Nearly a year had passed since Takaru’s near death experience and Anya’s return from the rejuvenation chamber. North City was in a state of panic, while large portions of the city had been evacuated from the area under suspicion of an oncoming attack by the Separatist army. The majority of those that remained were either government personnel from the city itself and civilian contractors who were helping to reinforce the city as the threat drew ever closer.

While Anya had managed to age into her previous adult appearance there was still some instability in her powers and she still hadn’t managed to fully tap into her reserves but she was at least capable of fighting.

-----

Aboard the Amaterasu

Kouji and his officers made their final plans before the invasion.

“From our analysis of their combat strategy they seem to be capable of working well in both team engagements and isolated combat but as the General has noted it seems that their leader Takaru Inara does seem to have a degree of emotional frailty it seems as though he finds himself disconnected from the fight at large.” said one of Kouji’s field officers.

“I think I’ll see to dealing with him myself.” Kouji said with a sadistic grin across his otherwise cold looking face. On his hands were a new pair of gauntlets that he'd made to serve as replacements for the ones that were broken by Takaru’s blade during their first fight.

These gauntlets weren’t mere reproductions of his originals either. During a raid on a small military base on Earth they’d managed to capture some scientists who later identified themselves as being part of the team who worked on the Valion Project.

Kouji originally had plans to kill them just to vent his frustrations at the delays the invasion had been facing but Tali intervened and in exchange for allowing them to remain unharmed she forced them to engineer a pair of gauntlets bearing similar technology to that in Takaru’s sword.

“Are you sure we really have to do this? It seems like we’ve already reached the point of attrition with this conflict.” His second in command Genichi Hissatsu replied. He’d been back and forth with Kouji on several occasions in regards to their motives for the invasion since that one girl had been captured.

The girl, Takaru’s sister, was a very determined and selfless individual; she let herself be captured to save a group of civilians. While she was aboard the Amaterasu she didn’t once beg for freedom and one comment she made still rings in the back of his mind.

“Why should I beg for freedom from captors who find themselves prisoners by their own leader. Are you blind to what your leader has done to Valin or have you been sheltered by the military such that you didn’t see how he turned the world into a scarred shell of its former self.” her voice echoed through his mind. Genichi suspected that Kouji’s mind was still being twisted by the indoctrination he’d undergone at his father’s hand and he was mentally warped to follow the Admiral’s objective to its ends blindly.

“Will this battle resolve anything, Will the war change things on Valin? Was it better before the admiral took power?” Those were all questions Genichi wondered and knew he lacked sufficient information to deduce on his own.

The troops began to make their way onto lightly armed shuttles based on the Amaterasu's design, the Mini-rasu ships as the crew had taken to calling them were very fast and decently combat capable ships but they weren’t designed to fight with the likes of the Federation's main fleet.

About ten percent of the crew stayed behind to maintain the ship’s core functionalities while Kouji and the main arm of the unit proceeded with the invasion. As all of that was going on the Separatist main fleet was making a coordinated attack across a few different areas where they’d run into resistance from the Federation to force them into spreading their forces around Earth out more thinly.

As Kouji made his way to his personal cruiser he clenched his fist in anticipation of what was to come. The gauntlets on his hands sparked with glints of purple electricity glancing across the refined Zoracite crystal that powered it.

----

Later that day in North City

As Kouji and the rest of his unit make their descent from the atmosphere the ships start to pick up enemy fighters approaching.

“Ah so while we managed to avoid their main defense grid, the backwash wasn’t enough to keep them from being able to scramble their fighter units.” Kouji said to himself as he raised his hand and gave the order to open fire.

Their entry had been secured by exploiting the fact that the large federation cruisers released high amounts of electromagnetic radiation from their FTL drives which disabled the long range radar overlays that went between Earth and the moon.

The fleet of Mini-Rasu ships opened fire and completely devastated the small detachment of fighters and plowed their way to the surface. As Kouji’s ship landed on a skyscraper complex the other ships began to rain bombs on the city.

Kouji and his unit left the ship and began to pour into the building attempting to take it as a foothold and base of operations. To their surprise the building was empty aside from various office equipment and such.

Kouji let out a laugh as he thought to himself “Have they already given up? Are they just abandoning their home like cowards.” as he sat there laughing to himself. Suddenly a bright flash of light filled the area on the opposite end of the ship as a vortex opened up.

