The Trials Of Time (ch10)

EARLY RELEASE FOR ALL MY PATRONS!!

I apologize for the cliffhanger, but I'm glad it made people feel strong emotions.

Disclaimer: I do not own Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight.

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					Chapter 10. Darkest Hours

Her ears are ringing, even in the total silence.

It feels like she'd been hit by a train, like a force that concussive and devastating had plowed into her head-on. Like it had plowed through her, but somehow she was still standing.

Everything inside of her had been crushed and twisted and rearranged in the wrong places, and yet somehow she was still here. She almost didn't want to be.

It's been hours now.

Hours since she'd ran to the hospital to try and see her.

Hours since she'd witnessed the chaos and heard the panic outside that hospital room.

Hours since her friends has come to collect her and bring her back to the dorms.

They hadn't returned to their classes, because none of them would have been able to focus on anything.

Maya doesn't even remember anything since the moment she'd broken down in the hospital lobby. She doesn't remember how she'd gotten back here, or what anyone had said to her since then. It was like watching a silent film, though all she heard was that ringing sound.

None of it felt real. She was numbed to everything except an excruciating pain deep in her stomach, an ache that gradually spread through her chest and legs until it throbbed in time with her pulse.

Now, she sits with her head in her hands on the usual couch, with Claudine's space still empty beside her. Her friends are all around her, using tissue after tissue, and trying to encourage one another to drink some water.

Maya is only vaguely aware of Nana, who has come to sit on the arm of the couch beside her rather than the cushions - she doesn't want to take Claudine's place. Maya can feel a soft hand running lightly up and down her back, but it doesn't do much to combat the agony that's consuming her.

At the time, her mind had only been expecting one possibility, one outcome. The worst one possible.

She'd ran to the hospital with that thought in mind, and the scene she'd witnessed outside of Claudine's room had only worked to confirm her worst fears imaginable.

But after the numbing tornado of events and emotions that had followed, Maya had managed to make her ears work past that deafening ringing echoing through her skull, enough to listen to a bit of what her friends had been telling her.

Claudine is alive. She is still alive. But just barely.

Overnight, her condition had suddenly and severely worsened without warning, and her system had continued crashing all through the morning, to the point where it had gotten so bad that the school had been contacted in order to prepare them for the worst news.

Maya's teacher had only wanted to prepare her for the possibility of what could happen, and so she had called her out of class in hopes of bracing her to hear bad news at any point in the future.

But Maya had just assumed things on her own and taken off. When her friends had eventually reached her afterward, Junna had tried her best to explain things to Maya, who had already been inconsolable at that point.

Evidently, Claudine's heart had stopped for nearly an entire minute, but the doctors had managed to successfully revive her. By now, her condition is stable again, but everyone - her friends and family included - are steeling themselves for an inevitable tragedy.

Any moment now, Maya fears a teacher will walk in to tell them Claudine has passed away.

Without even waking up.

Without Maya even getting to see her eyes or speak to her one last time.

Without even getting a fair chance to fight.

She could slip away quietly, just like that, and it would all be over.

It isn't fair. It isn't fair.

Maya wishes she could trade places with her. She'd do anything…

Her thoughts torment her until she's lost track of time. It could have been moments since Nana had come to try and comfort her, or it could have been hours. She can't tell.

She'd stopped crying somewhere along the way, simply because she had no tears left to shed. But her body still tries, and it's like trying to drag up water from a dried well. Everything scrapes and heaves against the back of her throat. Her tongue is heavy and dry, her jaw is locked hanging open as she draws in stinging, arid breaths.

Everything hurts, and yet everything is numb. She can't even feel it properly when she presses her eyes harder into her palms, hunching forward as her elbows dig into her knees.

Past that ringing in her head, she can hear the rest of her friends' grief.

Beside her, Kaoruko's sobs have dwindled into weak little gasps where she's buried herself into Futaba's shoulder. Futaba holds her close, cursing every now and then in between sniffles and pleas of Claudine's nickname. On Maya's other side, Nana says nothing, but she does continue to cry quietly. Junna has come to stand beside her roommate now, gently wrapping both arms around Nana and slouching against her. She'd removed her glasses a while ago, and now just cries freely.

On the other couch, Karen is choking on hiccups and mumbling incoherent things as she keeps reaching for more and more tissues. Hikari has sunk into Karen's side and is shaking quietly. Mahiru is on Karen's other side, and her whimpers are the loudest after Karen's, so hard it makes her breath hitch and double-up on itself.

