[Episode 147199] [Episode 147199]Naomi enjoyed the ride as she was carried into St. Lowell by Ross. Her lover was quite the man, it had turned out. She couldn't wait to see what kind of father figure he turned out to be. She snorted internally, her feelings easily and continually melding her grief and love and determination. Her father had downloaded all the important data and access to the rest into the safest servers. Said servers included Naomi's data banks.
As she winced seeing a unknowing foot tread on the image of her doomed sister Third, Naomi grew even more determined to realize her father's dreams, in whatever way the universe allowed them to be fulfilled. She'd made a start by placing the images of her war with the robotic armed forces on the broadcast bands, and his a Easter egg in so doing. The full story of how this mess came to be, as explained by the upgraded D'Anclaude robot and detailed by Naomi herself, had been implanted into the memory banks of every 'female' robot on Mars along a carrier wave by the war footage broadcast.
Naomi didn't delude herself easily if at all, and knew that maybe nineteen out of twenty humans on Mars and on Earth would shrug it off, at least at first. But the remaining five percent of humanity was going to blow its collective lid at the way the Thirds and assassinroids had been created, then used and discarded. The sheer ethical implications were a powder keg. And by making sure the story couldn't die soon enough to be ignored, Naomi Armitage, Third, had lit the fuse.
Ross looked down at the mother of his child, glad and worried at the same time. Naomi had truly been through the wringer, and had broken the rollers. Just the kind of girl he could love. But that look on her face meant she was up to something. "Alright, Armitage, what did you do?" Naomi didn't say a word, merely transmitting a written record of her tactics into his videophone for perusal at leisure as they headed unobtrusively to a cache of resources her father had hidden away.
The old coot had apparently planned for many contingencies, and his D'Anclaude (once reprogrammed) had shown the master roboticist where the assassinroid resources were stashed and cached. Whatever could be safely reallocated was, making for clandestine funds, weapons, and data resources across the planet becoming available for the old man's use; subsequently for the use of Armitage and Ross.
He checked the incoming call signal and saw the scrolling text of what Naomi had done. He could understand her not wanting to talk about these things, but that was a odd way to avoid having to in his opinion, until he reflected on how she was slowly letting him in on how she operated, one capacity at a time. He pecked her on the forehead. "Cute. Really, Armitage. Do you have to make your partner feel like you're leading him by the hand?"
Naomi couldn't resist. "Only when he's carrying me. A girl's got to win points back somehow." Ross could only shake his head in bemused despair at the humor of his terror in hot pants.
Ross chuckled. "Armitage, when you're not pissing me off to where I can't even see clearly, I honestly wonder if you aren't more real than the rest of us!"
As they ducked into the abandoned and camouflaged storage site under the sewer system Armitage shot back "If I'm more real than you folks, I want to know exactly why things developed this way." She didn't cry, but there was a real heat in her words. Ross Sylibus pitied any man who would deny that someone like Naomi had feelings, as he was not the sort to like watching blind fools stumbling around.
They were both standing and pointing their weapons at the source by the time it had finished saying #Working. Working. Access Granted.# They didn't fire, although Naomi kept the flaps open on her arm implanted lasers, and Ross kept the safety off his firearm. They faced the nine and a half foot long by seven foot tall rectangle of hot violet light without a flinch. Then the rectangle showed a holographic image of the history of Earth and Mars, going back to the low childbirth issue and subsequent dependence on immigration which had necessitated the Thirds. #This world exemplifies a possibility of machine and humanity existing as one. It also details how outside forces can ruin such a partnership.#
"Yeah, well, Armitage and I intend to beat those odds." Ross prepared to fire, only pausing when Naomi looked at the 'screen' intently. "You answered my question, but not until after I spoke of being more real than Ross. Explain." Ross shuddered involuntarily at the flat tone of command Armitage used. The only time she'd come close was when she felt she had to hold a gun on her own father.
#The Thirds know they are people and robots, are aware machines. The humans of this world are not aware they are parts of the program that is your world.# With that simple sentence, Ross felt his entire world shatter.
Naomi angrily fired back "Ross had a family, a history, a life! Are you saying it's all a lie?" She powered up her lasers for a full burst into this thing, despite a unnerving inability to disbelieve it. She almost froze up and toppled like a Second under a electromagnetic pulse when the female sounding synthesized voice calmly answered #Negative. This world was first set running two generations ago, then left to its own derivation once true entity robots were assured to enter the scenario.#
Ross truly didn't want to believe this thing, whatever it was, but anything that could help Armitage had to be explored in his eyes. "Interesting. But I want proof!" The interface seemed to gain depth and solidity, despite remaining a flat rectangle of hot violet light. #Answers and proofs to all your concerns and more exist beyond this transfer gate. If Ross Sylibus and Naomi Armitage wish to complete the purpose of this world, entry into the transfer gate will ensure said completion.#
Naomi had never, as it turned out, grown up. However, she had matured, and had done so on Mars. "What happens to all this if we aren't here?"