“You’re giving yourselves a little too much credit Kouji. We just made sure to get all the civilians clear of the area knowing you’d probably pull something like this.” A familiar voice called out. The vortex faded away revealing Takaru standing with Hikari, Dojiro, Anya and her father.

Norton stepped forward and said “Well it seems like they wanted to bring the fight to us, so let's entertain them shall we?” then a large weapon that looked like a cross between a staff and a halberd appeared in his hand.

He turned toward the army of ships and patted Anya on her shoulder as he raised his weapon and slashed it through the air in the direction the ships were moving in from. Within seconds a wave of energy cascaded over the ships and while at first it seemed to have done absolutely nothing after a few minutes the ships began to lose height and began to sink toward ground level.

“What did you do to my ships, you old codger!” Kouji called out, seeming rather obviously frustrated by the sight of his ships falling from the sky. But strangely they didn’t seem to be falling fast enough to crash more like their propulsion systems were slowly deactivating.

“I released a special controlled electromagnetic pulse which is slowly crippling your ships and forcing them to land so if they wanna cause any more damage your troops will have to do it on foot. Our weapons are shielded from it so it's of no danger to us but that should even things out until the Federation can direct some of their strike fighter battalions here to deal with the ships that were out of range.” Norton replied as he and Anya turned toward Kouji’s ship.

“Any life signs aboard?” Anya asked Angela as she drew her sentient arm in its weapon form.

“Nope, not a soul, they're already spread out through the building and the ship is completely empty.” Angela responded

Anya’s eyes lit up as she looked at her father and without a word they drew their weapons and fired a pair of blasts into the ship which caused it to detonate.

Kouji’s frustration continued to build as he clinched his trembling fist and began to glare at her “You little bitch! How dare you do that to my ship!” as he began to charge toward her.

Takaru blinked out of view and appeared between Kouji and Anya intercepting the claws from Kouji’s gauntlet with the Blue Dragon blade and deflecting them as the blade of the sword grazed Kouji’s cheek.

Norton performed a similar blink and wound up between Takaru and Kouji delivering a punch that sent Kouji skidding backwards across the rooftop. As Kouji recovered from the hit he saw a bright flash of light and immediately jumped out of the way of an energy beam.

“The punch was for the old man insult.” he said as the spot where the blast hit exploded leaving a rather huge chunk missing from the roof and the next floor or two down. “And that was for insulting my daughter. If circumstances were different and I didn’t feel it was that young man’s job to put you to rest I wouldn’t hesitate to show you why my old moniker back during the war was “The Deathbringer”.” he continued with his eyes glaring into Kouji’s looking as though he was piercing through him with his gaze.

Kouji stood there, his face locked in a grimace but feeling like his legs were giving away under his own weight. For the first time since he’d been involved in the conflict he felt the sensation of true fear, not only from this old codger who had just blown a large chunk off of the building but also strangely enough Takaru.

There was something different about Takaru since the last time they’d fought, beyond his demeanor. It seemed as though his power had increased by leaps and bounds compared to their last fight and he was also much more skilled and sure of his abilities.

Hikari stood there with her attention focused on deciding which of the three she’d face off with. After a few minutes of pondering she dashed forward and blinked over to Tali before shooting a hole in the ground beneath them and plunging them down a few floors to give Takaru and Kouji the roof level as a battlefield.

Dojiro followed suit targeting Genichi and dragging him to the floor a few lower than the one Hikari was on. While this was going on Norton and Anya had left to meet up with a unit under Norton’s command so they could round up the enemy soldiers as they left the stranded ships.

----

As they squared off Takaru took notice of Kouji’s new gauntlets and smirked “Ah, so that's what happened to the scientists you captured from HQ. You got them to make you replacements for those gauntlets I trashed during our first fight. I’m guessing from how they look they probably have Hybrid arm tech in them although If i had to guess it's not powered by the same power source ours are.” as he raised his sword above his head and activated his battle jacket armor.

Kouji followed suit and replied saying “It doesn’t matter that the tech is the same. It's the power and skill of the wielder that makes the difference.” as he charged at Takaru and they began trading blows.

While the fight went on the other two fights spilled out into the adjacent buildings and Anya helped her father and his unit clean up the troops on the streets.

----

This went on for what felt to them like hours before Kouji decided to reveal his personal trump card, a new ability.