Maya wishes she had more tears to cry. It hurts terribly to be sobbing, but that pain is also keeping her grounded in some way.

She doesn't know how long the eight of them have been like this, helplessly crushed beneath the mountains of their grief. But it's the sound of approaching footsteps that makes them all tense up and gasp.

Dismay sinks its talons deep into each of them. Maya feels the claws crushing her heart, squeezing until she feels physically ill.

But as she starts to hear the voices, she can tell it isn't a teacher coming to bring them solemn news. Instead, it's just a few random classmates passing by, which tells Maya the school day must have ended by now. But past that infernal ringing, she begins to make out the words they're saying.

"Did you hear? About Saijou-san-?"

"Yeah. I can't believe it."

"She... almost died, right? Or, technically she really did, didn't she? Her heart stopped beating for like a whole minute..."

"But they revived her!"

"I mean, for now… But at this point, don't you think they should just… pull the plug?"

"Don't say that!"

"I don't know… I mean, it's only a matter of time now, right? I guess that's up to her parents to decide."

"This is crazy… I can't believe this is happening to one of Seishou's top students."

"And no one even knows why she fell into a coma in the first place…"

Maya moves her hands away from her face to cover her ears instead. She doesn't want to hear any more. Her heart is slamming against her chest with a hollow sort of ache that reverberates through every bone in her body.

As much as she wants to be angry at those girls for saying such things, she can't find the energy. After all, they were right. Should Claudine's parents decide they didn't want to go through this and see their daughter in such a state any longer, they could make the request to remove her life support at any time now.

Just the thought alone makes Maya suddenly and violently sick. She tries to stand up to hurry to the restroom, but she just collapses there on the floor. There's nothing in her stomach to retch up though, so she just covers her mouth as best she can as burning coughs wrack her body.

It takes both Nana and Junna to pick her up again and settle her back on the couch, offering gentle hands and even gentler words, but Maya doesn't hear or feel any of it.

Only this vacancy, this hollow numbness, this aching throb throughout her veins. None of it feels real, and yet at the same time, it's too horrible to be just another nightmare.

It must be hours before the collective sobs in the room finally ebb away, not because they aren't all still distressed beyond comprehension, but simply because they, too, have no tears left to shed. It's Karen's voice that finally breaks the silence.

"So… what do we do now…?"

Hikari and Mahiru, who have been huddled up against her all this time, slowly begin lifting their heads. Everyone does, even Maya.

There's a mutual knowledge that the time to cry has passed.

Now… Now they've got to do something about it.

Futaba keeps one arm around Kaoruko and wipes the other across her face before posing her response.

"Ain't it obvious? We gotta keep fighting."

"I agree," Kaoruko says hoarsely. "Hadn't we decided that was the only way to do this?"

"But…" Junna lowers her gaze to the floor, and her bangs shield her eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm just playing devil's advocate when I say this, but… will that really even work? If Saijou-san's condition is really this severe now… will us winning the fight against the Korosu even be able to save her…?"

Silence follows. Thinking about that reality was something they've all been trying to avoid, but they needed to hear it. Cautiously, Nana eventually speaks up.

"I think it can still work," she murmurs. "So long as we can kill the Korosu before anything happens to Kuro-chan… If we can do that, then we should be brought back into the future - to the day she died. And if we succeed… her death won't happen." She sweeps her gaze around to all of her friends, whose faces are puffy and tear-stained. "I think it's our only option. We've got to stick to it."

Mahiru finally gets ahold of herself long enough to choke a suggestion past another tissue.

"Maybe… maybe we can get everyone to come help us tonight… maybe, if we all go there and fight together…"

"But…" Hikari rasps. "How much time do we have…? We should have had a few more days, but… I don't know if Saijou-san has that long…"

Maya shudders from her very core at those words, because she understands the truth in them all too well. She wants to see her. More than anything short of saving Claudine, Maya wants to see her right now.

But she can't, and that agony is almost as great as the fear that has slowly been eating away at her since all of this began a week in the future. Now, that fear has begun to swallow her, little by little.

But…

"We can't…"

The words slip out of her lips, so quietly she didn't think anyone heard her. But her friends all lift their faces to her, so Maya does the same. Her eyes are red and stinging, but beneath the mix of dread and grief, a brighter ember has been lit, and is now slowly making its way up into the light. The wobble in her voice vanishes, and her tone becomes firmer.

"We can't give up. We cannot stop fighting."

Her friends gaze back at her with equal conviction and agreement.

