Sanjiyan Enterprises a division of M&M Productions and Eyrie Productions, Uninc. presents Kei Morgan Yuri Daniels R e s o l u t i o n s A Story of the Reconstruction by Larry Mann [Special Guest Star: Julee Cruise] ------------------------------------------------------------------- Yesterday has been and gone. Tomorrow will I find the sun Or will it rain? Everybody's having fun except me, I'm the lonely one. I live in shame. I say hey, Goodbye to Romance, yeah Goodbye to friends, I'll tell you. Goodbye to all of this. I guess that we'll meet, we'll meet in the end. I've been the king, I've been the clown, now broken wings can't hold me down I'm free again. The chance to win the broken crown; it won't be me that's turned around To love in vain. I say hey, Goodbye to Romance, yeah Goodbye to friends. I'll tell you, Goodbye to all of this. I guess that we'll meet, we'll meet in the end. And I feel the time is right Although I know that you just might say to me What'cha gonna do. What'cha gonna do. But I have to take this chance, Goodbye to friends and to romance And to all of you. And to all of you. (Come on now.) I say hey, Goodbye to Romance, yeah Goodbye to friends. I'll tell you, Goodbye to all of this. I guess that we'll meet, we'll meet in the end. And the world's lookin' fine, And I think the sun will shine again. And I feel I've changed my mind, All the best is left behind again. I say hey, Goodbye to Romance, yeah Goodbye to friends. I'll tell you, Goodbye to all of this. I guess that we'll meet, we'll meet in the end. -- Ozzy Obsourne, "Goodbye to Romance" - - - PLANET NIOGI, CITY OF BERLIN 2380 DECEMBER 31; 23:45 GMT It took a lot to dampen holiday spirits in Berlin, and this year there wasn't enough. The end result was that the city was pretty much one big party beginning on December 23rd. And now the festivities were nearing their climax as the new year drew within shouting distance. There was no doubt in anyone's minds that the New Year element of this year's festivities was going to be the Mother Of All Parties. And why not, considering all the good things that had happened in 2380; there was no doubt in anyone's minds that everything was going to keep going uphill in 2381. It had to. Not even a raging blizzard was going to cool this city down. An ongoing series of storms had dumped several inches of snow in Berlin and the surrounding areas, at times dropping the temperatures to a level rivaling Hoth's. Tonight was like that, as snow continued to flutter gently down and blanket the city in a bed of the soft white stuff. Temperatures had dropped fast, and as midnight hour approached they were nearing the point where many of the less determined (or less stupid, depending on your point of view) decided to retire to warmer surroundings and ring in the new year via live 3V telecast of the New Year's ceremonies. Now many of these warmer surroundings were loud, boisterous affairs, as one might expect in the lively city of Berlin. This isn't to say, however, that there weren't any quieter parties and places, for they most certainly did exist. Small bar-grills and cafes and the like, where one could hear softer celebrations and softer music, or just plain relax. After coming in from the crisp cold air, one's vision and other perceptions tended to fog just a bit in the warm, sleep-inducing atmosphere which many of these little cafes tended to produce. It left the mind ripe for contemplation. It was in just such a place that Kei sat, contemplating a glass of vodka and water, and contemplating other things as well. She looked depressed, mainly because she *was* depressed, a fact which did not escape notice. "Say, why so down?" asked one fellow who walked up to her table. "Can I buy you a drink?" "I've got one already, thanks," Kei mumbled. "Come on," he seemed insistent. "New Year's is no time to be depressed. Lemme take you out somewhere, where there's real partying." "Not interested." "Aw, come on, you've--" At about the same time that Kei fixed him with a harsh glare, the fire in her eyes evident, another female voice was heard nearby: "The lady said 'no'; what part didn't you understand?" The man turned around to see a black-haired Asian girl staring him down with a somewhat unpleasant look. He looked back at the redhead, then at the brunette, made an incorrect conclusion and sighed: "I'm really sorry to hear that. Have a good evening, ladies." And he left the area. "Asshole..." Kei mumbled as Yuri sat down next to her. "Jeez, Kei," Yuri replied. "You can lighten up a *little* bit. At least smile." "It hurts when I smile." Yuri looked at her for a moment. "Vacation didn't