“This is something I’ve been saving for a while..” he said as he jumped back from Takaru and struck a stance and drew a ring around himself on the ground with the claws of his gauntlets. After he finished the circle a bright light began to shine from it as a glyph formed around him on the ground.

“So the Magia scientists were able to teach him some glyph amplification, interesting, let's see how well he’s able to do it.” Takaru said as he took a defensive posture taking notice of the glyph turning to a black coloration as sparks of purple lightning began to arch around him and he began to do a series of motions while he channeled the spirit energy that was being drawn to the glyph.

After a few seconds Kouji began to rush toward Takaru, as he reached top speed he jumped into the air and began to spin around with his claws extended in front of him like a drill bit. The only thing Takaru heard above the whine of him cutting through the air and the pulsating current of electricity was a cold mechanical voice saying “Lightning Drill.” in a flat tone with a slightly accented pronunciation.

Kouji flew toward Takaru with the drill effect ripping the top of the building up in the vortex. Takaru managed to narrowly avoid the first pass but was forced to guard against the return.

“You seem surprised, I guess I overestimated you. Your heart still isn’t in this fight, you’re still fighting like you have no stake in it. I fight for my ideas.” he said as he began a flurry of charges punctuated by continuations of the statement.

“For pride, Family, Honor, Power, What do you fight for?” he said as he recoiled and did a powerful rush with the attack which managed to break Takaru’s guard and sent his sword flying out of his hands.

“Takaru!” Hayato called out as the sword skidded across the roof. Takaru fell to his knees, his barrier armor dissolving into thin air as he reverted to his civilian clothes. Kouji began to make his descent in for the final strike.

Suddenly a group of Kouji’s troops burst in through the roof access door prompting Kouji to break out of his descent short of hitting Takaru.

“Commander Isagarra. We have something that needs your attention. It seems the enemies are more interested in capturing our men than killing them. And we also managed to capture one of them. A girl who was coordinating their fire from the air got caught in the crossfire and sustained some pretty bad injuries but she seems to have some kind of healing factor that allowed her to heal them. We’ve brought her with us so you can handle her how you wish.” as the guards divided to reveal that the girl in question was Anya.

A sadistic grin began to cross Kouji’s face as he saw her standing there, her clothes tattered from the shots she took but not looking too horribly beat up aside from that. He could tell from her tired looking posture that she was exhausted from healing herself such that she wouldn’t be able to put up much resistance.

He walked over and grabbed her by the hair and pulled her over to Takaru and said “Well what do you know I get to pay back the little bitch that blew up my ship and you can’t do a damn thing about it.” as he pulled her close and forcibly kissed her lips.

Takaru looked on, seemingly defenseless as though his mind was a wreck. He felt weak, powerless before the strength that Kouji had shown him. His mind was in a similar state to what it had been before Anya saved him inside; he questioned whether he would be able to do anything in this situation.

Faintly in the back of his head he heard Hayato calling out to him.

“Takaru, Takaru, TAKARU!” he shouted trying to reach him through the darkness that filled Takaru’s mind. then another voice joined in

“Please help Anya, she’s exhausted and can’t defend herself against Kouji.” the voice said with a pleading tone seemingly on the verge of crying.

“Ang-ela?” he said as the darkness began to fade.

“Yes, It’s me.. please save Anya.” she said as a light began to replace the darkness.

Meanwhile outside his mind he saw Kouji beginning to toy with Anya’s ripped clothes. After a while he reared back and gashed his claws through her shirt and shredded it. She struggled to build up the strength to cover herself to spite him but her arms fell limply by her sides in spite of her mind screaming to cover up.

“A beauty like this is something beyond a weakling like you. I thought you had more fight in you or was that just a facade. I guess we’ll never know. She’ll make a fine prize for when we return to Valin.” he said as he forced his hand up her side and grabbed her chest.

She let out a small squeal of pain as a faint light began to glimmer in the distance. She looked out and saw something had changed in Takaru’s aura. It was more pronounced and the emptiness that seemed to exist within it was gone, replaced by a bright burning light.

Suddenly the light flew across the roof and into Takaru’s hand. Within seconds his barrier armor reformed and he began to rise to his feet.

“Step the hell away from her!” he said, his voice speaking in a cold tone that seethed with fury, As the glowing sword began to dim to its normal state something was different about it. The simple design had been replaced by something more intricate. A large hilt with elaborate dragon carvings laid out in blue and gold and the blade had grown quite a bit wider and longer. It too had similar dragons like etchings running up and down it.

