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       Created by Christopher Willmore.            /  \ \  /
                  <4cw6@qlink.queensu.ca>         /   /  \/
       Based on a story by Rumiko Takahashi and      /
       Developed by C. Michael Schumacher           /   /
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       R2096 pages: http://qlink.queensu.ca/~4cw6/   \/(Logo:Armakuni)

============================================================================
                      The Fall of Heaven - Alpha Draft
============================================================================
                  by Lara Bartram <lara@emunix.emich.edu>
                           Edited by C. Willmore
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 R2096 characters and situations used with permission.  Takahashi's aren't.
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                   PART THREE: QUANDO CAELI MOVENDI SUNT
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 "Judex ergo cum sedebit        Thus, when the Judge shall take his throne
 Quidquid latet, apparebit;     That which is hidden shall be brought forth
 Nil insultum remanebit"        And none shall remain unavenged

                           -From the 'Dies Irae'
                         Translated by C. Willmore
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    It was Onocorp and the Kuno Foundation without the little signs
out front.  It was large and sombre and quite clinical looking.  It
was just about what Akane expected it to look like.
    The car pulled down the long, winding drive and approached the
sombre, windowless building.  Akane found herself getting rather 
anxious, wanting to know exactly what was so horrible, but after what
Kuno had said about Nabiki...
    The car pulled around the back of the building into a well-secured
garage.  One of the windows was lowered ever so briefly to reveal a
stony-faced guard, who nodded when seeing Kyoofu.  "Good day, Chief
Executor," he said, then stepped away from the vehicle.
    The car continued onward until the only light came from the pale
lights hanging overhead and there was no sign of the way they had come
in.  With the car coming to a gentle stop in front of a simple looking
door, the car door was opened from the outside.  
    The man sitting next to Kyoofu was first to exit, with Kyoofu
following him closely.  "Please assist the Blue Thunder.  He has an
appointment to keep."  Kyoofu adjusted his tie as he watched the men
pull Kuno from the car.
    "Don't shake him too much.  We wouldn't want him making any messes
on the carpet," Kyoofu added with a smirk.
    "Yes, sir.  We'll be careful."
    "Yes.  That unfortunate side effect hasn't been eliminated yet."
Kyoofu patted Tatewaki on the shoulder.  "Don't worry, Kuno-sensei.
With your help, I'm sure that puzzle will be solved in no time."
    Akane followed close behind.  "Kuno-sempai, how long do you think
this will take?" she asked.
    "Hour..." Tatewaki managed to answer, though he looked a little
green and was obviously trying very hard not to be ill.
    "Kuno-sensei, what are these little mysteries you keep opening up
to us?" Kyoofu asked him.  "And please walk.  These men aren't paid
to be your baby-sitters."
    Akane wanted to look around some, but she wanted to get a good
look at Tofu before she left.  She wanted to see the monster he had
become.  She wanted to see the man beneath the charming, silly
exterior that her sister had married.  She so desperately wanted to
really feel something again, even if it was hatred and loathing.
    The group rode up an elevator in silence except for the hitching
sounds Tatewaki was making; Kyoofu stood as far away from him as
possible.  "I must remember to lower the dosage next time," he 
mentioned to himself.  "It's never been this bad before."
    He stepped only as close as necessary, and lifted Tatewaki's head.
Using his thumb, he pulled open each eyelid to reveal very dilated
pupils.  Letting Tatewaki's head fall, Kyoofu nodded.  "Definitely too
much.  The potency has increased, it seems."
    Wishing for some sudden, painful death to befall the head of the
Kuno Foundation, Akane stood back.  She wanted nothing to do with this
group of people and their lies and deceptions and blackmail, but it
was like she was forced to do it.  She couldn't just leave.
    Instead of being totally consumed by her negative emotions, she
tried something a little different.  She had been able to feel Kuno's
spirit trying to possess her.  That meant she could influence him in
some tangible way, no doubt.  Even if she couldn't, she would try.
    She extended herself, a small fragment of herself out to him and
felt him immediately grab on to it.  The next thing she did was the
hardest she had ever done, besides giving up on Ranma.  She gave a
piece of herself to him.
    He gobbled it up greedily, but Akane could feel the change.  She
could feel the change in herself, and in him, like he was also a part
of her now, or she was a part of him.  It was a little scary, and
very strange, and she knew that it was how it would have felt if she
and Ranma would have been ever able to continue their relationship
past the point of insults and into the area of actual love.
    Nothing could have made her sadder than that grim realization.
She had never hated herself more than in that moment.  But before she
had time to dwell on it extensively, the elevator arrived at its
destination, and the door opened silently.
    The men removed Tatewaki from the elevator with Kyoofu following
lazily.  He was not in any rush; these little get-togethers were
invariably long and drawn out, boring for him really.  He never 
bothered to sit in on them, though he was welcome to.  It was far more
relaxing to sit with a cup of coffee and chat with the pretty girl 
that was Tofu's administrative assistant.
    Kyoofu nodded and smiled at her as Tatewaki was removed from their
sight into Tofu's office.  He just knew it would be longer than usual
this time.

