Always darkest before pitch black

[empress_without_a_throne]

[1]

[When she awakes, Mizuki finds herself no longer in the DuskBird and the battle is long since ended.  The second battle with SolEraser, and her desperate, last attempt at taking the machine down... it's still fresh in her mind.  But she's in the infirmary, bandaged and with whatever deep see-based medicines the Unity Group had on-hand in case they were needed.  She felt... weary.]

What happened out there?

[And it's then that the medical staff gets to break the news to her.  About just what happened to SolSavior and the power it had unleashed.]



-But if I'd done that much to SolSavior itself, then...

Oh God!

[2]



[And some time later, Mizuki is just, lying in a sobbing heap nearby Ken and Dido's beds.  It was the SolBalmung incident all over again... there was just a hard limit to how much Void energy a human being can be exposed to and Ken and Dido had skirted dangerously close to it.  She had done this.  She had brought forth all the power of the Abyss Empress to bring down on the Eraser team, but it was her own friends and comrades that'd paid the price for it.  SolSavior itself lay wrecked even more than before, and this too was her doing.  And even if her body was in better shape now, her mind...]

Stop it...

[It's barely above a whisper.]

Stop congratulating me... all of you!  I'm not Marianas!  I'm not here to cause suffering!  I didn't want... I never wanted any of this!

Comments

[tiger_ken]

...You think someone as paranoid as him wouldn't have thought of the possibility? That perhaps you would embrace your heritage, or follow in the path of your once friend?



If my son had faith in you - actual, honest faith - then so long as you did not deliberately betray him, he'll find a means to forgive you. Its a certain kind of earnest trust that he inherited from his father. And in Tora's case, that was even after I had put him in intensive care quite deliberately.

[empress_without_a_throne]

[She winced at that. This was the first time the issue of Sara'd been brought up in the presence of a previous pilot. And Ryuko would've known Sara too... at least, when she was very young. Only a few years old in fact.]

... It's not just forgiveness I'm worried about though. It's whether or not this'll happen again.

[tiger_ken]

And the possibility that the two of them won't be so lucky?

[Ryuko taps Mizuki's shoulder. Crazy thing, despite the absolute wealth of ki the woman must have... it wouldn't affect Mizuki at all.]

Those who say they believe in no such thing are fools. However, it is best to leave as little to luck as possible. Control what aspects of the battlefield you can, and make those you cannot, still susceptible to your prompting. You have faced this opponent twice now. Twice should be enough to know your enemy in some fashion. So what do you know, of this mockery of SolSavior?

[empress_without_a_throne]

That... even in a head-to-head fight, SolSavior can't surpass it. Not as it is. Not safely.

My tactic... even trying to focus down its feet didn't work.

[tiger_ken]

So why is it these 'Indalph' do not already rule the Earth? If they so soundly defeated you with their forefront machine, shouldn't the rest of their forces have swept in? They did bring more than just one unit, right?