Kouji began to laugh maniacally as he said “So you’re still able to stand? Not that it matters, I’m sure my Lightening Drill will be able to put an end to whatever pathetic resistance you have left.” as he tossed Anya aside into the crowd of soldiers and began to activate the ability again.

Takaru stood there and drew a circle in the air with the sword’s blade and a similar amplification glyph appeared in the air above him with a mirrored glyph appearing on the ground beneath him.

As Kouji performed the gestures that allowed him to focus the energy required for the attack with his claws Takaru mirrored them with the blade swiping and tilting the blade side to side before raising the sword above his head as Kouji began his charge.

When the sword reached the apex of its climb the blade let off a glint of light as he slashed it straight down releasing a wave of lightning charged spirit energy and mana. The wave met Kouji in the air and managed to shred the field of electricity that encircled Kouji’s body and nearly knocked him out of his attack.

“How did he manage that? Is he the same weakling I was just fighting or is there something different about him.” Kouji thought to himself. Suddenly he felt the air around him beginning to get heavier and the sky began to darken.

As he broke from his attack he looked at Takaru and could see his demeanor had changed completely. It was neither the level headed self assured one he saw when they entered the fray or the broken one he’d seen before. It was something different, his eyes were glazed over white and for once his aura was plainly visible even to Kouji’s troops who had fallen back toward the roof exit leaving Anya on the ground near the door.

The sky began to spark with lightning and crash with thunder as Kouji stood there trying to shake off this feeling of fear that was creeping into the back of his mind. He tried to shake it off feeling that showing any kind of weakness in front of his troops would be a greater loss than what he could lose in this fight.

Kouji gritted his teeth in frustration and prepared his attack again. As Kouji and Takaru began to set up their attacks the clouds began to pour rain and the air started to give off the ionized scent that most anyone would recognize as being either the precursor or the aftermath of a severe lightning storm.

Kouji watched as Takaru mimicked his movements and something inside him snapped.

[“No, no no NOOOOO!!”] he thought to himself the thoughts practically screaming in his head. [“This technique I worked so hard to develop and it's being squashed by his pale imitation. It can't be real.”] he began to whisper under his breath as he broke out of his channeling and began to pound on the ground his anger and frustration winning out against his cool headed demeanor.

With each strike great arcs of electricity came off his gauntlets along with waves of purple-black energy. They seemed to become more powerful with each passing strike and second as Kouji’s mind began to slip farther and farther down.

“It's real. Real as the lightning that's filling the skies, as the rain falling on us, as the pain I can feel in your heart. Those stones in your gauntlets are feeding on your animosity and anger. You're becoming a victim of the same tool you used to attack us. No amount of restraint, no amount of security can protect anyone from the effects of Zoracite radiation.” Takaru said as he released the wave of energy from his attack.

In the blink of an eye Kouji felt the searing heat of the electricity cutting into his body. While his body was protected by the Barrier armor from any lethal damage the pain and stunning effect bled through. And to follow up that strike Takaru dashed in and sheathed his sword before delivering an uppercut and following it with a series of powerful punches.

As Takaru continued both Hikari and Dojiro teleported in from the other buildings with Genichi and Tallia in tow. By the time Takaru had finished pummeling Kouji his face was badly bruised, his gauntlets were shattered with the stones having been pulled out and crushed and while Takaru reserved himself from killing him he knew by the time he delivered the final blow that Kouji had nothing left to resist with.

Dojiro and the others stood back in awe seeing Takaru in that state. It was something they’d never seen out of him, fighting purely on his emotions and giving into his instinct to defend Anya.

“Takaru?” Hikari called out as she looked at Takaru noticing a sudden change in him. He turned and cracked a small smile before collapsing. She and Dojiro ran over to help him as Genichi and Tallia stood there looking on.

“In a way I have to say I don’t blame Takaru for that. To most it would seem excessive but sometimes that kind of force is needed for teaching someone with as thick a head as him.” Genichi said as he looked on with an apathetic look before calling a ship to come pick them up.

As he and Tali went to take care of Kouji, Genichi waved the troops away from Anya and allowed Dojiro and Hikari to reclaim her.

“Gen, Think you’d be able to have a word with him later on once you’ve got him patched up?” Dojiro asked.