    "Ah, it's about time you got here, 'Waki.  I didn't want to have
to send a second summons.  I do so dislike repeating myself," Ono Tofu
said from behind his desk as the men deposited Tatewaki on the floor
and exited the room.
    Tatewaki could only sit on the floor, his head alternating between
a loud buzzing and inky darkness, and slowly rock himself.
    Tofu sighed and shook his head.  "When will you learn to 
cooperate?  It would be so much simpler if you didn't resist; Kyoofu
wouldn't be forced to subdue you."  Tofu stood up and walked around
his desk to lean against it as he watched Tatewaki.  "You look rather
awful this time."
    Unbeknownst to him, Akane watched everything with cold, 
dispassionate eyes.  She knew that if she tried hard enough, she could
manifest herself, become visible to even those who could not see 
ghosts, and if she let her anger take hold of her, she would end up
revealing her existence to Tofu.  She wanted to avoid that at all
costs.
    The man before her was most definitely not the same man she had
known.  This man was cold and cruel, without compassion, without 
mercy.  He was absorbed in his own ideas of vengeance and justice, and
knew nothing about Kasumi.  Kasumi would not have wanted any of this
suffering that he was causing.
    "Here, 'Waki, let me help you with that problem."  Tofu had
anticipated that Tatewaki might be somewhat resistant to coming to the
meeting, so he had an "antidote" ready for him.
    "Hold still, 'Waki," he warned as he prepared to inject the 
contents of the syringe into Tatewaki's arm.
    Tatewaki's body jerked at the sudden flood of powerful stimulants
through his system.  Right away, the buzzing died down, and he felt
almost completely back to normal.  Except for one thing.
    Tofu went back to leaning against his desk, and with his foot,
pushed a small, lined can at Tatewaki.  "You know how much I hate
calling you away from your duties," he said as Tatewaki grabbed the
can.
    Watching the after-effects of the drugs take their hold, Tofu
grimaced and shook his head.  "You know if you get any of that on the
floor, 'Waki, you're going to have to clean it up."
    After a few more minutes of retching into the can, Tatewaki sat
up, looking tired and drained.  "What do you want now?" he asked, his
voice hoarse, throat sore from the stomach acid.
    "First, I think I want someone to get rid of that," Tofu replied,
pointing at the can.  He hit a button on his desk, which promptly
summoned one of his lackeys.  "Please take care of the Blue Thunder's
mess."
    The young man, another Ono in training probably, nodded, picked up
the can and left.
    "Why do you let them do this to you?" Akane asked.  They barely
treated him as an animal, and not with the same respect that an animal
would have received.
    Tatewaki shook his head; with his full faculties, he could not
speak to her in front of Ono.  He would know there was something up,
even if Kyoofu was clueless.
    "Now then, about last month's payment..."  Tofu considered the
person before him carefully.  There was something wrong, something
different.  He would have to keep a closer eye on him.  Tofu made a
mental note to talk to Kyoofu about it.
    "I'll be back, Kuno-sempai," Akane said then.  "I'm going to look
around."  She could not stand to be in Ono Tofu's presence any longer.