cut it, I see." Kei leaned down and rested her head in her arms. "No." That one word said it all. A couple months of soulsearching wasn't effective. It reminded Yuri of that same fugue state which had held Kei in its grip for the last 90 years: once again she was having a hard time believing Gryphon's words, but of course this time the circumstances were a little different. "Why is it so hard to accept?" Yuri wondered aloud. "Because life sucks, that's why," Kei replied, her eyes focusing on the little ripples the ice cubes created in her drink as water melted out of them and mixed with the alcohol. "Life sucks and I suck, plain and simple." Yuri sighed and covered her eyes with one hand. She wanted to make a comeback to that but had a feeling it would only do more harm than good at the moment, what with Kei kicking herself in a big way. So instead she just sat back and let her mind work for a minute. Of course sorting oneself out isn't something you can do overnight, she knew. But now that things were coming back together again she'd thought that a couple months of thought would have done Kei good. But no, she was still caught by something or other. It fit, though: once Kei had her mind set to something it was hard to get her off the track. Proof of Gryphon's innocence had finally derailed her, and now she was trying to figure out what to do with the train wreck. Yuri's thoughts wandered around idly until some applause got her attention. She looked up toward the small stage at the front of the place, where a female Vindari Salusian with pure snow-white fur had just finished a song. "Thank you... thanks..." said the singer to her audience. She looked at her watch. "Well, looks like we're coming up on 2381 in another... seven minutes or so." Several 'yeahs' and whistles could be heard. "So," she continued. "Before we get there I wanna do one last song, originally written by a Terran singer in the 1990s. It's kinda symbolic, y'know; this is the end of 2380 and it looks like the WDF is trying to put itself back together at last." A couple more shouts of 'yeah!' and scattered applause. "So... here's hoping the people who protected us all in the Golden Age'll be coming back... I remember you guys; I hope you hear these words sometime soon." Of course she had no idea just how soon she was going to be heard. Yuri had leaned forward to listen, and she hadn't noticed, but Kei had also raised herself up a little bit. The keyboardist went into a slow, repeating rhythm of soft tones and dreamlike music. As he did this, the lights on the stage darkened until there was only one spotlight on the singer. The light reflected off her fur and the clean white dress she wore, making her seem to glow like an angel. And when she began to sing, her voice was soft, and it touched the soul of every single person in that room... Moving near the edge at night. Dust is dancing in the space A dog and bird are far away The sun comes up and out each day Light and shadow change the walls Halley's Comet's come and gone The things I touch are made of stone Falling through this night alone No, don't go away. Come back this way. Come back and stay forever. And ever. (Please stay.) [The words "please stay" were said in a choked whisper. By this time Yuri had noticed that Kei was fighting a large lump in her throat. These words dug deep into both of them, went right to all the thoughts and fears they'd ever had about the future, about what would happen when the loves of their lives disappeared. That was what really got to them, Kei even moreso than Yuri...] Dust is dancing in the space A dog and bird are far away The sun comes up and out each day The river flows out to the sea No, don't go away. Come back this way. Come back and stay forever. And ever. The world spins... As the music trailed off into an instrumental and then faded away, the audience broke into applause. It was more than just a somewhat abstract love song; it was definitely a call to the WDF to return. In a sense it was like thinking of the WDF as a lost love, an old friend vanished from the life of the galaxy. Yuri made a contribution to the ovation, her eyes glimmering a bit. Then she glanced over at Kei. Kei was not applauding. She was sitting with her elbows on the table, her hands clasped tightly together under her nose, staring straight ahead. Her body was twitching ever so slightly, and Yuri could tell she was trying not to sob openly. The water streams from her eyes betrayed the truth, though. That song had hit a sensitive target, in a big way. Of all the people who could be most strongly affected by those words, Kei had to be the most