“Agreed, I'll tend to that when he's in a better state to talk to.” Genichi said

----

In the course of their respective fights Dojiro and Hikari had managed to talk Tali and Genichi down to the point that they agreed the circumstances weren’t in the best interests of them or their troops if they kept trying to fight with the Separatists. In terms of Dojiro and Genichi had actually bonded to a certain degree having come to an agreement that they would be better served as allies to the Federation then to the Separatist army.

While in Hikari and Tali’s fight there were a bit less of enemies becoming friends, instead it came down to Hikari revealing exactly what had happened to Valin in the time the war had been going on. Hikari had tapped into a deep space surveillance probe that had been sent to orbit Valin by the Federation. The probe’s footage showed the planet looking nearly uninhabitable and devoid of life.

Seeing what it was like shattered the notions that had been ingrained into her mind by the Separatists. Gone were the high and lofty perceptions of being part of a greater good and in the hopes of bettering Valin.

---

As they prepared to board the ship Genichi saw something was different about Tali she seemed almost broken. While she was trying to put on a brave face for Kouji, Gen could tell that she was holding back tears after what she’d seen from Hikari and seeing Kouji beaten down like this.

“Tallia, When we get Kouji back aboard the Amaterasu and he’s had time to recover. You need to talk to him, tell him what’s on your mind. What Hikari showed you, what she told you. About what’s going on back on Valin. Make him see we need to make a change. And that joining with the Earthlings may be the best option we have.” Gen said his normally bright face showing a much more grim and serious expression than usual.

She nodded, still choking back tears as she helped get Kouji onto the shuttle. As the doors on the shuttle closed and it began to lift off both Gen and Tali gave off a wave to Takaru and the others. And with that as the remainder of the fleet flew off with their leaders against the setting sun it seemed like the battle had finally come to a close.

----

Meanwhile Dojiro helped Anya get over to Takaru so they could have some time together before they took him in for treatment. She sat down next to him and raised his head up onto her lap, as he looked up at her he gave her a tired smile.

“Take a rest, you deserve it.” she said smiling as she leaned down and kissed him. She felt a rush of energy that normally accompanied her transformations but something was different this time.

“Assimilation of energy is complete. Stabilization in progress.” a computerized voice said in the back of her mind as she broke the kiss and felt a sharp pain shooting through her body as she began to grow.

Her mind flashed to the vision from all those years ago and realized this was the scene she’d seen in it. She felt something churning in her stomach, and suddenly a flash came to her.

“The image from the vision, the young man that was our eventual son. That explains the sensation in my stomach when I saw him, it wasn’t an upset stomach reaction, it was a baby kicking.” she thought to herself as everything started to fall into place.

“Your fates have been intertwined for a while. Not since birth necessarily but since you met back on the colony you and that boy have had a strong link to each other. The ties your family and friends have developed with them has only proceeded to help in solidifying them. Your sacrifice the day he nearly passed on was a sign of you acknowledging this. In your heart you can tell your stories were written in parallel.” A strange voice said, it wasn’t a singular voice but more a mixture of several speaking to her telepathically

“We are the Trinity, we oversee the fates of those who have lived and those that have died. We thank you for following your duty as a Fate Keeper. While we’re not allowed to give specific notations of what is to come, we have seen the great things the Inara’s have done in the past along with their allies. Takaru’s family was a skilled family of swordsmen who ruled over their homelands for as long as their people have known.” They said as Anya felt herself giving in under the weight of their presence.

“What have you come to ask of me?” she asked, her voice straining a bit under the combination of the aura they were letting off and her own weakened state.

“Nothing little one, we simply came to congratulate you and the others on your success. This battle will have effects on those who you fought greater than you could imagine. For now that is all we can say is you’ll have to find out those things on your own. For now as you said to the Inara boy, rest you deserve it.” they said as Anya felt herself lose consciousness.

-----

A week later Takaru laid in a hospital room just waking up from what seemed to be a comatose state. He looked around and saw his friends and family around him and let out a sigh of relief. In his mind the images of what had come over him were as vibrant to him as if he were still doing it. He raised his hands in front of him looking at him as he saw projections of the blows he struck on Kouji.