    She wandered through the building, really not finding anything all
that interesting.  There were offices and meeting rooms, and the usual
things one might find in an office building.  Yet, Akane knew that
somewhere, Tofu had all his secrets hidden.  All the things that a
sane person would scream over, be outraged at, Akane knew they were
here.
    It was only when she went lower, found her way deeper, that she
could see the beginnings of secrets.  Security doors in various 
places, control rooms, laboratories, things she wasn't interested in.
And then she stumbled upon it.
    Her body began to shake as she looked at the large room she was
standing in.  She had found it.  She had found Tofu's dirty secret,
and she was none too happy about it.  This was what Kuno had told her
about, this what he'd warned her about.
    There, in front of her, was Nabiki's head, floating in a tank.
What made it even worse was the fact that it wasn't her disembodied
head, but her soul.  A perfect, slightly translucent, bluish-green
image of her sister's head hovering the air.  Instead of any sort of
body, she had only a formless cloud that seemed to pulsate, almost
like a heartbeat.
    Akane put one hand over her mouth and stared.  Stretching out
from the cloud were five wispy tentacles of sorts, reaching out to
four separate tanks, and one passed through a wall.  That was bad, but
it wasn't the worst.
    The eyes.  They were the worst.  They were half-lidded and glassy,
glazed over.  Akane couldn't find any shred of consciousness or
personality in the dead gaze, but they seemed to stare at her.
    She moved to look at one of the tanks and glanced back.  Still the
eyes seemed to be looking at her.  And when she saw what was in the
tank, what the ethereal tentacle was trying to hold on to, her 
revulsion grew.
    In the tank, floated, what Akane presumed to be, Nabiki's
disembodied arm.  The tentacle seemed to be trying to emulate the
shape of the arm, though it was imperfect and incomplete.  She looked
back at the head, staring at her, then back at the tentacle/arm.
There was a slight ripple along the length of the tentacle and the
hand twitched.
    No, not just a twitch.  The hand seemed to wave at her.  That was
it for Akane.  She left the room as quickly as she could through the
nearest wall, doing the closest thing to throwing up a ghost could.
    What she found there wasn't any better.
    Akane ended up in a sterile room.  The walls were off-white, 
smooth and seamless.  There was a gentle humming of air processors,
circulating clean, sterilized oxygen flowing into the room.  There
were other, less pleasant noises as well.
    The gentle whir of precision machinery seemed to drown out all
her other thoughts.  The small, mechanical arms moved quickly,
purposefully, with inhuman skill.  It was necessary, for they were
doing delicate work that took years to complete.  And this wasn't the
first attempt either.
    Akane's eyebrow twitched and her ghostly form took on a greenish
cast.  All she could hear was the whirring.  The whirring punctuated
by the wet slapping sound.  She watched, fascinated and horrified as
the arms went about their gruesome task.
    There were about ten of the arms, working in pairs, sorting
through what could only be described as a pile of guts.  Nabiki's
guts.  The arms would gently pick up a piece of... whatever it was,
some internal organ or another, turn it over and around, as if they
were looking for something on it, then drop it back down.  That was
the cause of the splattering noise.
    Once the arms found... something (Akane could not fathom at all
what was going on), they began to move very quickly, almost to the
point of becoming a blur, picking at the tissue.  The whirring sound.
    *whir*
    *splutch*
    *whir*
    *splutch*
    Akane started shaking her head then, the tentacle from the other
room trying very hard to emulate the mass of internal organs and 
tissues, twitching periodically.
    *whir*
    Akane watched a pair of arms pull out a long section of an 
intestine and drop it back to the table.
    *splutch*
    They moved speedily, touching it, picking at it, weaving back and
forth over it, but Akane had no idea what they were actually doing.
    *whir*
    And again.  That was when Akane had to leave.  She had seen
enough of Tofu's secrets, and she didn't care to see more.  She had to
get back to Kuno and leave this hellish place.

    "If that is what you want..."
    "It is, 'Waki.  Funding is hard to come by for projects like 
these.  I seem to remember you being very enthusiastic about the
Lazarus Project before.  What's happened to you?" Tofu asked,
currently sitting behind his desk.
    Akane entered the room then, her entire body a greyish, and she
had a stunned look on her face.  "Kuno-sempai...  What was that down
there?"
    "I've given you your desired money.  If you have nothing else you
wish of me..."
    Tofu waved his hand at him.  "No, 'Waki.  You've been quite 
helpful.  Though I think I will need to see you next month for one of
our usual sessions."
    "I truly despise you," Tatewaki said in a moment of lost control.
    "That's lovely to hear," Tofu said, turning his attention to some
papers on his desk.  "You can leave now, 'Waki.  That's a hint."
    Scowling at Tofu, Tatewaki turned and left the office with Akane
close behind him.
    "I've got my eye on you, 'Waki," Tofu said quietly when the door
shut.

