A/N: Alright, this is where things get hectic. I will need to know people's input on the action. I want to know if it needs more or less action.

Chapter Eighteen: The Secrets of Dita and Hibiki

Hibiki felt his body freeze, his first plan was cut short but he wasn’t going to give up without a fight. If he had to, he would give his life again. He found his motion and silently walked our of the hangar, Dita noticed him and decided to tail him for she knew the time had come for the last battle. As Hibiki entered the hall he broke into a run, he couldn’t allow this to happen. He couldn’t allow his enemy to outsmart him, no matter how much rage could blind his judgement.

“Come on, Dita! This is our chance, I’m not going to let those asshole’s take away my family.” he said. Dita felt touched by the comment, although he enjoyed being a father, she never knew he would consider them a family. She caught up with him, which was rather difficult considering that his speed had increased. The two had reached the bridge, Hibiki ignored the look Buzam had given him and went straight for the Navigation portion of the deck. Dita walked behind him, her hands over his shoulders. He stood at the rim of the glowing orb.

“Bart, I relieve you of navigation.” ordered Hibiki.

“What? You don’t give the orders.” he said. Hibiki felt his eye twitch. He wasn’t going to let pride get in the way of something that meant either life or death.

“Pecksis! I know you can hear me! Decide who will lead this ship into victory!” he shouted into the air. To Dita’s confusion, a deep echo was heard from the sub levels of the Nirvana. It was as if, something had answered Hibiki’s call. Soon enough, Bart was ejected from Navigation.

“Alright fine, but you always hog the glory.” he said. Hibiki looked at him, Bart gasped. Hibiki had tears in his eyes.

“Right now, it isn’t the time to start talking about who gets credit or not. But for survival. I’m doing this for the future, for our kids. For my son, and for my daughter. If I don’t, they won’t have a future to look forward to.” he said. One thing he hadn’t told anyone, was that there was a slight chance his body wouldn’t be able to take as much damage. Almost half of his body wasn’t his. In other words, his right arm and left leg were made up of solid metal fused with living tissue. He hadn’t told Dita this but in the blast several months prior, the blast severed a leg and an arm. His heart was pierced with a piece of metal and was too dangerous to pull out, so they had to apply that to his own living cells. There was a good chance he wouldn’t be able to survive this battle.

Dita wrapped her arms around Hibiki, her head leaned softly against his back. Hibiki broke out of his thought and smiled after feeling her warmth.

“Hibiki, remember. What ever happens, remember that I will always love you. We’ll face this together, for the sake of countless people who are counting on us. I just wish that I could have met you when I was younger, so I could become much stronger like you.” she whispered.

A bright light devoured them, sending them down into a spiral. Hibiki opened his eyes and realized that he was back in the floating chamber. Dita was next to him, her hand had a firm grip on his. Hibiki managed to bring up a screen in front of his face, he was going to give a message to the whole ship.

Screens blinked on in every corner of the Nirvana, a massive one appeared in the hangar. Meia looked up and saw Hibiki’s face displayed on it, but confusion spread like wild fire when she realized he was navigating the ship. Everyone aboard the Nirvana waited nervously for Hibiki to say something.

“To everyone onboard the Nirvana, I’m now taking full lead on navigation as well as Dita.” he said. Everyone gasped as another screen popped up next to Hibiki, this one displaying Dita’s determined face.

“You may be wondering how Dita and I are able to control the ship? Let me tell you something that I had to learn the hard way. It’s because of our love. The relationship between a man and a women is so sacred, you’d wonder why we were separated. Each person had three things that enable them to get along in such a relationship. It’s love, lust, and chemistry. Somehow, along the line you tend to forget that you had those characteristics within you. I’m here, to bring that back into your life’s.” he said sounding heroic. Meia felt his courage surge through her own body.

“My friends, I want you to believe. I want you to pray. Right now, Dita and I our your angels. We will protect what else we have left. I say this from the bottom of my heart. This is our battle, and we shall seek it through. I feel everyone’s heart along with mind, I feel your fear. I feel your courage. And most importantly, I feel your love. We will face this storm together, we will survive! Don’t give up, head onto battle. Know that they can’t take away our believes!” he yelled.