vulnerable at this point in time. Kei jumped when a hand rested on her shoulder and turned her. Yuri was facing her, looking straight into her eyes. Yuri's expression was similar to Kei's; that same sense of loss, albeit in a different way, and perhaps a bit more diminished than it had been in the years preceding. Her grip on Kei's shoulder tightened, and she said: "Let it go, Kei." And she hugged her. That did it. Kei just clung to Yuri, quietly sobbing against her shoulder, releasing a confused agony that had been haunting her since Tantalus V, and which no one had been able to explain to her, largely because she didn't really talk to anyone between then and now. She hadn't thought anyone would truly understand, that they would think of her as a complete idiot, which in her seasoned opinion she was. But maybe Yuri, her friend of four centuries, would. Something --she didn't know what -- had happened to Yuri not long ago to make her more optimistic. She didn't know what it was, but... hell, she had to admit it, if ever she needed help it was now, and Yuri was probably the only one she could trust to understand her right now. Yuri rocked her back and forth gently, until she quieted a bit and found her voice: "I just... I just don't... don't understand..." "Don't understand what?" "How... how he... he could... could *forgive* me..." "He forgave you because he loves you, Kei. He's never stopped loving you." "But *how*...??" Kei pulled away and faced her partner. "How can he *love* me?? After I spent 90 years trying to *kill* him??" Then, in a much more subdued voice: "How can anyone even bear to look at me now...?" "Kei... you made a mistake. Everybody makes mistakes." "*Mistake*?? Don't you understand what I've *done*, Yuri?? Do you have any idea how many people got hurt while I was chasing after him, how many people I pushed around for no good reason? I destroyed an entire *starship* full of people -- *innocent people* -- who believed in him. How many innocent people have I hurt for all the wrong reasons??" Yuri had no answer at first. 90 years of hunting *would* be difficult to erase, that was an undeniable fact, but still... Kei took her silence the wrong way: "I'm sick and evil, I know..." "*Stop* it, Kei," Yuri said firmly, deciding that using Kei's approach to many things was probably going to be more effective at the moment. "I don't want to hear you drill yourself into the ground, no matter how fucking justified you think it is." Kei was a little surprised by the sudden acidity of Yuri's voice. "The fact is," she continued. "You *made a mistake*. Okay, maybe it *was* kind of a big one, but think about it: the person who set us up had psychologists and spies helping him, so he knew exactly which buttons to push. So it's not like you made a total out-of-the- blue blunder; you were set up." "I still made a mistake..." Kei sounded miserable, looking down. "*Look at me*, Kei," Yuri snarled. Kei's head quickly snapped back up, startled. "It doesn't fucking *matter* any more. It's *over*, and you're gonna have to face a very important fact: Ben Hutchins is *still in love with you*, and he has *never* given up on you, just like *I* haven't given up on *Zoner*. "I asked myself something important a little before Christmas: did I still love Zoner, after all this bullshit? The answer was yes. Now *you* need to ask *yourself* something important: *Do YOU still love BEN?*" Kei, for a moment, didn't know what to say. Whatever it was that had caused Yuri to become so confident all of a sudden, she wanted to go through it too. She found herself fumbling for words; she felt like a teenager all over again. "I... I...I do..." Nobody could ever replace the man named Benjamin Hutchins; she knew that. "I... *want* to... I just... I'm not..." She hung her head. "I'm not ready yet..." Yuri backed off. Kei was indeed not ready yet. That was perfectly understandable. It would be wrong for her to just go rushing blindly back into Gryphon's arms, much as it would probably benefit her to be held by him. Gryphon had a way of relaxing whoever he held. Yuri remembered his touch from long ago, on a winter's day on Salusia, and the memory of R-Type holding her was still very vivid in her mind. Kei could probably benefit very much from being held in such a way; but she had to be ready for this. And he could wait; he'd said so himself. "It's okay. I understand, and he'll wait for as long as it takes. But promise me this: that you'll talk to him before the century is--" "HAPPY NEW YEAR!!" A collective shout rose from the people gathered in the room, and it was punctuated by cheers, balloons, and the throwing