    "Kuno-sempai, what was that down there?  What is he doing with my
sister?" Akane asked franticly.
    He could only shake his head as two men flanked him.  He started
to walk back to the elevator, but one of them put his hand in his
path.
    "Wait," was the only thing he said.
    Tatewaki sighed and waited.  No, he would never have the simple
peace that he desired.  Gosunkugi and Ono would not allow it.  And now
that Akane was with him, he wanted nothing more than his privacy so he
could speak with her.
    Kyoofu walked briskly down the hall toward him, smiling slightly.
He did so enjoy chatting with that lovely young lady.  "That was
quick, Kuno-sensei.  I thought you'd be in there longer."
    "How fortunate that I was not," he responded flatly.
    "Yes, well, a minor inconvenience, but I'm sure Director Ono had
his reasons.  Either way, it's time to take you back and settle you
in.  Won't you like that, Kuno-sensei?"
    "I think that I..." he started to say.
    "Kuno-sempai, don't," Akane warned.
    Clenching  down on what he truly wanted to say, Tatewaki said, "I
would like that very much."
    "Kuno-sensei, you don't sound well.  You're not experiencing any
side-effects, are you?" Kyoofu asked, looking at him closely.
    Prized possession indeed; Gosunkugi looked at him like he was some
farm animal before a show.  "I feel perfectly fine."
    "Excellent.  You know I don't like having to do that to you, but
you get so unreasonable at times.  I'm just glad to see you're feeling
better, Kuno-sensei."
    "I bet you are," Tatewaki and Akane said simultaneously.
    Kyoofu raised an eyebrow at the utterance, but said nothing more.

    The elevator doors opened silently, and Tatewaki stepped out into
the empty penthouse.  Things had never seemed clearer to him.  Ever
since Akane had appeared to him, he had really been able to see and
comprehend, truly, what was going on.
    When she hadn't been there, it had been easy enough to just let
everything go.  He simply hadn't cared, but Akane had made him care.
If she could be nice enough to treat him as a person and not a pet,
then so should the rest of them.
    Yes, he would readily go along with Akane's plan now.  It was time
to show them that he had the capacity to think, to plan, to scheme.
To kill.
    After all, he had done it before.

    "I want you to keep a closer eye on him.  He's up to something,
and I don't like it."
    "Please now, Director.  If you were around him as much as I am,
you'd see that he's harmless.  Really, I think you're over-reacting.
Why don't you just let me take care of this?  There's no need to work
yourself up over it."
    Tofu's voice held the slightest hint of anger.  "Thank you, 
Kyoofu.  Your advice is noted and rejected.  If you won't do it, I
will."
    Kyoofu sighed dramatically.  He was quite pleased that there was
no video as he rolled his eyes.  "Of course, Director," he said 
agreeably. "If that's what you think needs to be done..."  He 
emphasized 'think' very slightly.
    Tofu humphed and disconnected.
    
    Kyoofu returned to what he had been doing before Tofu had 
contacted him.  What the hell did Ono know anyway?  He had his little
projects, and he also had Kyoofu's far more important projects, but
what did he know about Kuno Tatewaki?
    Not nearly as much as he did.  Tofu didn't have to deal with him
every day.  Didn't have to listen to his ranting, didn't have to deal
with his resistance, didn't have to deal with all the stupid little
things the Blue Thunder demanded.
    So what the hell did Ono Tofu know?  Not a whole lot in Kyoofu's
book.

    "Kuno-sempai, I want an answer!  What was that?" Akane yelled.
    "I told you before.  It is your sister.  It is Ono's process of
revenge," Tatewaki answered, sitting down on the single piece of 
furniture on the penthouse.
    "But... but, she was in pieces!"
    "Yes.  The bomb was quite devastating.  It was the best Ono could
do with her.  I have no doubt that he will succeed though; his 
vengeance will drive him onward."
    Akane closed her eyes and took a deep breath.  "What were they 
doing?  I saw..."
    "The tissue rebuilding?"
    Akane shrugged, unable to get that scene out of her mind, the
mechanical arms, the...
    "That is how tissue is rebuilt.  It is a very long process, taking
years, as tissue, skin, organs, muscle, is reconstructed from a 
genetic pattern.  It is quite gruesome," Tatewaki answered simply.
Sure, the body parts in tanks were bad, but the pile of crap on the
table with those little needles picking at it...  That was far worse.
    "I wish I could say I was still outraged at it.  I was the first
time I saw it, but it's become... common.  At least for Ono it is.
Nothing he does surprises me."  It was then that Tatewaki really 
looked at Akane.  "Did you get your answers?  Did you find out what
you wanted to know?"
    Akane nodded.  "I found all I needed."  And whatever she had 
thought previously of doing to Tofu was far too good to him.

