"Nami Shiina, as the Sisterhood returns your soul to the heavens, we in the mortal realm release thy form..." as she spoke, Cyan hoped she sounded calmer than she felt. She gazed over the rest of the /Seriphos/ crew that had assembled for the funeral. Most had little personal connection with Nami, and a fair number had experienced the loss of their friends in this war before, but at least they were caring enough to attend the non-compulsory ceremony, even though she had the unenviable task of evoking emotion herself for most of them. 

One person who did not need assistance in feeling emotion for Nami was Kiiro. She wasn't crying, but the look in her eyes had changed from a carefree, joyful sparkle to a melancholy dullness, and she had been quiet ever since the battle. Mizuki was helping her, playing the big sister role she was used to... Cyan wanted to console her, too, but found her time taken up by other matters far too often.

At the conclusion of Cyan's monologue, Nami's body floated up, through the ship's shield and away, toward the gravity pull of the system's star. Then, Cyan put the blonde woman out of her mind - there were other matters to concern herself about. 

* * * * *

Operation Lightsphere

An Iczer/Teknoman crossover

By Andrew Dynon

Phase 3, Chapter 8

STARING INTO THE MIRROR

OP: "Kryptonite", Three Doors Down 

* * * * *

"Kalya, furious that her sister also loved Linthis, drew her sword and challenged Kayla for her. Kayla accepted Kalya's challenge, and the pair fought. The two princesses were evenly matched, and the battle continued for a hundred days and nights. Finally, each pierced the other's heart at the same time, and they both fell dead in the glade where they had first met Linthis."

  a.. From the Kthulhu legend of the Twin Princesses
* * * * *

"Cyan-sama, Command sent us new orders while you were conducting the funeral." A bridge operative said as Cyan entered. Cyan stifled a sigh of frustration. She had tried to make careful plans based on her orders, only to have them changed on her. But that was something she was expected to be able to deal with - she remembered the ear-splitting harangue she had been subjected to back in training when she objected to Command changing her orders in a simulation.

"What are they, ensign?"

"We are to divert from our planned course, and rendezvous with our allies on a certain planet, and then return to Kthulhu space."

"I see. What planet?"

"Kinmoku."


* * * * *

"Huh? Grandmother?" Nagisa awoke, floating naked in a metal shell filled with the blue liquid that she remembered from when she was in Iczer Robo. She had never seen this place, but that didn't matter - she knew it, almost by instinct. She reached out to the shell, and it seemed to disintegrate at her touch, leaving her in weightless a room with no exits.

{Iczer-One?} There was a flash of light, and the blonde android who had brought her here appeared.

"Nagisa, you're awake!" 

Nagisa wrapped her naked form around Iczer-One and let out a joyful, almost childish, giggle. "Were you worried."

"Of course!"

"But you trusted me to pull through. I did have help, though."

"From who?" Iczer-One sounded curious.

"Grandmother and grandfather." Nagisa said reverently. "And Latshen."

For the first time ever, Nagisa could tell that Iczer-One was caught utterly off-guard. "That's... unbelievable." She said. "But I know you wouldn't lie to me, and if your mind was damaged the scanners here could tell. So I have no choice but to believe you."

"Iczer-One, I realised something else, too. After the war's over, I want to stay with you... and with the Kthulhu."

"And love's not the only reason for that, is it?"

"It's the most important one... but you're right." Though she knew nobody would overhear, Nagisa's voice was barely above a whisper. "Ever since I've arrived on this ship, I've been sensing a... a pain that goes beyond that of the war, one that seems to suffuse the whole Kthulhu race. And now... after seeing Latshen, I understood. It wasn't just the Kthulhu homeworld that was destroyed. Their way of life, their values, their beliefs were destroyed with it. I have to help heal that."

Iczer-One looked at her, regret - guilt? - in her eyes. "Nagisa, I never noticed. All these years as their guardian - I should have figured it out."

"Maybe it wasn't your purpose. You were designed as a warrior, not as a caregiver... and a warrior was, and still is, their most immediate need."

"But is it even possible to restore something like that?"

"I don't know that it isn't."

* * * * *

"How is he doing?" Star asked, looking at the form of Blade, still suspended in the tank.

"Stable and recovering well... but still with a ways to go." The medic replied. Star breathed a sigh of relief. 