"Maya-chan is right." Nana gets to her feet and wipes her eyes one more time. "Even if it means we have to stay at that stage all night, or even for the rest of the week fighting… even if it means we have to miss our classes and our performance… we have to defeat the Korosu. It's the only way we can save Kuro-chan."

Karen gently pries Hikari off her arm so she can reach into her skirt pocket for her cell phone.

"I'll text everyone!" she announces, still sniffling. "The other schools have a right to know what's happening with Kuro-chan right now. They're her friends, too. I'll even ask if any of them can come help us tonight."

"That's good," Hikari says. "In the meantime, I think we should all get some rest and take it easy for an hour or two."

"You heard her." Kaoruko blows her nose again before giving the tissue to Futaba. "Let's go take a power nap, Futaba-han."

"Get your snot away from me." Futaba swats her hand away, and the others actually chuckle a little bit.

"All right," Junna says, also standing up. "We rest a bit, and then wait for word from the other schools. Then whoever is available will join us all tonight at the giraffe's stage. We'll fight until there aren't any Korosu left. For real, this time."

"Where do they even come from anyway?" Futaba wonders.

"That's a good point," Hikari mumbles, putting a hand to her chin. "Maybe if there is a source we can eliminate…"

"We should ask Elle-san if she knows!" Karen says.

"Good idea."

Everyone begins to sound and look like their old selves again, hiding away the despair that is tugging at the corners of their minds. Maya draws in several deep breaths, and though her body is still being pricked by that numbness, she's beginning to feel it as prickles of motivation instead.

"All right!" Nana claps. "Everyone else, get some rest for a little while. I'll make us a good dinner."

"I'll help, Banana!" Mahiru offers.

"Okay. Let's meet back here in one hour," Nana decides. "We'll pay Elle-san and the giraffe a visit and put an end to this once and for all."

Everyone is in agreement. Maya manages to nod as well.

With that, everyone gets up, helping each other and throwing out tissues, giving reassuring pats on their backs and shoulders. Junna passes everyone a bottle of water from the fridge, and Maya drinks hers with gusto. The chill of it sends shivers through her, and only makes the flame within her burn all the hotter.

Claudine… please hold on just a little longer…

She can only pray Claudine's parents won't make any drastic decisions as those girls from earlier had implied. Maya doesn't believe they will - not unless it was made evident that Claudine was somehow able to feel and experience terrible pain in her unconsciousness.

But so long as her body could hold out a little longer, until Maya and the others could put an end to this…

They still have a chance.

Now, as Nana and Mahiru begin cooking, Junna helps them prepare things for a good meal for everyone. Hikari and Karen get comfortable on their couch and wait for replies from the girls of the other schools. Kaoruko lies herself out with her head in Futaba's lap to rest, and Futaba leans her head back against the couch to close her eyes.

Only Maya leaves the lounge for the time being. She makes her way slowly out into the hallway, but it isn't her own room she is bound for.

Instead, she pauses outside of Claudine's door, resting her hand on the handle for a long moment. Her pulse thuds hard in her ears, and again she feels as though she can hear the beeping of that heart monitor before it suddenly plummets into monotone. She bites her lip so hard she tastes blood, allowing the pain to ground her in the present reality as she pushes her way inside.

Claudine's room is as spick and span as she'd ever left it. The bed is made neatly, the desk is arranged with papers and notebooks, and nothing is out of place.

Maya limps to the bed, wishing she could see Claudine lying there, with her nightgown ruffled and hair frazzled with bedhead. She wishes she could hear her yelling Maya's name, telling her to get out and mind her own business, or if she was in a better mood, to join her.

Maya sits on the edge of the peach-canopied bed, letting the familiar fabrics of the blanket remind her of the better times. Slowly, she lies herself down on the mattress, resting her head on the exact spot Claudine would have. When she closes her eyes and breathes in deeply, she can still detect faint traces of her scent.

She misses her. She misses her so much.

She feels as though she hasn't heard Claudine's voice in years, like she hasn't danced with her in a lifetime.

She wants to.

She wants to dance with her again.

She wants to hold her again.

She wants to clutch her hand beneath the blankets when they all watch scary movies together again.

She wants to eat lunch with her again.

She wants to hear her laugh and see her smile again.

She wants to listen to her rant about French pastries and theatre again.

She wants to practice with her and dazzle their classmates with her again.

She wants to sing and perform with her again.

She wants to steal the stage and the hearts of the audience with her again.

And there are so many other things she wants to do with Claudine that she's never gotten to do before, too.