    The plan started to form in Akane's mind in bits and pieces.  She
would come up with ideas, then ways to accomplish those ideas, then
ways to avoid quick discovery.  All in all, she had come up with a
very elaborate plan involving falsified identities, smuggling in 
controlled technologies, and leaking information to the press all to
screw Tofu over once and for all.
    She wasn't very happy about the controlled technologies, but Kuno
had insisted on it when he had heard her initial plan.  She didn't
want this to be a repeat of things that had happened in the past, but
it seemed like it couldn't be avoided.

    "The Lazarus Project.  That's what he calls it."
    Akane nodded.  "I don't know how people will take that.  I mean,
don't people want to be saved from dying?" she asked.  True, she 
didn't like seeing her sister in such a state, but that didn't mean
other people would like the chance.
    "Akane, you saw her.  Would you want to exist like that.  She's
been that way ever since the explosion, over 6 years ago," Tatewaki
said.  Ever since Akane had told him of the plan, he had grown quite
confident, more so than he had been before.  But, to go through with
the plan, he would have to be.
    "I suppose you're right."  She hadn't told him that she had seen
Nabiki's soul, caught in some sort of limbo, purgatory.  "I still 
don't think it will be enough.  And I don't think it will be enough to
make anyone angry... except me."
    Tatewaki nodded.  "I'm sorry you had to see that."
    Akane's eyes snapped opened and the frown on her face deepened.
"Yeah, well, I guess it's time I got caught up on things, isn't it?
It's time I saw just what everyone I knew has turned into, isn't it?
It's about time I did something about it."
    "Akane, you shouldn't..."
    "You shut up!  This is partly your fault, you know!  You let him
do that!  You gave him money to do it!" Akane yelled, her aura turning
red ever so slowly.
    Tatewaki lowered his eyes and looked at the floor at Akane's feet.
"I know."
    Akane growled at him, at his obsequiousness, and left the 
penthouse.  She had plans to set in motion and yelling at him wasn't
going to accomplish anything.
    She went first to the executive offices.  There were several 
steps, several other people that would be unknowingly involved, and
that was what she needed to do first.
    She went into an office at random to find the occupant already
working on his terminal.  That wasn't any good, so she went to the 
next office.  The executive was just siting down at his terminal, 
preparing to log in.  Perfect.
    Akane stood right by him as he typed in his username, then watched
carefully as he typed in his password.  Keeping careful mental note of
that, she went off to observe Kyoofu's administrative assistant.
    Akane doubted anyone would even question a request from Gosunkugi
Kyoofu, no matter how strange it might sound.  So she waited and
watched the woman do all of Gosunkugi's busy work.  The thing she was
most interested in were the little memos and requests the assistant
made on behalf of Gosunkugi.  That was what she needed to do.
    The next morning, she would have to wait for the secretary to log
in to get her username and password too.
    A small, satisfied smile on her face, Akane headed back up to the
penthouse.

    Night settled on the city.  Akane paced the penthouse, unable to
settle down.  The things she was planning to do were... illegal, but
that was the least of her worries.  What she was truly concerned about
was what would happen to her.  In life, if you murder, you are 
punished.  In death, if you murder... what happens?
    She wandered around aimlessly, almost doing laps, lost in thought.
Glancing quickly at Kuno, who was asleep sitting up against the couch,
however he managed that, Akane had to wonder if he'd be able to do it.
Would he be able to help her get back at Tofu?  He was her only option
so he would have to.
    Akane continued her pacing through most of the night.  Sometimes
she plotted, sometimes she pondered, sometimes she simply paced, but
she didn't stop moving.
    During one of her trips around the penthouse, she absently passed
through Kuno and stopped when he heard his moan.  When she looked back
at him, it was obvious he was still asleep and dreaming.  Whatever he
had felt of her presence had affected him.
    "I'm sorry, Akane," he mumbled, then was silent.
    Akane sighed and continued her pacing.

