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lurched slowly to the opening, and a moment later Ligeia had helped her 
down, and leapt up to lift Nene's pink-suited form to the roof.

"The surge should come within the next five seconds," Ligeia observed. 
"You'd best close down your suits until it passes."

Even as she ended light flared brilliantly below, and there was the sound 
of a distant explosion.

"Can we--" Linna began.

"Down!"

Ligeia's scream was so unexpected that Priss, and Linna simply froze. Then 
the DA blurred, and both found themselves prone on their backs.

"What the--" Priss began, and shrieked in alarm as something came 
screaming at her from above.

In the next instant a splintering crash seemed to split the air about her, 
as whatever it was smashed into the roof almost by her head, exploding 
into a spray of brilliantly glittering shards, and sparks. Turning 
frantically towards it, Priss began to pull herself upright, then whipped 
round as a second crash and explosion had Linna screaming and twisting 
wildly from the splintering missile as it slammed into the roof beside 
her. She too started to stand, then both were sent tumbling again as a 
sudden concussive blast smashed down on them from above.

For one dazed moment both stared stupidly into the sudden roiling, boiling 
blackness where the stars should have been. Then with an ear-splitting 
shriek a sleek, gleaming craft exploded from the rift, and nearly struck 
the Knightwing head-on as a barely-glimpsed human figure fought 
desperately to avoid the collision.

For a frozen moment longer the blackness continued to boil, then with a 
final cataclysmic thunder-clap that half stunned the two where they lay, 
it spat forth a second craft, and twisting viciously, it engulfed the 
stricken Knightwing for a moment before whirling away, hissing and roaring 
as it lurched towards the street below, and struck ground, vanishing in a 
nerve-shattering explosion.

Priss had one stupefied moment to stare, before the wildly swerving craft 
nearly took her head off before spinning crazily, flipping end over end, 
and finally glancing off the roof with a shattering crack before 
disappearing over the edge. Priss could almost have sworn that she heard 
the sounds of female screaming from inside.

"Sh*t! Idiots!" she heard her own voice shriek. "Don't you even know how 
to hit something properly?"

Then a flash from below, and Linna's disbelieving: "They're shooting at 
one another!" made her lurch to her feet to stare.

It was true. Seeming utterly oblivious to the pitched battle in the street 
below, the two craft were circling wildly above the chaos, flashes of 
brilliant energy spitting between them as each tried seemingly in vain to 
hit the other. Then as the two watched in dazed astonishment, the slender 
figure of a red-headed woman, dressed in something that had even Priss 
blushing furiously, leant insanely far out of the second of the craft, and 
let loose with a volley that caught the other full on before it had a 
chance to turn.

For a moment it spun crazily out of control. Then with a last dying howl 
it shot straight down, and smashed flaming into the very midst of a group 
of desperately-fighting Youma. The resulting blast sent a roaring tide of 
fire raging through those that had not been killed outright by the initial 
explosion. Then a piercing scream made Priss whirl.

"I don't want to die! I've just been paid, and he shot my hair! I don't 
want to go to heaven with my hair a mess! Do you hear me? Stop screaming, 
and *do* something!"

The only answer was a rise in the volume of the other woman's scream.

Then Ligeia had leapt from the roof, and a moment later the screams turned 
to shrieks of disbelief as she smashed through the roof of the craft, and 
caught up one of its occupants in each arm, surging free only a moment 
before the machine carved a trench into the street before bursting into a 
blinding pillar of brilliantly blazing fire.

"What the...!" Mackie gaped as Ligeia soared to land beside Priss once 
more.

Priss had not even realised that both he and Sylia had joined them until 
he spoke. Her attention was fixed dumfounded on the two scantily-dressed 
strangers, as they clung to Ligeia for all they were worth, and continued 
to shriek, eyes tightly closed.

"Um...I think you might be safe now?" Linna tried. But abruptly she choked 
into silence, turning to stare in alarm at Sylia.

"What's the matter?" she demanded, her voice rising once more.

"Marina, Camilla, and Liana," said Sylia, her own voice little more than a 
whisper. "they're gone."

"Gone!" Linna started stupidly, then another gasp made her turn to stare 
in shocked confusion at Nene.

The young pink-suited figure had removed her helmet, and was staring in 
open-mouthed stupefaction at the two girls a suddenly frozen Ligeia still 
held, a shocked, helpless expression of utter disbelief frozen on her face 
that might even have been comical, were it not for their situation.

"My God! My God! My God!" she kept saying over, and over again. "It 
*can't* be! This isn't possible!"

"What!" Priss exploded, whirling to glare at Nene. "Damn it Nene; what the 
hell is it now!"

"It's...it's Kei and Yuri!" Nene gasped softly at last, turning to regard 
Priss with wide, staring eyes. "It's the Dirty Pair!"

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Notes:

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And the third that nearly spelt the end!  Hardly surprising I suppose, as 
this and Ch. 5 were originally one massive chapter.  Again, this needed a 
great deal of work, but I believe it's paid off.  The DK crew and their 
Negaverse counterparts at last have real justification, the fate of their 
people being almost inevitable, given the impossible situation into which 
they've been thrown.

I'm vastly happier also with Liana's introduction, and the background that 
explains the enormity of what she's suffered, and what Fellini did to her.

Again, it's a tremendous pity I probably will never write the BGC 
stand-alone that these two chapters deserve.

One last thing.  It seems Madigan was supposed to have died in BGC6, 
something I (like most it seems) missed.  I could have changed her to an 
original character, but doing that seemed pointless, and fortunately, her 
death need not have happened.  I assume that in this alternative she was 
reached in time after Largo's defeat, and has recently resumed her 
position.

Oh, and yes; the late, unlamented Kosuke Yoshida 
 
-
 was
 
-
  
related to Miriam.  Kosuke was his uncle, and hated the younger Yoshida 
with a passion, a centiment very much returned in kind.  Miriam would be 
overjoyed at his uncle's demise.

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