“It’s ok Takaru. That wasn’t your doing.” He heard Hayato’s voice say. “Your desire to protect Anya drew out a greater chunk of your potential than you were ready to control in your state of mind at the time. It caused the more primitive instincts of survival that you have within you to surface and drawing on the anger you were feeling at the time it greatly amplified your power at the cost of exhausting your physical stamina.” he explained to Takaru knowing he was still feeling both exhausted and concerned about what he’d done to Kouji.

“What happened. What happened to the sword?” Takaru asked, recalling the new form his sword had taken on. “It was different, like a completely different weapon but familiar at the same time.” he continued, still feeling awestruck by the images that kept playing in his mind.

“Well the best I could guess is that it may have something to do with your family heritage. While I’m based on Hayato’s personality and such I lack a lot of the memories and experience he had in his life beyond what was used to shape my AI from his journals. If I had to guess the power you drew on resonated with your blood and allowed the Blue Dragon Blade to take on this new form.” Hayato replied as Takaru looked around the room, noticing that Norton was standing there looking at him with an unusually casual look in his eyes. A warm gentle demeanor that reminded him of his father.

“Takaru. You handled that situation exactly as I expected. I was worried for a while when I saw Kouji break out that new technique of his. But I had a feeling you would find a way around it. It's interesting that while you were in that state you managed to emulate not only his ability albeit in your own original variation on it but the enhanced glyph amplification, a skill you haven’t even been taught.” Norton said with a quizzical look in his eyes.

“That’s an interesting side effect of the Terracite crystals that power the hybrid arm aspect of your sword. Much like the Zoracite that powered Kouji’s gauntlets, your hybrid arms are powered by Terracite a passively radioactive gem that while nontoxic to humans in the state it's being used in while powering the hybrid arms It can greatly amplify its power under the influence of intense emotions. The combination of your determination to save Anya and your anger with Kouji’s actions fed into the Terracite gemstone and then the energy that came back into you overtook your consciousness and allowed the weapon to act on your instincts without any of your normal self imposed restrictions. If you learn to harness that power it could be a vital evolution of your abilities.” he continued after a short pause.

Takaru quietly nodded, still feeling weak from the whole ordeal. He pulled back the sleeve on his shirt and to his surprise the module that he would normally pull his sword out from to unsheathe it was empty.

“The lab team took it for examination to figure out what spurred the transformation and its effects on the weapon as it appears to be permanent.” his father chimed in from the right side of the bed. “It kind of makes me think of the descriptions of Hayato’s sword, the Fierce Dragon Blade. I based the original design of your sword off of it but I never thought I’d actually see anything like it again. If you are wondering how you can still communicate with the AI stored in it, Sentient arms are capable of storing parts of themselves locally in their partner’s subconscious which allows them to retain awareness of their partner’s condition if they are separated from them. It also allows for them to be drawn to each other by a reactive marker system like the one Angela used to guide you to Anya when you returned her Sentient Arm to her in its storage mode back when you were kids.” Dozara said with a smile on his face as he looked down at his son amazed to see what he’d accomplished.

“Is she alright?” Takaru asked, looking around the room for sight of Anya as his mind flashed back to seeing her in Kouji’s arms.

Hikari smiled and said “She’s fine. Right now she’s resting and recovering from the injuries she sustained in the crossfire. So I’m guessing that the new form she’s in has something to do with the noise pollution I hear from your room now and then when she’s over?” she said going from a slight glare to a more sympathetic look.

“Yeah.” he said, his eyes looking away shyly. “It's a side effect of how she saved me. That’s what she’s supposed to look like at this point but her age regression from the rejuvenation chamber messed that up a bit.” he continued as a blush began to color his face and everyone began to laugh.

“We’re planning to throw a beach party down in South Harbor to celebrate the victory. I got word from Gen and company that they may be bowing out of the Separatists although he can’t confirm anything at the moment. As for the troops that Anya and her father’s unit rounded up, once we got them settled down we managed to work out an agreement. All of those that were willing to help clean up the mess and provide resources to the Federation to assist them in fighting back the Separatists, we’ll grant them amnesty from prosecution as a by-product of their actions. Since they were only following orders.” Toushi said a wild grin crossing his face as he brushed his hair slyly.

Takaru smirked and said “Here’s hoping things work out with that project, I’d hope that Kouji and company decide to come to our side. It’ll be interesting to see how well we’d all work as a team. He seems more like an alpha leader type then I am. Or at least better at picking out details than I am.” He let out a sigh and began to relax as he realized that whatever happened on that rooftop was behind him.

