizon, spreading beams
and light which seemed to banish the haze of Megatokyo's skies. 
The Knight Sabers, victorious, were the heralds of a new day. 

***************
END PART SIX
***************




Epilogue - A New Day

A week later --

     It was one of the most beautiful days Megatokyo had ever
seen.  The smog was almost non-existent, and the sky was clearer
than it had been in years.  Sylia awoke that day, and smiled at
the first thing she saw.  Clustered around her bed were the
assembled Knight Sabers - Priss, Linna, Nene, Mackie, and
Christine.  Even Priss was smiling, and they all looked a little
different, but the biggest change was Nene.
      Sitting there in her AD Police uniform, she looked happy
again; still, she was not the same as she had been before.  She
looked a little older, perhaps just more mature.  The old light
shone in her eyes again, but it seemed tempered by something, as
if her innocence had grown into something more substantial.
     Christine looked different, too.  A sad smile graced her
face, and while it was apparent that she was not over all her
pain (and probably never would be), she had let go of her anger
at last.  Sylia felt a swell of pride for both of them.    
     Seeing her gaze shift from one to the other, Christine
smiled at Nene, who returned the gesture.  This, more than
anything, lifted Sylia's heart into the clouds.
     For Sylia herself, the news was not all good.  The falling
debris had damaged her spinal cord, and she would likely never
walk again.  Still, her mood was pleasant, and even with her
injury she seemed to be happier than she ever had.  Perhaps she
was simply not afraid to show it now.
     They spent several hours talking about the things that had
been - the destruction of Sylia's home and business had been a
loss, but not an insurmountable one.  The revelation of their
secret identities was worse, but even that was less severe than
it might have been.  Even Christine's home had been restored to
her, though she would not reclaim the remainder of her fortune. 
Most of all, the final battle with Genom, and the death of
Quincy, weighed heavily in their thoughts.      
     For the first time, they had hope of a peaceful future. 
Genom would never build boomers again; the news of corruption
Nene had released spread like wildfire in the media, and scores
of government and Genom officials went into forced retirement. 
The Knight Sabers were safe, even with their identities known,
for none remained to strike at them.  Still, they all agreed that
they must be vigilant, lest another evil rise greater than the
first.  They would have a new role--once the last spark of hope
in Megatokyo, they would now be the guardians of its flame.      

End.

-- 
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Stormwalker <stormwalker@airmail.net> and <stormer@utdallas.edu>
Computer Science student and Anime fanfic writer (sometimes, anyway)
Storm Warnings - http://web2.airmail.net/a0011387/
"As a matter of fact, I do think I'm Batman, Miss Asagiri."
		     - Batman, "BGC/Batman : Darkest Knights" (draft)
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