of confetti. Yuri and Kei looked around with a start, and realization hit them. "Aw, damn it, we *missed* it!" Yuri quipped. "Gaah..." Kei moaned, slapping her forehead. But a smile had appeared on her face. Guess the atmosphere was having a little effect. She shook her head. "Oh well..." "Oh well," Yuri echoed. "So... what's your New Year's Resolution?" Kei appeared thoughtful for a moment. Ten to one, Yuri theorized, she was considering the words that had been exchanged just now. Then she took Yuri's hands in hers and leaned closer, speaking in a quieter voice: "To make it up to Ben. To pay him back for every hurt, every pain I ever caused him, and the few hundred more I only *thought* about causing him. To make up for all those people who shouldn't have been hurt but were, or who shouldn't have died but did... To love him the way I loved him when first we met, the way I *should* have been loving him all this time..." She paused. "I'm going to return all of his love, every bit of it, if it takes me the rest of my life to do it..." Yuri nodded silently. "When you're ready," she amended Kei's words. "Don't go rushing into this, of all things." Kei shook her head. "I won't, and I'm not ready yet. But when the time comes..." She paused. "So... what's your Resolution?" Yuri considered briefly, then smiled. "To never give up on the people I love." Kei's eyes were seen to glimmer ever so slightly before they drew together and hugged each other tightly. Yes, the year 2381 *was* going to be a much better year than those that had preceded it. The two left the club not long after, heading out into the cold streets of Berlin. The storms had abated for the night, leaving the city in a thick blanket of snow, and the clouds had actually begun to break apart, revealing the shiny sea of stars that lay beyond. How long this respite would last nobody could say, so those outside enjoyed it while they could. The girls walked arm in arm among the revelers who'd braved the outside weather, headed back toward Kei's home. They glanced skyward to the stars. The men they loved were out there, they knew. Yuri thought. Kei thought. And together they headed home. T H E E N D Right here is where your heart belongs And I knew from the start, I knew it all along Feeling all I'm feelin', playing with my fire Makin' that move, here comes my desire I know what I'm thinkin, that you know what I know One things's for sure, I said, I'll never let you go. Some things last forever, stand the test of time. It's you and me together. That's the bottom line. Come hell or high water, 'till the end of time It's you and me forever. That's the bottom line. Was it love, or a strange twist of fate Hand in hand, heart to heart, we took it on blind faith Turning back the pages and tryin' to find the facts Our love is gettin' stronger; there's no turnin' back No more nasty looks, ain't playin' no dirty tricks Nothing here is broken so there's nothin' here to fix. Some things last forever, stand the test of time. It's you and me together. That's the bottom line. Never say never, 'til the end of time We'll go through Hell together. That's the bottom line. If you want it you know where to find it. It's forever. That's the bottom line. Don't forget it. You'll never regret it. We're together. That's the bottom line. Some things last forever, stand the test of time. It's you and me together. That's the bottom line. Come hell or high water, 'till the end of time It's you and me forever. That's the bottom line. Some things last forever, stand the test of time. It's you and me together. That's the bottom line. Come hell or highwater, 'til the end of time. (Yeah!) Never say never, that's the bottom line. (Yeah!) -- RATT, "Bottom Line" --------------------------------------------------------------------- CAST:: Kei...........................Kei Morgan Yuri..........................Yuri Daniels SPECIAL NOTE: The part of the Salusian singer, Jyuli K'ruse, was played by Terran singer Julee Cruise. The song which was performed was "The World Spins" from her album "Floating Into the Night". It was one of the prime inspirations for this piece of fiction. Thanks, Julee. ======================================================================== = ___ = = "Ooooh, I feel so... WWWA Terran Office, Irvine / | = = ...conceptual!!" "I will solve any / | = = - Yuri, DPII:2 problem for you." / | = =____________________________ / | = = Larry Mann | /| / | /| / | /| / /______| = = |__/ |__/ |__/ |__/ |__/ |__/ /-------| = = WWWA: Creative Consultant |_/ |_/ |_/ |_/ |_/ |_/ /________/ = ========================================================================