"Blade, you're going to recover." She said with a quiet confidence and decisiveness. She knew he couldn't hear her voice, but she believed he would receive the message in another way.

"Star?" 

Star turned around to see that Kawai had entered the room. "I thought I'd find you here."

"What is it, Kawai?"

"The Rhadam, including a larger-than-normal force of Teknomen, are moving toward a planet in a nearby system. We're going to try and keep them from reaching the inner planets."

"All right, Kawai. I'll be there for the briefing." Perhaps it might have been a subtle hint in Kawai's tone of voice, perhaps some sort of intuition, but Star had the feeling as she spoke - despite the lack of any sort of indication - that one particular Teknoman was among this force. 

* * * * *

"I guess waiting for Zero-neesan's order to destroy Iczer-1 *can* be bearable..." Iczer-2 said as her lithe, naked body arose from contact with that of Saber's. {But only because you make it.} The continuation of her statement went unspoken, but she trusted him to guess. 

The pair, while they could not be called perfect counterparts, were most certainly analogues of one another - both looked like predators eager to begin the hunt, and the kill. "I do hope your dear brother's recovered enough to give you a decent fight."

"So do I." Saber replied. "But I'm getting tired of playing games with him now. Finding myself thinking more of finishing him off than the duel beforehand."

"I thought you'd never tire of that." Iczer-2 commented dryly. 

"I'm somewhat surprised myself." Saber said.

"So, should I come along and watch?"

"I appreciate the offer... but you want to concentrate more on what you're going to do."

"Meaning the surprise I'm getting ready for oneesan and Nagisa... it's a pity that I'm the only one I can rely on to take care of that. Well, I hope you kill your brother." Iczer-2 picked up her discarded bodysuit and left the room.

* * * * *

- KINMOKU -

In a large, transparent-roofed atrium, a woman with black, ponytailed hair relaxed, watching the brief trails of meteors streak through the night sky before disappearing. 

{Like what we were at that time...} She thought. {How long ago was it? Nearly a century...}

"Thinking about her again, Seiya?" A familiar voice came from behind him.

"Yeah, Taiki. I haven't heard from her since we left Earth, but the memories..."

"It could be construed as unhealthy, you know." Taiki commented. "Having someone who can't be with you occupying your mind so much."

"I realise I never had a chance to be with her. She loved - loves - Mamoru too much for that."

"But you've never really moved on."

"Well, I guess I've just been too busy all these years to think about finding somebody. First we have to restore this world, and then just when we think we can relax, the Rhadam come along."

"I found someone. And so did Yaten. Really, Seiya, you're making excuses. It's not as if we've had no breaks at all since we got back from Earth."

"I guess not. It's just that it's hard to get someone so extraordinary out of my mind, even after all these years."

"Well, you can't be mooning over her instead of thinking about the job at hand, can you?" Another familiar voice said.

"Yaten. Thank you for showing up before the war ended." Seiya said.

"Hey, the Kthulhu aren't here YET." Yaten protested. "What's wrong with me being a little behind schedule?"

"Plenty, if it's like that battle in Altai City."

"Hey, I happened to get waylaid by a Teknoman with a grudge against me!" Seiya and Taiki repressed laughs as they continued to get Yaten wound up.

* * * * *

Star listened to the strategist's outline for the upcoming battle, but her mind was already looking ahead to when she would do the actual fighting. She took in the basic plan, but after the briefing had finished, would not have been able to recall many of the details or reasoning given. The basic plan was fine by her: An advance group would meet the Rhadam front lines and stem their charge, then withdraw to the mid-system gas giants where the second line would be waiting in ambush. Volunteering for that advance group allowed her to have the first chance to fight Saber.

"Star, you sure you want to fight on the front line?" Kawai asked her as she ran system checks on her mecha.

"Sure as I've ever been in my life."

Kawai looked at her, a little perturbed. "Just don't do anything stupid out there, okay?" 

"Of course I won't, Kawai." It was a lie, of course. Taking on an evolved Teknoman without even Iczelion armor was stupid, and the back of her mind knew it, but she was too angry at Saber, now, for her to be bothered factoring that information into the equation. And despite the odds she was facing, a large part of her mind seriously believed she could beat them.