    Tatewaki woke up the next morning after having the strangest 
dream.  He had been in Ono's office, with Gosunkugi, and he was 
caught.  His body wouldn't move, and the two simply stood there and
stared at him, making silent accusations.  Mysteriously, Akane had
appeared, and she had Nabiki with her, both of them looking as they
did when they were teenagers, and the entire room was consumed in
flames.  Gosunkugi and Ono both melted, their faces masks of terror
and anguish, while Akane and Nabiki watched.  Then they had looked at
him, and they were accusing him as well.
    He had apologized over and over again.  'I'm sorry, Akane.  I'm
sorry, Nabiki.'  And then the dream simply faded away.
    Clearing his head of the cobwebs of sleep, Tatewaki noticed that
Akane was gone.  He knew she would be back, but her plans made him
very nervous.  What if they were discovered?  What if someone else
could see her and trouble started?  What if Ono surprised him with 
those truth drugs again?
    That simply meant things had to be hurried along.  The sooner 
things were in motion, the more comfortable he'd feel.  And the more
confident he'd feel about the success of the plan.
    He went to the compact washroom, surprisingly small for where it
was located, and splashed some cold water in his face from the faucet.
He avoided looking in the mirror, knowing fully that he looked like
hell.
    The bath had already filled itself automatically for him, the
water the designated temperature.  It was about the only moment of
privacy he felt he got, and even then he wasn't sure.  Tatewaki 
removed the heavy robes that he had inadvertently fallen asleep in,
and tossed them away.  Someone would collect them eventually.
    He washed himself quickly with cold water and a sweet-smelling 
soap that probably had some other drug in it that assimilated itself
through the skin to keep him docile, then rinsed.  His immersion in
the slightly hot water was about the only relaxation he got in the
day, so he relished it.
    For the most part, he had nothing to do the entire day, so his 
baths tended to last for more than an hour as he attempted to put
everything behind him.  This day, it did not work.

    "Kuno-sem..."  Akane quickly turned and covered her eyes when she
saw that she had wandered into the bath where Kuno was currently in
the water.
    "Kuno-sempai," she continued again, "I got it.  We can get started
as soon as you're ready to."
    "Very well," he replied half-heartedly from the bath.
    Akane heard the water as Kuno rose from it, and quickly said, 
"I'll just wait in the other room for you."  She left quickly, her 
aura tinged pink.
    Tatewaki exited the bath a few moments later, a towel wrapped
around his waist, with him drying his hair.  "You got their names and
passwords?" he asked.
    Akane looked at him, then looked away again.  "Yeah," she said
hesitantly.
    Tatewaki looked at her confusedly for a moment, then realized what
was wrong.  "Forgive me.  I'm not used to having to worry about 
maintaining my modesty for guests."
    Akane nodded curtly, keeping her eyes averted.
    Tatewaki opened a small closet and pulled out a robe that faded
from black at the bottom to royal blue at the top.  He dropped the
towel and slipped the robe on, tying it securely in the front.  "What
is the first thing we do?" he asked, turning back around.
    Akane peeked at him, then seeing he was covered, nodded and 
relaxed.  "OK, first..."

    A series of official looking papers began to settle into the 
basket there for the express purpose of catching them.  When no more
fell into the basket, the inventory control officer pulled out the 
stack and leafed through them.
    Technically, the only thing he needed to see was the 'From'
address to stamp it urgent, but he checked them over anyway.  His eyes
widened as he saw the order.
    Chief Executor Gosunkugi was really pulling out all the stops.

    The next day, a package, no larger than a loaf of bread, was 
delivered to the Kuno Foundation building.  As it was marked as one of
Gosunkugi's urgent packages to be delivered to the penthouse without
delay, it was.

    "Now, we have to start leaking information."  Akane glanced over
at what Tatewaki was doing.  "You sure you know what you're doing with
that?"
    Tatewaki put the two wires underneath the clips and made sure they
were secure.  "Yes.  It's quite simple."  He slid one thin, metal rod
into the end of the small cylinder of what appeared to be gray putty.
Then he slid another rod into the next cylinder, and the next, and the
next.  When he was done, he had eight cylinders all wired together.
    He plugged the panel the wires were attached to into the 
unassuming box, and a light on it came up green.  Tatewaki eyed the
pulsating red button at the end of a long wire, which was in turn,
attached to the box.
    "It is ready," he said quietly, not getting his hand anywhere near
that button.
    Akane hadn't even noticed she was holding her breath.  "Good," she
said quietly.  "Put that away now so we can work on the rest."  
    Tatewaki removed the panel, causing the green light to go out, and
stowed the entire thing in a box, which he placed in the closet until
which time he really needed it.  "How long until we are discovered?"  
    "Three or four days," she answered.  She wouldn't be able to cover
it all up.  They would discover what was going on fairly quickly, and
they had to be ready.  No, not true.  Akane merely had to wait.  It
was Kuno that would have to be ready to act.  He would have to be
brave enough to go through with it.

    Being a reporter wasn't all that great anymore.  Anything worth
reporting was usually either business of Onocorp or the KF, and that
meant it was off-limits.  That wasn't entirely true, because anyone
was free to report anything they wanted.  It was just that the KF and
Onocorp were good, very good, at covering up anything that would be
worth reporting.
    That is, until one reporter got a mysterious e-mail.  Then a
reporter across town got it.  And another, and another, until the
journalistic community was in a frenzy.  Someone had mailed them all
the dirt on the Kuno Foundation and Onocorp.
    True, it wasn't anything that would end the world, but it was
enough so that it was the special report that interrupted all 
television and radio.