There is so much more, so many new things she wants to experience together with her.

And it isn't just that she can't even begin to imagine living the rest of her life without Saijou Claudine by her side; it's that she refuses to.

She won't accept it, won't allow it.

Even if it means Maya will fight to her own dying breath.

Now that she has been blessed and fortunate enough to experience a world with Saijou Claudine in it, she knows she will not be able to continue thriving in one without her.

There is no one else who can stand beside Maya, either onstage or off. There is no one else who can accompany her, no one else who can keep up with her, no one else who can match her and challenge her and push her forward.

To her, Saijou Claudine is absolutely and irrevocably irreplaceable. No shifting timelines or alternate universes could ever change that. Their souls are intertwined in a beautiful, profound array of multiple strings of fate laced together.

Maya hates that it's taken her this long, and an event this drastic, for her to realize that.

These feelings she harbors for Claudine are beyond simple admiration and adoration. They are beyond platonic or romantic love. They are beyond anything she's ever known before.

These are matters of completion of the soul. Of eternal and ethereal wholeness.

Unity. Salvation.

It is beyond fate.

It is beyond tragedy.

It is beyond life itself.

And though it is beyond Maya's comprehension as well, she still understands it someway, somehow, on the most basic and organic levels of her existence.

All of her friends are irreplaceable to her, as they are all irreplaceable to one another. After all, not many could love each other so much as to fight alongside one another, to be made to steal each other's radiance, and to then overcome such a tragic script.

No others could reverse the flow of time simply to repeat the carefree days spent together. The love shared between the members of their group is boundless, and the limits - uncharted. Maya knows not she, nor any of the others, will stop at anything to save one of their own.

The darkness behind her eyelids swirls, and when Maya next opens her eyes, it almost feels as though she'd never closed them in the first place. But the time on Claudine's alarm clock says otherwise. Her hour of rest and collectiveness has run out. Now, it is time to eat, to build up her strength with her comrades.

And then it will be time to fight.

Maya breathes in one last breath of Claudine's sweet, lingering scent before pushing herself up again. She gets to her feet and quietly exits the bedroom, but not without a silent vow to return its rightful owner to it soon. Claudine deserves to sleep peacefully in her own bed - not lifelessly in some hospital's.

Maya can smell the food her friends have cooked for everyone before she even reaches the lounge. They are all inside waiting for her, and she joins them at the table in the kitchen area.

They eat their fill this evening, and Karen announces that they will be receiving 'a bit of help' tonight.

By the time the eight of them have finished eating and cleaning up, evening has fallen. As a group, they head out to greet whichever of the other schools may have arrived to join them.

And Maya is admittedly shocked to find not just one of the groups of five fellow Stage Girls waiting for them - but all three of them.

All fifteen of their comrades from the other schools are waiting for them at Seishou's gates.

Behind Maya, her friends all gasp and smile and sob with relief.

From there, all twenty three Stage Girls proceed to the school building, to where the red light burns above that elevator. They go down in groups, with Maya being the first one on and the first one off.

The theatre before her has a different feeling to it tonight. As before, everything is pitch-black, except for that stage drowned in bone-white light, and the blood-red curtains behind it. Maya hears as the others all file in behind her, and she begins leading the way forward.

And just as before, while they walk through the dark aisles, their clothes shift and change, and their weapons appear at their hips. The shadows begin to hiss.

Maya leads the line of girls to the stage, where they fan out and cover the entire length of it, each bathed in a spotlight of her own color. Facing the dark curtains beyond, they wait.

"My, my…"

The giraffe's voice carries over from where he is seated high up in the audience. Elle is beside him, her eyes wide in wonder.

Maya and the others look up at giraffe cranes his head to glance at every one of them.

"This is not simply a gathering of Stage Girls. This is an army. I understand."

"Everyone…" Elle's voice echoes out quietly, as the hissing of the shadows grows louder. She soon raises her voice above the din. "Good luck."

Maya holds her gaze for a second longer, then turns back to the stage before her. The girls draw their weapons, and just then, the curtains burst open, and the stage explodes with vicious, hungry shadows.

And with a collective battle cry, the Stage Girls charge.

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A/N: Imagine a massive battle with every Stage Girl... I really want to see it. (Again, sorry to Seiran I wrote this before we knew of their existence). And of course Claudine should be within the ranks of such an army s well...

I put a lot of thought into Maya's scene in Claudine's room. I tried to describe what I feel their relationship is; not just rivalry or romance, but really so much more than that. They were created for each other, in our world as much as theirs.