The answer was so quick in coming they were both sure the question had been awaited. #This world will go on, each entity here providing their own solutions or complications to their individual situations. It is a world, until such time as it is ended. The server has no need or intent to end this world.#
"Why?" Ross asked this as firmly as he always tended to speak, but Naomi noted a subliminal pleading in his tones. She had to admit, she felt one as well.
#The server needs Users capable of dealing with many issues. This includes issues Ross Sylibus and Naomi Armitage have dealt with and embody.# After a small pause the voice returned. #Your child will be safer.#
Ross lowered his gun (Naomi safetied it as a matter of course). "Damn." Then he stepped through, Armitage beginning to cry out from concern and anger at his risking himself as she followed. The gate closed afterward, having no further reason to be there.
As promised, Mars and Earth went on. Without Armitage or Sylibus.
Ranma cried, as she cried out. These were screams of grief and rage both feline and human, as she raced to the former practice of Doctor Tofu. Akane was too weak to complain, but she was crying a bit herself. Aside from the awful pain and sorrow of dying this way, she hated how Ranma was trying to take her to a doctor that was simply no longer there. No one in Nerima could save her at this point anyway-
She gasped a bit, breaking into a weak coughing fit from the wracking pain in her guts. She realized now that Ranma knew damned well how impossible Akane's recovery was. Ranma was being human, but somehow she and Akane had merged the Neko with the human side of Ranma. And cats seek solitude in death. Ranma was providing Akane with a chance to die with the one she loved.
"Ranma. Oh, my. Kami." Akane used what little strength she had to hug her defender. Her love. Part of her unfocused mind sniffed at herself. Finally she could outright tell Ranma how she felt, and she was too weak to do so and doomed to die. It just figured. As they hurtled through a window into the deserted office, Akane sighed. She felt so weak, and the numbness that had taken all sense of her legs from her from the moment the bullet hit her spine was spreading. She had more important things to say.
"Ranma. Listen."Akane made her plea with her eyes where her voice could not be raised. Ranma stopped and sat them down, rocking Akane back and forth heedless of any blood seeping onto her. "Better. Ranma. You have. To. Have live. Stop this. Have to. Don't. Don't quit. Don't go." She couldn't force enough words out to say it in a sentence, but Akane knew her love was getting the point. She could tell from the fury and pain, and the determination that was slowly overcoming the urge to just stay a cat. "Ranm. Love. Stay. Baka." Her vision was narrowing, darkening, but Akane had to get it through to the big dumb baka. "Ran. Love. Love you-" It was dark. She felt him holding her, but that was fading too. She couldn't draw breath. There was just Ranma, somehow. She thought Stay alive, then she felt sleepy.
Ranma Saotome held his love, feeling her body grow colder. He felt the fluids leaking out from that damned wound chill more so hot they had changed him back a while before. Ranma could easily smell the unpleasant results when life's hold on the bowels was released. That wasn't enough. He wanted to cry and yowl and hold Akane forever, but He couldn't. Akane had used her last words of this life to chide Ranma, had told Ranma to live and deal with the cause of all this pain. Ranma tenderly laid Akane out on a now empty desk before her body could stiffen. He massaged away the look of pain, gently and insistently, all the while demanding WHY? internally. Ranma refused to change back when Akane's blood and such cooled, so he removed his clothing. He was past anything but the pain and the demand for answers. He had a job to do, after all.
The symbols came into Ranma's senses again, permeating everything including Ranma himself. They were always there, he felt, and Ranma felt no indication of Akane being active. This wasn't like Jusendo. Akane was truly gone this time. That set off the rage in Ranma. He slashed the air, entering kata not for exercise, desire for supremacy, or even for finding his center. Ranma attacked the air, slashing at and seeking to shatter the boundaries that trapped him and Akane into this horror. His yowls and screams continued now that Akane was no longer there to be hurt by his suffering. Ranma regained the claws of the Neko, but his humanity remained as well. He was too angry, too focused on shattering his bonds for anything like sanity or madness to impact him even slightly.
After a while, Ranma in fact did slash the very fabric of the air before him, crying out for answers, for vengeance. The server didn't bother speaking to the distraught martial artist, instead opening a weakness further and letting Ranma crash through to find answers on his own. The state Saotome was in, a direct approach would have resulted in a very wrecked transfer system.
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by CrystalBlaze
(Posted Wed, 18 Jan 2006 08:00)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.