    "What the HELL is this?" Kyoofu yelled.
    The others looked uncomfortable, not knowing what to say.
    "I want to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible.  NOW!"

    And the next day, something else was mailed out, a little more...
incriminating than the first.
    As Akane thought, it didn't take Gosunkugi's shocktroops to long
to figure out what was going on.  She had been listening in on 
Gosunkugi when Tofu had called, and had greatly enjoyed the heated
exchange of words between the two, the obvious frustration on
Gosunkugi's face.
    "I know you said that.  I HAVE been watching him.  Do you REALLY
think he could do that?  The man is a moron.  He's so doped up..."
    Akane could hear Tofu's voice through the phone from the other 
side of the room.  "You are a fool!  I warned you about him and you
ignored me!"
    "Yes, well if your worthless drugs had been any help at all..."
    "Don't test me, Gosunkugi.  I can flush your projects down the
toilet at any moment."
    Kyoofu took in a sudden breath, the snarl frozen on his face.
Then his terminal beeped, alerting him of new mail.  It was from Kuno
Tatewaki.
    "Hang on a minute, Ono.  We have a development," Kyoofu said,
sitting down to read the e-mail.
    "You got one too?  That conniving..."
    The message was short and to the point; it had just been a stroke
of luck that the two had been arguing on the phone when it arrived.
    'Again?  I grow weary of these games.  I think a meeting would be
beneficial.  Tonight, after hours.  Kuno Tatewaki'
    Kyoofu deleted the message and spoke into the phone.  "I WILL 
handle this one."  He hung up.  

    The regular employees went home and the building was shut down for
the most part.  There were some security personnel on the first floor,
some stray technicians on the third floor, Tatewaki waiting nervously
in the penthouse, and... others whose presence was unknown by everyone
else.
    With one elevator servicing the penthouse, it wasn't particularly
difficult to monitor who was planning on visiting.  So Akane waited by
the elevator to see when Gosunkugi and Tofu arrive.  She did not see
what she expected to.
    Instead of the two men, there was a group of men, dressed all in
black, looking very... suspicious.  The weapons each of them had under
their suit jackets did not boost Akane's confidence.
    She knew what this meant.  Instead of dealing with the trouble,
they were simply going to remove it permanently.  Panicking, Akane
knew she had to get up to the penthouse and warn Kuno before the men
got there.
    But they were already filing into the elevator and getting there
with them wouldn't help.  She needed to do something quick. 
Concentrating for a moment, she could think of only one stall 
technique that would hold them off long enough.
    She actually managed to get her hand corporeal enough to hit every
single floor button on the panel, then as the car stopped at the next
floor, much to the men's consternation, she rushed off to the stairs.

    Akane came into the penthouse looking panicked.  "It's not them,
Kuno-sempai.  They didn't come!"
    "Who then..."
    "They're here to kill you!"
    The look on Tatewaki's face darkened, his eyebrows drawing very
close together.  "So.  He's finally called out the assassins.  He 
shall find I am not so willing a victim."
    "You have to leave!  Get out of here before they..."
    "No, Akane.  No matter who comes into this room, it ends here.  If
I run, they will only hunt me down and find me, taking care next time
that I have no freedom, if they bother to keep me alive at all.  After
all, is that not what you would do with your most prized possession?"
Tatewaki looked at the elevator door and shook his head.  "I refuse to
take part in their schemes and games any longer.  Here it ends, for
me."
    "No!  You have to..."
    "I'm sorry.  It's futile.  I can't put into words how I've
appreciated, enjoyed your presence.  I'm sorry things have to end this
way, but I've finally realized the truth."  He organized himself
amongst the explosives.  There would be no repeat of Nabiki here;
there were enough explosives sitting around him, behind the couch, to
destroy the Tendo home five times over with explosions to spare.
    "Here is Ono's next payment..." Tatewaki said quietly as Akane
watched him in horror.  "I don't think he shall appreciate it, but I
don't think he'll mind one more death on his hands either."
    He held out one slightly shaking hand to her.  Akane did it then,
drawing on every emotion she could, solidifying her form for the last
moments.  She slipped her hand into his and waited.
    "I have always loved you," he said, his head bowed and eyes 
closed.
    Akane said the only thing she could.  "I'm sorry."
    The elevator chimed behind them.