The dreads and fighters were deployed out into the space, Meia felt her emotions stir inside her. She held them back, that would make her weak. She gasped when she spotted a massive fleet of harvesting ships. They were completely outnumbered. Several armed fighters versus several thousands of enemies. Behind them, she spotted an elite ship. It opened it’s massive wings and shot a great beam of darkness at the Nirvana. The threat was filled out.

“Move!” said Hibiki. With his mind, he managed to focus his energy. They dodged the beam. With that the battle began, like rapid rain, the enemy ships flew in and started blasting their way to the Nirvana. Meia soared around enemies, blasting through them. Jura followed as well as Barnette. Several Nirvana pilots were also in hot pursuit. Phase one of Operation: Final Bout.

“Alright everyone, formation: Dusk Angel!” she ordered. The dreads and the Nirvana pilots flew into a pattern. Weaving into and out of the enemy field, with quick succession they managed to obliterate the first incoming wave.

Meanwhile, Hibiki took Dita’s hand and held if firmly. Dita looked into Hibiki’s eyes and saw something she had never seen before.

“You’re frightened.” she said. Hibiki shrugged off the comment and focused his attention on the several elite ships that had just entered his sights.

“Lock on.” he said. Dita looked and found they were closing in, all of them were on the verge of shooting that dark ray again. Since there was more than one there was also a good chance they wouldn’t be able to get out of range. Dita lifted her arms and pointed at the ships, small circles indicated their location keeping a firm precision on them.

“Forty elite ships have been identified and locked onto.” she said. Hibiki turned to Dita.

“This ships is now operating under co-op. So we are going to have to take responsibility for each of our half of the ship.” he said. Just then, Duero’s face appeared next to Hibiki.

“Hibiki, I’m keeping your and Dita’s vitals on display along with damage percentage for both of your half’s of the ship.” he said. Hibiki nodded, his eyes shot up to the action in front of him. A large dark beam came zooming in, it was destined to his the left wing, Dita’s side.

“Dita, block that!” he yelled. On instinct, Dita raised her hands over her head and to her surprise, the ship’s shield was brought up before her. It deflected the beam.

“Good, now let’s release one of our own. Do you remember how we sat on our Vandread?” he asked. Dita hovered over placed herself in front of him, Hibiki placed his hands over hers and held them tight as if he was in Vandread Dita. Hibiki placed his head over Dita’s shoulder.

“Siphon your energy, and release it in one burst” he whispered. The round chamber glowed a bright blue as invisible wind started to develop within it. Hibiki felt his body overflow with strength, as if it was going to seep out. Dita felt the same, her body trembled as it started to weaken from the intense pressure.

The display screen in front of Duero’s face blinked red as he leaned over to check it.

VitalsDamage

Hibiki TokaiFine0

Dita Liebely Serious! 0

Duero immediately understood the situation, if there was no damage done then their was something wrong internally.

“Go!” screamed Hibiki as he released the pecksis energy. The Nirvana revealed hidden turrets from under its wings and shot several waves of red missiles.

Direct Hit!

Two of the elite ships were destroyed instantly. He led out a sigh and waited for Dita to respond. But instead, she let out a faint gasp as she tried to breath. Then, Duero came on screen again.

“Hibiki! That is too strong for either of you to handle. Especially for a women.” he said.

“No, I’m fine. I’m not letting that stop me from getting rid of these bad aliens.” she said in rage. Blinded by fury, Dita waved her hand menacingly. This caused the Nirvana to glow an crimson red. With an equally furious yell, the Nirvana launched an all out blast, the blast did not effect the dreads nor the engineering pilots. But sure as hell, it depleted several waves of enemies. Hibiki stared at Dita who was panting for air, anger still present in her blue eyes.

This chapter was influenced by listening to a lot of linkin park. The action and emotion do blend well don't they. Isn't Hibiki's small speech deep?