"Advance group, move out." The command couldn't have come too early for her.

"Star Summers, moving out." There was a metallic peal as the mecha's legs were released from their locks, and it shot from the launching pad in a flash of azure light.

* * * * *

"Blade, as we used to say when we played hide and seek as children... here I come, ready or not!" Saber said out loud as he joined the wave of spider-crabs and Teknomen to engage the Kthulhu's forces. It was time to bring this childish game of theirs to a conclusion, and declare a winner.

Inside the healing chamber, Blade stirred briefly, his eyes almost opening. Then, he was still again.

* * * * *

Star checked her mecha's readings once again - nobody had managed to tag her thus far. Even better, she had not spent a significant amount of energy, nor did she have equipment malfunctioning. She breathed a sigh of relief - her mecha would need to be at full strength to have any chance whatsoever against...

...the familiar, hated, black-and-red Teknoman who had just appeared in the distance to her left. She sliced through the spider-crab that was near her, and opened up her throsters as she headed in Saber's direction.

As he flew near a large moon belonging to the system's gas giant, Saber saw the mecha coming for him - had he been in the mood to do sow, he would have snorted in contempt at such an insignificant foe. As it was, he opted to simply counter-charge it, and cleave it in twain with his teklance. Or that was what he intended. The mecha's pilot, however, reacted surprisingly quickly to his attack, managing to dodge and make a counterattack with a beam sword that forced him out of position in his attempt to evade.

"Saber!!!" The black-armored Teknoman could hear the enraged pilot's transmission as the pair made their first pass.

"Star?" Saber asked, recognising her voice. "Oh, I should have guessed. There are few others who would be this foolhardy, don't you agree?" Star did not respond to his taunt, leaving Saber to continue speaking. "Aren't you going to get Blade to help you? Or... maybe he's too badly hurt from our last fight? Oh, well. I guess that will make finishing him off a little easier."

"You won't get the chance, Saber!" Star attacked again, and while her beam sword failed to connect, her mecha's arm connected, driving Saber backward... or more accurately, downward, as her instruments noted that the pair were entering the moon's thin atmosphere. 

"You're presuming to be able to stop me." Saber half-taunted, half-observed. "Well, your failure certainly won't be due to lack of courage."

The pair continued their descent through the moon's atmosphere as they fought, the extra power provided to Star's mecha through her rage at Saber providing some compensation for the pair's differential in that regard. Not enough, though - Star could not land an effective blow on Saber, while his teklance almost continually pierced and cut through the mecha's armor. A few hundred feet above the moon's surface, the Kithalos' leg and main thrusters were cut loose, and Star, inside, fell helplessly towards the surface.

* * * * *

"Kawai, did you see where Star went?" asked Shara.

"Gomen, Shara. I lost track of her." Kawai replied. "I have my own worries out here, and we weren't all that close together."

Shara sighed. "I have a bad feeling about this."

* * * * *

Star opened her cockpit, thankful that the gravity cushions had allowed her to remain conscious and uninjured after the fall. As she scrambled out, she mentally commanded the strange device she wore on her wrist to begin charging with energy, and with her free hand activated the beam sword she had been issued. Her heart raced - she didn't give herself much chance now. Still, she resolved herself, she would go down fighting - something not easy to decide to do in the face of the armored form of Saber, who had landed a few meters away from where she was standing.

TO BE CONTINUED



Author's Notes: Okay, first of all, I'm sorry this took so long. And I'm sorry that I didn't make this chapter as long as I was planning to. But at least I can say that this story is heading towards its climax, and can promise that the following chapters will not take nearly as long as this one. It feels good to get back to fanfic writing after a long period of distraction and stuckness. Apart from this story, I have an MKR fic in the planning stages, and a couple of other stories that I'm considering, based on Noir and Mahoromatic. Oh, and a Gatekeepers/Marvel crossover set in the silver age, too. And... well, anyway, hopefully I will get those done. If you've stuck with my story and you're reading this, thank you! Till next time (not too long, I promise!) see ya! 

NEXT: Star's at the mercy of Saber... or is she?

________________________________________
Andrew Dynon

"If the story was beautiful, then the beauty belongs to us all; if it was bad, the fault is mine alone, who told it."
- Zanzibar Swahili traditional story ending


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