    The first thing the group of well-dressed men saw when they 
emerged from the elevator, weapons drawn, was a girl standing by the
couch in the middle of the floor, glowing a gentle red.
    Stunned for only moments, they ran over to the couch, ignoring
the girl completely, and pointed their weapons at whatever was behind
it.  Their eyes all opened wide simultaneously when they saw what was
waiting, and that was when Tatewaki pushed the button.
    Heat and light and pain exploded outward from where Tatewaki
was sitting, too fast to even consider how awful it was.
    Right away, Tatewaki's hand was ripped away from Akane's. 
Actually, it was like his hand was ripped away from the rest of his
body as he was tossed about in the explosions.  Ripped apart, burned,
crushed, destroyed, he was assured of not being subjected to Tofu's
tortures.
    It also meant he was dead, but it was a small price to pay for
freedom once again.  It was a small price to pay for that sense of
inner peace again.
    But in the end, it wasn't anything special, which surprised him.
So much for Heaven and angels and all that garbage.  But there was one
angel, and she looked at him with sadness and compassion.  That one
look, the near admiration he saw in her, that sealed it.  He couldn't
leave; she wouldn't let him.
    He clung to his existence desperately, though there was nothing
there.  His body was dead and he had no solid anchor, no place to go.
Yet, he continued to hold on, refusing to leave when everything had
been left undone.  Undone by him in the first place.  Undone.
Destroyed.
    With his physical presence destroyed, he had one last refuge.  It
was unfortunate that Akane hadn't seen him, didn't know, but maybe it
was for the better as well.  She would not change her opinion of him,
that much was obvious.
    She could not change her heart, but she had given him something of
what he had desired for so long.

    Akane could almost feel the heat burn her skin as it engulfed the
room. It was an ugly thing to see, even worse to know that she had 
helped prepare it.  Even worse to know this was how Kasumi had been
fatally injured, and Nabiki.
    She heard the dying screams of the other men, the assassins that
had been sent to take care of Kuno, and she knew they would heading to
a place far worse than anything Onocorp could dream up.  Dream...
Nightmare.
    And as the emergency systems came on to extinguish the fire, she
left.  Left to pursue things more, no, not more.  To pursue things
less painful.  To sit and do nothing as the world flowed past her, to
do things only ghosts could do.  And to wonder why things weren't as
simple as 'I'm sorry.'

    And nothing was different, except that now, the Almighty Blue 
Thunder was dead.  Dead along with all the others.  He was dead, and he 
was happy because the world had held only misery and duty and a 
multitude of other things that had all added up to one thing: pain.
    "Akane... I love you."


'Sometimes I believe that this less than material life is our truer
life, and that our vain presence on the terraqueous globe is itself
the secondary or merely virtual phenomenon.'

 - 'Beyond the Wall of Sleep' by H.P. Lovecraft

============================================================================
                              Epilogue - 2096
============================================================================

    Tendo Perdita sat up in her bed suddenly.  Her laboured breathing
was very loud in the confines of her small room, and the abnormal rate
of her heart was sending her systems into full alert.  She inhaled
deeply, trying to get herself under control while she underwent a full
diagnostic.
    Dreams.  She wasn't really supposed to have them, but she had had
one.  Wouldn't Onocorp love to hear that.  Well, she wouldn't give 
them the satisfaction of knowing.
    And when her diagnostic came back green, she couldn't even really
be sure she had even HAD a dream.  There had just been a weird 
sensation in her sleep, and she had found herself sitting up, the word
dying on her lips.
    Shuddering, she laid back down and tried to return to sleep.  It
wouldn't do to waste her personal time on some silly internal 
glitch...  But, had it been a glitch?  There was such a feeling of
loss and sadness and yearning associated with the word she had spoken,
how could it be simply a glitch?
    No, for her own benefit, it had been a glitch and nothing more.
But as she fell back asleep, she hoped that glitch would not occur
again; it had been quite... emotional.  She hoped she wouldn't have to
hear that word again, not in that way, not haunting her sleep.
    "Akane."

============================================================================
                               Fade to Black
============================================================================

Notes:  That's about the fastest I could possibly finish a complete 
work of 122k (9 days).  It was fun, but I'm glad it's over with.  :)
Hope you enjoyed me digging Chris out his messes (how DID Kuno become a 
world saviour anyway?).  Thanks to the peeps on Kawaii, Sabey-poohbear
for putting up with my questions, and whoever else I'm forgetting.

Lara
lara@emunix.emich.edu