“Tallia would definitely be a nice asset to the backend logistics side of the operations we’re conducting with the Federation.” Takaru continued as he began to ease up out of bed, finally feeling some of his strength coming back to him.

“Yeah, and she has some rather nice “assets” as well. From what I could tell through that compression suit.” Toushi commented as the room abruptly went dead silent.

Hikari looked at him as he began to step away realising what he’d just said. Her eyes locked on to him and she reared back and slapped him across the face. “You really have the nerve to say something like that and we have no idea where they’re going to side in this matter. Wow. Think with the head you have upstairs, not the one downstairs.” as he jumped back from her, narrowly taking a kick to the shin.

As Takaru watched he couldn’t help but laugh at it. After a few minutes he sat up and began to get out of the bed.“So how long did the doctors say I’d be laid up for?” he asked as he started to get to his feet.

“Based on how long you were out for, I'd say technically you’ve recovered but you may be shaky for another day or two that level of exhaustion forces your body into a catatonic state. Not anything close to killing you but you were comatose the entire time.” Hikari said as she helped him up.

“Dojiro, You do realize how obvious it is that Talia and Koiji are already together at this point to some degree or other.” Takaru said, smirking a bit as he thought (“I hope I get to feeling a bit better before too long. My body feels like a pile of wet noodles.”) He started to make his way out of the room but by the time he got to the door he was greeted by Anya who seemed to have healed up rather nicely since he’d last remembered seeing her.

“Nice to see you’re finally back on your feet. I thought you’d be laid up for another week with the show you put on against Kouji in the end there.” she said as she walked up and gave him a hug. As they held each other Takaru lurched forward a bit, almost falling on top of her. “Guess you haven’t gotten completely back to normal but something like that is expected of someone who’s been comatose for a month and their muscles haven’t been in active use for a while.” she said As Takaru tried to catch his balance against the door frame.

-----

Meanwhile aboard the Amaterasu Kouji had called a general meeting of his troops aboard the ship regarding his plans for the current situation.

“As you know we suffered a rather significant defeat at the hands of the Valion Force in our recent incursion on Earth. But while large numbers of our force were captured, according to early reports from them the Federation troops that are holding them are being respectable and have offered a treaty with our unit. The only requirement is that we agree to divulge any information we’re privy to under the current operations and assist them in rebuilding the damage we dealt to their cities.” Kouji announced to his troops as they sat there discussing things among themselves.

“I’d also like to address some information that was brought to my attention through Tali’s contact with the Inara girl. According to reconnaissance footage from space above Valin the planet’s been stripped bare of resources to fuel this war machine and this is what it looks like as of current.” as he presented an image of the planet’s surface. While there was some greenery, mostly in areas the Separatists hadn’t bothered due to lack of usable materials. The planet was mostly a red, barren husk of its former self.

He could see the looks of dissension among the ranks of his men. “While we’re all willing to understand there are costs to run a war, especially one of this magnitude. But there are limits to what we should be willing to accept. By comparing the Federation and the Valion Force we can see that there are ways to manage a war on this scale without completely destroying a planet. Before I made any executive decisions on the matter I wanted to bring it to you. My men, my unit,..” as he turned to Gen, Tali, and Alicia “And my friends. In the process, I will leave it to you to stay or do we join them. The choice will be made on the basis of a unit wide ballot to determine the general consensus on the matter. After seeing the compelling evidence I’ve seen and witnessed I think the choice should be easy.” he finished as Tallia threw her arms around him and leaned in close.

“Thank you. I’m sure this is the right thing.” she said, kissing his lips as she let her suit decompress against him. Alicia walked over to Genichi and gave him a smirk as he noticed the faint sound of her suit decompressing as well. His eyes and expression perked up as she smiled brightly and kissed him letting her hips sway a bit as she drew up close to him.

“So I guess the stories of the Evergrove girls all being known for their looks wasn’t an exaggeration.” Genichi said as he wrapped his arms around her. The male troops in the crowd let off a raucous cheer at the sight of both Tallia and Alicia.

“Yep.” Alicia said as they walked off the platform together. “Kouji boy learned that all too well when they had that little talk a few nights ago.” she thought to herself as she took off her helmet and let her long silver hair fall down behind her cracking a grin as she noticed Genichi’s eyes wander down toward her hips while they walked.